tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48040810095661257312011-10-26T16:25:06.396+11:00Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.comBlogger1381100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-86515211922596357882011-10-02T11:20:00.001+11:002011-10-02T11:21:33.111+11:00

A close and dear friend is dying of cancer. He's young - early 50s and has been very energetic, active and fit. A high tumour in his large bowel meant that it was diagnosed late and the rest...is inevitable, despite his vigorous efforts to stave it off. He has had surgery, chemo, a recurrence, a bowel obstruction, more surgery, a second opinion, peritonitis, a major wound infection and has been

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-82726680138400995872011-09-18T10:19:00.000+10:002011-09-18T10:20:34.363+10:00

Daily we hear Gillard and Bowen bleating that they don't want to be responsible for another dreadful accident like the sinking of the asylum seeker vessel at Christmas Island on December 15 2010. They therefore go on to say that it is necessary to process asylum seekers off-shore, in order to "break the people smugglers' business model" and thus to prevent a further tragedy of that sort. By so

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-21613603006781532822011-09-11T16:54:00.002+10:002011-09-11T16:54:58.546+10:00

The history of internet messaging, as opposed to email, is somewhat vexed and perhaps nerdy. I suspect that's why Jabber has not yet caught on like it should. That's not to stop you getting on, what is now, a fast-growing bandwagon. First what's Jabber? Jabber is an internet standard which was developed in the 1990s and is now called XMPP - eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol. You can find

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-60530638061678281312011-09-11T08:14:00.001+10:002011-09-11T08:34:49.385+10:00

It's been a tumultuous couple of weeks, and at the end I'm left with a peculiar quandary. There is no longer any party in Australian politics that comes close to representing my views. I saw on a young bloke's FaceBook page, under the heading "Politics" a simple statement: "Politicians are wankers". Based on the behaviour in Canberra and Spring Street, not to mention Macquarie Street, I can only

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-4742762398923971032011-07-16T08:46:00.007+10:002011-07-17T07:16:43.352+10:00

Australian politics has done something over the last couple of weeks that I had thought impossible: it's taken a turn for the worse!Before we get down to the specifics of that malaise, let's just look at the environment. The US is critically close to a situation where it won't be able to meet its obligations. That's an amazing and frightening situation. Unless Obama reaches agreement with the

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-13468402973093952092011-06-25T18:28:00.004+10:002011-06-25T18:48:21.124+10:00

Listening to the discussion around Go Back on SBS this week has given me some heart that we might have moved a fraction of an inch from a hate and fear filled rhetoric towards a clearer view of asylum seekers as people who are in difficult situations and worthy of our support.The difficulty is the entrenched political positions in Australia. But even there I see an avenue for major change. The

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-65031580609118719362011-06-12T08:59:00.003+10:002011-06-12T09:37:26.185+10:00

An important milestone is coming soon. From July, the Greens will hold the balance of power in the Senate. In addition Adam Bandt is one of the numbers keeping Julia Gillard in power. This makes for interesting times for the Greens and interesting times for Australia.Before I go any further I want to make one thing clear: I am NOT advocating for intemperate behaviour on the part of the Greens

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-31045554932816004562011-06-04T21:06:00.002+10:002011-06-04T21:30:24.458+10:00

G'day Bob,I decided it was time to write to you, because the country is pretty fucked and we need you to act.At the last election an interesting thing happened. The collective mind of Australia created a hung parliament. We also gave the Greens a bigger vote than we ever have before. In my electorate we elected the first lower house Green in Federal Parliament.We did all that for a reason. It

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-42462220493498763932011-05-28T07:24:00.007+10:002011-05-28T14:13:56.630+10:00

Yesterday, I had the most depressing interchange, on Twitter, with a fellow called @StreetSmarts111 . His profile called out his conservative political bent. The reason the interchange was so depressing, and indeed the reason I ultimately blocked him, was that there appeared no intent on his part to engage in an exploration. This Tweeter simply wanted to pound a mandatory detention path.What

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-27686918408224247562011-05-26T11:42:00.004+10:002011-05-26T12:30:36.056+10:00

The last week has been a bit of a milestone week in terms of my recovery from the surgery. It's also caused me to pause and reflect about the whole process. So this post is really a brief review of the achievements and a little bit of reflection and recounting of my learning.First the milestones. I had my 8 week review with the surgeon. That was great. Many surgeons only want to hear the good,

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-69901655790414333092011-05-15T18:08:00.005+10:002011-05-15T18:42:04.346+10:00

Last year, in a fit of boredom, I decided (for reasons still unknown to me) to go off and do my exam to become an amateur radio operator. I've been qualified as a marine radio operator for years and also have flight radio operator quals. I wanted to do my amateur license though. First off I did a two day course and got my Foundation license. This is an "operators" license and the lowliest of the

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-58506648975705152002011-05-15T14:29:00.003+10:002011-05-15T14:56:21.768+10:00

The first week of this whole saga was spent in hospital and it was a bit of a blur, the days and nights seemed to fly by, and in retrospect I suspect a fairly heavy drug load helped that. Since then you've been able to read about the ups and downs here on a weekly basis. This is the last weekly update unless there's something pretty interesting.This week has been all about reducing pain relief

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-68989671078578967412011-05-10T11:02:00.005+10:002011-05-10T11:41:46.158+10:00

