The Home of Tom & Morven

I got an SMS today from Optus - an advertisement text message about a new service where if you specify 5 phone numbers you call regularly you get extra credit each month. Thinking this is perhaps actually worth my time setting up, I go to the Optus website and try to register an account.

In the login screen, I get to the password stage, so I randomly generate a 150bit password using software I use to translate mouse and key input into a randomly generated password. It took a minute for me to realise that the maximum alphanumerals it can contain is 20. Then it took me another minute to realise that it can only be between 3 and 20 alphanumerals. So I try one 19 long which is now only 105bit cipher strength instead of 150bit. Geez who are these people dictating what the maximum cipher strength we’re allowed to have in our accounts. It’s not like a few extra digits here or there on their servers is going to overload their server!

Anyway, five minutes later, and using a password as simple as testpassword123 didn’t work. I then tried using Internet Explorer, and it still didn’t work. Determined, I went back to Mozilla Firefox, and about ten minutes later, I found a password that worked! The password was (don’t be concerned I’ve already changed it) Optusisshit01. No kidding, it’s the only password I could get that worked!

Happy with this (albeit 60bit cipher strength) password, I logged into the Optus Web Account and discovered I then had to “link an account” to this web account, even though the web account required my phone number as part of allowing me to setup a web account. Go figure.

Anyway, so I click on the Link Account option, and get this:

Deciding I should probably change my original password considering I’m publishing what it was on the internet, I go to change my password. This time, they are more flexible with the password options, and don’t specify the maximum length it needs to be. They also specify you can use other characters too! How nice. However, the proof is in the pudding:

Another five minutes later, I eventually find another password that works. FYI adding an extra numeral to the end of the original didn’t work, nor to the start of it! It seems you have to actually use passwords that undermine Optus in order for the password to work. As funny as it is, I won’t tell you what this second password is because then I’ll have to try to change it again, and I’m running low on patience as it is Thinking now that I don’t want to be disappointed and find out later that my password isn’t really working even though I’m logged in at the moment, I thought it would be a good idea to logout and login again, just to check I can use this password more than once. Upon clicking on login after logging out, I get this:

This is the first time a website has demanded that I restart my web browser apart from after installing more software, a plugin/extension, or a codec of some description. Now I just give up. Optus can take their Optus Turbo MyTime, and ***** it up their ****, because this is MY time you’re wasting.

I’m allowed to say this, right!?!?

Eventually though, I managed to get to the linking of account screen by clicking on the other link. It seems the first was just a red herring to keep you on your toes.

So in the screen that I get to, which I thought was for linking a mobile phone account to my mobile phone web account, I come across yet another road block:

I’ll admit that it’s possible I’ve been distracted by the fact that I’m blogging about how bad the optus website is, and it’s possible I may have mis-read critical information which resulted in me ending up in the broadband internet side of Optus. Which reminds me, I should also blog about why not to use Optus or Telstra as your ISP (Internet Service Provider) - I have so many bad stories about people getting screwed over by those two companies. Anyway, back to the topic on hand. I think I got to this point on the website not just because I’m distracted by blogging. I think it’s partly to do with the stupid amounts of bright colours and annoying flash animations that are going on. Speaking of which, I couldn’t even load the website at work (note to SWK/ABR: it was on unpaid time, after work hours, whilst I had a few minutes to kill before heading off to a training seminar) to work because if you don’t have flash installed, you just can’t load the website AT ALL.

So now I go back to the original text message I got from Optus, scroll further down on my phone, and find that you have to ring a phone number to setup the new benefits of Optus MyTime. You are greeted by a machine which gives a 5 minute spill about the new benefits and the new contract. It then tells you to press ‘1′ to switch to the new contract. But hang on a second, I don’t recall “off the top of my head” what call rates I’m paying, so I suspect this new MyTime is really just a trick for them to get out of their original contract. This is where I cut my losses and go to bed, it’s just too difficult. I have no information from Optus that directly compares the deal that I currently have, with this new deal they are offering. It’s like someone offering me a much more tastier pizza, but then after I’ve already accepted, I find out it’s a much smaller pizza.

