Tragic Rambit

Tineye Reverse Image Search

2009-10-13T21:24:00.000-07:00

Tineye is a really handy search engine for anyone looking for a particular photo on the internet. Good for artists trying to make sure no one is stealing their work, or wondering where else a particular picture is featured and, in my case, a dire need to find a stock photo i used in a website that i now need to re-purchase for print. Just upload the pic your looking for or enter its url and voila tineye returns with a list of sites that use that photo! works brilliantly and i really recommend trying it out.

Which Iphone Plan in Australia is the best?

2008-09-01T08:08:00.000-07:00

This one question is asked numerous times every minute of everyday in Australia and so far no one seems to have come close to assessing the many options out there and coming to a definitive conclusion. It seemed that, for once, I would have to do my own research in this area and my results proved very interesting. I am not about to say who does offer the best plan for everyone here, because everyone has different needs but this post will hopefully give you an insight into what is on offer from Australia's major carriers and eBay (you cannot leave that one out!), and what suits a customer with my kind of wants and needs. So like all good analyses I will break this down into Customer Profile, Minimum requirements of a plan, offers available within my parameters and finally my Conclusions and results.

Customer Profile

As a mobile phone user I use my phone moderately, mostly using it to have conversions with friends and family, overall spending approximately 10-20mins daily. Furthermore most of this is to my husband, which due to our current phone plan, I have free calls to. I am not a huge sms fan, as even with my Nokia e61 (with full qwerty keyboard) I find the process laborious and too time consuming. My main interest in owning an iphone is actually the browsing capabilities. Since I spend nearly all my time near a computer I will only be browsing occasionally on the bus or at lunch etc. I already have a wireless broadband plan and rarely go anywhere near a 1GB on that.

My position is somewhat complicated by the fact that I am currently in a plan that still has another 1yr in it. Furthermore because of my small business needs I don't want to move from my current provider, Telstra(whose plans are less then fair but their coverage is excellent) for my phone calls because of the free phone calls between my partner and myself (he is unlikely to be getting an iphone anytime soon). However I see no problem in getting an iphone with another carrier that I will use almost exclusively for browsing and keeping my current phone for most of my phone calls.

Minimum requirements

So to find the ultimate plan for myself I set the following parameters as the minimum in a plan:

1gb of data
some included phone calls
decent coverage in the metro area

That's it.

Investigation on Offers Available

Well, there is a lot out there between the major carriers, so I investigated Telstra, Virgin, Vodaphone, Optus, 3, Telstra and also the option of using eBay to buy a phone outright.

Vodafone

To get my 1GB of Data allowance I had to move upto the $169 per month plan. Which, over the course fo a 24 month contract would cost $4,056 for the 8GB phone and $4145 to get the 16GB version (including an extra $89 for the phone outright). This would include an impressive $1200 call credit and my minimum 1GB Data. But considering I don't really need that much call time it does seem a bit of expensive over kill in my case.

Optus

In Optus to meet my minimum requirements the best plan was The Yes Timeless Plan which is a total of $2,734.8 @ 113.95 Per month for 24 months, unlimited standard voice calls to any network within Australia - local, national and GSM mobiles and unlimited standard national text to any network. Included mobile internet data Value 1GB + 200MB with the $14.95 Mobile Internet Pack (cannot seem to seperate these two). It doesn't seem to matter whether you get the 8GB or 16GB in this case it costs the same.

Its an interesting plan I have to say and quite tantalising, much cheaper than Vodafone over-all and more than meeting my minimum requirements.

Telstra

With Telstra to get the data I want I would have to pay an extra $89 a month on top of any normal plan to get 1G. So, lets say I wanted a half decent call pack for my needs I should probably choose the $60 plan for 24 months. All in all the cost is $2136 for the 1GB DATA + $1499 for $60 plan with a a$59 upfront cost included = a grand total of $3635 for the 8GB and $3755 for the 16GB. Cheaper than Vodafone but, considering the call plans, far less value for money.

Virgin
One of the lesser players who use the Optus Network. They offer a $70 plan with their iphones that gives $520 worth of calls and 1GB of data. For the 8GB this comes to a $1680 total and for the 16GB $1776.00 total (includes the $4 extra per month paid for the phone). Actually looking quite attractive at the moment.

