Bruno's Rants

Microsoft promoting Hewlett Packard - Why?

2009-03-28T20:02:00.006+10:30

Why has Microsoft made a 60 minute advertisemnt showing someone buying a Hewlett Packard Notebook?

Windows Laptop Hunters $1000 - Lauren "Not cool enough to be a Mac"

If I was CEO of one HP's competitors, say Dell, Lenovo, Asus, etc., I'd be screaming down the phone to Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer.

On the surface, the ad appears to be a clever retort to Apple's "I'm a Mac" ads, but digging a little deeper reveals a lot of murky issues:

Lauren will have to live with Vista;

Lauren could save even more money if she didn't have to pony up for a Vista licence. If she wanted to install Linux, or dare I say, turn her laptop into a hackintosh, that Vista licence is a double-waste;

MacBook Pros are arguably better machines, and come with an arguably better Operating System;

Sticker price always neglect the total cost of ownership, where Macs are generally considered to provide better long term value.

Of course, other people have already commented on these and other issues: e.g. that "the ad was staged", and that the theme of the commercial seems to be “PCs: Computers for Losers”.

Another thing this ad shows is that Microsoft willingly ignores generally accepted rules of advertising. For example, according to the panel of The Gruen Transfer, the acknowledged leader in a market should never mention lesser rivals by name in its ads. Doing so lends credibility to the the challengers. That explains why Pepsi (number two cola maker) refers to Coke (number one cola maker), and never the reverse. And Telstra (number one telco in Australia) never mentions its rivals by name, whereas Optus (the second biggest telco in Australia) deliberately compares itself to Telstra in its ads.

Heatwave Ends (Hopefully)

2009-02-07T22:05:00.001+10:30

The maximum temperature in Adelaide today was 41.5 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit). A cool change blew in this afternoon, and tomorrow's forecast is a more pleasant 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit). Hooray!

We've had 14 days of temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). As I mentioned yesterday, I returned (resorted?) to posting rants here in response to the heat. Now that the heatwave is over, I can give up this self-enforced rant-a-day madness. It's been an interesting experiment, but I look forward to posting less often and with more preparation.

Ranting is a Poor Substitute for Coding

2009-02-06T23:15:00.001+10:30

After deciding that I had been reading too many "serious" books in recent years, and given that summer TV is usually pretty bad, I had hoped to spend evenings working on my own programming projects. Until the recent heatwave, this plan had been going quite well. But the heat has made it hard to concentrate and write decent code. Posting rants on this blog has been an alternative way to occupy my evenings, and let off some steam (literally and figuratively?).

However, the results have been mixed. I've been happy with the range of topics and the general structure of the rants, but my words have come out a bit muddled than I'd like. Maybe it's the heat? While that may be a factor, it's more likely that I haven't given myself the luxury of "sleeping on it" and reviewing before publishing. This approach served me very well at Uni when writing essays. It's also been useful when preparing technical documentation for work.

I guess I could go back and revise the rants to make my message clearer. But this is not a professional blog, it's just an excuse to write about things that interest me. I'm not expecting to make a career out of it. I enjoy programming too much ;)

So, don't expect as much activity on this blog once the weather becomes more bearable. But if something irks me enough, I still hope to write a rant about it.

[The extreme heat returned to Adelaide today. The maximum temperature was 43.9 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit)!]

My Saga Buying a Camera

2009-02-05T20:53:00.010+10:30

Today I finally got a new digital camera. It's nothing special, just the model above the basic Canon model. But it has been a frustrating experience, so I feel the need to vent...

I'd seen the camera I wanted advertised on special for Christmas last year ($128 down from RRP of $159). When I went to buy it in late December, they'd sold out. So I went around to other stores to see if anyone had it in stock at a reasonable price. But no luck: I couldn't find it anywhere. Looks like it was a popular model last Christmas.

I tried again on the day after New Year's, and found one store that had the camera on sale for $143. Good enough, so I went to the counter to try to buy it. Unfortunately, the display model was the only one they had, and it wasn't for sale. However, I could order one and "it should arrive at the warehouse at the end of next week". I decided I'd spent enough time, so I agreed to order one in. As I was filling out the paperwork, I was told that a $10 deposit was not enough. Since it was a "warehouse" order, the manager informed the shop assistant that I needed to pay the full $143 up front! I knew I should've backed out right there, but it was a reputably chain of stores, and it wouldn't be more than a week or so, right?

The first week passed, and I didn't hear from the store. Another week passed, still no news. Finally, after almost three weeks I headed into the city to find out what's happening with the order. Apparently Canon was experiencing delays in supplying product. I was tempted to cancel the order and ask for my money back. I had seen the same camera advertised and in stock at other stores. But I decided to give them another week.

As I may have mentioned, it's been a hot couple of weeks in Adelaide lately, so I had to put of going back to the store until the weather was cool enough. Today was the day, but before going to the store I thought I'd check if another store had the camera. Yep, sure enough, I saw the exact model in stock and on sale for $128. So my mind was made up: if my camera had not come in yet, I would cancel my order at the first store and go buy it at the other store. And that's how it turned out. The consolation was that I ended up saving $15 at the end of the process.

While the delay may not have been their fault, what really ticked me off was that the store didn't keep me informed of the progress of the order. They just quietly kept rolling over the expected delivery date. There were apparently six other people in a similar situation, all waiting for the order to arrive. I wonder how long those people will wait before giving up? Not a good way to make your customers happy.

I guess I learned a couple of lessons:
1. Don't expect a store to actually have an advertised sale item in stock.
2. Only place an order for something if you're willing to put up with delays.

[Adelaide's maximum temperature reached 35.6 degrees Celsius (96 degrees Fahrenheit) today.]

Windows 7 and Movie DVDs: Examples of Price Discrimination

2009-02-04T23:55:00.001+10:30

Apparently Windows 7 (like its predecessors Vista and XP) will give users a choice of multiple versions. See "Windows 7 SKUs announced: your worst nightmare has come to pass" for information about the versions and their distinguishing features.

On the surface, this "choice" gives users the ability to pay only for the features they want. But, what it actually represents, is an example of what economists call "price discrimination". Now, this term sounds bad, but conceptually it's not necessarily a "bad thing". The point I'm trying to make is that the reason for the different versions is not so much to give consumers greater choice, but more simply to maximise the profits of the producer.

In particular, Microsoft is employing a premium pricing strategy. The cost of developing Windows 7 is essentially sunk, and so can be spread out over all the versions (refer: "Pricing Information Goods, Price Discrimination, Pricing Digital Goods"). Therefore, the cost of supplying an additional copy of "Windows 7 Starter" is essentially the same as the cost of supplying an additional copy of "Windows 7 Ultimate" (I'm assuming minimal differences is packaging and number of discs). From the Wikipedia article on price discrimination: "by providing a choice between a regular and premium product, consumers are being asked to reveal their degree of price sensitivity (or willingness to pay) for comparable products." Other examples include bewildering choice of drinks at coffee chains and the pricing of business class airline tickets.

[An aside: "Hey, your an Apple fanboy - what about the two versions of Mac OS X: Client and Server?" The comparison is not really applicable, as these variations are clearly aimed at different types of installation. The Client version actually corresponds to all six flavours of Windows 7: it is intended for an individual's workstation. The Server version is intended to drive backend (i.e. server) systems, and corresponds to the separate Windows 200x Server products.]

For a detailed explanation of how price discrimination increases profits, I suggest you consult Wikipedia or an introductory economics book (e.g. The Undercover Economist or Naked Economics). I'll try giving the gist. In a free market for a product, there is a single price that applies for all units sold. This price represents the point where demand equals supply. Suppliers will continue to sell units of the good as long as the price matches or exceeds the (marginal) cost of producing that additional unit. Now, different consumers value the benefits of the product differently, so some would actually be willing to pay more than the market price if they had to. Those who aren't willing to pay the price miss out altogether. If the seller could charge different prices according to the class of consumers (e.g. by marketing a premium version), it could increase its revenue on the same total volume of sales. This in turn increase profits.

The case of "Windows 7 Home Basic", which is only available in emerging markets, is an example of third degree price discrimination, where "price varies by location or by customer segment, or in the most extreme case, by individual customer".

Those familiar with region coding of movie DVDs should recognise a similarity here. According to Wikipedia: "Price discrimination is especially applicable to movies, because the marginal cost of selling one copy (or viewing) is quite small, giving the seller great flexibility in pricing. There is great disparity among the regions of the world in how much a person is willing to pay for a DVD, and region encoding allows a publisher to sell a DVD for less money in the regions where the demand is low and more where the demand is high."

Note: I haven't mentioned the more contentious issue of Microsoft's predatory pricing through OEM distribution. See "Predatory Pricing - Microsoft's Modus Operandi" for an interesting discussion.

[Adelaide's maximum temperature was only 33.0 degrees Celsius (91 degrees Fahrenheit) today. The temperature continues to fall, but the humidity is increasing.]

Falling Interest Rates: Not Everyone's A Winner

2009-02-03T23:45:00.005+10:30

Australia's official interest rate was reduced by 1 percent today: "RBA slashes rates to 3.25pc". Good news for some I'm sure, but for people relying on investment income to pay their bills, it's another shock to deal with. Not only have they seen the value of their investments (e.g. shares and property) fall thanks to the global financial crisis, but in the past few months they've seen returns on their bank deposits plummet.

What irks me is that parts of the media focus only on the "good news" side of the story, and neglect to mention the consequences on self-funded retirees and other people who rely on interest from their money. Remember, people who save money (rather than borrow and spend it) provide the capital needed to finance economic growth.

