I have finally caught up with A Mighty Wind, the latest mockumentary from the team that made Best in Show and This is Spinal Tap. Besides being an absolute hoot of a film it has probably some of the best live performances and musicality you're ever going to see from a bunch of people who've made their career as stand-up comedians and actors. But watch it because it's simply hysterical. Unlike so much US humour, this is intelligent, very dry, very quirky and just cry-your-eyes-out funny. Plus for anyone who grew up with The Seekers , Peter, Paul and Mary and - God forbid - Sing Along with Mitch albums in your mother's record collection, it's so true to the abomination which was folk music in the 1960s and 1970s that it's just plain frightening.
I will turn a blind eye to anyone wanting to practice security system detection and programming skills by creating a DDOS attack on the hosts of the Banned CD email, http://www.3003hosting.com/.
Go to it, and good luck to you.
EDIT: This is a joke, people. These guys just irritate me greatly, and I would very much like to see them get a taste of their own medicine. However, as Westy notes, it's better to fight them legally, and I had already sent a notice to the hosting company to deal with the problem in legal manner before I made this rather fractious post! I'm also thinking about making a formal complaint to the Australian Broadcasting Authority as some of the content of their emails may be regarded as banned under the Office of Film and Literature Classification. Then our ISPs have to block them. :-) There are many ways to bring down a spammer, after all!
Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux operating system, has been interviewed by Business Week Online with his story on the whole SCO debate. In a word, he believes SCO is wrong. No surprise there, but perhaps the most legitimate source from which to hear how wrong SCO is on this issue.
Shame really. Because this legal action is going to damage the open source movement in a very big way. MyDoom - now regarded as the worst computer virus in history - is just the start.
There are those among you who are aware of my completely irrational and seemingly incurable fear of moths. You will therefore be either highly amused or exceedingly sympathetic with my present situation which involves a plague of bogong moths deciding they want to live on, around, in and underneath my car, as it sits in my garage.
Baygon is my friend. Tomorrow I fumigate. I'm sure Canberra will be most pleased that I managed to take out a family of these pests before they head south and destroy crops.
I know I am not the only person who will be very pleased when the new MyDoom virus delivers its payload and gets the hell out of the networks at the moment. My organisation's connectivity has been slowed to a crawl due to the spread of this digital equivalent of industrial action. The trouble is, the effect of the virus isn't just hurting its target - it's hurting everyone else.
The creation of viruses as political action has been around almost since computer viruses began, but of late the spread of broadband and the adoption of email suffixes as a means of mass distributing a virus designed to attack one organisation has been widespread. Predictions are rife that 2004 will be the year of rampant, politically motivated viruses, and even more spam.
The MyDoom virus was designed as political action against the Utah-based SCO - the organisation launching intellectual property action against Linux and other UNIX based operating systems for (alleged) unlicensed use of a raw code that SCO claims to own. The similarity between this kind of virus and old fashioned industrial action activity in the offline world is clear: viruses that spread rapidly and produce a Denial Of Service (DOS) attack slow down networks in an online emulation of striking and pickets in the offline environment. But the trouble is that striking and pickets in the offline environment are legal and sanctioned actions, for the benefit of the workers against corrupt or unfair actions of an organisation's executive. The actions of SCO may be unfair, but it's a hell of a lot better to fight them on legal grounds than it is to use viruses which generally annoy the community and bring bad publicity to the entire open source community.
As I have written this entry I have received half a dozen iterations of the MyDoom virus. It's driving me nuts. And I'm an open source sympathiser. I can just imagine how non-sympathisers are feeling about this stupid, irritating, and ultimately illegal political action. Between the spam and viruses I'm getting at the moment I'm mass-deleting a great deal of email to the point where I suspect I'm missing many personal messages. And all that's doing is attacking the very boons of connectivity.
What a waste of a great resource.
Okay for those who don't know about my SECRET webcams, well... shame on you. You're never likely to get a good picture of me on these, but at least you see the Redness.
