Tag: Brunei

Concepts Computer Lying to Us?

concepts misleading ad

After my post of Concepts Monitor Trade-In where I found out from the owner that they were intending to throw the monitors away, I was pretty happy to see the their ad in the paper that is seen on their handout brochure shown above. “SAVE THE EARTH WE LIVE IN” it says and shows a green bin with a recycling symbol on it. I thought it was great that they are recycling all the monitors and other devices they received from the trade-in offer so I wanted to find out which recycler they were sending the stuff to. So I went to both the Kiulap and Gadong branches to find out more and I was told (at the Gadong branch last Friday) that they were sending it to a recycler in Sungai Akar. However at the Kiulap branch, I was told outrightly today that they were just dumping them and throwing it away. I asked the sales assistant to confirm that they weren’t doing any recycling at all and that they were just throwing them away and she said without hesitation that they were throwing them away.

I was totally appalled! Is the brochure false and/or misleading advertising? I know it doesn’t say that they are recycling the products in black and white but from looking at the ad above how can you not say that they are pushing the message of recycling? Are they just trying to garner public support by supposedly ‘being green’? I personally like that Concepts is differentiating itself from other computer shops in Brunei by organizing seminars, events and promotions but this is severely damaging Concepts’ image in my mind and am personally thinking of even boycotting the company. Now what is the recourse to file a complaint with regards to this false advertising Brunei?

Update: Follow up post to confirm that Concepts is Not Recycling

Windows 7 Home Premium Retail Version Promotion

So there’s a Windows 7 Home Premium Retail Version Promotion for B$168 that Concepts and Netcom seems to be offering. Today is Concepts last day while Netcom is only for order, you can’t pick it up now so you’ll have to wait if you do order. The following is one of these Home Premium retail pack. Notice that it is valid for Distribution and Activation in Southeast Asia only.

Windows 7 in Brunei

With Windows 7 being released in Brunei tomorrow I tried contacting several computer shops here in Brunei (CF King, Concepts, Netcom) to ask about pricing and availability. It seems that they have no information and are waiting upon Microsoft distributor, Tech One Global for the hard information. The typical response from the retailers is that they are not sure on when they are getting the stock and will only known in the coming days of the price and availability.

I called Tech One Global and was told that they cannot disclose any information yet as Windows 7 is not officially released yet. He said that there will be a standard pricing throughout Brunei and information will be giving to retailers starting tomorrow. There is no official event to launch Windows 7 so end users will just have to wait for the prices tomorrow. Will keep the Brunei community updated on any news regarding the prices and upgrade paths. But in the mean time check out QQeStore prices below (strange enough, when you click on the item there is no price available *shrug*):

Windows 7 Prices:

  • Home Basic: B$258.00
  • Home Premium: B$298.00
  • Professional: B$458.00
  • Ultimate: B$488.00

Windows 7 prices from QQeStore

Update 1 [22nd Oct 1020AM]: Called Tech One Global and they mentioned that Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate will be available to end users. No family pack is available in Brunei and upgrades may come later. So consumers are left with the expensive retail prices for now (whatever they may be).

It seems that there was a briefing for retailers/resellers yesterday but as of this time Netcom, CF King and Concepts are still unsure of retail date and prices for Windows 7. Netcom did mention that there was a staff training on Monday which could mean they are selling it next week.

So does that mean the country manager is wrong as it states in
the news article:

WINDOWS 7, the successor to Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system (OS), will go on sale in the Sultanate in tandem with the official international release on Oct 22, the country manager of Microsoft Brunei said yesterday.

Update 2 [22nd Oct 1038AM]: It seems Yappe at least has the prices though it’s not available for pick up now, just on order basis. Prices are:
Home Basic: B$230
Home Premium: B$264
Professional: B$409
Ultimate: B$430

Update 3 [26nd Oct 11AM]: Seems that with Concept’s advertisement in the Borneo Bulletin today that the shops actually have Windows 7 available for pickup. Called them up and only Netcom is currently not selling Windows 7.

