First home owner (buyer) grant and stamp changes from 1st July 2013

I noticed there was a change to the first home owner/buyer grant which will effect a lot of first home buyers. The first home owner/buyer grant from the 1^st of July 2013 will only apply to new homes and not to established homes. Also of interest it appears the stamp duty reduction schedule appears to have been brought forward for first home owners/buyers giving a saving on stamp duty from the 1^st of July 2013.

On 28th of April the Victorian Government has announced the following changes to state taxes and grants which will be included in the 2013-14 State Budget:... Read More

Each first home buyer interested in buying a property should review and factor the changes into their decision.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for help with your computer problem.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.

Calculating litres per 100 kilometres for country driving

The fuel consumption of a vehicle differs considerably between city driving and country driving. In the Petrol Cost Calculator I've set the standard fuel consumption for city driving for my Toyota Avensis to be 11.11 L/100 km. Whilst a good estimate is that a car will drive around 50% further on the same amount of fuel when driving in the country, it is good to determine an actual figure.

To determine an actual fuel efficiency figure record how many litres you use and the kilometres travelled for a country trip. (Averaging over a couple of full tanks of petrol can provide a  more accurate value.) Then enter the fuel used in litres and the distance travelled in kilometres into the Calculate Litres Per 100 km option on the Petrol Cost Calculator to determine your fuel efficiency.

For example on our recent trip from Melbourne to South Australia, for one leg of the trip from Victor Habor to Hamilton, I recorded the fuel usage of 40.48 L for 541.4 km. That means for country travelling the Toyota Avensis was achieving a fuel efficiency of 7.48 L/100 km. Out of interest, above I said you get around 50% more distance when driving in the country as compared to the city. If we multiply 7.48 by 1.5 (50% more) we get a figure of 11.22 which is very close to the figure I use for city driving.

Also out of interest, the cheapest fuel at this time was in Melbourne at around $1.30. The dearest fuel was in Hamilton Victoria and Kingston SE South Australia at around $1.53, with Victor Harbor being $1.44 and if I recall correctly, Mount Gambier was similar to Victor Harbor. I decided when leaving Melbourne I had used a quarter of a tank but would fill up in Hamilton. Horsham has a reputation of being an expensive location to refuel but I wasn't sure of Hamilton. A few dollars can be saved by avoiding filling up towards central Victoria but the few dollars difference is hard to justify the effort.

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

Search Australia Help

Search Australia was added to the JustLocal site to assist those who wish to search. JustLocal isn't about searching, it is about going to a postcode area and then clicking on the business you wish to use.

To make it easier for JustLocal users who wish to use the search engines to find products and services independent of area, adding Search Australia made sense. When I search I really don't want to see large overseas companies or directories dominating the search results. I decided to build my own search facility and I hope others find it useful. The following explains Search Australia and provides some useful tips.

1. Search Australia only provides results for sites which use com.au, net.au, gov.au, org.au, id.au and asn.au. Many businesses register other domains such as .com domains, but most Australian businesses will try to use a .au domain if they can. Using .au domains as the first level of restriction helps to isolate sites to be more than likely Australian sites.
2. Google's search results can easily be overwhelmed by directories so instead of easily finding the site for the company you want, you end up going to a directory. I've excluded  dozens of directories whose only real purpose is to get between you and the site of the business.
3. Hundreds of millions of searches a year end up in Google when really there is no need. I took the top sites and words people search for and now if you enter one of these business names you'll go direct to the site. For example enter 'weather' and you'll go direct to the Bureau of Meteorology. Enter 'ANZ and you'll go direct to the ANZ site.
4. For those who would prefer Google doesn't know everything about them I decided why not make it easier to use the other main search engines and that way you split your search queries across multiple search engines and Google knows less about you. Enter g, y, or b to go to Google, Yahoo or Bing respectively. Enter the letter for the search engine, a space and then your phrase you wish to search for and you'll go direct to the results for that search engine. Keep in mind you go to the full search engine so the filtering no longer occurs.
5. If the Search Australia search engine doesn't give you the result you want for some reason, go to the Search Australia page and enter one of the letters g, y, or b and go direct to Google, Yahoo or Bing. I find if I want to open up the search to perhaps do a global search after using Search Australia, I copy my search criteria, go to the Search Australia page, enter the letter for the search and paste my search criteria I can then do a broader search.
6. For me eBay and Gumtree make it harder for me to find things so I decided to exclude eBay and Gumtree results. If you want to search eBay or Gumtree just enter 'eBay' or 'Gumtree' from the Search Australia page and go to the eBay or Gumtree site.
7. I've added Search Australia as my default search engine to Internet Explorer. Now I can enter searches directly into the address area. You can add Search Australia from my Fun With Search page. Search Australia is located near the bottom of the page.

