MACinations - Latest Comments

Re: eCensus – Why won’t they give a straight answer ?

Weeza — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 02:44:04 -0000

You make some excellent points

Re: eCensus – Why won’t they give a straight answer ?

Shaun_R — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 01:50:32 -0000

Originally posted from my Twitter (@Shaun_R), but I'm reposting this here, too.

First, your link to the Census Spotlight thing doesn't work, you've got http://http// prefixing the URL.

Second, the host Operating System (OS) is irrelevant. It's the browser that is the problem. However, I highly doubt that in 2011 that a website would not be written to be cross-browser compatible. I'm sure this will be fine.
Look, if they have a Twitter account and all the TV ads and the cool Spotlight thing, somehow I think it'll work cross-browser without problems.

Third, there is no such thing as "Microsoft Spotlight" (unless you're talking about Microsoft Customer Spotlight: http://www.microsoft.com/press..., which is how customers use various Microsoft products). The Census Spotlight is just an Adobe Flash web application. Microsoft, do, however, make Microsoft Silverlight, which is similar to Adobe Flash, but not the same. It's just as slow, bloated, buggy and riddled with security holes, though.

Finally, please stop writing "FLASH". Adobe Flash is not an acronym. It's just "Adobe Flash" or "Flash". Oh, and while I'm guilty of the same thing, they invented the "bold" tool for a reason: TO KEEP CAPS LOCK OUT OF THINGS LIKE THESE. Thank you.

Shaun_R

Re: eCensus – Why won’t they give a straight answer ?

moldor — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 01:37:51 -0000

Yes, you could say that the 80/20 rule applies, unless you are part of the disadvantaged 20 percent. Perhaps my wording was slightly wrong, maybe I should have said "devices that do not suport Flash".

My whole point is that the eCensus is developed with OUR tax dollars, by OUR government, it should be completely platform agnostic.

iPhones and iPads (and also Android devices) are so pervasive in our society now, with some people having an iPad or other tablet in preference to a "fully fledged" computer, that there is no excuse for not supporting them.

I liken it to the NSW Government building a free carpark to stop cars driving into the CBD and forcing people to use it - as long as you drive a Ford, because Holdens aren't allowed.

Re: eCensus – Why won’t they give a straight answer ?

GeordieGuy — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 01:27:56 -0000

80/20 rule surely. You design for the majority of use cases and Opera, iPads and SuSE aren't that (curious about you saying Flash isn't available on devices "such as" the iPhone and iPad, it's not "such as", it's just those that don't support it). But generally I agree, why the census can't be HTML3 and a FORM is beyond me; in particular I'd be curious to see if things like screen readers are impaired.

Re: What price an Apple “genius”

moldor — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:46:41 -0000

I can understand the need for procedures, and certainly for more expensive replacement parts I agree with it. But a battery ?? Especially when I had already done the diagnostics online with the Applecare people and they had ACCEPTED responsibility. Just pisses the customer off.

Re: What price an Apple “genius”

moldor — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:45:28 -0000

You see, THAT is just sucky. You DEMAND a replacement on the spot or a refund and buy another pair.

Re: What price an Apple “genius”

Richard Neville — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:16:04 -0000

I understand your frustrations, but as the owner of an Apple repair business i know the procedures that are involved.
We cant just replace a battery, i know, it sounds trivial and stilly, but Apple have put systems in place to make sure the system (apples replacement parts system, not your Mac) is not abused.
for a battery replacement, we have to run special diagnostic software/equipment that verifies the battery's condition and eligibility for replacement, generating a code on the screen, its only with that code can we replace the battery without fear of scorn and financial retribution from Apple (if you dont stick to the guidelines and follow the requested procedures they can and will withhold any labour reimbursement from the tech and charge the store for a normally warranty covered part.

So while i do sympathise with you and your recent frustrations with Apple, there are guides we HAVE to follow.

Just remember, you can goto a Apple Authorised Service Agent instead, the smaller ones (like mine) have to order parts in, while the larger chains would have stock and in most cases you dont have to make an appointment.

Re: What price an Apple “genius”

Lisa Manche — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:06:49 -0000

I once had to make a genius bar appointment and wait 4 days to have a pair of 2 week old, faulty iphone headphones replaced. It's ridiculous that they can't do that sort of thing on the spot. But as far as the geniuses go, I've never had a problem, found them quite knowledgable and helpful.

Re: NSW Roads and Traffic Authority – We answer to no-one !

Kate — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 01:41:46 -0000

I knew a cafe owner whose cafe was called 'Mudcat' and the RTA would not let him have the numberplate 'Pussy'. That was about 10 years ago, so I think they've been on this power trip for a while!

