The extended entry is self-indulgent and probably shouldn't even be posted. But I'm posting it because I know there are those out there who care.
In all of our lives, there are times of great happiness and times that really suck. This year my family has had more of the latter than the former. There was one wonderful moment of happiness on the day of my brother's wedding, but both before and since then there has been far too much that has sucked.
I'm figuring that karma will mean that some time soon things are going to be better for us all. And when it comes down to it, I guess we've all had a pretty charmed life for some time. Well. Some good. Some bad. But we do tend to live life at extremes so when things have been good they've been great. And the reverse, I guess. So I guess I should instead be focusing on what we have to be thankful for, than what seems to hang over us like a dark shadow. But a *little* return of karma would just help right now. Please?
In news that can only be described as typical, Microsoft now won't release Longhorn until 2006. Maybe the functionality in XP will need to have the bugs fixed first, hmmm?
For all those people who say they do something "once a blue moon", then tonight is your night. In only the second blue moon of the century, we have a second full moon in a calendar month visible on the east coast of Australia tonight. In celebration of this, I am taking the day off work. So to those of you who say I never take any leave, here's an example of a day off!
The Guardian's listing of the Top 10 sci-fi films I mostly agree with, although I suppose there's no more controversial topic than ranking of films in the sci-fi genre. Geeks love to argue these topics so no doubt the list will be decried, defended, denied, distinguished and finally, discarded, as most of these rankings tend to do.
I guess there are a few films that I would like to see added to perhaps the Top 100 Sci-Fi films of all time, and most of these would probably be regarded as vaguely, if not definitely, controversial choices. Some of these would include the rather cerebral Gattaca, the distinctly horrific John Carpenter version of The Thing, Alex Proyas's flawed but ultimately beautiful Dark City, the greatest of the Star Trek films, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and of course, the original Fritz Lang film, Metropolis. I'd probably also include the second Mad Max film, Siegal's 1956 masterpiece, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (originally supposed to be titled Sleep No More - a much better title), Verhoevan's Robocop, Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys and even the 2001-esque paranoia film, Colossus: The Forbin Project.
No doubt I have just offended the sensibilities of most of my fellow science fiction fans. Now to sit back and watch the comments roll in!
I thought it was only fair to register the final medal tally, complete with population figures. Great Britain's population is based on that recorded for the entire United Kingdom. (Estimates calculate that Great Britain's population without Scotland, Wales, or Northern Island is about 50 million.)
| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Population |
| USA | 35 | 39 | 29 |
293,027,571
|
| CHINA | 32 | 17 | 14 |
1,298,847,624
|
| RUSSIA | 27 | 27 | 38 |
143,782,338
|
| AUSTRALIA | 17 | 16 | 16 |
19,913,444
|
| JAPAN | 16 | 9 | 12 |
127,333,002
|
| GERMANY | 14 | 16 | 18 |
82,424,609
|
| FRANCE | 11 | 9 | 13 |
60,424,213
|
| ITALY | 10 | 11 | 11 |
58,057,477
|
| SOUTH KOREA | 9 | 12 | 9 |
48,598,175
|
| GREAT BRITAIN | 9 | 9 | 12 |
60,270,708
|
Population figures source: CIA World Fact Book.
Australia are still fair dinkum superstars.
The election on 9 October will probably best be described as "retro". The entire media coverage of the election will be reusing previous slogans, revisiting previsited topics and rehashing old character assassinations.
Old Slogans will include Gough Whitlam's campaign of "it's time".
Old issues will include the children overboard affair as well as the war in Iraq and the period of Howard's tenure as Prime Minister.
Old character assassinations will include Latham's bullying tactics and Costello's rampant republicanism.
In the end, the true issues of this election - the minor changes in policy in terms of health care, education funding and tax breaks - will lurk in the shadows, only of interest to the discerning swinging voter.
Oh and my bet? Latham by a nose.
The new Service Pack for WinXP is surprisingly stable once you remove the firewall software now built in to the operating system. Funny about that. Between Plan B access and WinXP updates, it's only by punching a great big gaping hole in a firewall that I can function as a webmaster.
In other news, it's Riverfire tonight in Brisbane. There seems to be much less fuss about the event this year than in previous years. Fewer people are considering attending, and the actual investment in fireworks this year appears to be less than previous years. Still, probably worth a look if you have the advantage of accommodation in view of the Brisbane River. It's an early night though - runs from 7 - 7:30pm so don't go partying first. It's more of a pre-dinner aperitif than a nightcap. So if you want your evening to end with a bang, you'll need to use your imagination.
