Global cyber attack. Media reporting Australia not affected, but that doesn't appear to be correct.

A global malware attack is making the news, affecting hospitals in the UK. Tonight on the TV the news report said Australia was not affected. Yet earlier I'd check one site recording the attacks and Both Sydney and Melbourne were on the map.

I've just read Australia's security adviser has been one confirmed incident. Given that I've attended many malware infected customers over the years, none of these have ever been report, so we can expect many more organisations will have been infected.

The malware has been called Wannacrypt or Wycrypt. The malware appears to be a spear phishing attack delivered via email as an attachment. The term 'spear' usually referred to being targeted. The malware then encrypts files and infects other computers on the network.

It appears Windows 10 users are not affected.

Microsoft has now released patches and unusually includes patches for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, which are no longer in general supported or provided with updates.  The patch can be downloaded. For currently supported operating system run updates.

One person said on TV the tech guru said the only way to fix the problem is to replace the hard disk. In general this may be best option for some people, but if you're quick and switch your computer off when the infection first starts, there may be data you can recover. This has happened to one of my clients whose computer had had a couple of hundred files encrypted. All files were recovered. So if something like this starts to happen on your computer, it may be prudent to quickly switch it off.

The following article is from Microsoft and includes the link to the download for the Windows XP patch.

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/msrc/2017/05/12/customer-guidance-for-wannacrypt-attacks/


Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.

First Home Buyers 'super saver scheme' looks like a real fizzer.

Going through the Budget 2017 information so far made available in the online media, all I can say is I'm very unimpressed with what the Federal Government has come up with for First Home Buyers.

Now I could be wrong, but it looks like a shocking scheme tying up people's money for perhaps $2,000-$3,000 benefit per person per year. That is a benefit of up to $12,000 for a First Home Buyer couple over two years or more years.

From what I read, individuals can put in extra money (additional contributions) into their superannuation starting on July 1st 2017. Let's say they put aside the full $15,000 each per year. That money is tied up for 12 months before they can access the money. A couple could put aside $30,000 in that time, if they had that money available. Two years minimum to get the full value from the scheme and save $60,000.

Now what if the First Home Buyers decide to purchase within the next twelve months. Since the money can only be withdrawn after a year, that saving could be locked up in the superannuation until retirement.

In the meantime, houses are going up in Melbourne and Sydney at over 10% a year. Even at a reasonable long term average of 5%, a $600,000 house (if you can possibly find one) has gone up $30,000 in the first year, far exceeding the $12,000 possible benefit from the scheme over the two years.

If really doesn't make much sense and people could potentially lock up their savings for a very long time if things change, such as they find and buy a great house at a great price in the meantime. Since they can't withdraw their money at that time, their savings become superannuation and I don't think that's what people may have wanted. Take that same money and put it into the mortgage and I'd guess you'll get a better return than most super schemes. Keep in mind money offset against a mortgage is interest saved and that's tax free, equivalent to 7-8% compounding interest and even more when interest rates go up.

Compare this with what the Victorian State Government has done. By removing stamp duty for properties under $600,000, a saving for First Home Buyers of around $15,000 instantly come July 1st, and much more for homes in the low $600,000 price range. No lock in. No lengthy period to wait. No potential for your money to be tied up should your circumstances change.

Before taking advantage of the Federal Government's scheme do think things through for yourself. It's not every day that the government gives you a tax saving incentive worth up to $12,000. But then again it does come with strings and that could end up biting you if you're not careful.

Superannuation is a very complex and ever changing area. Make sure you understand fully the implications of getting involved with anything to do with superannuation. Seek professional advice first if you have to.

Kelvin Eldridge

Online Survey Report for those interested in online surveys for money, is now available online.

I have a very inquisitive mind and I like to test things myself, rather the believing what the marketing and advertising states. A few years ago I decided to test online survey sites and to see how much money people could make.

The bottom line is you are unlikely to make even the basic hourly rate, in fact nowhere near it. In most cases a couple of dollars an hour. However, one site did stand out and if you pick the well paying surveys, you can get equivalent to around the basic hourly rate for that short period.

