I should be somewhere between Sydney and Canberra right now, and that means the blog will come out of Automation shortly. Hopefully I’ll have some photos online soon.
Samuel
10 comments November 29th, 2006 at 02:00pm
Download of the week? Yep, I just missed a few weeks…
Anyway, my download of the week is a rather nifty little application called “1by1”.
1by1 is a handy little MP3 (and other formats) player which plays all the MP3 files in a folder, or with a touch of tweaking, a set of folders, I personally love its smart crossfading ability which rarely ever seems to get a crossfade wrong, as long as you don’t fiddle with the settings too much.
Whilst I think it is quite a good application, I do have some reservations about the interface, which is a tad cumbersome and you do have to rely on the tooltips to workout what some of the buttons do, but seeing as it is more or less a “start playback and minimise” application, the interface is only a minor setback.
Basically it is a nifty little application (100KB) which I prefer over a lot of the larger, more mainstream, media players which are invariably bloated and quirky. 1by1 is a nice little application which fills a niche, and I’m happy to be able to recommend it.
(Click to enlarge)
1by1:
Website: http://mpesch3.de1.cc/1by1.html
Price: Free.
Rating: 4/5
Samuel
1 comment November 29th, 2006 at 06:01am
Right now I’m either in my hotel room, visiting 2UE, or returning to my hotel after visiting 2UE. Either way, keep your ear out, because I’ll probably give Stuart Bocking a call.
Samuel
November 29th, 2006 at 12:00am
Back in Sydney! Probably won’t need much dinner!
Samuel
November 28th, 2006 at 05:00pm
Time for lunch…we better feed the bus drivers if we want to go back to Sydney later this afternoon!
Speaking of food, here is a picture of my early Christmas present for John Kerr…which he should be receiving around about now.
Samuel
6 comments November 28th, 2006 at 12:00pm
The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round, the wheels on the bus go round and round, on the way to Terrigal!
Yes, that’s right, I’m off to Terrigal, the bus should be picking me up from Chatswood around about now.
Samuel
November 28th, 2006 at 10:30am
By now I should be exploring Chatswood…if you’re in the area and spot me, feel free to come and say hello!
Samuel
November 28th, 2006 at 08:30am
Keep an ear out on 2CC, because sometime before 9am I’ll be giving Mike Frame (filling in for Mike Jeffreys) a call from Sydney, my subject will probably be the possibility of Stage Three water restrictions.
Samuel
November 28th, 2006 at 07:00am
Right now I should be just outside of Canberra and on my way up to Sydney.
Samuel
November 28th, 2006 at 04:30am
Around about now I should be waking up, having “breakfast” and making final preparations for my trip to Sydney.
Samuel
November 28th, 2006 at 02:00am
Long-term readers would remember that last year I attended John Kerr’s Christmas Cruise. Well I’m not entirely sure if John is having a Christmas function this year, but I do know that tomorrow he is having a luncheon at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Terrigal, on the New South Wales Central Coast.
I arranged my attendance for this event many weeks ago, and I must have snuck in just in the nick of time as the lunch sold out in two days flat. John has two coaches booked to take people from Sydney to Terrigal and back. At $50 for the coach trip and the lunch, this is extremely good value, and I am looking forward to it immensely.
Here is the information which was faxed to me along with the booking form by the good people at the Crowne Plaza Terrigal.
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Unlike last year, I will be staying in Sydney overnight (thanks to Sydney correspondent and Friday Funnies contributor Charity for recommending a hotel) and will not be revealing my itinerary. I will, however, say that I am looking forward to exploring Chatswood on Tuesday morning, hopefully meeting Charity on Wednesday morning, and visiting 2UE at some stage during my journey. I may decide to (once again) visit the Channel Seven News Studios in Martin Place, although I haven’t made up my mind yet.
I’ll be returning to Canberra on Wednesday afternoon, and should have plenty of photos to share.
While I’m away the blog will be in Automation mode, and you can look forward to the return of a regular feature on Wednesday morning. If you think you will have a need to be in contact with me during the time I am away, please email me before 2am Tuesday so that I can email some contact details to you.
