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

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

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

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

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Templestowe Medical Centre for sick computers now live

The other day I went to the doctors in Templestowe and thought if I had a sick computer where would I take it or who would I call. I provide computer support to people in Templestowe and the surrounding area and I thought for many people I am their computer doctor. If the computer gets a virus infection I fix it. If the computer is running sluggish I fix it. If their network is not working I fix it. Now calling myself a doctor is a bit over the top, but to some I am their computer doctor.

As part of running JustLocal I also want to show local businesses how easy it is to set up a web presence. My approach is to lead by example so I decided to promote the computer doctor aspect of my business with a single page site to show others how easy it is. The site is http://www.templestowemedicalcentre.com/. All that is required is a single page promoting your business and you have a web presence allowing people to find you.

Now for me this is fairly easy stuff but I wanted to run through the entire process to show clients the steps involved and how easy it is. One person I trained a while ago to set up their own site is now going out showing others how to set up their sites. The person has basic office computer skills like most people so really they only needed two things. Software to help them create their web page and the knowledge to set it up. I provided the knowledge and they purchased some software and learnt the software themselves. For them the best part is they rarely need to call anyone about their site and they can modify whenever they want. That saves them hundreds in supports costs every year. I get the occasional support call when they want to do something don't know how to do it..

If you have a sick computer and live in Templestowe, Templestowe Lower, Doncaster, Doncaster East, Eltham, Montmorency or Lower Plenty call me. I don't charge a call out fee. I offer a money back guarantee and because I'm local I can usually get to your place the same or next day.

If you have a business or a venture you'd like to promote on the internet I'm available to help. My presence on the internet is exceptional and I can help you obtain a better presence. Most others will sell you services which are based on hype and pretty average knowledge. I can show you how to check their presence and you'll see if they can't do it for themselves then what hope have they to do it for you. My presence is proof that what I do works and I'm prepared to back it with a money back guarantee.

I believe every small business or even individuals wanting to sell a product or service could benefit from an internet presence. It really doesn't have to cost much and for most people all they need is the knowledge and they can do it themselves.

Kelvin Eldridge

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

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

CleanEnergyFuture booklet received in the mail

I received the CleanEnergyFuture booklet in the mail and thought I’d read it. What concerned me was it really felt like the government is really pushing too hard the idea of what people are going to get back financially. Over 70% of the pages contained a message about what we were getting. Somehow I think the government is trying a bit too hard.

There are a couple of interesting things I noted. First they say there won’t be any profiteering as they’ll be doing what they did for GST. The difference was GST was easy to monitor as it was added at the end of the calculation and was very transparent. Price increases with the carbon tax won’t be transparent at all. Many businesses work out their prices by taking their costs and multiplying by a percentage markup. Since the carbon price increase isn’t separated businesses have no option but to use the percentage markup approach and that means markup is applied to the carbon tax. This doesn’t happen once, but at each level in the distribution channel. It could easily happen 3-4 times.

We now find the GST added 2.5%. Now we get hit with another supposed 0.7%. The base cost for living in our society as a result of government charges continues to increase. Interesting how the average annual inflation rate between 2001-2002 and 2009-2010 is 2.9 per cent and my latest water rates have increased probably in the order of 10-15% and other utilities aren’t much better. This base cost of living is going to be a cost on our society that never goes away. Those hardest hit will be those trying not to depend on the government welfare system and I don’t think that is fair.

A good way to get a feeling for how much the carbon tax will add to your direct utility bills is to check the bill. We use about 40% of the average electricity usage for a household (yes we’ve reduced our usage) and we’re producing approximately 1 tonne of carbon a quarter or 4 tonne a year. An average family would thus use about 2.5 times this which is 10 tonne a year. For the electricity bill alone that would be $230. Using the figure that gas is about half electricity the amount the average household for gas and electricity should be paying around $300. Gas and electricity as just part of our costs and probably amount to 10-15% of our household spending. So what about all the other things we buy which will go up due to the carbon tax. The government calculations start to look a bit shaky.

