UPDATE (31/12/2008): It seems like Metlink has broken this trick, so this won't work anymore. There is however, a neat site out there called iTransit that does something similar. It does favour the iPhone, but that's the only option I can think of at the moment.

I never thought this day would come, and it still isn't really here yet, but it's a promising start. I stumbled on to it while trying out their new 'beta' timetables (which are horribly broken in Firefox 3), so I assume it will be improved and officially announced soon.

It works a lot better than trying to use their main 'for desktops' website on a phone, even on the iPhone. Rather than giving you the full timetable, it gives you the next 8 or so departures from that stop. That's generally all you want to know when you're out and about (although it means you can't plan ahead, e.g. work out when the last train is until it is too late). You can even choose to get the departure time, or in 'countdown' form, i.e. departing in 5 minutes.

It is basically similar to the SMS services available from Yarra Trams and Connex Melbourne. Those existing services are in fact much more powerful than Metlink mobile. However, there is no such service on any of the bus lines, so it is new for them.

Accessing Metlink timetable information on your mobile

1. Open up your mobile's web browser. Of course, make sure you are connected to the internet blah blah.
2. Navigate to - http://tt.metlinkmelbourne.com.au
3. Here's where it gets tricky. It obviously is a prototype at the moment, so it asks you for the 'Stop ID'. See below for instructions on how to find out the Stop ID of your stop. For now, let's try a bus stop (9663 - Chadstone/Warrigal Rd/Holmesglen TAFE), a tram stop (18194 - Southern Cross/Spencer St), and a train station (19854 - Flinders St Station). Enter one of those Stop IDs into the Stop ID box.
   
   
4. Select whether you want 'Monitor' or 'Countdown'. 'Monitor' means that it returns the time of the next few services departing from that stop. 'Countdown' means it returns the number of minutes until the service departs from that stop. The examples below will explain the difference.
5. Click Submit.

And that's it! There's not much more information available yet (e.g. no platform numbers for trains); although I presume they're working on it. Here are some sample results from the service (the tram example is using the countdown mode; all others are in monitor mode):

Discovering the Stop ID of your stop

Direct method - use this method if you know the name of your stop (generally its location)

1. On your computer, open your browser and navigate to http://www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/maps_stations_stops/station_stop_information
2. Select which mode of transport you want to get on at that stop. Note - if that stop services more than one mode of transport (e.g. Flinders St Station has both trams and trains), it will have multiple Stop IDs, one for each mode of transport.
3. Using the dropdown boxes in the 'Stop Search' section, find your stop.
4. Now under the new 'Stop Profiles' section, you should see your stop. Click on the link.
   
   
5. Now either,
• look at the URL of the current page - the Stop ID is the number at the end of the URL, e.g.
  
  
• or, look at the new 'Services from this Station' section (this is part of the new Beta timetable project) - the Stop ID is displayed at the top-right of that box, e.g.
  
  

Via the route method - use this method if you don't know the name of your stop, but know the route that services it.

1. Find the timetable page for the route that services the desired stop, e.g. http://www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/index.php/route/view/956. The beta timetable pages work fine as well.
2. Click on the desired stop to go to the Stop Profile.
3. Follow step 5 in the direct method above.

For the lazy people, here are the Stop IDs for City Loop train stations:

• Southern Cross (Spencer St was a much better name) - 22180
  
• Flagstaff - 19841
  
• Melbourne Central - 19842
  
• Parliament - 19843
  
• Flinders St  - 19854
  

Where to from here?

At least Metlink is finally listening to their frequent customers and fixing their website and mobile access. The Metlink website is great for occasional use, but absolutely sucks for frequent travellers (I think I can subconsciously type in my stops into Journey Planner now that I've done it so many times). So among other things, can we have RSS feeds soon, please? Timetables and service updates are perfect candidates for feeds.Your view engine seems to be based on XML and XSLT anyway, so it won't be that hard to apply an XSLT to produce RSS.

Oh, and the URLs for the new beta timetables are ridiculous. There has to be a better way of doing things. And My Way seems to be dead, not that it was ever very useful anyway. And please fix journey planner too - it sometimes produces incorrect times.

And I hope you intend to have platform numbers, stop information, journey planner and service updates on the mobile as well.

I could go on, but I think that's enough for now

Just came back from Hong Kong a few days ago (hence the lack of posts), and what else do you do in Hong Kong apart from shop? Yep, I have to admit that I'm one of the few males that likes to shop. There I said it.

And after spending 3 weeks there, it is quite obvious how far ahead their retail sector is compared to Melbourne - shops are open til late everyday (hell, I could even go shopping right after the new year ticked over), and the staff there actually know what they're selling. Most of the worldwide brands also have stores there (noticeably missing is Apple). You'd also be hard-pressed to find a decent store that hasn't invested in some kind of design to make their store fit-out unique. And some chains even go as far as having a unique design for each store, keeping central themes running through.

They've even managed to make one of the more boring type of stores in my opinion, supermarkets, interesting, with a decent-looking store design, unique products and rarely found products (e.g. overseas specialities), exhibition spaces that rotate promoters all the time, and sales of goods that are actually related to food, e.g. kitchenware, homeware, recipe books, not TVs. I can't imagine Coles or Safeway ever doing that though; some of the organic food stores are getting started - Wholefoods isn't too bad.

Hong Kong also has an interesting trend rarely seen here - it is not uncommon for the same store to open multiple outlets on the same streets, a few shops away from each other to try and catch you attention when you make that split-second decision.  To a lesser extent, even top boutique stores like Prada and LV have multiple outlets in HK, not within the same street, but given the size of Hong Kong compared to Melbourne, they may as well be.

But all this said, there are still certain things that irk me when shopping, especially at clothing shops.

Do I secretly like cross-dressing?

Is it that hard for clothing and accessory shops to make it obvious where the male section is, so guys don't inadvertently go and check out chick's clothing when they walk into a store, only to be told by the staff that it's a female jacket when you want ask for your size?

I've lost count of the number of stores I've had to stand out the front and work out where the male section is (if there is one) before walking in. And if I can't work it out, I give up and move on to the next store - simple as that.

