Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx Bin Laden Top for U.S. Pay-Per-View Execution? Twenty percent of Americans would watch pay-per-view of Osama bin Laden being executed. Eleven percent would watch Saddam. Rumors of Vince McMahon planning steel cage match unconfirmed Putin dismisses prime minister Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed his government in a live television broadcast. AMD vs Intel "x86-64" With Intel's recent announcement of the 64-bit extension to their x86 architecture, a discussion began on the lkml comparing Intel's new offering to AMD's existing AMD64 offering. Mydoom.F targets RIAA, Microsoft A NEW version of the Mydoom internet worm is programmed to launch attacks from infected computers on Microsoft as well as the music industry's main US trade association, experts said. DVD Owners: Fight the Power! In yet another stunning display of complete disregard for individual rights, US District Judge Susan Illston has now ruled that DVD X Copy violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This software provides an easy way to back up your DVDs. You just knew this was going to happen eventually, didn't you? No good deed goes unpunished and 321 Studios, the maker of DVD X Copy, is now being punished for providing software that legitimate DVD owners want to buy and use. Mars rover discoveries point to planet's origins NASA scientists are excitedly speculating that discoveries made by a Mars rover over the weekend will help them finally unravel whether water played a role in the red planet's geologic history, a science team member said on Monday. Two mummies pre-dating Incas found in Peru Two of the oldest mummies ever found in Peru -- so well-preserved that one had an eye and internal organs intact -- went on display on Monday after being discovered by construction workers at a schoo Have You Driven a Couch Lately? Ninja's, Bad. Ninja's With Guns, Bad Ass. Ninja Golf, Sad. (C) Shouting Red Goanna Inc. A wholly subsidiary of Screaming Blue Wombat Inc. / Avenging Green Seahorse Industries

"dum dum dum dum dum"

New South Park is still funny stuff.

"Newton was the first to discover that for every action there is a reaction. Thank you Butters. Now what do you think is going to happen when I introduce the gerbil to the endothermic heat of Mr Slave's ass?"

"We don't support that"

Salon.com Technology | "We're not here to help fix your computer. We just want to get you off the phone." A tech-support slave tells his hellish tale.

It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail. -- Gore Vidal I, Cringely: Misinterpretation If .NET is Such a Security Nightmare (It Is), Why Isn't Everybody Fighting to Own the Obvious and Fairly Simple Solution? What did SCO buy--Unix or the Brooklyn Bridge? To the outsider, and even to me for some time, the various lawsuits involving the SCO Group follow a relatively simple story line. I'm not a lawyer, but after many interviews with the involved parties and lawyers, the case boils down to divergent interpretations of the subject matter. Comet chaser set for 12-year mission AN audacious bid to land a spacecraft on a comet takes off this week. Broadband price battle explodes BROADBAND price wars have gone into overdrive since Telstra BigPond's price cuts last week, with OzEmail and Optus the latest to join the battle. Newly Discovered Galaxy Is a Record-Breaker Astronomers have detected a galaxy located 13 billion light-years from Earth, making it the most distant such object on record. The find, described in a paper to be published in the Astrophysical Journal, should help scientists better understand the so-called cosmic Dark Ages, when the universe’s first galaxies and quasars transformed opaque hydrogen into the transparent cosmos that exists today. Hubble eyes new phase of supernova explosion The most dramatic stellar explosion witnessed in centuries just got more interesting. New images from the Hubble Space Telescope show a dying star's "ring of fire" entering a new phase of brightness. (C) Shouting Red Goanna Inc. A wholly subsidiary of Screaming Blue Wombat Inc. / Avenging Green Seahorse Industries

heh

My adventure for today
So I go downstairs. Hit the power button, wait for The Demon to boot.

I get the ASUS PC Probe window displaying that my CPU fan is NOT running. I check the fan.. Indeed ASUS PC Probe is correct.

My Fan-0 No Spin-o.

My CPU temp after about 90 seconds of running was at 66DegC and about 20 seconds later the mainboard alarm started.

After calling no less than 6 places to get a fan, these are the responses
*   Not open
*   'cant help'
*   'no stock'
*   not open
*   'yeah we got some, come have a look'
*   check the website (I wondered how I was supposed to do this without a functioning PC, but I decided that this fuckwit probably had enough crap given to him due to his basic lack of comprehension and therefore probably didn't need another ripping into. That and with his intellect he would probably be plugging his tongue into a live power socket soon after the conversation ended.)

