Ian McKellen's Lord of the Rings journals, Grey Book and White Book.

Sake Drenched Postcards

The Age reports that "Cyber stalkers to be jailed for up to 10 years", ""That means that if a person is stalked in a chatroom; if they are stalked by e-mail; if they are stalked on the Internet, it will be illegal,"" without giving any definitions. Googling friends and acquaintances is a pretty common practice, but could it count as stalking?

In an article in the Age about the Olsen twins, their manager was quoted, '"Publicity is not manipulative," Mr Thorne said. "If we were spending millions on advertising I could understand people thinking that we're going after their kids but we're not."'

Whatever helps you sleep at night, Mr Thorne. Personally, I suspect it's worse because it's insidious.

A search for 'according to Hoyle's' to settle a discussion about the rules of pool found Due South slash instead. Happy birthday Google!

Faye said, "do you think there's a show called Afghanistan's Funniest Home Videos where they show footage of Sept 11 with a soundtrack of goofy cartoon noises and a double "ba-doiiiiing" sound effect?"

and I said, "It'd have some guy being hit in the groin by a falling steel girder with a smart aleck 'that's *gotta* hurt!' commentary."

and Jacques said, "And a few home shots of camels running and then stopping suddenly so the people on them fly/slide/fly off in to the oasis of the village cesspool. And my perennial favorite a section on misfiring AK 47's."

and I said, "Not to mention the wedding scene - not only do the bride and groom fall over slapstick-style with a sliding whistle sound effect during the bridal waltz (exposing the bride's undies), the whole wedding party is blown up by US forces shortly afterwards in a hilarious wedding hall/Taliban headquarters mix up."

More people should be this strange.

BBC: E-mail marketing on the rise

"A new culture of permission-based marketing, where users opt in to receive commercial e-mails is set to clean up the image of spam, according to emedia, the firm behind the survey."

Permission-based, my arse. How many companies use dodgy tricks like re-selecting 'please email me crap' every time you edit your profile or information at their site?

http://www.lemonbovril.co.uk/bushspeech/ lets you make a speech for Bush. Really funny.

At exactly 2pm today I mailed my work permit application. Wish me luck!

An alliance of former prime ministers, opposition leaders and defence chiefs has made a united stand against Australia joining a military attack on Iraq without United Nations backing.

Guardian: Their very own Taliban about the dominance of puritan values in American culture.

http://news.google.com/ appears to be google's version of a (news) blog, possibly in retaliation for google-bombing. Though given that google's news is gathered by a bot, what does that say about most blogs?

It also reminds me of http://www.daypop.com/, which has been out of action for the past few weeks. Coincidence? You decide.

A Guide to Building Secure Web Applications

O2, part 2: Even worse (see below), this is the 'answer' to the FAQ, "How do I provide my views on your services?":

"Your Views
We welcome your views on our service. We will endeavour to resolve your issue as soon as possible, and keep you informed of the progress"

with absolutely no way to contact them and offer your views!

A variation on 'websites that suck' - mobile phone companies that suck. O2 keep sending spam texts to my phone, despite the fact that I very carefully never opted-in for any commercial or 'informational' email.

It took a while to find it but I found a contact page on the O2.co.uk site, wrote a message that hopefully stayed on the right side of rightful customer and didn't verge into loony attention-seeker ("Stop sending marketing texts to my phone. I have never opted-in for any marketing or other information from O2 or BT Cellnet. The messages sent from O2 - UK don't provide any method for opting out. I will change service providers if O2 continue to send unsolicited texts to my phone."), filled in precious personal information that will probably lead to more spam, only to get the message, " Error: escalation to O2 Customer Care failed."

So now this post is really a 'mobile phone companies that suck and their sucky websites' rant.

I coined a new term last night - the 'chemo mullet'. Hard to explain if you havne't seen those super-attitudey chopped mullet haircuts popular with wannabe trendy chicks who don't remember the 80s the first time round.

The winner of the two-year long [reality tv show] American Candidate contest will earn a shot at the White House in the November 2004 election

http://www.defectiveyeti.com/iraqevite/ sadly lists Australia as a 'no' when it should be a 'sure, whatever you say'.

Generate a name for the next 'operation'.

http://www.defectiveyeti.com/iraqevite/ sadly lists Australia as a 'no' when it should be a 'sure, whatever you say'.

