Newspapers

Newspapers have ridden a crest for years and now they are at a cross roads. My own personal opinion is they are suffering because we have lost literacy skills. You have to have a capacity to read and an appreciation of it to want to get a newspaper. Then they have fallen foul of this news package which is the same year in , year out and it is basically negative, destructive, unwholesome and disturbing. People are avoiding that . No one wants to read the same vile stories and the same pattern of behaviour in a different venue. We know the scenarios. So newspapers are rarely contributing to what sustains us as humans…creativity, imagination and hope. The balance is gone. Should they charge for online content I don’t think it will improve anything because you come back to those issues which stop readers reading…assuming you have people who can read. Solving the newspaper problem is bigger than reformatting or regrouping newspapers. It’s a fundamental societal shift which needs addressing…and jouralists have the capacity to address those issues. Maybe the newspaper moguls don’t. It is probably time to break out those fils old and new about journalism and newspapers. There have been some great ones and I think the newspaper industry needs to remember it has had a great capacity to be resilient and a greater capacity to actually lead the way. Serving tripe is not the banquet we are expecting in 2009.

YouTube Baby

This is just such an amazing story and so typical of the ease with which Gen Y has integrated our technology into their lives. 28 year old Marc Stephens was confronted with the problem of his wife giving birth, no place in the hospital and 3 little children. He had the safety and welfare of 4 vulnerable people in his hands. He seems to have been very resourceful and remarkably level headed. He looked at some videos on YouTube and then delivered his new little baby. I hope they are all okay because Marc Stephens is a brilliant Dad. It makes you realise that our technology can be used for bad purposes but when you see it used like this then you know it is what we need to keep us thinking when we are in a spot of bother! Hopefully, soon we shall have real people online who can help in emergencies such as this, but you have to give this guy credit for some great thinking.

Addicted to games

“Nearly one in 10 American children who play computer games are pathologically addicted, according to new research. “

This article is well worth the read and it’s good to see it out there in public because I have had friends who have been through misery with their children because they tried to break the addiction cycle. One teenage boy became quite violent for a while because he just couldn’t see how much he had changed. In my experience the parents have really had to trade on the close relationships they had built with their child as a littlie so they could use that closeness and trust to eventually win through. One boy got really hooked when his Mum was diagnosed and treated with cancer. He told me he meant to do his homework and then he just ended up on the gaming sites and then was too tired to do his homework. His grades went down. He looked ill. This is where we , as adults, can all play a part. If the problem is out there, if we are given good advice,then there is some way of helping the gaming addicts. Even if you set clear ground rules while children are young, they can become a law unto themselves in their teenage years and that is a very tricky patch to negotiate. I think we can all play a helpful part in that.

My Word is my Bond

Image via WikipediaSome might consider Roger Moore the worst James Bond, but he is still the longest running Bond, he still has a wicked sense of humour and he is still laughing all the way to the bank. At 80 that’s not a bad achievement. His autobiography My Word is my Bond, looks like it is typical of how the world just cannot really get to him. He was in the series The Saint. Perfect for the character of the Saint . That was his role and they used to show the reruns until the world became too harsh for the Saint. he was a different type of James Bond and must have been pretty successful in the role because he kept it for so long. Then the world became too harsh for that type of Bond. The world might like to criticise but Roger Moore has always been able to keep things in perspective and values his own judgement of himself. At 80 he can look at his life and have a laugh and continue to enjoy it. The fact he has no bitterness that the world has no longer has a need for him means he knows that life values him more. What a lucky man.

Abbey Lee Kershaw

Image via Wikipedia19 years old, one of our top models and a too tight corset has her fainting. Victorian women were always torturing themselves that way and therefore prone to attacks of the vapours. It made them seem fragile and womanly. Poor girl. That corset really must have been tight to deprive her of air. Luckily women in the 20th century worked out that these corsets were contraptions which not only stopped you from breathing, they deprived you of the female form and your natural, fluid lines. Hopefully we’ll ditch these corsets before they get a hold and put another generation through the torture of sucking on lemons and the vapours.

Yes We Care

Image via Wikipedia“He makes me think of America the myth, the land of the free, the way it thinks of itself but doesn’t often behave,” she said.