I really don’t see why the government needs to give back money that they’re effectively taking away in the first place. Surely they could work directly with the 500 companies to put into place limits and have the companies put into place carbon offset plans. Why is it we are being compensated? Shouldn’t we be looking at ways to reduce our carbon footprint and if higher prices is what is required to change our behaviour then why does the government not want that behaviour to change.

The government has sent out a well produced brochure on What a carbon price means for you, surely there is more to it than what we get back in our pocket after they’ve taken more away from us in the first place.

JustLocal is all about helping to build a stronger local community. To encourage people to buy and work locally. A carbon tax simply raises the burden on all of us. The minimum we need to earn to live in our society. This burden needs to be kept in check. Once in place these taxes are never removed. Once this carbon tax becomes part of a larger trading scheme how much will the price of carbon then be and will the compensation keep pace with the increased prices and inflation. The government hasn’t in the past so I don’t see why the future will be any different.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Photo book album, the easy way

I don’t know about others who create photo book albums, but what I found was organising all the photos from a trip takes a lot of time and often photos I wanted included don’t get included because as the pages increase so does the cost.

For some time I’ve wanted to put together a photo book album of our trip to Europe and last night I submitted our European trip photo book album for printing. Actually it is more like a magazine rather than a hard cover photo book. I wanted a soft cover and I wanted to open the book like a magazine. The book has a total of 410 pictures, a massive 134 pages and I’m quite excited to see how the final product looks.

Oh, did I mention that unlike the enormous amount of time it takes to create a photo book album I decided to write a program to lay out the photos for me. The bulk of the photo album book is now automated and all that is required is to spend a little time on the front and rear covers. Perhaps the most interesting fact is the price. The photo book in comparison will cost less than a 24 page photo book album and even less than the cost of printing off the pictures at a low cost self photo printing service. This approach means I’ll end up with a photo book with all the pictures I wanted to include for a very reasonable price.

If photo books interest you let me know. I’m not yet sure if I’ll release this product for others but if there is enough interest from clients I’ll seriously consider making the photo books available to others either as a product or service.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

 

Electricity Power Usage now available on MyAnswers

I’ve now added a new section to the MyAnswers site where I’ll list the devices I measure and their power usage figures. The following is a link to the page.

Electricity Power Usage... Read More

By using the power usage figures and the Electricity Usage Calculator you can determine the cost of each device on a daily and yearly basis. By identifying devices which use a lot of power over a period of time you can make significant savings in your electricity bills. I think many people will be surprised when they find out which devices are costing them the most. It isn’t always the most obvious. Better decisions can be made when you have better information.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Computer repair Doncaster, Templestowe, Templestowe Lower Doncaster East, Eltham, Lower Plenty, Montmorency - Beware of telephone scammers

I read this article where people are receiving calls from people offering unsolicited computer support over the telephone and another article where one in twenty New Zealanders are falling for the same scam at around a cost of $200 each.

The scam involves a cold telephone call from a computer company who claim to be offering to clean up one’s computer. The name of the company was so complicated that I didn’t catch who they were.... Read More

When I read this it amazes me. There is really no reason for anyone to deal with any computer support person over the telephone. We offer businesses and residents of Templestowe, Templestowe Lower, Doncaster, Doncaster East, Lower Plenty, Montmorency and Eltham onsite computer support with no call out fee and a money back guarantee. There is no need for remote support and for people to provide others access to their computer. You meet the person who will fix your computer.

Dealing with a person unknown is always a bit of a concern, but to deal with someone who rings out of the blue, who you’ve never met, have no idea of the business or even if they’re from the business they say they are is simply a disaster waiting to happen. I feel really sorry for the people who fall for these scam artists when all they really need to do is to find someone local they can trust.

If someone rings you from out of the blue your scam radar should be working overtime. The only reason someone will ring you is to profit from you. So look after your own interests. They are certainly looking after theirs.

