WebProNews.com -- absolute NO idea about decent journalism!

This is the 3rd appallingly bad, unresearched article I've read on "WebProNews" in the last couple of months. Enough is enough.

Avoid WebProNews! There's absolutely nothing "pro" about it, obviously it's just a group of hacks who love the sounds of their own voices.

The linked article claims Firefox is less secure than IE due to the number of security threats logged against it at Secunia, which was greater than for IE, in the previous 6 months.

Reasons this is just garbage & that they obviously have no clue what they're talking about:

• The blog it quoted from took its figures from Secunia. Not that WebProNews bothered to mention that, instead quoting the blogger as an official source.
• Checking the relevant pages on Secunia for Firefox and IE, show that a fully patched Firefox is rated in the green ("Less Critical", a "2" on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the worst) while a fully patched IE is STILL rated in the RED ("Highly critical", "4" on the same 1-5 scale).
• 19 out of 85 Secunia advisories for IE are marked as "Unpatched", while only 3 out of 23 Secunia advisories for Fx have the same status.
• IE6 is almost FIVE YEARS OLD now. And people are still finding security faults.
• Mozilla have fixed all critical security issues within a fortnight of their being listed, while Microsoft are still struggling to address bugs & leaks from years gone by.
• IE is completely intertwined with the Microsoft Windows operating system (any flavour. For example, it provides the UI for Windows Explorer & the Control Panel, to name just one alternate role) such that issues with IE can allow direct access to the operating system for hackers.
  
• There are soooo many more good points about Firefox than just its far better security features than IE. The security "issue" is just one small reason why people are trumpeting the benefits of Firefox. IE simply cannot match Firefox in other (read: "any other") areas. Extensibility, customisation, speed & autonomy are just a few of such factors.
• The facts speak for themselves. I have NEVER had a virus, nor a piece of spyware/adware/trojan or other on my computer! Not a one. I have also never used IE (except when site testing), and have never used Outlook as my default email client. Related? Absolutely. It's a simple case of cause & effect, my dear Watson.
• the WebProNews page on which this article appears (actually, any page on their site, for that matter) is 75% ads, 25% content. Shows what their motivating factors are.

There was another ZDNet article recently that summed up the situation perfectly with the following quote:

If Firefox is still coming up with double-digit exploits four years after launch, then we'll know it's as bad as IE: until then, simple headline figures are in no way sufficient to help you decide which browser is safer.

As WebProNews so perfectly indicates -- do not believe everything you read on the web.

Law Professor argues against Indonesia's draconian drug laws

Excellent article that concurs with & expands on my own opinion about the whole drugs issue going on with Indonesia.

Professor Mirko Bagaric is Head of the School of Law at Deakin University, and has extremely clearly & eloquently put forth more reasons why we, as Australians, should not be tolerating Indonesia's apparent "anti-foreigner" drugs policy.

There is a massive drugs problem in Indonesia, but their current solution will only serve to remove their islands from the list of recommended holiday locations for travellers, something that will greatly damage their already fragile economy, and worsen the whole black market drugs situation.

Anti-Australian sentiment abounds in Indonesia

At the park with my dog last weekend, I met a guy who had recently returned from his 21st trip to Bali. He usually loves Indonesia, and has, over the years, made some firm friends on his holidays there.

This trip, however, was noticably different, with even his long-time Balinese friends exhibiting a coolness towards him, a distancing unlike they had ever shown before.

As our dogs played together, he told me about the current Anti-Australian sentiment he felt everywhere over there, and of how much it actually scared him. There is a mistrust, a new dislike of us. We, Australians, are now foreigners to the Indonesians, not close allies and neighbouring friends as our politicians try to portray.

The hostile feeling was everywhere, this man told me, from shopkeepers, to airport staff, to hotel porters.

Why is this happening? Didn't we just give this place a billion dollars?

Indonesian Police, working in tandem with street drug dealers, are targeting Australians. There have reportedly been more than a few instances of drugs being planted on innocent tourists. He himself witnessed one guy being busted over something in his back pocket that had been placed there not moments before by a disgruntled dealer. It cost the victim over $30,000 to buy his way out of jail. It's highly likely the police are feeding the drugs back to the streets, giving the dealers ammunition for their stings.

