Who needs a unifying theme anyway?

amyamazeballs: animalmachine: Yes indeed Mike Monteiro...

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:46:00 +1000

animalmachine:

Yes indeed

Mike Monteiro again. Damn, mate, your work gets around.

"In any event, this experience, combined with our chart showing the extreme fragmentation of the..."

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:28:05 +1000

“In any event, this experience, combined with our chart showing the extreme fragmentation of the Twitter client market, has disabused me of the notion that TweetDeck might become one of the most important companies in my world.”

- Goodbye, TweetDeck, We Hardly Knew Ye

MOST IMPORTANT COMPANIES IN THE WORLD.

People are strange.

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:09:27 +1000

I jut received a polite email from a former employee. In it he tells me that he thinks our work is excellent, that he’s impressed by our client base, and thanks me for keeping him employed in what were some tough economic times.

The last time I spoke to him was eight years ago. The last words I ever said to him were, “Pick up your shit and fuck off. You are no longer welcome here.”

I wonder what step he’s on.

I have had iTunes 10 for 5 minutes and already I can complain!...

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:34:42 +1000

I have had iTunes 10 for 5 minutes and already I can complain! Hooray!

Teenage Fanclub, The Concept. This song may well be perfect....

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:57:56 +1000

Teenage Fanclub, The Concept.

This song may well be perfect. What else can I add?

We were just watching Brian Williams on The Daily Show, and I...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:54:31 +1000

We were just watching Brian Williams on The Daily Show, and I remarked to Erin that his voice reminded me of Howard Cosell. Then I started doing a Howard Cosell impression; it wasn’t great but it also wasn’t bad.

And then it struck me. I had never heard Howard Cosell in my life. I have heard a million impressions of him, I have understood that he existed, but I have never ever heard his voice come from his own mouth.

That’s how powerful is American culture at creating impressions on the rest of the world.

But then I looked this up on YouTube and, wow, what a voice. He sounds like John Wayne if John Wayne were someone who had stories you wanted to hear.

Thelma is a new online magazine put out by @kealey and I think you should totally check it out.

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:28:28 +1000

Thelma is a new online magazine put out by @kealey and I think you should totally check it out.:

Love it. Conceived and turned around in no time at all. Plus, it’s got @clembastow in her cosplay finery. How can you go wrong?

I can’t wait to see where they go with it.

What is your take on the Pakistani Cricket scandal? Being a Yank and not know a lot about Cricket, is it common for a bowler to step over the foul line by such a large margin?

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:21:38 +1000

Amateur bowlers don’t even do that. The world’s best might step over the crease by an inch (or two) every now and then, but those no-balls are pretty egregious.

Apart from that, my take on Cricket is that it has become too beholden to the sub-continent, and the huge inflows of money that come from there. The fact that there was a scandal there has therefore barely registered on my radar.

"The Governor-General herself seems to be uncertain about her role. She thought she might be choosing..."

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:31:13 +1000

“The Governor-General herself seems to be uncertain about her role. She thought she might be choosing between two possible prime ministers when she asked the Solicitor-General whether she should debar herself because her son-in-law is a Labor minister. In a hung parliament, the Governor-General is more likely and more properly involved after the Parliament has met. If Gillard were defeated on the floor of the House, she might ask the Governor-General to dissolve the House and call an election. The convention is that the Governor-General would refuse such a request because the Parliament only recently elected had not been given the opportunity to see whether a different government would gain its support. The Governor-General would then commission Tony Abbott to form a government.”

- Stable Government Not Governor-General’s Concern

"Ms Gillard and Greens Leader Bob Brown have signed the deal which ensures newly elected Lower House..."

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:36:15 +1000

“Ms Gillard and Greens Leader Bob Brown have signed the deal which ensures newly elected Lower House Greens MP Adam Bandt will support the formation of a minority Labor government. The concessions secured by the Greens include: the formation of • a climate change committee
• a parliamentary debate on Afghanistan
• a referendum on recognising Indigenous Australians
• restrictions on political donations
• legislation on truth in political advertising
• the establishment of a Parliamentary Budget Committee
• a leaders’ debates commission
• a move towards full three-year parliamentary terms
• two-and-a-half hours of allocated debate for private members’ bills
• access for Greens to various Treasury documents”

- Greens sign deal to back Labor - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Well, we knew that the Greens were going to side with the ALP no matter what (Bandt had said so before the election) but this is a stunning list of concessions from the ALP. Fixed terms, for a start, would be nigh-on impossible under the current system. In the case of a deadlock, or if the house became unstable, the PM must be able to call an election. Furthermore, the ability to call a double-dissolution election is an absolute necessity in the case of an obstructionist Senate.

