Old Dnosauria

Moving On Up

2009-05-31T12:37:00.000+10:00

I've thrown some cash towards a domain name and hosting and I've shifted over to using Wordpress.

You can follow my adventures, musings and random notes at the new Dnosauria.net.

More NoCleanFeed Notes

2008-11-13T19:35:00.002+11:00

Schneier points out that at least the UAE's filter has an appeals process.

~~~

All of the recent discussions on the Clean Feed have got me thinking that there could be a spin-off from Godwin's Law relating to censorship discussions from:

"As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."

to:

"As a discussion on internet filtering grows longer, the probability of an insinuation that a anti-censorship contributor is pro child pornography approaches one"

A Trio of Docos

2008-11-12T22:25:00.004+11:00

Haven't seen that many movies lately, I've been watching documentaries instead. These are the ones you should try see.

Night

I want this film as my screensaver. Loved the Australian cityscapes and the anonymising silhouettes. I want this soundtrack in my collection.

Glass: A Portrait of Philip in 12 Parts

I love insights into how creative people do their thing.

Young @ Heart

If you don't smile after seeing this film, you're a walking corpse.

Prodigal Kid Returns to Transit

2008-11-05T22:19:00.002+11:00

Kid Confucius hit Transit Bar again on December 6th. Be there in your best jumpin' kicks.

Eight Problems with the Australian Clean Feed Proposal

2008-11-04T19:13:00.002+11:00

[Dropped this as a comment to my previous post, but thought it worthy of its own in retrospect]

An update from Mark Newton, featuring the 8 key problems with the Clean Feed proposal:

1. No problem to solve,
2. no public demand to solve it,
3. Government's proposed solutions won't work,
4. even if they worked they're unreliable,
5. even if they were reliable they're too expensive,
6. even if they were affordable they'll be implemented by the same class of scope-creeping bureaucrats who decided Mr. Haneef was a terrorist,
7. even if they could be implemented perfectly the blacklist would leak, and
8. when a perfect blacklist leaks it'll enable child exploitation all over the planet, with the direct assistance of the Commonwealth of Australia and Senator Stephen Conroy.

Lots of ifs there that the gov need to sort out.

Flirting with Absurdity

2008-11-03T12:15:00.003+11:00

During the election campaign a bunch of aussie blogs sported a message to Kev:

Well, on the question of internet filtering (as Kev would say), they're fucking it up. They need to man-up and admit they're wrong.

The clean feed proposal won't stop the bad people and will inconvenience the good people. It's like putting half a dozen deadlocks on your doors and then leaving a ground floor window open. It's a really bad idea.

The fact that you're reading this means you're a bright, forward-thinking net user, so no doubt you'll already have come across stories about the government's clean feed proposal. Allow me to note down a quick synopsis:

March 06
- Kim Beazley promises clean feed

June 07
- ACMA kicks off filter test process as directed by then minister Helen Coonan

December 07
- Newly-elected ALP government announces cleanfeed to go ahead

Early 08
- Closed environment tests conducted in Tasmania

June 08
- ACMA report released

July 08
- Conroy welcomes test report

September 08
- Mark Newton posts that the only opt-out option seems to be switching from blacklist 1 to blacklist 2 ie no opt-out option

Early October 08
- Bloggers pick up the nugget and run with it. MSM catches up two weeks later.

Late October 08
- Creative responses abound
- The Great Firewall of Australia becomes the subject of discussion in the dying days of The Media Report on RN. Conroy talks intent, Mark Pesce talks practicalities.
- Mark Pesce's Clean Feeds piece on ABC's Unleashed observes Twitter as awareness-raiding/organising medium, comments credit blogs (namely SomebodyThinkOfTheChildren.com) and Facebook groups (No Clean Feed has 2805 members, No Australian Internet Censorship has 10103 members and People Against Mandatory Internet Filters in Australia has 771 members as at 02 Nov 08) as well as a cause page.

02 Nov 08
- Tech Wired Australia proposes "Stop It, Don't Block It" as counter-campaign slogan, register the domain after podcast recording.

There's a much more comprehensive timeline on the OCAU wiki.

On The Media Report, Conroy pulled out something akin to a party-line Nuremburg defense:

"This is a long-standing election commitment. We made this commitment back when Kim Beazley was leader of the Labor Party, so just to give you an indication, this is a long-standing position we've been advocating."

This is disingenuous on several fronts: Firstly Mr Conroy, you dumped Beazley, so you don't owe him anything as far as implementing his proposals goes. Secondly, when Big Kim announced the plan, he didn't say anything about it being mandatory for all. He said

[ISP] "will be required to offer a filtered "clean feed" internet service"

not that it would be forced upon us and he also said there'd be an opt-out option. Choice was still on the table. Thirdly, just because Coonan directed ACMA to test and report, it doesn't mean you have to implement. You're the Minister remember? Beazley and Coonan might have laid the tracks, but you're in control of the train now and you can still stop it (and all of the parasitic special interest groups) before it derails.

Or has it already? Excuse me while I jot down some incompletely formed scenarios (feel free to tear them apart, propose alternatives in comments):

Worst Case:

Proposal implemented as it stands. Special interest groups (Fielding, Xenophon) get their 'legal-but-immoral' content banned. Speed drops, people flock to TOR, P2P nets and VPNs to get to the content they want. No political fallout for Rudd or Conroy.

Best of the worst cases:

Proposal implemented as it stands. ALP sticks to filtering content based on existing crimes legislation only, tells special interest groups to go jump. Speed drops, people still flock to alternative means and circumvent filters. Rudd & Conroy lose tech sector support/votes.

Best case for Kevin:

Rudd sees that the filter stands in the way of a decent national broadband strategy. Announces that he has considered the kevidence of blocked tubes, speed drops, ease of circumvention etc and announces another study/review. This gets the comparisons with Iran and China off the front pages and gives everyone a chance to provide submissions (yay, more kevidence). Not so good for Conroy, being slapped down by the PM. Actually, maybe not so good for Rudd either, what with him exercising Howard-like control of cabinet.

Best case for Conroy:

Having trouble with this one; maybe it's all too far gone for Conroy to have any redemption at all. If he keeps going, he joins a club already populated by Harradine, Ruddock, Vanstone and Howard. If he backs down he risks being seen as hating Laura Norder.

Best case for everybody:

The whole idea is nixed. Rudd wakes up after another night at Scores, decides parenting should be left to parents. Reallocates filter funds to education, health. Sets up skunkworks to design wowser filters.

We shouldn't, nay mustn't, just hope for the best and prepare for the worst. You have to let your elected representatives know what you think of this proposal before it's implemented. No Clean Feed has several options for action, but I would recommend letters. Real printed letters, signed and sent in real envelopes with real stamps. Postcards run a close second. They're real, tangible. E-mails and online petitions might get the same content across, but there's something about a real tangible letter/postcard that I think gets the message across better, especially on issues of importance. One person I know has written to Conroy, the communications shadow minister (Nick Minchin) and his members (federal and territory) and I plan to match him. If you're not confident writing a letter, there are plenty of templates around: 1, 2, 3, 4.

If you've gotten through all that, and you've printed, signed & sent your letters, you deserve a video:

Singstar Country - What? Not one Dixie Chicks track?

2008-10-28T21:31:00.003+11:00

Hmm, I think there's maybe a handful of names I recognise and maybe one or two songs, but I'm not the target demo for this particular incarnation of Singstar, given the closest I've ever come to spending money on country music was buying Two Men With The Blues. Along with the dashed expectation of missing Dixie Chicks, all I'm thinking right now is "isn't Come On Over a pop track?"

Alan Jackson - "Chattahoochee"
Kellie Pickler - "Red High Heels"
Alan Jackson - "Good Time"
Kenny Chesney - "Big Star"
Big & Rich - "Save A Horse (Ride a Cowboy)"
Lady Antebellum - "Love Don't Live Here"
Blake Shelton - "Home"
Martina McBride - "A Broken Wing"
Brad Paisley - "Online"
Montgomery Gentry - "My Town"
Brooks & Dunn - "Boot Scootin' Boogie"
Montgomery Gentry - "What Do Ya Think About That?"
Brooks & Dunn w/ Reba McEntire - "If You See Him/If You See Her"
Rascall Flats - "Bless the Broken Road"
Bucky Covington - "It's Good To Be Us"
Sara Evans - "Born to Fly"
Faith Hill - "Red Umbrella"
Taylor Swift - "Our Song"
Gretchen Wilson - "Red Neck Woman"
Terri Clark - "Girls Lie Too"
Jewel - "Stronger Woman"
Trace Adkins - "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk"
Johnny Cash - "A Boy Named Sue"
Trace Adkins - "You're Gonna Miss This"
Johnny Cash - "I Walk the Line"
Willie Nelson - "Pancho and Lefty"
Josh Turner - "Another Try"
Jessica Simpson - "Come on Over"
Keith Urban - "Days Go By"
Miranda Lambert - "Kerosene"

Calling Out Bad Behaviour on Twitter (or On Un-Following)

2008-10-06T10:29:00.011+11:00

"Manners are of more importance than laws. .. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation like that of the air we breathe in." - Edmund Burke

One of the things I find interesting about jumping into social networks and services when they're relatively new is watching the social norms develop. Even with terms of service and complaint mechanisms, it's largely the users who determine what's OK and what's not using the only currency this environment has: attention. Watched, the user has a voice, ideas can propagate, but ignored they're speaking to an empty room, memes wither and die. But is ignoring someone enough? I've been reading a bunch of pieces on Twitter etiquette recently, but none have discussed calling out bad behaviour online, so consider this piece an attempt to start that discussion.

