Technology fetishism
Just upgrading to WordPress 1.2. I see the comments have vanished. This will be fixed shortly. (Well, after I’ve done the dishes.) 10:30pm. Okay seems to be working. Some of the trackbacks and other wierdo URLs aren’t working ‘cos I have to find time to fiddle the .htaccess file to cope with my old archives. ... [More]
There’s been a lot of fuss in the blogging world over the last few days about Movable Type, and their new pricing. In a superb bit of customer relations, marketing and logic, they’ve bumped up their prices just a week or so after freebie tool Blogger delivered a big upgrade. I looked around at various ... [More]
Recently I’ve been reading some of Jeff “Yak” Minter’s nostalgic look back at how he got into writing computer games in the 1980s, and it’s got me thinking about those days, and how it’s shaped my life — or at least, my professional working life. It’s something I have written about briefly before, but I ... [More]
While some were at the footy on Friday night, Marita and I went to a truly excellent (new?) restaurant at Docklands — Renzo’s Bar. Utterly delicious food, and not expensive in the grand scheme of things — $61 for two, including an entree and some drinks, but no dessert or coffees because we were due ... [More]
Where did these bloody Aga stove things come from? I assume they’re a peculiarly British brand of wanky gourmet stove, because I’ve never seen or heard of them in Australia. Yet they’ve shown up in the last two novels I’ve read, plus had the piss taken out of them in Posh Nosh. I’m afraid I’m ... [More]
The Cat In The Hat. Not many kids’ movies on at the moment, and Jeremy chose this one to while away some time on ANZAC Day afternoon. A couple of semi-amusing moments that just — just raised a smile, but otherwise it was proof that Hollywood has an uncanny ability to take a classic book ... [More]
Years ago, I occasionally shopped at Rod Irving Electronics in A’Beckett Street. There was a shop assistant in there who looked like Darrin from Bewitched. The first, original Darrin, with the ears that stuck out. Apart from the ears, he had slicked back jet black hair, a dark suit and very shiny shoes. I don’t ... [More]
An update about my colleague who lost his laptop computer on Friday the 13th last month. A couple of weeks later he was playing with his kids in the front yard when a male youth walked past on the footpath. With a laptop under his arm. Colleague recognised the laptop, ran after him and rugby ... [More]
I just got my (replacement) new phone: the Nokia 6100. I think I got a reasonable deal on it, though I was a little miffed that the rather spiffy-looking 7250i went on special just after I ordered it. For a little more I could have had a radio and camera in the phone. Not exactly ... [More]
The Simple Life. After reading a pretty funny article previewing this show the other week, I thought I’d give it a look. It sounded funny. And it was, kinda. I mean, I know they’ve probably spent a lot of time editing this show to make Paris and Nicole seem stupid, but they wouldn’t have been ... [More]
I bought a new mobile phone. If “bought” is the correct term — I paid no money up front, and the monthly fee I’m shelling out has actually dropped by ten dollars. Unlike the cinema last week, the phone company were happy to give me a discount for ordering direct from them over the web. ... [More]
Finally got around to seeing Return of the King yesterday. Mumble mumble, couldn’t get Gold Class tickets before now, mumble mumble. I’m a little miffed that on top of the $30/seat Gold Class price (expensive perhaps, but the service and comfort do make it worth it for movies like this) I was stung an additional ... [More]
The latest virus has swept the world, and is now responsible for numerous e-mail slowdowns and other weirdness. The anti-virus companies’ hype machines are working overdrive, with one trumpetting from the rooftops that it’s the worst ever. The media are happily lapping it up. Funny thing is the different names that the various anti-virus companies ... [More]
The ticket inspector on the tram the other week was incredibly polite “Thank you very much” when he noticed I had a yearly ticket. He wasn’t to know that I’d bought it on the last day of last year to avoid the price rise, saving about $200 in the process. The guy in the desk ... [More]
Dunno if anybody remembers, but MSN was originally not a web site, it was a
proprietary online service, with its own set of dialup Points Of Presence, and its own media standards.
The Australian 2004 Blog Awards are on, and happily this humble diary has been nominated in a couple of categories by some poor deluded fools who think it’s worthy. I’m certainly not holding my breath on winning any of them, because there is some staggeringly good competition among the other nominees. But I’ll certainly be ... [More]