Archive for May, 2006
Now that we have the results from the AFL, I can bring you the results from my footy tips, and I must say that despitemy agreement with the AFL’s decision on the St. Kilda V Fremantle match, I sure could have used the half a point from the draw which they ruled against. I had an absolute shocker in the AFL, but I picked up slightly in the NRL.
AFL Round 5: 2/8 (25%)
NRL Round 8: 4/7 (57.14%)
Week Total: 6/15 (40%)
Totals:
AFL: 20/40 (50%)
NRL: 24/56 (42.86%)
Total: 44/96 (45.83%)
Samuel
May 3rd, 2006 at 11:01pm
According to radio 2UE and some audio from the AFL commission, Fremantle have been awarded the win from their match against St. Kilda on the weekend.
Therefore, I will have my footy tips results online later tonight.
Update: The following from an article on afl.com.au
Dockers win
6:15:13 PM Wed 3 May, 2006
Matt Burgan
Sportal for afl.com.au
The AFL has awarded Fremantle the win over St Kilda, with the league’s commission deciding after a special meeting on Wednesday that fairness must prevail.
The AFL Commission met for more than four hours on Wednesday afternoon, hearing submissions from both the Saints and the Dockers, before AFL chairman Ron Evans announced the decision.
“The AFL commission has determined that the correct interpretation of the relevant rules and regulation is that the match concluded immediately after the siren sounded to end the match in the final quarter,” Evans said.
“Effective of this interpretation is that the Fremantle Football Club won the match.
“The commission understands and accepts that there will be significant debate over the outcome of this afternoon’s hearing and the final decision, however, it is the responsibility of the AFL commission to administer the game in the best interests of the competition – I believe that is what we have done today.”
The meeting came about as a result of Sunday’s match at Launceston’s Aurora Stadium, which finished in a draw but only after the Saints kicked a point to level the scores several seconds after the final siren rang. A timekeeping error meant that the siren was rung off before the field umpire could acknowledge the end of the match.
In handing down the decision, AFL Commission chairman Ron Evans said that all timekeepers would be reminded again of their requirement to ring the siren until acknowledged by the field umpire and also committed the AFL to immediately improving the technology available to umpires so that they know immediately when it is the end of the match.
Evans said the AFL took full responsibility for incident.
“As the organisation charged with the management of the national competition, the AFL accepts full responsibility for what took place and unreservedly apologises for the clubs involved, the players and football fans,” Evans said.
“Since Sunday’s incident, the AFL has acted decisively and moving quickly to investigate the incident – seeking submissions from the competing clubs and compiling that evidence for the commission to consider this afternoon.
“It was vital that the process be thorough, fair and just and it was also important the clubs be given time to prepare their submissions. Both clubs acknowledge that it was the right and proper that the commission determined this matter.”
Evans said several action points will now be enforced from next weekend’s matches to ensure that this situation will not occur again.
These processes include:
1. That all AFL timekeepers be instructed about their obligations and reminded of the process in correctly signaling the end of each quarter and their requirements under the rules.
2. An immediate review of the siren and audio system at each AFL venue to check the decibel level of each siren.
3. The investigation of new technology to ensure that the field umpires are alerted to immediately after the siren sounds.
Samuel
May 3rd, 2006 at 07:02pm
This was originally going to be a minor point in the article about Apple’s advertising campaign, but it has developed into an article in its own right.
I’ve already drawn two upgrade lines for Microsoft software, one being that I’m not upgrading MS Office beyond Office 2000, as Open Office is in my view a superior product (although I do still use MS Office 2000 for some tasks), and the other line being Internet Explorer, which is now relegated to use on IE-Centric sites only, as I much prefer Firefox and Opera (excluding Windows Update for which I use the faster and easier WindizUpdate).
I am now drawing another line: Windows XP will be the last version of Windows I ever use. Windows Vista will, in my opinion, be the proverbial straw which breaks the camel’s back. Windows has enjoyed a long reign at the top, but it is an outdated mess of security issues, Microsoft’s attempts to introduce proprietary standards (oxymoron), and various other problems which need fixing, much like Apple Mac OS 9 was before they released OS X with an entirely different base.
It is quite clear to me that both Mac and Linux have clear advantages over Windows, and I think the general public will also see this soon. The Ubuntu Linux people are doing a good job, and have made some interesting changes for the next version due in June, which does make it look like a good alternative to Windows.
The people at Apple have also done an excellent job on Mac OS X, and with their Boot Camp software providing Windows compatibility, I think it is now clear that Windows will become a secondary operating system with other operating systems taking the lead for a while.
