Looking Both Ways

Looking Both Ways, originally uploaded by Heaven`s Gate (John).

Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper

I don't know the full story behind this image, but it is precious, found @ this link.

Squared

Squared, originally uploaded by Essential Jeremy.

A nice view of the Sydney coast. I think I can see my balcony in the background.

Phew, No shark in Bondi (well alive at least)

There was a bit of a buzz around bondi over the week end when it was reported that there had been a shark attack. There hasn't been an attack in Bondi in 70 years. It sounded a bit suspicious, even from the outset, with the guy in question, Scott Lawrence Wright, coming up with a story of been attacked on Friday night, passing out in a cave on the rocks over night and been found by a girlfriend the next morning. Today the Sydney Morning Herald is reporting the whole thing as a hoax :

...that Wright's wounds, which required dozens of stitches and a night at a Sydney hospital, were not caused by a vicious shark, or even by a relatively docile wobbegong, as was reported yesterday.

Rather, they were the result of Wright's arm going through a pane of glass - an incident that occurred several days before the supposed shark attack.

Mr Wright has subsequently been arrested and the story has come out with regard to the alleged shark attack.

...by Tuesday night Wright was no longer basking in the glory of his new found fame. He was busy answering questions from police after being arrested outside Redfern RSL.

He was charged with various theft-related offences and faced Central Local Court on Wednesday.

It will come as a bit of relief as there has been a lot of shark sitings along the NSW coast including a 2.8 metre dead grey nurse shark from the shark nets off Bondi just yesterday, roughly the same place as the alleged attack. Grey Nurse shark are supposed to be harmless. However if I saw one in the water I don't think I'd be hanging around to count fins (Nurse sharks have two).

picture taken from Aquabumps

Princess Val Slave Bikini

Princess Val Slave Bikini, originally uploaded by LeeSouth.

Planet eye

Taken from an interesting gallery. Each eye looks like a planet or some other deep space construct.

Storm troopers army

Storm troopers army, originally uploaded by ntr23.

little fett

little fett, originally uploaded by BEY CHUA.

Weird

Son of Ceiling Cat

cats hate vaccuum cleaners, originally uploaded by John Gusky.

I don't know why but this reminds me of Ceiling Cat

AT-ST

AT-ST, originally uploaded by ilesino.

eReader arrives in Australia - at a price

I was surprised recently when I heard the the Australian book chain, Dymocks, was thinking about getting into the digital book world. Today it announced that it would be selling the iliad in it's stores, for AUS$899, wow! That's a bit rich!

I had been dying to get my hands on an eReader for years. So 6 months ago, when it didn't like one was going to be released in Oz I bit the bullet and sourced a the Sony e-reader from the US for AUS$500. Then and now I thought I was getting slammed. I have to admit I like it a lot but I think I would have baulked at paying nearly 900 bucks.

It's great that eReader are finally in Oz but there is going to have to be a major price drop before they can rope in enough early adopters to make it worth their while.

There is one good thing about the Dymocks choice at least the reader they picked can support open formats like HTML and PDF. Amazons offering, the Kindle, is fairly locked down at the moment and may be the reason it fails.

Uncle Owen! Aunt Beru!

Does any one remember collecting names from Star Wars boxes to send away for the Emperor figure because you couldn't buy him in the shops. Ahh the memories....

Any heres is a link to some of the figures they never released. My favourite is the matching smouldering corpses of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru.

Q&A with Bruce Schneier

Bruce Schneier as Chuck Norris
Originally uploaded by massdistraction

There is a very interesting Q&A with security expert and internet meme Bruce Schneier over at the Freakonomics page. While the page is a bit lengthy it is a good read and should be read by all, particularly the less internet savvy as there is a lot to take away.

He describes a very effective way of storing and using passwords. It is a technique I have been using for years and usually recommend to family and friends.

Q: How do you remember all of your passwords?

A: I can’t. No one can; there are simply too many. But I have a few strategies. One, I choose the same password for all low-security applications. There are several Web sites where I pay for access, and I have the same password for all of them. Two, I write my passwords down. There’s this rampant myth that you shouldn’t write your passwords down. My advice is exactly the opposite. We already know how to secure small bits of paper. Write your passwords down on a small bit of paper, and put it with all of your other valuable small bits of paper: in your wallet. And three, I store my passwords in a program I designed called Password Safe. It’s is a small application — Windows only, sorry — that encrypts and secures all your passwords.

Here are two other resources: one concerning how to choose secure passwords (and how quickly passwords can be broken), and one on how lousy most passwords actually are.

After 10 years a joke can become a reality

Sometimes I just don't know. Comedy writers sit down and try to be ridiculous and then a few years later the thing they were trying to be funny about because it seems so unrealistic becomes a reality. The Simsons in the season 10 episode, Make room for Lisa, have the TV in the background with a stupid reality TV show called "When Animals Attack Magicians" :

Magician: Pick a card, any… (noise of animal attacking) Aaaaaagh!!!

Roll forward 5 years and in the wake of the attack on the Las Vegas magician, Roy Horn, of Siegfried & Roy, by a tiger they used in the act. NBC couldn't believe their luck when they were able to secure the rights and produce a show where Roy discusses the attack and his recovery in Siegfried & Roy : The Miracle. The joke has become a reality.

The same thing happened again with Meet the Parents, there is a whole lot of humour behind the fact that Robert DeNiros character trains his cat to use the toilet instead of a kitty litter. Type "toilet trained cat" into google and see what you get (or this link) not only are people doing it, people are making money off it, there are YouTube videos as well. Again the joke is now a reality.

