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A Week Off

Entry 1093, on 2009-10-01 at 19:27:29 (Rating 1, Activities)

Yesterday I returned from a 5 day trip to Nelson and back (a distance of about 1600 kilometers). Nelson is a great holiday destination but on this occasion the reason for the visit was to collect a car for my daughter and to make some improvements to an accounting program I created for my mother-in-law - its very important to get that right!

Actually its just as well the main purpose wasn't a holiday because the weather was fairly terrible. Nelson has a reputation for having good weather (it generally has the highest sunshine hours in New Zealand) but on this occasion there was almost continuous heavy rain and fairly cool temperatures. It wasn't so good yesterday when we got back to Dunedin either but today the weather has returned to pleasant spring conditions.

I usually write a few blog entries even when I am away from home but on this occasion I didn't because I had a technical problem with my web site. I was horrified to receive an email (on my iPhone) as I was travelling north saying the web site couldn't be contacted. I didn't worry too much because sometimes there are problems with the links to the rest of the world and I expected it to fix itself fairly quickly.

Unfortunately it didn't and I diagnosed the fault as a problem with my ADSL router. That was locked inside the house and I was away for 5 days so my web server was unavailable for that long. This is not the standard of professionalism I usually have (my up-time is usually better than some real web hosting services) but I will rearrange my home network so the modem can be restarted from the basement (which is more accessible) so I can phone someone and ask them to fix things in the unlikely (I hope) event it happens again.

I hasten to point out that my good old reliable Mac servers kept running perfectly and they have had 100% uptime over the last few years they have been running. It was my modem (usually very reliable itself) which had got confused.

Knowing my servers were unavailable was a bit of a worry because I was constantly trying to think of a clever way to fix things by "remote control" but apart from that the trip was successful. We did have 2 pleasant breaks overnight at Hanmer Springs on the way to and from Nelson and sitting in the hot pools while admiring the mountain scenery tends to make you forget (temporarily at least) about technical issues like web server problems.

So it was back to work today with about 300 email messages to deal with and various other IT related problems to solve. Playing with computers is fun but sometimes I'd rather be back at Hanmer Springs. I particularly want to take my telescope up there some time because the night sky is just superb, although on this occasion the Moon and some light cloud would have made observing a bit of a waste of time.

Now that my daughter has a car we now have three at home. To make matters worse my wife has won a new car in a competition so we will have 4 tomorrow. It might be time to thin out the fleet a bit, I think!

We have already found a couple of enhancements which would be helpful in the accounting program so another visit to Nelson seems likely, but that won't be until Christmas. I do have a few more days off coming up soon for a short visit to Queenstown (yes, I have some computer work to do there too) so I really must re-arrange the network before that happens. Whether the servers are on or off line isn't exactly critical but I always think if you're going to run a web service you need to aim for the best reliability possible.

Comment 1 (2525) by Andrew on 2009-10-03 at 13:43:50:

I was wondering what was going on. Maybe it is time to outsource?

Comment 2 (2526) by OJB on 2009-10-03 at 14:47:04:

Good idea. I'll have a help line answered by an Indian helpdesk too!

Comment 3 (2530) by SBFL on 2009-10-07 at 10:55:52:

Looks like OJB's just back in time to blog on the sentencing of former Labour MP Taito Philip Field, convicted of bribery and corruption let alone exploitation of the vulnerable while a sitting Labour MP. Considering the harping on OJB did of Bill English and his recent housing allowance controversy, we can be sure to see a deluge of posts on Field let alone Labour's continuing deafening silence and refusal to apologise for backing Field despite the release of the Noel Ingram report.

And I also see that current Labour MP Chris Carter's troughing appears back in the news: MP's expenses higher than first thought.

Comment 4 (2531) by OJB on 2009-10-07 at 21:15:34:

Philip Field (I prefer to drop the title) was either a well meaning person who was very naive or a corrupt self-centered person, depending on who you listen to. Labour initiated the investigation which lead to him leaving the party before they threw him out (if I remember correctly). Certainly not a good look but they aren't the only party to have an MP who didn't live up to expectations, and they did handle the situation adequately, I think.

Comment 5 (2532) by SBFL on 2009-10-07 at 22:03:41:

If that's your version of events, then you really should join the team over at The Standard 2.0 who just revel in rewriting history.

By another MP not living up to expectations I assume you are referring to the Green MP's Delahunty and Fitsimons just caught redhanded double dipping with their accommodation allowances and not only that but also charging twice the market rate!!
At least they paid it back now, but no-one buys into the excuses of claiming ignorance (not on this issue anyway!!)

Comment 6 (2533) by OJB on 2009-10-07 at 22:27:40:

Well I'm working from memory and am prepared to be shown to be wrong, but facetious (and fatuous) comments like that aren't helpful. I have no loyalty to Labour (not since 1984 anyway) so I don't really go out of my way to defend them.

Again the Green situation is open to interpretation. The only interview I hear indicated it was a genuine mistake which was quickly corrected (unlike the English situation). Not sure, maybe it wasn't. As I said in a recent blog entry, i have no absolute commitment to the Greens either.

Comment 7 (2534) by SBFL on 2009-10-07 at 22:49:04:

I know (and have said before that I realise) you aren't aligned nor a specific supporter of any party, but of course you have your preferences. Anyway that is beside the point. It is clear here I am calling you out on your double standards. You seems to focus on attacking the right, but always go quiet when it is someone from the left who does the same or similar thing. You need to be called to account for your biases ;-) I sense a pattern, when you don't like the truth you use the term "open to interpretation", when you do like the truth, its already fact!

Comment 8 (2535) by OJB on 2009-10-08 at 08:29:24:

According to the limited material I have heard and seen on the subject it goes like this: English was aware he was bending the rules for a long time and specifically arranged things for his benefit. He also took a long time to correct the situation. The Greens accidentally collected too much funding and corrected it immediately when they realised. Maybe I've only got biased reporting which you might be able to correct but the two situations seem quite different.

Comment 9 (2536) by SBFL on 2009-10-08 at 09:26:57:

"limited material" on English? - but you always seemed so sure of yourself...! Re the Greens...Accidently double dipped at double the market rate - either they are stupid or lying or you are extremely naive (when it suits you!). The Herald called the Greens out on them discovering the "error" in June but have only just paid it back now. Hardly seems an accident now does it? Try and put 2 and 2 together OJB...it's just logical!

Comment 10 (2537) by OJB on 2009-10-12 at 10:14:23:

I was speaking more of the Greens which seems to have had a lot less coverage than English. I don't agree that you're three options are the only possible interpretations: it is possible that what they say is true. Its not naive to think politicians tell the truth some times! Anyway, many of the extra payments have been repaid and the politicians will be a lot more careful in future I think. Sounds like a fair outcome.

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