7flix audio but no video. 7flix channel not detected.

Today the 7flix movie channel has been launched so time to check if the channel is available.  The first TV had the new channel, but when the 7flix channel was selected only the audio worked. There was no video. This TV was about 2-3 years old and purchased from Dick Smith.

On checking the channels, the channels showing H264 only had audio working. Those with MPEG had both video and audio.

A second and much older LCD TV could not find the new channels.

The third TV, a Samsung worked with the new channel.

I suspect many people will be in the same situation suggesting that many people will not be able to correctly receive the new 7flix channel. The other channels which didn't work, although I'd doubt that I'd watch, are RACING.COM and TV4ME.

The problem here is the new channel is using H264 MPEG-4 that may not be present in many devices.

If when you check your TV you don't have 7flix (channel 76) run the auto tuning facility, and if the channel doesn't appear, chances are you'll be out of luck.

Kelvin Eldridge

Update: 14 August 2016.
This issue now appears to have been fixed.

Shopping for a CR1616 battery.

Recently I had to purchase two CR1616 button cell batteries for the car remote controls. I'd not replaced the batteries for a couple of years and thought it was about time I got some new batteries.

I did a quick search of the internet and found the following prices.

Jaycar - $2.95
Masters - $4.90
Chemist Warehouse - $3.49
Officeworks - $4.97
Dick Smith - $7.98
Maxwell - $2.09
Amcal - $2.75

Whilst Maxwell was the cheapest at $2.09, the problem is there's only one store located in Bridge Road Richmond, which is a bit far from Templestowe. Delivery would be $10.51.

I decided to go to the local Amcal and Chemist Warehouse as the prices weren't bad. After travelling  for about half and hour and 14 km I returned home empty handed. Neither had stock. I was going to wait until I was going past one of the other stores.

It was weird. I'd not had batteries in the remote controls for a couple of years and now all of a sudden it had to be done NOW. I decided it really wasn't that important and could wait.

I then decided to check the internet again and found suppliers on eBay. Prices weren't bad and found one selling 5 batteries for $4.99. I really only wanted two and felt the other three would probably go to waste. Delivery was free. In the end I decided since I could not be sure of any of the businesses I'd listed having stock and thus my trips could be a waste of time and fuel, I'd go for the easier option and place an order. A few days later and the batteries arrived.

Whilst some may consider this against the concept of JustLocal, one of my beliefs with JustLocal is that people should not be disadvantaged shopping locally. Had the local businesses had stock I would have bought locally and at a higher price. They didn't and so their service let them down. Some of the businesses had ridiculous prices such as Dick Smith. You'll find the local supermarkets and hardware stores can charge higher prices and that doesn't make sense. They're simply importing the same product you would.

This was actually my first purchase using eBay and I found the result to be more than acceptable. I just wished the local stores held the stock of the items they list on their sites and that would have helped keep the purchase local.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

New simplified Electricity Cost Calculator is now available.

Some time ago I created the Energy Cost Calculator which is a web app I used to help me review my electricity costs. As part of reviewing our electricity usage we reduced our usage by making simple changes (e.g. filling the kettle up less) resulting in a significant saving. We reduced our electricity cost by more than 50 per cent.

However in the web app I provided a feature which enabled people to work out the payback period of replacing one appliance with a lower cost appliance. This was great when low energy lights came in, but now this features isn't as important. I decided to write a new and simpler web app, but unfortunately there wasn't enough traffic so I've now updated this post to the original Electricity Cost Calculator. You can find the calculator at www.justlocal.com.au/clients/energy-cost/.

If you're interested in saving money on your electricity bills, reviewing the electricity used by your appliances can help you hone in on where you can make savings. A few simple changes can make a very big difference.

Kelvin Eldridge

New voltage drop calculator web app.

We all have hobbies so I thought I'd share one of my hobbies which is investigating the use of 12V systems to replace 240V around the home. The more you learn about the topic the more you realise there's more you don't know.

One problem I've encountered recently is working out the size of cable I need. The problem is I want the cable to run from the shed to the house which is about 20m. Whilst I'd not consider this a long distance, when it comes to 12V systems, the distance makes a significant difference because of what is called the voltage drop. Performing repeated what if's for voltage drop on various sizes of cable and current means it is better to create a spreadsheet, or in my case, what I do is create a web app. I create web apps for myself, but if others find them useful that's good too. I call the web app the Voltage Drop Calculator.

