No I am not a pagan. But I do find the history of religious holidays fascinating. Here is a good list of entries describing the source of Hallowe'en and the traditional Samhain festival (pronounced "Sow-een", btw). Of course, it's not really Hallowe'en at all here, and that has nothing to do with the idea of Hallowe'en being another holiday import from the US. No, it's not Hallowe'en here because it is not the Last Harvest and the beginning of winter in Australia. It's probably more Beltaine.
For what it's worth, and in an attempt to accommodate a series of other religious festivals all in one post, we're also well in to Ramadan (which began at sundown on the 26th of the month), and Hanukah begins in about a month's time. So we're heading in to the full gamut of religious holidays. Must be time to shop for Christmas.
EDIT: Mitch has pointed out that the Indian Diwali Festival has also recently occurred. Thanks Mitch!
Apparently I'm not merely 'one of the guys' among my male tech crew friends. According to the Gender Genie, I also write like a bloke. I put several of my blog entries through the Gender Genie and on every occasion it predicted me as male, with male keywords outnumbering female keywords by at least a 2:1 ratio (largest difference was a 10:1 ratio). However, looking at the supposed 'female' keywords that arise in the analysis, all I can gather is that anyone who scores as a female on such a test is a poor writer. Apparently the use of prepositions is a masculine trait and the use of weak auxiliary identifiers, pronouns and conjunctions are feminine traits. This generalisation irritates me greatly. Either women are not being taught how to write properly in schools - and thus the theory is proven by default rather than as a manner of thinking - or the skills among women writers are substantively lost after schooling, perhaps as a result of development of a more casual and conversational writing 'voice'.
Interestingly, the lexicon of blogging and electronic writing is something I have canvassed before in my research (see E-Commerce Lexicon: Communicating in Brief), and in blog entries a more casual writing style would seem appropriate. However, I have noticed that those entries which score the highest on blogdex and other blog ranking systems are those that are distinctly analytical, or at the very least, journalistic in style. They have none of the wishy-washy terms, abstracted commentary or cryptic references that would appear to characterise 'feminine' writing, nor do they act as a conduit for 'conversations' among friends. Instead those blogs that rank highly would normally generate a 'masculine' result from the Gender Genie analysis.
Just goes to show, if the Genie is predominantly correct in its identification of masculine and feminine writing, then we still value patriarchal discourse.
Oh and BTW... this blog entry generates a 6:1 masculine result. HA!
I'm catching up on some very good links sent to me and discovered in the past few days that I have failed to blog.
Firstly, thanks to Stephen Lister for this marvellous demonstration (warning: java applet) of outer to inner space. From a distance of 10 million miles from the milky way, the image zooms in on a logarithmic scale on Earth, and then focuses on a tree somewhere in Florida, a leaf on the tree, the cells on the leaf, the parts of each cell, the atoms therein, and zooms right through until quarks level. If you follow the link, once it's downloaded and you've watched it at the automatic animation rate, try flicking back through the images in reverse. Somehow it seems even more impressive to me that way.
Secondly, thanks to my colleague, Terry Flew, at Creative Industries, for the link to a report by the British iSociety group on social software and social capital. The article is a précis of the rise in socially-oriented software solutions to networking, and the social capital aspects of internet connectivity. Specifically, the paper questions whether we have replaced quality of communications online with quantity of connections.
Finally, there is another tale of being sacked for blogging over at Eclecticism. Michael Hanscom, on his personal blog, made a post on Microsoft wanting Apple G5 computers and found himself without a job at the MSCopy print shop the next day. Harsh lesson.
Extended entry contains health updates... I feel like such a hypochondriac, but this is getting ridiculous.
The heat here in Brisbane is extraordinary. It was 21° overnight last night and is presently 35° with very strong westerly winds battering us all. It reminds me of Melbourne heat, actually. But it's Melbourne that needs the heat. Very sad to hear the beautiful Flemington Racecourse roses - always one of the most stunning aspects of the mighty Melbourne Cup - are not coming in to bloom. Still, I cross fingers for a good day. I'll certainly be watching the fabulous day from afar.
