http://sketchetic.wordpress.com/

Based on the quality of his writing, and the thought processes that he has gone through in order to arrive at his conclusions, it is difficult to believe that he hasn’t finished school yet.

What is most interesting to me is that one so young, one who was indoctrinated; is as lucid as he.

It gives me a great deal of hope for a post theistic world that I thought was sliding back toward the control of the Christian Right, one in which we are no longer slaves to superstition.

Cracking work mate, keep it up.

I struggle to understand why.

I made the switch from Android to WP7 about a month ago, and (aside from the original phone being DOA), I have been enormously impressed with the experience.

My weapon of choice is the Nokia Lumia 800.

Nokia have always made great hardware, and this device is no exception.

The Lumia 800 is not only a very attractive piece of hardware aesthetically, it is also very attractive functionally.

I am not sure whether it is WP7 or hardware of the Lumia 800, but mine boots in less than five seconds, even with the carrier logo display popping up for about three of those seconds.

Either way, after coming from a succession of 30s-1m boot time Android devices, I am highly impressed.

The touch screen is responsive and functions exceptionally well in any kind of light, but the highlight for me has been the quality of the photographs that this thing takes.

The Nokia Lumia 800 is only sporting an 8mp camera, though it does have Carl Zeiss Tessar written on the back of it; whatever that means, however the pictures that I am taking with it are better than those some associates are getting out of their dedicated digital cameras.

The colours are brilliant – have a look at the couple of example below; and click on it to see the glorious colour and definition in full resolution.

Probably the most magnificent aspect of this camera though, is the macro mode.

I’ve never had a camera or a phone with a macro mode setting, so I was quite excited to learn what it was.

I’ve only taken one photo with the macro setting on.

I don’t want to take any more, this one turned out perfectly and I want to stop whilst I am at the top of my game!

Click on it and look at it in full resolution – check out that detail, it is unlike anything I have seen taken with a phone before.

If you haven’t experienced the Windows Phone 7 platform, or the Nokia Lumia 800 hardware, I urge you to make a diversion into your local telco shop the next time you walk past it; and have a quick fiddle with one.

If you appreciate performance, aesthetics, and a completely intuitive user interface, you’ll no doubt walk out with one; or walk away and then come back the next day (as I did) to snaffle one of these cracking devices.

Sadly though, just because a device is technologically superior, doesn’t mean that it will prosper.

VHS and Betamax taught us this.

Here is hoping that slavish consumerism and the herd mentality don’t defeat what is, for mine, undoubtably the best mobile device and OS available on the market today.

Lucifer is a parrot – a Rainbow Lorikeet.

Enjoy his crazy antics as he sings along and bangs his head to the wonderful Du Hast by Rammstein.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mine was blue:

I had resisted being on call 24×7 for about seven years prior.

Once I became ensnared in the mobile phone trap however (Snake was a wonderful game!), I began to wonder how I had ever existed without one.

I could converse with people without actually conversing with them, text was quite wonderful! Being as antisocial as I am, I saw it as the best invention since ICQ, and scrolly greets on C64 demos prior.

The Nokia 3210 was a solid phone – great reception, wonderful buttons, a pleasure to use. I dropped it into a toilet, accidentally trod on it several times, treated it rather poorly, and yet it refused to stop loving me.

Why then, when it died, did I even contemplate the Motorola V60 when some cretin stole my 3210?

The only reason was because it was a clamshell and they were “new and exciting”.

Here I was, someone who swore to never hold one of these things in my hand, scouring the place for the most advanced, coolest looking phone around.

Worst phone I have ever owned (second only to the iPhone 3GS) – I returned it no less than five or six times to be repaired after it failed to pick up a signal on day one and ended up biting the bullet and writing off the couple of hundred that I dropped on it and going back to Nokia.

The Nokia 8250 was what I chose.

Another solid phone from Nokia. This one lasted me a while. The thing that I loved about it was the menu and call button layout – it just worked so well, it was so Nokia.

I had come to associate things “just working” with Nokia and loved their menu system, their keypad layout – they had it all working so well.

My next five or six phones were all Nokias.

One of them was the flip phone – the 7270:

It remains one of my favourite phones. Sadly, someone stole it off me as I slept on a flight from Sydney to Adelaide, so I had to purchase a new phone when I got there and it wasn’t the same model.

