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Well its been a while since I’ve been on, a lot has happened in the last half year and the main thing is I’m now living in Melbourne. Having a great time here and even though I swore blind that I’d never live in the bigsmoke again, I am quite settled here. Anyway, I’ve recently acquired the new Kindle3 WiFi/3g (in Australia) and have been running that through its paces. Enjoying the time reading and having the ease to carry around a heap of books, magazines etc and download new ones on the move with the 3g (which is free with no subscriptions). Above is a basic overview of how it looks, if anyone is interested just leave a comment below and I’ll show more .. I’ve also purchased the genuine Kindle leather cover with inbuilt light which is so cool, the light runs off the battery in the kindle so no worries bout buying batteries etc. Overall a pretty good thing and now Amazon is introducing a “Premium” subscription that allows you to borrow digital books (1 a month though) amongst other things is grabbing a lot of peoples attention. They’ve released a tablet in the US that runs a modded Android with Amazon market an it is a very cool item, will keep an eye on it an would love to play with one..

Well, thats it for this post. I will be happy to do more if you ask, so go ahead and drop a comment ..

Ron B

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Competition closed
Click the pic link above to enter the Apple prize draw of an iPhone4 and iPad2. Check the details before you enter, it finishes Tuesday, 16 August 2011 at 12:00AM (AEST). Give it a go, plus check out the website deals they come up with..

Ron B.

PS. Have now relocated to Melbourne and getting things together for a facelift here. Check back in the next month for updates coming..

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Haven’t done much with the MyTab lately, but still is a bit of interest out there for it. In recent weeks it has been on special at $99 in Prepaid form (discontinued). That is quite a good deal and if you haven’t got one, why not? There is the MyTab2 on the horizon I’d say, but really for now this is still great value for money (and you don’t have to sell a kidney hehe)

Ok, I’m going to move on from the MyTab after this post as I have a few projects happening. But for those who need info, I will put down a few handy links for getting help and odd mods.

• ZTE Australian Forums, it is only accessible from Australia and you need to register with a local ISP email address.
• Whirlpool ZTE MyTab Wiki, a fair bit of mod info deep in there. Be warned it is not safe to mod your My Tab and will void warranty.

Well I’ll be around still, in a lesser capacity from now on in as I need to get out there an earn some more, I will try to answer as quickly as possible any questions but suggest the above places will usually have a solution if you read up. Thank you for visiting anyhow, if you like to support me you know to click away on the way out . I hope you’ve found what you want here and come back again to check up the latest news.

Ron B.

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“Helpline”,  what a misnomer… Ok, so I’ve been dwelling on this one for a long time and it’s only after a month of crap from Telstra that I want to vent. Now this is NOT a Telstra bash by any means, its more a general rant relating to how modern companies are treating customers through their “Support/Help” lines.

Now I’m a mild person to deal with, and will always err on the side of safe if there is a chance I could be wrong or mistaken. But I tend to get a bit upset dealing with some support people when they dumb me down. I won’t tar all staff with this rant because for all the bad ones, I’ve had plenty of positive experiences from people who obviously enjoy their jobs and are good at what they do. I will add that the support person will have rules to adhere to in a call and time limits, scripted answers, amount of assistance all factor in to the amount of help you can get.

Well, let me tell you of my recent experience and hopefully you can walk away with a bit more edge when you next dial that number. It’s started over a month ago, I wanted to transfer my Internet from my local ISP to Bigpond to take advantage of the bundle deals they offer. I will say that I view Bigpond generally as the ISP of the “Jones Family” without bagging them too much, they do supply a generally foolproof product that comes in one-size-fits-all. Now I have used them a couple of times in different forms over the many years and they ARE convenient. To cut through a very long but not boring story here is the condensed start.

1. Order Bigpond Internet connection for home. Bigpond+local ISP do not talk so 1 week promise of completion.
2. Two weeks later ring to find out that my whole conversation with the first Sales lady never happened, I’ll be fucked I wasn’t dreaming lol..
3. Attempt no.2, stalls because of some balls-up, I get no apology and fingers pointed by both parties lol.
4. Finally old ISP disconnects (they submit a disconnection note to Telstra), I ring Bigpond and am now told it’s going to be another week because they NOW send modem order to their warehouse and also book the exchange to be connected. It’s here the frustration level raises, I was certain that the guy who pulled my “codes” off the line is the same guy who will do the Bigpond “codes” the  next week and its only an order number that stops him from doing it at the same time.
5. Ok action, a few days earlier than expected I get connected and even though my modem hadn’t arrived, I’d set up my old WiFi modem up an it worked. Cool