If you enjoyed reading this and want to hear about my recent experience with Telstra putting “Telstra Home Messaging” on our home phone (without us knowing) and then not being able to turn it off once we realised, and then refusing to accept there is a fault in the system which wouldn’t allow us to turn it off ourselves, and then getting angry at me when I tried to convince them that I shouldn’t have to call up more than ten times.

Today Morven & I decided to go for a walk in Sturt Gorge. We checked out the council website and found a Walking Trails brochure of the area, and decided on a trail that is only 6km long but rated as “hard” and sounded really interesting (Sturt Gorge walk, “Walk A”). We decided not to print the map, because we had the GPS. It was an awesome walk.

At times, the trail seemed a little washed away and was a little hard to follow. It seemed to come to a dead end at one point, so we back-tracked to a 4WD crossing over the river, and hopped across the rocks. It took us up a massive hill on the other side of the gorge to what we started. At this point, the GPS informed us we were heading in the right direction of the car, and it was only 800m away. Since we’d already been walking for an hour and a half, we decided just to follow the road back to the car. AFter walking for a few minutes, we were only 400m away from the car - but it was pointing to the other side of the Gorge! We kept walking, hoping there would be a road which hooks back around the gorge. At the point where we were now 1.2km away from the car, and heading in completely the opposite direction, I called my brother to look up Google Maps for us. After a few minutes of discussion, we realised we had to just go back into the Gorge and do what the GPS told us. This is where the real adventure started, because we had to connect all these really vague, indecisive trails together to work our way down into the Gorge, and cross the river several times just so we could walk along until we found a section where there wasn’t a 20m cliff face in our way. It was amazing to see what we had walked down when we got back up to the top on the other side.

Eventually we got back to the car, and went straight to a deli in Flagstaff Hill and “gorged” our faces with food and drink. What an adventure! Check out the rough sketch of where we went on Google Maps.

Highlights of the walk (apart from doing it with my lovely girlfriend) were getting right up close to some really old Xanthorreas plants (commonly called “black boys”), hopping over slippery rocks whilst walking beside/along the river, and having to hug a rock wall whilst standing on suspended tree roots only 4cm in diameter just to continue along the walking track without falling into the river, and of course all the beautiful scenery along the way!

I haven’t updated my blog (as promised) about the new computer I’m using these days. I’ve finally got 2 x 120mm Scythe S-Flex Fluid Dynamic Bearing fans, and a Scythe Ninja CPU heat-sink in the system. It is kind of disturbing that just those parts cost $160, and they don’t do anything except make the computer more silent than it already was. I kind of justified it though by the fact that it would also cool the computer better (in particular the CPU) which is a high priority considering I’m running the Core 2 Duo CPU at 100% on each core with Prime95, and that system stability is almost just as important to me these days as cardiac stability of my body (so true, so true…).

Anyway, here are a few pics of my system (aka FlammobammoMk3) in action!

I’ve learned the majority of the ins and outs of Windows Vista now, and discovered that all the software problems I was experiencing have been due to DEP (Data Execution Prevention) which Vista by default enables this for Vista programs and services, although I had also enabled it for all other programs. Sure enough, turning it back to the default DEP setting did wonders. I’m slightly disappointed with Vista as a whole as it appears that Microsoft have realised all the weaknesses of Windows XP (compared to Linux distributions, and Mac OS X Leopard) and fixed or implemented features to produce Vista, but I would have thought that for such a long time between OS releases, and given the budget that Microsoft have, it could be much better.

One major annoyance I have is not been able to run custom services without using 3rd party software such as FireDaemon Trinity (which by the way, is absolutely awesome software for anyone wanting to run Vista as some form of server, and I highly recommend it).

