Quite an amusing story. We had a fuse trip on the pool filter earlier this week for no reason. I had headed home yesterday to meet with an electrician in the afternoon and after he left I heard a tree frog croaking. It was coming from the drain at the front of the house. I had no idea how he got in there since there are no openings other than the roof gutters which flow directly into the pipes and out to the street. It must have climbed all the way up there from the street. Still, I could hear him, but not see him, and no way to get him out of there, so I headed off back to work. Later that afternoon the wife hears it when she got home. She searched the garage then called me. I told her it was in the drain.
This afternoon I was doing some work on the pool after it had been without power for a couple of days and I did a quick backwash which sends water out the storm drain. Shortly after I headed off to the shops to get some groceries when I looked over to where the drain connects to the street and there was the green tree frog lying in the street. I have no idea where the drains are all connected under the property but the pool drain where he came out was on the other side of the house from the drain he was croaking from last night. I suspect the drains are interconnected but he must have been wandering around in there overnight and happened to get in-line with the flow from the backwash and flushed out. I stopped the car and got out to check if it was still alive. It was weak, but alive so I found a cool shaded rock and set him down. When I got back from the shops he'd moved on, so hopefully he makes a full recovery.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Another solar upate. (First complete PV statement)
Well, after the hoo-hah of getting the first quarterly statement after getting the PV system installed back in Feb (which we received finally back in July) we've finally received our first quarterly statement post-PV install.
The statement from July was not too comforting. The PV system went in mid-Feb, but the statement was from end of December to end of June and came to over $250 owing. This was 2 months pre-PV, plus a bit heavy on the Tariff 33 due to me not checking the timer setting on the new pool filter hookup. It turned out it was running for about 10 hours a day for about 2.5 months when it should have started at around 8, and dropped to 4 for winter. My bad.
In any case, the pool timer was sorted out and we received the statement for June-Sept with a pleasing $56 credit! Not too bad considering that was the tail end of winter, and quite a bit of overcast skies. I can hardly wait until December as the summer months start to really get that PV output going.
The statement from July was not too comforting. The PV system went in mid-Feb, but the statement was from end of December to end of June and came to over $250 owing. This was 2 months pre-PV, plus a bit heavy on the Tariff 33 due to me not checking the timer setting on the new pool filter hookup. It turned out it was running for about 10 hours a day for about 2.5 months when it should have started at around 8, and dropped to 4 for winter. My bad.
In any case, the pool timer was sorted out and we received the statement for June-Sept with a pleasing $56 credit! Not too bad considering that was the tail end of winter, and quite a bit of overcast skies. I can hardly wait until December as the summer months start to really get that PV output going.
Here comes the NBN. Whoopidy-Dah
Getting back to my earlier post:
2. High speed, provided you stay on the island. Most people say Australia's current internet backbone isn't adequate, and they're probably right. However, a BIG problem with internet in this country is the links to other content around the world. Australia shares one respectable pipe with NZ through to the U.S. but the pipes up to Asia/Europe are ridiculously outdated. An interesting look at the situation around the world. Perhaps ISPs will invest more in mirroring and proxies but performance to sites and services offshore won't be helped one bit by this huge investment unless they plan laying more cables. This problem is compounded by the introduction of "cloud" services, where already international companies are side-stepping Australia in favour of Singapore.
I decided to do a bit of digging to see just what the NBN had planned for international capacity. It turns out, not a hell of a lot. As far as they're concerned, Australia isn't burning up it's meager international bandwidth resources thanks a lot to the local caching being done. At least according to the people these guys asked.
My favorite element to this was this quote from a pipe-line owner:
"Each of the four networks that will be providing the bulk of international connections for Australia is capable of carrying at least a terabit per second of data. The total international capacity in use for the Australian market in 2009 is estimated to be around 300 gigabits per second. Accordingly, total capacity usage could double, then double again, then double again, and then double yet again before the capabilities of those networks was exhausted. It would therefore be difficult to say that international networks are a capacity bottleneck in the Australian market.”
This has to be one of the most short-sighted statements I've read in a while. The whole basis of the argument is what Australians are perceived to be needing based on information and technologies that were popular two years ago. It doesn't address modern or future trends, and more importantly, it doesn't address the rest of the world's potential demand for services hosted in Australia! Already Australia is being actively bypassed for Cloud-based services by facilities set up in Singapore, Korea, and Japan. Australia is in the middle of a grand-old resource sell-off. Foreign investment is actively sought to essentially strip-mine this country of every valuable resource. But the question has to be, when supply or demand eventually scales back, what will Australia have to move on towards? This is the information age and countries are investing heavily in Internet and communications systems to serve as hubs for regional world markets. Data centres, application and service hosting, development of those applications and services... Australia has the money coming in, but is still behaving like an island with little to no thought of the future. Their answer so far has been to invest in heavy localized infrastructure that will be greatly subsidized to ensure that regional residents have equal access to similar bandwidth as urban connections. However, what will happen when the mining money dries up? We'll be left with an expensive broadband network serving fast, outdated cached content from 2009 around our little island with no external investment wanting to utilize it. Those still in information technology after the resource boom (and the hundreds of thousands of fat-cat Government jobs and contracts feeding off it) dries up will be left trying to compete with India and China building services hosted in Singapore.
Ah well, maybe by then the Government will resurrect plans to import nuclear waste from the U.S./World to fill up the holes left after selling off all of the minerals and coal.
2. High speed, provided you stay on the island. Most people say Australia's current internet backbone isn't adequate, and they're probably right. However, a BIG problem with internet in this country is the links to other content around the world. Australia shares one respectable pipe with NZ through to the U.S. but the pipes up to Asia/Europe are ridiculously outdated. An interesting look at the situation around the world. Perhaps ISPs will invest more in mirroring and proxies but performance to sites and services offshore won't be helped one bit by this huge investment unless they plan laying more cables. This problem is compounded by the introduction of "cloud" services, where already international companies are side-stepping Australia in favour of Singapore.
I decided to do a bit of digging to see just what the NBN had planned for international capacity. It turns out, not a hell of a lot. As far as they're concerned, Australia isn't burning up it's meager international bandwidth resources thanks a lot to the local caching being done. At least according to the people these guys asked.
My favorite element to this was this quote from a pipe-line owner:
"Each of the four networks that will be providing the bulk of international connections for Australia is capable of carrying at least a terabit per second of data. The total international capacity in use for the Australian market in 2009 is estimated to be around 300 gigabits per second. Accordingly, total capacity usage could double, then double again, then double again, and then double yet again before the capabilities of those networks was exhausted. It would therefore be difficult to say that international networks are a capacity bottleneck in the Australian market.”
This has to be one of the most short-sighted statements I've read in a while. The whole basis of the argument is what Australians are perceived to be needing based on information and technologies that were popular two years ago. It doesn't address modern or future trends, and more importantly, it doesn't address the rest of the world's potential demand for services hosted in Australia! Already Australia is being actively bypassed for Cloud-based services by facilities set up in Singapore, Korea, and Japan. Australia is in the middle of a grand-old resource sell-off. Foreign investment is actively sought to essentially strip-mine this country of every valuable resource. But the question has to be, when supply or demand eventually scales back, what will Australia have to move on towards? This is the information age and countries are investing heavily in Internet and communications systems to serve as hubs for regional world markets. Data centres, application and service hosting, development of those applications and services... Australia has the money coming in, but is still behaving like an island with little to no thought of the future. Their answer so far has been to invest in heavy localized infrastructure that will be greatly subsidized to ensure that regional residents have equal access to similar bandwidth as urban connections. However, what will happen when the mining money dries up? We'll be left with an expensive broadband network serving fast, outdated cached content from 2009 around our little island with no external investment wanting to utilize it. Those still in information technology after the resource boom (and the hundreds of thousands of fat-cat Government jobs and contracts feeding off it) dries up will be left trying to compete with India and China building services hosted in Singapore.
