All Too Much (aka ATM)

I don't about you, dear reader, but is there anything more frustrating than dealing with a Telco or the bank? Which bank? Any bank!

Dear, oh dear I sometimes fear the worst when I have reason to deal with them.

This week my bank sent me a new ATM card to replace the card which expires at the end of the month. The accompanying letter instructed me to start using the new card, current PIN number and all immediately and to destroy the expiring card. No mention of 'activating' the card or some such intermediate step. It all sounded very simple. Too simple?

Yesterday morning I used the new card for the first time at my local branch.

The ATM thought momentarily before informing me the PIN was incorrect. Had I miskeyed? I tried again noting very carefully that I keyed the correct number. The ATM thought and again responded the PIN was incorrect.

I was not going to try a third time. I know from experience that a third strike means the ATM takes the card and stubbornly refuses to give it back. There was no way I wanted that happening three days out from a departure for overseas.

My local branch maintains archaic customer hours and I had to wait until opening time (9.30am) before seeking personal assistance. There was no explanation offered nor suggested for what happened.

The teller got me to reset the PIN; the same number as I was using with the previous card and that I had tried to use earlier.

The bank did confirm that 'activation' was not needed for an ATM only card but as for what went wrong when I tried to use it; I still have no idea.

Lost favourite

Whilst I was in between modems Andrew's blog disappeared from my 'frequently visited' list. Only Andrew's link disappeared, all the other 'frequently visited' links remained listed. That was strange, not the least because Andrew's blog has been top of the list virtually since the list commenced. Yet, here it was gone. Poof!

For the information of those who don't have a MacBook, the list is not compiled by me. The MacBook creates the list all by itself.

When the new modem was activated Andrew's link returned. Straight to the top of the list too. Spooky.

Here I go again....

....banging on about Telstra.

Why am I whipping my least favourite corporate organisation, so called service provider, yet again only days since this?

I could blame Andrew because it was his comment that made me think I should update my modem but that would be unfair. The fact is his suggestion was timely and relevant but as always in my experience obtaining a service from that communication beast is excruciating.

In brief, I phoned Telstra to enquire about obtaining a new modem and was told I had to contact a Telstra store directly. I visited a Telstra store and was told I had to order a modem by phone. The man in the store with the 'triage tablet' in hand gave me the number to ring. Returning home I rang that number three times only to hear 'your call cannot be connected'. I rang the general enquiry line and finally spoke to someone who took my order and promised a new modem would be delivered within five days.

A modem was delivered after two days - yay, a tick for Telstra - and I connected it relatively quickly. Then I tried to activate the modem but the relevant screen simply would not accept my request. Back to the telephone enquiry line and after some to-ing and fro-ing I was informed that a code called the mac number had to be registered and this would take about 24 hours to achieve. Don't ask me why, I just don't understand.

And now, after 36 hours with no internet access, I am connected again.

Now to see how this modem performs.

Dear Mr Telstra

You make me dislike you.......



This morning for the third day in succession I had to reboot my internet connection by the high tech method of removing the plug from the power point, turning the power point off, counting to thirty, reinserting the plug and switching the power on again.

It's no big deal I know and it doesn't take long in the grand measure of time that is my life but, oh boy, it does become an irritant. Maybe it isn't even your fault, Mr Telstra, but after all, you are my internet provider so please keep providing the service I pay a small fortune to receive.

Climbing the mountain

It took me enough hours to download and install Apple's new Yosemite operating system to my MacBook so I knew what I was in for when I volunteered today to take Ae's MacBook home to update hers.

Ae's prepaid internet connection simply doesn't have enough capacity for the required amount of download to be handled speedily and I knew that Ae would panic at the apparent lack of progress if left to monitor the download herself.

As it turned out I was 4/5 of the way through the download to her MacBook when my internet connection dropped out and when I got it going again the download restarted from the beginning. Four hours after I started and with much relief the download and installation finally were accomplished.

