Thankyou to Stephen Dann for the most bizarre visit this evening. He had asked me out of the blue, "Heading off to the shops. Want me to pick up anything?". I figured he was joking so said with some gall, "yeah pick me up some soy choc and if not that, some musk sticks!"
About 40 minutes later there's a ring on my front doorbell. Looking my absolute finest in a t-shirt and short shorts, hair in a low bun, no makeup and glasses, I answer the door and Stephen is standing there with a bag full of soychoc and musk sticks :-)
Thankyou, Steve. It's little things like that visit that touch my heart. And they make me remember all the good stuff we used to share :-) So thankyou.
AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft announced yesterday that they were going to work together to help eradicate (or at least substantially reduce) spam. This has all arisen fundamentally because those three big players have finally twigged to the fact that spam is costing them dearly - in terms of network traffic and in terms of unhappy customers. AOL filed 5 separate cases against perpetrators of spam within the last month - that's the scale of the spam problem. And The Economist has reported that spam jumped 4% in March 2003, to 45% of overall email traffic - up from 8% in September 2001.
This all comes on the back of a NOIE report which was released a fortnight ago, calling the Australian Government to work with international organisations in the development of anti-spam legislation. Australia has fallen a bit behind on this issue. The European Union has given member nations until October to implement anti-spam legislation across the board, banning all unsolicited commercial email. The US has anti-spam legislation in 28 states. Australia is usually pretty draconian in its internet control laws. It's been decidedly sluggish on this issue. And this, in spite of the fact that Australia's Big Pond service is the only organisation ever to have been served with the almost-unheard-of USENET death notice. Telstra moved quickly to avert being 'killed' by USENET, but it is rather telling that it took such an extreme directive to do something about the degree of spam initiating from the sunburnt country.
It'll be interesting to see what happens with the AOL-Yahoo-Microsoft initative. I'll be surprises if the trio produce much more than the solution as described so well in Brad Templeton's 'Best Way to End Spam' essay, but if it means the corporations will invest in this kind of action, perhaps we will start to see a reduction in this dreadful pandemic.
1. Gold Coast radio interview on mobile phone technologies
We discussed the concept phones produced by IDEO which are whacky to begin with. Oh yeah they'd sell. Not. More bizarre is the purring kitty phone (let your mind boggle, because it's probably worse than you'd imagined). But at least there's the redeeming pocket PC phone which can be used by asthma sufferers to check peak flow readings.
2. Library and Case studies.
I have been able to get the Harvard Case Studies I wanted for the E-Publishing unit I'm running in the next teaching period (from July). This is fantastic because it saves my shelling out a small fortune in resources costs, and it's all legal!
3. Text book publishers
I am meeting with my John Wiley & Sons sales rep shortly to discuss texts for units I'm teaching in the coming months. Some are fantastic. ut still there is no really useful book on blogging. I think I may well need to put in a proposal for one.
4. IRC Catch up
Several of the girls I used to see online regularly in IRC are going to be online tonight in a new channel on an Australian server. I'm really looking forward to seeing this crew online again. It's been too long since we caught up.
I used to have the title "Joanne Jacobs: Geek Chic" on my office door at Monash University, Clayton, Victoria. Colleague and Australian Political Commentator, Nick Economou, used to come past my office and say "G'day Geek Chick". I did tell him that is was geek chic (ie: the terms rhymed), but Nick said he thought "geek chick" suited me anyway :-)
The next few weeks are going to prove me as either geek chic or geekchick, anyway. I am seeing X-Men 2 with Liz on Wednesday night, and Matrix Reloaded in a fortnight's time. I have ordered a wireless LAN card for my (borrowed) laptop so I can use it in our lecture theatres at BGSB. I will have an MBA Blog working for the BGSB by next week and as the weather gets colder I'm finding myself slipping back into my cybergeekgrrl fashion sense: black or white skin tight, long-sleeved tops over tight stretch jeans or stretch black pants, with black high-heeled closed shoes. And a long black overcoat over that. And as I'm fairly long and very slim, that garb tends to accentuate the few muscles I have (primarily in my legs, back and biceps). It's so cartoonish :-) Plus I have the urge to go visit a computer swap meet next weekend. It's been too long since I got my hands dirty with PC hardware.
I've been thinking today about empathy and empathic abilities. What follows is the rambling ideas I have considered rather idly today.
It's often claimed that close friends, family and people of certain spiritual persuasions can be empathically linked. Or some particular episode, event or mutual concern can trigger a sympathetic response among sufferers.
