I happily suggest to people to download Skype to their iPhone. It works pretty well when used with a wireless network. Lately I've been testing Skype on the Telstra 3G network. In my latest MyAnswers solution I provide an example of how I use Skype on an iPhone and how to work out the cost of using Skype on a 3G service.
You can find more information in MyAnswers solution 2053.
Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.justlocal.com.au/
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Home loan cal (calculations)
I was quite astonished to read on the News Limited site, the number of people now considering moving their loan to have reached 25%. The figures indicate of the estimated 4.4 million home loans over a million are being reconsidered.
If you're looking to refinance your home loan it would be a good idea to seek professional advice from a home loan broker. On the JustLocal postcode page for 6030 (Clarkson, Merriwa, Mindarie, Quinns Rocks, Ridgewood, Tamala Park - Western Australia) you can find Aussie Mortgage Masters and on my network group page you can find John Cosby from Hotline Homeloans who is based in Melbourne.
Perhaps one of your New Year's resolutions might be to review your home loan and consider the options.
Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.justlocal.com.au/
Tags: home loan calculations, home loan calc, home loan comparisons, repayments calculator home loan, refinance home loan
If you're looking to refinance your home loan it would be a good idea to seek professional advice from a home loan broker. On the JustLocal postcode page for 6030 (Clarkson, Merriwa, Mindarie, Quinns Rocks, Ridgewood, Tamala Park - Western Australia) you can find Aussie Mortgage Masters and on my network group page you can find John Cosby from Hotline Homeloans who is based in Melbourne.
Perhaps one of your New Year's resolutions might be to review your home loan and consider the options.
Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.justlocal.com.au/
Tags: home loan calculations, home loan calc, home loan comparisons, repayments calculator home loan, refinance home loan
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Warning: Telstra pre-paid mobile wi-fi stopped working after a month
I don't know why Telcos don't wish to make what they are offering clear. Surely the short term financial gain over loss of credibility with customers isn't worth it. I seem to find this with every telco I use, so I'm not singling out Telstra. It is just in this case I'm using them as an example.
I purchased a Telstra pre-paid mobile wi-fi hotspot device in early November. It cost $149 and I thought based on my enquiries it came with 5GB of data which expired in 90 days. I thought once the data had expired I'd then use their 10GB pre-paid plan which lasts for 365 days for $150.
I set up the device using the number provided which was a 125 number. My first surprise was I was charged a timed called costing a couple of dollars via Skype. I used Skype because it was convenient. I see no reason for Telstra to provide a number which could end up being a timed call just to set up their service.
I use the Telstra mobile wi-fi every now and then. A couple of weeks ago it stopped working. My gut feeling was it would relate to something to do with the 90 day offer.
I called support and the first person partly confirmed the offer was in addition to also paying for one of Telstra's pre-paid amounts. So you can't use the included data for 90 days unless you also pay one of the pre-paid amounts. This isn't clearly stated anywhere.
I just don't get why Telstra has to be almost deceiving in their approach. I'm buying their product for $149 and I'm lead to believe from their site I'd get 5GB of data to use for 90 days. I'm then happy to pay the $150 to use their service. Now I'm in two minds. I simply don't trust Telstra when they continuously do things like this.
The previous examples are they would let you know when your data bundle was expiring by sending an SMS message. Without any notification they dropped the facility which meant after your bundle expired you'd eat up your normal credit. Another example is they promoted the ability if you purchased one of their mobile phones to get access to email included for free. After spending over an hour on the telephone I ended up writing off the telephone as a bad experience. Telstra had installed so much crap in the mobile phone it was annoying to use.
I also want to share that to actually get the mobile wi-fi to work I spoke to four people in Telstra support taking about an hour to largely confirm what I expected. I'd already isolated that the wi-fi hotspot was physcially working and connecting to their service. All I need was confirmation that the problem was about how they charged and that in fact the 90 day offer wasn't the first 90 days of usage. If you buy the Telstra pre-paid mobile wi-fi ignore the 5GB data offer as though it doesn't exist. Then buy the data you need. Then consider the 5GB data a bonus if you end up using it. The people in the Telstra shop didn't know what they were doing. I believe I asked the questions and had it confirmed that the data would be available for 3 months and then I could recharge. I can't quite recall but I believe I called Telstra support to confirm so I felt I'd asked the questions I needed to ask. Something like this should be pretty basic and should just work as promoted.
So be careful of the potential for a charged call when you set up your pre-paid mobile wi-fi and also stick with the basics. Asking Telstra staff questions has little point and telephone support takes forever.
In comparison I purchased a 3 USB data stick for $149 with 12 months of data (12GB) and that is exactly what I received. It simply worked. As well they gave a 30 day 1GB bonus to get you started so you didn't have to use your data for the first 30 days. The only issue is obviously 3's coverage is not as good as Telstra's. But if you are in a good coverage area, consider your options. Telstra's wi-fi will end up being $149 plus $150 for 10GB of data, plus a bonus 5GB which lasts for 90 days. Roughly twice the price.
Hopefully this post will help others make a better informed decision when considering the Telstra pre-paid mobile wi-fi. At least you'll know what you are getting.
Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/
I purchased a Telstra pre-paid mobile wi-fi hotspot device in early November. It cost $149 and I thought based on my enquiries it came with 5GB of data which expired in 90 days. I thought once the data had expired I'd then use their 10GB pre-paid plan which lasts for 365 days for $150.
I set up the device using the number provided which was a 125 number. My first surprise was I was charged a timed called costing a couple of dollars via Skype. I used Skype because it was convenient. I see no reason for Telstra to provide a number which could end up being a timed call just to set up their service.
