Technology?

Gongride 2008

2008-11-09T10:25:00Z

Sydney to Wollongong is a charity ride held yearly which covers 90 odd kilometres from Sydney Park to Stuart Park in Wollongong, the ride travels south through some very scenic roads both in a lovely forest and along some of the prettiest beaches in Australia. The course itself is rather hilly and a medium grade ride, the hilly sections being maybe 10 kilometres in total. All up there's possibly 2 hills that raise the eyebrows when you look at the elevation map. There's 2 incredible descents that give the wrists and forearms a thorough workout on the brake levers, i have a slippery bike and it travels at around 30k's under heavy brakes, unfortunately they have marshals that limit the speed you travel at.

I have visions of organising a downhill run where the gloves are off.. CARNAGE!! Close the road in both directions and let people down in 5 min intervals, sending an ambulance down every 30 min to recover the bodies.. "Carnage 2009, sponsored by the Australian Association of Orthopaedic surgeons" The winner gets a specially fitted pair of fortified pants to support their oversized cohone's!

It never ceases to surprise me at the range of riders who participate in the Gongride, there's all sorts, from elite riders who you're passing halfway into the ride and they're riding back, to hacks on their grandmother's rusty bike. Then you get the 'tour de gongers'.. These are the clearly out of shape riders on rusty or brand new bikes, powering out of the starting blocks, passing you like they're some testosterone fuelled version of Cadel Evans, only to walk their bike to the train station after the first 'real' hill, sore legs, sore egos and a goal to work towards for next year.

The ride is well organised and kudos need to go out to the many volunteers who spend the day directing traffic and slowing down the wannabe Eddy Merckx's from damaging their overly expensive and inadequately ridden Cadel signature Ridleys.. Kudo's as well to NSW's finest, who with their involuntary suntans and sheer presence alone negate any chance of road rage. It's a great feeling holding up traffic and knowing that there's a badge nearby to quell any chance of an irate motorist swerving into you to see just how close he can place the side mirror to your elbow.

My ride this year was dedicated to my beautiful friend Anna, who's been fighting MS for too many years, she's such a positive influence to my life and unbeknown to her teaches me to be a better person every day. MS is such a debilitating disease, yet she handles it with an inner strength that is pure testament to her amazing tenacity. Thanks for your support this year.. You're the best!

My training leading up to the event was lacklustre, a friend and I had planned to ride to Wollongong in a relaxed fashion so my training for the week's leading up to it were based mostly on long steady rides to prepare my ass for a 5-6 hour cruise rather than work on strength or speed. Yes.. You guessed it, Jason's work commitments meant I was alone.. Awwwww... This left me with a dilemma. Do I cruise or do I push it?? I decided to do it hard as I could up the hills.

The type of event precludes anyone turning it into a race against the clock, there's too many interruptions to allow the elapsed time to have any significance, for example, we walked our bikes for the first kilometre and a half due to the sheer volume of participants, this year being upward of 16,000 riders who rode either the 94 or 54 kilometre course. So a race against the clock is meaningless, however, self flagellation on the hills is not only possible but mandatory.. :P Spank the mountain, feel the burn and cruise downhill munching on whatever goodies you fish from the cycling jersey back pocket lucky-dip while you sipped warm electrolytes from the bidon.

This year the weather was co operative and produced an overcast day with temperatures in the mid to high twenties. A perfect day for a ride.

All in all it was a great day, a chance to do something for a cause that's close to my heart. I'll be back next year and hopefully I can convince a few friends to burn some calories.. Who knows, next year I may ride back.

Molested..

2008-09-30T15:08:00Z

Fat Bankers: 'Give us $700 Billion dollars in unmarked bills or we'll shoot the economy'

Google Chrome

2008-09-17T23:45:00Z

Ho hum..

Hopefully the day comes when I witness the turnaround from the tech media, is anybody else sick of the pro Google garbage in the media? Google Chrome, an anaemic web browser at best is touted as being the operating system which is going to slay Windows.. WTF? Lets get one thing straight..

Google Chrome prerequisite number 1...
Requires Microsoft Windows operating system to run.

