I have just spent about half an hour on the phone with a client in Canada. Thanks to Skype it was essentially free, with the only expense being electricity and the internet bandwith. The quality of the audio was supurb. No delay or anything. I was really happy with it. Skype does degrade a bit when there is a lot of internet traffic, but overall I am really impressed with it. My Skype ID is VK2TDS. For those who have not used Skype, you can also do person to peron Instant Messaging as well as voice communications.

My client was telling me that it was only 7 degrees Celcius there today. That is a bit warmer than it has been, and really is a bit cold for my likeing. I told him about the Sydney climate, and he is wanting to come down here for good.

This morning after I have had breakfast, and written this I plan to go for another run. I have found that I am running too fast at the beginning – so I need to be careful to manage my running at the start. Having a GPS with me helps, when I actually look at the screen. But when i am running I would rather be looking ahead than looking at a screen.

Business of Flowers

I just read a story on Finance.News.Com.Au about how a business is printing messages onto the petals of flowers. How romantic. It is something different. Now, if they could only add the barcode things would be so much easier for the poor shop assistant 🙂

Business Week has an interesting story about the worlds last pinball maker. Aparently they are making about 10,000 machines a year for exports from the USA all around the world.

On a not so good story, according to a story on The Washington Post, The US Government is thinking about finanlly closing down the Voyager program. They have been going 28 years, and could operate until 2020 providing scientific research. They were designed for a five year mission. The program only costs US$4m a year. This is not much at all really.

Music

I listened to Roger Waters with ‘Amused to Death’ which is his commentry on late 20th century consumerism and the human condition. The entire album tells a story, and is highly satirical. I now have ‘I Guess thats why they call it the blues’ from Elton John. And now Queen with ‘Too Much Love will Kill You…’