November 2008
32 posts
Vodafone Giving Away Laptops →
Vodafone will soon announce it is selling the Mini 9 on a $70 a month plan with a 5GB monthly data allowance and no upfront cost. The laptop includes a built-in 3G modem - a first in the flourishing netbook market that was pioneered by the Asus EEE PC.
$70/month over the term of a two year contract1 comes out at $1,680, meaning you’re paying more than $1000 for two years of 3G...
Target 155 Water Usage Calculator →
Pretty chuffed with the way this project went. As part of the Victorian State Government’s Target 155 campaign, a team of three of us at work put together a water usage calculator for City West Water in four days1. You can launch it from the bottom of this page, or directly from here.
1 Not including the inevitable UI tweaking phase, of course.
3 tags
WatchMove by Q-Tip from his new The Renaissance LP. Can’t shake this song from my head. Like the homage to MJ, too.
P.S. Fuck you, Universal Records. By cutting off legit channels to watch your music videos or listen to your music for users outside of the US, you just piss us off. It’s almost as if you’re daring us to use legally dubious methods to get what we want.
Mad Fold-Ins →
A selection of Mad Fold-Ins, an accompaniment to a profile of Al Jaffee in the New York Times.
2 tags
3 tags
Ben Cousins
Apparently there’s some thirty year old recovering drug addict who used to play footy in Perth. He hasn’t played in a year, has dodgy hamstrings, but he reckons he’s got a good shot in the AFL national draft. Don’t like his chances.
2 tags
John McCain
The thing about John McCain is that, at least before the election, he was the kind of just right of centre politician who had a real shot at winning the election. From A Requiem for a Maverick, published in Rolling Stone1:
While other Republicans were crusading against gay marriage in 2004, McCain bashed a proposed anti-gay-marriage amendment, calling it “antithetical in every way to the...
1 tag
Corporate Doublespeak Bullshit of the Month →
Nokia Siemens Networks has completed the preliminary planning process to identify the proposed remaining headcount reductions necessary to reach its previously announced synergy-related headcount adjustment goal.
3 tags
Cornbread Red by Ween. More love via New Hope.
4 tags
Emma Quayle on Ayce Cordy →
8: Ayce Cordy
(Geelong Falcons, 202cm, 78kg)
I haven’t seen a heap of Ayce — he had a shoulder reconstruction this year — but on what I saw at the end of 2007 and in an AIS game this year, I’m happy to rank him here. He is one of the skinniest people I have ever laid eyes on, but his height — combined with his running ability, make him quite a scary proposition. I don’t...
2 tags
3 tags
I Got No Darkside by Ween, an outtake from their...
2 tags
1 tag
Burn After Reading on Metacritic →
Good to know I’m not the only one who thought this movie was a bit of a turd. For what it’s worth (which is admittedly very little), I’d give this movie two stars.
3 tags
Robyn Turns 26 by Pavement from At Home With The...
2 tags
Star Trek Trailers →
OK, now I’m beginning to get excited.
3 tags
Rules for Changing Footy Teams →
I overheard a discussion on this the other day, so I thought I’d better remind folks of the proper rules, courtesy of The Mongrel Punter:
If your team has been relocated or merged or both (but remember, your team is doing so under duress and in your club’s hour of need you should stay true).
If you move interstate (it is acceptable after time to embrace a local team but be...
3 tags
How To Create Friendlier Random Passwords →
Another blog post for SitePoint (my employer), this time about an often overlooked part of accessibility.
… for many users distinguishing between zero and upper-case Os, ones and lower-case Ls, and even the letters b and d can be difficult. So, in a recent project which required me to automatically generate passwords on request, I decided to put this into practice …
1 tag
Safe As Houses? →
The housing market in Melbourne has fallen by an average of 3.3%, with large houses in Melbourne’s more affluent areas dropping around 10% or 15% of their values.
I’ve long thought housing prices, propped up by the government’s vote-grubbing first home buyer’s grant, were due for a tumble. Hopefully this is the beginning.
Unfortunately, two-bedroom inner-city homes have...
1 tag
“This is the worst Communications Minister we’ve had in the 15 years since...”
– Michael Malone, managing director of iiNet, on Stephen Conroy (via Sydney Morning Herald and Somebody Think Of The Children)
1 tag
1 tag
2 tags
1 tag
Fuckin' Idiot
Visited Idgaff last night and got a peak at their cocktail recipe book. This used to be one of my favourite drinks at my favourite bar on Smith Street (which has long since been replaced by a Japanese pottery shop):
Fuckin’ Idiot (by Andy Mustang)
Combine 1 shot spiced mead and 1 shot scotch whiskey in a pint glass, add ice and fill with dry ginger. Drink.
I tried to make it once...
4 tags
2 tags
A Change Is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke
2 tags
“Barack Obama Will Be Our First President Who’s Good at Basketball and...”
– Indecision 2008
1 tag
Musgrave in Colorado Getting Whupped →
Marilyn Musgrave, who penned the amendment banning gay marriage, is getting smoked in her re-election bid for Colorado’s 4th House seat.
Loving this election. Looking forward to seeing Stewart & Colbert’s take on it.
3 tags
2 tags
3 tags
"Innovation" in Open Source Software
Bitch please:
Innovation in browsers is continuing fast and furious. Just today “private browsing” was added to an official Firefox build and that’s sure to be appealing to mainstream users and early adopters.
Firefox Reaches 20% Market Share for First Time Ever (ReadWriteWeb)
Good on Firefox for making such a popular browser among the Windows and Linux crowds, but...
2 tags
“The truth is that Gallipoli was shocking for us. Dragged into service by the...”
– Paul Keating