New Blog

Rather than resurrect this blog following my travel, I have re-started a blog for my various musings and mumblings at:
http://mutterings2014.wordpress.com/

Tax time

Perhaps I'm just a masochist, but I continue to prepare and lodge my own tax returns. My affairs aren't particularly complex, and over the years, I have done my best to keep up with changes as they occur, and as they are incorporated into e-Tax  I do admit that it would be challenging to lodge via e-Tax if you had to make a "cold start".  However, I  am associated with a trust that has to lodge a return, and an accountant arranges this.   Based on my experience in this regard, my observation is that the main issue is assembling the required information.  Once this is done, the actual process of inserting it into the tax return is not always as hard as it might seem.

I also note that the ATO now allows simplified returns to be lodged using "myTax".  However, my affairs do have a couple of little "wrinkles"  so I don't come into this category that can use this form, and I have to continue to work my way through e-Tax.
The biggest change this year is the need to create a "myGov" account.   Although this is a new process, I guess it just builds incrementally on the previous arrangements.    Just the same, the process certainly brought "Big Brother" to mind and I worry about the security of portals such as this.   Frankly, I'm not reassured when, after a security breach, I read statements along the lines that, oh yes, there was a vulnerability, but we've "fixed" it (that is, past tense).   I guess the next vulnerability will be fixed, too - after the hackers have demonstrated that it exists!


Another issue with e-Tax is that it's hard to save a pdf file of the final tax return as lodged (or even as a draft).  I think e-Tax expects you to retain the file within e-Tax.  I've experimented with a couple of work-arounds, and the best one that I've come across is a little bit of freeware called "CutePDF writer".   Pity that e-Tax doesn't contain something like this.

The one upside of all this is the nice feeling that I get when, after hours of digging out data and filling things in, I finally press the "submit" button!

The real CPI

The real CPI?  The one that matters?   Yes, the Cappuccino Price Index! 

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be updated very often, but I suppose a lot of research has to be done which must be time-consuming.

I wonder if the results ought to be sorted by postcode.  Every time I buy coffee I seem to pay at least, and often more than, the average.    Where are those "good-value" coffees at less than the average price?   Perhaps we need a "coffee watch" site as happens with petrol - or would this offend the ACCC?

I also wonder where the all-pervasive coffee cards fit in to the calculations?  Does this index take account of the fact that, if you're loyal, every 6th or 7th coffee is "free"? Or are these cards disregarded on the basis that most people are like me and have a pile of cards with two holes stamped and can never find the right card when I return and have start all over again with a new card?

Buying a cable....

We all agreed that we needed a longer VGA cable as part of the AV set-up at the Church.
I checked at the local Dick Smith and was surprised that the price was nearly $60, and at Officeworks it was nearly $40.   My initial reaction when I first saw it at Dick Smith was, it's what we need, it's here and I can have it now.    But, for once, I paused......

Back home, and a few mouse clicks later, yes, it was in Mr Smith's on line store, on special for about $12.    But on attempting to place it into my "cart" on the Dick Smith site, lo, the price reverted to the store price.   Seems the one-day special was just ending, so instead of getting hot and bothered, I just moved on and found what we wanted was readily available on e-Bay at prices from $15 upwards.   But there would be a delay while it was mailed, and I don't have Paypal....all too fiddly.

Long story short - I remembered Computers and Parts Land!  It's been a while since I have patronised them, but they're still there and the item was on their website for $12. It did involve a trip to Notting Hill, but I was out and about in the car anyway (and just happened to find a reason to drop into the nearby Bunnings as well), and the instant gratification made up for the time I spent going out that way.

Not the smartest looking retail establishment around and set in a field of warehouses, but as in the past, they've got just about anything you might need and the prices generally seem to be as good as you'll get anywhere.







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Tracking aircraft

The loss of MH17 was a true disaster.    It's a bit sobering to reflect that this is the very flight we travelled on last October (from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur).

However,  I was interested in the map that appeared on the internet shortly after the event, showing that hardly any commercial aircraft were near Ukraine.

On closer investigation, I find that you can see the location of a lot of the world's commercial  flights (including corporate planes) at Flightradar 24 and at Planefinder.   These sites use information transmitted from planes, particularly from ADS-B transponders (but also other sources).  They take a moment to load, but it's fascinating that this information is available to the world on just a click of the mouse button.  There are clearly some committed people out there that go to all this effort.