And the suggestion by some finance experts/talking heads that the Reserve Bank should go even further, citing the near-zero rates in the United States, must surely be joking. They do know what a Liquidity Trap is? The US looks like it's going to suffer a similar fate to that which stalled the Japanese economy in the early 1990s. Investment evaporated, economic activity actually fell even further (i.e. the recession deepened) and deflation set in.

Let's hope governments around the world learn from the lessons of the past. Cutting interest rates to zero won't be enough to get us out of this jam.

[Adelaide's maximum temperature was only 36.3 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit) today. Unfortunately the temperature looks likely to rise before we get a real change.]

Update: About that deflation risk (by Paul Krugman).

Example of Poor Restaurant Service

2009-02-02T22:55:00.001+10:30

A couple of weeks ago I had dinner with a cultural studies group. The venue was a suburban restaurant. I'll spare the guilty by not naming the place. I'm not a food critic and, in any case, the restaurant has probably lost enough custom as it is.

The group was scheduled to meet at 7pm, and I was the first to arrive. I usually don't eat much at night, so I was happy to wait until the rest of the party had arrived before ordering.

As people started arriving, our waiter asked for our drink orders. Some people selected drinks from, but I and a few other people just wanted water. The non-free drinks arrived rather promptly, but the water took a little longer.

When everyone in our group had arrived, we ordered our meals. This was about 7:45pm. Within about 20 minutes food started arriving. I was getting hungry at that stage, and a meal was placed in front of me. But alas, this was brought to me by mistake - apparently is was the entrée ordered by someone else at our table, so it was whisked away from me in a flash. A couple other entrées were served at the same time. Hmmm, okay, it would've been nice if the waiter asked us when we were ordering if we wanted the entrées and mains brought out at once. Hopefully the "mains" wouldn't take long to be served.

Over one hour later, our mains had yet to be served. People were getting a bit restless. The waiter kept coming around asking if we wanted more drinks, but oddly never offered us more water. I was now both hungry and quite thirsty by this stage. Not good.

During his visits to take more drinks orders, the waiter failed to notify us that our mains would be delayed. When people started replying that we were more worried about our meals than more drinks, the waiter didn't think of apologising for the delay.

By about 9:30pm, I couldn't wait any longer. I needed to eat some food. I had a headache (which often occurs when I need to eat), so I walked out of the restaurant to clear my head and decide what to do. Should I try to cancel my order and leave to get something somewhere else? I knew that I would still have to pay for the meal if I cancelled the order, so I thought maybe I can grab a bite somewhere else until my meal arrived. As I was walking and thinking I noticed a Chinese restaurant, so I thought I'd grab some spring rolls. I walked in and placed a takeaway order. A few minutes later, I got my spring rolls and ate them as I returned to the first restaurant. Desperate times call for desperate measures, as they say.

When I got back, my meal had finally been served. I started eating it, but found the wait had not been worth it. In disgust, I excused myself, letting my fellow diners know that I was going to pay my part of the bill and leave early. As I paid for the meal, I complained about the tardy service and the fact that the meal wasn't that good. No offer of discount or refund was made, but rather I got a rather weak reply that they were "a bit busy that night". I didn't buy it, and neither did anyone else at our table that night.

[Adelaide's maximum temperature was only 38.8 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) today. It's still hot, so I'll continue ranting for a little longer.]

A "Wooded" Ville? Sadly, No

2009-02-01T21:45:00.004+10:30

As you may know, Adelaide is sweltering as "Southern Australia endures worst heatwave for 150 years".

But the hot weather is not a novelty for Adelaide. So you'd think that authorities would make plans with this in mind? Today's rant is about my local council's failure to think ahead.

I live on an "avenue". According to Wikipedia: "traditionally, an avenue is a straight road with a line of trees or large shrubs running along each side." If only my street could actually live up to the "avenue" part of its name! On days like today I'd be able to walk down it and benefit from some shade. Trees would also keep the bitumen roads from absorbing and radiating large amounts of heat.

What makes the dearth of trees even more ironic is that my council used to be called "Woodville". The intention was for the area it to be a "wooded" ville, i.e. a place with lots of trees. Generally, councils in the western suburbs seem averse to planting trees. Adelaideans living east of the city are fortunate to have had councils with enough foresight to have planted trees many years ago.

Late last year the council finally started a serious tree-planting project down my street. Unfortunately, it could be a while before I can expect any significant benefits on days like today.

[A slight bit of relief today in Adelaide. The maximum temperature was only 40.6 degrees Celsius (105 degrees Fahrenheit)!]

Jobs/Apple Speculation Frenzy

2009-01-31T21:46:00.006+10:30

Some of the wild speculation surrounding the health of Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, has been shameful. He's a human being, and now that he's stepped aside as Apple CEO for a while, he deserves some level of privacy and respect. The speculation about Apple's future has also been rather bizarre, and I'll be discussing some of that in this rant.

The revival at Apple since Steve Jobs returned as CEO has been in large part due to his efforts, both direct and indirect. He's assembled a great team of talented people, for example: Jonathan Ive, Tim Cook and Phil Schiller. Obviously, having such an influential CEO stand aside will have an impact on Apple's day-to-day operations. But there are about 35,000 other employees who've had a hand in producing great products too.

Some may point to what happened to Apple after Jobs was ousted in 1985. There are several factors that need to be considered, however: Jobs went on to start NeXT Inc, "taking several Apple employees from the SuperMicro division with him" [Wikipedia]. Then-CEO John Sculley didn't waste time reorganising (de-Jobsing?) Apple. Other top Apple personnel also left around that time (notably chief Macintosh engineers Andy Hertzfeld and Burrell Smith). And in 1987, co-founder Steve Wozniak left Apple. Quite a brain-drain, I'd say.

The current situation is quite different. Jobs has stepped aside, but his hand-picked team remains in place. As has been noted recently, "although the co-founder has been critical to the company's resurgence, his spirit and drive have since been instilled in thousands of other Apple employees".

Perhaps a more appropriate guide is Pixar. Steve Jobs is no longer CEO of Pixar, yet WALL·E (released last year) did rather well. "It grossed $521 million worldwide, won the 2009 Best Animated Film Golden Globe Award and is nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Animated Feature" [Wikipedia]. After the acquisition of Pixar by Disney in 2006, most of Jobs' creative team has retained control.

In stark contrast, Microsoft's situation does seem to have greatly deteriorated since founder Bill Gates left the company. The past few years have been rather underwhelming for the company: Vista, Zune, Xbox 360's "red ring of death", SPOT, Windows Mobile, Origami/UMPC, PlaysForSure (to name a few problems, failures and missteps).

[Would you believe, another hot day in Adelaide. Today's maximum temperature was 41.1 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit)!]

SMS - It's been great but ...

2009-01-30T22:36:00.007+10:30

According to various sources, it's clear that SMS/text messages are very popular: "SMS revenue to ring up $50bn by 2010". I accept that they can be convenient and good value, but every time I send one I'm reminded of how frustrating they can be, especially when compared to e-mail.

Here's a list of some of my grievances:

Entering the text is a pain on a standard phone. True, T9 (predictive text entry) is cool, but it depends on how good your dictionary is, and sometimes I want to use a different language. I'm sure I can change the appropriate setting, but that takes time. Also, I hate how my mobile uses T9 by default in some places, and multi-tap in others (e.g. phone book search).

You don't get (free) notifications of receipt/failures.

They're limited, not so much in length, but in content. E-mail is obviously much richer. And don't even talk to me about MMS! I hope ubiquitous mobile net access finally renders MMS redundant.

Messages can only be stored on the mobile (either on the SIM card or the phone's memory). So I have to constantly vet the messages to free up space. E-mail messages need not be stored on the device, and messages stored on a server can be accessed by other devices.

Messages can (ordinarily) only be read on mobile phones. (Yes, I'm aware that you can jump through hoops to use a PC to send/receive messages, but these techniques are not as simple and widely-known as e-mail).

They cost money. Sure, it's only 25 cents in Australia, but e-mail is free.

Another silly thing with my phone is that it doesn't filter phone numbers to prevent accidentally sending messages to a non-mobile number.

SMS messaging hearkens back to a time when internet access was tied to desktops. It's been a great technology, but I can't wait to see e-mail usurp its role.

[Yet another day of extreme heat in Adelaide. Today's maximum temperature was 43.1 degrees Celsius (110 degrees Fahrenheit)! I hope the above 40C heatwave ends soon, otherwise I'll run out of things to complain about.]

Inefficient Medicare Cheque Payment Process

2009-01-29T23:47:00.004+10:30

In Australia we are lucky to have a universal health system. You can go to any doctor and the government will cover the scheduled fee. Many doctors "bulk-bill", that is, they send the bill directly to the government and charge only the scheduled fee. The government will pay the doctor directly. Very cool.

However, sometimes a co-payment is necessary. Ok, this is understandable to cover doctor's admin costs and prevent abuse of the system. But an extra hassle is introduced for the patient. He or she pays the co-payment to the practice, then the practice makes an application for payment to Medicare for the scheduled fee. A few days pass, then the patient (yes the patient), receives a cheque made out in the doctor’s name. So then the patient has to forward the cheque onto the doctor! Why involve the patient again? Also, in the modern era of electronic funds transfer, the use of cheques sounds arcane.

And here's something I just found out while researching this post: if the patient doesn't forward the cheque within 90 days, the doctor can apply to Medicare to get the money owing via EFT! So obviously Medicare is willing and able to use EFT, so why not skip the cheque-handling and 90-day provision?

If you're unfamiliar with Australia's Medicare system, check out this page: "How does Medicare work?"

