Tag Archives: New Zealand Life

Life and other snippets

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Ok well I am no longer on my Slingshot soapbox now I have some measure of closure, still a very poor show that you have to wait over a month when you end a contract here in NZ and you are owed money it seems?

It also seems to be a more general issue though and includes the likes of utilities as well as telecoms. My new phone provider has just presented me with a 2 month bill after moving to my new place. Add to that I am still waiting for a first bill of my gas and electric provider since moving in on the 12th January!!

Seems to me that many businesses here in NZ just don’t have a very efficient business model, or maybe there just isn’t enough regulation of finances here?

Ah well…. sigh…..

In other news I will be driving for about five hours tomorrow to attend the Mission Estate (Winery) Concert with Rod Stewart (Up near Napier) – pretty much my one splurge for the year. Should be good weather by all accounts?

Oh and it turns out the visa portion of my Residency which expires soon is only the travel component, and therefore I am classed as a full NZ Resdient these days, just means I need a new visa should I wish to travel out of New Zealand with a wish to return any time soon.

It’s almost time…

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So my current Visa on my passport is nearly run out. I need to look at re-applying asap! Whilst my work-permit may be indefinite the Visa that allows me to travel in and out of NZ isn’t :( – Just hope this isn’t going to set me back another $4000 odd to sort out :/

In other news the Orchid I got for Rachael last Valentines Day has only just stop flowering – not bad going huh! Also for tomorrow I have booked us into a new(ish) place – The Bangalore Polo Club – I hope it turns out nice? I’ll keep you posted.

Oh yeah and Slingshot finally paid up. Nothing of an apology from them though. So that seals it for me – never again will I let them darken my doorstep, I’ll gladly pay a higher tarriff to another company that gets the idea of customer care – which when done properly becomes customer retention.

Happy New Year 2012!!

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Wow…doesn’t even seem like I’ve had a holiday. On Christmas Eve Rachael and I moved house (yes, again!) this time we intend to stay put for a little longer than 8 months hopefully. We didn’t finish moving fully until the 4th January 2012 and even as we speak I am waiting for the broadband to be reconnected!!!! (Slingshot customer servce leaves a lot to be desired).

In between all this excitement however we found some small amount of time to pop down to the South Island to stay with Rachael’s grandparents, Gay and Tony. During this time we met up with my sister who was in the area (sorry I couldn’t change all my plans to suit you) and took in my first harness race with Rachael’s grandparents (since they train harness race-horses) – they had two horses running in this race and one of them won! – “Kotare Roland” – it being my first harness race Gay and Tony were kind enough to let me come down to the winner’s circle with Rachael for a photo with the horse! Awesome!!

In other news I am back at work for the first time today, and trying not to get to stressed or swamped by anything. One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to remember that I am only human after all. We all have limits and whilst it’s healthy to push them from time to time, it’s also healthy to understand what those limits are.

The Cisco saga continues….

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The one step forwards two steps back tango is a dance I am becoming all too familiar with, as I learn more and more about the intricate nuances of PKI in relation to certain Cisco devices. I have been struggling for some time now, to get a guest nac server to support a chained publically signed certificate – it’s still ongoing with Cisco TAC, so I will refrain from jumping on any more soap-boxes until it has been resolved, so far their instructions have completely killed the SSL functionality on the box, forcing me to backtrack slightly. Then again when I am being advised by a vendor to log into the CLI and edit the ssl.conf file to get a certificate to work on the box, does fill me with some trepidation.

In other news I’m moving house again – still in the heart of Wellington City; but one step closer to the burbs :) – Rachael is currently bevering away with the rest of the family making the place good to go for move in date which will either be Christmas Eve or Boxing Day!! we know how to choose moving dates lol!

As a part of this move I was investigating moving my telecom phone-line – I filled in the online form with the details, and they emailed me back saying yeah sure we can move your line, and keep the same number – SCORE!! *BUT* it’ll cost me $132 for the privilige? This consisted of two charges, one for an engineer visit, and a connection fee… I sent an email complaining since I am an existing customer requesting a move of an existing connection why should I be paying a connection charge? Suffice to say after some haggling this will be credited back to me, and Telecom have kept me as a customer (by the skin of their teeth)…

Will update you on how the move goes closer to the time – for now I must be gone and get back to beating my head against the Cisco wall that seems to exist here in NZ….

Fast falling out with Cisco :(

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I’m not posting here to rant but it’ll sound like that anyway so here goes….

I’m after a simple nicety. A public certificate for web-authentication on a Cisco anchor controller. It shouldn’t be rocket science and yet first of all, the address I chose – 192.0.2.1 (as opposed to the poorly chosen 1.1.1.1 in Cisco documentation) is unable to be signed by Public CA’s thanks to restrictions in policy set through IANA – apparently this address can only be used in documentation.

This address is for a “virtual” interface that is never actually routed onto a real network, it’s more of a capture mechanism within the controller itself for things like DHCP and Web Authentication/Redirection.

So I have gone for the next best thing – an RFC1918 address in the 192.168.x.x space. Got it signed by a Public CA – I even managed to bind the chained, signed cert with the private key through OpenSSL (version 0.9.8 according to Cisco’s instructions – the fact I have to use a version this specific is a worry in itself) and uploaded successfully to the wireless controller – reloaded the box and this should have been it.

So why does my controller persist in telling me on wireless device(s) that the website I am connected to, does not match my certificate? ….over to you Cisco… I await your reply. Though to date my experience of trying to do guest wireless in a best practice way is being met by a rather problematic platform. I remember the day when Cisco stuff just worked – you could rely on the fact that the code on the box was design for the purpose you chose. My doubts increase with each passing day.

I’m not saying Cisco should be a Pariah, just that I am increasingly having to lean on TAC to get things done. It’s becoming more of an uphill struggle to do some of the simplest things.

Is it me? Am I becoming more of an idiot with technology?