Stilgherrian » Politics

Links for 17 November 2008 through 18 November 2008

del.icio.us — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:24:30 +0000

Stilgherrian’s links for 17 November 2008 through 18 November 2008, thinned with cheap turpentine:

NSW Government in Exile: “NSW is mired in incompetence and corruption. No-one in or near power appears able to come up with a coherent policy or plan. So let’s start.” Aparently I’m minister for infrasructure.
HOW TO: Build Community on Twitter | Mashable: “The strength of your community determines overall what you will (or won’t) get out of the microblogging platform. What do you want to use Twitter for?” Sarah Evans offers some good tips.
HOW NOT TO: Build Your Twitter Community | Mashable: The flipside to Sarah Evans’ previous post.
What the family values folks don't get about family | denialism blog: “The anti-gay marriage folks think that family is all about fear, sex, and violence… These folks who fought for Prop 8 don’t understand the real meaning of family, of love, of comfort. For most of us, it’s not about fulfilling one fringe group’s idea of what God wants. It’s about creating a life with another, sharing a physical and emotional space with someone, rejoicing together when things are good, and holding each other when things are tough. It’s human.”
Twitter is Real Life | Aide-mémoire: The ever-thoughtful Kate Carruthers has written an excellent piece countering the “Twitter is dead” meme which seems to surface from time to time. Yes, she says nice things about me (again), but there are good bits too.
30 Hilarious TV Meltdowns, Outbursts & Blunders | ClearlyAV: A collection of 30 videos which are (mostly) people losing their temper on TV.
Green ICT Symposium 2008: The presentations for this conference, held in Canberra last Friday 14 November 2008, are now online.
SSL Certificate Tester | digicert: While I don’t use digicert to buy my SSL certificates, this handy test page is good for showing the status of SSL certificates installed on your web server.
Making money twice | 37signals: A good portion of this industry is still trying to figure out how to make money for the first time (hint: charge people). But for those who’ve mastered that, I want to talk about the next step: making money twice (or three or four times).
NYT: Obama saying goodbye to BlackBerry? | msnbc.com: The limitations on the President, both legal and security-based, mean that Barack Obama may have to give up using email. Unable to get unfiltered access to The Real World, he’ll become increasingly dependent on a worldview filtered through his “advisors”.

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Links for 18 October 2008 through 21 October 2008

del.icio.us — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:27:17 +0000

Stilgherrian’s links for 18 October 2008 through 21 October 2008, slightly burnt at the edges:

The twisted language of politics | Bloghound: A nice post on the hypocrisy shown in the differing descriptions of Republican US Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Democrat Presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Send an e-mail message on behalf of someone else | Microsoft Office Online: The procedure for setting up delegated email access in Office 2007, e.g. a secretary having access to their boss’ email. I think it’s rather quaint that Microsoft still uses “e-mail” with a hyphen.
Use Outlook Anywhere to connect to your Exchange server without VPN | Microsoft Office Online: This is the procedure for making individual Outlook 2007 users connect securely to a remote Exchange server over the Internet. “Outlook Anywhere” is what used to be called “RPC over HTTP”. I’m tagging this because I’ll be making this work for a client shortly.
Configure Outlook Anywhere in Outlook 2007 | Microsoft TechNet: This is the procedure for making a group of Outlook 2007 users connect securely to a remote Exchange server over the Internet. “Outlook Anywhere” is what used to be called “RPC over HTTP”.
2006 Olympic Food Stealing Champion - My Dog! | First Dog on the Moon: One of First Dog’s more delightful (as opposed to deeply cynical) cartoons.
Cursebird: What the f#@! is everyone swearing about?: A live feed of everyone who swears on Twitter, with a nice animated effect when a new curse pops up. Compelling viewing.

