How to fix Google Apps - Server error
About a month ago, a mate was having issues with his webmail provider. I suggested he swap to Google Apps (free edition).
All was going well for around three weeks, then when he or any of his other users tried to login, they would be presented with this error:
Unlike our 3Bit email (Google Apps paid edition), the free edition comes with no support, so I had to figure out the solution myself - a quick search of the Google forums show this is a common issue, and no-one really had a solution that worked.
While I wish I could claim some stroke of brilliance, the answer came to me by accident.
The issue is, if you don't verify your domain name within the time frame (three weeks), it seems Google disable the administrator account for the domain, which in turn, causes issues for everyone on that domain. The ambiguous error message thrown by trying to login to the cpanel for the domain doesn't help.
To check whether your administrator account has been disabled, try logging into Google Accounts. If your account has been disabled, you will be redirected to this help page. I sent an email to Google using the link at the bottom of the page, explaining what had happened, and within an hour, the account was re-enabled, and I was able to login to Google Apps again.
I hope this helps save some hours and frustration for anyone else with this issue.
Ted Williams – the homeless man with the golden voice
I normally take little notice of viral videos, but this one is inspiring.
Ted Williams is homeless, and he stands on the side of Interstate 71 in Columbus, Ohio to beg for money, with a sign that reads:
I have a God given gift of voice, I'm an ex-radio announcer who has fallen on hard times. Please! Any help will be gratefully appreciated. Thank you and God bless you. Happy Holidays.
Being in the right place at the right time, a video of him was posted on YouTube by a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch:
Offers for employment have flooded in, Ted now has a Twitter account (@GoldenVoice614), and is being featured on news sites all around the world (more at Google News).
The link on reddit has gone mad, with 576 comments from readers offering everything from job offers, money to pay his salary and used suits.
It seems the internet can be used for good, and to give Ted a second chance.
Give alittle to Starship with Giapo
I'm a big fan of Giapo - it's an Italian gelato store based next to The Civic on Queen St in Auckland. If you use Twitter, you'll see Gianpaolo, the owner and creator of Giapo, popping up all the time as @giapo. He's a great person to sit and chat to as you devour an organic gelato.
Tis the season for giving, so Giapo is raising $4,000 for Starship, to buy them a new Mass Flow Respiratory Sensor:
The equipment that Starship would really like is Mass Flow Respiratory Sensor and so we've decided to raise the funds and give a smile to the kids at the hospital.
The Mass Flow Respiratory Sensor is a critical piece of equipment that is used in lung function testing. This kind of testing is used to diagnose and monitor children with severe and sometimes life threatening respiratory or lung disease.
Over one thousand of these tests are undertaken each year at Starship on children from all over New Zealand who have conditions such as severe asthma, cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy.
The machines will cost $4000, but with your help we're sure that it's beatable (and in time for Christmas).
Between 12noon-2pm tomorrow (Saturday 18th December), Giapo is giving 100% of his revenue to Starship, served up by various NZ celebrities, including former Breakfast show gadget guy Ben Gracewood (who has a flavour in his honour since he's a fruit cake he likes fruit mince pies):
If you're not lucky enough to live in Auckland, donate online instead. I'm heading to Giapo around lunch time, DM me on Twitter if you want to chit chat over some yummy Giapo.
Stalking with Google Latitude
You can manually set your location to any random place if you really want to mess with your friends, and in case you want the world to know exactly where you are, you can also publish a badge on your website, like the example one below:
Image courtesy of Rick Klau's blog. I'm not using the live badge from my Latitude account as I don't want sbiddle turning up at my house.You may wonder why I'm blogging about Latitude when it's not a new product. It was from seeing the badge that I wondered if Google exposed your positioning data, so you could use it in anyway you please, and it seems they do, but with a weird quirk.
If you request the data in JSON format, you get:
If you request the data in ATOM format, you get:
Everything looks fine, until you get to the last updated date. I've just updated Google Latitude on my Nokia E71, and the two different formats return different things, despite using the same data!
JSON: 1291615096 (Unix timestamp), which works out to Mon 6 Dec, 5:58 am (GMT)
ATOM: 2010-12-05T21:58:16Z, which is Sun 5 Dec, 9:58pm (GMT)
I've also noticed recently that Latitude only shows the city - about a month ago it would give you the exact address.
Not sure why Latitude reports two different things, however, their API provides a really good way to expose where you are right now, in the format that you want, to build the stalking app of your dreams.
Should we get into cloud computing?
The last week has seen a strange coincidence of me being asked numerous times from friends and clients, "we've heard of cloud computing, is it the future, and should we get into it now?" It seems a good proportion of IT providers are pushing this into market at the moment, with clients who don't really understand what it is, or why they need it. Gotta love buzzwords to sell more product and maintenance plans.
So what is cloud computing? The "cloud" is being able to access servers that are hosted for you by a third-party, allowing you to utilise them without the traditional downsides of heavily initial capital outlay for new equipment, having to replace equipment in 3-5 years, and being restricted as your business grows while your limited hardware is stretched. Cloud computing means you purchase the capacity you require now, with the ability to quickly and easily add more space and power without having to upgrade hardware. A simple analogy is outsourcing your servers (as opposed to just outsourcing your IT support).
Sitting on top of the cloud platform, is SaaS (Software-as-a-Service). Instead of purchasing a license for software which is yours forever (and is a one-off), you pay a monthly, on-going fee to utilise software, usually through your standard web browser. The benefits include access from anywhere, upgrades are handled for you, and extra users and capacity are easy to add on. The poster child for SaaS in New Zealand is Xero (they can be compared to the incumbent MYOB).
What's my recommendation?
Cloud computing is a great idea, especially for new businesses. Start up costs can be hefty, and by using the cloud more, you can concentrate on your core business, rather than having to purchase a HP or IBM server, with Windows Small Business Server, paying an IT company to setup, then monitoring it as your business grows: now it's much easy - just get BPOS (Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, or Microsoft Exchange online) or Google Hosted Apps.
Downsides? I would shy away from any online backup solutions for now as broadband caps aren't high enough, and if a computer does fail, it will take a good amount of time to bring your data back to do a restore. It'll get better, but too cost prohibitive for now.
I would also recommend that should your IT provider toss buzz words around, ask them to explain them in layman terms. A lot of the trends happening at the moment are quite simple when broken down to their fundamental parts.
Any queries or comments, please add them below in the comments section.
