GO CELTICS!
Saturday, 31 May 2008
It's like living in the 80s again! Celtics are in the 2008 NBA Finals
The Boston Celtics have gotten past the Detroit Pistons in game 6 to enter the finals against L.A. Lakers. I've been waiting 22 years for something like this to happen, and I couldn't believe it is so similar to what happened when I was young. The only thing to top it off would be to get the big three from 80s to be present at one of the final games (I'm thinking of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish) to support the Celtics to championship #17...
Monday, 19 May 2008
Boston advance to NBA Conference Finals
I never understood the "home court advantage" phenomena that is displaying itself in the NBA's 2008 playoffs at the moment. While I write this, the home teams have won 22-2 times. And that is what happened in the case of game 7 between Boston and Cleveland. Boston won the final game, and advance to meeting Detroit in the Conference Finals. And if Boston keep going the way they're going, they do not have to win on the road, but just keep winning at home.
So what is this "home court advantage"? Is it physical, or more psychological? I can't say, as I have never been to a game with Boston live. I've watched many over the past 20 years or so, but they've been either via TV, or via the Internet. It may be a combination of knowing the home court a little better, but I doubt it with the standardisation of the courts by the NBA. All rings and backboards have to be of a certain height, all lines must adhere to certain standards, etc. What it is more likely, is the spectators chanting and teasing the opponents, and supporting the home side. Well that's my guess. I would hate to travel to another location, just to feel like I'm not welcomed, and the job I was doing was being ridiculed. I understand that top teams and top players are professional in this regard, and will rise above it, but it must be a very overwhelming factor. The other thing I think it may be is the care and support of the home city to the player. They're at home, with their own families, eating their own food, in a supportive lifestyle. I can attest to this personally, as it's been very hard for the past 7 months living away from my wife in a different city.
Anyway, I hope Boston sweep away Detroit, and move onto the NBA 2008 Finals.
So what is this "home court advantage"? Is it physical, or more psychological? I can't say, as I have never been to a game with Boston live. I've watched many over the past 20 years or so, but they've been either via TV, or via the Internet. It may be a combination of knowing the home court a little better, but I doubt it with the standardisation of the courts by the NBA. All rings and backboards have to be of a certain height, all lines must adhere to certain standards, etc. What it is more likely, is the spectators chanting and teasing the opponents, and supporting the home side. Well that's my guess. I would hate to travel to another location, just to feel like I'm not welcomed, and the job I was doing was being ridiculed. I understand that top teams and top players are professional in this regard, and will rise above it, but it must be a very overwhelming factor. The other thing I think it may be is the care and support of the home city to the player. They're at home, with their own families, eating their own food, in a supportive lifestyle. I can attest to this personally, as it's been very hard for the past 7 months living away from my wife in a different city.
Anyway, I hope Boston sweep away Detroit, and move onto the NBA 2008 Finals.
GO CELTICS!
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
Celtics win over Cavs (but just)...
Congratulations to the Boston Celtics for their first game (of the second round) win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. I was tracking the game in the background on the web, and noticed it was see-sawing back and forth, but Kevin "The Big Ticket" Garnett steadied the team. Both teams had a pretty bad game, but the Celtics had less of a bad game than the Cavs.
GO CELTICS!
Monday, 5 May 2008
Celtics move into second round...
Well done to the Boston Celtics for beating the Atlanta Hawks and moving into the second round of the NBA playoffs. Keep the dream alive!
GO CELTICS!
Saturday, 26 April 2008
Gmail... quick to respond with a fix.
In my earlier post today, I mentioned that there was a bug in Firefox 3 Beta 5 that would mean that gmail chat was not working correctly. Looks like the guys have google have fixed it from their end, as chat appears to be working again:
Well done to the guys at Google.
Well done to the guys at Google.
Ubuntu 8.04 - nice, but with a bug... and go Celtics!