Laptop crackpot

(from Dave Does The Blog)

How I feel this evening.

I spent the best part of four hours this afternoon assisting a friend to obtain satisfaction from the Dell support service. To put it bluntly her Dell laptop was 'cactus'. My friend could neither shut the laptop down nor restart it effectively nor could she access the internet or email even though the modem and the wireless connection were working.

No doubt my friend must take some of the blame as she unknowingly clogged the laptop with all manner of useless and possibly dangerous files but I have to say I wouldn't take possession of a Dell product even if it was offered to me for free on the evidence of her experiences. It didn't help that my friend took advice dispensed on ABC local radio last week to safeguard the security of her data - advice that she didn't really understand - and pressed four buttons which supposedly would permanently delete some unwanted documents but which instead seems to freeze everything.

To top off my frustrations I came home to find that Tradies, about to perform major maintenance on my apartment building, have dumped their heavy equipment in front of my garage without giving me any notice and completely blocked my access to it.

On the bright side though, my friend's laptop is now working again (but I no longer care).

By online, buy often etc

There is a lot of discussion about online shopping versus in person shopping at retail outlets. Are shops and stores suffering because of an inability to match online prices; should the Goods and Services Tax apply online and if so at what level?

I've been shopping online for ages. That is; if you regard using my computer for theatre bookings, flight bookings, hotel reservations, car hire, travel insurance as online shopping. Even more so if you take into account online banking and payment of bills as online shopping. But I don't think that is what most people consider to be 'shopping'. I imagine most people think of online shopping as something you purchase online that has to be delivered to you.

I dipped my first toe in the water of online shopping about ten days ago. It has not gone well.

I tried on a pair of jeans at a store, found they fit well and that I liked them and decided I wanted to purchase multiple pairs. Unfortunately the store only had one pair in my size and two other stores in the same chain had none.

I went online to locate other stores in the chain that I could visit and found the jeans, in my size, available for purchase online. Not only available for purchase online but available for purchase $30 cheaper than the pair I purchased in the store.

Well, I thought, what better opportunity to start online shopping than this? I ordered and paid for the jeans online. I received an immediate email confirming the purchase and informing me I would be notified of the progress of the delivery of my purchase to my home. How wonderful!

True to the promise, two emails followed 'tracking' the delivery. Terrific, I thought.

Then something strange. A third email. My purchase had been delivered. But it hadn't. Not to me anyway. It was signed for by someone at Alexandria. I don't live at Alexandria. The delivery address was not Alexandria.

Now I'm in a formal complaints process with Australia Post to ascertain, who in Alexandria has taken delivery of my purchase, why they have done so and how do I get my purchase delivered to me.

Cookies are bad for you

I was online researching for travel insurance. We are going on a cruise next month around New Zealand. Most times in the past I have not bothered about travel insurance gambling that nothing would go wrong requiring me to spend money of any significance but as you get older you have that realisation that....well....insurance might be...helpful.

I decided to go with my health fund provider. This involved scrolling through screen after screen providing personal information, health information (don't they already know that from my health claims?), selecting a level of insurance, agreeing to terms and conditions, attesting to the truthfulness and completeness of the information I provided and finally (crucially) my credit card details for payment.

'Wait thirty seconds and don't leave this screen' I was instructed. I did (wait) and I didn't (leave the screen). So what happened then? A message appeared asking me to ask my browser to allow cookies. My purchase couldn't proceed otherwise. And as it turns out it couldn't proceed either. That is, allowing the cookies wiped everything I had done to that point anyway and I had to go back to the beginning.

Couldn't the site have warned at the outset, 'allow cookies'? Why wait to the very last step?

Cookies are bad for you; whether you have them, or not.

iBought it

Apple Store, Bondi Junction

The Apple Store was still heaving yesterday afternoon when I got to it after my shift at the hospital. It was the first day of sales of the new iPad Air and I purchased one to replace my iPad2. My preferred colour had sold out in the morning but otherwise I was able to get the model I wanted.

