There’s now an official site with easy rules we’re happy to share with you: here
Jack Thompson tattles to GTA maker's mum
US attorney Jack Thompson, who has campaigned against video game violence, has sent an open letter to the mother of Strauss Zelnick, chairman of video game publisher Take-Two. more
Crikey Magazine article on antidepressants by Dr Jon Jureidini.
He comments on the recent study showing that antidepressants do not always work, the suicide rate in Australia and how there is evidence antidepressants can cause suicide in younger patients. here
The Anzac on the Wall
I wandered thru a country town ‘cos I had time to spare,
And went into an antique shop to see what was in there.
Old Bikes and pumps and kero lamps, but hidden by it all,
A photo of a soldier boy – an Anzac on the Wall.
“The Anzac have a name?” I asked. The old man answered “No,
The ones who could have told me mate, have passed on long ago.
The old man kept on talking and, according to his tale,
The photo was unwanted junk bought from a clearance sale.
“I asked around,” the old man said, “but no one knows his face,
He’s been on that wall twenty years, deserves a better place.
For some one must have loved him so, it seems a shame somehow.”
I nodded in agreement and then said, “I’ll take him now.”
My nameless digger’s photo, well it was a sorry sight
A cracked glass pane and a broken frame – I had to make it right
To prise the photo from its frame I took care just in case,
‘Cause only sticky paper held the cardboard back in place.
I peeled away the faded screed and much to my surprise,
Two letters and a telegram appeared before my eyes.
The first reveals my Anzac’s name, and regiment of course
John Mathew Francis Stuart – of Australia’s own Light Horse.
This letter written from the front, my interest now was keen
This note was dated August seventh 1917.
“Dear Mum, I’m at Khalasa Springs not far from the Red Sea
They say it’s in the Bible – looks like Billabong to me.
“My Kathy wrote I’m in her prayers she’s still my bride to be
I just cant wait to see you both you’re all the world to me.
And Mum you’ll soon meet Bluey, last month they shipped him out
I told him to call on you when he’s up and about.”
“That bluey is a larrikin, and we all thought it funny
He lobbed a Turkish hand grenade into the Co’s dunny.
I told you how he dragged me wounded in from no man’s land
He stopped the bleeding closed the wound with only his bare hand.”
“Then he copped it at the front from some stray shrapnel blast
It was my turn to drag him in and I thought he wouldn’t last
He woke up in hospital, and nearly lost his mind
Cause out there on the battlefield he’d left one leg behind.”
“He’s been in a bad way mum, he knows he’ll ride no more
Like me he loves a horse’s back he was a champ before.
So Please Mum can you take him in, he’s been like my brother
Raised in a Queensland orphanage he’s never known a mother.”
But Struth, I miss Australia mum, and in my mind each day
I am a mountain cattleman on high plains far away
I’m mustering white-faced cattle, with no camel’s hump in sight
And I waltz my Matilda by a campfire every night
I wonder who rides Billy, I heard the pub burnt down
I’ll always love you and please say hooroo to all in town”.
The second letter I could see was in a lady’s hand
An answer to her soldier son there in a foreign land
Her copperplate was perfect, the pages neat and clean
It bore the date November 3rd 1917.
“T’was hard enough to lose your Dad, without you at the war
I’d hoped you would be home by now – each day I miss you more”
“Your Kathy calls around a lot since you have been away
To share with me her hopes and dreams about your wedding day
And Bluey has arrived – and what a godsend he has been
We talked and laughed for days about the things you’ve done and seen”
“He really is a comfort, and works hard around the farm,
I read the same hope in his eyes that you wont come to harm.
Mc Connell’s kids rode Billy, but suddenly that changed
We had a violent lightning storm, and it was really strange.”
“Last Wednesday just on midnight, not a single cloud in sight
It raged for several minutes, it gave us all a fright
It really spooked your Billy – and he screamed and bucked and reared
And then he rushed the sliprail fence, which by a foot he cleared”
“They brought him back next afternoon, but something’s changed I fear
It’s like the day you brought him home, for no one can get near
Remember when you caught him with his black and flowing mane?
Now Horse breakers fear the beast that only you can tame,”
“That’s why we need you home son” – then the flow of ink went dry-
This letter was unfinished, and I couldn’t work out why.
Until I started reading the letter number three
A yellow telegram delivered news of tragedy
Her son killed in action – oh – what pain that must have been
The Same date as her letter – 3rd November 17.
