Canberra can be interesting at times. I took these two photos after seeing this rather insane sight and thinking “I don’t know how they managed it, but this needs to be preserved”, and so it is, here, in photo form, for your entertainment.
Firstly, the scenic view, the lamp post is roughly three metres high.
And now, the closeup. Yes, it is three shopping baskets. They are from Woolworths (“The Fresh Food People” is their tagline), and the nearest Woolworths is roughly ten minutes away. There are a number of closer supermarkets so I’m not sure why the Woolworths baskets were chosen.
Needless to say, somebody had too much time on their hands!
As many of you will recall from the many previous posts on the subject, I have been awaiting audio from Linux.Conf.Au 2005 so that I can complete the video of my seminar at the Security Miniconf and put it online.
A couple weeks ago I received a google alert which pointed me to one of the organiser’s blogs. That blog outlined some problems with the audio. Tonight I have recieved an email (which was sent to the LCA-Announce mailing list) further outlining audio problems etc. The full email is quoted below.
Unfortunately, this does make it almost impossible to continue with the video, I’ll just have to wait and see if I can use any of it at all, and I suspect that wait will be semi-lengthy. On the bright side, if I can make use of it I might be able to check if my name was called out as a laptop winner on one of the mornings that I missed the announcements by a few minutes, if it wasn’t then I will be happy I didn’t miss anything…if it was, well, then I’ll be preparing to yell at Nourthbourne Avenue for a while.
Anyway, here is the email which was sent out to the LCA Announce mailing list
Once the Linux Australia mirroring project is live we will upload the 25 GB
of captured Fluendo audio/video data for anyone who wishes to play with and
see if there is any hope of getting more out of this.
CD Mailout
Due to the audio problems we will simply burn all the papers and the website
to CD and post a copy out to all delegates, I apologise for the loss of
audio recordings and the delay in getting all of this sorted, hopefully this
is the only negative marring what I hope was an otherwise very enjoyable
conference for all involved. The CD’s will be mastered and posted within the
next 30 days after this email.
Thanks to the linux.conf.au 2005 crew
Kristy Bennett
Michael Bennett
Rob Bolin
Tony Breeds
Neill Cox
Bob Edwards
Jeremy Kerr
Andrew Pollock
Martin Pool
Alli Russell
Rusty Russell
Michael Still
Chris Yeoh
Mike Beattie and the rest of the linux.conf.au 2006 crew in Dunedin in New
Zealand are doing some great stuff in preparation for next year’s
conference, sign up as soon as the registration opens as they are working
towards making lca2006 the best linux.conf.au ever.
Thanks from the lca2005 crew.
See You
Steve
—
Steven Hanley (Email hidden by Samuel) http://svana.org/sjh/diary
i would have returned your greeting
if it weren’t for the way you were looking at me
this street is not a market
and i am not a commodity
The Story – Ani Difranco – Ani
Despite the fact I didn’t post it last night, I was watching World Sport and noticed that they changed the question. As you may recall from the previous post on the matter, SBS World Sport asked
Were you surprised by the doping allegations against Lance Armstrong or have they proven your suspicions?
but by the time they went to air last night with the results of the poll they had changed the question to
Does the EPO claim by L’Equipe confirm your belief that Lance Armstrong was not clean when winning the 1999 Tour De France?
So SBS changed the question overnight without telling anyone and then published the results.
The results show that people were confused, SBS World Sport polls are almost always 70%-30% one way or the other, but last night they were
Yes: 46%
No: 54%
Congratulations SBS, you sure do know how to make a mess and pretend you didn’t.
To change the subject, this post is officially the first one to have a samuelgordonstewart.com picture.
Alrighty then, I’ve spent way too much time on the layout, but it is almost the way I want it.
I would like to thank Martin Pot for his excellent guide to Web Page Printability With CSS as I couldn’t have done half of this without it. I will admit that I was pulling out my hair trying to work out why nothing would work for me at one stage, but it then turned out that I had mistyped a couple things and a few links were pointing to the wrong place.
