Landline, Mobile and Video Telephony

Landline is on the way out.

I am told the NBN infrastructure in Australia does not optimally support fixed line telephones as well as the previous arrangements we have had since the invention and installation of the house phone.

Retro phones are sold in decreasing prices and are destined to go the way of the compact disc, television set and analogue media. At least, however, to replace them involves paying less than buying a new smart mobile phone.

The old fashioned phone does not need to be recharged regularly in order to function. It even has a back up battery until the day the NBN contractors arrived at your abode - now you have to cough up replacing with a new battery as the NBN has disenabled the previous back up battery that was working fine.

Both landline and mobile phones are subject to nuisance calls, hacking, fraud and pesty commercial sales. Every human communication opportunity is utilised by the so called slick oily sales person, the threatener, the deranged, the opportunist and the tricky mind. They can turn up at your door, infiltrate through your electronic and digital transactions or place a pesky virus to destroy or manipulate your data. So in the perspective and attitude of such parties, the phone is only a mechanism to possibly deprive your comfort of privacy, sense of integrity and steal your money.

Everyone would recall those irritating landline telephone calls around dinner time,  after you reckon you deserve a rest and quiet time after a long day at work or business. Millennials may not feel the obligation to answer every phone call, but baby boomers on the other hand grew up in an age when one was supposed to be civillised when speaking on the phone.

Fraudsters, trouble makers and the not so pyschologically stable can take advantage of this presumption of civility on the part of people who pick up their ringing phone. However, the negative experience of being on the unpleasant end of nonsense, prank, spam and fraudster calls has made telephone owners more cautious.

Would you pick up calls with unknown or unshown or private numbers? What do you think of pre-recorded messages blaring at your ear when you answer a call? How would you react trying to listen and understand foreign accents on the phone when you did not initiate the call?

With smart phones, you can report, block and prevent the hassling caller from calling again. You may not be able to do that with the landline telephone. In the latter scenario, you most likely do not even know the phone number of the person who has dialled you, unless your fixed base phone supports a number identification ability.   Underlying this experience, a primary matter remains not satisfactorily answered by the Government and the telcos  - who the heck gave access to my phone number?   Even registering one's telephone number in a Government initiative of "don't call me" does not mean a prankster cannot call through.

And then there are Skype, Facetime and other easily accessible video interaction calls. They can be more intimate, revealing and effective, as one can evaluate non verbal behaviours of the participants, apart from the use of the tone of voice. People tend to be on a better countenace profile using such a combined video and voice communication channel.

The average cost of making an international phone call is often higher from a landline. There is also the reduced accessibiliry of phoning from a landline if you are not near this phone.  On the orher hand, voice over the internet protocol calls have significantly reduced call costs.

Concurrently, it is also interesting to note the relative combinations of text versus voice messages. That is why the mobile phone provides a plethora of apps other than just serving as a voice conduit and exchange. In the process, our privacy has been more invaded, compromised and degraded more than when we just held a landline telephone.

#yongkevthoughts

The Search in Cyberspace

On the Internet, we type in the key words and click on a search engine before finding their top suggestions.   

Numerous search platforms have risen in as many previous years.  Is the process for individual users as direct and simple as going through manual directories, conversational checks with mates or walking around a suburban shopping strip?

Contemporary society may seem to enable things on a faster and more accessible basis, but what is the hidden price for users?  A key feature of daily life as we approach the iconic year of 2020 is the less need to physically be at the source of your products and services, whilst surrendering much privacy to the electronic channels that enable such convenient transactions.    Cyberspace increasingly dominates as the delivery channel, all as part of the overall picture of so called automated script and other artificial intelligence coming to every one of us in daily life experiences.   The information comes to us without us never having to get out of our seated position in front of a screen -  but that only operates if you have access to your wi-fi or phone coverage.

The dominating feature in cyberspace is the trail each of us leaves on every finger tap we make, let us call them "clicks" as a broad term of reference.   These clicks make it ridiculously easy to take us to images, data and knowledge we require or seek.  The trail of clicks, like any human idea or invention, can be misused.   The profile such clicks build of us, whether by waving a smart payment card, tap on web links or in exchange of messages, can be huge and yet most of us do not question the risks, implied and real, in developing such a trail of clicks.  

