Normandy's Corner

Friendships and Human Relations

2011-11-10T12:22:00.002+11:00

Todays post is not about anything technical related, its about friendships and humans relationships, something that can be one of the most important, joyful or frustrating things of our human existence.

Some people give little thought to our human interactions with others, others can find it defines who we are as a person, it all relates to a conversation I had with my son a little while back.

As I am now in the "seasoned" part of my life , my son (whom is his early 20's), asked me this question the other day, he said "Dad, how come some friends of mine, never return phone calls, e-mails or SMS's , and I have to chase them up all the time? what's the story?"

My response, was, well son, sit down and let me tell you a story about friendships...

Having been around a while, I have asked this question of myself (many times), and so has my wife of 25 years, we have both found over the years that many people treat friendships as one way streets. They never drop in to see you. You have to go and see them, they do not call you, you have to call them, they never return phone calls you have to keep leaving messages. Does all of this sound familiar? I find after a few years I no longer see these people. I have had many "friends" whom I have had over for dinner parties, but you never get invited back, but then even go so far as to ask you, when are you doing another party? I have even said out loud, to one so called friend, "when are you going to do one at your place?" then you get looks of offence, like how rude of rude to impose yourself at our place.

On the odd occasion you might see these "friends", (which are not friends, I call them an acquaintance now), and they state "Oh I haven't heard from you in ages, how have you been? " etc etc... and they are all friendly, but wonder why YOU haven't been in contact with them. One person in whom this type of conversation was going on for years, I eventually confronted them , and said, " has your phone been out of order? " with puzzlement they looked at me, and didn't understand my question, "what do you mean?" , they asked? I said" you haven't phoned me, or seen me, so I presumed your phones been out, and your mobiles been stolen, and your internet has been out and your legs broke".... "Oh, ha ha , funny, I was waiting to hear from you!" , they stated. This is when I sigh, and just walk away... many people don't see it, they don't see when they are being all one way with their "friendship" (if you can call it that). They expect you to do all the running around after them, do everything their way. They cant take the time out of their day to see you, or put themselves out. I myself have always made time for, and done things for true friends, to which over the many years have found very few.

Many acquaintances I have had, but VERY few true friends, and by true friends, I mean the ones they will put them selfs out for you, invite you back for dinner parties, make time for you, and return your phone calls, even if they are busy they will let you know they cant talk right now, but want to as soon as possible, when they have a free moment. These are the people that want to know you the person, not you the person that may know people that can help them leverage things or be able to do things for free or cheap for them. Those people are very rare indeed, and if you find a friend like that, hang on to them, as they are as rare as diamonds. I married my best friend, and thats the best friend I have ever had, hopefully you might find a friend like that too... but don't worry son, real friends do come along, but you will find most people you meet are not friends in the true sense of the word but really are acquaintances. Thats just life. I have only a few people in the category of true friends, one which lives out of state, but when we do catch up, its like nothing has changed. Maybe its the distance that keeps this type of friendship fresh alive, fresh and meaningful, or maybe its that they are true friends, and distance doesn't mean anything, and both parties accept that you will be out of contact for months. Although you still may exchange e-mails, phone conversations etc... its still not the same as being in physical presence with some one. A person that you can read all their body language, facial expressions etc.

(A side note, a famous linguist once said 70% of communication of the human language is done via body language, facial expressions, with tone and inflection of voice. The actual words themselves make up 30%. Maybe why e-mails and forum threads get so out of hand so quickly, as they are misinterpreted, as much of the meaning of the words are lost, as they are stripped of their "voice" and "body".)

Alas I digress, friendships (the real ones) do come in many different forms, its just recognising the real ones to the fake ones that one gets better with wisdom.

(* Notice I said wisdom, not age, as they two are not always linked. Usually as a person matures, they do gain wisdom, but not always. I am sure we have all met the very wise young person or older person, at the same time, met the old unwise person or young idiot.

the old saying, quality not quantity seems to apply for so many things in life... this seems to be one that fits that mould as well... many "friends" some people may have, but very few real friends are had. )

Over the years I have heard many people say that have 100's of friends... but really the reality is, they do not have that many true friends in the sense of the word. The rest is just an illusion. It also maybe us more emotional types are more privy to what people what people want from other people in a friendship, maybe its material, or maybe is emotional or maybe a mix of both or something else.

Since this conversation, my son has had a different view and seems to be more content with his life.

Others might think I am little jaded with too many bad experiences, or others might see that I am seeking too much from friendships. I just know that getting to know a person, the real person, whom is genuine down to earth person, whom relates very closely to the core values I hold dear is the most rewarding thing you can have on this planet, and brings some meaning to our existence as humans. For me, life isn't about the collection of material possessions, or the acquisitions of wealth or power as symbols of success, it is how we value ourselves and others, and how we can all try and help make this world a better place. Its is the values of respect, charity, honour, honesty, passion, compassion, integrity, and love that are the important possessions of life.

What do others think? My life experience is obviously different to many others, but I am sure there are few people that can relate to this story... thoughts??, comments ??

TELSTRA FAIL AT HOME ADSL SERVICES

2011-08-08T10:46:00.001+10:00

For almost a year now, my new home has had the dreaded ADSL congestion issue. This means during most times when you are home the rest your suburb is trying to use the internet and it slows to a crawl, to where its worse than old dail up speed. I often can get no more than 56kbs in speed or slower and pings are 1000ms or more making the internet useable for sending e-mails. No voice chat, no video chat, no downloading anything.,. even web surfing is a major chore with web pages taking minutes to display. Its like sharing your internet connection with 1000 other people in your house.

This is not helped by the fact that my 2 year old suburb was fitted with 10 year old infrastructure from Telstra. Telstra saw fit to install outdated ADSL 1 only multiplexers with no Backhaul to support them! Thank you Telstra, good to see you have the nations future at heart!

I have complained on a weekly basis to them, to which I NEVER get a reply, I have been to the TIO, Local Member, council, you name it.. no one can do anything. The ISP who buys from Telstra whole sale has said there is a scheduled upgrade to the backhaul in October. No mention of upgrading the old ADSL 1 multiplexer to an ADSL 2 one. Even so , that will be a year of charging a premium amount for a rubbish service!

They charge me 100 bucks a month for a dial up speed service, and think that's ok. Its criminal that any business is allowed to conduct themselves this way. If I bought a plane ticket from Melbourne to Sydney, and instead a plane ticket I got a pair of running shoes, and told to RUN to Sydney, I would have a legal recourse. But Telstra are a law unto themselves, and no one has any say in how they conduct themselves. I do not see how this is acceptable nor legal in this country to act this way!

So Telstra stop FAILING at providing a service, if you cant provide a service then don’t offer it, or offer some compensation or alternatives. Stop ripping off the Australian people with substandard services!

The most AMAZING Southern Skies of Australia

2011-07-15T07:24:00.000+10:00

Why I will never buy Golden Circle (Heinz) products!

2011-05-31T12:43:00.000+10:00

A totally different rant today, not even tech related. Amazing I know!

I have had a long respect for the farmers of Australia, who work hard and get little return from the greedy Coles and Woolworth's conglomerates. I get cranky and annoyed when companies decide it will be better for the massive bottom line to ship jobs overseas and import food into this country because its cheaper. What gets me even crankier is when the consumer is conned.

Let me explain, Golden Circle is currently moving much of its product to New Zealand, leaving many local farmers dismayed and upset (see link), Whats even worse, many of those farmers have just been through the worse floods in 40 years, and are trying to get their life's back on track.

So Australians will now be importing food from New Zealand, or will they? Under New Zealand law only 50% of its product has to be from NZ to classify the product as being made in New Zealand. Unlike Australian law which states it must be 100% from Australian to have the made in Australia label! So Golden Circle's NZ product could have as much as 50% coming from China! This will most likely be the scenario, as the chinese product will be cheaper than the NZ product, but will still have the "made in NZ" label on the side. The consumer will think that it all comes from NZ, when this is NOT the case! If one does some research, China uses human waste as a fertiliser for many of its crops.

So, if you like buying your golden circle products from China that has been fertilised by human crap, go right ahead. Otherwise go buy a real Aussie local product that has the Made in Australia 100% label, and give Golden Circle the big heave ho!

Support local Aussie Farmers !

Change your Signal

2011-05-25T11:32:00.002+10:00

Time to change the Signal....

Control your information life…

This stems from the other article I wrote about don’t worry be happy, its time people took control of the way they receive their information, be it news, information, the state of the world .. whatever, and stop being just a passive individual willing to eat the feeds of the negative so called “news” coming from commercial TV networks, magazines , radio and newspapers. Lets face it, TV news is just a platform to feed lots of horror stories on the latest flu epidemic, latest terrorist bomb, or murders etc, nothing about scientific discovery, or things that really inertest you. Radio has become totally irrelevant, with FM shock jocks talking about where they found their dirty undies last night, or what come out of their kids nose this morning. Newspapers are nothing more than advertisements disguised as news or information, or paid political announcements. Magazines are an amalgam all the above. Time to take control.

How to take control.

Well stop watching TV news, and listening to Radio, and read what you want. Use google, use the net, and read really what’s interests you, and you will find that suddenly the world isn’t this big terrorist camp, war ridden, plague ridden world. Not to deny these things are going on, but these things have been going on for 1000’s of years, we just didn’t have some media moguls feeding us lots of negative crap about how many car smashes happened today, or how many people died in some natural disaster. Get into podcasting, listen to what you want, not what packer wants you to hear with the occasional cute puppy story thrown in to try and balance all the terror. Get into RSS feeds on particular scientific, medical, SCI FI stories or whatever things interest you.

INFORMATION, should be selective about your interests, what drives you and your passions. Maybe if more of us got our view on the world this way, everyone might stop thinking how bad everything is for a change, and lighten up, and stop being so mean and selfish to each other. The current media feeds on everything negative, people in turn become negative, because its so much easier to be negative about everything than positive. You can start being more positive by controlling what you see and hear by taking these steps:

• Get a PVR (personal Video recorder, a hard drive unit that records TV). We all complain that there is nothing on TV, then control it, select what you want to watch, there are so many DVD’s and Box sets of good TV shows, watch them instead. Get a PVR and programme it to only record the shows, and doco’s you want, so what if they are on 2am in the morning.. get your PVCR to do all the work.

• Get and Ipod , and control what you hear be it music, podcasts etc. Hear info and science shows, debates, sci fi discussions whatever, and stop listening to the 90% of dribble coming from your FM radio or the 90% advertisements.

• Use the Net to get the rest of your once printed material, besides saving trees, you will have full control of the topics that interest you, and you will avoid the negative linear feeds of news papers and magazines.

* Use twitter! Yes twitter is not just useless tool for saying the last time you fed your cat, follow organisations, news feeds, people that have interests you like, and would like to engage in. News does not have to be passive, but interactive. Information exchange should be social. Twitter can make this happen. And if you have an iphone or other type of smart phone, why do you not have twitter? Look at how valuable it has been in recent events in Australia for the distribution of information.

For a long time now I have done most of these things to keep myself update on things that interest me, and its amazing on what a brighter world it seems when you are not fed the totally negative self serving rubbish of 90% of media outlets, epically the nightly so called “news”. Try it for a month and see how well your outlook on life becomes. As Captain Mal would say “CHANGE THE SIGNAL.”

Catalyst: Faster Computing - ABC TV Science

2011-05-25T11:04:00.002+10:00

Catalyst: Faster Computing - ABC TV Science

We are on the verge on the next computer revolution with 3D chip design.

Silicon wafers historically have been two dimensional. Intel on just changed all of that with 3-D transistors, dubbed Tri-Gate. The aim: Ensure that Moore’s Law, which dictates that transistor density doubles every two years, keeps chugging along.

These 3-D transistors are in-production technology and are expected to be used in handhelds as well as servers. The 3-D transistors will be the crux of a range of 22 nanometer processors—code named Ivy Bridge. Ivy Bridge will be ready for production at the end of the year.

These 3-D-based chips will first hit servers, desktops and laptops; Atom-based products will come later. Intel didn’t detail exact delivery targets, but later this year is likely. The company said it expects it will have a three-year lead on rivals.

Intel first detailed 3-D transistors in 2002, and now these chips will hit the market. The general idea is to pack more computing cycles with lower power. For Intel, which demonstrated a 22nm chip, 3-D chips will allow it to move into more markets such as cars, medical devices and other devices.

Intel likened the Tri-Gate transistors to skyscrapers, which allowed developers to optimize space by moving upward.

Among the key points:

3-D Tri-Gate transistors will operate at lower voltage with less leakage. The upshot is that performance will improve.
Chip designers will be able to pick fins and choose transistors for low power or performance.
22nm Tri-Gate transistors will use less than half the power at the same performance as 2-D 32nm chips.
These 3-D transistors have a 10x lower depletion rate.
Applied to a CPU, you can have a lower clock rate with the same performance as higher speeds.

Thus in 5-10 short years we will see memory and speeds of computers be around a billion times more efficient, faster, and INCREASE in capacity than today. It is an amazing time to be a gadget person :)

Imagine your iPhone 7 having 1TB of flash memory storage with the power of a super computer of today in your pocket in 2016, with a battery that lasts for weeks, It looks like its going to happen.

Blu Ray Disc is a Con!

2010-11-24T10:38:00.005+11:00

Every time I hear some one go on about how good Blu Ray is, I hear this:

“blargh blargh blargh my valve amp is better than transistor based ones, my quadraphonic stereo is better than stereo, my 8 track is better than compact cassette, my beta max is better than VHS, by Blu ray is better than everything else... blargh blargh.."

I just not buying into it, Don’t get me wrong I have a top notch set up at home, a brand new 55INCH Bravia and a mid level Blu ray player (gladly it was free), I am just not convinced its much a progression beyond DVD. And its not just me , 68% AND 65% of the US public respectively said (in two independent surveys in 2009 and 2010) they cant see the difference between BLU Ray and DVD or wouldn't invest in it, as there is not enough of a difference to justify the costs to get the best out of it. I agree with the majority!

When we went from VHS TO DVD we all got:

1. much better picture
2. much better sound
3. Random access to content
4. Special features
5. Different languages, and commentary tracks
6. The vision doesn't wear out no matter how many times you play it

DVD to Blu ray we get

1. Slightly better picture...

and for the publisher you get:

1. licensee agreements that cost a fortune, DRM licenses etc... thus preventing anyone but a Hollywood film studio to produce content for it....

Not worth it IMHO, nor the upgrades that you have to do to FULLY appreciate it all, the public are not going for it in masses either, they are not going to throw out all those DVD's etc just to have one questionable feature? Its too little to late, and its all moving to downloads in HD, so why bother? Like the Sony mini disc it will die off and only be in the hands of the audiophiles.

I haven't seen a compelling reason why BLU Ray is better than DVD, however I have many reasons why its worse than DVD, so if a technology actually restricts how you use it, how is it an upgrade? I see blu ray as nothing but a money waster and a downgrade!

Blu Ray is, lots of pain for everyone else, drm means you cant do jack with it, no media shifting, no backups, you pay more for it, due to the license agreements, and less profit for everyone, interesting definition of vastly superior!

Quadraphonic stereo and 8 track all sounded better than what's playing in your iTunes library, it doesn't mean its a better technology, convenience will win over better looking or better sounding any day.

Why hasn't apple adopted it? The same reasons I suspect its a downgrade for consumers and a backward step!

HD is not deemed as important by the average consumer, shown time and time again in many studies for the past 3 years, here , the USA and the Uk (the only places I have data on), content is king, and that means getting it, and watching it on what you want, where you want. Also with the rapid uptake in the independent producers of video and content these days, Blu Ray is not the way forward.

Online, without DRM is the way forward. Blu Ray heralds back to an old area and is more locked up than DVD so not seen as any progression from the consumer or the producer.

Many people enjoy their 8 track, record players, valve radios, and amps, even quadraphonic stereos or quarter inch video tape, or laser disc! Each to their own, they are again not what I call mainstream, or convenient or even practical solutions to enjoying media

Blu Ray was a crock way before apple said it was, and again the amount one has to spend to enjoy blu ray's slightly better picture isn't justified IMHO, its not like the big shift we had when we went from VHS TO DVD!

I am just not accepting any decisions to move anything to blu ray, I have had a HD TV for a few years now, and I have a blu ray and a brand new 55inch Sony set, I enjoy much HD content just not from Blu Ray

Thus in Summary:

positives for blu ray:

1. picture

negatives

1. DRM
2. licenses
3. unable to backup
4. unable to media shift
5. many new titles have lock codes for extra content
6. having to have online access for your player to play content
7. The media can be damaged
8. cost of media and associated equipment to enjoy the picture

9. Region locking

Thus my reasons for saying its a step backwards.

Both BLU Ray and download (legal models) both suffer the drm issues right now. However, the download model is the best way for any content provider right now, and until such time as places like iTunes get rid of DRM, as they did for music, the current download models don't offer many more advantages over blu ray (except convince, and having a backup method.. a legal one..and no big hoops that Sony make you jump through).

Maybe they will come to their senses and loose the DRM, and on that day BLU Ray is doomed, (if not already) or even if Australia, had a big Netflix online library for wii, Xbox and ps3 or your new internet connected Bravia TV or any other media streaming box, then the shinny disc of blu ray and DVD will both look like they will go the way of the dodo !

Some things you can Google...

Consumers Putting Off Blu-ray Players?

“Consumers were happy to embrace standard DVD when that format arrived because the improvement in quality over VHS videotapes was dramatic,” noted ABI Research analyst Steve Wilson, in a statement. “Standard DVD didn’t require the purchase of a new TV, either.”

or this...

Study: even at $199, consumers still don't care about Blu-Ray - Boing Boing Gadgets

"One of the biggest problems? The cost. Even though the Blu-ray players have dropped in price, in order to actually get the benefit of Blu-ray you need to own an HDTV, which is still a very expensive investment (though Sharp has unveiled an HDTV with a Blu-ray recorder built in). Then when you consider that each Blu-ray movie costs about double the price of a DVD the numbers don't add up in Blu-ray's favor"

or this...

How can we expect Blu-ray to succeed? | The Digital Home - CNET News

laser disc is calling you... Is Blu-ray the next Laserdisc? | Where the Long Tail Ends

Don’t buy into the Sony Blu Ray con!

WHY 3D TV IS A CROCK!

2010-09-14T13:44:00.001+10:00

1: There isn’t enough content.
It is true that in an effort to lure people back into theaters, the studios have been pushing 3D hard lately. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple to produce a 3D live action film as it is a 3D animation. To achieve 3D in animation, one instructs a computer to render a second channel of video slightly offset from the first.This is not significantly more onerous than creating an ordinary 2D CG animation. For live action films, however, 3D requires special cameras that are heavy and inconvenient to use. The practical upshot of this is that most of the 3D films being produced today are animated. This, of course, has implications for watching 3D films both in the theater and at home. If 3D continues to fail in winning over live action filmmakers, there simply won’t be much to look at. And while the studios have promised a handful of (mostly animated) 3D Blu-ray releases for 2010, there’s just isn’t enough content available now to make it a must-have home theater technology.