Finally there was the Father Ted episode, Flight into Terror, when they feature the Virgin Mary Tape dispenser, which tells you how much tape to you and "God Bless You!". Stupid ridiculous, right? Is it much difference than this Virgin Mary USB flash drive, with beating LED heart. I especially like the :

"Oh Maria, Keep my data safe"

which is inscribed into the halo. All it needs now is a button that tells you how much space you have left and "God Bless you!"

Wrecked AT-ATs and Constellations

I came across this wrecked AT-AT model today over on the Official Star Wars blog. It is the winner of the Starship modeller wrecks competition where the goal was :

the entry reflects any synonym of the word 'wreck' in any language (for example, derelict, broken, abandonned, war-weary, busted, beat up, junker, hangar queen, crashed, pranged, in disrepair, poorly maintained and held-together-with- baling-wire-and-prayers all meet the eligibility requirements)

The last airfix model I ever made was also the AT-AT, I've always liked it, it is one that benefits from going all out and trying to achieve weathered look (I know Airfix is a company name, but in Ireland at least Airfix was used for any model set, a bit like hoover or xerox). However the above winner is so much cooler, I especially like the ruins at it's feet. Unfortunetly my original model still lives on a shelf in Ireland. It has been replaced in Oz with the Lego Star Wars version. Which, while not the same, is a different type of cool.

There are other entries in the starship wrecks worth checking out. Another favourite of mine is the wrecked U.S.S. Constellation (from the Star Trek episode, The Doomsday Machine), another airfix ship I had a go at with my mom wondering what the strange burning smells were all about. I always like to see if I could achieve the effect of burned out and destroyed corridors inside the faked superstructure elements.

Arise the E-Readers

Today all the internet is abuzz and agog with the newly released e-reader from Amazon called the Kindle. This is a very interesting new addition to the gadget world. E-books have tried and failed before, there was the e-book gold rush that occurred at the same time as the internet bubble while they both imploded together the e-book failure was largely due to the small screens of PDA or clunkyness of laptops that made reading books off them not a comfortable experience. The arrival of commercial e-ink has been a long time coming. Some have likened the release of the Kindle to the iPod. Both terms of of game changing and scope.

Sony Reader
Originally uploaded by jopemoro

I for one would like suggest that the Emperor has no clothes, and while it is a significant release I don't believe the Kindle will have the longevity of the iPod. That is a heady claim, however, unlike most people, I have been the proud owner of a Sony Reader for 6 months, Sony's first western release of an e-ink product. It is not the best product in the world. The page changes take too long (~1-2 seconds), the contrast needs some work and the battery time while rated at 7000 pages turns really some in about 400 for actual usage. However it has changed the way I read. It is the right size and I think looks as good as it needs to. True it doesn't have the keypad of the kindle (but is found in the Japanese version the LIBRIé). I think that the kindle is trying to replace a PDA and not a book. Sony needs to add a WiFi to the reader and it would be truly excellent. I am still however happy with the money I spent and find that the need to go to a computer every few weeks to upload some new books hardly a chore.

2007 has been a very interesting year thus far with nearly every music producer beginning to understand that DRM is not working. They are finally pursuing a business model where DRM enforcement is been dropped left, right and centre. So it is a big surprise to see how restrictive the initial release of the Kindle is. It almost as if they haven't read Steve Jobs letter, the horror. Certain file can't be downloaded direct to the Kindle and have to be converted to some propriety protected format, via the Amazon servers. However it is already a lost battle with thousands of books already available, and unprotected on the internet.

I'm sure that there will be other readers that come along that will be competive with the Kindle, maybe even one from Apple? Who knows until then it will very interesting to see the take up on the Kindle now that it has been released.

Also just this week there was an announcement of a book ripper, from a crowd called ATIZ, which would allow people to "rip" books they already own and create digital copies that can be read on any format they choose using little more than digital cameras. I'm not sure if it is ready for prime time but it is a start.

I feel a bit mixed about books finally moving digital. My personal opinion is that downloading music from the internet is OK, as it should be (and it should have always been) a promotion tool for artists to attract paying fans to live gigs, an experience that just can not be downloaded. It is similar but a little less true for movies, now that people have huge entertainment centres there is a fall off when people watch a movie at home instead of the cinema so that explains the next wave of 3D movies that Jim Cameron and Robert Zemeckis are current working on and which should keep bums on seats,and paying, for another 10 years.

I don't however see the analogue for books. The e-reader experience is virtually identical to the book experience (you will get purists that will say the e-readers will never be the same as having a book in there hand, point them in the direction of vinyl lovers and see if they can make babies). There is little that an author can capitalise on once a book has been ripped and distributed without there permission, and more importantly without income. Sure they can hope it gets turned into a movie but what about the books that are great books unfilmable? Will we see the continued rise of product placement in successful stories?

Why Vote ?

WorldCantWait.ORG Columbus 2006
Originally uploaded by Zillafag

One of the first serious arguments (that is a difference of opinion kind) I had as an adult is my belief that voting, at least at the national level, makes no sense. As an engineer (and by extension a mathematician) the numbers just don't work out. One vote amongst millions is spurious noise.

I find very few people who can even fathom what I'm saying, their riposte is usually well if every body else thought like that the system would fall apart, while inherently true it will never happen. Other experiences in my life have proven that very few other people think like me, this is also probably better for society in the long run.

