Play

Well I ranted in my previous post about being held hostage to Farmville.

It was in jest and was poking my adorable wife....

I bit the bullet in the end, and finally joined Facebook and even bloody Farmville.
There should be a law against that game, it's far too addictive.

So dear reader, I'm still wiping egg off my face... I held out for years and didn't see the point of it... but it looks like I've slipped and fell on it.

Though, I gotta admit this whole FB think is great for keeping in touch with long lost friends.... it's really quite scarey.
Pity one can't always seem to shake those people you'd rather forget.

I'm not yet on Twitter, but who knows what 2010 will hold in store.

It would appear that even whilst I don't use either Twitter or Facebook -- I happen to be held hostage often to Farmville.

I have elected not to join either two communities for several reasons:

• I seriously spend far too many hours a day on a computer (12-18 hours a day). I don't need something else to add to the hours.
• I like keeping some level of personal privacy. I really don't have a need to post what I ate for breakfast, what my favourite book/movie/music/clothing is. (You really want to know my favourite music is -- follow me on last.fm). I also have a blog where I can write down my thoughts/opinions/frustrations already.
• I have multiple methods to keep in touch with those I elect to already. (Email, IM, Telephone, SMS). I seriously couldn't give a flying razoo about people I went to primary/high school/Uni with. I haven't seen them for over 20 years, and I don't have the desire to kindle the relationship due to the mere fact we attended the same education institution (and for the majority of that time -- compulsory; I'm sure neither of us wanted to be there!)

Having said that -- I don't object to others that do use the services. Each to their own I say. (But don't expect me to accept invites for either -- both are duly ignored!)

Pauline is a Facebook user, she enjoys it... she catches up with a lot of old friends via it. She has put off joining Farmville for months, but finally caved to the constant barrage of invites and joined.

I now seems our daily life resolves around 'harvest time'... a classic case of seeing the Farmville Alarm come into effect. An often quoted phrase at present is

'Ohh, I have to go harvest X .... gimme 10 mins.'

This can happen at the most inconvenient times.

So at present, I feel I'm affectively a Farmville hostage. I'm wanting a virtual world-war to break out so that bombers blow up the fields. I might get a bit of normality back in my life.

Chris, a friend of mine has been able to do some fun electronics hacking for a worthy cause.

Chris has entered into The Great Brisbane Duck Race, a competition run by PA Foundation which sponsor the Prince Alfred Hospital. All monies raised will be used for Cancer research.

So what is the Great Brisbane Duck Race I hear you say?
Well it's not the infamous Ernie from Sesame Street rubber duckie:



In a nut-shell:

• Purchase a rubber duckie from PA Foundation


• Pimp your duck -- add a motor, jet engine, whatever you think is appropriate to make it the speediest duck around


• Go down to the competition on the day


• Navigate without sinking the 100m water course


• Ensure your duck passes the line first to win!

Chris has been making some good progress, and been blogging about the project.

In fact he even has a YouTube video showing his current results.



The competition is being held on Saturday 26^th September at 2:40pm on the Brisbane River (in front of South Bank where the new Brisbane Big Wheel is located).

Whilst I won't be there in person cheering Chris on, I will be one of his virtual supporters!
If you're in Brisbane, head down for a great day and support such a worthy cause.

Okay, any decent phone you purchase these days is a smart phone.

Finding the right one can be difficult. How can you be certain you're not following the hype of the iPhone, avoiding a WinCE device because it's WinCE or if a Symbian based OS is your flavour?

Does the phone have all the features you need/desire? How can you compare all the available models on the market?

The SmartPhone Grid takes all the guess work out of it for you. Answer the 30 simple questions, and then get a rating on what smart phone suits you.

Interestingly, I'm a Nokia N95 8GB owner, and it was the N95 and the 8GB model that scored highest for me. I did my research over a few months at the time, so it seems reasonably accurate.

In other news... Nokia's answer to the App Store has arrived -- in the form of the Ovi Store.
Tip: Use the web version instead of the one on the phone, it's faster and easier to navigate. You can then just have the apps sent directly to you.

Regular readers of my blog will know that at the end of last year we moved into our new house. In February we completed our front garden, but as yet haven't started on the back yard.

I took two weeks off after Easter and spent the time doing some odd jobs around the house. When moving into a newly built place there's 1000's of small jobs to do. (I know, I've already completed one large white board of such tasks, and have another one on the go!)

Whilst we've drawn up what we want to do out the backyard, we are starting getting our planter boxes up and running, so we can enjoy some great winter vegies as soon as possible. Around late Winter/prior to the start of Spring I'll also be planting a series of fruit trees as well to help complement the vegetables. We'll also be planting a range of herbs amongst the vegetables, as many such herbs work as natural pesticides to keep the creepy crawlies out of our lovely green leafy vegies. Much better letting nature fight it then introducing a range of chemicals.

A quick visit to see Trevor and Glenda (thanks guys -- we really appreciate it!) resulted in getting some great red gum fence posts that we were able to convert in to free-standing planter boxes. By using red gum and some galvanised bolts, these boxes will last us years and hopefully return us some fantastic home grown produce!

We've built one box so far, and plan to build one more in the upcoming weeks (in between birthdays, and an over-flowing social calendar!). A big thanks also to our fathers for helping with the building process.

So how did it turn out?! Well, we're certainly happy with the results!
Now to get planting and enjoying some home-grown goodness in the next few months.

The raw material.	Front On View.
Front profile.	Rear profile.

