Monthly Archives: February 2006

123-Reg. Bunch of Muppets

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Considering 123-Reg.co.uk ? Don’t. Avoid them.

Last December I moved domain registrars for this domain and D’s – also a .uk – to 123-reg. I can’t recall exactly why I moved them then, but I did. Just after moving, I tried to ‘Opt-out’ from the WHOIS database that Nominet keep so my privacy would be a little higher. Despite the system saying I was successful, it was not. I tried several times and each time it said all was good it was not. So I emailed their support – they said it was broken and to give it 24 hours. So I did. It was still broken.
I’m fairly good at writing down how things went wrong and how I can repeat it (must be all that hanging around in forums..) so I detailed precisely what I was doing and emailed again. Muppet#1 at 123-Reg sent me a reply which told me how to Opt-out – it was exactly what I had written. 123-Reg have a support line which costs 50pence a minute – I have a feeling I’d have got an answer if I’d rang. Anyway, I fume silently and forget about it. Few weeks later I try again – their system STILL says I have opted out when I again go through the process but I am not. So again I email. Muppet#2 tells me I’m doing it wrong and spells out just what I need to do in order to Opt-out. Spookily, it’s exactly the same steps I said were not working. Hmm. So I forgot again – until Tuesday. Trying again, failing again and seeing the typed-out-slowly email from Muppet#3 which AGAIN gets it totally wrong, I blogged for a recommendation. As a result of that, Simon emails me. Turns out that my domain registration had lapsed. I am really grateful to Simon for that email – I would very probably have missed it.

So in December I move a registration to 123-Reg and in February, without telling me anything at all, they let that registration lapse. Am I missing something before I say that 123-reg are obviously a bunch of complete incompetents ? Aren’t registrars meant to tell you ? I know when I was with easily.co.uk that their emails were incessant (if they weren’t so damn expensive I’d have stayed with them). So 123-Reg are allowing an element of my internet identity to disappear from my grasp without bothering to let me know. There is nothing anywhere on their site to indicate anything is wrong either. Because of the opt-out issue I’m certainly not happy for the 123-Idiots to look after things so I find another registrar. I get their TAG, go back to 123 and change the IPS tag. Shortly after that I go to the new registrar’s site to initiate the transfer from their end. It tells me the domain is expired – which I knew. I also see that domains which are expired cannot be moved. ? So back to Muppet Central and I email them – not their problem they say, it’s now with the new registrar. Eh ? But according to most places I look, domains must be valid and within a certain time limit before they can be transferred – so why did 123-Reg fail ? Why didn’t their system both stop me changing the IPS tag AND stop the new registrar’s request ? Why ? The answer is because they are complete incompetents. If they can’t deal with something as basic as this, then why trust them with anything else ?

Thankfully, the new registrar has a decent phone support line, staff who DO know what they are talking about and staff that are capable of rectifying the mess that 123-Reg made. New registrar: Freeola. Why ? Because years ago I used to buy lots of computer games from a company called Special Reserve. Same people. New name. They were great back then and I have no reason to believe otherwise now.

Two dog points:

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  1. If you do not have a wood table, wood chairs and some wood furniture, what does your 11st puppy teeth on ?
  2. “Who is taking who for a walk ? Har har har” – or- “Why don’t you put a saddle on that and ride it home ? Har har har”. Will Winston crack first and bite one or will I explode ? It’s just not funny

Delivering.

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That post below about a spark.
There is a division going on. The division is this – if it yours, I’ll do it. A couple of things I’ve wanted to do haven’t happened (one online, one not) because the perception from the other person was that I was only saying yes, only agreeing, only seeing things positively because I was on an Up. They saw me as being two people and only wanted the one that worked – as they saw it. But if I tell you I’ll do it, I’ll do it. If I tell you I’ll do it by a date, expect it then if not before. It’s MY plans that lie half-opened. But because people like me tend to rabbit on about what we want to do, will do, will have done by tomorrow if only there were some more hours in the day but don’t worry because we’ll get right to it and it’ll be sorted pdq then others see us as “Yeah yeah yeah” which when we aren’t trying to Save The World isn’t so hot. So if I’ve said I’ll do it for you, I will.
If I have said I will do it, for me, then don’t hold me to it, okay ? :)

That said, I have 4 blogs going on. Two on wordpress.com, Two here. I’m removing one from each.

From Usenet#2

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Made me laugh :)

Question about the future of bi-polar medication…
Do you think that dilithium will be a standard medication for BP and for powering starships?

a.s.d.m.m 20/02/2006

A manic spark

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As the first waves of mania hit me a few years ago, I would find myself having THE MOST WONDERFUL IDEAS and then acting upon them STRAIGHT AWAY. Need something from the shop ? I’d not walk to the shop 100 feet from my front door – oh no. I’d cycle over 6 miles into town to buy the item. Or I’d not tidy just one small part of the house – I’d rearrange everything from the roof tiles down. There were lots and lots of ideas. They arrived by the minute. In coachloads. I would do everything, now. I could do everything. now. BIG ideas. That’s what they were. Bigger than me too – IF the wave crested before completion.