Stores with dark lighting and decoration definitely don't help. And it isn't just a matter of picking the left side or right of the store - you're lucky if it was that simple. Apparently, the new trend is to mix the sections together, so one second you could be browsing a rack of male clothing, then the next a rack of female clothing with no sign.

Some stores try to make it easy by placing someone out the front to direct you to the right section, but that's kind of offensive if you ask me - no one likes to admit they need help working out the difference between male and female clothing.

I'm not asking for massive signs out the front that point to the male and female sections (although I wouldn't mind); some kind of subtle message would be fine. Maybe a shade of pink/red on the female section, and a shade of blue on the male section. Or photos of males modelling clothes in the male section, and vice-versa in the female section. Just something obvious enough. Please.

What the hell does this actually look like?

The recent trend of folding up t-shirts/shirts/jackets and everything else and placing them on shelves drives me up the wall. Who the fuck buys something based on only seeing a small part of it?

I could just pick it up and have a look right? Ok, maybe it's just me, but when everything in the store is all neatly folded, I feel really bad picking something up, knowing that I have no clue how to fold it back the way it was (especially if it's folded in some retarded way). In fact, I'd rather not look at it at all sometimes.

Are the staff there really that bored that they need something as monotonous as folding clothes to do all day? Or is that the manager's sick way of getting value out of their employees...

So just for kicks, I went into the local esprit in Hong Kong, and proceeded to look at every single folded thing there. To say the least, I was clearly not welcome there again any time soon...

BRING BACK THE CLOTHING RACKS. Maybe they looked a bit daggy, but they worked. People could check out the entire piece of clothing, and if they like it, take it off the hanger for a better look. Then, if they decide against it, just put the hanger back on it (everyone can do this), and hang it back up. Simple. Revamp the clothing rack design if you want, but bring them back.

This was something Target did right, although I haven't been in one recently so don't know if they've succumbed as well.

For 6-foot-10 people only.

I'm sick of stores that place things beyond what a normal person can reach. And no, I'm not midget-sized. If your store's out of room, make room elsewhere, or rotate your stock more frequently. 

Besides, stock that's up so high is pretty useless anyway, given many people don't look up when they shop, and when they see it, they have to get a member of staff to get it down for them, who often can't reach it themselves. And when you do finally have it in your hands, there's a small sense of obligation to buy it, because you've made the staff member go to extra lengths to get it for you, and he/she is standing next to you, observing your every move.

I've actually seen someone rip the entire clothing rack down because they couldn't unhook the hanger from the rail - serves the damn store right.

This is more applicable in Hong Kong because of space limitations, but I'm beginning to see it here too.

Get the hell away from me, pervert.

I know you're probably not meeting your KPIs or your manager is breathing down your neck, but seriously, I don't care - let me look at the goods without you standing over me, or I'll walk out. This is especially worse if the store is empty - I tend to avoid them.

There's a fine line between being too attentive, and not attentive enough, as well as being helpful and being pushy. Good salespeople know where the line is, and when you can overstep it, but if you don't, then stay on the safe side, watch and learn.

For me, the best mix would be a nice welcome spiel (hi, how are you, discounts etc.), find out my interests (are you looking for anything particular...), then retreat far enough so that we're not within whispering distance but remain alert (not staring though) so that you're ready to help when I make eye contact. If I ask you something, then ignore you for a few minutes, retreat again. Short comments when I pick something up are ok too. And if I leave without buying anything; still acknowledge me and say something nice - just because I'm leaving doesn't mean I'm not coming back later.

Why is shopping so hard? Its not like the people who work at or manage clothing/accessory stores don't shop themselves. Maybe they're just too sucked into their own world, where just because everyone else is doing it means they should too. If only they'd reflect on their own shopping experiences and make their store better... maybe it won't increase sales three-fold, but people will notice, and subtle changes matter.

Bonus point -

Just thinking of the retail experience got me thinking about receipts. It's the one thing that everyone who buys something at your store gets, so why is it also one of the most boring and neglected bits of paper, where every one almost looks identical in design?

Why don't stores spruce them up, inject a bit of colour, make them distinctive, and maybe even helpful (e.g. clothes cleaning tip, sales reminder) to the customer, so it serves as a reminder of their experience at the store. And no, I don't mean crappy shop-a-dockets. Just because it's a legal document doesn't mean it can't look good. After all, it is effectively the business card to your store that all your actual customers get.

Sounds like an idea I reckon... interfacing with the POS systems in use won't be fun though, especially the ancient custom ones stuck in the terminal era.

UPDATE (29/01/2008): fixed typo in title.

This isn't the way I'd like to start the new year here, but it's creating a storm and it's something that has the potential to affect everyone as internet users.

For those who have been out partying it up over the new year and haven't yet caught up with Australian news,

Senator Conroy [Federal Telecommunications Minister] says it will be mandatory for all internet service providers to provide clean feeds, or ISP filtering, to houses and schools that are free of pornography and inappropriate material.

"If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd-Labor Government is going to disagree."

Senator Conroy says anyone wanting uncensored access to the internet will have to opt out of the service.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/31/2129471.htm

Australian bloggers are up in arms, some completely disagreeing with the proposal and think we're on the slippery slope of internet censorship, while others are commending the government for taking a such a strong stance against undesirable content on the internet.

Let's take a moment and step away from the censorship argument. I'm not going to tackle that because it has been done to death, and there is simply not enough information to seriously discuss that scenario without speculation.

Instead, I'm going to run through the reality of a clean-feed solution.

In the real world, we have classification in Australia for TV shows, movies, magazines, games, music and other types of media, provided by the Classification Board. Depending on the type of media and it's usage, classification may be required, and performed by the Classification Board, and disputes can be brought up with the Classification Review Board. Anything that needs to be classified and is not or has been refused classification can not be sold.

Here are some statistics on what they classified, 2006-2007:

• 214 publications
• 402 films for public exhibition
• 4,555 videos or DVDs for sale or hire
• 890 computer games
• 28 Australian Communications and Media Authority Internet referrals, and
• 134 enforcement referrals

http://www.classification.gov.au/special.html?n=250&p=58

The internet however, is generally unclassified. So it would make sense that we classify it, so we can block illegal content, and prevent questionable material from getting into the hands of those who shouldn't be viewing it, right? After all, no one can argue that people should be able to access child porn, and that 10 year old kids can watch hardcore porn videos.

