I love books!

I have a large collection of books covering such varied topics as Australian politicians, history, architecture and travel  mixed in with tomes about plant physiology and molecular genetics. My personal and professional interests are co-mingled on a vast series of bookshelves. Whenever I want to check a fact, verify a claim, or just relax and read a story, my books are right there.

For that, I can thank the book shops (and let’s be fair, probably my education too). For myself, and millions of other Australians, looking through bookshops is an enjoyable task that introduces us all to new and  interesting titles. Yet apparently, the internet threatens the very survival of the bookshop as we know it.

For starters, let me say that I think talk of the ‘pending death of the bookshop’ is over-hyped. I simply don’t believe that bookshops will become redundant, although I realise that their market share (and perhaps commercial influence) will fall in time. There is much potential in the e-book, although there’s a lot lacking too. That said, the possible demise of REDGroup, which owns Angus & Robertson and Borders (in Australia only) is a very worrying development.

In Victoria, the books market seems to consist of Borders (which has the biggest range), Angus & Robertson (the biggest chain), Dymocks and Collins (two smaller chains) and a host of smaller, niche and specialist stores. There’s a gulf between the size of Borders and the smaller chains. Where Borders lacks in value, it compensates with range. And range is important.

Borders is very popular and on account of that, the company encourages a vast number of people to read. I firmly believe that reading, along with education, faith and public broadcasting are the key pathways to the development of an intellectual, enlightened and reasoned mind. I certainly don’t suggest that without Borders, society will be ruined. However, unlike most bookshops, Borders encourages dining and reading within their stores and so they effectively make books more accessible. That benefits us all.

The range of books I find at Borders is unmatched anywhere else. I cannot tell you how many books I have read because I saw them in Borders, where they weren’t stocked elsewhere.

I love reading about Australian political history. Aussie politics is admittedly not a topic that enjoys mainstream appeal. Whilst most bookshops would sell the popular volumes such as The Latham Diaries or Lazarus Rising (John Howard’s autobiography), they’re unlikely to sell The Long Slow Death of White Australia or Andrew Fisher: Prime Minister of Australia or Rudd’s Way. I know that these books are occasionally available elsewhere, but they’re much more difficult to locate and I know that I’d be very reluctant to buy them online without seeing them first.

The Australian book retailers often complain that internet booksellers are taking their market.

As the Australian dollar reaches parity with the United States dollar, there’s never been a better time to buy books online. Australia’s book industry is effectively protected behind a tariff wall, so books sold here are more expensive that those bought overseas. Because the Australian economy slowed (and hence discretionary spending fell) during the Global Financial Crisis, it’s no wonder that the book retailers may be ‘doing it tough’.

Yet the internet can never really replace bookshops for several important reasons: If it weren’t for bookshops, it would be much harder to know that certain titles even existed. People may discover that Amazon sells books much cheaper than Australian retail, but I suspect that most people buy books that they’ve already seen somewhere else, decided upon purchasing, then shopped online where the price is better. Bookshops provide customers with exposure.

The internet also won’t replace bookshops because browsing is much harder online. Think about how many times you’ve picked up a book that seemed so promising only to flick through its pages and discover otherwise. At least in such circumstances, you’ve not committed to purchasing the book.

There is some debate about whether e-books will simply make paper books obsolete. I suggest that they won’t, although I certainly see that for fiction (and newspapers or magazines) they may be better than the paper version. For non-fiction, I believe they’d make a poor substitute although I can see potential value even here (for instance, a plant physiology book that could incorporate a 3D model of a plant cell rather than a diagrammatic outline). I don’t think viewing detailed architectural plans or high-resolution images of an Australopithecus skull on a small screen would be much of a substitute for a high-gloss fold-out printed page.

For some, there is also the romantic notion of holding books, smelling the paper and feeling the texture of the page. Whilst that is a niche interest (similar to music buffs who insist on listening to vinyl or photographers who use film), I don’t see that as a mainstream concern.

Of course, in these changing times bookshops need to adjust and adapt. Perhaps like car manufacturers, television networks or hardware stores, there just isn’t as much room in the Australian market as there used to be for so many players.

If Borders and Angus & Robertson were to fail (and this is no certainty), it would be an unfortunate loss. Aside from the jobs directly lost, it would also likely hurt the Australian book publishing industry.

I have no doubt that like the newspaper and broadcasting industries, the book industry is entering a period of substantial change and possible consolidation. It will be fascinating to see what changes, both in a corporate and technological sense, emerge in the coming decade.

