2013 Australian Budget

My really take on the 2013 Australian Budget. I think it was a good tactical budget by the Labor Party and will help them going forward.

The reasons are

• Scrapping Baby Bonus is okay as the current perception is that it will reduced large handouts to ethnic immigrants who have 9 or 10 kids. They will still vote for labor anyway. Because of the family Tax benefit.
• Adding NDIS and Gonski as policies that are labor meme's
• Reducing Foreign Aid always good in attracting votes
• Increase Tax compliance for big corporations. If targeted banks it would go down even better
• Main reason though is not leaving much for the Liberal Party to work with except for adding negative votes in the policies that will reduce the budget i.e reducing government workforce

Huge credibility gap though in the budget forecast figures and actions speak louder then words. Its been really funny trying to work out what is the actual deficit as it kept changing week by week by really significant numbers. You can't believe figures given based on past history. 

I don't believe they will get 4 billion from large company tax as they are find smarter ways of reducing their tax burden. 

If really interested in reducing budget deficit they would get of negative gearing but those are the people that both labor and liberal need. I am sure that is also what is keeping the Housing Boom from collapsing.

Why are people so afraid of the Liberal party as interview with Joe hocking seemed to make so much sense e.g should compare unemployment with main competition i.e Asia not Europe and deficits do have to be paid back. Maybe afraid of entitlements and Labor Government spending does help a lot of small businesses by giving money to the people.

Labor is still screwed in the September elections and I have a feeling they are playing for the next elections which to me is the best move.

Current take of problems with Obama Admnistration

I am pretty superstitious and one of the actions is to open the same websites whenever I open chrome  One of the sites I visit every day is Daily Kos but I hardly ever read any of the articles now being they seem to have become more delusional on the same scale as the people at Red State by trying to convince themselves that their brand of politics does no wrong.

So it was interesting when I read the story about Government obtaining AP phone records as it showed some people still have the ideals from when I first joined Daily Kos.

First up my thoughts are both the Democrats and Republicans are same on economic policy in helping TBTF corporations and how to handle Israel. The main  differences are social issues that never really get resolved.

Currently the Obama administration has the following scandals

Justice Department: Gov't obtains wide AP phone records in probe [ap.org]IRS: The IRS’s Tea-Party Targeting [nationalreview.com]State Department and Office of President: The Benghazi Deception [nationalreview.com]

In the old days when I first was visiting Daily Kos around 10 years ago, each of these issues would be considered fireable offences for people in charge and it would also mean soul searching by supporters of the party in power. The way people are reacting shows how far we have changed and have been conditioned into believing the Government has each persons best interest in heart and if you don't believe that then you are a conspiracy nut.

I have come to stage of believing that its not possible to change from within as TPTB will use all their resource to make sure that people that get elected have their core principles at heart. The main issue is that everyone is distracted and majority of people that go to elections to vote, do so in hope of some benefit to themselves not the community.

I already believe that society has reached the tipping point of no return where there are to many people that are to self absorbed to worry about the good of the whole community. Natural Selection has forced that people in charge of major positions of power are some of the worst cases of making decision based on self interest compared to good of country and companies/organisations that they run. 

I think one of the principles of why western society has progressed was the concept of telling the truth and people believed their would be consequence for lying or what is now termed as spin. There also the idea of structure and respect for positions. Media has done a good job of removing the respect of a lot of positions and conditioning people to be okay with lying if it ends up being in the best interest for them going forward.

Just rambling, things are so stuffed up that it reminds me why I would rather play League of Legends then continue to read how society is crumbling.

On  a positive note how can we fix stuff for common good.

Main Problems

• To Many people that want to many resources and shiny new trinkets
• Earth Can't Sustain what is wanted and produced by the masses
• People in power can only stay in power by continuing to promise and provide that the resource are available
• People are too distracted to care about making significant changes to fix things
• What is the definition of fix things as it may be different to many different people
• Don't know a solutions to fix things 

We are not living sustainable based on what the earth can give us. So really people will have to change their perceptions of what is good quality of life. The solution will have to be Global and it will mean a lot of self Sacrifice.

I am of the generation now, of people in power, I believe that we have the numbers that can make the change but don't believe we have the will to do it. 

Amazing just realised that its going to be my generation that will be labelled as the one the managed the chaos. lol

TPTB and Tim Tebow

I am happy that Tim Tebow has left the Jets but what's really upsetting me is all negative press about him and how ESPN reports are saying that he will not be able to play again in the NFL.

First a really take on why he should play in the NFL

• 2012 can be disregarded because he was not given a few games as starter to prove that he could play for Jets.
• In 2011 he brought a team that was 1-4 and won eight out of 13 games including a playoff win.
• In the playoff win he broke a number of passing records against the number one defense in that season
• He was ranked as the 95 best NFL player by his peers going into the 2012 season.
• He is a very popular athlete so fans will spend a significant amount of money to follow him.
• Team chemistry, belief and winning are more important then personal stats.