I decided that the 5th option was the best bet. So $38 later I have an 80x80 fan that is keeping things nice-and-where-it-should-be, with 3 blue LED's (what is it with LED's?)

This is a similar fan.

If only it had happened last night then I would have been able to make my own Pizza instead of waiting 1 hour 21 minutes for it.

And James...Take any Athlon/AMD related comment and blow it out your arse.

Why I love the Internet

Today in Brisbane was hot. Stupidly hot. I was curious as to exactly what temperature 'stupidly hot' equated to, so I went hunting around here to find out. After some digging, I found the info I wanted.

At the time, I didn't go down to the bottom of that data page, so I didn't see the map of where the temperature stations were located. Instead, I went to a different part of the BOM site where you can get the lat/long of all measuring stations. So, I had myself some map coordinates for the Brisbane measuring station, but I still didn't know where it really was. So I do a Google search for 'online atlas'.

One of the links that came back was for National Geographic's Map Machine. This is one seriously cool toy. Type in a place name, and it will bring it up in the map window (it may give you a list to choose from first if you weren't specific enough). Once you have that, you get it to show you other, related maps (e.g. if you search for Brisbane, one of the options on Related Atlas Maps will be 'Brisbane, Australia'. Selecting that will change the main map view to one of Brisbane and its surrounds, showing roads and suburbs and the like).

Then there are other toys like viewing time zones, or population density, or elevation information. . . missing that map on the BOM page seems to have been a rather fortuitous mistake!

(P.S. Anyone else having troubles with w.Bloggar at the moment?)

American Politician Uses Kung-Fu!

Check out Donald Rumsfeld demonstrating his style's superiority.

How opinion differ.

I just watched a movie called "Vampire Hunters" produced by Tsui Hark. I thought it was great. and would strongly recomend it to people who like HK action (Josh and Lance this means you). Personaly I think its about the best vampire movie I've seen (Though chinese vampires are somewhat different than eropean ideas, and are much less friendly. Powerwise they make Buffy style vamp look like todlers, and Dracula look like a pansy, of course they also make Nosferatu look like a supermodel). So 1700's China with swords and Spears and Weighted chains verses Super Vamps and zombies.
Meanwhile this is the only review on IMDB:


"This is THE worst movie I have EVER seen! It is SOOOOO bad I felt compelled to write this message: DON'T EVER SEE THIS FILM! IT IS SO DREADFUL YOU FEEL STUPID FOR HAVING WATCHED IT! PLEASE DO NOT SEE THIS FILM

Seriously, the most pointless piece of crap I have ever seen, the story didn't make much sense, the effects were D-grade, they were that bad and the fighting has nothing on a B-grade Hong Kong action flick. Absolutely terrible. "


Some people Have no taste, I think his judments must stem from expecting The One (the Jet Li film) meets Buffy or something of the like.

Best Episode EVAR!!!

Mighty Titan 4 Lights Up Cape Canaveral

Click for more info

Those Musician's Lied To Us!!!

Polaroid warns buyers not to 'shake it'

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- OutKast fans like to "shake it like a Polaroid picture," but the instant camera maker is warning consumers that taking the advice of the hip-hop stars could ruin your snapshots.

Silly Internet

Okay, I'm doing a search for some cover art for a pretty stupid EP - The Dawn of Battle by ManoWar - cheesy 80's metal. I search using the title of the EP. This is the first cover I find.

The second cover the search comes up with is somewhat different...

Sometimes I wonder how those search algorithms really work...

RX J1242-11: Giant Black Hole Rips Star Apart

Full article here


Click for larger image

MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL On Broadway? As A Musical?!

It's Amazing The Useless Things People Get Worked Up Over on Usenet...

