Heathcote Real Estate Property For Sale

At JustLocal when we can we like to assist JustLocal users, family and friends. If you’re looking for a property in Heathcote Victoria you may wish to check out the following property

Attractive 2 bedroom home has to be the neatest and tidiest property within walking distance to the shops and schools... Read More

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

Google Chrome browser now available on Apple iPhone in Australia

I read that Google have released the Chrome Browser for iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad.

I opened up the App Store only to find it wasn't there. Strange I thought. I then worked out how to get the App and installed Chrome on my 3GS iPhone. My first impression is it works well.

Here is a screenshot of my favourite site www.JustLocal.com.au.






From what I read Apple only allows other browsers to use their rendering engine so expectedly the layout of the actual page was the same as for the Safari Browser. It also means the same limitations of Safari will apply. For example the upload button to upload a file such as a photo to a site is disabled in Chrome as it is on Safari.

One feature I did like straight away was the tabs button. It is a good sign when you immediately find something you like as that encourages you to explore further.

A restriction Apple applies is you can't make other browsers the default so this will tend to push people back to Safari due to convenience.

Google Chrome is available in the App Store.

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

Apple iPhone celebrates 5th anniversary on Friday the 29th of June

Where does the time go. It just seems like yesterday that I first went into an Apple store and tried out the first iPhone.

Tomorrow the Apple iPhone celebrates its 5th anniversary.

My first experience with the iPhone as I said was at an Apple store. Five years ago we didn't have Apple stores in Australia. I was on holiday in Hawaii celebrating a milestone birthday. My wife left me in the Apple store and I waited for a chance to try out the new iPhone.

My first experience wasn't good. The iPhone locked up shortly after I started using it. That for me was a good outcome. I waited until the iPhone 3GS arrived two years later and used the iPhone as a portable computer. The iPhone has limitations for me, but overall it has been a very good device largely delivering on expectations.

As an example I'm using an App to write this blog entry but really I'd just prefer to use the browser and blog directly on the web site. The browser isn't good enough, but then again I don't think any of the mobile browsers are quite there yet. We really have to work within the limitations of the device.

The original iPhone if I recall correctly wasn't quite suited to the Australian network, but it has certainly come a long way.

Do you remember when you first got to check out an iPhone?

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

246 Montague Street, South Melbourne, Vic 3205 - As featured on The Block

The Block took a twist tonight with a one week renovation of the house around the corner at 246 Montague Street, South Melbourne, Victoria

You can see the information for the previous sale of the property in the sold properties section on RealEstate.com.au. Read More. The property was sold by Buxton on Friday the 17^th of June 2011.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Need a quote to renovate your Bathroom or Kitchen?
Call Charlie Brincat from Master Renovators on 0409 538 536.

Alert: Beware of App Store fraud - News alert - Consumer Affairs Victoria

Interestingly a couple of days ago I read online that Consumer Affairs Victoria issued an alert to consumers using Apple’s iTunes store and App store with regards to “fraud” and “counterfeit or ‘cloned’ apps”.

The following is the original link where the page has now been removed.

http://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/news-and-events/news-updates/beware-of-app-store-fraud

You can read more information on the The Register site  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/20/au_app_store_malware_claims/.

Whilst I’ve not personally experienced an Apple App Store account being hacked and no one in my user base has let me know they’ve had their account used by others, reading the online forums does indicate it is happening and is a concern.

One word of caution I would issue, is think about the username and password you are using with the Apple App Store and your other online accounts. In a lot of cases people use the same email address and password to access all their online accounts. The problem is if one account is hacked, all of their accounts are then potentially exposed. Because of the very large number of people using the Apple App Store all a hacker needs to do is obtain a list of usernames and passwords from a hacked site and then test the list against the Apple App Store. Once the hacker knows a username/password combination works they can sell it. According to the Consumer Affairs article “Online hacker forums sell access to iTunes accounts for as little as $33 – promising the each password can net a fraudster thousands of dollars in credit”.