Thing is, the internet is unlike any communication medium we have had before. Anyone can contribute content, wherever, whoever, whenever they may be, and that content is available to anyone in the world. There are no hard statistics on the amount of content on the internet due to the distributed and dynamic nature of it, but Netcraft, an internet monitoring company, recently counted 155,230,051 active websites (not pages) as of December 2007. I'd say that's a fairly conservative figure, and growing significantly by the second.

Keeping that in mind, let's look at classification and filtering. There are 4 ways of doing it.

Whitelisting

This is when the filter has a list of good sites, and anything that is not in that list is blocked.

This is how classification in the offline world works right now - they assess material that requires classification, and if it is refused classification, it is banned. It works because every year, there is generally only about 5000 or so items that need to be classified, and once material is classified, that material never changes.

Internet 'material' however is completely different.

To start with, there's the sheer enormity. 17 Classification Board members classify 5000 items a year currently. If we assume there are 155,230,051 public websites out there, and all need classification because they can be accessed by anyone, using the current classification workload figures, we would need 527,782 board members to classify them all. Imagine trying to keep 527,782 people consistent, and the bureaucracy that gets created. Also, any new sites that just popped up will be blocked, until the classifiers get around to it - say goodbye to access to the latest web apps, information, content.

Then there's the dynamic nature of internet content. A web page does not stay constant once it has been published, unlike a book or a movie. It can be edited (or hacked) at any time to anything. Or it can dynamically draw content in from other websites. Therefore classification is effectively useless because by the time it has been classified, the content has changed so much it probably needs reclassification. The advent of enormous amounts of user generated content makes this even more ridiculous - try classifying every photo on flickr, a popular photo sharing service that has some risque shots in there, all the while thousands of new photos are being uploaded every hour.

Of course, we could just permit a small selection of websites, but that amounts to censorship - why does website X get permitted, but website Y doesn't? It still doesn't tackle the dynamic nature of the internet, and removes one of the best things about the internet - you can find information about anything you want on it basically. Have a look at these stats from the UK's clean-feed service - http://www.cleanfeed.co.uk/catstats.php. They have only classified 9 million of the 155 million active websites out there.

Blacklisting

This is the opposite of whitelisting - if the site you're trying to access is on the list, then you are prohibited from accessing it; sites not on the list are allowed.

This approach suffers from similar issues to whitelisting. In order for the blacklist to be effective, every site would need to be reviewed, or at least a large proportion because otherwise you would easily be able to go to another site for content that was blocked. It would need to be constantly updated as well, because of the dynamic nature of the internet.

In addition, it is near useless against internet proxy servers too. Internet proxy servers are similar to a proxy in real-life - they act on behalf of someone else. There are thousands of proxy servers available on the internet for such functions, with many changing on a day-to-day basis. Blacklisting is ineffective against proxy servers because using a proxy hides the real request.

For example, let's say www.porn.com was blacklisted. If I try to access www.porn.com I would be blocked. If I used a proxy however, I would instead be accessing www.proxyserver.com and telling it that I wanted to access www.porn.com. The filter would think I was access www.proxyserver.com and let me through.

Sure you can blacklist proxy servers, but with so many popping up, and things like distributed proxy networks like Tor where anyone can be a proxy for anyone else,  it's a futile task. And some 'proxy servers' are actually useful - for example, you can turn Google Translate into a proxy server, by telling it you want to translate a particular web page in English, from Spanish to English. It looks for Spanish words in the page, but finds none because the page is in English, and returns the page to you, all the while the filter thinks you're just accessing Google Translate.

Content filtering

Instead of having humans classify every website, this approach allows classifiers to set particular bits of content to watch for, and if they exist or enough triggers exist, the website is blocked. The content may be certain words or phrases, or certain types of images (e.g. ones with significant amount of area in a skin tone colour). So instead of humans doing the filtering, computers are.

The problem with this approach is that computers are dumb. They see the world in black and white, when it is in fact grey. They do not understand what they're filtering, and hence they miss any contextual significance. For example, is an image with significant amounts of skin tone a pornographic image, or an image of a medical condition? Or is it a web page with instructions on how to build bombs, or a web page on the chemical reactions of particular substances? 

However, this is the only approach that is at all feasible when it comes to filtering the internet, because it is the only one that can handle the enormity of the internet. There is a lot of research going on to teach computers to understand human languages, and to develop algorithms that are smart enough to deduce the meaning of documents, images, videos and other media. But it's a long road, and there's still a lot to be done before it is useful. And remember, we don't stand still either - our language and way of expressing ourselves is constantly changing.

It's worth noting that encrypted websites are immune to this type of filtering.

A combination of the above

Most internet filtering systems use a combination of the above approaches. But as you have just seen, none of them are in any way effective on their own, so combining 3 systems that don't work doesn't result in one that does.

So, now what?

You may be tempted to say, so what? At least we're doing something to stop our kids from accessing porn and violence, or the propagation of child pornography.

Stop kidding yourself. The enormity and dynamic nature of the internet means classifying and filtering it effectively isn't too hard. It's impossible. If you think a filter will be effective in protecting your kids from porn, or people from accessing illegal material, think again - proxies, secure tunnels, google, hacks. And even if you don't think your kids or next door neighbours are smart enough to work it out, they'll know people who do.

Think it through thoroughly before forming your opinion. Go to google and do a search on the most random thing you can think of, then do one on the most common thing you can think of, and consider the effort needed to classify that, and everything in between. Then get your kids to show you or sign up on to facebook yourself and see all the avenues that content can be contributed and changed.

Internet filtering is a blunt instrument. Consistently banging that hammer on the internet will hurt those who legitimately use the internet much more than those who use it for objectionable purposes. This is amplified due to the opt-out nature of the proposed internet filtering - we all know few would be bothered opting out due to laziness, and/or the implication that because they're opting out, they want to access child porn.

