There have been a couple of news tidbits about the National Broadband Network and general Tassie broadband news over the last week ...

By the way, this is my first post on the "broadband" category of this blog - it only took 2 1/2 months! I recognise that some readers are not technically inclined so I'm happy to answer questions in the comments if anyone has any!

The first one is the announcement of the locations for stage 3 of the NBN.  Where stage 1 and 2 were basically a few towns, stage 3 covers many suburbs in the major cities.

Unfortunately for us, the suburbs listed do not include Lenah Valley!  (They do include Glenorchy, but I wouldn't expect anything to be live until at least mid-2011, by which time we will - hopefully - be close to moving.)


View NBN locations - Stage 3 in a larger map

Areas in Hobart to miss out include anywhere north of Berriedale on the western shore, anywhere north of Geilston Bay on the eastern shore, anywhere east of Mornington/Howrah, the Moonah/New Town/Lenah Valley area, and anywhere south of the city (except for Kingston) 

The good news is that Internode's DSLAM deployment is well on track - most of them are live or pretty much ready to go live - a lot of their deployments here have been external to the exchange (i.e. the green cabinets that you see on the nature strip). people on Whirlpool have been sneaking up to them to see if they are making noise! Internode has 3 outages scheduled for the early hours of Tuesday and Wednesday morning this week related to Tasmania so the consensus is that it can't be far away.

As a comparison to the NBN map above, see below for an example (my estimates only!) of the coverage area of the central Hobart exchanges that Internode has their equipment in. (The others are located in Kingston, Launceston and Devonport.) I would have thought the NBN would target areas such as Austins Ferry/Granton, Lower Sandy Bay/Taroona, Old Beach/Otago, which are NOT covered by the upcoming DSLAM deployments!


View Internode DSLAMs in a larger map

Note - I know this doesn't include northern cities, or Kingston, or Netspace DSLAMs - sorry, a bit of systemic bias!

The third interesting bit of news is a combination of these two - Internode, iiNet and iPrimus have announced they will be partnering with the NBN to provide internet access over the new network when it goes live to homes in Smithton, Scottsdale and Midway Point in July. The best bit is this quote - "The ISP [Internode] will offer existing FTTH products on Tasmania’s NBN. Prices start at $49.95 per month for 5GB of quota. Internode also supports 100Mbps services geared towards business users starting from $99.99 per month." This is a pretty good sign that the retail plans available to residents of FTTH estates on the mainland will be the ones available via the NBN. The rest of the plans are available at Internode's website.

Of course I can't finish my first post about broadband without a plug for Digital Tasmania - a consumer action group, created "to give a voice to the views and needs of Tasmanian consumers in the digital age". Check the site for information on the groups aims!

Warning: If you are religious and thin-skinned then stop reading now!

Imagine there’s no religion.  (No, I’m not channelling John Lennon.)  Imagine that someone comes up to you and tells you that there was a man who turned water into wine, who walked on water, who rose from the dead.  Imagine that he told you that the earth was less than 10000 years old despite scientific evidence that it is over 4 billion years old.  You would think he was crazy.

So why is it that when a billion people believe it, it becomes acceptable?

Evolutionary biologist and outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins was on ABC1 program Q&A this week and as expected he ruffled a few feathers.  I’ve known who he was for a long time, but have never read any of his books or heard him speak until tonight.  He has quite a knack for phrasing his arguments in such a way that it is difficult to logically refute them.   But I guess that is the point – his arguments are that the rules of our society should be based on logic and reason.

He was seated next to Family First Senator Steve Fielding.  Family First is well known as a Christian fundamentalist party, although for some reason they don’t promote this fact very strongly!  Dawkins asked Fielding straight out, and directly "Do you believe that the earth is 10000 years old?" a.k.a. asking if he believed in creationism.  This clearly made him very uncomfortable and cagey.  "Look, different people have different views, and I think it’s up to each person to decide what they choose to believe."  Of course, it turns out he did (being an evangelical Christian), but the question is, why didn’t he want to answer?  Is he ashamed of his beliefs?  Did he have a sudden realisation that saying "Yes, I believe in creationism" sounds as ridiculous as "Yes, I believe in the Easter Bunny"?

