@ScottAllen “Anyone who would begrudge me half an inch of screen real estate to make a little money isn’t my friend” Um, whose screen is it?
@viveka Yes, http://ut.ag is Australian. See @nickhac for more. We are now his Special Friends… ;)
The day begins with being on-hold with Dell. Again. Why is the world’s biggest computer manufacturer so comprehensively useless here?
RT @wolfcat: Australians will know this as the theme music to “The Hollowmen” but here is the the original video http://is.gd/3lRD
Thanks also to @RuthEllison and @viveka and anyone else I missed saying congrats to us. :)
@katska Yeah I was wondering whether @Nickhodge was making a Jon Ronson reference re the goats. http://is.gd/3lNg I will poke him and ask.
@maadonna @docbaty Thanks for the congrats. Just a quiet dinner as we’ve been incredibly busy, but pleasant enough. :)
Emerges. Nice to sleep in a bit, to 0830 anyway, despite the cats’ best efforts.
After such an intense work period… no days off in a while… it’s an early night for me. [exit]
@docbaty Well @ApostrophePong and I celebrate two anniversaries: today, of the day we met; also in May, when he moved to Sydney.
@docbaty We have survived Stanmore and are now safely back at Enmore, ready to endure yet another year of our relationship.
Full of lots of sushi and not much sake (I am responsible), we ride the Grand Electric Tubeworm (3078) to the Wilds of Stanmore Station. Ah!
@limburger2001 @misswired @NathanaelB Ta all. We’re now in the queue outside Umi Kaiten-Zushi in Haymarket.
Time to join @ApostrophePong at the Beauchamp Hotel on Oxford St and choose a dinner venue. He met me 8 years ago today, and lived (kinda).
@Nickhodge Yeah that’ll be MY first hip-hop album: “Goat-Trancin’ Rhymes of The Outback”.
@NathanaelB I had to stop reading Crikey today when Guy Rundle started talking about “Cindy McCain’s Nazi mistress wardrobe”. [swoon]
@wolfcat I think this tweet from last night explains everything. http://is.gd/3jxQ Well, it explains SOMETHING anyway.
@Nickhodge No guns? How does he hunt teh goatz then? Run them down, crash-tackle and bite their necks out? Hmmm… getting turned on now.
@Nickhodge (I am now picturing your own son with a gun. Yes, a significant improvement. A gun would suit him, I think.)
@Nickhodge Hmmm… I know a hunter who could help there. Mind you, he’s a very, very scary individual.
The trick is telling the sheep from the goats. I should know.
@SnarkyPlatypus A goat for every schoolchild is certainly cheaper than a computer. http://is.gd/3jwB And more adaptable. ;) Listening, Rudd?
@ninjamoeba Plz be seeing this tweet kthxbai. http://is.gd/3jtb
Yay! I am done at Darlinghurst! Well, for today. Northbridge tomorrow, Darlinghurst again on Thursday and Friday. Ah, the joy of it all!
@ApostrophePong “That guy is a whimp!”? Yeah, a DEAD wimp… :P
@ScottAllen I’m thinking this tweet from earlier sums up my http://ut.ag thoughts most accurately, though: http://is.gd/3jsW
@sesh That farm, yes, dial-up. We have a phone number to dial, and the ISP has ISDN their end. Mind you, my ISDN knowledge is fading fast.
@ApostrophePong This is a warning to you! I already gasp for breath when you’re cooking! http://is.gd/3iNH Hat-tip to @SnarkyPlatypus … ;)
@sesh “They only got responses from 37 ISPs.” I guess the data can be cross-matched with the household/business surveys of Internet usage.
@sesh I have a client who’s farm office has 2-channel ISDN for phones. He loses one channel to a dial-up ISDN when he uses Teh Internetz.
@sesh “It lists ISDN under dialup, then later lists it as an option for other under non-dialup.” Intermittent vs permanent ISDN links?
@ScottAllen Oh that wasn’t meant to be critical of you! I’m curious about why some people find http://ut.ag OK while it annoys others (me).