If you are using the same username/password across multiple online services you should review what you are doing. At a minimum, use different passwords for different online services. That way if one service is hacked your username/password combination won’t work on your other accounts. For example 25% of Australians have a Facebook account so one in four Australians, if they are using the same email address/password across their online services, their Facebook account can be access if one of the services they use is hacked.

It would be even better is to use a different username(email address) and password for each service. Yes it is less convenient, but the inconvenience may well protect you and save a lot of grief down the track.

Consumer Affairs Victoria even though they have now removed the article for their own reasons, felt it was worthy enough to post the article in the first place and to me that is a sign there may be sufficient cause for concern.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

ANZ: "Link request not permitted" message when trying to log on

A client was having a problem accessing their ANZ bank account using ANZ’s site. When trying to log on they’d receive the message “Link request not permitted”. Initially I thought this should be a fairly easy problem to fix. It turned out to be a difficult problem and required a considerable amount of research time.

The solution to this problem is now available to clients in MyAnswers solution 2224 under the Internet Explorer section.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and surrounding area.
Call 0415 910 703 for computer support.

MyAnswers: Log on button on ANZ site doesn't work using Internet Explorer 9, Windows 7.

The following MyAnswers solution 2224 is now available:

Log on button on ANZ site doesn't work using Internet Explorer 9 (64 bit) on Windows 7. On sites some links work and others don't. Right click on a link and open in new tab ends up with a blank page.

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

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

I Heart Kebab Cafe Templestowe

JustLocal welcomes I Heart Kebab Cafe in Templestowe. You can find the I Heart Kebab menu on the Templestowe page www.JustLocal.com.au/3106. By providing the menu online it is now easy to place an order and then pick the kebabs up saving considerable time.

We tried the kebabs the other day and found them to be generous in size and very tasty.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

 

401, 403, 405, 407 Dorcas Street South Melbourne 3205, as featured on The Block 2012

Ever wondered what the properties 401-407 Dorcas Street, South Melbourne on The Block series looked like before we first saw them on TV. It occurred to me the properties were sold sometime last year and it shouldn’t take too long to find the properties on the internet.

The properties were sold by Buxton on Friday the 17^th of June 2011.

This link is a link to the brochure for the property. At the bottom of the brochure you’ll see a couple of pictures of the inside of a property. Certainly not the ready for demolition image viewers saw when they were first shown the properties.

Enjoy.

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

Need a quote to renovate your Bathroom or Kitchen?
Call Charlie Brincat from Master Renovators on 0409 538 536.

Painter Doncaster, Templestowe and surrounding areas

Quite a while ago I received an pamphlet in the letter box. It was from a local painter & decorator. I kept the pamphlet because I’m interested in local businesses. I don’t know about others, but I find dealing with tradespeople isn’t one of the most fun experiences for me. I’ve had quite a few bad experiences. I know there are good tradies out there, but finding them can be hard.

I needed some painting done so I called Bill. He was quite pleasant, came out quickly and was good to deal with. Needless to say he got the work.

If you’re looking for a painter you can now find Bill on the JustLocal service on the Templestowe page (www.JustLocal.com.au/3106) or direct at http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/templestowe-painter-and-decorator.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Australian dictionaries for open source projects

I get the occasional request for dictionaries for open source projects. I just want to let people know I no longer support open source projects.

I had hoped that by helping others, others would assist me. All I found is the open source projects and the users took the material I provided and nearly all gave nothing back. Firefox was the worst example, not only taking the work but also changing the licence against my wishes. Google Chrome was not far behind. A link from Google to my project would have greatly assisted, but instead simply took my work consisting of hundreds of hours of effort and included it in their project.

All projects need to do is to link to the developers’ sites so the developer gains for their efforts. Instead the projects take the material, include it in their projects where users have no idea of where the material came from and who is putting in the effort.

As a developer/consultant I make a living from developing software and providing computer support. Open source did not provide a means to generate income even though my work ended up  being used by hundreds of thousands of Australians.

I now only focus on producing dictionaries for clients. They are the people who help me pay the bills and I’m very grateful to my clients for their support.

