Froosh. Stuff.

I’ve developed a new addiction, or perhaps merely a new obsession: Pokemon.  Specifically, Pokemon Pearl on Nintendo DS.  This is probably not news to the geeks out there, but it’s good!

Mrs Froosh and the Kiddo have been playing the Diamond and Pearl versions for some time, but Mrs Froosh recently abandoned her Pearl copy and released it to me (yes, I’m the last in the family pecking order ).

And I’m in deep now.

I’ve always avoided the Pokemon games on the presumption that they are too childish.  While that may be true for some of the older versions (Can’t know, never played them), and the marketing is heavily geared towards the pre-teens, the Diamond/Pearl versions are incredibly complex with many engaging mini-games.  I’m a big fan of the FInal Fantasy games series, but I think I have a new favourite game…  Pokemon is likely to keep me going for hundreds and hundreds of hours.

One of the features I’m looking forward to using more effectively and widely are the ‘collaborative play’ experiences.  At present, 8 y.o. Kiddo is the only challenger I have, and he’s mopping the floor with me.  His Pokemon are bigger, faster, stronger, and vastly more experienced than mine, and yet we can still have an exciting and engaging play experience.  The mini-games offer local wireless interaction options at every turn and I’d love to see how well it works in a much larger group.  Internet-based ‘Wi-Fi Connect’ options are a much more limited offering: only trades, voice-chat, or battles with integrated voice-chat.  The latter works surprisingly well, far exceeding my expectations.  I’m really looking forward to finding more Pokemon geeks to interact with this way!

With that in mind, I offer up my Pokemon Pearl Friend Code.  Add me to your Pal Pad and e-mail me your Friend Code and we’ll see what comes of it.  I’d love to see how I fare against new opponents - the gloating my my son is getting a bit much!

Pokemon Pearl Friend Code: “Froosh” 0559-8316-8401

Update [18-08-2008]: I bought a new DS Lite, and so my friend code has changed. It is now: 0817-5963-3131

This is not so much a comment about the safety of the drivers, but taxi drivers in general.  Inspired by a post over on Melbourne Metblogs.

Taxi drivers, I believe, are professional drivers.  Professionals in that they get paid to drive you from one location to another location of your choosing.  Lets break that down shall we?

Driving: there is a large body of laws and regulations regarding the operation of a motor vehicle on the roads and highways.  It includes many simple things like speed limits, indicating when a change of lane or direction is desired, and how to follow the lines on a road when turning a corner through an intersection.  It also covers more arcane things like when the use of high-beams is permitted and what to do when another motorist is in distress.  Of the many taxi drivers of many many nationalities that I have encountered, there have been less than 5 that I think would pass a driving exam.  Take some pride in your work people!  Make an effort, know the rules - even the sillier ones, and use them!  I’m sure it doesn’t help that their employers just don’t care; there is no incentive to improve.  Have you ever called a taxi company to make a comment on a drivers performance, or the DoI?  I have never heard people more uninterested in my life.

Location: Police, Fire, and Ambulance services don’t generally have GPS navigation devices - the reason stated is usually that the money could be better spent on life saving equipment, etc.  Their professional drivers are instead expected to know how to get just about anywhere in Melbourne, and to be able to read a map in a moments notice when necessary.  Is it so much to expect this from Taxi drivers?  So they are new to the city perhaps?  A modest up-front (credit-paid, tax-claimable, interest-free for 12-months) fee for the purchase of a GPS navigation device would pay for itself within days or weeks in efficiencies gained through better navigation.

Of course, I write all this in the presumption of innocence, that they do this from incompetence or lack of effort.  I believe this is largely the case, but have definitely had some very shonky drivers.  One for example doubled the fare at the last moment and then tried to deny it.  Sure, it always costs $90 to get to Mill Park from the city at 11pm.  Nice try buddy, but I’m sure it works often enough to make it worthwhile for him to try.

Feeling ranty?  Have a go!

As many of my Twitter followers will know, I interviewed for a job on Monday afternoon and was very excited about the opportunity.  I was not chosen to progress to the next round of interviewing and I’m somewhat crushed by that.  The painful part is the reason I was given for the rejection.  But 1st, some background.