Actions speak louder then words and lately there are a lot of words trying to disparage the actions of 2011. Its not like trying to see if a college quarterback can succeed in NFL he has succeeded in the NFL

We live in a world were western media try's to ridicule any signs of any spiritual religion and I think his playoff victory gave many religious signs that are enlightening when putting them together

• NFL record for yards per completion (31.6) in a playoff game.
• Tebow's passing yards (316) 
• The Nielsen ratings for the game also peaked at 31.6. 

This relates to the famous Bible verse John 3:16 which he wears under his eyes and relates to "For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.". What is the probability of this happening in Tim Tebow's biggest game of his NFL career so far. 

The biggest difference I see between real spiritual people and the distracted are that they are able to see signs of the spirits around us. They are so strong in their beliefs that it can counter all the negative stereotypes being portrayed in the media of believing in spiritual things

So what has this go to do with TPTB.  For me there are two possible scenarios that are being played out with Tim Tebow.

The first and main reason I wrote this was that he is being used as a distraction from whatever plans TPTB are in their timelines. Classic divide and rule tactics where both sides have valid points in their arguments. Got me so worked up I am posting about it because of the unfairness on what has happened to Tim Tebow.

Second Scenario which I didn't think about until reading up on 3:16 angle is that TPTB don't want real examples of spirituality as it will not fit well in them managing the distracted. Very hard to control people that are not selfish compared to people that believe that something else may control their life other then the path being dictated by TPTB.

For me the second scenario is the more dangerous to TPTB

Joined ESPN Insider because of podcast between Simmons and Cowherd

My life on the blue pill is good and another step in the process is joining ESPN insider. Currently spend most of my time playing PVP with my Shaman while listening to ESPN podcasts. Two people I listen to the most are Colin Cowherd,  BS Report and Mike and Mike.

So when Cowherd and Simmons got together and I only listened to parts of the interview from the free podcast. I had to listen to the rest and Joined ESPN Insider. As usual I flipped the coin to determine if I should join. As I believe their may be some truth to the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. What better chance to have a life that that you want is by flipping a coin on major decisions.

As this life is what I have been dreaming for a long time. Staying home playing video games, watching my kids play sport and surfing the internet with little effort and a good quality of life. But some times I wonder if this is true, then how bad must be all my other lives as the film "prestige" comes to mind.

Anyway happy that Simmons and Cowherd have shelved their differences and I am sure that I will get value from being a member of ESPN insider.

Rudd vs Gillard the Machiavellian Plot to keep Gillard in Power

After watching Crean attempted to coup of Gillard it seemed surprising, but when Richard Marles was involved then I thought something doesn't seem right.

This is my really take on what happened, Gillard continually having bad poll numbers and more members of the Labor party are worried especially labor heartland districts. So Rudd is waiting for his chance to get leadership, but he wont challenge until after the Budget is shown to be a mess with a significant deficit. So the Machiavellian plot is to create a leadership challenge without Rudd's blessing before budget and to make Rudd look weak firstly by losing the split or by not taking up the challenge.

Their plan worked and all party men are saying their will be no more challenges.  I am guessing this was Crean's plot and recruitied Richard Marles  through their ACTU connection and he looked so uncomfortable in being part of this plot. Note, I respect Marles and will vote for him in next election.


Main reasons I think this was plot was because of

• Richard Marles has been seen as Gillard main supporter in the Media and I think is one of Gillard's real friends.
• Rudd was not informed or given  the blessing of the split
• News that Rudd camp in the morning saying they weren't part of this challenge and Rudd will not challenge
• Body language of all involved when talking to media
• People involved in the plot are linked to the ACTU

There is so much Hubris within the labor party and it reminds me of Queensland and Western Australia elections. The big losers out of this will be Labor party and Greens. A significant number of MP's would rather fall on their sword then let Rudd be the leader, even though more the two thirds of Labor supporters would rather have Rudd as the leader.

The problem for Rudd is that ACTU clique have all put themselves in safe labor seats so when Labor gets beaten at the next election, the majority of members that will be left are the people that have been plotting against him. That is when Bill Shorten will have the numbers to be the next Labor leader.

Interesting times but at least we still live in the best economy in the world so something must be going right.

Google to Remove Google Reader

Was announced that Google will remove Google Reader in July 2013.

This news will have the most affect on my internet experience in the last 5 years as Google Reader is my best source of getting news in a fast way.

I am really disappointed with this and for me its one of the first times Google is not being honest with us in telling us about its products.

