Archive for June, 2010

GoDady.com Issues

Fix – Godaddy – Forbidden You don’t have permission to access / on this server

0

GoDady.com IssuesI requested to have FTPES (secure FTP) access on my godaddy account.  Little did I know that they would have to transfer me servers.  After the transition, my links broke from my subdomain that I used to host my pdf files.  I got a

Forbidden - You don't have permission to access / on this server

when I tried to click on the links.

Here’s the problem:  When Godaddy transferred my files to the new server, they did not update all the DNS entries and gave standard file permissions.

Fix:

  • Check the DNS entries to make sure they have the new updated IP Address associated with your hosting account.  (If that just sounded like “Blah, Blah, Blah”, ask your geek friend for help – as that would take quite a few steps to lead you through and Godaddy continually updates their interface).
  • If the DNS entries are correct, check the file permissions.  Make them 775 or 774, depending on your risk level (775 is more likely to work, 774 is more safe, 704 is even more safe).  Highlight and right click on the server files in Filezilla, if you use it.

Hope that helps.

–Ben

Sources:  My Own Tinkering, Computerzz Helper

Fix – Website shows “an error occurred while processing this directive”

65

I came across this maddening error, when I had a website I needed to archive.  I spidered the website, had a local copy that looked good, and uploaded the website.  But, now the website had “an error occurred while processing this directive” right where some important content existed (the sidebar).

As it turns out, the error is from SSI – server side includes.  I had

<!--#comment-->

sprinkled liberally throughout the code.  And yes, it was a wordpress blog I intended to archive.  The wordpress theme had rendered the code after the SSI, so it would work fine while in wordpress, but would not upload correctly.

Solution:

change
<!--#comment-->
to
<!-- comment-->
Totally easy fix, once you know.

Hope that helps,

–Ben

Sources:  Bluehost Forum

Word Logo with Pain

Fix – Word Table Flows off Page and Disappears

7

Word Logo with PainI was updating a document at work and came across a strange occurance. My cursor would just go down off the page, but wouldn’t arrive at the next page. It turns out that the table had an incorrect setting. Here’s the fix:

    Row Tab of Table Menu to Fix Missing text

  • Select the problem row of the table by clicking in the left margin (you should see the row highlight)
  • Right click on the highlighted area
  • Click on “Table Properties …” in the pop-up menu
  • Uncheck the box that says “Specify Height” (this is on the Row Tab ->Size Section -> Rows Subsection -> Specify Height Checkbox)
  • Done.

Hopefully that helps someone out there.

–Ben

Sources:  Personal Frustration

Angel Investor of the Year 2010 Logo

Angel Investor of the Year 2010 Finalists Announced

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Angel Investor of the Year 2010 Logo

  • Register
  • Wednesday June 23rd, 2010
  • 11:30 am – 1:30 pm
  • Grand America Hotel
    Imperial Ballroom
    555 South Main Street
    Salt Lake City, UT 84111

Angel Investor of the Year just announced their top 15 finalists.

The top 15 are:
  • Warren Osborn — Managing Director for Stoneway Capital
  • Martin Frey — Spent 13 years as a Sr. Director at Cisco
  • John Richards — Co-developed and launched the first-ever online Yellow Pages, Co-Managing Partner of BoomStartup
  • Kyle Love — Founding member of the Utah Angels
  • Robb Kunz — Co-Managing Partner of BoomStartup of BoomStartup
  • Nobu Mutaguchi — Invested in over 25 Utah-based startup and emerging companies
  • Dan McPhun — Co-Founder of Park City Angels
  • JD Gardner — Founder and Managing Director at Monarch Partners
  • Mark Burton — 2006 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year
  • Rod Watson — Angel investor dealing mainly with software and biotech companies based in Utah and Oregon
  • Brad Walters — Vice Chairman of Utah Technology Council, Previously CEO/President MaxStream
  • Mike Levinthal — Former VC with teh Mayfield Fund, serves on the Boards of Altiris (ATRS), Directpointe, Infopia, Metricstream, Senforce, 3point5, Utah Capital Investment Corporation (UCIC) and the Forever Young Foundation
  • Ron White — Founder and General Partner at Advanced Technology Development Fund
  • John Pestana — Co-Founder of Omniture
  • Jim Evans — CEO at Xactware

–Ben

Source:  Email, Investor of the Year

OnLive goes Live and online at 7:01 Mountain Time on 06-17-2010

0

For anyone who likes gaming, it looks like OnLive may be a contender.  I’m currently a fan of steam, but there may be room in my ecosystem for two services that store my games and promise that I can get back to them.

