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Why do people by Dvd's…..

Time for an annoyance. We went to the movies tonight. (Don’t ask… fine it was Sex and The City, revenge for seeing Die Hard 4.0 (on MY birthday I presume))

Southlands at Night Managed to take a nice photo (insert here) and had one hour to kill before the flick.  So first things first. A quick look around to see if I can have a play with an n78 the next purchase phone for my lovely wife.  Asked at one shop (Crazy Johns for those that are interested) only to be told… at least 2 months away.  Pity I can buy it from retailers in town.  So big fat FAIL for staff training at this chain. But in typical Wolfy fashion I digress from the title of the blog post.

Movie Ticket Prices are a big load of steaming hot smelly turds.

Ok… cost of seeing Sex and the City for 2 people was $31.00Aud (plus additional cost of pop corn and coke $14).  Now here is another way of looking at it.  Cost of buying DVD on day of release (28.99 or there abouts, cost of a decent Sav Blanc from the Yarra $15) So if I buy the DVD which one then owns and can pause when ever I like and a nice bottle of wine is still less than the cost of going to see it at the cinema.  Oh yes and I have a popcorn machine so for about 50c I can make a shit load of popcorn as well.  Now my screen at home ain’t as big.  The sound system is a lot more focused and just as loud and of course there is the all mighty pause button.

But wait I still haven’t got to the main thing that pissed me off.  Standing there buying tickets I noticed that if you see a movie on a Friday night or a Saturday night they will charge you and extra 50c per ticket.  THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE TO THEIR RUNNING COSTS AT FUCKING ALL.  Who are they kidding with that.  Oh lets fuck people over some more cause it is a busy night.  Fine I get the No free ticket thing, sure you can have that.  But why charge more and then bitch and complain that people are pirating DVD’s and stealing torrents.

Wake up and smell the CAT FOOD PEOPLE!.  Vote with your feet.  Head to JBHIFI or what ever retailer you prefer and buy the movie you want to see.  Then get all your friends over tell them to bring a bottle of wine/soft drink and that you will spring for the popcorn and in the process save your self a shit load of money. And only ever go to the cinema on a Tuesday night.  That way they might get the hint that people want to see movie’s; they just don’t want to be shafted for it.

an N95 – A Shopping trip and bored!

I know I have seen this kind of list some where else but there is my version of it.

Best foot forwardThis is the I have a smart phone and I am bored list some times (Also know as the why does my wife get bored with tech so quickly but can shop for hours not noticing the vague look on my face)

So here is my list

  1. Write a blog entry about how you are using your smart phone to amuse you in the shopping centre via WaveLog
  2. Look for free wifi to post your blog entry (did not do so well on that front)
  3. Look for new WAYS to get home via the maps that does not go past any more shops
  4. Use the Accelerometer to see if the chair you are sitting on is level.
  5. Use the Maps to see when it will get dark on the other side of the world
  6. Check that the dictionary has all the correct words you want in it
  7. Add random photos to your contact list
    Shiny foor
  8. Move things around the Menu system, just to optimise accessing programmes.
  9. Take photos of everything you can. Your feed, the ground, the ceilingLook Up
  10. Make sure that your contact lists is sorting by last name and that every phone number has the full country code dialling
  11. Read all the Help manuals on the phone
  12. Get annoyed at wave log for not working as well as it should forcing you to make notes
  13. Check that all your geo-tagged photos show up on the maps correctly.
  14. Send Tweets out describing your bordom
    1. Listening to Depeche Mode’s Something to do. apt given i am just waiting for the shops to shut then & only then will i be free curse ex … … 05:38 PM June 22, 2008 from txt
    2. Over heard oh god i am so bored (oh wait i did say that not loud never mind) 04:14 PM June 22, 2008 from txt
    3. Now at the dfo why do girls like shopping so much 03:45 PM June 22, 2008 from txt
    4. I think i am the only straight man in the department 02:40 PM June 22, 2008 from txt
    5. No man chair in the hand bag section of myer i have to stand what is the world coming to 02:31 PM June 22, 2008 from txt
    6. At the biggest shopping centre in australia and do you think i can find wifi at the top food hall no   02:01 PM June 22, 2008  from txt

Symbian + Nokia = OpenSource

(update  — AllaboutSymbian have a great over view.. well worth the read here)

Well its been a busy few hours in the press release world for both Symbian and Nokia.

