Word-whore. I write 'em. I talk 'em. Information, politics, media, and the cybers. I drink. I use bad words. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris! Vive les poissons rouges sauvages!
An “amusing trick” for owners of the over-hyped iPhone. If you take photos of your friends against some glass (or with a scanner) and make that their contact photo in your iPhone, then when they call it’ll look like they’re trapped in your phone! Thanks to The Apple Blog for the pointer.
Yesterday PM John Howard’s supposed “frankness” was “appreciated” (according to anonymous sources), because he told the federal cabinet “If you have a problem with how I’m doing my job, don’t be afraid to say so.” But how could anyone respond meaningfully? To do so, you’d have to proclaim your disloyalty in front of the entire cabinet — and who’d dare to be first?
I’m surprised that no-one has reported this for what it is: passive aggressive behaviour.
Note the wording. If you have a problem. I’m doing my job. If you can’t say what you want then you are being afraid.
Actually, it’s interesting reading through the criteria for passive-aggression as a personality disorder: ambiguity; forgetfulness (“I don’t recall”); blaming others (the terrorists, the Muslims, the boat people, the Aboriginals); fear of intimacy (when did you last see John and Hyacinth hold hands?), procrastination (how long has it taken to do anything about, oh, global warming?), resists suggestions from others… There’s an essay in its own right!
As PCs get more powerful, it’s possible to run multiple users on each computer — just like in the mainframe days. Samsung’s new DisplayLink monitors make it easier — and here’s a video explaining how it works. Thanks to Memex 1.1 for the pointer.
That wonderful chap Father Bob Maguire has written a piece on the return of the Latin Mass in Catholic churches. As usual, he’s saying things the Vatican probably won’t like. Excellent.
Church music became popularist [sic] in the 1960s [after Vatican II] because it had been exclusivist for centuries.
The “Masses” so often “oo’ed and ah’ed” over by concert-goers and listeners to the ABC FM stations were performance pieces for the ruling classes (including the senior clergy). The language was exclusivist, Latin, to remind lesser beings and nationalities that all roads lead to Rome.
Guess what? There’s a revisionist plot on, right now, to restore Latin on demand. A Brisbane priest was quoted last week as praising the move back because he felt much more comfortable and spiritually refreshed if he had his back to the congregation and was the only one knowing what was being said! (Read article here on Latin Mass)
The musical style of a Cathedral or posh church, supportable by heaps of money, comforts upwardly socially mobile church-goers.
Suburban and rural area churches make do with less. Which worship style creates/supports genuine parish centres, souls of their neighbourhoods, beacons of hope?
As I’ve said before, Father Bob is a Catholic priest who actually gives Christians a good name.
According to the Bad Astronomy Blog — and who am I to argue? — the world’s greatest cartoon ever was released 50 years ago last week. Do feel free to disagree…
I’ve written about the strategic planning day we did for my business, and I showed you the view from the hotel and the whiteboard. But I haven’t said anything about the outcome. So here goes… my first attempt at a coherent summary.
Starting today I’ll focus more of my time on “media stuff” rather than “IT stuff”. I’ll include Internet-related media in the mix, but I’ll phase out the time I spend farting around with other people’s computers. I’m interested in computers and the Internet as tools to achieve my own goals, not fixing other people’s tools. I hope to get all the hands-on IT stuff off my plate by the end of September.
This “media stuff” includes quite a few projects, some of which have been slowly incubating for years. There’s 3 book concepts (one of which would also make a good TV series), a set of 6 short films, a piece of music and a couple of things which will take the form of blogs. These will start being developed under the (probable) name Skank Media — more of that one day very soon.
I must admit, I’ve been longing to return to my media roots for ages. It feels good to see a coherent plan emerging to achieve just that.
So what happens to the existing business?
I still want to work with small businesses and their information systems — but by helping them make better use of emerging Internet technologies. And doing that within a planned framework — not just responding to failures or ad hoc requests. We may still provide IT support services, or that might be outsourced, but it certainly won’t be me worrying about misbehaving printers or crawling under desks fixing cables.
My friend and colleague Zern Liew developed a 3-point to-do list which is a delightful example of simplicity:
I feel really good about this. My target mix for the rest of this month is 20 hours per week billable time on IT and Internet work for existing clients, 10 hours on redeveloping Prussia.Net and 10 hours on Skank Media. Plus the usual extra 10 or 15 or 20 hours on making everything else work. I’ll report back on Friday evening.