Let’s see what this is all about and if OnLive can handle the traffic.  I’ll be there shortly after 7:01 MST (Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 9:01 PM EDT / 6:01 PM PDT).  Sign up now and you get a free year of OnLive Membership.

–Ben

Sources:  Welcome to Onlive, Free Year, Steam

Google hosts USPTO Patent Data for 2 years – Download USPTO ZIP Files

0

Google just signed an agreement to host all of the Patent and Trademark Raw Data from the USPTO.

The Google Patent About Page added this comment:

Q. Why does Google offer bulk downloads of patent and trademark information?
A. Google and the US Patent and Trademark Office have partnered to provide bulk file downloads of patent and trademark information to everyone, for free. This information is also available on a file-by-file basis from the USPTO website, or for bulk download on CDs, DVDs, or digital tape, with fees to cover the USPTO’s expenses (often more than $10,000 and potentially up to $250,000). Many major law firms and research organizations rely on bulk file downloads so they can do more comprehensive analysis of the data. Now anyone can get the information for free by visiting http://www.google.com/googlebooks/uspto.html.

So, for all you data crunchers out there – here’s your chance to get your hands dirty.  Previously, this data was hidden on a little known FTP server.

–Ben

Sources:  About Google Patents, Google USPTO Bulk Download, Federal Computer Week

Prediction – Sprint to get iPhone

1

iSprint ParodyWe’ve been hearing a lot of hoopla about Verizon getting an iPhone.  After reading a few articles like the one on engadget.  I’m thinking that AT&T is losing exclusivity to Sprint.

I was wondering why AT&T would be removing its unlimited access plans and upping its termination fees.  And why would they extend an olive branch to iPads before June 7th?  Here’s what I’ve come up with:  AT&T sees the writing on the wall and wants to lock users in.  What better way to create lock-in than make the unlimited plan go away, but leave current users “grandfathered in”.    Personally, I kind of find that action desparate and despicable.  If my assumptions are true, than AT&T views its customers more like sheep to shear rather than a value-added partner.  But I don’t run in the AT&T circles.

Why do I think its Sprint?  Go to their website and click on the guy on the bench – the one that says “make your iPhone 4G.”  Now you might think “so what?  they’re just using a 4G router,” but Sprint has no interest in reminding you that they don’t have the iPhone.  They want you to think of all the cool phones they have.  Seriously, they have good marketing people.  So I think it must be a primer for their iPhone.

In all, its still a guess.  But we should find out soon.  Let’s look to next weeks WWDC and find out!

–Ben

Sources:  Engadget, Sprint, Doodgical

Comcast Responds Part 3 – Broken Internet Connnection After telling Comcast You Have a Router

2

I just received this email this morning.  Unfortunately, the comcast technician was probably calling the number that I cancelled in August 2009.

Hi Ben,

My name is Joe, I’m a Senior Technician with Comcast Customer Security Assurance. I just left you a message at the phone number we have listed on your account, but I figured I’d shoot you an email also. Mark Casem forwarded us your email and asked that we reach out to assist. First of all, I’d like to apologize for the problems that you were having. What I see on your account is that when you connected with our Chat Rep, he noticed that on your account we didn’t have it specified that you should have the 12 Meg service. What he did was put in a service order to include that 12 Meg Bootfile, and then requsted you powercycle your modem and router. The notes on the account indicate that the chat rep was waiting for you to reconnect, but you never did. I can assure you that we did not blacklist your router. I imagine there was an issue with the modem not booting up with the correct 12 Meg bootfile, but at this point I cannot be sure.

Right now I see that your modem is online with the correct bootfile, and you should be getting the correct speeds. If not, please let us know and we’ll take whatever action necessary to make sure you get them. And as far as the router issue; yes, you’re right. Typically we don’t support routers, and if we have an issue where someone can’t get online behind a router, we’ll have the customer bypass it, and make sure that they can get online without the router, just to rule that out. If at that point reconnecting the router doesn’t allow you to connect, we usually recommend contacting the router manufacturer to troubleshoot further. Again, I can tell you with certainty that we do not blacklist routers MAC addresses. We understand that a lot (probably most) customers use a router to get on the internet, and the last thing we want is for subscriber’s to not have that option.

If there’s anything else that we can help with, please let us know.

