Some of you might know that we've decided to go Big Time in the next two months or so.

Some might say "noooo, it's the worst decision you'll ever make", others may say "why they hell aren't ya on Big Time already?"

Well - for the purposes of collecting that detail, I've decided to make a survey.


I'm using Google Docs with Forms to do it, with their simple interface and good selection of features. It even has simple summaries so I can view results in a glance.


Not only will it be just for myself (I'm not that selfish...) - it'll also gauge what you feel and have experienced, and results will be posted here at the start of December.



So if:

• you're currently on Big Time, or


• previously on Big Time

... please take a moment to fill out my survey at: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEVWSFlFRENfeW5iVTFQUVFHV294ZXc6MA


Tell your friends too!

Everyone knows that 2degrees provides a mobile number changing service. I have to say, it's great!

I've been recently trying to find a new (and obviously memorable or simple) number for my 2degrees SIM which I have recently bought to cater for my mobile project.



Looks pretty simple - enter 2 to 7 digits, and it'll present all the of the numbers available with those digits in there.


I searched for numbers including "111" (just for fun):


(I've just mashed them up together to save you some bandwidth and space )


It may surprise some to tell you that it doesn't always present all of the numbers. It only lists the first 50 results in the query. The most obvious reason is to prevent an overload from a large database of numbers, which I am happy to accept.

Proof? Simple really. Let's try a query for "11" - this should include the numbers in the query "111" above since they have "11" in them:



You can see that it always ends just after the 50th result.



So 2degrees: Please change your wording on the page to say that it will only give the first 50 results. Clearly you are misinforming people when it says that it will "give you all the available options that include those numbers."

I don't know about you, but the image on this page just didn't seem right.



Let's zoom in.



Now I know that a lot of Photoshopping is done on a lot of images now-a-days but this one is just one terrible example of it.

Here's the things I've noticed:

• Lips are just awful and her smile looks more like an evil smirk


• The hair on woman's head cuts off sharply on the right


• There's an obvious black patch on the girls hair - looks like it's "painted" on as a substitute to a shadow


• Somehow there's two light sources - there is light on the girl's head which appears to be from high up behind them or directly on top, but also one to the left of the woman's head (visually on the right of the image)


• Skin tones don't match either - woman's face is paler than the neck

What's going on at TelstraClear's graphic department?

I would like to see it being replaced - that image just doesn't look right at all (even without the whole "the head may have been Photoshopped on" issue)

As a small update - #mproject in its early stages failed to be built at the end of my school term. It will return next year to be integrated into coursework!

But... my other Electronics project entered into the Bright Sparks competition was named as a finalist (it was my coursework for the year, and didn't expect to actually get somewhere with it!)

Had a meeting yesterday at ETITO HQ (the guys who run Bright Sparks) - and took some video which you can watch here.


You can follow me on Twitter to see how I go with this one!