I had the pleasure of attending a talk by Australian author Shane Maloney this weekend.
He was charming and funny and informative. He also signed a book for me!
Go Shane.
Buy his books.
Oh, he gave a very amusing speech at a Melbourne public school in 2001.
In a desperate display of grandstanding, the Liberal Federal Government has attempted to tackle the Australian Football League on its "out of competition" drug policy.
The Goverment Minister responsible, the silly Mr Chris Pyne, came away bloodied and bruised, claiming he wanted the AFL to adopt the government's "zero tolerance" drug policy.
Unfortunately, the bumbling Mr Pyne was unable to comprehend that the AFL policy was directed at player welfare and rehabilitation rather than criminality.
The government clearly thinks that there are some votes to be won in the charging of sportsmen for illicit drug use.
Andrew Demetriou, who has prior offences in regards attacking the JoHo Government, walked away with a 1-0 scoreline and plenty ammunition in reserve.
I came home to find that the Microsoft Moviemaker2 (the easy to use, but slightly flakey video editor)won't work.
Easy fixed, I thought, probably just uninstall and reinstall.
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Hmmmm, can't uninstall moviemaker2.
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Google search.
Multiple conflicts between MM2 and other audio/video applications. Disable some codecs. Still wont run.
Clash with IE7. Uninstall. No better.
Must uninstall.
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GOOGLE.
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No-one can uninstall MM2 from XP. It's there, forever and won't run.
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Beat (Sorry Fitz)
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Bill, you lost me.
I'm off to the White Zealots Store.
I'll report back.
Concerned about an electoral backlash, JoHo has decided to pass on the renovations. The potential cost came to light as the quote passed through an senate estimates committee.
In more populist sneakiness, JoHo has avoided causing waves within his own coalition by effectively deferring the decision on the AWB wheat single-desk issue till after the next election.
This non-decision was dressed up as as a staged change to the wheat-desk system.
Don't be fooled, its status quo.
AWB, the great supporter of the Saddam Hussein regime , is being further supported by the JoHo government.
Reactive, populist snake.
Mr Howard said the newspaper's headline reflected most people's reaction.
"In defence of the Tele, that's what most people say," Mr Howard told ABC Radio. "How could you abandon a little baby?"
How indeed JoHo? How distressed, confused and desperate would you have to be?
And....
How exactly do you think acerbic headlines and bullying comments from the country's Prime Minister is going to frickin' help?
Bully.
I've just found out I'm involved in a class action.This only came to light when I received an offer to "opt-out" from the organizing lawyers, a big player in class actions in Australia.
It seems I have a couple of options.
I can remain in the class action and incur no costs even if the proceedings are unsuccessful. If the matter is settled, the court will rule on a penalty and/or compensation.
I could opt-out. This would be suitable if, for example, I regarded the action as a cynical, money-grubbing waste of the court's time.
If I remain as a plaintiff and the case is not settled, I will need to prove individual loss and damage, which may require me to have legal representation and risk the costs being in excess of the potential settlement.
The organising lawyers have offered to represent me, by entering into a fee arrangement with them. I guess it will be a no-win, no-fee number.
Alternatively, I can organise my own representation, risking a loss and potentially incurring higher costs if the court needs to assess loss on an individual basis.
I know who the winners are going to be in this little legal merry-go -round.
Ex-PM Paul Keating has re-joined the political debate this week calling PM JoHo a "pre-copernican obscurantist". I nearly fell over in my rush to consult the dictionary.
Oh yes, JoHo, you deliberately vague flat-earther.
This, on ABC yesterday -
"The right to collectively organise pay and conditions of work is a basic civil right, it's the thing that cuts out the template on a democratic nation."
"When you say to people, 'you can't get together at work, you can't organise your conditions', you're back to the earlier part of the industrial revolution, and that's where Howard belongs."
"He's a pre-Copernican obscurantist. That's where he belongs, but let's not have all these turkeys in the business community saying, 'well isn't this shocking'."
"I mean, we've got a profit share in GDP today, like you couldn't jump over, that's why the stock market's so high, out of the last Labor government's IR policies."
A WHO report has taken a swipe at the state of aboriginal health.
The report labels indigenous health " a century" behind other Australians. Further, Australian aborigines fare worse "on all health indicators" when compared with New Zealand's native Maori population.
The report also criticises the Australian Government's failure to apologise for the past.
Completely happy with the purchase of a Western Digital external hard drive.
About as big as a PDA and powered only by the USB port, the WD Passport Pocket Drive provides heaps of storage with mobility and easy, in-built software.
Highly recommended for back-up.
Remember, there are two types of hard drive. Those that have failed and those that are going to fail.
I can't believe there has been no comment on the epidural injection posting (April 8).
Come on, it even had the oblique reference "Broad appeal".
British High Commissioner and former Blair Government Minister Helen Liddell has declared that the British Government did not view Iraq as part of the "war on terror."
Speaking at a National Press Club luncheon Ms Liddell said "Our raison d'etre for our involvement in Iraq has not been about terrorism." "We have never seen Iraq as part of the war on terrorism."
Further, British Labor politician Hilary Benn said at the Center on International Cooperation of New York University that the term "war on terror" was a counter-productive one and one which the British Government avoids.
WTF?
What about the fricking war on terror?
We've (Australia) sent stacks of troops. The Yanks have lost over 3000 (three thousand) troops and at least 100,000 ( half a million litres of blood) Iraqies have died.
There must be a frickin' war on terror.
Remember this - In his address to a joint session of Congress following the attacks on September 11, 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush defined the "war on terror", thus, "Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated."
Well, bring it on !
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Australian radio that Iraq was the "frontline" in the war against terror.
Phew!
He pointed to overnight bombings in Baghdad by suspected al-Qaeda or al-Qaeda-inspired organizations as proof.
Go get 'em Alex!
Bring on the next election.
An epidural injection instructional video uploaded to Youtube not only helps anaesthetists to hone their technique, but may also help to dispel the fears of patients.
See what you think.
I think it has Broad appeal!
EMI has announced that it will release its music catalogue DRM-free.
Although single tracks will carry a higher price (AU pricing nor confirmed), downloads will be offered at a higher bitrate and complete albums will NOT carry a price premium!!!
Could this be the start of the collapse of DRM?
EMI is obviously hoping to increase sales and revenue, but certainly, the consumer is the big winner here.
This move comes at a time when DRM is coming under increased pressure.
Graham Philipson gives a good summary of the current stand-off between music companies and music consumers HERE.
Recording industry claims of huge monetary losses from piracy have long been considered 'rubbery' at best. In disputing estimates, detractors argue that not every downloaded file represents a lost sale. Industry claims are considered to be a desperate attempt to maintain an outdated (and expensive) business model.
The Recording industry may be coming around.
Meanwhile, Google Chief Executive, Eric Schmidt, recently questioned the valuations that media companies put on their copyrights. Traditional media argues their content has a certain intrinsic value, while Google says "prove it," he said.
Google is currently facing legal challenges to their video uplaod service, Youtube.
Read more at Electronic Frontier Foundation.
I have just uninstalled the highly rated Zone Alarm free personal fire wall program, which I have used for many years.
Zone Alarm had, till recently, frequent updates, which included offers to upgrade to a more complete security suite. I was already happy with my anti-virus, so I declined Zone Labs' offers and only ever reinstalled the firewall.
However, the new upgrade to the ZA firewall included an obligatory trial version of the ZA antivirus, which clashed with my existing AV and refused to install unless I removed it.
So, sadly, I removed ZA firewall and installed the equally well-credentialed Comodo firewall.
It's a consumer society and the tech crowd is fussy.