Once the 2^nd planter box is completed, we'll be gravelling around the boxes (so it's easy to move in gardening equipment (like wheel-barrows, etc). I'm considering whether we need to put up a short fence to keep the dogs out... still be determined at this stage.

We'll also have a heap of composting/chip-barking to do under the proposed fruit tree locations. Slowly but surely the back yard is starting to take shape. I'm finding working in the garden is a great way to get away from the computer and a good outlet that isn't 'electronic'.

The Australian Federal government announced the $12.2 billion Household Stimulus Package in the wake of the Worldwide Financial Downturn.

Payments are to have commenced during March, and the Tax Bonus for Working Australians in April. As yet I don't know anyone who has received them?

These payments are made up of:

• A Tax Bonus for Working Australians of up to $900 for eligible taxpayers, depending on income thresholds.
• A Single-Income Family Bonus of $900 to provide additional assistance for families that have one main income earner and may otherwise receive less assistance from the package than dual income families with similar household income.
• A Farmer's Hardship Bonus of $950 which will be paid to farmers and others receiving Exceptional Circumstances related income support.
• A Training and Learning Bonus of $950 to assist students, those returning to study or training, and some income support recipients.
• A Back to School Bonus of $950 per child to assist low- and middle-income families eligible for Family Tax Benefit A with school-age children.

Whether you are for or against them... they are coming.

Has anyone out there received their 'Bonus'?
From all reports they are to be staggered out... yet I don't know an individual yet that has received them.

Would be happy to hear from someone that has got that 'cheque in the mail' so to speak.

Excellent Free Paid Parental leave!

Thanks Kevin!!!



You can find out more about it at : http://www.free-mp-babycare.com.au/

It would appear from the Email I have received that Yahoo Briefcase is closing their doors.




Whilst I haven't used it for many years, it was a useful service for transferring files around when I did use it (2000-2001 by the file stamps on the files I had in there).

There has been no indication given in the Email as to the reasons behind the closing of the service, however the Briefcase FAQ does give some indications:



It's a shame, and I suspect quite a number of people will be affected by the decision. Strange, for items like Office files (Documents, Spreadsheets, etc.) Briefcase was indeed a great site. Ditto for archives or backups. I wouldn't classify a webmail solution (as suggested) is a replacement. I never have been one to believe that Email is a file storage system.

Having said that, there are much better systems available that provide a lot more storage space these days. A quick search on free online storage, will give you a heap of storage solutions.

It does make sense from a Yahoo! business decision to start dropping off some of the services they do have on offer, and focus on their core business (apparently someone out there still use Yahoo! for searching!)

I'm a premium Flickr user, and use it pretty heavily to store photos. I would really hate to see this site go way of the dodo (like what will happen to Yahoo Briefcase come March 30). It does raise the issue -- what happens when a paid service 'disappears'. Just the thought of having to move all my Flickr collections and sets, with all the metadata attached is enough to add an additional dozen grey hairs.

With the ongoing strife that Yahoo is in financially - I'm not wanting to be caught out if they do go under. (I'm hoping not, but would rather err on the side of caution).

So lazy web, do you know of a solution to backup all your data from your Flickr account?

Huawei, the Chinese company that ruffled a number of Cisco feathers have been pushing out a number of wireless 3G devices for wireless broadband for some years. You can find the Huawei devices like the E220 and E169 available from several Australian telcos for 'mobile Internet'.

I personally own a E169 on a Optus Pre-Paid Mobile broadband connection as a 'backup' for when my ADSL connection goes down.

This week at the Mobile World Congress being held in Barcelona Spain, Huawei has announced the release of i-Mo; a combined 3G wireless modem and Wifi router unit. This means one connection can now support multiple people.

Many people are already dropping a dedicated telephone line and the cost of ongoing line rental, such a device is certainly only going to grow this market more, as it can now move from a single user device to a household device.

However, the biggest news from the Mobile gathering is that we're likely to finally see a universal power adapter for mobile devices (so no need for a new charger whenever you upgrade that mobile phone). They are also suggesting up to 50% power savings when charging your phone. Don't hold your breathe, it won't become active until 2012. If only they could do the same with damn data connectivity cables!

The levy imposed on fresh milk is about to be abolished on the 23^rd February 2009.

It's a levy we've all been slugged with since 2000 under the Howard governments wisdom in funding deregulation of the milk industry.
The levy collected some $240 million a year. Dairy Australia has came out to say that this levy never actually made it's way to the farmers. So where has $2 billion in money actually gone?

GST under Howard was supposed to remove the multiple layers of taxation.
It's amazing that levies have still been a popular hidden method of indirectly taxing the population.

Now if only more levies would start to be removed...

Most people don't realise that we have levies buried in just about everything in this country. From the containers holding your plants from the nursery, to lamb meat and citris fruit just to name a few.

Whilst it can be argued many of the organisations involved in that industry pay the levy, it's likely to be passed down the line to the end consumer.

Levies often are quoted as providing funds for R&D and other improvements, however it's not uncommon for a large percentage of these funds to be eaten away in administration, marketing and other such activities. I would love to see some accounting transparency of the bodies involved in the collection of levies and producing concise reports on just how much money is collected and where it's been spent versus the proposed allocation of funds. It would certainly make interesting reading.

Collection of levies is such big business in this country, we even have a Levies Revenue Service area in the Dept of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food! Unfortunately food and agriculture is just the tip of the ice-berg.