Fubra Blog

What's next for Travel Insurance Guide?

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:06:50 BST

Hi everyone, As a follow on from Paul's blog helping you find the best Travel Insurance, I thought I would introduce myself and tell you all a bit about the work I have been doing on our newly re-launched Travel Insurance Guide.

My name's Jennie and I work on the usability and content side of things for Fubra's network of websites. Most recently I have been putting my efforts into improving the Travel Insurance Guide by coming up with new features, re-designing the layout and researching content to enhance the information we provide to visitors. One of the developers, Matt Ward, has been working on getting the new features ready and they are now live on the site! However, there are lots more to come and so I wanted to explain a bit about the work we have done so far and what's left to come!

There are a lot of comparison websites out there offering the "cheapest" holiday insurance deals, but these are not necessarily the best way to go when booking travel insurance. From personal experience I have learnt that getting the right cover for your needs, and understanding your policy is far more important. This becomes very hard for people as travel insurance policies are often long, complicated and full of hard to understand clauses that turn finding a policy to suit your needs into a much harder job than it needs to be. For this reason I have tried to concentrate on giving visitors an easy to navigate website, which is jam-packed with content relevant to them, written in an easy to understand way and explaining exactly what they need to look out for in their policy.

As well as the content on our site I have also been made a start on a policy comparision engine. This is still in the early stages of development but we have a beta version live on the front page that allows you to compare policies on price and also on what they include. It's really important to us that we show people the amount of cover different policies offer so that you get a policy that is suitable for you so if you have tried the quote form and have any feedback please get in touch.

Of course this is just the very start of the new policy comparison engine. I am now working on getting even more information gathered together about different providers and policies and visitors to the site will soon be able to compare policy prices and cover amounts offered at the same time. We will also be adding a feature that allows people to choose to exclude certain types of cover such as baggage and cancellation. This is a service that many insurance providers offer to customers in order to reduce the policy premium. Many people have baggage covered under their home insurance policy or by their credit card, so it may often be an unnecessary extra.

I also hope to offer live quotes soon and deepen the relationships with the providers we feature so help them explain their businesses and policies better on our web site so our visitors have every possible bit of information at their fingertips before they buy a policy. Once we have done this I hope to launch a special offers section which will mean visitors can find out about any offers in place and we will work with the providers to try and secure as many offers as we can.

Our aim is to provide impartial, informative and comprehensive content on our site to help people choose the right travel insurance policy for their needs. To that end we aim to cover the whole market and I am pleased to report we are now comparing over 1500 policies from 68 holiday insurance providers.

I will be writing a regular blog explaining the current projects we are working on and things in the pipeline here at Fubra. If you think my job sounds like something you would be successful at and interested in then let us know, we are always on the look out for new people to manage the development of the websites we run!

How to find a travel insurance policy

Sun, 11 May 2008 13:33:51 BST

Our developers stayed late on Friday night to get our new and improved Travel Insurance Guide launched. The aim of the site is pretty simple: to help people find the best travel insurance cover for them.

When looking for their holiday insurance, some people will just want the cheapest deal, others will want the most comprehensive cover, but most will want good value with a combination of both. Our site will help them achieve that.

To do this we knew that we needed to cover the whole market rather than aligning ourselves with a specific provider. At the time of writing, we have 68 providers featured on the site and our researchers have been busy comparing each of these to find out who offers the best price and level of cover.

Right now the site offers an editorial comparison system, a providers directory, travel insurance help and advice and a guide to policy basics. In the coming months we will also be launching a forum where users can share their tips and experiences with the rest of the world.

If you are a travel insurance company who is not featured on the site, then please get in touch.

Unattended linux installation

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:08:58 BST

If you ever had to do multiple linux installations you know how laborious it can be. At times like this you may have wondered if it would be possible to carry out a fully automatic linux installation. Fortunately it is not only possible to prepare a fully hands-off installation, but also a one that does not require any discs. You can read how to perform a network installation on Paul's blog, while in this post we will concentrate on making the installation fully automatic. Having a configuration described on Paul's blog such installation is fairly easy to set up. There are four things we will have to do:
- prepare a kickstart file
- save the kickstart file in a place accessible for the installer
- prepare an installation source
- modify the pxe config so it instructs the kernel to use the kickstart file

