Smoko should call it quits, Quit says – Yahoo!7 News

I really don’t understand some of the things that people go on about, such as whether a tea break is called a ‘smoko’. For me, ‘smoko’ means tea break, and, as a non-smoker, it doesn’t make me all of a sudden have the urge to grab a pack of cigarettes. Now calling the break ‘quito’ makes me think of the end of the day… quitting time. Where I work no-one calls a cigarette break, ‘smoko’, its more like, “Mate, are you going out for a smoke.”

Imagine if this got passed as a law that no-one is to use ‘smoko’ to describe a tea break, or a hefty fine will ensue. I wouldn’t be surprised in these worsening times for litigation and general pettiness that something as preposterous as this would be put through.

I sent a query to the Library I mentioned in the previous post and a kind soul there found the book in question, as well as the National Emergency Relief Guide, and confirmed that there are adverts in these books and that these were received in the same manner as we have received our copies. The Library has no requirement for these publications, so if you would like to have your very own copy, you might like to quickly contact them, before they are recycled.

Another Government Council, Cuballing, got ‘fleeced’ (pun intended) by paying $425.70 for ‘advertising’ in the National Emergency Relief Guide in November 2007. Either, other State’s Councils aren’t getting caught out by the unwanted solicitations, or they are better at hiding their minutes away from Google’s prying eyes.

After receiving a comment from Paul about his dealings with “The Underprivileged Children’s Guide”, I decided to have a quick Google and see what else came up.

It turns out that the guide may well be a legitimate book and is listed by the FPWA Sexual Health Services WA Library, although it isn’t available for loan. I’ve never doubted the information that has been in the proof books that we have received, as they were quite interesting, it was only the advertising that was dodgy. Does it mean that an old stand alone publication has been used and simply had advertising added to it?

Another interesting discovery was that in June 2008, the Joondalup (WA) Council paid $423.50 (Page 78 of the pdf) for “Advertising” in The Underprivileged Children’s Guide.

An article I missed before… Scams rife, fraudsters net victims

TOOWOOMBA resident June Winter is one of a long list of victims affected by cruel scams in the Garden City.

A bill of $400 came in her letterbox a few weeks ago asking her to pay for an advertisement which the company claimed she placed in The Underprivileged Children’s Guide.

“I was unaware that I had even put an ad in this publication and was continually harassed by a female operator asking for the money to be paid,” she said.

“The female operator said I had agreed on the ad three months ago and I was sure this wasn’t the case. A booklet with my business name was sent out to me a few days later.

I realised that there were more Toowoomba businesses featured.”

She contacted the various business owners who were all unaware of the publication.

“Everyone I contacted was furious about what had happened and had also been harassed by a female operator to pay the bill,” she said. “I even searched for the company, but found that it ceased to exist. I contacted Fair Trading and I am waiting for their response.”

Member for Toowoomba North Kerry Shine has warned Toowoomba residents not to get caught by scams. He has launched Fraud Fortnight and said the campaign aimed to raise awareness about the serious threat to personal identity and financial security posed by scams.

“The Office of Fair Trading received more than 1625 complaints about scams last year with 217 coming from Toowoomba alone,” Mr Shine said.

“These figures are only a fraction of the number of scams we know are circulating in the community.

“Many victims of scams don’t report the crime because they feel they’ve been duped and they’re willing to bear the amount of money lost out of fear of embarrassment.

“Fraudsters can make tens of thousands of dollars from unsuspecting victims and they don’t care who they target.”

The top five scams reported in Toowoomba are fake lotteries, chain letters, invoice fraud, which targets business through fake advertising and directory listings, advance fee fraud (also referred to as Nigerian scams) and gambling software.

It’s nearly been a week since I put Ubuntu on this laptop, and I must say, it has been pretty much a joy. I still wouldn’t call it an operating system for the masses, but once it’s set up and all you wanted to do was your web browsing, email, documents etc., ie. what most of us do, it is very good.

My issues have been with the networking and handling of certain files. The networking is pretty much sorted with the fix mentioned in the last post, not as friendly as in Windows, but it works as expected as long as I know the IP Address of the computer I want to connect to. The handling of files issue, and most are already supported on startup, is when you click on ‘Open With’, you don’t get the familiar list of programs you can use, you have to guess where to find the programs.

It might sound like I am bitching, but I am genuinely impressed with this version of Ubuntu, and ultimately I am having less dramas than I have done with Vista. Everything that I require on my laptop has just worked, except those couple of slight issues mentioned. Actually, the only other thing I haven’t set up is my networked Canon printer. That could be interesting…

Well, my curiousity got to me so I decided to set up my Canon Pixma MP450 printer that is shared from my XP based PC. It turns out that to set up the printer is the same as the Windows Shares, as in I had to enter in the IP Address followed by the printer’s Share name. So mine was smb://192.168.0.10/CanonMP450… There was no driver for this particular printer, but the MP170 driver seems to work well.

An ongoing issue with my Acer Aspire 5720z laptop has been the poor sound quality when playing flash movies, like YouTube. Actually, it was ANY sound, because even the Windows Vista startup sound was distorted or echoing.

