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I think it’s great that the four corners program this week created a plethora of discussion about morality and sex. Unless you’ve been under a rock you would be aware that this sordid scandal has resulted in the sacking of Matthew Johns from his three NRL related jobs.

However, in my opinion, the scandal is not about what may or may not have happened, the legality of it and who got hurt by it.

The real issue is to do with our morality.

The practice of engaging in group sex with someone that you barely know (probably don’t even know by name) shows very little respect, love or human dignity. You would not ever associate it with giving qualities.

Rather, it represents the exercise of power, domination, self-pleasure and self-gratification.

Public reports of this type of behaviour and it’s shocking consequences are not rare in Rugby League or for that matter other high profile sports. It does make you wonder how many instances are covered up and don’t see the light of day.

So why is this going on?

I believe that this represents a much wider problem in society. You have to ask yourself if other men, placed in this position - with money, celebrity, constant travel, extraordinary female attention and time to burn - would do things differently?

Probably not. Most would not have a moral basis for doing so, nor a desire to.

Schools (synthetic parents) don’t teach morality. Parents for the most part divulged the responsibilities to the schools in the last century and busily went to work. Churches wrote themselves out of the morality equation by living in hypocrisy (Amongst other things, teaching abstinence while priests were interfering with children).

The consequence of this lack of taught morals is not freedom as some would suggest. If your freedom impinges on mine, then we are no longer free. The balance that is freedom would be lost.

Freedom only exists with love and discipline. It belongs with generosity and restraint.

So in our society now, we are stranded in a situation where morality is badly eroded and we will suffer as a consequence.

There is the moral of all human tales;
‘Tis but the same rehearsal of the past;
First Freedom, and the Glory - when that fails
Wealth, Vice, Corruption - Barbarism at last
And History, with all her volumes vast,
Hath but one page.
Lord Byron - Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto IV CVIII

I think that the response of the NRL and the NRL Footy Show this week to the scandal was admirable. They framed the issue in terms of respect for women and they have sent out a huge message to players and the wider public that it’s not ok to denigrate women.

However, the effectiveness of that message will be limited because there is no foundation for sustaining it in the minds of the people involved.

Throw into the mix the porn culture that has developed on the back of this decline. Look at the acceptance amongst young generations of sending each other explicit mobile phone pictures and “hooking up”. You have a powder keg of biblical proportions.

You can be certain that in the last days there will be some very hard times.

People will love only themselves and money.

They will be proud, stuck-up, rude, and disobedient to their parents.

They will also be ungrateful, godless, heartless, and hateful.

Their words will be cruel, and they will have no self-control or pity. These people will hate everything that is good.

They will be sneaky, reckless, and puffed up with pride. Instead of loving God, they will love pleasure.
Bible 2 Tim 3:1-4 Contemporary English Version

I still love watching rugby league though…

The windows photo gallery program on my PC recently started to exhibit a strange and quite annoying yellow tinge recently. Thankfully, someone published a solution to the problem which is caused by a faulty driver update for some LCD displays.

The drivers don’t appear to be faulty as such, but they muck with the windows colour management settings for the screen.

Oddly, the yellow tinge only shows up in this application. All of the other photo viewers I tried did not have the yellow.

Anyway, the solution is here and it worked on my LG LCD monitors: My Digital Life

What a cool (perhaps not PC) concept!

Hey, he’s the family guy….

The Microsoft Windows based Tablet PC has been around for over 7 years now, and Microsoft are pushing ahead with lots of tasty touch and multi-touch support in Windows 7.

What are the big hardware vendors doing though? Nothing.

Playing it safe with boring convertible Tablet PCs. No innovation. No imagination. I mean, I am a big fan of the Tablet PC, but convertible laptops are hardly risky.

HP have tried a couple of things, like the original TC1000 and TC1100. The TC1000 was a huge step outside the square on form factor. Unfortunately it was dismal failure because of the Transmeta Crusoe processor, but the TC1100 fixed that.

It was a compact 10 inch machine that weighed only 1kg. It could be used purely as a slate Tablet, but the design of the convertible keyboard that it came with was just brilliant. It was such a versatile machine.

But of course, to get people to pony up the money on a product like this requires sustained effort. It requires lots of marketing and some patience.

So what did they do with it? The hid it under a rug of course and did no marketing to speak of. When it failed to sell in large enough numbers, they reverted back to the usual dumb strategy above. Play it safe…

HP have tried a *bit* harder with the Tx2. They have targeted it at consumers and done some online marketing. They’ve built in a multi-touch n-trig digitiser to get some ooh and aah action going, but will it work?