There's a continuing misguided swirl of political rhetoric in Australia with respect to the role of "people smugglers" and the issue of "queue jumpers". I'm prompted to write this, in part, by an ongoing conversation on Twitter with @kristinmoore2 and @timhollo. 140 characters simply isn't enough sometimes.Let's try to get some clarity through the middle of this highly charged argument. Firstly

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-59599477661973136702011-05-08T15:29:00.005+10:002011-05-08T15:44:15.685+10:00

After a pretty good week in Week 6 this week has been a bit of a mixture. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were particularly bad days with a return to pain levels of a couple of weeks ago. The heat packs came back into use and my mood plummeted. I took things pretty quietly and just tried not to aggravate anything and it seems to be settling down.I started the week pretty well with a long walk on

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-66344980177221556292011-05-01T15:40:00.004+10:002011-05-01T15:57:31.558+10:00

The physio has been saying to me "the magic date is 6 weeks." She doesn't really know why but she maintains that 6 weeks post-surgery seems to be a big milestone for people like me with a spinal fusion. Well guess what? I think she's right. I walked into her rooms this week and she said just two words: "New man". She felt that I looked different, was walking much better and overall looked like I

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-13284604008239562602011-04-25T05:05:00.005+10:002011-04-25T05:22:33.394+10:00

This has been a much smoother week. I got some good advice at the beginning of the week and it has paid off with a smoother, though not trouble free week.The good advice was delivered by a slightly exasperated friend who's "in the business" - that is he's closely involved in these sorts of operations. His advice was simple: "you need to treat yourself like you've been in a major car accident with

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-36073014890305502242011-04-17T10:27:00.003+10:002011-04-17T10:50:57.202+10:00

This has been a remarkably tough week. I think the biggest issue has been a huge gap between what I think I should be able to do and what I can do. I've walked 25.7 km, not including incidental walking - across the road, round the house, etc. That includes one day where I didn't walk at all, except around the house. My biggest walking day was yesterday where I did two walks totalling 7.1 km. I

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-88495222443984201312011-04-10T11:04:00.006+10:002011-05-01T11:57:28.615+10:00

For those of you still hanging in here, and more importantly perhaps for those of you considering an operation like this, here's a day 21 round up.First some background. I caused injury to the L5-S1 level of my spine a long time ago when I ruptured the disc. I had a difficult period straight after the injury but since then things have travelled on OK. In 1991 I lost sensation in the front of my

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-21031736137035196032011-04-07T16:53:00.005+10:002011-04-07T17:13:00.982+10:00

It's day 18 from surgery. Since last weekend I've done another couple of long walks but I've finally had to admit that it's probably not the best thing I could be doing. Finally yesterday, after "good" advice from a range of sources, I took a day off and didn't walk at all. I did the normal walk around the house, read, get food, but that's about it. I did two other things though: I stopped taking

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-15595103028941324142011-04-03T07:09:00.006+10:002011-04-03T08:20:42.133+10:00

I'm used to walking at a pace that competes with the best of them. I guess that's at least 5.5 - 6km/h. Right now I'm only able to keep up about 2km/h. So that gives me plenty of time to sight see and smell the roses. I expect that speed will climb quite quickly but it's fast enough for now.The surgeon had asked that I start off slowly and then build up to a reasonable walking distance each day.

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-69769829360980125532011-04-01T02:27:00.005+11:002011-04-01T02:57:03.472+11:00

So out of the ward, down in the lift, across the road and we're at the car. I'm not allowed to bend at the waist, I'm not allowed to twist and I'm not supposed to sit with my knees higher than my hips. So how do I get into the car seat? Well gingerly for a start...I got the car door open as far as it would go and sat on the edge of the seat facing outwards. Of course all modern cars have seat

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-61448700408368956152011-03-30T07:48:00.005+11:002011-03-30T08:12:25.633+11:00

What wasn't so great was that my right hand side, which had been largely pain free before surgery was now painful. It was as if I had swapped the pain from the left to the right hand sides! The explanation was pretty simple: I'm a big bloke and in order to get access to the various bits of my spine and to place the screws and the fusion cage it was necessary to use a fair amount of force,

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-65771719237027539612011-03-29T09:06:00.005+11:002011-04-01T07:05:53.771+11:00

So what happened after coming out of surgery and leaving hospital on day 7? Well quite a lot really.I vaguely remember this insistent voice in recovery saying "what's your pain now dear?". The scale is 1 (no pain) to 10 (unbearable pain, worst you've ever felt). I remember answering "7" every time. It sounded like a good number in my semi-conscious state. The unexpected result was that I arrived

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-56094511641558776692011-03-28T10:17:00.006+11:002011-03-28T10:50:09.281+11:00

Pedicle screws, rods, cross link and the radio-opaque markers in the fusion cage (from the back)Pedicle screws from the side showing the hardware at the back and the radio-opaque markers in the fusion cage.Last Monday morning, bright and early at the hospital for all the clerkly things to happen, then to be weighed, have blood taken, an ECG done and finally to meet Charles, the anaesthetist - and

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-91695152831481139022011-03-21T05:20:00.003+11:002011-03-21T05:23:51.372+11:00

Alarm went at 5:00am, I have to be at the hospital at 6:30. Currently making coffee for others! I'm hungry, thirsty and dying for a cup of coffee...and I can't have anything.That saying "ignorance is bliss" has got a lot going for it. I think if I didn't know what was at stake here I might have had a decent night's sleep. Instead I tossed and turned and worried.Soon it will be off to the hospital

