Walking The Dog!

Posted on August 7, 2008
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The blog might be updated a little less frequently than usual for the next few days - I’m going walkies!!

Well ok, I’m currently in the process of changing ISP’s ands whilst the new techs tell me they will try to have the account set up overnight, they admit it could take up to a *week* dependent on the speed at which the existing connection is cancelled at the old exchange by the techs and the new one connected.

It had to be done. The old company only allowed me a 25Gb download limit and they counted in that both downloads *and* uploads. The new one has a total of 100Gb (a mix of 40 Gb on and 60 Gb off peak) with uploads not counted… and for the same price as the old account!! They throw in a VOIP connection as well but I doubt I’d use it.

Sadly the speeds won’t increase, I’ll still be getting a maximum of 4.5Mb/sec and possibly lower throughput, but at least I hopefully won’t be throttled back to 64Kb/sec after only a few days of the month as has happened every month since Xmas!!

Let’s hope I won’t be away for more than a day… but if I am… I apologise.

Either way, I will be back soon enough whinging and complaining, so you don’t get rid of me *that* easily!

By the way…

Posted on August 4, 2008
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By the way, while we’re celebrating the 2008 Olympics and how well the Chinese have done in producing the spectacle… as praised they will be… let’s not clear entirely from our minds the ‘doings’ of the repressive government that controls the country.

It is now nearly 20 years since the infamous massacre at Tiananmen Square in Beijing where up to 3,000 known deaths occurred at the time (and an unknown number slaughtered after the event) as troops attacked to break up a peaceful demonstration in support of human and political rights.

Nor let us totally forget the invasion and suppression of Tibet and the thousands upon thousands killed, maimed and oppressed there.

While we’re at, it let’s recall that there are hundreds of thousands of political prisoners held all round China because their views don’t quite coincide with those of the ruling group. Just those associated with the oppressed group Falun Gong would make a large contingent… assuming their organs haven’t yet been ‘harvested’ for use in transplants.

Still, please don’t let the plight of these people spoil your enjoyment of the spectacle the event will produce, but remember that for every athlete competing, a thousand are in prison. For every medal that is won… a hundred have died.

Does their suffering matter? I suppose that depends on where you stand… literally. The Chinese government has heard of Human Rights, it just wants nothing to do with them.

It’s that time already?

Posted on August 4, 2008
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Time flies when you’re having fun… and when it drifts past without you noticing it going by!

Seems it’s *that* time again… in a few days the Olympic Games will start. This time of course, you’ll know it’s going to be in Beijing… unless you’ve been hiding under a rock of course!

For some of us it seems like only a few days since the Sydney Olympics, but we had the Athens session in between, and I managed to miss that totally!

This time round I am *not* going to sit quietly in front of the TV and (again) bemoan the dreadful partisan coverage of any and every sport that either has an Australian in it *or* where and Australian has a medal chance. The possibility that other areas of sport might be more exciting, be more impressive or more important will as usual be given the back seat. If an Australian has a chance of a bronze medal at plastic duck saddling… our TV companies will be there to witness the inanity and preserve it for all time. How lucky are we eh??

You think I’m joking? You’ve not been here and watched! I even installed Foxtel one year in the hope of circumventing the dross but found they were even worse concentrating on such high profile stuff as ladies softball. Other offerings included such high participation sports as the classic ’synchronised swimming’. I gave up.

I hope you’ll excuse me if I bury my head in the sand for the next few weeks with fingers in my ears screaming la-la-la-la until it’s all over?

A world gone mad.

Posted on August 4, 2008
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Reports claim that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have been paid $15,000,000 by Hello magazine to allow them ‘exclusive rights’ to the first pictures of their new babies. Really?

I have pictures of my kids here I could sell Hello for a damn sight less than that. Tell yas what… if someone from Hello would contact me they can have our baby pictures for $150,000*… a tiny percentage of what they’re paying that other couple!!

In the meatime can someone explain to me just how in heavens name pictures of *any* newborn babies can be worth that sort of money? Sounds totally ludicrous to me… in my experience most babies look almost identical!

Pictures? Forget it!

*ok… make it $15,000… I’m not greedy.

