Insert Clever Title Here

Now, I know I shouldn’t listen to Scott Morrison MP ( as covered here on my blog ), my doctor advised against it as it always raises my blood pressure to unhealthy levels. But yesterday I encountered another of his daft statements.

I shall elaborate as to which one in a moment, simply because most of what he says is daft.

But first I’ll deal with the headline on the ABC.

“Labor policy ‘unravelling’ as new boat arrives”

Really, I am not sure why the ABC seems to be so keen to let the Liberals write their headlines for them. Even “Labor policy ‘unravelling’ as new boat arrives: Morrison says” would have been a much better headline, and certainly one without the political bias that the ABC fights so hard against. ( Original ABC story here )

But enough ABC bashing, back to Morrison. This is in regards to the latest boat found of the Australian Coastline with 32 asylum seekers arriving on Friday 13/5/11.

“But Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says people smugglers have called the Government’s bluff.”

Now, I have a few points that perhaps people should stop and think about

1. The policy was announced the previous Sunday, so 5 days before the boatarrived.
2. What is the sailing time for the boat, as its departure point was not mentioned in the article.
3. Did Scott Morrison speak to anyone on the vessel either prior to its departure, or after its arrival.
4. Did anyone fact check and question Morrison in regards to his statement

Now the reason for this is quite simple. Morrison says that the people smugglers were calling the Governments bluff. How does he know this. I am of the opinion that he didn’t have a clue about anyone on the boat or their motives. Not having any of the first 3 points of information, makes what he said a lie.

But does the media pull him up on this.. of course they don’t.

Even if the boat left after the policy was announced, does Morrison and his ilk seriously expect us to believe the following.

1. Policy announced with changes to Boat People arrivals processes
2. People smugglers quickly arrange a boat, find people and crew for said boat
3. Even allowing 3 days sail, get to North Western Australia
4. Sit back and laugh at Australian Government cause they called their bluff.

The whole issue of arriving by boat, vs arriving by air is abhorrent enough, let alone with this absurd statements made by Morrison and his supporters.

Perhaps if we weren’t so busy in a race to the bottom, real questions, real policy and real answers could be found.

Tags: Annoyances by Wolf
No Comments »

There are a number of things that are being credited to this thing called Twitter, but before it becomes the stuff of powerpoint presentations of #smegs around the world and snake oil sales men (note: terms are interchangeable), a few things need to be set straight.

Firstly, Twitter didn’t break the news. The news was broken, old fashioned style via a leak. A leak I am sure the Whitehouse was not uncomfortable with. Given how much they had kept everything under wraps down to the amazing poker faced Obama at the Correspondents Dinner, this leak was not without some level of purpose. The leak ensured that there was audience for the announcement. In the old days, Keith Urbahn would have phoned a reporter at a local radio station, these days he just put it on twitter.

“So I’m told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn” at 10:24EST.

Did Twitter break the story, no, Keith did. Please remember that when you are prepping those powerpoints. I’d also say that Twitter was not the first place that Keith spread the news to either.

Of course, once this happened, the “cat” was out of the bag, (or to coin a really bad turn of phrase ) the Osama was in the bag. Did CNN, NYT, ABC etc tell this, no, they did old fashioned journalism.They checked for sources, rechecked, cross checked etc.

I for example, didn’t rt that original link, why because I wanted “proof”, proof in the form of more than one source that can be verified. I know, showing my age, but hey.

Like all good stories, there was a build up. The tension, what was his “secret” press conf about that traditional media ( well in the form of websites ) had hinted about 30 minutes beforehand. Why was it taking so long for Obama to deliver the press conference, given that he is usually so punctual.

Twitter did help kill the time. The jokes were funny. Well they were the first time. Yet each joke was a variation on the iphone,foursquare, twitter, even Playstation hack location. Nothing original, all been done before. The sad thing is these jokes have lasted longer than the time it took to bury Osama, but should have been buried at sea with him.

Finally, traditional media had enough proof. Obama wasn’t on air yet, but the story had been confirmed. Did Twitter break this story,no, why because Twitter doesn’t generate content, it distributes content. NYT, ABC, CNN etc had enough evidence to pass the burden of proof.