I've now made the Online Survey Report available online to anyone who is interested. You can find the report at www.JustLocal.com.au/clients/onlinesurveyreport/.

Kelvin Eldridge

ASIC renewal email faked

Today I received a couple of emails from ASIC that were fake. They actually don't look too bad for fakes and could easily trick an unsuspecting business owner or small business admin person. The emails were to renew the business name.

The reason these could so easily trick someone is renewing a business name is something we only do every three years. By the time you get a renewal you've most likely forgotten when it needs to be renewed and no one wants to forget to renew their business name.

As always with any email you receive, don't trust it. If you think you need to renew your business name, open your browser (Chrome, Internet Explorer/Edge, Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.) and enter the address for ASIC's site. Then log on and check your details. Clicking on a link in an email is simply asking for trouble.

Most of the links in this email are valid. The only link, which is the most important link, the renewal letter link, does not take you to the ASIC site, but potentially a phishing or scamming site. (I didn't check where the link went.) You can see where the link will take someone from the image below. To see where the link will take you, most browsers allow you to hover over the link. Mobile devices however don't do this and it is much easier to inadvertently click on the link which trying to see the destination for the link.

This post is to alert others to be careful of emails purporting to be from ASIC, when in actual fact they are fake and most likely malicious.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.

Mobile phone not charging in car, or from 12V battery, using USB cigarette plug charger. Nonda ZUS solves the problem.

A while ago I purchased an inexpensive Huawei mobile phone. It's not a bad unit. If does have some quirks, but for the low price of under $100 on special at Coles, it does most of what I need from a mobile phone and it has an excellent large screen.

However, when I went to charge the Huawei using the car charger, after driving for half an hour or more, I'd notice the battery charge had hardly changed, if at all. I also have 12V batteries set up I charge from a stand-alone solar power system, and plugging the Huawei mobile into USB car chargers, it was the same. A very slow charge rate.

A friend also mentioned they needed to take an inverter with them camping as they now couldn't charge their mobile phone direct from the USB car charger.

The USB car chargers I have are rated at 2.1A so I can't see why the don't charge. When I test the current I can see the current is from 0.2-0.5A, so there's little wonder the mobile phones are taking so long to charge.

At a recent technology exhibition, I was speaking to a Nonda representative and asked if he'd noticed the problem. Nonda have a range of smart car products, one of which is the Nonda ZUS, is a dual USB car charger, that is a smart unit monitoring the battery and allows people to find where they've left their car. The Nonda ZUS had two 2.4A USB sockets conveniently angled and able to plug in USB cables in any direction. The Nonda representative hadn't found any such problem. In fact he generously offered me a unit to test his equipment.

That night I took the Nonda ZUS, plugged the unit into one of my 12V batteries and then plugged in the mobile phone. At last, the Huawei mobile phone was charging as it should. Instead of taking all night, it would charge relatively quickly. The Nonda ZUS was delivering around 1A of power and it wasn't long before I started to see the battery status of the mobile phone showing it was charging.

I still don't know why my old USB cigarette car chargers charge very slowly, but at least I now know the Nonda ZUS will charge my devices.

Thank you to the Nonda representative for the opportunity to use the Nonda ZUS and also to show the problem is with my old chargers, not the batteries, cables, or mobile phones.

If others are in this situation, at least you now know there's a solution.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.

PS. If you're interested in buying the Nonda ZUS Smart Car Charger, you can find retailers for the product at https://www.nonda.co/pages/where-to-buy.

New DIY page on Petrol Prices Melbourne site.

I thought it may help others if I shared the sites I use to check petrol prices around Melbourne. As a result I've added a DIY page which you can find at www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au/diy.php.

The DIY page lists the sites and apps which I've found useful. Hopefully you will find them useful as well.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au

Australian passport renewal (Australian passport application)

When it was time for an Australian passport renewal, my first thought was to drop into the local post office and pick up a form. Wrong. No forms at the post office now, as the forms are online.