There is a lot of interest in the Tx2, but I doubt that it will sell in huge numbers. The price is better, but the specs aren’t awesome. But hey, I should give them credit for having a go, even if it is a little safe for my liking.

The netbook trend shows the potential of the ultra mobile computing market, but why can’t PC manufacturers see past their noses? The only big consumer brand playing in the UMPC space is Samsung, and they are minnows in the PC world.

We have had a Samsung Q1 in the house for six months now and it is always in use. It’s often in the kitchen being an online recipe book. For emailing, web browsing, IM and media it’s awesome. I personally wouldn’t be without a device like this, but it’s just too darn expensive to be a big hit.

If just one of these four big PC manufacturers took a risk and innovated in this space, the result could be incredible. There is a huge demand for mobile computing devices as netbooks and the iPhone has shown. But the iPhone only chips away at the edge of the potential. Ditto for netbooks.

Unfortunately, it seems that the hardware vendors have overwhelmingly taken a “we tried that once and it didn’t work” approach. They are too busy not making mistakes to ever learn anything. I think that they will pay for this missed recession proof opportunity.

In the meantime, the entire space will be stolen from them by an iPhone like device from Apple. More Apple devices in the hands of people mean that the Microsoft hegemony will die.

If it’s not Apple, it will be Google. Google and T-Mobile are about to go to market with a slate UMPC style device to run Android. There is a demand in the market here, and the capabilities of the hardware are able to meet it. It’s just a question of who is going to take the risk of making something to meet the demand.

Hopefully Microsoft will wake up like they did in the Netscape v Internet Explorer era and do something about it. But the cosy and boring little arrangement that they and the big four have going must come an end. They need to kick the big four into action before it’s too late.

In a rare moment, I happened to pick up the Herald Sun on the train on Monday. I noticed an article entitled “Clock ticks for plasmas, LCDs” stating that:

THAT expensive plasma or LCD will be obsolete from May 1 when Australia’s TV population - about 16.5 million of them - and its digital TV system, becomes officially outdated.

Basically the article says that the digital signal for HD channels will go from MPEG2 to MPEG4 on May 1. This is simply not correct.

Yes, Freeview branded products are hitting the shelves on May 1.

Yes, Freeview products must be capable of receiving MPEG4 to get brand approval.

But NO, TV stations are not switching to MPEG4. They might switch to MPEG-4 one day… but they are not now.

Don’t throw away your plasma TV for now!

When that day does come, fortunately I can just switch over the TV card in my Windows Vista Media Centre with an MPEG4 one and she’ll be right mate!

Thanks to Gizmodo for explaining this and putting our minds at ease.

According to Marc Faber author of the Boom Doom and Gloom Report, the global economy fell of a cliff in September. To top that off governments are printing money to “ease the situation” and bailing out banks that made stupid choices. Marc Faber’s outlook on ABC’s Lateline Business last night was not very good.

Faber points out that government interference and bailouts only delay the coming economic doom wave, and whilst they hold it up, the wave is just getting bigger.

A TNT driver last week told me that business is scarily quiet. All casuals are gone, and drivers are being asked to do extra work to keep their jobs. When freight stops, it’s a sure sign that the economy is up a creek without a paddle.

Ultimately, the prospect of many large western governments going broke is very real and the economic situation that we are experiencing is unprecedented.

My advice to you is to go and buy a farm… and a shotgun, because things will get very bad in the world.

If governments fail or hyperinflation comes in to roost, civil unrest will surely follow (See Zimbabwe). It won’t matter how much money, gold or property you have then or how secure you feel now.

It’s hard to see a way out and I wonder what the heck are we going to do about this? The current economic system doesn’t work. I fell confident enough that we are all about to know this for sure. I think it’s time to look to an alternative source for guidance. See the bible at Jeremiah 10:23.

It’s pretty hard to present a boring technical product like a pdf editor in an interesting way. Bluebeam software have managed to present their pdf editor in the coolest wrapper that I have ever seen!

This product is not aimed at consumers though, it is straight out B2B. There is a lesson here for B2B marketers. You can make your pr

If only motion computing would do a video like this for the their Tablet PCs… That would rock!

1. A poor attempt at branding free to air TV
2. An attempt to get manufacturers to make PVRs minus a button that skips forward 30 seconds (to skip ads)
3. An estimation that the general public is stupid and that they don’t have smart friends!

Whilst Freeview is wrapped in a promise to supply more free to air channels, the unfortunate reality is that there is no new content. Channel 7 and Channel 9 have not taken up the new channels yet, and Ten has already been playing US sporting events on its OneHD for ages now.

LOL

Lesson: Don’t buy anything with Freeview written on it. Get a Windows Vista Media Center or a decent PVR instead.