Corruption is still rife in Bali, but the Anti-Australian sentiment, brought on in the wake of Schapelle Corby's awful sentencing, is giving corrupt officials there a whole new set of targets to extort.

The linked article tells of yet another Australian busted for drugs within our neighbour's shores.

I'm almost getting used to it.

We shouldn't be getting used to it.

This latest arrest comes in the same week the Indonesian Ambassador to Australia, Imron Cotan, left our shores "disappointed and stunned" at the backlash from Australians after Schapelle Corby's verdict.

"In a way perhaps they are too emotional," he said.

No, you fool Cotan. It's because Australians are human, and unnecessary suffering is something we do not tolerate.

Illicit drugs are bad. With that we will not disagree. But unnecessary, biased cruelty and political vendettas from a country globally recognised to be almost completely broken by corruption?

Why are we tolerating that?

Google follows Microsoft's path of "Cheat first, fight it out in court later"

Google is being sued for "massive copyright infringement" by a group of authors over the search giant's unauthorised use of their published & copyrighted works on Google Print.

This reeks of Microsoft, to me. No, I'm not saying Google is Microsoft, but the duplicity with which Google is gathering up, reformatting & re-presenting stuff that doesn't belong to them reminds me of MS's dodgy tactics towards Netscape et al (i.e. any competitor) before they were officially rapped over the knuckles & told to get clean not so very long ago.

Obviously authors aren't directly competing against Google, and, should we believe the company's protestations, Google is, in fact, doing all writers a huge favour in making their works more widely accessible.

It's kinda missing the point, however, in much the same way Napster completely missed the point.

Google argues that they do give copyright holders the opportunity to withdraw their works from the database, but this is laughable, really, as stated so well by Paul Aiken, executive director of one of the plaintiff groups, the Authors Guild. From the article:

[The] offer turned longstanding precedents in copyright law upside down, requiring owners to pre-emptively protect rights rather than requiring a user to gain approval for use of a copyrighted work.

Shall be very interesting to watch where this one goes.

Microsoft & the fishy Phishing Filter

Linked article discusses MS's new anti-phishing technology for its web browser, the so-called "Phishing Filter", which was initially due to be released with the upcoming IE7 but has been made available already as an add-on to current versions.

The main issue with this new bit of software that has privacy pundits extremely concerned is that the tool sends information about user's surfing habits back straight back to MS.

Of course, they're denying any intention of storing or using this data for anything but phishing protection purposes... but, please, this is Microsoft. The world's most popular liars.

Kevin Bankston, a lawyer and Internet privacy expert with the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, has said this is potentially “a wholesale handing over of one’s privacy to Microsoft. I would say, right now, definitely don’t use this. If you’re careful, you don’t need this.”

“There are clear financial imperatives for them to choose to make use of this information in the future and start logging it,” he said. “It is not hard to imagine the gold that could be mined out of that information.”

Phishing Filter indeed... Fishing Filter is more like it.

I would find Microsoft seriously laughable... if only they weren't so serious.

Microsoft knocking at Firefox's door

This is really exciting news! And on the flipside, it's also really scary.

We'll start with the exciting: PCWorld is reporting that Microsoft is currently in talks with the developers of both Firefox and Safari -- IE's two biggest threats in browserland -- in the hope of getting them to integrate its new identity meta-system technology, named InfoCard, into their platforms.

Why is this exciting?

Well, for one, Microsoft is formally recognising Firefox. And Mozilla, and other browsers in general. This is good. Actually, this is great; one of MS's favourite tricks is to stifle all competition with a mix of wide & varied monopolies, and multitudinous bits of proprietary garbage in previously standardised landscapes.

But this brings us neatly to the not-so-exciting part of the picture: Microsoft is yet again trying to dominate in the personal identity & security market. (Remember Microsoft's Wallet, anyone?)

