Any comments or responses should be made to phelpsc@bigpond.com.
As some of you will know I am an extremely keen football (read soccer) follower. Don't get me wrong I do like to watch Rugby league and Australian Rules as well (Rugny Union I can pass on).
I consider myself a fair supporter. I follow the Central Coast mariners and have been known to "argue" the point when follow supporters think we were hard done by when I may have agreed with the officials. Off-side rulings and free kicks are particularly common.
By rule, I don't "boo" players or officials as I think it is disrespectful. The same goes for leaving a game early. The players have to be there for the full 90 minutes and so I think the audience should too. After all I paid to be there and I want my full value for what I paid.
Well last night I broke one of those rules and very nearly did the other. I went with my wife and daughter to watch the Central Coast Mariners play Chinese side Tianjin Teda in their final pool game of the 2009 Asian Champions League. Neither side could make the next phase of the competition and so I was looking forward to a good open game of football with two sides playing for pride but not "sheep stations".
What we got was a disgrace to the officials, the players and more importantly the game. The Chinese team participated in gross diving to get free kicks and utterly disgusting time wasting antics. Players would go down after a soft touch and would roll around the ground pretending agony. In all my years as a player I know that when you go down injured you don't roll for 5 metres, than back in the opposite direction only to continue rolling back in the original direction and all the time holding you head when the contact was elsewhere.
There was one instance where a Chinese player dove to the ground and when I say dove I really mean it. No contact with any player. In fact the nearest player must have been a couple of metres away.
FIFA must take this problem and wipe it out. Implement the issuing of a yellow card for all instances of diving. First instance, yellow card. Second instance, yellow card resulting in a red and your off the field. This will soon take care of the problem.
My hat goes off to the Mariners. They were patient and then frustrated and then downright bewildered. It was not their night and I don't think they were really in a position to win. However the fans and the Mariners should not have been subjected to this blatant episode of bad sportsmanship from footballers who call themselves professionals. Professionals??? Maybe they should try out for the Chinese Springboard Diving team for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Boy, I cannot believe how long it is since I have made an entry here. Seems to be a common thread for the last couple of entries.
Anyways, my latest beef is aimed at some of the Linux community. Now before I put my "problem" in writing I will say that I have no real issue with Linux and the Linux community in general. Competition for Windows and having an alternate OS that has strengths to fit markets and situations where Windows might not be the right solution can only be a good thing. So this "rant" is not a traditional Windows vs Linux argument.
However, what has gotten on my nerve lately is that I have read and heard some criticism coming from the Linux community in the past about the number of versions of Windows Vista with these same statements being made about the upcoming "Windows 7" release.
What is their problem? Are they making a generic statement to criticise Windows without looking at their own backyard? How many variations of Linux are there?
First case to point: Looking at a pile of magazine discs at my desk at home I see distributions of:
Fedora 9 and 10
gOS 3.0
Linux Mint 6
Mandriva Linux One 2009
Mepis 7.5
OpenSuse 11.0 and 11.1
Puppy Linux 4.1.2
Ubuntu 8.1
UserOS Extreme (based on Ubuntu 8.04)
Second case to point: The April 2009 edition of the Australian Personal Computer magazine has an article titled Build your own Linux distro. In reading the article I understand and acknowledge that a need and market exists to be able to create your own Linux distribution. After all, with the right tools this can be achieved for Windows also.
So, for those Linux enthusiasts who have taken a shot at Microsoft for the number of Windows versions and who are making statements accusing Microsoft of making the process of choosing which version to buy confusing then take it from me that the same issue exists on your side of the fence as well.
Also, I do not accept the argument that this is acceptable for Linux because it is Open Source. At the end of the day the average computer user who wants to try Linux will not know what version is best for them. So they will try a distribution that came with a magazine or was suggested by a colleague, probably no different than for Windows!!!
Boy, doesn't time fly. I cannot believe it is almost 4 months since my last post. In doing so I want to go back to matters of IT and in particular, problems that just appear too difficult to fix ...... until somebody thinks of bleeding obvious.
We have had a printer problem in a small office where selecting a printer from the drop-down list in a Print dialogue box would take "ages" to display the list. As there is no IT person on site and the problem was only evident on 2 of the 4 machines there, we were reduced to trying to determine the problem from almost 900 kilometres away. In the end I gave up in frustration and called upon a computer support group close to the office with the problem.
This was a master stroke. Not because they fixed the problem because they didn't. However having eyes and hands on site got us down the right path to get the problem fixed. You see the outsourced computer help found that whenever the machines at this office went to print the PCs were trying to access the Global AD Controller which of course was not at that site. Being a small office this communication between the PC and the AD controller was going across a slow ADSL link.