Some background first. I've been using Twitter (in plain English) since BarCamp Canberra in April. I'd heard about it before then, but I didn't really have a use for it until then. Turned out it did a bunch of stuff: it was the inaudible PA for the day, broadcasting schedule updates, as well as a back-channel (1,2,3) for attendees to meet & greet and discuss what was going on. Interactivity FTW.

There's good stuff happening, so I've hung around. I've microblogged/liveblogged, kept in touch with folk in the Canberra IA community, solved technical problems and participated in a 'net broadcast (narrowcast?) project. With hashtags, Twitter is good at adding an interactive dimension to live events, particularly broadcast, from relatively small scale to large scale. It's a bit addictive. (I'm going to have to ignore the Amazing Race messages though; can't have spoilers)

It's not all happy happy joy joy though. As with any social space, people disagree. I've seen spirited but respectful, concise debates (points would have to be concise with only 140 characters per message), and while I've not seen them, I'm sure there've been petty, snarky arguments too.

Only a handful of posts I've seen have really disappointed me; one included a photo taken by the poster in a client's house and posted, ostensibly without permission, while another was a quixotic statement of indifference about an event a bunch of people were commenting on. The first was creepy; I'd be pretty angry if a tech support/tradie/whoever that I was paying for goods/services came into my place and started snapping away and putting the pictures online. The second was just a bit obnoxious, a personality quirk not entirely unexpected, in retrospect, amongst all of the extroverts revealing the minutiae of their lives online.

I can't control what others do, I can only control how I react to what they do, so what did I do when I came across these two examples? With the first I tried subtlety; I asked what the client thought about having their stuff photographed and shared, and when I didn't like the answer, I un-followed. I let the other go like water under the bridge, but their reputation took a small hit with me.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing" - not Edmund Burke

Should I have done something else, something more? Should I have put an objection on the record before un-following? I've seen plenty of "Why should I follow you in return?" hand-shaking posts, but I've not come across any "I don't think that's cool, so I'm going to stop following you" posts. They're either happening in private direct messages, or not happening. I guess breaking up connections online is easy when you don't have to explain, but I can't help but think that the world might progressively become a little bit better if we each took the time to politely explain why we're un-following. If only a few have an introspective pause and stop being a dick online, then we're all better off.

Singstar Amped

2008-09-27T09:53:00.002+10:00

Forget Singstar Hottest Hits. I've had some more time to consider the track list and it's still underwhleming. Not so for Singstar Amped. Spotted when I went to pick up Star Wars: The Force Unleashed last night, Amped has some tracks that'll really test your lung capacity & ability to hold a note:

1. 4 Non Blondes - What's Up
2. Blink 182 - I Miss You
3. Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear The Reaer
4. Cheap Trick - I Want You To Want Me
5. Choirboys - Run To Paradise
6. David Bowie - Changes
7. Divynls - Boys In Town
8. Faith No More - Evidence
9. Faker - This Heart Attack
10. Fallout Boy - This Ain't A Scene.. It's An Arms Race
11. Free - All Right Now
12. Grinspoon - Chemical Heart
13. Iggy Pop - Real Wild Child
14. Judas Priest - Breaking The Law
15. Judas Priest - You've Got Another Thing Comin'
16. Kasabian - Lsf
17. Mighty Mighty Bosstones - The Impression That I Get
18. Quiet Riot - Cum On Feel The Noise
19. Regurgitator - Black Bugs
20. Robert Palmer - Addicted To Love
21. Silverchair - The Greatest View
22. Skunk Anansie - Weak As I Am
23. Soul Asylum - Runaway Train
24. Spiderbait - Blackbetty
25. The Cure - Primary
26. The Saints - I'm Stranded
27. The Subways - Rock & Roll Queen
28. Tonic - If You Could Only See
29. T-rex - 20Th Century Boy
30. Warrant - Cherry Pie

Fun times.

Singstar Hottest Hits

2008-09-25T18:39:00.002+10:00

It's been a while, but a new Singstar hit the streets today. Can't say much for the track list though, I don't know most of 'em:

ANNIE - I KNOW YOU'RE GIRLSFRIEND HATES ME
AVRIL LAVIGNE - WHEN YOU'RE GONE
CALVIN HARRIS - ACCEPTABLE IN THE 80S
COLBIE CAILLAT - BUBBLY
DELTA GOODREM - YOU WILL ONLY BREAK MY HEART
FALL OUT BOY - THNKS FR TH MMRS
FERGIE - CLUMSY
FINGER ELEVEN - PARALYZER
GABRIELLA CILMI - SWEET ABOUT ME
LILY ALLEN- LDN MAROON 5 - MAKES ME WONDER
MIKA - GRACE KELLY MIKA - LOVE TODAY
MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE - TEENAGERS
NELLY FURTADO - ALL GOOD THINGS
ONE NIGHT ONLY - JUST FOR TONIGHT
ONEREPUBLIC - STOP AND STARE
OPERATOR PLEASE - JUST A SONG ABOUT PINGPONG
POWDERFINGER - LOST AND RUNNING
RICKI LEE - CAN'T SING A DIFFERENT SONG
SAM SPARRO - BLACK AND GOLD
SEAN KINGSTON - BEAUTIFUL GIRLS
SNEAKY SOUND SYSTEM - PICTURES
SNOW PATROL - CHASING CARS
THE FRAY - HOW O SAVE A LIFE
THE POTBELLEEZ - DON'T HOLD BACK
THE TING TINGS - GREAT DJ
THE TING TINGS - THAT'S NOT MY NAME
VANESSA AMOROSIS - PERFECT
WILL.I.AM - I GOT IT FROM MY MAMA

Come to Albert Hall

2008-09-13T15:34:00.003+10:00

It's the launch of the Canberra Musicians Club and it's fun. Get here.

Lessons for Forms Designers

2008-09-10T12:00:00.000+10:00

This hit my work email box this week as a joke, but there's a lesson in there: pre-populated fields are good...

Dear Mr. Minister,

I'm in the process of renewing my passport, and still cannot believe this.

How is it that K-Mart has my address and telephone number, and knows that I bought a Television Set and Golf Clubs from them back in 1997, and yet, the Federal Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date.

For Christ sakes, do you guys do this by hand?

My birth date you have in my Medicare information, and it is on all the income tax forms I've filed for the past 40 years. It is on my driver's licence, on the last eight passports I've ever had, on all those stupid customs declaration forms I've had to fill out before being allowed off the planes over the last 30 years, and all those insufferable census forms that I've filled out every 5 years since 1966.

Also...would somebody please take note, once and for all, that my mother's name is Audrey, my Father's name is Jack, and I'd be absolutely f?????g astounded if that ever changed between now and when I drop dead!!!...

SHIT!

I apologize, Mr. Minister. But I'm really pissed off this morning. Between you an' me, I've had enough of all this bullshit!

You send the application to my house, then you ask me for my f?????g address!!

What the hell is going on with your mob? Have you got a gang of mindless Neanderthal arseholes workin' there!

And another thing..... look at my damn picture. Do I look like Bin Laden? I can't even grow a beard for God's sakes. I just want to go to New Zealand and see my friends and relatives

And would someone please tell me, why would you give a shit whether I plan on visiting a farm in the next 15 days? If I ever got the urge to do something weird to a sheep or a horse, believe you me, I'd sure as hell not want to tell anyone!

Well, I have to go now, 'cause I have to go to the other end of the city, and get another f?????g copy of my birth certificate, and to part with another $80 for the privilege of accessing MY OWN INFORMATION!

Would it be so complicated to have all the services in the same spot, to assist in the issuance of a new passport on the same day??

Nooooo....... that'd be too f?????g easy and makes far too much sense. You would much prefer to have us running all over the place like chickens with our f?????g heads cut off, and then having to find some high society wanker to confirm that it's really me in the goddamn photo!

You know the photo....the one where we're not allowed to smile?! ......you f?????g morons

Signed - An Irate Australian Citizen.

P.S. Remember what I said above about the picture, and getting someone in high-society to confirm that it's me? Well, my family has been in this country since before 1850!

In 1856, one of my forefathers took up arms with Peter Lalor. (You do remember the Eureka Stockade!!)

I have also served in both the CMF and regular Army something over 30 years (I went to Vietnam in 1967), and still have high security clearances.

I'm also a personal friend of the president of the RSL.... and Lt General Peter Cosgrove sends me a Christmas card each year.

However, your rules require that I have to get someone 'important' to verify who I am;

You know...... someone like my doctor; WHO WAS BORN AND RAISED IN F?????G PAKISTAN!!!........a country where they either assassinate or hang their ex-Prime Ministers, and are suspended from the Commonwealth for not having the 'right sort of government.'

You are all F?????g idiots

I'm done with this country it's easier to get into, than it is to get out of!