C'Pi wrote:
> Josh Nolan wrote:
>
>>C'Pi wrote:
>>
>>>Josh Nolan wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>C'Pi wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>>Unless, as above, it took Farmboy out, in which case it would have
>>>>>>been senseless.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Remember, Wedge and Biggs were staying far enough in back of
>>>>>Farmboy in order to cover him. There was no chance an exploding
>>>>>Tie could have taken him out. If that was the case then Han was
>>>>>putting him in danger when he destroyed the Ties.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Yet, because Wedge's stabiliser made him a threat to the others in
>>>>the trench, then it would appear there was a definite chance the
>>>>debris from exploding fighters could hit Farmboy. Maybe Han *was*
>>>>putting Luke in danger when he vaped 'em, but not nearly as much
>>>>danger as if he sat back and let them shoot.
>>>
>>>
>>>You're making all this up. Wedge's complaint was that he could no
>>>longer keep up with Luke, not that he couldn't control his ship.
>>>
>>
>>His stabiliser was hit, yes? Now what do you suppose stabilisers do?
>
>
> Who says his stabilizers were hit? Not the movie. Not the novelization.
>
> Wedge: "I'm hit! I can't stay with you." Nothing about stabilizers.
>
It's a bit clearer in the X-Wing books when Wedge is having a guilt
attack about having to leave the trench. If you don't accept the X-Wing
books, then what are you doing here?

> Unless you are confusing Wedge with Farmboy who complained to R2 about a
> stabilizer that had broken loose.

Possible, though if I had the books in front of me I could track down
the quote.
>
>
>>>>Besides, the lead TIE was shielded, right? So if Wedge had rammed
>>>>his unshielded butt into Vader, it might have hurt the fighter but
>>>>wouldn't have destroyed it, thus being suicide, not a sacrifice.
>>>
>>>
>>>Nonsense. You think shields would have protected Vader's Tie from a
>>>X-Wing hurtling into his ship?
>>>
>>
>>Well spotted, given that that's what shields do. Would Vader's TIE
>>have made it out without damage? Hell, no. Would it have made it
>>out? Hell, yes.
>
>
> Shields are designed to deflect or absorb laser energy, not huge pieces of
> metal hurtling at thousands of miles per hour. Or is it your hypothesis
> that a ship crashing into the Death Star with shields on would bounce off?
>
Here's a tip. Read what people actually write, not what you would like
them to write. I'm sick of repeating myself. And no, shields are not
purely against laser energy. The DS's exhaust port had ray shielding
only, hence the necessity to use torpedoes, but starfighters have more
rounded protection.

>
>>Anything else?
>
>
> Could you start making sense and dealing with reality?
>
On a Star Wars newsgroup? Debating shields and spaceships that zoom and
swoosh like aircraft? What leve of 'reality' are you talking here?

And I make a lot more sense when you actually read what I say.

Josh.

I, Cringely: Crazy After All These Years Does the Key to Microsoft's Plan for Global Media Domination Involve Driving Judges Insane? GO NASA! Space station crew spots bits of debris Parts appear to pose no threat, but spark concern Google Achieves Search Milestone with Immediate Access to More Than 6 Billion Items Google Inc. today announced it expanded the breadth of its web index to more than 6 billion items. This innovation represents a milestone for Internet users, enabling quick and easy access to the world's largest collection of online information Rover goes for longest trip yet on Mars The Spirit rover went for its longest trip yet on the surface of Mars, traveling just over 88 feet (26.4 meters) but stopping short of the distance NASA had hoped it would cover, scientists said Monday. . Bomb hoaxer calls from own phone POLICE did not take long to track down a man who had made a bomb hoax call -- he had used his own mobile. Govt hands out toilet porn A HONG Kong family got more than they bargained for when they switched on what was supposed to be a government DVD on oral hygiene but turned out to be a porn film, reports said. Experts: Ocean studies will move to other planets The skills and technology used to explore the extreme depths of the Earth's oceans will soon find work in outer space. Scientists are making plans to probe the icy seas of Jupiter's moons and drop a lander to the bizarre gasoline-like lakes of Titan, a moon of Saturn Russia to build new spacecraft Go Russia. If anyone can build a good space vehicle it is Russia. I would like to see them becoming more of a major player in the Space Insdustry Rssian engineers have begun design work on a new spacecraft that would be twice as big and spacious as the existing Soyuz crew capsules, the nation's top space official said Tuesday. . (C) Shouting Red Goanna Inc. A wholly subsidiary of Screaming Blue Wombat Inc. / Avenging Green Seahorse Industries

"We built a whole stage out of PAs at this festival in London, 117 000 watts. In fact, a guy called up from four miles away while we were soundchecking and said he couldn't hear his TV—four miles away! I ain't deaf. I've just always liked it loud—you know, the live sound. I think there is something wrong with you if you like quiet rock and roll."
— MOTORHEAD’s Lemmy Kilmeister

Joss Whedon’s Reaction About Angel’s Cancellation

Roads

Why do bloody town planners have to ruin perfectly straight roads by putting in bloody traffic lights. If anyone's driven along Webster Road lately, they'll see the bastards have installed yet another set of bloody traffic lights on it And of course they've stuck them right in the middle of one of the straight, flat sections. It's becoming just as bad as fricking Gympie Road, where you don't even have time to get out of first gear before you've to to stop for yet another red bloody light. Bastards......

