/ blog · 2009
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.
Wanted: Opposition leader, apply to the Liberal Party
News.com.au: Malcolm Turnbull’s political career has been smashed in just one week, and senior Liberals believe there could be moves within the party to remove him as Opposition Leader within days or weeks. It takes an awful lot of specialness to completely fuck up Utegate, and yet Malcolm Turnbull has. Instead of Rudd and Co […]
Apple 10.5.7 fail follow up: it wuz Safari that did it
Follow up to this Apple fail post: Leopard 10.5.7 causes freezing, overheating issues I haven’t completely stopped my Macbook Pro from freezing, but I have all but (least it has happened only once since I worked out what might be happening.) Write this on all over the Apple forums: it was Safari that did it. […]
Winter wonderland
The hail was so persistent for so long it woke me up at about 4:30am. These pictures taken after first light at 7:30am so it had started to melt; at 5am though everything was covered in a thick blanket
The last semi-regular Inquisitr numbers
This post is the last-semi regular report of The Inquisitr numbers, and not just because the post before this was the 1500th in this incarnation of duncanriley.com (there was one before.) I’m all for transparency, but likewise the figures wont be that exciting now. We roughly got to where we wanted to be (and it’s […]
Why is the Australian media silent on Chk-Chk-Boom Girl?
I wrote on Sunday asking what Channel Nine’s role was in the Chk-Chk-Boom Girl scam. Chk-Chk-Boom Girl appeared on A Current Affair (ACA) last night, and you’ve probably never seen a softer interview. Clare Werbeloff claimed on camera that she saw a camera, and ran up to it, and magically came up with a story […]
What was Channel Nine’s role in the Chk-Chk-Boom scam?
Days after Clare “chk-chk boom” Werbeloff was exposed as a fraud online, the Australian newspapers have finally caught up. According to reports, “she has also signed a contract with Channel Nine’s A Current Affair and is likely to appear tomorrow night” and that she wouldn’t be speaking to any other media outlet. That would be […]
What if the problem wasn’t Rugby League’s alone?
This whole debate over player behavior in Rugby League is bizarre. On the radio the other morning, John Faine went as far as comparing RL to AFL, suggesting that the problem was one of Rugby League’s alone. Of course that’s bollocks. Anyone who has ever been around a football club of any code knows that […]
Australia’s bogan viral sensation may be a fraud
What does it say about our country that our best viral video exports are usually bogans? I’ll leave that argument for another day. If you haven’t seen it yet, this video is so big at the moment that News.com.au has a related story as its current lead (image above)….ironically (well, maybe not) with a Corey […]
In response to Mark Pesce
On Nick Hodge’s excellent video podcast last night, noted futurist Mark Pesce said (and I quote) that I should “shut the fuck up.” He’s entitled to his views, but it’s what he said around it that I take offense at (and the reason I’m writing this post), in particular the idea that I ignore the […]
The last unpublished This Week in Geek
I quit the weekly column at Crikey today, and they chose not to publish the last one. Why let it go to waste though. The stories that I cut before submitting (and are not below) were a Huffington Post internship selling for $13k, a new round for BlogHer, and a piece asking why The Gruen […]
Where’s the NBN Debt Provision in the Budget?
As I noted last night, besides some small related investments, there was no additional funding allocated to the NBN in the 09/10 budget, leaving a $38.3b short fall. The Government has previously said that the NBN would raise money via infrastructure bonds, but wouldn’t these bonds count as debt? The on the books catch is […]
Budget 09-10: NBN and Censorship
Repeat after me….repeat after me….polly want a cracker….. least that’s what we got with tonights budget when it came to the NBN. Mentioned by Wayne Swan, and naturally trumpeted by Stephen Conroy (in a press release) new funding for the NBN itself in this years budget was….wait for it….$0. You don’t have to believe me […]
Censorship related funding to watch for in the Budget
Budget night Tuesday night. Although the Government’s “cyber safety” policy was costed in last years budget, the massive change to Government finances could see a revision to what was announced last year. Here’s what to look for. Last years costings here as the start point. $125.8m total. ISP funding The original commitment included “a one?¢‚Ǩ‚Äòoff […]
One time I wish I wasn’t right
The Register: Aussie censors implement six degrees of separation policy This article received massive attention overseas since it was published late last week, including top of Reddit and Digg. It notes that EFA received a link deletion notice for “linking to a link to allegedly harmful content.” The crux confirms a concept I mentioned in […]
Inquisitr’s 1st birthday + April stats
First birthday post on The Inquisitr here. I won’t do a huge stats post this month. Short version: 2.34m page views, just over February’s previous record of 2.31m I also managed to screw up the GAnalytics code this month, so there’s a day and a half missing in the total count. I’m guessing the total […]
Down 2
The Inquisitr dropped 2 places to 8th on the April Australian Startups list from TechNation. This may have been available in previous months, but I’ve paid more attention this month: a Hitwise rating. According to Hitwise, The Inquisitr comes in at 7028 of the most popular web sites. Compared to some of the others in […]
Nine’s double edged sword
One of the few Australian television programs we watch is Underbelly. However when I say watch I think we’ve watched it once when its broadcast on a Monday night, mostly we catch up with it during the week. Nine was half reasonable in offering a DRM infested download of the show, as part of their […]
Waterboarding
Lets take away the arguments for and against the use of torture by the US Government as a legitimate tool in the fight against terrorists, and lets consider the effectiveness of the favored method of “waterboarding.” The argument for waterboarding is that it’s an effective way of breaking prisoners, and gaining vital intelligence information. And […]
Australian New Media and Journalist Twitter list
Dave Earley has put together a list of “Australia?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s top 100 Journalists and news media people on Twitter.” I didn’t count them, but there seems to be more than 100. Either way, damn fine list, and without doubt the best compilation of this type I’ve seen yet. I’d hate to think how long it must […]
Qantas Fail
SMH: Save Qantas from unfair practices, unions urge QANTAS needs saving from “unfair competition” from foreign government-backed airlines to protect Australian jobs, the ACTU will argue today when it meets the airline over its decision last week to axe up to 1750 jobs. Yes, but who saves us from Qantas extortion on routes without enough […]