TOCPCs – The Elite Geeks Blog

I decided that having people signing to Bigpond in the presence of cheaper or more value added alternatives was something best tackled with a display of dollar values. Instead of simply explaining what each got, repeatedly, and having information lost between individual translations, I decided it was time to put something in place which demonstrates [...]

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At last, it’s out in the open for all to see. The G9 group of companies have released their proposal for a FTTN network. The main highlights are the prices! $15 – $25 for basic telephone access. $19 – $29 for basic telephone access and a 1.5Mbps internet connection.. Currently, we pay at least 30 [...]

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I think the title of this SMH article by Matt O’Sullican is rather misleading. http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/govt-may-even-side-with-telstra/2007/05/28/1180205161253.html Our government doesn’t, and should NOT side with anyone. Our government should be simply doing exactly why they have jobs in the first place, to make the decisions that govern this country, and the priority behind those decisions being for [...]

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That’s right. I spent a fair while searching tonight, and can’t seem to get a solution for something so simple. A basic domain lookup to find if a hostname exists, and what IP it is. Anyway, after a fair bit of poking around, I realised, I already had code to manipulate the command line, so [...]

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I have noticed a lot recently that in the movies area, the quality of movies are dropping. Look at the movies from 1990 to 2004, a lot are good. Titles like: Mission Impossible Gone in 60 seconds Fast and the Furious Ice Age Shrek Scary Movie (all of them) Not Another Teen Movie Ocean’s Eleven [...]

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I was waiting yesterday for the release of the FTTN proposal from the G9, ready to tear it apart. In fact, I was waiting every day of last week to tear it apart. I’m a little disappointed they missed the initial date, I really was ready to tear it apart and see what they have [...]

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I got a system to fix today. The system came from someone else, who gave it to someone else, who gave it to me. Anyway, the description the person who handed it over to me said the owner described it as: Tried to download a modem and it wouldn’t boot. Interesting, I thought you needed [...]

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Centrelink, the nations leading (and only) Commonwealth Government family support department have yet again placed us under a review. The previous review, from the exact same department, resulted in them apologising for the error of their ways, after some 5 months of constant contact proved the decision made was incorrect. This time around, I decided [...]

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Now we are talking (trash) today decided that they would change over the poll that reflected badly against them, which they normally would run for 2 weeks, and instead, chop it short after just 1 week. The poll results confirmed to a better angle the previous polls results, which Telstra claim were rigged, don’t seem [...]

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I’m surprised that Hayley was evicted out of Big Brother tonight. She’s probably the stronger, more louder personality in the house, and could certainly have stayed on longer and kept things rocking along nicely. Andrew just doesn’t get himself in the camera as much in my opinion, and could probably have done better letting Hayley [...]

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… Is what you get with the Tomato firmware for the Linksys WRT range of routers. I have been messing around with DD-WRT trying to get it up and running in a workable state for VoIP, and my other $network->internet(); usage. Unfortunately, everywhere I turned in DD-WRT for QoS lead me to issues after my [...]

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That’s right. It’s moved data centre this time to Equnix. Now, only the stupid would ever think a mass scale move of any type would go without error. And I mean, only the completely stupid. Every time you move a complete farm of servers, SOMETHING will not go right. Ask anyone that has done it [...]

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.. Unfortunately, it seems Telstra would much rather still deny their poll results as being a accurate representation of how the community feels about Telstra and blocking high-speed broadband. In a blog post done by Rod Breum recently (but later deleted), a Telstra staff member had written: “… it shows just how well the ACCC [...]

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Now We Are Talking conducted a repeat poll, asking the question we all generally know the answer to: Who is holding back broadband investment in Australia. After an overwhelming 5,000 votes, 76% still believe, and voted, that Telstra are holding back high speed broadband for Australians. And its a fact they’ve even published in the [...]

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Before I start, Now We Are Talking have censored every post I have made in response to any other post, even when I go with a simple reply with facts, pointing out where someone else, or the editor, has got it wrong. For example, claiming the G9 would see all our infrastructure foreign owned, which [...]

