Worth1000.com | Photoshop Contests. Basically a better quality Fark.

StrokeIt - Mouse Gestures for Windows. Opera users will know how it is - you get used to gestures, then go to another application...

man who catch fly with chopsticks, accomplish anything: flysui.

• NEWS.com.au | Police not to blame for death: PM (February 26, 2004): There was no evidence to suggest Aboriginal teenager Thomas "TJ" Hickey was pursued to his death by Sydney police, Prime Minister John Howard said today. ....apparently the PM has just noticed there was some trouble in Redfern.
• The Australian: Students in angry fee rise protest [February 26, 2004]
• Jetstar, Virgin fight for your fare. 26/02/2004. ABC News Online / NEWS.com.au | Jetstar 'not out to get Virgin' (February 26, 2004). It doesn't make much sense to me - Jetstar being owned by Qantas, it's just Qantas undercutting itself at vast cost in a bid to force another business out of the market. This wasn't good for anyone last time around.... Can we saw "Compass"?
• ABC Sport - Rugby League - Bulldogs consider player curfew / NEWS.com.au | Sponsors kick the Bulldogs where it hurts (February 26, 2004): Bulldogs chief executive Steve Mortimer called for judgments on the players to be withheld until the police investigation was finalised.

glarkware - shirts and stuff. seriously thinking about getting the Urban Asshole Notification Card for my noisy neighbours.

• NEWS.com.au | 14 foods that will prolong your life (February 24, 2004)
• NEWS.com.au | Seven dead at kite-flying festival (February 16, 2004)
• Sydney views - the finalists - www.smh.com.au
• The Register | US woman in 419 kidnap terror ordeal. I can't believe they're still trying this crap on. Even worse is thought that there are people out there who fall for it.
• NBC10.com - News - Woman Flees Marriage Proposal At NBA Game. When grand gestures go wrong...

ok, so i already knew they sucked, but Hardly Normal had the fridge we wanted at a good price. so, we bought it there. TWO WEEKS AGO.... and STILL NO FUCKING FRIDGE. i probably wouldn't mind if they at least knew where it was... but they don't. it might be in adelaide. it might be in brisbane. it might be in transit..... they have no idea.

to cap it off, i tried to load their website (primarily to link to it in this rant) and lo, its cookie routine barfs because it can't set a cookie in Opera. site won't load. totally locked out.

*grumble*grumble*lamers*grumble*want new fridge*grumble*

• Southern Qld melts under heatwave. 23/02/2004. ABC News Online / SE Qld storms black out thousands of homes. 23/02/2004. ABC News Online. You can't win - the storms which are supposed to cool things down wipe out the power supply.
• Reynolds urged to apologise for Indigenous comments. 23/02/2004. ABC News Online: Mr Reynolds told a Queensland newspaper the practice of placing abused or vulnerable Aboriginal children with Aboriginal carers will be abandoned if there is a chance the abuse could continue. Associate Professor Boni Robertson says Mr Reynolds' statement is racist and smacks of the philosophies that lead to the Stolen Generations. ...so this academic apparently thinks the chance of continued abuse should be ignored? Damned if you do, damned if you don't. This is not productive.
• Woman bailed over Redfern riot charge - National - www.smh.com.au
• NEWS.com.au | Wedded bliss no match for 'living in sin' (February 23, 2004). To put it another way; there's more than one way to live your life.

not terribly surprising: take smack the pingu and add a bunch of badly-drawn blood and some land mines; and you get Pinguin-Weitschlagen. the land mines do add some amusement :)

Ctrl Alt Del - Tragically l337 - 2004.02.18. The zombie in the second frame completely cracks me up.

• NEWS.com.au | Where now for Redfern policing? (February 20, 2004) / Tension simmers as police arrest Hickey's girlfriend - National - www.smh.com.au
• NEWS.com.au | Escaped tiger returns to zoo on own (February 20, 2004)
• NEWS.com.au | Packet rage on the rise (February 20, 2004)
• NEWS.com.au | Entertainment | Paddle to freedom (February 19, 2004): It's struggling for viewers, and now even the contestants want to escape The HotHouse.

Looks like my beloved spacemoose.com email address can be no more: www.spacemoose.com Index of /

Dang.

