bioneural.net » Rave

Bose know customer service

Bruce — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:59:46 +0000

If you've ever spent 24 hours on a long haul flight you may know what a blessing noise cancelling headphones are. While the headset Apple ship with the iPhone is OK (the all-in-one answer/ hang up, pause/ play, and next song button is great), they do sound tinny after experiencing the depth and background quiet of the QuietComfort 3 from Bose. Unfortunately the pre-iPhone set I bought in New Zealand weren't accommodated by the iPhone's recessed jack—nor was my wife's Sennheiser PXC 250. Apple say: iPhone has a standard 3.5-mm headphone jack, so it is compatible with most portable stereo headphones. Some stereo headphones may require an adapter (sold separately) to ensure proper fit. But when you pass most through the Apple reality distortion lexi-transmographier, that recessed design means hardly any. In the wake of the iPhone Bose modified the cords of some of their headphones. Although the airplane adapter that came with my QC3 does fit (sort of) into the iPhone jack, using it in this way is clumsy and seems to degrade audio quality. There are plenty of audio adapters now available (Apple Store, eBay, etc.) that use less plastic in order to bury themselves deeper into your iPhone, but I decided to ring Bose UK (0800 085 9021) and find out if I could purchase a replacement cord, or "official" adapter. The Guy from Bose was obviously familiar with the problem. Bose UK's Parts Dept. sent me a legacy adapter "because you want to be able to continue enjoying them", no ...

Time machine saves the day

Bruce — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:13:40 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

The hard drive in my wife's MacBook recently failed. She was using Safari with the laptop stationary on her desk when, out of the blue, the system locked up. On restarting (via the power button) all we got was a folder with a blinking question mark. We booted from the Leopard DVD and Disk Utility could not see an internal drive which, not unexpectedly, was making a tell-tale clicking noise. Our previous backup regime involved making a monthly archive using SuperDuper!, but luckily Simone was running Leopard and thus had a current back-up not more than an hour old on an attached USB drive. Would Time Machine successfully restore all her stuff to a replacement (larger) internal drive? Having come across an article where Time Machine was used to migrate files to a new drive (not a crash situation), I was expecting to follow the same sequence involving booting from the Leopard DVD and choosing Restore System from Backup... from the Utilities menu. However, the MacBook was returned with a fresh copy of Leopard pre-installed, but requiring setting up. The screens we encountered were thus a little different, since we commenced our restorative journey using Leopard's Setup Assistant. If you suffer a hard drive crash and have a replacement drive onto which Leopard is already installed, here is what you can expect to see. Setup Assistant We began with the usual Leopard set-up screens (language etc.) and soon got to a screen advising "You can also transfer information from another volume on this ...

Singing the Internet's praises

Bruce — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 09:43:42 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Our "new" car is a used Japanese import, so we wanted to be sure of the vehicle's history before going to the expense of a pre-purchase inspection. After purchase we noted that the fitted BMW Business radio could not tune into local radio stations and nor was there an instruction manual for it in the glove compartment. The Internet came through, addressing all three concerns. Before arranging a pre-purchase AA inspection (a physical exam arranged in conjunction with the seller), we were able to check online whether the car in question was a lemon—via AA LemonCheck. Requiring the licence plate number, this vehicle history check resulted in a comprehensive report detailing the known facts about the vehicle, registration details, ownership trail, odometer readings (taken at each Warrant of Fitness), and security interest details. This gave us the VIN, providing additional details via the BMW VIN decoder. After our purchase we realised that although it had been driven in New Zealand for the past 18 months the radio was set to Japanese frequencies (70–90FM), meaning it couldn't receive Wellington's More FM (100FM). The Internet came through for us again, as via Google I found an article describing how to re-program the world tuner to NZ frequencies without needing to buy an FM band expander. For my future reference, the steps were: Turn the radio on (no. 1 below); Within 10 seconds press and hold down the 'm' button (no. 9) until the serial number appears in the display (no. 13); Use the + or - buttons ...

Raving about the USA

Bruce — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 01:18:41 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

I've noticed that most of the entries in my Archives tagged with "usa" have sad smilies next to them, indicating the post is a rant. Does this mean I harbour anti-American sentiment? There's a difference between Americans (individual people) and America (the country and its policies), however, the same can be said of any country. Although I do object (like much of the world) to the sometimes irresponsible behaviour of America and her leadership, the nation has given the world much. And it has much to offer (not all of which is given). To add some balance to my site content I set myself the task of listing something good about the US for every sad smilie. It's been too long since my previous rave. Most of my "usa" posts involve rants Good things about the US Apples are grown in California; Kevin and Rob are American and they're good people; The US has some great scenery I hope to photograph one day; Google started in a Californian garage and changed the world forever while maintaining an altruistic streak; Some American's can see things differently (even while making money). Now that wasn't so hard. What raves would you add to the list?