2. The upfront cost of 3D hardware is too steep.
The reintroduction of 3D into mainstream movies has seen a modest degree of success over the past few years. Theaters have been able to charge more for tickets to 3D screenings, which has helped them in offsetting the exorbitant cost of upgrading their projection hardware. But 3D still accounts for a mere fraction of overall ticket sales. This is because even with higher ticket prices, exhibitors cannot afford to make all of their screens 3D-ready. The cost of upgrading is also a problem in the home theater market, where HDTV’s have finally made their way into a majority of American homes. The vast majority of these households have only recently bought in. Is it really reasonable to expect people who just shelled out serious money for their new flat screens to go out and buy another $3000 TV? The value-add, especially considering the endemic lack of 3D content, is just not enough to justify the purchase. Even if the consumer in question did have the money, they would be wiser to spend it on upgrading their sound system, before going to 3D.

3. The quality of the experience is inconsistent and problematic.
I saw Avatar in IMAX 3D, which is the oldest of the 3D technologies currently in use. I then went and suffered through all 172 minutes of it again in RealD. The IMAX 3D experience was not great. First, the glasses were recycled and although I was seeing the film on opening day, they seemed somewhat warped. Even after I had changed glasses, the 3D illusion was broken every time I moved my head. It was exhausting to have to hold one position for close to three hours, but it was either that, or stare at a blurry image. I walked out of the IMAX 3D screening with a crick in my neck. The RealD screening did provide a better overall 3D experience. The illusion was not broken by head movements and so I was able to watch it in a more comfortable position. Unfortunately, when I left the RealD screening, I had a headache that lasted for an hour and a half (more on this special 3D headache later). Suffice to say that even the most recent implementations of 3D leave something to be desired.

4. The glasses are a literal barrier to entry.
While there have been many advances in 3D technology over the years, one thing that has not changed is the need for glasses. Depending on the particular type of 3D technology, these glasses work in slightly different ways, but the reliance on them to send offset images to the brain is still a mainstay of any 3D viewing experience. This is also true of the latest 3D HDTV’s which, we learned at CES, will ship with battery-powered 3D glasses. This is an annoyance at the theater, but can you imagine having to put on a pair of glasses to watch TV in your living room? And what do you do if you wear reading glasses? How about when friends come over to watch the Super Bowl, or theOscars? The glasses make a hard sell even harder.

5. Filmmakers, James Cameron included, do not really understand 3D.
Film, like photography and perspective painting, is already a three dimensional medium. Monocular cues like linear perspective, occlusion, and shadow, to name but a few, all provide the same sense of depth perception in a film, photograph, or painting as they do in real life. It is true that binocular cues add dimension to the other depth cues (when looking at objects up to 100 feet away), but it is a subtle effect and not the only way we see depth in the world or in film. While many filmmakers have an intuitive understanding of the principles of human perception, it’s not something that they study formally. Most get by in 2D, because there are established filmmaking conventions that they conform to which happen to play well with human perception. Unfortunately, 3D hasn’t been around long enough for such conventions to develop. 3D filmmakers end up using 2D film techniques that induce depth cues which are then contradicted by some of the 3D binocular cues that are layered over everything. When your brain is presented with such conflicting depth information, it will choose one version over the other, but when such conflicts happen many times over the course of a few hours, you end up with a perception headache.
There are many other factors that influence our perception of 3D, including the focal length of the lens, the composition of the shot, and the movement of the camera, but modern filmmakers don’t seem to be aware of the effects of these important factors on the perception of their films. This is why watching a 3D movie doesn’t really feel like being there, it just feels like its own, somewhat annoying, thing.

The push for 3D comes from a confluence of the old desire to create a more immersive cinema experience and the contemporary need to get people excited about going to the movies again. Unfortunately, the current 3D technology fails to deliver on the former and so it is destined to fail at the latter. A much more fruitful approach would be to adapt Douglas Trumball’s Showscan technology. What Trumbull demonstrated was that by shooting and projecting film at higher frame rates, he could create a much more immersive and realistic experience than what we get with a traditional 24 frames per second projection. His system, which involved 70 mm film shot and projected at 60 frames per second was dismissed as impractical and excessively expensive. In the digital age, this objection is no longer relevant. It is already possible to design reasonably priced digital cinema cameras and projectors that shoot and project at high resolutions and fast frame rates. This, it seems to me, is the next logical step in the evolution of cinema. Not the gimmick that we now call 3D.

..... may it die a quick death!

__________________

Australia's NBN IS GO! Warp Speed ahead!

2010-08-22T11:17:00.006+10:00

I am now very glad that the current government got re-elected so that this great network can go ahead!

It is clear that internet connectivity regardless of location is essential for future technology development, wether this is done by combination of fibre optic, wireless, satellite, it needs to be cheap, reliable and very fast , to support the multitude of devices from iphone type devices, to cars, to homes to business, educational institutions to medical facilities, be they rural based, or in our capitals.

The current market forces are not supporting the rural or new estates. We are still getting new estates in rural areas and metro areas fitted with ADSL 1 only rims, and poor wireless coverage, which is criminal in 2010 , YES I AM LOOKING AT YOU TELSTRA, there is no excuse for putting in ADSL1 ONLY RIMS in new estates! This is why the government needs to do it, as the corporate market wont!

The adoption of any future technology, the way people work and the development of our regional areas is very dependant upon a state of the art affordable network by telecommunication companies. If communication companies do not put in this type of infrastructure for all Australian's we will create a digital divide that will resemble the difference between a modern world in the cities and a 3rd world in the rural areas. People in new estates or rural areas with poor connectivity will be at a massive disadvantage, not just from a quality of life but from education, to medical care. It will drive the ever expanding population to Metro areas with good communication infrastructure, and put extra pressure on the already overtaxed infrastructure in those areas, and continue to drive the exodus from country areas.

If we have a state of the art communication system for all Australians, it will dramatically shape the way this country will develop, educate, care, and work, regardless of people's physical location.

Coolest looking cases for iphone 4 I have seen

2010-08-17T11:33:00.001+10:00

These are so cool looking, WHY can you not get them in this country!?

Optus speeds on 3G with an iphone 4

2010-08-11T10:45:00.001+10:00

I never got speeds like this, but now I do... amazing, its faster than my ADSL at home!

Why the Android will fail.

2010-08-06T10:28:00.003+10:00

Piracy problems undermine Android's growth against iPhone

It seems android have replicated the PC games market, massive pirating, little to no controls over their apps, poor quality coupled with a poor user experience. Apple is often critiqued for being over controlling in its apps store, but the developers love it, as they get their return on investment. The android will not encourage anyone to develop on its platform when it does nothing to stop developers hard work being exploited by pirates.

This is why the game consoles of today have much more development on them than ever before, and why the PC games market is near death. Games consoles have a tight control over what can be run on them, and you try and run a pirated game on them , it either doesn't work, or the console maker bricks your console. The only way the PC market can make any money is from monthly online subscription fees (World of Warcraft monthly frees for example to play online).

Sometimes a loss of loss of some flexibility is a good thing for all. So don't go ripping off apps on your iphone, pay the developers for their good work, and encourage better app development, even if you do jail break your iphone, otherwise we will all end up with the android broken model!

The iphone 4 antenna issue, is bullshit!

2010-07-30T20:36:00.002+10:00

Having a new iphone 4 on the Optus network in Australia, I and many others have tried the so called death grip, and we cant replicate it!! In fact many times the signal bars go up, so it looks like this entire story can be summed up as AT & T network as total crap, and the rest of it as a media beat up. Go ahead Aussies and buy your iphone 4's and enjoy the much better signal stregth.

I have compared the signal bars to my old 3G and it gets twice the reception quality that the old 3G got. Once again media totally screws up the real story.

TELSTRA STILL SUCK!

2010-07-29T12:12:00.002+10:00

I just rang Telstra and got the most disinterested sales guy out! I was ringing to see of Telstra might be competitive enough to move my accounts to, and to get a new iphone 4, it went like this....

I said I have 3 accounts with optus, and I get free calling between my accounts, and I pay this much, get this much data, calls and free sms' and mms, on this plan with optus, and I can order over the phone and get it delivered to my house, as I live 100kms from a Telstra shop, can you match the prices etc.... OR even offer me something thats competitive to that to switch my accounts,

he said, "NOPE, cant do any of that or even close sorry, AND YOU HAVE to come into a shop, we are not doing online sales till September"

Me: "Ok thanks for your time, I will be signing with Optus again then"

he wasn't even interested in giving any deal or incentive or anything, and even said "take it or leave it"!

With that attitude I wont be calling them back again, I havnt talked to Telstra in years, and I guess I wont be again.. good to see nothing much has changed!

They are still not competitive!

I have good coverage and speed with Optus, so the line of we have better speed and coverage doesn't wash with me !

OPTUS NEW IPHONE PLANS!

2010-07-27T08:58:00.002+10:00

iPhone 4 Antenna issues.. not a real issue

2010-07-19T14:01:00.003+10:00

You may or may not have been reading stuff on the net about the iphone 4 having antenna issues.

But there has been a disturbing trend with this whole story, something missing, what is missing you may ask?

Investigative journalism is what has been missing from this whole story since it started. It started out as a beat up by Gizmodo, and 1000's of bloggers took that ranting with no fact, as thruth, thus a whole storm in a thimble started.

This is not a real issue like the one that RIM had that email bug in their phone for months before they did anything about it, and to this date they never admitted a fault. Or Microsoft had stuffed xbox 360's for years and have only just done something by releasing a new xbox, and yet put all their users through pain (40% return rates and repairs) of constant fixes, I myself have had 5 xbox 360's fixed! How many car companies or builders would stand up to this? I never saw this much ranting on the net, on blogs and forums with those above mentioned issues.

Is it a Major issue... no, its it a minor one.. yes, but no more or no less than every other phone out there. Its like complaining your car gets stone chips, and that the car maker is some how responsible for not putting enough paint on the car to stop getting stone chips, stupid! And now that car maker is giving you a free car bra, and yet some people still complain? It must be a slow news week, this is such a NON STORY!

The fact that Apple even had a press conference about it, is amazing, and UNPRECEDENTED in the tech community.

chat with me live

2010-01-21T13:01:00.002+11:00

http://olark.com/s/c8b4

The REAL Holodeck!

2009-03-05T12:48:00.001+11:00

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

I want one!

MERIMBULA

2008-12-20T21:10:00.003+11:00

Probably one of the most unspoiled places in Australia, peaceful, friendly, and very laid back.

Some where I wish to spend the rest of my days, if I can find some way out of this ugly city.

NO CLEAN FEED

2008-10-30T10:09:00.001+11:00

MY NEW WORK SETUP!

2008-08-03T19:19:00.002+10:00

My new work station, cossists of a 30 inch cinema display, a 23 inch cinema display, and Mac pro with 16 GB's of RAM and 4 TB of hard drives with a external 10 TB raid, with Blackmajic cards and a whole heap of other stuff... total cost 30 K :) lucky me!

APPLE STORE SYDNEY

2008-07-26T09:20:00.002+10:00

I made a visit to the store in Sydney this weekend. What a great store, so very clean! Great staff!

FLAME WAR

2008-06-07T18:51:00.005+10:00

This needs to be on so many Mac Vs Pc Forums... I thought I would post it here

BEST SONG FOR 2008!

2008-04-09T09:41:00.002+10:00

Yes its been a long time between drinks as they say, but finally, got around to posting something to my old blog.... and in the past few weeks managed to get some music listening in.. .and I have to say Mike Oldfield is a master of music excellence.... his latest album, which was made for a video game some 6 years ago, has finally turned up on itunes... called tres luna, go get it... here is a video clip of one of the songs :)

Intro to Mass Effect

2007-12-30T10:21:00.000+11:00

Not got Mass Effect yet? Why not...?

why MASS EFFECT is game of the decade?

2007-12-07T21:18:00.000+11:00

http://galactichub.vault.ign.com/index2.php

ARTICLE IS A REPOST from Fox news at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,314541,00.html

Video games like "Mass Effect" don't come around too often, and good thing: This new science fiction epic is so good it's basically sucking away all of my free time.

Action addicts who'd rather shoot first and think later may find it somewhat pedantic, but "Mass Effect" is a wonderful example of dorky digital storytelling.

It's a space opera in the "Star Wars" tradition, sans the constant father-son limb chopping and the inanely pubescent romantic dialogue.

What we have here is a distinctive universe where the Milky Way becomes a staging ground for intergalactic political intrigue, some racy interspecies romantic flings, (yes, they went there) and, of course, battles with viscous aliens.

If you prefer aliens of the E.T. variety, fret not: there are plenty of boring, friendly creatures to chat with, too.

The back story is interesting even if you've been through the usual gamut of interstellar epics like "Star Trek" or "Battlestar Galactica."

In "Mass Effect," humans have only recently begun to find their place in a considerably larger galactic community. That's right: We arrogant humans hardly matter.

There are more than a few creatures who'd like it to stay that way. Namely, the game's chief villain, Saren Arterius. As a rogue special agent gone bad, he's on a zealous quest to aid a race of artificially intelligent creatures called Geth and destroy all intelligent life in the universe.

Sadly, we hardly ever seen him during the game. Beyond that, unleashing a race of life-squelching monsters turns out to be dumb decision — at least if you have any say in the matter.

As human Commander (insert the first name of your choosing here) Shepard, you engage as a planet-hopping, alien-quashing superagent, called a Spectre, who goes sniffing around the vacuum of space for Kryik.

Like those endearing Choose Your Own Adventure books, "Mass Effect" gives players many paths to follow — good, evil, and somewhere in between — by selecting from one of several responses during even seemingly mundane conversations.

There's a ton of dialogue here, and it's all well-done and relatively interesting by video-game standards.

My earlier caveat to action gamers is warranted because this isn't a title where you'll want to run into the fray like some trigger-happy maniac. You'll die.

"Mass Effect" battles are what it would be like if you could play chess, Dungeons and Dragons and rock-paper-scissors at the same time.

There are many role-playing elements, which is cool because you can really tweak Shepard and your computer-controlled companions for the many missions. Planning, strategy and skill-point allocation far outweigh fast reflexes, that's for sure.

The graphics are superb on the Xbox 360, with some of the most realistic-looking aliens around, if that makes any sense.

The dialogue sequences are shot like big-budget movies and feature some wondrous backdrops such as sprawling space stations and seedy, dimly lit bars.

With games like this lasting for weeks and weeks, why even bother with commercial-filled televised space dramas you can't control?

THE BEST GAME EVER! MASS EFFECT

2007-11-21T13:11:00.000+11:00

After being with Halo 3 for weeks, which I give 9/10.. .along comes a game that totally blows me away.

I am NOT an RPG fan or much into STRAGETGIC games, but having played video games for the past 30 years, I must say this is the best game I have ever seen on any platform in all my time. I am only 8 hours into it, and so far the story line is totally engrossing, the artistic design is totally stunning, the people responsible for the uniforms, ship designs and architecture of your universe, deserve an award on their own, and lets not forget the voice acting, and music, all brilliant!

I have never been so engrossed in a game in my 40 years on this planet! Its like an immersive simulation! 10/10!!!! go get a xbox 360 and go get this game and get lost in your own SCI FI world! DO IT NOW!

HALO 3 REVIEW!

2007-09-24T17:45:00.000+10:00

THIS GAME ROCKS!

HALO 3 launch day!

2007-09-24T10:11:00.000+10:00

YES I AM OFF TO PLAY! so wont see me online for a while.....a looong while......

MANY FORUMS LOOK LIKE THIS

2007-09-20T08:16:00.000+10:00

VIDEO GAME WARS

2007-09-17T15:17:00.001+10:00

Office etiquette 'degenerating'

2007-09-12T07:34:00.000+10:00

IMPERSONAL emails, bitching about workmates, poor phone manners and dressing inappropriately are some of the sins we commit every day in the office.

And Gen Y workers are the worst offenders.

That’s the opinion of two of Australia’s leading business etiquette experts, June Dally-Watkins, who runs the Business Finishing College in Sydney, and Tracey Hodgkins of the Australian Experiential Learning Centre in Perth.

“A lot of people have no idea about good manners and correct behaviour in the workplace because no one has taught them,” Ms Dally-Watkins, 80, told NEWS.com.au.

Newsletter: Latest Business Sense delivered to your inbox

“They’re brought up watching bad things on television every night, or on the internet and on music videos. I think this is why the behaviour of people is degenerating.”

Ms Hodgkins said most of the students in her office etiquette course were Gen-Yers just starting out in the workplace, and many were enrolled by their new employers.

"In universities they’re not taught about basic, everyday stuff. And it seems to be a big issue in a lot of workplaces."

Not knowing correct workplace etiquette has always been an issue with young workers, she said, but Gen-Y are more vocal about it.

"Gen-Y tend to speak their mind, whereas the baby boomers were happy to put up and shut up."

Send me an email

One of the worst office habits today was sending impersonal emails containing a cold request or comment, Ms Dally-Watkins said.

She believes pleasantries such as “hello” and “thank you” should not be forgotten in messages.

“On email be kind and considerate to the other person. Remember they’re a human being. That’s what we’re losing with technology these days. Everyone’s treated like a robot.”

Ms Hodgkins said Gen-Y tended to abbreviate words in emails, "which doesn’t really go down well with people from any other generation".

And email jokes are not appropriate in any shape or form, she said. "It sets you up as the person who is the joker rather than the person who is the expert. It’s not good for your career."

She also advised workers to be careful what they say in emails because they can be kept on record for a long time. "And avoid using office email for personal use, because your employer can access them."

Face to face

In today's workplace many people (particularly Gen-Y, according to Ms Hodgkins) are more likely to communicate with someone two desks away by email rather than get up from their desk and give the message in person.

It's a trend Ms Hodgkins doesn’t like. "There’s no replacement for face-to-face interaction," she said.

"Plus I think sitting at a desk all day is bad for you. Why not get up, have a stretch, walk a few metres to speak to someone rather than do it all by email."

And when chatting to someone in person, don't lean in too close. Ms Hodgkins said personal space was an issue of concern regularly raised in her workplace etiquette seminars.

"Some people are just not comfortable speaking too closely to someone," she said.

Meet and greet

One of Ms Dally-Watkins' pet hates around the office was the overuse of “how are you?” as a greeting.

“I don’t like the ‘how are you’. I think it’s false and a waste of time. People don't mean it, it’s so empty. I’m going to try to stop it if I can,” she said.

It’s much nicer to say, "so nice to see you" or "welcome", Ms Dally-Watkins said.

When shaking someone's hand look them in the eye and make sure your grip is firm. And when introducing people always mention the older person's name first, she said.

The walk-by

When workers walk around the office to go to the bathroom or kitchen, should they always greet the people they pass?

Ms Hodgkins says it's polite to do so, adding that office hallways are a great way to socialise and also have informal meetings. "They’re designing workplaces now so people have to bump into each other," she said.

Dress for the occassion

It’s vital to dress appropriately in the workplace, Ms Dally-Watkins said, and women should be careful not to be too revealing.

“I think plunging necklines for a woman is a terrible way to attract attention at work," she said.

"I believe it’s our face, our eyes, our expression and our personality that counts more. If we can only get attention by wearing tacky clothes, how sad”

She tells students to forget about just getting a diploma, because they have to look employable as well.

“Who wants to pay good money to someone who looks yucky and doesn’t present a good image for their company? You want them to be clever, have the appropriate education and look all that your company stands for," she said.

On the phone

The correct way to answer an office phone is, "Hello, (insert name here) speaking."

If you happen to work near a loud phone talker and find them disruptive, be direct and politely tell them it is preventing you from doing your work, Ms Hodgkins said.

