Weekly Tweets
- RT @Zee: YouTube, Last.fm mashup is pretty good, very illegal http://tnw.to/3MjW by @MartinSFP #
- @warlach - Agreed, New graffiti laws are ridiculous. 6 months imprisonment? Way to help the youths.. http://bit.ly/21g0y0 #ihatenathanrees #
- @Warlach ooooh, link me, link me... That sounds like something I'd be pissed off by too. in reply to Warlach #
- Just watched Australia beat England 18-9. Awesome, needed that lift.
# - A rollerskating jam named Saturdays - classic - http://bit.ly/nEFOy #
- Just watched Leicester beat the boks. Awesome. #
- @sach33 Yeah sure, its just over there. in reply to sach33 #
- @brop There needs to be a leaderboard that includes people with lives tho. Brop #1 - 140, 95% Life! in reply to brop #
- @brop Damn, thats a great score.. I am still at 71! in reply to brop #
- Yahooie, just got my Google Wave invite... Now what do I do with it? #
- @BlokesLib Timezones really seem to throw people. Or, the fact that people live outside the US really seems to throw people. in reply to BlokesLib #
- @BlokesLib haha, yep, me too. in reply to BlokesLib #
- At a parent teacher night at abbeys Kindy for next year. So exciting. She is growing up. #
- @clembastow If it helps, I just realised I'm not the type of dude people want as Prime Minister... in reply to clembastow #
- wow... iTerm is such an enormous piece of crap. #
- @neerav 500 days is too long! Just think of what else they could destroy in that time! in reply to neerav #
- Have uploaded all Fiji snorkelling pics to flickr, including the shark that almost ate me... http://bit.ly/2TZQb7 #
- Reading: Hunting for Tuna: The Environmental Peril Grows http://bit.ly/3DoT2W @time #
- Started adding my Fiji shots to Flickr. First snorkelling trip is up. http://bit.ly/4EucXk #
- My horses vanished after a minute or so.. I reckon they just ducked out the side and went home. #melbournecup #
- Just found the 'Image Capture' app on Snowleopard.. Can tell it to stop opening iPhoto when my iPhone is connected. Thank God! #
- @brop You should probably take it off. Ticks lose their appeal after a day or two. in reply to brop #
- My two horses for the work Melbourne Cup sweeps here at work may as well already be glue.
*sigh* # - Optoma Pico Pocket Projector - SO freaking cool! http://bit.ly/3ENwGm #
- Read an awesome article in Time mag on the plane from Fiji about 4 day work weeks. http://bit.ly/1BQ8wn #
- http://twitpic.com/nzeha - About to land in Sydney. Looks cloudy. #
Weekly Tweets
- Looks like Microsoft Poland have fixed their site. That was pretty quick! Good thing I got some screen shots first. #
- RT @kevinrose: WHOA, Microsoft: http://bit.ly/nHOeq and Microsoft Poland: http://bit.ly/slQuQ - spot the difference? horrible... #
- @sienareine That or crying. Whatever is easiest. #
- @sienareine There's an app for that. #
- FYI - Hiring the first applicants for a job, despite arguments to the contrary, might not necessarily be the best choice.... #
- @shanmoorthy So awesome - what car was it? I want a car again. #
- Love that I just found a DVD online for $2.99 from the states.... with $60 postage. #
- Getting some strange results using Javascript animation with different display values - Block seems best, followed by table-row-group. #
- @zlot All combinations of numbers between 1 and 9 have the same symbol. The Gopher isn't *that* smart. #
- Choosing AVG for the networks anti virus was the worst decision ever.its taken over my browser (search page and toolbar) and wont validate. #
- @silvervest You do know that your links to translationparty.com don't work, dont you? #
- Looking forward to getting off my restricted bike license and getting my new bike in a few weeks. Will be awesome! #
- Having a chocolate muffin... Its the first thing I have eaten since my Bacon and Egg roll for breakie.... Gotta do a double workout tonight #
- Just signed the contract at my new work. Super excited, 2 weeks to go. #
- Loving this... Lost in translation? http://imgur.com/8ayiJ.jpg #
Microsoft Poland – What were they thinking?