Buying Outright and going on Three

Three currently does not sell the iphone but they will give you a starter sim for one. Their $49 plan with $350 worth of calls and 1Gb of data fitted my requirements plus $300 credit on your account. Buying a 8GB unlocked phone will cost about a $1000 (buying off eBay or Telstra) and a 16GB about the $1400 (you could get it a couple of hundred lower but this is a worse case scenario). Add the cost of the 3 plan this comes to a total of $1876 for the 8GB and $2276 for the 16GB (remembering the $300 credit). Funnily enough not bad but not the best course of action it seems.

Conclusion

So the winner in my case seems to be Virgin, followed by Three, followed by Optus, Vodafone and Telstra (Vodafone was more expensive but far greater value for money). If it weren't for the fact I was already in a plan I would probably think seriously about getting the Optus deal. Even buying the phone outright and sticking my current sim in it and paying Telstra for a data pack doesn't work out as well!

If you already have a fanastic plan then buying outright and sticking your sim in isn't a bad deal, but Virgin by far offers a great deal for many customers. So, thanks to my love of huge handbag, I have no problems getting an iphone and sticking with my current brick, especially considerign my savings.

Download Day 2008.jpg

2008-07-02T21:56:00.001-07:00

For being part of Firefox download day I got this groovy certificate. yey!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

I love the Cloud

2008-06-29T23:26:00.001-07:00

I have heard the term Cloud computing for quite a while but I haven't realised how much I really like it and need it till now. Check out this list, I use:

gmail for all my mail (or .Mac)
use my idisk regularly
use evernote for all my todo's and notes
sync my ical to both web and the calendar app in my gmail
flickr for all my 'fun' photos
delicious for my bookmarks (no i will not write it with the full stops everywhere)

Coupled with my use of flock, twitter, pownce, plurk and facebook I think its safe to say I
almost live in the cloud... which explains all the daydreaming I do.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Flock is cool

2008-06-25T04:56:00.001-07:00

I am starting to really get into Flock. Its built on top of Firefox 3 and so far is pretty cool if you like your social networking abilities. It could really....am....enhance my productivity at work....

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Some seriously cool apps for my mac

2008-05-13T06:41:00.000-07:00

Over the years I have grown into a pretty loyal mac devotee, and while they may not be perfect the folks over at Apple have definitely created a system that has inspired many other talented people to create a host of useful apps. This is a brief list of some of the ones that I just simply adore, some are free, some are not, all are fantastic. Hope you find it useful!

Disclaimer: I am not saying that no other similar apps do as good as or better job then these, but the list below are representative of what ! find useful in my day to day activities

And the nominees are (in no particular order):

TubeTV
Price: Free
I love this little app for the simple fact that it does everything I want form one interface. Through TubeTV I can search for my YouTube vid, download the .fla file and then it automatically converts it for my iTouch (i don't care how much people complain my life is too short to say iPod Touch) so i can watch it anywhere. What more could you ask?

Handbrake
Price: Free
Get those DVD's onto that iPhone! Okay, you may first have to get rid of the DRM on the DVD (you can try Mac the Ripper for this, also free) but once your there this app is built ready to get things to your iPod or iPhone. Love it.

Skitch
Version: Beta
Price: Free
I know you can use the Grab utility to take screenshots of your mac, but i find it really tedious to have to save it and then re-open it in Photoshop to convert it to something more useful than a tiff file. This app is sugar sweet, allows me to take a screenshot, save it as whatever I like, draw and comment all over it and then just drag it into an email to send it off. I use this to communicate changes to clients and the like. Not only that, it also comes with an online service for letting you upload and share your pics. The app also has some basic image editing features. really worth checking out and, do watch the 3 min video it comes with, it is worth it!

Cyberduck
Price: Free
Every time i look at this app I just want sing 'cyberduck' as if it were a little superhero. This is a lovely little FTP client that does what I want to do quickly and reliably. With Growl (see below) installed it makes my editing life so much easier and, if there is any app that my windows friends seem to begrudge me, its this one.

Growl
Price: Free
Growl is a notification app, basically for apps that incorporate it, Growl will let
you know when said apps do something, in the case of Cyberduck this would be 'file upload complete' 'connection open' etc. great look and feel and generally unobtrusive.
Small but helpful.

Twhirl and Twitterific
Price: Free (Twitterific does ask for a donation if possible)
Twitter apps if you didn't guess. Both are really beautiful and really good at what they do. Twhirl is based on Adobe AIR so it runs on all the popular OS's, not just Mac.

iSale
Price: 40 EURO (Trial available)
It's not free and not cheap, but boy does it make selling on ebay so much easier. You can download a trial version to see what it is all about. There is a family license pack available for 50 EURO. If my mum didn't have this app she would be unbearable!