Ok, ok. Yes, I am jumping to conclusions, given that InfoCard technology is potentially not even going to be in IE 7, once it is finally released. And yes, there are others playing in the security sandpit with MS on this product.

The open source scheme InfoCard is based on is a new security protocol, WS-Trust, still being developed. Sun is another contributor to the new standard, and security firms across the globe are incorporating WS-Trust compatibility into their offerings already.

Head on over to the main base for all this exciting development, SourceID, and we find a couple of extremely pertinent quotes from Bruce Schneier, security guru, featured on the home page:

In the cryptography world, we consider open source necessary for good security; we have for decades. Public security is always more secure than proprietary security. It's true for cryptographic algorithms, security protocols, and security source code. For us, open source isn't just a business model; it's smart engineering practice.

So what is Microsoft doing in the mix then?

CNET's Top 10 Products list places Firefox at #5

Another accolade for the best web browser on the planet, Firefox, this time coming in at Number 5 on CNET's list of the Top Ten Products they've seen in their ten years of operation.

Others on the list included both the Apple iPod (#1) and the Apple iMac (#8), the original Napster (#4), ubiquitous search giant Google (#3), and TiVo (#2), a product we've not yet seen here in Australia, but which most of us (females, at least) know about thanks to Miranda on Sex & The City.

Firefox should have been higher, IMHO, but that's probably due the fact that I use it every single da... actually, nah, it's due to the fact that it's a bloody brilliant piece of software!

Is Microsoft getting scared?

Tech site BetaNews is first out of the box this week with an article about MS's recent announcement that they are going to be following the tried-and-true methodology of one of the most enduringly popular and successful pieces of web software around, the Apache Web server. Microsoft will be introducing modules and XML config files into their ever-evolving-yet-never-really-improving IIS server software, a concession to the stability and durability of some of Apache's greatest features.

Yet another of their largest products conceding somewhat to the force of the open source world. Is Microsoft starting to get scared?

The resurrection of IE from the grave was one of the first surprising indications that MS are watching the growing popularity of their free competitors (in this case, the brilliant Firefox web browser), and other concessions have slowly but surely been following, not least of which is the new MS Office Open XML file format.

Is this a case of Microsoft backing down on their "we are all you need" style of marketing, trying hastily to grab back some of their disgruntled ex-customers who have jumped ship for more open, compatible and cheap products?

More interesting commentary about the BetaNews article on the wonderful Slashdot.

Michelle Leslie's to face 15 years jail... or just 3 months

All over the news last night was splashed the fact that Michelle Leslie could potentially get 15 years jail for one of the two charges she may face in relation to her recent drug bust.

What I've just read, however, seems to indicate she may, instead, be out in 3 months.

Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper reports that:

For those who are users of the drug, the maximum is only three months jail.

Michelle's blood test results came back positive, indicating she had already consumed at least one tablet of ecstasy, so this seems to be the obvious line her defence team should follow -- that she is an ecstasy user.

Clearly her original lawyers (who were abrubtly sacked soon after she was arrested) had this in mind when they announced she was addicted to the drug. (Which she has since denied.) Maybe, indeed, this is the line she should take. Who cares what sort of record that leaves about her in Bali? No one is going to hold that against her back here. We see far worse than a casual ecstasy user on a daily basis right across the world. Some even make it to cult hero status. (To whit: Jason Donovan, Michael Hutchence, Ozzie Osbourne...)

Whatever she does decide to do, the absolutely insane Indonesian legal system still blows my mind. Surely, then, this "users get 3 months, tops" rule makes getting out of jail a no-brainer for any drug dealer: just ensure they pop a pill or two themselves each time they start their daily sales push to avoid any lengthy convictions.

It's ridiculous and completely laughable.

I had a comment recently from someone annoyed with my critical remarks about Michelle Leslie, and to a point, I can understand this person's grievance. Pre-judging anyone is a pretty harsh thing to do, and I kinda did do that. (Kinda being the operative word. Oh, it's not a word? Awww... but yous know wot oi mean, doncha.)