Speaking on the mobile phone in the office was fine, so long as it doesn’t disturb your neighbours.
But never SMS anyone over a work-related matter, Ms Hodgkins said, as it's unprofessional.

Online @ work

Policies on personal internet use differ from office to office. The general rule, though, is to do it in moderation.

Bosses shouldn't be too worried about Gen-Y spending a lot of time online because they are very good at multi-tasking with the net, Ms Hodgkins said.

"They could have a chat-site open to talk to their friends while they’re doing their work – quite effectively, I might add. That’s the way they’ve been training their brain to work for the last 10 years," she said.

Be polite

When it comes to those annoying or rude co-workers who get on your nerves, be polite, Ms Dally-Watkins said.

“I don’t think anyone has the right to tell someone they’re behaving badly to their face. It would be bad manners to point out their bad manners," she said.

Ms Hodgkins agreed. "There’s an awful lot of bitching that takes place in the workplace and I don’t think there’s any excuse for it.

"I’d advise anyone who doesn’t like someone else to just be polite. You don’t have to like everyone you work with. You’re there to do a job and you’re obligated to work as effectively with them as you can."

Key to workplace etiquette

The key to office etiquette is to communicate to staff what the local etiquette is. If people don’t know the culture and the rules everyone will go about things differently, Ms Hodgkins said.

_____________________________________________________________________

And this story has allot to do with the below posts, about rudeness of generally Gen Y people, from Xbox live to internet forums, the art of communicating has been lost by many of these people!

What happens when Trolls get on xbox live

2007-09-11T09:31:00.000+10:00

when Forum Trolls get real jobs...

2007-09-11T09:13:00.000+10:00

Bird on water

2007-09-09T20:54:00.000+10:00

Just a snap I took in Gladstone on the weekend :)

Melbourne in fog

2007-08-13T07:14:00.001+10:00

A FUNNY SIGN!

2007-08-12T13:51:00.001+10:00

I took this photo on a recent trip to Rockhampton!

PEACE MAN

2007-08-03T19:54:00.000+10:00

WHY Does Australian TV suck?

2007-06-13T09:12:00.000+10:00

It is better to be a pirate than to join the navy", said Steve Jobs, when rallying the troops who originally designed the first Macintosh. Twenty years later it seems odd that the same Mr. Jobs has done more to stem the flow of pirated material over the Internet than any single person. Apple and the iTunes Music Store dragged the record industry into the new market of the Internet. Before iTunes, music on the Internet was "shared" illegally through peer-to-peer networks such as Kazza and Limewire. Nobody believed that people would buy music on the net when the same files were available free of charge. One Billion songs later and iTunes is a word synonymous with success.

Now, a new network called BitTorrent has become the online pirates favourite weapon of choice. Its favourite download? Television shows.

Television networks see this as pure theft. They argue that shows downloaded illegally are hurting ratings in Australia and are responsible for lost revenue in advertising. They also claim that people will not download television at a price when free versions exist all over the web. Hmmm, doesn't that sound familiar?

First, some history. BitTorrent was created by Bram Cohen, as a way of distributing large files over the Internet, without burdening the original host with bandwidth costs. BitTorrent works by dividing the files into small chunks, where every user is simultaneously downloading a file while they upload to other users. This software was originally created to help distribute Linux builds, but quickly became overcome by "pirates" searching for TV shows, games, movies and all manner of digital wares.

BitTorrent was first considered to be a threat to the movie industry. In an excellent Wired interview in 2005 with the BitTorrent's creator, this threat was highlighted by the Motion Picture Association of America, who began suing individuals downloading movies, in order to, as the MPAA's anti-piracy chief John Malcolm put it, "avoid the fate of the music industry." But the reality is that most movies available on BitTorrent are usually bad quality, they are shot on low definition cameras at a cinema, and include people walking in front of the lens, talking and generally being annoying etc. Shows broadcast on television on the other hand are generally ripped from a Tivo like device, are easily comparable with broadcast images, are ad free, and available almost immediately.

When Wired Magazine asked Bram Cohen if he would use BitTorrent if he hadn't invented it, he replied "I don't know. There's upholding the principle. And there's being the only knuckle-head left who's upholding the principle." Asked later if he thought his invention will lead to the downfall of cinema and television, he replied: "Take this new platform and mine it for gold... Hollywood, which squawked about VHS, figured out how to make billions off video rentals." Traditional media shareholders are always scared of new forms of distribution which threaten their stranglehold on an established market. It's why the RIAA sued people who used file sharing networks to download songs. Its also why the MPAA started suing BitTorrent users. But creators of content need to realise that suing their customers is not the answer. For some reason, customers don't like being sued.

To take John Malcolm's analogy further, I would hope the television industry will "avoid the fate of the music industry", by not waiting till they have turned a generation into pirates before offering other options for free to air TV fans to watch the shows they love. Treat people like thieves and that's what they'll become.

A Nation of Pirates
BitTorrent usage in Australia is the worst kept secret on the Internet. Technology and television forums across Australia are filled with posts about “watching the latest episode of (insert show here) on a recent trip to America." My ISP says BitTorrent accounts for about 45% of its Internet traffic. Channel BT, as it is known, is the new reality.

Even The Bleeding Edge, Fairfax newspaper’s technology blog, has written many guides for setting up BitTorrent for the downloading of "Linux distributions". Fairfax, as a content producer and a major media player, can not be seen as supporting piracy. Yet they have even skirted the issue by suggesting "a friend of theirs" has used BitTorrent to catch up on missed episodes of Desperate Housewives. Missed episodes? Or new episodes that haven't aired in Australia?

According to piracy tracking site Envisional’s recent studies, Australians are the greatest BitTorrent users per capita in the world. Despite making up only 0.3 % of the world’s population, Australians account for 20% of BitTorrent traffic. This is only set to increase as more and more Australians begin to use broadband. In 2005 only 30% of Australians connected to the Internet had a broadband connection, by 2006, it was 51%. Critical mass of broadband has been achieved. This point is crucial in understanding "Channel BitTorrent's" sudden rise in Australia. An hour long television show is roughly 350MB, which would take around 14 hours to download on a dial up connection. A standard MP3 is about 3MB, or 12 minutes. It is for this simple reason, the size of the files in question, that music was the first battleground of Internet piracy. High speed Internet means television is the next major battleground.

While there is no other option available, could it be that illegal downloading of television will only increase? In 2006, with broadband adoption growing Australia, piracy was blamed for the drop in viewers of the early episodes of the two hit imports of 2005, Lost, and Desperate Housewives. Yet by the end of 2006, Desperate Housewives was actually rating better than it had in 2005. What can be gleaned from the implications of these ratings? Its hard to say, because comprehensive research has not been made in Australia that addresses BitTorrent's effect on ratings. My guess would be that the drop in ratings at the start of 2006 were from fans of the the show who had already downloaded the new episodes that Channel Seven were showing. The later peak in viewership could be due to the buzz the downloaders (and new fans) of the show had created. Is it possible that for every viewer the networks lose to BitTorrent, they gain three more from the 'water cooler" effect?

Channel BT
It sounds far fetched, but is it really? Battlestar Galactica is the show that defined BitTorrent. Battlestar debuted in the U.K. in October 2004, but was delayed in the U.S. by the Sci Fi Network until January 2005. That didn't stop the geeks in U.K hitting the Internet and proclaiming Battlestar as the best new show in a decade, and uploading Battlestar on the relatively new network. When it finally debuted in the US, the word of mouth created by those who had BitTorrented the show meant that Battlestar became the most watched show in The Sci Fi Channel’s history. This is a fascinating example because usually Americans, as the world largest producer of television, are normally the first audience in the world to watch new programs.

It seems that consumers downloading episodes of a series via BitTorrent create demand and are extremely loyal viewers. Downloading a torrent takes a bit of effort, first to discover new shows, then to locate the files and join a swarm. It is not something most people with small download limits and low Internet speeds can do on a whim. It also seems to me that BitTorrent increases sales of a series on DVD. How many people do you know with DVD box sets of Arrested Development, Firefly, The Sopranos, or Lost? Ok, now how many of those people discovered these shows via television or via the Internet?

Where BitTorrent is having major effects is on the serialised television shows, such as Prison Break, Lost, and Battlestar Galactica, that reward loyal viewers with in-jokes and gradual plot development. Show like Law and Order and CSI are safer, because it really doesn’t matter if you miss an episode. Miss an episode of Battlestar Galactica, Prison Break, or Lost, and you could quickly find yourself, well, lost.

We are entering a new phase in television where TV and the Internet converge. America, as one of the strongest producers of television content in the world, has been able to embrace the new albeit slowly, embrace this new reality. The major US networks offer downloads of their most popular shows the day after they have screened, at a small price through iTunes or Xbox Live, or free through streaming (ads included) on their websites. Neither service is available outside of the U.S.

The question is, would the average punter be prepared to pay a nominal fee for an episode that is guaranteed to be downloaded at the highest speed possible, or use a free BitTorrent service whose speed is subject to the activity of "the swarm", and could contain viruses. The US iTunes store suggests the answer is yes. Also, if a new method like iTunes becomes adopted by the majority, it will actually hurt Internet piracy by removing people from the "swarm", therefore slowing down torrent speeds. Sure, there will always be piracy on the Internet, because there was always piracy before the Internet. It is human nature. But iTunes has proven over a billion times around the world that when you give people the opportunity to do the right thing, more often than not they will.

Silly Season
So what can be done in Australia? Australian TV needs to adopt the current situation that is proving successful in the US, where episodes are available for streaming immediately after they have screened, or downloaded commercial free for a small price through iTunes. This would obviously require new contracts to be written between our local networks and the US studios to include the Australian rights to stream video on the Internet along with free to air broadcast rights. Tougher still would be working out who was entitled to any profits from sales made through iTunes, the Australia rights holders, or the US producers, or both. I don't pretend to know the deals that could be made, this is something for the lawyers to work out. Either way, this can only happen when Australian TV starts airing episodes as close to there original air dates as possible, and it is in the interest of our networks to make this happen as soon as possible.

Australian television networks need to embrace the new reality of the global market, to understand that consumers are no longer prepared to wait months on end for their favourite shows to be screened, when they don't have to. We are sick of finding out who killed Laura Palmer or who shot Mr. Burns months before we finally see the episode screened on free to air. Who in Australia would be prepared to wait for a new episode of Prison Break to appear on Yahoo7, if it was freely available 9 months earlier on channel BT? Fans of a show called Prison Break probably have a looser ethical compass than most!

Australian television networks could never "catch up" with the US schedule, because the US launches most shows in September, and traditionally Australia's Low Ratings period starts in November. So What? Most US shows reach a mid season climax for the November sweeps, then take a 'hiatus' over the Christmas season, only to return by mid February. That seems to coincide nicely with the Australian Summer, doesn't it? Another argument was that Australians benefit from the delay it takes imported shows to reach our shores, because it allows our commercial networks to screen a full series without these long interruptions. Anyone swayed by this argument needs to look at any Green Guide to read fans angry with our networks cutting up a series, playing episodes out of order, playing weeks of repeats of hit shows to 'stretch out' a season, playing 'fake' season cliff-hangers. The list goes on...

The truth, as these complaints show, is Australian Commercial television has little respect for its viewers. Seven, Nine And Ten have turned exploitation into an art form. They all rely heavily on expensive US hits that are cheaper to import than locally produced drama. Waiting months on end to debut a show allows them get a clear idea what imports will win or lose, so they can decide what to spend there marketing dollars on. Local content regulations (which ensures that 55% of prime time television is locally produced) are seen as a commercial burden, rather than important to the culture of Australia. The locally produced "hits" in this county are generally cheaper imitations of international reality formats, such as Big Brother, Australian Idol and The Biggest Loser. This cosy situation has made Australian television the most profitable in the world. But how much longer can this go on?

Hollywood had to deal with this global reality a few years earlier. Traditionally Hollywood films have had a ‘staggered’ release around the globe. For example, a blockbuster film released in the U.S. for the Thanksgiving weekend (America’s highest grossing box office weekend) would be delayed in Australia until Boxing Day (our biggest movie going day). Online piracy destroyed this model, as pirated copies of films were distributed to eager fans who chose instant gratification over image quality. By 2003, all major Hollywood films were released simultaneously across the globe. Hollywood realised that giving consumers what they want, when they want, was better than holding out for the traditional schedules that had worked so long in the pre-Internet era. Again, doesn't this sound familiar?

Lets look at BitTorrent's numbers again. The U.S, with a population of 300 million people, account for 7% of BitTorrent traffic. Australia, with only 20 million people, accounts for 20% of all traffic. Is this really a surprise, when U.S audiences are offered a legal option to watch their favourite TV shows via the Internet. CBS recently announced that the shows they offered as downloads or via streaming, had better ratings and more loyal fans. Surely the remarkable rise in ratings of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report can be attributed to their cult status on YouTube.

This doesn't just effect TV from the US. Tony Martin joked that the ABC delayed screening Ricky Gervias' Extras, because they wanted to wait until everyone who wanted to watch the show had either downloaded the series or bought the DVDs. Funnily enough, I heard this on the podcast of Get This. Why? Because I hate the music and advertisements Triple M plays, and I would rather download a Nickleback free version of the show than to listen to it live. In fact, I doubt I would have ever heard Get This had it not been released as a podcast. I think Tony Martin is Australia's greatest comedian, but I never listened to him while he was only available via Triple M. Even Roy and H.G., who are on a network whose music I enjoy, I still download as a podcast rather than listen to live. Why? Because I prefer to listen to them on Monday morning than Sunday afternoon. It is the simple fact that the Internet generation expects time shifting. Despite this, Get This is able to wrap their podcasts in sponsorship. And I am happy to hear their advertisements if it means I can listen to Tony Martin whenever I want.

Channel Ten seems to understand this new reality, screening new episodes of the O.C and Jericho soon after they have screened in the USA. They have also started selling episodes of locally produced “David Tench” and “Tripping Over” through Bigpond.com, for those who may have missed an episode. It is interesting to note that Channel Ten targets a younger audience, those who are Internet savvy, and may be willing to source their favourite shows through “non-traditional” channels. Ten have also released "best bits" podcasts of Thank God You're Here and The Ronnie Johns Half Hour, and rather than hurt the ratings, Thank God Your Here has actually been the highest rating show of 2006. Channel Seven can fill its schedule with "Encore Presentations" of Lost or Desperate Housewives, but that's really not the answer. What are the people that miss the encore presentation going to do? Or those who miss the first four episodes?

The key here is iTunes. Apple's juggernaut now owns 88% of the legal download market worldwide, thanks to the success of the iPod. If legal television downloads are to overtake BitTorrent usage in Australia, those shows need to be available through iTunes. It is, to date, the only successful business model that is cross platform.

The End of The World As We Know It
I really don't believe that BitTorrent will negatively effect Australian TV network ratings any time soon. In fact, for the time being I think us geeks will actually help network television by providing shows like Heroes a word of mouth buzz that no slick marketing campaign could ever hope to create. But television networks need to think closely about their long term future. Every angry fan that turns to channel BitTorrent for their latest fix of Lost will be much harder to coax back to free to air television down the track. The longer a viewer becomes used to BitTorrent - free to watch, on demand and without ads, they will be harder to convince that what they are doing is wrong. And every time a network representative defends this situation with word like "anyone using BitTorrent is simply impatient or a thief" offends a massive group of extremely loyal television fans. When BitTorrent finally starts to negatively effect network television ratings, it maybe too late. Treat people like thieves and that's what they become.

originally posted.....at....
http://forums.mactalk.com.au/showthread.php?t=32403

WHAT IS REAL HD TV

2007-05-15T11:02:00.000+10:00

Follow the link, and listen. Finally puts to rest this whole silly debate about what is HD or REAL HD TV. Enjoy

BROADCAST TV IS DEAD!

2007-05-10T13:11:00.000+10:00

BROADCAST TV IS DEAD!

Like many others I have been enjoying TV when I want it, what I want it. But its not on a shiney little plastic disc, and its not from my cable company and its hardly from my local free to air channels. I don't watch any ads, and if I want, a whole season of a TV show, I just subscribe to it. I am talking about itunes or Xbox TV and movies service. I will gladly pay the provider of content ($1.99) what to watch, from Heroes to Battle star, to House to The Office, with no ads, no station logo, and not cuts or editing so the broadcaster can fit in more ads.

Broadcast TV is going the way of the DODO, many advertisers are VERY concerned as 75% of the demographic between 18, and 35 no longer watches TV, listens to the radio or reads a newspaper. And why may well you ask, well, one reason , advertising, there are far too many ads on radio, or TV to handle, you cant even follow some TV shows.

An example recently was a friend of mine who said he keeps hearing about this HEROES show, but he couldn't get into it on broadcast TV. I told him go get an a subscription to it on Itunes, then you watch it when you want, un-edited, in order, and no ads, he now loves the show, and suddenly can follow Battlestar and a few others shows that have been on broadcast TV, but he couldn't follow them with all the ads, and being shown out of order.

Also people are used to the internet experience of getting just the right information relevant to them. What can linear radio or newspapers offer in that regard? Having to wade through pages of NON interesting information just to read to bits you might be interested about, its a technology that just is not suited to the information age. Thus when it comes to our leisure time, we want what we want, and we want it now, not when a TV station tells us. We want to watch it on a large screen TV with surround or we want to watch it on a train or at the office when we on a break. Portable video players a massive hit in Japan, where as much as 60% of TV is now consumed on an hand held device. I myself still like the cinema experience when watching TV or movies, but its all about choices, which is what broadcast TV stations DO NOT give us.

The relationship is quickly becoming between the viewer and the content creator, and the broadcaster is quickly becoming irrelevant. I suggest if you are sick of your TV broadcaster, then check out your itunes store or xbox live channel, or one of the other online delivery methods of getting your content downloaded to your home, and watch shows the way the producers indented it to be watched, uncut, no ads, and in order!

FUTURE OF FLIGHT

2007-04-11T07:59:00.000+10:00

I had to do a video at work about future of flight, and dogfight sequences, so rather than edit some old top gun crap, I decided to use some SCI FI stuff instead, I had to hack some out of this, as the original went for 15 mins, and you tube only allows 10 mins, so a quick edit between the choppers and vipers was done (thus why the sound track is dogy in that part.. didnt sound edit it), but you get the idea... anyways rather than let the work sit on our internal servers, I decided to put up 8 mins of it on you tube for your enjoyment :)

Best TV series of 2006!

2006-10-15T20:32:00.000+10:00

Well this series takes the cake. best TV series to come out of the USA in a LOOOOONG TIME... I have been lucky to see the 1st part of season 3, and this take TV series to a whole new level! Makes everything else on the old box looks dated and boaring! About time someone took TV into a new level of engaging and thought provoking stories!

BUY this DVD set when it comes out.. it is brilliant writing, acting, visuals the lot! Just do it!

FUNNIEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR

2006-10-15T20:09:00.000+10:00

A total surprise to me , I never saw this at the movies.. but I have now seen this on DVD, and let me tell you...this movie rocks.... best movie since Shrek....so IF you havn't seen it... go see it!!! Buy it... give it as an xmas present! Good to see Adult/kids animation back in action, unlike some other crocks (like "the wild" or "open season", which are TOTAL CRAP!) 9/10! (minus 1 point for some sucky music), they should have used open season's music with talking heads wild wild life!

