Archive for the 'Reviews' Category
January 7 2010: Do Not Sign Up With Telstra or Pacnet
Filed under Australia & Reviews & Uni/Work with 4 Comments
Telecommunications in Australia is a fucking joke. I don’t often blow off steam this way on my blog, and rarely post inflamatory negative reviews, but let me run you through a sequence of events that end up leading to the conclusion: Under no circumstances would I recommend that any business or organisation choose to use either Telstra or Pacnet for their telecommunications providers. They are both unreliable, incompetent, and unable to deliver on promises.
17 December: I informed Telstra, our phone line provider, that my organisation was moving offices. They agreed to disconnect our old number on the 31st of December, but that our new number at the new offices will be connected immediately (that very day) for our use. So both lines were active at the same time.
18 December: I informed Pacnet, our internet provider, that we would be moving offices, and gave them the new phone number. We were assured that our internet service would disconnect at the old address, and recommence at the new address on the 1st of January, the day we were scheduled to ‘officially’ start our residence at the new offices.
28 December: The 28th of December was our official move-in date (though our lease didn’t start till the 1st). I spent the day packing up the last of the boxes and moving everything to the new address. The rest of the week was spent just unpacking boxes and organising the new office – communications weren’t touched as our (freelance) tech support guy wasn’t back from vacation until the 6th of January.
6 January: Our tech support guy arrived at 9am on the dot to set up our network. Upon examination of the phone lines in the office, we found only one with a dialtone – Telstra managed to fuck up the reconnection and connected an expired number from a suburb on the other side of the city, instead of the number we were originally advised.
In a call to Telstra, we were advised that they can change the line to the correct number within an hour. We were also assured that as our internet service was connected to that number, that it would carry over as per normal with immediate usage. An hour later, we had the correct number, but Telstra managed to remove the codes placed on the phone line, so that our internet provider couldn’t get through. Another call later, we were assured that the right codes would be activated between 8am and 12pm on the 7th of January.
7 January: By 1pm on the 7th of January, our internet service still hadn’t been activated. Calling Telstra, we were informed that they had placed the codes on the phone line – codes designed for their own Bigpond internet service, though we had specifically stated that our internet provider was an outside carrier.
We were then required to call Pacnet to get the correct codes placed on the line – which they can do, but which they claim will take five to ten working days. This is a procedure that would take 24 hours at most, if they actually did it immediately instead of adding it to their To-Do list for later action.
And Therefore…
Between the fuckups caused by Telstra, and the incompetent service received from Pacnet, my organisation has been offline with no communication lines (phone, internet, fax or otherwise) since the 28th of December. This situation is likely to continue until the 5-10 working days specified by Pacnet pass – e.g. January 13 at the earliest. I’d like to know what kind of modern organisation Telstra and Pacnet believe can go without communication lines for upwards of two weeks. Keep in mind that we’re a member-based organisation whose business and reputation is based upon effective and prompt communication with its members.
Under no circumstances would I recommend that any business or organisation choose to use either Telstra or Pacnet for their telecommunications providers. They are both unreliable, incompetent, and unable to deliver on promises. One mistake I can understand. But a litany of mistakes that require us to make a million phone calls back and forth? Unacceptable. I’m going to be writing an official letter of complaint and asking that for the standard reconnection fees (plus any other expenses accrued because of their incompetency) to be waived because of the damage they have done to our reputation as a reliable organisation.
…and they make me look bad, because I’m the only one working here at the moment, and have had to deal with them every step of the way. When our members and the board of management look for someone to blame, who do you think will come under scrutiny? Not the incompetent providers, but the underpaid staff member who’s had to deal with them.
September 1 2009: Reviews In Ten Words: July & August 2009
Filed under Reviews with 6 Comments
Non-Fiction
- Claire Harman – Jane’s Fame (How Jane Austen Conquered The World): Follows the trajectory of Austen’s fame from contemporary till modernity.
- David S. Kidden & Noah D. Oppenheim – The Intellectual Devotional to Modern Culture (Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education and Converse Confidently With The Culturati): Extremely America-oriented, more focus on international culture would beneficiall.
Fiction
- V.C. Andrews – Broken Flower: Another Andrews that goes nowhere slowly, heroine with precocious puberty.