1. Kickstart file is a text file which contains a set of instructions/answers for the linux installer so it automatically knows the answers to all the questions normally asked during the installation process (for example, what partition the system should be installed on, what file system is to be used, what are the network settings, what packages are to be installed etc.). You can either use a special tool called Kickstart Configurator (different for every distibution) which will generate a kickstart file for you after answering a set of questions, or create it from scratch yourself. The latter allows you to become familiar with the structure of this file, as well as is the only choice if there is no Kickstart Configurator for your linux distribution. An example kickstart file (which you can use as a template) for a CentOS distribution may look like this:

# System language
lang en_GB
# Language modules to install
langsupport en_GB
# System keyboard
keyboard uk
# System mouse
mouse
# Sytem timezone
timezone Europe/London
# Root password
rootpw root-password
# Reboot after installation
reboot
# Use text mode install
text
# Install OS instead of upgrade
install
# Use Web installation
url --url http://192.168.1.2/distros/centos5.1-iso
# System bootloader configuration
bootloader --location=mbr
# Clear the Master Boot Record
zerombr yes
# Partition clearing information
clearpart --all --initlabel
# Disk partitioning information
part /boot --fstype ext3 --size 100
part / --fstype ext3 --size 1 --grow
part swap --recommended
# System authorization infomation
auth  --useshadow  --enablemd5
# Network information
network --bootproto=dhcp --device=eth1
network --bootproto=dhcp --device=eth0
# Firewall configuration
firewall --disabled
# SELinux configuration
selinux --disabled
# Do not configure XWindows
skipx
# Package install information
%packages --resolvedeps
%post

I am not going to describe each of these options separately as they are all pretty obvious and intuitive. More in detail descriptions as well as the list of all available options can be found here. In short, the above kickstart file will install CentOS from web, without XWindows system, creating 3 ext3 partitions. If you want to use this file for installing other linux distributions you need to take into account that some options may be slightly different. If this is the case you should use an appropriate Kickstart Configurator or find an example kickstart file suitable for your distribution.

2. Once we have a kickstart file we need to make it available for the installer. There are a few ways to do that. We can put the file on ftp, www or nfs server. We can even store the file directly inside the initrd.img file, so it is accessible for the installer the second the image gets expanded in the memory, although this is the most troublesome way. The most common and easiest way is to put the kickstart file on a www server.

3. Installer has to know where to obtain the packages once the installation process is started. You can choose from a few installation sources: nfs, ftp, http. Again, web installation is the most convenient option. Looking back at our kickstart config you can see that we provided a path to the centos directory:

url --url http://192.168.1.2/distros/centos5.1-iso

The directory is simply the content of a CentOS installation disc. If the only thing you have is an ISO file of the installation disc you can still make use of it by mounting the image on a desired directory. To do so you need to run the following command:

mkdir /var/www/distros/centos5.1-iso
mount -oloop,ro /path/to/centos-iso-file.iso /var/www/distros/centos5.1-iso

After that you should be able to browse the content of the image by entering the directory.

4. The last step is to modify the pxe config. Let us look at the CentOS label that we already have:

LABEL centos5.1
     KERNEL distros/centos5.1/vmlinuz
     APPEND initrd=distros/centos5.1/initrd.img ramdisk_size=6454 ip=dhcp

There are two other options that we need to append to the kernel to make it use our kickstart file. The first one is 'ks' which is a path to the kickstart file. In our case it will be:

ks=http://192.168.1.2/distros/kickstart.ks

and the other is 'ksdevice' which specifies what network interface should be used in order to retrieve the kickstart file. We may specify interface name like 'eth0' or 'eth1' however this is not a very handy solution. When you have a server with multiple interfaces you cannot be sure what interface you are actually using. Connecting network cable to the first port on your NIC does not necessarily guarantee that the kernel will recognize this interface as eth0. In such a situation the installer will not be able to retrieve your kickstart file. To avoid this, we can specify 'bootif' as the ksdevice. This will make the installer use the interface that we booted from. For this option to work, we also need to add 'IPAPPEND 2' option just above the 'APPEND' string.