I have been doing some reading on the subject today. Not the psychic ability stuff; I'm peculiarly barren in that department. It's not that I am such a sceptic as to disregard the possibility of its existence, but I am simply unqualified to express an opinion, because I have never come across such a preternatural occurrence. However, I'm curious about something called "Compassion Stress"; a tendency to wish to remove or even erase the suffering of others. It manifests itself in a series of empathic symptoms: an aptitude and ability of noticing the pain of others, a desire and effort to lessen suffering, and a tendency to experience the feelings of the sufferer when exposed to the sufferer. I seem to have observed this phenomenon among members of my family, among my friends and even in myself.
I begin to wonder if the idea of paranormal empathic ability is actually based on this compassion stress. Much like the faery tales and legends we are told as children, there is some thread of truth in these stories that survives. Similarly, empathic abilities - regardless of whether they are able to be augmented through study and any natural predilection - could be based on this 'truth' of empathic compassion. I think it is too common an occurrence for people to simply pick up the phone and say "Are you alright?" only to be told that their relation/friend is somehow distressed, in order for this to be mere coincidence. Of course this does not mean that it is therefore some supernatural force that is driving the action. It could be indicative of compassion stress. As human beings we tend to leave signs everywhere of our state, so it is quite possible that even subconsciously, we observe and absorb these signs, leading us to respond to them in a manner that is based on compassion.
I am still thinking through this issue - just idly - I don't plan to write it up in a paper! It's just interesting to consider such ideas.
Today I want to pay tribute to my maternal grandparents and to war veterans generally. It is ANZAC day here in Australia; a day we remember as the first in an eight-month battle for a stretch of beach at Gallipoli in 1915 - a place that was later to be called ANZAC Cove. My mother's father was one of the soldiers who fought there. He returned home, but 8,000 of his fellow soldiers were not so lucky. Now ANZAC day commemorates those who have fought in all wars; young men and women who have given their lives for "their country". I want to thank my grandfather and pay tribute to him for his efforts at war.
I am no fan of war. And I am unashamedly critical of some of the glorification of war that occurs on ANZAC Day. I also would argue that many - perhaps the majority - of people who do go to war and fight, disagree with the policies that are being forwarded by the arbiters of war. And there are strong and legitimate questions as to whether loss of life in war has any genuine impact on democracy, freedom and how diplomatic relations are settled. But today is not a day when those politics should affect our remembering those who did fall. Whether these people were brave or misguided, and whether the loss of their lives even remotely affected the course of world politics is really irrelevant. What matters is that they were taken before their time in doing a job. And it's always worth paying tribute to such people. So my respect and tributes are offered here today to all who have fought, and most especially those who were injured or killed at war.
Finally, but perhaps most importantly, am also paying tribute to my mother's mother, Mama. On this day that she so respected, she passed away, seven years ago. I will always remember my grandmother as a tower of strength, with a curious mind and at times, a lethally quick wit. She showed intense partiality for, and interest in, those who belonged to her, and while I didn't agree with all her opinions, I attribute much of my determined nature and dogged strength to her peerless willpower. I have had many strong women role models in my life - my mother and my grandmother are probably the two strongest. Here's to you, Ma.
I have just met with Jennifer Radbourne in preparation for the handover of the Arts and Cultural Management portfolio during Jennifer's absence for the duration of her position as Director, Hong Kong Business Program, QUT. I'm rather excited about this, as I feel a close affinity with Arts and Cultural Management given my history with dance and the range of projects I was exposed to at the National Centre for Australian Studies. It's a good program and I'm keen to build numbers and promote the course extensively.
Of course that now leaves me as Subject Area Coordinator (SAC) for Arts and Cultural Management, Accountancy, Business Law, Corporate Governance, and Acting SAC of E-Business whilst Wayne Bucklar finishes his thesis. I am also teaching more subjects than ever and I am writing several new papers. Oops. I was supposed to be reducing my load.
Yet another "Oh. My. Gods." link: the Queensland Government personalised plates branch has set up an application on its website to get people to log in, enter text and see how it would look on a registration plate and check availability. It's like domain checking only for registration plates. It's so incredibly sad.
Things That Didn't Go Bump Last Night Anyway: the neighbours are still on standby. Pretty soon we may have to enter into having coffee and checking out each other's apartments and talking real estate valuations. Frightening stuff.