• NEWS.com.au | Armed bandit in city car-jack drama (February 19, 2004). What really pisses me off about Australia aping America... is that sooner or later some dumb fuck copies American crimes as well as American pop culture fads. Part of me can't believe it's happened in my home town; part of me is surprised it took so long.
• The Courier-Mail: Council announces independent recycling audit [19feb04]. The 'snail is playing this down... which seems very strange.
• NEWS.com.au | Students bracing for fees hike (February 19, 2004)
• NEWS.com.au | Woman held over Sydney riot (February 19, 2004)
• NEWS.com.au | Butcher makes mincemeat of robbers (February 19, 2004)

Southeast Coast Weather Forecast:

Friday     ... Hot. Possible shower or storm.   MIN  24   MAX  35
Saturday   ... Fine and very hot                MIN  25   MAX  41
Sunday     ... Fine and very hot                MIN  25   MAX  41

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I think this weekend will be spent at shopping centres; problem there being that thousands of other people will do the same and the aircon won't cope anyway.

Update: see also UQ Weather - Current Values and Daily Highs/Lows which includes a Heat Index calculation... being a combination of temperature and humidity, which is how hot it actually feels.

Fucking awesome. BTW, yes, row AB does mean the second row. From the front. Yes, I really did pay that much money and FUCK YES it was worth it... and I'm not even a huge Bowie fan :) Of course it helps to be able to so close you can pick up every nuance of gesture and expression; plus Bowie has a piercing gaze which makes everyone up front feel like they've made eye contact.

Some rockers disintegrate with age; others, like Bowie, just get better. Bowie worked the audience in a manner that can only be described as energetic and playful. He knows he can make the crowd do anything and he's not afraid of playing with that :) Plus the band were truly awesome - all amazing musicians in their own right; and they all got to shine in this gig. Bowie hadn't been here for 17 years.... what the hell set do you play? The answer was 2 hours and 15 minutes of old stuff, new stuff, instrumental, obscure tracks, massive hits and audience-involved songs.

A sparing but gorgeous stage set was perfectly chosen for the show - simple video screens, a pair of raised catwalks and some hanging white tree branches at the sides. The lighting played off it all really well. The sound was clear; no overdriven speakers here - just massive banks belting out perfectly mixed songs.

I'm surely biased by being so close to the stage; but even so this was an amazing gig. It was a great chance to see the benefit of experience; to watch a rock legend do his thing. The attention to detail was in evidence everywhere - from the way Bowie would work each song, down to his guitar picks being printed with the tour details on one side and "David" on the other (my guess is that each guitarist would have had their own picks done up with their own names as well).

Setlist from bowieNet.news (I'm impressed they've got that posted already):

01 Rebel Rebel 
02 New Killer Star 
03 Reality 
04 Fame 
05 Cactus 
06 All The Young Dudes 
07 China Girl 
08 A New Career In A New Town 
09 The Loneliest Guy 
10 The Man Who Sold The World 
11 Hallo Spaceboy 
12 Sunday 
13 Under Pressure 
14 Life On Mars? 
15 Looking For Water 
16 Be My Wife 
17 Days 
18 White Light, White Heat 
19 Ashes To Ashes 
20 I'm Afraid Of Americans 
21 "Heroes" 

(Encore) 
22 Always Crashing In The Same Car 
23 Five Years 
24 Suffragette City 
25 Ziggy Stardust

Highlights:

• Starting the show with Rebel Rebel. Yeah.
• Under Pressure - Hollywood (the bassist) sang Freddy Mercury's part and damn near stole the show.
• Super extended version of Sunday. The comment was made afterwards that they should have put that version on the album instead of the shorter version.
• Hallo Spaceboy and I'm Afraid Of Americans. Pure, unadulterated rock'n'roll absolutely went off.
• Bowie: "....there's a great band reforming, called The Pixies..." (big roar from the crowd) "Good for you, Brisbane... you really know your stuff!" [or words to that effect - can't remember the exact wording] I like that, despite the expectation Brisbane people wouldn't know who The Pixies are :)
• Ending the encore with Ziggy Stardust; and ending Ziggy Stardust with Bowie standing in front of a huge video screen with simple black and white letters spelling out BOWIE. It came off as glorious without being (too) egotistical.

...and if you think I'm going on a bit, I'll put you in touch with the fanatical fans I went with :)

Labels: gig

• Elders ensure calm in Redfern. 16/02/2004. ABC News Online / NEWS.com.au | Peaceful night on Redfern streets (February 17, 2004) / 'Alcohol, heat, grief triggered the riot' - National - www.smh.com.au
• First female Indigenous minister starts job. 17/02/2004. ABC News Online
• Mother of all diamonds found - World - www.smh.com.au
• The Australian: Chastity belt triggers airport alarm [February 09, 2004]

