Archived Posts for July 2003

Some Modchips Illegal Again

Last year, Eddy Stevens was sued by Sony for selling modchips which, among other things, allowed Playstations to play burnt games. Yesterday, the Full Court of the Federal Court unanimously reversed the decision of the trial judge (Sackville J). The SMH reports that this decision has led to an X-Box modchip manufacturer to suspend its sales.

A cursory skim of French J’s judgment in the case (Kabushiki Kaisha Sony Computer Entertainment v Stevens) reveals that the primary issue was whether or not Sony’s copy protection measures constituted a “technological prevention measure” under s 10(1) of the Copyright Act 1968. Under s 116A(5) of the Act, a person selling devices aimed at circumventing such prevention measures can be sued. Playstation games are copyrighted by having an encrypted code written into a part of the disc which can’t be burnt onto by normal burners. The Boot ROM then checks discs for this code. Together, the code and the Boot ROM was purported by Sony to be a “technological prevention measure” (TPM). The trial judge held that:

the focus of the definition of “technological protection measure” was on a technological device or product designed to bring about a specified result, namely preventing or inhibiting the infringement of copyright in a work, by a particular means. His Honour did not think the definition was concerned with devices or products that did not, by their operations, prevent or curtail specific acts infringing or facilitating the infringement of copyright in a work, but which merely had a general deterrent or discouraging effect on those who might be contemplating infringing copyright in a class of works, for example, by making unlawful copies of a CD-ROM. (at para 13)

In other words, Sony’s copy protection was not a TPM because it merely served to deter or discourage game copying. The Full Court disagreed, and after engaging in a bout of statutory interpretation, preferred a purposive approach to interpreting the term: paragraphs 16-20. This broader definition meant that Sony’s codes and Boot ROM did form a TPM, and so Stevens lost the case. He still has the option of appealing to the High Court.

As much as I hate how exorbitant console games are (partially the reason why I don’t a console), I would agree with the Full Bench’s interpretation in this case. It is fairly clear that the intention of the Copyright Act would be to encompass copy protection measures such as that implemented by Sony. It’s obvious to any computer gamer that what Sony has done to prevent copying their games constitutes a TPM. Nonetheless, this reminds me of how they brought out that CD copy protection technology a while ago that could be bypassed by scribbling around the CD’s outer rim with a texta or permanent marker. The Courts wouldn’t outlaw the sale of textas (I’d imagine that this would be because their predominant use is not for copyright circumvention), but it does raise interesting questions about what might be considered a circumvention device. What if the mod chip’s main purpose is to bypass the DVD region locking (I think that’s still legal)?

(Thanks Shish for passing on the news.)

Update: ACCC condemns Fed Court’s decision

  5:33pm (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Law  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

Matchbox 20 Concert

MB20 was absolutely fantastic. After a couple of very tepid supporting bands, Rob Thomas and his crew came on stage and kept the crowd going wild for almost two hours. Just about all the band’s hits were done, both new and old (I only noticed that “Girl Like That” was missing). The tempo was mixed, with the few traditional rock songs spaced out with slower piano pieces. “If You’re Gone” was done unplugged, although it felt emptier, missing the brass that fills in the gaps in the album version. “Downfall” was also missing the gospel choir, but a choir would have been a bit troublesome to bring along with them! I was also hoping to hear “You and I and I” which they only seem to play live, but unfortunately no luck. Nonetheless, excellent stuff. Good to sing along with, good to move along with. If you like MB20, I highly recommend seeing and hearing them in concert.

Set List: Cold, Real World, All I Need, Soul, Disease, Could I Be You, 3 AM, Mad Season, Feel, Hand Me Down, If You’re Gone, Bright Lights, Bent, (Cover), Unwell, Back to Good, You’re So Real, Downfall, So Sad So Lonely, Long Day, Push.

Click above for more photos (600kb)

  1:17am (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Music  •  Tweet This  •  Comments (4)  • 

Bright Cold Day in April

Random Blog Link: A Bright Cold Day In April. I think it’s kept by another grad law student (at USyd?). This post was rather amusing to me.

