January 2005 Archives

*chuckles* Either I jinxed tonight's results by speaking too soon earlier or the results of tonight's tennis as well as the way things are shaping up in the cricket are just desserts for my sporting arrogance :-)

Hewitt has already broken Marat's serve in the first set of the final of the Australian Open tennis championship and Australia look like posting a respectable 250 (with Clarke presently on 63) in the One Day series. Are we ever going to lose anything ever again?

[EDIT: Final score for the Australian innings in the One Day cricket match was 265 so the target is 266 on a good batting wicket at the WACA. Nevertheless, I think Australia is going to crucify Pakistan. Similarly, Hewitt looks like winning in straight sets. It's just boring. The game against Roddick on Friday was far more entertaining.]

Angelina Jolie, Sharon Stone and Bono have been at the World Economic Forum. Apparently world and business leaders don't even try to hide the fact that their economic planning is based on the opinions of those who have spent their lives lying for a living.

It's been an interesting weekend.

I caught up with Sideways, which was delightful and funny and sad all at once - though slow to begin with; a typical Alexander Payne trait. I can see why both Virginia Madson and Thomas Haden Church were nominated for Academy awards. They won't win them, but they were well-deserved nominations. I have also seen Closer, which is probably only going to strike a chord with anyone who can identify with the characters - which I did, and therefore I found it fabulous. Again the supporting roles were, much like in Sideways, so prominent and powerful they almost eclipsed the primary characters. I'm not interested in seeing most of the other award-nominated films until they come out on DVD.

Friday night was fun and even the tennis was good to watch - whilst I am sports mad, the tennis I'd have to say I find the least enjoyable to watch. I probably can only deal with the finals as worthy watching. But the company was great, thanks to Camilla and Shan & Matt. Saturday, too, was fun, catching up with some people I haven't seen in ages, at Westy's farewell. Good luck in Canada, Westy. You'll know you'll be in my thoughts and my very best wishes will always be sent your way.

There's also been some interesting tech news this past few days, including the A$9 million investment in e-health - an obvious investment avenue as a combination of biogenetics and information systems management. And there's also further debate about the role of VoIP as an arbiter of further industry convergence. My old lecturer, Prof Trevor Barr, was saying this was going to happen back in about 1991, but we now at last have the tools to make it happen.

But today will be a day of work :-) Speaking of which, I had better get started!

Probably the most emabarrassing tech news in a like while is the revelation that up to 500,000 dead Australians still have active Medicare numbers, permitting a huge potential for identity theft and fraud. Out of date, and inadequately linked database systems can effectively cripple the competitive advantage that any firm may have gained from technologically driven information management, but a blunder such as this isn't just a waste of the resources, but a very serious flaw in database design.

Unfortunately my gut feeling is that this is just the tip of the iceberg, and that probably dozens of similar security flaws exist in a range of public information databases world wide.

And in other tech news, the possible acquisition of OzEmail by iiNet could mean that Webcentral lose their prominence as a webhost, but perhaps more importantly, it's likely to impact on iiNet in terms of available deals for clients. Watch this space.

In other news, I'm still working away on consultancy work, but I am planning to spend some of this weekend just chilling out and relaxing with friends :-)

I spent a public holiday working. Ah well. I'll catch the next one.

And because it's Australia Day, I thought I'd share a picture of something that looks frighteningly like what I have just eaten to celebrate Australia Day (per courtesy, the wonderful folks at www.engrish.com).

* Yes, I'm working on a consultancy right now, so am not around much. It's interesting work and I can't say much more due to confidentiality agreements.

* Happy Australia Day. It's going to be cool and wet here in Brisbane but I'll be working anyway. More to the point *THWACK* to all those people out there who used to believe in a Republic and now think they don't want one anymore. Have some pride, people! If you really are proud to be Australian, for goodness sake let us stand alone as a Republic that can look after itself rather than act as a glorified colony of the extinct British Empire. Becoming a Republic won't mean we sever ties with the Commonwealth of Nations. It will simply mean that we are civilised enough as a nation to take care of ourselves. If I hear any more stories of rising conservatism resulting in a slump in support for an Australian Republic, I will lose my faith in the beauty of Australia entirely.

* The Academy Award nominations are out. Go Sideways!

The only problem with hiring a car for a few days and getting a free upgrade to a Falcon is that you really want to buy that car after you've driven it a few kilometres.

