Justyn Smith | Blog » Telstra

Internode’s BigPond parody, you do the math

Justyn — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:46:03 +0000

Internode are doing a new ad campaign to try and lure BigPond customers across to their service. Whilst most ad campaigns are to try and get the consumer to buy their product, there needs to be some truth about the campaign.

One of Internode’s billboards shows a broken down blue Kombi van with an outback landscape. Most people will identify this as BigPond’s “I’ve been everywhere” campaign – BigPond’s wireless NextG service.

Internode's Billboard (click for full size)

What Internode’s slogan reads is “If you’ve been everywhere man, it’s probably time for an upgrade”. Now as you all know, Telstra have the largest NextG network coverage in Australia, so how can you upgrade? Well Internode aren’t offering a wireless service, they are offering their ADSL2+ Easy Broadband plan.

The billboards which reportedly have cost Internode $350,000 will have 29 shown in Sydney and 10 in Adelaide. The second ad campaign’s slogan says “Are you being taken for a ride?” which again shows the iconic blue Kombi van.

Internode's Billboard (click for full size)

Now why would Internode be trying to push an ADSL2+ connection to those in the outback on NextG wireless? They are most likely on that service due to being in the outback and not having decent telephone cabling or too far from the exchange.

Some Updates

Justyn — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:24:47 +0000

Well the past week has been all about work, life and the family. Chell and I have both been busy with work and the kids. We took them down The Strand last Friday for dinner and a swim at the Rockpool.

Chell and I both got tattoo’s, hers is 4 butterflies – each one representing one of the kids, it looks great. Mine is my star sign (Pisces) on the inside of my lower arm. We took the kids to the strand last night too for Phoebe’s birthday, they had fun playing with Phoebe and Jayden. Matt got stung by a bee or something but he is alright.

The kids are back at their dads now for another week. We can’t wait to get them back again. Tonight we’re going to go out clubbin’ and chill after a big week. The thing that sucks is that I work the next 5 days, yes all weekend! I will get a good pay though!

Well that is all for now, another update completed. I hope all is going well wherever your reading this from.

Time off work… Thinking

Justyn — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:40:52 +0000

Well, I’ve had 3 days off work which has allowed me to think about everything quite a lot, that’s all I seem to be doing lately, just sitting around thinking. I’ve been talking to Chell and Josh lately, which has been good.

I’m still up in the air about if I’m going to stay in Townsville or move to Melbourne. I do like Townsville, and I have a good job here, but the place is just too small. I’ve still got friends here (you know who you are), which is a reason to stay. I will probably stay for another 12 months or so, depending on what happens.

I washed the car yesterday, but it rained last night which totally sucked. I was hoping to polish it today sometime, but will most likely have to re-wash it again.

Well, that’s all for now. I hope everyone is well, stay tuned for my next update.

Changes

Justyn — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:24:37 +0000

A lot of stuff has changed this past month. Some things that are bad, other things that have been good. Work at Telstra is going good, but it seems that I’m stuck in a rut there, nothing seems to be progressing as quick as I intended.

I haven’t made a definate decision yet, but an opportunity has risen at the mine’s where I can work, make a lot of money and save up some cash. I guess it would be a good choice to go for it. I would have a stable job, good income and it will get me out of Townsville for a fortnight at a time, so would make a lot of people happy.

I hope things are going well for everyone, and if anyone decides to travel overseas for work / pleasure I hope they have a safe flight and reap the rewards they are looking for. I hope everything works out for everyone in the future and they have success in what ever they are doing, me included.

Busy at work

Justyn — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:58:53 +0000

Well the past two days at work have been crazy, I thought Monday would be quite crazy as usual start of the week dilemmas, but even tonight has been crazy. So many calls to take, so many different problems that take like 40 minutes or more to fix, and trying to talk people through doing things when they don’t understand computers to well is a nightmare.

One of the biggest issues at the moment is BigPond releasing the NextG connection manager update (version 2.10.4), which mutilates peoples connections, is a real pain. Generally resetting the TCP Stack and a simple reset of the winsock resolves the issue, but I thought there would be some QA that has to be done before releasing updated software.