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-39143624352268222242011-03-20T12:12:00.001+11:002011-03-20T12:13:23.262+11:00

Tomorrow's the day. I'm having a single level spinal fusion - L5-S1 - with inter-body fusion cage, pedicle screws and rods. Doesn't sound too bad when you say it quickly.For years I've had back problems firstly with a ruptured disc at this level and then as time has passed the facet joints have collapsed and I've developed stenosis of the neural foramen, particularly on the left side. In plain

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-57457019440809288162010-10-23T09:14:00.008+11:002010-10-23T10:04:42.367+11:00

I'm feeling a little confessional this morning so I thought I'd tell you about one of my fetishes. It's about bags, I can't help myself, I just like bags. I know I'm not alone and I bet a fair number of you also share this fetish in one form or another.First let me set your mind at rest, it's not a fetish for black garbage bags (go and google that one) nor is it a fetish for handbags. I confine

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-56200931335670173162010-10-08T17:40:00.006+11:002010-10-08T18:00:22.585+11:00

Day 14 is drawing to a close. I've just had my first 24 hours pain free and that is a bit of a revelation. I'm hopeful that it's all plain sailing from here. I was surprised at how painful the procedure was and how long the pain persisted. Since about day 10 the pain has reduced and my reliance on painkillers has also reduced. If there was one thing I hadn't counted on it was the pain - ears are

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-33849681746923401682010-10-02T20:03:00.003+10:002010-10-02T20:10:09.491+10:00

Not long after my last post, my ear began to get sore and tense, with some drainage. Saturday afternoon, AFL Grand Final replay day...not a great day to have problems. Nevertheless I toddled off to the Emergency Department at the local hospital. The doctor had a look and called the surgeon. Very quickly I found myself with a drip in my arm running in a dose of IV antibiotics. Next, a short trip

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-43965040230667246912010-10-02T08:05:00.004+10:002010-10-02T08:12:40.728+10:00

Today is day 8 and all of a sudden over the last 24 hours things have improved. I'd really got myself into a little black hole with the unrelenting pain. All from such a little procedure!After the sutures were taken out on Tuesday the ear seemed to get worse not better. I was getting a lot of serous exudate from the graft site and it was very painful and swollen. On Thursday morning things

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-17794040882262946932010-09-29T10:22:00.009+10:002010-09-29T11:31:59.751+10:00

Where's your hat? Stay out of the sun! I can remember my mother's refrain from childhood. I was a very fair skinned kid and sunscreens were really not available when I was young. Consequently I was regularly burnt and on odd occasions I developed sunburn blisters - unpleasant and painful.As I've got older I've become increasingly obsessive about sun protection - hats, screen, sunglasses, long

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-8679381799400270142010-09-18T06:30:00.005+10:002010-09-18T08:07:54.885+10:00

It may not be a big thing on this side of the globe, but in the US there is a major campaign against Craigslist. Broadly the campaigners claim that Craigslist provides a way for criminals to pimp and traffic young women for sex. By inference it appears that they believe that Craigslist does nothing to stop this trade, that it is widespread within Craiglist's listings and that the company is venal

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-29526648870139869172010-09-05T11:03:00.003+10:002010-09-05T11:38:25.447+10:00

The title says it all really. We wanted another iPhone and it seemed pointless to get a 3Gs when the next model had already been released and the price point for a 3Gs was not that attractive compared to the price of the 4.If you care about design, this is a nice looking piece of technology. The problem however is that it's too thin. If you have big hands then you'll like the old 3Gs better

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-34157028514156070522010-09-01T05:39:00.005+10:002010-09-01T06:07:35.389+10:00

There's been a lot going on, so these are just some random thoughts about the (non) election which, whilst indecisive, I believe is all to the good. Already we've seen Tony Abbott in his true colours, first refusing to submit his policies to Treasury for costing and then, inevitably having to agree to do so. Why didn't he just agree in the first place? He looked very silly behaving the way he did

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-62241759429180872322010-08-22T15:27:00.004+10:002010-08-22T16:09:45.497+10:00

I went to buy fish at my usual place in Victoria Street, Richmond, today. As I walked in the Vietnamese guys who run the place were all watching the TV on the wall, Gillard was talking. They jumped on me and said "What was the result? You explain please. We don't understand". I thought 'well you're not alone in that boys', and tried my best to explain that there is no result and there won't be

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-37515204404107824502010-08-15T07:01:00.005+10:002010-08-15T07:33:25.222+10:00

In mid-July Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone 4 would be released in Australia on July 30. I've come to a couple of conclusions since then: firstly his definition of "released" and mine differ; secondly Apple has become insufferably arrogant towards its customers.What has Apple stuffed up this time around? Well let's try this for starters:They offered to keep us informed about the launch of

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-42766848219209425172010-08-08T09:18:00.004+10:002010-08-08T11:11:18.937+10:00

I've had cause to think about the issues of managing projects without a LAN. Indeed managing any kind of business activity without a LAN requires a particular mindset.If you think about project information it falls into a number of clear categories:Control material - things like status reports, actions, issues etc. This stuff is both structured and requires formal control. In a LAN-free

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-70025012478735848722010-07-28T18:11:00.004+10:002010-07-28T18:32:27.254+10:00

