Ben Balbo

I’ve been a customer of VPSLand’s for some years in one form or another. A friend recommended them when the Melbourne PHP Users Group was looking for a new server, he’d been with them for a while. I decided to get one for MooBox too.

Time passed, servers churned, and for the most I was happy. Then MooBox’s VPS dropped off the face of the ether. An email to support had the issue resolved in slightly more time that I’d hoped and all was well. Apparently the host server my VPS was on had issues and I was migrated. A year later, the same happened again, same reason.

The Last Straw

A short while ago, this server then stopped being able to communicate externally. Web sites were being served, but our spam detection system died (it needs to be able to talk to external servers) which meant our clients on that server couldn’t receive email. I emailed VPSLand support for assistance. 4 hours later I was told the issue had been escalated to senior admins. When I asked their sales staff how long I’d have to wait for a response on a ticket I was told an hour or two.

8 hours later I’d still heard nothing, so I asked for an update. No response. I asked again 32 hours after the original request for support, shortly after which I noticed the server was completely inaccessible. No web sites, no SSH, no email. It had been 5 days since email had stopped coming in and now I couldn’t access the server at all. I requested a reboot.

Now historically when I’ve asked for reboots of servers from VPSLand it’ll happen within an hour. For now, let’s not get in to why I’ve had to request VPSLand for so many reboots when none of my other servers require this.

It took them 7 hours to tell me they’d escalated to a senior admin. For a reboot? And it took that admin 1.5 hours to get around to performing the reboot!

After some time spent looking through logs to determine the source of the cause, it became apparent, as was my original observation, that the server hadn’t changed but that some upstream data provider or connectivity/routing point had failed. I resolved to migrate all my clients to a different server with another provider and to cancel this VPS.

In the meanwhile, I’ve also been migrating services from the Melbourne PHP Users Group’s VPSLand VPS to a new server that a friend and I have set up for the Open Source Developers’ Club, of which phpMelb is now a significant interest group. So phpMelb gets free hosting, no need for the VPS. Note that I’ve never had the level of issues with the VPSLand VPS that MooBox had with the one phpMelb had, but we were migrating anyway.

Having migrated everything, I sent a request to VPSLand asking them not to renew the VPS for phpMelb:

Please do not renew this VPS. We are in the process of migrating this to another server and will not require this VPS after the renewal date of the 2nd November.

And with that, I breathed a sigh of relief that I wouldn’t have to deal with VPSLand any more.

Cancelling a non-existent server

Imagine my utter surprise when VPSLand sent this in response to the phpMelb VPS discontinuation request:

Hello Ben,

Thank you for contacting VPSland.

We have checked your account and have found that your subscription has been deleted due to non-payment.

The grace period of your subscription has expired on <07-May-2009>. The grace period is a period of time that starts after a service subscription expires. You are then granted a grace period to prolong your subscription. As the grace period has already expired, you cannot prolong your subscription.

Now you will have to place a new order. Once your new order is processed, you will be allotted a blank VPS with new IP address.

Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

Regards

Nick

So this server, that I’ve not had any major issue with, and have recently migrated web sites and email accounts from, has actually not been active for some time. This is rather confusing to me, especially given I have a connection to the server open at the time.

Well Nick, seems someone can’t read. So I clarify:

> We have checked your account and have found that your
> subscription has been deleted due to non-payment.

So are you saying that I shouldn’t be able to ping or SSH in to this server?

$ ssh ben@64.22.91.206
Linux phpmelb.org 2.6.16.33-vpsX #2 SMP Tue Jan 23 22:53:20 EST 2007 i686

The programs included with the Ubuntu system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Ubuntu comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by
applicable law.
Last login: Fri Oct 23 03:10:11 2009 from 115.69.161.104

> The grace period of your subscription has expired on
> <07-May-2009> … as the grace period has
> already expired, you cannot prolong your subscription.

I’m not asking to prolong my subscription. Any way, if this VPS has passed its grace period, why can I still connect to it?

> Now you will have to place a new order. Once your new order is
> processed, you will be allotted a blank VPS with new
> IP address.

Did you read that I wanted to not renew this VPS? Why would I create a new account and get a new VPS?

> Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

There’s nothing else, but you haven’t addressed my initial request. I would like you to not renew the VPS with IP 64.22.91.206.

Cheers
Ben

I thought that would drive the message home, but unfortunately I seem to be dealing with not one, but two people at VPSLand who are either illiterate, untrained or just don’t care.

Hello,

We have checked your account and have found that your subscription has been deleted due to non-payment. It is not possible to reactivate the deleted VPS. To be having a VPS I would request you to please place a new order with correct and complete contact information on our online order form. Then please update our billing team soon as you place a new order, so that we can expedite the order.

Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

Regards

Chris

I wondered if I could make this any clearer and chose my words wisely.

I AM NOT MAKING AN ORDER!

MY ACCOUNT IS STILL ACTIVE

I DO NOT WANT TO RENEW

Please note that any attempt to take payment for the VPS which is still active will result in legal proceedings.

> Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

Yes – please read my request.

Moments before publishing this post, I notice the most recent reply cannot get through. My mail logs show it left my server and was delivered to mx1.exchangesync.com (”a VPSLand company”). Perhaps in some moment of karmic correction, their mail server cannot accept emails because they’re having the some strange connectivity issues.

Do you work for VPSLand? Do you have a phone number for them? I’d love to chat to someone there. There’s no number on your site anywhere – do you not like taking calls? I wouldn’t actually mind if you could act on emails in a timely and accurate manner.

Update: 9th November

The server was due for renewal 5 days ago, and the on-line billing system shows a new invoice has been raised against it.

Rather worryingly, their billing site’s SSL certificate reports itself as having expired on 24/05/09. Strangely this wasn’t the case a few weeks ago.

Now it’s fair to assume their billing system has automatically generated this invoice, but I’m still confused that the account hasn’t been cancelled. My latest missive to them:

I notice that invoice 39550 has been raised for this VPS.

You state the VPS doesn’t exist (which is not the case – I can still connect to it), so why are you invoicing me for it?

I have asked you repeatedly to cancel this VPS, so why are you invoicing me for it?

Do not attempt to charge any amounts to my credit card for this VPS. I do not want to keep it.

Taking bets now on:

1. number of hours to first response
2. receiving an email telling me the VPS doesn’t exist and that I’ll have to order a new one through sales
3. being charged for the renewal

Ooh – mini addendum: I have two automated emails from thir billing system, one on the 2nd, one at 4pm today, telling me they tried to charge my card but it failed. I did update my credit card number to 4242424242424242 (a test number) which the system must have accepted. Glad I did that!

Update: 23rd November

They’ve now tried to charge this test card 4 times. For a server that I cancelled. And that they refuse to acknowledge exists!

Update: 28th January 2010

Yes, I’m still getting emails from them. Yes, they’re still trying to charge a test credit card number. But as of a few days ago, I’ll not be troubled by them again. The solution: change the account details to:

(click to enlarge)

Family First Senator Stephen Fielding has just returned from a study tour in America and is now undecided about the effect of carbon emissions on global warming.

While the solar flares debate, which Senator Fielding has recently cottoned on to, has been around for many years, no evidence exists to link them to the current warming, according to Graeme Pearman, former chief of atmospheric research at the CSIRO. Pearman goes one to say that solar flares are not likely to be a major factor for the next 90 years or so.

Senator Fielding states he’s open-minded about the situation and will be asking Climate Change Minister Penny Wong to “explain why what they’ve put forward isn’t credible”. His main concern is, “what happens if what they’re saying is true?”.

This author’s scientific accomplishments are somewhat restricted to computer science, but few will agree with the view that reducing carbon emissions will make matters worse.

The crux of the matter is alluded to by Phil Chapman, an Australian-born geophysicist and former NASA astronaut scientist, who warns against policies to reduce carbon emissions as “the climate has simply not been warming since 2002.”. Chapman adds “until we do know [whether warming will continue] it is really foolish to start spending money.”

The fact is they’re right! The temperature hasn’t exceeded the 1998 high and we’ve experienced continuous cooling in the past 5 years, as evidenced in the following plot.

The 157-year view paints a rather different picture though.

The picture is very clear when you look at who Senator Fielding gets his information from. The Heartland Institute is an organisation that publishes articles explaining that air pollution levels far higher than any we experience in the United States are perfectly safe and proposing that cigarette taxes be reduced to zero, dismissing second-hand smoke as a non-issue.

The Heartland Institute’s Wikipedia entry identifies them as a member organization of the Cooler Heads Coalition, “an informal and ad-hoc group focused on dispelling the myths of global warming.

Further, this non-profit organisation is funded by individuals and corporations, including at least US$190,000 from Philip Morris USA and US$676,500 from ExxonMobil, according to SourceWatch.

So here we have it, a Senator espousing the ‘truths’ of a debatably independent research organisation that is a member of an organisation that openly dismisses climate change issues and takes money from those organisations who seem to benefit greatly from their publications.

I’m sold!

Other sources: ABC News.

I’ve been working with my co-workers Jon (@jpoh), Gil (@gilfer), Dimitry, Becky, Danielle and Andrew on a very exciting project for the past two days, and the first iteration has just been released!

