Australian Government Grants

I stumbled across an interesting site offering all the ins and outs of Australian Government Grants: http://www.australiangovernmentgrants.org/reports.php.

Tablets plus cloud computing

equals future computing.

There will be other methods, some tried and true, but for the next few years, this is the direction we will all move in.

Your standard piece of generic TV news verbiage

Esquire iphone app

Below is a video highlighting the new Esquire iphone app. The magazine plans to make each issue available via this app from the January edition. (If the video isn't available you might be able to view it here.

Vooks

The idea for vooks (book+video+computer+social media) has been stirring away for a while, and the company has recently started releasing a few versions. So far, sadly, I haven't been overwhelmed by the offerings, although the potential is there for some level of breakthrough.

You can see some excerpts from vooks here.

The company defines a vook as:

A vook is a new innovation in reading that blends a well-written book, high-quality video and the power of the Internet into a single, complete story.

You can read your book, watch videos that enhance the story and connect with authors and your friends through social media all on one screen, without switching between platforms.

Vooks are available in two formats: As a web-based application you can read on your computer and a mobile application for reading on the go. With the web-based application you don't have to download programs or install software. Just open your favorite browser and start reading and watching in an exciting new way. You can also download and install the mobile applications through the Apple iTunes store and sync them with your Apple mobile device.

A 'wonder' Christmas

Isetan, a Japanese department store, has a slightly odd (to me) but nevertheless 'wonderful' website up celebrating Christmas (in English or Japanese). Worth a look (here).

Another e-magazine concept video

Not as sexy as this one (here) but not too shabby.

http://www.bonnier.com/en/blog/1367/archive/200912

Comic Relief - Catherine Tate & David Tennant

Tablet content in action

You know I want this! Well, OK, not the sports so much, but the potential! Oh yes.

something new on MS?

"US scientists are testing a radical new theory that multiple sclerosis (MS) is caused by blockages in the veins that drain the brain.

The University of Buffalo team were intrigued by the work of Italian researcher Dr Paolo Zamboni who claims 90% of MS is caused by narrowed veins.

He says the restricted drainage, visible on scans, injures the brain leading to MS.

He has already widened the blockages in a handful of patients.

The US team want to replicate his earlier work before treating patients."

via BBC News (here)

text versus video and podcast

More and more outlets (for want of a more attractive term*) are opting for video (or vodcasts) and podcasts, picture and words. This is not a bad thing.
Except, I can't skim through a recording of either kind -- not if I want to catch the gist of it.
If there is something to read, I can ascertain if the item in question is something I NEED to find time for or if I can move it off into one of my 'deal with this later/never' piles. Even better, with text, it is far easier to search for key words and concepts.
National Public Radio in the US, for example, is moving to provide, at no cost to us, transcripts of many of its programs/podcasts. I just wish more organisations were able to do the same.


* (similarly, when can we re-christen 'blogs'?)

Google Wave

Finally following up on my Google Wave invitation -- albeit with too much haste. Actually using it though will create some major disruptions to current habits, so I have to say, I am hesitating. Especially, as it seems to be the kind of 'thing' that needs mass behind it (that is, Google Wave will be very useful if virtually everyone you deal with is on it). And it is not yet clear if that will happen.

My mind roamed back to a time, in Tokyo, where I held some classes showing people how to use email. There was a good deal of angst, particularly in reference to privacy (and the realisation anyone could forward your emails to anyone else.)

Wave puts it even further out there.

Liking the 'robots' though - especially the blogger related one.

the bigger questions...

When the springs on two large hair clips snap, within the same week, does it mean poor workmanship, the clips are no longer 'big enough' or have little spring snappers been secretly at work...?

Well, OK, the latter was the most ridiculous option I could think up, but, now I have two big bits of plastic, perfectly useless cause a 10 cent spring (or thereabouts) is virtually impossible to replace. Even if I could find the right springs, without expending ridiculous effort, replacing them would probably turn into a thankless task without the right equipment.

Anyone wondering why I am going on about now useless bits of plastic might want to ponder this: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/science/10patch.html?_r=3&em.

There is an even better video/photo story I saw online recently, but I don't have the link to hand. I will post it, if it crops up again.