So now I have Bigpond and relatively happy, I check my speed and am disappointed to find out that its dropped significantly. Old ISP down: 13Mbps, up: 1Mbps… Bigpond down: 6Mbps, up: 0.3Mbps. Hmmm, I wait till my Bigpond supplied gear arrives and still the same, no matter what time of day/day of week. With this information I ring up BP support tech support line, and the first person gets me to do the usual, empty cache/reset modem and tests line. He seemed quite proud of himself when he asked me to open a webpage “see its lots quicker” PMSL. ok at any speed past 1.5Mbps a general webpage will load in a blink of an eye, so measuring a pageload speed visually is fundamentally flawed. Ok I do a Speedtest.net test while he was online an informed him the EXACT same speed, he then rattles off it may be because the line is new and should “settle” down after a few days and to ring up in 48hours if its not changed. I wait. 72hours past now and yup you guessed still the same…

This is where it got interesting and where I lost my patience. Rang Bigpond “Tech Support”, Paul answers. He starts again with the modem reboot etc spiel, fuck me I’m not a twit and tell him so. He ups the ante and states that “you have adsl1″ and that I should’ve ordered ADSL2 if I wanted that sort of speed. HMMM, now I ask him where that option was when I initially ordered this, because I was of the understanding (and had it in front of me) that I would receive “the highest speed available in your area”. He continues to inform me that I needed to “upgrade” my connection and that it was my fault that it is so slow. He now changes track and starts to crap on that my “8Mbps speed is all there is available to my area”. What the hell has happened then when my old ISP (which is a Telstra Bigpond reseller) can supply me on the identical same line and equipment a speed that easily doubles what I am getting from my BP?? I ask him connection. He then tries to justify the speed as good, well charlie-brown it doesn’t cut it! My upload speed is pathetic at 0.3Mbps, thats a whole third slower. “Upload speed is irrelevant, you mainly download when viewing pages!” Ok, its here I am nearly finished but decide to inform him the benefits of uploading emails, files, photos, videos etc at a reasonably high speed (which even at 1Mbps is like watching grass grow). I think he heard it in my voice (he calls me “Sir”) and tries to offload me to Sales to discuss if I’d like to upgrade to ADSL2.

I had had enough and thanked him for NOT helping, he politely gives me the number in case I need any more help regarding tech support from this discussion (yeah buddy I did write it down). ring-ring I’m now onto sales at Bigpond, a female answers and I calmly inform her of my dilemma, she says hang on and looks into it. Comes back and tells me that ADSL2 IS available and there was no reason why it shouldn’t have been done at that time. Baffles me! She then tells me she has arranged for the exchange to be upgraded to that effect. Cool, 4days to wait (from now its 3) and I should have ADSL2 that is the fastest speed available in my area. What bothers me is that it wasn’t done in the first place, and then it was argued about so much when I did point out the shortfall. The conspiracy theory comes to mind that given a flat rate charge for data sold at a slower speed is generally cheaper, and most people will not know the difference unless they test it out and have a controlled speed history beforehand to compare to.

So here is the crux of my rant, if I was Joe Average and called this support person, I’d be at the mercy of false information and spin to the effect that I would feel silly for questioning it in the first place. When placed in this position, I’d suggest having facts in front of you and be informed so that if they try to run you in circles hoping to make you dizzy, you can stick to your guns.

You know what IS scary in this, I once had a BP tech support tell me that I needed to reformat my laptop and reinstall Windows because their Bigpond 3G wireless  stick software installation could not complete. I hung up on that advice and the next person  eventually pushed my issue to the next level of support to find out that something on their end was not registering my 3G SIM.  They are so lucky I didn’t go their initial route…

Phew, ok I feel better now hehe. I’ve got more stories that reflect the lack of support given, but won’t bore you with such waffle for now Please don’t accept shocking service, fight back and get what you paid for.

Ron B.

PS. Don’t get me started with the Automotive industry hahaha…

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Finally

News has been received of the Optus My Tab Froyo 2.2 update. It’s available on the Australian ZTE Optus website, go to the Download tab and select the My Tab 2.2 Pre-paid link to download the ZIP package that includes the ROM and instructions.

**This download is for Australian PREPAID V9 Optus MyTab only** . The postpaid version will be out later in May..

It’ll be approx 153mb in size and has to be downloaded onto a PC for installation, you will have to extract the zip package to read the enclosed instructions.

