Bend in the Weather (Entries tagged as apps)

When customer profiling and targeted advertising goes wrong

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 10:10:00 +1000

Don't get me wrong... I love a bargain as much as the next guy or girl.

What I don't like however is when a computer system is implemented with little regard and isn't actively checked by a human.
It's one way to make your company look like a jack-ass.

Sorry Woolworths - you've landed yourself in such a category.

Most Australian supermarket shoppers are aware of the fuel discounts offered by Coles and Woolworths, which can slice anything from $0.03 - $0.20 per litre of the cost of your fuel. Something that's always welcome by motorists.

It's the only reason I have an everyday rewards card. Fuel discounts add up over time, even more so for myself, as I drive with LPG the majority of the time, so $0.20 off per litre on LPG is quite substantial.

During the months of April and May Woolies decided that for 8 weeks straight I would like to buy wine. I'm not talking 1 bottle either. Most 'deals' require a purchase of 6 or more bottles in a given purchase.

A sample of the Email contents is included below:

To be honest, I love a good drop of red. Probably more so than the average punter. (We normally have a few dozen on hand in the house). At the end of March I had let our stocks go down over a period of time so had restocked. This seems to have triggered their rewards system to pester me for the next 8 weeks straight. No fuel offers (which was the main selling point of the card), nor any other offer... just grog.

At 6 bottles minimum per Email over 8 weeks, anyone reading my Email from Woolworths, would think I'm an alcoholic!

The crazy thing... It backfired.
I didn't buy any wine during that period. (As I had just restocked my levels.) This form of marketing happens 'after the fact', and as such it fails. If I have already made a bulk purchase, why would I wish to repeat it shortly after, and every week for a period of 8 weeks?

Woolworths reward system needs looking at. (As does Coles for that matter). It would be more beneficial to flag such bulk purchases of your customers, then look at sending it out 'specials' say every 3,6 or 12 months... you're likely to have a bigger uptake. I can't see my car dealership sending out a "buy a brand new car" Emails if I had just taken delivery of a new vehicle.

Certainly for everyday staples, it would be nice to have these filter through regularly. However don't see these, like 25% off either Meat, Fruit or Vegies for a week. It seems to be items like Coca-Cola, Alcohol and other non-essentials. I'm not surprised though... the supermarkets know we need staples.. and are trying to increase our trolley sizes by teasing us into buying these non-basic item.

Certainly I do hope that Woolworths and Coles both learn that their average shopper has the intelligence above that of a broken trolley wheel, as the current marketing strategies to date are quite insulting.

Innocent Farmville hostage.

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:23:00 +1100

It would appear that even whilst I don't use either Twitter or Facebook -- I happen to be held hostage often to Farmville.

I have elected not to join either two communities for several reasons:

I seriously spend far too many hours a day on a computer (12-18 hours a day). I don't need something else to add to the hours.
I like keeping some level of personal privacy. I really don't have a need to post what I ate for breakfast, what my favourite book/movie/music/clothing is. (You really want to know my favourite music is -- follow me on last.fm). I also have a blog where I can write down my thoughts/opinions/frustrations already.
I have multiple methods to keep in touch with those I elect to already. (Email, IM, Telephone, SMS). I seriously couldn't give a flying razoo about people I went to primary/high school/Uni with. I haven't seen them for over 20 years, and I don't have the desire to kindle the relationship due to the mere fact we attended the same education institution (and for the majority of that time -- compulsory; I'm sure neither of us wanted to be there!)

Having said that -- I don't object to others that do use the services. Each to their own I say. (But don't expect me to accept invites for either -- both are duly ignored!)

Pauline is a Facebook user, she enjoys it... she catches up with a lot of old friends via it. She has put off joining Farmville for months, but finally caved to the constant barrage of invites and joined.

I now seems our daily life resolves around 'harvest time'... a classic case of seeing the Farmville Alarm come into effect. An often quoted phrase at present is

'Ohh, I have to go harvest X .... gimme 10 mins.'

This can happen at the most inconvenient times.

So at present, I feel I'm affectively a Farmville hostage. I'm wanting a virtual world-war to break out so that bombers blow up the fields. I might get a bit of normality back in my life.

