McBlog

I’m not sure about the rest of you folks, but I certainly do seem to be spending a lot of time waiting for Google these days. I’m using their RSS Reader & doing searches, both at their home page and through the search box in my browsers. I’m also using their maps, translation system, documents and, of course, their web traffic analytics system on all of the web sites I manage.

It also seems that many of the sites I visit during the day have decided that Google’s products are pretty good and are using Google Analytics as wel as displaying adverts supplied by Google.

With so many sites & people making Google a central part of their online experience. perhaps it’s no surprise that I’m frequently seeing the phrase “waiting for google.com” in the status bar of my browsers. Given it’s all free for a non-advertiser like me (so far :), I shouldn’t be complaining about having to wait, but it seems that whenever I’m thinking “Damn, this is taking a while” I see “Waiting for google.com.”

So long as it all stays free as it currently is, I’m willing to put up with it. Certainly wouldn’t want to be paying for it, that’s for sure.

I knew we’d become domestic when we went to Bunnings for the express purpose of buying a lawn mower & some gardening gear (spade, trowel, fork, rake, etc). Despite flashbacks to my initiation into the psychedelic world of Sydney’s 1992 dance party scene and hazy recollections of nootropics, virtual reality rigs and funky/chunky graphics, the closest I got to the Lawnmower Man was that I was this guy pushing a lawnmower around the back yard.

Oh well, at least I had a stack of aviation podcasts to listen to under my tarmac worker quality hearing protection.

I’ve been willing to put up with the boring hassle of mowing the lawns, even when the spring & autumn seasons meant rain and grass growing at a rate you could watch all day without having to pretend you saw movement. Sadly, however, today took me over the edge. I’ve spent today mowing lawn, ripping out crap from flowerbeds & driveway edges and otherwise trying to make the space look acceptable. What makes it worse is that we’re moving out of here next week and all this is just to ensure that the place doesn’t look too run down/dilapidated when the contractors come through to renovate the place.

After a day of mowing, bending, ripping, carrying & dealing with pissed off insects & arachnida, I think the next gardening tool I buy will be a flame thrower. Screw this “beautiful looking garden” shit – it’s either paved or the place comes with a gardener who gets paid to make it look good while I get my weekends back.

Many years ago while I was living in Buenos Aires, I wrote a few articles for the local English language newspaper including the problems inherent in calling the Internet a “Super Highway”, a guide to safer driving in Buenos Aires and going comet chasing. I also worked on an article with a friend about mobile phones as fashion statements for Latin American mobile phone magazine.

Things went quiet for a while until I wrote a couple of articles for aviation magazines, one on the Albury Airshow in 2002 and the other on a session in a full motion 737 sim. They were both back in 2002/2003 and aside from various blog posts here or at Fly Me Friendly, I never really produced any further articles.

This all changed today when Shashank Nigam published my article on his very well read Simpliflying site. The article provides a background on the birth of Jetstar, its growth to date and how it is destined to consume more of QANTAS’ mainline routes & aircraft.

Head on over to Simpliflying and check out the article.

Thanks to Shashank for giving me the opportunity to gain further exposure to the global aviation world and helping to promote PCDU, it’s very much appreciated :)

We’re moving house again in a few weeks after only moving in here a year ago. We came here to be close to Nykolai’s new school and are only 5 minutes walk from the front gates. Sadly, the owners want to rennovate and then move in, something we weren’t aware of when we agreed to rent the place (lesson learned!)

When I was a kid, we used to move house every 3 years or so and the longest I stayed in one city was 5 years in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Then we moved to Brisbane, Australia and still wound up moving every year or two as places we rented were sold (DOH!).

I wound up staying in Brisbane for 10 years but kept shifting around even after moving out from my parents (actually, they moved out on me, but that’s another story :). Eventually I moved to Sydney and bounced from place to place there as circumstances changed.

After a few years in Sydney, I moved to Boston for work, then back to Sydney a few years later and then within 8 months was off to Buenos Aires for a couple of years, again with work. From there I wound up here in Melbourne where I’ve been living for 13 years, the longest I’ve ever stayed in one city in my life. It’s also appproaching the longest I’ve stayed in one country in my life.

The joys of having a kid and wanting to give him some stability, I guess.

Nykolai and I lived in an apartment for over 6 years and Kitt moved in with us there over 4 years ago. Now it’s time to box everything up again and move about 500m up the road to a place that’s on the other side of the school.