Think of the implications of someone who earns a living from their online store, yet it is suddenly blocked a few weeks before Christmas because of a questionable comment a user made on a product. That person could potentially miss out on the entire Christmas period, depending on how fast the classifiers re-review their site. Their name may also be forever tarnished, as users find out the site has been blocked, implying it contains pornographic material. On the other hand, if you block one child porn site, they'll just respawn under a different address and away we go again.

Filters may form part of the solution, but it isn't a silver bullet. There is no way to control all the content the way we do offline, online. The fact that anyone can post content on to the internet is both the internet's strength and weakness. It revolutionised the way we communicate, with ability to broadcast our thoughts, views, information, content to anyone in the world who cares to look at it. And it will become more and more important as we explore and adopt ways of using it to make our lives easier. Yet on the flipside, we are finding objectionable content is more freely available, as those propagating such content exploit the internet as well.

The internet is a new medium, unlike any other. We need to treat it as such, stop applying ideas that worked in other mediums, and think of new, radical, innovative ideas that cater for the internet's unique abilities. We need to educate the public, and tackle the ignorance people have about the internet, the ignorance that political groups and companies with vested interests are exploiting so well, the ignorance that will bite them when they realise they have been tricked.

If you're on facebook, join this group and let's work out a solution that actually works.

With the view of going to RMIT next year (I've officially become a number there a few days), plus continuing work, I'm going to be spending a fair amount of time in transit. So I can fit everything in, and bypass RMIT's crappy internet rules (no non-RMIT email access allowed - WTF), I've been looking at getting a mobile broadband service.

The two types of mobile broadband available here are either 3G/HSDPA based, or wireless based (e.g. WiMAX). Wireless based ones are potentially faster, however they have a more limited service area. 3G based ones on the other hand, can connect to GSM networks when out of a 3G service area, providing GPRS speed access and hence greater coverage.

Some key questions:

• monthly cost and data limit (excess charges or shaping)
• contract length
• modem cost, ownership and locking after contract length (applicable to 3G-based networks, as these modems can be used across 3G-based networks)
• data limit includes uploads as well as downloads?
• additional cost for roaming on to GPRS network?
• coverage; however as I'm generally using it in metro areas, I'm not going to delve into this much, as all of them generally cover the general metro area.

Here's a rundown of what I found:

Telstra

Telstra has both 3G based and wireless based services, being their Next G Mobile Broadband service and their BigPond Wireless Broadband service respectively. The main advantage Telstra has over their competitors is that their Next G network has the capability to reach peak speeds of 7.2 MBps now, with a view of being able to reach 14.4 MBps in the future (though others are planning this as well). Their coverage is also a fair bit greater when using their Next G network (important in outer suburbs and country areas).

One look at the pricing however, and I knew both of these options were out.

For mobile broadband, $59 bucks gets you 200MB per month on their Next G network, plus more for a network locked modem, with excess charged at 25c per MB (or $250 per GB). You can get cheaper plans with less data, or more expensive ones with more data, up to a 3GB plan for $119 a month.

BigPond wireless broadband has slightly more favourable pricing but is slower and has less coverage, with $49.95 getting you 400MB per month, contracted to 12 months, with excess data charged at 15c per MB). Again, you can go up and down in cost for different speed and data allowance combinations.

The staff at the local Telstra shop were fairly useless too - they sat me down, browsed to a webpage, and just pointed. That's it. Ask a question, and they'll point somewhere else on the webpage, even if it doesn't answer my question at all. I can use a web browser perfectly fine too, useless idiots.

Optus

Optus has a 3G based service only, which they call wireless broadband (their crappy website doesn't deal well with links - on their home page, click Personal, Internet, Wireless broadband). It has a max speed of 3MBps at the moment, generally it has speeds of 512 KBps to 1.5 MBps.

Optus kicked off the mobile broadband discount war last month, with an offer of 2GB of data a month (upload and download) at $39.99 per month for 24 months ($49.99 unbundled). Excess data is charged at 15c per MB (or $150 per GB). They also throw in a USB modem for no extra cost if you bundle it and join for 24 months (otherwise it's about $5 more a month). There's a cheaper offer too, but with a data limit of 400MB, it isn't worth it. Other modems are available too, including a wireless router modem and a laptop ExpressCard one.

The catch here however, is that if you get one of their modems, it remains their property, seemingly even after the 24 month contract. I assume it is also network locked.

Roaming from their 3G/HSDPA network to their GSM network does not cost extra, and data used on that network is counted towards your monthly limit. You can check your data usage on their website, which is nice.

They have a 30-day coverage satisfaction guarantee too.

UPDATE (22/12/2007): Optus has released a plan to counter the Vodafone attack - the 'yes' Everyday plan. It's $49.99 per month for 5 GB per month, excess charged at 15c per MB. Modem rental is still from $5 a month. The contract period can be 12 or 24 months.

If you bundle it with a home phone/mobile, the above deal becomes $39.99 per month instead and the USB modem rental is free while in the contract period, everything else the same. However, to get this price, you have to be contracted for 24 months, otherwise you're not eligible.

These plans are available until the 15 Jan 2008.

It is also worth noting that the updated website now confirms you do not own the modem, even after your contractual period. The modem is rented from Optus, and you need to continue to pay that modem rental fee after you complete your contract. If it was free while in the contract (i.e. bundled for 24 months), then a $5 monthly rental fee applies once the contract finishes.

Vodafone

This is where it starts getting interesting. They have a 3G-based service called Vodafone Mobile Broadband, with speeds between 600 KBps and 1.5 MBps, peaking at 3.6 MBps, but as it is on their HSDPA network, it has the potential for faster speeds, pending network upgrades. Their coverage is traditionally less than Optus, Telstra and 3, but for metro areas it shouldn't be an issue.

Until 31st December 2007, they're running an offer where for $39.99 a month, contracted to 24 months, you get 5GB per month (upload and download), plus a free modem/data card which you own at the end (unsure if its network locked). Excess data is charged at 10c per MB (or $100 per GB), and you can track your usage in their app (although this is Windows only, and per computer - there is no central website to log into and check).