Since cleaning up my office, I have found my old book of poems I once kept, like a gospel of my past, on my bedside table. Much of this childish writing is flawed and repetitive, derivative and self-indulgent, and yet I still am rather glad I have it. Each poem opens a window to my thought processes and beliefs as a young adult. Better than any journal, poetry reveals the love affair I had with language, and with images of reason. I guess since I have had time to cull the many layers of product and superfluity I have hoarded over time, it's appropriate I should have the opportunity to look back on my expectations as a young woman, and see where and how I began.

There are a few poems that I really like though, even now. I've decided to put a couple of these into an extended entry for anyone who is interested in the rambling commentary of my youth.

WOOT! I have my ABN. Not bad, Australian Tax Office. Took less than 24 hours to process and all over a weekend. Plus I have digital access to all account information I need with the Online Tax Office division. I have to say, that's extremely efficient. While this is how most applications ought to be processed (after all, it's merely information, and should easily be processed almost instantly) it's not the kind of experience that I've had lately with account information services. Compare this, for instance, with my Telstra Broadband account that took more than 10 days to set up.

But in any case, I'm now registered as a business again. YAY.

See the major problem with the Catholic Christian faith is that those who get to tell others how to live, don't actually live like the rest of us. The Pope recently announced that the way to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS is to practice abstinence and/or fidelity in marriage, rather than through the use of condoms. Said like a man who has never had sex, and has no clue about the actual reasons for the use of condoms. While he's technically accurate when it comes to abstinence, and while the idea of fideility to your partner in life is a damned good idea, it's really not going to help the cause of HIV/AIDS if the Pope keeps telling people to stop using condoms. Given the various mechanisms with which HIV and other diseases are being spread - including intravenous drug use, needle stick injuries, blood transfusions and several methods of accidental infection - protected sexual practice just makes sense. Unprotected sex can mean that partners of people who are entirely faithful to each other can be unwittingly infected with a disease that could be life-threatening. So this kind of advice from the Pope is just profoundly ignorant and spectacularly obtuse. It's on occasions like this when you get embarrassed to be even remotely connected to a faith that is so out of touch.

Last night's first effort of the combined girls night out was a blast at Strike. I was quite possibility the worst bowler on the face of the planet but as Cilla noted, I was also the most improved, managing to get two strikes in my later rounds of the game we played. More to the point, the girls had a fab night and it was a fun event. Thanks to Shan for organising and for all the girls who were there (about 12 or 14 in the end). Lots of fun. Next time - A Day At The Races, beginning with Tea at Queenies!

Cricket rocks my world.

In the latest casual webcast report from IDC, Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VoIP is discussed as a now essential aspect of enterprise networks saving. I'm also using VoIP software (Skype) to speak with family, at substantially less cost per call than I would normally pay for standard calls. It's been something we've been talking about for some time, but it is now quite feasible and certainly financially sensible for organisations and even individuals to pursue VoIP options for basic telephony. Even on dialup, VoIP is a useful and cheap way of staying in contact. On broadband, it should be regarded as absolutely essential.

The biggest issue with VoIP - like so many other aspects of technology services - is security. The possibility for "listening in" to commercial-in-confidence communications is real, and organisations may still need to consider old-fashioned secure lines for details, but in so many oranisations, the average phone communication doesn't need to be secured. So companies and individuals just need to think a little differently about the content of their call. It's a cultural change, so it will take time, but I think my view has to reflect other advocates of the technology: that VoIP just makes business sense.

I have just filled ten bags of rubbish from my (home) office to better organise my systems and my office looks no different. Nevertheless, I can actually access things I need now and have a clean writing space again. I've even washed all desktop surfaces so I won't have to deal with the grime of 3 years' neglect.Now I'm trying to decide whether to buy a filing cabinet, and replace an old bookshelf which I have stacked full of CDs with a narrower, and taller CD tower.

All remarkably efficient of me, I think.

Have just found the Rocky Horror Muppet Show online. It's just generally indescribable.

(With apologies to Kurt Vonnegut)

The Cassini-Huygens Probe has just touched down on Titan, the satellite of the planet, Saturn, and it's beaming back some fabulous pics of this otherwise-unchartered moon. Once piercing the thick Titan atmosphere, the probe began its round of taking pictures of the Titan surface and the scientific data is now being analysed to determine the history of this extraordinary satellite. The NASA site is a bit busy with Cassini enthusiasts accessing data for the present, but if you're patient, this story as it unfolds is well worth the wait.