RT @maadonna: “@stilgherrian you are quite mad ;)” Gosh. This hadn’t occurred to me before. Or to anyone else. [smirks]
@ninjamoeba “My internet mostly feels like its dialup.” Plz be stopping downloading your goat pr0nz kthxbai.
@a_makohon The surgeons’ practice I’m currently working on had dial-up until only 3 months ago. Then there are rural businesses.
@ScottAllen Ah! There’s our difference! I’m happy to give useful information FOR FREE, since that’s being a good human. Money cheapens it.
@ScottAllen The threads on http://ut.ag are interesting, though. ;) Me, I’m “somewhat facetious” about everything, pretty much…
@SnarkyPlatypus I’m guessing that if they’re still on dial-up they don’t NEED to download teh goat pronz because they have their own goat.
@maadonna Ooooooh, hang on, that was meant for you. I AM TWEETING TO THE WRONG PEOPLE!
@oliyoung Fair point. I have a dial-up account lying around “just in case”. It costs me $5.50 a month. However a MacBook Pro has no modem.
There’s still more than 1.5 MILLION dial-up Internet subscribers in Australia. Latest ABS stats at http://is.gd/3jqr
@earleyedition Ta for the link to your http://ut.ag review. http://is.gd/3j2Y
Tues plan (oh yeah, that): Departing for Sydney CBD then 1400+ client site Darlinghurst; tonight 8th anniversary of meeting @ApostrophePong.
RT gavincarr: @stilgherrian Or how about post-pub, in that warm afterglow: “Wow, that was fantastic! Here you go, here’s 5 bucks.”
@jonathanpoh No, I didn’t get my moose last night. [sulks] That’s probably @nickhac’s fault too.
Imagine Dave at the pub. “Hey, have you seen this cool new game? Isn’t that funny! Can I have 25 cents?” No, fuck off Dave, you wanker!
@Warlach Maybe because URL-shortening is a trivial service available for free anyway it’s the shock of seeing someone trying to cash in.
@Warlach You’re right, unobtrusive ads may be “outside the stream”. I don’t mind links to YouTube (which has ads) because they’re expected.
@NickHaC The effect is subtle, but over time … well… that bit of our brain which deals with this stuff notices the pattern.
@NickHaC By trying to “monetise” the conversation they lose “social capital” (ugh!) by exhibiting selfishness. My interest in them wanes.
@NickHaC Ads in the middle of the conversation stream would lower my opinion of them, yes. It says they care more about money than dialog.
@NickHaC “Do you despise your blogger friends who have advertising on their blogs too?” Never said “despise”, but… depends on context…
Now, a HUGE plug to HP: Problem with DVD burner. Called 1500. Tech agreed it’s a bad drive. Replacement with human on-site to install 1000.
OK, DPI Systems don’t have Dell. I see that as a PLUS: I can buy HP or Lenovo or Asus or Acer, and get a phone call when there’s a problem.
Dell MIGHT be OK for non-critical, but I get far, far, FAR better service from http://www.dpi.com.au who deliver OVERNIGHT, even same day.
It is sweetly if annoyingly ironic that Dell has already sent snail-mail spam to the address I gave before my order was even processed.
Answer to all of the above: Dell clearly skimps on important aspects of their business (and computers?) and instead spends on advertising.
3. Why, on FIVE occasions now, did Dell promise someone would call back, but no-one called back? Why not have enough staff to handle volume?
2. Did I mis-key card numbers? Some other problem? Why didn’t Dell detect this when I placed the order 2 weeks ago rather than yesterday?
1. Dell takes so long to respond to anything. Bounce to “export control” DAYS after order placed. Why is this not same-day, if not instant?
There are for me three key failures of Dell’s customer “service” with this order… which was NOT a complicated order.
Maybe if I stare at a Dell logo long enough they’ll explode.
@lnassar You’re right there’s no penalty for Dell being useless for this order. The client wants this specific model.