Nokia copped a lot of criticism for not pandering to the market and making everything in the clamshell mould when the consumers dictated that clamshell was the in thing.

These days, if twelve year old girls are to be believed, short shorts that expose ones labia are the in thing:

Nokia were right not to rush toward the clamshell market, even though it cost them dearly in terms of sales.

Steve Jobs has proven that the customer is always wrong – you can get away with selling the moronic members of the great unwashed an unnecessary piece of detritus if you make them think that it is somehow cool.

Sadly, Nokia haven’t been as successful in convincing the consumer that their product is not only cool, but without doubt, manufactured using best practice.

I went through a few more Nokia phones (usually doing silly things to kill them, like kicking back in a hot bath for a few hours and calling erstwhile friends for a chat whilst sipping on various alcoholic beverages prior to dropping the phone in the water) before I realised that they had started to really drop the ball.

By 2007-08, Symbian had become quite stagnant.

Windows Mobile 6.5 was really emerging as the strong contender and the threat of the iPhone was imminent.

For some reason, Nokia ignored this.

My next phone was the HTC Touch running Windows 6.something:

This was a bloody good phone.

The handwriting recognition was beyond anything I had experienced before.

Whilst I missed the ability to “blind text” – being able to text without looking at my phone as I dashed through the busy streets of Melbourne – I began to really love this phone.

The stylus however, marked the screen terribly and soon it looked like vandals had begun attacking it overnight.

Still, it was an impressive piece of hardware and I really enjoyed the Windows Mobile experience.

For some stupid reason, when I lost that phone (I have a habit of losing phones, as you may have guessed), I decided to try the iPhone 3Gs.

The iPhone 3Gs is, without doubt, the second worst phone I have ever owned.

I shan’t go into it here, as it would take me several more pages to tell you why. Just take my advice and never buy an iPhone.

When my iPhone died (pretty swiftly) I thought I might try Android.

Google aren’t evil after all.

A couple of Android phones later, I settled on the HTC Desire.

Initially, I was impressed.

Of course, being a geek, I rooted it and fiddled around with it, and for two years (the longest I have ever had a phone), I really enjoyed it. I pimped ‘droid to everyone and recommended the HTC ‘droid range to all and sundry.

Sadly, I now have to withdraw my support for the Android platform, and for Google.

Several weeks ago, when google changed their privacy policy, it was the final straw for me.

I had been a fan of Google since 1996.

Prior to that, I had been a big fan of Altavista – an honest search engine that has sadly perished since being purchased by Yahoo. Babelfish was brilliant.

Altavista were the pioneers of search and I believe that Google stole from them.

Still, I became a massive Android fan until I discovered that everything that I did with my Android phone was being tracked by Google.

All of my contacts were being disseminated and dissected, my activity was being monitored and I was receiving suggestions on alternate, non linked Google accounts that I had for business, that I should connect up with people from my personal life.

This concerned me.

What concerned me most was when a professional contact somehow obtained my personal email address due to Google making it available to him.

I then decided that it was time to move away from Google and am in the process of moving all of my email accounts away from them also.

Some information on Google’s decision to start tracking everything that you do (in case they weren’t already doing it surreptitiously anyway can be found here)

I couldn’t go back to the iPhone. I use a Mac, that is enough.

I couldn’t stay with Android.

Symbian is dead in the water, as is MeeGo.

Should I consider Windows Phone?

The answer is a resounding fucking YES.

I had a play with Windows Phone 7.5 (mango) in a shop quite by accident.

I had been supposed to meet my employer for a meeting but he had neglected to mention to me that he would be in the UK, despite assuring me that our meeting was most important.

When he didn’t turn up, after waiting for an hour or two, I checked out a few mobile phone stores.

I had a play with the Nokia Lumia 800

I was highly impressed.

The Windows Phone 7.5 interface was so refreshing.

It wasn’t the bland sameness of iOS, nor was it the poor attempt to replicate iOS that Android provides.

It was new, it was innovative, it was refreshing.

I was sold on the spot.

I went straight to my local Telstra Store and purchased one outright.

Sadly, a few hours later, it died, though for the brief time that I held it in my hand, I knew that Windows Mobile will be the future of mobile operating systems. I am eagerly awaiting my replacement as my local Telstra store had none in stock.