So now that we were armed with this information I broadcast out to our global IT team the facts and what had been experienced. One of the team suggested we use the postscript driver for the HP Colour printer and bingo, problem gone.
Moral of the story: Don't be frightened to call for help.
For those who have followed Australian football (read soccer) will know that one of the biggest names every produced is a gentleman by the name of Mark Bosnich. After playing for teams such as Australia, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Chelsea, Mark looks to have decided to have settle into the Gosford lifestyle and made his first appearance today for the Central Coast Mariners.
So is it irony, fate or just plain luck with what transpired today. Here is a world-class athlete who feel out of favour with the football community due to testing positive to drugs whilst playing in England. He has not played a competitive game for years. So, who wrote the script for what happened today.
Although the game started fairly ordinarily, Mark was thick in the action. He made two excellent saves, probably ones that other goalkeepers would also have made but he was making his presence felt by commanding the penalty box like a seasoned General. Just when it didn't look like too much would happen, two things did happen in the space of 10 minutes that shows what class Mark has.
Firstly, the Mariners get a free kick at a point in the second half when they are leading 1-0. Alex Wilkinson goes to take the free kick which is about 25 metres out from the Mariners own goal-line when he shapes to take the free kick back to Mark Bosnich. Mark simply points up the field but with an expression that indicates that there is no question as to what should happen. Alex takes the free-kick up field, a long kick deep in Sydney territory where Dylan Macallister taps it on with his head directly to Sasho Petrovski who turns and shoots, GOAL!!!! Mariners lead 2-0.
The second classy piece of action happens a few minutes later. The Mariners have just scored again to lead 3-0 when Sydney push forward and earn a (dubious) penalty. Steve Corica from Sydney steps up to take the penalty. The ground is buzzing with anticipation. Corica moves in, shoots and Bosnich dives to his left to save it!!!
What a great day for Australian football. It certainly is not as big as when John Aloisi scored that night in Sydney to put the Socceroos into the 2004 World Cup, believe me as I was there with tens of thousands of others. However today's crowd of over 7,000 saw a piece of history to have one of our greatest talents of football take to the field in our own domestic competition and I for one loved it.
I personally hope that Mark can get a contract with our great team and that we see him do for the Mariners more of what he did today. Thank you A-League for helping make this happen.
Don't ever let anybody tell you that the quality of paper does not matter!!! As a result of my redundancy we started to look at ways to try and save some money. One area was paper for our printer. We figured if we could save a few bucks that it would contribute to the ultimate good.
So we bought a ream of a cheaper brand than the usual Reflex that we normally buy. The first things that we noticed was:
The paper could not be the 80gsm that was marked on the packet.
The surface of the paper appeared to be too shiny.
The size was slightly smaller than A4 by a few millimetres on each side.
Regardless, we decided to use it. Our printer began to experience problems about half-way through the ream. The type of problems were printer jams and it would feed multiple sheets through at a time. Not the end of the world but really annoying.
As the printer is at least 3 years old we thought then that it was time for a new one. We saw a good deal in a catalogue, went to look at it and decided on another model that had better features. As it would turn out we were fortunate that they had none in stock, so we paid for the printer under the promise that they would order it in.
Well, this week's events have us deciding to get our money back on the new printer. You see we got a good deal on a box of Reflex paper. The ream of cheap paper ran out last week and we started using the Reflex. Since starting to use the Reflex we haven't had a paper jam or have it feed multiple sheets through.
So, it is true. A printer is only as good as the paper that you put into it!!!
Well, the world got turned upside down almost three weeks ago. Those who are close to me or work with me now know about the fact that I (and over 120 other employees of Albany) have been made redundant effective next year. Has this turned our world upside and one of the most important things that was so stable in our life is not anymore.
Now that the stronger emotions have passed, there are some things that I would say to anybody who has not been through this before as words of advice if you find yourself in this situation:
It may feel like it at first but it is not the end of the world.
This is an opportunity that can be taken advantage of. If you have enough notice like I do, take the first 3-4 weeks to just put ideas on the table.
Seek financial advice straight away, don't wait to get your pay out.
Don't be frightened to ask your current employer for some training to make you more attractive to the job market.
Work your contacts. Phone friends, relatives, business contacts, anyone you can think of. These are important because only around 20% of jobs are on the "open market" (eg. newspapers, Internet, etc).
Try to say positive and look for the good things.
This includes people. If you have people around you who are negative and don't mind communicating it, stay away from them until you take care of this.
