May 2013 - luv-talk - example.com

Bias? What Bias?
by Petros 23 May '13

23 May '13

Hi, at work I am involved in an upgrade of dedicated connections between Interstate offices. It is a very tiresome process involving new copper cables to the premises etc. We acquired a company in Tasmania. Their speed is very very very slooow (I could read the websites for them so slow are they appear in their browsers), and for a "decent price" I may get 1M download / 256k upload speed. Not more. My boss emphasises how important it is to have better connectivity. Anyway, my boss is a staunch Liberal supporter. As soon as I mutter the word NBN he goes through the roof (duck;-) Regards Peter

7 7

Re: [luv-talk] Fwd: Victorian Liberals want to privatise ABC and SBS
by Petros 23 May '13

23 May '13

Hi, quality TV is part of civilisation, I think. I hope more people share this view and become active before a valuable aspect of my family's and other people's life gets destroyed, just because we are silent all the time. The silence of the Australian public is sometimes worrying, I find. That makes the loud (and most of them paid) voices so powerful. I expected some remarks (I am not using it etc. and the "bias" thing) Regards Peter

3 2

Re: [luv-talk] Bias? What Bias?
by Petros 23 May '13

23 May '13

Quoting "Arjen Lentz" <arjen(a)lentz.com.au> > Perhaps the site in Tas already has NBN access, in which case it can > become a nice example of how FTTH works out well. No, not yet. "Commencing within one year". Well, as Turnbull will.. > If your boss is unhappy with the speed/connectivity/quality that a > Liberal/Coalition network might deliver, then that is something for > him to consider, in general or in the context of his business. Seems > worthwhile. You don't need to point that out to him, that indeed is > going to agitate. I don't rub it in.. I just thought about "bias". Which is a lefties' thing here in Australia. Coalition voters are perfectly reasonable beings. I find it amazing how much the view differs if the thing is painted red or blue or green. Thanks for the answer - I will see how I may get us on NBN if it comes to that. Regards Peter

2 1

eeePC900A, key-board problem
by Rohan McLeod 22 May '13

22 May '13

Assembled Illuminati; presumably a hardware problem. My eeePC900A after many years of nearly faultless service , has developed a key-board problem. I say nearly, because I long ago augmented the track-pad with a USB mouse, after one button became effectively 'dead' (wish I had done it earlier !). Some time ago I also augmented the keyboard with a USB one. I say augmented because the original keyboard still functions , ..........unfortunately for me. The problem is after warming up intermittently; some keys on the built in keyboard become stuck 'down' rendering what is otherwise a working machine unusable......... any suggestions, particularly from eeePC / laptop owners ? regards Rohan McLeod

3 7

Re: [luv-talk] alternate OS voids warranty
by Russell Coker 15 May '13

15 May '13

On Wed, 15 May 2013, Arjen Lentz <arjen(a)lentz.com.au> wrote: > Putting original Android back on a CyanogenMod phone just for a warranty > issue is of course a bloody pest, but whether it makes sense depends on > the claim. Let's say the screen is stuffed - pointing out to the shop that > you're simply asking for your statutory warranty rights should bypass the > nonsense. But again remember that the people you're talking to are not > tech savvy - they've just been trained to follow specific steps and if the > question "has the device been modified from the original" can in any way > be answered with "yes" then they will give their standard line. You may > have to ask for their manager if they don't want to take the proper > responsibility for providing you with service as required by law. I want a warranty replacement on my hard drive, it gives errors and when it doesn't it just says "GRUB" on the screen instead of booting Windows 8. ;) -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

