tonygoodson

Let's Go Fly a Kite

My kids bought me a kite for Father's Day last week. The kite crashed and burned today, so it set me thinking about buying a proper stunt kite, but they're expensive.  I was also thinking about the kites I had as a kid, and went hunting for the Rotor Plan Kite, I think my auntie in Australia bought me, when she was visiting the UK.

I loved it.  Rotating wings which took it into the air.  Very different from your usual kite. I thought I'd be able to find it, and pictures of the kite, on the internet, but there's only one reference I can find, which exactly describes the kite I had, which you can see the drawing on the left, Rotor Plane Kite.  There are some updated versions of the kite, so maybe I'll go buy.  Ahhhh, childhood memories.  It's set me thinking about what my Top 10 childhoodtoys were.  In fact, I just realised, I've already written about it 5 years ago.  Toys.

• Scalectrix
• Subbuteo
• Secret Sam (always wanted a Johnny Seven) (Holy shit the power of the Internet I’ve put a link in to Secret Sam!)
• Mattel Hot Wheels
• Corgi Cars and later Track
• Yellow Jensen Interceptor Corgi Car
• James Bond Car
• Bat Mobile
• Mouse Trap
• Airfix Models
• Monopoly, Cluedo, Popping Hoppits, Pick Up Sticks
• Chess
• A Doll! A Black Doll! Teddy. Leo the Lion. Sooty. Mickey
• Roller Skates
• Small Tricycle, Big Tricycle, Small Bike, Big Bike, Raleigh
   Europa Racer (Just Like Sporting Superstars)
• Man City Football Kit (oh shit I’m a Man Utd fan)
• Bow and Arrows with Target (the real thing)
• Dart Board and Darts
• Sport Equipment too numerous to discuss here and now
• Casey Football (Lace Up)
• Leather Football Non-Lace Up
• Kites, especially my yellow and red rotating wing plane
• Blow Football
• Pea Shooter, Cap Gun, Spud Gun, Rocket Caps
• Catapult Planes, Wind-Up Balsa Planes, Helicopter Band launched thing!
• Bilofix (Wooden Version of Mecanno)
• Plasticine and Play- Doh

Sex Records of Rudd's people

Sensational!  The 300+ ministerial and electorate staffers in the Rudd government have to reveal their sexual history/preferences, financial history, and drug habits.

MINISTERIAL staff in the Rudd government are being forced to list their history of sexual partners, before gaining security clearance.

Now you can debate wether or not they should, but how safe are those records to prying eyes.  100% safe?  Want a bet!!

300+ staff now are at risk of having their private lives revealed either to the nosey and voyeuristic, or vengeful.  You can prosecute the people who do this, but that won't stop the information getting out eventually.

You could argue that if you've got nothing to hide then it doesn't matter, but the media can make something out of what you would consider is nothing.

Good Luck to the 300+ form fillers!!  Big Brother is now watching you.......and so are the rest of us!!

I Hate Telstra

All my other "I Hate..." attract search traffic, so why not hate Telstra!  I don't hate everything about Telstra, or most of the people in Telstra, who are good human beings, I assume.

Firstly, I see and read about Sol Trujillo.  Purely my subjective view, but he doesn't look like the sort of person I like, or cares about me as a consumer or small business user.  So I think it comes from the top.  Shareholder value doesn't help me.

Secondly, I believe that Australia's infrastructure is too valuable to be open and let loose on pure market forces.  I'd keep all infrastructure non-commercial, independent or government owned, in spite of the inefficiencies of that, and by all means, sell phones, trains, water, across that infrastructure.

Thirdly, it's taken Telstra 15 days to repair my cable internet.  The job took 10mins to actually complete.  I have been a Telstra cable customer for over 6 years, paying a fairly high premium for that honour.