Deep into the second week of the Australian election campaign, I'm struck by the fact that we appear to have not one but two sub-par offerings from the major parties. Tony Abbott doesn't have it and doesn't get it, but he is busy promising us anything we want. Want a backflip on the company tax anyone?Meanwhile Julia Gillard is promising to review, consult, plan, hold a forum and do anything but

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-87687076883291210612010-07-07T06:47:00.006+10:002010-07-08T18:55:34.282+10:00

I think I do owe you an apology. I've been incredibly busy over the last few weeks and so I've let the posting slip a bit.What a few weeks it's been: Kevin Rudd off to obscurity; Julia Gillard in, via a very snappy coup; Lindsay Tanner calling it quits in Melbourne; a "deal" with the miners and announcements about asylum seekers from both sides of the fence.The real interest for me though is the

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-56116323886731062512010-06-17T18:34:00.004+10:002010-06-17T18:43:00.691+10:00

I love pictures and this picture tells a story. It's taken from the AIS data for Melbourne and Port Phillip. AIS is a system for ships that's like aircraft transponders. It broadcasts a range of data including course and speed, type of vessel and destination.This picture shows why the Port of Melbourne is the busiest port in Australia. The green ships are all cargo vessels - most, but not all of

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-60265464379281039672010-06-17T18:03:00.005+10:002010-06-17T18:20:25.140+10:00

You know the feeling, you've had a hard day at work, you're tired and you really can't be bothered cooking something sensible. The temptation to eat some fast food, some generally unhealthy fast food, is huge.We've found a bit of a way around that though. The meal turns out to have several of the food groups, it's fast and it's low in fat. Our current specialty is a chicken burger, simple and

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-31124436410496565552010-06-12T11:46:00.005+10:002010-06-12T13:38:03.128+10:00

A conversation sprang up here last night. My 22 year-old son said that he thought it was inappropriate that young people set off to sail solo around the world. Certainly at the age of 16. I told him he was a conservative old fart!It got me thinking however. What are the rights and wrongs of allowing or more correctly supporting your child to go off and do something like this? Is it dangerous? Is

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-20508664747778246962010-06-06T20:59:00.004+10:002010-06-06T21:10:44.570+10:00

You're getting a bit of cooking lately...it must be the colder weather!Use the pasta recipe from the previous post to make some delicate tagliatelle or pappardelle.Take two leeks, top and tail them so that you are left with the white, tight part of the leeks. Split them down the middle and then slice each half very finely - transversely. Throw about 25g of unsalted butter in a pan and gently

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-44157130333289035562010-06-03T21:21:00.008+10:002010-06-06T20:57:46.111+10:00

This is a wonderful pasta dish. First make the pasta: put 500g of strong flour and 5 large eggs into a food processor. Pulse process until it comes together in a crumb. Turn it out onto a board and knead until it forms a silky dough. Wrap the dough in cling wrap and set aside at room temperature to rest for an hour.After the pasta has rested process it through a pasta machine, making sure that it

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-88914607880438740412010-05-31T09:57:00.007+10:002010-05-31T10:24:27.063+10:00

I've always had mixed feelings about Autumn. When I was younger - still at school - I disliked autumn because I knew that meant the rain was coming. We'd have to work outside on the farm in wet weather gear, we'd never be dry, and there'd always be mud. It would be like that until October usually.I like summer, I don't like the searing heat of the really hot days but the milder days of summer are

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-51987952056298951582010-05-17T08:07:00.004+10:002010-05-17T08:44:36.468+10:00

Yesterday was the kind of day that often comes along in autumn and winter here. A high pressure system had parked over the top of us. When we arrived at the boat the fog was quite thick and there was a light northerly blowing - maybe 2-3 knots.There were 11 of us on board for the day and as others arrived the fog started to slowly lift. We got underway and as we motored out we raised the yankee

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-77961310889417854002010-05-15T09:20:00.004+10:002010-05-15T09:23:02.855+10:00

This snap, taken at 9:19 am local time today, shows the current position and course of Ella's Pink Lady. She's the "purple" vessel almost directly off Curl Curl on a NW course.So close!!

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-60651846618951755082010-05-15T08:59:00.006+10:002010-05-15T09:10:07.667+10:00

Imagine that you are a coal buyer, a ship owner or just someone who is affected by the cost of coal or the sale of coal. The picture above (which was a snapshot made at 8:57 am today) tells a story of your pain.Each of the green squares represents a ship at anchor. Each of the green "ship" shapes represents a ship moving. The "moving" ships in amongst the anchored ships are likely to be either

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-71976084998423736242010-05-14T22:53:00.006+10:002010-05-15T08:02:41.804+10:00

About 2 hours ago, at 10:42:01 UTC, Jessica was at 33.94 degrees south 151.81 degrees east, she was on a course of 017 degrees and doing 3.6 knots.For those without the means to decipher that, that position is about 25-30 nautical miles off the coast near Sydney and a little south of the harbour - roughly between South Head and Botany Bay. That UTC time is 8:42:01 pm Sydney time.Home soon!!An

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-6950547320958580232010-05-14T10:53:00.005+10:002010-05-14T11:53:22.040+10:00

Increasingly in places like the UK and Australia it seems that the voters are prepared to give the government of the day a fair shot at it. In NSW a Labour government has been in power for 13 years. Ditto in the UK where the conservatives have just come to power. John Howard and the Liberals (conservatives for those overseas) were in power here for 11 years.That means that over a period of time

