Blog
-
Text strike!
Last night, I sent a text message to Holly around 19:30. It arrived this morning around 07:30. Twelve hours to send about twelve bytes of payload, at a cost of 3p. It's about the most expensive data t…
-
Sharon the peacemaker?
Who would have thought that Arial Sharon, the butcher of Sabra and Shatila could start to look like a peacemaker. Could it possibly be that the man has realized that humiliating the Palestinians is ne…
-
We're going to Germany!
Australia won and we've qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time in 32 years! How fucking great is that? A video someone sent me of the fateful penalty.
-
Anti-strike laws: the new slavery
Today is a national day of protest against the Australian government industrial relations " reforms ". For those not up-to-date, they're taking away a huge swathe of rights from Australian workers inc…
-
The Dismissal
On this day thirty years ago, the most important event in Australian political history of my lifetime happened, and I was only four months old. After the opposition Liberal (that is, conservative--yea…
-
DRM: A cautionary tale; or: How to piss off you customers in one easy step
In a couple of weeks I'm running a murder mystery adventure. They're live role-playing events and lots of fun. Everyone dresses up as their character, someone gets killed and we all race around trying…
-
UK media has the wrong idea about these French riots
The UK media seems to be focussing on the lack of integration of these kids into French society. I think they're more integrated than they appear. After all, they're taking their grievances to the str…
-
Oh to be a fly on the wall
Riding past Madge's place it seems the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, is on a state visit. Chinese flags on The Mall, and coppers everywhere. I'd love to see the conversation between Hu and Bliar: Tony…
-
News in the middle of a movie?
British television has some very annoying habits. We won't go into the running of their best programming on Friday and Saturday nights, and their worst on Sundays. Or the fact they can't seem to start…
-
You couldn't make this up: Yellow Peril firework
Last night was Guy Fawkes Night, where the Brits celebrate an attempt to blow up the government by burning Catholics in effigy and blowing shit up. Anyway, being Australian and thus deprived of the jo…
-
Review: Ladytron - Witching Hour
The NME famously described Ladytron as "...a teasing glimpse of how Britney Spears might have sounded, had she been born in the GDR and a heroin addict." Their latest album, Witching Hour, gets them b…
-
Locked BIOS on laptop
A while ago I bought a broken Toshiba 3110CT laptop for parts for the functioning one. I needed one bit and buying a laptop with a broken screen was a lot cheaper than the part from Toshiba. Anyway, t…
-
Mass
Went to Mass tonight. Won't Mum be happy? Well, maybe not that kinda Mass:) Was a huge turnout, following the porcine types' threats last month. Also an unseasonably warm night (17 degrees by my bike…
-
Back from Ireland
Got back from 9 days' holiday in Ireland spent with Holly and Mum. What a fantastic trip! Essentially we saw all of the northern half of Ireland. Loads of neolithic passage tombs: Ireland appears to h…
-
More 4: how long until it's wall-to-wall Friends?
Channel 4 launched their new "adult entertainment" channel, More 4 last night. It was pretty good, all things considered. The Daily Show was great, and the comedy about David Blunkett was pretty funny…
-
New toy!
Just bought a new toy, the Freecom DVB-t USB Stick. It's a tiny, USB digital TV receiver. Worked brilliantly at work yesterday (sixth floor, Windows 2000) so now to try and get it going at home (groun…
-
Eric Idle: the unfunny Python
Just sat down to watch The Rutles (three quid at Virgin). I can't imagine a less funny "comedy". What a waste of space! Now we all know that John Cleese has been incredbly unfunny since he went throug…
-
His heart really isn't in it
Just saw Blair on the news singing the Labour anthem, The Red Flag. He really didn't seem to have his heart in it. Hilarious!
-
Being a geek is not a crime!
Very scary story from yesterday's Grauniad about a geek who was stopped and searched by coppers in a tube station for... carrying a laptop and wearing a jacket. This errorism bollocks is getting reall…
-
You lot who don't wear glasses wouldn't understand!
Had something amusing, though annoying too, happen yesterday. I broke my glasses frame last week and the new ones aren't ready yet, so I'm walking around like a dork with tape holding them together. L…