The story was told, and then something interesting came out. Turns out the story had already been told. When Athar (@ReallyVirtual) tweeted the noise of helicopters, explosions et al near his home in Abbotabad it was unusual for the location. Very quickly though it would turn out to be a claim to “internet fame” (note: internet fame is measure in internet years, which is around 2 days ).

So of course Twitter jumps on the story, that the story was on Twitter. Funny thing was that no one talked about his tweets a few hours before hand. Why, because it wasn’t a big story then. Once traditional media and a president made an announcement it became a story. See, no Twitter, just a lot of luck.

People are now saying, that because he live tweeted the raid, the future for covert ops like this are in danger. A couple of points. Osama didn’t use twitter, remember the lack of phones in the compound attracted US interest. Secondly, possibly more importantly, by the time that the event was being “live tweeted”, the team of Navy Seals with weapons firing jumping out of low flying helicopters was most probably a bit of a give away to the bad guys as it were.

Now I am a big a fan of Twitter as everyone else, but it distributed the message, it didn’t create the message. Had I been watching ABCnews24 or even more old school listening to the radio I would have still heard the story, just 15 or so minutes later.

Tags: Annoyances, twitter by Wolf
No Comments »

A huge issue I have with the conservative politics is the ” we want things like they were” argument. An argument, that came to the fore again with Jim Wallace stating his 96 year old father didn’t recognise Modern Australia, and the implication that this was bad.

Which part is bad, is the point of conjecture. A point that is never applied evenly or fairly, with examples always singled out around policy areasthat fit the agenda of the person making the statement. From Immigration Policy, Sexual Equality, Gay Rights and even Employment, everything was always better back in the day. Sometimes that day precedes before the people making these statements were even born.

Post WWI in Australia was a place that women had only recently got the vote, couldn’t run for Parliament and were a minority in most work places. ABC radio was not to come around until 1923. Two thirds of thecountries income came from wheat and wool only. And Kingsford Smith would not finished his first flying circuit of Australia till 1927. Modern medical treatments still hadn’t been invented yet, and the great depression still hadn’t come. Is this the time that people are harking for?

Perhaps the post WWII Australia is what people would like a country thatbecame founded on “Populate or Perish” (*Well if you are white that is o.k). ABC Radio was a major force, but it would 11 years afterthe war before we got ABC TV, so perhaps just radio and newspapers was allthe information that we needed. Aboriginals didn’t become citizens of Australia until 1949, and didn’t get the right to vote inQLD and WA until 1962. And finally the world now had Penicillin, which hadjust kicked off in 1944 to mass manufacturing, so at least a simple infection wouldn’t kill you. Is this the time people want back.

Rushing forward into the post Vietnam era, we have TV ( and colour is coming soon), modern suburbs and pretty decent health care. Of course, we didn’t have medicare, equal pay for women is still (and still is) a long way off, but at least now universities were free for most. So perhaps this is the period that people are harking back for.

Now of course, we have the internet, instant global communications, cheap and reliable interstate and international airtravel, health care that even 20 years ago would have been considered miraculous with PET/MRI scans finding diseases that were untreatable not that long ago. Of course we can’t treat lung cancer or asbestosis to 100% but society has taken stepsto cut these and simailar issues out.

Our biggest export is now our dirt, but we do have a large number of Nobel Prizes to our name for many things and we do as a country lead the worldin a number of aspects when it comes to technology. Our biggest trade partners are also countries that were excluded by the White Australia Policy, China, Japan, South Korea.

So which do we give up. To get where we are today is a journey made of all of these parts. Modern birth control and education has liberated women to the highest roles in the land and yet we need to go back because people don’t recognise the country.

I don’t like some parts of modern Australia, but I do like health care, science, technology and all the benefits that they have brought. Perhaps those harking back for “simpler” times could list all the things they are willing to give up, I think the list would be pretty short.

Tags: Annoyances by Wolf
No Comments »

Tags: Annoyances by Wolf
No Comments »

The problem with all politicians, from all sides of politics, is they don’t speak English.  Well not the English that you or I would speak.  They speak a wholly different language, that in passing sounds like English to us mere mortals in the street as it were.

