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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.
Should I run for the LDP in Forrest?
A totally left of centre offer today: I was aksed to consider running for the Liberty and Democracy Party as their candidate in Forrest. The initial rush of blood to the head was like blood to a vampire for me: it’s hard to ever get away from politics once you’ve been involved at some stage, […]
My Mac Melbourne
A little message to My Mac, an official Apple reseller located on Flinders Street, Melbourne. That’s My Mac, My Mac of Melbourne, My Mac Apple Reseller, My Mac Apple Melbourne 🙂
Primus Telecom Are Scammers
I’ve just received a call on my mobile that I thought I’d share with everyone rather than complain to the TIO and ACCC. The phone rings, I answer it. There is silence, then a foreign ring tone….a sure sign I’m about to talk to an Indian Call Centre. Me: Duncan Riley SpeakingCall Centre: I’m calling […]
Thanks To Bunbury Fire And Flood
In an age of crap customer service and people who don’t care, every now and then you encounter a company that bucks the trend. At 10am PST this morning (1am AWST) I got an email from my wife indicating that the hose behind the fridge had broken and that a good portion of the house […]
Australia’s Cheapest Lego
But I should add to the post title that it took 30 minutes including me arguing with a Big-W Bunbury floor manager to get this price. 1 big box of lego, advertised (so I found out at the checkout) for $28.88 on special (I’m guessing its usually $40-$50), the floor price as the photo shows: $8.88. The […]
California Here I come
Some good news and something I never imagined happening when I attended the last TechCrunch party in New York last November; at this stage I will be attending the next TechCrunch party at August Capital at Menlo Park, California July 27. I’ve never been to the West Coast before (no slings and arrows please) so […]
Making the Switch to Apple
While working today a window popped up and reminded me that I have less than 2 weeks to validate my legally bought legitimate copy of Microsoft Vista. It’s not the first time this has occurred. I still haven’t gotten around to reinstalling Vista twice as recommended by Microsoft to get rid of this, but it is the […]
I hate Vista Already
8:45pm as I write this. At 12:30pm today I inserted Vista into my computer for an upgrade. Still isn’t working, after the worlds longest install process it just hung on booting up, the little loading ticker scrolling over and over and over again. Just finally worked out a way to re-install it without losing the […]
The only decision, is never to shop at Retravision Bunbury again.
It probably serves me right for gloating about getting a bargain. 2 weeks later and my Sony HD TV still hasn’t arrived. When I agreed to buy the thing the salesman told me 2 days. After I handed over the money I was told 1 week and a bit, Thursday to be precise. So I […]
The day the new games system arrived
An ode to all those blogs that ran pictures of new gaming systems arriving last year; my new system arrived in the post today: The Box OMG, the contents! Yes! It’s a 30 year old, 1977 Atari CX2600 Woody! Up close Extras! More photos, of it plugged in and working to follow 🙂 Tags: […]
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 […]
Nearly time to drop the Poor Photographer tag
I spent some time Thursday at Perth Zoo with my new camera, a Panasonic DMC-FZ50. Amazing what you can do with a decent bit of technology, certainly it might be time to drop the poor photographer tag, 10mgp with 12x optical zoom really makes for some half decent shots. More on my Flickr account.
Acer Vista Scam?
It’s April and I’m still waiting for my free Vista upgrade from Acer, sent the proof off two months ago, nothing back, rung, they told me to send an email, sent email, no response. Has Acer in Australia run a scam here? time to call DOCEP or the ACCC maybe? Hopefully someone from Acer in […]
Operation Floor Lift commences
Nearly 12 months ago we took possession of our new house, and I spent 2 weeks of literally back breaking work laying the floor in the new house, timber laminate was all that we could afford at the time, mind you, it was still $6500 just for the laminate. About 3 months later the floor […]
The summer we never had, in Autumn
About time…give or take a couple of months 🙂
You know you’re getting old when…
It’s the golden child’s first day at school. It only seems like yesterday they were chopping him out of she who must be obeyed’s stomach 🙂 Happy first day at school son, and I know you’ll look forward to reading this post at Archive.org in 2020. We’re proud of you, just a shame about the […]
You know it’s nearly Christmas when…
You’ve got over 1000 unread emails and you can’t be asked cleaning them up. OK, so I’m trying now, but it’s hard to get motivated 🙂
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 […]
OMG They’ve seen the light: Daylight Savings in WA?
This from The West. We might even get daylight savings by December 1. Now if only they’d allow the shops to open on a Sunday we could really join the 20th 21st century.
Waroona Show
My new photo set at Flickr is my best pics from the Waroona Show. I’m going to reserve my comment on how the show was…I don’t want to be the blogger who is negative on everything, but suffice to say, the Harvey Show has less of a crowd and a similar portfolio of things to […]