Another point that Dawkins brought up was the brainwashing of children.  Kids of strongly religious parents are told “you are , that is the religion that you belong to”.  Forcing this sort of belief onto a child is wrong – they should be told “There are people called Christians who believe this, people called Jews who believe that, people called Muslims who believe the other” – and then let the child decide for themselves when they are old enough.  If this happens the child will realise that all these different belief systems conflict with each other and none of them can be correct!  I recall a story posted on a forum a few years ago (around the time of the last census) where the question on religion was being filled in, and the person’s mother refused to allow him to list himself as "atheist" – because he was christened a Catholic - and there was a $1000 fine for lying on the census!

I remember at chapel at school, halfway through a hymn, looking up and thinking "What the hell (no pun intended)?  There are a bunch of teenagers and grown adults here singing to a big invisible man in the sky, who no-one has ever seen, telling him how wonderful he is and that we are insignificant to him.  A room full of people doing this and no-one is questioning it?  Is everyone here completely mad?"

As for the link between religion and morality – why do some people need to base their behaviour on (using Christianity as an example) the promise of going to heaven or the threat of going to hell?  Wouldn’t a truly moral person not need to be bribed in this way?

Religion might have been useful in the dark ages when humans didn’t understand a lot about the world, and the leaders at the time needed a way to control the underlings… I'm sure at the time it worked well on the less educated.  Since then, however, we have developed this wonderful thing called "scientific method" – it lets you discover things about the world using observation, empirical evidence and reasoning!

Tasmanians have somewhat of an inferiority complex ... like the youngest child in a large family, you tend to get forgotten about.  A quick look through my (and my friend's) Facebook groups about Tasmania reveal groups begging for teams in the AFL and A-League.  There are groups begging for the Big Day Out, Foo Fighters and AC/DC to include us on their schedule.  There are those who want Krispy Kreme and Ikea to set up shop here, who want digital radio available here, paintball to be legalised, a Tasmanian venue as part of our World Cup bid .. even to complain that Tassie was omitted from My Kitchen Rules!

Sometimes there have been successes - the Basslink fibre optic cable is now going, bringing us cheaper broadband.  Bellerive Oval got their lights and hosted a sold-out international Twenty20 match last month.  Tasmanians got One HD eventually - a few months after the rest of the country.

In short, we want to be treated as an equal as the other five states!  Our population may be smaller but there are some services that need to remain in the state - we can't just hop in the car and drive to Melbourne whenever we want!

It was rather interesting news this week to hear that Professor Jan Gehl, an architect and urban planner from Denmark, has been hired by the Hobart City Council to design a new vision for the CBD.  He has previously done similar things very successfully for Copenhagen, London, New York, Melbourne and Sydney.  What a fantastic coup for little ol' Hobart to score his services!

Hobart certainly needs a bit of help - for those who aren't familiar with the area, central Hobart is kind of split in half - the CBD area and the waterfront area are separated from each other by Davey and Macquarie Streets - two one-way streets, four lanes each, which are pretty much the only route between the north and south of the city.

So, what is the local response to Professor Gehl's plans - all these people who want Hobart to have the services and facilities of cities four or ten times their size must surely be supportive of him, right?

The comments from the Mercury articles (1) (2) (3) tell the story.  Many are extremely supportive, but sadly there are some that are typical of the other half of Tasmanians.  Paraphrasing: "We don't want to be another clone of Melbourne or Sydney" Hmm, if you look at the cities that Gehl has previously worked with, they are all quite unique - not clones of each other!  "What do all the elderly people do if no cars are allowed?"  Whoever said cars were not allowed?  Gehl's designs generally encourage walking/cycling and discourage cars in the city centre - but 'discourage' is different from banning them!

