New Domain

I have finally taken the next step and bought a domain. edschache.com now belongs to yours truly. I was worried that all the other Ed Schache's of the world might be rushing in to steal it but I got it.

At the moment there isn't much there. This blog now lives at blog.edschache.com which is cool. There are some photos at photos.edschache.com but that's pretty much it for the time being.

Soon I hope to start writing some sort of cool custom site to show off some new technologies and ideas. I won't reveal too many secrets at this stage but I can say that I won't give a damn about anyone who uses Internet Explorer (especially any version before 7)!

Open to ideas and suggestions. Yes I will be setting up some mailboxes once I get my mail server setup but that is tomorrow nights project.

Free New Cars - Apply Within

The Australian government has introduced a radical new plan to give away (for FREE) brand new cars (Commodores) to anyone currently driving an un-roadworthy car that is more than 20 years old. Basically the idea is to make the road safe and to reduce congestion by having the roads full of cars with equal capabilities.

By eliminating old cars and replacing them with cars that have ABS, airbags and the like it is hoped that car accidents will be reduced dramatically. Another side effect will be an increase in speed limits as these more capable cars can better avoid accidents at higher speeds.

Of course all that is a load of crap - if you want a new car buy your own! What was the point of that? Well.... Internet Explorer 6 - my least favorite application EVER - is approaching it's 7th birthday and I have done some math.

The world wide web (the web pages we see that are commonly confused for the wider term of "the internet") is about 19 years old. Compare that to cars that have been around about 125years (internal combustion being the measuring point here). Therefore if Internet Explorer 6 was a car it would be a 1963 something...

Now don't get me wrong, old cars are cool, but only if they are well maintained classics. IE6 is more the family car that gets treated like crap. This begs the question - why are our information super highways still clogged with the damn things? Seriously Firefox which is the equivalent of a hybrid Lexus (fast but efficient) is FREE. Why would you still drive your clapped out old Datsun when someone is offering you a free Lexus?

You might think it doesn't matter what people use as they are not really cars on a road so safety isn't an issue and these old browsers don't stop new browsers from going fast etc... but safety is an issue because IE6 has so many security holes it isn't funny and old browsers cripple every web developer out there because all of our clients insist that it works in their browser.

This restriction really holds back a lot of the 'cool' things that we could do with the web just so "the stupid kid" doesn't feel left out. It's like having 20km/hr speed limits and padded guard rails "just in case".

Seriously if you care about my sanity - http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

For those that are wondering why I am not pushing Opera... well I think getting people to move from an old Datsun to a brand new Lexus is a big enough leap for one day. I don't want to chuck them straight in the Pagani Zonda they might crash it. Besides Firefox 3.0 has stolen lots from Opera so it's pretty up to date.

Country Life

Jay having another beer	Mr T. warming up... or something	Caroline trying to give me a raffle ticket

Well..... I have been busy to say the least.

A quick summary:

Things that have happened: finished honours at uni (I think), moved out of home, moved in with Andrea, moved to the country, started working from home and started really enjoying the country lifestyle.

Things that haven't happened: blog updates, photo uploads (well not many), relaxation, those million things on my todo lists (both work and personal todo's).

I have been working hard trying to build some big systems at work and help my co-workers finish a million other things a day. I seem to be coming to the end of a never ending project which will be nice to finish and move on to new grounds.

I have submitted my honours thesis and have done my presentation which in theory should be the end of uni. The following day was my last day in the office before moving to Charleville. The following day I left home at 3am and drove to Charleville and moved in with Andrea. Two days later I worked from home for the first time (officially). If you think about the things that happened in those 5 days they are pretty epic life changes. Add to this that I have lived in the same house since I was born and the same room for about 16 years.

Now I have settled into the country lifestyle with the fresh air and cold beer plentiful. We have already made some pretty damn awesome mates out this way as this weekend proved with a social life that rivals you city slickers. If you want to check out some of the locals head on over to my flickr where there are finally some new photos.

So far despite the more laid back lifestyle I haven't managed to achieve anything on my personal todo list but I have managed to create a photo wall Where most people who would be reading this appear. Once I get a few more photos printed I will take a photo and post it here so you can see what I am talking about.

Now it's time for sleep before another one of those -2 degree nights sets in. I will try to post some more photos on flickr and I may even get around to finishing my New Zealand blog.

Macca having fun (Katrina taking a photo, behind that - Jay having another beer)	Andrea at bowls

Have Fun,

Ed

40D First Photos

I have put some photos up on my flickr.

I will sort some more out and put them in order and fix the titles/tags when I get a chance.

40D

Finally got a DSLR :P

Bought a Canon 40D yesterday arvo. Still don't know what half the buttons do but it's freakin awesome.

More later when I actually have some good shots!