Re: iPhone 4 – yellowing in photos

Coal — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 21:33:28 -0000

Halogen bulbs have a higher colour temperature not that far from sunlight, which the cameras on the iPhone 4 are known to work well under. The yellowing issue tends to become prominent under incandescent tungsten bulbs which have a much "warmer" (i.e. lower) colour temperature.

Re: iPhone4 Plan Comparison Spreadsheet

Peter — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:23:36 -0000

It seems that Telstra has updated their data allowance overnight - I checked this blog - http://exchange.telstra.com.au... - today and noted they have added another pricing table with almost double the data limits ($79 plan now 1GB, up from 500MB).

Anyone else picked this up?

Re: Who employs these idiots ?

TerrorBite — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:47:33 -0000

Who employs these idiots? Nobody.

As great a story as it is, I'm afraid this urban legend hs been floating around since 1997. The earlier version of the story, concerning a US man trying to pay his credit card bill, is almost word-for-word identical to this one.
http://www.snopes.com/business...

Re: Show Me Your Licence

chauffeur services london — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:48:07 -0000

I totally 100% agree. My girlfriend ordered a minicab the other day. As soon as she jumped in the cab the driver asked how to get to the place. What?? When you order a cab you expect them to know their way around, surely that is not too much to ask for it's their job afterall. Nowadays people become to dependent on technology. And I'm sorry to say that I think you're right, it is only going to get worse. This is one of my pet hates, what happened to taking pride in your work.

Re: Truths for Mature Humans

Ben — Sun, 16 May 2010 05:39:04 -0000

Haha most of these are so true for me... Awesome, just awesome

Re: How to give a Cat medication

annesmith — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:07:29 -0000

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Re: Card Skimming at McDonalds WA spreads to Sydney

Wadjirr — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:55:13 -0000

I used an eftpos at a Macca's drive through at Kirrawee and I found someone had done a cash advance in Kuala Lumpur. I’ve lost $100. My credit union have told me it will take at least 21 days to sort it out but I’m still not guaranteed my funds. $100 might not seem like a lot to most but its a fortnights groceries for me. I'm not certain that it was the maccas restaurant that I had my card details skimmed from but I'm pretty sure it was. I rang the McDonalds head office to find out why a major corporation like theirs couldn't put some sort of message out to let there customers know that they had been compromised, and that they are aware and have rectified the issue. I don't blame maccas for the problem as I know it is something that can not be stamped out. I just think it goes to show that these organisations don't really care about its customers. Is it safe to buy from McDonalds? I don’t know, they haven’t told me there was a problem in the first place.

Re: Card Skimming at McDonalds WA spreads to Sydney

Jason — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:41:48 -0000

That sucks, normally the Bendigo are problem's, good to see them making a good decision. Thanks for the details on the scam, even having been in the Security Industry, it still amazes me how the social engineering makes these scams possible.

Re: OS X on ASUS 1000HE Netbook

moldor — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:27:36 -0000

vi'ing isn't recommended as the plists are now a binary file, not text. having said that, glad it worked.

Re: Telstra: The breakup

Guest — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:52:37 -0000

It's hard to find quality information like this, I'm glad i found this, thanks for the valuable information.

Re: OS X on ASUS 1000HE Netbook

rlou — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:23:36 -0000

yeah, my userid has admin privileges, still wouldn't work using PlistEdit Pro. I ended up just vi'ing the file directly and that worked!

Re: OS X on ASUS 1000HE Netbook

John — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:31:58 -0000

Hi again:
I can do whatever I want, I am unable to access the EeePC's hard drive or one of its partition when starting MacOS from a USB stick or another external drive. I also tried to use "diskpart" to create a Mac formatted partition under Windows -- that works, but I can't access it when starting from external drive.
...I wonder if you guys have any specific BIOS settings??

Re: OS X on ASUS 1000HE Netbook

John — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:09:55 -0000

>> Where are you located ?
Because of the EeePC model? I am right now in Germany, got the machine here.
By the way, the formatting failed ... I will try again.

I had NOT enabled root user ... will do so. And no, I want to keep Windows on a smaller partition.

Re: OS X on ASUS 1000HE Netbook

moldor — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:18:23 -0000

Tres strange. Not had that happen before, but I'll make a note of it. Where are you located ?

Re: OS X on ASUS 1000HE Netbook

john442 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:14:13 -0000

U P D A T E :
Something very interesting happened: WHILE I was composing above reply, the internat drive and its partitions suddenly showed. It mst be that issuing that "diskutil list" somehow 'forced' the EeePc to recognize and show them. THANKS.

Re: OS X on ASUS 1000HE Netbook

moldor — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:11:43 -0000

You should be running Disk Utility as the root user - have you enabled root ?

Do you WANT to keep Windows ? Do you have the restore CDs so you can rebuild the machine if you need to ? If so, why not just nuke the whole hard drive ?