McBlog

I’ve been working on a new module for the kids – there’s a whole new series of plots and machinations for them to figure out, all the while continuing in the shadow of their previous module. Did they really save the world, or have they just brought it some time?

So much to document – over two years of role playing needs to be written down, sorted out and edited. Then there’s all the supporting documentation. This one’s going to be a lot of fun to do – just hope I have time to do it :)

After a bit of to’ing and fro’ing with Zone Edit, plus the development of a script that triggers the “Send queued mail now” command for each of our domains, things seem to have settled down.

It took a few weeks after we started using the Zone Edit backup mail servers before the entries showed up in the Account Details page. During that time, we seemed to be having all sorts of problems with mails being blocked and/or disappearing. Since then, all seems fine. I’ve not been able to get an answer from Zone Edit as to whether the delay was due to their accounts system or whether it might have caused some of the problems we experienced.

There is still the issue of some mail occasionally taking a long time to get from a Zone Edit secondary to our primary mail server. Scott at APC has noted that they’ve had mails take a day. Our worst case was three days. To help avoid this, I’ve written a script that fires off every hour and triggers a “send queued mail” process on their web based mangement console.

So far, things seem to be stabilising and it looks like we’re going to be able to continue using Zone Edit as our secondary DNS and mail service. Still early days yet, but we’ll watch and see.

Despite the length of time between postings, I’m still here at the Union and working on their systems. Trying to get things documented, stabilised and so on despite deploying new workstations to replace old ones, correcting phone system issues and general “geek tech” work :)

The next Platinum event will be a dinner/dance session held at Shamiana, a rather exclusive and erotic location. It’s due on the 23rd of July and promises to be quite a night :)

Meanwhile, it’s tweak the current website, try to get time to load the photos from Mayday and work on the new website. What time, we ask ourselves?

At last – my ADSL is connected again – much rejoicing, I can assure you. So much for hoping that ADSL would be there when my phone was reconnected – nope :(

Apparently Telstra had, in their infinite wisdom, decided that the disconnection was permanent and dropped the ADSL flags from the service. This is thanks to the fact that they provide the “last mile” connection (from exchange to venue) for all ADSL across Australia, regardless of who’s routing things once it gets to the DSLAM in the exchange. Word is that this is going to change soon – one can only hope…

Anyhow, I’m back again and it’s a good thing too – any longer without highspeed at home and I would have gone spare. For a while there I was using a 33k “emergency” connection we use to check the c2o server over at RUCC if our main links are down. Painfull, but it stopped me from having to go through too nasty a withdrawl stage :)

After a few weeks away due to travelling and family issues, I finally got a chance to come back to Strike and play the midnight to 3am set. Not sure how much longer this will be possible as the neighbours upstairs are calling in to complain if the music gets thumpy and it’s not even 2am.

Anyhow, I managed to have fun, even with the volume and base turned down towards the end. Played a sample line up that I’m thinking of doing for my next two mix CDs – a cruisy trance/house set and a fully tribal, hard set. See how we go :)

Wound up at Abode again on Sunday morning – went to hang out with friends and just relax. Once again the place was pretty packed and turned into an unofficial recovery party upstairs. I had my gear with me so, once again, I did a “last DJ standing” set, playing cruisy trance/house and working slowly into something a little more thumping and tribal, before winding it all down and going home for a much needed rest.

As part of an initiative across 10 APC members, we’ve produced a web page dedicated to Information Communication Technology (ICT) Rights. It provides information and resources shared across many organisations, individuals, researchers and advocates, all geared towards helping people understand what’s going on in the world of ICT and their rights to information access, privacy, etc.

A few hiccups with using the Zone Edit system for secondary mail services – the system I’d set up to block sites that send us lots of viruses was picking up the Zone Edit IPs and blocking them too – whoops. They’re now no longer being blocked and the mail is flowing again.

We’re still looking at an expensive month again though as there have been some spikes in our traffic. I’m still trying to get mrtg up and running so I can tell exactly where it’s all coming from…

Thanks to a stuff up with my home phone provider, I’ve been disconnected for a couple of days. Of course, this has taken out my ADSL as well. I’ve sorted things out with the provider and they’ve apologised and requested a reconnect. Of course, this takes a couple of days to do and they didn’t get it done on Friday, so now I’m offline until Tuesday (just my luck, Monday is a public holiday). So much for catching up on my backlog of work….