Apple laptop charging vibration effect

If I brush my hand across the top of my shiny Aluminium case of my Apple laptop I feel a strange vibration effect.

Turns out I am not going mad - James has felt it too. Interestingly the new MacBook pro is lower frequency than the Air. But both are very noticeable.

If you hold your hand still, you don't feel vibration. lightly brush your hand or fingers over any of the metal surfaces and you feel it.

What is interesting is that this effect is only present if connected to the power (charging).

It is mostly noticeable if you move you hand/fingers over the surface. However, on the Pro just having my arm lightly touching the corner of the case can create quite a noticeable stinging pain. It has bugged me quite a lot while trying to use it today.

WTF is this?

DHL fail!

It would appear that the DHL are telling me this afternoon that they are unable, in the home of the Olympics, Greece, to get my small parcel from Athens to Rhodes in less than 2 days. It is perhaps just as well they are not the logistics sponsor for the Olympics this year.

We took a small parcel to a DHL depot in London and asked for it to be delivered to Rhodes next day. They confirmed they could. They completed all of the paperwork and took the money.

Now they say it was not shipped "next day", and they will, maybe, delivery on Monday.

The receipt says it was shipped "globalmail" which they describe as "International non-sorted, non-franked business correspondence". This is around 3Kg of camera and lens, and not in any way "business correspondence". So that makes no sense. Oddly their tracking site states "DHL Express Shipments", so yet another inconsistency.

They also stated that it is now with a local courier that has 24 hours to deliver it, so will be Monday. Well, in my book, 24 hours from 14:09 Friday is 14:09 on SATURDAY, and not Monday, so that is clearly a lie from them of one sort or another.

Asked to actually ship to arrive today (i.e. "next day" as originally requested) they say they cannot. Asked to do Saturday morning. They say they cannot.

They seem to be indicating that they are unable to move my small parcel from Athens to Rhodes in less than two days. Some logistics company this? We have asked them to state this formally - yes or no - can they move a small parcel from Athens to Rhodes in under 2 days? Not had a clear reply yet, but actions speak louder than words.

What they have stated is they cannot guarantee next day delivery. That their "express" service is not "next day" (we have a call recording of this). This is odd as their web site states that it is. It says you can pick by 9am, 10:30 or 12:00 or next day. Someone is lying to me, and that is criminal fraud.

I am very cross right now. I'll update this post if we get any more news. I'd be delighted with any official comment from DHL, and happy to follow up.

Update from Lee at my office is: We paid for Express delivery, I got her to confirm that on phone that. I said that globalmail business was ticked. They said that did not matter as it was on a express. Well done Lee for confirming. Now we need them to fix this (and refund us).

Update: Now saying that "express" is not "next day" and so they have not screwed up and will arrive Monday. Seems to me the web site tells lies then... What can I say?

Update: Apparently we have the call recording where they confirmed it would be "next day" before we went there with the parcel (by the cut off time they said), so we should be able to issue a county court claim for a refund at the very least. Maybe I can add some compensation for messing up my holiday. In fact, they only got the business because other couriers could not do one of the islands next day. It seems that they lied to us for commercial gain - now that would be criminal fraud. I'll be able to confirm when I hear the call recording myself.

[Yes, I got my sponsors mixed up in first draft, sorry]

I'll add more next week. This was something of an experiment. I wanted the new camera (as per earlier post) to try out while on holiday before we did any more serious work at the office. I decided to try DHL for something silly like this because it was cheap, and we would learn about these things. Knowing how couriers work, and which are good or bad is useful for business. Clearly DHL will never ever get any of our business ever, national or international.

On a personal note I am surprised how very very cross this made me. On a normal business day this would have been annoying. When on holiday, where basically the only thing I did all day was either going to be nothing (reading, etc) or "waiting for my new camera", I did the latter. Somehow, psychologically, being let down like this is huge. My blood pressure is up, I am fuming. Now if the camera was not on its way, or was expected Monday in the first place (i.e. not lied to), that would not be any issue. Being lied to so I "get my hopes up" and then being let down like this is quite simply not on, disproportionately so. As a result, DHL have so ruined any chance of any business from us to such an extent you would not believe. These people need to realise how important every single promise that they make is.

Update: I got excited for 20 seconds - a knock at the door this morning. I thought that maybe they had done Saturday delivery... No such luck. Just the maid for the villa. Humph.

Olympic Holidays

Can I say that? I hope so, as I am in Greece (so outside of the UK LOCOG special legislation on this I hope) and talking about the picture which is of a company called Olympic holidays. Actually I know nothing of them apart from that sign in Lindos that I passed yesterday.

