A poem about life and work ...

entitled: Ahh, grasshopper, you have taken the stones from the palm of life and realised the golden truth!

There are many buckets out there,
   We all think that it’s not fair!
That some are gilded in gold,
   Whilst some are tin and cold.
Yet when it is brightly lit,
   And closer you move to it,
A smell permeates the air,
   Strong enough to singe your hair!
Gold or tin or paper too,
   They are all filled with poo!

— xntrek.

11 more lessons and thoughts ...

Following on from my last post entitled "8 Life lessons from a not quite 40 year old" here are some more thoughts and philosophies I live my life by:

 

1. Make an effort to know more about the world  today than you knew yesterday

   I honestly believe that the more we learn, the more we do, the greater the world around us becomes. This is why I have always taken on an additional challenge to myself every year. 

   Whether it is through undertaking a course, picking up a new hobby, researching a topic I am ignorant of or a challenging project ... I am continuously attempting to stretch out my skills and abilities, my understanding and my knowledge. 

   I believe everybody should take on this basic attitude. Your mind is like any other part of your body -- it requires just as much exercise, practice and discipline as any other muscle or skill you wish to develop.
    

2. The power of knowledge is the illumination it brings
   
   You don't know what you don't know. Ignorance is not stupidity, but it is a set of blinkers. The only way to see and understand more, is to be exposed to more. Science, art, humanities, politics, philosophy ... each subject uncovers a new set of shadows, and each illumination expands to allow your mind to think new thoughts.
    
3. Actively try and lessen the suffering of others.
   
   There is rarely (if ever) any reward in enforcing, promoting or extending the suffering of others. So why be part of that? I never see any compelling reason for any of the acts of harm or hate others inflict, but can tell you that each individual act of compassion, each individual act of kindness and each individual act of simple attention and acknowledgement has provided a warm and loving spark. Every. Single. Time.
    
4. The promise of an external reward - current, belated or in some eternal afterlife - is no reason to commit an act - good or otherwise.
   
   I honestly believe that Good acts are a reward in themselves. Doing something for the recognition of others, for the collection of "karmic points" is misguided. Surely, if you are performing an act to check of an item on the list then you are no different than those who think that paying a priest will get them a free ticket to the pearly gates. Even If you believe in that sort of reward system, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t count.  
    
5. Do well by doing good. 

   It really is that simple.
    

6. Be honest with yourself about how you feel about someone.

   In the words of Michelle (inthefade): If you ever have even an ounce of doubt about a relationship, don’t think a commitment will ever erase that doubt. A ring does nothing to make the lingering voices in your head shut up and a marriage license does nothing to quell the doubts. Explore those doubts. Be honest with yourself and everyone else about them. 
    

7. Have the courage to live a life true to yourself - not the life others expect of you

   I speak of this as much from regret as experience. Look back on your life - regardless of your current age - and ask yourself: how many dreams have you fulfilled? How many choices have you made? How many choices have you avoided? How many opportunities have you grasped and how many have you squandered? See also the "Don't Settle" and "Don't Leap" of my previous piece.
   

8. Work Hard, but Play Harder.
   
   Don’t spend your life on lives on the treadmill of a work existence. Work is not your life. Your friends and family are. Missing parties, birthdays, anniversaries – these are not things you can re-schedule. You can’t re-do them “in lieu” and you can never make up for them with a Tax bonus. It is easier to do without a new TV than without an extra hug from your significant other. 

9. Recognise the gold that is in friendship

   Throughout our lives, we meet so many people. There are some that are beyond precious. Try and recognise them. Make an effort to keep them alive. We all get caught up in our own lives and it is so easy to then let friendships slip We will regret not giving friendships and loved ones the time and effort that they deserve. Remember that everyone misses their friends when they are dying.

