You Can't Coach That

Saturday, August 30, 2008

The Queensland health system seems to lurch from one crisis to another.

The lack of hospital beds is again in the news as patients are forced to spend hours in hospital corridors waiting for an available bed, sometimes for several days.

My jaw hot the floor though when I heard our esteemed health minister indicate that the shortage of hospital beds and the strain on the health system was partly because of the substantial increase in infrastructure undertaken by the government. He made the preposterous claim that because of this increase in facilities more people were using seeking treatment.

Can you imagine? There is an expansion at the local hospital, let's go and get ourselves admitted so we can check it out.

Gotta love those politicians and their "spin".

"You can't coach that"

Friday, August 29, 2008

Too long since I posted last. Too much to do and so little time. Started writing a novel which has sucked up all the creative juices.

Anyway, driving home this afternoon I passed a middle aged couple in a brand spanking new 6 series BMW convertible. Envious? Who me? Of course I'm bloody envious. But what's with the top down and windows up? Seriously, if you're going to spend the best part of $250,000 on a convertible, drive it like it was meant to be driven - wind in the hair and the growl of the V8 in the ears. I wonder if the air conditioning was on too?

"You can't coach that"

Thursday, July 10, 2008

We recently invested in a new mattress and I was bewildered by the number of choices available. I just wanted something comfortable. I wasn't really interested in overhead cams and variable valve timing (oh wait that was car shopping).

Anyway, a local bedding manufacturer, Sleepys, has come up with a brilliant idea. A 60 day comfort guarantee.

Assuming that some people return the mattress after 60 days and that Sleepy’s then don’t dump the $2000 or $3,000 mattress, I imagine you run the risk that the mattress you buy has had two 150kg lovebirds bouncing on your “new” mattress for the past 2 months.

The mind boggles - glad I didn't buy from Sleepys.

"You can't coach that"

Sunday, June 15, 2008

I read on ZDnet the other day that Microsoft is warning web site owners that they must start preparing for the release of Internet Explorer 8. This comes after Microsoft announced that "Super-standards mode" would be the default in the new browser. Super-standards mode? What about just saying the thing meets current web standards? Surely "standards-mode" would be enough to indicate this. When I drive my car later today I won't be in "super-law-abiding" mode - I will either follow the traffic rules or I won't. Sorry officer, I am driving in "quirks" mode today, you and the rest of the world will have to do things my way.

How ridiculous that we should have Microsoft warning everyone that the upgrade of Internet Explorer might "break the web". First they make life difficult for web developers by arrogantly ignoring standards with their browser, now they warn of impending doom because they have finally bowed to pressure and will make Internet Explorer comply with generally accepted standards.

Long live Firefox.

"You can't coach that"

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last 5 years you would be aware that the world faces somewhat of an energy crisis. Some would argue it is already here. A rapidly rising oil price (petrol here is A$1.50 per litre or US$5.70 per gallon), green house gas emissions, nuclear waste to be disposed of, we are in a bad way. Progress on developing alternatives to our current energy technologies appears painfully slow.

Well dear reader, I have the solution. Picture a tense scene in a Hollywood blockbuster. Our hero is edging his/her way down a dark tunnel or passage. Said tunnel/ passageway is lit by a line of convenient flaming torches that the bad guys have placed on the walls.

These torches are lit by what must be the most amazing energy source known to man. It is inexhaustible, cannot be extinguished and in no way consumes the stick on the end of which it burns. Surely we can harness this amazing fuel to power our turbines to produce the electricity we all so much depend upon. Perhaps we have the wrong people working on solving our energy problems - over to you Mr Spielberg, Mr Lucas et al.

"You can't coach that"

Thursday, May 29, 2008

It's almost a year since I made the move to a Mac (Mac Pro desktop) and what an enjoyable year it has been. To highlight what a successful switch it has been for me I have given some thought to the problems I have had with the Mac compared to the problems experienced on my wife's Windows Acer laptop over the same time period. The laptop had a clean install of Windows at about the same time that I got the Mac. As far as useage patterns go, the Mac is used more intensively than the laptop, ie I run more programs simultaneously and run apps that put more of a demand on the system. The Mac has also had much more software installed and uninstalled than the laptop (I love to experiment with new software).