This one really gets to me: "We are a small city, and we like it this way, leave us alone" - ah, no.  The reason so many of our young people leave for the mainland as soon as they are able is because Hobart (and Tasmania in general) is not big enough to be able to provide all the services that they are after.  Hobart is a capital city, not a rural village, and should be treated that way.  If you want to live in a rural area, perhaps you would like it more at Richmond, Huonville, Seven Mile Beach or New Norfolk.  Meanwhile, let's grow our cities - so one day we might get that Foo Fighters concert!

No more nappies... most parents of small kids dream of the day their toddler will toilet train. Let's get one thing straight... nappies are easy. When your child is in nappies they wee or poo as the case may be in their nappy, then you change it when you have a second. It doesn't matter if they are in the pram or the car, it can wait.
When your bundle of joy has started wearing underpants, or 'nickies' as they are known in our house things change. They go to the toilet on their schedule, not yours. If they need to wee/poo/whatever, you drop everything and take them as you can't take the chance that they are just kidding.

G has been dry during the day for about 4 months now, she decided shortly after her 2nd birthday that she was big enough to do her business in the potty/toilet and really hasn't looked back. Until last week when we had a bit of a regression she had had very few accidents. We are still doing night time nappies but that doesn't worry me in the slightest, she will be dry in her own time and there is no pressure, I was quite happy to keep changing her nappy during the day too but the fact that it was so easy reassures me that she was well and truly ready.

I had a rotten afternoon. Saturday night everything was removed from the boot of the family car as I was doing a market stall for the ABA and had to fit in a board, change table and some suitcases of literature and changing supplies... so come today I had an empty boot, containing only a stroller. Everything else from my car was at Chuq's work.

So, after our walk we had to go and deliver some nappies, no problems! Except for the fact that the skateboard for the stroller and one of the orders was at work with Chuq. No worries, we went and collected them. 'Do you need anything else put back in your car?' he asked. 'No, I don't think so' I replied. Fool.

So we head into the city to deliver the first order, easy one just have to pop it in her letterbox. The traffic was rubbish... it was after school time and had just started bucketing with rain. Took us ages to get there. Got out of the car, quickly stuffed the breastpads in said letterbox and then got back in the car. Greeted with the dreaded words 'mummy, I got poooooo'. I turned around to miss 2 and a half (almost) and said 'do you REALLY got poo?' she nods. Crap. The potty... it's not in the car, it's still in Chuq's car at his work. Deep breaths.

I turn back around... 'OK, can you hold on?' I toy briefly with the idea of putting one of the baby's nappies on her... it will fit but will it hold a full toddler wee? Doubtful.
More deep breaths. 'Ok, mummy will take you to the toilet, it will be a few minutes though'. After school traffic, bucketing rain... it takes about 20 minutes to drive about 1.5km and get into the carpark. Haul both kids out of the car and put little man in the stroller, little lady on her skateboard on the back (and doesn't she love that). Head down to the parenting room and get to the toilet... can't fit in with the stroller so just leave the door open. She sits up and hangs on... 'I don't got wee'. Deep breaths. 'You DO got wee, Mummy wasn't even coming into the city, we have stopped here just so you can do wee, please sit back up on the toilet and try'.
Success, thank goodness.

Whilst we are there I figure little boy should have his nappy changed too as he made some suspicious noises earlier. He doesn't disappoint either, full nappy. I manage to get poo on his feet, legs, change mat and overalls trying to clean it all off.
I look over at the couple sitting in the feeding area feeding their tiny newborn a bottle and wonder if we've amused them enough for one day. They would have heard every word in the toilet and also had my running commentary as I changed H's nappy. G asks if we can get that babycino (promised earlier) now, I tell her we'll see what we can do. I decide that we don't have time and promise her I'll make her one when we get home.

