After driving (and fixing the bloody thing) a truck all week, I love to come home of an evening and play with my toys.
The reason I have owned MP3 players for about 6-7 years is to keep me entertained in my daily grind.
The reason for the new iPod was the space!
Sometimes on the road you cant get radio... or the music sucks... or you are just sick of the ads!
With the 160gig Classic I have my tunes, crap loads of podcasts and some vids for downtime/lunch breaks. I'm actually amazed at the amount of podcasts I go through in a week.
This is one of my gripes...
I live in the Kapiti region and am lucky enough to have cable.
Unfortunately, the plans blow dogs!
I have a 10mbit connection with a 20gig cap. I have gone over that this month with podcasts alone!
With one just-about-at-school daughter and a baby on the way, I can't afford the extra money to up my cap, and TCL don't offer a 4mbit plan with a 30gig cap for the price of the 10/20 plan. I don't need 2mbit up... I don't need 10mbit down really. but I do need 20-30 gig a month. Don't get me wrong, the speed is brilliant (I used to run a game server here and had the big lightspeed plan at the time). But in these days of uncertainty, I just can't afford the extra $$$ for the cap. Sure, If my better half was working instead of pregnant, I could. If my boss paid more, I could. If I won Lotto (ha), I could... But these things aren't happenening!
I know companies are out to make a profit.
I know I would be!
But where is a middle-ground??
TCL don't have one.
After five years I'm looking at options.
New net, new phone and no cable TV (this will greatly annoy my daughter and better-half as playhouse disney saves the day at times, and when the new baby comes, discovery will keep me sane at 3am)
C'mon, TCL, make a plan that gives me a 4mbit connection with a 30gig cap... I'm sure I'm not the only low-paid geek in the cable region!
BTW, why does every other ISP want my phone number and then tell me it doesn't exist! I have TCL phone, we do exist! Please just give me a map of your broadband areas!
Read MoreThe update is a precursor to the more hotly anticipated 11g R2 release Read More
Customer retention is something every business needs to be good at. If your customer don't come back then you'll very quickly find yourself going out of business.
Visit your local coffee shop these days and you're bound to get a loyalty card. Buy 10 coffee's and get 1 free. Visit Subway and you'll get credit that goes towards buying a sandwich. Fly with an Airline and you'll get frequent flyer points. Buy your groceries at New World or buy your petrol at Shell and you'll get Fly Buys points. I don't need to list any more - I'm sure you get my drift.
Most of these companies all exist in competive marketplaces where customers have many choices when it comes to spending their hear earned money. These companies realise that keeping their customers happy is not just something you pay sparse attention to, it's part of your core business.
Now lets look at the mobile market in NZ. Stastistics tell is that 100% of NZers own a mobile phone so I'll ask a question that everybody should be able to answer. Exactly what are Vodafone or Telecom doing for you to keep you as a happy loyal customer? Do you feel that your mobile carrier really wants your business or are you simply treated as a number? Do you think they really care if you moved away to another carrier?
This poses the question - do these companies care about customer loyalty? Both feature business models based around locking you into long into term contracts and giving you small discounts off overpriced handsets. Imagine if you wanted to buy petrol but could only do this if you entered into a 24 month exclusive contract with the fuel outlet of your choice, a contract that you couldn't break without paying a penalty. In return they would sell you a 1.5l bottle of Coke dicscounted to $3.00 - more than you would pay for this product if you shopped at a supermarket. Would you feel like you were a happy, content loyal customer or would you feel like you were just a number?
New Zealand now has a greater choice when it comes to mobile with TelstraClear launching a virtual mobile network using Telecom's CDMA network and Black+White are about to launch a similair virtual network using Vodafone's network. B+W won't be offering term contracts and instead believe they can compete by offering a package that makes their customers feel like they are receiving value for money which in turn will drive customer loyalty.
So I'll now ask the question - having been a Bellsouth & now Vodafone customer for 13 years do you really value my business? What have you done recently that should make me feel happy about being a customer of yours? How have you rewarded me for my loyalty over the years? You give me significantly less airtime for my $ spend than virtually any other Vodafone Group network. You've put up roaming rates so I now have to pay more to make calls when I visit Australia 3-4 times per year and also charge all incoming roam forward calls by the minute rather than per second. This annoyed me greatly. What else have you done? Nothing. What would I like you to do? Offer me a plan that feels like I'm receiving value for money. Don't lock me into a term contract. Don't make me laugh me by offering me $50 off a $1000 handset that's selling for $200 more than it's true market value. Quite simply don't insult me. I'm happy to pay good money each month for a plan that meets my needs.