Whilst I firmly believe that e-books offer immense opportunities, I hope that I will always have the opportunity to browse real books in a real shop. After all, real books don’t need batteries, charging or firmware upgrades.

I was one of those people who skipped the much-maligned Windows Vista, having moved directly from Windows XP (although I do have experience using Vista). Windows XP had served me well, but there have been many innovations in software and hardware since Windows XP was launched in 2001. As I was in the market for a new computer, it made sense to get Windows 7 as well. I chose the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium, which has the same features as the 32-bit version except for the ability to access additional RAM.

^{The Windows 7 desktop, with my own custom image.}

What I have liked:

1. Versatile desktop: Windows 7 supports desktop widgets that Microsoft call “gadgets“. These are small applications that sit on the desktop. So far I have installed the Clock gadget, but other apps are available, such as RSS feed readers, currency converters and so forth.

2. Speedy operation: Unlike Vista, which seemed to be slow from the very beginning, Windows 7 operates efficiently. As one uses the installed programmes, Windows 7 offers suggestions for optimising performance. The Windows Experience Index is particularly informative.

3. Sticky notes: I am keen on using sticky notes in real life. Now I can have them on my desktop which sounds trivial, but is actually very useful. This feature will save a few trees!

^{The layout in Windows 7 is intuitive: Sticky Notes is a great innovation!}

4. Sensible security measures: One of my biggest frustrations with Windows Vista was the constant security checks that kept popping up. Every time I wanted to install a programme, or make a system change, or perform another menial task, the blocker would come up asking my permission. Windows 7 addresses this frustration by “keeping it real”. It knows that if I want to edit my own HOSTS file, that is my intention. But should some other third-party application/virus try it, the operating system will intervene. This is inherently sensible, and makes for a smooth and pleasurable computing experience.

5. Versatile Task  Bar: Gone are ‘quick launch’ icons and “Start” button. Replacing them is a Windows logo (performing the ‘Start’ function) and a toolbar that mixes applications in use with ‘quick launch’ icon functions. A white box indicates open programmes. This is actually a much more functional system because it makes switching between programmes easier.

^{The task bar: Open applications are boxed and a preview is available.}

6. Interactive search and help: If someone is running a programme for XP or Vista on Windows 7, the operating system will identify any potential problems and update drivers, download patches or allow the programme to run in ‘XP mode’ if need-be. The search function in Windows 7 (be that for files, folders, help or anything) is absurdly easy: one simply has to type a phrase into a box, just like for a search engine on the internet.

7. Easy rescue: Three days into my Windows 7 experience, I installed some (legal, commercial, paid) software that unfortunately wreaked havoc on my computer. Windows 7 was able to ‘go back in time’ to isolate the problems. Unfortunately this particular programme decided to do more damage, which warranted a complete re-install. Thankfully, this was a breeze with Windows 7, and within 30 minutes I had a fresh install.

What I have not liked:

1. Incompatibility issues: Microsoft make a genuine effort to ensure their operating systems are backwards-compatible. And in most cases this hasn’t been an issue for me. However, my digital camera (Canon EOS 350D) doesn”t work with Windows 7 ×64. This is, of course, a problem of Canon’s making, not Microsoft’s. On 3 March 2010, “Theresa” at Canon informed me that “…software for Windows 7 is still being tested and has not yet been released… it is advised to check back to the Canon website again in a couple of weeks.” (This simple solution has been posted, but didn’t work for me). I do not have a sophisticated understanding of computing, but I assumed that Windows 7′s “Run in XP-mode” or “Run in Vista-mode” options might have worked, but alas, I was wrong.

2. Kernel power issues: For some reason, and despite the fact that I am running Windows 7 on a three-week-old computer, I have had occasional freeze issues, followed by The Black Screen of Death (Windows Event 41). This is easily resolved with a reset. It seems to happen when I leave the computer unattended for a long time and it tries to hibernate, or occasionally when using Firefox. Hopefully this very common problem will be fixed with the upcoming Service Pack 1. If not, I shall contact service support at Lenovo. Thankfully this has not resulted in data loss.

(Update: The Kernel Power matter was found to be caused by hibernation. By switching off the hibernation setting, the matter was resolved).

3. Uncooperative RSS Reader “gadget”: I mentioned gadgets before. There is an RSS reader gadget which I thought would be useful on my desktop, but it only works with Internet Explorer. Hence it doesn’t work with Firefox which is a tad annoying.

