Author Archives: Arjen Lentz

Moving mobile networks

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I moved my number from 3 to Optus today, as 3 gave me pretty much no signal at my new home, it would blink out all the time which is of course useless. In terms of bill-readability and general service both Telstra and Optus fail, for coverage I’d prefer Telstra but their data plans (and actually any plans) just suck. So that’s how Optus won. On great merit, eh ;-)

I have a Vodafone 3G data dongle for my laptop so I don’t want Voda for mobile; I want/need to spread the risk in case one of the telcos decides to dig up a cable again and be dead for a day… you may recall that’s happened a few times over recent years and since the telcos and the govt (despite Premier Bligh’s “unacceptable” declarations at the time!) are apparently incapable of building resilience into either the network or the legislation, I’m sorting it out myself.

My home/office ADSL is now Internode on an Agile DSLAM, so that’s different as well. At the old house I was on iiNet which backs on to Optus, as does 3 mobile. So this is how, when Optus dug up their cable, both my ADSL and mobile failed. That was the day I walked into the Vodafone shop and got the dongle.

The landline/mobile/Internet networks are essentially integrated, but worse is that the telcos are quite interdependent (such as iiNet and 3 using parts of the Optus network). With the aforementioned outage some businesses had Telstra backup links, but as Telstra didn’t receive prior notification of the outage (yea, next time you plan to dig up a cable, please call Telstra a day early will you!? -tssk) they couldn’t quite handle the extra traffic. Neat when a failover mechanism doesn’t actually work when you need it.

The mobile networks each only have a single central server, which for most if not all networks is based in Sydney. So if you sever the primary cable that connects Queensland to Sydney, and stuff up the backup cable, then not only do you sever all landline, Internet and mobile connections out of Queensland for that provider, but in addition you can’t actually make calls on your mobile within Queensland!

Yes indeed, Premier Bligh, unacceptable… you said that the first time, and it happened again… and it’ll repeat in the future, until you actually push for federal action. Given there’s currently a labour government (and in most other states also) you have some chance of making something happen… later perhaps not so much.

Part of the reason for this single point of failure is billing – in some cases it could work but activity cannot be billed… telcos of course don’t like that, but it’s their choice to not have resilience in their network so I reckon it’s their problem. Another option would be to create multiple networks (usually done per country, but that’s just an arbitrary choice, so why not states?), as in <telco> Queensland, which when you go to another state then roams to <telco> NSW, and so on. That’s just a technical choice, it simply means that if any part fails, not everything falls down.

Internet and mobile are not luxury extras in Australia, many of us (and definitely businesses) rely on either one or both. Imagine being a plumber or gardener, without your mobile you are simply out of business. Having some service level agreement with your telco that might give you a penalty payment in case of outages just doesn’t cut it! The problems are largely preventable, yet business decisions/imperatives/processes cause them to keep (re)occurring, even within the same telco/network. It’s not just about competition on the front end.

Other people’s mail is costly to me

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Before I lived at my current address, 4 students shared this location… and from what I can tell, before them some others. A lot of post still arrives in the mailbox for all these people,  even after a few years and me doing a lot of return-to-sender efforts. The same companies just keep sending stuff anyway, not just once but ongoing. Also some post has no decent return address. So what do I do?

The range includes super funds and insurance companies; local, state and federal government; credit card companies and banks; universities. I would be a identity theft goldmine, so what do I do? I apparently can’t make it stop. So I try to shred. After all, leaving someone’s Medicare card lying around in the garbage is not nice, is it. Not that I caused it, but it feels wrong anyway.

Because I have a home office, I have a medium load shredder, and thank goodness for that because my word what businesses send out…. “highlight” today was a cosmetics company that apparently felt the need to put some sachet with some cosmetic cream in the envelope also. Aargh.

Ponderings

  • does return-to-sender have any effect on company-client communications? I’m not talking addressed spam, but things like banks with their clients, etc. If so, how many RTS does it take to make it stick? If RTS doesn’t work, how do you make ’em stop?
  • Companies sending me addressed unsolicited mail… I need to dispose of these items through shredding. The disposal process as a whole takes considerable time, as will asking them to stop mailing me (which apparently is not effective). Can I bill companies for this? Could I sue a company for aiding identity theft?

