End of an Era - HOPE Folding Team

Approximately at the end of 2007 or during 2008 the 'HOPE Priority Limited' Folding @ Home Team with the intentions of demonstrating my own contributions to the distributed computing project as well as the individuals I influenced to become involved in the cause.

From the beginning of 2013 I will cease to credit my work units to this particular team. I will not be decreasing my work efforts, I will simply be having my workloads credited to a different team altogether, perhaps a new team of my own creation. 

With about 2 weeks left of folding to go in 2012 I am aiming to churn through as many work units as possible :)

The current total work unit credit count accredited to the team CURRENTLY stands at over 3,400!

The legacy will live on forever :)

The sad truth about Australian Retail

Recently I've read speculative reports that 2012 will see mass lay off's in the Australian retail sector. The thought of this coming to fruition unsettles me. Why? Because I too believe that there is a good chance that this scenario may be experienced.

A local trade 'n' sell page on Facebook saw one individual listing for sale a copy of a particular SONY PS3 game for $75 (firm lulz) that they had only played once but didn't like, adding that they had only recently paid $109 for it.

See the thing is I can buy this on-line at a vendor I know of for $57.99...it's overseas of course but it does offer free shipping and secure payment methods. To those wondering if $109 for a game is a ridiculous claim...sadly, it might not be as Australian gamers suffer having to pay premium prices for pretty much everything gaming such as software and hardware (those following from the earlier days might remember THIS older post about Australian video discrimination when it comes to release dates and prices http://viewknowdo.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-it-sucks-to-be-aussie-gamer.html

Apple were (/are still??) doing something similar; read about that HERE 

If these offers are recognised by the surging numbers of people activating Android and iOS devices (especially over Christmas + Boxing Day Holiday's) and Facebook being a massive scale Bulletin Board System (BBS) chances are word will get out and become 'viral' as they say these days...which could be catastrophic to 'traditional' stores.

What's worse for retailers is so-called 'Smart Phones' capability to act as a sophisticated bar code reading  device that can potentially return price results from a number of stores advertising their price and categorizing them by parameters such as how has the cheapest price.

I guess the real winner where all this takes off, will be the consumer. The effects of everyone having everything they could ever want and need plus more? That's a little harder to predict this early :P 

Thanks for reading, if you know anyone that might enjoy this site please let them know about the place. 

Seeing as how my visitors like pictures here is one of Gil from The Simpson's with a timeless quote that may unfortunately be echoed by some retailers here in Australia. I do not own this image it is merely a URL so if you are the owner and have objections please speak with me...Using the work in good faith

Thoughts on Christmas Shopping

Christmas is drawing close - coming up next week to be precise. I recently went Christmas shopping and thought about the annual ritual.

Year after year, I get more possessions thanks to family and friends which makes the list of potential gifts for me decreases - Not a good thing for those that want to show me how much I mean to them with a gift :P

Anyhow I get reading about things - How the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cut its rates to help out retailers, how millions of dollars ($400 million at least according to a recent Sydney Morning Herald Article "Millions of gift cards not redeemed" goes unused and that online shopping is killing traditional stores.

Addressing these; Firstly, going off general observation, the number of shoppers in the physical stores does not seem to have decreased, the numbers I believe have either stayed the same as previous years or increased. I dare say stores projected growth and perhaps didn't get it, or got the growth but everyone is spending less than was planned.

In saying this there also seems to be a lot of competition, as I said in a previous blog entry talking about the 'Bridesmaids' movie - If one gift someone was going to get someone else was that film, there are a lot of different ways of obtaining it.

The RBA lowered the interest rate, with the "Big 4" banks passing cuts (eventually). This resulted in news reporters to talk about how those cuts would provide for a better Christmas. Again, I'm not convinced this is the case, sure they save the money...but blowing the savings on Christmas, unlikely if you ask me - A portion of them? Likely. All of the savings? Very doubtful.

And finally the gift cards - Perhaps I've said it on this blog before, perhaps not. I share many a comedians criticism's of gift cards - Essentially money given to retailers in advance (before anything is actually redeemed) so they have credit up their sleeves. And it is like a currency in it's own right...that is only accepted at one particular place. In saying that, most stores offering gift cards have good variety to choose from...and a gift card ensures the recipient buys something 'appropriate' - Perfect for those inclined to buy 'inappropriate' items.

Some readers of my blog were surprised to see my incomplete listing of appliances that make for 'perfect gifts - The things like popcorn and milkshake makers. When a store sells these items for ~$30, are Australians really scrimping for a good Christmas? Those with larger families and kids might feel a squeeze but come on, Christmas only comes around once a year. It couldn't be planned for?

