Commercial Linux companies Caldera International, Inc., Conectiva S.A., SuSE Linux AG, and Turbolinux, Inc. have announced the organisation of UnitedLinux, a new initiative that will streamline Linux development and certification around a global, uniform distribution of Linux designed for business, according to a media release from SuSE Linux AG.

So there was this whole stuff up with RMIT installing a new computer system, and stuffing up everyone's results. It meant I'll get my diploma a year late, but I figure it's worth it, because apparently I've now also done some Masters subjects, so I'm well on my way to a free Masters if this continues. I didn't so well in two of the subjects (Intelligent Web Systems and Internet and Intranet Document Engineering) but I scored a High Distinction in Implementation of Database Applications. I'm pretty impressed because all three subjects finished after I'd left the country, so I must done well in my earlier coursework.

About time! Melbourne's public transport ticket system operator, OneLink, would face fines of up to $2 million a year if it did not improve the reliability of its machines, the State Government said yesterday.

Of course, the article goes on to say this: "In its second payout to the public transport sector this year, the government agreed to pay OneLink $65 million to settle legal claims against the state worth up to $362 million."

Mac, Linux users locked out of FIFA service because they only support Windows Media Player v 6 and above, says The Age. But download.com says you can get Windows Media Player X 7.1.3 for MacOS X, so that's not quite true (not that I've tested it myself).

The joys of working with the public. Strange things I have seen at work (a garden centre) in the whole two weeks I've been there: a bride, groom, bridesmaids plus whatever you call those little kids all dressed up, and a photographer taking wedding photos around the tables of flowering plants; a busload of Japanese tourists taking photos of everything (maybe they couldn't get tickets to the garden expo); an old man playing the guitar and singing rock songs - but he wasn't a busker.

Sexual Tension Between Arafat, Sharon Reaches Breaking Point vs [No snappy headline] George Bush deals with aftermath of breakup with Tony Blair. The Onion says it better but at least I got to imply that George Bush takes it up the arse. In the metaphoric sense, of course. (We all know it's really Tony).

Australia has been singled out and attacked for its hardline policy on asylum seekers by human rights group Amnesty International.

I keep meaning to have a good read of http://www.macwindows.com/ about Mac/Windows integration.

More on the Gutnick case: The High Court yesterday took the unusual step of allowing 18 media companies from around the world the right to intervene in a landmark Internet defamation case.

In other news, "The European Commission has begun an inquiry into Microsoft because of concerns that its .NET Passport system may violate privacy rules" (quote from the NYTimes).

The NY Times online nominated this inane grunt as their quote of the day:

"Our wars have won for us every hour we live in freedom."
-PRESIDENT BUSH, at a cemetery above Omaha Beach.

but I'm not sure if they're doing it because it highlights the lowlights of Dubya's understanding of international politics and history or because they believe it. Presumably it's the first.

No tv, so I missed it http://www.eurovision.tv/ but you can check out the groovy contestants like the Lithuanian entry, those well-dressed Greek hotties and the icy-cool Russians online. It's always 1978 in the Eurovision universe.

"The widow of an American tourist who drowned off the Sunshine Coast is suing a local Queensland council and a popular resort for $120 million, claiming they should have alerted him to the unsafe surf conditions" Enough with the hand-holding already. It's terrible that her husband died, but the ocean just isn't a safe place and you can't hold anyone responsible for that.

The world logs on to Gutnick's Internet case: "Melbourne businessman and erstwhile football club identity Joseph Gutnick argues that Internet material is published in whichever country or state it is read. [...] For the operators of many websites, the stakes appear enormous. Many sites are read every day in almost every country of the world, and they say they will face a legal nightmare if everything that appears on their site has to run the gamut of 190 different interpretations of defamation law."

It's been nearly a week since I've been online. Hard to imagine how I cope. Seeing the new Star Wars (an oddly likeable load of crap) helped. And who knew Boba Fett had a New Zealand accent - is he going to say, "You kulled meh ded!" [translation "You killed my dad!"] in the next one?

Hanson, Ettridge to stand trial: "The party co-founders are accused of deliberately misleading Ms Hanson's supporters into believing they were members of a political party when they had merely joined a support movement."

crisp hard apple vs soft citrus flavor (does this mean that all woman are secretly lemons?)

It's Me!bourne now, apparently.

Archaeologists in North Yorkshire have discovered the skeleton of a cross-dressing eunuch dating back to the 4th Century AD.

Fury over 11 September handbag - Australians are classy.

As Bush heads to Moscow this week for talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, TIME magazine is set to reveal: the President's pet nickname for Putin is "Pootie-Poot!"

Stephen Jay Gould died today.

I wonder what John Howard would be like if he smoked dope.

Melbourne gigolo, 38, who admitted killing a client during an ecstasy and Viagra-fuelled bout of "animalistic" sex was sentenced in the Supreme Court yesterday to seven years' jail.

Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane accents studied. How do you say 'celery'? (Think about it before you read the article).

East Timor celebrates as a nation is born. Woohoo!