When you're out of the 3G network, roaming on to their GPRS network is seamless and costs no more. They also do international roaming to a variety of countries, but for 1c per KB (i.e. $10 per MB), it's a bit expensive, especially given many overseas countries have free wireless hotspots located everywhere.

Whirlpool feedback is good so far.

My impression of their retail stores was pretty good - they know what they're talking about (which surprised me), and were keen to show me the modem, and find out more info for me.

Their general enquires line is an entirely different matter. I called up their general enquires line (they didn't seem to have a personal sales number), 1300 650 410, and got greeted by their computer phone chick, Lara (yes it has a name). "Tell me in a few words what you're looking for..." I wasn't surprised at the voice recognition system, Telstra and Optus both have it too (And I thought the number systems were bad...). So I played along and said "mobile broadband".

Lara decided I needed mobile technical support, and despite my protests, insisted I punch in a mobile number. I punched in a random one, and got placed in a queue. But thinking that talking to Lara was better than talking to some incomprehensible Indian call centre guy located on the street (judging from the background noise), I thought I'd give Lara another shot.

So I hung up and redialed. This time I said "sales". Lara couldn't understand me. So I tried again. Lara thought I was an idiot and decided to coach me in communication. Getting quite annoyed, I tried using a range of expletives in hope it would transfer me to a person, but nope, that rumour was wrong.

In the end, according to Lara, Vodafone has no sales team. This is pre-sales! This is when you're supposed to be courting me with everything, not screwing me over - you can only do that after you've suckered me into an abusive contractual relationship!

Three

3, as it name suggests, offers a 3G based mobile broadband service, with download speeds up to 3.6MBps, but generally between 600KBps to 1.5MBps. Upload speeds are around 384 KBps.

To counter Vodafone's offer, 3 have halved the price of all their mobile broadband plans if you sign up for 24 months. The offer is valid until 15th Jan 2008.

Just picking one of their plans for comparison (you can go higher or lower for different cost and data usage combinations), for $34.50 you get 3 GB per month (upload and download) for 24 months, with a free modem thrown in (unsure about ownership, but knowing 3, it's probably locked), and excess data charged at 10c per MB (or $100 per GB).

The odd thing about 3's mobile broadband plans is that it seems that as soon as you drop out of 3's Broadband zone (aka their 3G/HSDPA coverage), you start being slugged $1.65 per MB extra (or $1650 per GB, though you have to be pretty patient to download that much on GPRS). This is a pretty important point, one that they've conveniently hidden in the T & Cs. I guess the reason behind this is because 3 don't actually own a GSM (2G) network, so when you drop out of their 3G network, you have to pay roaming fees to roam on to another network (Telstra?). You can apparently disable roaming though.

Whirlpool feedback is mixed, most weary of the excess GPRS charges.

I decided to give 3's sales line a try too, 131 683. Surprisingly, they're still on the automated number system, and not crappy voice recognition. That's a thumbs up in my book, but as soon as I got put in the queue, it was thumbs down. In most phone queues, you get a 15 sec sales burst, then classical or pop music. Not so with 3. You get at least 3 minutes' worth of brainwashing, courtesy of the crappy 3 signature tunes (3's a magic number..., and the shitty 3 times table song - I know my times tables damn it!). The worst thing is that the magic number song is actually catchy...

Unwired

These guys offer a wireless broadband service, based on their own network, therefore it's worth checking out the coverage first. Unfortunately, their plans aren't very competitive.

For $49.95, you get a 512/128 KBps (download/upload) speed connection, with a 1 GB data allowance per month. They do however, shape your connection once you reach that data allowance to 32KBps (upload and download), so no excess charges, just an effectively unusable connection. You can purchase additional usage though at $14.95 per GB. It has no contractual period (until 25th Dec 2007). You do have to pay an extra 129 bucks for the modem (+6 bucks for delivery).

Again, for more money you can get a faster connection with greater data allowance, and vice-versa.

Their modem is fairly specialised, so I think it would be unlikely to be usable on other networks, so effectively, it's network locked.

iBurst

iBurst operates in a similar fashion to unwired, with a wireless broadband service on their own network. Unlike unwired though, you can only subscribe to their service via resellers, who all set different prices.

For $49 at the Fat Free Fone Company, you get a 1024/384 KBps (download/upload) speed connection, with 1GB data allowance (download and upload). As with unwired, you get shaped after you reach the allowance, but this time down to a 64 KBps connection, which is slightly more usable. Alternatively, you can choose to be charged 15c per MB for data over the allowance.

There is a connection fee, as well as a cost for your modem, both of which depend on your contractual length - e.g. for 12 months, connection fee is 49 bucks, and the modem is 239 bucks.

For more money you can get more data per month (or vice-versa), but the max speed is 1024/384 KBps.

Again, the modem is fairly specialised, so again, effectively network locked.

So which one?

I'm leaning towards the Vodafone plan, because it offers the best value in my opinion. The 2 GB 3 plan for $24.50 a month is still up for consideration though, because I'm still not sure how much data I'll need, although the roaming fee is a bit of a turn off.

The thing that bugs me most is the contract period - 2 years is a long time in the mobile world, especially with 3 and Vodafone pushing the pricing boundaries, and with Optus and Telstra (but unlikely) playing catchup.

Signing up for one now locks me in for 24 months (unless I break the contract), until 2010 effectively - who knows what the pricing will be like then? Not to mention speeds, which are on the rise already, with clear plans to go faster and faster.

The Vodafone offer is still rather tempting though...

But regardless, hopefully this has been useful to others who are looking around at mobile/wireless broadband around now. Keep an eye on the whirlpool wireless ISPs forum for more info and feedback.

UPDATE (22/12/2007): Optus has released a catch-up plan, see above. But when compared to the Vodafone deal, it really is not very competitive - the excess charges are 5c higher per MB, bundling is required to get the Vodafone price (actually $1 more per month), and the modem is rented. Apart from arguments about Optus' 3G and GPRS coverage, it really isn't worth it. Nice try Optus, better luck next time.

I've been having an email exchange about entrepreneurship in Australia, and I thought you guys may be interested. These are only my responses in the conversation.

Australia and investment

I think the recent re-explosion of web technology has come as a shock to VCs in Australia. US VC firms probably faced a similar situation, but they had a fair head-start in identifying the phenomenon, and are championing the way investment is being done in this area.