Cogitating Garbage Brain

A comment made at, I think, our most recent gaming day (which was probably in the 19th century) has been circulating around in my brain. It had to do with the unfeasibility of BattleMechs a la Battletech.

Now, while I'll agree that in Battletech, 'Mechs are the kings of the battlefield, I still hold them to be impractical from more of a real-world point of view. This is because in Battletech, many of the design problems of mecha in general are conveniently ignored (much like human-controlled fighters in Star Wars, or the lack of engineering review in Star Trek - it's a genre convention). These are things like the vulnerability of complex drivetrains like legs; the balance issues inherent in firing massive autocannons from the arms of 'Mechs; the idea of being a big fat target on the battlefield; and others.

I finally hit on the main reason 'Mechs are practical in Battletech - their armour is way stronger than anything on modern Earth. This is true even of tanks and suchlike - on earth, a single SRM shot from an infantry soldier can destroy a top-of-the-line tank (albeit only if shot at the rear armour), and tanks have a fair chance of penetrating the other's front armour in a single shot.

In Battletech, it will often take several SRM hits, even on the back of a tank, to destroy it. Of course, BT still assumes 'Mechs can carry vastly more armour than anything else on the field, but at least it explains how their legs aren't especially more vulnerable than their other bits. It still doesn't completely explain why the complexity required to build 'Mechs isn't applied more effectively to tanks, but it's a start.

A real-world mecha would be more expensive than a tank and less useful than a soldier. It would be slower and less protected than a tank, as well as not being able to mount as large weapons (the speed is a function of having big, heavy legs to support it - takes a lot of power to move - while the others come from needing to cut the weight so it can still move on those legs). It wouldn't be able to get everywhere infantry could (though it might arguably have greater range than a tank - maybe). It would also be hellishly more expensive to maintain, as a walking drivetrain has a lot more points of failure than a wheeled or tracked one. Further, you won't be able to armour the joints. (Imagine a straight leg, and surround the knee with a steel plate. Now, try to bend it.) 'Mechs look cool, but need super-tech to be at all feasible, and if you have super-tech, you can make better tanks with it.

Is this any clearer now, Grant? :)

The results of another rigged test:





Find your Role-Playing
Stereotype at mutedfaith.com.

Big Shock






Find your Role-Playing
Stereotype at mutedfaith.com.

Find your Role-Playing
Stereotype at mutedfaith.com.

Find your Role-Playing
Stereotype at mutedfaith.com.

Why Have Jails if You Don't Use Them?

I'm sure anybody who's watched any kind of news in the past week would have seen the footage of the feral creature who stole the purse of a poor bloody 92 year old woman shopping at Chermside last week. The scum-bag has handed herself into the police. Now get this.

At the time of the robbery, she was serving a suspended sentence for a second crime, was on probation for a third, and on bail for a fourth.

That's right - this parasite has a history of doing this kind of thing. And the response of our weak-arsed judiciary in Queensland - let the creep out again, and again, and again. If you're not going to do anything about these creatures, why arrest them in the first place? Such habitual offenders are never going to learn from their mistakes. They'll simply continue to abuse society and innocent people around them, so long as they continue to escape any of punishment whatsoever. Screw rehabilitating these parasite. How about protecting the rest of society from this type of scum instead? Or isn't that acceptable to the pro-PC, wishy-washy, bleedling heart, left-wing socialist wankers running Queelsand's government?

Am I A PDA Junkie?

My original Palm Pilot Pro

My Palm Vx

My Zire 71

And my Tungsten T3

And yes - they all still work. Some people smoke. Some people play the pokies. I seem to buy PDA's. And I actually use them.