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Tell me, if anyone can see a problem with the points of opinion raised in this post, let me know. Telstra’s Now We Are Talking website, seem to have silently rejected it, and rejected another one, below it, for some bizarre reason that they chose not to reply to. Oh, and also note the return [...]

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This amazing post found its way to TWAT, oops, NWAT: If the G9 get their way somehow, perhaps by the stupidity of Helen Coonan and her ilk, where will the money they get from the Australian public be offset? We have Telstra promising to invest 4 billion of its own money in infrastructure in Australia, [...]

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… I’ve done it. I’ve finally got a really, really good comment to appear on the Now We Are Talking > Broadband Australia > Discussion Forum. Basically, I was starting to reply to someone on the discussion forum that stated 1.6 milllion shareholders (greedy pigs) vote. Wow. Is that all? Cause I thought 1.6 million [...]

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Tonights Big Brother live eviction had two evictees. Evictee 1: TJ – wow she is a shocker. I’m surprised she was evicted, as I think the action (she loves action), would have added continued entertainment value to the show. However. I do not think she should have won the game, as clearly is visible, she [...]

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Since this didn’t want to make Now We Are Talking, probably because they like to censor content, as they don’t seem to believe their shareholders and website viewers are able to find fiction from fact, I will post what I want on Now We Are Talking (trash) here. It’s really poor of them to censor [...]

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There’s been some interesting developments with Telstra’s Now We Are Talking, specifically, the “opinion poll” – which doesn’t seem to be allowed to have an opinion, Telstra removing opinion polls today after surge of votes on the possible options for “Wouldn’t Know How” and “No” when viewers were asked “Have you ever rigged an online [...]

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Telstra’s recent poll has been pulled from its Now We Are Talking (trash) website, just after 2 days of progress, after a staggering 11,000+ votes, and 97% of them contain this favourite: Telstra is blocking high-speed broadband for Australians. Telstra took the poll down stating that they were hacked, and the poll was spammed, which [...]

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.. is the headlines I expect to see in the media soon. Telstra’s Now We Are Talking website is running a poll of interest. Incredible interest looking at historical polls. Keep in mind when you read the question and answers below, Telstra recently spent a lot of dollars on nationwide advertising, to attract more users [...]

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That’s right. In a drastic first for Telstra in recent times, one of its own websites now confesses: Telstra is blocking high speed broadband. See the full details on the poll on the website: http://www.nowwearetalking.com.au/Home/Default.aspx Down the corner, click Telstra, press submit, tell your friends. Here’s why Telstra’s blocking high speed broadband in Australia. They [...]

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I’m surprised at the amount of coders that simply trust the data given as “VALID”, without running any tests on it at all. Or, more to it, those that simply don’t check data completely. I was having a chat to someone today about our trivia bot, which we are converting to a perl format and [...]

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I’ve got them out, yes. They’ve sat idle on my dev server for a while. But at last, we now have OzVoIPStatus VoIP Provider Status Logos. Stick em on your blog, website, wherever you like, and show off just how reliable (or unreliable) your VoIP provider really is. More details on the OzVoIPStatus News Page. [...]

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I’ve got several machines running. And, we also have a few routers running. For example: 1. D-Link DSL-504T – This is the ADSL Modem for the network (has a buggy SNMP daemon) – It’s a great device, powered by busy box. 2. Linksys BEFSR41 – This device doesn’t work anymore. It now sits as a [...]

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Today was the day I was expecting to tear apart G9′s FTTN proposal, after reports earlier on in the week suggested it’d be released within ‘days’. I suppose days could go all the way to 365 days, but I doubt anyone would be THAT patient. I’m anxious to see the secret that lies around how [...]

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That’s right. We can all be saying that. At least, in a report provided by Australian Computer Society President, Philip Argy. Philip seems to have learnt too much from the previous saying that 640k would be all we ever need (and now we all start in the 1-2GB range, and well, he seems to take [...]

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The ACCC recently announced that they would not accept a proposal from Telstra for a wholesale access price of $82 to a monopoly Fibre-to-the-Node (FTTN) network. The G9 proposal, also being considered (and expected to be in the public domain within days) is for $15 basic telephony access, and $45 for ADSL2+ access, all up [...]

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