To sum up, the modified label should look like this:

LABEL centos5.1
KERNEL distros/centos5.1/vmlinuz
IPAPPEND 2
APPEND initrd=distros/centos5.1/initrd.img ramdisk_size=6454 ip=dhcp nofb ksdevice=bootif ks=http://192.168.1.2/distros/kickstart.ks

One thing to note here is that the bootif option is not supported by all installers. Therefore if you are having problems with loading your kickstart file, try to specify the exact interface (bearing in mind that the first interface on your NIC does not have to be eth0 interface).

Calais Guide and the kind of calls we want!

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:50:51 BST

I have to admit that I only very rarely answer the central Fubra phone line these days. No offence to the sales people and recruitment companies out there that make up 90% of the calls we get to that number, but I just find that most of the time what they have to offer is not of interest (and we do all our recruitment in house). Whereas Brendan will happily spend half an hour winding them up before ditching the call, I'm not as cruel!

However, a few months ago, on one of the rare occasions that I did answer the phone, a lady called Sharron Livingston was calling and the conversation I then had with her has ultimately led to the development of a new network of travel sites for Fubra, starting with a guide to Calais.

Sharron is an author who specialises in a series of "Channel Hopper" guides. These pocket size books, are fact-packed, full colour guides to shopping, leisure, eating and sleeping across the Channel. However, prior to talking to us, they were only available in print form. The new joint venture will see us launching these guides on the web with Fubra providing the content management system, on-line strategy and technical expertise, and Sharron providing the text and images from her existing pocket guides.

The new guides will complement our leading travel sites, which cover everything from Airport Parking to Car Hire and even Time Zones.

Whilst we didn't make a financial investment in this new business (other than our ongoing time and resources), this is a great example of how we see Fubra working with, and investing in other companies and partnerships. If you have an idea like this, then read our Internet investments page.

A TalkOn.it Network update

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:32:37 GMT

Howdy Folks. A bit of an update for you all on the TalkOn.It Network. I'm Neil and I'm the editor of all the sporting websites we run.

First things first, I know my picture shows me with the long hair, but after intense pressure from the developers, housemates, basically 99.9% of those who know me, I cut it all off. So I now have short hair with cold shoulders and freezing ears. On to more important and interesting matters...

Since the network launched in August of last year, we have re-designed the pages. Over at our flagship site Talk Football, you can see what we are doing with regards to our front pages. We really like the new design and soon we'll be spreading that concept over all of our websites.

On Talk Football we have some absolutely barnstorming content. If you are interested in learning about the beautiful game then it is without a doubt a website for you. From help to mastering all the different football skills to reading all about the careers of famous football players, who have graced the turf at stadiums all around the world. There is something for everyone, young and old, boy or girl.

The thing is football isn't the only site we have excellent content for. If you are interested in any of the sports then I'm sure you'll find something interesting and worthwhile in our pages. Go and have a gander and see what you can find - I'm sure it would be valuable in those pub quizzes to know that Sugar Ray Robinson fought in 200 professional contests, knocking out 110 opponents!

Soon we'll be launching some of our interactive features. If you are a huge fan of any of the sports or hobbies under the TalkOn.it umbrella then we want to hear from you. We will be looking for people to help out with things such as moderating the forums and writing content. If this appeals to you then please get in touch with me via the 'contact us' link at the bottom of all the pages on the sites.

If you want to be keep up to date on all the important issues with regards to the sites, then why not sign up to receive TalkOn.it alerts, the form is on every page on the site. This'll keep you in the loop for when we launch anything new, you'll be the very first to know (well apart from the people inside this building - but you know what I mean).

Lastly if you just want to chat sport with me or have any queries regarding the sites, then just drop me an e-mail, again via the 'contact us' link on the pages. I hope you enjoy the sites and you find them useful and informative. We are putting these sites together to provide one central place where you can talk about all your favourites hobbies in one place, with one central login, to help build one big happy sporting community.

Staff Bloggers

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 08:41:38 GMT

At Fubra, I like to nag encourage our employees to have their own blog. Brendan and I are both fairly active bloggers (if 1 post a week is active?) and given the strength of opinions and ideas that our staff have on most subjects, it makes sense that they contribute at least some of these to the rest of the world via a blog.

So I am now pleased to say that no fewer than 8 of our team have a personal blog:

OK so we are not quite up with Sun's 4115 staff blogs, but we are getting there!

If I have missed anyone from Fubra who has a blog, then please let me know and I will add you to the list! Please note that the opinions expressed on these blogs are those of our employees and not necessarily those of Fubra.