melbournesnapshots

JOTSPOT - Have you seen this?

Thanks Johnnie Moore, you have just taken me in a new direction - I'll tell you what I mean - yesterday, I was at Tony Goodson's place fixing up his wireless network configuration, eating his chocolate and watching his valiant attempts to cook for his two children (whilst his wife Annie was away on a short interstate trip). At the same time as cooking, Tony was also trying to deal with Georgia and Jay being awake! It's true that men can only do one thing at a time!! <most amusing> In spite of all this, Tony still managed to conduct a conversation with me; he kept saying this word "Wiki" which I thought was the hairy creature "Chewbakka" from Star Wars. Eventually Tony explained what a wiki was. And, when I read your weblog entry and was then directed to Stuart Henshalls weblog, it all started to fall into place for me.
I have really enjoyed writing my weblog but my interest is more related to the things I see, think and experience on the journey rather than the details of the logistics of the journey itself (If you can get my metaphor). If you read some of my weblog, they are more like short essays on places, experiences, ideas - not my day to day victories, disaters and interactions.
So, after reading Johhnie More and then being sent to Stuart Henshall, I started to search for an ASP based implementation of a Wiki that I could start to work with.
The only one I could find was JotSpot - I have requested a BETA but they are not automated and I will have to wait for a couple of days to get setup.
It looks like it will give me the outle that I personally am looking for.
Below is what i wrote to Jotspot as my reason for wanting a wiki...

I am wanting to overcome the limitation of web-logging that is related to the chronological order imposed by the web-log structure. My weblogs are ususally ideas, or "trains of thought" that I wish to come back to from time to time and amend or expand - the wiki seems far more suited to this use than the weblog.

Paper Notes to Computer - NO SCANNING

Imagine starting your day with a 120-page writing pad, clip-board and pen. Go to meetings, write notes and memos, take phone calls, create a to-do list, write a shopping list, record some ideas, draw some mind-maps etc etc. All on paper. What you have is about 10 or 15 pages of notes. At the end of the day, return to office or home, PLUG YOUR NOTEPAD INTO YOUR COMPUTER - and PRESTO, every page that you have written is transferred to your computer page-for-page in a form that can be edited, annotated, coloured, texted etc etc - GET THE PICTURE! SOUNDS TOO GOOD to be true?? (Yes, I know Tony that you can do that with a "TAblet PC" but I am talking about doing it with just a writing pad, clip-board and pen that also leaves you with an analogue representation of your notes - a peice (or is it piece) of note paper)
Well, I have just done it with my new battery operated ACECAD writing tablet - it looks and acts exactly like a clipboard. And it works really well!

I can really see this will make a difference to my ability to store and more importantly retrieve the mass of notes that I make during my work day. Pulling a tablet PC out in a client meeting is still not something that I am entirely comfortable with but this little toy is unbelievable.

WHERE DO YOU GET IT?? - Harvey Norman - for abot $169.00

telstra Sierra Air vs "3" Netconnect Card

Thanks to Tony and Cameron for their comments on the new Telstra Sierra Air Card EV-DO mobile wireless broadband.
Firstly, the following is based on my understanding of the various plans and if I am incorrect in any detail, this is only due to my own misconception.
Just to answer Cameron's question on the "roaming" costs for the 3 Net Connect card - basically, when you are out of 3's braodband 3G (UMTS) area, you can roam on GPRS and 3 charge a shade under $5 per megabyte.
The thing that really upset me was the fact that I clocked up a $400 plus bill in about 24 hours whilst staying in Sydney - no I was not in Sutherland or some other such area - this was at the WESTIN HOTEL in MArtin Place - yep, couldn't get 3's UMTS reception so I had to "roam" and at $5 per megabyte, the charges go up pretty quickly. What happened was that I could get reception intially and then after a couple of minutes, I lost the internet connection. After a call to 3, they explained that I must have been situated in a place where the UMTS and GPRS networks were of similar strength and as the modem was set to choose a network automatically, it wanted to swap between networks. 3 advised me to set the network choice to GPRS only so that the connection would remain constant and the modem would not try to swap networks.