I think I probably shouldn't leave the ceiling fan on overnight - not even on the low setting. When I woke at 4am this morning I had a sore throat and aching sinuses. I still have the weird sinus thing happening. When I have my head bent forward my whole head aches. The weather probably isn't helping either. But I'm loathe to turn any air conditioning on in case the sinus situation worsens. *sigh*
The wonderful Jay Allen has released an update to his Blacklist software for Movable Type, the personal publishing software I use for this blog (and probably the most powerful and fabulous blogging software out there). This new version allows multiple entry despamming, so it's even more powerful than before. Warm thanks, congrats and *MAJOR WHUFFIE* to Jay again!
I do enjoy the fact that my tech crew mates send me cool links.
This one from Callum, is a calculation of how much dead plant life your car uses based on gallons of petrol (US study). One the the key points I found astonishing is that in 250 years of burning fossil fuel since the Industrial Revolution, we've used approximately 13,300 years of dead plant life. Not great odds.
And this link from Kevin, is a warning on IP addresses running out. Even though we have 4 billion addresses, it's not enough. So we're going down the track of producing IP addresses. No need to worry though. According to the Director General of the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, even with the old IPv4 system and explosion of wireless devices, it'd still take a couple of decades to use up the remaining addresses.
EDIT: Callum also alerted me to the Memory Glasses being developed by MIT and the planned Oceanic observatory in the Pacific. Cool stuff! Thanks Callum!
As per instructions from Troffie, I am blogging the post on SCO (owner of the copyright on the kernal that they claim is being used illegally by Linux operating systems) which notes that SCO is now attacking the General Public Licence (GPL) employed by IBM among other companies. My editorial opinion is that SCO's lawyers are completely insane.
In other news, the oil burner in my office just gave off a mini explosion. Cool. Aromatic eruptions that are also a fire hazard. Please don't sack me, QUT.
Extended entry contains personal details. Work continues.
WIRED NEWS has a story about the addictiveness of text messaging.
Gizmodo led me to a hyper-futuristic single person Toyota vehicle. Wouldn't want in crash in one of those.
Slashdot has a solution to your wedding present problems, Kevin.
And finally, Blogdex led me to the somewhat amusing story of Matt Groening being threatened not to parody the Fox News Network in The Simpsons.
Am knee deep in my PhD thesis and other work at the moment. Today is an at-office day because I'm also doing some administration during the day. Plus it's nice to have a high speed link, a quiet air-conditioned office, iced water and an oil burner to increase the productivity.
FOR THOSE WANTING THE HEALTH REPORT: Not feeling A1 but keeping up with the daily exercise routine. Think the average state of health is more a reflection of an average state of mind. Getting a bit dispirited with things at the moment.
Mum - don't panic about me or the computer viruses invading your computer. I promise to eat well and to help you clean up your systems ASAP.
This is a week of tying up loose ends and getting myself organised. The extended entry contains all the little details of my life at the moment but it's all personal stuff and probably only family and friends will find it of interest.
On the links front there's little to report. Daylight savings is now either in or not in or out all over the world. If you're trying to work out what time it is anywhere, I recommend Timeanddate.com.
CNET News have a special report on carbon nanotubes as the next big thing in raw construction materials (because they are stronger than steel and more flexible than plastic, they can conduct energy and can be made out of methane gas). Trouble is no-one quite knows for what purpose to use them.
There are several reviews of the new Apple Operating System, Panther. This is one of the better ones: http://diveintoosx.org/panther/.
While there was a solar storm on Saturday, apparently not much was affected. A hell of a lot more was affected by the actual storm that hit south-east Queensland yesterday.
And finally, there has emerged a broadband ISP in Australia that is offering high speed internet connection at a cost which is competitive with dialup. There's a catch though. The cheap rates only last 3 months. Broadband is still far too expensive in Australia and until rates come down, there simply won't be an opportunity for Australia's e-commerce market to grow.
This week I have to get a few things off my plate that have been hanging over my head (like my tax for a start). Will be good to feel more 'organised'. I'm pretty set now till Christmas with my thesis the focus of most days' work (thanks to signing another lease till January) and my social life limited, but therefore special.
