The Barnkickers – One Less Tear

Carrying on from yesterday’s Baby notification, my friends Nate and Leah have added to their family today. Casey (I think that’s spelled right) has joined his brother Lachlan in the family.

Basic stats:
0456 hrs
4.1kg

Congrats again guys! Sleaze, you’re up next to have a kid bud

Pendulum – 9000 Miles

Today was a pretty good day at work, with a lot of smaller jobs out of the way and a whole new feel around the office.

I got home to find out that my counter-culture superhero, George Carlin, had died at the age of 71.

Well, that sucks. He was one of my favourite comedians: I have an extensive library of his work, and I was hoping to see him perform on stage before he passed, but alas, it looks like that’s not going to happen now. Yes, I would have even put up with America’s airport security to see George Carlin at work.

George, if I may call you George, sir, this whiskey’s for you.

I was a little saddened to read this morning that Anita Roddick has passed away. Now if you don’t know who she is, you will soon. If you do know who she is, you’ll know her as the creator of The Body Shop (note: the website doesn’t seem to have mentioned her yet, though the company is run out of the UK/France, which is still a few hours away from its early morning news folk getting into gear), I on the other hand know Anita Roddick for this interview she did in 2000 for the 1GiantLeap collaboration:

After that interview I immediately respected Anita and her work – that she could build a business empire while staying as moral and humane as possible is a display of anti-establishment leadership rivalled by few.

A guy who used to work for my employer’s friend’s brother’s cousin or something has put together a site that conglomerates feeds from the key geek sites, and you can see it here:

http://news.prettymad.net/index.php?a=mingled

It’d be cool if they added Fark for a laugh, but apart from that it’s great. As always, for NZ tech blogs, check out Planet NZTech which you can see linked in my blogroll.

Stuff is running a Blog Idol competition and some friends have suggested that I give it a shot, albeit as a thinly veiled ruse to distract me from lecturing them via email of my opinion on matters. Regardless, the entrance requirement of 100 words is a big challenge.

The last couple of days I’ve been practicing trying to cram an opinion into 100 words, and while possible, it is after a lot of refinement where flesh is removed, and taking with it the punch required to qualify as good writing. So either you make a not quite as punchy as, say, a 120-word entry, or you say something boring and obvious like

George Bush looks like a chimpanzee and is just as smart, hurr.

With 120 words, I’d be fine, but 100 words is difficult to adequately articulate in. Plus, as is obvious, I already have a blog. And they seem to already have all of the bases covered in their existing blogroll. So if I entered, and if I won, what would I do? I’d probably be an everyman, the average joe, the Peter Griffin “Grinds my Gears” segment.

Plus I need a topic.

I just received this (parts irrelevant to this blog or Telecom sensitive removed) :

Today Iâ??m announcing that Iâ??ll be leaving Telecom at the end of the financial year on 30 June.

Iâ??ve always said that an ideal term for a CEO is 5-7 years â?? and itâ??s almost exactly 7 years since I was appointed â?? so Iâ??m following my own advice.

Making the decision to leave has been one of the hardest things Iâ??ve ever done, but I know that the timing is right for our company, and right for me personally.

And in the last 7 years, as much as critics would hate to admit it, Ms Gattung has done a very good job at the helm of Telecom NZ. She’s cut operational costs and increased profits, she’s kept the shareholders very happy and she’s spearheaded expansion into IT, the internal restructuring of Telecom, and finally she has done her best to get Telecom prepared for the eventual split.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not a Gattung fanboy, but I’m a realist. She was at the top, she was overpaid for what she did (money that could have been invested back to the network), but in her defence – all of the evil things Telecom apparently did started in the early 90′s, she didn’t instigate them, she just furthered them, so some of the blame she’s had to shoulder has been unfair. And a lot of the heckling she got was due to the typical NZ’rs tall poppy syndrome. It’s tough being at the top in NZ.

Good job Ms Gattung, may your replacement give Telecom a lean, mean, competitive and innovative course.

I was recently sent a link to the new Copyright bill that seeks to impliment some DMCA style nonsense, initially I was intruiged, then I was infuriated.

Fortunately, Russell Brown has come through in good form and already covered the major bits and pieces:

http://publicaddress.net/default,3778.sm

It’s time to pen an informed letter to your representatives folks

Read the bill here
Read what the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has to say about the DMCA, especially the unintended consequences, IP and Fair Use and DRM

Remember folks, a coherent and educated letter will be taken more seriously than “OMG DONT DEW THIS BECAUSE DMCAS IS BADS!”

Finally, I don’t give much credence to Online Petitions, but you can sign one here. If it’s printed out and delivered, it might make a difference

Well, finally we’re catching up to what Beyond 2000 was promising back in the 80′s and what the Jetsons and Star Trek and many others were promising decades beforehand

It plugs into an existing broadband connection (I hope that xtra is not a requirement) and allows video telephony. Expected hardware cost is roughtly NZD$750 for one or $1400 for two with a monthly fee of roughly NZD$23

I’m still trying to find out more about the hardware – for what you pay I’d expect it to be able to plug into a TV or something…

Steve Irwin has been killed by a stingray barb through his chest. What a way to go – doing what you love, which for him was the pursuit of sharing knowledge of animals with the world. I’ll tip a pint for you Steve, for the endless hours of infotainment you gave us kiwis

Update: OH FFS! Monopolising on his death, that’s pathetic

Work has, once again, interrupted my project. So I have a little time to post something.

Massey university stopped their blood/alcohol experiments* long enough to do some research, and the results are sobering. My sites are hosted internationally and this being a blog, there’s little I have to hide. Plus I don’t upload sensitive information as a rule, so I’m at low risk. Those of you who do have reason to worry, probably should worry, and you should probably double check your security. Pick up a copy of this book and test your own site, it’s about the most comprehensive collection of Google Hacking tips I’ve seen.

* Hey, their campus has a road called Rehab Drive, and their students live by the mantra “drink on every day except Monday”