It is intuitive, fast, beautiful, and comes with the many moons of experience that Microsoft have in terms of refining the user experience.

Whilst I have not used a Windows computer for a long time, if they get Windows 8 right in the same manner that they have blitzed it with Windows Mobile 7, then I am going to consider coming back.

Nokia have made the right decision, betting the house on Windows Phone – combined with their experience in producing the hardiest, most beautiful mobile phones, and the fantastic job that Microsoft have done on Windows Phone, come 2015, Windows Phone will be the dominant OS in the mobile space.

Great work Microsoft – and thank you for your honesty when it comes to what you do with the data collected on a Windows Phone mobile.

Google – take note, Microsoft have usurped your “do no evil” crown.

Put simply, Nokia and Microsoft will be the next true powers in the mobile OS/phone sphere.

It has been quite refreshing and has realigned my opinion of humanity somewhat.

The two most potent  examples of said kindness have come from some rather unexpected sources; two big businesses.

“Big business” is oft maligned, though the altruism shown by both of these companies, neither of whom have anything to gain as a result of their selfless displays, shows that perhaps the fury directed toward large corporations by the great unwashed may be misplaced.

Sophos; the people who invented antivirus, and who provide the best free antivirus protection for Mac and Windows, not to mention some exceptional mobile security products, heard about our loss and wrote a beautiful piece on their Naked Security website that involves some of the best use of metaphors that I have ever seen.

The author, Paul Ducklin, an Sophos’  head of technology, has quite a way with words. Even if you aren’t into computer security, his articles are well worth reading – they have a unique way of removing the obfuscation and obscurantism oft indulged in by IT professionals.

In other words, his words appeal to geeks, nerds and technophobes alike.

You can get an idea of what I am talking about at:

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/04/10/have-you-seen-this-parrot/

The other business that has gone above and beyond the thermals, is News Ltd.

Scott Howlett, a journalist with the Northern District Times, saw the posters that we had plastered around the local area and wrote a beautiful piece on our missing Icari.

We have had a great deal of people contacting us as a result of the article that Scott put together and we can’t thank him and his team enough.

Thank you, Paul, Sophos, Scott and News Ltd – whilst we have yet to find Icari, your efforts to assist us have been quite the tonic during our weeks of despair.

We have had our beloved Icari for a little over a year.

She is a beautiful bird, an Alexandrine Parrot who would sing to us every morning upon sunrise and then again at dusk.

She loves showers and being misted and has become an accomplished mimic, chuckling maniacally and doing a particularly good impression of a whip bird

She has always been a free range parrot, and has limited flight after suffering from feather plucking due to becoming sexually mature and not having a mate of her own species.

After we went out with her and she selected herself a mate; the plucking stopped, she sung to us even more and all of her feathers grew back, her coat more lustrous and colourful than before.

I had just commented to my lover on the morning of the day that she absconded; how wonderful her new feathers were now looking.

She would often accompany me to the shopping centre when I did my shopping, perched atop my shoulder, or join us on walks or outings of many different kinds.

Sadly, on Tuesday evening (20/03/2012), she took fright, flew into a window, slid through the slight opening in it and flew off into the night.

If you have seen her or know of anyone who may have seen her, please post a comment here, or email me on:

matt@bob.sh

or call

1300 309 004.

Alternatively, please help the search for Icari by tweeting the link to this post with the hash tag:

#findIcari

and include @petsearch in the message.

She is a much loved member of our family and in danger or resorting to feather plucking again if she is not reconciled with her mate and with us – this could potentially be fatal to her in the wild.

There is a large reward offered for her safe return.

Thank you for reading, and for any help that you may be able to lend us.

Kudos and a great deal of appreciation have to go to:

• Chambers Cellars Carlingford
• Carlingford Court management
• Carlingford Court Tobacconist
• Coles Epping
• Liquorland Carlingford

They have been only too happy to help us out.

Please support their businesses.

Initially I thought that the article was supposed to be ironic in some way, turning the other cheek and all.

Sadly, it wasn’t.

I shan’t dissect it here, there is no need. You can read all about how cruel and wicked atheists are for using humour to illustrate the ridiculous here.

I wasn’t even going to comment on it, however I was just subjected to the “sense of humour” of a Christian of the Baptist flavour whilst going about my own business.