Please take care when receiving any unsolicited telephone call or unsolicited email offering your computer support services.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

LinkedIn - Reminder about your invitation from

I received reminders from LinkedIn from a business I know. I let them know that I don’t use LinkedIn but more than happy to keep in contact. What was interesting is the person is skilled with computers but they’d ended up sending invitations to their entire contact list without meaning to. The person said they’d select just the six people they wanted invitations to be sent to and LinkedIn ended up sending invitations to everyone in their mailing list. If this can happen to this person then it can happen to a lot of people.

LinkedIn was a bit annoying because after the first email on the 14^th of July it then sent a reminder on the 18^th at 7:39pm and another on the 18^th at 10:41pm. A few days later on the 25^th of July at 5:30pm and at 6:39pm reminders were sent. To me this is a bit over the top. I have to say a bit annoying. I did let the person know and they felt LinkedIn and high jacked their account so they weren’t happy. A few days later they felt LinkedIn tried to do it again to one of their colleagues. I don’t know if this was a design fault of LinkedIn or a user issue.

I really don’t think this is good enough. If people are sending out invitations inadvertently then it may be an issue with the user interface. On the reminder front a single reminder should be sufficient. This is simply over the top marketing by LinkedIn. I don’t use LinkedIn. I gave it a go for over a year but felt it offered no value to me so I made to effort to cancel the account. I certainly don’t want to be nagged into opening another account.

My suggestion is if you are going to use one of the social networking sites avoid giving the site access to your contact list. Invite your contacts yourself. That way you stay in control of who you invite and your complete contact list doesn’t end up in the hands of the social networking site.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Melbourne Photographer - Des Pitfield

I thought I'd share my portrait photo journey with others. I don't know about you but I'm not generally happy with photographs of myself, but I am very happy with the latest photograph you'll now see on my web site taken by Des Pitfield.

I said to Des I generally don't like photographs of myself but without being too vein, I do know I don't mind the guy I see in the mirror each morning. Surely someone could capture that photo for me.

As it turned out Des captured the photo I'm happy with.

The following are the three photos I've used on my web sites. I personally feel a good photo on your web site is an asset.

The first photo was taken by a family member which at the time I thought was OK. The second photo was taken by a professional photographer. I liked the photo but unfortunately the feedback I got from a person was I looked much younger in person and I did tend to feel it made me look older. Now the last photo on the right is by Des Pitfield and I'm very happy with the result. The photo captures that person I see each day.

Thank you to Des Pitfield for his excellent work. You can find Des Pitfield at http://www.despitfieldphotography.com/ and also on the JustLocal page for Doncaster East (www.JustLocal.com.au/3109).

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

MyAnswers has now been updated for Virtual Profit Sharing

MyAnswers has now been updated to be compatible with Virtual Profit Sharing.

Virtual Profit Sharing is the Online Connections loyalty reward program for customers of Online Connections and JustLocal. Virtual Profit Sharing or VPS for short, is our way of saying thank you to clients for referring others to our services. VPS is based on two principles. It is generous and when we benefit so do our customers.

You can check out MyAnswers at www.MyAnswers.biz and using your VPS member code you can now let others know of the solutions available.

Thank you for your support.

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

Aluminium can recycling

I’ve often read that recycling saves around 95% of the energy required to manufacture an aluminium can from bauxite. I became curious as to how much energy that really was. As it turns out, each aluminium can our family recycles saves the equivalent of around 5% of our daily electricity usage. So next time you’re putting your recycle bin out you can feel pleased you really are making a difference to the world. Perhaps next time you see that thoughtlessly discarded drink can in the street put it in your recycle bin. The person’s thoughtlessness is your energy offset.

Aluminium Cans - Liquid Energy... Read More

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Alert:You have 2 messages from Twitter Administration

If you receive an email with the subject You have 2 messages from Twitter Administration, then you should delete the message. It isn't legitimate and thus has malicious intent. The links in the email point to a Spanish domain (.es) and the email was sent from France.

