Homemade

Education at your service

2008-05-19T19:57:00.002+12:00

The other day I went cycling with my three daughters (aged 6, 8 and 10). Two of them (6 and 10) raced on ahead and one (8) lagged behind. I tried to stay somewhere in the middle where I could keep an eye on all of them. It was while I was trying to maintain the middle course that I got an inkling of what it must be like being a school teacher.

6 and 10 came to a fence with a stile. Between them they figured out how to get over the fence along with one of their bikes before I got there and helped them with the other bike. This was a great exercise in strategic thinking and co-operation.

When 8 finally arrived I lifted her bike over myself. Not much of a lesson learned here.

This is where I wondered how our education system can possibly cope with the range of abilities and desires present in a classroom. Obviously it can't. There will always be a difference between the 'top' and 'bottom' pupils in a class at any given subject or activity. The best we can do is find ways that the pupils can help each other (with the guidance of the teacher). Does our teacher training cover this method? I don't know the answer to that question.

Parents also need to become more involved in their (our) children's learning. Schools are often treated as glorified babysitters while the both parents go to work to try and cope with the ever-increasing pace of life and never-ending pile of bills. I think it's time we all slowed down a little and re-focussed on the important things in life. Getting caught up in the cycle of trying to make money is not one of those things. I'm still working on how to break the cycle but I'll keep you posted :-)

One way forward

2008-01-26T22:51:00.001+13:00

I walked into the room with all lights blazing and nobody else in the room. In this day of eco-friendliness, eco-terrorism and eco-posing having all the lights on in an empty room is obviously a no-no.

Another room in the house was also light up like a stage show but it at least had some people in it. Still, I considered so many lights on completely unnecessary.

It occurred (not sure of the actual process) to me that the step we need to make as beings on this planet is to evolve from being wants-driven to being needs-driven. That way the lights that didn't need to be on would be turned off; the cheap plastic toy would be replaced by e.g. a bike ride - they would each last about the same length of time. The examples go on and on.

A change of thought process would also occur. There would obviously be some that would take time to understand that needs and wants are quite different.

There's a lot more to this but I'm tired so I will have to pick it up again another time. If anyone actually reads this I would appreciate your thoughts.

By the way ...

2008-01-02T15:25:00.001+13:00

Happy new (white man's) year :-)

Blogged with Flock

That man knows a thing or two ...

2008-01-02T15:21:00.000+13:00

I'm a bit of a golf fan. I like to play and follow the European Tour a bit (my brother-in-law is a caddy on the Tour).

Recently I played at the Kinloch Golf Course which was designed by Jack Nicklaus (one of only 25 in the world on which he put his signature - he has designed over 300 courses in total).

What a great course!

Every hole is different and leads you on a little adventure. You can take chances or play safe (good luck with either option), and it helps to know the course before you can expect to get a decent score. I wasn't too concerned about my score - I played some good golf but I also got myself into some trouble.

There are bunkers everywhere so expect to play out of the sand more than once. Also expect to walk a long way. There are often large distances to walk from green to the next and the signage wasn't complete when I played so we often walked even further than necessary.

The scenery is great but I was enjoying the layout of the course too much to even think about the mountains, hills and lake. The course is its own scenery.

The tees cater for all level of player so if you can't manage the tournament tees (we didn't) you will still be challenged by some of the distances required to make a decent shot at the green. Some holes will make you think you can play a particular shot then punish you if you get it wrong. The occasional gamble can also pay off - sometimes.

My only beef was that the greens were quite hard which made it almost impossible to stay on the green if we were hitting in from a distance - which was often. The greens were fast and I had difficulty judging the speed but they were consistent and it made it a lot easier to be putting uphill.

Congratulations to the design team and the ground staff. I enjoyed my round and look forward to playing again ... with a bit of local knowledge.

Future of man - at least one idea

2007-12-08T18:32:00.001+13:00

Discussion in Aardvark forums (particularly this one) prompted me to make more comment here.