Ah well, maybe by then the Government will resurrect plans to import nuclear waste from the U.S./World to fill up the holes left after selling off all of the minerals and coal.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Prepare for interest rates to go through the roof.
My, my. The Australian government is lining up toast their economy with two birds for the price of one. Enter the "Carbon Tax". The current federal government is hanging onto power by a wee little thread and they're compelled to make promises and bow to pressures from independents and Green party seats. Granted I'm no expert when it comes to everything to do about this green tax, but most of what I've read about it spells bad, bad news for Australia's current boom.
The introduction of the Carbon tax is aimed to "encourage" business to increase and invest in energy savings. Now while this sounds like a good thing, the reality is that it is going to make it more expensive to do business. (But that's good for the Earth!) The problem here is that businesses that feel the pain will want to, or need to pass that pain on to the consumer. Even businesses that feel little or no pain will use it as an excuse to squeeze more profit out of consumers. Of course the government has promised that excessive or unsubstantiated increases due to carbon costs will have "appropriate action" taken against them. Sure. The government's counter to increased costs passed on to consumers will be tax cuts for families, funded by the Carbon tax. I'm no economist but this spells one thing: "Inflation". Prices will go up, and the government gives consumers the means to accommodate that increase.
Now when the government took a stab at localized green measures such as the water tank rebates, pool cover rebates, insulation rebates, and solar panel REC credits, these all will have caused micro-economic spikes in inflation. People don't CARE how much something costs, or what value for money they're getting when the government is footing the bill, and retailers KNEW this. The government is handing out UP-TO $X for a 5000L water tank, well that'd cover a good chunk of a high quality tank, but to consumers a tank is a tank so many retailers pawn off cheap crap for the rebate amount. The government paid for up to 100 square metres of roof to be insulated in people's homes. I'm sure they're wondering why so many people seem to have 98-100 square metre roofs. Installers will claim as close to the maximum rebate as they think they'll get away from. Customers don't care, it's not directly their money.
Just today we received their booklet about the carbon tax selling the idea on public by trying to claim that most people will get more from tax breaks than projected increases passed on to them. Realistically if they want this carbon tax to work, then there should be NO tax cuts. Yeah, it's painful for everyone but it's the only way to find a proper balance when trying to do the right thing without feeding inflation and promoting competition and inovation to make greener solutions more cost-effective. The current message to industry groups is a complete crock:
"Hi, it's the government. we need to look like we're doing something for the environment so we're going to hit you with a new tax because you're producing a lot of CO2. But don't worry mate! We're giving more money to your consumers so you can recoup your costs by increasing your prices."
The introduction of the Carbon tax is aimed to "encourage" business to increase and invest in energy savings. Now while this sounds like a good thing, the reality is that it is going to make it more expensive to do business. (But that's good for the Earth!) The problem here is that businesses that feel the pain will want to, or need to pass that pain on to the consumer. Even businesses that feel little or no pain will use it as an excuse to squeeze more profit out of consumers. Of course the government has promised that excessive or unsubstantiated increases due to carbon costs will have "appropriate action" taken against them. Sure. The government's counter to increased costs passed on to consumers will be tax cuts for families, funded by the Carbon tax. I'm no economist but this spells one thing: "Inflation". Prices will go up, and the government gives consumers the means to accommodate that increase.
Now when the government took a stab at localized green measures such as the water tank rebates, pool cover rebates, insulation rebates, and solar panel REC credits, these all will have caused micro-economic spikes in inflation. People don't CARE how much something costs, or what value for money they're getting when the government is footing the bill, and retailers KNEW this. The government is handing out UP-TO $X for a 5000L water tank, well that'd cover a good chunk of a high quality tank, but to consumers a tank is a tank so many retailers pawn off cheap crap for the rebate amount. The government paid for up to 100 square metres of roof to be insulated in people's homes. I'm sure they're wondering why so many people seem to have 98-100 square metre roofs. Installers will claim as close to the maximum rebate as they think they'll get away from. Customers don't care, it's not directly their money.
Just today we received their booklet about the carbon tax selling the idea on public by trying to claim that most people will get more from tax breaks than projected increases passed on to them. Realistically if they want this carbon tax to work, then there should be NO tax cuts. Yeah, it's painful for everyone but it's the only way to find a proper balance when trying to do the right thing without feeding inflation and promoting competition and inovation to make greener solutions more cost-effective. The current message to industry groups is a complete crock:
"Hi, it's the government. we need to look like we're doing something for the environment so we're going to hit you with a new tax because you're producing a lot of CO2. But don't worry mate! We're giving more money to your consumers so you can recoup your costs by increasing your prices."
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Here comes the NBN. Whoopidy-Doo
Australia is blowing a planned $40+ Billion dollars ($27B or so of direct taxpayer dollars, and undobtably a lot more in overruns and bail-outs over the next several years) on upgrading the copper network to an optic fibre based network across most of metro Australia, and high-speed wireless or other services to the rest. A great many promises were made to get the green light to blow the cash on this project, and a lot of pain and suffering is still to come. This roll-out has a number of really big cracks that aren't getting much attention.
1. Cost to consumer. NBN may end up being a massive headache for the government which intends to shut off the copper network once the NBN is available online. So far speculation on the plan prices to consumers is not encouraging. iiNet released proposed plans for NSW of $60-190 per month. $60 won't get you top-speed, and only a 30GB transfer limit. (Right now I pay less than $40/mo for that.) Basically you're paying 1/3rd more for the same limit with the ability to burn it faster. Other providers such as Dodo have hinted at cheaper plans, but these are companies that have a reputation for burning customers. I.e. low price plans with ridiculous transfer limits, then huge fees for excess usage capped at a considerably more expensive monthly price.
2. High speed, provided you stay on the island. Most people say Australia's current internet backbone isn't adequate, and they're probably right. However, a BIG problem with internet in this country is the links to other content around the world. Australia shares one respectable pipe with NZ through to the U.S. but the pipes up to Asia/Europe are ridiculously outdated. An interesting look at the situation around the world. Perhaps ISPs will invest more in mirroring and proxies but performance to sites and services offshore won't be helped one bit by this huge investment unless they plan laying more cables. This problem is compounded by the introduction of "cloud" services, where already international companies are side-stepping Australia in favour of Singapore.
3. Australia has a housing shortage right now, and while new houses are being built there's one little "gotcha" in store for people, especially those in areas that the NBN rollout isn't going to be reaching any time soon. Telstra (telco) isn't rolling out any new copper connections. This means when you buy a new house, you don't get a phone line. You don't get an internet connection. Your *only* real option is to pay for a 3G connection. (which are ludicrously expensive if you need it for much more than e-mail) Included in the price of your house was a cost to prep the house for the NBN roll-out. You can bet your bacon that as the rollout reaches these supposedly prepared locations, something isn't going to be adequate and there will be further cost and delay to the home-owner to finally get hooked up.
