I awoke this  morning to an errie orange red glow and the air was thick with dust that made your mouth dry.  Sydney has been engulfed by a massive dust storm after strong winds brought large amounts of dust from inland NSW and the desert area of South Australia and dumped it on the city.  I have never seen anything like it.  However I guess this is what to expect if you live in the driest continent in the world.  It was very strange driving the Sydney Sun office at Gordon with the head-lights on and limited visibility.  People with asthma and other breathing problems have been advised to stay indoors.

Below are some photos:

The view from my back balcony this morning Sept. 23 2009

Sun Microsystems Gordon Office this morning Sept. 23 2009  

Sydney Harbor Bridge (source: smh.com.au)

Sydney Opera House (Source: smh.com.au)

Google Maps is launching a feature that allows Australian commuters to view up-to-date traffic flow information.   I guess this is just a natural extension of Google Maps.  BTW Google Maps was developed out of Google engineers in Sydney Australia. 

Traffic information is overlaid on to Google Maps to correspond to the speed of the traffic with green meaning "free sailing", yellow meaning "medium congestion", red meaning "heavy congestion" and black meaning "parking lot."

I can see value in this in checking the traffic on your route before say you leave home.   

Traffic conditions in the Sydney CBD as per Google Maps Traffic

Google has just launched "Fast Flip" at the TechCrunch 50 technology conference in San Francisco.  Fast Flip is a web based application that allows users to browse quickly through news stories from the websites of Google's three dozen partners.  

Google Fast Flip

This is cool..  I just checked it out.   You view just the opening headline and the front page of the article and you can quickly "flip" to the next article.  The articles are sorted into by topic or source or what is popular.

I am a media and news junkie and I found this a quick a easy way to absorb a lot of information and to find articles that interest me.

What is also interesting is that Google is sourcing the content from partners who will share in the revenue and this will drive users to the websites of the partner.  This seems fairer that just aggregating news stories in the case of Google News.

Here is the link to Fast Flip

You can follow on Twitter me here

I have joined the Twitter band wagon and are in the Twitterverse.    Twitter has seem explosive growth, seeing month growth of 1,382% in early 2009 according to Nielsen.    However it is also well known that about 50% of users give up sending tweets after about a month and only 40% of users are retained.

Some see Twitter as the future of communication and yes I agree to an extent that is excellent means to track what your friends are doing and is fantastic means to get instant news updates especially when a big story breaks.  However from my experience Twitter seems to be dominated by celabarties who want to tell the world what they are up to.  Yes sure it is fascinating to know what Lance Armstrong had for breakfast, however is it earth shattering?   However I can see a use for Twitter to say get messages to thousands of people instantly in the case  of an emergency such as a bush fire threat. 

You can follow me here

You can find me in Linkedin.

Each year as we flick our calendes to September 11, I am sure we all stop and think and reflect.  For me I was on a plane flying from Sydney to San Francisco for a Sun meeting.  I landed at SFO only a few hours after the events in New York that morning.  I now know why we were escourted into SFO by fighter jets. 

I can remember landing at SFO and the airport was been cleared by riot police and there were police everywhere.  I did not know what was going until I got on the then shuttle bus to  the Rental Car Center and people were talking on their cell phones.  I saw the first images when I got to the Avis counter.  I can remember driving down the 101 listening to the radio in shock.  I wanted to call my parents in Sydney, so I drove to my favorite cafe in Palo Alto, University Cafe on University Avenue.  I called my parents from the cafe, it was 2:00AM Sydney time.  I woke them up with the news.  To this day I am relieved that they were not aware what was going when I was in the air.

That week in Newark and Palo Alto was somber and I still have a little American Flag on my office wall that I picked up from a memorial service in Palo Alto later that week.    I can remember going to a collage football game at Stanford University the next weekend and standing for a minute silence and the national anthem. It was very moving.  I also remember American Flags everywhere, on cars, in shop fronts and even in the windows of the Sun Newark campus.

We all need to stop and remember today. 

University Cafe, Palo Alto 

The daily commute getting you down?   Have a long walk to or from a public transport node?   This could be the answer.  The Clip bike from Giant.  