Should you receive an email from one of your social networking services you should assume they're malicious. Don't click on links. Open your browser and go to the site using the web site address. That way you can be sure you're not being tricked.

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

Apple iCloud should really be called Apple iSync.

There is a lot of talk about “The Cloud” and it can get pretty confusing to many people. Think of The Cloud as a push by computer companies to get people to run their services from centralised machines rather than on your local computer. This enables software providers to provide software as a service rather than a product for you to install on your computer. Many people already use services in The Cloud. If you use Hotmail, Yahoo mail or Gmail you’re using “The Cloud”. So really it is no big deal. Services were already being delivered via the internet before “The Cloud” came along.

In September Apple will be making its iCloud service available. But really, can this be considered a Cloud service? Not really. It is simply using the internet to provide centralised storage and then to enable attached devices to synchronise the data across devices. Thus my reasoning behind why iCloud should really be called iSync. Apple is about providing devices you carry around with you and from what I can see, they want you to have your data and applications installed on your devices. Nothing wrong with that approach at all. It has many advantages such as local performance is often better than services running on the internet and if you have no connection to the internet you can continue to work offline.

The problem with calling the service iCloud is people will be looking for the Cloud based services which are typical of how others are marketing “The Cloud”. This will confuse people. Of course calling it iSync is really not modern or trendy so let’s just put this down to marketers having poetic licence.

Hopefully that makes it easier for you to see the term Cloud will be used by many organisations in different ways. “The Cloud” sounds far sexier than “The Internet”, but what people really need to do is work out what services are being made available and how they can take advantage of those services. Whether it is called iCloud or iSync doesn’t really matter. It is about what the service will do for you.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Power usage calculator and power usage of various household appliances

Using the power meter I sell on the Energy Cost Calculator page I decided to collect the power usage for a number of devices around people’s homes and home offices. The aim is to assist people in determining the amount of electricity appliances use. By our family changing some simple habits we’ve been able to reduce our electricity to under half the average for our size of family. I’d estimate about a $500 a year saving for us, but if we were using the average the saving would be closer to $1,000. I know I’d prefer that money in my pocket each year and all done with very little outlay involved.

This level of saving far exceeds the savings made by installing expensive solar systems so anyone can do it. The best part is there is no up keep, almost nothing to be spent and you’ll achieve more than the government aims to with its carbon tax. Really if everyone just looked at their usage and changed their behaviour a little we could avoid the carbon tax and that would save us all a lot of money in the future. I’m pretty sure by now those who have installed solar systems have realised they’re not saving anywhere near what they expected.

The following are the items that I’ve measured and make available in MyAnswers solution 2112. The solution is available free of charge to those purchasing one of the devices on the Energy Cost Calculator page.

Telstra F2300 Answering Machine
Rank Arena LCD TV/DVD TL1951-BDTP
Acer Aspire One Series Netbook AV10
Toshiba Satellite Pro A120 Notebook PSAC1A-0QV03J
Epson Aculaser C1100 Colour Laser
Compaq 7500 17" monitor PE1163
Acer AL1715 17" LCD monitor ET-L2102.216
Epson Stylus TX210 All-in-one
Panasonic DVD Recorder DMR-XW300
LG Plasma TV 50" 50PS30FD-AA.AAULLH
Netgear Wireless Cable Modem Gateway CG814WG v3 (Optus)
Tefal Avanti Deluxe Toaster
TinyPro LED Projector 2009199
TEAC Std Set Top Box SDR161T
Kye Systems Corp. Multimedia Hi-Fi Speaker Systems SP-G10
JVC Television 25" AV-25LS
LG 6H Hi-Fi Stereo VHS/DVD player V782W
Ozito ECO 320 Lawnmower
Telstra Pre-paid mobile wi-fi
Sanyo Clock Radio RM399
Apple iPad 2
Panasonic 5.8Ghz Digital Answering Machine KX-TG4391AL
Target King Size Electric Blanket GW281

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

What is Office 365?

