Category: General

She who must be obeyed told me today she’s starting in the new job January 7, and I haven’t even called a removalist yet, let alone called a real estate agent (husband of the boys God Mother is a real estate agent, and he’s one of the few honest ones).

Plan is for her to go across, possibly with the boy, and for me to follow later in the month once we’ve got the house sorted and presumably somewhere to live other than with my mother-in-law in Blackburn South. ETA of late January at the latest because the boy starts school early Feb and one of us (hint hint: the one who works for himself…from home 🙂 ) has to take responsibility there.

Hoping to get up to the December bloggers meetup in Perth, will be my last one so looking forward to it presuming I’m free to go.

The latest inflation reports for Australia are showing the seasonally adjusted underlying figure of 4% with headline inflation around 3%, but I’m starting to not believe it.

We’ve always been impartial to Bakers Delight White Flour Loaf bread (recommended for those in Australia…just great bread). Around this time last year it was around $2.20 or $2.30 a loaf. This morning I discovered that it had gone up yet again, this time from $3 to $3.20. That’s $1 in 12 months, and I can still remember paying $2-$2.10 a loaf for it in early 1996. There has alway been price rises, but this year a white flour loaf has gone up a whopping 45% and it seems there’s a 10-20c price rise every month or two. Sure, it’s only a dollar, but apply 45% to a range of other goods as well. Certainly our shopping bill has seriously risen this year, where as we might have spent $100-$130 at Coles a week (not including meat) we’re now spending $150-$180, and that’s with us buying most of our fruit and veg from the local farmers market (in bulk, cheap and wonderfully fresh). I’d hate to think what it must be like on struggle street at the moment, maybe this is part of the reason why voters chucked the Howard Government out?

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.

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.

Side note: I’m loving these point by point posts: it’s liberating. Verbal feedback has been all positive. If you think they suck…well, it’s this or not post at all ,which I’ve done a lot of this year as my external activities (TechCrunch, Gooruze etc) have increased 🙂

1. I’m sick of the election, and so in the Australian public. I smile when I read Crikey suggesting that the Australian print media is remiss in not giving greater coverage to the election: they are merely reflecting the wants of their readership

2. ALP is advertising on TV in Forrest, complete with a local message. They smell blood. They have never advertised in the SW as long as I’ve lived here, and why would they, it’s a safe Liberal seat. Nola “agrarian socialist” Marino the Lib candidate is doing sweat fuck all. Outside of the standard post vote letter all I’ve seen from her is a flyer in my PO Box, that fails to mention she’s a Liberal aside from a small logo right at the back. Very little in the local papers and NOTHING in my letter box. Either she’s not sold the high priced European car to fund the campaign, or head office is saying there’s nothing to worry about…which is the exact same message they gave when she who must be obeyed was the campaign chair for the Libs locally at the last state election…we lost by 10% 🙁

3. Mad Monk Abbott is losing it. You can’t pretend to be friend to the nutter religious types then swear on TV: bullshit might be correct but it’s not in his case

4. Ruddy still isn’t impressive. The Me-tooism is sickening, and yet that’s all he has to do…copy Liberal policy and add a couple of million in for good measure in what one journo on the ABC said today was Me-tooism-plus. Great description

5. My imposed apathy is having evil consequences: I’m seriously thinking about voting green. Not because I like them, god no: they are evil incarnate, but imagine if the Greens ruled Australia: the socialism/ Communism (they are pretty much commies) would drive growth down in Australia, and as a consequence interest rates would follow. Declining interest rates would drive the AUD lower which means I’d make more…which is a good thing! 🙂 An employment poor economy would also drive the price of labour down, so I could hire locally instead of China or India in the future…and that’s a good thing, right? 😉

6. Again: I’m not running for the LDP in Forrest, they asked nicely but I declined. I’ll be voting for them in the senate though. As Reagan said “Government is never the solution, Government is the problem”

7. Still no ITC policy from either party: I should contact them about that.

8. They should run the Reps as an unconference…that would be cool 🙂

Microsoft Australia’s Nick Hodge is partaking in Movember, a lets grow some facial hair in November charity event with sponsorships going to the ever excellent Beyond Blue.