Here is the data (not scientifically obtained):

My satisfaction with the Mac should be obvious from the above. It has been a hassle free experience to switch and I have been more productive and less frustrated than when using a PC. I have a copy of VMWare Fusion to run windows in a virtual machine and I also have a boot camp installation of windows. To my surprise, the only time I have used the boot camp copy is to play an occasional game. Similarly, the use of the virtual machine copy has been very infrequent.

Next purchase? A Macbook of course.

"You can't coach that"

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Am I supposed to be excited about this?

Countless people suffering in the world and billions are being spent so we can look at a black and white photo of what could be my backyard (it's been very dry in Brisbane lately) but which I am assured is Mars. Yes I know, there are also some wizz-bang experiments being done to see if there was ever life on this red hunk of rock - ho hum, people are still starving.

"You can't coach that"

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

A 2006 amendment to the Australian copyright act made provision for certain “private use” copying of copyright material. The private use provisions make sensible exceptions dealing with “time-shifting”, “format-shifting” and “space-shifting” as follows:

• time-shift from radio and TV (that is, record something to listen to or view at a later time);
• format-shift books, newspapers, periodical publications and photos you own (that is, make one copy in a different format, such as making a digital copy of a paperback you own); and
• space-shift sound recordings (that is, copy sound recordings into any format – including MP3 – so you can listen to the recording in different places – for example, copying a CD so you can have a copy to listen to in your car and another to listen to on your computer at home. [source]

It is now legal therefore to do what people have been doing since the invention of the VCR, record television programs and watch them at a later, more convenient time. Ripping music to MP3 and other formats for use on iPods and other devices now also has the blessing of the powers that be. There is one important caveat here though, it is illegal to breach any form of copy protection placed on a CD. So if the use of such methods becomes widespread on music CD’s it will also be illegal to rip music. Interesting, the record companies can put in place a barrier that stops people doing something that is completely legal.

So what about DVD movies? No such luck here I’m afraid. There is no provision in the fair use provisions for the format shifting of DVD’s. Therefore, if I have a video enabled portable device, I can quite legally copy my music to it but not my DVD videos. Ridiculously, it is quite ok for me to copy a VHS tape onto DVD (subject to the presence of protection schemes).

It seems that under the private use exceptions I can pretty much copy anything that I own, except for DVD’s. I can even scan a whole book into electronic form if I have the time.

The movie studios obviously have much more political muscle than any other stake holder in the area of copyright.

“You can’t coach that”

Monday, May 19, 2008

This seems to be a common theme these days - so many people are not prepared to take ownership for their own actions.

Probably the most frustrating circumstances under which I see this problem is dealing with parents of the students I teach. It is becoming more and more common for parents to defend their child’s actions, even when those actions would seem indefensible. An example that comes to mind is stealing lunches from school bags. “It’s not as if she stole something valuable, it was only some fruit and a sandwich” explained the parent who was vehemently against any form of punishment for the child concerned. No ownership of actions there.

Someone offered their explanation for this behaviour the other day. The fact that young parents today represent the first generation where both parents are forced to work to maintain a reasonable lifestyle was the apparent reason. Whether this is true or not I cannot say. What I can say is that just because both parents work, there is no reason that a child should not be held accountable for their actions. Until parents wake up to this we will continue to see people looking out for number one and ignoring the effect of their actions on others.

It seems I am getting old and cranky.

“You can’t coach that”

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Skokie Illinois. A village in Cook County and a suburb of Chicago. Or so my brief internet search tells me.

A week ago I had never heard of Skokie. Why would I have? It’s a long way from Brisbane, Australia. And then coincidence came visiting.

I was supervising a science class in one of the school labs and being rather bored started studying the table of elements hanging on the wall. I was reminiscing about chemistry classes long since forgotten when for some reason my eye was drawn the fine print on the bottom of the chart. It was made in Skokie Illinois. I didn’t think much of it other than the fact it is an unusual name and it conjures images of small town America for some reason.

Several days later finds me watching one of those generic cop shows, possibly one with “Law and Order” in the title but I can’t be sure. The TV was just on providing a little distraction after a busy day. Coincidence time. The key protagonist was from Skokie, Illinois.

Then last night I was reading “The Quiet Game” by Greg Iles and Skokie was mentioned in what I assume is a reference to the march planned by the National Socialist Party of America in the late 1970’s.

To top things off maybe someone from Skokie will read this and drop me a line in the comments. I won’t hold my breath though.