This is unbelievable. This is different. We have got Australians who feel so strongly that they can identify with Barack Obama as the president of a country we have such a long association with, that they are prepared to go over to America and do whatever the Barack Obama campaign offices need. This is such an amazing thing. There are young ones and political veterans and they are doing it for the same reason I am doing this I guess. We need an America with a person who is approachable and who can work with the world. We need someone who can talk and engage with others. Whether Americans want that is another matter. It is their country, but surely they must be tired of Mr. Bush spending all their money overseas funding destructive initiatives? Barack Obama is popular here and it’s because you sense he does care and that he can hold a proper conversation with anyone. He doesn’t appear to be short of words or capacity to empathise. Facebook has a Yes We Care group which was founded by an Australian and it is going really well. We want to see America do well so we are barracking for Barack! Can you believe that? Yes We Care.

Hey Big Spenders!

Image via WikipediaAh well, in the midst of financial turmoil in America, news that Americans would be taxed to support any bail out, huge, massively huge spending on overseas military action…it gets announced that the two presidential candidates are the biggest spenders in history when it comes to campaigns. 1.48 billion dollars! That is a lot of money. Do they actually need to spend all that? is that what Americans need to run a campaign? Is that what the voters expect? Can’t they do a no frills campaign? When our politicians start splashing around the cash, we get stuck into them…we even mail them back their flashy brochures and then come up with a list of preferred alternatives for political spending. A lot of political debate can be done on TV, the radio, in the papers, on the Net. Flyers don’t have to be expensive and rallies don’t have to be star studded? Or do they? America must want a lot from their candidates. Why do they have to spend that much? Luckily the fund raising has been made easier with the internet and it has actually drawn a commitment from the young ones. Now, that is a good idea to get young people involved in the political workings of their country. I realise the spending has mostly been done before the blow out occurred…maybe we all need to rethink political campaigns. The money could go towards more important things.

Talk Back Finance

The financial crisis has had a lot of attention on the news on television and the radio and then in the newspapers. Too much of it was devoted to blow by blow accounts of the issues without any real help and support for the general public. Of course panic set in. What would you feel if you thought your money was running out of your super and bank accounts? Fortunately leaders have started to lead instead of blowing hot air. They are daring to make decisions which will stem the flow until better solutions can be put in place by people who ought to be able to manage this. It is not all bad. We have worked out we need some regulation. We have worked out we need our finances in the hands of reliable people. We have realised that some deals haven’t been deals at all, they have been rip offs. So in a short space of time we have had the magnifying glass on world finance and we have seen the details…and hasn’t it just been all in the detail? Well, yes. Things need to be built properly. Our radios have been buzzing . The announcers who have been running talk back shows have come into their own and demonstrated just how skilled they are. They have led the citizen enlightenment programmes and a lot of it has been self help through talk back. The radio announcers have sometimes organised 3rd party experts to be on hand to participate in discussions and it has been a real think tank. There are a lot of people who know a lot who get on the phone and talk. When the experts are there they put a perceptive on it and the announcers have been asking some really pertinent questions. Who would have thought finance could be interesting, amusing, entertaining and so absorbing? The best thing is a lot of ideas have come out which could be followed up. One of the obvious ideas is to encourage part time work, both to keep older people in the work force, open up opportunities and to share the financial burden . There are always people on hand then who can do the job, because more people are skilled in it and the full time workers are not over worked nor over paid. An idea, but it might be useful to us. People are not short on ideas and I think our government has started to listen. This is democracy in action. it has been good!

Qantas Hero

As the story of the troubled flight slowly unravels it really is a case of things not being as they appeared. That so many people were injured is horrible. That Qantas is tainted and taunted with these constant mishaps is horrible. Qantas used to have such a good record and was an airline to be proud of. This flight though, had problems with the autopilot. As a new Airbus 330 that is totally unacceptable and unforgivable because the inertial reference system sent error messages to the auto pilot which made it disconnect. The pilot was then left to manage a dipping plane and would have had to try and re-engage a computer contact which was functional. Twice it dipped. The ongoing investigations mean we cannot have details yet. The pilot, however, seems to have come from a military background and his skill and capacity to think during a crisis may well have stopped that plane from crashing and killing all the people. Far better to know this was a story of yet another pilot made of steel with an awesome capacity to think his way out of a crisis, than of some dough brained programmer or glitchy software that wasn’t properly tested. It means we have a man who has the capacity to save lives under extreme conditions and those sorts of people need to be rewarded and copied!