  12:54am (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  E/N  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

Terrorist Futures

Interesting:

The Pentagon is setting up a stock-market style system in which investors would bet on terror attacks, assassinations and other events in the Middle East. Defense officials hope to gain intelligence and useful predictions while investors who guessed right would win profits. …

The market would work this way. Investors would buy and sell futures contracts — essentially a series of predictions about what they believe might happen in the Mideast. Holder of a futures contract that came true would collect the proceeds of investors who put money into the market but predicted wrong.

Some are naturally up in arms about it. Read Article.

  10:51pm (GMT +10.00)  •  Current Affairs  •  Tweet This  •  Comments (1)  • 

Ghyslain Sues

Wired Article: “Quebec teenager Ghysl[ain] Raza was the target of worldwide mockery when a private video he made of himself practicing his lightsaber moves was uploaded to the Net by kids at his school. Now his parents are claiming damages of $160,000 from the families of the four classmates who digitized and published the video. Ghyslain’s parents claim their son was so humiliated, he is undergoing psychiatric care and may be marked for life by the experience.”

Also, a related article mentions the E/N genre.

  10:48pm (GMT +10.00)  •  Computing  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

Misc

Uni’s started up again. Half of the subjects this session are continuations from the last: Contracts and Criminal Law (which will hopefully be much more substantive than procedural this time around), together with Torts and Administrative Law. They all appear very interesting, save for Admin Law which is basically about bureaucracy, bureaucratic decision making and judicial review of that. The first Admin class today was only an hour but I somehow managed to microsleep throughout the last half hour of it. Shan jabbed me in the side at some point to wake me up, telling me afterwards, “Your head was nodding up and down as usual, but at one point your headed drifted down… and down… and kept going down and I thought, ‘uh oh, I don’t think that head is going to come back up if I don’t do something’.” Not a good way to start session sitting 2 metres away from the lecturer in a subject with 20% participation marks. And also, browsing through the course outline, the required readings for Admin are a load of up to 50 pages per class. It’s gonna be one of those subjects…

Dave came back from the land of $4/hr snooker and proceeded to beat me 4-2. Fluke artist.

Going to the Matchbox 20 concert tomorrow. Should be awesome.

Fantasy League is starting up again for this season. I have yet to select my team… have to set aside some time this weekend.

  10:36pm (GMT +10.00)  •  Life  •  Tweet This  •  Comments (1)  • 

What Song?

Brownie points if anyone can track down the female artist/band that covered The Beatles’ “All My Loving” – the version played at the end of 2-DAY FM’s Hot 30 show (with Kyle and Jackie O) each night just before the greets and shoutouts. I haven’t managed to turn up anything.

  10:12pm (GMT +10.00)  •  Music  •  Tweet This  •  Comments (5)  • 

Quay

Five of the BITs got together again last night at dinner for what is now going to be a quarterly event. The location for dinner was Quay, a restaurant situated on the overseas passenger terminal at Circular Quay. It sits directly opposite the Opera House and offers almost a 270 degree view of Sydney Harbour. We scored a beautiful table placing us by the floor-to-ceiling windows, providing an excellent backdrop for the evening. Quay took out the SMH’s Good Food Guide best restaurant award for 2003, and it did not disappoint. The menu was à la carte, with no degustation menu, consisting of Mod Oz cuisine featuring influences from Asia, Europe and the Middle-East. I ordered a very succulent, melt-in-your-mouth pork belly and scallops, a chicken dish with a naturally fancy name I don’t remember, and an excellent “passionfruit and lime fusion” dessert (passionfruit ice cream, lime meringue brulée). The serving sizes are surprisingly decent, as well as the prices. The bill, including the three courses, two bottles of wine, drinks, a couple sides for the table, coffee/tea and tip worked out at $140pp, which is actually quite palatable compared to some other reputable restaurants around town.

