Now, I don’t want people to get the wrong idea. It’s absolutely amazing, and it’s great that the child survived, and was uninjured. But everyone in this story was a hero. When really, there are no heroes at all.

A hero is defined by dictionary.com as:

1. a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.
 2. a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.
So let’s go through the people involved in the media.

Train Driver
Hitting the emergency brake when he noticed a crazed woman hanging off the platform in his path is not really heroic. If anything, he had a pretty good day at work, and did the right thing by the book to reduce injury to a crazy woman. Remember, he didn’t know about the baby at this moment.

18 Year Old
So he jumped off the platform down to the tracks to grab the kid. After the train was stopped. Sure, he was brave, because who knows what he was going to see under there. But he’s not a hero.

The Mother
I’m sure it’s easy to do. But how is the mother in all this a hero. Understandable that she was hardly calm and collected, but lets not forget who caused this. The mother. The mother took the brake of the pram. The mother looked away. And the mother removed her hands from the pram. Not a hero at all.

The lady who held the baby
She held a baby. How is she a hero? If anything, she wanted to hep, but really, was she needed?

The people who told the station master
Thanks for that, the first person who told him is enough. You’re not heroes.

The Station Master
He stood out the door. Probably blew his whistle, and probably had a fit about people on his tracks. Not a hero though.

Anyway. Since apparently they are all heroes, I though, maybe I should get onboard this trend. I would like to thank the following heroes:

Connex
Thank you for buying a train that was high off the ground. It certainly provided assistance in this situation. True heroes.
The Train Manufacturer
Thank you for building a train with so much distance between the ground and the train. We are in debt to you. Absolute heroes.
The Child
Thanks for being alright. You’re our little hero.
Me
I was here in QLD at the time, so I wasn’t in the way, and I certainly didn’t do anything stupid to make the situation worse. Fuck I’m a hero!

 Anyone else want to be a hero?

Now, on the horizon, 6 – 10 months for those playing in Australia, or 3 or so months for the US and Canada.  Us BlackBerry users have a choice to make.  This was highlighted in a comment on a previous BlackBerry post.

I know what you’re thinking, and I was just as surprised.  Someone actually reads this, and commented.  Crazy.

The Bold 2 – 9700 (Codenamed Onyx), will be the next flagship phone for RIM.  It’s the do everything, don’t hold back device, that can only be compared to the Bold 9000.

On the other side of the page, if you’re into touch screens, the Storm 2 – 9520 boasts everything the old Storm had, except it has WiFi.  Hoorah.  However, RIM has shown us how good they can build touch screen devices, so have they learnt their lesson?  I doubt it.

They are still yet to release a stable OS for the Storm, so this one will no doubt ship, with the same, shitty OS.  Which I guess can be compared to the iPhone 3.1 software.  Crap.

Anyway.  If you’re in the market, the Bold in the way to go, and I would think about waiting for a little bit just yet.

Currently Vodafone Australia operate from Melbourne, Hobart and Cairo.  Yes, I said Cairo, as in Egypt.

As a long time Vodafone user, with four active and contracted connections, I find this news a little, well, I guess the best way to put it, is I’m pretty pissed off.

I have nothing against Indians, but overall, I haven’t had a lot of success out of their call centres.  Luckily, I only ever have to ring Vodafone when I want a new phone, and I would assume their sales teams will remain Australian based.  Well I hope so anyway.

Cairo, they aren’t too bad, and there isn’t as much of a language barrier that most Indian call centres have, and their support is second to none.

But this corporate money grabbing in our companies has to stop, and they need to think of the end user, and the Australian jobs that are being lost.

It’s funny.  A little while ago, a rep called me about my business service, and specifically spoke about their overseas support.  Now I can’t imagine everyone else, apart from me had nice things to say about companies sending calls to India.  Yet they go ahead, go against the customer, and do it anyway.  And now, this bloke who was employed to see what people thought about Indian call centres, is most probably out of a job.

Anyway, I’m still pretty pissed off, so that’s my rant.

