Apple delivers again

So Steve Jobs is off for medical reasons again...

A little known feature of the iPhone is the built in genetic sampler. Each person who swipes their finger over the screen gets their genetic code read and sent back to Apple's HQ. There it is compared with that of Steve Jobs'.

Nobody reads software licenses, they just accept them. Someone out there has already received that special message from Steve, having accepted it before they even received it in their inbox. It reads "Give me your liver."

The sad thing is, they'll probably feel that warm inner glow of an Apple user even as the knife goes in, smug in their certainty that Apple knows best and that surely it doesn't matter if they are missing a liver, there'll be an app for that.

They have no choice.

That's why I use Android.

Update: I posted this in another (non Apple) forum and had my post very quickly deleted by a moderator. Proof  (in my own mind) that the Church of Apple brooks no blasphemers and certainly lacks a sense of humour when it comes to their pro[fi|phe]t. I'm laughing at them now. :)

100 Famous Views of Edo

While browsing the Kinokuniya bookshop in Sydney I was taken with the Taschen publication of Hiroshige's 100 Famous Views of Edo. These are gorgeous woodblock prints of famous sights in Edo (now Tokyo) during the mid 1800's. You can see poorer quality copies of the 100 views online along with his other works (above image courtesy of the site).

Floods and fire

Seventy five percent of Queensland is currently flood affected. That's a staggering amount. The footage of the torrents of water that passed through Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley is terrifying and my heart goes out to those who have experienced loss.

I have family up in Central Queensland. My sister in Rockhampton has told me that she's not directly affected and my Mum's major problem is that the airport is shut and she can't return from her holiday in Sydney! I've not been in Rocky during a major flood, managing to just escape on possibly the last flight during the 1991 event.

Flooding has not just been restricted to Queensland. Some of the regions we passed through during our post Christmas trip to Melbourne had seen the Murrumbidgee and other rivers break their banks, leave fences filled with debris and pools of water where none usually sit.

It's difficult to believe how the country was only just gripped by a huge drought, but these cycles of drought and flood are common in Australia. 2009's Black Saturday bushfires and dust storm in Sydney were eerily familiar from living in Melbourne during 1983. The summer of 1983-84 saw flooding in Victoria and probably elsewhere. I can remember that we couldn't retrieve our caravan from storage near Geelong because the Werribee river was flooded, blocking our route.

It's the cycle of El Nino and La Nina and it's part of Australia's (and the world's) climate. In my relatively short lifetime it feels like good farming conditions are an aberration rather than the norm and that farmers need to plan for the tough years rather than relying on assistance with an expectation of good conditions. The good farmers already do, I'm sure.

The scary thing is climate change causing more frequent extreme weather events and the climate seeks a new equilibrium (a dynamic one at that). Furthermore, more atmospheric heat means greater energy pumped into the system. Be prepared and be scared!

2010 Wrap Up

In less than an hour we'll be saying goodbye 2010. I'm not going to write much as we just returned from a trip down to Melbourne.

It's been a strange year. A lot has happened and very little. In February we moved out of our old house and into the new. I'm still less than happy at the new place, though ask anyone else and they'll tell you that it's a wonderful house. I did enjoy floating around the pool this evening.

Alex started childcare.He seems to like it, though he also develops faster when on holidays with us. He has to travel in the train with us for over three hours a day and my daily commute is now up to five hours. Unfortunately, he still doesn't sleep through the night most nights. In other ways, especially language, he has shot ahead.

Talking about holidays (see Travelling Allrite) we had three major trips: Shanghai, Hong Kong and Japan in June, Singapore in October and Melbourne this past week.

Technology wise, I'm still waiting for the solar panels to be successfully connected to the grid. I also joined the ranks of smart phone users with an HTC Desire Android phone. It proved very useful on our recent trip.

What will 2011 bring? I don't know yet because life has been too busy to stop and consider the future.

Here's hoping for a peaceful (ie quiet) start to the new year.

Christmas 2010

Christmas is almost over for another year. Exhausting! Alex threw up in the middle of last night then took two hours to return to sleep, but seemed okay this morning and actually slept in. Relatives-in-law descended upon the house so there was almost no quiet time, but at least Alex, Kita and I got a swim in the pool.

Continuing with the Doctor Who theme I set the various recorders to copy Doctor Who at the Proms and the Christmas Special, both on ABC1 tomorrow. Woohoo!

I can't wait to read my Christmas present "Amberjack" by my favourite author, Terry Dowling. It's a signed copy, too!

Off to Melbourne to show Alex my city of birth.

Train 'em up young

Everybody has a right to be an individual. Does the world really need another me? Probably not! But I can't help but want to share some of the twisted way that I grew up with my son. Think it as a way of connecting. And it looks like I am succeeding via the medium of music and television.

To ensure that Alex could share some of the experiences that I did when I was young I purchased a number of DVD's for our collection. The boxed set of all Monkey episodes and a number of Goodies episodes (and they are currently screening the series on ABC TV!).

So far the Monkey has mostly stayed in its box, but the Goodies has already had an effect. Alex sings out "Goodies! Goody goody yum yum!" and asks to watch them. I even taught him about lighthouses and rockets using a couple of episodes.

Occasionally Alex will also see a bit of the Thunderbirds on Saturday mornings. I used to set my alarm to wake up to watch them when I was a wittle boy.

This Wednesday I had another success. After playing the four CDs that comprise the Series 4 Specials and Series 5 soundtracks, then screening half of the first episode of Series 5 Alex suddenly started asking about "Doctor Who".

I may have to rearrange the couch so that he can hide behind it.

A desire to post

Sorry for the lack of updates. There has been much to write about but little time to do so. Most of the action bar been over at travelling allrite and on Twitter.

Anyway, maybe that will change now that I have joined the ranks of smartphone users thanks to my new HTC Desire Android mobile phone.

I decided that I really needed a better device to allow me to access the web while on the move. The Sony Ericsson w705's browser just couldn't cope with things like work's webmail. Pity, because it was otherwise a great phone.

Pity that typing on a virtual keyboard is so error ridden in comparison to a physical pad. Next time I'll be looking for one with a keyboard, having had quite a lot of experience typing with small keys.