Round of applause

Someone much more technically astute than me designed this cube – that lights up when you get a new email in your gmail account.

It’s pretty clever. But almost completely useless.
The reason I mention this now is that a British designer has just launched a “self applauding machine ” that will launch into a hearty clapping session at the touch of a button.
I reckon some enterprising software engineering type could rejig it so that it applauds every time someone posts a comment on your blog/Facebook photos/anything online that indicates they have taken some interest in your work. Any volunteers?

November 24, 2008

CSS and desist

CSS is confusing. I just saw my new design in Internet Explorer 7 for the first time – and it still didn’t work. Oh for a standards compliant Microsoft… oh well, I think I fixed it by essentially ditching the transparency setting for Explorer. Still, my design looks better in Chrome and Firefox. I doubt that will be the tipping point for anyone contemplating switching browsers. Any Explorer readers out there finding this easier to read? Let me know please – older versions than IE7 may still have problems.

November 23, 2008

Kitty litter

The two headed cat from yesterday’s post died today. I guess the answer to the question of how suitable a two headed cat is as a pet is “not very”. Fun while it lasted though…

November 23, 2008

Genius

iTunes 8’s genius feature is brilliant. I hearts it, I do. It’s house cleaning time. I picked Yves St Klein’s “Polka” the song from that ad with people throwing stuff in the car from their second story window. And I get the following:

Darren Hanlon, Xavier Rudd, White Stripes, Kaiser Chiefs, Supergrass, Pulp, Placebo, Gotye and the Dandy Warhols – a perfect Sunday afternoon clean up mix.

November 23, 2008

Now I know my ABC

Sesame Street references aside – I happened to catch the end of the Australia v New Zealand test match this morning in the car. The hapless Chris Martin – the cricketer, not the Coldplay singer – is celebrated as one of the worst tail end batsmen ever to grace the game of cricket. Kerry O’Keefe is one of my favourite commentators in any sport, and he came up with this gem when addressing what Martin could do to fix his game:

“He should chisel a grip out of a surfboard. That’d increase his chance of getting a hit.”

Martin was clean bowled a ball later. Kerry O’Keefe also has the most annoying laugh on radio – and he often laughs at his own jokes. He’s still the only commentator, in my opinion, who approaches the greatness of Navjot Singh Sidhu – so popular in India his one liners are collated and known as Sidhuisms. One of my favourites was his description of a shot Tendulkar played off his tip toes:

“He played that like a dwarf at a urinal.”

It’s a shame today’s cricket was over so soon – I was looking forward to it occupying my until at least mid afternoon.

November 23, 2008

Nothing

0-0

0-0
0-0
What a disappointing round of Premier League fixtures overnight.

November 23, 2008

Read this post – free

Mozilla – the development company that brought you such products as Firefox 1, 2 and 3 – has performed an interesting test on content writing for websites . The general rule is that a link should essentially ask to be clicked. Your link should be compelling and descriptive. Basically you shouldn’t ask people to “click here” for more information. Anyway, Mozilla ran a test where their Firefox 3 page would present alternate options in the download button text – “Download now – free” and “Try Firefox 3” and the first option was “significantly” more popular (well a 10.07% conversion rate as opposed to 9.73%). So there you go. Boring reading – but I hope the title was compelling enough to bring you here… and that’s what counts.

November 22, 2008

Give way to buses

This is the stupidest law in Queensland. I understand that in less civilised countries it’s basically the biggest thing on the road has right of way. But I was driving home tonight and this bus just pulled out of me. I started placidly raising my fist and questioning the ability of the bus driver when my wife gently informed me that you have to give way to buses. Hands up who knew that? It’s a stupid law. Here it is from the Queensland Transport laws of giving way page :

When should I give way to buses?

In built up areas where the speed limit is 70km/h or below you must give way to buses when: 

  • buses are entering or about to enter traffic 
  • buses are pulling out from a bus stop, shoulder of the road, or far left side of the road
  • the bus displays a GIVE WAY TO BUSES sign and the right direction indicator is operating.

When a bus complies with all the above criteria, then vehicles approaching from behind must give way. It is important to remember that all vehicles, including buses, must indicate for five seconds before moving off.

It’s a dumb law. And there’s no way buses ever indicated for five seconds before moving off – but how can you prove that in the event of an accident? Does anyone time it? Is it registered in the bus’s black box so that in the case of an emergency it can be recovered to tell all… If buses are a protected species there should be something to ensure they don’t take advantage of the system.

November 22, 2008

balcony panorama

Robyn's phone has a cool panorama feature. Here's us watching the thunderstorm in Townsville tonight.

