/ blog · 2007
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.
How Many Australian Blogs are there?
Meg asks a question right out of my own past: how many Australian Blogs are there?. I’m going to guess. If we include MySpace blogs as blogs (which we should BTW), I’m going to guess 3-4 million, maybe more. Without MySpace, 1 million. It might be time to do some digging, or even a fully […]
Defamer/ Gizmodo Australia launch
The Australian licensed versions of the Gawker Media blogs, Defamer and Gizmodo have launched. First thoughts: I’ll probably reserve judgment in full for now, to early to make a call on them properly, but naturally a couple of things: 1. They didn’t take lessons from Nick Denton when it comes to launching. Defamer has 4 […]
Getting back to basics, French style
According to the SMH, this is a picture of French Presidential Candidate Nicolas Sarkozy on the campaign trail. Gotta love the tractor:
New Zealand: beautiful one day, photoshopped the next
From the SMH: Tourism New Zealand has admitted it digitally enhanced the latest images of scenic New Zealand spots in its 100 per cent Pure New Zealand campaign. No word yet if it was a matter of just cutting out the sheep 🙂
Jeremy Schoemaker slams Ask, then deletes post
I always find it interesting when people say stuff they shouldn’t, then try to undo the damage by deleting the post, ignoring the fact that RSS leaves a trail. And no, for the record I generally don’t delete stuff, although I do often regret writing some of it, but hey, I’m also smart enough to […]
Is Naomi Robson hot?
OK, so this isn’t usually the forum for sexist comments on the female form, but Channel Seven’s Naomi Robson has never struck me as being overly attractive before, and yet this picture, from news.com.au…well, it puts a different spin on it. In old world parlance, she’s a pretty good looking sort. Now note to female […]
Join the Statsaholic petition
If you’re looking for a good Web 2.0 cause to support, visit Mashable and sign the petition against Amazon’s decision to sue Statsaholic (previously Alexaholic). Lets see: Amazon opens its data saying “use it, please”. Someone does, they get popular, Amazon steals the best bits for Alexa, then sues the people who did nothing more […]
How long to someone games MySpace News
Loren has the details on how you can submit stories to the newly launched MySpace News. Top story there currently has two votes, which begs the question: how long until someone starts gaming it? indeed, a couple of MySpace accounts would do it, and you can pick them up in bunches of 100-1000 cheaply at […]
Some people are just gutless
This isn’t something I’m particularly fond of writing, but it’s just so wrong it cant be left unsaid. The Age covers the Top 100 Australian blogs, and finishes with this: One blogger, who did not want to be named, told The Age that the top blog, Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger site, was outperformed by a lot […]
Nazi Germany: Extraterrestrials are to blame
From The Canadian: Manipulative Extraterrestrials influenced Adolf Hitler, scholars suggest. Damn those aliens 🙂
What does the Virginia Tech massacre say about South Koreans? It’s don’t write stupid blog posts
Foreign Policy has the headline: What do the Virginia Tech slayings say about South Koreans? I’ll tell you what it says: don’t write stupid blog posts. What a stupid headline. FP might conclude that there isn’t a question in relation to South Korean students, but the whole question shouldn’t have been put in the first […]
I’m all for making money, but this is just plain sick
Apparently people are trying to profit off the Virginia Tech Massacre, with Wired reporting that domain names based on the massacre are up for sale on eBay. I’m all for people making money, and domaining is a legitimate business, but this is just sick. I wonder what they would think if one of the victims […]
Beer as the root of modern society
I like this guys logic: “Beer is the basis of modern static civ?Ǭ?ilization,” began Bamforth, Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Brewing Science at the University of California, Davis. “Because before beer was discovered, people used to wander around and follow goats from place to place. And then they realized that this grain [barley] could be grown […]
Buying a Television: shop around
I’ve finally, finally got around to buying a replacement for my 8 year old, 68cm Teac old fashioned CRT TV, our first major purchase after I got married…we even used AGC finance to pay for it at the time 🙂 Picked up a Sony 101cm (40in) Bravia LCD True HD 1080i model: this one I […]
New Australian Top 100 list
It’s days like this I miss owning The Blog Herald…if only so I could be higher up the list 🙂 Dipping into the Blogpond has put together a new list of Australia’ Top 100 blogs, and I’ve made in at #8, all for a site which I don’t even really try on, seriously needs some […]
Graffiti removal in Canberra, a good or bad thing?
Looks like Canberra MP Steve Pratt is in a spot of bother, having painted over an “officially commissioned” artwork that he mistook as graffiti. OK, so take aside the legalities of it all for a minute, and think about it. Personally I think Pratt did the people of Canberra a public service. OK, so I’m […]
33 people dead in US Massacre: naturally the Australian press finds an Australian angle
Maybe I’m just becoming to cynical, but lets see, 33 people are killed in a Massacre in the US, the Sydney Morning Herald leads with a story that someone from Sydney was studying at this University, who knew someone who wasn’t shot but saw other people shot and pretended to be dead. Seriously. I can’t […]
Michael Arrington, another Desktop Tower Defense addict
Arrington is hooked to. Good on him, because it’s a ripper of a game, if you haven’t played yet, click here.
Australia maintains lead in Firefox usage
Latest Firefox usage stats have Oceania, of which Australia would make up maybe 80%, as the leading region world wide for Firefox usage, at 24.8%. no break down of the figures however, so no idea what Australia alone is, but that’s still a very, very nice figure.
Looking for some Australian blogs
Now I’m hooked on Google reader, I’ve started subscribing to more and more Australian blogs…what I’d really like to have is a dedicated “Australian Blogs” category, but so far the pickings are pretty slim. I’ve got most of the 2web guys in my feeds, and others I’ve met along the way (in person), but if […]