Don't make drastic changes to your lifestyle just yet, particularly if you don't need to and have sufficient notice. Nothing will be more depressing than to do this when your ego is already dented and you are down.
I will keep you posted how I go. My date given is end of March next year, so I have some time to go.
Earlier this year my son started college about two hours from home in an area that we have holidayed in but don't really know that well. Also, the roads getting to and from that area have checked over the years and this also applies to suburbs along the way. So we decided to invest in a GPS and bought a Navman S30.
This has been a great investment. I particularly like it for reminding me of speed cameras and red light cameras. Not that I speed or like to run red lights but I do like to avoid getting fines. The unit comes with a complete set of Australian maps and so it will be handy when going on vacation.
One of the negatives is the battery life is not that great for long trips. A great investment is a Y-connector for the car's cigarette lighter. That way you can power the GPS and another devices (ie. iPod, TuneCast, etc).
There are times however when the GPS frustrates the living hell out of me, such as:
You go out. There is a road closure on your usual route and you left it at home!!!
You come out on highway into bumper-to-bumper traffic and the GPS cannot figure out which direction you are headed in, so it reports "In 100 metres turn left" when there is no road. A little later it instructs you "In 150 metres turn left".
When it decides to rattle off instructions in quick succession. "In 100 metres turn left, turn left, turn left now". Just tell me to turn left and be done with it.
When it gets directions wrong. I know it isn't the units fault but it is frustrating when it tells you to take the 1st exit on a roundabout which ends up being a dead-end.
Some tips.
When you first get a GPS, drive around town with it operating to get used to how it works and its annoyances.
Don't leave it in the car, big attraction to thieves.
When you take the GPS out of the car, take its holder with you or put it into the glovebox or centre console. Same reason, thieves will assume a GPS in the car if they see its holder and you don't want a broken window, etc.
Check its charge once a week.
Towards the end of my trip to China, I got a phone call from my wife telling me that my computer would not work. As I only had a couple of days until I was home I asked her to leave it and I would look at it then. You see, I suspected that my existing KVM (keyboard video monitor) switch that allows me to use either of my desktop computers from one keyboard, mouse and monitor had died.
When I got home I was right but not for the reason that I thought. My suspicion was that it had died but when I checked it I found that one of the cables had been "cut" by something sharp. So, there went my plan to claim a replacement under warranty. I opened the cable and it was a real mess, leaving me with little confidence of repairing it.
So out to the shops we went and bought a Belkin Flip. What a fantastic unit. Much better than my previous unit for two reasons:
It also switches audio to the speakers. My previous unit did not do this and so I was managing this with a couple of extension cables to the top of my desk and then mainually switching the speaker cable to the machine I was using.
Rather than relying upon pressing the Scroll Lock key twice, the Belklin unit has a "flip" button that you press. This button has an LED on the button with a ring that is green on the left and yellow on the right. If you connect it correctly as I have the colours can correspond to the computers and when you switch between the computers the LED changes colour between green and yellow.
The only annoyances that I have found is that when switching it takes a couple of seconds to sync in whereas the previous unit was almost instantaneous. Also, if there is no activity on the "selected" computer my monitor shows a message as if it is disconnected from the computer. These are small annoyances that I can certainly deal with.
The price tag is in my mind reasonable at around $100. Certainly much cheaper than an additional monitor, keyboard, mouse and speaker set and it is the only way to go if you are only using one computer at a time.
I would recommend the Belkin Flip to anybody after a 2-port KVM switch.
Well, it has been exactly 5 weeks since my last post and I apologise to those of you keeping tabs on me since I introduced this. I have been in China for 4.5 weeks in Hangzhou, Zeijiang. Hangzhou is located about 2-3 hours south of Shanghai and I thought that I would share some of my experiences with you.
This was not my first visit to Hangzhou. I had previously been there last December but that did not prepare me for this trip. It was freezing!!! Snow storms a couple of weeks before ensured that the IT Room that I went up to finalise was about 5 degrees Celsius when I got there. Snow (or should I say ice) was still thawing out.
Be explicit when dealing with Chinese contractors. I got to the room to find a number of things "wrong". Power sockets that were supposed to be under the floor were on the floor. The room was built with clean room ceiling tiles, however dust, dirt and rubble were left under the false floor. The air conditioning was not working. Permanent power was being supplied by a temporary cable.