Same size screen as but smaller than my previous iPad and noticeably lighter I am very happy with my purchase. i watched the hour long iView replay of this week's episode the ABC's Redfern Now on it last night holding the iPad the entire time and my hands never tired.

I'm going to enjoy using it.

Email down....email down......

I came home this afternoon to find myself unable to connect to my main email account.

This is the account that was sort of hacked into, or at least hijacked by, a fashionable French shoe company to spruik its wares overseas.

My initial reaction was this is all the fault of my dreaded internet provider. I always think the worst of them because I have such a long history with them of botched and unsatisfactory service. It was only a few days ago my password was changed to rid myself of the shoe company, a simple task which my provider managed to turn into a disaster with all my email accounts crashing.

After trying to get into my main account four times without success I rang the provider to be greeted with a recorded message. The service was down at their end and not just a problem for me. This was something the recorded female voice assured me that she had 'just been informed about' and she continued to tell me that she had 'just been informed' about it for the following four hours as I rang for updates.

I am relieved that the service has now been restored, a fact I notice with my in-tray suddenly flooded with a batch of new messages.

These shoes are made for hacking......

If you possess a pair of these brand name shoes (they are French) you may be wearing the proceeds of email hacking.

A certain French shoe company appears to have been sending its marketing material to email addressees in France using my personal email address. (By the way, it is not an email address associated with this blog.) I only became aware of this in the past week with error messages appearing in my in-tray for the shoe company's messages that could not be delivered.

I won't name the shoe company here as it has probably already received exposure at my unwitting expense.

I have had my password changed but only with some difficulty given that my least favourite communications service provider managed to crash my email accounts this afternoon in the attempt. I have another password that I have to remember now. Hopefully no shoe company, no matter how fashionable, is getting a free ride on my internet shoulders any more.

The key to cyberspace

Ae and I have been friends for over forty years. She is just three weeks older than I. So our life experiences have been similar.

Ae was a primary school teacher for most of her working life. I was always under the impression she was very good at her job and highly regarded. The latter was confirmed by the glowing testimonials provided by her Principal and colleague teachers at her retirement function where I was one of the only non teachers in attendance.

Ae often relayed stories about her classes and her teaching methods. In later years the lessons included guiding her pupils through developing technology; computers and the like. Of course her pupils were pre-teens and so the level of guidance may not have been advanced but I imagined that Ae had a better than rudimentary awareness of operating a computer.

Since her retirement, however, I have realised that Ae's capacity to operate a computer, or more specifically to sort out problems, is in reality less than rudimentary. To an astonishing degree, in fact. I've lost count of the number of times I have been called to solve her computer 'problems' from Je has deleted all my photographs (she hadn't), to my computer is frozen (it wasn't), to my address book has disappeared (it hadn't) or my computer won't connect to the internet (it did). When Ae called late one night recently asking how one sends a reply to an email I really wondered whether she was losing it.

Problem after problem resolved in a matter of minutes, or less, simply through my own, quite basic, knowledge of computer operations. This weekend the latest problem was that she was not receiving any incoming emails that she knew from the sender's telephone calls had been sent. Ae had asked several neighbours to fix the problem but none had succeeded.

I called in this morning to check her account. I could see there had been no incoming emails for a few weeks. I made a few routine checks but could not see where the problem lay. Then it occurred to me the loss of incoming emails seems to have coincided with the installation of a new wireless modem. The new modem had been installed as a 'freebie' by a telephone technician who had called on another matter altogether, a faulty telephone line. It occurred to me, the loss of emails might be connected with how that modem had been installed.

I called the Internet Service Provider and was put through to the call centre in the Philippines (where else). The operator seemed more interested in discussing my time zone and weather but eventually he discovered that Ae's email address had been incorrectly recorded in the Properties section of her account. It looked like the problem had been solved but in fact it wasn't and unfortunately Ae has to wait whilst her fault is 'escalated' to another Technician.