Stem Cell Therapy

Image via WikipediaI heard this programme on the radio this evening and radio has lost none of its power. I remember growing up thinking radio was just so boring and that it rattled on and on. Then I just listened to it for music. Now I have it tuned to news and talk back when I am in the car or home alone. Radio is actually really good to listen to and this small feature did a power of good. In a short space of time it highlighted how complex and far reaching stem cell research is and will be and how the stem cell tourism industry debate is fraught with tough decisions. We have to get the whole lot out of the cupboard and into the daylight so we can start talking about it and finding sound solutions. No one was going to argue with Perry Cross who is a quadriplegic who has had stem cell therapy overseas. Conventional medicine has not had an optimistic approach with him so he has understandably become very cynical. Originally he wasn’t supposed to live the night and then he was given 10 years and 14 years later he is still with us and talking to us on radio helping us to change the world. He has been helped by stem cell therapy but the cost is exorbitant. One researcher was saying there’s a possibility of a placebo effect whereby the patient believes so strongly something will work, so they change biologically. Faith healing I guess. Well, isn’t that one thing doctors could do? Make their patients feel so positive they increase their chances of improving their wellbeing? Surely it is valid to endorse positive deviation as part of your routine treatment? The whole stem cell therapy debate is complex, but Perry Cross brings it back to basics. For him it means so much and has changed his life. He literally can breathe for himself now. I think Christopher Reeves fought a greatly inspiring battle and showed us how nothing need be an impediment to living and that doctors need to help bolster our courage as well as provide us with treatments. Writing us off is not what we want. Oh yes, the other part of the argument is there will be people out there ready to take advantage and we should be cautious. It doesn’t devalue Perry Cross’ point. If it is working, it is working. If you criticise it, then you need to have something to put in its place. You were not living as a quadriplegic on a ventilator. Talking from the position of complete health is probably not the optimum way to look at it .

DVD pirating costing industry $1.7b

 

“Instead many of the DVDs that are being bought by members of the Australian public today are effectively being bought from crime syndicates who are also engaged in drug trading, child pornography and other heinous crimes,” he said.”

That is a LOT of money for Australia. We only have 22 million people. Divide it by 28 to 32 dollars and you can see the numbers being pirated. Arithmetic is not my thing. Numbers, though, are playing a big role in our society. There is a Facebook experiment looking at the snowball effect and it builds up incredibly quickly to epic numbers. We can rally millions of people very quickly with our current technology and it is having an impact on boundaries. People know piracy is illegal but they don’t stop copying because you can. You can copy so it must be all right. That is the thinking. We have the technology to block piracy, surely? Then there is the belief that it only costs around 2 dollars to make a copy of a CD/DVD and so the cost of 34 dollars top price seems to be exorbitant. There are just some things which cannot get into people’s heads these days. Some of it is the wonderful sense of entitlement people have and then there is the complete ease with which computers can do things. So we need to know more about these spurious connections. Some of it is people thinking they have bought a bona fide copy of something on the Net only to find out it is pirated. That happens too frequently with software and downloads. The scamming there is putting people in a retaliatory mode and so I guess some of what occurs is what people see as revenge on a system which keeps ripping them off. Then, of course, people just want to have things and there is the lazy approach of it being easier to copy than actually getting up, going out the door and buying it. I think the solution is in technology. Block it.

DVD pirating costing industry $1.7b: Debus – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Ubuntu

I have changed my old laptop to Ubuntu. I have always wanted to try Linux and it has sat there nagging away quietly in the background. The story of how I came to do this is on my other blog…this one is mainly to cater to the burning issues at the moment..and for me it is currently technology and the changes I am making.So for a while this blog will be about my adventures with technology. I am not stupid but I am not a techspert either. I have a massive belief in discovery learning and technology is the perfect vehicle for that. So…you’ll be able to hear about my Ubuntu adventures and whatever else comes into my life! I am blogging this from Ubuntu. It does everything I can do in Windows so far and it really appeals to me.

Mac, Windows or Linux?

