A Decade In Review

I've neglected this blog for a while and it's been a long long time since I last posted. This is partly because of my 'offline' commitments including work, marriage and the birth of my first child Violet Rosa. So I thought my final post for the 2000-2009 Decade should be a review/list affair, just like the 100,000 other sites. On a personal level, some of the most memorable events for me include:

1. Sept. 2000: My wife working at the 2000 Olympic Games in the Olympic Village as Assistant Entertainment Manager
   
   
2. Oct. 24, 2000: Getting the courage to propose to Teena at the Aria Awards held at the Sydney Entertainment Centre
   
   
3. Sept. 11, 2001: Watching the September 11 events unfold and confirming that human nature is so messed up due to greed and power.
   
   
4. Nov. 02, 2002: My Wedding to Teena on Sydney Harbour
   
   
5. July. 23, 2008: The Birth of my Daughter and first child, Violet Rosa
   
   
6. Sept. 22, 2009: Signing The Contract for our first home - and what a NITEMATE this was.
   
   

So anyway, here are some lists based on my own (un)biased opinions and with so many options available to make these lists, they are bound to offend someone. I will post lists of 6 or 7 items in the following categories: Memorable Photos, News Events, Epic Failures, The Web, Technology, Science, Sport, Video Games, Music, Movies, TV and Gone But Not Forgotten. I will also continue to add images and text pieces to this list after the initial post on December 31, 2009 to make this a more complete article.

Lists for the 2000-2009 Decade

7 Of The Most Memorable Photos

World Trade Center, 3 Weeks before 9/11
Ira Kasoff MD, Liberty State Park, NJ

The third and largest wave comes ashore at Thailand’s Ao Nang Beach on Dec. 26, 2004.
(Reuters)

A fire truck moves away from out of control flames from a bushfire in the Bunyip Sate Forest, 125 kilometers west of Melbourne on Feb. 7, 2009
(AP Photo)

A man walks his dog through Observatory Hill, Sydney on Sept 23, 2009 during an eerie red dust storm.
(AFP)

Hurricane Katrina Eye Wall, as taken by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) aircraft.
(aoc.noaa.gov)

Mark Visser surfs an 11 m (36 ft) wave at Cow Bombie, near Gracetown, 280km south of Perth on Sept. 28, 2009.
(Reuters)

Mars' northern orange sky and horizon as seen by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander
(NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University)

6 Of The Most Memorable News Events

1. Sept. 11, 2001: World Trade Center Attacks - 2,973 victims died as a result of the attacks where four commercial passenger jet planes were hijacked - with two of these planes crashing into the World Trade Center Towers bringing them to their collapse.
   
   
2. Oct. 12, 2002: Bali bombings - Islamist terrorists bomb nightclubs in the Kuta beach area of Bali, killing 202 people (including 88 Australians) and injuring and burning a further 240 people.
   
   
3. Feb. 7, 2009: Black Saturday Bush Fires - Victoria experiences the worst bushfire disaster recorded in recent history, with fires that last for weeks fueled by dry weather, arson and electrical failures.
   
   
4. Dec. 26, 2004: Indian Ocean Tsunami - An earthquake measuring at least 9.0 strikes off the of Sumatra in Indonesia and triggers a powerful tsunami with waves up to 30 metres high that hit 11 countries.
   
   
5. Aug. 29, 2005: Hurricane Katrina - A Category 5 storm that devastates New Orleans with floods that last for weeks after the Levees were breached. The US Government's handling of this natural disaster confirmed to the world that the Bush administration was also a disaster.
   
   
6. Apr. 25. 2006: Beaconsfield Miners -A seismic event triggers an underground rock fall in the Beaconsfield gold mine in northern Tasmania. Todd Russell and Brant Webb are trapped 1km underground and are rescued from the Gold mine they were trapped in two weeks later on May 9. Their colleague Larry Knight was not as lucky and passed away shortly after the mining accident.
   
   

6 Epic Failures

1. 2000: Y2K Bug - Businesses spent BILLIONS working on ways to ensure the bug that didn't happen, didn't happen (sic.).
   
   
2. 2009: Carbon Tax - Another money making and taxation scam. Sure, the world's weather is changing - it could be primarily caused by human actions but let's consider and research into other things like Increased Solar Flares Activity on the Sun, Magnetic Field Changes, Solar Winds, Climate Historical Data etc.?
   
   
3. 2003: Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction - Sure Saddam was a tyrant but look at the state of the world now after the Bush Administration's interventions. The comment "there is no doubt" made before the US Senate Armed Services Committee by General Tommy Franks in March 2003 but some months later he "retracted" on the non-biased Fox New network (cough) saying that "No one was more surprised than I that we didn't find (any)"
   
   
4. 2006: Facebook - I don't get this waste of bandwidth. People spend far too much time on this site, posting about idiotic things or unjustified opinions. Facebook in my opinion is just another mechanism to deliver spam, self-promotion and pointless babble. It also seems to have the ultimate 'goal' of you performing all of your internet activities inside of the site. Unfortunately, if you are serious about promoting your event, business or service, it seems you must have a presence even if you dislike it.
   
