Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Moving on the same property. National Broadband Network complaint


 At Freeranger Eggs, we are in the process of moving from the main house on the farm to a smaller home towards the front of the property. This is causing total disruption to our telephone and internet services as we have to reorganise the NBN connection. This follows chaos caused by high winds which knocked out power here for a few days. That left us without any communications as the landline now relies on the internet connection and mobile towers were not functioning. The main advantage of the other house is that it is more compact and easier to heat. We have transferred our Stanley slow combustion stove to the new location.We have no idea how long it will take to get everything finalised - one  piece  of advice was to buy a Nighthawk2 modem to provide internet asnd phone services for both houses. Our ISP said that probably won't work and we need a second NBN connection,   But now NBN say they won't install a second connection on the property! Our ISP tells us thast we could revert to the old copperwire system We have lodged a complaint witrh the Minister for Communications. Paul Fletcher, and the Ombudsman. Since being contacted by the Ombudsman, our ISP, Swoop Broadband has got itself into gear and is talking to NBN.Hopefully the Minister will help because the Telecommunications Ombudsman isn't able to deal with complaints against NBN. We have bow contacted Telstra to see if they can help, An added complication is our adress. Some time ago, incompetent bureaucrats in Canberra decided that our address should be changed from Grantville to Glen Forbes . Chaos has ensued since then! Mail has gone missing and people using satellite navigation have got lost. 



Monday, July 12, 2021

Intensive egg production lobby

 Corporate egg producers are still trying to convince consumers that internsive production systems are good for hen welfare. Lobby group, Australian Eggs, is funding research aimed at countering views that confing chickens in sheds is detrimental for poultry. CCTV monitoring and artificial intelligence systems are being developed to track hen behaviour in sheds.

Researchers from the University of Technology, Sydney, a Victorian veterinary epiidemiologist and a Queensland Vet are developing the monitoring system which is expected to be ready by the end of this year.