Beatles Rock

I've avoided Guitar Hero and Rock Band, as they look like incredible time-sinks.  Although The Beatles Rockband maybe enough to get me to spend the dosh needed for plastic guitars and drums.

 

 

H1N1 Flu 2009 fudge factor

I'm stuck in my house with the flu.  It's got me thinking about what the "fudge factor" between the number of confirmed cases of any transmittable disease and the total number in the general population.  Typically a flu diagnosis wouldn't involve a test for the strain.  But this year's new entrant into the list of pandemic influenza had health officials testing everyone presenting with flu symptoms.  At least for a short time it did.  Now that we know H1N1 2009 is mild in most cases and that the strain of flu doesn't effect the recommendation in mild cases - rest, drink plenty of fluids & avoid other people - the swabs for testing have stopped those with mild cases.

The lack of test was my experience the other day; I started coming down with symptoms associated with the flu on Thursday.  But as I had been trying to shake a head cold I didn't think anything of the symptoms.  Then Friday I woke up with a fever, I was lethargic (more than normal) and had a headache.  Since I had the flu shot this season I was a little concerned that if I had the flu it would be this new strain and that I didn't want to spread it.  I was lucky to get a booking with my GP (that's a General Practitioner of Medicine for that one reader outside of Australia) early afternoon.  The doc said it presented like a mild case of the flu but they weren't swabbing [for testing] since the advice doesn't change.

So I'm isolated this weekend.  Which normally I'd read or get lost in thought, but both these trigger the headaches.  Writing the last few posts haven't helped with the headache either.

So back to my question; what is the "fudge factor" between confirmed cases and the total number of infected in the general population?  Does anyone do research in this area?

Sirens

I'm stuck at home on a Saturday night.  Since I'm a home-body anyway, this doesn't bother me so much.  What is getting on my nerves are the flu symptoms (fever, headache, nose running like an open tap) and the sirens.  At first I thought I was hearing things.  But there must be something happening in Maylands tonight as the multiple emergency vehicles have been rushing to somewhere near-by.  Nothing on the news sites yet. 

Perth around sunset

Occasionally I get out around the Swan River to take the typical Perth sunset photos.  Below are two of my favourites.

Sunset behind the WACA

Yaughts on the Swan

Imported Bakery Items

How does it make financial sense for bakery items at Woolworths in Perth, Western Australia (one of the most isolated cities in the world) to be imported from the USA, UK and South Africa?

Are our bakers being paid so much, or foriegn first-ish world bakers paid so little, that the product can be prepared, frozen (I guess) and flown (I hope they aren't frozen for weeks at sea) around the world.

Can anyone explain that to me?

Email protocols

I used to be a slave to the machine that went bing. A noise or pop-upscreen would notify me of a new message and like Pavlov's dog I'd raceto my in box, read and respond quickly. I thought I was getting thingsdone quickly and thus efficiently. How wrong was I? Very wrong. Andit appears several people I know, plus many that I listen to and read via podcast and blog respectively, have come to the same conclusion. By responding quickly and occasionally initiating an email war I was wasting large amounts of time as I had to stop and start what I was already working on.

There was a big change at work early this year, the government department I work for has been chopped up, repackage and rebranded.  Part of the change involved me being moved from one network to another where I would be dealing with a fresh install of Outlook. This was an opportunity to introduce all the changes to email that I had experimented with on the previous work machine, but hadn't bedded down properly.
This is how I deal with email at work:

• Scheduled email to 3 half hour appointments per day (first thing, lunch and end of day) - I do not check or respond to email outside of these times, any excess is left to the next session.


• Rules move all email where I'm not in the "To" field to a "CC" folder and email from friends (as checked against a friends group in my contacts) to a "Friends" folder and forwarded to a personal email address - this way I only deal with work emails that are sent to me directly (I check the CC once every few days).


• I draft responses during one session and send in the next - thisforces some time to consider the language being used because as aregulator my words can carry more force than intended (this has reducedthe email wars considerably).

There are the occasional exceptions. An emergency breaks out and I need to "live" in the inbox for the "real time" updates, but after the emergency I get back into the routine described above.
An unexpected consequence of the change in my personal email protocols is my email load has reduced, as those who were using my for a quick answer to a question have now learnt they will wait a while, so they must be trying someone else.

New iPhone

I was pushed (although it didn't take much after seeing the new iPhone 3GS) to get another phone for personal use. One of the minor perks of my current job was the phone. Now the bureaucracy to make a few personal calls is frustrating.

So on Saturday I went to Optus World, in Carousel (Cannington, Western Australia), was signed up on a plan within 20 minutes and the phone was active within an hour.

As I'm plugged into the interwebs I knew the issues with plans and costs in the US and UK.  It is interesting to be in a country where there is competition on the iPhone, so there are a range of plans with no up front costs and a reasonable quantity of calls/text included.  The data included is OK compared to rest of the world; but it is unlikely we'll see "unlimited" data offered here in Oz.

In Australia Apple is now selling the iPhone unlocked on the web store.

Water ingress by design

We (those living in Perth) have had some "weather" recently.  The storms over the last few weeks have been really impressive.  On Sunday night there was so much rain that it found a way in to my dining area, which is where my computer is set up (check my bio, I am a geek).

It wasn't much water and the rain was severe, so I thought it had found a gap.  But to be certain I called the strata manager and a trades person checked the roof where the leak occurred.  My place is one of six units and the water entered through a gap in the roof and a wall.  There is a hidden gutter that overflowed and this gutter is not damaged.  So there is a scenario of extremely heavy rain where I should expect water ingress.

I'm planning on a kitchen renovation, so I think I need to budget having capping placed over that hidden gutter to dramatically reduce the number of scenarios where water will find it's way into my home.