I understand that applications are becoming web centric, I also understand that a web browser is the window to the world of web applications. However, lets not get ahead of ourselves here.

The pro Google media needs to take a very close look at their darling, Google is an advertising company, pure and simple, giving them the browser will increase the amount of information they collect from you. Run a packet sniffer on Chrome and you will notice that anything you type into the address bar is sent back to Google (purely for search purposes of course) meanwhile, they increase their revenue through increased relevance.

So what's wrong with Chrome?

It's a typical Google application, it looks half finished at best, it's devoid of the standard security features we've come to expect of a web browser. I wonder what garbage the same 'journalists' would write had Microsoft released Chrome. Luckily Google based most of the code on an existing open source browser WebKit. I'd hate to imagine what Chrome would have been had Google built it from the ground up.

Microsoft gets smashed by the same media for making commercials with Seinfeld and not selling anything in them, is anybody else totally dumbfounded? It's about time the tech media realise that journalism requires an impartial view of the story they're reporting on. Then again we're in the age of the blog, everybody is a journalist now.. Hopefully all the script kiddies who proclaimed themselves programmers upon learning HTML will piss off out of my industry and become journalists, one can only hope..

Documenting my day

2008-08-31T13:52:47Z

I'm travelling to Melbourne for the day on the 1st of September for work. I have decided i'm going to to document the day with my iPhone (Review coming very soon, stay tuned). One of the applications I will be testing is the integration between the phone and my MobileMe Gallery (Review also coming very soon). In a sentence the phone allows me to take a picture and send it directly to my MobileMe gallery where my friends can view it. There's nothing earth shattering there with regards to technology, there's plenty of solutions on just about every mobile platform that do very similar things.

You can subscribe to the gallery via RSS so you can be notified whenever I post a new photo. I'll be writing another post describing the technology in detail so stay tuned.

Oh, here's the link: Max's Melbourne Trip September 1, 2008

WHY??

2008-07-31T23:44:23Z

I have a question..

WHY, in this age of artificial body parts, genetically modified foods, nanobots designed to infiltrate the smallest of capillaries our phone/internet companies still can’t get their customer service to a level whereby i don’t waste 1 hour, 4 phone calls and bruising to my toes to answer one very simple question.

I have a recommendation:

Employ people who’s sole job it is to determine WHAT a customer needs then ACTUALLY transfer them to the CORRECT department and the person who can solve my problem.

Currently it works like this:

I call customer service
They ask me which department i need and transfer me there
The department i’m transferred to determines after 5 minutes that i’m at the wrong department
They transfer me to the ‘correct’ department
The phone drops out
Back to step one
Do that procedure 3 times before you’re connected to the correct department who finally sorts out your query.

WHY????

Here’s a business opportunity for an enterprising person:

Start a business whereby i can email my query, they then get a call centre in India to make the call for me and explain my issue 4 times to another call centre in India. At the very least the language barrier will be negated.

Gardasil®, the Cervical Cancer vaccine with dangerous side effects

2008-07-06T02:00:20Z

In April 2007 the Australian Government started providing free cervical cancer vaccine to women and girls aged between 12 and 26 via the National HPV Vaccination Program. The vaccine used is Gardasil®, which is based on technology developed in Australia by a team of researchers led by Professor Ian Frazer who coincidentally was named Australian of the year in 2006 for his development of the human papillomavirus (HPV) cervical cancer vaccine.

The Commonwealth Government is providing over $537 million for the National HPV Vaccination Program. This includes almost $437 million over five years for the vaccine. The Commonwealth Government also recently announced an additional $100 million over four years to support state and territory governments in implementing the program, to establish a HPV Register and most ironically, to run an education campaign.

Another example of a progressive Australian government? – a new vaccine that can protect women and girls against the cause of most cervical cancers in itself is great news, to have the government provide it free of charge is a bonus. One would think so.

