The Telstra Saga Finishes!

Yesterday, I went to Crazy Johns after trying a couple of places in town to see if they had the A701s in stock, since, having called Telstra at 2pm that day, I found out they were out of stock on the bloody things and I was now looking @ the 22nd at the earliest.  Tried Signing up on Tuesday, but my application was blocked courtesy of the misappropriated debt as per Telstra Corp Must Die. I didn't have order numbers or receipt numbers with me, as I was in town, and hadn't expected any problems with all this stuff. HAH!

Today, I went in and got myself all set up, I have my A701 now! it's a beautiful little phone. but because people were out of stock, I missed out on a 512MB MicroSD Card (approx AU$30). I called Telstra Direct Marketing, and made a bunch of complaints, such as never receiving the call from the manager I was supposed to etc. and then told them I wanted them to send me a MicroSD Card. They told me they couldn't. I told them that the reason I didn't have it is their fault. They told me that they're sorry, but they still can't. I told them I at least want a $30 credit to my account by way of apology. They headed off to check that was ok with a colleague. They returned and asked me how much the card was. I responded saying that they were worth $30 at Crazy John's in Launceston. He gave me the credit at that point, and asked if there was anything else I wanted to do. I said that cancelling the order was a good move, since I already had the phone I'd ordered through them, I then mentioned that I would never deal through Telstra Direct again.

Crazy John's were fantastic. helpful, friendly, and actually knowledgeable! I got a good deal on accessories, their MegaPack (or SuperPack, or whatever it is) Bluetooth Headset, Phone Case, Car Charger, and 1yr Extended warranty for AU$99. fabulous, especially when you realise that the headset they supplied retails for around AU$99 on it own

Headset

So this is the headset, a Motorola H605, a very nice, very comfy piece of equipment. I drive at least 2 hours a day, so a comfy bluetooth item is really important.

Pack Value:
    Headset : $99
    Case : $25
    Car Charger : $20
    Warranty : $50

So we're looking @ almost 50% off.

and I know someone's going to wonder… no, I don't work for Crazy John's, nor do I know anyone who does, and they have not provided me with any incentive with knowledge that I would make this sort of a post. this is me saying they're fab. Fab Fab Fab.

Well, that's pretty much it for today.

oh, and to you, Dear Telstra Direct Marketing, "Eat S*** and die!"

Telstra have a great network, and everything works just fine unless you have to actually talk to someone. then you're screwed.

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Work, or a lack of

Well, it seems like my time of work is coming to an end…

At the moment all projects regarding IT (that's us) have been put on hold. I
have been informed that there is not enough budget for you to be working at
the moment and not for full days either.
As the role was a part time support role for only a couple of hours a week.
This means that the current budget has been significantly drained by the
full days that you have been in there. I will find out what is possible for
work in the coming weeks. but for now have a break and this week off i will
talk more to you next week when we know whats going on.

So, we'll see, there's lots that still needs doing around the place. I don't quite understand how the budget was drained by me doing full days as opposed to me spending half days, and taking double the calendar time to complete the task. that just puts all their other timelines out unnecessarily.
*sighs*
ah well, work was good while it lasted, and I have enough to do on this project to complete the day. at which point I'm just going to have to go home one last time… it's a shame, this is a great place to work…

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Telstra Corp Must Die…

well… where to begin…

last week on Tuesday, Don got a phone call from Telstra touting the fantasticness of NextG, that we might actually get reception out here.  Don called me and asked me to look into the Samsung A701 which I did, I looked, and compared, and liked it so much that I decided I'd call them and order one for me as well. Don ordered his the following day. I was given a delivery date of Friday the 10th of November: no phone, I called Telstra, "It hasn't been dispatched yet". No further explanation. I called today to determine whether it had been sent. It hadn't. The reason it hadn't is because there was (apparently) an outstanding amount on an old (ie 2003) account, and the charges occurred after I'd transferred ownership of the account to my mother. To dispute the claim would have taken 2-3 weeks, provided I still had all the relevant documentation. I paid the $60-odd over the phone and then called them up again, as their debt collectors couldn't just patch me back through to Telstra proper. I hate Telstra so much, why didn't they tell me that on Friday?

