An update to the Are you ready? post earlier.
Category: Ramblings
-
Are you ready?
Have you ever wondered how fast the pace of change really is? Have you had time to wonder?
The old saying is “knowledge is power”. From the earliest vestiges of mankind, through the middle ages and beyond, knowledge has been used for means of control. Those in power such as monarchs, politicians, and religious purveyors all used the ability to impart and disseminate knowledge to keep their position over the masses.
The chief tool used to accomplish this was the ability to read and write. The working class were kept uneducated, and their ability to congregate and share what they knew, and to become organised suffered greatly.
However, this has changed dramatically. In this day and age reading and writing is learned by almost all in first world countries, and is not the barrier it used to be. In fact, now the problem is not that information is scarce, but that there is so much of it, and sorting through it all is time consuming, and confusing.
With so many sources of information, and the World Wide Web giving so many the ability to communicate one to one and one to many, the issue has moved from a dearth of information to an overload, with much doubt cast on the validity or otherwise of this mass of words and pictures, still and otherwise. Pictures are ‘touched up’, documents are forged, statements are made that are so difficult to verify and validate.
Everywhere we look today there is more information than we could ever hope to process. Whilst the numbers in the video above have been bandied about in various places, this clip packages them together neatly, and is cause for thought. How can we ever begin to know what is real, what is important, what is relevant, and when will it end?
The part that stood out for me is that half of what is learnt in the first year of a four year technical degree is outdated by year three. What figure(s) made you sit up and think?
-
Finally – the mothership site redesign is done
Whilst designing a web-site is one matter, designing – or worse still – redesigning – one’s is often a matter of pain and suffering. Because the customer is oneself, it’s easy to think that continual fiddling with it is ok. As parents will tell you – this is not ok! Just leave it alone.
Anyway, take a look and feel free to drop a line and let me know what you think.
-
Sydney – the new Auckland?
I flew down to Sydney on Thursday, to meet some people on Friday, and to catch up with a good friend. On Friday not long after our meeting, the light disappeared and the rain came down. In the space of 10 minutes the city received 3 months worth of rain, and the power in the building I was in died (as I was moving the pointer towards the send button on an email that had taken 25 minutes to write). Sound familiar to those in NZ? On another note, the meeting went well, and the people I met were great.
The Downer Engineering Xmas Party was on the Sat, and kudos has to go to the Downer band (including Risto on the drums) who in my opinion (and many others there) were better than the hired entertainment!
A big raspberry to the security monkeys at the bar the event was held however. The party was upstairs, and later in the night we decided to move downstairs to the general area. As we disembarked from the lift however, the arrogant neanderthal said as soon as we finish our drinks we had to leave as some of our group looked as if they’d been drinking (???).
If he’d taken the time to actually make an intelligent (oops – there’s the problem) assessment, or enquired upstairs, he’d know that we were in better states than some of the guests in the public area were, all of our group were in good spirits, and had behaved impeccably all night. Unfortunately, according to a Sydney friend, this is how most security people in Sydney are, so he wasn’t the odd one out.
-
Moving. Oh the joys.
After 5 years I have finally moved from Paritai Drive. While the house was great (and large), it was time to move, and sample the delights of living somewhere else.
Some great times were had there, and lasting memories of other incidents persist as well. The flooding, the motocross bike incident, the guest chefs, the P-lab explosion across the road, the great parties, the BBQs, the pony (those who were at my 30th will know what I mean), breaking the floor, the unscheduled visitors…the list goes on!
A housewarming party never did eventuate, but I’m sure this was made up for in many other ways. The amount of Wild Turkey and Thai green curry consumed would be unparalleled.
I’ll miss you.
-
Magyar
From the first line of the Hungary section of Lonely Planet Eastern Europe: Hungary’s uniqueness extends beyond its incomprehensible tongue.
Boy I can pick ’em.
-
Food, glorious food!
Hungarian hospitality is world-renowned, and I (and my waistline) now know why. Since we arrived, the food has been rich, plentiful, and delicious!
As those who know me will attest to, I am not a big fan of soup (why are there lumps in my drink – and why is it in a plate?), but the soup here is great. Tasty, and a little bit spicy, so definitely up my alley.
The bacon (sonka) is usually smoked, full of flavour, and generally not cooked before consumption – think combination between ham and bacon. Very unlike the processed, watery, mop squeezings that is passed off as former pig in most supermarkets in NZ.
Kolbasz is a type of Hungarian sausage which I’ve experienced before, as a Hungarian friend’s mother used to make it every now and then. I think I must of eaten at least 10 so far, as a scan of my arteries will show. The problem is (ok – not really a problem) it tastes so darn good! There’s so many different flavours we may have to extend our visit a while.
Best of all? The beer – sor (pronounced ‘cher’ – but definitely smoother than the other image that name incites) is less than NZ$1 a bottle, and the bottles are 500ml each 🙂
-
Up, up, up, and away!
We’re off at 4pm, and hopefully around 36 hours later should hop off a plane in Vienna. Hopefully.
I’ll be uploading pics to the online gallery, and maybe – just maybe – will put some stuff on the Blog that Never Changes.
I’ll be using my gmail address while away, so you’ll either know it, or know someone who does. I hope everyone is well, and look forward to seeing you some time toward the end of September 🙂
-
While I’m on the subject – banks too.
The entry below about ticket agencies is reminiscent of 6-8 years ago when banks were pushing customers to use telephone, and later internet banking, as it would be ‘less expensive and everyone would win!’.
This did occur for a while, until the prices were hiked, and the banks started making even larger piles of profit by charging as much for an automated transaction as they were for a much more resource intensive manual transaction. Further to this, creating tertiary accounts with no transaction fees can be very habit forming for students who graduate and start earning reasonable money; a reasonable portion of which go to banks in the form of transaction fees and interest on credit cards obtained while studying.
The fee structures for banking has also contributed in large part to the increase in credit card transactions in the past few years. Many people take advantage of the fact that there are no transaction fees, a reasonable interest free period, and many have their day to day funds linked to (relatively) inexpensive long term borrowing.
The banks are of course more than happy for the consumer to use their money, instead of their own, as there are transaction costs, interest costs, etc etc.
-
Ticket vendors – clipping the ticket, or taking pretty much the whole thing?
Earlier this week there was an interesting piece on Fair Go examining the amount the consumer pays for booking fees for tickets to various types of events.
The show examined three vendors; Ticketek, Ticketmaster, and TicketDirect. The first two charge a flat transaction fee. Hence the consumer can pay $8.00 for the privilege of doing most of the work for the agency.
Considering this, I’m sure it’s just coincidence and a genuine care for the customer that has prompted the move to limiting the number of tickets that can be purchased in one transaction to make it more difficult for ticket scalpers and the like.
TicketDirect has a different structure due to it’s existence coming about because a large number of venues and organisations wanting to bring in house control of the ticket selling process once more. From what I’ve seen, the transaction costs on this site range from free to $2 a ticket, and is set by the venue/organisation themselves.
This is far more reasonable when purchasing a ticket for $10-$20 with a maximum 20% booking fee as opposed to 80% from one of the other vendors.
Consumer: be warned (or afraid; very afraid).