BBC: MIT launches 'OpenCourseWare'. "Over the next 10 years, MIT will move all its existing coursework on to the internet." For free!

"MIT staff point out that if this initiative is successful, and other institutions follow, it will put the net back on track towards its original goal of sharing information and knowledge around the world, rather than selling CDs and t-shirts."

"President George Bush has outlined a new doctrine of "a distinctly American internationalism" that involves using US military might to impose its political will around the world."

I wonder what would happen if everyone else in the world boycotted America. If you gave it enough time to ramp up, you'd have whole new industries and revitalised economies around the world.

Age article called Hollywood vs. the Internet might be better called "Hollywood vs you": "At some date in the near future, perhaps as early as 2010, people may no longer be able to do the kinds of things they routinely do with their digital tools today. They may no longer be able, for example, to move music or video files easily from one of their computers to another. Their music collections, reduced to MP3s, may be movable to a limited extent, unless their hardware doesn't allow it. The digital videos they shot in 1999 may be unplayable on their desktop and laptop computers."

Handling Binary Files in cvs from a site called CVS Version Control for Web Site Projects seems to be written especially for web developers and has a nice explanation of cvs wrappers for binary files such as images, animations etc

BBC: "A German website is offering undecided voters advice on who they should support in this Sunday's Bundestag elections." The site asks for your opinion on a range of issues then tells you the party closest to your views. Fantastic.

The Age: " Women should be allowed to fight on the front line, Defence Minister Robert Hill has said. It is believed to be the first time an Australian defence minister has supported placing women in direct combat roles."

The Age: another sleazy marketing stunt - fake band releases advertising jingle as single.

http://gimp-savvy.com/ is full of gimpy goodness, and here's a whole collection of gimp links and scripts.

Media studies written for study in schools but an interesting read on photo manipulation, media ownership, advertising and Buffy.

The Age: "Another stage in Microsoft's five-year plan to control our PCs and the Internet will kick off early next year with the launch of Advanced Micro Devices' latest chip, Opteron, aimed at business uses."

The story about Australian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock's daughter leaving the country "partly as a result of her father's hardline stance on asylum" has made it to the BBC.

"Oil price tumbles in wake of Iraq backdown" - "Iraq's decision to accept the unconditional return of United Nations weapons inspectors today sent the oil price tumbling about four per cent." [The Age]

No wonder Bush isn't happy with Iraq even though they've done exactly what he asked and unconditionally agreed to let UN weapons inspectors in.

I wonder what excuse he'll find to go to war now. They're already whinging that it's a "a cynical ploy", something they'd obviously have no first-hand experience of.

From the Age: "Microsoft declines to fix security issue in Word". Never mind that 30% of their business customers still use it, they claim it's obsolete and they don't support it.

NTK provide proof of Bush and Blair's "special relationship".

Also, the Sunday Times reported on 8.9.2002, "Each of us knows that when the other gets in a bind there will always be a friend on the other end of the phone". Maybe they're getting back together?

Awwwww

BBC: Canada PM criticises 'arrogant' West

Onion: Bush won't stop asking Cheney if we can invade yet.

WASHINGTON, DC—Vice-President Dick Cheney issued a stern admonishment to President Bush Tuesday, telling the overeager chief executive that he didn't want to hear "so much as the word 'Iraq'" for the rest of the day.

Intellectual property rights 'harm poor'

This picture is doing the rounds with the question "Why does Bush want to go to war with Iraq?"

I went to the lonix (london linux users) meet tonight. It was really strange being in a Dutch pub and not speaking Dutch. Someone actually said to me, 'how does a pretty girl like you end up here?' Still, at least he wasn't ignoring me completely.

Actually, it wasn't too bad, considering I rocked up without knowing anyone. I had some interesting conversations.

The bar was meant to be 'stylishly dutch delivered with real personality' but it wasn't all that Dutch - the sandwiches in the 'Between the Bread' section of the menu were closed - two pieces of bread is sacrilege in the Netherlands.

So andrew 'fuckwit' sullivan is writing for salon now.
The quote below reads like he wrote a description of himself and changed a few words - conservative to liberal, right to left - to level the charges at his perceived opposition.