I've just recently upgraded to Ubuntu 8.04 from 7.10, and I am very impressed. The only thing about the upgrade process I didn't like was the fact I did it on the second day it was released, and therefore the servers were very slow. That must be an indication of the take up of this distribution of Linux. The actual upgrade process itself was as smooth as anything I have ever seen in Gentoo, but with less user interaction. I've always commented to people who asked me why I choose Gentoo, and I've always replied that I would have chosen Ubuntu if it was around at the time. I still love Gentoo, as it has taught me so much, and probably would not have learnt so much using any other system, but Ubuntu is the system I would suggest to anyone trying Linux to use first. Chatting with a friend of mine recently, he's been using Fedora and loves it. I think it's partially because he has spent time learning about it, and the fact that they share many components with Red Hat - which is arguably one of two enterprise / industry choices - the other being SUSE.
So, what did I find so good about Ubuntu - besides the install process? It seems to be much of the same goodness that it was before. I think this is important as you do not want to radically change things between version releases - like what Microsoft did between XP and Vista. All the main applications are still there. The improved feature I've noticed is the video support that runs compiz and plays back movies. This was buggy in 7.10, but appears to be fixed (or at least working much better) in 8.04. Another thing which I found was the inclusion of Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 5. While still in beta testing, it is very stable, but it appears that at least one bug has crept through. If I use Firefox 3 to access gmail, I cannot access chat, and some of the gmail features are not operating correctly. Luckily, Ubuntu still gives you access (via the package management system Synaptic) to Firefox 2 (2.0.0.14 to be exact). Running that on my system gives me full access - but at a slower rate - one of the advantages of running Firefox 3 is that its rendering engine is noticeably faster. Other than that, it's a great version release, and this one comes with Long Term Support (LTS) which gives confidence to people who just want to install it and keep using the same thing. Here is a screenshot of my upgraded system:
Lastly, I'd just like to wish the best of luck to a team I've been following since the 1980s - the Boston Celtics. I may not be from the United States of America, but I do have more than a passing interest in the NBA, more than I have in Australia's NBL. The games appear to be geared towards being more flashy - which when it comes to sports entertainment, is what I'm after. It's why I choose football (soccer) over AFL or Rugby. Anyway, the reason I'm mentioning this, is that after recruiting aggressively, the Celtics have finished as the NBA's top team and are the favourites for the finals. They are currently in playoffs for the finals at the moment, but all indications so far show it will be a clean sweep of Atlanta to advance to the next round.
The best thing for a follower like myself is that companies only make merchandise when teams win. Australia does not have as large a market as the USA, so obtaining Celtics merchandise is difficult at best. In the 1990s, all the sports shops were dominated with Chicago and Michael Jordan. This has finally ended (although you can still buy Jordan clothing and shoes). So on the hope that it will be their first championship since 1986, let me say:
So, what did I find so good about Ubuntu - besides the install process? It seems to be much of the same goodness that it was before. I think this is important as you do not want to radically change things between version releases - like what Microsoft did between XP and Vista. All the main applications are still there. The improved feature I've noticed is the video support that runs compiz and plays back movies. This was buggy in 7.10, but appears to be fixed (or at least working much better) in 8.04. Another thing which I found was the inclusion of Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 5. While still in beta testing, it is very stable, but it appears that at least one bug has crept through. If I use Firefox 3 to access gmail, I cannot access chat, and some of the gmail features are not operating correctly. Luckily, Ubuntu still gives you access (via the package management system Synaptic) to Firefox 2 (2.0.0.14 to be exact). Running that on my system gives me full access - but at a slower rate - one of the advantages of running Firefox 3 is that its rendering engine is noticeably faster. Other than that, it's a great version release, and this one comes with Long Term Support (LTS) which gives confidence to people who just want to install it and keep using the same thing. Here is a screenshot of my upgraded system:
Lastly, I'd just like to wish the best of luck to a team I've been following since the 1980s - the Boston Celtics. I may not be from the United States of America, but I do have more than a passing interest in the NBA, more than I have in Australia's NBL. The games appear to be geared towards being more flashy - which when it comes to sports entertainment, is what I'm after. It's why I choose football (soccer) over AFL or Rugby. Anyway, the reason I'm mentioning this, is that after recruiting aggressively, the Celtics have finished as the NBA's top team and are the favourites for the finals. They are currently in playoffs for the finals at the moment, but all indications so far show it will be a clean sweep of Atlanta to advance to the next round.