The weird are turning pro this week.

San Francisco Weds - Sun next week.

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:27:58 +1000

I’m in town, and if you’d like to catch up at some stage, let me know through whatever channels you can.

I don’t bite.

Well, I don’t have rabies, anyway.

miss4n6: (via 472239364) Another great piece by Mike Montiero....

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:42:44 +1000

miss4n6:

(via 472239364)

Another great piece by Mike Montiero. Probably my favourite.

See you next week, San Francisco.

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:38:40 +1000

See you next week, San Francisco.

"I totally forgot to put a warning label on that last post, because that’s what our culture needs,..."

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:28:17 +1000

“I totally forgot to put a warning label on that last post, because that’s what our culture needs, more bullshit disclaimers written by cowards on behalf of retards that state the blatantly obvious.”

- Dear Coke Talk: On disclaimers.

Swoon.

I need to check myself before I wreck myself.

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:48:50 +1000

I need to check myself before I wreck myself.

And now, a quick note on Myers-Briggs personality types.

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:31:00 +1000

If you have had one of these personality typing tests completed, the only reason to ever tell anybody what your personality type is would be if you wanted to give them a handy reference on the easiest ways to exploit you.

Edit: I spelled Myers wrong.

"A snowclone is a type of cliché and phrasal template originally defined as “a multi-use,..."

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:50:00 +1000

“A snowclone is a type of cliché and phrasal template originally defined as “a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different variants”.[1]
An example of a snowclone is “grey is the new black”, a version of the template “X is the new Y”. X and Y may be replaced with different words or phrases – for example, “comedy is the new rock ‘n’ roll”.[2] Both the generic formula and the new phrases produced from it are called “snowclones”.
It emphasizes the use of a familiar (and often particular) formula and previous cultural knowledge of the reader to express information about an idea. The idea being discussed may be different in meaning from the original formula, but can be understood using the same trope as the original formulation.”

- Snowclone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quotes from interesting Wikipedia articles are the new original content.

"Mr Percival (1976 - 2 September, 2009) was an Australian Pelican, noted for his appearance in the..."

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:41:09 +1000

“Mr Percival (1976 - 2 September, 2009) was an Australian Pelican, noted for his appearance in the 1976 Australian film Storm Boy. He was one of three trained pelicans used in the film, based on the novel of the same name. He lived at the Marineland aquarium until it closed in 1988, then at the Adelaide Zoo. Mr Percival, whose zoo name was Gringo, fathered seven chicks with partner Alto, the last in 2007. He died of old age on 2 September 2009.”

- Mr Percival - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I still miss Favrd sometimes, and I'll tell you why.

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:55:00 +1000

That little Cock introduced me to some very very funny people – and some really interesting people too. There’s a not inconsiderable section of my opinions that have been influenced, and my mind that has been broadened, because of people who I first became aware of through their one-liners.

I have this idea that what makes us old is not the passing of time per se, but instead the process of reducing our interactions with new culture. My iPod, for example, had a three-year-run at making me older as when I used it all the time I never heard any new music. I got past this by listening to radio more and by going to gigs where I had never heard the band before. CBC’s Radio 3 podcast helped a lot. But before I found alternatives, I was getting old.

Since the plug was pulled on Favrd, I haven’t had any place where I can quickly get a handle on some of the minds that I ought to know that are out there. Sure, the rise of Tumblr and its various social media features has been great, but it doesn’t have that same special sauce that Favrd had.

As a result, the set of people I ‘read’ online has kind of crystallised (or metastasised) in a way that I’m not entirely happy with. It’s not that I’m not happy with the group –– I’m not happy that the group is somewhat fixed.

Favrd was the radio station that played music I didn’t know I wanted to hear. I think it’s ok to miss that.

Punctuation is tremendously important.

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 10:26:00 +1000

Punctuation is tremendously important.