TypeWorks: standards-compliant publishing tool. Developed in the same building where I buy my groceries. Who'd have known? :)

Politics-Oriented Software Development || kuro5hin.org: The person who identifies a problem is usually blamed for that problem ... someone who points out a problem early is a troublemaker; someone who fixes a problem at the last minute is a hero.

fuck it all, that quote summarises my work life as it stands right now. periodically i forget that being right doesn't matter a damn. it doesn't matter that i know exactly when something went pear shaped and tried to stop it happening, i'm the bad guy for not smiling and saying how wonderful it all is. apparently it's laudable to cheerfully let the same fuckups happen over and over again.

*sigh* here's me signing up to "Learn To Keep Your Fucking Mouth Shut 101". apparently i think too much and i definitely say too much. i need to mask what i think and say as little as possible. the stress might kill me, but at least i'll keep my job.

Boing Boing: Metal iPod case mod. yep, ipod case mod.

• rocksluts (rocksluts): Photo of the day - the strange ones. hee hee.
• photographers (juliaoceanchild): on a train
• photographers (superbees): flash frozen raindrops

• more bloody macheads - just in case you thought the iProduct thing was a joke :)
• An Apology: To the Girl in the Parking Garage
• UrbanRacer.Com | In-car footage of racetrack dicing and an awesome slipstream

bright foliage, la trobe university, bundoora (melbourne).

Also posted at lj:photographers and lj:aussie_photos.

Labels: photo

i'm more than willing to complain when a company pissed me off. so it's only fair that i plug the hell out of companies which are great! :)

to anyone who wears glasses or contacts: get yourself to Iris Optometrists, Shop 12, 9 Sherwood Road, Toowong 4066. ph (07) 3870 0606. That's inside Toowong Tower - up the escalator from near the flower stand and in past the jeweller. their range, service and prices are fantastic.

last time i bought glasses i went to every shop in the city and felt like i was looking at the same shit over and over again; not to mention getting shitty attitude from most of the shop staff. i hated every minute.

this time i spent about 20 mins total and feel like i got glasses which suit me perfectly. Iris has lots of groovy frames, even their budget range is excellent. i got an extra pair made up from the cheapest range in the shop and they look great. i'll be wearing them as a 'second pair' and not hiding them as 'spares' (not bad for about $150 for complete specs).

basically their deal is stocking interesting stuff the big chain stores don't have; but their prices are as good or better. plus, they bulk-bill for eye tests. i don't even know any *doctors* who bulk bill any more.

to cap it off, they gave me a good specs case, cleaning cloth and lense cleaner; all of which cost me extra at the chain stores.

i can't recommend these people highly enough. go there!

• The Australian: Battle over, Beazley will push reform [January 27, 2005]. Actually if you read the article there's nothing to say what Beazley himself plans to do. Gillard has made some strong statements about what he should do; Beazley himself has done nothing but apply a thin civil veneer to brushing her off. Poor journalism, or has Beazley said nothing for himself so far? Who would know.
• The Australian: MPs' new push to ditch Queen [January 27, 2005]. I doubt they'll get far. The royal family now has a young, handsome future king and they keep sending their kids over here to ride horses and get stoned. Oddly enough that's probably enough to keep the average Aussie keen on the monarchy. Besides that, they'd have to actually show some evidence that becoming a republic would have any real benefits in peoples' daily lives. The pure concept may appeal to the intelligentsia, but you'd have to work a bit harder to convince anyone else.
• MediaGuardian.co.uk | Media | VW to sue Polo bomb ad duo. Apparently VW thinks it's getting a raw deal from thousands of people watching an ad for the VW Polo. It was definitely shot with professional gear/methods, but I have no idea what it would actually cost. If the 40k figure is true, I'd be surprised if the makers truly did it just for a showreel. Unless of course they felt it would bring in enough money to cover the outlay. Again, I don't know - the massive turnover involved in advertising could actually make 40k a reasonable 'on spec' outlay. But equally it wouldn't surprise me if VW had actually funded it then decided not to run it.
• TheDenverChannel.com - Family - Children Charged With Felonies Over Violent Drawings: Two boys, ages 9 and 10, were charged with felonies and taken away from school in handcuffs, accused of making violent drawings of stick figures.

• photographers (neo651): [ten shots]
• photographers (liadtwad): sunset over a Marina in the French Rivera
• photographers (spoken lies): it's due
• aussie_photos (urbandaydream): bottles
• photographers (llama photos): the toys r us bathroom in the city....

• Announcing the Apple iProduct (GIF)
• The Onion | Someday, I Will Copyedit The Great American Novel
• boing:
  • Boing Boing: HOWTO kick someone's ass with an umbrella. Information for every gentleman or lady.
  • Boing Boing: Jailed for using a nonstandard browser. I wish this was a joke.
  • Boing Boing: Pirate Pirates of the Caribbean script. ARRRRRR!!!