Do you really value my business or not? If you do what are you going to do for me?
Read MoreOpening BLOB from DB as Attachment
Background
· I'm storing attachments in a Binary Large Object (BLOB) field in a table in a database.
· I also store the MimeType.
· I want to open them.
· I list the attachments for the user to peruse, with a HyperLink under the name.
· The hyperlink opens a new blank window and redirects to a blank ASPX page.
· I also pass the Attachment ID to the new page.
· The ASPX page has a Page_Load event.
· The Page_Load event gets the record and Binary Writes the byte() to the Response.
· Also, I envisage that if it was a spreadsheet, I want to launch Excel.
Problem Description
· This works for JPG.
· But didn't work for a text file.
· I haven't tried PDF yet, for instance and the text file I chose was a .reg file so that might not have been a wise test!
· First I get a debug window
· Second the browser says 'The XML page cannot be displayed'
· 'Invalid at the top level of the document'
Problem Resolution
· Me.Response.AddHeader('Content-Disposition', 'inline;filename=' & fileName)
· Now the browser asks if I want to run or save the .reg file.
· I must specify the filename, even though I’m not loading the response from an actual file (but from a Memory Stream).
· This works for XLS, PDF, and JPG.
· I haven’t tried ZIP yet.
Read MoreProblems arising at this point in testing not a surprise, says professor Read More
Former SAP man takes helm Read More
Multiple Mozilla products are vulnerable to a stack buffer overflow allowing remote code execution by enticing a user to click on a specially-crafted URL. Read More
Just noticed that the following NOTAM was published start of this month. It appears therefore to restrict operations at Wigram to specific prior approval effective back on the 1st of September (the AIP will be updated 20 Nov, but the changes read to be in effect 1 Sep). I guess that's what Ngai Tahu meant by "closed to traffic from September".
A1272/08 FROM: 31 AUG 2008 12:00 TO: 19 NOV 2008 11:00
AIP PAGE NZWG AD 2-52.1, WIGRAM OPR DATA DATED 15 FEB 07
REFERS.
DELETE ALL SUPPLEMENTARY DATA WITH EXCEPTION OF OPR DETAILS.
ADD NZWG AD UNAVAILABLE FOR GENERAL USE WITHOUT PRIOR APV OF OPR.
AIP WILL BE AMENDED 20 NOV 08.
Of course, one has to ask, "what are they gonna do about it" if somebody should decide to pay a visit without prior approval, lets just hope they don't go do a "Daley".
Also NOTAM'd at the moment is the following, I guess they are surveying for the pending slice and dice.
Also NOTAM'd at the moment is the following, I guess they are surveying for the pending slice and dice.
A1763/08 FROM: 14 SEP 2008 19:00 TO: 19 SEP 2008 05:00
DAILY 1900 TO 0500
ENGINEERS ON FOOT AND WITH QUAD BIKE EQUIPPED WITH FLASHING
LIGHT OPR ON AD
A1811/08 FROM: 17 SEP 2008 19:00 TO: 19 SEP 2008 05:00
GRASS AREA IN FRONT OF NR 4 HANGAR AND NR 5 HANGAR CLSD DUE
WIP
Read More"This is 1,400 times larger than Apple's largest iPod," says Ellison Read More
The TVNZ 7 Internet Debate, in association with InternetNZ involves four politicians quizzed on major areas of ICT policy with questions coming from you through the online chat, a studio audience, and experienced journalists.
The politicians are Labour’s Minister of Communications Hon David Cunliffe, National ICT Spokesperson Hon Maurice Williamson, ACT Leader Rodney Hide and Greens ICT Spokesperson Metiria Turei.
Broadcaster Sean Plunket will moderate the debate, with questions posed by experienced journalists Fran O’Sullivan and Russell Brown.
Mauricio has already mentioned this debate numerous times on Geekzone and from the lack of comments in the forums set up for this thread it seems that people don't seem interested in what is happening in the internet scene in NZ which is rather ironic because the second xxx ISP has poor speeds of xxx telco has a problem suddenly out of the woodwork come hundreds of people all lining up to complain!
This is YOUR chance to have YOUR questions answered by these four MP's, any of whom could be key players in the telecommunications sector in New Zealand after this years election.
Ask your Broadband questions here
Ask your cybersafety questions here
Ask your digital divide questions here
Ask your copyright questions here
Ask your convergence questions here
The debate screens live on TVNZ7 at 9pm on Tuesday 23rd September. It will also be streamed live in the TVNZ website.
Read More
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