and then there was One

Well, time passes. Where did the last month go?

I do want to note two passing in the last month.

The funual of Australia's second last WWI veteran was last week. He was William Evan Allan, he enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy at the outbreak of the war when he was just 14. He was the last active service veteran.

John Campbell Ross, 106, a wireless operator who enlisted just before the war end is Australia last WWI veteran.

Lest we forget.


Ronnie Barker, one of the comic greats, passed at the start of the month. One of the great stand-up comics. His most noted works are 'the Two Ronnies', with Ronnie Corbett, 'Open All Hours' and 'Porridge'. A master who's range included everything from verbal 'Spoonerisms' to dressing up in all kinds of outfits!

I'll just close with the Two Ronnies classic close.

It's Goodnight from me.
And it's Goodnight from him!

I’ve been spammed!

Well, it took 2 weeks and 5 day (since I started this blog, 25/09/05).

Today, after my 5th post, that post got two comments.

Both at the same time. Both generic ‘Great Blog’ comments and link(s) to ad stuff. In these cases; hearing aids and ‘Big Savings’ Car Insurance. Different Blogger.com accounts, but me thinks its the same person, given the common posting times!

Looks like I need to call for trender on a second contract!

Call For Tenders: Contract on Sydney CBD Traffic Planners

Went to the Sydney CBD yesterday evening. The first time there, since the opening of the cross city tunnel.

Usually it takes me 20 to 30 mins to get from the top of the M5 to where I park, in the City West (King/Kent/Sussex streets) area. This is during peak hour times, as I’m usually going to the Sydney XP Activity Club (SyXPAC) geek nights. I try to get up to Sydney for this, about once a month.

Last night it took me 70 minutes to get parked! Got forced across the Habour Bridge once (first time ever) and ended up in Pyrmont/Darling Habour twice!

The worst bit was that by the time I parked, it was after 7.00pm, and Borders Books was closed! Borders are the only place I know, that offer a good selection of US magazines that don’t generally make it to the local news agents. I usually buy two mags (that have cheap, crappy Australian editions). Must rings Borders today, and see if they will hold this months’ editions for me.

Comments about 'The New Inventors', Stubble Star (7/Sept/05)

Stubble-Star was one of the devices on last night’s show.

Being a farmer son, I'm close enough to the subject to realise how inept most of the questioning about the product was!

Two of the panel had no idea about the subject. Just asking motherhood questions. The one that has closer knowledge was still far enough removed as not to be able to ask the hard questions.

The Star competitor technologies are tine and chisel ploughs (used for seed sowing), not the seldom used disc plough. Disc plough use has been declining since at least the 60's.

This also allowed the inventor/promoters to push as major selling point, sometime that is only a minor point. Stubble burning is a seldom used practice, it had disappeared from the northern wheat belt by during the 70s and largely disappeared from the southern wheat during the 80s.

The promoter talked about the stars being trialled in the Wagga Wagga area and in the sandy soil of the WA. Then made the sweeping statement that it was suitable for all the wheat belts. I'ld like to see it tested in the heavy red and black (basalt) soils of the Eastern Darling Downs, the Brigalow Clays of the Western Darling Downs and the Liverpool/Moree Plains.

It looks like an interesting bit of equipment. It has good potential, even if it only matches current methods, given its claimed fuel savings.

One last silly comment from the panel was about it being a good invention, going into a growing market. I want to know, what growing market? Given the current economic and polito-legal frameworks in Australia. At most, the amount of land under the plough is either plateauing or static. An 'out of touch' comment! If the wool market improves markedly, it may even start to fall as land in SA and NSW returns to wool!

I think the Show should get Subject Area Experts to prepare a background reports for the Panel.

Outlining area such as
- Competitive technologies/methods and the economics.
- Market state
- Pros and cons of the Invention & major competitive technologies

the Poseidon device

Saw vision about this story on the TV morning News bulletins today.

And found this online.

The things journalists say!

This morning I saw part of the Today Show on channel Nine.

It was talking about the Oil price going to US$70, after the storm in the Gulf of Mexico. They talked about some market chatter about the price going to US$100. (that’s a 42% increase).

One of the journos (...) talked about that resulting in a 40% increase in the price of petrol at the pumps! He was talking about AU$1.60! I paid AU$1.25, last time I filled up. But I’m paying Canberra prices, so there no way I can compare, as he would be talking Sydney prices. (Australia media is becoming so Sydney-centric).

This is all so overly simplistic! Anyone who portrays themselves as a financial journo should be ashamed of this logic!

Surely the pump price of fuels would include things like federal taxes, state/terr. taxes, cost of infrastructure, labour, marketing, transport, did I say taxes! Are we expecting all these to go up to 40%, over the same period.

To illustrate that there is not a one to one link between the oil price & the pump price, take the period between 1999 and now. I remember the 1999 prices, I travelled during that year!
In early 1999, the oil price got as low as US$10 and the pump price was about AU$0.72. That is a 600% increase in the US$ oil price, over 6 and a bit year! The pump price has not gone up by anywhere near that percentage!

To short cut an explanation due to time constraints one thing. To take logical leaps is another!

Tune in next week for another adventure of GNOLLS IN S-P-A-C-C-E!

Well we all got to start somewhere.

Software wise, at home, I’ve been reading a bit about Javaspaces. Must play around with it, once I get my computers & Internet setup at the new place.

Went to the Canberra Linux Users Groups (CLUG) last night. http://www.clug.org.au There were two interesting talks

1. What the National Archives of Australia (NAA) is up to. http://www.naa.gov.au They have open sourced some of their software. http://xena.sourceforge.net
   
2. Incorporating java script into Samba. This should greatly improved scripting generally and installation (on all platforms). http://samba.org/
   

Tune in next week for another adventure of GNOLLS IN S-P-A-C-C-E!