tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81585760753718456852024-02-19T19:24:43.492+10:00Sum ergo cogito, cogito ergo dubitoMotorcycles, mobiles, and mental health. Or thereabouts.Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.comBlogger519125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-63595717325205180512011-08-12T03:26:00.002+10:002011-08-12T03:28:06.363+10:00#UKriots: A personal timeline and call for some rationality.The big news story at the moment, probably in some small part related to but currently eclipsing the global financial "whoops," is the little breakdown in law and order in the UK, where the world is now observing that America and Arab, African and poor countries have no monopoly on rioting and looting.
Human behaviour is never simple, and society is never a simple collection of humans. Perhaps Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-38829942693339842592011-07-25T22:24:00.001+10:002011-07-25T22:25:36.644+10:00A brief rant on evidence and debate quality - wind turbine edition
The ABC's 4 Corners has just broadcast an episode on wind farms and the people who claim they're hazardous to human health.
I knew it was going to annoy me and it did.
Even ignoring the people who say inane tripe like "What if a piece the size of a Commodore broke off?" (gee, what if a Commodore ran into someone? Or they, you know, like, built it properly?), the entire debate is, no real Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-1499601050234525462011-06-25T02:05:00.000+10:002011-06-25T02:05:29.551+10:00Arguing from ignorance only makes you look ignorantGod, is this thing still here?
Over the past six months or, to be perfectly honest, year, my rant/discuss energy has been diluted by twitter, which makes it too easy to make simple statements of opinion or belief without developing the argument, and Facebook, which does something similar.
Which is of course the trouble with most social media - it makes it far too easy to comment, argue and Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-55937441103581056582011-03-11T01:17:00.000+10:002011-03-11T01:17:52.996+10:00How (not) to manage a trial version of softwareThere are essentially five models to selling software over the internet:
Don't, it's free
Allow download only after purchase
Give away a limited free trial
Give away an "ad-supported" version that uses up your bandwidth and screen real-estate and, sometimes, time, by displaying ads but is otherwise fully functional.
The "freemium" model: A limited free version missing functions that are Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-56694837220279243732011-02-02T01:11:00.001+10:002011-07-25T22:57:48.372+10:00Ride report: KTM 990SMT, 990 Adventure R, 990 Super Duke
Sometime last year, in mid November I think, I saw notification of a KTM ride day and, ever the opportunist, registered.
And promptly forgot all about it until, five days beforehand, someone from Moorooka Yamaha rang me to confirm. Did I still want to take part? Like hell, yes!
KTM is Austrian and, although Germany tends to think of the country as the hick cousin everyone’s Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-51682400935520139382011-01-04T09:57:00.000+10:002011-01-04T09:57:04.016+10:00Yes, Virginia, epidemiology is really hardI had been trying to get away from these road safety rants of mine, I really had.
But this was too interesting to pass up: An interesting, amusing (as in "funny hmmm....") and self-aggrandising article from the Courier Mail: Fast-aid cuts road toll to lowest since 1952 (January 04).
What does? I thought it was speed cameras! Also: Where, dear deity, did that hyphen come from? "Fast-aid" isn't Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-70347256891350136302011-01-03T11:08:00.000+10:002011-01-03T11:08:01.746+10:00How road safety articles should beAfter so much ranting and so many brickbats, I felt I should really present a bouquet.
This is now three weeks out of date because, well, that's what the past month's been like.
It was from the Queensland Times, by staff journalist Andrew Korner (who's also a nice bloke) and it's the first halfway lengthy newspaper/online article on road safety I've seen in quite some time that hasn't lowered Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-38586172414261722762011-01-03T09:30:00.000+10:002012-03-29T19:52:05.589+10:00There is an art to good coffee and there should beNearly three years ago now I was pushed into rant mode by the then-new coffee machines using little prepackaged pods of coffee.
Nespresso machines are clean and neat and easy but generate huge amounts of excess waste packaging and take all the fun out of making coffee and the website is built using flash.