Since using the Voltage Drop Calculator I am now more realistic about the size of what I feel is a cost effective cable and thus what this means in terms of the power of devices I can realistically run. The problem is the higher the current, the greater the voltage drop and in some cases too great a voltage drop means the appliance may not work. One way to overcome the voltage drop is to increase the size of the cable. Unfortunately that means the cable increases in cost, which means I need to consider whether or not the investment in cable will be returned in electricity savings.

The good thing about having to think about cable size and voltage drop is you then think about how best to use your money. Spending money on a cable that may only be required once a month, as compared to a lighter cable used daily, makes you think about the cost versus the return. The cable to the house will offer convenience, but for those times requiring more current, I can always do that in the shed.

If 12V systems interest you and you think the voltage drop calculator might assist, check out the Voltage Drop Calculator at www.VoltageDropCalculator.com.au.

Kelvin Eldridge

TPG internet in Templestowe very unreliable past few days and currently not working.

When I have issues with TPG's ADSL service I often check their status page. Even though I'm having issues, I've never seen the status page state anything other than everything is working.

On Saturday night I streamed a movie. The movie ran for 1.5 hours, but the movie took close to 3 hours to watch. The TPG service was continually cutting out. On Sunday the service was also very flaky. This morning I've only been able to connect for very short periods. The modem status is continually flipping between being up and down.

TPG's service has an excellent price. It's at times like this you have to question whether you should change service providers, but in the end the major service providers I've found have outages. Optus once was out for over a week. In addition to change providers there's often a hefty set up fee, or lengthy contract period.

To get around problem times like this I have a Wi-Fi hotspot that connects to the mobile network. I consider the $50 I pay for 5GB for 12 months to be good insurance. In addition the Wi-Fi hotspot comes in handy when travelling.

Do you have a fallback strategy in place if your internet provider's service stops working?

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

PS. I've submitted the issue via TPG's online service and will update this post should I find anything that may interest others.

Safari: Can't type in Safari address area.

An issue appeared recently that is also affecting many other Safari users. When you go to type into the address bar area it is locked and it won't accept anything you type. The blue line appears around the address area.

I've read that Apple has fixed the problem, yet I'm still experiencing the problem.

To work around the problem so you can enter website addresses into the address area, go to Preferences, then click the Search tab. Remove the tick from Include Safari Search Suggestions. Close and reopen Safari.

I suspect his problem should be solved over the next few days so when you want to, you may wish to enable the setting again.

For those interested, one thing which helped me through this issue was I had my site www.AdvancedSearch.com.au/SearchAustralia set up as the home page, and to also open when new tabs were opened. I could still use my search site to search for what I wanted.  My search engine enables me to enter website addresses and go to the site, whereas most search engines will send you to a list of search results. Initially I thought because I have an extension loaded to use this search engine, it may be causing the problem. I disabled the extension but found no change. That made me look further afield to find if there was an issue and thus I found this problem was affecting many users at the moment.

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

Fitbit: More than one tracker found

A few days ago when going to sync the Fitbit HR, the message "more than one tracker found" appeared. Since then the message now appears every time.

A check on the internet reveals this problem started to occur for hundreds of others mostly since yesterday. For me, if I recall correctly, it started a couple of days ago. I thought it may have been related to seeing the message when a couple of others in the house had their Fitbit on, and the software when synchronising, located multiple Fitbits which was at the time correct. However since then there's been no other Fitbit devices in the area.

The workaround at this time unfortunately is to log on each time. I'm using a MacBook Air and the Fitbit Connect software. I've noticed others with the issue using Windows.

A moderator on the Fitbit community forum has indicated Fitbit are aware of the issue and the team are working on a fix.

All we can do really is wait until a fix is provided by Fitbit. Hopefully it will happen soon because logging in to sync each time is resulting in a poor user experience.

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


Update: 21 Jan 2016
Found the following on the Fitbit forum.

Fitbit Update 1/19: Hey all- we've just checked in with the software engineering team, and it looks like we're just about putting the finishing touches on the fix for this. 

We're expecting a resolution in a few days, at which time you should all be able to return to normal sync behavior. Thank you all for your continued patience. Please keep an eye out for updates from me later on in the week. 

To save others time I tested removing, restarting and reinstalling. This made no difference. For the MacBook Air the set up file I downloaded a couple of weeks ago where there was no problem, is still the same version number, so the file has no yet been updated.

Update: 29 January 2016
This particular problem now appears to have been fixed. I still continue to get issues connecting which is quite frustrating, but this problem is no longer occurring.

Fitbit burnit, holdme message.

