http://www.tocpcs.com Technology and Entertainment, at its finest. Sun, 16 Nov 2008 12:11:24 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I was bored tonight - and after watching videos online titled "The Crash Course" by Chris Martenson, which detail much of the problems faced by the World, with a specific focus on the US, I came to an item I can't explain. Much of the US, according to the research and ... http://www.tocpcs.com/hard-to-explain/ Currently, I'm employed with a company in a client assistance / support role. The objective of such is simple, look after customers with genuine issues, and get them resolved. I believe I do this well. I also believe I am employed in a job that is not a match for my ... http://www.tocpcs.com/asking-for-a-pay-increase/ I was working on an issue being experienced by someone remotely attached to my asterisk machine, and found an abnormality. I use a realtime implementation to allow for easy addition of users and to have the data I want in MySQL (makes it easier to monitor activity in CDR, etc). The ... http://www.tocpcs.com/asterisk-debug-gotcha/ Looking into the docs for Asterisk 1.6.0 for a solution to a NAT issue, you can find that asterisk reinvite has improved significantly in the later versions. Previously, you had to turn it off for peers stuck behind NAT, this is resolved in newer versions of Asterisk which attempt to determine ... http://www.tocpcs.com/asterisk-reinvite-improved/ Recently, I have been toying with Asterisk 1.6.0 to work in some new internal features that I want to leverage. One of the key features I took advantage of is the context option for each SIP peer. It is possible to exclude one group of users from calling another group by ... http://www.tocpcs.com/asterisk-context-control/ I heard back from the company I had applied for a new job with, and was unfortunately, unsuccessful. They had advised it was a difficult decision, and choosing between 1 of 2 people, can be difficult where no one person stands out. I understand that theory very well. It's never easy ... http://www.tocpcs.com/back-in-the-corner/ After my last post, I attended the interview, and have remained on the edge of my seat waiting for a result. Then, after a short week wait, a response. It's not a disappointing reply, but it's not successful just yet. I made the short list for the second round of interviews, which ... http://www.tocpcs.com/still-on-the-edge-of-my-seat/ I've discovered another job locally, that I think will be a bit more entertaining and interesting than my current role. There are key differences to consider however, without even thinking of the pay rates or hours. The current position: - Is a client support position, meaning I ask the same questions and advise ... http://www.tocpcs.com/work-from-home-work-away-from-home/ Recently I've put a lot of progress into completing my studies for the course I'm studying (Diploma in IT - Sys Admin). Much of the items are as I described several months ago, mindless paperwork describing something that you have done countless times already - but of course, in this day ... http://www.tocpcs.com/nearly-finished-diploma-studies/ I don't find the end of a day providing client support rewarding. It's actually quiet tiresome. It's more fun providing support than it is assisting with product selection and sales enquiries, but client support doesn't really leave one feeling the raw feeling of acheivement at the end of a day. I ... http://www.tocpcs.com/the-rewarding-feeling/ Our driveway is a place for our car to be parked. Not so. The car below, is a clear example of the same idiot who has no idea of how to park. The first failure is to park within 50cm of the kerb - he may as well as park out ... http://www.tocpcs.com/illegally-parked/ I'm currently developping an application, to allow for fast import of data, which is going to stem from a larger project to allow for better online service delivery. The accounting application used is one of the known brands of accounting applications - there's only two in Aus, and it's not MYOB. The ... http://www.tocpcs.com/developer-sdk/ First post in a while, been a bit busy and haven't actually been watching the blog or paying much attention to whirlpool in favour of following the efficiency post even further (and developing tools to make for much more efficient work). Anyway, what's happened in the broadband world? I've been able ... http://www.tocpcs.com/opel-cancelled-filtering-proceeding-stupidity-continues-to-take-hold/ I think it's something I can say is one of my qualities. I generally look at something, be it a task, be it a fridge, whatever the case, and find myself looking at whether this is the most efficient approach. I find myself looking at the things I do, and questioning ... http://www.tocpcs.com/efficiency/ As you can probably see, the last week, I haven't been able to do much in the way of posting to my blog. This is related to a new job I have taken with a prominent Australian company. I've found working there to be an absolute pleasure. The trips to Sydney this ... http://www.tocpcs.com/a-new-job-a-busy-week/ It's not actually the Australian Christianity Church Council, no, Telstra have stated that ACCC Chairman Graeme Samuel acts like god