Times have changed and I’m not really sure I *want* to ramble incessantly about ‘the world as I see it’. Perhaps I really should give up on the blog in this format and create a new one based loosely around my life just posting whatever comes to mind.

Ok ‘opinion’ comes in many forms but if I’m writing, for example about spiders in the garden, adding them here might not be ‘appropriate??

Having said that it *is* my blog so whatever *I* think is appropriate *is* appropriate!

Maybe I’ll have to think that one over and see where it takes me!

Perhaps “My life and welcome to it” ??

I came back a few months later to have a look around, but didn’t really do much after that. Since then bucket loads of stuff has happened that I’d have rambled on about… but much of that went into the ’sister site’ at the Australian Opinion Forum.

Since I spend so much time in there, what else is there to say?? Beats me.

And yet the domain is still here… the software is still here… the archives are still here so I’m obviously keeping it for something.

Dunno… maybe I *should* simply sit down and start sounding off about the world again. There are things I can say in here I can’t say on the forum… and of course there is a lot more space here to ramble than on there.

We’ll see.

Last time I said I was off to find a new theme. Well I recall cleary that I *did* go… and I recall clearly that this was *still* the best theme out there! It’s clean, it’s effective and it works – even tho I upgraded the software by several iteration that had passed me by over the last year.

So… will I post. As I said I can only answer by saying “we’ll see”. Blogging is such a solitary activity it’s not necessarily the best form of communication. After all, I type into the void… and who reads it? Anyone? Quite possibly not!

We’ll see.

Maybe it’s time to come back and get back to telling the world how it *ought* to be run… or at least tell it’s leaders how they should be behaving!!

We’ll see.

Right now I’m thinking about it and seeking out a new theme. After all ‘new beginnings’ sort or rquire a new theme. Having said that… I’m actually quite fond of the existing one. It’s clean, clear and does what it’s ttold. What else can one ask of a theme after all??

Sound familiar?

Maybe it’s ‘Wall Street 1929′ all over again!

It’s nearly time to stock the cupboards, lock the doors and pass the ammo!

Wendy was a favourite on the small screen for in Britain for many, many years both as a ‘blonde bombshell’  Miss Brahms in the classic series “Are You Being Served”, and as the matriarch of the Fowler family in “Eastenders”.

I first heard of her ’singing’ with Mike Sarne back in the 1960’s on his hit song “Come Outside” but that was a one-off for her and she continued with her acting career to the relief of all.

She was a lovely lady.

Globalisation, cheap travel, easy migration and wide differences in living standards have encouraged people to move in ever greater numbers from place to place, and especially from less developed areas to those perceived as ‘better off’. There are now nearly 7 million people resident in the UK who weren’t born there.

As the recession starts to bite, unemployment rates are increasing and large numbers of non-uk born residents are qualifying for, and receiving the dole.

I suppose this is an issue countries around the world have to deal with, especially Australia which relies on immigration to keep the economy growing. The question to ask is are we going down a similar path to the UK and if so… is it really such a good idea?

It also makes you reevaluate what exactly it means to be “British”!

Source: One in nine people living in Britain now born overseas

At the simplest level, even a personal website is cloud computing. Basically *anything* you access/store/manipulate etc anywhere online, and off your own hard drive, could be gathered under the umbrella term. In practice however the term has slowly developed to the point where it’s taking on a subtle difference. Now it’s becoming understood as covering any activity you currently do locally, i.e. on your own computer HDD, but can be done online.

So for me, apart from this sort of site, the most obvious use of ‘cloud computing’ has been Google Mail which I’ve been using for some time. However I’ve slowly been getting used to accessing my *data* online as well. I have been using a backup service called ‘Mozy Home‘ and currently have some 45Gb backed up ‘just in case’. It ’syncs’ overnight when I’m asleep and ensures that if the machine is stolen or destroyed I’ve not lost all my data… photos, music, documents etc. Diverging slightly from the topic, being with Mozy has some added benefits. If the computer is stolen and used by the thieves, it’s possible I might be able to locate who they are and where my machine is by downloading *their* files which Mozy would have backed up!

Moving on, I’ve just started using an online facility called ZumoDrive. It’s still in beta and ‘invitation only’ but still worth checking out. The free account gives you 1Gb of space to give you a chance to evaluate its usefulness. Basically it’s a hybrid system that creates a ‘virtual drive’ on your computer which you can use exactly the same way as any other drive on your machine, with a few important differences.