I'm also right in to my health kick. I'm eating more fruit and doing this Aerobics Oz Style every day. 30 minutes a day of exercise at the beginning of the day is quite good. Not too hard but my body certainly is feeling it. This is why I loved early morning swimming. You feel better for the rest of the day, because you've done some exercise - possibly more because you feel virtuous than because the workout makes you feel so much better, but it's a start. And it also seems to get me going earlier every day. And while my glands are still up a bit, I think they are getting better. My energy levels are rising, too.
And after discussing it with my mother, I decided to unpack the DVD player and I'm embarrassed as a techno-geek to say that I got a bit stuck with installing it. It wasn't that it was terribly difficult. It was just that I didn't bother checking channels on the VCR. With Foxtel, the VCR and now DVD attached to my micro-television set it's all a bit silly. Thanks to Kevin for coming over yesterday and helping me set it up properly - just as well you were free! And thanks for bringing the Star Trek DVDs. Was fun :-) Next stop - big TV, I promise :-)
I suppose I receive about 4-5 emails per week in the style of the classic Nigerian financial scams. While the variations on the classic style have included sob stories about family members dying and so on, the system has always been pretty straight-forward. But since the rise of some of the funniest counter-scams for these classic financial scams, I am now noticing a rise in the lotto scams - the ones you didn't even know you'd entered. I was informed in a highly congratulatory tone just today that I had won US$1,850,000.00 in cash! But of course there's always a catch:
Due to the mix up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep this award strictly from public notice until your claim has been processed and your money remitted to your account. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming or unscrupulous acts by participants of this program.
My money is apparently being held in the "Bull and Bear Finance and Security Company" fund. Don't ya just love the irony?
I'm looking forward to the next parody of the lotto scam.
Presently 3 hours in to a very entertaining electrical storm over Brisbane. Makes a nice back drop to Star Trek.
Yes, I am a geek.
Thanks to Liz and Melissa for lunch and coffee today. That Teahouse is fabulous - thanks Liz!
Yes, I'm also occasionally rather girly.
The latest Pew Internet Research Project report is out. The report focusses on the effects of spam on the quality of internet time and the integrity of email. While this is a US focussed study, its findings are still worth a read. Significantly, 75% of users say they are concerned they can't stop the flow of spam, but only 25% of users say that spam has reduced their overall use of email.
I admire his determination to keep up the stereotypical ocker Aussie as a means of heightening the awareness of Australia's wildlife and promoting a need to protect our environment, but generally I regard Steve Irwin as a sad freak and politically naive. But when his presence in Parliament not only attracts the attention of Australian press corps, but also manages to distract the US press contingent, then something is seriously wrong with the focus of our political arena. While I think Bob Brown was similarly naive in his protest, I'm actually rather relieved something political did happen in Parliament yesterday. If it had not been for that heckling event, Steve Irwin would probably have received even greater coverage. As it was, he apparently spent time at the BBQ after Bush's presentation to Parliament, chatting with the Prez on the Oregan Ducks, the difference between Australia and Texas (just the odd several thousand miles, for a start) and what fun it is to battle a rattlesnake.
The frightening thing in the press coverage today of events in Canberra yesterday is that Irwin gets almost as big a wrap as Bush. I'm particularly ashamed by my home town rag that covers the events with an article topped by the inimitable title, 'Top croc hogs the limelight'.
To quote the wit (or should that be 'twit'?) that is the subject of this post... crikey.
Thanks to my friend, Kevin, for assisting me in purchasing my birthday present last night (birthday is still not quite a fortnight away). Kev brought along some 'problem' DVDs as well as MP3 disks to check whether the unit I had my eye on would play all I wanted to play. Much appreciated, Kev.
Of course I wouldn't have been able to go out and buythe unit if it wasn't for the fact most of it is actually from my Mum as a birthday present. So a big thankyou to Mum! (You'll get another thankyou when I actually open it on my birthday, Mum.)
In tech news, Boingboing have some doozies today. It was always going to happen. There's now Japanese Manga on Blogging. And the Sony QRIO (pronounced 'Curio') promotion site is just packed full of Engrish style prose!
Off to exercise!
Yes alright, I need to stop subediting the titles of my posts in a Hobart Mercury style.
Hotspots: Computerworld are reporting that some hotels and restaurants are actually getting a strong return on investment (ROI) for wireless hotspots in their facilities.
