Tram Town
Saturday, February 28, 2004
| Category: rec.humor.funny I know many of our readers have been around the 'net for a long time but I am still surprised how many do not know about RHF. A typical example made me giggle a lot today. If no-one else likes this post at least my mum will. |
| Category: Music (OK, probably, possibly, politics(left)) I just listened to this and was astonished by the platitudes sung about. I have fond memories of this song from about 30 years back but given I was about 15yo I didn't appreciate some of the subtleties, by Jingo What Were They Thinking? And in trying to find the above, I found this and for God's Sake, who are the Undead? Hope I die before I get old! Oops, bit late! |
| Category: Anal Retentives Anonymous My name is Destination Bored and I am an Anal Retentive. It's true! I've used CDDB to catalogue all of my CD's. I use iTunes to manage them. Years ago I wrote a program to catalogue all of my vinyl (shareware, two people downloaded it from Compuserve). I've been worried like all look out about how I was going to catalogue my DVD collection. Now I can. |
Friday, February 27, 2004
| Category: Technology (Primitive) I remember playing some of this stuff on a Prime 9950 (I think) way back in the early 80's! XYZZY. |
| Category: Technology History Now, I'm still wading through it but this looks to be an interesting article on the history of the Apple Macintosh (another one?). What makes this one even more interesting though is that it's penned by Jef Raskin, the "father" of the Macintosh. Thanks Stephen. |
| Category: VCAT More on Judge Higgins' attempt to work out what the heck is going on in the Islamic Illegality caper. |
| Category: Foie Gras The US has banned certain imports from Europe on grounds of failed health inspection. This comment about foie gras is fantastic: "I think Americans eventually concluded it was much like our own Spam."from John Roberts, president of the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, on the U.S. ban of foie gras. |
| Category: Fruit Regarding that Apple thing, this says it all. I don't even know who owns the damned thing now but if it was doing something other than back-publishing items where the real trademark is clearly The Beatles then they would be saying something more than "placeholder" on the 'net. Just One Guy's Opinion. |
Thursday, February 26, 2004
| Category: Apple (Apple) Apple -v- Apple again? For my money the former still hasn't surpassed this! I mean, what have they done recently of any substance? Semi? Surely not this! (I always liked the Spector version better anyway, as much as I liked it at all). |
| Category: Search Engines By Jingo! Everything you wanted to know about Google! And (admittedly only on a cursory glance so far) I mean everything. |
| Category: Buses Now, I used to catch Driver Brothers Bus Lines to school for about six years (oh, and also to Chaddy). But they have a fascinating gallery of all of their old buses and new ones too! You'll have to drill down a bit to see the photos though as they've some funky web stuff happening and I can't work out a way to link directly, sorry. |
| Category: Technology Oh good, a Macintosh SE with an Intel 3.0GHz Pentium 4 (800MHz Front-side bus). Just what I always wanted, looks cool but! |
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
| Category: Journalism I'd lay Melbourne to a brick that Semi will have an opinion on the Bias-O-Meter but I could be wrong. It looks pretty reasonable to me. Couldn't find a direct link so I've pointed to Mayne's web site. The origin is from The Reader but I couldn't find a direct link as they seem to want you to buy their magazine. |
| Category: Mathematics Right-wing proofs in mathematics are no good because... well because right-wing things are wrong. |
| Category: Fillums You've heard of Pre-Crime but now there is Pre-Reviews, they review fillums before they've seen them! That's so cool/stupid. They've even pre-reviewed the Best Western Sister nudie fillum. |
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
| Category: Meeja I was shocked this morning when I read that David Marr and the McEvoy Dude had decided to question Phillip Adams. I suppose he had to find one leftie failure for the year, might as well get it over with early. I can't even begin to cover this as well as Gudgeon, S., just go and read his commentary. This man Adams is so far past his use-by that the fridge may have to be decommissioned. Timbo Blair headlines the issue with HELL TEMPERATURE DECREASES MARGINALLY. |
Monday, February 23, 2004
| Category: Islam Illegal I missed this one in the SSS. But where did VCAT go with all this? Is Judge Higgins still sitting on the matter? I do remember some of the original kerfuffle but... ? I find it difficult to really like either side of this business but, all the same, I wish I knew what the outcomes of it all were. Are there any better Googlers or Mooters out there that might find what I have not? |