Why Mac's are more secure

2006-08-28T18:10:00.000+10:00

This is a such a great post, I thought I would duplciate it here... the original post can be found here

http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisemac/archives/2006/08/is_windows_inhe.html

read on and enjoy :)

On August 13 at 3:04 AM, a Windows server that I've been running for all of two weeks--it just replaced an Xserve G5--was attacked by a new strain of malware. This worm/trojan/backdoor/proxy/IRCbot/DDOS agent shared some characteristics with a known exploit, but it went well beyond what was described. I believed at the time of the infection, and even more strongly now, that this exploit's latent damage potential has been underestimated. I view the terse and vague update on the CERT site regarding the less tenacious strain of this beast with a sense of foreboding.

The attack I encountered occasioned a re-examination of a common question: Is Windows more vulnerable to malware than OS X? I've encountered no clearer or more definitive proof point than this attack. To set the stage, I'll describe the malware's methods. The only victim requirement is that a Windows system--client or server from 2000 and XP on up, 32 and 64-bit--be on an Internet-accessible IP address and listening for socket requests to the Windows Server service. The attacker connects to the Windows Server service, overflows a fixed-length buffer and tricks the service into executing code contained in a portion of the buffer. The attack edits the Registry to turn off the Windows firewall and packet filter, disables notifications that you're running with reduced security, and opens your system to anonymous access. It then uses the Registry to insert plant a pair of Windows services that run with SYSTEM privileges. Processes owned by that pseudo-user can literally do anything, unchecked, to the local machine. The malware services launch and announce your exploited system's presence via IRC and IM. After that, an IRC bot or (sub)human driver can make your system do whatever it wants, including making it a nest for more malware. In my case, it was so eager to scan the Internet for other systems to infect that it locked my server's CPUs at 100 percent and gave itself away.

To nail itself in place, two services watch for and regenerate each other even if their files are deleted. The malware adds an entry to Administrator's login script, and it watches for a privileged invocation of Windows Explorer (like Finder) and attaches a malicious thread to that.

I've been giving it great deal of thought, and I came up with a reasons pointing to the likelihood that Windows is at greater risk of catastrophic attacks. It's not easy reading, but it was either this dense packing or a book-length blog post.

• All Windows background processes/daemons are spawned from a single hyper-privileged process and referred to as services.
• By default, Windows launches all services with SYSTEM-level privileges.
• SYSTEM is a pseudo-user (LocalSystem) that trumps Administrator (like UNIX's root) in privileges. SYSTEM cannot be used to log in, but it also has no password, no login script, no shell and no environment, therefore
• The activity of SYSTEM is next to impossible to control or log.
• Most of the code running on any Windows system at a given time is related to services, most or all of which run with SYSTEM privileges, therefore
• Successful infection of running Windows software carries a good chance of access to SYSTEM privileges.
• Windows buries most privileged software, service executables and configuration files in a single, unstructured massive directory (SYSTEM32) that is frequently used by third parties. Windows will notify you on an attempt to overwrite one of its own system files stored here, but does not try to protect privileged software.
• Microsoft does not sign or document the name and purpose of the files it places in SYSTEM32.
• Windows has no equivalent to OS X's bill of materials, so it cannot validate permissions, dates and checksums of system and third-party software.
• Windows requires that users log in with administrative privileges to install software, which causes many to use privileged accounts for day-to-day usage.
• Windows requires extraordinary effort to extract the path to, and the files and TCP/UDP ports opened by, running services, and to certify that they are valid.
• Microsoft made it easy for commercial applications to refuse a debugger's attempt to attach to a process or thread. Attackers use this same mechanism to cloak malware. A privileged user must never be denied access to a debugger on any system. My right to track down malware on my computers trumps vendors' interests in preventing piracy or reverse-engineering. Maintaining that right is one of the reasons that open source commercial OS kernels are so vital.
• Access to the massive, arcane, nearly unstructured, non-human-readable Windows Registry, which was to be obsolete by now, remains the only resource a Windows attacker needs to analyze and control a Windows system.
• Another trick that attackers learned from Microsoft is that Registry entries can be made read-only even to the Administrator, so you can find an exploit and be blocked from disarming it.
• Malicious code or data can be concealed in NTFS files' secondary streams. These are similar to HFS forks, but so few would think to look at these.
• One of the strongest tools that Microsoft has to protect users from malware is Access Control Lists (ACLs), but standard tools make ACLs difficult to employ, so most opt for NTFS's inadequate standard access rights.

Why this can't happen under OS X:

• OS X has no user account with privileges exceeding root.
• Maximum privilege is extended only to descendants of process ID 1 (init or Darwin's launchd), a role that is rarely used and closely scrutinized.
• Unlike services.exe, launchd executes daemons and scheduled commands in a shell that's subject to login scripts, environment variables, resource limits, auditing and all security features of Darwin/OS X.
• Apple's daemons have man pages, and third parties are duty-bound to provide the same. Admins also expect to be able to run daemons, with verbose reporting, in a shell for testing.
• OS X Man pages document daemons' file dependencies, so administrators can easily rework file permissions to match daemons' reduced privileges.
• Launchd can tripwire directories so that if they're altered unexpectedly, launchd triggers a response.
• If an attacker takes over a local or remote console, any effort to install software or alter significant system settings cannot proceed without entering the administrator's user name and password, even if the console is already logged in as a privileged user. In other words, even having privileges doesn't ensure that even an inside hacker can arrange to keep them.
• OS X has a single console and a single system log, both in plain text.
• OS X's nearest equivalent to the Registry is Netinfo, but this requires authentication for modification. In later releases of OS X, it is fairly sparse.
• Applications have their own per-user and system-wide properties files, private Registries if you like, stored in human-readable files in standard locations.
• Every installed file is traceable to a bill of materials that can verify that the file is meant to exist, and that it and all of its dependencies match their original checksums. Mac users, back up and protect your Receipts folder!
• The directories used to hold OS X's privileged system executables are sacred. Anything new that pops up there is immediately suspect.
• OS X does not require that a user be logged in as an administrator to install software. The user or someone aiding the install needs to know the name and password of a local administrative user to complete the install. On a network, most software is installed using Remote Desktop, an inexpensive Systems Management Server-like console.
• The UNIX/POSIX API, standard command-line tools and open source tools leave malware unable to hide from a competent OS X administrator. It takes a new UNIX programmer longer to choose an editor than it does to write a console app that walks the process tree listing privileged processes. Finding the owners of open TCP/UDP ports or open files is similarly trivial. The "system" is not opaque.
• Basic OS X features can be put to use to make life miserable for malware. For example, Windows' hackable restore points are done better by OS X's ability to create encrypted, read-only disk images. They're simpler than archives, and you can mount them as volumes anywhere in your file hierarchy.
• Likewise, OS X Server will image any Mac client or server's local drives and maintain safe copies that can be used not only for restoration, but which can be booted from to guarantee that there's no trace of infection.
• When erase-and-reinstall is the only way to be sure, OS X Server automates it. It can safely capture the affected Mac's active drives before having that Mac boot from the fresh install image.

So, after all this, do I have enough to judge Windows inherently more vulnerable to severe malware than OS X? I do.

I've been writing about these shortcomings for years, and it always traces back to Microsoft's untenable policy of maintaining gaps in Windows security to avoid competing with 3rd party vendors and certified partners. Apple's taking a different approach: What users need is in the box: Anti-virus, anti-spam, encryption, image backup and restore, offsite safe storage through .Mac, and launchd. Pretty soon any debate with Microsoft over security can be ended in one round when Apple stands up, says "launchd," and sits back down.

LCD VS PLASMA

2006-07-16T19:13:00.000+10:00

LCD vs Plasma.

I am not going to debate the below with fan boys of either camp, this is just a review of the latest technology based on a 2 year review of all the current technology and brands available.

Remember this is not blanket statement like.. Plasma is better than LCD debate, its all what you want it for, what you want to plug into it etc... some technologies and brands are better suited than others...., where it is in your house, the lighting conditions etc.. and thus not one size fits all, and the answer isn't simple..it all depends on your functionality you want will dictate what to buy.... so to put it a little more in perspective here is a good unbiased review ...

LCD TV vs. Plasma the gap is too close to call.

Despite their similarities, the two technologies are very different in the way they deliver the image to the viewer.

PICTURE CONSIDERATIONS
CONTRAST / BLACK LEVELS

Plasma technology has certainly achieved quite high contrast ratios, a measure of the blackest black compared to the whitest white. Many plasma display manufacturers boast a contrast ratio of 3000:1 these days though our tests have not proven these numbers out. Panasonic has long been the leader in plasma black levels and we measure contrast of a 42" HD Panasonic plasma at about ANSI 1450:1 - still impressive. Plasma displays achieve such impressive black levels by using internal algorithms to block the power to particular pixels in order to render a pixel "dark" or black. While this can limit a plasma television's gray scaling, it does produce exceptionally black blacks - depending on the manufactured plasma display element (i.e. glass). A plasma TV uses the most power when it is producing full white. As a result, some 2nd tier manufactured brands of plasma TVs have an audible buzz or whining sound when displaying white or very light images.

LCD (liquid crystal diode) displays, by contrast, utilize electric charges to twist and untwist liquid crystals, which causes them to block light and, hence, emit blacks. The higher the voltage passing through the liquid crystals in a given pixel, the more fully those crystals untwist and effectively block light - all of which makes these pixels darker. As opposed to plasma, LCD TVs use the most power when displaying a very dark or black image. This is a difficult process, and despite recent improvements in LCD black levels, only the best LCD televisions (like those produced by Sharp and Sony) have managed to topple the 1500:1 contrast ratio barrier. Recent improvements have brought LCD displays up to the level of plasma.

ADVANTAGE: Closer than a year ago,too close to call. LCD TV manufacturers have made great improvements in black levels and in many cases have managed to match the contrast ratio of plasma displays. However, some Plasma displays still maintain a slight advantage in this category due to fading blacks when viewing LCDs from off axis. For scenes with a lot of dark and light images shown simultaneously - as with content originating from DVDs, video games, and NTSC TV signals - plasmas can outperform LCD TVs. But both Sony and Sharp have improved their black levels at 178 degree viewing off axis to the same as Plasma's.

COLOR ACCURACY

In plasma displays, each pixel contains red, green, and blue elements, which work in conjunction to create 16.77 million colors. Insofar as each pixel contains all the elements needed to produce every color in the spectrum, color information was more accurately reproduced with plasma technology than it was with other display technologies. The chromaticity coordinates were more accurate on most plasma displays. Though the color saturation resulting from the pixel design of plasma displays is remarkable, LCD technology has now caught plasma in gray scaling color accuracy.

LCD TVs reproduce colors by manipulating light waves and subtracting colors from white light. This is an inherently difficult template for maintaining color accuracy and vibrancy - though most LCD displays manage quite well. While color information benefits from the higher-than-average number of pixels per square inch found in LCD televisions (especially when compared to plasmas). LCDs produce a typically brighter picture. Greens sometimes look over-green and reds can run a bit warm, but in a room with bright outdoor lighting, an LCD TV would be my choice.

ADVANTAGE: Preference to plasma but depends upon room light, manufacturer and model. Plasma color richness and naturalness will prevail in rooms with lower to normal lighting. LCDs will be better in very brightly lit rooms due to their inherent anti glare technology and brightness.

VIEWING ANGLES

Plasma manufacturers have made much of their 160° viewing angles, which is about as good as horizontal and vertical viewing angles get. This owes to the fact that each pixel produces its own light, rather than light being spread across the screen from one central source. Hence, each pixel is more readily visible because its brightness is consistent with every other pixel on the screen. One consistent area of superiority of plasma viewing angles is demonstrated when viewing dark material content, especially DVDs. A Plasma display holds the black levels from off axis, while LCD TVs lose black level intensity more as the angle off axis increases. This usually occurs after around 90 degrees, ( on low end cheap models).

LCD TV manufacturers have done much to improve their displays' viewing angles. The substrate material on newer-generation LCD models by Sharp and Sony has helped to expand those units' viewing angles. Expect the best LCD HDTVs to have between 160 and 178 degree viewing angles.

ADVANTAGE: Plasma by a hairs breath.

FUNCTIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
COMPUTER USE

LCD flat screens display static images from computer or VGA sources extremely well, with full color detail, no flicker, and no screen burn-in. Moreover, the number of pixels per square inch on an LCD display is typically higher than other display technologies, so LCD monitors are especially good at displaying large amounts of data - like you would find on an Excel spreadsheet for example - with exceptional clarity and precision. For the same reasons, LCD TVs will also be a slightly better template for video gaming.

Plasma technology has increased anti burn in tactics as well as computer and static signal handling. There are still issues with each depending very much on the model and manufacturer. For example, most EDTV plasma displays do not handle a computer input well and product a very jaggy image when viewing static images from same. Users may want to consider a commercial version plasma if their application calls for a lot of computer use.

ADVANTAGE: LCD

FAST-MOVING VIDEO PLAYBACK

Plasma gets the nod here because of their excellent performance with fast-moving images and high contrast levels. There are still some 2nd tier manufacturers whose plasma product displays some phosphor lag, a drag time in scenes changing from bright to dark.

While the "response time" of LCD TVs has markedly improved in the last couple of years, they still suffer from a slight "trailer" effect in low end models, where the individual pixels are just slightly out of step with the image on the screen. During fast moving sports scenes, the most discerning eyes can detect this slight motion response lag. However in the higher end of the spectrum of LCD TV's, typically the Sony's and the Samsung's, all our tests couldn't find any difference between the LCD's and the Plasma's in this regard

ADVANTAGE: Depends on model you choose. Plasma and LCD was no difference in higher end models.

HIGH ALTITUDE

There is a reason LCD flat panels are the preferred visual display units for use on airplanes: LCD TVs aren't affected by increases or decreases in air pressure. Their performance is consistent regardless of the altitude at which they're utilized.

This is not the case for a plasma. The display element in plasma TVs is actually a glass substrate envelope with rare natural gases compressed therein. So, at high altitudes (6,500 feet and above), an air-pressure differential emerges, which causes plasma displays to emit a buzzing sound due to the lower air pressure. This noise can sound rather like the humming of an old neon sign. NEC has been effective in producing several plasma models that are rated to 9,500 feet.

ADVANTAGE: LCD, at 6,500 feet and higher.

LONGEVITY

LCD television manufacturers claim that their displays last, on average, 50,000 to 65,000 hours. In fact, an LCD TV will last as long as its backlight does - and those bulbs can sometimes be replaced! Since this is nothing more than light passing through a prismatic substrate, there is essentially nothing to wear out in an LCD monitor. However, one nasty little known fact about LCD technology is that as the backlight ages it can change colors slightly (think of florescent office lighting). When this occurs the white balance of the entire LCD TV will be thrown for a loop and the user will need to re-calibrate, or worse, try to replace the backlighting or ditch the unit altogether. Some of the early purchasers of larger LCD screens will be learning this tidbit in a couple of years. One thing that I've found in this industry, it is not easy to find out whether the backlighting on LCDs can be replaced. Manufacturers are either hesitant to discuss the topic, or they just don't know.

Plasma, on the other hand, utilizes slight electric currents to excite a combination of noble gases (i.e., argon, neon, xenon), which glow red, blue, and/or green. This is an essentially active phenomenon, so the phosphoric elements in plasma displays fade over time. Many manufacturers state a new half life of 60,000 hours. While I am skeptical of this spec, I do believe strides have been made to nearly even the playing field with LCD. At half life, the phosphors in a plasma screen will glow half as brightly as they did when the set was new. There is no way to replace these gases; the display simply continues to grow dimmer with use.

ADVANTAGE: Even, depending upon manufacturer quality.

SCREEN BURN IN

LCD technology is not prone to screen "burn-in" or "ghosting" (premature aging of pixel cells) due to the nature of the technologies "twisting crystals."

With plasma, static images will begin to "burn-in," or permanently etch the color being displayed into the glass display element. The time it takes for this to occur depends greatly on the anti burn-in technology of the manufacturer. Recent improvements by plasma manufacturers have certainly extended the time it takes to burn in a plasma pixel cell. In the past I was concerned to place a DVD on pause 15 minutes. Now, many of the enhancements such as better green phosphor material, and motion adaptive anti burn-in technology are greatly reducing the risk of burn in. It's gotten so much better that I don't even worry about it anymore. In a new model plasma from any top tier manufacturer I would put "ghosting" estimates at an hour or more now (Ghosting can be "washed" out by displaying static gray material). Permanent burn-in I would put at more than 10 hours.

ADVANTAGE: LCD, though not as much a concern as it was a year ago.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
PRODUCTION SIZE AND COST

All television measurements are stated in inches and are for diagonal measurement of the screen from corner to corner - not including framing.

Both plasma and LCD TVs are becoming more readily available in larger sizes though plasma still leads the size battle by a great margin. Pioneer and LG produce 61" plasma sizes while Panasonic has a readily available 65" model. Though it is not being imported into the U.S. yet, Samsung has produced a gigantic plasma of 100 inches. Though such mammoth monitors are expensive, they exhibit none of the "kinks" one might expect with such large displays. In other words, even the largest plasma displays are reliable. Large plasma displays will consume power - try 675 watts for a 65 "display compared to around 330 watts for a 42" plasma.

The substrate material for LCD TVs has proved difficult to produce in large sizes without pixel defects owing to faulty transistors. Sharp produces one of the largest available LCD displays at 45 inches, while Samsung has a 46" LCD. Sony and NEC currently produce units measuring 40" diagonally. This will change very soon. These manufacturers will have very large LCD screens here this year if production goes as planned.

ADVANTAGE: Plasma, though the playing field is leveling. Even though production costs and retail prices have come down for both technologies, plasma still has the edge as far as production cost and capacity go.

POWER CONSUMPTION

Because LCDs use florescent backlighting to produce images, they require substantially less power to operate than plasmas do. LCD TVs consume about half the power that plasma displays consume. The reason: Plasmas use a lot of electricity to light each and every pixel you see on a screen - even the dark ones. Though plasma manufacturers have improved voltage consumption requirements a plasma TV will consume around a third more power for the same size display.

ADVANTAGE: LCD

PRICE AND RESOLUTION

LCD HDTV displays will have a higher resolution per same size comparison than plasma. The lowest resolution of a 40 inch LCD will be 1366 X 768 - easily full HD resolution in 1080i or 720p. A 42 inch HD plasma has a resolution of 1024 X 768. While this is not truly an HD resolution, it's close enough so that it's difficult to know the difference. A 50 inch plasma TV will have a resolution of 1366 X 768, while a 45 inch LCD displays 1920 X 1080 (1080P) resolution.

Those extra pixels and the production process of LCD HDTVs cost more money to produce. Expect to pay a third as much more for a similar size LCD TV than a plasma display.

ADVANTAGE: It's currently a toss-up.

What life is like with WINDOZE?

2006-04-13T07:02:00.000+10:00

So this is what life is like with Windoze! Great life!

get a REAL life.... get Mac!

XP on a Mac!? why?

2006-03-17T14:52:00.000+11:00

Well this is the only reason I would see you would want to put xp on a mac!

WHAT VISTA STANDS FOR!

2006-03-17T09:16:00.000+11:00

The next version of windows is called VISTA.... but what does it mean???... the secret is out!

BAD MAC SALESMAN!