Smiley Miley

Posted on August 4, 2008
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It’s possible some of you might never have heard of singer Billy Ray Cyrus, but I’ll bet there are a lot fewer of you who’ve never heard of his daughter Miley who has been making a name of her own with her alter ego as “Hannah Montana” especially if you have kids around you!

Over the months, fifteen year old Miley has had her share of controversy. Her ‘image’ has been a traditional Disney ‘wholesomeness’ but someone has slowly been leaking pictures of her onto the internet showing her in various states of dress (and undress) and in poses which have done her image no good at all.

I’m not reproducing them here because there are enough images out there of her if you want to look but I *am* reproducing the photo of the guy who’s been accused of ‘leaking’ them!

Josh Holly aka 'trainreq'

This guy is eighteen year old Josh Holly, who also describes himself as a hacker and runs a blog where his pseudonym is ‘trainreq’. According to Josh, who lives in Murfreesboro, Tenn, USA, he ‘hacked’ into Miley’s phone, read her personal mail and downloaded photos she’d taken of herself (on her own phone).

Now I don’t know about you but I think this is absolutely disgusting behaviour! Whatever else she is or isn’t, Miley is a young girl who has as much right to her privacy as anyone else… maybe more so bearing in mind her age and career… and people like this wannabe really need to be slapped back into line. I sincerely hope the full weight of the law descends on him like a ton of bricks.

Taking this sort of photo of yourself is something millions of kids do now, after all it’s so easy to do and it’s fun to do these ’sexy’ poses for a laugh. Naturally, most images are simply deleted. For the ‘less than famous’ some images might be shared amongst friends… what people of Miley’s age and situation rarely do is have them posted on the open internet for people to ogle!

In the USA and much of the world Miley, at 15, still underage and whilst none of the pictures so far published are actually obscene they are still ‘questionable’ and if Josh publishes the *nude* shots he says she’d taken of herself he could be in real trouble!

Even leaving that aside, I’m sure the USA has laws that make hacking into private phones and data theft illegal, but added to that I’d have though Billy Ray would be hot on this guy’s tail to sue him for every penny he ever earns. Then of course you have Disney itself who have millions tied up in this girls career and *they* will be less than pleased with Josh. Maybe ten years in the slammer will help explain to him that his actions weren’t quite as funny as he thought.

Ok he has had his own 5 minutes of fame… but now it’s time he learns what happens to people who breach other peoples privacy for their own gain.

Wow… for what might be the first time ever I’m on the side of the rich and famous!

Go Christina!!

Posted on August 4, 2008
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Our best wishes are sent for a speedy recovery to Christina Applegate, recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

Kelly Bundy - Christina Applegate

My memories of her are mostly from her role as the ditzy kid ‘Kelly Bundy’ from Married with Children and this is perhaps her best known role, at least for most males around the globe.

Kelly was the archetypal airhead bimbo and Christina played her gloriously. The series which wasn’t particularly well known in the UK was actually one of the funniest ‘toilet humour’ series ever and Christina was perfectly cast as Kelly. We watched her grow in the part, physically if not mentally, from a cheeky 15 year old into a 25 year old somewhat promiscuous blonde bimbo who’s lines and vacuous expression could easily lead you to believe she was character acting, whereas in fact the opposite was true.

Since the series ended some years back she has appeared in several successful series including the lead in ‘Jesse’, and (currently ) as an amnesiac in ‘Samantha Who,’ and is doing ok thank you, even allowing for the recent death of an ex-boyfriend in unusual circumstances.

Christina (now aged 36) has been a long time campaigner for research into breast cancer partly because her mother developed both breast and cervical cancer though is currently in remission on all fronts.

She’s a fighter and I wish her well. Hopefully Christina will make a full and complete recovery.

And up (grade) we go.

Posted on August 3, 2008
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Yes I’ve been quiet and no I’m *still* not 100% right… ignoring those who suggest unkindly that I was never right to begin with. However, things being what they are I sat by the computer and again saw on each of the blogs a request that I update the Wordpress blog software installation.

Unfortunately I am utterly terrified of upgrading any software that requires me to manually interfere with the database. As many of you will know I can be utterly cack-handed with some things and I’ve been mortally afraid of destroying the blog entirely. So, apart from the time I let my friend Sue walk me through an upgrade… I’ve ignored them entirely!

