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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 backup, 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

Stilgherrian’s links for 11 August 2008 through 12 August 2008, polished with a smooth cloth:

• Why Twitter Hasn’t Failed: The Power Of Audience | TechCrunch: An essay discussing why Twitter users stayed with the service through its severe reliability problems.
• Why we should be afraid of Google Streetview | APC: Richard Chirgwin’s opinion piece on Google Street View and why many people react with fear. He concentrates on the emotional reaction, not the logic — something which certainly needs to be taken into account.
• Don’t Fear Twitter | Nieman Reports: How using Twitter for moment-by-moment observation can help build a community of readers for longer articles.
• Make Internet TV : Shoot, Edit, Publish and Promote Your Videos: “This guide has step-by-step instructions for shooting, editing, and publishing online videos.” I reckon this is an excellent overview.

Here are the web links I’ve found for 10 August 2008, posted automatically with cheese and onions.

• Newspapers that Twitter: July numbers | graphic designr: Statistics on how (American) newspapers are using Twitter.
• Why You Should Never Talk to the Police | Schneier on Security: Links to a 30-minute video presentation by Professor James Duane of the Regent University School of Law explaining why — in a criminal matter — you should never, ever, ever talk to the police. It doesn’t matter if you’re guilty or innocent, it isn’t possible for anything you say to help you. Also links to a video of Virginia Beach Police Department Officer George Bruch, who basically says that Duane is right.
• Over 400 forms used by the National Security Agency | The Memory Hole: Obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, blank copies of (supposedly) most of the forms used by the US National Security Agency.
• George Orwell Diaries | The Orwell Prize: George Orwell started his diaries in August 1938. They’re now being published as a blog, each entry posted exactly 70 years after it was originally written.
• Everything That Happens Will Happen Today | David Byrne & Brian Eno: Byrne & Eno’s first musical collaboration in 30 years. On single available free now, album available for free streaming or buy-to-download or physically on 18 August. A world tour follows.

Stilgherrian’s links for 05 August 2008 through 08 August 2008, covering all topics from Ma to Me:

• NLA Australian Newspapers beta | National Library of Australia: The NLA is digitising its collection of out-of-copyright newspapers, some going back to 1803. Over 90,000 pages online so far. Searchable. OCR has been done, and you can correct any mistakes you find.
• GroceryChoice site dismissed as “no help” to consumers | The Australian: The Australian government’s new GroceryChoice website is useless. Data only collected once a month, so it can’t take weekly specials into account.
• The Z Curve and IT Investment | Digital Renderings: When should a business invest in new information technology? Move aggressively, assuming high costs and risks in the hope of gaining an outsized reward? Or hold back, waiting for technology to become better established, with lower costs and risks?
• Twitter As News-wire | Twitter Blog: Twitter is increasingly being described as a personal news-wire. Here’s a couple of graphs showing how word of the LA an SF earthquakes spread in under 5 minutes.
• Jay Rosen of NYU on the Ethic of the Link | YouTube: An excerpt from a Carnegie Council panel on 3 April 2008. Nice contextualisation of the newspaper business’ fear of the web. 4 min 21 sec.
• Twitter on the front page of Liberation today | Holy Chic’s Weblog: Twitter makes the cover of French newspaper Liberation. Here’s an analysis in English.
• Journalism is Dead: A new blog which purports to be the true diary of someone working at a newspaper. Looks real enough. Let’s hope he or she can continue being this funny.
• Fake L.A. Times: Exactly what it says. Yes, yet another satirical news site.
• The Ethics of Taking Vacations: “You owe it to yourself to recuperate, and you’ll do your job better if you take time off. Both are ethical issues.”

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.

[I promised Crikey that I'd write something about the Future of Media Summit 2008. This rant is what emerged. You can also read it over at Crikey, where there's a different stream of comments.]

What is the future of journalism? To judge by the discussion at this week’s Future of Media Summit held simultaneously in Sydney and Silicon Valley (and every other “new media” conference I’ve been to lately) it’s endless bloody whingeing. Whingeing about how journalism has standards and bloggers are all “just” writing whatever they think.

The panels in both cities covered the same, tired old ground. The new “participatory media” and “citizen journalism” would never be Real Journalism, because Real Journalism is an Art/Craft/Profession. Real Journalism involves research and fact-checking and sub-editing. There’s a Code of Ethics. But “these people”, as bloggers get labelled, these people just sit around in their pyjamas and write whatever comes into their heads.

Bollocks.

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Summize, the Twitter search engine, has just been bought by Twitter and rebranded search.twitter.com. Read all about it.