To be fair, when I called them again, I explained what had happened, and they said "that's horrible, I'll set up a credit to your new phone account for the nearly $60" and I'm getting a call from their manager tomorrow, apparently (I'm not holding my breath). And the phone has been dispatched, It's supposed to arrive at work (well, @ the Student Association anyway).  When you speak to Telstra, and make shows of good faith, it seems to work in your favour. Although the experience leaves me asking "why, before I paid, would it have taken 2-3 weeks for the investigation to conclude, when after I paid, the whole thing took me about 5 minutes?" I don't know…

Don was told his phone was due to arrive tomorrow, and he got it today. I'm mildly frustrated, esp since it's actually a -really- nice phone! It's great! We played with it for a while, and I've just been getting all the stuff off my V3 before the new phone arrives. We still have no reception at the moment.

I'm a bit of a videogamer, and I've been playing "Arc:Twilight of the Spirits" over the last few days, it's a really nifty RPG, I'm quite pleased. If you have a PS2 and some time to kill, I'd definitely recommend it. Thus far it seems you get to kinda play both the good and the evil heroes, who are, strangely enough, brothers. Check it out.

Well, that's enough for today I think.

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Freedom!

And so, friends, this is how freedom is won. not in battles with swords or guns, but by putting down the damn pen at the end of your last exam and feeling your hands magically uncramp! The Tas University system now has only cursory control over me until next semester begins (I work at the uni now.) and it feels fantastic! (having said that, I'm blogging from the uni right now).

I'm loving Telstra right now.  The NextG network is supposed to have much better coverage than the GSM network, so Don and I are getting new phones, Samsung's A701 to be precise. It's a nice looking phone, and the fact that we might actually have mobile connection at home was the deciding factor. (that and it's costing us the same amount as we were spending before with two brand new phones into the bargain)

Lady Livia has her last exam ever coming up, as does the Divine Miss C and I wish them both the absolute best of luck with it! C dear, you can beat Mr Cameron-Jones! I'm sure of it!

we have new shelves up! I've been painting them, and, I've just discovered in the mirror here at work, that I have bright blue paint in my hair… bugger.

and now I'm waiting for DVDs to copy. It's almost as much fun as watching the paint dry yesterday! ah well, life goes on and it's easy money.

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Data Structures and Bloody Julian

So yesterday I had my third of four exams, third of the three over the last four days.

Mobile and Ubiquitous: No real dramas, there were a couple of odd questions, but nothing that I couldn't put something down for. expecting Credit/Distinction

Computer Security: Missed one Question: "In Operating System security, what do the letters TCB stand for? What is a TCB?" The Answer was a Trusted Computing Base. and it's a platform where resources can only be accessed via a Trusted Pathway. bugger, but oh well. Distinction/HD expected.

Programming and Data Structures: Nightmarish; Missed nothing, but was writing up until the end of the time basically, 2 minutes to spare.  Question 1 on the paper got corrected half and hour into the exam (ie after I'd answered it) and one of the questions worth 25% of the exam marks was nasty. we were told to consider a Vehicle Registration Database. asked 2 questions at a State Level: What underlying Data Structure would you use and why (Array/Linked List), what ADT would you use to implement it? (Binary Tree, General Tree, Queue, Stack etc)
I said Binary Tree: with a LL. "Infinite" Growth potential (LL) combined with quick searching (BinTree).
then they said "there are 8 state databases, and they are all linked in a federal system, how would you implement this (same questions as before) I said Array (finite and relatively unchanging number of items, similar in number to the maximum elements in the array) and a Stack would be suitable. (Sequential Access is all that's required since for most items you'd just search through each state before going to the next(well, you'd start threads and run it concurrently, but that's not the point.)) then we had to implement it. well, Binary Trees are easy to implement provided you can determine "before" and "after" a given value. guess what we weren't given in the "LicensePlate Class" (which was a constructor followed by "…") and we were told we could assume it had getter and setter methods.  I spent ages writing (in the State DB thing) how you'd determine the before/after status. then after sinking into despair, I went on to other questions. as I got back to the question at hand I realised "assume a 'before' 'after' and 'getNextNum' method exists in LicensePlate" and then instead of 3 pages for 1.5 methods, it was 2 pages for the whole State Class.

Bloody Lecturers.

Monday, got the stitches out of my back!
I'm all clear, no mole issues at all!
hurrah!

my desk is clear again! wow it looks nice. I have to work much better at keeping my desk looking good.

Today was good, I worked, I work at the Timber Research Unit, and I've just about finished the archiving. on to fixing the weather station issues. The people there are great, so much fun to work with.

I gave C a sippy cup for use at Degrees. (she spills things there, ask Michelle)

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