Australian IT - Blame Labor

One thing to remember when dishing out the brick-bats to poor ol' Richie A. Who were the ones who decided to Federally fun 95% of Tel$tra's infrastructure, then try to create a falsely competitive marketplace by creating artificial competition and force it to create its own infrastructure to compete with it - resulting in the 900lb gorilla called Tel$tra that dominates and almost monpolises the Australian telecommunications industry? That's right - it was Pork-Pie Paul and Big Kim..... The bastards.....

Australian IT Minister Alston Replaced
How big a wanker is he?
Well his removal made slashdot

GRANT RANT: WHY HALO FOR THE PC MUST DIE MORE THAN SCOTT TENORMAN
**** TRANSMISSION INITIATED ****

Let us take a game. A game that was originally developed for the PC. Convert this game to the X-Box. Then give this game to some bunch of dick-sucking wankers and have them make a PC version and TOTALLY FUCK IT UP.

Console conversions suck. But the PC version of HALO is the designated dick-sucker of all console conversions!

Firstly the control config is all fucked up in a way that only a console can actually make use of it. Secondly you can only save at chekpoints, a limitation imposed by consoles with poor input devices, not a PC with ~90Gb of secondary storage!

Secondly the performance of this game blow goats. I run an Athlon 1.4 (cooled, of course) with 768Mb RAM and ~90Gb ATA100 HDD's. I have a GeForce 2 64Mb card. Now, this system is no UberBeast but does perform very well...except for HALO...a game that was designed to run on a PC and then re-designed to run on a slower PC. If I take the resolution from 640x480 to something partially reasonable: 1024x768 the whole thing becomes an Unreal-style slide-show.

This is only the beginning. If I were to play more of this game I am sure that I would find many more points...but I have better things t do with my time.

The only thing that I can say is still good about HALO is the soundtrack....but I haven't heard all of it yet. I think that I shall return my copy.

You have just been reading another Brain Fart from Grant
****TRANSMISSION TERMINATED****

Sermon from the Mount

DVD's are a wonderful piece of technology. They allow you to watch a movie at home with excellent picture quality, surround sound and a whole heap of extras. They are what is know as "A Good Thing". One of my favorite extras that you are increasingly finding on more and more DVD's these days is the Commentary. Because DVD's are capable of containing multiple audio tracks, rather than fill them with increasingly esoteric language tracks, many DVD's now include commentaries from the Actors/Writers/Directors/Producers involved in the making of these films.

An excellent example of the good use of such Commentaries is the disc for the movie Fight Club. The commentary by David Fincher, Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter is one of the best I've heard. It talks all about how they got the movie made, reasons behind what changes occurred in translating the book to the screen and many anecdotes and tales about the filming of the movie. The Commentary has a point and is informative. Having a number of contributors allows for the commentary to avoid being bogged down in tangents and left hanging in silence for long periods.

For every good disc however, there naturally has to be a bad one. And in this case, it the one I was watching last night - The Rules of Attraction - a dark, twisted comedy which I happen to adore. Now the movie is great. The problem arrives when you listen to the first of three commentaries on the disc (the only one I've heard so far). The first commentary I've listed to involves you having to sit through the prattling, in amongst long periods of silence, of one of the lead actresses and a few of the minor players. Now I can appreciate that actors and actresses who have only had a few roles, don't necessarily have all that much experience to draw upon to use in these commentaries. But it begs the question - why have them go solo then???

Just because the facility is available, doesn't mean you have to use it. I don't want to listen to dopey idiots prattle on about "How hard this was" or "Oh my god I don't remember that". I want to learn something when I spend the time listening to a commentary. I don't want to know that I have the exact same amount of insight as those who made the bloody film. Sitting through commentaries like this aren't what I call fun, they make me want to punch the tv (not to mention Hollywood actresses.....)

Admin Stuff

Minor update to the side-bar of the blog. Thought I'd add some pictures.

Wow, I Feel Special...

What Intergalactic Explorer are you?

I came out as QEMT - 'Engineer'.

Which is only the most frigging common answer out of everyone who'd taken that test. I'm supposed to be weird, dammit!

STUFF FOR TODAY

Ion Engine Propels Probe to Moon What was Scotty always saying about Ion power?