Teddy bear moments

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:15:00 +1100

I think we can all attest to the phenomenon known as the Teddy Bear troubleshooting.

I think we all probably need our own Teddy Bears in each of our ~~human office box~~ cubicles or work desks.

So next time you need to do some serious troubleshooting or some heavy lifting when debugging - try pulling out the Teddy Bear.
Even better, you can hug something after it's solved!

tzdata changelog

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 08:40:00 +1100

Often changelogs have important information on why a package was updated. Other times, they are just humorous:

tzdata (2009n-0ubuntu0.9.04.1) jaunty-proposed; urgency=low

* Add argentinas-dst-2009.diff: Disable DST switch for Argentina tomorrow,
as the Argentina government decided yesterday. Careful planning is boring.
Thanks to Margarita Manterola for the patch! (LP: #453165)

-- Martin Pitt Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:22:39 +0200

Automating Software Update Downloads

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:59:00 +1000

Even as a Linux desktop user, I still have a need to run various pieces of legacy software under Windows.
Ideally, I would love to find a Linux alternative, but whilst the itch remains, I still need to scratch it.

As such, I run various Virtualbox Virtual Machines running Windows XP.

This gives me the added benefit of still being able to run my preferred operating system as my main desktop (Linux), whilst still using some legacy applications under Windows.

This is nothing new, and most people do this all the time. With most modern CPU chipsets from both AMD (AMD-V) and Intel (VT-x) providing hardware assisted virtualization solutions - it has become a simple task for many people.

One thing that has annoyed me, and any user that has ever had to reinstall a Windows machine (it happens to the best of us -- Windows often decides to eat it's own registry), is that whilst you might install straight from CD, it also means you have to then spend a good few hours applying all the service packs and then all the updates from the Microsoft website (and sit back and watch a dozen or so reboots between multiple updates). It's enough to send any sane person around the bend.

Once you've done it - you vow never to do it again, yet as Murphy would have it... it's bound to happen again. This is partly due to the fact that Windows Deteriorates over time, until one day the performance is so shoddy you can swear you saw a snail push the cursor on your screen. Once it comes to that, it's time to reinstall again.

Microsoft also recognised it's a problem, particularly in corporate environments that run many desktop PCs. As such they released WSUS. That's fine and well -- if you run a Microsoft Windows 2003/2008 Server. Unfortunately most home users don't.

Don't dispair! Some geeky German's have released a GPLv3 licensed utility that will pretty much undertake the task for you without the need for an expensive Microsoft Windows Server anywhere in sight. c't Offline Update, allows you to use either Linux or Windows to download all the updates for both Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows platforms. In addition it can handle different language versions, and even build a nice ISO off all the updates so you can take it on the road, hand it to friends, etc.

Why on earth would they code it to download the Windows Updates on Linux? Well, it makes it easier to install in a central location -- say on a Samba server so that all your desktop machines can then install the updates from a central location over your LAN. (Call it a poor man's WSUS!)

To run under Linux it couldn't be easier. Once you have downloaded c't Offline Update and extracted it... change into the sh subdirectory. It's then just a matter of running the DownloadUpdates.sh shell script with the right arguments:

$ ./DownloadUpdates.sh -help

**********************************************************
*** c't Offline Update Downloader ***
*** for Linux Systems ***
*** ***
*** http://www.heise.de/ct/projekte/offlineupdate/ ***
*** Authors: Tobias Breitling, Stefan Joehnke ***
**********************************************************

Usage: ./DownloadUpdates.sh [system] [language] [parameter]

Supported systems:
w2k, wxp, wxp-x64, w2k3, w2k3-x64, w60, w60-x64, oxp, o2k, o2k3, o2k7, all-x64, all-x86

Supported languages:
enu, deu, nld, esn, fra, ptg, ptb, ita, rus, plk, ell, csy
dan, nor, sve, fin, jpn, kor, chs, cht, hun, trk, ara, heb

Parameter:
/excludesp - do not download servicepacks
/makeiso - create ISO-Image
/dotnet - download .NET-Framework
/nocleanup - do not cleanup client directory
/proxy - define proxyserver( /proxy http://[username:password@]:)

Example: ./DownloadUpdates.sh wxp deu /dotnet /makeiso

$

c't Update also provides a simple Windows GUI to automate the task:

Tab 1: Download
Windows Updates

Tab 2: Download
Office Updates

Installing the updates on the client.
Once you've downloaded the updates and either burnt them to a CD/DVD (for easy portability) or made them available on a network share (Tip: share the sub-directory called client) Windows users can then easily apply the updates.