For me, Quay wins hands down for ambience, atmosphere and view, even compared to 41. Nothing like being at the water’s edge, with a view of the CBD buildings, the Coathanger, the Opera House and the boats on the harbour drifting by the window. Their service was not the most polished, nor amiable, but that might have in part had something to do with Jay rocking up an hour late, thanks to Cityrail! The food is exceedingly good value, although I found Tet’s range more exciting. Time flew and we ended up spending five hours (7pm – midnight) there. The timing of the dishes was well paced. (And the dinner conversation highly engaging, including some interesting news about a friend who has made a not insignificant amount of money (and frequent flier points) off what we’ve termed “bookie arbitrage” combined with long-term “investing”, a concept centered around treating the bookmaking industry like the stockmarket. I found this quite interesting, as the bookie industry tends not to have the same systemic risk inherent in stockmarkets.) Quay is highly recommended – it’s very good value for money.

  2:17am (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Food  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

A Visit to The Block

Kev and I went down to inspect The Block at Bondi. I must say, the apartments have been renovated very nicely. The two things that stood out for me was the giant bubbling urn ornament in the back garden, and the bathroom that was picked as the best one out of the four on the show. The faucets, the glass, the mirror, the sink, everything – beaut bathroom! All those apartments are going to be horribly, horribly overpriced. Especially if they are predicting 10000 curious onlookers on auction day. Each of the couples stands to make nearly six figures in profit I reckon.

  1:38am (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Life  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

Stuff

Haven’t been up to a terrific amount of stuff these holidays, mostly a mixture of work, relaxing, and heading into uni for competition preparation. I was selected to the team representing UNSW at the BCG intervarsity business strategy competition. The competition simulates a management consulting case and centres on preparing a 10 minute presentation recommending business strategies to a Board of directors, after 3 hours of preparation time. This is followed up by a 10 minute Q&A session where the judges (mostly BCG consultants) grill you on the strategies you’ve proposed. It’s an extremely intense 200 minutes. We had the state finals today, and unfortunately we placed one place off progressing to the nationals. After being initially overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data they gave us (about 60 or so pages), we eventually digested the key points of the case, which was about the Australian wine industry. The flaw with our preparation was that we missed the target audience of the question, which is a fatal flaw in any sort of answer. Normally cases revolve around improving the growth of a single business entity. This case focussed on improving the growth of the Australian wine industry, as a whole, relative to the rest of the world. Not only this, but the advice delivered was meant to be to an industry body (not in itself a wine producer) charged with promoting the growth of Australian wines. While we delivered strategies targeting key markets around the world, the strategies as they were were not implementable by that particular industry body (as they were not a company, but an entity which facilitated dialog between companies in the industry).

Q: “So, we being an industry body with no reach into these markets, how do we implement these strategies to expand into them?”
*dead silence*
A: “Uh… talk to the companies about it?”

A much better answer would have been that, given the role of the industry body, to perhaps encourage Australian wine producers to enter into alliances when expanding overseas. Resulting economies of scale would be beneficial to both firms, and the potential for growth internationally is highly lucrative for all Australian companies. While they are normally competitors in the domestic market, and competition regulation prevents consolidation within Australia, there is nothing preventing them from jointly entering foreign markets. The industry body’s ability to facilitate dialogue between Australian wine producers would thus play a key role in notifying industry of potential markets and potential entry strategies centred around domestic alliances.

Nonetheless, despite the disappointment, it was a terrific learning experience and something I’d definitely do again next year should I get the chance. (Unfortunately, 4 out of our team of 6 graduate at the end of the year, so we need a fresh bunch of people, but that shouldn’t be a problem given that none of us knew each other at the start of the holidays and we gelled quite well when it came to the competition today.)

Got my law results back for all but one subject: 1 D and 3 HDs. Uni starts again next week.

  1:20am (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Life  •  Tweet This  •  Comments (3)  • 

Job Advert

Pete, a colleague back from when I was at OneSteel, sent me in this (and I wonder if the fact that I spent a bit of time designing an intranet shop for OS had anything to do with it? :)

They have taken the job off the site now, but this was the actual job description advertised on the seek site for this position http://it.seek.com.au/showjob.asp?jobid=2810116
———————————————————–
So you were a top Web Developer, once, many years ago, until the “correction”. Now nobody cares and you are shunned in public, much as lepers were in the fifteenth century. Your modern-day equivalent of the chiming bell and vile burbling exclamations of “Unclean! Unclean!” is the obnoxious ringtone on your expensive mobile. There’s a good chance you listen to either Sisters of Mercy and Bauhaus or elaborate Paul Oakenfold remixes, with a bit of bootlegged Chemical Brothers thrown in for good measure. Maybe you find yourself missing the ashtray completely, and your ESC through F3 keys are thoroughly clogged up with burned, cancerous grey flakes. For better or for worse, you’re familiar with such repugnant images as goatse.cx and know what STFU means. In all probability your beverage of choice is Jolt/Columbian Cola, and you have the weeping stomach ulcers to prove it. You give copies of Photoshop 7.0 to your friends, thereby depriving a fat CEO somewhere of a heated driveway. You have a world-crushing collection of MP3s. Your author of choice: Neal Stephenson or William Gibson. You have every volume of Gaiman’s Sandman series, though you decided after Volume III that it`s all a bit of a wank. Sometimes, you pretend you are in The Matrix. Your half-elf mage/rogue is at Level 9, and has actually worked out how to put a Bag of Holding within another Bag of Holding without imploding Ravenloft. You can pronounce “Urotsukidoji” without hurting yourself, and can rocket-jump better than anyone you know. You have a bit of an attitude when it comes to Windows XP, and you like to recompile kernels.

Your spine looks like a u-bend.

Others may call you freakish. We call you lovely. And in reward for your loveliness, we would like to offer you this mildly exciting opportunity, if your idea of excitement is a RAM upgrade:

This is a fun little two week contract for a reasonably experienced Web Developer with plenty of HTML (well, duh), JavaScript and ASP know-how. Ideally you will also be fluent in the, and I quote, “uploading of ASP pages from a SAP business connector”. I said that out loud and Shub-Niggurath appeared and attempted to devour my soul through some impressive shambling and ominous tentacle-writhing, so I won’t investigate it any further.

But anyway, that’s the deal. Either you like it or you don’t, and we’re not about to tell you either way. It’s a two week contract for a company here in the city, and will probably be paying about $25 per hour, commensurate with experience. So apply now (or don’t), or call Gary Fernandes for more information.

Please contact Gary Fernandes quoting reference number SK/GFWD on: phone (xx) xxxx xxxx * fax (xx) xxxx xxxx

  11:33am (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Business & Finance  •  Tweet This  •  Comments (5)  • 

Does IT Matter Anymore?

A controversial article by the Harvard Business Review makes a case for how the IT industry, as it fits within businesses, has attained maturity already and has started its decline. That is, it’s at the stage where it no longer is an advantage in firms where it’s implemented, but a disadvantage in firms where it’s not implemented – no longer a key business driver, just a must-have part of the business. In my opinion, the article does raise valid points, but I would disagree that IT has reached a stage where it is “dwindling”. I do think that advances in information technology are likely to be restricted to being evolutionary, rather than revolutionary (as some new ideas were during the tech boom). Evolutionary advances do not mean a market will start to decline. IT is also a far broader concept than the idea of electricity or the steam engine – it is not a single phenomenon or entity, it encompasses virtually any technology that deals with the transfer of information and data. And when you look at all the technological advances that have occurred at the household level over the last few years, how many of them have been IT-based, as opposed to grounded in other fields of science? How many advances will continue to be IT-based as objects continue to be increasingly automated, interconnected and interoperable?

All in all, IT may have ceased in being revolutionary. But the same is true for all other value-add and corporate support services too: legal, financial consulting, strategic consulting… all those industries ceased being revolutionary soon after their inception, but they’re still employed. These things are all necessary parts of businesses, and IT has become that too. As long as you need someone to manage IT infrastructure, the industry will always have opportunities.

  12:22pm (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Business & Finance  •  Tweet This  •  Comments (2)  • 

Terminator 3

I think that most people went into this film with low expectations, especially after seeing the trailer. I mean, no one really conceived that the plot would be anything but contrived. It wasn’t. T3 was a really good film. It’s not predictable, it’s enjoyable, it never drags. Go see it.

