Voyage of a Lifetime

On September 12 this year NASA announced that Voyager 1 had left our solar system and entered inter-stellar space.  In doing so, it became the first man-made object to leave our solar system.

This is very impressive stuff but when you also hear that it was launched in 1977, it makes you realise that a return trip would take 72 years: literally, a lifetime.

So I guess, we're not going anywhere far, far away, anytime soon!
  

Q&A &A &A &....

We have all those TV channels so you'd think that would mean more stuff to watch.  Not when they put the same show on multiple channels!  What is this about? 

The ABC is one of the prime offenders.  Take Q&A - and I really wish someone would take it - Monday night and on it comes, so I flick over to the 24 hour news channel and it's also being shown there.  So I decide to listen to the radio instead.  What do you know?  They're playing it on the radio as well!  Why do they think this show is so good that it has to be broadcast simultaneously on 3 channels across 2 mediums?  And that doesn't even include the lunchtime repeats of the show.  Someone needs to tell them that the show just isn't that good.  Watching politicians trot out their party line in front of a sycophantic audience isn't that interesting.  I really don't mind if I miss it.  In fact, I go to great lengths to avoid it. 

At least on the radio you don't have to sit through the tweets?  Why do they show these?  Do they think it's "cool" or something?  As little interest as I have in what they say, I think it's disrespectful to the guests.  It's also distracting.  You have a bunch of supposed experts taking questions and then you stream drivel from anonymous tweeters over the top of their answers.  I care even less about what they have to say.  Surely, the least ABC could do is enable you to switch off the tweets by using one of those coloured buttons on the remote, or, you know, because it is being shown on two channels at once, at least offer a twitter-free version on one of the channels.  That would at least show some sophistication in applying the technology but I'd still rather they showed something completely different on the other channel? 

How about some long lost cartoon?  Top Cat?  The Twins of Destiny? Sir Prancealot?  Anything, really. 

No Longer Smarter Than My Phone

I recently bought my 3rd phone - and I don't mean for current use - I mean ever.  And, before you ask, despite what appearances might suggest, the new one is actually the second one I've purchased this century.

First thoughts can only be that these things are getting bigger - much bigger.  First they got smaller and we were very impressed but now they keep getting larger.  What ever happened to miniaturisation?  What would James Bond make of it if Q was to hand him the latest king-sized gadget for subtle espionage use?  And no mini-gun, mini-magnet or mini-condom for Maxwell Smart in his elbow patch?  Which also means no great line in reply, "I'm curious.  What use do we have for a mini-magnet?"

I've been busy searching for apps and downloading them.  I don't have time to use them; I just download them.   Subsequently, I'm now really looking forward to the next time I have to wait in a doctor's surgery or a hairdresser's, just so I can do something other than flick through women's magazines or the Reader's Digest.

As a device, it apparently can do everything.  Other than phone calls, that is.  Well not quite, but it was surprisingly difficult to answer my first phone call - no amount of button pressing worked at all.  Now I know.  You're not supposed to just press the button.  Who'd have thought?  Buttons are a whole lot smarter than being just for pressing   Welcome to the 21st Century.

Cellebrations?

Apparently it's Spreadsheet Day today.  I find this very sad.

Air 1999

According to the very groovy logo on Google today, it's 50 years since the first manned space flight.  All those great hopes launched in a blaze of optimism. 

A mere eight years later, we were walking on the moon.  So over the next 42 years, you'd have thought we'd have really gone places.

Oh I know there's robots running around on Mars and amazing telescopes being built but I just find it disappointing that 50 years after we first went into space, we're all still here.   No-one is living on the moon and I can think of a few people that should be. 

Meanwhile back on planet earth, even our planes fly slower today than they did 30 years ago.  It wasn't like this in the Jetsons!  Are we never going to get jetpacks? 
    
It's not all bad though. We do have Facebook and Twitter, so at least we can whinge more quickly.

Zu Are You?

Here's a list what Google Instant serves up when you type in the first letter for each letter of the alphabet (in Australia, on my PC, at any rate):

• ANZ
• BOM
• Centrelink
• Domain
• Ebay
• Facebook
• Gmail
• Hotmail
• iTunes
• Jetstar
• Kmart
• Lasoo
• Myer
• Netbank
• Optus
• Paypal
• Qantas
• RTA
• Seek
• TPG
• UAC
• Vodafone
• White Pages
• XE
• YouTube
• Zu

Clearly, banks/money, real estate/shopping, email/social networking, the odd holiday and even the weather all loom large, but Zu? Apparently it's a shoe store. Shoes? Really? Who are these people?

Great Software: MS Paint

MS Paint is awesome!

Its total awesomeness is most fully described at Uncyclopedia, complete with examples of the visual wonder that can be achieved with it.

For me, its pure brilliance was best summed up by its makers, the mighty Microsoft, on their Help page (the image, possibly designed with the very product) on their website. Having ascertained that you can't zoom out, I was asked:

When it came to expressing my thoughts, it really did leave me speechless.

Broad Banned

It's hard to understand why everybody's getting in such a lather over which broadband solution is best.

By the time they've finished filtering what we can see on it, it will hardly matter.