Any set of characters

I think this sums it up a in short.

But today, after the unfortunate death of Peter Brock, she was again struggling to simulate empathy for other human beings whilst presenting the story on Sky News.

On that note, Steve Irwin died (yes, I may be the last person in the world to break that news).

A sad week for us all - I hope other well known Australians stay home and have a quiet and safe weekend.

Readers with exceptional memories, or at least, nothing else going on in their lives may remember my rant about Telstra a few weeks/months ago.

Basically, after a bad experience with a Bigpond support person, I finally decided to leave Telstra and radically reorganise ourphone/internet.

So, instead of paying Telstra around $400 a month for mobiles, home phones and broadband, I switched our mobiles to Vodafone and home phone/broadband to combination of Optus and Engin VOIP.

Whats the result?  Well, it’s still early days and the new providers are still figuring out their billing (I have yet to get an Optus bill for instance).  But my ‘phone’ bill from Engin was $16 last month, down from about $60 - those 10c untimed national calls really taking a huge chunk out of the cost of calling.

The Vodafone cap of paying $79 for $500 worth of service is also impressive, whilst the calls are expensive (1c per second) I just cannot make enough calls to spend the $1000 Belinda and I have between us.

If it wasn’t for the need for a phone line for ADSL, i would be joining the queue cancelling my land line completely! Which is what provoked this entry - this article on Australian IT.  Telstra has had to radically change its approach to billing with cheap caps (long distance, down from 2.50 a call to 0.75 a call)

It must have been me leaving them….

Oh, and VOIP is great, call quality is a little bit worse than normal, but nothing too bad.   8/10 of the quality for 1/10 the price!

Two bits of exciting news, DYPM reaches version 3.1 and now includes

• XHTML strict compliance
• A proper fix for the comment counting problem
• Support for those who don’t want to use cookies

Secondly:

WE WON OUR FIRST WORLD CUP VICTORY!!!!!!

Australia 3, Japan 1

Congratulations Socceroos (You can thank them for this version, I wrote it whilst watching the match)

Coincidently the version number is the score line 3.1

If I release a 4.0 version next week, will that mean we will have beaten Brazil 4 - nil?

I think not. 

Hmmm, ABC Childcare gets knocked about a bit in the media here.

Not that I mind, there is something about profit making childcare that makes the socialist in me feel a little uncomfortable.

In a year or so, we may be calling on their services… so I’m going to keep my eye on how they go…

I sent this:

From tomorrow, according to the new train timetable issued by

CityRail,  I will add a further 26 minutes to my existing

4 hour and 40 minute  daily commute to Sydney

I would just like to make it clear, in no uncertain terms, that I hold

the State Government responsible for this impact on my life and will

make my feelings clear at the next state election.

I do not require a reply.

And got back this:

Dear Mr Herold,

Thank you for your email. We appreciate the time you took to send us
your comments.

The matters you have raised will be investigated as quickly as possible.
In order for the Minister to reply to you, please forward us a postal
address where you can be reached.

Please allow up to six weeks for a response to your comments.

Yours sincerely,
Reception
Office of John Watkins MP
NSW Deputy Premier
Minister for Transport
Ph: 9228 4866
Fx: 9228 4855
Em:dp.office@watkins.minister.nsw.gov.au

They got my name wrong, asked me for an address for a response I didn’t want and then promised they’d get back to me in SIX WEEKS

That about sums it up really….

For those watching BB06 on Australian TV you’ll be seeing the housemates put through a voice based lie detector….

Apparently, its 90% accurate according to Gretal.

But the American Polygraph Association begs to differ

The common theme: Chance-level detection of stress. Chance-level detection of lies.

I found this on lexus-nexus  which I found interesting in that is shows the process worked through in deciding if someone is a genuine refugee, the guys basic arguement was:

• I get beaten up in my home town because we worship at a temple on my family’s property and the local’s don’t like it.

The govt’s response was

• Go back to india and move towns, there is 1 billion people there and plenty of places for you to go where you won’t be picked on.

And the court appeal decided

• The govt failed to note that the guys religion is pretty much only in his town, if he moves, he won’t have access to it, go back and make a decision that accounts for this (because you haven’t in your existing decision).

The fact the guy whipped over to South Africa to watch the cricket in the middle of his persecution would tend to give credence to the fact that maybe he wasn’t as afraid as one might think….

That all said, I’m in favour of immigration, liberal refugee acceptance and the end of mandatory detention, but this guy should probably go home

Well, what a doggy day.

It seems that a couple of the dogs in the street decided that our backyard was going to be a play zone today.

Our two labradors were then variously visited by ‘Thor’ the Jack Russell and ‘Rusty’ the… well.. I’m not quite sure.

I shooed them away a couple of times… Rusty was quite an amazing jumper, clearing a 5 foot high wall with ease.

Anyway, say hello to the world Rusty:

An experiement in google bombing:

Who’s the biggest moron on australian radio?

although, its a close call, there are so many other options….

Australia’s latest tourism campaign: http://www.wherethebloodyhellareyou.com/

Apparently its been banned in england and censored for the Asian market, its probably a little too ocker.

Strewth mate!

Anyway, the model who ask the important question at the end is Lara Bingle, a Cronulla girl, has been receiving some unwanted attention from a Rugby League player - or maybe not, depending on who you believe.