You can find the start of the form process at https://ppol.passports.gov.au/web/forms/entrypoint.aspx.

Renewing your passport is now about completing the form and having the form pre-populated with the information you enter. Before you can complete the information however you first need to provide information which will allow you to identify yourself as the passport holder. Nothing your passport doesn't contain or that you shouldn't know.

Once completed a PDF is produced which you print off on standard A4 paper. A tip from the local post office is to make sure the four arrows at the side are shown as often the section they need to complete is chopped off, making the form invalid. The tip really is to make sure the PDF is scaled to fit the page.

Once completed you take the form to the post office, have some passport photos taken (you can provide your own), sign and hand over the money.

Surprisingly simple really. The government has done a reasonable job making this task easier.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Spellcheck not spell check, is the correct spelling in Australia.

Today I decided to create a website (www.Spell-Check.com.au) dedicated to letting Australians know the correct spelling is spellcheck, a single word, not spell check, as two words, or spell-check, with a hyphen.

Spellcheck with a hyphen is the American spelling. Spellcheck as two words isn't a correct spelling.

I've provided more information on the page www.Spell-Check.com.au. Yes the hyphen is deliberate for two reasons. First it is hoped this will be picked up more easily by Google as two words. The second is the domain with spellcheck as a single word was already registered.

Feel free to spread the word.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.Spell-Check.com.au

Clive Palmer - the incredible shrinking man.

I must admit I was quite surprised recently to read about Clive Palmer's considerable weight loss. It's interesting how I tend to question things. The weight loss of 56 kg in 7 months according to the tweet on April 2nd, just didn't seem credible mathematically. Perhaps Clive had had lap-band surgery.

A quick check and no, there's no lap-band surgery involved. Simply pure determination. Clive is to be congratulated on what really is a significant personal achievement.

The reason it didn't quite make sense to me is the 7 months. Reviewing the information available it appears to be more like 11-12 months. The following post from Facebook in December indicates 49 kg lost since April. With April 2016 to April 2017 being 12 months. 

Not wishing to diminish Clive's achievement, which is significant, for others wishing to lose weight, setting unreasonable expectations can lead to becoming disillusioned. The question becomes, "If Clive can do it in 7 months, why can't I?", when it's actually more like 12 months. Realistic expectations are important when trying to lose weight.

I decided to document Clive's weight loss journey through his Facebook posts and Tweets. Clive appears to have started dieting somewhere around April to May 2016. Clive is 182 cm tall and started his weight-loss journey at 153 kg. Clive is 62. Using the BMI/BMR calculator I wrote, Clive's BMI was 46, which is Obese Class III. 

April/May 2016 - 153 kg (Facebook)

30 September 2016 - 133 kg, loss 20 kg (Twitter - since leaving parliament)

1 October 2016 - 133 kg, loss 20 kg (Facebook)

4 October 2016 - 132 kg, loss 21 kg (Twitter)

5 October 2016 - 132 kg, loss 21 kg (Facebook)

10 November 2016 - 111 kg, loss 40 kg (Twitter - should be either 113 kg or 42 kg loss)

13 November 2016 - 111 kg, loss 42 kg (Facebook)

13 November 2016 - 111 kg, loss 42 kg (Twitter)

11 December 2016 - 104 kg, loss 49 kg (Twitter)

12 December 2016 - 104 kg, loss 49 kg (Facebook)

23 February 2017 - 106 kg, loss 47 kg (Twitter)

24 February 2017 - 106 kg, loss 47 kg (Facebook)

28 February 2017 - 105 kg, loss 48 kg (Twitter)

1 March 2017 - 105 kg, loss 48 kg (Facebook)

1 April 2017 - 97 kg, loss 56 kg (Facebook)

2 April 2017 - 97 kg, loss 56 kg (Twitter)

25 April 2017 - 95 kg, loss 58 kg (news.com.au site)

You'll notice the Christmas period probably slowed things down a bit for Clive, which is to be expected.

The following is a picture of Clive now on Anzac day. Credit for the picture is news.com.au.