   
5. 2009: iSnack 2.0 - Never change something that works, but more important, never let an overseas company control something they have ZERO concept of. Vegemite is true blue and tried and tested, leave it alone.
   
   
6. 2007-2009: The Global Financial Crisis -It started with with the sub-prime mortgage crisis (caused by risky mortgage loans even with bad credit) in 2007, and the overwhelming reliance on hedge funds and shadow banking. Then during 2008, Lehman Brothers filies for bankruptcy, and other financial firms and banks followed. The stock market crashed and the US Government bailed out many companies so they can continue to act in the same way they did prior to the crash, which is complete and utter irresponsibility. I expect a bigger crash in the first few years of the next decade, because lessons have not been learned and governments still don't care.
   
   

6 Of The Most Important New Web Sites During 2000-2009

1. Gmail (2004) - A free, advertising-supported web-based email site, with over 7GB of free storage and access to POP3 and IMAP services provided by Google. Also known as Google Mail in the UK and Germany. I can't live without Gmail.
   
   
2. Wikipedia (2001) - A free, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation which contains approximately 14 million articles (3.1 million in English) that have been written by volunteers around the world.
   
   
3. YouTube (2005) - A video website where users can upload and share videos which was bought by Google for $1.65 US billion in Nov 2006.
   
   
4. Skype (2003) - A website that allows members to make voice calls for free over the Internet to other Skype members and for a small fee to landlines and mobile phones. Also includes instant messaging and video conferencing facilities.
   
   
5. Flickr (2004) - An image/video hosting website and online community. Used to share personal photographs and to host images that are used in blogs and social media. Very popular for groups but I prefer Picasa for personal photos.
   
   
6. Last.fm (2002) - A UK-based Internet radio/music community website that uses a music recommendation system to build a profile of each user's musical tastes based on the songs they listen to either online or in their own music collection. This then allows users to create a playlist from any of the audio tracks in Last.fm's music library which can be listened to on demand. A subscription fee of 3 Euros per month is required if you live outside the UK, USA and Germany.
   
   

7 Technology Moments That Grabbed My Attention

1. 2008: Apple Releases the iPhone 3G in Australia - After being 'tortured' for almost a year by our US friends who owned a rotatable touch screen phone with built-in ipod, email and a web browser, it was finally released here. Love it or hate it, this phone changed mobile phones forever. With an App Store with thousands of useful (and millions of useless) applications to choose from, this makes this phone very compelling. Poor Palm and Nokia. The Blackberry is still a great device for email and business but in my opinion, Android will most likely be the main competitor to the iPhone in the coming years. I've jumped on board with Android and am so far very happy. WebOS also looks promising, so let's hope it gets the attention it deserves if it is good.
   
   
2. 2005: Sony Releases the Sony HC-1 Digital Video Camera - It was one of the first consumer affordable HD (1080i) digital video camera that used a single CMOS chip. This video camera was awesome.
   
   
3. 2002: Adobe Releases Photoshop 7 - While version 5.5 introduced web-based features and version 6 introduced Vector Shapes, Blending Options/Layer Styles and Liquify, version 7 introduced Full Vector Text, a new repair tool called the Healing Brush and many other improvements. Finally, Photoshop felt robust and had a more snappy performance than previous versions. Unfortunately, it's turned out in my opinion that this was the last decent version of Photoshop.
   
   While some of the newer versions have added some nice features such as Smart Guides (CS 8.0), Hierarchical layer groups (CS 8.0), Smart Objects (CS2 9.0), Spot Healing Brush (CS2 9.0), Multiple Layer Selection (CS2 9.0), Quick Selection (CS3 10.0) and Auto Align (CS3 10.0); the performance and overall bloat of these later versions has left me returning to Version 7.01 which I continue to use today. I do use CS3 as well however I still prefer version 7 for the vast majority of the tasks I need to perform. My opinion of CS4 is that it just plain sucks on a PC.
   
   
4. 2001: The launch of DVB-T Digital TV in Australia - DVT-B (Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial) transmits a compressed digital audio/video/data signal using MPEG, which allows for higher quality audio and pictures to be transmitted. To receive these transmissions, you will need a digital receiver; either built-in to your TV or via a set-top box.
   
   These transmissions allow TV providers to transmit more than one channel and each digital channel transmitted has a much higher resolution than standard analogue TV; with the Standard Definition transmissions being the equivalent of "576i SD" and High Definitions transmissions being either "720P HD" or "1080i HD". DVB-T has also opened the way for Widescreen Panel TVs to be a standard product inside everyones home.
   
   A note: Freeview Certified Devices should be avoided at all costs. These devices plan to place restrictions on your set-top box or TV by stopping your right to skipping ads on recordings or by stopping you from moving your recordings to another device such as a portable media player. This is just outrageous, and Freeview continues to hides it's true intentions behind a marketing platform that appears to compete against current PayTV offerings.
   