10. Breath deep and take courage - express your feelings and share your thoughts

    The only thing one will regret more than being a workaholic, is being the quiet one who settled for a mediocre existence because what they thought and what was important to them was kept to themselves. Don’t let illnesses relating to bitterness or resentment be the cause of your lying on that deathbed.
    

11. Health brings a freedom you do not realise you possess ... until you no longer have it

    Look after yourself. The time spent in looking after your health is an investment in the future and in the ability to accomplish things you want to achieve.

 

[Reposted from xntrek]

the iPad - another month later ...

So, I thought I'd start noting the differences I find between the Android and iOS devices into a table. Now, my positives and negatives may not be yours, so do not look at this as a means of saying one is better than the other so much as listing the differentiators. I will continue to build this out as I go, and you are welcome to add to the list and categories by accessing the google spreadsheet here.

 

If you are looking to determine the right device for yourself, then other than my most important tip (go out and play with it!) my other sugestion is to copy this sheet and assign a category a weighting (e.g. 1 for not important and 10 for very important) and then provide each differentiator with a score of 1 for positives and 0 for negatives. multiply the differentiators by the weightings and add them all up to provide an overview of the device that is most likely right for you.

[Reposted from xntrek]

Thinking out loud...

I don’t often pull out my language cop card, I understand (well, accept is probably a better word there) the way people (mis)use the words that are so very clearly defined in the giant tome that keeps such knowledge - you may have heard of it, they call it a dictionary.

Ahem.

As I was saying … I accept that people utilise words in a way that is often not the original intent of the word. This, I understand, is due to previously hearing it in a changed state (through nuance, sarcasm or irony) or having in fact learnt the usage in an incorrect context or use (through ignorance or simplification).

All of that is to say, that sometimes people say things that pass on a sentiment that may not in fact be correct.

Take into consideration the term “A simple life”

A. Simple. Life.

Simple: Adjective: Easily understood or done; presenting no difficulty. (Synonyms: plain - homely - unsophisticated - naive)

Life: Noun; The condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional… (Synonyms: existence - lifetime - living - being)

Is this really what people are thinking about? Is thiis what they are really after? An unsophisticated existence? Living as a naive being? Perhaps, the phrase is wrong, perhaps somebody was lazy this one time and shortend the phrase? Let us compared it in a fuller sense:

A simple LIFESTYLE:

Lifestyle: Noun:  The way in which a person or group lives: “the benefits of a healthy lifestyle”. (Synonyms: way of life)

An uncomplicated way of life. 

This would make far more sense now, would it not? 

If that is the case, then some of the social assumptions and stereotypes must surely change? A simple lifestyle does not imply that the participant of such a way of life has an uncomplicated existence, nor does it imply stupidity or the presumption that any idiot can do that work.

This basic lack of language fidelity may very well be the cause of so much misunderstanding.

[Reposted from xntrek]

The iPad: A month in ...

So, I bit the bullet and bought the iPad - ordered it online so I even got my free engraving:

Not going to bore you with a long winded review - here's some points at the end of the first month.

Things I Hate:

• File management - or the complete and utter lack there of! 
• Inability to search for text within files
• The Keyboard and in particular its lack of cursor keys

Things that are Annoyances:

• Apps that fail to be rotation aware
• Apps that are marked as “universal” and are just the unmodified iPhone apps
• iTunes as the default management tool
• Lack of Adobe Air and Flash Support

Things I still Love:

• Power Management
• The Retina Screen
• The uniformity (mostly) of application aesthetics and functionality
• The killer apps that made me choose the ipad over the Android
  • the ones that make Social media consumption easy (Flipboard and Zite)
  • the one that makes non-DRM & PDF reading and annotation so easy (Goodreader)

 

[Reposted from xntrek]

My "had an iPad for 8 days" review of apps that are must haves ...

Yeah, I know ... somebody is late to the party ... also, seriously, 8 days?

It surprises people that as a versed IT consultant, geek, academic and self-confessed gadget junky that I didn’t buy the first or even second generation iPad.