• Carr urges calm after Redfern riot. 16/02/2004. ABC News Online / NEWS.com.au | Forty hurt in inner-Sydney riot (February 15, 2004) / Get facts straight first, cautions sickened Rudd - National - www.smh.com.au. Like most riots in Australian history; it sounds like an accident triggered a riot that really had nothing to do with the actual incident. The kid's mother will never believe it was an accident; and the people who started the riot clearly believe the worst of Police. No matter what the truth is; the community and the Police have already made up their minds about the death and nobody is going to budge.
• Jobs head overseas through Telstra outsourcing. 16/02/2004. ABC News Online / Union slams Telstra over report to shift jobs to India - BusinessNews - www.smh.com.au
• PM refuses to commit to super cut - National - www.smh.com.au: Prime Minister John Howard today refused to commit serving senior politicians, including himself, to a superannuation cut.
• NEWS.com.au | Tests show dogs are almost human (February 16, 2004)

Only on Yahoo! - Around the World in 80 Days. Jackie Chan, mad science, Phileas Fogg...... how could you go wrong? :)

Times Online - Entertainment | Precious metals James Christopher watches a documentary about rock band Metallica turn into Spinal Tap

Priceless. I wonder if this doco is available to the public...!! :)

KCBS: Amazon Reviewers Unmasked? OK, those of you who didn't already realise this about Amazon reviews, please stand up. We will now hurl sharp things at you for being SO FUCKING DAFT.

On a similar note, as John Safran observed, street press is a way for local bands to write their own reviews and get free publicity. "They've got pages to fill... they don't give a shit!"

Darque Dungeon. i still find it a little disturbing that jack chick is for fucking real. but anyway, it provides endless satire fodder...

sleepy city. urban exploration photos from my home town.

(Updated 2004.06.27 with new URL)

blackbishop: Cynics Philisophy

yep, it's the day of the Psychotic Armed Cherub; discharging what's most likely an unlicensed weapon into unsuspecting couples who were minding their own friggin business.

so guys, did we all feel pressured to spend lots of money on our girlfriends? personally i resent the implication that i'm a prick the rest of the year and never do anything nice for my partner.

so, let's all celebrate hallmark love day by not spending money on overpriced crap (you think a dozen red roses costs that much any other day of the year? well, nearly, but not quite...). singles; rejoice in your freedom from this shit. guys (or girls) with girls; buy flowers for her in a few weeks, for no particular reason. girls (or guys) with guys; pick up that sexy new lingerie and surprise him next weekend.

oh, and anyone who only gets treated nicely on this one day - it's time to evaluate your relationship.

i probably wouldn't get so riled if there were equivalent days for guys and singles.

• Senior ministers underpaid, but I'll cut super: PM - National - www.smh.com.au. Hell, it's no skin off his nose - his super is safe.
• Clark to face rape suit. 13/02/2004. ABC News Online / Clark led gang rape: judge - National - www.smh.com.au
• NEWS.com.au | Saddam planned invasion 'on drugs' (February 13, 2004). The thing being that Dubya was probably also on drugs when he planned the latest Iraq war.
• NEWS.com.au | Pig lard to stop terror attacks (February 12, 2004). I admire the simplicity of the plan; but I'm still disturbed by the need for it (yes, I am still disturbed by acts of terrorism - aren't you?).
• NEWS.com.au | Anger over Gallipoli fee plan (February 13, 2004)
• NEWS.com.au | Celebs strut their jailhouse locks (February 13, 2004)
• Ken and Barbie to split. 13/02/2004. ABC News Online. This is just fucking bizarre, even for a publicity stunt.
• Microsoft admits part of Windows source code has leaked - ITNews - smh.com.au . Expect new virus attacks and exploits as the holes become even easier to locate....

• Slashdot | Microsoft Receives XML Patent
• Slashdot | RFID Tags For The Rich. Of course, you have to wonder how a Prada salesdrone would cope with something as geeky as this.
• The Register | TFT LCD prices to fall despite growing demand: Monitors will account for over half of the LCD market (57.4 per cent), and will finally outpace demand for CRTs. Come 2007, and LCDs will account for 80 per cent of monitor sales, up from 41.7 per cent last year. Notebook panels will take 20 per cent of the market, again on rising demand. ...more simply, finally more new LCD screens will be sold than new CRTs.
• The Register | Light dawns at Intel
• The Register | Software bug contributed to blackout: A previously-unknown software flaw in a widely-deployed General Electric energy management system contributed to the devastating scope of the August 14th northeastern U.S. blackout, industry officials revealed this week. ....so don't try to blame "hackers".
• The Register | Cyberappliances attack Italian village: For three weeks terrified residents have battled for their very survival against spontaneously-combusting TVs, fridges and cookers which have damaged twelve houses and provoked a full-scale evacuation of the hamlet.

although in this case, they're fair: George W Bush Speechwriter.