>> Gorgoroth: the new Gwar <<

Norwegians being a bit icky again

Norwegan Black Metal band Gorgoroth have an
even more vile stage show than this year's Pop
Idol cretins.

Gorgoroth have just been charged with Religious
Defilement after their recent Polish concert,
which took place in the birthplace of Pope
John Paul II, Krakow.

The show uses 100 litres of blood, seven
impaled sheep heads, sheep entrails through
around the musicians and hooded naked women
on crucifixes.

"We were not repulsed. We were terrified",
said cameramen who were filming the event.

Photos:
http://www.teppah.prv.pl/

Americans have different ways of saying things. They say 'elevator', we say 'lift'...they say 'President', we say 'stupid psychopathic git'.... -- Alexi Sayle German city reveals Linux migration tactics The city of Schwäbisch Hall used toy penguins and gender competitiveness to persuade workers to accept the switch to desktop Linux The amazing Linux Duracell CPU load monitor Turning an AA on-battery tester into a CPU load monitor for Linux (C) Shouting Red Goanna Inc. A wholly subsidiary of Screaming Blue Wombat Inc. / Avenging Green Seahorse Industries

Bejeweled
This is an online version fro all of us without a Palm T3

I Want One

The ZF1! It's light, handles adjustable for easy
carrying. Good for both righties and lefties. Breaks down into
four parts, undetectable by x-ray. Ideal for quick, discreet
interventions. A word on firepower. Titanium recharger. 3,000
round clip with bursts of 3 to 300. With a replay button, another
Zorg invention, its even easier. One shot, and replay
sends every following shot to the same location. And to finish the
job, all Zorg oldies but goldies. Rocket launcher. Arrow
launcher with explosive poisonous gas heads. Our famous net
launcher. The always efficient flame thrower. My favorite.
And for the grand finale, the all new ice cube system.

I'm Back

Yup it took fricken 12 days but they finaly fixed my cable, once again I have the net, cable TV, and a PHONE. I tell ya, it's the simple things you miss.

One last word on the matter.

TWELVE FUCKING DAYS, I THINK I COULD HAVE LEARNT TO FIX IT MYSELF IN LESS TIME.

Don't Mess With The Panda's

Virtual Rover, Virtual Rock

The wonders of computer technology. Check out this animation NASA put together with a rover taking a rock sample. Almost frighteningly realistic.

The World Turns...

Now, I'm not about to mention any names here, as I've got privacy considerations, among others, to worry about. So I'll dub the person I'm going to talk about 'Brenda'. Mainly because the person is male.

A few years ago now, back when I was still working at the servo, I got held up by a guy holding a syringe. I later found he was called Brenda when the detective came around for me to sign my statement. Apparently, he'd been quite blase about the whole thing, was Hep C positive, and would have happily stabbed me if I hadn't turned over the money. In other words, a real charmer.

So, I get a call from a guy today, saying that he just rang a friend of his and found out a guy named Brenda, an escapee from a halfway house, was over at the friend's house. I run a check, and, sure enough, a Brenda who pretty much matches the description of the Brenda that held me up got away from a halfway house some time in the last few days. Even down to the Hep C and the armed robbery charge.

I don't know what became of the attempt to recapture Brenda, unfortunately, as that was going to be handled by another area - but this is the second time a call I've made will lead to him being put in jail. Life's weird, innit?

The Spice of Life

JP Brown's Serious LEGO - CubeSolver

Fuck You Queensland

If you're stupid enough to believe that Peter "Grinning Idiot" Beattie can fix in three years what he's been unable to do in six, then you deserve the Government Queensland's going to continue getting - an absolute shambles. Not only that - but we're going to be paying off this idiot government's debts for years to come. How is it going to fund all of it's idiotic promises which it made to buy this election? By whipping out the Government Bankcard and borrowing on it. That's right - the Beattie government will be borrowing money to pay for projects which give no financial return whatsoever. You can only raid GOC's for dividends for so long before they go belly-up - just witness all the fun people have had over the past two weeks trying to get power reconnected after the storms we had. Why did so many houses loose power for so long? Because the GOC energy suppliers no longer have the money necessary to employ enough maintenance crews to do the proper maintenance work necessary - such as trimming overhanging trees and repairing decaying power poles, let along being able to repair the damage the storms inflicted on the grid itself. This government is so short-sighted that this kind of behaviour will become the norm, not just the exception.

