Ninetology

On a trip to Malaysia in October 2014 I discovered a mobile phone brand Ninetology advertising themselves everywhere. Having never heard of them before I looked them up. Here's how they described themselves:

Ninetology, prominently stands tall in the eyes of ASEAN as the most innovative company with extensive growth capabilities beyond expectations. Developed by elites and strongly driven by our league of experts with more than a decade of experience below their belts, we indulge in the golden rule to further our rapid movement throughout ASEAN.

The company evidently crafted a name for itself within just few years along with expeditious development of quality smart devices, instilled with world-class technologies. Giants of the communication industry, of both local and international networks have come together with Ninetology in creating a whole new platform of all-rounded communication accessibility. Ninetology is not just about smart phones; it is an ecosystem upholding the most intelligent way of communication and assurance of worldwide connectivity.

Ninetology is marching fast and closer in achieving its ultimate goal as the hub of mobile intelligence and a one-stop brand for great ASEAN innovations. We are on the right track, looking at the milestone of progressions as the largest mobile technology provider across the region.

Definitely deserving of an award for the best use of buzzwords without actually saying anything.

They were obviously original thinkers when it came to language as they named one of their tablets the Outlook Xpress (sounds familiar?).

Less than a year later and it looks like the company doesn't exist any more. Maybe this headline explains why:

Ninetology LTE phone can rival Amazon Fire

If you haven't heard of the Amazon Fire, Wired had this to say:

The Amazon Fire Phone was always going to fail

Even the slickest marketing cannot replace building products that people actually want.

UPDATE
It turns out that Ninetology were acquired by AVAXX, who it turns out are not associated with the anti-vaccination network (anti-vaxxers):

THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND OUR NAME & LOGO

We may be young & dynamic, but we've an age-old philosophy on service.

Our very NAME is testimony to this discipline.

AVAXX is acronym for Achieving Very Admirable Xcellence by going the Xtra mile. This is the inspirational fire that propels us to do better than the norm. It is more than an internal motivational battle cry. It is, for all intent and purposes, our daily way of life.

How does this relate to you?

Well, it is our aspiration that from your perspective, AVAXX would soon be an acronym for A Very Awesome Xperience Xceeding expectations. So your rewarding experience is the result of our continuous dedications to service.

As you deal with us more and more, you will be convinced of our commitment: that as you constantly search for opportunities and solutions in telecommunications and IT, so shall we continue to enhance your lifestyle by empowering you with innovative cellular and wireless telecommunications products and services.

At AVAXX, we aim not just to be responsive but proactive to your needs.

Reinforcing the above esprit de corps is our Corporate LOGO.

In keeping with the essence of technology - change - our Logo design is highly contemporary with a high-tech feel. It is at the same time avant-garde solid.

Or they could just say what they really do: Distribute Nokia phones.

Alex and computers

Scratch

I was rather pleased to see Alex playing with Scratch this morning. It's a free Flash web tool designed for kids that enables them to write programs by connecting a variety of elements together. I think it's quite good for teaching kids about loops and logic.

I have also installed Microsoft Small Basic on his machine, though it might be a bit advanced for a six year old. Not for long, though.

Alex is rather obsessed with computers and is very comfortable using them. Right now he's very proud of his ability to change the desktop background in Windows 8. He also made his own slideshow movie with Movie Maker and another with YouTube.

The obsession can be rather funny though. He may be the only person who like Ctrl-Alt-Del and typing in passwords, getting rather upset that you don't have to do it this way for home machines, unlike enterprise systems at school and work.

He also wanted Word and PowerPoint. Unwilling to shell out further money for both until he actually needs them, I installed LibreOffice instead and told him that it was the latest version, newer than at school (him being used to this with Windows 8.1 instead of the school's Windows 7) and that's why the icons are different.

I must get him on to Linux as well. He prefers the iPad to his Windows 8 convertible laptop/tablet, but the reason I chose the latter is that it runs Adobe Flash, which a lot of educational websites, including Scratch, still require.

Unfortunately, the Microsoft Parental Controls are an annoying pain to use, though still beneficial when it comes to learning what not to click on.

