Funniest Comic Ever

I have read and loved XKCD for a while now but for some reason this comic really reaches out to me.

Happy Birthday Mum

And may all your cups of Tea but excellent.

Critical Mass

Things in Australia aren't great with respect to commuting by push-bike. There is mostly very poor design of cycle lanes/paths and they rarely go where you need them to go, or they just stop and your somehow expected to teleport to the next section of bike lane. This is what motivate the Critical Mass rallies at the end of each month.

It's a gathering of cyclists that hope to demonstrate that there are allot of bike riders out there. Also that bike are classified as vehicles and are meant to be on the road, so motorists should respect the presence of cyclists.

That being said though It could be much worse It could be like NY city where cycling in a Critical Mass protest can get you charged by the police ........ Literrally!




Don't get me wrong there are also allot of cyclists doing the wrong thing and using the road poorly. I would say the percentages would be about the same as those for Motorists that don't obey the rules. Really doesn't it then come down to needing better education of cyclists and an attitude change for motorists.

Ask and ye shall Receive

So I got an answer to the question posted yesterday (Thanks Bernie)

Put simply:

In general, "affect" is the verb, and "effect" is the noun - with some qualifications!
e.g.
"affect" - the verb: How will the hot humid weather affect these young plants?
"effect" - the noun: The hot humid weather has a very severe effect on these young plants.

BUT

"effect" can be used as a verb when it means "to bring about".
e.g. The new manager intends to effect some big changes in the office.

I don't think I'm far off using the two words correctly. It may still take some practice and allot of referring back to this post to actually sort out the difference in my head though.

Quickie

So I set up this site to accept posts via email. Should be good and hopefully I will be able to post more.

On a side note, I need the services of a language person (obviously). Affect and effect which to use when. Do you affect an outcome? Or do you effect the outcome? I used different words in the two questions because they sounded right but I'm not sure why these things are so. It is a little confusing and the two are probably used interchangeably by allot of people.

Maybe someone will know and let me know in a comment!!!!!

Cheers

--
"There is always an easy solution to every human problem--neat, plausible, and wrong." - H.L. Mencken.

Cargo Bikes

Well I've found some inspiration on "da Interwebs" today. I've been thinking about bikes, what I use them for and what type of bike I should get. It's pretty obvious that the vast magority of my cycling is commuting and transport. Despite the fun I derive from racing and weekend sojourns to the trails around town I really should at least look at tailoring my ride to commuting.

My current bike has done probably about 40 000 km over the last 8-9 years. Its a Specialized FSR (I wouldn't spell it with a z but it is a brand name). It has been an awesome bike. I commute almost daily to work and carry stuff in my crumpler bag (This can get limiting sometimes). It is comfy to ride and fast enough that I can keep up with road bikes if they are not being to serious. I can take dirt tracks and gutters without slowing. I have even entered a number of races in it, never serious, mainly for the challenge. In short I've found it an excellent commuter and a great way to get around cities. However recent advances in bike design and technology and the slow but inevitable decline in the condition of my bike has led me to ponder: What next?

The bike I covert is a Salsa 'Big Mamma'. More efficient suspension design, disc brakes and bigger wheels would make this and even faster commuter and most of all a much faster race bike. Much like my current bike though I face the problem of how to carry all the stuff you need through the day. For example on Mondays and wednesdays I need to Take work clothes, paddling clothes, paddle, food for lunch and after paddling. All of this gets a bit much to fit into my poor little crumpler bag and also can get rather heavy on your shoulder.

What about commuting though wasn't I going to look at commuting options  and bikes that could carry something. OK. A search for Cargo Bikes brought up this neat little article on commuting by bike and the problem with most bikes in Australia being designed for or after racing bikes. It pointed the way to the Surly Big Dummy. This bike instantly spoke to me. It said "load me up and lets go somewhere". This is definitely a commuting bike as well as a touring bike as well as.......sorry getting carried away there. It is  an interesting bike though.

"What was the inspiration" you ask. Well I continued my search for Cargo Bikes and it brought me to this page. http://www.rideyourbike.com/cargo.html a brilliat display of carrying stuff with bikes. I decided my favourite though is this guy towing a boat with his pushie.

I wonder how much I could carry with the Big Dummy??

Settlers of Catan

I have introduced many people in my family to Settlers from Catan. An excellent board game emanating from Germany.  Well It looks like it has finally started t o make it big in the US (See Link below)

Monopoly Killer: Perfect German Board Game Redefines Genre

For those not familiar with the game I definitely recommend checking it out. The Link below will give you all the info you'll ever need on "Settlers"

Catan.de - All news on Catan.de

Cheers

G20 Protests

You may not like the G20 meetings and you may not like capitalism. That's fine your entitled to your opinion. What gets me mad is not that people protest at the G20, as stated your entitled to your opinion and the right to express that opinion. I get mad because there are hipocritical idiots protesting.
Below is a Photo from the Article in Der Speigel magazine about the G20 protests. At first you may see nothing wrong with it. There is however a glaring problem.


Consumers suck. Once again entitled to your opinion. However live up to your ideal. Don't hold up a sign saying consumers suck while wearing mass produced Jacket, Shirt, Jeans, Shoes and probably socks. This idiot really should have a big sign saying "I'm with stupid" and an arrow pointing down!
If this is the quality of protesters that attend these events then it's no wonder that they have totally failed to get there message across.