@servantofchaos Someone mentioned @richardatdell before, but it says “digital media” in his bio. I want my order processed, not a PR flack.
@SnarkyPlatypus The client ordered a specific Dell monitor. Well, 7 of them. Dell bounced it to “export control” and now some other problem.
@Nickhodge Did you say “sheepish looking men”? I AM ALL YOURS!
@IanKath OTOH, with regards to our former state Premier… SEA CUCUMBER SEX FTW!!!1!!!!!!!
@IanKath Yes, I do try to keep my sexual activities within the Order Mammalia. Generally speaking, I succeed.
@barrysaunders I think almost ANYTHING could be on “Stilgherrian Live” this week. Anything. Sawadee krub, Khun Boonchoo. ;) [private joke]
@JonathanPoh “Determined” is one way to describe me, yes. ;) Your mission is to think of 5 more adjectives.
@crispynoodles I haven’t seen “Into the Wild”, but if there’s a dead moose I’m there!
@spyjournal OK, I’m now following you because you mentioned Flock of Seagulls. There has to be a word for that.
RT @facibus: “@NathanaelB tampons, dude, the pros use tampons for their molotov cocktails. Srsly :)” See! Useful life tips!
@fulltimecasual “I only like it when I’m pretend scared”? You roller-coaster ghost-train toy! I’M THE REAL THING AND I’M TOO STRONG FOR YOU!
@IanKath If you are going to video me and Sarah Palin then maybe I can skip the moose. There IS such a thing as erotic overload.
@fulltimecasual I don’t want no Tina Fey fakery. I want the REAL Sarah Palin! And a moose. There MUST be a moose. Alive, dead, I don’t care.
@pixel8ted No. No-one knows when Daylight Saving starts. It’s a state secret. Shoosh.
SARAH PALIN I WANT TO HAVE YOUR BABIES! RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW! WITH EVERYONE WATCHING!
@LacqueredStudio “So perhaps we could say all agitators need whisky?” Well, “whiskey” rather than “whisky”. A washing machine full of it.
@SnarkyPlatypus You have just convinced me. I simply MUST mind-meld with a pokie machine. Must.
Maybe half an hour until the New Moon? Does the New Moon have bees? Or tigers? Enquiring minds need to know. Me too. I need to know.
Has everyone met my friend, the Domain Controller? He has bees. And tigers. And wolves. And he is on YouTube like all tehy c00l kidz.
RT @SnarkyPlatypus: “@stilgherrian It is a wolf. A wolf that is hungry. And you are actually listening to Duran Duran.” Why, Russell, why?
@SilkCharm No, don’t put the Photon Group’s video on YouTube. Just link to it from everywhere and make them pay for their own bandwidth.
Is that a bee? I’m sure it is a bee. It is a bee I see. Possibly a tiger. How can one tell the difference? Someone is listening to The Cure.
@LacqueredStudio Hmmm… I’m not a poet nor a revolutionary, so I guess “just” a writer. I can live without the clifftop. Whiskey is vital.
RT @gavincarr: “You can’t monetize the transactions in a gift economy without destroying them.” Well said, that man there! [points]
@SilkCharm Oh dear! We’re agreeing on things in public! What DID happen during last night’s New Moon?
URL-shortening is such tiny thing I’m sure it’ll soon become core web protocol, or built into browsers. The cash-in time will be very brief.
@WarWraith Yes, maybe we can have some surfaces/services without advertising? I mean, we run DNS without “monetising” it, street lighting…
It brings the attitude “Look at all those people spending their time doing X! How can I cash in on that?” That IS the spammer mindset.
@SilkCharm @rosshill I think the entire problem stems from seeing human communication as “content” (a tradeable commodity) to begin with.
@SilkCharm 100% agreed re http://ut.ag. Anyone who puts advertising into their conversation with their friends is a cheapskate. it’s spammy.