- Elizabeth Aston – The Second Mrs. Darcy: Shamelessly borrows Austen names/locales for an entirely unrelated tale.
- Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith – Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Best novel ever given quirky undead twist that’s actually believable.
- Janet Aylmer – Darcy’s Story (Pride and Prejudice told from a whole new perspective); Carrie Bebris – Pride and Prescience (Or, A Truth Universally Acknowledged); Gwyn Cready – Seducing Mr. Darcy; Amanda Grange – Darcy’s Diary; Sharon Lathan – Mr & Mrs Fitzwilliam Darcy (Two Shall Become One): Glorified fan fiction, but I will accept anything vaguely Austen-esque.
- Bill Brooks – Bonnie and Clyde: The focus on the thought processes of secondary characters lends
- Claire Cook – Must Love Dogs: Maybe I need to watch the movie to appreciate it.
- Janet Evanovich – Plum Spooky: A comedown from the general high calibre of Plum novels.
- Ian Fleming – Casino Royale, The Spy Who Loved Me: Very different in style, with the latter much more experimental.
- Winston Groom – Forrest Gump: Film was more entertaining, but the book is very satirical.
- Syrie James – The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen: A focus on the “mysterious unknown suiter” of Austen’s twenties.
- Stephen King – Misery: Not fond of psychological thrillers, but this was a beauty.
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez – One Hundred Years of Solitude: Really hard to get into, perhaps better in original Spanish.
- Nancy Moser – Just Jane: Doesn’t quite capture Austen’s dry wit, though does tries admirably.
- Rachel Pine – The Twins of Tribeca: Typical “moral girl sucked into corporate evilness, then redeems herself”.
- Jean Plaidy – Spain for the Sovereigns, The Captive of Kensington Palace, The Widow of Windsor, Queen Jezebel: Nothing left unsaid – Plaidy always maintains an extremely high standard.
- Curtis Sittenfeld – American Wife: Main character barely disguised, clearly fictional “Life of” Laura Bush.
Movies
- Apocalypto (2006): Powerful; some of the best chase sequences I’ve ever seen.
- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (2009): I LOVED IT. (It could have included more from novel).
- Idiocracy (2006): Underrated movie shows the potential future dystopia commercialisation could cause.
- Pineapple Express (2008): Good for cheap stoner laughs, just don’t take it seriously.
August 9 2009: Newborn Baby Basics On A Budget
Filed under Family & Reviews with 7 Comments
I’m ignoring all the little bits and pieces (like clothes, nappies, sterilisers, etc.) and concentrating on big ticket items. The type of items that expectant parents are most likely to purchase mistakenly or incorrectly. Keep in mind all advice is given based on Australian baby care practices, standards, products – however, there should be some overlap with products in other countries.
For the first six months or so, there’s only a handful of items that you really need. We at the largest baby chain in Australia (the one I work for) generally advise for the first few months:
- cot
- car seat
- pram
- bath + stand
Everything else on top of that is icing on the cake, to be purchased only if you have money to spare and want to dress up the nursery.
A Cot
You’d want to get the type that converts into a toddler bed. That way, rather than using a cot for two years (max!) only, you can get a few more years use out of it – anywhere up to five years so that you get your money’s worth. This is an expensive example of one but there are cheaper cots (of better quality – Australian made, Australian timber) which all convert into toddler beds – a good quality cot like this which converts into a toddler bed will cost you about $500AUD.
In terms of safety in a cot, you want the space within the slats to be wide enough to fit a baby’s limb, but not wide enough that their head will fit through. That’s how Australian safety standards work – you’d also want there to be no obvious drop mechanism for the side of the cot – it should have hidden drop mechanisms so that baby fingers don’t get caught.
Cot mattresses you can get for about $90AUD for a foam mattress, and $150AUD for an inner spring mattress. Now if you were getting a cot-only rather than cot/toddler bed combination, you can get away with just a foam mattress since you’ll be using it for two years only. But if you’re getting the convertible cot, you should go with an inner spring mattress (better for toddler backs). Make sure that any mattress you get has one waterproof side – trust me, you won’t regret it. You can always get waterproof mattress protectors for cots as well though, should the mattress you buy not have one built in.
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