The Clip bike is folding bike that can transform into a slick but compact bike in about 30 seconds and looks great.   It is light and has eight gears. I have seen folding bikes before in Amsterdam, but they look clunky and heavy.  This looks light and cool.  A neat way to whiz about the city between meetings or to and from the train station.     Here is a link for more details. 

Nokia is to enter the computer business with the announcement that Nokia is to start to make laptops entering the fiercely competitive but fast growing netbook market with the Booklet  3G netbook computer.    This sounds like Apple in reverse!  

 The netbook market is HOT right now and grew at more than 127% over 2008 according to IDC to over 26 million units.   Yes margins are very thin and the key to Nokia's success will be the ability to differentiate.   Nokia could be on a winner with "continuous connectivity" meaning that you can be on line all the time, similar to a smartphone, without the need for access to wi-fi in a neat affordable package.    You can also expect a neat design from Nokia.

The next thing will be the ability to make phone calls from your netbook and I don't mean via Skype.  I can see this not been too far away as netbooks get smaller and smaller..  but you would need to use a bluetooth headset as holding a netbook up to your ear would not be a good look!

Nokia's Booklet 3G netbook computer

There is always much media  speculation at any Apple media event as to what new products will be launched and announced.  This time was no different with fever pitch speculation as to if  Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs would make an appearance following a liver transplant.  Yes Jobs did appear at the event and appears to be back in control of the company.

The key announcement at the event was the launch of a new version of the iPod Nano which now includes a video camera, an FM radio, a Pedometer and a microphone and speaker.   Neat very neat.  I like the idea of the pedometer and the FM radio.  This would encourage you to take your iPod with you wherever you go and to have a camera on hand is an added bonus.    I think this new Nano is going to be a winner.

The new Nano with video, FM radio and a pedometer  

In know it has been a while..  however I am back in the blogosphere.    Look forward to reading interesting posts form my blog with news and views from Sydney Australia.

This is interesting.   It has recently been announced at the Computex computer show in Taiwan that small new "netbook" computers from Acer Inc. will come with Google
Inc.'s Android operating system if buyers desire, instead of Windows
from Microsoft Corp.

The move by Acer, the world's
third-largest PC maker, could raise Android's chances of becoming a
widely used alternative to Windows on mobile computers.

I see this as start of the convergence of the cell phone and the computer.  We are seeing smart phones take on the capabilities of a small computer with everything from access to email to spread-sheet and word processing capabilities.   This is the next step, a small netbook that is more like a large  smart phone, with a full size keyboard and greater computer like functions and operating a Android OS rather than Windows.

An acer laptop running Google's Android  

It will be interesting to watch Microsoft's response.  This is no doubt Google is encrouching on Microsoft's turf.   Vista was a disaster on netbooks for Microsoft and Microsoft was forced to continue to support Windows XP and sell it a lower price. The word is Windows 7 is being geared for netbooks as well as larger computers.   Microsoft will need to get its netbook strategy right.

Research shows multi-tasking can take more time and result in more errors than does focusing on a single task at a time.

"We know that if you have a person attending to different things at
the same time, they're not going to retain as much information as they
would if they attended to that one thing," said Nathan Bowling, an
expert in workplace psychology at Wright State University in Dayton,
Ohio.

Yes I agree.  I think multi-tasking increase the chance of error which means you end up taking more time than if you just did one thing at a time.  I also think it leads to a poor professional perception.  There is no doubt you can tell when someone has sent an email from a Blackberry when say in meeting or on the phone.  Full of mistakes and just does not look good and professional.

Addicted ... emailing and texting during meetings is an office no-no 

And guys having "sent from my Blackberry" in your email signature is an indication to me that you have not taken time over the response and given the focus that I expect.    Does not impress me that you sent an email from you Blackberry at 10:00PM on Friday night.  Was most likely sent from a bar anyway.

Lots of economic data in the past week giving a good indication as to where the Australian economy is at.  Last week we saw the GDP numbers which showed that the economy grew by 0.4% in the March quarter, which was slightly higher than market expectations and means that Australia has technically avoided a recession which is defined as two quarters of negative economic growth in a row and is the economy of the developed economies  in the world that is growing.  However  if you look at the numbers the 0.4% growth was due to mainly a growth in exports on the back of a lower exchange rate, declining imports and increased consumer spending on the back of massive government stimulus including $900 payments to 90% of tax payers.

