Date: Wednesday, July 19, 2006

I
read about the Mac ads that have been on TV in the USA today. So I
googled them. Not surprisingly, apple.com provides them…in Quicktime
format! Geez, not everyone wants to install proprietary software.So I headed on over to Google Video and searched for Mac Ads. Hey presto, flash movies of the mac ads!I think they’re in prtty good taste. Here are the links to Google Video for each one, in alphabetical order

src=”blogger_files/AppleAdBetter.jpg” alt=”Mac Ad – Better” border=”0″>Better

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8726680667826036162&q=apple+mac+ads

<a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4274055039822064918&amp;q=apple+mac+ads“><img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/AppleAdILife.jpg” alt=”Mac Ad – ILife” border=”0″>ILife<a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=606588701176286956&amp;q=apple+mac+ads“><img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/AppleAdNetworking.jpg” alt=”Mac Ad – Networking” border=”0″>Networking<a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8798422881924495081&amp;q=apple+mac+ads“><img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/AppleAdOutOfTheBox.jpg” alt=”Mac Ad – Out Of The Box” border=”0″>Out Of The Box<a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2572298761237795497&amp;q=apple+mac+ads“><img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/AppleAdRestarting.jpg” alt=”Mac Ad – Restarting” border=”0″>Restarting<a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5072960251539298787&amp;q=apple+mac+ads“><img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/AppleAdTouche.jpg” alt=”Mac Ad – Touche`” border=”0″>Touche`<a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2082784844926999587&amp;q=apple+mac+ads“><img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/AppleAdViruses.jpg” alt=”Mac Ad – Viruses” border=”0″>Viruses<a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-549160452109774503&amp;q=apple+mac+ads“><img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/AppleAdWallStreet.jpg” alt=”Mac Ad – Wall Street” border=”0″>Wall Street Journal

Date: Monday, July 24, 2006

Wow, what an awesome function! I tell you what guys, the more the merrier for sure at a function Heres
some pics of the people and the highlights. Because of the lighting, I
had to individually adjust the whitebalance on all afterwords (and
downsample), so if they are small / discolored slightly then you’ll
just have to fill in the blank with your memory!<table cellpaddiing=”5″ align=”center” cellspacing=”0″> <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220017_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220017_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> The function hall itself. We were early, so we got front row seats! That blur is Mr Ian Sinclair, respect! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220007_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220007_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″>Some of the boys just setting up before the function starts <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220027_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220027_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> Mr Pin, getting recognized, and preparing to move onto the next pin! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220028_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220028_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> Gee, that looks like a man getting ready to make some money, recognize! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220029_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220029_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> Faster than a camera shutter, and way more entertaining than a uni assignment the night before it’s due, Pat Mesiti (WOO!) <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220041_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220041_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> Pat is definately a very excitable character… <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220044_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220044_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> …Especially where props are involved! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220048_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220048_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> Lunchtime, with the going-Silver group! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220050_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220050_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> Definately a man in the know here! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220054_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220054_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> Good times – just wait until Hawaii boys! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220057_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220057_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> Rob, looking like he’s dissapointed about not going Diamond fast enough – Don’t worry, we’ll all get there Rob! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220060_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220060_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> Jordan, showing Winston where there bling is at with ‘the ring’ (I’m pretty sure Winston already knows though!!!) <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220063_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220063_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> Repeat after me: I will get to Hawaii I will get to Hawaii I will get to Hawaii (or as Rob says “aooouuu-oouuuu-aaaaa”!) <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220066_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220066_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> Ian, taking all the glory in this shot! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220073_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220073_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> It’s that thug, Peter Shack, demonstrating to us all how to break legs (he’s been doing that for years though!) <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220091_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220091_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> When we get to Hawaii next year, I just know that you’ll BOTH be smiling!! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220093_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220093_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> The Broad’s, doing what they do best – helping us (feel privilages to learn from the best guys)! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220104_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220104_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> This is Barry Pragt… <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7230039_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7230039_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> …And this is a close up of the novelty cheque (which is backed by a real one) – how do you like them apples!!! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220117_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220117_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″>
Peter explaining to us the meaning of the Cup. I don’t remember Pauline
saying anything here, but hey, someone has to stand next to Peter and
look pretty! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220125_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220125_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> Give me a big Ferris Beuler “Awwwwwwwww yeaaaaahhh!” – that’ll be our group winning that next year guys! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7220135_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7220135_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> Winston and Joy, styling it up! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7230035_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7230035_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> Hah, I told you Pat was really there, now you have to believe me! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7230049_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7230049_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> Rob, and two other members of his family – can you spot them! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7230053_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7230053_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″> The fabulously wealthy Julie Swaffield! <a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/996/3249/1600/p7230078_web.jpg“><img style=”margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;” src=”blogger_files/p7230078_web.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″>
This is at the end, when Pauline was saying things she shouldn’t -
gotta’ love Sanguines! And of course Peter, the melencholy, is in the
background doing the Mona Lisa thing on me…

