Author Archive

Psychopathic Corporations

Martin points to an Economist review of a anti-corporate film that tries to make the case that corporations are “pyschopathic” by their very nature. It’s presented as “asking the question”, but I can’t see how you’d get a different film if you’d started off with the answer. I think this is a further trend of […]

See More

I’ve been using the SeeMore plugin mostly for moving my travelblog pictures to separate pages, because even on broadband they’re a nuisance to download and scroll through all the time. But now that my blog’s “syndicated” I feel kind-of obliged not to fill up the planet with long essays, which means splitting longish techy essays […]

Prices and Costs

Heh. The Gnu Hunter scoffed at my attempt to draw a distinction between the price and cost of email delivery; so I’m pleased to find I’m in good company on that issue: here’s Thomas Sowell doing a similar job on the costs of medical care. Also of interest is Brookes News, which has some interesting […]

Internet Security, Monocultures, and Economic Manifest Destiny

Lots of security experts like talking about the risks of software monocultures which basically says that if there are a whole lot of similar machines on the Internet — all running Windows XP Home, say — then it’s generally fairly easy (well, as these things go) to find a security hole that lets you gain […]

Electronic Voting

John Ray, who writes Dissecting Leftism, an interesting blog decrying various inane comments from left-wing types, recently noted: Statistical expert John Lott Jr. sets out why California’s virtual ban on electonic voting is just ignorant technophobia. Australia has paper voting only so I have no personal knowledge of alternatives but his claim that electronic voting […]

SmartyPants and Titles

Hrm, the Planet aggregators don’t seem to like smartquotes in titles. So I’ve disabled them. Lame.

Linux Australia’s FTA Submission

(For those playing along at home, this is about the proposed Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the United States, which includes an IP chapter that requires Australia to change its copyright and patent law to line up more with the DMCA and the US Patent Office. I’ve commented on this previously.) Anyway, today’s post […]

Dogblogging

Since the Professor’s decided to skip his Friday afternoon catblogging, here’s some Monday evening dogblogging for you. From left to right, meet Chips (m, silky terrier), Cheeky (m, chihuahua), and Skye (f, Siberian husky). If you’re not an RSS weenie, you can probably see Skye over on the right too, giving a practical demonstration of […]

Additions to the Blogroll

I’ve been a bit lax about noting updates to my blogroll. Introducing Clinton’s blog: Whining, not dining, Brad’s blog, currently titled The Bored and The Geeky, and Pat’s blog: Got Meat?. (Hrm, I guess non-Aussies don’t have to grimace at the low hamming distance between “blogroll” and “bogroll”)

Leadership in Debian

So, back in the mists of time (ie, slightly over a month ago), David Welton asked Do you think it’s possible for Debian to have a leader anymore?. I made a few comments in response, which in part might be summarised as Debian having an unreasonable culture of blame on its leadership, leading to people […]

Fake Categories

The Planet Debian aggregator has confused me a bit — it’s meant to be a “community” thing, and be about things that aren’t directly Debian related, but on the other hand, I ramble on about boring Australian political stuff that can be pretty boring. Up until now Planet Debian has just snarfed my Debian section, […]

Quality Reporting

Here’s the story: Australia’s inflation rate lowest in 4 years CANBERRA, April 28 (Xinhuanet) — Australia’s annual inflation rate slowed to 2 percent, the lowest since December 1999, official figures released on Wednesday show. The news.com story‘s headline is Living costs rise slowest in 4 years, the Herald Sun says Inflation at four-year low, Yahoo […]

Digital Agenda Review v the Free Trade Agreement

The Attorney-General’s department says this about the Digital Agenda report: Current Status of the Government’s Review Phillips Fox conducted their research and analysis independently of the Government. During the term of the consultancy the Government negotiated with the United States a Free Trade Agreement. The Government is now moving towards signing its Free Trade Agreement […]

Phillips Fox Report Out

It’s out! Recommendation seventeen is choice: That the definition of TPM in section 10 of the Act be amended so as to accord with the interpretation favoured by Sackville J in Stevens, at first instance. That the permitted purposes in section 116A (3) be amended so as to clearly allow any supply or use of […]

Debian Release Delayed

…news at 11. UPDATE 2004/04/27: Welcome to the 11 O’clock news. Our lead story tonight: Debian Release Manager doesn’t know how to spell “effect”.