It’s times like this I’m immensely proud to be Australian:

Aussies Repelled 5 gunboats (smh.com.au)

The Australian Defence Force says up to five Iranian gunboats tried to capture Australian sailors in the Persian Gulf in December 2004…

The BBC reported earlier today that Iranian naval forces tried to capture the boarding team, but were repelled in the face of machine guns and “highly colourful language”.

Quoting a “military source”, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner reported Iranian forces made a concerted attempt to seize a boarding party from the Royal Australian Navy and that the Australians “were having none of it”.

You can imagine it now, a bunch on RAN personnel are surrounded by Iranians with guns and the simple response to the Iranian’s is that they can get f*cked and f*ck off…and it worked!

Aye-curumba!

Big Brother says sorry to Mexico | NEWS.com.au 

Ditching muck at the Mexican flag was pretty bad, I can remember commenting on it while watching Friday Night Games last week.  It’s not nearly as bad though as Andrew suggesting that the “Aussies” in the house should be saved from eviction in response to the all male eviction round, that was just down-right racist given the fact that every housemate is Australian despite their diverse ethnic backgrounds.

Great news for those in Perth: the resources sector has launched a free WiFi network in the Perth CBD. More details in my post at Perthnorg. I know where my hotel will be located next time I’m up 🙂

I read with interest yesterday’s announcement of Broadband Connect 2, the Federal Governments latest state supported rollout of broadband Australia wide. Most interesting was Labor’s feeble attempts at a response. Seriously, the best they could come up with was “the Government is following us”? These people want to run the country?

First, Broadband Connect 2 follows on from the brilliant Broadband Connect program. Disclaimer here that I was previously a staffer, but I’ll run on my track record here of being cynical about most things the Government does, Broadband Connect on the other hand really was a brilliant program. It gave towns throughout Western Australia and the nation access to base level broadband where by they’d probably still be waiting for it, and yes, that includes the estate I live on, my 2mb Cable came free for the first 3 months, free modem and I pay well under comparable Telstra ADSL rates for the service.

Broadband Connect 2 will build on the momentum of the original program by subsidizing the roll out of a national next level Broadband network. Notably, and this is probably being overlooked in a lot of the news about the program, this will include WiMax. As far as I know this would be the first time a Federal Government worldwide has investment this sort of money into WiMax, which makes the program fairly special in itself. Some criticism is being leveled at the speeds, 12mps minimum to the bush, but I’ve got to say that’s a whole lot more quicker than the 2mps I’ve got now (and yes, for all intensive purposes I live in the bush). Sure, it’s not world beating speeds, but it’s a step in the right direction and as Coonan points out in her media release, it’s the starting point, once the infrastructure is in place this can be ramped up.

As a supporter of free markets I do have some concerns about Government pumping this sort of money into the private sector, although having said that it’s the only real way to get decent broadband delivered outside of the capital cities. It’s also a darn site better than Labor’s policy of raiding the Future Fund to build a Government owned network. Of course, the Government should never have sold the Telstra Copper network, but you cant change history.

Overall though, the Government plan is in some ways the better of two evils, the right plan given the budget surplus and the need to bring Australia into the 21st century on Broadband speeds. If history is a guidance it will also be as highly successful as the original Broadband Connect was before it.

Fred Wilson thinks nothing good comes from people over 30, that only kiddies can produce great Web 2.0 companies. Fred Wilson can kiss my ass.

Hey, perhaps black people can’t produce good Web 2.0 startups as well Fred? Oh, forgot, discrimination on the basis of race is outlawed, obviously age discrimination is the United States isn’t…or is it? Wouldn’t it be hilarious if the next 30+ entrepreneur sued Fred when he turned them down because OMG they might be married, have a kid or two or even worse still, have the odd gray hair.

When I look back on my past my life after 30 has been my most productive years. From 20-30 I was lost, had one job after another trying to find something that worked for me. I made a pile of mistakes, and the worst was teaming with self obsessed hypocritical c’s. 30 wasn’t much better, the excesses of youth combined with a moral dilemma that pushed me to the brink. 31 has been much better, free of the shackles of selling my soul for the holy dollar I’ve been more productive and have more on the go that I’ve ever had before, and am now more happy than I’ve ever been.

Dave Winer says it well: I did it anyway. At 29 I became obsessed with the notion that you have to do it by 30, at 31 I know that it’s a complete crock of shite. There are no shortage of examples of companies founded by 30, 40 and even 50 year olds. Kids can be creative, but common sense and experience comes with age. Wine improves with age, people do as well.