Thanks to Mark Bahnisch for the invitation to participate in the Brisbane Bloggers group. I hope to be able to participate in this group as Axel Bruns and I get this edited book together over the coming weeks (it should be finished by July, btw, and out before the end of the year, hopefully). I really feel rather privileged to be part of an active blogging community and to be writing and researching the topic at the cusp of its takeup among mainstream internet users. Great to be part of the revolution :-)

Anyone else based in Brisbane, and hoping to participate in the Brisbane Blogging Community, please feel free to join up at http://blog.meetup.com/43/.

I finally have broadband configured and active at home so my home phone line is going to be free for all those telephone survey people to annoy me at meal times. More to the point, I have a fast internet connection from my home pc. AT LAST!!!! Took awhile but we got there eventually.

Just caught up with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and I have to say, while it's not perfect, it's actually an extraordinary and worthy film. Almost ostentatiously independent, the story seems quite normal until the credits run - 15 minutes in to the film. From there, everything becomes a jumbled mess that is more and more disjointed as the storyline progresses.... And yet as a whole it is immaculately ordered. I notice it has caught the attention of several film critics' awards, but in the old Academy Awards, it has only achieved a nomination in the comedy category - and the film is hardly comedy. Balanced between drama, comedy, science fiction and fantasy, this film is better experienced than described.

So go see it.

I'll go see Sideways when it comes out here too. That was probably where my oblique reference in a post the other day to Ned and Stacey fanfiction came from. Thomas Haden Church - Ned from Ned and Stacey - is apparently superb in Sideways. I have to say, I'm really pleased that "Indiewood" films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Sideways are now reaching mianstream audiences and touching souls. It's just so encouraging to see films that are artworks in and of themselves reaching the masses the way these have done.

My geek friends frighten me. Fortunately, I love them anyway. Not only have I been thoroughly chastised for yesterday's post in failing to mention the beautiful iPod shuffle which was also released yesterday, but my describing the Mac Mini as code-named the iWork, has also been corrected - the iWork is in fact the software that will be running (preferably on a Mac Mini if you're Steve Jobs). But that doesn't concern me. What concerns me more is that some of my geek friends (no less than three of them - you know who you are!!!) actually sent me price lists in Australian dollars, outlets for purchase and one actually suggested I could get away with purchasing an iPod as a tax deduction :-)

Thanks for the corrections guys! You all rock :-)

In other news, I'm going to check out cars to buy today. Settle down, it's not for me. My 20 year old Mitsubishi Colt bomb still has some life in it yet! But I will be headed to Mercedes, Audi and BMW to test drive cars today. Fun! :-)

The latest ultra-cheap Apple computer is code-named the iWork (actually called the Mac Mini) and as my brother has said, it fits into your stereo system as a rather nifty addition to your array of devices. It's the one thing you have to say about Apple. The design is just sensational. Plus, this baby represents the fulfilment (admittedly a few weeks late) of one of Cringely's famous predictions for 2004 - that Apple would finaly release an affordable PC. At just US$500 (yes that's five *hundred* dollars) it's blowing the heck out most other PCs on the market.

Tomorrow is yet another day of patching for computer owners. Be prepared for large-scale downloads, folks. Still, it's about time this security breach was patched.

In regards to dispatches, I *STILL* don't have my broadband connection active, and am ashamed of Telstra's "customer support" in their activations department. Of course it was unfortunate that the young pipsqueak I spoke to today found that he was speaking to an IT commentator, therefore his blatent lie about account numbers being embedded in the hardware of an ADSL modem was totally debunked by me whilst over the phone, but fortunately we came to an "understanding" and I should have my connection operative in the next few days.

In other news, I have managed to achieve a few things that have been hanging over my head, and have a few more to finish by the end of the week. Achievement, thy name may not yet be jj, but it's good to feel like things are happening! Oh, and Ned & Stacey fanfiction is just wrong.

Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, is commentating for the cricket.

Stop the world I want to get off.

It's time like these when the world is in need, that Australia's often-cited culture of generosity is once again proven. The latest figures I can access from the World Vision site list donations for the Reach Out to Asia appeal as totally $12.3 million. By the end of the month, the expected total will be about $20 million - more than $1 for every Australian citizen on the planet, and that's just from this particular appeal.

As so many have said before, such generosity makes you proud to be Australian. But I think more than anything else, Australians who are giving to the tsunami victims are just proud to be able to help.

There's a veritable flood of interesting bits and pieces of news and fascinating ideas around today, and I'm doing my best to keep up with it all.

First of all, as I have noted in my Livejournal piece on blog research, Six Apart, makers of this wonderful Movable Type interface, look like they are buying out LiveJournal. Great stuff for the blogging sector. (I also mention new research on blogging diffusion in that LJ post).

