Author: Stilgherrian

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Twitter updates for 2008-03-13

  • @bck It’s illegal for employers to monitor employees’ private communication, so what happens when private communications are public? #
  • Off to brunch on Enmore Road, AFK. #
  • Note to Ticketmaster: If it’s a routine list of events you can buy tickets to, sent at the same time every week, then it’s not an "alert". #
  • @SilkCharm From Saudi, please bring a map of the public transport system, if they have one. #
  • Still plodding thru the "paperwork". Not really paying attention to anything else. It is not exciting, however. #
  • Mac vs PC choice is irrational: a good start to a sensible debate! http://tinyurl.com/3736qa #
  • Starting to explore del.icio.us … unless someone can think of something better for me to do tonight. #
  • @garthk Glad to be of service! Miro TV looks like a goodly thing. RSS and BitTorrent-capable, VLC the under hood, FOSS goodness throughout. #
  • @bck Ta for the offer of your del.icio.us script, but will use this method as an experiment first. http://tinyurl.com/ec7gw #
  • @bck Agreed, customisation would be nice, but hey I’ll see how I go with this for now because it was a no-brainer. #
  • I’m not happy with today’s blog posts. I feel very uninspired. So does half the city, I’m told. #
  • @duncanriley Interesting. Channel 10 is shit digital reception for us too, in Sydney, tho all channels are dodgy here in Enmore. #
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Australia 2020 News, 13 March 2008

I wonder if Australia’s Jewish communities will be suitably placated by having their own kosher pre-summit summit on 14 April, since the main Australia 2020 Summit on 19-20 April clashed with Passover?

Meanwhile, the process of selecting the 1000 “best and brightest” (minus the politically-handy pre-selections) started yesterday. There’s “more than 10,000 applications” to deal with — though previously the figure was 7000+ so who knows who to believe.

[Summit vice-chairman] Professor [Glyn] Davis met Mr Rudd on Tuesday to review progress for the huge gathering. A team, including Victorian public servants and some of Professor Davis’ staff, is working on the agenda, while a Queensland bureaucrat is helping with background material for the summiteers.

Mind you:

The committee also has lists of possible summiteers sent in by the public and CVs that are not accompanied by formal applications.

I’d have thought that being unable to follow the published nomination process would automatically exclude you from being Australia’s “best and brightest”.

It’s sounding like we’ll know the list of 1000 early next week.

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Oh well done Aunty Victoria!

The Victorian government is going to ban ATMs from gaming venues.

So, just because some people get suckered into shoving all their money into addictive machines, the rest of us are denied the convenience of withdrawing cash at the pub when we’re running short. Instead we have to go down the street — where we can be mugged more easily.

Here’s a thought. If gaming machines are the problem, why not get rid of the gaming machines?

Oh, that’s right. 8% of Victoria’s revenue comes from gaming machine taxes [PDF file], a total of 13% from gambling of all kinds.

Chairman Rudd has already said he supports Nick Xenophon’s push to remove ATMs from gaming areas. Xenophon doesn’t even become a Senator until 1 July, but already he’s an object of sincere and deep affection.

We’d already started to see the rise of a new wowserism. Imagine what it’s going to like when the balance of power in the Senate is held by Xenophon and Family First’s Senator Steve Fielding! If you thought we’d seen dull conformity before…