Final week as placement student at Fisher Scientific

On July 28, 2010 in Nottingham Trent University, Website Design.
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Ok so this isn’t a technical post, and is probably not entirely suited to the blog as a whole, but I thought I’d write a short piece on my time at Fisher Scientific as a placement student from Nottingham Trent University over the last year.

My 52nd (final) week will be commencing next week, and it’s been invaluable to be able to put previously existing skills into practise, expanding on them to reach new levels. My Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, Coding and many other techniques have been greatly built upon, not to mention the professional skill-sets I have picked up along the way. It’s hard to take on board the enthusiasm of lecturers and peers alike when they talk about a year in the industry, but it has been so SO worth it!

Apart from all the brilliant new skills I have acquired, I have also gained a group of amazing friends! Ones who I hope to keep in touch with over the years. Neil, Eve, Lee, Emma, Bek and all the others at Fisher, you have made my year at Fisher educational, enjoyable and most of all fun! Thank you. Thats what is so great about a placement – It’s the whole package!

If your indecisive about a placement, please take my advice and apply! It could be one of the best things you have ever done. I know it will be one of my life long memories!

*Wipes away a fake tear, just like Neil would*

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Belkin ADSL Modem-Router internet icon blinking orange

On July 23, 2010 in General, Internet.
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Late last night I got a phonecall from my girlfriend complaining (surprise surprise!) about the internet not working. I went over to discover a ‘Belkin N Wireless ADSL Modem-Router’ with a flashing internet icon blinking orange.

After a while, searching for the solution on my iPhone, I decided to flush the IP using CMD. To do this, I opened CMD with administrator privileges, and entered the following:

> ipconfig /all
> [results returned]
> ipconfig /release
> [action completed]
> ipconfig /renew
> [action completed]

However, this didn’t work. After that, and a few other tests (changed the PPPoA to Dynamic/Static, changed subnet masks and updated firmware etc) I decided to restore the router to factory settings. SAME PROBLEM! The flashing orange icon continued to annoyingly wink at me.

This led me to believe that it was an issue before the router/modem, and an issue with the ISP. I rang them (excellent support team – Virgin Media!) and told them the issue. Although they couldn’t tell me why it had occurred in the first place, they did inform me that restoring the ADSL modem would require me to re-enter the PPPoA username and password, which he gave me.

Hay presto! It worked!

The orange blinking internet light was because the connection to the exchange servers were active, but not connected. This could be told as the ADSL light was a solid blue (showing a connection) but not logged in (orange blinking internet light!)

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Apple Lawsuit in US begins over iPhone 4 signal

On July 1, 2010 in Apple, iPhone.
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It seems Apple have been presented with what can only be imagined as the first of many lawsuits regarding the signal issues of the iPhone 4. The suit claims two american iPhone users have claimed Apple demonstrated negligence and misrepresentation with their latest version of the phone. Although I have not seen any signal issues personally, there are thousands of complaints (as well as thousands of people saying their phone is fine! – Perhaps a product line fault?).Apple Lawsuit form

Either way, Apple have responded by claiming there was a glitch in the original software regarding the signal bars, and that an update to come soon will make the signal bars more accurate and representative of the actual signal strength. To be honest it all seems a little suspect!

But all the blame can’t be put on Apple, as mobile reception can easily be boosted by carriers. For example, back when Chris Moyles was climbing kilimanjaro back in 2008 he reportedly called O2 to moan about his signal to his iPhone. O2 responded by ‘Boosting’ the signal, allowing him to have a flawless conversation with the BBC radio 1 team! Now, obviously O2 and other carriers can’t be expected to do this for every customer, but surely something should be said to the carriers as well as Apple? Scratch that, it seems AT&T are being sued too!

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