Tweet tweet

Now that I have a few tweets on my twitter account, I guess this makes me a twit.

Here's a link to my account. I think it will eventually be used for my business. Hence calling it Harmonytech. I assume I'll post instant news on specials and one off madness sales. This will work well. I hope, with my soon to be active online store. Finishing off adding items for sale and attempting to set up my paypal account to become my merchant for online payment.

OMGWTFBBQTWITTER!!!!1!!ELEVEN

Yes. I've joined twitter. In a bid to help find a person that is has been very difficult to contact.

Four things will happen with twitter;
1. I'll lose interest in it once I have what I want from it.
2. I'll forget about it in a week
3. Ill delete my account once I have what I want.

and 4. I'll use it to my advantage for my business or it gives me something to do between blogging and emailing which I normally use the time to do something useful like work or be with my family.

I'm not sure where "tweeting" fits into all this. Looks like another piece of technology that prevents you from getting up off your arse and not using a computer. Sounds funny doesn't it? Coming from an IT geek.

Thank you for the music.... lesson

There isn't a lot I do know despite my adoption of Charlie's Book of Everything, re-titled Pip's Book of Everything. I try and learn something new each day. Actually, I said that all wrong. I don't try to learn, I just happen to.

Most of my friends think I'm really smart. Some get asked silly questions from their children and their response is "Ask Pip when he comes around". Either way, I'm the person people come to for questions they can't be bothered Googling.

The sad part about this is, some people want to know something but won't listen to the answer. I've been frustrated by this for years. From the time I was asked to ride all the way to an audio shop just so my friend and his wife could pick the correct components for a new entertainment system. They went against all my recommendations and decided to buy everything the sales guy said. In the end I stopped bothering and just responded with "What's for dinner?"

Audio components are something I know a little about, and my time and patients were both wasted doing this small favour for a friend. This didn't really affect my friendship with my mate. It would have been silly to argue over something so superficial.

I'll give you another real life example of friends asking for my help, but not listening to the answer. I have a friend who's been playing guitar for about 12 years or something. I also have a mate who's been playing guitar for about 2 years. My friend who has been playing for 12 years hasn't listened to anything I suggest about music. While he's stuck in one genre and has limited experienced in musicology and performing. I have had the opportunity to play at the Sydney Opera House. I listen to all genre's, provided the music is good... I'll listen to it.

So, it pains me when I have been trying to pass on what I know for the last 5 years since I discovered I had more to offer my mate towards his musical ability and I hear that he starts taking guitar lessons.... Now, this isn't the bad part. The part that kills me is that he's just repeating all the things I have ever said to him, showed him and helped him with. We joked about the fact that I've been telling him this stuff for years, I should have charged him for it. Maybe if he paid for the advice it would get through to him.

On the other hand, my other friend who's been playing guitar for 2 years takes on everything I say and sadly for my other friend, this one is almost a better musician.

Lately, I've started to go to open mic nights to practice my performance skills and mate number one has decided that he wants to as well. This is something that I've been telling him he must do to get over his shyness and fear of performing live in front of people. However, while this is going to be excellent practice for him as well as a good wake up call. I am trying to psych myself up to support him because I know that people in the crowd aren't going to be impressed. After all, it will be his first time on stage, ever. He's going to butcher the perfect song he practised at home. I don't blame him. Saying he'll be nervous would be an understatement. And the scary part for me is, I'm not sure I want to see it or not.

Mate number two on the other hand will be ready for his first performance by the end of this year.

So, how can one person who's never played music at all, within 2 years of learning to play guitar be ready for the stage and the other, who knows all, been playing for years, calls simple music "too easy" not be able to hold their own in the lime light?

I don't want to come across as offensive or sound like I'm putting down my mate. But what do you do when you see a friend who needs help but doesn't accept what you give them? Do you let them sink or swim? Do you persist and keep helping despite the frustration of it all appearing like you're talking to a brick wall?

Another form of recycling

I was in my office today having a chat with another IT guy that works next door to me. We were talking about our usual catch up stories of people calling with stupid issues that you hear about and think "surely, that's a joke". Then he noticed my Acer Aspire One netbook and asked how I got it working?

Well, this netbook has a bit of a story. The netbook was brought in by a client of mine who came home one day to find his children playing with the Aspire One..... when I say playing.... I mean they were jumping on it. By doing so they cracked the screen. I quoted him the cost of a brand new screen and while diagnosing other issues, I discovered the battery was not being detected at all.

With my labour fee added to the job it came in pretty close to just going out and buying a new netbook. Ths is exactly what the customer ended up doing. When I asked him what of this broken Aspire, he said "Chuck it". Like hell.

