Microsoft believes I am totally STUPID
By · Comments… and hopes that my employees are too!
This week my colleague Greg and I both received a CDROM in the mail from Microsoft. Since my personal computers run OS X or Linux, I didn’t even open the envelope at the time. Clearing my desk before leaving my office this evening, I was about to add the envelope to the circular filing cabinet (aka waste bin) when I recalled that when I asked Greg what was on the CD he had replied rather cryptically that he didn’t know as he was “waiting for someone who didn’t run Windows to open it and tell him what it contained”.
Read More→Joomla Textile Plugin
By · CommentsDuring the process of migrating a large Joomla site from 1.0 to 1.5 I ran into a problem. As usual with any sites with user editable content, I had steered away from using a WYSIWYG editor (I’ve yet to find one that actually works!) and have used Textile to format the content.
However, some serious Googling did not reveal a plugin for Joomla 1.5 to render the content. The original “mos Textile” mambot has disappeared and “rok Textile” does not work on 1.5
So I have lashed together a Joomla 1.5 plugin which will render textile markup correctly (including SmartyPants extensions).
Extension details:
- I’ve called the plugin jTextile
- It’s a BETA release
- There is no documentation
- There are no configuration options
- It works on the content only
- It is based on the work of others, thanks to their efforts
- It can be downloaded from here
If there is any interest from out there, I’ll extend and support the plugin. Feel free to post comments or questions in this blog.
The VicPolice Text Message
By · CommentsIn case you are not aware, VicPolice sent (or caused to be sent) a SMS (text) message to somewhere between 1.5 and 5 million mobile phones yesterday. It reads
Extreme weather In Vic expected Mon night & Tues. High wind & fire risk. Listened to Local ABC radio for emergency updates. Do not reply to this msg.
I have been pondering my attitude to the VicPolice text message all day — and after discussing initial responses with other individuals, and reading a fair range of Web based public reaction, have arrived at at somewhat less inflammatory conclusion than what I had earlier today. But, my opinion perhaps is not as favorable, or forgiving as the “consensus”.
It would seem that the general consensus of opinion is that the message was, “a good thing”, or at least “not a bad thing”. This is based on the premise that it could only be good if more people were advised that there was an increased fire risk today and that it was a minor inconvenience if you already knew, or were not in a risk area.
However, a text message is directed to an individual, from an individual or organisation. Even if the message is “broadcast” to a large number of individuals, the message itself, arriving at a single mobile phone, is not a broadcast a message in the normal sense of the word. Therefore I conclude that, a personal message sent to people who have no exposure of risk, is unlikely to be effective.
It would be ridiculous to suggest that anyone living in high fire risk areas in Victoria was not aware of the risks they face and the need to monitor those risks. After all, the current risks are largely from the same fires that have already caused so much tragedy. So, the text message to them achieved nothing. And the text message to everyone else equally achieved nothing as the recipients were not at risk. Thus, the telecommunication companies who we are told were required to carry the cost of this exercise, simply wasted their time, bandwidth and money.
The underlying problem is of course is that it is virtually impossible to accurately predict a level of risk justifying that extreme measures be taken to advise the public. Equally, it is virtually impossible to identify exactly who is at risk. For example, today one could reasonably suggest that those most at risk were in fact non-Victorians visiting fire prone areas of Victoria. The shotgun approach of VicPolice apparently would not have reached many, if any of these at risk people.
Also, I would suggest that observations about lack of warnings on Black Saturday, by those who did suffer loss, did not relate to the general warnings before Saturday, but the apparent lack of specific warnings in relation to the nature and severity of the threat to individual towns and communities after the fires were raging.
In conclusion, without implying that the authorities were doing anything other than attempting to provide a service to the community, I doubt that the experiment could in any way be described as a success. And, in case you think this unreasonable, I am defining “success” as making a significant number of individuals who were unaware of the risk that they personally faced, take steps to protect themselves and their property.
Is it only me who is confused?
By · CommentsI have been debating with myself whether or not to make this post, ever since the announcement of the Royal Commission into the Victorian bushfires was announced. Each time it was mentioned I was sure I heard a figure of $40 million being the cost of the enquiry. No, I thought, I must have misheard the figure — maybe it was actually $4 million.
So now I am confused. Why, because it appears that the Victorian government has allocated $10 million to aid the 7000+ victims of the bushfires (something less than $1,500 per head), but four times that amount to find out why they are victims.
