Phuba.com - Internet Strategy

Asylum Seekers and Refugees now have a brand new website with the launch of the redesigned Asylum Seekers Resource Centre site.

I used CMSMadeSimple for the content management system - which is highly recommended for sites such as this, and a friend, who prefers to remain anonymous, has spruced up the design somewhat. Here is a gratuitous link for the anon friend - Login with free web passwords to bypass compulsory registration.

The ASRC works directly with asylum seekers and refugees, both living in our community and detention, to provide direct aid and support. They also campaign and lobby on behalf of asylum seekers, refugees and all Australians who want to change the and unjust asylum seeker related policies Australia has adopted. Check out the site to find out more, and then pop over to 10 second review to tell us what you think.

Having just admitted to myself that, I do, in fact, watch a significant amount of Television, and that I am continuely frustrated by the ratio of rubbish to ‘things worth watching’, I decided to take my TV viewing into my own hands.? How did I do this?

I walked into Harvey Norman, forked over a little over $500 and purchased a Mediastar 920PVR Digital Video recorder.? Its on the lower end of the scale price wise, but it really has some nice abilities.? I can now record TV on up to 4 channels at once (sort of, in actual fact its really only 2) while also watching something I recorded earlier.?

The video quality is fantastic Standard Definition, my 68cm TV certainly doesnt need High Definition, but thats not the best thing.? Now, if I want to watch those episodes of Futurama that are now on at 7pm, I dont have to sit down as soon as i get home, and disregard my grumbling stomach.? I can talk to my partner about our days and? cook dinner, before sitting down to watch my 30 mins of cartoons.? Did I say 30 mins?? I actually mean 20 minutes, now that I dont have to watch those 10 minutes of ads.? Then I can nick off and wash the dishes, while pausing whatever is on a 7.30 if I want, only to catch up later, without the ads.? My partner even gets to watch a little of what she wanted to watch on the other channel, if she’s lucky

Of course, there are teething problems, and I still have 3 remote controls sitting next to me on the couch - but these issues will be over come and I may never be forced to watch the ads again.

? My only worry is that the rest of Australia will catch on, rendering ads useless to advertisers, which will mean that free to air TV will probalby end up with banners permanently displayed along the top or bottom.

Its no wonder that Internode has so many fan boys on broadband sites and forums like www.whirlpool.net.au when they show such forward thinking with initiatives like this. Have a look at the article Adelaide poised to lead WiFi pack? from The Age.? Internode intends to shout free wireless access to anybody in the city of Adelaide.?

So, Adelaide, a supposed backwater as far as Australian capital cities goes, all of a sudden takes centre stage with the likes of San Francisco and Paris.? Where are similar initiatives from Melbourne and Sydney?

Do the telco’s know what free access like this can mean to them too?? ? With latest mobile phones like the Nokia N80 coming equiped for wi-fi, how long until Australians in our capital cities are using skype to make free mobile phone calls?

I recently launched a new site at http://10secondreview.com/.? The idea came after I noticed a huge number of people seeking reviews of thier own website and posting reviews of just about everything else? other thing under the sun.? People love to give opinions, especially if it’s anonymous, and people love to get critiques, so the benefit here is obvious.

To power the site, on recommendation of a work colleague, I decided to give Vanilla Forums a whirl.? Vanilla Forums is available here - http://getvanilla.com/.? While the site hasnt been heavily trafficked yet, I must say that after revisiting it after a month overseas, without internet access, I am in love with its style and simplicity.? Head on over to http://10secondreview.com/? and check it out for yourself.

In the craziness around packing for a month holiday in Laos I totally forgot to put a ‘Hey, im not going to post anything for awhile’ message up….so here it is.? Also, below is the a link to a few holiday snaps if you are interested and a quick run down of a first few weeks here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/webmasterb

? having a fantastic time so far in laos.? this will be quick as we are just about to jump on a? 9? hour overnight bus trip down to the south before heading into Cambodia.? 9 hours to Pakse, then another 5 to Si Phan Don, then back to Pakse to fly to Siem Reap.

Hopefully this trip is less eventful than another road trip we had previously - no more than 2 minutes after we had picked up a little scooter for the day did we find outselves ducking into an alleyway to bribe a traffic cop who busted us for running an orange light - It was? 8 dollars well spent i think to prevent him from confiscating the bike.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the local laos? guide book that? you? might find? as entertaining as we did -

“tiger bites? very bad, especially in the rainy season. You will be comforted to know that your family will read about you in their daily newspapers.”

“Driving in Laos is risky especially in urban areas.? Lao people drive by putting thier faith in the Lord Buddha”

And here are a couple of holiday snaps that i had a chance to upload also -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/webmasterb

The weather has changed in the last few days from hot to very bloody hot, so we have had to have a few dips in a hotel swimming pool, and a few waterfalls.? The Mekong looks enticing, but we have enjoyed watching it rage past from the comfort of the shore having candlelit dinners and drinking beer lao moreso than bathing in it.