2006-03-06T11:19:00.000+11:00

I had a fun experience on the weekend... (NOT!)... I was waiting for my friend at an Big Department store that sold macs (NOT A APPLE STORE)... while waiting, I heard the sales man preach on to poor dumb customer, that Intel macs were no good, and nothing runs on them, and this is why you should by these two g4 powerbook 15inch's for your self and your daughter to run word and surf the net! When sleazy salesman went to get even more ripp off accessories, I had a quite word with the guy, pointing out you are being lied to, and salesman is trying to rip you off, and get rid of old stock, and you should really be getting the Mac book pro, as he is charging you the same price for them anyway! When customer asked sales man (after he returned) why he wasn't selling him a Mac Book Pro (Intel)... he said same old line... oh nothing runs on them (and he didn't have any in stock), they don't work right etc etc.... and you should just buy these two laptops (at 7 grand!).

The customer said " I think I will leave it thanks", the sale dude looked at me and said "what did you say to my customer", "if you don't like what I say LEAVE!", at this time I saw red, and told the sales dude STOP lying to the customer, and telling him half truths, and ripping him off, at this time the salesman let fly a hurl of abuse to me, and anyone else.... by this time the customer, just said.. forget it mate... I not buying anything from you... and walked out.. and thanked me as he walked by! I so HATE sleazy salesman!!!! I think the guy walked out to find a REAL Apple store!

BAD POWER

2006-02-28T11:10:00.000+11:00

You might be wondering why there havnt been any updates for a while.. well not long after the picture of the Quad was taken, suddenly the Quad didnt want to power on anymore.. thinking a hardware problem, the Quad went back to Apple... no problems found after 3 days of testing... so I took it all home.. no problems there either for two days.... took it back to work.. no go!! get the power company out to work... bad harmonics in the power they say.. so I have been waiting 4 weeks for the power company to supply me with a UPS and a re-wire of all power back to switch board to try and resolve the problem! argh!

So till then the lovley quad sits in a corner, collecting dust, while I wait for the power compnay to fix the power problem!

QUAD G5 MONSTER!

2006-01-17T11:03:00.000+11:00

Ok the new beast has arrived....

its a QUAD G5, with 4.5 GB of ram 3 X 500 GB drives with a 23 Inch cinema display.

YEA! just done some HD stuff today, impressive render times from the 2 X G4 processor system it replaced.

Best Tv show of 2005!?

2006-01-05T00:00:00.000+11:00

The fabulous SciFi Channel remake of the 1980's classic Battlestar Galactica, starring Edward James Olmos has been picked by Time Magazine as the best television program of 2005.

For the fans of the dark and gritty series this comes as no surprise, but it certainly caught everyone else off-guard.

Why has this one program on a highly genre focused cable network won over the hearts and minds of the general viewing public? Simple math. Add a great writing staff and behind the camera crew, with an immeasurably talented ensemble cast headed up by the award winning Olmos, gripping stories each and every week with heart-stopping special effects and how could you miss?

Congratulations BSG it is a well deserved accolade.

But remember the Betamax

2006-01-04T10:30:00.000+11:00

ok here is my spin.....The smart money will wait out the standards war before buying a high-definition DVD player.

If you were lucky enough to get a fancy HDTV set, you're probably eager for a high-definition DVD player to go with it. Note that the SONY 40" V SERIES BRAVIA LCD TV , is one of the very few TV's in Australia that can support true HD with a native Display Resolution: 1366 x 768, and it was only released late last year in November 2005.

But remember the Betamax! Consumer electronics is an industry notorious for rapid change and 2006 is already shaping up as a particularly disruptive year. Some of the changes will be incremental -- new phone features, lower prices for TVs -- but a standards war in DVD players and recorders has the potential to render some of the first players obsolete. Not only that, these new players have digital rights management (DRM) features that make Darth Vader look tame, more on DRM later.

Today's DVD players and recorders are based on red lasers, which read and write millions of little digital data pits on those shiny DVD discs. But the sun is setting on red-laser DVDs, because the relatively long wavelength of the red laser limits the capacity of a standard-size DVD disc, just as the world is making the transition to high-definition movies and television.

Blue lasers have a shorter wavelength, and thus can read and write much more data on the same-size DVD disc -- nearly 50 gigabytes on one type of double-layer blue-laser disc, more than enough for playing back a high-def movie or recording two or more hours of a high-def TV show.

Don't be a casualty of the standards war

Pioneer just announced that it will start selling blue-laser DVD drives for computers in Japan in just a few weeks, and in the United States by summer, making it the first to offer mass-market HD-capable DVD players and recorders to the public. Most of the major movie studios have promised to
have a selection of high-definition DVD movies available when the new drives arrive.

It will take many years for blue-laser DVDs to completely replace red-laser DVDs at your local Blockbuster, but as the world inexorably moves toward a high-definition future, red laser players are headed for obsolescence or so they would like you to believe.

The big problem is that two rival camps are competing to set the standards for blue-laser DVDs, and, just like earlier format wars -- Betamax versus VHS, Windows versus Mac, XM versus Sirius satellite radio, et cetera -- the two formats, known as Blu-ray and HD DVD, are incompatible.

A majority of major movie studios and many of the world's leading consumer electronics companies are backing the Blu-ray camp, led by Sony. The new Pioneer computer drives are based on the Blu-ray format.

Toshiba and NEC are leading the charge for the HD DVD format, and its backers include Warner Bros., HBO and New Line (like FORTUNE and CNNMoney, all divisions of Time Warner), as well as the dynamic PC duo of Microsoft and Intel.

A number of consumer electronics, computer and entertainment companies are supporting both formats for now, hedging their bets until a clear winner emerges.

The oddsmakers favour Blu-ray, in part because Blu-ray appears to have superior technical specifications and now has a head start over HD DVD in the race to market.

Blu-ray has a greater theoretical capacity than HD DVD (50GB versus 30GB for double-layer discs, as against 9GB for current red-laser DVDs), and Sony has said it will include a Blu-ray DVD drive in its forthcoming PlayStation 3> entertainment console, which, if the PS3 is as successful as the PS2, could
populate the world with millions of Blu-ray DVD players and sway any holdout movie studios to the format.

On the other hand, HD DVD supporters say their format makes it easier and cheaper to manufacture drives that are compatible with previous DVD and CD formats, lessening the cost and disruption of moving to a new HD format.

That's particularly important in the cut-throat PC business, and one reason Microsoft, Intel and HP have aligned with the HD DVD camp. (Apple and Dell, the world's largest PC maker, appear solidly in the Blu-ray camp.)

Microsoft is building HD DVD support into its next-generation version of Windows, called Vista, and presumably it wants HD DVD drives to be available for computers when Vista rolls out later this year. We can expect to see HD DVD players and recorders for home entertainment systems appear in stores
and in PCs in 2006, although the timing is unclear at this writing.

Now for the real issue of DRM. All these players have a specification for being online 24/7, that's right, they must have a Internet connection in order for them to even operate. So no net, no play. Every time you put in a disc, the player calls home and checks if its valid. What happens if you put in a non valid disc? Your player shuts down.. And you will have trust Sony or whoever to unlock it for it. Not only that it can be any non valid content (you home movie of your Xmas holiday). It gets better not only will your player shut down, the player will also send commands to anything it can control to shut that down too.. TV, stereo, hard drives... Whatever it can talk to. And we are to trust SONY to unlock it all for us? I think not.

I can see the consumer backlash on this feature alone will be enough to shut down the whole HD blue ray DVD war before it even begins.

The wildcard in all this is China. China has outlawed the use of any of the HD proprietary devices from Sony, Toshiba etc and, and come up with its own HD DVD standard based upon open standards, and based upon red laser technology using a superior CODEC chip to ones used today. In theory this could be used in any standard DVD player today with a chip swap out.

The bottom line

If you're not a big movie buff, and are happy with the quality of current prerecorded DVD movies, and if current generations of CD and DVD are sufficient for your backup and data transfer needs, sit tight.

The first blue-laser drives are certain to be expensive. Early adopters can expect to pay $1,000 or more for player-recorders, just as they did when red-laser DVD players were new. But today, basic DVD players are selling for as little as $30.

And lets not forget that less than 10,000 people in Australia are even capable of watching HD, as less than 10,000 TRUE HD TV sets have been sold in this country. Sales of True HD sets will pick up this year, industry is expecting every 1 in 25 sets sold this year will be true HD sets. Still this will not be a huge number of HD capable sets by the end of this year.

I seriously think the whole movement of little discs for video and data is rapidly approaching obsolescence. I'm betting on high-definition video-on-demand services, 100-megabit Internet pipelines and terabyte-size home media servers to make physical DVD players largely irrelevant within a decade, yes even in Australia, as wi fi services make a large presence in the next 5-10 years, with speeds over 100MB's via the airwaves.

One only has to look at the Apple business model of the distribution of audio and now video via its itunes store to realise the end of the local video store is near.

So sit back people and watch the rich elite buy stuff that will look like quadraphonic stereo sets ( a competitor to stereo in the mid 1970's that never went anywhere) by the end of the year.

2006 looks a year to sort the HD DVD industry out once and for all.

iborg = ipod

2006-01-03T11:54:00.000+11:00

Gary Jones, president and CEO of eMagin Corp. of Bellevue, demonstrates his company's new wearable display for video iPods. Using the EyeBud headset is akin to watching a 105-inch display from 12 feet away. "Suddenly you've got this big-screen, movie-screen, home-theater experience wherever you are," he says. I say you look like a Borg, no longer will people be tuned OUT from sounds of their surroundings now they will walk in to you, saying "sorry, I was watching porn, didnt see you there". Next I guess there will be the brain interface, so instead of people looking like they are borg clones, they will look like the just smoked a large joint, when really they are just watching last nights lost on their ipod plugged into their brain (ala matrix style).

HAPPY NEW YEAR.. and BTW Power Point is EVIL..

2006-01-01T16:00:00.000+11:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR, and Welcome to 2006! I thought of no better way to start the year than to start with a rant! I hope your new year is filled with less PowerPoint, why? You may ask?...if you sat through as many senseless, boaring, and death by PowerPoint sessions you wil understand.

Imagine a widely used and expensive prescription drug that promised to make us beautiful but didn't. Instead the drug had frequent, serious side effects: It induced stupidity, turned everyone into bores, wasted time, and degraded the quality and credibility of communication. These side effects would rightly lead to a worldwide product recall.

Yet slideware -computer programs for presentations -is everywhere: in corporate Western World, in government bureaucracies, even in our schools. Several hundred million copies of Microsoft PowerPoint are churning out trillions of slides each year. Slideware may help speakers outline their talks, but convenience for the speaker can be punishing to both content and audience. The standard PowerPoint presentation elevates format over content, betraying an attitude of commercialism that turns everything into a sales pitch.

Of course, data-driven meetings are nothing new. Years before today's slideware, presentations at companies such as IBM and in the military used bullet lists shown by overhead projectors. But the format has become ubiquitous under PowerPoint, which was created in 1984 and later acquired by Microsoft. PowerPoint's pushy style seeks to set up a speaker's dominance over the audience. The speaker, after all, is making power points with bullets to followers. Could any metaphor be worse? Voicemail menu systems? Billboards? Television? Stalin?

articularly disturbing is the adoption of the PowerPoint cognitive style in our schools. Rather than learning to write a report using sentences, children are being taught how to formulate client pitches and infomercials. Primary school PowerPoint exercises (as seen in teacher guides and in student work posted on the Internet) typically consist of 10 to 20 words and a piece of clip art on each slide in a presentation of three to six slides -a total of perhaps 80 words (15 seconds of silent reading) for a week of work. Students would be better off if the schools simply closed down on those days and everyone went to the Exploratorium or wrote an illustrated essay explaining something.

In a business setting, a PowerPoint slide typically shows 40 words, which is about eight seconds' worth of silent reading material. With so little information per slide, many, many slides are needed. Audiences consequently endure a relentless sequentiality, one damn slide after another. When information is stacked in time, it is difficult to understand context and evaluate relationships. Visual reasoning usually works more effectively when relevant information is shown side by side. Often, the more intense the detail, the greater the clarity and understanding. This is especially so for statistical data, where the fundamental analytical act is to make comparisons.

Consider an important and intriguing table of survival rates for those with cancer relative to those without cancer for the same time period. Some 196 numbers and 57 words describe survival rates and their standard errors for 24 cancers.

Applying the PowerPoint templates to this nice, straightforward table yields an analytical disaster. The data explodes into six separate chaotic slides, consuming 2.9 times the area of the table. Everything is wrong with these smarmy, incoherent graphs: the encoded legends, the meaningless color, the logo-type branding. They are uncomparative, indifferent to content and evidence, and so data-starved as to be almost pointless. Chartjunk is a clear sign of statistical stupidity. Poking a finger into the eye of thought, these data graphics would turn into a nasty travesty if used for a serious purpose, such as helping cancer patients assess their survival chances. To sell a product that messes up data with such systematic intensity, Microsoft abandons any pretense of statistical integrity and reasoning.

Presentations largely stand or fall on the quality, relevance, and integrity of the content. If your numbers are boring, then you've got the wrong numbers. If your words or images are not on point, making them dance in color won't make them relevant. Audience boredom is usually a content failure, not a decoration failure.

At a minimum, a presentation format should do no harm. Yet the PowerPoint style routinely disrupts, dominates, and trivializes content. Thus PowerPoint presentations too often resemble a school play -very loud, very slow, and very simple.

The practical conclusions are clear. PowerPoint is a competent slide manager and projector. But rather than supplementing a presentation, it has become a substitute for it. Such misuse ignores the most important rule of speaking: Respect your audience.

xmas time... again....

2005-12-23T17:49:00.000+11:00

new cam pics... :) yea...

Merry Xmas .... to me ;)

2005-12-23T17:43:00.000+11:00

Xmas come a little bit early for me.. as all my new toys arrived today......Besides my new Quad G5, with 4GB ram and 1.5 TB of hard drive space, with a new Dual 23 Inch cinema display, I also got my new Camera gear, a Nikon D70s, and a new Sony hvr Z1 HD CAM with some great new wireless mics, and a miller tripod etc etc etc… here are just some pics of the new gear… (workstation I will post in the new year when I get it all set up ☺ )

Serenity .... WHAT Australia will get in the DVD set

2005-12-15T16:35:00.000+11:00

The BAD NEWS is that the rating will not be a sticker and will therefore be permanent. The GOOD NEWS is the they have decided to print the sleeve double-sided. The inside of the sleeve will be exactly the same as the outside but with the rating removed from the front, spine and back. This means that when you get it home, all you have to do is pull the sleeve out, turn it over, pop it back in to the amaray and voila, you have one Serenity DVD sleeve with no visible rating! Yea!

As previously mentioned, there will also be a couple of exclusive packaging options/gifts with purchase. I can confirm that:

1. If you buy Serenity on DVD at JB H-Fi, you will receive (over the counter) an exclusive Slip Case/O-Ring that carries Joss Whedon's signature (these are not individually signed but the signature is part of the artwork). The O-Ring itself will have a mat finish and parts will have spot gloss and embossing so it will look fantastic!

2. If you buy Serenity on DVD at EzyDVD, you will receive (over the counter) an exclusive Tin Case. These have been produced by EzyDVD with artwork that we have provided and that artwork will be slightly different to that above so that it is exclusive.

3. Not a packaging option, but if you buy Serenity on DVD at Sanity, you will receive an exclusive Serenity Mouse Mat for FREE!

GO GET IT PEOPLE. IT will be soooo Shiny!!!

This is Australia?

2005-12-07T19:37:00.000+11:00

I was in Sydney this week, and couldnt help notice this VERY BAD grammer at a Gloria Jenes Coffee shop at Darling Habour! No wonder the Queens English is stuffed with people posting signs like this!

Time for an UPGRADE

2005-12-05T10:26:00.000+11:00

....this has been my set up for the past 2.5 years. Taken a few months back.. as I now have a video 8 and umatic 3/4 inch players in this mix as well (consoles on the LEFT)... its all about to be upgraded next two weeks witha quad g4, and a 23 inch cinema display, with sony Z1p HD cam, will slave the duel g4 off as a batch file compressor, and extra editing console... as if you hadnt guessed I am an editor.... cant wait...

The MUSIC of Firefly!

2005-11-30T20:35:00.000+11:00

Miss the music from the series when you saw the movie??? well get this.. and hear all the gerat music from the TV series...... BTW the Score from the movie is also available at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AYYUGQ/qid=1133343381/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-6006799-4103803?s=music&v=glance&n=5174

Serenity .... BUY AUSTRALIAN!

2005-11-25T17:36:00.000+11:00

Buy the Aussie version of the dvd.. Why.. Well we get 2 discs!

DISC 1
- The film itself (obviously! There may be some problems if we left this off!!)
- Deleted Scenes
- Outtakes
- Future History: That Story of Earth That Was
- What's In A Firefly
- Re-lighting The Firefly
- Joss Whedon Introduction
- Feature Commentary
- Easter Egg - We'll Have A Fruity Oaty Good Time
- A Filmmakers Journey: Journey with Joss from Script to Screen (this will be on all international DVDs but not the US version)

DISC 2 (at present, this disc is exclusive to Australia and Benelux - Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg - only but other international territories may decide to release the 2nd disc as well)
- Joss Whedon Q&A Session filmed at FOX Studios in Sydney
- Extended Scenes
- Take a Walk on Serenity: Cast & Crew take us on a special tour of the Serenity ship
- The Green Clan: Feature on Cinematographer Jack Green and his team

Out on Feb 1

MAC's ROCK... but why?

2005-11-23T13:10:00.000+11:00

Some people accuse me of being a Mac Zealot and thinking Macs are perfect white machines that never fail. Nothing could be further from the truth, in fact I think its most PC owners that are the Zealots....well the ones who protest at the highest tower as soon as you say Macs are better or Windows sucks.

I have used Macs and Pcs consistently for the last 20 years, and I have extensive experience on both platforms! That's right I use both systems daily. In fact I have more experience on PC's than Macs. But if you go to a restaurant and continue get bad a bad experience then you don't go back, well avoid it where ever you can (Windows) I choose better food, and one that doesn't give me a bad experience 9 times out of 10. Thus like most Mac users we have tasted the bad food and choose not to eat there any more, and if we cant avoid it,eat as little as possible. Like most food, some people like , some do not, what you like, your mate doesn't.. that's fine. But SOME PC owners think they can look at the window of the restaurant, and say YUCK! Sorry PC Zealot you are a hypocrite!

Windows continues to offer a bad experience to users, and now with 4 layers of virus protection, COUPLED with spyware, maleware, Trojan ware, whateverware and chickenware the whole net experience on Windoze is bad. You have to be some tech head to figure it all out.... and you are accused of being some simpleton if you choose a Mac above a PC by the Zealots cause you don't have a degree in computer science, or enjoy spending hours configuring your PC to actually be on the net, and constantly look over you shoulder for some nasty trying to get into your computer.

A recent person who converted to Mac after his whole life on windows said to me , he felt "naked" on his Mac, as he had no Virus protection, spyware etc etc running.. to which I answered no.. now you are free to use the net and all it offers with out Paranoia, fear of anything affecting your computer, now you see what Mac users are talking about, after 2 weeks of owning a Mac he has said, he doest know why he didn't do this years ago. Why indeed!? Most PC zealots have NEVER owned a Mac or even used one for that matter, thus have no IDEA what they are talking about, except FUD (fear uncertainty and doubt) spread by wives tales, rumour, or prejudice by PC zealots WHO HAVE NO UNDERSTANDING of Macs at all.