So to summarise Search Australia provides you with easy access to Australian sites, quick direct access to commonly search for sites, the removal of dozens of directories with the aim of helping you find what you want more easily. You can even add Search Australia as your default search to Internet Explorer and make using Search Australia even more convenient.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

MindSways George Rowley spamming

It gets a bit tiring to see businesses such as George Rowley of MindSways using spam to promote their business.

If you receive unsolicited emails bin them. Everyone that responds to an unsolicited email simply encourages businesses like George Rowley's to continue to spam people.

All that would be required is for the internet domain name companies to suspend the domains of spammers for a short period and then increase the period if the spamming continues. If the will was there I believe a considerable amount of the spam could be stopped on the internet. It is a pity the will isn't there.

Until the day the will is there the best approach is to hit the delete button. If you get repeated emails from the same organisation and you have access to your mail server, often you can also add a filter on your mail server reject such emails.

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

British English, American English and Australian English site now live.

Recently a number of overseas people have used a copy of my dictionary work and in particular one person was using my Australian English Exclude file for editing British English documents. In order to edit the document they would set the spelling to Australian English, use my Exclude file which would then provide the preferred British English spelling. I'm thankful to this person for letting me how they were using my work as I then built a British English copy of the Exclude file to assist them. It is feedback like this which helps me determine what people need and what could be useful. Whilst creating the copy of the British English Exclude file is done at a loss, it is hoped in time that it will generate enough revenue to pay for itself.

That got me thinking that over the years I have built a number of online services and created a number of word lists. Some of the word lists are open source so I could provide those word list files for a small distribution fee and that would help those wanting a British, American, or Australian English word list files. I could also provide the online tool Word Check for each of the languages. Any feedback from users could then be used to improve the word lists which to me is how open source can work.

To get the ball rolling I've now created the site www.English-Dictionary.com.au as an umbrella site with links to a range of dictionary resources I've created. Word Check is now available for Australian, British and American English. Word Check is password protected with the password being provided to anyone contributing either by purchasing a dictionary file or providing a link to either of the dictionary sites www.English-Dictionary.com.au or www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au.

My commercial work will still continue as it currently is. The open source material will evolve based on the feedback of others.

There is still quite a bit to be done with the site www.English-Dictionary.com.au, but I felt it is best to launch the site so that others can take advantage of the material rather than wait until everything is done (where really nothing is ever fully done).

Enjoy,

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

Alert - Alert - 10 New eMatches, You have 13 New eMatches by eMail

I've received a number of unsolicited emails to different public email addresses I use on the internet. Part of the subject was 'New eMatches'. I decided to check one. The link you'd click on goes to a number of Russian domains. The email address used varied and included .com, Chile and Brazil. Emails I checked came from Spain, America and Brazil. If this doesn't set off alarm bells nothing will.

I'd suggest deleting any of these emails you may receive.

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

Australia Search - JustLocal search update to now include over a hundred popular search terms.

JustLocal is designed so it doesn't require search facilities. The aim is to go to the area you're interested in a the logos of local businesses are all there with the business a single click away.

However we're all used to searching using Google and until the coverage of JustLocal increases sufficiently, searching is still the way most of us will find what we want. The problem I find with search results is they're now largely populated with directories and in some cases, large overseas sites clobber local sites. I wanted a search facility which only provided results for Australian sites.

Now interestingly I read an article which showed the top ten most popular sites people search for. I thought that was weird. Why search and then have to go to the site. If I search for the ANZ bank by entering 'ANZ' why not just go straight to the ANZ site. It turns out there are millions of searches a year which could just as easily go straight to the site. I decided to build the top search terms into my search facility.