However, behind just about every claim of a miracle cure, or in this case, a miracle vaccine is the un mentioned possible side effects, in the case of Gardasil®, the benefits far outweigh the ‘minor side effects’ as noted on the Australian Government’s National HPV Vaccination program’s website FAQ’s:

How safe is GARDASIL®? Are there any side effects?
The vaccine was shown to be safe during large clinical trials.
Your daughter may experience minor side effects such as redness, pain, and swelling at the injection site and mild fever. For arm soreness and swelling or fever she can take paracetamol as directed on the package and place a cool, moist cloth over the injection site. If the pain and swelling continue for more than two days she should see a general practitioner.

She should not have the HPV vaccine if she is pregnant or if she has had a serious allergic reaction to yeast or any other vaccine components (aluminium phosphate, sodium chloride, L-histidine, polysorbate and sodium borate).

Minor side effects?? No mention of other side effects linked with Gardasil® such as nausea, dizziness, headaches, hallucinations, infertility, congenital birth defects, brain damage, cancer, paralysis or GBS.. The fact that there’s a chance of contracting a devastating illness due to this vaccination is not even an issue, just about every vaccination known has side effects, as a parent one needs to weigh all the benefits a vaccine provides your children with any possible side effects. My 5 year old has had his Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccination and my twins will also have their MMR when they’re 4, I’m aware of the possible devastating side effects linked with MMR, yet opted to vaccinate them cause the benefits of them being vaccinated have mitigated the risk for me. This is my point, i’m fully aware of the side effects, in the case of Gardasil®, parents and women are not being made aware of the side effects by our own government. There’s no mention of GBS on their website’s FAQ’s yet there’s been several cases of GBS linked to Gardasil® reported in Australia alone, why hasn’t the government seen fit to advise us of the most serious side effects?

Legally they’ve covered themselves with the following statement:
“She should not have the HPV vaccine if she is pregnant or if she has had a serious allergic reaction to yeast or any other vaccine components (aluminium phosphate, sodium chloride, L-histidine, polysorbate and sodium borate).”

You see, the serious side effects have been linked to an allergic reaction to the components of the vaccine. So why is the government being so coy? Could the public servants involved be ignorant? Possible, yet there’s sufficient information on the web for anyone who’s willing to spend 5 min on a search engine and typing ‘Gardasil’

Here’s an outlandish theory:
The government pours $537 million into what it initially believes to be a benefit for the ‘voters’, which happens to support, no, let’s say, validate the tireless work of Australian of the year: Professor Ian Frazer. During the course of the rollout of such a beneficial community program, reports start to flow in detailing serious reactions to Gardasil®. The powers that be are left with two options: Suspend the National HPV Vaccination Program, which, during an election year would make interesting ammunition for the opposition and would leave a trail of many embarrassed public servants, including the current Australian of the year: Professor Ian Frazer. The other option, quite possibly the easy way out would be to ignore global calls for caution and hope that there’s not too many serious cases of ‘allergic reactions to yeast or any other vaccine component’.

In the current climate of transparency or arrest on treason charges, is it unreasonable to ask our leaders to be a little more transparent? Do we as a society continue to accept the government’s strongheld belief that we’re only told what we need to know? There’s a large percentage of you reading this yelling at the screen ‘Max, there’s so many other HUGE issues we need to pull our government into line for’ YES, i agree, however, is it so much to ask that all the powers that be do is represent the whole truth? OK, i just read that last sentence, i’ll stop typing now.

The iPhone hype, is it really warranted?

2008-07-01T06:58:59Z

We’re on the verge of the inevitable release of the 3G iPhone here in Australia, this supposed marvel of design and engineering is scheduled to roll out on July 11 with selected carriers who’re no doubt rubbing their grubby little hands together at the delectable prospect of filling their coffers with the hard earned cash of everyday Australian apple fanbois..