Macs are not perfect, they have issues like any appliance, but next to a PC they start looking that way. For ever one problem I have had with my Macs over the years, I guarantee PC owners have had 100's. This is why over 1 MILLION PC owners have switched to Macs in the past 12 months.

So all you PC zealots out there, its time to put up and shut up. Wanna stay on your heathen box's fine... but don't bag what you don't understand, cause. You are just being RACIST!

BSG SEASON 3

2005-11-23T11:40:00.000+11:00

Battlestar Galactica is such a huge hit for NBC Universal Studios and The Sci-Fi Channel that before the second season has even concluded it has been given the green-light for 20 new episodes for Season Three. Not only that, the first ten episodes of Season Two will be available on DVD release by December 20, 2005 for the holiday rush.

The entire cast will return for the conclusion of Season Two and all of Season Three. Also returning are executive producer and writer Ronald D. Moore and executive producer David Eick. YEA!

Sony finds the self destruct button

2005-11-23T10:14:00.000+11:00

Well looks like sony found that self destruct button after all, Ever since Sony BMG decided that (a) its customers were all, of course, potential copyright thieves and (b) the fact that they'd bought a CD gave Sony the right to install dangerous software on their PCs to protect its digital rights, they have been enjoing so much negative press and customer hate mail, it makes Jonny's IR laws look like a picnic!

Latest news that the Texas Attorney General has filed a civil lawsuit against the company under the State's anti-spyware legislation, describing Sony's actions installing the XCP software - which includes a so-called "rootkit" - as "a technological version of cloak and dagger deceit against consumers by hiding secret files on their computers".

It seems, however, that the deceit didn't end there. For instance, Sony claims to have withdrawn the offending CDs, but as recently as last Sunday, US time, Texas investigators were able to purchase several of the CDs at Austin retailers.

And just exactly how many dangerous CDs have been released on the market? According to Sony, they've sold only 2.1 million of 4.7 million CDs released with the XCP software. But the Electronic Frontier Foundation - which is also suing Sony BMG - claims that a second variation of the software, labeled as SunnComm MediaMax, has not been addressed and affects 20 million CDs.

The EFF claims the MediaMax software installs itself on computers even when users choose not to run the application. It says that software allows the company to track customers' listening habits despite denials the company collects such data, and it lacks any feature for deleting the program entirely.

Meanwhile, the fact that the software Sony deployed to protect itself from copyright violation contained software that violated the copyright of others, seems to expose it to more legal action - particularly ironic action, given the company has been suing college students and their parents over much less serious copyright infringements.

So far, it seems, Sony hasn't been experiencing much of a consumer backlash. But we expect it's only a matter of time.

We can only wonder whether Sony might begin to wonder, as it watches its reputation being shredded, whether it's really a good idea to try to stop its customers making a copy of the music they've paid for. Given that CDs seem to be rapidly becoming obsolescent technology, what with iTunes Music Store sales beginning to overtake the business being done in bricks and mortar stores.

Of course, none of this means anything to Mac or Linux users.... as this software from Sony does nothing to NON windows computers....so you should have bought a Mac shouldnt you...!? And if you dont own a Mac... GET ONE.. before Sony gets you ;-)

Time to BUY the signal !

2005-11-10T17:46:00.000+11:00

Universal has officially announced Serenity will be available to own from the 20th December, priced at around $29.98 in the USA ONLY.... In Australia we have to wait!!

... here is the press release from United Australia " Here at Universal Pictures Australia we are very excited to be planning the DVD release of Serenity, which is scheduled for February 8, 2006. The Australian version of the DVD will be unique from other countries, in that it will feature some additional pieces of bonus content that will not appear on the US version. We are in the process of finalising the extra content and we will let you know exactly what you will find on the Australian DVD shortly. We are also looking at creative options for some special packaging and we will also update you on this in the near future. Rest assured though that we will be delivering a unique DVD for this market! ".

The film itself will be presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, along with English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Extras will include a feature commentary with writer/director Joss Whedon, a director introduction, deleted scenes, outtakes, a Future History: The Story of Earth That Was featurette, a What's in a Firefly featurette and a Re-Lighting the Firefly featurette.. Check out the artwork above!

So when it comes out, don’t rip this off. or torrent it, buy the dam thing. Heck buy a few for friends and give.. support Joss so we can get more of these made! And if you don’t know what the heck I am talking about go by Firefly .. its only 29 bucks for the whole season, and see what great SF you been missing! Make things shiny once again! Just a pity Aussie fans have to wait 2 more months, the extras better be worth the wait!

do your self a Favour....

2005-10-31T21:50:00.000+11:00

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, sometimes a song or music is worth the same amount. I am not one for buying hardly any music, but a blue moon comes along, and I hear something totally amazing, soothing, and soul filling. Mike oldfield is one of those composers. Every 10 years or so he makes a truly amazing album, his last I really got into was in 1994 (songs of distant earth). This one easily matches it, if not surpasses it. It also incorporates a thing call u-mix ..U-MYX is an interactive music format which enables music fans to make their own, personalised mixes of artists recordings without needing any specialised knowledge or equipment. So get the tracks and mix your own.

I go with what mike says, you cant categorise his music... its everything from soothing piano melodies, with modern contemporary guitar, to more upbeat numbers. But mostly this is stuff to sooth the soul with, and let your mind drift. This is the guy who at 16 composed on the best numbers (tubular bells), now being in his late 40's he is like a bottle of wine, getting better every year :) Well done mike.. .and do what Molly says.. do your self a favour and rejuvenate your soul with this wonderful 2 disc set, and mix up a few variations of your own... chill out with this, and I do mean CHILL.........

Time to change the Signal....

2005-10-29T12:49:00.000+10:00

Control your information life…

This stems from the other article I wrote about don’t worry be happy, its time people took control of the way they receive their information, be it news, information, the state of the world .. whatever, and stop being just a passive individual willing to eat the feeds of the negative so called “news” coming from commercial TV networks, magazines , radio and newspapers. Lets face it, TV news is just a platform to feed lots of horror stories on the latest flu epidemic, latest terrorist bomb, or murders etc, nothing about scientific discovery, or things that really inertest you. Radio has become totally irrelevant, with FM shock jocks talking about where they found their dirty undies last night, or what come out of their kids nose this morning. Newspapers are nothing more than advertisements disguised as news or information, or paid political announcements. Magazines are an amalgam all the above. Time to take control.

How to take control.

Well stop watching TV news, and listening to Radio, and read what you want. Use google, use the net, and read really what’s interests you, and you will find that suddenly the world isn’t this big terrorist camp, war ridden, plague ridden world. Not to deny these things are going on, but these things have been going on for 1000’s of years, we just didn’t have some media moguls feeding us lots of negative crap about how many car smashes happened today, or how many people died in some natural disaster. Get into podcasting, listen to what you want, not what packer wants you to hear with the occasional cute puppy story thrown in to try and balance all the terror. Get into RSS feeds on particular scientific, medical, SCI FI stories or whatever things interest you.

INFORMAATION, should be selective about your interests, what drives you and your passions. Maybe if more of got our view on the world this way, everyone might stop thinking how bad everything is for a change, and lighten up, and stop being so crewel and mean and selfish for each other. The current media feeds on everything negative, people in turn become negative, because its so much easier to be negative about everything than positive. You can start being more positive by controlling what you see and hear by taking these steps:

• Get a PVR (personal Video recorder, a hard drive unit that records TV). We all complain that there is nothing on TV, then control it, select what you want to watch, there are so many DVD’s and Box sets of good TV shows, watch them instead. Get a PVR and programme it to only record the shows, and doco’s you want, so what if they are on 2am in the morning.. get your PVCR to do all the work.
• Get and Ipod , and control what you hear be it music, podcasts etc. Hear info and science shows, debates, sci fi discussions whatever, and stop listening to the 90% of dribble coming from your FM radio or the 90% advertisements.
• Use the Net to get the rest of your once printed material, besides saving trees, you will have full control of the topics that interest you, and you will avoid the negative linear feeds of news papers and magazines.

For a long time now I have done most of these things to keep myself update on things that interest me, and its amazing on what a brighter world it seems when you are not fed the totally negative self serving rubbish of 90% of media outlets, epically the nightly so called “news”. Try it for a month and see how well your outlook on life becomes. As Captain Mal would say “CHANGE THE SIGNAL.”

STOP BUYING WINDOWS PC'S

2005-10-28T14:43:00.000+10:00

Stop making Bill gates rich, and supporting his evil empire... dont belive me .. read on....

Imagine this scenario.. Here is your brand new car, sir. Drive it off the lot. Yahooo new car you say to yourself. Suddenly, new car shuts off. New car barely starts again and then only goes about 6 miles per hour and it belches smoke and every warning light on the dashboard is blinking on and off and the tires are screaming and the heater is blasting your feet and something smells like burned hair. You hobble back to the dealer, who only says, gosh, sorry, we thought you knew -- that's the way they all run. Enjoy!"... You just wouldn't accept this would you? Well it seems Many PC users do. I am continuality confronted with people who wont look at Macs' buy a new PC then ring me within 2-3 days and say, my computers acting up, it has a virus.. and blargh blargh blargh! People its time to wise up.. Windows was designed in 1995 and it belongs there!

So why does Windows Still Suck?

Because it is a fundamentally flawed defective architecture and foundation. Windows was never designed to work in the computing environment of today: The Internet. It was merely repackaged to be sold for that use.

Windows was never designed to be secure. It was designed for a closed network, where the appearance of security was adequate. Think of Windows like a safe that has a lock on it. Microsoft keeps improving the lock with every published exploit of their "safe." The only problem is that the lock is not the problem, because the safe itself is made of painted paper. It looks good from a distance but is easy to breach from almost any angle even accidentally by simply leaning on it.

Now a paper safe left in a locked office is pretty secure, because the office is secure. But a paper safe left outside in a crowded area is likely to be tested. And if a bunch of identical paper safes appear in the same crowded area are tested, found to be easy pickings and contain goodies.... Well you can see what is happening when Windows systems are placed in the crowded area called the Internet.

Microsoft will have to re-write Windows almost from scratch (like Apple did MacOS) to fix it but that will break most of the applications that people buy Windows for in the first place. Microsoft can't do that!!! So instead they lie about how the problem is everywhere else except in their products. Microsoft tells you to "buy this and buy that addon....then you'll be safe... Oh you got infected or owned???? You dear customer (who sends us $$$) are an idiot. You did not buy enough useless protection." Have you figured out Microsoft's game yet?

Microsoft and their co-dependents the large PC hardware makers/sellers are like an auto maker and dealer network that tells you that its your fault that the paint melted off the car you purchased from them after a single hour of rain. After all you did not buy the clearcoat paint that was offered after market somewhere else for extra $$$. So it's your fault. We got your money. Tough.

As far as Microsoft is concerned *you* the customer cannot expect that a product they sold you will operate in the environment they told you it would work in: The Internet.

If you don't believe us, we challenge you to remove all the anti whatever addons you have on an MS Windows system and then use MS products for web browsing and email. But please do not use a system you care about (or that has your personal info and tax records on it) to do this....

MS Windows defects create an entire add-on market for bandaid anti-virus, anti-worm, anti-whatever software and hardware that really does not work. Have you noticed that only Microsoft systems require Anti-Whatever software! Why? Because Microsoft Windows is a completely flawed defective product.

Anti-Whatever products only cover the problem like paint over dry rot. The Microsoft code in Windows is the dry rot.

Can Windows be used safely on the internet?

Yes.... but you need to be both somewhat vigilant and not follow Microsoft's recommendations OR your PC makers recommendations either for that matter. PC makers to get the best prices are in bed with Microsoft by definition.

The basic steps for safe Microsoft Windows internet access are:

1. Do not connect a new Windows XP/2000/NT system to the Internet until after you have completely updated all security patches. Nothing that comes out of the box is secure and then you have to remain vigilant for all the new patches that will be needed in the future.

2. Windows ME is more problematic than Windows 9x, but can be made to work.

3. If you have Windows XP you must install Service Pack 2 at the minimum even if it breaks your applications.

4. Install Mozilla Firefox

5. Never use Microsoft Internet Explorer, Outlook or Outlook Express on the internet.

6. Do not use SBC/Yahoo! bundled software. It is built upon Internet Explorer

7. Do not use Comcast bundled software. It is built upon Internet Explorer.

8. Do not use AOL. It is built upon Internet Explorer.

9. Do not use MSN. It is built upon Internet Explorer.

10. Do not use Microsoft Windows Media Player WMV files. They can execute programs on your system without telling you.

11. Avoid online banking. Banks are not responsible for your losses as some have learned the hard way.

12. Do not install Kazaa or swap *free* music online.

13. Do not watch *free* videos from offshore pornography sites. This is the Windows Video file issue.

14. Do not install Norton or McAfee antivirus software. Crackers love these products. So easy to disable and the computer owner can't tell.

This list continues on for many pages, so.....to make this easier just BUY A BLOODY MAC!!! GEEEZ!

Why would you want to compromise your use of the internet and its many wonders cause you decide to use a fundamentally flawed operating system? So you think costs is hold you back from buying a Mac, what cost is it to you to reformat your hard drive 3 times a year or more, every time your system crashes, gets a virus or whatever other random error happens, and how much time PC owners spend doing patches, updates, scans etc just to keep nasties out? Let alone trying to get things to work!

Besides games I can not find a compelling reason why anyone would want a PC, and you really want to play games, get a game box (like Xbox, gamecube whatever). All applications that are on PC are on Mac, many good ones are on Mac only!

Someone recently asked: "How will we know when Windows is a safe product?" Answer: When no anti-whatever software is bundled or required to use Windows safely on the Internet. Until then you know it is defective.

It is getting harder to tell when a Windows systems is compromised. And no Anti-whatever software will detect and remove these core exploits, because they control the entire system and tell the cobbled on antiwhatever software that everything is fine while they report home to their real master on the internet in some foreign jurisdiction outside of any US laws reach. These exploits have been around for years, but Microsoft has just recently acknowledged them.

So what I am trying to say.. get a MAC!

....and it's about BLOODY TIME

2005-10-25T19:06:00.000+10:00

Finally, it's here. Australia's iTunes Music Store, without doubt the most anticipated music event of the decade, launched officially at 6 am today and the first download began within a second of the electronic doors opening. Finally the Government come to its senses and made amendments to the copyright laws to allow people to copy music they own to their ipods, and CD's etc, paving the way for this store to open. As Apple revealed it was our draconian copyright laws that were holding up the store for the past 12 months. It has taken Parliament that long to amend our laws to get this store up and running. When other countries amended their laws within weeks (most didn’t need to, as they already had a fair use law) , Australia takes 12 months.. good to see the old Australian Government working hard and fast for the Australian people, as it does always for all the things it does for its citizens!

Since the opening of the itunes store, the big servers maintained in the main Australian cities by US internet caching company, Akamai have been busy feeding what looks like a music feeding frenzy.

Some fans began trying to log into the store from about midnight sitting beside their computers hitting the refresh button every minute or so and drinking black coffee to keep themselves awake. It made queuing for the first Grand Final tickets look dated.

The music store is launching with 1 million songs, tailored for the Australian market, including what Apple's chief of iTunes, Eddy Cue, calls the biggest and best selection of local independent music yet assembled for an iTMS opening.

HOORAY!

Surprise hit and miss movies of 2005.. so far

2005-10-18T19:25:00.000+10:00

Continuing reviews of movies I have decided to do one on movies for the year (so far), this is short little list of outstanding movies for the year, be it bad or good!

1. The Island – A Wonderful surprise hit of the year done by the same person who did Armageddon (MR Michael Bay) ( AMRGENDDON being a totally woeful flick that embarrasses Bruce Willis these days, and who could blame him). Great performances from Ewan McGregor AND Ethan Phillips (Aka Nelix from Star Trek Voyager fame). A good mix of SCI Fi and action, with some moral dilemma mixed in, a bit of cross between Blade Runner and Irobot to me. It was a total surprise, with very little hype around it, worth a few views and one to be sure that will be in my DVD collection.

2. Serenity. Well not really a surprise hit, as I knew this was going to be good, as the series totally rocked! Joss has shown us a great fresh new look into the world of SCI FI, between a western and the grit of Blade Runner comes this great new gene of SCI FI that has great acting, story telling, best dialogue and a totally non Hollywood ending. Look forward to more of these...

3. Batman Begins. At first I though.. “Oh no.. not another batman movie.." but then after I saw this it made every other Batman movie suck! This is a truly Adult treatment of Batman, with great acting, effects, and even a compelling story, based a little more in reality than the silly kids fantasy stuff we had in other Batman movies. Morgan Freeman really shines in this one, another for the DVD collection!

Stinker of the year

1. Charlie and the Chocolate factory. Well there are MANY other crap movies I could mention (like Sin City, which only should be viewed by sick sadistic morons), but this stood out, as it had such great potential.. so much hype should have given it away as a stinker..., and couldn’t even be saved by Johnny Deps great acting, and the kid from finding Neverland. It just never hit the mark, the humor was totally lost, and YET COULD HAVE been such a great re-make, stick the original 1970’s version with Gene Wilder people!

Got any to add... disagree... add comments.....

The best Star Trek Movies

2005-10-16T20:50:00.000+10:00

Since Paramount have now officially said " no more Star Trek for a long long time... in a Galaxy Far Far away."... oh wait wrong movie series... well anyways I think it was time to rank all 10 movies in order of Preference..

It wasn't an easy list to compile. Sure, it was easy to figure out what movie I disliked the most. The films in the number six and number seven slot are pretty much interchangeable for me - I like them both about the same. Likewise, the top four are all very close together in just how much I love them. However I still prefer Next Gen (seasons 3-7). For the 1990's it was the best SCI Fi television there was, and has been for some time, all though some truly innovative and inspiring SCI FI has been made since (Firefly and latest BSG seasons)

Other things came to light as I went back through my reviews. One movie I thought held up better on repeated viewing than another I had previously rated higher. I also began to revise some of those older reviews, only to find that I really need to rewatch the movies to do so. At the time I wrote these reviews, I was just finding my footing here in the movies section of opinions, and trying a variety of styles to my reviews. I will go back and work on those old reviews when I get the opportunity, especially with so many new DVD releases coming out.

10 - Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Okay, this was a no-brainer. Possibly the worst piece of media ever to have the Star Trek name attached to it. (And I only say "possibly" because I haven't read all of the books). Shatner should not have been given the amount of unrestricted control over the script and directing that he was given here. Instead of a coherent story about the entire crew of the original Star Trek series, we are treated to Kirk-as-a-superhero. You see, no one but Kirk can defeat the evil Sybok, Spock's brother.

The writing is totally inconsistent with everything we've learned about the Star Trek universe prior to this. Neither Kirk nor Spock act in a manner consistent with how they have been depicted throughout the years. The effects are even awful - something that Star Trek films usually stand out for. This is also the ONLY DVD I do not, and will NEVER own! Its totally crap and never ever should have been made!