The new-age kitchen

Hello all,

Recently I have been busy (sorry regulars) and haven't created an entry so I made an effort to publish one now. As I'm sure you all know the Christmas season is well upon us, people out shopping, school presentations and performances, the music, movies...the buzz is certainly in the air.

Anyhow I've done well over the years and have pretty much accumulated just about every appliance I could ever want...and a few other bits and pieces too. I must be so hard to buy for :P

So I got talking to someone about how in High School the textbooks in Food Technology talked about how the family kitchen had changed between say the 1960's and say the 90's.

The kitchen is home (or can be) to all sorts of weird, wacky and wonderful pieces of equipment.

Think about it...a 'modern' kitchen can bake fresh bread, make cupcakes/muffins or pancakes or crepes...there are popcorn makers, juice extractors of all sorts and sizes...kettles, toasters, sandwich presses, food 'processors', deep fryers, electric knives, Microwave ovens, convection ovens, pressure cookers, slow cookers, snow cone makers, ice cream makers, pie makers pizza ovens, snack ovens, food dehydrators, electric can openers, coffee makers, milk shake makers, electric beaters...the list goes on.

I dunno about you but when I go out shopping for Christmas and see the shelves lined with all the appliances I think of how much electricity is consumed by all the contraptions....let alone the cache of television sets every electrical appliance store have in stock.

What are Nintendo up to?

It was around this time last year that I finally went out and bought a Wii, I recall Nintendo had just recently released the Mario Anniversary console that was that funny red colour and came with a copy of New Super Mario Bros (??) as well as basically Mario All-Stars and a book.

I couldn't wait though and bought the Motion Plus pack with Sports Resort...I just wanted to get it home and set up - After all, Donkey Kong Country Returns was coming out. That and Goldeneye was an exclusive.

Not 12 months later and the console bundled with Mario Kart is about half the price I paid for my system.

Moving on...I have had Nintendo's for over 20 years - NES, Gameboy, SNES, N64, DS and Wii. I am not overly blown away by the 3DS - In fact considering certain 'Smart' Phones have the same 3D technology integrated, Steve Jobs philosophy of integration of components into ONE unit, perhaps people will no longer want a seperate device for hand held gaming - Android, iOS, Windows Mobile 7 and other mobile OS's will probably swoop in more than they already have - And the SONY PSP best watch out too.

I'm concerned about Nintendo now as they might be heading down the path of SEGA and focusing attention on developing software - Iconic branded games such as Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Metroid, etc for other hardware platforms.

Supposedly this Christmas season the weight of Nintendo's holiday success balances on...the redesign of the Wii (sits down flat and doesn't have backwards Gamecube capability) and the release of the new Zelda game Skyward Sword.

I don't think it's going to be enough personally - The Wii has been out for years, if they are looked after the consoles last for years people already have Wii's - And Zelda? Great games but they don't suit everybody's taste. Perhaps if Nintendo did focus in on game software hings wouldn't be THAT bad...I mean theoretically they'd have more time towards making great games.

I just hope to never see them on SONY.

Christmas Decorations

Hey everyone,

The weekend just past I went shopping (more browsing than anything else). I was hoping for a little bit of retail therapy, but as usual I didn’t see anything that I wanted or needed, not even gifts for other people. Ah well.

One thing that I did look at was Christmas decorations. No your calendar isn’t wrong, it is in fact still September. I have a really soft spot for Christmas, as I have gotten older I appreciate the time off work and being around family more than anything else…although the presents I do get are nice too :)

Every year I go out of town to a bigger city to do Christmas shopping, and most years I can remember I’ve always looked at the new decorations. This year it seemed to be bigger is better, with massive plastic trees and ornaments to suit. My family has always had a small tinsel tree that fits on a wooden chest we have in one of the living rooms near the door. It’s easy to set up and when it’s not Christmas it takes up minimal space. These days I have my own place with a tree that is the same size.

I was thinking that the reason the Christmas stuff is already out on shop floors taking up room is because to buy one of the things most people would have to save up the money to afford the things, it’s crazy!

When I got home I was in the Christmas mood (not a good sign) and so I watched Mr Hankey’s Christmas Classics on DVD. Oh man I love that episode of South Park.

I wonder when supermarkets will replace their same old song catalogue with Christmas Carols, I remember when I worked in a Supermarket that around Christmas was almost torture with bad carols, and people that go crazy buying up a month’s worth of supplies because the supermarket will be closed for a whole one day on Christmas. I really despise over consumption but as I said I have a weak spot for Christmas. Now all there’s to do is to consider what to buy my family for Christmas and what I want so I can start to drop hints…