Why the Internet will lead to our extinction.

"News" has always been bad. Before the age of radio and television it was passed by mouth, and generally didn't travel very far, or very fast. By the time it was received, people understood that it wasn't current, and that elements may be inaccurate due to transmission and translation. The most important factor is that this news needed to travel from ear to mouth or be printed on paper. Trivial crap was filtered out. It wasn't important enough to mention.

Even in the age of radio and television, news was compiled through the day and presented at one or two times during the day. Something had to be pretty damned important to be transmitted as "breaking news".

But in the age of the Internet, much more becomes the front page of the moment, everyone is looking to the Internet for that "breaking news" story. Every story news sites publish gets its 15 minutes in the limelight as the "main" story for that section of the page. Stories are released with gramatical and spelling errors, showing little to no editorial effort; They're released out to the world as fast as authors can hit the submit button. Each news site is actively mining content off other sites so embarassing rumors and goof-ups occur constantly and spread like wildfire throughout the world. (I.e.this)

A key example of how this can, and will eventually destroy the world was a stupid story about a preacher in Florida. This self-righteous bigot had an issue with a proposed Mosque near the site of the fallen trade centre in NYC. His choice of protest? To burn copies of the Qu'ran. (Koran) To which effect he set out to advertise a Qu'ran burning day. Now in the days before the Internet, the proclamation of a minister in a back-water Florida town might have reached a number of people in New York, Florida, and might have been worthy of a mention in other city's news programs. But in the Internet age there are riots in Iran, counter-threats in various other countries and muslim community, protests, counter-protests... All because of one bigot in Florida. A similar case came up recently in China where a Chinese fishing vessel crew was detained by Japan over their presence in some contested Japanese waters. The reaction in Chinese cities was to smash anything made in Japan. This is complete lunacy. It was an excuse to smash Japanese cars owned by Chinese citizens.

People aren't meant to process so much information in such a short time, as their first natural reaction to stimuli is emotion, followed later by logic and reason. The Internet makes far too much crap in the guise of "information" available to feed the addiction of being "informed". The result is that everyone can find, or is actively encouraged to find volumes of unprocessed crap on various websites. We get to form opinions on events or topics that don't directly or even remotely affect us, or worse, choose to act on it. It's time to turn CNN.com off.

Going solar. (Probably)

It's been a while since the last post, partially because I've been spending a lot of what little free time I have investigating solar energy. Well, that and playing a bit of Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the Wii. (which totally rox.)

Solar is a very interesting option right now in Australia. There's no rebate anymore, but instead they are offering 5x the RECs for 1.5kW systems and smaller. Renewable Energy Certificates are essentially shares that are traded as an investment in renewable energy. Australia has committed to 20% renewable energy by 2020. The prices for RECs fluctuate around $36-40, so depending on what price you can trade them for they can knock off around $6000 from a system. Each state government has also set up schemes to buy back energy produced from solar systems. This can be gross production or net production. Unfortunately in Qld they use net production which returns less, and is harder to estimate for. How it works is that when your solar system is producing electricity (typically between 09:00 and 15:00, any electricity your house isn't using gets fed back into the grid and you get paid between $0.44-0.60 per kWh. This offsets the cost of kWh you use outside of production time, and is currently close to 3x the cost of purchasing a kWh. (Qld has committed to this feed-in credit until at least 2028.)

A 1.5kW system doesn't produce a whole lot. It can generate typically under 1/3 of your household daily usage. However there's nothing stopping you from installing a larger system, except you won't get the bonus RECs for panels over 1.5kW. This means that while a 1.5kW system will set you back about $2,000-3,000 out of pocket, a 3kW system will cost a whopping $9,000-10,000! It would seem like a no-brainer that this investment wouldn't be worth it, except for a few key considerations.

