Just a quick update with some new photographs from a recent day trip to Mt Alexander & Malmsbury in Victoria, Australia. I tried my hand at a panorama shot that was stitched together. It consists of 8 horizontal by 2 vertical sequences.
I have been writing bits and pieces on the new novel but now really need to knuckle down and put the finishing touches together.
The North view from a lookout at Mt Alexander. This is 160 degree shot WNW through to ENE – the sky is untouched by photoshop!
G’Day all,
You may have seen my novel deadline dates bouncing around a bit due to unforeseen circumstances. I understand the frustration that builds from changing deadlines so I have decided to provide a sneak peak at the new book.
The development process for this novel has been challenging in the areas of ;
All in all, I am hoping to bring my readers the best possible adventure whilst also challenging their perceptions of the world around them.
Please enjoy this excerpt and stay tuned for the upcoming release of Cyber Nightmares #2: Autonomous Chaos.
The first train had been hijacked 45 minutes prior but he was sure that this operation had been in the pipelines by someone for some while.
The threat think tank had given rise to three main possible threat entities.
The first threat under consideration was driven by economic warfare – South America. The Chilean and Brazilian governments were in direct competition with a relatively junior role in the worlds iron ore supply to China compared to Australia. Their respective joint ventures were seeking to wrench lucrative deals from the Australian market as they were reaching a critical mass in supply. Derailment of a large part of Australia’s export capability would push that transition over to them. However, intelligence indicated that they did lack the technical expertise to mount a direct assault of the calibre currently underway.
The second threat was considered to be form of indirect economic warfare – the United States of American. The US government’s economy had gone right down the plug hole over recent years with the advent of a double dip recession and a large part of the voting public were pointing the finger squarely at the outsourcing of their manufacturing sector to China. The indirect disruption of nearly 50% of China’s raw steel supply of Iron Ore would put a major dent in their economy and provide leverage for the security argument driving for the relocation of key manufacturing back to US shores. If it was the US, it definitely wasn’t their first covert cyber assault and wouldn’t be their last – even on a supposed allies, if it served their wider plans.
The last credible threat was considered the worst – a random. Some fruit loop, or a bunch of fruit loops, had gotten it in their collective heads to cause some good old fashioned chaos. The worst of the fruit loops were those that had been cross-breed with a hunger for cash, resulting in modern day cyber warfare mercenaries. These kinds were the hardest to track down but the easiest to physically remove from the face of the earth once found in the real world. This ease of erasure was because their once benevolent masters found them to be disposable – as is the nature of a mercenary.
A sharp beep followed by a rapid thunk informed Chris that the secure room had just been accessed via the main door off to his left, just out of sight from his attention area which was currently the main network activities on the central screen of his workstation. Given that the panopticon was in full lock down, that narrowed the presence down to three people – himself, his second in command or the director. Given that himself and the 2IC were already working the problem, it only left the director.
Swiveling in his chair, Chris glanced up at the CERT director.
“Sir, to what level of pleasure do we owe this honour?”, rolled the satirical greeting from Chris’ lips.
G’Day to my regular readers, hello to new vistors from the upper levels of the web and shout out to all the /b/ people who stumbled upon my blog from the deep dark web.
If you have seen my last post or two, you will be aware that the family (including me *wink*) ditched the worries of the world for about ten days by embarking on a 2600km (~1600km) road trip.
This trip took us from Bendigo (point A) to the world famous Tarango Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo, through to Armidale (point B) were we enjoyed time with family as well as the views of Dangar National Park before returning home via Parkes and stopping in at the radio telescope, known as “the dish”, that received the first signals for man’s first steps on the moon.
Along the way, I explored my creative side through photography. I have been processing these pics and trying to further my next Cyber Nightmare novel, Autonomous Chaos.
During the last few days I have managed to take a hour or three to prepare pictures from Dangar Falls. These falls stand about 120~130m tall however it had not rained for a few weeks so they were very dry. The silver lining to this was that we could actually see the bottom of the fall site which is normally absured by mist.
One of the MAJOR highlights for me was the visit to the Dish. For over 20 years, we have driven by this facility in on the edge of the New South Wales plains, just outside Parkes, and this year we stopped in. For me, it was like going to Disneyland. This facility was instrumental in the first moon landings and is still one of the major radio astronomy telescopes being used around the world today.
Over the next few days I hope to release more picures to include the Dubbo Zoo animals, bolder natural landscape shots of Australia and some macro work on wonderful native flowers.
Please let me know if any particular pictures tickle your fancy or if you have ever had a child hood dream come true, such as my “dish” experience…others might think your mad but deep down inside you love it and know it too 
Dangar Falls – Above the falls
Dangar Falls – The canyon and falls
Dangar falls – The canyon as seen from the falls top
The Dish – Parkes radio telescope
Sample macro shot of my next set – A Fig that the Rosella’s had beaten us too…
Howdy all, I am currently recharging my creative batteries via 10 day family holiday. Our holidays is taking form of a ~2500km round road trip ( about 1600 miles ). This has given me the opportunity to recharge my creative batteries and take a huge pile of photographs.
The list of pending picture areas include:
These pickiest should be ready within 2-3 weeks.
As I am currently restricted to an ipad, the processing and posting of pickiest will have to wait a week or so. This also has impacted on my writing time but provided space to think, dream and be creative. On our journey, a new title exploded from our collective minds during a “lively” family chat – “A fistful of discipline”. This title has given birth to a new episode in my “Unnatural Fight Club series”, which will be added to the completion pending list
On another really fun upside, I have had a chance to catch up on a fair chunk of reading. A friend of mine, Tara-Lee Green, has released her first short story on smash words. The title is “Running on empty” and it is a zombie short story. I recommend dropping in for a read of my review and her book.
A zombie short story by Tara-Lee Green
If you liked my Bogans, burnouts and bonfires then you may be pleased to know that some more pre-Bogan-party pics have recently come through. They have been added to the photographs section under the ingenious title of Bogans, burnouts and bonfires MkII.
They are three pre-party pics of us getting all boganafide for a fantastic weeked.
The pic on this page is simply to divert all you work related linkedin viewers..the juicey pics are on the page.