We're slowly catching up, with some web-oriented VC firms popping up, but still mainly Sydney-centric. After shaking off the 'dot-com bubble' fears, others are trying to morph their tried-and-tested strategy that worked for other industries, into one for the web industry, and messing that up badly. The lack of understanding of the 'new' web industry has resulted in the risk being perceived as bigger than it is. The demand for 5x ROI and reluctance to invest at all demonstrates this. That, and there has been no big success story in Australia in this area.

Also, I think Melbourne is more focused on being Australia's 2nd city more than anything else, thanks to our government. Sydney has long being Australia's financial capital, and they make sure they stay there. I like what Queensland Government has done with their 'Smart State' strategy ( e.g. the new i.lab incubator), turning Queensland from what was mainly a tourism state, into a knowledge, education and business state. Melbourne doesn't seem to do an awful lot, nor do they seem to have a particular strategy. It does have a habit of treating biotech somewhat differently however, investing a lot of money there.

All that said, I think Australia itself has an issue with investing in new ideas and research. Look overseas - those governments invested in maglev trains, smartcard ticketing (which HK has had for 10 years now, and we're only just getting the 'revolutionary' tech), desalination plants, solar power etc. years ago and are now reaping the benefits. And what do we do? Wait until it becomes a crisis, spend ridiculous amounts of money purchasing the now-outdated technology from overseas, then botch up the implementation so we spend even more money fixing it.

Maybe when I become a billionaire, I'll become an angel investor, and get Melbourne back where it should be - on top

Australia and entrepreneurship

I think Australia has great potential to create some great things because of our isolation. It may seem like a disadvantage, but I think the isolation means we're not all thinking like everyone else, and that could mean we can think of and conceive ideas that no one else will. I don't think it's so much the invention stage that we get stuck at, instead we don't know how or don't want to risk our assets to commercialise it. And that's where the government, investors etc. need to come in and help. After all, who doesn't want to be a billionaire and change the world?

My plans after making it big

I'd want to help out teenagers if I became an angel investor, to guide and maybe later invest in them. It's quite sad that even though we have more knowledge and tools than ever before at our fingertips, teenagers are still leaving high school with no idea what they want to do, some instead going down the disasterous road to drugs etc. I guess it's because of the way I think, but it seems so stupid that so many people start uni without a clue what they want to do, hoping that uni will decide for them (although I did that too, until I took this semester off to ponder). I mean, you're 18, you're old enough to make up your own mind, and old enough to be responsible for your contribution to the world. Stop procrastinating, sit down, and think about it. Take a gap year if that's what you need. It may change later, but at least you have a direction.
 
Then there are others who do know what they want to do, yet think they're completely helpless. I have a mate at uni who's really passionate about the environment, can tell you what he wants to do, and has a strong opinion on most things environmental. Yet when I ask him why he's not doing anything, he replies 'what can I do right now?' and goes off to play world of warcraft instead. You shouldn't give up your social life or all of your free time, but geez, there's more to life as a student than uni, work and entertainment. I really look up to what Hugh Evans, the Oaktree Foundation and Make Poverty History guy, has done and is doing - all that while studying a Law/Science degree at Monash.

Porn filters no barrier for net users

"A MELBOURNE schoolboy has cracked the Federal Government's new $84 million internet porn filter in minutes... Tom, a year 10 student at a southeast Melbourne private school, showed the Herald Sun how to deactivate the filter in a handful of clicks. His technique ensures the software's toolbar icon is not deleted, leaving parents under the impression the filter is still working."

"Tom stressed the filters were missing the mark by a long way regardless of how easy they were to break. "Filters aren't addressing the bigger issues anyway," he said. "Cyber bullying, educating children on how to protect themselves and their privacy are the first problems I'd fix."

Smart kid. If only the government would listen to him. Porn filters on PCs are useless, just like anti-virus programs, especially on Windows PCs running as administrator (most still are). If it was that easy to stop people doing things, we would've solved the whole virus, worm, trojan and malware threat crisis long ago.

The computer was designed as a multi-purpose tool, one that is infinitely flexible. For every reason that we shouldn't do action X, there's an opposing valid reason for action X. That's why computers have always been designed around warnings, warning you if you do something dangerous, but it generally won't stop you. In certain circumstances it might, e.g. lack of permissions or UAC, but they're just roadblocks for anyone determined.

And that's what porn filters are - road blocks. And bloody ineffective ones too. All the ones available from the government work essentially on a updated-daily blacklisting system. But blacklists are inherently useless at blocking something as massive as the internet. It would be impossible to block all the 'bad' content, even a significant amount given how fast websites change is impossible, and who are they to decide what 'bad' content is? If a site with gory pictures is banned, then a CNN news article with gory pictures should be banned as well right? Chances are, the CNN news article won't be.

They all allow whitelisting as well, but this is just as flawed. What are you gonna do, limit your 13 year-old to disney.com only? They're gonna need to do research for their project, and unless you're gonna be there watching him the entire time he's doing his project (highly unlikely given how timepoor most parents are now), you will have to disable the whitelist temporarily.

Don't get me started on keyword blocks. It'd be a fun trick to post a message on a mate's facebook wall saying, 'check out the hot naked girls having hardcore sex at www.hothornygirls.com!' and wait to see them complain the next day from being blocked from their own facebook profile by the porn filter.

At most, porn filters give parents a false sense of security, that's it. Every 13 year-old now either is, or probably knows a mate geeky enough to know how to hack these things (and it's really not that hard - google any porn filter plus the word disable and watch in horror). It's like leaving a child with a cupboard with a 'child-proof lock' alone. They may not be able to open it immediately, but over time they will.

And even if they can't, many porn filters can be bypassed by using web-based proxies, or proxy software like Tor. They might be able to block some proxies, but with the massive list of ever changing proxy servers available out there, you're fighting a battle you've already lost.

Here's a nice trick - language translation websites are usually left unblocked because they have a very useful legitimate purpose. So navigate to one, e.g. http://translate.google.com, enter in the blocked website address in the 'website to translate' box, then tell it to translate from a random language to English. Click translate, and ta-da, you're blocked website just loaded intact, because by default, language translation websites ignore all words it can't translate.

