JustLocal

MyAnswers: Using iPhone 3GS Bluetooth to connect Android tablet to the internet

2012-01-11T19:26:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2190 is now available:

I decided to test connecting an Android Tablet (Toshiba and Acer) to an iPhone 3GS using Bluetooth tethering to connect to the internet and was surprised by the result.

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

Alert: Mates Rates (AU) - Sell your products & services on our website

2012-01-11T17:02:00.000+11:00

I’ve been receiving quite a few spam emails from Image Marketing Group under the banner of Mates Rates.

I’d advise that if you receive a spam email from a company you should consider not dealing with that company. Remember if they’re spamming you then they’re spamming others. You should use businesses which are respectful of the laws of the country.

If you receive these emails delete them and don’t be tempted to deal with them.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Hailstones in Templestowe

2012-01-11T11:51:00.001+11:00

Certainly is a wild and woolly day weather wise in Templestowe. The power is still off and now we've just had a hailstone shower. Kelvin Eldridgewww.OnlineConnections.com.auCall 0415 910 703 if you require help with your computer. No problem too small.

Alert: Action Required : Upgrade to Latest Acrobat Reader for Windows?

2011-12-20T13:38:00.001+11:00

I received a number of these emails just now so it looks like a mass sending of emails is under way to most likely trick people in some way. If you receive any unsolicited emails regarding Acrobat Reader software you should delete the emails.

Don’t click on links in unsolicited emails. Open your browser and go to the Adobe site if you require an updated version of Adobe Reader or other products.

All other emails will undoubtedly by fake with malicious intent. This email has links to a web site which has name servers ending in .ru which indicates Russia. The web site was registered supposedly by someone with an address in London in the UK.

I often wonder why if these emails lead to a valid web site address the site can’t be taken down immediately so no harm is done. The domain registrars should take more responsibility and act quickly to minimise harm to the community. They are after all making money from providing the domains so people can get ripped off so they should take more responsibility for their services.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Red Energy increases electricity Service To Property charge by 25%

2011-12-20T12:56:00.000+11:00

When I received the letter from Red Energy regarding electricity price increases it is never a good omen. However when I looked at the Service To Property charge, I was floored. A staggering 25% increase and this is before we see the flow on from the Carbon Tax which will add hundreds of dollars a year to most people’s energy bills.

The problem is I feel we’re being conned by the government. As people install low energy lights, solar panels and other government initiatives, the cost of those initiatives will be put back onto us through our energy bills. We are in effect being taxed indirectly and we can’t see the taxes. The government schemes are not cost effective. Each low energy light which can be purchased for a dollar or two is worth $10 as part of the scheme and we all end up paying for that.

I decided to pay for my own low energy lights, reduce my electricity usage rather than putting in solar panels which would put a cost on myself and neighbours, but now, even though we use under 40% of the average household, that effort is being eroded as the government cost is being put on the Service To Property, which is a cost I can’t reduce.

The irony is those who installed solar panels will soon find their savings completely eroded by the energy credits they now have to pay for via their increased energy bills. A group of 11 neighbours got together and found their saving from installing solar panels to be only around $200 a year. Now with this increase, a significant portion of that saving will have been further eroded. They’re unlikely to ever recover the cost of installing the panels.

What can we do about it? Unfortunately I’m at a loss as to what we can do about. For the government this is about raising taxes indirectly. They know we don’t have any real choices when it comes to power and gas.

When you are reviewing electricity retailers, a very important figure to consider is their Service To Property charge. Don’t just look at the kWh rate. I’ve found some retailers with lower kWh rates to end up being more expensive because of their Service To Property charge. A good technique is to enter your usage for the last 12 months and then compare both the rate and the service to property charges across electricity and gas retailers.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

MyAnswers: Google Samsung Nexus S available online for $269.

2011-12-19T15:08:00.000+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2188 is now available:

Google Nexus S available online for $269.

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

Many thanks to Anthony Osborne for his articles during 2011.

2011-12-18T22:36:00.000+11:00

For those living in the Rowville/Lysterfield area you may wish to keep an eye on the JustLocal blog maintained by Anthony Osborne (www.AnthonyOsborne.com). A big thanks to Anthony for the articles helping to keep the community of Rowville and Lysterfield updated with happenings in their area.

You can read the Rowville/Lysterfield blog at www.AnthonyOsborne.com and also http://justlocal3178.blogspot.com.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

MyAnswers: Brother all-in-one unit MFC-885CW shows NO CARTRIDGE.

2011-12-18T20:36:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2187 is now available:

Brother all-in-one unit MFC-885CW shows NO CARTRIDGE on the display even though there is a cartridge installed.

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

Do you know who you're dealing with?

2011-12-18T20:20:00.000+11:00

I recently wrote a blog post for Credit Matters to provide atip to help business people check out new businesses they may be dealing with. The blog post is republished here for JustLocal readers.

Have you ever received an email out of the blue and thought you’d be interested in the services of the business. Dealing with a complete stranger is potentially a recipe for a disaster. One technique to gain more information, which I find very useful, is to use the government’s ABN site. You can check out the person’s business details by entering their ABN number or their business name. Whilst this doesn’t mean they’ll be good to deal with, at least you’ve started the review process and the information you gather can be very useful.

For example I met a person who promoted themselves as being very successful in a networking group. When I checked their details they weren’t registered for GST, which meant at the time their business turnover was less than $50,000 a year. I have no problems dealing with other small businesses, but I do feel a little cautious when people try to portray themselves as different from what they are. With another business in Eltham, I wanted to purchase a dishwasher, but since I couldn’t find their business name in the register I didn’t feel confident in using their business.

I check out businesses a number of times a week and going to the government web site, and then through their pages, I found was a bit slow. To speed things up I created a search engine I could add to Internet Explorer. The search engine is the field in the top right of Internet Explorer versions 7 and 8, and in Internet Explorer 9 the search engine has been combined with the field where you enter a web site address. A lot of people don’t even know the search engine feature is there but I find it a very useful feature. I can now enter the ABN number or the company name, select the ABN search by number or name, and presto, I have their details.

If you regularly check ABN details for businesses and would like to install the ABN search engines in Internet Explorer, visit the “Fun With Search” page I created (http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/search-fun/), scroll down to the Australian Business Number section and click on each of the links to install the search engines. (Don’t set the search engine as the default as more than likely you don’t want the ABN search engine as the default.)

Once the search engine is installed you can search the ABN register by number or name. For example, in the search box in Internet Explorer type “Online Connections” (without the quotes), click on the drop down arrow next to the search field, select “JustLocal ABN (Name)” and you’ll go direct to the ABN site. There you’ll see the first two entries which are for my business.

This is where it gets exciting. You can see the postcode so you know where I’m located. You’ll see two entries so you can see how my business structure has changed over time. You can see the business is registered for GST. Most importantly you’ve confirmed the business is a registered entity.

Checking that a business is registered is just one of the steps you can take to check out a business you may wish to deal with. By adding an ABN search engine to the Internet Explorer browser the task of checking the ABN details becomes very quick and easy. I trust you’ll find using the search engine as convenient as I do.

Kelvin Eldridge
Online Connections
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Alert: Daily Deal - APPLE IPHONE 4S BLACK 64GB 24CT GOLD PLATED

2011-12-16T11:14:00.001+11:00

I received a number of copies of an email with the subject Daily Deal - APPLE IPHONE 4S BLACK 64GB 24CT GOLD PLATED. These emails are fake and should be deleted.

What is interesting about this fake email is that nearly all the links in the email are links to eBay. If you check links before visiting the site to see if the advertisement is legitimate this could trick some people. You need to check all the links and in particular the link you use. The email is well formed and looks like and eBay email which could trick a number of people.

The emails were sent from Italy and the suspect links resolve to an Italian domain.

Take care in the run up to Christmas and the subsequent sales period. A bargain too good to be true probably is.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

"Flash Player Upgrade required" message when in Facebook. - MyAnswers

2011-12-13T09:49:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2186 is now available:

"Flash Player Upgrade required" message when in Facebook. I've installed the Flash upgrade. Every time I restart the computer I have to upgrade Flash again as I get the same message. I'm using Windows Vista.

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

Dodo Buddy Box. Low cost landline too good to believe.

2011-11-30T12:55:00.001+11:00

I’ve now completed my trials of the Dodo Buddy Box over a period of a couple of months. Those interested in purchasing a Dodo Buddy Box would benefit from reading MyAnswers solution 2168.

The Dodo Buddy Box offers the promise of a low cost landline for home users and at $9.90 a month including $10 worth of calls it really is a great offer. But the question is, “is it too good to be true?”

I purchased the Dodo Buddy Box and decided to share my experiences and my testing. A landline for $9.90 a month would suit many young people and could save them a great deal of money compared to using a mobile phone as the Dodo Buddy Box provides fixed cost local calls.

For those interested check out MyAnswers solution 2168.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Backup programs for Online Connections and JustLocal clients

2011-11-23T15:05:00.001+11:00

Backup programs used to be popular software packages, but now there doesn’t seem to be an easy low cost method for people to backup their data from their computer. I’ve reviewed a lot of mainstream programs and frankly I haven’t found them to be very good. One program I did find to be good, but the supplier isn’t’ actively promoting the program so I don’t expect it will have a long term life.

Windows used to have an excellent backup program built into Windows XP, but since Vista and Windows 7 were released, the backup program included with Windows is adequate.

I decided there had to be a better way to perform the relatively simple task of performing a backup by copying the desired folders from a computer to an external drive. I wanted the files to be copied and not amalgamated into a single big backup file because if a restore is required, a person can easily copy the file from the external drive back to their computer. I wanted each backup to be separate as a single backup is easily overwritten by corrupted data. I wanted a program to check the files copied matched in number and total bytes to ensure the backup completed successfully.

As part of my consulting and support service I’m now able to install a simple backup approach for clients as part of the service call with no cost for software.

One of the biggest problems I have is when I arrive at a new client’s premises, is invariably they haven’t done a backup and that can add hundreds of dollars in time to their support cost. To start working on a computer without having a current copy of the main files is not best practice. Whilst in many cases you can fix a problem, there is always the risk of losing data and people will be very unhappy if they lose their important data, emails and photos.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support in Templestowe and the surrounding suburbs.
No call-out fee or minimum charge for local customers.
Satisfaction guaranteed.

Alert: Mercury Exposure. DONT TAKE THIS LIGHTLY

2011-11-18T17:07:00.001+11:00

I received an email from a family member who had received the email from another family member. The subject was Mercury Exposure and the email contained two PDF files (Mercury Exposure.pdf and Health & Safety Warning – energy saving bulbs.pdf).

The email is a hoax designed to trick people to send it on.

Before sending on emails like this it is a good idea to search the internet to check whether it is a hoax or not. The problem is people receive this information from a trusted friend and believe it to be true. You owe it to the people you know to check the validity of the information before sending it on. It only takes a moment with a Google search on key phrases in the email to determine it is a hoax.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

MyAnswers: Woolworths Homeshop, Coles Online prices compared to Coles supermarket.

2011-11-18T16:25:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2185 is now available:

How does Woolworths Homeshop and Coles Online prices compare with going to the Coles supermarket?

Click here to obtain the solution.

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Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

Alert: Decrapifier mentioned on radio recently caused computer to stop working and constantly reboot.

2011-11-10T09:52:00.000+11:00

I recently attended a client who had heard on a radio station about a decrapifier program which could clean up their computer. They downloaded and ran their computer. As a result, when the computer restarted it would constantly reboot. There was no way to run Safe mode because selecting any option would reboot the computer.

I’d highly recommend that you do not risk using one of these programs. It is very easy to clean up your computer manually and there is less risk of a problem.

It took many hours to get this computer up and running again. I use techniques not generally known by an average user. I prefer to fix a computer if I can, because often there is important data on the computer the person would prefer to save such as their photographs, data and documents. In this situation the cost effective approach would normally be to reinstall the operating system but that could mean loss of data.

Do keep in mind when you’re listening to radio, watching TV, or reading newspaper articles, those presenting the information have a job to present the information and in most cases won’t be running a computer support business. It is very easy to read and report on information and new programs, but working with and living with those programs is where you find out what works and what doesn’t work.

As another example, one of my clients heard on radio about a site which they visited. They ended up infecting their computer with malware which displayed pornographic material. That wasn’t a good outcome for the office and took a number of hours to fix.

Be careful of the advice you receive from the general media. In general it is good information and I believe no harm would ever be intended, but well meaning advice doesn’t always end up with a good outcome.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Today I was blog spammed by Function Rooms Melbourne

2011-11-07T18:13:00.001+11:00

I thought I’d share what I think is becoming an epidemic on the internet and it is blog spam. Email spam is now illegal, but blog spamming isn’t. It may not be appropriate, and to a degree, most of us at one stage or another will blog spam by writing an article on a site which has a link back to our own site. We give to get a little and generally both parties are benefiting. The comment is legitimate because you’ve read the article and want to add value to the site by adding your information. In return the site appreciates the extra input and is happy to give some link love to the contributor. A win-win for both parties.

But what I suspect is now happening is people are purchasing article marketing programs which submit a generic article to hundreds or thousands of web sites automatically. The aim is to get more links so Google will raise the importance of the person’s site so they get more business. As a business strategy this is a good move, but is it right to post rubbish on others’ sites for your own benefit. I don’t think it is. The means does not always justify the end.

Google was built on the principle of the importance of a site was based on the number of sites linking to the site and in the early days of the internet that was a good strategy. For example Adobe’s site scores a 10 out of 10 in terms of PageRank (Google’s measure of importance) because so many people use Acrobat Reader and link to Adobe’s site so people can easily download and install the software.