[Another day of extreme heat in Adelaide. Today's maximum temperature was 43.4 degrees Celsius (110 degrees Fahrenheit)!]

DVD Anti-Piracy Measures = Anti-Consumer

2009-01-28T22:32:00.008+10:30

Why do movie studios insist on forcing legitimate viewers to watch those anti-piracy spots after a DVD is loaded? I personally find it a bit insulting that someone would insinuate that I would want to pirate a movie.

The irony, of course, is that people who actually watch pirated DVDs don't even see these ads! Pirates would obviously exclude them from the copies. Anti-piracy? More like anti-consumer.

To rub more salt into the wound, some DVDs now play previews of other films after the anti-piracy ad. Aargh! More precious time wasted! Please, just let me watch the movie I want to watch.

I know, this is not exactly an original complaint, e.g. "Intrusive anti-piracy". But I just wanted to get it out of my system.

Perhaps they could at least make the ads more interesting. For example, make them funny and/or in the style of the content they precede? For example, here's one from the opening of The IT Crowd. Other suggestions have been put forward.

[The extreme heatwave in Adelaide continues. Today it was 45.7 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Fahrenheit)!]

Kings of Leon? - Meh!

2009-01-27T21:56:00.006+10:30

The Australia Day tradition continued at alternative youth radio station Triple-J, with the annual countdown of the previous year's "Hottest 100" songs as voted by the listeners.

Obviously 2008's hot band was the Kings of Leon:

#1 - Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire
...
#3 - Kings of Leon - Use Somebody
...
#24 - Kings of Leon - Closer
...
#70 - Kings of Leon - Crawl

Once I was at a record store and the song "Sex on Fire" was playing. Not knowing who it was, I assumed it was the latest single from Australian idol alumnus Shannon Noll, or perhaps some other graduate of that "music" franchise. Whoever it was, it actually made me fell quite nauseous.

Later when I found out it was that supposedly credible alternative band Kings of Leon, I was shocked. Maybe it was a one-off concession to the mainstream taste for overblown drivel? But no, hearing "Use Somebody" confirmed my dislike for the music of these alternative darlings.

I'll have to put it down to outgrowing Triple-J's target market. Some great alternative music from 2008 didn't even get a look in: Mogwai, The Raconteurs, Elbow, Goldfrapp and Portishead all failed to make the top 100. At least Nick Cave and Sigur Ròs managed to get a song each on the chart.

[This is the first rant in over six months - blame it on the extreme heatwave we're experiencing in Adelaide at the moment. Today it was 43 degrees Celsius (109 degrees Fahrenheit)!]

Tanks A Lot, AFL

2008-07-16T20:24:00.001+09:30

Regardless of whether or not Carlton "tanked" to win last year's wooden spoon, there appears to be a perverse form of incentives working in the Australian Football League (AFL).

Let's see: Carlton finished bottom of the table last year. This automatically entitled them to first pick in the player draft. As an added bonus, the club only has to play last year's top team, Geelong, only once this season. And that match was played at their home ground (admittedly shared with other clubs, but Geelong is not one of them).

With rewards like that, the AFL is not only a fight for the top position, but it looks like a race to the bottom as well.

How do bottom-placed teams fair in the top leagues of the premier football code around the world?
* In the English Premier League, Watford finished bottom and was relegated (along with the two other worst-performing teams).
* In Italy's Serie A, Messina finished bottom and was relegated (along with the two other worst-performing teams).
* In Spain's La Liga, Gimnàstic de Tarragona finished bottom and was relegated (along with the two other worst-performing teams).

Detect a pattern?

Why does the AFL reward poor performance? A team can consistently under-perform for a few years to build up its roster, then suddenly "switch on".

By providing such perverse incentives, the outcomes of matches come under question. Given the level of gambling, er sports betting, in Australia, I'm sure a lot of punters would be concerned by this. Consider this hypothetical: the top team is playing a potential bottom team the week before the finals. The top team must win to secure a home final. A loss for the cellar-dwellers would ensure a last place finish and all the benefits that would accrue. The top team doesn't want any injuries either, but would like a nice hit out to toughen them up. If only the two clubs could conjure a mutually-acceptable arrangement...

I'm not suggesting this has happened, but it could. The threat of relegation would help make sure all teams remain competitive for as long as possible. Resting players or experimenting could jeopardise the club's final position.

The AFL wants to expand from 16 teams to 18 teams. Why not make it 20 teams, but separated into a first and second division? Each team could play each other at least twice, removing the complaints for lop-sided schedules. The threat of relegation and reward of promotion would keep clubs honest and help prevent both mediocrity and the temptation to "tank".

But somehow I doubt the AFL has the guts to do it.

Money as Debt ... as Fact, or Fiction?

2008-07-14T22:55:00.000+09:30

"Money as Debt" by Paul Grignon is an interesting documentary about money, banking and debt creation. It points out some facts about money, but unfortunately, it has a few flaws.

Firstly, I want to commend a couple of points where it quite rightly challenges popularly-held views:

1. "Money", as in a currency in our wallets, is not backed by the equivalent amount of gold held by banks or in places like Fort Knox. This is true. (See Wikipedia article: Representative money).

2. Most of the money in an economy is not the result of governments printing notes, but rather from the money creation activities of banks and other credit providers. This is also true. (See Wikipedia article: Money supply).

The general public should be made aware of these common misconceptions, so that people can be better informed about how the economy really works. However, I cannot entirely accept the description of the money creation process as depicted in the video. Nor can I accept the suggestion that the money (or debt) is conjured completely out of thin air.

According to the example in the documentary, a bank can have only $1,111.12 in reserves and use that to loan $10,000 to a borrower. Huh? How can the borrower use the credit (an asset for the bank) when there is no corresponding deposit (a liability for the bank). This would violate double-entry accounting. That's Enron-style voodoo accounting. How does the bank account for the $8,888.88 that has been conjured out of thin air, as the documentary asserts? For the bank to be able to lend out $10,000 it would need to have initially raised that amount of money from somewhere, as either startup capital from investors or deposits from the general public.

While it is true that banks create money, the ratio of 90:1 suggested by the documentary is plain wrong. $1,111,12 cannot create $100,000 of money. If the required reserve requirement ratio is 1:9, then the credit creation multiplier is 9:1. The bank would need $10,000 of initial capital, not $1,111,12. For a more accurate example of the money creation process, check out the description of the Fractional reserve system in the Wikipedia article: Money creation.

The second major issue I have is the idea that debt (and therefore money) exists independently of the real assets in the economy. Again, double-entry accounting suggests this is not possible. Somewhere along the line, a mortgage of say $100,000 requires equivalent assets as collateral. Otherwise the bank shouldn't hand over its depositors' funds to the borrower. That would be irresponsible.

While I accept that these days the traditional (and rather conservative) credit system of banks has been usurped by all manner of credit providers. These sources of credit have much looser regulatory requirements, and I would argue that here lies a potential problem for the economy.

Another concession I would make is that the total debt in the economy may actually exceed the real value of the assets acquired with the money borrowed. Any such mismatch can cause real problems for the economy. Bubbles can lead to prices that have lost touch with the real value of assets. Remember the Tech bubble, the sub-prime fiasco, and so on? If the bubble bursts, borrowers could be in the unenviable position of holding assets worth less than the debt owed to acquire them. These borrowers may no longer be able to meet their obligations, and so could be forced to sell the assets if, for example, the bank forecloses on their mortgage. The flow-on effects throughout the economy can be disastrous, as many people are experiencing as part of the sub-prime crisis.

I must admit I stopped watching the video about half-way through. Therefore I don't know where the argument was ultimately leading. Unfortunately, the two flaws I've identified make me question the documentary as a whole. A basic requirement of a logical argument is that it must be built on premises that are not false. False premises render any conclusion inferred by those premises to be unsustainable.

If the documentary maker wanted to prove that most money is created by banks and other credit providers (i.e. not by governments), and that out-of-control debt creation can cause economic problems, then I would have to agree. But unfortunately he has sabotaged his efforts by introducing serious flaws in his argument. One day if I get time I might watch the rest of it to see what the conclusions are. In the meantime, I cannot give it an unqualified recommendation. I would suggest viewers interested in the issues raised by the documentary seek more authoritative sources before accepting any conclusions presented.

Aussies = World Championship Whingers

2008-06-09T17:08:00.000+09:30

We Aussies like to make a big deal about how well we do in the world sporting arena. Out media loves the line that we "punch above our weight".

Well, here's another world title Aussies, in particular our high-quality commercial media, can surely claim: World Championship Whingers!

As everyone is (or at least should be) aware, world oil prices have been at record highs lately. This is translating to record high prices at the petrol station. Of course, this is a bad thing for the average consumer and transport worker. But the way the media is bleating, it seems that the Australian government can actually do something about the problem. It's an easy way for them to show how much they're supporting the "Aussie battler".

But, in fact, they're just using this as a way to drum up patronage. They don't bother taking the time to explain the often complicated reasons for the price rise, as more serious media organisations attempt to do. For example:
"Who knows why oil prices are so high?" [BBC]

They also conveniently neglect to mention that Australians tend to pay less for petrol than many other industrialised nations:
Average gasoline prices around the world [Wikipedia]

For example (as at May 2008), Aussies pay on average US$1.48 per litre, while western Europeans pay between US$1.88 and US$2.74 per litre!

Given this is an Olympic year, I propose a new event: Whinging. The Australian media would surely give the Poms a run for their money in that category.

May Day = Bizarro Day

2008-05-03T20:25:00.000+09:30

A couple of days ago I got the familiar feeling that I'd woken up from the wrong side of the bed, twice.