4. All connections through one box. IMO this is an epic fail for the whole plan. Basically in your home you'll have a little box running off an AC plug which the NBN cable runs through then splits off for phone lines and data lines. Expect these boxes to last about 5 years or so before you need to replace them. (From what I've heard they're several hundred dollars) Worse yet, when the power goes out, you not only have no Internet, you have no phone. No emergency line out, nothing. Sure, most people have mobiles, but as we saw with the Brisbane flood, even before things got really bad, the mobile networks were unusable. Copper phone lines were powered so as long as you keep a regular corded phone in the house you could always get a line out for help. (Tough luck if you tossed them all out for those fancy cordless wonders :) )
5. You may be expecting to be on fibre, but might not get it. Fibre is good, it is fast and reliable. 4G wireless, will be slower, and certainly will be more tempermental and less reliable. Even living in a relatively built up area doesn't guarantee you're getting fibre to your home. My guess is that as costs blow out with contractors milking this NBN cash cow, more areas will be cut off plans to run fibre and stacked into the 4G pile. This means more than planned load on the wireless option making it even less reliable and more out-of balance with the fibre option. I don't know if NBN has provided any info or service to check if your address is expected to be on fibre or wireless but it'd be really interesting to get snapshots of areas over time and see if they start pulling back the fibre rollout.
If you want fast, reliable internet to the rest of the world and are waiting for the NBN to deliver it, then my advice would be not to hold your breath. Maybe look for opportunities to move to South Korea or Japan.
1. Cost to consumer. NBN may end up being a massive headache for the government which intends to shut off the copper network once the NBN is available online. So far speculation on the plan prices to consumers is not encouraging. iiNet released proposed plans for NSW of $60-190 per month. $60 won't get you top-speed, and only a 30GB transfer limit. (Right now I pay less than $40/mo for that.) Basically you're paying 1/3rd more for the same limit with the ability to burn it faster. Other providers such as Dodo have hinted at cheaper plans, but these are companies that have a reputation for burning customers. I.e. low price plans with ridiculous transfer limits, then huge fees for excess usage capped at a considerably more expensive monthly price.
2. High speed, provided you stay on the island. Most people say Australia's current internet backbone isn't adequate, and they're probably right. However, a BIG problem with internet in this country is the links to other content around the world. Australia shares one respectable pipe with NZ through to the U.S. but the pipes up to Asia/Europe are ridiculously outdated. An interesting look at the situation around the world. Perhaps ISPs will invest more in mirroring and proxies but performance to sites and services offshore won't be helped one bit by this huge investment unless they plan laying more cables. This problem is compounded by the introduction of "cloud" services, where already international companies are side-stepping Australia in favour of Singapore.
3. Australia has a housing shortage right now, and while new houses are being built there's one little "gotcha" in store for people, especially those in areas that the NBN rollout isn't going to be reaching any time soon. Telstra (telco) isn't rolling out any new copper connections. This means when you buy a new house, you don't get a phone line. You don't get an internet connection. Your *only* real option is to pay for a 3G connection. (which are ludicrously expensive if you need it for much more than e-mail) Included in the price of your house was a cost to prep the house for the NBN roll-out. You can bet your bacon that as the rollout reaches these supposedly prepared locations, something isn't going to be adequate and there will be further cost and delay to the home-owner to finally get hooked up.
4. All connections through one box. IMO this is an epic fail for the whole plan. Basically in your home you'll have a little box running off an AC plug which the NBN cable runs through then splits off for phone lines and data lines. Expect these boxes to last about 5 years or so before you need to replace them. (From what I've heard they're several hundred dollars) Worse yet, when the power goes out, you not only have no Internet, you have no phone. No emergency line out, nothing. Sure, most people have mobiles, but as we saw with the Brisbane flood, even before things got really bad, the mobile networks were unusable. Copper phone lines were powered so as long as you keep a regular corded phone in the house you could always get a line out for help. (Tough luck if you tossed them all out for those fancy cordless wonders :) )
5. You may be expecting to be on fibre, but might not get it. Fibre is good, it is fast and reliable. 4G wireless, will be slower, and certainly will be more tempermental and less reliable. Even living in a relatively built up area doesn't guarantee you're getting fibre to your home. My guess is that as costs blow out with contractors milking this NBN cash cow, more areas will be cut off plans to run fibre and stacked into the 4G pile. This means more than planned load on the wireless option making it even less reliable and more out-of balance with the fibre option. I don't know if NBN has provided any info or service to check if your address is expected to be on fibre or wireless but it'd be really interesting to get snapshots of areas over time and see if they start pulling back the fibre rollout.
If you want fast, reliable internet to the rest of the world and are waiting for the NBN to deliver it, then my advice would be not to hold your breath. Maybe look for opportunities to move to South Korea or Japan.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
The mystery of the debilitated ankle, solved!
Shortly before I moved to Australia I suffered an unusual injury to my ankle. It wasn't sport related, or any other significant form of activity, it was while sitting in a chair. The symptoms were quite severe as I'd wake up in the morning and the ankle would be a bit sore and painful if I tried to flex it. The pain would be coming from the lateral (outside) side of the ankle, below the protruding bone. By the end of the day it would be quite noticeable and impacting on walking. The next morning the ankle would be unusable and I'd be unable to walk. After about 4 days it would slowly return to normal. There was no swelling normally associated with a strain, sprain, or arthritis.
The unusual thing was that after moving to Australia, the same issue would occur roughly every year or so. It made going to work difficult to impossible. Pain would radiate up the leg as a persistent, dull ache, and the slightest impact sent shooting pain up the leg. The last time it had happened I had gone downstairs one night to get some water and stopped off at the bathroom half asleep. The aching pain while I was standing actually caused me to black out and I woke up a couple seconds later sprawled out on the floor. (Fortunately uninjured.) When the ache had started I tried staying off the foot, resting it up, icing it. None of that seemed to help, it was still about 4~5 days before I could walk again.
The last one was about 6 months ago, then yesterday the ankle struck again! The previous night I had been sitting on the floor playing Play-Dough with the little one. I had come into work the first day with a bit of discomfort but knew by the next day I wouldn't be walking. I was talking to a co-worker that struggles with a trick-knee and he recommended going into physio as the problem can stem from somewhere above the ankle. This got me thinking a bit and doing some more research where I found that icing an injury is good for immediate treatment, especially when there is swelling. For chronic injuries, heat is a better treatment. With this injury I noticed that my leg, especially calf was quite stiff and sore. I had though this was a reaction to overcompensating for the ankle, with the leg working harder when I couldn't flex the ankle. I thought perhaps the ankle pain was in response to a problem with the leg. So I filled up a hot water bottle and rested my calf on it for about an hour. My foot felt cold but when I flexed it there was considerably more mobility. By the end of the day it was feeling better than it had in the morning. I put it up on the water bottle for about half an hour before falling asleep, and when I woke up this morning the issue was almost completely gone!
Now it all makes sense. The issue was with the Sural nerve that runs along the outside of the ankle and up the outside of the calf. The damage/pinch wasn't occurring at the ankle, it was in the leg due to pressure encountered when sitting cross-legged on the floor or in a chair. My earlier attempts to elevate and ice my foot were likely putting more pressure on the nerve in the leg resulting in the conditions worsening. At least now I know what causes the issue and can avoid that in the future, or at least know how to effectively treat it should it happen again.