In a past life I worked in a service station with a Lotto machine. Every Wednesdays and Saturday (the two draw days in Ireland at the time) the hours between 4 and 7, just before the draw, had queues of people out the door to get their entries in on time. No-one, during my time there, won any thing much more than a match 4. It merely made the statement that lotteries is nothing more than a tax for people who are bad at maths all the more appropriate. It also re-enforced my belief that a person can be smart, but people are stupid.

So I was heartened to see that the New York Times has a write up about it (see also the Dilbert Blog where I found it). Hopefully in the future I can refer people to it when I don't have the eloquence to explain it. I usually explain it as I don't believe in voting but I would still fight for my right to vote.

Australian Urban Archaeology - Google Earth Style

I found an interesting toy on the internet a few days ago. The NSW government has released a maps viewer, called Spatial Information eXchange, that looks for all the world like a google earth knock off. They boast that the resolution of the images are better than those used by google earth. While nominally set up to help emergency services and government departments the tool has one trick that google earth/maps doesn't, satellite imaging from 1943.

The service has been up for a few days but it looks like the server couldn't handle the initial load. However I was finally able to get consistent service again to produce some present versus past imaging. As some one who didn't grow up in Australia but live here now it has been very interesting to examine the places I know know as see what they used to look like.

The picture below is an over head of the area around circular quay. The site now occupied by the Sydney Opera House used to be Fort Macquarie tram depot on Bennelog point. The Cahill expressway has yet to be build and join up with the Harbour Bridge.

Also over on the left side of the image is the area known as the hungry mile which has been filled in since 1943 but was recently shut down as an operational port to make way for residential buildings and be renamed "Barangaroo". Ten years from now it will probably look very different again.

(Click to see full size)

These images are above the area known as Darling harbour. It is currently the location of convention centres, eateries and an IMAX cinema, however it used to be a big shipping yard. It was completely rebuild in the 80s. You can also see the addition of all the elevated roads that carry traffic in and out of the city from the west.

(Click to see full size)

If you know Sydney, or NSW it is definitely worth a look.

Erasable Tattoos

Tattoo Removal on First Session
Originally uploaded by sour_doll

For years I have wanted to get a tattoo. However when it comes to deciding what to mark ones body with for the rest of ones life I usually draw up short. I have a habit of going off ideas very fast and would probably come to loath a tattoo within weeks never mind years. Ideas have been :

• A Chinese character
• A barcode
• The bat logo from Batman Forever (with Riddler question mark!?!)
• A Celtic pattern
• A barb wire

As I look back at them all I'm sure I'd want to gouge the skin out of my arm to remove any one of them.

Tattoos of course are removable, but there are stories of extensive laser treatment that cost a lot and quite painful with the final result being close to but not completely normal. Please see attached photo.

While my personal favourite solution, programmable tattoos, are a long way off, I was surprised to see on Time's top inventions for the year a tattoo ink that can be removed in a single treatment, called Freedom2. The ink is really biodegradable and bioabsorbable dyes within safe, colorless polymer beads. To remove the tattoo a laser breaks open the polymer bead, the ink is dispersed and can be absorbed by the body unlike current inks that contain heavy metals.

I can imagine the arguments that parents are going to be having with there kids once this new ink becomes ubiquitous until then please refer to the popular Machinima, Red vs Blue, public service announcement and remember 10 years ago you were and idiot and you still are an idiot, it will just take you another 10 years to find out.

Point Break Sequel - Is that funny Whoa! or Uh-oh Whoa!

Every now and again I badger people about movies I would like to see. One movie I feel is overdue is a sequel to Point Break. It was a seminal movie of its day and even if the dialogue was a bit corny ("If you want the ultimate you have to be willing to pay the ultimate price.") Who can forget the parachute jump at the end, even though done once before in James Bond - Moonraker, it works better as a climax scene.

It turns out in May of this year I missed the announcement that there is going to be a Point Break sequel. It turns out that Bodhi survived that massive wave and will be found hanging out some where in South East Asia catching some "Radical" waves. Patrick Swayze is attached and it is unlikely that Keaunu Reeves will returns, blah, blah, blah.

ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY!! That's terrible, that's Highlander 2 bad. That is not the movie you want to make Peter Iliff! This sequel can be Aliens good if you have some imagination. Screw Bodhi, he has contributed enough to the story, let that little white dot of foam on the face of a monster wave be his final call (sorry Patrick I know you don't want to be be remembered for playing pedophile). The sequel of interest is with Johnny Utah. It's 20 years later and the clean cut , "Freeze FBI!", young dumb and full of cum G-Man wannabe is long gone, along with the badge on Bells Beach. He has traveled the path and we find him as the new Bodhi mentor character. Utah has reached a state of zen oneness after traveling the world and realised dancing for the man ain't where it's at. This is the perfect jumping off point and Keanu Reeves, if he is still in Matrix shape, could probably pull it off.

In my opinion once you have this setup the rest of the movie writes itself. Is Utah holding up banks? sure why not. Who the FBI green horn this time? Pappas son who Utah helped raise after his dad bought it in the first movie is torn once he finds out who he has to bring down.

Bohdi: Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true.

For this and more classic Point break quotes check out this link.