When we chat face to face in person with someone else  - and not utilising any smart machine  - the chances of the memory of such an encounter remains most likely only with the participants  - unless there is a roving drone or satellite over head taking photographs of our encounter.   

If you carry your smart phone with you whilst having a conversation, some party somewhere in the proverbial internet Cloud has noted where this conversation has taken place.    You may not fully realise that by having your smart phone beside you always, you have voluntarily enabled the most powerful tracking device to monitor your movement. Yet being easily located is useful when one is lost on a hiking trail, need a shared ride service or when individuals really wants to be known where they are.

Commerce finds accessibility to such personal profiles  of actual and potential customers a mine full of golden opportunity.   What irritates me is the commercial presumption that each of us will continue to behave the same in the future.   You would most likely have had the experience of being hassled through cyberspace communication channels to buy more of recent purchase.    We may also be offered unsolicited recommendations to acquire similar and comparable products or from different brands.   These so called artificial "intelligence" channels interact with us as if we do not a right to change our mind or want to explore new products or experiences.

My other pet dislike is the quick arrival of surveys questioning about my experience of a recent transaction or goods receipt.   This may be for relatively minor commercial transactions.   Even questions are asked by the courier company, apart from the party that sells the product.   This hard push of incessant request for feedback turns me off.   The feedback asked is generated by faceless software.

How are the rankings in search engines arranged when we look for answers through them?  Do the top web links that jump up at our face for attention really that good and popular?  Be cautious and beware that most things in search engines are not what they appear to be.   Those suggested web links at the top of the page can range from advertisement supported matters to dodgy information in relation to what you want.   The key words you choose to write and click are important for the search logic utilised by different search engines can vary.   At times, there is an over load of suggested web links.    Some web links that come up front at the top  do so due to the number of hits, but again be wary of such a measure.    Do be cautious to only click on valid websites that answer your query, especially in internet banking,  for search engines are one source of also leading us to fictitious and dubious links.    When in doubt, let it go and ignore such web links that send you vibes of fraud and low quality.   Look at the wording of the web link, the words chosen, whether they are from a foreign country and its over all feel.

Not under our personal control when using cyberspace is a trail and life of what is created, stored and deleted by us.   In real life, we draw our window blinds, shred our paper records and are discrete in what we tell strangers and casual friends.   On the internet, hackers and unauthorised parties are determined enough to uncover such trails about ourselves even if you had consciously deleted your log of search matters.   Each of us have to come to terms as to what the implications are what we have in cyberspace.    

Intrusive adverts or website invites pop up in unexpected moments when we use the internet.  Often, we should not surprised,  for the nature of such pop ups relate to something we have used before or searched in the past.   One of the more irritating things is that the operators out there know in which physical part of the Earth you are located.   Providers recommended to you seem to be localised in where they are. It is not amazing that there are providers which have invested huge sums in location enabled software or applications. 


Gone are the days when you bask in your own private glory when searching for knowledge - unless you still visit the local library and search for information amongst the book shelves.    There can be personal benefits in being able to go back to a recorded trail in cyberspace of what you have searched in the past ten  years.   The question you have to answer your self is whether the dangers and pitfalls are worth the convenience.

Vitamins

The prevalence of commercially sold vitamins has increased many fold in many nations, especially those with viable incomes and purchasing power.   Vitamins, to go back to basics, are manufactured by use of artificially made ingredients, claim the health benefits of a spectrum of produce, fruits and vegetables and mostly contain other stuff to come in tablet form.

There can be an increasing need to monitor the basic standards of manufacture in countries outside your own.   We have come across horror stories of illegal and unhealthy materials being covertly used in the manufacture of several things we consume, so we should be cautious about the quality requirements in the vitamins that many of us take daily.   Vitamins are essentially body intake supplements and are not prescribed medicines to help relieve or mitigate negative medical conditions.

The best sources of health nutrition come from partaking vegetables, seafood and fruits in moderate amounts and ensuring that your personal diet covers the various colours that these Nature given food stuff come in.   It can be exasperating to see the commercial push in sales by manufacturers and retailers of vitamins and other bottled comparable health supplements.

