seezed.net

After a little discussion with Paul, I’ve decided to make this blog a little more open to the public, and not just something I update with stupid comments and posts about where I’m working so my mum knows I’m still alive.

I’ve got a voice, and this is where I’ll be shouting from.

I don’t expect to have many people reading this site. Shit, I’d be happy if there were 10 people!

So I’ve turned off all the moderation bullshit, and you people should feel free to discuss things, flame me for my bullshit ideas and just generally interact with me.

Posts are cross posted from here to my facebook, so watch that for updates, and I think the twitter link is still working, you can get the updates @zachflem =)

Cheers

Z

As anyone that reads this site would know, the company I work for has a long history with Telstra. So there is no surprises when I chirp up to make a comment on a situation that directly affects my job.

I’m going to look at a comparison between Fibre-to-the-HOME and Fibre-to-the-NODE.

I’m not going to harp on too much about FTTH because at the end of the day, there really is no better way to go. It’s the fastest we can get, and for the foreseeable future there isn’t going to be a technology to beat it.

But do we actually need it?

I’ve got your average 1.5mbit ADSL1 connection, with a monthly download limit of 10gb, and I don’t live in a big city. There is about 1.5km of copper between me and the exchange and it’s dirty old, water logged copper like you would expect in a back-stick country town in North-West Victoria.

Now that you’ve got a bit of background on my connection situation, you’ll be happy to know that I can comfortably stream TV shows, Movies and Music, surf the web at decent speeds and do all the things touted by the NBN people.

So why do I need to pay (via my taxes) for something I don’t NEED?

Yes I know there a business’, schools and hospitals that will benefit from having a blistering fast, quota free connection to the internet, but in my experience, anyone that needs these services, already has them!

Now imagine for a minute, having the amount of copper between your modem and the exchange dramatically reduced. A standard ADSL2+ connection that currently gets 8-10mbit might see an improvement of double that!

Now imagine a little box on the corner of your block, it’s connected to your local exchange by some nice fibre and has a nice D-Slam in there for you to connect your ADSL2+ modem to, and all within 500m of your house! Imagine the speed!

The advantages aren’t just in your house, but also in the way the network gets physically built. Rather then having to re-trench fibre all over town, not just in the street, but through your garden as well, the fibre would go in existing conduits. The copper cables that currently run all the way back to the exchange, would simply be cut and joined into the new equipment. The excess cable that’s not being used any more gets pulled out and sold of as scrap!

Now I heard you grasp when I said your cable would get cut, but I promise it won’t be for long, and we can always arrange to have your calls diverted to your mobile, not that too many people will be calling you at 3am while I’m sitting in a hole on your street corner, hooking it all up.

The best part… DSL technology can be upgraded to speeds in excess of 100mbit, so when your 20mbit ADSL2+ connection gets a little tired, you can get it upgraded.

Not that I can see anyone NEEDING that in a hurry… People WANTING it on the other hand, I can see happening yesterday.

Zach.

Australians, on the most part, are blind to the bullshit games that politicians play.
Now that’s not always the fault of the people I’m talking about. Some people just don’t care, the people I’m most worried about though are the ones that get sucked into the political spin we so often see from both sides of parliment… and there in lies the problem. Having just 2 sides of parliment!

We get so caught up in the popularity of the leaders, polls are run, elections are won. And all on what is essentially popularity votes for the face of the party.

What we seem to forget, is that there is a team of people behind the scenes, pulling the puppet strings, or at very least the staff of a minister doing the hard work.

The media are, in my opinion, the ones to blame for this, after all, most people only see what the media outlets run on the 6pm news. And the politicians use that as a tool in their campaign.

All I would like to see happen is people actually look at the policies of a party, rather then the person leading. After all, in the case of party politics, the view of the party is usually the view the leader puts out there, with his or her own flair of course, but at the gooey center, the party line still rules. So no matter how much make-up is on the pig, it’s still a pig.

So next time you are asked to vote for the leader of your council, your state or your country, the very least you can do is take a deeper look at the policies you are voting for, and not just the puppet at the top of the pile.

Zach

Started watching True Blood season 3 tonight. Looks like it’s going to be a good season!

I’d really like to elaborate, but I have a severe case of the CBFs.

Zach

Well I’m sitting in Maccas borrowing the shit bags outta their free wifi, so much so that I’ve seen every person in here come in, eat and leave, only to watch them be replaces by more people. I feel sorry for the people that work here, there are some strange people in Bendigo… and I think they’re all out for a cheap feed right now!

All that aside though, my time here is nearly over, and considering this is my second week here, I’m kinda glad it’s over.

The work is tedious bullshit. 75kgs per battery, 24 batterys per string, 5 strings, it’s heavy work, but the worst part are the more than 200 bolts and nuts that go with each string of batteries! Not to mention the rectifier sitting in the corner making a constant drone… It’s about dead and it sounds like it’s going to explode! Thankfully, after last week, I came prepared this week. I loaded up the iPod with every scrap of music I have on my laptop and so far it’s done a good job of keeping my ears occupied.

Recieved word on a big job in the back sticks between Swan Hill and Balranald… A 60m tower for Optus. Should be an interesting job, 4 weeks from a patch of dirt, to a tower and building. I’ll keep you posted.

