Facebook Joy (Not)

Aside

I’ve been trying to sort out and attain some Facebook joy by linking my posts etc to my account. I’ve now discovered I have 3 accounts all of which i can see but I can’t seem to get rid of two. I don’t really do Facebook and there is little joy in it.

Facebook Joy – Ads

I have tried to run ads for books particularly promoting my audio books. Meta took >$100 in fees and I received not a single sale or click in return. Apparently, I need to refine my user base on Facebook itself first. Hence my joy (not) at trying to reset my accounts.

Anyway onwards and upwards, as they say. I’ll persist and even this post is an attempt to check reposts to Facebook and other social media work. Never had the issue with Twitter – I know I’m supposed to call it X – @philip_g_henley

I’m probably doing something wrong – the question is…

Is Facebook worth the hassle?

At the moment the answer is no…

Powerwall Installed and Configured – Happy the Solar Battery Is Included

Today we had our Tesla Powerwall installed which prompted another bunch of configuration changes and application use. See Batteries. We can’t of course go off-grid. The system does let us run off backup for a few hours based on capacity and use of the >13kw/h battery

The installation by Sprit Energy lasted most of the day and included the battery itself, the backup gateway and a new earth rod. All wired into the new consumer unit and existing systems. Unfortunately a new house, and solar roof is not included with the battery,

The Complete System

Powerwall Complete

Powerwall Configuration

Simple to add to the Tesla application (Same one as the car) just the usual fiddling with the wi-fi settings.

Powerwall in the app

We now have the fun of setting up schedules, energy rates and deciding how we will charge and when. The wall allows configurable dates, times, varying rates, seasons as well as how much you want it to use.

Powerwall Installation Dates
Powerwall Time schedules

It also allows the system to use the location for storm watches should severe weather risk mains power supplies.

Time now to configure it and schedule it to work with the other components and get the apps and devices talking with each other. Looking forward to starting to repay the costs of the system as well as improving our own green credentials.

EV Tesla Road Trip and Holiday – Good and Useless Charging

We’ve just completed our first EV Tesla Road Trip and Holiday, with a trip to two main locations in Cornwall. Although we had the driving experience over a longer distance for the first time, we also combined the trip with walking some parts of the Cornish Coastal path and attending a wedding. This is not Trip Adviser….

Cape Cornwall

Overall the car was brilliant to drive. Smooth and quick. Tesla superchargers brilliant. Other suppliers useless! No wonder people are scared of changing. Why with ubiquitous contactless charging do we need a different app for every type of charger? We don’t but the EV charging industry seems to think we do. Maybe it has something to do with money……

EV Tesla Road Trip – The Journey West

Preparation for the trip started by making sure that charging the car was satisfactory. This was via our mains charger as installation of the Zappi wasn’t due until we got back. On Saturday 9th Sep we used our home solar excess power to charge up to 90% ready for departure. The car swallowed the load easily without us having to be too tidy. Including plenty of room for the dog.

On Sunday 10th we set off for the planned break in the journey at Darts Farm in Exeter. They have 4 x 220kw chargers and 8 x 150kw. Most were empty and the car. We spent 40 minutes getting 38 Kw/h and paying £12.92 for more than 200 miles additional range. The supercharger we used was so quick we hadn’t finished our lunch when we stopped it at just under 90% full.

We then drove on to the Cape Cornwall Club which also has a golf course on site. Excellent location, nice hotel with lovely food. Narrow single track roads in big new car created some scary moments – more later.

Missing Charger

Our first charging problem was immediate. The hotel stated they had an EV point. They did. unfortunately the Rolec EV was not wired in. We’d arrived on the Sunday. An electrician was due on the Monday.

EV Tesla Road Trip and Holiday - Rolec

After our walk from Cape Cornwall to Land’s End and return, sure enough the charger was working – except it wasn’t. The payment system wasn’t set up so despite plugging in we couldn’t pay or charge. Had to download the app which was for home use and installation but that was unclear. We were promised it would be set up – it wasn’t.

We needed to charge for the rest of the trips in our stay (range anxiety) and therefore, on the Tuesday, after another walk, we headed out to the Minack Theatre,

Minack Theatre

amazing place after dinner) but first there are chargers in Penzance

Penzance

Charging Verdict worse than useless….

We drove to Penzance, seeking a charger. The Wharf car park promised 8. Sure enough there were 8. The problem was they are inside a pay-and display car park. They are Swarco chargers with a proud sign stating they were paid for by public grants etc. They looked like below i.e. two chargers A and B per station:

EV Tesla Road Trip and Holiday Swarco

One bay was blocked off stating not in service. Others were empty. So far so good. We park.

