Rubenerd

How did marking a post number milestone with an industrial cleaning product device become a tradition!? I blame this post, this post and this post.

In Soviet Vacuum Cleaners… no, never mind

My birthday post from earlier today was post 3400, so here for your reading entertainment is information on the Tennant 3400, a pretty spiffy vacuum cleaning device if I may say so myself.

It is a first-class machine, made by TENNANT N.V. at their factory in Uden of The Netherlands. It is distinguished by its extraordinary high quality, extremely modern design, and long service life.

You know, people sometimes say that about me.

The 3400 is the quit, dry vacuum cleaner setting new standards in filtration and sound level.

Ditto.

The 3400 is one of the most quiet vacuum cleaners in market place making it eminently suitable for use in noise-sensitive environments such as hospitals, schools hotels and offices, avoiding disruptions of working activities. With tree stage filtering system it is also the cleanest professional vacuum cleaner available, with filtration level of 99,99954%.Light and easy to transport, the 3400 is designed to give excellent handling qualities and high degree of comfort.

That's a pretty high filtration level, if I may say so myself. Wait, I've said "if I may say so myself" twice now, or three times including my use of it just then. If I may say so myself.

Oh do tell me more!

Sure thing! Here are its technical specifications:

SUCTION: 220 mbar
AIR FLOW: 180 m³/h
SOUND LEVEL: 58 Db(A)
CAPACITY: 8 L
CABLE LENGTH: 10m
CONNECTED LOAD: 230 V 50 Hz
POWER: 1100 W
WEIGHT: 5.5 kg
PRICE: € 278.50

And finally, here's some information on its manufacturer, TENNANT N.V.:

Claoxylon indicum is a dioecious flowering plant in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. The specific epithet comes from the Latin Indicus (Indian), referring to the locality of collection of the type specimen, which was probably Java, part of the Dutch East Indies at that time

Who says I never post useful information here? Don't answer that.

Its the sixth birthday I'll be celebrating here at Rubenerd.com, and I won't be breaking my tradition of writing birthday related entries that have absolutely no value whatsoever :).

The Bird is The Word

Given my relatively quiet nature today was mostly spent in the pursuit of happiness in the presence of my old man and sister, as well as my late mum in spirit I like to think. To be honest, for some reason I've been missing her a bit more lately. Perhaps the grim reality has finally started to settle in a bit that she really is gone for good, and that I have to accept it.

But anyway, today marked my quarter century mark being on this warm spinning blue orb in the coldness of space. I quite like it here, I think I'm going to stay :).

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

This morning I slept in and was greeted at my computer desk with my Mac Pro inexplicably covered in streamers and party bows! Its a family tradition to do silly things such as this, one year my mum filled a relative's birthday card envelope with glitter, so when they opened it the stuff poured everywhere and would have been frightful to clean! We're very sophisticated here ;).

So I made my way to the Euro Coffee Bar down the road from us in Earlwood where my sister Elke works. Shortly before leaving after having my regular cuppa, Elke pounced and gave me a cheesecake with HAPPY BIRTDAY spelled in candles! Allegedly the second "H" snapped in transit, but that's okay I think we have a new meme. :D

This is The Tale, of Alan A’Dale

If you follow my Google Reader shared items list as of late, you would have seen my… shall we call it "obsession" with these new types of wristbands that turn the latest generation of iPod Nano's into wearable wristwatches. Well along with a Weird Al UHF DVD (yays!) and a terribly awesome Keep Calm and Drink Tea poster, Elke went out of her way and procured me not only said wristband, but an iPod nano to slot into it! I couldn't believe that she had gone to that much trouble for me :)

To be blunt… I feel like Commander Keen walking around wearing this gadget on my wrist. Despite its slightly larger size, its surprisingly lightweight and the clock application with the backlit screen looks absolutely stunning. Other than the fact you need to tap the power button to display the clock, by all accounts its a real wristwatch with timers and stopwatches and displays for the date and customisable timezones and and and and… you get the idea. I'll add a review of this to my pile of posts I have to write at some point :).

I think I’m going to Katmandu [sic]. Ka-Ka-Ka-Ka…

We wandered around the city in the late afternoon, then finally made our way to the Austrian Club of Sydney for dinner. Ironically, its rained on my birthday every year since 2005, and I've had German[ic] food for dinner every time as well! I suppose its a tradition at this point, and one I hope continues. Well, the latter at least!

In Soviet Meme, Ruben Repeats You

While driving home we took a quick detour and made our way to the Royal North Shore Hospital where my mum was no doubt screaming her head off in pain 25 years ago. I think birthdays should be as much a celebration of the parents who made it possible, and suffice to say the mother does most of the work ;).

As I said on Twitter, it was ironic that despite being born in Sydney, the last time I'd had a birthday here was on my birth… day. My family moved to Melbourne before I turned 1, then we were in Brisbane and finally in Singapore when I was in late primary school. In the whole time since, Sydney (like the rest of Australia) seemed more like a holiday destination than a home, though now I'm glad I'm getting to know this city, even if its 25 years too late!

