Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. Philip K. Dick (1928 - 1982) Mandrake finally post a profit First Quarter Financial Results 2003/2004 (October - December 2003) Revenue Growth and First Profitable Quarter Since 1999 Study: File-Sharing No Threat to Music Sales Internet music piracy has no negative effect on legitimate music sales, according to a study released today by two university researchers that contradicts the music industry's assertion that the illegal downloading of music online is taking a big bite out of its bottom line. Spammer's Porsche up for grabs Internet giant AOL has ratcheted up the war against unsolicited e-mail with a publicity-grabbing coup - an online raffle of a spammer's seized Porsche. The Myth of Low-Thrust Propulsion The announcement of Preident Bush's new space initiative has unleashed a flurry of activity in the space engineering community. Many design groups are drawing up plans for new spacecraft and new technologies that could be used for future manned missions to Mars. New Earths: Transforming Other Planets for Humanity Terraforming other worlds may take decades to accomplish, and the go-ahead may still be centuries away. So why does such a far-out topic deserve an entire book? What possible value could such a book have? (C) Shouting Red Goanna Inc. A wholly subsidiary of Screaming Blue Wombat Inc. / Avenging Green Seahorse Industries

HDTV Goes to See Britney Spears

My Parents Went To France.... | CafePress - Comment if ya want one...

Extract from the Australian Etiquette Handbook

1. Never take a beer to a job interview.
2. Always identify people in your yard before shooting them.
3. It's tacky to take an esky to church.
4. If you have to vacuum the bed, it's time to change the sheets.
5. Even if you're certain you're included in the will, it's rude to take the trailer to the funeral home.

DINING OUT:

1. When decanting wine from the box, tilt the paper cup and pour slowly so as not to bruise the wine.
2. If drinking directly from the bottle, hold it with only one hand.

ENTERTAINING IN YOUR HOME:

1. A centrepiece for the table should never be anything prepared by a taxidermist.
2. Don't allow the dog to eat at the table, no matter how good his manners.

PERSONAL HYGIENE:

1. While ears need to be cleaned regularly, this should be done in private, using one's OWN ute keys.
2. Even if you live alone, deodorant isn't a waste of money.
3. Use of toiletries can only delay bathing a few days.
4. Dirt and grease under the fingernails is a no-no, as it detracts from a woman's jewellery and alters the taste of finger foods.

DATING (Outside the Family):

1. Always offer to bait your date's hook, especially on the first date.
2. Be assertive. Let her know you're interested: "I've been wanting to go out with you since I read that stuff on the dunny door two years ago."
3. Establish with her parents what time she's expected back. Some will say 10:00 PM, others might say "Monday." If the latter is the answer, it's the man's responsibility to get her to school on time.

THEATRE ETIQUETTE:

1. Crying babies should be taken to the lobby and picked up after the movie ends.
2. Refrain from talking to characters on the screen. Tests have proven they can't hear you.

WEDDINGS:

1. Livestock is a poor choice for a wedding gift.
2. Kissing the bride for more than five seconds may get you shot.
3. For the groom, at least, rent a tux. A track suit with a cummerbund and a clean football jumper can create a tacky appearance.
4. Though uncomfortable, say "yes" to socks and shoes for the occasion.

DRIVING ETIQUETTE:

1. Dim your headlights for approaching vehicles, even if the gun's loaded and the roo's in sight.
2. When approaching a round-about, the vehicle with the largest tyres doesn't always have the right of way.
3. Never tow another car using panty hose and duct tape.
4. When sending your wife down the road with a petrol can, it's impolite to ask her to bring back beer, too.

