Bluray Is AOK

admin —  December 5, 2007 — 4 Comments

Got invited to a Goodguys (Australian Electrical Retailer) VIP night last night. I’m still not sure exactly how it worked, but it was 15% off the ticketed price, but I’m not sure if the ticketed price was the normal price or not…these guys usually give 7-10% off for cash anyway.

Didn’t know what I would buy and ended up coming home with a Sharp Bluray player. I actually wanted the Samsung player but they were soo busy they didn’t want to get the box for it (shelf display left only). Ticket price was $469 AUD. The salesman offered me the $599 Sharp for the same price…which he then claimed was $499, I pointed out the Samsung was $469 and I got the I really cant do it for that price spiel..then he did it anyway. I have no idea what the difference between the two players was, aside from the Sharp being more expensive, but perhaps more importantly the Sharp came with 8 free Bluray titles, which given they retail for between $30-$40 makes the freebies worth at least $200, so all in all a bargain.

Got the thing home and there’s no HDMI plug in the box, only analogue plugs; why would anyone buy a Bluray player and use analogue plugs, at the very least they should have included digital composite plugs. Bought a HDMI cable this morning and a couple of Bluray titles. Meet The Robinsons for the boy and Casino Royale and the Fifth Element for me. So far only put Meet the Robinson on…oh my…freaking amazing on our Sony Bravia 1080i (or p, or something) TV. Absolutely amazing, like seeing the movies on the big screens in Myer or Harvey Normam, finally we see the true strengths of owning a Sony True HD TV.

I cant see myself rushing out and buying millions of Bluray titles at the price they’re being sold for, and the player is region locked until I find some way of turning that off so US Bluray titles are out of the question.

I’ve held off for a couple of years as the next gen players have come onto the market. At below $500 they become that much more affordable and time for me to buy in. Of course in 18 months time they’ll be retailing for $100, but these things happen.

As for HD DVD: read this SMH piece; they’re non-existent in Australia; cant find them in retailers and then you cant buy or rent movies on HD DVD. Sorry Toshiba + Microsoft, I would have happily supported you, but Bluray has won already in Australia.

Moving

admin —  December 4, 2007 — 5 Comments

Big news, she who must be obeyed has accepted a job offer and we’ll be moving to Melbourne in the new year, roughly mid January.

I moved to Western Australia in November 1998 after 2 years in Queensland (I’m originally from Sydney) so it was coming up on 10 years, and possibly time for a change 🙂

There are things I’ll miss: the lifestyle, the beautiful clean environment, by far and away the best wine in the world and when I get up to Perth the best most inclusive tech community in Australia. There are plenty of things I wont miss, like not being able to shop or buy alcohol on a Sunday or shop after 6pm on a week night, no gambling, poor roads, poor public school system, too many self important local Governments run by self-important wankers, the local Liberal party which is often to the left of the ALP, stupid debates against daylight saving, The Eagles, the WACA (both the ground + association), Ted Bull on ABC Radio…I’m sure there will be other things as well that will come to mind later.

There’s a couple of big selling points in the move for us; great private schools with choices, a richer and more mentally stimulating environment to bring the boy up in, with a variety of day trips, cheap airfares to the East Coast, great shopping…and of course for she who must be obeyed her mother and that side of her family. We’re hoping to live in the Inner Eastern suburbs, probably around Richmond/ Hawthorn, Prahran/ South Yarra areas, although renting is insanely expensive in Melbourne; buying not so bad but we’ve got to sell our house first then buy a house there, something not always done quickly. Me: I’m just looking forward to 24mbps ADSL2+, I’m mentally typing the OMG OMG OMG’s from the first time I use it now 🙂

Ruddslide

admin —  November 25, 2007 — Leave a comment

The results are in and it’s wall to wall Labor for Australia. On one hand I’m deeply disturbed; the thought of returning to the days of Hawke and Keating with high interest rates and high unemployment scare me, and yet the Howard Government bought this on themselves. Work choices was bad politics, the legislation went too far, and beyond all else it’s what cost the Government votes; the irony of course being that Australia has chucked out its Government at a time when Australia has never looked so good.

Moving forward we need to demand an ICT policy from the Rudd Labor Government. The Liberals never had one so I guess Rudd couldn’t Me-too it, but there is hope. The Libs were lost in the woods when it came to tech, I’m hoping that Labor wont be. Secondly we need to stop the Great Firewall of Australia. Mandatory internet censorship is not acceptable, neither is the increased costs such a scheme will force onto Australian internet users when we already have the most expensive and crap broadband in the developed world.