• NEWS.com.au | Telstra profit almost doubles (February 12, 2004) / Tanner blasts Telstra for overcharging - BusinessNews - www.smh.com.au / Telstra rings up $2.3b profit. 12/02/2004. ABC News Online ...yet their service still sucks. The ABC article shows how clearly Tel$tra is being run to make money, not to provide a service.
• NEWS.com.au | Bush arms himself with service record (February 12, 2004): FACING an election battle against a war hero, US President George W. Bush has distributed pay records from his time in the Texas Air National Guard to try to kill off claims he was absent without leave during the Vietnam War. ... But [a White House spokesman said they] had been unable to find anyone who could remember serving with a man who later became the US President. Oh good! So now it seems not only did he go AWOL, he got paid anyway! Great proof, there.
• NEWS.com.au | Jobless rate up to 5.7pc (February 12, 2004) / Jobless rate inches up. 12/02/2004. ABC News Online: Out-of-work men accounted for the small increase in the unemployment rate, with a rise of 0.1 per cent.
• NEWS.com.au | Man drunk after eating trifle (February 12, 2004). They wouldn't doubt it if it was TRAUMA TRIFLE! Haha! (in-joke)

Y? forum. I guess it's a reaction to a world so PC you can't ask many questions. Interesting concept.

we love you, yes you. The one about bears is terrible, but it cracked me up completely.

Madonna_Wannabe.swf

Accessible Website Menu: Ultimate Drop Down Menu by Brothercake. Some discussion of the tool: Accessify Forum: accessible dhtml menu? cookiecrook menu works best for me.

One user on the [uvip-web-test] email list tried this with IE6 and Jaws 5 and gave it a clean bill of health. It certainly looks good and uses clean markup.

• NEWS.com.au | Farmers give lukewarm OK (February 11, 2004). They have to live on the scraps of everything else too - health services, phone services, banking services... Considering the entire nation - or at least the PM - is willing to fight for scraps off America's table ("thankyouthankyou dubya grovel grovel do you want our troops to do some more dirty work for you? grovel"); as if they're going to pick this fight. Farmers are survivors and they know when to make the best of a bad situation they can't change.
• Costello talks up trade deal's benefits. 11/02/2004. ABC News Online
• NEWS.com.au | Critical Windows flaw uncovered (February 11, 2004). Yet again. Patch here: Download details: Security Update for Windows 2000: KB828028
• In case anyone missed it: Poor student 'auctions virginity' to pay uni fees - World - www.smh.com.au
• Farewell Akubra as farms get hard-headed on safety - www.smh.com.au. Also old but I didn't comment at the time... this to me is a case where the Jackaroo made their own decisions. It's common knowledge that mustering on horseback is a dangerous occupation; yet most Jackaroos stick with Akubras for the sun protection (plus, helmets don't exactly go with the blokey image). I guess the only way to get them wearing helmets is to force them; but it doesn't seem fair to sue the shit out of the employer - there is no current culture or expectation that the boss decides what the Jackaroos wear. It's a pity that this country seems incapable of simply fixing the problem, without massively penalising some poor bastard first.
• Woman marries dead boyfriend - www.smh.com.au. Yep, that's weird.

compared with blogger (even with the LoFi interface that Opera users are still forced to use), so far livejournal has proved to be really fucking irritating to work with. the web interface lacks coherence and has some really odd default settings (why condense the profiles page, for instance?); and the style system is mystifying. my guess is that you need a paid account to run a customised lj with an external stylesheet; if you aren't willing to cough up then you have to persist with the fairly iffy code lj produces. get what you pay for, just like anything else.

to be fair; if i wasn't a professional web developer i probably wouldn't be so bothered; since lj's web interface allows you to modify settings without needing to know how to do it manually. with blogger i have near total control and that's a good thing for me since i do know what i'm doing. frankly all blogger would have to do is add comments and feed management (ie. lj's Friends feature) and they'd reproduce lj. communities are just an extension of feed management; as far as i can tell.

all that said; i've only had an lj for a couple of days and i've only spent one short session playing around with it. these are just my first impressions.

• 2004 Queensland Election. Results - Party Totals. ABC Online. Worth noting: Democrats managed one, count 'em, one candidate; thankfully One Nation lost a significant amount of their vote, even with stupid sympathy votes due to the ginger bitch being jailed; while the Greens and independent candidates gained more between them than the Nats and Libs. Big picture: Springborg was just too much of a dickhead, who brought the entire campaign down to a schoolyard level of bullshit. Beattie might not be perfect, but we can live with him.
• PM defends 'imperfect' trade deal. 09/02/2004. ABC News Online / NEWS.com.au | We had to do the deal: PM (February 9, 2004) / Deal the best we could get, admits PM - BusinessNews - www.smh.com.au. "I'm a spineless prat," Howard continued. "I just kinda like being fucked by Americans, is that so bad? I have to continue the tradition of recent Australian PMs..." he said.