Now however, the importance of a site if links are used, is only as good a someone purchasing a program and then spamming thousands of other sites. Blog spamming is possible, it isn’t illegal, but is it a good business methodology and in my opinion it isn’t. If a business uses inappropriate techniques it reflects on the ethics of the business. Just because something can be done it doesn’t necessarily mean it should be.

Right now I am looking for a function room, but I wouldn’t even consider Function Rooms Melbourne because of their approach to business.

Just as interesting when I checked their site, every comment on their site was blog spam. When I see a site with a lot of blog spam I consider that business to lack quality control.

If you’re considering automatically posting articles to sites using an article marketing robot or similar technique, ask yourself how will that reflect on your business. There are a lot of cowboys in the internet market who are prepared to make money and that could be at the expense of your business reputation. Be careful.

If you have a site, turn off the automatic acceptance of comments and review the comments. Most comments now are blog spam. In the past people didn’t know about blog spam so they saw lots of comments as a sign of activity. Now if you see lots of activity which is blog spam, it indicates the comments don’t have any value, even the legitimate ones.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Alert: Virgin Mobile - Issue found and fixed.

2011-11-04T14:27:00.000+11:00

I regularly receive and malicious emails advise readers. One form of a malicious email is an email which comes from a well known company. The email looks legitimate because it is can be a very good copy of a legitimate email that has been sent out by the company. The very good copies are almost impossible to distinguish from the original. The links in the email usually give the fake email away as they take people to a site which looks like the company, but is a slightly different domain name. A small change tricks many people into revealing their username and password details.

Today I received an email which is most likely from Virgin Mobile, but what looks suspicious is the links in the email don’t go directly to the Virgin Mobile site. They go via a site that appears unrelated. I suspect the site is a marketing site, where if you click on the link they can measure who clicked and then track that person. But is isn’t a Virgin Mobile site. If you follow the link you’ll then be redirected to the Virgin site.

I consider this to be bad form for a large company like Virgin. Given the large number of people who are tricked into revealing their details there is no reason to provide a link. People can be advised to go to the site which can be provided as straight text for people to copy and paste into their browser.

The following is the start of the email.

Hi Kelvin,

Our technical team has recently corrected an error in your service which may have caused some of your data to expire a day or two before its due date.

As an apology for the error and as a gesture of goodwill, we're going to add 300MB of data to your account.

Now given I’m on a yearly data plan and it is many months before my plan expires, this really is a suspicious email. In addition I did have a problem with Virgin Mobile. I updated my details so all communication would go to my email address and not a Virgin email address. The problem is this doesn’t apply to your data usage. I thought I’d be advised when the first months data was expiring but those emails didn’t go to the address I provided and I lost a couple of gigabytes of data. Now I’m receiving an email which doesn’t appear to be related to my plan so it really does feel suspicious. The only way I can check is to call their customer service, who when I called last time to provide constructive feedback to help Virgin I was treated quite abruptly, so I really don’t want to spent the time waiting on the line to get treated poorly again.

I highly recommend that if you do receive an email from Virgin Mobile, or any other company, and in particular when it requires you to enter a username and password, don’t click on a link in the email. Open your browser and enter the web site address. If you do that you can’t be tricked by the scammers.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Computer PC repair - Templestowe, Doncaster, Doncaster East, Templestowe Lower, Eltham, Lower Plenty, Montmorency

2011-11-04T00:47:00.001+11:00

Two new customers, who were local, recently made comments when I was repairing their computers.

The first was, that because I was local, how much easier it was to get the computer fixed. Instead of having to unplug all the cables, trying to remember where they went, then lugging the computer off to a business a few suburbs away and then picking it up again a few days later, all they had to do was call me in. In fact not only did I repair the problem I was called in for, but I also cleaned up two other computers whilst the first computer was downloading software or running programs when nothing else could be done.

The second person said it removed a lot of pressure for them. The previous person who helped them was from the other side of the city and so they felt uncomfortable about the time involved getting them out to look at their problem. I fixed the problem for this person in about 15 minutes, which is all they would have been charged for, since I don’t charge a call out fee or a fixed hourly charge. They had issues with the performance of the computer which I also fixed for them.

If you have a computer or computer related problem, live in Templestowe, Doncaster, Doncaster East, Templestowe Lower, Eltham, Lower Plenty or Montmorency, send me an email or give me a call on 0415 910 703. Because I’m just around the corner, it really does change the way support is provided. It is much easier to organise a time for support because I don’t have to fight traffic and travel half way across Melbourne. In quite a few cases people have additional problems they’d like looked at. If a second trip is required there isn’t any pressure. I can return at a suitable time because there is very little travel involved. More often than not I can complete additional tasks if required because there is very little travel time to the next customer.

Providing local support is a win-win situation. I don’t have to fight my way through traffic and customers don’t have to pay a call-out or travel fee. I recall when I worked for a Chartered Accounting firm that for one client there was an hour of travel to get to the client, an hour of work and then an hour of return travel. That’s three hours of chargeable time where the benefit to the client is one hour of actual work. That doesn’t happen when you provide local support. I also like the idea that I’m not impacting the environment as much by minimising the travel involved.

With no call-out fee, and no minimum hourly charge, the customer only pays for the time involved to fix their problem. I also offer a satisfaction guarantee which means I’m not happy if the customer isn’t happy. It hasn’t happened yet, but I offer it because one day there will be a problem I can’t solve.

Supporting locals really does have a great feel about it. Because I live in the same area as customers we already have something in common. I know I’m helping a local when I go out to fix a problem and that’s a pretty good feeling.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if you have a computer related problem and need help.

Opera Mini 6.5 now available for the Apple iPhone.

2011-11-03T13:56:00.000+11:00

Yesterday I installed the update to Opera for the Apple iPhone. Even though I don’t use it much, there are times when pages do not display correctly in Safari and in those cases I’ve found Opera to be very handy. Another neat feature is Opera compresses data and it shows you how much data you’ve saved using their servers. If you need to watch your data allowance this may be a good way to save quite a few megabytes whilst browsing. This Opera update initially didn’t display some pages correctly for me so you need to check the settings.

I also share my notes with others via the MyAnswers web site (www.MyAnswers.biz) and when I enter another MyAnswers solution, I publish a blog entry on the MyAnswers blog to let people know of the new solution. With over 2,000 solutions MyAnswers is a wealth of knowledge I use nearly every day to assist my clients. The solutions are made available to the public for a small charge.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

SEO firms, Optimizing SEO and JustLocal

2011-10-31T16:18:00.001+11:00

The aim of JustLocal is to provide low cost advertising guaranteed to work for micro and small businesses to help promote their business in their local area. Many online directories include information on businesses in their database which helps grow the directories presence on the internet. Our approach is to link directly to the site of the business. By doing this we help promote and grow your business internet presence.

By building a stronger local business community, services such as SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) become less important, but why put all your eggs in the one basket. We have often passed on tips and assisted businesses with their search engine optimisation. A couple of basic techniques can take a site from having no presence to having a very good presence. One client had no presence when people searched for their business name using Google with Pages From Australia. Now they have a number one position for their business name.

Now the business has the best of both worlds. A presence in JustLocal for their local area and a presence in Google for those searching for their business name using Pages from Australia.

If you’re a small business owner and thinking about hiring an SEO firm (which can be very costly with no guarantee of a result) then consider advertising with JustLocal. Chances are, if we see something obvious which will enhance your presence on the internet, we’ll pass on the tip as part of our service. We don’t promote ourselves as an SEO firm, but we can also assist businesses with SEO techniques if required. You reached this page because of our SEO approach, so you know it works.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
(JustLocal, an Online Connections service.)

Is American spelling causing you a problem in Microsoft Office, Word or Outlook?

2011-10-29T15:27:00.001+11:00

Many people mention they have a problem with American spelling in their documents. I’ve heard of lecturers frowning on students using American spelling, from a number of people attending different tertiary institutions.

The problem isn’t the spelling, it is that most people assume that spelling words with “ize” is using the American spelling. In Australia we have the unusual situation where we have two or more ways to spell thousands of words. For example “organise” and “organize” are both correct in Australia. However the preferred spelling is “organise” and if you use “organize”, people will often consider the spelling is wrong.

It is now very easy to use the preferred Australian English spelling with the Exclude file I make available for Word 2003, Outlook 2003, Office 2007 and Office 2010 (which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Access). The Exclude file marks thousands of words as incorrect spelling so you can easily use the preferred spelling, which also has the advantage of resulting in consistent spelling in your documents.

For more information visit the Microsoft Exclude page.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Helping Australians one word at a time.

Alert: Facebook app Pink Your Profile being a virus is a hoax.

2011-10-29T15:13:00.001+11:00

A person said to me they'd been told they were concerned they’d installed a virus into their iPod Touch by running a Pink Your Profile app. I investigated this and found this was a hoax. The Pink Your Profile app appears to have been a legitimate app from CUA (Credit Union Australia) to raise money for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

My initial thought was the person had run the app on their iPod Touch and it was very unlikely this would be a virus. Performing a search on the internet found the following page on the Hoax Slayer confirming this was a hoax.

Hoax - Facebook 'Add Pink Tinge to Your Profile' Virus Warning... Read More

If you are told about a virus I suggest that before telling others, that you first do a search on the internet. In addition, be careful of the sites you visit as part of your investigation because they could be malware sites set up to trick you. A number of clients now send requests to check out a suspicious email when they’re concerned.

A hoax like this is usually little more than a nuisance. But it is possible if people were to believe the hoax, that they may end up paying to have someone check their computer when in fact there was no need to incur the cost. If you receive a suspicious email, before letting your family and friends know please take a moment to do a little research. If you don’t you may end up causing unwanted and unnecessary stress, or even an unnecessary repair cost.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for help with computer problems.
No problem too small.

Repco GearUP USB Car Charger Kit Universal gets the thumbs down.

2011-10-23T16:14:00.001+11:00

Recently I purchased a Repco GearUP USB Car Charger Kit Universal which is a USB car charger kit which plugs into a car’s cigarette lighter and has two USB sockets for charging. Normally I stick with products I can purchase from my suppliers, but in this case because of the low value of the item, I decided to purchase one of these units on special for $9.99, reduced to half price.

I plugged the cable provided into my iPhone and the adaptor into a portable 12V battery designed to jump start a car and also provide power to accessories plus a number of other features. To my surprise and disappointment the iPhone 3GS reported it wouldn’t work with the device. I then plugged in the cable which came with the iPhone and it worked. Next I decided since it was a dual USB charger to plug in the iPhone 3GS and an Android mobile phone and charge both at the same time. Instead of the iPhone being charged, it was still losing power over time, whilst the Android phone did start to charge. I worked out you can only charge one device at a time.

It wasn’t worth the trip half way across Melbourne to where I purchased the unit, so like many people who purchase products that don’t live up to expectation, this one will probably end up in a draw and I’ll purchase a reputable product through my computer suppliers.

I didn’t expect to receive what I’d consider a substandard product from Repco, so I didn’t mind taking a chance. But from now on I’ll stick with the products I know and trust.

How many computer related devices have you purchased that don’t measure up to your expectation and end up in the draw?

At Online Connections I generally stick to devices and brands which have proven themselves across my client base over time. Often that doesn’t mean paying more. A good product can cost the same as a poor product. Marketers will often use the line “you get what you pay for” to encourage you to buy a particular product. To me what is important is the product proves itself in the field. Those are the products I’ll recommend to clients.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/
Call 0415 910 703 if you require assistance with your computer.
Serving Doncaster, Templestowe, Eltham and the surrounding area.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Google Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) announced.

2011-10-20T00:55:00.001+11:00

I read the following announcement (Samsung Galaxy Nexus ... Read More) on the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus with the latest version of Android 4 and can’t help wonder what that means for the stocks being held of current Android mobile phones. I’ve noticed a number of Android based mobile phones being sold are based on Android 2.1. Even the new Amazon Kindle Fire is based on a fork of Android 2.3.

If you’re considering an Android mobile phone keep in mind the version number. I’d suggest avoiding Android 2.1 and prior mobile devices. Android 2.2 for me meant Skype worked and Android 2.3 I believe is when they brought out the quite useful hotspot feature. It really is hard to keep up with the frequent and small changes. I know a person who purchase a new Android mobile to end up with Android 1.6 and since they wanted to use Skype, they weren’t able to.

Android 4 is the version which purportedly brings the mobile phone and the tablet operating systems back into a single operating system.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is being released in parts of the world in November. That is quite a way from the Christmas buying season, so there is still plenty of time for new devices to hit the market.

The most important thing is to make a note of the version of the Android operating and make sure it has the features you want for your needs.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for help with computer problems.
No problem too small.

MyAnswers: Facebook app doesn't work after upgrading Apple iPhone 4 to iOS 5.

2011-10-19T23:02:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2180 is now available:

I upgraded my Apple iPhone 4 to iOS 5. Now when I go to click on Facebook it does nothing and I can't get Facebook to work. What can I do?

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

MyAnswers: I'm worried my computer is about to die. How do I back up my Outlook data?

2011-10-18T13:22:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2177 is now available:

I'm worried my computer is about to die. How do I back up my Outlook data?

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

MyAnswers: What's the best simple database for contact to use? Outlook or Excel.

2011-10-18T12:40:00.000+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2176 is now available:

What's the best simple database for contact to use? I have access to Outlook and Excel.

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

MyAnswers: Add business to Google Places. Nothing happens with Find Business Information.

