Vince's profileVince's Personal SpacePhotosBlogListsMore  |  Tools Help |
|
Vince's Personal SpaceMy personal space for anything at all that turns me on. January 09 R.I.P Dad
September 28 Pro Hart Leatherjacket
Check this out for a great sized Leatherjacket and also it's beautiful colours. Thanks Rod for taking me out yesterday. It was hard work but we got there. The fish has ended up in a pot of fabulous fish soup and my terminally ill Father will enjoy it very much.
Flickr Tags: Fishing,leatherjacket del.icio.us Tags: Fishing,Leatherjackets September 21 Best Roast Beef and Yorkshire PuddingI needed a few brownie points so I decided to try a Jamie Oliver recipe. Check out the size of the Yorkshire Puddings LOL. The missus is spewing because she has never managed to get them to turn out like this. I guess I get to do the roasts from now on......
September 05 Fishing the S-Bends Western Australia
I packed up the 4WD, loaded the dog in the back and kissed the wife goodbye. I then headed off with the stereo blaring and feeling very excited. After some hours of travel we booked in to the caravan park located at the S-bends. The first beer was cracked and we soon headed out exploring. The conditions were MAJIC and I couldn't wait to get some fishing action happening. The first evening I spent most of the time experimenting and assessing the location and conditions. No fish but a couple of major hook-ups. God knows what fish decided to snavel my baits that evening but they would have been way too big for my smoker! Home for a rest and a few beers before an early night and an early wake-up. The morning was more productive with a very decent Tailor weighing 2.5 Kilos being the highlight. In the evening I used poppers from the reef edge and had some great fun with more Tailor to 2 kilos. Rumours have it at the caravan park that a couple of weeks earlier a visitor jagged a 6.8 kilo Tailor! WOW. That's massive. I bet he had sore shoulders after that fight. Tailor are awesome fighters.
The S-bends is an awesome location and I will always look forward to trips there. Thanks to everyone at the caravan park for being such good friends!
January 13 Back in BusinessThings have been really busy in my life and the latter part of 2007 has been marred by ill health. Unfortunatly I suffered a heart attack in October while at my work desk and I have subsequently undergone open heart surgery and a double bypass and graft. The experience has been rather traumatic but the good news is that I am healing well and will resume work progressively from next week.
On the brighter side however, Wendy and I finally tied the knot last week to confirm a relationship full of love and affection. Wendy and I met 4-5 years ago at a difficult stage in both of our lives. The experience from there on in has been one of joy. We have established a very solid platform from which to move forward together and I am so lucky to have met her particularly in the unusual circumstances that I did.
Work in social enterprise keeps me more than busy with the community computer refurbishment operation gathering momentum very quickly and the pilot ewaste recycling program is just out of control with the response from the community being overwhelming. Going back to work after so much time off ill will present major challenges as these business units require major review before we charge ahead further in 2008. There is also a major review of the whole organisation underway and that in itself, whilst being well overdue, will present some major challenges.
Check out my dog. We placed him in kennels for a few nights for the wedding and he will never forgive us I am sure.
I will endeavour to spend more time here this year to keep this space updated. Additionally, I will try to add some interesting content to see if I can't spark some interaction.
 Chow for now.
Vince. November 14 Schools - 24/7 Access for Students and Parents???I am currently coordinating the ICT implementation and rollout for the Australian Technical College - Perth South. www.atcperth.edu.au . Part of my job is to evaluate and procure school administration software for the campus sites.
Being a techo at heart I naturally went out looking for the best solution and assumed that all stakeholders in the campus network (staff, parents, students, employers, etc) would all benefit from access 24/7 to the campus software. Interestingly enough, whilst drying down after a shower this morning I watched a segment on Seven's Morning show where they suggested that the government may be heading this way. They had 2 panel members ("expert commentators"). One of these happened to be Ita Buttrose. She felt that this would be an intrusion on the students in that they would feel that the parents were "in the classroom" so to speak. She believes that school is the only place where students can express themselves and be creative without the feeling that their parents were watching over them. This got my mind ticking over and I am now open to comment on this.
