If you are a fan of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report living in Australia, you can either watch it by subscribing to Foxtel or you can watch the clips online after it has aired on Foxtel. This was a fair situation I thought. But this appears to have changed. Now, you can only catch the shows on Foxtel – the online clips are no longer available to Australian fans and from what I read on the show’s forums, to all fans outside of the United States.
This is not the first time that it has happened either. It does not make sense that they would do this once, reverted back to the status quo and then revoke access again. What has changed? They are not saying. Currently the thread on the forum about this issue runs 15 pages long.
However a fan had posted a good workaround on page 3. And this is it:
Use Firefox and install an add-on called “Modify Headers“.
Using the add-on, add a header of “X-Forwarded-For” with a value of “12.13.14.15″ or any IP that you know is an IP address in the US.
Set the add-on to be “Always on” in the Options.
On the Firebox button (big orange one) click on Options – Add-On Bar, then click on the Modify Headers icon in the Add-On Bar (bottom-left corner) and select “Start”. (thanks to helpful comment from Annoyed below)
You would think that after my years of working in IT support that these two things would be instinctively done every time. But in the heat of the moment, I’d forget my lessons learnt. So here are the top two things that I can impart to anyone looking to work in this field. Are you ready?
When speaking to a customer who may not understand the nuances of modern technology, ask to speak with someone else who is more technical. For example: their internal IT support or the youngest child in the house. You don’t need the additional stress of passing technical info through a non-technical conduit which will surely double the time needed to resolve a problem.
Be careful with this one though. One time I did this with a female caller and she immediately thought that I was a sexist pig.
The placebo effect cannot be underestimated. This week whilst dealing with a difficult customer, I was reminded how effective it is by two of my colleagues. Instead of thinking how a change might not solve the problem at hand, know that a change done by you is better than inaction or suggesting that the customer look into possible problems at their end.
This is particularly useful when the customer is stubbornly insisting that you do something, anything to fix a problem that cannot be or is difficult to attribute to your company. So even if it’s moving a problematic website from one server to another server that is identical in specs, which you know will change nothing, it will be enough to placate the customer. And they might even sense an improvement when there isn’t one.
Ultimately all of us customer service types are in it to make the customer happy. So whatever works, right?
It’s been slightly more than a month since I’ve got my HTC Incredible S and I’m still happy with the decision. Coming from the iPhone 3G, the bigger screen with colours that are more vibrant is an awesome change. And I like the slimmer feel of the HTC even though it’s about the same thickness at the back of the phone due to the bulge of the battery.
Even though it’s not fair to compare the nearly 4-year old iPhone 3G to the Incredible S – it should really be compared against the iPhone 4, I’m quite happy to have a phone that feels snappy again. The web browser which loads the text first and images after makes web pages pop onto screen; the caching also makes going back and forth between pages a very pleasant experience. The Safari browser on the iPhone (any of them) should be more like the one on Android.
Transferring songs onto the phone is one step easier than the iPhone and choosing any song on the phone as a ringtone is also simple – the Incredible S even has a tool to crop the songs into any length that you want. I miss the playlist management via iTunes but I don’t miss anything else about it. And the virtual sound enhancement makes my earphones sounds more expensive than it is.
One difficult thing that I had on the first day was transferring my contacts from the iPhone to the Incredible S but that was more the fault of the iPhone. It took a few attempts for the iPhone to recognise the bluetooth signal from the Incredible S even though the HTC could see the iPhone just fine.
And finally, being able to back up my contacts onto the removable SD card is brilliant.
I still remember how happy I was when I first got the iPhone 3G. However, in the 3 years since then, it has crashed and been restored 3 times – once whilst just doing an iOS update, and the last time because I had turned it off (!) – and 2 SIM cards mysteriously died even though they’ve never been taken out of that pain in the ass SIM cradle that you need a pin to get to.
Even then, that’s ok. I only use the phone to make calls and send texts, to listen to music and for web-browsing. I’m not big into apps or games. However the last crash and restore forced me to put iOS 4 on it which made the phone lag and sputter, even when I’m just doing two things – using Safari and listening to music. Considering these are the two things that I use the phone mostly for, it got pretty annoying pretty fast.
So I started looking around for alternatives today. I settled on the HTC Incredible S because it had good reviews. I had thought of moving over from Optus to Telstra as well because their 3G coverage is supposed to be better but they didn’t offer the phone, and their prices were generally more expensive. Better 3G coverage is good but not something that I’m willing to pay more for at this stage. Optus’ coverage is ok along my daily commute and that’s good enough for me.
I also considered the iPhone 4 but if I wanted to pay $0 upfront, I have to go from the $49-cap plan that I’m on now to the $59-cap plan. With the HTC Incredible S I can stay on the same plan. Plus, with my slightly-soured impression of the iPhone and how Apple does things in general, I swayed quite readily towards the HTC phone.