2011-10-18T11:35:00.000+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2175 is now available:

When I try to add my business in Google Places I enter the country, my telephone number and then click on Find Business Information and nothing happens. I can't get past the Find Business Information screen.

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

MyAnswers: Acer One netbook A150 wireless connects to wireless network but doesn't work.

2011-10-16T11:59:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2173 is now available:

Acer One netbook A150 wireless connects to wireless network but doesn't work.

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

MyAnswers: A list of articles on iOS 5

2011-10-15T11:27:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2172 is now available:

A list of articles on iOS 5 I've found on the internet which I felt may be useful to others.

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

MyAnswers: Notes on the Applie iOS 5 operating system used on an Apple iPhone 3GS.

2011-10-13T14:15:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2171 is now available:

Notes on the Applie iOS 5 operating system used on an Apple iPhone 3GS.

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

iMessage is the interesting new feature of Apple's iOS 5

2011-10-13T08:47:00.000+11:00

There are around 200 changes with the iOS 5 update and a couple caught my eye. The first will be iMessage. iMessage has the ability to reduce the cost of messaging other iPhone and Touch users which is good, but being limited to only Apple products means it won’t be as useful as it could be.

The other feature I’m interested in is the ability to create a keyboard shortcut for frequently used words. Now if that allows me to create a shortcut for my email addresses, that will be a handy addition.

What’s your favourite new feature?

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if your require help with your computer or mobile device.
No problem too small.

iOS5 release date for Australia. iOS 5 is now available for download. Downloading iOS5 has begun

2011-10-13T08:18:00.001+11:00

The Apple iOS 5 update for iPhone (3GS, 4, 4S), iPad, iPad 2, iPod Touch 3rd and 4rth generation is now available. Downloading appears to have started around 5 hours ago, which would have been 9am Pacific Time, or 3am in Melbourne, Australia.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if you require assistance with your computer.
No problem too small.

Upgrade to Apple iTunes 10.5 in preparation for the Apple iPhone, Touch and iPad iOS 5 upgrade

2011-10-12T17:50:00.001+11:00

I read on the Apple site iOS 5 requires iTunes 10.5. Apple released iTunes 10.5 yesterday in preparation for the iOS 5 upgrade. The iTunes 10.5 upgrade is now available in Australia and I tested the install. The iTunes 10.5 upgrade went fine but before performing the upgrade, there were a couple of additional updates available to be applied. The Apple Software Update 2.1.3 failed which prevented me from continuing the update and upgrading iTunes.

The solution to the Apple Software Update 2.1.3 failure is available in MyAnswers solution 2170 which can be found in the Apple iPhone/Touch/iPad section of MyAnswers. You can also find the solution on the Recent Solutions page.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if you require assistance with your computer.
No problem too small.

Alert: MapQuest directions have been sent to you by mary201@aol.com.

2011-10-10T20:37:00.001+11:00

I thought this email was an approach I'd not seen before. I then received multiple copies to different email addresses.

I'd recommend deleting these emails.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

A brief summary of JustLocal for Templestowe residents and businesses.

2011-10-05T13:19:00.001+11:00

I wanted to share with others in Templestowe what JustLocal is about. I’m a computer consultant with a large amount of expertise across a range of computer related disciplines. I find the best way to show others is by example.

What I did is what anyone with a small amount of assistance can do. The difference between myself and others is I assist people and charge for my time. I share my knowledge so people aren’t tied to myself or my services. My hope is that by looking after their interests they’ll appreciate the services I offer. I’ve found it to be an approach which works well because others don’t work that way.

To explain JustLocal for residents and businesses in Templestowe, I decided to build a web page. For any business this is very easy to do. If you can design a single page brochure to promote your business, your brochure can be reproduced with minimal time and cost as a web site to let others in your area know your business exists.

In this case I decided to register the domain for www.Templestowe.biz, set up hosting space, point the domain at the hosting space, create a web page and then upload the web page. In a couple of hours the page was live on the internet. I literally just set this up and it is live within minutes. You should however wait usually 24 hours to make sure the domain has filtered through the internet.

I have a number of low cost approaches I can show people how to set up a presence on the internet. Some approaches they can maintain themselves with minimal technical skills. All that is required is some basic training and some support when required. Other approaches require a little more training and some software.

With some basic training and support you can literally have a web presence up within 24 hours and your only out-of-pocket cost could be the domain, which costs around $10-$30 a year depending on the domain you wish to use.

I’d encourage every small business to get a presence on the internet. It looks so much more professional to send out emails for a business using yourname@yourbusinessname.com (or .com.au) than yourname@gmail.com or yourname@hotmail.com. By using a domain every email you send out helps promote your business. I find people do check out your web site based on your email address.

A lot of people put thousands into a web presence and the only business that makes money is the web developer. I believe people should start small and as your investment generates business for you, then reinvest some of that money and evolve your presence.

If you don’t have a web presence and want something to get your started give me a call. My aim is to use my skills to help others cost effectively promote their business on the internet.

If you just wish to read a little more about JustLocal then visit www.Templestowe.biz.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if you’re local require assistance with a web presence.

Apple iPhone 4S, iOS 5 and iCloud press release, no iPhone 5.

2011-10-05T07:11:00.001+11:00

The Apple iPhone 4S launch has now been held and I’m sure most people will be surprised to hear there was no iPhone 5 launched today. When you sit back and think about it, it makes sense the Apple iPhone 4S is an incremental update to the iPhone 4. The following is a link to the Apple press release.

iPhone 4S Features Dual-Core A5 Chip, All New Camera, Full 1080p HD Video Recording & Introduces Siri ... Read More

According to the press release, the Apple iPhone 4S will be available in Australia from Friday October 14^th. The iOS 5 software will be available on October 12^th for iPhone, iPad and Touch customers.

Except, and I suppose it is a pretty big except, except for there being no iPhone 5, there wasn’t really much of a surprise in the announcement with much of what was announced being announced earlier in the WWDC 2011 (World Wide Developer Conference) held in June. The updated iPhone 4S contains the type of update you’d expect in terms of processor and camera improvements.

Since LTE (4G) is not yet established, I tend to feel we’ll see LTE in iPhone 5 and perhaps NFC. These are technologies that will become more prevalent next year and it makes sense to include the technology when it is mainstream.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for help with computer problems

Apple iPhone 5 release announcement Australian time

2011-10-04T23:44:00.000+11:00

The Apple iPhone 5 announcement is to be held at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino at 10am on October 4. For others in Australia interested, this is 4am Melbourne time.

I purchased an iPhone 3GS because at the time it had the best browser, but I find the limitation of the Upload button being disabled to be one of my biggest issues which puts me off continuing in the future with an iPhone. For me the best smartphone will be the smartphone with the best browser with the least number of restrictions.

With the Apple iPhone 5 announcement I suspect the release of iOS 5 for previous iPhones will also be announced. I’m looking forward to seeing what has changed. The iMessage application looks interesting and there are a few other features which will be interesting to use.

Only a little over four hours and we’ll all know a lot more.

As a caution, do keep in mind if you only use a 3G data plan, upgrading iOS could easily cause you to exceed your limit and cause bill shock. I spoke with the local Apple store a while ago and the staff didn’t think it would be an issue to upgrade using their free wireless access. You should check first and make sure it is OK.

Until tomorrow.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Providing help with PCs, tablets and mobile phones.

MyAnswers: How to turn off the sound on Apple 3GS iPhone until the alarm goes off.

2011-10-03T13:35:00.001+11:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2164 is now available:

I'm wondering if there's a way to turn off the sound on my phone (Apple 3GS iPhone) until the alarm goes off.

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

Online Connections introduces a new concept in local computer repairs and computer support.

2011-10-02T12:56:00.001+11:00

Online Connections introduces a new cost effective approach to computer repairs and computer support to residents and businesses in Templestowe, Templestowe Lower, Doncaster, Doncaster East, Eltham, Lower Plenty, Montmorency, Bulleen and Warrandyte.

Most computer support businesses charge a call out fee or a minimum fee. If you receive telephone support often you’ll receive support based out of an overseas country and have to wait a considerable amount of time on the telephone and then go through a time consuming explanation of your problem.

Because Online Connections is local (based in Templestowe) and comes to you, there is no call out fee and no minimum time. Instead of paying for an hour of support up front, your support could cost as little as one tenth of an hour (our cost effective billing interval). Because we’re local we don’t have to provide telephone support. We can usually arrive in less time than you’d have to wait on the telephone line for a support representative. That means you don’t waste time waiting on the telephone line.

Online Connections offers a professional level of support. We back our work with a satisfaction guarantee. Our aim is to solve your problem and make sure we provide value for money.

If you have a computer related problem contact Online Connections. Online Connections has been providing computer support for over twenty years so you know they’re here today and will be here tomorrow.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if you require assistance with your computer.

Google Chrome (PWS:Win32Zbot) treated as a virus by Microsoft (MS) Security Essentials is a false positive

2011-10-01T09:15:00.001+10:00

I read reports, that overnight users were having their Google Chrome browser blocked or removed from their computer by Microsoft Security Essentials. An update to MS Security Essential incorrectly treated the Chrome browser as a virus. You can read more from the Microsoft site here.

I don’t have Google Chrome installed on my computer so I didn’t experience the issue.

I would suggest forcing an update of Microsoft Security Essentials as soon as you start your computer. I’ve verified the update the fixes this issue will be installed.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if you need assistance with your computers.

Best antivirus. Virus removal. Antivir, Virus scanner

2011-09-30T16:41:00.000+10:00

A fairly common problem I get calls for is the removal of malware from a computer. I ask people how they received the virus and in a lot of cases they don’t know. In the past I found the infection was an email attachment, but more recently the infection has not been associated with an email.

One customer was tricked into thinking their computer was infected when a pop-up message appeared as they were browsing the internet. They went ahead and paid their money to have the problem removed, which in turn actually infected their computer and provided the scammer with their credit card details. Pretty scary stuff really.

I thought I’d share this article which shows that around 85% of infections are now caused when browsing and of the 85% just five programs result in 99.98% of infections. If the information is correct it means all people need to do is keep five programs up-to-date and that could significantly reduce their chances of being infected. Unfortunately whilst that sounds logical it isn’t. This will help with malware which isn’t new, but new malware will find exploits in programs which have not yet been patched so people are still exposed. The lesson here however is keep the programs updated if they’re installed on your computer.

The programs are: Java JRE, Adobe Reader/Acrobat, Adobe Flash, MS Internet Explorer, Windows HCP (Help) and Apple Quicktime. The first three account for 85% of abuses by malware. Interestingly Internet Explorer is only 10%. Just applying the updates for five software packages when they are ready may reduce your chances of being infected considerably.

For clients how want to feel more protected, I provide a disk which is based on software made available to American soldiers. The software allows you to boot your computer from the disk and protects your computer from being infected. This is a great option for those who are worried their computer may be infected but still want to do their online banking or pay bills. Great for those who are travelling and would like to connect to the internet on a family member or friend’s computer, but are concerned that it may be infected. Great if you want your children to be able to use the computer but not risk infecting it. Great if you want staff to use a work computer and not risk infecting it. If clients need a disk contact me. There is a small distribution fee of $9.95 plus postage if required.

It now makes more sense why people don’t know how they infected their computer. The flaws in unpatched software enable people to infect their computer just by visiting a site on the internet. It has happened to me. I once searched using Google, went to a site, and the site infected the computer using a vulnerability in Internet Explorer SP1. That vulnerability was patched in Internet Explorer SP2.

What is also interesting is a lot of people push alternate browsers in the belief they somehow provide a greater level of protection. From the article this doesn’t appear to be the case. Based on the percentage use people using browsers to the percentage being infected, it appears to be fairly consistent across the browsers. The other browsers will most likely be exposed to the same issues because they use the same applications. You shouldn’t necessarily think that changing your browser will give you any greater level of protection. You’re most likely better off making sure your software is kept as up-to-date as possible.

Another more drastic approach might be to also disable or even remove the programs giving you the greatest exposure. I wouldn’t like to suggest that because of lost functionality. That would have to be a choice each person makes for themselves. For example I don’t have Java JRE installed on my computer and haven’t noticed any issues for a long time. When it was installed I did notice quite a few infections in the cache which was a concern. Doing without Acrobat Reader would be hard and a lot of sites still use Flash. Both Flash and Adobe Reader can be fairly easily disabled until you need them, so that is an approach which could be used.

Whether we like it or not, when we are on the internet there are a lot of people who have a lot to gain by infecting our computers. We need to make decisions and take action which minimises our risk to an acceptable level.

If you’ve infected your computer and live within 10kms of the Doncaster/Templestowe/Eltham area and need assistance, you can contact me on 0415 910 703. As part of cleaning customers’ computers I also install free antivirus software which I’ve tested for over a week that has shown to be better than other common free software and also the commercial software I’ve tested.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

MyAnswers: Thoughts and notes on the Amazon Kindle Fire.

2011-09-30T14:21:00.001+10:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2163 is now available:

Thoughts and notes on the Amazon Kindle Fire.

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
(An Online Connections service.)

Alert: Incorrectly filled tax form NAT3799 from subscribe@ato.gov.au

2011-09-29T12:36:00.001+10:00

I’ve received a number of emails lately which have been faked to appear to be from the ATO. I’d recommend you delete these emails.

What is particularly interesting with these emails is who the emails are addressed to. When I check the To and CC fields they contain a number of my emails address that I use publicly. Not just one, but a number. That is the first time I’ve seen anyone do that. It shows whoever has the mailing list is now consolidating the email addresses. Perhaps it is an attempt to hit an entire organisation in the one go leading people to think the information may be legitimate. All it needs is one person in the organisation to think the email might be legitimate and others may be encouraged to check it out.

