ashulz world

Poachers be damned!

Galana Ranch, a Kenyan government owned ranch borders Tsavo East National Park from the east.

Galana Ranch is the biggest in the country and the continent covering 1.5 - 2 million acres depending upon who you ask.

It acts as an important buffer zone for Tsavo East's wildlife and the community.

Today I got a tweet from Paula Kahumbu a Kenyan conservationist, ecologist, CEO of wildlife direct and champion of Kenyan wildlife - http://twitter.com/#!/paulakahumbu that an elephant had been shot and was wounded in Galana.. 

As I followed her tweets it appeared that the wounded elephant was not the only one shot and at least (2?) others had been shot overnight.

The fate of the wounded one is still unknown as the KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service) vet supported by the Daphne Sheldrik wildlife trust and KWS rangers have not been able to approach him safely and take him into care.. 

The pictures below are those of a dead elephant, face hacked at, trunk chopped off to get the tusks.  It is so sad to see this happen and following Paula's pictures on twitpic and tweets on twitter was a sad affair this afternoon.

(All pic's taken from Paula's twitpic account)

Dead elephant apparently killed by a poison arrow 

This one was shot

Visibly saddened by the gruesome find

Hacked face of the first one

Shows bullet whole where the stick is

 

trunk cut off to get the ivory 

All this so some bloke can make dodgy medicine :(

 

You can help!

Head to http://wildlifedirect.org/ and donate or help in other ways.

Should Newspapers use Google Ads?

I am curious about this as you really cannot control the kind of link a google Ad will put in. 

Why do traditional media not see this as an issue? Does the revenue outweigh the risk?

Today's SMH - What does Jesus have to do with Osama Bin Laden?

 

 

Shannon National Park - The Walk Trail Run

A short picture journey taking you through 9km of forest.  This was the first time I decided to run a forest walk trail.  All up I did two runs and one walk through it over Easter.  

Running a trail is what I will do every time I get out there from now on - such an amazing experience, traversing up hills, jumping over trees, rolling on gumnuts slipping on steep eroded declines - exhilarating and invigorating.. 

Come let's run... 

We start off near our campsite and head off to the sign that says walk trail

First "bridge" which is a fallen tree

Crossing the road made easy by going under it!

Choice of going the long route or the short route, we take the long route via the rock and then to the dam

Some pictures along the way, mushrooms, grass trees, trees growing from fallen trees...

On top (at the rock) phew that was hard going now downhill for a bit and then onto Shannon Dam

click on the image below and save it to your computer and then zoom into it - yup that is how these critters live in the forest..

Shannon Dam

Tell the world I'm coming home... Near Shannon lodge not long to go now :D

Now time to stretch and relax 

Then we go running up Mt Chudlup next and then climb the Bicentennial tree.. :)

Custom domain IP changes make posterous faster or slower?

The new rackspace hosted posterous blogs are supposed to be quicker in loading up for web visitors

Ping and traceroute show an interesting latency story when viewing posterous custom domains from Australia.  

OLD IP Ping

Ping statistics for 209.20.70.130:

    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

    Minimum = 261ms, Maximum = 268ms, Average = 263ms

NEW IP Ping

Ping statistics for 184.106.20.102:

    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

    Minimum = 281ms, Maximum = 293ms, Average = 287ms

Tracing route to custom.posterous.com [184.106.20.102]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    52 ms    32 ms    41 ms  nexthop.wa.iinet.net.au [203.215.XXX.XXX]

  2    36 ms    47 ms    40 ms  te7-1.per-qv1-bdr1.iinet.net.au [203.215.4.18]

  3    71 ms    74 ms   117 ms  xe-3-3-0-0.syd-ult-core1.iinet.net.au [203.215.20.6]

  4    96 ms    97 ms    71 ms  xe-0-1-2-0.syd-mas-core1.iinet.net.au [203.215.20.111]

  5    77 ms    73 ms    74 ms  34023.sydp06.cu.reach.com [134.159.160.57]

  6   225 ms   260 ms   227 ms  i-0-5-0-0.tlot-core01.bx.reach.com [202.84.140.102]

  7   253 ms   246 ms   256 ms  i-2-5.tlot03.bi.reach.com [202.84.251.242]

  8   244 ms   285 ms   248 ms  xe-11-2-0.edge1.losangeles6.level3.net [4.68.62.9]

  9   245 ms   243 ms   258 ms  vlan90.csw4.losangeles1.level3.net [4.69.144.254]

 10     *        *        *     Request timed out.