I've recently encountered one of these machines again and, I have to say, they can make a Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-5318119524386556992011-01-02T18:15:00.000+10:002011-01-02T18:15:14.680+10:00Do we make them justify anything?In case you haven't worked this out already: I really, really don't think much of the road safety discussion currently being played out in the state and national media.
It's important but it's crude, simplistic, over-wrought and driven far too much by government and police sound bites, and I don't even mean the almost exclusive focus on deaths to the exclusion of permanent trauma causing Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-40599618766440678492010-12-26T20:40:00.000+10:002010-12-26T20:40:43.222+10:00Motorcycle accidents in the media: Part 25If you cross your fingers and wish very, very hard this may be the last one for the year!
On December 15, the ABC gave us Motorcyclist charged over 260kph chase.
Not an accident report, but worth noting for the sheer stupidity. What is going through the mind of somebody who decides that running, which is a definite charge and likely to get considerably worse, is better than playing by the Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-21015542603326337382010-12-24T12:05:00.000+10:002010-12-24T12:05:16.343+10:00Smartphone, n.: A device with not quite the lotPicture this: you're shopping for a new luxury car, and the salesman is explaining that the seat can be adjusted in seven different ways via the one control and it can save settings for seven different people, and the steering wheel can control the radio, gears, cruise control and climate control, and it can steer itself between the lines and control distance to the car in front via radar, and...Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-86644948058139786832010-12-23T20:33:00.000+10:002010-12-23T20:33:59.166+10:00Motorcycle accidents in the media: Part 24A sense of inevitable horror lead me to search and, guess what?
There has been at least one 24-cylinder motorbike made.
It has 24 chainsaw engines, was built by their manufacturer as an advertising stunt, basically, and apparently they all have to be pull started.
I almost wish I didn't know that.
At the other end of the scale, we have two stories concerning the same scooter.
From ABC: Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-68990177403264798442010-12-18T16:20:00.000+10:002010-12-18T16:20:13.436+10:00Queensland solar power: covered in coal sootI stared at this story for a while, wondering what my response would be.
Then the Government published a media release as well, and I decided to go with: Pathetic, foot-dragging pack of short-sighted hypocrites.
The story is:
Under the definite headline Queensland to host one of the world's largest solar power stations, says Stephen Robertson, the Courier Mail reported conditionally on Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-27497199813129682792010-12-16T14:56:00.000+10:002010-12-16T14:56:25.633+10:00Motorcycle accidents in the media: Part 23I love it when media organisations follow minor stories. It goes without saying that big events will be given their endless, excruciatingly detailed days in the sun, but it's nice when small stories get updates.
How many times have you thought "Hey, I wonder what happened to...?"
Well, then.
More entertaining, however, is when the same story gets progress notes from different media Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-58488857832882399292010-12-10T17:48:00.000+10:002010-12-10T17:48:39.358+10:00Of motorbikes and weighty mattersI have noticed certain trends in motorcycle design.
One is that three quarters of all bikes from mid to massive have a fuel consumption of 5.something L/100km. The bigger ones are up over 5.6, but even 660 singles are at 5.07 or thereabouts. Bikes like BMW's F800 or (don't laugh, it's true) Ducati's 1000DS and 1100DS air-cooled twins, with consumption figures around or even below 4, are Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-27028583163329346892010-12-10T12:45:00.000+10:002010-12-10T12:45:39.937+10:00Motorcycle accidents in the media: Part 22I really thought I had cleared my November backlog, but it appears not: Somehow, the chronological order of items in my Reader starred list had become messed up.
Le Sigh.
Okay, here goes:
Motorcyclist dies after collision with 'speeding' ute (ABC News Online, November 16).
There are many reasons in journalism to use quotes, including in headlines, but I'm not sure what the reason here was.
Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-65733925422721032322010-12-09T16:49:00.000+10:002010-12-09T16:49:28.947+10:00No, that memory card slot is not optionalThe more we demand our smartphones do, the more on-board storage they need.