“You can’t coach that”

“The Bladerunner”, double amputee Oscar Pistorius from South Africa has won the right to try to qualify for the Beijing Olympics and run against able-bodied athletes. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned a ban from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) which had ruled that his carbon fibre prosthetics gave him an unfair advantage over able-bodied athletes.

[image: alalam.ir]

Should the fairy tale come true and Oscar make the Olympic team and then win a medal, will drug cheats reconsider their strategy and consider amputating limbs instead?

Good luck Oscar - you are an inspiration.

“You can’t coach that”

Saturday, May 17, 2008

The recent Federal Budget left pensioners in Australia feeling short changed. Expecting Mr Rudd and his new labor government to do the right thing by them they were disappointed. It seems Mr Rudd’s so called “working families” are all that is important to this government. Of course, being on the aged pension is not something Mr Rudd or his colleagues (from both sides of the parliament) will have to worry about due to their multi-million superannuation payouts awaiting them on retirement.

As the photo below shows, a group of pensioners has come up with a novel form of protest - strip in public.

[source: ninemsn.com.au]

One can only hope that lingerie models can find something in the budget that they aren’t happy about.

“You can’t coach that”

It’s Saturday morning and the Coach family is in the middle of the normal helta skelta schedule (well actually I have been not doing all that much while my saint of a wife runs around like a mad woman).

One of the chores for the morning was a trip to the local butcher shop for the week’s supply of dead animal products. Being part of the cashless society the purchase was naturally completed with an electronic transaction via the credit card.

True to the adage, “haste makes waste” the credit card was hastily put away in the purse but didn’t quite make it into the appropriate slot and ended up on the butcher shop floor.

An hour later and the phone rings at home - it is the butcher. He has found the card, looked up our number in the phone book and called to report the so-far unmissed card. He indicated how worried he was knowing that my wife was flying inter-state tomorrow and the difficulties a lost card would cause.

Faith in humanity restored. A bottle of Australia’s finest red wine is on its way to the butcher shop.

“You can’t coach that”

Thursday, May 15, 2008

I was listening to my local radio station on the way home from work today and the announcers were discussing “the man chair”. You have probably seen the man chair but have you paid particular attention to it? You know the chair I am talking about, it can be found near the change rooms in most clothing shops catering for the fairer sex. What a godsend this simple piece of furniture can be. It offers a moment of respite in the marathon that is the shopping trip.

Of course the man chair concept could be improved on and taken to another level all together. How about some man-suitable magazines? Not necessarily the “I only read it for the articles” type magazines, but any form of sport or motoring magazine would do just fine.

Every man loves his TV and how good would it be to be able to watch the footy on a wide screen plasma while offering the occasional “that looks great honey” or “no your bum does not look big in that”. And of course there is no better chair to sit and watch TV than a leather recliner.

There is of course a huge downside to the improvement of the man chair concept. Credit cards all of the industrialised world would take an absolute beating. I know that my wife would have no incentive to leave a shop empty handed if I wasn’t impatiently shifting from foot to foot while staring intently at my watch.

“You can’t coach that”

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Whenever the issue of speed cameras on our roads is discussed the debate often centres around whether these devices are an effective way to save lives or whether speed reduction is just a by-product of the revenue raised for the government coffers. I am no expert in this area but I do find it interesting that speed cameras are often placed on what I would consider quite safe stretches of road.

Binge drinking amongst young people has everyones’ attention in Australia at the moment, especially excessive drinking by young women. As a high school teacher and father of two daughters, this is something that I find quite worrying and I applaud all efforts to deal with the problem. Of course my applause is louder for some initiatives than others. The government’s chief response at the moment appears to be an increase in taxes on pre-mixed drinks or so-called “alcopops”. Yes these drinks are marketed primarily at young women but does the government really think that an increase in the price of one type of alcohol product is going to significantly impact on the amount being consumed by these young people? There are numerous alternatives to these pre-mixed drinks and the teenagers I talk to support the argument that this measure will be ineffective in making them reconsider their drinking habits.

So what’s the common theme here? It is a win-win situation for the government. They can tell the electorate that they are getting tough on speeding and binge drinking. The evidence is there for all to see, splashed across every newspaper front page - too bad the evidence showing the effectiveness or otherwise of these programs is harder to find. At the same time, significant revenue is being raised regardless of the effectiveness of the initiatives themselves. And what happens to the revenue? It’s spent on roads and alcohol education of course - yeh right!

“You can’t coach that”