Portals: Howard Rheingold's SmartMobs are reporting on the Tholos project - a large rounded screen which is linked to an identical screen in another city. So people who walk up to this screen will be able to see people who walk up to the identical screen in another city on the other side of the earth, live. Kind of like the magic mirrors at fun parks, only this time you get to see other people on the other side of the world. Or like the portals in Sliders where you lide to a parellel dimension... only it's the same dimension, just another place. Kinda. Freaky stuff, anyway.
Blockedspots: Thanks to Mitch for his link to the account of the Destributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack on war blogs, conducted by Muslim hackers apparently based in Malaysia. Most sites are back up now, but this is perhaps a more obvious sign of hacking as a form of political or religious protest.
Mortals: Just completed the Aerobics Oz Style class before breakfast. Not exactly difficult. I think I do more exercise walking to work. But if I can do that for 30 minutes a day every day I guess my fitness will improve. Not that I'm exactly unfit. I'm probably fitter than 60-70% of the population, but if this illness is affected by a stagnated series of behaviours (ie: sitting in front of a PC writing all day) then perhaps this will make me feel better. Glands are still up and I'm sluggish, but I'll take thngs easy for much of the rest of the day.
It's currently 33°, the sky is a vivid blue and the sun is shining on the Jacaranda trees that are full with their purple-blue blossoms. And the Poinciana trees that line my street are about to break out in a sea of orange-red. At least the weather and nature is conspiring to make me feel a bit better.
So for those who have been waiting on the test results, I'm apparently the most healthy person on the planet. The extended entry contains the details, but the good news is that I've just been hit with what probably amounts to a triple whammie of viruses and I just need to rest, exercise and recover slowly.
While my body mass index is marginally underweight (score 19), I'm immune to everything I'm supposed to be immune to, and my blood work is right in the middle of the normal range on everything. I don't even have any evidence of glandular fever anymore.
Having said that, my glands are still up (although they seem to have reduced marginally from last Friday) and I still feel rather horrid. We've decided against taking any biopsies though, as it's rather invasive for no real reason, given the incredibly good results from the blood tests. So my prescription is good food and plenty of exercise every day. While I probably shouldn't hit the pool for another week or two, I plan to hit the pavement and do some quality exercise tonight, and get back in to morning yoga (yay the Lifestyle Channel!) to get the body back to health. Must watch the food intake though - don't want to lose too much weight back on the exercise trail.
Thanks to Callum Dodd at Network Services (Management) at QUT for this link to a Computerworld article on five technologies that are facing obseletion. The technologies in question are Windows 9X operating systems, client/server computing, proprietary network protocols, tape backups, and VB6. Have to agree on all counts with the possible exception of tape backups at least in the next few years. All the other systems are probably already in the process of being switched over to newer replacement systems. Tape backups are still preferred because they are cheap and because the systems are already in place. It's not the media so much as the hardware that probably will last just that bit longer than the alternatives.
So Microsoft would have you believe about their new email software. Or at least, they say messages will disappear from an inbox. Unfortunately, the claim is fallacious, because no email messages will truly be deleted from server backups, copies (hard and soft) and hard media backups. Just ask the guys associated with the Iran-contra affair. Increasing security of email is a priority, but I have very little time for the sort of claims Microsoft is making. They are patently absurd. Fortunately, someone will eventually sue Microsoft for such claims, so it may well be a win-win situation.
In response to the earlier link I made to what was radical about the weblog form in journalism, there's now a consideration of what is conservative about the form. Worth a read.
Boingboing has two links of interest today: firstly, the Xeni Jardin interview with Matrix special effects guru, John Gaeta, on media and convergence, conducted for Wired News. Great stuff. There's also the account of a Stephen Hawking lecture.
And how am I? Well I slept for just 7 hours last night - an improvement on the usual 10. But I'm afraid I'm still a bit washed out.
A limited health report is now available. Results are good. Shame I still feel so bad.
After returning from work feeling somewhat worse for wear this afternoon, I decided to put my mind at rest and go see if I could get my blood test results back from the docs. Well apparently civilians aren't allowed to look at their own charts - okay fair enough, I understand that a bad result could be pretty traumatic and the vast majority of the community wouldn't know what a good result or a bad result was. So I was told I would need to wait till my appointment, or have another doctor explain the results to me over the phone. I opted initially to wait for my appointment and then rang back later to ask for a doctor to phone. I figured if it had simply been a matter of waiting till the morning I wouldn't have bothered, but as the wait was nearly 48 hours, I might as well have the results discussed over the phone.