For an entirely different reason, i.e. to find a ‘captcha’ plugin that will allow me to ‘vet’ prospective members, I visited the Wordpress site. I didn’t find the plugin I was looking for but *did* find an automatic update plugin. Now the fact I am willing to hand the upgrade of my precious database over to an entirely unknown third party with no real clue how effective the process is shows you just how pathetic I can be,

Still, I persevered.

I downloaded the plugin, and unzipped it to the desktop. The resultant folder was uploaded to the plugin directory on the server and, as normal, activated through the plugins list. Next step was… to tell it to go and do it. Which I did.

There are a few clicks for you to make, partly to confirm you have downloaded your backup files (which you hope you’ll never need) just in case. And that is sadly just aboout it. The entire process was as easy as it could possibly be. In fact the only way it might be easier could be if it did it without any clicking by the user… or if it just upgraded regardless (perhaps not the best of ideas?).

For me this is one of *the* best plugins available and revolutionises the upgrade process for us ham-fisted techophobes.

Well done Keith… this represents a major step forward for Wordpress!!

On a theme… so to speak… I’ve been adding other plugins to make life a little easier. One is Sabre which will help cut out the bot registrations such as those from komatoz.com which make life a pain! Any new registrations will be a chore for people but at least I’ll know they’ll be real people! Another tells me more stats… which I get anyway from the server but it’s all information. And… well there are a couple of other additions useful for me but not to you so I’ll stop rambling… for now.

Anyway, we’re all up to date and a little safer than we were. Now off to see if there is fun stuff I could add.

I might be sick but I’s still having fun!

Guilty even if proved otherwise?

Posted on August 1, 2008
Filed Under Crime & Punishment | 2 Comments

There have been some interesting and subtle changes to the way the law works in the UK. For example a recent decision has established that someone is ‘guilty by accusation’ even if it’s been proved those accusations are in fact false!!

The case of John Pinnington who was falsely accused of sexually assaulting three of his pupils whilst teaching a school for autistic youngsters is one of these.

Despite the cases being investigated by police and having no action taken in any of them, the accusations are on Mr Pinningtons record and a judge has determined there they should remain! The decision means any and all potential future employers must *also* be told about the accusations meaning he can never again resume his career in teaching!

The argument is that any accusation that includes unsubstantiated abuse allegations should only remain on record if there is good cause to believe they are true. A subjective decision perhaps but surely one that could be worked with. However, the judge decided employers needed to know that allegations had been made and for them to be able to make their own decisions, especially when they were employing people working with vulnerable youngsters.

The question remains though… if this decision stands… how does one clear ones name from false allegations? The answer seems to be that mud sticks and basically… you can’t!

For John Pinnington this means his career in teaching is probably at an end.

Story: Fanciful claims left on teachers record

Fat enough for you?

Posted on July 31, 2008
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Hot on the heels of my last post complaining about what a backwater the UK has become, is news of a Disco that has taken on board Homer Simpsons edict of “No Fat Chicks” and run with it barring them from entry to the club!

The manager of the club who it seems is no lightweight himself finally abandoned his attempts to bar people he considered ‘large’ after a furious protest erupted. Still, the point has been made… not only that for women ‘thin’ is the only acceptable body form allowed, but that sexism, mysogeny and the rest has been confirmed as alive and kicking!!

I suppose there are some who would suggest that Jersey isn’t really a part of the UK… especially when it gets this sort of publicity… but hey… I’m sure they have a point, even if it’s only on top of their heads!

Story: BBC News

The theme thing.

Posted on July 30, 2008
Filed Under General Ramblings | 2 Comments

Have you noticed just how few of the major blockbusters we see in the movies these days have a ‘theme song’ associated with them?

Some, such as the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings series had nice melodies that we could hum or whistle, some like Shrek 1 have soundtracks filled with old songs that we can remember… but how many films these days have actual songs in the manner of, say, the Bond songs like ‘Goldfinger’, ‘You only live twice’, From Russia With Love etc?

