Rubénerd Blog :)

I was lucky to get this jar of goodness, our local Woolies was virtually sold out… for understandable reasons. We’ll all miss you mate.

The Singapore Grand Prix and bills episode!

Reviewing the first Formula 1 Grand Prix night race in Singapore, Massa’s pits fuel pipe adventure, the lights and skyline, Alonoso was one lucky guy, Ferrari’s woes; version 1.1.1 of the addictive Nations application on Facebook; Twinings Chai tea; ridiculous Telstra phone bill nonsense; and avoiding suggestively named Naked DSL!

Music for this episode performed by Chris Juergensen from Magnatune.com.

Download MP3 to listen ↓ 37:00 17.1MiB

You can also stream this episode and view its Internet Archive page.

With the cost of fuel pushing new decade highs and with a public more concerned with the ecological impact of their cars, manufactures are taking notice. Some are improving the efficiency of their engines, making cars with stronger and lighter frames, augmenting power sources with batteries such as in hybrids and plug-in cars.

And then there are companies like Holden, the Australian subsidiary of GM. They’re offering a "99 cent fuel cap", meaning the first several thousand kilometres travelled will be subsidised. Instead of promising more efficient cars that cost less to refuel in the first place, they’re encouraging people to drive cars they probably wouldn’t drive under normal circumstances and with current prices because they’re too big and are too inefficient.

Do they really think this is the way to compete… do they really think this is sustainable? Thanks guys, but if I ever feel the need to buy a car, I’m going to buy one that doesn’t drink as much fuel in the first place and doesn’t heat up our planet as fast. Or a motor scooter. I like motor scooters.

Yesterday during one of my much enjoyed and looked forward to weekend coffee breaks with my MacBook Pro at the Boatdeck Cafe in Mawson Lakes, I posted a verbose, long winded, fun and largely ridiculous post discussing ways in which bloggers can help to maintain a regular post schedule.

ASIDE: I’m still holding out that if I mention the name of their establishment in almost every post I make, they’ll eventually start sponsoring this blog and my podcast. Flawless logic right? If they can’t afford to pay me, I’d just as happily accept a few free cups a day. Whatya say guys?

What I wasn’t expecting was a comment from none other than Mike Rundle not of our beloved Rundle Mall I discussed a few weeks ago, but of the selective 9rules blog community in the States. Who would have thunk it?

As it turns out, he was responding to an off the cuff remark I made under the "Caching Solution" heading:

To appear as though you’re more reliable to website alliances like 9rules that value regularity over quality, people write several posts a day, but release them over a period of days.

Mike was quick to correct my misapprehension:

At 9rules we value over quality over quantity any day of the week, and especially when we’re looking at blogs that want to join. If somebody split entries up over a few days just to look like they’re posting more frequently then we’d see right through that.

We’d much rather see a 9r member post great articles once a week or so then lesser quality articles every few days.

As someone who:

• discusses his primary interest in computer software and lifestyle on his blog
• posts only on a semi-regular basis
• does it just as a hobby
• enjoys grilled cheese sandwiches
• isn’t even living in the same country as the time zone reported on the site half the time
• posts as many multifarious, random posts as on-topic posts

… I would certainly never quality for 9rules or any other such site. It doesn’t bother me though because I’m clearly not what they’re looking for. Besides, it works both ways: I’m certainly not changing what I like to do to conform to another system!

I did appreciate Mike’s comment though and replied with a comment that looks quite like this one. Word for word almost, it’s uncanny.

Thanks for your comment Mike.

Rest assured I was mentioning your site very much tongue in cheek! That said, lets just say I know that on the basis of regularity (to say nothing of quality, and only talking about specific subjects) I certainly wouldn’t qualify, and I was making light of it.

I guess being a member of the "Ruben Schade" blogging network is enough work as is, right? :-)

You can find 9rules (surprising thought it may seem) at http://9rules.com/. For what it’s worth, I did manage to find Dan Lockton’s fascinating sustainable architecture website through them, even if he’s no longer a member.

My very sophisticated blogging system! Photo from my Flickr account

Just a brief post to send my 10th birthday wishes to Google. Not sure how well you’ve lived up to your motto of doing no evil, but you’ve nonetheless changed the world. Here’s to the next ten years guys :-).

For those interested, my fabulous sister Elke has not only started using Twitter again, but she has started a weblog of her own over on WordPress.com. The embarrasing thing is she’s doing a better job than I am already.

You can find her at http://lettuth.wordpress.com/. The name was inspired by her favourite image from I Can Has Cheezburger. I’ve been told that site has images of cats, or weasels, or other furry animals having serious intellectual discussions.

While rearranging my Dashboard widgets on my MacBook Pro this morning, I accidently stumbled upon a feature in the Weather widget which upon later investigation has already been well documented. At least I felt like an electronic archaeologist for a few minutes!