Things that I have left to do include:
Fix the blogger.com hosted images
At the moment all the blogger.com hosted images are hiding as they appear to be blocking referrals from non-blogger.com websites.
Fix the links to posts
Currently all the links to posts are pointing to the old website. This should be just a matter of changing the domain and possibly a couple characters as I have modified the WordPress permalink structure so that it is similar to blogger.com
Import the various buttons, links, etc from the old site
I will be bringing in most of the buttons etc from the old site so that the site looks a bit better and suits me more
Edit some of the old posts
Some of the old posts will require minor editing/PDFing to make them look and work better, the Samuel In Dolgnwot series in particular needs the titles ammended so that they don’t all appear at once when you follow the permalink for one of them.
Categories
One of the many benifits of WordPress is categories, which will ultimately make it easier to navigate the archive of posts
Other stuff
There are some other minor things that need doing that I can’t think of right now, but if you have any suggestions then please let me know. You could do that by leaving a comment or using the contact form (see the button at the top of the page?)
Welcome to the new home for Samuel’s Blog.
This marks a new and exciting chapter for Samuel’s Blog, as I now have my own hosting and more control over how things work. I am still working on a few things, and there are plenty of links that still point at the old site, but I’m getting there.
The current theme will not be the final theme, soon I will update the theme to give the site a better look and feel.
Comments remain the same as always, and are now much easier to work with.
I’ll continue to keep you updated as the site continues to undergo some interesting little changes.
I’m going to start moving this blog over to samuelgordonstewart.com now, I will keep the archives here, but there may be some temporary downtime in the process.
I don’t know how many of you watch the SBS program, World Sport, but I do on occasion, and I was doing so tonight. They had a story about doping allegations and cyclist Lance Armstrong, apparently it has been semi-proven that he is a drug cheat. SBS then followed that story with their nightly “World Sport SMS Poll”. I don’t remember the exact question, but it was something along these lines: “Were you surprised by the doping allegations against Lance Armstrong or have they proven your suspicions?” After this, viewers are invited to send an SMS containing “Yes” or “No” to some phone number that I don’t remember.
But hang on a moment, can you repeat the question? “Were you surprised by the doping allegations against Lance Armstrong or have they proven your suspicions?” Errr, isn’t that actually two questions? Which one do you want an answer to? I could quite happily say “No” the allegations didn’t surprise me, and “Yes” they have proven my suspicions…but I can’t send “No Yes” and expect my vote to be counted.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but World Sport recently changed their wallpaper to a rather eye-exploding “semi-return to the mid 80’s tango redish orange desert pattern safari”, looks worse when they show the set from a distance too, it looks like a few cans of paint exploded.
Is it just me, or are SBS trying to dumb down their usage of the English language in an attempt to avoid alienating the mainstream commercial television audience? For example, they have introduced a new name for an existing show, which to me at least, appears to be an oxymoron. “World News Australia” Excuse me? Whatever happened to “World News” & “World News Tonight”? Why has our multicultural broadcaster suddenly decided that all news in the world revolves around Australia? Perhaps it is half of a badly edited statement: “Good evening and welcome to the world news, Australia.” Perhaps SBS think that more people want to watch a news that has the word “Australia” in the title. (Well, check the ratings, people seem to like it if it says “Seven” or “Nine”). Maybe SBS think the world is too big for one half hour. Or maybe, just maybe, SBS have gone mad.
Whatever the reason is, SBS do seem to be going downhill. I blame it all (mostly) on the fact that they are cost cutting. They cut those fantastic movie intros from their (then) movie buffs David & Margaret. SBS had themes for each night of the week, and a different presenter for that night’s movie, somebody who specialised in that particular genre of movie. It wasn’t just David & Margaret either, they had a rather talented bunch. I will always remember those Saturday night cult movies, they were often pretty bad sci-fi/fantasy combinations, but they did have a certain charm to them after an intro from the cult movie presenter. One of the many movie series’ I will remember is Gamera, the Japanese lizard dragon monster thing (possibly a copy of Godzilla) which could never seem to make up it’s mind whether it was helping or destroying the humans, but it always had a small boy as a friend and always seemed to encounter a “Toy monster Vs Model boat” scene.