Fishermen underneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Labels: photo

hope everyone's having a good australia day. we had a very non-aussie breakfast of pancakes, but since we commented on how it wasn't aussie i think we'll let that slide ;)

so anyway, go eat lamb, beef or tofu. whatever :)

• The Australian: Woman on the verge [January 25, 2005]: Gillard has largely maintained her composure in recent days, ignoring the implicit sexism and double-standards inherent in some of the questions being thrown at her. Sadly it's clear the Labor party is scared of a female boss; and they think the general public are too. Are Australian voters really so lame? Well, maybe. OK, probably. I can't help thinking younger voters want younger candidates and aren't put off by a female, nor are they bothered about whether she has kids or not. Pity the grey vote decides our elections. All that said... Gillard doesn't currently handle the media as well as Rudd. She (or her advisers) will have to get better at it to get past the extra crap that the media clearly intends to throw at her.
• The Australian: A reality check for aspirant's dream to be PM [January 25, 2005]: Rudd's backers have stressed to him that the past week has ... placed him head and shoulders above any other candidate as the natural leadership successor once Beazley finally departs the scene. Nobody is talking like Beazley will become PM.
• Costello says inflation within target range. 25/01/2005. ABC News Online: [T]he Consumer Price Index (CPI) had risen 0.8 per cent in the December quarter. But apparently it's not a problem.
• Abbott denies consumers will pay for PBS cut. 25/01/2005. ABC News Online. Bullshit. The companies will immediately hike prices and blame the cut. We'll be lucky if they only hike prices by 12.5%.
• Going Dutch - what it really means - Fashion - www.smh.com.au: Those who sport Von Dutch apparel today - predominantly teenage girls - know nothing of the designer's history. Something in the hive mind perhaps? decker was ranting about this the other day. It's hardly surprising that fasion victims know nothing about what they wear. I've often wanted to clobber idiot 14yo girls wearing 'PUNK!'-slogan shirts they bought in order to follow fasion. They're so pretty....vacant.

• linkfrenzy: why there will be US draft in August (via so many i'm not sure where it started)
• dallasobserver.com | Have Gun, Will Travel | 2005-01-06. Actually that should be titled 'Have Xbox, Will Travel'. Most interesting is the reaction when this guy took a week off - some gamers need to get out a bit more.
• Star Wars Republic News: Darth Tater. Mr Potato Head Sith Lord.
• Lord of the Rings (really short edition)[animated gif]. Funny. Very funny. via drjon.
• BBC NEWS | Health | Untidy beds may keep us healthy: Failing to make your bed in the morning may actually help keep you healthy, scientists believe. Hot damn.
• craigslist.org
  • re: Question for Cops and Detectives
  • To the bitch in line at Farenheit 9/11 last night... if only for the term 'yippie'. i call them 'mercedes hippies' or 'beamer hippies'.
  • To the guys that found me on their doorstep - 12/17/04
• THE THOUGHT PROJECT // BY SIMON HOEGSBERG (flash). A project where strangers were stopped in the street and asked what they had just been thinking about. (via zeldman)
• Dilbert | 2005.01.23 | Change is :) Remember: management never make bad decisions. It's YOUR fault, you're just a nay-sayer who can't cope with change. And bullwhips are perfectly acceptable as motivational devices.

thousands of kilometres from home, a one hour timezone difference making things feel weird, thank fuck i could get hold of a coffee despite the end of semester shutdown.

taken at la trobe university, bundoora campus (melbourne).

Update: also posted in lj:aussie_photos.

Labels: photo

can anyone tell me who started this fucking trend of saying 'dub dub dub' instead of 'www'? i need to ram pineapples into their source of wisdom.

jimeoin once talked about little 'treats', like the beer label coming off in one go. totally meaningless to anyone else, but nice for the person. in that spirit: heretic's house of fun just got its 10,000th hit (on the menu page that is).

there's a huge number of cat photos coming through photo journals at the moment. seems to be flavour of the month. so, what the hell, here's mine.

this shot was taken on 35mm in 1998 and submitted as part of my final photojournalism portfolio... basically because my tutor had said at the start of the year that he didn't want 'photos of your bloody cat'. i have a huge amount of respect for him, but i couldn't resist putting a cat photo in... especially for him. besides, it wasn't my cat ;) i never did get a photo of him, though (well, not that survived the darkroom - he tore up the negs of the shots of him).

grumpy bugger taught us brilliantly and if our work was shit, he told us. i'll never forget the day he said one of my shots was 'quite good'. i was so stunned - i still can't recall which shot it was. but i wanted to throw a party :)

Update: also posted at lj:photographers and lj:aussie_photos.

Labels: photo

Another time I can't decide which shot is better.

(rusty mooring ring at kangaroo point.)

Comments welcome, this way...

Labels: photo

• Why Not? A graphic illustration of why you might not want to run a nitrous system in your car.
• Boing Boing | Sony: DRM cost us the Walkman. Rare thing for a big corp to admit a mistake like that...!
• Mainichi Interactive | Woman faces charges for deleting ex-boyfriend's online game data. We all knew it was a crime.
• Urban Legends Reference Pages: Automobiles (Seat Belts). Darwin Award coming up?
• lazyboy tv | Underwear goes on the outside. Not really what it sounds like.
• Ford Vehicles: SYN^US: As the population shifts back to the big cities, you'll need a rolling urban command center. Riiight. Well ok so the cyberpunk in me rather likes this, but it's still disturbing to think of soccer mums rolling around in these.

colinmo: The History of Signoff.

a certain rockslut posts his shot of the path at kangaroo point... for interest's sake, let's post the shot i took nearby :)

Labels: photo

• photographers (m.e.i.): New Year's Indulgences. it's easy to do sepia badly, but hard to do it this well.
• photographers (photonutz): darkroom art
• photographers (deadhookerboxer): something is lurking
• photographers (seafoodmwg): portrait in the cold
• deviantART: No Return by *Gwarf (from deviantART: Global Subway Photo Contest Gallery)

comin' to ya live and loud.... hah. no. but i am at least coming to you quite fast at my end. certainly faster than my 56k modem.

hooray for dsl.

update: odd, but it seems like my isp's web sites are all down right now. that, or i can't see them. if this page is all, like, plain'n'stuff (for you)... then they are down. including this blog's css and image files.