Just the same, some of the information looks a bit dodgy, particularly on Planefinder.  This site appears list a number of Aeromexico flights in Australia, but I think they are actually Pel-Air Aviation flights (do they use a similar flight prefix - perhaps something like AM)?   Also, Planefinder appears not to have a good coverage of China, but this doesn't seem to be an issue on Flightradar24.   Perhaps there are other strengths and weaknesses, too, but who's complaining, as the sites don't even carry advertisements. 

Flying to conclusions

The following post appeared in a Trip Advisor forum:
"I will be flying in from UK to Melbourne and note there are 2 airports and with price differences.
I plan to stay in a central /CBD location.
Do I select Melbourne International (cheaper fairs [sic]) or Tullamarine (more expensive)?"

Just goes to show that a little bit of care has to be taken when doing it yourself on the internet.    'Coz "Melbourne International" is the name of an airport in Florida!

Biometrics

There was a bit of a discussion a few weeks back about the use of biometric data for security purposes.

In particular, a Facebook engineer, Gregg Stefancik was quoted  as saying that he "hates biometrics" because, once such data is compromised, it can't be amended.  He means that a person's fingerprints, retina or voice pattern can't be changed, whereas other forms of authentication like a password can be reissued.

However, the "Biometrics Institute" (not quite sure what this is or who is behind it)  apparently think that this overstates the case. They say,  "that biometrics offers far greater security than passwords and can’t be stolen because they are physical features of a person."

Well, perhaps biometric data they can't be stolen from a person, but what about at the other end?   Surely the data has to be on file at the bank or wherever, so that when the individual logs in, it knows what to look for?   And of course, we all know that any organisation that stores data about you is quite capable of being hacked (for example, eBay).  EDIT - and cloud storage also seems vulnerable.

The essence of the the Institute's  argument appears to be that you don't use biometrics alone.  Err, what's that?    So you do have to have a password or PIN as well?  Kinda defeats the purpose, I would have thought.....

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but at this stage, I remain to be convinced about the utility of biometric data!

Wotif to be acquired by Expedia

While bricks-and-mortar travel agents seem to be doing OK, there's activity in the on-line sector, too.

It seems that Wotif is going to be acquired by Expedia (at a price of $3.30 per share, including a special dividend).   Wotif has been having a bit of trouble recently, with the share price hitting a low of $2.26 on 21 May, way below its 52 week peak of $5.25 on 22 July last year (and even further below its all-time high of $7.69 in April 2010).   This is in spite of claiming to have 36% of the Australian accommodation online-booking market (see company research posted on CommSec site).  Media reports suggest that it hasn't been keeping up on the technology side of things.

The takeover of Wotif.com will presumably result in the disappearance of its "interesting" code from the ASX.

The Trip Advisor community doesn't really like the deal (not that this is relevant!), as Expedia evidently have a reputation for charging higher commissions than Wotif, and for seeking favourable conditions from providers.    (Interestingly,  Trip Advisor itself was spun out of Expedia).

Will Expedia maintain Wotif as a separate brand?   Or should that be "brands"?  Like other players in this market (and in the bricks-and-mortar market), Wotif also runs other sites including the lastminute.com.au and, travel.com.au sites.  And Expedia also runs Trivago, Hotels.com and Hotwire,as well as having a tie-up with Travelocity.  Thus, perhaps the Wotif brand will continue, at least on the consumer-facing side.

The other major international player is said to be Priceline (which owns booking.com.).  This interesting article in the AFR points out the dominance of the large operators.  The scale of Expedia and Priceline means they can sign up more hotels, negotiate better prices and insist on better deals from accommodation providers (for example, enabling them to offer price-match deals).   So other Australian operators such as Webjet (which, I note, owns Zuji) and even Flight Centre might find themselves being squeezed. 

Reviews of diners

I was fascinated by Annabel Crabbe's piece in the Fairfax media a little while back that said that shared on-line reservation sites such as dimmi.com.au/ which provide central booking services for restaurants also allow restaurants to post comments on diners who use the service!   I couldn't actually find this facility on dimmi, but I guess it is in fact there somewhere.

So, we might all end up with ratings as to how we rate as diners!   What an interesting thought.   The reason we got a lousy table at restaurant "A" last night was because we only left a stingy tip at restaurant "B" the week before!