 11   252 ms   270 ms   257 ms  ae-3-3.ebr3.dallas1.level3.net [4.69.132.78]

 12   251 ms   253 ms   398 ms  4.69.151.169

 13   254 ms   314 ms   258 ms  ae-91-91.ebr1.dallas1.level3.net [4.69.151.162]

 14   316 ms   339 ms   286 ms  ae-14-14.ebr2.chicago2.level3.net [4.69.151.117]

 15   410 ms   285 ms   322 ms  ae-2-52.edge1.chicago2.level3.net [4.69.138.162]

 16   304 ms   303 ms   279 ms  rackspace-m.edge1.chicago2.level3.net [4.71.248.54]

 17   325 ms   308 ms   312 ms  vlan902.guard-6504.ord1.rackspace.net [173.203.0.93]

 18   314 ms   292 ms     *     vlan901.core1.ord1.rackspace.net [173.203.0.62]

 19   286 ms   417 ms   280 ms  173.203.0.217

 20   303 ms   290 ms   287 ms  custom.posterous.com [184.106.20.102]

 

 

FebFast, What the and Why am I doing it

Hello my name is Ashul and I am an alcoholic

I love my drink and lets face it to say I am not an alcoholic probably is a lie. We live a busy life and we look forward to a drink at the end of the day, to refresh the soul! (that's my excuse and I am sticking to it!)

Growing up in Kenya where beer drinking is a national sport and pastime, then moving across the Indian ocean to Australia where the same culture exists does not help in pursuing a non-drinking lifestyle.

End of Jan after a big trip back to Kenya, Jane editor of Flourish Magazine sent me a link asking if I would join her team..

So I decided to FebFast

It seemed like a good idea - stop drinking alcohol for one month Feb seems ideal - shortest month in year, 28 days should be easy!

Nature was against me

The heat, is conducive to a Pinot Gris, SSB, Chardy or a Fat Yak or Feral perhaps even a Little Creatures Pale ale.. You get the idea.. 

The world was against me

Wife's birthday, Valentines, More birthdays, Australia Vs England at the WACA 

I was taunted, called boring, party pooper, not the same without Ashul... 

My body turned against me

I have had the worst weeks of my life, wake up with headaches, legs that were fine from running started hurting, felt tired, wanted to go to sleep and not have any energy.. 

I read about alcohol, I opened my eyes

I read about damage young people were doing to their bodies, about fights and glassings

The statistics are sobering:

• On average, 1 in 4 hospitalisations of 15-25 year olds happen because of alcohol.
• 70 Australians under 25 will be hospitalised due to alcohol-caused assault in an average week.
• 4 Australians under 25 die due to alcohol related injuries in an average week.

I understood

I realised by doing this I have the ability to help those that help young people.  Given the situation people are in the world, earthquakes, cyclones, famine I have certainly not done a big sacrifice, I have certainly not done anything that will change the world.  But I can help in some way to create awareness that will help even one person it will be worth it.

If you want to donate $5 or $50 or whatever you choose to help NGO's that work with youth to help with alcohol problems - click here and make it all worthwhile for me ;)

 

 

Setting up 3G on my iPad In Kenya

Recently I travelled to Kenya with my iPad and I was surprised by the lack of availability of a mini SIM. Yet I am sure that the plethora huawei modems all have a mini sim in there.

Not being game to open one of those USB devices up I decided to try out a normal SIM.

Getting a SIM

Kenya is a land of mobile telephony but I had not idea which carrier to choose. I ended up in a Zain (Airtel) store at WestGate in Nairobi and opted to buy the airtel SIM.  

I learnt much to my dismay that Safaricom has better coverage out bush, though it is more expensive than Airtel - So if you are going to be out of Nairobi heaps I would go with safaricom.

Setting the SIM up for 3G data

SIM cards are cheap and activation is superfast without much hassle 50/- will buy you a SIM (A$.60) 

Once you get the SIM easiest thing is to put it in a mobile activate, add credit choose bundle etc.  I just got a mobile internet 1GB = 1GB free offer that expired in 6 months with Airtel and a 1 Month 2GB with Safaricom.  These SIM's can be topped up by sending credit to them via another phone (I was not sure how this worked so did not bother.)  Whilst in the phone I also disabled all other services (Voice mail etc).

Cut the SIM

Don't be scared. Pop the tray out and you can see the size required.  Usually means you need to cut quite close to the metal part on 3 sides and remember where the slant cut is as that is the side you leave more off and create your own slant to fit the tray

Setting Up the iPad

If you need to you configure APN settings manually

For Airtel

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 17.0px; font: 12.0px Arial}

APN Name Airtel 

Server ke.celtel.com

User name internet

Password internet (if this does not work type in password)

“leave blank” or if forced to input use “internet”

Proxy IP none or 0.0.0.0

Port 8080 (try with none)

 

 

For Safaricom

#445 whilst it is in the phone gets the settings - if you do not have them (try the following not sure which will work)

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; line-height: 15.0px; font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'}

APN: safaricom

Username: saf

Password: data

OR

APN: web.safaricom.com

Username: web

Password; web

 

 

Main thing to remember it is not as hard as it looks but make sure you have a really sharp scissor!

 

 

The Afternoon Perth Twitterati got duped

----

Update 24/02

The account has been deleted and changed very soon after this blog post appeared.  Turns out whoever it was has now renamed to lisa_scaffidi and started tweeting again.

If you are on twitter please block and report for spam @Lisa_Scaffidi and @LisaScaffidi

---

original post: 

Hello Perth! This is your Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi. Yes, I am on Twitter! Follow along, and please, re-tweet to all your Perth friends.

