Blog – Page 274 – Stilgherrian

03 September 2008

Links for 31 August 2008 through 03 September 2008

Stilgherrian’s links for 31 August 2008 through 03 September 2008, small in number but big in quantity:

Victorian Railways’ Telegraph Code Book | Railpage Australia: Yes, it’ what it says: the code book used by Victorian railways for sending telegraphic messages. Arum = Trucks loaded with timber.
He Said It First | YouTube: This 2.5-minute movie is NOT something to play with the kids around. It takes a little-known fact about US presidential candidate John McCain and turns it into a nasty viral piece. It’s funny because it explains itself as it goes along, and drops the C-bomb liberally.

30 August 200830 August 2008

A Metal to Drag Transformation

Q: What do these two people have in common? A: They’re the same person!

The wonderful musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch is about to embark on an Australian tour. Melbourne metal performer Ezekiel Ox is performing the title role and, as this sequence of photos shows, the transformation was amazing.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch plays for just three Sydney shows 16 through 18 September 2008 at The Metro Theatre before touring nationally. Book online or phone +61 2 9550 3666.

30 August 200831 August 2008

Links for 26 August 2008 through 30 August 2008

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

29 August 200830 August 2008

Twitter changed my life

Wow. Twitter really has changed the way I use the Internet. I now post well over 1000 tweets a month. Some of them are trivial or silly, but many are the quick observations or links to interesting things which I used to post as a “note” like this. If you’re not following my Twitter stream you really are missing a lot of the fun stuff. Meanwhile, I wrote a long piece for Crikey today about the journalists’ strike at Fairfax, but it didn’t run. I’m not sure whether that’ll appear here or there first.

25 August 200825 August 2008

Parking, by Douglass Hanly Moir Pathology

Photo of pathology service car parked illegally in Newtown Square

Dear Douglass Hanly Moir Pathology, the signs on Newtown Square saying “NO ENTRY” and “COUNCIL POLICE AND EMERGENCY VEHICLES EXCEPTED” do not mean you can park on the lawn. They mean the exact opposite.

There is legal parking only metres from where I took this photo last Tuesday 19 August. Please tell your driver that walking those few extra metres will be better for the lawn, better for his health, and better for my anger levels, kthxbai.

25 August 200825 August 2008

Links for 23 August 2008 through 24 August 2008

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.