Swarco

We use our Tesla supplied Cable. Lights look good. Go to pay – access denied. Check cables, connections as signs state unplug. We try again. We try 3 different chargers. Try different contact less card. No joy. No instructions on device. There is a help number. Amazingly get through. Told we needed to use Website. No link from main web site have to go to a payment one. Fill in forms. Need to set up payment card. Fill in forms. Then have to type in charge number onto form to begin charging. Charger not recognised. Different charger not recognised. Perhaps the blocked bay actually applied to all bays. Pay the £2.20 pay and display and drive to another Penzance car park which has 4 charger stations.

Oh no same type but some one is using one of those. They must be working. Try contactless. Nothing. Try web site – charger not recognised. Approach lady in EV Mini and ask how she does it. She has RFID Card from Swarco which allows contactless. Give up. Can’t magic one of those. No idea idea if they are any good, what speed the chargers do or if they would actually work at what payment rate – Utterly useless.

Tesco PodPoints

Kind EV Mini lady tells us Tesco have free charging at their superstore. OK! Only few miles off our dwindling range to get there. They are PodPoint chargers

EV Tesla Road Trip and Holiday - Pod Point

Plug-in (7kw/h same as home charger option we decided against) Get Green lights then nothing. It’s supposed to be free, but no. I must download app, register payment card and pre-load some money. Then starts charging. After getting cup of tea in closing Tesco cafe, we have recovered charge used getting to Penzance. We wait a bit longer but have a few more minutes watching range creep up. Was actually 2.7 kw/h taking 26 minutes for no cost. Almost useless. These need to be faster i.e. higher power.

We spend time calculating how much range we will use that night, following day and then to move to second accommodation location. We can do it. Stop range anxiety we have 70 miles in the tank and only need 50 for all of that and there is a Tesla super charger site on the way… Yippee!

Penzance

Meanwhile Penzance – not good enough! Having the chargers behind a barricaded pay as you go car park with high minimum charges is bad enough but for them not to be working despite advertisements and web sites stating they were is not good enough.

EV Almost Disaster

Heading back from the theatre. It’s dark. Programme in Sat Nav to take us back to hotel. In St Just (nearest village) we go off down a road following the instructions. Road changes to single tarmac. This isn’t right we say to each other but the map is showing directions. Tarmac changes to dirt track then is climbing up hill with drop on one side and hill the other before stopping with bollard blocking way. It’s late, very dark and we’re near cliffs, and we now need to turn around, retrace, and take a different correct road. Not happy. No idea why Google Maps ( the system in use Tesla Sat Nav) sent us down this road. It’s not the one we we came down before. Tense 180 point turn (Okay it was three in dark field gate entrance) Re-track route and ten minutes later we are on correct road. Anxiety for range increased but also worried about us and car on such roads. Even proper roads are very narrow and not well lit.

EV Tesla Road Trip and Holiday to Rock St Minver

Wednesday morning we set off for our Air B and B near St Minver. Ask Tesla for a car route to charger and we arrive with < 20 miles in the charge status. We use the Fibre Hub site in Camborne. Excellent. We add over 62kw/h in <45 mins. Excellent coffee shop with free high speed Wi-Fi connected broadband. Cost of charge £21.70. It’s peak morning time therefore higher priced, but only a Tesla Taxi is also using the site.

Topped up we arrive at Air BNB. Range anxiety cleared and now we have a few more days mostly walking in the area but a couple of trips out too including various coastal villages and Tintagel Castle. One day we walked 14.5 miles – another story

Trip Back Home

Our initial plan was to head back to Exeter to recharge but we decided to charge earlier at the Arundell Arms Hotel which has 8 x 150kw chargers. We topped up enough to show that we could get home with >10% to spare. This was 42kw/h and cost £15.12. We ended up with 17% to spare as the breaking system added to charging.

EV Tesla Road Trip and Holiday Totals

We used 142Kw/H from Tesla Supercharges at total cost of £49.74 plus the 2.7kw/h at £0.00 from PodPoint. (Ignoring the pre-pay we had to put on i.e. we have credit.) The car has now done 850 miles of which only 3 were pre-pick up. Tesla’s App states this has cost £72 of which £19.66 would be home solar (£3.60 from first Park Royal charge but I had 100 free miles) and therefore, most of this was free. Anyway, even if charged as per app costs per mile are 11.76p per mile. More likely they are under 10p per mile with total charging at 245kw/h or 29p per kw/h.

Solar Battery Decision Made

Aside

After more thought and planning a solar battery decision has been made. I discussed this and the various options here.

After lots of quotes and possibilities we have gone with the Tesla Powerwall

Solar Battery Decision Made Tesla Powerwall

Solar Battery Installer

We have ordered the Powerwall through Spirit Energy. We now await an installation date 6-8 weeks we’ve been advised.. (Update – 18 Sep – we have an installation date of 30 Oct and DNO permission.) (Update – 5 Oct – we have an installation date of 6 Oct)) We also have to get some extra work done with RCDs on a couple of house circuits to allow the backup capability to work for the whole house. (Update – 18 Sep – we have to have a new Consumer unit awaiting install and of course increase in costs) (Update 5 Oct – all completed) This is one of the key benefits of the Tesla – whole house backup. We won’t be off grid but hopefully a very low user. So low the daily standing charge rises for electricity (Power companies getting more money despite consumption price cap) we have seen are noticeable.