By the time we deliver the last of the nappies and get home, poor H is screaming his little head off probably from sheer hunger as it's been over 3 hours since his last feed. I'm a wreck from listening to my baby scream and not be able to do anything about it and am so glad to see our house so we can all bundle inside and I can feed him.

After we eat, G gets her babycino. I had a hot chocolate too, we both had a tic-toc (or two). I might keep the coffee machine out for a while :-)

Are you a Tasmanian with an opinion? Specifically, a Tasmanian who uses the internet to post your opinion on the upcoming state election?

Be careful - since 6pm tonight (Friday, February 19), any online commentary about the state election must include your full name and address.  This is according to section 191 of the Tasmanian Electoral Act.

This is a completely impractical situation.  The law covers all kinds of internet activity including Facebook status updates and Twitter posts.  For obvious reasons, many people are not comfortable with their full home address being linked publicly to either of these accounts.  Some reasons, such as privacy and risk of stalking or assault are obvious, but there are also some less obvious reasons.

Digital Tasmania, supported by groups such as Electronic Frontiers Australia and the Australian Privacy Foundation, has written to the electoral commissioner requesting to not enforce this particular law, and for the leaders of the political parties to review the legislation when parliament next resumes after the election.  (Media coverage: ABC, iTWire, The Examiner)

The lack of practicality of this law was demonstrated by (or lack of) by iBleeter on Twitter who has started a drinking game - take a drink each time you see an example of the law being broken.  He was probably off his face after the first couple of hours, after breaches were spotted on the Facebook or Twitter feeds of David O'Byrne, Lisa Singh, Daniel Hulme, Will Hodgman, Jeremy Rockliff, ABC News Tasmania, The Mercury, Kim and Dave, Bob Brown, Forestry Tasmania, David Bartlett and Nick McKim.  Clearly if the Electoral Commission don't want to have a mockery made of this law they should prosecute all of the above.

Lisa Singh's breach is particularly amusing as she was on Stateline tonight - along with Cassy O'Connor and Brett Whiteley -where they were asked about the s191 law, and all of them supported it in its current form.

Even Mercury cartoonist Jon Kudelka has stated he will not be publishing his cartoons online until after the election.

One Western Australian has come to our rescue - just enter anything you want at his site at http://s191.org and he will automatically generate an authorisation for you - with his address way over in WA attached to the end.  No risk of vigilantes who disagree with your stance on the pulp mill, the Polytechnic, or water reforms egging your house!

And on that note - http://s191.org/56.

Or shall we call her.... Gastro G :-S

We had a fabulous long weekend... our first bout of gastro supplied undoubtedly by childcare. The first to fall victim was our beautiful baby boy... obviously infected by the love and kisses bestowed upon him by his sister immediately as she walks in the door from daycare of an afternoon.

Friday evening he vomited in his cot 3 times without a cry or any sign to let us know something was amiss... such a placid little thing he is that even on the third time (which I was standing outside the door for and recognised as a spew), soaking wet and stinking, vomit through his hair he didn't cry. I thought nothing of it other than, oh he's been vomiting so got him cleaned up, took him back to bed with us and fed him again.... and wore the lot. This is where I start to worry. My not quite 5 month old baby is unable to keep down breastmilk... something is seriously wrong! I tried again over the night, just letting him suck for a minute and then taking him off to try and just get small amounts of fluid over him, keeping him upright after feeds. In the end I threw Chuq out, propped myself up with a heap of pillows and just tried to rest with him in arms. He got a couple of hours sleep I got less. 5.30am and I try another feed. Wore it again and made the decision to take him to the hospital. Left home at 7am, him having not kept down a feed for nearly 12 hours I was starting to get concerned about dehydration. I don't know who it was who told me that if you need to take a child to the ED take them first thing in the morning but bless you.
We were processed and triaged pretty promptly... the triage nurse took one look at him and exclaimed with a huge grin on her face 'well, aren't you ugly' and managed to coax a smile out of my very flat baby boy.