Sorry, no SCO news today

NASA in full swing again: Dangerous Space Station Events Suggest Serious Accident Waiting to Happen

Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness
EG:

TODAY'S USERFRIENDLY:

Ukrainian Computer Destruction Championship

TCP/IP over Bongo Drums
"In an attempt to show that primitive communications can still function in modern networks, a friend of mine took up a challenge from his professor to replace the lowest layer of the OSI networking model with a set of bongo drums!"

SHUTTLES, EMAILS, MP3's

Some may be interestted in the Columbia Accident Investigation Board Report.
This is the report containing the findings of the official investigation board into the Columbia disaster.

And this: NASA changes are urged

The e-mail discussions among engineers did not reach the mission management team, and engineers like Rodney Rocha, the co-chair of the debris assessment team, did not pass along their concerns. “They were separated from the decision-making process by distance and rank,” the report stated. In the management team meetings, which the board characterized as rushed and filled with preconceived conclusions, “Managers demonstrated little concern for mission safety.” And although mision management team chairwoman Linda Ham said that she never heard of the requests for photos, the board’s assessment was curt: “Managers’ claims that they didn’t hear the engineers’ concerns were due in part to their not asking or listening.”

“Managers asked, ‘Who’s requesting the photos?’ instead of assessing the merits of the request,” the report concluded. “Management seemed more concerned about the staff following proper channels (even while they were themselves taking informal advice) than they were about the analysis.”

Recording industry withdraws suit. Mistaken identity raises questions on legal strategy
The recording industry has withdrawn a lawsuit against a Newbury woman because it falsely accused her of illegally sharing music

But Ward, 66, is a "computer neophyte" who never installed file-sharing software, let alone downloaded hard-core rap about baggy jeans and gold teeth, according to letters sent to the recording industry's agents by her lawyer, Jeffrey Beeler.

Those Wacky Japanese

What will they think of next...
and a special mention for Talk-Like-A-Pirate-Day

CNN.com - Schools tackle PDA problem - Sep. 21, 2003

Speaking of girlfriends. . .

Here are a couple of the better reasons Josh and I had for visiting the good old US of A.

Oh My God - Badgers!

Check this out. I don't know what people have got to be on to make this kind of stuff.

Undead Comments

Comments from a few people who've seen Underworld.

They had the usual run-of-the-mill modern vampire powers: super strength, endurance, agility,?speed, occasional spider climbing. Any more specific powers than that and then they would?unmistakably be treading into White Wolf territory. As is they have some plausible deniability.

Yes and their Vampires not only bleed, but they faint from blood loss and need fucking CPR and have water in their lungs.

I think the writer missed an important aspect of Vampires. They are the fucking UNdead.

and

To the naysayers.
Yes, they bleed. Get over someone else's made up vampire biology.
Yes, there are twisty turny internal logic conflicts, so don't worry about them.
And as has been said - do not be concerned about ultraviolet bullets (or silver nitrate ones) in a film where people turn into wolves.
It is a film to sit back and enjoy.
It looks nice.

Does not bode well, despite PVC-goodness...

Greetings from Auckland... again

Well, at least this time we're officially in NZ, not just tooling around in the transit lounge. Of course, it's raining and stuff, and we're really just wandering around Auckland until it's time to go back and sleep for the early morning flight home... but hey, we're here, you guys aren't, nyaah nyaah, boo sucks to Jerry.

Tell you what, though, it's nice to be back where people drive on the proper side of the road. Pity about the accents.

heh

TODAYS STUFF
Orson Scott Card on mp3 File Sharing

XPlite Now Available
After some time in development, XPlite has finally been released. XPlite (successor of 98lite) lets you remove Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player and several other components from Windows XP/2000.

I, Cringely How to Steal $65 Billion. Why Identity Theft is a Growth Industry

OS Wars: Solaris vs. Linux - Parts 1 & 2

Taking Advantage of a Captive Situation?