The house is full of boxes, things are disappearing off shelves & book cases, plans are being made, friends begged for assistance and a truck rented. With luck we’ll stay at the next place for a few years before having to move again ‘cos I for one am getting totally over this relocation thing… :)

Nykolai went on a sort of Ukranian scout camp at the Sokil eco arts retreat in the hills behind Anglesea on the Great Ocean Road. He was invited to attend by friends and spent 8 days going on multi-day mountain bike riding expeditions, bush walking and sleeping in a tent.

He got back this evening and is currently blissed out in his bed following a hot shower and a good meal. He was also very happy to be back to a “civilised” toilet :)

We’ll be hearing all the stories for the next day or so as he returns to reality, all while making the most of his Christmas and birthday presents over the next few weeks of school holidays.

Yes, it’s great to have him back.

Maria Langer, a helicopter pilot & author in Arizona, keeps a rather insightful & amusing blog where she posts her thoughts, experiences and other items she finds worthy of archiving. One of her posts commented on Christianity and, like rancid meat, it’s drawn the annoying, sickening horde of rabid Jesus-freaks in to comment.

To say it’s amusing to read the article’s comments is an understatement. For a religion that professes to be based on love, these folks are certainly destroying that brand image.

Aside from an amusing read at 03:00 in the morning after weather forced us to cancel this morning’s scheduled balloon flight, it also inspired me to make this observation:

Religion is like underwear – it says a lot about who you are, shapes your actions and can give you a comforting feeling, but if you keep showing it in public you can get a really bad name for yourself.

I wound up losing about 2 hours of my day today (yes, New Year’s Day) thanks to some problems with the latest version of the PodPress plug in. While making some changes on the Plane Crazy Down Under site, I noticed that a Plugin was ready for update. I dutifully ran the update process and upgraded to the latest PodPress version (8.8.2). All seemed OK and I went about my day.

Hah!

An hour or so later, I received an SMS from Steve, my partner in PCDU saying there was a problem with the podcast’s feed. Yup, the feed’s text was there but the mp3 files couldn’t download.

I ran the feed through the Feed Validator and it confirmed that the mp3 file had to have a full path, not a relative one. Damn – looks like the updated PodPress is to blame.

With a bit of effort I picked up the previous version of the plugin, deleted the current version from the site and loaded the previous version. NOTE: WordPress makes it easy to load updated plugins (and themes, and WordPress versions – for which we’re all extremely greatful :) but there’s no easy way to roll back to a previous version. Oh well.

Once rolled back, I then spent a while getting the FeedBurner feed sorted out (took a ping to get it to refresh) and did the same (ping) for iTunes. After that it was just a matter of “Check for Updates” on the podcast in iTunes and everything started working fine again.

Whew!

The lesson learned: Don’t upgrade to the latest version of a plugin without checking to see a) how long it’s been around and b) whether anyone’s hit any snags with it yet. Also a good idea to not upgrade when you’d rather be spending the day chilling out & relaxing :)

So, you’re pissed off about Conroy’s idiotic mandatory “Clean Feed” Internet filter and want to tell him your thoughts? Perhaps you’re angry about the shambles in Copenhagen and Australia’s bully-boy attitude to some other counries? Or heck, maybe you just want to have a c’est la vent moment against the government in general because, like some of us, you’re over all politicians and the mandarins of the civil service.

Usually I’d bang out some snide email or fax to the minister in question, often with cc’s to other ministers and the PM to boot. I’m sure many of you have done the same.

Well, guess what – while doing that may help vent some anger, it is very likely that it won’t have much impact on the idiots in question. Sad but true.

If you really want to get noticed and cause a problem, follow Bernard Keane’s guide to writing to Ministers over at Crikey. It’s so essential for everyone to read this that they didn’t put it behind the pay wall. Excellent.

So, please go and read this now, learn its simple key points and then use them in all your letter writing to the Government. It’s time to make the bastards honest and do the work we elected them for (you know, listen to the electorate, think beyond their own selves, make decisions that are for the greater good rather than the next election, etc :)

Whoever is trying to post Russian spam on the blogs I run must be a bloody idiot. Not a single posting they submit ever sees the light of day ‘cos it all gets caught by the spam-filters my sites run (or, in the case of one, generates a request to moderate as it’s not running a filter).

Most of the other spammers try to embed unique text in their “test” messages to see if they show up at some point in the future. Once they realise they’re being blocked, they tend to go away. Not so these guys.

Oh, sure, after over a month of auto-chucking messages into the black hole of our flters, they disappeared entirely for a month or so. I thought they’d finally figured it out, but no, they’re back and they’re trying it all again.