So a little over 10 minutes later, I received a call from one of the doctors at my clinic. First of all, not all the tests are actually back yet. So my report is limited. But the good news is that all the worst possibilities have been eliminated. Still haven't heard back on the status of a couple of much more minor illnesses, but the good news is that there's nothing really serious wrong. Now all I have to do is wait till Wednesday for the next stage of tests :-\
No, I'm not listening to that particular 1980s band. I'm describing the weather. According to the Weather Channel, Brisbane is going to have rain every day for the next week, so it's surely wet season here at the cusp of the tropics.
Not many links of interest today. Slashdot have a post on the Jupiter Research report stating that people who buy Microsoft products are likely to pay 10-40% more for their software than if they had purchased the competition's offerings. Well there's a surprise. Not. There's really nothing else. LinkMachineGo has a post on the 10 Geekiest Hobbies and Metafilter is pointing people to Star Trek Voyager fanfiction and slashfiction. That's how slow a news day it is in the tech world.
So how am I feeling? A bit stiff and sore after yesterday's rather longer-than-expected walk around town and on to work. I'm probably better than I have been for days otherwise. Guess that's from staying home, eating well and sleeping lots. Glands are still up though :-( Thanks to those who have sent wishes - in particular thanks to Mum, Lou and Misty. It's always nice to receive messages. Thanks ever so much. And of course, if I hear anything about the blood test results, I'll let you know.
A lethal combination. For anyone who may be interested, the extended entry contains my latest symptoms and experiences.
On a far more entertaining front, you must read the article chronicling conversations from children playing somewhat antique computer games that entertained us as kids. Absolutely hysterical stuff.
From a more academic perspective, I'm interested in the Jay Rosen article on the impact of blogging on journalism. His ten radical things about the weblog form in journalism, together with a series of some inciteful comments added to the post makes for fascinating reading.
For the comic book freaks among my readers, check out the Spider Jerusalem blogs. And while I thank the source I had for those blogs, congrats to BoingBoing for their 10,000th link.
On a local front, Telstra announced yesterday they would compensate customers of Big Pond accounts for having email problems over the last fortnight. Compensation includes discounted net access for the last fortnight (not the next one, so you can't download extra stuff). Other ISPs feel that Telstra isn't telling the full story because their email services haven't been affected. Of course, Telstra will argue that other ISPs interconnect in to the Telstra network and Telstra have been blocking spam before it gets to the other ISPs. But I tend to agree there's something else going on that is affecting email on Telstra at the moment. Possibly a server switch over? Possibly a network maintenance thing? Possibly someone stuffed up? Either way Telstra will never admit to any of the above, because that would leave them open to being sued for breaching their own QA and service level agreements.
Latest symptoms include the continuing inflamed glands - not as bad a mumps, but they are up all over my neck and under one arm. Also still have a congested head, a very mild earache, occasional dizzyness (related to the earache I suppose) and rather nasty backache. Constant fatigue and boredom basically polish it off.
Didn't sleep well last night primarily due to the noise from the street and downstairs, then losing power at 2:45am but getting it back again 30 minutes later (which meant I had the beeping from all sorts of equipment in the house turning off, and then the beeping when power was returned 30 minutes later), the ensuing storm 30 minutes after that, the drunk who decided to break bottles and curse the world at 5am and then basically boredom on my part. It's going to be wet for the next few days too, so my system doesn't even have nice weather in which to take long walks down to Newstead under sunny skies as part of my convalescence. Yuk.
I was supposed to attend three social gatherings last night and got to none of them. Instead I went to bed at 8:30pm and slept in fits and starts till 5:30am. Given I had already slept on Friday afternoon for over an hour, this is extraordinary for me. My healthy sleeping pattern is 6 - 7 hours sleep per day *tops*. I can function perfectly well on 5 hours sleep. And I have woken to being bored but my glands are still up and I'm getting some other odd symptoms so I'm going to have to take things easy. I'll go pick up my CDRW, install it, maybe shop for my birthday present from my mother - thanks Mum! - and hit the sack early again tonight.
