This week looks good for us Kiwibank customers - a few new things have been introduced.
Secure Mail
Too afraid to talk over the web to banks about your problems using conventional email?
Kiwibank has introduced Secure Mail:
Here's the contents of that introduction message:
At Kiwibank we take internet banking security seriously - that's why we've introduced a new secure way for you to contact us using Secure Mail.
What is Secure Mail?
It's a totally secure, free service that lets you email us through internet banking.
You can ask us in private about your accounts or anything else you want to know - without having to pick up a phone or visit your local Kiwibank.
How it works:
- As you may have noticed, when you log in to internet banking, Secure Mail shows on your Welcome Page.
- To ask a question, click "create your message", type in your question, then send
- You'll receive a reply within two business days in your Secure Mail inbox on your Internet Banking Welcome Page.
Secure Mail is protected by the internet banking security firewalls, so the information you send and receive is completely secure.
Mobile Banking on the Web
Their mobile site has been improved to include Windows Mobile and mobile browser users as well as more improvements to the exisiting iPhone presentation like enhanced landscape views.
http://www.kiwibank.co.nz/mobile/index.asp
The TelecomONE unconference
After attending this year's Kiwi FOO (1, 2) a few of the Telecom folks there decided to work and put together an internal unconference event.TelecomONE Innovation '08 is running for three days of October in Warkworth, in the same venue used for the Kiwi FOO events before. About 80 Telecom people, both technical and business types, will get together plus a number of invited external participants - including myself. Like the FOO camp attendance is by invitation only.
Invitees are all doing interesting work and are invited to network, share their works in progress, show off the latest tech toys, and tackle challenging problems together.
I am told Telecom CEO Dr Paul Reynolds is directly supporting this initiative.
Also like the FOO camp discussions you will find there's a rule - what happens there stays there. You might find some reports about the topics, but won't see many direct quotes or references. This is the norm, to encourage an open debate, even when it involves proprietary or confidential information brought in by participants - some sessions have very interesting topics and the openess brings a lot of proprietary and private information to the room.
I think this is a great initiative and I am really looking forward to be present and contributing to the discussion.
Microsoft Windows DirectX SAMI Code Execution
Microsoft Windows DirectX could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the system.
New Zealand's national broadcaster (TVNZ) discriminating against non-Windows users?
Update: It seems that using the gxine plugin, it is possible to view those video streams on Ubuntu anyway. Some people at least got it to work using Epiphany. I can confirm that this does work, but for some reason, it won't work for me with Firefox. ... (more in the full post)
ID Theft Protection Not Worth It
Back in April I wrote a blog post where I stated that in my opinion nothing in the world of digital data is unbreakable or impenetrable and that LifeLock, an...
The Trouble with Orcon
I note that many people are reading my blog about Orcon and the trouble I have had since I signed up, so I feel obliged to give you an update.
Things have improved to some degree, I frequently have days where my connection only drops out 1 or 2 times, but I am still experiencing dropouts, disconnections this week:
- Saturday 16
- Sunday 31
- Monday 27
I also noted that people have found me when searching about the 2 for 1 movie tickets for a year that were promised as part of the connection deal. Well I signed up 4 months ago and still haven’t seen them. If they do arrive, I hope they will still be valid for 12 months and not the remainder of the year. But at this stage I’m not holding my breath on ever seeing them.
I don’t know if it is because of the interleaving, but our Caller ID doesn’t work on the phone about 50% of the time, which is annoying.
My wife wants me to go back to Telecom and thinks I’m an idiot for putting up with Orcon’s poor service. As a footnote, Orcon did come up with a $100 credit for my troubles. Funny thing is that a couple of weeks ago, even though my payment is made automatically by direct credit from my American Express Card, and I had the $100 credit, I got an email saying that my account was overdue and asking me to do something about it urgently. I was tempted to send one back saying that their service was overdue and could they give me a reliable connection urgently.
So, the bottom line? Still having plenty of disconnections, no 2 for 1 movie tickets as promised, intermittent caller id and no satisfaction. Should I be calling Fair Go?
Couple of Wigram developments.
A couple of articles of note from The Press regarding Wigram in the last couple of days.