The unusual thing was that after moving to Australia, the same issue would occur roughly every year or so. It made going to work difficult to impossible. Pain would radiate up the leg as a persistent, dull ache, and the slightest impact sent shooting pain up the leg. The last time it had happened I had gone downstairs one night to get some water and stopped off at the bathroom half asleep. The aching pain while I was standing actually caused me to black out and I woke up a couple seconds later sprawled out on the floor. (Fortunately uninjured.) When the ache had started I tried staying off the foot, resting it up, icing it. None of that seemed to help, it was still about 4~5 days before I could walk again.
The last one was about 6 months ago, then yesterday the ankle struck again! The previous night I had been sitting on the floor playing Play-Dough with the little one. I had come into work the first day with a bit of discomfort but knew by the next day I wouldn't be walking. I was talking to a co-worker that struggles with a trick-knee and he recommended going into physio as the problem can stem from somewhere above the ankle. This got me thinking a bit and doing some more research where I found that icing an injury is good for immediate treatment, especially when there is swelling. For chronic injuries, heat is a better treatment. With this injury I noticed that my leg, especially calf was quite stiff and sore. I had though this was a reaction to overcompensating for the ankle, with the leg working harder when I couldn't flex the ankle. I thought perhaps the ankle pain was in response to a problem with the leg. So I filled up a hot water bottle and rested my calf on it for about an hour. My foot felt cold but when I flexed it there was considerably more mobility. By the end of the day it was feeling better than it had in the morning. I put it up on the water bottle for about half an hour before falling asleep, and when I woke up this morning the issue was almost completely gone!
Now it all makes sense. The issue was with the Sural nerve that runs along the outside of the ankle and up the outside of the calf. The damage/pinch wasn't occurring at the ankle, it was in the leg due to pressure encountered when sitting cross-legged on the floor or in a chair. My earlier attempts to elevate and ice my foot were likely putting more pressure on the nerve in the leg resulting in the conditions worsening. At least now I know what causes the issue and can avoid that in the future, or at least know how to effectively treat it should it happen again.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Australian banking joy
Four years ago when we bought our house we were in the market for a mortgage. Banks were quite eager for our business, and quite eager to lend us ridiculous amounts of money. When we selected ANZ, they were prepared to lend us $1.1M, yeah, over a Million dollars, to use towards a house. I'd hate to think what would have happened to us if we'd even fathomed of borrowing anywhere near that kind of capital. In any case we ended up borrowing less than half of that for our home, and in the last four years of squirreling away we've reduced the mortgage by about half. ANZ's been a decent bank, well decent as in about as much of a bastard as the other major banks. They colluded (unofficially of course) with the other major banks and jacked up interest rates well above the RBA's cash rate increments, and when the cash rate fell they didn't pass on the full rate cuts. At least they've been a rather hassle-free arrangement.
However we can't look past that there are lenders out there with substantially lower interest rates with packages similar to that of ANZ. (discounted rate, offset account, credit card, etc.) One of the best I'd found looked to be QPCU (Qld Police Credit Union) which we can qualify for through the Mrs' government job. We contacted them and they were more than happy to come out and go over the paper work to get set up... Overall, based on the rate at which we're paying off our mortgage, switching would save probably around $3,500 so we figured why not. And then the catches started to appear. We would need to pay for an evaluation because our house was purportedly worth more than $Xk even though we don't need borrow anywhere near that. We had to provide stacks of documentation about our credit history, employment history, transaction history, rates, water bills etc. etc. etc. Then when something wasn't all there I'd have to send new copies, then other documents were current enough so I'd have to send updated copies of that. Then the latest statement for our mortgage wasn't recent enough. (since we only get a statement every 6 mo.)
I'm at the point where enough is enough. We're looking to borrow less than 1/4 what we were approved to get four years ago, our house has gone up in value, and we're earning more money. It should be effectively a complete no-brainer. I'm starting to think that they realized they weren't going to be squeezing much money out of us so they're not so eager for our business now. Quite annoying.
However we can't look past that there are lenders out there with substantially lower interest rates with packages similar to that of ANZ. (discounted rate, offset account, credit card, etc.) One of the best I'd found looked to be QPCU (Qld Police Credit Union) which we can qualify for through the Mrs' government job. We contacted them and they were more than happy to come out and go over the paper work to get set up... Overall, based on the rate at which we're paying off our mortgage, switching would save probably around $3,500 so we figured why not. And then the catches started to appear. We would need to pay for an evaluation because our house was purportedly worth more than $Xk even though we don't need borrow anywhere near that. We had to provide stacks of documentation about our credit history, employment history, transaction history, rates, water bills etc. etc. etc. Then when something wasn't all there I'd have to send new copies, then other documents were current enough so I'd have to send updated copies of that. Then the latest statement for our mortgage wasn't recent enough. (since we only get a statement every 6 mo.)
I'm at the point where enough is enough. We're looking to borrow less than 1/4 what we were approved to get four years ago, our house has gone up in value, and we're earning more money. It should be effectively a complete no-brainer. I'm starting to think that they realized they weren't going to be squeezing much money out of us so they're not so eager for our business now. Quite annoying.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Montessori
We went in today to a free session at one of the local Montessori schools. They have a session for parents and children to explore the Montessori environment available Monday to Saturday from 09:00 - 11:30 where you can pay for any number of sessions (typically 1 per week) over 10 week terms. It is also an established school offering kindergarten through to year 12.
I had seen a short documentary on the system early last year and thought it seemed a rather interesting approach. (More hands-on similar to how rural kids might have been raised in close-knit communities where their early education focused on things around the house and immediate environment.) Lin had been talking to a friend that was considering Montessori for their children, and we found that two of the larger schools in Australia are found quite close to where we live.
Within about 15 minutes of having a look around the environments Elise face was lit up with all of the activities available, Lin was a little overwhelmed, and I had found what had to be the perfect learning environment.We had looked at child care centres that also offer kindergarten and I was really not in favour of leaving Elise in that environment. The rooms were dark, and not very large for classes of 10 kids. There was an outdoor play area but only usable by children and specified times of the day, and shared by around 100 kids at a time. The environment at the Montessori school is a huge common indoor area and fully covered outdoor area, plus outdoor yards with a garden. Dozens of activities ranging from puzzles, books, crafts, and chores (such as dust pans, brooms, gardening equipment, etc) are arranged neatly on shelves all along the wall. The center of the indoor area is arranged with child-sized tables, chairs, and stools for parents. Children are encouraged to seek out an activity to explore, within a structured environment where they learn to be sure to put things back, and share with one another. They learn skills that are directly applicable at home such as washing up, preparing snacks, tidying up, etc. A teacher is roaming around to provide feedback and suggestions to parents, plus interacting with the children. They emphasise on only teaching through real-world activities, even if most are scaled down to child size, there is no "fantasy" element, so no television, or books with personified animals. Children develop through curiosity and are guided as to the proper performance of a particular task.
This approach extends into schooling where lessons are provided where children are given choices to a wide range of subjects, and taught how each subject will apply to them through life. All children have an opportunity to try any subject, and the method of learning is much more like lecture and development through self-discovery than traditional schooling. For example a teacher may ask a student to answer a question, where if the student knows the correct answer, knows an incorrect answer, or doesn't know the answer makes no difference. When asked, they are taught to answer honestly, and what action is appropriate when they don't know, or don't have the correct knowledge. (Such as to get up, go to the bookshelf or computer, research the answer, and present it to the teacher.) Tests are given primarily to inform students where they should consider improving their knowledge and skills, and their grading is done primarily through assignments and performances.