With the Sierra Air card from Telstra, you can choose either a capped $99 per month plan for either 50 hours of connect time per month OR you can opt for a "data" capped plan and $99 will get you 200 megabytes of data per month. I opted for the "data" capped plan as I tend to leave my internet connection on for long periods of time and mostly do very light web browsing, email or weblog stuff. With the 50 hours, every time you connect to the network, ther is a 15 minute minimum usage so you could conceivably log on 200 times per month for a maximum of 15 minutes per session and whatever data throughput you achieve in each 15 minute block would be included in the capped plan. However, if you stay in 3's UMTS coverage area, the 500 megabytes for $99 is great value - just understand that the first 99 megabytes that you download will get your minthly bill up to the $99 cap value and then the next 400 megabytes in the month (excluding roaming) are "free".

1xEV-DO - Telstra Broadband

"The EMPIRE STRIKES BACK". Well, after getting hit with huge "roaming" charges on my 3 Netconnect card after my recent trips to Queensland and Sydney, I decided to brave the "elements" and return to the "inner city" Telstra Dealer with whom I spent some time a few weeks ago.
Enter the SIERRA WIRELESS AIRCARD - Telstra EV-DO mobile broadband solution. A PCMCIA card that operates on the CDMA network and appears to offer the very fastest broadband speed of any mobile solution that I have seen. There is only one catch - the coverage for the EV-DO network is VERY limited at present - basically Melbourne CBD and inner susburbs and similar coverage footprints in other capital cities. I am told the EV-DO network will be expanding rapidly. (You still have coverage outside the EV-DO network area - it just defaults to a slower and different type of wireless commmunication protocol.)

As I hinted in an earlier blog on my search for a Telstra mobile broadband solution, I was very pleased with the attention that I recived from the very customer focussed and friendly people in this shop- a Telstra Premium dealer in Smith St Collingwood.
They did not have any mobile broadband cards in stock but they agreed to call one of the other franchisees in their dealer chain and, with nothing in the deal for them (other than helping satisfy a customer), they altrusitically referred me to another dealer who had SIERRA cards in stock. Thank you for your dedication to excellent customer service!
So, I put a card on a Telstra plan, converted one of my spare GSM mobile numbers to CDMA and before you could say ZIGGY, ZIGGY, ZIGGY, I was up and running on mobile broadband courtesy of Telstra.
I will review this card in mored detail in a future post - need to get back to finishing a very big recruitment services tender - (how sick am I now - I BLOG to take a break from writing a tender - THANKS TONY!! - I owe all this to you!)

SHRED XP - Problem Solved

The problem that I encountered with Shred XP has now been resolved after being contacted personally by telephone today by Mr James Gale, the head of Gale Force Software USA. James has provided me with a key via a download link rather than by email and that key has loaded successfully.

I am still bewildered as to why all my attempts (three) to contact Gale Force via their web site feedback forms and my numerous attempts by EMAIL to;

19^th October  - support@shredxp.com
28^th October  - support@shredxp.com
28^th October  - nssupport@gale-force.com and upgrades@shredxp.com
29^th October – sales@gale-force.com

were unsuccessful (with my EMAILs to the above addresses either bouncing back or going unanswered). No doubt, the people at Gale Force will look into that issue now that I have forwarded them the copies of the EMAILS that bounced back to me.

Thanks for TUCOWS for following up my EMAIL to them seeking clarification on their knowledge of SHRED XP. TUCOWS were able to contact James Gale and let him know of my problems after I emailed them explaining my  unsuccessful attempts to contact them and my consequent concerns.

It is now obvious to me that there is some type of email problem between my email and that of SHRED XP - even tonight, five of the emails sent to an email address given to me by James Gale earlier this evening "bounced back". (Luckily James gave me two other email adresses and one of them seems to have not "bounced back".

As I have said, I have now loaded the key provided to me by Gale Force and the program SHRED XP has now accepted the key and appears to be working as expected.