  4:59pm (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Movies  •  Tweet This  •  Comments (3)  • 

Amiel

It’s one thing to ask, why we break up
Have you ever, wondered why it is we fall in love?
Can you tell me, do you know what it is you’re looking for?
Why do we need? Can you tell me why I care?
How is that we heed, that voice that says, “I want you there”?

Thanks you’ve been fuel for thought,
Now I’m more lonely than before
But, that’s okay,
I’ve just ‘ready made another stupid love song;
And thanks you’ve been fuel for thought
Now I’m more lonely than before
But, that’s okay,
I’ve just ‘ready made another stupid love song.

In a single moment, you might be perfect
And sit in a window of my life
But how much… how much more would I yearn to see?
What would I strive to hide? Now there will be no compromise
So take it in your stride, I’ll believe you now with a smile

Thanks you’ve been fuel for thought,
Now I’m more lonely than before
But, that’s okay,
I’ve just ‘ready made another stupid love song;
And thanks you’ve been fuel for thought
Now I’m more lonely than before
But, that’s okay,
I’ve just ‘ready made another stupid love song

Look into my eyes, ours was no love sacrifice
For it has helped us to grow
And I’m sorry I know just how far I have to go alone

Thanks you’ve been fuel for thought
Now I’m more lonely than before
But, that’s okay,
I’ve just ‘ready made another stupid love song;
And thanks you’ve been fuel for thought
Now I’m more lonely than before
But, that’s okay,
I’ve just ‘ready made another stupid love song

I’ve just ‘ready made another love song
Just ‘ready made another love song

  2:07pm (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Life  •  Tweet This  •  Comments (3)  • 

The ‘DVD Player’ Kid

People are up in arms over the recent High Court decision which ruled in favour of a mother who gave birth to a son after a botched hysterectomy. The Court held that the sterilising obstetrician was negligent and that he had to pay for the costs of raising the child until he was 18. The ramifications are obvious – the risks to doctors performing hysterectomies or vasectomies may far outweigh the benefits for doing them at all. This is on top of the crisis over medical indemnity that occurred last year when UMP collapsed.

It is a strange situation. No doubt the doctor was negligent. However, the situation with compensation is unlike that of negligence which causes, for example, injury. Something like that has no benefits. By association, many would see that compensation for having children would be akin to comparing children to maladies, which would be clearly offensive to most. Nonetheless, an unplanned child can reduce quality of life for the parents (that is not to devalue the life of children, but a comment on the circumstances of the parents) – look at unwanted teenage pregnancies. However, even children born at untimely moments may have “benefits”… it’s not all bad. The problem is, how do you determine what the true cost of having unwanted children is? This is the issue that the three dissenting judges strongly raised.

This case ultimately is the result of the increasingly litigious nature of society (that’s becoming a catchphrase now isn’t it?). It seems like everyday, Australia is becoming more and more similar to America.

But Mrs Melchior – who refused to talk to the Herald because, her lawyer’s spokeswoman said, she had an agreement with the Seven Network – told Today Tonight that if she had not wanted Jordan, she “would have terminated the pregnancy”.

She had sued because “I’m sick and tired of people getting away with murder … I’m tired of the underdog being mistreated … we’re Aussies, we’ve got to stand up and be counted for.” (SMH)

“Getting away with murder.” Yes, a nice choice of words by Mrs Melchior.

Acting PM John Anderson has attacked the High Court’s decision, but it is parliament that can do something about it. They should introduce legislation to give doctors more protection. Why should a profession already fraught with stress and high emotional strain have to cope with the additional and ever-increasing burden of having to worry about litigation?