A couple from a recent Kangaroo Point photo excursion...

Rock climber making like a spider.

Reflected afternoon sun on the water.

Closeup detail of a metal sculpture of a fish.

Update: also posted at lj:photographers and lj:aussie_photos.

Labels: photo

NEWS.com.au | Ill health ends Latham's career (January 19, 2005) ...fucking awful bit of writing, even for The Daily Telegraph (via news.com.au). The lead par shows tremendous bias and value judgements yet poses as an article instead of the opinion piece it so clearly is. The chosen photo implies that the cameraman didn't simply fall over and the caption is too vague to clarify it. Keep in mind that news is supposed to be reported in a fair and unbiased manner. The reader should be presented with bland facts and allowed to form their own opinion. Farr clearly can't separate personal opinion from professional output, nor can his editor.

Meanwhile the actual comment piece NEWS.com.au | Experiment proved a disaster (January 19, 2005) is a perfect example of why many opinion pieces shouldn't be printed - it's nothing but a combination ego-stroke and vicious personal attack on Latham. Akerman revels in the fact that he beat up the bullshit about Latham needing to 'respond' the tsunami - a manufactured 'failing' which nobody would ever have even noticed had people like Akerman reported news instead of politicising tragedy. Akerman should never have been allowed to use a media outlet to air his personal anger at Latham. So fucking what if Latham sought a new outlet for his column? Perhaps he simply realised The Daily Telegraph lacked the integrity to say no to people like Akerman - that it would dignify the airing of a grudge.

This is all typical of the vile behaviour of the Australian media with regards to Latham. The press hated him and so they've hounded him out of office. Then they've immediately turned around and vilified him for resigning. Then they've blamed someone else - NEWS.com.au | Premiers stuck the knife in deep (January 19, 2005). The only concession to the media's role that I've seen so far is NEWS.com.au | Headlines 'finished off' Latham (January 19, 2005), which quotes a sympathetic view of the situation.

So what can we conclude? Well for one thing The Daily Telegraph isn't fit to line the proverbial budgie's cage, but that's hardly a new observation. The Australian media are tremendously biased and getting more open about it every day. We cannot trust the media and we should not put up with them setting the nation's agenda to best suit their publishing schedule. Our politicians have failed to work in the nation's best interests, our media have failed to call them out to face scrutiny.

What can we do? Well, don't go to just one media outlet. Look up Australian media ownership and pick sources from different owners (yeah, both of 'em). Get your main news from the ABC, they may not be perfect but they're pretty damn good. Try not to get distracted by all the crap about celebrities that gets run as lead stories - remember, in hardcopy the social and entertainment pages are NOT on the front page (as much).

Above all, don't believe everything you read.

Ahh, the joy of beta software! Opera 8 beta is available and installed on my machine. True to form the works of Google react: Gmail now works, but Blogger kinda breaks. Gmail is brillian in Opera, much faster than Netscape 7 (which is what I've been using to get by).

• Changelog for Opera Beta for Windows
• Look who's talking now: Opera Continues to Innovate the Web Experience with the new Opera Beta
• Opera Features and Functions

Overall verdict: some bugs, but worth it.

• Out with the new, in with the old - National - www.smh.com.au: Kim Beazley has emerged as the odds-on favourite to become the next leader of the Labor Party, following the resignation, due to ill health, of Mark Latham. Beazley's health is suspect, but that doesn't bother the labor party or the press. Beazley has lost twice as many elections as Latham, that doesn't seem to bother the Labor party or the press. Frankly, it's a pity Latham's retirement statement wasn't "Fuck you all, I'm not putting up with your shit any longer."
• Labor split over new leader. 19/01/2005. ABC News Online: While former Labor leader Kim Beazley is the only candidate so far to announce a tilt at the post of Opposition Leader since the resignation of Mark Latham, the party appears split over who would best lead it. Labor continues to show its complete lack of introspection - they pushed Latham out on the grounds of needing stability, but had no real idea who they would replace him with. Talk about Amateur Hour - there are student unions with more solidarity. If Labor really wants to revitalise its image they should go with a young, female leader - hey, it nearly worked for the Democrats.
• NEWS.com.au | Firefox gains ground (January 19, 2005): Research group webSideStory said usage of Firefox, created by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, has almost doubled in the past three months to 4.95 per cent of all internet users.
• NEWS.com.au | Google releases photo software (January 19, 2005). Hmm. Sounds a lot like Gmail dressed as a photo repository.
• Spotlight on ... bloggers - Technology - www.smh.com.au: Web logs, or blogs, are being described as one of the biggest threats facing mainstream news organisations. If you read critically you'll notice the article goes on to discredit and trivialise blogs.
• All beefs aside, meat rant spared the chop - National - www.theage.com.au: A red-meat rant that calls vegetarians soap-avoiding, pot-smoking hippies, and suggests eating anything other than lamb on Australia Day deserves capital punishment, will be allowed to stay on television. Vegetarians: please understand, this is satire; and it's intended to sell meat to people who eat it. We meat eaters love you really (even if we don't love tofu). Save your wrath for restaurants with no vege options. Appreciate the fact that meat eaters don't attack vege restaurants for their lack of a 'meat option', the hypocritical sods.