It's marred a bit by allegations of John Howard's dodginess: "A senior UN official last week criticised Australia's negotiating tactics. "We've been a little bit surprised Australia is playing such hard ball," said the official, who asked not to be identified."

Microsoft (and Hotmail) sucks (but you knew that already).

Star Wars vs War on Terror(ism)

Online home loans get XML standard push. Someone's finally using XML as it was designed to be used.

I've updated the John Howard/IIS stupidity page to include the wonderful wehavethewayout.com fiasco. Thanks to djc for the screenshot.

Also, new hate mail.

Now that I have a job, I can start shopping again. But which one do I want?

There are many things I don't get about the Netherlands. There's an ad for Dutchtone (a phone company) that shows a family in a car being harassed by dwarves dressed as garden gnomes. The final shot shows a garden gnome pouring a line of liquid from a gas can to the car, implying that it's petrol and will be used as a fuse to explode the car (with the family still inside). I think the moral is that if you had a phone/a phone with good coverage you could call for help, but the immolation of a family by garden gnomes is the kind of thing you'd only see here.

If jailbait wannabe Christinia Milian had any sense, she wouldn't ask what I saw 'when I looked at her'.

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created the first realistic videos of people saying things they never said.

How much does the open source community rock? Mac CVS

Andrewsullivan.com sets a standard for narcissistic egocentricity that makes Henry Kissinger look like St. Francis of Assisi.

It's funny how Andrew Sullivan didn't use the first part of the sentence in his little front-page quote. I guess he's flattered to be thought 'dangerous'. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't used to describe him, but his 'will to censorship'.

I think he does need an editor, because I was always taught that an ellipsis (e.g. '...') is used to mark the omission of words or phrases not necessary to understanding a quote. Andrew Sullivan uses an ellipsis to rearrange an article to suit his own needs.

An article about Andrew Sullivan by someone articulate and intelligent enough to make it stick (I never get any further than, 'Andrew Sullivan sucks. He sucks because...'): Synopsis: Clinton gave a perfectly sensible speech. Then Andrew Sullivan—and his friends—started lying.

It contains the classic line, "For buffoon Sullivan, "fairness" comes the morning after, when you’ve actually read the speech" which would go a long way to explaining how AS manages to be so passionately stupid.

And just for laughs, the Daily Howler again on coverage of the presidential candidate's debate.

I've rarely written about how much the self-important little twit Andrew Sullivan infuriates me, so you probably can't appreciate how glad this makes me: Columnist Andrew Sullivan Bites Paper; Paper Bites Back.

As much as Mr Sullivan would like to appear that he's been fired because he's just too hot to handle, it appears that it's actually because he's come to the end of his contract, and they were glad to see him go because, quite frankly, he sucks.

Celine Dion kills iMacs!
An Apple dealer has 'confirmed' to the Campaign for Digital Rights (CDR) that attempting to play the latest Celine Dion CD in a new iMac will result in the machine having to be sent for repair.

(Thanks Jacqui!)

The BBC says "Australia says it is to run a budget deficit for six years to pay for extra spending to boost defence and curb illegal immigration." vs The Age Record spending on border protection and the war against terrorism plunged the budget into deficit last year, but a booming economy will deliver a $2.1 billion surplus in 2002-03.

This dictionary of Dutch slang really has to be read to be believed. I'd point out particular things to look for, but there are so many.

I think the world will embrace the talking rodent phones.

An oldie but a goodie: Student Suspended Over Suspected Use of PHP

According to the Sunday Times, "Men with heart disease are more than twice as likely to be given heart bypasses than women with the same condition. Researchers who carried out a study say heart disease is seen by many doctors as a male illness and often taken less seriously when it affects women."

I wanted to copy some text directly from the article instead of typing it in, so I headed over to the Sunday Times website, where I had to register to read the article I'd already paid to read on paper. The amount of questions asked during the registration process is ridiculous - I know it's really common, but I don't feel like helping out their direct marketing people. They've reversed the onus on sending spam, too - you have to 'tick this box if you don't want to receive offers from us or third parties', a surprisingly sleazy move for a paper like the Sunday Times.

Following an old recommendation, I checked out http://www.groninger-museum.nl/, only to find that, "The Groninger Museum website has been created for a minimum monitor resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. Your screen resolution is less than required."

So much for laptop users. It does explain how to change the screen resolution for Windows machines, but the warnings about saving all your documents and re-booting machines are probably enough to frighten the kinds of users who need those instructions. This warning is the final touch:

"NB. The Groninger Museum cannot be held responsible for any damage of any nature whatsoever that may result from adjusting your screen resolution."

I tried to have a look at the 'Limited Version' but it detected iCab as IE4 and I got a small pop-up window and no content anywhere. It's all a pretty good example of what not to do.

Cripes. An Australian doctor is being prevented from practising in the UK because she has not passed an English test, even though it is her native language.

It appears that she hasn't actually been able to take the test yet, as opposed to having taken it and failed.

