App tracking

I download Apps to my smart phone and tablet on a whim. Some, like NextThere, which tells me when a bus I'm waiting for is due, are very useful. Others, that I won't name, prove useless and remain unloved on my devices until eventually I delete them.

One of my loved Apps is FlightRadar24 which tracks commercial flights all over the world and provides me with hours of mindless entertainment when I am in the mood.

I see various flight paths to/from Sydney Airport from my apartment and often will open the App to identify passing planes and their routes.

Occasionally, like yesterday, I monitor a particular flight carrying friends. Cz and Cw flew to Vancouver yesterday and on and off for the best part of 12 hours I checked the passage of their flight. From ascent, I watched whilst the plane was still low over Sydney inner suburbs. Hours later after a cinema visit I tuned back in to see them somewhere over the South Pacific Ocean. Another couple of hours later and their flight was passing by the Hawaiian Islands and later still, at my bedtime, the west coasts of the United States and Canada appeared on screen as the flight was within 90 minutes of arrival at Vancouver.

You can do all this for free.

Hands free phone.....or magic thighs

I have a new toy.

My juvenile need to have the latest model. I took possession of my iPhone X last night. I set it up fairly quickly using the new facility to transfer all my former phone settings wirelessly from another Apple device. Very clever. Very convenient. Very easy.

I usually 'carry' my mobile phone in the pocket of my trousers/shorts. Today was my first full day carrying my shiny toy snug in my trouser pocket. It didn't go quite as expected.

Mid morning I felt a sudden heat on my left thigh. I pulled the phone out. Although I had earlier locked the phone, it had unlocked itself, opened the camera and taken a series of photos and videos of the inside of my pocket. Six photos and videos in total. Whoa!

I locked and closed the phone again and placed it back in my pocket.

An hour or so later the phone rang. A friend, having completed a long drive down the coast, was ringing with some concern. She had been unable, whilst driving, to answer my numerous calls to her. Was there a problem? Well yes, I realised. I hadn't called her. But sure enough my new phone showed unanswered calls to her. My phone had made calls to one of my contacts without any involvement by me. Whoa again!

A visit to the Apple Store revealed that last night's set up hadn't been fault free. One small but obviously important step had only partially completed. It took less than a minute to rectify.

I'll probably have a nervous day tomorrow, when the phone is next in my pocket, wondering what hands free magic activities it might initiate.

The Project

It has been decades since I visited a television studio and I can't recall the last time I saw a program being filmed nor even remember what that program was. I suspect the last time was way back in the 1950s when my parents took me to see Captain Fortune; a children's show that was broadcast live on Saturday mornings.

Last weekend a friend arranged for three of us to be in the audience of 'The Project'. This is a popular news, current affairs and comedy program which has been screened every weeknight for years out of Melbourne which has now added a Sunday edition which is screened out of Sydney.

Although the show is presented 'live' it is interesting to see how they seamlessly blend pre-recorded material with live conversation. I was particularly impressed by the extent to which the panel members spent time chatting with the audience directly during the plentiful advertisement breaks and again at show's end. It was an enjoyable evening.

Mr Blogger and Mr Apple - Please get together

I'm having great difficulty downloading photos or images into blog posts. I suspect it has something to do with macOS Sierra, the latest operating system for Mac Books, which I downloaded on my return from overseas this week.

I am mightily pissed off having wasted considerable time today trying to get back into blogging for no benefit.

If anyone from Blogger.com or from Apple notices this complaint would you please provide help or better still fix the frigging problem.

Any readers who can help are welcome to provide comment or advice to this post.

In the meantime consider me off the air from Blogger until further notice. Friends can find me on Facebook.

The abominable count

Five years ago one other volunteer and myself acted as Census Field Officers for patients in the hospital. Despite receiving some training from the local area representative for the Census we were totally unprepared for the effort involved in distributing these forms to some 270 patients and collecting their completed responses. It took us something like six hours to distribute these forms, answering questions along the way, and when we finished around 10pm on the night I was exhausted. The follow up work continued for the following couple of mornings. I was adamant I would never perform this function again.

