Fasthosts support and the dangers of assumption

I've just had a painful experience with Fasthosts Technical Support. I have a reseller account with them that I use to host a few sites. I'd setup a new domain and was given a temporary URL that I can use to test the site out before the real domain is attached/propagates.

So, I setup the site, hit the URL and saw an error from Google Toolbar telling me the DNS couldn't be resolved. The error was obvious and clear, the DNS entry hadn't filtered down to my ISP quickly enough and so it couldn't resolve the test URL. I got that bit so wanted to know *when* it would be likely to be available.

I raised a support ticket in the support control panel and asked the question.

What happened next was a series of e-mails between myself and someone I'll call "Nick" who made a fatal mistake of assuming to know what my problem *actually* was and then proceeded to answer it.

Firstly Nick claimed I didn't upload a default document. Nope that wasn't it because I would see a "Directory listing denied" message instead. I wasn't getting that - I was getting a DNS issue.

I explained what I'm asking (how long would it take for the site to be available) and the next response is that Nick assures me that he does understand me, there's no issue with the Fasthosts system and it's to do with the fact I've named my default document Index.htm and not index.htm.

Mmm, I never uploaded a default document......

I tried to clarify again saying it's nothing to do with the default document, the site simply isn't resolving and just wanted to know how long it would take. I even uploaded an index.htm file (empty) to show it made no difference.

(Ironically the system didn't let me upload index.htm and Index.htm at the same time so clearly it isn't case sensitive)

Anyway, now Nick responds with words to the effect of "great, glad the index.htm issue has been resolved, I'll consider that closed" and then finally clarified that the URL wouldn't appear due to DNS propagation and that *I* should read their support documents as I clearly don't understand how to use their system!

What's amazing here is that if you change a password in Fasthosts control panel, a nice little message tells you that "It could take up to 10 minutes for your password change to take effect"

Now WHY couldn't they have put that message next to the test domain URL?

More importantly, why couldn't Nick have saved both of us a totally unnecessary series of e-mails by just listening to me and understanding my problem and query?

VS2010 Beta 2 crashes due to raster fonts - solved!

If like me you've have been installing Visual Studio 2010 beta 2 and have been experiencing issues running the IDE and opening documents in source code code view then check your fonts as you'll most likely have a raster font selected.

Sounds stupid but it's true and documented in this post. Launching the IDE with a raster font set will cause all kinds of problems and "object not set to an instance of an object" and other issues.

Simple, stupid and apparently fixed in the RTM but didn't save me the multiple installs I had to do to eliminate any errors in setup.

Arrggg

Why Twitter Lists could make following obsolete

Twitter is rolling out it's brand new "killer" function, Twitter Lists. Essentially it allows you to group the people you follow into multiple lists which you can keep private or share for public consumption. If you chose to share your lists then others can click a single button and follow everyone in that list.

Neat hey?

Maybe but what's really interesting about lists is that they don't just work with the people you follow but *anyone* whether you're following them or not.

This means you now have the ability to create multiple timelines that include people you are interested in whether it's work, play, family, friends, business, news etc.

This could effectively render your default timeline defunct and you just tune into your various "channels".

If you chose to make a list public, anyone you "follow" in this way can still see they are "listed" in a particular public list of yours, which is essentially just like being followed.

In Fact with sites like http://listorious.com/ featuring good lists to follow why not just bookmark peoples recommended lists instead of following them?

The only difference I can see with following is the rules that govern how @ replies are viewable to others and the ability to direct message someone.

Other than that it *seems* at first glance that Twitter lists could eventually make the traditional method of following/being followed obsolete and a new number will be chased, that of being "listed"

Thoughts?

10 real and practical ways to improve your battery life under Windows

Do a quick search and you'll always find articles on how to improve battery life under Windows ranging from cutting down how many apps you're running to turning off Aero. Sadly most of these are a waste of time and add almost no improvement in battery life.

Being someone who tries to squeeze the maximum possible out of my batteries I thought I'd share some real, practical tips that have worked for me and extended my battery life from a couple of hours to *several* hours.

(Image courtesy of http://www.artistsvalley.com/)


First it's important to understand what affects battery life :-

1. Screen. Your LCD is one of the biggest draws on power you have and the larger it is and brighter it is, the more power it's taking up.

2. CPU. Your CPU is what's driving your machine and the more work it's doing, the higher the clock speed, the more voltage it's taking and the more battery it's eating up.

3. Hard drive. (Assuming you're running a traditional drive, not an SSD) your hard disk has moving parts and is spinning at 5,400 or 7,200 revolutions per minute. As you run apps, access files etc your drive is eating up juice as it spins to access data.