Unfortunately, however, for Michelle -- and anyone else who tries to proclaim her innocence -- the blood tests prove that she had, indeed, already had some of the drug when she was caught. So, dear commenter, I say yet again: Michelle Leslie is an idiot. To do that in Bali, after everything Schapelle has been going through, is foolish -- at the very least.

That said, to be up for a possible 15 years for such a small sin (given the prevalence of drugs in our society, and the prevalence of more serious drug-related crime and the like in my very suburb, dear old St Kilda)... well, yeah. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Not even an idiot.

eBay to Acquire Skype

$2.6 billion shmackerooo's, baby, and that's just the beginning.

I did a review of the major media corp purchases recently & discovered that they're all buying stuff, all the time. Big companies swallowing up the small companies, with Yahoo, Google, Microsoft & CNET leading the way.

For today, however, this is the big one. Wonder what eBay's intentions are here, and if they, too, are planning to compete for global desktop/IM/VoIP/search/blog/marketplace domination?

Bashir's latest lie

Ooooo... this makes my blood boil.

Bashir wants to be swapped from jail to hospital, due to "a sore back".

If they even consider it.... man, who knows what Australia will do in return?

Listen to Bashir at your own peril, Indonesia.

The Age Reader Surveys: Leslie & Bush down, Corby still up

The Melbourne newspaper The Age has regular reader polls, which I've only just learned of today, and they're rather interesting.

Current question: "Has the New Orleans disaster permanently stained George Bush's presidency?" A resounding 88% say Yes.

Past polls include, recently, 75% saying NO to "Should Australia lobby to help Michelle Leslie?" confirming my belief that her case is nothing like Schapelle Corby's, and she deserves whatever punishment she gets.

On the other hand, in June 73% said they "had not changed their mind about Schapelle's innocence", with past polls indicating the majority of us believe she IS innocent, and has not been helped enough by the government.

We still need to fight for Schapelle -- do not stop doing that! -- and her own strength should be marvelled at, too, as she tries to make the best of the sickening situation she is in.

Beauty begins at 30

I turned 33 last weekend and, I must say, I feel fantastic -- physically, mentally and even spiritually.

And my feelings are backed by a recent survey of 1356 women which found that 50% believed a woman was most beautiful in her 30s, not her 20s.

Only 28% picked their 20's.

There are probably many reasons for this, besides the popularity of glamourous tv shows such as Desperate Housewives, starring the rather gorgeous Eva Longoria.

Factors such as the progress of the beauty & fashion industries mean that we are no longer "dried up" at 30, & instead we are living longer, having less children, getting married older, doing a lot more -- keeping more active, staying healthier & just generally enjoying life on a much bigger scale.

Of course, I wasn't around when my mum was 30 -- actually, I think I may have been a twinkle in her eye at that point -- but the freedom & liberation from many of the traditional constraints and expectations that used to be put on women in her day quite simply give us more life, and more chances to enjoy life, these days.

The ridiculousness and frivolity of some of the 20-something stars who grab the limelight whenever the can (think Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohen, Tara Reid, et al) also adds weight to the fact that there is beauty in maturity, not in the excesses of one's 20's.

Yay being 30! I'm loving it.

Future of IE 7 = A long, slow, well-overdue death

Jose Francisco has written a lengthy article for XPSource this week, summarising the main points to come out of a recent MS-organised online chat that centred around IE7.

And it's a real hoot.

You've really gotta love the way these MS guys think, ignoring the bleeding obvious, trying to drum up excitement about things the rest of us are all well & truly used to by now, and just generally living in their own little fantasy land. They do their best to assume a position of superiority over other browsers by weaving a spell of quasi-mystery and big expectations, which is really most amusing to read.

The main "facts" (quote unquote) about the upcoming IE7 have already done the rounds of the web, with nothing new here. In short, IE7 will drop ActiveX support, will include an anti-phishing tool, won't work on Windows 2000 and will have tabbed browsing. It will also be dropping Java from its installation bundle (but, I'm assuming, will still support it), won't have custom skins or styling, will not be optional in Win Vista, will not work at all on a Mac, and will no longer include the planned download manager, because, the developers hasten to add:

“It is not “too hard”, we just are not able to implement a download manager with the level of high quality that we want in the timeframe of this release.”