On the links front, I think the information video released by the Electronic Frontier Foundation on the Great MP3 Caper is fabulous :-)
Have returned from the docs after being sent for extensive blood tests. My system isn't working properly because I was a bit light-headed in pathology and needed to lie down. I think it's better if I don't go in to work for the rest of the day. Sorry folks.
The astute among you will have noticed I have got rid of the Calendars section of my site. I haven't been keeping it up to date so I don't see the point in keeping it online. I am now using my work diary for appointments and only I can access that so if you want to know where I am and what I am doing you will need to email me and ask me.
My CD ROM drive has died on me. This is particularly annoying as a lot of my PhD resources have been burned to CD and I can't access them till I get a new drive. There goes another $60. Thankfully, I can get a CDRW drive as a kind of upgraded replacement very quickly (probably tomorrow) and will be able to install on my system during the weekend.
On the health front I'm still sleeping a lot and I can get by if I wrap my throat in scarves to keep the swollen glands down. So much for being immune to glandular fever. I'm positive that's what I've had again. Perhaps the major difference is that I'm not contagious. I have no fever; only the swollen glands, the slight sense of nausea and the ongoing sense of tiredness. As someone who is more likely to be injured than unwell, and who declares to everyone that "I never get sick", this is pretty crappy. I have very little patience with illness generally, and am extremely frustrated with an improperly functioning body. Thankyou to those who have expressed concern and who have tried to brighten my days with their company. Much appreciated.
The NTEU (National Tertiary Education Union) have called for a national day of action, today, October 16. This is in order to pursue Enterprise Bargaining claims and in protest over a cut in federal funding of universities, said to be a precursor to an increase in HECS (Higher Education Contribution Scheme) for new university students. Pickets start around now and go till 12pm in Brisbane, at which time a rally will take place in Roma Street.
In tech news, Mozilla has released its new browser, Firebird. If you're looking for an IE replacement, give this a go.
I'm still not well.
Got two messages last night I was able to despam by clicking on the message in my email inbox, and by adding the website to my blacklist. And it seems as though SixApart, the makers of Movable Type are sitting up and taking notice. Well done, again, Jay.
Went in to work for the afternoon and evening to help with an audience response system for a student. As I am "Keeper" of the technologies it was my responsibility to get it working. After much effort and muck around, we eventually got it working 20 minutes into the class time and then it failed on the student just as I left the room :-(
More to the point I get home eventually and feel absolutely exhausted. My legs are aching, my back is aching and I can barely keep my eyes open. Whatever this illness has been, it's still here. And I'm still suffering much too much for just a day of work.
I have just installed Jay Allen's MT-Blacklist plugin. Not only is it incredibly easy to install and use, but it works beautifully in preventing blog spam.
Thankyou so much to Jay for releasing this plugin. Nice to know the internet community has some real heroes out there.
*sends massive amounts of whuffie in Jay's general direction*
Apparently those who subscribe to my RSS feed via Livejournal are receiving my posts 24 hours after I make them. Might be worth complaining to the source. That's a ridiculous delay for RSS content.
In Clay Shirky's latest article, the product of RIAA's direct attack on Kazaa and Napster is discussed - the development of technologies that act as client, server and router, and that involve trust-oriented digital firewalls that provide risk management architecture for e-business transactions. Trouble is, these kinds of networks break down the inherent efficiencies of social networking activities for file sharing (we're not talking conversations here, but rather content exchanges - take that, Douglas Rushkoff!). Shirky is unsure of whether a less densely connected social sharing system is a good idea (because it encourages people to go out and buy music rather than relying on downloads) or whether it is a bad thing (because it encourages smaller social networks and thus provides the basis for a more organised underground of file sharing), but the longevity of social networks for content exchange is assured. And the implications of such networks will continue to frustrate e-business players and internet participants alike.
I'm still a little fragile at the moment but getting there. Thank goodness for warm weather, hot tea and a warm bed. And thanks to all those who have been sending vibes.
On the links front, thanks to Stephen Lister for this link to a story in the Associated Press on an emergency hard disk shutdown for new laptops. Unfortunate analogy to the air bag, but a useful device - so long as it doesn't trip too easily.