   
5. 2006: Apple's iPod Nano 4GB 2nd Generation - The original iPod released in 2001 changed the way we listen to (and purchased) music again, just like the Sony Walkman did in the 1980s. I had never used or owned an iPod until the 2nd Generation Nano, which was released in Red towards the end of the year. It featured a scratch-resistant, anodized aluminium casing with multiple colour choices (silver, green, pink, blue, black and later red), a 40% brighter display, vastly improved battery life, a search option, and finally, gapless playback of audio files.
   
   
6. 2007: The Asus Eee 701 PC - The original Asus Eee PC was small enough to fit in your backpack without breaking you back and it was able to run many of your common desktop apps at a decent speed, albeit with the smaller screen resolution. It helped coined the term "Netbook" which to this day still do not make a lot of sense to me. I can recall fixing issues over a VPN via 3G using one of these wonderful machines. I upgraded the RAM to 2GB and with the SSD drive, Windows XP was very responsive.
   
   
7. Nov 2000: Launch of the Playstation 2 in Australia - The PlayStation 2 is the best-selling console ever, having sold over 138 million units worldwide and it also has a library of over 1,900 games available.
   
   

6 Unforgettable Moments In Science

1. Jan 2004: Mars Exploration Rovers - Spirit & Opportunity, explored Mars and have made many amazing discoveries - including the composition of the planets surface, finding frozen water and the Rovers sent back some amazing photographs too.
   
   
2. 2009: Swine Flu - A new strain of this respiratory illness is identified in Mexico and later renamed H1N1. It kills thousands of people around the world and is declared a pandemic by the W.H.O.
   
   
3. New Planets Everywhere! - In July 2005, inside the Kuiper belt beyond Neptune, a new icy planet named Eris was discovered and was announced as the 10th Planet in our solar system. Around 1 year later, both Pluto and Eris were downgraded to dwarf planet status, so now our solar system has just 8 planets, ending at Neptune. Another notable planet discovery outside our solar system is Gliese 581d. In 2008, it was the first planet to be considered earth like and is approximately 20 light-years away in the constellation of Libra. In late April 2009, new observations of Gliese 581d confirm the planet is within the "habitable zone" where liquid water and, therefore, life could exist.
   
   
4. 2000: The Human Genome Project - A 'rough draft' of the human genome was released in 2000, followed by a more complete version in 2003, and the sequence of the last chromosome was published in 2006 - though the genome still hasn't been 100 percent mapped, the progress of this project is exciting.
   
   
5. Nov 2009: First Atom Smashed - Scientists at Europe's Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) hoped to recreate the origins of the universe with their Large Hadron Collider and after initial problems in the middle of the year, it successfully smashes its first atoms in November.
   
   

6 Sporting Memories I Will Not Forget

1. On September 15, 2000, the Games of the XXVII Olympiad open in Sydney.
   
   
2. Australia defeats Uruguay to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, participating for the first time since 1974 - only then to be knocked out by that dive in the World Cup in the game played between Australia vs Italy
   
   
3. England wins the 2003 Rugby World Cup after a drop goal by Johnny Wilkinson just before the full-time whistle
   
   
4. 2001 NRL Grand Final where the minor premiers Parramatta Eels lost 30-24 to the Newcastle Knights after trailing 24-0 at half time.
   
   
5. Boston Red Sox win the 2007 Baseball World Series
   
   
6. Liverpool FC wins the FA Cup Final in 2001 (2-1 vs Arsenal, two goals to Owen in the last 7 minutes) and 2006 (3-3 vs West Ham, 3-1 on penalties)
   
   

6 Video Games That Made Me Waste Too Much Time

1. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) PS2
2. Advance Wars (2001) Game Boy Advance
3. Pro Evolution Soccer 5 (2005) PS2
4. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II (2004) PS2
5. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (2001) PS2
6. Gran Turismo 4 (2004) PS2

6 Albums That Inspired and Surprised Me

1. Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory (2002)
2. P!nk - I'm Not Dead (2006)
3. Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002)
4. No Doubt - Rock Steady (2001)
5. Rob Zombie - Past, Present & Future (2003)
6. Buckcherry - Black Butterfly (2008)

6 Movies I Can Watch Many Times

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
3. Finding Nemo (2003)
4. Apocalypto (2006)
5. Casino Royale (2006)
6. Madagascar (2005)

6 TV Shows That Stop Me In My Tracks

1. Doctor Who (2005-present)
2. Yo Gabba Gabba (2007-present)
3. Criminal Minds (2005-present)
4. Family Guy
5. CSI: Miami
6. Spicks and Speks

7 Celebrities Gone But Not Forgotten

1. John Ritter: Sept. 11, 2003
2. Steve Irwin: Sept. 4, 2006
3. Farrah Fawcett: June 25, 2009
4. Christopher Reeve: Oct 10, 2004
5. Patrick Swayze: Sept. 14, 2009
6. Michael Jackson: June 25, 2009
7. Richard Carleton: May 7, 2006