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-92022043871613989322010-05-08T07:48:00.006+10:002010-05-08T08:31:35.335+10:00

This week Liberal Senator, Cory Bernardi, wrote here that the "burka" should be banned. I understood by the way that the anglicised spelling was burqa.Bernardi had two points:That the burqa is increasingly being used as a disguise by bandits and that it also creates two tiers of "identifiability";That the burqa is "repressive" and "un-Australian"Let's take these points one by one. I have no

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-78625741583678459462010-05-06T09:11:00.003+10:002010-05-06T10:04:56.949+10:00

Patients expect that when they are treated by doctors, they will be helped not hurt in the process. This is particularly true in developed countries with sound health systems.Throughout the world however there is evidence that patients can be hurt by the medical care that they receive. There are obvious outliers - such as the current manslaughter trial of Dr Jayant Patel in Queensland. In that

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-59250824185844020232010-05-05T07:30:00.005+10:002010-05-05T07:46:21.503+10:00

Well Jesse again came through the rotten weather of the last few days with flying colours. She's now somewhere off the eastern mouth of Bass Strait it appears from her website. Unfortunately the weather isn't going to be too kind. Here's this morning's MSL analysis chart from the BOM:Those headwinds that Jessica has talked about in her blog will go around to a nice beam or broad reach for the

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-61312573342544220412010-04-29T22:15:00.006+10:002010-04-29T23:09:37.929+10:00

Jessica Watson has met every challenge along the way and triumphed. Those who have been to sea in small boats will know how much of a challenge she has faced. This is a very raw and confronting experience, there's not much between you and the elements. Disaster can be close and sudden.I have a sense however that Jess is facing her greatest challenge right now. Jessica and her team have always

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-83807488681974340152010-04-24T08:28:00.003+10:002010-04-24T09:03:01.790+10:00

The story so far, as told in the media, seems to be this:$20,000 a week - a total of $1.7 million - was being paid for a "hospitality tent" when in fact that tent was being provided as part of another contract. Instead the money was being paid to an unknown number of players in breach of the salary cap. This was discovered when the NRL salary cap auditor was tipped off to the existence of a

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-14598046216684165052010-04-22T13:32:00.006+10:002010-04-22T14:34:18.183+10:00

I promised more on my ham-fisted attempts to learn to fly a tailwheel aircraft. It's been a while but here we are. In the meantime I've been flying tamer aircraft - ones with the third wheel on the other end. I've also been doing some time in the right hand seat which is fun. Just as an aside: as I understand it there is no "command" seat in the Australian regulations. You just have to be able to

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-2559881148136241472010-04-18T16:55:00.004+10:002010-04-18T17:20:07.180+10:00

I attended a wedding this weekend, to protect the innocent in this story I will use initials for the key players."A" was marrying her fiancee "B"; B's identical twin brother "C" had returned from overseas to be B's Best Man. Like a proper Best Man, C had slaved for weeks to prepare his speech. However at the reception he got up and said: "I'm not going to give the speech I prepared, instead I'm

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-5789185467934347272010-04-17T07:12:00.005+10:002010-04-17T07:34:21.341+10:00

I spent a long time in the car yesterday. It was pretty boring, but at least there's time to think. One of the things I ended up thinking about was the relationship between the "size" of a country or state and the effectiveness of its government. By "size" I mean the number of people and the complexity of services provided. I think there's an inverse relationship between size and ability to

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-88588459886218327092010-04-03T09:04:00.003+11:002010-04-03T09:53:32.135+11:00

The catholic church doesn't get a few facts. Most of all they don't get that they are facing the largest crisis that they have ever faced and that they are facing it entirely through their own actions and inaction.Around the world, like the rolls of thunder from a massive electrical storm, comes revelation upon revelation of sexual abuse. This, years after it became clearly apparent to all that

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-37363087704929818662010-03-24T08:02:00.007+11:002010-03-24T08:25:36.509+11:00

Guglielmo Marconi (1908)Not quite about those things, but related. I was thinking about "technology" and it's impact on our lives. In particular I was thinking about the "march" of technology, the way technology develops and changes and the rate at which it does. Modern things like mobile phones and iPods are relatively new conceptually and relatively new in terms of their length of use. I can

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-23870359687497137522010-03-22T08:15:00.004+11:002010-03-22T08:34:39.915+11:00

I've been thinking about those two - perhaps polar - concepts recently. Think about undertaking an ocean passage in a small boat. If you're like me, without all the technological gee-gaws, that means a period of enforced disconnection. Except for your fellow crew you are largely cut off from the world.Contrast that with daily life. Increasingly we are connected everywhere and always. Walking down

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-85022988516012878112010-03-01T18:06:00.009+11:002010-03-01T18:50:43.535+11:00

How many of you have got one of these? How many of you use it? I'm very fond of my Cassens & Plath. It's both a connection to the past and a thing of today. It's accurate and it doesn't rely on satellites. It also gives me a huge kick every time I reduce a sight and draw a line of position on the chart.My problem is that I hate paying money to somebody for the tables and the almanac. I keep

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-71112151360583050712010-02-26T13:47:00.003+11:002010-02-26T14:14:15.315+11:00