Overall I’m hoping that the Rudd Government is a glass half full at the moment, and despite being a former Liberal Party Member (2 years cured) I’m looking forward to seeing what’s ahead, and seeing whether they’ve cured themselves of their past follys and really are a party for the 21st century.

And Now We Wait

admin —  November 24, 2007 — 5 Comments

Voted. Senate paper went to U with 54 boxes to fill out. Polls close at 6pm AEST so first results from around 6:30pm AEST (or 4:30pm my time).

One observation: old people suck at setting up signs and bunting. The Liberal setup at the Riverlinks Community Centre Australind was beyond embarrassing for them. The Independent didn’t have a thing there though, which isn’t a good sign. A couple of half decent shots via my iPhone below.

booth1.jpgbooth2.jpg

A couple of days out from the election and neither party has announced a comprehensive ICT policy…because neither party has one. Kevin Rudd today talked about taking Australia up a gear and the need to fulfil our great potential, but apparently IT isn’t part of that future. The real banger: the reiteration of a policy originally announced by Kim Beazley in 2006 which I’m now officially calling “The Great Firewall of Australia” policy. Yep: no policies to encourage Internet startups in Australia or promote what Keating once referred to as the clever country, but they’re going to censor our Internet instead and I’m more than pissed. So pissed in fact that I may not preference the ALP in front of the Libs when I vote on Saturday, despite the fact that I cant stand the local Liberal candidate.

Here’s some highlights from Mao ZeRudd’s cyber-safety policy:

 a mandatory ?clean feed? internet service for all homes, schools and public computers that are used by Australian children.  Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will filter out content that is identified as prohibited by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).  The ACMA ?blacklist? will be made more comprehensive to ensure that children are protected from harmful and inappropriate online material.

Note the word mandatory. But wait, there’s more

A Rudd Labor Government will require ISPs to offer a ?clean feed? internet service to all homes, schools and public internet points accessible by children, such as public libraries.

What’s the alternative, a dirty feed, if indeed there is an alternative? And lets not forget the cost of providing this filtering, a cost that will no doubt be passed along by ISP’s who already (mostly thanks to Telstra) charge us at rates 2-3x higher (even more, given we don’t have uncapped plans) than rates the United States.

How do they determine if a computer is used by a child? My son uses 1 computer, but not my laptop + desktop, so is there going to be multiple feeds? Unlikely, because any of these computers are accessible by a child I’m going to get a mandatory censored internet…presuming that they’ll know that I have a child…which they’ll check up on via Medicare, so big brother will be imposing his will on me and I wont have a say on it as well.

This is a typical response from a traditionally socialist party that believes that the Government can interfere in everything.

Like all censorship the question is: once it starts when will it stop? Remember that Australia doesn’t have an electronic R rating (at least for computer games)…so there goes violent sites. Dissent on global warming is probably hate speech to the ALP, so that should get censored….once it starts it will never end. Do-gooder groups will petition the Government to block more and more sites, and the Government, always wanting to find support will block these sites.

The stupidest thing of all: Mao ZeRudd justifies the policy on the basis that computer level filtering is too easy to bypass. He’s obviously never heard of proxy sites, TOR or even OpenDNS to bypass server level firewalls…unless of course he’s planning on banning them as well!

If Rudd is elected on Saturday (and that’s a 95% chance) we need to start speaking up against this policy immediately. It is our duty as supporters of free speech in a democratic country to stand opposed to Government attempts to stifle free speech online. They may claim now it’s all about porn, but remember (with apologies to the original author),

first they blocked the porn sites, and no one said a thing,

next it was the dissenters, and still no one said a thing.

Next it was bloggers, and although I was one of them I said nothing.

Then they blocked me.

IMG_0067 I attended my first “rock concert” last night for 11 years, because it’s been 11 years since I last saw Crowded House in concert on the steps of the Opera House in 1996. We were a million miles from the front that day, but this time was different, maybe 20 ppl back but in a space that filled at least 10,000 people; we were a lot closer than maybe 8500 other people.

The warm up acts were ok, but they did set the scene. It was a glorious Western Australian night, maybe low 20s, clear sky with the city to the right and the Swan Bell Tower to the left, complete with ever changing (colour wise) Christmas star. A crescent moon rose over the back of the stage as Crowded House took to stage.

First up was some classic songs, Private Universe and Mean To Me. The crowd knew all the words, and it set the scene for the night. On numerous occasions Neil Finn stopped singing to let the crowd do it for him. 10,000 people singing in unison is something quite unlike anything I have ever previously experienced…it was religious, and in a good way.