Firstly, heading off to work I got to the bus stop to find nobody else there. This didn't look good, because that probably meant I'd just missed the bus. I looked up the road to confirm my fears, but I didn't see a bus on that 1.5 km stretch. It must've come very early. Oh well, the next bus should be along in the next 15 minutes or so (according to the timetable). If only. It finally did arrive 30 minutes later , closely followed by another bus! So, the bus I wanted to catch but missed was at least 5 minutes early, the next one was 15 minutes late and the one after that was on time. It would be nice if bus drivers followed the schedule a bit more closely. Perhaps people may have more confidence in public transport and use the system more.

Anyway, I finally got to work a bit later than I'd hoped. I worked through to lunch time quite productively. Then went over to eat my lunch at a nearby snack bar. I ordered lasagna with salad, specifically requesting no chips. Time passed. More time passed. Eventually, I overheard someone say that the chips were ready. Oh no, I thought, I'm going to get chips with my meal. Not only that, but the chips that I specifically did not want were the reason for the delay in getting the lasagna and salad that I did want! And trying to eat those chips used up even more time that I wanted to use on getting my work done. I hate having to throw away food, but there was no way I could eat all the chips without getting sick.

Fortunately, when I got back to work I managed to complete all the tasks I wanted to for the day. As they say, all's well that ends well :)

.docx Considered Stupid

2008-04-25T23:58:00.003+09:30

Recently I received an email with a ".docx" file attached. This is the new format for Microsoft Word 2007 documents. I won't even start about how annoying it is to get Word documents attached to emails. Unfortunately it's something you have to put up with.

Being a Mac user and not having the latest and *cough* greatest word processor from Microsoft, I had to figure out how to read this document. I found out the .docx file format is actually a zipped directory tree containing xml files.

Ok, first step was to unzip the .docx file via the command line. This resulted in eleven files in a handful of directories. So far, so good.

Next step was to find which file contains the actual text of the document and not just metadata. Looking through the filenames, I found one called "document.xml" which appeared promising. So I opened it up in my trusty text editor, TextMate. Suddenly my computer began grinding to a crawl as the file was loaded. It turned out that the entire file consists of two lines: the first line containing the xml version, and the second line contained the entire xml markup for the document! No wonder TextMate struggled, since it dutifully created a 70,000+ character line for the document. Why couldn't the xml file have newlines to make it more manageable? Anyway, on to the final step...

My plan was to write a regexp search-and-replace to strip out all the xml markup so I could read the content of the document. But then I discovered that the markup is peppered with <w:proofErr w:type="spellStart"/> tags around almost every single word! I should mention that the contents of the document were in a foreign language, hence all the spelling "errors". For some bizarre reason, Microsoft Word marks up spelling mistakes in docx files, not just on-screen. Why? Shouldn't it be left to the individual application (and platform) loading the document to decide whether or not words are misspelled? I can accept all the other hassles with the docx format: zipped xml files and incredibly long lines, but the encoding of spelling errors is crazy stuff.

After all that I gave up trying cleaning up the xml to read the file. Luckily, I found a web site that offers free conversion of docx files: zamzar.com.

PS: It turns out that Word documents created using MS Office 2007 do not conform with their own OOXML standard!:

OOXML and Office 2007 Conformance: a Smoke Test

Our Precious Gold Medals

2008-04-10T21:10:00.001+09:30

Australia loves it's sporting heroes. But I think they sometimes deserve to have their egos pricked every now and then.

With the Tibet and other human rights issues spurring some people to suggest a boycott of the Olympic Games:

Swimming legend to boycott Olympics

some Australian sports "stars" won't have a bar of it:

Hackett dismisses Olympics boycott

It's interesting that these people, who are heavily subsidised by (our) public money to swim up and down a pool all day easily dismiss the political protests of their fellow Australians.

If they financed themselves solely using their own money, then they can do whatever they want. But, according to this report:

Olympic medals or long life: what’s the bottom line?

Australia spent $280 million on its athletes during the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Each medal cost $4.82 million!

The medals are not the only benefits that athletes can receive. They get lucrative sponsorship deals and jump to the head of the line for plum jobs in the sports media.

I'd like to see athletes self-finance their activities more. Maybe they should contribute using schemes such as those that exists for tertiary education in Australia (HECS/HELP)? The money raised could go to helping the underprivileged or into the general health system. Isn't it ironic that at a time when Australia performs so well in international sport, the country is going through an unprecedented obesity epidemic.

Reality Bites and the ABC of Crime Investigation

2008-04-08T21:12:00.001+09:30

I know it sounds like a broken record: the state of television programming is getting worse. Too much reality TV is a given. Arguably, the genre has reached its nadir with the aptly-named "The Moment of Truth".

When someone hits on a winning formula, everyone else seems to react by producing copycat programs. Witness the recent resurgence of the murder investigation genre: CSI, NCIS, Law & Order: SVU/CI, etc ad nauseum. Networks and producers are more willing to exhaust a "winning" formula than take a chance on something truly original.

What can be done? The average viewer doesn't have a lot of choice. All we can do is vote with our feet. I've decided to leave the TV turned off unless there's a program I think is worth watching. No more flicking through the channels in the hope of finding something interesting. The time saved not settling for mediocre viewing can then be spent on reading books, listening to music, writing, coding and blogging :)

Cramped Seating on Buses

2008-03-11T22:20:00.001+10:30

Australians are apparently getting physically bigger:

Obese Aussies get big ambulances

So why do bus seats seem to get smaller and more cramped?

On my bus trip home tonight I made the mistake of sitting on one of the face-to-face seats. The bus became rather packed, and someone had to sit directly opposite me. We had to place our legs in uncomfortable positions to avoid knocking each other's knees.

It's not just the face-to-face seats that are cramped. Other seating configurations cause different types of cramping. For example, seats over wheel arches require passengers to raise their knees (on the window side), or have one leg higher than the other (in the aisle side). And the seats behind the barriers near the exits allow barely enough room for your feet. Those with long legs and big feet can try sitting sideways, but that's difficult if the bus is packed and you have to share the seat.

The larger bags and other accessories that people carry around with them just makes things worse.

We should be trying to get as many as people as possible to leave their cars at home and use public transport. But making the seats uncomfortable is not the way to do it.

PS: To rub salt into the wound, another bus came past a few minutes later and was practically empty! Maybe the bus I caught was running late, and so was taking on additional passengers. If the buses ran on time, I probably wouldn't have had to feel like a sardine. Buses not following schedules is a topic for another rant :)

Mobile Phone Blues, Episodes 451 and 452

2008-02-13T21:04:00.000+10:30

Last week, before recharging my mobile phone (A Sony Ericsson 310), I notice the battery had become rather swollen. Since the phone was getting on a bit (I got it in mid-2003) I decided to get a replacement battery and not to risk leaking, a fire or even an explosion.

This lead to a series of disappointments (not surprising since I've been generally disappointed by my phone, which I'll identify shortly). First, finding someone in Adelaide that sells replacement batteries for Sony Ericsson phones is not easy. Next, when I found a place stocking batteries for my phone, the price was $40! Each! Yes, I know there are places online that provide batteries for much less, but I'm a bricks-and-mortar kind of shopper when it comes to electronics.

Ok, did I want to spend $40 on a new battery for a phone I'm not overly happy with (Plan A)? Or should I buy a brand new phone (Plan B)?

Before discussing the options, I'll list the grievances I have with my current phone:
* Loooong startup time
* Silly joystick navigation
* Unresponsive user interface
* Battery compartment opens too easily when phone falls

I had hoped that getting a new phone would at least solve some of these issues. So Plan B looked like a goer, until I actually started shopping around. This triggered another series of disappointments ...
1. Mobile phone salespeople are pushy, and want to sell you things you don't want
2. There are so many models to choose from
3. Not all vendors stock all the models
4. Phones come with all sorts of stuff that I don't want: cameras, radios, GPS, younameit
5. Basic phones exist but are often tied to plans (which are confusing)
6. Generally buying phones outright is still too expensive
7. Most importantly, you don't get the opportunity to try out a phone's user interface before you buy it

The last point was the main source of disappointment with my current phone. Had I been able to use it beforehand I would probably have chosen another model.

Some people think all this choice is great for consumers. But I would argue that is not the case. Anyone who has read "The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less" by Barry Schwartz, will be well aware of the problems with too much choice. I've ranted about this before in "Too Much Choice Considered Harmful" and written about the book in another blog, so I won't repeat myself here.

Another nagging concern is that all this "choice" is illusory because vendors and telcos seem to select particular combinations of plans and models, making it difficult to compare. Looks like there are opportunities for cartel-like behaviour to me.

So, after pounding the concrete for a few days, and getting increasingly frustrated with the ordeal of buying a new phone, I decided to go for Plan A. I bought a replacement battery for my existing phone. I resented having to pay such an an exorbitant price, but at least ...
* I won't risk the "buyer's remorse" of getting something that fails to satisfy
* I won't have been responsible for the waste caused by manufacturing a brand new phone
* I save some money, at least in the short term

I'll probably get a new phone eventually, but at least I will have had time to prepare a little in advance. I can ask to try out the user interfaces of other people's phones. Technology can only improve (right?), and who knows, Apple may release an iPhone mini in Australia by then :)

Finally, some advice: Check your mobile phone battery often before you recharge it.

Time Out of Joint

2008-01-12T20:35:00.000+10:30

We're surrounded by appliances that tell us the time: VCRs, stereos, ovens, clock radios, etc. Unfortunately, the times displayed often get out of touch with reality.

