Fail.fm
Last.fm has decided to introduce a monthly fee for users in countries that are not the UK, USA and Germany. What you get for 3 euros is the radio. Which I don't use anyway, but somehow I feel violated. I realise the site runs on advertising and still needs to pay subscriptions/licensing to the music coy. But why not make everyone one pay, not just people in certain countries get it free. Is it because they are part of the new 'fuckuptheworldwedontcare' regime? And they need Germany for their gold?
Alas, the proxys are going to get raped if this type of shit continues... Which means we are going to have to pay for our own proxys/vpn/servers. Damn you cruel world. Again, this is solved by me paying $3.00 for a decent service. I mean last.fm still has scrobeling, which I need for my ocd. I think the advertising model could work in Australia, iTunes is going good which means we like digital music. Maybe they need to try harder to get advertising. The costs are most likely scaleable to an extent, which means it can work anywhere in the world. Not just the UK, USA or Germany.
Alas, the proxys are going to get raped if this type of shit continues... Which means we are going to have to pay for our own proxys/vpn/servers. Damn you cruel world. Again, this is solved by me paying $3.00 for a decent service. I mean last.fm still has scrobeling, which I need for my ocd. I think the advertising model could work in Australia, iTunes is going good which means we like digital music. Maybe they need to try harder to get advertising. The costs are most likely scaleable to an extent, which means it can work anywhere in the world. Not just the UK, USA or Germany.
tumbler
I have been thinking more about online presence and the utility that we get from various services like delicious, blogger and twitter, which are my main outlets. But sometimes I want to blog or talk about something but not in any decent way and therefore wont fit on my blog, I don't want to twitter it because thats not how I want to use my twitter... I could use delicious, but delicious is just links, I cant post an image etc. I mainly use delicious for things I want to bookmark, but not bookmark in firefox. My firefox bookmarks should be only about things I use frequently and should not have to search them for anything.
Install tumblr, alot of people have taken up tumblr and its not like things change. I change, people change, the world changes so we need to change the way we do things. Myspace and facebook I barely visit, then its only to clean out the shit. I am starting to find a need for a tumblr, which would act like a urinal for all the piss poor stuff I want to capture for whatever reason. Kinda like a public evernote (evernote is the shit, hasn't completly replaced onenote but I think it will once I get a smartphone...). Also what I have found is no one I know uses delicious, which is annoying. Also I like writting blog posts more than I like to admit. But there are times I want to post something crude and in essance I don't want to 'dilute' the good work I am trying to do here. Not that its really any good. Its like a scrapbook of randomshit and I guess I like the ease of use...
Me: "You mean useability matters?"
Batman: "I'm Batman."
Anyway, I am going to start using tumblr, see what happens, if I like it, it will continue, if I don't, then it will die quietly.
Link
Update: apparently I signed up for this service in the past and forgot about it, like last friggin year!!!
Install tumblr, alot of people have taken up tumblr and its not like things change. I change, people change, the world changes so we need to change the way we do things. Myspace and facebook I barely visit, then its only to clean out the shit. I am starting to find a need for a tumblr, which would act like a urinal for all the piss poor stuff I want to capture for whatever reason. Kinda like a public evernote (evernote is the shit, hasn't completly replaced onenote but I think it will once I get a smartphone...). Also what I have found is no one I know uses delicious, which is annoying. Also I like writting blog posts more than I like to admit. But there are times I want to post something crude and in essance I don't want to 'dilute' the good work I am trying to do here. Not that its really any good. Its like a scrapbook of randomshit and I guess I like the ease of use...
Me: "You mean useability matters?"
Batman: "I'm Batman."
Anyway, I am going to start using tumblr, see what happens, if I like it, it will continue, if I don't, then it will die quietly.
Link
Update: apparently I signed up for this service in the past and forgot about it, like last friggin year!!!
Imac Shuffle
Of course it's a joke. The site was created by @rfelix and @chriscoyier, also known as the dudes responsible for LyricSift and AreMySitesUp.
Poking fun at the interesting redesign of the new iPod shuffle, this imaginary iMac features the same VoiceOver technology, all operated from three keys—which you'll learn to easily operate with the included 72,000 page manual:
As the site says in it's disclaimer, "We love you Apple, but this is getting out of hand."
Poking fun at the interesting redesign of the new iPod shuffle, this imaginary iMac features the same VoiceOver technology, all operated from three keys—which you'll learn to easily operate with the included 72,000 page manual:
Using just those 3 buttons, remote, you can easily jump to any window, launch any program...edit multi-layered Photoshop documents, anything your heart desires, you can imagine doing.Get one today in your choice of color—"as long as it's silver on silver." Ha!
As the site says in it's disclaimer, "We love you Apple, but this is getting out of hand."