4. Peripherals. Wifi and Bluetooth on? Is that a portable hard disk plugged in to your USB port? Any internal and external device you're running is drawing power

5. Fans. The hotter your machine gets, the more the internal fan has to work to keep it cool. Fans have moving parts; motors which use battery juice. Keep your machine cool and your fan won't have to spin so hard which means less power is required.

Let's look at some ways you can reduce the power draw of your machine :-

1. Add RAM. The more memory you have the less your machine is going to swap out data to the hard disk and that means less moving parts are moving and less power is required. If you're machine can take more memory then invest in it as there is NO substitute.

2. Defrag your hard disk and free up at least 20% of space. The tighter your hard disk is for space the more thrashing it's going to do to find places to store data. Also the more defragmented it is the more it has to jump about to access that data. Run a tool like Diskeeper 2009 or similar and you'll align your data in a way that means your hard drive does less work to load your applications and files. Less work = less moving parts = lower power drain.

3. Replace your hard drive with an SSD. SSD drives are solid state (and expensive) but they have no moving parts and that means your access times are almost instantaneous and they draw less power. No movement means they run almost cool which means less heat, less cooling requirement and less power drain.

4. Update device drivers, run the latest OS. This is a really easy thing to miss. If you rely on Windows update you'll find that sometimes you'll miss out on upgrades to Wifi cards, Graphics cards etc. Updates can add new features but also fix any power draining issues and that means you can squeeze precious minutes from your battery. If you're running an Intel chipset then checkout the Intel site for updates. I've recently updated both Wifi and Graphics drivers that weren't offered on Windows Update. I also noticed significant improvements running Windows 7 (even in beta) over Vista.

5. Turn off everything you don't need, turn down your screen. Why have bluetooth or a 3G card on when you're not using it? Switch it off and use only what you need to. I haven't used my DVD drive in months so why have it powered at all? Disable it in your hardware manager or if you're using a machine with advanced power management, turn it off there. That noise your DVD drive makes no and again when you're opening my computer or coming out of standby is moving physical parts which means it's using precious juice, however small. Reduce the brightness of your screen when running on batteries.

6. Double check your device manager and power settings. Make sure you have settings enabled for devices that "allow windows to turn off X device to save power". Same goes for ensuring that Wifi cards on are on power saving modes and Graphics cards are configured correctly. Badly managed power profiles can eat up juice fast.

7. Watch your CPU. I have Task manager running almost all the time. Why? Because I can quickly see what's using up CPU time and deal with it. If I'm sitting on a site using Firefox that's using some Ajax updates then it could be killing my CPU as it refreshes. Or maybe I spot AVG kicking in with a scan and kill it quickly. When you're on batteries you need to be full aware what is running and eating up CPU power. Ensure that any power aware apps are configured to NOT run when you're on battery. Diskeeper is a good example of that.

8. Run your Notebook in Stamina mode. If you have dual graphics cards (Vaios) then run in the Intel chipset all the time unless your really need the faster chipset. Ok you might lose out on DVI output through a docking station but your battery life will significantly improve and your machine will run way cooler.

9. Make sure you battery is working properly and even replace it. Batteries don't last and will deteriorate over time. If you're seeing a massive drop in battery life then it could be your battery is worn out. Consider replacing it OR recalibrating it by running it down to nothing then doing a full recharge.

10. Hibernate don't Sleep. Tempting as it is to put your machine in sleep mode so it'll resume in an instant you're going to eat up juice if you do that. For the sake of waiting 30 seconds to resume you could gain another 10 minutes of battery life.

Over the past year I've made some improvements to my Vaio SZ7 that granted have cost me cool hard cash but have meant I can keep the same machine I'm happy with and improve on it. So far I've replaced the hard drive with an SSD, installed Windows 7 and recently fitted 8 gb of RAM (it came with 4gb).

The result has been a significant increase in battery life to the point now where I can use my machine without worrying to much about it running out of juice. OK so it' won't do an 8 hour day but I can come home in the evening and use it all evening without worrying about power. By the time I've putting it to sleep for the night it still has plenty of juice left.

Obviously anything else you can do to reduce the number of apps you're running, power drain on graphics cards etc is going to add to all this. I just wanted to give some practical, proven advice on how to get more from your battery.

If you have any tips of your own, please comment!

Don't wait for Windows Update for new Intel drivers,

If you own a laptop that's based on an Intel motherboard then you should check out Intels web site before waiting for Windows update to tell you about new drivers.

I'm running a Vaio SZ7 which has an intel 965 chipset and recently updated my graphics driver and Wifi direct from Intels own site whilst Sony and Windows Update was showing no updates.

If you are running a laptop then it's especially important to ensure you are running the latest drivers ao you can maximise performance and battery life.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]