Don’t get me wrong, Windows will still be there, it just won’t be the primary choice for most people, as they will use other operating systems for their day-to-day needs. Of course, there is every possibility that Windows will regain popularity in ten years or so when Mac and Linux start to stagnate and Windows shows ingenuity, after all Windows won favour over Mac and OS/2 by showing the lead a bit over ten years ago.
One thing I think is important here is that having multiple operating systems, multiple web browsers, multiple office suites etc, all gaining public favour is that it distributes the user base so drastically that it promotes ingenuity from all of the competing software writers, and makes life much harder for malicious users who would no longer have one bit of potentially vulnerable software giving them potential to wreak havoc on 90% or more of computer users. It also makes it necessary for software developers to use accepted standards (such as the Open Document Format, or the iCal calendar format) as their users will need to exchange data with other users. Open standards also allow everyone to work together on the future of IT according to their own needs, rather than working against each other, which effectively means that computers will do what people want, sooner rather than later.
Back to the security benefits of having multiple dominant operating systems and web broswers etc, the current situation looks somewhat similar to this (this is an example and probably isn’t entirely accurate, but is close enough):
- Windows/Internet Explorer: 90%
- Windows/Other browser: 6%
- Other OS/Browser of any sort: 4%
Imagine if it looked something like this:
- Mac/Safari: 20%
- Mac/Firefox: 15%
- Mac/Opera: 5%
- Linux/Firefox: 20%
- Linux/Konqueror: 10%
- Linux/Opera: 10%
- Windows/Internet Explorer: 15%
- Windows/Firefox: 3%
- Windows/Opera: 2%
Suddenly you have a mass distribution of users amongst all sorts of software, in which the vulnerabilities could very easily only work on one operating system and not the others. Even if one application did have a cross-platform vulnerability, the most damage it could do would be 38% (Firefox), which is a far cry from the 90% (Windows/Internet Explorer) in the first example. This makes maliciousness much more difficult and less rewarding, and also means that consumers have a greater choice as to which software combination works best for them, safe in the knowledge that their chosen software will be able to exchange data with somebody using different software on a different operating system.
Under the second example, things such as the recent WMF exploit wouldn’t have been as likely to occur due to less people using any particular operating system, would have been less damaging for the same reason, and would have seen a quicker response from the software vendor due to increased competition.
I will admit that I am partially anti-Microsoft, but that it because I think they have become very complacent in their monopolistic position, and day-to-day consumers who just want their computer to do one task or another, suffer as a result. Competition is needed here, and I think the Vista/Mac/Linux combination is about to make it happen.
Samuel
May 3rd, 2006 at 02:33pm
The people at Apple Computer have launched a new advertising campaign which compares Mac and PC (presumably running Windows by the looks of the ads) in a lighthearted manner.
It appears to be a part of their “Get A Mac” campaign, and the ads are on their website (linked above). The ads don’t really say much, but they do provide a bit of light hearted entertainment. Whether or not they will be effective is another thing, but the timing appears to be right with Windows Vista not due until November, and probably facing yet another delay, this time until at least April 2007.
It is an interesting time ahead in the land of computers.
Samuel
May 3rd, 2006 at 11:51am
Some of you may recall that in September last year, I put my aircheck online, which was a news bulletin from August 27, 2005.
I was quite surprised to find that it was the third most downloaded file in April, and upon having a listen to it again (and having a bit of a chuckle at the same time) I have decided that it is time to update it.
I have now placed one of my news bulletins online from Saturday April 22, 2006, which can be heard by clicking here.
While you’re at it, have another listen to the one from August last year, compare them, and see just how far I’ve come since then. I’m sure you will agree that there has been quite a bit of improvement.
While I’m talking about this, I would like to thank Artie Stevens, owner, operator and news director of Australian Independent Radio News, who has not only given me the opportunity to improve, but given me plenty of help along the way. I couldn’t have done it without you Artie.
(I think it’s blatantly obvious to anybody who listens to either of those audio files…but once again…Disclosure Notice: Samuel has a commercial agreement with Australian Independent Radio News).
Samuel
May 3rd, 2006 at 08:56am
May has “only just begun”, to quote a famous song, which means it is time for the Blog View Stats for April.
The Webstat counter stopped counting due to the site receiving more than 20,000 page views for the month, but the Webstat reports for April can be found here, I just haven’t used them as the basis for this post. I have used AwStats (one of the many statistics services provided by my hosting provider) as the basis of most of the stats.
AwStats says that there were 55,916 page views for the month, a figure which I find highly dubious as this is far more than three times what Webstat reported for March. Even taking into account the fact that Awstats counts page views in the administration section of the site, I still find this number dubious, so I will settle on the 20,002+ figure provided by Webstat. The rest of the numbers provided by AwStats seem OK.
