Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Respect

Posted in Opinion, Technology on January 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I happen to think that UFC and boxing are barbaric sports (I use that term with reservation) and wrestling is on the margin. I’d be happy to see the first two banned permanently.

I also think that:

  • Tony Abbott being appointed as Australian Prime Minister was a tragedy;
  • The availability of guns to the general public in the US is a disgrace;
  • T20 cricket is crap;
  • Liverpool footballer, Luis Suarez is a scumbag;
  • Australian cricketer, Shane Watson is a dud;
  • etc;
  • etc.

I’m also quite happy to put my opinions out there, whether it’s through this blog, on Facebook or through Twitter. Or face to face.

Back to UFC however. I expressed my banning view on two different Facebook threads today, which originated as comments supporting the introduction of UFC in Victoria. The response was fascinatingly contrasting. In one case, there was a spirited debate about the merits of UFC, but where it was obvious that all the people contributing to the debate respected each others’ opinions. Good stuff.

In the other case, I copped some personal abuse for expressing my view. It wasn’t particularly nasty – I’m big and ugly and have certainly copped worse. Equally, when I pointed out the inappropriateness of the abuse, it was merely reiterated.

It’s an interesting contrast. We’re all different and we have different opinions. Let’s put our opinions out there as strongly as we wish, but even though we might strongly disagree with someone else’s opinion, let’s strongly respect their right to have and promote that opinion. It’s a fundamental human right.

I will certainly be trying to do that much more in the New Year. And blog lots more. And lose some weight. And………

Happy New Year everyone!

Read Full Post »

Telstra 3G v vodafone 0.3G

Posted in Technology on April 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I got my iPad2 this week – 3G + WiFi. Given it has quite an attractive 12 month plan, I went with Telstra as the 3G carrier.

This now means I have an iPad2 on Telstra and a Windows Phone 7 (supplied by work) running on vodafone.

I would have to seriously say it is like chalk and cheese. The Telstra coverage and speed is brilliant – vodafone is absolutely crap. Why anyone would seriously consider vodafone as a mobile device carrier in Australia is absolutely beyond me.

Telstra v vodafone! 3G v 0.3G!

Read Full Post »

Maybe I Feel A Bit Happier About The Internet Community

Posted in Technology, tagged , , , on August 23, 2009| 1 Comment »

I suspect that, generally speaking, we all have a reasonably tarnished view of the Internet community. As consumers, we sit on the end of our blue cable or wireless link and have very little confidence that there’s too much good on the other side.

Well I have to say my faith has been somewhat restored in the last 48 hours!

Our rumpus room computer (not my laptop thankfully) got infected by the msword98.exe virus. This is an interesting little virus that unleashes a variety of other viruses on one’s computer and proves extremely difficult to remove. Because it is relatively new, my Trend Micro anti-virus software didn’t pick it up. My research suggested that none of the products out there was able to catch and resolve it.

So firstly, a big “you are freaking arseholes” to the morons who are out there creating these viruses. I don’t kid myself into thinking that will change anything, but it makes me feel slightly better.

In my attempts to get rid of the virus, I purchased a product called STOPzilla, whose developer claimed it would. It didn’t! And it ended up costing me about $50. I typed up an e-mail requesting a refund, not in my wildest dreams expecting to have any success. Well blow me down, I had a response within 24 hours advising me I would be getting a full refund. So to is3, while I wasn’t impressed with the false claims you made about your product, I was super-impressed with your customer service. Congratulations!

Having tried a few different things unsuccessfully, I finally decided to contact Trend Micro, the supplier of my anti-virus software. Once again, I didn’t expect to have a lot of success. Here was little ol’ home user me expecting to get a response out of a large corporate software developer. Well blow me down a second time, Trend Micro was absolutely brilliant. In a very responsive manner, they took me through the process of providing them with the relevant HijackIT and scan logs and how about this – within 2 ½ hours of me providing them with the logs (at 10:30am on a Saturday morning), they had sent me a file and the instructions on how to fix the problem. The first go wasn’t a complete success, but we nailed it on the second go, with a similar response time from Trend Micro. So to Michelle “Mike” Valeroso, Elmer Ted B. de los Reyes, Jan Acerbo and the whole Trend Micro team, I say thanks. You guys rock!

Read Full Post »

Technology – I Just Love It

Posted in Red Cross, Technology, tagged , on May 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I spent a chunk of yesterday Tweeting (is that really a word now?) for Red Cross (www.twitter.com/ausredcross_em), trying to get as much information out there as I could on the Red Cross activities for the Queensland & New South Wales floods.

It got me thinking about how things have changed. I first started interacting with information technology in 1976, in my first year of a Bachelor of Science degree at University of Queensland. We were doing assignments in Fortran, coding them up on mark sense cards. Not dissimilar to the immigration cards and census forms we complete now, where one uses a pen or pencil to mark columns on the card. We had to submit the assignments overnight and if there was a single syntax error, we had to wait 24 hours before we submitted them again.

The contrast? There I was on the train going home yesterday, with my iPhone, tweeting and re-tweeting details – a mobile information centre 10 centimetres high by 5 centimetres wide utilising a mobile broadband network.

I love technology! (when it works properly)

Read Full Post »