Lots of films had really memorable themes that became hits in their own right. Remember “The Harry Lime Theme”, “Lara’s Theme” and the rest?

When we heard those tunes it took you straight back to the film bringing back all sorts of memories. I actually miss them. What happened? Where did they go?

Public Breastfeeding in Wales? Nope.

Posted on July 29, 2008
Filed Under Gripes, Health | 1 Comment

I was reading a little straw poll on the Wales Online website which asked a question I’d have thought shouldn’t even need to be asked today.

The question is “Do you think it’s acceptable for women to breastfeed in public?” The answer was so obviously ‘yes’ that I was amazed that the results of their poll showed 78.4% actually voted *no*! No doubt these are descendants of the same people who put bras on cows, and skirts on piano legs for fear of overstimulating their little brains with lascivious thoughts.

Breastfeeding Icon World Breastfeeding Week 2008 runs from August 1 - 7 2008 and it looks like this would be a good time for antiquated backwaters of the world to learn the facts of life. Are people really still embarrassed by doing something so natural?

Come on Wales… get a grip. What do you think those lumps of fat hanging off a woman’s chest are actually there for?? Decoration?? Geez.

Edit:
On re-reading this I thought I should make it clear the comment “get a grip” was in no way intended to refer to the parts of the females under discussion…

Vale Randy Pausch

Posted on July 28, 2008
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To add to the mixed news in today’s blog entries, we have to pass on news of the sad if inevitable death of Dr. Randy Pausch.

Dr. Randy Pausch and family Some of you may remember Dr Pausch who made headlines a while back when, suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer, he made a life affirming lecture on September 18, 2007 called literally “The Last Lecture” which became extraordinarily well known.

Sadly Randy finally died on 25th July 2008 with friends and family surrounding him.

For those who’d like to know more, all necessary information and links can be found at the Randy Pausch Wikipedia article entry. Reading his lecture is a wake up call to all of us.

Angela vs Wendy

Posted on July 28, 2008
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You want a discussion about diaphragms… or Brazilian waxing… or big cars… or plastic surgery… or… ?? Well now’s your chance.

Angela Catterns & Wendy Harmer For those of you have listened to me ramble on incessantly about Angela Catterns (and occasionally Wendy Harmer) now is your chance to listen to those honeyed tones and find out why her voice is so addictive!

Ange and Wendy have teamed up to produce a 16 part series of Podcasts for the ABC. The series is called “Is it just me?” and the first one has been released today.

Is it good? Well *of course it is* which is why I’m suggesting you go listen to it. It isn’t just for Australian audiences by the way… these are two very successful, very clever and very funny women who have rightly risen to the top of their respective trees

In essence, the Podcasts are Ange and Wendy chatting about anything that takes their fancy from family… to… well anything really. And damn good they are too!

Don’t forget to leave some feedback to let me know how good you thought think they are!!

Death is never good news.

Posted on July 28, 2008
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Last week we heard news of a man who was towing a boat in his car and for some reason swerved across three lanes of traffic into water. Onlookers, watched helplessly as the car slowly submerged as the guy frantically and unsuccessfully tried to escape from the car as it filled with water.

A policeman bravely commandeered scuba equipment from a nearby shop and got him out but by then he’d been under water for far too long and despite the best efforts of paramedics he was eventually pronounced dead at hospital. Seems he’d become entangled in the seat belt and his airbag.

The point is that we learned this morning he was the father of a small girl my daughter goes to school with and is one of her best friends. Despite their friendship we’ve not been particularly close to the rest of the family hence only learning about it this morning. Nonetheless it comes as a shock.

We’ve no idea if the school has informed the pupils yet, but we’ll just have to try to explain to my daughter when she gets home and hope for the best.

Regardless of that we sympathise with the family and pass on condolences. We’ll make some quiet enquiries if there’s anything we might be able to do to help, but of course nothing will be of much help in the end.

Life is really tough sometimes.

Fording Jeremy Clarkson.

Posted on July 28, 2008
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As you can tell from the paucity of posts recently, nothing much of note has happened in ‘the news’ for me to write about. Ok, I’ve had a bad case of flu but that really doesn’t excuse the lack of ’something to write about’ out there. And what there *is* isn’t worth commenting on because it’s either been done to death… or bores me to tears.