NoteBook
Price: variable (Trial available)
With a developer named Circus Ponies I just couldn't resist trying this app out. This is such a cool little program. It's what it says it is, you can clip bits of the web, make notes, draw things, scribble and generally do what you would do with a normal notebook only on your Mac. Not free, you can trial it.

So there it is, my little round up! Hope you found something useful.

I want Sandy!!

2008-04-24T01:27:00.000-07:00

Most Mac users are only just discovering the addition of To Do in email. I find it really handy and use it al the time, but if for whatever reason you cannot or do not want to use this feature you might like Sandy, your own personal assistant. Basically you go to the site www.iwantsandy.com and sign up (its free). Then, whenever you need to record a to do, meeting, or a reminder, or you just need to remember something email Sandy and she will email you or sms you when your event comes up. Sandy can also create a feed for you that you can sync to your favourite calendar app.
One cool feature is that Sandy can Twitter you about your various reminders, to do etc.

If your in the market for only a To Do app www.rememberthemilk.com is a very simple easy to use online to do list maker.

Now, go on...become more productive or just waste some time trying!

Facebook Chat

2008-04-23T02:49:00.000-07:00

Facebook now has chat! its kind of like meeting your friends by accident at the local bar. You don't know who is going to be there but its nice when someone is online at the same time as you. Of course for the more anti-social of us, you can just make yourself offline and not chat to anyone... to check it out you need to have a facebook account, which if you don't have one by now you have a) been in a coma for the past 2 years b) took a religious vow and have separated yourself form society or c) been valiantly trying to not join any social networks despite rigourous pressure from friends and family. Just accept it, resistence is futile get a Facebook account and join the rest of the virtual world. Its more fun and less maintenance then you think.

Pimp My Safari--Boomarklets

2008-04-21T20:43:00.000-07:00

Safari is gaining more and more market-share in browser and its up to almost 6% by some surveys. I know that doesn't seem much but its enough that anyone in the web development community has to start thinking about making sure their stuff works in Safari. Many peopel already knwo about WebKit. Something i like to call the Developers Safari which first included the fantastic 'Inspect Element' option. I htink this is now available in normal Safari as well. Just Right click on the object your curious about and instantly a nifty and may I say rather sexy DOm inspector shoots up showing you al kinds of info. But, its still not quite as good as having the Lifesaver that is Firefox Developer Toolbar (All hail the creators!). Enter Safari Bookmarklets, bits of scrumptious Javascript Code, that do nifty things like resize your window, list classes, show IDs and Classes, Validate and heaps more. Not quite the Toolbar but if you create yourself a little folder of the little bookmarklets can become really handy. To get yours go to the ever cool Pimp My Safari/ and go to bookmarklets.

Enjoy!

Help...My Mac has lost its voice!

2008-04-21T18:28:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago i noticed that my Powerbook was a little quite. When I turned it on, no start-up sound announcing its beginning to the working day. No error bleeps, No paper airplane sound for sending mail....it was all a little strange, but I wasn't overly concerned until I wanted to listen to some music. Nothing wanted to play!

So I started to investigate, and low and behold when i went to the 'sound' options the powerbook was convinced it had no 'Output' device (for that matter no input device either). The mute checkbox was checked and greyed out. When I pressed the shortcuts for bringing volume up or down, when pressed, showed a little 'not allowed' sign.

Well now I was a little worried. As per normal the internet was little help assuaging my worries since the only suggestion people gave for getting drivers for internal speakers was to reinstall the OS. I went through enough pain with Leopard to know I wanted to avoid doing that. I did note that some people said this only happened for a particular user. So I though let me a create a user, see if they have speakers. What do you know they do!. My computer can speak...it just doesn't want to when I am logged in...or does it. When I logged back in the mac had miraculously found its speakers and all is well again. Yipeee!

Well, so for those that loose their sound in the Powerbooks (or even MacBooks) try this, it might work.

Making the Rich List

2008-04-21T00:56:00.000-07:00

The concept of online advertising is still really in its infancy. While it is getting more sophisticated most of us still think of those annoying banner ads as online advertising. But as the recent viral campaign for Dexter shows there is a world of opportunity in how you can reach an audience. The following site Global Rich List is a case in point. It asks you find out how rich you are in terms of the Global Rich list. You don't really know why they are asking but its kind of fun to find out. I was in the top 1% of the world!
Anyway its actually for the Care charity, and its kind of cool how it encourages you to realize your own wealth and perhaps your ability to share it with the less fortunate.
Check it out.