We're lost, lost in a sea of numbers. The numbers have become an end in themselves. We find more and more things to count, more and more numbers to tabulate. It makes us feel good, it assuages our anxiety.It's a waste of time!This is another of the illnesses that has infected our organisations. I have a sneaking suspicion that it forms part of a bigger illness called MBA Syndrome.It's the fashion

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-72981665192843784962010-02-25T08:45:00.006+11:002010-02-25T09:38:38.837+11:00

This is just a quick thought for all those people who have tried to cut this stuff with a knife or a set of cutters. Whatever you use it seems to be very hard to cut. Even an apparently sharp knife often leaves a ratty end after you have sawed away at it. A hot knife slices right through it but the result is pretty ordinary and the material doesn't really melt in the way that something like nylon

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-79425739611217167962010-02-22T10:21:00.004+11:002010-02-22T10:56:08.889+11:00

These women and men are an illness that has infected our organisations. They are responsible for much of the bullying and distress that happens in our organisations and they have a negative impact on performance. So that we are on the same page, let's paint a picture of the micro manager:Jane is a GM responsible for the delivery of complex technical services to customers. She has about 8 direct

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-7947443509072617102010-02-11T15:25:00.008+11:002010-02-11T16:31:09.994+11:00

If you look at a modern high tech racing boat you'll find exotic fibres sprinkled all over it. Boats are even using exotics in place of things like chain plates and fibre rigging is making a come back. All that makes tremendous sense when you are in a high tech racing campaign where every gram of weight counts and strength per unit size is ultra important.What's that got to do with traditional

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-33162847953820223702010-02-01T11:20:00.007+11:002010-02-02T08:02:00.555+11:00

In Australia we have a very effective legislative regime for recreational aviation - what used to be called ultralight aviation. CASA - the safety regulator - has delegated organisations to undertake the management and oversight of recreational aviation.In the case of traditional ultralight aviation this role is undertaken by Recreational Aviation Australia (RAAus), the old Australian Ultralight

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-3307576871197016592010-01-29T16:03:00.005+11:002010-01-29T16:30:12.379+11:00

I know many of you are sick of hearing about this thing already - and it was only launched a day or so ago. Nevertheless I thought I'd have my two cents worth on the basis that I have previously said what I wanted in a device like this.Let's start with a caveat: I haven't seen or handled this device yet. Indeed many hours after its launch it wasn't even on Apple Australia's website, though it is

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-39841227351945765832010-01-22T22:31:00.003+11:002010-01-22T22:44:53.571+11:00

Politicians are mugs. They can't help but let the opposition wind them up. Then the poor, long suffering populace get....what they deserve. Yes, it's an election year.Let's take the horrendous bush fires that Victoria suffered, almost a year ago. A very large number of people died and a very large amount of property was destroyed. It was a dreadful day, it had an apocalyptic feel to it. I never

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-15930963145112285312010-01-14T10:24:00.005+11:002010-01-14T10:50:48.344+11:00

Making my coffee this morning I got to thinking about an afternoon ritual that we used to have many years ago. We worked in the Philippines and we used to come home after work and sit in the shade and drink tuba. It's known by a range of names throughout Asia and the sub-continent - palm toddy, palm wine...In a world where everything appears to be packaged, refrigerated and preserved to deliver a

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-13957168236979123752010-01-10T12:48:00.003+11:002010-01-10T12:55:48.773+11:00

A further update is generated from this video which was posted on 8 January, after my last two posts. It is clear from this video that the Japanese vessel was approaching Ady Gil from astern and was therefore the give way vessel with Ady Gil as the stand on vessel. In my view this video swings weight behind the claims of Sea Shepherd that fault rests with the Japanese. There still remains a small

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-83411065171809492010-01-10T08:33:00.004+11:002010-01-10T08:52:50.439+11:00

Down to tin tacks, after being interrupted on the way here by the Ady Gil affair.Australian enterprises are severely damaged, they are ineffective and they need change. Big statements, I can see people launching out of their chairs and beginning to tell me why it isn't so. They'll tell me about how much more profit they make than they did 5 years ago; they'll tell me how their turnover has risen;

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-87810630931382885772010-01-07T23:05:00.009+11:002010-01-10T13:05:31.482+11:00

NOTE (10 January 2009): Please read this post in conjunction with my post of 10 January. Later video substantially alters my conclusions.Having reviewed the video and other record of this incident I'd like to go into print once more on a couple of issues:I made an error in my original post: Despite early reports it does not appear the the Ady Gil was sunk, although damage was substantial. I

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-15177938643017994482010-01-06T17:18:00.004+11:002010-01-06T17:30:47.886+11:00

I was working up another post but then the news about Ady Gil broke. If you haven't caught up with it a Japanese "security" vessel has sunk Sea Shepherd's Ady Gil in the Southern Ocean. Let me first say that I think often Sea Shepherd gets the balance between protest and seamanship wrong. They take dangerous risks with their lives and with the lives of others.Nevertheless Japan cannot claim the

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-38201317157087726232010-01-06T06:18:00.007+11:002010-02-11T23:07:47.700+11:00

Being a parent is an interesting experience, it gives you a great deal to think about! But first I want to define that word "mastery" so that we're all on the same page: my use of the word mastery is definitely a lower case use. I don't mean mastery in a "masters of the universe" way, not in an ego driven way, rather I use it in a lower case, quiet satisfaction way. Mastery to me means a quiet