Anyway, must go, we have a bus to catch to the 1000 islands.

Obviously google is still not familiar with Australia and it’s people.? If they were, they would have realised that it’s not cool to set up a
Googleplex in Sydney.? Sure, the weather is better than Melbourne, but, putting it simply - Melbourne is way groovier.? All the fun is in Melbourne, Sydney is Evil!? Evil I tell you!

Anyway, jokes aside, it seems that officially now Australia fits somewhere into Google’s strategy, I suspect that Google local will be hitting town sometime real soon, and some competitors eg truelocal.com.au, will really have to lift thier game to compete.

On the map downunder

PS - What do google really know about the internet anyway - the photo on the article above is a gif, and its 130Kb……Are google struggling to understand compression techniques?

If you are looking for blogging software, I have to say Wordpress is great. I use it here, and would recommend it to anyone - it is very adaptable, easy to use and has a large support base.

The downside of its huge popularity is that there are hundreds of spam bots trawling the internet infesting your site with comment spam. When i used the default wordpress install I found that most comment spam was screened out using the inbuilt ‘CAPTCHA’ device. However, I got sick of the default them and found when I installed the current one with Web 2.0 functionality on the comment box the CAPTCHA was circumvented. Since then I recieved hundreds of spam comments a day that have polluted my inbox.

Enter Spam Karma - Thanks Spam Karma, you have saved me hours a week. It was a breeze to install, and while I dont understand the majority of functions, the default settings have meant that in 3 days I have not recieved a single piece of spam to my in box. I look forward to a long and happy relationship with you Spam Karma!

Recent surveys have shown that Australian’s don’t have any clue what digital television is, what it means to them, how to get it, or even if they have it or not.? ? I cant say I blame them, it hasn’t really taken off here yet.? ? ? I considered myself pretty with it as far as technology goes, but until recently I thought that Standard Definition meant that the picture was? a higher resolution than standard TV (its not) and that High Definition wasn’t even available in Australia yet (it is).

So, if you are more lost than me check out this thread on the Australian Digital TV information? forums, it will tell you almost all that you want to know about SD, HD, PVRs and set top boxes.

You have bought yourself this beautiful 104cm LCD TV for four and a half thousand bucks from Myer, so now you are broke.? You get home and wonder why the picture isn’t quite as good as it looked in the store.? What’s gone wrong??

Didn’t read the fine print did you? You need a digital set top box for that beautiful TV to get anything like a decent picture.? Now, you could buy one of these suckers from Myers for anywhere from $70 to $400 – but you don’t have any more cash to spare since you blew it on the ‘mega-tele from hell’, do you?? And also, your plain old VCR isn’t going to cut the mustard either – everything you play back will be in boring old analogue.? What can you do now?

I’ll tell you what – scrape, beg, steal or borrow somewhere just under $200 and pick up one of these nifty little devices from ebay - Personal Video Recorder.

They rock – for less than $200 you get a Digital Set Top Box, plus an 80 gig hard drive that allows you store up to 80 hours of any TV show you want – and they are all nicely labeled for you automatically, and you can watch other things while you tape it, and you can PAUSE LIVE TV.? Do people know this is possible nowadays?? Why aren’t more people doing it?? When my mum rings and im only 5 minutes into neighbours I just hit pause, if somehow I manage get off the phone within 20 mins I don’t have to switch over the TV and watch the rubbish that is Home and Away until its over, I just hit play again – and it continues to record away in the background.? That kind of thing is priceless.

Now – there are heaps better models available out there – but why pay $1000 for bells and whistles when you can spend $200 and get the basics.?

PS – I am in no way affiliated with anyone who sells these little beauties (unless there are adsense ads on this page promoting them of course) – I just think they are a bargain.

Oh, hold on…most TV in australia is free - you just have to sit through ads, unless of course you are watching the ABC.? Unfortunately, they never seem to be playing what i want, and of course i cant take my TV with me and sit on the train and watch it.? And would I even want to sit on the train and watch TV on a measly 1 inch screen on my mobile….actually, i do.? I find that the best TV to watch on my mobile phone is cartoons - I know, not? exactly brain food, but more entertaining than staring at the junk yards that us Melbourne Westies have to endure every morning and evening.

So, where can you download reasonable quality cartoons to watch everyday, and legally too I assume (well - it was on digg, so it must be legal)

You can download them all using this friendly blokes play list.? Or just click on a couple of my favourite’s links - Futurama, Hong Kong Phuey, Ducktales, Woody Woodpecker.

I havent tried it myself, but i suspect this will help too - Download YouTube Video With Greasemonkey Script - lifehack.org? or maybe this www.bestube.com

Im not sure how long these cartoons will be available, so let me know if they disappear.