Then Clay Shirky is writing new pieces on the value of wikipedia, and the fear with which it is regarded by mainstream media. As Boingboing have noted, Shirky has rather intelligently (and logically) realised that wikipedia does well, what mainstream press does not. So Encylopaedia Britannica representatives should just go back in to their shell. And that reminds me, Alex Burns, if you're out there, what happened to the recording of the SOOB Festival panel session? Would love to hear it. Must contact Mark Pesce again too for our blogging book.

For followers of the Dan Brown series and The da Vinci Code, in particular, there's a lovely little article in The Guardian about the Knights Templar seeking action against the Vatican for the Vatican's treatment of group members in the 14th century (thanks to BoingBoing for the link). If nothing else, it's evidence of the ongoing politics of secret and not-so-secret societies.

And finally, there's the news that Microsoft are going to have to hack their own software. (Rather an a propos news story after the referral to Brown's text, and in light of its metafictional status, I thought :-) The reliance of Microsoft on hackers to find holes in their own software needs to come to an end, with the gap between security breaches and fixes needing to get smaller and smaller - primarily for legal reasons, but also because there's little patience with the ongoing vulnerability of Microsoft software when such admirable alternatives exist.

There's also the news that my brother has traced one branch of our family tree back to an Earl and an entailed estate at Oddington in Oxfordshire in the mid 18th century, but most people wouldn't find that very interesting :-)

For the last couple of days, Brisbane has been living up to its reputation of the kind of tropical heat and humidity that just gets to many people in the southern states. Although it's not really been so hot... yesterday it was forecast to reach 35° and only got to 31°. But the sun is filtered through a thin layer of cloud, and the warm, moist breeze envelopes you in the streets.

Yesterday as I took a walk at about 5pm, I looked around me at the thick, green, tropical foliage in gardens and on the branches of the poincianas lining the streets, and I thought how idyllic everything felt. It was about 27° by that time, and the breeze off the river was just a degree or two cooler, but the sultry zephyr just wraps around you like a hug.

There was barely a sound in the streets, other than the normal street traffic, the constant buzz of the cicadas and the gentle thug-thug of air conditioner compressors. The ibis had taken refuge in the uppermost branches of the figs, eucalpytus and pine trees, avoiding the baking asphalt below, and hooting querulously amongst themselves. Their dirty white wings flapped occasionally, acting as their own personal air conditioning, while their long, black legs, beaks and necks glistened in the sunlight. Even the crows were quiet, only lifting their beaks and croaking out their calls to catch the odd breeze.

But the temperature didn't get much cooler from the time of my walk last night, and at 5am we reached our overnight low of 25.8°. So now at 9am it's 30° and today will be another warm, wet day. We are all holding our breath for the tropical storm to tear through Brisbane late today, bringing with it the torrential rain and cooler, oceanic draught that keeps our temperature bearable, and our flora so lush and green.

Living in Australia really is a privilege. Living close to Capricornia is almost obscenely utopian. I really am exceedingly lucky.

Why is David Hyde Pierce uncredited for his voice of the character, Abe Sapiens, in Hellboy? Like his colleague from Frasier, Kelsey Grammer, and other character actors of our time (notably Jeffrey Combs and the late Phil Hartman), Hyde Pierce has an extraordinarily recognisable voice, and it seems exceedingly unusual that he is uncredited. I can only guess that he is either ashamed of the role, was a late inclusion or hasn't been paid enough. Anyone know which it is?

Achieved so far today:
- signed up for ADSL broadband connection from home. (My family *will* be pleased they can finally call me at home. Of course, there's no guarantee I'll actually be home and/or answer the phone.)
- Virtual private network software installed for access to QUT services off campus
- QUT service software installed
- Pocket PC software installed
- Caught up with email (35 messages)
- Finished the Technology and Assessment drafting report for consultation with the committee
- Begun applications for new positions in a variety of firms.

Altogether a good half-day's work.

I am on a quest to find an academic author who:
- understands the nature of hypertextuality and layered writing
- understands narrative strip tease but doesn't need a love interest to prove it
- doesn't wear tweed jackets and skivvys (turtleneck tops)
- understands and appreciates creative commons licensing
- understands and contributes to hacker culture
- doesn't wear gothic clothing
- does enjoy the odd beer/wine/spirit but isn't an alcoholic
- does visit historical and heritage locations, art galleries, classical music concerts, the ballet etc, but also likes to spend time at the beach, a picnic, a BBQ and a day at the footy/cricket/golf/other sporting event.

What do you reckon are my chances?