It’s Nintendo Wii launch day here in Australia, and despite never having owned a gaming console since the Atari 2600, I bought the Kool Aid and headed down to Target at lunch time, Visa in hand to buy one.

Presentation
It presents well, at least in the box. It’s hard for me to say that the look of the thing is a good or bad thing, because I don’t really have anything to compare it to. What I can say though is that in opening it, I literally felt like a child again who had just scored a big present. The Wii box itself is surprisingly small, like Mac Mini small, and it’s white as well. My only negative thoughts are that the console looks a little plasticy, if you know what I mean.

Setup
Warning to anyone buying the Wii, you need an extra set of inputs on your TV set (analogue audio L, R + the yellow Video). Thankfully I recently purchased a 58cm LCD TV, so I could plug the thing in, neither of the remaining two TV sets in the house had spare inputs, indeed, any TV bought more than 5-6 years ago will face the same issue.

Turning it on was a synch. You do have to sync the remote though. The menu is easy enough to follow. I purposely chose an internet required feature, which took me straight to an internet setup mode. Once you get use to using the Wii remote as a mouse (it’s really weird at first, but after that it’s a sinch…indeed you’ll ask why all game consoles don’t work that way) the internet setup was really easy. Scan for the Wifi point, select, in my case it picked up straight away that I was using WPA protection, and prompted me for the password. Typing it out using the remote is nearly as easy as typing itself. Point and click the letters…indeed for me it was easier than using a mobile to type a message. Then it connected, downloaded some updates, and done. No hassles what so ever.

Play
I’ll share some more on this at a later date, literally because so far I’ve gone as far as Tennis on Wii Sports, after all, its the game the console is famous for. First thoughts: it’s every single bit what they say it is, and more. To quote Cartman: Kick Ass. Sure, they aren’t the most brilliant graphics you’ll ever see (mind you, they are totally crystal clear and clean on an LCD TV), but it was fun. Way fun, and it literally is like playing the game itself. At first I didn’t get the whole do as you would in the real world bit, and I lost the first set. Second set was different, I was raising my arm for the serve, and smashing the ball in the same action as I would playing tennis for real. I know that there are plenty of critics of the Wii, but for me it’s probably our first step on the road to immersive VR.

Score: 9.5/10
The 0.5 is knocked off for the lack of HD or atleast a HDMI connector. Brilliant. Can’t wait for my 4 year old son to get home in an hour and play with me. Indeed, I think theres half a chance that she who must be obeyed might like it as well…and that’s saying something 🙂

The bad news across the blogosphere today is that James Kim, the CNet journalist missing this last week, has been found dead. I didn’t know the guy, but like many I’ve been following the story this last week, and the news is sad. Obviously not all the details have been released as yet, but what we do know is that Kim’s car appears to have either broken down or become stuck, and Kim left his family to find help. He’s death however, was totally preventable. Broken down cars and people leaving them to seek help is a fairly regular occurrence here in Australia, and 9 times out of 10 it’s tourists who are in this sort of situation. Here’s some tips for others in case you are ever caught in a similar situation.

1. Never, ever leave your vehicle
You never hear stories of people dying who have stayed with their vehicle, but you regularly here stories of people dying who did leave their car seeking help. If rescuers are looking for you, there a lot more likely to see your car than you. By leaving your car you also leave yourself exposed to the elements. No matter how desperate your situation, unless you know for sure that there was a house 2 miles back or similar, always stay with your car.

2. Buy an EPIRB
Basic model EPIRB’s cost a couple of hundred dollars. They are compulsory in Australia for boats going a certain distance offshore. They should be compulsory for people driving off the beaten track into wilderness areas or similar. If you’re stranded in the middle of no where, EPIRB’s are a sure way for rescuers to find you.

3. Take extra fuel
This is probably more an Australian thing, but if you’re traveling long distances sometimes roadhouses (gas stations) can be few and far between. That extra 10, 20 of 40 litres of fuel in your boot can get you to the next roadhouse.

4. Take water
You can never have enough water. If you get stranded, you’ll need it to survive

5. Get your car serviced prior to leaving
Probably a given, but plenty of people don’t do it. If you do break down, even if you can get help, you can often end up with an enormous towing and repair bill. A couple of hundred for a service is small change in comparison.

6. Let people know where you are going
Telling people your heading to a city but failing to mention you’re taking the scenic route doesn’t cut it. If James Kim had been more specific in letting people know where he was going, via with roads etc, be it a loved one or someone else, he may well have been alive today because there was a delay between when he broke down and when the search effort started. I’m not sure about the US, but certainly in Australia there are services where you can register your movements when your traveling over a long distance. Check with your local State Automobile Association for more details.

I’ve held this post off because I didn’t want every single post I make to be about my trip to North America (via Hong Kong), but I did want to share a few thoughts.

