Max's ramblings

Recalibration or a total system reset?

Yes, i've done it again, seems as though i'm as capricious with my site as I am with bags, shoes, watches and general fashion accessories. The only difference being that I change frameworks with my website and it costs me copious amounts of time to go from one to the other. So here we are again, at the precipice of another chapter of my personal blog, this time however, i'm too lazy (read busy with work) to worry about importing my older posts so I wont, hence the title 'Recalibration'.. Time to start fresh..

Enjoy!

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.

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..

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.