Yes I caved. Got a Fitbit as I like to measure things and so far that's been very interesting. Today when I went to charge the Fitbit (only after three days even though it states I should get five), I was having trouble seeing the battery charging symbol.

To my surprise I saw a couple of messages pop up. BURNIT and HOLDME. I'd not seen messages before so decided to check the internet and sure enough, people do get messages from their Fitbit.

I purchased a Fitbit Charge HR in the Boxing day sales from Officeworks. The price was $130. Had the price not been so low I wouldn't have been tempted.

I've found the heart rate interesting to watch as I rest, walk or ride the bike. A bit of fun. Interestingly I read that around 50% of people who purchased a Fitbit no longer wear it. It does make me wonder how long it will be until the novelty of the Fitbit wears off.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Two additional bulk billing doctors added.

I've now added two more bulk billing doctors to the Bulk Billing Doctors Melbourne site. The doctors/practices were passed on and confirmed through a contact.

When using the Bulk Billing Doctors Melbourne site keep in mind there are two pages. The main page of the site is suitable for desktop users, and the mobile site, which can be used by mobile users, but is also very handy for desktop users. The mobile site shows the distance to the nearest doctors or practices.

The maps to help find local bulk billing doctors in Melbourne are at https://www.mapz.com.au/bulkbillingdoctorsmelbourne/.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.Mapz.com.au
Making it easier to find local.

TPG mobile dropouts have increased since TPG moved from Optus to Vodafone.

A few of times I've been talking to a person and my mobile has gone silent. No warning. Nothing. The call has just dropped out. The first time I noticed this was a TPG (Vodafone) to TPG (Optus) call.

More recently I was talking to another person and at the 15 minute point the mobile dropped out. Then after another 15 minutes the call dropped out again. The log on the mobile confirmed the call had dropped out twice after 15 minutes. This was a TPG (Vodafone) to Telstra call. For the call to drop out at 15 minutes and not some random interval makes it feel like it is possibly an action on the part of TPG, the service provider.

Perhaps just a coincidence, but I heard two people who's call had just dropped out discussing the issue. Whilst these people had experienced calls dropping out, there was usually some breaking up in the signal first, however in this case the call just went silent.

There is certainly something strange happening with the TPG service at the moment. I don't think it is  just the change to Vodafone as TPG's carrier, since not all the calls used the Vodafone service. At this point all I can share is the number of dropouts occurring (where the call simply cuts out) with the TPG service, appears to have significantly increased since the announcement of the move from Optus to Vodafone as the carrier. Certainly something to watch.

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

Bulk billing doctors Melbourne now added to the Mapz site.

One of the advantages of being a developer, is when I find things that interest me I can often write some code and produce a site. The ideas come to me as a result of products or services I find handy. I then create a web app for example that helps me and by making it available on the internet, hopefully others find it useful as well. The most recent idea is for bulk billing doctors in Melbourne.

I recently dropped into the local doctors and noticed their consultation fee had increased to $75. Isn't it amazing how different the standard fee is now from the Medicare rebate? The doctors are OK, but often there's times when a lower cost option is just as good. One example is when people simply need a medical certificate for work. Sometimes getting a second opinion comes in handy. That's when knowing where the closest bulk billing doctor can come in handy.

Doing a search for bulk billing doctors on the internet will provide many doctors and practices, but the problem is they often don't bulk bill everyone. I also saw the situation of a local practice that started up a few years ago and bulk billed, but then switched to only bulk billing certain clients. That practice is still listed as a bulk billing practice on the internet. There's bulk billing practices who bulk bill everyone. That's their business model. Knowing where they are can often come in handy.

I decided I'd put together the bulk billing doctors/practices that I come across and using the Mapz site/approach. That is I create maps showing where the bulk billing doctors/practices can be found and the mobile map shows the nearest five doctors/practices.

Unfortunately at this time I only know one practice that bulk bills everyone and so the maps will only have one entry. As I find other doctors/practices I also add them to the map. If anyone knows of such a doctor/practice please feel free to let me know.

The site is https://www.mapz.com.au/bulkbillingdoctorsmelbourne/. You can also find a link to the site on the Mapz site at www.Mapz.com.au.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.JustLocal.com.au

Help people to find local businesses.

Microsoft Access 2016 runtime security notice "A potential security concern has been identified".

Installing the new version of the Microsoft Access 2016 runtime on a new Windows 10 64 bit computer up popped the familiar potential security concern message. I'm not quite sure why Microsoft hasn't provided an option to enable users to add the location in the runtime, but until they do, this means having to manually make the required changes..