Nothing much has been happening on the Skydiving front, probably won’t get a chance to head over to Goolwa for another few weeks, we’ll see how things go. With the end of financial year gone now, there might be some tax return money I can spend on a little weekend trip west.

All in all, a pretty useless post… I’m not even sure if there is anyone that actually reads this, or wether it’s purely for my own ranting (I could look up the statistics, but I’m a lazy prick.)

Needless to say, I think this post is well and truly over…

Zach

Only when Australia has a political party (or a group of Independants who can work together) with the balls to make the big decisions in government, will we be forever fighting an up hill battle against the masses.

I don’t profess to know the intricate details of Australian Politics, but there is ONE thing that I do know.

The majority of Australians don’t understand half of the shit they make comments on!

This being said, WHY do we listen to them? WHY do politicians take into account the opinion of uninformed plebs when they make descisions that affect the whole country?

I’d really like to think that I would make a good politician. Not a well liked politician, but a politician that makes the hard descisions, makes them without the bullshit lobbying from the big boys and their money (just look at what is happeneing to renewable energy in this country!) and makes them without hesitation, knowing that my team and I have done our research and made the right descision of the greater good of the country and my fellow Australians.

Interesting Fact:
A landmass equal to the state of victoria, covered in current technology Photovoltaic Cell solar panels, would produce enough energy to provide the entire would with power.

Now you can’t tell me that knowing this, the government couldn’t pass legislation that every new home or renovation built in Australia includes a small, 1kw renewable energy system. Be it Solar or Wind, no matter how you look at it, in a few short years, we would be able to switch off or scale back our carbon based power generators, during the day at least, saving MONEY and our natural, non-renewable resources!

This has been looked at before, and gets shelved, because someone with deep pockets (read: mining/power generating companies) puts the brakes on discussions.

Another idea I’ve had, and I don’t know if I’m the only one that’s had it, but I think it’s worth sharing…

HYBRID CARS!
Ok, so mabye hybrid cars aren’t suitable for everyone, but from what I’ve seen, and the comments made by people that OWN and DRIVE hybrid cars, they are perfect for short trips, driving around cities and running down to the shops for milk and bread

This being the case, why not legislate that by the year 2020, ALL TAXIES will be an AUSTRALIAN PRODUCED hybrid or alternative fuel powered vehicle?
By doing so we’re killing two birds with one stone, probably more! We give jobs to australian people, someone has to make these new cars. We develop world leading technologies, setting the trend for all the world to admire and follow. And we reduce our carbon emissions at the same time… Now tell me how that kills industry and costs money? From what I can see, most taxies are already australian produced cars and I don’t think you’re going to see taxi drivers/companies complaining about lowering their operating costs!

Plus, there would be enough of these vehicles sold to not warrant charging a premium for the technology, and lets face it, 10 years is a long time and, if everyone pulled their fingers out, we would simply see these vehicles being phased in in more like 5 years!

Ahhhh ok, those are some thoughst I’ve been having for quite a while, and I’m really glad I’ve got them out of my head and onto paper (so to speak!)

Just think about this next time you vote, next time you renovate your house, and next time you get in a taxi…

Zach

Morons…

…The Internet is full of them!

And there is nothing I hate more then a moron who, during a discussion about something serious, sticks their nose in and tries to start some bullshit flame war!

One person says something, people either agree or disagree. I’m a big enough person to take the good comments with the bad, but some idiots seem to think that they can pop up in a serious forum and talk utter shit.

That’s the kind of attitude that detracts from the subject, and when it’s a topic you are passionate about, it detracts from the whole thing.

Thank god the real people (as opposed to the cyber people) are far from a bunch of fucktards!

Zach

Reading the news paper and watching the news on TV recently, I was made aware of a situation where an un-provoked attack on a young bloke by another young bloke and his mates resulted in an 8 year jail sentence with a minimum term of 5 years for MANSLAUGHTER!

How is king hitting someone, then having your mates join in by kicking the poor guy while he is on the ground MANSLAUGHTER?

Your actions were clearly intended to cause as much harm to the victim as possible, so why wasn’t the charge murder? After all, the victim was murdered!

It’s time that the burecratic bullshit was cleared up, the red tape cut away, and our police force given a bigger stick to do their jobs with.

A perfect example of what I think we should see more of… A gentleman decides that it might be a good idea to hijack a bus in Melbourne, once the police arrive, the gentleman is given 3 warnings to get on the floor, which he doesn’t.  So the police officers give him some free capsicum scented aftershave, which the gentleman didn’t like all that much and thought he would have a crack at the police officers for, so they shot him in the chest.

I applaud these officers for doing the right thing.  When a person can’t be reasoned with, use the tools you are given to persuede them to your way of thinking, and if that involves a bullet, then so be it.

Now I know there are people out there that are going to say “but not all police officers can be trusted to do the right thing” and this might well be the case, and that brings me to a solution.  Video Cameras!  For less then $400 I can go out and buy a helmet camera (easily worn on a baseball cap) that can record 10 hours of footage, including sound, at broadcast quality.  Wouldn’t clear visual evidence of the happenings preceeding an incident such as above, make the actions of the officer transparent? I think it would also remove the confusion of filling out the crazy amount of paperwork after the fact!

Ahhh enough rambling for a few days… no doubt something will happen for me to have a whinge about =)

Untill next time.