I wiped the operating system off the hard drive, installed Crunchbang Linux and used the laptop as a small desktop PC, connected to an external monitor and the charger for life.

I played around with it for a few months, eventually taking advantage of the built-in webcam by installing motion, a Linux project that turns webcams into surveillance cameras, and the PC they're connected to, a hard drive recorder.... all the while still keeping the functionality of a regular Linux based PC. The webcam was always on and could be viewed remotely via the web (I had also installed Apache). But it only recorded when it detected motion at my office between the hours of 6pm and 10am. I drive to work after peak hour. Saves time, money, the environment and my sanity. But one day I came to work early to see if the detection worked. It did, so I was happy.

Then, while travelling through the land of Ebay, I found an LCD screen for the little netbook and thought it might be worth fixing, seeing as all the other hardware worked. I'd hold off on the battery, since it was not as big a deal. A week later the screen arrived, 5 minutes later I had the old screen off and the new one getting put in place. Before fully reassembling the laptop, I tested it out. BOOM! It worked. I put the rest of it together and had a reasonable PC working nearly 100%.

Fast forward another month, and I'm searching Ebay for a battery. I decided that I wanted to replace my old Asus EeePC 701 since it really is a pain in the behind reading websites on the dismally resolved 7 inch LCD. The Acer, while only another 1.9" bigger offers a much higher resolution that makes reading websites easier while not distracting from the actual form factor of the netbook. I like to use the EeePC in bed before heading off to sleep when catching up on blogs, digg.com and threehugger.com

Having this extra screen size and res is much nicer, and as such my EeePC will now be sold to the person who best deserves it.

So, what became of the battery? Well, before I went shopping on Ebay, I did what I usually do... Never waste an opportunity to dissect a piece of hardware I want to know about. I pulled the battery apart to see what was inside. The first thing that stuck out was a loose cable. I got out my soldering iron, fixed the cable back in place and tested out the battery. It charges!!!

What's the moral of all this? Well, this is the story I told my fellow IT mate next door.

Why?

Because I illustrated that this was a form of recycling. The funny thing was, while this person is quite learned, he always thought of recycling as something you put your cans, bottles and cardboard into and off it went.

I told him that's recycling too. Then I rested the Aspire One on my recycled cardboard box cut-out that I turned into a laptop stand. In fact, I've made about 40 cardboard laptop stands just from cardboard I get from suppliers who I order parts and accessories off for my IT business.

I give away each laptop stand with any laptop purchase.

My IT mate looked at me in amazement and commented that I got to all that trouble. Funny, I didn't think of it as trouble at all. I saved a perfectly fine laptop from landfill and I have probably saved a few tens of kilograms in cardboard hitting the landfill too. I do the same at home.

I also do the same with mates. Particularly one of my mates who loves nothing more than finding someone else's junk that they have discarded and giving it a polish and a new lease on life.

Recycling isn't just about cans, cardboard and bottles.

Solar - We probably need less than you think

Ever since I was a kid, I loved free energy. As I grew up I realised there's no such thing. Well, we could argue perpetual motion engines all night. And I did once have an idea to make a self powered generator out of a couple of car alternators and an electric motor. However, the electric motor would pretty much consume the power created, regulated and rectified by the alternator. Two alternators would create drag and the motor would need to be more powerful.... and so the cycle continued until I never bothered trying to make the idea come to life at all. Maybe when I'm retired.

There are other forms of free energy. Solar. While not entirely free... they say it'll take you 10-15 years, maybe 20 before the cost of the system has paid itself off. And much like the reason why I drive a Diesel car, I believe that people who go solar do it not for the thrift, but for the environment. I drive my Diesel car because it pollutes less than a Prius, has the power of a modern V6 with two less cylinders and half the engine capacity.

When I build my new home, I plan on covering the entire North facing roof in panels. I plan on providing power to most of the house with these panels. When I tell my friends this, they laugh and say, "yeah, but you'll still need mains power"

While this may be true. I won't need so much, and to top that off, I'm hoping mains power is solar powered too. Then they say "Well, solar won't be able to provide enough power for the entire population unless they cover the entire planet in panels."

While at first I thought they might be right, along comes an article in one of my favourite websites, treehugger.com.

If you look at the little squares, these are solar panel arrays that will effectively provide the entire planet with enough power. So little in comparison to the land area.

So, now that we know we don't need to blanket the Earth with solar panels, how does this all happen.... the panels would need to come down in price. The sad part about this is, I've been hearing that "they" have come out with a panel that is flexible, or I heard that it is 20% or 50% more efficient and one tenth the price. I've been hearing about this for the last 10 years. But prices are still the same, panels haven't changed all that much and it still seems like after all these years, the end result is that it's still too expensive to purchase solar.