I'm staying home as my relatives and friends don't have any trouble to get here to see me.

Free Frag Fest

2008-09-09T21:20:00.001+10:00

If you love first-person shooters and you haven't tried Combat Arms yet, what are you waiting for?

Melbourne Graffiti History at Gasworks

2008-09-08T08:49:00.002+10:00

Ah, the joy serendipitous discovery...

The Visitor

2008-09-07T21:34:00.000+10:00

It's not often that a film can be so subtle and understated and yet be so moving. See it.

12 Hours of Local Tunes

2008-09-06T12:45:00.004+10:00

Canberra Musicians Club launch next weekend. Get amongst it.

Stand-up comedy at the old Manuka Starbucks

2008-08-26T08:05:00.001+10:00

Stand-up comedy at the old Manuka Starbucks,
originally uploaded by deanlk.

On again tonight if you missed it last night. Top turnout.

Live the Olympics

2008-08-15T17:57:00.002+10:00

I thought he'd peaked with his second set of tram work, but then his floor routine...

GYMNASTIQUE PEKIN 2008 (REMI GAILLARD)
Uploaded by nqtv

[Thanks Cam]

Looking for quiet in the rush

2008-08-13T23:43:00.005+10:00

Lauren put on a captivating show at Pecha Kucha Canberra #4 tonight. Amongst the machine gun fire of poorly prepared "this is a picture of" and "here's some guy I met when I was travelling" presentations, Lauren's slides had everyone in the room transfixed, silent save for the occasional whispered gasp and "Oh cool".

or as I said elsewhere

"You were an island of serenity and grace in a lake of frantic clowns and hippies."

Too hungry to wait

2008-08-03T20:23:00.008+10:00

After hitting the Fyshwick markets today and being denied a Vietnamese iced coffee I decided to do something asian tonight.

Basic chicken stir-fry:

Chicken strips 500g
Prawns 150g precooked & peeled
Capsicums - 3 (1 red, 1 green, 1 yellow) - sliced
Onions - 2 - sliced
Carrot - sliced
Sugar peas
Baby corn
Coriander
Teriyaki sauce
Udon noodles

Marinade chicken and prawns in teriyaki sauce for about a half hour. Preheat wok and cook chicken and prawns. Throw in the baby corn, carrot and sugar peas. Pluck the leaves off the coriander and chop the stems. Throw the onions, capsicum and coriander stems into the wok.

Put the noodles into a bowl and cover with boiling water to prep for a minute. Separate, drain and throw the noodles into the wok. Stir through for a minute or two.

Serve into bowls and garnish with coriander leaves.

More Wall Wisdom

2008-08-01T12:00:00.000+10:00

Love > Undead

2008-07-31T15:01:00.002+10:00

[via]

Other Peoples' Lives

2008-07-29T20:09:00.003+10:00

Finished Sam De Brito's The Lost Boys late last night. Good, easy read, but dark, bleak with a few laughs. Black comedy or just a reminder of high school? Not sure.

What's next? Do I try and rip through the free copy of Boned I got with my Crikey renewal or do I try and find Kate Atkinson's Case Histories for book club?

Two Guys From A Bookstore

2008-07-28T21:43:00.002+10:00

A few weeks ago I picked up a bunch of Bill Bailey and Dylan Moran stand-up DVDs from JB. I've only gotten around to them in the last few days, but they've been worth the wait. Dylan Moran's stuff makes me want to become a daytime pub guy and write down the random thoughts and then get paid to say them.

From Bill Bailey's Part Troll:

From Dylan Moran's Monster:

And from Dylan Moran's Like, Totally:

Ready, Steady, Wait

2008-07-07T21:19:00.003+10:00

With colleagues dropping left and right to dreaded winter bugs, long days and eating badly on the run, yesterday I decided I needed some good food to see me through to the Sydney trip next week. In true bachelor cooking style, both of these dishes are easy prep and easy cooking.

24 Hour Casserole

I used:

500g diced beef
6 small potatoes
2 celery sticks
1 large carrot
1 small punnet of button mushrooms (about 250g I'd say)
2 cloves of garlic
2 small onions
250g / handful green beans
2 litres (8 cups) vegetable stock
1 cup (ish) cleanskin pinot noir
1 sprig of rosemary
1 slow cooker

Preparation:

Slice potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, garlic & onions.
Chunk celery, beans.

Cooking:

Pour vege stock and whatever red wine you haven't managed to finish off into the slow cooker.
Put everything else into the slow cooker.
Turn slow cooker on to Low.

Wait.

I let mine bubble away for 24 hours, but it's probably ready to go in 12. When I came home tonight there was still some liquid, but most had been soaked up by the vegies and meat and the flavour was so intense. It was awesome. I guess you could serve with rice or similar, but I just had a bowl of it by itself, and then another half bowl. More imaginative serving suggestions welcomed.

Smokey Soup

I used:

2 cans Big Red tomato soup.
Milk
1 200g pack Latina ricotta & spinach filled agnolotti (any non-meat-filled pasta would do)
100g prosciutto
Chopped basil and parsley

Preparation:

Boil water for pasta
Chop herbs
Slice prosciutto into strips
Open cans with ring-pull
Turn on stove top

Cooking:

Cook the pasta in one saucepan while heating the tomato soup in another. I whisked milk into the soup instead of the suggested half-milk, half-water combo.
Stir the prosciutto and chopped basil and parsley into the tomato soup.
When the pasta is done, ladel the pieces into the soup.
Turn the heat down and just keep stirring the soup for another 5 minutes or so to let the flavour of the prosciutto soak through everything.

Serve into bowls with a crusty bread roll on the side. I topped my bowl with shaved parmesan cheese.

Today the soup had an extra-smokey flavour from the prosciutto and was a great to have for lunch while watching the cold rain drizzle down outside.

Qld Rail Winning the War on Photography

2008-06-11T14:41:00.003+10:00

"Professional looking camera". Idiots. Old news, still stupid.

And the Evil Queen was Vanquished

2008-06-09T17:40:00.001+10:00

:-)

Having been an early target, this news is particularly sweet.

Social Networking Challenge

2008-05-27T08:04:00.003+10:00

Looking for info (articles, case studies, etc) on big organisations that have ditched faxes for fax servers or better tech. Any tips or pointers on good sources?

I've put the call out on Twitter, Facebook & now Blogger, with Ask Metafilter to follow later. Which conversation will come up with the goods? Place your bets.

What Wii Want

2008-05-22T17:13:00.004+10:00

OK, what I want...

Nintendo launched the WiiWare service a few days ago. While the Wii Shop channel on the Wii has let people download console games from old Nintendo, Sega and NeoGeo consoles (Sonic, Street Fighter, Ghouls & Ghosts, etc), WiiWare offers new games. No retail boxes here, WiiWare is like Steam in that you pay, download and play. Which got me thinking...

Here's what I want next: port some really cool PC games over to the Wii. Start with Portal and Audiosurf. Someone please make this happen. Cheers.

Was just about to ask

2008-05-18T22:58:00.002+10:00

I was just about to ask about the Facebook updates, but now I don't need to ask who the Divas are:

Sally's first NYT story.

Sleep in the time of hypothermia

2008-05-18T01:36:00.005+10:00

I knew before I started climbing the stairs that something was wrong; there was a strange smell in the air I couldn't quite place...

About an hour ago I found one of my neighbours slumped in her doorway, covered in sick and she can't get up. A burst of coughing and heaving told me she was still breathing, but I was really concerned about the cold. She was wearing a coat, but was barefoot and as I didn't have a tauntaun to slice open to keep her warm, I went and got a blanket to put over her while figuring out what to do next.

She'd emptied her purse out all over the place and the only speech-like sounds I could get out of her were "no keys". Tried to call her housemate from her phone, no credit. Call from my phone, get connected but too much noise & get hung up on. Call again from home phone, no joy.

Get bucket and jug of water. When she pushes herself up to take a sip, I spot blood. I can see a scrape on her knee, but she can't tell me whether or not she's injured anywhere else and collapses heaving again. I call 000.

Tense 10 minute wait. Keep checking that she's breathing.

Ambo arrives, does quick assessment, starts to clean her up. Finally get through to her housemate, she's on her way.

When housemate arrives with keys and opens the door, Ambo helps her to the bathroom and then gets some more medical history info out of the housemate. He leaves after telling housemate to get her cleaned up a bit more and getting her into bed and making sure she's on her side. I help housemate collect her stuff that's strewn across the landing, wait around a bit to make sure they're both ok .

A paraletic girl locked out on a cold night isn't exactly ER stuff, but not knowing what else to do besides checking breathing, getting a blanket and not moving her when I suspected injuries was scary. I'm going to sign up to a first aid course this week.

Seven-Minute Summaries

2008-05-08T07:41:00.002+10:00

Loving these seven-minute summaries. Are there any others out there?

Parlour Wine Bar Disappoints

2008-05-07T22:44:00.002+10:00

Visited the month-old Parlour Wine Room twice over the weekend, came away disappointed both times. How can Parlour disappoint? Let us count the ways...