November 22, 2008

He’s not the Messiah, according to the "religious right"

I promise not to dwell on the US election for much longer. I keep finding new and interesting (to me) material as the pundits continue to dissect the results. There's a serious paucity of real political news to report now that the election is done and dusted. We've got two months left of George W Bush – but diplomatic gaff stories (and associated snubbings of antipodan PMs) will only entertain for so long. There is the ongoing selection of Obama's cabinet to occupy interested observers. But when all is said and done, the most interesting thing for political commentators to do is pull apart the reason for Obama's crushing victory – and in some cases the reasons certain areas bucked the trend. 

This particular finding may shock you. Evangelical Christians didn't take a shine to Obama . Funnily enough – where the evangelical population was most concentrated was where McCain did best. Who'd have thunk it? These are the voters who were the core of support for George W Bush. Who'd have thought arch conservatives wouldn't like Obama. I find it odd that I liked him so much given my own typical social conservatism. And evangelical beliefs. But then, I'm not an American and Americans (particularly the Christians) have this odd view that puts America at the heart of God's kingdom – and the President as a pseudo pope – their representative of God's kingdom. I don't understand a system of democracy where an individual's faith comes ahead of their ability to govern when they're leading a secular organisation (ie the government). By all means, appoint church leaders on the basis of their doctrine and teaching – as is biblical – but officials should be elected on merit.  

November 22, 2008

Turkey dies slow death in front of cameras

And birds prepared for Thanksgiving at the same time.

My favourite parts:
“Certainly, I’ll probably invite criticism for doing this too. But at least this was fun.”
“I’ll be in charge of the turkey… I’m always in charge of the turkeys.”
Yes, the turkeys in the background are getting it in the neck, literally, as she speaks.  It certainly did invite criticism – the interview was conducted after the Governor pardoned a turkey ahead of the Thanksgiving cull. The criticism largely came from the left – who it has to be said are the least likely Palin constituency. But still a PR lesson can be learned here – if you want a positive story for doing something nice to animals don’t do the doorstop interview in front of a slaughterhouse. Your message will be lost in the ensuing controversy.       

November 22, 2008

Phoning it in

I admire the resolve of sub editors around the world not to make racially charged puns on the dilemma surrounding Barack Obama and his blackberry. This is a serious issue people. Due to security concerns – and laws surrounding the status of presidential correspondence – the President of the United States does not have an email address. Lucky the Republicans didn’t get in – Sarah Palin’s passwords are really easy to crack.
Obama’s Blackberry was a constant companion during the campaign. And now he has to give it up – his tech savvy approach to grassroots campaigning was arguably the factor that won him the presidency – it certainly won him the primaries.
Why can the White House not afford to pay the best security people in the business to ensure their Commander in Chief can have access to technology? Surely the US Army doesn’t have its officers receiving correspondence by carrier pigeon?
Slate provides some interesting background on the drama – and in the process makes the argument for the President to have email access and the ability to hold on to his preferred communications device.

I, on the other hand, am not the President of the United States. And I want an iPhone. I am lobbying hard for iPhones to be the phone of choice in our office’s upgrade of our current mobiles.
iPhones don’t just look cool – they’re incredibly functional and extensible. They will not go out of date any time soon. Other tech companies (like Google) are struggling to release an iPhone killer – a device to dent the iPhone’s popularity. Here is my suggested iPhone killer:

November 22, 2008

A weighty cause

I have a deal with my lovely wife that if I lose 10kg I can have an Xbox 360. It's a long running deal. My progress has been pretty stagnant. But now, thanks to Peter Davey and Facebook, you can join the cause and track my progress via this group. 

Feel free to drop by the group and give advice/encouragement/suggestions for games to purchase when I reach the goal. 

  

November 22, 2008

Pick a card, any card

The ever so helpful folks over at the new humanist have issued a series of cards to make choosing your religious affiliation easy (there are more on the actual site)…

November 21, 2008

Coffee: the new black?

I spent much of last night redesigning my blog – it’s still not finished, but it’s servicable. It prominently features my coffee machine – and pays adequate homage to my coffee fixation. I really struggled to find an appropriate coffee colour for my background. Coffee has so many different colours. Roasted beans vary depending on how well they’ve been roasted. Green beans, as anyone who’s watched TV lately knows thanks to Nestle’s ridiculously stupid green bean blend (green beans taste like grass), are green. Brewed coffee has different colours depending on the method – plunger coffee is different to espresso – and espresso is different depending on the heat, grind and length of shot. Also – espresso has a layer of crema (coffee oils) that’s a reddy, browny, goldy colour. So I eyedropped a colour from these beans in photo shop (having come up with various shades of purple, red, and pink) that looked about right.


Obviously if you’re here reading my blog you know this already – it’s more for the benefit of subscribers and people who read this from my Facebook profile.

November 21, 2008