Basically it is a schooling system based around the structures we adopt in the workplace. In real life it's not a matter of whether or not you know the answer to a question, but a gauge of how you can learn to prepare yourself for an expected task, and complete a task even if you aren't properly prepared. It's quite a different approach to traditional school learning, but definitely something I want to consider for Elise in the future. (There are plenty of questions to ask such as availability to sporting activities, drama/arts, music, etc.)
I had seen a short documentary on the system early last year and thought it seemed a rather interesting approach. (More hands-on similar to how rural kids might have been raised in close-knit communities where their early education focused on things around the house and immediate environment.) Lin had been talking to a friend that was considering Montessori for their children, and we found that two of the larger schools in Australia are found quite close to where we live.
Within about 15 minutes of having a look around the environments Elise face was lit up with all of the activities available, Lin was a little overwhelmed, and I had found what had to be the perfect learning environment.We had looked at child care centres that also offer kindergarten and I was really not in favour of leaving Elise in that environment. The rooms were dark, and not very large for classes of 10 kids. There was an outdoor play area but only usable by children and specified times of the day, and shared by around 100 kids at a time. The environment at the Montessori school is a huge common indoor area and fully covered outdoor area, plus outdoor yards with a garden. Dozens of activities ranging from puzzles, books, crafts, and chores (such as dust pans, brooms, gardening equipment, etc) are arranged neatly on shelves all along the wall. The center of the indoor area is arranged with child-sized tables, chairs, and stools for parents. Children are encouraged to seek out an activity to explore, within a structured environment where they learn to be sure to put things back, and share with one another. They learn skills that are directly applicable at home such as washing up, preparing snacks, tidying up, etc. A teacher is roaming around to provide feedback and suggestions to parents, plus interacting with the children. They emphasise on only teaching through real-world activities, even if most are scaled down to child size, there is no "fantasy" element, so no television, or books with personified animals. Children develop through curiosity and are guided as to the proper performance of a particular task.
This approach extends into schooling where lessons are provided where children are given choices to a wide range of subjects, and taught how each subject will apply to them through life. All children have an opportunity to try any subject, and the method of learning is much more like lecture and development through self-discovery than traditional schooling. For example a teacher may ask a student to answer a question, where if the student knows the correct answer, knows an incorrect answer, or doesn't know the answer makes no difference. When asked, they are taught to answer honestly, and what action is appropriate when they don't know, or don't have the correct knowledge. (Such as to get up, go to the bookshelf or computer, research the answer, and present it to the teacher.) Tests are given primarily to inform students where they should consider improving their knowledge and skills, and their grading is done primarily through assignments and performances.
Basically it is a schooling system based around the structures we adopt in the workplace. In real life it's not a matter of whether or not you know the answer to a question, but a gauge of how you can learn to prepare yourself for an expected task, and complete a task even if you aren't properly prepared. It's quite a different approach to traditional school learning, but definitely something I want to consider for Elise in the future. (There are plenty of questions to ask such as availability to sporting activities, drama/arts, music, etc.)
Thursday, March 17, 2011
What is wrong with this picture?
I don't know what the situation is with Canadians currently in affected areas on the North-East coast of Japan, but the situation and response of the Australian government has been a bit of a bad joke.
There are Australians living in cities and towns not too far from where the reactors are currently spewing radiation. Right now they are in no immediate threat, but as soon as the wind shifts (as it does during Spring) that radioactive cloud is going to swing South. Not to mention the situation a long ways from being under control and there is still a serious risk of a critical mass explosion which would see a huge plume of radioactive material thrown up to drift on the wind. Such an event in one of the 4 afflicted reactors would seriously compromise efforts to secure the other three increasing the risk of additional radiation release. In all it is a very bad situation for people to be in.
Australia's response so far? Adivse people to leave. This when roads are completely clogged. Infrastructure is damaged due to the earthquake, fuel is impossible to find, food and water are scarce, and many people cannot even get to their belongings in buildings condemned by the quake. The UK and France have already been arranging charter busses to get to their people and transport them to safety. At least one Australian family was fortunate enough to get seats on one of the UK busses that reached their city. Their building was closed off after damage from the quake so they had no belongings or credit cards. They were desperate for someone to help arrange transport out of the area, and the Australian consolate provided nothing, no money, no transport, no help.
Granted this is a disaster so I'm sure they're juggling all kinds of emergencies. But I think this has the potential to galvanize people into a special kind of loathing towards our government in the face of other recent events. Australia has a problem with illegal immigrants, particularly those arriving by boat. People pay their last cent or dinar or what-have-you (along with a healthy sum donated by relatives living in Australia via Western Union) to people smugglers for a place on illequiped boats setting out for Australia via Indonesia. One of these boats was intercepted and directed to a processing centre on Christmas Island. Unfortunately due to poor navigation, bad weather, and a poorly maintained boat, it ran afoul of rocks on the wrong side of the island. Several people were killed.
Now here is the kicker. The Australian taxpayer paid to have 12 bodies flown from Christmas Island to Sydney with several surviving family members for funerals, and then flew most of those family members back to Christmas Island. Plus they flew 5 more bodies back overseas to countries like Iraq for burial there.
This was money spent not on Australian citizens, or tax paying residents, but on people that were trying to enter the country unlawfully. There are thousands of refugees and persecuted people living around the world desperate to get asylum in a better country. These people jump the queue by hopping on a boat knowing that they won't be turned back, and likely won't be sent back if they wait long enough or scream loud enough.
I don't want to sound like they shouldn't be helped, but it begs the question. How can the government justify spending that kind of money on unlawful aliens, and yet cannot be bothered to effectively organize a dozen charter busses for its own citizens stuck in a rapidly escalating disaster zone?!
There are Australians living in cities and towns not too far from where the reactors are currently spewing radiation. Right now they are in no immediate threat, but as soon as the wind shifts (as it does during Spring) that radioactive cloud is going to swing South. Not to mention the situation a long ways from being under control and there is still a serious risk of a critical mass explosion which would see a huge plume of radioactive material thrown up to drift on the wind. Such an event in one of the 4 afflicted reactors would seriously compromise efforts to secure the other three increasing the risk of additional radiation release. In all it is a very bad situation for people to be in.
Australia's response so far? Adivse people to leave. This when roads are completely clogged. Infrastructure is damaged due to the earthquake, fuel is impossible to find, food and water are scarce, and many people cannot even get to their belongings in buildings condemned by the quake. The UK and France have already been arranging charter busses to get to their people and transport them to safety. At least one Australian family was fortunate enough to get seats on one of the UK busses that reached their city. Their building was closed off after damage from the quake so they had no belongings or credit cards. They were desperate for someone to help arrange transport out of the area, and the Australian consolate provided nothing, no money, no transport, no help.
Granted this is a disaster so I'm sure they're juggling all kinds of emergencies. But I think this has the potential to galvanize people into a special kind of loathing towards our government in the face of other recent events. Australia has a problem with illegal immigrants, particularly those arriving by boat. People pay their last cent or dinar or what-have-you (along with a healthy sum donated by relatives living in Australia via Western Union) to people smugglers for a place on illequiped boats setting out for Australia via Indonesia. One of these boats was intercepted and directed to a processing centre on Christmas Island. Unfortunately due to poor navigation, bad weather, and a poorly maintained boat, it ran afoul of rocks on the wrong side of the island. Several people were killed.