The initial release just didn't do it for me ... basically, it was an iPhone in a larger format and without the phone function. The second gen version, once again, failed to add any real argument for buying it. In fact, Android tablets have been making a far better argument for the tablet over the notebook.

That said, a friend gave me his iPad 2 to use for just over a week. I am now about to purchase one.

Let's take a step back.

It started because I decided that against every fibre of my well nurtured and refined bibliophilia, I would invest in a handful of electronic books. I would never consider this for anything that was for the purposes of enjoyable and relaxed reading, but three volumes that I would almost exclusively utilise as reference materials were a good start.

The initial issues in regards to portability and the are-you-fracking-kidding-me software licensing and DRM restrictions aside, the inability to utilise and transport the files via my mobile (Android based) was getting too much, which is why Peter stepped in and offered me the iPad and the small army of applications that have grown around the concept of eBook reading and interaction.

Some of the frustrations are still with the aforementioned stupidity around trying to lock down the use to a point of the ludicrous (e.g. Cengage claiming that the ability to annotate digital editions makes derivative works possible, and is thus an infringement of their copyright) and I am still wary of that. There are also some things with the iPad itself that makes no sense to me - like the keyboard. Seriously? No cursor keys? What's with that? Why can't we replace the keyboard app? Most of the other things I could deal with ... but that keyboard was really starting to shit me.

Anyway ....

8 days was enough time to play with the device in full anger. I used it as my primary device throughout that time - and it really did become something that I could foresee filling the gap between my laptop and my phone. Further, I could see it actually taking over certain areas that I traditionally delegated to the laptop, such as researching papers, dissertations and other such materials.

So in 8 day a few apps did become part of my "I know I won't be living without" list ... this is them, and why.

First of all, the must have cloud apps:

• Evernote; Note taking and synchronisation manager.
• Dropbox; Cloud storage
• SugarSync; Cloud storage
• xmarks; bookmark synchronisation
• The google suite; Search, eMail, Calendar, docs, etc

... all are available under the iPad and all are must haves across any device. Period.

Flipboard – Pull in your Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, News and Instagram feeds and turn them into a beautiful Magazine-style format to feed your mind and your eyes. It's so brilliantly simple, it makes you wonder why no one thought of it earlier.

Goodreader - It turns out to be a really super flexible and robust PDF reader with rome really nice and advanced reading, annotating, markup and highlighting capabilities. The file manager, text editor, audio/video player, Safari-like viewer for Office documents were useful - but ugly as sin. However, it syncs with Google Docs, MobileMe, Dropbox and can browse the local network and my QNAP NAS store meant that it had a lot of value. An alternative I have been recommended is ReaddleDocs for iPad which is basically the same thing - but prettier. So, I have sent an email to both developers. Who's going to support Adobe Digital Edition eBooks first?

As for plain old useful eBook reader? BlueFire fit the bill nicely by organizing eBooks from libraries, independent bookstores and retailers into a single reading environment. It supports all current eBook standards (including the headache inducing ADE) and it was simple, efficient and I must say the support is outstanding with an enquiry regarding bookmark synchronisation and exporting answered in 12 hours with a "we are working on synchronisation for the next releae". Another simple reader was Overdrive Media Console, which also offered a multimedia capability and access to various eBook sources.

As I said, there is plenty of eReading apps. The only problem is where can I get the best price for a book? I couldn't figure out if there was a way to add the Google Books, Kobo, eBooks.com or bookdepository stores into most of the apps ... Maybe I'll send them all feature requests ...

WolframAlpha - When you need stuff that is comptational in nature, then Google is no longer the engine to turn to. For scientific data, mathematical equations, diagrams and more it has to be the Wolfram.

PubGet - One of the things I was evaluating was the ability to do research. Pubget delivers full text journal articles and allows you to read them as PDFs from collections such as PubMed, ArXiv, JSTOR, IEEE and more.