Nokia are going to purchase around 52 percent of Symbian shares it does not already own.   And then with that purchase they have also announced….

http://symbianfoundation.org/

“Open software is the basic building block for delivering this future.
With this in mind, industry leaders are coming together to establish Symbian Foundation, to bring to life a shared vision and to create the most proven, open and complete mobile software platform – available for free. To achieve this, the foundation will unify Symbian, S60, UIQ and
MOAP(S) software to create an unparalleled open software platform for converged mobile devices, enabling the whole mobile ecosystem to accelerate innovation.”

Now this is a big heads up to the following players, Apple with their SDK, MS with the Windows Mobile and Google with Android.  Consider the companies that the new Symbian Foundation has on board already…

docomo, ericsson, fujituse, lg, mororola, saumsung, sony plus telcos such as at&t (taking each way money with IPhone as well as Nokia) vodaphone, orange and others.

Now with a unified development application environment in play over the next year or so leveraging off the large market share that Symbian already has and then shifting development into the OS Community Nokia have managed to pull of what I think is a very clever and long term strategic development.

Watch this space kiddies… mobile is going to get much more interesting yet.

Adobe Device Central Update…

CS3 Device Profile Update #6  (get it here)

Number of device profiles included: 173

This is the sixth device profile update for Adobe Device Central CS3. This update contains 63 new device profiles from all regions of the world, many released in the last few months, as well as updates to 110 existing profiles.

……………….

Of course it is horribly out of day as is the case with these things these days missing phones and flash versions as well.  But it will help.  The other thing to do is realise that most people never upgrade their firmware anyway so you can take device central as a decent place to start.

Speed Limits Optional?

Ok..so back from another driving trip… Up to Hanging Rock and Mt Macedon. (which will be a post later today).

For this post I have a highlighted video (speed up to double only) of one of my biggest annoyances on the road – the fact that the speed limit around roadworks is some what optional in Victoria. On the drive down City Link I notice that there are signs saying roadworks 60kph. Of course at this time I have to dive across from the fast lane to the slow lane so I am not a moving road block (to other vehicles which do not slow down).

I have the gps trace showing that I was doing 60pkh past the roadworks (and approx 101kph once I accelerated once the roadworks finished).. All the time the car is on cruise control as well! You will also notice that everyone goes flying past me in the 60 zone. In some cases flying is an understatement. 21 cars all up broke the law speeding past. Within a few minutes of getting past the roadworks I have over-taken 6 of the 21 people that went gone flying past me and I catch up with most of the rest of them within the next 5 min as well.

What annoys me is that these are the people that will complain about speed cameras and speed limits, yet here they all are BREAKING THE LAW. Of course if I exceeded the speed limit I would probably get nailed straight away, but that is my luck.

New Maps Loader Nokia Betalabs.

Map Loader 2….  boy those people at nokia beta labs have grabbed that beta labs concept by the horns haven’t they.  Now they have a new way of buy maps… wait for it… you can use your PC.    I was hoping this was going to be the route loader for OVI type thing (guess I will have to keep waiting)

few quick things – firstly you will need to uninstall your old maps loader (i couldn’t get it to work until I did) Secondly.. you no longer need to be in USB mode to transfer maps which is much easier. And it imported my current licences just fine as well.

The only issue I still have is that there is no version numbering on the Maps in the Map Loader.  So I have no idea if I need to download a new map or not!

but here is the blub and the links anyway

With Map Loader 2.0 you can buy navigation and city guides directly from your PC!

Map Loader 2.0 includes a web shop where you can purchase and download navigation, traffic information and city guide licenses directly to your device. There is no need for activation, just download and you are ready to explore your world.

The new “Services” tab will let you browse through Drive*, Drive&Walk*, Traffic* and City Guides before deciding what to buy. In addition, the clear and easy to understand graphical representation will show what region is covered by the license. You will see exactly what you buy before buying.