I have an aversion to cryptic posts, because they don't invite openness. However, in the interest of protecting myself from a barrage of queries from students, colleagues and probably hackers, I will only say that Plan B access privileges are a beautiful thing.
Brisbane in August-September is just stunning. Warm days of up to around 25° Celsius, with bright sunshine and a soft cool breeze filtering through all the new growth on the trees. The streets are quiet and the air is clear and fragrant. It's so lovely to be working at home at the moment, where I can open all my windows and let the sun and the warmth shine in. It even makes marking pleasant!
For those of you who know her, Jean Dann has got through heart bypass surgery well and is in ICU until later today. A marathon effort, the surgery has apparently been a complete success. Great news for Jean and the whole Dann family! Love and a speedy recovery to Jean and restful vibes for Michael, Peter, Susan and Stephen!
For those of you who have been trying to contact me (and for those I've been trying to contact) over the past 24 hours, my email has been down due to filters being placed on my account. You would probably have received a bounce back message saying the user was unknown. I am here to report that the system is now operative and all email should now get through.
My thoughts are with Jean Dann this morning who goes in for a triple bypass operation in a couple of hours. I'm sure Jean's energy and delightful humour will pull her through, but I know this is going to be a struggle for her and for the rest of the Dann family. My very best to you all. *hugs and much love*
"The following tale of alien encounters is true. And by true, I mean false. It's all lies. But they're entertaining lies. And in the end, isn't that the real truth? The answer is no." - Leonard Nimoy in The Simpsons, 'The Springfield Files'
This quote should be used to explain policy.
I often claim to be a geek. It's really true. I am a geek. I do watch Star Trek and love sci-fi films generally. I've even been to a Star Trek convention, and once had a picture taken in Star Trek uniform. So there. But much as I am a geek, I pale to insignificance when compared with my friends who collect merchandise figures and so on. And my friends pale to utter transparency when compared with the weird and wonderful subjects of the bizarre documentary, Trekkies, a 1997 film narrated by former Star Trek star, Denise Crosby. Every time I want a bit of a giggle, I bring out my copy of this film to marvel, Jerry-Springer-like, at the incredibly bizarre antics of these real-life fanatics. I still can't believe that these people think what they are doing is okay. But hey. They are harmless. Even good corporate citizens, in many cases.
Now, in just a few days, Trekkies 2 will be released in the US. Seven years after the first film, I am keen to see the updates on several of the subjects of the original film. And I'm also keen to see the global response to Star Trek which is promised in this new doco. Besides anything else, films like these make me feel decidedly normal :-)
See I think there should be an extra column on the medal tally: population.
| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Population |
| United States | 17 | 12 | 11 |
293,027,571
|
| China | 15 | 11 | 10 |
1,298,847,624
|
| Japan | 12 | 4 | 3 |
127,333,002
|
| Australia | 8 | 5 | 8 |
19,913,444
|
| Russia | 5 | 11 | 12 |
143,782,338
|
| Italy | 5 | 6 | 3 |
58,057,477
|
| Germany | 5 | 5 | 9 |
82,424,609
|
| France | 5 | 5 | 6 |
60,424,213
|
| Ukraine | 5 | 1 | 2 |
47,732,079
|
| South Korea | 4 | 8 | 3 |
48,598,175
|
When you consider the tiny size of our population when compared with the top medal nations, Australians are fair dinkum superstars.
:-) I believe there are a number of lurkers out there who never post to this blog. Hello and welcome! You are, of course, entitled to post anything you like here, but if you wish to stay a reader that's fine! Having spent the evening talking to students graduating from their MBAs and having them cite my posts back at me is rather weird, but also fun to know you're all out there!
Otherwise I have spent the day in Criterion Referenced Assessment (CRA)workshops where, other than gaining a reputation as a pedantic and scary troublemaker, I have been considering ways and means of translating my units to CRA. My only concern is in terms of the implications of what we are doing for legal and procedural purposes. For instance, at a recent OLT Steering Committee meeting academic staff were warned that the copyright obligations of the University for uploading assignments to On Line Teaching (OLT) sites was very different from those associated with exemplar responses (that is, a 'model answer'). For assignments, students are permitted to use up to 10% of a third party document in their responses. If, for instance, a student is carrying out an analysis of a company's financial position, they may call on an annual report in some detail, and consider the viability of the arguments presented therein. Up to 10% of the document can be cited in an assignment and this is regarded as "fair use" under Australian copyright law. But for exemplar responses, the rule is different. The document submitted is no longer part of an assessment and research regime, and becomes ostensibly a value-added product of the program. Thus no more than 1% of any third party document can be cited. So in other words, we're not able to use high grade student responses as mechanisms to train other students in high quality assessment tasks, unless we can show that less than 1% of a third party resource is cited. So basically the implications of CRA (developing an awareness of good quality responses to assessment tasks) is mitigated by copyright (limiting the possibilities for informing students). It's frustrating and only one example of issues to arise from this change in assessment style. Don't get me wrong. I like CRA, I just think the ramifications of change are yet to be resolved.