• I read the comics so you don't have to
• Gizmodo : Self-Destruct Button DX. too. damn. cool. although from the engrish it looks like it's not functional, which is a pity.
• Ananova - Police hunt poo protesters : Police in Germany are hunting pranksters who have been sticking miniature US flags into piles of dog poo in public parks. Some protests are just brilliant. (via drjon)
• AP Wire | 01/18/2005 | D.A. Confronts 'Jury Pool From Hell'. This is the problem with the concept of a 'jury of your peers'. There's nothing to say you'll get anyone you'd call a 'peer'.
• Start-up shrinks PC to palm size | CNET News.com. Coming soon to managers near you.
• One does not simply walk into Mordor (animated gif)

• NEWS.com.au | Latham quits Labor leadership (January 18, 2005) / 'I did my bit': Latham quits, blames health - National - www.smh.com.au / Latham quits. 18/01/2005. ABC News Online. Isn't it heartwarming when the media decides it's time for someone to retire? Plus, Beazley is gearing up for a press conference - gosh, I wonder what that could be about. No doubt something like: "Hi, me again, I know I failed as party leader and then repeatedly said I wouldn't take on the leader role again.... but guess what! Fingers crossed! Nyahaahah!" *sigh* the Liberals are going to win the next federal election.
• Also on Latham: Exit, pursued by a bear. - Gnus Roundup - ALP Self-flagellation Special.
• NEWS.com.au | 50,000 bank jobs may go to India (January 18, 2005): ANZ Bank boosted developer numbers at its Bangalore software facility in India by more than 30 per cent last year as it struggled with staff shortages and an overflow of integration work in Australia. Two other big-four banks - National Australia Bank and Westpac - have also joined the offshoring trend, confirming last week that they had engaged Tata Consultancy Services to perform project work on their behalf in India. *chokes on own rage*
• Man arrested over 1984 Sydney murder. 18/01/2005. ABC News Online: New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroney says painstaking work by detectives has led to a 51-year-old man being charged over a murder committed 21 years ago.
• BBC NEWS | UK | Virgin boss unveils space trips: "Space tourism is less than three years away, Sir Richard Branson has claimed."

The Firefox browser and JAWS - at last! :: WATS.ca. JAWS is arguably the most popular (or at least most commonly known) screen reader. Currently it only supports Internet Explorer, meaning that a segment of the community is tied to the worst browser on the market. Now extensions for Firefox have been released, giving these users a choice. It's worth noting that other software is out there which vocalise web content and some browsers are now incorporating speech functionality (refer: Opera 8 beta).

It's all good.

• Modern Living, oddly engaging flash. via decker.
• DYKEdolls - lesbian action figures, 'Bobbie dolls'. The site's explanation is priceless: Some of us have played with Barbie. But most of us would prefer to strap a dildo on Bobbie and ride Barbie like there's no tomorrow... (via drjon)
• The Seven Best Positions in Bed lookitdacutekitties... (via drjon)
• The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Fugitive hid since June in North Carolina store: A prisoner who escaped in June was recaptured this week and accused of robbery after surviving for months by hiding in a vacant electronics store and eating stolen baby food, police said. Expect the movie next year... (via drjon, think i'll have to retitle this post linkplundery)
• AppleMatters | Disassembling an iShuffle. I forgot to predict this site, otherwise I could have gleefully shouted 'six days!' :) Aside from installing linux on any device with a processor, another common pastime of geeks with too much time and money on their hands is 'Pulling Stuff Apart'. Here we get to see inside an iShuffle. I'm left wondering how the hell you replace the battery when it dies. My guess is you pay Apple almost (but not quite) exactly the same amount you paid for the damn thing in the first place.
• JuneauEmpire.com: State & Regional: Wasilla man constructing 18-foot-tall not-a-robot 01/17/05
• beancounter parodies: ClerkClerk: What if the screenplay of 'Clerks' had been written by the editors of the e-zine BoingBoing?
• daemlich.net - 30mm Gattling Gun [wmv]. Sounds like a power tool, not the insane weapon that it is.

• Returned camera shows startling images of tsunami - Asia Tsunami - www.smh.com.au. Photographer Bedu Saini took several photos of the tsunami before realising the enormity of the situation; when he stashed the camera and went to his family. Now the shots have been released.
• NEWS.com.au | Local PeopleSoft chiefs depart (January 17, 2005): ORACLE'S takeover of PeopleSoft has had rapid consequence for the acquired company's local management team, with the majority of senior Australian executives given their marching orders.
• Rich offenders laugh at fines - National - www.smh.com.au: Rich people should pay bigger fines for speeding or parking illegally, a think tank has proposed. Basically an idea to prevent rich people shrugging off fines they can pay without noticing - the cost is no deterrent to them. Doubt it will get through though - if nothing else, the people who decide would all be on high incomes.
• IOL: Front Page: Taipei - A shy Taiwanese woman saw her D-cup bust shrink back to an A-cup after receiving an acupuncture treatment for pimples on her face, a doctor said on Tuesday.

Le blog personnel de Joe Clark | Time to call bullshit on Six Apart: Movable Type and TypePad, like all blogging software, fail to meet the Authoring Tools Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG). The difference here is that Six Apart has known about it for years and claims to care, yet has done nothing.

The short summary: it's not just a tool's output which has to be accessible, the tool itself needs to be accessible (most blogging tools use a web interface). Clark's particular beef is that Six Apart claim their tool is accessible, when it doesn't meet the relevant guidelines.

Clark observes that nobody, in fact, complies with ATAG and plenty of companies don't even comply with WCAG... for example, Google gets no quarter for their failure to Do Good: Google doesn't give a shit about accessibility or Web standards. Gmail is still inaccessible (see later complaint), despite one developer's promise to fix it. I challenge you to find valid code on anything Google produces. Anyone who has been reading this blog for any length of time will recall my occasional rant on that topic, particularly given Google's mission statement including efforts to 'make the world better'.