The petition which I blogged about a couple of weeks back is in:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/4664487a6530.html
I spoke with Denis and about 3500 signatures were collected over just 10 days and with quite limited distribution, that has to tell you something, imagine the response we'd get over a longer period and with wider distribution. Denis also mentioned he conducted a bit of a survey and the large majority of respondants were in favour of the airfield staying operational.
He has delivered the petition and other information to the council to be heard at the AUgust 28th meeting and is trying to get an audience with a council member sometime before the meeting to further explain the situation.
I think it's quite clear that the people of Christchurch, when actually consulted, are quite against closing Wigram as an operational airfield. Which is why the petition is asking for the Christchurch City Council to simply hold-fire on the plan change which would see a valuable city facility (past, present and future!) destroyed until it consults with the people who elected it.
The second item of interest is that the Air Force Museum has indicated that it will prepare a grass runway on the remaining Air Force land so that the Red Checkers (and helicopters of course) team can perform at airshows, at least until the flight path becomes too crowded with housing.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/4665771a6530.html
If we want to keep Wigram alive, we need to keep up the pressure, please feel free to write (civil) letters to your council members to let them know that you are against the plan change.
Aside: Still no reply from the council members, or Jim Anderton (sitting MP for Wigram) on the letters I wrote to them. I find that to be somewhat unacceptable, especially from the council members. If the Minister of Transport for the entire country can afford to take the time to write a personal reply, you'd think the councillor for an area of a single city could at least say "thanks for the letter".
MVP Theatre at Microsoft Tech Ed Australia 2008
If you are registered for Microsoft Tech Ed Australia this year, come along you are automatically invited to come along to the MVP Theatre to watch Microsoft MVPs delivering sessions ranging from 20 minutes to the full 75 minutes on a variety of topi... (more in the full post)
Mobile Advertising, Youtube tests adverts on its mobile portal
Youtube Mobile Advertising,
So youtube has begun testing out ads for its mobile portal,
m.youtube.com.
this move doesn't surprise me, and unfortunately, I'm not neccessarily unsupportive of the move.
basically I think that ways need to be produced that allow for the monetization of mobile content in the media space, so that we are able to freely access video and music content.
I prefer ads to have to pay twice thats for sure.
especially when using the mobile sphere, as the data charges themselves are already pushing through the roof.
whilst I don't neccessarily like ads (who does) and I hate datamining, I must admit that a certain amount of datamining is _crucial_ to serving up relevant advertising successfully.
however, What I would like to see is a more engaging user model.
eg, if i click on an ad on my phone I have a present email account set up with google (for instance) that means the details of the ad gets sent there
for me to review later (although it would drop the click through rate it would increase the engagement per click)
As part of the test they are only advertising on select pages on youtube, in the US and Japan, (so us kiwi's are safe for the moment)
According to YouTube they have millions of people visiting youtube on their phones everyday...
One assumes that a majority of those millions are iPhone users.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Wireless Power shown at Intel Developer Forum 2008
I am sitting through Day 3 keynotes and now it's the Research and Development keynote session with Justin Rattner. Lots of pictures to load later, but I wanted to post this one because I think it's the big thing out here: wireless power transmission.
Unlike those "wireless power" gimmicks shown at CES, which require special connectors and devices actually touch the power source, this one transmits power over the air - we are talking about 60 watts power over two feet, at 75% power efficiency.
Based on principles proposed by MIT physicists, Intel researchers have been working on a Wireless Resonant Energy Link (WREL).
WREL promises to deliver wireless power safely and efficiently. The technology relies on strongly coupled resonators. Intel says that with this technology enabled in a laptop, for example, batteries could be recharged when the laptop gets within several feet of the transmit resonator. Many engineering challenges remain, but the company's researchers hope to find a way to cut the last cord in mobile devices and someday enable wireless power in Intel-based platforms.
Here are some pictures:
Red network here we come!
Got a letter today from Vodafone:
I'm in Howick, so I'm thinking that us Howick exchange Vodafone customers are being migrated from the 29th of September (quite a long way for me - gosh, sending out a letter a month in advance)
Particularly happy about the $20 credit for doing nothing (other than suffer through a few hours - hopefully in the early hours in the morning).
The letter also hints:
You can even look forward to making voice calls over the internet soon too.... that could mean that VoIP or Naked DSL could be introduced probably by the end of year - I hope.
All I need to do now is wait for that inevitable confirmation email...
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