john's blog
the web, technology and miscellaneous rants
Twitter and Zend Framework
Feb 21st
This past weekend I was trying to use the Zend Framework Twitter library. While the documentation made it look simple, it was missing a lot of steps and information. With the help of a lot of googling I came up with this:
$userToken = 'user_token';
$userSecret = 'user_secret';
$appConsumerKey = 'your_app_consumer_key';
$appConsumerSecret = 'your_app_consumer_secret';
// generate an Oauth token to pass to Zend_Service_Twitter
$token = new Zend_Oauth_Token_Access();
$token->setToken($userToken)
->setTokenSecret($userSecret);
$options = array(
'username' => 'twitter_username',
'accessToken' => $token,
'consumerKey' => $appConsumerKey,
'consumerSecret' => $appConsumerSecret
);
$twitter = new Zend_Service_Twitter($options);
// verify user's credentials with Twitter
var_export($twitter->account->verifyCredentials());
How long would it take to go over your Rogers High-Speed Internet usage limit?
Aug 8th
The following is a table showing how fast a Rogers user could eat through their monthly usage limit. Note: the numbers do not reflect a user’s actual usage and I’m not saying Rogers should let us download 10TB+ a month but I do think that the current plans are unreasonable. If we are not constantly monitoring our usage we could accidentally go over our limit in a matter of hours. I think all plans should start at 500GB a month and the highest plan should be somewhere around the 2TB mark. I also think the plans should increase by a couple hundred GB per year as more streaming services like Netflix become our primary media source.
| Package | Download Speed | Usage Allowance | How long will it last? | Max. Potential Download |
| Ultra Lite | 0.5 Mbps | 2 GB | 0.37 days | 162 GB |
| Lite | 3 Mbps | 15 GB | 0.46 days | 972 GB |
| Express | 12 Mbps | 60 GB | 0.46 days | 3,888 GB |
| Extreme | 24 Mbps | 100 GB | 0.39 days | 7,776 GB |
| Extreme Plus | 32 Mbps | 150 GB | 0.43 days | 10,368 GB |
| Ultimate | 50 Mbps | 250 GB | 0.46 days | 16,200 GB |
Point of interest. Running at full speed, no rogers plan will last more than half a day.
Calculations:
Megabytes per second = Download Speed / 8
Assuming 0 upload per month (which is impossible)
Assuming 30 days per month.
Assuming 1TB = 1,000,000 MB.
Assuming 1GB = 1,000 MB.
Number of seconds per month = 60 X 60 X 24 X 30 = 2,592,000
Maximum potential download amount = Megabytes per second * Number of seconds per month
Number of days internet will last = Monthly Usage Limit (MB) / Speed per megabyte / 60 / 60 / 24
Why I still use Rogers for High Speed Internet
Jul 22nd
I was very close to dropping Rogers altogether and switching to TekSavvy for cable internet so I could finally be free of Rogers stupid Usage Limits. The only thing holding me back was the limited speeds of TekSavvy and the $99 fee to have someone come look at my line is something goes wrong. I was toying with the idea of having 2 cable connections (if there was a problem with my line Rogers would fix it for free) but it was going to cost way over $100 a month combined.
Then Rogers released their new plans and usage limits on Wednesday. (The title of their article should be “Rogers takes a tiny step in the right direction to meet customer’s needs with new Hi-Speed Internet Tiers”) While they still stink compared to TekSavvy they are more reasonable. I have no complaints with Rogers service. It has always been excellent and in my experience their tech support and technicians are friendly and get the job done. They just won’t give us reasonable plans at reasonable prices.
The first company to offer me > 5Mbps upload speed and unlimited or 500GB+ monthly usage will be getting my business immediately. Although I despise Bell I would jump at the chance to switch to their Fibre 25 plan with 7Mbps upload if that service was available in my area.
So now I have upgraded to the Ultimate plan to take advantage of the new 250GB usage limit for $99 per month. The 1Mbps upgrade in speed is nice but I am not happy about the price. I don’t care at all about the 50Mbps speed. I have been using their SMC modem in bridge mode for over a year now and it works. I refused to touch the router functionality though.
Oh Canada, why are our internet plans so horrible?
Pandora and Hulu in Canada with VPN script
Jun 20th
Warning: Use this script at your own risk. I am not responsible if it messes up your server or if you lose data.
I have tested the script on a fresh installation of Ubuntu 10.10 and recommend you also install this script on a fresh install. If you want to modify an existing installation this script might work but I’d recommend you read my previous blog post on this subject instead.
Copy and paste the following line into your ssh terminal.
wget http://blog.jtclark.ca/wp-content/uploads/vpn-setup.sh;chmod +x vpn-setup.sh
Run the script
./vpn-setup.sh
Next reboot the server and then create a PPTP VPN connection on your computer.
The script automatically sets the login to user: user and pass: pass
You can change this by editing /etc/ppp/chap-secrets
If you are curious of what the script does here is the source below.
#!/bin/sh apt-get install pptpd -y echo "localip 192.168.123.1" >> /etc/pptpd.conf echo "remoteip 192.168.123.234-238,192.168.123.245" >> /etc/pptpd.conf echo "user pptpd pass *" >> /etc/ppp/chap-secrets /etc/init.d/pptpd restart echo "ms-dns 208.67.222.222" >> /etc/ppp/pptpd-options echo "ms-dns 208.67.220.220" >> /etc/ppp/pptpd-options echo "net.ipv4.ip_forward=1" >> /etc/sysctl.conf sysctl -p sed -n '$!p' /etc/rc.local > /tmp/rc.local.temp cp /tmp/rc.local.temp /etc/rc.local rm /tmp/rc.local.temp echo "/sbin/iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.123.0/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE" >> /etc/rc.local echo "exit 0" >> /etc/rc.local
PowWeb STILL Secretly Increasing Hosting Prices
Jan 29th
Last March I wrote a post about PowWeb’s Secret Price Increases. Well, I just received my latest invoice from them for my 2011 hosting, and guess what? Same story. They charged me $107.40, which works out to $8.95 per month. The regular price shown on their homepage is $7.77 per month. At that rate, my bill should have been $93.24. I must admit this year’s bill is slightly better than last year’s, when they tried to charge me $111.24. But still, it’s a far cry from the so-called regular price they advertise.
I immediately contacted PowWeb support and requested that they either bill me the correct amount or update their homepage to reflect the price they charged me. They chose to correct my invoice, as they did last year. And I have no doubt I’ll be placing the exact same support request next year.
As far as service and hosting reliability goes, PowWeb performs well for a shared host. Even so, that does not excuse these secret price increases. I could understand if they charged more for added features. Even if they decided to jack up their prices for no reason, I wouldn’t complain if they at least had the decency to inform their customers of the increase. But keeping an inaccurate price on their homepage year after year and hoping customers won’t notice the discrepancy? That’s just wrong.
I would recommend to anyone who is hosting with PowWeb that you check your invoice carefully. If you’re being charged more than $93.24 ($7.77 per month) contact support and tell them to charge you the correct amount, as shown on their homepage. You shouldn’t have to pay more.