SMS - the purest form of rip-off

The founder of Vodafone, the late Sir Gerald Whent, is reputed to have described the SMS message as "the purest form of profit ever invented". They cost the networks close to zero to send, because they use the control channel which SMS systems use to listen for traffic (the original idea was not to charge for them at all) and the mathematics are obscene. If you used the total message length you'd be sending a tenth of a kilobyte (.13671875 Kbytes) of data, which means you're paying roughly 1c for every 7 bytes of data or $1,497.97 for a single megabyte.

But the most graphic illustration of the concentrated greed they represent came from a calculation done for the BBC 4 Dispatches show a couple of weeks ago (our ownrapid calculation, which could be wrong, suggests it would cost more than $500,000 to download a show like that via SMS, rather than by Bit Torrent). They got a scientist to work out the real cost of transmitting a megabyte of data back to earth from the Hubble Space Telescope: $174. If the scientists were forced to use SMS, it would cost four times as much. That, however, is at the British SMS rate of 5p per text message. If they were using an Australian network, they'd be paying six times as much. If you could somehow get all your friends into deep space, you'd save a heck of a lot on texting.

Posted by cw at 06:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Australia: training ground for consumer abuse

Wouldn't it be nice if our shiny new Rudd Government did something about the pitiful neglect of consumer rights in this country? The latest example of the ease with which the Australian public can have its entitlements shredded by a succession of corporations is the fact that eBay Australia decided to beta test its plan to force its customers to use its subsidiary, PayPal, to make online payments for purchases where else ... but in the land where the concept of the fair go is an ironic cliche, with the legislative force of a frige magnet.

From June 17, eBay Australia says customers must pay for items directly from a PayPal account, or Visa or MasterCard transactions processed by PayPal.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has given eBay until May 23 to respond to concerns over the exclusivity deal, but you'd be kidding yourself if you thought it was acting in the interests of consumers. It's the competition aspect it's worried about. I wonder, in fact, if the ACCC these days isn't focused too much on business competition, rather than consumer rights.

Here's the other thing that had me gasping for breath. The ACCC has been spurred by submissions from the Australian Bankers Association, the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission. According to the bankers, "the proposal would limit the choice of eBay buyers and sellers "without justification for doing so". The hypocrisy of Australian banks, who have milked consumers in a way no other country would tolerate, invoking concern for consumers deprived of choice is peerless, isn't it?

But if eBay gets knocked back, it won't be because of the impact on consumers, it will be because the banks and big business want to nip anything in the bud that might cost them revenue.

This is a country where government authorities tend to play the role of rangers in a native reserve dedicated to the welfare of the big game hunters. The wild life might get to vote, but once the park rangers are in office, it's the big game lobby that has all the influence.

A US eBay executive acknowledged that the Australian move, which according to the company is designed to reduce disputes and restore trust in the marketplace - too bad it's going to cost them more than other payment options - is a likely model for similar action overseas.

The truth is eBay almost certainly wouldn't dare to introduce such a model in the US or Europe. American and Continental consumers are likely to savage them. They'll see what they can get away with here first, and then tone it down a little bit for the American market.

It all takes me back to years ago, when Microsoft tested its proposal for charging for technical support on the bunnies Down Under. You might find it hard to believe, but in those days, tech support was free.

Continue reading "Australia: training ground for consumer abuse"

Posted by cw at 02:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The dread Norton LU1825 error ... and Miranda Jetlagg

Regular readers will be aware of my contempt - there's no other word for it - for Norton AntiVirus, and purely by association, anything else that comes out of the Symantec camp.

The company seems adept at making bloated, resource-hogging programs that plague users with problems, and generally prove difficult to remove. The continued market leadership of Norton's is living proof of the power of advertising, just as Big Pond continues to prove that bleeding money from consumers while offering them less than the competition doesn't necessarily give a company a bad name. We suspect that the Norton and Telstra advertising agencies tap directly into a little-known masochism impulse that exists in the unconscious of the average consumer, compelling them to give themselves a hard time.

The following email from "Miranda Jetlagg" which lobbed into our Inbox last week, indicates the sort of thing we're talking about. The LU1825 error, by the way, is one of those typical Symantec Live Update faults that can drive a victim insane. Miranda's well on the way.

Whoever Miranda Jetlagg is, she's a scream. The email was headed "I'm So Cyberly Challenged, I Bought the Wrong Windows For Dummies Book!" And it continued thus:

Dear Bleeding Edge,

The above sentence is true.....I DID buy the wrong version of "Windows for Dummies".
Do they make one called, "Windows for F__kwits"?

