Posts by Rex di Bona

New material enables 1,000-meter super-skyscrapers

looping elevators

To overcome the lack of cars in an elevator shaft you build two shafts, one for the cars to go up in, and one they come down in. They can be attached in a chain like arrangement, so it's an "all stops" affair. All the cars move one floor at a time. When a car arrives at the top it moves across to the "down shaft" and now moves down to the basement again (No, the car doesn't need to turn upside down ;-) only the movement mechanism needs do that, the car can "rotate" so it's always the one way up.

This was the original design for an elevator system. It's problems include the time taken is proportional to the number of floors traveled, and you can't easily block off floors. But it does provide for a much larger volume of traffic.

Don’t waste time hiding NBN POI locations

Re: Dial Before You Dig

And above ground too. I got the diagrams for all the local infrastructure before I dug a trench in the back yard. They don't check that the location you are requesting for is the location you are at in any case.

CBA tussles with NFC security

1.1B and turned netbank into a hopeless dog's breakfast

Bugger that for a waste of time and money. if they could fix the abomination that is the "new improved" UI for netbank it would be good. The size of the clickable elements, you'd think they were for sausage fingered drongos. In their rush to optimise netbank for tablets they seem to have forgotten about other methods of viewing web pages. sigh!

Optus hangs up on 750 staff

If only they could get their payment systems working

Optus should devote more time to getting back office systems working properly. They still cannot seem to setup automatic payments that actually work! Removing network blackspots (and making the network more reliable) would also be welcome. But no, it's just going to be harder to find anybody that knows anything, and the time on wait on the phone wil be longer. Sigh!

Globe-spanning patent bombs touted by Euro, UN pen-pushers

PCT is a waste of time

All the PCT gives you is an extension of time before you have to lodge patent papers in each country. You still have to fill in the forms for each country, you still have to pay for each country, and still have to pass examination for each country. What it does give you a universally recognised priority date and the ability to delay filing in each country.

What we really need is the ability to file once and have it enforcable everywhere, but then as correctly pointed out it would quickly descend into a patent in the most liberal country, and enforce everywhere which would not be too good.

Patents are a nightmare for everybody, including the inventor. Look up applying for a patent if you're having trouble sleeping (and look up the costs associated if you're currently feeling well off).

Ten... ADF-based inkjet all-in-one printers

Re: small factory

Oh my, I've probably voided the warranty then. My Canon is shared amongst five machines. Quick! Hide. It works fine for me, both Windows and CUPS clients.

Although I wish to also say if you are doing few prints then a B&W laser is the way to go, with the occasional colour at a high street store. The canon is almost purely for CD/DVD printing, although the feed mechanism seems to be wearing out now (2 years), and seems to need help for every disc to align the tray correctly into the feed mechanism.

Australians love mobile devices, but not mobile downloads

Ah Mobile Broadband. How expensive can signals in the air be? In Australia, bloody expensive it turns out. Anybody who has gone beyond their included data allowance soon realises that using mobile broadband can be a VERY expensive proposition.

Also, why a dongle/SIM per device. I'm waiting for a carrier to provide a legitimate Android hot-spot phone, then I'll think about, rather than a separate data plan per device. Until then it'll be the portable 3G wifi device thank you very much.

Current pricing plans are a fail for the public.

Watchdog hits out at malware racking up premium-rate charges

Re: Telco Opt-Out

Oh my, you can't do this in Blighty? I guess credit where credit's due. I have a phone for the kids with Vodafone in Oz. It's PAYG with credit lasting 365 days. ALL mobile data, premium rate services, international calls, i.e. everything but local calls and local texts are disabled by Vodafone, it's nothing to do with the phone. I had to explicitly request this, but it is available and means that a single $30 recharge lasts about a year.

Telstra gets ready for the split

Re: sorry Mr Turnbull

Hey! Mine too, the owner, to whom I pay line rental, could fix it by finally upgrading the local RIM to a smart MUX, but the ACCC said if they did that anybody could use it .

I wish it was a joke, bit it's all too real!

Damn it, where’s our NBN scandal?

Cable? Wireless here

35Km from the centre of Sydney and we are destined to be wireless according to the NBN plans.

Broadband? National? Ha! More likely a re-duplication of the HF co-ax that Telstra and Optus rolled out. How about decent broadband for the rest of us?

Internode falls to iiNet acquisition temptation

TPG - Can't run away fast enough

Every experience I have had with TPG was indicative of a company that has NO focus on customer service. When I was talking to TPG about a broadband connection I found them to be totally clueless about IP in general, and broadband in particular.

Internode have been fantastic. It is always a pleasure to talk to somebody who understands technology rather than somebody with a fixation on "logging into the Internet by clicking the big blue E".

BigPond customers targeted by phishers

Twitter? Why Twitter?

So I am supposed to follow twitter for important service information these days?

What next? Outage changes through a facebook status update? Status: more than usually broken.

I have a bigpond account, but no contact from Telstra about this. Or is an article in elReg about a twitter update sufficient? Probably better than I'll get from Telstra.

Out of this World science fiction exhibition

Isaac Asimov - Caves of Steel

Prepare a detailed argument of the effects that would occur if it became common knowledge amongst the population that Daneel Olivaw was a robot.