As maturity encroaches upon adolescence, as the child becomes the man (or ugly woman) he (or she) begins to grow first the downy fuzz and, subsequently, the rich, wiry outcropping that has come to be called Beard.
It is no small coincidence that a great scribe or teller of tales is called by the similar word Bard.
Many an otherwise canny person has fallen upon troubled times by confusing these words.For it is true that a Bard can have a Beard, but a Beard cannot have a Bard.
One can shave a Beard, and, for that matter, one can shave a Bard.
But having shaved a Beard, it no longer exists.
Whereas having shaved a Bard you continue to have a Bard.
A Beardless Bard.
I Just Can't Find The Words
I’m fairly sure there’s a news article hiding somewhere on this page. See if you can find it.
Yeah, I struggled, too.
If you’re an advertiser, you should be starting to get worried about services like Readability that strips out all your expensive stuff, and leaves, simply:
… or Clearly, which spits out
…or Instapaper, which delivers
or Pocket, which shows:
Advertisers, how about pressuring your news sites to give your advertising due prominence – as part of a useful design which doesn’t need major renovations to simply be readable. Someone might actually see your ads.
Tech Cafe Now On iTunes
We’ve passed the Apple Approval process!
As we approach the first birthday of Tech Cafe 2.0, you can now access the archive of the conversations Rod and I have each week about technology issues on 98five – on the iTunes.
If you’re interested, please subscribe – and be sure to leave a rating or review!
Or, you could go direct to the source here
Or listen live
or hey, maybe, via FM Radio, each Wednesday at 11am Perth time.
UPDATE 13 Feb 13: Looks like some upgrades have broken most of the links. Stay tuned for fixes.
Industrial Upskirting On The Hudson
Oslo In The Summertime
Looks like Oslo gets a little busy once the snow melts.
Let's Play 'Reply All' Snowball
To: Everyone
Hi, Everyone – we’d like to get your feedback about a service we’re offering. What do you think about it?
Let us know,Jenny
To: Jenny
CC: EveryoneHi, Jenny – I think it’s good, but this bit needs work here and here.
Thanks,Airen
To: Airen
CC: Jenny, EveryoneCan people please only reply to Jenny and not hit reply all?
Thanks,Stephanie
To: Stephanie
CC: Airen, Jenny, EveryoneHi, Jenny
I agree with Airen
Cheers,Hugo
To: Hugo
CC: Stephanie, Airen, Jenny, EveryoneAgain, could we please reply only to Jenny to avoid a flood of emails to everyone?
Cheers,Kenny
To: Hugo
CC: Stephanie, Airen, Jenny, EveryoneHi, Jenny
Additionally, it would be good if it did this other thing also.
Thanks,Mini
To: Mini
CC: Hugo, Stephanie, Airen, Jenny, EveryoneIt would be appreciated if everyone could stop replying all to the email. You only need to send it to Jenny.
Regards,Sion
From Jenny:
BCC: Everyone
Hi, Everyone
Sorry for the avalanche. Does everyone know what ‘reply all’ does?
Please email me directly from now onRegards,
Jenny
(Edited for clarity, names unchanged to implicate the guilty.)
Talk Is Cheap, Just Ask The Sea Shepherd
I’m not interested in talking about the antics of the Sea Shepherd any more; unless they repay the money my government has had to spend on rescuing their ADHD addled cronies from a Japanese whaling ship in the southern ocean. Seems they sink or swim on free publicity.
No more from me.
Oh, by the way, we’ll be having that GST back, too, thanks.
Idiots.
UPDATE: Here are the public facts about where the money comes from. Love the part about them being unable to seek charity status because, to paraphase, they don’t actually help the whales. Best government decision evar.
UPDATE II: It cost us one million dollars – the same one million dollars that had been allocated for policing of the whale sanctuary. Feeling sheepish yet, stupid hippies?
Whales vs. Whalers vs. Weasels
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The opening salvo in this year’s season was not fired from a ship’s deck – the oceans themselves have broadsided the ‘Brigitte Bardot’, and she has limped back to Fremantle, out for the season.
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“Sea Shepherd Capt. Paul Watson speaks from Southern Ocean about damage to ship Brigitte Bardot. bit.ly/tQE5Gj #whales #sscs
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Part of the Japanese fleet, the ‘Shonin Maru Two’ followed as the ‘Steve Irwin’ escorted the damaged ship back to Fremantle, and then waited off the coast for the Steve Irwin to rejoin the chase.