This letter which was never sent, became then one of three
She sealed behind the photo’s face – the face she longed to see.
And John’s home town’s old timers -children when he went to war
Would say no greater cattleman had left the town before.
They knew his widowed mother well – and with respect did tell
How when she lost her only boy she lost her mind as well.
She could not face the awful truth, to strangers she would speak
“My Johnny’s at the war you know, he’s coming home next week.”
They all remembered Bluey he stayed on to the end
A younger man with wooden leg became her closest friend
And he would go and find her when she wandered old and weak
And always softly say “yes dear – John will be home next week.”
Then when she died Bluey moved on, to Queensland some did say
I tried to find out where he went, but don’t know to this day
And Kathy never wed – a lonely spinster some found odd
She wouldn’t set foot in a church – she’d turned her back on God
John’s mother left no will I learned on my detective trail
This explains my photo’s journey, that clearance sale
So I continued digging cause I wanted to know more
I found John’s name with thousands in the records of the war
His last ride proved his courage – a ride you will acclaim
The Light Horse Charge at Beersheba of everlasting fame
That last day in October back in 1917
At 4pm our brave boys fell – that sad fact I did glean
That’s when John’s life was sacrificed, the record’s crystal clear
But 4pm in Beersheba is midnight over here…….
So as John’s gallant sprit rose to cross the great divide
Were lightning bolts back home a signal from the other side?
Is that why Billy bolted and went racing as in pain?
Because he’d never feel his master on his back again?
Was it coincidental? same time – same day – same date?
Some proof of numerology, or just a quirk of fate?
I think it’s more than that, you know, as I’ve heard wiser men,
Acknowledge there are many things that go beyond our ken
Where craggy peaks guard secrets neath dark skies torn asunder
Where hoofbeats are companions to the rolling waves of thunder
Where lightning cracks like 303’s and ricochets again
Where howling moaning gusts of wind sound just like dying men
Some Mountain cattlemen have sworn on lonely alpine track
They’ve glimpsed a huge black stallion – Light Horseman on his back.
Yes Sceptics say, it’s swirling clouds just forming apparitions
Oh no, my friend you cant dismiss all this as superstition
The desert of Beersheba – or windswept Aussie range
John Stuart rides forever there – now I don’t find that strange.
Now some gaze at this photo, and they often question me
And I tell them a small white lie, and say he’s family.
“You must be proud of him.” they say – I tell them, one and all,
That’s why he takes the pride of place – my Anzac on the Wall.
Clarke inspires science from beyond the grave
The impact of science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke is still being felt, following the news that two more of his ideas are being researched for real. more
Ever wondered where NOT to drop anchor?
An interesting map of undersea cables here
Free Book MP3s
This site allows free downloads of audio books. here
Australians want what’s bad for them: Biometrics
A study conducted by callcentre.net canvassed the attitudes of 216 Australians’ towards security and authentication when interacting with call centres. According to the study, the threat of identity theft is driving demand for the introduction of voice biometric authentication processes at call centres — a process typically conducted by call centre staff.
Forty-two percent of those surveyed said their preferred method of verification is voice biometrics, ahead of using PINs, passwords and personal history, such as mother’s maiden name, according to Dr Catriona Wallace, managing director of callcentres.net.
“Identity theft and fraud is an issue for consumers we research. The results of this study suggest not only for younger consumer but across all age groups advanced technology such as biometric voice identification appears to be a viable and preferred option to more traditional methods such as PINs and passwords,” she said.
The report also found conflicting attitudes towards the use of SMS messages as a second factor of authentication alongside PINs and passwords — the system in use by most Australian banks to verify transactions over a certain amount.
“Twenty-three percent said they were totally secure with SMS but 22 percent said they felt completely vulnerable,” Wallace told ZDNet.com.au.
The reason for this fear, according to Wallace, was that information sent by SMS can be easily uncovered by hackers.
But while SMS authentication is viewed as easy to intercept, a recent proof of concept attack on biometric systems by UK security consultant, Matthew Lewis, has shown that biometric systems are similarly vulnerable.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/australians-want-whats-bad-for-them-biometrics/
Non-standard RAID levels primer: RAID 5E and 5EE By Scott Lowe, Special to ZDNet Asia
By Scott Lowe, Special to ZDNet Asia
(This article was removed from the ZDNet Asia web site so I could not find the link. That’s why the references to diagrams have no associated diagram. )
In my previous article on non-standard RAID levels, I talked a bit about RAID 1E, which is a RAID level that provides RAID-10-like functionality but with an odd number of disks. Although disks are pretty cheap these days, you never know when you might need to save a few bucks on a project!