A user can run UpdateInstaller.exe (in the root directory of the CD or the share). The UpdateInstaller will determine what you have installed already (and grey these options out). It's then just a case of selecting the options you want.

Client Installation
of the various updates.

Now for those family members who are in dire need of a 'computer fix' and need me to reinstall Windows for them, they'll be given burnt copies of the latest ISOs, so they can in future undertake the task themselves. I would rather educate someone how to undertake the rebuild themselves for future use. (That, and I really don't have the spare time/desire to rebuild dozens of Windows machines a year! )

Finally it's also worthwhile downloading and running the free Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer which will ensure you have all the updates applied (and inform you if you are missing any). It's also a good idea to disable any non-essential services the tool recommends.

Hopefully this tip will speed up the time it takes to fully patch a Windows desktop after a reinstall.

Flash your computer BIOS now under Linux

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Sat, 09 May 2009 00:19:00 +1000

FlashROM 0.90 has been released as part of the CoreBoot project.

That means you can read, write and verify almost all common BIOS chips now under Linux!
Gone of the days of needing to boot into DOS to Flash your BIOS.

So what does this mean?

Flash a running system, without needing to reboot. The new BIOS comes effective after a reboot (you can verify it prior to bouncing it).
Flash a remote system over SSH. No physical access required.
No need for a boot floopy or bootable CD to flash a system.
More than Linux is available. It is also available under FreeBSD, DragonFly BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X, and other Unix-like OSes.

Awesome work by the CoreBoot developers, and it means we're one step closer to removing any dependency on that other OS.

OpenOffice 3.1 for Ubuntu

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Fri, 08 May 2009 01:28:00 +1000

OpenOffice 3.1 was recently released. It brings a range of new features and bugfixes.

Those of you on Ubuntu desktops who wish to upgrade can do so quite easily. It's been built for Jaunty, Intrepid and Hardy.

You can use the following apt repos to pick it up:

Jaunty:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

Intrepid:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main

Hardy:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ppa/ubuntu hardy main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ppa/ubuntu hardy main

Once that's done, just add the signing key:
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com D2BB86E0EBD0F0A43D4DB3A760D11217247D1CFF

Now it's a case of just running an update and you'll automatically be upgraded from OO.org 3.0 to OO.org 3.1.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Happy Open-Officing!

Linux Audio : Welcome to the spaghetti system

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 03:13:00 +1000

Diagram of Linux Audio

Ever wondered why PulseAudio sucks so bad?

Sick of the multiple Audio stacks in Linux? (OSS/ALSA/PulseAudio).
Ever wanted to make sense of items like JACK,ESD,aRts and NAS or just confused with either GStreamer or xine?

Here is a clever overview of the sound systems that is Linux. (click the image for a larger view)/

Linux audio like it or not is a mess. Multiple layers providing the same functionality. It's a house of cards that often falls down.
Things have been hidden well in OSS/ALSA and it's not until demanding audio like HD codecs have started to make their way across that some of these issues are starting to be uncovered (the infamous 'popping' sounds).

PulseAudio has been poking and pushing ALSA in recent times, and as a result unearthed a number of issues.

I'm hopefully eventually we'll get to a single, simple but powerful audio stack. I'm not holding my breath though.

Linux Printing - where is the fun in that

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 04:16:00 +1100

Ahh the good ol' days.

I distinctly remember the days when you would stick a printer on the network and then wrestle with the sucker getting the right settings so your printouts didn't look like Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Installing custom filters and weird control files were all the norm. Not so much now.

Thanks to Michael Fox advice, I purchased a Brother Mono Laser printer this week (that handles Duplex/Networking as well). The Brother HL-5250DN works 100% under Linux and just required installing the PPDs off LinuxPrinting.org (though it was working fine prior to that just via CUPS and the included driver). What's even more surprising is that they have a Linux section on the Brother website.