3 3

Re: [luv-talk] alternate OS voids warranty
by Daniel Jitnah 14 May '13

14 May '13

On 14/05/13 14:39, James Harper wrote: > Not necessarily Linux related, but I just got off the phone with a certain large computer manufacture trying to resolve a failed harddisk on a 3 month old computer, and they claim that installing an alternate OS has voided the warranty. In this case the computer shipped with Win7 and the "alternate OS" was XP, but I find the claim ludicrous as I install Linux on all sorts of PC's and the warranty callcenter has never skipped a beat as long as I can demonstrate the fault in an obvious way. This particular computer is a different brand though... > > What's my best avenue to force the issue? Or are they within their rights to say that I have voided my warranty? I would think your statutory warranty rights would overrule this manufacturers claim. Besides its a question of fitness for purpose. Unless there was a clear indication that for some reason, that hard drive was designed and intended and sold to be used only with Win7 and nothing else, I think they cant do that at all. BTW: Do you wish to name that manufacturer? ... Daniel. > > Thanks > > James > _______________________________________________ > luv-main mailing list > luv-main(a)luv.asn.au > http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-main

1 0

Achieving Freedom and Democracy for West Papua
by Lev Lafayette 13 May '13

13 May '13

People will know that outside of LUV I have a couple of political groups I'm involved in. So as part of the appropriate mailing list, I'd like to invite interested people to a meeting with Louis Byrne of the West Papua Association. It'll be a small gathering (c20 people) so plenty of opportunities for in-depth questions and responses. The meeting will be held at the United Voice union offices at 117 Capel Street, North Melbourne - near the Victoria Street markets - on Saturday the 18th of May at 18.30 Yes, just after the LUV beginners workshop. So you can go to both! The following is the history of the last seventy years or so in a nutshell... After the second world war, the Netherlands eventually recognised Indonesian claims for independence, excluding Dutch New Guinea. In the latter a national parliament was elected in 1961. Indonesia, under Sukarno, engaged in military interventions in the region without success. But the possibility of a conflict lead to a UN agreement transferring authority to the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA) and then to Indonesia in 1963. In 1969, the United Nations supervised an "Act of Free Choice", where Indonesian-military appointed elders agreed to be part of Indonesia. Since then the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM) was established with the Republic of West Papua (1971) and has engaged in small-scale conflict, with several rebellions and riots. A major study conducted by Australian and local researchers published by Sydney University in 2005 concluded that security forces where the main source of instability, with an estimated one hundred thousand deaths resulting from the occupation process. Simple acts, such as displaying the "morning star" flag, are illegal in Indonesia. In 2000, the Wahid government granted West Papua "special autonomy", as a compromise between integration and separation, although there is little evidence of this in practise. In 2004 exiled West Papuan leader Benny Wenda initiated a campaign to encourage the UN to hold an independence referendum in West Papua. The campaign has growing international support from notable figures such as Noam Chomsky Desmond Tutu. Indonesian security forces which operate in West Papua are trained by the Australian Federal Police. Further Reading: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-27/human-rights-abuses-in-west-papua/422… http://www.hrlc.org.au/files/Letter-to-UN-SRs-re-Australia-support-for-Deta… -- Lev Lafayette, mobile: 61 432 255 208 http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt

1 0

abuse@ rfc ignorance
by Tim Connors 12 May '13

12 May '13

Does anyone know whether there's any recourse for a domain that doesn't accept abuse@ and postmaster@ mail, now that rfc-ignorant is dead? -- Tim Connors