Change Experiment: First Interest
Another $20 has been deposited into the change experiment fund. Interestingly there is more good news, interest, that’s right interest of $0.48, but that’s not all, I also got ‘bonus interest’ of $0.13. Bringing total funds to $290.61. As I expected, change collection has dropped, due to the fact that I am slack at withdrawing new funds from either the ATM or EFTPOS.
I have also been cutting down on my spending and trying to save as fast as I can. One reason, but not a strong factor, is ING applying a minimum limit on new term deposits of $10,000.00, which for me is a lot. I guess this is so people don’t keep opening very small TD’s. But my problem is that I find it hard to get to 10k, so I was starting new TDs once I had $5k to invest, which is not an unreasonable amount. But it’s a number that works for me. Most banks have this 10k limit, so its not wrong, just the added feature of not being able to touch the money for 90 days in 5k increments appeals to me. Its not a long period of time and I am unlikely to need the money during that time. My strategy now needs to be rethought or maybe just seek counselling to fix my 10k mental limit…
I have also been cutting down on my spending and trying to save as fast as I can. One reason, but not a strong factor, is ING applying a minimum limit on new term deposits of $10,000.00, which for me is a lot. I guess this is so people don’t keep opening very small TD’s. But my problem is that I find it hard to get to 10k, so I was starting new TDs once I had $5k to invest, which is not an unreasonable amount. But it’s a number that works for me. Most banks have this 10k limit, so its not wrong, just the added feature of not being able to touch the money for 90 days in 5k increments appeals to me. Its not a long period of time and I am unlikely to need the money during that time. My strategy now needs to be rethought or maybe just seek counselling to fix my 10k mental limit…
Sad Panda
I have been ill over the past week, with a cough. Its been a bit of a battle because I tend to get a second wind rather late in the evening and consequently can't get to sleep earlier. Or atleast when I should be, which is around 10:30. My constant late nights are kind of working against me inaddition with crap diet and exercise habits etc... I belive this is why I am getting sick. After watching Guns, Germs & Steel, which is a very interesting documentary about the development of civilisation and how we got to the situatuion we are in. I now have a question of my own. Modern society in a deveop contries atleast have overcome the dilema of Guns, Germs and Steel. So why do we have such a great divide between the poor and the rich. Also, do Guns, Germs and Steel still apply? If I read the book it will probably hypotasise and tell me the answer. My theory is that they still apply on some level. For example I have been sick for the last week, I have not been as productive and have consequently fallen behind in a number of key areas (Work, homework, chores and personal projects), they have all been effected. So germs have stoped me from progressing, guns and steel I have no imediate answer to, but its a working theory which I am exploring.
Other problems faced this week, which have contributed to my mild paranoia about conspiracy theories surround my own demise... I belive I have lost some hearing in my left ear, no thanks to some dimwit on a loud motorcycle. I am always very carefull about safety including hearing protection. I am the one person you see at the concert with hearing protection, the only person who wears ear muffs when vacuming and when lawnmowing etc I use the foam plugs PLUS ear muffs... I do have some nice audio equipment which is not hard to get load and appreciate, so I guess it all balances out, I still belive I am very carefull with my hearing and monitor it all the time. I almost bought a SPL Meter today, but since Dicksmith is the only store that I could find one at I did not. The hearing has come back some what and now I sit around with yellow foam all the time (maybe the persistant noise from my 8 scythe S-flex sleave bearing fans is the cause?!?!).
I also belive I am developing carpel tunnel syndrome. This is very bad as I need it to computer, eat and masturbate. Basicly, I have been playing Cod4 too much and spent all of Firday bashing in data at work. Again, I knew this day was coming, so I took precautions, I have fancy mice and keyboards. I have a program called workrave, which alerts me to my computer useage and tells me to take a break, it also gives me exercices to do... I have never had strong arms, but I do specific exercises to streangthen my hand muscles to avoid this situation. All this has counted to nothing, it could have happened sooner if I had not taken precautions, remebering that I have been using a computer for the past 22 years.
These three things have created a psudo-psycological condition know as anti-zen.
Other problems faced this week, which have contributed to my mild paranoia about conspiracy theories surround my own demise... I belive I have lost some hearing in my left ear, no thanks to some dimwit on a loud motorcycle. I am always very carefull about safety including hearing protection. I am the one person you see at the concert with hearing protection, the only person who wears ear muffs when vacuming and when lawnmowing etc I use the foam plugs PLUS ear muffs... I do have some nice audio equipment which is not hard to get load and appreciate, so I guess it all balances out, I still belive I am very carefull with my hearing and monitor it all the time. I almost bought a SPL Meter today, but since Dicksmith is the only store that I could find one at I did not. The hearing has come back some what and now I sit around with yellow foam all the time (maybe the persistant noise from my 8 scythe S-flex sleave bearing fans is the cause?!?!).
