Re: Free Is Good

Because OpenOffice is a complete and perfect replacement for Microsoft Office, right? It never gets formatting wrong, understands all the existing 15 year old templates (across Word, Excel, PPT), includes a mail program people actually like (Outlook replacement) which talks Exchange, does offline caching and integrates with the email archive? And Excel formulas are all present with the same names, parameters and results?

And there's no chance LibreOffice or OpenOffice would be unable to create and edit documents using Rights Management Services? And it also works with the appropriate DMS (which is usually a fragile set of poorly written and undocumented macros which often needs updates even for Office service packs, let alone completely different products)?

Sorry, but while OO and LO are great for some people, they're not there yet for everybody.

Even Paris knows the above...

Re: I'm wondering ...

I believe a magnet program is a program for more advanced learners - the idea being that you attract the smart and/or enthusiastic kids and the rest will follow. So it's also somewhat of a "comply or go back to the less advanced classes and be bored/lose opportunities".

Re: Vodafail anyone?

Vodafone has double the spectrum of either Optus or Telstra, as I recall. ISTR that the 700MHz spectrum was allocated 25% to each of Telstra, Optus, Voda and 3; then Voda bought 3 (and all the assets, including spectrum). Given the lacklustre performance and the resulting mass exit of subscribers, I don't see them being short on spectrum right now.

Re: 10GbE is still a bit TOO quick...

While that's absolutely true, there are a couple of factors that many (including I) thought would force adoption faster.

First and foremost, virtualisation. When you have 30 VMs on a single host (not hard to do whether you're ESX, Xen, KVM or Hyper-V) even a 4Gbps channel averages out at under 135Mbps per VM (and you're hoping the peaks on one VM cancel the troughs on another for higher throughput).

Secondly, iSCSI storage, where 4-8Gbps total from the array might be OK for smaller environments but isn't enough for larger ones, especially during backup;

Thirdly, server-backup. Aggregation only helps so much, as many (most?) aggregations split data across the connections based on source and/or destination IPs. So a single stream is limited to 1Gbps.

All those scenarios would fare better with 10Gbps, especially if all the vendors start doing the funky network/bandwidth splitting like HP - where each 10GbE can be logically separated into 4 different virtualised adapters for the OS.

In those cases, 2 x 10Gbps connections provides similar connectivity and throughput to 12 x 1Gbps connections. If 10Gb is only 5x the price, it's CHEAPER than doing 1Gbps.

Re: Bullsh1t not baffling MY brains.

Slightly OT I know, but try installing drivers for the laptops from other download sites (e.g. Aus or UK), or set the driver properties to a foreign country (again, Aus is a reasonable choice). Or tell the AP it's in Aus.

You should get the full range of 2.4GHz channels then.

Yeah - "normal" thing to do

They all do it. They claim they've selected certain drives and made them differently, in an "enterprise" ready state. Frankly I figure the extra bucks are twofold - one, to get enough dosh to cover the extra warranty claims from running the drives 24x7 for 5 years instead of 8x5 for 3 years (it's 44000 hours instead of 6280), and two, some extra margin for the resellers to make some money off the enterprise drives.

I really do doubt the quality is that different (of course having said that, I'll get home and I'll have lost 4 of the 20 disks in my array of consumer drives).

Sherlock would know whether or not the drives are different ...

Re: had this one yesterday

The magic is in learning how to answer, not what the answer is. Users do not listen to explanations, because the computer is smart and should just know that they mean "go to www.google.com" when they randomly mash the keyboard with their fists.

In your case, the appropriate answer is that the application is already installed on all computers in the company, and the shortcut is under Favourites. If you wanted to get even more fancy about it, get something like WiX and create a little MSI that creates shortcuts to the web sites under Programs, and users won't even know the difference.

But the answer to "Please install web application X" for your users should always be "It's already installed", which solves the problem and makes you look like a genius for anticipating their problem.

Re: Experience first, then we'll talk

I'll have to disagree with you - that's kind of the point of Datacenter Edition. Purchasing the licenses for the host entitles you to run any number of VMs on that host without paying for other Windows OS licenses. So if you license the cluster with DC edition, you have as many VMs as you want and you can move your VMs around any time you please, because the license isn't on the VM it's on the host.