Significant questions of risks in over consuming such vitamin tablets, especially for those who consume them on a daily basis, must be reviewed by every consumer.   Every individual has a unique body in terms of size, metabolism, allergy and preference - and the dosage of taking vitamins can play a risk factor.   The body excretes excess Vitamin C taken by us.

Vitamin D comes especially to mind when low levels are detected in the body from routine blood tests.    The medical sector opinion on what is low, sufficient and too high levels of one's own Vitamin D levels can be subjective.   What is good for the goose can be bad for the gander, so they say.   One school of thought suggests a higher cancer growth risk from having too low levels of natural Vitamin D in the body, but the jury is still out on such pronouncements.   The sedentary and indoor lifestyle of many of the world's city workers can mean they are out of the natural sunlight for most of the day, when just an hour's consistent exposure to such sunlight can mean not having to take any supplementary Vitamin D tablets.


There are further dangers from the treatment if our body has over dosages of such Vitamin D tablets.   Moderation is the key in all aspects of every day life, so beware the recommendation to pop a pill every morning.    Taking vitamins must be viewed as an option in the spectrum of remedies, including physical exercise, ensuring consumption of natural sources, mitigations that address the cause of symptoms instead of just reacting to outward body conditions, understanding the balance of energy in our bodies and allowing the power in ourselves to heal.


A consumer's possible confusion can arise between the usefulness of a supplement as opposed to a medical prescribed need.   In societies where the cure is often a tablet, approved drugs and artificial means of treatment, the mindset of patients can readily accept a litany of manufactured medicines instead of considering other and useful alternative ways.


A few Western governments have ordered combination of specific vitamins into the making of high public consumed items like bread.
This follows the century old practice of putting fluoride into the public water supply.   By law, a certain amount of Thiamin and Foliate is mixed into the wheat flour by bread makers.   Vitamin D is added to margarines and spreads in Australia.   Fortification of such vitamins to foods sounds like an apparent socialist decree from a nanny state, but individuals can choose to make their own breads and spreads.

Vitamins can have a undesired impact on kidneys and the need for the body to absorb more drinking water.   Vitamins can be mostly made of gel to hold it all together in a tablet.   You can figure out the relative costs in making a single tablet and reflect on the prices charged to the ultimate consumer.   Health supplement stores work together with pharmacies, medical clinics, manufacturers, lobby groups and regulatory bodies and governments of the day.   The negative side effects of vitamin intake are often not well known or under emphasised.  Be careful, do not make the cure worse than the original ailment.   A high intake of vitamins can interfere with the workings of specific medicines.


What then are the natural sources of the so called essential Vitamins for us?

Vitamin A - Cod liver oil, butter, cheeses, sweet potato, kale,  carrots, spinach, mangoes, watermelons, papayas, tangerines, apricots, nectarines, guavas, passion fruits, hard boiled eggs, fatty fish like salmon, trout, blue fin tuna and mackerel.

Vitamin B -  Whole Grains, beans, eggs, poultry, dark leafy greens, cantaloupes, oranges, papayas and fish.


Vitamin C - citrus fruits, watermelon, berries, pineapple, papayas, mangoes, Kiwi fruits, cantaloupes, broccoli, tomatoes, spinach, green and red peppers, cauliflower and leafy greens.


Vitamin D - Egg Yolks, cheese, okra, soybeans, kale, spinach, salmon, sardines, rainbow trout and other fatty fish.


Vitamin E -   Sunflower seeds, avocado, almonds, spinach and broccoli.


Vitamin K -  Green leafy vegetables, eggs, fish, meat, liver, broccoli, spinach and kale.

Passing Thoughts

We replace one habit with another, thinking we have truly changed.

We feed our passion to possibly become an obsession.

We can overuse a specific one of our five primary human senses, possibly to the exclusion or impairment of the others.

We can trap our selves in routine, happy with its familiar structure, to the extent that we become less willing to try anything else.

We love a daily purpose, no matter how simple or complex it is. 

We often find someone trying to sell us something. It is with a surprising delight when we have an unexpected encounter - a smile, an encouraging chat or a nice gesture - with no hidden agenda.

