Cameron's Brain

Time To Kill This Blog

Okay I've been toying with this idea for a year now and it's finally time to say goodbye to this Typepad blog. I've been using this blog since I left Microsoft in July 2004 but now, as I move countries, I think it's time to also consolidate my blogging over to the G'Day World site. If anyone has any good reasons why this would be a Very Bad Idea, tell me now. Otherwise you all need to change your RSS readers to this address if you just want the posts or this address if you want the posts plus the podcasts. Or to this address if you don't want to read my blog anymore at all.

I'll leave this blog up as an archive and to keep the comments, etc, but I will move cameronreilly.com over to G'Day World. 

Where do we go... Where do we go now... Where do we go.......

A Kids Guide to (Breast) Cancer

In early 2005, the wife of one of my oldest mates was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 40 and spent most of that year undergoing treatment to overcome the disease. It was a harrowing year for them, their two young kids, family and friends. Fortunately, Lisa is now in recovery and doing well. Typically of Lisa, she turned her experience into something positive to help other people:

Lisa and Michael were unable to find a suitable children’s story book to help explain the illness and its treatment to their two young children so Lisa began a journal, and now, with the help of her son Harrison, she has turned this story into a children’s book about cancer as seen through the eyes of a 7 year old boy.

The book aims to assist parents in explaining the breast cancer journey to their children in an informative and entertaining way. It offers explanations of tricky medical terms, cancer treatments, medical personnel, and helpful hints for family and friends, opening up areas of discussion between parents, carers and children.

Three generations contribute to the making of the book. Lisa has written their story assisted by her son Harrison who is now 8. The story is supported with drawings also by Harrison and illustrations by his Nana, Lisa’s mother. It is suitable for children aged 3 to 10 years of age, and priced at $16.95.

The story book is self-published with strong endorsements including Doreen Akkerman from The Cancer Council of Victoria and Kerri Guy a member of Breast Cancer Network Australia. The publication is not for profit and net proceeds will be donated to these two Charities.  

If you'd like to get a copy of the book it's called "My Mum Has Breast Cancer : A Family's Cancer Journey" and is available from from Melbourne bookstore Book Street on +613 9598 5111 or  [email protected].

What Does Packer Know?

Unsurprisingly, most of the media chatter about PBL's decision to sell off 50% of its media assets says the decision was made "so it can focus on expanding its international gaming business". Now I know James isn't Kerry. But think back. Kerry was the king of expert timing. He floated ecorp (aka PBL Online) about 6 months before the dot com crash. He cashed out of the stock market just before the 1987 crash. He famously sold Channel Nine to Alan Bond at the peak of Bond's hubris and then bought it back a year later when Bond crashed.

So if this was Kerry selling PBL's media assets I would be asking the following question: What Does Kerry Know That The Rest Of The Market Doesn't Know?

Now, as I said, James isn't Kerry. Maybe he has inherited his patriarch's sixth sense, maybe he hasn't.

But I suggest to you that "so it can focus on expanding its international gaming business" may be the explanation that Packer, and the rest of the media, want the market to think. What other reasons could there be? That the value of the Television and Magazine businesses have peaked? Is that a rationale even worth considering?

Here is your homework today kids: find a mainstream media analysis of the PBL sell-off which asks deep questions about the future value of the television and magazine business.

Austereo, Australia's largest radio network, on the other hand, says the media buying frenzy has totally by-passed it.

"In response to media speculation following recent changes to media ownership laws, Austereo advises that it has not had any approaches from third parties," it said.

Wow, now there's a surprise. No-one is overly-excited about buying a radio business. I wonder why?

Matriculate the walla mung

I figure I can't be more than 2 degrees from Scott Adams. SOMEONE please arrange for me to have coffee with him while I'm in the US. His understanding of the male psyche astounds me:

Yesterday as I was deboarding a flight I peeked inside the cockpit and wondered that the f**k all those buttons and knobs and levers are all about. Seriously. Do they really need all of that?

It seems to me that the steering wheel thingamajig does about half of all the things the pilot needs to do: left, right, up, down. Then there’s the ON/OFF for the engines, some throttling, braking, wheels up/down, a few communications functions, maybe some climate controls and a few other odds and ends. But that’s about the same complexity as any car. And I’ll bet your car doesn’t look like the cockpit of a 747.

My theory is that the manufacturer throws in extra knobs and buttons and levers just to charge more. I’m guessing that the majority of aircraft designers, and most of the buyers, are males. I think I speak for all men when I say I would gladly pay extra for knobs and levers that are not attached to anything. I like knobs and levers. Buttons too. And if you toss in a few extraneous digital readouts and dials, I’ll just stand there and drool and hand you my wallet.

As I stood at the open doorway to the Valhalla of unnecessary controls, I began panting with unbridled, genetically induced technology lust. I wanted to drag the pilot out of his uber-cool seat, put on his headphones and start poking and prodding things just to see what happened. Compounding my jealousy was the fact that the pilot and copilot were going through some sort of shut-down procedure that could not have sounded more technologically attractive. I don’t recall the details, but it sounded roughly like this:

Copilot: “Power down the main thruster modules.”

Pilot: “Check.”

Copilot: “Reset the navigation framajam.”

Pilot: “Check.”