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Links for 26 August 2008 through 30 August 2008

del.icio.us — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:38:44 +0000

Stilgherrian’s links for 26 August 2008 through 30 August 2008, collected using a fine-meshed net and a spoon:

Interpreting Privacy Principles | Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre: The Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre is holding a 1-day Symposium o 2 October to discuss the Australian Law Reform Commission’s Report on Privacy (August 2008), and to take stock of the NSW Law Reform Commission’s Consultation Paper 3: Privacy Legislation in New South Wales (July 2008). The Symposium is part of the Interpreting Privacy Principles Project, an Australian Research Council Discovery Project.
Electing a US President in Plain English | YouTube: A quick explanation of the US Presidential voting system from the wonderful people at Common Craft.
The Grand Twitter Experiment | Widgify: One guy’s experiment to increase his Twitter followers so his “channel” is one of “greater influence”. He seems to miss the two far more important aspects of Twitter: how he’s contributed to the conversation to improve his reputation, and what connections he’s made.
My current backup strategy | eirikso.com: A nice explanation of how one media producer stores his backups, with other suggestions in the comments.
50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business | chrisbrogan.com: What it says. The thread through all of it is “be human”.
The Anatomy of a Successful Music Broadcast Event | The Ustream.TV Blog: Nice set of tips on doing live music stuff on this Internet thing.
Explanation before information | Made to Stick: A nice little article explaining why explanations need to come before the low-level facts, not the other way around.
Twitter demystified and debunked | The Fluent Self: Havi Brooks has written a fine, playful piece about Twitter.
Oedipus (with vegetables) | YouTube: The story of Oedipus in 8 minutes performed by vegetables in the tradition of Ben-Hur. Featuring a Potato, a Tomato, Broccoli, Garlic, and Billy Dee Williams as the Bartender. Official Selection 60+ film festivals including Sundance

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Links for 23 August 2008 through 24 August 2008

del.icio.us — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 21:59:15 +0000

Stilgherrian’s links for 23 August 2008 through 24 August 2008, with shaved parmesan:

Medals per mil. Population by Country | Swivel: Sean Carmody continues his data mining on the Beijing Olympics that discover that the Bahamas is the highest medal winner per capita, followed by Jamaica, Slovenia, Australia and New Zealand.
Ohio Voting Machines Contained Programming Error That Dropped Votes | washingtonpost.com: “A voting system used in 34 [US] states contains a critical programming error that can cause votes to be dropped while being electronically transferred from memory cards to a central tallying point, the manufacturer acknowledges.” Yet another argument against computer-based voting.

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Links for 28 July 2008 through 01 August 2008

del.icio.us — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:11:37 +0000

Stilgherrian’s links for 28 July 2008 through 01 August 2008, which fell from the sky and painted in various attractive pastel colours:

Empirical Analysis of Internet Filtering in China | Harvard Law School: An analysis of China's Great Firewall which concludes that the blocking systems are becoming more refined even as they are likely more labor- and technology-intensive to maintain than cruder predecessors.
Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents | Reporters sans frontières: Tips and technical advice on how to to remain anonymous and to get round censorship, by choosing the most suitable method for each situation.
Journalism.me - The journalism blogosphere: An aggregation of journalists who blog (mostly) about journalism.

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Links for 13 July 2008 through 17 July 2008

del.icio.us — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:50:34 +0000

Stilgherrian’s links for 13 July 2008 through 17 July 2008, gathered with moss like a rolling stone doesn’t:

Flat Earth News: The official website for Nick Davies' book, which various people have suggested I read.
Straw man | Wikipedia: "A straw man argument is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position." Tagged as a reminder to certain blog commenters.
Zappos.com: Who'd have thought that people would buy shoes online? Who'd have thought that a company would use Twitter and other social media to do great customer service (or so I'm told)?
Journalism: A Toxic Culture? (Or: Why Aren’t We Having More Fun?) | contentious.com: Amy Gahran helps explain why journalists are so defensive about their craft these days, and posits that they have "Priesthood Syndrome".
The plastic buttons we push | Amit Gupta likes you!: How do you make a living? Is it by pushing plastic buttons all day?
Is Social Media The Ultimate Buzz Kill? | Awake At The Wheel: Are we becoming so addicted to telling people about what we're experencing that we actually forget to experience it?
Principia Discordia Hardback | Synaptyclypse Generator: The central Discordian text, "Principia Discordia", is once more available in hardback. I am well pleased.
DIY carbon change | Unleashed: "Sometime in the last two weeks I stopped believing in government," says Mark Pesce. If governments are failing to respond to this vital issue, then we can ignore them and handle this ourselves.

