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Sven Topp

Randwick, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA


Joined January 26th 2008

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Time for school

February 25th 2011 01:49
Its been some time since I posted on the Deafblind Dad blog. I simply have been strapped for time and when I haven't, I've been using it to relax. Especially as things have been quite stressful lately.

The little 'un is now not so little and is 3....
Which means I can't carry him very far (body mass of an average 5 year old). He does still like a good carrying around at times and lovely cuddles. Admittedly he has started preferring to strangle me while riding on my back instead....

He has started Pre-School now and is attending a special bilingual school for children of deaf adults (CODA's). He's been integrating well into the jointly deaf and hearing class and his signing has improved dramatically. His ability to express and relate with me has increased but its a slow process and sometimes frustrating for the both of us (partly because he's uncertain of himself and beause I don't always see what he signs and he's not comfortable yetwith me hanging onto his hands). He's been learning the Deafblind alphabet as well so that is also starting to help and he's become more confident in his ability to express himself in tactile terms. Some of it is still a lot of guesswork on my part...

I spoke to his teacher recently and they are now going to try and encourage him to sign using Hand Over Hand but I have asked them to clarify that this technique is mostly for use with Daddy and that regular Deaf people prefer a bit of space.

Two mornings ago I got a lovely surprise upon being woken up by a son who said "He's so brave". I wonder who's taught him this. It was a nice feeling and then he hopped into bed and said "I want to sign with Daddy". Very cute.
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A Magic(ky) Mouse

February 23rd 2011 01:17
Apple Magic Mouse
The Apple Magic Mouse

Having had a fair few problems lately with my various PC's I have bought an Apple Mac Mini just for the purpose of having something stable. These last few months have been extermely frustrating in attempting to deal with such issues and now another computer is having issues as well.

Hence the Magic Mouse enters the picture.

Before I start this review I should point out that I come from a long line of Logitech mice for PC users, most recently the MX Revolution and MX Performance Mouse both running over Bluetooth. So these are the two most likely mice I would compare the Magic Mouse with. I also have big hands with long fingers.........

Pure Simplicity....
Upon arriving and unpacking the mouse there's not much to be said about the box or the mouse itself. Both are simplicity itself with the box barely larger than the mouse and a simple hard plastic covering. There is nos oftware, no bluetooth receiver and the batteries are pre-installed the mouse (I'm not too certain if this has had any effect on the longevity of the batteries).

The mouse itself is extremely low in terms of its profile when compared to most other mice. There are no visible buttons on the mice, no scroll wheel, in fact its pure white on top with an Apple logo. Some people might find this a tad disconcerting when you compare it with other mice and the array of buttons that are often visible.

This mouse comes into its own when you first start it up when compared tpo the equivelant process of installing a bluetooth mouse on a Windows machine. Being an Apple device you simply switch it on, the Mac recognises the mouse and connects with it automatically and I had it up and running in a matter of 30 seconds. There's no uncanny feeling that you might need a wired mouse "Just in case".

Key Features....
The Magic Mouse is like most toher mice except it has one feature that sets it apart from the rest of the competition. Its that the mouse, or at least the area above the Apple Logo where you would normally find buttons and a scroll wheel, is multi-touch capable. Beyond this feature the Magic Mouse is like most ordinary Bluetooth mice.

First Impressions...
Upon removing it from the box there's a certain "WOW" factor that often hits most people when unveiling Apple products for the first time. Its elegant and stylish but there's one thing that worried me and its the size and height of the mouse. It sits alongside and goes well with Apple's wireless keyboard range and possibly the Magic Trackpad if you want to run both side-by-side.

Comfort...
Comfort is something I've always valued in my mice as I often sit at the compter for long periods of time and despite technological advances the mouse is still my primary control device. The mouse at first feels comfortable but after 5 minutes of use I must admit I was yearning for a more supportive mouse which ergonomic design principles. Microsoft, Logitech and a plathora of other mouse manufacturers have been employing such concepts for a long time already, its almost inexcusable that Apple stuck with a fairly simplistic curve (albeit a rather nice looking one at that).

Functionality...
Apple sadly lets this mouse down in terms of its functionality and its biggest selling point is essentially rendered average at best. Or at least on a par with the average two button/scroll wheel mouse. Considering the touch sensitive surface of the mouse is multi-touch compatible and can support almost the entire feature set of the multi-touch user experience offered on devices like the iPhone and iPad, it is disappointing that Apple only lets you utilise very limited aspects of this out of the box. Of course you can download and install additional software such as Magic Prefs to enahnce the functionality but that kind of defeats the point.

The functionality that is on offer simply replicated that of a standard mouse with left and right click (you will need to activate this first as it comes pre-configured as a one button mouse). Scrolling is also accessible using one finger and is also offered in a diagonal direction. Back and Forward functionality is activated by two finger swipes (more on this soon) and zoom can be activated in conjunction with a key press.