With the 1.5kW system, the amount of total energy you produce is fairly small. Very little gets sold back into the grid so the REC credit basically makes the investment worth-while. A 3kW system's REC credit is only marginally higher, but the difference is output and the feed-in rate for excess energy. Every kWh fed into the grid is currently worth 3 kWh bought from the grid. Granted, this will decrease as electricity prices continue to rise unless the feed-in charges rise as well. The cost over return for the two systems, or even larger systems remains the same. Whether its a 1.5kW or 3kW system, they pay for themselves in about 5 years, but every year after that the larger systems produce significantly more profit. (Avg. lifespan is 25 years)

A 1.5kW system with feed-in of about 33% of its daily production can earn about $900 a year. A 3kW system with feed-in of about 69% of its daily production can earn about $2,000 a year. If both pay for themselves in 5 years, and we assume the $0.44 only applies until 2028, by 2028 the 1.5kW system will earn about $11,700, while a 3kW system will earn $26,000. If the rate carries through the full 25 year expectancy you're looking at $18,000/$40,000 respectively. However, this is assumming the panels were capable of 100% their production over their lifespan, they'll actually lose efficiency over time to about 80% by the age of 25, so those figures are probably around 15% too optimistic, plus you will likely need to pay for a new inverter within that time as well.

Like any investment there are unknown variables and risks associated with it. There is also the question of system quality and reputation for getting an installation. There is a lot of push in the market to get people on-board to take advantage of the 5x REC credit. This means a lot of demand for panels, and a lot of really dodgy ones showing up on the market.There are also a lot of new players in the market for selling and installing panels, including companies that got burned during the ramp-up to accept government handouts for insulation installations which was cut off sudenly after they were linked to 4 tradesmans deaths and at least 40 house fires. There are bargains easily visible out there, but I strongly believe in "you get what you pay for."  Now if I could only convince the Mrs. of that as well. She sees "bargain!", someone offering to do installations for $1,000 cheaper than the others. Wait, they're using a panel coming out of China from a company that has only been making panels for about 5 years. They're an electrical company that has only been doing solar installations for 1 year. Where-as nearly all other companies I contact charge an extra $250-400 for a tile roof due to the need for a special mounting bracket, these guys don't. These facts all send off alarm bells. Solar panels typically come with a 25 year performance guarantee. (which in itself probably isn't worth the paper it's written on, still...) If a company has only been making panels for 5 years, who's to say that within 25 years the "shine" of producing panels wears off and they shut down and gear up to produce something else before having to deal with any of those performance guarantees? They have no brand, no reputation. If you buy a Sharp panel and they don't work, it is a stain on the Sharp brand. Who's heard of "Taizhou Sopray"?? ("You bought them? so pray!":)  Having a company that's only been installing panels for a year and not charging extra for a mounting bracket for a tile roof says they aren't using the proper bracket on the roof which means the panels will be attached to tile so in a good windstorm they'll work tiles loose and damage the roof. It's not like they're more expensive than other installers and can hide the cost of the brackets.

Ah well, fun, fun. Lots of things to consider.

Thank you Tripple J

A co-worker turned me on to this radio station and I haven't looked back. They're a public station, but very professionally run, and often the first to play tracks from new artists, with a preference for local artists. IMO they have done a lot for building local talent across Australia and I wish every country had such a station.

Some of the really cool stuff they do:
Unearthed - A service and competition they have for unsigned artists. You can upload a single or two to their website where anyone can go to download and have a listen. Their presenters are often scouring the Unearthed archive and several of these songs get air-time.

Unearthed High - Every year they hold a competition for high-school bands across Australia where the best of each state are voted on. The winner gets to do a concert at their school along with another professional Australian band, and gets their entry (or maybe an EP) professionally recorded and mixed. It is absolutely amasing the talent that is uncovered in this program.

Like a Version - A favorite of mine. As world-wide artists are travelling around Australia they are invited to the Tripple J studio to perform on air one of their singles, anda cover of some other artist of their choice. It's refreshing to hear which artists truly have talent, vs. which rely too heavily on the capabilities of their mixer. Case in point, today the Klaxons performed one of their recent singles, "Echos" and they sounded terrible, as if they got two fans in to Karaoke as they played. On the other hand, Angus & Julia Stone had come in last week and played a cover of "Say it Right" by Nelly Furtado that was *by far* better than the original. Mind you, A&J Stone are primarily an acoustic band so they don't rely as heavily on technology, but it definitely shows. Tripple J releases a CD set each year of the Like a Version recordings.

Promoting concerts, gigs, and festivals - If the Australian music scene has too much of anything, it's festivals. There are music festivals year-round with them held back to back through the summer. Tripple J actively promotes many of these, and is a good place to listen to find out who's playing where.