The main set was a mix of old and new. The new songs weren’t as strongly supported as the old stuff, but they are growing on me, and there is nothing quite like listening to them live. The acoustic richness of being inundated with the dulcet tones on Neil Finn are amazing, even when he makes stuff up, as he did later in the night with lyrics pertaining to a “half naked man” who jumped on stage.

Unlike the Eastern States concerts, there was 3 encores compared to the 2 there; ultimately Perth does fandom better than Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane.

I loved every single minute of it. I grew up with this music, as did much of the crowd; it was the biggest Gen X audience I’ve seen in 10+ years, although there was the occasional Gen Y fan as well.

I’m not totally sure on the rest of the touring schedule, but if Crowded House is coming your way I highly recommend attending. Neil Finn is the poet laureate of our time, and his strong lyrics stand in contrast to a lot of the crap we get today.

The following running sheet via Steward Greenhill, who has his review here, along with some music from the concert.

   1. Private Universe
   2. Mean To Me
   3. Don?t Stop Now
   4. Fall At Your Feet
   5. Everything is Good For You
   6. You?re the One to Make me Cry
   7. Nobody Wants To
   8. When you Come
   9. Silent House
  10. There Goes God
  11. Don?t Dream It?s Over
  12. People are like Suns
  13. Walked Her Way Down
  14. Distant Sun
  15. Weather WIth You

1st encore

   1. Locked Out
   2. Something So Strong

2nd encore

   1. Fingers of Love
   2. Four Seasons in one day
   3. Better be home soon

3rd encore

   1. World Where You Live
   2. Pineapple Head

 

Flickr photos here. Taken from the iPhone, that went flat half way through so they aren’t great.

12 Months On

admin —  November 12, 2007 — 6 Comments

This time twelve months ago I was in Toronto, where it was cold, and not just the weather.

I’ve learnt a lot of things from this time.

1. Trust no one

2. People are selfish and usually look after themselves first. I lost out because I went into bat for their concerns, yet they never so much as said boo themselves.

3. I’ve had people come to me asking for references. Hardly anyone so much as said goodbye to me when I left (maybe a handful)…I learnt that this was because they were told I was persona non grata however sometimes you do the right thing, not what you’re told. To have the very same people come to me 6, 9 and 12 months later asking for more from me when they couldn’t even do a simple thing such as say goodbye. Farking unbelievable, with maybe only one of two exclusions (I wont name them, but they know who)

4. I have an internal conflict between apathy and caring. Most people look out for themselves, and it makes them a smaller target. One part of me says I should have done that, but the other side says that you should do what’s right, even when it puts you in harms way. I’m slowly teaching myself apathy, it’s probably better for my health and sanity in the long term.

5. I was unduly harsh on Toronto when I got back, and as I’ve since discovered that San Francisco has more beggars, but only just. At least it’s warmer in SF 🙂  Seriously though next time I’ll come back under better circumstances, and I might end up liking the place. It reminded me a little of Sydney, although with more French speakers.

6.  Venture Capital is not an end to a means. There’s a place for VC, but you shouldn’t sell your soul for it.

7. You can tell how well a company is going by assessing the terms from which ppl depart it.

8. Rick Segal is a hard ass but not a bad bloke, I wish we had met under better circumstances. One of the more interesting ppl I’ve met, and I’ve met a lot of people in the last 12 months.

9. NDA/ No-disparage contracts etc are shite when you’re expected to follow them and no one else is. Worse still when your protests fall on deaf ears but when you so much as say boo, you’re the worst bastard out there.

10. Control is everything. I’ll struggle to ever give up control of anything again, and I certainly will never put my heart, soul and full time work into something that I don’t control again…unless of course I’m being paid well for it, upfront 🙂

11. It was a hard time, but I still feel good in myself that although I lost out, I did what was right and I can sleep well at night. In fact, despite some of the anguish I’ve never had a bad nights sleep because of it.

12. Did I lose out? I walked away with some cash in the bank and my morals intact. Maybe I was the winner? only time will tell I guess.

13. Skip, unlucky

14. Bloggers aren’t paid enough full stop, not in any one particular company but most of them. I’d support minimum payrates for bloggers tomorrow. They’d still be a lot lower than in just about any other industry, but I think you need a min for work done. Some blogging jobs (again singling out no particularly company) are slave labor like, and if they were regulated jobs would be illegal in many countries.

