Life & Technology – 2GB 16th Mar, 2024

15 Things to Consider when Buying a Security Camera (with help from Arlo)

 In today’s fast paced hyper-connected world, you can be excused for feeling a little over-whelmed when it comes to knowing what the most trusted source of information is. Especially when it comes to the latest and greatest of new technologies. There are many different factors that go into choosing the right security system. To simplify the process CyberShack, along with a leader in smart wireless security, Arlo Technologies, brings you our first Top 15 things to consider when buying a security camera. For those rare few that live and breathe everything ‘new’ in the tech world, it is important to break down the technical and simplify the benefits for the less technically advanced amongst us. 

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Guests and Topics on the Show
We get a lot of inquiries about dashcams so we decided to invite Brad Hales 
National Marketing Manager from Uniden to discuss what are the things you need to look for in buying a dashcam, why you need one and what are the options out there.  


Introducing a 5K Dashcam – Dash View® 60+ Capture crisp and detailed video in bright and low-light road conditions with the release of Uniden’s state-of-the-art voice guidance Dash View 60+ Smart Dash Cam.Built using Japanese engineering technology and designed for Australian road conditions, the slim and stylish design can be discreetly positioned inside vehicles for a more luxurious in-car experience.   

A promising leap towards computers with light-speed capabilities 

Scientists have created a reprogrammable light-based processor, a world-first, that they say could usher in a new era of quantum computing and communication. Technologies in these emerging fields that operate at the atomic level are already realising big benefits for drug discovery and other small-scale applications.  In the future, large-scale quantum computers promise to be able to solve complex problems that would be impossible for today’s computers.  We invited Yang Yang, RMIT PhD scholar, who discussed further about this research.

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Life & Technology – 2GB 9th Mar, 2024

OK, Here Is How I Buy Concert Tickets (Ticketek)

I have received more email about this than I did about the most recent iPhone launch. The below is what ‘I do’, its not a blue print on how to hack a system or run a ticket buying ‘Robot’ – those things are clearly illegal (and are against buying terms & conditions!). 

There are two parts to the purchase. The waiting room and the ticket selection/purchase. But they are separate parts of the system. They need to be separate because the waiting room has the potential to slow or flood the selection/purchase area if they are made the same. 

The Ticketek waiting room, like all online waiting rooms, need to id a ‘user’ vs a robot. If they allow robots in then they stop real fans/customers vs people buying to onsell. 

They do this via a number of ways, but the IP address of the user is the main way in which they do it. 

Yes, they require each buyer to be logged in to the ticketek account, but they ALLOW multiple devices logging in at once during the waiting room process.

So, what you need to do is maximise your connections via different ip addresses. If you are trying at work, with 1000 people all connecting through the same ip address = BAD IDEA. 

If you can connect from a phone via cellular, a pc connected on home nbn and another phone also connected on cellular, that is now 3x IP addresses and you have tripled your opportunity of getting through the waiting room que. 

I used this formula for TS to create 18 different opportunities to get through the waiting room and was able to buy the tickets in the day and in the area of the stadium I wanted. It was still a nightmare and took hours. To be clear – I didn’t use a robot – if you do Ts & Cs say they can cancel your tickets. But I did have friends and family connecting their devices at their home, multiple devices connecting on cellular and I even had staff working at home during the TS ticket selling event. All logged in and sitting in the waiting room – all on a Skype live chat to alert the others if/when they got through the que. 

For other ticket selling events I used the same system but dialled back the number of devices connecting, to just devices I had on hand. I used about 5 for Cold Play and others. The result was I was through the waiting room almost instantly for each. 

Also, you need to disconnect all the other devices from the waiting room as soon as one gets through. This ensures the purchase window does not let in another device to the purchase section while the first device is buying tickets in this section already. This can confuse the system and kick you of the purchase section and you need to go back to the waiting room all over again.

Use this system and see if it works for you. We won’t have another selling event like Taylor Swift for a while, so you might not need it, and also with this process making the rounds Ticketek might work to close it off as an option, but good luck with it and I hope it helps you get the tickets you want. 