Another example is for an OS that is meant to be so security focussed, I’m amazed at how unintuitive the interface for assigning permissions to specific users is. I’m also disappointed that (apart from Windows Server 2003) there is no version of Windows Vista that will allow total denial of access to a particular folder, whilst allowing access to an adjacent folder (i.e. in the same parent folder). All it does is deny access to open the folder – that is, you can actually see the folder you’re being denied access to. I can understand the algorithm of permission assignment requires significantly more processing if it is to filter out displaying of unauthorised access, but considering the resource hog that Vista already is I wouldn’t have thought a little bit more resource hogging would be a problem. The ability to do this is called ABE (Access Based Enumeration), and Microsoft have implemented this in Windows Server 2003.

Another annoyance is that when I resized my system partition, Windows Complete PC Backup no longer works, because it doesn’t recognise the fact that the partitions have changed. As far as I can tell, the only way to fix error 80780010 is to reinstall the system on exactly the same hard drive. This is completely stupid, as if I have to restore my entire computer due to a hard drive failure, of course I’m going to replace it with a new bigger, faster drive. Therefore, my verdict of Windows Complete PC Backup is: “INTO THE BIN!!!!”

I’ve now considered going back to using SyncBack which I was previously using before Vista, but now that hard drives are so cheap and my system is running so beautifully, and I know how long it takes to get everything back up and running again, I’m fully endorsing drive imaging as the optimum backup solution. I’ve tried using Paragon Drive Backup, but I’m not 100% satisfied with it due to its lack of ability to do incremental backups of the entire drive, and the fact that you can’t specify what priority of system resources it should use (such as hard drive and CPU throttling so you can use the system productively in the background). I’m going to try using Acronis instead, and will report back with my experience.

Today James Field borrowed Morven and myself to practise his photography skills for a couple weddings coming up that he’s the photographer for. Morv and I had already been thinking about getting some professional photos done because the only photos we really have of the two of us together are taken at night in less than desirable conditions, are blurred, don’t seem to be framed correctly, or I just look ridiculous as per usual due to some random awkward stance. It was mutually beneficial for both James, Morv and I, although once we actually saw the photos he took of us there was no way I wasn’t going to reward him for his services.

The layout for the day was he took photos up at Mt Osmond overlooking Adelaide, and a couple locations in the city. All up he took 150 photos, 43 of which he decided were acceptable. From those 43, we picked our favourite 15, and he then spent time adjusting the light, contrast, etc. He even fixed up my double chin! I highly recommend James as your professional photographer for any occasion, but just make sure you pay him well because he deserves it! I’m sure he’ll smack the pants off the sort of prices other professional photographers would charge, and when you see the quality of work he’s done with Morv and I you’ll totally agree.

Click on the thumbnail below to go to a gallery of our favourite 15 photos he took on the day. In case family are reading this and want to print one of these photos, just let us know which one you’d like to print so I can send a much higher resolution file.

Having seen what can be done with a good digital camera (Canon 20D) that he uses, I’m inspired to sell my little slimline camera and upgrade to a digital SLR. I like the idea of being able to shoot in RAW, where the camera saves all the pixel and sensor data, and then using Adobe Photoshop to do the actual processing of the image rather than the little processor of the camera. If you have a powerful computer, and sophisticated software with much more advanced processing features, you’re only cheating yourself out of image quality if you don’t used it (other than the time it takes to learn the software, and actually perform it). At the end of the day, the way I see it is that I might as well shoot in RAW, use up some hard drive space, and not lock myself into a reduced quality of photo from that occasion for the rest of my life as eventually one day technology will be so much better, that processing of photos will only get better and easier. The only drawback is the fact that it’s more data to have to store.

Back in late February / early March was the last of the Summer Series race, at Flinders Uni. Below is a quality pic of a fine competitor that raced this event, taken by Nick’s sister - thankyou! The poor guy didn’t know what category to race in, not having competed in cross country mountain biking for about five years. He thought all that marathon running was going to make him an elite rider but he was wrong! (I will stop talking 3rd person now and admit that this “he” was actually *me*!!). So I entered B grade like I thought I used to race. As the starting gun took off for my category, the 4 guys in front of me took off. I was coming fifth up the starting straight. Ater riding for about 10 seconds, I turned around to see how many hundreds of mountain bikers I was beating up the first hill. There was no one. I was actually coming fifth out of fifth! So I turned back to look ahead, to see the four guys ahead of me. Unfortunately, they had already finished riding up the hill, and I couldn’t even see them anymore. Oh well, “stick at it” I said to myself, because after all I am more of an endurance athlete, so I’m bound to catch up. Never quite did catch up though, and in fact I nearly DNF’ed. The course was so technical compared how it used to be five years ago, and my upper body is so much weaker than it used to be five years ago, that I took an absolute thrashing. I was so worn out and exhausted that it was excruciatingly difficult to bring myself to be able to maneuver the obstacles. I’m really quite surprised what they expect us to be able to do these days, I guess now that everyone has nice suspension and disc brakes, that everyone in general is riding over much more difficult terrain these days.

