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This week my thesis has moved at a rate of the allied advance into Italy during the second world war - bogged down in mud. I think I've managed to contribute a mere 2,500 words on the subject. Good words mind you, damn good words as I've been pondering and researching the complex (and contradictory ideas) of (a) the influence of the Internet in the global political and economic order and (b) the cultural parallel with the history of the telegraph. With is a mere (estimated) 7,500 words to go before completion I'm hoping to have it done by the end of next week.
In the meantime I have allowed myself to be distracted productively. Putting ideas developed into the thesis into practise I've registered two new domains; isocracy.org and mimesispublishing.net. The idea of the former is a social and political theory and news site. The idea of the latter is a publishing co-operative for graduates which produces both ebooks and the dead-tree versions. I've been investigating several hosting options and co-operative regulations which are invariably the best business model.
Every couple of years I force myself to review my programming skills. No, I don't mean static coding such as xhtml/css, or even bits of javascript (which I personally loathe, but clients love) or shellscript, which are the sort of things I do on a daily basis anyway. Rather I mean getting one's teeth into the one true programming language, C++. Now I haven't done any C/C++ programming for about 2 years at least. But what is making me grin from ear to ear is not just how much of it I'm remembering, but how much I'm enjoying it.
Part of this is of course to assist in the translation program that I'm working on with Peter Gossner and Cromwell Hooper. Recently we've discovered a very handy little resource, the Natural Language Toolkit, which will assist us greatly in over coming the problems of contextual semantics normally associated with machine translation.
Next Tuesday I have another interview with Australian Volunteers International. Well been an interesting and pleasant six months back in Australia. I suppose I'd better start learning Vietnamese....
Last Sunday had Andrew Rowe, CEO of the Victorian Local Governance Association, speaking on community involvement in the development of a Bill of Rights. He made some poignant comments about how many people feel distant from our state and federal governments are turning to local government to reconnect and engage as citizens. He cited the role of local government in the Australian republic debate as an example. Next time I see him I must quiz him more on the Jefferson notion of highly decentralized "natural republics". I suspect he'll like it.
Something for members of the Victorian Labor Party to ponder on. Item 1 and Item 2
Nerds and IT business heads only. Beagl has offered this gem which the aforementioned people will understand. Also in the realm of extremely practical nerdsville (particularly appropriate to those IT workers who like living it rough like myself) latest Swiss Army knife comes with a USB HD.
Everyone is getting into it. Even Noam Chomsky has a blog. Although I think "Turning The Tide" is the wrong title for someone who considers himself a progressive.
The good Jay Bulworth once again raises the idea of "odious debt" in the latest issue of Overland in the article Strategic policy alternatives for Australia.
The Richard Clarke affair is going to be big, very big. After all, it's not often that you get a conservative establishment figure picked by four presidents to advise them on security concerns. This blog provides an excellent summary of what is going down. The key point: There's a serious chance 9/11 could have been stopped. Bush wanted to invade Iraq instead. Clarke explains more in this Guardian interview.
In a sense, Clarke's White House critics are right. He has timed this very carefully, right in time for the 9/11 congessional hearings. I do suspect he is politically motivated to "get" Bush as well, although he is certainly no liberal. One can bet their bottom dollar that he hasn't played all his cards yet and over the next few months more and more will be revealed.
To finish off on a related issue, Rilian provides a link to these annoying questions.
April 4 is World Rat Day, whereas Unitarians in New Zealand have apparently called it "All Heretics Day". Anything but Easter I suppose.
In the meantime I have allowed myself to be distracted productively. Putting ideas developed into the thesis into practise I've registered two new domains; isocracy.org and mimesispublishing.net. The idea of the former is a social and political theory and news site. The idea of the latter is a publishing co-operative for graduates which produces both ebooks and the dead-tree versions. I've been investigating several hosting options and co-operative regulations which are invariably the best business model.
Every couple of years I force myself to review my programming skills. No, I don't mean static coding such as xhtml/css, or even bits of javascript (which I personally loathe, but clients love) or shellscript, which are the sort of things I do on a daily basis anyway. Rather I mean getting one's teeth into the one true programming language, C++. Now I haven't done any C/C++ programming for about 2 years at least. But what is making me grin from ear to ear is not just how much of it I'm remembering, but how much I'm enjoying it.
Part of this is of course to assist in the translation program that I'm working on with Peter Gossner and Cromwell Hooper. Recently we've discovered a very handy little resource, the Natural Language Toolkit, which will assist us greatly in over coming the problems of contextual semantics normally associated with machine translation.
Next Tuesday I have another interview with Australian Volunteers International. Well been an interesting and pleasant six months back in Australia. I suppose I'd better start learning Vietnamese....
Last Sunday had Andrew Rowe, CEO of the Victorian Local Governance Association, speaking on community involvement in the development of a Bill of Rights. He made some poignant comments about how many people feel distant from our state and federal governments are turning to local government to reconnect and engage as citizens. He cited the role of local government in the Australian republic debate as an example. Next time I see him I must quiz him more on the Jefferson notion of highly decentralized "natural republics". I suspect he'll like it.
Something for members of the Victorian Labor Party to ponder on. Item 1 and Item 2
Nerds and IT business heads only. Beagl has offered this gem which the aforementioned people will understand. Also in the realm of extremely practical nerdsville (particularly appropriate to those IT workers who like living it rough like myself) latest Swiss Army knife comes with a USB HD.
Everyone is getting into it. Even Noam Chomsky has a blog. Although I think "Turning The Tide" is the wrong title for someone who considers himself a progressive.
The good Jay Bulworth once again raises the idea of "odious debt" in the latest issue of Overland in the article Strategic policy alternatives for Australia.
The Richard Clarke affair is going to be big, very big. After all, it's not often that you get a conservative establishment figure picked by four presidents to advise them on security concerns. This blog provides an excellent summary of what is going down. The key point: There's a serious chance 9/11 could have been stopped. Bush wanted to invade Iraq instead. Clarke explains more in this Guardian interview.
In a sense, Clarke's White House critics are right. He has timed this very carefully, right in time for the 9/11 congessional hearings. I do suspect he is politically motivated to "get" Bush as well, although he is certainly no liberal. One can bet their bottom dollar that he hasn't played all his cards yet and over the next few months more and more will be revealed.
To finish off on a related issue, Rilian provides a link to these annoying questions.
April 4 is World Rat Day, whereas Unitarians in New Zealand have apparently called it "All Heretics Day". Anything but Easter I suppose.