I actually use all of these operating systems now. We still have XP on one of the desktops. The other one has Vista and the laptops have Vista. Now I have rescued this old one and it is operating really quite well on Linux. I just couldn’t use it any more with Windows. It was getting too hot. It is true what they say on the Net about Flash affecting NECs. You can really notice it when you load Flash sites on Ubuntu. Windows was managing it all but you couldn’t isolate the problem. So the laptop was just getting too hot to use! I have to use a MacBook for work. It drives me crazy because it’s WYSIWIG…and what you get is very efficient,you just can’t customise it or the customisations have to be reloaded each time you get to the desktop. Like DeskCover. Great little app but it has to be turned on all the time as far as I can tell. The iLife stuff doesn’t particularly appeal to me but I confess iPhotos is very clever in the way it manages images so quickly and well. People who are not really computer users as such live the MacBook. it is a computer they can turn on and immediately do things with in iLife. When it comes so some of the publishing stuff it’s a different matter. I like the Mac more since I found Terminal and since I made my Dock do a Mexican wave. I want a personal computer and I find the Mac controls me too much. Goes like a bomb on the Net though. Just charges around and loads the pages instantly. I never feel like it’s my laptop though. Linux I like because it has a thinking approach as well as being pretty easy to use. The whole Linux thing is very helpful. I can solve things very quickly. It is simple and fuss free. I love the screensavers. Some clever ideas there. I like the sorts of games it loads because they are just fun and you can do things like chess, sudoko and mahjonng. It’s essentially about keeping your brain active. Windows I don’t have a problem with. I have become used to t and I can customise it to my needs. What I don’t like about Windows is its jealous behaviour if it doesn’t like a programme or software. Once you tame it though, Windows becomes quite helpful. At this stageI could run a Windows only computer or a Linux only. With the MacBook I am glad to get off and get onto a different system. A lot of others do not feel this way,but the truth it we need a choice in operating systems to cater to our learning styles.

Third Party Support for Technology

Whenever I have wanted to get to know more about computers or a particular OS, I have gone and got magazines which usually come with CDs or DVDs to show you current programmes or technology. The support on the cover disks has always been helpful to me and the magazines have always been a great source of mostly intelligent information…for Windows and PCs. I am therefore shocked to find that in Adelaide, at least, we don’t have choices for Linux and Mac. The MacFormat I got was pretty helpful. The other Mac magazines were nothing. There was nothing in them to help you as a user or they were far too facile. With Linux it’s worse. There is not one I can find which I can relate to. A couple are far too advanced for me but would be good value for those who really know what they are doing. The others were nothing, like the Mac ones. But there simply were not the choices for Mac and Linux and that is disappointing. When I went into bookshops some had THE book on Mac and nothing on Linux and then I got to Dymocks…and hallelujah…I had CHOICES! They had a range of computer books for elementary, intermediate advanced and then super advanced people. That was such a relief! The magazine market needs to be woken up if we are going to broaden our OS experiences.

Swine Flu

It’s in everyone’s thoughts at the moment. At the moment we have 70 Australians being tested. What is possible these days is we can discover through technology what is going on in other countries. We can actually help each other to fight a major health threat. What impresses me most is how a number of countries, including my own, have got some sensible safety practices in place without creating a big song and dance. We have people in airports, hospitals, at government level, in all sorts of areas with protocols and procedures to keep us safe. Things are moving quite quickly and efficiently to identify and isolate possible carriers of the virus. There isn’t a witch hunt. It has been done in a considered fashion. We need to be sensible about this. It will spread because it is easily shared and caught but we seem to have things which will help. I have watched the news in different countries and it is really heartening we have a world which just changes gear and gets on with managing the problems . I’d rather that than chaos and mess management. Well done us!