Upon deciding to go a "few shades darker" today at the hair dresser, I now have deep copper red hair with a few lighter highlights.
I blame my mother.
I have had a few votes of "hate it", one of "I suppose it will grow on me", a few of "different but okay" and a couple who actually like it. Importantly, I've had a couple of "you look less anaemic", and one of "you look five years younger". I'm going to listen to those!
HUGE news for the Brisbane Graduate School of Business with the publication of the Financial Times International MBA Rankings list for 2004. One of only 3 universities in Australia to be listed, QUT's Brisbane Graduate School of Business made it into the FT Rankings for the first time in 2004 - a tribute to the quality of programs and research coming out of this School. Great news guys!!!
Okay so the title of this post is a means of getting my geek friends to say "WHAT???" and wonder what has got in to me, but let me clarify by noting that my guess is that Bill Gates is totally and completely wrong. He'll just find an excuse at the time to account for his rather egregious error of judgement. But to turn to the prediction itself: Bill Gates has listed the year 2006 as the date by which all spam will be eliminated.
Uhuh.
Sounds to me like something you'd say to the World Economic Forum to win favour with business and government leaders who are presently wallowing in a pool of spam.
But hey, who wouldn't pray for it to be true?
Geek and professional news in the post, personal news in the extended entry. You know the routine.
Geek news:
1. iTunes has now released an RSS feed for updated listings of music files available through the iTunes micropayment system. What a great idea.
2. Toshiba has released a wall-mountable DVD player and screen which is also portable. I'm not sure why you'd want one but it looks sexy.
Professional news:
1. I will have some VERY big news about the Brisbane Graduate School of Business in the course of the next several days. Keep watching!
2. Am writing a paper on the implications of amateurisation of publishing through web logs, drawing on previous work of Clay Shirky and Tom Coates. My specific interest is focussed on the opportunities for democratic participation. Very interested in this course of study.
Personal news:
1. Thanks to good friends for a few good nights out over the past week.
2. *vibes* to those who have had bad weeks or are going through bad times at the moment.
3. Kudos to Mitch for organising what promises to be a fascinating discussion on the implications of Cory Doctorow's dotcommunist utopia.
4. My back is feeling good. Thanks to those who have been concerned. And thanks to physio!
It sounds like an economics seminar doesn't it? But it's becoming the focus of more and more debate about public health, safety and social issues. This is a long post but I'm passionate on this issue.
For the uninitiated, there is a political divide between government regulation or control and what's broadly described as "market forces". Those who support the "right" of politics are more inclined to believe that market forces, or commercial imperatives should be allowed to develop naturally and that governing bodies should only intervene where "market failure" occurs. So, for instance, after the death of cricketer, David Hookes, there are now calls to tighten regulation of security around hotels, and to produce a national standard of training for crowd controllers. It may sound harsh, but in economic terms, this is "market failure" - the free market economy has failed to provide a training and security system that meets the needs of the community.
Those who support the political "left" believe that governing bodies should take a proactive role in ensuring the health and welfare of "the state" - that is, the population of any region. It's probably no surprise to anyone that I am politically inclined to the left. While I believe competition and market forces are useful in providing diversity, creativity and innovation, I believe strongly that a reactive solution to problems is dangerously wrong in many circumstances.
Having said all that, I am throughly supportive of the creation of national standards for security training and crowd controllers. It has often been said in the past few days that the death of David Hookes may have been avoided if the event had occurred in New South Wales, primarily due to much longer training programs and much stricter conditions for security staff members, as well as union representation for crowd controllers. I just think it's outrageous that a celebrity had to die before these standards have been discussed. And yet most women in Victoria would tell you that they have feared for at least a decade, the pubs and bars of the city, and the power-hungry, mafia-style crowd controllers who dominate these venues. I also wonder whether we as a society need to understand more fully the rights we have to initiate a citizen's arrest, and to be supported in that process by registered and fully trained security officers. Rather than leaving it all to the uniformed officials, we probably need to be proactive in our protection of our own safety.