I would guess the main reason is that they want people to move to Google+ type information feeds and one of the main stumbling blocks for Google people are that they are still using Google reader.

No sure what I will do but will wait until June to Decide

Anyway thanks Google for providing such a great free service and a big factor in my internet experience.

Manti Te’o Samoan Pride

I have been following Manti Te'o since his high school game when he decided to go to Notre Dame which has been my favourite college football team since I was introduced to college football by reading old sport magazines in the late eighties.

So I was really hyped to see the Alabama - Notre Dame game but left after five minutes as couldn't handle it especially after Te'o missed tackles. But now it makes sense. The shame of being duped in front of the world must be weighing heavily on him and also am sure it will affect his future psych in playing NFL games.

Samoan's are similar to Fijian's in terms of pride and community and trying to not look stupid in front of  other people. Especially foreigners.

After reading about the hoax there is little possibility that Te'o was doing this as a confidence trick to get more heisman votes. If you believe this you don't understand islanders. He is also a Mormon so I am guessing that relationships and courting is different the normal Notre Dame College athletes.

I can also see him continuing with the lie once he has found out about it because of the pressure it would be on the team and also shame for him as a representative of Samoa and the Mormon church.

For me the main reason he doesn't want to be seen on TV is the shame he has given Samoan's.
The number of Samoan's in the world is small but their influence in Society is significant and Te'o is one of new stars coming through.

I have seen this sort of trick happen a lot in Fiji but not to such a long extent.

Te'o going forward you just going to have to eat this bad episode and your future deeds on the Football field will be what people will remember.

I still have faith in you that you will represent the Islands in the NFL going forward and am proud of what you have accomplished at Notre Dame.

Royal Children's Hospital Parent Friendly

Just come back from Royal Children's hospital and was amazed by the experience. It was so good my son can't wait for his next surgery which is a very scary surgery.

I have read that RCH is one of the top 100 hospitals in the world but for its function as a Children's hospital but for its function it has to be one of the top hospitals in the world.

The doctors, nurses when explaining what it is happening treat you like you know what is happening.

When treating a patient, especially kids it is really important that there is also a positive vibe around them and way parents are treated is amazing. Very relaxing place to sleep next to kid and  access to amenities and a parent room. For me having access to fastest wireless I have ever accessed was amazing.

Also it seemed that the team of people looking after my son really cared for him, like it mattered not that it is another instrument for billing.

Most of our contacts was with the nurses and was amazed at their professionalism plus their attitude.

Kids get to choose their meals, own tv, access to movie theater, acquariam with a shark and a mini zoo. But I think the best thing they get are happier parents when everyone is going through one of the most challenging times in the world.

I believe in positive thinking and think the Royal Children's Hospital is such a positive place for all people involved.

Obama's DNC Speech

About to have lunch and Obama was on TV starting his Acceptance Speech.

Has to be one of the best speeches I have ever heard and very inspirational. I still believe that we are facing an abyss but I can't see anyone else that can produce the same type of motivational speech that can try and save us going forward.

The speech really attacks the core issue in that we have become more selfish and not about the common good. The economy is a confidence games and I can see that this speech will give people more hope.

Problem with me is action speaks louder then words.

Anyway good experience listening to Obama's speech and I do have more hope now then I did before so that is a good thing.

Revisiting the Apple vs Samsung verdict

After sleeping on the decision, I was going to rewrite my post Samsung vs Apple verdict but thought it was good to keep it as part of my thought process.

I have a feeling that Samsung knows what it is doing and this is part of their bean counting as one thing we know about Koreans is that they know how to game and this is part of their game theory strategy.

So first what is Samsung's definition of a win.  Their mission is "Inspire the World, Create the Future" Which if you look at it is what they are doing but they are creating a future on the back of giants one of which is apple.


Apple doesn't have a mission and the closest I could find from Tim Cook is "We believe we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.". The problem is the primary technologies that Apple is trying to control is the future of Technology. For me its limiting the functionality that I can bring to a software program which wasn't the case for writing programs on the PC.

Okay in terms of Game theory which moves do I think that Samsung has gamed for. I don't think they are gaming against Apple but for the best experience for users so will mean their products are more successful.

The moves expected in terms of mobile are

• Copy the best hardware and then improve on it as now Galaxy S3 is better the iphone
• Install best software and then improve on it e.g use touchwiz to copy good aspects of Iphone and now Jelly bean is equal or better then IOS 6 but their will be another two significant upgrades of Android before ios 7.
• Increase market share of android devices so more people will develop for it and can have access to it.
• Increase market share of android so people understand what apple is trying to take away from through litigation.
• Cost of penalties for copying Apples models will not outweigh benefits of marketshare and especially user experiences with samsung products.
• Divide and rule which means that Android punters support Samsung more then other Android suppliers e.g HTC, LG and Google

When I first head the judgement I was upset as I thought it was unfair and not good step of innovation in technology but thought it was good for Samsung. After doing this post I am sure the it is a good judgement for Samsung especially after appeals process has been completed.