Thank you to all of you on Twitter, Google Reader, the newsgroups and mailing lists I'm a part of and in email for your wishes :). As I said on the Twitters at midnight:

A quarter of a century ago today (aka 25) my lovely hippy mummy unleashed me upon the world. Rest in peace, I love you <3

Travel back in time!

• 2010: It’s my Jack Bauer, 42 backwards birthday
• 2009: My 23rd birthday photos from Hahndorf
• 2008: I’m 22, but I won’t wear one!
• 2007: Ruben’s 21st eve musings!
• 2006: I’m 20! And Useless eBay Purchase!

So here's something random, this afternoon I got an SMS from Optus, right?

OptusMSG: Important info: From 17 April 2011 we are changing the way that YouTube access appears on your bill. Visit optus.com.au/changes for more info

The link redirected me to an Earl that was so long it took several megabytes of my data plan to access. I kid, but it was long! If you didn't see it linked to earlier in this paragraph, here it is again.

I'll be addressing this message in three parts, which is one less than four but five greater than negative two. You read it here first, folks.

Ruben is highly-larious

Firstly, I just realised addressing and message is a huge pun, and it was entirely unintentional. Wait, I mean, it was intentional, and I'm a comic mastermind.

Secondly, according to Optus, YouTube videos are actually appearing on my bills! That's pretty clever. I don't understand why they would do this though, unless they were going to play ads with lots of zoo animals.

These jokes doing anything for you?

Department of Redundancy Department

Okay, down to what this post was going to be about. My point, and I do have one! Pencils have points, if they're well sharpened.

As far as I know, I haven't ever accessed YouTube content on my iTelephone 4 or my earlier iTelephone 3G on Optus. Never. Well, as a matter of disclosure, I haven't on my Motorola L Series or my Palm III either, but for another reason entirely. For the iTelephones, there are two reasons.

1. Their data speeds in the CBD of Sydney are exceptional (and now I know its not just me), but out in Earlwood where I live the speeds are so abhorrent it can barely send SMSs reliably let alone download a video file on the fly.

2. Even if their network did allow me to watch YouTube video as advertised (in video advertising, ironically enough), I also find it difficult enough to navigate across city streets, down escalators and in class with my face buried in my iTelephone’s magical and revolutionary screen just when reading text. I imagine watching video on such a device would push my dexterity from crafty crowd weaver to head bump express, or worse.

I hope Optus isn't trying to kill me, because then I wouldn't be able to pay my bills. Where's the logic in that? But I digress.

This isn't the first time Optus has sent me an SMS about a feature or billing procedure that doesn't affect me (Optus and their redundant SMSs), but I suppose its better they have a few false positives than sending them to people who need the information.

So what was the message about?

After clicking through to that really long link, I was presented with this information. If you missed that link, here it is again.

From April 17th 2011 Optus will be correcting a technical issue, and any customers accessing YouTube […]

Oooh! Wait! Let me guess! They've realised the terrible 3G data speeds and coverage around Earlwood is a technical issue and they're going to rectify the situation on the 17th of April?

From April 17th 2011 Optus will be correcting a technical issue, and any customers accessing YouTube will now see data usage appearing on their bills.

Ah crap. Oh well, at least I [involuntarily] don't access YouTube videos on my iTelephone devices anyway.

To be fair, after reading the whole page it looks as though they won't be looking for retroactive payments from people who have used YouTube on their handphones in the past. If they really took after their corporate overlords back in Singapore, they would ;).

A bit late to the party, but reading this in PC World Australia pretty much confirmed my fears.

In case you missed it, HP overnight launched three new devices based on Palm’s webOS platform; a TouchPad tablet, a Pre 3 smartphone and a compact Veer smartphone. Sadly, none of these slick-looking products are likely to make it down under.

And how does Ross Catanzariti know this?

Brad Swiney, PR Manager, Personal Systems Group, HP Australia: “HP will not be launching these WebOS devices in Australia at the same time as the US and at this early stage cannot speculate on local pricing. Specific region and country availability details have not yet been announced, however HP will first be targeting markets where WebOS is currently available.”

No webOS devices are currently available in Australia or Singapore, meaning that we can assume no new devices being launched here or there anytime soon. Still, he didn't explicitely say they wouldn't be launched at all, so there's room to be optimistic, maybe?

You know what? No, there isn’t

Palm, or HP, or whoever you are, can we have a chat?

I've been a loyal user of your devices since I was first given a Palm IIIx in primary school. I had absolutely no practical business use for a PDA, but I loaded it up with software and even tried my hand at writing some of my own. I got so fast at Graffiti I even started writing the glyphs in my school notes by accident. It was a reflex!