• NEWS.com.au | Labor MPs discuss Latham spill (January 14, 2005): LABOR MPs have begun meeting to discuss a possible replacement for Opposition Leader Mark Latham amid mounting speculation about his health and future. ... But Mr Fitzgibbon said Labor MPs would not turf Mr Latham out of his job just because he had suffered a second bout of pancreatitis. It's ridiculous that Latham is being hounded out of politics like this - I think they're just bad losers, they need to blame somebody more than they need to get on with their job as Opposition.
• NEWS.com.au | Charles orders sons to Auschwitz (January 14, 2005): BRITAIN'S Prince Charles has reportedly ordered his sons to visit Auschwitz after Prince Harry caused outrage around the world by wearing a Nazi uniform to a party. Seems appropriate.
• The Australian: Thaw sees grass take hold in Antarctica [December 27, 2004]: GRASS has become established in Antarctica, showing the continent is warming to temperatures unseen for 10,000 years. Scientists have reported that broad areas of grass are now forming turf where there were once ice-sheets and glaciers. (older news post, via linkfrenzy). I'm no expert, but that sounds like a Bad Thing.
• How not to get people into jobs - Opinion - www.theage.com.au: The Government has an interesting response when it is pointed out how unsuccessful work for the dole is in getting the unemployed into work. It blithely states that work for the dole was never meant to help people into employment. My theory: work for the dole, just like centrelink, is designed to make unemployed life so desperately miserable that people will do anything at all to get out of the system (and hence no longer claiming welfare money). Some ideas might have been an attempt to catch those few people who really do bludge off, but those people invariably figure out how to work the system anyway. The rest try to do the right thing, only to discover they are treated like they're trying to rort the system.
• NEWS.com.au | US military wanted 'sex bomb' (January 14, 2005): Declassified documents reveal the Pentagon toyed with the idea of an aphrodisiac chemical weapon in 1994. ... The weapon's developers said homosexual behaviour among troops would deal a 'distasteful but completely non-lethal' blow to morale. Perhaps they should have chosen their words more carefully.

Another meaningless milestone... this blog reached 20,000 hits today. Woot :)

• GameDevBlog: Notes on X-Com: Well, it has probably been some of the best gaming pleasure I've had all year. And I mean 2004. That's right, the best game for me in 2004 was originally published in 1993. The curmudgeons are right, games aren't actually getting any better. Another aspect of the same thought: a really good game will remain entertaining and engaging long after it's an "old game".
• Getting the Girl from 1UP.COM, discussing the role of female characters in gaming - and not just the usual rant: So with men designing approachable leading ladies of realistic proportions and women enthusing over the feminine aspects of Playboy and goth queens, I realized that the issue might have less to do with gender and more to do with how sexuality is perceived in today's games. 'It's wrong to single out female characters when their male counterparts are usually just as superficial,' argues Amy Hennig, game director for Naughty Dog.
• Turn any iPod into an iPod Shuffle in 3 easy steps! on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (via nick via kottke)
• Clean your screen for free! (needs sound for full effect)
• Ananova - Dr Who cut short : Filming of the new series of Doctor Who has been hit by a shortage of dwarf actors. ... Executive producer Russell T Davies said: 'It's very difficult to employ persons of restricted growth when, as our producer Phil Collinson says, `Bloody Gringotts and the Chocolate Factory are filming at the same time'.' Quote of the day :)
• The Redhead Cluster Phenomenon (Joe Clark: fawny.org; 2002.07.29): You happen upon redheads in close sequence, followed by long periods of seeing none whatsoever. You?ll see five in an afternoon and then none for two weeks. This, dear friends, is the Redhead Cluster Phenomenon. Old article I hadn't seen before. I wonder if Joe has explored the potential that redheads control the movement of public buses. *thinks* You know, that might be a question for a certain professor I know.
• Comic Book Bondage Cover of the Day, devoted to scans of vintage comic book covers which feature tied-up damsels in distress. The author doesn't really say why, but then most of the stuff on the net doesn't need a reason (or have a reason you want to know about).
• Compfused.com - Obi Won Buys a Car (quicktime). HILARIOUS.

Whiskey Bar: Scenes From the Bunker. Short, very telling. Go read.

Students surf safely with Opera: Opera site license free for educational institutions (2005.01.12): Opera Software today announced that it will offer free site licenses to higher education institutions. For less press-releasey information just see Opera Higher Education Program.

Hurrah! It was already very cheap for a site license, but free is better. Reactions: Slashdot | Opera Offers Free Licenses For Educational Use, Opera dangles free browser in front of universities | The Register . So far I haven't seen anything pop up in the mainstream news outlets, it'll probably come through in a couple of days (if at all).

• Web content management 2005 predications | January 10, 2005; by Gerry McGovern . Realistically I would see these predictions as 3-5 year forecasts, not realistic expectations for 2005. The vast majority of the web is still run by people who have no real idea what they are doing with their sites.
• wg:Turner.com. A lot is being said about Turner.com going standards-compliant. I'd probably be more excited if I'd heard of them before :) Still, it adds the list of (apparently) high profile sites seeing the light. Probably the most interesting aspect is this: What?s interesting about this re-design ... is how they came to appreciate the methodology. ... [Turner] were actively looking for contractors with experience developing web standards based websites. Now that is unusual.
• Digital Web Magazine - The Behavior Layer: Now that Web developers have a solid grip on the XHTML structural and CSS presentation layers, it?s time to consider the JavaScript behavior layer and especially its accessibility. Discusses Javascript as another layer to be abstracted/separated from the content layer, also emphasising the idea that script should be used to increase a page's usability (as opposed to adding useless crap). Further articles: Separating Behavior and Presentation & Separating behavior and structure