I've now updated my notes (www.OnlineConnections.com.au/myanswers) where I share the information with clients. The solution is MyAnswers 2504.

The aim of this post is to enable clients to know the solution is now available if required. Usually I apply the fix for clients, but for those clients who wish to fix the issue themselves, I'm happy to provide the solution.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.
Servicing the Doncaster, Templestowe, Eltham area.

TPG 321 voicemail no longer works since moving to Vodafone network.

TPG are currently moving mobile customers to the Vodafone network from the Optus network. This is one of those times when whilst I'd prefer to stick with TPG and the Optus network, there really is no choice if you wish to stick with TPG. The Optus plan in time will be phased out. Time to go with the flow.

Nothing major appears to have happened since transferring to Vodafone, but it is course early days. I still have a 3G handset so I'm not able to test to see if the 4G network is better.

The first minor issue is I started receiving notifications for roughly a week the new SIM had been sent. Nothing arrived. Then I received a new set of notifications the SIM was being sent. This time the SIM did arrive after about a week. The important communication to note was not to activate the new service until the SIM card arrived.

The SIM card arrived on the Thursday which I then activated. Activation wasn't to occur until the Saturday and I was advised in the communication to keep using the old SIM card. Mid Saturday afternoon the old service stopped working. I was prepared as I was carrying around the new SIM card. For around an hour I had a feeling the service wasn't stable, but then things settled down.

One thing that didn't occur to me for a few days, was voicemail had also changed. That makes sense. Voicemail is now on Vodafone and not Optus. However this was never really flagged as something to keep in mind. The first I noticed was when I went to check voicemail by dialling 321 and it didn't work. That's strange I thought. Ah. Voicemail needs to be set up again including the announcement. Any old voicemails that I may have kept would be gone. I didn't know what number to call to get voicemails.

A quick check of the TPG site and I found the new number for accessing voicemail is 121. When first used you need to set up the voicemail.

What I have noticed is I no longer receive messages letting me know I've received voicemail. I thought that was handy on the old service and with the new service it may be easier to miss that someone has left a voicemail. On the other hand, the voicemail icon at the bottom of the iPhone screen now indicates there's voicemail. That icon didn't previously do anything. Whilst it does means I have to go into the telephone app, at least there's a way to see if there's voicemail.

As I said, this isn't a really big deal. It would have been nice to be given a heads up on the voicemail change and the new number to access voicemail, but some things often slip through the cracks with such a large migration.

Hopefully others who are being migrated from Optus to Vodafone by TPG who find this post may find this information useful.

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

When visiting shopping centres this article is a reminder that you're being tracked.

Our local Westfield Shopping Centre in Doncaster has free W-Fi and ticketless parking. Both technologies provide a lot of data to companies which can be analysed to find ways to increase your spending.

The following article provides some hints as to why shopping centres (and other areas) are increasing the amount of tracking.

http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/business-it/is-it-really-free-wifi-20151129-glb4p9.html

Batistich was candid about the company's reasons for the rollout.

"We did it, to be blunt, because we wanted a location analytics platform. We wanted to understand what people did in our malls so we could start to acquire a profile so we could send them content that's relevant based on their previous physical behaviour," he said.

Interestingly the article states using Wi-Fi Westfield could generate more than 470 interactions for a single shopper, whatever that may mean.

One question that does come to mind for me is, are they linking your registration to your Wi-Fi?

If this type of tracking concerns you, keep in mind you can park outside the shopping centre, and whilst in the shopping centres, turn off your Wi-Fi. I'd also suggest turning off Bluetooth as that can also be tracked, but so far there's no indication that I've read, that Bluetooth is being tracked. It's seems to be much easier to track Wi-Fi.

For some, possibly most people, tracking won't be an issue. As long people know and can make informed decisions that's really all that matters.

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

Mac OS X birthday notifications appearing by the dozens.

This morning I noticed something strange on my MacBook Air. A birthday notification for one of my contacts for tomorrow. Their birthday isn't tomorrow. Also since I don't store birthday information in my contacts it didn't make sense. I then received another, and then another.

On closer examination I noticed a considerable number of contacts have the birth date 30 November 1999 and I certainly didn't enter this date into the contacts.

What I suspect has happened is I've entered contacts into my iPhone, at one point synchronised the contacts with iCloud and then the contacts have been picked up from iCloud by the MacBook Air. I've not directly entered the contacts. into the MacBook Air. I use other software for recording my contacts, but I do enter contacts into my iPhone.