DNO

Another complication is the DNO permission. This is the Distributor Network Operator permission to install generation (the battery potentially sending power to the grid). We didn’t need DNO for our existing solar. This is a 3.5 kw/h system so doesn’t need full approval. The Powerwall can be installed at this level and software limited to 3.5 kw/h until permission comes through. (Update 5 Oct – all approved) The battery can supply 5kw/h or >16 amps which we want for EV charging. Spirit Energy blog on DNO. The battery has >13kw/h capacity or approx 4hrs of charging at pre-DNO rate.

In this case, our supplier will handle getting permission and Tesla will adjust rate after DNO comes through. As with most government things at the moment it will probably be New Year.

I’ll also add some more details to the main battery page including costs

The EV Experience and Solar – Add some batteries and a charger

Just launched a new page The EV Experience and Solar detailing my route to an Electric Vehicle, EV. We then have considerations of solar power, chargers, batteries and home wind. I’ll be updating the journey and experiences as we go along.

Tesla Blue EV Experience

The one above is not my car, wrong wheels. Nor is the one below that I photographed. It was the one that I tried to collect but mine is the same type and colour.

Tesla EV Experience

We purchased a Tesla Model Y All Wheel Drive Long Range. Not the Performance Model. The process has already not been smooth due to Tesla itself and Brent Cross Pick Up location in particular. I won’t regurgitate the pain here, please see the page.

I’ll be copying some elements to the Goodreads thread What Do You Know about Electric Vehicles

EV Experience Other Bits

I’ll also be adding details on our existing Solar system of 14 panels generating 3.6kw/h on a good day. We’re adding the Zappi charger we have chosen and our choice of battery if we decide to get one. Still trying to decide on the battery but compatibility and working applications with Solar delivery are critical. Also looking at energy suppliers who fit the combinations with variable charging. Supercharging at Tesla already done. Much cheaper than petrol!

Trying To Hack My Web Site

Attempts continue daily trying to hack my web site. On multiple occasions I have approached IP address holder via the WHOIS service to complain and received bland reassurances. An example of the recent IP address is below the table. Once a host has been established from where the hacking attempt is coming from, you then have to fill in the contact form or abuse form for the host company. A few days later you’ll get a bland reassurance back and the hacks continue sometimes from the same IP address. In the table below, I have listed some of these hacking attempts over the last month. I get 50-100 every 24 hours. I’ll probably get more now.

UPDATE

Nothing back from web sites about IP addresses and in last 48 hours 1-3 Aug 2023 I’ve logged over 500 attempts. Waste of bandwidth….

Purpose of Trying To Hack My Web Site

It’s unclear why these bots or their instigators are trying to hack my site. The site has reputational value to me, but has no e-commerce element except links to book sites. It does not hold membership lists of thousands – in fact no members with no private data, except cookie lists – see privacy policy. It may be fun but it’s just a pain and so far unsuccessful. I’m not saying what my user account name is for admin access. Nor am I giving out a password/phrase but it’s strong and then there is 2FA, Two-Factor Authentication. That means these brute force attempts get nowhere even if they did get my username and password.

It’s all a colossal waste of time and resources for all parties. Having worked in the cyber security field, I know how much effort this costs for a company and what sort of reward these criminals are after. The databases or monetary ransom from encryption, but again why my site?

Dear hackers give it a rest. Why not use your skills for the betterment of human life? Mind you with the endless efforts of Government agencies some of which have leaked into the open this is an ongoing battle. Hadn’t realised this comes 10 years after Snowden’s revelations.