Well done Clive.

Clive now has a BMI of 29, which means now classed as overweight, which might not sound good, but by all accounts a much healthier weight.

There's two aspects which I'd like to add. Clive has used Lite n' Easy to assist him on his journey,  If he's used Lite n' Easy for the 12 months, that's probably around $7,000-$8000. A significant amount of money for most of us. Whilst it is more work, if you weigh your meals, record the kilojoules each day, and make sure you eat at the right dieting energy intake (which is provided in the BMI/BMR calculator) it need not cost you a cent. The most important ingredient for weight loss is your determination. If your mind is in the right place, your body will follow.

The second aspect, as we've seen with shows like the Biggest Loser, is the problem of excess skin. Rapid weight loss is impressive, and whilst I have no facts to back my feeling, I can't help feeling if you adopt a slightly slower pace to your weight loss, the greater the time the body has to adjust the skin, probably the better.

Overall however Clive is an inspiration. Keeping the weight off and in check is very hard for most of us. Stories like Clive's does inspire us to continue to make the effort a lot of us need to make.

Thank you for sharing Clive.

Kelvin Eldridge

New First Home Buyers stamp duty examples added to Stamp Duty Calculator

I've been keeping my eye out for the new formula for the stamp duty for first home buyers announced by the Victorian Government. Unfortunately at this stage the formula doesn't seem to be available. However, I have found examples of the new rates so for those interested, I've added a table showing some examples of the new duty rates to the Victorian Stamp Duty Calculator I've written.

There's few ways to look at the Victoria Government's stamp duty changes for first home buyers. The first negative effect is the potential to push prices higher which isn't good for many people. Currently first home owners get a 50% stamp duty discount for properties under $600,000, which is a saving of around $16,000. That means first home buyers have potentially up to $16,000 more to spend on a property.

The largest savings are when properties are just over the $600,000 meaning first home buyers could potentially save over $30,000 in stamp duty. The saving reduces as the price goes up until the saving stops at $750,000. Now first home buyers at least have a little more in their favour in the $600,000 plus range when competing against, investors. It's hard to say how much that will help as investors still get negative gearing and capital gains tax benefits which can be considerable.

Hopefully some first home buyers will benefit from the change. Facing paying off a $500,000-$600,000 mortgage is a very large task requiring quite a bit of determination.

You can find the table of example stamp duty rates at https://www.justlocal.com.au/mortgagerepaymentcalculator/stampduty/.

Kelvin Eldridge
Victorian Stamp Duty Calculator

Extending the 7 Eleven app petrol discount voucher expiry date.

Two days ago I let everyone know the petrol prices in Melbourne started to go up to 139.9. If you check the map today on www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au, you'll see around 40% of the petrol stations I've record, have now increased their prices.

When petrol prices start to go up it's a good time to fill up and take advantage of the discount voucher. The next thing I do is lock in the lowest price for another week using the 7 Eleven app. The problem with the 7 Eleven app is I tend to jump the gun. I lock the price in once the prices start going up. However, if I wait one or two days I can push the 7 day time limit out a couple of days.

Today I decided to do a test with the 7 Eleven voucher and see what would happen. I'd lock in 116.7 two days ago. I knew of another 7 Eleven with petrol for 115.9. What if I filled up my tank now and then locked in the lower price. That would enable me to extend the discount period by two days.

I topped up the car with around 10 litres at a 7 Eleven with a price of 139.9. I got the discount for the locked in price of 116.7. It took perhaps around 5-10 minutes before the 7 Eleven app registered the voucher had been used. I had to display the voucher again and at this point the 7 Eleven app was ready to lock in the new lower price. I then locked in the new price of 115.9. That saves me a little more money and extends the voucher expiry date.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au

Stop autoplay of ads in Apple's macOS Safari.

As an IT person what frustrates me about the companies developing browsers, is they often put the user last, and it appears, big business first.

In the good old days when using a browser to view sites on the internet, if I didn't want to see images displayed, I could simply turn the option off. Then we started to get ads delivered using Flash and more recently, ads delivered as a standard part of HTML5, the code behind for today's websites.