Friday night - checking it out for a post-work drink. First impression = passes abound. This is going to be the Old Parliament House for winter. Similar demo attracted and isolation from anything else you might want to do. Wonder if it'll make it through the cool-new-thing phase and stay in business. Eventually find a seat outside, stay for one bottled beer (most of the tap beers are out of stock) and then head off for dinner in Kingston (that's a whole other story).

Saturday night - just seen Iron Man in Dendy Premium and followed up with more drinks at Gus'. Get to Parlour and it's packed inside. What's with this design? Does it intentionally have too few seats to force people to mingle? Did they think that mixing the entry way with the bar queue was a good idea?

Head outside for seating. Only a couple of the gas heaters working. Wait for table service.

Wait some more.

And some more.

Grr - ok, line up at the bar. Wait more. More than 5, just less than 10. Get to bar and watch one bar dude throw away two drinks and mutter that his head's not on tonight while disaffected man wipes down the coffee machine and puts a few glasses in the dishwasher halfheartedly. Looks up, sees people six deep at bar & sighs. He can't take tapas orders at the bar, apologises for the wait and promises to send someone right out. Most of the tap beers are still out of stock.

Dude working the floor v busy collecting plates looks very stressed, ignores us. Maybe someone didn't come in tonight. When we flag him down we get something I don't know the name of, something between a tisk, gasp & exasperated sigh (the sound generally followed with "...well I never"). He takes food & drink orders but can't make heat happen; they're out of gas (out of gas in Canberra in May = FAIL). Turns out Mr Tongue Clucker is the manager. No explanation for what's gone wrong or apologies re delays.

Later, tapas arrives and is nice. Drinks do not & must be chased. Scout party finds room on a leather couch inside and we stay for another half hour or so before deciding it's not worth spending any more money there.

Parlour looks nice, but it is vacuous; pretty without the substance. Staff weren't bringing their A game. I'll give it another chance, but not for a while, 'til everything's bedded down a bit more.

Postscript

Disappointed to find reviews that read as if they've just rehashed the press release without having visited. "Water views" sure, that slice between the wall and the trees, if you're like 7' tall.

Next oohma

2008-04-30T23:03:00.001+10:00

At trivia tonight. The result of trying to text "Next nomination..."
without looking.

Previously.

Spooky.

BarCamp Canberra 2008

2008-04-21T19:02:00.004+10:00

'Twas a chilly Saturday in April when the tech enthusiasts and advocates of the capital region gathered for the first local BarCamp Canberra this past weekend. Part conference, part hangout, BarCamps are a low-key way for all flavous of geeks to get together and talk about things they're working on, challenges, ideas, get some experience in presenting to live audiences and generally network with working-level peers.

Strictly speaking, there shouldn't be any passive attendees at a Barcamp; everyone's meant to pitch in somehow but not being a developer, savvy web/UI/UX designer, or photographer with a massive lens, I didn't really know what I could contribute so I just got into the discussions. I threw in a few comments during Nathanael's FreeCanberraWireless / Meraki presentation on my experience thus far and protecting yourself from legal liability using the site blocking function of Open DNS, and during the Firefox Extensions You Can't Live Without, but most other sessions were too technical for me. I suppose I could have recorded everything to minidisc and edited it down to podcast, but they had that covered.

There were some really interesting presentations:

Nathanael Boehm on the Meraki units and a bit about the FreeCanberraWireless project. Good discussion;

Ruth Ellison on Ruth's Design Nightmares – all the funnier for featuring Gordon Ramsey but Ruth being unable to curse;

Gavin Jackson on some very useful Firefox extensions – great session for attendee participation;

Janine Cahill on augmented reality games – location-aware devices are going to bring forth a bunch of cool new games we'll be able to play just walking down the street;

Simon Pascal Klein on de-sucking the web through typography – Hmm, is it possible that there are too many fonts? (Great presentation Pascal, even though you looked pretty nervous starting out, you hit your stride);

Darren Menachemson on design and getting away from self-imposed design restrictions;

Stephen Collins on social tools in corporate places– awesome tipi house picture;

Stephen Dann on teaching tech to non-tech students;

How free content can help humanity; and

A last minute presentation on open source GIS projects – going to keep a close eye on this stuff because MapInfo products and datasets are really bloody expensive.

The presentations by the two Stephens offered a refreshing dose of perspective. I think a lot of tech presentations talk too much to the converted; Stephen Collins said it explicitly and Stephen Dann had the stats showing the lag between early adopters (I'd say most attendees) and mass uptake (non tech students).

I have to say I found Stephen Dann's presentation on the non-tech students a bit surprising, not for the students lack of web use but for the audience reaction, their shock born from a startling lack of perspective that others might not be gadget and tech freaks and might just want appliances that work intuitively and support them doing what they want to do, whatever that is.

I think if Stephen Dann approaches those marketing students by starting with what they know and exposing them to other web tech through that, the road might be a little easier for all involved. Start with Facebook and then show 'em Twitter for status updates, Blogger for notes, Flickr for photos, Blip.tv / Youtube and Miro for video.

Anyway...

I got serious gear-envy. There was a abundance of laptops (many Macs), quite a few big DSLRs, a wee video camera, some audio gear and at least one iPhone (I know I've preferred the Nokia N95 for a while now, but damn Apple and their slick designs – that iPhone is just drool-worthy). I also got blog shame (lets face it, this place really needs a cleanup or redesign or something).

I walked away with one of the door prizes, a book on information management Keeping Found Things Found (sponsored by Maadmob), a twitter account and resolved to keep attending WSG and IA meetings.

Over the conference dinner I had a good chat with Janine Cahill about her presentation on augmented reality games (it reminded me of the artist in William Gibson's Spook Country, which she hadn't read) and managed to make a couple of people emotional recounting how T-bone & Cheese used Facebook during her illness, how her last status message invited us to the hospice and how it became a platform for grieving with so many photo albums, status messages and profile pictures featuring her.

I'm looking forward to the next BarCamp. I've got an idea for a FOSS system for community broadcasting, but that's in a very very embryonic pre-alpha stage but I wanted to document it before putting call for help / challenge to the BarCamp crowd; maybe the next one will be the place to get some feedback on the idea.

BSG Conclusion Cometh

2008-04-01T15:23:00.000+11:00

The fourth & final season of Battlestar Galactica kicks-off topside on Friday. If you need a recap of the first three seasons, watch the 8 minute recap. If you're so totally into BSG that you don't need it, you'll appreciate this banner image [via] and you've got a week left to get your bets in on how much the last supper photo reveals.

Arnie Doesn't Miss A Beat

2008-03-31T13:13:00.003+11:00

Predator summarised with a hiphop beat:

[via]

Edward Tufte Does Pop*

2008-03-28T21:22:00.004+11:00

After I expressed much chart-nerd delight at the Rick Astley breakdown, Annachop dropped these in my inbox today:

* - I should note that Edward Tufte would never put his name to some of these; he hates pie charts.

Farewell Cheese

2008-03-27T21:37:00.003+11:00

One week on from the funeral, I still get the urge to send her a message, a link to something I think she'd like, or burn a disc of new distractions. Then I remember that she is gone.

It was a good seven years. In the urban family we choose, she was the big sister I never had; friend, teacher, tormentor, muse. She stood up for me, but could devastate with a line. Having survived an accident that put her in intensive care, she was always available with a dose of perspective in tough times. A black-belt cook, she trained me up from spice wuss to vindaloo victor, and in the end taught me about loss and chest-crushing grief. She laughed at my jokes.

Her laugh was explosive and some of my favourite memories of times together are of making her laugh. I'm glad the last time I saw her I got what she could manage of a chuckle out of her.

Bye Cheese. I'll never forget you.

Addendum:

A few months ago I found a book of Japanese death poems; haiku by monks, in some cases the very last thing they did before dying. I found a poem that I thought was apt; I left it in the pub during the wake:

Ware shinaba
sakaya no kame no
shita ni ikeyo
moshi ya shizuku no
moriyasennan

Bury me when I die
beneath a wine barrel
in a tavern.
With luck
the cask will leak.

Moriya Sen'an (d. 1838)

Visions of Uma

2008-03-13T17:43:00.003+11:00

Every week at trivia there's the baffler question. A clue is given after each round, starting very general and becoming more specific. It's very rare that the baffler is guessed after the first clue, but I've done it. It must be even rarer that the answer pops into your head before the first clue is finished, but it happened to me last night.

"I was born on ...

(It was blonde bombshell Uma from The Producers that popped into my head)

the 29th of April 1970."

So I write "Uma Thurman" on the answer sheet and take it up. Could have knocked me over with a feather when she said I got it.

Freaky.

Down in the Basement Lab - 10 Mar 08

2008-03-10T15:24:00.001+11:00

Due to other committments we're live to tape for tonight's Down in the Basement. Here's what you'll hear if you tune in tonight.

The Necks Play The Street Theatre

2008-03-10T10:24:00.003+11:00

The Necks played The Street Theatre back in February and my DiB co-host and I went along (his take). Eric was also there and wrote an interesting review for the Canberra Jazz blog that I've just come across:

"haunting, mesmeric, hypnotic"

"Ambient and minimal; hypnotic and attractive; mysterious and tonally deceptive; beautiful and even refreshing."