Recession Buster

A recent visitor to my blog let me know about the AngstCorner site. If nothing else it will put a smile on your face because it is tackling the recession head on. If you give it a whirl it gives you a few opportunities to get your frustration out and know you are not alone. It is an interactive site so you are putting your anger, your worry and your angst to work for you…so take a look. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

The times really are changing

Just recently , I have become aware of just how much things are changing. They have been changing all the time , of course, but every once in a while you reach a level of critical mass the the changes tumble into something. You Tube is bigger and more popular than ever. It has a lot more serious content now and it is much more widely used by everyone, not just daft school kids on mobiles. Podcasts are now a really good way to keep yourself informed and more and more people are using them to educate and teach. You can see now that with a Facebook type set up, podcasts and something like You tube, we could actually dispense with schools and create global classrooms. We have the technology. Some students might suit the Facebook/You Tube/Podcast approach better because they are like a lot of people…they don’t like to be tied to time and a desk. Then I have noticed on my other blog that people are now viewing it from iPhones and the like and using USB stick internet. This has been happening more and more often over the last 2 weeks. Our mobile technologies are now up and running an as they infiltrate the mainstream they will free us all up. No longer tied to wires. It’s exciting really!

CNET

I have known about CNET for a a while. I think a computer magazine got me onto it. it’s the place I now go to look up all things technological. It gets me up to speed very quickly so that I can see what is popular, what’s good, what’s around. it also has a very good download section so you get a chance to discover new apps and the sorts of things which are currently popular. I am blogging about it because it’s a site I have taken for granted really and assumed others knew of it. If you don’t, take a look because it really is a helpful site if you want to get to know technology better. I also check out the reviews if I am planning on buying something. The site hasn’t let me down yet! If I had a phone which easily went on the Net I’d be using it as I went shopping. What I do now is look for things on line, find the best prices and then CNET is one of the places I check the reviews before I go out to buy. It is good because you can actually sound like you know what you are talking about and that invariably means you’ll get more and better help from the sales assistant.

Google Street View

Britains privacy watch dog has cleared Google Street View because people tweet, blog and Facebook. The logic escapes me, but still. There is no connection between clear pictures of someone which they didn’t agree to have taken and being on Twitter, Facebook or blogging. That is not random visual stuff for the whole world to see. I am curious to how it would go sown in SA because no child here can be photographed at school without the parents’ permission. No one can photograph us now without permission. So if Google has photographed us? The attitude seems to be, oh well, Google has invested all this time and billions in this technology which we are now using for GPS trackers which we can sell, satellite navigation which we can sell …and then people see to like going to look up places on the Net so they can go there. Doesn’t really matter if they are unbalanced. Safety is a non issue with regard to Google Street View. Then we had the terrible realisation during our lethal bush fires in Victoria that Google Maps didn’t even have Flowerdale on there. The fire trucks couldn’t see how to get there or how severe it was to rescue the people so the people of Flowerdale were left on their own to fight the worst fires in our history. In that sense street view saves lives and helps to deploy much needed resources and relief. Street View invades privacy,t here is no question of it, but it also has the power to keep people safe and saved. It means rescuers can see images before they go and rescue. That helps to keep them safer than they have ever been. Then there is the small matter of Makono. In Africa. That’s not worthy of being on Street View. Bad luck if you want to go there and find out about it. Street View is only for certain people and areas. I can see the benefits , but this was foisted upon us with no discussion what so ever. Run it through and then let’s see what they do mentality. They won’t be able to get us once we have done it. I hate that mentality. Hate it. A world built on bullying isn’t what I want or need. Consultation never goes astray.

Unix Tutorials

Apple is built on Unix which is a form of Linux. I felt much better when I found terminal on my MacBook and could play around with a bit of code. It made me feel more at home. This site is very helpful and was the first site I came across when I wanted to learn more about Linux. it is very straight forward. It demystifies and gently takes you through some processes so by the time you practise a few of the things you actually feel like you can understand Linux/Unix. Like a lot of people though who are familiar with Linux code, it tends to move too fast for a newbie. You realise you are dealing with people whose brains are really fired up and who are so enthusiastic about what they are trying to teach you. I followed what I could and practised it. I used this site while I was on a computer and just typed in what was said. I skipped the bits I didn’t get…and some I have understood a bit later after I looked at another couple of sites. The main tenet of this site is not to be afraid to experiment. This is fundamental to learning. Just get in there and start doing. Some things you’ll be prepared to work at and other things will be above your head…for now. Don’t worry. Just do what you can, puzzle what you can and come back on another day to what you cannot do. I think the subconscious works some things out for you while you work on other stuff. I certainly don’t believe in getting bogged down in what I can’t so, which is why I liked this site. It helped me to do and understand more than I ever thought I would be able to.