I use the Telstra mobile wi-fi every now and then. A couple of weeks ago it stopped working. My gut feeling was it would relate to something to do with the 90 day offer.
I called support and the first person partly confirmed the offer was in addition to also paying for one of Telstra's pre-paid amounts. So you can't use the included data for 90 days unless you also pay one of the pre-paid amounts. This isn't clearly stated anywhere.
I just don't get why Telstra has to be almost deceiving in their approach. I'm buying their product for $149 and I'm lead to believe from their site I'd get 5GB of data to use for 90 days. I'm then happy to pay the $150 to use their service. Now I'm in two minds. I simply don't trust Telstra when they continuously do things like this.
The previous examples are they would let you know when your data bundle was expiring by sending an SMS message. Without any notification they dropped the facility which meant after your bundle expired you'd eat up your normal credit. Another example is they promoted the ability if you purchased one of their mobile phones to get access to email included for free. After spending over an hour on the telephone I ended up writing off the telephone as a bad experience. Telstra had installed so much crap in the mobile phone it was annoying to use.
I also want to share that to actually get the mobile wi-fi to work I spoke to four people in Telstra support taking about an hour to largely confirm what I expected. I'd already isolated that the wi-fi hotspot was physcially working and connecting to their service. All I need was confirmation that the problem was about how they charged and that in fact the 90 day offer wasn't the first 90 days of usage. If you buy the Telstra pre-paid mobile wi-fi ignore the 5GB data offer as though it doesn't exist. Then buy the data you need. Then consider the 5GB data a bonus if you end up using it. The people in the Telstra shop didn't know what they were doing. I believe I asked the questions and had it confirmed that the data would be available for 3 months and then I could recharge. I can't quite recall but I believe I called Telstra support to confirm so I felt I'd asked the questions I needed to ask. Something like this should be pretty basic and should just work as promoted.
So be careful of the potential for a charged call when you set up your pre-paid mobile wi-fi and also stick with the basics. Asking Telstra staff questions has little point and telephone support takes forever.
In comparison I purchased a 3 USB data stick for $149 with 12 months of data (12GB) and that is exactly what I received. It simply worked. As well they gave a 30 day 1GB bonus to get you started so you didn't have to use your data for the first 30 days. The only issue is obviously 3's coverage is not as good as Telstra's. But if you are in a good coverage area, consider your options. Telstra's wi-fi will end up being $149 plus $150 for 10GB of data, plus a bonus 5GB which lasts for 90 days. Roughly twice the price.
Hopefully this post will help others make a better informed decision when considering the Telstra pre-paid mobile wi-fi. At least you'll know what you are getting.
Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Australian dictionary blog now live
Hi,
I've now set up an Australian dictionary blog to further share information relating to the Australian English dictionary products and services I produce. This will provide the following benefits:
Kelvin Eldridge
The Preferred Australian English spelling
I've now set up an Australian dictionary blog to further share information relating to the Australian English dictionary products and services I produce. This will provide the following benefits:
- Dictionary related posts will now largely be contained within the Australian English dictionary blog.
- This will enable me to phase out the forum which is no longer used.
- News items for the dictionary pages on the site will now appear in the blog rather than on the individual pages.
- I aim to extend MyAnswers solutions to cover information I find of interest in the area of the preferred Australian English spelling.
- The dictionary pages will have their own news feed so if Australian English spelling is of interest to you, you can now subscribe to the blog using the RSS feed.
Kelvin Eldridge
The Preferred Australian English spelling
VistaPrint free premium business card offer.
I receive emails from Vistaprint regularly and this time I decided to follow the link for the free premium business card offer. I landed on the page, uploaded the graphic for my card I had designed for me and followed through the process provided. The end price was going to be $20.73. I'm not saying this isn't a very good price for 250 business cards, but it isn't free.
Before purchasing your "free" business cards from Vistaprint or any other company, you should review your needs. Next time when you need cards the offer won't be "free". Look at the bigger picture. In this case I had my card professionally designed. The same design can then be extended to be used across my business if required.
If you look at the Ideal Business Card offer for $159 your obtain a professionally designed card plus 1,000 business cards with printing on both sides and gloss on the front. If you purchased four lots of 250 cards over time for $37.49 (totalling a thousand cards) the price ends up around the same, but you only get matt cards, no professionally designed artwork and no opportunity to use the design across the rest of your business.
Next time you're thinking about a free offer, take a little time to think about what is in your interests right now, but also in the future. It might not be "free", but it may save you time and money in the long run.
Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/
PS. As a Virtual Profit Sharing member I receive a profit share on any business that results from using the link for the Ideal Business Card. The opportunity to profit share is available for free to anyone who wishes to become a Virtual Profit Sharing member and help businesses to prosper by referring business.
UPDATE: Approximately 5 hours after writing this blog entry I received another offer for the free business cards. This time with my graphic displayed and again for free. When I checked it was now free but the graphic resulted in a price of $8.99. Not too bad I thought. Previously the graphic was discounted to under $2. I decided to proceed.
At the point of purchase you are given delivery options with the standard 14 days being $17.03. When working out your pricing watch out for the delivery charge and make sure you add it if you're making a comparison. Remember you will need to reorder at some stage and you'll pay the full price plus any other charges, such as the image upload and delivery fee. I've seen another company offer free cards only to see people unhappy to be charged for delivery and handling. To me free isn't free unless it costs you nothing, period. So I again decided not to proceed.
