Saturday October 1

I realised yesterday that it is almost two months since I started using the Orcon Genius. The fact that I have written little about it below in that time, and that I haven't really noticed I've been living with the system, speaks volumes I think. I've been with Orcon for some time, but I don't know if it is the fact I have a new router more or less set up for me by Orcon, or whether that I simply have a new hardware item in the house (although my previous router was great), but I have been very impressed.

That said, there are still some quirks that I have experienced and I think Orcon need to do more for their customers at the time that they first come on board with the Genius. I said early on that in the first email I got confirming my order, there was no detail as to what I had actually signed up for. I commented at the time that I really hated call waiting, and now I suspect I didn't sign up for it...but finding whether that is true or not has been more of a challenge than it should have been. There should have simply been a "Here's what you've ordered" email delivered immediately, followed up by a "Here's how to use each of these things" at the time I went live. Getting a response from Orcon by posting criticism on Twitter isn't a way I like to work (but it gets the response needed) and not how Orcon should be working. Their Help Desk needs to become more responsive!

The only other criticism is a minor one, and that's living with VOIP. I've said previously that I've worked in a couple of organisations with VOIP phones and in those organisations you can really tell the difference in quality between someone calling you on a VOIP phone and someone making a traditional call. I've not experienced any drop in quality with Orcon...in fact I've had some of the clearest phone conversations I have had in a long time. But with all VOIP systems there is that potential for that millisecond of delay between people (especially when you interrupt what the other person is saying) and I do notice that occasionally. I certainly did notice it when a friend called from the UK on another VOIP system. But it's not enough to be frustrating, and it's not enough to make me want to stop using the Genius. I'm saving money and I'm sold on it.

I see they are putting the price up in the next couple of days, so I suspect that if you're interested in the Genius, this weekend is probably a good time to sign up!

What follows is a couple of things I noted down over the past two months...

Saturday August 6

Last night, after reading two superb reviews of Orcon Genius (here and here) I signed up for Orcon's new offering (target date for switch over is August 16 according to the response I received from Orcon's system). I have been an Orcon broadband user for a number of years. Originally, it was when Orcon advertised on my NZMac.com website, but after selling the site I not only stayed with Orcon but changed plans - moving my phone to Orcon, increasing my broadband speed and data cap. Why I hadn't done those 3 things sooner I'm still not sure.

Having signed on to get a Genius I thought I'd write up some notes about the whole experience (for starters, my bill to Orcon each month is going to go from $107 to $85!)....starting with some caveats that Orcon clearly indicate you need to consider...

After almost a week of using Lion I confess I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I would. I'm wishing I had stuck with Snow Leopard in many ways and am in fact turning many options back to act more like they did on Snow Leopard. These are just some random (actually very random) notes from things I discovered.

• I would strongly advise you to create a bootable DVD of the install. Do this once you download the installer, but before you apply it. Learn how to do it here
• Have your serial numbers for software handy. Some software will treat it you like it's the first day of install and prompt you for serial numbers (Snapz Pro for example)
• Try to be as up-to-date with everything before installing Lion. I had to update a number of apps (like my M$ intelligent mouse) because the version installed didn't seem to work once Lion was installed
• Safari - They seem to have killed off the download window. I truly hate that!
• "All my files" as the top item in the side menu. Why can't I access the HD from there? Learn how to get rid of it here
• Where is the little icon to get the left side menu to appear in a window that has just a title bar? I understand it is called the Lozenge and the fix (though it's not really a fix) is here...and is also mentioned here
• The last link also provided a fix for my mouse issues. I have an M$ mouse and the scrolling was reversed. I couldn't find the setting mentioned, so I had to plug in my Apple mouse to then untick the setting.
• The link also provides a fix for disappearing sidebars.
• I really don't like the way that 1Password now looks and behaves. The company say they might fix it in the future, but the changes don't seem welcome (check out the comments)
• I was really impressed that when I logged into my Google Apps For Your Domain account, Safari asked me if I wanted to use that Gmail account with Mail, iCal and iChat. Very clever, but sadly it didn't work properly. It's probably because I don't have a Gmail account, but Google Apps Gmail account
• Apple Mail can't import from Microsoft Outlook for the Mac...grrrr!!
• iCal and the Address book - yuck! They look awful on a large iMac screen
• Don't like the fact that the bottom of the Window doesn't have any real estate or the ability to tell you how much space you have left? This page has the fix
• Ars Technica (yet again) do a superb review of Lion
• Versions is very cool !!
• A couple of glitches

Hi and welcome to the new-look site running on Joomla 1.7!!

I decided that since I build so many websites using Joomla that it was about time that my own personal site was Joomla-based. In fact it's using the very latest version of Joomla and a fantastic theme from YOOtheme, as well as their superb Zoo tool and WidgetKit, which is still in beta. Because of that, and because the site design and structure is all new, please be aware that there may be aspects of the site that are not completely functional. For example, the smaller gallery images are not able to be set to display at their original size but are being expanded to cover the gallery area, meaning the cropping of images is sometimes a bit random. Other things to fix are listed at the bottom of this article and will be updated as they are resolved.

One thing I do want to do with this site (and by putting it down in writing it may mean I do actually get around to doing it) is write about various Mac related issues that might pop up now and then, such as software reviews or commentaries on Apple devices. That's why I have set up a "News" section of the site, so that although I intend to keep most of the site reasonably static, there is scope to add in some new writing as time (and my enthusiasm) allows.

Joomla 1.7 is a real step forward in terms of how you can update Joomla in the future, and the move further away from Joomla 1.5 (which has been around quite a while) signals a strong move by the Joomla team. Joomla 1.6 was really just seen by most as an interim update (despite it having some impressive next features) and it is great to see Joomla moving forward.

I hope you enjoy looking around the new site. Please take time to explore and leave comments if you wish. For those of you interested in Joomla development, you can learn a bit about the tools I used to build the site under the "About" section.

Cheers,

Phil

To fix:

• As mentioned, there is no control on gallery image scaling - FIXED (images pop up)
• RSS feeds for the site and therefore the RSS icon top-right faulty - FIXED
• RSS feed items not the most recent news
• Twitter box language incorrect - FIXED
• iTunes and Mac App store links - FIXED
• HTML validation - FIXED
• CSS Validation - needs to be checked an improved