Windows 7 prices that are available to be bought now (prices in B$)

Home Premium Professional Ultimate
Yappe

$264 Retail

$279 OEM

 – –
CF King $249 Retail
(includes installation)		 – –
Concepts

$198 OEM

$258 Retail

$258 OEM

$378 Retail

$338 OEM

$398 Retail

eSpeed’s Speed on Demand

eSpeed’s Speed on Demand service is similar to the pay-per-view service on cable TV, Speed on Demand provides a pay per usage service for eSpeed users to increase their upload and download speeds for a period of time. The current offering allows users to boost their downstream bandwidth to 1Mbps or 2Mbps for a period of 1 hour. The typical eSpeed user would have eSpeed value surf plan which has 512kbps / 0.512Mbps download and 128 kbps upload speeds.
In order to activate the service, users will have to do the following

  1. Surf to the website http://espeedondemand.com.bn or http://espeed.com.bn/SpeedOnDemand
  2. Sign into their account (username: telephone number, password: bill account number)
  3. Select the appropriate package and confirm
  4. The service should be activated and ready for the user to utilize it

Prices are:

  • B$0.90/hour : 1 Mbps download / 500 kbps upload
  • B$1.50/hour : 2 Mbps download / 600+ kbps upload

This service is great for the times when you need just a quick boost for instance to play online games, download things within a deadline, conference (video) calls and live streaming. I know this would have been great for my friends wedding streaming that I did 2 months ago.

A few things to note is that you can only activate the service in blocks of 1 hour. You will have to reactivate it every hour in order to extend the service. There will be no disconnection of any service when the time period expires, it will just but cut to the normal service. The username and password is far from secure. The username is the telephone number registered for the eSpeed service and the password is the account number that you get on your eSpeed bill. I would like to see something more secure than this as I believe this could be used maliciously to charge another persons eSpeed account. The account number is far from being a secure password as for payment of Telbru bills via online/telephone/ATM banking, the bill account number is used.

Note this service is currently offered to users that are using Alcatel Lucent modems, not the Huawei modems as of yet as mentioned in Starboykb’s post. If you do not use the Alcatel Lucent modem you will see a message saying “speed coming to you soon” and to call 121 for further details (as shown below), but no other added details.
espeed speed on demand website for non alcatel lucent modem users

This has led people, myself included, to believe that this Speed on Demand service is a big failure as in Starboykb’s post he mentions that he delayed his post for over 5 months waiting for Telbru to announce the service, and on announcement of the service it seems as if the website is down. There is no information that this is currently only available for Alcatel Lucent modem users. This in itself is bad on Telbru‘s public image as a majority of eSpeed Brunei users complain or have issues with their eSpeed service. My suggestions to Telbru would be to continually update their eSpeed Forum blog and/or provide means for people to ask questions and have an updated repository of FAQs. Even the advertisement in the papers gave the wrong URL for the website.

Speed on Demand advert with wrong URL

After calling 121 they informed me that if you are currently using a Huawei modem, you will have to switch to an Alcatel Lucent modem. However, in order to do this they need to switch a port on their side and that means that you will have to unsubscribe and resubscribe to the eSpeed service. The technician did mention that they will be conducting maintenance tomorrow night (Sunday 11th October) at 11PM and trying to upgrade the Huawei network to support this Speed on Demand service. So if all goes well Huawei modem users will be able to try this service on Monday. I asked the person for upload speeds of the 1Mbps and 2Mbps packages and I believe he tested it on the spot and reported them as 500kbps and 600+kbps respectively. It seems they don’t advertise the upload speeds for this service nor their current eSpeed service.

So all in all Speed on Demand seems like an interesting service with possibilities in the future for pay-per-view applications. Imagine Telbru having movies for rent that are accessible with this download speed, or something of this nature. This could lead to people trying to create content specifically for Brunei live streaming with pay-per-view licensing from Telbru. I for one will try this service out for any live streaming event that may come in the near future. The service itself opens up possibilities but I wonder if the PR itself will make more of a headline than the actual product.

Note: I would like to thank Hajah Ajijah Shanti (I hope that’s right) for allowing me to interview her at the Mall booth this afternoon

Update 1 (12/Oct/2009 am): From a Twitter conversation with tiongloong it seems that this service may be for subscribers on a different network to the older Huawei modem users. He says that he recently switched to an Alcatel Lucent modem 2 months ago but he can’t access the website. So perhaps Speed on Demand is only applicable for newer subscribers that are placed on a different network and since they are newer subscribers they have Alcatel Lucent modems. And to make things easier for the people at the roadshow the technical team just told them that it is for Alcatel Lucent modem users at the moment, not the Huawei modem users.

