Author Archives: Rex

Australian internet censorship

Update: while the following should work to circumvent the blacklist of sites, packet filtering is another issue altogether. But the real point is that we, as Australian citizens, should not have to go to these lengths to get a clean internet feed. The issue of the Australian Federal Government filtering internet content has been brewing for some time. I have always thought that it would be relatively easy to write a Perl script to fetchmore »

Trends in internet browsers, search engines and operating systems

My blog and business web site statistics give me an insight into what is happening on the internet. Sure, it is a small, statistically-insignificant snapshot, but can be interesting none the less. The following numbers are for the last month. Take browsers for a moment. Visitors to this blog in the last month have used the following browsers. Internet Explorer 46.42% Firefox 39.27% Safari 8.08% Chrome 4.04% Opera, Mozilla, Camino, Konqueror and Operamore »

Vista sidebar gadgets stop working — possible fix

I recently bought a new PC running the Microsoft Windows Vista Business 32-bit operating system. After a couple of days, the gadgets in the sidebar stopped working. I Googled for an answer and came up with numerous posts about an issue with Internet Explorer 8. I decided to just put up with the issue and wait for Microsoft to bring out a patch. However, I recently changed back to a standard sized font and discovered thatmore »

Bing is bung

My day job is in the marketing/public relations industry. It therefore never ceases to amaze me when half-baked products get launched into the market place. And so it is with Microsoft’s new search engine Bing. In the last week, Bing has received publicity in the media that I consume. Like many others, I was tempted to take a look. For sure, the front page of Bing signals that it is a beta version.more »

New PC

I recently decided to get my share of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s fiscal stimulus investment allowance bonus — I bought a new computer. Now, regular readers of this blog (hah! I don’t think there is anyone in that category, but I have plenty of passers-by — where was I? ohh yes …) will think that I am incapable of doing anything other than whinging about things, but that is not so! I boughtmore »

HP Officejet Pro L7580 network connection solution – throw it in the rubbish bin!

The title of this blog post is only half in jest. Yes, I have found a dodgy workaround to the Hewlett Packard Officejet Pro L7580 printer network connection problems, but one does have to wonder whether throwing the printer in the rubbish bin is actually the best solution! Read on … When I went into business a couple of years ago I bought a HP L7580. My rationale was that HP printers had been used inmore »

Casio CTK-3000 keyboard

My five year old daughter has started learning piano through Groove n Move School of Music at Coorparoo. Their recommendation is to just buy a cheap $100 keyboard from Target or Big W to get the child started. Sensing an opportunity to get another musical instrument, I did a little research and decided to purchase a Casio CTK-3000 digital keyboard/electric piano. I bought it off eBay including a keyboard stand and AC adaptermore »