• Habib to be set free as Hicks awaits trial - Global Terrorism - www.smh.com.au: The father of four is expected to be released from United States custody without charge and flown home within days after more than three years in detention on suspicion of terrorism. / No apology for Habib: PM. 12/01/2005. ABC News Online. Apparently we are now 'innocent until proven suspicious'.
• BBC NEWS | Magazine | IT support for your parents: Of those who returned to the family roost for Christmas, many will have found the normal festive activities peppered with a rather less traditional commitment: fixing mum or dad's computer It's all true. It does have some benefits though - a cousin of mine gave me an utterly gorgeous candlestick for fixing her computer once. I'd wanted one since I saw them at a market stall while a was a broke student, but years on had given up hope of finding them again.
• BBC NEWS | Magazine | Catching up with boy racers...: [N]ew research suggests women are becoming as aggressive as men behind the wheel. The same article then claims that doesn't make their driving any worse. I'm sure that arguement would work if men tried it. Sure.
• NEWS.com.au | New iPod, Mac mini unveiled (January 12, 2005). New iPod has been out for hours now and I'm yet to see a page detailing how some guy installed Linux on it.
• Australian IT - Women lead IT course exodus (Brendan O'Keefe, JANUARY 12, 2005). At some point people will have to accept that women are not drawn to IT in equal numbers, just as men are not drawn to nursing. Plus, the industry is in a pretty shitty state at the moment. We need to start telling everyone their microwave will break in 2010 due to a fundamental programming error.
• Greer quits Big Brother - TV & Radio - www.smh.com.au: Germaine Greer ... left British show Celebrity Big Brother after four days. ... [In 2001] she said those who appeared on celebrity reality TV 'risked the wreck of their pampered egos by humiliation'. But still she entered the house and, on day one, vomited as she had to climb over a cesspool of garbage.

• Govt hoses down Aceh security concerns. 11/01/2005. ABC News Online / NEWS.com.au | Downer: We won't arm Diggers (January 11, 2005). Didn't take long for fundamentalists to politicise the situation. It's just.... gah. How could you think of such things in the middle of such a disaster?
• Nude abuse: 'cheerleaders ...form pyramids' - After Saddam - www.smh.com.au: A defence lawyer says there's nothing wrong with US troops piling up naked prisoners ... 'Cheerleaders all over America form pyramids,' he said. I'm pretty sure most cheerleaders don't form pyramids naked in jail.
• NEWS.com.au | Crowd joins unforgettable match (January 11, 2005): WORLD cricket came together like never before at the MCG yesterday, warming hearts and raising at least $14 million for tsunami-hit nations. ... Across the country, tsunami donations cracked the $160 million mark as grassroots Aussies joined corporate giants to dig deep. For anyone wondering, Warne did walk but the umpire gave him a warning and sent him back. Don't know if that counts for the $10k :)
• NEWS.com.au | Shed kilos with 20 mins more sleep (January 11, 2005): A STUDY published today found that people who sleep less tend to be fat, and experts said it was time to find out if more sleep would fight obesity. ... Dr Turek said some studies had shown sleep deprivation caused declines in an appetite suppressing protein hormone called leptin, and increases in another hormone that caused a craving for food.

wooster collective | Fresh Stuff From Visual Assassins aka xCirkus.

sticker street arts, adelaide street, brisbane. i am a big fan of these, for a lot of reasons. they are transient in nature so you always find new ones; each instance of a repeated design will be slightly different; they don't actually damage things so they seem to get left alone; and of course they can have real artistic merit. thankfully my gf is tolerant of me suddenly exclaiming "ooh! ooh! new one! hang on a sec... *click click*" :)

...as opposed to all those plans which say "make crap"?

the other thing i can't help commenting on... the site in question is the Reading Pits at Griffith's Nathan Campus. they've filled in the pits to make a flat/level room, which begs the question - will they rename it? it won't be pits anymore :) which is kind of a pity. the reading pits were a quirky bit of campus fitout. seems they have something interesting planned, though... so i guess we'll wait and see. i'm sure the students won't care so long as there's still a comfortable place to fall asleep during the exam period :)

• FARK.com: (1282194) Photoshop a poster to help remind people to make coffee . Some good ones in there... favourite two: "if you don't make coffee, starbucks will" and "subvert the domininant paradigm, make more coffee".
• Work or Spoon... Which will you choose? | Quick tips for candidates and new hires
• Boing Boing: More Googleable unsecured webcams. Not just webcams, actually - password lists, error messages which give away too much info, unsecured content of all kinds...
• Boing Boing: Low-tech "Hipster PDA" (cards and a paperclip) hacks. I think Prof Von Explaino will have to release the prior-art killbots ;)
• Boing Boing: SD Card with ingenious USB interface. That is exceedingly cool, such a fantastic idea.
• Boing Boing: Sleep's social, technological and biological basis -- WOW. Dig a little into this post, it's worth it.
• mezzoblue | DHTML '05 | Interactive map of Switzerland (via colinmo)

Metacrap: Putting the torch to seven straw-men of the meta-utopia (by Cory Doctorow). The seven reasons why meta-data is doomed.

Here in the Info-Ivory-Tower, we understand the importance of creating and maintaining excellent metadata for our information.

But info-civilians are remarkably cavalier about their information. ... This laziness is bottomless. No amount of ease-of-use will end it. ...

Short of breaking fingers or sending out squads of vengeful info-ninjas to add metadata to the average user's files, we're never gonna get there.

Heheheheh.... info-ninja.