Firstly, I’m not a greenie, and although I’m seriously thinking that my next car may well be a Prius, it’s because I want to save on fuel, not because I have any deep consideration for the environmental consequences. I actually support Australia not having signed the Kyoto agreement, because the agreement does penalise developed economies whilst allowing developing nations to do as they please.

But whilst I was away I may have discovered that there is a green side to me. Admittedly, not a very strong one, but something that is definitely there. New Jersey is the cause.

Whilst catching the NJ Transit train from Newark International to NY Penn, I had the chance to observe a reasonable swath of New Jersey, and I didn’t like what I saw.

The one particular view that I’ll never forget was on a stretch of railway on the way to NY that went through what could best be describe as wetlands, although some may prefer the term swamp. On this section of the trip you see a lot of water, and old bridges and highways, many admittedly in poor repair, you see refuse and junk pilled under bridges and highway pillions. And then there was the power lines. Power lines are nothing remarkable, but when their bases have rotted away and they are semi-emersed in water…well that’s a different picture. There was this one section where the powerlines were just as that. Semi-emersed, left literally to fall and rot, with no one caring less. It may seem absurd, but I’ll never forgot in my mind the picture of those power lines, perhaps in part because I’ve never seen anything like it before, but perhaps more so because it’s indicative of a society that doesn’t care about it’s built environment, or even it’s natural one. Sure, the wetlands around New Jersey might not be spectacular to look at, but even someone with a basic knowledge of the environment knows, not only are they rare, but they also serve as breeding grounds to fish and birds. Whilst Australia is far from perfect, I don’t believe you’d ever see such a site here. People wouldn’t stand for it. Sure, during the 60s and 70s many similar sites in Australia were abused, but we’ve moved on from those times. Wetlands are cherished, from school children planting trees, to Clean Up Australia days. In New Jersey, no one seems to care less.

The interesting comparison during my time away was Hong Kong. Of course, environmentally Hong Kong isn’t perfect, the air pollution is testament to that, but the built environment is spotless. Under highway/ freeway under passes everything was clean. On the train to the Airport I passed railway yards that in the US or Australia would be scarred by refuse and junk, in Hong Kong, even the junk was pilled neatly. Everywhere things were clean and neat, even in the places you’d least expect it.

The consideration I guess is how do people want their built environments to be? Cleanliness is one consideration. Everywhere I visited in New Jersey was pretty awful. New York was surprisingly clean, particularly for what is a concrete jungle. Toronto was dirty everywhere I went. Hong Kong was clean. I’m spoilt in many ways because I grew up in Sydney, and there really is nothing in the world like Sydney Harbour, but I’m fortunate now to live in Western Australia, where greenery is taken for granted. As I drove last week from the Burswood Dome into town to get to our hotel in East Perth, I drove across the Causeway, across Heirisson Island, with the grass and gum trees, I perhaps finally appreciated that in Australia we do things differently, and it is a good thing.

God help me as I say this, but we can make a difference to our built environments. Being proud and supportive of clean cities doesn’t make you a rabid Greenpeace supporter. Urban decay stays that way only when good people remain silent.

Had a few notes from people asking me why I’ve switched back to part feeds. I haven’t, but for some reason WP has defaulted back to that position, and no matter how many times I click on the full feeds option, some people (not sure if it’s everyone) are seeing part feeds. A work in process.

All the gossip aside, it’s interesting to note that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are honeymooning on the Artic P. Who owns the Artic P? We’ll it was purchased by Kerry Packer, but since he’s dead it would be fair to say that it’s now owned by James Packer, Australia’s richest man, and as we all know James is good mates with…Tom Cruise, after all, Cruise visited Australia last to attend Kerry Packers funeral.

Had to download the latest MS updates today…mainly because I was hoping they had bundled the WA Daylight Savings patch (they hadn’t). The download included IE7. I’m not totally convinced by it, but first thoughts in playing with it: it’s quick. Really quick, like twice as fast as Firefox quick on sites I regularly visit. It might be a glitch, we’ll see, but for once it bides well for a Microsoft product.

Last note: it’s 8pm as I type this, and the sun is still up, it’s the first day of Daylight Savings as part of Western Australia’s 3 year trial (the trial we had to have to make sure the curtains don’t fad and the cows all die, etc…). God bless daylight savings! But I guess there was never any question as to which way I’m going to vote at the referendum on the subject in 2009 anyway 🙂

This would be hysterical, if only for the fact that Glen Milne (the chap doing the attacking) is regarded as one of Australia’s leading political journalists. I guess journalists shouldn’t hit the piss, right?

Just catching up on some 2 weeks worth of reading, strangely enough some of it about myself. A couple of people have asked “what next”, the simple answer is I don’t know at this stage. I’ve spoken to a couple of people about different things, and I’ve got as many emails to follow up on as well. Given it’s less than one month to Christmas (that’s Christmas, not the holidays ppl!…that was really annoying in the States) I’m not going to rush anything, although I might start exploring a few different ideas and things, some with others, some by myself. Not surprisingly, I won’t be doing a blog network again, not only because I’ve probably got a dose of once bitten, twice shy, but because legally I can’t…which isn’t a bad thing I think given I honestly think the boat has probably sailed there now anyway. Either way, once I do start doing some new things, I will share.