Power outages will leave appliances flashing 12:00 (or 0:00). And switching to/from daylight saving can be a pain twice a year. A third problem is that the timing mechanisms in the devices have varying degrees of accuracy. So from time to time you will have to go around setting the correct time on various appliances.

Battery backups help solve the power outage problem. But batteries eventually go flat and cost money to replace. And they won't help much if you want to totally power down appliances to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

After all these years, and the production of millions of appliances, you'd think manufacturers could have come up with a solution. Why haven't they taken some cues from the computer and telecommunication industries, which make use of time services and protocols (e.g. Network Time Protocol) to allow automatic time synchronisation. Appliance manufacturers could add some simple circuitry to perform a similar function over power lines. The cost of the circuitry would eventually become negligible thanks to economies of scale. In fact, manufacturers could save money by removing batteries and other parts.

Of course, this solution would require power companies to transmit a time signal over the power lines. Surely this couldn't be a huge cost? Telephone companies transmit the time and date as part of Caller ID information.

PS I don't claim to have come up with the phrase "time out of joint". Philip K. Dick used it for the title of a novel, and William Shakespeare used it in Hamlet.

Four-Wheel Drives: Car Park Nuisances

2008-01-08T22:20:00.000+10:30

Four-Wheel Drives (4WDs) or "four by fours" (4x4s), by whatever name, are nuisances. Especially in shopping centre car parks. I'm talking about the hulking, big, "can't see through or around them" type of things.

Getting in and out of the car parks is tricky enough, with mad shoppers coming out of nowhere and darting around the place. Being parked next to a big behemoth makes it scary to reverse out of a parking space. At least with normal cars you can see through their windows to gauge any potential hazards. But with those big 4WDs, all you see is painted metal.

Sure, in the past you had to deal with the occasional van that would block your sight. Nowadays, with 4WDs apparently accounting for almost 20% of new car sales in Australia, you're more likely to get stuck next to one (or more) of these nuisances.

How about this for a solution? Quarantine all big off-road vehicles in a special parking area. Preferably far away from normal, practical cars. And since they're built for going off-road, there's no real need to clear and pave the ground to accommodate the 4WDs. In fact, leave it rough-and-ready with mounds and ditches, so their owners can at least get their cars' wheels dirty and make use of the special tyres and suspension :)

Anti-Smoking Ads and Packaging = Visual Pollution

2008-01-05T20:30:00.000+10:30

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for programs to get smokers to kick their habit. But it's a shame that non-smokers are subjected to quite graphic anti-smoking advertisements while trying to relax in front of the TV.

If you haven't seen them, and have a morbid curiosity to view the ads, here's a link to the YouTube search results for "australian anti-smoking ads". Warning: the images of smoking-related disease are graphic.

Fortunately, a quick zap with the remote can remove the offending images.

But another form of visual pollution can be found by the side of many suburban streets: discarded cigarette packets. These not only contain written warnings such as "SMOKING CAUSES LUNG CANCER", but they also contain snaps from those disturbing TV ads. Aargh!

Perhaps we should impose a deposit scheme on cigarette packaging? It (mostly) works for soft drink bottles. The deposit should be big enough, say $1, to give smokers enough incentive to cash-in the empty packs. And if this is not enough to stop smokers from littering, then having a large enough bounty should encourage others to pick up and return the packs.

Drought-breaker

2008-01-05T20:00:00.000+10:30

It's been a while since the last rant: 11 months in fact. Unfortunately this silence is not due to the lack of anything to complain about, but rather the lack of time to express my complaints in this blog. At least I have been able to make regular posts to another blog, the B-List.

So I guess I'm writing a rant about not having the time to write a rant. I hope to rectify this problem and start posting proper rants on a more regular basis.

Apple's Mighty Mouse, Not So Mighty In Practice

2007-02-03T17:15:00.001+10:30

Late last year I bought a new 17" iMac to replace my 3 year old eMac. Incidentally, the iMac is the first computer I've ever owned that features an Intel CPU.

Include with the iMac is Apple's latest mouse, dubbed the "Mighty Mouse". The Mighty Mouse comes in both wired and wireless forms, however the standard version sold with its computers is the wired version. Apple's web site extols all the virtues of the design of the Mighty Mouse. In particular:

The entire top shell is the actual button, but that the single button can actually trigger multiple responses, depending on where you press it: "Capacitive sensors under Mighty Mouse’s seamless top shell detect where your fingers are and predict your clicking intentions, so you don’t need two buttons — just two fingers."
The Scroll Ball, unlike traditional scroll wheels, allows scrolling in two dimensions simultaneously. Clicking on the shell where the Scroll Ball is also acts as a third button.
In addition to the three "virtual" buttons on the shell, "force-sensing buttons on either side of Mighty Mouse respond when you press in with your finger and thumb."

All this and a sleek look should make this another slam dunk product from Apple, following the success of the iPod, iMacs, MacBooks, Mac mini etc. However ...

The problem is all three of the features I've listed above don't seem to work well with my big and often clumsy fingers.

Firstly, the multiple "virtual" buttons lead to mistaken right-clicks when I want a left-click. Over 15 years of using single-button mouses/mice from Apple, and especially since the introduction of the "top shell is the button" designs around 2000, I tend to be a bit sloppy where I've clicked the mouse button. For example, sometimes I've even pushed the whole surface with the top of my palm. So now, with my new Mighty Mouse, I sometimes seem to click just enough on the right side of the Mighty Mouse when I actually want a standard left-click. Other times it seems I actually do click with a non-index finger on the right side when I meant a left-click. I say "seems" because I'm not always sure. Anyway, the point is that my fingers have become so used to one-button mice that I actually need to make an effort to retrain my fingers to use the new Mighty Mouse. This seems odd given that I've never seemed to have a problem when I've had to use multi-button mice with Windows and Linux. To prove this point, I've been able to use a basic Logitech multi-button mouse on my iMac without the clumsiness I've experienced with the Mighty Mouse. My fingers seem to need separate, tactile mouse buttons.

The second issue is the Scroll Ball. A great idea in theory, and the behaviour can be customised to restrict scrolling in one-dimension if you want. However, the ball itself is prone to dust or other gunk finding their way inside the mechanism that detects the scrolling, causing it to fail. This has already happened twice in only a few weeks. Apple has published a guide, "How to clean your Mighty Mouse", along with an accompanying tutorial movie. Personally I don't think the scroll ball is reliable enough, since I've found the standard scroll wheel mice that come with PCs to have far fewer problems.

The third problem I have with the Mighty Mouse is more of a niggle than the previous two. The fourth "squeeze" button is not really that practical, since it requires quite a bit of pressure to activate it. In fact, I need to lift the mouse up and give it an uncomfortable squeeze with my thumb and pinky.

I'm willing to accept that the first issue, namely my mistaken right-clicks, is more of a user problem. I'm sure a bit of patience retraining my fingers could overcome it. I've also admitted that the third issue is probably just a personal niggle. But the second issue, the problematic scroll ball, is potentially a fatal flaw. Its unreliability lets down the rest of Apple's hardware (and software). Some liken it to the Apple III fiasco. Hopefully Apple will address the Scroll Ball problem soon.

In the meantime, I've decided to invest in a Logitech MX 400 for my iMac. And to complete my transition from single-button mice to multi-button mice, I'm using an entry-level Logitech optical mouse with my old eMac. These mice can be used with downloadable drivers, but Logitech provides a monolithic "Control Center" for all its keyboards and mice. Fortunately, the devices can function with the standard drivers provided in Mac OS X. You don't get all the customisability, but I'm willing to forgo that to avoid having to install extra bloatware.

Cold Calls Leave Me Very Cold Indeed

2006-12-14T15:20:00.000+10:30

Enough already!

I work from home. I have calling number display (CND) on my home phone, so I can usually screen calls depending on the number displayed. Unfortunately cold calls from direct marketers have their numbers blocked and so come up as just another "Private caller". To make matters worse, last Tuesday my mobile phone battery went flat so I had to redirect my mobile to my home phone while it was charging. So, of course, that had to be the day I got several cold calls from completely different marketers. And judging by the voices of the callers, most seemed to originate from India. I was under siege as the phone rang every half hour or so, making it hard to concentrate on my work.

In the past I had a neat trick to deal with cold calls from overseas telemarketers. My CND displays "Out of area" for overseas calls. The only legitimate overseas calls I get are from Italy, so I would answer the phone saying "pronto", the traditional Italian way of answering the phone. If it was from someone I knew in Italy, we could proceed with a friendly conversation. Marketers from India or wherever else, on the otherhand, would be on the back foot. They would start speaking in English, but I would continue speaking in Italian ("chi parla?", "cosa vuoi?"). The marketer would soon apologise and hang up. Hooray!

Unfortunately, overseas direct marketers now seem to be using VOIP or some other means to make it look like it's a local call. Such calls now come up as "Private caller", so I can't use the "pronto" trick straight away :( Some people I know do indeed have private numbers, so I have to delay going into the foreign language routine until I've heard the caller's voice. But this doesn't solve the problem of me having to stop what I'm doing to answer the phone.

So I got to thinking. Is it possible to have a programmable answering machine which detects the number, from the Caller ID, and play an appropriate message? Certain numbers would be allowed to ring through. Such a facility would be beneficial for legitimate callers too. For example, say I've stepped out to buy some milk and my uncle calls, the answering machine could play the "I'll be home at 12:30 to help pick the olives". While for anyone else, the message could be the standard "I'm not home right now. Please leave a message". I doubt that I'm the first person to think of this type of scenario. In fact I found a patent for a similar concept,

Programmable answering machine with multiple voice boxes and caller ID.