Accessibility evaluation practices - survey results (Dey Alexander). My gut feeling is that until we have serious AI, only a human will be able to adequately evaluate a page's accessibility. This survey provides data showing that's how most people evaluate pages, so I guess most people agree.

While you're there, you may be interested in the Web accessibility podGuide (an alternative to the Westciv one which did the rounds). I'd love to be using this, of course; anyone got an iPod they'd like to donate? ;)

For anyone who likes the pancake bunny, now see wireless bunny.

• Shareholders' group opposes tsunami donations. 07/01/2005. ABC News Online: Australian Shareholders Association ... spokesman Stephen Matthews says firms should not generally give without expecting something in return. ... He says corporate donations of any kind should not be made without the prior approval of shareholders. If he'd just stuck with the not-without-shareholder-approval line (which is actually a reasonable observation), he might not have come off sounding like a callous arsehole. While it's obvious that companies want good press from donations, it shouldn't be the only factor considered.
• Rudd defends Latham's silence on tsunami. 07/01/2005. ABC News Online: Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, has again defended party leader Mark Latham over his failure to make a public statement about the tsunami disaster in Asia. Mr Latham is again suffering from acute pancreatitis and has been ordered by doctors to remain in bed. This is such a fucking beat-up. At the end of the day, the Opposition should be most vocal when the Government is being lax. Unusually, Johnny is doing good things, so if Latham had been out talking about the issue he would have been criticised for trying to politicise the issue. Besides that, would it make an actual difference to have Latham agreeing (on camera) that the tsunami was a Bad Thing? The media have clearly decided to run the poor sod into oblivion, not making any concessions for the fact the guy is bloody sick.
• NEWS.com.au | Microsoft offers free virus remover (January 7, 2005): Microsoft said the virus-removal program would not prevent computer infections and was never intended to replace the need for traditional antivirus software, such as flagship products from McAfee or Symantec. Errr.... read that back carefully. Perhaps it will make sense when you read on to... But a senior Microsoft executive confirmed the company's expected to start selling its own antivirus software, which would compete against programs from McAfee, Symantec and others. So... they'll give away a shit one which will not work and leave your computer riddled with viruses. Then they'll sell you the one which they claim will work. Should you trust this company?
• Richard Gere's election appeal perplexes Palestinians. 06/01/2005. ABC News Online: 'I don't even know who the candidates are other than Mahmoud Abbas, let alone this Gere,' Gaza soap factory worker Manar An Najar told Reuters. 'We don't need the Americans' intervention. We know who to elect. Not like them - they elected a moron.' That's a real quote. It's brilliant.
• Greater Union food ban is incredible, say moviegoers - National - www.smh.com.au: Greater Union has defended its ban on people bringing their own food and drink into its cinemas, but moviegoers yesterday said it was unfair. There's only one solution: vote with your feet.
• Sony outgadgets Apple - Technology - http://www.smh.com.au/technology/: Electronics giant Sony unveiled its powerhouse entry into the hand-held gaming market, the long-awaited PlayStation Portable, [and it] is already fetching upwards of twice its retail price of $US190 ($A248) on eBay.

• Boing Boing: LiveJournal announces sale to Six Apart. Six Apart is the company behind the blogging tool Moveable Type.
• Boing Boing: NPPA Best of Photojournalism 2004
• Boing Boing: Bill Gates: Free Culture advocates = Commies. Well obviously Gates is going to see money as the best motivator to do ... well, anything.
• Boing Boing: Reader-annotated edition of Neal Stephenson's "Command Line". That's quite an effort and also cool that Stephenson has allowed it (mind you the original text was already available as a free download).

Google Press Center: Zeitgeist 2004. Compare with Zeitgeist 2003.

Crikey - Tracking the tsunami donations: Formula One star Michael Schumacher has set a new benchmark for individual donations to the tsunami relief funds, with a $US10 million pledge announced on German TV overnight. Wow.

• Howard pledges $1b to Indonesian recovery. 06/01/2005. ABC News Online: 'It is the single largest aid contribution ever made by Australia,' Mr Howard said.
• Bush donates $13,000 to relief efforts - Asia Tsunami - www.smh.com.au: Bush, whose wealth is estimated at some $17 million, on Monday asked 'every American to contribute as they are able to do so'.
• Hard lesson: fewer local students enrolling at uni - National - www.smh.com.au: The new enrolment figures ... show the Australian student decline was offset by a 6.2 per cent rise last year in fee-paying foreign students. Which is bad enough, but then consider: The Australian: 'Uni fees price out foreign students' [January 05, 2005]
• Court cracks down on notorious spyware spammer - World - www.smh.com.au: Washington: A man who earned the title 'spam king' as the largest bulk e-mailer in the United States agreed to halt his activity in a preliminary settlement with US regulators, court documents show. If this guy hadn't been presenting himself as a 'businessman', do you think US courts wouldn't have him in jail by now? If the court decides you're a 'hacker' you'll be incarcerated quicker than you can say 'information wants to be free'. But make money infecting millions of computers with spyware.... well then, we might just ask nicely if you'll stop doing that now.
• Women more emotional about body image than men - brain study - World - www.smh.com.au: The brains of men and women behave differently when confronted with unpleasant words concerning body image, research has revealed.
• No more J.Lo. - People - www.smh.com.au: Jennifer Lopez has declared she wants to be called Jennifer from now on and NOT J.Lo.. How about the world's media makes this one easy - just call her "twit" from now on.