Girls in relationships with guys because it’s fun. Guys having casual sex with girls because it’s fun. People breaking up because they can’t force the other person to be what they want them to be.
It’s a wonder how anyone makes a relationship work!

It seems to be getting worse too. I mean, in my parents generation, people had some breakups. But looking at my generation, it’s almost like a fad. “Oh yeah I dated her…not really sure how long, might have ummm…a week?”. Why even bother? It seems to me that we don’t even bother getting to know a person before we are suddenly in a “relationship” with them! Then well…it’s kinda fun and has “benefits” so why break it off? Besides, she knows it’s not “serious”! Well whats the point if it’s not serious! Maybe just be friends in the first place? Then you probably wouldn’t get to the point where you ever needed to break up. You might even become best friends forever. Makes a lot more sense to me than a temporary relationship.

I look at my grandparents generation, and when they got married that way it. I’ve been told that the mentality back then was more along the lines of, “this is my life and I choose to share it with you”. Not “You make me happy, and when that stops I’m finding someone else to make me happy”. Problems are always going to come into life. But it’s not a problem, it’s LIFE. Work it out people, start enjoying life instead of seeing it as a series of problems. I refuse to believe that relationship is supposed to make my life “easier”. Great, now I just have to find someone who is shares my beliefs and is single sigh.

I was talking today with a friend of mine who is a very successful businessman, asking how he managed to balance his priorities. I mean, starting a business from scratch, and building it to a sustainable level, while balancing family life and finances to keep that startup going, sounds hard!

Basically, it comes back to the reason behind the activity. If the reasoning is big enough, then we prioritise around that. And it’s not money. E.g. if I am building a business to be able to increase our income to be able to retire my wife, then I want to do it as fast as possible to make that goal happen. So I cut out recreation in the short term, because the long term goal is more important.

If I am building a business “because I can”…then it will be very difficult to prioritise that business. The same goes for a degree…if you are just at university “because you can be”, it can be very hard to prioritise university work above everything else…because there is no ultimate goal. And if I don’t prioritise it, then it may take a lot longer to work properly (if at all), to the point where I just don’t see any reason in continuing!

So I guess it begs the question…why are you doing what you are doing? What is the ultimate goal you are striving for? And, once you have achived that goal, whats your next goal?

I was once told that the “why” we do something will make the “how” to do it easy. But knowing “how” to do something, does not automatically give us a reason to do it. I mean, think of all the ideas you have had, inventions, business ideas, improvements in other peoples businesses…you have got the “how”…but maybe have not implemented them because you have no “why”.

Well I just watched the rest of Heroes, up to the season finale. I have to say that the girl who plays Claire is cute. I IMDB’d her, and it’s Hayden Panettiere. Now, she’s actually 3 years 356 (i.e. just under 4 years) younger than me. That means she isn’t 18 yet, so I’m not going to even bother rating her. She does have awesome emerald eyes though. Maybe they’re just pretty to me because I don’t meet many girls with green eyes, but I still think they make her stand out

It will be interesting to see if she can maintain her sanity given she’s so young for such a high profile position. It appears to me that somewhere in the 15-25 range, everyone (high profile or not) goes on an activity bender…either that, or they bottle it up, and explode in a mid-life crisis at 40

After counseling with someone today, I listed out my reasons for building my business. None of which corresponded with “this will deliver my dream”. For a long time I’ve blamed my failure on that, because I’ve always been told “If the dream is big enough, the fact don’t count”. I believe that statement. But just because there is a point x, y (have dream, will be successful) doesn’t mean that there is a dipole at -x, -y (no dream, will fail).
It just means that I need to be a little more disciplined! I mean, I still have reasons for being in business. They just don’t correspond to a dream. So I’m probably not going to build my business with much passion or fervour, but I will build it. It’s technically and economically sound, so it will work anyway. It just depends on me.

I’ve been using SSHFS via the FUSE device for a little while now, and it’s cool. It correctly preserves the permissions of files because you have to login as a user on the remote machine to actually mount the filesystem! Just like SFTP or actually SSH’ing into the remote machine and creating the file manually.