As cameras get bigger and better quality, image files increase. Music playback is now standard, so we need somewhere to put the music files. Many devices still remember when "smartphone" meant being able to edit documents, and we still need somewhere to put them. Podcasts. Ebook readers. High quality video playback. Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-12629589530309877652010-12-09T16:14:00.000+10:002010-12-09T16:14:32.758+10:00Motorbike accidents in the media - part 21Feast your eyes on this one: From November 24 from the Queensland Times, Man caught doing 300 metre wheelie.
That's: Caught on a public road, doing two wheelies, on an unregistered trail bike. It would only have been better if the cop in the unmarked car had been in a marked car.
Seriously, how selfish/stupid (delete by personal preference) do you have to be?
He said he felt he was in control Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-76936337361066762962010-12-07T18:38:00.000+10:002010-12-07T18:38:25.428+10:00You can take your guilt trip and shove itOur electricity bill landed the other day.
There's nothing particularly special about that fact - it happens with depressing regularity, four times a year.
What is interesting, however, is this little snippet:
"You generated 1.9176 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions during this period. To reduce your environmental impact, switch to Government accredited GreenPower, and offset the the carbon Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-67174307136909519932010-12-07T13:47:00.000+10:002010-12-07T13:47:23.209+10:00Motorbike accidents in the media - part 20
Here we go again and I'm now a month behind thanks to a massive surge in reporting and the complete inability of my free time to return to normal levels.
Excuses, excuses.
Five pieces here. Because.
There are two longer pieces I want to take a brief look at first. Not too surprisingly, they're both court reports. Court appearances are scheduled, predictable and full of quotable quotes as wellJonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-65190403973896910452010-11-29T19:17:00.000+10:002010-11-29T19:17:48.055+10:00Motorbike accidents in the media - part 19Well, gawd. When I promised to examine all media reports of motorcycle accidents that came my way, I had wondered if I'd be able to keep it up all year.
I hadn't realised that my free time wouldn't match my obligations. Since handing in my thesis, I've had what feels like less time to blog or anything else.
Two three-day weekends away, a bike rally and a romantic jaunt with my fabulous Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-25413942788403101712010-11-24T14:11:00.000+10:002010-11-24T14:11:08.282+10:00N900: Ah, Linux in your pocketI recently, as anybody who keeps an eye on this blog may have noticed, got my hands on an N97 mini and found it nice but wanting.
Then, in a rare (not being sarcastic, it really was rare) moment of brain-fartery I left it on the roof of my friend's car, from where it hit the ground and was run over by a tram in Melbourne.
Which left me back on the old N95. Which is now unusable because the Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-90715700575330920012010-11-24T12:25:00.000+10:002010-11-24T12:25:07.503+10:00Treating drivers as simpletons is a major cause of road accidentsAll of a sudden, five stories from the Queensland Times appeared in my RSS reader.
They are, in the order in which they appeared: Speed cameras do help save lives, Drivers disregard the Fatal Four, Forget the phone, you're driving, Enough is enough - Drive 2 Stay Alive and Count the cost of careless driving.
Spot the theme?
It appears that Drive 2 Stay Alive (I will withhold my comments Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-2983221559155728512010-11-02T16:16:00.001+10:002011-07-25T22:45:38.483+10:00A brief motorcycle accidents diversion: safety initiatives in the mediaAs I see it, there are three components to motorcycle safety:
Motorcyclists looking out for themselves, paying attention and not making stupid decisions
Car drivers looking out for other road users, paying attention and not making stupid decisions
Not building roads and road furniture which will compromise, slice, dice, pulverise or flatten motorcyclists who do happen to come off because of Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158576075371845685.post-71006861993111053882010-10-31T14:41:00.000+10:002010-10-31T14:41:43.261+10:00Motorbike accidents in the media - Part 18Alrighty, time for another one:
First up, Biker dead in Woodridge crash (Courier Mail, October 03)
Now, this is a very straightforward article, basic and complete as far as it goes, with just one problem: "he was dislodged from his bike after veering into a median strip."
What? "Dislodged"? and "veering"? Without an eye witness, "veering" is an assumption. And "dislodged" is just plain stupid.Jonathan Hepburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04333749909468762319noreply@blogger.com0