Life and Kraya by Stephen Ramsay
Posts tagged internet
Intermittent ADSL Internet Faults in Edinburgh
Dec 16th
We are receiving reports of Intermittent Internet Faults from our clients in the Edinburgh area.
There Internet simply goes down for anything between 1 and 30 minutes.
As we suspected this morning this has now been confirmed as a BT Fault affecting all Customers on the BT Wholesale ADSL network.
More info from zen internet here http://status.zensupport.co.uk/index.php?serviceid=5&incidentid=1616&simple=1
As a result of work to rectify this fault some customers may have limited or no internet connectivity overnight tonight and early tomorrow morning. BT have given an estimate of 6am on Thursday 17th December for resumption of normal service.
We will continue to monitor the situation and bring you updates as we get them.
So what does my computer do over night?
Apr 22nd
Since my last blog post, Save the Planet, DON’T Turn your Computer off at night, I have been getting a lot of enquiries from people asking, exactly what happens over night, what about laptops and asking about energy usage and Carbon foot prints.
For laptops the power management setting needs to be set correctly and they should be left turned on and plugged into the internet at least one night a week. For all other computers it is vital that the following procedure is followed at the end of each working day.
- Select Start and Shutdown, from the drop down menu select Restart
- Please do not shut down.
- Please turn off the monitor and leave your computer to restart.
- The machine will restart back to the log in screen and will after 10 to 15 minutes go into a power save mode.
- Given that your monitor is turned off and the hard drives will also go to sleep, the computer will not use much power.
- At the weekend, (unless you are pre-notified of a large update in advance) Shut-down should be used but please also remember to turn off the monitor.
So what exactly does my computer do over night? Well below is a typical example.
20:30 Receiving Updates from Server
Microsoft and other updates are pushed out nightly there will not be an update every night. However given the number of different software packages in use there is something most nights
21:00 Installing those Updates
22:00 Cleaning temporary and system files, Deleting all of those
temporary files you downloaded over the course of the day.
22:15 De-fragmenting the hard drive, De-fragmenting your Operating
System, in English, tidying up the filing cabinets, so that it can find things faster the next day.
23:00 De-fragmenting any secondary drives.
00:15 Receive Anti-Virus Updates
00:30 Full Anti-Virus Running a full in depth scan on your operating
system
03:30 Full Anti-Virus on secondary drives
06:00 System re-starts, clearing memory ready for you coming into work.
One of the main concerns people have is regarding energy, the cost of that energy and their carbon foot print. Yes leaving the computer on, even in power save mode, uses power and increases your carbon foot print, but this must be balanced with the cost of buying a new PC and the carbon generated by the manufacturing process, flying the parts around the world and shipping the new PC to your office. The Mathematics for this are very complex and depending on the life of the PC replacing more frequently will ultimately be much more expensive, than running it over night.
The greatest advantage to the overnight maintenance procedures is improved day time efficiency, not only in terms of general performance, but energy efficiency. Because of this improved day time computer efficiency the processor doesn’t have to work as hard during the day. It might seem simple but this means it can perform most tasks at less than full speed, this saves power and results in less heat being generated, thus in turn also results in less energy being used to dissipate this heat. Hence greater daytime energy efficiency and lower carbon foot print, from day time usage. The mathematics of balancing these daytime savings versus increased night time usage, are personal to each computer and its use.
Overall I believe the benefits are clear, and all of the users who have had the overnight maintenance schedule fully implemented seem to agree, at least in terms of performance.
Your comments are welcome.
all night, Anti virus Scaned, Anti Virus scans, anti-virus, automated cleaning, Carbon foot print, Cleaned, Cleaning, cold at night, Computer, computers, computers at night, consuming components, day spa, De-fragmenting, defraged, Defragmented, Defragmenting, Deleting, dissipate, dissipate heat, DON’T Turn your Computer off at night, downloaded, earth hour, energy, energy saving settings, energy usage, enquiries, exactly, fail, failed, failour, faster, Forth One, Hard drive, hard drives, hardware, hardware components, heat, hot, internet, Kraya, Kraya Day Spa, Laptops, large energy saving, large update, leave the computer on, leaving the monitor turned on, less electricity, log in screen, longevity, Microsoft, monitor, monitor off, morning, night, night before, nightly, office, Operating System, over night, overnight, PC to do the rest, performance, performance improvement, plugged, power, power down, power management, power save mode, power useage, procedure, processor, producing less heat, prolong, ramsay, Receiving, restart, save energy, save money, Save the Planet, scan, Server, settings, shut-down, shutdown, sleep, slowly, Social Networks, software packages, Spa, stand by, Standby, Start, start menu, Stephen, stepram, system files, system updates, temporary, temporary files, turn monitor off, turn off, turn off lights, turn the monitor off, Turn your Computer off at night, turned on, turning off, updated, Updates, useful life, varying speeds, whole computer, WWF, WWF earth hour
You cant follow me around and anyway what I choose to do in the privacy of my own home…
Apr 7th
Who you phone and email and what you do in your own home is private right? What’s more we all believe that if the authorities want to tap your phone, they need a warrant right?
Well not anymore, from today (Monday 06/04/09) your phone company and Internet service provider must keep a complete log of every phone call, email and text message you send and a log of all your web traffic, all in the name of Anti-terrorism.