Am I pissed off? You betcha. Thousands of idiots throughout this state have fallen for moon-face's humble act. Hey Pete - if you and your "Team" hadn't screwed so many things up in the first place - you wouldn't have to be apologizing for your stuff-ups.

I guess the people - the stupid people - have spoken. Remember all the consultation that occurred in regards to the announced Tugan by-pass. That's right - there wasn't any. Expect more of this arrogance and arbitrary decision-making. After all - you've just rewarded Peter Beattie for his arrogance and incompetence.

Election Day

Am sitting at an election booth in the lovely hot sun, handing out how-to-vote cards. What fun. The things I do because of my willingness to support my political beliefs.

Adam says nothing..... exept that it sucks having no phone or net access at home.

Isn't email great for useless facts.

These i received today

Many years ago, in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden"....and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.

The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than for the US Treasury.

Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.

Coca-Cola was originally green.

It is impossible to lick your elbow.

The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska

The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%

The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%

The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400

The average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.

The youngest pope was 11 years old.

The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:
Spades - King David; Hearts - Charlemagne; Clubs - Alexander, the Great; Diamonds - Julius Caesar

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?
A. Their birthplace

Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested?
A. Obsession

Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter "A"?
A. One thousand

Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?
A. All invented by women.

Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. Honey

Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the year?
A. Father's Day

In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes.
When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on.
Hence the phrase "goodnight, sleep tight."

It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month...which we know today as the honeymoon.

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts.. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down. It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's"

Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.

AND FINALLY

At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow.

Teshting

Just a test blog from my T3 to see if this prog works.

To James:

You bastard! Now I want a Tungsten T3!

Note: these are currently available from Calculator King for $599 on Special

The day I dialed 000

My phone rang, it was one of the guys from the Support debarment. "Come to the window NOW."

I immediately hang up and proceed to 'the window'. Looking through this average pane of glass I see a rather busy main road and a Complete-Fucking-Moron (the name was changed to protect the stupid) walking out into the moving traffic with his arms out and occasionally beating his chest. It was as if Complete-Fucking-Moron was daring the cars to run him down.

After staring in disbelief for an unknown period of time (I say unknown because watching Complete-Fucking-Moron took away the speech and time recognition parts of my brain temporarily) I said that Support Guy should call 000 as he was closest to a phone, he didn't, probably because he wasn't sure what to say or do. Being that I have called 000 a few times in my life I moved to the phone and dialled.

After relaying a description of Complete-Fucking-Moron to the operator and the location I hung up.

Some few minutes later a Police car arrives and exchanges words to a person Complete-Fucking-Moron talked to. Within about 30 seconds an Officer (now on foot) takes off up the street out of my view, shortly followed by the police car at a large rate of knots.

Now in my opinion Complete-Fucking-Moron was off his head on something-or-other and I could not give half a fuck should he wish to die. However, someone else should not have to live with running him down.

A common sentiment is that the best way to put Complete-Fucking-Moron out of everyone elses misery was to use a 3.03. Agreed.

Working where I do is kind of interesting, we see Drug Raids, undercover prostitutes, people urinating into the laundromat across the road and enough fucked up people to make you want to sit on top of the building with a sniper rifle. Wow, i am glad i don't live in that fucking suburb.

Kenya!

Kenya believe it?

Satirist O'Rourke defends Iraq war, criticizes Bush

foxs_view_of_the_bbc_player.swf

CMC = Clear Me Committee

Mike Reynolds, Anna Bligh, Rob Schwarten, Wendy Edmond, Merri Rose, Gordon Nuttal......

All Ministers in the current B(l)eattie Labor Government. All State members who have had complaints or investigations into their behavior directed towards the CMC. And the results of these investigations?

They were all cleared......

It's no wonder that the Crime and Misconduct Commission should begin to be treated as a joke, when all it appears to do is exist as a rubber stamp to clear Labor Ministers and their sidekicks of any wrong-doing whenever they, or their mates, are caught with their hands in the metaphorical cookie jar.

The CMC, bastard offspring of the Fitzgerald spawned CJC seems to do little these days, except salve Labors (not-so)-guilty conscience and allow them to proclaim all is now well.

A prime example is the supposed investigation into Queensland's Children's Department. This was an organization so poorly run and so bereft of leadership and vision, not to mention competence and conscience, that a typical days work involved leaving foster children with the carers who had infected them with sexually transmitted diseases.