My current cordless phone is due for replacement, so I might look around for a combined phone/answering machine that can be programmed based on Caller ID.

Channel Seven and One Nation, Sitting in a Tree

2006-12-07T14:56:00.000+10:30

Are some people Channel Seven closet supporters of the One Nation Party? This morning Pauline Hanson had a sit-down interview on Channel Seven's Sunrise program to discuss her return to politics.

I'm probably making too much of this, but it was Channel Seven who bestowed upon Ms Hanson the label of "Star" when she participated in Dancing with the Stars. And another former One Nation honcho, David Oldfield, was declared a "Celebrity" when he took part in Celebrity Survivor.

How nice of Channel Seven to help raise the profile of former One Nation politicians in the quiet period leading up to next year's Federal Election.

ABC News item: Hanson to run as independent

Too Much Choice Considered Harmful

2006-11-19T17:45:00.000+10:30

... or: Why I Ditched Java and Switched to Ruby on Rails.

This post is a case study which supports the notion that too much choice is actually a Bad Thing. I've recently read a book that explores the topic in some detail, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz.

Some background to start with. I've been developing Java-based web applications since 1997. In 2000 I started dabbling with servlets and even wrote some introductory papers for my colleagues at work.

The first major web application I developed was for a startup called SupporterZone. At the time (early 2000) developers were basically left with the task of coding to the raw Java Servlet specification. To deal with some of the basic plumbing I wrote some classes to help abstract over the basic Servlet API. More competent people than myself were doing the same and Java "web frameworks" began to emerge to help make web development less painful.

In late 2000 when I was given the task of building web-based front-ends for database administration and reporting, I began investigating some of the emerging web frameworks. An Apache Jakarta open-source project, Struts, looked promising, and was getting favourable reviews on various mailing lists.

Struts served me well for the next few web applications I worked on from 2001 to 2003: extensions to SupporterZone, a brand new online classifieds site called Adengine, and a Management Programme Reporting tool for a State Government Department. But for most of 2003 and 2004 I worked on a popular State Government web application called PropertyAssist. The application dates back to the early days of Java Servlets. It sort of uses a Model 2 architecture, but by way of a homegrown web framework. So over this period I sort of lost touch with all the new Java web frameworks that were coming onto the scene.

In early 2005 I started working for a new client. They were developing a greenfields web application to manage their customer information system. I was one of several contractors in the newly-formed team. There was obviously some discussion about the architecture of the new system, in particular which Java frameworks would be used in the 3-tier application. We needed a data persistence API, and the choice came down to Hibernate or Enterprise Java Beans (EJB), with Hibernate selected. For the service layer, Spring seemed like a logical choice since it can play nicely with everything else. However the web layer proved much more contentious. Tapestry, another Apache Jakarta open-source project, was chosen. I had a brief look at Tapestry and found it quite strange. It had a reputation for a very steep learning curve, mainly due to its attempt to replace the standard request/response approach to web apps with a component model, similar to desktop Java Apps written using Swing. I had a look at some articles comparing the various web frameworks, and while Tapestry had a devoted following, it was nowhere near as widely used as Struts. However the other contractors had a lot of experience with Java Swing (a GUI API) and they liked Tapestry. They were able to quickly demonstrate a basic sample application that used the proposed frameworks. I considered demonstrating a sample application using Struts, but decided against it because Struts would have been dismissed as too "old-school" by the other contractors. I also briefly thought about trying some of the other web frameworks: Java Server Faces (JSF), WebWork, Spring MVC, Cocoon etc. But to be frank I did not have the time to devote to the task (I was only a part-timer, with responsibilities outside of work preventing extra-curricular activities). There are just too many Java web frameworks to look at, and not enough time. Just reading about all the frameworks made my head spin. It looks like I'm not alone in my disillusionment with the situation:

What Web Application framework should you use?
"Not excited about any Java web application framework these days? Join the club."
RE: What Web Application framework should you use?
Why are there so many Java frameworks for Web development?

In mid 2005 left that job when I got the opportunity to return to working on PropertyAssist. I enjoyed not having to think too much about what web framework to use, and could focus on just doing the work.

However the issue of choosing a web framework reared its ugly head again a few months ago when I was asked to develop a new web-based application for a private company. Time was of the essence, and I simply did not have the luxury of evaluating all the open-source Java frameworks. So I did a semi-courageous thing: I eliminated Java as the language technology for delivering the application. Another option was to use PHP, and in fact there had been an attempt to build a PHP-based application internally within the organisation. But when I looked for web frameworks in the PHP world I found the same problem: too much choice! (e.g. look at this list of PHP MVC Frameworks). Therefore PHP was ruled out too.

The only other contenders that I considered were my two favourite scripting languages de jour: Python and Ruby. Last year I had written some Python scripts to manage my web site, and I liked the language. But unfortunately I hadn't worked with any of the Python web frameworks, of which there are a few. Ruby is the other scripting language I've been following in the last few years. And I've been tracking the buzz around Rails, a web framework for the Ruby language. Now, I've been in the software development game for a while: 9 years professionally and since 1984 as a hobbyist. There's a lot of hype in the industry, and I know there is No Silver Bullet, so I approached Ruby on Rails with cautious optimism. My previous Ruby experience is only writing a handful of simple scripts, so writing a reasonably-sized web application from scratch in Ruby would be a big step up. Initial experimentation writing a basic sample application proved promising, both in ease of development and in the capabilities of the technology. So I felt confident enough to propose developing the new system using Ruby on Rails. Fortunately the client was willing to use any technology, providing I delivered. Let me say this: it was probably the most couragious decision I've ever made regarding technology selection on a professional project, and I have absolutely no regrets. In about 100 hours I built a web application managing over 30 database tables, some of which were quite complex. Remember also that I was learning both Ruby and Rails while I was working on the project. And I actually enjoyed myself. Ruby is a wonderfully-expressive language. I wouldn't say it's "the best", but I've used quite a few and it's right up there. And Rails is the Real Deal when it comes to building web front-ends for databases. The framework lets you focus on the problem being solved, allowing time to be spent on the "bells and whistles" that make the customer smile. Admittedly I was able to design the database tables from scratch (albeit modelled on the Access database tables the new system would replace). But legacy support in Rails is being constantly improved so that criticism is becoming less relevant.

So, in conclusion, if you're a jaded Java web developer and need to develop a web app real fast, consider Ruby on Rails. I'm not suggesting that it's a Silver Bullet. Nor am I saying that it is suitable for all web applications. But it does represent the state of the art for developing database-backed web applications. It might just open your eyes.

A Tale of Two Brothers

2006-11-18T15:30:00.000+10:30

Currently there is a G20 economic summit in Melbourne, where the finance ministers and central bank governors of the 20 most developed nations. The host is Australia's Treasurer, Peter Costello.

One of the items on the agenda is addressing global poverty. The Reverend Tim Costello, Peter's brother, is Chief Executive Officer of World Vision Australia, and Campaign Co-Chairman of Make Poverty History. He's criticised the Australian Government for failing to meet it's commitment to provide 0.7% of GDP as foreign aid. According to Tim Costello, Australia ranks 19th out of the top 22 developed nations when comparing the proportion of GDP given out as foreign aid. Peter Costello prefers to focus on the the raw dollar amount of foreign aid given by the Australian Government, which is an impressive-sounding $3 billion this year.

The media of course is relishing this public debate between to high-profile brothers, for example ...

Costello brothers argue over Australia's aid record

So who would you trust, a politician or a humanitarian :) Personally, when you get down to brass tacks, the Reverend Tim Costello gets my vote.

Here is an overview of the situation, with quotes from an interview on the ABC's Lateline
Tony Jones speaks with Tim Costello

[T]he global plan called the Millennium Development Goals ... we signed up. That is where we promised 0.7 per cent and haven't kept our promise...
Back in 1970 when all the developed nations said we're going to aim to give 0.7 per cent, that's 70 cents in every $100 of GNI. We said yes. At Monterey 2002, at Rio 2000 we repeated it. In August 10th, 2005 last year in Parliament, Alexander Downer repeated and said we are committed to 0.7. The problem is all the other countries, developed countries, have set a timetable and have moved towards it. Britain is at 0.49 per cent and France 0.47 per cent. Even when we get to what Peter has promised, the doubling of aid by 2010, we will still only be at 0.38 per cent whereas the average for all of the developed countries today is 0.45 cents.

We seem to be good at signing these internatinal agreements, but not acting - just look at the Kyoto Protocol, which we've actually signed but declined to ratify.

Another disturbing quote from the interview:

$400 billion approximately has been spent by the US in the Iraq war... The world developed countries only give $100 billion a year to the total one billion people living on less than $1 a day and 30,000 children die each day.

Fortunately the Australian citizens have been happy to take up the slack left by our Government's thrift. We are second only to the Irish in private donations to foreign aid agencies.

Yeah, What He Said. Hang On ...

2006-11-18T00:25:00.000+10:30

Former Australian Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch, "Addressing an exclusive black-tie Australian American Association dinner in Sydney, Mr Murdoch urged Australians to resist and reject the hostile anti-American sentiment that has gripped much of Europe." (Murdoch urges Aust, US to maintain strong relations)

We, along with the rest of planet Earth, have had to endure George W. Bush's nightmare of a presidency for six long and painful years (and unless he does an honourable thing we have two more years to endure). So excuse us if we feel a bit bitter to Dubya and his band of global havoc-wreakers. I think Uncle Rupert is over-generalising by labelling anti-Bushism in Europe as anti-Americanism. I'm pretty sure that the feeling in the streets of Europe (and Australia) is not the same type of anti-American feeling harboured by terrorists. If it were, then we'd all be in real trouble.