Therefore, it was with huge relief I stumbled across your Bleeding Edge column. As a publicist in the music biz I'm meant to be on the cutting edge. However my cyberskills, (or lack thereof) are consuming my time and credibility.

I've just spent (wasted!) an hour trying to find the Melbourne PC User Group you mentioned in yesterdaze column.
I gooooogled it, followed the link but got lost in the pages. By the end I'd forgotten what I'd started. Welcome to my world.

Can you direct me to a simple fix-it-all solution for an extreme idiot. I noticed Tinyurl reerences and it seems I want one of everything!.

But my major priority right now is my Norton's, and I ain't talking motor bikes. I actually purchased the whole shebang, including System Works (oh no, it doesn't!). After some initial problems, I decided to stick to the basics and just take advantage of their security.

That was OK ... until last week. I check for udates daily and suddenly, for no apparent reason, the update wouldn't download. I spent hours online with their remote help, ironically not remotely helpful at all. Followed all their instructions to fix Error "LU1825", downloaded and run the symKBFix tool, but it will not activate (I can relate!).
When I click the 'Next' button as instructed, nothing happens.

I suspect the fault's at their end - a similar situation arose with the SystemWorks. Eventually they fixed it at their end and apologised for the inconvenience.

So in bleeding desperation, I turn to Bleeding Edge. One word sums it up ... "Aaaaaargh!!!"

i'd love to uninstall the Norton's and download the free AVG program instead. I used to use that one and it never fought back. But bfeore wasting my hardly earned more than $100, I'm turning to you.

What can you advise? Norton's sent me an email encouraging me to go through the entire remote process again, but once again the "Next" button didn't react as they said it would. And I simply don't have the time to repeat failure. I'm so desperate for cyber solutions I'd be happy to pay for solutions. So far my solutions have only bought more problems.

OK, this is getting way too untechnical but is a fairly good example of how I spend my cyber time. I repeat, "Aaaaargh!"

Can you help a desperate woman? The computer goddess didn't!

Miranda Jetlagg

My advice would be to rip anything from Norton from the PC and re-install AVG. (I do hope she completely uninstalled AVG before installing Norton. I'd also advise her to ring Melbourne PC and have them fax her the membership form. If anyone needs their services, it's Miranda. (I did include the phone number in the column, but Miranda clearly isn't thinking too clearly these days.)

Do you have any advice for her?

Posted by cw at 11:12 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Who're you gonna call?

While we were shooting Autumn photos today, we chanced across an RACV man.

He was changing the back tyre for a client - both of them were in good spirits, he welcomed a photo as long as "my mug isn't in it". I guess in the following months, he'll have all kinds of requests for dead battery resuscitation, start up problems and so on.

It's a pity that we don't have an RACV equivalent for rescuing people from Windows BSOD or malware. We've got the redoubtable Bleeding Edge Forum though, and our stalwarts will brave Melbourne weather to type a response (no liability, Service Level Agreement implied, though.)

Seems like people just have to resort to worshipping amulets and things.

Posted by Anandasim at 11:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Fair(y) Use Tale

Hi Folks,

Long time no blog. I've been enamoured with my other interest, photography. Been participating at the forum but otherwise got diverted from IT blogging here. Dear Charles gave me a yell and we were wondering how to re-invigorate this blog. He's been active in attempts to re-vitalise the Melb. PC User Group and as usual, he has a finger on the pulse of lots of tech things.

I was gonna write on a new, simple way to reduce the number of clicks needed when you save or open a file in Microsoft Office and Windows but my bro. just pointed me to an interesting YouTube video on copyright. It's a blast.

Posted by Anandasim at 10:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Melb PC and me

This is a (very small) preview for Bleeding Edge visitors, and an explanation for my recent silence. As I posted earlier, I joined the Melb PC committee to do something about the blog, rather than just being critical (not that I'm apologising for being critical, but it was becoming increasingly apparent that the workload on the much-reduced committee was simply too great.)

Since then then the project has blown out, and now involves overseeing the complete re-organisation of the entire Web site. I've prepared a proposal which goes to the committee tonight, and assuming it's accepted, it's going to be pretty busy around here.