@SnarkyPlatypus Alas, no, that was your penultimate cinematic experience. My mistake. THIS is your ultimate: http://is.gd/hZ0
@SnarkyPlatypus Coming from someone who thinks that http://is.gd/yld is the ultimate cinematic experience, that’s hardly an insult.
@trib BIG OOPS! Thailand uses Euro-style two-vertical-slot power sockets, with a round earth (optional).
@viveka Agreed. Boundaries between “inside” and “outside” blur. I wonder if that writer can walk AND talk on the phone to non-real friends.
RT @viveka “What shits *me* about http://is.gd/3gGo is the idea that you can’t be online and outside, virtual and real at the same time.”
@trib Thai power sockets: Poo, I’ll have to wait until @ApostrophePong emerges and tell me where the stuff is packed away. Thick, I think.
@dpn Yes, politics IS the great example. But I’ve never been a fan of ignorance, it’s just laziness in disguise. (Stupidity is forgivable.)
RT @bronwen: I want a poster of this http://xkcd.com/482/ Yes, a nice map of the universe. “All hail Eris”, indeed!
Opium production in Afghanistan 1994-2008. Nice supply / demand / price graph. http://is.gd/3ixS
@trib And yes, I am indeed a cultural leader. Just read my tweets from last night, there’s your proof!
@trib I think I’m just jealous that “The Age” would have PAID him to write an article which says, in effect, “Hello, I’m ignorant”. ;)
@Nickhodge “Antony Green lives a couple of blocks and +100 IQ points from us all.” True. And yet he was brandishing a light bulb at me.
@trib (That and using Facebook status lines as his example is rather… quaintly out of date.)
@trib The tone is adopted superiority. I reckon that if he doesn’t understand something, even if not HIS cup of tea, the flaw is his end.
@trib It’s like the old idea that “book learning” wasn’t as good as “real learning”, and now “internet” isn’t as good as books…
@trib What shits me about http://is.gd/3gGo is the assumption that a social relationship is less valid when mediated online…
@misswired @raena Antony Green talks even faster & geekier than they allow on TV. He lives a couple blocks from me, was buying a light bulb.
Reviewing my Twitterstream from last night and asking myself pertinent questions. Most of them start “Why…?” A few begin “How…?”
Emerges. From the Latin emergere, from e- (variant of ex-) ‘out, forth’ + mergere ‘to dip’. Glad you asked?
Look, I know he’s a God, but don’t go drinking with Antony Green, it fucks with your head.
Oh fuck! Antony Green has just joined me. This is going to be one of those evenings…
@WarWraith It shouldn’t be “The Stig”, it should be “The Stil”. Mind you, I don’t have a driver’s license.
@spyjournal You simply cannot imagine what I have hidden in my pants.
@deanlk We tell each other whether we’re having a good day or bad with inanity, and yet he wants us to spout Shakespeare just for him.
@deanlk No I don’t think that he has dull friends. He just doesn’t get that this is all the usual social bonding trivia, but at a distance.
Channel [V] is the ultimate expression of the future of media.
Anyone want a good laugh? Someone who simply does not get the online world. http://is.gd/3gGo
I CAN HAZ POWER SOCKET! I CAN BE LIVE FROM TEH PUBZ FOREVER!
@colwar I dunno. I can’t see “Top Gun Australia” from here. Only MTV at this pub. No reception at home anyway.
I cannot possibly compete with “Top Gear Australia” unless I drop my pants.
@ninjamoeba OK, I’ll follow you ‘cos 1. You followed me TONIGHT and 2. “Flâneur”. Someone just put New Order’s “Blue Monday” on the jukebox.
RT @andrewdotnich: “Retweeting @mpesce: Every geek *must* read this (and play the video!) http://tinyurl.com/4muu6d” Pesceslave! :P
@limburger2001 Exactly. We need a Twitter client called “Roar!”.
Two of the most useless words in the English language: Procul. Harum.
GIVE ME THE GODDAM DEAD MOOSE!
@noony “You’re a duck.” Everything else you’ll have to sort out for yourself.
