Tuesday, August 29, 2006

The final frontier ...

Blogging from outer-space?

And I thought blogging from my local McDonald's was adventurous ...

Monday, August 28, 2006

While we're at it ...

"The gap between predictions and reality has left Americans deeply discouraged."

In the spirit of having a go at US foreign policy [ie; the previous post], may I direct you to Alan Cohen's story just published the NYT. He writes about the pessimism George Bush and his government have preached over the past five years.

Mission abolished ...

Sometimes I just don't know ...

Well, it looks like the US' crosshairs are focusing on Iran now.

And why would they invade Iran? I asked.

Then I remembered -- oh yeah, that whole `unknown unknowns` thing, that explains it all. You know, the US knew they didn't know whether there were weapons of mass-destruction in Afghanistan/Iraq, so they invaded. And now they don't know whether they know if Iran is being naughty with nuclear weapons or not, so they will attack there too.

Having said that, I don't know whether the Bush Government knows if it wants the public to know what they actually do know about what the Middle East knows about what the US does and doesn't know about what the hell is actually going on.

But then, all we need to `know` is that we live in a democracy, and then it will all make sense.

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Cartoon by Steve Bradenton, sourced from grow-a-brain

Friday, August 18, 2006

ABC cancer at Toowong

Aside from being broadsided by the mainstream news media, ABC managing director Mark Scott yesterday went to the ABC building at Toowong to discuss the recent breast cancer scares in the studios.

Read the full report of the ABC's progress here [.doc file].

I know a couple of people who work at the Toowong studios. They say positions are opening up for cadetships because people are leaving.

Good news for me, I guess ...

Distorting the facts ...

I know this is an old article by Ken Inglis, and its on a fairly old topic, but it tells somewhat of a revelation.

Shouldn't the media (mainly the Sydney Morning Herald [just look at the headline]) have checked its facts before it started blaming the Howard Government for purposefully appointing conservatives to the ABC board so as to make the ABC more favourable to his policy?

It turns out the chairman of the ABC board, Donald McDonald, appointed the conservative Mark Scott, and Minister for Communication Helen Coonan (of the Howard Government) just agreed to the decision.

Just goes to show how forceful the mainstream news media can be in pushing their particular barrow. They let the facts speak for themselves, but they leave out the facts that don't speak for them.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Google goes old school ...

Who said radio was dead?

If the comforting sighs of the wireless are becoming redundant in households around the world, then why is Google jumping on board?

"The deal is the latest development in Google's push to expand beyond the Internet into the traditional media marketplace, and follows a series of tests with print media and radio outlets."
The Google deal is through the US's largest satellite radio service, XM Radio [here's XM's press release], and will deliver advertising to Google's massive cohort of online advertisers.

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Photo courtesy of Tarashe

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

They make the world go 'round ...

It's good to see that in a time of economic and political uncertainty that Australians keep the big issues in mind:

"Nearly 40 per cent of Victorians and South Australia said [the price of bananas] was a bigger financial concern than interest rate rises, compared with 30 per cent of Queenslanders."

Um, here's a solution ... DON'T BUY BANANAS! [???]

What I love is the way politicians are using the price of bananas to describe Australia's recent economic shift and the subsequent rise in interest rates.

Actually, I think the Hizbollah/Israel fighting erupted when Hizbollah stole two bananas from Israel and wouldn't give them back ...

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

ABC moves into vodcasting

In addition to their new jtv service, the ABC is expanding their new media services to incorporate vodcasting, which is basically podcasting except it deals with both video and audio data.

But will the vodcast be as popular as we all hope? `No` said Rupert Murdoch in an interview with Newsweek earlier this year:

"[H]ow many people really want to get video on a tiny screen when they already have TiVo or a similar service from their cable company or DirecTV? How many will want to pay $1.99 on Monday morning if they missed "Desperate Housewives" the night before? What's been announced so far with iPod and Disney and NBC is very small-time at the moment."

Food for thought ... after all, he is a bloody savvy guy when it comes to new media technologies. In the same interview he discussed the runaway success of News Corp's online social networking site MySpace.com:

"We had no idea that between then and now the thing would have doubled in size. We now have 50 million registered users. We are very happy with it."

Murdoch discussed the success of MySpace again for this month's -|hang on a minute as I check the Wired web site ... oh|- last month's issue of Wired magazine. I'm yet to read the article, but it will be interesting to see how far MySpace has come since News Corp. bought it a year ago.

I'll get back on that one.

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Photo: Wired. [how can one face have so many contours ...? How does he shave?]