The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Editorial Gary Taig editor@melbpc.org.au |
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Last month I told you about the Netcomm V-100 telephone adaptor for VoIP, and lo and behold during the month a press release arrived telling us of the first tests in Australia of a Broadband over Powerline system. It reads in part "Broadband over Powerline (BPL) technology has passed a major milestone with Australia's first successful delivery of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) across a BPL network. The <ro1P calls have successfully linked to land line and mobile phones as part of a trial being carried out in Queanbeyan by a leading Australian energy services business...." and on they went to say that BPL trials are expected to continue for another 18 months. What is to come? Sometimes it's easy to find yourself momentarily wishing you were back at the other end of your lifespan.
Camera Specifications
On the photo competition page I undertook to print the specifications of the Nikon D50. Yes...well, in fine print it covered just under two pages.
Cheap Ink Cartridges?
Been buying on eBay? During the month Epson sent some information about someone selling counterfeit Epson cartridges on eBay. It reads,
"Cartridge seller charged after police raid.
9 June 2005: Victorian Police have arrested three people and charged one in connection with the alleged selling of counterfeit Epson inkjet printer cartridges on eBay.
Police seized 4435 cartridges and associated packaging in a raid on a house in the Melbourne Suburb of Box Hill in late May.
Police said that the person charged had been attempting to sell the alleged counterfeit cartridges in small quantities on eBay as genuine Epson inkjet cartridges. The cartridges have a street value of up to $30 each or more than $130,000 in total. The cartridge packaging carried the label Made for use in China.
The person has been charged with attempting to obtain property by deception, obtaining property by deception, and various copyright and trademark infringements. He is expected to appear in Ringwood Court on 8 July 2005."
The Police Media Liaison office has confirmed the information supplied by Epson.
That reminds me of a cheap colour cartridge bought at a Swap Meet; when it arrived home an inspection revealed the name Singapore stamped on the bottom of the box. The cartridge went into the printer okay, but when I tried to begin the routine to "align the print cartridges" a message popped up saying that it was out of date. It wouldn't work. You have to be so careful.
Search Engines
An Australian search engine developer named Mooter has apparently designed a contextual advertising product that competes with Google Adsense, and we may write about them in a forthcoming issue. However, when searching for additional information I ran across a story that tells of a Google campaign against Spyware; it's nice to see them taking this initiative. Google has outlined a set of principles and wants to promote discussion in the industry with the view to the industry adopting the guidelines. As they say in the classics, this could be the start of something big. See http://www.google.com/corporate/software_principles.html
Linux in the Northern Suburbs?
If you live or work north of the city and you're looking for an opportunity to
meet with fellow members, member David Hatton has gathered some support and now
wants to test the temperature of the waters north of the city. Please e-mail
David and let him know you'd like to be part of a Linux group. As with all
special interest groups, attendance is entirely casual; the only person who must
be there every month is the convener. So even if you would attend only once in a
while, do register your interest.
You'll need to know two things:
This is so that your message
will be seen and won't get lost amongst all the Spam that David deletes every
time he logs on.
and
In June, when discussing the Nikon Camera I wrote "So, start shooting, pick out
your best shot every month and enter it". One member picked me up on that and
wanted to know which was correct, the Editorial column or the Competition Rules.
I assured him as I assure everybody, the competition rules prevail. The periods
are bimonthly, they are as defined and my loss of connection between fingers and
brain was temporary.
Reprinted from the July 2005 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