What I really need to get working on is controls on YouTube to prevent certain useless topics from being displayed (e.g. EvanTubeHD, adult reviews of toys and endless computer game commentary). There's so much else that's educational or creative that could be watched instead.

I think back to reading my parents' 1950s medical textbooks, full of grotesque diseases largely unknown due to vaccines and antibiotics. Now Alex watches the highly educational Operation Ouch on ABC iView and can tell us the most remarkable medical facts. I'm quite envious actually!

Department Stores

Back when I was a young child growing up in Melbourne my father used to take me on special outings to the Myer department store, usually around the time of my birthday or Christmas. We'd park outside the hospital where Dad taught and walk into the city. The smell of warm nuts would welcome me into the store, then we'd go up past the clothes, the sports and camping gear, up to the toy section where I would chose a Star Wars or Lego toy for my present and dream about getting another model train from their wall of them.

The Myer Flagship store in Melbourne

Later we moved to the city of Rockhampton in Central Queensland. We had a couple of father and son shopping days there too, where we'd wander around the city, looking for a present. Again, I longed for a department store like Myer. There was Stewarts, an old building with multiple levels. It had that sense of age about it, but it only sold clothes and soft furnishings, nothing of interest to a kid. That was disappointing.

Nearby, Milroys sold more, but I don't recall anything of interest there until its closing down sale when the shelves were filled with an strange selection of odds and ends: Racing car tracks without racing cars, a stack of Bib Fortuna Star Wars figurines.

And that was it for department stores in Rocky. There was the K-Mart, the BigW, but they are one storey, modern affairs, full of cheaper goods and no atmosphere.

To me a city isn't a real city unless it has a proper department store.

The Takashimaya department store in Matusyama, Japan.

But, according to the sales figures, the department stores are dying now. Their eclectic selections work against them in this consumerist society with all the world's goods at their fingertips. We all want the biggest ranges and the cheapest prices and too time poor to wander aimlessly we'll order it online and send it directly home.

As a consequence the department store has streamlined and reduced what it sells. I go into a Myer now and the toy section is often tiny and not just shrunk by adult eyes. No wall of Star Wars or model trains, just a few choices hanging on a rack (Lego might be the exception, with all their different options now). Computers reduced to a couple of small tables, maybe three brands in all.

I love the old fashioned department stores. I don't know why. Maybe it's because they are not like a regular shop that sells a single type of good, where you enter with a single defined purpose. There's the mystery, never knowing what you will find on each level as you wander through the maze of aisles, through islands of goods in a sea of paths, at each opening of the lift or the top of each escalator new discoveries to be made. There is something tangible about shopping in a real department store that online shopping can't match.

And it seems that I am not alone in believing this.

Justice

My thoughts about the justice system in general, in an ideal sense:

A) The victim wants the offender punished. They want them to feel and understand the hurt that they have caused.
B) Society wants to be protected.

For A) you want the offender to feel a sense of guilt, a pain that makes them regret committing the offence.

Punishments of yore

B) Is more complicated as you have a number of factors.

1. Deterrence - preventing the committing of an offence in the first place due to fear of punishment.
2. Removal of opportunity - A custodial or capital sentence removes the offender from society thus preventing them from committing further crimes
3. Restitution - Paying for/repairing the damage caused (not always possible). This is very specific and will be ignored in this discussion.
4. Reform - Changing the character of the offender and removing the desire to commit further crimes and turning them into a productive rather than a destructive member of society.

Added into the mix is C. Issue of human rights. From a societal, not offender's, perspective, it is "How do our actions as a society reflect and impact on our society." This includes issues like wrong convictions and punishment of the innocent, the impact of punishment on society - what kind of society are you building through vigilante justice or public stonings for example?

I know that if I was the victim of crime I would be very angry and want to cause a lot of pain towards the offender. However, civilised laws are made by societies and not individuals, which is why they are usually about B and C and not A.

Unfortunately, getting the balance of 1,2,3,4 and C seems very difficult. The Scandinavian examples place a strong emphasis on reform with lower rates of recidivism than many other countries , but sometimes fail at removing the opportunity to commit further crimes. In the US and Australia it often seems like criminals, especially petty ones, come out of gaol worse than when they go in and are as such incarcerated for longer.