OK, livejournal users. I've finally signed up for an lj - but don't get too excited. This is purely so I can read friends-only posts and comment properly. If I could just post with the same username as the lj feed of this blog, I'd do so. But so far I haven't been able to figure that out. So, despite this being a bit of a pain; please add the lj user dash_aitch in addition to cheshrkat. That way you can read my stuff and I can read your stuff.

Welcome to ETCHED IN TIME

queen of wands | 2004.02.04... a parable for the modern age.

NEWS.com.au | Booze biscuits hit the shelves (February 4, 2004). Oh, the horror... The Tim-Tams taste like Kahlua, TheChildrenWillBeCorrupted!! What a crock of shit - if some kid starts drinking it's not because they liked a fucking chocolate biscuit. I'd also like to say if anyone tries to take Rum & Raisin ice cream off the market, then I tell you there will be blood, my friends! DO NOT THREATEN MY ICE CREAM! ;)

Dilbert Comic Strip Archive - 2004.02.03

I live in Australia yet the BBC's effect on my life has been significant. It has allowed the creation of most of my favourite Britcom (not to mention Science Fiction) and provides an excellent source of news. The world needs the BBC.

Wooden Ferrari F50. Well, what can you say - it keeps him off the streets.

(grins, ducks, runs like hell)

ShardsO'Glass. Apparently shown in America during the Superbowl.

• Manildra tops list of Coalition benefactors - www.smh.com.au: Most big corporate donors gave to both sides of politics, but were more generous to the Coalition. / They're in the money - smh.com.au. A list of the top donors to Labour and the Coalition. Note companies like ANZ who are in the top donors for both sides. Of course, if you remember that more than two parties exist (Coalition only counts as one, frankly); you might be interested in the AEC - Funding and Disclosure Annual Returns Locator Service.
• Cigarette makers forced to put smoking disease images on packets - www.smh.com.au / Shock smoke warnings draw mixed reaction. 03/02/2004. ABC News Online
• NEWS.com.au | Gen X out in the cold (February 3, 2004): The Housing Industry Association yesterday said a generation of Australians aged under 40 were unable to enter the housing market and their long-term retirement could be at risk. The biggest problem is trying to save a deposit when rent and the cost of living are very high. The rent on a decent apartment would cover a pretty tidy loan. Well obviously, since the rent is covering the owner's costs.
• NEWS.com.au | Storm fallout hangs over city (February 3, 2004)
• America prepares for Moore - www.smh.com.au
• Janet Jackson Superbowl flash sparks outrage. 03/02/2004. ABC News Online / NEWS.com.au | Entertainment | Probe on Super Bowl boob (February 03, 2004): Timberlake reached across Jackson's leather gladiator outfit and pulled off the covering to her right breast, which was partially obscured by a sun-shaped, metal nipple decoration. ....which should answer the question about whether this was intentional or not. She just happened to have a nipple decoration on under the outfit? But chance, under the panel which happened to be weak and happened to be yanked on? Yeah, sure. It was a publicity stunt, people. MTV and Superbowl both know their ratings will go up.

Bad News Hughes | Uncle Patrick's Advice to Children.

• The cops never think it's as funny as you do.
• Yeah, I know Sid Vicious wore a lock on a chain around his neck just like that. But the first time you try and pogo with that thing on it's gonna chip a tooth, Road Warrior.
• God created assistant managers when he was in a really shitty mood.

via boingboing

• NAB chief quits amid trading scandal. 02/02/2004. ABC News Online / NEWS.com.au | Forex scandal claims NAB chief (February 2, 2004) - NATIONAL Australia Bank shares surged today after the resignation of chief executive Frank Cicutto, who will be paid out $3.27 million in the wake of the NAB's foreign exchange crisis. It's tough to resign in shame from NAB, apparently. A mere $3.27m to soften the blow; however will he cope.
• A quiet revolution - www.smh.com.au - Triple J changing its format. Problem for me is I hate the music now; but no other station plays what I do want to hear. Damn demographics - would it help I pretended I was still 24?
• MyDoom worm scores hit, knocks out SCO site - www.smh.com.au. Karma.
• Child named with techno-jargon - www.smh.com.au. When geeks get a little too enthusiastic....