But "free market" advocates would tell you that the bureaucracy and inefficiency of government control mechanisms wouldn't have stopped Monday night's attack. If left to government, control mechanisms would become so over-rehearsed that corruption and an underground night life would be the result.
Who is to say who is right?
But another area where market forces and public choice is meeting regulation is the area of obesity. The World Health Organisation has announced an initiative with 190 signatory countries agreeing to battle the pandemic affliction. Some of their plans include regulation of food advertising in children's programming and publication of nutritional information in fast food outlets. The United States, the world's second fattest nation (Australia is now the worst) - has chosen not to sign up to the initiative. And in spite of my usual left-wing approach, on this issue, I actually agree with the United States.
You see obesity isn't about programming and publication of nutritional information. It's useful, but the market is already being proactive in that regard. Look at the change in menus for most fast food outlets. Look at the promotions for free water (not free fizzy drinks) with food purchases. The problem with obesity is choice. People are choosing to eat far too much, and not exercise enough. All manner of excuses are given - there's not enough time to exercise, people are too depressed to exercise, or they think walking around a supermarket is exercise enough.
None of those excuses stand up.
Government regulation of food advertising will not affect world obesity. Eating less and exercising more is the only solution. So while the pandemic of obesity may be a result of market failure, it's not because food production has advanced over time. And it's not because kids spend too much time in front of the computer. And it's not because of television. It's because of eating too much, and because as a culture we are inclined not to focus on the dreadful health risks of being overweight. If we're being absolutely politically correct, we're not even allowed to point it out. Like with cigarette smoking, some people are just too selfish and too stupid to be concerned about the long term problems associated with this condition. Their public choice simply means that they regard themselves as the sole sufferers of their disorder.
So if I were to recommend for the problem of obesity, a proactive role for governing bodies in regulatory terms, I'd suggest focussing more on the shocking costs incurred by the whole community in sustaining the lives of people who have simply lived an unhealthy life. Because it's not just the individual who suffers from the disorder, but the rest of the community who pay taxes and rising premiums on health insurance, partly because of the rising costs of dealing with sufferers of obesity.
Market failure might well have occurred both in the "micro" case of crowd control in Victorian pubs and clubs, and in the "macro" case of world obesity. But blaming the venues isn't the answer. It's time to look to ourselves for a solution.
Like many people, I am extremely saddened by the untimely and violent death of a cricket legend, David Hookes. He was a great cricketer, an opinionated and entertaining commentator, and has been described by everyone as an all-round nice guy. My thoughts and wishes are with his family, and I encourage anyone who is similarly affected by his death to email foundation@alfred.org.au (an authorised service) to send messages of support and comfort.
What a dreadful waste of a fabulous life.
The Washington Post is reporting a study showing that a means of attracting the young voter in the US is to use blogs and chat facilities. Certainly the popularity of blogs like that of Howard Dean is a demonstration of how blogs can act as a catalyst for debate on political issues. I spoke with the Courier Mail on the topic last week, in light of the forthcoming state election in Queensland, and curiously enough, said virtually the same thing to the journalist as appears in the report (EDIT: Found the article). It's good to know the research (EDIT 2: Also found the original published US survey results) is consistent across international boundaries anyway!
And on a much lighter note, one enterprising chappie has taken to illustrating his spam messages. This one is superb.
It should be no surprise to those people who know what a blog is that the World Internet Project's most recently reported findings say absolutely nothing new about internet use. Of course, to the uninitiated, it may be surprising to find that internet users are socially well-adjusted human beings, but that's mainly because to them, geeks are a Bad Thing. Indeed the ABC Report on the matter boldly proclaims internet users to be 'Geeks No More!'. Sadly they too seem to have missed the point. Internet and computer enthusiasts are rpoud to be geeks because they understand what it is to be a geek, and that ain't bad.