Whilst I was on the phone to the operator Ae kept raising other issues for me to address one of which was that she had 'lost' Microsoft Word. When I investigated I saw that Microsoft Office had not been activated on the laptop which Ae had purchased earlier this year. I asked Ae did she remember whether she had purchased the laptop with Microsoft downloaded and if so had she had entered the product key. A silly question, I knew, given that Ae had no idea what I was referring to.

Luckily Ae is diligent in keeping all documentation relating to her purchases and whilst she may not always be able to readily locate where she has filed them she did eventually produce the purchase documentation for her laptop and (of course) the product key card to activate Microsoft Office. Not having the faintest idea what the card meant, Ae had simply filed it away unactioned; many months ago. Another 'problem' solved in minutes.

Stockholm magic

This presentation in Stockholm is very clever.....



It would please James I imagine.

An apple for the teacher

My latest purchase (the Mac Book Pro) came with access to a variety of training opportunities. These are 'one to one', 'personal projects' and workshops.

I had my first 'one to one' last week with Joel a pale skinned, thin young man with a North American accent and the usual religious zeal for his employer's product. Joel began by providing a quick overview of all those orifices that dot the edges of the case and moved on to an explanation of the 'dock' and some of the basics about opening, closing and retrieving applications. I was familiar with most of it already but his lesson enhanced my confidence and I did learn a few things.

Joel drew a 'high five' slap of the palms from me at one stage which I found embarrassing but this is the Apple Store after all where such behaviour is de rigueur and unremarkable.

I raised a couple of problems I had already encountered with Joel including that the Mac Book would not recognise my hotmail account. When I demonstrated the problem he confidently informed me that hotmail accounts do not come with '.au' domains, an assertion I immediately and conclusively proved incorrect. Joel learnt something from me.

Joel persuaded me to book in for another 'one to one' next week for more advanced training. I'm happy to do that. He also persuaded me to book in for a 'personal project' session this week which he explained was for groups of four (maximum) with a trainer who monitors our projects and provides personal guidance during the session. I was less interested in this and had no thought of a personal project to pursue but according to Joel a project could include simple training. On that basis I decided to give it a try.

That session was yesterday and the trainer was Alexis - a name I have only ever associated with females but this Alexis is male - and he was the antithesis of Joel in appearance but also possesses a North American accent. Do they recruit these trainers from overseas or are they all backpacking in Australia?

I arrived just ahead of the scheduled start and true to Joel's advice there were only four of us but that soon changed. Eventually - the last participant arriving forty minutes after the start - there were nine sitting around the bench. It seems that some simply gatecrashed the session and no-one enforced the policy that participation in these sessions is pre-booked.

Joel was correct that the 'personal projects' were mainly further training needs and fortuitously most of us were happy to learn about emailing photographs but the environment for this training was disappointing. Only the most forward and assertive of the participants got a chance to steer the direction of the session, some sat mute for the entire two hours.

The Apple Store is a very noisy environment at the best of times and it was very difficult to hear what Alexis had to say. Eventually he was drawn into personal discussion with several participants and the rest of us contented ourselves by working solo to practice what we had learnt.

The third category of training - workshops - was underway elsewhere in the shop. These consisted of twelve or so participants sitting around a bench receiving training on a pre-determined topic from a trainer miked to amplify his voice. I'm not sure I'll bother with those but as my package provides for twelve months worth of unlimited training and I do not have to pay for the individual sessions it won't be a burden if I change my mind.

What is becoming increasingly clear to me is that if you want to maximise your Apple product then it is best to do it Apple's way. Diversity, especially if it involves Apple's competitors, is definitely not encouraged. Not surprising, I suppose.