From The Age: John Howard has only himself to blame for the leadership speculation that threatens to disrupt the cohesion and stability of his government over the next 14 months.

John Howard out? The Age reports that "[Howard] said he was not aware of any calls within Liberal ranks for him to retire." but an article in the Australian today, "Costello to challenge if PM stays", says "While the Prime Minister has not yet made up his mind about retiring, the Costello camp now knows the Treasurer would take "unilateral action" if Mr Howard did not retire."

I like this blog about living in Japan - Kristen's Japan - interesting personal descriptions of the world around her and some of the frustrations of being a foreigner.

Apple are trying out new designs for their support pages. Go to http://www.info.apple.com/, check them out, and vote. You don't need an AppleID to get support now, which is a huge step forward. I'm helping my mum upgrade my old G3 remotely, and I need all the help I can get.

I missed this at the time but it makes the '1-click' patent look reasonable: A 7-year-old Minnesota boy has patented a method for swinging side to side.

If only the American presidential race had been run under the 'how do the candidates look with Ricky Martin's hair' rules (not) proposed in this great article.

vs.

I discovered hidden worlds searching for evidence of Ricky Martin's mullet-mania when he was in that boy band whose name I've forgotten:

Michael has come a long way from Pert Plus to Aveda. Now he is experimenting with volumizing products. Read about his hair journey.

Cute little angry Tarkan fans bitching about Holly Valance's cover of 'Kiss kiss'/'Simarik'.

A Jedi Shall Not Know Anger. Nor Hatred. Nor Love. Nor Bad Hair Days.

Government modifies stance on "anti-terror laws".

The list of what they didn't get is a scary indication of what the government wanted: "The committee has recommended against giving ministers the power to ban organisations, called for a tighter definition of terrorism and rejected a plan to reverse the onus of proof for suspected terrorists."

Have you noticed that Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker in the new Star Wars) looks like a cross between Jamie Oliver and Tad from Neighbours?

The Age Online is getting more blase about nudity - you can see pubes in this photo of the streaker who made the Queen's day more interesting.

Band-wagon jumping Australian government thinks trampling civil rights American-style is cool, but the Democrats will save us. According to the article 'Dems say terror laws threaten freedom', "Emails, voicemail and mobile-phone text messages could be accessed by authorities without a warrant under proposed anti-terrorism laws" if the government is allowed to "amend the Telecommunications Interception Act so that authorities can gain access to anyone's email, voicemail and SMS without having to use a warrant".

The Attorney-General, Daryl Williams, said "'Until the attacks of September 11, we could have been justified in thinking that our counter-terrorism regime was adequate. This is no longer the case'" to justify the proposed change, but didn't explain if they were going to learn how to use information obtained through existing channels before reading your email.

Oh dear.

Last night was strange. It was still hard to believe that Pim Fortuyn had been killed. It's a cliche, but it is a loss of innocence.

The reportage in the foreign press is pathetically obsessed with him being gay. From The Age: "A lone gunman walked up to the flamboyant and openly gay Fortuyn, 54, and pumped a hail of bullets into his neck, head and chest in broad daylight, witnesses said."

Pim Fortuyn is dead. Incredible.

And there's some movie star premiere at the cinema near Rembrantplein. What a mix. (The limos have to be quick to get the stars out so they don't block the tram line).

It's true (I wasn't sure if I was translating correctly): Pim Fortuyn was shot about an hour ago. In English at the BBC 'Dutch far-right leader shot'. Background information in two articles, 'Pim Fortuyn: The far-right Dutch maverick' and 'At home with 'Professor Pim''. (Don't expect these articles to be too accurate, all the English press I'd read about him over the past few months has been full of factual errors).

In Dutch at http://nu.nl/ or NRC Handelsblad.

I think someone's shot and maybe killed Pim Fortuyn. I really hope not, because he might be an idiot but he doesn't deserve to die, and it'll just make him a martyr.

Someone finally does something about Shakira, but is a bag of cement enough to shut her up?

So here I am, registering in the Dutch equivalent of the CES. Between cleaning the flat before we leave and filling out forms I can't translate properly, I've come back to reality quickly.

The streets were full of people celebrating Ajax's championship last night. The celebrations at the Arena seemed to consist of the crowd watching the team and managers getting drunk on stage while singing and dancing as only the Dutch can (i.e. lots of enthusiasm but no rhythm).

Hard to believe that it'll happen, but it'd be great if it does: Aung San Suu Kyi could be released in a few days.

I registered at CWI today but I still don't know what they are. Crazy, eh? But I have to do it before seeing the Gak.

After reading about 'NakkidNerds.com', a porn site featuring nerd chicks, in an interview with the site's creator in The Age, I discovered that I can't view it at EasyEverything. No message, just a redirect to http://www.easyeverything.com/. Since my viewing is being censored, if you can check it out, let me know what it's like.

John Howard makes belated play for credibility in refugee overboard mess.

Back in Amsterdam! It's good to be home, even if I'm actually in-between permanent housing til I either find a job or leave the country. Barcelona was really ace. I figure I'll have the photos online in a week.