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-46707669505734864982010-01-02T17:35:00.005+11:002010-01-03T06:00:18.735+11:00

On January 26 - an inauspicious day if you are a Koori Australian - Apple is announcing their new Tablet Computer. I don't actually know that, but that's what all the Apple watchers are saying is going to happen. Whatever the case I'm fairly certain that we will see something from Apple in this line sooner this year rather than later.That got me thinking about what I'd want from such a device,

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-86234329080881883292009-12-30T15:56:00.005+11:002009-12-30T16:51:38.910+11:00

A fascinating miniature firestorm is going on across the US at the moment. No, it's not about a guy with explosive jocks. It's about a woman who styled herself as Alexa DiCarlo. She had, to my knowledge, three different but related websites: Her blog - The Real Princess Diaries, a site with stories of sex workers' first experience of professional sex - My First Professional Sex, and her "

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-55083110339749884862009-12-28T23:46:00.004+11:002009-12-29T00:23:56.857+11:00

Well the first thing to do is to apologise that this is so late...but I've got a fair excuse. I've spent the whole Christmas period in increasing pain, culminating in a trip to the Emergency Department today. I hope, after 7 hours there, that I'm finally on the improve, though it's not really clear at the moment.Seven hours, mainly waiting, gives you some time to reflect. The thing that always

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-68652874250235712162009-12-24T18:04:00.003+11:002009-12-24T18:29:37.183+11:00

Christmas Eve wasn't a big deal when I was a kid, it was just a day of waiting. Now though it's taken on a new significance, for two reasons.Firstly it's the day of preparation, make sure we have all the ingredients for tomorrow's food, make sure we have the wine and drinks for tomorrow and make sure that we've got gas for the barbecue and presents for each other.That makes it a busy day.

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-37864096621216588842009-12-22T18:47:00.004+11:002009-12-22T19:11:59.444+11:00

This is a bit like my school reports as a kid: Kevin could do better if he tried. In fact Kevin could do better without even trying.This has been a pretty disappointing year for those of us who had some hope for this government. Very disappointing indeed. Here's how I read it:The internet nanny filter: Kevin, you and Stephen Conroy just need to get over this. I WILL vote against you if you

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-91696638372024204992009-12-21T10:51:00.007+11:002009-12-21T11:18:37.534+11:00

I was just doing some run-of-the-mill tasks in my digital life and I stopped short: how fundamental is Google to the way I run my digital life? How much does Google know about me? How ubiquitous is Google?The answers to those questions are really something to make you pause for thought. Hands up if you have never used Google or any of its services. I bet there isn't a single hand up, in fact

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-55191858603670289402009-12-20T08:24:00.006+11:002009-12-20T08:46:55.707+11:00

Changing subjects entirely for this day of Xmas: Human Factors in Aviation.If I have one thing I'd like to see in 2010 it's for all of us who fly light aircraft to realise that it's us, and generally us alone who cause crashes, and then to act to fix that. It was this realisation that spurred the whole development of Human Factors and CRM in heavy aircraft flying. It's long overdue that we get

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-89757375093157643842009-12-16T19:15:00.013+11:002010-01-13T11:50:01.006+11:00

ZulineLyle C Hess was born in Blackfoot Idaho in 1912 and whilst still a boy he moved with his family to Southern California. Lyle loved boats and the sea and from an early age he built and sailed boats. The first large sailing boat that he designed and built was Westward Ho. Lyle once said "All I've ever wanted to do is design boats". And design boats he did, beautiful, functional boats. Many of

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-88594942769460915412009-12-16T10:30:00.004+11:002009-12-16T18:51:26.376+11:00

OK, enough of the seriousness for a little while. All too preachy maybe, but those things really piss me off.A favourite thing.It's a warm summer morning, there's hardly a breath of wind, the sun is bright and hot and the sky is that pale blue that spells heat. There's a light, white haze so that visibility is not great. We get aboard and cast off, motor out and hoist the main and the yankee.

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-13170889917488926782009-12-16T08:36:00.004+11:002009-12-16T09:05:14.428+11:00

I think it's time that the community stood up to the notion that the catholic church is somehow interested in the welfare of people ahead of the welfare of the church. This proposition is simply, demonstrably not true.The catholic church has demonstrated, over the last 80 years or so that it is focused above all else on the survival of the church as an institution rather than the continuance of

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-53578710506107271322009-12-15T08:28:00.004+11:002009-12-15T08:48:41.361+11:00

Where did number 3 get to? It was the post on the alcohol/violence crackdown. It wasn't intended to be but when it was finished it sort of turned out that way.This day is a thought about global violence. Why is it that in every (almost every?) conflict in my lifetime there have been one or more of three root causes? Those causes are:ReligionEthnicity...ismThink about it: Northern Ireland -

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-48725464590848547092009-12-12T09:25:00.003+11:002009-12-12T09:40:30.285+11:00

Over this weekend police in Australia and NZ are running a blitz on "alcohol fuelled violence". They are out in force cracking down on people engaging in drunken behaviour and violence.First thing to say is that I like a drink as much as anyone else I've met. But this situation, in Melbourne at least, is out of hand. We keep reading about manslaughter in close proximity to licensed premises,

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-66696793017262409772009-12-11T09:43:00.003+11:002009-12-11T10:10:36.030+11:00