I unconditionally thank and acknowledge James and Gale Force software as I can see that whilst all my numerous attempts to contact them were unsuccessful, they have acted in good faith immediately after becoming aware of my problem. 

Telstra - Get It Together!!

Very frustrated is how I feel - if you want to know why, try going to the Telstra web site to look for a mobile internet solution - simply speaking, see how hard it is to find out if Telstra offers a PCMCIA card that can be inserted into a notebook computer that will provide mobile internet connectivity at Broadband speed. Yes, they do - they have both a GPRS and a CDMA 1X offering ... and a "Sierra"? card - now try and work out how much you will pay for this service - what the coverage is, and whether the Telstra product is competitive with my beloved "3" Netconnect card. I reckon if you can navigate the Telstra web site and get all this information together, you deserve to get free Telstra mobile broadband for LIFE!!
Try and look at coverage - instead of providing graphical maps of specific states, cities or towns, you are asked to eneter a street and suburb - I could not get this function of the Telstra web site to work!

I would much prefer to have a Telstra Netconnect card - all my mobile services are Telstra - everyone knows that "Telstra has the best network" - we even know that Telstra has got a chunk of  "3" to get access to the "3" 3G network - well, where is it already.

Come on Telstra marketing people - are you all asleep - Just take a look at the "3" web-site - it is so clear, obvious and apparent what "3" offers for mobile broadband, how it works, where it works and how much it costs - "3" make it easy to buy

Another point Telstra marketing/web maintenance people... you still list the Nokia 9210i as an available mobile handset - they have not been available for about a year - but they are still listed on the Telstra web-site! Try buying one from a Telstra shop; they will all tell you that they are not available. Where is the Nokia 9500 on the web-site? - it is NOT! After returning to Melbourne two weeks ago and being greeted by ubiqutous posters at the airport for the new Nokia 9500, it seems that they are still a well hiddne secret at a retail level.

On the same subject, and, bearing in mind that my forthcoming statements are in no way a reflection on the retail outlet or the calibre of people who served me today; I spent almost two hours today in a Melbourne inner suburban Telstra shop - and, despite the best efforts of the retail staff to call the relevant customer service people in Telstra, they were completely unable to obtain (and therefore unable to provide me) clear concise information on how to subscribe to a voice and/or data plan for the new IMATE portable PC. Prima facie, it looked like the voice charges for the IMATE (CDMA) were in excess of 42cents PER 30 SECONDS!!
I could not believe the lack of clear information on this service offering and the density of the Telstra organisation   and the inability of Telstra retail staff to obtain simple mission critical information. I wanted to buy an IMATE today (they look great) but I simply could not get sufficient basic information to know how much I would be paying for the service. I have been told that I am the "ultimate consumer" - if I could not get sufficient information to buy a product and service, how will Telstra "sell" to anyone else?

Finally, the Telstra web site just looks stale, moribund and gives a sense of being out-of-date. The effectiveness of a web presence for marketing and product and service promotion is (IMHO) completely dependent on being up to date, fresh, clear, concise and accessible. Take all those words, put them in the negative and that sums up the Telstra web site in relation to mobile broadband and mobile data services.
Take a look at the "3" web site - it is clear, crisp, accessible and up-to-date - the "3" retail outlets in my opinion completely reflect the "look and feel" of their web-site and vice-a-versa - as well as being "in sync" with each other - great marketing "3" , every time I see one of your retail outlets, I just want to go in and buy something.

Telstra - you need vertical product/service marketing specialists to take a completely fresh look at your mobile data area - define your products, services, costs, coverage and then publish that information on your web site in a clear concise compelling fashion. At the same time you will need to  run extensive product and service training for your retail outlet staff. My friend Tony and I would happily volunteer to contribute to this marketing and training initiative - I would even provide the necessary consulting to Telstra at no fee and I would instead opt for a 1% share of mobile broadband revenue growth over the next two years; so confident am I that a huge impact could be made with the right marketing approach.    