Regular Dashboard widget showing weather in Mawson Lakes, South Australia

If you haven’t tried this out already though, give it a shot:

1. Fire up your Dashboard, usually with the F12 key
2. Drag a new Weather widget from the widget bar onto the Dashboard
3. Hold down the Command/Apple and Alt/Option keys

You now have a widget with the weather set to "Nowhere", and by clicking the picture in the top centre you can change the weather conditions. It was cold and raining before in Rubenerd Nowhere, now it’s snowing!

Let the rambling of a blond guy with illustrations from Clannad begin again!

A more public aspect of my personality which I think I share with more people than not (or at least I hope so) is the way ideas tend to come out of my brain in spurts rather than continuous streams. Have I lost you yet?

What this means in the context of podcasts and weblogs is that certain days I literally have dozens of ideas for shows and blog posts, and other days I have trouble coming up with more than one. Today would be an example of the former; I have no less than 30 blog post ideas and over 50 show ideas I could ramble on about for paragraphs and hours respectively, when on Tuesday this week I was completely fresh out of ideas.

This raises the inevitable question: in a 24/7 medium such as the Internet, how best do I overcome this problem? There are several solutions I’ve been able to observe, but none seem to have worked as well for me as I would have hoped. One wonders why I call them solutions then! As usual in a situation like this I like to break out the ol’ reliable definition list:

The Frank Nora Notes Solution

Frank Edward Nora hosts the long running Overnightscape New Time Radio show and podcast with the help of carefully written notes and ideas that he jots down during the course of his day to discuss at night.

This method would work wonders for someone as intelligent and astute as Frank, but for me it doesn’t work as well; especially for recorded audio; because the initial enthusiasm I might have for an idea that I hastily jot down might have passed by the time I record. Another problem is I tend to fall into the dreaded trap of over-thinking a problem or issue which causes me to bore people with posts that go on for hundreds of lines or shows that ramble!

The Empty Post Solution

A trick I picked up when I first started blogging a few years ago was to create the heading for a post, leave it as a draft and fill out the content later. All that I ended up with after doing this for a few months were a couple of well thought out entries in a sea of drafted posts with titles that I couldn’t understand!

This could work sometimes, but I must learn not to rely solely upon it.

The Caching Solution

I would consider this a form of cheating even though I’m sure many bloggers employ the tactic. To appear as though you’re more reliable to website alliances like 9rules that value regularity over quality, people write several posts a day, but release them over a period of days.

I consider this a problem because it defeats the purpose of a 24/7 internet entirely, what’s the point of releasing something current and interesting if it’s already a few days old? Perhaps some types of posts are more suited to this approach than others, but for now I personally prefer to release posts after I’ve written them.

Are you following anything he’s written here?

The Optimist Solution

If posting at random intervals somehow makes me appear less professional, then why don’t I just quit now while I’m ahead? Because some posts that are well thought out and some that are just plain silly are still better than none at all!

The Jim Kloss and Dave Wares Solution

While accepting a reduced roll to understandably accomodate other interests, when people think of Whole Wheat Radio they probably still think of the personality of Jim Kloss. His self depreciating humour doesn’t mask his warm personality and strong character which shows through everything he does. When he writes or speaks about something, nobody cares if it’s late or sporatic because it’s just that good.

Dave Wares’ photo gallery blog is another example of this. I don’t get angry if he doesn’t post for a while, I look forward to when I get to see his latest work because it’s just so damned good, even if it does put my photography to absolute shame! This would differ from a news site which if it didn’t update I wouldn’t use them anymore.

The Rampler Unplugged Solution

Another idea from the creative genius Frank Nora, the idea behind a Rampler show is that you record it and upload it online with minimal or no post production. This means you maintain the original mood and atmosphere of the recording, plus it takes much less work which inevitably leads to more material being uploaded which benefits everyone!

I’ve started the Rubenerd Unplugged series as my own take on this solution, and plan to start just as soon as Rubenerd.com appears again. I seem to be having hosting problems just like Frank did… perhaps there really is a conspiracy going on here!

The Bromothymol Blue Solution

Get it? Get it?

The Obsessive Solution

If people associate regularity with professionalism, then give them what they want! Sure the posts you write when you don’t have much inspiration or interest will be dull and not worth reading, but at least they’re regular! I mean, what’s the point of having a hobby like a weblog or podcast if you just do them to relax, present ideas and enjoy yourself?

I’m not a fan of this solution!

I think Ruben just needs to get out more: that’d solve everything!

In the end, I’ve decided to take a bit from each of these solutions and use one I’ve thought of myself. I’ve decided to call it the Fresh Coffee Solution because it reminds me of the feeling you get after having an especially good cup. Cliche? Never!

My solution bases itself on the fact that sometimes I might have interesting things to talk about or post here on, and sometimes I might not because I’m human!. To maintain quality instead of buying a 1 kilogram of instant coffee that would last every day, I’ll instead focus my energy here when I do have something worth saying, and not when I don’t. Again sites like 9rules that state that they look for regular bloggers as one of their conditions might not like my approach, but I prefer to think of the internet as an alternative to a traditional media model where one-size-fits-all rules.