My thought is to put the money towards the full gloss cards I actually prefer and to purchase a quantity of a thousand. In addition I'd like to add some text on the reverse side. I can use The Ideal Business Card approach and obtain the cards faster and what I want for around the same price without any of the discounting offered by Vistaprint. It really is good to add in ALL costs including postage when making comparisons.
Before purchasing your "free" business cards from Vistaprint or any other company, you should review your needs. Next time when you need cards the offer won't be "free". Look at the bigger picture. In this case I had my card professionally designed. The same design can then be extended to be used across my business if required.
If you look at the Ideal Business Card offer for $159 your obtain a professionally designed card plus 1,000 business cards with printing on both sides and gloss on the front. If you purchased four lots of 250 cards over time for $37.49 (totalling a thousand cards) the price ends up around the same, but you only get matt cards, no professionally designed artwork and no opportunity to use the design across the rest of your business.
Next time you're thinking about a free offer, take a little time to think about what is in your interests right now, but also in the future. It might not be "free", but it may save you time and money in the long run.
Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/
PS. As a Virtual Profit Sharing member I receive a profit share on any business that results from using the link for the Ideal Business Card. The opportunity to profit share is available for free to anyone who wishes to become a Virtual Profit Sharing member and help businesses to prosper by referring business.
UPDATE: Approximately 5 hours after writing this blog entry I received another offer for the free business cards. This time with my graphic displayed and again for free. When I checked it was now free but the graphic resulted in a price of $8.99. Not too bad I thought. Previously the graphic was discounted to under $2. I decided to proceed.
At the point of purchase you are given delivery options with the standard 14 days being $17.03. When working out your pricing watch out for the delivery charge and make sure you add it if you're making a comparison. Remember you will need to reorder at some stage and you'll pay the full price plus any other charges, such as the image upload and delivery fee. I've seen another company offer free cards only to see people unhappy to be charged for delivery and handling. To me free isn't free unless it costs you nothing, period. So I again decided not to proceed.
My thought is to put the money towards the full gloss cards I actually prefer and to purchase a quantity of a thousand. In addition I'd like to add some text on the reverse side. I can use The Ideal Business Card approach and obtain the cards faster and what I want for around the same price without any of the discounting offered by Vistaprint. It really is good to add in ALL costs including postage when making comparisons.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
MyAnswers: Acrobat PDF file opening in Notepad instead of Acrobat Reader
The following MyAnswers solution 2035 is now available:
I've been playing with Border's digital eBooks and now when I go to open a PDF file it opens using Notepad. How do I fix this?
Click here to obtain the solution.
Click here for related solutions.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
Sunday, December 19, 2010
MyAnswers: Google Web Preview
The following MyAnswers solution 2033 is now available:
How to stop Google search results from showing a snippet and the instant preview. (Agent string: Mozilla/5.0 (en-us) AppleWebKit/525.13 (KHTML, like Gecko; Google Web Preview) Version/3.1 Safari/525.13)
Click here to obtain the solution.
Click here for related solutions.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
How much power does an Apple iPhone 3GS use
I must admit I really like small technology and in particular the savings on electricity which can be had by using the convenience of a handheld device rather than leaving a desktop computer on all day.
I've found as soon as a person gets an Apple iPhone or Touch product their use of their computer goes down considerably because many of the background tasks like checking email, or social networking, can be done on a portable device. That means the main desktop computer often doesn't even need to be turned on.
Often when people turn on their desktop computer they also turn on a number of additional devices such as a connected printer which increases power usage. I found when I had a HP PocketPC I could turn it on and check my emails in around ten seconds so I didn't have to even turn the computer on until I was ready to start working on projects requiring the computer. However the PocketPC didn't keep up with technology and so I decided to get an Apple iPhone 3GS to use as a portable computer. Yes I don't even use it as a phone. I simply use it as a portable computer and with the right SIM and data plan, I get a portable computer which gives me internet access in many places for $149 a year plus the cost of the iPhone.
Every time I turn my iPhone on and use it instead of the desktop computer I know I'm saving electricity, but the question is how much electricity. I decided to measure the electricity and work out how much it costs me to run my computer using the Energy Cost Calculator. I used the power meter which is shown on the Energy Cost Calculator page.
From what I can see when charging the iPhone it consumes about 6 watts of power and slightly more if you are using it at the same time. Once the battery is full it uses about 1 watt if left on the charger. Charging takes about one to two hours and I often top up the iPhone battery each day. The cost to charge up my iPhone if it did take two hours a day is less than a dollar a year.
Click here to determine cost per year for charging assuming one hour per day. (Change hours to suit yourself.)
Click here to determine cost to run assuming 14 hours per day, exluding charging. (Change hours to suite yourself.
My desktop computer with a 17" LCD monitor uses around 110 watts of power. Without a handheld computer I'd probably leave the computer on from first thing in the morning until last thing at night. With the handheld computer it is possible that on weekends I wouldn't even need to turn the computer on. If I ran my computer every day, all day, the cost will be around $112 a year. The more I use a handheld computer instead of the desktop the more money I save.
Kelvin Eldridge
You can save up to 50% of your electricity bill with a few simple changes in behaviour.
www.justlocal.com.au/clients/energy-cost
I've found as soon as a person gets an Apple iPhone or Touch product their use of their computer goes down considerably because many of the background tasks like checking email, or social networking, can be done on a portable device. That means the main desktop computer often doesn't even need to be turned on.
Often when people turn on their desktop computer they also turn on a number of additional devices such as a connected printer which increases power usage. I found when I had a HP PocketPC I could turn it on and check my emails in around ten seconds so I didn't have to even turn the computer on until I was ready to start working on projects requiring the computer. However the PocketPC didn't keep up with technology and so I decided to get an Apple iPhone 3GS to use as a portable computer. Yes I don't even use it as a phone. I simply use it as a portable computer and with the right SIM and data plan, I get a portable computer which gives me internet access in many places for $149 a year plus the cost of the iPhone.