The email displays correctly if viewed using an Apple iPhone, but is malformed if received using Outlook. In Outlook the message appears as an attached text file and there is no body to the message. It is very obvious to Outlook users this message is a fake.

It is important that you delete suspicious emails. I read yesterday that up to 85% of malware infected computers are now caused by people visiting web sites controlled by hackers. These sites may be legitimate sites where hackers have gained access and installed code or code to redirect people to another site. The owner of the site may have no knowledge they’ve been hacked. In the past the email attachment was a major cause of infection. Now it appears the main cause has moved to people visiting web sites which uses exploits in unpatched software the user has on their machine to infect their computer.

I’d highly recommend that you don’t let curiosity get the better of you. Clicking on a link in an email you receive could end up costing you a lot in both money and inconvenience. If an email appears suspicious, it probably is.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if you need your computer fixed because curiosity got the better of you.

Templestowe Computer Shop

2011-09-28T23:29:00.000+10:00

Whilst fixing a problem for a new customer in Templestowe recently, he said how much easier it was to have someone come in and fix their problem with internet explorer and clean up his computers. His other alternative was to spend the time packing up the computer, taking it to a store, waiting for it to be repaired, picking up the computer and setting it up again. That was a lot of time he was able to avoid and also he wasn't without his computer.

Over the years there have been a couple of computer shops in Templestowe, but at the moment I don't recall one in the area. People often use a local computer shop for general support and computer related items and consumables.

If you're looking for a local computer shop for computer related support, please feel from to contact Online Connections on 0415 910 703.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/

Onlne Connections Templestowe

2011-09-28T00:07:00.000+10:00

Online Connections provides computer and information technology support to local residents and businesses in Templestowe, Templestowe Lower, Doncaster, Doncaster East, Lower Plenty, Montmorency and Eltham.

If you have a computer problem chances are Online Connections can help with over 30 years of experience.

For residents and businesses in the local area Online Connections introduces an exciting new approach to providing support services. Because support is provided in the local area there is no call out fee and there is no minimum charge. No problem is too small and now it is cost effective to have the problem fixed by a professional rather than spending hours trying to fix the problem yourself.

If you have a computer related problem, including tablets and mobile phones, give Online Connections a call on 0415 910 703.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/

Templestowe Computer Repair business (serving Templestowe and the surrounding area)

2011-09-27T09:57:00.001+10:00

I always find it interesting to think about the hundreds of businesses in Templestowe working from home that I simply don't know about. People search for words like Templestowe, Templestowe Vic, Templestowe Lower, Lower Templestowe, Templestowe Restaurant, Templestowe Victoria, Templestowe School, Templestowe Accommodation, Templestowe Postcode, or Templestowe Hotel, but unless someone knows you or your business name, they're not likely to find you.

It is estimated there are over 800 to 1,000 businesses in the Templestowe area with most being home based businesses. With approximately 5,000 homes in Templestowe this would indicate around one in five homes is running a business but you'd never know.
The problem is the cost to advertise is very high and in general, the return for the money invested not very good. I probably should add that by not very good I would have to say in most cases there is no return for the money spent. The aim of JustLocal is to make local advertising cost effective for small businesses.

To me the only way to make advertising cost effective is to offer a money back guarantee. If advertising doesn't work, currently the only business benefiting, is the business getting the advertising money and to me that isn't fair. If you pay money you should get something in return for your money. That's why JustLocal offers a money back guarantee.

I promote my own computer support business on JustLocal and the result has been better than every other form of advertising.

If you're looking for a cost effective way to promote your business locally, where you can't lose, consider advertising on JustLocal.

If you're in Templestowe or the surrounding area and require assistance with your computer or an internet presence, I can be contacted on 0415 910 703 or via the contact form on this site, or the Online Connections site.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.justlocal.com.au/
(An Online Connections service.)

Alert: Australia Post - Get your parcel No306. (do_not_reply.id.5133@auspost.com.au)

2011-09-26T14:58:00.001+10:00

I’ve received a number of emails in the past week with the message Get your parcel. By coincidence these started arriving a day after Dodo said they’d send me a replacement Buddy Box for the one which didn’t work. One client fell for a UPS malware email because they received an email from UPS and were expecting a UPS parcel. If you’re expecting a parcel, receiving an email like this could easily trick you.

In this case the body of the email is very basic and unlikely to be from a large company like Australia Post.

Dear customer.

Your package has been returned to the Australia Post office.
Reason: The package is too large
Please find the attached document containing detailed information about delivery failure.
Read all information carefully and come to the "Australia Post" office to receive your package.

Thank you for attention.
Customer service.

Attached is a zip file (Attached_Document_AU18489.zip) which contains the file Attached_Document.exe. This file is an executable file but it has been designed to look like a Word document with a Microsoft Word icon. Since most people can’t see the file extension they could be easily tricked into thinking this is a Word document. Opening the file will not open a document, but instead run a program, most likely designed to infect your computer.

I use OzEfilter to check the emails at my mail server before receiving them into my computer and in this case OzEfilter showed me the email was sent from Canada. Just another piece of information which confirms this is most likely malware. Microsoft’s Security Essentials doesn’t show this file as malware. This is where you need to use common sense and not open files like this. Just delete them as soon as you receive them.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if you need help with your computer
Servicing Doncaster, Templestowe, Eltham and the surrounding areas.

Alert: Re: Scan from a HP Officejet #658992

2011-09-26T13:33:00.001+10:00

They say curiosity killed the cat, but the modern equivalent would be curiosity infected your computer.

I noticed a number of emails recently with the subject Re: Scan from a HP Officejet #658992 or similar. These emails contain an attachment which is a zip file. The zip file I checked contained an executable HP_SCAN_Z520131___dollÔÇ«fdp.exe. The file has an icon which makes it appear to be a PDF.

There is little doubt this is malware. Microsoft’s Security Essentials is usually very good, but like all anti-virus scanning software, they are unlikely to identify recently released malware. Malware writers are most likely going to check their work against the common anti-virus products before releasing their malware, so that leaves a window of a few days where the anti-virus software won’t help curious people. In this case Microsoft’s software does not detect malware.

If you’re curious about an email you’ve received from someone you don’t know, don’t be tempted. You really will infect your computer and it is costly to repair. Please delete emails you aren’t sure about. It isn’t worth the risk or the cost to get your computer fixed.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if you’ve infected your computer and need it fixed.
(Covering Melbourne Eastern to Northern suburbs within 10km of Templestowe)

Coles Home Insurance using Google Maps View to check properties

2011-09-24T12:44:00.001+10:00

I recently compared home insurance and decided to obtain a quote from Coles Home Insurance. I’m comfortable with technology but the process didn’t go well because at the end it didn’t go through and I had to call their number. What I did find interesting was as part of our conversation I determined Coles Home Insurance were using Google Maps View to check out our property. Unfortunately the Google vehicle didn’t quite get to pass our place (which normally I would think is good) so all we could see was a partial view.

If you want to see which roads Google Maps covers, drag the man over the map and the roads covered will turn blue. Part of our street was missing.

As a result the insurance needed a supervisor’s approval who wouldn’t have been available until the following week. I decided to renegotiate with my current insurance company as I was put off being left in limbo and Coles Home Insurance isn’t a service I’ve had an experience of with claims. I’m happy to pay a little more knowing I was looked after previously.

A couple of tips with home insurance. Ask if they will review the premium and also consider the excess you are prepared to pay. By doing this I was able to reduce our premium by over $200. Not bad for the cost of a telephone call.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if you need assistance with your computer, tablet or mobile device.

Taxi fare rates

2011-09-23T15:25:00.000+10:00

A handy online tool is a calculator to determine a taxi fare in advance of needing a taxi. The Victorian government provides an online taxi fare calculator to help you estimate a fare. If you use the calculator it works out the fare based on the current time. You can modify the time in the Travel Options section.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
(An Online Connections service.)

Skype update now shows telephone number with a flag in front

2011-09-23T11:35:00.000+10:00

Many programs you install have an effect on other programs which you may not be aware of or necessarily want. For example I have Skype installed. I started Skype recentlty and an automatic update was applied. I wasn't presented with any options. When I went into Internet Explorer I noticed Skype was now highlighting the telephone numbers on web pages which is something I didn't want. I don't ever recall dialling a number from a web page so to have them modified everytime they're displayed isn't something I want.

In MyAnswers solution 2162 I provide instructions on how to disable this Skype feature.

Skype isn't the only program to install unwanted software or to affect other programs installed on your computer. I regularly clean up people's computers and remove unwanted add-ins. Nearly every computer I see has a Google toolbar installed which isn't required at all for most people and just takes up space on the screen.

I've often been called out to a customer who feels they need a new computer but once I've cleaned up their computer, they're amazed at how fast it runs. If you need your computer cleaned up and live in the Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham area I visit locals with no call out fee. For those a little further away, you should allow for the travel time involved.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/
Call 0415 910 703 to have your computer cleaned of unwanted software and add-ins.

Search Australia added to JustLocal pages.

2011-09-21T13:42:00.000+10:00

A while ago I developed a search page to provide people with the ability to search for result from pages Google considers to be from Australia. The advantage this search facility has is it removes the overseas pages which can dominate the results.

I noticed a number of people using the Search Australia page so I felt making Search Australia available from all the JustLocal postcode pages may be of use to others. If you like the feature using it is the best way to let me now it helps you.

JustLocal is designed to provide people with single-click access to a site so no searching is required. But I do recognise there are times when searching comes in handy. I hope others find this feature useful.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
(An Online Connections service.)

Telstra iPhone4 buyers may wish to wait before buying.

2011-09-20T17:22:00.000+10:00

If you’re thinking about buying an iPhone 4 from Apple, Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, or one of the many resellers, you should now consider the Apple iPhone 5 is just around the corner. Whilst no date has been announced, the rumours tend to indicate a late October launch date. As usual there will be quite a bit of hype and perhaps a shortage of stock, but after the initial wave of purchases you can usually buy a new iPhone fairly easily.

A lot of people aren’t aware of the pending release of the new iPhone 5 so buy the iPhone 4 without realising a new model is just around the corner. Now is the time to decide whether or not is better to perhaps delay the purchase of a new iPhone.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if you require assistance with your computer or mobile device.

Fix computer. Templestowe, Templestowe Lower, Doncaster, Doncaster East, Lower Plenty, Montmorency, Eltham

2011-09-20T13:14:00.000+10:00

If you have the skills, fixing your own computer is the best and most cost effective option. But for those without the skill (or even just the knowledge to fix a particular issue) I can assist people and businesses in Templestowe and the surrounding areas ( Doncaster, Doncaster East, Templestowe Lower, Eltham, Lower Plenty Montmorency). I’m happy to fix the problem and share what I’m doing, so you’re able to fix your own problem should it occur again.

Many people are reluctant to call a computer support person and will take hours to try to fix the problem themselves, when the problem may be fixed in a matter of minutes. Sometimes all it takes is someone who knows what they’re doing to advise you and the problem vanishes immediately. For example one client recently had a problem with Outlook which took six minutes to repair and another Outlook problem was fixed in around fifteen minutes. Because I don’t charge a set fee, a call out fee (for locals), but only charge for the time it takes to solve the problem the cost was minimal. Some problems are difficult and take longer, but at all times you’re in control as I keep you fully informed and you can see what I’m doing. Some workshops fix problems in a matter of minutes but still charge you a hefty fixed fee because you don’t see what was done.

No longer do you have to sit on the telephone for half an hour or waiting for support. No longer do you have to have a long conversation trying to explain your problem over the telephone. No longer do you have to worry about giving someone you’ve never met remote (and may be located overseas) access to your computer. Now you can book a time and be at your place when it suits you. You get to talk and meet a local you know will be around should you have another problem.

If you need help with your computer give me a call on 0415 910 703.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Doncaster computer assistance, support and repairs.

2011-09-16T00:39:00.001+10:00

If you live in Doncaster or your business is in Doncaster and you’re computer is giving your grief then give me a call. I live locally so I don’t charge travel fees or minimum times. So if a problem is fixed quickly (and a lot of problems are), you save a lot of money. I don’t fix problems over the telephone because it takes less time for me to drive to you than it takes for you to explain your problem to someone on the other end of a telephone. I explain what I’m doing and help you by sharing my knowledge.

With over 20 years of experience in my computer consulting and support business you know I’ll be around tomorrow when you need me.

Whether you need help with your computer, with your network, connecting to the internet, with your mobile phone or tablet, or even if you feel you need a hand to better understand your computer, I can assist.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for help with your computer problems.

Templestowe computer assistance, support and repairs

2011-09-14T11:51:00.000+10:00

To make it easier for local businesses and residents in Templestowe to find my computer support business I've now set up a page at http://www.templestowecomputer.com/.

Over the last couple of weeks I've enjoyed helping a number of local people. One person had problem with Internet Explorer not starting up, another needed someone to set up their Telstra ADSL broadband equipment and another needed to recover their photos and files from their dead computer.

It really is enjoyable to go out and help each person with their computer problem and get them back up and working again.

If you have a computer related problem you're welcome to contact me for assistance. I'm just a phone call away and just around the corner.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/
Call 0415 910 703 if you have a computer problem.

Pin board now added to Online Connections

2011-09-12T13:50:00.000+10:00

When I walk into a local business I notice one thing, or should I say I generally notice one thing that is missing. A few businesses have a notice board where their customers can add their business card and that way the business helps their customers. I think that is a great idea. I also notice some businesses will help their customers by putting a few business cards on their counter. That way the business gives back to their customer that really doesn’t cost them much but generates a lot of good will.

