Any set of characters

And now for something a little more serious.

Apples ‘Get a Mac’ campaign recently won and award - one of the runners up was the Montana Meth Project - with its ‘Not even once’ ads about Ice / Meth.

Very sobering stuff - but also amazing ads - why don’t they run this stuff in Australia?

http://www.montanameth.org/

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…

Apparently the US State Department is publishing guidelines for American’s travelling overseas to reduce the reputation of ‘loud americans’

From the guidelines:

Think as big as you like but talk and act smaller In many countries, any form of boasting is considered very rude. Talking about wealth, power or status - corporate or personal - can create resentment.

Listen at least as much as you talk By all means, talk about America and your life in our country. But also ask people you’re visiting about themselves and their way of life.

Save the lectures for your kids Whatever your subject of discussion, let it be a discussion not a lecture. Justified or not, the US is seen as imposing its will on the world.

Think a little locally Try to find a few topics that are important in the local popular culture. Remember, most people in the world have little or no interest in the World Series or the Super Bowl. What we call “soccer” is football everywhere else. And it’s the most popular sport on the planet.

Slow down We talk fast, eat fast, move fast, live fast. Many cultures do not.

Speak lower and slower A loud voice is often perceived as bragging. A fast talker can be seen as aggressive.

Your religion is your religion and not necessarily theirs Religion is usually considered deeply personal, not a subject for public discussions.

If you talk politics, talk - don’t argue Steer clear of arguments about American politics, even if someone is attacking US politicians or policies. Agree to disagree.

http://www.wimp.com/theinternet/

There is a guy on TV at the moment who weighs 345 kilos (759 lbs).

Its hard to feel sympathy for a guy who hasn’t walked in 7 years and yets sits in front of salad refusing to eat it and demanding a hamburger and soda…

After a bit of googling, it seems he died:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/20/AR2005092001841.html

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:

What an asshole:  Court rejects womans plea on embryos

You’d think there’d be a more human solution, such as a legal agreement to remove any need for him to support any children.

But to take away her hope safe in the knowledge that you are losing none of your own is extremely cruel.