Every time I turn my iPhone on and use it instead of the desktop computer I know I'm saving electricity, but the question is how much electricity. I decided to measure the electricity and work out how much it costs me to run my computer using the Energy Cost Calculator. I used the power meter which is shown on the Energy Cost Calculator page.
From what I can see when charging the iPhone it consumes about 6 watts of power and slightly more if you are using it at the same time. Once the battery is full it uses about 1 watt if left on the charger. Charging takes about one to two hours and I often top up the iPhone battery each day. The cost to charge up my iPhone if it did take two hours a day is less than a dollar a year.
Click here to determine cost per year for charging assuming one hour per day. (Change hours to suit yourself.)
Click here to determine cost to run assuming 14 hours per day, exluding charging. (Change hours to suite yourself.
My desktop computer with a 17" LCD monitor uses around 110 watts of power. Without a handheld computer I'd probably leave the computer on from first thing in the morning until last thing at night. With the handheld computer it is possible that on weekends I wouldn't even need to turn the computer on. If I ran my computer every day, all day, the cost will be around $112 a year. The more I use a handheld computer instead of the desktop the more money I save.
Kelvin Eldridge
You can save up to 50% of your electricity bill with a few simple changes in behaviour.
www.justlocal.com.au/clients/energy-cost
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Watch out for sites which copy content
If you have a site on the internet keep in mind whatever you write may be copied. If you are reading pages on the internet keep in mind the site you are reading the information on may not be the site which created the information.
Here is an example of a site which took an entire copy of my blog post and put it on their site. This isn't a rare one off situation and it isn't limited to overseas companys. I've seen in done buy an Australian and New Zealand company as well.
www.texascomputerdoctors.com/justlocal-computer-repair-melbourne-templestowe-templestowe-lower-bulleen-doncaster-doncaster-east-eltham-lower-plenty-montmorency/
In this case what the site gets out of it is material which as been created at someone else's cost, which of course it has no right to being a clear violation of copyright. They then wrap Google advertising around the material and make money when people click on the ads. Without Google providing the ads there would be no incentive for this type of site to exist.
If you see this type of site, or suspect a site is copying material, a search on Google will often find the originating site.
My main desire is to provide examples where readers and businesses can easily see how others are using material on the internet which would never be considered appropriate in the offline world. For a person putting in time and resources seeing what happens on the internet can help them better look after their interests and the interests of their readers.
Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.justlocal.com.au/
Here is an example of a site which took an entire copy of my blog post and put it on their site. This isn't a rare one off situation and it isn't limited to overseas companys. I've seen in done buy an Australian and New Zealand company as well.
www.texascomputerdoctors.com/justlocal-computer-repair-melbourne-templestowe-templestowe-lower-bulleen-doncaster-doncaster-east-eltham-lower-plenty-montmorency/
In this case what the site gets out of it is material which as been created at someone else's cost, which of course it has no right to being a clear violation of copyright. They then wrap Google advertising around the material and make money when people click on the ads. Without Google providing the ads there would be no incentive for this type of site to exist.
If you see this type of site, or suspect a site is copying material, a search on Google will often find the originating site.
My main desire is to provide examples where readers and businesses can easily see how others are using material on the internet which would never be considered appropriate in the offline world. For a person putting in time and resources seeing what happens on the internet can help them better look after their interests and the interests of their readers.
Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.justlocal.com.au/
Google web preview appearing in logs
I noticed recently in my site logs an increasing number of browser agent strings with the term Google Web Preview so I decided to investigate. The reason I decided to investigate is in my logs all I see is my web page being used by another site, but not an actual visitor coming to my site. For anyone with a site that means someone is using their site information as part of their site and that means people stay at the other site instead of visiting your site.
One of the powerful features of the internet is the sharing of information, but what happens with some sites, is they come along and take a whole chunk of your information and display it on their site. That helps the other site as they get your content that has taken you time and resources to create for free and keeps visitors at their site and doesn't send them on to your site. They gain at your expense.
The question becomes what is a fair amount of material that another site should display. In my opinion is should be just sufficient to whet a person's appetite to find out more. Providing too much means they can read all they need on the site which is using another person's material. I find Slashdot is a good example of this. I can read large chunks of a site's material and not have to go to the source site's material. In my humble opinion they are providing far too much material from another site.
Now how does this relate to Google web preview appearing in my logs. From what I can see Google is now enabling people to preview a page from within Google's search results. That keeps the person searching in Google's pages which means Google ends up with people on their site longer, increasing the chances of people clicking on their ads. This isn't yet available in Australia from what I can see, but if you visit http://www.google.co.uk/ and perform a search you'll see a magnifying glass next to each result. Click on the magnifying glass and you'll get a preview of the page. The person no longer needs to go to your site to read about your information and what you have to offer. Bing provides a similar feature, but from what I see it provides a little more text, whereas Google displays your page as you designed it.
In the past if someone found your site via Google you had a chance of getting a visit and the person would take a few seconds to read your material and then click off your site, or stay on your site and read more. Google's new approach effectively embeds your information into their site meaning your site adds to their content.
My feeling is this isn't good. We've seen the major media companies getting really upset because of their content being included by others. With the media company's size they can at least negotiate a deal. For small businesses your only real choice is to accept how Google treats your information. I personally think it is going too far. I don't think many people would like their site to appear in a window on my site.