Guests and Topics on the Show
NBNco joined us to discuss how they are with NBN resellers to offer faster speeds for selected speed tiers. Sadly its not coming until late this year, but here are the details announced this week. Here is the announcement  

Australians feel the need, the need for speed: nbn reveals plan to turbo-charge high-speed tiers  NBN Co today launched a proposal to provide five times faster download speeds on its popular nbn Home Fast product, which would see wholesale download speeds accelerate from 100/20 Mbps to 500/50 Mbps1 at no extra wholesale cost to retailers.NBN Co is proposing to provide the accelerated speeds to customers connected to the nbn® network via Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) and Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) technologies. The company is also proposing to triple the wholesale download speed of its nbn Home Superfast product from 250/25 Mbps to 750/50 Mbps1 and increase the wholesale speeds of its highest residential speed tier, nbn Home Ultrafast, from 500-1000/50 Mbps to 750-1000/50-100 Mbps1, also at no extra wholesale cost to retailers. The accelerated speeds would be made available to customers who are already using one of the three highest-speed products, and to those who upgrade to one of those three higher speed tiers in the future. The proposed acceleration of the speed tiers is in response to the step-change in technology adoption and usage in Australia and globally. The move leverages the growing capabilities of fibre connectivity. The new turbo-charged speed tiers would be available across the company’s HFC and FTTP networks with customers in eligible Fibre to the Node (FTTN) and Fibre to the Curb (FTTC) locations that will be able to access the proposed speed tiers by upgrading to FTTP. As part of the proposal, NBN Co has indicated that it intends to relax the threshold2 for customers in premises served by FTTC to be eligible to upgrade to a full fibre (FTTP) connection by ordering an nbn Home Fast 100/20 Mbps product. Customers can check if their home or business is served by HFC or FTTP, or eligible to upgrade to FTTP and access faster speeds at nbn.com.au/fibreupgrade.The company is seeing strong demand for full fibre upgrades and higher speed tiers with approximately 7,000 homes and businesses per week, on average, upgrading to Fibre to the Premises (FTTP). 

So if you are on 100/20 NBN you will be able to upgrade to 500/50 at no cost. If you are 1000/50 (like me!!!) you can upgrade to 1000/100.  If you are on 50/20 you are not part of the announcement? Why? Because NBN want you to move up a speed tier to a faster service. There has been plenty of comments on the email about the announcement, but there is a lot to happene before the end of the year and these speeds being offered to customers. 

 Epson Turns 40 In Australia 
The Global President of Epson visited Australia this week and we included some exerts of our round table discussion in the program. We did receive a number of inquiries about printer product suggestions off the back of our guest joining us, here are some options (from Epson)
–  Around $150 (Inkjet multi function)  Click Here
Around $250 (Ecotank printer only) Click Here
Around $500 Ecotank – all in one) Click Here

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Life & Technology – 2GB 2nd Mar, 2024

Attacking Us By Attacking Business 

They are called ‘Supply Chain’ attacks and involve hackers targeting small businesses that have connections to larger, more lucrative targets. These smaller businesses often have weaker cybersecurity defenses, making them easier prey.  We have seen that hackers exploit vulnerabilities in these businesses’ systems to gain access to the networks and data of larger organizations they are linked to. Once inside, attackers can move laterally to breach the main target’s systems, leading to significant data theft, financial losses, and damage to reputation.  Damage to reputation was one area we discussed later in our East Coast show today.

Following a caller who told us he now sees about 50% of his dispatched emails never arrive at their destination, because his domain name has been flagged as ‘compromised’. This listener told me off air that business has been harder since the breach. We are going to assist where we can, with the support of our sponsor ‘Harvey Norman Technology For Business’.  Make sure your small business is protected from any of these attacks.  

CLAIM YOUR FREE CYBERSECURITY ASSESSMENT HERE.  
Guests and Topics on the Show
Supply chain attacks involve hackers targeting small businesses that have connections to larger, more lucrative targets. These smaller businesses often have weaker cybersecurity defenses, making them easier prey.  Rutland Smith  Proprietor from Harvey Norman Technology for Business shared how these hackers are able to prey on small business for such supply chain attacks.  

Harvey Norman is giving away FREE Cybersecurity Assessment, claim it here. 



Photo credit: https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/supply-chain-attack 

Apple has canceled its plans to produce an electric vehicle. The decision reportedly came after years of development challenges and internal strife within the project team. The project, internally known as “Titan,” faced hurdles such as leadership changes, disagreements over the vehicle’s direction, and difficulties in securing key partnerships.  Mike Boyd, our in-house ‘Apple Guy’ came down to the show to talk more about this and some updates re Vision Pro.  Mike mentioned that although he has a home full of Apple technology, he never saw himself driving an Apple car in the future. Mike talked about the complexity and challenges of making an electric vehicle and how this was likely a big part of the reason that Apple binned the project.   

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