The death penalty offers the ultimate prevention of further offences without the need for reform, but can fail badly at human rights (especially for the innocent).

And as for deterrence, it seems to work best for rational people who are least likely to commit an offence anyway.

The biggest problem with getting things right is that not all people are equal when it comes to criminal behaviour, due to the nature of their brains and the environment that shaped them. Psychopaths have been shown to be largely incapable for understanding (or caring about) punishment, so deterrence simply doesn't work. Same with those driven to irrationality by taking drugs. Does an angry drunk think about gaol when they lash out? The compulsion to commit further crimes may, in certain cases, be too great to reform. This seems to be the case for many mass murderers and sex offenders.

But it's not true of every criminal. And the brain does change as one ages. For instance, adolescent male brains struggle to comprehend risk, which is why we see so many young people overconfidently driving too fast, jumping into big waves etc etc etc. Ten years later they will probably be a different person.

Ideally society could identify potential criminals as children and work on their behaviour to steer them away from crime. It's a lot of work to do so.

My personal belief is that if somebody is a strong potential threat to society - segregate them from society until they are no longer a threat. If they have reformed and are no longer a threat then release them. Put effort into reforming them into productive members of society. From a resources perspective, once they are productive you aren't paying for them any more.

And the death penalty is wrong because the justice system can be wrong.

Brown days in Sydney

Sometimes in Sydney on the days like today when the fires are burning the sky takes on a hazy Asian tinge. As I walked to work, hungry from a lack of breakfast, I could imagine a small food stall along the footpath, trestle tables and plastic chairs to the side, patrons slurping steaming bowls of noodles and soup or snacking on goreng pisang from little plastic bags.

Except that, being Sydney, it wouldn't be a rickety old stall but a coffee cart manned by hipster baristas serving styrofoam coffees and muffins shipped from a factory on the other side of the city.

Oh well, I can but dream.

Piggy bank maths

It feels strange watching Alex learn the basics of mathematics. So many solutions that come so naturally to me are a struggle for him, not through lack of intelligence on his part, but from their unfamiliarity as he tries to understand the basic concepts.

This morning it was money. When you think about it there's a lot of basic arithmetic stored in a piggy bank.

Alex wanted a milky pop from the canteen. That's 10 cents. Now he wants 5. For most of us that's easy, 5 x 10c = 50c. But he's barely touched on multiplication yet, so it's back to addition.

Fortunately, they've done counting on tens (a prelude to multiplication), otherwise the addition is very painful.

Okay, so we've got the first answer, now the problem is how to make it with coins. If you don't have a 50c coin then you need to make 50 from smaller denominations, say 2 x 20c and 1 x 10c. Again, we've got multiplications going on, or counting on twenties.

Then he wants to buy one for his friend. So now we have 5 + 1 = 6 milky pops. And we need to add 10c to the total cash required.

My spelling all that out was torturous, wasn't it? But that's the least level of detail required when you are starting out. For me now, I don't even have to consciously think about such sums. This level of mathematics is more of an emotional response than intellectual. Relationships between numbers have become intuitive feelings. Coins have shapes, you don't even have to think about the numbers on them, you just know how they fit together to make new numbers.

But I can see that developing in Alex. Sometimes he'll immediately pick the right answer to a mathematical question and it's only when he starts thinking about it too hard that he might struggle and get it wrong. It's fascinating to watch.

Communicating science

I recently read an article somewhere how versions of Pythagoras' Theorem were independently "discovered" in Egypt, India and China prior to its namesake. Why then do we associate it with a single Greek?

It is not uncommon for scientific and mathematical discoveries to occur multiple times. So who chooses the credit?

Communication plays no small part in this. The more widely a discovery is communicated, the more awareness there is of a result, the less chance that it will be repeated as if new. That means researchers can put their efforts into something new rather than wasting time on reinvention of the old.

Science communication shouldn't just be about promoting ideas for money and prestige, it should also be for ensuring that knowledge is accessible, not hidden away in some dark corner.