If you believe the hype, the iPhone Version 2 (With 3G support) is quite possibly the last word in smartphone design and without a doubt the ‘must have’ fashion accessory for the tribal tattoo set. It’s slick, shiny, sexy and expensive to run (note: 3G plans will not be cheap for this puppy). So lets have a close look at the iPhone and compare it with the original version of the Microsoft Smartphone OS, Windows Mobile 2003 (Released circa 2003). Windows Mobile Version 6.1 is a slick, mature product and it wouldn’t be fair to compare a mature operating system with a newly released one.

	iPhone	Windows Mobile 2003
Phone	X	X
Contacts	X	X
Integration with contact’s management software	X iPhone V2	X
Microsoft Exchange integration	X iPhone V2	X
Browser	X	X
Open platform for developers	O	X
Office applications included (Word, Excel, Powerpoint)	-	X
Plethora of third party applications available	O	X
GPS Mapping	X	X
Media Player	X	X
Available in many form factors	-	X
Wide choice of manufacturers	-	X
WI FI Support	X	X
Bluetooth	X	X
Accelerometer (Determine G Forces when you throw the iPhone at someone)	X	-
Apple logo	X	-
Slick Apple marketing	X	-

O = Not quite yet.

Why is the general public adamant that this product is the duck’s guts? Some people i speak with are convinced that the iPhone is breaking new ground. More importantly, why will this product become a huge seller and possibly become the de-facto standard for smartphones, outselling a mature, established platform? As a society are we so driven by market forces that we’re blindly led to believe marketing hype?

I’ll let you know the answer to these questions once i spend some time with my new 3G iPhone, i finally convinced my wife that she needs to replace that aging Nokia and enjoy seamless Outlook integration and the GPS mapping abilities of my HTC Touch (my 6th Windows Mobile smartphone and without a doubt the best to date).

To answer the obvious questions:
I am not abandoning the Windows Mobile platform in favour of an iPhone, i have a new HTC Touch Diamond on order and will blog about this marvel of technology once i’ve owned it long enough for it to annoy me.

Oh, and my tribal tatts are NOT a fashion statement, honestly… I got them to celebrate my Maori heritage. Don’t laugh, Valente is NOT an Italian name, i hail from an ancient Maori warrior tribe. :P

Australian Carriers where you can purchase your iPhone

Optus iPhone information

Telstra iPhone information

Vodafone iPhone information

3's OMG We want the iPhone too, pathetic grovel to Apple

The evolution of man!

2008-06-25T11:35:00Z

I’ve been reflecting on how fortunate our children are,

Below is a collection of images i found whilst trolling the web for half an hour.

This is where we’ve evolved as a species.

Look at those images for a second, do political or religious differences matter?

How can we as a species be so concerned with who’s sleeping with who in Hollywood or what the latest starlet is wearing on her feet. Take another look at the photos, only this time focus on the eyes. There's a noticeable loss of innocence.

It may be time to divert our attention from global warming and look at saving the future of our species, a warm planet is no benefit to us if our species is extinct.

We’ve failed

Loaded for bear

2008-06-07T21:47:21Z

As you’ve no doubt noticed I have updated the framework which contains my blog, pics and files, i have updated to Community Server 2008 from 2007. If you’re looking for a framework for blogging, sharing your pictures, forums then i suggest you checkout Community Server here. It’s robust, easy to use and best of all the express version is free.

I have installed Windows Live Writer as my primary tool to write my blogs, information can be had from their website at http://get.live.com/writer/overview it’s very similar to Microsoft Word except it has the capability to post to your blog framework automatically, insert pics and post them to an FTP server, insert maps, etc. Check it out, it’s a free download and very easy to use.

Here’s a screen shot of this document inside Windows Live Writer.

While I’m at it, I have to mention Cropper, it’s the easiest and most flexible screen capture program available and like the other tools I have described here it’s free. Cropper can be downloaded from Brian Scott’s blog.

A screen cap of Cropper performing a screen cap

So now I have no excuses to blog frequently right? I have all the tools, they’re all configured to work together.. The only thing missing is content.. :P

The next iteration for search engines

2008-05-13T23:54:00Z

http://www.tafiti.com/

A great Silverlight demo, you can drag results into the right hand pane to save them for further investigation at a later time.

Click on the top right hand corner for the original Tafiti, perform your search and select Tree View. There needs to be a new methodology to view relevence in results, a tree view would be interesting as you can show relationships between results.

Microsoft Worldwide Telescope

2008-05-13T23:52:00Z

Microsoft has finally released the most incredible Worldwide Telescope software http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/, this is google earth for the stars..