^{The range and functionality of “gadgets” could be better.}

The Final Verdict:

Notwithstanding the three problems above, Windows 7 has been well worth the upgrade. My slide scanner (Epson Perfection V500), television stick (KaiserBass TVStick), modem (Belkin ADSL2+), mouse (Logitech MX1100) and all key non-Microsoft programmes (Adobe Photoshop Elements, Mozilla Firefox, Yahoo Messenger) have all worked like a charm.

Unlike Windows Vista, Windows 7 is intuitive and the help and support and updating mechanisms are a major step-up from Windows XP. Whilst some have complained, I actually like the Control Panel, which is logically laid-out and full of options.

Installing programmes is easy, and removing them equally so. An especially notable improvement can be seen when one wants to unplug a USB device: it’s now a three-click operation (instead of five).

^{I like the simplicity of Windows 7′s Control Panel}

If you’re still running Windows XP on an old machine, and are considering an upgrade, I’d probably suggest that you wait until the machine is replaced. Not because the features aren’t worth it,  but because there is no XP-to-7 update (you must do a re-install) and because a machine of that vintage might not support Windows 7 anyway. (You can test this theory by downloading Microsoft’s free Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor).

If you’re running Windows Vista, and your machine will support an upgrade, do it! From my experience, Vista is slow and uncooperative a lot of the time and the upgrade will be worth it.

If you’re not sure whether to get the 32-bit or 64-bit version, you need to consider that a 64-bit operating system is much faster, in part because it can utilise more than 3GB of RAM unlike 32-bit systems. But before making the change, check that your hardware devices will run on a 64-bit system or that an upgrade is available.

Windows 7 has impressed me. It has the functionality and look of Vista, but the intuitiveness of XP. If you can afford an upgrade, I highly recommend it.

__________________

Technical: Lenovo ThinkPad W500; Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T9550 @ 2.66GHz 2.67 GHz; 4.0 GB RAM; 300 GB Hard Disk Drive; Windows Home Premium (64-bit)

Parent company Woolworths Limited have decided to progressively re-brand all 129 Victorian supermarkets in the coming 12 months. Coinciding with this decision is the announcement that a new Woolworths logo has been developed, but the “Fresh Food People” moniker will remain.

The Safeway Supermarket at the Melbourne suburb of Preston at dusk.

Safeway was launched in Melbourne in 1963 when the American chain of the same name bought three locally-owned supermarkets and established Australian Safeway Stores Pty Ltd. Competing locally with rival Woolworths, Safeway slowly expanded into New South Wales and Queensland whilst Woolworths continued to expand in Victoria. In 1985, Safeway Inc. sold all of its Australian operations to Woolworths and the two supermarket chains merged. At the time, Safeway was considered to be a stronger brand and so the decision was made to that all Victorian stores would be named Safeway whilst the New South Wales and Queensland stores became Woolworths. And so it was until now.

A Safeway commercial from 1989, featuring the “Red Spot Specials”.

Of course this re-naming process is not new to Tasmanians. In a situation reminiscent of the Victorian Safeway saga, Woolworths had been operating separate Roelf Vos and Purity brands (depending on which part of Tasmania they were located) since the two Tasmanian supermarket chains were acquired in the mid-1980′s. All supermarket brands were advertised as “The Fresh Food People” after 1986 and shared a common marketing strategy, which meant that national advertising jingles and campaigns had to be re-worked to fit in with the Roelf Vos and Purity identities. Eventually Woolworths came to the realisation that operating four nearly-identical brands was sheer madness and so in was in 2000 that Roelf Vos and Purity became history.

In the context of that upheaval, it remained a mystery why it was that Safeway was preserved where Roelf Vos and Purity hit the chopping block. I guess we all knew that it was simply a matter of time before Safeway suffered the same fate. Anyone who’s been into Safeway lately would have seen the subtle signs… all the own-brand products have been labelled as “Woolworths” rather than “Safeway” for quite some time.

____
Old logos for Woolworths, Safeway, Purity and Roelf Vos (left) and the new Woolworths logo (right).

For most, this change is nothing more than a new name and logo. That said, I can’t help but feel a bit of nostalgia for good ol’ Safeway with it’s crazy “Red Spot Specials” (whatever that referred to) and early childhood memories of being dragged up and down its drab aisles. And then there’s that catchy jingo “We’re Safeway the Fresh Food Peeeeee-ple…“.

It’s the end of an era for sure… farewell Safeway.

For more information on the name change, you can read the Official Press Release.