In other words, it's too hard for them.

(Firefox, on the other hand, has been including an excellent, inbuilt download manager since the very early days, plus there are over 30 individual extensions available that add additional tools for this task and/or allow Firefox to interface with other popular 3rd-party download managers, such as wget, Download Accelerator Plus, GetRight, and the online download app, DownloadStudio).

The only truly interesting comment from the article was that there's a potential new UI to be unveiled in the next IE7 beta. Maybe. (Oooo -- the mystery! The excitement!)

Hey, did you know that Firefox has hundreds of themes, UI enhancements and customisable bits & bobs you can use right now?

Heh. ;)

Some other choice quotes:

Jessep Bangham:
"All in all, there will always be people who prefer certain browsers (there are still hundreds of thousands of people who choose AOL) but we are sure that by the time of release we will have a far more feature rich application than Firefox can offer."

So let's get this straight: They're not going to include a download manager, nor themes, nor a modifiable UI, yet it's still going to be "more feature rich application than Firefox". Oh man, you gotta love it.

And, talking about the threat of Firefox...

Dave Massey:
"Dude, They may have that number of downloads but that is very different from having that number of users. Recent stats actually show Firefox growth has slowed and is even declining. We’re looking forward to supplying a great user experience in IE7."

Y'know, there are a heap of stats around for people to select from, and I guess if they look hard enough, those MS folk will probably find something to support their claims. Unfortunately for them, however, I can also find many stats to support the opposing claim that, in fact, Firefox usage is still increasing.

So, which stats will you listen to? Well, I can answer that one -- none of them. Because you're already using Firefox, and don't need any prickly statistics to tell you just how good it really is, do you now? ;)

The Yarra River, Melbourne

Yes, it really is that dirty.

Barneys hates Angelina

The gorgeous, pink Team Aniston babydoll tee I ordered on eBay recently arrived in the mail today, and it is utterly superb.

Equally superb is the info we find on Ted's column from a coupla weeks ago:

"We hate her."
--Barneys New York sales clerk, regarding Angelina Jolie

Oh yes! Read Ted for the reasons. I'm just glad at least some Americans have sense.

Bad Americanisms: Care Less 2

I was going to blog Ted Casablanca's The Awful Truth column this week for a different reason... ok, you're right, I'm still gonna do that, but let's stop for a moment to count the grammatical errors/Americanisms... yet again.

Same pitiful problem as mentioned earlier today:

Lori, Boise, Idaho:
In the end, I'm sure all three parties care less what I think.

I mean, come ON, people. The sentence doesn't even make sense!

Could not care less, Lori. Could not!

You are right about one thing, honey, we don't care what you think, but we do care that your uneducated remark actually makes it verbatim onto a popular web site.

Who do we blame here? Lori, her English teacher, Ted Casablanca, or E! Online?

So many Americans with no clue... such a big country, so much power... Scary, isn't it?

The Difference Between A Looter And A Finder

Just a direct link to something you all need to see.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is giving plenty of opportunities for ugly, racist reporting.

Link via A Socialite's Life.

Americanisms... ruining English everywhere

The Superficial is one of my fave gossip sites, and I guess I shouldn't be expecting perfect sentence formation from any online gossip rag, but generally they don't do too bad a job.

This recent article, however, contains one of my pet hates:

The attendant had no idea and could have really cared less.

The phrase is "could NOT have cared less". Not "could have cared less", which actually indicates the attendant was indeed a fair bit more strung out than they're attempting to portray.

The only people I know who regularly get this wrong are Americans. Is it mere laziness? Or is there actually a true lessening of intelligence once we cross the seas into Yankie land?

Sheesh. Learn it, people, or leave it alone.

Another reason to use Firefox -- BugMeNot

BugMeNot is one of the gazillion wonderful little extensions you can add to your Firefox installation to make your net surfing experience even better.

Ever followed a link to an online news story, and instead been presented with something like the following?
Pain the ass, really, all those news sites wanting your details before they'll let you read their stuff.