Rare Bill Watterson Art

I first came across Bill Watterson's creation Calvin & Hobbes in my teens and wasn't too far from the age of the creative ego centric character that I could identify. In fairness Bill seemed to know how to tap into the simple logic of a child that it would be hard not to identify with him. Like Seinfeld and the Police before him, Bill Watterson walked away at the top of the game in 1995.(The Police have recently gotten back together)

It is a shame that there has been no further work from Bill Watterson available since then. I was surprised to find a website last week that detailed some of his work from before his Calvin and Hobbes days. Included are a number of single panel cartoons he did for the college paper. A number of them are a bit dark and don't come from the same place as Calvin. There was however one standout that reminded me what it was like again when I was younger. Sunny days were few and far between when I was in college, so much so that when one did come along I was damned if I wasn't going to take advantage of it!

More Steve Jobs distortion?

iPhone party
Originally uploaded by nobihaya

The blogosphere at the moment is aghast at Apple's announcement that it will only sell two iPhones per customer at Apple retail stores and purchases are limited to credit or debit cards. The assumed (and trumpeted) reason is to block the resellers and preserve, as much as possible, the $831 Apple is supposed to receive on each AT&T iPhone. Most of this money is apparently lost when and iPhone is unlocked and sold on by a reseller. It doesn't ring through that Apple would turn down a sale. It is not like the iPhone is like the Xbox, where an expensive device is sold at a loss and the final revenue comes from games that are sold. Apple make profit on every iPhone that is sold. iSippli estimates the 8GB cost US$280.83 of total expense to produce and it currently retails for US$399. (The 4GB model is no longer available)

However, as my skeptic mind is prone, what if the reason given by Apple, while has an element of truth, isn't the whole reason. My guess is Apple need to limit the sales and try and preserve as much of the AT&T sales as possible because they don't have enough iPhones to last through the Holiday period to supply both the legit (arguable) AT&T sales and the resellers.

We'll see.

Ride to work day - October 17th

Look, Ma, No Hands!
Originally uploaded by edwardaggie98

In case any one doesn't know (I didn't until this week). Next Wednesday, October the 17th is "Ride to Work" day in Sydney. There will be functions all over the city apparently. Hopefully it will be enjoyable and convince some non cyclists to try commuting a bit more. More details can be found at this site.

Stupid Dog

I first saw this a few years ago but it is still hilarious. The dog seems to think his own leg is another dog trying to steal his bone. There is no end to the fun you can find on YouTube.

More Flickr Woes

Dump Your Pen Friend
Originally uploaded by sesh00

I, like many of my friend, have recently joined facebook. Unlike Flickr it has drawn in a lot of people who are not normally of the technical persuasion. They think it is great to upload pictures usually of some drunken night where the participants look a little worse for wear. I recently noted to a friend that I like the tutu she was wore out one night. The only problem was I wasn't there and I saw the picture from a non-mutual friend that tagged the image on her facebook wall. She was a little surprised and didn't know that people could do that, but in this case it was innocent enough.

Like the early days of e-mail, i.e. when regular punters started using it (not the techie weirdos that usually play nice when it comes to computers) there were many stories of people hitting reply all instead of reply and the embarrassment that ensued from some off colour humour reaching the wrong person or persons. Over time the netiquette of e-mail has settled down and there are now less of these reply-all stories as people have learned either the hard way or some horror story.

The new netiquette comes to taking and posting photograph of other people to the internet. The examples are beginning to rack up. Just this week Virgin mobile in Australia have found themselves sued by a Texas family after their 16 year daughter, Alison Chang, was featured in a ad campaign. Virgin used an image that was uploaded Alison's youth counselor that was released under creative commons. As a result of her image being they are seeking damages :

Claiming it caused their teenage daughter grief and humiliation by plastering her photo on billboards and website advertisements without consent

The technical legal details are abound. They correctly used the image under creative commons however they did not have a model release for for the feature participant. In the past it was usually the photographer that took care of this, but he/she was also a professional who living was selling of said photographs.

However while Virgin might find themselves on the wrong end of this one and will hopefully learn from it. I think the blame also reside with the person who uploaded the photograph, the youth counselor, Justin Wong. Blinding uploading pictures of other people without their permission is going to cause a lot of problems. Just because you don't mind having your life laid bare on the internet for all the world to see doesn't mean every body else feels that way.

As a result of cases like this and other emergent problems, I have been trying to educate friends and show them when and how they are leaking information that probably wouldn't prefer. Also as a Flickr pro user I have marked all pictures containing people as visible to family and friend only, it is a shame that only flickr users can only be marked as family or friend.

It is a shame that Alison picture was used in that way by Virgin, I don't think it was with malice just as a bit of a laugh and I hope that when she matures a bit she'll find out that there are plenty of worse things in life. She may even be able to ride out the noterity, maybe she should take some notes from Britney Spears defender Chris Crocker, who went from been slagged off one day for his over the top YouTube video to been given his own MTV reality TV show.

Bike Hack

I found this image over on Wired. An interesting upgrade to a bike to allow for greater carrying capacity. I can't imagine this hopping curbs too well though. This has got face plant written all over it.

I love living in Bondi - now with even more bikinis!

Sydney Bondi
Originally uploaded by duncanleyburn

I live pretty close to Bondi Beach. Any morning that I cycle into work I usually take a leisurely cycle down the promenade. A week doesn't go by when there is some thing mad going on. Yesterday morning I was treated to the Guinness record attempt at the largest bikini shoot.

It is still a bit early in the year for the beach but it was quite a sight seeing hundreds of girls running around in their bikinis. Credit goes to who ever arranged this, I know how long it takes to get one girl ready, can you imagine how hard it is to co-ordinate and get 1100 of them ready? There was an extra level of High Maintenance in the air on Bondi Beach and fake tan. However it certainly beats getting up on an September morning in Dublin and putting on your wets to cycle to work.