So I have actually met my neighbours all in the past few days. This is rather weird because I've been living here for 18 months now, and had only really met the guy who lives downstairs from me. The reason for this burst of camaraderie is to do with a rather disturbing and intermittent problem we have with our block of units. Perhaps 2 nights out of every 7, from the period of March till around October, and somewhere between midnight and 3am, we have experienced a banging noise that wakes us all from our slumbers and can last anywhere from 2 or 3 bumps to 15 or 20, and can be an isolated incident or be repeated on and off for anything up to three quarters of an hour. The sound appears to come from the roof, and is steady and slow enough to appear as if a human is making the noise - as if a man holding a mallet or a wrench was bashing it down on metal. It's too slow to be a possum hopping across the roof, and too heavy and resonant to be an animal bashing against anything. Or so we believe anyway. The possums are out every night and last night they were fighting and growling at each other so rabidly that they woke me anyway, but that was nothing like the sort of sound that has brought this neighbourhood together. So we have all decided en masse to all get up in the night when next it happens and go out to find out what exactly it is that is going bump in the night.
And if we find nothing, we are all absolutely prepared to acknowledge that we probably have a ghost who is rather unhappy with all of us for being so unneighbourly.
Just got back from coffee with Stephen Dann. Was good just to see him and catch up, and see him looking well and happy. I've missed our coffees together, and I've missed his company. He's a fabulous guy, and I'm lucky to have known him.
Thanks, Steve.
I have spent my daily round-up of blog-reading saying the word "Oh. My. Gods." much too freqently. It's been at times interesting, highly amusing and even seriously worrying. Here's why:
1. Hacking a robotic dog till it does disco. (thankyou, Gizmodo.)
2. Iranian blogger arrested. (Thankyou, Blogdex.)
3. Whatever happened to the Iraqi Blogger? (thankyou, Metafilter).
4. What if the Matrix were real, and the film was a way of warning us all? (thankyou, Metafilter).
5. MP3 players are dead. Get over it. The new fashion is all Audi-Oh! (thankyou, Boingboing and Gizmodo.)
6. What's the go with semantic blogging? (thankyou, Lawrence Lessig.)
7. Project Gutenberg goes audio. (thankyou, Slashdot.)
All in all, a varied morning of reading.
I can really recommend yoga on a cool, bright morning by the Brisbane River at the Kangaroo Point cliffs as a wonderful way to find inner peace. I've spent most of the day in quiet meditation, even after yoga finished early this morning (began at 7:30am), I came home, lit an oil burner, played relaxation music and continued my standard yoga exercises. Between the cool air and the warm sunshine both on the cliffs and in my sunny, enclosed balcony at home, the quest for inner peace seems so simple in such glorious conditions.
I have also spent some of today fixing things. I bought a soldering iron and fixed a lovely little pewter owl with a crystal for a tail, that has returned to its proper place up against the glass in my dining room again. It's been down for months and I'm glad to have it back, diffusing coloured light around my living area. And I have fixed the fly screen in my bathroom that has been letting in too many unwelcome 'guests' (ie: moths) when my light is on at night. I've reinforced the screen with extra netting and taped the lot down. Just try and get it now fellas. Actually they are probably better off not getting in anyway as I have killed about a dozen moths in the last week or so in my bathroom. And anyone who knows me knows that's no small feat. I am pathologically frightened of moths, and would much rather never come across one. So it's better for us all. Finally, I have purchased some buttons to fix a quilt cover of mine, so plan to do some sewing and also some reading this afternoon. All in all, a very peaceful and fulfilling day.
Happy Easter to you all. Wishing everyone peace, love and harmony.
The latest post by Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing refers to his recent submission to the US Federal Communications Commission on behalf of the Electronic Freedom Foundation. In this submission, the EFF argue that the FCC is bound under First Amendment doctrine to release unused spectrum for use by WiFi operators.
*wince* I hate to say this as I am a fan of the work of the EFF as well as Doctorow, but I think this is a highly dangerous argument. Spectrum is a scarce resource (or at least a finite one) and licences to use spectrum space for radiocommunication have traditionally been allocated on the basis of 'public trust'; that is, they are provided with a licence on the understanding that they use the privilege responsibly and provide a service to the community.
But more than this, spectrum is allocated according to a highly sophisticated and rather difficult planning regime, such that emergent technologies, emergency technologies and test broadcasts (or narrowcasts, or microcasts) are available to specific sectors of communities based on reception and transmission concerns. It is a very difficult function for communications authorities and requires intense investigation, as well as strong public accountability.