We can identify double speak and insincerity, but can be forced to deal with them even if we are just minding our own business.

We have to increasingly manage the garbage we generate ourselves or unfortunately encounter in daily life, be they in material waste, misunderstood reputation or unfair experiences.

We take comfort when we are given unconditional love, earned or not.

We receive inner joy in the big stuff we do nothing to deserve - Nature, the beauty of each new day, the love from a pet and the turn of the seasons.

Life can be stranger than fiction, but creativity and imagination can be stronger and more rewarding than expected.

The rewards of companionship can be littered with patience, a fixation and much humour.

The conversation can surpass the culinary, but the culinary settles better in the stomach.

#yongkevthoughts

Comforts of Cooking and Culinary

Cooking for the week. Ya, I like my chicken on the bone and all those spices.
Yet I still relish the best apple pie I had last night at an invite.

The diversity in Australia makes access to various culinary styles so taken for granted. The overload of information from cookbooks, family and the net means one just makes time to try recipes and not excuses. The variety of ingredients available in capital cities just require passion and detail to undertake personal and community journeys in cooking.

I can ask neighbours, relatives and friends for understanding better the nuances in better cooking various styles.

One can then deeply appreciate the techniques, interplay of catefully chosen ingredients that affect the final outcome and the fun experienced in this respect.

You can choose authentic, fusion or contemporary. Dishes are created in a continuum and are never static. Usually when someone nice reveals an extra step or ingredient in making their cooking stand out, I try to reason about the cause and effect of such detail.

So when you dine out, it is not only your taste sensory you activate but also your mind and heart trying to work out how the dish turned out. 

It can be the cut of the veg or meat. It may be both pan frying and then baking in the oven. Some times, it is easier to figure out a dessert or baked item than unravelling the intricacies of a good sauce.

All the while we learn better the cooking philosophy of the chef or our home host.

Cooking at home also means you know better what you are eating. In the perspective of things, culinary creations support the bigger picture of experience - socially, business wise or with the family. 

The aroma from well placed ingredients being cooked gives each of us a sense of well being and satisfaction far removed from feeding our hunger. Good food provides an extra dimension of elegance, civility and purposeful meaning, all well above fulfiling a basic need.

When dishes prepared with passion and detail are also well presented, we should approach them with even more gratitude.

25 Million and Counting

The stats people say Australia's population reach 25 million by the first Monday of August 2018, roughly the size of a major conurbation in China - the greater Beijing area.

Are we a nation still consumed in worrying proportions by the 5Ds, an observation first mooted in the 1990s?

States of sedation or elation induced by drugs, drunkenness, driving, dependencies and deals? Our continuing take up of smart phones, opiates, coffee, sugar, oligopolies, poor compliance with regulation, political mischief and short sighted planning can make each of us look like a potential total wreck today, just like a cross between a potentially extinct elephant and our native koala, looking having a serious hang over with bites on our surprised demeanour.

More people are moving to outside Australia, but then this is countered by others moving in. It can all be attributed to the dynamics of a nation with both high levels of shortcomings and attractive features, depending on the eye of the beholder. The majority of the population has always had an immigrant background, only that the demographic emphasis has changed from the White Australian policy to varying levels of diversity that now significantly embraces migrants from China and India.

The impact on the continuing capacity and viability of the related supporting infrastructure and processes in education delivery, health care, transport, utility cost and other aspects of daily life can never be under estimated, especially if councils and State Governments continue to have a more reactive rather a than a proactive response.

Have standards of civility and personal behaviour changed with more people? Have the recent immigrants of the past decade been more willing to integrate into] the mainstream culture or become more differentiated in their own silo daily habits and mindset? Do residents see this nation as a long term place to settle in or just a pit stop in a more mobile world? The increased demand on resources from a growing population obviously creates an effect on costings and supply variables, so the cost of living, variety of talent to choose from and the number of community interaction issues rise in numbers as well. Do we feel safer for ourselves and at home?

And yet each of us must be somehow grateful for the freedom of expression; the relatively clean environment; the balance of personal and community equality; the emancipation in the lifestyle you choose; and the experience of spaciousness - the 5 Es.

#yongkevthoughts