Check out the aquabumps web site for a few more up close and personal pictures.

wey-hey I got the new iPod nano but ...

Sync in Progress
Originally uploaded by Andrew*

I was quite surprised to find the new iPod nano 3G along with the rename iPod classic was available in Australia 2 days after Steve Jobs announced it (it was Wednesday in San Fran, but Thursday in Oz). I through pure power of will alone resisted the temptation to buy it then and there, my facade broke by Tuesday and like the iPod whore I am I ordered one online and it arrived yesterday, which was Friday.

First off it looks great and I have shown it to a good few cynical engineers that are known of their skepticism for geeky gadgets, but even they were impressed.

However I have already ran into two problems. Firstly after I loaded up my default playlists and then disconnected from the computer the nano would freeze. It appeared to be some thing to do with the new cover flow application trying to arrange the images. After a few resets of the nano it started to play ball. However any time I disconnected from the PC it would start freezing again. Then this morning when I connected to iTunes it informed me that there is a 1.01 firmware upgrade (bare in mind this device was only release 9 days earlier ) after I updated the firmware the problem seems to have gone away. I have done a search on a 1.01 firmware for the apple nano 3G and can't get any details on what was fixed so I can only assume that the cover flow issue I was seeing.

Problem number 2, I hate iTunes, I've run it on I don't know how many machines and I find it clunky, buggy and I have successfully crashed many times. I especially don't like the way it doesn't dynamically track a folder that has been added to a library. It should be removing files that are no longer present and adding new files (which is usually just me moving files around as I catalog them) which it doesn't. Winamp I find is a lot better for this and I have been using it for my iPod video for a while. However when I plugged in the new nano, winamp recognised the nano alright, and I copied over playlists. However when I ejected the nano and started trying to browse the music, nothing. I found that strange and didn't think too much about it.

Then I find the internet alive this morning with the linux community finding the same problem, "iPods reengineered to block synching with Linux", I'm guessing this is the same problem I'm seeing in winamp. This is a surprise. After Steve Jobs writes his magical letter coming out against DRM to find that they are employing DRM tatic to stop 3rd party apps from downloading to new iPods. Hopefully people can find a way to circumvent this. Apparently the DRM tactic uses SHA-1 hashes to maintain it's database tables, SHA-1 has been proven to be breakable and maybe that can be exploited (though currently to achieve a successful collision is considered within reach of massive distributed Internet search).

With all that said, I can't wait to see the iPod touch once it comes out at the end of the month.

D'Officials - No Hoodies!

In Ireland there are two constructs, "The Man" and "A boy", that are used by parents to corral their kids in. "A boy" is usually a person that got himself injured doing something stupid and is used as a warning to other kids, "A boy broke his legs climbing over those rocks", or "A boy almost had his finger cut off climbing in that window". (There is a window in the primary school of Dungeagan in Ballinskelligs, Co Kerry and I was that boy that people get warned about).

"The Man" however is the marginally empowered person that flexed it when ever he can. You meet them all the time when you go through metal detectors in airports and they take away nail clippers, or the security guards that tell you you can't take pictures of a building. The comedian's John Kenny and Pat Shortt, also know as D'Unbelievables, capture the phenomenon excellently at the start of the performance on D'Video :

I was reminded of "The Man" while reading Bruce Schneier blog, where in the UK a four year old girl was asked to remove her hoodie for vague "security" reasons:

"She had her hood up on her cardigan, a young lad came across and asked her to take her hood down because of security."

When Ms Lewis learned what had happened, she spoke to the worker. She said: "He said 'It's policy, they don't allow any hoodies in there.'"

While it would be great in society to slap these upside the head and tell them to stop acting the maggot that usually doesn't help so we'll always be stuck with them. Here's another example of "The Man" from Father Ted :

Irish Racism? or just culture.

Tir Na Ri
Originally uploaded by netdance

I don't get too topical or political most of the time but my interest has been piqued by the recent view of Kevin Myers on immigration and racism in Ireland into Ireland over the past 5 years Ireland is experiencing huge immigration with new cultures living side by side with the existing one. Some people don't like this and it not uncommon for names to be thrown about. However the call of racism may not be entirely accurate. Long before Ireland became a country people wanted to immigrate into it was pretty much full of just Irish people, there were some exceptions, God Bless Phil Lynott usually credited as Ireland first black man.

Back then, and even now it was not enough to just be Irish. As a Cork/Dublin hybrid I have experienced the Irish life style of the "Eternal Blow In", I'm not bitter mind but it did give me some perspective on the country that loves to make a lot out of people's difference, even if it is just your accent. I have done a fair bit of travelling, a few years in the states and currently residing in Sydney, Australia. In that time I have met many travelling or resident Paddies. Guaranteed, every time, less than 5 minutes into the first introductory conversation with an Irish person the question comes up : "Where are you from?" and it is always to place you, to put you in some county related box, or if your are from the same county what part of it. It is never enough to just be Irish and be done with it. I know/knew an Irish girl that made assumption about you based on how well your county was doing the either the gaelic football or the hurling. After travelling for years my accent has been cleaned up (some times kicking and screaming), I no longer say "Turty Fuhve" after been ribbed too much it has become "Thirty Five" which is even more source for the title of "Eternal Blow-In" any time I return home. Even comedians get great mileage out of making fun of people from different parts of the country, Tommy Tiernans assessment of Cork people while funny isn't too far of the mark as covered in this segment from his Cracked DVD:



I have made the observation amongst friends that you only really become Irish once you leave Ireland until then you better have picked a place to be from. A lot has been made of the Irish being very friendly and a land of a Hundred Thousand welcomes (Céad míle fáilte). While working with a french co-op student in Ireland 8 years ago he pointed out to me that people he worked with were very friendly when out for a few jars in the pub but the next day they would barely talk to him.