Since I don’t have a counter or a wall for a noticeboard I can’t help my customers in this way, but I do have a web site and can provide a virtual pin board. Whilst my virtual pin board has been around for a while I decided to give it more prominence on my site. I’ve added Pin Board to the main menu and to the left side menu.

I’m happy to refer my customers to others. It is only because of them I have a business and I can support my family.

If you have a local business do think about helping your customers by helping to promote them. They’ll appreciate the help and it is good for business. If you only have a web site then consider doing what I’m doing. I do think the days where we help each other, rather than a business just providing products and services for profit, will become the norm rather than the exception.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 if you need assistance with your computer.

Nearly all comments on blogs are advertising

2011-09-06T12:18:00.001+10:00

Every day I get comments posted on one of my blogs. What amazes me is nearly every one of them is a business either spamming or a trying to advertise themselves.

I can understand rouge businesses from overseas trying to promote themselves, but what really surprises me is the number of businesses in Australia which think it is OK to blog spam to promote their business. They wouldn’t even consider spamming people with emails, but have no issue with writing spam on other companies blogs with the only intent to use a blog comment to promote their business.

I remember being contacted by a number of businesses asking me to write a comment on their blog saying good things about them. I get computer repair businesses writing comments on my blogs which really if they’re in the business should know the answer and if they don’t, they shouldn’t be in the business.

So next time you’re reading comments on a blog whether they be glowing praise or something else, put on your doubting Thomas hat. Most of it could be self promotion or blog spam. Either way it doesn’t help you make a better decision.

My policy with my blogs is review each comment and only release comments which are legitimate. I will write praise on other blogs and leave a thank you with specific information (not “this is a fantastic blog” like spammers do) showing my appreciation.

I’d suggest if you have or are thinking of setting up a blog that you don’t automatically release comments. Most comments will be spam promoting other businesses and that doesn’t help your clients. Make the extra effort, your clients will appreciate it.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
(An Online Connections service.)

Local search using Google Custom Search no longer available from JustLocal pages

2011-09-06T10:51:00.001+10:00

As part of a trial I added a local search feature to JustLocal where locals could search for products and services from local businesses. This isn’t required for JustLocal as JustLocal provides single click access from a postcode page to the site of the business.

The feature used the Google Custom Search but unfortunately I’ve found this service isn’t reliable enough and the results provided were inadequate, often not providing a business even though the business provided the product or service. I also found issues when adding sites.

I’ve decided rather than to continue to provide a search feature which I don’t feel is up to standard to remove the search option from JustLocal.

The aim of JustLocal is to provide a portal to quickly access the sites of local businesses. By doing this we promote the site of the local business, and the consumer or business using JustLocal to find products and services, obtains the latest information by going direct to the site of the business.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
(An Online Connections service.)

Would you like the preferred Australian English spelling to be available for Microsoft Office?

2011-09-03T09:40:00.001+10:00

If you’d like the preferred Australian English spelling to be made available as a spellcheck dictionary for Microsoft Office please make the effort to add your voice.

I’m currently in contact with Microsoft and to their credit, they are taking my request for assistance to make my work available with Microsoft Office and passing the request through their channels.

For Microsoft right now I’m a lone voice with a request. If you’d like my work to be available with Microsoft Office please help by adding your voice by making a comment on this blog post. I’ve tried this on a number of occasions over the last five years so this will be the last attempt at making the preferred Australian English spelling available to Australian Microsoft users. It is now or never so please make your voice heard.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Alert: You have 1 lost message on Facebook...

2011-09-03T00:52:00.001+10:00

I received this message and because I don't use Facebook immediately knew it was a fake.

If you check the destination for the link you'll see it isn't a Facebook site. If you clicked on the link you'd go to a site which is supposedly Canadian which sells pharmaceuticals.

You should immediately delete this type of email and not use the site it links to.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Having computer problems contact Online Connections

Solar feed-in tariff rate cut from 60 cents per kilowatt hour to 25 cents

2011-09-02T13:35:00.001+10:00

Following on from the reduction of the government grant for those installing solar panels the feed-in tariff is now being cut.

The solar feed-in tariff rate has been cut from 60 cents per kilowatt hour to 25 cents.... Read More

If you are considering installing solar panels make sure you do your sums. That article states: Victorian Energy Minister Michael O'Brien said that under the 25-cent rate participants would recover the cost of their solar power systems within about 10 years.

Based on the feedback in the local newspaper with the average saving of around $200 per year with the higher feed-in tariff plus the larger government grant it may be that people may never end up recovering the cost of their solar panels.

One way you may be able to recover the costs of your system is if you also reduce your energy consumption. By using a power meter plus the Energy Cost Calculator we’ve reduce our electricity usage to under 8kWh’s per day, which is well under the average of around 18kWh’s per day. It is important to minimise the base load because if you’re base load is greater than the energy produced you’ll not receive any feed-in tariff.

When you install a solar system the problem is you’ll go onto a peak/off-peak charging structure which increases your electricity bill and the 25 cent feed-in tariff is now less than you’ll pay for peak electricity usage.

Whilst this change won’t be liked by those considering a solar panel system, it does hopefully mean we all benefit (including those with solar panel systems) as it reduces the cost of electricity for everyone going up to pay for those installing solar systems.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for help with computer problems

MyAnswers: CA parental control blocks the internet after CA Internet Security removed.

2011-09-02T11:19:00.001+10:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2156 is now available:

CA parental control blocks the internet after CA Internet Security removed.

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910703 if you need assistance with your computers.

Alert: Blog comment by Majid Ali

2011-09-01T11:00:00.001+10:00

To share with others typical blog spam I see on my blog I thought I'd write about the comment left by supposedly Majid Ali.

Majid Ali made the request in the blog comment Please help me by reading my appeal on my profile.

When I received this comment on my blog I decided to check the profile. According to the profile Majid is from Haiti and this appears to be an appeal to raise money by appealing to the better nature of people. Over 8,000 people had viewed the profile which is a massive number.

On checking my logs I found no one from Haiti had visited my site. Visitors for the day had come from: United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Turkey and Pakistan.

I just rechecked the link for the profile and the profile is no longer available, which possibly means the blog has been removed.

It is almost certain this is nothing more than a scam. With over 8,000 views of the profile this really was massive scam with spam sent to ten’s if not hundreds of thousands of blogs. A search of Google for the term Please help me by reading my appeal on my profile shows it appears over 2,000 times meaning it went public on thousands of blogs.

If you are reading blog comments be aware that many of the comments are fake, may be scams and you should not assume just because the comment was added to the blog it has been checked. Over 90% of comments I receive on my blogs are spam or scams. I don’t release comments without reviewing them and I suggest others with blogs do the same. Most comments I’ve found are attempts at advertising.

If you decide to use a blog to promote your business I’d recommend you don’t release comments automatically, otherwise you’ll allow scammers to use your site to ensnare unsuspecting victims who could be your family, friends or customers.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Need help with your internet presence contact Online Connections.

Alert: Important information from the Nokia Developer website team

2011-08-30T12:39:00.000+10:00

I received an email with the subject Important information from the Nokia Developer website team on the Monday and have subsequently read a news item. It does appear a Nokia site has been hacked. Nokia was quick off the mark letting its users know which is good.

What did concern me was the links in the email weren’t from Nokia but from a marketing group. Given that anyone with the mailing list could now send fake emails on behalf of Nokia I think companies using third parties to send emails out on their behalf should reconsider using third party organisations in this situation.

The bottom line is if you have registered with Nokia as a developer to use their forum you should now treat emails with greater caution.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Contact Online Connections for assistance with your computers.

MyAnswers: Office365/Office 365 gets the thumbs down.

2011-08-30T12:24:00.000+10:00

The following MyAnswers solution 2155 is now available:

Office365/Office 365 gets the thumbs down.

I initially started the review of Office 365 with the aim of seeing whether or not I could recommend it to my clients and new clients. My focus is on micro and small business so I'm always looking for tools and services which can help those businesses. I hope others find the information useful.

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Does open source create a leech like mentality and hurt those working in the computer industry?

2011-08-30T09:36:00.000+10:00

There is no doubt that obtaining free software is a bonus for people, but what if you’re the one putting in your energy to improve the software. As the builder of the Australian English dictionary I put in hundreds of hours only to find almost no return for my efforts. I tried all the usual ways to raise money from a distribution fee, a donation link, or thinking that perhaps people would use my professional services once they knew my work, but in the end, there is probably over a million people using my work and almost nothing to show for it.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. I put myself into that position. I naively believed that if you give to others then others will give to you. One person from the Ubuntu project was happy to pay $9.95 distribution fee so he could include my work into Ubuntu. He believed there were 20 million users and that I would benefit. I saw no traffic to my site or any business from Ubuntu users. The Firefox project took my work and gave nothing back. Google included my work in their Google Chrome project. A link from Google would have been worth its weight in gold, but instead any reference back to my work was buried deep inside the project. Every project took what they wanted and gave nothing back.

For me the saddest aspect is I did exactly the same. I took the work of the UK dictionary project at the advice of the OpenOffice.org project lead and used the from the OpenOffice.org project never once thinking about the people who put the work into the UK dictionary. I then gutted the dictionary from 120,000 words to 70,000 and built a better Australian dictionary for my clients (at my cost) and then made the work available to Australian users. It was later when I realised what I’d done that I wrote to the developers offering to help them if I could in some way.

Firefox was the worst for me because my work was converted to a different licence against my wishes. Google was a disappointment because I asked that they add the ability to select Australian English so I could make my work available, but in doing so they then just incorporated my work.

The problem I see with open source is it takes from one group of people to give to another. It doesn’t support those who are contributing. Until open source projects do, they will continue to churn through the people it uses which is not a good long term strategy. This approach means there will be a constant brain drain of the people contributing. People will come and go because in the end they are not rewarded. With commercial software those who contribute get paid which helps the project grow and those who are contributing to also grow.

I hope that by sharing this experience others working in the computing industry will see my contributing to open source as an example to follow thinking they’ll benefit. I haven’t. I’ve consumed a very large amount of time with no return on the time invested. I hope that by being open if one other person makes a better decision than I have, that will be a good outcome.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Is blog spam a legitimate marketing technique?

2011-08-28T22:24:00.000+10:00

Today I received blog spam from Toronto First Class Limo, Limos Rental Toronto, King’s Pastry, Homes and Castles (Century 21) and Airport Auto Rental. These sites appear to maintained by Asian Web Media a division of GloXtar Inc.

Blog spam is where other companies submit comments with the intent of having their site appear in other company’s blogs. In the past links would appear in the text but now companies have their site included as the author.

I consider this inappropriate and not a way to endure your business to others. I’d even be certain these businesses have not bothered to find out the marketing techniques of those whose web marketing services they retain. In addition the registrars in control of these domains appear disinterested in the activities of those registering domains, whereas if these businesses are legitimate, a single warning would likely result in the companies ceasing their blog spamming.

We can see ISPs in Australia do not wish to take responsibility for those who use their services fighting tooth and nail so those who breach copyright aren’t their responsibility, but in the end if ISPs and registrars actively discouraged law breakers, the internet would be a better place for everyone.

If you have a blog don’t automatically release comments. Manually approve each comment and help keep blog spam from reaching the public. It takes some work but if others don’t take responsibility then it is up to you.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Need help with a blog. Contact Online Connections.

Alert: Work Offer Inside

2011-08-27T12:54:00.000+10:00

I treat unsolicited emails as potential malware, but I suspect many people don’t based on the large number of people who get scammed. For me it is a real shame these people are scammed and I wish they had the knowledge to see the scam in advance.

Today I received a typical unsolicited work offer email. For those who are unemployed and looking for an opportunity it would be easy to be enticed. After a while any offer can end up being a good offer. But I suspect not in the case of unsolicited offers. I decided to review this email.

The email is about an offer for someone in Canada. I’m in Australia and this email was sent to an email account that most likely was harvested from the internet. I don’t give out the email or use it in any other way. Scraping the internet for email address is the first sign that something isn’t right.

The email has an address which implies it is a Canadian site. When I checked where the email was sent from it was sent from Costa Rica. Further investigation shows the domain has a contact in Russia.

Chances are emails like this are only a ruse to get detailed contact information which may potentially be used for identity theft.

A general rule is don’t respond to any unsolicited email. If you interested in doing work approach the business directly yourself and not as a response to an email.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Contact Online Connections for computer support

Monthly and Annual peak sun hours for locations around Australia

2011-08-26T15:35:00.000+10:00

A figure I tend to think is quite useful when thinking about a solar system is the amount of peak sun hours around Australia as compared with the number of daylight hours. From what I’ve read the peak sun hours is the number of hours you can use to determine the amount of energy your solar system will generate.

I found this very informative document I thought I’d share with others. It provides the annual peak hours around Australian but also useful information such as the efficiency based on the orientation towards the sun and also the tilt of the panels. This information gives you a better understanding of why a solar system only provides a certain amount of electricity and also how that varies over the year.

I’m still not sure how much energy is generated each day compared with the peak sun hours. I can’t help feeling even though there is a percentage efficiency drop electricity would still be generated. I hope to make some rough measurements in the near future which will help me clarify this.

Also the information about how a shadow over a small section of the panel can have a dramatic effect to the amount of power generated was useful. That now makes a bit more sense and isn’t what I would have expected.