Now applications might be different, but you generally license the VM for the application not the hosts; in which case you may or may not be fine. But Windows is a no-brainer.

Re: Uber fail of epic proportion

You said: "I couldn't stand using it for more than about half an hour. Just the fact that I couldn't pop up the Start menu and bash a few keystrokes to find EXACTLY what I wanted in seconds really annoyed me."

And with this you're just trolling. If you hit the start button, or the windows key, then type, do you know what happens? You get search, just like Win7. And it searches all the programs, settings and documents, just like Win7 - except they're now separated into Apps, Settings and Files groups.

Oh ... wait a minute. That's just like Win7.

Oh, I forgot something ...

How much of the cost of a copper phone line is the maintenance of the existing copper network? Given Telstra wanted (I think) $20 per month per line including margin ... that suggests $14 per month is a reasonable average cost for maintenance of the copper. Compare that to $6 per month for original amortisation, or ~$14 per month if you include interest, to install the fiber.

3 years!?

You can't be serious. Fiber in conduit, in the ground has a lifetime significantly exceeding 3 years - indeed, barring rats chewing on it, excess input power burning out the remote end (which is easily serviceable), thermal shock and the like, it's like that broken beer bottle on your lawn - it'll last almost unchanged forever, until you step on it.

Try 50 years as a useful life (lots of the copper is older than that) - remembering that trans-oceanic fibers are 20+ years old and not stuffed by 20 years of salt water immersion!

~3666 per household, amortised over 50 years is $6.11 per month (ignoring inflation/cost of money). Given that's what Telstra charge to display a damned phone number when you ring (caller ID is $6 a month, IIRC, for having a software option switched on instead of off - what a RORT), and we're building a national fiber network - I think that's a damned good price. If you prefer - make your sandwich for lunch instead of buying it twice a month and you're in front.

But wait ... this money is coming from taxes. Investment in infrastructure, by the government, during a recession (ooh that'll bring out the haters). I'm generally anti-Labor, but it's the right thing for the country. Oh and the children (that'll win the argument). Something about thinking of the children.

Impossible ...

Your long term solution is ... not to put to fine a point on it ... unworkable.

Not only would all the credit card providers need to agree to collect tax on behalf of the Australian government, if it succeeded, every government would end up wanting their cut.

Furthermore, what tax rate should be paid and to whom, if the goods are bought from a UK store by an Australian CC in Australia and sent to a UK recipient? Does your answer change if the Aus CC is used in the UK? What about a UK CC being used in Australia on holidays to purchase and send the same goods?

What tax rates does Visa collect from an Australian shopping in the UK using a US Internet proxy for delivery to Germany, for a person on holiday from Brazil? As you can see the possibilities, and associated complexity, are endless.

Finally ... while I have the utmost respect for people who work retail (having done so myself years ago), people have no right to a specific job. And ignoring the direct financial aspects of it for a moment and dealing only with the underlying morals, why does a person in your own country deserve a high paying job more than a person in China deserves a lower paying job? Citizens of AU (and I suspect most 1st world countries) can get support when out of work - perhaps not so for others.

I think it's you doing the joking.

Yes, Internode is a premium provider. Still not as bad as Telstra (was?) though.

Where can you get a phone line + 25M/5M service (guaranteed sync rates) with 30GB of data for $70? Or 25/5M with 200GB for $90? I'm paying $90 now on a Telstra port for that much data and lower sync rates (and yes, I'm with Internode) - and that's not including the sodding copper (which we pay for and then Telstra attempt to ignore service and support). For me it's $25 cheaper with those published prices, and I suspect I'm not alone.

Heck - show me anyone who will guarantee 12M/1M sync with a phone line today at those prices (don't forget to drop the $25 off the price for the phone service)? Also note the word guarantee there.

Dodo (widely regarded as a "cheap" provider) lists their current 10GB DSL service as a total of $50 (or $35 as a Naked service) - 100GB (if you can get it, that is) is $10 more. So cheap provider of DSL of whatever speed the line is capable of, with dial tone for $20/m less than Internode. Good luck with the contention ratio though, there are no guarantees of sync rates let alone performance.

I'd say that the plans are actually pretty reasonable - especially for those of us who remember 500MB with Telstra Cable for $100+, and 19c/MB.