Are you frustrated with Facebook because your profile only lists “Political Views” chosen from an American list (as opposed to being frustrated by all the other Facebook annoyances)? Be frustrated no more! “Political Views” is now a write-in field. Hat-tip to Mushroom and Rooster via Lavartus Prodeo‘s Facebook group.
Remember 20 megabyte hard drives?
I just found this while cleaning up the office: the start-up disc for Apple’s Hard Disk 20 from 1985.
This was the first hard drive for the then-new Macintosh. My beloved Fat Mac — “Fat” because it came with 512k RAM, not the original 128K — had two 800kB 400kB 3.5-inch floppies, one of which held the operating system
So this drive extended my data storage from under 1MB half a megabyte to a gargantuan 20MB. I was in heaven!
Later that year, a legal settlement from a traffic accident provided the funds for the other cool tool for geeks: the original Apple LaserWriter printer. I remember being extremely chuffed because it was on special: marked down from the list price of AUD$10k to a mere $7.7k
Yes, seven thousand dollars! In 1985 money!
This was the desktop publishing revolution!
Everyone — simple everyone — wanted to look at the glorious 300dpi print quality. And because I’d gotten hold of JustText, a code-based tool for professional typesetting, I could pass raw PostScript commands through to the printer and do complex layouts. TAFE offered me a job on the spot — which I declined.
It all seems so passé now…
This disc looks in pretty good condition. I wonder if it still works? Anyone got the hardware?
Latham calls Swan “insipid”: a good tactic?
So former Labor leader Mark Latham reckons Treasurer Wayne Swan is insipid, insecure and a try-hard…
In a column in the Financial Review, Mr Latham says Mr Swan has had more than a decade to develop his speaking style, but he is still struggling.
He says his body language is cramped, his delivery too rapid — and all up, he tries too hard.
Claiming that Rudd won’t wait any longer for Swan to improve, Latham reckons Rudd’s likely to name Julia Gillard as Treasurer.
I was alerted to this story by Noel Kelly, who said “With friend[s] like Mark Latham… Should we make him the federal opposition leader?” But I actually think it’s a tactic which works in Chairman Rudd’s favour.
Latham floats the idea of tipping Swan to see how the numbers lie — both in the party room and in the commentariat. Rudd can then choose to agree with him and sack Swan, or just say that Latham’s a crank and support Swan, as the situation demands.
Australia 2020 invitations “next week”
Invitations to the Australia 2020 Summit will be sent out next week. “The Government has reserved a right to make some appointments of their own and they can be people who either didn’t apply or people who did apply and we left out,” says Steering Committee member Tim Costello. “With the Prime Minister saying we want the brightest and best there, anyone with any sort of healthy ego felt compelled to apply, so it’s attracted absolutely brilliant people.”
Never rely on people
Never rely on people to point out the glitches. I’ve just printed one of my business’ invoices for the first time in ages — hey, I do everything on screen — and noticed that the template is still tagged with “Holiday Arrangements 2007-08”. In 2.5 months, no-one has mentioned it. Then again, I’m hardly surprised. Energy Australia tells me that street lights stay broken for months because no-one tells them — even though they can usually fix them promptly.
Enceladus from Cassini
Have I been too harsh on NASA? Last week the Cassini spacecraft zoomed past Saturn’s moon Enceladus and took these magnificent pictures. Hat-tip to the Bad Astronomy Blog.