Other issues with Vista, this is the 64 bit version by the way, included a lack of drivers for my Bluetooth dongle and the amazing amount of heat that was created by my laptop. This wasn’t all the fault of Vista of course, as I recently cracked open the bottom of the laptop and cleaned out a good wad of dust and crud from the fan. This dropped the running temp of the dual core processor by more than 10 degrees Celcius.

I initially decided to try Vista 32 Bit, but had dramas getting it installed and thought to myself, “Bugger it, lets see what Ubuntu Linux can offer nowadays…”
So, 700mb or so later I had a copy of Ubuntu Linux 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) downloaded to install on my willing laptop.

For those new to Linux, it is an open source (see free) operating system that can be used on all sorts of computers, and is actually brilliant in some forms to make your old, what you thought to be slow, computer into a speed demon for browsing the ‘net or completing your general computer tasks.

Linux comes in many forms, or distributions, but for every day computing I have had the most success with Ubuntu. One of the biggest beefs new users have with Linux, is that not everything works out of the box, not that Windows is that great at times as I have found with my Bluetooth. This was one of the reasons I gave up on Ubuntu when I tried it before, the other being that it was more difficult to use the Windows specific programs I was used to, ie. PhotoShop.

Now, Ubuntu does not have to be installed on your computer for you to try it out, because it is what is called a Live CD. This means that it runs from the CD you created without modifying your computer at all. Great for those people who just want to see what its like and whether it will work with their system how they want, before taking the leap and installing.

Okay, I’m not going to make this too in depth, I just want to give my opinion of how the install went, so have a look at Lifehacker Australia for their review.

After setting up the hard drive partitions to accept Linux, the install was a breeze, so fast! One thing I noticed while in the ‘live CD’ version was that my Broadcom wireless card wasn’t picked up. Thankfully, once installed to the hard drive, Ubuntu found the Wireless card and installed the required drivers without a drama.

So I’m thinking this is pretty awesome, lets try something else…

I use Mozilla Firefox as a web browser, another open source program, mainly for it’s potential security advantages over Internet Explorer, and it just happens that Ubuntu uses Firefox as it’s default browser. Bonus!
I had backed up my Firefox profile before wiping out Vista, and once I had unhidden the correct directory I copied the profile over and it worked just like it was in Vista, with all of my settings just how I left it.

One of my addictions is a flash game called Farm Town on Facebook. I thought everything was working perfectly with Firefox, videos and sound work great, but a couple of the screens in Farm Town didn’t work correctly, ie. the chat screen would let me see messages but not send, the shop screen had no scroll bars and the Preferences screen had no check boxes. After ensuring the latest version of Flash was installed I found the simple solution was to make the game go into full screen mode… Always takes forever for me to find the easy way.

For email I use Mozilla Thunderbird, again open source and I had backed up the profile, just like Firefox. All of my emails were back. Great stuff! Of course, it might not be quite as easy for you to get your emails from Outlook, but there are Import/Export options for these programs, so it isn’t a great drama.

A summary of how it has been for me so far, 24hrs.

Acer Aspire 5720z
T2310 1.46Ghz Dual Core Processor
2.5GB RAM
160GB SATA Hard Drive
Broadcom Wireless

Ethernet – Great
Wireless – After initial startup the drivers were found and installed. It works with my WPA-PSK Wireless Network perfectly.
Web Browser (Firefox) – Flash movies great, sound great, general look and feel is just how I want it. Just the glitch with the Farm Town flash game, but the developers are looking into that.
Email (Thunderbird) – Great
Bluetooth – This is a no-name Bluetooth dongle from DealExtreme.com and just worked. Awesome!
Sound and Graphics – Just worked. The screen has a little flicker after being idle for 20 seconds or so, but in use it is great. There is no annoying glitch with the sound. Yaaay!
Heat – The processors are running at 45 deg Celcius, like Vista generally did, but the fan doesn’t seem to work anywhere near as hard to maintain the temperature, and the keyboard isn’t hot like it was with Vista.

When all is said and done, I am happy with the change over to Ubuntu 9.04, but I haven’t done anything very taxing yet.
Definitely worth having a look at the Live CD if you are curious!

Addendums
I’ll keep adding my learnings here…

I totally forgot about Network Shares and it isn’t going as well as I’d like, yet. I can list the network shares on my Windows XP machine, but no interaction as yet. Getting through to the NTFS Windows Data partition on the Ubuntu laptop’s hard drive also took a tweak but now works as expected.
Hmmm… so by using Firefox with an address of smb://192.168.0.(10 in my case) I can browse my Windows XP computer and watch the shared videos while in Firefox. Not quite there, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

Okay, so this work around solves my issue for now…

Originally Posted by nsew View Post
I decided to try going to Places -> Connect to Server -> Service type = Windows Share. Filled in the details, and now I have the folders mapped, and appearing under Places.