Fast forward five years to 2016 and tonight was once again Census night. A week ago my arm was (figuratively) twisted and despite my previous adamance I agreed to perform this work again. My reluctant change of heart was based on the fact that this time eight volunteers would be involved in the distribution and collection of forms and that someone else would manage the project.

Given events that saw the online facility for returns shut down under some form of technical attack it is somewhat ironic that the marketing for Census night included a 'Pause' symbol logo and message.

Census 'fail'

Even with four times the number of volunteers involved compared with the previous Census, distribution of forms took almost as long as in 2011. However, preparation based on our previous experience made the distribution more streamlined and the collection of the completed forms was considerably more efficient and speedy than on the earlier occasion.

It is still a tiring exercise. Once again I am determined not to repeat the work.

A technician called to deal with my complaint of pixellation, frozen screens and jumped scenes in recordings through my subscription television service.

I kept several recordings online as examples. He conducted some tests and identified several problems. One being that my signal strength was low; he quoted a reading of 'minus 2'. The other problem in his view was that the original installation provide a 'five way splitter', when all I require is a 'three way splitter'. That is, I only require a signal to split three ways (one to each of the two subscription services I run and one for the internet connection itself.

He replaced the 'splitter' and did whatever it was that produced a signal strength of 'plus 7'.

Whilst he was investigating the problem I asked if he could cut the excess cabling I was left with from the installation. For three years I have had literally metres and metres of excess cabling on my lounge room floor from the miscalculation the installer made of how much cabling I needed. The technician initially declined firmly to touch the cabling at all which was a disappointment but then when he found the jungle of cables overwhelming him as he worked to replace the splitter he changed his mind and to my delight cut much of the excess cabling. I was delighted.

Initially it seemed the technician had solved the recording problems. The first couple of programs recorded perfectly. Unfortunately problems have returned but to nowhere near the extent previously. I suspect the set top box itself, which was not examined by the technician, is playing up.

Not a valid response from Foxtel

I'm having a problem with my subscription television service, Foxtel. Specifically, my recorded programs are being compromised by the intrusion of pixellation, frozen moments and jumps through scenes. Live television service is not affected. I suspect there is a problem with the personal recording  unit.

I first reported this problem back in April and it appeared to be remedied at that time by a system reset.

However the same problems returned gradually a few weeks later and have increased in frequency ever since.

Today I called the technical support call centre which by the accent of the operator handling my call and the voices I could hear in the background is located in India. I wasn't happy with the service I received.

The operator asked for my account number and when I failed to provide it immediately - I was scanning my documentation to locate that information - she repeated 'account number, account number, account number' perhaps a dozen times without a moment's pause. Once I had provided the number she excused herself for a conversation with a colleague in a local language which I could hear before returning to my call and then asking - as though for the first time - for the number again.

This sent her into bursts of laughter which continued for about a minute. Then followed a number of questions one of which didn't seem relevant to me. When I queried the question the operator offered no explanation for it and just moved on to other questions.

By this time I lost patience and asked several times to be transferred to another operator. This request was ignored totally. I didn't bother asking for a supervisor as from previous experience I know the answer always is that there isn't one available.

This was one occasion when I held on for the follow up call asking me to rate the service. To each rating my response was 'not satisfied'. Each of these was met with the automated system informing me that mine was 'not a valid response'. (A number system of ratings is used.)

I did comply with the numbered ratings at each prompt but Foxtel, I can tell you your call centre service is not a valid response to customer expectations.

My lost timeline

A friend asked me recently why I hadn't acknowledged the birthday wishes she sent me.

'What birthday wishes?', I asked.

'The message I placed on your timeline', said she.

'My timeline? What timeline?', I asked.

'Your Facebook timeline' said she.

Facebook.

Ah yes.