I’m not a huge contributor to charity; as I’ve written on this blog in the past I use to donate to the Salvation Army until I discovered that they give cigarettes to poor people: don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-smoking, but if you’re sooooo poor you cant afford smokes that should be as good a reason to quit as any…and I don’t want my donations going towards that.

Unlike a slew of charity organizations in Australia, Beyond Blue is a-political…no seriously, they really are, which unfortunately puts them in a minority.

The black dog could bite you tomorrow so I’d encourage anyone with a spare dollar or hundred to sponsor Nick. Depression isn’t nice…and for the record I’ve been there, done that. It was called b…sorry, legally I cant say but lets just say that I was pushed to the edge in some of my previous activities. 30 sucked as well, which was probably complicit in it all. I got some decent (private) advice that set me on the straight and narrow. Lesson though: don’t think that the black dog cant get you, it can.

Nick’s id is 82950, you’ll also need to enter Nick + Hodge to sponsor. Link here.

Just back from Podcamp Perth 07. My thoughts

1. Good turnout, as always for anything held in Perth.

2. Crowd was a different mix to perhaps what I expected, a lot of people in education, teachers, uni folk etc. Always interesting to get different view points.

3. If Podcamp was suppose to be an unconference (which is what I was told) then it proves that Australian’s don’t understand unconferences. I purposely didn’t do a set speech, spoke for 5 minutes then tried to encourage audience discussion. Towards the end it started to work, with discussion amongst the audience with me just watching on. This was cool, but it was the only session I saw during the day that got close to this. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just my expectations were different

4. The guy from Apple didn’t have Leopard yet, or an iPhone.  

5. Multi streams suck, particularly when there are 4 concurrent streams. I didn’t get to go to everything I would have wanted to.

6. People presenting SL shouldn’t show virtual hardcore porn, even if the Machina is cool. Looking up skirts is not a good image to give to prospective SL members. Sorry Brett.

7. Perth hotels are insanely expensive now, dearer than Melbourne and probably at Sydney levels. It’s cheaper to get a hotel room in Silicon Valley than Perth.

8. Perth’s taxi system is the worst in the world. I had to walk from East Perth to nearly West Perth because I couldn’t get a cab, and neither could anyone else in the city. Fucking ridiculous, and it’s a disgrace. WTF will visitors to WA think?

9. Congrats to the organizing committee on a job well done.

10. Seeing Richard Giles’ daughter made me want more kids. Soooooooo cute!

A week is a long time in politics and its been even longer for the Labor Party this week. The Labor Party’s momentum of the phony election campaign has given way to a Liberal Party that is running a blitzkreig on all fronts.

I’m for the Liberal tax cuts: Australia still remains one of the most highly taxed nations in the OECD and they are long overdue, but Rudd’s response has been pathetic. I heard talkback during the week: despite mainly being State issues people were whinging about hospitals and schools. Rudd should have come out and said we won’t support the Liberal’s tax plan: we’ll lift the tax free threshold but we’ll spend $20billion on schools, hospitals and roads. It would have split the electorate, but it might have been enough to get Rudd over the line. People like tax cuts, but given things are going well for most people now they’d more likely support schools and hospitals.

Rudd’s ad campaign has been awful. Ask people which election campaigns they can remember and the only ads that are always recalled are the Liberal anti-Union ads. Rudd talking positives his is bland delivery isn’t cutting through at all. Perhaps they need a jingle? wheel Gough out to sign it’s time or similar? 🙂

I’m still not predicting a Liberal victory, but I’m thinking that this election will be closer than the 15 seat ALP majority I predicted. Rudd needs to regain momentum and lead instead of follow (presuming he’s still got some rabbits in his hat) or there is a chance that we might see a slim Liberal victory.