The good thing is I believe as Google incorporates more material from others' sites it creates an opportunity for a search engine which puts the site owner's interests as a top priority. It won't happen tomorrow, but I believe it will happen because it is our material that has made Google as strong as it is today. Linking is OK, but incorporating too much goes a bit too far.
For those with sites you may wish to check out your site by using the Google UK site and see how your site previews. With some clever thinking you may be able to rework the preview that appears to encourage people to check out your site. Whilst Google's aim is most likely to keep people on their site longer, your aim is to encourage them to visit your site using whatever clever design technique you may be able to come up with.
Kelvin Eldridge
JustLocal - Local advertising with a money back guarantee
http://www.justlocal.com.au/
One of the powerful features of the internet is the sharing of information, but what happens with some sites, is they come along and take a whole chunk of your information and display it on their site. That helps the other site as they get your content that has taken you time and resources to create for free and keeps visitors at their site and doesn't send them on to your site. They gain at your expense.
The question becomes what is a fair amount of material that another site should display. In my opinion is should be just sufficient to whet a person's appetite to find out more. Providing too much means they can read all they need on the site which is using another person's material. I find Slashdot is a good example of this. I can read large chunks of a site's material and not have to go to the source site's material. In my humble opinion they are providing far too much material from another site.
Now how does this relate to Google web preview appearing in my logs. From what I can see Google is now enabling people to preview a page from within Google's search results. That keeps the person searching in Google's pages which means Google ends up with people on their site longer, increasing the chances of people clicking on their ads. This isn't yet available in Australia from what I can see, but if you visit http://www.google.co.uk/ and perform a search you'll see a magnifying glass next to each result. Click on the magnifying glass and you'll get a preview of the page. The person no longer needs to go to your site to read about your information and what you have to offer. Bing provides a similar feature, but from what I see it provides a little more text, whereas Google displays your page as you designed it.
In the past if someone found your site via Google you had a chance of getting a visit and the person would take a few seconds to read your material and then click off your site, or stay on your site and read more. Google's new approach effectively embeds your information into their site meaning your site adds to their content.
My feeling is this isn't good. We've seen the major media companies getting really upset because of their content being included by others. With the media company's size they can at least negotiate a deal. For small businesses your only real choice is to accept how Google treats your information. I personally think it is going too far. I don't think many people would like their site to appear in a window on my site.
The good thing is I believe as Google incorporates more material from others' sites it creates an opportunity for a search engine which puts the site owner's interests as a top priority. It won't happen tomorrow, but I believe it will happen because it is our material that has made Google as strong as it is today. Linking is OK, but incorporating too much goes a bit too far.
For those with sites you may wish to check out your site by using the Google UK site and see how your site previews. With some clever thinking you may be able to rework the preview that appears to encourage people to check out your site. Whilst Google's aim is most likely to keep people on their site longer, your aim is to encourage them to visit your site using whatever clever design technique you may be able to come up with.
Kelvin Eldridge
JustLocal - Local advertising with a money back guarantee
http://www.justlocal.com.au/
Monday, December 13, 2010
New Years Resolution ideas
Without doubt losing weight especially after Christmas would be one of those New Years resolutions people make. I certainly will be aiming to lose a few kilograms. I'm always amazed at how many different ways companies market for people to lose weight when it can be done at almost no cost, with a small amount of time and no exercise. How do I know? I did it myself and worked out the maths behind losing weight. To show it could be done I set out to lose my excess weight (yes I was obese with a BMI over 30) and lost over 20kg. But not only that I decided to do it without exercising to show it isn't about exercise like others would have us believe.
I started with the BMI/BMR figures and worked from there. I've written a calculator to help others as well as a couple of interesting calculators which shows how much energy is used for doing different types of exercises and the real eye-opener, a calculator which shows how long you have to exercise should you decide to have a treat. You'll be amazed at how long you need to exercise, but once you realise the maths behind weight loss like I did, you'll know where to focus you energy to lose weight. You can find the calculators on JustLocal (http://www.justlocal.com.au/).
For those with different goals you may wish to consider Superlife, which is a program created by Gary Hipworth. Gary is an experience business coach and has distilled goal setting into a simple to follow program, so no matter what your goal is in life, you'll have a tool which will help you determine and achieve your goals.
Start the New Year on a positive note and this time when you make a New Years resolution, make it a reality. Make it happen. Then you can focus on your next achievement.
Kelvin Eldridge
The creator of The Preferred Australian English Spelling for Microsoft Office
Yes. That was one of my goals which now helps myself and many others.
I started with the BMI/BMR figures and worked from there. I've written a calculator to help others as well as a couple of interesting calculators which shows how much energy is used for doing different types of exercises and the real eye-opener, a calculator which shows how long you have to exercise should you decide to have a treat. You'll be amazed at how long you need to exercise, but once you realise the maths behind weight loss like I did, you'll know where to focus you energy to lose weight. You can find the calculators on JustLocal (http://www.justlocal.com.au/).
For those with different goals you may wish to consider Superlife, which is a program created by Gary Hipworth. Gary is an experience business coach and has distilled goal setting into a simple to follow program, so no matter what your goal is in life, you'll have a tool which will help you determine and achieve your goals.
Start the New Year on a positive note and this time when you make a New Years resolution, make it a reality. Make it happen. Then you can focus on your next achievement.
Kelvin Eldridge
The creator of The Preferred Australian English Spelling for Microsoft Office
Yes. That was one of my goals which now helps myself and many others.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Australia’s top Google searches 2010
If anyone has a finger on the pulse of what Australians are interested in it would be Google. My logs show Google is used by over 95% of Australians when searching. That puts Google in an unenviable position of being able to see trends as they're happening, which is an enormous advantage for Google.