I'm back

A combination of new MacBook purchase, an introductory lesson, transfer of documents from my previous laptop and then my wireless modem deciding to take an uninvited rest kept me away from my blog but now I'm back.

It may take me a while to return to daily posts as I get used to the new set up but I'm working on it.

First off, how the hell do I retrieve my photos?

Mmmm, my problem, not yours.

Swipe my pad

In an ironic piece of timing Andrew yesterday posted a piece about laptops in which he concluded that 'older people like to have a mouse'. Well, I would certainly qualify as an older person and it is true that for a long time now I have preferred using a mouse. About six years ago I trialled a Mac Book but quickly returned to a personal computer with mouse when I found the Mac Book's swipe pad uncomfortable to use and not to my liking.

In the years since I slowly found myself drawn into the 'religion' known as Apple. First it was an iPod, then an iPhone leading last Christmas to the purchase of an iPad. None of them was an essential purchase but each seduced me in turn thus enboldening me to the subsequent purchase. Given that I seem to be in a state of heat for impulse purchases at the moment I suppose it was inevitable that I would add this to the list...

Mac Book Pro

a Mac Book Pro which I purchased yesterday morning. Consistent with my long held preference for mouse controls I also purchased a wireless mouse. The religious theme came to the fore again as the enthusiastic young man with the North American twang who attended to my purchase waxed lyrical about drawing me into the 'family' with all manner of workshop opportunities.

Those who have purchased products from the Apple store know that you are passed on to another enthusiast who helps you set up your purchase ready for initial use. My wireless mouse was one of the first items set up but as I was led through other actions it dawned on me after a while that I was mostly swiping the pad rather than clicking the mouse. My conversion, subtle and subconscious, is almost complete.

That's why it's ironic that when I returned home with my purchase and as my first act looked up Andrew's blog I found his latest post to be about laptops and the swipe pad.

Following the crowd....

My new iPad

Yes, like so many others this Christmas I am now the owner of an iPad. Another novelty du jour to quickly tire of...or not.

E waste and the harbour

The local council conducted an E waste collection today. This is a collection for no longer wanted electronic items other than white goods. The goods handed over are recycled, into what I do not know. Like me most people were dropping off old computer equipment. I suppose the notion of E waste did not exist more than about five years ago. This year's collection was by the harbour at Lyne Park in Rose Bay.

After dropping off my old equipment I drove to a nearby vantage point to enjoy the view.

Looking west from Bayview Hill Road

Click to enlarge and see kayakers mid harbour

A seaplane taxiing at the Rose Bay base

Looking back on the past few postings, it seems I missed a crucial piece of information between embarking on an enquiry mission about dongles to bringing home new toys and that was I forgot to mention that I unexpectedly purchased a lap top. I say unexpectedly because I had no intention of doing anything but make enquiries but once confronted with so much gleaming technology I couldn't resist diving right in and buying something. That something was a HP Lap Top looking something like the one above.

This is my first venture into wireless operations and after a slow start I am making progress. My wireless connection is clearly slower than what I have with my desktop PC which I put down to a different ISP for my Lap Top. I have started off by using Optus but if the first days are to judge by I will prefer to return to the dreaded Telstra who with all their faults have provided a much faster and stronger connection.

Oh well, can't have everything I suppose.

I found my dongle

For any readers who may be wondering how I got on with my enquiries about dongles I reproduce here my response to Andrew in the previous posting.

How prescient of you, Andrew. When I arrived home with my new toys and set them up the dongle would not work. I called the Tech section and after a series of tests they concluded the SIM card was dead. Take it back to the store they said and get a replacement, which I did. Got home with the replacement and tried it and it did not work either. This time Techie said the SIM was invalid. Profuse apologies followed and Techie arranged for a third to be sent to me express mail. In the meantime I learnt from Telstra that my iPhone works as a wireless modem. I tried it and what do you know it worked! I've been walking around with a dongle in my pants all along!!

Dongle envy