I've now had the chance to quickly review Office 365 and I can see some areas where I feel it could be better and some areas where I think it could really benefit micro and small businesses.

In a nutshell, Office 365 is Microsoft's attempt at providing software as an online service. You get access to Office web apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote), Email, Calendar, web site, collaboration, instant messaging and online meetings.

My focus is reviewing Office 365 for micro and small business users. It is important to review Office 365 against your needs. The plan marketed by Microsoft to this group of businesses is "Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small business". The plan is designed for up to 25 users.

To quote from the Microsoft site you receive:

- A solution without dedicated IT staff
- Essential email, calendar and web site services
- Free online community support
- Month-to-month subscription

If I look at this list it really doesn't impress me that much. Most small businesses I know don't have dedicated IT staff, they already have email, calendar and in quite a few cases web site services, can already get free online community support (which I think is a poor substitute for decent support) and even though it is a month-to-month subscription, as a business you need to make a decision that will last you for some time.

I should explain why I think community support is often a poor option for users. First I find there are quite a few members on community support forums who are rude and obnoxious. Whilst most are pretty good, the few spoil it for everyone. My experience is you will be offended by these people at some point in time. I don't like putting my clients in a position where they can get offended. I've found some of the advice to be substandard (from well meaning people) to the point where users would damage their computer should they take the advice. Since free support is just that, if a problem is hard and requires some effort that is where a quality paid support person will make sure the client is looked after. The other aspect is I find those putting a lot of energy into forums tend to become blinkered to other options, often obsessively pushing their cause. Users may not get a balanced opinion when there may be better options. Users can make better decisions if they're assisted and provided with options and information in a relatively unbiased manner. I don't generally find that on community support forums. It is simply the way forums work.

My initial impression is the sign up is cumbersome for Australians with Telstra being positioned between users and Microsoft. For some this will create confusion and means they will need IT support for the sign up, which really shouldn't be the case. If you're not the type of person who can set up your own email then you will need assistance. I felt a number of the features such as SharePoint will probably not be used by micro and small businesses and the web site tool is very limited in what it offers.

I looked at the needs of a few of my clients (micro and small business) and in each case it would be hard for them to justify moving to Office 365. Office 365 does offer some good new features for them, but at the same time they lose features they need.

If you have a business that doesn't have a web presence, you are using your Internet Service Provider's email address, or worse, Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo mail for your business, and would like to be more mobile, then Office 365 could be a very good match for you. But do make sure you take into account what you'd like to do in the future so you don't outgrow Microsoft's service.

My aim is to assist clients by providing them with advice and guidance as to whether Office 365 can be used as a tool in their business. I know of at least two businesses who could potentially benefit from moving to Office 365.

The funny thing is if Microsoft had simply provided the option for people to upload their own html or PHP based site rather than their restrictive canned approach, I'd have quite a few more clients. There are some real benefits to be had from using Office 365, but the restrictions make migrating to Office 365 much harder to justify.

It really is a case of reviewing the client's needs and then seeing if Office 365 can match those needs, or whether a different solution is required.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Has your password been hacked? Top 20 passwords.

The recent activity of hackers making passwords of hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) of people public is a concern, but not only for the reason that these people’s accounts have been compromised, but what it means to everyone else. Yes that means you.

What it means is if you are using a password you think is secure it may not be. Armed with a simple list of commonly used passwords the ability to hack someone's account now becomes much easier.

I decided to check out a hacktivists site and found a file which they made public with 62,000 email addresses and passwords. Yes those using those email addresses and passwords across multiple accounts such as Facebook and Email could have had all their accounts compromised. We know that. But what is less apparent is these databases can now be used to try to hack into other people's accounts.

I decided to take the list of 62,000 email addresses and passwords and create a list of passwords. Visually checking the list there is quite a bit of duplication so the appearance of some passwords may be overstated. However the list does give a good feel for the usage of passwords.