Australia and major trading partner GDP growth (2009 forecast)

The problem is that 0.4%  economic growth is not enough to sustain demand for labor, which is why you are seeing increasing unemployment.  When I studied economics at university the rule of thumb was that you needed 3% economic growth to sustain demand for labor, especially when you have an increasing population and increasing migration.   Since November, the percentage of the workforce without a job or
wanting more work has risen from 11 per cent to 13.4 per cent, the
Bureau of Statistics reported yesterday.  The unemployment rate in Australia is at 5.7% up from 4% a year ago.  I think increasing unemployment is a better indication of a recession than GDP.  

The Australian economy has held up during the world recession.  In contrast, the US lost 4.5 million jobs since September 2008, Britain
203,000, Japan 560,000, while Canada - which with its solid banking
system and mineral wealth is often compared to Australia - has lost
360,000 jobs.  The reason for this is the strong demand for Australian resources especially from China, the strength of the Australian banking system and that the central bank had room to move on interest rates once the world recession hit, very low levels of government debt and the strength of the Australian economy going into the global recession. 

Note the sharp rise in Australian unemployment since late 2008... however has stabalised over recent months.

However we are not out the woods.  Measurements like business investment are down significantly and job ads are down 50% from a year ago which indicates 2009 and well into 2010 will be difficult times. 

There is always a lot of anticipation around Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference and this year was no exception.   There was talk of  a Mac Tablet and a lite version of the iPhone.   I expected Apple to introduce a netbook or a cheaper, smaller laptop.  However they would have being acutely aware of cannabalising their current line-up with a cheaper version.

The key announcement was the iPhone 3G S, which seems to be playing catch-up on functions missing from the 3G, especially an improved camera with video recording (finally), the ability to run more than one application at once and a cut-and-paste functionality. 

I still think lacking a physical keyboard is a drawback of the iPhone.  It will be interesting to see how the Palm Pre goes up against the iPhone 3G S.   

The iPhone 3G S  

Based on some of the earliest reviews the Palm Pre could be the iPhone killer.   I think we all know that the iPhone has its faults e.g. not been able to run multiple applications at the one time and the poor quality of its camera and no video capability.

Looks like the Palm Pre is very cool and functional.  I like access to a QWERTY keyboard on a smartphone and in my opinion is the big let down of the iPhone, especially for the corporate user.  Have you ever tried to write an email while walking or on a bus with an iPhone or to do it one handed?  Good luck.

Interesting that the Pre runs Palm's new webOS and not MS for mobile, which has the recent trend for Palm.  I carent wait to get my hands on one.

Here  are some first reviews of the Pre:

Walt Mossberg, Wall
Street Journal:

"It’s a beautiful, innovative and versatile hand-held
computer that’s fully in the iPhone’s class. It’s
called the Pre, and it comes from Palm, the company that pioneered
the hand-held computer in the 1990s."

David Pogue, New
York Times:

"The Pre, which goes on sale Saturday, is an elegant, joyous,
multitouch smartphone; it’s the iPhone remixed. "

Sinead Carew, Reuters:

"Pre is an attractive alternative but it remains to be seen if
consumers have enough patience for its quirks."

 Joshua Topolsky, Engadget:

A technical recession is two quarters of negative growth.   In Australia the December quarter saw a contraction in economic activity as measured by GDP of -0.5% and the March quarter numbers come out here today at 11:30A local time which in just over an hours times.

There is a lot of debate as to exactly where the Australian economy is.  Last week was saw that in Australia Private Capital Expenditure  plunged by 9% - the most in 21 years however yesterday we saw a rebound in export numbers  on the back of strong demand for mineral exports to China and agrictural exports to Asia and strong retail trade figures on the back of a massive government stimulus and cuts in interest rates by the Reserve Bank.

My tip..  a contraction of 0.1% and yes Australia will fall into recession.  However if say a technical recession is avoided by the barest of margins, the big increases in unemployment recently is proof enough that we are in what feels like a recession.  

Australia's GDP rate % change.  note the fall of in 2008.

I am writing this blog entry on my Aus Eee PC 1000H netbook PC at my favourite cafe, Pablos & Rustys near the Sun Gordon office in Sydney.   This is the future.   The netbook concept exploded in 2007-2008 and continues in 2009.   