Now here is the kicker. The Australian taxpayer paid to have 12 bodies flown from Christmas Island to Sydney with several surviving family members for funerals, and then flew most of those family members back to Christmas Island. Plus they flew 5 more bodies back overseas to countries like Iraq for burial there.
This was money spent not on Australian citizens, or tax paying residents, but on people that were trying to enter the country unlawfully. There are thousands of refugees and persecuted people living around the world desperate to get asylum in a better country. These people jump the queue by hopping on a boat knowing that they won't be turned back, and likely won't be sent back if they wait long enough or scream loud enough.
I don't want to sound like they shouldn't be helped, but it begs the question. How can the government justify spending that kind of money on unlawful aliens, and yet cannot be bothered to effectively organize a dozen charter busses for its own citizens stuck in a rapidly escalating disaster zone?!
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Contracting update.
The client's been a bit concerned about taxation/labour law compliance in its dealings with I.T. contractors, so they've been looking at options and organizations to provide a bit of structure around the situation. As a result I've been in to meet one of these umbrella organizations called "Freelancer" which basically provides a contractor service arrangement between contractor and client.
The trouble with contracting in Australia is that the government loves to get its nose into other people's business. They don't want workers using the term contractor as a tax cheat by claiming deductions etc. that legitimate businesses (whether individual or organization) can claim, and at the same time they don't want businesses taking advantage of staff by depriving them of sick leave, paid vacation, and such by labelling their role as a contractor.
Unfortunately it gets in the way of people that are doing the right thing. I'm not looking to, nor need to claim business expenses such as travel, equipment, home office, etc. My only interest is opting out of paid vacation I never get a chance to take, and sick days I never need to use, and applying that extra value against my mortgage.If I can opt to pay my taxes at the end of the year rather than paying too much through the year to apply for a refund, then I'd rather do that as well.
Frankly I can probably continue doing what I'm doing but I will be getting dirty looks from the tax office the whole time, and probably have to deal with audits. Working through Freelancer will have a few perks, such as having my taxes done professionally and being part of a structure that allows me to legally make various deductions plus split my salary for tax purposes with the Mrs. But this comes at a price, namely 5% off the top of my rate. (Tax deductable) That's like saying to a permanent employee they need to work an extra hour a week for the same pay. So far the client has balked at the idea of absorbing some of that cost in an increase in rate, but the fact is the rate I gave them was the same as if I had worked through an agency and I certainly didn't absorb their margin from my rate. We'll have to see what they say, whether they're going to bother with the Freelancer arrangement and agree to my terms, ditch the idea and continue as-per normal, or ditch the idea of using contractors all-together.
The trouble with contracting in Australia is that the government loves to get its nose into other people's business. They don't want workers using the term contractor as a tax cheat by claiming deductions etc. that legitimate businesses (whether individual or organization) can claim, and at the same time they don't want businesses taking advantage of staff by depriving them of sick leave, paid vacation, and such by labelling their role as a contractor.
Unfortunately it gets in the way of people that are doing the right thing. I'm not looking to, nor need to claim business expenses such as travel, equipment, home office, etc. My only interest is opting out of paid vacation I never get a chance to take, and sick days I never need to use, and applying that extra value against my mortgage.If I can opt to pay my taxes at the end of the year rather than paying too much through the year to apply for a refund, then I'd rather do that as well.
Frankly I can probably continue doing what I'm doing but I will be getting dirty looks from the tax office the whole time, and probably have to deal with audits. Working through Freelancer will have a few perks, such as having my taxes done professionally and being part of a structure that allows me to legally make various deductions plus split my salary for tax purposes with the Mrs. But this comes at a price, namely 5% off the top of my rate. (Tax deductable) That's like saying to a permanent employee they need to work an extra hour a week for the same pay. So far the client has balked at the idea of absorbing some of that cost in an increase in rate, but the fact is the rate I gave them was the same as if I had worked through an agency and I certainly didn't absorb their margin from my rate. We'll have to see what they say, whether they're going to bother with the Freelancer arrangement and agree to my terms, ditch the idea and continue as-per normal, or ditch the idea of using contractors all-together.
Solar panel update.
The solar panels have been quietly eliminating our electricity bill over the last couple weeks since the feed-in tarrif meter went in. I've been keeping an eye on the readout from the meter every morning and the results look very promising. This morning the totals were 138kW sold into the grid, with 98kW bought back.
How that looks is as follows:
Credit: 138kW x $0.50/kW = $69.00
Debit: 98kW x $0.21/kW = $20.58 (Tariff 11)
Net Difference: $48.42 profit.
This doesn't include Tariff 33 power that the hot water and pool filter are using, but at anything less than 372kW and we're still turning a profit at the moment. Based on electricity bills since switching the pool filter over to Tariff 33 I would estimate the current usage to be around 98kW.
During winter the system will not generate as much energy due to the shorter day and less intense sunlight, but our energy usage should reduce somewhat as well such as turning back the amount of time the pool filter is running. Still we may break even or have a small bill in winter months, but averaged over the year I'm expecting a credit in our electricity account.
Overall it's an investment like any other, and it will be about 5 years before the system has paid itself off. Provided that it proves to operate for another 20 years with minimal maintenance costs then we'll be looking forward to a possible avg. 20% p.a. return, but the risk being that who knows what the electricity market will be like over that time. :)
How that looks is as follows:
Credit: 138kW x $0.50/kW = $69.00
Debit: 98kW x $0.21/kW = $20.58 (Tariff 11)
Net Difference: $48.42 profit.
This doesn't include Tariff 33 power that the hot water and pool filter are using, but at anything less than 372kW and we're still turning a profit at the moment. Based on electricity bills since switching the pool filter over to Tariff 33 I would estimate the current usage to be around 98kW.
During winter the system will not generate as much energy due to the shorter day and less intense sunlight, but our energy usage should reduce somewhat as well such as turning back the amount of time the pool filter is running. Still we may break even or have a small bill in winter months, but averaged over the year I'm expecting a credit in our electricity account.
Overall it's an investment like any other, and it will be about 5 years before the system has paid itself off. Provided that it proves to operate for another 20 years with minimal maintenance costs then we'll be looking forward to a possible avg. 20% p.a. return, but the risk being that who knows what the electricity market will be like over that time. :)
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Operation: Hobie Revo update.
Quite a bit happening with both the wife and little one sick. Bronchitis barely takes a step out of the little one, but the wife suffers from man-flu. (Gets sick, lies down and thinks she's dying. :) ) Granted it is much tougher for her to get sick now since the little one is always asking for mama to do things.
Seeing as I have a bit of time to plan things out and do a bit of thinking I've made a bit of a change of strategy. While the Hobies are unquestionably excellent kayaks, they are a significant investment. I'm thinking I should consider going with something that is a bit more "entry level" in terms of budget. The other considerations with the Hobies is that they are quite a bit heavier than other offerings, which I need to take into consideration since I'd be loading and unloading these by myself.
I've done a lot of reading over the last week and I've decided to go with a smaller, lighter, traditional yak as a first. Something like the Viking Espri is looking like a good, inexpensive option. They have another model, the Tempo which looks like a better fishing platform, but it's pretty heavy, and the shape of it is quite bulky. (7kg heavier than the Espri.) Then there is also a longer fishing-specific model called a Profish. It's a well rated yak, but quite long and about as heavy as the Hobie's. However it's less than 1/2 the price. The wife is actually warming up to the idea of the Profish though, since it has a large front and rear cargo area where I can easily sit the little one on to go have a paddle. The Espri only has a rear cargo area and we'd both prefer if the little one was sitting up front if she goes out with me. I'm not going to complain if it's also the better fishing platform, since the Espri would require quite a bit of creativity to set up well for fishing. Still, it will look mighty odd on top of a Honda Jazz (Fit) as the car is 3.9m while the kayak is 4.35m long.