The other useful figure was how a stand-alone system produces less power due to the losses associated with other components of the system. For when I did some calculations with regards to charging batteries some time ago, I’ve found you usually have to factor in a loss of around a third of the power. Very interesting information indeed.

I hope others find the information useful.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Alert: IMG (Offers) Image Marketing Group

2011-08-25T13:48:00.000+10:00

I continue to receive emails to email addresses I don’t make public from this group so I’d highly recommend you delete emails from this group as they’d be considered spam. I’ve previously unsubscribed but that had no effect.

On checking they’ve changed their email address but lately appear to be using the email address admin@optin-marketing.info.

The good thing is that whilst the company uses a consistent email address you can add it to your spam filter. If you have control of your email at the mail server you can add the email address at the server and for a while you’ll be free of these pesky emails. That is until they change their email address again.

If you need help blocking your email at your mail server and have access to your mail server you’re welcome to contact me.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Having problems with your computer then drop us a line.

Easy low cost photo books

2011-08-25T12:18:00.000+10:00

I recently produced a photo book of our holiday and couldn’t help feel that others may be interested in creating their own photo book.

The problem I’ve found in the past is the time involved in creating a photo book can be days, and if you have a lot of photos, you have to cut the number of photos back otherwise the photo book could easily cost $200.

I’ve now created an approach which enables me to automate creating a photo book from a large number (small number as well) so I can create the majority of the photo book in a few minutes and then dress the photo book up with the final touches. I produced a photo book containing 410 photos on 134 pages in under an hour for around the cost of a standard 20 page book.

If there is interest and I can find a way to make my program available to others I’d be happy to consider the options.

For example:

Would you be interested in attending a short course which would enable you to learn the software (it is very easy) and ask some questions?

Would you prefer a do-it-yourself approach with printed or web based instructions?

If you are interested let me know and if there is enough interest I’ll put something together.

For me the ability to put together quickly and at relatively low cost some photo books opens up some great possibilities.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for support if you have a computer related problem.

Software backup programs for Windows 7, Vista and XP.

2011-08-24T16:11:00.001+10:00

I’ve done a great number of hours of research on backup programs over the years and I found it very difficult to find a good program for those using Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7. The leading brands I felt weren’t good enough. They generally failed or had terrible performance.

For my small business users and individuals my requirements for a backup program isn’t rocket science.

Here is what I wanted:

1. A copy of the files and folders. I’ve found any user can retrieve a file or folder when it is a copy, but most struggle with restoring from backup when a backup program makes a special file.

2. To be able to run a process to copy multiple folders as users’ data is often stored in a couple of areas. A basic copy isn’t good enough.

3. When I copy the folders to an external drive I want to create a new folder to store the data so I have a different backup each time. I’ve found copying over a previous copy a recipe for disaster.
4. Easy to run.
5. Easy to add new folders to the backup.

I decided it was time I wrote my own simple backup program. I could then place this on a user’s machine and they could run the backup program to copy their important folders and files.

I’ve now created a backup program which is a DOS batch file. It is easily edited to meet the needs of the individual, fast, can copy to a nominated drive letter, very low cost and is launched by clicking on an icon. Each backup creates a new folder which has the date and time as part of the folder name to store the data.

I’m very pleased to say I can now provide my batch backup program to clients as an additional service. I’m happy to provide the batch backup program for $9.95 per user plus any time involved in tailoring for each user if you don’t wish to do this yourself.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Why installing solar panels may not be a good investment.

2011-08-24T14:50:00.002+10:00

I have to be frank, but I'm really struggling with investing in solar panels and here's why.

I read that in Melbourne the average amount of sunlight for solar energy production per day is 4 hours. The average solar panel kit is 1.5kWH and whilst a basic installation until recently was around $3,000, with the reduction of the grant it is now around $4,500.

The first concern I have is by taking a grant I am in effect taking other people's money.

The second is if the government instead invested in large scale developments (I've read two are underway) then the savings from building on a large scale means no government grant would be required to achieve better returns.

I've read the amount of energy used in making the solar panels takes about 7 years to break even.

The basic installation when I reviewed information provided at a meeting run by the local council wasn't what I'd end up paying. There were potentially other costs. There is also a maintenance cost and the inverter if it dies, is very expensive to replace.

But let's forget about all the above and just do a quick financial review. Using the Energy Cost Calculator and my current energy retailer's price of around 21 cents per kWh, a 1.5kWh system would generate 6kWh's per day or roughly a saving of $469 a year.

At current prices that's around 10 years just to pay back the money I invest. In 10 years if I left the money in the bank I'd have increased the money and if I applied the money to a mortgage the savings off the loan would have doubled the money.

Now to complicate things more, there is an attractive rebate for energy you pump back into the grid. But for most people that won't be very much as their base load may even exceed the electricity the panels generate. But worse, by putting in the panels you go on a split tariff system that charges a higher rate for two thirds of the day and a lower rate for only a third of the day when usage is lowest. Overall the tariff change will increase your electricity costs.

The picture I'm seeing is you gain some savings but that is reduced by the increased costs due to the higher tariffs.

It is hard to get an accurate idea of how much better off you'll be, but if I'm to go by the 11 people in the local area who appeared in the newspaper, the savings for them only averaged around $200 a year.

For many that means installing solar panels may never end up paying for themselves.

For those who justify installing solar panels because it is environmentally good then perhaps think about the very large scale projects which can achieve a better result at a lower cost for the benefit of everyone with no grant required.

Installing solar panels just doesn't make sense.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm a fan of solar energy and have been for decades. I just think we need to make sure we're doing things for the right reasons and in the most appropriate ways.

The approach I've been taking is energy reduction which has reduced our electricity usage to around 40% of the average. I’ve found a number of ways to save money which pay for themselves in a few months to under and year. I'm also investigating the appropriate use of solar energy where there is a better payback so I have definitely not given up on solar.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/

PS. If you have verifiable savings with your solar installation you'd like to share with others, please feel free to contact me with the information. So far people haven't been jumping up and down to brag about their savings.

Are you paranoid that your computer might be infected with malware?

2011-08-23T13:06:00.001+10:00

If you’re paranoid that your computer might be infected with malware you probably have good cause. The problem is there are so many businesses out there, both legitimate and not legitimate, who try to change your computer without you quite realising what they’re doing or why.

It could be as simple as installing Acrobat Reader where you end up with the Google Toolbar installed. Acrobat most likely makes money by bundling Google’s Toolbar, Google gets to monitor the sites you visit which helps them make money from advertising and you’re computer just gets another piece of software installed it doesn’t need. That’s a legitimate business tactic although one I wish they didn’t use.

Next you have the site which changes your default search engine as I’ve seen with Firefox users. The search engine looks like Google but it isn’t. The site creates a front end to Google’s search engine so it makes money if you click on ads. You’ve been tricked and you’re browser has been hijacked. Because Firefox makes most of its income from Google, unlike Internet Explorer, where it is easy to change the default search engine, the average user will have difficulty removing this search engine and my logs show quite a few people reaching my site have been infected or tricked. You might just be starting to think the world is conspiring against you.

Then you have the malware writers. It can be as simple as visiting an infected site and your computer is infected. One person I know had their mortgage offset account cleared out of thirteen thousand dollars.

If you have shared computers and your children frequently search the internet (who doesn’t) then you run the risk of your computer being infected and often you won’t know it has occurred. The problem is if you then do things which require a username, password or pin number, that information could be recorded and sent to others without you knowing. To be quite frank, I advise all my family not to use any computer other than mine to do internet banking because I can’t be sure their computers haven’t been infected. I know they have in the past.

As a result of talking with a concerned client, I decided to investigate and see if there was a way to boot a computer from a CD and provide the user with a secure environment. As it turned out I was able to locate software used by American soldiers whilst overseas and can now make that software available to clients at a relatively low cost. The only tricky aspect is getting your computer to boot from the CD when a CD is present. This is a standard feature of most computers but isn’t generally known by the average users. Unfortunately changing the setting can vary from machine to machine, but once set up it works like a dream.

I can see a number of possible uses.

1. You want to do your internet banking and want to make sure you start your computer and know that even if it is infected, you’re session is secure. That’s exactly what the software can do. It doesn’t require anything from your hard disk and doesn’t update your computer. Every time you start the computer using the CD everything is clean.

2. Your children have infected your computer as a result of surfing the internet and that cost you a bucket of money to fix and you’d prefer not to go through that again. When your children want to surf the internet get them to boot their computer using the CD and they can surf the internet to their heart’s desire and even if they do comes across malware, only the current session is affected and once the computer is restarted the malware will be gone.

3. You own a business and don’t mind letting your staff surf the net or do their online banking during breaks but are concerned they could infect your computers, or worse, an infected computer clears out their bank account leaving you potentially liable. I’ve read this cost one business around $10,000 in legal fees. Give staff and CD and let them boot the computer. Your computer is safe and so are they.

4. You want to use a friend or relation’s computer whilst travelling to do internet banking. Yes. I’ve been there. The ANZ screwed up my automatic payments when I went overseas so I was forced to use a computer I didn’t know to make payments and it was really stressful. The secure boot CD would have given me peace of mind.

5. How many times have I had to fix a business computer after a staff member has worked on the weekend and brought in their child and the computer was used to occupy them. Yes. Very costly. Boot the computer with a secure boot disk and the computer can again be used to occupy children without concern or pressure they could do something wrong.

There are many uses for a secure boot disk. Clients are welcome to contact me if you’d like a secure boot disk. There is a small charge for the disk ($9.95 plus postage if required) but if you need support to set up your computer so it can boot from the CD, there would also be a small charge for the time involved.

For me this is a great opportunity for clients to minimise the risk associated with the internet. Nearly all malware infections now come from the internet. If you use a secure boot disk when accessing the internet the chances of infecting your computer are greatly reduced.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Facebook 'Like' button declared illegal in Germany

2011-08-22T11:14:00.001+10:00

I personally doubt if many people realise how their use of Facebook and features such as the Like button are used by the companies who have access to the information.

FACEBOOK'S famous "Like" button has been declared illegal under Germany's strict privacy laws by data protection officials.... Read More

People often don’t care if they’re actions are being tracked. Most don’t care if the government and authorities have access to their information and the general attitude is, “I don’t do anything wrong so what does it matter”, thinking only good people can get access to their data. But if the Homeland Security of America’s information is correct, where 3 in 100 people aren’t allowed onto an aeroplane because they’re dangerous and 10 in 100 are stopped before boarding then we need to keep in mind that bad people also work in these companies and have access to the information.

It amazes me that people use a feature such as the Like button for a business. Have you ever noticed with banks and other companies all the good offers are used to get new customers and existing customers don’t get much. Telling a company that you like them means they have you and they don’t have to work hard for your custom. The business will be focusing on getting new customers and that isn’t you.

Short term I expect to see the Like button being used to get new customers with special offers, but long term once they have you the benefits will reduce over time and since loyal customers generally remain loyal, a business can increase prices without losing a customer. Using a Like button is giving away your negotiating position. Remember it is basic human nature. We try harder to get the things we want rather than the things we already have.

So whether you’re concerned about your privacy, how your information is being used by others, who your information is being sold to, or just reducing your bargaining power, you should really think about social networking and features such as the Like button. I for one think people should if possible aim to keep things balanced and fair.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Alert: Just In Time For Father's Day - DadShop

2011-08-19T20:34:00.001+10:00

I received a couple of marketing emails today. They were sent to two different emails. I’ve never heard of the business before.

My initial thought was this was spam and the company has possibly scraped my addresses from the web. But the problem is it is hard to know. According to the email I’m receiving the email because of one of the reasons they provide in the email.

You have received this email from DadShop because you could have subscribed via one of our network shopping sites or purchased from us before.

Personally I think it is a marketing mistake for a business to use email addresses collected via another business as there is no way of knowing if it is true and that creates distrust. I’d find it very hard to deal with this business given the amount of fraud that occurs on the internet.

I find some people I send emails to have simply forgotten that they’ve corresponded with me and in each case I’ve been able to let the person know what our discussion was about to assure them they’ve previously dealt with me. But I do keep in mind people are busy and we often don’t remember businesses we’ve contacted. An email out of the blue from an unknown business isn’t a good idea. If you bought a product from Woolworths and then received an email from DickSmith how would you feel. Even though they’re from the same group of companies we don’t expect our information to automatically transfer from one company to another.

I checked the origin of the emails and they were from the United States. Again this is not unusual because they could be using a marketing service. I’d personally prefer to see emails being send from within Australia to add credibility to the emails.

A check of the domain name and the ACN number does not show up on the government’s ABN site. Neither does the company name appear.

At this stage I’d be concerned with using this site to purchase products and services. If you’re thinking of buying from a company you should be able to trace the company’s details to government registers to give you confidence in dealing with the business. Even if you can trace the business information to government databases it doesn’t mean it will be a good business to deal with, but at least you know they’ve gone through the required procedures.

As a general rule my approach is if you receive an email out of the blue that you don’t know I wouldn’t deal and I’d unsubscribe from their mailing list. The problem I find with people is they tend to be easily taken in from scammers and dealing with people you don’t know that you haven’t initiated is opening yourself up to being scammed.

If you’re sending out emails to others then consider how you’d react to your email if you received it. Put yourself in the recipients position and you’ll better understand how they’ll react and hopefully improve your response rate, or at least your recipients are less likely to be put off.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au (An Online Connections service.)

HP to discontinue HP webOS TouchPad Tablet which has just been launched in Australia.

