/ blog · 2006
Archive
Posts from 2004 to 2017. This was a personal blog during a fairly chaotic decade in independent publishing — some of it tech commentary, some of it Australia, some of it ephemera. It’s kept here in full for anyone who arrives via an old link.
Current writing lives at SiliconANGLE.
It’s true, the British love Australia
I was surfing a totally unrelated story on the BBC website when I stumbled on this: Brits Abroad ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú a comprehensive guide to where Britons live around the world.From the site: “An estimated 5.5m British people live permanently abroad ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú almost one in 10 of the UK population” And where do most of them live? […]
comScore at it again
Forbes reports on the internet metrics tracking company comScore’s software being installed without users knowledge, not the first time I might add, given my online services treat the comScore software and Malware and Spyware: “[The] software is sneaking onto users’ computers without the user agreeing to receive it,” says Harvard University researcher Ben Edelman, who […]
Did Google kill James Kim?
The SMH reports that James Kim took a bad road possibly due to the advice of Google Maps, and that taking the road cost him his life. Certainly if proven true, this could be a world first: Google kills CNet journalist. From the SMH: According to Associated Press, drivers are advised not to take Bear […]
Wii for a workout
OK, my second post on what will be probably plenty on the Nintendo Wii, if you’re not interested by all means tune out, but I like to share this stuff. Indeed, the only time I can’t share things is where there’s a legal agreement saying I can’t 🙂 Anyhow, just saw another benefit from the […]
Wow Wii: first thoughts on the Nintendo Wii
It’s Nintendo Wii launch day here in Australia, and despite never having owned a gaming console since the Atari 2600, I bought the Kool Aid and headed down to Target at lunch time, Visa in hand to buy one. Presentation It presents well, at least in the box. It’s hard for me to say that […]
AskCity isn’t cool
Michael Arrington writes at TechCrunch that AskCity is cool. It might be cool if you live in the States, but try anywhere outside of the US. It’s not only not happening, it doesn’t exist. Let’s see: crowded marketplace, lot’s of competitors, you’d want to maximise your potential viewing audience, wouldn’t you? and there’s a damn […]
Considering the built environment
I’ve held this post off because I didn’t want every single post I make to be about my trip to North America (via Hong Kong), but I did want to share a few thoughts. Firstly, I’m not a greenie, and although I’m seriously thinking that my next car may well be a Prius, it’s because […]
Full/ Part feeds
Had a few notes from people asking me why I’ve switched back to part feeds. I haven’t, but for some reason WP has defaulted back to that position, and no matter how many times I click on the full feeds option, some people (not sure if it’s everyone) are seeing part feeds. A work in […]
The Blog Herald sells
My old hunting ground, The Blog Herald, has been sold again. Although I’ve been aware of it being on the market for 6 odd weeks, I’ve got no idea who Blog Media sold it to. It’s weird really that the site has sold again. Twice in 12 months. It’s not that long ago that selling […]
Perspective
Thought your traffic was good? We’ll I’m not about to add a pinch of salt to everyone’s idea of good traffic, but a f*cking great big truck load of it: Perez Hilton did 3.97 million unique viewers in 1 day. Not page views, not visitors, but uniques. I’d guess that that’s probably higher on average […]
The new Wiggle has man boobs
OK, so I’m not one to talk in the physical fitness stakes, but a word to anyone who is interested in The Wiggles, the new Yellow Wiggle, Sam, must have been spending a fair bit of time eating whilst he was under study, because suffice to say, he really jiggles…a lot on stage, indeed, he […]
The Australian connection continues with Tom Cruise
All the gossip aside, it’s interesting to note that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are honeymooning on the Artic P. Who owns the Artic P? We’ll it was purchased by Kerry Packer, but since he’s dead it would be fair to say that it’s now owned by James Packer, Australia’s richest man, and as we […]
IE7 is quick
Had to download the latest MS updates today…mainly because I was hoping they had bundled the WA Daylight Savings patch (they hadn’t). The download included IE7. I’m not totally convinced by it, but first thoughts in playing with it: it’s quick. Really quick, like twice as fast as Firefox quick on sites I regularly visit. […]
Perez to be a test case for Bloggers
TMZ.com reports on news that Mario Lavandeira, aka Perez Hilton is being sued by a Hollywood photo agency for $7.5m US for copyright infringement. (I believe I read elsewhere the agency was X17). Admittedly Perez goes a lot further than other blogs in posting pictures taken from elsewhere, however the case could present a chilling […]
The page view is safe for now
Steve Rubel writes that the Page View is on it’s last legs, because Ajax and DHTML markup will mean that visitors to a page will no longer necessarily call a page from the server. I don’t agree. Sure, with my Web 2.0 cheer squad hat on, I get and support the idea of attention, however […]
Australia’s Funniest Home Videos: Glen Milne attacks Stephen Mayne
This would be hysterical, if only for the fact that Glen Milne (the chap doing the attacking) is regarded as one of Australia’s leading political journalists. I guess journalists shouldn’t hit the piss, right?
Don’t Digg this
Steve Rubel reports on yet another example of Digg coming after mashup and fan sites that dare use the word “digg” in their title. You just can’t be a good Web 2.0 citizen and go around threatening to sue everyone…it just shouldn’t and doesn’t work that way. I’m just waiting till they sue a site […]
Valleywag is an eyesore!
Zoli writes that the new version of Valleywag is an eyesore. He’s right. WTF was Nick Denton thinking? Further proof that gay stereotypes are wrong, because not all gay men have a strong sense of style and fashion…indeed, I think if Nick Denton launches any more makeovers like this the only thing people will be […]
What next, and a final word on silence
Just catching up on some 2 weeks worth of reading, strangely enough some of it about myself. A couple of people have asked “what next”, the simple answer is I don’t know at this stage. I’ve spoken to a couple of people about different things, and I’ve got as many emails to follow up on […]
Does Size Matter in the global economy?
An interesting observation I’ve made while I was away: size sometimes is different. It’s odd, but it’s the little things you notice: the fact that the toilets are full of water and are low to the ground, that 10c coins are smaller than 5c coins….and in North America a broadsheet newspaper isn’t the same size […]