I joined Facebook shortly after its launch. It seemed an interesting idea but it only took me a few months at best to tire of the countless friend requests from complete strangers around the world with whom I appeared to have little in common and what seemed like a mountain of emails pinging in my in tray all day long.

At the time it seemed there was no way to shut down an account so I took the next best steps and stopped using the service altogether not even as a curiosity for occasional enquiries or observation. That seemed to work. Apart from the occasional (annual?) email mentioning that I hadn't accessed my account in some time which offered help in restoring my password in case I had forgotten it, I was not bothered by the ubiquitous service again.

Until this week and the unrequited birthday wishes.

Fearing it was a dangerous thing to do, I accessed my account using a newly established password (for indeed I had forgotten my earlier password), found my timeline and the aforementioned wishes and I sent the desired acknowledgement.

Facebook is a more complex looking affair now. I have been conscious during my Facebook dormant era that others use it to keep loved ones informed of their travel and other celebrations and whilst I was never sorry about being inactive I did think occasionally how useful it could be in keeping those I want informed up to date about myself.

Inevitably I have been drawn back into the demon site. The effect has been immediate. Former work colleagues and friends have spotted me there and the friend requests are flowing. Someone I worked with in Beijing more than 35 years ago and with whom I have had not a single contact since and who now lives outside Washington DC spotted me after only two days.

I have tracked down some friends too, although without necessarily asking each of them to befriend me (again). Andrew is one I located on Facebook but as his site appears untouched since 2012 I decided to leave him be.

No doubt I will tire of Facebook yet again but for now, in the approximate dialogue from, I think, 'The Godfather' and with a New York criminal twang, I say that 'I keep trying to get myself out and they keep drawing me back in'.

A case of pedantic spell check

Two bloggers I follow loyally - although neither may realise it from the rarity of my comments on their postings - by coincidence both use only lower case for their identities.

marcellous has a legal and musical bent whilst wcs posts glorious photos from his adopted French home. Apple's spell check doesn't like them; at least in my experience. Whenever I type their IDs spell check stubbornly tries to change them to marvellous and was respectively. Even the links above were only accepted after fierce resistance by me.

I can see why Apple might try to change the entirely lower case marcellous. A capital M could be more to Apple's taste. But in regards to wcs I assume case is not the issue, rather that Apple doesn't cope with lesser known acronyms.

An update on the bank

After three wasted weeks waiting for the arrival of a replacement ATM card which was never ordered I was relieved finally to receive a card.

My relief was short-lived. It was chewed up by the ATM at my first attempt to use it. A call to the bank resulted in some words of sympathy but no explanation for this latest annoyance.

Another card was ordered which yet again the bank said I should expect to take 5-7 business days to reach me.  When it arrived I asked a reluctant bank officer to accompany me to the ATM to observe for themselves what might happen. To her disbelief, this second replacement card also was swallowed up by the ATM.

'This shouldn't happen' was her response. Further attempts to get the card working, this time at her desk seemed to have been successful until I took it back to the ATM where yet again it was swallowed up. This time with an explanation receipt. 'Too many PIN attempts. Card is retained' the clever-dick ATM informed me.

The teller remained confident the card would work, just 'not today'. Wait until tomorrow, she advised me.

I was back at the bank the next day and, relief of reliefs, the replacement card finally worked.

Then the following day I received a letter advising me of the PIN for the already activated card. This was a week after an earlier letter advised of the new (but different) PIN. I think the unsynchronised despatch of the two PIN advices for the two replacement cards might have been the problem.

Bye bye tropical island

The view from my hotel room

A last lingering look at my view for the past five days on Hamilton Island. I'll miss it....and the weather.

Back to Sydney today.

(Posted retrospectively. You will notice from the inclusion of a photograph that I am back on MacBook air; so to speak.)

Hamilton Island and a modern disaster

Sharp eyed readers may have noticed something different about my posts for the two previous days and indeed this day's post. All will be explained in good time below.

This morning I flew the 1917 kilometres (according to Google Maps) from Sydney to Hamilton Island for the Easter long weekend.