So to fight back, the Government says,

"Senator Coonan said the Government had anticipated children would try and find ways to get around the NetAlert filters, and suppliers were contracted to provided continuing updates."

I can't wait until some desperate developer under pressure from management who wants to keep the government money flowing, implements a root-kit solution with bigger holes than the Titanic did, then wait for the lawsuits to come in from angry parents whose computers have been hacked and destroyed. First4Internet anyone?

Our favourite conservative Christian politician that many uni students despise and isn't often that switched on, decides to chime as well,

"Family First Senator Steve Fielding, a long-time campaigner for cyber safety, said cracking the software showed the need for compulsory filtering by internet providers.

"You need both. You need it at the ISP and at the PC level," Senator Fielding said."

Great, so instead of me being in control of what I or my kids see using ineffective filtering software, my ISP has the power? And given how disgusting ISP tech support is already, I can't wait until I need to call them up all the time just to unblock a legit site, or when parents think they can shift the blame and call up the ISP to abuse them for not doing their filtering job properly!

But this appears to be the government's grand plan. See, once it becomes apparent to the dumb but influential people out there that parents and ISPs are incapable of filtering the internet properly, the government gains support to take over control of the internet in this country. After all, we're already seeing the start of it,

"PM's net porn war: Australian families will have access to free internet filter systems under a $190 million Howard Government crackdown... Terrorist groups also will be under further pressure with the technology to be used to block sites. (emphasis mine)."

Sounds like China to me. But if it prevents our poor, innocent kids from viewing porn, it's all ok right? Wake up people, if you think your kid hasn't seen a person of the opposite sex naked by the age of 13, get your head out of the sand.

When will the stupid government fix the actual fucking cause of these problems instead of stupid band-aid solutions to appease the idiots out there, the same ones that will be whinging to the government when these band-aid solutions become useless very soon. Stupid politics.

The list seems a bit slow this week, probably because all you guys are still recovering from Code Camp, or have decided to use your sick leave to take advantage of the long weekend coming up, so you can help me with a something I've been pondering recently. There are heaps of web startups coming up in Australia, but Melbourne doesn't seem to have its fair share (and Sydney seems to have the most grrrr). So the question is, where are the Melbourne web startups?

Here's what I can name so far:
- barren's gnoos (gnoos.com.au) and nook (nook.com.au), blog search and locality-based social network
- reilly's The Podcast Network (www.thepodcastnetwork.com)
- worth's Chinswing (www.chinswing.com), audio-based forums
- Montgomery's TinFinger (www.tinfinger.com), social search
- redbubble (www.redbubble.com), creative professionals social network

What am I missing? Whether they're social, enterprise or whatever - as long as its a web-related startup.

Thanks,

Sam

• Fletcher's findit.com.au (http://www.findit.com.au/), web classifieds
  
• Nilkanth's feedity (http://www.feedity.com/), RSS feeds for non-RSSed sites
• Scott's blogarate (http://www.clarkescott.com/ct.ashx?id=b0e10cd2-67cc-456d-a628-5bec772f4b40&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.blogarate.com) & Whooiz (www.Whooiz.com), blog post rating service and mybloglog-similar service
• Servlance.com (http://www.servlance.com), connecting freelancers to clients
• Panwar's Uvouch.com (http://www.uvouch.com/), a del.icio.us-for-everything site
  

I also found SmartCompany, a Melbourne-based online magazine for entrepreneurs and SMEs. Speaking of which, a similar magazine available online and print, Australian Anthill, is also based in Melbourne - cool mag, nice designs to boot.

What surprised me while I was researching was that unsurprisingly, yes, Sydney had the most (and arguably the most successful), but anedoctal evidence shows that Western Australia (particularly Perth) seems to have the 2nd most! Of all places! Queensland comes next, then Melbourne followed by the other states. Wonder what's going on in Perth...

I was also surprised about the lack of responses on the aus-dotnet list, given a lot of aust web startups that I found ran on ASP.NET, and/or used .NET technologies. Maybe they're too cool for mailing lists...

Anyone got a Melbourne web-related startup I haven't got there, social, enterprise or whatever? Or can anyone explain the Perth anomaly (not that I have anything against Perth, it just isn't the first place I'd think of when it comes to technology, so good on them)?

UPDATE (14/4/2007): Just stumbled upon another two - 
Reeltime Media (www.reeltime.tv), the digital movie distribution service.
Foghorn (http://www.foghorn.com.au/), design-your-own t-shirt and printing service.

UPDATE (21/4/2007): Read about another one in this month's Australian Anthill magazine (issue #21) -
Hippo (www.hippo.com.au), a jobs site dedicated to casual and part-time jobs. It's managed to secure funding, get the support of big companies (Boost, Dick Smith, Dominos etc.), and advertise at unis. Started by an entrepreneurial undergrad RMIT student - impressive stuff.

I think this page is fast turning into a fairly good list of melbourne web-related startups (the only list as far as I know), so I'm gonna keep updating it when I find something. Let me know if I'm missing anything!

UPDATE (29/5/2007): Found another two - 
WriteToMyBlog (www.writetomyblog.com), an online blog post editor.
ripple.org (www.ripple.org), a online charity site without donations - simple view an ad, or use a sponsored search box, and the profits from them go directly to charities. Interesting idea, but not sure how they reduce abuse. Started in part by a University of Melbourne student!

UPDATE (02/08/2007): Update time again -
StreetAdvisor (www.streetadvisor.com), a site that lets you link, rate, share photos,write about and find out more about a particular street, at the local level. [via Frank Arrigo]
CoReap (http://coreap.com/), a del.icio.us style site, except this time it's all integrated into your browser, both Firefox and Internet Explorer. Thanks Norah123 for the heads up!

UPDATE (04/08/2007): Got notified to another -
Yoober (www.yoober.com), haven't launched yet, but they're creating a more IM-like version of SMS for mobiles using mobile internet. I don't really see how they're doing anything different to the various java-based instant messenging clients out there on mobiles already, and the current situation of crazy mobile internet costs doesn't help either. But best not to judge until they release

UPDATE (15/08/2007): Another one -
Si-Mi (www.si-mi.com), a site that lets you, "Upload, share and sell your videos, music, podcasts, animations, ebooks and games.
You set your own price and receive 70% of the profits."