Viking looks to have quite a good reputation as a kayak manufacturer, and they make all of their yaks up in the Sunshine Coast, plus offer a 10 year warranty. (Compared to a 2 year warranty from Hobie) Now I just need the go-ahead to put on a roof rack once the Mrs. approves the cap-ex. :)
Saturday, January 22, 2011
OMG.
Ok, this is another occurrance of one of those weird things that you think up and manage to tell a couple people, then shortly later, someone somewhere has the safe bloody stupid idea. (Dumb ideas can't travel this fast.)
http://www.news.com.au/travel/world/toilets-in-japan-fitted-with-urine-controlled-games/story-e6frfqai-1225991693510
A while back I had an idea that might be cool to sell to bars and the like. Urinal games where a device attached to the urinal would keep score, make funny noises, etc. as guys peed into/past it. I even jokingly told a few people about the idea. It was up there will making small dart-board-like stickers for the insides of toilet stall doors for patrons to flick their boogers at.
Now a company in Japan has gone and built the damn thing!!!
It's stuff like this that get me thinking I've freaking lived a life like this already, in this same time period, and I'm getting ideas or remembering things because they're about to happen.... again.
I love Japan!
http://www.news.com.au/travel/world/toilets-in-japan-fitted-with-urine-controlled-games/story-e6frfqai-1225991693510
A while back I had an idea that might be cool to sell to bars and the like. Urinal games where a device attached to the urinal would keep score, make funny noises, etc. as guys peed into/past it. I even jokingly told a few people about the idea. It was up there will making small dart-board-like stickers for the insides of toilet stall doors for patrons to flick their boogers at.
Now a company in Japan has gone and built the damn thing!!!
It's stuff like this that get me thinking I've freaking lived a life like this already, in this same time period, and I'm getting ideas or remembering things because they're about to happen.... again.
I love Japan!
Friday, January 21, 2011
The odd things you see....
I was a wee bit bored last night so I went out for a drive up to Shorncliffe. I took the fishing gear but knew the conditions weren't that good and was really out there for a bit of fresh air and to see what has happened up around that area.
They got a bit of flash-flooding with the rain but were out of the path of the river rises since they're not near the river and it's feeding creeks. The area was impacted by the flood in other ways, such as fields of debris flowing out of the river and into Moreton bay.
Some of the more curious items I saw along Shorncliffe:
A 5000L water tank.
Several wooden pallets (one had some kind of steel/iron piece of machinery on it, presumably floated all the way.)
Six bound stacks of hardwood flooring on the jetty. The flooring is normally called "floating timber", we re-did the carpeted area downstairs with it when we bought this house. It would appear to have drifted up against the jetty and they hauled it up.
A large tree stump had drifted up against the jetty.
There were piles of floating timber and other odds & sods up against the rock retaining wall. and along the beach. It makes for some very dangerous cleanup with a lot of potentially sharp objects around and drifting in the water, plus the bacteria content of the flood waters.
Apparently two Echidna's along with a few snakes were found in the area, likely drifting in on floating debris.
Fishing didn't net anything, I did catch a catfish which provided a few moments of excitement. Debating whether to go out tonight with the tide or not... I guess it will depend on how the rain and wind behave. Bream tolerate fresh water just fine, but no idea if they'll be in / around the jetty, or if any Flatties will be in the area.
They got a bit of flash-flooding with the rain but were out of the path of the river rises since they're not near the river and it's feeding creeks. The area was impacted by the flood in other ways, such as fields of debris flowing out of the river and into Moreton bay.
Some of the more curious items I saw along Shorncliffe:
A 5000L water tank.
Several wooden pallets (one had some kind of steel/iron piece of machinery on it, presumably floated all the way.)
Six bound stacks of hardwood flooring on the jetty. The flooring is normally called "floating timber", we re-did the carpeted area downstairs with it when we bought this house. It would appear to have drifted up against the jetty and they hauled it up.
A large tree stump had drifted up against the jetty.
There were piles of floating timber and other odds & sods up against the rock retaining wall. and along the beach. It makes for some very dangerous cleanup with a lot of potentially sharp objects around and drifting in the water, plus the bacteria content of the flood waters.
Apparently two Echidna's along with a few snakes were found in the area, likely drifting in on floating debris.
Fishing didn't net anything, I did catch a catfish which provided a few moments of excitement. Debating whether to go out tonight with the tide or not... I guess it will depend on how the rain and wind behave. Bream tolerate fresh water just fine, but no idea if they'll be in / around the jetty, or if any Flatties will be in the area.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Mmm, wet animals.
We just had the first storm/rain after the flooding here. It was a bit wild to watch, quite a bit of rain and wind. After it passed I opened the windows to let some of the breeze come through after a hot and muggy day. I was greeted by the aroma of a cross of various wet animals and the smell of a well used aquarium.
Up until now I *was* feeling a bit hungry... ;)
Up until now I *was* feeling a bit hungry... ;)
Why I don't like stuff from China.
Chinese manufacturers are very clever, sneaky, and downright dishonest. Back when we visited ZhengZhou I saw a rather interesting torch available for sale. It was supposedly recharged by pumping a lever by hand. With the torch off, pressing the lever generates power and the torch lights up. I even asked Lin's family to ship over a number of the torches and sold them to coworkers and such. They are a good, simple, cheap LED torch, however after running a couple of them down I noticed that no mater how long I tried to "recharge" them, they would not recharge.
So finally I decided to take one apart. Tucked away behind the light are 3x AG10 1.5V batteries. Switching the torch On drains from the batteries. Switching it off allows you to generate light via the pumping action. There is no "recharging" capability within the torch.
Frankly I'd say it's nearly impossible to trust any description of goods manufactured in China.
So finally I decided to take one apart. Tucked away behind the light are 3x AG10 1.5V batteries. Switching the torch On drains from the batteries. Switching it off allows you to generate light via the pumping action. There is no "recharging" capability within the torch.
Frankly I'd say it's nearly impossible to trust any description of goods manufactured in China.
Monday, January 17, 2011
One dangerous flood averted.
It's been an interesting week, and it's bound to be an interesting couple of weeks with the cleanup. The direct impact of this flood for my family here was 24 hours without power. I made sure we were reasonably prepared with clean water, food, light, and a means to cook. I've also settled one concern about just how safe we actually are from floods in this area. I had insisted on high ground when we were looking for a home but with all of the ups and downs and subtle gradients in the Brisbane area, it's difficult to know exactly which areas are safe for how long during a flood event. Older areas near the city it's a bit easier to get an idea by looking at past flood maps, but newer areas it's a complete guess. Data from the '74 flood for this area doesn't really exist because fewer people lived out this way. This whole area is around 15-20 years old. However, based on observations from the flood's level and walking back to our house, we are between 7 & 8m above that flood level. Judging by how the waters would spread out in this area I'd figure we're secure from a significantly larger flood event.