I tried reaching out to MyMac Australia, but the rather heated person who called me earlier today just sent me this. I find it rather odd but he thinks I’m bullying and threatening him when the first thing he said to me on the call today was get the video down or we’ll sue you.

Dear Duncan,

The person you spoke to was me, Steve Bardel the owner of My Mac Australia,

Buy all means Duncan contact Apple and the ACCC I will be happy to show them your invoice, Like you I will not be bullied or threatened. I am happy to supply you with contacts numbers for both.

Like you said to one of my staff members when you bought the isight it was a product you could not get from anywhere, and it was the last one we had and you sighted it it our display cabinet,  we did not have the box and that is why it was bubble wrapped  for you, you knew this.

I see your you tube outburst as offensive to my company and this is not a threat you will be hearing from my Lawyers if it is not removed.  It is unfounded and I will fight the removal of it and for compensation for lost business that you may of caused.

Regards,

Steve Bardel
Managing Director

My Mac (Australia) Pty Ltd
Apple Premium Reseller
172-192 Flinders Street
Melbourne VIC 3000

Tel: 03 9662 9666
Fax: 03 9662 9855
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.mymacaustralia.com.au

My response:

Steve
the simple fact remains that I was NEVER informed that the iSight being sold to me was incomplete, either by your employee or by notice in the display cabinet. The fact that it was not displayed in a box does not suggest that the item was incomplete, the only thing it shows is that you take things out of a box to put on display, a fairly regular sales tactic employed by about 99.999999% of retail sales outlets in Australia.

The fact remains that I would never have purchased it if I had been made aware that it was incomplete package, particularly at the cost. By all means talk to your lawyers but there is NOTHING defamatory in that video, only the simple facts that you failed to supply me with a complete iSight package and my warning that people check packages sold to them by your store as in my case I was not provided with a full package, which I’d note you don’t disagree with.

An invoice issued after the purchase does not constitute fair point of sale notice that the goods being sold were deficient. You’ll find the onus of disclosure under fair trading laws is with the seller to disclose this upfront: if I bought a car I’d expect it to have a steering wheel, are you seriously suggesting that you could sell me a car legally without a steering wheel on the premise that you only disclosed the fact on the invoice issued after the sale was made? It certainly seems that way because we seem to have no disagreement that the missing parts were not disclosed to me in that your only justification has continually been that I knew because “it was on the invoice.”

 I was offered bubble rapping only as I mentioned that I would be returning to WA with it; it was NEVER noted to me that it was missing a box, which is really irrelevant anyway because it wasn’t just the box that was just missing, it was standard parts that are meant to be sold with the iSight as per your deal as an Apple reseller. I couldn’t really care less about the box, I simply would like the missing parts of which I’m presuming are probably still somewhere in your store given that they were not provided to me when I purchased the iSight.

As for the case being unfounded, I look forward to hearing from your lawyers as to how this is unfounded. You have already admitted, both verbally and in writing that you did not supply me with a full iSight kit, and you’ve also admitted that at no stage did your store or employee advise me that the iSight was lacking standard parts. Indeed, we actually both agree in full on that case, so again I don’t see how my online request for these missing parts is unfounded. Perhaps you’d care to clarify which part was unfounded? I may consider editing the video is anything in inaccurate.

I’m also interested as to how something I posted on YouTube that took you 6 weeks to find has cost you business? I have never once said that people should not shop at your store, and indeed your sales staff were prompt and polite. I have simply suggested that people check what they are provided by your business to make sure that what they are buying is all there, because as we both agree in my case it wasn’t.

best
Duncan.

SBS launched a new show last night, a Shaun McCaulife news-style satire by the name of NEWStopia. It’s playing 10pm Wednesdays for an initial 10 week run. I didn’t see it last night, but read about it in Crikey today, you can watch the show (for the next week) here.

It’s actually pretty good, and I’ve never been a McCaulife fan. 297% of voters cant be wrong on the Pakistan election story and the spoof ad on NetAltert in the middle of the show, with Coonan swearing is a classic. Enjoy.