Therefore there were 20,002+ page views in March, up from 15,478 in March, and 5,476 visitors, up from 4,710 in March.
There were 9,670 views of the front page on all of its URLs.
The most popular articles were:
Google once again remained the most popular search engine with 91.8% of all search engine referrals coming from Google. Yahoo was next with 3%, and MSN was next on 1.6%.
The search keywords were mostly various combinations and misspellings of my name, and variations of “schnappi video”, “2UE Studio” and “Windiz Update”. Among the odd keywords were
- peep holes
- bango cricket
- 234 802 554 9993
- singing hallelujah even for a new site for you my
- samuel office live
- south australian peep holes
- traudle junge
- 100m race footage
- hole under canberra?
- sam goat boy
- blog fire alarm control panel
- show me the child at seven
- salad au lard
- password codes for volume 2ue
- convoluted answer to 2 2
- loopy music programme
Internet Explorer recorded a larger than usual drop, but remained the most popular browser with 57.4% of the readership, Firefox also had a loss (albeit a small one) and was next with 29.2%, Safari gained again to have 5.1%, Opera also recorded a rise reaching 1.4%, as did the Mozilla Suite which hit 1%. Konqueror & Netscape were both under 1% with the others all being under 0.1%.
Windows was the most popular Operating System, despite a minor drop, with 84.2% of the readership, followed by Mac, which also recorded a drop, with 9%, and Linux which climbed to 1%. The BSDs, Solaris and even OS/2 picked up most of the slack.
The countries report is unavailable this month.
The most popular files for the month were:
The top referring sites for the month were:
Bandwidth
April 2006: 32,130MB
March 2006: 12,350MB
February 2006 9,280MB
January 2006: 14,240MB
December 2005: 14,010MB
November 2005: 2,870MB
October 2005: 657.85MB
September 2005: 519.89MB
August 2005: 82.93MB
Samuel’s Persiflage Statistics
| RSS Feed Downloads |
| Month |
Downloads |
| April 2006 |
1501 |
| March 2006 |
1392 |
| Febrauary 2006 |
815 |
| January 2006 |
1661 |
| December 2005 |
150 |
| Total |
4018 |
| Downloads in April |
| Episode |
High Quality Version |
Low Quality Version |
Total |
| 4 (April 2006) |
146 |
75 |
221 |
| 3 (February 2006) |
115 |
83 |
198 |
| 2 (January 2006) |
171 |
N/A |
171 |
| 1 (December 2006) |
100 |
N/A |
100 |
| Total |
532 |
158 |
690 |
| Episode 4 Downloads |
| Month |
High Quality Version |
Low Quality Version |
Total |
April
2006 |
146 |
75 |
221 |
| Total |
146 |
75 |
221 |
| Episode 3 Downloads |
| Month |
High Quality Version |
Low Quality Version |
Total |
| April 2006 |
115 |
83 |
198 |
| March 2006 |
84 |
43 |
127 |
| February 2006 |
81 |
39 |
120 |
| Total |
280 |
165 |
445 |
| Episode 2 Downloads |
| Month |
Downloads |
| April 2006 |
171 |
| March 2006 |
125 |
| February 2006 |
98 |
| January 2006 |
144 |
| Total |
538 |
| Episode 1 Downloads |
| Month |
Downloads |
| April 2006 |
100 |
| March 2006 |
71 |
| February 2006 |
64 |
| January 2006 |
291 |
| December 2006 |
80 |
| Total |
606 |
Samuel
May 3rd, 2006 at 06:56am
I’m pleased to be able to announce that yesterday when I went in to Supabarn I received a receipt printed on receipt paper much more suitable for a Supabarn checkout.
If we zoom in on the text between the ads we see this:
On Sunday I received Big W paper from Supabarn, so it looks like Supabarn either received a shipment of corrected receipt paper late last week and finished off the Big W paper over the weekend, or they received a shipment of corrected receipt paper yesterday. Either way, well done to Supabarn and Magnus Advertising for fixing the issue, and a special congratulations to Andy Vaccaro, store manager of City Supabarn for taking notice of my letter and doing something about it, and especially for having the courtesy to reply to it. Well done Andy, you are leading the pack, and there are plenty of other managers out there who could learn a thing or two from you.
I’m glad the issue has been sorted out, I believe that it was the result of a minor data entry accident, and it is good to see that it was sorted out in a prompt manner (once they knew about it).