If this post made absolutely any sense to you at all, or if you have another solution you’d like to share, or if you’ve figured out a way to eat electronic fibre to somehow keep your websites more regular as it were, feel free to comment below! I’d love to do a follow up to it at some point either here, or on my show.

It hurts the brain!

I’ve always thought it’s a tragedy when a beautiful and elegant computer or other device is created that is such a pleasure to use and above everything else on the market, only to be snuffed out or not taken seriously when inept management and legal teams mess up their customer base and public perception by doing daft things, or conversely not doing enough. The Commodore Amiga is one example. The Swatch Smart car is another. BeOS is another. I could go on and on.

Unfortunately it seems Apple’s legal team is doing the same thing with the iPhone. Hooray.

As I’ve recently discussed on Rubenerd Show 252 and in an earlier post here, I’ve made clear how much I love my new toy and how it’s quite possibly the greatest gadget I’ve ever owned. This doesn’t mean I have not been aware of some head-smackingly stupid decisions on Apple’s part over the last few months, not least the issue with blocking some legitimate software from appearing on their Application Store. For those who don’t know what I’m taking about, here’s a summary from Gizmodo dated 12th September:

The latest casualty in Apple’s App Store blacklisting is Podcaster. A native app built according to exact SDK specifications, it goes beyond its creator’s web-bound streaming-only Podcaster.fm by letting you download and manage podcasts in a nice straightforward interface. Insidious, right? Apple thought so.

According to Podcaster’s blog, Apple explained why it booted Podcaster from the App Store: “Since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.”

I don’t know what person in Apple thought blocking applications that supposedly copy some functionality in their own software was a good idea from a technical or public relations standpoint, but I suspect the dope their smoking must be awfully powerful!

If this wasn’t ridiculous enough, my forehead hurt even more this morning by bashing it on the table in front of me when I read that not only are Apple blocking some applications for the dubious reason stated above, but their even forcing blocked application developers to keep their mouths shut about it! Do they honestly think this will save them from this public relations nightmare: just censor the people getting screwed over? According to Tech Radar this morning:

Apple has decided that enough is enough when it comes to people publishing the reasons they have had their applications rejected from the App Store.

Where before people wanted to highlight the reasons why their app had been rejected, Apple no longer wants to have its reputation sullied in this manner.

Every time a user now gets a rejection, the message: THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MESSAGE IS UNDER NON-DISCLOSURE is displayed clearly in the letter.

I dislike the Google Android platform both from a technical and usability standpoint and think the devices they run on look like they came out of a 1996 computer magazine catalogue, but the one thing they have going for them is that it’s a (mostly) open platform without this nonsense. I prefer using the iPhone but I’m hoping Google can pick up their game and become a real competitor to get Apple back on track.

In the meantime Apple, please don’t repeat history as with so many of the other brilliant software and hardware devices I mentioned at the beginning by stuffing up your device with this nonsense! You’ve already shot yourselves in the foot twice already, for heavens sake, you’re running out of limbs!

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in New York, 25th Septemter 2008
Photo from The Australian

With all the gloom and doom reports coming from across the Pacific in the United States with regards to the Subprime Mortgage Crisis and the string of unavoidable but nonetheless nauseating bailouts we’ve all heard about by now, it’s good to know that our own banking system and financial institutions in Australia are weathering the storm just fine. According to the Business section of The Australian paper and a recent report from the Reserve Bank, we’re actually in a relatively sound position:

“[Australia's] banking system is soundly capitalised, it has only limited exposure to sub-prime related assets, and it continues to record strong profitability and has low levels of problem loans,” it said.

The mostly upbeat report came a day after the International Monetary Fund issued a similar glowing assessment of Australia’s economy, fiscal settings and the resilience of its banks.

The RBA indicated that it, like many others, has been surprised by the extent of the financial crisis now sweeping global markets, but Australia’s banks were set to ride out the worst of it thanks to strong loan books and limited offshore exposures.

Unfortunately as I had suspected the global distrust and fear of banks is having an impact on Australian banks despite solid domestic performance. It’s another example of panic eclipsing common sense and actually doing research into companies you’re sinking money into.

For all the talk of lax regulations in the United States causing problems, I can’t help but think it has to do more with greed and general slackness. Again from the article:

[...] the central bank highlighted a few areas of the financial system hurt by the global turmoil.

“Australian Bank share prices are down considerably and banks’ funding costs have increased significantly,” the RBA said.

Bank bad debt provisioning has risen, but the ratio of banks’ problem loans to total assets remains below the average since the mid-1990s, “a period of unusually low credit losses”, it said.

In line with its recent comments on the economy, the central bank said that household balance sheets were entering a period of consolidation due to tighter financial conditions, but households were still drawing benefits from low unemployment rates and solid incomes growth.

Some stress signals are emerging for the mortgage belt, although these are minor compared to those in the United States.

This of course prompted the relaxing of interest rates from 7.25% to 7.00% earlier this month.

And to end this post, as if I needed an excuse to show something cool from my iPhone, here’s a screenshot of the Stocks application showing common indexes: