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Diary of a B+ Grade Polymath ([personal profile] tcpip) wrote2004-11-22 12:43 pm

Anniversary Service, Firefox, Workload Issues, Land Tax

Gave the 152nd Anniversary Service at the Melbourne Unitarian Church yesterday. An extremely good turnout, over 80 people, with the Brigidine nun, Sister Brigid Arthur giving an address on the human face of asylum seekers. As the above link indicates, I made sure the readings and words were in a common theme. After lunch Actors for Refugees provided a troubling performance based on real interviews and experiences ("Something to Declare". Very pleased to discover that the group was actually co-founded with an old friend of mine, Kate Atkinson (Karen in SeaChange).

On Friday I attended the Melbourne launch party of Firefox which was a pleasant gathering of hackers at the Vault Bar. Is there anyone out their in el-jay land who reads this who is still using Internet Explorer? If so, why?

My workload last week, and this upcoming week, is going into overload. I now have another major website to develop, including lots of Flash, whistles and bells etc, for James Nicholson, who is an extremely competent hair stylist who won the Apprentice of the Year award in 1995, worked for Chrissie Parrot, has had his worked splashed on every major glossy in Australia and spend some time working in Paris and Tokyo.

With four major paying webdesign clients and my usual networking tasks, I'm finding time management difficult - although I have managed however to squeeze in almost daily modifications to my PhD in the quest to reduce it from 160,000 words to 95,000. Damn, I have to include footnotes in the word count. Grrrr.

One thing that I must admit is time consuming is my weekly ICT newsletter, Red Friday. The latest issue has a feature article on how to be kind to people who work in technical support, along with the second article in a series on networking and the first in a series on on maths for computer programming

I've started little nation in Jennifer Government/Nation States, just to see how the game engine works. It seems pretty limited, but unlike many, I've been trying to play the game sensibly. On other gaming related news, Ten Thousand Islands is still running surprisingly well - play be email normally has a reputation for falling apart - and my favourite old gaming magazine Different Worlds has returned - after almost twenty years!

The Age is wrong on land tax. To claim that "Soaring land tax costs jobs, investment" is utterly false. Land tax is the only tax which encourages investment in productive activity rather than speculation. Meanwhile in Australian politics, the Labor Party has lost the plot</>, as
progressive policies continue to be dumped
as Labor attempts to appeal to "aspirational voters", a strategy which will effectively destroy the very existence of the Party. Meanwhile, Family First now wants
biblical creation stories taught alongside evolution
.

[identity profile] catbiscuit.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 01:56 am (UTC)(link)
Nationstates is nice.. if a little limited. I was serious about mine too.. just discovered it deleted as I haven't played with it in months, but I might start another one. I enjoyed the constant little decisions - a few of them were somewhat thought-provoking.

I do like the Unitarians.

James.. I've forgotten the name of the shop he worked at, but is that James from Perth? If so, good to hear he's doing so well with his career.

[identity profile] icepick666.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 02:15 am (UTC)(link)
labor really need to reduce the voting power of the unions too...ideally to zero.

[identity profile] shocko.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
Is there anyone out their in el-jay land who reads this who is still using Internet Explorer?

Not any more, I bloody don't. Fucking spyware/malware/scumware magnet, it is.

And thank God (moo hoo hah hah) that education remains in the hands of the states - it means that Family First's push to include tendetious gibberish and fairy tales in a science syllabus will remain still-born.

Truly amazing, isn't it? A party barely 2% of the population voted for have the gall to demand that the children of the other 98% have their education compromised with this twaddle for the sake of their own demented fear of death and the dark.

But then I think that nincompoop religious fundamentalists of ANY stripe are primitive vermin that should be ground into slurry for my azaleas, so don't mind me.

Where's an AC130 gunship when we really need one?

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
labor really need to reduce the voting power of the unions too...ideally to zero.

The Union/Membership voting ratio for determing elected representatives is 30/70.

The Union/Membership contribution to Party income is 23/1

What we have is Labor MPs who don't have much affiliation to the union movement, whereas almost all the Party's money comes from the union movement.

So perhaps increasing the voting power to 100% is a viable alternative.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 02:34 am (UTC)(link)
I enjoyed the constant little decisions - a few of them were somewhat thought-provoking.

It's not bad. I wouldn't mind a closer look at the engine that drives it.

I do like the Unitarians.

We're a nice bunch of heretics ;-)

If so, good to hear he's doing so well with his career.

Yep, it's that James.... He's working at Oxey & Bushey on Grey Street.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 02:38 am (UTC)(link)
And thank God (moo hoo hah hah) that education remains in the hands of the states - it means that Family First's push to include tendetious gibberish and fairy tales in a science syllabus will remain still-born.

Heh. They probably haven't realized that yet.

However, this sort of nonsense is going to cost all of us in the long run. Can you imagine how far behind Australia's science and economy would fall if our education system was run by Family First? :/

[identity profile] unsworn-nomore.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 02:39 am (UTC)(link)
Different Worlds! That takes me back.