I often travel about with one or more of my therapy parrots perched atop my shoulder. Over time, I have become used to and somewhat blasé about people commenting on them.

As I was purchasing a couple of items from the local bakery today, I heard behind me a “good on you mate, god bless you”.

My reply was a polite but non engaging “thank you”.

As I returned to the business of completing the transaction, I became aware of a presence close to my left shoulder.

I turned and saw an older gentleman with thin, stringy, auburn hair, a terry towling hat and a vacuous stare.

Fixing his unthinking gaze on me, he inquired “Do you know Jesus?”.

I replied, that indeed I did, he used to do my lawns until the current harsh economic times forced me to let him go.

The gentleman asked me if he was a Christian.

I told him that I wasn’t sure, that I thought that he was Filipino, though his surname, Sanchez indicated that he may have either been of Spanish descent or was the result of the interbreeding that occurred as a result of the Spanish Armada’s visit to the Philippines.

He reacted with great anger to this, much to the amusement of myself and the young girl who had been serving me; telling me that I was destined for a fiery pit of anguish and that all those at the (insert parish here) Baptist congregation would be praying for my eternal damnation before storming off.

Lesson learned – if you want to enjoy the natural endorphins that are released when you have a hearty chuckle at a bit of satire, don’t invite a Christian.

I wonder if Jesus had a sense of humour. Judging by those who claim to know him, I would suggest not.

It contained the following text:

“The Australian Navy intercepted three boatloads of people off the North West coast of Australia.

This placed the Navy in an awkward position as the boats were heading not away from, but towards Indonesia.

Another surprise finding was that they were loaded with Australians who were all seniors of pension age.

Their claim was that they were trying to get to Indonesia so as to be able to return to Australia as illegal immigrants and therefore be entitled to far more benefits than they were receiving as legitimate Australian pensioners.

The Navy it is believed gave them food, water and fuel and assisted them on their journey north.”

I have often received emails of a similar ilk from this fellow, and I challenge him on them, usually with no response forthcoming.

There is a myth peddled by the Alan Jones’, the Ray Hadley types, the right wing bigots, that “illegal immigrants” (otherwise known as refugees) are somehow leeching money from the pockets of Australian pensioners, that they are stealing jobs, that they are bringing crime and disease to “our” country.

The facts are:

A single person applying for Special Benefit or the Newstart Allowance (whether or not he or she is a refugee) will receive $456 per fortnight, whereas a single person on an Age Pension payment will receive a fortnightly payment of $671.90. A single age pensioner therefore receives over $200 more per fortnight more than a single refugee (or a single Australian-born person) who qualifies for Special Benefit or Newstart.

The reality is:

If an “Australian” pensioner – and I will use poetic license to describe such a person as someone who was born here and worked here all his or her life – hasn’t worked for 30-40 years, invested wisely, contributed to his or her super on top of the 9% that the Government contributes, saved money, they yes, they will have to live on about $350 per week after they retire.

If they have worked, invested, contributed – it is likely that they will be drawing a much larger benefit from their super than the pension would ever pay.

On the current average wage, an Australian who worked for 40 years, would have a minimum of $255,000 in their super.

If they have invested it wisely or made use of a superannuation advisor, they will more than likely have double that – effectively, $1,000 per week for the next ten years after retirement (assuming that they retire at 60-65).

They are already in front of the pensioner who has to rely on welfare and well in front of the refugee.

The pensioner who relies on government welfare is more than just $200 in front of the refugee.

The pensioner probably speaks fluent English, isn’t detained, doesn’t have to report to the department of immigration and probably hasn’t escaped a totalitarian regime and carries all the scars that go with it.

To jump into a leaky boat and travel thousands of kilometres across tumultuous seas takes balls, it require determination, it means that you are fleeing something so awful that the potential of drowning is preferable.

Sadly, there are Australians, living well above the poverty line, who seek to demonise these people instead of embracing them with compassion.

It sickens me.

The bill tabled and passed in the lower house today, the health care rebate means testing; something that will pass with those loathsome Greens controlling the senate; is an absolute disgrace.

No doubt the ALP have done some manner of back room (or should that be back door) deal on same sex marriage with the Greens to get this through – though I am not sure what they offered the detestable Oakeshott.

Now, I am a supporter of same sex marriage, and, if you take the time to peruse this site; you will notice that I have never been a fan of the conservative side of politics.