A very sophisticated Nigerian email scam

It landed in my junk mail box, but this one is good (it is a con, for anyone inclined toward gullibility!)

Dear Customer!

We have been waiting for you to contact us for your Confirmed Package that is registered with us for shipping to your residential location.We had thought that your sender gave you our contact details.It may interest you to know that a letter is also added to your package.However, we cannot quote its content to you via email for privacy reasons.

We understand that the content of your package itself is a Bank Draft worth $800,000.00USD (Eight Hundred Thounsand United States Dollars), FEDEX do not ship money in CASH or in CHEQUES but Bank Drafts are shippable.The package is registered with us for mailing by your colleague, and your colleague explained that he is from the United States but he is here in Nigeria (NG) for a three (3)months Surveying Project as he works with a consultant firm in NIGERIA, We are sending you this email because your package is been registered on a Special Order.

What you have to do now, is to contact our Delivery Department for immediate dispatch of your package to your residencial address.Note that as soon as our Delivery Team confirm your information, it will take only one working day (24 hours) for your package to arrive it's designated destination.For your information, the VAT & Shipping charges as well as Insurance fees have been paid for by your colleague before your package was registered.Note that the payment that is made on the Insurance, Premium & Clearance Certificates, are to certify that the Bank Draft is not a Drug Affiliated Fund (DAF) neither is it funds to sponsor Terrorism in your country. This will help you avoid any form of query from the Monetary Authority of your country.

However, you will have to pay the sum of $172.00 Usd to the FEDEX Delivery Department being full payment for the Security Keeping Fee of the FEDEX company as stated in our privacy terms & condition page. Also be informed that your colleague wished to pay for the Security Keeping fee, but we do not accept such payment considering the facts that all items & package that are registered with us have a time limitation and we cannot accept payment not knowing when you will be contacting us for your package or even responding to us.So we cannot take the risk to have accepted such payment incase of any possible demurrage.

Kindly note that your colleague did not leave us with any further information.We hope that you respond to us as soon as possible because if you fail to respond until the expiry date of your package, we may refer the package to the Nigeria Commission for Welfare as the package do not have a return address.

Kindly contact the delivery department (FEDEX Delivery Post) with the details given below:

FEDEX Online Delivery Post
Contact Person:[contact detail removed]
Email:[contact detail removed]
Tel: [contact detail removed]

Kindly complete the below form and send it to the email address given above.This is mandatory to reconfirm your Postal address and telephone numbers.

FULL NAMES:
TELEPHONE:
POSTAL ADDRESS:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:

Kindly complete the above form and summit it to the delivery manager on:
[contact detail removed, but it was a gmail address]

As soon as your details are received, our delivery team will give you the neccessary payment procedure so that you can effect the payment for the Security Keeping Fee. As soon as they confirm your payment receipt of $172.00 Usd, they will not hesitate to dispatch your package as well as the attached letter to your residence. It usually takes 24 hours being an overnight delivery service.

Note that we were not instructed to email you, but due to the high priority of your package we had to inform you as your sender did not leave us with his phone number because he stated that he just arrived Nigeria and he hasn't fixed his phone yet. We indeed personally sealed your Bank Draft and we found your email contact in the receivers column as the recipient of the foremost package.

Ensure to contact the delivery department with the email address given above and ensure to fill the above form as well to enable a successful reconfirmation.

Do not reply this email because this email account is not monitored.Send your details to:[contact detail removed, but it was a gmail address]

Yours Faithfully,
[contact detail removed]
FEDEX Online Team Management.
All rights reserved. © 1996-2009
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
This E-mail is only for the above addressees. It may contain confidential or Privileged information. If you are not an addressee you must not copy, distribute, disclose or use any of the information in it or any attachments.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
FEDEX INTL>>>LICENCE OF FEDERAL EXPRESS CORPORATION.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