15. considering 12, I think I have been lucky. A couple of projects on the way, hopefully the paperwork (business plan etc) done on the new startup before christmas, great writing job working with best in the business Michael Arrington, get to travel in Australia and to the US speaking and working. I’ve never really been more content. 2007 has been an awesome year. Now if only Qantas would hurry up the net access on the Sydney-SFO route 🙂

Remember

admin —  November 11, 2007 — Leave a comment

poppy Remembrance Day 2007.

“MCMXIV” from Philip Larkin. It’s modern poetry, but it’s done well.

    Those long uneven lines
    Standing as patiently
    As if they were stretched outside
    The Oval or Villa Park,
    The crowns of hats, the sun
    On moustached archaic faces
    Grinning as if it were all
    An August Bank Holiday lark;

    And the shut shops, the bleached
    Established names on the sunblinds,
    The farthings and sovereigns,
    And dark-clothed children at play
    Called after kings and queens,
    The tin advertisements
    For cocoa and twist, and the pubs
    Wide open all day;

    And the countryside not caring
    The place-names all hazed over
    With flowering grasses, and fields
    Shadowing Domesday lines
    Under wheats’ restless silence;
    The differently-dressed servants
    With tiny rooms in huge houses,
    The dust behind limousines;

    Never such innocence,
    Never before or since,
    As changed itself to past
    Without a word–the men
    Leaving the gardens tidy,
    The thousands of marriages
    Lasting a little while longer:
    Never such innocence again.

I’ve finally finished reading Australian author John Birmingham’s Axis of Time trilogy. I discovered the series by accident, picking up World War 2.3 at Perth airport on the way to the Valley in July (I always buy a book for the long flight).

I didn’t realize then that the book was part of the trilogy, so I read the final part first. It was only on my next flight that I realized that there were two books before it. I read World War 2.1 in September, and bought and read World War 2.2 in October.

I’m a picky reader, and I don’t read a lot, and what I read I’m fairly hard on. I loved these books.

Here’s the plot summary from Wikipedia: it gives some of it away, but it doesn’t give all three away

In 2021, a US-led Multinational Taskforce, commanded by Admiral Phillip Kolhammer is preparing to wage the latest campaign in the War on Terror: intervention in an Indonesia wracked by civil war between secularist and caliphate forces. The flagship is the aircraft carrier USS Hillary Clinton, named after “the most uncompromising wartime president in the history of the United States.” Attached to the task force is a mysterious research vessel whose scientists attempt an experiment with space and time. The experiment goes horribly wrong: the research ship is destroyed by the resulting wormhole while the task force is sent back in time to 1942 (It is also theorized that the task force fell sideways into an alternate universe 1942). The majority of the task force winds up being deposited in the Pacific on the eve of the Battle of Midway.

Accidentally, the time travelers collide with the US force that would have won the battle. The 21st century personnel are rendered unconscious and control reverts to AIs, a Japanese ship in the task force is spotted and the contemporary US Fleet opens fire. By the time both sides realise their mistake, most of the 1942 US Pacific Fleet has been destroyed.

At the same time, the northern Japanese fleet, en route to attack the Aleutian Islands, stumbles across an Indonesian frigate (Sutanto) and divines both what has happened near Midway and what the future holds for Japan. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is swiftly informed and orders the Japanese Fleet to sail home immediately.

The Allies head for Pearl Harbor, where tensions between the WASP male sailors of 1942 and the mixed-gender/ethnic/sexual personnel of 2021 result in riots, brawls and a murder. However, Allied leaders are already beginning to take note of future mistakes, advances and other windfalls of the Transition. The technology alone is astonishing enough, but the historical ramifications are even more momentous.

The Axis powers are not idle either. With the aid of both contemporary Axis officers and Indonesian sailors Yamamoto prepares a new plan designed to reverse the outcome of the war and stave off America?s rise to power. The Sutanto is stripped down while certain crew members make their peace with Allah and prepare for their final mission. Hitler is soon apprised of the Transition and dispatches his own envoys to Japan.

It’s reality futurism meets what if fiction, a rare mix in a book. Kolhammer meets Einstein who explains that the notion of a grandfather paradox is false due to parallel universe theory: basically by traveling back in time they’ve created a new parallel universe.

All three novels are great reading. It reminds me of Clancy a bit, but with a definite Australian interpretation. The concept of 2021 morals clashing with the ideals of 1942 make it an interesting consideration of the appalling standards of the past.

World War 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 are a recommended read.

Crunchies Are A Good Idea

admin —  November 6, 2007 — Leave a comment

TechCrunch, VentureBeat, GigaOm and another site are getting together for the Crunchies, a Web 2.0 best of annual awards.

Nice idea. Full details here.

(disclosure: I write for TechCrunch)