To begin with the data isn’t stored on your hard drive, it’s uploaded to the ‘cloud’. Secondly, that data can be accessed anywhere you have access to a computer. Thirdly, you can use it as a ‘file sharing utility’ by giving access to other people via your own, or alternate email address logins!

Naturally it has a few drawbacks, the main one being using it for *all* your data needs a fast broadband account… and if you have no web access you have no access to your data. For the most part tho this just means modifying what you upload and for storage/easy access of images etc it’s ideal. I tried using it to ’stream’ my Lord of the Rings music to my netbook using a free connection at the local Macca’s and it worked perfectly. I’m seriously considering opening a monthly account (10Gb for $2.99/month) and using it for more file transfers!

There are other ways of achieving the same ends, tho perhaps not quite so elegantly. One of these would be the Windows Live SkyDrive. With the SkyDrive, Microsoft has given all users a 25Gb online storage space which they can access, use for file sharing etc. It isn’t as versatile as ZumoDrive, but is free and of course, works.

The point is that as the cloud develops more and more features and functions will be made available for online use. Already Google online offers tools including a word processor, spreadsheets, presentation software etc. Add in the mail service, blogging facility, photo storage etc and you can begin to see a time closing in where purchasing an expensive computer for ‘home use’ will be a thing of the past.

From my perspective – sooner the better!

This time the police have spent months investigating claims he groped a 15 year old girl in his office.

Somehow the claims reached the media, and despite him being able to prove he was elsewhere at the time the offences were said to have occured, the police nevertheless took several months to clear his name… whilst leak after leak managed to find its way into the media.

Sometimes you just have to ask yourself if his apparant paranoia really does have some basis in fact!

Source: Furious-Fayed attacks police cleared alleged sexual assault girl 15.

This time the problem is water supply. Rainfall in the catchment area for Melbourne is already at its lowest on record, and the dams are currently only at 30% capacity. Now, with much of the catchment burned and blanketed in ash, when the rains come it’s likely that the water collected will be far too dirty for use. Eventually it will clear of course as sediment settles, but it might take years in order for that to happen because each time it rains… if it rains… the dams will be again polluted by turgid ash filled water.

Despite the problems this will cause, it is nonetheless a short term problem and can be fixed. The issue is far more serious than that and projections have been mooted that suggest the *minimum* period affected will be fifty years, and the situation may not revert to ‘normal’ for up to 300 years!! 

So what *is* this problem that is so serious? Basically it’s the possible, actually probable death of hundreds of thousands of Mountain Ash trees. The Mountain Ash is the dominant species throughout the affected catchment area and there are grave fears that the crowns of these trees have been destroyed by the intense heat of the fires.

Whilst it is a Eucalyptus, the evolution of the tree has produced one that *requires* fire in order for seeds to sprout. It is of course, no more fire resistant than others, and these fires were so severe they may not have survived over immense areas. What’s worse is that this variety they won’t shoot new growth from the sides, or the base of the tree. These trees regenerate from seed alone.

This may not sound that serious… until you learn that new growth can use up to 50% more water than a mature tree, and as the growth period of these trees is very extended, the total water supply from the catchment could drop by that amount for the foreseeable future.

What sort of effect this massively reduced water supply will have on Melbourne in the short and long terms is open to discussion, but serious questions are already being asked about the city’s ability to function with water supply so critically threatened. Something will obviously have to be done… the question is, just *what*.

One thing is certain however, the decision of ex-NSW Premier Morris Iemma to push through the building of our desalination plant may well turn out to be a life-saver for Sydney. If similar disastrous fires were to scour the Blue Mountains our water supply, already a bit shaky, would be stretched to the limits and beyond. If that happened, then the plant could be put quickly into full production.

Current in the list of oddities is the case of two grandparents who were told that they were too old to look after their grandchildren… and were then told that because they had complained to the media that their kids were instead being adopted by a gay couple they would no longer be allowed any contact with them. This of course is despite them having already adopted the youngest child, the childrens repeated insistence that they be placed with their grandparents *and* the youngest girls known and recognised fear of men! More lives ruined in the name of political correctness.

Then there is the man who has been jailed because he confronted a heroin dealer and flushed 5 bags of the drug down the toilet. It’s good to know that drug dealers can rely on the full weight of the law being imposed on people trying to do the job the police can’t or won’t do. Just for added measure he was imprisoned for two months for defending law and order whilst a Portuguese lorry driver who wiped out the lives of six people gets 3 months per life! What an indictment of the justice system??

And lastly… for today… we have Virgin Rail telling its customers they can’t give each other a goodbye kiss when they drop them off at the rail stations.

The country is going to the dogs.