My first smartphone was a Tungsten W, a device that married the ease of use of the classic Palm platform with a full QWERTY keyboard and the maddening design decision to only include a speaker and microphone in the hands-free cable. Still, it was better than anything else.

Since then I inherited a Palm V, I got a series of Treos, and finally an adorable little Centro which I use as my secondary phone for my foreign SIM cards (pictured on the far right in this photo taken in 2008 or something!)

webOS

When a GSM Palm Pre was first announced, I was extremely excited. A friend of mine from the States had let me try his unit and in my opinion webOS blew the iPhone OS (still called that at the time) and Android out of the water.

Unfortunately, you quickly demonstrated your apathy for the markets that myself and my father (who also wanted one) resided, and gradually I lost patience and got an iPhone 3G. It was a great phone, so much so that I caved and got a 4 last year as well.

With the announcement of the TouchPad once again I see a device I would prefer to use over a similar Apple product, but if I were to ever get a tablet computer it would probably be an iPad. I could go to the trouble of ordering one from the States, or getting a friend to post me one, or jumping through another series of hoops, but what's the point when Apple not only acknowledges the existence of my market, but is actually willing and happy to have my money! Heck even some Android makers do too, to be fair!

I'm ready to call it quits Palm, or HP, or whatever you are. Despite still wanting to be, it should not be this hard to be your customer/fanboy! Oh well, se a vida e.

This post originally appeared on the Annexe, in a post series pointlessly documenting every train I took.

M25 from Wolli Creek to Central

Cleanliness: Good

You can read the Law.com article here for a morning laugh.

We can only hope such lawsuits continue to be filed. Rational copyright reform lawyers have clearly been unable to introduce common sense or logic into the fight, so perhaps letting the mafiaa [sic] unintentionally fight absurdity with absurdity may be our best hope yet of some copyright law sanity. Haha, ah, who are we kidding? ;)

The photo above by NotFromUtrecht on Wikimedia Commons is of two limes, which may or may not have later been drawn into filaments for use in Gnutella wires. Ruben so funny.

Firefox 4.0 is fresh out of the Mozilla ovens and ready for download! Like this cake ;).

I’ve been using the RCs for several weeks, and other than a few stability and tab issues I’ve been enjoying the improved performance and cleaner interface.

I’ve been swamped with work and studies as of late (I still haven’t uploaded my photos from the Weird Al concert!) but I hope to have a more detailed review up in the coming days, particularly some of the new extension sandboxing, DNT headers and other goodies. Stay tuned :).

<old man voice>

When I first started using Twitter in early 2007, I had a dozen or so followers, followed a dozen or so people back, and my Twitterrific client was so quiet it just sat dutifully in the corner of my screen updating only every few minutes or so (pictured above).

Its been a few years since then, and now I follow hundreds of people. I have complex lists to keep track of people, news sources, organisations and current topic searches, and my TweetDeck client has its own widescreen monitor. It has completely replaced any remaining TV news I used to watch, half of the email I write, and a substantial portion of Google Reader/Bloglines reading.

In the beginning, just as with virtually other site since the dawn of [WWW] time, we've been the early adopters, and it always works the same way:

1. We’re enthralled with a new underground site
2. All our nerd friends and the likes of Leo Laporte use it. We’re the base.
3. It gains more public attention. Lady Gaga starts using it.
4. General public becomes the base, nerds relegated to fringe case power users
5. Site changes to accommodate general public to the detriment of nerds
6. The nerds move on

We're at number 5 right now. We nerds want greater access to the API, we want to access more than just 3000 or so tweets into our history. We want more sophisticated Twitter clients with more features. We want open access. It won't happen.

We’re not the users they care about any more

Unlike some of my nerdy brethren, I haven't kidded myself for one moment that I'm a typical user, at least not any more. I continue to read report after report that loudly proclaim it was third party Twitter clients that handed Twitter success, but I've yet to see any evidence to back up these claims outside a "nerd core" of users.

Twitter client developers have much to be proud of, and certainly many of us use their software, but nurturing them is allegedly no longer justifiable to Twitter. As Microsoft did with AV software to Symantec and the like, Twitter wants people to use their clients, and will use their competitive advantage to offer new features faster than outside developers can.

Free and open source software proponents developers like to think that people will choose freedom if given the choice (and perhaps 75% of the time, I do), but in the real world people need more than a philosophy or ideological position to make a shift from an existing application or service that otherwise works for them.

Identi.ca and its StatusNet software has long been a free alternative to Twitter, but has failed to gain much traction at all. Perhaps this latest move by Twitter will give people another reason to use it. The next step will be when all my friends are on it… and that might not be for a long time yet.

This post originally appeared on the Annexe, in a post series pointlessly documenting every train I took.

M34 from Wynyard to Bardwell Park

Cleanliness: Very good!

This post originally appeared on the Annexe, in a post series pointlessly documenting every train I took.

T44 from Bardwell Park to Central

Cleanliness: Good