So now here we are almost one complete decade into the 21st Century, the Ireland of today is not the one I grew up with 30 years ago. Back then it was the Dubs against the Culchies, north side versus south side, Kerry versus Cork, Munster versus Leinster etc. on and on. Face it, we (the Irish) were just looking for difference so that we could break away into little Travis Bickle tribes and hate "Them" for being different. So now into this incestuous maelstrom walk immigrants that actual are different, they speak different, they look different, they have different religion, different culture. They don't stand a chance against the old guard. They don't have to work hard to find a difference so that they can make fun or, heaven forbid, hate "Them".

To see how far we have come or have yet to go I would direct the reader (any left?) to the first episode of the third season of Father Ted, "Are You Right There, Father Ted" . Part of the hilarity was that there is a Chinatown section on Craggy Island. Now it doesn't seem to too far off base.

iPod touch

iPod touch
Originally uploaded by peter.ca

True Magnum, nuff said!

No Surprises - A day in the Apple

are you a phoner or a podder?
Originally uploaded by nobihaya

Apple have introduced their new line of 'pods. The high points are a red iPod shuffle (cool), a fatter but shorter iPod nano (smaller?), a stripped down iPhone that is now being called iPod touch with the iPod classic pulling up the rear.

What is interesting, but expected, is the deployment of iPods with WiFi capabilities, with some of the patents that were floating around this is no suprise, but now that it is is moving into the wild it will be very interesting to see what happens next.

As an addendum to the Apple announcement/release I have been running a WiFi enabled phone for 2 months, and war driving like crazy. I live is a fair sized city, Sydney, Australia, WiFi spots, free and paid are few and far between. San Fran may be a different beast in the geeky nerd world but the may be a hole in deployment possibilities on the WiFi front.

TV = ADD

iPod Video
Originally uploaded by Alexandre Van de Sande

Apparently science has caught up with me. At last there is a study that connects attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in teenagers with watching too much TV as a child. I think this is crap, I watched tonnes of TV as a kid and it never ... Oh look a squirrel.. hee hee hee!

spock - Strike 1

I have been keeping an eye on the people search website spock for a while. It being part of the new wave of web 2.0 projects that is trying to tie down peoples online identities with there real life carbon based fat asses. Their goal is to index people from various source on the Internet including LinkedIn, XING, Myspace, Friendster and Wikipedia.

While they have said they are committed to the privacy of their users, I was surprised to receive an e-mail from them this morning, one of the first I have received since I signed up at their website. This is the body of the e-mail :

Hi,

As one of Spock's newest users, I wanted to let you know about a cool search on Spock.

You can find out who Spock users think should be the top results for fun searches like Arrested for Drunk Driving.

Log onto Spock and check it out!

Have Fun!
The Spock Team

Now am I the only person that think it strange the one of the first communiques highlights such an invasion of privacy, drink driving while frowned upon is probably something that people would like to keep to them selves. While this search may be possible, for an emergent company like spock I would have thought they would stick with the warm and fuzzy functionality that is possible. A bit like the way bitTorrent is always sold as having legitimate applications (which it does, I downloaded Ubuntu 7.04 using it) the bulk of the applications would be considered illegitimate (That is an argument for the courts and the ISPs).

spock isn't the only website getting in on the web 2.0 ability to connect with the real world. Another website to keep an eye on includes the sexual relationship database :

In an effort to better understand society's interconnected nature, this database was created to serve as a repository for information regarding the sexual histories of individuals, across the world and throughout time.

which allows people to assign former sexual partners to any name they can find, though I am convinced that this is a hoax, though the company behind the website, world health optimization management or W.H.O.M. (?), only returns 4 hits on google... If it isn't a hoax it will more than likely get spammed out of existence by warring teenagers making up who had sex with who (even though none of them are).

And finally polar rose, which I have covered before, that is developing facial image search technology so that individuals can be found all over the Internet. They however have been quite for a while and I'm still waiting to see the bulk of their work.

BitTorrent is evil - Obviously, I saw it in FF4

I have never been a great fan of the Fantastic Four, the recent movies haven't been great entries into the super hero genre, but were at least successful enough to spawn one sequel.

As a movie property 20th Century Fox and Marvel have obviously lost billions through people downloading the movies using bitTorrent. Just this week the most recent movie in the franchise, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, has entered the top ten of Most Popular DVDrips on Bit-Torrent. So to stem this evil it has fallen to the comic book to present a social commentary on the perils and possible uses of such a vile technology as bitTorrent.

The picture to the right is taken from Fantastic Four Issue #549. In ways even I can't understand evil master mind, the Wizard, managed to clone bad guy Klaw using an audio file that he downloaded from bitTorrent. I may not be up on my super hero world view any more, but it does prove, incontrovertibly, that bitTorrent is evil. Here endth the heavy handed lesson kids, stay in school.

What is unclear is what did all those other people who were downloading the same file that gave the Wizard such a fantastic upload speed.

Thanks to TorrentFreak for posting this.

