Peter, Len, Terry and I turned up at coffee this afternoon
We had some further discussion around using Facetime which can be only used between two Macs of one form or another. Either wifi or the mobile network can be used but using the mobile network would incur a charge depending on how long the call was and the users plan and how much data was left on the plan. For example a 1 hour call would use approximately 150 megabytes of data. If the call triggered the need for more data capacity then worst case for Telstra, $10 would be required for 1gb. This compares with $60 being required for a mobile voice call for one hour. Skype. Duo or Messenger would give similar results. Wifi is generally of much greater capacity and 150 mb would not impact it very much if at all and would be virtually free.
Terry showed us a new usb flash drive with 256 mb capacity costing $26
Peter gave us some information on the NBN
Len gave us some interesting information about the interconnector to South Australia. Some people (me included) envisaged lattice steel towers with wires on them which might fall over in the wind. Actually there are 180 kilometres of two high voltage dc cables from Red Cliffs in Victoria to Berri in South Australia, very securely buried in the ground and completely safe from all the bad weather that could be thrown at them.
Les Rodgers