To help my clients my thought was to enable you to see if your password appears on one of these databases being made available by the hackers. We know names, places and dictionary words are common lists used by hackers. But now hackers have a more targeted list based on the actual usage by people. The question is, has your password been hacked? Does your password now appear in a hackers database making it easier for others to hack into your account.

The next thought I had is how do I make the list available to others. Making a list available on line for others to check sounds like a good idea, but really, who’s to say I'm not a hacker trying to get a better list of passwords. I've seen a database where you can check if your email address is on the hackers’ databases they've released, but really who is to say this simply isn't a site designed to collect additional email addresses. You can't be too careful.

 

I decided to make the list of passwords available to clients as an Excel spreadsheet. That means people download the spreadsheet and can check it on their computer. There is thus no sharing of your information and everything is open. I had thought about a program but again who is to say the program isn’t collecting information you enter. A spreadsheet is a good way to share the information and you can use Control+F (the find facility) to check for your password.

The following is the top 20 passwords. If you're using one of those passwords you should immediately change it.

123456
123456789
password
romance
102030
mystery
ajcuivd289
shadow
tigger
123
bookworm
dragon
sunshine
reader
12345
purple
maggie
reading
1234
angels

The spreadsheet with the full list of passwords to enable you to check your password is available free to clients of Online Connections and Justlocal upon request.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Alert: Domain Notification: ELDRIDGE - KELVIN This is your Final Notice of Domain Listing - OZEFILTER.COM

I received an email last night with the subject Domain Notification: ELDRIDGE -  KELVIN This is your Final Notice of Domain Listing - OZEFILTER.COM.

The words Attention: Important Notice and the expiry date being today's date are sure to put some people under pressure.

What I found particularly interesting was this email reminded me of the letters I'd received in the regular post. Now I know my domain isn't expiring and isn't with this organisation. The notice actually doesn't seem to list a business name and includes none of the usual links to a web site. It is a scam and sadly some people will fall for it.

My thought with scams is surely it wouldn't be too difficult for Yahoo to close the email account as soon as they find out someone is sending a scam. Given they log everyone who signs up for an account which I suspect would include an IP address, perhaps they may be able to identify locations being used to create and send this type of scam. But just as equally if the telephone number is a real number couldn't the telephone service provider block this number or redirect it. Finally surely if the intent is to obtain money the credit card companies could suspect the merchant account. But of course this may just be a scam to obtain credit card numbers. For scams to work there are a number of parties that need to participate and perhaps the legitimate parties in the transaction need to work out ways where they can quickly redirect traffic to minimise the harm to others.

As always with your domain if you receive a notification go back to your records, check the dates and registrar and only renew using the registrars web service and not via a link in an email. If you wish to pay by fax then initiate the request and don't respond to a request out of the blue. Before taking action based on any email you receive, pause for a moment. Ask yourself what action you need to take to better protect yourself. There is always a simple action you can take such as going to the site (not using a link in an email), making a call, or contacting your support person. Act in haste and you'll likely make a mistake you'll regret.

Kelvin Eldridge

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

If something doesn't feel right you should listen to your instinct.

I read the blog post on Credit Matters (Why Did You Do it?... Read More) and shortly after watched a TV news report on people buying cars without ever seeing the car, where there was no traceable contact information and yes the people were scammed and lost their money.

It is important in business and in private life, when dealing with others, to know the person is who they say they are. Scammers are ever present both in business and our private lives. Kim Radok had a good story to share in his post Why Did You Do It?

Next time you’re about to do something that doesn’t feel right, remember evolution has given you the tools, the instinct to know when something doesn’t feel right. If you get that feeling that something doesn’t quite feel right, don’t just go for it. Pause for a moment and think things through.

As an example I once worked for a partnership and was offered a company car as part of the salary package. There was an agreement I needed to sign. I said I couldn’t sign the agreement as it contained a clause which meant I’d have to pay out the company car should I leave and I wasn’t prepared to take that risk. Sometimes things don’t work out and we need to plan for that situation. The human resources manager said it was a formality. The partners had never enforced the payout before. So based on what I believed was a verbal commitment and understanding signed the letter of employment. My gut feeling was correct and that was a very costly mistake I learnt from. If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it.

