Post #1000: A bit of everything. Technology. Parenting. Hippos.
So this is post #1,000. It’s taken me a little bit under five years to get here, although the pace has picked up in recent years. I’ve also become slightly more tech focused and less parenting focused, but that’s mostly a factor of my kids getting older, and my own desires to maintain their privacy as much as is feasible. Intermittent trips into Hippos notwithstanding, the primary function of this blog still remains my technology journalism work
So, what to put into post #1,000? How about a little bit of everything?
On the parenting front, as noted, I’m not saying much. Except that I still love my kids to bits, and I’m very proud of how Miss 8 and Master 6 have been doing in their scholastic pursuits recently. This being Australia they’re being overshadowed somewhat by the kids who are keen on sports, but I don’t care. The sports kids will be on the front pages of tabloids and broken down at 30, while brains can last for decades…
On the writing front, an embarrassment of riches. Like many other journalists, I covered the announcements of plan pricing for the iPhone 4 yesterday; in my case at PC Authority:
Australian iPhone 4 plans and pricing compared: [UPDATED] Telstra vs Optus vs Vodafone vs 3: “Telstra, Optus and now Vodafone have announced Australian plan pricing for iPhone 4. Which is the better deal for the 16GB and 32GB iPhone 4?”
iPhone 4 plan pricing also led into this week’s Hydrapinion column, talking about the realities of phone plan values:
Hydrapinion:What’s the value of a plan? “Amidst the never-ending hype prior to the Australian launch of the iPhone 4, there’s a critical detail that just about every single article I’ve seen to date has missed out. It’s a detail that’s crucial not only to iPhone users, but to anyone who uses a smartphone.”
And finally at CNET.com.au, a whole host of content. First of all, a genuine rarity for me — a product re-review. In the five plus years since CNET.com.au launched, I’ve only gone back once before, and that was for a product where testing equipment wasn’t available at the time of the original review. This one’s more an issue of a vendor stating that a firmware update fixed pretty much every problem I hit with the original unit, and insisting that the updated model was significantly better. But was it?
Astone Media Gear AP-360T: “Based on Astone’s claims, we were expecting much less fuss. But to put it bluntly, that’s not what we got.”
In the more regular review world, CNET.com.au also had these brand spanking new reviews:
Acer Aspire 5738PZG: “The 5738PZG is a solid enough workhorse of a machine at the asking price. Just don’t buy it for the touchscreen ability or the battery life.”
Acer Aspire 1820PT: “Acer’s 1820PT brings portability and excellent battery life firmly into the convertible tablet space.”
Sanyo DCDB10 DAB+ micro system: “Sanyo’s DAB+ micro system is high on price and low on real value.”
That’s a lot of content for one day, even for me. I’m beginning to think I might work a tad too hard.
Finally, not forgetting the Hippo-loving crowd — how about a picture of the Egyptian Hippo Goddess Taweret? A photo I took in Adelaide recently. I had no idea Adelaide housed statues of obscure Egyptian Hippo Idols, but there you go.
Now, on to the next thousand posts!
How to become a world champion (the easy way)
Conventional wisdom says that World Champions are men and women of grit. Words like “perseverance” and “determination” get bandied about. Newspaper articles talk about the long, lonely hours of training, the sacrifices made and the hideous cost paid to be the best in the world at your chosen field.
Rubbish. Sure, you can do that, but it doesn’t have to be that way. I became a World Champion yesterday, almost by accident.
How much Life is there on Mars?
I’ve been slowly re-watching a couple of TV series of late, if only to escape the endless electioneering and Mastercheffage around at the moment. Can’t be having with either of them, really. One particular pleasure has been rediscovering Life On Mars, and of course its theme tune. Which leads me to listening to a lot of David Bowie.
Bowie’s performed Life On Mars quite a bit over the years, so it’s no huge surprise that there’s a few versions of his online. What surprised me in a recent search were the cover versions…
Where did the last four years go?
There aren’t too many dates from four years ago where I can pinpoint exactly what I was doing. Even what I was thinking. Today is the rare exception, as the family filled out to it’s fifth member.
A day filled with early wakings — as is the tradition with this family — jogging around maternity wards and the interesting new (for us) experience of actually being able to hold a baby after birth, instead of rushing it to a humidicrib and oxygen. To say we had an interesting three pregnancies would be a bit of an understatement.
The third child is special. I’m not just saying that because I happened to be the third child myself in my generation. But it’s different. The sheer terror of being a first time parent is gone, and there’s experience to fall back on in the general sense. At the same time, the experiences are still new, and the realization that all the kids are getting older becomes that bit more stark.
Master Four was Master Three yesterday. He’s an exceptional little man with his own personality, quirks, likes and dislikes. And like his siblings, I love him to bits.
Happy Birthday, Master Four.
Printers, laptops, airPads, Karateka and Frog Congee
It’s been a bit quiet on this blog this week. I wonder why that was?