I'm once again amazed at the smart people at Daimler Chrysler for producing a cheap car that has all the connectivity and MP3 playing needs in one very parkable vehicle. Only trouble is that the import duties the Aussie Govt would put on this vehicle mean that there's no market for it here. *sigh*
Over at TechcentralStation, there's an interesting discussion between author, Neal Stephenson, and Glenn Reynolds on Stephenson's latest book, Quicksilver, on blogging and on the modern world in general. Short, but interesting.
On the blog spamming front, the frequency of spamming activities has escalated. I had to delete 10 posts last night. In response, I notice that users are developing new functionality for the Movable Type interface to deal with the problem. The MT-Blacklist is one such instance. I think Movable Type are going to have to look at some of these hacks and patch them in to the next series of updates - and pretty quickly, too. This is getting absurd.
Finally, my fingers are crossed for my friend, Liz, who will today know whether she has the finances for the house she's planning on buying. Lovely little place it is, too. Good luck Liz! *hugs*
CNN are reporting on the victory of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Californian Governor's Recall election.
Is it just me or is this just too funny for words? I keep hearing McBain lines from The Simpsons....
ARNIE/MCBAIN ON POLICY:
My new policy is a mixture of action und comedy
ARNIE/MCBAIN ON ENRON:
My Ferrari! I had to do awful things to pay for her
ARNIE/MCBAIN ON DAVIS:
My eyes! Ze goggles! Zey do nozink!
CNET have published an article which describes how the latest copy protection software installed on BMG titles to prevent MP3 ripping, is disabled by holding down the 'shift' key on your computer. And now that story has hit Metafilter, so that software is now useless to BMG because the whole world will know the story in about 10 minutes. So much for copy protection.
I'm still not particularly well, and things just keep getting harder at the moment.
I'm extremely annoyed to discover that spammers are now attacking my blog. I'm getting random comments from apocryphal email addresses linked to sites advertising insurance, etc, which usually don't reflect content. This is clearly an attempt to artificially increase page ranking results on Google, so I'm deleting all posts as they arise, but I may well have to moderate posts to avoid this in future if it continues to occur as often as it's doing now.
In other news, I have come down with a slight cold today. :-( My immune system is still a bit shot. And I want to send supportive vibes to friends who are going through tough times right now.
Spent the evening at a Bachelorette party which was amusing for a variety of reasons I'm not going to go in to. Suffice to say I chaperoned most present and even managed to deliver the groom to the bride towards the end of my evening. The fact that I did so at a gay bar is just more of a reason why I'm a chaperone rather than a participant in the frivolities. More to the point I met some very educated people who have managed to develop successful businesses as well as fabulous lifestyles. I plan to go out with some of these people in future. Thanks for the contacts!
The BGSB Conference was a big success, with some fabulous sessions on e-business on Day 2 (the day I was there). I heard some rather hysterical stories of recalcitrant speakers who were accosting my staff with tales of their outrage at nametags that were incomplete, or sessions that were inadequately attended, but hopefully these people will one day get over themselves and get a life. And even though I was roped in to the panel session at the conclusion of the conference at last minute, I still managed to generate enough controversy to put my boss on edge :-)
Finally drinks at the gala event and drinks afterwards with Sarah-Jane proved instructive! Thanks to all for a great day!
I'm here at the Brisbane Graduate School of Business Innovation and the New Economy Conference and about to start the session on Gizmos and Gadgets. Therte are all these shiny things sitting beside me. I'm in heaven.
Kevin Smith you have a lot to answer for. No not you, Kev. Well yes, probably you, too, but I was actually referring to Kevin "Clerks-Mallrats-Chasing Amy-Dogma-Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" Smith. This time.
The Hollywood Wax Museum has just released their Evolution of Arnie exhibit showing Schwarzenegger as Conan the Barbarian, the Terminator and finally, Governor. And in what stance is Arnie pictured? In a pose distinctly reminiscent of the Buddy Christ image (minus the wink) from Dogma. I don't have a pic of this yet - just saw it on the news and shrieked with mirth. And incredibly, this guy is ahead in the polls.
Truly, I believe that one day when Woody Allen dies, it will come out that the entire of California's history is just another of his movies, but he kept quiet about it because he didn't want to offend New York.