I don't know that I'm with Eric on "refreshing" though, particularly regarding their first piece/set. I think I'm more with the guy who wanted to laugh in response to the sensory overload; at the time I think I described it as "the soundtrack from a nightmare" or somesuch, so if I had laughed it would have been more of a hyperventilated crazed cackle. I much preferred the second piece; it evoked a summer storm with rain on a tin roof for me.

"Ambient is not something I’d choose every night, but The Necks were engrossing and satisfying and much recommended."

Definitely engrossing, but I could only recommend The Necks to folk who're open to the unorthodox, or ambient soundscape performance veterans.

A big cold beer

2008-03-08T17:21:00.002+11:00

VB goes symphonic. Don't forget to watch the making-of video.

Singstar - Down But Not Out

2008-03-08T16:55:00.002+11:00

Things have been very quiet on the Singstar front, but today brings two lots of Singstar news. Singstar Summer Party (must be a topside thing) is due in April:

* Adele - Chasing Pavements
* Amy Winehouse - Tears Dry On Their Own
* Blondie - The Tide is High
* Blur - Girls & Boys
* Booty Luv - Shine
* Chesney Hawkes - The One & Only
* David Bowie - Let’s Dance
* Diana Ross - I’m Coming Out
* Dirty Pretty Things - Bang Bang You’re Dead
* Dodgy - Good Enough
* Elton John - I’m Still Standing
* Five Star - System Addict
* Girls Aloud - Call The Shots
* Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot
* Klaxons - It’s Not Over Yet
* KT Tunstall - Suddenly I See
* Lou Bega - Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of…)
* Madness - House of Fun
* Mel & Kim - Respectable
* Mika - Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)
* Peter Andre - Mysterious Girl
* Plain White Ts - Hey There Delilah
* Pulp - Disco 2000
* Razorlight - In The Morning
* Rihanna - Umbrella
* Sugababes - Red Dress
* Texas - Summer Son
* Toto - Hold The Line
* Wham! - Club Tropicana
* Yazz - The Only Way Is Up

If you have the PS3, a bunch of new songs have been released into the SingStore. Mostly old PS2 stuff from what I can tell:

* Aha: The Sun Always Shines On TV
* Alice Cooper: Poison
* Big Brovaz: Nu-Flow
* Bill Joel: Uptown Girl
* Blu Cantrell: Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)
* Blur: End of a Century
* Britney Spears: Baby One More Time
* Coldplay: Speed Of Sound
* Crash Test Dummies: Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
* David Bowie: Heroes
* Dragon: April Sun In Cuba
* Elvira Nickolaisen: Egypt Song
* End Of Fashion: Oh Yeah
* Fairground Attraction: Perfect
* Feeder: Buck Rogers
* Five: Keep On Movin'
* Jamelia:Superstar
* Jamelia: Stop
* Joy Division: Love Will Tear Us Apart
* Lemar: It's Not That Easy
* Lordi: Hard Rock Hallelujah
* Maria Mena: My Lullaby
* Maxïmo Park: Graffiti
* Maxïmo Park: Going Missing
* Natalie Imbruglia: Torn
* opus X: loving you girl
* Paddy Casey: Saints and Sinners
* Paddy Casey: Whatever Gets You True
* Reamonn: Supergirl
* Roachford: Only To Be With You
* Rooster: Come Get Some
* Roxy Music: Love Is The Drug
* Shannon Noll: What About Me
* Spice Girls: Wannabe
* Spice Girls: Who Do You Think You Are?
* Steps: Deeper Shade of Blue
* Stereophonics: Dakota
* Stereophonics: The Bartender And The Thief
* The Darkness: I Believe In A Thing Called Love
* The Hoosiers: Goodbye Mr A
* The Screaming Jets: Better
* The Thrills: One Horse Town
* The Thrills: Santa Cruz (You're Not That Far)
* The Undertones: Teenage Kicks
* Trio Rio: New York, Rio, Tokyo
* Whitney Houston: I Want To Dance With Somebody
* Clueso: Kein Bock Zu Geh'n
* Die Fantastischen Vier: Geboren
* Laith Al-Deen: Leb Den Tag
* Laith Al-Deen: Bilder von Dir
* MIA.: Tanz Der Moleküle
* Pur: Abenteuerland
* Revolverheld: Ich werd' die Welt verändern
* Revolverheld: Mit Dir Chilln
* Alexia: Egoista
* Alexia: Da Grande
* Daniele Silvestri: Salirò
* Fiorello: Viviere A Color
* Litfiba: El Diablo
* Loredana Berte: Il Mare D'Inverno
* Luca Di Risio: Calma e sanguefreddo
* Paola & Chiara: Blu
* Jan Eggum: På'an igjen
* Kaptein Sabeltann: Vi seiler vår egen sjø
* Philip and Sandra: Sommerflørt
* Gloria Estefan: Hoy
* Pereza: Pienso En Aquella Tarde

Rick Astley would never

2008-03-07T19:43:00.001+11:00

via e-mail

I iz in ur bus, hostaging ur peeple

2008-03-06T18:37:00.003+11:00

That was the first thing that popped into my head upon hearing this morning's news. Maybe it's time to get off the net for a while.

Know Your Big Apple Tags

2008-03-01T16:33:00.001+11:00

New York Graffiti Field Identification Guide at Gridskipper

The Wall Demands Consideration

2008-02-26T21:23:00.001+11:00

Spotted near Tilleys last Thursday

Tropfest 08

2008-02-17T22:58:00.003+11:00

After a break of a few years - excuses about the weather & such - I went back to Tropfest tonight with a few of the Camels and had quite a good night. Next year I just have to remember to take less food and wear warmer gear.

Faves in no particular order:

Ascension - the elevator one
Blues for the Soul - the Tasmanian slide guitar one
Made in Australia - the Scottish one
Scab - the Japanese gross-out one
Smitten - farmers wife one - best twist of the night
White Lines - the parking inspector as cop drama one
Uncle Johnny - kid explains his family with repetitive use of the TSI number eight

and my pick for winner...

Marry Me - girl likes boy who likes bmx

My WTF pick of the night would have to be the ACT animated The Fault. WTF? Dishonourable WTF mentions go to the 104 and Win News MCs and the clown with control of the sound desk; too loud clown!

I wonder how Tropfest is received in London & New York; a bunch of ex-pats or do the locals get into it too?

Down in the Basement - 11 Feb 08

2008-02-11T22:12:00.000+11:00

Cross-posted at the new Basement blog.

Wilson Picket - Midnight Hour
John Lee Hooker - House Rent Boogie
Ray Charles & Bonnie Raitt - Do I Ever Cross Your Mind
Charles Brown - Driftin' Blues
Muddy Waters - I Got My Mojo Working
Beyonce Knowles - Fever
The O'Jays - Loves Me Like A Rock
Gladys Knight & The Pips - Heard It Through The Grapevine
Harry Connick Jr - Spoonful of Sugar
Ella Fitzgerald - Cheek to Cheek
Caxton St Jazz Band - Stevedore Stomp
Kool & The Gang - Get Down On It
Brand New Heavies - Got To Give
Jamiroquai - If I Like It, I Do It

Compare & Contrast - Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Stevie Wonder vs DJ Smash Essential Funk Mix (from the album Motown Remixed)

Cameo - Word Up
Patti LaBelle, Yolanda Adams & Fantasia Barino - I Wish
The Commodores - Brick House
Mystery Pacific - The Nuages
Mark Sholtez - Falling
Lightnin' Hopkins - I'm Wit' It
The Badloves - High on a Mountain
George Benson - Give Me The Night
Jamiroquai - Canned Heat
Brandy, Heavy D & Quincy Jones - Rock With You

Word to the Wise

2008-01-25T20:21:00.000+11:00

Avoid the Unnamed Road

2008-01-20T09:16:00.000+11:00

Take the road less traveled, sure, but if your GPS ever tells you to turn on to a road with no name, ask for a second opinion. Drive on and force it to rethink its advice.

Heading out to the Queanbeyan Racecourse yesterday arvo, my little Mio told me to turn off towards HMAS Harman, then take a gravel road that must be a service road for the base that runs along the far side of the racecourse. Gravel would have been fine, but the rain had turned it into a 2km long mud track with lake-like water-filled potholes. Great for a bit of in-town off-roading, but I reckon Off-Black Beauty is a bit dark on me right now; she wasn't designed for such conditions. By the time I made it to the right end of the racecourse she looked like she'd just done a rally.

Cloverfield: It's What Godzilla Should Have Been

2008-01-17T20:17:00.000+11:00

All I'm going to say is that I agree with the quick review these guys did. If you have just an inkling of interest from this trailer, go see it in the cinema; you really need the experience that the theatre sound system will give you.