Anyway, I bought a bloody iPhone, just to test it.  Needless to say, I was quite surprised an impressed.  However, it’s strong points, in my opinion, do not at all cater for business users.

Email
Most business’ still require a true push email client.  Like the BlackBerry.  The iPhone needs to connect at certain intervals, so go and check your inbox.  Much like your mail client at home if you aren’t running an exchange system.  So still not quite there, and from all views, will never compete with the BlackBerry.

Ease of Use
Typically, touch screen mobiles can be somewhat annoying to type on.  Not so with the iPhone, however, one handed typing is out, which is a big deal for a lot of users.  Also, it takes a lot more concentration that a regular phone, as you need to look harder at the screen to make sure your thumb is hitting the right icon.  Not a big deal for some, but certainly for others.

Where is excels
Simply, the iPhone dominates mobile applications, games and of course, browsing.  While I don’t agree with the App Store, and the control Apple has over what I can do with my phone, that’s easily overlooked by the amount of apps on it.  OVer 70,000 I’m told.

Jailbreaking the phone give even more functionality, and means you can make the phone look and feel just how you want it.  And of course, for the pirates among us.  You can pirate anything too.

So who wins?  Well for business, the BlackBerry still comes out on top.  They simply work exactly how people want them to work.  For a fun mobile device, the iPhone is the clear winner.

So I guess the statement I have used all along still stands.  If you want a business phone, get a BlackBerry.  If you want a toy, get an iPhone.  It’s a pretty neat toy too.

Our ‘iconic’ Gateway bridge is being duplicated, right next to the current one.  in 2012, they will both be open, and the traffic will be amazing, apparently.

However, there are some major changes, on the north side of the bridge for traffic heading both directions.  Both, are causing problems.

South Bound – Old Road (From Airport Drive)
No longer do you enter directly onto the bridge as you used to, you now loop under the new southbound lanes, as if you are about to start driving up the new incomplete bridge.  This maybe the case once the new bridge is opened next year, and the old one closed, however, you then take a few corners, and are redirected on the old bridge heading south.

All very good.  Except for the fact the engineers, or toddlers in the sandpit decided that instead of making the road safe.  They would make the traffic drop from 90 to 60.  In the space of about, 10m.

Why?  Because they screwed up.  They stuffed up one of the most important things when you build a road with corners.  The camber.  What’s that?  When you turn right in a corner, the road will usually slope left to right, top to bottom, so the force of the car pushes on the road as you take the corner.  It’s safe.

They didn’t actually do that.  Mass fail.  3 trucks, about 20 detroyed cars and one death, still nothing has been done, nor have they ackowleded their stuff up.

South Bound – New Link (Over Airport Drive)
Everythin is awesome.  It was great.  Then.  Three lanes, quickly shift to two lanes to enter the bridge.  Yes, one day when there are 6 full lanes, it will work.  Until what?  2012, we deal with this.  Good work idiots, really thought about that.

Northbound – New Link
Great.

The tolls will be removed tomorrow, however, the lanes won’t be clear for up to a month while they piss around and remove the booths, and repaint the road, and re-seal bits of it etc.  So yes.  The Gateway Bridge area is certainly becoming a no drive zone.  Until at least 2012.

Hoorah.

I’ve got one thing to say to those fanbois.  Linux is still crap.

For the past 6 months I’ve been using Linux as my fulltime operating system.  I was dual booting with Windows Vista on a seperate partition.  That’s a different part of the hard drive for the non nerds.

I was using Ubunto 9,04.  It’s a very good operating system, and very easy to customise to how you want to use an operating system.  Just like Windows.

Before I go on.  In an operating system, I want something easy to use, and something that just works.

Ubuntu could not offer me that.  It was free, hoorah.  But if all the Linux lovers out want to see people make the switch, that’s regular users, not advanced computer users, Linux needs to improve, a lot.

I’ll be fair, because I still like Ubuntu a lot.  I’ll admit, I am not using it to post this, I am using Windows Vista, while I wait for Windows 7 to download.

MP3 and DVD Playback
It can be done, but not out of the box.  The reason is simple.  The licences for these are not free.  Linux is free.  They need to sort something out for the regular user.