The search engine I've created can be found at http://www.justlocal.com.au/search/australia/ and can be found in the menu of every JustLocal (www.JustLocal.com.au) postcode page.

If you visit my Fun With Search page (http://www.justlocal.com.au/clients/search-fun/) and go to the bottom you'll find you can add the search engine to Internet Explorer. Now I simply enter what I'm searching for direct into the address area and if it is a popular term for a popular site I go straight there. If it isn't a popular term I'm presented with a list of results from Google.

You may asked what are the terms. The following are some examples. When typing a tern you don't need to worry about upper case or lower case. You'll notice some common misspellings are included in the terms for the popular sites.

Gumtree, Commonwealth Bank, Netbank, CBA, Commbank, ANZ, Telstra, Seek, Jobs, Westpac, AFL, Virgin, NAB, ABC, Qantas, Quantas, Qantas Frequent Flyer, Qantas Airlines, Optus, Ebay, Woolworths, Big W, BigW, Coles

TIP: If you just want to go to Google, Bing, or Yahoo, then enter the Google, Bing or Yahoo and you'll go to the search site.

BONUS: As an added bonus for the rest of the month anyone typing 'dictionary' in the search page on JustLocal will be provided with the password to use Word Check to check the spelling and meaning of words.

Enjoy,

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

Alert: Optus MMS Service from 61269022348@optusmobile.com.au

Yesterday I received a number of faked MMS Service emails under the Telstra name and today I received a number of emails faked as Optus MMS Service. The email has the subject "Optus MMS Service from 61269022348@optusmobile.com.au" where the number chances. Attached is a zip file which contains malware. The zip file is has name such as "MMS - BG4S25OR.zip" but the section after the hyphen changes. Only one antivirus software package commonly used in Australia identified the malware.

You should delete these emails.

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

Alert: Telstra MMS Service - Last photoshot

I received a couple of emails with attachments this morning pretending to be from the Telstra MMS service. The body of the message reads 'Hello! I've attached last photoshot with you'. Attached is a file called 'Telstra-MMS-ID035489193.zip' which contains malware. The malware isn't currently detected by any of the commonly used antivirus programs in Australia.

You should delete these emails.

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

Australian English dictionary for Word - Mac

The dictionary included with Microsoft Office on the Mac is good, but many people express a preference for the preferred Australian English spelling. There are two ways to spell many words in Australia and both are correct, but only one is the preferred Australian English spelling. For example the word 'organize' with 'ize' isn't marked as a spelling error even though the preferred Australian English spelling is 'organise'.

Because both spelling variations are considered correct in Microsoft Office this creates a number of problems. When using the secondary spelling variation of 'ize', many people consider the spelling to be American and as a result some people consider there to be incorrect spelling in documents. Another issue is when copying and pasting information from different sources. Without realising it people end up with the same word spelt in two ways in the same document which is always considered incorrect.

Until now I've been providing a file for Windows users to install with Microsoft Office to provide the preferred Australian English spelling. The file results in Microsoft Office marking 2,400 secondary spelling variations as spelling errors. Now Mac users interested in the preferred Australian English can obtain a Mac version of the file.

If you find when using Microsoft Office on the Mac you struggle with what many consider American spelling, then check out the preferred Australian English dictionary file for Microsoft Office on the Mac.


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

The impact dedicated bus lanes have on traffic.

I read this article today with regards to the increasing number of solo drivers.

City roads crowded with solo drivers... Read More

What I found interesting were the comments. One person suggested if we travelled at faster speeds instead of the slower speeds now being imposed on roads we could move more cars, but others in turn suggested faster speeds actually reduce the amount of cars. I thought that was an interesting conundrum. The faster we go the less cars and thus people can be moved through a given section of road over a given time. I decided to investigate the maths to determine who was correct.

The main factor is safety and the safe driving distance between cars at higher speeds. For the calculations I assumed the average car was 5m in length. The safe distance between cars is suggested to be two seconds which works out to be 33 m, 44 m and 55 m at 60 km/h, 80 km/h and 100 km/h respectively. Thus at higher speeds cars are the same size but the amount of space they require for safety increases, thus resulting in less cars per kilometre. That is in a kilometre for cars travelling at 60, 80 and 100 km/h there would be approximately 26, 20 and 16 cars respectively.