The Trading Post

Congratulations to SENSIS! I had the pleasure today of going to the web-site of the Trading Post and it became immediately obvious that the new owners of the Trading Post (SENSIS), have implemented an entirely new web site for the Trading Post business. The new web-site is just fantastic. Easy to use, intutive, highly usable... it is light years ahead of the last Trading Post web site. Searching is very easy and the search results are displayed in a very easy-to-read manner. But the bottom line will be how quickly my $71.00 investment in a "for sale" advert for my G4 Powerbook returns a sale. Stay tuned... If there is anyone that is reading this web log at all, and, if any of you live in Melbourne Australia and, you happen to be looking for an "as new" Apple G4 Titanium Powerbook (550Mhz, 512 MB, CD-RW, 20GB, Airport card) then I have one for sale. (That last sentence was a boolean nightmare!). I can be contacted on email address alsinger@optusnet.com.au if you would like further information.

Ubiqutous Broadband Rules!

OK, here goes... beyond "Hello World". I have for two hours resisted the temptation to write about what happened today like a diary or journal. Whilst that may really appeal to my desire for keeping track of the events as I perceive them from day to day, I am assured that this is NOT the purpose of a weblog. I have really admired the way others have a really good whinge about the things that annoy them on their weblogs and even though I admit I actually really enjoy reading that stuff, and find myself agreeing whole-heartedly about their sentiments in many cases, I just can not bring myself to whinge, moan and passionately complain...yet - maybe I'll evolve in time...we'll see -(hang on, was that all one sentence??)
I am going to tell you about my best new thing - it is a dream come true - it is something that I have wanted for many years and I am now enjoying my very own one of these and it is completely exceeding my expectations. I am referring to my "3" Net Connect card. For those of you who may not be familiar, the "3" Net connect card is a PCMCIA wireless broadband transceiver which provides broadband access in just about everywhere that I will ever want to go - most metropolitan areas of the capital cities as well as larger populated centres as well. I was in Sydney for work for most of last week and my "3" broadband card worked perfectly and gave me 384k bandwidth wherever and whenever I wanted it - Forget Wi-FI, this service is effectively ubiqutous, very fast, reliable broadband connectivity that is so simple and so good that I am raving about it! It is based on the 3G network built by Lucent for One-Tel and which is now operated by Hutchison Tel and there is nothing else like it in Australia - WiFI, GPRS, CDMA 1x do not come close - as well as the fact that the last two mentioned services are more expensive by a factor of 10. Yes and even so, I think that the Net Connect card is very expensive - charging is based on data throughput - not time connectivity and if you are on a $150.00 per month plan (which I am not), the data cost works out at about $1.00 per megabyte. So, I would not use it at home instead of my beloved Optusnet which is also, one of the loves of my life (along with Optus cable and oyster shooters).
When you install the Net Connect card, you are provided with a CD from which you install the Mobilink software that drives the card. You initiate the Mobilink program which initialises the card and then you press "Connect" and presto, you are on-line within 5 seconds. Load email, internet browsing and I canm not tell the difference in speed between "3" Net Connect and Optusnet. Mind you, if it wasn't for the magnificent perseverance of Steve from Strathfield in the city, and the assistance of another friend, I would not have one of these devices at all. Apparently "3" have outsourced their customer service to India and the frustration in dealing with exception conditions with the "3" beauracracy is absolutely unbelievable. Their customer service model and it's implementation makes Stalin look like a sensitive new age guy. But, to be honest, I would have done almost anything to get one of these cards and I am now enjoying my new found connectivity immensely (Hey, did I just have a whinge?) Well, well, well - Also, where is the competition for "3" Azure charges a $3 or $5 "flag-fall" every time you log on to their Wifi hotspots - I would have spent a fortune using that model compared to what it cost me using "3" logging on and off all day and using a total of about 5 megs - a total cost of about $5. Where is Telstra and Optus (or anyone else for that matter) in giving "3" a run for their money? Come on guys, what are your plans for a competing product?