Update 2 (17/March/2010): Seems that only users with modem/router WAN IPs starting with 119 have access to the service

Update 3 (1/April/2010): I can confirm that the Speed on Demand page does load for 118.x.x.x, not sure about the 119.x.x.x as mentioned above. Perhaps the Telbru staff meant to say 118 but who knows maybe this is even a newer and different network. Review of Speed on Demand service will hopefully be done in a few days =)

Bypassing the Guest@UBD Proxy Authentication

So I happen to be in UBD the other day and the typically open Guest@UBD wireless access point seemed to be proxied and requires authentication as shown below.

guestubd proxy authentication popup

Normally it won’t ask for any authentication. Assuming that the access point is a legitimate one, a guest at UBD would not have any login credentials now would they? However I did notice that Twhirl did load some tweets (but gave the pop-up authentication dialog above) and that my Instant Messenger, Adium, was connected. So I tried a https connection to Gmail and it worked! Searched for an https proxy on my phone and found some here. Added a proxy to Firefox’s proxy setting (Preferences > Advanced > Network > Settings) and I’m back on the web.

firefox proxy settings

In order to cover all network connections (e.g. via instant messenger, Adobe air applications) proxy settings will need to be changed in network settings.

Note: Online https proxies would be a temporary fix but that will only work in web browsers. They are best used to find the proper proxy settings and once the network settings are changed to use the proxy their job is done. Proxify (https://proxify.co.uk/) and Remainhidden (https://remainhidden.com/) are just 2 of many that you can find through Proxy.org (https://proxy.org/)

Brunei Times E-paper Downloader

Update (2010/08/10): It seems that The Brunei Times has changed their online newspaper to use SWF files instead of JPG files so you can’t easily view the files anymore =(. The download script has been changed to download SWF files
——————————————————–
So I love the fact that The Brunei Times has a great looking website, started Twittering, had video news and most importantly has an E-Paper which is an exact replica of their actual newspaper available online. It’s great that they allow people to read the papers in such a way, but my distaste for Flash led me to be curious of how to get the actual images displayed for offline reading. While looking in Firefox’s web cache I found the URL of the pages:

Page 1 default view: http://www.bt.com.bn/e-paper/images/page1.jpg
Page 1 zoomed in: http://www.bt.com.bn/e-paper/images/page1_zoom.jpg

Armed with that knowledge I started building a script that would let me download these files onto my computer for reading at a later time and possibly even copying the files to my phone and reading it there.

Requirements:

Usage:

  • Double click the download script to download the news for the day. This will download the news into a folder of the given date
  • Open the folder and read the news

Screenshot of downloaded files

Mozilla Service Week is upon us

In the last post I mentioned about Mozilla Service Week which officially starts today here in Brunei. Current schedule as follows:

Monday: Blue Eden (Map) 2pm onwards
Tuesday: CoffeZone at Gadong Properties (Map) 9am onwards

As you can see I have only 2 places confirmed and am waiting for confirmation from the other places I asked. If I don’t get formal approval or confirmation I may just go ahead anyway and hope not to be chased out from their premises =P If you know a good place to go to / are offering a place let me know. The only requirements are power and an Internet connection =)

So once again if you’ve got any technology or computer problems/questions come on over. Free tech support at your service =)

Note: Services offered are free of charge. Hardware and (paid) software upgrades will not be given. Formatting will be offered if you bring your legitimate install CDs/DVDs and license keys / if there is a legitimate restoration partition on your drive.

Mozilla Service Week + Software Freedom Day

Next week (14th-21st September) will be Mozilla Service Week. In the midst of it is Software Freedom Day on the 19th and Mozilla’s One Web Day. I’m planning to serve/participate in all these events by placing myself in different locations in Brunei each day and just being available to help anybody with their web/technology issues/problems.