Samuel
May 2nd, 2006 at 08:38am
The controversy surrounding the AFL match between St. Kilda and Fremantle will be officially resolved on Wednesday afternoon. According to a story on afl.com.au:
A meeting of the AFL commission on Wednesday afternoon will determine the outcome of Sunday’s controversial drawn match between St Kilda and Fremantle at Aurora Stadium.
AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson said at a media conference on Monday afternoon that league investigations officer Allan Roberts had consulted timekeepers and other staff on Monday about the events at the match, in which the Saints snatched a late draw after the field umpires failed to hear the final siren.
Anderson said the AFL commission was empowered with determining the outcome of the match because it had final authority to deal with the rules of the game.
And the commission will be given until Wednesday in order for both the Saints and Dockers to be given enough time to properly present their cases to the AFL.
This is probably a good time to update you on my basic scoring procedures, where a correctly tipped win is worth 1 point, an incorrectly tipped loss (ie. the team I selected, lost) is worth 0 points, and untipped draw is worth 0.5 points and a correctly tipped draw is worth 1 point.
As it stands, (and as it is likely to stand if the rules of AFL are followed by the commission) I will get 0.5 points from that game for an untipped draw, however if the result is taken from the scores at the apparent siren time where Fremantle Dockers were leading, I will get 0 points for an incorrectly tipped loss. If St. Kilda win based on a commission decision (which is remotely possible due to an apparent unawarded 50-metre penalty to St. Kilda which would probably have resulted in a goal and a 5 point victory to St. Kilda, then you can expect a lot of controversy and a higer authority to be called in.
This will be an interesting few days.
Samuel
May 1st, 2006 at 05:58pm
Has anybody here noticed the minor change to the website? It now has a favicon which looks like the head of Samuel from Samuel In Dolgnwot.
Actually, I’ll show that to you at a larger size:
This should be appearing in your browser in the address bar, and in just about any other location you have a link to Samuel’s Blog, including bookmarks/favourites and the tabs in Firefox, Opera, Konqueror and Safari just to name a few.
It is unique as far as I can tell, and I think it adds a touch of useful branding to the site. I hope you like it.
Samuel
May 1st, 2006 at 09:29am
It is 7:15AM, which means Melbourne is in the midst of radio history. Melbourne’s two Southern Cross Broadcasting radio stations, 3AW and Magic (3EE), are swapping frequencies.
(Update 9/May/2006: Google seems to be directing people to this page, so I should probably inform you that you can find audio of the changeovers on 1278 and 693 on this page)
Right now at 7:15AM, Melbourne’s top rating radio station, 3AW, is operating on two frequencies, its old 1278kHz and its new 693kHz, whilst Magic (3EE) has temporarily disappeared. At 10AM, Magic (formerly of 693kHz) will take over the 1278kHz frequency, leaving 3AW on 693kHz, effectively completing the changeover.
So, 3AW was:
And is now:
Whilst Magic was:
And is now:
(Thanks to Chuck A. Spear for his assistance with the new 3AW logo, but they came good on their website so I used their larger version).
This probably has everybody outside Melbourne thoroughly confused, why on earth would Southern Cross Broadcasting want to fiddle with frequencies? Well allow me to explain.
The higher end of the AM spectrum is, for one reason or another (perhaps John B1_B5 can enlighten us here), more susceptible to electromagnetic interference, and as such, 1278kHz is virtually inaudible in areas of Melbourne’s CBD, and at various locations where reception is extremely important, such as the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for their AFL coverage, whilst 693kHz is easy to receive everywhere. As such, it makes much more sense to move Melbourne’s top rating radio station to a frequency where it can be heard everywhere, and move a dwindling station to the less useful frequency.
Thankfully this isn’t a surprise to anybody who has paid any attention to Melbourne media in the last month or two, as it has been advertised and promoted quite heavily, with 3AW being given prominence (probably due to its popularity). One such example would be this press advertisement.
.
At midnight, both 3AW and Magic updated their websites. 3AW updated their logo and changed their flashing “we’re moving” graphic to a flashing “we’ve moved” graphic. Magic also updated their logo, and performed an update to the text on the front page of their site for the first time in a long time, making reference to a format change.
Magic 693 has entered a new and exciting phase in its history, shifting to 1278 on the AM dial.
From 10am Monday May 1st Magic 693 has become 1278 – The New Magic, playing The Best Songs of All Time.
This is our most significant change since the station launched on March 26th 1994, and we’re sure you will enjoy 1278 – The New Magic every bit as much as Magic 693.
Our new website is currently under construction with a host of new pages and features, and will be up and running in the very near future.
You can always tell that a station is having a format change when they use the word “New” to describe themselves.