On Wednesday my Twitter stream was dominated by the Politics & Technology Forum, and I’ll write more about that later. The other highlights this week:

1. MYOB continue to flood me with far too much promotional material, even when specifically requested not to. Losers.
2. People continue to install new software on the very day of its release, discover that it’s still buggy or insecure, and then complain. Do you never learn?
3. The Aurora Hotel in Surry Hills and the C Bar on the corner of Pitt and Campbell Streets in the Sydney CBD have free Wifi.
4. The comedians on stage at The Sly Fox Hotel on a Monday night are 300% more bitter & disturbed than I am.
5. There is no evidence that 17 Massachusetts schoolgirls became pregnant because of a “pregnancy pact”
6. There is not, but should be, continuous 3G or HSDPA phone coverage on the highway between Sydney and Canberra. In some places there isn’t even GSM!
7. “The 7 categorises of satedness: Food. Sexual pleasure. Alcohol. Music. Visual appeal. Amphetamines. Blue cheese. Agreed?”
8. The Concourse Bar at Wynyard Station has Coopers Ale for $4.70 a schooner and a choice of six cocktails for $7 each.
9. “Backpacking” has descended from “travel world for enrichment” to “global party by indulgent drunken arseholes”. Hence, “gas them”.
10. Automatic weapons really do solve so many everyday problems.

[Credit: Cartoon Twitter-bird courtesy of Hugh MacLeod. Like all of Hugh's cartoons published online, it's free to use.]

Stilgherrian’s links for 22 June 2008 through 24 June 2008, gathered with care and compassion:

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Once again, my Twitter stream reveals much of interest. This week’s highlights:

1. No matter how many times I say “Wynyard is a railway station” it still looks like a poorly-maintained pub urinal. It’s the colour.
2. If you have a beard, you’re allowed to be fat and incoherent.
3. “I hate it when you’re pulling off a buttoned shirt and the buttons get caught on ur nostrils.” Agreed.
4. I really should write more serious essays or news stories soon lest people think I’m only about odd drinking games and ranting on camera.
5. Hotel Cremorne: Friday. Semi-bearded ad agency geekbois and Lesser Office Wendys with overly-tall heels, overly-tight skirts, nasty accents.
6. The Duke Hotel in Enmore has barred me from drinking any Wirra Wirra wines from McLaren Vale until I try every other decent red on their new wine list.
7. Once I’m appointed Tsar, all jazz musicians will go to Nauru concentration camps, paid for by a levy on jazz enthusiasts.
8. “Apple has 3 basic moves”? No, just ONE. “We’re sooooo fuckin’ cool, iz pretty, buy our stuffz kthxbai.” [Chorus: "Steve Steve Steve Steve Steve Steve Steve Steve Steve Steve Steve Steve Steve Steve Steve Steve Steve Steve Much Loves."]
9. “Dear Fat Bloke, nothing says ‘yobbo slav’ more than a pair of (fake) Bvlgari sunglasses kthxbye.”
10. “Dear Bus Driver, if having to change a $50 is your day’s worst then you and Mr 9mm need to chat.”
11. I now understand why the law prevents me from bringing firearms to conferences.
12. Platypuses don’t actually have antlers.

And at that point Twitter tells me it’s over-capacity, which is probably a good thing.

[Credit: Cartoon Twitter-bird courtesy of Hugh MacLeod. Like all of Hugh's cartoons published online, it's free to use.]

I’ve decided. I’ll do an episode of Stilgherrian Live Alpha tonight at 9.30pm Sydney time. There was just so much interesting fallout from PubCamp Sydney last night — including my own, erm, volcanic outburst — that chatting about it will be an effective way of processing my own thoughts.

My links for 01 June 2008 through 02 June 2008, gathered semi-automatically:

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As we begin a new and somewhat rainy Monday here in Sydney, it’s worth reflecting on my world as revealed through Twitter.

1. If only cats ate cockroaches my two most significant household chores would cancel out.
2. The only thing a VCR is good for is to watch old porno movies.
3. “Luxurious possum fur” is an oxymoron.
4. Twitter is (like all networks) just an amplifier. Natural news-bringers bring news. Natural wankers wank.
5. Total Eclipse of the Heart has the most sensible music video of any song ever.
6. “Wynyard Hotel, the sign saying ‘restrooms maintained to highest standard’ doesn’t stop stale urine smell.”
7. As we all know, cardio fitness is improved through gin.
8. “Do not insert in ear canal” is sage advice.

Now what sort of impression of me does that give? And what will this week bring?

[Credit: Cartoon Twitter-bird courtesy of Hugh MacLeod. Like all of Hugh's cartoons published online, it's free to use.]