Internet Filtering

On 21 March 2006, the Federal Labor Opposition announced in a media release that a Labor Government would require all Internet Service Providers (”ISPs”) to implement a mandatory Internet filtering/blocking system. This means that you cannot opt out. This list has already been started and has been leaked to the Media organisation Wikileaks. The current list already includes sites that would not be deemed illegal like online gambling some porn sites and a dog boarding kennel. A reasonably well written article appeared in Wired News. This fiasco being perpetrated upon the Australian public by the current labour government is making us look rather totalitarian. "History shows that secret censorship systems, whatever their original intent, are invariably corrupted into anti-democratic behaviour," WikiLeaks said in a statement. "This week saw Australia joining China and the United Arab Emirates as the only countries censoring WikiLeaks.". Excellent company our country is keeping in that little list. Thailand start mandatory filtering of internet feeds and the initial list mainly included Child pornography. However since it was introduced hundreds of sites that criticised the King of Thailand have been added to the list. This from Wikileaks "In December last year we released the secret Internet censorship list for Thailand. Of the sites censored in 2008, 1,203 sites were classified as "lese majeste" -- criticising the Royal family. Like Australia, the Thai censorship system was originally pushed to be a mechanism to prevent the child pornography.Research shows that while such blacklists are dangerous to "above ground" activities such as political discourse, they have little effect on the production of child pornography, and by diverting resources and attention from traditional policing actions, may even be counter-productive". With Australia's list being secret and unveiwable how long would it be before some aspiring politician placed websites that criticised him on it.

In 'Labor’s Plan for Cyber-safety' from 2007 They sate the dangers that face Australian Children are:

• having their identities appropriated by others;
• having photos or videos of themselves published online without their permission;
• suffering from computer and/or internet addiction;
• being traced by strangers from details they have entered online;
• being the subject of cyber-bullying;
• picking up a virus or trojan or being the victim of a phishing attack; or
• inadvertently downloading illegal content when file-sharing.

Only this last point (highlighted) has even a slight relation to IPS internet filtering and the report from ACMA report of the trial internet filtering concluded that none of the Current tested filtering method could identify illegal content in non-web based traffic. All file sharing happens on what are called P2P networks which are not web based. This means that file sharing would be in no way affected by the ISP filtering as P2P networks are not html content. This means that this filter is an inappropriate response to a non-existent problem.

Yes it is not a problem. This from Electronic Frontiers Australia - A filtered internet feed, if it could be fully implemented, would help only to mitigate so-called “content risks” - the risk of a child being exposed to content inappropriate for their age or maturity level. However, even the Government’s own literature suggests that content risks are the least serious of concerns to parents or children themselves. The 2008 ACMA report Developments in Internet Filtering Technologies and Other Measures for Promoting Online Safety identifies the further categories of “communication risks” and “e-security” risks. The former include issues such as scams, inappropriate advances from strangers, and online harassment, while the latter includes things such as viruses, spam, and the theft of personal information.

Few to no details of the plan have been given except that it would be a IPS based filtering meaning that you do not get to choose weather you have access to the entire internet. Pages and websites would be filtered out before they get anywhere near your computer. The following is from the Wikileaks website "While Wikileaks is used to exposing secret government censorship in developing countries, we now find Australia acting like a democratic backwater. Apparently without irony, ACMA threatens fines of upto $11,000 a day for linking to sites on its secret, unreviewable, censorship blacklist". So your not allowed to view the list, your not allowed to know whats on the list, but if you inadvertantly link to something you don't know is on the list you will be fined $11000 a day. That would make for an interesting courtroom arguement!!

I have a couple of questions for the government over this stupid little idea of theirs.

Who decides what sites go on the list?
Is there a system of notification and appeal?
Why can the Australian public not see and comment on the list?
Do parliamentarians have any say in what sites go on the list?
If I run a site and get a link to a banned site placed on my website through spam will my site be added to the list?
If it is added to the list how would I get it off the list?
Who will maintain the list and what measures will be put in place that ensure legitimate sites with legal content are not blocked?
What compensation can be sought for loss of revenue if a site is inappropriately blocked?
If only the government of the day can decide what goes on the list what is to stop the Liberals, once they get back into government, from putting ALP and union sites on the list?

I have to say this Idea could be a complete tradgety for Australia. It has the possibly to be a major cancer in Australian Democracy.

Election

I had quite a sad revelation yesterday. I was looking at the candidates and deciding who I should vote for as my first choice. I couldn't pick one!!

We have five candidates in my electorate surely one of these people should be a person that I could vote for. Well who is there to vote for I said to myself. I know I'll run through them and see where I would put them on the Ballot paper.
The Greens - can be a good choice but they have had Jenny Stirling as there candidate for ages and she has some strange and unrealistic ideas/policies. They might not be a great choice so maybe not #1.

Labour - has been in government for the last 11 years and really don't seem to have any vision or new ideas. Also they are pushing through a Canal development that very few people in Townsville want, so put them in the middle somewhere either 3 or 4 I thought.

LNP - Are led by Laurence Springborg. I don't really need to say more if you've seem him on TV. These guys are probably going on the bottom of the list.

Family First Party - This state run by the Assembly of God. No Thanks!!! Definitely bottom of the pile.

An Independent - Some one with new Ideas, a fresh way of doing things unencumbered by party politics, This could be good. Then I saw his campaign letter sent out to many people in this electorate. An literate idiot representing my area in the state parliament, at least he would be better than the Family First Party.

At this point the sad realisation hit me. I will be voting from the bottom. I will be voting from the candidate I like the least in number 5 to the one that is the least worst (yes I know this is very poor English I'm trying it out to see if I should vote for the independant candidate) in position 1. What a sad day it is when there is no-one that you can vote for, only people to vote against.