Drivers
They have come a long way, but there is still a long way to go.  My wireless for example required a driver download, and another program to install it.  Many Google and forum posts to get it working.  Not goo enough.  In both Windows XP and Windows Vista, they work, out of the box.

WINE – Windows Emulation
I don’t want to have to use sub-par free applications that do what my Windows applications do.  Dreamweaver, and Fireworks for example.  Work on Windows, built for Windows.  The Linux way to go?  Install WINE.  A Windows emulator, to run your Windows apps within Ubuntu.  But, they don’t all work.

So instead of using Dreamweaver CS4, I was using MX2004.  Five year old software.

The same with games.  Some work, some require manual changes, some just don’t work, and NONE work like they do in Windows.  The frame rates are lower, and they are very much less stable.

OpenOffice
For free, this application suite is great.  It’s also available on Windows, I suggest you download it and give it a go.  I use Office 2007 though.  Compared to that.  It’s nothing.  That is however opinion.

Email
No exchange, no Outlook.  There are some good options available, however, I don’t use email that often, I try to stick to webmail.

Software Downloads
Windows actually loses out on this one.  With Ubuntu, and a lot of other Linux operating systems, you can use a package manager, which is built right into the OS.

Ubuntu Add Remove

Bascially, you serach, find what you’re after, double click, apply changes and bam, it’s installed.  If it’s not there to find, it might be online, and you’ll be able to download it and install it like in Windows.

So I guess, if you can deal with the little things, or you’re just a basic user that can get past the driver issues.  Great, Linux will work for you.

For most users.  There is still a way to go yet.

Nashy

I like reading your rants, but maybe some pictures wouldn’t hurt?  words are too much at times.

James

I mean this in no way to offend you James.  But pictures simply piss me off.  Unless I absolutely must post a picture, I don’t do it.  It’s time I could be doing something else.  Like, massaging my balls.  Anyway.  Here’s some awesome pictures.

When they released the BlackBerry App World, it worked worldwide.  Yet, it was only officially released to Canada and the USA.  Why?  I have it, and it works, even if it’s not released here.

Why not release it to all users?  Well, RIM hasn’t got back to me at this stage, but no doubt they will spin some utter crap about ironing out problems, and that we do matter.

Now the newest creation for BlackBerry users, and fans is under testing.  It certainly seems that the same routine is taking place.  My BlackBerry is the new online social service, exclusive to BlackBerry users.  Well, BlackBerry users in Canada and the USA.

At the moment it is invite only, while they test the site, and it’s features.  So I ask the question of RIM, why not test out signing up from other countries who use their products.  Well, I didn’t get a reply.  I’m sure if I do, it will be similar to the above.

Here’s some operators from outside Canada and the US who’s users can buy, and use BlackBerry devices:

(Originally I had a list of about 300, including some countries i’d never heard of.  Instead, I’ll go with the big ones.)

Australia
Telstra
Optus
Vodafone
Three

NZ
Vodafone
Telecom

South Africa
Vodacom
Virgin
Telkom

UAE
Etisalat

China
China Mobile
China Unicom
China Telecom

Hong Kong
SmarTone Vodafone
Peoples
Three

India
Vodafone

Japan
Softbank

Pakistan
Ufone
Zong

Singapore
SingTel

Thailand
Hutch

Brazil
Vivo
TIM

Get the hint RIM.

The fanbois for Apple will fight to the death, and never admit they are fanbois, and the fanbois for Microsoft will do the same.  Difference is, the Apple fanbois may just have the upper hand.

Me?  I’m not a fanboi either way.  I use neither of the two systems by choice, but, given the choice I would drop back to Windows.  Why?  I own a PC.

The beginning of the story is very interesting.  I’m not going to tell it, but you should look at the start of Apple and MS as companies.

Microsoft had the upper hand.  Now, it could be debated as to when that upper hand was lost.  I’m going to go out there and say the spiral started around 200o, and has been slowly spiraling out of control since.