One such was the visit of the Pope to Australia during World Youth Week. Well let’s face it here, this blog has studiously ignored the entire shebang from go to whoa and tried to pretend it never happened. Actually, one little point might be made, and that is that whilst it might have been a wonderful experience for all those religious zealots who danced about hailing the lord and living off the fat of the land as supplied by the taxes of yours truly, and of course for that old man in a white dress and ruby slippers, for the rest of us it was a PITA and so has been all bar ignored… apart from this paragraph!!! Grrr…

Anyway, all I *really* started to write about was an article by Jeremy Clarkson in the Times Online. Ostensibly it was about the Ford Cortina but diverged into the British penchant for ‘camping’ and before I got sidetracked into the usual irrelevancies, what I was going to say was like him or loathe him you can’t claim Jeremy isn’t a funny guy. So, if you have a few minutes free you might the article is worth a read - well it made me laugh anyway..

Yes that *is* all… move along now.

More Fings…. etc.

Posted on July 28, 2008
Filed Under I.T and similar, Reminiscence | Leave a Comment

I was again having a ponder about how life has changed over the years when I began considering how much the mobile phone has become an integral part of life for many… if not most… of us.

Twenty years ago the wife and I lived in Central London, however she worked in Croydon which for those who don’t know, lies just outside the main Metropolis. To get there she’d walk to the local tube station and catch the train out against the main flow of people who migrate *in* to the City to work each day. This gave her an easy run both ways. Because I wasn’t working, I used to latch the lead onto the dog and walk down to the station with her in the mornings, and again in the afternoons to meet her on her way home.

Sounds a simple life and it was… except on the odd occasions when she was delayed in work, missed the train, or there were problems on the track or at the station (either end). The result was chaos. Neither of us knew what was happening to the other and there was no way of us communicating to let each other know!

Ok it wasn’t a regular occurrence, but I did occasionally find myself waiting at the station for an hour not knowing whether to stay, go… or walk to another station. Quite frustrating. Occasionally she’d arrive at another station and simply go home because she’d have no idea whether I would be waiting… or would have gone home myself.

Times change.

Not long after we arrived in Australia we accepted the need for a mobile was quite reasonable so bought one of the old Nokia ‘bricks’ and neither one of us has never been without one since.

The spread of the internet seems to have mirrored the penetration of the mobile phone into the lifestyle of everyone around us and now those little ‘extras’ that have been introduced over the years has simply enhanced the utility of mobile phone ownership to the extent that, for me at least, live without the phone has become almost unthinkable. I’ve become so used to being able to access the Internet to find information on any subject whatever that it’s become a way of life. Having that access spread to the phone was perhaps the single biggest improvement since the introduction of the phone itself.

For me the phone is no longer just a way of keeping touch by voice. Yes it is still used for speech… but making actual voice calls is becoming less and less important. Over the years snail mail (via postal services) has been abandoned, and even online I’m using the old ‘POP’ mail less and less and have moved to Google Mail. Because of this, and because the phone can access the internet, I can access my email via my phone.

Effectively this means the wife and kids and I can all email each other with essential but non-urgent information easily and quickly without having to distract ourselves from whatever task we’re doing. Keeping in touch has never been so easy. simple… and non-intrusive!

Strange though now to think back and recall how stressed we used to get when we were unable to contact each other when now I have a phone that works for voice calls, but is also a calendar, watch, alarm clock, camera, mobile radio, cinema, music player, address book, calculator diary, games player. It also carries business software such as a word processor and spreadsheet etc. Add in that it is also an access point for the Internet that apart from my email, also allows me to find things as diverse as current news, cricket scores, cinema times, or the weather and you can see just how far the technology has come.

The newest devices are now linking themselves to satellites which allows GPS (Global Positioning System) technology to let you know where you are at any point on the planet and help you find your way to any other point on the planet. This has its downside for people with ‘work’ phones because it can be programmed to report your position back to your employer which might not be such a good thing if you’ve nipped into the loca for a lunchtime pint! But still, for the rest of us it’s a boon.