And this blog has once again been upgraded to the latest Movable Type specs.
Details of building efforts in the extended entry.
So... Jo the builder... Yes I fixed it. In other words, I have completed the "first draft" of my entertainment unit shelf and have it installed. I call it a first draft because I'd prefer to have a bigger, better version on pine, rather than MDF, but the present temporary fix is a good colour, shape and size and is perfectly functional as it is. Indeed, I doubt if people would realise on first glance that it's not part of the unit below it. But I want to build the next version with bigger, better power tools and I want a mitre saw to produce a nice even channel in the wood so I can recess the "legs" into the bench top. For years I wasn't allowed to have power tools because my partners didn't like the idea of me having them. Now my friends are encouraging me, so I'm all for increasing my range of heavy duty armoury. Plus I get nice furniture out of it :-) So the first effort in fulfilling one of my New Year's Resolutions is complete. Build on!
A couple of stories of interest have hit the news stands today, care of The Australian newspaper.
First of all, Telstra has launched its local competiton to iTunes, with its own music download site; a directory of 250,000 songs priced at $1.49 if you're a Big Pond subscriber, and $1.89 otherwise. That makes the Telstra directory quite a lot more expensive than the iTunes format (US$0.99, or approximately $1.28 at the current conversion), and it has half as many songs as iTunes, but the collection may well be more reflective of Australian bands and music tastes.
And secondly, Optus has upped the ante on broadband pricing (at last!!!) with a discount $49.95 per month broadband service for up to 300Mb of data, or $69.95 for up to 12G of data per month. An added benefit of the Optus plan is that rather than charging its customers extra if they exceed their download limit, it merely reduces connection speeds to those normally experienced with a dial-up modem: far preferable for most of us who don't necessarily keep tabs with our downloads on a regular basis. For what it's worth, I'm presently a dial-up subscriber mainly because I have high-speed connectivity at work, but also because I don't download much at home. And right now for around $30 per month I can be connected for as long as I want and download as much as I want for that price. So even these new broadband prices are still only just sparking my interest. Really if Australia wants to be internationally competitive on broadband, we have to keep offering cheaper and cheaper access.
... I'm deeply suspicious of the announcement by US President George Bush about the funding of missions to Mars in search of life on the red planet, and the building of a permanently manned Lunar station. It's not that the Mars and Lunar missions themselves are in question. It's just that in the past there has always been a more pressing agenda which has supported space exploration. In the 1960s and 1970s the issue was the Cold War. Space exploration (and concommitantly the development of the technologies and applications of the internet) was funded on the basis of fear of attack from Russia or any of the nations associated with 'Communist' rule. As soon as the threat of attack dwindled, so too, did funding of space exploration. And given Bush's recent admission of his true motivation behind the war in Iraq (getting Saddam), one is inclined to believe that there is an agenda other than the pursuit of pure research that is motivating this series of missions.
In Yes Prime Minister, there was a fabulous scene where to divert attention from local issues, public servants Sir Humphrey and Bernard, recommend going to war or announcing a space mission. Bush has done both. So either something extraordinarily bad is happening on the domestic front in the US or George Bush is extremely worried about North Korea. Or possibly he's just more of a megalomaniac than even I had ventured to believe. Maybe US citizens should turn the now-vacant, Michael Jackson ranch, Neverland, into a retreat for those people so obsessed with their own power and glory that they willingly rationalise their actions with arguments for truth, beauty, democracy and love, whilst actually motivated by revenge, perversity, domination and fantasy.
I suppose we must hope that, as has occurred with previous space missions, some good, pure research can come of the initiative.