Horrible stuff. But do you know what the CMC concluded from their investigation? No-one was responsible. Neither Minster who was in charge of the Children's Department during the B(l)eattie reign (6 years and counting now), and not the Director-General of the department either. This is despite a little known concept that forms the basis of our government - The Westminster Doctrine of Ministerial Responsibility. Apparently we thankfully have the CMC to explain to us that this doctrine no longer applies to the government, or maybe just Labor governments ...

Another great example of the fine work that the CMC does is that of the (former) Minister for Good Times - Merri Rose - you know, the one who thought it a good thing to cram 11 people into her Ministerial limousine after a State of Origin match - the one who thought it was perfectly acceptable for her son to use her taxpayer-funded car to not only drive as his work vehicle, but to use her Government fuel card to pay for a trip to Sydney to watch a football match.

Despite a constant stream of stories and people coming from her office with tales about her tirades and abusive behavior, the CMC has chosen to clear her every time of any wrongdoing based on these complaints. Of course, she's just been forced to resign from the Ministry, because Q-Cover - a Qld Workplace administrative body - has upheld a complaint from a former staffer of hers that she was bullied by Rose and forced to doctor Ministerial Leave Applications and diaries - and has granted the bullied woman compensation for what she has been subjected to. The CMC's response to this? They chose to reexamine the complaints against Rose , had yet again found no case of official misconduct for her to answer. This is despite another government body finding sufficient cause to award a woman compensation based on Rose's actions.

Did you hear that? That was just the sound of B(l)eattie''s rubber stamp swinging into action yet again.

Of course, the question as to why Rose is no longer fit to be a Minister, but is still fit to be paid almost $100 000/year as a member of Parliament is another thing....

And the latest development from the Clear Me Committee - it's decided to clear Big Mike Reynolds of any wrong-doing in regards to attempting to persuade a Greens candidate standing against Big Mike to run dead in exchange for support to run in a Townsville city council seat. The CMC claims that they couldn't substantiate the claims, but you have to remember that this is more dodginess emanating from the Townsville branch of the ALP. The same branch which had plenty of dodgy stories emanating from there during the Shepardson Inquiry. The same branch from which Karen Erhman emerged. You know that name - the only member of the Labor party to be jailed for electoral fraud, despite the confessions of many other party members, including the then Deputy Premier and a former State Secretary. That she didn't have the protection of one of the big Labor factions didn't have anything to do with it did it.........

Speaking of Shepardson, guess who else Merry Merri's been getting advice from lately. Do the names Lee Birmingham and Warwick Powell ring a bell? They were another of the ALP identities who confessed to electoral fraud at the Shepardson Inquiry, and seemed to escape punishment. They're another of the type - you know - electoral rorters - who Premier Pete declared, while beating his chest, that their type wouldn't be allowed in his ALP - and yet seem to be running around alive and well, playing in the political machinations of this current election.

I guess that such resolve from the admirable man couldn't even last one term... Then again, we should have all known that when we saw one of those self-confessed rorters who was forced to resign his state seat appointed at Deputy Federal Secretary of the Labor Party. There's looking after one's own, and then there's thumbing your own nose at commitments make to the voting public...

Linux for the desktop
Here is an interesting article for all those interested in the Linux / UNIX desktop debate.

This is a commentary article by Jonathan Schwartz (profile link), Executive Vice President, Software Group, Sun Microsystems.

Here is a quote:

First - we're not waiting for 2005 to migrate all of Sun to a non-Microsoft desktop. By the end of this calendar year - potentially by summer - we'll be there. What are we seeing? Dramatic reductions in outages due to viruses, dramatic cost savings, little/no retraining costs for Windows users making the transition, and no problem at all reusing old PC's and laptops to run our desktop, the Java Desktop System. We're ready for enterprise deployment.

Also have a look at a screenshot (click for full shot)


One of the key feature sis tha Java Desktop System includes the premium StarOffice 7 productivity suite at no additional cost. Micro$cum arn't going to do that!

Here is the promotional blurb from Sun:

With the Sun Java Desktop System, Sun has delivered the first viable Microsoft Windows alternative. The Java Desktop System is a more affordable, secure desktop that is designed to thrive in a Windows-centric world. It's also the only environment with fully integrated Java technology, making this "out-of-the-box" desktop ready to run thousands of Java technology-based applications with a consistent look and feel.

