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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.
John Hartigan, your shipment of fail has arrived
John Hartigan, CEO of News Ltd in a speech July 1 talking about the decline of newspapers I mean, at its most basic, it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s just bad reporting. There?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s almost no evidence. For starters, newspaper ad revenue in Australia has been growing ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú not declining over the past 5 years as it has in the US […]
If you’re going to give 16 year olds the vote, why not take it further
WTF: Push to give 16-year-olds the vote in federal elections/ The Oz The idea clearly reeks of Rudd looking for extra votes for the ALP given that under 18’s would be more likely to vote in that direction. But having said that I’m not dead against the idea: “young” people should have a say to […]
Personally, I’d blame the parents
Fourth Geelong student commits suicide: News.com.au Suicide is a terrible business, but it’s not helped by quoting mentally deficient adults in newspapers either. The opening paragraph…and the sub-headline used on the front page of news.com.au reads A GRIEVING mother has blamed the internet for the death of her 14-year-old daughter. Yes, the internet KILLED her […]
Tips for blog applicants round 2
I’ve started shortlist candidates for our Associate Blogging positions tonight and I felt it might be time for a follow up to this post back in May. – When the ad includes the line “The email should absolutely under NO circumstances come with an attachment. If you don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t have examples of your writing online, upload […]
Internode speed test
The interwebs were connected last night (Wednesday) exactly two days after I finally managed to place an order with Internode to get it connected over a Telstra landline (no Naked ADSL for me 🙁 ). They said 5-10 days, so I’m doubly impressed, although it helps a lot that the connection is a Telstra resale […]
Quest to 100
June 22 was a blip, but Technorati has sorted it out ever since, at least we’ve been steady for over a week. Quest to 100.
Changes at The Inquisitr
The good news before we start is that hopefully the worst of the US recession is over for us ad wise on the site. We’re still not doing anywhere near the fill or CPM rates we were getting in the last quarter of last year, but through a combination of improved traffic, improvements from our […]
Here’s The Punch on numbers
News Ltd CEO John Hartigan gave a speech today. Inquisitr coverage here. Interestingly he gave some data on The Punch The Punch has taken off like a rocket since it was launched in May ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú our target was to achieve traffic of 80,000 users in the first month. It?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s actually achieved almost 200,000. Now let […]
How to get a new home connected to ADSL 2 in Australia without a 1 month+ wait
See previous post for context. So I finally conceded that the only way I’d jump to the first position was to get a phone line connected. We take possession on the 2nd (July, it’s the 29th June as I type this) and it turns out that Telstra can connect a physical line on the 3rd. […]
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 […]