It for life

I am a 55yo disability pensioner and up to ten years ago I led a very active life. I finished school before graduating, opting for any work that gave me the income to attend rock concerts, race motor bikes, surf, have a relationships and travel the world. Except for a brief attempt to study as a mature age student (pre computers), my life didn't have time for sitting down at a desk. Therefore when I became ill, I had to totally redefine my existence. 

Firstly I read, obsessively, everything I could get my hands on and no library was safe from my newly acquired speed reading abilities. Then I tried painting and if it didn't move quickly enough, it ended up covered with my art. Soon I was writing my version of "War and Peace", devouring  pens and pads faster than I could run to the nearest stationary outlet. This led to my first encounter with QWERTY, Microsoft operating systems and Word. After getting over my first loss of days of work , due to not backing up and the fact that you have to firstly go to Start to stop, I decide IT was the "thing" for me.

Two years of intensive study brought me to the conclusion, the days of floppy disks (hard copy back-up), expensive software and large (old fashioned) computers was over. The Web, cloud based servers and portable hardware is the way forward. Wikipedia HAS replaced Encyclopaedias, bookcases full of dusty old books and they need not clutter our lives again; regardless of your own personal nostalgic feelings for them. You CAN store all your vinyl records, tapes, CD's, video's, massive TV outputs, printed matter, photo's, albums etc, along with all the paraphernalia associated with an XP/Vista or old Apple system, in a building purpose built for such an extravagance; or you can store it in the cloud and take them with you wherever you go.

All this comes as no revelation to the young and those in the know, but it is still unrealized by the masses that would most benefit from the cheap and available technology springing forth, on our discount store shelves, as we ponder the new generation of IT with in our reach. For as little as a dollar a day (less than a newspaper) you can get a netbook with 4GB's of download p/m, that enough to access all the free storage needed to accommodate and all your precious stuff. I have opted for a handy 7" Galaxy tablet that can fit in the back pocket of my jeans or the coat pocket of my jacket. For under two dollars a day I get 10GB's p/m to store all the books, photo's, art, music and documents I can muster. I can download movies, newspapers, magazines, listen to radio, music, talks by the worlds most interesting speakers (TED). I can publish my book, display my art and if fate favours me, run a small business that will fund my retirement. And I can do all this on a bus/train, at the beach, while fishing, visiting my grand kids or vegeing in a retirement home. Oh btw, I can make free video calls to my most loved one's, or regular calls to any phone in the world, thanks to Skype. 

For me this new technology is as good as a wheelchair for a cripple, a hearing aid for the deaf or a sight restoring eye opp for the blind. I can NOW begin to aspire to a more active life away from the confinement of an overstuffed office chair.



 

 

My hope for 2011

My hope for 2011 is that attitudes will begin to move towards the concept of Direct Democracy.

Whenever the subject is breached, those with any semblance of power will laugh and hint at the "fact" Australian's are to stupid to have any say in policy decisions. Then they move the argument towards the "indisputable", referendums never get a result and it's way too expensive anyway. 

Well, unless we are prepared to admit we will never be as clever as the Swiss http://www.abc.net.au/rn/rearvision/stories/2010/3047700.htm, the media should stop dumbing down the public and start gearing them up towards Citizen Initiated Policy. Because with a Nation Broadband Network comes the tools for voting on issues, rather than politicians who are bought and paid for by self interest groups. 

Crazy RAN's closing down sale

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/navy-drug-suspect-list-hits-17-following-police-raids-on-garden-island-naval-base/story-e6frf7l6-1225975265636

Another Aussie arms deal NAILED

http://m.smh.com.au/national/top-brass-bombarded-with-treats-20101229-19a9m.html

New site for Breastplate of Narmer

http://wayneswordpress.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/the-breastplate-of-narmer/

New Uniforms

 

from Waynes Word on Web, 19.11.10

Multi-national, Multi-cam, Ameri-cam or Ausmeri-cam...??

Ameri-stralia..?

Australia becomes the next star                    BO is on the nose Isn't it funny how fickle the voting public are, or how easy they can be manipulated by the media. One minute Kevin Rudd and Barack Obama are lifted up to to take the blame for the stimulus packages that had to be brought in (because of the greedy monetary policies of the Howard / Bush years), next they are kicked around by the very media that raised them. If the Democrat's power is knobled by the mid term election, then no one should be happier than the irresponsible neo-cons who collapsed the world's economy and got bailed out by the Rudd / Obama temporary governments. Before you, the gullible public, can say BO is on the nose, things should get back to normal where the banks can start the cycle all over again. Good on ya Murdock, Packer and public news casting services, where would we be with out you.                  STOP BUYING IT! Groups or organizations such as Churches, Governments, Military, Police and Corporations demand obedience at various levels and if one is highly disciplined at obeying their orders, then personal responsibility can be negated. For example: A soldier can use the defence "I was only obeying orders" A Jehovah's Witness "my religion doesn't allow for blood transfusions" A good citizen " the government allows me to sell cancer causing products" If one is to remain highly disciplined and loyal to their organization yet be involved in activities such as human rights abuse, obvious stupidities and state sponsored murder, then the institutions they subscribe to must be held responsible not the individuals. When soldiers are brought up on charges of human rights abuse, quite often, they are tried by the very organizations that initiated the behaviour. When someone dies from lack of an available medical procedure a Church deemed inappropriate, then it's the individual who suffers and the institutions get away Scott free. When someone dies of cancer directly attributable to government taxed and approved products, then we as witnesses should be duty bound to hold the government to account and not point the finger at the victim. When a teenager gets drunk on socially approved liquor, jumps in a legally registered hot rod and raps himself and his girlfriend around a telegraph pole, we should be marching in the streets demanding accountability from the ones who have continually ignored the obvious remedy; tighter government restrictions regardless of the loss of revenue. We the people have allowed our elected representatives, clergy and Captains of industry to get away with murder, while they continually point the finger at the victims. They spend tax payers money on advertizing campaigns that take the emphasis off their lack of responsibility and place it on the disempowered individual. STOP BUYING IT!                      Never wrong The decision points to bad intelligence traumatizing a generation and redefining human rights abuse, to please oneself, regardless of the consequences.           Lazarus comes forth Lazarus was dead in his electorate, but arose on comman