This disgusting betrayal of the aspirational working class in Australia however has been the final straw for me.

The Australian Labor Party no longer gives a toss about the workers, only about itself and maintaing its marginal grip on power.

Single professionals in Australia have hardly ever gotten a break – from either side of politics – the one thing that they have been given, is a rebate on private health insurance.

This rebate, something which has made our health care system the envy of the developed world – particularly considering that in the US, private health care can cost up to $3,000 per month for a young family – is about to be stripped away from people who have been determined by politicians on the left, to be wealthy.

Before we crunch the numbers, let us remind ourselves that our politicians receive all of the following either for free, or significantly subsidised by the tax payer:

• Alcohol
• Food
• Accommodation
• Travel (including overseas trips)
• Internet
• Telecommunications
• Gym memberships
• Super

… so the loss of the rebate isn’t likely to really hurt them all that much.

Now, let’s look at how this issue might affect a miner, someone who works his or her arse off, sometimes for 10 days in a row, 12 hours a day, for a wage (before tax) of $126,000.

• Income: $126,000
• Tax paid: $34,570

This leaves said miner (though it could merely be someone who has been working hard with a company for ten years and worked their way up the ranks) with a net income of:

• $91,430.

Now that might sound like a lot, however what if you take into account that this single, hard working Australian has a mortgage in Sydney.

The median house price in Sydney is $485,000 (source – RP Data)

With the banks now completely ignoring the Reserve Bank and doing what they please with interest rates, you could expect to pay around 7.45% on a standard variable home loan.

What does that equate to per year?

• Mortgage: $42,820.20

This leaves you with:

• $48,609.80

Well, that is still a lot of money.

What if we look at some conservative estimates with regards to what a single Australian might have in terms of additional outgoings per year:

• Car loan: $7,000
• Mobile phone: $1,000
• Energy use: $1,000
• Internet + line rental: $1,000
• Petrol: $7,000
• Car, home and contents insurance: $2,400
• Health insurance (presently): $1,200

That would leave you with “wealth” of:

• $28,009.80

Bugger, I forgot a couple of things:

• Rates: $1,200
• Water: $200

Food: $10,400

Things are looking really wonderful for our “wealthy” Australian, he or she now has a total expendable income of:

• $16,209.80

If you want to stay at home every weekend, you will probably only incur a couple of more costs:

• A bottle of wine once every two weeks: $520
• Christmas and birthday presents: $2,000
• A holiday once per year: $2,000

That will leave you:

• $11,689.80

So, if you:

• stay at home all the time apart from when you are at work,
• never visit friends and family,
• eat at home and never at a restaurant,
• take a packed lunch to work every day,
• don’t go to the gym,
• don’t play any sports,
• never buy any new clothes or household items or,
• need your car serviced or,
• need a new computer or software for it,
• don’t need to buy any medicine,
• or don’t pay excess on any of your health care claims, or
• have any credit cards…

… then yes, you might have $11,689.90 in your pocket.

It is, however more likely that the individual described above might be able to save around:

• $2,000-$5,000 per year.

Hardly up there with the likes of Richard Branson.

This bill is a disgrace and will have a severe impact on the health of Australians and the Australian health care system.

It is another step towards the debacle that is the health “care” system in the US.

We are often told that we need to do more for the Aboriginal people, reconcile with them, provide them with more funding, better welfare services, better health care.

Up until now,  I have always agreed.

Whilst it is debatable as to whether or not the abos were the first people of Australia – it is thought by some scholars that they perhaps displaced a native people themselves – they have copped the rough end of the stick for a portion of the past 200 odd years.

The actions of the welfare recipients of the Tent Embassy yesterday, threatening the safety of our Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader was disgusting.

The Aboriginal people regularly complain about being stereotyped and treated like second class citizens.

The mob in Canberra yesterday showed why that is often the case.

If those 200 or so people applied themselves in the pursuit of work and education (for which they receive significant incentives  and benefits above and beyond that of non Aboriginals), as they did during their grubby protest yesterday, perhaps there would be no need for the Australian tax payer to continually reach into his and her pocket in order to prop them up.

The Tent Embassy should be burned to the ground. It is irrelevant and merely provides an excuse for a mob to sit around draining the coffers of the welfare system.