It started on the 16th Dec, I called on the 17th, they sent someone on 20th.  He identified the problem as a damaged cable up the pole.  But claimed it was too wet to repair.  So did the next guy on 22nd.  On the 24th, fearing it was "too wet" again, I called to arrange a provisional date for 27th Dec and was assured the 24th was still ok, and the 27th was booked.  I called back later, the 24th had been cancelled, and the 27th was wrongly booked, so the 28th was assured.  No show on 28th and no record of the booking, so today on 31st it was repaired, by contractors who reckon it could have been repaired by the previous contractors and it wasn't "too wet".

Here's the thing about Telstra.  Money talks!  All Telstra can do is credit me.  All I want is a repaired internet.  I don't care about the money.  I would willingly have forgone the credits to pay the contractors direct on call to repair my internet sooner.  Telstra several times claimed they couldn't escalate or prioritise my call.  Is this true or are they lying?  Several times they claimed no record of my bookings, and yet I have some proof of the bookings.

Where do I go from here?  In the past 2 weeks both Telstra and Westpac ( I Hate Westpac ) have badly let me down, and they simply don't care in terms of service, some individuals within those organisations may care, but seem powerless to do anything about it.

So what am I to do about these two organisations.  Do they really care about me?  Why should they?  It's just me.  If I leave them, others will join them leaving the companies they're dissatisfied with.  How do we make it hurt when we get shit service?

2008 is my year of Simplicity.  I'm also going to look at price and service.  Telstra and Westpac don't come anywhere near on either price or service, do they?

Drambuie is for Poofs and Lawyers

A fantastic viral ad for Drambuie.  Bogans speak out!

A few of my thoughts;

- My enemies enemy is my friend

- Crocodile Dundee IV

- The only drink ad that makes me want to try the drink

- Any publicity it good publicity

- Class sells! (Damn, can't get the video version now)

"Drambuie made for a Prince, not a Bogan"

An alternative approach to Evolution

So whilst I don't have broadband access I've been loafing in my hotel room on the bed like an Orangutan, flicking through the channels and catching up on 6 years worth of TV in 5 weeks.  One program caught my eye.

A documentary on Professor Fred Steele, who for over 20 years has been trying to prove Lamarckian Evolution.  This differs from Darwinism, in that it proposes that "an organism can pass on characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime to its offspring".  This is a major difference to Darwinism, which occurs through genetic mutation which causes an advantage over several generations.

Fred Steele has to prove that say, disease immunity passes from a person's body into their DNA, and into the next generation's DNA, so it's an immediate effect on the next generation.

Now I'll bet that most of the public believe that that's how evolution works, but it's not, and it's been dismissed for over a century.  However, it makes more sense to believe somehow that it works and I think in the end Fred Steele will be proven right.  Good to watch him try!

What's fascinating, is that anyone who goes radically against accepted scientific wisdom, often can't get funding, and further, is ridiculed by the establishment with no way to further new scientific findings.  It's a paradox of science, that until you prove something, it doesn't exist, but you might not be able to get the funding or peer support, if it's too radical.

Broadband Access in Australian Hotels

I have been on the road for 5 weeks, and it really pisses me off the price I pay to use Broadband in Australian Hotels.  I don't mind paying a bit, it doesn't have to be free, but $13 for an hour and $25 for 24 hours is a total rip-off when I'm away for a few days.

The alternative is an Internet Cafe, but I want to work from my hotel room.  Funnily enough, the broadband in regional New South Wales is free!!  Yes, in Armidale NSW, the hotels are competing with each other, so many of them are offering broadband for free.  And when are McDonalds and co going to offer free broadband here in Australia.  I've been out of circulation for nearly 10 weeks.  5 weeks in Melbourne, and 5 weeks traveling.  It still ain't easy to get low cost high speed access here in Australia.

Lifestyle Buying Decisions

We're moving house for the first time since we arrived in Australia 6 years ago, and it's a good time to re-assess our lifestyle and our purchasing decisions.

I say that, because it was fascinating to arrive in a country with a clean slate and work out what purchasing decisions we made and why.