All together, Tripple J is a fantastic station. Best of all, you can listen all day and not hear a single track from "Lady Gaga" or any other cookie-cutter "performer".  Though they do tend to play a bit too much "Muse". I never understood that considering they're not even Australian.

FlexiRent? Flexi-Ripoff

It is surprising how many ways people can find to exploit one another. Renting electrical/electronics goods is one that makes my skin crawl.

For example, Harvey Norman carries laptops. Lets say you want to get a simple Netbook for you kid to use for studying. There's a nice one available for $599. Hmm, you don't have $600? Credit cards are already maxed out? No problem, FlexiRent is there for you. You can rent it for $9.17/wk.

Hang on, lets check the fine print, then do the math. That $9.17 per week is applicable over 24 months, two  *years*... That's 108 weeks. $9.17 x 108 = $990.36. You're paying nearly double for that laptop.  And do you know what the real kicker is? That's to *rent* the laptop. After two years you hand it back.  If you put it on your credit card that you get stuck paying interest it'll probably end up costing you $700 or so, but at least after two years it's yours.

How on Earth are people stupid enough to get suckered into something like this?

To make matters worse, some of these rental schemes get even more clever. They'll let you "upgrade" after 18 months on a 24-month agreement. The initial reaction isn't too bad. Take $9.17 x 81 weeks = $742.77 then you can exchange it for another laptop of equal or greater value. (Actually in this example it's still a bit of an obvious rip-off, in the real example I found that "deal" on the 18 month rate actually worked out to just under the value of the goods...) However, there's that fine-print catch again: You need to renew a new 24 month agreement on the upgrade. So lets see, even if you upgrade to something worth the same value 18 months later they've hooked you into 189 weeks at $9.17 or $1733.13 and nothing to show for it afterwards.

Betting on an election.

This has to be distinct to Australia. The various betting agencies in Australia offer odds on federal elections. Not just which party will win, but you can bet on each individual electorate. This year the election has been a complete shambles. Labor recently ousted the Prime Minister and decided it was time to do to the rest of the resource sector what they did to the Gold mining industry back in the early nineties. (Slap on a 30-40% profits tax.) Not that the tax wasn't a good idea where foreign companies can come into Australia, create a few jobs (good) but effectively strip-mine the country of resources without any real benefit to the nation. Still, the mining companies banded up and launched a hell of an Ad campaign that looked like WorkChoices all over. (If the mining industry tax goes through, lots of people are going to lose their jobs.) Reports came out stating that the tax would have a negative impact on the mining industry.... Well, "Duh". What would you expect their report to say, that the tax wouldn't affect them, hell, take some more of our cash?!

Still, the media effect was bad news for Labor and their effort to convince people that they were willing to negotiate a more fair deal didn't do enough to keep people in their favour. Still, I think the real knife in the back for Labor was the knife that Julia Gillard stuck into Kevin Rudd's back. Labor may have been a bit frustrated that he hadn't been able to sell their policies to the House, and such. He had his party behind him, but unfortunately he didn't hear them sharpening their knives. If the 2nd in command for a party can't be trusted to keep their word when they say they give their full support to the leader, why should they be trusted to lead?

The only reason the Coalition didn't take this election is because they were too stuborn to admit where they'd made serious policy mistakes, and didn't bring in some fresh faces to reflect that they possibly (though probably not) were able to change. I'm sure they still believe that their policies for Work Choices and such are for the best interests of Australia, but it's a hard sell at election time when people see that if they get into power it means they have fewer rights in the workplace and their bosses have more power to exploit them. It's good for business, and over-all good for the economy, but it makes it a lot harder for the common worker.

But I digress. There is really something wrong when people are willing & able to wager on the results of an election. I'm quite surprised that it is actually legal considering there are laws against publicly expressing electorial preference. The government can release preliminary preference poll results, but I'm surprised that betting agencies are allowed to give odds since that could influence people as to how they choose to vote. Not to mention current rumors and accusations in Cricket and the NRL over match fixing after betting anomolies are found.

"They're not that smart."

Since I bought our house there have been a few things that have irked me. Things that I have in my mental list to sort out. One of the remaining items is to update the security system, so I set out to get some quotes from installers and security agencies since insurance companies prefer to hear that your security system is monitored or "back to base".

