IT Craziness, Other News Summary

[tcpip]

Whilst it may well be impossible to match Slin's magnificant contribution to the O RLY meme, I have made my own modest contribution. Our Business Development Manager is recommending names for our "self deployed software as a service covering four key elements", namely Contacts, Documents, Projects, Support and has suggested the loriidae as a mascot. Slightly tongue-in-cheek, I recommended changing the mascot to the Australian Masked Owl (Tyto novaehollandiae) and renaming the contacts to Omnibus, Relationships, License, and Yearnings, thus providing a delightful acronym, "well known in Internet parlanace" and one which would bring the company "instant global recognition". The best part is that the Technical Director, who is well aware of the owl-based motif, quite likes the idea.

Obviously in a mood of sorts, I have also composed a wiki entry on our work intranet entitled "Putting Squirrels Into Roundcubes", which includes such informative headings like "Tar that there squirrel up", "Get those nuts!" etc. More sensibly, last Tuesday I gave a presentation at Linux Users Victoria, entitle a "Gentle Introduction to Xen" (paravirtualisation). Slides of my presentation are available (in ODP format), as are notes (in plain text). On a related topic Microsoft has released tools to help people downgrade from Vista to XP.

In other news, Rogue has fully recovered, however poor Scoundrel is suffering from head-tilt. caseopaya alerts me to heroic rats who find landmines. In gaming news, recently played and reviewed (coming soon) original Harnmaster; on our Friday night group just started Ars Magica during the period of the Cathar heresy. Have been speculating on a Middle-Earth Fourth Age story where Gollum gets the ring and Saruman becomes the major power (nice, eh?). In Unitarian news, fundraiser for East Timor last Sunday included lessons in Tetum along with the concert; have also completed my four-part "introduction to philosophy" series (philosophy, logic, epistemology, ontology) at the Unitarian Philosophy Forum and am wondering where to take it next; I suspect it will be historical themes, although I confess a strong preference to a formal approach.

Comments

[anthanum.livejournal.com]

and in other news missmilky is touring melbourne from 11 to 24 july :)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Huzzah! Huzzah! She must visit!

[anthanum.livejournal.com]

I'll inform her to consult with you guys re catch up time/place.

[mundens.livejournal.com]

I liked the game a friend of mine ran where Galadriel failed the test.

The Dark Lady of Loth Lorien, whom none could resist...
:)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Oh very naughty indeed! I've been wondering what do with her and the pretty nest... It would make sense if she followed said path, or perhaps even better if she went a bit crazy like the elf queen in Earthdawn...

Oh, opportunities!

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Yearnings?
Is that Support then?

(Very clever).

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I wasn't clear..

Documents could become "Omnibus"
Contacts could become "Relationships"
Support could become "License" (also subtly emphasising the value of SaaS) and
Projects would become "Yearnings"

I still think slin's efforts were much better; he managed to keep a degree of deception going, whereas I couldn't keep a straight face, so to speak..

[greylock.livejournal.com]

See, I see 'Yearnings' and I think: "Oh god, I could really do with some decent tech support right around now".

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

*nods* I see your point, but I must confess I was struggling with the thesaurus by that point...

[zey.livejournal.com]

The best part is that the Technical Director, who is well aware of the owl-based motif, quite likes the idea.

Certainly not a move without precedent. Westnet have used a stylised rendition of the Goatse Man as their corporate logo for a couple of years now:

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Heh. I remember when that was introduced... O RLY the owl is a lot friendlier imo... The Westnet logo makes me want to run away!

[zey.livejournal.com]

You and me both! ;-)

Logo shmogo

[imajica-lj.livejournal.com]

Westnet's service delivery makes me cry at least once a week.

Re: Logo shmogo

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

How many years have you been with them now?

Re: Logo shmogo

[imajica-lj.livejournal.com]

2 ...

Re: Logo shmogo

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Well, that's not too long. But if they're making you tear your hair out on a weekly basis p'rhaps someone else is better suited to your needs.

[ivansun.livejournal.com]

how about the philosophy of science...? went to a very interesting lecture at Melbourne Uni, delivered by a Physics professor. It's about relating atom-splitting experiments to the big bang theory.

Here are some of the amazing statements made:-

- We only know about 4% of the matter in the universe. The other is made up of dark matter and dark energy.

- There is the first dimension (lecturer waves hand backwards and forward), second dimension (waves hand left and right), third dimension (hand goes up and down), and of course time is the fourth dimension. We believe there may be six other dimension accounting for the unexplainable behaviour of atoms at subatomic level.
[Note: my paraphrase - but good lord, only six other mysterious dimensions...]

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I did that just a few weeks ago as part of a paper on 1ontology (doc file).

Although I think you might be right; taking the pragmatic philosophy path (e.g., philosophy of facts, norms and expressions) might be the way to go...

[ironed_orchid]

...thus providing a delightful acronym, "well known in Internet parlanace" and one which would bring the company "instant global recognition"

Heeee! Make it so.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

It would indeed be funny, cause instant global recognition and positive recognition if it was made clear that the company was "in" on the joke.

I mean, imagine how Slashdot would react?

[ironed_orchid]

Well, it would certainly increase international awareness of the company's existence.

Plus it sounds like the sort of company that slashdotters would be fond of.. I mean, "tar that squirrel".

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

The footnotes to the wiki entry give acknowledgements to Too Much Coffee Man and Scary Squirrel World.

[siln.livejournal.com]

NO WAI!

I laughed. Squirels cannot help but be funny. I will check out the rest when I have time.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I am but standing on the shoulders of giants, sensei.

[crankynick.livejournal.com]

All ur html are belong to crap...

That first link to Slin is badly broken.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Eh, I left out the http://, thus converting it to a relative rather than absolute path. Fixed now...

[aske.livejournal.com]

Well done on the letter in The Age the other day, I quite like the angle you took.

It's funny, another fella I know had his letter published recently too, in response to that Matt Whelan letter, and there was another one from me a few days ago, also on the God/atheism issue. Now I'm not so fond of the tone I used, but still grateful it was published.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Your letter was likewise on target.

I also really liked Andrew Raivars' response with the Monopolar Manicheans.

I can certainly understand why The Age has called it quits on the debate however.