SkypeOut + Cyberphone K VoIP phone

Bruce — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 07:18:46 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

After a recent run of rants, it's about time I found something to rave about. Enter "a low cost way to make calls from Skype to friends who still use those traditional landlines or mobile phones. That means calling anyone, anywhere in the world at local rates" (q.v. SkypeOut). Add to this a USB phone that does VoIP (voice over IP) and integrates with Skype (q.v. VoIPVoice Cyberphone K). We have family and friends in Germany and New Zealand and international calls contribute to most of our £80-90 per quarter phone bill. If you're serious about reducing BT's profit margin, you might want to check out this pairing. SkypeOut I've looked at Skype before, here. Until recently I used it for Mac to PC Internet telephony, but have been disappointed with the call quality (especially to my parents in NZ who use a dial-up modem, but also to family in Germany who are on broadband like us). Such calls are routed from computer to computer over the Internet, and thus require the remote end to be online (shame Skype's online status indicator seems a bit flakey). SkypeOut means you can use your computer (with or without accessories) to call someone on their landline or mobile phone. This time the call is routed over the Internet for some of the time, then gets passed on to the public telephone or mobile network. The most important implication of doing this is that you aren't paying for an international call, but for a local one! Calling ...

AddressGuard: anti-spam tool from Yahoo!

Bruce — Sun, 04 Jul 2004 13:49:36 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

The disposable e-mail address: it's often the simple ideas that work best... In an effort to reduce spam I give my personal e-mail address only to people I feel I can trust not to sell it. Previosuly, whenever a website asked for an e-mail address I gave them one from an old Hotmail account. But soon that account started receiving lots of spam: had the address been guessed, or was it passed on by some unscrupulous individual? Being one address and many websites, it was impossible to point the finger. Yahoo! (with Yahoo! Mail) and BT Yahoo! Mail (in partnership) came up with a solution I have made good use of: the disposable e-mail address. They call it "AddressGuard": The basic idea is this: you create (up to 500) "aliases" to your real e-mail address, each one of which can be assigned to a particular company or purpose. All of your e-mail arrives in your in-box as normal (or you could set up filters to re-direct it based on the alias). Using the webmail interface you can even use an alias as the "From:" address to send or reply to a message (sadly this doesn't work with your ordinary mail client, unless you manually add an account for each alias). BT Yahoo!'s help pages explain: Each disposable address has two parts: a base name and a keyword. Base name: The base name is the same for all your disposable addresses but it's different from your BT Yahoo! Email address. By using this profile, you ...

Barbequing the BBQ

Bruce — Fri, 23 Apr 2004 16:56:44 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Our gas BBQ caught fire. Why isn't this a rant, you ask? Because it's about good customer service from John Lewis and Outback... Last weekend we fired up the gas BBQ for the first time this season. In March 2003 we bought an Omega Plus, made by Outback, from John Lewis and had used it several times last season without incident. We kept it stored in a locked garden shed where it could not be interfered with by man or elements. On lighting the BBQ we heard a hiss, and the flame did not seem as forceful—but we could not find a leak. We decided to proceed and went in to get the meat; my wife looked out the window and raised the alarm. Flames were coming out from underneath the BBQ body, covering the control knobs. In a panic we ran out to it and I switched off the gas at the cylinder and stood back; the flames died. The BBQ is not safe to use, and I subsequently learned that cylinders can explode—but usually only if they are directly in the fire. No one was inuried. Nevertheless, it could have been worse, and was not entertainment for our guests that I would care to repeat. We got out our retired Weber charcoal BBQ and rescued the evening meal. Some days later I phoned the Fire Brigade (I thought they might have a Community Fire Safety Officer or someone similar interested in prevention): they didn't want to know. I went to my ...

Why get Smart?

Bruce — Fri, 13 Feb 2004 07:29:50 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Thinking about buying a Smart city-coupe (fortwo)? The problem with most magazine reviews is their fixation with irrelevancies (e.g. 0-60 mph performance, "only two seats", etc.). If you want a sports MPV then the Smart won't be on your shortlist: if you want a compact, economical city car it could be. Here are some "real world" considerations, positive and potentially negative... I've just part-exchanged my four-door salon for an S-Class escape pod, otherwise known as the Smart city-coupe (Silverpulse special edition): Positives Around 40 mpg (UK) real-world fuel consumption (claimed 60 mpg); Low insurance group; Low road tax; Low emissions; Plastic body panels won't rust when stone-chipped; If you get tired of the colour, you can replace some or all the body panels; High driving position; Seats have good lumbar support; It feels solid; the doors close with a satisfying clunk, control sticks are not flimsy; Passenger space is very reasonable—head room is particularly good; The boot can hold the weekly groceries for two people; You don't have to bend much to get in or out of the car; Hill-start assist means there is a 0.7 sec delay when you move your foot from the brake to the accelerator before the car starts to roll backwards; You can't stall it (there is no clutch pedal); The gear drops down automatically as you slow e.g. for traffic lights; Steering-wheel paddles mean you don't need to take your hands off the wheel e.g. to change gear when cornering; Engine noise isn't nearly as evident as you might expect (the engine is inside the car after-all); You can park in a half-space, or ...