Friday, April 16, 2010

Modern communications

Anything you Twitter, SMS, Blog, Facebook, MSN, ICQ, Skype, email, Voicemail... and say can and will be used against you:

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/young-libs-obama-monkey-jibe-20100416-sid9.html

Thursday, April 15, 2010

While reading the paper today...

I think I stumbled on my most detested media personality. I didn’t think it would be possible to find a journalist whose views represent the perfect antithesis of my views on every single issue I could find a published article on.

But judge for yourself whether or not Miranda Devine is odious or not:

Evildoers, not Pope, to blame
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/politics/evildoers-not-pope-to-blame-20100414-sdyj.html

Favourite quote:
"... it also has to be said that if paedophilia seems to be on the increase, it has been enabled by the eroticisation of our culture over decades, and even priests are not immune."

Abbott's real trouble is the sisterhood
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/abbotts-real-trouble-is-the-sisterhood-20091202-k689.html

Favourite quote:
"The fact is, Abbott's so-called woman trouble is with a particular subset of female - the aggressively secular, paleo-feminist, emasculating Australian broad, for whom unabashed red-blooded blokeishness is an affront of biblical proportions."

Bring it on, Labor, pull that trigger http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/bring-it-on-labor-pull-that-trigger-20090814-el50.html?page=-1

Favourite quote:
"Something stinks in the climate science industry. The confected sense of urgency. The fantasy that imposing a new tax on Australians will make any difference to the age-old phenomenon of climate change."

ETS may be for Rudd what Work Choices was for Howard
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/ets-may-be-for-rudd-what-work-choices-was-for-howard-20091201-k3xt.html

Favourite quote:
"John Howard wore the Howard-haters like a badge of courage. The more they piled on the invective, the greater the public desire to give him a fair go. For Abbott, the more intemperate and irrational the Abbott-haters, the stronger he will become."

Roads are for cars, not Lycra louts
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/roads-are-for-cars-not-lycra-louts-20091028-hkwr.html?autostart=1

Favourite quote:
"Whoever made up the Roads and Traffic Authority's 1990s slogan ''the road is there to share'' has a lot to answer for. It's a big fat lie. The road is not there to share. Roads are built for cars."

"Lies told by the Government and the RTA gave cyclists unreasonable expectations and ideas above their station. The former roads minister Carl Scully, a vegetarian cyclist, threw $250 million at the lobby, further fuelling expectations which were dashed by subsequent roads ministers."

"Bikes and pedestrians are allowed on to roads only under the good graces of motorists, and only when they do not pose a traffic hazard."

A worm to make you squirm
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/a-worm-to-make-you-squirm-20100324-qwn2.html

Favourite quote:
"The worm is a moron. Channel Nine host Tracy Grimshaw ought to apply an IQ test to her audience of "undecided" voters before she gives them a licence to press buttons."

"When the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, appeared on screen, the worm plunged. The more he talked, the lower the worm fell. And when he talked of pink batts, school halls, "rip-off after rip-off","waffle", ''amateur-hour experimentation", "anyone can list problems; the hard part is solving them", the worm maintained a sullen decline, exposing a group mindset clinging to utopian fantasy rather than facing the reality of the limitations of government."

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Life Lesson

Don't EVER purchase anything from Dell. Or rather, if you purchase anything from them, just hope that nothing ever goes wrong. Because calling them with an issue is like calling Optus:

1. You get routed around 5 different people on a single call, and have to re-tell your story to every one of them
2. They constantly put you on hold while they check one of their innumerable systems for details
3. They never call you back when they say they will
4. They speak with an accent you can hardly understand (in this case American-weirdly-ultra-polite-m'am-every-second-word)
5. It takes between 3-5 phone calls of 30min+ duration to get anything to happen
6. They are only available 9-5 weekdays - oh you mean you are at work then? So take a day off and wait for them to arrive, that's not an imposition on your time what's the big deal
7. Expensive AND bad service

Laptop still not working... now they reckon it's the motherboard.