@limburger2001 And how can you call yourself a man while using software called “Twinkle”? http://artofmanliness.co…
@limburger2001 “”Rain came and went here within 10 minutes.” Where are you, and why?
Overheard: “I mean, how many times do you hear ‘I have to get off the acid?’” WTF do you get acid these days?
RT @JonathanPoh: “@stilgherrian just based on the last 15 mins of tweets - insane, sexual, political, manic, dangerous.” All hail Eris!
@barrysaunders Plural? OK then: @Nickhodge Did you say “sheepish looking men”? WE ARE ALL YOURS!
Darlinghurst. My day begins in earnest. Lights out, Twitterverse.
Wow this is so early that the King St traffic jam hasn’t even started yet!
It’s a delightful morning in Sydney. A shame this cab is taking me to a client’s office, not a clifftop cafe for breakfast and whiskey.
Mon plan: Off to Darlinghurst client; get them working (partially) on their new network; cut across other functions while they train; sleep.
Whoever was talking with me about calling cards the other day, read this post at “The Art of Manliness”. http://is.gd/2vYN
@limburger2001 My dreams before exams would involve seagulls. Horde of one-legged seagulls hopping in formation to the music of Mozart.
@limburger2001 “Remember those fevered dreams you have just before an exam, and you tell your self to remember a really important fact?” No.
Emerges. That was not enough sleep. Oh well, more to come later I suppose. I hope. The New Moon is around 6.15pm Sydney time.
In a taxi, heading home. I have to be back at the client site in just over 6 hours. But the project unfolds OK. For the client, anyway.
@SnarkyPlatypus And you! I am NEVER weird and disturbing. Never.
@callumj Thankfully I’m using R-Drive to mirror what aspects I can, but there’s still a lot to do before 0800.
@callumj This’ll be my last network deployment. I’m seriously over fiddling with other people’s tools. I want to USE the tools to DO things.
@callumj Sadly with only 8 machines and different configs, learning Sysprep would’ve taken longer than doing it this way. And…
Hmmm… I don’t want my weekend tweets to look like I’m just whingeing about boring geekery, but that IS the shape of my weekend this week.
Now that I’ve FINALLY created the master image for these six remaining computers, I’m copying it to the portable HDD. So exciting. Not.
I really, really dislike having typo’d the IP address I just gave a printer in another building. Now, where are my keys…? [sigh]
@limburger2001 I’m hoping that I can have an early start to the long weekend… but not sure yet.
Spending a slow Sunday evening with my bestest friend, the Windows Active Directory. Yeah right.
@DrMiaow I *think* you mean you’re “poring” over the new AdBusters, not “pouring”… unless… [shudder]
Adding computers to a domain… computer001… computer002… computer003… computer004… where “computer” is teh secritz. Lovely.
RT @SnarkyPlatypus: “Justification of additional drug use is my speciality.” Seems a pretty easy gig.
@nwjerseyliz I am an odd sheep. I am a bad sheep. Baa. Baa. Baa. May I sniff you?
@Scott_Drummond Good to meet you Friday. @claudiamob @alicam Welcome also.
Emerges. Not as early as I’d half-planned, but early enough I suppose. Alkaloids and aches and pains before work.
I’ll be home shortly, exhausted. Early start tomorrow. Social interaction will wait. [exit]
I love alighting at Newtown when it’s busy. Climbing the stairs, you can legitimately sniff butts and not be noticed.
Macdonaldtown. Stanky dorco.
Just what is @mpesce showing me here? http://twitpic.com/d8ez Thankfully it’s out of shot.
Well, NextG dropped out as we left Town Hall, but reconnected once out of the tunnel… and the ping packets came back after 19000ms. Nice.
Falling asleep waiting for a connecting train at Town Hall. Thankfully there is teh internetz, and I can post to my blog.
@erkpod Alas, @ApostrophePong and I catch all manner of trains. Well just have to risk it.
Enough work for one day. Even gelati cannot refresh. @ApostrophePong and I are at Kings Cross station, awaiting the next electric tubeworm.