The Elements - If you think you've seen the periodic table, think again. The Elements: A Visual Exploration lets you experience the building blocks of our universe in a way you've never seen before. (Check out the video).

So ... my next taks are to see about matching the Android apps I have to the iOS ... and to not get myself trapped in a never ending draw something match off or have the night slip away as I battle titans in Infinity Blade.

Meanwhile - if you have any "must have apps" let me know.

I think this is why we never reach a state of equality.

They ask for equality but mean equity whilst others shout louder demanding entitled emolument for past wrongs all the while the rift expands between those that want it to be fair and equal, those that want reprisal and those that want the status quo further fracturing the argument and causing even more conflict than was originally in place.

[Reposted from xntrek]

The perfect job ...

I mean other than “paid a ludicrous amount of money to simply make up the numbers whilst having no requirements, deliverables or responsibilities” Is there such a thing?

What would yours be?

I don’t even know if mine would exist.

The things I am good at are things that seem to be things that people don’t seem to hunt. Like deductive reasoning, right-brain left-field thinking and being an all round goofball who just happens to think differently enough to see things in a way no one else around me seems to. I seem to be able to Identify synergies and make connections between seemingly disparate pieces of information. 

But there’s no call for a “brilliant thinker” on the job boards.

The things I enjoy and am passionate about are seemingly diametrically juxtaposed in the work force.

Teaching, consulting, agriculture, food, technology.

How do I even start to combine these into a job?

Let alone one that can pay the mortgages?

 

[Reposted from xntrek]

A friendly reminder ...

Just a reminder PLEASE do not give small living things as gifts for xmas.

They may seem cute and you may get squeals of delight, but the novelty will inevitably wear off.

Next thing you know, they go feral and start congregating in packs in the park, around alleyways or near shopping centres.

Remember children are for life, not just for xmas!

[Reposted from xntrek]

My year in review ...

So, it's the end of another year and this one has been a full one. 

After all the heartaches and mess I went through over the last few years of the noughties, the hectic pace of this year has been welcome, even if it hasn't always been smooth sailing.

Of course, the predominant part of my year was enveloped in the agricultural studies and activities which I have detailed in a seperate review.   

From a personal point of view, it's been full of ups and downs.

This year we moved from our wonderful and recently renovated home in Narre Warren and put it up for sale just as the housing market dropped ... and Ingrid was made redundant. We recovered from the latter, but, the house has been sitting there, waiting for the right people to come, fall in love with it and afford to pay for it.

Moving into a rental home on the complete opposite side of Melbourne has been interesting. The house is older, smaller and less energy efficient than the one we left. That said, it is closer to the CBD, school campuses and to the property which has allowed me to travel less for work and study and allow me to be more poroactive with the landcare groups.

On the downside, we lost our dear four legged companion of eleven years. Biscuit was a much loved member of our family, and the shock of losing him so unexpectedly was quite jarring. 

Healthwise, I have been more stable. Whilst being drug dependant for my mental stability is not ideal, I'd rather that and not the alternative. My weight has suffered due to the increased levels of arse-on-seat-edness that this year has brought, but I am hoping to change that in the coming year as I kick off the range of activities that are needed to be completed.

We took on an architect and working through the process have a passive, autonomous  eco home designed and submitted to the planning office for approval. The house is just so us - whimsical, elegant and eccentric all in one. We're both very excited by the project ... but until the house sells, it is already starting to be a financial strain on top of the other financial commitments and we may find ourselves delaying the next part of the process due to a simple lack of cash flow.

Whilst I have chosen to take on all of the study, projects and activities that have been keeping me busy, I do miss and regret the lack of social interaction with both those I have shared my life with locally and abroad. There are so many people I interacted with online who's lives are hidden from me due to my lack of time to keep up whilst locally, the same story is repeated as work, study, homework, commitee meetings and all round business wipes out any semblance of spare time.

Overall, all said and done, I'd have to say the year has treated me well. After the last few years, it's a very nice change.