Its been a while since I posted on this blog, primarily because I have been busy with all sorts of things and also because I post on sustainmyself.com and fliquidstudios.com a lot also. But, this was one post I couldn't pass up.
In a tweet by @kevinrose this morning, attention was brought to the similarities between the Microsoft main business developments site and its Polish counterpart. And their differences.
As this is likely to get changed as soon as Mr Gates becomes aware, I have grabbed some screen shots of the two sites so we can always bask in the intelligence that is Microsoft (and Poland, apparently).
Let me note here that this is NO JOKE! The addresses of these two pages were http://www.microsoft.com/businessproductivity/default.mspx and http://www.microsoft.com/poland/businessproductivity/default.mspx respectively.
Microsoft Main Site;
Microsoft Poland Site;
How many stock photos do you think Microsoft has? If they are running out, they can buy them for about a buck from iStockPhoto. This is one of the most ridiculous things I have seen.
You'd never see this on a RedHat site.
EDIT: Mashable has posted an update to this stating that Microsoft has issued a public apology.
Been a while…
Its been a long time since I updated this blog and I thought I'd better put something up before people think I'm dead.
My issue with this blog is so; I post my technical knowledge now at Fliquid Studios and my Green / Eco / Sustainability at Sustain Myself so I don't really know what to write here anymore. I do have a fair bit to write about from the news or a socialist activism point of view but don't really think many people like reading my complaints and arguments about how much better I could rule the world if I got the chance.
I recently started working at a new company after a potential business venture worked out to be too difficult for me in the current economic climate. The company I work for is fantastic and I am playing a fairly pivotal part in their moving forward in the market. My problem is that there are so many things that need to be done for this company and I simply can't sit back and wait for others to do it because there aren't any others. I could do nothing, but I can't do that when I know there is work to be done. I have also put forward a helluva lot of changes that I think are necessary and that means even more work, so I am absolutely flat out during business hours and I don't generally get online in the evenings (its the last thing I want to do). This means that its getting harder and harder for me to commit the time to a blog (or blogs).
I have started at the Gym though and three times a week I crowbar myself away from work to spend 40mins kicking my own ass. Yesterday I burned 220cal on the bike there which I thought was cool (of course my lunch was about 1200cals but thats a story for another day).
While I am enjoying my job (for the first time in a long time) I feel less energetic about other things. I haven't been spending much time with my fish lately and that upsets me as my fish seem to relax me and give me my own thing to concentrate on, away from everything else.
Have you ever thought that this is not where you planned to be? I had high hopes for myself, I was going to establish myself somewhere, somehow and I just haven't managed to do it. While I have been extremely fortunate in my life, I wish I had worked harder when I was younger and had less financial commitments so that I would be able to have more behind me at this stage of my life.
I was looking at houses for sale in Tasmania today and found this. I love it. Look at the view! And its more than $100k cheaper than the house we have bought. What an awesome lifestyle change that would be. I'd have to commute to Sydney, but what's a few hours flying everyday?
On a final note, I am more in love with my daughter every day and although she tests me so much, I think she's my main reason for staying sane.
Over and Out.
Stupid Usability FAIL!
Ok, I know I have been neglecting this blog for a long time. Thats because most of my technical rantings have moved to Fliquid Studios. But, I needed to share one of the most ridiculous usability failures I have ever experienced.
Today I was searching for a simple tank volume calculator to work out how many US Gallons my fish tank is (179 for those interested), so I made a quick search on Google and then clicked on the second result. Well, the page loaded and then a javascript alert popped up saying "The Lightnin Tank Volume Calculator currently supports Netscape Navigator 6 and Internet Explorer 5." which wasn't too bad but then by clicking yes, sent me back to my Google results! So, basically they are saying that because I don't use IE5 (released in 1999!!!) or Netscape 6 (released 2002) and that Firefox only accounts for 20% of the browsing market share, I cannot view the page. Of course, I could disable javascript but why? If they don't want me on their site then that's up to them, but I can't see how they still have the 2nd spot in Google with this stupid approach to web development.
