Mayor4Unley

Recently I attended the launch of the Spirit of Anzac Centenary Experience at the Showground in Adelaide. A wonderful exhibit and experience. I carried an iPod-like device and tagged exhibits that I found interesting and wanted a link for future reference. Excellent use of technology. My tagged exhibits can be viewed by this link Click here

It's Christmas present buying season and people are buying more online these days. But, be warned - the online scammers at hard at it. Be vigilant in your online purchases. Here's a cution from Scamwatch ... Scamwatch is warning Christmas shoppers to be cautious when looking online for gifts. During and after Christmas Scamwatch experiences an increase in reports of fake online sellers looking to cash in on the festive season shopping spree. This year, scammers are using labels like Pandora and Michael Kors to trick consumers who are looking online to find designer items at a cheaper price. Scammers set up fake websites that look just like genuine online stores. They copy websites of legitimate companies and designer labels and may even pretend to be Australian-based by using a ‘.com.au’ domain. The biggest tip-off that a website is a scam is the way they ask for payment. Scammers often ask you to pay by wire transfer, pre-loaded debit cards or even bitcoins. These ...

Li-Fi is an emerging technology, a new form of wireless technology that transmits data up to 100 times faster than conventional Wi-Fi. It may revolutionise the way in which we transmit data on a smartphone, tablet or computer. It is wireless technology that uses flickering LED lights to transmit up to 1 gigabit per second; much faster than current Wi-Fi data speeds which average around 11 megabits per second. Read more about Li-Fi

hhmmm the Internet of Things aka. IoT People ask me, what is it? The term was first coined back in 1999. Interesting that it has taken so long to emerge and begin to become mainstream. It is certainly going through a hyper phase at the moment; of what is and what might be achievable. Within 24 months we will have embraced it or become entwined in the technology and taken it for granted, perhaps with some trepidation in the early stages. But, what is it? A few definitions will help to explain ... A definition: The  Internet of Things   ( IoT ) is an environment in which objects, animals or people are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction Another definition: Simply put this is the concept of basically connecting any device with an on and off switch to the Internet (and/or to each other). This includes everything from cell phones, coffee makers, wash...

Getting software for free is a bonus. Here are a few that I recommend. XMind.  Is a free, open source, mind mapping and brainstorming tool. This comprehensive mind mapping tool helps you to express, structure and organise your ideas, then present them in attractive, professional diagrams.  http://www.xmind.net/ Wunderlist  is the easiest way to get stuff done. Whether you’re planning a holiday, sharing a shopping list with a partner or managing multiple work projects, Wunderlist is here to help you tick off all your personal and professional to-dos.  https://www.wunderlist.com/ GanttProject:   This software allows you to easily organise tasks and time frames. GanttProject is an industrial-strength cross-platform (Windows, OS X, Linux) project manager that provides everything you need to stay in control. Create and organise tasks, add milestones, set priorities and costs, allocate resources, monitor your colleague's workload: it's all here. ...

Why is the limit of an SMS 160 characters? It’s not a decimal number ie. not a multiple of 10 and has nothing to do with dozens (12), not  even  a butcher's dozen. So why is there a limit of 160? BTW if you often push the limit of 160 characters, then you really need to get a life. But, back to basics … why the limit of 160? There are 2 stories and reasons suggested. A man called Friedhelm Hillebrand, Chairman of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), had the task of setting the limit on the amount of characters a text message could contain. This would become the international standard. He did this by analysing  typical  sentences viz. questions and answers. He also reviewed messages written on postcards and received by Telex transmissions. (Telex was not so long ago the state of the art message transmission technology.) Friedhelm Hillebrand arrived at the answer of 160 characters. His recommendation became the standard. T...

I was recently on holiday in Port Douglas and Cairns. Mid afternoon I was in the pool having a swim and cool off before it was gin and tonic time. A few of the other swimmers, mostly women from down south (we all were from down there or now, from down here) were having a conversation about their mobile phones - how it never rings long enough. Actually I had the same problem and had never bothered to fix it. After the swim, shower and a lovingly made gin and tonic, I googled the problem. They were impressed when I left a note on one of the sun beds with the code to enter into their phone. To make your mobile phone ring longer before it diverts to voicemail, Enter **61*101**30# (and from memory then press call). Note: the 30 above is the number of seconds for the phone to ring. Within minutes there were no women in the pool. They were programming their phones and expressing delight that it works. It will be damn frustrating for the caller when the phone now rings and rings ...

