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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
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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
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It matters when an obvious right wing twitter user decides he can act like a 3 year old and tell tales.  ( Media Watch 30/9/2010)

What then irritates me even more is when Media Watch and Fairfax take what is obviously a political agenda and run with it.  Like vexatious litigants taking up our time, this complaint falls into this category.

I fail to see how a person that doesn’t interview politicians, has nothing to do with them or their reporting cannot express a political view.  Perhaps the language was not the best, but the sentiment was well agreed with by those with similar political views.

Yet for some reason the label of “Journalist” means that the person is no longer entitled to a political view no matter where within an organisation or even external to that organisation.

More so, if anyone who is any Journalist now makes any comment even when obviously not on the job (at 11pm) expresses any political view on Twitter a precedent has been established to rake them over the coals.

Gloating about telling tales is plain childish, certainly doesn’t further any arguments about the reasoning behind what was nothing more than a blatant biased political attack.  If Julia Gillard had been called bad names, would he have complained.  I doubt it. ( e.g saying  Paul Howl is talking shit )

Why also did Media Watch deem this newsworthy is also questionable.  700 followers and an account which clearly stated Freelance Tech Journalist making political statements is not that big a story is it?

The fallout from Media Watch will be for at least a while people will keep a little quieter.  Managers will look at the noise that was generated and tighten the noose a little more. And a few people will just go underground, well at least until they are found out again.

A vexatious complainant with an obvious political agenda gets to wield influence that could have cost someone a sizeable chunk of their income ( I presume). Yes the language was a bit harsh, and yes on reflection he shouldn’t have said what he did, but remove one or two harsh words and you are left with the tone.  The tone is now what is endangered not only from Journalists, but all those that work in any corporation that is worried about its public image.

The lines between public and private are blurring, but that does not mean that only your employer is how you are defined, nor should it.

Tags: Annoyances, General, twitter by Me
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The funny things about the television is that people seem to forget the remote control. This can be used for a number of startling features including changing channels and even more radical feature, turning the device off.

Why am I rating this, well, due to the various levels of outrage over the live coverage of the hostage drama in Manila on Monday night Australian time. Like 9/11 this was uncensored TV that showed life and death in all its brutal reality. This was no Speed where Keanu would save the day, this was real people caught up in one man’s madness by being nothing more than in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Was it hard to watch, yes, did I watch it, yes I did. Was I watching as some sort of voyeur I would say no, but that may well be for others to judge.  Was it right for it to be shown on TV, that is the trickery moral question.  For me it is like “Bearing Witness”.  Albeit from the safety of my living room.

Certainly no one can argue that it was not news worthy. 25 innocent hostages on a bus with a deranged gun man wanting his job back is news worthy. Whether or not it is in Australia it was always going to be a major story. Cutting to live feed as it came through was most probably what most 24 hour news channels would do, both Sky and Abc News24 did. Sky I believe did switch to at least a 10th second delay giving them a “kill” switch if anything to horrific came through. The ABC did not.

But like 9/11 the drama unfolded live. Yet unlike the footage of the people jumping from the towers all we saw were slumped bodies and the eventually the dead body of the gun man hanging on the bus window.

Perhaps with so much life and death violence on TV we have all become desensitised to this level of violence. I think not however.  Perhaps I have more faith in humanity, but even the outrage that I saw on Twitter last night about the coverage in a strange way gave me hope.

At the end of the day though, it is still YOUR responsibility to change channels or turn off.  That power will always lie with you, not with the broadcaster.  Everyone watching it unfold knew it could be bad, if you kept watching that was your choice.

Tags: Annoyances, General, twitter by Me
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At 5pm on the 13th of August 2010, 2 people are slain in Lygon Street.

From ABC News ( 7:30pm)

“The shooting happened in Lygon Street, Carlton, and police received a call about 5:00pm (AEST) that shots had been fired.
One witness said shots were fired at or outside the Players on Lygon bar.
Police have confirmed two people are dead.
The victims are believed to be in their 60s or 70s.
One man, reported to be in his 50s, has been taken into custody.
“Details are very, very sketchy,” a police spokeswoman said.”

Yet despite this… the @DocklandsMelb think it is o.k to capitalise on this for their own gain. Now I have seen a few jokes around already, mostly referring to Underworld XXV or Richard Wilkins and Jeff Goldblum.  These jokes while yes in bad taste are quite removed from the situation and what for at least three families will be a day that they will never forget.

“Come to Docklands for dinner tonight. We promise this wont happen #LygonShooting about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck”

There are jokes and there is just stupidity.  Twitter lets you just blurt shit out.  People do ( even I do ), but if you are reflecting a company…  pause, take a breath and think about everything you say.  Even when the tweet is deleted and the apology is sent, the damage has been done. To say this is in bad taste does it no justice, it is wrong on some many levels and reflects badly on the company.  Remember in the real time world, you can’t afford to be stupid.

