Mangrove Mountain Computer Club

Effective from tomorrow, 1^st December, Telstra is introducing new Broadband plans and bundles. You can read the full announcement here.

Telstra will be contacting existing customers and moving them to the updated broadband plans over the coming months. Existing customers can take up a new broadband plan from 1 December 2009 by changing their plan online by logging into  their account at MY BIGPOND and the change should take effect from midnight that same day or the next day.

Like me, many others are probably trying to understand the changes fully. First take indicates the entry level 256/64kbps plan costing $29.95/month will be increased in speed to 1500/256kbps and the monthly quota will increase from 200mb to a more reasonable 2GB. This is the only plan left with a $0.15c/mb excess charge, now to be capped at $300. Seems the intention is to provide an incentive to upgrade to the $39.95 plan which, like all the others, is reduced to 64kbps if the quota is exceeded.

The other change appears to be the introduction of high usage plans of 100GB/month and 200GB/month to meet the growing demand for movie downloads and more family members connecting at the same time.

In addition, there are new packages with discounts for bundling eligible Telstra products on a single bill.  The focus on 12-month and 24-month contracts continues.

Appears to me to be a ‘better late than never’ move to recognise the reality of the changed market. It will be interesting to see how the many other ISPs respond and if they see a need to do so.

We have mentioned the options at many classes and included some in the Software page of the Club website.

Depending on which site you go to, downloading the latest version 9.0 of AVG Free now requires registration of your email address for Australian and NZ users and then downloading a ‘stub’ installer that completes the installation by a further download during the actual installation process. The procedure to register the free version of  Avast! has always seemed to confuse some.

Now there is a “new kid on the block” – Microsoft! Yes, Microsoft has made a free antivirus, antispyware and antimalware program available called Microsoft Security Essentials, released about the same time as Windows 7. Reports so far have been favourable and you can download it here. A relatively small download at 4.72MB compared to the alternatives and seems to work away happily in the background.

Suspect the established providers of antivirus programs will not be very pleased!

The AGMs of the CTC and the MMCC for 2008-09 were held at the Old Fire Shed on Wednesday, 18 November, commencing at 11:30am. Unfortunately, this meant disrupting the Digital Scrapbooking class and we thank them for their understanding.

There were 18 members present. The existing Management Committees were re-elected with only one change, Helen Walker having decided to stand down after being a member of the committee since the Club started 5 years ago. Sue Grist was elected to replace Helen Walker and the new committee for 2009-10 is:

President: Ann Currie
Vice-President: Alan Johnson
Treasurer: Ron Collins
Secretary: Nick Mason
Ordinary Members: Allan Alexander, Peter Say and Sue Grist

Alan Johnson continues to be the CTC’s Public Officer.

General discussion following the meetings focused on suggestion for courses in 2010, which will assist in the planning process.

Having just purchased a new computer for a friend with Vista pre-installed and a Win 7 upgrade option, for anyone in our area I would say “Don’t do it!”.

The reason is that the upgrade DVD is sent by air out of Singapore using DHL SG as the courier. No problem with that part, done promptly virtually overnight in spite of the flood of orders, but after it arrived at Sydney airport it then took a week to be delivered to Central Mangrove! DHL SG use a third-party courier (no name given) for delivery to outlying areas and that courier only delivers twice a week: others provide a daily service

I have suggested to DHL SG that they change their arrangements for final delivery to country areas in NSW but I doubt if that is going to happen in a hurry – if ever!

The RSL Project is outlined on the Club website. Many of the records of photographs and details of personnel from the community who have served were collected and researched by the late Joe Alexander over many years, and are on display in the ANZAC Room at the Mangrove Mountain Memorial Club.

More recently, Ken West and Joe Alexander initiated a project to make a more permanent digital record of the collection which was done with the assistance of MMCC members. Allan Alexander, Joe’s nephew, has continued the research work and a copy of this ‘Lest We Forget’ book  has now been donated to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra so that it is available to the public.

There is more research work to be done but unfortunately it appears there is no relationship between the Australian War Memorial and the National Archives of Australia that facilitates a joint approach to the research required using the NAA records without charge, even for a community based project. Possibly a grant could be applied for – more work! Let us know if you are willing to assist with the additional research required or would like more information.

In case anyone missed the announcements in the Community News and e-Update distributed to Members by email, the AGMs of the Community Technology Centre at Mangrove Mountain Inc. and the Mangrove Mountain Computer Club will be held at the Old Fire Shed on Wednesday, 18th November 2009, commencing at 11:30am.

We would appreciate the support of Members and any others who may be interested, and there will be an opportunity for general discussion following the completion of the formalities.