"He provides a stream-of-consciousness description of recent events,
filtered through the mind of an Upper West Side liberal, desperately
trying to out-rad-chic his peers. His columns are hard to refute because
there are no hard refutable arguments, merely a series of prejudices, or
alleged correlations, or mere observations designed to appeal to people
who already agree with him."

Classic comment in the Age's 9:11 Your Say: "I guess any country that is the worlds only super power would be referred to as a tyrant by some people, after all you cant please everyone."

BBC: US threatens world peace, says Mandela

BBC: New 'moon' found around Earth. How cool is that? I had absolutely no idea there was already a second 'moon':
"Earth's second one is called Cruithne. It was discovered in 1986 and it takes a convoluted horseshoe path around our planet as it is tossed about by the Earth's and the Moon's gravity. "

If you play all of these dying hard drive noises at once, you'll get an idea of what the roadworks outside the office sound like.

Dubya proclaimed he was "leave a legacy of freedom behind for our children and our grandchildren". Exactly what freedoms they'll have left isn't clear, given the recent erosion of civil liberties in the US and around the world after September 11.

This is a strange country. Today I saw a squirrel, and tried Worcester sauce flavoured chips.

I'm having a lot of trouble with lunch. I haven't seen a cafe yet that lists a salad sandwich on their menu, and I'm growing to hate repeating myself, "yes, a sandwich with just salad" (at least in Amsterdam I could ask for a broodje gezond zonder vlees). I've learnt never to say yes to 'mayonnaise' because it's usually actually 'salad cream'.

For some reason I'm listening to Radio L, "playing pop music Liechtenstein style".

Debugging Web Applications

I gave myself a disasterous haircut that made one of my housemates laugh and laugh. Then I fixed it up using a cd as a mirror and it didn't look too bad. Mia's haircut was brought to you tonight by the Throwing Muses and her unsteady right hand.

Fraser reckons "Unsteady Right Hand" is a great name for a band. If only I had some musical talent. Not that I really need any, I was watching the English Popstars and some girl explained she was at the audition because she 'liked singing and she was too dumb for school'.

http://maconlinux.net/

There really is a book for everything.

I just posted this question on the Dolly beauty page where
"Each week, Dolly Beauty Editor Nicole answers your questions."

Your Topic e.g Frizzy Hair: "First night out"

"Hi Nicole,

I'm going to a lesbian bar for the first time, and I don't know what to wear. Should I just dress like I was going to a party with my friends or do I have to look like a lesbian?

thanks! Mia"

Your half-baked ideas.

I've been researching boy bands for a new page, this 5ive site wasn't what I thought it might be, and check out this Christian boy page, featuring each member's favourite proverb.

New hate mail!

I'm number 9 in google's results for '"john howard" +australia'! It must be because he's such a good web server administrator.

Went to see NY electro-clash girl band 'Whatever it takes' at Sonic Mook Experiment at 93 Feet East tonight. It was a great gig, I'd buy their album and all, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was watching the Spice Girls of electro clash.

Tomorrow night, SoXaN and the Brick Lane Festival on Sunday.

Stolen from a smh article, new Branson airline Virgin Blue's representation of Australia, crazy style. (Thanks Merryl!)



And a follow up on the Tinky Winky job offer.

Comparisons are odious, but sometimes hard to resist. For all their size, Dutch supermarkets have almost less product range than your local tiny London off-licence.

So one of the reasons I left Melbourne is because it was so small that I couldn't leave the house without running into someone I know. But I ran into three people I knew on my way from the office to the tube tonight, so what does that say about London?

http://www.switchwithwhich.co.uk/ has a cool 'compare banks' feature if you ever move to the UK and need a bank account.

Real George Bush vs hyperreal George Bush.

It's scary how it doesn't seem to make much of a difference when you compare a George Bush speech filter to one of his actual speeches.

The Age: "Australia is not racist, say migrants".

"Just three per cent of migrants believe Australia is racist, a new report has found.

The Settlement Experiences of New Migrants report found that most people came to Australia because of its inviting attributes such as the climate rather than economic factors or misery in their home country.

Despite Australia's migration program being filled mainly by Asian, North African and Middle Eastern people, few complained that the country was racist. "

Can you pick which movies these invisible stars are in?

TELETUBBIE VACANCY