The 26th of January is a public holiday in Australia to celebrate the Nation. Unlikely Americans who have a thirst for the selection of their national day, those I’ve met in Australia just take it as a day off to have a party or break.

Sione Halasika, our youngest son, fourth in the tree, had his birthday on the 25th, just shy of the national holiday. But as we wanted to have some close friends over, we had the national holiday as an excuse to share his birthday with family and friends.

Of course, since we were a bit mamio in getting things planned we didn’t get to invite people until the week before hand. Some made it, others didn’t.

‘Ofa made some wonderful dishes, which I complemented with seriously paku BBQ (pa pa kiu.) Obviously the English phase/word BBQ derives from the Tongan papaku meaning seriously burnt from existence.

‘Ofa put her hands up and made some Lu Kapapulu, Sea-food salad, potatoe salad, while I managed to add on burnt lamb chops, and burnt beef sausages, burnt winglets, burnt drumsticks topped with burnt chicken kebabs. The onions were good though, but unfortunately we forgot it and didn’t put it out on the table.

Grandpa Sisi prayed for the young man’s well being while we gathered with family and friends to wish the old fella a happy birthday and best wishes for his life.

From your mum, dad, siblings, family and friends,

Happy Birthday Sione Halasika.

With four little kids running around screaming their heads off, it’s time to really get down and look at how are we going to help with these kid’s education.

Strangely enough there’s a youtube story to that.

http://www.khanacademy.org

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere.

We have 1000+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan.

Looked at one of his videos and they really are good!!!

It’s not a classroom teaching video, it’s about using the video technology as appropriate for the material being taught (oh what a strange concept?)

I’ve watched, listened to a lot of University Course Videos/Audios and they are horrendous except for the diehard fanatic. Salman Khan’s videos is something that would be interesting and participatory to the learner, not just informational.

Grab a copy, go online.

Summary:

If you believe all the hype that spins around about network/internet security, especially coming out of politicians kept in office through exposing their “hands on technology” or espoused by news/forums that get their money by the ‘eye balls count’ then I have some beach front property in Tofoa to sell you.

If you believe, then you need a course in Media Studies 101, how to sell junk while making people believe you’ve served them well.

More Details:

There’s a little storm in a teacup brewing around the blogosphere, news outlets pushing for IE to be replaced because it’s been used (and identified) by Google as a vector for stealing intellectual property from corporates such as themselves.

Apart from the obvious self-serving nature of the “information release.”

Two immediate questions come to mind.

Are Google desktops running Windows 98 or Windows 2000 ? It’s pretty hard to ignore (not get updated) IE7 on Windows XP, and if you’re workstation is kept up to date, then it’s most likely got IE8.

The attack targeted IE6 and Adobe Acrobat(?) so how are these vanguards of technology to be trusted if they’re critical infrastructures are run on 10 year-old software.

I can’t really see how IE6 could be used against Google unless they really hate their own browser (what’s it’s name?) that they would have IE6 still running on their corporate network equipment.

Or, maybe Google have all their accounting systems running on Windows NT or Windows 2000 servers, and no-one secured them properly (why is the administrator on that box doing e-mail and browsing the internet on the server?)

Don’t trust Windows for what you show the world, but run all your internal critical stuff on it?

Google used to be the see no evil, do no evil, company, but they sure like to play tight with announcements and the repercussions of those statements.

If you want to educate yourself instead of trash talking, I suggest the following reads:

Google, China, Chicken Little and Cyber Armageddon. at TrendMicro by Rik Ferguson

China vs. Google (et al) via MSIE... – Stop the Bus at Preach Security by Rafal Los

Interesting dilemma on the train this morning, and it didn’t have anything to do with the route being changed from the timetable route, nor that it had fewer carriages than what is the schedule.

No the dilemma has nothing to do with State Rail still fiddling with their broken timetable 4 months after introducing it and spending more of our money on their celebration parties.