The premise of the argument that I'm commenting on is that man (as in humankind) would not have to make any compromises if there was space enough for all people that inhabited that space.

My argument is that 'man' will (over)fill whatever space they have. Breeding is a natural process and if man is comfortable where and when they are then breeding is to be expected. Thus, whatever space we inhabit is going to be filled by man. This is precluding any other influences that may prevent the filling of that space e.g. pandemic disease, war.

Man is one of the few organisms alive that has not yet learned true balance. Other animals will fit in with their environment whereas man will try and fit the environment to man's (what I consider selfish) needs.

Once man learns to be less selfish and can appreciate the goodness of helping their fellow man then we will all be better off.

T'is better to give than to receive - this has never held such significance as we head towards a day of reckoning (I'll explain this better when I fully understand what I mean by it :-) )

Blu-ray vs HD DVD

2007-11-28T10:25:00.001+13:00

I'm going to throw in my two cents worth to the argument and predict that blu-ray is going to prove more popular in this battle.

My reasoning?

Blu-ray sounds cooler.

Silly, isn't it?

A whole industry can be won over because of a name or because of clever marketing. I heard on the news this morning an opinion that David Beckham was a product of Adidas. I have never associated Adidas with Beckham. As far as I'm concerned he is his own brand. How cool is that?

Back to the future of DVD. In this article Blu-ray vs HD DVD there is a good comparison between the two technologies. It is not that recent and things have probably improved for both technologies but it is a fair indicator of what the two are about and which companies are supporting each of them.

Interesting to note that some companies have feet in both camps and maybe Universal have an inkling of how it will pan out. Their games division has gone down the blu-ray path (sounds cooler) while the Pictures and Music division have gone down the HD DVD path. Perhaps they see HD DVD as being a better technology for audio- and videophiles while Blu-ray is better for the PS3-toting gamers. But will the Blu-ray equipped PS3 play HD DVD movies from Universal? I guess not. Ironic really.

technorati tags:blu-ray, HD-DVD, David, Beckham, Universal, PS3, Adidas, marketing

Ain't life great

2007-11-18T17:25:00.001+13:00

My family and I have just spent a couple of hours by the lake in Taupo. The sun was hot, the water was cold and everyone was having a great time.

There were boats parked on the beach with young people everywhere out having a few drinks, a few rides on wake boards, sea biscuits and homemade jetskis. There was no wind so some were sitting in the boot of their car flying a kite as the car drove around. There were families with their kids; others with their dogs; older folk in their camper; people cycling, walking, running, sitting, ...

There were no 'sock police', 'anti-fun zealots' or spoilers anywhere. Everyone was enjoying themselves - almost seemed like a different world to that which we read about every day where we are constantly being told what we can and can't do. Perhaps a few of the politicians need to come down to the beach on a day like this to see what life is really all about for a lot of people.

Happy summer.

technorati tags:summer, fun, eco-terrorism, boating, drinking, politics

Apple's Leopard and Time Machine

2007-10-31T12:18:00.001+13:00

I use both Macs and PCs every day.

I've recently started using the new Apple Mac OS X version 10.5 called Leopard. One of the great features in this version is Time Machine which is a simple way of backing up all of your work, emails, documents, settings, everything!

It is so easy to use that there is no excuse for not doing it. Surveys have shown that most computer users know they should backup but very few actually do it and even fewer do it regularly. Time Machine will be a saviour for these people.

If you already make a conscious effort to backup then you probably wouldn't 'accidentally' delete anything in the first place almost making your backup redundant - but good on you for doing it anyway.

Time Machine does everything automatically and it is so easy to restore lost files that I wonder if we will see a new culture of careless users who depend on Time Machine so much that they use it every day and build it in to their workflow. Sounds a bit dangerous to me.

So far my experience with Leopard has been good. It seems faster and has features that will be useful. The upgrade process from Tiger was straightforward - so straightforward in fact that one colleague described the whole experience as underwhelming because it just worked and he was up and running without having to tweak anything.