So we were seen pretty quickly and I gave him another feed whilst waiting for the doctor. I caught my first letdown in a towel, thought it might be too much for him and then fed him for about 10 minutes and he fell asleep. Of course he didn't throw up one drop whilst in the hospital so we were off again on our merry way by 9am.
I went to grab something to eat, but a birthday present and wandered the city for a couple of hours as the little mite had fallen asleep and there was no way I was waking him. Still no spew, and no indication this was a horribly contagious, fast hitting gastro.

Arrived back at my parents' house where I was supposed to have spent the morning shovelling concrete and he had spewed in the car, only a tiny bit though.
The day went on, one more power spew, some small spews and then the other end started. Oh.my.goodness. Baby Beehinds Petite AI2s are AMAZING! How does a nappy so small contain a poo of such magnitude? As the day wore on, he was much brighter, almost back to normal. Thank goodness that was over. Oh how naive.
Sunday morning we wake to find that nobody has been sick overnight. Chuq heads out very early to do the 10km 'Run the Bridge' fun run. Mum and Dad have very kindly Kept G overnight so H and I stayed in bed until he got home.

Early afternoon I packed both kids up into the pram and did my 6km circuit, a couple of minutes faster than last time too! Felt pretty light headed when I got home but nothing a glass or two of fizzy soft drink didn't fix. Had continued light headed episodes over the rest of the day, just put it down to the walk. Wrong.

Dinner time... I looked at it and headed back to the couch. No, Chuq's cooking is NOT actually that bad. I just couldn't bring myself to even consider eating.
And thus begins another VERY long night. I doubt I slept a wink.. if I wasn't gastro-ing it up or feeding a baby I was laying down with such a bad headache there was no chance of me sleeping. Then half way through the night I heard footsteps in the hallway and the other adult spewing up his guts. Uh-Oh.

Come 7.30am I phoned my parents to see if they could take miss G for the day as there was no way we could look after an active toddler given that neither of us could stand without a headspin. No, Mum had it too.

G watched more TV on Monday than the rest of her life combined I think (OK, slight exaggeration but she has never ever before had the TV on all day... she actually asked to turn it off at one point!). I spent most of the day in bed physically not able to get out, Chuq was mainly on the couch watching G. By 5pm after a nice long nap with H I felt well enough to put on a load of washing. Didn't go to bed until late but ended up feeding H ALL night anyway. I'm guessing that after H being sick then me catching it my supply had taken a bit of a beating.

So, Tuesday... Chuq has stayed home from work in case he is still contagious. G and I braved the supermarket for a few things for lunch, rang Mum to see how she is and she tells us that Dad has caught it too. Fabulous... the man who cannot handle spew is vomiting. At least we feel OK Tuesday.

Wednesday everyone is better finally, Chuq back at work.

G is still well. She is now to be known as Gastro G.

a)      Supporters travelling from the north to the south for matches (or vice versa - the percentage of people who suggested that they would attend a match at the other end of the state hovered around the 8-10% mark).

b)      Supporters attending more than one game

c)       Supporters from rural areas in the north-east, midlands, west coast, east coast, or Huon area

d)      Interstate supporters travelling to Tasmania

Of course as usual, the naysayers are up and about, as I have mentioned in a previous blog post.  One comment on Walter Pless' blog suggested that Tasmania's experience in the NBL and VFL are relevant to the potential for a Tassie A-League team.  He failed to mention our cricket team (which, although crowds are generally low, are comparable with domestic cricket crowds nationwide) and of course the large crowds which attend AFL and A-League matches at York Park.  If we can attract over 6000 people to a practice match between two non-Tasmanian teams in the middle of winter, how many would our own team attract?

If you want to know the answers to that question, TUFC has released a full breakdown of the statistics in a followup post on their site.

• Southern Cross news story - 3 Feb 2010
• ABC News - "Tas A-League pitch gains ground" - 3 Feb 2010
• The Mercury - "Support for soccer bid" - 4 Feb 2010