Just did some shopping and bought my new printer which I have purchased from Officeworks because that was the best price for the unit I bought. You could knock me over with a feather. I usually avoid Officeworks for high technology, but there you go. This is the end of this model (the Hewlett Packard Printer-Scanner-Copier 1210) so it was marked down dramatically. I could have bought the latest model for twice the price which also prints photos but when you take into account the ink usage and media paper cost, the capacity to print photos costs you more than taking your digital camera files down to Kodak and getting them printed there. False economy, really. But it's nice to have the older model as a 3-in-1 device, as I have often wanted a scanner and copier. Now I just need a new USB hub to handle all my USB devices.
Thanks to Kevin for the link to the story on the first Segway clone. People who have invested in the Rad2Go company should be braced for litigation very soon. But while I've always thought the Segway is cool, I've also always thought it rather nerdy. The very idea of masses of people spending US$1000 on the Rad2Go Q and using it to get about town is somewhat bizarre. And in this age of obesity, I'm not sure whether it's a good idea to promote the use of vehicles that will just add to the problem. Get out there and walk, people! You will look healthier and much less nerdy! :-)
This is mostly personal, but it bespeaks the daily highs and lows of life today.
YAY for Mel for getting in to the Masters degree program at Griffith University! I'm sure you'll enjoy it immensely, Mel! Congratulations and all my very best to you.
YAY for Jeremy submitting our joint-authored paper to the Australian Journal of Educational Technology. Great to have a joint-authored paper at last on my record!
YAY for Rose petal sorbet on a Sunday afternoon. Thanks, Callum. Was good to catch up :-)
BOO for my printer dying.
BOO for losing one of my treasured titanium earrings. Replacing it is going to be expensive.
BOO for some rather horrid things happening in the life of a very close friend. My thoughts are with you at this difficult time. Whatever happens, you know I will be there for you, wishing you well.
YAY to other close friends for letting me rabbit on a bit lately. And a special YAY to a couple of gentlemen in particular who have gone out of their way to tell me they think I've "still got it". *blush and chuckle* It may be sad, but it's just nice to have that expressed every now and then!
Even when you consider the usual decline in jobs in the IT sector over the holiday period, jobs continued to grow in the IT sector for the December period in Australia. So students studying in IT should be pleased. More to the point, investors in the IT sector should be beginning to feel a lot happier. And those who predicted the "End of E-Business" perhaps ought to reconsider.
On the education front, my boss recently announced that all students entering the MBA program at the Brisbane Graduate School of Business should have a laptop which they bring to class. The move was considered risky, yet it elicited (so far) only one written response of a student who in principle, accepted the decree, but was concerned about typing speeds in exams. Evan Douglas has proposed that we develop questions for our exams that require fewer words to complete and that we are lenient on the time allocated to exams. So far this seems to have gone down well. But as an example of a FAR more risky program, Deakin University is now forcing all students to complete one subject online as part of any new degree course. The Pro Vice Chancellor notes that virtually all business is conducted online. Similarly, virtually all business reports, research and productivity takes place before a PC. This sort of skills development may sound risky but these are skills for the workplace. I applaud Deakin's pioneer effort in this regard and hope my students and colleagues will feel somewhat more at ease with our laptop rule in light of the Deakin initiative.
The ethics of Paul Davies might be questioned by some when they read the article on manned missions to Mars. Davies recommends that science missions to Mars could cut costs if the astronauts were not to return from the mission. His reasoning is probably sound. And I'm sure you could probably find enough volunteer PhD graduates in the space program who would be willing to live out their lives on Mars. But I'm not sure anyone should really consider this as a serious action plan. It's just plain morally wrong. (Thanks to Kevin for the link)
In other news, my printer just died on me. Seriously died. A little wheel just came out with the paper and now it doesn't load paper at all. Mum, I share your pain of being without a printer. Looks like I'm up for another couple of hundred dollars on the computer. *sigh*
Anyone who is likely to be remotely offended by anything should not follow my links tonight.
Boingboing has alerted me to two sites that I think should be recorded regardless of the fact that I don't endorse the material therein.
The first of these is for an android that is probably the first iteration of the infamous Cherry 2000. Valerie is the first ever pleasure android. Of course, it's logical that the first iteration of hardware should be in this industry. It's always been the pioneer industry.