If you’re in business check out Kim’s blog and benefit from the wisdom he shares.

- Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Is the Australian Government appealing to our basic greed with the carbon tax?

I've noticed a sad trend in our society which is the government seems to put into place what it wants to do and does so by appealing to our basic greed. Yes. Our greed.

The government is currently saying something like 70% of households will be compensated. The question I have is why?

I read once that somewhere around the 1920's government worked out if it wanted to take something from people, a way to make it easier was to give them something in return. That is raise taxes in one area but give something back in another which is less but people feel like they've gotten something in return.

If carbon is a real issue (and I believe our excess usage by all of us is a problem for future generations) then why is the government trying to create a carbon trading scheme which in effect looks to me like they're trying to create another share market. Using our tax dollars to make something from nothing.

For example when the government offered people to swap over their light globes a large number of people had someone come in and swap over their light globes. From what I read each light globe cost us $10. One household I know had 43 light globes. That's around $430 for an hour's worth of work which we will all end having to pay back. This is an example of basic greed. People getting what they think is something for nothing, but in the end we all end up paying. i felt a better way would have been to allow us to trade in our old light globes at the local council which could have been done for a fractions of the cost.

When it comes to solar panels those installing 1.5kW systems took the opportunity to get around a $5,000 subsidy which of course we all end up paying for with greater electricity bills. That feels to me like basic greed by some people at the expense of their neighbours. A better approach which is being done now is to invest that money into large scale projects where the economics is better than installing solar panels on a house by house basis.

The set-top box program which will cost around $300 per pensioner for something that can be bought for around $50 is another example of people taking without thinking about the cost to others. i would have hoped those in our society with the greatest life experience would so know to the government offer knowing that it is other who will be paying for their greed. The government of course wants to phase out analogue TV and I'd suspect it is perhaps to sell off the bandwidth for more licensing fees.

Now we get the carbon tax. We're being told about 70% of people will be compensated. But really why? Why not bring in a plan where those businesses using excessive amounts of energy have to reduce their quotes or face heavy fines. Fines heavier than if they reinvested the money in green technologies to reduce their impact. According to a report on A Current Affair recently just 50 companies produce 50% of the carbon emissions. Surely the government could work with those companies to start reducing their carbon emissions and to do it in such a way that costs to consumers cannot be increased.

To me carbon tax appears to be a cash grab by the government. I don't think this should be necessary. We should all aim to do our part to reduce our usage. It really doesn't take much.

The irony of the current situation is if we look at our electricity bill we are rewarded with lower tariffs if we use more electricity. Surely we should be rewarded for using less rather than more. Those who cut their usage should be rewarded.

Sadly it just appears the government is trying to raise around $20 billion dollars a year of additional revenue which will end up costing us up to $80 billion dollars a year once those cost go through our industries. This is an enormous overhead for future generations. A burden I don't think is fair on future generations. An overhead that once in place will never be removed.

I didn't use the the government program to replace light globes but instead chose to purchase lights using my own money. I didn't install solar panels but instead chose to reduce my energy use by around 50%. However I won't have any choice with the carbon tax and neither will future generations.

I hope people can see that if the government is offering something, they are generally taking away more than they are giving. Don't be greedy. Your greed will only hurt yourself and future generations. Look at your own usage of resources and look at ways of reducing your footprint on this earth.

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

Apple iPhone iOS 4.3.4 now available.

The security issue with viewing potentially malicious PDFs in the Apple iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch operating system has now been patched and the updated iOS 4.3.4 operating system is now available.

This update applies to the iPhone 4 (GSM), iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, iPod Touch (4^th generation) and iPod Touch (3^rd generation).

I'd highly suggest downloading and installing the update as soon as possible.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au