Essentially with reputable companies they will have a monitoring system that your system dials out to when an alarm goes off. They will then call you at the house, then try any number of nominated contact numbers in which case you can request them to send out a guard. (for about $75) With a response time commitment from them of no more than 20 minutes that doesn't sound too bad, except for one problem. This is Australia.

Back in Canada, telephone and power lines are run roughly 1-2m underground, to your basement interior. In Australia they are run underground, or above ground, but they are run to a box at the "exterior" of your building. Exterior as in outside, and accessible from the front of your house. And you're not even allowed to put a lock on it because that's where they go to read your meters.

So my first question about back to base is whether they use land-lines or can opt for hooking in a mobile phone. They use land-lines, so my next question is, what happens when they cut the land-line. Absolutely nothing. The alarm will go off, but that monitoring company you're paying for will know nothing. Oh, I think he said that the system checks in every week. So I asked if there was a mobile option to use in case the land-line wasn't available, and sure enough there was one, for $1,600, not including the SIM card. $1,600?! What freaking planet are these people on? a GSM modem, which is the basis of this feature costs around $150.

So what I'm left wondering is why they couldn't wire a small GSM modem to the power supply, then I could put a $20/yr pre-paid SIM card from Vodaphone in, and do-away with the land-line completely?!

Anyhoo, the punchline title was a response I got from the system technician that came by to quote the system. I had said that monitoring seemed like a complete waste of money if all a burglar needed to do was cut the phone line before setting it off. He agreed that it was a vulnerability, but claims he's only seen it done 12 or so times. His response was "They're not that smart."

*Sigh*

And the wheel does a burnout.

This is becoming a far-to-frequent scene in Australia. Oddly, I don't feel the slightest bit sorry for these two, if anything I'm thankful they didn't take any innocent bystander with them, and I hope the car owner had insurance.

The Australian government cannot get a handle on road fatalities due to speeding and/or drinking, especially amongst the younger generations.

So I'd like to offer a 4-step solution to the problem.

Step 1: Mandatory driver education. I'm not talking about some tax-payer funded fuddy-duddy coming into a classroom for a day. I'm talking parent-funded, after-school accredited course as part of an L-Plater permit. None of this crap with driver logs which parents can't be bothered, or don't have time to be honest about. New drivers should attend courses every week, either evenings or weekends, and they should be tested by professional drivers at intervals. They pull any kind of crap, no license. If parents can't afford to pay for their kids to go, or can't make time to arrange to get their kids to the lessons, well, they can wait to learn to drive, it obviously isn't that important.

Step 2: Stringent P-Plate restrictions on allowable family vehicles. 1.5L maximum engine volume, and no after-market accessories. If a cop spots a "P" sticker on a non-conforming vehicle, warning fine, and then loss of license. Special exemptions can be granted for tradies and the like that may need access to drive a Ute or a Van as part of their job while on a "P"-Plate. If the family car is a Commodore V8? sorry, get sonny a used Metro or Barina to park out front. You'll save most of the purchase price, and resale value on the insurance premium.

Step 3: Setup legal, and reasonably safe outlets for driving enthusiasm. Race tracks staffed by professional drivers. Let people hire cars, or sign a disclaimer and use their own car. Drag races, lap-timed rounds on a closed circuit, and scheduled multi-car races. Have an ambulance standing by on-site for races with a simple rule. No ambulance, no race. Someone does something stupid and gets hurt, no one has any fun until the ambulance comes back. Let people keep themselves in check. They muck up their car? Too bad, call a tow-truck.

Step 4: Adopt a no-strikes attitude to wreckless driving behaviour. Pull any kind of crap on public roads and you lose your license and your car. It's a family car? Too bad, you and your parents should have thought of that before they let you take it out. No, and I mean NO give-backs. Too many deaths are caused as a result of 2nd or 3rd offences where an idiot's parents got back the confiscated vehicle, and the kid went out and killed themselves, or worse, someone else as a result. If parents are inconvenienced because "their" stupid kid lost them their car, then GOOD. They can always get another car, and keep the keys away from the kid until they've taught or beat some sense into them. They can't go out and buy a new kid.