Qantas 767 suffers from fumes in cabin
Jun 5, 2010 Australia, Current Events
Further to my last post about Qantas, one of their 767s has suffered from an incident involving fumes in the cabin on a flight from Perth to Melbourne. I’m supposed to be flying that route in a few weeks. Hopefully they’ll manage to locate an aircraft with functional engines and a fume-free cabin.
Tags: qantas
‘Lost’ finale breaks download records for TV show
May 29, 2010 Australia, Internet, Media & Advertising
According to Torrent Freak, the ‘Lost’ finale is on track to receive more downloads than any other TV episode in history with over 900,000 downloads within the first day. They also recorded over 100,000 active clients on the torrent at the same time which is also some sort of record.
According to their stats 15% of downloads came from Australia where the free to air TV screening of the finale was delayed until several days after it was shown in the US. Clearly this indicates that when people can easily obtain their entertainment over the Internet they would rather watch the show as soon as it becomes available than wait until a time deemed convenient by their local TV station. If the TV programmers are surprised by this then they are somewhat out of touch with reality.
What’s up with Qantas?
May 26, 2010 Australia
A couple of recent trips I have made with Qantas have reminded me of my experiences with Ansett before their unfortunate demise. These issues include:
- Frequent maintenance related delays.
- Cabin technical problems, mostly with in-flight entertainment.
- Sub-standard (compared to competitors) cabin amenities.
It was these sort of issues that prompted me to stop flying with Ansett, who later went bankrupt. I’m not suggesting that Qantas is going broke, but the way they are operating their fleet suggests they are not investing as much money as they should be in their aircraft. I would suggest avoiding any international Qantas flights operated using Boeing 767 aircraft as you will surely find a much better, and often cheaper, service operated by another carrier on the same route.
Time to replace those smoke alarms?
Oct 18, 2009 Australia
The start of daylight savings time in Australia always prompts a reminder from the fire services to replace the batteries in your smoke detectors. Smoke detectors wear out over time and is a result should be replaced once they reach they reach the replacement age specified by the manufacturer. The ones in our house were several years past the replacement date so this year I purchased a pack of new ones and changed them all over.
For more info about fire safety in Victoria visit the Victoria Online fire safety page.
NBN to sing, dance – Minchin
Apr 30, 2009 Australia, Enviroment, Internet, Telco
According to The Australian, shadow communications minister Nick Minchin has been quoted as saying: “Senator Conroy is claiming this all singing, all dancing NBN is also going to save the planet.” I’m taking his quote out of context, but it goes to show how petty and soundbite-driven politics can be at times.
The article I am linking to (well, until it link-rots away) actually raises some of the advantages the proposed NBN could bring to the country. I think once the network is built people will come up with all sorts of amazing high-bandwidth applications to use on it. Many of these will reduce the need to travel, bringing convenience and environmental benefits for most of us, but could be of huge importance for people with mobility challenges.
The business side of TV
Jun 24, 2006 Australia, Current Events, IPTV, Music & Entertainment
Do adjust your mindset ( The Age / Alan Kohler )
In this article Alan Kohler takes a look at some of the challenges facing the free to air TV stations in Australia. Audiences are in decline, costs are on the rise, and there are increasing challenges from other forms of entertainment. What does this mean for the industry, and what impact will technology like IPTV have?
Premium SMS scam from 19900025
Dec 24, 2005 Australia, Enviroment, Telco
A lot of Australian mobile phone users have been the recipient of a premium SMS scam from the number 19900025. The message received is a really bad Christmas joke which you are charged up to $3.50 for receiving. A lot of information on the source of these messages has been uncovered at the whirlpool forums, but if you have received this message you should contact your phone company immediately to report the scam and dispute the charge. Hopefully if enough people complain quickly the scammer will be shut off before too many more people are caught.
Update: I called the number Juz gave below and left my details. A refund cheque arrived in the mail just over a week later.
Australian VoIP services to get their own number range
Dec 20, 2005 Australia, Internet, Telco, Telstra, VoIP
ACMA proposes new number range for VoIP services (ACMA press release)
From the release: “ACMA is proposing to introduce a new service definition, ‘emerging communications service’, to accommodate VoIP and other emerging services. A new number range for emerging communications services (0550) is proposed. Emerging communications services may be fixed, somewhat nomadic or wholly nomadic but the numbers allocated to them will have no geographic significance.”
I see the creation of a dedicated number range for services which are not geographically fixed to be a good thing. Those of us who run our own VoIP switches or ATAs will be able to easily route this range to a particular destination without needing to guess what is VoIP and what is not. I’m not sure how the fixed line telcos will react to this from a pricing perspective. They may want to price PSTN to VoIP calls at a fairly high rate to try to discourage people from abandoning the legacy networks, but this could just as easily have the opposite effect as being the final straw in what people will put up with from the existing pricing models. Other people are speculating the cost of all fixed line calls will be coming down to a rate closer to what is being charged by VoIP providers. We will have to wait and see what eventuates.
The ACMA is accepting comments on their proposal until 14 February 2006.
Australia has the world’s most overpriced housing
Dec 1, 2005 Australia, Current Events
House prices ‘world highest’ (The Age / Tim Colebatch and Jewel Topsfield)
From the article: “AUSTRALIA has by far the most overvalued houses in the Western world, with prices 52 per cent higher than justified by rental values, the OECD says.
In a new analysis of the housing boom sweeping developed nations, the OECD also says the price of housing relative to incomes is 50 per cent higher in Australia than in other countries as a group.”
It’s been pretty obvious to anyone looking to buy a house for a couple of years, but now the OECD has confirmed house prices in Australia are just plain nuts. As a renter looking to buy I’m hoping for a massive crash in the property market. Other than winning the lottery I don’t see any other way to be able to afford a house in the near future.
Australian Government to tackle VoIP regulations
Oct 11, 2005 Australia, Telco, VoIP
VoIP rules on way, providers told (Australian IT / Andrew Colley)
From the article: “The federal Government said it would soon respond to industry calls to introduce measures to regulate low-cost voice-over-internet-protocol telephony services.
The announcement has been expected since last year when the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) co-operated with VoIP providers to develop a discussion paper on IP telephony for Senator Coonan.
“An announcement on the Government’s response to the ACMA report on VoIP is imminent,” a spokeswoman for Communications Minister Helen Coonan said.”
There are certainly a lot of regulatory issues that need to be examined with VoIP services. The main ones being emergency call handling and the portable nature of VoIP services. There is also some ambiguity currently as to whether a telecommunications licence is required to operate a VoIP service, or whether they are just considered to be part of an internet service which does not need to be provided by a licensed carrier.
The article also mentions a local VoIP industry group, the Australian Voice over IP Association. Their website says they have been operating since February 2005 however there is no information about what the organisation does or who the members are. Hopefully if they start getting a little publicity it will prompt them to publish some information on their site.