[identity profile] amarafox.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 02:54 am (UTC)(link)
I <3 Firefox :)

[identity profile] drjon.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 02:59 am (UTC)(link)
> On Friday I attended the Melbourne launch party of Firefox...

How does one get in the loop for things like this?

> I've started little nation in Jennifer Government/Nation States...

If'n ye're interested, the MSFC is doing Jennifer Government for its next Bookclub, late January...

[identity profile] shocko.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
Can you imagine how far behind Australia's science and economy would fall if our education system was run by Family First?

Yes, watch as our Universities are forced to establish chairs and faculties debunking this anti-family "round earth" theory....simpletons. Not that these silly bastards care - when the world goes pear-shaped, their Imaginary Friend apparently vacuums them off the face of the Earth, finally doing us all a favour by ridding us of them.

I miss out, because I find the idea that my will is subordinate to the murderous whims of a mythical Bearded Old Man On A Cloud Who Lives With All My Dead Pets more than risible.

Oh, and please feel free to cross post any appropriate variation of the above paragraph to any website where you find yourself arguing with Islamo-fascist Jihadi scumwads - it may induce a stroke in at least one of them, which will be one less for my children to deal with.

Personally, I can't wait for the Rapture. All those suddenly empty houses. It'll be a Looteriffic Theft-o-Rama!

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 03:28 am (UTC)(link)

I find "fundamentalist" interpretations of religious texts very saddening. It raises a book to the level of a deity.

At the end of the day these people need the gentle reminder that evolution is not a theory in opposition to creation theory. It's just that creation theory doesn't have a shred of testable scientific evidence.

I think everyone should be thoroughly versed in the talk.origins archive.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
You should with a user name like yours!

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 03:30 am (UTC)(link)

Ummm... Wouldn't have any back issues lying around? I'm still missing a couple..

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 03:32 am (UTC)(link)
How does one get in the loop for things like this?

http://www.2600.org.au/

the MSFC is doing Jennifer Government for its next Bookclub, late January...

Hmmm... That would require me getting into science fiction again....

[identity profile] unsworn-nomore.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 03:39 am (UTC)(link)
Alas no. The only issue I have got waterlogged a few years back.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 03:52 am (UTC)(link)
Alas no. The only issue I have got waterlogged a few years back.

Bugger! As you can see from the price list, DW is worth a fair bit these days. Especially the issues from 21-31 which all ended up in Australia, thanks to some nutty management decision by the Backgammon Store.

[identity profile] greg.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 05:00 am (UTC)(link)
Lots of things I need to catch up on when I land! But for now, I remember that you had offered web hosting, I was wondering whether I might be able to contract you to colo a machine in the new year?

[identity profile] caseopaya.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 05:05 am (UTC)(link)
Haven't the ALP been pushing themselves further and further from their past association with unions over the years? Especailly since the Liberals bring up all the negative associations with the unions at every election campaign?

[identity profile] greg.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 05:11 am (UTC)(link)
How do I get on the mailing list for red friday?

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 05:15 am (UTC)(link)

Send me an email to lev _ lafayette AT speedymail DOT org ;-)

[identity profile] angel80.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 05:16 am (UTC)(link)
I have always been a Netscape user. Was puzzled why you didn't mention it as an alternative to IE. Anyway I switched to Firefox and then discovered it was built from Netscape. That's fine, because recent versions of Netscape are full of commercial crap.

One thing that bugs me though. When I installed Firefox, it asked me if I wanted to keep my Netscape bookmarks. I said yes which was handy for the personal ones, but I've deleted all the built-in ones and don't know how to get hold of Firefox's built-in ones.

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 05:17 am (UTC)(link)

Let me check up on colo's for you... I don't think it will be a problem..

Sorry I didn't get back to you about Aust's privacy laws either... Email me again, and with a little more detail, because it varies a great deal from state to state and content.. Poor ol' Oz doesn't have anything sensible like a Bill of Rights :/

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 05:19 am (UTC)(link)

Yes, and it's becoming a huge problem. The Labor Party has ended up with very few politicians from a trades/labour background. Instead their MPs are mostly from a legal and teaching background.

Give me a sparky anyday :/

[identity profile] caseopaya.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 05:21 am (UTC)(link)
Instead their MPs are mostly from a legal and teaching background.

So they know how to procrastinate and use the system to the best of their abilities?! At this rate they will forget the "common people" and the blue collar roots they came from! Not a good thing at all

[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2004-11-22 05:32 am (UTC)(link)
That's fine, because recent versions of Netscape are full of commercial crap.

That's why... Firefox is the open source version of Netscape. It's done pretty well I reckon ;-)

I said yes which was handy for the personal ones, but I've deleted all the built-in ones and don't know how to get hold of Firefox's built-in ones.

The easiest way to do this would be to backup your bookmarks (bookmarks - manage - export), then reinstall the 'fox...

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