For me its better for Samsung to drag this out as the more this goes on, the more negative sentiment Apple will get. There brand is significantly being destroyed by this action and the fine is only 0.2 percent of their market Cap.

Its now very hard now to be be an apple supporter in the IT Field especially if you are a logical thinker who is honest in their arguments.

An analogy  I just though of is what would happen if teams can patent they offences and defenses what would the NFL be like if only one coach was able to use the west coast offence or in basketball the pick and roll.  It does not progress the sport. 

Just look at the car industry which fight over patents all the time, has their industry progressed the same as other industries that don't have the same level off patent wars.

Apple vs Samsung the verdict

I am only developing apps for android so am biased in the Apple vs Samsung case.  But am so disappointed about this situation that am posting a response to the verdict.

The verdict was expected as the jury was situated only ten miles away from from Apple Headquarters so are well ingrained in the Apple marketing and looking after there own. As seen by judging that the Nexus S 4G had infringed on the bounceback patent when it had never been implemented on that phone?

I was surprised that it took the jury members only three days to go over the 700 questions and its seemed that just ticked everything in favor of Apple. It seems some sense though in terms of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 after seeing the Ipad was prior art of the Star Trek Padd.

In my opinion Apple should get benefits for being the major catalyst for moving technology forward.  and is the main reason Android has improved significantly in trying to catch up to Apple. But that's what catch up means, in that you start copying the stuff that the punters want. As famously said by Isaac Newton "If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants".  Technology, user experience and expectations only move forward based on work of giants like Engelbart, Gates, Grove, Torvalds, Jobs and Brin.

When the Iphone came out it was significantly better then any other phone and I was consistently arguing how it was a game changer and that apples products was a great experience. But I didn't bet on writing apps for Apple I am bet that Android and would catch up and take over. In which android has and I can't see Apple five beating the Samsung S3.

My first computer I used was apple 2 but reason I programmed on windows was that it had cheap development tools and the hardware was cheap. For punters to develop it is so much easier and cheaper to develop for Android.

Okay going back to the verdict. Majority of IT people following this case have gone negative on Apple as we cant accept that you can patent rounded rectangles, pinch to zoom and for me really any software action.  To me patenting software is like patenting speech or algorithms which doesn't seem right to me.

What would happened if there were patent for parts of FPS, MMO or typing words on a screen.

The really take is the largest company in the world trying to stop punters like me a have a better IT experience at a cheaper price so that the can get more money. To make it worse they are using legal tricks to do it and not based on innovation and superior product like the first version of the Iphone.

It seems Iphone knows that the are going to lose the war so stemming their losses like what microsoft did when they started doing patent battles

Biflation in Australia

There has been an argument going around is world facing inflationary forces or deflationary forces and people have been giving arguments on both sides. I am of view that we are facing biflationary forces.

Biflation is a state of the economy where the processes of inflation and deflation occur simultaneously. During Biflation, there's a rise in the price of commodity/earnings-based assets (inflation) and a simultaneous fall in the price of debt-based assets (deflation). The price of all assets are based on the demand for them versus the volume of money in circulation to buy them.

I am sure that due to money printing by US Fed and ECB that biflationary forces are affecting USA and Europe. But what about Australia.

So if Australia was facing  biflationary forces then the price of commodities would be trending up and price of houses and vehicles would be going down.

So in terms of commodity prices they have risen significantly over the last six years e.g

The data I have seen is showing that median prices of property are increasing which is different to anecdotal evidence I see around my area which seems that the property prices have been depressed in the last year and some people I know are under water in their mortgages.

But the definition is the fall of debt based assets, so for me the best indicator that I found was the amount of loans that have been approved.  According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics  in 2011 the number of mortgages was the lowest ever figure for home loan approvals since February 2001.

So if Australia has Biflationary forces what does that mean?

NBA 2012

For the first time in years have been watching the NBA All Stars on You Tube. This year is the first year in nearly ten years that don't have an NBA fantasy team. The reason that I am following basketball again is because of Jeremy Lin.

The story of Jeremy Lin is why I love sports and why watching and playing competitive sports really brings out innate feeling in us of especially competitiveness and hope. I have started playing pickup basketball with my sons and friends and man am I unfit.

We have just got a pool table and have it outside and its amazing the feelings that come out of those games. Its good to spend significant time outside against  especially for my family that have five laptops, three computers, one tablet and three samsung galaxy s2.

Anyway my team this year is the New York Nicks and I think am going to take the blue pill for the next few months.