To take the maths a little further, I determined that over an hour the number of cars traversing a kilometre at 60, 80, 100 km/h there would be 1578, 1,224 and 1,000 cars respectively.

What I felt was interesting was I felt this showed me a few things. On roads where there is light traffic low speed limits could result in less cars being able to travel through a given area than otherwise could. We’ve all seen those 40kph signs which don’t make much sense in certain areas. I hope the safety of people have improved otherwise there may be no gain for anyone, except perhaps increased revenue through fines.

Another thought is when you are stuck moving slowly with the traffic you may be taking longer to get to where you want to go, but at the same time more people are able to get to where they want to go.

The reason I titled this article “the impact dedicated bus lanes have on traffic” is if you remove one lane then the effect is far more drastic on traffic. In Manningham Road one of three lanes is now dedicated to buses and that means one third of the number of cars that could be travelling through the section has now been removed and there is no way to recover that loss. Using the figures above the bus lane could move 1,578 extra cars per kilometre per hour, with 1.2 people per car that would amount to 1,893 people. Each hour on that section of the road there are roughly 21 buses. Assuming 60 people per bus (the average is I suspect around 10) that is 1,260 people. Given the buses were only delayed and no additional buses appear to have been added, there has been a significant reduction in the road system to move people as a result of the bus lanes.

Whilst the headline for the published article was designed to attract attention regarding single driver cars, for me it provided an insight into the trade-off of higher speeds versus increasing the capacity to move people at lower speed. In addition the information I determined enabled me to put a more concrete figure on the reduced capacity caused by bus lanes, and if thought process is extended, there are many roads which have now been reduced to a single lane whereas in the past they had two lanes. If these roads were again opened up to two lanes the capacity of our road network to move passengers could be greatly increased at very little cost.

I can see a future where automation could potentially reduce the distance required by cars at higher speeds which in turn would increase the capacity of our roads. We also need a government which keeps a balanced view and not just prioritise its own facilities over other road users. I accept however it can be a difficult balancing act.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for help with your computer problem.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.

Alert: You've Been Selected For the 2013 Worldwide Who's Who Registry

I've received a number of emails with the subject "You've Been Selected For the 2013 Worldwide Who's Who Registry" sent to different public email addresses I use.

The body of the message starts with the following.

Congratulations Kelvin ,
You were recently chosen as a potential candidate to represent 2013 Worldwide Who's Who.

Congratulations Fellow Consumer ,
You were recently chosen as a potential candidate to represent 2013 Worldwide Who's Who.

This is most likely a scam and I'd suggest deleting these emails. In the emails you'll notice a number of typos. Notice the extra space after my name and before the comma. There are other obvious errors in the email. Interestingly the second example didn't include my name but a generic salutation and I wondered why. The main page for that site doesn't include my name and in fact I don't provide contact details because it is a site I use to provide answers to problems to my clients. Hence the email addresses are being harvested from the internet along with the names and when they can't find the names they use a generic salutation.

These emails are designed to appeal to people's vanity. Don't get tricked. You should delete these emails.

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

How do you get a post office box?

When you set up a home business you get all kinds of advice. For example since I first set up a home business over thirty years ago I've always had a post office box. Every day or couple of days I'd visit the post office box, collect any mail and return home. Seemed logical and it didn't cost too much. This also enabled me to separate the home address from the business.

However more recently I began to think is there really much point to having a post office box. Whilst not a great amount the price continues to go up each year and this year the price was $106, with a pay by the 1st of April price of $99. I largely communicate via email and apart from official correspondence and junk mail I didn't see much point to the post office box. I decided perhaps it was time to redirect all mail to the home address. My aim is to build a local business and my home address solidly reinforces I'm a local. The post office box could be for anyone located anywhere. So to me being local and seen to be local had become more important than hiding behind a post office box. Yes in hindsight, a post office box almost implies you the person don't want to be known. That's not particularly personal and it is my desire to provide all clients with a personalised service.