I also belive I am developing carpel tunnel syndrome. This is very bad as I need it to computer, eat and masturbate. Basicly, I have been playing Cod4 too much and spent all of Firday bashing in data at work. Again, I knew this day was coming, so I took precautions, I have fancy mice and keyboards. I have a program called workrave, which alerts me to my computer useage and tells me to take a break, it also gives me exercices to do... I have never had strong arms, but I do specific exercises to streangthen my hand muscles to avoid this situation. All this has counted to nothing, it could have happened sooner if I had not taken precautions, remebering that I have been using a computer for the past 22 years.
These three things have created a psudo-psycological condition know as anti-zen.
Episode 3
In todays episode I talk about some stuff.
Pi Day Pics
30 12 second video blog service
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Pi Day Pics
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Uploads are poopy
I have completed my goal of 'speaking' for one hour, its all shit, but its progress. As stated in the earlier post, switchpod is crap, as you can only upload 20min shows... And every other free place I go to is extreamly difficult to upload anything, not least because of my Telstra 'internet connection'.
I was recording on Audacity, but since I have a copy of cooledit pro (before it became adobe audition) I am going to use that. What I have found using this software over Audacity, is that it is a lot faster and just nicer to use. Its like using notebook compared to word 2007. Its good for free software. But you its like you need to know what you are doing to make it work properly. I have use cooledit pro before for various things so maybe I am just accustomed to it.
So, I've been searching around for actuall hosting. One thing I miss about web 1.0 is websites. Everything is a blog, and thats great for a publishing tool. But its not a website. Its just a bunch of shit we publish. It has no value to me or anyone. I may as well just not do this shit. Its annoying. Whats more exciting or inspiring is being able to create new projects. Sure you can setup a new blog for every thing you do. But your whole online personality is everywhere. You need to tie that back in someway. Its not like domain or hosting are that expensive. Its gotten to the stage, where to get that extra level of service that I demand and need I'm going to have to pay for it. The possibilites seem to open up, it would also make uploading shit onto the internet much easier. Video is take care of via youtube/vimeo/blip, but audio... its like digital radio in Australia. Its just not on. Its just impossible to make work.
I also have a problem with my shitty download limit. 25gb is not enough, if I do go to the next plan up, 60gb which I am not afraid to pay for, it is not unlimited, as in I will be charged money $0.15/mb over. I would prefer that it just shaped. Which will help control costs. I am now seriously thinking of changing to ADSL2, since there are more providers (more than one...), but the dilema is that I am line pared and I know I quite far from the actual exchange.
The decentralisation of personal material is a problem, its great that we have free stuff, but bringing that all into one place to create the value of having signed up to all these disparate services seems to be lacking.
I was recording on Audacity, but since I have a copy of cooledit pro (before it became adobe audition) I am going to use that. What I have found using this software over Audacity, is that it is a lot faster and just nicer to use. Its like using notebook compared to word 2007. Its good for free software. But you its like you need to know what you are doing to make it work properly. I have use cooledit pro before for various things so maybe I am just accustomed to it.
So, I've been searching around for actuall hosting. One thing I miss about web 1.0 is websites. Everything is a blog, and thats great for a publishing tool. But its not a website. Its just a bunch of shit we publish. It has no value to me or anyone. I may as well just not do this shit. Its annoying. Whats more exciting or inspiring is being able to create new projects. Sure you can setup a new blog for every thing you do. But your whole online personality is everywhere. You need to tie that back in someway. Its not like domain or hosting are that expensive. Its gotten to the stage, where to get that extra level of service that I demand and need I'm going to have to pay for it. The possibilites seem to open up, it would also make uploading shit onto the internet much easier. Video is take care of via youtube/vimeo/blip, but audio... its like digital radio in Australia. Its just not on. Its just impossible to make work.
I also have a problem with my shitty download limit. 25gb is not enough, if I do go to the next plan up, 60gb which I am not afraid to pay for, it is not unlimited, as in I will be charged money $0.15/mb over. I would prefer that it just shaped. Which will help control costs. I am now seriously thinking of changing to ADSL2, since there are more providers (more than one...), but the dilema is that I am line pared and I know I quite far from the actual exchange.
The decentralisation of personal material is a problem, its great that we have free stuff, but bringing that all into one place to create the value of having signed up to all these disparate services seems to be lacking.
The Man
The bottom of the market, minimum wage, is regulated, but the top of the market, executives, is not. The system is flawed, in these hard economic times it highlights the problem vividly. People are getting sacked but executive pay keeps going up. In the good times its easy to cover up. But what if some sort of regulation did exist. The companies that hire these executives would have saved millions in actual salary, shares, bonuses, perks, super and tax. That money could come in handy right about now, to ride out the bad economic times, keeping your capacity and human resource. All that shit companies were handing out about the workers being a valuable resource and CSR is non-sense, because when the time came these, supposedly valuable resources, are being thrown away. Executives are given many layers of pay, the base pay is so they are aligned with the shareholders goal of CSR. That means not polluting the earth and fucking everything up. Eg, sacking everyone. The other part is the bonuses and share options for meeting/exceeding performance targets. This is to align them with the shareholders goal of improved efficiency. Eg, dividends/capital growth.