Hmm Lisa is outgoing and I really admire her but for a Perth pollie to come up with the above? 

The follower seeding soon started as one or two people retweeted the fact that Lisa was on twitter and in 6 hours she had over 400 followers.  I had my doubts I welcomed her initially and later at night also mentioned her birthday as it falls on the same day as my wife's birthday but did not get a response back.  All her responses were about Rocky IV though she did also reply to some well known perth tweeps that would make sure the seeding would work well.

Now seriously, would, our lord mayor say this:

Thanks to all my new followers! Some great ideas about #perth Now it's time to kick off the Manalo's and call it a day!

That was also the same time the first # tag appeared.. It is possible that someone taught her how to do it, but for a n00b this is amazing:

Enough ad's!!! Lets get back to RockyIV !!! #perth #vibrant #RockyIV #drago4mayor yay it's back on he's skipping! #gorocky #yes #80'smontage

that is taking the piss and it is hash tags on steroids you need to know you way around twitter to do that.

Finally being able to work without staff at night and retweet this:

'rocky' is now trending in #Perth http://trendsmap.com/au/perth

Enough already #Perth you have been pwnd. that is all.

I hate spammers but I hate people that steal other's identities even more. You are not funny.

Don't give this person oxygen IMO and do not follow or RT.

Australia Joins the world on Twitter

Rejoice my fellow Australians we don't have to see what is trending in the world or in America anymore on the twitter web interface and those apps that support it.

Australia is here as a location trend category!!

Finally we are rid of Beiber!

 

Google is forward thinking especially on privacy

I was reading about Google Instant and was wondering why i needed to be logged on to use it, so I thought I would look at the privacy policy (as you do!) 

http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacy_faq_2010.html

Privacy Policies Update – October 3, 2010

Screamed the headline, when I looked at my phone we are still on the 9th of September..  For a big corp to come out with what they are planning to do and to make it public is great to see.  Most companies will put a new policy in place retrospectively.  Hat tip to the big G!

I declare Google as the future thinking corp ;)

As if we did not know that already!

A letter to Julia Gillard

Dear Julia,

I saw you on the 7.30 report this evening and I am compelled to write to you.  

I have been sitting on the fence about who to vote for in this election.  Quite frankly politics do not excite me and politicians even less so. Though I must admit that one of my proudest moments of being an Australian was when you were sworn in.

My heart is red (I love people) but my blood is blue and my natural affinity is towards the values that led to the formation of the Liberal party. Sadly they seem to have forgotten what being liberal means. 

I firmly believe in our core values of giving someone a fair-go but think "moving forward" we need to lose the she'll be right mate attitude.  In that respect what you did to Kevin Rudd was possibly the only thing you could do to steer the ship as we seemed to be going nowhere, if you had stuck your head in the sand and kept saying "She'll be right" you would not have done the right thing by Australia.  

I honestly do not believe that you purposely set out to "shaft" KRudd and that you are a treacherous power hungry woman that cannot be trusted.  I do worry however that in any political arena, there exist powerful shadowy "big wigs"  that might have done the deals and the powerbroking so that no blood was spilt in the spill.  My hope is that you do "shaft" these people once you get elected and trust your own instinct and follow your own judgement as the people will have voted for you and entrusted you not anyone else.

I strongly oppose Senator Conroy's plans for the filter and I was ready to drop my admiration for you or want of your other policies in favour of just dumping the whole labor party.  I follow Kate Lundy on twitter and regularly read her blog, where she puts forward her thoughts and she is the single voice of reason that stopped me from just blindly going out on a limb on just one issue.  I trust you enough that you will have a serious look at the facts about the filter - Sen Conroy is perhaps misinformed? Has been given the 'wrong intelligence?' - How many times did the liberals use that line once no weapons of mass destruction were found in the desert?

I think the NBN will be great for our country.  But one thing that has not been thought about is that planned changes of AUSIndustry funding towards software development and innovation. This reduction in R&D will have a death knell to all those in the IT industry that will drive our future on the very NBN infrastructure you lay. I urge you to look at this if you form the next government.  Your governments assistance to tax concession/ rebates / $ for $ funding towards software innovation will be needed more than ever if we are to be able to use the power of the optical fibre network you build.

The other issues, like child care, ETS, mining tax, immigration do not really bother me, but money on building chapels in schools is wasted in my opinion and would have been better served if professional counsellors were instilled instead.

A word for the future, if you are elected, don't offer insulation or solar panels at a fixed rebate, means test it (use your databases in centerlink) and get customers to send in 2 quotes to a govt dept responsible and get a credit authority - this will keep the providers honest and they will not rort any scheme you introduce.

Anyway I digress.. I am writing this letter to tell you, I trust you Julia, I trust that you will do the right thing.  You will clean up your team, put those shadow people in their place, and you will be strict with local state governments.  I vote in a marginal seat of Swan in Western Australia and you have my vote. Please please use it wisely and invest in our country's future.

Sincerely

 

Ashul