Down in the Basement – 14 Jan 08

2008-01-14T21:53:00.000+11:00

Wilson Picket – In The Midnight Hour
Wilson Picket – Can't Stop A Man In Love
Otis Redding – Mr Pitiful
Al Green – I Want To Hold Your Hand
B.B. King & Eric Clapton – Hold On, I'm Coming
Gladys Knight & The Pips – I Heard It Through the Grapevine
Marvin Gaye – Ain't That Peculiar
Ray Charles & Diana Krall – You Don't Know Me
Frank Sinatra & Aretha Franklin – What Now My Love
Angie Stone – Wish I Didn't Miss You (Music sampled from The O'Jays 'Backstabber')
Lauryn Hill – Doo Wop (That Thing)
Kool & The Gang – Ladies Night
Jamiroquai – Mr Moon
Earth, Wind & Fire (feat The Emotions) – Boogie Wonderland
Gil Scott Heron – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Jamiroquai – The Kids
Funk Contrast Experiment: Signed, Sealed, Delivered – Stevie Wonder, then Carl Carlton (from The Wonder of Stevie: Melody Man – DJ Spinna & Bobbito)
Dinah Washington – Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby (Rae & Christian on Verve Remixed 1)
Chaka Khan & Me'shell Ndegeocello – Never Miss The Water
Macy Gray feat Angie Stone & Mos Def) – My Nutmeg Phantasy
Pink – Tell Me Something Good (from the Happy Feet soundtrack)
Mary J Blige – Overjoyed (from Conception: A Interpretation of Stevie Wonder Songs)
George Benson – Give Me The Night
Kid Confucius – All The Way Down
Stone Roses – Fools Gold

Net Nanny State Could Prompt Free Community Wireless Networks

2008-01-11T04:20:00.000+11:00

Some thoughts have been swimming around in my head for the last week or so, and it turns out 4am on an unusually hot summer night is the perfect time to complain. Senator Conroy's ISP-level internet filtering intentions have been giving me grief, and by grief I mean the Kubler-Ross cycle kind; shock, anger, acceptance. The reaction went something along the lines of "What? WHAT? No, he can't be serious. Really? Nooo. Really? Hold on a second...".

I'm against the proposal (in its current form) for several reasons: I think supervision of kids media consumption and interaction is a parental responsibility rather than governmental; if ISPs are going to be forced to provide a filtered service, it should be opt-in rather than opt-out (I don't like the idea of getting on a list that could be exploited for other purposes later); there's been no mention about the filtering criteria, how 'net resources get on the naughty list or how to get on the nice list, nor who makes and maintain said lists; and I don't think it can actually be implemented properly without putting more bottlenecks into an already slow network.

But with challenge comes adaptation. This proposal could be a shot in the arm for the small number of free community wireless networks that are in their infancy in Australia. Don't just opt-out of ISP-level filtering, opt-out of ISPs all together. Not that most would go so far, but some could.

The tech is called wireless mesh networking. There're a few different ways it can be implemented through hardware and software, but the devices that have prompted this generation of Sydney and Canberra networks (others have come before) are called Meraki Minis. They're little wifi repeaters that talk to each other to create a wireless network. If one is plugged into a 'net connection, it becomes a gateway, and people can access the 'net by connecting to that cloud of repeaters. City-wide networks are created when lots of people buy and install the repeaters, and the altruistic types make theirs gateways and share some of their 'net bandwith with the cloud.

I think these are a good idea. Wifi is in a bunch of devices now (laptops, phones and cheap subnotebooks like the OLPC/XO and my EEEpc) and low cost community networks could be the way to maximise coverage and access to basic 'net services. Sure, multiplayer gaming and streaming media might be too bandwith hungry to be go-ers on infant networks, but they'd be fine for web, email and Skype/VOIP/IM applications.

I call them low cost community networks rather than free networks because while "free wireless" will grab peoples attention and get a lot of people wanting to use it, I think it will create an expectation that someone else will build it, and I think advocates of these projects should be encouraging participation through building the network as well as usage. The meraki repeater should be the price of admittance, at least initially. I like FON's give-to-get model in this respect. [via]

These projects are still way back in early adopter land. I'm generally happy to play in this land, if the price is right, but I think there are some concerns project advocates need to address before there'll be wider uptake: up-front cost, on-going bandwith cost, security and legal liability. Sure, early adopters are going to be geeks who can do their own research, but growth will require participation by those who come after, and they'll have questions. These should be addressed FAQ-style right up front on the projects sites (Sydney's site almost gets there on the About page). It could go something like this:

How much up front?

Merakis cost US$50 each, plus delivery. (Even though you're ordering from the States you can get them with Aussie powerplugs)

On-going costs?

Depends how involved you want to be. If it's just a repeater, you'll only pay to power it. As a gateway, you'll obviously be donating some of the bandwith you pay for now too. How much will depend on how much you allow [Can this be done?] and how many people the network will route to your gateway (the idea of the mesh network is that traffic is routed to the nearest gateway) [I think].

What about security? Will people be able to get to my data?

The meraki is only an access point. People connecting to it can't access your shared folders, printers etc etc. [BIG DISCLAIMER - I just made that up. Someone with a lot more network security knowledge than I really needs to explain the meraki security model]

What if someone tries to pirate stuff/share pirated stuff/access nasty stuff through my meraki? Will I get in legal trouble?

If your meraki is just a repeater, probably not. If it's the gateway, your equipment could get tied up in an investigation, but if you can show that activity happened via the network rather than on your personal machines, you can argue like the ISPs/telcos do that you're not liable for stuff transmitted by the network. [ANOTHER BIG DISCLAIMER - I just made that up. I am not a lawyer. Projects should get legal advice on that one.]

I have a potential solution for the legal liability issue; encourage regular people to set up their merakis as repeaters (gateways if they don't secure their wireless routers anyway), and encourage businesses that provide free wifi (cafes etc) to install merakis and configure them as gateways. If they're providing free wifi now, I'm assuming they're accepting the legal liability risks and/or have some level of traffic auditing to cover their asses.

Now if you can combine the meraki wireless mesh with Whisher, I think you're on your way to putting the community interaction into community wireless networking too. It'd be a new way to meet / get in touch with your neighbours.

Happy days. Please consider. Those interested in getting involved should check out the Facebook groups for the Sydney and Canberra networks.

UPDATE - Free Sydney Wireless reports: Bruce Schneier, security guru, talks about his own open wifi network at home in this Wired article.

MotorMouth

2008-01-09T17:28:00.000+11:00

Was just reading this post about MotorMouth, a fuel price monitoring site, over at Lifehacker AU. Wandered over there to discover they don't cover Canberra, so I email them to ask why. Got a lovely form response:

Hello and thank you for your interest in MotorMouth. This stage of our development, we do not have the resources to collect prices in these cities.Because MotorMouth is a free service, we need to rely on advertisers to help fund our collections and we can not attract sufficient advertising dollars in these centres. Kind Regards, The MotorMouth Team! **This is an automated response to your question.

The NRMA/RACV/RACQ etc etc should do this with national coverage.

Chiller Thriller

2007-12-27T18:38:00.000+11:00

If you're stuck inside on a dreary overcast holiday afternoon, you could do worse than head to a cinema and see 1408. It's damn spooky and there are more than a few moments that'll have you jumping in your seat. There was a vertigo-inspired moment of dread too, at least for me. John Cusack plays frantic so well, but I reckon Samuel L Jackson was underused. The old Eagles line "you can check out any time you like, but you may never leave" must've been an inspiration for Stephen King on this one.

If you need more monster in the mix, opt for Alien vs Predator: Requiem. More action than its thriller predecessors, this kill-fest doesn't even spare the pregnant women & children.

Constable Would Like It

2007-12-26T15:59:00.000+11:00

I know I shouldn't complain about the cloudy wet weather in this time of tanks, grey water recycling and restrictions, but I only have a few days left in Brisbane and all I want is a bright sunny day on which to hit a beach.

Thus far being home for the holidays has involved a whole lot of relaxig around the house, a few visits to mates places, a top dinner at the Norman Hotel with some of the old school gang and a bunch of family competitions on the Wii, Buzz, Guitar Hero and Singstar. All excellent wet weather games, but still really want to get to a beach.

SingStar + Eyetoy + Recorder = Korean Microfame?

2007-12-22T08:49:00.001+11:00

Maybe he's big in Korea. Gotta love netcasty's enthusiasm. [via]

Valley Vibe Gone?

2007-12-22T08:15:00.000+11:00

I hope it's all in my head. I hope it's just because I haven't been out in the valley in a year or so and because I was the stone cold sober designated driver, but I reckon the valley might be losing its' cool alternative / indie vibe a bit, at least when it comes to nightlife.

We had another awesome family dinner at Oyama last night to celebrate the old man's 60th. In his usual stay young style, Dad opted to kick on afterwards. Being a fan of - and participant in - the live music scene he wanted to check out the Elephant & Wheelbarrow. Sure, ok, yeah. But first to The Met, on Eve's suggestion.

I was pretty impressed with The Met; three floors of cool with balconies over a dance floor & bar level, with a bunch of chill out booths below on a basement level. Looks like the whole place was fitted out by way of Loot though. Crowd: average dolled-up mall-dwellers. With the DJ pumping out dance & the old man wanting a live band and commenting that the audio systems were better when he was doing club sound & lighting back in the day it was time to head back to the pub. One drink and we're moving on.