Uncle Rupert does concede:
"But wars end. Administrations come and go. The Australian people must not allow their perfectly legitimate doubts about one policy or one American administration to cloud their long-term judgment."

Since he also concedes that the Iraq War remains "unpopular" in Australia, is he inferring that we are right to consider the War an unmitigated disaster? If so, I bet John W. Howard was squirming in his seat at that exclusive black-tie dinner.

While on the subject of anti-Bushism, there seems to be a lot of it inside the United States as well ...

Misplaced loyalty to a diminished leader

In the US, anti-Bushism is now downright patriotic. Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi has denounced the President as shallow, deceitful, dangerous and incompetent (sound familiar?). Many widely respected conservatives were actively barracking for the Democrats last week. These included veteran pundit George F. Will, who reckons the Republicans got off relatively lightly "for the party that has presided over what is arguably the worst foreign-policy disaster in US history".

[Matt Price, The Australian]

PS How ironic that George W. Bush finally goes to Vietnam, albeit to attend APEC as the "Leader of the Free World", just as his Iraq War looks set to eclipse the Vietnam War as the US's biggest foreign policy disaster ever.

Fortress Suburbia

2006-11-10T15:49:00.000+10:30

At 8:45am every weekday morning the draw bridge opens and the gleaming metal carriage rides out of the fortress.

No, this is not the scene from a medieval story, but rather everyday suburbia. It's not really a draw bridge, just a massive electronically-operated garage door that is raised to reveal a thirsty behemoth of a car. Some children are being taken to school. But in fact the scene is repeated several times a day. The thought of simply walking out the front door to go to the shops or elsewhere has become an alien concept in this day and age of convenience.

Perhaps it's more than that. In the suburbs we seem to want to close ourselves off from the big, bad outside world. So if we do need to venture from the absolute safety of our homes we need to surround ourselves by a tonne of metal and glass. Not content with having our whole house airconditioned to the perfect temperature, we also have to take that perfect climate with us. No matter what the consequences are for our global climate.

Wake Up Australian Car Makers!

2006-11-03T20:32:00.000+10:30

Almost everyone and their dog now accepts that global warming is happening. Unfortunately governments can't always be relied upon to do the right thing. Witness how the Australian and United States governments still refuse to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Look at the participation map for the outcasts in red.

Australian citizens may decide to take the future in their own hands. This could be disastrous for the local car industry, because the three locally-manufactured vehicles have pathetic carbon dioxide emission numbers:

Holden Commodore (VE) ..... 260 g/km
Ford Falcon (BF) ................. 244 g/km
Mitsubishi 380 (DB) ............ 259 g/km

Source: http://www.greenvehicleguide.gov.au/

A random look at typical overseas-produced vehicles highlights how bad the Australian-made cars look in comparison:

Fiat Punto ............ 145 g/km
Honda Civic ......... 164 g/km
Peugeot 307 ........ 188 g/km
Toyota Camry ..... 210 g/km

Admittedly these are all 4 cylinder models, while the Australian-built cars are all 6 cylinder models. But perhaps the local manufacturers need to wake up and smell the coffee before it's too late.

Solving a Hypothetical Schoolyard Problem - A Simplistic Idea

2006-08-17T18:47:00.000+09:30

[This is a daft, er draft]

Let's say you've got a school full of bullies. Bully 1 is in a power struggle with Bully 2. Unfortunately there are lots of Innocent Victims, while the School Authorities are left powerless for some reason. To make matters worse, Vested Interests are supporting the bullies, actively or otherwise. Let's call Bully 1's supporters Interests 1, and Bully 2's supporters Interests 2.

Eventually, after considerable damage, Outside Authorities manages to arrange a truce. But the resentment between the bullies will continue unless the underlying issues are resolved. And innocent people will continue to suffer.

An immediate problem is the dmagae caused by the bullies. Let's sat Bully 1 causes $X of damage while trying to torment Bully 2, and Bully B causes $Y of damage while trying to torment Bully 1. Thanks to the support of Interests 1, Bully 1 was much more efficient, so $X exceeds $Y. In time, shadowy Interests 2 will curry favour with the Innocent Victims by helping pay for the damage inflicted on them by Bully 1. The price for this support is the likelihood of future pain :(

What can we do to fix this? If this happened in normal societies, people should be made to compensate for the damage they do. So Bully 1 should "pay" for the damage inflicted. But alas our hypothetical schoolyard is not normal. In fact, Bully 1 will continue to receive financial support from Interests 1, and Bully 2 will receive financial support from Interests 2. Deeply held suspicions and resentments will continue to fester, and Innocent Victims will succumb to the payoff by Bully 2.

If Interests 1 were sincere in their desire for long-term peace. perhaps they could take the initiative? They could gain the trust of the Innocent Victims by telling Bully 1 that their subsidy will be cut by the net damage they inflicted? The amount would instead be given to the Innocent Victims to rebuild. Effectively Interests 1 will outbid Interests 2. Perhaps Bully 2 would lose the tacit support of the Innocent Victims. Perhaps the School Authorities will no longer fear Bully 2, and therefore be able to keep him in check or even drive him out. Bully 1 would have paid a heavy price too, but in return he may no longer have to be so concerned by Bully 2.

Not Happy, Telstra!

2006-06-03T16:39:00.000+09:30

As a backup for my broadband internet access with Internode, I had maintained a prepaid dialup account with Telstra's BigPond. The service was ok, but fortunately my broadband service was reliable enough that I hardly needed to make use of the BigPond dialup account.

Recently I had forgotten to renew my prepaid dialup account in time, and the account became locked. This is fair enough, my bad. But my desire to unlock the account has been doused by some examples of poor service from Australia's largest telecommunications company, Telstra. Hence the motivation for this blog entry.

My first disappointment came when the BigPond member web site failed to provide any information about how one was to go about unlocking a locked account. The web site merely presented the following message when I attempted to log in:
"Your Account is either Locked or Pending Activation. Please try again in 24 hours."

I spent some time using the online Help Centre to see if I could get information about unlocking my locked account. The FAQ facility did not return anything useful.

The final disappointment came when I visited a Telstra Shop. The first person I spoke to was a junior staffer, and he was polite and replied honestly that he did not know. He asked me to wait while he asked someone who did know. Unfortunately this person was not as helpful as I'd have liked. He seemed to be a bit distracted, initially reeling of a phone number to call about my problem. The number must have been incorrect because the junior staffer reminded him that I was a BigPond prepaid dialup customer. Then he started reeling off another number, but I asked him to please write it down for me. He reluctantly did jot the number on a scrap of paper and gave it to me.

I guess I could now ring the number I was given to ask about unlocking my account. But given the level of service I've received, I'm not sure the company deserves my continued patronage.

The sad thing is: I am a Telstra shareholder. I'm also a Telstra mobile phone customer. It is arguably in my interests to use Telstra as my Internet service provider. However I will probably not bother unlocking my dialup account. As I said at the start, I'm a happy Internode broadband customer, and the dialup account was only a backup.

Expensive Big Screen TVs - Why bother?

2005-04-06T22:15:00.000+09:30

Like a lot of people, I watch TV. And I enjoy watching movies on DVD. But I don't see how I could justify spending over $1000 on a television set, let alone the multiple thousands that the latest whiz-bang, plasma/LCD/rear-projection big-screen sets sell for.

I hate to sound self-righteous, but if I need a new set, I'd rather spend under $1000 on a modest, "old-fashioned" tube set, than fork out upwards of $8000 on the latest and greatest. I could spend the money saved on a brand-new Apple PowerBook, and have more than enough money left over to buy a 60GB iPod. At least I could use the PowerBook to exercise my creativity, and even earn money.

It reminds me of the observation that people spend lots of money that they don't have, on things they don't need, to impress people they don't like.

To blog or not to blog?

2005-04-02T18:00:00.000+09:30

[This is more of an observation than a rant.]

Blogging, in case you hadn't noticed, is a "big thing" at the moment. Bloggers are being taken to court and asked to reveal their sources in disputes over the leaking of trade secrets, e.g.:
The Apple bloggers must name their moles

Other bloggers are losing their jobs for being too indiscrete in their writings, e.g.:
Firms taking action against worker blogs

I've been blogging for a couple of years now. But I've never really written about anything too personal, and definitely never anything specific about my employment, because I don't think anyone "out there" either cares enough or needs to know anyway. I'll make an exception now to make a point: the past year has probably been the most sustained, difficult period of my life, but I doubt anyone would be able to work that out from any of my blog posts. I haven't seen any need to write about the specifics in a blog, preferring to discuss them privately with close friends and relatives.

I read several blogs, mostly technical in nature. Well, actually, I read the headlines and summaries of the blogs using RSS newsreading software, and if the article looks interesting, then I'll take the time to read the article in full. Some bloggers don't hesitate to mix personal stuff with technical writings. Sometimes there is a fine line between personal posts that are relevant to the blogger's intended audience, and those that arguably are not. Often the posts in this latter category can come across as overly self-indulgent and/or fall under the banner of "too much information".

I hesitate to pick on any individual blogger, but I'll have to do so to illustrate the main point of my argument. Matt Raible is a top-notch software developer and consultant. He usually writes about technical issues in web development. But recently he's posted two personal items:

I would argue that the first one (about his decision to have a vasectomy) falls into the category of "too much (personal) information", expecially in a usually technical blog. On the other hand, the second post (about future career direction), while also being of a personal nature, is arguably quite relevant to many people working in web development. In fact, I've been pondering the same question myself, and found that post both interesting and informative. Having said that, I'm sure there are some readers who see no problem with the inclusion of the first example.