Don't you wish there were a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence? There's one marked 'Brightness,' but it doesn't work. Gallagher Havoc in the Heavens: Soviet-Era Satellite's Leaky Reactor's Lethal Legacy Old Soviet nuclear powered satellites leaked a trail of menacing radioactive droplets that have become a debris threat to other spacecraft. This is nuts Strike that out, Sam This is not an exciting story: I happened to be browsing aimlessly through case studies and other publications released by Microsoft as a part of their "Get the facts" initiative. At one point, I stumbled upon a Word file I wanted to read - and as soon as I ran it through wvWare, I noticed there is a good deal of amusing change tracking information still recorded within the document. Gene Study Suggests Early Humans Traded Mighty Bite for Bigger Brains Of all the features that distinguish us humans from other primates, the size of our brains is arguably the most profound. At 1,350 cubic centimeters on average, the human brain is three times larger than would be expected for a nonhuman primate of our body weight. But humankind hasn't always been so cerebral. Rare South Atlantic Hurricane During its daytime overpass of the southeast coast of Brazil on March 26, 2004, the Terra satellite captured this surprising sight: a tropical cyclone. The South Atlantic is generally not thought of by meteorologists as a place where tropical cyclones can form. (C) Shouting Red Goanna Inc. A wholly subsidiary of Screaming Blue Wombat Inc. / Avenging Green Seahorse Industries

A new name for the Nerd News is being searched for. As this is a set of Nerd related links and not necessarily links to news articles a new name is appropriate. Post a comment to this blog post with any suggestions. Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped. Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915) Microsoft FUD about OpenOffice Mars Mystery: Strange Spirals in Ice Caps Explained Odd spiraling gorges etched deep into the polar ice caps of Mars have stumped scientists for decades. The huge arcing troughs radiate outward like arms of a pinwheel, creating an overall shape that visually and mathematically resembles hurricanes, spiral galaxies and even some seashells This shaded-relief image of the ice cap at the north of Mars shows the extent of the broad spiral patterns. The straight lines crisscrossing the center are artifacts of the data collection. Intel drops clock speed names INTEL has announced a new numbering system for its Pentium and Celeron microprocessors designed to highlight features beyond speed. NASA jets smashes speed mark NASA's experimental pilotless plane today broke the world speed record for an atmospheric engine. Missile shield promises research payoff PARTICIPATION in the US missile defence shield could boost Australia's defence technology research and development, senior Defence Department officials have told a Senate committee. All-Time Best of the....WORST COUNTRY SONG TITLES! (C) Shouting Red Goanna Inc. A wholly subsidiary of Screaming Blue Wombat Inc. / Avenging Green Seahorse Industries

Finally A Slashdot Poll Wilh Meaing

Moofie

I think this movie looks rather interesting...

Hrmmm

I love it when Cricinfo get's all descriptive...

Guitar Solo

Rolling through some tunes tonight, I decided to fire up my copy of Alchemy by Dire Straits. It's a live album - so guess what - you're gunna get some long-arse guitar solos from Mark Knopfler. Get this - the studio version of Tunnel of Love off Making Movies gets in at an impressive 08 minutes 11 seconds. Not too shabby especially compared to todays pre-digested sub-three minutes disposable pop music. Compare that however, to the version on Alchemy. It clocks in at an even better 14 minutes 22 seconds. Guess who's fingers went a wandering....

Still - if you're going to be a little bit indulgent when it comes to the guitar wanderings, you can't get much better than Mr Knopfler.

Paging Grant-RantTM #1,392 about Joe Satriani or some such-like :)

[Listening to: So Far Away - Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing - The Very Best of Dire Straits (4:03)]

And for the completely twisted.

heh

Desktop Challenge

The challenge for this week - post a picture of your current desktop -either work or home will do. Heck, this is something even the folks in China could do...

From rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

Y'know, if there's anything more annoying than having to sit on good news, I
can't think of what it might be. (Well, okay, being staked to an ant hill at
high noon is a pretty obvious one, but you get the idea.)

The only things I can say right now about B5:TMoS is that now that all the
correct agreements have been signed, sealed and delivered, the draft has gone
in, met with great enthusiasm all around, notes have been received, and the
next draft is in process and has to be delievered within two weeks so that
certain other steps can be set into motion.

I still can't tell you what it *is* because that has to come from the proper
people through the proper channels at the proper time...but I can tell you a
few cases of what it *isn't*...it isn't a novel, or a short story, a comic, an
animated series, a radio drama or a stage play. Beyond that, deponent sayeth
not.

Except to say that it's pretty cool.

JMS

What people do with their spare time...

It Ain't Necessarily So. [Army Spec Ops letter from Iraq]

In space, no one can hear you get pitied...