The royal commissioner will have about $100,000 per day to spend during his enquiry. Some quick arithmetic gives the result that the commissioner could employ about 500 people earning average weekly earnings for this amount. On the other hand, most royal commission money is paid to lawyers. If there were 100 lawyers involved in the enquiry, there would be $400,000 per head available to them.
It also crosses my mind that governments are generally very quick to announce royal commissions, but notoriously slow at adopting any recommendations they might make. If we are to spend $40 million on an enquiry it had better be good enough for every last recommendation or suggestion to be adopted without any question from the government at the time.
So, is it only me who is confused?
No to Australian Bank "Disloyalty" ATM Fees
By · CommentsAustralian Banks are apparently not making enough profits so have announced new ATM fees including a “disloyalty” fee for using another bank’s ATM machine. The new fees means that we could be paying $5.00 for a visit to an ATM! Read more about the plans here.
This has to represent all that is bad about our banking system and the way that banks are taking advantage of technology. Firstly, how can anyone suggest that we do not suffer under an evil cartel. The bank leaders in Australia could form a synchronised swimming team and not even have to practice before winning gold at the Olympics. Secondly, can you imagine any bank having the gall to require their tellers to demand $5.00 from customers before serving them? Unfortunately, it’s easy to rip an estimated $200 million per year from customers when it’s done by a machine!
OK, maybe their synchronised actions do not qualify as a cartel in the legal sense, but I’m sure that Joe Citizen wold be unimpressed by arguments that it is pure coincidence that the banks all raise and lower interest and fees by remarkably similar amounts, generally within hours of each other.
Anyway, inspired by a campaign against a stupid copyright law change in New Zealand which has seen the Twitter trend #blackout reach Number One spot, I’m launching #disloyalty to see if we can send a message to any banks considering this unfair fee.
At the time of the launch, a search of recent tweets referring to the disloyalty fee found just one result from @sdipietr
And another thing, I’d love to hear an explanation from from St George (Westpac) why a credit card charge in a shop is reflected in my account balance in real time, but the reversal of the same transaction – 5 minutes later, same credit card, same eftpos machine, same computer system, same everything except the direction of the money flow – takes 3 or 4 days to be reflected in my balance.
Totally Incomprehensible
By · Comments
For the last four days since the horrific fires in country Victoria, we have been exposed to amazing stories of tragedy, bravery, selfless contributions, and horror. We have seen grown men and women reduced to tears, and even political leaders unable to retain their composure in the face of the enormity of the disaster. Australians from all walks of life have unselfishly committed time, money and anything else they can spare to try to mitigate the effects on those who have been directly affected by the fires. Contributions and condolences have come from all parts of the globe.
So it beggars the imagination to hear the reports tonight that a member of the Victorian Police Force apparently felt that the owner of the Narbethong timber business who had lost everything in the fires, and and whose son is still missing, had not quite suffered enough. It is simply impossible to understand what this Police Officer was thinking when he issued an on the spot fine for driving a vehicle without number plates.
This officer should be immediately publicly named by the Commissioner of Police and summarily dismissed as being a individual totally unsuited to the role of a guardian of society. This lunacy cannot possibly be tolerated or condoned in any way by any rational thinking human being.
The only “good” thing about this situation is that a commercial news channel was prepared to broadcast details of the event so that we could all hear about it. However, they did not go as far as to name the Police Officer involved even though the name was in their possession at the time of the report.
Now something has to be done about it. And in a public forum, not behind closed doors.
Marysville Gone
By · Comments
It is devastating to hear the news about the destruction of Marysville in the bush fires (wild fires to our US friends) of February 7, 2009.
That area is one of my favorites which I visit regularly. To put this in context, I have included a local map which shows that the destroyed town was literally just up the road where I filmed my helmet cam which I published here just a few weeks ago.
Just a couple of weeks before then I rode through Marysville and remember the relaxed atmosphere of people sipping latte, the tall trees and classic Victorian mountain bushland.
Since, making the video, I have ridden to Narbethong and beyond on two other weekends experimenting with the helmet cam settings, and just because it’s how I relax. Once the rescue and cleanup is completed, I’ll take helmet cam for a ride to see the aftermath first hand.
We all go through life dealing with the adversities and hurdles dealt out. But it is always a wake up call to be reminded that others have to find the strength to overcome far, far more serious adversity. Yesterday, the worst that I had to deal with was surviving in 46C heat whilst trying to meet self imposed deadlines.
If only it were true
By · CommentsHere’s another in my occasional series of humourous signs. This one was found on an advertising board at Arthur’s Seat in Victoria, Australia.
It’s a pity they didn’t include a photo of the tree bearing bottled cherry port!