Amateur astronomers and wanna be's head on to download your free client.. http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/experienceIt/ExperienceIt.aspx?exp=true

The application is a great example of what can be achieved with WPF.

"My Apple Mac is much more secure than your Windows machine"

2008-03-30T16:37:00Z

How many times has that pesky Apple Mac user reminded you that they don’t require an anti virus strategy because Apple computers are secure? Bulletproof, is the term I hear from the designers I deal with.

Yearly, at the CanSecWest security conference they hold a hacking competition, they configure 3 machines with different operating systems, all patched, all in typical client configurations. If you exploit a machine you win the cash prize and get to keep the laptop.

Systems this year were a VAIO VGN-TZ37CN running Ubuntu 7.10, an Apple MacBook Air running OSX 10.5.2 and a Fujitsu U810 running Vista Ultimate SP1. Each machine contained a file with the instructions on how to claim the prize, extract the file, win the prize. You have 30 minutes.

So, any guesses at which system was compromised first?The file on the MacBook Air was nabbed in 2 min. Surprised? I figured so. Apparently the hacker browsed a website with Safari and was able to execute code on the target machine.Is anybody else getting notices on their Windows boxes from Apples iTunes update software that it wants to add Safari to your system? HAHA, ok, ummm, no thanks.. Hopefully Apple takes security patches as seriously as Microsoft does.

Read about it here: http://cansecwest.com/

I'm baaaack!

2008-03-26T18:45:00Z

I'm back boys and girls...

It's been a self imposed hiatus that's lasted way too long..

However, it has given me time to catch up on some great new technologies, i've been enjoying the move to Visual Studio 2008, have some great new hardware I want to tell you about, some new software i've written that's way cool and generally been re-awakened to the joys of technology after a long sleep.

Stay tuned, this is going to be fun.. I promise.

Loving Wings

2007-11-23T23:14:00Z

My heart was made of broken bones
My Soul’s a bag of stick and stone
And out along this dusty road
You have come my love to take me home

You lightly lifted me away
Out of a darkness, cold and gray
And I work beneath the midday sun
My cool blue water you have come

So take your place here next to me
And I'll take my place there next to thee
And no matter how far we may roam
Its by your side I make my home

I give to you my everything
You’ve given me these loving wings
And angels have all gathered round
to hear me sing my love out loud

My courageous little boy

2007-11-16T10:27:00Z

12:15pm

*Ring ring*
‘Hello’

‘Max’?

‘Yes’

‘It’s Silvia from Luca’s pre school’

Oh shit, she’s never rung.. I could sense the blood chilling.

‘Luca was playing outside and one of the kids stepped on his arm, it doesn’t look broken, he’s been crying for a while, I think you should come and pick him up and take him home’

12:16pm I was reversing out of the driveway.

I got to his preschool and he was asleep in the arms of one of the teachers, apparently he’d cried himself to sleep, they had fashioned a makeshift sling out of gauze bandage and a book. I woke him up and he took one look at me and started to cry, he was explaining how it had happened. I decided that we should go to the hospital as a precaution, he was having a difficult time moving his fingers.

So off we went to the local hospital, after our obligatory 3 hour wait in the waiting room (our healthcare system is the suxxor) we were called in by the Dr.. Poke, prod, then it was off to x-ray and another 2 millisieverts I absorbed for the cause. Luca had been such a champion in the waiting room, he sat beside me and really only whined a half a dozen times.

Firstly, let me say my son is my hero.. A broken bone and no crying for over 3 hours, he handled himself with real courage today. So off we went to have him plastered up.. After waiting another hour for the orthopedic specialist to turn up I was getting a little jack of it all, Luca was playing with another boy and I was getting a little stressed watching him. The last thing I wanted was for him to trip or bump into something.

The Dr finally arrived and poked and prodded some before handing him over to the nurse for a cast, finally.. So off we went to the plaster room where they fashioned a temporary cast for him which will be removed and replaced in 10 days time. He’ll have to wear that cast for 5 weeks. Not a fun thing over the Christmas break to watch the other kids swimming.

My couragious little man reconciling himself with a milkshake and a chocolate muffin.