Kenyan man sues over sex boycott – ABC News Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Hmmm… Where’s my pen!?! Okay fellas, I’m starting a petition to get this bloke slapped around for a bit, as well as the morons that let it go to the Nairobi High Court. Ohh my lord, he had to go a WHOLE week without sex…

I think all of us blokes should be suing womens’ movements across the World because of the stress and anxiety from having limited sex… Sheesh!

YouTube – Inki and the Minah Bird.

I have been looking for this clip for sooo long!! I just love how the Minah Bird moves to the music, and how he is just too cool for school!

I am very cynical thanks to the number of bogus phone calls we have been getting of late and yesterday I received an interesting phone call from a lady claiming to be studying typesetting. I’m kicking myself for not going into it further with her, but essentially her teacher had given her one of the publications for her to practice her new found trade on.

Bells were ringing here as I’m thinking that they are hitting us up to try and make the adverts closer to being correct by asking us for artwork and correct business details so they can ‘practice’. Cynicism once more, but I feel if they get the adverts closer then perhaps they will have a greater chance of getting the money from their ‘marks’.

Another one to watch out for. I’d be interested to hear from these ‘students’ again and will try to press them for more information.

AFL Season 2009 Toyota commercial.

This one gave me a chuckle…
I just saw the Toyota sponsored AFL advert (The link has the video)… In one part of it two 4x4s are trying to cut off the footballer and then one of them drives over a mound… Have a guess what sort of vehicle is the one that rolls over while the flash Toyota Prado continues the chase!?! A Nissan Patrol, of course!

I sent an email to WA Scamnet, part of the WA Department of Commerce, because I wanted to get some information about the false information, ie. incorrect ABN, being printed on the solicitation letter that we received previously. Below is the helpful advice I received from them. Admittedly I haven’t followed up on the information, but I plan to in the future.

Thankyou for your email.

I recommend that you verify the business registration details of this company at the business names division of Office of FairTrading in Queensland.
Their contact number is 13 13 04. You may enquire with business names if the ABN Number must be shown on invoices.

You may also conduct a company search Australia wide at the Australian Securities Investment Commission.Their contact number is 1300 300 630.

If the business is registered and you believe that the solicitation is false and misleading because of have either ommitting information or having false information you may lodge a complaint with the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) to assess possible breach of the Trade Practice Act 1974. Their contact number is 1300 302 021. It may also be a regulation under the Trade Practice Act that the ABN must be displayed. Please check with the ACCC.

Please accept some additional information on unsolicited Invoicing

It is a breach of the Fair Trading Act for anyone to assert a right to payment from you for unsolicited services, including advertising, unless the person believes there is a right to payment.

It is also a breach for someone to falsely represent that you or a representative of your business has agreed to acquire their services.

Scammers who usually telephone their victims, posing as reputable publishers selling advertising space or directory listings are referred to as ‘blowers’.They may repeatedly send invoices and demand payment before they receive any signed authorisation from you.

It is common for scammers to claim fees for advertising or directory listings in publications, which often do not exist. And if the publication does exist it is usually of poor quality and low in circulation.

Telephone canvassers will often ring to “confirm” an earlier booking. This ploy is designed to trap the unwary into believing someone else in the business had already authorised the advertisement. They often pretend that the initial call comes from the Charity or Government Department and then a few days later another from a separate publisher or printer.

It is important to note that you are under no legal obligation to pay an account or a claim for payment for an product or service , if you did not authorise the contract.

In the case where the advertisement is in a directory, an entry is only authorised if the publisher has obtained a signed document giving that authority from the customer.

It is recommended that you never offer information over the telephone about your business. This information is often used to allege you or someone they can identify by name or position has authorised the advertisement.

However, the following procedures can be adopted in order to avoid unethical traders asserting a right to payment for unsolicited products and services.

1. All orders regardless of how small should be recorded and crosschecked by the person who pays the accounts;
2. Never pay anything that has not been authorised or fully understood;
3. Do not give personal or banking details to anyone you do not know and trust;
4. Request the street address and phone number of any trader offering a product or service. Check them out with Consumer Protection;
5. If a call or letter is supposedly related to an existing charity, association or alleged Government Department on whose behalf it is said to be published contact the
organisation yourself to verify;
6. Require sighting of the proof copy of any proposed advertising before giving approval to publish;
7. Request a copy of your signed authority;
8. Require evidence of distribution of the magazine (not just printing) before payment of the account, some are sent only to advertisers;
9. Do not take verbal assurances on their face value, check;
10. Be wary of letters advising you to register or renew your business domain. Some scammers charge more than double the going rate for the service or trick you by
offering to register a very similar name to your own;
11. Alert WA ScamNet.

The Department is confident that if the above measures are adopted the less likely it is that businesses will be taken advantage of.

You are welcome to continue to forward further scams to the Department, which will be kept on our database for future reference. Our reply paid address is:

WA Scam Net
Reply Paid 64772
Locked Bag 14
CLOISTERS SQUARE WA 6850

Alternatively you can email wascamnet.

Thank you for your continued support of WA Scam Net.

If you have any further queries you are welcome to call our Contact Centre on 1300 30 40 54, Monday to Friday, 8.30am – 5pm.

Kind Regards