One thing that Sh*t’s me about living in the Wait Awhile staight (WA) is the lack of daylight savings. Apparently the curtains faid, the cows milk sour, and all that sh*te. Anyhow, this is the good time of the year. Because the US goes to summer time, from 2 April 2006. At the same time, SA, Vic, NSW and Tasmania go off it. Why is this so important to me? Well at last, my partners are much more easier to hook up with. Darren (in Melbourne) is 2 hours a head. Shai is 1 1/2 hours. Jeremy is 11 hours. We can meet up at a much better time now that I’m 12 hours ahead (exactly) of NY. The fun time of the year.

Mena’s far, far braver than I am. And I’ll heap praise on this one…I hope SA’s lawyers are ready, but good on you Mena for having bit of fun…it’s just a bit…what did they say in Yes Minister…courageous…to do such a thing:

Mena: Hey, did you see the pictures of Tom Cruise at Yahoo?
Ben: Yeah, why was he there?
Mena: Oh, you didn’t hear? Yahoo bought him.
Mena: … He’s still in Theta, though.

Hotelchatter points towards the bad deals in WiFi in US hotels. They should try Australia. For starters, if you can even get WiFi it’s a bonus. In the last 12 hotels I’ve stayed in, maybe 5 out of the 12 had it (admitedly they were all in Perth). Of those who had it, none where free. Prices ranged between $12-$25 AUD per hour to hook up. I kid you not. Of the hotels that didn’t have WiFi, some had old fashioned hook up your network connection (cable) broadband. Cheapest was about $12 (AUD) an hour. Dearest came in at $25/ hour.

The yanks have really got it good 🙂

Scoble and Dave Winer seem to think that Second Life is the next big OS!. WTF???? Don’t get me wrong, I was big on Second Life for maybe 3-4 months last year, and when I say big, I mean big. I loved it. Still do. But the problem I found with it is not the platform, but the socialists in it. You see, Second Life has a huge economy. Much of it is based around land, casino’s and shopping. And it’s huge…..way huge. And if you’ve never tried it out, I’d recommend it. But the problem is that it’s also full of hippies who want to put you down for trying to make a quid. It’s like a true socialist version of Australia really. The tall poppy syndrome is way beyond belief. I got into trouble because I dared tried to sell free scripts….well apparently free, see I paid for them, but apparently you could get them free elsewhere. So because of this crime I was harassed, hounded, attacked in Second Life. It was soooo bad I basically stopped going there. I closed down my little shop (which I would add was in a set shopping center and I paid rent for). I sold my land holdings and I quit the paying version. The ppl who run SL aren’t interested in the harassment either. It’s really the wild west….with commies. But if you haven’t visited yet I’d recommend you take a look. Tringo is great fun. 🙂

For those who aren’t aware, I’m laying decking and floorboards this week, and most likely into next week at this stage, so I’m pretty much going to be MIA. Just interesting though. I haven’t read my feeds in 2 days, and there is 45 new items in tech.memeorandum.com. The stuff I’m missing 🙂

I’ve finally decided to bite the bullet and drive the 2 1/2 hours to go to a blog meetup, so I can finally meet a couple of fellow Wait Awhile state bloggers. If you live in Western Australia, and more in particular, Perth, I’m attending this. I’m staying in Perth the night, so we’ll have lots of fun. I’d be intested if anyone has the ability to record audio at the event so we can podcast it. If not, maybe someone with a half decent digitial camera. Richard is coming (who some might know better from the Gday world podcast) so it should be interesting. He’s the only person I’ve heard on a podcast that sounds like me…but slower. The longer you live here the slower you get 🙂

Just reading at Threadwatch that Google has now got basically 75% of the UK search market. The figure here in Australia is close for memory. When all the so-called experts in America talk about Google they always talk about it from an American perspective, despite the fact that Google is a lot stronger (in terms of market share) outside of the states. It’s what? less than 50% in the states? well it would be one of the few markets it isn’t competing from a position of power in.

Robert…Robert my friend! WTF is going on. I read this post and it smells and looks like Snark. The same sort of snark you were only rallying against the other week. Now Robert, if I can scrape up enough money to go on the blog cruise in October I intend on buying you a drink…or 10 and we’ll discuss this in person, because as much as I disagree with you, some of my best friends in the world I disagree with, they’re are often the most interesting people to hang out with and talk to, because you get some of the most interesting and fun discussions, and despite my occasion fun with you, you are still someone I respect, but just happen to disagree with on occasion. And I’m really not that bad, I’m what we call in Australia, a sh*t stirrer. 🙂

Now on this fellow Australian. David Richards. Can’t say I’ve heard of him but Phil Sim suggests he was behind the Bottom of the Harbour Royal Commision. I half suspect he’s making this stuff up, but responding with Snark….well it’s sort of like Mena Trott yelling at people during her now famous talk on civility.

BEHAVE! 🙂

Steve Rubel: Scoble is taking heat for not posting about the Vista delays for sometime.

I sort of feel sad for Robert Scoble these days, mainly because he’s a man who can’t admit the truth. Sure, maybe corporate lapdog is a bit harsh (I’ve just spent 20 minutes reading Gawker Media blogs….forgive me) but this whole “I’m not controlled by Microsoft” thing is a gigantic crock. Whether he likes it or not, he is self censoring. He writes that he doesn’t know enough about it so he’s reserving comment, but I ask this simple question: it’s never stopped him in the past, has it?

Robert, if you actually want to continue to maintain credibility in the blogosphere and the greater community, admit that your roll at Microsoft means that you have to limit what you say. Let’s be honest about it. Jason Calacanis has been now he’s at AOL and managed to tread very well around this issue whilst being upfront about it. The longer you maintain that you are free to speak as you please and quite obviously don’t, the worse things will become for you. I’ll be upfront and honest on the subject as well: one of the reasons I sold The Blog Herald was that my role in b5media quite honestly meant that I couldn’t be myself on certain things, because it damaged the company (anyone for a 9rules flame war??). I’m now not exploring those areas that come into conflict with my role at b5media here at duncanriley.com. I’m not being censored by Jeremy, Darren, Shai or anyone else for that matter, but I’ve learnt, accepted and even disclosed that being a responsible corporate citizen/ owner/ participant requires the occasional piece of self restraint, or even self censorship. You are no different Scoble, you just don’t like admitting to it.

Darren at Problogger points to Paul Chaney on the joy of blogging. I completely understand where Paul is coming from. I’ve found that I actually enjoy alot of the other aspects of blogging as well, like site design and what not, which is why I’m spending more time doing that now with b5media and blogging less. But now I’m blogging here because it’s fun again! I can only hope it lasts.