Selecting “Guides” will let you browse through City Guides and Multimedia Guides from all over the world. Selecting one will show you information on the contents and you can download them directly to your device. It has never been so easy to find the right guide for your destination!

New connection mode

Map Loader 2.0 now supports PC Suite connections. This means that you can connect several devices over USB or Bluetooth connection. Mass storage mode is also supported for older Nokia Maps versions and memory cards. In mass storage mode the new “Services” tab will not be available and Map Loader 2.0 will behave like Map Loader 1.x. On startup, a popup will show connected devices and will let you choose the drive/device to use. Make sure you have the latest PC Suite installed (http://www.nokia.com/pcsuite).

Shop

After selecting a navigation license or downloading a guide you will be transferred to the payment page. Enter you credit card data; confirm payment and the license will be downloaded to your device. Your credit card data is sent over a secure https connection. You will also receive an email receipt.

Purchased licenses

In the bottom of the “Services” screen, there is a list of your previously purchased licenses and their expiration date. This will help you to see when it is time to renew you licenses.

Feedback

Download Map Loader 2.0 and let us know what you think! Make sure to uninstall any older version of maploader before installing Map Loader 2.0. Note that this is still a beta, so there are some limitations:

  • Not tested on S40, so please don’t use it :)
  • In “Drive & Walk” the navigation region “Russia & Ukraine” is only navigable in Russia.
  • Disconnecting and reconnecting a device while Map Loader 2.0 is running can sometimes lead to unexpected results.
  • Make sure your phone time is correct before buying any licenses.

* shop content depending on Nokia Maps version

Getting Citizenship…

Getting Australian Citizenship techish style…

Here is a combination of my Tweets from last night and the photos that I took as well. (in reverse order of tweets to do with citizenship).

  1. http://tinyurl.com/5hzebb photos from last nights ceremony for australian citizenshipv 14 minutes ago from twhirl
  2. G’day mate now i am getting pizza about 14 hours ago from txt
  3. Ok supper is lame a few cakes and soft drinks no shrimps no beer no bbq about 15 hours ago from txt
    O.k this is not an Australian Supper
  4. Three songs to in until supper all the names have been read not and there are a few trees left over 🙂 about 15 hours ago from txt
    The Singers...
  5. Some people have great cheer squads… howard jones just got his bit of paper but is was not the 1980’s howard jones about 15 hours ago from txt
    Shake Hands, get tree, Move on.
  6. Got a certificate, a tree, a flag, and yet another pen 🙂 now listening to some poor person trying to pronunce all 134 names about 15 hours ago from txt
    The Pledge and the Hat
  7. Ok finally i call australia home being sung must be getting close to ceremony proper will be dark for a short while about 16 hours ago from txt
  8. Now the band are doing danny boy what happened to the angels am i ever going to see your face again for example now that is australian about 16 hours ago from txt
  9. The band is wrong they are playing new york new york i thought this was australia about 16 hours ago from txt
  10. There is an old english man next to me who is tapping along to the music about 16 hours ago from txt
    The Awaiting Masses
  11. And why is there no wifi at the town hall for gleneira council about 16 hours ago from txt
  12. Ok the band is boring me can i change my mind now about 16 hours ago from txt
  13. And the band starts most of them look like the saw federation about 16 hours ago from txt
  14. Wow a free pen to fill out how voting enrollment forms about 16 hours ago from txt
  15. Not sure if this is good or bad but i in in the front row for citizenship few hundred seats laid out no beer or thongs in right about 16 hours ago from txt
    Gift Bags for All.
  16. damn wife is wearing heals… she looks great, but towers over me once again… about 16 hours ago from twhirl
  17. ok.. showered, dressed, time to go get a tree and start voting people of the island about 17 hours ago from twhirl
  18. o.k.. going home, put on the finery and then out this evening to become and australian…. shall try and tweet the experience. about 19 hours ago from twhirl

twitter… eh?

Now I have been on twitter for about a year now… and must say for that first year was not very active. But have in the last 2 months “re-found” it and have started to become active in the space. So thought it was time for a blog entry about it.