[Heydon J:] The sum awarded for child-rearing expenses which is in controversy in this appeal is approximately equivalent to that which might be recovered for a moderately severe personal injury having long term detriments, like a badly broken leg, or for the destruction of a very expensive uninsured car in a motor accident, or for serious damage to a dwelling caused by a negligently driven runaway truck, or for some substantial interruption to the profitability of a business. Each of these events is in some way, if not a catastrophe, at least a calamity for the victim. Many judges and other lawyers across the common law world have opposed recovery of a sum for child-rearing expenses because they have an instinctive revulsion against seeing the birth of a healthy child as comparable in any way with a badly broken leg, the destruction of a very expensive car, serious damage to a building, or some substantial injury to a business. Others, like Ognall J, point out that “those who are afflicted with a handicapped child or who long desperately to have a child at all and are denied that good fortune would regard an award for this sort of contingency with a measure of astonishment”. Yet others, like Weir, see it as “a grotesque waste of public funds” that “hospitals, strapped for funds for curing the sick”, should be “paying out loads of money in respect of perfectly healthy children and adolescents … to parents who were in no way obliged to spend it on them”. But it has been one thing to reach a conclusion after experiencing revulsion or feeling astonishment or observing a grotesque result. It has been another thing to formulate legal reasoning to support the conclusion reached. [emphasis added] (Cattanach v Melchior)

It should be the leadership of our politicians doing something about stemming the tide of medical litigation. The legislative system can be proactive, whereas the judicial system is reactive and arguably constrained by legal reasoning.

  10:18am (GMT +10.00) tomorrow from Mac Bank  •  Law  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

Digital Music Piracy

SMH Article: “The record industry says it is disturbed by a study showing more than half of young Australians are unaware that “burning” music CDs and swapping songs online is illegal.”

For heaven’s sake, if that is surprising to ARIA, the execs there are severely out of touch with society. Even for the older generation, having kids should be notice enough that music piracy is rampant. The same problems have plagued the computer software industry ever since its inception and we don’t hear them complaining of their imminent collapse at the hands of the pirating hordes. It is incredible that ARIA is suddenly so worried.

Law is only effective if it is (1) known and (2) enforced. Music piracy, bar one current case, has never given rise to criminal prosecutions in Australia. As a result, piracy is widespread as there are no repercussions. Even if we also assume that people are genuinely unaware that it is illegal (come on, everyone knows copying music is wrong, but it seems less wrong than theft of physical goods), enforcement is a good way of “publicising” the law, as ignorance of the law is no excuse for violating it. The fact is, digital piracy is easy, free, does not visibly deprive people of anything physical, and proceeds unhindered. Music CDs are the opposite. When CDs are stolen, it is more the theft of the actual physical good, rather than the intellectual property contained on the CD, that is thought of as the crime by the layperson – even though the intellectual property contained on the CD is responsible for the majority of the labelled price.

People have been saying this for years: The music industry needs to address the piracy issue differently. They try to publicise that piracy is illegal, but people don’t listen because no one gets busted for piracy. They then try to publicise piracy’s illegality by enforcing the law. The problem with this is that the customer base for music piracy is made up of a gigantic number of small consumers (many under 18). Picking on individual users is likely to cause resentment among the music community, and perhaps may increase the levels of piracy as a knee-jerk reaction. You’re only going to be prosecuted if you get caught, and for 99% of us, getting caught by ARIA is unlikely.

Other models, such as Apple’s iTunes service, where music can be purchased digitally online for micropayments, while not removing the prevalence of piracy, will certainly mitigate it. Piracy cannot be eradicated, the recording industry should accept that. There are always people who will steal if they can get away with it (and I know of no one without at least one illegal MP3 on their computer). Instead, they should be turning their attention to alternative ways to bring people back to paying for music, and that means addressing why people currently find buying their music unattractive.

I have no problem with the idea of music piracy being illegal. Intellectual property should be protected. I only take issue with how the problem is being addressed, though I don’t deny that there is no easy or completely satisfactory solution to this.

  3:19pm (GMT +10.00) tomorrow from Mac Bank  •  Music  •  Tweet This  •  Comments (3)  • 

A Little Extra

Bonuses in the workplace, with a look at the legal and banking industries.

  4:51pm (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Miscellaneous  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

Matrix Prediction

Probably the best prediction of the final Matrix instalment I’ve read yet. It contains a twist of the magnitude you’d expect. Of course, it could be wrong. {src: Fuzzy}

  11:51am (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Movies  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

A few spare moments

The joys of coming into work at 8.45 on a Saturday, bleh… throat and nose are still jammed up with phlegm from the cold.