I think spending this week away from London makes this an Olympic holiday doesn't it? Obviously Greece is the place for such things :-)

Anyway, looking at the usage levels (on the BT links, just to be clear) we have not had another brief spike like we did the other day, but it has been quite high during the afternoons. It is messing my "errored seconds" stats that we report as even one packet dropped in a second counts, but no, it is not bad at all. I would not be surprised to see another mad half hour at some point before it is all over, but overall it looks like we got things set up with the right levels, just.

And, just for fun, I am testing DHL's abilities to deliver to a Greek island next day... We will see.

Let us pray

They think of everything - the villa here in Greece has a small church in the garden!

If I wasn't an atheist reverend, that might be useful :-)

Even so, my suitcase had "REV.K" stencilled on it by Sandra so we could see which was mine at the airport.

New toy

I am pondering a new camera. Well, more than pondering, more sort of calling the camera shop every day :-)

I have several Canon lenses and bodies, with my current camera being a 1DsMkIII. I was shocked to realise that it is nearly 5 years old now. It is a good camera (21Mpix).

What I am after is a Canon 1Dx, which are apparently available shortly after rocking horse shit comes in to the shops. It is Canon's new flagship professional camera and I am sure they wanted it out before the 'lympics. From what I can gather, both Canon and Nikon have been struggling.

The 1Dx should be "better" in many ways, but is only 18Mpix. I say "only" when talking of such huge numbers! Much as Internet is not all about the speed, cameras are not all about the megapixels. It has a much more sensitive sensor with gapless lens array which means it should create better pictures in low light. It also has, apparently, much improved focusing, especially in low light. I really should start taking more pictures.

Anyway, bugger all UK stock out there. Canon "launched" it last October, and only now are they finally coming out. We use cameras for product shots in the office, and for marketing, and so on. Most of the kit we got was when we sponsored the Bracknell Bees, and did live photographs and video of games with our logo added. Worked well. The 1Dx does video, and we are planning some interesting "productions" for marketing shortly.

I had hoped we would get it before going on holiday so I could borrow it and try it out. I took the 1DsMkIII instead. What is making matters worse is that I now realise the 1DsMkIII has a fault. Arrrg!

Looking back, it has had it for a while, but only really obvious on bright daylight clear blue sky shots. Turns out that any fast exposure shots have a major problem where the top of the image is seriously over exposed. I can only assume it is a problem with the shutter. I wonder if the curtain is "bouncing" or something. It looks like a double exposure on the top of the shot. At 1/8000s on a clear blue sky the top of the shot is white, not blue. On longer exposures the effect is much less, which is why it has not been as obvious. I had seen the effect before and was puzzled by it, but now I am out here in the serious sunshine it is much more of a problem. To make matters worse I thought I would actually try using the f/1.2 lens I have. Using f/1.2 in sunshine and all my shots are buggered. At f/2.4 with shots down to 1/2000s it almost goes away, but at 1/8000s it is nasty. If the shutter is bouncing, that makes sense as it would be a fixed extra exposure of part of the image. Anyone else seen this on Canon cameras?

Sounds like it will have to go in for a proper service when (if) I get a new camera.

Is it just me or does even the slightest flaw in something niggle at you. This is an issue that can be fixed by simply cropping the top off the image, but it is annoying me. The camera feels so broken. Psychological, I know, but bugging me in a sort of OCD way. The temptation to have a 1Dx DHL'd to Greece is strong.

Update: More reading - yes, it is shutter bounce and can happen and will need repairing.

Update: DHL FTW

Yes, it does mean IPv6

I recently made a somewhat flippant post regarding a new code of practice on net neutrality that many ISPs have signed up to.

It is clearly intended to ensure that there is fair access to all content providers via all access providers. It is to try and avoid two (or more) tier Internet services with access providers offering premium access to selected content providers, for example. The concept is good - having an open and fair access infrastructure is good for everyone and fostering development of such service and UK industry and so on.

My take on this was somewhat tangental. Basically, I assert that it means that access providers have to provide the newer version of Internet Protocol (IPv6). Clearly this was not the intent of the code of practice, as it is, by and large, technology neutral in its wording (for good reason).

However, the various people having a go at my post have made me consider it even more.

The way things work is that content (or services) are normally provided on specific IP addresses using specific low level and high level protocols. Then, the access provider, providers end users with connectivity. That connectivity allows all of the protocols in use on the Internet at large and allows access to all of the addresses on the Internet. That way the end user can access all available content. Yes, there are caveats for blocking illegal content, and so on.

The problem is that IPv6 is not yet widely deployed by consumer ISPs, and in particular not by the signatories of the code of practice as a general service to their customers.