3AW and Magic have also swapped open line numbers, with 3AW starting to use their new number during the AFL yesterday as a marketing tool to help advertise the frequency swap.
3AW talkback can now be reached on 96 900 693
Magic competitions can now be reached on 9696 1278
The frequency swap has the interesting effect of segmenting the Melbourne AM dial in a similar manner to the Sydney AM dial, with talk at the lower end and music at the higher end. This is the new AM lineup in Melbourne.
- ABC Radio National 621 (Talk)
- 3AW 693 (Talk)
- ABC Local Radio 774 (Talk)
- Sport 927 (Talk)
- ABC NewsRadio 1026 AM (Talk)
- SEN 1116 (Talk)
- Magic 1278 (Music)
- 3MP 1377 (Music)
I will offer some free advertising advice here, hopefully 3AW will consider it. The number “3” is perfect for this situation as it rhymes with the end a number of things related to the frequency swap, as such I am thinking that 3AW could have simplistic advertising along the lines of:
News and Entertainment on 3AW
Now in the CBD on 693
And also
3AW Football
MCG 693
This would work very well on voiceovers, especially the latter one if they were to set up a stand outside the MCG. I can just imagine them now, standing outside the MCG running a loop of promos before the game featuring highlights of their previous AFL coverage, each promo ending in “3AW Football…MCG 693”. They could even hand out frequency locked radios if they wanted to. I think I’ve just stumbled on the best way to promote their AFL coverage now that it can be heard at the MCG, I’ll be sure to send them an email suggesting it.
A slightly different phrase “3AW Football, at the G on 693” could be used during the commentary of AFL matches for the first weekend. Rex, Clinton & Tony would have no trouble slipping that one in.
This is history in the making, I am looking forward to hearing the recordings to see how the 7:15 changeover was handled by both stations, and how Magic resume at 10AM.
3AW’s website can be seen at 3aw.com.au
Magic’s website can be seen at Magic693.com.au, although they have registered Magic1278.com.au and will undoubtedly move in soon.
Samuel
May 1st, 2006 at 07:15am
Due to the controversial end to the AFL match between St. Kilda and Fremantle at Aurora Stadium in Launceston, and the official protest surounding it, I will be waiting for the outcome of today’s meeting between AFL and club officials before calculating the results of my footy tips.
The outcome is unlikely to change, as technically no rules were broken, however the exact manner in which the match ended is something which will come under close scrutiny.
AFL officials were unavailable for comment after the match, I was listening to 3AW Football through 2CA and they managed to speak to just about everybody involved except the AFL officials. Even team officials reported being unable to contact AFL officials.
For those of you who haven’t heard the news or clicked on the link above, here is what happened according to Seven News.
Fremantle has launched an official protest over Sunday’s controversial AFL draw against St Kilda at Aurora Stadium in Launceston.
Dockers officials lodged paperwork with the umpires a few minutes after the match, where the Saints scored 13.16 (94) and Fremantle ended on 14.10 (94).
The ground siren’s volume was not loud enough all day and field umpire Matthew Nicholls failed to hear it at the end of the game.
Fremantle led by a point when the siren went, but Nicholls let play continue, bouncing the ball as Dockers players complained.
Approximately nine seconds later, St Kilda’s Steven Baker kicked a behind to level the scores before the umpires ended the game.
Baker was then given another chance after being awarded a free kick after disposal, but that shot also went through for a point.
Dockers coach Chris Connolly and several other bemused Fremantle officials were on the ground as the drama played out.
The AFL football operations staff are currently discussing the matter with the umpires and timekeepers.
This will be interesting to say the least. The rules as they stand are open to exploitation by umpires as they decide when the game ends, however that is unlikely to change due to the simple fact that technology does fail, and a human needs to be able to make the decision. Perhaps we need a “third umpire” to assist with the decision if the ground umpires don’t hear the siren. Admittedly this wouldn’t be a “third umpire” as there are already three main umpires, two goal umpires, two boundary umpires and an emergency umpire, so perhaps the term “grandstand umpire” would be best.
Personally I think the AFL could use Hawkeye, the system which is able to accurately track the ball through a three dimensional space. It wouldn’t solve the issue of timekeeping, but it would be useful in cases where the umpires aren’t sure if the ball has been touched prior to going through the goals or touched prior to going out on the full, or even in cases where it is unclear whether the ball has bounced in the field of play or gone out on the full, and especially useful when the ball goes too high for the umpires to clearly know whether it has gone through for a goal, behind, or out of bounds.
Surely this (and general overseeing of umpiring decisions) would be a good use of a “grandstand umpire”.
Samuel
May 1st, 2006 at 12:38am
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