On the 15th of Feb, finally some of the victims of the Dec 15 Christmas Island boat tragedy were buried in Sydney.  Yet, instead of this being a time of reflection on our policies, it was taken by many to be a time not to morn, but to raise heckles and spurn any humane treatment.

The issue at hand, the cost of flying the detainees to Sydney for the funeral.  These detainees included a 8year old boy, whose father died, and a father who buried his 8 month old child, and whose wife and other daughter remains were never found.

Now before I continue, I need to say this in shouty capital letters. “IT IS NOT ILLEGAL TO SEEK REFUGE IN AUSTRALIA”.  This refuge can be sought if you arrive by plane or by boat.

Yet, and I will single one person out, that person being Scott Morrison MP, who felt this was a prime opportunity to push what is nothing more than a campaign of fear. A campaign that was brought to light by One Nation, which ceased to be a major political force, when the underlying ideals of the party were taken to the main stream by John Howard, and in most cases, reflected by the then Labor Opposition and current Labor Government.

On the day of the funerals Scott Morrison said the Federal Government should not be paying for asylum seekers to be flown to Sydney for the funerals of people killed in the Christmas Island shipwreck. Why did he say this, to create division, to capitalise on the moment as it were, and to push his own agenda.

But, and the big but here, is despite the outcry, the media as a whole have brought his apology.  The ABC even ran that headline “Morrison climbs down in funeral row“

But he didn’t. The weasel words he used were “Timing in terms of comments is very important … the timing of my comments was insensitive and inappropriate.”

The key thing here, is that he didn’t back down from his message.  A message that was given plenty of airtime, plenty of discussion, and little recourse.  He backed down from the timing of the message.  Timing he would have know to be optimal for getting his message out.  He succeeded.

He did not in any way shape or form back down from the content of the message. A message, that his leader Tony Abbott, went on today to praise for his “acknowledging he went too far”.

Sorry Mr Morrison and Mr Abbott, both of you went to far, you failed to show a single thread of human decency, then through “Political speak”, claim you have apologised.  No you haven’t . People weren’t upset with the timing, but with the message. (A Hat tip does have to go out to Joe Hockey, who did show some decency)

Initial estimates put the cost at less than 2cents per tax payer as a one off, for the cost of the funeral.  Please tell me where I can donate my $10 to cover a number of people and I will gladly show more heart for $10 than either Abbott or Morrison did.

Tags: Annoyances, General by Me
No Comments »

Ok… now that I have murdered song lyrics for a title, I think I have set the tone I was after.

I don’t like the “New” Twitter layout. And the constant reminders that it is going to go… ” our using an older version of Twitter that won’t be around for much longer” fill me with what is in reality a #firstworldproblem kind of dread.

I run a lot of accounts off and on, and yes I am more than familiar with a number of apps and different solutions. I use Seemic on my phone, have used dabr on my old phone, tweetdeck on my computers and even twirl. But I like the simplicity of “Old Twitter”.

With 40k+ tweets, and having been on Twitter since May 2007, I think a: I crap on a lot and b: I am a regular user of the platform. And whilst I see all the benefits of the apps, I like the simplicity that the web interface gives me. Also it means that I am in my primary app for content creation and can just move between windows to share content.

I like the clean nature of the website and that it does just sit into the background, apps demand to much attention and show the flow of information almost to well.  I know every tweet and every link doesn’t need to be read, certainly, not in the same window. If I want the content, I am happy to let it load in another window for example, or just bookmark it for later reading. I like seeing when I have new Direct Messages, not have them hidden in a tool bar.

I like the stability of the old twitter as well. All the bells and whistles just create problems. I move between new and old computers all the time and find that new twitter eats content, breaks media and causes more frustration, ironically leading to me missing more content.

I can see why people do like the new twitter, but I am not one of them.

Given that my original tweet “dear twitter stop threatening to get rid of old twitter or I will write an angry blog post that 5 people might read.” made it to the home page of twitter, was rt by hundreds of people and has got me lots of comments about it, I don’t think I am alone in my thinking.

So I implore you kind folks at twitter, who give me a service that I have not paid 1cent to use, let me have old twitter as an option.

Cheers

@wolfcat.