That's right, today I want DDDC! Of course you know what that means. Oh you don't, OK, it means Dynamic DITA Delivery of Content.Think about these, features of web content:It's fragmentary. Meaning most web content is brief and about a single thing. The best web content is fragmentary. The more verbose it gets the worse it generally gets;It's atomic. Again most web content is the smallest thing

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-72077910443414659262009-12-10T12:16:00.003+11:002009-12-10T12:34:06.980+11:00

Now I know that this isn't actually correct for the twelve days; and I know that Christmas isn't for everyone. But it is for many of us Downunder and the days are near enough.I'm going to try and do one of these a day, to talk about some of the things I'd like and some of the things that have been sad/bad/shameful in 2009.For the first day of Christmas the thing I'd like most is a decent

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-8598833972211478332009-12-07T16:41:00.004+11:002009-12-07T16:58:31.816+11:00

OK, for all you patient Telstra iPhone users get on with it and upgrade to carrier settings 5.1. Do it right now because you will get tethering.More after I've tested it but the tethering button is there in Settings>General>Network16:58 ESTBack after a few minutes and all I can say is well done Telstra and Apple. Tethering rocks!!I don't know what the maximum speed we are supposed to get is, but

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-38589432560198178142009-11-30T15:06:00.004+11:002009-11-30T15:23:28.397+11:00

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Australia Post and Telstra both used to be the same organisation. Maybe it's because these Australian icons are big, fat, happy and could do with a heap more competition. Whatever the case, Telstra's closest rival in the poor service stakes is Australia Post.Take this for an example: I ordered some replacement parts, back in September. They were

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-56830906607124547232009-11-28T22:17:00.004+11:002009-11-28T22:50:00.200+11:00

Tools like Word and FrameMaker, InDesign...they're great. You can tweak and twiddle with the formatting to your heart's content. You can make the content look just like you want it to, down to the smallest little thing.But here's the rub: It doesn't matter a damn. The reason you are creating this content is to communicate with others. The people you are trying to communicate with don't give a

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-42755827384708113502009-11-23T16:02:00.005+11:002009-11-23T16:19:42.517+11:00

I'm going to tell you about the next killer iPhone app. It hasn't got a name yet because nobody's written it. At least not that I know of. So this is more like the Business Requirements Spec.I'm getting sick of managing the flow of stuff that comes into my iPhone. There are 7 email accounts - yes I need them all. Then there's some Twitter accounts in Tweetie 2 (great app but let's not get

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-89597821245195771802009-11-22T07:11:00.005+11:002009-11-23T16:27:40.285+11:00

I was so frustrated at Telstra/Bigpond's non-action when I posted last time on this, that I tweeted the link to @Telstra. Quite quickly I got a response back on Twitter asking me to go to a web page and link in to the support mechanism.This has been the highlight of the saga. A guy called Mark has stuck with me and been able to escalate stuff and get action. So before I go any further I'd like

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-60370971637453823192009-11-19T18:49:00.004+11:002009-11-19T19:40:55.772+11:00

Tuesday was a beautiful day, nice and sunny, hot and with a ESE breeze to keep us cool. My daughter and I decided to go down to the coast and cruise about to see the sights. That also involved navigating around a CTA step - 1500-5000.The first leg was at 2,500 and it was a little bumpy, nothing major but just enough to let you know that summer is here. Our first turning point was a bit of an

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-41307777600003825422009-11-15T17:37:00.013+11:002009-11-15T19:51:06.631+11:00

First, in case you've missed it, a little background about DITA. It stands for Darwin Information Typing Architecture. It came out of IBM and has a strong theoretical and practical background. If you look back a few days in the blog you'll find some more background.Initially DITA was seen as stuff for geeks. If you used DITA you must have been a geek. One of the great things about DITA is the

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-53679320182513916542009-11-12T16:03:00.005+11:002009-11-12T16:31:57.372+11:00

This is the company that you love to hate if you are an Aussie. The problem is that they're big and therefore they make a good target. I don't make a habit of targeting them but this time they have brought it on themselves.Telstra Bigpond have an additional service where you can request (for $10 a month) a static IP address for your home ADSL. That means that instead of getting whatever IP

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-54553493687383729632009-11-05T15:41:00.003+11:002009-11-05T15:45:16.397+11:00

Why Zen? Because part of the key to success with DITA is letting go, freeing yourself. Most of us these days are "children of the word processor". We are used to formatting our documents as we create them. Formatting is an integral part of our document production process. What's more, many of us don't even use the style sheets and other tools which help us to control our formatting.That's OK when

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-15150475251494773112009-11-01T07:57:00.003+11:002009-11-01T08:42:51.433+11:00

Why don't the government and the opposition both stop with the "immigration debate"? They are both competing to look more stupid than the other.I'm specifically talking about refugees here. Why do the representatives of each side of politics have to compete with each other to look sterner, more pompous and "tougher" than each other on this subject? There is no way to win this guys. There are NO

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4804081009566125731.post-17238187687766549102009-10-28T08:15:00.006+11:002009-10-28T08:41:31.861+11:00

It's interesting how you learn things about yourself. Don't tell anyone, but I've just worked out that I have some control freak tendencies. Only in certain areas mind you.It was a beautiful day yesterday, not too hot - probably low 20s, and only a little veil of high cirrus in places. My daughter and I were set to go off flying for a couple of hours. The idea being that she would be PIC (that's

Critical Alphahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16907258677958422214noreply@blogger.com0