If you are like us, the Christmas period offered the first chance to visit family and friends since the arrival of COVID-19. Unfortunately, the resurgence of the virus during our time in Melbourne has meant that we wanted to the monitor the list of exposure sites as listed on the DHHS website, a task which is well suited to a python script rather than one of us.
Read MoreDirectly following on from my previous post TPG: a scourge to society, this post could be entitled
TPG: a scourge to society II. The quality of our internet connection was appalling, but TPG would not believe me. I saw this as a challenge, and subsequently set out to prove to them our connection was junk. Previously, I was monitoring if I could connect to google; however, I also wanted to monitor our internet speed. Using speedtest.net I was able to create a picture of what was happening with our connection, but the results were not entirely clear.
According to their website, “TPG is a leading Australian ISP Telco providing cost effective and reliable NBN, ADSL2+, Fibre, DSL Internet Broadband with Phone and BYO Mobile plans”. In my experience, TPG is the bottom rung of the Australian internet ladder - which is no mean feat - and unable to deliver an acceptable quality of internet service. Moreover, their ability to gag their own support staff and find seemingly the least competent technicians and engineers is simply astounding. Unfortunately, what adds the salt to this festering wound is the state internet infrastructure in Australia, which has been purposely crippled by commercial interests to the detriment of all. The result is that you have no choice but to accept your lot. During my fight for a better internet connection, I made a few scripts which might be useful to others and also produced some neat plots, so if that is your thing please, take a look around.
Read MoreI have a deep hatred for advertising, and advertising on the internet is basically the most insidious form of advertising. This is why for the longest time I have used browsers which support ad-blocking extensions (I recommend uBlock origin) but in early 2019 I came across Pi-hole, a network wide ad-blocking solution. In an attempt to get more people using it and reduce their exposure to advertising and therefore increase their quality of life, I thought I would document my Pi-hole journey.
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