Don't drive. I didn't but quickly come to the conclusion that driving in China is a free-for-all and something that I do not wish to experience. They ignore red lights at times that almost just seem to be to suit themselves. They pull out onto the other side of the road at times that we would not dare to in Western countries. New York has nothing on China for beeping their horns. It almost seems to be a requirement to let other drivers know where you are in relation to them. All of this and you know I never once felt in danger because all drivers expect it and allow for it. If you are driving and a car comes directly at you on your side of the road, just swerve out of the way.
There is a patience in the way that they conduct themselves whilst at the same time they can be very impatient. Situations where they will impatiently react will almost immediately be followed by them putting themselves in the same situation. For example, a bus driver will beep his horn at a driver in front of him who is driving along the line between two lanes just to do the same thing himself.
I didn't spend much time out and about as this was a heavily loaded working trip. I had one day to stroll around Downtown Hangzhou and a couple of nights doing the same in Xiaoshan where the hotel was. Be wary of the beggars, once you give to one the rest literally appear from nowhere.
Games consoles!! Even though I am in IT I have never been a big fan of games on PCs. Oh, I play Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Rollercoaster Tycoon once every blue moon.
Our first games console was a Sony Playstation. We bought it when my son was ill and needed an extended period off school and we thought it would be good to help him pass away the hours. I enjoyed TOCA and any golf game I could get my hands on. We actually still have this unit (or maybe an identical one that my son won).
However, hasn't this market come a long way. Last September while in the US we had a bonding night where one of the locals had a Nintendo Wii connected to a big screen TV. What a fantastic unit!!! To be able to have such a games unit with the technology it has (ie. playing the controller with real life motions) in our Lounge Room is glorious and it has been great to have it. My son turned 18 in November. Here in Australia that is drinking age, so we bought a Wii to keep the kids active and to take the focus off drinking alcohol.
Not only was it successful (this was measured by the fact that nothing got broken and there were no holes in any walls) but it has left a lasting legacy. Every afternoon when I get home from work I try to spend 30 minutes (I call it my time) to see if I can better my ranking with the Wii Sports game.
Tennis has been something that I mastered some time ago, now it cannot chart my progress on the graph. It is way off the top at over 2100 (Professional is achieved at 1000). Today I got two milestones. Baseball has been difficult for me but finally I attained Professional level. The second milestone was a perfect game (300) in 10-pin bowling.
These consoles have so many benefits my mother-in-law bought one for my wife's father to act as as exercise, etc to help with his illnesses. So if you have kids or grand-kids or you just want a bit of fun yourself, get a Wii.
Today is a joyous and disappointing day!!! Our beloved Central Coast Mariners tonight won their way into the Hyundai A-League Grand Final on February 24th. That is the joyous part. The disappointing part is that I am not going to be able to see them win the Grand Final as I will be travelling. Hopefully I will be able to find a Sports bar or somewhere that will be taking the game live or delayed (I don't care).
Why can't we have a society where it is illegal or not allowed for work and football to not conflict with each other? How great would that be? "Hey boss, can't give that presentation to the customer as there is a football game on that I have to go to. Sorry!!!" "Sure Colin, enjoy and don't worry about the customer."
Well, we can only wish. GO THE MIGHTY MARINERS!!!!
It doesn't take long in the computer world to find a reason to get upset with someone (or something). I run two computers at home for my own use. My main computer is running Windows Vista 64-bit and my old Windows XP machine (to do a couple of things that I can't do on the Vista machine). On these computers I run Symantec's Norton Internet Security (NIS).
Well, today the older machine prompted me with a message that said I was eligible to have my NIS upgraded to the latest version. I quickly read the terms and conditions, I agreed and was smacking my lips thinking I had a great deal. The download / install process ran as expected and promptly rebooted the machine on completion.
This is when the surprise came. On rebooting, the machine displayed a message to inform me that my 15-day trial of NIS 2008 had begun. TRIAL. WHAT TRIAL? Obviously I had missed something in the agreement I read and I really should have know better than to expect something for nothing.
Well, as luck would have it I am in the habit of purchasing Symantec's AV products for home in the multi-license packs to cover my machines and those of my family. I had a spare NIS 2008 license available and therefore I was able to enter the product code to register the installation.
Moral of the story .... Beware of software companies bearing free gifts, they're not and rarely are free!!!
Well, this is my first entry in my log. Decided to take the plunge and put my opinions, thoughts and other things on the web. Why not, everybody else is doing it. I intend to keep it up to date during my travels with work but as those of you who travel for business will know, this can be extremely difficult from a time point of view.
I expect that most entries here will evolve around IT, Management issues or my fun activities (ie. rollercoasters, all variations of football, music, etc). I will also share my experiences in my many travels.