  1:08pm (GMT +10.00) tomorrow from Mac Bank  •  Life  •  Tweet This  •  Comments (3)  • 

Bullfighter

Bullfighter is a Word plug-in by Deloitte Consulting (Braxton) that picks out all the business jargon in documents, analyses sentence lengths and average syllables per word and assigns it a readability score. File this one under “novel diversion”.

  1:04pm (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Computing  •  Tweet This  •  Comments (3)  • 

Bike Ad

My cousin bought a ‘bike recently. Here’s an advert for it (3.3MB), it’s pretty funny.

  12:57pm (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Humour  •  Tweet This  •  Comments (1)  • 

Charlie’s Angels 2

Feeling zany? It’s watchable. Feeling sane? Go see something else.

  12:25pm (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Movies  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

Shadow Puppets

Shadow Puppets is the third book in the Shadow Saga (see thoughts on the second book), the spinoff from Orson Scott Card’s brilliant Ender’s Game, centred around Bean.

Some of “>OSC’s writings make him appear intensely nationalistic. This attitude seems to have been toned down in this book, and we see the trilogy get wrapped up on more or less a happy note. My comments about the book moving away from sci-fi still stand, it’s a more a politically oriented book, which because it happens to be set in the future, has elements of sci-fi. It raises some intriguing propositions about how different countries may view nationhood differently, and what galvanises feelings of independence within a country. Card also describes a world where the Arabs have accepted the Israeli “incursion” onto their soil and dispensed with their calls of Jihad – an idealistic, almost impossible to imagine as occurring in our lifetime, but nonetheless attractively optimistic, antipode to today’s bloodshed (Card wrote this book during the invasion of Afghanistan).

This book is weaker than the other two. Shadow Puppets was not as skilfully written as the previous two books, lacking unpredictability and pace in many places. There are various points in the book where the super-human genius characters make implausible blunders. It’s still a solid book, albeit a short one, and quite entertaining.

  12:22pm (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Books  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

The Two Towers Extended Edition

The extended edition of TTT is slated for release on 18th November. It will have a little bit more than 40 minutes of extra footage, along with all the other bells, whistles and statuettes.

  11:54am (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Movies  •  Tweet This  •  Comments (1)  • 

About a Year After Tampa

Julian Burnside QC, advocate for the Tampa refugees, makes a speech on why John Howard can be accused of crimes against humanity, and how a leader of a first world nation can possibly have this accusation aimed at him (after all, doesn’t “crimes against humanity” traditionally connote third world despots and genocidal ethnic cleansers?).

  9:51pm (GMT +10.00)  •  Opinions & Observations  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  • 

Colds and Flu

I guess after a few weeks of poor dieting and zero exercise, a string of late, active, post-exam nights out hit my body too hard. Now sick and suffering from the effects of a cold. Bleh.

  11:06pm (GMT +10.00)  •  Life  •  Tweet This  •  Comments (1)  • 

The Salt Maze of Pain

One slug. One salt shaker. One cool idea. It’s the Salt Maze of Pain. Excellent. (Broken images? Try here.)

in other news, i find i really can’t stand people who type absolutely everything in their websites all lower case. it shits me. i mean, firstly they’re that lazy. secondly, if its not laziness, which is semi-understandable, then it’s some stupid style thing where the person takes pains to consciously decapitalise proper nouns. Honestly. Ugh.

  12:11am (GMT +10.00) tomorrow  •  Miscellaneous  •  Tweet This  •  Comments (7)  • 

Strip searched for a parking fine

Better be careful when you pay those parking fines eh? The Victorian police might strip search you. Sounds like damages she awarded was quite a packet. I mean, it’s more than this woman is currently claiming. I’d much rather be strip searched than undergo abdominal surgery without anaesthetic. The judgment: De Reus & Ors v Gray [2003] VSCA 84.

  7:39pm (GMT +10.00)  •  Law  •  Tweet This  •  Add a comment  •