The Asus Eee PC 1000H 

A netbook is a small portable laptop computer designed for wireless communication and access to the internet in a small lightweight package.  The key difference between a netbook and a laptop is that a netbook has no built-in disk drive which only adds to  weight and cost.   Who needs a disk drive today anyway.  I carry around my files on a memory stick attached to my key ring and I can download all of the software applications I need off the internet.  

By late 2008,  netbooks had begun to take market share away from laptops.  It is estimated that  almost thirty time more netbooks were sold  in 2008 (11.4 million)than in 2007 (400,000) and in 2009 sales are expected to jump to 35 million.

What is interesting is that the netbook concept started with the One Laptop per Child project and was more aimed as a low cost entry point for schools and developing countries.  However it is the mobile professionals  and families looking for a second laptop for home that is  driving the explosive growth.

My Eee PC 1000H gives me all I need.  Wireless access  to email and the net and came with StafOffice pre-installed in a package  that is about 1KG and fits easily into my brifecase.

Asus Eee PC 1000H Ultra-Portable PC Features

• Intel Atom N270 Processor, 1.6 GHz


• 512 KB L2 Cache, 533 MHz FSB


• 1-GB DDR2 SDRAM, 667 Mhz, Max. upto 2 GB maximum


• 160-GB, SATA 5400 rpm Hard Drive


• 10-inch (25.4 cm) WSVGA TFT LCD Display, 1024 x 600 pixels screen resolution


• Integrated Intel UMA Graphics Chipset with shared memory


• Integrated WiFi 802.11b/g /n Wireless LAN mini PCI-E connection


• Integrated Bluetooth v2.0 wireless connection


• Integrated 10/100 Mbit Ethernet LAN connection


• Integrated 56kbps Modem/Fax connection


• Integrated 1.3 Megapixel webcam (placed in the bezel above the LCD)


• 2-in-1 Media Card Reader, Multimedia Card (MMC), Memory stick (MS)


• 3 USB v2.0 ports


• Realtek ALC6628 Hi-Definition Audio 5.1 CODEC Hardware, Dolby Surround Sound


• Build-in Stereo 2 stereo speaker system 1.5 Watts each


• Built-in Digital Array Microphone


• Microsoft Windows XP, Microsodt Works


• Colors: Pearl white, Pure white, and Shine Black


• 6-cell, Li-Ion, 6600 mAh, 7.4 volts Battery, upto 6 hrs battery life


• Dimensions: WxDxH - 266 x 191.2 x 28.5/38 mm


• Weight: 1.45 Kgs with battery

The Denver Nuggets season is over going down in game 6 - 119 to 92 at Denver.  The Nuggets will be regretting not closing out games 1 and 3 when they had the chance.   I knew that the longer the series went, the harder it would be for the Nuggets.  The Nuggets are a young team and are re-building, they had to close out the series in four or five games.  The Nuggets will learn from the experience of reaching the Conference Finals and come back next season a stronger team .

I watched game 6 of the Majic and Caves series here in Sydney yesterday lunch time live.  Dominant performance by Dwight Howard for Orlando with 40 points.   For the Caves James was off his game with only 25 points and when Le Bron does not bring his A Game, Cleveland are going to struggle.

No Kobe vs Le Bron in the finals this year.  However a Lakers vs Majic final series  should be good.   Howard is in hot form and may take it up to Kobe and co.  My prediction..  Majic in 6.    The finals will be on free-to-air TV in Sydney LIVE.  Looking forward to it.

Dwight Howard of the Orlando Majic.  One awsome athlete and with 40 points in game six he can take up to Kobe and the Lakers in the finals.  

There is a lot of hype right now around new types of search engines and will anybody ever challenge Google.    First there was the launch of the Wolfram Alpha engine that delivers answers instead of lists of websites and now Microsoft has announced the launch of Bing which they are calling a "Decision Engine." 

WolframAlpha is an "answer engine" that answers factual queries directly by computing the answer from structured data rather than providing a list of documents or web pages that might contain the answer as a "search engine" might.  

