multifarious mushrooms

Wow! Technology is marvellous. I’m listening to FM as I write which is broadcasting from my new MP 3 player. I don’t have to listen to anyone ever again. Still have to download my favourite music (for which I got a $5 dollar credit). It’s not an ipod and it didn’t cost $800. I already have a 3G phone so why do I need a combination of a mobile and an MP3 player. I am not a mobile worker. Whoops, the chat is a bit adolescent.

This new acquisition is for the gym. It does get boring doing 25 minutes on the bike and I’ve now read all the magazines available. I tried a Running magazine last time. I’m not about to run a marathon at my age, so that was no use.

Anyway, have to now fill it up with music and podcasts. The other use is to have it on when my partner plays opera loudly.

Everyone now knows of the great Nigerian scam , where you got emailed by someone who promised you riches if you transferred a processing fee into a bank account. The amount you had to transfer was $5000. This fraud is so well known now that it is called the Nigerian 419 scam. It began in the 1990s.

Millions got caught with this scam and other like scams. Research in the US has shown that since 2004 about 50 million people worldwide have been sucked in by these scams. At Fraud.org, of the top internet scams for 2007, Nigerian money offers rank 4, with the highest average loss of $4043. Friendship and love frauds now net an average of $3038. Scamming in Nigeria is now the fourth largest industry there behind oil, natural gas and cocoa.

On a personal level my son was scammed. He clicked on one of those “Lucky you. You are the 1 millionth viewer of this page. Click here”. It was a holiday for much reduced rates. He went for it, used my credit card and got caught because it was in the Bahamas, which is miles from where we live and of course airfares were not included. That’s precisely what they bargained on. That you wouldn’t be able to take up the holiday. It wasn’t something he could ever really use. So he had to pay me back and he could never use my credit card again. Now, my boy is a bright boy, so if got caught then anyone can.

What has developed in reponse to this is scambaiting. In 2004 TheScambaiter.com was born and has 20,000 members. There are many others like this now too. What they concentrate on is humiliating the scammers. They try to catch them out with their own game, but not illegally. Others email the scammers back so they lose money and time.

Here are some links if you’d like to join the anti-spam movement.

thescambaiter.com

ebolamonkeyman.com

scambuster419.co.uk

419eater.com

aus-scambaiters.com

Source: Green Guide, The Age, 17 July, 2008, p.28

A good photo is not about the equipment you have. There are many great shots taken on a Box Brownie. It is about composition, aesthetics, perception and the use of light.

There is now a fantastic site which talks about the basics of photography. It is called Photo Tips

Kodak has composed the tutorials. There are rules to photography from taking shots of babies to what you are going to sell on ebay to something you might one day publish. All the basics of good composition and lighting are on this site.

Having a good photo editor is also probably necessary these days. Now, Photoshop and Paint shop pro are the best, but they cost. I have a list of free graphic editors on oz web hub. But here are a couple of new ones, also free.

PhotoPad is one of them. It has an attractive interface and does what most people want when it comes to photo editing. It crops, straightens and corrects colour and removes red-eye.

Photoscape is another. It’s not as good looking as Photo Pad but it functions just like it. It does a few extra things too. There’s a back lighting effect and a ‘bloom’ feature making for glam portraits.

There is another application which does only one thing. ShiftN straightens converging verticals. There’s no preview in this app but if all you want to do is correct that photo you have of the Empire State building, then it’s for you.

Happy learning!

I read in the Green Guide, The Age, July 3, 2008, that research done recently on social networkers and bloggers altered the view of some that bloggers are lonely and desperate people.

Blogging began in 1998 and I couldn’t tell you how many blogs there are out there now. I played around a bit on blogger.com, but didn’t really get into blogging seriously until I got bored with my site. Things were changing so rapidly in the web design world with XHTML and css becoming a necessity as well as PHP, that my site was becoming outdated and I couldn’t keep up with it, because every time something new came up, I’d have to change every page. There is still some useful stuff there by the way, but I now prefer blogging.

I tried another CMS program first for my tennis site, but then decided to up me fees with my host and go for a self-hosted word press blog. Now that required a steep learning curve just in itself.

As you would know if you follow my blog, I turned 60 this year and started up at the gym. But still, I needed intellectual stimulation. Yes I do the sudoku every day, code words, crosswords, killer sudoku and keep up with current events, but I needed more. Well, it seems blogging does just that for bloggers.

Some studies say that blogging fosters critical thinking and feelings of connection and that bloggers feel better about their situation.

US researchers say blogging makes us better thinkers and that blogging can be a powerful promotor of creative, intuitive and associational thinking.

Swinburne University in Melbourne did a study of bloggers and one of their cases said it made her saner. Another said that writing helped her through mental dilemmas as well as discussing them online. My post on Bill Henson’s photography has certainly done that.

Swinburne gives us examples of some of the bloggers’ blogs they interviewed. They are mostly Melbourne bloggers which is my city.

Link

The Brain of a Blogger

• Bloggers
• Blogger on a Cast Iron Balcony
• Loobylu
• Personal political
• Life in Chippendale
• Fitzroyalty
• The Adventures of ShinyShiny and Halfeman

Enjoy!

I had no idea what a meme was, but if someone tags you then you are expected to write out 4 things you like/dislike in various categories and tag some more people, so here goes.

Bioteck was the one who tagged me.

Here are my 4 things

Four jobs I’ve had

* English teacher secondary
* Women’s refuge worker
* Girl’s Equal Opportunity Officer for 3 schools
* Teacher librarian

Four movies I can watch over and over

* Green Mile
* Shawshank Redemption
* Japanese Story
* Priscilla of the desert

Four places I’ve lived

* Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
* London, England
* Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
* Back to Melbourne

Four TV shows I love

* Spooks
* Dexter
* Silent Witness
* Eagle (Danish)

Four places I’ve vacationed

* Greece, France, Italy, Spain, Scotland, England
* Bali, Indonesia
* India
* America

Four of my favorite dishes

* Thai soup
* Leek and potato soup
* Roast lamb
* Japanese

Four sites I visit daily

* Entrecard
* Bank
* Facebook
* Google analytics

Four places I would rather be right now

* Bali
* Phuket
* Currumbin Beach, Queensland
* Tasmania, Australia (although not in the middle of winter)
People I tag

* Liam Alexander
* apophenia
* bleeding edge
* Canny Granny