The Elephant & Wheelbarrow had a cool tabletop sit-down arcade game, but the rest of the place was no different to your average suburban pub. Don't know where the valley's interesting people have gone, E&B was full of post-xmas-party pissed bogans jumping around to the cover band Stiffler's Mum. Dad was pretty disappointed having had some ripper nights at E&B in the last few years.

How to redeem this birthday pub crawl? Pool. Dooleys. Except that it's not Dooleys anymore it's Club 388. No biggy, it's still got pool tables. And someone's got Bobby Brown going on the jukebox, followed by Hammer (yeah y'all). So we hang out there with a few games of pool featuring Dad & Scotty vs Zara & Matt while a duo strums out Matchbox 20 and Third Eye Blind covers on acoustic guitar and banjo on stage. The aroma of other peoples dinners revisited is faint at the bar end of the room where we are, but intensifies as one approaches the bathrooms; seems the christmas party carnies are coming off second best again this year, though they resiliently push on regardless.

It was the ten minutes out on the Dooleys balcony watching the punters wander up & down the streets by Family, the Empire and the Press Club, as well as the walk to Dooleys and back to the car, that got me wondering what happened to the Valley. The police presence was high; pairs of 'em ticketing punters for jaywalking and a bunch escorting one bloke away from RGs. Couldn't shake the feeling that the Valley nightscene's been taken over by the piss drinking commercial pop crowd that I would have expected at Fridays or City Rowers back in the day.

Maybe - hopefully - it's just the christmas party carny season.

Jonah's Dictation Tag

2007-12-05T21:50:00.001+11:00

Jonah's Dictation Tag,
originally uploaded by deanlk.

This Honda Civic in my apartment complex car park has had Jonah's tag scrawled on it for the last month or so.

Down in the Basement - 04 Dec 07

2007-12-04T22:30:00.000+11:00

Jeremy and I did a Tuesday night Down in the Basement on Artsound for a bit of a change:

Sam & Dave - Hold On
Aretha Franklin - RESPECT
Harry Connick Jr - Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead
Wilson Pickett - Midnight Hour
Phoebe Snow - Shakey Ground
Ronny Jordan - The Jackal
Prince - When You Were Mine
Boz Scaggs - Drowin' in the Sea of Love
Debbie Harry - Stormy Weather
Mark Sholtez - Home By Now
Madeleine Peyroux - The Summer Wind
Morphine - In Spite of Me
Badloves - High on a Mountain
India Arie - Wonderful
David Bowie - Young American
Happy Mondays - He's Gonna Step on You Again
Sam & Dave - Soothe Me
Kid Confucius - Sky is the Limit
Joss Stone - Some Kind of Wonderful
Joan Osborne - Heat Wave
Joan Osborne - What Becomes of the Broken Hearted
Phoebe Snow - At Last
Dianne Reeves - Pick Yourself Up
Ronny Jordan - Mr Walker
Aretha Franklin - Chain of Fools
Wilson Pickett - Mustang Sally
Ella Fitzgerald - When the Sun Comes Out
Dianne Reeves - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Down in the Basement - 19 Nov 07

2007-11-19T22:50:00.000+11:00

Jeremy & Dean serve blues, funk, soul and jazz on Artsound 92.7FM.

Tom Waits - Heart of Saturday Night
Tim Finn - Persuasion
Donovan Frankenreiter - Move By Yourself
Joss Stone - Super Duper Love
Tinariwen - Cler Achel
Buddy Guy - Stone Crazy
Me'shell Ndegeocello - Who is He and What is He to You?
Lightnin' Hopkins - Santa Fe Blues
Harry Connick Jr - Between Us
The Badloves - I Remember
The Murmurs - HR Pufnstuf Theme
Carleen Anderson - Mornin' Lovin'
Guy Sebastian - Soul Man *
Michael McDonald & Phoebe Snow - Knock on Wood
Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun *
Paul Anka - Black Hole Sun *
Michelle Nicolle - Don't You Forget About Me
Diana Krall - Cry Me A River
Morphine - Cure For Pain
Stevie Wonder - Stevie Ray Vaughn Blues (Live)
Stevie Wonder - Higher Ground (Live)
Kid Confucius - Make Up Your Mind
Bruce Dickinson & Michael Jackson - Don't Stop Til You Get Enough (Cowbell Remix)

* - An experiment in musical tolerance.

Holy Yawnfest: Gabriel

2007-11-16T00:21:00.000+11:00

I wanted to like Gabriel. Heard the stories about the sacrifices that went into making it, all the favours called in, the commitments made by those who saw potential and believed. I wanted it to work out for them.

Unfortunately it's really really boring. One couple walked out with 30 minutes left to run. I envied their resolve while my need to see the conclusion kept me in my seat bearing witness to the excruciating accent slips in the final scenes. There's one decent fight scene half way through, but the rest of the two hours is little more than f-bomb-laden exposition punctuated with short dull fights. Goths and leather/rubber fetishists will love the costumes, but I'm not sure if fans of The Crow, Dark City, Underworld and The Matrix will appreciate the look of purgatory or judge it derivative.

I can't believe the yanks are going ape over this on the IMDB message boards. I'm with David Stratton; one and a half stars, and only for effort.

Worth Dusting Off

2007-11-05T22:04:00.000+11:00

Made & first shown in 2004. Still relevant:

Sinister or Cynical Publicity Bumping?

2007-11-05T21:15:00.000+11:00

From today's Crikey:

Rendition is the new movie due to open next week which tells of an innocent man grabbed by the CIA and taken to a foreign country for torture. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon and Meryl Streep. There are eery parallels with the Mamdouh Habib case. It was due to open here on 15 November. Suddenly it's been yanked from the schedules. No explanation given. Local reviewers were already warming up to give it 4 star+ ratings but to no avail. Village Roadshow are saying nothing just asking reviewers to desist and for cinema owners to remove the posters.

Dean is...

2007-10-31T17:29:00.000+11:00

still undecided on Movember-ing this year.

Tale of Mighty Rudd Ascension

2007-10-30T20:36:00.000+11:00

[via]

John Butler Trio Rocks UC

2007-10-30T19:38:00.000+11:00

The End Is Near

2007-10-26T17:04:00.000+10:00

Seen today at Big W Woden: a dancing christmas penguin singing Ice Ice Baby.

Down in the Basement

2007-10-22T22:47:00.000+10:00

What a cool way to spend a Monday night. I've just finished up doing a two hour jazz, blues, funk & soul show on Artsound with one of the soccer crew and it was a whisky bottle* full o' fun.

Tonight's playlist included:

Prince - When You Were Mine
David Bowie - Driving Saturday
Herbie Hancock, Jonny Lang & Joss Stone - When Love Comes To Town
Quincy Jones, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder & Bono - Let The Good Times Roll
Bobby Darin - Mack the Knife
Mark Sholtez - Not What I'll Be Missin'
Blossom Dearie - I Like London in the Rain
Eleni Mandell - Girls
Jackie Wilson - (Your Love Keeps Liftin' Me) Higher and Higher
Talking Heads - Heaven
Ian Moss - Georgia On My Mind
Mark Lizotte / Diesel - Tip Of My Tongue
Tim Finn & Neil Finn - In Love With It All
Deni Hines & James Morrison - Summertime
Tom Waits - The Hardest Saturday Night
Chaka Khan & The Funk Brothers - What's Goin' On
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - What Have You Done For Me Lately
Bentley Rhythm Ace - Bentley's Gonna Sort You Out
Erykah Badu & The Blues Brothers Band - Funky Nassau
Brassy - Play Some D
Herbie Hancock & John Mayer - Stitched Up
Muddy Waters - Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Ben Harper & The Funk Brothers - Ain't Too Proud To Beg
Leadbelly - Easy Rider
Diane Reeves - One For My Baby
Chet Baker - But Not For Me

* - No actual whisky was consumed in the making of this radio show, but it would have been apt.

100 Films You Must See Before You Die or Why The Internet Was Invented

2007-10-18T19:04:00.000+10:00

Freedom is (almost) mine

2007-10-17T23:39:00.000+10:00

and I'm feelin' good.

Some time in the next 12 hours a man will give me the keys to a new car. I'm excited like a kid on Christmas Eve.

Goodbye smelly bus people!

Take the Money and Run

2007-10-15T22:18:00.000+10:00

Another week, another freebie preview. Michael Clayton is having a shitty time and then it just goes and gets shittier for him. There's a shitstorm swirling up around a multi-billion dollar lawsuit and watching it is compelling; everyone's real and fallible. It hits local cinemas Thursday, but would be just as compelling on a smaller screen.

Newstopia

2007-10-11T19:45:00.000+10:00

I liked it. Coming up next: what Col said.

Control

2007-10-09T21:44:00.000+10:00

Scored tickets to a preview screening of the Ian Curtis biopic Control. It's bleak, but with unexpected laughs. As it reached its (and his) end, I was wondering how much Debbie and the remaining band members were in favour of it; turned out Debbie wrote the book the film was based on and co-exec produced it, and the New Order guys provided some of the incidental scoring.

See it if you like music biopics / rockdocs. If you're a Joy Division / New Order fan I'm guessing you've already ordered your tickets.