Wikipedia trust coloring demo

I love wikipedia, it is a comfortable hole that I fall into a lot and find it very hard to get back out of. In many way like 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, I seem to inexorably coming back to pages dealing with Star Trek or Nazi Germany, maybe that says more about the user rather than wikipedia.

Most of the time when reading pages I don't feel there is any reason to doubt what I am reading (I have proof-read some Star Trek articles for quality and have yet to find an error). However there are some pages, politicians, Scientology etc. that you just know you cannot believe by faith alone. It is a problem and I have covered the issue of wikipedia reputation before. It is good to know that other people are working on solving this problem.

The tack that they have taken is similar to the idea that I proposed (even though it is probably self evident) which is to give a user a rating based on the work contributed, but also what survives edits. As a result words on a specific page are color coded based on the user who added it and their reputation. I like their color coding, it is a lot more subtle than I thought could be done and I think it works. If nothing else it is a very good way of highlighting what is contention and bringing eyes to bare to at least help resolve it. I can't wait to see this deployed.

Wikipedia on the Go has arrived

WIRELESS INTERNET
Originally uploaded by bjortklingd

Just two weeks ago I was predicting the arrival of downloadable wikipedia for smart phones. Well it has arrived. The Series 60 Weblog has made available a downloadable wikipedia that can be installed to any S60 platform enabled smartphone.

This is happening to me a lot recently, ideas that I come up with are been invented or created not long after I utter it. Either I am hyper-intune with the current internet connected world or Dilbert writer Scott Adams is onto something when he suggests we are nothing more than badly programmed computer generated holograms. There was even an argument for the latter recently stating that it is statistically more likely that we are computer constructs than living beings.

"But my favorite theory is that I’m nothing but a hologram in a computer program built by my ancient self, before the planet was destroyed by some disaster. The reason I can glimpse my future is that I have all of the qualities of the real me who wrote my program. In other words, I can accurately imagine my future because it is playing out much like I would have authored it myself."

It kinda reminds me of the type of logic used in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Specifically the case where the population of the universe is reasoned to be zero:

"It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination."

Apple / Nokia - Blood in the water

IMG00515.JPG
Originally uploaded by tnkgrl

"Comrades we sail into history"

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to look at a big event before it happened. It is very easy to look into the past and pick out when political or technological change occurred, it is much harder the other way around. However one of those nexus points of history is upon us.

Apple finally has a competitor that can compete with it, Nokia. Apple has all but dominated the mp3/mobile audio space since the launch of the iPod in 2001 (yes that long ago) but recently Steve Jobs and his skivvy wearing brethren had the temerity to move into the mobile phone space with the launch of the iPhone. Apple have been successful because the have made stylish music players never had any competition from the likes of Microsofts Zune or Creative MuVo.

Nokia, however, have been playing the stylish mobile device game even before Apple launched their iPod, they had the express-on covers for the Nokia 5110 that came out in 1998 (and my first mobile) and they knew it was just providing the technology but also the humanity, and they made a lot of money with the 5110 one of the most popular mobile phones ever.

So if you cast your net out on the internet today it should be no surprise that on the same day that there are rumours of Apple launching a wireless iPod and associated wireless iTunes, Nokia have launched their online music website.

Apple has dominated mobile music for a long time and seemed unassailable with the DRM lock in that allowed then to sign up the 5 major labels they did. However following Steve Jobs magic letter on DRM in February there is now a move away from DRM which lowers the barrier for entry for competitors into mobile music.

Nokia has tried and failed to enter different areas of the mobile space it didn't belong, the N-Gage for example was a miscalculation, (however they have ported N-Gage games into the S60 platform so it wasn't for nought). However they have maintained their dominance as they are never afraid to learn and adapt to the new models. As Nokia's Executive VP & General Manager of Multimedia, Anssi Vanjoki ,said, said when images of a Nokia iPhone knock were released "If there is something good in the world then we copy with pride." Nokia may not win the new mobile internet/music race but by jingo they will give Apple a run for their money if they don't. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

Miss Teen USA - Perspective

The above clip of Lauren Caitlin Upton completely fluffing up a question at Miss Teen USA is currently doing the rounds of how stupid Americans can be. However on sober review it is obvious she didn't listen to the question and was tying to trot out some rote answer she memorised, it reminds me of the wizards in school that would memorise some great piece of prepackaged prose and would attempt to turn any English essay topic to use that prose .

Standing in front of an audience can be a humbling experience and shouldn't be knocked unless tried. Any one can tell a friend a joke however with that in mind I once a week will take the challenge at our local trivia night to jump on stage and compete against other people in a joke-off. What seems easy amongst friends is much much harder with a room full of people staring at you.

Apparently Lauren is taking it in her stride, she even came third at the event. People probably need to calm down and stop looking to Miss Teen USA for answers, but why oh why did she mention South Africa?. If google have got there act together they should sign up this chick to help promote google maps.

Check out the 2000 film Miss Congeniality for more beauty pageant absurdity.

Stan Fields: What is the one most important thing our society needs?
Gracie Hart: That would be... harsher punishment for parole violators, Stan.
[crowd is silent]
Gracie Hart: And world peace!
[crowd cheers ecstatically]

Life on Mars meets Camberwick Green

Even though Life on Mars has been around for 2 years I have only recently come across it, it being an English TV show and me living in Australia might have something to do with that. I have to say it is one of the best TV shows I have seen in a long time. A lot of it comes from all the unPC stuff that DCI Gene Hunt gets away. However the show makes interesting and unusual use of TV from the 70s, be it as the Doctors in 2006 communicating through the Open University programs on TV or the Test Card girl leaving her post and stalking time traveler/mental case Sam Tyler as Death personified.
It's major appeal, I think, is that even when the show is serious it still knows how to be fun. I'm only up to the fifth episode of the second season, but I loved the Camberwick Green knock off. Check out the nonce waving to the camera as he is getting kicked in my Gene Hunt.

