I was recently made aware that somebody had registered the .com.au version of my domain. On the surface of it, I have no problem with that if the person registering it was actually another Troy Kelly in this case though it was registered by somebody we have had a professional disagreement some time ago.
I have a couple of problems with this, not just because this particular person has pointed the domain at a hard core adult streaming site, but I am left wondering how the particular domain registrar in question even allowed the domain registration. The “registrant” in the particular case has no connection with my name at all, you can’t even derive the domain name using letters from their company name.
What has me annoyed is that I am going to be personally out of pocket in taking action to have the domain deregistered. All because the domain registrar allowed the registrant to fradulently register the domain.
Archive for September 30, 2009
Petty acts, petty people
How long does a warranty last?
Let me preface this with – I am not a lawyer. My understanding of the way warranties work in Queensland comes from experience and reading of the relevant legislation and explanations on the state government web sites. Finally – these comments are specific to Queensland. They may apply equally in other states or even countries but this is all I am really dealing with for now.
The short answer is – as long as a reasonable person would expect the product to last.
An implied warranty exists for a ‘reasonable time’ after purchase. What constitutes a ‘reasonable time’ will depend on a number of factors including (but not limited to) the nature of the product, its price and perceived quality. For example, a $10 watch could not be reasonably expected to function efficiently for as long as a $200 watch.
The above is from the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation, Queensland web site. It is discussing the application of “Implied” warranties. That is the warranty that every trader must honor legally when selling goods in Queensland.
It doesn’t mean that if you knew you were buying defective goods, you can return them for a refund. And it doesn’t mean that if you get reasonable use out of a product and then it fails the trader is required to refund you in full – but what it does mean is pretty important.
If I was to sell you a television, and tell you it has a twelve month manufacturer warranty – and your television breaks on the 13th month – I am still required to deal with that problem, and either fix it, replace it or refund you.
The reason for my writing this is many traders doing business in Queensland (and I am looking squarely at “Garmin” at the moment… more on that another time) don’t realise that they are legally bound to stand behind their product for as long as a reasonable person would expect it to operate without fault.
So, next time something you have stops working, and you get the receipt out, only to find you have missed out on your “manufacturers warranty” – step back for a moment and think “Would a reasonable person expect this to still be working?”
After first giving the trader an oppertunity to make good with you, should you still not be satisfied, talk to the Queensland Fair Trading office. They are able to assist you with complaints about a Queensland business or a business operating in Queensland. For more information about lodging a complaint, start here.
AirPort Express Crashing
Airport Express Wireless Ethernet Router
It would seem that I have inadvertently found a way to make Apple’s Airport Express‘ crash. And – it’s pretty easy. Simply setting them to Channel 11 causing them to fail intermittently, and normally the only way to recover them is by power cycling.
I have been trying to rework our network here because of some overlap and coverage issues from the 4 wireless access points. As such I was changing which adapters were on the non-overlapping wifi channels (1, 6 and 11).
In doing so – I made the two Airport Express’ channel 11, which seems to have been a big mistake. Almost immediatly after making the change, just having the Airport Utility open would show them disappearing, and then reappearing sometimes minutes later, sometimes hours.
I can only assume it’s a design fault with the boards, but – it’s a design fault that seems to have existed for some time. One Express is an original, the other was only purchased early this year.
I can’t even be bothered reporting it to Apple support, the Australian support line is… well, useless. If I thought for a second that they would actually lodge it as an issue – I would, but I know that it will be in one ear and out the other.
Queensland Vehicle Registrations
Queensland Parliament Logo
From the 1st July, the cost of registration of Queensland vehicles has increased between 17 to 22%. This is a huge jump, and in already difficult times, somewhat of an insult to residents of this great state.
The increase however occured without much fanfare, and given those hardest hit by it are least likely to have a voice, very little will probably be done about it.
The government already generates about $1 billion in revenue from Queensland vehicle registrations, yet that money is put in to consolidated revenue, so there is no way to know what it is being spent on – if it is being spent on roads and infrastructure (as it is intenended) at all. This increase will add about another $194 million to that figure.
From a street users point of view, it’s difficult to see where that money is being spent. Given that most major road projects in cities are either privately funded, or joint funded with local councils.
A medium car registration in Queensland for 2009/10 will cost $461.40. That does not compare favorably with the entire nation – NSW and ACT are the closest, at $275.40 with Vic being the cheapest at $178.
If you are a Queensland resident, then you should give serious consideration to signing the Queensland Government ePetition requesting that the state government review their huge price increase.
The Back Stage Club
I just thought I would let you know about a new venue I am involved with. It is called “The Back Stage Club” it’s a fantastic little cabaret venue, and it is currently showing Ken Lord’s “Brisbane Unplugged”.
For more information about either – check out thebackstageclub.com
No Google Hosted App’s… for anybody
Mail and other services are offline for a majority of users
It would seem that Google’s week is off to a bad start. After some intermittent faults appearing late Tuesday (AEST) it seems that the hosted apps and gmail service is completely offline for all users.
Google has said that it expects to have the services restored early Wednesday – but we are now already at that time. And many business and schools that have switched to Google Hosted Applications will be turning up and trying to log in, only to find themselves unable to access their email.
Google offers it’s “premiere” customers a 99.9% uptime reliability guarantee (SLA). That means that this month, they are already in breach – given that promise can mean only an outage of about 40 minutes every month.