Samuel
1 comment November 27th, 2006 at 01:07am
Here’s a comment I posted yesterday which is probably worth a read. I posted it in relation to the recent banning of Loki, and subsequent protest from some contributors.
Let me put it this way…I’m at work for the majority of each weekday, while at work I do not have access to this website or to my personal email, I therefore have no way of monitoring comments.
When I do finally have a chance to check on the site, I tend to find a bunch of completely off-topic, near-defamatory comments…often against people who either read, or know people who read this website.
It’s fine for you…the chances of anyone ever finding out who you are and being able to take legal action against you for defamation is minimal…I on the other hand am responsible for what gets published here…I’m the one who will be facing a defamation lawsuit one of these days.
I don’t mind if people wander off-topic occasionally, I don’t mind if people criticise me…and I enjoy reading a lot of the comments, but I have to take some action to avoid defamatory comments, and repeated attacks on various contributors.
I can’t force every comment into the moderation queue because I would only be able to check it once or twice a day…and that would stifle any discussion, therefore I have to revoke the comment writing privilege of people abuse their privilege.
Loki is strongly suspected of being someone who has been banned multiple times.
I don’t guarantee to be consistent, and I reserve the right to change the rules as I see fit, and to not publish those rules.
I don’t care if I lose contributors because they don’t like my administration of my own website, in my view it’s good riddance. Just because some parts of the Internet are seen as “anything goes” areas, doesn’t mean that I have to run the same kind of website…you have your own website Captain Flume, and anybody can setup their own website if they don’t like the rules on this one.
Basically, if you don’t like it, go away and don’t come back.
I appreciate that some people don’t like my stance, but I see no good reason why I, as the person paying for this website, should have to let everyone else dictate what goes on…actually, no, it’s not that I just don’t see a good reason…there are no good reasons. It’s my site, and I shouldn’t have to justify my administrative decisions.
It seems that many people have this absurd idea that the every website on the Internet has to adhere to some golden rule of free speech (When I started blogging I thought that was a great idea, but it just doesn’t work on the Internet) and that if you block a comment for any reason then you are some facist censorship pig from the office of Mr. Stalin. I like the idea of free speech, really I do, but with free speech comes responsibility…unfortunately many people on the Internet seem to think that they can ditch their responsibilities by being more-or-less anonymous, such reckless actions ruin it for everyone else, and make what could be a good place for open discussions a place with anxious admins…and that in turn scares the contributors who become paranoid about saying something “wrong”.
I, as the administrator here, have responsibilities too…I have to ensure that you don’t break the law when you post here, I have to maintain certain standards, and I have to clean up the mess when someone ditches their own responsibilities…I don’t like that last role, but if I didn’t do it, no one else would, and the website would be a complete waste of time, not to mention be in all sorts of legal trouble.
I did consider having someone acting as a moderator, but I can’t rely on other people to make those decisions, especially when I’m not making any money out of this website (the Google Ads might pay USD$100 in another year or two…if I’m lucky) and wouldn’t really be able to pay them for their time.
My decision is final, that’s the way the website works, if you don’t like it then there is nothing stopping you from complaining about it elsewhere, or sending me an abusive email…maybe you’d like to complain about it in the comments of this post…that’s fine, but I am tired of the constant ridicule of people who aren’t related to articles, the constant off-topic inuendo, and the constant attacks between certain contributors.
I like debates, I’m more than happy for you to debate (on topic) things here, and I’m more than happy for the occasional off-topic foray, and the occasional textually violent disagreements between contributors which are bound to occur. But when it happens too often, it becomes stale, boring and painfully monotonous.
There are two bottom lines here:
1. Your ability to contribute to this blog with comments is a privilege, not a right, and that privilege is granted and denied by me.
2. My site, my rules…I’m fairly flexible most of the time, but I have my limits, and many people hear have me at near or beyond breaking point.
My job
Another point of housekeeping, recently there has been some discussion here about my new job…admittedly I handed out more information than I later wanted to, and subsequently withdrew that information and have remained very tight-lipped about my job. This has created an air of mystery, and a few rather curious individuals.