Utilising the actual funtions of the mouse is a bit of a dilemma. In practise this should work well but there are some issues caused by the size of the mouse and the way most people would grip a mouse. As someone who usually puts their three middle fingers on the top part of the mouse I expereinced some difficulties getting the mouse to respond in the appropriate manner. The first issue I had was that the mouse occasionally didn't recognise a left mouse click until I had explicitly lifted up all other fingers off the mouse (a rather uncomfortable movement as the mouse does not support your wrist or lower palm whatsoever). Second issue was attempting the two finger swipes whilst trying to keep a steady grip on the mouse. I may need to start doing strengthening exercises for my little finger!

Apart from this the mouse acts admirably as a regular mouse should. I did find the tracking a bit slow but that may simply be my personal preference.

And the verdict is...
I guess this comes down to the big question that is often asked in the peripheral market for computers. Form or Function? Out of the box this mouse is elegant and a beauty to behold but it's nowhere even close to the MX Revolution in terms of comfort. Functionality wise its okay but is nothing special, Apple seems to have missed the benifits and rewards that the multi-touch capabilities could provide on this mouse. It's a shame you need to install 3rd party software just to bring the mouses functionality to a point where it should be.

Design : Excellent [4.5/5]
Comfort : Shocking [0.5/5]
Functionality : Bare bones [2/5]
Price : Poor [2/5] (compared to other mice with similar function sets)
Overall : A nice concept but it needs some serious work to improve the functionality aand comfort out of the box. [2.5/5]

Purchase Information
an purchase this mouse from most Apple retailers in Australia or the Apple online store.

Disclaimrer
I purhcased this mouse personally and was in no way given any financial assistance by either Apple or any other persons to review this product.
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The Easter Bunny has Arrived...

April 3rd 2010 01:25
Tis that odd time of year in thee Catholic calendar where you can eat chocoloate for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner and not be considered a total glutton. Of course during the following week you have to deal with that on your own.... *wink wink*.

Anyway, the Easter bunny did not deliver chocolate this year but he obviously took a trip to Chuggington instead and my 2 year old was happy with that. The trains even went for a nap with him yesterday.

We ended up at Fox Studios yesterday where there is, I guess, a much scaled down version of the Easter Show. It's probably a better destination when your kids aren't very big and it's certainly more convenient. There's also the issue that tit's not too crowded (at last years show we simply didn't get to see much because there were such long lines).

I was dumb enough unfortunately to take my Seeing Eye Dog. Can you say "distracted"? There were other dogs, animals, food scattered around on the ground, kids galore and oh, did I mention the people that either wanted to pat him or simply just were not watching where they were going????

This brings me to a dilemma...
How to manage a dog and stay responsible for a child of 2? As much as I love the dog and appreciate his help, especially with dangerous situations such as crossing the road I am left torn between my responsibilities to him and those to my 2 year old (who undoubtedly comes first).

By the end of the afternoon I had very sore eyes and bad eye strain (which I oddly feel mostly in the eye I can't see out of).

I am finding this a little in everyday life though. The juggling of the variety of responsibilities. Having to make sure I take the dog to the toilet and ensuring he has water throughout the day often leaves me little choice other than to leave my son with someone else. This is especially true when we are out at the shops. This makes it extremely difficult sometimes.

Another issue is that the dog walks on my left, therefore if the traffic is on my right and my son needs to walk on my left hand side there is a problem (I always like to ensure there is a maximum of space between the traffic and him).

We did have a good time yesterday though.
The jumping castle got a triple go with Daddy having to come in too despite his fear of them (I fell badly in one when I was about 5 and got my neck stuck between the wall/floor and badly hurt my neck). Chinese for dinner too was yummy and looks like my toddler takes a bit after me as he really goes for the Prawn Crackers and Honey Prawns.....Expensive tastes I know...

Hope you all have a good Easter.
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This is Tower : You are not cleared for takeoff!

April 1st 2010 11:47
We were over at the little Mister's cousins place on Monday night. His two female cousins are fairly active, especially when it involves furniture (ie jumping on the bed). One particularly disallowed exciting and fun activity involves jumping from the couch to the airmchair to the coffee table to a counother armchair and finally onto another couch arranged in a fairly large U shape.

Little sonny has been exposed to this for some time now but thank goodness, has not yet been tried at home. Mostly because as soon as he stands on the chairs both of us are "Please sit down" to a draconian extent. Actually i think it's important for manners and for ensuring the child understands and appreciates that the furniture has value and is not a trampoline, even if it is more fun to be treated like one


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Let's go hyper....

April 1st 2010 11:35
It's Easter tomorrow.
For the westernised capitalising world that means chocolate eggs and easter bunnies.

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HTC HD2 : First Impressions

April 1st 2010 11:29
I've had a fairly long string of phones which haven't provided much other than grief. This started witht he Palm Treo 750 and then the Sony Ericson Xperia X1i (Australian Market models).

My predominant reason for these particular phones


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A whole lotta fear

March 27th 2010 11:40
I think I have a "phobia" of sorts....