And a final word, I’ve read some of the speculation in relation to my departure from b5media, a couple of people wanting to know more, and one person even going so far as to imply I’m a hypocrite (in as many words) given how big I am on disclosure and being upfront about things. What I will say is that there is a legal reason to my silence, and as much as I wish I could come clean and speak the truth but I can’t go into the details.

Finally back on Terra firma…or Terra Australis as the case maybe, and I’m still suffering from land sickness a bit, for those who don’t know what land sickness is, it’s essentially the opposite to sea sickness, when you rock around a lot on a boat, when you get back to shore you continue to rock around even though obviously the ground isn’t moving…but I digress somewhat because now I’m safe again I wanted to share some thoughts on Toronto. I know in the video with Loren I mentioned my dislike of Canada, but in retrospect that was probably unfair in the same way judging a city in Australia as being an example of the whole country would be unfair, but I will say this: Toronto beggars belief, and I mean that literally.

In all my time away in the last 2 weeks, the only time I felt really, really unsafe was in Toronto. The beggars are unbelievable. Sure, I saw homeless people in New York, but they were never threatening, and they seemed content (probably the wrong word) in being homeless quitely. In Toronto, the beggars were not only everywhere, but they were agressive as well. “Can you spare a quarter, sir”, “Spare change”, “I need to feed my family” were probably the most common phrases I heard being relayed to me the whole time I was in Canada (I should have responded with, do you have a job? 🙂 ). I was also offered drugs in Canada, and I was also approached by prostitutes. Now without sounding racist, it’s interesting to note one thing about Toronto’s beggars: they are all literally white. Despite the fact the city was quite obviously multicultural, I never once saw an African American or Asian beggar. Indeed, there were plenty of African American and Asian people in jobs….but none I saw who were begging.

Now a casual reader might say: well, you weren’t in a good part of Toronto, and sure, the first time I was there I was in York (East Airport)…and yet, I didn’t see any beggars in the suburbs, indeed although I managed to walk through some pretty depressing areas, no beggars there. The beggars are all in town. My return leg in Toronto saw me at the Ramada, about a block and a bit from the Eaton Centre, near Younge Street, the prime entertainment area of the city….and the beggars were everywhere. Walk out of any enterance of the Eaton Centre, and they were there…fast food restuarant..beggars…The Paramount Cinema’s on the other side of town, beggars. Outside the Canada Trust building opposite Union Station: beggars. Beggars everywhere, morning, noon and night, but more distrurbing for me perhaps: beggars in your face. And the police seem to do nothing about it.

Which I guess raises the question: if Canada is suppose to be this socialist utopia where everyone is taken care off, why is it that I’d think that Toronto has more beggars per square kilometre than probably just about any city in the Western World…and I’d probably note, at least 100x more per square metre than even New York? Easy: socialism doesn’t work. Sure, Canadians get free health care, but clearly high taxes kill incentives to work, or for that matter for job creation. Toronto’s unemployment rate is roughly 6.5% from the figure I could find, which for them is particularly low, but not really very low if you compare it to say Australia at 4.6%, or even Western Australia at 3.4% (the suburb I live in has an unemployment rate of 1.2%). I’m not sure how the social security system works in Canada, but given the number of people begging I’d guess that it doesn’t work very well. High taxes obviously aren’t providing an adequate social security net, while at the same time they stiffle enterprise.

I suppose though it would be unfair of my not to compare and contrast this to the United States. Lower unemployment rates, yet no social security support or free health care…and a whole pile of people getting paid sweet f*ck all in terms of wages, and yet it still works better than the stiffling socialism you find in Canada. Enterprise is big in the States. Nothing was really big in Toronto.

From an Australian perspective, I guess we’re on a good thing, because we’re somewhere in between the two. I know some American’s who are fond of saying that Australia is a socialist country, but having been to Canada and seen the hand that socialism deals, nothing could be further from the truth. The challenge for todays and tomorrows leaders in Australia is maintaining the balance. Rich nations should look after those who are in need, but also need to balance this with regulations and taxations that encourage enterprise at the same time. This paradox will be the challenge of Australian leaders throughout the 21st century.

We are the lucky country, and I am glad to be home….and there isn’t one street beggar within at least 200kms 🙂

Dude, Where?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s My Porn?: SEO Blackhat Blog

Quadszilla is reporting some serious changes in the Google algo which has resulted in porn sites being purged from the index, both in full and in part, a move that it bound to upset a lot of people in the adult blogging business as well as the mainstream side. I suppose the other question that arises is why? Is Google now censoring it’s .com page results to cater to the American Government in the same way it censors political speech on it’s .cn page to cater to the Chinese Government? Strange move, and I’m sure there will be a lot more to be said on the subject in the coming weeks.