In conclusion, I think bloggers should think carefully before writing about very personal things, unless the clear purpose of the blog is to comment on personal issues. I guess the title of this entry could be rephrased as: To blog here, or not to blog here. Perhaps I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, and should just make sure I use a newsreader that displays the category of blog entries.

[PS I don't know Matt personally, and I hope he doesn't take offence from my using his blog as an example.]

Why I Hate Windows (Feb '05 Edition)

2005-02-13T18:35:00.000+10:30

Almost everyone who knows me is aware that I'm a "Mac-head", and that I hate Windows. The purpose of this rant is to highlight some of the things that I most hate about using the latest version of Windows (XP), and thus help me release some frustration. I also hold out the (very slim) hope that someone at Microsoft is listening.

In a perfect world I would be able to use an Apple Macintosh for any computer-related work. But, alas, this is a far-from-perfect world, over the years working as an IT contractors means I have to suffer the nightmare of using Windows.

Here's a list of my current major peeves about Windows XP:

Stale directory listings
Mapping drives using letters
Limited Drag-and-Drop support
Epileptic fit-inducing colour scheme
Hyperactive taskbar and general environment
Extreme modality
Start to Stop

It's by no means an exhaustive list, but I don't have all day to write them all down (and I doubt you don't want to have to read through all of them). I'll focus on a selection of my peeves then explain my pain.

Stale directory listings
Why is it necessary to press F5 to get a directory listing updated? Surely the system should know that a file has been added or updated in a directory. Also the system should know if a window is open displaying the contents of that directory. So why should I need to do anything to get the directory listing updated? For many years now the various versions of Mac OS have automatically refreshed the directory listing after changes to the contents.

Mapping drives using letters
Back in the days of yore (actually, the Eighties) I owned an Atari 800XL. To save files I had a tape drive, which used standard audio cassettes. Later I could afford to buy a floppy disk drive. To reference the tape drive, I had to use the letter "C" and a colon ("C:"), while the floppy drive was referenced as "D:". All perfectly reasonable, in 1985.
At the same time, PCs were called "IBM compatibles", and ran Microsoft's DOS. Windows 1.0 was released around that time. These PCs also referred to storage devices, be it a floppy drive or hard disk, by single-letter drive designations. Apple Macs were bit of an exception. They allowed volume names to be whatever you wanted them to be, say "Macintosh HD", "Backup Drive" or even "Dave". In those days I guess it wasn't really a big deal, because networks were very rare. Everyone in an office would have the same small set of drives and associated drive mappings as everyone else.
These days almost every office is networked. Resources can be shared over the network quite easily. To do this in Windows you to map a network resource to a drive letter. Unfortunately not everyone maps the same resources to the same drive. I tend to prefer using mnemonic mappings to help me remember what's what. For example, I usually map my home directory on the network file server to drive "H:". For common resources available to all users, I might choose another letter, trying to use a letter that reminds me of the resource. The problem occurs when other people choose different letters for the same resource, so they say "the file is on Y drive", which is meaningless unless I have the same resource mapped to "Y:" as they do. Contrast this to a Macintosh, where network volumes have actual names, such as "Company Stuff" or "Web Server". No confusion there. So why does Windows still use drive-mappings in 2005, just like my old Atari 800XL did in 1985?

Limited Drag-and-Drop support
One of the great things about visual systems is the ability to grab a file or some text and use drag-and-drop to move it somewhere else. For example, one can grab a file in "My Documents" and move it to "My Music". Similarly in Word one can grab a paragraph and move it somewhere else in the document. Unfortunately, Windows doesn't provide as complete and consistent drag-and-drop support as Mac OS X. On my Mac, I can drag the text of a URL from a dialog box and drop it onto the browser's icon in the dock (taskbar) and the browser will load that page. Sure, sometimes this is not Microsoft's fault, but rather it's the fault of the developers of the applications themselves. But if Microsoft led by example and made Windows as drag-and-drop aware as Mac OS X, then things could only improve.

Epileptic fit-inducing colour scheme
Many non-Mac people criticise Mac OS X for being mere "eye-candy". Sure, it has lot's of nice colours and fancy effects, but anyone who has seen Windows XP with it's default settings would have to admit that the Mac is tasteful in comparison. The XP colour scheme looks like it was designed by kindergarten children. Actually, I'm being unfair on kindergarten children (and their teachers). Windows apologists say you can switch to Windows 2000-style look, which I have done, but why does the XP have to look so "busy" out of the box?

Hyperactive taskbar and general environment
The Windows taskbar can be a hectic place. I can understand that when a new application starts up a slot appears in the task bar. And I can appreciate how XP can consolidate windows by application. In fact I would prefer it if it did that by default, not only once the taskbar has become "full". My main issue with the taskbar is how much jumping around there is. It makes me jittery when I see so much activity at the bottom of the screen. It can be very distracting. Also, why can't I rearrange the items in the taskbar, whereas I'm allowed to rearrange the items in the quick launch section?
But the taskbar is a sea of tranquility when compared to the general XP environment. If you have an open window and change the selected file, the left toolbar gets updated to show you what actions you can do with that file. That may be nice for a novice user, but I find it distracting if all I want to do is move the file somewhere else. Why does XP have to try to second-guess what I want to do with the file? Also, whenever something happens XP displays little popup windows to alert (i.e. distract) me. Okay, these windows often dismiss themselves after a delay, but too late - I've been distracted by something which is slightly more than meaningless. To complete this section here's one of my personal favourite popus: when XP has finished booting it informs me that it failed to connect to the network. The popup neglects to reaassure me that it will continue trying, and once it does establish a network connection it doesn't even bother letting me know! Why does Windows have to be so selectively chatty?

Extreme modality
Changing control settings in Windows usually involves an ever-increasing procession through a series of dialog boxes. It's easy to get lost and try clicking on the Cancel button of a dialog box which is behind the one that's at the top of the stack. It doesn't help when your calendar program (im)politely informs you that you have a meeting in 15 minutes and takes over part of the screen. And if you make the mistake of clicking on another application's window you could find it difficult getting back to that dialog box stack that you were trying to work your way out of in the first place. User interface gurus have cautioned against using such modal interfaces, but Microsoft is not listening.

Start to Stop
One of my favourite Windows anomalies is the "Shutdown" item in the Start menu. This epitomises the upside-down world that is Windows. I think I'll stop here.

The horror, the horror.

[Update]
Revenge of XP? It appears that the feeling of hatred is mutial. When I returned to work this week, my PC failed to boot up correctly. Windows complained that a critical file (I think it was the registry) was corrupt. I don't know if it was related to the fact that the computer's memory had been upgraded (why should that cause a problem?) but I had to get someone from tech support to fix it.

[Update 2]
Mary Stamper has written an essay which criticises Windows from a software developer's point of view:
From GUI-Avoider to OS X
Her conclusion:
"I’m sure that everyone has heard the old saying, “Mac for Productivity, Unix for Development, and Windows for Solitaire”. My experience has shown me that at least for my needs, the Mac is not only for productivity, but for development as well. Windows? Well, some things never change."

I've also commented to people that Windows PCs are just souped-up Xboxes that can run Excel.

Bye-Bye Ziggy

2004-12-02T17:50:00.000+10:30

Yesterday it was made public that the CEO of Telstra, Dr Ziggy Switkowski, would be leaving the company. As a shareholder I will be happy to see him go.

Telstra CEO out ahead of full sale

"Dr Switkowski will stand down by July 2005, two years before his contract was due to expire. He will get a payout of at least $2 million."

In the past few years the Telstra share price has fallen about $3 per share (almost 40%), reducing the total value of my direct shareholding by almost $2500.

As if this was not bad enough, one of Dr Ziggy's (failed) deals back in 2001 ended up costing the jobs of myself and many colleagues. In the process a once-thriving South Australian company was reduced to a pale shadow of it's former self.

The doctor will get a golden handshake of $2 million. I wish I could get a job where failure is so well-rewarded!

Scavengers in Suburbia

2004-11-16T13:05:00.000+10:30

Our local council has designated that this week residents will be able to leave "hard rubbish" in front of their houses for collection. I cleared out some stuff that I wanted to get rid of and placed them as requested on the kerbside on Sunday evening.

By Monday afternoon, several scavengers had obviously pulled up in their cars and sifted through my pile of rubbish for anything they might find useful. I don't have a problem with that - as they say, one person's trash is another's treasure. But it would be nice if they left the pile as neat as they found it. So I was not happy to see an empty box left almost blocking the footpath, and other bits of rubbish flung around the place. This meant I had to go out last night and tidy up the pile again, otherwise I might get a visit from an angry council rep.

Maybe I'm being to harsh. The scavengers have already reduced my pile by almost half! I may need to put more out just to make my paltry pile look more impressive.

There's no firm time when the council's contractors will actually come to collect the rubbish. At the current rate, there may not be much left for them to pick up! I suspect the council deliberately holds back from collecting the hard rubbish long enough to allow scavengers to pick off most of the stuff, leaving them with less to collect.

Introduction

2004-11-16T11:37:00.000+10:30

This is yet another blog I've started. The purpose here is to help me exorcise any demons as and when they manifest themselves. I don't expect anyone to care much about what I post, but occasionally I might strike a chord with readers.

Disclaimer

2004-01-01T13:26:00.000+10:30

Borrowing from the disclaimer of The Daily Show—Global Edition:

The items you are about to read are opinion pieces. The content may not be fully fact checked. The writer is not a journalist. And the opinions may not be fully thought through.