Whilst on holiday in FNQ ... The beauty and magic of the Great Barrier Reef is shattered in places by devastation of the coral by cyclones and that nasty Crown of Thorns Starfish (COTS). Out on a boat, a biologist was telling me that for years divers had been killing the COTS by hand injecting them with a salt compound. A tedious process given the extent of the reef. Now, a Queensland Uni has developed a mini robot with smarts to detect and kill the COTS. A fantastic development of technology with IT smarts that works under water for 8 hours. Here's an extract from a Government publication ... The Crown of Thorns Starfish, also known as COTS, which has been devastating the Great Barrier Reef for the past 40 years may have just met its match. Researchers at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have developed a robot specifically designed to detect and eliminate COTS on the Great Barrier Reef. The COTSbot, as it’s known, is a small submarine type robot equipped ...

The other day I was asked what does ‘J’ mean in email and text messages. Some people have strange understandings eg. joke, smile with a big mouth, big cheesey grin, etc. Wrong! It all came about through an accident with one computer converting a smiley face to a a J. Now people associate J with a J and use both interchangeably; without wondering why. The technical explanation is as follows ... Answer: If you've ever received an e mail with a mysterious J in the body of the message, you may have been perplexed by its meaning. Some messages have a single J, while others have several. Most Js appear at the end of sentences, but they can appear anywhere in the message. So what does this character mean and why does it show up in e-mail messages (and now also text messages)? The J is actually supposed to be a smiley face. If you have Wingdings font installed on your computer, the character J will appear as a smiley face. Otherwise, it will be the letter J. This is beca...

Identity theft is a growing problem … and people are not helping themselves. In fact, they are making it easier for thieves to steal/acquire identities. One of the key items that is often freely available is a person’s date of birth. It is freely provided in competition entries and online in social media and forms. If a thief has the date of birth and some details about a bank account there is a good chance of gaining access to the ban k account and draining funds. For many many years I have never been 100% honest in surveys I have done (except for the Census). My age is never exact and some other personal details are almost right, but not quite. People (doing surveys) don’t need an exact profile on me. Well, actually they would like that because it is usually on-sold. Be careful about the details you give-away about yourself. Have a read of this story

Just when I was about to buy a newer smart phone, along comes news that holographic technology is about to emerge on smartphones. We will soon be able to receive holographs on our mobile phones. Maybe I should wait a bit for the technology to emerge and mature. To understand the technology and where we are headed,  click on this link

Every day on the Internet we are obliged to read terms and conditions and then tick the Accept/Agree box before proceeding with accessing the service on offer. Wrong! We never read the terms and conditions. Who does? We all tried once and quickly ticked the Accept box. A guy by the name of Alex Hern decided not to use any Internet service without firstly reading all the terms and conditions first. After 7 days and and 146,000 words later, he penned his thoughts. He read and analysed all the small print, the legal stuff. He wrote … When was the last time you read all the terms and conditions for a service you used? Have you ever read the terms and conditions? Probably not. So why do we spend so much of our time ignoring the thousands of words of legally binding “end-user licence agreements” (EULAs, if you like) legally-binding contracts we agree to every day? Is it even possible to read the T&Cs for everything a typical person does? Is there any value in reading all ...

Why buy software when you can get it legally for free? Here’s a couple of great (and useful) software that are free. Magical Jelly Bean Key Finder Have you ever needed to reinstall software but can't find your product key? Magical Jelly Bean Key Finder will search you PC for installed software and if they have a product key, show them to you. When you install, use the custom setting so you don't install the annoying toolbars! https://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/ PhotoScape Do you want to manipulate photos and have great images without buying or using PhotoShop? PhotoScape does resizing, brightness & colour adjustment, white balance, backlight correction, frames, balloons, mosaic mode, adding text, drawing pictures, cropping, filters, red eye removal, blooming, paint brush, clone stamp, effect brush, plus a heap of other useful tools! http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php