----- Original Message -----
From: joe at szilagyi.us
To:
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 8:48 AM
Subject: sitefinder.verisign.com
As of 7:45 PM US Eastern on Mon 15 Sep 2003, VeriSign added a wildcard A record to the .COM and .NET TLD DNS zones. The IP address returned is 64.94.110.11, which reverses to sitefinder.verisign.com. What that means in plain English is that most mis-typed domain names that would formerly have resulted in a helpful error message now results in a VeriSign advertising opportunity. For example, if my domain name was 'somecompany.com,' and somebody typed 'soemcompany.com' by mistake, they would get VeriSign's advertising. (VeriSign is a company which purchased Network Solutions, another company which was given the taskby the US government of running the .COM and .NET top-level domains (TLDs). VeriSign has been exploiting the Internet's DNS infrastructure ever since.)
This will have the immediate effect of making network trouble-shooting much more difficult. Before, a mis-typed domain name in an email address, web browser, or other network configuration item would result in an obvious error message. You might not have known what to do about it, but at least you knew something was wrong. Now, though, you will have to guess. Every time.
Some have pointed out that this will make an important anti-spam check impossible. A common anti-spam measure is to check and make sure the domain name of the sender really exists. (While this is easy to force, every little bit helps.) Since all .COM and .NET domain names now exist, that anti-spam check is useless.
Verisign has continually been abusing the power that has been handed out to them. Two such examples are its mailing of false renewal notices, and its most recent exploit: sitefinder.verisign.com. Now, nearly all mistyped names will be sent to Verisign where they can do whatever they like to the unwitting user. There are even categories on sitefinder.verisign.com where one can browse and go to sites which are undoubtedly paying Verisign for the space.
Please take this, and the hundreds or thousands of e-mails you will receive, into consideration, and exercise the power that ICANN has. Verisign has continually been abusing and tricking people through deceptive business practices, and this should be the last straw. Verisign should not only be removed from it's post, but it should also be fined for its numerous escapades designed to make money.
__________________________
Joe / http://szilagyi.us
Never give up, never surrender.

Questionable Squirts

I think the picture really says it all...

CD v DVD Sales

DenverPost.com - Recording industry's missteps
A good article which yet again points out the stupidity of the Recording Industry and contrasts it with how the Movie Industry has dealt with a similar problem.

University Study
Acocdrnig to an elgnsih unviesitry sutdy the oredr of letetrs in a wrod dosen't mttaer, the olny thnig thta's iopmrantt is that the frsit and lsat ltteer of eevry word is in the crorcet ptoision. The rset can be jmbueld and one is stlil able to raed the txet wiohtut dclftfuiiy.

Cool Casting News

He's Batman!!! I mean Bateman...No - Batman!!!
see Comics Continuum or AICN or Coming Soon

WOO HOO!

STUFF FOR TODAY
Plans for NASA's Next Decade of Red Planet Probing. Lets see how many Mars probes in the next 10 years NASA manage to crash, burnup, skip-off or otherwise fuckup.

Read the first paragraph of this. I think it is a bit over the top.

Torvalds to SCO: Negotiate what?

What Some People Get Up To...

Look pretty smug don't they...

NEWS.com.au | Man keeps pony in second-floor unit (September 10, 2003)

INTERESTING

Anniversary of the First Computer Bug

DOES THIS JOB ROCK OR SUCK?

Word from the Front

STUFF FOR TODAY
Bacterial Battery Converts Sugar into Electricity

Solar Flare Serves Up Antimatter Surprises

Mars Underground: Digging Deep for Life

World Nuclear University

'Smarter, Stronger, Safer' NASA Targets March-April Launch

Warning

Alarming news - check it out here.

THINGS & STUFF
Lab Test Shows Mars Surface Water Possible

Asteroid Doomsday 'Risk' Evaporates after Media Fan Flames

This is why Fighter's have Afterburners

From the Riverfire festival in Brisbane on Saturday night. They're big, but they're pretty.

OFFERING FOR TODAY

Molecules with Silly or Unusual Names

The True Shape of Black Holes

Not too sure if this is a good thing: Telstra goes open-source

And now from the other side of America

Dragon*Con was a blast. Estimated stormtrooper quotient was about 5% (mostly due to the presence of the 501st Legion). Estimated Klingon quotient was about 0.25% (Hurrah - scifi fans with taste!).

And the award for most disturbing costumes goes to the trio of Luka Skywalker, Hannah Solo and Lloyd Organa (Josh: There is something about a cinnamon bun hairdo and a five o'clock shadow that should just never be mixed). Unfortunately (fortunately?) the photos of the Star Wars costume contest where we saw these guys didn't really come out - the stage was too far away.

Things I Have Learned

There is a reason God invented the protector for when you are playing cricket. Even when you are a female, there are these items....
It doesn't really matter what equipment you've got, if your batting partner in indoor decides to smash the ball straight at your proverbials, you'll be down for the count. It's a small price to pay (literally) to avoid these kinds of mishaps...

FISHY ROCKS