I've not disappeared - the move is complete

…. but not without dramas.

The move wasn’t as smooth as expected. The actual furnishings/equipment move was fine, but the technological move was not.

Thanks to the wonders of the monopoly telecommunications company here (Telstra) who, despite being privatised and made to compete with other carriers treats the public that funded their infrastructure with utter contempt, took over a week to supply me with a landline phone at my new apartment. Ergo I had no net connection aside work and only my mobile phone (cellphone to you Yanks) to keep in touch with people.

It was another four days after the landline got connected before Internode (my ISP) could get my ADSL2+ connected at the DSLAM. Again, because Telstra own the infrastructure (the exchange the DSLAM is housed in) a Telstra contractor had to do the work.

Only they fucked it up. It was another five days before Internode could get Telstra to return to the exchange and correct the fault (the ‘node tech and I determined – correctly – that the DSLAM port had been mis-jumpered). I even went so far as to talk to Telstra directly about the fault, but because I was not the one submitting the fault I was told not to call about it, despite it being on my line and affecting my job.

(If you are one of those charming folks in Telstra/Teletech callcentres: Fuck you. You piss and you moan that your customers abuse you, but you hung up on me twice, yelled at me, lied to me and had the hide to call ‘node to bitch about me rightly keeping you on your toes. This is on top of the crap I used to get at Webcentral due to your laziness and selfish desire to fuck over my team to keep your own KPIs in order. You fully deserve the shit you get from customers and the rest of the industry for your disinterest, rudeness, incompetence and sheer fucking arrogance. Burn in fucking hell.)

They eventually got it sorted – they never told me or Internode (I told them!) I just came home from work with line sync. While I was happy to get some access, the speed is lacking – around 8000 down/846 up. Considering the distance from the exchange I should be seeing more than that (~12000-13000). From some auditory investigation it sounds like I have noise on the line..

On the upside: I have as of Monday got my Fedora 8 repository up and running, it’s almost fully populated and ready to go and you can find it in the usual place

It’s a little delayed due to a) the above move b) getting an F8 install here to work with and most importantly c) the lovely (and loving) Meisha keeping me happily distracted from all things geek ? I couldn’t wish for a more wonderful lady and I love her dearly ?

Still keeping the “aww that’s schweet” theme going, a huge congratulations to my friend and former work colleague Vesna on her engagement. You know who to grab as the wedding photographer and try not to wear the poor lad out on the honeymoon. ? Happy for you Ves!