2011-08-19T10:45:00.000+10:00

I wrote in an earlier blog post a while ago I couldn’t see a compelling business case for the HP webOS TouchPad tablet, but even I didn’t think HP would have planned to can it so quickly. The problem to me is HP kept webOS devices under wraps and if anything, probably lost momentum so when it was released there wasn’t the demand required. I felt they had one trump card up their sleeve if they decided to use it. If they had made webOS available for purchase for old PCs at low cost a lot of people including myself would have bought a copy to give it go. Once the tablet devices came out there may have been an enthusiastic early adopter market ready for the tablet. But that all now appears to be history.

If you’re thinking about buying a HP webOS TouchPad tablet keep in mind there now doesn’t appear to be a future for the device. Quite a pity really.

In addition, HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward. ... Read More

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Critical alert: Telephone call from scammer purporting to be from Service of Windows Operations James Stevenson. Issue: Illegal copy of Windows.

2011-08-18T14:11:00.000+10:00

Only moments ago I received a call from a person called James Steveson who said they were from Service of Windows Operations a section of Microsoft. He informed me they had detected an illegal copy of Windows on my computers. He wanted me to go on my computer. My computers are legitimately licensed so I knew immediately the caller was a scammer.

I asked for his telephone number so I could call him back. He provided an address of 75 Ressdale Street but I was not able to obtain any further information and I’d be certain this information isn’t legitimate. By asking for the a number to call them back on this would provide an ability to trace the caller. The caller knows this so hung up.

I reported the information to Optus (my telephone service provider) but it requires three calls for them to take action. There does not appear to be anything in place to protect consumers so each consumer has to effectively look after their own interests.

In this case the caller appeared to be using the telephone directory information to contact me.

Should you receive any unsolicited call from overseas letting you know you have a problem on your computer it is almost certainly a scammer.

Please take care.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Are you missing out on up to 40% of your potential search engine traffic?

2011-08-18T12:45:00.001+10:00

I recently helped a client with their web site. They’d set their site up using an overseas hosting company and a .com domain and thought everything was OK. When searching using Google they were first in the search results which is what they wanted. But when searching Pages From Australia their site was nowhere to be seen. Because 30-40% of Australians search by selecting Pages From Australia that meant potentially the client was missing out on 30-40% of their internet traffic.

Because how you set up your site on the internet could cause you to miss out on up to 40% of search engine traffic it is important to consider your options carefully.

For the client I was able to use techniques which resulted in their site appearing first in the Google search results for Pages From Australia. An overview of the approach I used is documented in MyAnswers solution 2152.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Google search results now different for each person

2011-08-18T12:08:00.000+10:00

There are many limitations I’ve found with Google search results over the years, but more recently the results have started to become less useful. People often ask me for assistance with their computers and sometimes I suggest they search for a particular phrase because I know the site will appear in the search results.

For example recently I was assisting a client with their Search Engine Optimisation strategy. I said the quickest way to find an article on my blog was to enter a particular phrase and my blog entry would appear in the results. For me blog entry always sits on the bottom of the first page of the Google search results. To my surprise the client couldn’t find the page in their results so I had to send them a link to the post via email. How strange I thought!

In hindsight I’ve now become aware of what is happening. If you have signed into a Google service then Google is adjusting your search results so you no longer see what others see. For some that might be good, but for me it isn’t. Google thinks I want to see my own sites high in the search results and that just isn’t the case. I’d prefer to see what everyone else sees so I can use that information to help others.

I’ve read that Google will be using their social networking service, Google+, and incorporating your contacts shared information into your search results. Now again that might be good for some, but for others I suspect it won’t offer much value. As Google filters information more and more you’ll find you’ll see less results from people you don’t know and those are the people who know things you don’t know.

Over the years Google has changed the search results page. If I look at a Google search result I see so much information I don’t need. I don’t need a map to appear every time I search. I can use Google maps for that if I want. I don’t need a list of businesses like a directory to consume a lot of the page. I can use a directory for that. I certainly don’t need my own pages to appear on the first page if they don’t usually appear on the first page. I know what they contain so I’m not getting anything new.

Now when I search I need to log off Google services so I can see the results I think others will see. I say I think, because if they’re logged onto a Google service they won’t get the same results. Add this to Google’s geographical filtering which can change results for people located as close to each other as Melbourne and Geelong and it starts to become much harder to feel you’re getting the information you’d like, rather than the information Google thinks is what you want.

So the tip today. If you’re searching log off your Google services first and you’ll get search results without the extra filtering.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Local businesses need to start thinking of their customers as potential suppliers

2011-08-18T11:13:00.001+10:00

When people ask me about JustLocal and what I’m doing, I have a couple of examples I share to highlight the issues I’ve found and if people start to think about them I’d like to change the situation a little.

I ask people do you refer others to businesses you’ve used and the answer is more often yes.

I then ask these questions.

Do you shop at the local businesses?

The answer is always yes.

Do they know you at the local businesses?

The answer is often yes.

Has a local business asked what you do?

The answer is always no.

Has a local business given you any business?

The answer is always no.

Why do I ask these questions. The reasons is simple. This is the same experience I’ve had. I regularly refer people to businesses I’ve used. I use the businesses regularly and say hello to the business owners. They never ask what I do and it has been 15 years since a local business that I purchase products and services from has given me any business.

Local businesses I have no doubt add valuable services and facilities to the community. But if the only purpose of a local business is to profit from the locals and then spend their profits elsewhere, what they are really doing long term is damaging the local community and not making it stronger. As people realise local businesses by their actions are only there to profit off the local community, the loyalty of locals will, if it hasn’t already, disappear, and people will see the best action for themselves is to look after themselves. Why not, everyone else appears to be.

To me this is a sad outcome. As a business I look at my customers as my potential suppliers. If I can pass on work or referrals to my customers and I believe it is appropriate and ethical to do so, then I’m happy to help those who help me.

To all local businesses I ask you to start asking your customers what they do and if they can provide a product or service you need then take a chance. Get a local to provide the product or service and if that local is one of your customers even better. You’ll not only help strengthen the local community but you’ll also build loyalty.

Kelvin Eldridge

http://www.justlocal.com.au/

Alert: Tips on pumping petrol try it you might be saving money

2011-08-17T10:31:00.000+10:00

A thoughtful family member passed on an email with the subject Tips on pumping petrol try it you might be saving money. I find if you receive an email that encourages you to pass it on to large numbers of people it is generally a hoax of some type and you should hesitate before sending it on.

The best thing to do if you do receive such as an email and feel like sending it on, then do a bit of research first. In this case I took the subject of the email and copied that into Google Search. I found the following page which provides further information.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/gastips.asp

From the information provides is shows that saving money using the suggestions made will generate negligible savings for the time involved.

The intent of this type of email has no harm but simply to get people to take action and virally generate traffic by passing the information on. Those taking action based on the information will most likely be wasting their time.

For me the concern with this email is it appeared to have been faked and was adjusted to be from Melbourne where the sender and their contacts are located. That is a real concern to me. This is targeted viral marketing and whilst this email’s content may have no real value it is a concern that it is targeted. The change in location gives people a feeling the information content is legitimate. The changing of the location and also the word petrol is used whereas the other versions for America would use the term gas. Localising the information for the language of a country is unusual, but localised it further for the geographic location of the recipient raises some warning signs with regards to future hoaxes, and viral spam marketing.

If you receive information of this type I’d highly recommend you do not forward it on to others. Whilst in this case probably the worst outcome is people will waste some of their time for little return, in other cases the content may be harmful.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Computer Technician or Computer Support Professional. Do you really need one?

2011-08-16T12:36:00.001+10:00

I am constantly surprised and disappointed at companies providing professional services. The general rule is if a cost can be passed on to a client or is incurred by the client, the professional services organisation doesn't try to save the client money, in fact, they'll often cost the client more money than they otherwise need to spend.

Sometimes I really don't like to call myself a professional because to a degree I'm ashamed by how most other professionals behave. To me a professional tries to look after the interests of the client and puts the client's interests before their own interests to make sure the client gets the best possible advice they can be provide.

I decided some time ago to start recording problems clients were having as the same problems were experienced by others and sometimes that could be months or years down the track. Remembering a solution to a problem a few months later can be hard, but trying to remember what you did two or three years ago is even harder. By recording problems and solutions I didn't have to reinvestigate the same problem and work out the solution again. Often for new customer having the same problem, all that was required was to send to client the solution to fix the problem. This could be a saving of minutes to hours, but in all cases clients save money. I now make those solutions available to the general public for less than the minimum time interval for using my services. Some problems have taken hours to resolve so the savings can be very significant.

I call the solutions MyAnswers and the solutions are available from http://www.myanswers.biz/. The following is a list of the categories I cover.

Commercial software packages
General
Hardware
Internet
Internet
Internet Access
Microsoft
Microsoft
Windows 95, 98, 98SE
Windows XP Home, Professional
Windows Vista
Windows 7
All versions of Windows
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Access
Internet Explorer
Outlook Express
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Visual Basic
Microsoft FrontPage
JustLocal
Tips for JustLocal advertisers
Google
Gmail
Android
Network
Opera browser
OpenOffice.org
General
Writer
Writer/Tables
Writer/Pictures
Writer/Fields
Writer/Word
Calc
Calc/Chart
Calc/Excel
Impress
Draw
Html Editor
Forms
Basic/Macros
Data sources
Math
Open source software
Open Source software
FireFox,
Thunderbird, Mozilla
SeaMonkey
Printing
Voice over Internet (VoIP)
Virus, Spyware/Adware, Spam
Peer To Peer (P2P
Mingw C/C++
Java
Travel
Australian Dictionary
Electrity usage for a range of devices
MyAds (should be used in conjunction with MyAds courses)
MyAds - Stage 1
MyAds - Stage 2
Apple iPhone

If you need a computer support person then perhaps next time first check to see if I've already created a solution. All solutions come with a money back guarantee so there is simply no way you can lose. If it doesn't work for you for whatever reason you can then still retain my services or the services of another computer support person.

As a professional my aim with MyAnswers is to reduce the cost to clients where I can and to save money for clients where I can. It really isn't hard to be professional.

Kelvin Eldridge

http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/

PS. If you do need a computer technician or support person to assist you we provide personalised service as well.

Google to acquire Motorola

2011-08-15T23:35:00.001+10:00

Tonight I read that Google is to acquire Motorola.

Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility ... Read More

I find this to be interesting news and I’d be guessing, but I suspect it might have a very interesting effect on Samsung and LG. Up until now Motorola was just another Android player and now it is “THE” Android player. If you were Samsung or LG what would you be doing. Wouldn’t you want to hedge your bets. If they do the only card left to be put on the table is Microsoft’s operating system.

Samsung and LG need some form of leverage to keep the playing field level and running a dual Android/Microsoft strategy might give them that leverage, or at least give them a backup plan. Personally I think a Samsung device with a Microsoft tablet operating system (Windows 8) would be interesting to review.

If you’re considering an Android device will Google’s acquisition enter into your thoughts. Perhaps, but then again, perhaps not. I expect mobile phones and tablets to largely have a life expectancy of around two years. You could buy what you want today and as long as you don’t over invest, you’ll still end up getting two years of use out of your device.

This has certainly changed the goal posts as they say, and it will be interesting to look back in two years to see what the players are up to.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Office 365 and Google's cloud services could be reducing the security of an organisations information.

2011-08-15T18:09:00.000+10:00

A number of years ago I was asked to quote on a some work for a company offering security services to a major company. Through our discussions I was quite surprised the email address was the same address used by the user to remotely access their computer services. In fact they were very proud of their systems and the ability to log in from anywhere in the world. To me I felt this was a significant exposure. With the email address known publicly the only piece of information required to access their systems was a password. To me that was too big an exposure.

Fast forward about ten years and in my review of Office 365 I’ve been struggling to set up a user and use what is known as an alias as the public email address. From what I can see the user’s email address is their username. Once again the only piece of information required to access a user’s information is a password. I can’t find a way where the users email address is not shared.

Once I realised this I started to realise this is true for the majority of the online services and how people use them in general. Google’s services use the email address as the username. Again all that is required is the password and you have access to all the material stored online.

To me this simply isn’t good enough. The username to sign on and administer or use an account should in my opinion not be a public email address.

There is little wonder so many peoples’ online accounts are getting hacked. If hackers need to determine both the username and password this reduces the chance of being hacked considerably. Giving hackers half the information is significantly increasing your exposure. Recently quite a few hacked password databases have been made public and it is surprising how many people use similar or easily determined passwords.

With email my actual account username is not made public and all the public ever see is an alias. This is a much safer way to work. With cloud services now offering your spreadsheets, your documents and your systems as well as your email, the amount of information you are now starting to share online has increased significantly and you should make sure you are fully aware of the exposure.

If all that stands between your information and a hacker is a password, then I’d be worried.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Flakey Jake's Doncaster East

2011-08-15T00:12:00.001+10:00

We ordered fish and chips from Flakey Jake’s tonight and as usual the food was quite good. One of the things I find missing from local businesses is the ability to access their menu online. A while ago I sponsored a couple of sites for local businesses (as an example www.BoltonFishShop.com) to measure the interest by locals looking for their site or service. The response has been very positive and it shows there is good interest by locals.

Unfortunately locals don’t let the businesses know how handy having access to an online menu is, so they don’t see it as a good investment. The problem for the businesses is it becomes easier for consumers to buy from large businesses because they have their menus available online.

All it takes is to keep one customer happy and a low cost web site can pay for itself. An online menu can be up-to-date whereas a printed menu often has old prices. I’ve seen a number of customers complain about unexpected pricing and that’s not good for business.

