Dear Harvey Norman: When you sell someone a new computer and tell them that “everything’s on there”, please explain that you’ve only dumped a copy of their old hard drive onto it, and that it’s still a few hours’ work to download and install software, put data in the right place and generally configure things. You might also like to explain that the “student and teacher” editions of Microsoft Office you’re trying to push aren’t actually able to be used by people running a commercial business.
Thursday Reading, 6 March 2008, 2nd edition
There’s just too much Good Stuff to read today! A speech by Justice Michael Kirby (pictured) to the Internet Industry Association last month, Law making meets technology, is a magnificent summary of the challenge facing legislators (and judges) in the face of rapidly-advancing technology. There’s also related news from Canada, where a bar was ordered to stop scanning people’s ID cards and keeping the data (hat-tip to Threat Level).
7.30 Report: Govt moves to improve porn filter
Last night’s piece on The 7.30 Report, Govt moves to improve porn filter, is finally online. No video of the story itself, just the transcript, but there’s “extended” video interviews with two of the talking heads, Dr Michael Flood and Professor Catharine Lumby. Commentary later.
[Update 7 March: A video of The 7.30 Report story is now online courtesy of somebodythinkofthechildren.com.]
Iron Curtain turns 62
On this day in 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his famous Iron Curtain speech. Hat-tip to Memex 1.1.
That Business Conversation
Mark Pesce’s latest speech, That Business Conversation, given to about 170 CEO-types at the Western Sydney Business Connection yesterday, is another good read.
Thursday Reading, 6 March 2008
Three quickies for you: The 40 Most Inappropriate Children’s Book Covers (I like Sharing is for Losers: an Ayn Rand Primer and Pop! Goes The Hamster And Other Fun Microwave Games). A nice rant about Sydney’s Fireworks Display Exhaustion Syndrome. And the story of the Bluetooth Burqa (hat-tip to 3 Quarks Daily).