 Microsoft has today announced a new web search engine called Bing that is designed to intuitively understand what people are seeking on the internet.  Looks like based on some early reviews Bing is vastly better than Microsoft Live (that would not be hard) but does not outshine Google when it comes to general internet search.  

The heat is on Google and am I sure they will respond with something more intuitive in its search engine.  I think users are looking for more than just list of websites.   I like the the idea of aggregated data from a number of sources on a single page in response to a search query and I think that this is where search is heading.  Users are looking to the internet to provide answers, not just lists.

Even through I am an Australian and I live in Sydney, I am a keen follower of the NBA.  My team is the Denver Nuggets.  Well I manage a team in Broomfield CO and Sun has a large presence in Denver, so it is only natural that I support the Nuggets.  

I always enjoy talking sports with the guys in Broomfield.  I have being to a number of Nuggets games at the Pepsi Center and I like their attitude.  NBA basketball is not as popular in Australia as it was during the Jordon era, however the playoffs does get nightly news coverage on the spot channels and the finals would get coverage in the main stream media.

I note that it has been some time since Denver has progressed beyond the first round of the playoffs and it good to see the Nuggets show some form in the post season.  I have been following the Lakers series and Denver should have put them away already and I think there lack of big time experience is showing with some poor performances at crucial times in games 1 and 3.  With the Lakers leading the series  3-2 game  6 on Friday at Denver is crucial.  I am looking to Denver taking it game 7 in LA on Sunday.

I was fortunate this week to fly on the new double-decker massive A380 with Singapore Airlines to and from Singapore.   So what is it like.  Well yes it is massive but also intimate.   You do not feel as though you are flying on a 400+ seat aircraft. 

Firstly it is quiet, by far the the quietest plane I have flown on and I think airbus are quieter than boeing anyway.     It is comfortable to be on the plane and you can easily to have a conversation.  It is much quieter than a boing 767 or 777 and the back ground noise is a mild distraction.

The layout  of the SQ jet is lower deck suites plus economy with economy divided into 3 separate cabins.   The upper deck is business plus one smaller economy cabin.  The separate cabins makes it feel like you are not a huge plane and adds to the level of service.  The plane feels and smells new.

Ecomomy is not too bad  with better seats and a excellent screen on the back of the seat in front of you close to 20 cm wide.   The quality of the in flight entertainment on Singapore airlines is the best in the world in my opinion with hundreds of movies, TV shows and music options to chose from all on demand.    The service was also excellent. 

The separate smaller cabin in economy is good.   Note the size of the TV. 

America has got it's mojo back!   Tuesday November 4 2008 was a great day for America and a greater day for the rest of the world. 

I am a close observer of the US and US politics and I have many friends and colleges in the US.  I manage a Sun Team in Broomfied and travel to the US often.    I have watched this election with interest and 11/4/08 will go down as a one of great historical significance.    I watched the results and the speeches from the Sun office here in Sydney and all America can be proud of the caliber of your leaders.  John McCain so gracious and Barack Obama so inspiring.  Australian political leaders could learn a great deal from both.  Obama is a true orator. 

The world needs a strong and unified United States and a strong US means a more peaceful and prosperous world.    I think Obama has the will and guts to drive change.   But the challenges are massive, however with the right policies, determination and support anything is possible.

As an Australian I have see the image and perception of the US be tarnished greatly over recent years.   With the Obama election the US has its mojo back.    However the world looks to the US for leadership and the pressure  will be on Obama to deliver on his promises and vision.

To all my American friends and colleges..  Good luck and rather than God Bless America, I say God Bless the World.  

RIM has hit back with the Blackberry Bold.  It is well know that Apple wanted to go after the corporate market and those heavy email and data users with Apple iPhone 3G with it improved conectivity to email servers.  

However, anyone that has used an iPhone knows that it is difficult to type emails on the go with a touch screen, especially one handed and corporate users like to use a QWERY keyboard.    I think RIM is on to a winner with the Bold.   I agree that Blackberry needed to be updated especially with screen quality and the inerface and I think the Bold will deliver as a corporate workhorse that is nice to have and work with.    I look forward to getting my hands on a Bold.

The new Blackberry Bold  

Good article thats sums up the advantages of using Sun Ray Thin Clients and VMware Virtualisation.