It presumably only applies if a person uses dimmi to make the reservation, although if the restaurant has signed up for this as a way of providing an on-line reservation service, I guess there's little choice.  Just the same, as with accommodation, I prefer to deal directly with the establishment if I can, which in the case of restaurants, generally involves a phone call rather than the use of an on-line booking service.  Nevertheless, it may well be that this is the way of the future:  if Trip Advisor can provide reviews of just about everything's that travel-related, what's so different about this sort of feed-back?

New Financial Year

Greetings on this first day of the new financial year.

And with the new financial year comes tax time.   This year, the ATO were quick off the mark - the email informing me that the new version of e-tax software was available arrived on 30 June. 

As always, there are changes, although I haven't absorbed them all yet.   But one change, right up front, is that to use e-tax, you have to register on the "My Gov" website.   I wonder where that is leading.....?

To Sydney

We booked a while back to spend a few days in Sydney, so we flew up on Monday. The Jetstar computer permitted me to check in on-line – but of course we still had to wait in line to drop our baggage (no do-it-yourself bag drop for Jetstar) and answer the “dangerous goods” question. So I don't know whether Qantas/Jetstar have got over their issues with me yet, or not. And everyone in front of us at the baggage check-in seemed to have issues of some sort. However, we had adequate time, so we couldn't complain. There was another long queue to board the plane, but I was pleased to see efforts (even if somewhat token) to enforce the carry-on baggage size limit. I guess when when an airline charges extra to check-in a bag, it serves as an incentive for everyone to try and carry as much as possible into the cabin with them.

The train into the city from the airport in Sydney was pleasant (of course, this line does have the newest trains), and we ate dinner at a casual Italian restaurant in The Rocks area. Impulsively, we jumped on the Manly ferry to occupy our evening and were rewarded with a nice view of the bridge by night but little else (in particular, Manly is very ordinary after dark)!

One lesson I've re-learned: re-activate my mobile broadband account before leaving home. Yes, we arrived in Sydney, and I found I hadn't brought with me the necessary log-in information!   As good luck would have it (certainly not good management), somewhere deep in my emails was a message with just enough information to get me going.

Ticking the wrong box

I went to check in on-line for our Qantas flight to Canberra.  Yes, I ought to have been more careful, but unfortunately on the page asking if we had any dangerous goods, I inadvertently ticked the wrong box.   Result - I was locked out of the on-line check-out process, with no way to go back to the beginning.  Oh well, I thought, I'll ring Qantas, surely it will be easy for them to re-set the process.   After 35 minutes waiting on hold (fortunately I had other things to do while waiting), the operator informed me that, yes, what I had done was not uncommon, but there was no way the process could be re-set.  The only option was to queue at the check-in and explain the situation to a real person.   She was adamant that this was a "safety" issue, and explained that Qantas were worried that having ticked the wrong box, I had to be checked in by a real person.

She was horrified when I suggested that perhaps if I was really out to sneak something on to the plane, I would have just checked the "I aren't carrying anything that I ought not to" box, rather than tick the other box and wait for 35 minutes on the phone to change it.  Ah, airline bureaucracy!

At the airport, the staff were very understanding, and we were checked in without any difficulty.

In fact, with hindsight, I see that the on-line check in process is almost certainly linked in to the database in the same way as the airport self-checkin stands, so perhaps the lack of flexibility is understandable after all.    Just the same, why the check-in personnel at the airport can override the system and the call centre operators can't remains a bit of a mystery.   The cynic in me wonders if this has anything to do with the fact that Qantas (like other airlines, I guess) doesn't wish to encourage phone calls?

However, I was a little unnerved when, on our return flight, the next day, once again, I wasn't able to access the self-checkin process at the airport.  The flight was again on Qantas, but it was a completely separate booking, made at a different time, and with a different reference.  But no, the self-checkin machine refused even to commence the process, and so we had to explain to a real person that we weren't carrying anything we weren't supposed to.

I'm now apprehensive that the Qantas computer has locked me out of the self-checkin process!  Surely, not as a result of my discussion over the phone?   We have a flight in the near future with Jetstar, so time will tell whether we have demonstrated ourselves trustworthy! In the meantime, two lessons have been reinforced:  be very careful about which boxes you tick and don't take issue with anything an airline person says.