And in a link based on the kind of issues associated with civilisation that are never discussed, those of where we deal with life's necessities. Andy Brown-May back at Monash University, had an extraordinary knowledge of the history of Melbourne and he was always coming up with trivia about the fact that there was nowhere for women to ... be comfortable .... in Melbourne, until 1864. The history of this often under-researched area poses as many questions as answers. It's the sort of question children think about and adults forget. But it's an important aspect of history and should probably be recorded. I'm just glad I'm not doing the research on it.
Well folks after several days of upper back troubles, I managed to completely stuff up my lower back this morning by trying to relax my spine over a gym ball. Details of the latest injury are in the extended entry but briefly, I've seen a physio and am feeling much better.
But this morning, when I managed to slide off the gym ball, I couldn't walk. The lower back simply went out to lunch and left no contact number, instead preferring to leave what felt like a few rather hefty knives stuck in the pelvic girdle and into my legs. Breathing into the pain, I managed to get myself into a shower where I allowed hot water to run over my spine for a few minutes whilst trying to contract and relax my back and stomach muscles to the point where I could *just* walk. Pain shot up and down my legs and across my pelvis though, and I realised that I was just going to have to get over the cost and go get physiotherapy. So I came in to the office today and did just that after an appointment with a student. As I had suspected, the locus of the problem was both the top and the bottom of the scoliosis of my spine (mild curvature), and after an hour of fairly painful deep tissue massage and manipulation of T3-T7, I can now walk comfortably, incline my head a little more and look behind me. It still hurts a fair bit but it's MUCH better thanks to physio. I may be $60 poorer, but I believe this was the right thing. And I'm back to the old drill of exercises for rotation of the spine and stretching the 'gluts' (gluteus maximus muscles). I'm also supposed to keep up with heat and relaxation as well as normal workout routines. None of this is a problem as I enjoy stretching, and am happy to keep up with the routine if it assists with mobility and strength.
Both the physio and I are crossing our fingers that I won't even need a follow-up visit. Once T5-T7 has been manipulated ("cracked" as I always say), I'm usually fine for several weeks, if not months. Think of it as a table with one wobbly leg. Every now and then you have to prop up the table again when the stopper comes loose. That's pretty much what has to happen to my spine, though perhaps in reverse. Every now and then I have to loosen the spine at the upper thoracic region in order to be able to function normally again. It's expensive, but it's fairly easily fixed. And hey if this is the limit of my problems, I'm fairly lucky!
Shoulder still hurts so let's get this over with quickly so I don't have to type long.
Thanks to Boingboing for the two weirdness links to an experimental soccer match between humans riding segways and robots, and to the story about obsessive compulsive (and prankster) housesitters that wrapped everything in an entire home with aluminium foil. Yes, including the toilet paper.
Thanks to Kevin for the link to the story on the possible solution to one of the longest standing mathematical problems, the Poincaré Conjecture.
And thanks to Steve Jobs for the MacWorld annoucements... although I must say I don't think the mini iPod is really so fabulous. Maybe it's the pain but I'd have thought a cheaper model of iPod would have been better than a smaller, slightly higher capacity iPod.
After 38 degrees and rather sore neck, shoulder and deltoid muscles, I'm looking forward to the end of this day.
Wow. Neck and shoulder are much improved. Details in extended entry.
I normally don't like the idea of bed rest for neck and back injuries, but I'm prepared to admit it worked in my case. I'm still stiff and sore in my neck and shoulder and I suspect that if I push it too hard it will go in to spasm again, but I'm about 90% better in just one night. A hot water bottle and pain reliever knocked me out cold last night and by the time I woke this morning the vast majority of the pain was gone. Still can't turn or incline my head much but I don't feel much pain when I'm still (very different from yesterday). I did a reduced workout this morning and managed to get through it without too much discomfort, and as I was surprised I could do anything at all after yesterday, I was happy with that. Yesterday gentle movement of any kind sent sharp jabbing pain right into the nape of my neck and all down my back and my right arm, particularly at the elbow and wrist. Now I feel gentle movement right down in the erector spinae at T3-T5 and as low as T7 again, so clearly that's where the injury has begun. I probably should still see someone who can manipulate my spine at that point. The joints must be horridly stiffened to have produced such a severe reaction.