Now whilst I'd love to be in Google's position of having the front seat when it comes to trends, and I'm sure most other business would too, Google makes available a whole range of historical information. One I find interesting to read is Google's Zeitgeist. I decided to check out Google's information for 2010. You can read Google's blog post at http://google-au.blogspot.com/2010/12/taking-pulse-australias-top-google.html and their summary information at http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2010/.
I consider myself to be an avid reader of technology and what's happening on the web, but even I hadn't noticed a couple of the services which feature prominently.
The one service which really stood out for me was Tumblr. Tumblr is a modern blogging service and it has an impressive growth curve. I'd not seen Tumblr mentioned in the press, but to see it made the top ten means there are a lot of people interested in Tumblr.
A service I hadn't seen is Omegle. When I checked it out I found it was like Chatroulette. These are services which enable you to talk to random strangers on the internet. Not exactly something that interests me, but obviously it is of interest to lots of others. Also interesting is when you compare the graph for Chatroulette with Omegle. Omegle shows progressive growth whereas Chatroulette had enormous growth earlier in the year and a large drop off rate.
Perhaps you'll find something useful in Google Zeitgeist to give you an idea and help your business.
Kelvin Eldridge
The Preferred Australian English Spelling For Office
Now whilst I'd love to be in Google's position of having the front seat when it comes to trends, and I'm sure most other business would too, Google makes available a whole range of historical information. One I find interesting to read is Google's Zeitgeist. I decided to check out Google's information for 2010. You can read Google's blog post at http://google-au.blogspot.com/2010/12/taking-pulse-australias-top-google.html and their summary information at http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2010/.
I consider myself to be an avid reader of technology and what's happening on the web, but even I hadn't noticed a couple of the services which feature prominently.
The one service which really stood out for me was Tumblr. Tumblr is a modern blogging service and it has an impressive growth curve. I'd not seen Tumblr mentioned in the press, but to see it made the top ten means there are a lot of people interested in Tumblr.
A service I hadn't seen is Omegle. When I checked it out I found it was like Chatroulette. These are services which enable you to talk to random strangers on the internet. Not exactly something that interests me, but obviously it is of interest to lots of others. Also interesting is when you compare the graph for Chatroulette with Omegle. Omegle shows progressive growth whereas Chatroulette had enormous growth earlier in the year and a large drop off rate.
Perhaps you'll find something useful in Google Zeitgeist to give you an idea and help your business.
Kelvin Eldridge
The Preferred Australian English Spelling For Office
MyAnswers: How I recovered data from a dead HP notebook.
The following MyAnswers solution 2031 is now available:
My notebook computer has died and I'd really like to get my important data off the hard disk. Can you do it for me?
Click here to obtain the solution.
Click here for related solutions.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.MyAnswers.biz
Friday, December 10, 2010
An Apple iPad for Christmas, keep an eye on the press with rumours of a new iPad early next year
If you're thinking of getting an Apple iPad for Christmas keep in mind there are rumours circulating that Apple looks like they'll release the next version of the iPad around February. Based on a yearly update cycle you could expect a new updated iPad around April.
The interesting thought here is Apple has to stay ahead of the pack and April is a long time out, plus we also have the added delay of new product reaching Australia after the US. That's a lot of time for Android to chip away at Apple's fantastic lead.
I spent a moment the other checking the responsiveness of the Samsung Galaxy Tab and it was pretty responsive. It was a pity it was locked to the counter as I wanted to try it out in landscape model. The outright price of the Samsung unit in my opinion disadvantages it against the Apple. But the smaller form factor appeals to me because the iPhone is too small when it comes to reading articles on the net. With Samsung and Android units getting great exposure, Apple needs to keep moving fast.
In a sense Apple of others are creating the situation where if we wait there'll be a new model out pretty soon. That has to hurt sales. With computers you'd spend the money and keep them running for 3-4 years or more. With mobile devices what is sold today won't even get a mention in 12 months time and may not run the applications you want to run. That means you have to write off the purchase price in a year and I think people will soon get sick of spending $500-$1,000 a year once the novelty wears off. Yes I wanted an iPad and almost bought one the other day, but in the end it didn't do all the things I wanted it to do, so I continue to use my unfashionable netbook. At least I'm getting a good return on my investment.
Apple to their credit create must have products. You often don't need them, but we convince ourselves we must have them. That to me is amazing marketing and so I take my hat off to Apple. In the end however once you overcome that must have desire and a bit of logic returns, it is good to make decisions which take into account how long it took to make that hard earned money so you get better value for your buck.
As to whether or not a new Apple iPad late February is anyone's guess. I'd probably guess there will be the announcement of the new model in February to keep the interest going until the next model is released. As to actual product being available. Your guess is as good as anyone's.
Kelvin Eldridge
MyAnswers solutions for the Apple iPhone
The interesting thought here is Apple has to stay ahead of the pack and April is a long time out, plus we also have the added delay of new product reaching Australia after the US. That's a lot of time for Android to chip away at Apple's fantastic lead.
I spent a moment the other checking the responsiveness of the Samsung Galaxy Tab and it was pretty responsive. It was a pity it was locked to the counter as I wanted to try it out in landscape model. The outright price of the Samsung unit in my opinion disadvantages it against the Apple. But the smaller form factor appeals to me because the iPhone is too small when it comes to reading articles on the net. With Samsung and Android units getting great exposure, Apple needs to keep moving fast.