I also remember a time when SBS was the central repository for the cream of international (mainly European) primetime entertainment, buying the rights to many varied and interesting TV shows. It would be common place to get strange looks for talking about that “fantastic Norwegian show that aired every week” but everybody, it seemed, had a guilty pleasure in watching at least one of those shows.
Those days are gone however, and now SBS try to style themselves on the ABC “Tonight, lots of documentaries” and the generic SBS “Let’s throw in some more soccer, inane shows with explosions (ooooh, ratings) and adult programming from sweeden”.
It is unfortunate to see SBS degenerate to such forms of entertainment, and I fear they are producing further cost cutting by buying the rights to the cricket. Seven could have continued the cricket, they did a good job (apart from Tony Squires), or the ABC, but not SBS. The shoestring budget has been stretched, and I fear SBS are going to continue to show programs filled with lunatics blowing stuff up just to prove they can’t do what you saw in that movie, more of those drastic wallpaper changes on the local shows, more documentaries that nobody is really interested in seeing, and more of those Swedish/German/somewhere late night adult programs.
I say bring back the gold old SBS that we had years ago…and scrap The Movie Show, the idiots on there now wouldn’t know a film from a canary.
Anyway, to get back to the main topic of discussion, I will be making sure that I record World Sport tomorrow night to see two things: 1. Will they reword the question and make a nonsense of the answers between now and then? 2. What will the ultimate confused outcome of this ludicrous poll be? After recording I will take a screenshot and post it here for you all to admire!
It would appear that I will be moving this blog soon as I have just bought the domain name samuelgordonstewart.com
There isn’t anything there yet, but there will be soon. I must say though, the hosting company have an interesting statement about custom error pages in their online manual: Custom error pages that are smaller than 10k in size will not display properly in Internet Explorer. Insert a large amount of text into a comment to create the required size.
Oh thankyou great code monkeys at Microsoft, if I want my error pages to work in your “browser” I have to perform a file bloat….well thankyou sooo much.
This week my musician of the week award goes to Neil Diamond, and the feature song that he sung is Kentucky Woman, which I think suits him…hopefully you know what I mean, as that last sentence a far too many incorrect meanings. Basically I think that Kentucky Woman is a song which suits his singing style and shows him as a great performer, and so it should, he wrote it after all.
Kentucky Woman She shines with her own kind of light She look at you once in a day That’s all wrong looks all right And I love her God knows I love her
Kentucky Woman If she get to know you She goin’ to own you Kentucky Woman
Well, she ain’t the kind Make heads turn at the drop of her name But something inside That she’s got turns you on just the same And She loves me God knows She loves me
Kentucky Woman If she get to know you She goin’ to own you Kentucky Woman
I don’t want much The good Lord’s earth beneath my feet A gentle touch From that one girl and life is Sweet and good There ain’t no doubt I’m talking about
Kentucky Woman If she get to know you She goin’ to own you Kentucky Woman
I don’t want much The good Lord’s earth beneath my feet A gentle touch From that one girl and life is Sweet and good There ain’t no doubt Hey, I’m talking about
Kentucky Woman If she get to know you She goin’ to own you Kentucky Woman
Unfortunately, Schnappi has slipped two positions to be 8th on the ARIA singles chart this week. It is unfortunate in my mind because it is the only thing on there that I like.
I am now working with Australian Independent Radio News (AIR News), presenting news bulletins on Saturdays. I presented my first three bulletins yesterday (11am-1pm) and will now be presenting the 11am-5pm bulletins on Saturdays. I’m not going to put any of my bulletins online at the momentbecause A) I haven’t got anywhere to put a file at the moment B) A isn’t exactly true, I could fill up servers I’m not supposed to fill, but I won’t C) Copyright issues are funny little tricky things to work with D) I don’t want to be unfair on AIR News member stations who have paid for these bulletins I will put ONE bulletin online eventually, but it will be at least a week after it airs, and will be after I have bought some webspace. If you want to hear one of my bulletins before then, tune in to one of the member stations, or, if you are out of their coverage area, email me.