Oh… right. There was this:
While I was busy dealing with the fun and games of having no reliable mobile phone signal (thanks Vodafone!), an awful lot of content was being generated. First, at CNET.com.au, a slight departure from the norm for me, with a photo gallery/story covering the event I was in Hong Kong for:
HP unveils printer apps and cloud printing: “HP has unveiled its latest range of printers in Hong Kong which now enable you to print from anywhere in the world. Its printer line-up starts at AU$129 and each one comes with its own email address. We check out the flashy launch and ask the tricky questions.”
Perhaps there’s a career ahead of me as a travel journalist/photo journalist. Perhaps not. Just in case, some more regular, review-centric content for CNET:
HP Compaq Presario CQ42-136TU: “The Presario CQ42 is an inexpensive entry-level system. There are no surprises here, either nice or nasty, and those seeking a basic office workhorse-type system will find it perfectly suitable.”
HP Compaq Presario CQ62-116TU: “The Presario CQ62 is a decent but unexciting laptop that doesn’t stand out enough to make it a must-buy system.”
MSI Wind12 U230: “The U230 offers more processing grunt than a comparable netbook, but fails in the crucial power stakes.”
Bush Walker BPR07DAB: “We can’t fault the Bush Walker’s simplicity or portability, but it’s still a DAB+ radio that is only of interest to those who spend a lot of time outdoors.”
The trip also afforded me the ability to do some genuine road warrior (or is it air warrior?) testing for MacTheMag:
MacTheBlog: AirPad: “One of the big claims of the iPad is that it’s portable. Perhaps not as portable as the iPhone, unless you’ve got particularly large pants, but still portable. I decided to put that to the test this week by using it (or attempting to use it) on an international economy flight from Sydney to Hong Kong. That’s right — I’m a sucker for punishment.”
And then with my strictly retro hat on, not one but two Vintage Tech columns for PC Authority:
Vintage Tech: Looking back at Karateka: “Karateka offered up smooth animation and simple yet evocative storytelling years before anyone though it possible. We look back at this classic game.”
Vintage Tech: Looking back at MiniDisc: “More durable than a cassette or CD, Sony’s audio format never really took off in the way the company would have liked. We look back at MiniDisc.”
That’s a lot of content, even by my relatively prolific standards. Clearly, I should travel more — it’s good for my productivity, albeit poor for my sleep patterns…
Have I got a bargain for you….
Astonishingly, the cheapest and most expensive games I’ve ever owned — and I’ve owned a lot of games — both arrived at my home within the last week. For the record (only a few people will get this), I’ve paid my own money for both of them; they weren’t industry “freebies”. Such expense — and lack thereof — deserves a review, but this isn’t the kind of stuff I can particularly sell to my regular outlets. So, instead, I’ll pass the savings on to you, and review them right here!
First up, let’s start with the scraping the bottom of the barrel end of the equation, shall we?
How to get Alex to stop talking in one easy step
This I did NOT expect. Then again, if you were in the room at Star City last night, my absolutely gobsmacked expression and lack of coherent speech probably tipped you off about that.
Which is a pity, because I’ve got a lot of people to thank, and I feel like I only did a tenth of the job last night. I did thank my lovely wife Di, who remains my inspiration and treasure. The award above is a proud moment, but it’s got nothing next to the day I stood next to her and said “I do”.
From a professional standpoint, I’ve clearly got to thank the editors who commissioned me for columns and blogs in the past year, which I think I managed to stammer out somehow. I’ve also got to thank the wider journalist community, who’ve kept me in bread and wine as a freelancer over the last five years, aided me immensely in my professional development in ways too countless to mention, and provided more than a few laughs along the way. I’ve worked (and continue to work) with some immensely talented people, and getting a peer-judged award like this is astonishingly humbling and genuinely surprising. I was so surprised, I was still typing my own name into twitter (I was tweeting the awards as they happened) before I realised it was… my own name!
For those staring at the pic above and scratching their heads, the IT Journalism Awards (informally “The Lizzies“) are, effectively, the local tech media Oscars. Except, y’know, with a whole lot less Botox and a whole lot more talent. Those who’ve read my “About Me” page might realise that I’ve made the finalist list across a number of categories pretty much every year over the last decade, but never actually won one.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go off and do a whole lot of smiling.
Vintage tech and strange Italian stalkers
A weird week so far. On the one hand, I’ve extolled the beauty of 1980s technology in a new column for PC Authority:
Vintage tech: Looking back at the Commodore 64: “Just look at it. Is that not a thing of design beauty? Well, OK, no, not much.It’s brown and… brown. Or in some later revisions, more grey and… grey.”
And at the same time, a random vanity name search led me to discover the oddly named, somewhat gothic and slightly Italian fan group
I LOVE ALEX KIDMAN ♥
all in caps for the emphasis, naturally. Makes a lot of sense to me. I mean, who wouldn’t love Alex Kidman?
People who were emphatically wrong, that’s who.
Sadly, it’s not actually about me (unless I’m living a strange double life even I’m not aware of). It does mean that I now know even more folk called Alex Kidman, though.
