Technology fetishism
For the video editors in our family who need to move big files around, apart from internet upload speeds, I was also researching the fastest connection types for portable hard drives. Theoretical speeds: USB 2: 60 MB/s Firewire 800: 133 MB/s USB 3: 625 MB/s Thunderbolt 2: 1250 MB/s (USB 3.1 will apparently be up ... [More]
Not to pre-empt anything, but this year I expect to have two film and television students in the house. For this, I’m considering upgrading my Internet. We’re currently on iiNet Naked ADSL2+ costing $69.99 per month (for 1000 Gb of data, of which, to my surprise, we’re using about a quarter). Actually I’m paying an ... [More]
It is a common scam for people to ring you up claiming to be from Microsoft or Telstra (or another major corporation that sounds plausible). They tell you your computer and/or internet connection has a problem, and it needs to be fixed or your internet connection will be cut off, or that something else bad ... [More]
Posted 27/11/2015. Back-dated. The third and final day of my obsessively-blogged short trip to Sydney, and it was destined to be pretty geeky. After breakfast and checking out, we caught a train to Penshurst (changing at Wolli Creek, which I assume is a pretty new interchange station), then a walk in the sun to The ... [More]
I quite liked the old blog template, but I know there were a few issues with it on mobile devices, and I didn’t have the time/energy to fix it. So as part of trying out new web hosting, and making sure WordPress is all updated, I’m trying out a new template. Again, I don’t have ... [More]
Bernard Salt writing in The Australian today implies that Y2K was a hoax: Do you remember the Y2K bug, the computer programming flaw that threatened to reset the digital world to the year zero at the turn of the century? Hospital life support systems might stop. Planes might lose navigation. Everyoneâs bank accounts might reset ... [More]
Science fiction and fantasy conventions used to be a homespun affair, run by the local clubs, featuring broadcasts of rare episodes and out-takes (before it all got released on DVD) and fan films. If there were guest artists, often they would appear only if they happened to be in the country at the time, and ... [More]
I love using Google’s services, but I think everybody knows they (and Facebook and Twitter and many other big internet companies) make most of their money via advertising, and that’s based on what they know about YOU. Like they say, the service is not the product — you are. How much do they know about ... [More]
Here’s another in my series of ten year old photos. Arise Lord Vader — episode 3 got a lot of promotion. Or, as I joked at the time: Connex was aligned with the Dark Side. The Dungeon: platform 13 at Flinders Street. The screens have been replaced with a flat model, and an escalator was ... [More]
I’m aware that my blog has evolved… these days most of the posts are about transport, reflecting my current interests. I wonder if this is a bit dull for those who have been on the old Toxic Custard mailing list, which is the descendant of the humour-based email list I started while at uni. Yet ... [More]
I’ve had a few issues with the iiNet Bob2 modem/router in the past week or two, and rang up support on Sunday to get it sorted out. At one stage the nice chap asked how many devices are using the modem. That’s a really good question, and one that I hadn’t previously thought about. The ... [More]
Last night this Google Streetview car was cruising along William Street outside Flagstaff station. The driver waved back as I took the photo. It’ll be interesting to see how long the photos it was (well, may have been) gathering take to get online. Last time it was over a year, but from what I hear ... [More]