The initial share price may have been below expectations, but at $120 a share it's probably the first instance of a realistic attitude of the sharemarket to a technology-based industry. Volatile and high-risk, the technology sector may regard Google as a giant, but there's always the possibility that the Next Big Thing will send the stock tumbling. Frankly I think it's well priced.
Acquire, Brak! Acquire!
Yes I'm a geek.
I meant to report on this yesterday, but the progressive Australian Research Council backed research of Alan McKee on internet porn (yes your tax dollars at work, folks!) has released preliminary findings saying that a little internet porn is a good thing.
But let me ask you this question. If you answered a survey about internet porn would you be inclined to say it made you feel worse and more likely to act like a sex-addict? Or would you smile and say "oh yeah, titillating and I felt fine afterwards"? Not entirely sure we can get a "clean" study on this issue.
WIRED are no longer capitalising the descriptors of the internet.
So "internet" is now "internet", "Web" is now "web" and "Net" is now "net". Finally. I've been writing these without the capitals for years.
In other news, Sci Fi author Bruce Sterling has been neologistic in inventing the blobject.
I've said this before and I'll say it again: blogging reduces the personal privacy of bloggers. Anyone who thinks their exploits, complaints and so on will not be read by people for which such posts are unintended is kidding themselves.
This is just precisely what has occurred in the case of Washingtonienne. While I was aware of this salacious and frankly, embarrassing blog, I did not link to it because I found it vile. It's not my place to question people who wish to pursue such a lifestyle. I just don't think a person with half a brain would ever blog it. And anyone who doesn't think it will be seen and exposed is, without a doubt, spectacularly stupid.
I'm grateful the girl lost her job. I think she probably is in the right field now she has posed for Playboy. I just wish she wasn't lauded in the press. She has all the intellectual assets of a stapler, and should be recognised everywhere as a monumental twit.
I'm actually blogging from the examination for Strategic Internet Marketing and I can't think of a better time to note the extraordinary conditions for linking to the Athens 2004 Olympics website. Not only do all people who link to the site implicitly agree to the terms and conditions of the linking process, but they risk getting sued for failing to meet these conditions.
An exercise in how not to market strategically.
My dear friend Camilla sent me this in email today.... seemed just appropriate today!
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Champagne in one hand - strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming WOO HOO - What a ride!"
That would be my "to do" list. I have it here on my desk at work (where I am still, at 10pm on a Friday night), and I probably have about 2 weeks of work on my list and 2 days over the weekend in which to complete it all.
Yay me.
It was always going to happen. At least, anyone with a vague understanding of law knew it was going to happen, anyway.
In San Francisco, where a ban on gay marriages is in place, the mayor's act to sanction 4000 simulataneous gay marriages was found by a Californian Supreme Court to have no legal effect and thus all 4000 marriages have now been annulled.
I'm getting rather annoyed and frustrated by the extreme ignorance of most advocates of gay marriage. These political stunts do absolutely nothing to assist the cause. Similarly, protesting against John Howard's amendments to Section 40 of the Australian Marriage Act which (in my humble opinion most unnecessarily) clarify that marriage occurs between a man and a woman and not between same sex couples is frankly, pointless. By focusing on the politician rather than the issue (be it mayor of San Francisco or Prime Minister of Australia) mass ignorance about the scope of the law has resulted.
In Australia, the Marriage Act simply can not be amended to accept gay marriages. This is NOT negotiable. The law is quite clear, as the entire history of the Act and the spirit in which it was created did not contemplate gay marriage. Therefore, the ONLY option is to totally change the spirit of the Act, or to create an entirely new Act. The latter option is substantially easier than the former, and much more likely to succeed. Why the gay community and its supporters are not pursuing this option is beyond me. I'm constantly frustrated with the wasteful political posturing that has delayed what should have been recognised in law years ago.