Sunday, February 22, 2004
| Category: Urban Legends snopes.com has been debunking and sometimes bunking urban legends for many years now. It is an invaluable reference. It has a discussion of one of the funniest things I have ever read: a letter purportedly from the Smithsonian to an amateur archaeologist. This page contains an interview with the letter's author. During my search for this letter, I came across some of the writings of the late Dr Herman Smith: "Articles on Archaeology and the Maya on Ambergris Caye, Belize". One of his articles is The Letter with some different names attached. All interesting stuff. |
Saturday, February 21, 2004
| Category: Kerry John Kerry's military service is called into question. Sure, one data point proves nothing but it makes for interesting reading. |
| Category: Wind David Bellamy, Britain's most famous Green campaigner, has spent 10 years opposing windfarms and says: 'Perhaps that's why I'm not on the telly any more.' UPDATE: Today's Hun has a report of property values dropping near windfarms. Oh, and also, a man has moved out because of the noise. |
Friday, February 20, 2004
| Category: Acronyms If English is not your primary language you might be better off not trying to construct acronyms. Market Of The High-growth and EmeRging Stocks - Mothers. |
| Category: Saddam A capital punishment hater has decided that it might apply in Saddam's case. I'm not totally convinced but it is a good read. |
| Category: April 1 This is a great story about a bloke who was asked to present a lecture in China on Global Financial Markets. Thanks, Tim Blair. |
Category: Liberty (NOT)The Blair Government has declared war on obesity, with plans for a "fat tax" on hamburgers, chips, soft drinks, butter and whole milk.Mind your own business, Tony! |
Thursday, February 19, 2004
| Category: Television As seen in the Green Guide (surprised I couldn't find a direct link frankly) in this mornings SSS, everything you could possibly want to know about Doctor Who! Where's that bloody book, Gus? |
| Category: Telecommunications Vanity (Update) Bugger, this might indicate that my plan has been stymied. |
| Category: Bias A great deal has been written recently about why certain organisations such as universities, the BBC, the ABC, are peopled mainly by left-leaning folk. One college dean in the US suggested that it's because right wing people are not very intelligent. I rather prefer this analysis by Arnold King from Tech Central Station. It should be required reading by anybody who has to deal with academic staff on a regular basis. |
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
| Category: Web How To: By You is "an experiment in intutition where someone poses a question and many people answer. This sociological project is about the study of knowledge among human society and how it can differ and change.Some of the topics covered recently include:
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| Category: Taiwan I had a need to find Taiwan in the CIA World Fact Book. It is listed at the end of the list rather than in its alphabetically natural location. Just so you know... |
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
| Category: TV An extremely useful database of Australian TV game shows has been pointed at and commented on by the good folk over at the Supermercado project. The Yobbo pointed me at this. |
Monday, February 16, 2004
| Category: Telecommunications Vanity This is just plain silly. Now, if only I could get my hands on Echo Valley 2-6809. Now that'd be something! |
Saturday, February 14, 2004
| Category: Apple I went out to buy this today and no wonder the bastards only have 2% market share, every bastard was closed, oh jeez! |
| Category: Theatre Another article in the SSS about the problems facing Marriner, Hocking and Walsh as owners of theatres in the CBD. |
| Category: Altman Another bloody Altman! This one appears to want for himself that magnificently oymoronic title "Left-Wing Intellectual". From his gob... Australians, too, have bought the idea that "we're an anti-intellectual culture" and believe the myths that all the deep intellects are in Europe.I'm proud to be part of an anti-intellectual culture when the so-called intellectuals are second-quartile, light-weight loons like you Professor Dennis Altman. Let's hope he is largely ignored when he gets to the US. |
Thursday, February 12, 2004
| Category: NGVI Last Saturday, the Hun had a story about a Victorian convicted murderer (of a police officer) who is running a drafting business from his cell. According to the Hun, he has worked on the plans of the very prison in which he is incarcerated but, supposedly, "security was never compromised". Now it turns out, according to Radio One's news reports last night, that he worked on the plans for the $168m renovations on the NGVI (which originally cost $13m). I wonder if he worked on any glass restraint issues? I have no reference for the article on the ABC site because I can't find one. Given the detailed stuff that does get a guernsey, I can only imagine that it has been deliberately left off the site. Does anyone know their way around abc.net.au/news? |