I haven't tried upgrading to Vista on any PCs nor have I used Vista for anything more than a hour or two but I'm willing to guess that the Vista upgrade process wouldn't be quite so easy.

P.S. Yes, I prefer my Mac.

technorati tags:apple, mac, leopard, time, machine, vista

Delusions of ...

2007-10-26T10:53:00.001+13:00

Alexander Pichushkin murdered a lot of people, so many that he became known as "the chessboard killer". You can read part of his story here.

He says he was like God in that he decided whether the victim should live or die.

He was nothing like God.

He didn't give the victims life in the first place. He merely exercised the power we all possess to take someone's life. He is nothing.

Some people might say he was doing the world a favour by removing some of the detritus. That is not his decision to make. He should not be glorified in any way. His acts should not be publicised. He should be quietly put away and forgotten about.

technorati tags:chessboard, killer, delusions, God

SLOW DOWN!!!

2007-10-12T14:24:00.001+13:00

I deal with clients and their clients everyday in a customer support role.

We have a web-based system that allows simple communication to achieve a goal (I'll leave it at that).

Part of the communication requires people to read and respond to emails. Some of these emails are only a few lines long with a line near the end that says 'Do not reply to this email'

Guess what happens.

Is our life so hectic now that we can't take the time to read a short email that is actually vital to what we are trying to achieve? Is there so much repetition in our life that many things are beginning to look the same and we think we are looking at one thing but don't realise we are looking at something different.

We get asked to make our systems even simpler. There is only so far one can go without talking the respondent through the process on the phone or in person.

The more we keep treating people like idiots the more they will behave like idiots. At some point I can no longer live your life for you - you have to live it yourself and accept everything that brings with it.

Is there a race going on between the enlightened ones and those that want to keep us all dumbed-down?

technorati tags:speed, life, look, listen, learn

Thought for the day (and for life)

2007-10-05T22:15:00.001+13:00

Blame no one
Expect nothing
Do something

Swing of power

2007-09-19T12:11:00.001+12:00

There's a song by Alice Cooper called Black Widow (from Welcome to my Nightmare) in which one of the lines is:

I feel that man has ruled this world as a stumbling, demented child-king long enough.

This springs to mind when I think about the natural disasters that seem to be gaining both power and frequency. Is it time that man realized en-masse that we don't control what goes on around us and the sooner we fit in with what happens the better off we will be and perhaps the longer we will last as a race.

Who's going to be better off if there is a huge eathquake, tsunami or other (combination of) natural disaster that effectively ends the way we live our lives now. I would rather be on very good terms with someone who has access to and knows how to benefit from the arable land around us. New Zealand has a good supply of replenishing potable water, arable land and enough natural resource to be completely self-sufficient should the need ever arise.

The planet is beginning to exert its power and it is a reminder to us all that we are extremely vulnerable to any changes in our environment.

As always it is an exciting time.

technorati tags:Alice, Cooper, sustainability

Don't look them in the eye

2007-09-14T00:07:00.001+12:00

Today I saw a DVD on techniques for training your dog how to behave how you want it to or how to prevent it from stressing out. It's amazing how simple it really is and also how much of it can be applied to understanding human behaviour.

More to come ...

Social networking

2007-08-22T22:24:00.001+12:00

I've been looking at iYomu since it was in beta and so far it's been quite an interesting experience - more so than Bebo.

I signed up with Bebo (I've not tried Facebook or myspace) just to see what all the fuss was about but I'm a little outside their target market. I am, however, smack in the middle of iYomu's target market.

The tools are reasonably easy to use and the community is developing quite well even at this early stage. The same people seem to be popping up in the same forums I visit but that is the idea - people with similar interests sharing ideas, etc.