Even if the electricity providers change over completely, the costs of setting this up will be pushed down to people like you and me. We'll end up paying for it. While that's not so much a big issue, the concern for me is that I'm sure the price won't go down later on when the infrastructure is paid off and the electrical company is making more and more profit. I wouldn't be surprised if the rates went up even higher. Justified by introducing environmental tax and so on.

But never the less. Apart from those hypothetical issues, that map shows that not a lot of solar is needed.

While this looks promising, some might say the power that the panels generate will need to be stored. Well, electricity companies already do that.

Another idea is, rather than having power lines around the streets, have poles with panels on them. Though this might look ugly in suburbia, having the panels hanging off the big towers that are ugly enough might be a better option.

I'm not sure what path will end up being taken. However, I'm living on the premise that this idea will go forth and happen. So little solar panels for the entire planet, no emissions, and if the idea does go forth, it may actually lead to more efficient solar panels, which means cheaper, less surface area for the same power requirements or more power with the same surface area as before.

Either way, it's win-win-win. Win for the hip pocket, win for the power requirements, win for the environment. How can that be a bad thing?

It doesn't matter if you're black or white

I have an unfortunate saying when people find out I lived in the U.S. for a large portion of my youth. "It's where I learnt about racism" is what I say when people ask me how it was.

It's sad because prior to my time in the U.S, I had never been made so aware of such levels of segregation. I remember sitting there at school as a child thinking "Why am I being told that black people, white people, yellow people, red people and so on are all equal". I always thought they were equal.

Then the whole L.A. riots started while I was there. I have a large scar on my arm that reminds me of how much this was an issue. Being white, I was automatically considered racist towards everyone who wasn't. This only made me question things even more as I sat there bleeding after the attack. Why, after all these years of living in Australia, never questioning, in fact never being subject to a social flaw was I now being attacked by that exact issue in a place that banged on about avoiding it so much?

I've started to come up with my own idea of why this is so.

If you look at certain countries, there are stereotypes that exist. While this isn't exactly polite or politically correct in saying so, they are there. Typically Asians can't drive, usually men of Middle Eastern appearance are to blame for something about oil or war. But dive deeper into this, look at Hispanic nations where religious beliefs are generally in higher concentration, you'll find that arguably the crime rate is higher too. Though at the same time, poverty is the norm around these areas as well.

Is this the same as telling a child not to touch something as you leave the room and expecting them not to touch it? Chances are, if you said nothing they probably would have just entertained themselves while you were out.

The funny thing I heard today was from my brother-in-law who just got back from the Philippines. He told me that if you're darker skinned over there, then you'll never amount to anything.

He had a bit of a hard time being fairly dark. But this society has gone as far as marketing pills that lighten your skin. There are laser treatments to reduce the nature hue your body in order to have a better acceptance in your own society, a better chance and a good future.

I guess it's much the same in India, where casting is still prevalent. There are products like lotions called Fair and Lovely that are aimed specifically at darker people in order for them to lighten up a bit and have a better acceptance.

While I'm not interested so much in the how. I am curious as to why?

Why is this even an issue?

Why can't everyone just get along?

Why aren't all humans accepted as humans instead of cast further into subdivision?

These are all questions I asked myself all those years ago back in Junior High, in Altadena CA. And it's something I ask myself now when I hear the same thing almost 20 years later.

Nothing has changed. Why?

It really saddens me that this happens.

Last year I read something that stated another observation that I found to be true. Something I had also observed.

It stated that we will all continue to be divided while we continue to stand as individuals. What this illustrated to me was what I had seen in communities where certain ethnic groups flourished while others couldn't hold two pieces of wood together if you gave each person a G-clamp. The communities that strive forth were ones where everyone helped each other. Everyone was everyone else's support. The community where everyone complained about how bad they have it were at the same time complaining about how they had no support, no one they could trust, talk to, listen to. In fact, a lot of times they were ripped off or lied to, betrayed by their own family.

This isn't to say it does or doesn't happen even in the prettiest picture. If you look at the Yin and Yang, theres a white dot in the black half and a black dot in the white half. This represents that even the good and bad sides have a little bit of each other in them.

However, what it does illustrate to me is that generally the statement is true. The local Asian community thrives, as does the Lebanese community around here. But then I look at the Armenian community here, being half Armenian. And all I see and hear is lies, backstabbing, ripping off. And the ones that are fed up with it all severe their ties all together. Yet, my Lebanese friends are going well at home, at work. Both family life and professional life is going great because no one said anything bad about you because you didn't steal something off that other person, and so the domino effect goes on.

If only the negative things were put aside and we all just concentrated on the positives then the negatives will more that likely just go away.