End of luxuries in Japan -- at last

OK, that might have been a bit extreme, but I have seen a couple of articles recently about luxury brands shutting up shop or scaling back investment plans in Japan (but sales are roaring in China, including Hong Kong), and I have read them with relief.
Maybe Japan is finally reaching grown up status.
I know there are more than a few who will disagree with me, but I have always seen the obsession with spending large chunks of dime on 'statuswear' by a country's middle classes (and for a time in the '90s and '00s by a lot of the 'working class' etc.) as rather 'nouveau', striving.
I realise decking yourself out in label jeans, a Louis Vuitton handbag, and matching top and shoes (aside from being a rather boring 'uniform') is one way to distinguish oneself from a worker in the paddy fields. In the same way, many Asian women continue to use special whitening creams to achieve that whiter than white skin look, for similar reasons, to many in Asia still, a tan indicates time spent working in fields rather than lolling on a beach.
But, frankly, there are far more important things to be doing with the time, effort and money put into achieving such looks (IMHO).

'puters

Had a major computer crash last week and had to do a complete reinstall. Very sad, and very time consuming.
Personal stuff was backed up, although I lost a few days work as I had stopped backing up nightly a few months back, in favour of a weekly save. (Something I am regretting tonight, as I finally review just how much work I really did lose. But, with only a 2gig RAM, the back up process pretty much precludes any serious work while it is running. Kind of regretting the decision now, but it can't be helped really. I'm maxing out readyboost, but it is costly (and ridiculous) to add RAM to a computer that will need to be updated sooner rather than later.
But, the rebuild! I didn't have a mirror image of the OS to turn to (never again, I might add), so 160 updates from MS later, and I am almost back up and running.
IE is causing me major headaches though. It just ain't happy and crashes on a regular basis.
It's the getting things back to nice and stable and optimised to the way I work that is the time killer!
On that note, back to the grindstone, part II.

Brrrrr

I love Australian weather. I really do.
The extremes, the outrageousness, the sheer awesomeness.
But, today, the dust storm returns, with far less glamour and brilliance.
And now, the darker dusk's hue is cooler too, 10 degrees and more.
I squeeze my windows ever tighter into their frames and shake off the grit layering my winter's warmest.
I shiver.
Inevitable headlines: Climate Change, bode poorly. More dust, more storms, more extremes.
Brrrr.

TIME

From time to time, I find my life consumed with too much to do and far few hours to do it in. Usually, and with a little too much predictability, I have a little moan and bitch about to whoever is within earshot, before I actually do something about it.
The last few months has been one of those times.
At the start of the process, I couldn't have imagined I would have pared down so many parts of my life -- once more -- but I needed to find so many hours that, I guess, in some way it was inevitable.
Still, I have succeeded, and in the process upended most of my daily routines and habits -- all in the hope of shaving off an extra 10 minutes here or another 20 minutes there.
It adds up eventually.
After all, when you break a day down into all its constituent blocks, keep only the necessary, and then evaluate what parts of the necessary are truly needed and what parts are fluff and bubble (how did they sneak in there) time can be re-found.
The hard part of course is when all the fluff and bubble is tossed and you still need to find more hours. But even there, I have revisited some old tried and true techniques -- not necessarily good in the long term -- but handy for now.
Still, when you actually think about it, when you actually analyse that which MUST be done against that which SHOULD be done (and all those things along the desirable scale) there is an awful lot a human must fit into most days.

Interactive Map of Australian Web

Excellent interactive map of the development of web usage in Australia from 2001 till 2008, here.

Click the 'play' button for an automated view of the rise and fall of different sites. Scroll over the circles to identify the sites' names. And for more enlightenment, change the view perspectives -- on the right hand side, or the x-axis as they put it, from say time spent to page views. The y-axis option (at the bottom) also offers some alternatives.

Most notable: the growth and decline of e-bay and myspace and the growth of google and facebook.

Why Japan’s Cellphones Haven’t Gone Global

Interesting piece in the NYT on this subject. Man, the things I could say on this.
Followed the development of i-mode etc in Japan back in the day, and was inside at Telstra for a brief moment when they tried i-mode there.
But, most of all, I think the real take-away for Japan's business community is that they need to learn from this.
Japan has long been tagged with the label of follower rather than innovator.
The development of mobile phones in Japan surely led the world and Japan was unable to transfer that knowledge into a competitive advantage internationally. [It was also around this time that Sony really started to lose the plot.]
I have some theories on the whys and wherefores, and they are all fairly ephemeral.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.