[image title="docklands" size="full" id="1335" align="right" linkto="full" ]

( Update: Don’t send a tweet and then not look at your account over the weekend as well….   Monday morning and Docklands sent 1 tweet over the weekend and nothing in the form of an apology for shear tastelessness )

Tags: Annoyances, General, twitter by Me
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(Warning I shall once again massacre an analogy for this post)
Now this is shitting me to tears. Everyone against (and most for) the NBN keep using the car analogy to describe it. “Who wants a Ferrari”, “ Who needs a Ferrari” e.t.c. Well let me just say this. You are all WRONG.

Why, because the NBN is not the car, it is the road. Your connection and how much you pay to drive on the NBN is up to you. That is the end user cost, and that is the car. The Autobahn is the NBN, and you will find people driving trucks, old bombs, Ferrari’s and even some lucky people a Bugatti Veyron down that stretch of road. Why, because that is what their budget ( or expense account ) lets them drive.

Unlike the Autobahn however you can drive as quickly or as slowly as you like. So you can drive at 1.5mbps or 1gbps if you want and you wont piss off any other drivers on the road.

Myself, I want a Ferrari or a Veyron for driving down this road, why because I can think of a lot of user cases for it.

The difference between 100mbps and 1gpbs for example means that I can access blue ray or higher quality video 1 min before I walk out the door onto my portable device to consume as I need. Where ADSL gave us always on, 1gpbs gives us always there content. No planning required, just obtain the content on a as needed basis. This will be as big a shift in how we communicate and consume media as the always on model has been if not bigger.

Lots of people say, but I won’t consume that amount of data. No, chances are you won’t. Chances are most of us won’t (well not for the next 5 years anyway). But if you have more than 2 people in your house they will. As we become increasingly connected, the number of devices in our homes increases. Each of these devices sucks in media, the more people the more media that is being consumed. 1gbps will mean that as the kids can watch the latest BBC doco in 4k brilliance (and YouTube already offer this quality of video), you telecommute with large 3d cad files. Each of these on their own isn’t much, simultaneous connections is where the NBN will excel.

5 years ago there was no YouTube outputting 24 hours a day of content every minute. In 5 years time, there will be something new. Data growth is exponential. That is a fact, anyone who thinks that we don’t need more data needs to look at their own data use over the last 5 years.

Now, the NBN goes to your house. Not to the node. That last mile connection is what gives you the real speed. Wireless isn’t going to give it to you, wireless will just give you a traffic jam in peak hour. ( Worse when it is raining )

However unlike the Autobahn, the NBN is effectively unlimited in lanes.  Upgrading the interchanges will upgrade the speed.  Once the cable is in the ground, your end point and the local node are upgraded to increase speed.  The cable doesn’t need to be changed.

And like any major road that is built the NBN will be available as parts are completed.  Yes it will take 8 years, but that is for the whole project.  Major urban areas will come on stream much quicker.  So the ” it is 8 years away” argument is nonsensical.  More so that the test sites are coming on stream already. The Hume as dual carriage did not need the whole road to be completed before it could be used.

Also the NBN as it currently stands is an Autobahn to 93% of the population. Look at the maps to see just how many small regional towns are going to get access to this technology.  This will remove the digital divide between city and country faster and better than has ever been achieved at any time in the past. The business case will be for the end user to decide their own car, not to shareholders to decide what car you can drive.

I don’t count 12mbps per second as anything future proof in any way shape or form.  There are so many businesses already crying out for faster speeds, spending 6billion on a few new signposts and a few new highways between capital cities isn’t going to make the road any faster. It will however create more of a divide for those not living only where it is profitable for the big end of telco town to spend money.

When the Snowy scheme was built it opened up new areas to farming. The NBN is the 21st century opening of the whole country to this high speed road.  A road you can drive whatever car you like on.

Tags: Annoyances, General by Me
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Now, both major parties, and most of the minor parties run on a politics of fear.  From BOAT PEOPLE are taking over, WORK CHOICES is coming back, to the even more extreme “Gays are all depressed”.

But this one bugs me…  bugs me a lot.  (oh and I have a photo of it, so it is easier to do blog post on it)

The Labor’s 100 Million Dollars a Day.  Why is this a problem, quite simply because the Liberals have said they will pay of the deficit at more or less the same time.  So this means that the Liberals if they get power will have exactly the same level of debt repayments that Labour currently has.  So the issue is that if the Libs get power, they will do exactly what Labor are already doing?  A large number of (possibly overpaid) financial experts all agree that Australia weathered the GFC (or whatever technical term you wish to apply) incredibly well and that no matter who was in power, the government of the day would have entered into some level of debt.

As has been pointed out, the debt levels that Australia has are 2^nd to none in the world.  ( and not just because of the last 10 years, but 20 years of economic reform ), yet the Liberals run a policy of fear.

Even on the 7.30 Report Tony Abbott says “ Hundreds of Millions ” in a shrill voice.  Trying to relate that amount of money to normal people.  Sorry, but this amount of money cannot be treated as we treat money.  The scales are just too different. Drive along a new bit of freeway and try and see why it cost $1.5billion.  Without an understanding of the scales and trying to use your own pay packet as a bench mark will always result in a lack of understanding.