UPDATE (05/04/2008): It's been a fair while since the last update, but this lot should make up for it . I discovered these after looking through the results of the Australian Startup Carnival that recently concluded.

AppleBox (http://www.applebox.com.au/), a webified video store that allows you to browse and borrow videos online for pick up, with a branch currently located in Fairfield, VIC. I'm only new to the video rental world (having borrowed my first DVD only a few months back - go figure), but I'm still surprised that I can't browse through my local blockbuster's collection online, or even see what I have on loan and what's due when (which particularly sucks as they don't remind or give you a slip of paper to remind yourself). Even my local library tells me all that and more! Hope these guys open up shop near by, because until we get decent net speeds (read: never) downloading movies just takes too long.
Adimade (http://www.adimade.com/), a website that connects businesses/organisations with budding film makers to create ads for them for a chance at fame. It's kind of like what the TAC do with mafmad, except one a wider scale of course.
Community Enabler/Cagora (http://australia.cagora.com/), a social network effectively, however it is moving in a number of directions to capitalise on its social network capability to become more than just a social network.
SuburbView (www.suburbview.com/), an aggregator of real estate ads, and also maps them on to google maps too.

"Emotion is a task chair, designed to be used in the office or study context. The principle functions embody adjustable seating, status display and a high extent of secondary usage. The need to constantly move whilst working has been previously identified as necessary, however, the display of status and secondary usage boosts confidence and encourages the user to interact with the chair as a universal object rather than just a chair."

These guys didn't make the finalists, but were shortlisted.

Check out the site - some designs were more suited for some than others, like bike helmets, but the wide range of designs means I reckon you'd be able to find something you'd like. Now if only they could get it into production...

You then take the train from Glen Waverley to Flinders St - noticing you've travelled into a zone-1 area, it will deduct the additional difference to turn your ticket into a 2-hour zone-1+2 full fare ticket, that is, deduct 5.20 (zone 1+2) - 2.40 (zone 2) = 2.80.

Now, let's say you spend the day in the city meeting friends and shopping. When you travel back to Glen Waverley on the train, it'll noticed that you bought a zone-1+2 2-hour ticket, realise its the same day, and convert that into a daily zone-1+2 ticket, deducting the difference, 9.70 (daily) - 5.20 (2-hour) = 4.50.

Nothing further will be deducted when you take the bus from Glen Waverley to Vermont South - your current ticket already covers this.

Now let's say you end up doing similar trips for the rest of the week, Tuesday to Sunday. It'll charge you 7 zone 1+2 daily full fare tickets right? Wrong. Once you've bought enough zone 1+2 daily full fare tickets to exceed the price of a weekly zone 1+2 ticket (45.20, so a bit over 4 daily tickets), it'll automatically convert your past tickets into a weekly ticket, allowing you to travel for the rest of the weekly period for nothing (so trips after Friday will be free). The same occurs for monthly.

• Sam & Max is likely to be coming to the 360! Telltale Games has the rights to the Sam & Max brand, and they've released episodic games based on that so far for the PC. (For those young ones who don't know who Sam & Max are, try wikipedia here. Suffice to say, you're missing out ) But Xbox 360 Fanboy has found a job posting from them for 360 programmers, so it looks like it'll be coming, probably an Arcade title. Finally a nice cartoon adventure game with a funny storyline comes to the 360, rather than the ton of boring and monotonous shoot-em-up games that every second game released on it seems to be - seriously, check out the video games store next time you're out and I'll bet over half of the games on it are shoot-em-up ones.
• Thought the USB cables bundled with almost every PC component are a bit boring? Well SoundTech will fix that with their Lightsnakes [via Engadget]. They're USB cables, but there are lights lining it that blink when ever the USB cable is used. Of course you pay extra for that, but how cool is that?
• Not sure when this episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire aired (is it back now?), but finally something goes Eddie McEverywhere's way. The video's on the link, and is about Eddie trumpeting the merits of ninemsn's Search over the old Google search after a contestant is stumped on an Oscars question and decides to call a friend. Blatent, but still funny. Could a credible show like Who Wants to be a Millionaire be the lifeline that Windows Live Search needed?
  
• Finally, congrats Barren for his success with his nook.com.au project - comments like that not only cement the site's position, but gives it a real, personal boost in the cutthroat web world. If it weren't for his blog though, I wouldn't have noticed it, even though the local newspaper publishers have a stake in it...or maybe I'm not reading the right local ones or gave up after the pages, and pages of ads became boring.
  

• mecanbe sounds interesting and is relatively different to what's out there at the moment. It's a lifestyle goal management - essentially, you set goals and actions needed to achieve that goal, and it'll remind and ask you to rate your progress to keep you on track.
• 88 Miles, a time tracking web app, has a nice design and they seem to have a business model too, selling more advanced accounts. I really like the home page, which describes exactly what it does quickly, and lets you see its features at a glance easily too, without having to browse through a ton of pages.
• 3eep, an Australian sports social network. I like the design, and also the fact that it caters for different roles (supporter, player, manager etc.) and acknowledges that someone can be a player on one team, and a supporter for others. Its still a bit sparse at the moment, but given it only went live in beta mode yesterday, its a good start.
  
  I think if they can get some promotion happening not just online through widgets or links, but also at actual games (a nice banner draped on the sidelines maybe, or in the club rooms, or school matches) it could well take off. Sport after all, is mainly a physical world thing, not a virtual one (fantasy games aside). That said, I think their URLS could do woth some work - for example, for the Dockers, its http://www.3eep.com/teams/2-fremantle-dockers which although mostly meaningful (except the 2, which I assume is the team ID in the database) it's too long to remember. A URL like fremantle-dockers.3eep.com would be much better.

• put out the bushfires and let all the fireys (local, interstate, international) have a break and be able to celebrate Christmas with their family.
• give our dams a much needed boost while Bracksy hangs around and does nothing to fix the problem