Flash is no longer much of a problem as sites are moving to HTML5. However, the problem with HTML5 is the developers of the browsers have not built in a simple switch to stop the downloading and/or playing of videos or video ads. You're in the middle of your work and in the background a video starts playing. If you're out and about and you've connected your computer to a mobile hotspot, that's expensive data being drained from your mobile account. A great way to exceed your allowance and end up costing excess data.

The user is no longer in control of their internet experience.

All is not lost. At least on your notebook computers you can hack your computer, in a nice way, and stop the automatic playing of videos. Whilst it doesn't stop all the data usage, it does give you control over when the videos are played.

To disable the automatic playing of videos in Safari on Apple computers, you need to first enable the Debug option in Safari and then you get to see an option to disable the video.

The hack is you need to run this command using the Terminal program. Copy and paste the following command into Terminal and press Enter.

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1

The Debug menu option now appears in the Safari menus. If you ever want to hide the Debug menu option, just issue the command again with the 1 at the end changed to a 0.

Now you have the Debug menu option, you can disable the autoplaying of videos.

Select Debug -> Media Flags -> Video Needs User Action

From now on when you open a page the video is there, but for it to play, you need to click on the play option. Sometimes you need to click on the video first and then click on the play option. This includes when you visit YouTube.

You can alternately select Disallow Inline Video, but I feel the option above gives me what I prefer.

At last a way to stop those annoying autoplaying videos. Peace and quiet at last.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Help with your IT problems.

Standard Drink Calculator video now available.

As you know, I recently wrote a Standard Drink Calculator. For those interested in using the calculator, I've now created a video which can be found at https://youtu.be/PswHQUDpNFo.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.StandardDrinkCalculator.com.au

Sunbeam Dreamland electric blanket causes tinkling on the hand and arm.

Recently we purchased a Sunbeam Dreamland electric blanket from Target. We decided to go for a brand name rather than the no brand blankets, as the brand gives a degree of confidence. The Sunbeam electric blanket also had a timer, which is a feature we like.

That night we were lying in bed and I touched my wife's hand. For some reason something didn't feel right. So I gently stroked my finger along her hand. There was a tingling sensation. I then gently stroked her arm with my finger and again there was a tingling sensation. This actually caused some discomfort. I asked my wife to turn her electric blanket off, since it was the only device and wiring near us. When she turned the electric blanket off and I again stroked her hand or arm with my finger, there was no sensation. Turn the electric blanket on again and perform the same test and the tingling sensation was there again.

Somehow the electric blanket was inducing a current between us when the blanket is on, with my side of the electric blanket off.

I've never seen this happen before with any of the electric blankets we've owned over the years. I decided this wasn't right. I don't feel it's safe to have a device that is inducing a current into your body at a level you can easily feel. No level really, but most of the time the levels are so low we wouldn't notice.

At that point it was decided to return the electric blanket. To Target's credit they took the blanket back without a problem.

From now on when we purchase a new electric blanket, the first thing I'll be doing is testing to see if there's any current being induced. I'd suggest perhaps that others may wish to check their electric blanket in the same way.

For those wishing to test their blanket only turn one side on. Then the person on the other side which isn't turned on, is to very lightly move their finger over the hand or lower arm of the person on the blanket. Repeat this with the electric blanket turned off.

I decided to check the internet and found others have also found the tingling sensation. In particular, the comment about half way down this thread by David was about their dual-zone electric blanket. Another person below that had a similar experience. There post is about a person with a laptop, but in these comments there was no computer involved.

On this page another person noted a similar experience.


Kelvin Eldridge

TPG ADSL service not working in Templestowe since 1st of April.

Not really sure if TPG is playing an April fools joke, but hey, shouldn't they stop at noon on 1st.

Seriously though, the TPG service has not been working since the start of Saturday the 1st of April and it's now 10:05 am. Just spent an hour on their support line only to have just been told via a recorded message, due to the number of support calls at the moment they are not able to attend the call and to call back later.