Right now I can stand in an unfamiliar town square, take a photo with the camera, email it along with the address as found by the GPS to anyone I want to let them know where I am. I can even video my surroundings and send them *live* to someone else’s phone or to a computer.

Of course part of the reasoning behind this increase in functionality is the push for ‘convergence’ where one small device will carry out to some degree *all* the technological wants and needs of the current crop of technophiles. I’ve no idea how far this will go, but I suppose the extreme case has to be the implanting of devices internally with hard wired connections between system and brain. What a thought - literally!

I’m not claiming any of this is a good thing, after all as a species we managed well enough for a million years before all this arrived… and of course there is no conclusive evidence yet regarding whether the constant bombardment of wireless transmissions our brains receive at close quarters is harmful… nor am I suggesting it’s wholly bad. I’m just saying that as far as mobile communication devices are concerned I think we can honestly claim that “Fings *ain’t* what they used to be”!

Vale Jo Stafford

Posted on July 27, 2008
Filed Under General Ramblings | 3 Comments

Heard about the death of Jo Stafford at age 90 on July 16th while I was ‘off sick’ so wasn’t able to write about her at the time. However last night I was listening to a radio interview she had with an Australian DJ (Bob Rodgers) from 9 years ago or so and thought I’d add a few words.

For me the only song of note I recall from her career was Shrimp Boats which was written by her husband Paul Weston. However, one of the highlights of the ‘interview’ was the DJ playing one of her great ‘parody’ songs which she and Paul recorded as “Jonathan and Darlene Edwards“. In these recordings he played off key and way off tempo and she sang in like manner. What a riot… and how nice to hear a famous singer exercise her vocal skills like that.

She seemed like a nice woman.

Fings ain’t wot they used to be!

Posted on July 27, 2008
Filed Under General Ramblings | 2 Comments

The old song by Joe Brown and the Bruvvers from lord knows when came to mind this afternoon when I downloaded and installed a new media player for my laptop. As part of it’s installation routine it went off and rummaged through the hard disk to unearth anything it thought I might like to play.

One set of songs it unearthed were a dozen or so by Rudy Vallee. I must have copied them from a CD sometime last year to play when the oldies returned but forgot all about them… until now!

Just for fun I let them play and an interesting bunch they are ranging from “Heigh-Ho Everybody Heigh-ho” to “Let’s Do It”. Good stuff, even if it’s a little off the regular track even for my extended and somewhat catholic tastes in music.

Rudy Valle died aged 84 on July 3rd 1986 after a career that spanned the period from before electric microphones to modern multi track recording.

Mr Technology puts the hammer down!!

Posted on July 25, 2008
Filed Under General Ramblings, I.T and similar | Leave a Comment

I decided over the past few weeks I needed to upgrade the security of my home wireless network because it was on a relatively weak WEP system with a 10 digit password.

For reasons anyone with a little knowledge would accept, I chose the WPA and… to be safe… chose a 40 character alphanumeric password. Wonderful.

I changed the password on the router and of course immediately lost access to the net. Windows Vista being what it is, it wasn’t immediately apparent what to do to reinstate the connection but after 15 minutes or so I worked it out. Again wonderful.

Then I remembered I had to reboot the router and modem to complete the process so off I went to do it.

Disaster. No connection.

Nothing I did made any difference. I rewrote this, disconnected that, chose this option, replaced it with that one… nothing.

I was so depressed with my inability to make such a simple thing function that I took myself off to bed to get some sleep, think it over and recover a little (we’ve had some late nights and early mornings).

When I woke an hour or two later I returned to the computer *determined* to force it to my will. Then I sat and thought about what was really happening and went to check the modem.

Would you believe I’d not switched it back on?? I feel like screaming

Samsung Omnia (i900) update

Posted on July 24, 2008
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Seen a price for an imported 16Gb version of the Samsung Omnia i900 which comes in at around AU$1018.28 which seems to me to be a pretty good price… especially bearing in mind my having bought the iMate JasJam for a similar price 3 years or so ago.

I’m not buying it at this price though. I actually *want* a ‘plan’ from a Telco so until one of the biggies comes up with something suitable I’ll have to wait. Still, it looks as if they’re beginning to trickle into the country so maybe I won’t have long to wait!

keep looking »