The passenger in the adjacent seat was not exactly the passenger from hell but he was an irritant. First he was super fidgety, constantly moving about. Second he had no sense of personal space and repeatedly knocked my arm as he jumped about in his seat. Third, and worst, he sniffled non stop from when we took our seats until landing at the Island. It was two and half hours of irritation.

Arriving on the Island I can report the weather is sunny and delightful with temperature around 30°c and a nice breeze. It all feels very relaxing.

I have completed a brief reconnoiter of the resort. My room has a lovely view of the sea.

I would love to show it to you but that's where the disaster has struck.

Retrieving my MacBook from my case I find it has died a total death without the slightest forewarning. Did it suffer from some manner of behind the scenes Airport security screening? I don't know. I have taken it all around the world in the past couple of years without incident. Now I have to wait until return to Sydney to contact the Apple Store and either have the MacBook revived or replaced by a new model.

In the meantime this and the two previous (retrospective) posts have been created on my iPad on which I haven't worked out how to download my photos, images or symbols such as the stars I use for rating films and theatre.

First world problems!

I've been compromised

My weekend is off to a bad start.

I came home to a message from my bank that my ATM card has been compromised and cancelled.

My card number and PIN were used five times today at a suburb 50kms from where I live. Person(s) unknown checked my balance, made two withdrawals and two other withdrawals were declined. I did not authorise the transactions, nor have I loaned out my card at any time, nor have I shared my PIN.

My guess is that the card was 'skimmed' when I was using it an ATM.

Following up this afternoon the bank has accepted a fraud was committed and I will be repaid the two unauthorised withdrawals.

Unfortunately I have to wait for a replacement card to be sent to me.

It is an awful feeling. At least this bank was quick to pick up the fraud unlike another bank a year ago who, until I raised the alarm, failed to notice literally dozens and dozens of unauthorised uses of my credit card within a couple of weeks amounting to around $3,000 of services in a city on the other side of the planet at a time when I was clearly home in Australia.

BUPA pooper

BUPA your service sucks.

A few years back the British based international healthcare group BUPA took over the health insurance company I belonged to for all my adult life.

A couple of weeks ago BUPA wrote to me advising that it was time for my 24 month eye examination. It invited me to make an appointment either by phone or online. The online instructions appeared simple and clear;

• Step 1 Visit www.bupaoptical.com.au
• Step 2 Click the 'Book and Appointment' link and the follow the steps

I followed those steps precisely nominating my appointment time at the Bondi Junction Optical Shop - the very shop referred to in BUPA's letter to me - from a schedule on the online site of half hourly times which commenced from 9am on the date I selected.

Within seconds I received an email from BUPA Optical Bondi Junction thanking me for my appointment request and continuing as follows;

'The team at Bupa Optical Bondi Junction look forward to serving your eyecare needs and will be in touch via phone or email to confirm your appointment.'

Twelve days later, with no email or phone contact from BUPA, I called into the Bondi Junction shop to confirm my appointment. The staff member checked and told me they had no record of my request; notwithstanding the email confirmation.

How can this be? Well, this is what she told me.

• The online booking system is not a 'live' site.
• The shop does not receive the data entered online.
• The times shown in the online site are not the actual times available for appointments but the hours the shop is open. (This comment makes no sense since the site lists half hourly slots.)
• Although the shop opens at 9am (or perhaps it is 9.30, that was not clear to me) eye examinations are not available until 11am.
• Earlier time slots for examinations are only available on Saturday hence are very popular and have to be booked far ahead.
• Her final advice was to book examinations by contacting the shop directly, not online.

Why, BUPA, do you send letters out inviting online booking when the online system is not active?
Why, BUPA, do you refer members to an online site that has appointment slots that don't exist in reality?
Why, BUPA, do you send email acknowledgements of online appointment requests when those requests die in cyberspace unrecognised and unknown to your shops?
Why, BUPA, do you not have eye examination timeslots that your working members can attend outside of their working hours or that your members can attend with minimal disruption to their work arrangements?