The whole notion of releasing all available spectrum for use by somewhat chaotic WiFi users and proponents would not merely be irresponsible and almost impossible to manage, but it would be a betrayal of public trust. Retaining some sectors of the spectrum is essential in order to ensure proper functioning of all tools that use the spectrum. When testing of digital television began in Australia there were some reports of interruption of medical equipment in hospitals. The implications of mass release of spectrum are potentially devastating. Unless the EFF can provide a clear plan for managing this process, I think you can only describe the motion as misguided.
For your information, here is a map of the Australian Radiocommunications Spectrum. Without First Amendment principles, Australia is unlikely to release spectrum for the reasons the EFF argue anyway, but even so, it's worth seeing just how complex is the activity of spectrum management.
A very happy day to my dear friend, Liz, who is celebrating another 365th day. Will be good for we girls to catch up tonight!
I've just finished the work I had allocated for the period of the exam which I am presently invigilating for GSN447 Strategic Internet Marketing. Students now have about 13 minutes to go before the exam is due to finish. Most of the students appear confident with the work they have completed, and they are busily writing their last essays. I, in the meantime, have been spending my time trying to find Harvard-style case studies in e-publishing for a forthcoming unit. There are some around but they come at a price and they seem to vary in quality. I will keep looking but if anyone has any suggestions for good case studies (preferably from an Australian perspective) I'm happy to take them.
Muscle spasms in my shoulder have got bad. I reckon it's all the marking. Of course it could just be that I'm not exercising enough. I really must go swimming this week.
In other news, I plan to keep up with the case of blogging and plagiarism that I discussed in my LiveJournal. I believe the ethics of blogging will grow as an issue over the course of this year, not just due to possible cases of plagiarism, but also as the growth of business blogs occurs in response to the forthcoming conference. And finally, Australia has slipped again in the Economist Intelligence Unit's E-Readiness rankings for 2003. In 2001 Australia was rated 2nd in the world. In 2002 we were 6th. Now we're 9th. You can thank a fast-growing broadband infrastructure in northern Europe for the overall drop in Australia's position. Even the US has been toppled down to equal 3rd place, thanks to Sweden and Denmark's massive shift in favour of internet-mediated communications.
What a sensational weekend this has been. I'm not saying that past weekends when I have been out at least a couple of times hasn't been fab, but this weekend has been fab for a whole series of reasons (details in extended entry).
First of all, I was supposed to go to the Vice Chancellor's Cocktail party on Friday but just wasn't up to it after the tough week I've had, so I went home and had an early dinner (I've either skipped dinner or had a Lean Cuisine before teaching every other night this week) then phoned Pam in Sydney for a good phone catch up. Was lovely to talk to her - I miss you Pam. After that I kicked back with a good old Jane Austen book and sipped tea. On Saturday I was up early for yoga and got a 50% healing session because it was just me in class. But I didn't lose much of my morning because my instructor had an event to attend so I got home and cleaned my kitchen and lounge, caught up with the week's videos and played the final level of Warcraft III (I *so* rule at the "Very Hard" levels, and suck at the "Hard" levels... apparently my tactic of just building lethal building clusters isn't something many people do). I watched Star Trek on TV last night (yes it's been a geeky weekend for me) and hit the sack around 11:30pm. I killed the alarm at 6am this morning and slept in till 8:30am. I've breakfasted over Sky News and the Channel 9 Sunday program, showered, cleaned the wet areas and caught up with my email all before 10:30am. I'm off shortly to shop for birthday presents, and I'm meeting Liz for coffee later today. I will get some work in later, but you know I think I just needed a weekend where I wasn't going out. I feel so much more relaxed this weekend.
In my latest LiveJournal piece, I consider some of the issues arising from the personalisation of information via blogs, and the break down of some commonly held beliefs about computer mediated communication.
Having an allergic reaction is NOT like being sick. It's one of the most frustrating things about it. If you're sick you just feel horrible and tend to sleep it all off. The thing about the allergic reaction I'm having today is that everything is localised and I feel guilty because I'm actually well - just totally unable to function. Symptoms on the extended entry...
My head feels like lead, and the muscles in my neck are having a rough time keeping my head up. The muscles aren't tight or strained - they're loose, like a ragdoll. My neck aches though. My back is surprisingly fine, but the muscles under my arms ache. My hands ache, particularly my baby and little fingers on both hands, and the foot of my wrist. If I move quickly my eyes get those black dots across my vision. My oesophagus feels constricted - now that's *not* a sore throat. I feel instead right down in my neck like the whole pipeline is narrowed. I can't eat much and don't keep much in the system anyway so my energy is zilch. Vague nausea most of the time, and a sense of immense tiredness but a difficulty sleeping.
Basically I feel like I've been hit by a truck.