In a sense Apple of others are creating the situation where if we wait there'll be a new model out pretty soon. That has to hurt sales. With computers you'd spend the money and keep them running for 3-4 years or more. With mobile devices what is sold today won't even get a mention in 12 months time and may not run the applications you want to run. That means you have to write off the purchase price in a year and I think people will soon get sick of spending $500-$1,000 a year once the novelty wears off. Yes I wanted an iPad and almost bought one the other day, but in the end it didn't do all the things I wanted it to do, so I continue to use my unfashionable netbook. At least I'm getting a good return on my investment.
Apple to their credit create must have products. You often don't need them, but we convince ourselves we must have them. That to me is amazing marketing and so I take my hat off to Apple. In the end however once you overcome that must have desire and a bit of logic returns, it is good to make decisions which take into account how long it took to make that hard earned money so you get better value for your buck.
As to whether or not a new Apple iPad late February is anyone's guess. I'd probably guess there will be the announcement of the new model in February to keep the interest going until the next model is released. As to actual product being available. Your guess is as good as anyone's.
Kelvin Eldridge
MyAnswers solutions for the Apple iPhone
Thursday, December 09, 2010
MyAnswers blog is now live
The MyAnswers blog (http://myanswersbiz.blogspot.com/) is now live. This now means is I will automatically post the question of a MyAnswers solution to the blog as I write up each solution. In addition the blog has an RSS feed which you can subscribe to at the bottom of the blog or from http://www.myanswers.biz/ or any of the category pages.
MyAnswers is a great way to keep a handle on issues commonly affecting people using computers. Often what happens to one person with computers happens to hundreds of others and in some cases thousands.
Please enjoy.
Kelvin Eldridge
MyAnswers is a great way to keep a handle on issues commonly affecting people using computers. Often what happens to one person with computers happens to hundreds of others and in some cases thousands.
Please enjoy.
Kelvin Eldridge
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
The MyAnswers site is now live
Until now I've run the MyAnswers service as part of the JustLocal service. To provide a better service for users I've now separated MyAnswers to its own site.
If you don't know about MyAnswers, they are my notes/solutions on nearly 2,000 problems I've solved in my role as a computer consultant. By making the solutions available via the internet I'm able to assist more people at a lower cost, which is one of my business goals.
Feel free to check out MyAnswers (http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/myanswers/). Keep an eye on the updated items where you'll see problems others are experiencing which might help you avoid a similar situation, or at least if the same problem happens to you, you'll know where to look.
Kelvin Eldridge
If you don't know about MyAnswers, they are my notes/solutions on nearly 2,000 problems I've solved in my role as a computer consultant. By making the solutions available via the internet I'm able to assist more people at a lower cost, which is one of my business goals.
Feel free to check out MyAnswers (http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/myanswers/). Keep an eye on the updated items where you'll see problems others are experiencing which might help you avoid a similar situation, or at least if the same problem happens to you, you'll know where to look.
Kelvin Eldridge
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
The Preferred Australian English Spelling For Office
I don't know how many PowerPoint presentations I've seen where there has been American spelling, or the inconsistent use of "ize" and "ise" spelt words. In some documents including job applications, I've even seen both spelling variations used.
We often think people don't notice our spelling, but the truth is, they're just too polite to say anything. One thing for sure, is if you're writing to others, they do notice if you aren't using the preferred Australian English spelling and it does detract from your message. But it needn't!
I've created a file which you can add to Microsoft Office products (2010, 2007). The preferred Australian English spelling is then recognised as correct and secondary spelling variations are highlighted for you to review in Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, or whilst performing a spellcheck in Excel or Access. There is also a file available for Office 2003 when using Word 2003.
If you copy and paste information from a variety of sources such as the internet, chances are you'll introduce inconsistent spelling in your writing. If you merge documents from different authors chances are you'll introduce inconsistent spelling. Often because of our schooling we aren't aware we learnt a secondary spelling variation as our teachers didn't realise they were passing on such spelling variatiions to students. I've even found two teachers in the one school using different spelling for the same word.
The most common way to recognise inconsistent spelling is when people say they hate American spelling. Usually it isn't American spelling at all, but a secondary spelling variation. I've identified over 2,400 secondary spelling variations and American words in Office, so it is easy to unwittingly use a secondary spelling variation or an American spelling.
So if you'd like a tool to provide you with consistent spelling using the preferred Australian English spelling when creating documents using Microsoft Office products, grab a copy of The Preferred Australian English Spelling For Office. You'll be amazed at how quickly those bad spelling habits disappear.
Consistent spelling is now a breeze, with the help of the right tool.
Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/
We often think people don't notice our spelling, but the truth is, they're just too polite to say anything. One thing for sure, is if you're writing to others, they do notice if you aren't using the preferred Australian English spelling and it does detract from your message. But it needn't!
I've created a file which you can add to Microsoft Office products (2010, 2007). The preferred Australian English spelling is then recognised as correct and secondary spelling variations are highlighted for you to review in Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, or whilst performing a spellcheck in Excel or Access. There is also a file available for Office 2003 when using Word 2003.
If you copy and paste information from a variety of sources such as the internet, chances are you'll introduce inconsistent spelling in your writing. If you merge documents from different authors chances are you'll introduce inconsistent spelling. Often because of our schooling we aren't aware we learnt a secondary spelling variation as our teachers didn't realise they were passing on such spelling variatiions to students. I've even found two teachers in the one school using different spelling for the same word.
The most common way to recognise inconsistent spelling is when people say they hate American spelling. Usually it isn't American spelling at all, but a secondary spelling variation. I've identified over 2,400 secondary spelling variations and American words in Office, so it is easy to unwittingly use a secondary spelling variation or an American spelling.