Thanks,

-Joe, Tech # 108
Senior Technician
Comcast Customer Security Assurance

I really appreciate Joe following up with me.  Fortunately, everything seems to be humming along fine right now.  However, I do want to make a couple points that led me to my conclusion (in my defense):

  • The router only worked after I gave it a new MAC address (the same one as my HP computer behind the router that would get an IP address).  Rebooting the cable modem again and power cycling the router did not solve the problem.  It would not renew an IP address.
  • Two computers were able to get IP addresses from the cable modem.
  • The link the chat representative gave me did not work (it is slightly possible that I didn’t copy it down right because their system didn’t allow me to copy and paste from the chat window – which is still bad).  When using the link, I was sent to an error page that asked for an email and something else.
  • When I signed up with comcast in February of ’09, they limited my connection to a single computer – the modem would not connect to any other computer (of course I fixed that by making my router look like that computer by using that computer’s MAC address) – so comcast has at least a history of whitelisting

If I were to request two things – it would be to allow copy and paste in the chatroom AND make the link work more than once.  Perhaps I clicked on the link and “used up” its one time use while trying to copy and paste.

–Ben

Sources:  Email from Joe

Comcast Responds Part 2 – Broken Internet Connnection After telling Comcast You Have a Router

0

Does Comcast Hate Us?After sending my email to Mark, I got a phone call from him.  The first thing he did was apologize, saying that he was sorry for my negative interaction with comcast.  He asked to hear my story, and listened to the problems I encountered.  He asked a few probing questions, such as how I would know that my router was banned (which was the fact that two computers could pull an IP address, but the router could only pull an IP address after I reset its MAC – and yes, I did reboot the router before trying).

He appeared to have done his research and asked if I would accept a reduced price on my internet for six months for my troubles.  As it was half of the cost of my current upgrade ($30 a month instead of $60), I accepted.

Believe it or not, he actually seemed to enjoy his job.  He said that it was like he was given the power to right injustice in the world and the ability to look for it.  He also said that he does not help those who are trying to game the system to get the discount.

All in all, I can’t believe that it has to be this way.  I’m content and enjoying my internet.  My anger has died down.  But I’m still baffled why Mark’s position has to exist.  Amex front line representatives have the power to get stuff done.  Why does comcast have such a tough time?

In any case, thanks for performing a tough job Mark & Team.

–Ben

Sources:  Phone call with Mark, Comcast Responds Part 1, Fix – Comcast Bans Router

Does Comcast Hate Us?

Comcast Responds – Broken Internet Connnection After telling Comcast You Have a Router

1
I just wrote a post about my terrible experience with a comcast chat representative.  Comcast responded quickly with something that looked like a generic script response:

Hello there! Sorry for the experience. I work for Comcast and I’d like to look into your experience so that it can be addressed. If you don’t mind, will you please contact me with your information?

Thanks,

Mark Casem
Comcast Corp.
National Customer Operations
[REDACTED EMAIL]

Here is the email I sent:
Mark and Team,
You requested, through my blog, that I give you my information so that you could look into my problem.  Here’s my relevant information:
Ben Holt
[REDACTED ADDRESS]
Just signed up for 12 Mbit service.  Speedtest.net showed 4 Mbit service with an Xmission server.  I chatted with Jan Albert on your chat room (after using your telephone reboot prompt).  Jan “optimized” my connection and requested that I reboot the modem, router and computer.  After the reboot, my router was blacklisted.
I have since regained service by providing another MAC address.
I did some more tests this morning after I wrote the blog post.  As it turns out, if I use the Orem, UT (Fibrenet) speedtest.net server – I do get the speed I requested.  It appears that Xmission (Salt Lake City) was the bottleneck.
As for a resolution, I’m not sure what to say.  My mother always told me to apologize, look the other person in the eye and tell them that it would not happen again.  Although I’ve never received an apology from your corporation and especially your CSR’s, I’m not sure I’d believe it.  There just seems to be too much distance between those that appear to care (your section) and those on the front lines (your contractors and CSR’s).  I’m not sure your goals are even on the same playing field.  The only thing that has been easy in our relationship has been giving you money, placing my initial order (the fulfillment was a mess), and keeping the status quo (for the most part).
I guess a start would be to explain what the CSR did behind the scenes, including “optimizing” my connection and why my router was banned.  It would even be interesting to me to know what information and notes are on my account / stored about me.
Thanks,
—-====Ben Holt====—-
[REDACTED EMAIL]
www.doodgical.com

I’ll keep you updated with their response when I hear back from them.

–Ben

Sources:  Doodgical

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