On the ride this morning we enjoyed another passenger who was walking up and down the carriages begging for some of our ‘spare change.’ with the Guard station cutting the carriages into two disconnected cars, that’s 2 carriages he wandered up and down.

In the hustle and bustle of our lives, what do we have to offer those less fortunate. In what manner can we meaningfully contribute? Would giving cash hand outs contribute, or is it more practical to do something else.

The old guy seems lucid enough and isn’t seeking anything but money (and he knows his time on the train is limited until a guard finds out he’s riding free.) He’s bundled warm enough for the weather, for now during the day, but he’s got to have a base somewhere or he’s freezing at night. (Freezing to death at night seems more likely?)

Is our personal standards for ‘contribution’ too rigid a system, or do we just not have the flexibility to consider each applicant as they come?

Which homeless centre cares for this man? Which Church or private organisation disassociated from me helps this man? What will he have to eat this morning, day. Will he eat at all?

While we listen and focus on the human tragedy that is Haiti, what would you do on an encounter like this much closer to home?

Malo ‘a e kei ‘ofa mai ‘a e ‘Otua ‘o tau to e a’usia mai ‘a e 2010.

Ko ‘eni ‘oku mau mo’ui lelei pea ‘o ‘ikai ha me’a feefee fau ko e toki lava ‘eni ha faingamalie ‘eva ki he kainga he ‘aho ni pea lava atu ‘a e a’u kia Samiu mo Mele, pea mo ‘Amelia mo ‘Akanesi. Tu’o ‘a e viviku ee vala ‘o ‘Ofa ‘ia sione Halasika pea mau fe’unga aipe he ongo ua koi a ki he ‘aho ni ka e toki vakai atu ‘a e toenga ‘o e uike lotu.

Holo ‘aupito ‘a Samiu, peau fanongo pe ne a’u kia Lisita lahi ki ‘Amelika.

‘Alu tokotoko holo pe ‘a Samiu, pea ko Mele ia ko e ‘alu saliote holo pe, ka ‘oku ne lava pe ‘o teke holo pe ia.

Sai ‘aupito pe ‘a e ki’i ‘api ‘i Kapetaa

Nau ‘ofa atu ‘aupito kia Neomai mo ‘Amelia, ko e toki ‘osi pe ‘eni ‘enau vali mo ‘emau a’u atu mo e take-away ‘a e kids ‘o mau tangutu hifo aipe mo ‘enau haka la’i pele ‘o lunch fakataha.

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Kuo kamata maheni mai ange ‘a e fefine ko Sesilia, ka e pehee ‘a Sione Halasika mo e kau me’a ni, pea kalasi kehe atu pe foki ee funny ia ‘a e ongo ua ni.

Faingofua ange pe foki ‘a e ongo ua lalahi iaa, kuo nau ‘osi maheni pea na pa ngofua pe foki ko e fekauatu p eke ‘uma mo fe’iloaki kuo na laine mei ke fai ‘a e ‘uma, fe’iloaki ‘o vave ange aipe ‘a e to e maheni mo e ngaahi fofonga ne ‘osi kamata ke ngaloo.

Lava aipe ‘a e kaukau tahi ia ‘ane afi mo e hake mai pe kuo ‘osi kamata ke tete ee loungutu he mokosia ka e ‘ikai ke fie mokosiaa.

Ko e ‘aho ni, fai ‘enau va’inga soccer pe ‘i tu’a pea faka’osi ‘aki pe ‘enau kaka holo he ‘ulu’i ‘akau he tomui ‘o Misi.

Ko ho’o siana ‘eni kuo kamata ‘ene tesi ‘a engaahi sitepu heni,

Ka ke fakatokanga’i atu, ‘aonga ange pe ke tukunoa’i ‘a e ngaahi sitepu ia heni ‘oku ‘ange ‘ange ‘ene fefeka ange ka fai ha fall.

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