I won't be spending large amounts of time there - I spend enough time on the computer as it is - but I'll keep checking what's going on and putting in my two cents-worth now and again.

technorati tags:social, networking, iYomu, Bebo, Facebook, myspace

Swaying economies

2007-08-16T15:06:00.001+12:00

The media seems to be making out that we're heading into a recession, house prices are tumbling and doom and gloom is upon us. This is an example of the media creating what it reports. If readers/viewers/listeners believe the media they tend to act accordingly and things happen faster than they should.

A friend of mine once went for a helicopter test flight (to see if he could win free lessons). One of the things he had to do was hover and hold the helicopter steady. What happens (to the inexperienced) is that the helicopter starts to drift so the pilot corrects. Usually this correction is slightly too much because the effect is not immediate. They then correct in the opposite direction once the initial correction starts to take effect and so on. The result is a swaying (or seesaw) effect.

I believe this swaying effect is now taking place in our economy. I have noticed it particularly with house sales as we are both selling and looking to buy elsewhere. It is easy to believe that prices will tumble so those really keen to sell are dropping their price to allow a quick sale. Buyers are expecting prices to drop so they are aggressively negotiating.

This effect will slow then swing in the other direction for a while - back and forth, back and forth.

It could be a bumpy ride but not disastrous. The main warning is don't get in too much debt. We will probably downgrade on house value so that we carry less debt (hopefully even none).

technorati tags:economy, predictions, helicopters, seesaw

Disorganized chaos

2007-08-08T22:27:00.001+12:00

My family and I went up Mt Ruapehu (Whakapapa ski-field) last Saturday to see what the conditions were like. Had they been better we would have tried to get some skiing in.

The weather was deteriorating and instead of the expected rain it began to snow. This caused some rather disastrous events. Over the loudspeakers we heard an announcement for anyone who had a two-wheel drive car to move it further down the mountain. Those that tried to move their cars or to leave the mountain often did so - sideways. Cars were sliding into other cars or off the road. In amongst all this some clown in a plough decided to try and break the land speed record while clearing the road of snow. The result was snow flying all over pedestrians, road cones (not snow cones) narrowly missing pedestrians and vehicles, and the plough itself coming close to removing everyone and everything from the mountain in a few quick runs.

We managed to quietly sneak away in our newly-tyred 4WD and head off to the hot pools - much better idea.

In case you care

2007-07-26T10:36:00.001+12:00

The machinery and workers are back on our road scraping, rolling and spreading metal. I'm hoping they manage to work their way up to our part of the road where the real work needs to be done. Fingers crossed.

technorati tags:roadworks, moaning

Someone's got talent

2007-07-26T10:23:00.000+12:00

I saw these on nzbc.net.nz and just had to link to them on here as well.

These are from Britain's Got Talent with Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan and actress Amanda Holden.

Three you should watch (if you have enough cap and bandwidth - it's a struggle on dialup, start one then go and make a cup of tea) are the bloke who sings opera, Connie the six year old, and the bloke with the monkey. Brilliant.

Connie

Monkey guy

Opera guy

Roading update

2007-07-18T22:15:00.001+12:00

What do you know - the machinery has disappeared.

It's not so much that they've cleared off leaving us with a dangerous road. There has been some bad weather here lately so they are probably clearing up after that. What bugs me the most is that they don't tell us what's going on.

I'll be sending another email shortly. Don't forget to check community poster - link in previous post.

Battle of the centses

2007-07-13T22:36:00.001+12:00

I live on an unsealed road that is supposedly maintained by council. We've been having a hell of a time trying to get the road fixed through the normal channels i.e. submitting 'requests for service' which subsequently get passed through mutiple channels until they are so watered down nothing effective gets done.

Finally I wrote an email to the roading manager at our council which, added to the requests from other residents, finally prompted some action.

Or so I thought.

The workmen turned up to start work and within two days the weather had turned to custard causing them to down tools and seek shelter along with everyone else. Two glorious days of sunshine since then hasn't prompted a return but at least the roller and grader are still parked up on our road ready for the call to action.