It looks like instead of Apple not entering values into unpopulated fields, they've made an incorrect decision to populate the date fields with a default value.

As you can see from the above record which is for my own business in the contact list. From recollection I would have only included the entry o make the email address easily available. Certainly birthday and anniversary dates do not apply.

To fix the issue the only way I've found so far, is to visit each contact and remove the birthday and anniversary fields.

As a person who has done software development in the past, it always interests me to see these quirks where someone hasn't perhaps thought things through as well as they could have. These entires were entered back on an old iPhone 3GS, so perhaps this issue only affects people who have contacts entered many years ago.

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

Telstra mobile Wi-Fi - Sorry, Pre-Paid activation is currently unavailable

Over the years Telstra activations have often not gone as expected. Sometimes it may have been my fault, sometimes it may have been Telstra's. OK, mostly Telstra but no harm sharing the blame.

Since many people purchase Telstra mobile Wi-Fi devices, I thought I'd share this experience in case it helps others. The device in question was the Telstra Elite Mobile W-Fi. Unpacked, set up, and ready to go, I went to activate. At the end of completing the form and hitting submit, I received the following message.

At this point you get that sinking feeling. It's around an hour's drive to the nearest Telstra shop and since it's in the mid evening, the support line was closed. It was Friday and I wanted to use the device over the weekend whilst away. Ah well. These things happen.

Then I thought, there was a question about additional services for the plan. There was only one option and since there were no additional services with the plan, I thought not selecting the option was logical. I decided to redo the activation and the second time selected the option. This time the activation worked. It really didn't make sense to provide a single option, when if required, could have just as easily been set as preselected.

The lesson here is, if the activation doesn't work, then don't hesitate to start the process again.

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

The Block auction results 2015 - South Yarra

For a little fun, the following are The Block auction results for 2015 as the auctions take place. Press Reload on your browser if you're watching this page to get the latest information.

1. Caro and Kingi
Level: 2
Reserve: $1,330,000
Result: $1,735,000
Profit: $405,000

2. Suzi and Vonni
Apartment: 3
Reserve: $1,480,000
Result: $1,829,000
Profit: $349,000

3. Dean and Shay
Level: Penthouse
Reserve: $1,645,000
Result: $2,300,000
Profit: $655,000

4. Whitney and Andrew
Reserve: $1,400,000
Result: $1,790,000
Profit: $390,000

5. Luke and Ebony
Reserve: $1,560,000
Result: $2,200,000
Profit $640,000

The winners of this year's The Block (the Blocktagon) are Dean and Shay.

I hope everyone reading this post has enjoyed watching the auction unfold. It was good to see Luke and Ebony do well. Congratulations to Dean and Shay, the winners and all contestants. Great results all round.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Free TV online - Keyword added to JustLocal search facility

Some years ago I signed up to Optus cable and found watching free-to-air TV via the cable service worked well. Watching free-to-air TV over a paid service doesn't really make sense, but sometimes having the ability to simply watch free-to-air streamed over the internet does make sense.

At last the ability to watch free-to-air TV over the internet is becoming a reality. Channel 7 has now gone live with three channels. with Channel 9 expected to go live in 2016. Hopefully Channel 10 will follow.

Those using the Search Australia facility available on JustLocal may already know you can access catch-TV using the keywords TV 7, TV 9, TV 10 and SBS TV. As the new live streaming services come online I'll add keywords for those services.

The first is LIVE 7, which provides access to the three channels from Channel 7. That is 7, 7 Two and 7 Mate.

LIVE 9 has been set up to access the new site for channel 9, but this isn't expected to go live until 2016.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
www.AdvancedSearch.com.au/SearchAustralia

ALDI Medion 4.5" Smartphone P4502 (MD 98942) can't see TP-LINK access point, but can see other access points.

As I was testing the Aldi Medion 4.5" Smartphone P4502, I noticed the smartphone could not see all the available access points. I decided to investigate.

The result of what I found is available in the MyAnswers solution 2501 (www.onlineconnections.com.au/myanswers/). For some people it may be wise to give the Aldi Medion 4.5" Smartphone P4502 a miss as it may be a problem for them.

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

Convert kilojoules to Calories calculator

When dieting we have the strange situation where the energy stated on packets is in kilojoules, but often talk is about Calorie counting. Google when you search often presents calculators, but in this case I find their calculator confusing.

To make it easy for others I wrote a simple calculator which converts from kilojoules to Calories. You can find the calculator at www.convertkilojoulestocalories.com.au.

I hope you find it useful.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au