The target organisation is a popular Australian company, established by 3 friends around 10 years ago, and does at least 90% of it’s business Internet facing.  It’s grown quite large since then, but they claim to have kept the DotCom feel to the organisation and placed a large emphasis on their “Values” during the interview.  The values are: Honesty, Ownership, Teamwork, and Passion.  I was specifically instructed to address all of these values in my answers during the interview, and I thought I did rather well.  Keep in mind here, that to even be considered for interviewing I was required to have had 8+ years of serious Systems Engineering experience on Internet facing and corporate systems and had to pass the qualifying interview from the recruiter.

The point of contention arose from one of those “Do you have any questions for us?” moments.  I asked what the policy or position was regarding discussing my prospective new employer and broad details of day-to-day activities on “new media” such as blogs, FaceBook, Twitter, etc.  As this is evidently where it all went wrong…

Their 1st response was to presume that I wanted to spend my day blogging or tweeting, followed very quickly by repeated concerns regarding client confidentiality, trade secrets, product launch schedules and similar.  I was staggered and tried in vain to steer the conversation back to the Honesty, Ownership and Passion values they had just been espousing.

• Honesty: blogging, etc giving a genuine and human face to the organisation
• Ownership: admitting mistakes, taking credit, and being proud of my work
• Passion: exhibiting pride in my employer, our work, enticing more clients to the sites, etc

After some further discussion This is where I left it and felt the gaff had been resolved, but no.  The recruiter’s feedback to me was that they thought I was a security risk, wouldn’t fit well with the team (of 3), and would be “troublesome to manage”.  I don’t know of anyone who could have worked in the corporate, government, or financial spaces without learning a few things about non-disclosure agreements and keeping secrets.  I have to seriously wonder what has happened in the past to have them respond this way…

And this is where I don’t get it: for a dotcom-survivor they just don’t understand Web2.0.  There are a multitude of examples where staff can provide the human element without revealing too much information, and generating real interest in the organisation and it’s people.  Hey, even Robert Scoble abrasive as he can be, did wonders for Microsoft’s public image in the years he was there.  And *many* finer examples are still coming out of the Microsoft wood-work!  Surely the potential positives that come from the efforts of honest, hard-working, passionate staff connecting with clients in a meaningful way are obvious…?

Perhaps I’m missing something obvious?  Please, can someone clue me up as it’s driving me insane.  This is precisely the response I would expect from my current employer which is still largely stuck in the 70s and doesn’t understand much beyond web-sites as extended newspaper ads.  But they are actually trying I guess…

Anyway, the process of writing this has been therapeutic for me.  I would dearly love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to comment here or check How to contact me if you would like to make more private comments.

Thanks for listening, and Have Fun!

[Update: Oh, and none of the interviewers I dealt with seem to exist on LinkedIn, they have completely locked off their FaceBook profiles, no blogs, and Google is not their friend. Then again, that goes for all the staff we have interviewed for positions at my current employer... Am I wrong for expecting guru-level IT staff to have an Internet presence?]

Yes, the site looks awful.  That is the point.  Without friendly CSS written and provided to me for free by the internets, this is somewhat like it would look all the time!

CSS Naked Day is a token of our appreciation to all the fantastic CSS coders out there who make the internets a prettier place for everyone.  Thank you.

(And I’m abandoning many of my in-progress posts since I’ve long forgotten the point I was trying to make.  I may continue the time-shifting series, or I may not.  But it’s likely I’ll blog more often, just little things here and there.  I miss the outlet.)

[My CSS Naked effort powered by Aja Lapus' CSS Naked Day Plugin]

I’m a moderately busy person. Not “Cory Doctorow” busy, but busy enough with family, work, personal projects, and keeping up with the current state of IT geekdom that stopping to watch the TV, go to a movie, or listen to radio just doesn’t happen on a schedule. I’m documenting my current methods of coping, with the intent to check back in a few years and see what I’ve been up to.

Read on for more, but I’ll warn you I ramble and get a bit verbose.

Read the rest of this entry »

An interesting mix of panelists at the Blogger Lunch: skeptics, business advisors, content providers, Microsoftian enterprise blogger.

How to walk the line between tight content control and enabling the free and open conversation - Microsoft seem to get it, but admit that when it fails it fails badly. The commercial content provider is definitely more concerned about legal issues re: content control, but also trying to blur the lines between blogging and journalism by adding structure and control around consumer generated content.

Great discussion from the panelists - consumers are starting to have the feeling of entitlement to conversation. Doesnt really matter what business you might be in, consumers now expect to have the right of immediate and open comment on your business. If you dont let them do it to your face (ie. your own corporate blogs/sites) then they will do it behind your back (their own or other blogs) and probably be a lot more brutal about it.