My measurements show the amount of traffic a local business receives would easily pay for a site, particularly sites such as the sites I’ve built for the local businesses. On the other hand losing a customer because it is easier to buy elsewhere costs the business valuable income.

I would have liked to have been able to check Flakey Jake’s menu online, place the order from home and then pick the order up saving 10-15 minutes waiting time. If others feel the same way please let the owners know.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

PS. If you have a local business and would like a low cost presence on the internet, please feel free to contact me. Not only am I able to produce a low cost site but each time have achieved a great presence in Google for the business.

Computer repair Melbourne (Doncaster, Templestowe, Eltham area)

2011-08-13T16:28:00.000+10:00

If you're having a computer related problem and need someone to come out and fix your issue you can contact Kelvin (that's me) at Online Connections. Based in Templestowe (for those not sure when that is think of Doncaster Shoppingtown) I service the local area. I prefer providing a personalised service to clients rather than remote support.

I've found the problem with remote support is it often takes longer to walk the client through setting up the remote support than it does to drive out and fix the problem and that costs clients more money. Many problems are easier to fix where you can see the problem and work with the client.

One problem I fixed recently for a client was causing their internet connection to fail many times a day. They'd had assistance from the ISP and new equipment sent out which didn't solve the problem. No one had been able to fix their problem. When I attended I could see they had set up their equipment in a number of areas which was causing multiple problems. A visual inspection made it easier to identify and fix the issue which had plagued them for some time.

My own experience with many of the companies telephone based support services is they haven't been very good. I won't name names, but I've had one telco support person give advice that was simply not related to the problem and a leading hardware company's support person had senior management on their knees under the desk trying to identify a problem I'd already identified and isolated and all that was required was to log a fault. More often than not you'll spend the first twenty minutes waiting on hold for the call to be answered.

More and more I'm finding customers who've tried everything with their ISP contact me because the ISP has simply not been able to help and I've been able to walk into the client's premises or home and fix their issue.

If you prefer personalised cost effective service then you're welcome to give me a call.

Kelvin Eldridge

http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/

Robots put a million people out of work

2011-08-13T12:25:00.001+10:00

Whilst I don’t think anyone is happy with the transfer of local jobs going overseas, if there is one gain in all the pain it may be the lost jobs being taken up overseas and help to move many millions of people out of poverty. It doesn’t help the person who loses the job locally, but on a global scale there is at least some gain for people worse off.

When I read the following article it makes me think is it really worth it.

iPad maker to replace 1 million staff with robots... Read More

We seem to be doing more and more using less and less people. This may be great for large companies to maximise their profits but it makes wonder in the long term how good this is for our society.

Already I’ve seen from my youth, where 20% of people went on to tertiary education, has now become close to 100% percentage going on to tertiary education because there are no jobs for younger people. Even then many of those who come out of tertiary education end up for a couple of years doing jobs we would have done in our teens.

I don’t know the answer but unless we recognise something is happening around us, we’ll never even know the question.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Alert: Competitive Printer from China

2011-08-12T18:25:00.001+10:00

I received an email with the subject Competitive Printer from China and thought I’d advise people to take care. There are a number of things which flag this email as suspicious.

The From field is picasawebalbums-noreply@google.com and this email appears to have nothing to do with Google.

The email is unsolicited referencing a business directory I’ve never heard of which if legitimate, has most likely scraped my email address from my site as I’ve never listed in any business directory. I don’t have to. JustLocal is better than any business directory I know and that is where I promote my business.

I’d highly recommend if you’re contacted out of the blue by any service provider that is a generalised mail out, to discard the offer. Had the company been in Australia it may be in breach of the anti-spam Act. Any business that does not take into account the laws of the country they are marketing too is a company to be wary of.

I’d highly recommend that you delete this type of email and contact a local supplier or make your own enquiries using reputable online information that you can verify.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Doncaster Shoppingtown. Local computer support for local residents and businesses.

2011-08-12T13:05:00.001+10:00

If you live near Doncaster Shoppingtown and need your computer fixed or have a computer related problem call Online Connections. We’re local (based in Templestowe). Being local means we don’t have to charge travel time or charge a minimum fee. You only pay for the time required to fix your problem which saves you money.

Call Online Connections on 0415 910 703 or via email at sales@onlineconnections.com.au.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Aquarena Doncaster or is it Aquarena Templestowe Lower?

2011-08-11T10:11:00.001+10:00

As a local to the area I am fascinated by some of the quirky addresses that I find in the area. Aquarena is located at 139-153 Williamsons Road Doncaster according to the YMCA site who manage the centre. But if we do a bit of searching we find Manningham Council who owns the centre has a page which refers to it as being located in Lower Templestowe.

Now if you were looking for Aquarena in Doncaster and didn’t know the area you probably wouldn’t find it easily because physically it takes up a very large area in Templestowe Lower.

I have no idea why YMCA and Manningham Council list the Aquarena in different suburbs. I don’t know about you, but I find that very quirky.

No matter whether you think Aquarena is located in Doncaster or Templestowe Lower, there is one thing you can count on. If you need computer support in either of the suburbs, Online Connections can help, is local and doesn’t charge a call out fee cutting the cost of computer support. If you need assistance with your computers contact us via email at sales@onlineconnections.com.au or call 0415 910 703.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/

Templestowe Primary School, residents and business. Local computer support now available from Online Connections.

2011-08-10T14:22:00.000+10:00

I’ve found over time a lot of people think their Windows XP computer has become too slow and end up purchasing or thinking about buying a new computer. After I clean up the computer for the person the decision to buy a new computer because of performance is often no longer an issue and the family can decide in their own time whether or not they want a new computer.

Even if you buy a new computer a Windows XP computer makes a great second computer. Connect it to your home network either via a wired or wireless connection and families tend to have less arguments as to who gets to use the computer.

If you don’t have a wireless network this can be a great investment. Often children want to use the computer to stay in contact with friends. With a wireless network they’re often able to stay in contact using an Apple iPod Touch or their mobile phone. This has quite a few benefits. The computer doesn’t get used as much which saves power, it frees up the computer for the heavy duty work such as assignments. Because the family has more ways to access the internet there tends to be less contention and arguments.

If your computer needs a cleanup, isn’t working as it should, or you’d like to have a wireless network set up, then give me a call. Online Connections is local. We have a policy of not charging travel time or a call out fee for locals since there is very little travel time involved. Our approach means easy problems (for us) can be fixed quickly at a lower cost.

Call us now on 0415 910 703 if you have a computer problem.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Doncaster East Secondary College, residents and business. Local computer support now available from Online Connections.

2011-08-09T16:08:00.001+10:00

To make it easier for those in Doncaster East to find computer support I’ve set up the site www.DoncasterEast.com. If you’re looking for businesses in the Doncaster East area you can find those advertising on the Doncaster East page www.JustLocal.com.au/3109.

To make it easier to find a local business for those in Doncaster East, I also include over six hundred businesses with web sites in Doncaster East and the adjoining areas of Doncaster, Templestowe and Warrandyte in the search engine for Doncaster East. By using the search engine you can now search only those businesses with a local presence. Google provides the technology behind the search engine but with advantage of only local businesses and their sites being searched. Click here to search for products and services from businesses near you. You can also use the Search menu option from the JustLocal page www.JustLocal.com.au/3109 to access the search engine.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Hacked WordPress blogs distributing malware

2011-08-09T11:49:00.001+10:00

I have an approach to news which I’ve found works well for me over the years. If I read something in the news that doesn’t affect me or anyone I know then it is often hype designed to market a product or service. But when I know someone, or someone I know knows someone that it’s affected, then I consider the threat real and action needs to be taken.

This year a number of people I know have had their sites hacked. In one instance I assisted a client with their WordPress sites which had been hacked (I had nothing to do with the site as I generally don’t recommend the use of WordPress for a number of reasons). Whilst it was possible to remove the offending code the sites would be reinfected and the hosting company was required to remove the offending code as it was outside of the client’s control.

Today I read the following article.

Hackers are abusing thousands of independent WordPress sites to litter Google Image search results with code that redirects users to servers that attempt to infect them with malware... Read More

What I found interesting about this article was the hackers are using Google Images to distribute malware. Those using Google Images to find images, will from what I see in many instances have almost no warning they are going to a site which may be distributing malware. This approach makes sense for hackers. Google scans sites to present images. It costs Google nothing for the content and the content links to the sites it was obtained from, which could have been hijacked.

The problem I find with people using WordPress is often they install the software on their own site and then think that is the end of it. Most will probably never upgrade their installation and as holes are found that means an ever increasing number WordPress based sites and left open for hacking.

Another client of mine recently had a site set up by a graphic designer using WordPress. I have to admit I did raise an eyebrow. This client is now either going to have to maintain their own site which they won’t as they don’t have the knowledge or skills to do it, or the graphic designer will need to do it and generally they aren’t interested in regular IT admin work which doesn’t generate an income.

If you’re considering a blog for your site do get some professional IT advice. Anyone can get a site for $5 a month, add WordPress for free and think they’ve done all they need to, but the reality is the work is just beginning. The client who required support incurred a bill of hundreds of dollars for support, exposed their customers to malware and had their site listed on Google as containing malware for a period of time which would not have happened had they used a different blogging approach.

The lessons here are:

- If you’re using images from the internet then perhaps think about how those images were obtained and potentially the sites they link to.

- Think about using images from sites that have been designed to distribute and share images as their core business.

- Think about the blogging software you’re thinking about using and the work you need to do to maintain it. If you install it on your own site are you skilled to maintain it.

- Think about your customers who visit your site. The decisions you make also affect them.

- If something is free on the internet there is a reason it is free and the site is making money somewhere else which may not always be in your best interest.

- Always be vigilant on the internet.

- If in doubt when searching on the internet think about a more secure approach which reduces the risk to you.

The internet is one of the wonders of the modern age, but do take care when using it.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Doncaster East Secondary College computer repair and support

2011-08-08T13:08:00.000+10:00

If you go to Doncaster East Secondary College, live in Doncaster East and require computer support you can now obtain local computer support from Online Connections. Because Online Connections is local (based in Templestowe) there is no call out fee or travel time. You only pay for the time it takes to fix your problem.

This great offer is not only available to students, but also to local residents and businesses.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Who else has been tricked by the McDonald's $4 lunchtime meal deal

2011-08-07T12:43:00.001+10:00

I saw the ads on TV so decided to get a $4 lunchtime meal deal yesterday from McDonalds. They show a range and mention a $3 saving so I thought why not. Now as with ads you have to be a bit suspicious. In this case the suspicion was justified. There are a range of meals and the $3 saving if you read the fine print is off their individual prices and not their regular meal deal prices. I certainly didn’t see that on the TV ad and I think that is misleading.

Of the meals listed one meal saved just 20 cents of the regular meal price. The medium sized cheeseburger meal saved about 80 cents and the Angus burger meal saved about the same. Certainly nowhere near the $3 expected.

Had I know this in advance I’d have given the lunchtime meal deal a miss and picked up a KFC meal for $5.95 and saved some money. There are some good deals around for lunchtime meals and I don’t consider the McDonald’s offer particularly good. Comparing the offer to individual prices to make the offer seem better I don’t think is a particularly good way for them to promote their products. Certainly disappoints me and makes me think twice about trusting their promotions.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Is the issue of buying from overseas without paying GST a red herring?

2011-08-06T01:46:00.001+10:00

We all know the economy is soft but I can’t help feel the supposed concern by retailers may or may not be real. Perhaps it is real or perhaps it is media beat up.

Productivity Commission recommends removal of online tax-free threshold... Read More

In my business I take the attitude if I’m not competitive (including the extra value I bring to a sale) then my clients should look to buy elsewhere. I don’t expect them to pay more just because I’m a nice guy. But buying something from overseas isn’t as clear cut as just adding GST.

First if you buy from overseas you usually pay in another currency and there’s a cost to convert the money. You do see an exchange rate fee from the bank but there is also a cost that is never shown which can be up to 6%. Next time you buy something from overseas use the current exchange rate and check it for yourself what you thought you’d pay and what you actually ended up paying. You aren’t getting the current exchange rate we see promoted on TV. Add the hidden charge plus the bank fees and you’ll find the GST advantage is nearly gone.

If Australian retailers made people aware of the real cost and the risks of buying from overseas they’d have educated consumers and I find by sharing knowledge with my customers they are able to make better decisions. Try taking a product back that doesn’t work that you bought from overseas. Good luck with that.

The GST I think is a red herring. Perhaps Australian retailers should look at negotiating better terms with the overseas based companies they currently buy from. Perhaps it is the margins Australian retailers like to maintain. But given exchange rate charges alone nearly wipes out the GST saving the GST isn’t making much difference. One thing consumers often don’t factor in is the delivery charge. This is standard practice to separate out the delivery and packing charge. Often a company can make good money on their delivery and packing charge. I know one well know computer company that charged more for delivery of a computer in Australia than many retailers would get from selling a computer. Educate customers on the total cost and the risks. I find educated customers are the best customers.

I don’t know about you, but I think changing the situation with GST on purchases from overseas is a red herring. What do you think?

I can’t help but think buying local makes sense in many cases. You can generally see and touch the product. You get the product immediately. If there is a problem you can return the product or get assistance. If the saving by buying from overseas including the added cost of converting money and delivery far exceeds the risk, then it makes sense to buy from overseas. As to the GST difference that wouldn’t make much difference as to whether or not I bought from overseas.

I suspect what will be happening is many people who never considered buying from overseas will now be thinking about it because the GST issue is now in the media. This will make people think it is cheaper because they won’t consider the total cost. That certainly isn’t going to help the plight of retailers.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au