So quick rewrap for those of you who don’t know what it is. Put simply it is a 140 Character limited Blog Post that everyone can read. You can write, read, private message people via your phone(sms), your computer or basically any IP device that you want. I have heard it described as a world wide cocktail party where you listen to bits of the conversation halfway through out of context. And yet at the same time if you listen carefully to the noise you can hear a number of distinct voices, threads, and opinions coming through.

A quick Google for Twitter and the recent Chinese earthquake can show you the power that this (and similar) social media tools can have. In fact with a couple of key people/news sources that I follow I get most of the big important news faster than any wire service (I have access through work to most of them) and certainly faster than any media organisation in the world. Blogging tools and the WWW have up until this point required access to the web to share and disseminate information, yet now anyone with a mobile phone who can send a text can share information with a huge global community instantaneously.

However, it is not without it problems. For the last week it has been stable, but it certainly is suffering from sever growing pains and can still at times be frustrating in its outages. But then it reminds me of when I was running my BBS. Waiting 12 hours for the next fido-mail package seemed at eternity. Now if Twitter is down for an hour or less people around the world start freaking out. (Me included). Yet and despite all of its problems it seems to be growing.

Is it more than just a series of random conversations for me? YES. Already I have found out from the people that I follow and engage with information that I would have not found out in any other means. In some respects Twitter at the moment is the smoker’s corner. All the smokers are going out for a quick twit, sharing info and then back to their desks for real work. Those in the smokers group are sharing knowledge outside the normal business and social framework. Much as the smokers of old would.

You will notice that my twitter feed is on the side of the blog on every page. I decided to make my timeline public and the rewards are immense. Yes it will take a while to work out who to follow, who not to and even what tools to use (such is it flexibility). But once you engage and you do need too engage, Twitter can be as far removed from the passive mediums such as newspaper and television as you can get with out a brain chip.  If you want it to be.  And you will want it to, then and only then will you be able to see its potential and what you can offer the global conversation.

http://twitter.com/wolfcat

and here is the boss of twitter talking about it.


Jack Dorsey Presents Twitter from biz stone on Vimeo.

New Snow Chase…

Well I spent all day yesterday out on another snow chase.

Firstly I approached the bank to get a load to pay for the fuel, lucky for me I wasn’t going alone and was taking a 4y/o with me as she had never been to the snow before having lived in Darwin for the last few years. (On an amusing side note, she has for reasons that escape both me and her father started to refer to me as Captain Wolf. I can live with that, I have been called worse!)

But to keep things on a technical nature so that I can justify putting details onto the blog I have a few new goodies… They are a KML of a Toboggan Run (which has the distance at 600metres and the max speed at 16kph!), the video of said run and a whole pile of new photos. The trip was the same route as a few weeks ago so the trip KML has changed really. Apart from the fact that I was stuck behind the same stupid slow guy for 50k’s who refused to go above 60 at ALL! (will put up video shortly!)

And on to the media….

The Toboggan Run (KML File on the KML Page here)

More Photos here.. http://flickr.com/photos/wolfcat_aus/

Snow Girl 5

Snow Trees

And the Drive home which is once again the webcam attached to the Asus R2H to recorded the whole trip. This time I have New Order’s The Beach as the soundtrack, simply because it is the same length as the video was meant to be (of course it is 20 second to short but what can you do).:-)

My Imaginary Friend is better than yours!

The time has come for me to take a holy book to a location. Why, because I finally have a bit of paper that says you can bring your own holy book. The paper is the inviation to do my Australian Citizenship ceremony.

It says ” should you wish to make the pledge on a holy book of your choice, please bring that holy book to the ceremony”.

I am torn at this point however. I am an atheist through and through. But should I let an opportunity like this pass me by. So here are more choices so far.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. (great book written by a great atheist)
God Delusion, Richard Dawkins. (great book, plus has the added advantage of being a red rag to a bull).

or perhaps just take the Manual for my Nokia N95, I seem to spend a great deal of time worshipping the phone.

The other option of course is I could just make up a cover… say Atheisism for Beginners, or slightly more controversial “My Imaginary Friend is better than yours“.

You have 3 days to offer other suggestions.