Low Cost | Low Power | No desktop administration unlike Microsoft windows.

For me the best thing about using SunRAY thin clients is that I can take my desktop with me anywhere in the world and is SILENT.  No humming like a Windows Box.  

A SunRAY Thin Client the same as on my desk here in the Sun Gordon office in Sydney.

More about SunRAY Thin Clients here.

Cardel Evans was able to make up some time on Carlos Sastre in the Tour de France but not enough to take the yellow jersey.  Evans needed 1 min 34 secs to take the lead however he was able to only make up 29 secs and remains more than a minute behind going into the final stage in Paris. 

The Australian Evans gave his all, however Sastre found that little extra to have the race of hs life in by far his best time trial.    Evans had a bad day and he needed to win the time trial to win the race and I think the battle in the Alps had left Evans drained.  Still a great perfrormace from the Australian.

Today is a huge day in the Tour de France, the second last day of the Tour, the time-trial also known as the race of truth.   I am a huge fan of the Tour watching the race untl very late into the night here in Sydney Australia and have been watching and following the race for many years.

Australian Cadel Evans is going for Yellow in the today's time trial in the Tour dr France

There is huge interest in the Tour this year in Australia with Cadel Evans sitting in fouth place only 1 min 34 secs behind the race leader Carlos Sastre, however Evens is by far the superior rider at the time trial.    The key quesion in will Evans be able to make up the 1 min 34 sec gap on Sastre.  There is no doubt that Evans will beat Satre in the race of truth against the clock but is he close enough to race into the Yellow jersey.  It will be nail bitting stuff.  Evans will ride at after midnight tonught and I will be watching.

The route for the 2008 Tour de France

As reported on streetinsider.com:

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) 14% HIGHER; expects Q4 revenue for of fiscal 2008 in the range of $3.725 to $3.800 billion, versus consensus estimate of $3.80 billion. On a non-GAAP basis, Sun expects to report net income per diluted share in the range of $0.25 to $0.35 versus analysts' estimate of $0.27.

The Sun stock price has jumped as much as $1.45 in after hour trading on the NASDAQ trading as high as $10.25 in response to positive Q4 preliminary results.   Currently trading at $9.88.

The graph below of after hour trading highlights the jump in share price.

Sun released PRELIMINARY results for 4th quarter after market closed last night (July 15) and despite very volatile market condition (Java closed @ $8.80 during normal trading hours), it was chased up to $9.94 in after-hours trade ...........

Sun Microsystems Inc. shares leaped after the networking products provider's earnings forecast came in better than expected by analysts. JAVA shares leaped 13% to $9.94 in heavy (after hours) trading after the company said it expects fourth-quarter revenue of $3.725 billion to $3.8 billion, compared with $3.835 billion in the same quarter a year ago. It forecast gross margin of 44% to 45%.

I had a short break over the weekend just and read this article in the Sydney Morning Heald and it made me sit up and think.  I had just driven about 200KM to an lovely beach side town north of Sydney called Shoal Bay at Port Stephens.  Just think if I had used ethanol in the car it would have taken 240 kilograms of corn to produce 100 liters of ethanol, enough for my weekend or away, or that 240 kiolgrams of corn could have feed a person for a year.   Interesting choice.   Fuel for the car or food in someone's mouth.

Shoal Bay about 200KM north of Sydney.  If I had used ethanol to travel here from Sydney and return the amout of crops needed to produce 100 L of ethanol could have feed someone for a year.

As we see the shift in the grain harvest, especially in North America into ethanol the line "we drive, they starve" is very scarey as is the title of this article "we fill our tanks while they carn't fill their stomachs."

I think the question needs to be asked.  Is biofuels the answer?  I think not.   Converting food crops to make fuel is a short term solution to a long term problem with massive global consquences especially for developing countries.  I think the solution has to be hybrid cars and electric cars.

Is biofuels the answer? 

People that blog for a living are in a race against time to be the first with a post in order to drive interest in their blog and hence visits which can then lead to more revenue from advertising, but is it worth it.  

There have been a number of recent reports of bloggers suffering fatal heart attacks and the pressure of producing news and information for the always-on internet must affect peoples health and family life.  Yes some bloggers are very successful and make a lot of money from blogging, but you would have to ask at what cost.