The Java Desktop System is a comprehensive, secure, highly-affordable enterprise desktop solution that consists of a fully integrated client environment based on open source components and industry standards, including a GNOME desktop environment, StarOffice Office Productivity Suite, Mozilla browser, Evolution mail and calendar, Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE platform) and a Linux operating system.

All information is available here.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Java, Solaris, Sun Java Desktop, all trademarks and logos that contain Sun, Solaris, or Java, and certain other trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

Ummmm.... Wow.

The wonderful folks at Penny Arcade put up a link to this file. Watch it. It is jaw-dropping. Just a guy, and a microphone...

Good. You know your music. You should be able to
work at Championship Vinyl with Rob, Dick and
Barry


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Good. You know your music. You should be able to
work at Championship Vinyl with Rob, Dick and
Barry


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More Heh

From a post on the V

My favourite thing about Morrowind is that it's got a huge selection of user-mod tools which people can use to add their own content and whatever. They can do whatever they dream up, integrating mad strangeness, functionality and whatever.

The first mod for the game released allowed you to wear Bobba Fett's Armour.

Fucking gamers.

Does This Mean I Get To Be One Of The Uptown 5?

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I need to see what the 'complete loser' result is. :)

Wors of Clancy

From alt.books.tom-clancy:

You know, we've never had a space program. We've spent a lot of money, however,
to create exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution, to shock and awe the people
who pay the bill every April 15th.

A "program" would be a series of thought-out experiments aimed at an
understandable goal that actually led somewhere with the objective of achieving
something of inherent worth. Like building a factory in orbit that could turn
out a useful product that can't be built anywhere else. Or harvesting solar
energy and transmitting down to us flatlanders. But we haven't done that.

We have launched communications satellites (I get my TV off some of them) which
work and turn a profit. Turning a profit is the usual way of determining the
efficiency of anything. (Profit: it gives more back than what it cost to put it
there.) But those birds transmit ideas, which have no mass. (Note, the first
cross-country thing we invented in the US of A was the telegraph, which also
transmitted ideas of no mass. That was Western Union, and it made a profit for
a lot of years.) Then they build a transcontinental railroad, and that is what
opened the West, not the wagon train, desite the TV series we all watched in
the 1950's. But NASA, a government agency which knows neither the profit motive
nor accountability (nice to print the money yourself) does not do this. Nor
does it take responsibility for the things it does wrong. Who lost his job—or
his life—for killing astronauts? Or for not taking the Hubble out of the box
before launch to make sure it worked, at the very facility used by the KH-11
before it goes flying?

And this in a country ruled by lawyers.

That said, going back to the moon is an inherently cool thing to do, IF WE DO
IT RIGHT. Somebody out there, maybe one of you guys, can come up with useful
things to do on the moon that will show a profit eventually.

If NASA were run like a business, it would doubtless work better. It couldn't
be much worse. The much-maligned venture capitalists have more brains, guts,
and productivity than the government ever will.

Instead, as my father told me over 40 years ago, everything the covernment
touches turns to shit. The Space Shuttle is a killing machine that costs too
much money for what it produces. But what can you expect from NASA, which is
that most horrible of institutions, a government-managed monopoly.

Back in 1989, I sat on a panel in the Old Executive Office Building to go over
NASA's plans for the next 20 years. A lot of smart people were there. I sat
next to Edward Teller, which was rather like sitting next to God. But as I
thought at the time, nothing would ever come of it. And nothing did. That's a
long story which I will write up on my autobiography someday, if I ever stretch
my ego that far.

Okay, I invested and lost money in a single-stage-to-orbit spacecraft. It
failed for lack of funding, but I did my part—a million bucks' worth—and I
hope others will do theirs. Somebody will do it someday, and I wish those
people the best of luck. Private enterprise will have to do it.

Until then, NASA will launch its Shuttles, and at least we'll get good
reconsats in orbit. Those are built by Lockheed. And the Shuttle was
specifically designed to launch them. Surprise.

TC
Success will ruin your life.

Umm.. Yeah

Nihilist Bear


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Congratulations! You're Faramir!


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Barry


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This Test Is Broken

Gay Bear


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So I went back, went through it again, changed *one* answer...

Thug Bear


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