Then the meds came along and a glass ceiling and basement was applied to my emotions. My mind would want to sent me spiralling down or flying high but the meds kept it all firmly harnessed within tight limits. I could feel the highs but in a remote, third person type way. You know how when you want a drink – say a beer or a coke – that as you get closer to getting that drink you feel that bit thirstier ? It’s like when you really need the loo – the closer you get to the toilet the more your bladder squeals “HELLLPPPP”. And that when you finally do get to hold that drink, you feel that extra surge in the thirstiness, your tongue starts to taste the liquid before it actually gets to your mouth ? You know that feeling ? That feeling that is sated by the actual liquid ? Well my highs feel like that right up to the point of actually tasting – because the meds stop me hitting that point. I can get close, closer, closer still but the meds stop ME feeling what I want to feel. So parts of me race, much of me does not. I have flights of ideas (Rapid movement of speech and ideas from one topic to another. Often experienced in episodes of mania.) but what follows physically is not how mania should be. (And I know that’s the point of meds, but leaving half the sensation / emotion / whatever is worse than none isn’t it ?). With no meds I’d fly through what needed doing. With meds I try to fly without wings. So I’m in this odd little world which has bursts of the most vibrant colours and I have that net and I want to chase the rainbows but then all too fast I fail and the greyer world returns. I suppose it’s like that for others without MD but the ‘things’ are different. (things – events, paydays, stuff). The saying “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” comes close but whereas in an uncontrolled mania I could keep going, the meds don’t let the mind control the body to the same extent – so the physical exertions take their toll sooner. But the point is the ideas, the manic sparks.

I could have lots of ideas but the next day, next week or even an hour later I’d have no clue what most of it was. None. Didn’t matter though – no-one died because of it and more importantly, I didn’t remember. That’s important. Because I didn’t remember I couldn’t recall it, build on what I would have done, had the same ideas, placed myself back to where I was when I had thought of it. That’s important because without that regret I didn’t question myself harshly. It didn’t make me look any harder at reality than I have to. But then I’m starting to build a little history of sparks and as daft as this sounds, they are domains. I own 12 domain names and 7 are sparks. Ideas that I had, ideas that within minutes I had thought through, structured and got completely sorted. So I bought the domains and got the hosting … and then the spark died. Each idea was – and is – sound (well …. one is pretty daft actually) and if I don’t have the ability to complete I know people who could help me. But the impetus has gone. The shell of ideas is still there, as is the name and the space but the drive has gone – but these things hang around. They don’t go away so I DO remember what I was thinking of, what plans I had, what I hoped to do (none of this centres around generating lots of money either) and those reminders get annoying. “You’ve not done ME yet”. The cost doesn’t matter (it’s a few £ anyway), neither does the fact that I can let them expire. They can’t expire because if I let one go and someone else used it I would think that I could have done that … but if they hang around then i’ll think about what I wanted to do. The answer is that I need to use them – but they originated in a whirl of thought and I doubt my usual level can sustain them. My perpetual sparks .. and I know that many other people have these ideas and buy names and maybe they feel the same – but it won’t be exactly the same ..
(This is not some way of me saying “Oi, help me with my ideas”. It’s just me rambling on. Like I do sometimes)

Feed reading / scanning

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It’s days like today when I realise just how much info glides across my eyes. Because I’m only now starting to feel something close to normality (Winston needed a walk and it’s amazing how much freezing air can wake you up) and with FeedDemon having been open all day I have dozens and dozens of feed items unread. It’s not that I read everything that goes through (does anyone ?) but being on top of things means that I scan hourly and read that which interests me. So I don’t appreciate just how much ‘information’ I get through. But then if when I see this huge pile of unreads I just ‘Mark all as Read’ then why bother getting the feeds anway ? I can see that if you were going away you could set up watches and custom searches, but for a day ?

That other domain thing I mentioned. A manic spark, that’s what it was. Not the title, domain or anything like that – the actual idea was a manic spark. And I’m starting to get really really tired of them. I’ll write.

Pain

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Headache + 1200mg ibuprofen + 3g paracetamol = a daft amount of pain still.

Mind you, while drifting in and out of sleep I had a website idea which might have legs.. domain bought. And why is Nominet so bloody useless compared to every other similar authority ? Monopolistic exploitation.

I’ll be the one in the dark corner then ..

Free clue to 123

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When in your support templates it has this:

******************************
DELETE BEFORE SENDING TO CUSTOMER
The customer submitted a form from the support site with the following details:

it means that you should delete everything there. Delete. Erase. Remove. Get_rid_of.
You are meant to do this because when customers like me see this in there:
Checked FAQs none!
it makes me very very annoyed and increases the chances of me slagging your company off hugely. And maybe libelling you. Or both. Twats. And I didn’t need to check any bloody FAQ’s because your system is broken, customers who ring your porn-rate support line get told that and no-one else does.
Does your collective hairline get entangled with your eyebrow ?

Prince Charles – bloody idiot

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From Wikipedia, here are a few dissidents:
Andrei Sakharov
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Natan Sharansky
Vladimir Bukovsky
Harry Wu
Lech Wałęsa
Václav Havel
Aung San Suu Kyi
Nelson Mandela
and they are the ones whose names I instantly recognised. There will be many many more.
And Prince Charles thinks that he too is a dissident ? It may well be a relative term but he does a grave disservice to those who have suffered hardship and continued pressures by using that term for himself. The guy is an idiot who seeks to back in some sort of reflected glory.