Yawn

That is all.

Channel 4 Advert - not work safe - but bloody funny.

Geek.com Geek News - 256 MB of CF hot out of the oven

Angry White Boy Polka - The Flash Archive

heh

[Listening to: Im Not Cryin For You - Save Ferris - Modified (4:03)]

When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of putting it into practice. --Otto von Bismarck Another Planet X Found On The Outer Rim Of Sol NASA-funded researchers have discovered the most distant object orbiting Earth's Sun. The object is a mysterious planet-like body three times farther from Earth than Pluto. Size comparision of Sedna to Earth, Moon, Pluto and Quaoar. The Big Bounce Here I was: 26 years old, I had never worked on a flight project before, and all eyes were on me. Every time I walked by the Pathfinder project office, Tony Spear, the project manager, would throw his arm around me and announce, "Hey everybody, the whole mission is riding on this guy right here." Scientists Confirm Phenomenon Of Falling Beer Bubbles A new experiment by chemists from Stanford University and the University of Edinburgh has finally proven what beer lovers have long suspected: When beer is poured into a glass, the bubbles sometimes go down instead of up. Open Source Opens New Doors When software and technology are finally open to the public, everyone will win. Plan to melt through Europa's ice Researchers are testing technology that could allow a lander to melt through the ice crust of Jupiter's moon Europa to reach the water ocean beneath. You have all seen the movies where a depth charge is dropped off the back of a ship and detonates several seconds later throwing large plumes of water into the air, well here is a photo of an actual depth charge explosion in World War II: This is the USS Yotktown in San Diego in 1940....rather cool: (C) Shouting Red Goanna Inc. A wholly subsidiary of Screaming Blue Wombat Inc. / Avenging Green Seahorse Industries

Pet Peeves

You're standing in a lift waiting for it to get to a level. It arrives, the doors open and your exit is blocked by some twit standing right in the doorway with a startled look on their face. That's right dickhead - if you want to get into the lift, you're going to have to let the people in there out first.

Gentlemen. Now we can begin our Quest for Global Domination:

With our own Underground Missile Silo Complex!

And People Wonder Why ATSIC is Bloody Useless

So ATSIC have decided to give Geoff Clark $85,000 in order to challenge in court his suspension from his job as head of ATSIC. Now it's not like Clark is some poor destitute battler scraping together a living. This job, which he wants to get back, pays him $240,000 per year. And he's been suspended from this job, on full pay since August last year . From this report.

However, a spokesman for Attorney-General Philip Ruddock questioned whether Mr Clark's case fitted such guidelines. "To be indemnified for activities that fall outside your official role would appear to be highly unusual," he said"There are lots of cases where people are indemnified for decisions they make in the course of their jobs, but certainly not for extracurricular activities."

Unless the ATSIC board have now decided that getting involved in pub brawls is part of your job as ATSIC chairman...

Breasts

There is a line of thinking (among men at least) that there's no such thing as too big. But sometimes, there's some people who takes things to the level of the ridiculous. Witness...

There's a handful, there's more than a handful, and there's requiring major hydraulic engineering and structural support. Admittedly, it would be funny watching her try to get through revolving doors, such as those at the Riverside Centre...

Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and, instead of bleeding, he sings. --Ed Gardner General Micro Systems Announces Industry's Smallest Single-Board Computer General Micro Systems, a leading supplier of VMEbus and CompactPCI board-level products and systems, today announced the Spider, the world's smallest single-board computer (SBC). Occupying 30% less space than a credit card, and consuming as little as 4W of power, the Spider's tiny footprint, standalone operation and hot swappability makes it ideal for a broad range of embedded applications, from distributed control systems and scalable telecom blade servers, to handheld computing, in-flight entertainment and defense/homeland security. The question, though, is: Can I Quake and Bake with it? STORServer Unveils the World's Largest Capacity Backup Appliances STORServer, Inc. -- manufacturer of the all-in-one enterprise Backup Appliance -- announced today that it is shipping its latest line of backup recovery solutions. The new K-Series models utilize the latest in tape technology from Qualstar to provide the largest capacity backup appliances in the world. What Differentiates Linux from Windows? Microsoft reacts to marketing pressure to make design decisions favoring running a few processes faster but then finds itself forced first to layer in backward compatibility and then to engage in a patch-and-kludge upgrade process until the code becomes so bloated, slow and unreliable that wholesale replacement is again called for. New Evidence Suggests Early Oceans Bereft Of Oxygen For Eons As two rovers scour Mars for signs of water and the precursors of life, geochemists have uncovered evidence that Earth's ancient oceans were much different from today's. Enigma Of Uranus Solved At Last Uranus has puzzled scientists ever since the probe Voyager 2 did a flyby in 1986 and found that its magnetic field appeared to break the planetary rulebook. Hubble images Uranus with several rings and two moons in view Space Station Research Yields New Information About Bone Loss A new NASA-funded study revealed how bone loss increases the risk of injuries, highlighting the need for additional measures to ensure the health of spacecraft crews.The study provides new information about bone loss caused by prolonged spaceflight. The study is in the online version of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. (C) Shouting Red Goanna Inc. A wholly subsidiary of Screaming Blue Wombat Inc. / Avenging Green Seahorse Industries

CeBIT to premiere USB Swiss Army Knife - I want one.

And on the Fourth day...
Air Conditioning has been restored!

My First Three Days.

Monday:
* The air conditioning is broken. Three of the four chiller units have died
* The windows are open as the outside temperature was cooler.

Tuesday:
* 40 Small Desk Fans were purchased for the employees. This has only pushed hot air around.
* The windows are open as the outside temperature is a good 5 degrees cooler.
* All office PC's were shutdown overnight in an attempt to drop the temp overnight
* Casual Dress was declared for Wednesday

Wednesday:
* The attempt to cool the office failed ad the fourth chiller uiit had to be shutdown (I am not too sure why but I heard something about "red hot")
* 16 Portable Air Conditioners were hired (each one weighing a couple hundred kilos)
* Large 'industrial' fans have been deployed.
* So much power is being drained that the circuit breakers are shutting off roughly every hour.
* The portable air conditioners and fans are doing nothing. The windows are open.
* One guy is walking around in what appears to be boxer shorts and a t-shirt. Another is not currently wearing a t-shirt or any shirt.
* I walk outside at 5:00 pm, the air is blissfully cool.

Thursday?
Well, we will see. I am pretty sure that the Air Conditioning will not be fixed by Thursday.

Funny Books

When it comes to comic books, they don't get much sillier than The Punisher Meets Archie

And yes, it is about as stupid as it looks.

PLANETSIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! is HERE

Freudian Slip?

[Listening to: The God That Failed - Metallica - Metallica (Black Album) (5:08)]

A Brief History of the Penguin Game

Wet

We had a little bit of rain on Friday - so naturally my cricket match was cancelled. I then decided to head over to Kianawah Park on the southside to finish my Umpiring assessment.

Now the Kianawah Park pitches are artificial grass, so a little bit of rain shouldn't stop you from playing. However, it doesn't matter what your pitch is made of if the rest of the field is underwater...

NUS = Wanker

Is it wrong to want a poster that the NUS put out?

The Moring After
Today I awoke, unemployed, until Monday at least.

Yesterday most of the company went to a farewell lunch at the Muddy Farmer for 3 hours which I enjoyed immensely.

It is a strange feeling leaving a place where you have put in 2 and a half years of work and get along well with the people you work with.

At the pub I recieved my farewell gifts from the other staff members:

   * 5 Cigars (All are Cuban tobacco)
      - Romeo y Julieta (Dominican Republic)
      - Punch (Honduras, handmade)
      - H. Upmann (Dominican Republic, handmade)
      - Bolivar (Dominican Republic, handmade)
      - La Flor De Cano (unsure, handmade)
   * A Brush Chrome Zippo (including fuel and flints)
   * Cigar guillotine (double blade)
   * Iron Maiden, Visions of the Beast DVD
   * The Usual Suspects DVD
   * Babylon 5 Season 2 Box Set

And just for reference that Tatiana Rum Flavored Cigar is handmade in the Dominican Republic.
The wrapper is from Ecuador, the binder from Honduras and the is filler Dominican / Brazilian.

PLANETSIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! is coming