My apologies to anyone for any inconvenience.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Tourism Australia under fire for misleading ad

I just read the following article on The News.com.au site and can't help but feel disappointed our tourism authority has to provide us and potential overseas visitors with misleading information. This just isn't necessary or even desirable in my opinion.

http://mobile.news.com.au/travel/news/tourism-australia-under-fire-for-misleading-scene-in-new-ad/story-e6frfq80-1226384329446

Walking along a beach in a romantic scene with a bottle of wine, where it is illegal to do so and no ranger present, where there should be one. Great scene but pure fantasy.

My own thought about the ad was concern for the unsupervised child patting a small kangaroo. Kangaroos can be dangerous.

We shouldn't exaggerate. It will simply leave a bad taste for visitors. Australia has more than enough to offer that we don't need to exaggerate.

I was at Monkey Mia where a younger lady from France was quite bitter that she'd been led to believe she could swim with the dolphins. I'd somehow got the same impression so she isn't alone. The difference is I'd done research beforehand which meant I knew what to expect. I'm sure the young lady will return to France and let many others know of her disappointment.

Tourism Australia shouldn't be producing material which isn't of the highest standard and professionalism.


Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

North Balwyn computer repair and support

The other day I received a support call from a resident in North Balwyn.

Normally support to North Balwyn would incur travel time, but because they made the effort to contact me, I decided to help with no call-out fee.

The person had a problem that their computer was running slow. I checked the computer and it was infected with malware.

This time the malware was relatively easy to remove, but it does take some time. I could see the client was concerned about time, so I set the time limit to one hour. Normally I would suggest allowing for up to an hour and a half. I usually fix the upper limit to an hour and a half for residential clients as I don't believe people should be spending hundreds of dollars to fix an older computer. Often this results in writing off some time, but I'm happy with that as the client ends up with a clean computer at a cost effective price.

Whilst waiting for the software to remove the malware the client also mentioned their daughter's computer was running slow. I said I was happy to check it out whilst we were waiting. The computer was also infected with malware. I started the software to clean the second computer.

Whilst the computers were being cleaned I checked their preferred browser which was Firefox. On both computers the Firefox search feature had been hijacked. The client removed and reinstalled Firefox but it made no difference. Internet Explorer had no problems which they were happy to use. I find it much quicker and easier to fix problems with Internet Explorer because of the features built into Internet Explorer.

Nearly every computer I come across where people are using Firefox, have their Firefox search feature hijacked. People don't even know it has happened.

It felt good when leaving the client. For one hour of support time they now had two clean working computers.

During the month of June, if you live in North Balwyn and require assistance with your computer, give me a call, mention this article and there will be now call-out fee.


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

CVC Studios Doncaster East Camera Skills course starts next week

Would you like to find out how to make the most of your digital camera?
To learn about the rules of photography and how you can take great photos, then book now to start on June 12^th
Four Tuesday evenings and a group field trip
Limited numbers
Course run by professional photographer Des Pitfield in the CVC Studios.

CVC Studios can be found on the Doncaster East page www.JustLocal.com.au/3109.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Make sure your spelling is correct when doing presentations using Microsoft PowerPoint.

Recently I attended a trade show where a number of people gave presentations. One person was a leading business coach and I’d guess they were being paid a very healthy fee to present. As I sat listening to his presentation and reading his slides there it was. A spelling error.

The problem is once you see a spelling error in the presentation your mind immediately wanders from the presentation.

To be fair, this wasn’t completely the presenter’s fault. None of us are perfect spellers and we tend to rely on our spellcheckers to pick up typos and spelling errors. In this case the presenter was obviously using Microsoft software for his presentation, because the spelling error is an error in the Microsoft spellchecker dictionary.

I produce an Exclude file which can be used with Microsoft Office products. The Exclude file helps people to determine if they are using the preferred Australian English spelling. There are thousands of Australian English words which can be spelt two or more ways and Microsoft’s spellchecker dictionary correctly enables people to use their chosen spelling. It is just that most people don’t know there is a preferred Australian English spelling. In addition, there are a number of errors in the Microsoft spellchecker dictionary which are also corrected with the use of the Exclude file.