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
| Category: NGV, Potter. Andrew Bolt is on fire with his observations about the politics and racism of the disgraceful Potter Gallery in the Hideous Federation Square. |
| Category: Mindstorms The ever humble AEBrain pointed me at a Lego Mindstorms robot which solves the Rubik's Cube. (he also points at a very funny piece of work on Utterly Boring) UPDATE: You could go on forever posting Mindstorms things... this is another nice one. |
| Category: Space TFF Interesting article on remote network management, an area I used to have some experience in (maybe not quite this size but). |
Monday, February 09, 2004
| Category: Mars Erik Baard does a nice little dissection of the work of the martian hopefuls. Perhaps our next Mars probe should be called the Tinkerbell. The fairy from "Peter Pan" was brought to life by children shouting, "I do believe in fairies! I do! I do!" The same chorus of belief in Martians resounds with each downpour of images and data from the apparently dead Red Planet.and... Would be astrobiologists (a new field that weds astronomy with biology) claim to see everything from fossilized coral and seashells to an admittedly creepy looking claw.If they are wedding astronomy with biology, why not make the resultant field astrology. That would make a hell of a lot more sense in a lot of ways. |
Sunday, February 08, 2004
| Category: NGVI Maybe falling glass is a form of art, I wouldn't know, I'm not an intellectual. Gallery director Gerard Vaughan said the gallery remained "totally safe to the public". I don't think so. |
Saturday, February 07, 2004
| Category: NGV There's a fuss over a childish piece of trash hanging in the Potter gallery. Hanging this rubbish and then proclaiming "In displaying these works, it is not the NGV presenting a political view" is just plain dumb. Thanks for the pointer Slatts. |
Friday, February 06, 2004
Thursday, February 05, 2004
| Category: Married Here's something I didn't know... Lynda Carter of Wonder Woman fame is married to Robert Altman who, along with Clark Clifford, was tied up in the BCCI affair. Every link I can find for this particular Altman is either because he was married to Carter or because of his work with Clifford. |
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
| Category: Internet Hands up everyone who has been a tech-illiterate sucker suffering sub-standard speed on their cable connection. [ pull-shot of Semi with his hand up ] Go here and test your current settings, dowload and run (and apply the results of) the optimizer, reboot, and look at your settings again. Mine went from a maximum download of about 800kbps to the maximum 10Mbps. Could it be lying? I don't think so. With local sites it feels as fast all H! |
| Category: Awards (lack thereof) Not mentioned in the awards DB speaks of is the markl blog AKA They're All Arselickers. |
| Category: Norman Gunston/Gold Logie Nup, we never even got nominated for blog of the year, but this did. Having read a small bit I suspect shades of Kylie Mole. |
| Category: Viromunt Mike has been handed a report that says recycling is more costly than dumping. My guess is that the greens will respond by adding a carbon dioxide cost to one side of the equation and jiggling it until they prove otherwise. Strangely, the socialist Swedes woke up to the recycling myth some time ago. |
| Category: Pitchers Stanley speaks highly of Lost in Translation. Maybe I'll go to the pictures twice this year. But what are the subbies at the SMH saw thinking by translating "6ft-plus" to "1.8 metres-plus"? The Metric Conversion Board was dissolved in 1981 and so there is no-one to bring charges against them for public use of non-metric measures. But that's not the point anyway. Kiku Day was using a well established idiom, changing it changes the sense of her writing (idiotic though the content may be). |
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
| Category: Ciggies Sam Ward is smokin' hot, if, perhaps, a touch vulgar, in his post on cigarette package health warnings. I love the pro smoking stickers he point out. |
Monday, February 02, 2004
| Category: Viromunt Stop all commerce! According to WWF, DDT, PCB, BFR, PVC, BBC, [ music starts, useless hippy starts singing ] LBJ took the IRT down to 4th street USA When he got there, what did he see? The youth of America on LSD. LSD, LBJ FBI, CIA |
Sunday, February 01, 2004
| Category: BoohBahs I hadn't heard of the Boohbahs before reading about them in one of James Lilek's bleats. It takes the empty bucket that was the Teletubbies, and empties it a bit more. No sexual references near as I can tell, though. Some of the Flash software creates some great noises. Sometimes I wish I could be a Flash developer. |