2001. OSX 10.  Windows XP.

OSX looked better, ran better and was more stable.  Of course, far less virus activity, and malware etc.
Windows had never done the “pretty” thing before.  Needless to say, they didn’t do a crash hot job of it.  And it was basically Windows 2000 with a new skin.

Fast forward to 2007.  Windows XP is still here, and now very stable, and loved.  OSX 10.5 is released, and in come Windows Vista.

OSX Leopard pretty much kicked the shit out of Vista, and still does.  Vista was the saviour.  Nothing would beat it, it would prove to everyone how good MS still are.

It failed.  It was released with literally, thousands of bugs, security holes and stupid new features.  Eventaully they fixed it, but the damage has been done.

We are now in 2009.  I believe Apple is on top, finally, after 30 odd years, they beat MS.

However.  Insiders say the punch that will push MS back to the number 1 spot.  Windows 7.  And, insiders say Apple is very concerned about it.  We shall see what MS has.  My prediction?  Windows 7 will be nothing but a skidmark on whatever updates Apple have planned.

Note:  Marketshare was not compared for obvious reasons.

Since the first iPhone was released, they have been missing very handy features, that other, far cheaper phones have been able to do for years.  Don’t get me wrong, I think the iPhone looks great.  For an iPod.

Here goes.

Speed
The iPhone 3GS is the fastest iPhone ever!  Thats right, out of the three models, it’s the fastest.  Who would have thought.  This isn’t really a feature, but I will let you know,BB 8700G > BB Curve > BB Bold.  All faster than the previous model.

And none of the BlackBerries have had a dicolouration problem because of over heating.

BB 1.  Apple 0.

Video
That’s right people.  You can now shoot, edit and send video from the iPhone.  A marvellous bit of innovation by another phone company years ago.  BB Bold also does this, and did it years ahead of Apple.

BB1.  Apple 0.

3 MP Camera
Holy mother of God.  The single greatest media device on Earth has a shitty camera.  Sure, it’s not much worse than my flimsy 3.2MP camera on the Bold.  But when you look at LG’s Renoir, packing an 8MP camera, you can really see how shit a 3MP camera is.

BB 0.  Apple 0.

Voice Control
Yep.  Blackberry did this in about 2001.  And you will find that if you’re spending over $400AU for a phone.  Yours will also have it.  My Nokia N95 had it over two years ago.  My SE from way back had it.  So yeah.  Apple has it.  In 2009.

BB 1.  Apple 0.

Compass
Well I can get one, but Apple takes the prize.  Apple I think is the only phone you can purchase that has a digital compass out of the box.  Now I hear the questions in your head.  Why the fuck would anyone want that?  I can’t answer that, and for that, I’m sorry.

BB 0.  Apple 1.

Cut, Copy and Paste
It took them three phones to add this very valuble feature that Blackberry, and other phones had about 8 years ago.  Finally, Apple is starting to get the hint.

BB 1.  Apple 0.

Messages / MMS
Congratulations Apple.  You have added a feature that even grayscale screened phones had back in 1999.

BB 1.  Apple 0.

Accessibility
One of the greatest features Microsoft ever added to their operating system.  It was in mobile phones a long time ago, around the time when colour screens started getting good.  It’s great for the vision impaired.  Apple finally got it.

BB 1.  Apple 0.

Tethering
This is for the nerds.  Basically, you can use your iphone to connect to the Internet, on your computer, via the mobile network.  Expensive and slow.  I’ll look at the word slow, and that’s what we get when we look at Apple’s progress in putting it in a phone.

BB 1.  Apple 0.

Voice Memos
Really?  2009.  Pathetic.

BB 1.  Apple 0.

I’m not counting them.  And really, you shouldn’t either.

If your iPhone works for you, that’s great, and that’s your choice.  But you do need to realise that this ‘brilliant’ phone is built with features that other, better companies have integrated years ago, and have added nothing of their own.

Now, someone will probably open a message on MSN or Facebook being a smartass halfwit.  “What did BB ever do apart from put other technology in a phone?”

They invented, implimented and maintain the world’s BlackBerry email and Internet network.  Something that took many years for other companies to attempt to do in a round about halfassed way.