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Links for 03 July 2008 through 04 July 2008

del.icio.us — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:07:38 +0000

Stilgherrian’s links for 03 July 2008 through 04 July 2008, gathered with joy and mutton:

Draft Report | Garnaut Climate Change Review: The Draft Report describes the methodology for evaluating the costs and benefits of climate change mitigation; to the application of the science of climate change to Australia; to the international context, and to Australian mitigation policy.
Turing Test | xkcd: On the other hand, maybe the test is to make the examiner think that HE'S the computer!
Turing test | Wikipedia: "The Turing test is a proposal for a test of a machine's capability to demonstrate intelligence." What I love about the REAL Turing test is the subtlety of it… It's not faking a human, it's faking a human faking.
Manned Cloud by Jean-Marie Massaud | Dezeen: This just has to be the most beautiful design for an airship I've ever seen. Guys, build it soon!
The BBC and the future of broadcasting | Stephen Fry: Stephen Fry's speech on the future of public service broadcasting, and the BBC in particular.

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Links for 02 July 2008

del.icio.us — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:13:18 +0000

Stilgherrian’s web links I’ve found for 02 July 2008, created automatically from internets.

China As An Island | Strange Maps: China has land borders with 14 other countries. And yet you should not think of China as particularly well-integrated with its neighbours. In fact, as shown in this dramatic map, you should rather consider China to be an island.
NASA's Moon Truck Goes for a Test Drive | Telstar Logistics: A prototype of a NASA lunar rover undergoing testing at the Moses Lake Sand Dunes in eastern Washington state.
Hyperpolitics (American Style) | viddler.com: The video of Mark Pesce's presentation at the Personal Democracy Forum 2008.
Asthma Weed | Sydney Weeds Committees: This is the nasty weed which keeps emerging in our garden and resists all efforts at eradication. Chemical warfare appears to be the only resort.

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Links for 17 June 2008 through 19 June 2008

del.icio.us — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:59:26 +0000

Stilgherrian’s links for 17 June 2008 through 19 June 2008. gathered automatically:

Receiver rejects call to release home plan | smh.com.au: Bizarre copyright claim? Building firm Beechwood Homes goes broke, but 580 customer can't get their homes built by someone else because Beechwood's receiver claims copyright on the plans!
Revoke Copyright for Poorly Paid Authors? | Brendan Scott’s Weblog: Counter view: "If the practical effect of 200 years of copyright protection for my industry body was that its members were 'the most poorly paid in Australia' I wouldn?t be asking for the regime to be extended! I?d be calling for it to be abandoned."
The Future of Copyright | Cato Unbound: Fascinating essay.
5 Influential Books All Bloggers Should Know | ProBlogger: Yes, by reading the same five books as every other blogger on the planet, you will suddenly provide a unique view on the world. Sigh. Good books, presumably, but "the usual suspects". Be original.

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Links for 16 June 2008

del.icio.us — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:36:59 +0000

Here are the web links I’ve found for 16 June 2008, posted automatically.

OpenAustralia.org: Are your Representatives working for you in Australia's Parliament? A new and much easier way to see who's saying what in federal parliament.
The Possum Box: A new Australian political blog hosted by the mysteriously large-brained Possum Comitatus.
Why Me? | lonelysandwich: A delightful essay pondering Apple's new MobileMe branding. "Apple is removing the Mac from the Apple computer experience and laying the foundation for a browser-based OS, the thing that Google has been threatening all this time."

