I read an article on Makeuseof.com about a different way to search for items on eBay. It’s basically like a live search for items on eBay. I thought some of you might like to give it a try.
EbaySpy offers an alternative way to find deals on eBay. The application shows you a real-time feed of ending eBay auctions that continuously auto-updates itself. You will be quiet amused to see how many items end up with no bids at all.
eBaySpy - Watch eBay Auctions Live & Find Deals.
Not many things in the technology world make me angry but man I am PO’d about this Internet Censorship debacle.
A recent article at the SMH highlights how ridiculous the soon to be trialled internet filtering system will be. Labour MP Stephen Conroy is nothing more than a Orwellian censor who is making a mess of something he clearly does not understand. Take the following details for example:
The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, has repeatedly claimed his proposed mandatory filters would target only "illegal" content - predominantly child pornography.
Already, a significant portion of the 1370-site Australian blacklist - 506 sites - would be classified R18+ and X18+, which are legal to view but would be blocked for everyone under the proposal. The Government has said it was considering expanding the blacklist to 10,000 sites and beyond.
Last time I checked Australia was a democracy mate. As long as we are acting fairly and reasonably and within the laws of our great nation you cannot tell us what to do or what to think. As an elected representative of the people I would have thought you wouldn’t need reminding of this
The article highlights how linking to the banned material can cost Australian websites $11,000 per day – yet the list of banned material is secret. So how the heck can anyone comply? I guess the list has to be secret because otherwise we run the risk of 1) just advertising some material that should not be promoted and 2) exposing most of it as just an uneducated whim of a stupid politician or his henchman.
Almost all of the major Internet providers including Telstra and Optus have declined to be a part of the trial. They still own half of Telstra and they can’t even get them to give it a go – speaks for itself doesn’t it?
Oh and don’t mistake filtering for doing something about the deplorable acts like child sex exploitation. This will not save one innocent child or do any other good. It’s like closing your eyes and sticking your fingers in your ears and pretending it isn’t happening. Any low-life who wants to see this sort of thing will find a way. By the time skilled law enforcement let alone some dull-witted public servant catch up with them the websites and users will have moved on long ago.
Come on Conroy – you came up with a bad idea and you aren’t man enough to say so. You don’t have the numbers to pass the legislation anyway – only your own party lemmings will vote for it. Even the Family First and other conservative senators can see this has no real positives and HUGE potential negatives. You keep saying yourself how far behind internet access is in Australia yet your first big move after being elected is to introduce a scheme that will clog up and slow down our access? Sheesh.
Kill this farce and get back to doing some good – like getting Telstra to toe the line on rural and regional hardware sharing, etc
Please do a bit of research on the topic on the internet (gee who would of thought huh – guess it’s not all porn hey Stephen?)
You might like to start at No Clean Feed
If you feel this is a bad idea like I do then you can write to Senator Conroy
Senator Stephen Conroy
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Level 4, 4 Treasury Place
Melbourne Vic 3002
Or write to your local member
Find below the details of the latest Whirlpool Broadband survey.
You would be familiar with the Whirlpool Broadband Choice info site. We Mullies are always recommending using it to research Internet providers (ISPs) to check availability and prices in your area before signing up.
Whirlpool Broadband Choice
The survey compiles the opinions of Whirlpool forum users on their ISP. The typical WP user is probably more proficient than your average user elsewhere so the survey can be a good gauge on the performance of ISPs around Australia. There is also a section on hardware – check it out.
Here is a quick update on my preferred method of imaging your computer – Acronis True Image. We have discussed this program many times before
For those of you who may have bought a previous version – I know some followed my lead and bought a discount copy – there are a few changes in the new one.
Mostly the changes are cosmetic except for the ability to back-up to a Zip file. Having a back-up as a zip means it is really easy to search through and find a particular document or picture you may have deleted and want to restore without running Acronis. In fact you could do this on a PC that didn’t have Acronis installed. But otherwise the ease of use and quality of the product make it the one to recommend.
Some might be curious how I use the program. I have Acronis set up with 2 regularly scheduled back-ups. The first backs up my C drive once per week. This safeguards my windows and my program installation. Once a week is regular enough for this drive but not my D Drive. All my documents, files, music, photos and other data is on the D drive and I have this set to back-up daily. All back-ups are to an external Hard drive and therefore separate to my actual computer. The scheduled back-ups are easy to create and once set you can just forget about them. This is the only way to go as anything that requires you to remember to do something, etc is prone to human error. Acronis is doing such a good job I have forgotten all about it most of the time.
So give the article below a read and if you haven't already – think about how you back-up your machines and how to create a system that protects you without effort
I found this YouTube video very interesting. It’s a brief (8 minute) history of the internet.
Check it out.