In this article, I’ll provide a look at two other non-standard and closely related RAID levels — RAID 5E and RAID 5EE.
RAID 5E
With an E that stands for Enhanced, RAID 5E is a RAID 5 array with a hot spare drive that is actively used in the array operations. In a traditional RAID 5 configuration with a hot spare, the hot spare drive sits next to the array waiting for a drive to fail, at which point the hot spare is made available and the array rebuilds the data set with the new hardware. There are some advantages to this operational method:
You know for a fact that the drive that would have been used as a hot spare is in working order.
There is an additional drive included in the array, thus further distributing the array’s I/O load. More spindles equals better performance in most cases. RAID 5E can perform better than typical RAID 5.
There are a few disadvantages associated with RAID 5E as well:
There is not wide controller support for RAID 5E.
A hot spare drive cannot be shared between arrays.
Rebuilds can be slow.
The capacity of a RAID 5E array is exactly the same as the capacity of a RAID 5 array that contains a hot spare. In such a scenario, you would “lose” two disks’ worth of capacity — one disk’s worth for parity and another for the hot spare. Due to this fact, RAID 5E requires that you use a minimum of four drives, and up to eight or 16 drives can be supported in a single array, depending on the controller. The main difference between RAID 5 and RAID 5E is that the drive that would have been used as a hot spare in RAID 5 cannot be shared with another RAID 5 array; so that could affect the total amount of storage overhead if you have multiple RAID 5 arrays on your system. Figure A gives you a look at a RAID 5E array consisting of five drives. Take note that the “Empty” space in this figure is shown at the end of the array.
When a drive in a RAID 5E array fails, the data that was on the failed drive is rebuilt into the empty space at the end of the array, as shown in Figure B. When the failed drive is replaced, the array is once again expanded to return the array to the original state.
RAID 5EE
RAID 5EE is very similar to RAID 5E with one key difference — the hot spare’s capacity is integrated into the stripe set. In contrast, under RAID 5E, all of the empty space is housed at the end of the array. As a result of interleaving empty space throughout the array, RAID 5EE enjoys a faster rebuild time than is possible under RAID 5E.
RAID 5EE has all of the same pros as RAID 5E but enjoys a faster rebuild time than either RAID 5 or RAID 5E. On the cons side, RAID 5EE has the same cons as RAID 5E, with the main negative point being that not a lot of controllers support the RAID level yet. I suspect that this will change over time, though.
As is the case with RAID 5E, RAID 5EE requires a minimum of four drives and supports up to eight or 16 drives in an array, depending on the controller. Figure C shows a sample of a RAID 5EE array with the hot spare space interleaved throughout the array.
When a drive fails, the empty slots are filled up with data from the failed drive.
Summary In my previous article on RAID 1E, some readers mentioned that RAID 1E simply doesn’t seem like a good alternative to RAID 10, particularly since hard drives are so cheap these days. I happen to agree that there would need to be a seriously special case to consider RAID 1E. With regard to RAID 5E and RAID 5EE, however, I can see a very positive upside with regard to performance, especially for organizations that are already using or are considering RAID 5.
The Continuing Chronicles of Shianne Els
In response to the letter to the Complaints Dept…
Hello complaints department of this newsletter…. I would like to make a formal complaint (do post this on the website as you see fit) that there has been NO mention of the two most GORGEOUS kids and their antics in FAR too long.!! I mean, Shianne has since discovered for herself that the singular of dishes is disha and Jaylen tells me I am a “good boy mummy” every time I go wee-wees in the toilet!
lv,
teal
Reply:
I must confess to not communicating one of Julie’s and my grandparent pleasure moments. Julie was attempting to teach Shianne how to spell and the correct pronunciation of a word. Julie said, “It’s dishes, d, i, s, h, e, s!” Shianne did not hesitate, she immediately retorted with absolute certainty, “No, it’s disha, t, q, r, s, v!”
Then there was the discussion about the bird droppings on our car. Shianne noticed them and asked what they were. Julie told her about the birds not having toilets and sometimes they did their business while they were flying and the next question was priceless, “Do the birds go backwards before they go to the toilet?”
There’s a lot goes on in that four year old head!