Cardless cash

I know that sometimes I'm a late adopter of technology, but at least I'd heard of "PayWave" before it arrived in my mailbox.  But I hadn't heard of "cardless cash" until I read about it.  This enables you to withdraw cash from an ATM without a card, by using your smartphone.  CAB offer the facility allowing up to $200 per day, and Westpac will offer something similar later in the year.

As I understand it, with the CBA, when you want to withdraw money, you use the app to say how much you want.  You then receive two PINs, one via the app on the smartphone and the other by SMS. Both of these are transmitted to your phone.  When you get to an ATM, you enter these numbers.    

I watched the clip on the CBA site and it seems that you don't need to enter your bank PIN either on your phone or at the ATM.   Security is provided by your phone password (which the bank is not concerned with).   True, most phone users set their phone so that this needs to be keyed in after a minute or so of inactivity, but even so, it left me wondering, particularly about the fact that the bank having no responsibility in the process for checking that the phone is not being improperly used (such as requiring a PIN known by the bank to be keyed in).

So, I had a look at the "fine print", as a footnote to the expression about the user not being liable for unauthorised transactions.   
This states, "^{^}This means we’ll cover any loss should someone make an unauthorised withdrawal on your account using Cardless Cash - provided you protect your phone and phone password and immediately notify us of their loss, theft or misuse, and of any suspicious activity on your account."

Hmmm, if you lose your phone, can you be said to have failed to "protect" it?  If someone loses their phone, will informing the bank be the first thing on their minds?   How quickly do you have to notify the bank in order to be able to say that you've "immediately" notified them?   I haven't used this facility (and am unlikely to do so) so perhaps I've missed something, but otherwise it seems to me that there are a few "loose ends" here!

PayWave

"Contactless" or "tap-and-go" cards have been around for a while (Visa call it "payWave").  The Whirlpool forum on the topic has been running since 2009!  So, I accept that I'm a latecomer to this now-popular technology (and I most certainly have not read through the whole Whirlpool forum), but I noticed that when my replacement credit card arrived, there was a covering note explaining that "PayWave" could be used on it.

I was apprehensive about this technology, and then I saw the news reports about increased thefts occurring, evidently by people in search of these cards.  Well, I do my best to secure my cards so that they're not stolen and I'm not overly worried about being hacked (see here), although I do realise that both of these are possibilities and of course I would be distressed if either happened to me.  However, it seems to me the real issue with such cards for many people is literally closer to home, namely unauthorised use by other members of the household.  It's not hard to envisage a situation where another person "borrows" the card, uses it and then returns it.  Hopefully, it won't occur in our household, but many households and house-sharing arrangements are somewhat prone to events of this type.

Imagine the difficulty involved in disputing a single transaction (which occurred while the card was "borrowed"), where other legitimate transaction later (after the return of the card) have occurred!

I decided I would like to disable the feature.  The CBA website tells me that this can't be done.  I visited the bank, where it was confirmed that the feature couldn't be disabled (unless I physically damaged the particular part of the card), but a notation was placed on the file to the effect that, if a PayWave transaction occurs, I'll be notified.

The bank's action is better than nothing, but it seems to me that technology of this nature ought to be available on an "opt in" basis, and to my mind it's unsatisfactory that it's not even possible to "opt out".

Monitoring social media

The following comment appeared on my post about the flooding in Serbia:
"Hello,
just wanted to let everyone know that you can support the victims of the flooding by playing the lotto. Here at Multilotto, we are giving €1 for every line played. Learn more here: http://www.multilotto.com/en/lotterynews/408-support-serbia-and-bosnia Whether you play the lotto or do something else entirely, please do what you can to support the victims of flooding in these difficult times.
Thank you."

The drama is on-going

Well, I like to receive comments, and the idea of providing financial assistance for the victims of the floods is commendable.  However,  I removed the comment because playing lotto on a non-Australian website doesn't seem the best way of supporting the victims (I understand that other ways of assisting them are under consideration).

Just the same, it's interesting that my rather obscure blog post was quickly picked up by the person who made the comment.   Obviously, there are some powerful tools out there monitoring the social media!  There was a similar instance here.

Internet Explorer

The Australian Government's "Stay Start Online" website has suggested changing your browser so as not to use Microsoft's Internet Explorer!   This occurred on 29 April, and is because Microsoft  issued a security advisory warning about a critical vulnerability affecting all versions of Internet Explorer,  known to be targeted by cyber criminals.
Apparently, the vulnerability can be exploited if an attacker gains access to your computer, or if you visit a malicious website using one of the affected versions of Internet Explorer.