The best thing for a follower like myself is that companies only make merchandise when teams win. Australia does not have as large a market as the USA, so obtaining Celtics merchandise is difficult at best. In the 1990s, all the sports shops were dominated with Chicago and Michael Jordan. This has finally ended (although you can still buy Jordan clothing and shoes). So on the hope that it will be their first championship since 1986, let me say:
GO CELTICS!
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Telstra - another way to increase profits
This orginally came to me in an e-mail but I kept forgetting the number. So I decided to put it into a blog entry so at least I would know where to look for the information.
Don't know how accurate the information is about Telstra and the law, but feel free to pass this information around.
For anyone contemplating using the Sensis directory service number, 1234, DON'T!
Sensis, as you may or may not know, is a subsidiary of Telstra. The 1234 number is replacing the Telstra 12456 directory assistance number, but this time with outrageous costs attached: 40c to call the number, then 4c A SECOND! By law, Telstra have to provide a FREE directory assistance number, because they are still majority owned by the government. They choose however not to pass this number on to the public. What's the number?
1223
Thumbs up to Telstra for finding a way to charge for a service that is supposed to be provided for free.
Don't know how accurate the information is about Telstra and the law, but feel free to pass this information around.
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Awesome looking wedding cake
Went down to Melbourne for the weekend that just went, and was invited to a good friend of mine's wedding. I never had met her future (now-) husband before the ceremony, but she looks really happy, so I'm thinking he's taking good care of her!
The really cool thing at the wedding, besides the ceremony, and the fact she's real happy (with a huge grin), was the wedding cake. It was made of cupcakes, and it had gingerbread people on it (as you can see below):
Good luck with everything Jellybean and Timtam... (I didn't make up those nicknames - actually... I didn't know that was their nicknames before the wedding). May your love and happiness for each other prosper more than what I saw on the day!
The really cool thing at the wedding, besides the ceremony, and the fact she's real happy (with a huge grin), was the wedding cake. It was made of cupcakes, and it had gingerbread people on it (as you can see below):
Good luck with everything Jellybean and Timtam... (I didn't make up those nicknames - actually... I didn't know that was their nicknames before the wedding). May your love and happiness for each other prosper more than what I saw on the day!
Monday, 31 March 2008
Video game censorship for the public to decide
If you read my previous post, you would have figured out that the appropriate governing bodies for though control met to decide if we should have a R18+ rating for video games. The meeting happened, but a decision wasn't made. What they did decide upon was to open it up to the public to decide.
This is a refreshing change, and I hope the majority of games (who according to the article are now over 28 years old) voice their opinion, and the it doesn't get side-tracked by some high-morality group that doesn't understand anything about modern technology.
This is a refreshing change, and I hope the majority of games (who according to the article are now over 28 years old) voice their opinion, and the it doesn't get side-tracked by some high-morality group that doesn't understand anything about modern technology.
Friday, 28 March 2008
Video game censorship in Australia
This may be an interesting day in the history of censorship in Australia. According to an article on news.com.au, the government is going to be discussing if a R18+ rating needs to be implemented for video games.
While I am opposed to censorship in general - believing that all information should be accessible to anyone who is seeking for it, I believe that not implementing the R18+ rating is just an indication that the Australian government has not caught up with technology, and is still living in the past.
I do believe that kids should be protected from certain content, but this should be done by role models (ie. their parents) - and not regulated by a governing body "for the good of all". As history has always show, what starts off as a great idea (eg. protecting lives on the road by limiting the speed of vehicles travelling on it), will get corrupted over time (eg. revenue raising via speed cameras - or "road safety camera" as the government will lead you to believe).
Let us all hope that the correct decision is made...
While I am opposed to censorship in general - believing that all information should be accessible to anyone who is seeking for it, I believe that not implementing the R18+ rating is just an indication that the Australian government has not caught up with technology, and is still living in the past.
I do believe that kids should be protected from certain content, but this should be done by role models (ie. their parents) - and not regulated by a governing body "for the good of all". As history has always show, what starts off as a great idea (eg. protecting lives on the road by limiting the speed of vehicles travelling on it), will get corrupted over time (eg. revenue raising via speed cameras - or "road safety camera" as the government will lead you to believe).
Let us all hope that the correct decision is made...
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