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Category: tech

Joomla – Google maps, and directions

I was playing around with a side project of mine, a web site in Joomla, and I added some XSLT to allow users to get directions in the Google maps component of this particular Joomla site. Besides the fact that I’m enjoying playing around with this CMS, I am also learning new things. One of them was the fact that I discovered you can now get driving directions for Australian addresses in google maps now!

Web Standards

I thought people understood this simple premise. You write your code to the standard, not to the browser. The browsers then adhering to the standard display the code correctly, or lay it out based upon the chosen style. Why in this day and age are Telstra/Bigpond NOT doing this? I am a customer, and nearly all their web based products MANDATE the use of a single browser; i.e. they write their code to a platform.

Apple TV and Australian pricing

Apple have released their Apple TV My question, is why does Australia get CONSISTENTLY marked up prices from Apple? The Apple TV is USD$299, and AUD$449. At the current exchange rate of 1 USD to 1.28683 AUD this item costs AUD$385 when purchased in the US. That is over $60 more expensive for the pleasure of purchasing from Australia! How do they justify this? The exchange rates do not fluctuate that much.

Telstra NextG – Your privatised monopoly at work

Someone in my family signed up with Telstra NextG wireless broadband today. This is a High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) wireless network. Now this person is not an IT person. They use the internet for email, chat, web, etc., and due to the fact that they are working and traveling where there are no other decent wireless broadband carriers in Australia (i.e. outside a Capital City), then this was their only real option.