I'm not totally recovered yet, as I still feel a fair bit of discomfort, but I'm confident that by tomorrow or Friday at the latest, with gentle exercise and heat therapy (lying on a hot water bottle) the pain will be gone completely. So clearly, the muscle relaxant yesterday was the right move. I just think it's hysterical that I need less than half the recommended dosage to knock me out!
Still very very sore, and have spent most of the day asleep as a result of the medication I have taken. I feel like I need to wear a brace for my shoulders. Tried to get an appointment to see a physio but had no chance till Friday. I'll keep up with the heat treatment and electric massager in the meantime. Doubt if I'll keep up the medication beyond today. It may be a simple pain reliever and muscle relaxant but Mersyndol knocks me out as effectively as a hospital grade anaesthetic. Will update tomorrow.
Well I've resorted to medication and certainly the pain is reduced but the tension is still there. Plus I have all the muggy-headedness of having taken a strong pain reliever (Mersyndol if you're wondering: paracetamol mixed with a muscle relaxant). I still can't move my head much from side to side, and I can't incline it to the right at all. Looks like it's going to be a day of rest for me :-(
I seem to have sent my thoracic and cervical spine into spasm. Details in the extended entry but I won't be at my PC much today.
I have a fairly high pain threshold which is both a blessing and a curse, because I push myself rather hard without realising I'm doing any damage until the musculo-skeletal system decides to complain by going in to spasm. I probably should have treatment this time - something I usually avoid because it's so expensive - but I've been aware that the joints at T3-T5 (thoracic vertebrae) have been becoming more and more stiff for about the last 3 months. I think they've just basically asserted themselves on the surrounding tissue and caused a major reaction. I'm self-treating at the moment (heat therapy and conscious relaxation of the erector spinae) but I just can't manipulate my spine myself so I'm going to have to beg for assistance. In the meantime, the erector spinae, splenius, trapezius and levator scapulae are all affected by pulling on one another. Very uncomfortable.
Lunch.
Salt = yum.
Cricket = much more heartening today. Gillespie is Australia's unsung hero of this match.
My uncle David rocks for sending me the Australian Bureau of Meterology calendar for 2004. This is quite possibly the most superb calendar I've ever seen. Sorry folks, it's sold out for 2004, but even the images on the site are absolutely superb. Perhaps we should see if wecan convince the BoM to print more copies for 2005!
And finally, according to a British study, lucky charms work only in the minds of the carrier. What a profound finding. Not. I assume that would be the point of wearing talismans in the first place; if you believe that they work, you wear them and they seem to work. If you don't believe, you don't wear them and so they don't work. Your tax money at work, folks.
Q: What's the difference between a beagle and a spirit?
A: US$720 million
(and a Mars landing captured on video.)
Technologically speaking, 2004 looks like the beginning of a whole series of legal and corporate issues. This blog will once again be dedicated to offering links and discussion of some of the more pertinent aspects of technology news and will attempt to act as a platform for debate on a series of issues. If you choose to read, please feel free to add a comment and enjoy the ride.
As a taste of technology issues for 2004, have a read of Bob Cringely's predictions for 2004. His sense of the growth in convergence - coming 8 years later than expected - has particular corporate control implications in a global context. Perhaps my thesis will be coming out at just the right time after all. Generally, the expected growth in the IT industry, as well as the rise in legal issues and outsourcing will impact on business plans across all sectors.