A check of their online Service Status shows no issues that would affect me. When I've had issues in the past this has always been the case so the Service Status page isn't really a help.

Used their online form to submit the issue so really all I can do is wait.

Last month an issue with mobile billing, where they started charging excess charges around 300MB before the allowance had expired. Another problem this month. Not a good recent track record for TPG.

If you're in this situation it is always a good idea to have a back up strategy to access the internet. In this case I'm using my mobile data, which of course means if I use to much then I'll hit the mobile limit, but at least you can get access to the internet if required.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Accident on Princes Freeway near Kororoit Creek Road stopping traffic heading south

Just passed an accident on Princess Freeway near the Kororoit Creek Road turn off. Heading south on the freeway the traffic was at a standstill. Heading north the traffic is also at a standstill. Took over half an hour to move past the accident.





Best to avoid this section of the freeway for a while. Keep an eye on Google maps to make sure the road is clear.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLoca.com.au

New Manningham rubbish bins come with a hidden surprise.

The other day I had to wash out my new rubbish bin and noticed something I'd not seen before on the old bin.

Under the front lip of the bin I found an unusual round object that seemed out of place. A little investigation revealed this was an RFID tag made by HID.

RFID tags like these enable an organisation to better manage their assets. They also make it easier for organisations to collect information. Garbage trucks could easily measure things such as the weight of each bin and record the information for later use.

There is no good or bad inherent in using technology. It really depends on how the information is used.

Not sure really why councils would not openly let residents know their new bins now contain RFID tags as this is a useful feature for councils.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

SEO Company Melbourne site now removed but the SEO Value Calculator lives on.

Some time ago I created an SEO Value Calculator. The aim of the calculator was to let people know the value of a position in Google search results. That way people could determine if paying for SEO services was worth it or not. Many people pay a lot of money on SEO only to find little to no results.

SEO, or search engine optimisation does work, but you have to be very careful. If you're optimising your site for words people don't search for, you can easily be wasting your time and money. Equally you could be optimising your site where competition is fierce and you'll never get to the first page, again a waste of time and money. Often the cost of SEO services can far exceed the value to the client.

I've now moved the SEO Value Calculator under my JustLocal site since it is still a valuable tool that helps me to help myself and others on a regular basis. You can find the SEO Value Calculator at www.JustLocal.com.au/clients/seovaluecalculator/.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au/clients/seovaluecalculator/

Can't access Facebook when using Vodafone as hotspot. Error Safari Can't Find the Server.

I recently set up a mobile phone as a hotspot for some friends who were here from overseas. They could then connect their mobile phones to the hotspot to connect to the services they wanted to use. This avoided using expensive mobile data.

One thing I found which didn't work was Facebook. They could access anything they wanted on the internet including Facebook Messenger, but they could not access Facebook using www.facebook.com.

Testing the mobile phone hotspot using a MacBook Air, I would receive the following error message.

As you can see, even though I was typing www.Facebook.com, this would redirect to the site https://web.facebook.com. I tested this URL connecting via an ADSL service and went to the Facebook site www.facebook.com.

Further testing showed the problem wasn't with Vodafone, or Facebook, but the quite old Huawei mobile phone running Android 2.2.2. The Vodafone SIM in a newer Huawei mobile with Android 5.1, allowed access to Facebook when used as a hotspot.

A final tip. If you find yourself in this position and need access to your Facebook, use m.facebook.com to access the mobile version of Facebook. That website address worked around the problem.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Standard Drink Calculator for Australia

My latest web app is the Standard Drink Calculator. I wrote this calculator as I feel it is important for myself and others to have an idea as to how much alcohol is in their drinks. In addition I've added two extra pieces of information.

The first is how long it will take for your body to process and remove the alcohol from your body. The second is an indication as to how long it will be before an average person returns to 0.05.

These figures are just guides and it is important for people if they are in doubt in any way, they should error on being conservative and not drink and drive.

Hopefully others will find the calculator to be useful.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.StandardDrinkCalculator.com.au