Table of IP Addresses

DateIP AddressUser Account attempted
June 22, 2023 07:24152.32.189.117admin (3 lockouts)
June 22, 2023 06:12148.72.244.186phenweb (1 lockouts)
June 21, 2023 20:1445.120.69.121admin (1 lockouts)
June 21, 2023 01:232a03:b0c0:1:d0::e6c:f001phenweb (1 lockouts)
June 20, 2023 06:10148.72.214.194admin (2 lockouts)
June 19, 2023 15:3266.94.96.129admin (2 lockouts)
June 19, 2023 12:51103.179.56.32admin (2 lockouts)
June 19, 2023 06:1535.187.58.136admin (1 lockouts)
June 19, 2023 05:50134.122.123.193admin (1 lockouts)
June 18, 2023 03:502a03:b0c0:1:d0::ee2:c001wwwadmin (1 lockouts)
June 13, 2023 00:032607:f298:5:6000::cb9:8de4admin (1 lockouts)
June 09, 2023 13:222a03:b0c0:1:d0::ee2:c001admin (1 lockouts)
June 09, 2023 07:18167.99.86.104admin (1 lockouts)
June 09, 2023 03:462a00:d680:20:50::4379admin (3 lockouts)
June 07, 2023 00:405.188.62.21pghadmin (9 lockouts)
June 05, 2023 22:35150.109.148.216admin (1 lockouts)
June 05, 2023 12:13185.2.4.134wadminw (1 lockouts)
June 04, 2023 09:1346.105.29.21admin (1 lockouts)
June 03, 2023 11:352001:41d0:403:1680::admin (1 lockouts)
June 03, 2023 05:132a00:d680:20:50::f4dcadmin (2 lockouts)
June 02, 2023 00:58195.154.184.235admin (1 lockouts)
June 01, 2023 15:25157.230.249.54admin (1 lockouts)
May 25, 2023 20:5147.111.116.44admin (1 lockouts)
May 25, 2023 12:442607:f298:5:6000::d15:5580admin (1 lockouts)
May 25, 2023 11:17116.109.45.9wwwadmin (1 lockouts)
May 25, 2023 05:142400:6180:0:d0::f6f:3001admin (3 lockouts)
May 24, 2023 19:1523.99.229.218admin (1 lockouts)
May 24, 2023 18:3224.199.86.99admin (1 lockouts)
May 23, 2023 01:5151.79.144.41admin (2 lockouts)
May 22, 2023 12:222001:41d0:403:1680::wadminw (1 lockouts)

WHOIS Trying to Hack My Web Site

Whois IP 152.32.189.117

The IP is registered to Hong Kong and UCloud. They have an abuse email hegui@ucloud.cn. I won’t hold out any hope of a response but I’ve tried.

% [whois.apnic.net]
% Whois data copyright terms    http://www.apnic.net/db/dbcopyright.html
% Information related to '152.32.128.0 - 152.32.255.255'
% Abuse contact for '152.32.128.0 - 152.32.255.255' is '@ucloud.cn'
inetnum:        152.32.128.0 - 152.32.255.255
netname:        UCLOUD-HK
descr:          UCLOUD INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (HK) LIMITED
country:        HK
org:            ORG-UITL1-AP
admin-c:        UITH2-AP
tech-c:         UITH2-AP
abuse-c:        AU164-AP
status:         ALLOCATED PORTABLE
remarks:        --------------------------------------------------------
remarks:        To report network abuse, please contact mnt-irt
remarks:        For troubleshooting, please contact tech-c and admin-c
remarks:        Report invalid contact via www.apnic.net/invalidcontact
remarks:        --------------------------------------------------------
mnt-by:         APNIC-HM
mnt-lower:      MAINT-UCLOUD-HK
mnt-routes:     MAINT-UCLOUD-HK
mnt-irt:        IRT-UCLOUD-HK
last-modified:  2022-05-16T03:40:43Z
source:         APNIC
irt:            IRT-UCLOUD-HK
address:        FLAT/RM 603 6/F, LAWS COMMERCIAL PLAZA, 788 CHEUNG SHA WAN ROAD, KL,, Hong Kong
e-mail:         @ucloud.cn
abuse-mailbox:  @ucloud.cn
admin-c:        UITH2-AP
tech-c:         UITH2-AP
auth:           # Filtered
remarks:        @ucloud.cn was validated on 2022-12-29
remarks:        @ucloud.cn was validated on 2022-12-30
mnt-by:         MAINT-UCLOUD-HK
last-modified:  2022-12-30T07:26:18Z
source:         APNIC
organisation:   ORG-UITL1-AP
org-name:       UCLOUD INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (HK) LIMITED
country:        HK
address:        FLAT/RM 603 6/F
address:        LAWS COMMERCIAL PLAZA
address:        788 CHEUNG SHA WAN ROAD, KL,
phone:          +86-18221224857
e-mail:         @ucloud.cn
mnt-ref:        APNIC-HM
mnt-by:         APNIC-HM
last-modified:  2019-12-10T12:58:29Z
source:         APNIC
role:           ABUSE UCLOUDHK
address:        FLAT/RM 603 6/F, LAWS COMMERCIAL PLAZA, 788 CHEUNG SHA WAN ROAD, KL,, Hong Kong
country:        ZZ
phone:          +000000000
e-mail:         @ucloud.cn
admin-c:        UITH2-AP
tech-c:         UITH2-AP
nic-hdl:        AU164-AP
remarks:        Generated from irt object IRT-UCLOUD-HK
remarks:        @ucloud.cn was validated on 2022-12-29
remarks:        @ucloud.cn was validated on 2022-12-30
abuse-mailbox:  @ucloud.cn
mnt-by:         APNIC-ABUSE