9 - Star Trek: The Motion Picture

To really appreciate this film, you have to understand the circumstances with which it was released. Star Trek fans had been lobbying for years to have the series brought back. Just when it looked like some of their wishes might come true and we'd see a whole new crew for the starship Enterprise, Star Wars came out. Paramount head Michael Eisner (yes, that Michael Eisner) decided a movie with the original crew would be better and this is the result. It's a hybrid of new and old crews, that doesn't seem to work.

A mysterious entity is headed to Earth, destroying or disabling everything in its path. What does it want? This is the question the crew of the Enterprise must answer before it makes it to Earth and does damage there.

Another headache here is that the director seems to be fascinated with the state-of-the-art (for its time) special effects and spends a lot of time showing off the effects rather than focusing on the story. That's a shame because the story could have been a really great one.

8 - Star Trek: Generations

This was the first film to feature the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, although it begins in the time period still occupied by the original Star Trek cast.

There is a mysterious space anomaly known as "The Nexus" which draws Kirk in during the rescue of a group of El-Aurian refugees. Among that group are Guinan and a strange we learn is Soran. Soran spends the rest of his life trying to get back into "The Nexus" which is a paradise close to heaven. He doesn't care whom he hurts or kills in this quest. To stop him, Picard must team up with Kirk after he is also drawn into "The Nexus".

The biggest fault with the film is that there is some background from the series needed to really appreciate it. However, I think that's one of the things that makes it great for fans. There are some great character-building moments with both Data and Captain Picard. There's some wonderfully humorous moments, especially with Data when he finally implants his emotion chip. It's got plenty of action and suspense, and the effects are terrific with the exception of one scene that was lifted from Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country.

7 - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

This is primarily a character piece as various characters reach turning points in their lives. Spock dies at the end of the previous film. However, his death is short-lived and that's something I do have a problem with.

In science fiction and soap operas, you're never really dead.

If you're going to kill off a character, I'd like that person to stay dead.

However, if you're going to resurrect a character, I do have to admit that this film does it in a most believable way (for science fiction).

At the end of the last film, we saw Spock press his fingers to Dr. McCoy's forehead and say "remember". Then we saw his lifeless body jettisoned into space only to land on the newly formed Genesis (life from death) planet... and the opened, empty container.

This movie has lots of action as there is a face-off between Kirk and the Klingons. To save Spock, Kirk must sacrifice his precious Enterprise. Also in the mix is Kirk's son David whom we only met in the last film. I thought it would have been interesting to see further interaction between the two, but the writers saw fit to kill him off as he saves a young Spock from certain death at the hands of the Klingons.

Again, the effects here are amazing, especially the destruction of the Genesis planet. This film is much more palatable than the others, and if you're a fan you should see it if for nothing other than understanding why the Spock present in the Star Trek universe following this film seems so different than Spock before this film.

6 - Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

There's not much action or adventure here; this movie is just pure, unadulterated fun! After rescuing Spock and bringing him to the planet Vulcan, his crewmates decide to return to Starfleet - and Earth - to face the music for their actions. However, before they can get there, a mysterious probe has entered Earth's orbit and is churning up the seas and creating storms.

Kirk and Co. figure out that the this is a probe trying to communicate with the now-extinct humpback wales. The crew takes their dilapidated Klingon battle cruiser back in time to the mid-1980's to bring back a pair of humpback whales to talk to the probe.

Seeing the crew in the 1980's silly, and felt more like bill and teds stupid adventures, than a Star Trek movie. We were still in the middle of the Cold War at the time of this film, so Chekov (a Russian) being aboard a nuclear submarine of the U.S. Navy would most definitely be a big deal. Watching Spock try to understand the colourful metaphors of our conversations is really funny, as is his dealing with an obnoxious passenger on a city bus. Too much “greenpeace” involvement for me, it actually felt like a big plug to save wales. Good on a re-watch if you feeling like a wale hugging mode. This movie has dated too much these days to be that enjoyable.

5 - Star Trek: Insurrection

I really liked this film, its a good to see the old Federation isn’t the white glowing symbol of freedom and peace its always made out to be, and there are many elements of corruption in it. It was also a good to see the morals of the crew tested in this movie. Who watchers to watchers ( a great TNG episode, which this movie expanded upon)

Good use of the Baku as the modern day Amish, rejecting technology to live the simple life (for 300 years)

The special effects are magnificent. The humour was hit or miss as some scenes worked and others didn't. Although this features the renewing of the relationship between Riker and Troi.

4- Star Trek: Nemesis

The movie attempted to recapture some of the aspects that made wraith of Khan so good.

Picard learns that the Romulans attempted to clone him, then abandoned the project, leaving Shinzon to grow up with the Remans. Here he becomes bitter and manages to cunningly work his way up through the Romulan empire to take control.

There were many scenes originally filmed that were cut, and I think thy would have added greatly to the film. Had most of the Romulan characters been ones fans of the series were familiar with, I would have felt the film more believable. The humor here is good, and instead of it constantly being at Worf's expense, Riker seems to get his fair share.

There is also an awesome special effect here of the Enterprise ramming an enemy ship. That effect alone was worth the price of admission. I'll have to buy a wide-screen HDTV to give this fair viewing in my home.

3 - Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Filmed after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and Russia's end to the Cold War, this film deals with all that happens after the enemy has been defeated.

Due to a severe environmental crisis, the Klingons must forge a peace with the Federation. However, there are forces both within the Klingon Empire and the Federation itself working against this peace. Who better to use as a scapegoat than Captain Kirk, who's hatred for Klingons is well-known.

There is amazing suspense as the culprits in the plot to frame Kirk and assassinate the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire are slowly revealed. Since many of the actors being targeted for assassination aren't series regulars, it would be easy to believe that the plots succeed.

The effects are marvellous; from the Klingon moon Praxis spectacularly exploding to the Iman character who is a shape-shifter, this movie makes the most of the special-effects technology.

The story is terrific. I felt that for many of the actors - but for William Shatner in particular - this was the best performance I've seen them give. Perhaps the familiarity of the story to them during this time was the reason; it made everything easier to relate to. Christopher Plummer and Kim Cattrall highlight an excellent guest-cast.

This is a movie for everyone. The events of our own time (well, those of us over 30 anyway) make it relate to our own experiences. Even now it has a deeper meaning as we all fear "The Undiscovered Country" - the future.

2 - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

I know there are some people pulling their hair out right now. For many fans, this is regarded as their favourite film. I can't say that I blame them. It is an awesome science-fiction film.

A ghost from Kirk's past comes back to haunt him as Khan, from the episode Space Seed manages to gain control of a Starfleet vessel and comes gunning for him. The story is an excellent game of cat-and-mouse as the two men face off really trying to outsmart the other as they are similarly armed. Khan gets the early edge with surprise, but Kirk has more experience with space vessels.

The guest-cast here is wonderful. Kirstie Alley is in her first role as a half-Vulcan, half-Romulan Starfleet Academy graduate testing her first command. Indeed, the entire ship is supposed to be filled with cadets when they intercept Khan and that makes it all the more poignant. Likewise, we are introduced to Kirk's son David (the late Merritt Butrick). For anyone who grew up in the 80's, seeing "Johnny Slash" as Kirk's son was so cool!

There is plenty of action, adventure and suspense. The film also tries to kill off Spock, but the fact that he was brought back in the next film really takes away from that moment.

1 - Star Trek: First Contact

Easily the best of the films featuring the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast, this film is really an analogy for the reverence with which the fans have held up Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry throughout the years.

After a battle with the Borg (which we only get to see a few snippets of), the Enterprise follows a Borg escape vessel back in time to prevent them from assimilating Earth in the 21st Century; a time when humans were fairly defenceless having just fought World War III.

The time is just before "First Contact" - an important turning point for human history. There is a battle going on between the crew of the Enterprise and the Borg; both to prevent their entire ship from being assimilated and to make sure Zefrem Cochrane launches the first warp-capable vessel.

The humor is pretty good here, although parts of it seem to miss the mark. The cast is wonderful in some very different roles. Picard really gets to act as an action hero while Riker gets to babysit Cochrane who is very different from the man portrayed in history books. There are some important moments for both Picard and Data that to understand the true impact viewers have to have seen various episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but it's accessible to others at the same time. The effects are magnificent, and I loved the depiction of the Enterprise as it was being assimilated.

Well there you have it Trek fans, looking back at them all, they still hold water, well all but the last few, Trek will always hold a special place for me in SCI FI, but it seems to be fading into submission these days, with the more gritty SCI FI shows taking their place, and I too am a fan of many of these (Battlestar and Firefly). And its easier to believe our future will be that more of Blade Runner than of Star Trek, but we must aspire to more than the world of Blade runner, if the Human race is ever to improve from where it is now. I am a little concerned there is nothing for the youth of today to inspire them into a positive future and mankind being greater than it currently is.

Porn POD ?

2005-10-16T19:29:00.000+10:00

The adult-entertainment industry that kick-started the pre-recorded home-video market is likely to do the same with video podcasts.

Adam Curry, president of PodShow Inc., said this week's announcement of the new video iPod from Apple Computer sets the stage for more big changes in media.

"Porn is just going to be huge," he told listeners to his Daily Source Code podcast this week. "The porn guys are just going, 'holy moly,' " -- in gratitude for the new market that's opened up to them.

But adult material is only one facet of new commercial opportunities, that Curry foresees. As an example, he said that "video dating should happen. A video dating feed. That's also a form of podcasting."

Now, like porn is not big enough? its everywhere, well everywhere on the net anyways, and now we are going to put up with people on trains, bus's, aircraft watching it? I have already witnessed such an event a year ago on a aircraft when a man a few rows up decided watching a XXX movie on his laptop would be a good idea, gladly after a mother alerted an air hostess that her son should not be subject to such material in a public place, a hostess reminded the man that watching this material on a plane was actually an offence, and he promptly put it away (for the Hotel later obviously).

Porn has its place (besides the red light areas of any capital city and suburbs like Fyshwick in the ACT), but it should be viewed in private, or with significant other/s ;), not in the place of minors or people with certain moral beliefs. Really would you read a XXX magazine in full view on any person on public transport? Then why watch it in the same locations. Lets have some codes of ethics with this issue, that way we can all enjoy our porn in private setting, and not while eating MacDonald’s or travelling on our way to work on the bus... (I couldn’t enjoy Porn on the way to work on a Bus).. eeerk!

Death of TV (as we know it)

2005-10-13T15:15:00.000+10:00

The technology itself is finally here now. As announced today by Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple Computers) Itunes 6 now supports video . This means that your (HD quality) video file will automagically be downloaded and added to iTunes, just like your music and podcasts.

You can download your favorite TV shows (legally) to your ipod and away you go.. even that episode of LOST you missed last night, will be on the itunes store the next day, for you to watch on you Mac or on the go with your ipod, or with your ipod hooked into your TV! (IN HIGH DEFENTION!)

You can see where this is going when you can put your Favorite DVD's on your Ipod, movies etc, suddenly the whole way we get movies watch movies is no longer in the hands of broadcasters, and we get to watch what we want when we want. If I was a DVD shop I would be worried about now. Bring on the revolution!!

Dont worry be Happy

2005-10-12T09:22:00.000+10:00

BELIEF in the future is perhaps the most important value for a free society. It is what makes so many interested in getting an education, or investing in a project, or being nice to their neighbours. If we think nothing can improve or that the world is coming to an end, we don't work hard for a better and more civilised future. And we will all be miserable.

Enlightenment philosophers created the belief in the future in the 17th and 18th centuries by letting us know that our rational faculties can understand the world and that with freedom we can improve it. Economic liberalism proved them right. When Adam Smith explained that it's not from the benevolence of the butcher that we expect our meat but from his self-interest, it was much more than an economic statement; it was a world view. It was a way of saying that the butcher is not my enemy. By co-operating and exchanging voluntarily, we both gain and make the world a better place, step by step.

Since those days, mankind has made unprecedented progress. We are wealthier, healthier and happier than we have ever been. We live longer, we live more safely and we live more freely. For every successive generation, we have been able to build on the knowledge, technology and wealth of earlier generations, and add our own. We have reduced poverty, created more wealth and increased life expectancy more in the past 50 years than we did in the past 5000 years.

I am not just saying that the glass is half full rather than half empty. I am saying that it used to be empty. Just 200 years ago, slavery, feudalism and tyranny ruled the world. By our standards even the richest countries were extremely poor. The average chance of surviving your first year was less than the chance of surviving to retirement today.

The glass is at least half full and it is being filled as we speak. And if I had it here before me, I would propose a toast to the creativity and persistence of mankind. In other words: Don't

But although we are happy, we don't seem to notice, and we do worry. When we ask people about what has happened in the world, most say that things get worse, poverty is on the increase and nature is being destroyed. Last week I published a survey showing that Swedes think all the indicators of living standards and the environment that are improving rapidly are in fact deteriorating. When we read the papers, we see problems, poverty and disasters. Powerful international movements oppose globalisation and capitalism because they think they increase misery and hunger. And scholars write books saying that we are all sad and depressed.

American writer Gregg Easterbrook has pointed out that old problems, horrible as they were at the time, seem less threatening in retrospect because we know that we solved them. But the problems of today are uncertain and unsolved, so they stay in our mind.

A few weeks ago, the first story in the leading news shows on television was that there is a "growing environmental threat" in Europe. The problem was shipping, which is rapidly becoming the biggest emitter of sulphur dioxide in Europe.

However, if you listened closely to the report, you understood that this was not because of growth of emissions from shipping - which grew very modestly - but because of a rapid reduction in emissions from other sources. Total sulphur dioxide emissions in Europe (including shipping) have been reduced by about 60 per cent in 15 years. So the real story was one about a dramatic improvement in environmental conditions, but shipping was now the thing we have to deal with and so it was news.

I am an optimist. I happen to believe that this perceptual bias is a good thing. That's what keeps us alert, so that we solve problems and improve the world. But we have to understand that this also means that our minds are constantly occupied by problems. And therefore we think the world is worse than it is.

Progress also always creates some new challenge and problem solvers think more about the challenges than the progress. We live longer than ever. Isn't that fantastic? No, because it results in higher costs for pensions and health care. At last poor countries make economic progress. Isn't that wonderful? No, because we are afraid that Polish plumbers and Indian programmers will take our jobs. There is always something to be scared about. In the 1970s, when temperatures were declining, we worried about a new ice age. Now they are increasing and we worry about global warming. We used to worry about everybody who was depressed, now new antidepressant drugs have reduced suicide in rich countries by one-fifth. And so we worry about so many people taking pills.

The media exploits this interest in problems and disasters. We want to hear the latest horrible stories because our Stone Age brains think that this is important information on which we must act. At the turn of the millennium, a New York University survey made a list of Journalism's Greatest Hits. Would you expect news stories about new vaccines, fantastic inventions, the rise in living standards or the spread of democracy from 0 per cent of countries 100 years ago to 60 per cent today? You would have been disappointed. The greatest hits were all about war, natural disasters, dangerous chemicals and unsafe cars.

Risks, horrible acts and disasters are easily dramatised and cheap to produce. That is why crime is such a popular theme on the news. Studies from the US show that the more time people spend watching news on TV, the more they exaggerate the extent of crime in their cities. A fascinating study about Baltimore showed 84 per cent feared that criminals would harm them or their loved ones, but at the same time almost everybody - 92 per cent - said they felt safe in their neighbourhoods, of which they had first-hand knowledge. They all think there is a lot of crime in Baltimore, but they all think it takes place somewhere else in the city, in the places they know about only from the media.

These results appear again and again in surveys. People think that the environment is being destroyed, that the economy is going to bits and Germans think the reunification of Germany was bad for most people. But they also think that their local environment is good, that their personal finances are improving and that German reunification was good for their personal situation.

At the same time that extreme poverty has been cut in half in developing countries, many people think poverty is on the increase because they see the poverty for the first time on TV. Partly we care about it because poor Vietnamese and Chinese make the shirts we wear. If you don't understand the context, you think that it is the fact they make our shirts that has made them poor. Never mind that people who work for an American multinational in a low-income country earn eight times the average income in that country.

The long-run prospects for the world are amazing. Today we have more people living longer lives in freer societies and we have more scientists alive than lived in all previous periods combined, and they all get an education that is almost as long as a lifetime in earlier periods. Biotechnology, nanotechnology and robotics will create vast improvements. We will be richer, we will live longer and we will be healthier. Continents that we thought were doomed to misery will soon have the living standards we have today.

Words by Jason Norberg: Johan Norberg is head of political ideas at Timbro, a Swedish think tank. He is author of the best-selling book In Defence of Global Capitalism, which the Sydney-based Centre for Independent Studies republished this week. This is an edited extract from the 22nd annual John Bonython Lecture in Sydney.

Serenity can be a TV series (Firefly)

2005-10-10T18:26:00.000+10:00

According to the The Signal, a podcast dedicated to everything Firefly/Serenity, reports of the rumor that Joss Whedon cannot make any future Firefly episodes for television for X number of years is simply not true. They have a sound clip of Joss Whedon at WonderCon 2005 indicating that no such restrictions have been placed on him by anyone. You can here the comments on The Signal's Episode 12 podcast (Click link above) . So then, we can put that rumor to rest and hopefully look forward to some Firefly down the road, after the successful movie runs.

Les and Kari, hosts of The Signal, also revealed who it was that started that awlful rumor --- naughty, naughty Nathan --- you should be ashamed of yourself.

why do people still buy Windows based PC's?? (who knows!)

2005-10-09T21:28:00.000+10:00

(you dont need anti virus software on your mac, anyone who tells you do, is telling bullshit!.. UNLESS YOU want stop any PC virus being spread to another PC.. but who cares about that when you are mac user :-) )

Imagine this scenario.. Here is your brand new car, sir. Drive it off the lot. Yahooo new car you say to yourself. Suddenly, new car shuts off. New car barely starts again and then only goes about 6 miles per hour and it belches smoke and every warning light on the dashboard is blinking on and off and the tires are screaming and the heater is blasting your feet and something smells like burned hair. You hobble back to the dealer, who only says, gosh, sorry, we thought you knew -- that's the way they all run. Enjoy!"... You just wouldn't accept this would you? Well it seems Many PC users do. I am continuality confronted with people who wont look at Macs' buy a new PC then ring me within 2-3 days and say, my computers acting up, it has a virus.. and blargh blargh blargh! People its time to wise up.. Windows was designed in 1995 and it belongs there!

So why does Windows Still Suck?

Because it is a fundamentally flawed defective architecture and foundation. Windows was never designed to work in the computing environment of today: The Internet. It was merely repackaged to be sold for that use.

Windows was never designed to be secure. It was designed for a closed network, where the appearance of security was adequate. Think of Windows like a safe that has a lock on it. Microsoft keeps improving the lock with every published exploit of their "safe." The only problem is that the lock is not the problem, because the safe itself is made of painted paper. It looks good from a distance but is easy to breach from almost any angle even accidentally by simply leaning on it.

Now a paper safe left in a locked office is pretty secure, because the office is secure. But a paper safe left outside in a crowded area is likely to be tested. And if a bunch of identical paper safes appear in the same crowded area are tested, found to be easy pickings and contain goodies.... Well you can see what is happening when Windows systems are placed in the crowded area called the Internet.

Microsoft will have to re-write Windows almost from scratch (like Apple did MacOS) to fix it but that will break most of the applications that people buy Windows for in the first place. Microsoft can't do that!!! So instead they lie about how the problem is everywhere else except in their products. Microsoft tells you to "buy this and buy that addon....then you'll be safe... Oh you got infected or owned???? You dear customer (who sends us $$$) are an idiot. You did not buy enough useless protection." Have you figured out Microsoft's game yet?