So, off to the phone shop this weekend! And you know what I’m most looking forward to besides having a usable phone again? Not having to use iTunes to transfer songs onto the phone.
Australia is one of the few Western countries that do not have an R-rating for video games. What that effectively meant was that some games were shoe-horned into an MA-15 rating, and those that cannot be shoe-horned get banned because there was no higher rating to classify the games with.
There has been debates in the past and a change in the law, which required all six state attorney-generals to approve, was consistently held back by South Australia’s previous attorney-general, Michael Atkinson. However, his successor John Rau is more open to the idea and this issue is now back on the agenda for the next meeting of the attorneys general.
But now there’s a new spanner in the works – new Victoria attorney-general Robert Clark. This despite the Federal Government’s determination to fix this.
Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor has told the states and territories that the July meeting of attorneys-general is D-Day for a decision on the reform, which has sat on their agenda for almost a decade. The reform will create an R18+ category for games, providing, Mr O’Connor says, adult gamers with more choice and better parental advice about the suitability of games.
This was Robert Clark’s statement about the proposed changes.
‘‘[This] needs careful scrutiny and public debate,’’ he said. ‘‘The Coalition government is very concerned that the draft guidelines currently being proposed by the Commonwealth would legalise games with high levels of graphic, frequent and gratuitous violence, including violence against civilians and police.’’
So the idea is that video games, because they allow players to be immersed in the story and violence is more detrimental than movies. I can think of more than a few handful of movies that have high levels of graphic, frequent and gratuitious violence against civilians and police. And I laughed at the absurdity of it – violent movies are ok, but violent games are not, even if they are rated correctly (R-18+ it already!), and their sales restricted to adults. That’s basically the gist of it.
Surely the parents and the Christian right and the parties and organisations that claim to represent them (Australian Christian Lobby, Family First), those who oppose this can see the hypocrisy of it. And parents, not government, should play a bigger part in restricting their kids to violent content of any form. You don’t want your kids exposed to violent games and that is most sensible. But I’m not your kid and I’m not a child anymore.
That said though, all of this is kinda moot thanks to the fact that we can buy any of these games, banned or not, from the Internet. Check out this listing on ebay for the most recently banned game in Australia, Mortal Kombat:
Oh, and this will give you an idea of why Mortal Kombat got banned from sale in Australia. Don’t watch if you are squemish.
Kinda remind you of any one of those torture-porn movies, like Saw and Hostel, doesn’t it? And those movies got rated a strong R-18+, they are equally gratuitous in violence and gore, and they are available to be watched by adults. Double standards, you say?
Anyway fellow gamers, I won’t worry about not getting a R-rating for video games so much. If they start making it illegal to buy the same games from overseas though, then I’ll get pissed.
Customer: Hi, I can’t get into my email.
Me: Ok, let me know check your details. What’s your email address?
Customer: xxx@xxx
Me: Ok, and what’s the password that you think you are using?
Customer: xxxxxx
Me: Yup, that is the correct password.
Customer: I’m typing that in but I still can’t get in.
Me: Try typing it again, make sure that you don’t have your caps-lock on.
Customer: Yes, I know that. I’m not an idiot.
Me: It’s an easy mistake to make that’s all.
Customer: I haven’t changed my settings in Outlook. Why would it suddenly start asking for my password anyway?
Me: You may have inadvertently typed it in wrong once and after that it would keep on prompting you for the right one.
Customer: That’s not possible. Have you changed my password?
Me: Erm no. We have just confirmed that that didn’t happen.
Customer: I have typed it in so many times. Are you sure you guys never changed it?
Me: Yes I’m pretty sure. Our logs show no changes for a very long time.
Customer: Hmm, I don’t believe that. I’m gonna try typing it in once more.
Me: *internal sigh* Ok. Let me know how you go.
Customer: Oh. It works now. I’m in.
Me: Oh, that’s good. Glad to have helped.
Customer: Thank you!
I work in tech support so I know what I’m talking about when I tell you that these are the best type of subject lines to use when you email us:
Use caps. Example: WHY CAN’T I GET MY EMAILS?
Use lots of exclamation or question marks. Example: Are your servers down?????? Bonus: use both to indicate incredulity or sarcasm. Example: Are your servers down?!?!?!?!
Be sarcastic. Example: Wow. Your servers are down again.
Don’t bother with the email subject. Example:
Use the words “Urgent”, “ASAP”, or “Right Now” in your subject. Example: Urgent – I need this fixed right now.
Combine any of the above for maximum effect. Example: WOW. YOUR SERVERS ARE DOWN AGAIN?!?!?! FIX IT RIGHT NOW!!!
Doing the above will ensure that your query is responded to in a timely manner. Really, it would.
