Category Archives: AU

XBox 360 and eBay

The XBox-360 is out in the States. Those of us in AU will have to wait until March to get it. A$499 for the non-HD version, or A$649 with it.

Meanwhile some sneaky people on eBay have been selling what appears at first glance to be an XBox 360, but upon closer examination is actually an email address on Hotmail/Yahoo mail. Pity the poor fools that have bid for them. (via Lex)

Okay, now why does an eBay AU listing have a “Report This Item” link, but the same auction on the US site doesn’t? Ah, turns out it’s being trialled in Australia, with the rest of the world hopefully getting it soon…ish.

Mod chips legal

That’s it, ladies and gentlemen, it’s over: the High Court has ruled that mod chips for video game consoles are legal. All six judges of the High Court held that widely used mod-chips are legal and that playing a game on a consumer’s machine does not constitute an illegal copy.

This effectively clarifies that using mods to get around regional coding is legal — something important to consumers of video games and with clear ramifications for DVDs.

Pirated games, of course, are illegal. But mod chips are a legitimate technology.

Full judgement

Stupid broken web sites

Dear Australian Communications and Media Authority,

Re: au.gov.aca.cas.numb.util.exception.ApplicationException: Sorry, your browser is not supported.

There is no godly reason why you should have a web site that only supports IE, or at least doesn’t support Firefox. (I’d love to check it in Safari, but the iCapture Safari checker is down at the moment.)

This is particularly stupid since part of your responsibilities include Internet services in Australia. Fix it please.

Regards,
Daniel

Sneaky popups at Fairfax

The Age and SMH web sites have seen the writing on the wall for popup adverts, with browser popup blockers now blocking most ads that don’t occur as a result of direct user action.

So you know what they’ve done? Triggered a popup if you happen to click on part of an article window which normally wouldn’t be considered clickable, such as on a non-hyperlinked word. It’s a user action, so the popup gets around the blocker. It only seems to be triggered to happen occasionally though, so you don’t notice how the popup is triggered. Sneaky.

Australian postcode data

Writing systems back in the old days, it used to be that occasionally one would need to validate suburb/postcode data, or provide users with a choice of suburbs in a particular postcode, and you used to have to go talk to Australia Post to get hold of that data. It was an administrative hassle, and so updates tended to be infrequent, because really, who has the time?

In these enlightened times, they have it freely available on the web. No registration, no delays, just download. Aussie Post, you rock!

For those dabbling in postcodes worldwide, the Universal Postal Union has an index of post office sites, as well as information on the various postcode formats in use. Jakob Nielsen did a column recently on dealing with international names, addresses and measurements.

“Education” Minister

Deeply distressing is the Australian government’s “Education” minister, Dr Brendan Nelson, has endorsed the teaching of Intelligent Design in schools.

“I think that parents and schools should have the opportunity – if they wish to – for students also to be exposed to this and to be taught about it”

I don’t think that telling impressionable young kids that space aliens or maybe God built all life on Earth because “there’s no reasonable alternative, it’s just so complicated, so someone or something quite clever must have done it” is a good place to go. Especially in that following Intelligent Design through to it’s logical conclusion, it means that only God could have done it, because someone had to build those clever space aliens, and it can’t have been space aliens because they’re so clever and all, and where could they have come from. Of course, ID happily ignores “so who built God?”.

The Intelligent Design community would have a better chance of arguing for Unintelligent Design. The number of stupidly designed creatures is impressive – just look at sausage dogs for a start. And the amount of junk DNA – 97% of the human genome. The aging process, quite clearly some nasty joke by our benovolent creator, along with cancer, another handy inclusion. Yep, whoever built us was a shoddy workman, that’s for sure. Intelligent design my arse.

But you know what? No (federal) politican has come out and said “Intelligent Design? You want to let them teach that bullshit? Are you as stupid as you look, or were you wanting to use it as the basis material for a subject on logical thought and reasoning?”

Australians have brought this on themselves. Stand by, now that Family First are in, we’re going to be hearing someone suggesting that Young Earth creationism ought to be taught as an alternative to the “theory” (it’s just a theory, so it’s as valid as any other, right?) of evolution. Mark my words. You see it happening the the USA, it’s gonna happen here, because we’re cultural lap dogs.

It just makes me want to cry. What kind of world will my children grow up in, if morons are driving the education system? If parents wish, they can bloody well teach that religious mumbo-jumbo to their children themselves! Now, if only for some effective child abuse legislation…

Free Quicken

In early-mid July, Quicken Australia was offering their EasyStart package for sale with a 100% cashback. $99 on the counter to Mr Shop Keeper Man, $99 back to you in the mail a few days later.

Why would they do this? To increase market share, and to get more punters using Quicken who may renew their products next financial year. (Remember, this is one of the mobs who try and sting you for a new version when the tax rates change.) But hey, it’s software for free! Go for it!!!

There’s a catch, of course. There always is, right? To get your money back you have to go to their web site and enter your Customer ID and PIN number. But even after I’d installed and registered the software, there is no Customer ID and PIN number shown on the Licence screen. And I’m not alone — Tony had the same experience.

Turns out you have to ring up (me emailing support got no response) and wait on hold to eventually talk to someone in customer service to get the vital details. And it has to be done and the form sent in by 9th August. Thankfully it only took about 5 minutes on hold (via the Customer Service option), and the operator gave me the numbers straight away. You’ll also need the codes on the CD sleeve and on the promotional sticker on the box.

If I were a more cynical person, I’d think they might have done it this way deliberately, to avoid having to send out too many cashbacks.

The software itself seems to be fairly good, easy to use, and should do nicely for my basic accounting requirements. Well, better than handcrafted Excel spreadsheets and constant bitching about Activity Statements, anyway.

Wifi, Apple, smartcards

Interesting to see the gradual spread of Wifi coverage in Australian cities. Shame they’re mostly in McDonalds and Starbucks outlets, which don’t exactly provide the pinnacle food and coffee. But I suppose if you’re sneaky, you should be able to find somewhere offering decent food and drink nearby (or even next door) where you can pick up the coverage.

Fascinating article speculating why Apple really switched from IBM to Intel CPUs.

Smartcards are the answer to public transport ticketing! But, err, what was the question? (from my blog)