Every year Australians spend about $18 billion on gambling, $17.5 billion on alcohol, $17 billion on entertainment and about $7.4 billion on cigarettes.

But for clean air, sustainable energy and a healthy future for our children and grandchildren, Australians can’t afford a few dollars a day. We certainly live in a sick and selfish society.

- Tony Grigsby, Dromana (excerpt from The Age)

After the show I got the CD I bought signed by both John and his son Iggy who joined him on stage for the last two songs “Tanzen Gehen” and “Elektro Leiber”. I shook John’s hand and thanked him for a wonderful show but I was too starstruck to bother him with a quick conversation so I left it at that

Below you’ll find some photos and videos I took of the night plus a fanboyish Facebook message I sent Dyko a few years ago.

I did a bunch of tests and found that it was not just the Wi-Fi on my Mac Mini but also my MacBook Pro and Bec’s iMac. The main culprit is my router. Living in a bunch of units we’re surrounded by other Wi-Fi signals that clash and slow each other down.

The solution to this is to move out into a house where there’s more distance with neighboring routers, or wire up each computer with Ethernet cable.

As for the I/O ports they were consistent with the other computers. The thing that threw me off was that the Mac Mini was writing to a USB key at 4MB/s and the other computers were reading that file at 20MB/s. This is common for USB/Flash memory, read and write speeds differ. The only I/O fault I could find was that te FireWire wouldn’t work computer-to-computer. Haven’t tried with a camera though.

I’ll get back to you on that…

Considering my timetable’s a bit more stable right now, I’m going to make the effort to blog at least once a week. (Don’t count on it though, I’ve said crazier stuff on here…)

Sunday just past I got one of the most massive headaches I’ve ever had. This jaw problem I’ve got has been flaring up again. I went and saw the dentist on Monday and some x-rays on Thursday. I probably won’t have to get braces again or need to have any jaw surgery as my problem is most likely minor and can be fixed up with a splint.

I’ve fallen off the wagon and put on a ton of weight over the last 6 months. I thought I was big back then but I’m no comparison to what I am now… I couldn’t fit into my pants back then and now I’m struggling to! I did really good last year but got to a certain point and couldn’t take any more off. I’m trying to be disciplined but I keep failing and having bad foods here and there, and because of that there’s no point in me riding my bike to work. I’ll be renewing my gym membership and seeing a dietician next week. Let’s hope I can change my bad eating habits and get healthy.

Wish me luck!

Web 2.0

According to Daniel Nations, copyright infringement has proliferated with the rise of Web 2.0, which allows collaboration on a global scale (e.g. Wikipedia). Commentators have pointed out that Web 2.0 “users” often do not realise that they are engaging in copyright infringements. For example, blogging and the associated passing around of articles and images may not be recognised as copyright infringement by the blogger, and/or not intended as such. Web 2.0 is part of a recent shift in public awareness and expectation of the Internet, which acts as the interface for almost instant, ubiquitous availability of information as and when required. While many Web 2.0 users or companies do not advance consistent anti-copyright arguments, their actions and business models fundamentally question prevailing copyright. Companies, such as YouTube, Viacom and Google, may comply with requests to remove copyrighted material, but refuse to actively enforce copyright on their site. These companies argue that they do not have the power to prevent the uploading or downloading of copyrighted material.

Scholars such as Rasmus Fleischer argue that copyright law simply seems unable to cope with the Internet, and hence is obsolete. He argues that the Internet, and particularly Web 2.0 have brought about the uncertain status of the very idea of “copying” itself. He argues that in an attempt to rein in Web 2.0, copyright law in the 21st century is increasingly concerned with criminalizing entire technologies. Leading to recent attacks on different kinds of search engines, solely because they provide links to files which may be copyrighted, Fleischer points out that Google, while still largely uncontested, operates in a gray zone of copyright (e.g. the business model of Google Books is to display millions of pages of copyrighted and uncopyrighted books as part of a business plan drawing its revenue from advertising). In contrast, others have pointed out that Google Books blocks-out large sections of those same books, which incentivizes purchases, and supports the legitimate interests of rights holders.

Fleischer’s central argument is that copyright has become obsolete with regards to the Internet, that the cost of trying to enforce it is unreasonable, and that instead business models need to adapt to the reality of the darknet.

Since the tower’s just laying to waste I’ve decided to put it to use and convert it into a digital media center where I can store all mine and my family’s photos, music and videos.

I’m going to RAID the 4 x 1TB hard drives in it (so they act like 1 x 4TB hard drive) and work a system where all photos are stored in iPhoto and music and videos in iTunes (at 320kbs AAC audio and a yet to be decided video format). They’ll be accessible through iTunes, UPnP devices and Windows shares.

The thing I have to do now to get it started is backup all the imprtant files currently on it to spare hard drives so I can RAID and reinstall the system. Unfortunately I can’t RAID whilst keeping the the files on the hard drive, that would make things alot easier… clean install, fresh start is the best thing to do.

I’ll keep you posted on this.

That is all…

[Updated 14/11/09 @ 04:13] To make matters worse the last two hours of my shift I got an incredibly sore, bloodshot and now puffy eye. It felt like there was something stuck under my eyelid that wouldn’t come out. I literally passed out from the pain.

I’ve developed a love for Daft Punk too lately, Alive 2007 is one of the most amazing albums to listen to. Every track on it I love. Apparently they’re coming out to Melbourne in August next year, I am so there!

I’ve been going to the gym every second day as well for personal training sessions. I got to a point a few months ago where I was like “I don’t want to be fat anymore” I had really grown a belly. This was the photo that triggered it:

When I first weighed myself I was 87kg, now I’m 78kg. It just sucks right now because I’m working my ass off at the gym every second day and I still have a minor belly which doesn’t seem to be going down… I’m not going to give up though!

Tomorrow I’ll be starting nightshifts (7pm-3am) at work till Sunday, I don’t mind them here and there but three weeks of them which I had to endure recently was a killer.

Wish me luck.

I’ve deleted every post that ever existed on nathan’s headspeak so I can start fresh, this way I can refocus what this blog is about.

Here’s to another 5 years of blogging, hope you enjoy.