Let's start some dialogue about this and let me know what you think about this. Should parents be able to participate in the campus activities online in real time? Should they be given the right to see how their children are progressing in real time? Should all stakeholders in schools have the ability to communicate with each other online and via email through a portal? How do you think a campus could benefit by an "all stakeholders" approach to campus administration and curriculum management?
I look forward to any comments on this subject. I am sure feedback could help me to change some fairly old fashioned mindsets in the eductation system.
July 04 Something VistaI am quite excited to be part of a million or 3 invitees to experience Windows Vista Beta 2 Ultimate. I am pleased to say that it installed pretty well without a problem on my machine connected to a Windows Server 2003 system and I can still happily communicate with you all out there. Mind you, virus protection at my client machine was a problem as Symatec software that I have subscribed to for XP and Server 2003 didn't pass the compatibility test.
I have also installed beta of Office 2007. I guess i can tollerate all the crashes for the sake of progress and I must say that I am really impressed with the experience (minus the crashes).
Wendy LOVES the games!
I will post as I feel the urge to comment on this new set of experiences. Stay tuned. June 25 Something NewWith every new job there should be something.... well;..NEW. Here it is folks. A step up from the old Toyota Camry (imported mind you) 1985 model.
I guess the idea is to get me from one problem to another as quickly as possible. Never mind, I enjoy the comfort. It almost tempts me to do a few laps up and down the main drag to see if I can still attract some wolf-whistles. I dream again.....
June 10 Talking about Welcome to the Peace Village Hanoi BlogHi again folks. I would like to introduce you all to my very good friend Ngo Quang Hung from Hanoi Vietnam. Hung as we affectionatly call him is about to return to his home country after a period here in WA where he spent time volunteering on the Blue Sky Dreaming project and gained some much needed Certificate 4 accreditation along the way. Hung is very busy managing his Peace Village project in Hanoi and his blog has been set up to allow him to share his experiences and to keep us all informed as to the progress of this very significant project and the Blue Sky Dreaming project. I hope you all take some time to view his blog and I am sure he and his project team would be delighted to receive feedback and comment from time to time. Quote Welcome to the Peace Village Hanoi Blog April 18 www.modified-vehicles.org.au Goes LiveI am pleased to say that the re-write of the Modified Vehicles Scheme went live on Friday after much work. This scheme is one of my pet projects having designed the concept some 2 1/2 years ago on request of the Minister for Disability Services WA. Seed funding for a pilot was provided however this ceased in February this year. Because of the success of the pilot TADWA decided to go it alone to continue to make this service available to the community.
The new scheme site is an application proper and incorporates many features designed to make it a "self-managed" site with automated email notifications to members, on-line listing capabilities, auto-expiring listings, subscriptions to categories, a comprehensive content management system etc. This re-write has been funded by sponsors and this is a first for TADWA. it proves the theory that with some good ideas and some good marketing, sponsors for community service initiatives, even for smaller charities, is possible. It also provides another example of the value in using technology and the internet to reach out to the community.
I am still making some additions/modifications to the content as I fell a bit behind the launch target date (that's typical for me....).
This is a fantastic community service and as I said, my pet project. It would be fantastic to see an interest shown from other states. The site is designed in such a way that we can extend it to a nation-wide scheme with advertising content targeted toward local participants. I hope you all like the idea and help to promote it in your communities. April 09 Moving OnThe time has come for me to make some personal choices and it's with sadness (but also a sense of excitement for me personally) that I have issued notice to my company (TADWA) after more than 4 years of hard yakka. My goal now is to establish a personal business providing consultancy and technical support in small/medium business technology solutions. I am also hopeful that I can become more involved in providing consultancy and technical advice / support to the many non-profit organisations in Western Australia.
Over the four years or more since being involved with TADWA we have experienced amazing growth, secured substancial increases in funding, implemeted a 5 year strategic plan, negotiated several strategic partnership arrangements, secured a position on the State Government ICT disosal CUA panel, implemented many state of the art IT solutions internally to provide a solid infrastructure to cope with all of the above and many other exciting things have happened. As is the case in most NFP opportunites for advancement are limited and it is for this reason that I am moving on.