Why, BUPA, should I continue my membership with your organisation?

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.

Home...but not so smart

We've arrived home after the 15 hours flight from Vancouver.

Despite departing Vancouver twenty-five minutes late we landed in Sydney about twenty minutes ahead of the scheduled time. Presumably the traditional head winds had a lesser effect on our flight. The early landing was completely undone by two delays once at the gate.

First we had to wait for the plane to be sprayed internally to eradicate those nasty bugs trying to infiltrate Australia.

Then having disembarked I made the mistake of trying to use the 'Smart Gate' Immigration clearance for the holders of those high tech microchip enhanced passports.

Perth's Smart Gates

The first two 'smart' gates I approached broke down just at the sight of me. A harried Customs Officer referred me to a third gate which worked until the moment it informed me it could not match me with my passport photo. This 'smart' gate referred me to the 'Assistance Desk'. My traveling companion, Hn, on the other hand was recognised by another of these 'smart' gates and quickly was waved on to the baggage carousel.

The benignly named 'Assistance Desk' was just one lane amongst many overcrowded lanes at the Immigration Clearance line. Being Saturday morning there were huge lines of passengers queued for clearance.

Our 'Assistance Desk' lane had its own ever growing queue of very disgruntled passengers each rueing that they had tried the 'smart' gates. I was queued for over thirty minutes before 'Assistance Desk' cleared me for entry. Hn, in the meantime was waiting with both our bags.

By the way, a young girl in one of the presumably 'non smart' queues for passengers unfortunate enough not to be in possession of a high tech passport fainted in the crush of the queues of which she was a member.

Welcome to Australia!

Last year I grumbled about slow Immigration clearance at Los Angeles and London Heathrow Airports. Sadly, my home city's performance this morning was just as unwelcoming.

They've got my number.....

My monthly credit card statement arrived yesterday. As always I scanned it for any irregularities and there it was. At the very end of the statement. Seven items that screamed out 'these are not mine'. Seven 'services' amounting to almost $500. Someone has used my credit card number. Not the card itself. That is in my possession. A clone card maybe. My numbers at the very least.

Within five minutes of opening the statement I was on the phone to my bank provider. The unwelcome news was that these irregular items are continuing into next month's statement currently accruing at the bank.

I've tried to think at what point my card might have been compromised but I can't readily identify one. There are some oddities about the rogue transactions one of which may involve New York. If you are thinking of visiting there - I'm looking at you, Andrew - be careful.

The card has been 'stopped'. Disputed transaction forms have been emailed to me, printed, completed, scanned and emailed back to the bank. A new card with a new number will be despatched.

It is all rather annoying.

From time to time

Robert Allenby

Robert Allenby is an Australian professional golfer who is in the news at the moment for other than his golfing skills. Mr Allenby recently turned up one morning in Hawaii bruised and looking the worse for wear claiming he had been drugged and kidnapped from a bar and beaten by person or persons unknown. Later bystander accounts have provided different versions of events.

I'm not buying into which of the accounts is, or may be, the accurate one. That is none of my business. What intrigues me is Mr Allenby's consistent assertion that he has no recollection of events between 11.06pm and 1.27am. These are such precise times. Generally people refer to 'about' times. It seems to me that 'about 11pm or about 1.20am' is the more usual statement.

I wonder why Mr Allenby is so precise? Is that just his nature? Is this is a reflection of 21st century living with the increasing reliance on digital material such as smart phones and tablets?

Just curious.

My station in aisle 6

I was idly scanning the digital radio stations last night when I came across a station I hadn't noticed previously, Coles Radio. Heigh Ho, I wondered is this the supermarket beast's background music in my own home? (No, I didn't really think 'Heigh Ho' but you get my meaning.)

Listening for a few minutes confirmed this was indeed a broadcast of the music played in the background at Coles stores, advertisements for store specials and all included.

No, I don't think I will save the station as one of my pre-set favourites.

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.