Of course once you make up your mind you then look for ways to justify the decision. It really is hard after 30 years to not have a post office box. OK. A saving of around $100 a year. Not bad, but not really that much. The trip to and from the post office box involved time (about 20 minutes) and car travel (3.4 km). If I went to the post office box three times a week that's 52 hours a year of time spent travelling and around $90 in petrol plus wear and tear on the car. The big saving really is your time. When people send you mail or a parcel they've paid to send it to where you want it to go, so why not make that the closest spot to you which is your home address.

For me the real clincher was, I was no longer private in terms of where I lived. I stood as an independent in the last State election and post offices boxes could be used as your address. Short of having some form of registered office, the home address had to be provided and thus where I live is now plastered all over the internet. You can be pretty sure that your home address isn't that difficult to find if someone wants to know, so really does hiding behind a post office box work anymore anyway and I'd suspect the answer is most likely not.

So if you want a post office box simply go into the post office and see if they have one available. Now is a good time because each year around April/May quite a few people don't renew their post office box. Leave it too late and you may have to travel further for a post office box with an increase in time and cost. Until the local post office installed post office boxes I'd have to travel a return trip of about 12 km to Bulleen and that would have been costing me hundreds of dollars a year in fuel and considerably more in time.

Now that I've made the decision to discontinue the post office box I'm pretty happy with the decision. I save a little in costs, but more importantly I save a considerable amount of time I can use elsewhere.

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

Excel 2010 defaults to British pounds for currency under Windows 8 Pro upgrade which should be the dollar symbol in Australia

Sometimes I just have to shake my head with Microsoft. Today I copied some data into a new spreadsheet in Excel 2010 and went to format the numbers so they were dollar amounts. Much to my surprise, clicking on the currency button inserted a pound symbol.

After all these years of getting regional settings wrong Microsoft again gets it wrong with the Windows 8 Pro upgrade. The machine I have has been running on Windows 7 with Office 2010 without this issue. I then took some time to work out what I'd consider to be the best approach to fixing this problem. There are usually a number of approaches and often the best approach isn't terribly obvious. (Who would have thought you'd need to set three settings in different places in Windows XP to get the language setting correct for Australia.) If my experience is typical for those who upgrade, then many people will find themselves in the same position and waste time trying to locate the setting, or worse, end up applying a fudge just to get around the problem. Those who don't take the time to find the correct setting will end up wasting time making many small changes and make their spreadsheets more difficult to maintain.

I've written the solution to this problem in MyAnswers solution 2335. Click here to obtain the solution.

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

Alert: Australian Federal Police - Ukash scam

Yesterday I repaired a client’s computer. They had infected their computer with the UKash scam. I documented up my general approach, including links to the software tools I used to remove the Ukash scam.

MyAnswers: Australian Federal Police - Ukash scam... Read More

Technically it isn’t difficult, but it is time consuming. I like to first remove the malware and then to perform a full scan of the computer using two to three antivirus programs. With some hard disks now having millions of files a single scan can take hours and the overall process many hours.

If I were to repair the computer onsite I’d have to charge for all the time involved and to me that would be crazy for the client to foot such a large bill. I have seen IT support people do exactly that. Normally I set an maximum fee of 1.5 hours for malware removal for a standard computer. This provides peace of mind for the client. If the malware is easily removed then only the time required is charged.

However, depending on the malware it may be very easy for a person to remove the malware themselves. In MyAnswers solution 2332 I outline the approach I used and using that information a person with basic computer skills should be able to remove this particular malware and many other malware variants. MyAnswers has been designed to assist people to do their own IT support. Often all it takes is a small amount of knowledge and a difficult problem can be relatively easy to fix.

Next time you have a problem consider using MyAnswers. If the solution I provide doesn’t assist I’m happy to provide a refund. My approach is If I can’t assist you should never be out of pocket.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for help with your computer problem.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.

MyAnswers: Error STOP 0x0000007B (0xBA4CF524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000) WindowsXP

The following MyAnswers solution 2333 is now available:

Toshiba Satellite U400 Windows XP starts but the fails with blue screen and white writing. The error message displayed is STOP 0x0000007B (0xBA4CF524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000).

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
MyAnswers
(An Online Connections service.)

Melbourne Weather Forecast varies considerably based on the source.