• The Australian: Donations incredible: G-G [January 05, 2005]: GOVERNOR-General Michael Jeffery has called for corporate Australia to match the public's phenomenal response to tsunami relief appeals.
• Drought relief monies go unspent. 05/01/2005. ABC News Online: The Federal Government has underspent its drought relief money by $115 million but says that does not mean the drought is weakening. About 58 per cent of farmland is drought declared. No matter what happens elsewhere, we should remember our own troubles.
• Standards 'too low': barely literate children pass tests - National - www.smh.com.au: The federal government today admitted its national child literacy benchmarks were not high enough.
• NEWS.com.au | Curries may prevent Alzheimers (January 5, 2005): A key ingredient in curries could be an important weapon in the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease. I don't know... it doesn't explain how people manage to forget how badly the vindaloo hurt them last time :)
• NEWS.com.au | Mind your manners, surfers told (January 4, 2005). "Surf rage".
• Carsguide - Cars to expect in 2005 [31dec04].
• Court rules 'pimp' caption complimentary. 05/01/2005. ABC News Online: A US Appeals Court has ruled that a sports web site was within its rights to dub legendary stuntman Evel Knievel a 'pimp'. Knievel is clearly not happy with the decision.

Look who's talking now: Opera Continues to Innovate the Web Experience with the new Opera Beta. Blah blah. In short: 7.60 beta got so big they decided to upgrade it to a major version. Opera 7 license holders will get a 'free upgrade' to the new version.

• Deluged with money, charity says stop - Asia Tsunami - www.smh.com.au: The Australian branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) has become possibly the first aid agency in the world to ask donors to stop pledging money to its tsunami appeal. Apparently they cannot actually use further donations for the Tsunami effort, so they felt it was unethical to keep collecting. Given they're also non-religious (I'm pretty sure) this is a charity which really does stand out.
• Asia begins work on tsunami warning system. 03/01/2005. ABC News Online
• Surfer rode tsunami wave to safety - Asia Tsunami - www.smh.com.au. It had to happen somewhere, I suppose.
• Buried treasures - National - www.smh.com.au: Once a plain death notice, the obituary has become an entertaining art form, writes Suzy Baldwin.
• Cheap and cheerful - the latest in mobile phones - Technology - www.smh.com.au: They come with cameras and personal organisers. They are even encrusted with diamonds - but the latest option in mobile phones is a back-to-basics $9 disposable model. Notes the backlash that people want their phone to just be a phone.
• United front key to Telstra sale: Senator. 04/01/2005. ABC News Online: ACT Liberal Senator Gary Humphries says a majority in the Senate will be of little use if the Coalition is unable to convince the Australian public that selling Telstra is in the national interest. Humphries must be the only pollie who thinks the public has any say in this at all (apart from idiotically voting Howard back in, of course).
• The Australian: Aaron Russell: Good riddance to compulsory campus unionism [December 29, 2004]: Given a free choice, somewhere between 70 per cent and 90 per cent of students will happily let the student unions starve. It's unlikely they will be much missed. Most student unions fail to provide services to the majority of students. At my almer mater, the vast majority of my cash went to the sporting facilities - which I never used and you had to pay for anyway. There were talks of allowing you to specify where the money went, but that was probably ditched after the radicals in the union realised it'd be their pet perks that got axed fastest. Sadly the good work will go as well as all the dodgy rorts, but the student unions brought it on themselves.

• 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The power of online knowledge sharing demonstrated... wikipedia probably gives a better coverage of the issue than any mainstream news outlet. Includes an animated graphic of the tsunami which illustrates how the waves spread. At any rate, while the topic is not a happy one it's well worth reading up at wikipedia.
• campjeep2004 | 22 year old Jeep rescues Hummer H2 in parking lot (via decker)
• lots of boing, as usual:
  • Boing Boing: Taste-tests of crazy Asian drinks
  • Boing Boing: Coke Machine Hacks
  • Boing Boing: $6 stapler doesn't use staples. The site doesn't say how many sheets of paper it can do, but even so this is a great idea.
  • Boing Boing: High altitude kites for beating the peak oil problem. An alternative to ground-based windmills, for harnessing wind energy. Certainly ingenious, but the test is always to see if it's commercially viable. With all these smart ideas, you have to wonder why green energy isn't taking over. Well not really, the cynic says, it's those damned oil cartels. Anyone think the cynic is wrong? Didn't think so.
• Reagan - Ooops. Funny.
• photos...
  • photographers: (candytrixie) Niagara Falls, Ontario & more from the same.
  • photographers: (ohgirlfriend) bottle cap wisdom
  • photographers: (goks) along baywalk.....
  • THE HOSPITAL APOKA (flash, with sound - probably best if you have broadband :))

Happy New Year, everyone. Hope you had fun seeing it in.

I have to say we had fun... some good points from the night:

• Trading text messages with friends in England - international texting rocks. Geek though I may be, I'm still impressed with that bit of technology. Somehow I didn't really expect text messages to work between nations :)
• Catching train to party, hence able to drink!
• Party interrupted with host proposing to his girlfriend (she said yes).
• Drunk people doing the countdown, tragic but amusing.
• Not overdoing the booze on my usually-driving tolerance level.
• Hatching Of Plans™. More details as they arise.
• Lift home! Yay!

Many many people agreed that they weren't so much welcoming 2005 as celebrating 'get fucked 2004'. I know my life packed in a whole bad year in the last three months. That said, I'm trying to stick with the idea That which does not kill us, makes us stronger. I've emerged on the other side having learned a lot about myself; not to mention a shmick haircut after nine years with a ponytail.

I didn't make resolutions for new year's... I made resolutions a while ago and basically I'm just sticking with them. In short, various Stuff has to Change. Making that happen is the hard bit, but hey - one step at a time :)

Labels: year in review