P.S can you please fix my direct messages count, and whilst you are at it… get rid of the people squatting on twitter handles for more than 12 months.

P.P.S I still like you Twitter, and I still want to be friends with your website.

Tags: Annoyances, General, Redbubble, twitter by Me
5 Comments »

I’d love to work in main stream media, there are so many perks. The biggest these days seems to be that you can appropriate content from anyone with a glib line and not give them any recognition what-so-ever.

Melbourne had a very impressive line of thunderstorms move through on Friday (12 Nov. 2010) evening, so as a weather “nut”, I’ve got the radar on the computer, and the camera ready to go. When a squall hit at home, I switched from stills to a quick 1 minute video.

Perchance on Saturday night, (TV in the kitchen while cooking tea) I happen to catch the Melbourne 9 news story about the weather. And whilst still being grumpy about calling something a mini tornado, which there is no such thing as, I see a glimpse of a bit of footage, and think, hey that looks familiar…

Today, I checked the NineMSN website for the story, with that nagging feeling still present… and guess what… it WAS my footage. 2 seconds or 10 seconds doesn’t matter to me. It was my footage, I did not give permission, was not asked for consent, was given no recognition, and certainly I was not TOLD.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/video.aspx?videoid=1cdb6005-75d8-4622-9ba0-c81aae430307 ( scroll to 1:22 )  ( Can someone identify the second piece of footage? )

If I had been asked, the chances are I would have said yes, but that really is beside the point. If someone from Channel 9 is surfing YouTube for content, how hard would it be to leave a comment saying, “great footage, can we use it”, or even, “great footage, we used a few seconds of it on the news”. It is about recognition, not theft!

Guessing what 3 seconds of footage on primetime news costs, I think if channel 9 buy me a new Nikon D7000, I’ll take that as payment for services rendered.

Really, come on media, lift your game.

My footage ( watch on youtube for the 720 version, video recorded on my Nikon D90)

and one of my still shots…

Update:

——–

COPYRIGHT ACT 1968 – SECT 42

Fair dealing for purpose of reporting news

(1)  A fair dealing with a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, or with an adaptation of a literary, dramatic or musical work, does not constitute an infringement of the copyright in the work if:

(a)  it is for the purpose of, or is associated with, the reporting of news in a newspaper, magazine or similar periodical and a sufficient acknowledgement of the work is made; or

(b)  it is for the purpose of, or is associated with, the reporting of news by means of a communication or in a cinematograph film.

——–

I’m guessing option b is what their defence would be, but still, my point of being TOLD, is not covered.  Someone from Channel 9 was on Youtube, took MY copyrighted content, for “news” value and couldn’t even be arsed to leave a comment saying that they had?

I guess it falls into the you wouldn’t steal a car, you wouldn’t steal a handbag, don’t steal a movie, unless it has news value, and you don’t want to even notify the owner of the video you have “stolen” it.

Unless as per Section 6 par C of the Youtube TOS http://www.youtube.com/t/terms Channel 9 have a licensing deal with Youtube for content.   Personally I’d like to know if Channel 9 do have a deal with YouTube, and certainly if they haven’t does the Copyright Act trump the TOS of Youtube and Google? ( I’ll leave the lawyers for the respective parties to argue that one )

Perhaps it is time the Copyright Act was dramatically updated to include fair use of social media.  A clause of attribution and notification on the source of the content seems reasonable to me.

Tags: Annoyances, Nikon D90, video by Me
15 Comments »

Not to be a name dropper, but I do know people in Telstra, Google and HTC.  They are really smart people as well. I’d go out on a limb to say that most of the people that work in these companies are smart people. Knowing this makes dealing with the outcomes of doing a firmware update even harder.

Having all ready written about why I wasn’t going to update my firmware to Telstra Froyo until the official version came out, I can now finally deal with the firmware update. What should have been an easy process turned out to be a nightmare of usability, performance, general shenanigans and complete frustration.