Firstly, we spent a high proportion of our savings on buying two used cars, which we still have, however, I haven't used my car for over a year!  It's remained on the drive, a combination of cost of repair and cost to put back on the road, but also moving towards a Greener lifestyle.  You do sometimes need the flexibility of two cars with two young kids now at school, but what we save on money and the environment by not having a second car can sometimes be spent on hiring a car, or taxis, and it certainly has encouraged me to use public transport and cycle.  When I arrived, I drove everywhere, now I cycle or take public transport for most of the time.

Next....I've just signed up for Skype Pro.  I have a Skype-In 03 Melbourne number, Skype Pro gives me free calls to anywhere in Australia with the exception of mobiles, with a 6 cent connection charge per call, and a monthly $3 fee.  WoW!  So far so good.  I've been conferencing on Skype both to Skype users and several landlines all at the same time, for over an hour!

What it does mean is I need stable Broadband, so bizarrely I've come a full circle and would like to stick with Telstra Cable!!  In fact, I might pay more for an upgraded service to a higher speed.  I'd move to ADSL if it's reliable.  Is it?  Can you guarantee that, now I'm using VoIP even more?  We'll still keep a landline, and of course there are our mobiles which have evolved to low cost Nokias and Vodafone Pre-Paid.

I'm just looking at all the other bills.  I guess we'll take whatever utilities are already at the new place.  Foxtel?  I've given up on TV and cable.  Annie my wife, still has some TV addictions.  Let's see on that one.

A Nintendo Gamecube has recently entered our lives, Mario Kart and Sonic.  Three of us are happy with that!  Wi-Fi to keep the kids off my laptop.

We're looking to go out less and entertain more at home, now having a bigger place.  I'd love for both kids to be within walking distance of school, but that's not quite there yet.

And the junk and old toys in the garage?  Mmmmmm.  We've just put the main baby things up for sale via an agent who handles eBay sales.  Maybe next time we'll sell direct on eBay.

I've written all this, because I'm excitedly looking forward to the new place, and at the same time looking back to how things have changed and what I'd have done differently starting 6 years ago. 

Should I move my business number to Skype?

We're moving house in a few weeks time.  Therefore I have to consider phone and Internet providers.  I currently have Telstra Cable for my Internet, a Telstra home phone, and a second line with Southern that I use for personal and some business calls.

So, what's the best solution?  The cable has been very stable for the last 6 years, and the speeds have improved.  If I move to ADSL at the new place, will the quality remain, to use Skype for my second phone?  How much are the phone charges and rental on ADSL?  I can't seem to easily find the cost of having a Telstra phone on the ADSL line.

My gut feel tells me to try Skype for my second line.  I already have a Skype Melbourne phone number.  The local calls are charged at 3 cents per minute, with a 6 cent flagfall, but remember, I'm not paying the $20-30 per month line rental, which will give me that amount of calls straight into Skype.  I don't call mobiles from my landline that much because I use my Vodafone Pre-Paid, but actually, the Skype call to mobiles are 30 cents per minute, which isn't too bad compared to a landline to mobile charge, which is where those bastards make all their money!

Ampires!

What do you call the people who wander through airline terminals, looking at the bases of walls, hunting for a previous power outlet into which they can sink their electric teeth?  Brilliant, David Weinberger!

It is so true,  you have to have experienced that desperate hunt for power at an airport, to understand what he's describing.  At first I thought it was thoughtlessness by the airport, and then I wandered into the Qantas Club lounge with hundreds of power outlets.  It's deliberate.  If you want power, then join the Qantas monopoly.

Petrol problems about peak oil, not snake oil

Petrol problems about peak oil, not snake oil - Opinion - theage.com.au

Ah Ha!  Ken Davidson, who spoke on a panel at the showing of A Crude Awakening last week, has a piece in The Age today, summarising many of the things he said last week, and pointing out the folly of building a large infrastructure toll road under public-private partnership.

Actually, I love new big roads, speaking as a driver!  But I can see the problems in the long run, if this isn't part of a long term strategy, to recognise we're running out of oil, and in the medium term petrol will be very very expensive. 

At least we're all starting to talk about it.