Now, this is making a two tier internet access! To get access to the "whole Internet" you have to go to an ISP that provides IPv6 as well as IPv4, else you are not getting the whole Internet. That is likely to be more expensive. There are technical workarounds, like creating tunnels, but that could be said for any restrictions on access. If an ISP did not allow access to a particular premium content provider, then one could go via proxies or tunnel to other points on the internet to access it. If such technical workarounds are considered valid the we don't really need the code of practice for net neutrality, do we? We can expect all end users to be geeks that can hack their way around restrictions.

Now, this is a technical issue in some ways, but even that is not really a good argument. People are saying it is costly and time consuming to change to support IPv6. All true, and if IPv6 had not been around over 15 years it would be a valid argument. Even if ISPs had only started seriously considering IPv6 when it was first realised how soon IPv4 would be exhausted then they would have usable services by now, or at least have been ready turn on IPv6 when IPv4 did run out. The large ISPs have least excuse as they have the buying power to have made IPv6 support a mandatory part of the CPE they specified long ago.

But back to the original point. ISPs have lots of technical reasons to restrict services. If an ISP restricted traffic to only certain high level protocols (e.g. HTTP) and ports and low level protocols, then they would clearly be said not to be providing access to all content and services on the Internet, as their restrictions would stop many working. It used to be common for ISPs to operate web proxies, so one could see how an ISP might ague that such restrictions are just a technical issue too.

To me, it is hard to see that failing to allow access to IPv6 is not just the same. After all, an ISP that only offered IPv6 would not be expected to claim they provide access the the whole Internet as there are sites that choose to only be accessible via IPv4. It is therefore exactly the same argument for an ISP that only offers IPv4 as there are sites that can only be accessed via IPv6.

Basically, signing this code of practice when they do not offer IPv6 was quite simply dishonest. In my opinion. Sorry guys - I know a lot of you, and work with you, but really? Don't say you will allow access to the Internet and then not provide it.

The good news is that, having signed this agreement, everyone can now put quite legitimate pressure on these ISPs to do what they agreed to do. Good luck with that, and please don't try to wind them up just for the hell of it, no matter how much fun that is, it is not really very fair :-)

Update: I am pondering setting up a brand that is offering only IPv6 connectivity. I really expect almost nobody to buy it as not very useful. But I will then have that brand sign the CoP I think.

Slow internet?

[Pauline, you can skip to the last paragraph :-)]

The good news, for A&A customers, is that we seem to be coping fairly well with the 'lympic traffic. Yesterday saw the first slow down during the day on some LNSs from around 15:30 to 16:00 with some slight signs of congestion all afternoon. This will not be ideal for our link stats, but does look like we coped quite well. I'll be interested to hear from any customers that noticed any issues.

However, it is easy to forget where we start with the broadband we have in the UK and specifically A&A. We are all used to latency in the 10ms to 20ms ranges. Yes, some are slightly higher if you are on a slow line with interleave, and obviously while filling a link it is a different matter, but none the less, pretty damn good. many customers even have consistently lower latencies these days.

What has surprised me is the Internet we have in this villa in Greece where I am staying. The villa is nice, with wifi all over the place and Ethernet sockets all over the place. But the first hop has silly latency. I am thinking it has to be some sort of mobile connectivity, but have yet to find where the utilities are and take a look.

The latency on 100 pings is like this:

100 packets transmitted, 100 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 79.712/691.432/1382.148/351.071 ms

Now, that is a pain for all sorts of reasons. For a start, much of the time, it is well over half a second, which is enough to make even simple ssh a pain, but it is horribly variable and spiky. Sometimes almost usable (80ms, as you see). I have seen over 3 seconds on occasion too. The throughput looks close to a 1Mb/s but hard to be sure. There is low packet loss (often pings show 0% as above).

I am told that this is the sort of crap that is normal for a lot of people - how does anyone live with this? Our monitoring systems at A&A do not even scale the graphs to show over 500ms and only show that for when there is a fault or a full router queue. We have raised major issues in BT where latency has risen by 50ms on lines for periods of the day. We have raised major issues that BT had to raise with router suppliers for occasional 100ms latency spikes. No idle A&A broadband line could ever look like what I have here in Greece.

Of course, latency is one of those things rarely mentioned. I am sure, if I asked, I would be told how this villa has several megabits of Internet access, and that may even be true.

I should have brought a FireBrick and worked on coding a variable latency link that has local TCP processing at each end.

Anyway, apart from that, it is hot. Seems a nice enough place. Very remote - near Lindos, a village that seems to have no Rhodes^WRoads, i.e. is totally pedestrian. Very nice meal at a local restaurant last night. And the aircon works in the Villa, which is probably more important than the Internet.