The Home of Ben May, Hervey Bay, QLD, Australia.Personal Blog of Ben May, Hervey bay

The saying goes around a lot and when it comes to breakfast TV the saying is true. 

I’ve never liked “Today” on Channel nine. Normally puts me back to sleep, however there are 2 things on that show that I like. 1) It starts at 5:30am, rather than Sunrise starting at 6am, and they have graphics come up and say what’s happening in the next hour, ie “Interview with Greg at 7:12″ etc. 

Funny enough, Sunrise are ahead in the rankings, they are more alive and interesting, but still, that isn’t enough. I saw an email from Sunrise yesterday, announcing they were starting at 5:30, and I saw the other morning graphics coming up saying what’s on the next hour. 

Posted in TV News | No Comments

Well, It’s iPhone day for Aussies.. All the apple wanna-bes who couldn’t afford the original iPhone for $800 can now go out and get screwed by Telstra or Optus and have the slightly thinner iPhone with 3G coverage.

However, for my overpriced iPhone, I can still do everything the new ones can, without being locked on some terrible contract with Telstra, Vodafone or Optus. Smart people out on the internet have already cracked the new iPhone 2.0 software that has all the new features.

Just up at the local shopping centre where my Optus store is, there was a MASSIVE turn out. Simmilar to that of New York! (See picture below, taken on Friday the 11th July 2008 @ approx 1pm… on my series 1 iPhone)

Posted in Tech News | 2 Comments

The trailer for the new Kath and Kim TV series has been launched online. The new series is based on the Australian version of Kath and Kim that Australians know and love.

After looking at the trailer, I’m not planning on watching this. What made Kath and Kim so funny, was that it wasn’t Hollywood quality. Being produced under the ABC, it was a little rough, but it added to the effect of it being a “True-Blue” show. The accents and manor-isms of Kath and Kim were accepted with the Australian way.

Having some stupid Americans try do the same is not funny.

I enjoyed Kath and Kim and their way of life, I could appreciate it more as I know people who behave the same, or I can relate it back to my Australian culture.

Sorry NBC, you fail.

Posted in TV News | 1 Comment

Are you in need of some creative juice? See how it’s made..

Posted in Useless Crap | No Comments

Z-PAC Theatre’s latest production, the bawdy musical comedy A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum.

The production promises to be one of the best and funniest nights out you can have on the Fraser Coast and features a large cast of accomplished actors such as Richard Yaxley, Jack McKewen and Robert Garland and some well-meaning amateurs such as yours truly who are there to make idiots of themselves.

Why not get a group of your colleagues or friends together and make a night of it?

More Information (PDF)

Posted in Hervey Bay Gossip | No Comments

I found this online, this is one of the funniest videos I have seen online in a long time. Well done to “ThoseArentMuskets”, note, some swearing is in the video.

You may only understand some of the jokes if you really do follow Web 2.0 websites.

Posted in Jokes, Personal Opinion | No Comments

Whether you write your own little blog your family reads or run a business online, everything is on the internet and you just don’t know who is reading it, or what they’re doing with it. Even having a MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook account can be rather detrimental to someone’s profile.

More and more businesses are Google’ing staff before employing them. Looking at their MySpace page, seeing what they say on certain forums etc. as do businesses when engaging other businesses services. The key point is that what goes online is online and will never truly goes down.

I love the Internet for this very reason. It has so much to find, and so many hidden documents. I was doing some online research into websites and noticed a local couple I knew of. I was shocked when referencing a few different key words, to firstly establish that one of the couple used to run a pornographic website, and still has explicit sections online. This was found by simply using the Google cache feature. Running a simple whois on the domain name, I found out that this person owned the domain and had all their details right there. It seems that the other partner in this couple was a “Private Escort” which we all know what that means.

The domain name was registered through a proxy service, so you wouldn’t know who it was… APART from the fact that,

a)    The page on both websites informing users they’d closed where the same;

b)    They both pointed to the same location and;

c)    the woman’s face was clearly visible

This “escort website” was disgraceful consisting of extreme nudity, explicit images in sexual positions with others outside of the relationship and in general completely obscene.

This couple had moved from the bottom of Australia, to nearly the top, and they could move to Mexico, but wherever that Internet goes, their history will follow them.

This “escort business” was trading from 1999 to 2005 (ceasing in the local area) the web archives stated, but even 3 years after completely deleting the website, they are still on the web archive service website.
This couple boasts over 30 years combined experience in a certain professional IT field, yet 3 years ago, was a practising “escort” service?…. be careful who you engage to do business with, you may be being mislead and paying money to people for the wrong expertise!

Coming back to my original point that once something goes on the Internet it really doesn’t go off the Internet…. EVER…. If I had a deep chapter of my life that I didn’t want brought back up from the dead, I would really hate services like the web.archive.org service….then again I don’t think I’m hot enough to go totally nude online! I think I’ll stick to website design.

Posted in Internet News, Personal Opinion | 9 Comments

For those who follow the technology and those who don’t, you’ll probably know that Apple, the maker of the iPod, are releasing the iPhone in Australia July 11th, in true Apple style, the new iPhone has a tonne of new features, can do twice as much, much thinner than its predecessor, and even costs less than half! 