So, all in all, a good 2011.

I look forward to an even better 2012!

[Reposted from xntrek]

My year in review ...

So, it's the end of another year and this one has been a full one. 

After all the heartaches and mess I went through over the last few years of the noughties, the hectic pace of this year has been welcome, even if it hasn't always been smooth sailing.

Of course, the predominant part of my year was enveloped in the agricultural studies and activities which I have detailed in a seperate review.   

From a personal point of view, it's been full of ups and downs.

This year we moved from our wonderful and recently renovated home in Narre Warren and put it up for sale just as the housing market dropped ... and Ingrid was made redundant. We recovered from the latter, but, the house has been sitting there, waiting for the right people to come, fall in love with it and afford to pay for it.

Moving into a rental home on the complete opposite side of Melbourne has been interesting. The house is older, smaller and less energy efficient than the one we left. That said, it is closer to the CBD, school campuses and to the property which has allowed me to travel less for work and study and allow me to be more poroactive with the landcare groups.

On the downside, we lost our dear four legged companion of eleven years. Biscuit was a much loved member of our family, and the shock of losing him so unexpectedly was quite jarring. 

Healthwise, I have been more stable. Whilst being drug dependant for my mental stability is not ideal, I'd rather that and not the alternative. My weight has suffered due to the increased levels of arse-on-seat-edness that this year has brought, but I am hoping to change that in the coming year as I kick off the range of activities that are needed to be completed.

We took on an architect and working through the process have a passive, autonomous  eco home designed and submitted to the planning office for approval. The house is just so us - whimsical, elegant and eccentric all in one. We're both very excited by the project ... but until the house sells, it is already starting to be a financial strain on top of the other financial commitments and we may find ourselves delaying the next part of the process due to a simple lack of cash flow.

Whilst I have chosen to take on all of the study, projects and activities that have been keeping me busy, I do miss and regret the lack of social interaction with both those I have shared my life with locally and abroad. There are so many people I interacted with online who's lives are hidden from me due to my lack of time to keep up whilst locally, the same story is repeated as work, study, homework, commitee meetings and all round business wipes out any semblance of spare time.

Overall, all said and done, I'd have to say the year has treated me well. After the last few years, it's a very nice change.

So, all in all, a good 2011.

I look forward to an even better 2012!

[Reposted from xntrek]

Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank ...

Give a man a bank and he can rob the world.

My people are not commited to being bright ...

[Reposted from xntrek]

I have calendars for everything ...

 This is what my outside-of-work life looks like from the view of my assessment commitments ... 

Someone tell me again what I was thinking when I took all of this on?

[Reposted from xntrek]

Vegan Agendas?

I was pointed to a blog today via twitter entitled "The Hidden Vegan Agenda"

In the post the author states that: 

People say “veganism has a hidden agenda.”

Every aspect of animal consumption and slaughter takes place with a hidden agenda.

and then promptly goes into a full page tirade of the evil of meat production and consumption before concluding with the enlightened gem of

“Contrast this with eating a plant-based diet. There is nothing hidden about veganism. Everything we grow, everything we eat and discuss, is quite literally out in the open with anyone at any age”

Which is all very well and good, except the fact that it's a blinkered view.  It blinkers the fact that plants are alive and have feelings – they have been recorded playing, and have been proven to have personalities and reactions – however, since they do not walk around, nor scream, nor even perform in a timeline that is along our own – it’s not a factor, is it?

Here’s the truth. Life eats life.

At the end of the day, all life consumes life. There is no exception. You are choosing a ethimoral stance based on the fact that food looked back at you – fine, no problem. But do not ever compare the wilful torture and torment of an animal at the hands of a psychopath-in-training to the humnane and ethical treatment of farm animals. Otherwise I may have to compare the Vegan manifesto in the same sentence as the Aryan charter.