Perhaps I am an unusual advocate of gay commitments? Perhaps because I have been married myself, I recognise the problems with our existing Marriage Act? Either way, my wish for equality of gay rights is based on a belief in fidelity and love, in whatever form it takes. I can only hope that these absurd political stunts may one day turn to legitimate and concerted efforts to recognise gay commitment in a manner that is proactive rather than reactive.
Everyone outside America knows that Americans take themselves far too seriously. Some actually inside American know that too, but tend to over compensate and take things quite a long way in the other direction. This is what has occurred with Michael Moore's Farenheit 9/11. The value of Michael Moore is not his documentary film making ability. To be honest, he does not make good documentaries. What he makes, is good histories. And I use the word "history" in the sense of "palimpsest" or "his story" - yes, the post-modern definition. It's still worth seeing Farenheit 9/11, but not because it paints a realistic picture. It's worth seeing because it's the first period since the World Wars where propaganda films have been something of which to be proud.
Similarly, the Moveon.org site, "Democracy in Action", the "grassroots electronic advocacy" network and thinly veiled Democratic campaign vehicle, has been parodied by the National Lampoon group with Moveonplease.org. Now while I am no fan of American Republicanism, the value of the National Lampoons site is similar to the value of Michael Moore's Farenheit 9/11 - it takes a legitimate topic and turns it upside down in order to remind Americans that they need to be a little more cynical about everything if they are ever going to start thinking for themselves. Do check out the apocryphal trailer for Michael Moore's apocryphal next documentary, "I am not an Asshole" - worth a giggle.
I'm listening to the Berlin Philharmonic playing the Beethoven Violin Concerto in D Major and following this will be the Mozart Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A Major (and yes, I own the CD - these are not MP3 files). There's something distinctly glorious about classical music filtering through the house on a cool evening after a warm sunny day. I'm planning on taking the evening off to read some of my old Conan Doyle books and enjoy the peace and quiet. Time for time, I think.
The Australian is reporting on Telstra's disgraceful history in terms of its broadband network rollout and commitments. Is it any wonder that our position in e-readiness rankings and small-to-medium enterprise support of technology led solutions to business development is dropping in world terms as every day passes? The fact that this is not going to go close to being an election issue is just more of a reason why Australia's e-business position is best described as embarrassing.
One of the most popular sites for quirky content online, Fark.com, has now been accused of giving precedence to paid advertisements without informing its audience. Thanks to my friend, Demosthenes (Steve, but I've always called him D), for the link!
I absolutely have to pay the TV1 campaign against the Olympics broadcast on Free to Air television. A taste:
"It's about throwing things really far, shooting, stretching, and stuff with horses. But mostly it's about someone - anyone - beating the Americans".
Thanks to all who made this weekend a good actual *break* for me. Particular thanks to Greg.
Very special wishes to Jean Dann who is in hospital in a very serious situation. And my best to all the rest of the Dann family who are suffering a lot right now. My thoughts are with you all.
Kevin stood me up for geeking at his place tonight so I'm home working instead. Oh well.
At least The Onion has something to go hee at.
I haven't managed to catch my bus home any night this week because I've had to finish work before going home. I'm only just home tonight after leaving work a shade after 10pm. At least cabs are fast.
But on a much more interesting note, Dan Gilmour has released his new book, We the Media, on grassroots journalism under a Creative Commons licence (so it's free to download). Should be a good read.
Finally (before I drop off from exhaustion), I received yet another email notification that I'd won a free X-Box in a draw today. This time the scam was called Prize-Bonanza, and once again it's the same structure as the old Prize Bounty scams of 2002 and 2003. I fully endorse hacking into the prize-bonanza site and causing extreme damage. Go to it and have fun. These scammers deserve everything they get. (Yes I know two wrongs don't make a right. I don't care. I've had enough of internet scams.)
According to a very bizarre series of tests conducted by a digital camera company and reported by BBC, memory cards usually appearing in digital cameras are rather robust. Only problem is the digital cameras themselves are likely to curl up and die when you go anywhere near a beach.
Okay let me come absolutely clean about programs on personality types. I think "tools" like the Enneagram are load of dingoes' kidneys. They are unfounded, totally absurd and extraordinarily dangerous. Anyone who rationalises someone's response to a business problem based on personality type is not merely uninformed and arrogant, they are obtuse.
This probably one of the few reasonable sites on the Enneagram. Unfortunately there are far too many websites out there lauding the Enneagram to the skies. It's a shame because there's more truth in numerology and astrology than there is in the Enneagram.
And any colleagues who invite me to attend seminars to improve my business sense by learning about the Enneagram can go take a flying leap. I'd rather waste my time learning telekinesis.