Sol Trojilo, former CEO (Capacious Excremental Oligarch) of Telstra recently walked away with 40 million for 4 years work, he has not paid or will he ever pay tax in this country, in fact the company, Telstra, has to pay his taxes. And the only reason he is going back to where ever the fuck he came from, because of a moratorium on any income earned from his overseas investments expires, which would require him to pay tax. Actually this is not true, he has paid tax. GST, but it probably came out his expense account in any case. To add insult to injury, he is sacking him self, he is not resigning. This means he gets 12 months worth of pay in advance. Which is 3 million, but wait there’s more, because he is serving out a full financial year he gets a bonus of 5.1 million. The Telstra workers that got sacked recently did not receive 12 months pay. They did not get to decide what day they sack them selves on and they didn’t get any share options or bonuses. I’m sure if they had these things written in their contracts they would have worked as hard, if not harder than Sol the Troll.
Corporate welfare is another scam, which shows how unjust the system is. If you are on the dole you are required to perform a certain number of tasks before they will pay you. You need to apply for 10 jobs a fortnight fill in the appropriate book and take it to centrelink on the exact day. If you finish early, you cant take it in early. You must wait for your designated day. Additionally you must undertake full time jobseeker training. This requires you to go to a pre selected job agency everyday to learn about how to get a job. The corporations that receive these handouts, whilst well intentioned in trying to keep unemployment down, do not seem to have any performance targets, like employing an additional x number of people or investment in widgets. The transparency of these handouts is weak, we do not know what is going on. At least with the dole we can go to the centrelink website and read what is required to apply and how much money we can get if we have a part time job or no job. We only hear about these things through the media outlets and even then there is no detail, but the amount of money handed out and the supposed target of the funds.
Sitting around for extended periods of time, unemployed, will not be good once we get out of this slump. Because the capacity will be gone and we will have to import skilled workers to fill these jobs. As an immigrant I see this as a great opportunity for many foreigners. As an Australian citizen I see this as a loss of opportunity to improve the overall skills of the country at all levels... Granted I am still happily employed and study for my CPA so by the time this is all over I am going to buy my self a giant rake. Yes it’s going to be very specialised skills set and I wont have the diversity, but there is nothing stopping me from also getting that diversity in other ways.
Sol Trojilo, former CEO (Capacious Excremental Oligarch) of Telstra recently walked away with 40 million for 4 years work, he has not paid or will he ever pay tax in this country, in fact the company, Telstra, has to pay his taxes. And the only reason he is going back to where ever the fuck he came from, because of a moratorium on any income earned from his overseas investments expires, which would require him to pay tax. Actually this is not true, he has paid tax. GST, but it probably came out his expense account in any case. To add insult to injury, he is sacking him self, he is not resigning. This means he gets 12 months worth of pay in advance. Which is 3 million, but wait there’s more, because he is serving out a full financial year he gets a bonus of 5.1 million. The Telstra workers that got sacked recently did not receive 12 months pay. They did not get to decide what day they sack them selves on and they didn’t get any share options or bonuses. I’m sure if they had these things written in their contracts they would have worked as hard, if not harder than Sol the Troll.
Corporate welfare is another scam, which shows how unjust the system is. If you are on the dole you are required to perform a certain number of tasks before they will pay you. You need to apply for 10 jobs a fortnight fill in the appropriate book and take it to centrelink on the exact day. If you finish early, you cant take it in early. You must wait for your designated day. Additionally you must undertake full time jobseeker training. This requires you to go to a pre selected job agency everyday to learn about how to get a job. The corporations that receive these handouts, whilst well intentioned in trying to keep unemployment down, do not seem to have any performance targets, like employing an additional x number of people or investment in widgets. The transparency of these handouts is weak, we do not know what is going on. At least with the dole we can go to the centrelink website and read what is required to apply and how much money we can get if we have a part time job or no job. We only hear about these things through the media outlets and even then there is no detail, but the amount of money handed out and the supposed target of the funds.
Sitting around for extended periods of time, unemployed, will not be good once we get out of this slump. Because the capacity will be gone and we will have to import skilled workers to fill these jobs. As an immigrant I see this as a great opportunity for many foreigners. As an Australian citizen I see this as a loss of opportunity to improve the overall skills of the country at all levels... Granted I am still happily employed and study for my CPA so by the time this is all over I am going to buy my self a giant rake. Yes it’s going to be very specialised skills set and I wont have the diversity, but there is nothing stopping me from also getting that diversity in other ways.
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