I had the printer uninstalled from the box, read the 'setup instructions' included (plug this, remove that, etc), and had it printing duplex in < 10 minutes!

Before Michael's advice -- I had avoided Brother printers -- mainly due to having a PoS Brother plain-paper Fax machine. It seems their printers are much better than their Faxes.

So a big thanks to Michael.

So I ask Linux developers... stop making it so easy to install hardware. Otherwise everyone will be running Linux before too long!

Now -- I only need a bookcase in my office, and I've completed my new office setup!

Internet Usage Monitoring - conky style!

mbottrell@gmail.com (Matt) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:18:00 +1100

In Australia Internet users are limited to the amount they may download. Each Internet Service plan normally involves a speed and download limit. Failing to keep an eye on this and exceed your limit normally effects the user in question either by:

Paying exorbitant excess fees that can be as much as $150/GB!
Being 'throttled' by your ISP, in effect turning your lovely xDSL/Cable connection into something slower than dial-up.

As you can image, most people wish to avoid these. As a result ISPs provide a usage meter normally on their site, however you have to remember to view it, which unless you're diligent in doing so, you can still run over your quota.

Previously I've relied on the fabulous Firefox extension NetUsage, however this meant you had to have a browser open. This isn't always the case, and I found it frustrating to have to load a browser just to check my usage. (I could just login to the ISP's usage meter if I had a browser open).

I've seen others produce mrtg graphs and even Cacti graphs to display their usage; however they too also rely on having a browser open.

Ideally, I want to have my usage available, when I wanted, and without loading a browser.

I use conky on my desktop to display a range of information. It seemed a logical step would be to integrate a meter into my conky setup.

As you can see from the graph in the picture to the left, it displays a raw percentage of what has been used, as well as a visual bar graph. Below that is the raw data, showing exactly how much I've downloaded (~11.5GB), what my ISP believes my quota to be (55GB in this case), and when this billing period ends (the 13^th of every month).

I can now view my current Internet usage at a glance, without the need to load any additional program.

So how did I achieve it? Like many ISPs, my ISP provides an interface to the raw data. This is used by 3^rd party utilities like NetUsage and others to parse and generate the information. Internode (my ISP) has such an interface.

A quick and dirty script and I was able to spit out the graph in a format conky liked. Whilst this works directly with Internode, similiar ISPs have such interfaces and you will be able to hack the script to suit your own environment.

Below is the simple bash shell script used to generate the data:
#!/bin/bash # Get usage information from Internode's web page. # Setup to run once every half hour. # # Set the username and password Username=INTERNODE_USERNAME Password=INTERNODE_PASSWORD # Grab the details Temp=`wget -q -O - --post-data "username=${Username}&password=${Password}" --user-agent="Conky ISP Quota Grabber 0.1" https://customer-webtools-api.internode.on.net/cgi-bin/padsl-usage` # Generate the percent used. echo $Temp|gawk '{print $1/$2*100}'> /tmp/node-graph.txt Percent=`cat /tmp/node-graph.txt` echo $(printf %.0f $Percent) > /tmp/node-percent.txt # Break up the values into their respective parts Values=($Temp) echo "Used: $(printf %.0f ${Values[0]})MB Quota: ${Values[1]}MB Period Ends: ${Values[2]}" > /tmp/node-text.txt # Time to leave. exit

Sure it's not the most secure script (It stores your username/password in plain text). For me, the script sits on my desktop machine... and is protected by file permissions. The password I use for my ISP I also don't consider highly sensative. (It's important to note that most people throw around their password in clear-text across the Internet when picking up their mail with POP3! ). It does however do the job.

The above shell script I run every 30 minutes from cron.

It is then up to your ~/.conkyrc file to display the results. Here is the snippet of the appropriate code for the ~/.conkyrc file that will do that for you:

${color orange}INTERNET USAGE ${hr 2}$color ${execi 900 cat /tmp/node-percent.txt}% ${execibar 900 cat /tmp/node-graph.txt} ${execi 900 cat /tmp/node-text.txt}

There you have it, a simple ISP usage meter sitting right on your desktop.
It's not the most elegant or complicated program, however it serves it's purpose extremely well. YMMV.