Get around such annoyances quickly & easily with the BugMeNot extension:

1. Right-click in one of the "Registered Members Log In Here" fields.
2. Select "BugMeNot" in the context menu that appears.
3. You will automatically be logged in & taken to the news story, with details provided by BugMeNot's growing database of fake rego details.
4. If the details provided by BugMeNot don't work, you'll remain on the log in page, so repeat Steps 1 & 2 until you get a valid log in.

The BugMeNot service also provides a web site where you can do a manual search of their database, but you will need to type in the site's url & copy suggested login details between the sites yourself. So if you ain't using Firefox yet, you're not completely out in the cold, but it's just a heckuva lot easier to bypass compulsory rego's using BugMeNot with Firefox!

So, now, what are you waiting for?

Chief Justice Doyle is wrong

An interview with South Australia's Chief Justice John Doyle in Adelaide's Sunday Mail this week has stirred mixed feelings in me.

Talking about the problems we face when trying to deal appropriately with individual judge's non-approved actions, Doyle said a formal complaints system has been suggested a few times in the last decade, but the suggestion has yet to be acted upon, leaving him, in his position as Chief Justice in Adelaide, unable to do anything except give the misbehaving judge a good talking-to.

This seems wrong to me. Judges are human, therefore they are not perfect, so some sort of procedure allowing for complaints, at the very least, or, better yet, punishment of bar offenders seems necessary to me.

On other matters, Doyle said:

Government interference could lead to a system where judges were continually being told what to do by political leaders or powerful institutions.

True. The government is run by politicians, with power and greed often being motivating factors. Some will seek out this power at any cost, with lying not out of the question. Whatever gets the votes. In general, politicians are not people we should be blindly trusting.

Judges, on the other hand, have studied the law, and this is their job -- to know that law, our laws, and ensure they are applied fairly and as is right. Listening to a bunch of power-hungry vote chasers is obviously not something judges should be doing.

Cool. I'm with Doyle up to that point, but unfortunately some of his other comments indicate he, too, is unduly influenced by the media.

Take this quote:

Schapelle Corby had received overwhelming media attention because she is photogenic.

Bah! What garbage. Look at Michelle "Instant-Islam" Lee. She's a model, therefore gorgeous by definition, and her case isn't generating anywhere near the attention Schapelle's did (and for good reason).

Look, too, at the last big drugs case that rocked Australia -- Chambers & Barlow, almost 20 years ago now. They were male; they were not "photogenic"; they were guilty. Yet Australians reacted to their death sentences with overwhelming force, all the same.

Schapelle is not getting sympathy because she is pretty. Nor is she getting sympathy because her family make good copy.

Schapelle Corby is getting sympathy because it is patently obvious she is not guilty, yet 20 years of her life have been taken from her. Originally, there was the very real possibility she would lose her life. Thankfully, this did not happen, yet her situation is still appalling.

When an average Australian who has scrimped & saved for a holiday abroad takes said holiday, only to be locked up the moment she gets off the plane, then, Justice Doyle, there will always be sympathy and empassioned support. We are Australian, this person is one of us, she is a mate.

Looks have nothing to do with it -- but even if, for a moment, we look at that part of the story, where has the most information & sensationalism about her beauty come from?

The Indonesian press, not the Australian. Reporting from the two sides has been vastly different, one calling her the "Ganja Queen", the other calling for her freedom. There is a world of difference between the printed perspectives there.

New page for Schapelle-related posts

My growing list of posts relating to Schapelle Corby was taking over my sidebar here, so I've decided to create a page of links to these posts instead. For those who are following Schapelle ordeal, all new articles will be added to the top of the new page's list when they're published.

Check it now & stick it in yer bookmarks: http://miinx.blogspot.com/2005/09/schapelle-corby.html

Schapelle Corby

Schapelle Corby is a 28-year old Australian woman who has been sharing a small cell with 8 other women in one of Bali's worst prisons -- Kerobokan, also housing the Bali bombers -- since October, 2004. She has been charged & found guilty of importing 4.1 kg of marijuana inside an unlocked boogie bag, and is now serving 20 years in the Balinese jail.