Like so many people around the world, we have been touched by the devastating effects of the 2009 bushfires that have swept through Victoria and New South Wales and wanted to use the skills we have to provide an online resource for connecting those in need with those who are able to help.

Please be upstanding for Bushfire Housing, an online tool to facilitate the pairing of those that are homeless due to the Australian bushfires and those that have room in their house, a vacant rental, newly purchased investment property or holiday home.

We Need Your Help

This site isn’t going to work if no-one knows about it, so please tell everyone you know. The Bushfire Housing, Spread The Word page includes a short message suitable for Twitter, Identi.ca and SMSing, badges for your blog, company web sites and email signatures, and some text that you can email to your family, friends and colleagues. Why not also write a blog post, set your LinkedIn and Facebook statuses and call your local talk back radio show?

If you or anyone you know has the ability to offer a room, a holiday house or any form of emergency shelter, please register. Your generosity will directly help the victims of the worst natural disaster in Australia’s recorded history.

Have you got an idea of how to spread the word? Let me know in the comments.

Inspiration

This website was inspired by a similar concept used during the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the New Orleans. There, it achieved great success and helped thousands of people find shelter in their darkest hours. We hope Bushfire Housing can do the same here.

What’s In Store For The Site?

We wrote the whole site in about 8 hours and have spent the last 6 hours working on minor bug fixes and UI updates. Given the nature of the site, we’re working extreme agile; ideally having multiple release cycles per day.

Phase two updates include SMS notification, Google map integration and more. If you have any suggestions or feedback, leave a comment.

So, I promised to write some more on StixCamp this morning. StixCampNewstead will be the first StixCamp ever. It will be held in the sticks and they will be Victorian sticks!

So what is this StixCamp I speak of? The first ever BarCamp in Australia was BarCampMelbourne 2007, and it was held at Lake Eppalock. Given two people got lost and there were complaints that no GPS coordinates were supplied, this very definitely meets the requirements of “in the sticks”.

Last year’s BarCampMelbourne was held in the city, and very great it was too. 70+ participants who all thoroughly enjoyed themselves (or at least didn’t hate it enough to tell me).

This year, we’re returning to the sticks. StixCampNewstead will be held at a beautiful winery in Newstead, Victoria.

So, in addition to letting people know about this upcoming event, we’re also looking for sponsors. The event will cost around $50 per head, and there’s space for 60, so $3,000 we need. We already have one sponsor, but need plenty more. We’re looking for a number of sponsors for smaller amounts, rather than one for the whole lump. If you’re interested in supporting this awesome grass-roots event, please get in touch with the organisers. We’re also happy to take sponsorship in kind by way of prizes to give away, providing the catering or any other in kindness you can think of.

In return for supporting this event, you’ll have your logo and link on the StixCamp Victoria, Australia web site and the BarCampMelbourne web site, receive verbal thanks and recognition during the opening and closing speeches, and in any communication with reporters and be welcome to advertise your support in any way you like (we will assist wherever possible). You can also offer schwag/literature/etc for dissemination and signage for display at the event. See the Sponsor StixCamp Victoria, Australia page for full details.

I’ve just realised I haven’t written anything here for almost 3 months, and yet I don’t feel I’ve been out of touch or not been updating “followers” with my activities and news. The number of phone calls and emails I’ve made hasn’t increased dramatically, so what’s happened?

Could it be that more frequent microblogs on Identica and Twitter are to blame for the drop in frequency on this site? Or was it just a busy time of year? I’m not sure.

So what’s been happening with me in the last three months? Sandrine and I moved house for the third (and final?) time in one year, and are now finally living in Portarlington on the Belarine Peninsula, 8 minutes from the beach. I still live and work in Melbourne, but I also get a holiday every weekend now!

Sandrine and I also went to Strathbogie; as some of you know, we used to own a bush block up there. We helped them develop a requirements document for a new community web site and portal, and after a few teething issues, they finally went live in November. The Strathbogie Tableland web site describes itself as a new way for residents and landholders to stay in touch and communicate with each other, and has really taken off with residents and others alike. Their community message board is possibly the most used area of the site.

In other news, I went to both RUXCON and the 5th Open Source Developers’ Conference, presenting at the latter on mobile streaming solutions for the open source community.

I’ve also been trying to fit in work on a new community driven web site that I started in October, but have had little time to spend on lately. Hopefully I’ll have more about that soon. Then, of course, there’s the work on the next BarCampMelbourne, which will actually be a StixCamp – more on that in a soon-to-follow post.

I think that’s about it. Of course there have been other things, but perhaps to minor to mention. You could always follow me on Identica or Twitter to hear the day-to-day stuff. If you like. No pressure!