But for an Australian Government site to suggest (albeit gently) that we ought not to use a Microsoft product?  Very interesting!



Edit:  I understand that Microsoft has now issued patches for this problem, including in respect of Windows XP, notwithstanding they are not now supporting it.

Windows XP

Microsoft pulls the plug on support for Windows XP on 8 April.    That means it will no longer provide patches to update any security vulnerabilities that may emerge after that date.  [Edit: This is in spite of Windows 8 not being very popular].

XP is said still to constitute a significant proportion of operating systems in use - the Australian quoted NetMarketShare as giving a January 2014 figure of 29.23%(!), although the information appears to be behind a paywall.

At a recent Melb PC User Group meeting, two experts gave completely opposite views about the implications of this for anyone who still uses XP.

One view was, "Don't risk it, the world might fall in".  The other said, "Don't panic, there's only a remote chance of a major security hole being discovered in XP after all this time that the normal third-party anti-virus programs won't cover."

Let me say that (a) I'm in no position to make a judgement about this matter; and (b) the issue is academic so far as I'm concerned because we no longer use XP.

I do notice that Microsoft are using the event as an opportunity to push Windows 8.1 (see link above), but of course, they would, wouldn't they?   Likewise anti-virus vendors such as Kaspersky say that they'll still be there to provide "protection" to XP useers, but of course, they would, wouldn't they?

I suppose the issue that concerns me is that I've read that business is still a major user of XP.  I hope that any business that I have transactions with over the internet which is still using XP has fully assessed the situation and is taking good care of any data that they have about me!.

"System error"

So, NAB duplicated a number of EFTPOS transactions?   I noticed the notification on NAB's log-in screen on 13 February, and it stated that the solution was [still] "underway" with reversals to occur on that day or the next.  The notification had been removed by the next day.

Errr, the transactions were on 7 and 8 February......up to 6 days beforehand.  I'm uncertain when NAB just happened to detect the problem (but the tone of the notification suggests that it may have taken a few days).  I don't know how many of these transactions there were, but even if there weren't many, it doesn't inspire confidence when it takes a week or so to identify and sort out an issue such as this.  

Bitcoins

Bitcoins have been in the news lately.  Most recently, some sort of "technical glitch" has affected one of the exchanges that deal in them. Hacking and wildly fluctuating values seem to be real issues, but even if these weren't sufficient to dissuade me from even thinking about becoming involved with them (not that I am likely to have the opportunity, anyway), there's a deeper issue.

There was a report on 7.30 about bitcoins a little while back which I watched with interest.

The aspect that I just didn't "get", and the ABC made no attempt to explain, is how is this currency created?    I see that Wikipedia refers to it being "mined", but in my world, a person who derives an object as a result of mining it gets the full value of that object, paying only the cost of production.   Yes, the purists might say that this isn't perfect, but mining for gold and other precious metals is long-established and there is some sort of correlation between the cost and difficulty of mining and the value of the commodity.  Can this be compared with the cost of running a computer program to produce a unit of exchange?

The bitcoin webite didn't help me much, and I must admit that I get really, really, dubious when I read that the "mining process" is too hard for mere mortals to understand!  But, as I see it, you "mine" a bitcoin by solving a complex numerical problem, that is, it's like a prize.   In fact, I had already deduced this, when I came across this quote: "Mining bitcoins, at the end of the day, is literally solving a math problem again and again".   It seems that the difficulty of the problem is somehow adjusted (or ought that be "manipulated"?) to regulate the supply of bitcoins.

Hmm, funny basis for creating units of exchange, if you ask me.  Even if there isn't someone, somewhere who is making money as a result of the production of these units, what guarantee is there that the system won't be corrupted in the future?  Government control of our conventional monetary system may not be perfect (and there have certainly been massive failures in some countries over the years), but at least it is less opaque than is the case with bitcoins.

Windows 8 on the way out?

There  are reports (and also here) that Microsoft is already thinking of superseding Windows 8.  One of the quotes was, "Windows 8 is not getting a look-in from the corporate users and the consumers I've spoken to all say they are appalled by it."

I've previously set out my views about it (most recently here).

Frankly,  I wonder if everyone would be better served if desktop users stayed with Windows 7?   However, I suppose Microsoft need to keep changing things so as to sell more copies of the program.