Alas, battery running low on laptop. Have to revert to twitter again.

So, might as well blog from the Tech.Ed 2007 Bloggers Lunch. We got our lunches in nifty little esky’s that we get to keep (logistically, too much trouble for them to dispose of them I’m betting )

Discussions are about Web 2.0, what it means to different people, and what it means to enterprises and the public at large.

While the twitter daily summaries have been handy (for me) to see who and what I’ve been talking about, I’m turning them off for now as I intend to start posting real entries more often and they would be lost amongst the twitter noise.

The may return at some time in the future in their own feed.  Or they may not.  Just follow me on twitter if you want to keep up.

• Telstra DNS is preventing me from re-delegating some reverse DNS zones. *ERROR*: nserver: ns1.telstra.net #
• @LucasS: Have to block him… #
• Creating an APNIC on-member account … it’s been 8 years since I’ve done reverse DNS delegations and the rules are new #
• Juicing new podcasts for the trip home #
• Shopping at Greensborough with MrsFroosh. Going to see HP in the cinema is not too full… #
• I need … Gopher chucks! #
• Waiting in line to see arry potta #
• Harry Potter review in 3 letters: m e h #
• @AndrewBarnett: The books are deeper than they will ever portray in a WB movie. #
• Time for sleepy-bo-bo’s. G’night. #
• Hooray! At home alone. No time for foolishness, I’ve got serious house cleaning to do… #

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• @andrewsayer: allegedly “chicken” #
• Coming to terms with the new corporate Work Requests and TImesheets application #
• Skanky firewall fault is making me late for MTUB. Phooey. #
• @hepta: that’s *art* bloke! #
• Ok. Lost. Need to find entrance… #
• Remembering that meetups are somewhat like speed-dating … #
• Nom nom nom! Snacks! #
• On the way home after mtub 2. Fantastic meetup! #
• My poor little car - all alone at the train station car park. #
• Home, catching up on some feed reading, e-mail, web2.0 connecting and some washing. Bed soon. #
• Checking out podcast.com #
• Meeting @Kosso at MTUB #2 last night has given my brain a short hard shove. Rusty gears are starting to turn again… #
• @mightymur: of course! You deserve it. What took them so long?! #
• @Warlach: Dead set. Perth is just unreasonable. #

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• I get *sooo* frustrated by software that does not play nice-nice with proxy servers and/or authenticated proxy servers. #
• @WillHughes: I’m more referring to web-enabled software that doesn’t even recognise proxies as an option. #
• @WillHughes: e.g. Adobe AIR (aka Apollo) can’t configure proxies, and doesn’t work at all with authenticated proxies #
• @WillHughes: It does at least work with the WPAD/PAC mechanism #
• @WillHughes: Yes! Exactly. @StevenHodson ’s TwitBox doesn’t work because of the same issue… Even MS do it wrong #
• For a while it looked like the only accomodation left for TechEd was at Palazzo Versace… no such luck! #
• So, Holiday Inn it is for me. #
• I am *done* ! Time to go mobile. #
• Watching Torchwood from DVR #

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• @Tabz: muhahahaha #
• @YoungestOfOne: Don’t let Mr Hrab catch you doing that. Apropos != appropriate. Apropos = related to. #
• @YoungestOfOne: Interesting… last time I looked it up was 15 years ago in one of those big dead-tree things #
• @YoungestOfOne: Perhaps dictionary.com is tracking current usage. Oxford defines it as “with reference to” #
• @chigh: Orange Juice #
• Leaving work to meet up with Mrs Froosh for some dinner. Nom nom nom. #
• What a fantastic day not to go to work. If only. #

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• watching NASA astronaut geeks doing the ‘experiment’ I always wanted to play with http://urltea.com/xqb #
• @Steppek: I’m so curious now ,, he signs off by saying “and thats it for Saturday morning science” #
• @steppek: Awesome stuff. I need to pat more attention to NASA TV #
• Dang it! Only just noticed that my streaming server has been dead for 3 days… #

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• On Talkshoe listening to BigO and JC Hutchins! #
• Cueing up the 7th son book 3 chapter 1. And *You* can’t have it! #
• @BigO @JCHutchins you are both mighty #
• Wondering: Where Does Thursday Go? #
• On the way to the zoo with the family. Looks like an awesome day for it. #

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• @Warlach: http://speedtest.net would be the first place to check #
• Finally time to go home. Firewall changes are done. And I’m absolutely starving! #
• So snoozy, enough SL tutorial (yes, I’m late to the SL thang), now time for sleep. #
• Importantly Talkshoe and SL are installed and working ready for 7th Son events. #