From the last few weeks of miscommunication, lack of transparency and frustration about the whens and ifs of the update itself. There was a large audience of very technically literate people crying out for this update, months after Google release it, finally Telstra say it is coming.  Coming in  4 weeks, a few days, a few more days, sometime soon, we will let you know, soon e.t.c.  If they didn’t know what is wrong with saying you don’t know.  If there is a delay, what is wrong in saying what the delay is.  Being open about these processes will in most cases placate people.  Why can’t these corporations just realise that Lack of information is the main cause of audience frustration?

So finally, the firmware comes out yesterday. Now for reasons, that haven’t been disclosed, the firmware isn’t OTA ( Over the AIR ), meaning when you press “Settings: About phone: System software updates: Check Now” on your phone, it simply says “ Your Phone is up to date”. But it isn’t.  Why isn’t the system designed to handle non OTA updates?

So I know that there is a firmware update. Great, jump on the web and head to http://www.htc.com/au/, and yes HTC have a link to Telstra Firmware on the homepage.  But not so fast. This is a link to the version from 2010-04-30.  So to get the new version, you have to click product support, whats new.  Why is it so hard to update the home page?

Next, you have to get the serial number for you phone.  To do this, you have to take the back off, then remove the battery, then enter the serial number of your device.  Of course the file is now available on a number of forums without asking for a serial number to install. Why do I need to get the serial number again?

At least now I am at the download stage. Please do not be in a hurry to download.  A 173meg download taking 3 hours to download is just stupid.  I was average around 20kbs for this file. I’m sure Telstra have enough capacity to ensure a slightly faster download. Why wasn’t a local server for downloading the software available?

Now comes installing.  With 30 or so pages about the firmware update on Whirlpool talking about errors and work arounds to get the install to work. Seems that Win7 64bit and/or your choice of USB ports seems to be an issue. A random USB 170 or USB 171 error are really not helpful. This shows that perhaps a bit more real world testing of the update may have been required. Why not release a public beta version of the update to sort this out first?

So finally you get the installer to work.  Then you see the big red writing “Installing the ROM Update Utility (RUU) will delete ALL information and data on your Android phone.” Yes everything, all your settings, apps, messages, screens, everything.  Funny thing is I can update my Playstation3, my computers, my other phones ( eg Nokia’s ) without losing everything.  Of course there are backup apps.  But 3^rd party apps, that you need to pay for just to back up your phone to do a firmware update. Why can’t they just back up your settings when installing?

Sure I know have Froyo, but was it worth it? If you include all the stress, running around and fixing I now have to do to my phone, I’d say only just.  But then I won’t know for quite some time, as all my contacts have got screwed up, I don’t have any apps installed yet and have to reset all my wifi passwords as well just to download stuff.

And if you are a non techie person, I’d say phone a friend before attempting this at home.

———-

Update from HTC

To assist our customers in downloading the Froyo update for the HTC Desire in Australia, below are some helpful tips.  For any further assistance, customers should contact HTC Customer Care in Australia on 1300-482-482. An over-the-air update will be available soon for customers.

1.     Follow the installation instructions that are available on the HTC Australia support web site
2.     Before installing HTCSync remove any previous versions.
3.     Remove any HTC drivers from Windows Device manager
4.     Install the latest version of HTC Sync 3
5.     Disable any Anti Virus s/w or firewalls.
6.     Connect the device directly to the PC/Laptop and not via a USB hub
7.     Reboot the computer.
8.     If all fails try another computer

—-

The above comments from HTC’s Facebook page also puts pay to the comments below that a OTA update would be to big!.

My advice would be to wait until the Over the Air Update comes out and has been tested, this would be even more true for Mac users.

———

final update…

Great news….  via @petesymons

FroYo OTA now avail for Telstra HTC Desire. Use WIFI & have 25MB memory free. Go 2 settings>about phone>syst software updates>check now

———

(p.s this post is also on the ABC Tech site, so head over there for more comments as well )

Tags: Annoyances, HTC-Desire by Me
12 Comments »

I’m sure people much more articulate that I have covered this… but what the hell here is my 2cents worth on the whole #grogsgate affair.

The Australian has taken the line that it was in the public’s interest to know.  But now we all know what has changed.  Do people feel betrayed by Grog, do people question everything he has written, do we feel he has lied.  For me the answer is no, and this is where The Australian has let itself down and betrayed Grog for nothing more than a petty squabble over bragging rights.