I won’t be doing an update video because I no longer have the My Tab, the instructions will be clear enough so read them twice and do it once. Make sure the MyTab is charged fully and do not touch your PC or Tab until it has finished completely. So happy updating and keep me informed of any issues

Ron B.

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Well, still waiting for news. I’m sure its getting close because the Australian ZTE website and forum has been acting strange over the last week. Assuming they are prepping themselves for the barrage of upgrade traffic on their servers, I’d say within the next month (but don’t quote me, unless it happens).

I’m afraid I may not get to do the 2.2 Upgrade Video unless I can get hold of another MyTab. So if anyone would like to have the 2.2 Froyo upgrade installed on their unrooted Optus My Tab (ZTE V9) and lives close to the Nth NSW coast, contact me. It has to be done via a Windows PC/Laptop with the necessary drivers. Keep watching for news of this release.

Ron B.

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Came across this today (April 2nd), being in Australia and a day in front I nearly was caught out as Google aren’t too afraid of introducing stuff that’s out-there. What cracked me up was the guy doing the motions hehehe… Google Motion Beta I finally clicked the link to try it on the webpage because I was sure it’d be dodgy and sure enough… Oh well you can all go back to waving at game consoles. Watch out for the day this does come real, I’m sure going to be wary of scratching my bits lol..
 

Ron B.

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Spent the day round Brisbane today, just doing the tourist thing. I love cities, always something to do or watch.

Ok my rant is nothing new but really stood out to me. Lets start with a situation last month. I went camping in a fairly busy national park and what stood out was the lack of rubbish/litter even though there were no bins. Really impressive considering the amount of people in one place.

Now, today in Brisbane with a few million people, its relatively tidy I guess. But this park about half a footy field in size, 8 bins I counted spread out evenly and mostly near the tables and chairs. Counted 7 cans/bottles/rubbish strewn randomly around and you guessed it; all within 6metres of a bin in each case. How bloody lazy are some people…. Hmmmm… BTW the bottle in the pic was binned and it really wasn’t that hard

Thats all.

Ron B.

Posted from WordPress for Android

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OMG, OMG, OMG quick someone lend me $95 so I can send to the UNAP (United Nations Assisted Program). The deal is I send them $95 to cover Fedex and they send me a ATM card with 5mil… Oh plus give them my personal details etc… It’s still an impressive email but for one major failing, I’m supposed to contact some strange little man who has a public free web-based email address hmmm

Ron B.

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RoboForm Pro
Just another update on another priceless tool that I recommend. RoboForm is a high quality, secure utility that keeps all your website logins/common form data/notes encrypted either on your machine, USB or web. It allows you to keep highly secure passwords without the risk of losing or forgetting them and entering them with the click of a button.

RoboForm2Go
My personal favourite, RoboForm2Go resides on my USB stick which I carry everywhere and simply plug into whatever machine I’m at and don’t need to worry that I’m exposing myself to keyloggers etc on others PC’s and its so portable.

Everywhere
Just recently RoboForm Everywhere is an updated licence scheme to allow a yearly subscription at a reduced price that allows you to install RoboForm on all your computers using one licence (synchs only one licensed set of data across all). This new licence comes in handy if you have a few different machines which you access daily, I would say it would be easier than carrying the USB stick across (which you still can do as well).

Everyday use
I use passwords everyday and the formfilling functions as well, the beauty for me is that I only have to remember one Master Password which allows me to access roughly 85 (at last count) strong secure passwords. It also stores my most commonly used personal data for “Website Registrations” that I encounter. For the more advanced user you can also utilise it for many other custom form filling that you come across such as job applications etc.

Where do you get it?
The software is available for download directly from the RoboForm Website and is a fully functioning free trial for 1 month, then reverts to a reduced capacity (max 10 Logins). Contact me for Licence purchases, there are quantity discounts available too. The “Everywhere” Licence which entitles you to use it on as many machines as you want is a yearly subscription, I would recommend you trial the USB and Desktop versions at the same time.

There’s More
RoboForm is available for other Operating systems now, I currently use the Android one on my HTC Desire and it is excellent as it synchronises my PC’s password/data set to my phone for easy use. There are also iPhone/iPad versions plus newly released Blackberry version. I can help with installation and setup with no obligation to buy. Send me a message via the contact page above for more information.

Ron B.
Authorised RoboForm Reseller