Along with most other Australians, I believe Schapelle Corby is most definitely innocent and her imprisonment, and the situation she is in, is simply horrific.

This page lists all the posts I have written on this blog that relate to Schapelle's plight. Check back to this page for Schapelle-related Miinx updates.

• Anti-Australian sentiment abounds in Indonesia


• Michelle Leslie's to face 15 years jail... or just 3 months


• The Age Reader Surveys: Leslie & Bush down, Corby still up


• Chief Justice Doyle is wrong


• New page for Schapelle-related posts


• Kenya vs. Indonesia


• Michelle Leslie is nothing like Schapelle Corby


• We should NOT be helping Indonesia


• Schapelle's Indonesian Circus


• The Schapelle Verdict


• Indonesia's Unlawful Legal System


• AFP Investigating Drug Smuggling Claims


• Schapelle's Trial Moves Slowly On


• Online Petition to Government: Save Schapelle


• New Witness Statement Clears Schapelle's Name


• Baggage Handlers Speak Up


• Corby vs. Bashir: What has happened to Justice?


• Unsuspecting Tourists are Easy Prey in Bali


• More on Corby's Legal Backup


• Schapelle is Finally Thrown a Lifeline


• Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights


• Unfair: Packer's Case vs. Schapelle's Case


• Where is the Australian Government??


• New Schapelle Section


• Schapelle's Court Proceedings


• Who's Helping Schapelle?


• Support Schapelle: Email Addresses


• Schapelle Needs Help


• More on Schapelle


• What's Happened to Schapelle?

CalliGrapher 8 is out -- and it rocks

My beloved Toshiba e800 Pocket PC just gets better & better these days, with more sensational software available than I can poke a thulu at.

One PPC-development company, PhatWare, makes a range of fantastic products, including the PhatPad, brilliant for quick scribbled notes & drawings, and PhatNotes, a note-taking and note-managing application. My favourite product of theirs, however, is by far the essential CalliGrapher.

CalliGrapher is predominantly used for handwriting recognition & for that it is simply brilliant -- accurate, fast & highly customisable. However, the program also allows creation of macros for all sorts of things via its PenCommand Scripting Language, giving you user-friendly menus to add in actions such as mouse-clicks, button presses, program & file starting & management, and basically anything else you can think of doing with your PPC.

More new features in version 8 include the WritePad, a supercharged-version of a kinda more traditional-style writing area, and extensions to the AutoCorrector functionality that enable you to use it like I do -- which is not how it was intended, but which I think is superb for speeding up text entry. The AutoCorrector list comes pre-configured with some common spelling mistakes & hard-to-write words that it will fix on-the-fly for you, however, as my spelling ain't too bad, this was a bit useless to me.

So I've been changing my AutoCorrector list into a kinda shorthand list: I write a couple of letters, and AutoCorrector changes them automatically into the word or phrase I've set it to be. For example:

• abt becomes about
• acct becomes account
• acctd becomes accounted
  
• acctg becomes accounting
• etc

I am increasing my AutoCorrector list's vocab daily, and this all ties in with the personal shorthand language I've been using myself for notetaking ever since my school days. Who needs a text entry pad when you can write a whole sentence with just a couple of quick letter combo's!

PhatWare have been beta testing the CalliGrapher software over the last couple of months via a public beta testing program, so I joined this to primarily let them know about my usage of the AutoCorrector, as well as point out a few bugs. (I am a picky wench, which helps for testing stuff!) I expected that would be the end of it for my involvement, however I was ecstatic to be notified that not only have they decided to incorporate some of my suggestions, they were giving me a free copy for my input. Yay!! Thanks, Stan at PhatWare. :)

So, PPC owners, go check it out -- CalliGrapher 8 is out now.

Another bogus Microsoft RSS claim

This article is a complete crock!!

There are so many incorrect points in David Utter's September 2nd article on WebProNews.com, entitled "MSN Claims First With RSS Search", that it's laughable. And then some.

Yahoo! **DOES** do an RSS/XML search, it's available via their Advanced Search page. (Check the File Format option.)