Apple originally launched the iPhone about a year back, for a hefty $850 USD. However, if you’re a true mac fan, like yours truly, then you’d cough up the insane amount of money and buy one. Apart from the awesomeness of the phone, you’d also have the cool factor that not many would have. 

In December 2007 I was in Hawaii, and went to the Apple store at the Ala Moana Shopping Centre, and oh man, was it a pleasant experience. Apart from being able to play with all the other cutting edge Mac gear, the iPhone just blew my mind. However, I was a little reluctant to go spend about $700, as the AU-US dollar was really good (in my favour) even though it was a good deal, I just chickened out.   

So about 6 months ago, I had some spare money sitting around, and decided to be one of the first to buy a “modified” iPhone that was designed for the USA, but would work in Australia. Wow, it arrived. What a beautiful phone. Just as I remember it in Hawaii. Amazing! 

So now, I have a Gen 1 iPhone, and Gen 2 is coming out for about $250 (Reported) but for that price, everyone is going to have one. So, effectively, the coolness factor of the iPhone drops considerably. Just think about it, half the fun of having a BMW is that really nobody else has on, and when you see every man and his dog driving one, it makes you want one so much less. 

Thanks Apple, add my Generation 1 Macbook, My Generation 1 Video iPod, and a Generation 1 iPhone. All three cost me more, and are worth absolutely nothing now. I guess that’s the price for having all the cool toys soon as they are released.

Posted in Personal Opinion, The Life of Ben | 12 Comments

Last week I had a number of tasks I had to complete. All three tasks required me to be the customer. All three situations made my think to myself how these three businesses aren’t an advocate of technology. 

Task One

This task required me to seek the opinion of an expert. I had an idea of someone to use already, but noticed an ad in the local paper for someone else who does exactly what I needed, so I thought I would enquire there first. As Monday was the Queens birthday, on Tuesday I emailed the business with the email address they advertised. Wednesday afternoon, still no answer back, and as I don’t have a long time for this, I don’t want to sit around waiting (not to mention I don’t like doing this in general)

Wednesday afternoon I rang up, asking if my email had made it to reception. “Oh yes, I did notice it somewhere” so I made it evident that I needed to speak to someone soon.

24 hours later, I rang again on Thursday afternoon and asked if they were going to be able let me know if they were even going to be able to help me. “Oh, I’ll pass it along and you should hear from someone tomorrow.” 

24 hours later, Friday afternoon and still no response from the business, even if they are able to help me or not. So I sent through another email asking to please hurry up. 

Task 2

I wanted to speak to someone about a different service, and a schedule of fees involved. I sent an email previously on the Friday morning before. So by Wednesday lunch I was eager to hear from them. I rang and asked the front desk if they had got my email, “Oh yes. I think it came through last week, correct?” Well yes, that’s why I like emails, answer them when you want, no cost, and it’s just easy.  

So after not being able to find my email, they put me directly through to someone who helped me instantly, and we arranged an appointment the very next day and it was solved. 

Where my email ended up is beyond me, and perhaps I’ll hear from someone next month? 

Task 3

This was a simple task, I had to email a new contact some requirements. I then had a few jobs I had to do, and other appointments. So later that day, the new contact rang me to confirm that they had received the email and everything was OK. 

Now why they had to Ring me to tell me that? A simple email would’ve sufficed, and been more convenient.

There actually was a forth task, that basically required the business having to post me some documentation rather than email it, as they don’t think electronic mail was secure, or reliable.

In the mean time, I checked my PO box every day this week, and 2 days out of 4 I received someone else’s mail.  Once it was someone in a completely different town with the same PO box Number, and the second time it was someone with a similar PO box number.

Now, This year alone I have received over 10,000 emails. Take out a few spam, quite a few newsletters, I have not yet received an email that had been sent to me by mistake. Nor have I sent an email to the wrong address. 

So this week, wrong email 0. wrong mail 2.

I try provide anyone I work with, the option (as a priority) to deliver everything electronically, to always email over phone, as I, and most customers, find it more convenient, for those who are on the road, or in appointments most of the day, and to follow up with contact very, very quickly.   

Posted in The Life of Ben | 2 Comments

In an age where less and less people have time for the crazy demands of the Catholic Church, it seems that the Pope and the Vatican have thought of some even more crazy rules, even after the new sins they introduced, which included being rich (Ironic from the richest organisation in the world?)

The new forms of sin where,

1. “Bioethical” violations such as birth control
2. “Morally dubious” experiments such as stem cell research
3. Drug abuse
4. Polluting the environment
5. Contributing to widening divide between rich and poor
6. Excessive wealth
7. Creating poverty

Source

Now I’m no extreme liberal with womens right etc, but it almost seems the church is doing the opposite of moving into the 21st century, and becoming more flexible with their latest stunt

THE Vatican has issued its most explicit decree so far against the ordination of women priests, punishing them and the bishops who try to ordain them with automatic excommunication.

The decree was written by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and published in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, giving it immediate effect.

Source

Posted in Personal Opinion | 3 Comments