I spent Friday helping clean up the client's office/factory which ended up being under 1.25m of water. I'm sure they're a bit frustrated because in talking with the owner it sounds like he was told that the factory floor was 20cm higher than the '74 flood level. Since this flood was 1m short of '74, that's an underestimation of 2.5m. Some might argue that flooding can vary, which is true, but based on events and rain, this was a best-case-scenario for a major flood. It was not raining heavily around the creek running behind the factory, so the water was purely coming up from the river. Hopefully they will be back up and running this week or early next week. We're already continuing with the I.T. development since the servers were moved to an alternate data centre before the flooding hit.
It will be interesting to see how people manage with rebuilding from the flood. There has been huge volunteer efforts to help with the cleanup. Unfortunately those efforts may be a bit too eager. People are throwing away pretty much anything the water has touched, and that may prove quite costly if they're assuming their insurance covers it, especially in Brisbane. Most insurance policies cover water damage from storm events, but not gradual flooding. The people up in Toowoomba and Lockyer Valley are likely covered as a result, but Brisbane residents won't be if they don't specifically have flood insurance. So they may be a bit premature binning appliances and furniture, especially plastic, glass, metal, and hardwoods which can easily be cleaned up. Hell, I had to recover a set of hard drives from a computer that spent two days under over a metre of water. Rinse them off, soak in demineralized water to coax out any remaining particles/slime, give them a liberal coat of contact cleaner, and let them dry thoroughly. As long as electronics weren't powered when they came into contact with water, and they're cleaned before they corrode too badly, they can be restored to working order.
I will definitely be making some alterations around the house to better cope with serious events such as the loss of power over a period of time. I will be getting a good battery-powered radio (Our clock radio has a battery backup but it's either just to keep the time, or broken from a few too many pushes off the nightstand) some good long-burning emergency candles, and a 3G wireless Internet dongle. That way we can access the net for information or to let people know we're ok even if the power goes down.
I spent Friday helping clean up the client's office/factory which ended up being under 1.25m of water. I'm sure they're a bit frustrated because in talking with the owner it sounds like he was told that the factory floor was 20cm higher than the '74 flood level. Since this flood was 1m short of '74, that's an underestimation of 2.5m. Some might argue that flooding can vary, which is true, but based on events and rain, this was a best-case-scenario for a major flood. It was not raining heavily around the creek running behind the factory, so the water was purely coming up from the river. Hopefully they will be back up and running this week or early next week. We're already continuing with the I.T. development since the servers were moved to an alternate data centre before the flooding hit.
It will be interesting to see how people manage with rebuilding from the flood. There has been huge volunteer efforts to help with the cleanup. Unfortunately those efforts may be a bit too eager. People are throwing away pretty much anything the water has touched, and that may prove quite costly if they're assuming their insurance covers it, especially in Brisbane. Most insurance policies cover water damage from storm events, but not gradual flooding. The people up in Toowoomba and Lockyer Valley are likely covered as a result, but Brisbane residents won't be if they don't specifically have flood insurance. So they may be a bit premature binning appliances and furniture, especially plastic, glass, metal, and hardwoods which can easily be cleaned up. Hell, I had to recover a set of hard drives from a computer that spent two days under over a metre of water. Rinse them off, soak in demineralized water to coax out any remaining particles/slime, give them a liberal coat of contact cleaner, and let them dry thoroughly. As long as electronics weren't powered when they came into contact with water, and they're cleaned before they corrode too badly, they can be restored to working order.
I will definitely be making some alterations around the house to better cope with serious events such as the loss of power over a period of time. I will be getting a good battery-powered radio (Our clock radio has a battery backup but it's either just to keep the time, or broken from a few too many pushes off the nightstand) some good long-burning emergency candles, and a 3G wireless Internet dongle. That way we can access the net for information or to let people know we're ok even if the power goes down.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Operation: Hobie Revo
Ug, it's been a few weeks since the last post. Christmas / New Years was a drag. The weather was crap, the fishing was infrequent, and a good deal of money was spent on necessary improvements around the house. With all of the rain, the solar panels still aren't up, though they should be doing the install next week.
However, I have found a new and exciting mission for the year, code-named "Operation: Hobie Revo(lution)". The task is to get buy-in from the Mrs. to purchase a fishing kayak. This will be a battle on two fronts, first to get buy-in for a kayak; second, to get buy-in for a quality kayak like the Revolution and not the cheapest hunk of plastic on sale at BCF.
The Mrs. is quite hesitant about the idea of a kayak so there will be a number of points to win over:
1. Cost: The kayak will cost around $2300 plus accessories such as the roof rack, travel pack, (roof rack pads plus wheels to cart the kayak from the car to the water) paddle, life jacket, hanging straps, anchor, safety flag/light, waterproof pants/shoes, and various small fittings.
2. Space: The kayak will need to be stored in the garage via hanging straps. I'll need to prove it will remain up and out of the way.
3. Safety: Of course she is worried if I'm out on the water alone. However I would always be using a life-jacket, have my mobile with me, and if I ever did go off-shore, I'd be sure to do it in a group. I'm currently getting to know the local kayaking community, and even getting a few people interested in the idea as well. She might be concerned that I'd be taking it out in the evening which would be bloody dangerous, no Kayaking is a morning/day-time activity only.
There are a few benefits I'm leveraging:
1. Exercise: kayaking is a good form of exercise to combine with my weekly/fortnightly fishing trips.
2. We can bring the kayak on outings so people can take it out for a paddle/pedal.
3. Better fishing opportunities: The kayak will let me get to areas that are inaccessible from land positions opening the door to bigger, and different types of fish.
4. No need for evening fishing trips. She doesn't like it much when I go out to the jetty at night. Kayaking is a day-time activity and if I'm catching quality fish from a yak, I don't need to go out to the jetty at night.
Ah well, the battle is just starting.. :)
However, I have found a new and exciting mission for the year, code-named "Operation: Hobie Revo(lution)". The task is to get buy-in from the Mrs. to purchase a fishing kayak. This will be a battle on two fronts, first to get buy-in for a kayak; second, to get buy-in for a quality kayak like the Revolution and not the cheapest hunk of plastic on sale at BCF.
The Mrs. is quite hesitant about the idea of a kayak so there will be a number of points to win over:
1. Cost: The kayak will cost around $2300 plus accessories such as the roof rack, travel pack, (roof rack pads plus wheels to cart the kayak from the car to the water) paddle, life jacket, hanging straps, anchor, safety flag/light, waterproof pants/shoes, and various small fittings.
2. Space: The kayak will need to be stored in the garage via hanging straps. I'll need to prove it will remain up and out of the way.
3. Safety: Of course she is worried if I'm out on the water alone. However I would always be using a life-jacket, have my mobile with me, and if I ever did go off-shore, I'd be sure to do it in a group. I'm currently getting to know the local kayaking community, and even getting a few people interested in the idea as well. She might be concerned that I'd be taking it out in the evening which would be bloody dangerous, no Kayaking is a morning/day-time activity only.
There are a few benefits I'm leveraging:
1. Exercise: kayaking is a good form of exercise to combine with my weekly/fortnightly fishing trips.
2. We can bring the kayak on outings so people can take it out for a paddle/pedal.
3. Better fishing opportunities: The kayak will let me get to areas that are inaccessible from land positions opening the door to bigger, and different types of fish.
4. No need for evening fishing trips. She doesn't like it much when I go out to the jetty at night. Kayaking is a day-time activity and if I'm catching quality fish from a yak, I don't need to go out to the jetty at night.
Ah well, the battle is just starting.. :)
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