This brings me back to racism. Why, even when you're being told about how not to be racist are you generally being told it's bad. Another thing that puzzled me was why we were being told in Junior High that it was bad, wrong, not nice. When I personally would have thought it much better to say racism isn't right. How about being told what's so great about such an ethnic diversity?

I'm usually quite resourceful (when I want to be) and if something isn't working I don't continue to do it with that good old fashioned attitude of "keep trying" until it sinks in. I'd much rather people say "Hey, this hasn't really worked, maybe we should stop, rethink our approach and try this again from another angle".

Sadly, this won't happen any time soon. I mean, one of my mates suffers from the exact same cause, though his problems are different, the approach is the same. Keep doing what isn't working until it works. He's been in a rut for a good 80% of his life. Until I told him he's living groundhog day over and over and over.

I left the United States trying to see why people didn't think people are people. They all have the same body, they all breath the same air, drink the same water, eat the same food. They all have family, friends and jobs. Why should someone that you probably don't know have that much hatred towards them? What did they do to you that was so wrong?

Why can't everyone just accept who they are, accept who the person next to them is and just be happy that we're all living on this planet at the same time, a short time. Enjoy it.

The Blue Mountains are quite blue

The Blue Mountains is a place just a little over an hours drive from Sydney. It's a great place, with lots to see and do.

It's a part of Australia that I've visited many times. Seeing friends or just a stop over point on my way through.

There has been many years where my wife and I have both suggested we travel to the Blue Mountains to stay there. Maybe like a weekend retreat from town.

What a brilliant idea! So a nice little cottage was booked and we were on our way to Leura in fact. A place known for its gardens. Hours later, thanks to peak hour on a Friday afternoon, we finally made it.

The reviews on this place said it was nice to arrive to a lit fire. Hmm, we did say we're expecting to be there at 4-5 pm. About the time the sun goes over the hills and a fire would be lit. Sadly, I had to do that myself. And I'd expect a little more f0r $200 a night.

Little did I know I also used all the kindling for starting the fire too. And there was no block splitter to cut up a large piece of hardwood into smaller pieces so I could actually get a fire going enough for the massive pieces of timber to light up. And the pieces of timber were so big that they barely fit into the fireplace. If only I brought my axe.... oh wait.... this should all have been done for me since I was paying so much for the room.

The following day my wife and I did all the tourist things, like take the cable car and the worlds steepest railway around the mountains. That was a fun day.

We then picked up a magazine that tells us what else is on in the area. Handy, since it explained that everything in the area was too expensive. They weren't wrong.

Each time we ate food it cost us nearly $100.00

Some times nearly $200.00

On most, if not all occasions the food was probably worth about $35 at the most. On some occasions I would have demanded my money back if I weren't so hungry.

On our last night, which ended prematurely, we couldn't even find a decent place to eat, so I figured you can't go too wrong with pizza. How wrong was I?

We walked into a place that had the most amount of people, thinking if it's popular then it must be good. We were given menus and told when we're ready to order, go up to the counter. Odd, but when in Rome.

I waited a good 10 minutes before I was served, when I started with what my wife wanted. Soup of the day and a piz...... The girl interrupted, "Soup of the day?"

I repeated, "Yes, the soup of the day, on your menu"

"Soup?"

"Yes, the one on your blackboard over there"

"Of the day?"

I had to stop and think for a minute, was I speaking the correct language?

I told her to never mind and I rounded up the missus, out the door we went. Settling on a not so brilliantly presented curryhouse.

Admittedly, our entree was microwaved, but the dipping sauce made up for it. The curries we ordered were half decent too. So we left satisfied, wondering how the locals eat when we just paid $60 for 2 curries and some rice.

And, technically I shouldn't be writing this yet. I'm still suppose to be up there in the mountains, attending to my fire. Celebrating my wife and my 1st year wedding anniversary/10 years together-versary. Well, the $200 a night cottage was built in the 1930's, and despite still standing strong, the bed....more specifically the matress has seen better days. For the price I paid, I expect a matress as good as, if not better than mine.

What we got was a saggy spong with some springs in it. Were we both happen to roll into each other right in the middle of the thing. While this made it cosy, it was also annoying having to roll uphill just to turn over. Both of us are sore, tired from lack of sleep and ended up wasting $200 by not sleeping there right now and driving home instead. Which reminds me, it's bed time and I miss my level, well cusioned matress that doesn't sag or cost me $200 a night to put my back out of whack, cause me to roll up hill all night and cut a romantic weekend romp away short.

Yep, the Blue Mountains are quite blue if that's the best it has to offer. I'll stick to driving through the place on the way to something more luxurious, less expensive and much more fun... camping at Sofala.