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Review of Australian Merchant Accounts

Posted by Roger Keays, 17 February 2010, 3:56 PM

Having a good merchant facility goes a long way to simplifying the accounting for your business. Here are some quotes I got from several Australian banks when I set up the merchant account for Sunburnt Web Solutions. They are separated into two types of accounts: gateway accounts, which can be linked directly to your website so all payments can be made automatically, and MOTO (Mail-Order, Telephone-Order) accounts, which let you login to the bank's website to process credit card payments manually.

The quotes I was given were based on volumes of 50 transactions / month with an average transaction amount of $100. You should definitely check with the banks for the latest prices.

Tokyo CS Flash Mob, Freeze @ Shimo-Kitazawa

Posted by Roger Keays, 24 January 2010, 9:26 PM

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10 Trivial and Weird Things About Japan

Posted by Roger Keays, 1 December 2009, 4:18 AM

Japan is certainly a unique place. After collecting a long list of interesting and often bizarre quirks, I have managed with some difficulty to whittle it down to just these 10 observations which to me characterise Japan.

Let's start with number 10 deshou?

10
Japan is clean. The bikes, taxis, buses and shops are so shiny it feels like you are living in a computer generated city.

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Cheap Guest House Tokyo

Posted by Roger Keays, 13 November 2009, 4:04 AM

While looking for a new place to stay in Tokyo, I collected some data in a spreadsheet like a good little boy scout should. Now you get to benefit :) For comparison purposes ¥1 is currently about 1.2c in Australia.

Basically, you get what you pay for. You can get private accommodation from ¥1200 / night if you don't mind squeezing through a hole to get into your 'room'. Your room in this case is just your bed. Any livable space is going to cost ¥2000 / night at the very least.

November / December seems like a pretty good time in terms of prices. Several of the guest house agencies were having specials, so I managed to get a place at a pretty good price, and without paying a deposit. How? Well, I first I went through the following directories:

Spam Statistics

Posted by Roger Keays, 4 November 2009, 3:51 PM

Statistics from the spam filter deployed at Sunburnt Web Solutions:

filter	blocked	blocked %	left	left %
Incoming Connections	0	-	209,728	100%
Connection Limiting	3,636	2%	206,092	98%
Invalid HELO	50,071	32%	156,021	74%
Greylisting	109,098	70%	46,923	22%
RBL (IP Blacklisting)	3,664	8%	43,259	21%
URIBL (URL Blacklisting)	234	1%	43,025	20%
SPF	0	0%	43,025	20%
Heuristics	383	1%	42,642	20%
Bayesian	3,085	7%	39,557	19%
Total Spam / Legitimate	170,171	81%	39,557	19%

Crossing The Road On a Quiet Saturday Night In Shibuya

Posted by Roger Keays, 11 October 2009, 9:57 PM

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Travel Checklist

Posted by Roger Keays, 7 October 2009, 1:01 AM

For your (actually, my) convenience.

Documentation
- wallet
- passport
- plane tickets
- itinery
- travel insurance
- notebook and pens
- maps (or from airport)
- backup maps (or from airport)
- luggage tags
- spare passport photos
- photocopies of passport
- spare credit card
- fake wallet and credit cards
- business cards

Japanese Progress

Posted by Roger Keays, 3 October 2009, 12:00 PM

私は日本語が勉強します。

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Words in My Head

Posted by Roger Keays, 26 July 2009, 4:18 AM

Strangely, I find that words are kept in a small putty shaped area in the upper back left region of the RIGHT hemisphere of my brain. French words lie low at the back, English spreading themselves across the roof as if gravitated there by some indeterminate force. Korean words spin rapidly in a small near-singularity in the dead center and Japanese try persistently to exit the whole enclosure by throwing themselves at the front door. Spanish words have formed themselves into a smooth stalactite and hang serenely from the ceiling, surrounded by the urgent English. Hebrew words fly gaily across the cavern following no particular pattern, but swoop and dive regularly over a glistening pool of Swiss German who are unperturbed by the activity. Vietnamese huddle in an alcove near the entrance, scoffing irritably at the noisy Japanese, while tiny Malay and Indonesian words march precociously across the floor poking the French and teasing the Hebrew words, though they can't reach them.

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Dating Scoreboard

Posted by Roger Keays, 22 July 2009, 10:00 PM

Good evening my conjelicious companions. How are we all? Ah... bon. Shall we get started then? Non, wait just one moment please... Today's topic is somewhat sensitive and gender specific, so I therefore must request that all female visitors stop reading immediately and go look for shoes on ebay instead. If you do not, you will probably hate me forever.

Thank-you.

Now, gentlemen. Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen. Let's cut to the chase. Why do we date? I know the answer, but I'm giving you a minute or two to think for yourself..... Yes! We date because we have no choice. Even when we are 'not dating', we are dating and even if we believe in fairly tales, karma and destiny, we go right ahead and play the dating game... badly.

But don't worry. I'm here to help. Really, I care. Okay. I don't care, but I had a lot of fun making this dating scoreboard anyway. It's very simple to use. The first column is drivel, the second is nonsense and the third is largely a waste of space and only making this whole global warming thing worse. Nevertheless, I post it here in the hope that one day my work will be recognised by the leading psychologists of tomorrow.

Je vous presente... the Dating Scoreboard!