Copilot: “Depressurize the tale fin metaskeleton.”

Pilot: “Check.”

Copilot: “Matriculate the walla mung.”

Pilot: “Did you just make that one up?”

Copilot:  “Sometimes I invent names for the buttons that aren’t attached to anything.”

Pilot: “Roger that.”

Cam's Geek T-Shirt brought to you by Skylook

I've been meaning to tell you the story behind the now-infamous "GEEK" t-shirt that I'm wearing on the Bulletin cover. That shirt was actually given to me by my mate Jeremy Hague from Netralia, the Melbourne-based start-up who built the first cool tool to record Skype calls, Skylook. The Netralia boys printed up 500 of these shirts to give out at a conference about six months ago and Jeremy saved one for me. On the back of the shirt it has the Skylook URL. So anyway I've been wearing the shirt around town and it usually gets a few laughs (or cringes) from people but I just *knew* it was the perfect shirt for the Bulletin shot.

Speaking of Skylook... there is a new version out which has some serious improvements to the older versions. The monitoring window has more features, including the ability to turn the recording off without killing the actual Skype call, and you can also change the bitrate and format for the recording. Lots of cool features and perfect for podcasters.

GDAY WORLD #159 - Goodbye Australia!

Download the podcast by right-clicking on this link.

Today's edition is my last podcast from Australia - at least for a while. My guests are Richard Giles and Tony Goodson.

The Cam does Glenferrie Rd

Cam's Bulletin cover outside a newsagent on Glenferrie rd
Originally uploaded by flyingpurplemonkeys.

Miriam Parkinson posted this shot of the Bulletin cover outside a newsagent. I would love to pretend that I'm too cool to be getting a kick out of this, but none of you would believe me anyway.

My kids took a copy to school today for Show and Tell. :-)

Am I Ever Going To See Your Face Again?

So yesterday was an interesting day. I think perhaps the best reaction to the magazine was from Garth Kidd who called me from a train station in Sydney about 5pm on his way home from work. He obviously hasn't been reading the blog so he knew nothing about it and he walked up to a news stand, saw my picture, and started pissing himself laughing while the people around him gave him strange looks.

I got a few phone calls and emails but it wasn't too crazy.

In middle of all that... I was driving around Melbourne about 12pm and my car started to splutter and cough and then died. I managed to steer it over to the curb before it came to a complete stop. The reason? Ran out of petrol. The warning light had been on for... a few hours? A day? A few days? I don't know. Have been too busy to fill it up. Anyway so fortunately, I was about a block away from the BMW dealership where I bought the car two years ago, so I rang BMW Assist and they sent a guy over about ten minutes later to put some petrol in my tank. I also happened to stop just outside a café so I just calmly put my emergency lights on, went inside, got lunch, and sat there reading the Bulletin until BMW Assist arrived. Ah... the highs and the lows in a day. Who said there is a fine line between the sublime and the ridiculous?

Four days until I leave and I still don't have accommodation for San Fran. There are going to be a few Aussie Web2.0 guys over there though (Chris Saad, Marty Wells, Nik Cubrilovic) so we're talking about getting a place and throwing a good old fashioned Aussie BBQ.

God I have so much to do before I leave....

"Went down to St Tropez where Renoir paints the walls..."

The Bulletin October 18, 2006

The Bulletin October 18, 2006
Originally uploaded by cameronreilly.

For those of you who didn't see it...

The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth

Josh's article in The Bulletin is online. I didn't come out too bad! Thanks Josh, great article. Shout out to Marty Wells and Nik Cubrilovic who also got good coverage.

Looking for accommodation in San Fran Oct 25 - Nov 15

Okay so my trip to the US is confirmed. I'm arriving in LA on Oct 22 to attend the Digital Hollywood conference and then heading down to San Fran on Oct 25 or 26. I'll be presenting at the ANZA TECH conference from Oct 30 - Nov 1 and then sticking around in SF until Thanksgiving. I'm doing the trip on an extreme budget so I'm looking for people to stay with while in SF. I'll be bringing a sleeping bag. Just need any old floor. And wifi. :-)

The Anza Tech conference is on in Sunnyvale, so something close to that would be handy.

Any takers? Please email me.

Also looking for advice on getting a mobile phone SIM card to use while I'm there. In the past I've bought a pre-paid T-Mobile card but they are BLOODY expensive. There has to be a better way. It's just for finding people when I'm out and lost.

Anyone who wants to catch up with me while I'm over there, just drop me a line. Especially if have lots of money to invest in a podcast network or you want to be part of the TPN US management team.

Get This Week's Bulletin Magazine

Josh Gliddon has written an article about Aussie Web2.0 entrepreneurs which is coming out in this week's edition of The Bulletin magazine. I was interviewed for the story and apparently I'm on the cover (that was the photo shoot last weekend). Hopefully it'll give us some good exposure in this country although the gist of the article is that Aussie web entrepreneurs need to go over to the US to get realistic valuations for their start-ups. It's pretty cool that Josh has written this 2nd article on TPN at this defining moment for the business - he wrote the first mainstream media article on TPN back in February 2005 just as we were getting started, so this kind of feels like nicely orchestrated bookends. I'd link to the original article he wrote but Ninemsn's archives seem to be completely borked.