This week, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) revealed that its network of television stations, hitherto known generically as “ABC-TV” are in for a name change and an identity makeover. This fuelled a rumour that the iconic ABC logo, which has been in use since 1965, would disappear from our screens.

I knew that a change to the familiar lissajous curve ABC logo would spark some discussion. I didn’t expect that The Australian newspaper would see the matter to be of such national significance to warrant a page 1 cover story! The Australian‘s Michael Bodey claimed this morning that “the (ABC’s) looping ‘squiggle’ logo will be taken off air after more than four decades in favour of a younger and fresher brand.”

As it turned out, The Australian and Mr. Bodey were wrong. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Director of Television Kim Dalton flatly denied that the logo was to be abolished and expressed frustration at The Australian’s erroneous reporting.

The ABC is planning to re-badge “ABC-TV” as “ABC1″ to better align the network with its digital-only sister station “ABC2″. The naming follows the convention used by the British Broadcasting Corporation and makes sense in light of news that the ABC is planning a children’s channel to be called ABC3. These changes would obviously involve a new set of idents, but not an abolition of the ABC logo.

The ABC has one of the most widely recognised corporate logos in Australia. Along with the Nine Network’s dots, both are renowned across the country. Abolishing the ABC logo would be as crazy as abolishing the Nine “dots” was, surely?

Back in 2005, the Nine Network was losing ratings and talent to the rival Seven Network. So Nine decided a re-brand was in order and the “dots” were dropped.

The dots dated back to the opening of Sydney station TCN9 in 1956, and were so successful as a corporate identity that they even spread to Nine affiliates such as Darwin’s NTD8, Newcastle’s NBN3 and Wollongong’s WIN4 that didn’t even broadcast on analogue Channel 9! Yet in 2006 they were scrapped in a multimillion dollar “corporate makeover” that sparked considerable controversy in media circles. The move was a branding failure and after 18 months, the ‘dots‘ are back with a vengeance.

Unlike the Nine Network, the ABC is aware of the value of its logo and so won’t make the same stupid mistake. The Australian newspaper (and a blog) released a “leaked logo” for ABC1 (shown below) but ABC management told Crikey that the logo is incorrect. The new “ABC1″ will be launched on Monday 4 February and the ABC is refusing to release the official ABC1 logo until then.

Some commentators have suggested that having “ABC1″ on analogue Channel 2 may cause confusion, however this will only be an issue in the major capital cities since ABC television is broadcast on other channels in the regional centres. And most people will probably cope anyway as the station will still be available on VHF Channel 2 (or whatever frequency it had previously broadcast on in any particular district).

I’ll watch with interest to see how successful the launch of the new-look ABC1 and ABC2 are. I do wonder if the “incorrect” ABC1 logo wasn’t leaked to stir-up media attention (and thus free promotion) for ABC Television ahead of the re-branding?

I always enjoy this time leading up to Christmas as the city comes alive with festivities and there is a general air of happiness and charity across Melbourne.

One of the best Christmas practices is in fact a tradition that goes back many centuries. The lighting of advent wreaths in our churches is a simple but elegant way in which the weeks are counted during Advent. The wreath contains four candles – three purple and one pink – and as the weeks pass a new candle is lit until the week of Christmas. Seeing the Advent wreath always gives me a sense of happiness, as it marks the coming of Christmas.

A Christmas wreath suspended from the ceiling of St Francis Church.

As always, the traditonal Myer Windows are popular in Melbourne. The theme for 2007 is Uno’s Garden, a children’s book by Graeme Base (ISBN 0670041912). All of the window’s in Myer’s Bourke Street store have been dedicated to recreating Base’s story about striking the correct balance between development and conservation. The display is excellent and I decided this year to view the windows in the evening when the queues are much shorter. I suggest you do the same!

A mother shows her child the Myer Windows at night.

One of the nicest Christmas displays this year was one that I found by chance. When visiting Federation Square, I walked past the BMW Edge Theatre Hall. Therein I found a giant spiral Christmas Tree made of LED lights that lit the whole room. It’s simple elegance was so captivating! In fact the whole Christmas display at Federation Square was really interesting with different types of decorations spread throughout the main atrium. They’re well worth a look as well as the giant Advent Calendar on the eastern ‘shard’.

The Christmas Tree at BMW Edge,Federation Square.

Perhaps the most elegant of Christmas displays can be witnessed in the former Commercial Bank of Australia Banking Chambers at 333 Collins Street.

The original portion of this amazing building was constructed in 1891 and features a barrel-vaulted ceiling, granite columns, giant arches, elaborate wrought iron gates and a shiny marble floor. In the centre is a huge Christmas tree.