So if you'd like a tool to provide you with consistent spelling using the preferred Australian English spelling when creating documents using Microsoft Office products, grab a copy of The Preferred Australian English Spelling For Office. You'll be amazed at how quickly those bad spelling habits disappear.
Consistent spelling is now a breeze, with the help of the right tool.
Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/
Monday, December 06, 2010
Top ten filling foods
Some time ago I decided to lose weight. But I was over all that exercise that appeared to make very little difference, or losing a few kilograms to then put it back on again. I decided since I have a science background to work out how to lose weight and to do it without any exercise. I wanted to prove it to myself it could be done.
The result was I lost slightly over 20kg from 110.kg to under 90kg and it was all done without doing any extra exercise to my normal rather average lifestyle. No expensive gym membership, no expensive dieting club membership or special meals. Just a very simple approach to kilojoule counting.
Now some people consider kilojoule counting to by rather boring and would rather spend an hour in the gym. Yet once you know what you need to do kilojoule counting only takes a small amount of extra time. For breakfast it would take me less than a minute. On top of that since we all tend to be creatures of habit, once you know how much your cup of coffee is in terms of kilojoules there is nothing to work out.
The start of my journey was working out how many kilojoules I needed each day. Then by sticking to that amount I lost weight. It really was that easy. OK. Perhaps not easy, but it worked and if you are consistent over a period of time it can work for you. You can find my BMI/BMR calculator at http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/dieting/bmi-bmr.php.
As with any dieting you should first go to your doctor and seek their advice and guidance. It is also a great idea to have a full set of tests done so you can compare before and after.
One article I kept for myself I thought might be of use to others. I didn't use this whilst dieting, but I believe some foods tend to make you feel fuller for longer and that can come in handy. (
) This article isn't a scientific article but I believe it relates to the work done by Susanna Holt (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7498104).
The only tools I used was a pad or scrap to record the kilojoules as I progressed through the day, a set of scales which measure to 2g and could be tared (set to zero between adding different food), a couple of calorie and kilojoule counting books and a basic calculator. Most of these items you'll already find in your home.
All you need to do is to decide you want to lose weight and you can. You just have to decide you want it badly enough. For me it was when every time I walked past a window in the shopping centre I'd see my stomach protruding which wasn't a good look.
For those who just want to exercise to lose weight I highly recommend you check out the two calculators I created. One shows who much energy you'll use for a given exercise for a period of time (http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/dieting/exercise.php) and the other shows how much exercise you need to do to burn off a food item such as a biscuit or treat (http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/dieting/workitoff.php). Once you realise just how much exercise you need to do to burn off the food you put into your mouth you'll start to realise exercise alone isn't enough, but once you get your diet in order, exercise should help you to feel better and lose weight faster.
With Christmas just around the corner which is a great time to over indulge, we then get to New Year when we make all sort of New Year resolutions we often don't keep. Keep it this time. Decide once and for all you'll make it happen this year.
Losing weight is easy once you know how and you decide you really want to do it.
Kelvin Eldridge
PS. All calculators can be found on the front page of JustLocal (http://www.justlocal.com.au/)
The result was I lost slightly over 20kg from 110.kg to under 90kg and it was all done without doing any extra exercise to my normal rather average lifestyle. No expensive gym membership, no expensive dieting club membership or special meals. Just a very simple approach to kilojoule counting.
Now some people consider kilojoule counting to by rather boring and would rather spend an hour in the gym. Yet once you know what you need to do kilojoule counting only takes a small amount of extra time. For breakfast it would take me less than a minute. On top of that since we all tend to be creatures of habit, once you know how much your cup of coffee is in terms of kilojoules there is nothing to work out.
The start of my journey was working out how many kilojoules I needed each day. Then by sticking to that amount I lost weight. It really was that easy. OK. Perhaps not easy, but it worked and if you are consistent over a period of time it can work for you. You can find my BMI/BMR calculator at http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/dieting/bmi-bmr.php.
As with any dieting you should first go to your doctor and seek their advice and guidance. It is also a great idea to have a full set of tests done so you can compare before and after.
One article I kept for myself I thought might be of use to others. I didn't use this whilst dieting, but I believe some foods tend to make you feel fuller for longer and that can come in handy. (
) This article isn't a scientific article but I believe it relates to the work done by Susanna Holt (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7498104).
The only tools I used was a pad or scrap to record the kilojoules as I progressed through the day, a set of scales which measure to 2g and could be tared (set to zero between adding different food), a couple of calorie and kilojoule counting books and a basic calculator. Most of these items you'll already find in your home.
All you need to do is to decide you want to lose weight and you can. You just have to decide you want it badly enough. For me it was when every time I walked past a window in the shopping centre I'd see my stomach protruding which wasn't a good look.
For those who just want to exercise to lose weight I highly recommend you check out the two calculators I created. One shows who much energy you'll use for a given exercise for a period of time (http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/dieting/exercise.php) and the other shows how much exercise you need to do to burn off a food item such as a biscuit or treat (http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/dieting/workitoff.php). Once you realise just how much exercise you need to do to burn off the food you put into your mouth you'll start to realise exercise alone isn't enough, but once you get your diet in order, exercise should help you to feel better and lose weight faster.
With Christmas just around the corner which is a great time to over indulge, we then get to New Year when we make all sort of New Year resolutions we often don't keep. Keep it this time. Decide once and for all you'll make it happen this year.
Losing weight is easy once you know how and you decide you really want to do it.
Kelvin Eldridge
PS. All calculators can be found on the front page of JustLocal (http://www.justlocal.com.au/)