Unlike many of the pseudonyms that have been referred to, or hidden leakers and secret “sources”, not one thing changed.  People have a name and nothing more.  Perhaps if the Australian had thought about this, the fallout wouldn’t be so bad.  IMHO the public interest test was failed.  All we learned was a name and which department he works for. Everything else is the same.  These two “facts” haven’t changed a single thing he wrote.

The Australian did play the man and not the ball.  Unlike secret emails from Treasury, or worse anonymous editorials attacking our political process and blatant crankiness that their chosen one didn’t win the election, not one thing changed knowing who he is.

Worse still is the fallout for Grog, who has been forced to defend himself for what has proved to be trumped up nothingness.  Sure some people were curious, and perhaps his name should have come out, but there are ways and means.  Perhaps it would have come out in time anyway.  But then what did it matter, when a blogger writes they have to defend themselves on their writing, not on the masthead.

It was Grog’s writing that drew people in.  Sure people agreed with him and yet people also disagreed with him.  His blog gave people an open platform to disagree and to a name.  That name may not have been real, but it was still him and he would still have to defend his words.

It’s funny how Mark Scott took his words to heart and looked at what the ABC was doing, not treating him as a threat.  The Australian, doesn’t take the critics well and instead of addressing them gave us a story that didn’t change a thing.

That is the crux, it was a non story, but a non story that will have ramifications for Grog and for media as a whole.

Grog won’t be the last to be outed, but I am sure The Australian isn’t going to like when the bloggers fight back, which they will.

And yes my name is Wolf

Tags: Annoyances, General by Me
5 Comments »

I just brought myself a new 1.5tb drive for backing up my photos today for $98. That goes with the 2Tb I have in my computer the 320gb USB drive and the 880gb USB powered HD’s that I have. 10 years ago a 1tb drive would have cost me around $15k.

I remember fondly my first Zip Drive. (I have about 1gb of zip disks floating around here in the office at home somewhere as well ) That 100meg of storage was a god send for backing up working files and those huge 2meg photo scans that I had.

Back in 1999, Nikon introduced the D1. Their first Digital SLR. It had an amazing 2.7megapixel sensor and cost around 12K AUD. 10 Years later their top prosumer camera has 16megapixels and a price under 1.5K.

Of course now I shoot 10meg Raw shots, and when I can afford the new D7000 they will be near 20meg per shot for raw. And I’m only shooting DX format shots.

Even the new Nokia N8 has a 12megapixel camera. That means a phone will be producing shots that chew up as much space as from my DSLR.

A top of line the Hasselblad H4D chews up 50MB raw files for each shot for a 40Mpixel camera. All in a camera that costs 30k USD. That size will in the next 10 years be what a lot of people have access to as their image sensors..

My Nikon D90 can shoot 720p, but I have a 1080p video recorder as well. Even my phone shoots at 720p.The D7000 is a 1080p camera. The replacement for 1080p is 4k. Having seen Blade Runner with a 4k projection all I can say is wow. So we don’t have home 4k systems yet, and very few cinemas have them. Yet already Youtube will support 4k Video. So there is a business case for using 4k video for say live streaming of a concert over IP and selling tickets. Or even like with the recent World Cup, selling tickets for the Cinema.

As more people can access the technology to create cheap high definition content that they wish to share they run into the limitations of ADSL. Try and upload a video and you will see how long that takes compared to downloading. The NBN whilst not truly symmetrical will offer speeds up to 1gpbs/400mbps compared to say ADSL 2 at 24000/2500 kbps (which is the theoretical best if you live next to the exchange ).

IMHO this ability to upload the content that we are creating is the killer app for the NBN for the general public. The rise of social media, the rise of YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and their increasing ability to serve the content that we produce are what we the public will use the NBN for.

All the doubters say the NBN is going to be too fast… tell me what you did 10 years ago on the net and tell me what you do now… then think about just what the Digital Camera has done in 10 years.

The amount of data we are creating and storing is going up by these volumes, the prices for storing and accessing the data is falling at the same rate, why do people suddenly think that the demand for transferring these files via the internet will suddenly stop?

Tags: Annoyances, General, Nikon D90 by Me
3 Comments »