My last official duty for TADWA is to present at the May ConnectingUP conference in Adelaide and I am looking forward to this trip very much. There is a fair degree of hype leading up to the conference and I am looking forward to catching up with many of my newly found friends.
So, the challenge awaits. How will I survive? Will I be a success? Do I really have anything to offer? These are questions that I have been mulling over for some time now and I have finally kicked myself in the butt and answered yes to all of the above.
I must pass on my thanks to all of the friends I have made while serving in this position for the support and trust they have placed in me. I hope to continue these friendships and develop many new ones as I venture out alone in search of my future.
March 13 Golf in Heaven..or Maybe HellFinally I managed to remeber to take the camera. Joondalup Golf Course Western Australia , it has to be one of the most beautifull yet toughest golf courses going.
Please take some time to view my photo gallery. It was a great day out and I am excited to say that I actually played well. Don't be fooled by the stills. The wind was SW at about 20-25kph and hey.. some of those holes play really long. March 11 Connecting UP Conference 2006Wow! It's been a while since my last post. Much has been happening both at work and at home so blogging has taken a back seat for a while.
The ConnectingUP conference 2006 is fast approaching. The conference is being held in Adelaide SA May 1st and 2nd. The theme this year is in relation to emerging trends in ICT in not-for-profit and the social impact of such. I have been asked to contribute and I am very excited about the prosect. I will be presenting a session titled "Technology Access for People with Disabilities and the Aged - Breaking Down the Barriers in Western Australia" or something like that. Basically, I will be talking about some of the initiatives that my organisation (TADWA) has taken to provide free computers and cheap comprehensive ICT support plans and training for people with disabilities and the aged in Western Australia. I will be presenting some case studies that I think will be extremely interesting and highlight the many quality of life enhancements that can be achieved at little cost through the provision of quality ICT equipment and the internet.
I will also be talking about the problems that we have encountered providing effective support for these people and some of the problems associated with running an efficient computer refurbisnment operation. You can find a more detailed brief about my presentation on the ConnectingUP web site. I am not sure if Doug and the crew at CISA have updated the page yet.
One thing I AM NOT is a professional presenter so I am not going to make this presentation into a formal pile of facts and figures and junk that I will never remember. This will be a light session which I hope will attract some questions and lots of discussion about many issues in relation to the provision of ICT for the disadvantaged and support for prople with disabilities and the aged in general. January 13 Modified Vehicles Scheme - Ready, Set.....GO!A few days back I mentioned that the MVS was ready for a major facelift and that I was seeking sponsors to allow this to happen. Amazingly I can report that we have now raised some $14,000 and responses are continuing to come in. This is a fantastic result and I guess a testament to the idea itself.
The Modified Vehicles Scheme is a web based facility (www.modified-vehicles.org.au) designed to link buyers and sellers of vehicles that have been specially modified to cater for the transportation needs of people with disabilities. We took the idea on under a pilot contract awarded by Disability Services Commission in Western Australia back in early 2003. DSC have now decided to cease funding for the project and have offered TADWA (www.tadwa.org.au) full ownership. I have been responsible for the creation and management of the scheme and naturally, I am very keen to see it continue as a free community service to the people of Western Australia. In order to do this it is necessary to find some sponsors. There were many people who probably thought that we couldn't do this. So much for that. It now seems like the scheme will not only continue, but will grow in stature. I am currently in the process of redesigning the whole web site so stay tuned.
Wouldn't it be fantastic if we could attract sponsors from the other states and make this a truely national community facility? If you agree, how about helping me promote it? January 08 Bill Gates at the CES Las VegasIf your interested in what Microsoft have up there sleeve in the areas of Vista, Gaming and Media check out this webcast http://www.windowsvistaweblog.com/2006/01/06/video-bill-gates-at-the-ces/ . Allow yourself a couple of hours and I am sure you will be well entertained and informed.....
Don't forget to pour yourself a long drink before you sit down. Cheers.. |
Some sites I find useful
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Send a private message
Subscribe to RSS feed
Tell a friend
Add to My MSN
Add to your network
Sign up for alerts
|
|