Given the cost and time involved of preparing for the presentations and travelling to multiple cities across Australia, for just $10 this error could have been avoided.

For those who are interested the word used was “fulfillment” which is the American spelling. This spelling is allowed if Australians are using Microsoft software, but the correct spelling is “fulfilment”.

 

You can obtain the Microsoft Exclude file from the JustLocal site (www.JustLocal.com.au) or use the direct link http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/mswordexcl.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Creator and maintainer of the preferred Australian English spelling dictionary.

Is Facebook leeching images from other sites? (facebookexternalhit/1.0 )

I noticed in my logs over the last couple of days entries with the agent value “facebookexternalhit/1.0 (+http://www.facebook.com/externalhit_uatext.php)”, where all that is being accessed from my site is an image file.

To me this is a concern. It indicates Facebook is using material from my site in their site possibly without permission.

The problem is I don’t think there would be any problem if there were two way traffic, but all I see is Facebook using the material from other sites. I watched the other day as a person shared a link from my blog. Facebook automatically, without the user doing anything, included a picture from my blog in the Facebook site. The more material Facebook includes in their site the less likely people are to visit the source site to find out more information.

There is a trend with the major online businesses to use the material from others’ sites in their own site. Google does this in their search engine where people can see an image of the site without leaving Google.

If you have a small business you want and need others to visit your site. If all Facebook does is use a copy of material from your site in their own site, the chances of any traffic to your site diminishes to almost zero. You also have no idea how your images are being used on the Facebook site.

Since I’ve not seen any traffic coming from Facebook after many dozens of copies of my image being used, I felt the best thing to do was to block Facebook IP’s from using my site. So far I’ve identified the IP ranges of 69.171.*.* and 66.220.*.*. If you’re using a cPanel based hosting site you can easily block access to your site for a given range of IP address.

Before blocking sites you should review your logs and make sure you’re potentially not losing traffic generated by the online services. Services like Facebook which use your material without giving a benefit in return for me is an easy decision to block. They are simply using your material created at your expense for their own benefit.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Microsoft's Windows 7 to Windows 8 upgrade offer on new computers.

As mentioned recently on the Online Connections blog, Microsoft usually makes an upgrade offer to purchasers of new computers so they can obtain the new operating system when it arrives and sales of existing machines don't dry up while people wait.

Microsoft have now made the following announcement.

"Beginning June 2, 2012, Microsoft will roll out the Windows Upgrade Offer in 131 markets, including the U.S. and Canada. Consumers who buy eligible Windows 7-based PCs through Jan. 31, 2013, can purchase an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for an estimated retail price of $14.99 (U.S.) during the time of the promotion."

I would suggest waiting until you have a firm offer in writing and make sure you get an "eligible" PC, whatever that may mean.

My own preference is if you can wait for a new computer, then I'd prefer to wait. In fact I'd even suggest wait a while until after new computers with the new operating have been on the market for a while. That way you're likely to know about any serious bugs. I also prefer to get a computer I know has been designed with the operating system in mind and not an older computer. Keep in mind the latest Intel processors are also being released now. Having the latest processor with the latest version of the operating system is a good place to be, if everything works as it should.

I remember Windows Me and advised all clients not to buy it. Windows Vista was also a sluggish operating system and where possible clients stayed on Windows XP. I'm hoping Windows 8 isn't a dud by having its dual nature with Metro.

For those who need a new machine now, this is a timely offer. Personally I'm not going to be in a hurry and will take my time with a new purchase.

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

Water Tunnel Car Wash Templestowe

JustLocal welcomes to the Water Tunnel Car Wash in Templestowe to the JustLocal service. Everyone is so used to searching now, they find it hard to think there may be an easier way to find a local business. Now there is. JustLocal provides single click convenience to the site of local businesses. No more searching. Just go to www.JustLocal.com.au/3106 and click on the Water Tunnel Car Wash logo and you’re there in two clicks. No more wasting time searching.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au