OK, we’ve had lunch and we have Internet connectivity… now the slavery begins (though at a relaxed pace), thank the gods.
Mobile to Darlinghurst. You have been warned.
Sat plan: Pack up all this equipment and move to client’s Darlinghurst office, then make it all work. That’s my day, and much of the night.
On-site at Darlinghurst. Very intermittent attention for the rest of the day. What a shame, it’s a beautiful spring morning in Sydney.
I also notice that the “Hot Political Topics” tracker on Twitter features variations of #horseshit … having an election in the US, are we?
Is sitting with a laptop on my lap while waiting for the taxi sensible use of my time, excessive, or a complete wank?
Sun plan: Final client network set-up at Darlinghurst; 1300 software engineer arrives to install apps; then celebration or suicide.
RT @john_chr: Today’s USA is the USSR of the 1980s: http://tinyurl.com/5yxgmt
@nwjerseyliz As far as I know John Howard didn’t sniff people’s butts, but he did give undue attention to female sporting stars, IMHO.
@nwjerseyliz It’s a parody of his anti-refugee speech, “We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come.”
@nwjerseyliz That’s not from Churchill, Lenin nor Bush I or II, but our former Dear Leader John Howard. http://is.gd/3dP6
@nwjerseyliz “I shall determine who sniffs in this country and the circumstances in which they sniff.”
Excellent. 6 of these computers CAN be cloned rather than configured from scratch, 20 to 30 mins each instead of 4.5 hours each. It helps.
A couple hours into this sysadmin nightmare, it’s starting to look just a little less frightening. Maybe the weekend work will be bearable.
Emerges. Well, I emerged a little while back. This is going to be a LONG day of computer configuration and network stuff. And it’s Saturday.
Home. Showered. Nap for a few hours before work. I’ll do the polite shout-outs re dinner later. You already know who you are, peeps. [exit]
The Shelbourne, always the fucking Shelbourne. #wds08
OK, lunch bolted down. En route to #wds08 for… whatever awaits me.
@ragnarok1971 Yes, all #wds08 sessions are being recorded and will be turned into podcasts later… not that I’m involved with that. ;)
Just spotted: 4th finest sentence in English. “2 for 1 mojitos.”
@JonoH I’ve been roped in to be camera op for @mpesce so can’t stream. But sessions will be available online soon.
Seen on a truck: “Same day delivery guaranteed. Except today.”
Sunny? Summer already? Why do I have the theme to “Hawaii Five-0” running thru my head?
Going mobile on errands. CBD, Darlinghurst, lunch somewhere, that sort of thing. Will be at #wds08 for @mpesce’s keynote at 1600.
@AtlanticShore Who are you, and why follow me while having your own updates protected? Looks spammy. Very spammy. People, don’t look!
@LacqueredStudio “So there’s not much glamour in the day-to-day of running your own IT outfit, is there?” No, it’s utterly fucked.
Just under 3 hours until "Stilgherrian Live" at http://stilgherrian.com/… at 9.30pm Sydney time. Or is everyone at Web@stubnd @STUB?
@deanlk The audio settings problem was identified last week, I think, so I won’t be starting the stream too early… I need to prep offline.
@jeamland I’m trying to think of something witty to say about immigration detention, but failing.
@jeamland How dare you ridicule a best-selling Europop act! There’s yet another special place in Hell!
I’m also still seeking a #wds08 attendee whom I could phone for a quick interview during "Stilgherrian Live". DM me please.
@ApostrophePong "Good lord! There’s over 3000 shots of dead mattresses in my collection." And you wonder why our rship comms suffer? ;)
With freshly-cut hair, doing the last 2 hours of sysadmin & pottering before preparing for "Stilgherrian Live" at 9.30pm Sydney time.
@vealmince Nope, you don’t win anything for 2Unlimited "Get Ready For This" ‘cos you’re hours late. ;) http://tinyurl.com/24hz46