It's a massive task, and it won't happen unless we can gather a lot of support from all sections of the group. I think it's absolutely essential if Melb PC is to survive. If you're interested in the group's future and you have some spare time ... What are we talking about? Who has spare time these days? ... If you're prepared to help, let me know.

The plan is by no means complete, and I'm sure the group will be prepared to consider any suggestions, so if you have ideas, I'd love to hear them. I think we have an opportunity to do something that will create a fantastic community resource online, extend the influence and the reach of Melb PC, and be a lot of fun to be involved with.

For instance, I'd love to get the team which has done such a brilliant job on the Bleeding Edge forum involved. They know a lot about building a community, and managing a forum, which will be an essential element of the re-development.

More details after the meeting.

Posted by cw at 11:19 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)

Software love affairs

One of the questions that we at the Bleeding Edge Software Dating Agency continually wrestle with, is what precise ingredients – the chemistry if you like – are the catalysts for a successful relationship between the parties in a relationship.
We do our best to promote a successful match, but it's generally impossible to predict whether that shy, retiring little piece of software will spark the light of love in the eyes of, say, an extroverted Windows XP user of advancing years, or possibly a young Vista enthusiast who's looking for fun.
Our latest research project, in which we asked readers to nominate their three favourite pieces of software – apart from the operating system, browser, word processor, spreadsheet, torrent client etc. – certainly gave us a some encouraging pointers.
Some of our clients, for instance, simply have wandering eyes, and are unlikely to settle down with any two or three steady partners. They're conducting wild flings with a harem of attractive programs.
Take Geoff, for instance. He sent us a list of eight programs that he's bought and installed for his dalliances. His particular favourite seems to be Roboform2Go ($US39.95 from tinyurl.com/mddlb). Install it on a USB key and it will memorise your passwords and log you in automatically to Web sites, complete long registration and check-out forms, generate secure passwords, encrypt data and combat phishing scams and keyloggers.

Continue reading "Software love affairs"

Posted by cw at 11:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Skype's the videoconferencing limit

Bleeding Edge has reached that stage in life where our kids and their partners have become much smarter than we are. We’ve been trying to ignore the tell-tale signs of intellectual relegation, but it’s now all too obvious. The early evidence suggests, indeed, that our brain power is rapidly being overtaken by our 10-month-old grand-daughter.
This particular life passage does have its compensations. Rather than having to keep up with the advance of technology all by ourselves, we're at last starting to get some help.
Take Skype, for instance. We've played with the internet-based
phone service from time to time, but we've largely avoided its free and paid services. While we've embraced VoIP as a tool to slash our phone bills, we've relied on specialists like MyNetFone or PennyTel, and the business provider Mytel, which we still regard as a much better bet for local and long-distance voice calls.
And when Skype introduced videoconferencing, just over two years ago, we weren't all that enthusiastic. We much preferred the Mac's iChat service, and the group chat rooms of PalTalk.

Continue reading "Skype's the videoconferencing limit"

Posted by cw at 12:03 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Benefits of digital "piracy"

What was it we were accused of when we suggested that downloading of copyrighted material benefitted the music and video production industries? Oh yes, "the most inane comment and lamest attempt at justifying the download of copyrighted material I've ever seen."

Well it looks like we're not the only idiots. Oxford University economist Karen Croxson has done research that indicates that the word-of-mouth (WOM) promotion or "buzz" created by Internet users raving about their finds stimulates latent demand. She says that "WOM's significance for economic outcomes has received little attention from economists, but this is remiss." She quotes other researchers looking at online chatroom conversations to understand the implications for TV show success: "WOM appears to be especially important for entertainment goods."

Posted by cw at 12:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Mouth. Money. Melb PC

I've been thinking about my criticism of Melb PC's leadership, conscious of the fact that for years now I've been frustrated by the group's lack of direction. From time to time I've thought about standing for the committee, but I've told myself that I'm too busy.

This morning I've realised that if I want to see change, I've got to be prepared to be a part of the process. I've got to be in a position to argue my case, convince others, and demonstrate what I firmly believe can be achieved.

So I've sent off an email to the president, Lyn Goodall, expressing my interest in one of the two casual vacancies on committee. If I'm accepted - and I can't see why they'd knock me back - I'll be looking to concentrate on the group's online presence, and possibly its public profile. These are areas in which I have professional expertise.

If my offer is accepted, I'll also be looking for able, enthusiastic helpers. I'm pretty sure there's a lot of them around this blog, so let me know if you're willing to pitch in.

Posted by cw at 09:30 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)