Update… someone has informed me of details from the Australian Commonwealth Postal Services Act of 1975. Essentially I can neither retain nor destroy the mail, on penalty of up to 2 years of imprisonment. So, no shredding then. The ponderings still apply (and it makes addressed unsolicited mail and unresponsive companies even more costly for an individual!).

And I suppose I’ll just have to hand in un-returnable post to the local post office or mail distribution centre… I can’t keep or destroy it, in those cases I am unable to address it back… so if the post gets me stuck in that way, I’ll have to hand back the responsibility to them. Best I can do?

Input on Daylight Savings in South East Queensland

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A Queensland member of parliament has introduced a private members bill to hold a new referendum on Daylight Savings time. All Queenslanders would get a vote on it, but the daylight savings would just be for South East Queensland where it actually makes sense. The online request for input (until May 31st, so fill in now!) also asks whether a trial should be held in SEQ prior to the referendum.

I’m for Daylight Savings in SEQ… it would provide us with longer light in the evenings in the summer. Also, many people work with people in other states. Speaking from personal experience, it’s a pest in summer because NSW and VIC are an hourr ahead, and to manage I often need to be available an hour earlier to talk with clients while still having the regular hours as well – so essentially the working day becomes an hour longer… that’s really just weird and unnecessary.

Because Queensland is so large, it does not necessarily make sense to have all of QLD do the daylight savings. While that may appear odd, there is a natural “boundary” in central queensland below which DST would apply.

Advertising – stupid sales

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Below is an email exchange between someone trying to sell me a service (online advertising) and myself. It started with an unsolicited email (aka spam) but sometimes I’m just intrigued to see whether I can get some sense out of people. In this case, not.

Original mail:

I work for ***, a leading broker of online advertising, dealing with thousands of independent webmasters like yourself, worldwide.

I’ve had a look at your site and think Openquery.com would be a good match for our client, whose target demographic is similar to your own. We’re working on their behalf to acquire advertising from sites such as yours.

We would be interested in purchasing advertising in the form of a text-based advert on your site. We pay you a fixed annual fee for our advertisements.

My initial reply:

Can you please describe that target demographic to me?
thanks

Their reply:

Great hearing from you today. Thank you for your response.
I have two pricing options for you, depending on the type of client you would be interested in working with.

Option 1: We can offer you 250USD for a client in the gaming industry; or
Option 2: We can offer you 200USD for a client in industries including mobile phones, travel or insurance.

Let us know your preferred industry. Next, we’ll complete a quick assessment of your site and then advise you of the best client fit. In the meantime we can answer any questions you might have.

My reply:

I already asked you a question in my previous reply, and your response did not address it. In the above you are trying to sell me something, and we’re by no means at that stage. To refresh your memory, you wrote:

>> I’ve had a look at your site and think Openquery.com would be a good
>> match for our client, whose target demographic is similar to your own.

And I asked:

> Can you please describe that target demographic to me?

Feel free to answer the question; it was your own statement I am referring to, and I do hope you are not making unfounded statements.
thanks

Their response:

I apologise for that. The target demographic for our client’s advert would typically be anyone who has access to the internet, and it would also depend on the type of client you would choose.(Option 1 or 2)

Let me know what you think.

My final reply:

I think that’s pathetic and useless.

“anyone with access to the Internet” has absolutely no reason to visit our site, as it’s highly specialised. Conclusion: you did not research your prospective client (me and my site) at all.
Go away.

Mum’s 80th

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Right, I’m off… my mum has invited me to her 80th birthday dinner in Amersfoort (The Netherlands), and who can refuse such a request! It’s a very respectable age.

My dad sadly didn’t make it that far, he died at age 72 when I was merely 9. To clarify: I was the last of 3 in his second marriage… I do remember him, it’s just a pity we didn’t get more time together…

Wanna learn something really interesting? Phoebe was born 100 years after my dad: 1905 -> 2005. How’s that.