maharetr

Confusion and gnashing of teeth 1: Adblock is failing me! I have moving, flashing things in the corner of my vision in Yahoo and there are ads in Facebook and all these places they weren't before. I've tried reinstalling adblock and restarting firefox, to no avail. Has anyone else had this problem> Any ideas on how to fix it?

Angst 2!: I want a smartphone. I'm very much liking the look of the HTC Desire.

Things I'm after in a (smart)phone:
- ability to make calls, text (with threads!), and take photos
- a good calendar, with a weekly-ish view of what I'm doing
- ability to use GPS and maps while on foot
- good browsing ability for blogging sites (LJ! DW, oh how I miss you!)
- potential ability to read e-books
- ability to listen to (and store) music

I'm pretty sure iPhone and Android both do these things admirably. Just that the android OS looks pretty and seems to be slightly cheaper, depending. I'm not deep about this. If there's something in that list that Android doesn't do well, shout out.

Angst the 3rd: what carrier should I go with? I'm currently pre-paid just-phone-no-internet with 3 on a $29 cap. Which... I resent paying $29 every month after Virgin's $50 'yeah, use it whenever,it's cool', but it works for me just fine, other than that. samvara has mentioned the roaming rates that kick in for internet (they kick in for my phone, too, but only when I'm using it, and even then I've never spent more than the cap's worth). So I'm wary of that.

The best deal I've found so far is this one from Vodafone: $50 a month for a two year contract: 1 GB of data, unlimited this, unlimited that. Only thing I'd want to double check is if they really, really did international texts. Pro column: 3 and Vodafone are completing a merger. They'll be delighted to swap me over, says <user name="samvara>. Con column: their service has been up and down because they're... upgrading things? doing hardware things? I'm not too clear. Can anyone advise? Who are you with, carrier wise? What do you think of them? Aid the confused!

Okay, for the last 24 to 36 ish hours I've been unable to send any email from my yahoo account, other than replying to LJ comments. When I hit send on an email it tells me:

"Component returned failure code: 0x805e000a [nsIDOMLocation.replace]"

The 'send feedback' and 'contact us' option in the help menu aren't actually opening anything. Anyone?

I'm trying to find a clothing shop from memory. My memory says the labels on the clothes said 'Cottonlines', it sold many skirts of varying patterns for about $30 each, and was on a quiet area of Murray street between Shafto Lane and the train station. I walked that area of Murray street this afternoon, and couldn't find the shop, which makes me think it could be anywhere in the grid of streets between St Georges Tce and the train station.

Any ideas?

My current phone is a Nokia 3310, bought in early 2002, and the battery is gradually dying. I'm with Virgin, pre-paid in generally $50 chunks, which charges me 29c/30secs. I haven't tracked it closely, but $50 credit would probably get me through 4 to 6 weeks.

I'm looking for a replacement phone, and flirting with the idea of going onto a contract.

What I want in a phone:
- picture messages (although I suspect that it's been so long that this is just a default feature... :P)
- a good, simple and easy to use calendar function. (this is the major reason I want to 'upgrade', rather than just 'replace' my phone)
- depending on whether I end up going contract with another company: unlocked.

black_samvara has an unlocked Nokia E66 which fits the bill well, but is there anything in the $200-$300 range that people can recommend?

The story so far: on Friday night I noticed my laptop power/battery lights were doing something New, namely flashing shades of orange. When I wiggle the power cord, they settle down into standard colours and all is well.

e_dan confirms my suspicions it's power cord related, although we can't see any frayed wires, or anything obvious. I've had this Acer Aspire laptop for...okay, the warranty receipt says since October last year, but time wise, that just isn't working in my head. Whatever.

Laptop's ability to charge at all gradually fails over the next few days until I have 15mins of battery left, and no way to charge it. (Thanks in no small part to prk we are unbelievably technology-rich, and I've switched over the projector laptop).

I call Officeworks today from work, and they say "sure, we can handle it, but it'll be quicker to go through Acer direct." Acer turns out to be public transport inaccessible and to have one of the most blatant 'fuck off, we don't want to take your call' tech helpline I have ever come across*. To the point where I started methodically pushing buttons through the voice over, and it hung up on me.

black_samvara has suggested it's probably the receptor for the power cord, rather than the power cord itself, which complicates things in a 'oh, man, I'm so not handing over my laptop to random people' sort of way. If anyone's made it this far, got any suggestions?

*Thinking about it, that award goes to Belkin, which had the recorded message: "all our operators are busy due to unforeseen demand, please call back later" and hung up for you.