Talk about your clueless idiots. They’re not just scum of the earth spammers, they’re also stupid.

Lets face it, it’s a miracle that Telstra is still in operation. They couldn’t organise their way out of a freakin’ paper bag and have zero idea about making their customer experience worth while. The only thing they have going for them is their great mobile phone network, and even that benefit is starting to fade.

My mobile phone is with Telstra due to some work I was doing with a previous company. When I started the gig, I ported my personal number into the company’s account and had it linked to a new Blackberry. When I left, we tried to get my number back to me and give the Blackberry to another staff member. Sadly, this was not possible as Telstra claimed the phone number & Crackberry were locked together until the 18 month contract ran out.

First black mark – the number should be portable, the contract & phone can stay with the company. Whatever.

So, for another project I’m doing I’ve picked up a Telstra $10 prepaid starter kit (SIM card with associated number) because the phone’s going to be texting my phone and a number of others on the Telstra network. Telstra offer a plan with $0.01c SMS rates when sending to Telstra phones. Nice – more testing for less $$$.

OK – that’s a good thing – they get a tick for that.

Then I set up the SIM and get it started. I try to do it online (being the online kinda guy I am) but I’m registering it under my company’s name (it’s being used for a project) and the online registration wants me to enter two forms of proof that my company exists. What are the options? A fixed line phone bill and/or a rates invoice. Say what? We run a small company that has no office or fixed services or rates or anything. WTF?

Yet another black mark – I guess Telstra’s idiotic legal types have stated that all companies must have these so that’s what they’ll use to verify corporate info.

Right, so I call in and get the starter kit happening. YAY. It’s not that painful dealing with a human and I can register it under my company, just supplying both ACN & ABN (why I need both though is odd as usually the ACN is sufficient).

Half mark there – not a full mark, but OK.

Comes now the fun part – I have no credit on the phone. Say what? Where’s the $10 that comes with the pack? It’s not there. WTF?

So, I go to their Prepaid Portal to register online and check where the problem may be. Bzzzt – the registration fails, telling me there’s a problem with their systems and to come back in 24 hours.

Sorry, isn’t this a mega-corporation? Shouldn’t their systems just work? Yes, OK, I know, I’ve worked in Telstra IT before and quite frankly it’s a miracle anything works in that place.

So, major black mark on Telstra’s image as a credible organisation.

A few days later, I manage to get the registration done and can access my account, confirming that there’s no credit.

I call their voice line and, after going through a few prompts, wind up sitting on hold for 3 to 5 minutes and then get through to a human. Clearly not from around here, she is polite and trying to help. She tells me to call their number on the mobile and press 1 then 1 to activate the $10 bonus credit. Gee, that’s news – it wasn’t listed anywhere.

OK, lets do it while we’re on the phone (good thing I called on the landline, yeah? :). I call it on the mobile and follow her instructions but it doesn’t work. I talk her through what’s happening and she realises her advice isn’t correct in this case. She needs my info to look into it further. I’m part way through this when the phone call drops out. Ummm – WHAT???

Yes, that’s right – while talking to Telstra’s helpdesk somewhere in the world other than Australia, the call got dropped. Oh yes, way to go mega-comms company. I feel so much more reassured about purchasing your communications products – NOT!

So, another black mark.

I call the number again, follow the prompts, sit on hold and start talking to the person I get through to (again, not from around here). They look into everything and then tell me that all is good but I first need to purchase some credit for the account and that will activate the “bonus” $10 credit. Ummm – say what??? Where was that plastered everywhere when I purchased the kit? There is something mentioned on page 9 inside the little booklet but it says:

If you have selected a Telstra Pre-Paid offer that gives you an included bonus amount or value, remember to recharge the correct amount to get the included benefits of your offer.

Ummm, yeah, right, whatever. Slightly confusing and also written in small font. Not clear, not obvious. Good grief…

As of the moment, I’ve recharged the prepaid account but the $10 that was supposed to come with it isn’t showing. I give it a day or two and then if it’s not showing up, I’m going to get *really* angry and will call them again to complain.

All this freakin’ effort just to get a prepaid sim up and running?

Hello Telstra, you are farking clueless idiots who deserve to be broken up and made to compete on a level playing field with other telcos. With luck, you’ll finally “get it” and be able to lift your game, but it is highly likely that you will be beaten by other companies that understand quality & customer service.

As soon as my current contract is over, I’m taking my Blackberry to another provider ‘cos clearly Telstra isn’t worth supporting at all.