Monthly Archives: December 2011

ABC iView and DNS

Posted on by
Reply

I fixed ABC’s iView this week. A few weeks ago I switched to a different ISP, and from that time iView was virtually unwatchable because of really low bandwith, even though I could use other video streaming sites OK. I wasn’t sure where the problem was until I eventually realised that the DNS settings on my ADSL modem/router were manually set to addresses relevant to my previous ISP. After setting DNS back to “Get Automatically From ISP”, downloads from iView were back to normal again.

Having the wrong DNS settings meant that the iView content was being streamed halfway across the world, instead of from the closest servers.

dns

[This content was originally posted to Google+]

Hirsutophobia

Posted on by
1

I’m currently disgusted by …

The Victoria police, who in some bizarre throwback to unenlightened times have decided that beards are inappropriate for police officers. I’m particularly disgusted by the Police Association’s Senior Sergeant Greg Davies who says:

“I think it’s clear policing is becoming more and more of a profession than a past time and a professional outlook and appearance is an important part of it all.”

So having a beard is unprofessional?? I can’t believe that a modern organisation can get away with such ridiculous, ignorant, prejudicial, and discriminatory hirsutophobia. What next for Victoria? Burning suspected witches at the stake?

[This content was originally posted to Google+]

Wish fulfilment

Posted on by
Reply

Nice announcement today from the Federal and NSW governments about providing better freight train infrastructure between Sydney and Newcastle. It looks like I’m having a pretty good run with getting a lot of my election wishlist filled. Still waiting for any serious movement on restricting advertising of junk food to kids though. 🙁

[This content was originally posted to Google+]

Shoe success

Posted on by
1

One of the things I hate about the commercial world’s quest for newness, is that quite often when I’ve found a product I like, the next time I go to buy it, it’s no longer available because ‘new’ (but not necessarily better) versions are available.

For the last ten years I’ve had a pair of Hi-Tec Altitude hiking boots that have been the best footwear I have ever owned. After constant use over the years I needed to replace them and so went searching for the Hi-Tec brand again, but fully expecting that I would have to navigate and decide from a new range of boots. I walked into Kangaraoo Tent city at Tuggerah today and lo and behold, there was the identical boot, in my size, sitting on the discontinued lines shelves, with a discount, in fact $20 less than I paid ten years ago. Brilliant! After a momentary panic of not being able to locate the matching right boot (it had been packed away in the wrong box) I walked out a very happy camper.

A happy shoe buying story – and for anyone that knows me, you will know that is nothing short of astonishing.

shoes

[This content was originally posted to Google+]

Fun with scammers #1

Posted on by
Reply

I got one of those scam phone calls last night from people claiming to be from an IT company supposedly ‘helping’ people to deal with malware infections on Windows computers. I had a similar call about a week ago but hung up straight away, but last night I decided to play along and see what they were going to get me to do.

The call was obviously from overseas, and the first lady I spoke to guided me through opening up the “Manage Computer” dialog and then through to the Administrative Events view where, shock, horror there were hundreds of error and warning messages. This, I was told was evidence that my computer was badly infected and in need of their assistance. (In reality, there’s a reason why these errors/warnings are hidden away in a view called Administrative Events – and that’s because ordinary users don’t need to worry about them, only system administrators. In my case most of the ‘errors’ aren’t errors at all, but just a consequence of various services not starting when my work laptop is not connected to my work network.)

Anyway, having apparently scared me into have grave doubts about the well being of my computer, the first operator then transferred me to her supervisor. This is such a well-oiled scam, with first line operators weeding out the skeptics and suspicious, before passing on likely prospects to more skilled operators who will talk you through the next phase of the scam, most likely to get you to install software or visit a web-site that will unknown to you, allow the scammer to access your computer, to then trawl for passwords, financial info etc.

Anyway at this point the dinner bell rang so I had to cut my investigation short. I kindly told the ‘supervisor’ that she ought to be ashamed of herself for taking part in a dodgy scheme that is tricking people and taking advantage of them. I said I would pray for her (which I did later), and then hung up.

So, anyone reading this, if anyone rings you up wanting to ‘assist’ you with fixing problems on your computer – just hang up, and don’t forget to pray for these people.

[This content was originally posted to Google+]