The question of “Agenda” is that many people utilise emotive half-truths and clouded arguments rather than a truly objective, factual and reasoned argument.

Often, Vegans attack an industry or practice under the guise of the humane treatment of animalsand yet, will not be satisified until the entire industry is shut down. Hardly an argument for not having an agenda.

As for hiding the animals to food relationship – no farmers do that. That is an issue that is firmly the domain of those who are too superior to go out into the country and spend time learning about their food and the true practices of the farmers.

Humans are omnivores. It is the way we are gentically created. The “perfect” diet for us is one of 75% plant based and 25% meat based. This is true for all primate ape species – us, gorillas, chimpanzees.

Certain things may be choices – but do not turn it into a holy war.

 

[Reposted from xntrek]

New element Discovery: Cs

A new Trace Element was discovered today - Common Sense (Cs) has been part of the human psyche and mythology throughout history, but proof of it's existence has long been debated. However, thanks to the work of scientists and particle acceleration based elctron spectroscopy, scientists have been able to find the rare element.

Unlike many other elements, Cs cannot exist beyond a single ppm of an object. The scientific team that made the historic discovery, Wundaer, Aldoe & Herzfott, discovered that they were able to determine the measure of the deficiency of Cs by bombarding an object with a short lived synthetic element Ss (affectionately called "the Stupids") and determining the uptake amount.

This measurement is referred to as the number of WAHs.

As one WAH is equivalent to one part per billion, it has created the common misconception of the absence of the Cs element.

A common Human being, for example, is said to have a Cs deficiency of between 3 to 12 WAHs.

More research is planned and government grants are being sought to determine public benefits to the research.

[Reposted from xntrek]

TED Talk : What we learned from 5 million books

An extremely entertaining talk by Erez Lieberman Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel who show us how playing with Google Labs' NGram Viewer is an addictive tool that lets you search for words and ideas in a database of 5 million books from across centuries and a few of the surprising things we can learn from 500 billion words.

[Reposted from xntrek]

Eugenics influenced Melbourne ...

Eugenics was the political correctness of it's times in the 1920s and 30s before it came out of style with WW2 and the holocaust. It still helped shape the socioecopolitical environment though ...

Victoria's first director of education, Frank Tate, a eugenicist, adopted many of [Richard] Berry's ideas. Tate supported a multi-streamed system of secondary education in which students at the age of 12 would be funnelled into vocational or academic schools.

In Victoria, a system of technical schools was established mainly in the northern and western suburbs in the 1920s. This was because Tate believed that the working class was genetically fit for a vocational education, but not an academic one. As his friend Berry said, ''You can't put a brain where there isn't one.''

The Age : A theory out of the darkness

[Reposted from xntrek]

RIP BISCUIT

See the full gallery on Posterous

09.10.2000 - 07.09.2011

In our hearts and in our arms from the beginning to the very end.

He was loved and he will forever be missed though never absent from our hearts or thoughts.

[Reposted from xntrek]

Furry shaped heart strings ...

Biscuit, our little eleven year old Persian is very sick. He was very lethargic, hadn't eaten or drunk anything in a few days and has lost over 700grams. When we saw the the vet today at 5pm, he tells us that he thinks it's likely kidney failure or something else just as serious that has a rapid onset and that Biscuit has a 50/50 chance of not surviving the next few days ...

I already was not coping with that news too well.

Then over the course of this evening - he got worse. He kept losing strength until he couldn't walk and then he started twitching ... a sign of possible convulsions and the horrors that such a condition brings. So we took him down to the Emergency Animal Vet Hospital where he is checked in and spending the night while they drip fluids into him and run further blood tests.

We are hoping to give him a fighting chance, and we are hoping he has what it takes to pick up ... but I have to prepare myself that he isn't coming out of this.

I don't want to put him down, but I don't want him to suffer either. 

Knowing where that line rests is just as painful as seeing him deteriorate so quickly in just a few days.

 

[Reposted from xntrek]