</rant>
What happened to all my hard drive space?
Recently I was trying to upgrade using Yum on my Fedora 9 machine and I got an awful message that I did not have enough space to complete the upgrade. What the hell? My / partition has a huge 10GB, how can this be so?
[root@Garth Download]# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2 9.5G 8.7G 312M 97% /
tmpfs 722M 80K 722M 1% /dev/shm
/dev/sda4 17G 12G 4.2G 75% /home
/dev/sda1 28G 25G 3.1G 90% /mnt/Winxp
As you can see, my laptop has a 60GB hdd, so I am consistently having this argument with it.
The problem with most command line utilities is that it is difficult to see what you have installed and how much space each has. Then I remembered a little script that I used a few years back that told me what RPM's I had installed and how big each was. Eureka! Just what I need.
So, I had a little fun, did a little search and found the beloved rpmhogs script.
Check this out;
[root@Garth Download]# perl rpmhogs.pl
246,007,784 java-1.5.0-gcj-javadoc-1.5.0.0-21.fc9.x86_64
246,902,300 java-1.6.0-openjdk-javadoc-1.6.0.0-0.13.b09.fc9.x86_64
231,068,455 openoffice.org-core-2.4.1-17.4.fc9.x86_64
114,684,216 texlive-texmf-fonts-2007-22.fc9.noarch
91,189,935 glibc-common-2.8-3.x86_64
87,927,623 compat-gcc-34-c++-3.4.6-9.x86_64
84,367,402 git-1.5.5.1-1.fc9.x86_64
<snip>
How good is that? I love it. Now I need to uninstall a crap load of stuff I dont use.
And, yes, my Laptop's name is Garth. My media PC is named Cassandra and my wifes laptop is named Wayne. Who can guess my theme?
Save the net!
Redundancy is a bitch
Well, today I found out that I am no longer required at REA Group (realestate.com.au). It doesn't come as a surprise but it is certainly not welcome.
I have a few things in the pipeline, but the most exciting is the partnership with Michael Little in Fliquid Studios which is a web application development company.
We have a lot of applications we are working on and will plan on launching shortly. I will keep everybody up to date with what is going on.
In the meantime, I plan on just relaxing a bit. Its been a busy few years and having a month off is very attractive right now.
Terrorism for sale
Almost an hour ago (or maybe more) one of the worlds most popular blogs, mashable, posted about Google Ads for Terrorism. Basically, Googles automated ad server, which picks up on keywords and displays ads based on those words, seems to advertise a lot of bad stuff.
eBay had this problem for a long time. A Google search for 'live slaves' would bring up eBay ads for 'Cheap Live Slaves!'. Fortunately, they have now been removed and the only ads for 'Live Slaves' now are for women. Phew.
Anyway, so I was thinking to myself, that if one of the worlds largest, most popular blogs posts about something that is very offensive to a lot of people and being perpetrated by the worlds largest and most respected internet behemoth, they are likely to fix it quick smart, right? Wrong. The thing is, this has been happening for a while A quick search on Google reveals hundreds of thousands of results. Interestingly, the first link I clicked on that criticised Google was apparently a malware site.
I continued to the site anyway despite the multiple full page warnings. There were a bunch of great examples of this approach to automated ad campaigns;
I thought I'd try this out for myself. So I went to nytimes.com and did a search for 'terrorism'. Low and behold, look at the ads Google decided to give me;
Surely, in this extreme technological period. The worlds largest online company can come up with an algorithm that would stop this from happening. I personally, having never been directly affected by terrorism, dont find it very offensive, more surprising. Still, I find it very odd.
Greenpeace activists let off after 35k damage to power plant
A judge has let a bunch of Greenpeace activists off the hook after they did 35,000 pounds damage to a coal plant. In their defence, they stated that the plant will do much more damage than that in the future and were all found not guilty.