Telstra, Lebanon, Punks and a very socialiable week

[tcpip]

Tuesday night was Linux User's Victoria; Richard Smith gave a surprisingly entertaining talk on Opteron Hardware Performance. Russell Coker gave a less entertaining, but thoroughly valid, presentation on security issues in /tmp and /var/tmp. On theme, Friday night attended the local node of 2600 AU, whereupon caseopaya partied damn hard for a couple of older folk.

On a somewhat related topic Telstra are being arsehats again, by deciding not to upgrade to a national fibre network leaving Australia with broadband speeds so slow they're not even counted as broadband on international standards.

Obviously still in the partying mood, attended the Continuum ball the following night; I like Continuum balls, it means I can go clubbing with Perth people once a year ;-) Following night had dinner post Contiuum at the increasingly famous Xanghai on St Kilda Rd and followed up with East Timorese (I really can't get a grip on Timor Lestenese) coffee afterwards at home.

In between all this (Thursday night) visited Mr. and Ms. txxxpxx who proved to be most delightful hosts as we watched the notorious Hitchcock film Jamaica Inn and on Wednesday night watched "Punk's Not Dead" at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Included lots of footage of elder punks (most in their fifties) like the Exploited, Subhumans, GBH, UK Subs etc and a fair bit of the new scence in the US (not so good, imo).

Briefly visited the peace vigil on Friday night against the recent invasion and violence in the mid-east. More than a handful of the local Lebonese community present, poor blighters. In comparing Israeli attacks you can either use abstract maps (hat-tip to erudito which suggest one thing or aerial photographs (courtesy of Professor Juan Cole).

Oh, and ran Cybernoia on Sunday. Players went to Berlin, foiled an assasination attempt against them and blew up more hotels.

Comments

[greylock.livejournal.com]

On a somewhat related topic Telstra are being arsehats again, by deciding not to upgrade to a national fibre network leaving Australia with broadband speeds so slow they're not even counted as broadband on international standards.

And I would be happy with affordable sub-standard broadband.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Ahh, see I haven't paid for Internet access for over 18 months, all courtesy of the ISP I used to work for..

I should also mention that your links on this topic have been very good.

Telstra are arsehats (see, I've picked this up)... I cannot imagine why anyone subscribes to them.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I cannot imagine why anyone subscribes to them.

In my case, I'm too lazy to change, and I am yet to find a Telco that offers better rates.

Those who have either employ telemarketers, or want you to bundle your phone, mobile and internet services.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Would a bundled offer really be that bad? I mean I have seperate services for all, but the offers are usually fairly kosher.

Ahh, but you can't get xDSL can you..

Now it makes sense.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I also don't call international or interstate, nor own a mobile (there is one in the house but it is work-provided)... I can bundle my phone with a dial-up I suppose...

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Like, with WestNet/iiNet?

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I expect.
I did look at Westnet (I intend to switch if T3 is sold), and there really weren't any savings on offer.

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

Stay away from iiNet. Their infrastructure does not meet the Sales department's optimism. Their internal processes were designed by Michael Malone, back when they used to be a garage outfit. They haven't changed. The customer database they use is still the same as the one Malone created back in the garage, they've just been adding functions to it ever since. iiNet is the most disorganised, incompetent and institutionally stupid organisation I have ever had the misfortune to work for or do business with. I cannot warn you against them enough.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

However, if you signed up on their Bliink Lite plan (which is now grandfathered) you'd be getting a pretty good deal.

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

Yes you would, on paper. The actual service, when it is running, is generally fine. If you ever want to get something changed on the line, start planning a couple of months in advance. Their volume usage calculator is utterly wrong so they'll shape you early (we've managed to download our full 40gb peak 40 gb offpeak quota twice in as many months, all while I have 500MB storage and my flatmate plays BF2). The customer service is terrible because they do not train their staff effectively. They think that a hundred staff barely trained in all areas (accounting, provisioning, tech) is equal to or better than thirty staff in each area with specific training. Their executives are not telco long-termers, just administrators. The entire company is shoddy, understaffed, and incompetent.

You may guess I'm somewhat bitter about my time with the company. Bastards.

[cheshire-bitten.livejournal.com]

Telstra where forced to have a $20/mth landline plan, which is great seeing as I don't use the landline for anything but ADSL.

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

I very seldom use my landline either, and it took me ages to find out that existed! Telstra doesn't exactly advertise it. Indeed, they actively obscure its existence and actively discourage switching to it, by doing things such as not allowing you to select it online.

[cheshire-bitten.livejournal.com]

They also call you if you get it, and try to convice you to
switch back.

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

I've yet to experience that particular joy. I can only hope they've taken notice of what I said to the last of their telemarketers, which was that I'll never give more money than is absolutely necessary to any company which charges credit card surcharges.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

What's their minimum monthly line rental?

[reddragdiva]

ISDN was not much higher bandwidth than modem (64kbit or 128kbit instead of 40-52kbit), but was much nicer to use - because the latency was really low. That's the time between when you click on something and it starts loading.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

The cost of ISDN today (for the same service I get on dial-up) is $60 per month. So I can pay $60 per month for a service at least one-fifth of the speed as what people in DSL-areas can enjoy. Yeah, that seems fair.

ISDN didn't, last time I asked, offer the same "use the phoneline for two things at once" as DSL, which is a major plus.

I'm going to follow up Cremmin's argument that Telstra use a 1.5 mbps test rate. One third of that would be 10 times what I get. If what he says is correct, I would happily accept that.

[reddragdiva]

Yeah, there is that.

Here DSL is free with cereal packets, so if my work ISDN actually cost any significant amount (like it used to), the company would say "buggre thatte" and just put in a second DSL. Yes, a second DSL. And trust me when I say the customers pay for our on-call services being there, which means a laptop, the ISDN, the second phone ... good thing our systems basically work.