And like all political adverts, this one contains a disclaimer.  What is says, I am sure that only the persons that printed it and hung it would be able to tell you.  5 stories above street level there is no way to read what it says.  This needs to change.  I am only presuming that this is a Liberal advert.  Both Labor and Liberal do this.  And it has to stop.

So the numbers are bullshit, the argument is flawed and the subjective nature is exploitative.  Why, because it works.  The politics of fear has always been the way of politics.  Even the Greens use these tactics.  As they say, doesn’t matter who you vote for… a politician gets in.  With ads like this and people believing them, this will never change.

Tags: Annoyances, General by Me
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Wow, I’ve really made it.  One of my tweets made page 8 of The Age (31/72010).  Pity I haven’t brought the paper in years and it was a friend (with a free copy) who found my name in it.

First point, and really it is so small as to be trivial, The article reads “But worse has followed. On ABC TV’s Q&A political panel The Worm was replaced by a series of idiot remarks from the Twitterverse and began less than a minute are the panel was introduced.” Pity really that Monday 26 April was the first episode of Q and A to have live tweets,  so I wouldn’t infer that this is brand new.  So I am going to draw the conclusion that Lawrence Money is not a regular Q and A watcher.

“Great panel” was the pointless first tweet from emilybweeb.”

Sure, it may have been pointless, but why is her opinion any less valuable than anyone else’s.  She may have genuinely thought it was a great panel, why is she not allowed to have and yet more importantly share this view.

On the Q and A Website they state..  “Q&A is about encouraging people to engage with politics and society.” But Lawrence seems to be of the opinion that if it is not funny or relevant to him, it should be derided.

…  “ A minute later came wolfcat: “Based on last night’s debate has anyone woken up yet?” Hilarious, huh?”

The Panel was taking about the debate and how boring it was… so yes it was funny.  Why was it funny, because it was in context and timely.  But I guess when you are writing a static column a week after the event you’re going to miss the joke.  (Don’t worry I am laughing at you now if it is any consolation)

Well see this is the thing, like the worm, the tweets are a sentiment tracker, but unlike the worm tweets add context and meaning as well.

“and this from unsongsongs:” Obviously the cut backs in The Age mean that they can no longer afford proof readers, the username is @unsungsongs.  (Hint for your style guide as well. You should refer to users including the @ symbol)

By the end of the evening that episode of #QandA 14,492 Tweets from 2,941 contributors.  (Source: @tweeveetv), so it is an active community trying to participate in democracy.

Also it is not the first time the ABC has had tweets on live TV, that honour goes to News Breakfast, which has been doing them (off and on) for the last two years.  But hey, never let the facts get in the way of a rant. Nor should we look at places like Current TV who ran live moderated tweets during the Obama campaign debates.

Now of course, social media isn’t for everyone. Nor is it the solution to all the world’s problems, but it is a tool, (yes even sometimes tools use it), but it is a tool never the less.

Times have changed and Twitter and other Social Media platforms give people a chance to interact across the country and often the world in real time when talking about serious issues or even trivial ones.  Both issues are what makes us, us.  Not everyone is highbrow all the time, nor are we serious all the time.  Even when it comes to serious issues a joke can be a way of breaking through the static of disinformation and disinterest.  Perhaps if more people interacted this campaign wouldn’t be so dull after all.

Tags: Annoyances, Funny, General, twitter by Me
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I’ve seen lots of people talk about Net Censorship and how it is the only thing that people are going to use to define who they vote for in the election.

Firstly, anyone that votes only on one policy is nuts… there are a lot of things that makes Australia what it is… voting on one tiny aspect of a whole of government approach is just weird IMHO.

Now I am on the record as saying that I think the whole Net Filter is a big joke… (a bad one), but a joke. It won’t do one thing to stop what the government claims it is for. How often do you see when places are raided, collections of DVD burners. These DVD’s are distributed by hand or by post, not by the internet. But I digress…

From IT News

Ludlam, who has long opposed mandatory filtering, said the Liberals were likely to support Labor’s filtering proposal under Tony Abbott’s leadership.

“I think the Liberals are ducking and weaving; I think internally, they’re split … but the fact is, the party is led by Tony Abbott who is deeply conservative,” he said.

Never have truer words been said.  If you don’t think that a government lead by someone on the record by such a Conservative as Tony Abbott would not leap at an opportunity such as this (even if only partially technically feasible) you are in the words from The Castle ‘Dreaming Mate’.

Tags: Annoyances by Me
3 Comments »

Perhaps if both sides of politics took the time to read the facts http://aph.gov.au/library/pubs/BN/sp/AsylumFacts.htm and stopped going for the lowest common denominator,  this would not be an issue.

Instead we play gutter politics with the most vulnerable, when what we should be doing is educating people.  Yet the problem seems to be that educating takes longer and doesn’t fit the soundbite

Tags: Annoyances by Me
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