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Links for 26 May 2008 through 01 June 2008

del.icio.us — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:01:28 +0000

Stilgherrian’s links for 26 May 2008 through 01 June 2008, gathered semi-automatically and covering a disturbing range of topics:

NSLU2-Linux: Technical information for hacking the Linksys NSLU2 NAS device, along with the Synology DS101, the Iomega NAS100d, the D-Link DSMG600 and other ixp4xx-based devices with large attached storage.
Hacking WD MyBook World Ed: Western Digital's My Book World Edition network storage device is actually a little Linux RAID server. This Wiki has technical information on how to hack them.
Sarah Jessica Parker Looks Like A Horse: Well, she does. And here's the website. Proof that people have too much time on their hands.
A twittering experiment | eicolab: An interesting use Twitter, with a comment added by yours truly.
Friends, Enemies and My Army | Viddler.com: Another recent presentation by Mark Pesce, this one at the 2008 Next Wave Festival, Melbourne, on 25 May 2008. A nice trip through the power of Twitter, the "nuclear option", and the surprising influence of Josh Marshall's army.
Phoenix Lander “Talks” to Twitterers | NYTimes.com: Includes an interview with the NASA employee who's been playing the part of the Mars Phoenix spacecraft on Twitter (@MarsPhoenix).
Australian Strategic Policy Institute: "One for the feed reader", I've been told. I haven't explored this site yet.
A discussion paper on the singular use of “they”: This link looks like it solves this question forever. If only people read it…
Twitter Co-Opted by Users as Better SMS, Social Media Platform | URBEINGRECORDED: Yet another superb essay on the impact of Twitter.
The Gruen Transfer | ABC TV: A new TV series looking at the art and science of persuasion as used by the advertising industry. Much good stuff here.
Ern Malley | Wikipedia: Not exactly a new story, but I was recently reminded of this wonderful literary hoax from the 1940s.
Scaling a Microblogging Service - Part I | Hueniverse: A comprehensive but fairly technical explanation of the problems Twitter faces.
The Digital Media Revolution | YouTube: Mark Pesce, Technology Futurist speaks about the Digital Media Revolution at the SAGEM conference, April 2008, in Adelaide. Will the government heed his advice? In 5 parts, this links to part 1.
Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address | YouTube: An inspirational 15 mins about the importance of following your dream, even if the end result isn't clear. "You can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking back."

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Links for 15 May 2008 through 19 May 2008

del.icio.us — Mon, 19 May 2008 12:05:02 +0000

My links for 15 May 2008 through 19 May 2008, gathered semi-automatically:

The Mother of All Demos | Wikipedia: On 9 December 1968, Douglas Englebart demonstrated some breakthrough technologies: interactive text, video conferencing, teleconferencing, email and hypertext — and the very first computer mouse. This Wikipedia article has links to videos of the actual 1928 demo.
Shops track customers via mobile phone | Times Online: UK shopping centres are trialling the tracking of customers via their mobile phone emissions. Which stores do they visit? How long do they stay?
Drivers of Australian Inflation | A Stubborn Mule?s Perspective: What's causing the relatively high inflation in Australia? Here's an excellent visualisation with analysis.
The Prospect/FP Global public intellectuals poll: Over 20,000 people voted for their top names from the original longlist of 100. Links to analysis and biographies. Voters also nominated others who they thought should have been on the top list. Interesting view of what counts as "intellectual".
The Workplace: How to tell if you're a "workaholic" | International Herald Tribune: Workaholics don't get more done, necessarily, because they focus on inconsequential details.
Building a Popular Social Media Profile: Seven Essential Characteristics | Dosh Dosh: Some useful tips for establishing a global micro-brand.
Federal Budget 2007-08 analysis | ALIA: The Australian Library and Information Association's take on Australia's Federal Budget. Librarians get this information stuff!
Why Gen Y Is Going to Change the Web | ReadWriteWeb: Many of the themes have appeared elsewhere before, but still a good article.
Powerhouse Museum Collection's Photostream | flickr: 450-odd photographs from (mostly) the 1800s taken from original glass-plate negatives. Beautiful shots of Victorian Sydney, rural scenes etc.
The Art of the Business Card | Guy Kawasaki: Finally, a business card design where you can actually read the information! interesting discussion in the comments, too.

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Links for 06 May 2008

del.icio.us — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:01:59 +0000

Here are the web links I’ve found for 06 May 2008, posted automatically.