Gene Hunt: I think you've forgotten who you're talking to.

Sam Tyler: An overweight, over-the-hill, nicotine-stained, borderline-alcoholic homophobe with a superiority complex and an unhealthy obsession with male bonding?

Gene Hunt: You make that sound like a bad thing.

Update : I have had to relink to another youtube version of the video as the BBC are pursuing the copyright. Don't be surprised if it also gets suppressed.

Bill Bailey is Merlin

Bill Bailey is a great comedian who is famous for his stand up routine and as put upon Manny in Black Books. If you even find it on DVD or television his "Part Troll" performance is an excellent watch and excellent laugh (though it is impossible to remember one joke). However in his routine he makes fun of people who make fun of him that say he looks like some kind of wizard. At first I thought it was just some self depreciating technique to gain the sympathy of the crowd. However as I was out wandering wikipedia during the week I came across the picture of Merlin as played by Nicol Williamson in John Boorman's movie Excaliber. Isn't the resemblance uncanny.

Messa Love you - I Don't, Die Jar Jar Die!

Apparently some damn fool geek took a perfectly good replica of the Han Solo in carbonite and replaced Han's head with his own. Muppet! However it did get me thinking who I would like to see in carbonite, unsurprisingly Jar Jar comes to the top of that list. The internet is a wonderful thing and instead of having to imagine it with my mind, it turns out it has been done already and there are loads of images of the final fate of Jar Jar. This image was source from here. To find more great Jar Jar in carbonite google is your friend.

Blinged iPod Shuffle, Huh?

Engadget has a link to a website that is reporting the release of a diamond encrusted, gold trimmed iPod Shuffle. Apparently it will retail for 48,000 Norwegian Kroner (around US$40,000) as reported on this site. Engadget make an excellent point who would want to bling up $99 of plastic. If you should find yourself plopping down US$40,000 on something like this maybe you have more money than sense and I would appreciate it if you could remove yourself from the breeding pool of this planet as you have nothing of worth to add to it any more.

BTW it wouldn't surprise me though if this turns out to be a hoax.

Dennis Miller on the Family Guy

I used to be a huge fan of Dennis Miller. In recent times it is a pain to see him prostitute himself on Bill O'Reilly's show, while he acts fairly cordial with "papa bear" on screen some times I feel as if he has a pained expression on his face as he knows he just has to put up with that crap to make a bit of coin.

However "No Spin Zone" non-withstanding I thought this segment from the Family Guy was spot on. Some times when watching Dennis Miller you felt as if you had to go back to college for a master in pop culture just to keep up.

Snowboard Gmail

Here is an attempt at the google mail video. We tried to have me pass holding the envelope on the snowboard but even at the slowest speed, the envelope was only visible on screen for about a second. So we were forced to go to plan B.

Trivia night destroyer - wikipedia on the go

The crowd gatheres - North Bondi RSL
Originally uploaded by Charlie Brewer

In 1951, or so the story goes, the Guinness book of records was conceived when Sir Hugh Beaver realised that there was no reference book available to answer the question which is the fastest game bird in Europe, the golden plover or the grouse?

Nowadays the Guinness book of records has been superseded by wikipedia and the answer to all question current and arcane, "TO THE WIKIPEDIA!" is a cry heard all to often when a polite conversation degrades in to a slagging match. For the record glass is not a very slowly moving liquid and you can't see the Coriolis effect in a toilet bowl flush (also dropping sugar into a draining sink does not help determine rotation).

However till now to answer a questions of this type required a computer and an internet link. Which meant that in the rarefied environment of Pub Trivia it has thus far been limited to what was been carried around solely in the competitors heads. This is slowly been eroded away, first mobile phones arrived, so you could ring a friend near a computer to get and answer. Then phones became GPRS enabled allowing internet access which will work, but is expensive. These are slowly been replaced by wifi enabled phones, but then this is currently limited as there may be no access point available (the rule rather than the exception in my experience). Thus far, even though the technology exists and has for a while it is patchy, cumbersome or expensive.

So the solution is simple, instead of trying to get to wikipedia over expensive or patchy infrastructure, why not just bring it with you? An enterprising gentlemen, ttsiod, has written a program that allows him to access a local copy of wikipedia on his laptop. No matter where he goes in the world he always has access, albeit to a static version of the people encyclopedia.

Not many people know that you can download the entire contents of wikipedia, it's current compressed size is 2.9 GB. After hacking around with few open tools ttsiod is able to browse and keyword search his local wikipedia. Admittedly his current implementation isn't for the faint hearted. However, how long will it take to port to an even more portable device, like the iPhone (with 8 GB of space) or other smart phone, the N95 for example has a microSD slot and disks sizes already up into the 4GB space.

It will only be a matter of time before all that knowledge can be bubbled down and people will be able to carry the font of human knowledge in their pocket. At that point in time any office argument will be solved in seconds and all trivia night questions are a predictive text search away. Can you smell the future? Are you excited? Are you scared?

Update : Imagine no longer, 2 weeks later, the future is here.