Below are just a sample of the many things that can I intend to provide assistance for:

  • How to configure your phone to access the Internet
  • How to transfer Youtube videos to your computer / phone
  • How set up a website
  • How to customize your website
  • Trying out Linux
  • Getting legal free software
  • How to create videos
  • How to get free legal shows online

Basically to paraphrase Tekzilla‘s intro:

“If you’ve got a question, We’ve got an answer for you. And if we don’t we’ll track down somebody who does”

I have approached some places and to get approval from them to utilize their place for Mozilla Service week. So far I’ve got a green light from Foodzone (Gadong Properties) and Blue Eden/Inderaloka Biru (Kiulap) and I’m trying to get a place in Delima/Serusop (Easyway?), Gadong central (Coffeebean? Mall food court?), Lambak (Wywy?) and Bunut Area (Wywy?). Basically all I need is a place to sit down with an Internet connection, power sockets (for me and anybody else who comes along) and accessible to people.

I know this may not be much but I’m trying something new and hope to continue doing something like this as a weekly event as a contribution back to the community of Brunei. If you have any suggestions do comment or tweet me @thewheat. I’ll post latest info via twitter but will hopefully have a proper schedule by Sunday so if you’re free do drop by and say ‘hi’. Feel free to come join me and help out too =)

blogAd

P.S. I have to thank @jidah for mentioning Mozilla Service Week and OneWebDay as that’s where I learned about it and thus led to this.

Sounds of Hope Charity Gala Night

Have you heard about the Sounds of Hope Charity Gala Night?
“For Families in Poverty Fund”

soh_1200
High Resolution Image

Date: 3rd October 2009
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Jerudong Amphitheatre
Tickets (one seat in a table of 10): B$50, B$100, B$150, B$250
Tickets (public seating): B$10
Facebook event page

For dining table tickets please contact:

Public seating tickets available at:

  • ranoadidas.com
  • FitnessZone (Tel : +673 223 3338 / +673 223 2338)
  • MVision Cinemas (Empire) (Tel: +673 241 7977 /+673 261 0361)
  • Studio Scene (Tel: Studio 1 +673 245 4528, Studio 2 +673 245 5733)
  • Chill

Catch any of their updates on the Sounds of Hope’s Twitter page. More and other information such as direct contribution to the fund can be found at Brunei.fm’s post here

It’s great to see events such as these and people reaching out the to the community of Brunei. Hope we as people of Brunei will continue to support such events but more importantly try to make a difference in the lives of those around us.

Concept Computer’s Monitor Trade In Promotion

So one day I was flipping through the newspapers and I saw that Concept Computers was doing a trade in offer for old monitors to get a $50 discount on a brand new LCD monitor.

Concepts Monitor Trade-in Promo Advertisement

It’s great that they were taking both working and non-working monitors and this sort of business practise is not common in Brunei at all. So when I went to exchange 3 old non working monitor’s for LCDs I was happy to see a site of old monitors. Photos of the monitors being hauled away are available at AnakBrunei’s post

Pile of old monitors traded in

So I would assume that they were going to recycle the monitors as they accepted both working and non working monitors, but I had to check with them. Actually I wanted to get the contact of the recycling center they were going to send it to. So I asked the staff there and they informed me that I should as their boss Mr Vincent Pao. He happened to be there at the shop so I approached him and asked whether they were going to recycling the monitors. He told me that he was going to throw them away!! He did mention that they would give some away but that the last time they sent quite a lot of computer equipment to be recycled they only got B$200+ from it. So he tried another method. There were recyclers offering to take the monitors from him but he wanted to sell the monitors to them to at least get a better return on investment I guess. But they didn’t want to pay for them so he said they were better off throwing it away.

After hearing that I thought what a bummer. I’ll go hug a tree to make up for it (actually that reminds me about the ISB‘s Million Trees Project and BIBD‘s commitment to match each tree for every 4000 bought). But at least he did mention that they were giving some away. I will try to follow up on this issue as now they are having a printer/scanner trade-in: any printer/scanner for an All-In-One (Print-Copy-Scan) Epson Stylus TX100 for just B$98 available while stocks last and before 30th September. On a lighter note I have to say that Concepts Computer is the only innovating computer store in Brunei (to my knowledge), from organizing seminars on Windows 7, Panda anti-virus and now offering these trade-in offers. Other computer stores in Brunei, I hope you step up your game plan to exceed the things Concepts are doing!

Printer Trade-In

** Note: This information was gathered on the 25 August 2009 from a discussion between myself and Mr Pao. If they did end up sending it to a recycling center do let me know. Thanks