I just did a search of "Melbourne Weather Forecast" using Google and Google gave the current temperature as 19 degrees. If I check the Bureau of Meteorology the current temperature for Melbourne is 15 degrees and if I check my own outdoor temperature I get 16.1 degrees.

Whilst we all often feel the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) gets the weather wrong, the reality is we come to depend on the BOM each day for guidance. I have far more confidence in the BOM information than much of the information on the web and via apps that are available. The check of the current weather shows Google is out by around 20% and that's quite a large amount. I do expect the temperature to vary slightly from the Melbourne reading as the temperature does vary across suburbs so my reading and the BOM reading for the current temperature is quite close.

The problem I have with the BOM site is when I visit the site using my mobile phone the page is designed for the desktop and thus the writing is far to small. Most of the time all I really want to do is be able to easily read the forecast and the current temperature. As it turns out it didn't take too much work to create a web page designed for the iPhone to display the information from the BOM in a size more suited to the iPhone. You can check out my web app at www.OnlineConnections.com.au/weather. I've added the web app to my home page so the current weather information is one tap away.

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

 

UPDATE 3/4/2013
Who would have guessed. After writing this post yesterday I woke up this morning and the Bureau of Meteorology have update their site changing the layout. Looks like an update to my app is in order. Stay tuned.

MyAnswers: Installing Windows 8 Pro upgrade killed the function keys on my Toshiba notebook

The following MyAnswers solution 2328 is now available:

Upgrading to Windows 8 Pro on my older Toshiba Satellite Pro L500 was OK but unfortunately it killed my functions keys. I can no longer press the FN key plus another key to do things like mute the sound, change between external and internal displays and increase or decrease the brightness of the screen. It has taken a while but I've now found how I can use Windows 8 to provide the same functionality easily.

Click here to obtain the solution.

Click here for related solutions.

Kelvin Eldridge
MyAnswers
(An Online Connections service.)

Meet Half Way is a new app designed to enable people to find a mid point to meet.

Have you ever wanted to meet someone half way but weren't quite sure where that might be. For a bit of fun I developed the Meet Half Way web app which enables you and another person find the midway point between the both of you and display that point on a map.

First you find your location using your computer or mobile device. Then you email a link to the page showing where you are located. Your friend then clicks on a link to find their location and then the midway point is displayed on a map.

Now it couldn't be simpler to catch up with friends and meet half way. Visit www.OnlineConnections.com.au/meethalfway/.

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

Welcome to Bracton Computer Services.

I'd like to welcome Thomas Clayton and his team at Bracton Computer Services to JustLocal. For businesses in the Mooroolbark and surrounding area Thomas and his team can look after your computer needs. You can find Bracton Computer Services on the Mooroolbark 3138 postcode page www.JustLocal.com.au/3138.

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

World Backup Day March 31st

If you missed World Backup Day chances are you probably also forgot to do your backup. Over the years I've found backup programs are generally flawed. For example a lot of backup programs take your files and compact them into a special data file that you can't read without the program. If your computer fails you also lose the program. Other programs I've tested simply stop working half way through. Others are set top automatically backup and a regular basis and most clients I've visited have no clue if they're working or not and often they aren't.

For my clients I've created a simple script file and an online web page where they can define what they want to backup and create a custom script file for themselves. There is no charge for clients as I want clients to backup their important files in case their equipment fails. The backup creates a copy of the files making it very easy for clients to recover a lost file or files by a simple copy. No need to get an expensive computer support person in just to recover files as is often the case with many backup programs.

Make sure you take the time out to determine what files are important to you and make regular backups. Your computer will eventually fail and you should make sure you are prepared for that situation. A number of clients over the years have had their computers stolen so whilst we don't usually think of computers going missing, the more mobile we become and our devices become, the more we are exposed our computers being stolen or devices being lost.

Recover of data can be expensive. As an example it is common for people to be quoted around $2,000 to have someone try to recover data from a failed hard drive and there is still no guarantee the data can be recovered. It makes no sense that people don't do even irregular snapshot backups especially when free software is available that can make the inevitable computer failure less painful.

Even if you missed World Backup Day make sure you put some time aside to set up your backup.

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