Anyway, I’m enjoying it. It is an interesting and valuable experience, and I hope to be doing it for some time to come.
While I’m at it, if you know of any Australian community or blackspot commercial radio stations that could use a reliable and cost-effective hourly news service, then let them know about AIR News, it has, in at least one circumstance, prompted people to join as members of the radio stations. AIR News offers a free trial so there really isn’t anything to lose.
You could call this shameless self promotion, but that is not my motive. I’m just trying to spread the word about a quality service.
Also while I’m at it, a very big thankyou to Artie Stevens, manager of AIR News, is in order, as he has provided me with this fantastic opportunity, thanks Artie!
Radio 3AW’s Kelly Underwood became the first female footbal caller in the country today after co-commentating the last quarter of the Essendon V Carlton AFL match this afternoon. It wasn’t exactly an exciting match, with Essendon beating Carlton 28.14.182 to 11.17.83 (If you’re not Australian that probably doesn’t mean much to you, but it is a huge win), but Kelly still did a fantastic job and deserves her place in history.
Well done Kelly!
3AW’s AFL coverage can be heard on the web from their website, in Melbourne on 3AW (1278 AM), in Canberra on 2CA (1053 AM), and a bunch of other stations right around Australia.
If you have ever been sitting in a New York hotel room and wish you had gone to Africa instead, then you visited New York to early. It would appear that scientists want to “rewild” animals such as Cheetahs, Lions and Elephants by releasing them in america. They argue that it would help to prevent them from becoming extinct in Africa, they also claim that the long lost semi-blood ancestors of many of these animals once roamed the North American continent.
Now, it might just be me, but an encounter with a Lion at a busy intersection isn’t my idea of fun…and I’m sure that the Americans don’t want an elephant stampede to run across the freeway in peak hour.
If you think about it, there have been lengthy debates about saving native American species, and some previous attempts at relocating various species have been dismal failures.
I’m not saying don’t save the Elephant, Cheetah, Lion, etc. I’m just saying, don’t make a whole new species. The world doesn’t need an American elephant, and the freeways don’t need lions.
It’s not quite the same thing, but I suspect somebody has watched the fiirst half-hour of Jurassic Park a few too many times….to that person, watch the rest of the movie and see what happens, you should also watch Jumanji which will give you a pretty good insight into the workings of wild animals in urban areas, no matter what your doctorate tells you, they won’t be playing cards and smoking cigars. I can guarantee that you’ll rethink your insane idea…unless your brain isn’t useful, which could very well be the case with an idea like that.
In case you are looking for a job, Tree Of Life in the Canberra Centre are advertising for an “Acting Assistant Manager”, yes, you read it correctly, an “Acting Assistant Manager”.
Now, to my mind, somebody who is acting in a role is simply filling the role of somebody who has retired or gone on leave…acting is an internal pseudo-promotion, not an actual job…..I suppose that Tree Of Life could be preparing to produce a film…are they going to pay the “Acting Customers”???
I’ve just found the feedback form on their website, I might ask them what they think an “Acting Assistant Manager” is. Interestingly, none of the other jobs are “acting” positions.
Whilst we are talking about the civic area, tonight a woman was standing outside Supabarn and took a photo of the checkout…a minute later she took a photo of Baker Delight, causing much hysterical laughter amongst the staff there…don’t ask me what the photos were in aid of, it just seemed rather odd to me…and the surrounding people.
In a nearby apartment block, somebody has somehow managed to put a shopping basket on top of a lightpost…I don’t know and I don’t want to know how they did it (well, maybe I’m a little curious), but I would like to know why they did it….maybe they’ll build a shop around it….who knows…
All these things serve one purpose….keep the planet interesting!
Welcome fellow 2CC listeners, you will find various comments, drawings and photos from myself and others here. Most of it belongs to me, some of the comments belong to others. And my crocodile writings are below.
In case you were listening to my conversation with Mike Jeffreys this morning and you are wondering what this “riot act” thing is that Mike mentioned, clicking here will take you there.