Read the exchange of emails here

Making life easier

2007-07-06T16:24:00.001+12:00

I'm at work which is in my business partner's home. His cleaner has just been in and spent a couple of hours cleaning which is a chore he loathes. In the same time he has earned 5 times what he paid her so why would he do the cleaning himself. He's happy, she's happy, we're all happy - and what's more it's Friday with decent weather forecast for the weekend - I may just get some golf in this time - yahoo (can i say that on a Google-powered blog?).

I'm working on my Mac which has this Blogger widget which makes it so easy to quickly add my ramblings to my blog. As you can see by the gap between posts I haven't had the widget that long. Keep smiling :-)

Developing a web persona

2007-06-13T14:07:00.000+12:00

I logged into Blogger to write today's contribution and on the way happened to see this little gem on my Google personalized page courtesy of tarot.com:

If you don't write your own poetry, then find a poem that touches your soul and read it aloud. Whether or not you have an audience, it seems that you are ready to escape into the beauty of some intellectual creation. Lose yourself in it whether it's yours or someone else's. There are riches waiting for you beyond the rational world.

Developing your identity on the web through your own website, blogs, myspace, etc. is like bringing up a child. The underlying personality is already there but is shaped and moulded by experience and learning. Of course, it is also affected by the perception of the viewer - you. You may read my post and think I am complete fool whereas someone else may think I am something different.

This illustrates the importance of effective communication. The more we practice, the better we get. It really is so simple but it is often easier to just expect things to happen. It doesn't work like that. To learn something well you need to learn it thoroughly and that takes time - sometimes lots of it. Be patient, but don't give up.

What's in an IP

2007-05-31T21:14:00.000+12:00

Further to my previous post, an IP address exists whether anyone is connected or not - it just may not be assigned to any particular device. That doesn't mean that a hacker may not be scanning that IP address anyway and as soon as a device has that address assigned to it, the scanning software goes to work trying to access it.

Protect yourself on the internet

2007-05-30T20:01:00.000+12:00

Every time a device of any sort connects to the internet it is assigned a unique IP address. It is possible to have the same IP address assigned to a device every time it connects but often a new address will be assigned.

Let's say I connect to the internet and visit some dodgy websites. During my visit my IP address is recorded and the dodgy websites start scanning my IP address looking to try and hack my system. They are unsuccessful but the IP address is kept as a possible target. I disconnect and next time receive a different IP address.

Someone else connects to the internet and gets assigned the IP address that I used when visiting those dodgy sites. They now become the target of the hackers attention without visiting any dodgy sites and possibly practising safe internet use.

I have no idea if this is how it works or not but from what I have picked up on the 'net you can be a target anytime so it pays to protect yourself at all times.

There are plenty of free options such as Spybot S&D, Adaware (Anti-spyware), Zone Alarm (Firewall), AVG antivirus all for Windows. Mac has a reasonable firewall built in and you can use ClamXAv antivirus - yes it's worth having antivirus software on a Mac. There are plenty of options for Linux as well but I don't know much about Linux.

Zero comments

2007-05-24T15:36:00.000+12:00

I wonder how many people out there are writing semi-regular blogs like this one and never get any real traffic and even less feedback.

I started this to see what blogging was all about. At first it was almost impossible to come up with something worth writing about - something that interested me and could possibly interest anyone else. It has got a little easier, the ideas still come to me at inopportune moments and not when I'm actually sitting at my computer.

If nothing else, it has helped me look at things in different ways and has helped what little writing skill I have develop.

Of course as the posts become a little more regular the pressure increases to come up with a subject for the day. Obviously I just need to look out of my window to see a plethora of goings-on that I could comment on but that would be too deliberate. I need the spontaneity of just coming up with an idea and getting the fingers tapping.

Perhaps I'll begin a 'zero comments' club headed by Nigel Nomates and we could all comment on each other's blogs. Then, of course, we would no longer be eligible for the club.

Oh, the price of popularity.