For some time now, people have talked about when robots will be taking our jobs. It is now claimed that in reality, they have already taken some of our jobs – we simply have not noticed. We know what physical robots can do eg. tasks in car assembly; tasks that are easily programmed. These are tasks that help to make the workplace safer (for humans); who cares if a robot drops a welding hand-piece on its toe! Now we have artificial intelligence robots that mimic what humans do. These are mostly software robots – and they are taking jobs from humans in droves. For example in the UK, the telecoms firm O2 has replaced 150 workers with a single piece of software. Typical tasks involved are Sim swaps, porting mobile numbers, migrating from prepaid onto a contract, unlocking a phone; now automated by software without human intervention. The software (robot) isn't trained how to perform the tasks, rather it watches and then mimics the human tasks. Another example is performing leg...

Is it really going to become the world of robots? Probably, to some degree. Hopefully humans will still have an important role – like creating the robots and testing their resilience. Technology has come a long way. Check out this video of the latest batch of robots. Click here to watch the video

The pundits have it that eBooks are everywhere and they will replace paper based books – you know the ones that are nice to hold, bound in cardboard or leather, the ones that are easy to read and cause less eye strain – the type of books that you can dog ear for easy reference. Yes, eBooks are available and they have their place. But, certainly not as a big bold glossy book on the coffee table. When people visit their local library they expect to find in the main, traditional books and electronic media eg. CDs, DVDs – something to hold and touch. What the eBook pundits have not realised is that despite the availability of personal mobile devices (that can read an eBook) there is not a rich availability of titles. It comes down to licensing complications and the publishers have no intention of letting go and loosening the reins. It’s a long story … I spent an hour with a librarian the other day and was staggered by the difficulty of libraries to economically stock a wide ...

The days of using a Captcha are numbered. What’s a Captcha you ask? You see them on on-line forms and blogs. They are squiggled text and numbers that you have to enter to prove that you are a human (and not a robot or a web bot). They’re damn annoying and often you have to refresh to get a new one that you can read. Sometimes I have to refresh multiple times. Wouldn’t it be simpler to simply click a box next to the statement ‘I am not a robot’? That’s what Google has been working on and is now ready to release it. For more detail about the underlying technology and rational, read this link … http://www.wired.com/2014/12/google-one-click-recaptcha/

This week I had a letter published in the Eastern Courier Messenger. I’m annoyed that they removed two sentences and I'm sure that it wasn't to save space. Here is the full version … I may not be popular with some of my fellow Unley Councillors, but I believe we need to review the IT equipment provided to Elected Members (and funded by the ratepayers). Currently Councillors receive a telephone line, a fax machine, a notebook PC, software, an iPad, a colour printer, a modem and an Internet service. That is excessive and unwarranted. I use my own PC, software and printer funded by my modest Council allowance. I have never requested a PC or printer. I have asked the Unley CEO to review the list of equipment available to Councillors. We need to do that now, prior to the election. That may need a policy revision. Some Councillors may squirm at the suggestion, but let's face it - during the approaching Caretaker period, they will not be permitted to use Council ass...

If you have an unexplained rash or itch, then it may be due to use of a mobile device, in particular the iPad. Mobile devices contain nickel and that can irritate the skin. It is thought that the contact is from a surface coating that contains nickel. It is not life threatening, but it can be uncomfortable. There have been recent reports in medical journals regarding nickel allergies from personal electronic devices, Here’s a link to the story.

The other day I bought a copy of Nero2014 online. Sucked in by end of financial year specials! A key feature is a tool to recover deleted files on disk and USB sticks. That's what sealed the deal! Reading further about the offer,  it also has a tool called SecurDisk 3.0 that enables you to burn critical data in a more durable and secure form on CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray disks. Sounds wonderful and it probably is. What struck me was some statistics viz. The average home PC hard disc breaks down after 3-7 years CDs/DVDs/Blu-ray disks break down after 2-15 years Only last week I had an old VHS tape of family memories converted to a DVD disk. I need to make a mental record to replace the DVDs in 5-10 years. If you're buying software online, then be patient and wait for the specials.