And as a snapshot of the kinds of laws to be passed - and probably a "Well Duh!" law anyway - check out the story on California banning use of computers and watching of television *whilst driving*. I'm assuming the law is worded appropriately to ensure that use of in-car computers to assist driver control will not be banned, or an awfully large number of cars on the road will be subject to some ridiculous litigation in the coming months.
And on a non-technological, but somewhat amusing note, check out the blog post from Graham Young on the vote for the World Idol poll. It's a political analysis embedded in popular culture. :-)
Good evening. I thought I'd share a couple of resolutions and links in the extended entry of this post, but first I want to discuss a post I made some time back regarding Michael Jackson and the possibility of his suffering from Asperger's Syndrome. I put forward the possibility of his suffering from the syndrome as a means of explaining his bizarre behaviour. It seems that some readers have come across this entry either as sufferers of the syndrome, or as families of sufferers, and they are concerned about the negative publicity that could arise from Jackson's diagnosis with the disorder. To that end, I offer some links to information about the disorder below, and some to appropriate support networks. But briefly, I think it is behoven of me to plead with anyone reading this post that you show compassion and sympathy to any sufferers of Asperger's, and that if Jackson is diagnosed with the disorder, that we not forget the victims, but try to do what we can to provide the assistance that is required to support a sufferer of a neurological disorder. In the last post on the subject I called Asperger sufferers prisoners of their own mind. While Jackson's latest claims of abuse during his period of incarceration may be exaggerated or even entirely false, he may also believe these claims if he suffers from Asperger's. Jackson may yet be a prisoner of his own invention.
Information about Asperger's Syndrome
World Support Network (OASIS)
Australian Support Group (for locals)
On an entirely different note, my new year's resolutions are many, and include the usual personal, professional and financial goals, but I also have two main resolutions that may shock some of my closest friends:
1. To develop my herb garden collection. Yes, I am considering developing that herb garden at last; and
2. To build more stuff for my house. No, I'm not suffering from too much lifestyle television. The truth is that I actually have always enjoyed the challenge of solving problems around the house with innovative solutions that I plan, research and implement. I often do the wrong thing and have to fix things, but more often that not, my projects work very well indeed. As a child (and even as an adult, as my mother will attest) I always was able to fix jewellery, patch and mend clothes, furniture and all manner of little things around the house. I want to take that further this year and build more for my house than I have done before. I have begun by getting the materials I need for building a shelf for my entertainment unit in my lounge. I have had to establish what materials I need, and now I need to put the thing together, stain it and seal it with Estapol and install it. Give me a week and it should be done. If this project turns out well I may build another cabinet for a larger TV to go on top of the shelf. And before that I want to see if it's feasible to put a herb garden display shelf system and watering system together for the above-listed herb garden.
I figure if I'm going to be domestic, it might as well be useful and practical.
Finally to my links for the evening. WIRED magazine has an article on 101 ways to save the internet from the evils of hacking, cracking, identity theft and viruses. Tim Berners Lee, inventor of the technology which came to be the WWW, was listed for a Knighthood in the New Year's Honours list in the UK. And Nielsen Netratings have identified Google, eBay and Friendster-style sites as being the most influential sites for changing behaviours for internet use in the UK. My gut feeling is that this trend would be reflected in most English-speaking nations anyway.
More links tomorrow when I return to work. Oh, and happy new year folks!
HUGE thanks go to Liz and Melissa for sharing with me the BEST New Years Eve I've had in about 4 years. Drinks and gossip, followed by dinner with fireworks at 9pm, salsa in the street, champagne and coffee on the beautiful Brisbane River, and finally more fireworks at midnight before heading home on free public transport with a bus full of delightful people returning from dinners and classical music concerts, jazz clubs and other performances. And in amidst all that were messages from friends and family, always bringing a smile to my face. Even got to speak to my Mum in Melbourne who shared a similar night with her friends. Thanks for the call Mum! And thankyou everyone for your messages and wishes! Just a magic night! What a great start to the new year!