On another note, Rachelle starts work again at TTH, which is quite cool. She is now casual, so she gets to choose which shifts she wants, now that is awesome. I also applied for salary sacrificing of a new notebook for myself through work, which I should get in time for my birthday which will be a good present. A new computer for myself, it’s only been about 7 years since I last updated.

Well that is all for now, my ranting about work is over.

Goodnight

Great Night

Justyn — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:41:34 +0000

Well last night when I finished work, we picked up Brian, a mate of ours, and proceeded to the Bottle-O with a prepaid VISA I got. Looking in the shop there was a case of Extra Dry Platinum for $45, so I had to buy them. We basically drank the whole case, there’s about 3 beers left, and we got quite drunk, had a few talks, it was all good. We went to bed about 1:30am – 2:00am, and I awoke at 6am to get up for work, then it hit me, headache. I feel quite terrible, I think Rachelle feel’s how I look, haha.

Josh is meant to be coming around tonight, and we are going to have a few drinks, and hopefully hit the town afterwards, even though I have to do an early shift tomorrow morning again, but the money is awesome for weekend work, so should have a nice big triple digit paycheck sitting in my bank ready for me to withdraw

Well, that’s all for now, I hope you had a good Friday night, will update some more later.

Australia Day

Justyn — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:43:44 +0000

G’day people, well Australia Day is here. How is everyone celebrating it? Rachelle, the kids and I are going to go down the strand and have a Barbie, try do the whole Australian thing. We are going to take a cricket set and a frisbee, have a game, take some photo’s and have some fun.

I will update the gallery later once we get all the photo’s off the digital camera. I have to work on Monday, which is a public holiday so I should rake the cash in, should make at least $400 for the day

Well, comment on the blog and let me know what your doing for Australia Day, having a BBQ, or just a big piss-up?

Girls Birthday

Justyn — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:18:14 +0000

Yesterday was Emily and Tiana’s second birthday, the terrible two’s, but with twins! I finished work at 3pm yesterday and got the girls, by the time we got home it was about 3:30pm, they unwrapped their presents and had some cake, we got some photos and they were all happy and cute.

Micah came to get the girls about 4-4:15pm so when he got them Rachelle and I got upset, they looked so sad leaving. Rachelle, Kirsten and I ended up going to Woolworths, we bought some chicken and vegetables and went back to Kirsten’s place and I cooked up a big stir-fry, it was delicious.

We get the kids back again this afternoon when I finish work, I’m so excited I can’t wait! That’s all for now, I will post some pictures of their birthday in the gallery when I get home from work.

Update: I have posted pictures in the gallery here.

Night Out

Justyn — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 01:13:18 +0000

Well, I finished work at 8:40pm last night, and was looking forward to going out. When I got downstairs at work it was raining heavily, so it dampened my mood a bit

We ended up going all over to different clubs, for some reason not much was happening, could have been the weather. We consumed quite a lot of alcohol (Rachelle drank a whole bottle of wine, and lost count of what else we drank), I drank quite a few drinks too.

We ended up leaving the city about 2:30am and got a lift back to Kirsten’s, and then I drove us home. I was kind of scared about the ride home, I was fine to drive and all, it’s just the law requires people on a provisional license to have 0.0 blood alcohol, I knew I would be a 0.02 or so, but I made it home alright, didn’t get pulled over, and Rachelle pretty much passed out as soon as her head hit the bed

All in all, it was a good night, had a lot of fun, got a lot of photos, Rachelle and I had a great time, so I was happy about that

Movies, Work

Justyn — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 21:39:24 +0000

Rachelle and I watched all three Lord of The Rings the other week, it was agony at first for me, but I eventually got used to the whole fantasy thing. The movies weren’t too bad, the special effects were great, it’s just a pity the movies go for about 3 hours.

Work has been quite hectic the past couple of days, why I don’t know as there hasn’t been any outages or anything, it’s strange. I will be getting paid on Tue/Wed which will be awesome, my first pay under a Telstra contract, I should get quite a bit of moolah