With the ornate plasterwork as a backdrop, this really makes for an elegant scene indeed.

The festive interior of 333 Collins Street.

Of course there are many other Christmas displays across the city. As was the case last year, the John Mockridge Fountain Wall is the backdrop to a “nativity panel” which consists of metal cut-out lettering quoting the parts of the bible describing Christ’s birth. This looks really amazing at night, and with the nearby giant Christmas tree adds much Christmas cheer to the City Square site.

The “Nativity Wall” illuminated at night.

One of the disappointments is that the City of Melbourne Council has again decided to recycle the same cheap-looking stars suspended from the overhead tram wires. These are used every year and I really do feel that these fail to express the joy of a city’s celebration of Christmas. I am hoping they’ll be replaced with something better next year.

Dull and boring: Melbourne’s streets feature these uninspiring stars.

Despite the dull stars, Council can be forgiven on account of the delightful Christmas lights display in Hardware Lane. This is an annual tradition that goes back many years, but the festive lights really look great along the narrow laneway that serves as a popular café spot in the city centre.

I’ll end this post with a photo I took earlier in December of a bunch of Santa’s running down the Bourke Street Mall. The Santa’s were raising awareness for UnitingCare’s Giving Tree, it turned out. Anyway, I found this spectacle rather amusing!

Santa’s running down the Bourke Street Mall.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I have been running this website since July 1998. In that time I have moved on from from a “look at me, I have a website” website (as was the novelty in those days) to progressively building up the site’s content to create something useful that people can enjoy.

Initially the website was hosted on Tripod– a free web host that was all the rage long before MySpace was invented.

But as my website, and my ambitions for it grew, I eventually decided to go “professional” and get a domain and paid web hosting. In 2003, I registered the domain www.adonline.id.au and my website was transferred to Kangaweb on US-based servers. And there it stayed until this weekend.

I plan to roll out some new features in the coming months. As I was researching the requirements for these new components, I realised that my current hosting arrangements couldn’t support what I had in mind. So it was once again time to move house.

After careful consideration, I settled on a local company called Jumba. Jumba operates Australian-based web servers, which means for visitors from Australia and South-East Asia, the website may load a bit faster than it used to.

However, for most visitors there will be no immediate difference in the website. The design is the same, the URL is the same and the features are all the same for now. As the site is expanded in coming months, I will hopefully deliver a range of improved services and content that you will find enjoyable. Until then, it’s business-as-usual.

And how was the move? Fairly straightforward to be honest.

Nearly everything travelled across without a glitch and the change in DNS records was impressively fast.

The only real drama was the Australian Radio Online website, which was using a particular PHP script to serve media content. This didn’t function on my new server, so I had to implement a new delivery system that took about two hours of fiddling-with to correct. As this is the most popular part of my website, it was an immediate priority.

The only other problem was a minor and peculiar one…. the images from just one News Desk post didn’t make the journey. Replacements were quickly uploaded, so no dramas there.

If you notice any problems or faults with any parts of this website, feel free to contact me via the Feedback Form. Otherwise I look forward to bringing you a progressively richer website in the coming months.

I believe this decision is against the national interest.

The problem all starts with the proverbial ‘tyranny of distance’. Australia has a population of 20 million spread across a landmass the size of the USA. Providing telecommunications for sparse rural populations is unprofitable because the cost of infrastructure vastly outweighs revenue. In the past, government-owned Telstra paid for rural infrastructure with the profits it made in city markets. More recently, a Univeral Service Obligation was imposed on the partially-privatised Telstra to protect these unprofitable services.

That was fine whilst the government was the majority shareholder and could run Telstra as it saw fit. But if Telstra is fully privatised, then the government surely relinquishes control as well as ownership? And in an open marketplace where the other telcos are allowed to pick-and-choose which regional markets they want to trade in, there is a compelling argument that says that a USO is an unreasonable imposition for one company to take.

Of course, the removal of the USO would be devastating for many rural communities, and so it makes one question whether privatisation is really a good decision after all. Surely if the government wants these services to be provided, it should pay for them? Or just run the company as it always has. After all, there was a reason why Telstra was government-owned in the first place.

Telstra owns most of Australia’s telecommunications infrastructure, which is a legacy from its monopoly days. The price Telstra charges to rivals for use of its network is regulated to ensure competition is promoted. Whilst this may be good social policy, I don’t believe it is fair to ask this of a privatised company. The government is effectively asking Telstra to subsidise its rivals.