1 0

Re: [luv-talk] Cheaper 3G data
by Russell Coker 10 May '13

10 May '13

On Fri, 10 May 2013, Andrew McGlashan <andrew.mcglashan(a)affinityvision.com.au> wrote: > BUYER BEWARE! That's the best I can say, particularly when it comes to > Kogan. > > There's all sorts of issues with Kogan and Aldi for that matter as > ispOne is selling the service wholesale /for/ Telstra, but not, it seems > with any kind of endorsement by Telstra -- Telstra are definitely pissed > over these plans, Are Telstra so utterly incompetent that they can't write a good contract to enforce the terms that they want? How difficult would it be to put in appropriate wholesale prices to stop the service being resold too cheaply? Probably not that difficult considering that Telstra has been doing that for decades with the other products that they wholesale. There was no way that I would ever pay Telstra mobile phone costs again. I've had about 7 years with Three then 2 years with Virgin (Optus network) and Telstra didn't get a cent of that money. Now I've paid $299 for a year's service to Kogan as has my mother and my wife, as Kogan has low margins probably 1/3 of that money went to Telstra. If things keep working so well then at the end of the year my wife's relatives will transition to Kogan. Telstra went from getting nothing from my family for mobile phone calls to getting maybe $300 a year now and maybe $1000+ per year in the future. Some of my relatives are using Optus for their Internet access, so using Kogan will be the first time in years that they have given any money to Telstra. Kogan and ALDI don't get access to LTE. So they are offering a cheap service which shows what Telstra can do but while still giving the incentive for people to pay more to get better service. I think it's most likely that Telstra are doing quite well out of this arrangement. > The data counting of per MB (Kogan and Aldi) vs per KB is also a major > problem, choose your plan wisely. http://etbe.coker.com.au/2013/03/05/kogan-mobile/ The per MB counting is apparently by "session" where "session" seems to be defined as a period of some hours during which the phone didn't disconnect. When I investigated this I couldn't see any evidence of the per-MB rounding causing any significant quota use. Either Kogan is billing for upload and download or the rounding-up counts for about the same as the upload (about 1/4 of total traffic). Even if the latter is correct losing 1/4 of a 6G quota is better than getting all of a 1.5G quota. > Oh and if I was the government, I would put a stop to the practices of > Kogan, that is, avoiding GST by selling to Australians IN Australia, but > from an "overseas supplier" .... well, the sooner we get a fair market > place, the better. Of course if Kogan was taxed for that then they would be at a disadvantage when competing with companies that aren't owned or run by Australians. There's no shortage of companies based in the US and Hong Kong which have no connection to Australia other than the fact that they post things here. The GST was a good solution to certain types of tax avoidance when it was introduced. But it isn't well suited to the age of online shopping. I think that we should partially revert to the historic method of taxing people who live in a region. It used to be that everyone who lived within the city walls was taxed to pay for all the benefits of a nation state (soldiers, police, sanitation, etc). That method has some real benefits. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

1 0

Re: [luv-talk] Cheaper 3G data
by Russell Coker 10 May '13

10 May '13

On Fri, 10 May 2013, Andrew McGlashan <andrew.mcglashan(a)affinityvision.com.au> wrote: > However, take the 9500 S4 vs the 9505 S4 -- the Kogan price doesn't > represent value even sans GST. Their best price today seems to be $699, > but for not much more you can have the AU product and be able to claim > GST back (as a business). A Melbourne supplier of unbranded 9505 > product is selling the 9505 for $799 today, including GST and normal > manufacturer AU warranty (not third party warranty). Paying a little > more for the peace of mind and a proper tax invoice is enough for me. In our previous discussions of Kogan we determined that the prices on some items from Kogan are almost the same as the prices from Australian based stores without GST. But as most people don't run a GST registered business that's still a ~10% saving. Also in our previous discussions we determined that Kogan often offers a 1 year warranty in situations where other companies offer 2 years. That makes it an issue of whether paying ~10% more for a second year of warranty is a good thing. I believe that paying 10% more for a second year of warranty is a bad investment. The overall failure rate of mobile phones in my observation is significantly less than 10% per year even when you include people who drop them (non-warranty failure). So if the replacement cost of a phone is a huge issue then it might be a good idea to get the extra warranty, but if you can afford to buy a new phone then self-insurance is the best policy. > > Whilst I do not agree with RC on some issues.....I can not fault the > > honest appraisals and analysis of these sorts of cost/benefit subjects! > > ...and I hope it continues! > > I don't, I think his analysis isn't really up to scratch, but enough > said there -- glad you enjoy his input, I don't really enjoy it at all > myself; to each, their own. One thing for other readers to keep in mind is the fact that I don't receive any money for this. There is no financial difference for me as to which phone company or ISP people choose. Can you say the same Andrew? -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

1 0