It relates to losing my son which seems to be heightened in highly populated situations. Today for instance, we went to a fete and there were a fair amount of people present. Trying to manage and monitor a Seeing Eye Dog as well as concentrating on a 2 year old is extremely mentall challenging and taxing


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And so.....

March 23rd 2010 23:59
I've been busy.
I guess everyone's been busy but can you say "crazy busy"? In Auslan we use the same sign although I suppose it also means "hectic". Perhaps that's a good word for my life at thiss tage....

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Who's got the time???

March 23rd 2010 23:23
I must admit when I started my first 2 blogs I think I was a bit ambitious. Perhaps I simply started at the wrong time but it seems I've never really had much opportunity to post often, or at all (hence the long silence on both of them). The only one I did generally keep up with was Budget Flicks but that was reassigned......

Anyway, hopefully I will have more time to write in this one


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I've had the strangest dreams

January 17th 2009 09:49
I'm not normally one to dwell on my dreams. I guess that might actually have to do with the fact that I don't usually remember them! But I've been having some quite odd dreams lately, well one in particular about parenting.

The dream basically starts with me minding my son in the dark who is now crawling and getting close to walking on his own. About 10 minutes later I lose "touch" with him and can't find him in the dark again. It's rather frightening and at this point in time I usually wake up in a frantic state wondering where he is and then remembering he's asleep in his cot, What's worse is that I usually feel like I've been dreaming awake (ie dreaming that I've actually been awake in the bedroom where our son sleeps


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Recent Comments

Comment by Anonymous
on Time for school

February 25th 2011 05:39


Parent Debate
Deafblind Dad
Revuze
He's 3 but he's extremely tall. Essentially he's the same dimensions as your average 5 year old.

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Comment by Sven Topp
on Shoes Made to Charge Gadgets

October 23rd 2008 14:43


Parent Debate
Deafblind Dad
Revuze
Does that mean we can have a shoe phone too like Maxwell Smart?

Sounds like a good idea actually and it's a clean way to generate electricity. Wonder why they don't put turbines in car wheels. You'd have four turbines generating power at the same time. I wonder if that would produce enough energy to run the car indefinitely?

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Comment by Sven Topp
on Salvation! Terminator is almost back

October 23rd 2008 14:34


Parent Debate
Deafblind Dad
Revuze
I followed this series since T2, going back and watching T1 (I didn't think T1 was much to poke a stick at actually).

Arnie with a Gatling Gun was something to remember (from T2) and certainly the morphing was nicely done and a revolution in both movie effects and computer game animation.

T3 I agree, was a flop. I guess mostly because it didn't offer any "Wow" factor. It was all something we'd seen before (in terms of effects).

Will have to keep an eye out on this one though as it should be interesting. Even if only to finish off the story.

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Comment by Sven Topp
on I'm back....

October 21st 2008 11:32


Parent Debate
Deafblind Dad
Revuze
Hi Alessandra
Yes I've heard of Sense and have assisted in the provision of the DB training video here in Australia.

I'm not a member of Facebook but please feel free to add the blog to your Facebook site. I haven't posted here for a w3hile because I've been so flat out. But am hoping to get back to it shortly.

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Comment by Sven Topp
on Awesome Dudes Awesome 2 Minute Noodles

July 2nd 2008 15:36


Parent Debate
Deafblind Dad
Revuze
Interesting take on the 2 min noodles.

I remember when I lived in Tonga for a year one of the favourites of the locals was eating them raw with the flavouring sprinkled on them....

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Comment by Sven Topp
on Believers, non-believers and nothing

June 26th 2008 10:33


Parent Debate
Deafblind Dad
Revuze
Oh and this is all good for nothing isn't it.....

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Comment by Sven Topp
on Believers, non-believers and nothing

June 26th 2008 10:32


Parent Debate
Deafblind Dad
Revuze
Yes that's a whole lot of nothing isn't it
Well better check out "Nothing Compares to you" while we have tea....

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Comment by Sven Topp
on Believers, non-believers and nothing

June 26th 2008 09:43


Parent Debate
Deafblind Dad
Revuze
Excuse the pun....
But don't they always say "Nothing is impossible" *wink* (even if it's not meant in the way I'm using it).

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Comment by Sven Topp
on Believers, non-believers and nothing

June 26th 2008 09:01


Parent Debate
Deafblind Dad
Revuze
True...
But then if the absence of everything is nothing, then indeed nothing is still something. But then there's a problem seeing as nothing is something therefore forms a part of everything.....

Thus nothing can't really be the absence of everything as it would also need to be absent of nothing too........

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Comment by Sven Topp
on Does Generation Y REALLY love being Wired?

June 26th 2008 08:38


Parent Debate
Deafblind Dad
Revuze
I'm not Generation Y (I think my letter got lost...).

Frankly though it's not the internet that bothers me so much but the fact that everyone is expected to be in instant contact with everyone else at all times.

The proverbial "mobile" has become such an inseperable part of our lives that I think quite a few people have actually forgotten how to talk to the person in front of them (ever seen a date watch a partner spend half of it on a phone... ).

I think it's sad that we have so little private time these days.

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