Microsoft and their co-dependents the large PC hardware makers/sellers are like an auto maker and dealer network that tells you that its your fault that the paint melted off the car you purchased from them after a single hour of rain. After all you did not buy the clearcoat paint that was offered after market somewhere else for extra $$$. So it's your fault. We got your money. Tough.

As far as Microsoft is concerned *you* the customer cannot expect that a product they sold you will operate in the environment they told you it would work in: The Internet.

If you don't believe us, we challenge you to remove all the anti whatever addons you have on an MS Windows system and then use MS products for web browsing and email. But please do not use a system you care about (or that has your personal info and tax records on it) to do this....

MS Windows defects create an entire add-on market for bandaid anti-virus, anti-worm, anti-whatever software and hardware that really does not work. Have you noticed that only Microsoft systems require Anti-Whatever software! Why? Because Microsoft Windows is a completely flawed defective product.

Anti-Whatever products only cover the problem like paint over dry rot. The Microsoft code in Windows is the dry rot.

Can Windows be used safely on the internet?

Yes.... but you need to be both somewhat vigilant and not follow Microsoft's recommendations OR your PC makers recommendations either for that matter. PC makers to get the best prices are in bed with Microsoft by definition.

The basic steps for safe Microsoft Windows internet access are:

1. Do not connect a new Windows XP/2000/NT system to the Internet until after you have completely updated all security patches. Nothing that comes out of the box is secure and then you have to remain vigilant for all the new patches that will be needed in the future.

2. Windows ME is more problematic than Windows 9x, but can be made to work.

3. If you have Windows XP you must install Service Pack 2 at the minimum even if it breaks your applications.

4. Install Mozilla Firefox

5. Never use Microsoft Internet Explorer, Outlook or Outlook Express on the internet.

6. Do not use SBC/Yahoo! bundled software. It is built upon Internet Explorer

7. Do not use Comcast bundled software. It is built upon Internet Explorer.

8. Do not use AOL. It is built upon Internet Explorer.

9. Do not use MSN. It is built upon Internet Explorer.

10. Do not use Microsoft Windows Media Player WMV files. They can execute programs on your system without telling you.

11. Avoid online banking. Banks are not responsible for your losses as some have learned the hard way.

12. Do not install Kazaa or swap *free* music online.

13. Do not watch *free* videos from offshore pornography sites. This is the Windows Video file issue.

14. Do not install Norton or McAfee antivirus software. Crackers love these products. So easy to disable and the computer owner can't tell.

This list continues on for many pages, so.....to make this easier just BUY A BLOODY MAC!!! GEEEZ!

Why would you want to compromise your use of the internet and its many wonders cause you decide to use a fundamentally flawed operating system? So you think costs is hold you back from buying a Mac, what cost is it to you to reformat your hard drive 3 times a year or more, every time your system crashes, gets a virus or whatever other random error happens, and how much time PC owners spend doing patches, updates, scans etc just to keep nasties out? Let alone trying to get things to work!

Besides games I can not find a compelling reason why anyone would want a PC, and you really want to play games, get a game box (like Xbox, gamecube whatever). All applications that are on PC are on Mac, many good ones are on Mac only!

Someone recently asked: "How will we know when Windows is a safe product?" Answer: When no anti-whatever software is bundled or required to use Windows safely on the Internet. Until then you know it is defective.

It is getting harder to tell when a Windows systems is compromised. And no Anti-whatever software will detect and remove these core exploits, because they control the entire system and tell the cobbled on antiwhatever software that everything is fine while they report home to their real master on the internet in some foreign jurisdiction outside of any US laws reach. These exploits have been around for years, but Microsoft has just recently acknowledged them.

So what I am trying to say.. get a MAC!

The Best Video Games for the past 20 years!

2005-10-06T09:08:00.000+10:00

(See Apple didnt get the 1st grab on white! a Commodore 64 from year 1986)

(HALO 2 .. best game in the universe)

Some gaming enthusiasts have done a large top 50 list, and I am disappointed to say that my long time favorite should be in there but is not! What game would this be.. well Raid on Bungling Bay of course! (http://www.mobygames.com/game/c64/raid-on-bungeling-bay/cover-art/gameCoverId,35874/), I spent many an hour playing this on my C64 many moons ago, and still play it under emulation with my G5 Imac (just what a G5 was made for, emulating 20 year old chip sets ;-) ). Anyways a survey has been done and you can find the list at the above link. However for something different I have done my own short list. There are so many to think of.. so many hour wasted with them, it was hard to narrow it down to this short list!

1. Halo 2. (Xbox) I have never spend a year playing a game continuously, (thanks to xbox live), every game is different unique, and never gets tired. It will take a long time for this game to get old (till Halo 3). Brilliant Graphics, interactivity with other humans, great story line, what else can you want?

2. Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64 and DS) A decade on, Super Mario 64 remains the finest platform game ever. Players feel giddy as they explore its varied, vibrant and magical worlds, which are filled with countless surprises and taxing challenges.

3. StarFox Adventures (Game cube). The last Rare game before they defected to Microsoft. This game had me addicted for many months, one of the best adventure games I have played in over a decade, graphics wonderful too.

4. The Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64) Shigeru Miyamoto's magnum opus is a spellbinding cocktail of wondrous exploration, ingenious puzzles and combat in a beautiful world. The convincing environment is populated by a raft of colorful characters, and there is a huge variety of tasks. An epic to be savored from the moment Link and his horse first gallop across the screen.

5. GoldenEye 007 (Nintendo 64) Provides a level of immersion few games can match, thanks to wonderful atmosphere, interactive environments and smart opponents. It was a precursor to all shootem ups, like Halo etc.

6. Marathon (Macintosh) Bungie pioneered the first person shootemup, when most PC users were going "look at this doom thing" Mac users were going so what Marathon allows much more freedom, looking up and down, jumping etc, was the pioneer to Bungie's Halo series.

7. Raid on Bungling Bay (C64) was a great intelligent strategic aerial shootem up, and its basic design gave way to sim city series.

8. SimCity 2000 (PC, Mac) An infinitely engaging city simulator lets players design a huge metropolis from scratch. Later sequels added clutter, but 2000 offered a wealth of choices to explore without overwhelming users.

19. Super Mario Kart (N64) Hugely enjoyable, light-hearted racer with appealing characters, cleverly designed tracks and amusing weapons that ensure battles are tight and exciting.

20. Tetris (Game Boy) Simple yet addictive puzzle game, often imitated, never bettered.

21. SWIV (Amiga). The pioneer of vertical shootemups, with totally amazing digital sound, and stunning graphics (even today), took the best elements of 80's vertical shooters like xavious and made it better.

22. Mario Golf (Gamecube), took old boring golf sims, and made this silly and fun to play, amazing AI, and great cartoon graphics.

23. Burnout 3 (Xbox), great smashing car game, easy to learn, but hard to master, great matrix style crash scenes

24. Mario Tennis (N64), again taking boring old simulations on PC’s and other game consoles and made it silly, fun, and challenging.

25. Elite (BBC MICRO, C64). Was the grandfather to all space trading simulations. Might have been old vector style graphics, but has massive amounts of detail, and special missions, many many months playing this old game, and is still played today in the form of X2, and wing commander, Escape Velocity (on Mac on PC) I thing it now has 100’s of forms the latest being Vendetta Online. It is the basis to many space trading games, where you are some independent mercenary, trading goods, illegal or legal, powering up your ship, buying better weapons, crew, better ships, owning your own planets. This game started it all in 1985!

26. River Raid (every platform from Atari 2600 , Intellivsion to Amiga) The best scoller shootem up dogem game made in the 80's, it was best on the Atari 800 computer and Intellivision, but what ever platform you played it on it totally rocked. Slick sprite graphics for its day, and written solo by a female programmer (Carol Shaw). Still play it today under Atari 800 emulation.

The electronic generation gap, what a load of CRAP!

2005-10-04T13:04:00.000+10:00

If it isn't enough that the mass media constantly promotes division between Generations X and Y and the Baby Boomers, now we've got IT writers bemoaning the fact that younger people tend to be much more enthusiastic users of technology than so-called "techno-geezers", suggesting that you know you're beyond it when:

*You're the only one in the supermarket checkout line not talking on a cell phone to pass the time while waiting for your turn to pay.
* When you walk down the street with your friends you're talking only to them instead of multitasking - talking or text messaging with someone else on your mobile phone while talking to them at the same time.
* You don't use IM to let all of your friends know where you are at all times.
* You don't download songs every night to load on your iPod.

As it happens, I know lots of geezers who spend their evenings downloading tunes to their iPods, and for that matter, downloading and in some cases recording podcasts. They use IM as a matter of course.
Conversely, I know some younger people who don't use IM and don't have iPods, possibly because they tend to be more strapped for cash than the average person of middle age or beyond.

While it's true that younger people as a rule tend to be more enthusiastic users of technology, I am convinced that older people would have been just as wild about it had it been available when they were kids or teenagers. They may not use it now simply because they're in a different phase of life, bringing up kids for instance, with all the demands it makes on time and funds, and opportunities.

Some social researchers suggest that younger generations use socialising technologies more because they're more sociable than previous generations. Frankly, I regard that as hogwash. They use it more because they're modern kids, and it's available. And so they should.

And older people should enjoy using the technology that's available and relevant to them. And remember that comparing yourself to others, as Max Ehrmann pointed out, can make you vain and bitter. And BTW I am not a Baby Boomer.

Australian Ipod owners are all criminals!?

2005-10-03T11:28:00.000+10:00

An article in the Herald Sun, Australia's leading daily newspaper last week, suggests that Australian iPod owners are breaking the country's piracy laws if they load music onto their portable audio players.

According to the Herald Sun, "No legal method exists for Australian iPod owners to fill their player with music."

The iTunes music store is not yet available in Australia, and music files available from legal commercial music sites are not compatible with the iPod. The Herald Sun also reports that the common method of "ripping" tunes to an iPod from the user's own CD collection is illegal in Australia as a breach of copyright laws.

Source: Herald Sun

The sheer absurdity of this situation should be sufficient motivation for the Federal Government to change these laws before Xmas. Imagine what will happen if someone gets sued for listening to their CDs on an mp3 player?

Worse still, I've read elsewhere that it is illegal for me to 'broadcast' my iPod through my car radio using my iTrips.

The Australian music industry which wholeheartedly supports these antiquated laws really is a disgrace, and have their collective heads buried in the sand. What about Podcasting? Is it illegal to listen to that too?

Why not prosecute every PVR and DVD recorder owner and VHS tape player owner, hell even compact cassette owner too while we are at it. I think the puts all of Australia's 20 million population in Prison! Australia has got to have one of the most whacked out copyright laws on the planet! So if a law is unenforceable cause it is so stupidly out of date, isn't it a time to change it. The whole planet is laughing at our outdated copyright laws!

With the USFTA (Fair Trade agreement) now a reality, our copyright laws should, at least, be in step with those of the US and most other countries in the world. Maybe this is why there is no Itunes store in Australia, due to our stupid Draconian copyright laws?

Any case its time to change the law! Write to your local pollies, the commications minister, raise your flag and tell the idiots in Canberra we want change and we want it now !

SERENITY MOVIE!

2005-10-01T10:59:00.000+10:00

Anyone that knows me, knows I am large Firefly Fan, and I finally got to see this movie yesterday (called serenity) its got to be THE best and saddest movie this year! As Molly would say, do your self a favour.. and see this. best SCIFI movie you will see all year! so Fox CAN WE HAVE the TV series back now???

what is a podcast?

2005-09-29T16:36:00.000+10:00

For those that I know that dont know what a PODCAST IS HERE is the definition! see the link for more

Podcasting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Podcasting is a method of publishing audio programs via the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed of new files (usually MP3s). It became popular in late 2004, largely due to automatic downloading of audio onto portable players or personal computers. Podcasting is distinct from other types of online media delivery because of its subscription model, which uses a feed (such as RSS or Atom) to deliver an enclosed file. Podcasting enables independent producers to create self-published, syndicated "radio shows," and gives broadcast radio programs a new distribution method. Listeners may subscribe to feeds using "podcatching" software (a type of aggregator), which periodically checks for and downloads new content automatically. Most podcatching software enables the user to copy podcasts to portable music players. Any digital audio player or computer with audio-playing software can play podcasts. From the earliest RSS-enclosure tests, feeds have been used to deliver video files as well as audio. By 2005 some aggregators and mobile devices could receive and play video, but the "podcast" name remained most associated with audio.
"Podcasting" is a portmanteau word that combines the words "broadcasting" and "iPod." The term can be misleading since neither podcasting nor listening to podcasts requires an iPod or any portable player. Aware of that misleading association from the beginning, some writers have suggested alternative names or reinterpretations of the letters "p-o-d", without winning much of a following.[1] Another little-used alternative is "blogcasting", which implies content based on, or similar in format to, blogs

MAC VIRUS CRAP!

2005-09-29T10:56:00.000+10:00

(click image to enlarge)
G'day all,

There is a thing of late thats been annoying me. Is the constant crap Windows telling a Mac user that his/her operating system is vulnerable to viruses. This is a mortal offence. Every time Symantec publishes a report on Mac OS X’s vulnerabilities, one of the users decides to prove the contrary.

Wil Shipley, a Mac programmer, has posted on his blog an announcement in which he says he will offer $500 to the person who proves that a computer running Mac OS X (with all the updates) was infected by a virus that exploited a flaw of the operating system.

Jack Campbell, the owner of a company that sells Mac products, made a similar announcement in March. He offered $25,000 to the first programmer who makes the first virus for Mac, but the competition turned out to be an unsuccessful publicity stunt.

Wil Shipley said he doesn’t want a virus, just someone who can prove that a Mac was infected with one.

Shipley’s blog is at wilshipley.com/blog/2005/09/mac-os-x-viruses-put-up-or-shut-up.html .... And it says the following...

Mac OS X Viruses: Put Up or Shut Up (part 1)
All, right, I'm sick of people reporting that Mac OS X is 'mostly' virus-free. It is, as far has been proven, ENTIRELY virus-free. Macs are not magical, and one day there will be virus that infects them. However, I don't think it's happened yet, and I think it's time we, the Mac community, started saying, "No, we don't have any viruses."

Seriously, if a reporter asked you, "Hey, do you have herpes?" and you replied, "Nope, I've been tested, no herpes, never," and then they wrote an article with the headline, "Bob Smith: Mostly Herpes-Free," you would, no doubt, flip (assuming your name was Bob Smith). You'd probably sue, even. But we put up with this crap every day, mainly because it's nigh-impossible to prove the negative. We'd need to inspect every hard drive of every Mac owner in the world. So we settle with "mostly virus-free" even though, compared to Windows, we're Mother Theresa and they're Pamela Anderson.

Let me be clear: not having had a virus is NOT the same as being immune to viruses. I think part of the reason almost nobody has been willing to stand up on this crusade has been that we get shouted down with cries of, "Well, no OS is perfect; Mac OS X will get its virus!" And I have no doubt we will. But Windows gets a virus every freaking week, and we've never had ONE. I think that's also relevant. Much more so than "Well, someday you won't be so perfect!" (Again, imagine you're about to share a fork with someone who you find out has rabies, scabies, rashes, a cold, the flu, lice, and scurvy, and that person says, "Well, everybody is susceptible to the same diseases." Yes, true, however, you'd still probably prefer to share with someone healthy at this moment.)

I'll admit, this crusade didn't start with me. It started on MacSlash where the news editor has TIRELESSLY pointed out every time some journalist or company implies that we're infectious.

And, I'll admit, others have come up with the idea of offering a bounty for Mac OS X viruses before, but I think those plans failed due to the way the challenge was structured. I don't want to incite someone to create the first Mac OS X virus.

So, here's my plan. I'm not putting it into effect yet, but I'm soliciting comments, and if nobody can prove it's a bone-headed idea, I'll go ahead with it.

I'm going to offer a bounty of $500 to the first person who can prove that a Mac running Mac OS X (version 10.0 or greater, and patched to the latest security level available at the time from Apple) was accidentally and detrimentally infected with a virus that exploited a flaw in the base Mac OS X installation (not, say, Microsoft Word) before September 20, 2005. The definition of "virus" will for this contest will be either a virus or worm as described by the wikipedia. The challenge ends at 23:59:00, October 16, 2005 (which happens to also be my birthday, and by the way I have a thing for nice shirts).

I will only offer this bounty once, and as you can see, the deadline for the viruses to have done their dirty work is in the past. So, if you're planning to write a new virus just to win the challenge, well... that won't work unless you also make a time machine. (Which, frankly, I'd be willing to fund for $500.) This is a research project, not a programming project: find one of us who has been infected at some time, and tell the world about it.

And, if you can't, then we should declare ourselves "virus-free," and write letters-to-the-editor anytime someone compares us with Christina Aguilera. Because we don't roll that way. See blog here.....

wilshipley.com/blog/2005/09/mac-os-x-viruses-put-up-or-shut-up.html

Good on you Wil, we are so sick of stupid inane windows users who have this love hate realtionship with their crap windows box's! they hate windows, but as soon as any Mac or linux user pops their head above water, they rant on how we are all zelots who dress in white robes prasing our machines like some sort of religon.

I have the philosophy, " don’t ever ask a person what computer they own... if they are a Mac user they will tell you, if they own a PC why embarrass them?". :-)

Things that I enjoy

2005-09-29T08:55:00.000+10:00

My Family.... then in NO particular order .....

1. Macs (except when they bugger up)
2. Watching a Good SCI Fi show, like BSG or Firefly
3. Having a TRUE friend
4. Receiving good customer service
5. A courteous driver
6. Listening to calming music like Moby, Jean Micheal Jarre etc
7. Talking to open minded people
8. A peaceful walk in the bush or holiday (cant remember last time I had one of those :-( )
9. A thunderstorm and lightning storm and heavy rain (weather fascinates me)
10. Cool weather (hate heat)
11. A lovely meal eating out or in
12. Playing Halo
13. People who don't bash Mac's
14. People with a wicked sense of humour
15. A good podcast
16. A Good Coffee
17. Good company

(Got anything to add??... send it to me, and I will see it makes my list)

Things that annoy me!

2005-09-29T08:48:00.000+10:00

(click image to enlarge)

1. Bad drivers
2. People who bash Mac's
3. Narrow minded people
4. Bad customer service at shops or services
5. Corrupt Governments
6. People who scam and rip you off
7. Companies that do the same
8. People who don't like SCI FI
9. People that bash Mac's
10. PC's in general (I hate windows)
11. People who are false and stab you in the back
12. Did I mention people who bash Mac's?
13. Australian Drama TV (its all rubbish)
14. Heavy metal or Jazz music
15. People who put monetary values above life!
16. Rapp crap and hip hop music its all TRASH!
17. Stupid inane chat on FM radio stations... Well most radio stations in general suck... Long live podcasting!
18. Reality TV, ALL REALITY TV SHOWS, they all suck! I WANT to watch TV to escape, NOT to watch some one like my neighbour, digging holes in the backyard, or painting their walls, or surviving on a fake desert island, get this crap off our TV screens!

(Got anything to add, send it to me, and I will see it makes my list)

life sucks!

2005-09-28T15:19:00.000+10:00

it really does! (when you are a windows user!)