For various personal and professional reasons I do not wish to discuss my job here, nor do I wish to hand out any information about it. I would also appreciate it if there was no further speculation about it on this website. If you must speculate about it, please do so elsewhere.
Your cooperation is appreciated.
All comments relating to the above are welcome in the comments section below.
Samuel
18 comments November 26th, 2006 at 11:26pm
This week the award goes to The Fortunes, and the feature song is “You Captured My Heart”.
What am I supposed to do
to stay with you a while
You put ideas inside my head
you turned around and smiled at me and said
Well maybe someday
she’ll put out the fire‘Cause you know that
You came, you saw, you captured my heart
You fought with love, you tore me apart
Now my life so it seems
Is lost in its dreams
What you gonna do ‘bout it
What you gonna do ‘bout it
You came and captured my heartCome and let me talk to you
I’ll tell you what I feel
Maybe you could see a way
Life seems so unreal now you must see
Just what you’re doing to me
I’m filled with desire‘Cause you know that
You came, you saw, you captured my heart
You fought with love, you tore me apart
Now my life so it seems
Is lost in its dreams
What you gonna do ‘bout it
What you gonna do ‘bout it
You came and captured my heartsay, well maybe someday
she’ll put out the fire‘Cause you know that
You came, you saw, you captured my heart
You fought with love, you tore me apart
Now my life so it seems
Is lost in its dreams
What you gonna do ‘bout it
What you gonna do ‘bout it
(What you gonna do ‘bout it)
You came and captured my heart‘Cause you know that
You came, you saw, you captured my heart
You fought with love, you tore me apart
Now my life so it seems
Is lost in its dreams
What you gonna do ‘bout it
What you gonna do ‘bout it
(What you gonna do ‘bout it)
You came and captured my heart‘Cause you know that
You came, you saw, you captured my heart
You fought with love, you tore me apart
Now my life so it seems
Is lost in its dreams
What you gonna do ‘bout it
What you gonna do ‘bout it
You came and captured my heartYou came, you saw, you captured my heart
Samuel
November 26th, 2006 at 07:24pm
Here’s another Friday Funny courtesy of Charity in Sydney.
A local business was looking for office help.
They put a sign in the window, stating the following:
HELP WANTED.
Must be able to type,
Must be good with a computer
Must be bilingual.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer.
A short time afterwards, a dog trotted up to the window, saw the sign and went inside.
He looked at the receptionist and wagged his tail, then walked over to the sign, looked at it and whined.
Getting the idea, the receptionist got the office manager.
The office manager looked at the dog and was surprised, to say the least. However, the dog looked determined, so he lead him into the office.
Inside, the dog jumped up on the chair and stared at the manager.
The manager said, “I can’t hire you. The sign says you have to be able to type.”
The dog jumped down, went to the typewriter and proceeded to type out a perfect letter.
He took out the page and trotted over to the manager and gave it to him, then jumped back on the chair.
The manager was stunned, but then told the dog, “The sign says you have to be good with a computer.”
The dog jumped down again and went to the computer. The dog proceeded to enter and execute a perfect program, that worked flawlessly the first time.
By this time the manager was totally dumb-founded! He looked at the dog and said “I realise that you are a very intelligent dog and have some interesting abilities. However, I still can’t give you the job.”
The dog jumped down and went to a copy of the sign and put his paw on the sentences that told about being an Equal Opportunity Employer.
The manager said, “Yes, but the sign also says that you have to be bilingual.”
The dog looked at the manager calmly and said, “Meow!”
Do you have something you would like to contribute to Friday Funnies? If so, email it to smoothwallsamuel@gmail.com. All contributions welcome!
Samuel
8 comments November 24th, 2006 at 09:54am
Good morning Stuart,
While I was listening to your caller earlier who didn’t know much about cricket (except that silly point has something to do with it) I suddenly remembered this explanation of cricket which I saw on Lawsie’s website a while back…hopefully it will clear things up a bit!
Cricket: As explained to a foreigner
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out, and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out. When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.
When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.
Have a good weekend Stuart.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
November 24th, 2006 at 03:00am
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