Detroit Digital Vinyl | Submerge Digital E-store: Classic Detroit techno vinyl converted to 320kps MP3 with (generally) no DRM protection. Detroit Digital vinyl started out as collaboration between legendary Techno label Submerge, Underground Resistance and Electrofunk Records.
Latest T-Shirts | Royaltech by Benn Glazier: If you like techno, real techno, you may well like these t-shirts.
Tony Abbott - Friend of the Long Nosed Bandicoot | First Dog on the Moon: One of the funniest cartoons ever from First Dog, though you do have to know who Tony Abbott is. (He's an Australian politician.)
Alison Young BarCamp Twitter Talk | SlideShare: "What the heck is this Twitter thing about? The why & how for max fun." Alison Young's presentation from BarCampSydney, April 2008. Eight slides, real quick.
Chips, gravy & cheese FTW! | BrightKite: So this is the future? "Here's what I had for lunch." With a location map. This WILL become normal.
Mark Pesce's "The Nuclear Option" | YouTube: "Our social networks, now so accelerated by hyperconnectivity, allow the perfect meeting of message and audience. Oh, and some stuff about how cool Twitter is! From the Walkley Public Affairs Conference on Social Media, Sydney, 5 May 2008."
Bill Bailey Kraftwerk Tribute | YouTube: The Hokey Kokey sung live in the style of Kraftwerk.
Enterprise 2.0 - What is it good for? | CIO: "A 12-step guide to getting the most out of Web 2.0 tools and making it safe-for-purpose." excellent sound bits from Stephen Collins.

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Links for 30 April 2008

del.icio.us — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:08:20 +0000

Here are the web links I’ve found over the last few days, posted a bit later than I’d intended. Cope.

Dissociative Identity Disorder | Wikipedia: This is what used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder. I'm reading about it because a friend was recently so diagnosed.
End Of Speculation: The Real Twitter Usage Numbers | TechCrunch: Michael Arrington's article begins: “Speculation about Twitter’s new round of financing is leading everyone to speculate on Twitter’s actual penetration into the “mainstream”, or lack thereof.
Upside Down Text Generator: A silly utility for turning text upside down. Fun for all the family. ??u??p ?s?l ???? p?? ???? ?ou plno?s ?ll??? ? [OK, so it doesn't work in this cross-feed.]
ACMA Communications Report 2006-07: The Australian communications & Media Authority's annual report to parliament. The numbers aren't as recent as they could be, but still lots of good data.
A Visit to Beijing's Exclusive Penis Restaurant | Spiegel Online: A specialist restaurant serves painstakingly decorated gourmet meals made only from the naughty bits.
Learning to Live Like an Early Bird | WSJ.com: Tips for turning a night person into a morning person. I'm already a morning person, but I know people who could use this…

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Links for 27 April 2008

del.icio.us — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 10:44:07 +0000

I’ve decided to have another go at publishing the links I find online. So, thanks to del.icio.us and some mild semi-automation, here’s today’s batch.

The Newseum: The interactive museum of news, including "today's front pages" for 500+ world newspapers.
TV Fugly Awards: An "alternative" to Australia's Logie awards for TV.
Eurovision Song Contest - Belgrade 2008: Official website of the Eurovision Song Contest.
The Bugle | Times Online: Weekly news satire audio podcast from the UK.
The Paranoid Style in American Politics: Richard Hofstadter's article from Harper's Magazine, November 1964. Paranoia Politics isn't new.
Twitter Rulez! (via Todd Langowski) | Newick: An apt sign spotted in workplace.
Plugger: Australian Business News: A customisable aggregator for Australian business news.
Secondary DNS Service: An inexpensive service which provides secondary domain name servers.
The seriously inconvenient truth on drugs | the Daily Mail: UK Daily Mail columnist Andrew Alexander puts a cogent case for the decriminalisation of recreational drugs.
A second summer of love: 20th anniversary of acid house: The Guardian's retrospective on the acid house Summer of Love of 1988.
The Australian Open Source Industry & Community Report 2008: A 20-page report on the state of the open source software world in Australia. A freely downloadable PDF and is redistributable under a Creative Commons BY-ND license.