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• Creating a custom “Best of Windows Support/Resource Tools” MSI for all our support staff. What are your top 5 best Support/Resource tools? #
• And after @RexyInc ’s excellent summary - I have 4 Pownce invites for people who want them. #
• We’ve just been given the 6 months eviction notice for our office (it was sold a few months ago). Now we get to move our datacentre… #
• @mightymur: If you find no actual expert, I’m in the lesser category of “hack it till it works” #
• @jchutchins: I’m disappointed - I thought you *were* a supergeek, but they say not-so… #
• @jchutchins: But I’m still a believer #
• I need to know: should I be wanting a Nokia N95 or some kind of WIndows Mobile 6 device? #
• I love the camera and GPS of the N95, but Mobile 6 works sooo much better with Exchange servers #
• @andrewpascoe: testify! (Although, I am leaving earlier today to participate in a market research panel) #
• Going mobile. Heading for St Kilda Rd and trams. This might not be fun at peak hour… #
• Hitting the Release All link for my 7th Son subscription on podiobooks.com - so much listening, so little time! #
• @mspecht: I’ve already registered for Podcamp, otherwise I would… #
• @mspecht: I have emailed the only Melb podcaster I know tho #
• @mspecht: Heh, last hotel I was at 30Meg was excessive… #

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• Back in the office. It’s a fantastic morning for walking through Melbourne! #
• Heh. Installed Ubuntu lookalike theme stuff to my corporate XP machine… Likely to get me in strife. #
• @wolfmank: I would so love to, but that’s a career-changing decision #
• (that is, they would find a way to fire me…!) #
• I’m off to subvert the system for the 7S MOP via drop-lifting… #
• Done wtih 7SMOP #
• @benbarren: How about operating from the northern suburbs? I know a good engineer that lives out that way… #
• This morning’s train non-news: Connex is incompetent. That is all. #
• Robin, the 7:52 am Epping train to Flinders Street has been cancelled. Connex, Keeping you updated. #
• Got that message at 8:28 … Now how does that help anyone? #

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• Ok, I’m up for Pownce if anyone has a spare invite. #
• @CathyE Thanks! I presumed I’d missed out. hunting it down now… #
• Aha! Pownce is not playing nice with TLS-enabled e-mail systems (could be my unsigned cert though) #
• Disabled TLS on my e-mail server - now just awaiting Pownce to retry #
• Thanks to @CathyE I’m now Powncing at http://pownce.com/Froosh/ #
• Should probably get back to work and fix my e-mail server later #
• @Mossyblog: Pownce is definitely not playing nice with TLS enabled mail servers #
• Staked my interest for a Melbourne-based PodCamp http://podcamp.info #
• Dang it. Stoopid Adobe Integrated Runtime doesn’t work with authenticated proxies, or perhaps proxy auto detect… #
• So strange leaving work late on a Monday … No Joey Scouts during school holidays. #
• @rosiex: ’soons I get home, no problems #
• @RosieX: Im in ur GG inbox leavin ur Pownce invite #
• Using the “Free” wifi at the hairdressers while Mrs Froosh gets her hair blacked. #
• Running up Google Gears to download feeds and run offline #
• @WillHughes: install of gears was painless. Download & go offline was very easy. Only problem seems to be images + enclosures #
• @WillHughes: no worse than thunderbird in that sense. #
• @cunningminx: *loved* the jealousy episode. My wife & I are mono (not that there’s anything wrong with that ;)) but this is still so relevan #
• Doing midnight upgrades to Virtual Servers #
• Okidoki. Upgrades completed. Time to sleep a little before early rising to get to the Checkpoint User Forum #
• On train, being accosted by a drunk… *This* is why people avoid PT. #
• At the Checkpoint User Group, Evan Afentoulis presenting. #

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• …finally… Got the Purchase Order # and registered for TechEd Aus 2007 #
• Winding down waiting for the train. This week was not wasted. Fun work achieved, plus TechEd registration!! #
• @fulltimecasual: more or less than no work? #
• onon #
• Out to dinner with Mrs Froosh - she’s buying! And now for dessert … pie. #
• @Leann: MmmMmm, Brainwaves…. #

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• Making hasty firewall/VPN changes because 3rd party international vendors didn’t wait till the change window. #
• Making the nice-nice with Virtual Servers, Microsoft style. #

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