It'll be about as popular as Anthems or Pop Hits, which is to say not very

2007-10-04T19:38:00.000+10:00

HMV has let the Singstar R&B track list out of the bag. Lots of use of the rap meter from the look of it:

* Amerie - 1 Thing
* Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
* Anastacia - I'm Outta Love
* Beverley Knight - Come As You Are
* Black Eyed Peas - Pump It
* Chris Brown - Yo (Excuse Me Miss)
* Christina Milian - AM 2 PM
* Corinne Bailey Rae - I'd Liked Too
* Destiny's Child - Bootylicious
* Diana Ross & The Supremes - Baby Love
* DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince - Summertime
* Edwin Starr - WAR
* En Vogue - My Lovin' (You’re Never Gonna Get It)
* The Four Tops - Can't Help Myself
* Gwen Stefani - Hollerback Girl
* Inner City - Good Life
* Jameila - Thank you
* Jamiroquai - Allright
* Luther Vandross - Never Too Much
* Mark Ronson feat. Daniel Merriweather - Stop Me
* Martha Reeve & The Vandellas - Dancing In The Street
* Marvin Gaye & Tammii Tarrelle - Ain't No Mountain High Enough
* OutKast - Idlewild Blue (Don't Chu Worry 'Bout Me)
* Pussy Cat Dolls - Buttons
* Rihanna - We Ride
* Salt N Pepa - Push It
* Sugababes - Ugly
* The 411 - Dumb
* Whitney Houston - Your Love is My Love
* Womack & Womack - Teardrops

It's due at the end of the month.

[via]

Dear Action

2007-10-04T12:23:00.000+10:00

Implement this now.

[via]

(Not that I'll really care in a week or two since your shitty services have seen me order a new car whose arrival is quickly approaching, but if you want Canberra residents and visitors to use public transport this sort of accessibility would probably help, and given the number of services and the area isn't that big you could probably be the first Aussies to get on board.)

Oh yeah

2007-10-01T22:25:00.000+10:00

Trailer 1

Trailer 2

It's the Interactivity

2007-09-30T02:16:00.000+10:00

The Weekend Gamer asks if video games are the next big medium for music marketing. After a weekend of Singstar sessions, I say Yes.

(PS - For the first (and probably the last) time, tonight I beat Tysy on a song. It was Love is All Around by Wet Wet Wet.)

Kid Confucius, Transit Bar

2007-09-30T00:24:00.002+10:00

Image034.jpg,
originally uploaded by deanlk.

Kid Confucius put on an awesomely energetic show last night down in the intimate bowels of Canberra's Transit Bar as part of their Street Corner Soul tour. The Sydney-based eight-piece prodigal-soul band is on the road promoting their second album Stripes, which is more soul than their previous album which had a healthy dose of hip-hop within. The guys overcame a few initial technical glitches to belt out a show that had the room-packing crowd jumping all the way up to the finale - a horn-filled funked-up version of The Strokes' 'Last Nite'. Funkiest trombone player ever.

"Moment" - Kid Confucius

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Clear the Air

2007-09-26T18:42:00.000+10:00

I really hope we get this thunderstorm that's forecast for tonight; we need something to clear the air. I don't know if it's some seasonal shift, the hint of humidity in the air or the full moon, but I've noticed a bunch of people acting just plain weird lately.

"It's a lot harder to sing Rihanna and entertain a roomful of jeering friends than it is to assail the undead forces with the "A" button."

2007-09-26T17:05:00.000+10:00

I Am Citizen Singstar

Singstar Rock Ballads is out tomorrow.

Steely Dan. Brisbane

2007-09-20T19:35:00.000+10:00

1/700th of a Second

2007-09-15T10:10:00.000+10:00

This could be the coolest application of high speed filming ever.

Google Gears Up For Election 2007

2007-09-15T02:28:00.000+10:00

"The Repost Was Good" or "Good Stabby Work"

2007-09-13T22:31:00.000+10:00

Happy to report that after 8 weeks of intro fencing training, I came in second out of seven in tonight's concluding competition.

Recuts FTW

2007-09-13T22:30:00.000+10:00

[via]

Doing

2007-09-09T09:43:00.000+10:00

I think I've mentioned once or twice to various people that if I didn't do what I do, I'd like to make things, all sorts of things. Simple, elegant things that people would admire, use or just want because they were unique or showed off their good taste and eye for such things.

I might have to revise my alternative CV, though, as a recent team management index pegged my strengths as a "creator-innovator" - an ideas man - and said I need to work on balancing regular work and focusing on bringing my ideas into reality. In my alternative career, I'd play to that and focus on the design bit rather than the making bit.

In this reality I would have design qualifications and I would wish to walk with a spring in my step down Leichhardt St to work at icelab. Their thoughts on design resonate with me and I'm hoping repeat visits to the icelab site and the crew's cool personal sites will inspire and guide the data visualisation work I'm doing at the moment.

[via]

Decorated Walls

2007-09-09T09:01:00.000+10:00

Good to see that some stickers/paste-up have returned to walls in Civic.

Meanwhile, some of my shots have been included in an online travel guide.

Pursue Simplicity

2007-09-08T15:01:00.000+10:00

No so much an elaborate contribution to the MySpace/Facebook class debate as a beautifully distilled observation:

"MySpace is the Tuggeranong of the Internet"

Consuming in the Capital

2007-09-08T14:37:00.000+10:00

How to link eating with the national capital? Some ponderance of how much business and socialising is done over plates and glasses? An observation of how many special event memories involve an indulgent meal? A proposal that the bureaucracy might be more productive if we were to swap doughnuts of cubicles for laptops at the communal dining tables that seem to be popping up at cafes across town (well, ok, maybe only Idelic)?

Meh, just wander over to The Canberra Cook and Sarah Cooks.

[via]

Why Video Cameras Are Dangerous At Parties

2007-09-05T18:36:00.000+10:00

Break it down!

From

Spitfires 2 def Lightning Rods 1

2007-08-25T23:05:00.001+10:00

Spitfires-Logo,
originally uploaded by deanlk.

Another challenging game in which both sides had to really work hard for every goal.

A big thanks to Ross & Tim for getting me off the field when my ankle/foot decided it had had enough. I trust the earlier goal made up for losing a player in the third half :)

Lightning Rods 3 def Spitfires 2

2007-08-18T14:17:00.001+10:00

Lightning Rods Logo,
originally uploaded by deanlk.

What a game! Both sides had to really work for every goal.

Spitfires 4 def Lightning Rods 1

2007-08-11T14:19:00.000+10:00

Hurrah!

Spitfires 4 def Lightning Rods 1

2007-08-04T14:24:00.000+10:00

Woo hoo! Go team Byron!

I bless the rains down in Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaafrica

2007-08-03T21:08:00.000+10:00

Singstar 90s isn't even out yet (next week) and Sony's already announced its successor. Singstar Rock Ballads is due out in late September. Start warming up your vocal cords for:

* Air Supply - All Out of Love
* Alannah Myles - Black Velvet
* Anastasia - Left Outside Alone
* Avril Lavigne - I'm With You
* Boston - More Than A Feeling
* Boy Meets Girl - Waiting For A Star To Fall
* Cutting Crew - I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight
* Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time
* Duran Duran - Ordinary World
* Europe - Carrie
* Heart - Alone
* Jon Secada - Just Another Day
* Lone Star - Amazed
* Marc Cohn - Walking In Memphis
* Meatloaf - I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)
* Mr Big - To Be With You
* Mr Mister - Broken Wings
* Mr Mister - Kyrie
* Nikelback - How You Remind Me
* Nilsson - Without You
* Poison - Every Rose Has Its Thorn
* Queen - The Show Must Go On
* Roxette - It Must Have Have Been Love
* Roxette - Listen To Your Heart
* Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now
* Sugababes - Too Lost In You
* The Calling - Wherever You Will Go
* Tina Arena - Chains
* Toto - Africa
* T'Pau - China In Your Hands

So cheesy you'll think you're at a fondue party.

Snap Unhappy

2007-07-29T18:43:00.000+10:00

I've just spent some time checking all of the licences on my images on Flickr after reading about how Virgin Mobile's Are You With Us? campaign used a bunch of images from the site on a fave e-culture blog. Happy to report that anyone I've taken a picture of isn't going to appear on an cringe-worthy billboard on account of my licensing decisions. All of my snaps are marked All Rights Reserved. If you spot yourself on a billboard by way of any of my photos, let me know & we can lawyer-up together.

Similarly, there'd be some stern words used if I found out that this creation had been sold. One of my Australia Day photos is in there (the 9th one). On one hand I'm flattered that the creator thought it represented Oz Day for her, but on the other it's marked All Rights Reserved (that includes derivative works yeah?) like all my other snaps (as are the others in the collection I checked), and my permission wasn't sought. I shall ponder some more.

On a more expectant note, I'm excited about the surprises happy snappers are going to get when this tech becomes more widespread.

Spitfires 6 def Lightning Rods 2

2007-07-28T20:06:00.000+10:00

Spitfires Logo,
originally uploaded by deanlk.

And I'm happy to report I wasn't completely crap in goal this week (much better than my last game); had one pretty lucky stop which made up for the easy one I let through. Think I need to harden up and throw myself into the dirt more often.