and behaves like it. I suppose they might be confusing the ACCC with the TIO, where the TIO collects fees for those who complain about services delivered, the ACCC on the ... http://www.tocpcs.com/bow-down-to-your-god-the-accc/ I recently purchased something that is intangible, and the seller used PayPal as his payment method. It wasn't anything overly expensive, but I get annoyed when someone is paid for something and they do not deliver. So, I lodged a complaint with paypal, that the seller didn't actually deliver the intangible item, ... http://www.tocpcs.com/paypal-sides-with-the-seller/ Eftel, an Australian ISP plans to roll out VDSL2+ MSANs to select exchanges. VDSL2+ doesn't really seem to have a place however for home users, because the performance from the internet isn't likely to reach the speeds capable of VDSL2+ connections. Further, worser than ADSL2+, VDSL2+ will drop speed faster than ADSL2+ ... http://www.tocpcs.com/vdsl2-how-will-it-perform/ A Buzz Broadband CEO recently stated that WiMAX was a 'disaster' and it suffered from high latency, and other issues. He also made comment over the coverage of WiMAX, saying the coverage was non existent indoor at just 2kM. Airspan, the supplier had followed up the comments made by Garth Freeman, stating ... http://www.tocpcs.com/buzz-cheap-network-performed-cheaply/ Soul Telecom seems to be suffering some form of value decline, at least on the sharemarket, where in little less than a year, they have gone from being $1, to close to $0.25, losing 75% of the share value. They recently announced they had plans to buy TPG, for around $200 ... http://www.tocpcs.com/tpg-gets-some-soul/ Telstra might find itself reducing prices for a change. The reasoning behind that is Telstra is forseeing a threat from LSS based competition, which allows others to provide ADSL2+ and VoIP services to consumers, effectively removing a good fair chunk of Telstra's retail revenue for each customer they move over, and ... http://www.tocpcs.com/reduced-adsl2-prices-for-telstra-retail/ At least, I tried to trick the new TomTom GPS Navigator we picked up today. I tried, and tried, took wrong turns and ignored every direction, waiting for it to at some point say ... I quit. But, it was too good. It was a little slow at some points to tell ... http://www.tocpcs.com/get-lost/ Should Telstra build FTTN, they insist on a return of 18% as a minimum. That's a lot of money to be forcing from consumers struggling with mortgage rises, and other factors, more so in a market where the pressures are on the price being dropped, and value for money being increased. What ... http://www.tocpcs.com/telstra-insists-on-upward-of-18-return/   That's of course the male lion at Taronga Zoo, where we decided to visit today, and take a look around at the various animals on display. The Lion in the above picture is really cool! They keep them in behind 'glass' type cages, so you can see them in full view. The ... http://www.tocpcs.com/my-pets/ Yesterday I wrote about a CommsDay article, and the subject of it was that WiMAX deployment in Hervey Bay by Buzz was miserable. We can see on Now We Are Talking, this article: http://www.nowwearetalking.com.au/Home/Page.aspx?mid=364#intNav52 Interesting to note, that no where in that article is the true text of the article mentioned, or even, ... http://www.tocpcs.com/nwat-wimax-claimed-miserable-but-cover-up-the-rest-of-the-story/ The Buzz Broadband CEO has labelled their deployment of WiMAX in the Hervey Bay region a "miserable failure". The CEO described problems which are generally common with wireless technologies in poor environments, such as packet loss, low speeds, poor signal, and high latency. The network is an Airspan supplied network, and Freeman ... http://www.tocpcs.com/wimax-buzzes-off-buzz/ Senator Conroy seems to be living up to his words. Recently he indicated he wanted network information supplied by all companies with existing networks to provide this information to prospective FTTN bidders. I'm aware of two companies directly refusing to participate in this process, no prizes for guessing who the first one ... http://www.tocpcs.com/give-us-your-network-info-or-well-force-it/ It was requested recently, that those interested, send submissions to Conroy's panel of experts on his proposed $4 billion waste of tax payer funds. FTTN isn't the way of the future. Look at the potential of returning back to a monopoly, the reduction and lack of interest in investment and competition. ... http://www.tocpcs.com/broadband-network-submissions-requested/ Just .. not as fast as trains in some cases. It's amazing that I can move 1GB 100kM faster by rail then I could the internet. Heck, it'd be quicker to deliver 2GB 100kM away, using a car then it would the internet, yet the internet would be the medium of choice ... http://www.tocpcs.com/broadband-is-very-important-as-important-as-trains/ I'm getting a new design done for Downtime Web Hosting, I think the current site that I did, whilst was intended to be a simple layout, doesn't have some of those qualities about it that 'impress' the viewer. So, I'm outsourcing that one, to see what we can get back in a ... http://www.tocpcs.com/web-design-so-difficult-to-communicate-artistic-impression/