It has been suggested many times that Telstra should be split into a retail company and an infrastructure authority, the latter managed by the government. The government-owned authority could charge all the telcos (including Telstra) for use of the network, and in turn provide a universal service. Such a system could be easily operated on a commercial basis at no expense to the taxpayer, and would ensure that critical upgrades were made to the system. The retail part of Telstra could then be privatised, if so desired.

Telstra management has been complaining bitterly about the cost of regulation on its profits. On 4 August, Telstra announced that it was pulling out of a planned $4 billion programme to install a nationwide fibre-to-the-node broadband network. Apparently, an agreement could not be reached between Telstra and the competition regulator about the price Telstra was allowed to charge its retail and wholesale users for use of the new network. So Telstra decided to abandon the plan altogether and for now Australia misses out.

As reported in The Age recently, a World Bank study showed that Australia’s average ADSL speed of barely 1 Mbps is one of the slowest in the world. By comparison, the average in Britain is 13 Mbps, 8.4 Mbps is standard in France and 6.8 Mbps typical in Canada. The Australian Internet Industry Association believes that 80% of Australians will need to have access to 10 Mbps+ broadband by 2010 for the nation to remain competitive.

Broadband is today what the railways were 150 years ago – a vital piece of infrastructure critical to the development of the nation. And whilst that infrastructure can be privately provided, it is sometimes in the national interest for the government to take the lead and make it happen. In the case of broadband, this means replacing the copper network with fibre-optic to enable high-speed internet connections for all Australians. For reasons of economic advancement, industry competition and equity of access, this network should be installed and paid for by a government-owned authority, if not Telstra. A privately-owned Telstra will only build the network if it can charge what it likes (and therefore wedge out competition). And if Telstra won’t build it, no-one else will.

For all these reasons, Telstra should remain in majority government ownership and control. Ideally, the Commonwealth Government, through Telstra, would orchestrate a share-buyback that would amount to a re-nationalisation of the company. Realistically, this is not going to happen.

So there are two options for the government at present: either sell its 51.8% share or retain it. From a purely financial standpoint, selling the shares is a mistake. Telstra shares peaked at $9.50 in 1999. Now they are worth about $3.50 a share, and are apparently still losing value. With the shares being so cheap, does a sale now represent a good return to taxpayers? Arguably not.

To ensure that rural services are maintained, broadband services are improved and competition in the telecommunications sector continues, Telstra should remain in majority government-ownership and split. A government-owned Telstra could be used as a tool for growing the nation, just as it was in the past.

Everything progressed very smoothly in the end. There was no last-minute panic, no rushed paragraph writing, no late nights and no last-minute crisis at the printers. In fact, the only problem was one graph that did not print for some reason. But that was easily remedied.

The thesis will now be forwarded to my anonymous examiners for their assessment. I don’t expect to receive a result for another three to four months.

With my yellow balloon in hand, I realised that my days at the Faculty of Land and Food Resources are now over. The “real world” now beckons, with higher wages and even greater expectations!

The Faculty of Land and Food Resources building, University of Melbourne.

I have enjoyed my three years of intense study, although I am keen on a rest before returning to work. I have learned a great deal and gained many valuable skills.

Studying a PhD has been a most worthwhile experience and I now feel a great sense of accomplishment.

I speak of “Thai Harder”, the latest promotion for the Telstra Yellow Pages telephone directory. The advertisement features two women who operate rival Thai Restaurants and constantly have to compete with each other for business.

I laughed so hard when I first saw this on the television and thought to myself, “I really must see that again”. It is quite clever, actually.

So I have posted the commercial below.

This ad is definitely worthy of comparison to the classic “Not Happy, Jan” advertisement of 2004. Gold!

Footage Copyright © Telstra Corporation, 2006.

For one thing, there are a great many more people out-and-about because of the Games and related activities, which everyone seems to be quite enjoying.

But I was shocked yesterday at the sheer number of people in the precinct near Federation Square! If you know Melbourne, you will know that this level of street crowding is unprecedented. I was glad to be out of it at the end of the day!

Here are some photos:

Looking east down Flinders Street.  Crowds cross from St Paul’s Cathedral to the Federation Square.
More than six trams are queued up!  Looking up Swanston Street to Young & Jackson’s pub.  Crowds at Federation Square near the
ABC Radio 3LO “G-Spot” (outdoor broadcast tent).
 The Transport Hotel is full to the brim with patrons.
And Southbank promenade was just not worth the effort!