But the thing is I know if I took a pill for the pain in my head, a pill for the nausea and digestion and had some kind of energy drink I'd probably feel fine for a while. I just don't want to live on pills and masking agents. And I know what my body really needs to do is get the toxic reaction out of my system. So I'm just drinking as much water as I can bear.
Yesterday was bad for a number of reasons but I'm paying for one of them today. Looks like I had a mild dairy reaction again yesterday (one too many non-soy milk lattes), because all the usual symptoms have occurred and today I'm afraid I'll be spending most of the morning in bed. I have to go in to teach this afternoon (and I WILL be there, I promise, GSN470), but I'm not much good right now.
Back to bed for me.
Joey "Accordian Guy" de Villa has given me permission to use his tale of how his blog saved him from a very strange relationship. I'm wondering if he met the New Girl online. But what's interesting here is that this could be an example of a general loss inthe internet's ability to negotiate self-image. I'l post more on this on my LJ later.
I'm not going in to details. It does have the potential to improve but right now it sucks.
The Australian reported yesterday that Queensland was putting its road systems online in the biggest data project ever undertaken in the state. The report states:
"Information stored on the database will include measures such as road dimensions, property dimensions and zoning information. "
At the moment the results of this project are only going to be made available to 17 government deprtments, but in the long run, I see this as a revenue raising initiative for the QLD Government. If the information is sold (via subscription or similar) to varying organisations - parking lots, fast food organisations and so on, I can see a rather useful traffic-oriented network interface for people using QLD roads. I guess all that remains is to see whether the QLD government use this digitisation of the roads network wisely.
Dr Philip Nitschke (AKA Australia's"Dr Death", an activist in the interest of voluntary euthanasia) is now campaigning against a movement by the Commonwealth Government to charge people who distribute information about suicide online. Given the recent release by the Office of Film and Literature Classification, of the guidelines on computer games, there is a general tendency towards censorship and conservatism when it comes to online communications and other content sourced from Australia - even more than usual. This is nothing short of alarming. Here in Australia where there is no Bill of Rights and freedom of expression is only loosely implied, this creeping control of communication is concerning. It may be based on a principle of reducing litigation for negligence as a result of anything learned from content consumed here, but it has the effect of reducing civil liberties.
Thankyou to Jean and Susan for a great night last night with dinner at the Polo Club (Naldham House, Brisbane) followed by Cabaret, starring Toby Allen as Emcee and Lisa McCune as Sally Bowles. The production was well staged with good pace and an excellent orchestra/band. Allen was fantastic in his role - timing was superb and his presence was forthright without overpowering the story. Judi Connelli and Henri Szeps were masterful in their roles as Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz - really understated, and so much more powerful. Ian Stenlake and Lisa McCune were competent in their roles - but McCune is perhaps less suited to this role than she has been in previous music theatre productions. Sally Bowles really requires a performer to be able to belt out a role and be bawdy and tragic, all at the same time. It's not an easy task, and I felt McCune's performance was a little too cute and her voice was a little strained at times. I felt the ensemble cast was a little patchy, but I suspect this may be another problem with local casting. Most professional shows now take only the stars from state to state, and cast the ensemble from the local talent. Unfortunaetly for Brisbane, a lot of the local Brisbane talent either gets snapped up by the theme park scene or heads south for the bigger shows. So the selection at auditions is probably not always as good as in Melbourne and Sydney. Still it was a wonderful show and I was aching to get back up on stage and be part of things. I so miss the lspotlight!
Anyway - thankyou again to Jean, Susan and Michael for a wonderful present and to Jean and Susan for their company last night. Was lovely to see you both again.
A combination digital video recorder and DVD burner.
Anyone want to have a guess how many intellectual property debates this is going to preciptate? And how much litigation?
Congratualtions to Melissa and Michael on the birth of their son, Ethan Michael Allan, at 11am this morning! YAY for all of you :-)
Those who heard me speak on Gold Coast radio last week on blogging and the war could be forgiven for thinking last night's story on blogging on the 7:30 Report was a rehashing of the same ideas. :-) It's okay, ABC. I still love you. Even if you don't attribute your sources. ;-) It seems to have been a good story anyway (I've only seen the transcript, as I was teaching while it aired). But of interest to me today is the rise in even mainstream acceptance of blogging as a source of war news. E-Media Tidbits have directed me to a piece of research conducted by the Pew Research Centre where a clear 4% of online users were using blogs asa source of news on the war. That's high growth for something that was only properly coined in 1999.
I really, really hope this upgrade isn't going to stuff up all my templates.