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“RT @abcnews: Sea Shepherd says two boats heading to Fremantle are being tailed by Japanese security ship bit.ly/zJ1iB7
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The government reached for a rolled-up newspaper:
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“Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd warned last week that while the Shonin Maru 2 was legally entitled to enter Australian waters it was not welcome and its crew could even be arrested should they attempt to port in Australia.
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The ship attracted some attention for the crew’s attire.
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“Japanese whale hunters wore top to tie black “ninja suits” to hide identity off coast of freemantle. #whaling #japanese perthnow.com.au/news/weste…
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(The eyewitnesses are mistaken that ninjas wear black.)
With only two ships left in the game, the Sea Shepherd resorted to a clever gambit, recruiting local forestry activists to jump on board the ship and request a lift back to land – hoping to create a moral and legal dilemma for both the Japanese captain and the Australian government.
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‘…are refusing to release them’ is overstating it: probably more like ‘… are pretty busy and can’t stop to drop them off just now, thank you.’Or, possibly, ‘…aren’t about to show up in Fremantle to see if Kevin Rudd was serious about that whole ‘we’ll arrest you’ thing.’The ‘Australian waters’ phrase is critical and contentious, as is the precise location of the Japanese ship when the boarding happened.
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“A spokesman for the whalers at the Institute of Cetacean Research, Glenn Inwood, confirmed the men were still aboard the vessel.
“They are unhurt, they are being questioned and there has been no decision on anything beyond that at this stage,” the New Zealand-based Mr Inwood told AAP.
Mr Inwood said it was wrong to say the incident happened in Australian waters.
“Australia has legal jurisdiction out to 12 miles. The equivalent of that is 19km. This mooring happened at 40km out. So this did not occur within Australian territorial waters.”
-
The Sea Shepherd folk say it all happened at
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“32 degrees, zero minutes south and 115 degrees, 21 minutes east
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… which, at 16.2 miles offshore, is outside Australia’s 12 mile ‘territorial waters’, but inside its 24 mile ‘contiguous zone’. I hope the Shepherd, sorry, the Forestry folk have good lawyers.
Editorial: Whales vs. Boats vs. Bureaucrats vs. Brigands
The main reason this whole thing sounds like a TV show is that it IS a TV Show based on the shifting fortunes of a celebrity-centered fundraising organisation. Complete with expensive flying robot camera coverage.
Interesting to note that Animal Planet is hinting that this might be the last season for the mission’s reality show. A cynic might suggest that a manufactured series of desperate, headline-grabbing incidents – captured exclusively by the embedded television crew – would stave off the axe, and the lucrative sponsorships, for a year or two. It’s not like the captain is shy about his ‘interventionist’ approach to activism.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, the Japanese whaling industry isn’t glistening with rectitude over its admissions that part of the Tsunami relief funds have been redirected into the whaling industry, ostensibly to help revive the fortunes of the devastated city of Ishinomaki.
More New Scam Calls
They’re baaack. I’ve just received another of those calls from the “Windows Service Center” which I sadly didn’t have the time to entertain, as I’ve done previously. Being dinner time, they got short shrift, but here’s the latest spiel:
Hello, is that Mr. Cook?
Yes, it is.
Who am I speaking to?
It’s Ami, calling from the Windows Service Center – I was calling to ask if you have a Windows computer at your location in (wrong suburb)?
Yes, I do.
And are you the main user of that computer?
Yes, I am.
I see. Mr Cook, we are calling to let you know that our systems here are detecting a large number of error messages that are causing Internet users to complain to us, and they are coming from your address in (wrong suburb).
I see; that’s very strange. Why did you need to ask me if I had a Windows computer here? Wouldn’t the error messages tell you that information?
Oh, yes, Mr Cook, we know, but we needed to make sure we were talking to the right person, and that you know.
That sounds silly – i understand what you are trying to do, and I don’t have time to talk to you now.
Not even five minutes?
No, I think I’ve been already more than generous with my time. Thank you.
As always, the best advice in these situations is to end the call quickly without providing specific information beyond the phone book entry they have already consulted, and call your friendly local computer geek if you need more reassurance.
BONWAG 