A month or two ago was the first race for the Adelaide Mountain Bike Club XC MTB Winter Series. It was on the weekend where we had the drought breaking rain, and the race was called off due to the track being too muddy on the private property. Silently I was rather happy, as I was sleep deprived enough as it was the day before.

Since that day, I had only been for a few short rides. So, the day before the second race of the season at Eagle Park, I decided to ride up to Eagle Park for some practise. Being more of an endurance athlete than anything else, riding up there, doing three laps, and riding back again totalling around 50km wasn’t really the problem. In fact the next morning on race day I was feeling all pumped up, stretched, and loosened up, and thinking that I’d race really well. I had my usual big breakfast that I always have before doing several hours of exercise, got all my lycra, arm warmers, hydration pack, energy gels, toolkit, and other miscellaneous items all geared up, did a once over on the bike, and then I was ready to go. So, I sat on the seat. Somewhat quickly, I came to the realisation that there was no way I’d be able to ride out of the driveway let along to Eagle Park because my bum was so sore from the 50km the day before. Obviously, I had done way too much riding way too quickly considering I hadn’t done stuff all riding for years and that I’m still getting used to this new seat. (It’s a tad slimmer than the motorbike seat I’m accustomed to.)

I actually haven’t been for a ride since then, and I’m coming to the realisation that I’m just not enthused about losing control over ridiculously jagged rocky, slippery, off-cambered, unstable terrain that I used to be. I think it would be a lot more enjoyable if I had some sort of upper body strength such that I don’t struggle to hold on to the bike all the time when negotiating obstacles from hell. Interestingly, I’m finding that technically I’m riding much better than I used to be able to, even with relatively little practise. I’m certain this is because my new dual suspension rig is so much lighter, more efficient, responsive, and just outright performs so much better than the 12 year old hard-tail it superseded (speaking of which, it has now been sold!) I’m so happy with this new bike that I feel it is my duty to plug how good the service is at Mega Bike. Any issues I’ve had they’ve sorted out on the spot. It’s just had the three month complimentary service and I can tell they’ve paid attention to detail. When I had a problem with my new $200 plus shoes they took them back and I had a new pair literally the next day! (Also thanks to Pearl Azumi of course). Mega Bike are so helpful, one of the fine gents spent fifteen minutes with me detailing all the cool places he’s been riding lately.

On the topic of bikes, I’ve still only been for less than half a dozen rides on the new tandem. I can’t really complain given the last two volunteers to offer going riding with me I’ve knocked back (I knocked back Morven because I thought it was too cold – alright for her when she’s sitting on the back not in the direct breeze, and I’ve knocked back Ben P. because I had already planned a mountain bike ride with Nick). The latest ride was with Ben P., up and down Waterfall Gully Road. It’s such a hoon machine, it can get seriously fast – but the faster it goes the more freaky it is as you know as a fact your life is in the full control of the person in front / behind not suddenly doing something silly.

I am so happy that Starcraft 2 website is being produced! We can expect to see it sometime next year but I have no idea when. I’ve already watched the demonstration video and I like what I see I wonder if I should plan my annual leave around the release of this game

Apart from the graphics enhancements of a decade or so, one of my favourite new features is the Protoss Mothership as seen in the screenshot below (taken from Starcraft 2 website).

In the screenshot above it is doing a special move called a Planet Cracker. It can also do two other very exciting special moves, such as a Black Hole, and also Slowing Down Time.