SSHFS is cool though because it’s totally transperant, like NFS. Well. Almost. The things is, I have to keep mounting it when I boot using a shell script I wrote…then I enter my password, and it works. Well I’m shifting away from NFS because it

(a) Fails on permissions half the time
(b) Requires the NFS server to be enabled on the client, which sometimes causes problems.

Now NFS is not really portable to Windows anyway, so I’m not going to lose anything there by disabling it. What I will lose is the ability to plug any Linux machine into my network and access my NFS shares. Oh well, it’s insecure anyway.

So I want to autmount my SSHFS shares. The ones that used to be NFS. I used the mount script for fuse from John Hunt’s Blog, and tried to follow his instructions but…well they didn’t work so well. So I used his mount script, and the instructions for actually setting /etc/fstab up from the BTreeHugger’s Blog. The BTreeHugger instructions were really cool, because it’s passwordless and it works in Ubuntu. Plus, I’ve never used pregenerated keys before so that was fun

Ok I watched another movie, and it had another hottie in it, so I’m blogging. This time it was Cruel Intentions. I’ve seen it a few times before, and I always thought Sarah Michelle Gellar was the sexy one…and she is. But the personality of a harlot in a real girl is just not appealing. So Reese Witherspoon wins

So I went looking for a photo to put into this blog, only to find that she’s no longer that sweet looking blonde lady she was before 2000! Photos were hard to find though, the best source I found is from the Actress Archives. The photos of Witherspoon now…well she’s over 30 now, and dressing her age. She does still have a pretty smile though

She looks like someones wife, which would be great, if she was. Not really sure what happened there, her personality bio reads like a sweetheart. But then, maybe I’m just not too good at interpreting personalities from paper. Maybe I should go to the USA and ask these ladys

Well I give the pre-2000 Witherspoon a 9, but minus 1 for not having the x-factor. Final score: 8. Now I’m off to watch Spawn 2: The Animated Version, and finish my teaching plan for my students today!

I’ve just watched Daredevil again, and I’ve decided that Jennifer Garner is a hottie. Her age confused me though, I wouldn’t want a 20 year gap. The fact is, she only *looks* 30

So I’m giving her a weighted ranking of 9. She has all the features of a classy lady, and scores on all the dynamic weightings. This is based on how she looks in the ballroom scene in Daredevil. I couldn’t get a good photo of it, and it’s too dark in a direct capture. So I settled for a putting a pic of her in skintight clothes on here. It’s a pity she’s not smiling though, she has a nice smile

Weightings are based on bust, waist, ass, hourglass figure, face, movement, height.
Dynamic weightings are changable: hair, makeup, clothes.
1 point each, and I’m keeping it integer based, because I’m always told I’m too fussy, and thought I’d juxtapose

By the way, I’ve started linking in my posts

I was thinking a few days ago about changing. No matter what changes, it always seems to cause discomfort to me. OF course, changes we do not want or expect usually hurt more. Like, when I broke up from my last long term relationship, it sucked. One of the main reasons it sucked, is the change from spending 70% of my time around one person, to being alone. Big change.

But even good changes hurt. I’m in the process of getting fit. Frequent sports, running, diet watching etc. It’s working. But my muscles hurt, I get puffed out, I’m tired, I’m lazy, it’s cold…I don’t always want to go through what is necessary to make the change happen! It makes me most uncomfortable
Of course, the results are awesome, so I put up with it.

Now, I was also thinking, what happens when we “arrive”. What happens when we are at the location we wanted to get to (i.e. when I’m fit). Well, I don’t see how it’s possible to “stand still”. Maintaining a status quo requires work. Like if I don’t keep exercising, I will stop being fit. But even with a routine, the world has a way of making it so we need to adapt, and change, just to maintain that status quo. In Perth, it can get hot in summer. Sometimes we get heat waves where the whole week is about 40 degrees. Now, I could run in that, and kill myself, and not be able to run the next day. Or I could change my routine and do some other exercise, or just less running. Or do it at a different time.

So, everyone is changing. You’re either changing the methods used to keep your current situation active, or your working on changing your current situation. That means everyone is always going to be in some level of “natual” discomfort. Unless you learn to accept that the results are more important than the discomfort. Learn to ignore the discomfort. Go with it. The greater my discomfort, usually, the greater the change that is happening. I think thats a pretty good bright side to look on when I’m uncomfortable with the work required to make something happen