The data stored will not include the content of the e-mails or a recording of the phone call / text. However it will cover the subject line, sender and receiver of the message and all of their personal information, such as name, date of birth, address and telephone numbers. Even more worryingly if you carry a mobile phone, the Mobile Network will also be required to store your location, that’s right the police can now trace your exact whereabouts at all times via your Mobile. Handy tool if you are a missing child, but it doesn’t just relate to real time data this relates to historical data too as this information must be stored by the Mobile phone operator.
All of this information is to be used to determine connections between individuals, an important point I will revisit in a moment.
Regards web traffic it will also store the site you visited and its owner information but not the actual content. Why won’t it store its content, well not because they don’t want to know what you are looking at, but because that would create too much data. What’s more if they want to know what you were looking at they can find it easily on a web back or web archiving service. Try visiting Archive.org and asking for news.bbc.co.uk, then look for September 11^th 2001 and you can relive the awful moment in time that has led us here, or rather been used as an excuse to lead us here.
Just in case you’re thinking well it’s only the police and they can be trusted right? Wrong, this data can be accessed by a whole host of organisations including Government departments and Local authorities for all kinds of reasons, without your knowledge or consent.
Well I’m a goodie two shoes, they wont find anything on me! Are you sure, how often do you look at certain sites, what does that say about your religious, political or moral beliefs or opinions. Ok so it’,s not that anything you do might be dodgy or illegal, but do you really want your local council officials looking at your browsing history and drawing inferences from it, correctly or otherwise. Who do you talk to who are your connections, personal and business, the express aim of this legislation is to track this kind of information. Who is accessing your internet connection, do you have a partner staying over? How often do they use your internet and what are they accessing, what does that give away about you, your sexuality and relationships?
Most importantly what have you and I done wrong to justify this invasion of our privacy and civil liberties, simply become terror targets. If this all sounds a little draconian, it is, I’m all for the police having the ability to track and trace criminals when they are under suspicion of a crime but this doesn’t apply to criminals it applies to all of us, all of the time and we are not under suspicion are we?
Just think, Local authorities have been in the press recently for using these types of powers to check up on all kind of misdemeanor, Dog Fouling, Single Persons Council Tax Discount claims, Un-occupied Properties / Holiday home claims, School role applications. Whilst these are all law breaches, are they proportionate to the invasion of our privacy and restriction of our civil liberties?
Perhaps we should think about Google’s power, it is a truly amazing tool and I love what Google is able to do and the ease of use their tools bring to my PC, but this also comes at a price, Google also stores some of your personal information and use that to bring you content you are interested in. But it’s not linked directly to you and certainly not to your exact position 24 hours a day 7 days a week, oh and its Opt it, you choose to use their services or not. Or maybe you don’t if your face or house is on street view, but that’s topic for another day.
After reading all of this you would be forgiven for thinking I am some kind of civil liberties campaigner or that I have something to hide? Well I am not and I do not, but this all seams a little to much like my favorite book for comfort, George Orwell, warned us of the dangers of a large single European country with vast powers over all of its citizens and the ability to use the Thought Police. Sound a bit far fetched? This legislation applies across the whole of Europe and most definitely allows the authorities to complete a large amount of psychoanalysis just by looking at your habits. To take an easy example, what dose the newspaper you read every day say about you and your political beliefs?
If you haven’t read 1984, perhaps you should, it is more real than you might think or that the ‘Big Brother’ headlines you read in the press, might suggest.
11 2001, 11 september, 1984, 24 7, 24 hours, 24/7, 7 days, accessing, actual content, address, al-Qaeda, all of the time, all of us, Anti-terrorism, applications, authorities, beliefs, believe, Big Brother, Bomb, bommings, browsing history, business, Campaigner, certain sites, citizens, civil liberties, civil liberties campaigner, connections, consent, content, content of the e-mails, Council, council tax, crime, criminals, dangers, data, date of birth, determine, directly, dodgy, Dog Fouling, draconian, email, Eric Aruther Blair, Europe, exact, exact location, exact position, far fetched, favorite book, follow, George Orwell, goodie two shoes, Google, Google’s power, government, Government departments, GPS, habits, historical, Holiday homes, home, illegal, individuals, inferences, information, internet, internet connection, internet service provider, invasion, invasion of privacy, IRA, ISP, July 7, justify, knowledge, law, law breaches, legislation, linked, Local authorities, local council, Location, log, London, London Bombings, looking at, MI5, MI6, misdemeanor, missing child, mister meaners, mobile, Mobile Network, mobile phone, Mobile phone operator, moral, msg, name, newspaper, not under suspicion, officials, opinions, organisations, Osama, Osama Bin Laden, our privacy, own home, owner information, partner, personal, personal information, phone, phone call, phone company, phone tap, police, political, political beliefs, position, powers, price, Privacy, private, proportionate, psychoanalysis, ramsay, real time, receiver, recording, relationships, religious, restriction, restriction of civil liberties, School role, security services, send, sender, September, September 11, service, sexuality, single Europe, single European country, Single Persons Council Tax Discount claims, site, snoop, snoopping, Social Networks, something to hide, spy, spying, Stephen, stepram, store, stored, street view, subject, telephone number, terror, terror targets, terrorisim, text, text message, they wont find anything on me, Thought, thought police, trace, track, track and trace, Tracking, trust, trusted, Txt, types of powers, Un-occupied Properties, under suspicion, vast powers, warned, warrant, web, web archiving, web habits, web traffic, whereabouts, whole of Europe, without, you, your location, your Mobile, your own home
