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the joy of dealing with users

Someone claimed some instructions were incomplete, our frontline staff made the mistake of taking their word for it. I took their word for it as well, only to discover that the extra details are in the documentation and have been for a couple of years (since I wrote it). I let our staff know, and get this reply...

so what your telling me, was that she just wasted my time, because she couldnt read the whole document.

then i wasted your time by not reading it either.

great !

Sometimes you have to laugh, because crying at work gets funny looks ;)

Ahh well. I'm on a project now anyway, so I shouldn't see this sort of thing any more. On the flip side, the project office smells like rotting carpet. Balance is maintained.

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happy australia day

Today I slept in, made some average coffee on our new espresso machine*, stuffed around with an iPod and watched a bit of tv. I didn't get shot at, power remained on the whole time (and hence our aircon stayed on) and my comfortable life wasn't disturbed.

Yep, despite the best efforts of our nation's leader, this is still a pretty fucking good place to live.

I don't care if you ate lamb or not (it's not a tradition; it's an advertising campaign, people...) but I hope you spared a thought for the reason we had a day off.

Cheers, all.

* Average coffee? Yeah, I'm gritting my teeth and admitting I wasn't born with the skill to create perfect coffee ;)

photo: sydney harbour, one afternoon in 2004

photo of the walkway beside sydney harbour

If memory serves, I took this the day after the Covenant gig. It was the first time I'd ever flown interstate just to see a band; first time I'd been to Sydney since Australia Day 1988. In fact, the first time L and I had really travelled anywhere together.

I remember dinner at Betty's Soup Kitchen, getting half lost on the way to the gig, crashing into horrible fatigue and only making it through the night on the sheer joy of the gig. I remember chatting through the lift home that night (via the Anzac Bridge) courtesy of the ever-wonderful rocksluts.

I remember the Harbour Bridge really making its impression on me the next day, amazing me that it really doesn't look like the postcards (although the Opera House really does). Took scores of average photos, a few good ones. We'd bought our cameras just days before the trip, deciding we'd be damned if we flew interstate and didn't have digital cameras :)

So, anyway, it's another photo of Sydney... :)

Also posted at lj:bestshot and lj:photographers.

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around the traps

heh, funny

ANNUAL NEOLOGISM CONTEST

Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. The winners are:

  1. Coffee (n.) the person upon whom one coughs.
  2. Flabbergasted (adj.) appalled over how much weight you have gained.
  3. Abdicate (v.) to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
  4. Esplanade (v.) to attempt an explanation while drunk.
  5. Willy-nilly (adj.) impotent.
  6. Negligent (adj.) describes a condition in which you absent-mindedly answer the door in your nightgown.
  7. Lymph (v.) to walk with a lisp.
  8. Gargoyle (n.) olive-flavored mouthwash.
  9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.
  10. Balderdash (n.) a rapidly receding hairline.
  11. Testicle (n.) a humorous question on an exam.
  12. Rectitude (n.) the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
  13. Pokemon (n) a Rastafarian proctologist.
  14. Oyster (n.) a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
  15. Frisbeetarianism (n.) (back by popular demand): The belief that, when you die, your Soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
  16. Circumvent (n.) an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

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  • Technology News Article | Reuters.co.uk: Japan's Konica Minolta Holdings Inc. said on Thursday it would withdraw from the camera and color film businesses, marking the end to one of the best known brands in the photography world. As part of the surprise move, Konica Minolta said it would sell a portion of its digital single lens reflex (SLR) camera assets to Sony Corp. for an undisclosed sum and cease production of compact cameras by March. That's a bit of a surprise, I thought they'd have made a comeback with their image stabilisation technology. Although, I wonder if we might see that appear in Sony cameras? Hmmmmm >:)
  • boing, baby, boing

around the traps

around the traps

a to z meme

  1. A - Accent: I imagine it's Strine. Not that I notice it myself, nor do I think it's overly broad. Although I tend to follow accents of other people when I talk to them. Probably a terrible habit, not sure where it came from.
  2. B - Breakfast Item: Up+Go (breakfast drink thing)
  3. C - Chore You Hate: Cleaning the bathroom and toilet.
  4. D - Dad's Name: Bruce.
  5. E - Essential Everyday Item: I wouldn't get far without glasses.
  6. F - Flavour Ice Cream: Rum & raisin and coffee. If I can get two scoops, why choose? :)
  7. G - Gold or Silver: Silver.
  8. H - Hometown: Brisbane.
  9. I - Insomnia: Fucking horrible. I have periodic run-ins with that particular beast.
  10. J - Job Title: More or less 'that standards guy'. Formally: Web Standards Developer.
  11. K - Kids: Get ye back, spawn of hell.
  12. L - Living Arrangements: Live with fiancee in a small unit full of our crap. Would rather live in a larger house where our crap wouldn't look so crammed in :)
  13. M - Mum's Birthplace: Same as me.
  14. N - Number of Significant Others You've Had: Only one. Well, at one time I would have said two; but in hindsight it wasn't really a relationship.
  15. O - Overnight Hospital Stays: One.
  16. P - Phobias: Boring to talk about.
  17. Q - Queer: Garbage, 1995. Good song.
  18. R - Religious Affiliation: Web Standards? NRL? Subaru?
  19. S - Siblings: Two, older brother and sister.
  20. T - Time I Wake Up: Eventually.
  21. U - Unnatural Hair That's not a nice thing to say.
  22. V - Vegetable You Refuse Cauliflower.
  23. W - Worst Habit: Saying what I think when I should know better.
  24. X - X-rays I've Had: Arm, hand, teeth/head.
  25. Y - Yummy: That's a very broad keyword. I'll go with cinnamon confectionary.
  26. Z - Zodiac Sign: Libra.

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around the traps

the more things change... free speech being eradicated in china

Australian IT - Backlash over blog block (Correspondents in Beijing, JANUARY 09, 2006): MICROSOFT is under fire for blocking a prominent Chinese blogger, joining a growing list of US companies helping Beijing curtail free speech. ... US giant Google has also been accused of censoring its Chinese language search engine, while Cisco Systems and other firms have been accused of helping set up what has come to be known as the 'Great Firewall of China,' one of the world's most advanced systems of censoring information on the internet.

...with a side order of back up your blog! If you don't have direct access to the server, something like HTTrack can at least grab a copy.

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Well, boingboing anyway.

around the traps