Tonight I spent maybe 90 minutes walking around the Melbourne CBD. I’m actually a fairly frequent visitor to Melbourne, at one stage I was probably here 3-4 times a year, in more recent years the visits have been less frequent, but todays visit is my second in 6 months.

It was 8pm local time when I left my hotel. I wandered from the Windsor opposite the Victorian Parliament down to the Burke Street Mall, across to Flinders Street Station, Federation Square then back again. Every where I walked there were masses of people and activity. Shops were opened, there were countless small bars and restaurants, and seven elevens are like rabbits, every 4th shop. It’s not New York, there’s no where on the planet that can compare to the Big Apple, but it goes close. I felt safe at all times and I had a smorgasbord of choice.

Melbourne is a true international grade city, complete withcrappy weather, but you cant win everything.

Which takes me to the poor mans excuse for a city: Perth.

I lived in Perth for maybe 18 months when I first moved to WA, and I then spent years working there. Even after moving to “the country” I spent countless weeks in hotels for work functions and training sessions. Although I may no longer live there I believe I’m qualified enough to comment on it.

Perth at night is dead. It’s only marginally better during the day. The difference is that at least during the day Perth is safe. At night it’s not. And it’s not because it’s complete dead, there are people about, at 8pm in the centre of Perth youth gangs brawl in the Murray Street Mall. OK, that’s not entirely fair, because they usually start at 6:15pm.

Melbourne and Perth share a similar history. Both are results of mineral booms. The difference is in the thinking. Where as Melbourne embraces the free market with deregulated trading hours resulting in a living city, Perth continues to embrace the notion of 19th century nanny state thinking. OMG, it’s the end of the earth if shops open past 6pm or worse still, open on a Sunday. The notion that the market, and by nature consumers know best is foreign. But wait, WA had a referendum on this, and the “majority” is opposed to deregulated trading hours. Whilst that is true, around 40% supported the notion. That 40% is enough to make Perth a true international city. Majority rule is absurd when it comes to trading hours: if the majority is opposed they simply don’t have to shop after 6pm. Economics will dictate opening hours, if there are not enough people interested in shopping after 6pm then shops won’t open, and it does not affect those opposed to the notion.

It would be easy to just simply bag Perth, many people from outside the state already do, but Perth has a lot going for it. It’s one of the most scenic cities in the world, it literally competes with Sydney and in many ways the controlled development of Perth has delivered a better outlook; there’s no Blues Point Tower in Perth for example. Western Australia needs a Government with the leadership to take Perth to the next level, the 21st century level that Melbourne currently delivers. Sadly, the Labor Party is better equipped to deliver this, the party of free enterprise (aka The Liberal Pary) has a long history of opposing deregulated trading hours, and it’s one of a couple of key issues that drove me to resign from the Liberal Party in 2005.

WA already knows how hard employment has become, a regular State unemployment rate under 3% is beyond what many economists would agree is a rate of full employment. WA competes with the Eastern States for employees: simply the State needs to a deliver a world class environment to attract internal and external immigration, Perth as it currently stands is nothing really more than a glorified country town. Having said that, I can shop in the country on a Sunday and after 6pm, yet aside from 12-6pm Sunday in the CBD and Fremantle you can’t in Perth, so it’s an insult to some country towns. Lets just hope that one day the States leaders will have gumption to act for the greater good and the future of our State.

I think I’ve mentioned this site before: tornadovideos.net. If you’re like me and you liked Twister and the whole concept of Tornado chasing, it’s a great site. The latest video below.

Touch wood in some respects, given I live in Australia’s “Tornado Alley”, I’m just hoping we don’t get one this year, last year a Tornado devastated Leschenault, literally less than 1km away from my house, and the year before was Bunbury. I was working in town (Bunbury) at that stage and I’ll never forget the devastation, my office at the time was outside of the destruction zone by no more than 2 houses or under 300 metres. I drove that morning to the Bunbury post office around fallen trees and buildings strewn across the road. I didn’t have a camera with me. Today my mobile has one and it will never leave my side.

Now here’s a pleasant change, free WiFi in Western Australia! WiFi is now free in the Qantas Domestic terminal at Perth Airpoirt…least I’ve connected to it for free. Download speed is around 500kps, not super fast but usable. The start of a bigger trend perhaps? We can only hope. I’m looking forward to getting online tonight at the Windsor in Melbourne and seeing how much a 5 star hotel gouges my wallet for internet access; free WiFi at hotels is still a foreign, or as the case may be American concept for the Australian hotel industry. Back to dreaming now….looking at hundreds of people queue for the flight and preparing myself for over 4 hours offline 🙂