Amazon's A9 search engine also allows searching of RSS but calls it "blog search".

On top of these, there are also many good RSS search engines that have been around for a while, such as NewsIsFree, CompleteRSS, SearchForRSS, or Syndic8.

Additionally, many RSS aggregators, such as Bloglines, also offer an RSS or blog search.

So -- MSN are by no means the first. Them renaming RSS search with their own terms is also not a first on a couple of levels: other companies also have already developed & are using their own proprietary terms for feed searches; and Microsoft are notorious for renaming stuff that's already been around the block a dozen times, so it ain't a first to that end either.

So, I say again: What a crock!!

Shocking journalism. If that's what it is. Friends, do not believe everything you read -- especially when it comes to Microsoft!

Or Scientology. ;)

MSNBC.com journo's need re-schooling

Ok, maybe I'm being harsh.

But honestly:

"The feud supposedly started when Lohan learns that Duff is dating her ex-sweetie, singer Aaron Carter."

Apart from blinding brilliance of the battling bulemics who star in said story, we actually have three different tenses battling it out in the above sentence alone.

Shame, MSNBC, shame.

What do Microsoft actually do these days?

Seems to me like they must have more people in their scheduling and planning departments than developers in the trenches these days.

That's the only way I can account for the latest "release date" leaked for "Windows Vista", as they're calling it -- the same new OS that was originally to be released... hmm, let's see, was it last year? or the year before? ;)

Perhaps they're extending it again to allow all those other important new employees more time to do their jobs. You know, the ones they've glued ear-to-wall over at Google. Unlike the rest of MS-ville, those spies employees are really busy.

Kenya vs. Indonesia

...or should I say, "up to three years and four months" versus "death by firing squad"?

You selfish, selfish man, Mr McKay. Using Schapelle's plight as justification for your own political demands -- it's sickening.

Get your facts straight, too, before you next take to attacking others in need. No QC was sent. No one else has been helped. Schapelle hardly received any help, either. Talk is cheap, and our government loves to do that.

And finally, Mr McKay, please, please stop confusing media interest with government action.

Microsoft certifies itself -- and Firefox doesn't like it

I've chuckled at this a few times, decided today to share my mirth:
This is the alert message I get when I visit the IEBlog with Firefox, due, I'm guessing, to the fact that Microsoft issues its own security certificate, when possibly it's not authorised to do so. Firefox does not like that. ;)
Of course, one must wonder about the need to secure the IEBlog anyway. It's not like it's passing anything unique or of critical importance down the line, certainly nothing that should need securing.

A better suggestion would be to secure the rest of the net from IE -- now that's security I'd like to see.

Why haven't you tried Firefox yet?

Ok, people, listen up!

Too many of you who visit this blog are using MS Internet Explorer 6. My question to you -- have you tried Firefox yet?

Don't wait for IE7. It's gonna offer a subset of what Firefox already offers, while in the meantime, Firefox just continues to improve.

Here are some good reasons to give Firefox a whirl:

• Tabbed Browsing. Yes, you've heard this buzzword before, but what does it actually mean? It means simplicity, space saving, speed, and more control for you.
  
  Simplicity & space saving, in that you'll have all your open browser windows in one place, easy to find and switch between, with no crowding of your task bar by lots of separate browser window buttons all squished up with other app buttons making separate pages difficult to identify.
  
  Speed, in that it takes far less overhead for Firefox to open 10 tabs than it does for Explorer to open 10 windows. [Can Explorer even actually open 10 windows without crashing?! I can open 30 tabs in Firefox with no problems at all, there ain't no way IE can do that.] Firefox opens tabs in next to no time, and pages simply load soooo much faster in this browser.
  
  And more control, in the form of keyboard shortcuts to jump between tabs, extra options for each tab individually (such as the ability to "lock" a tab, or to reload a particular tab every x minutes, or to close all tabs except the one you're on, or re-order them, etc) and a gazillion extensions to choose from that add their own functionality (maybe you'd like to be able to scroll the mouse over the tab bar to quickly switch between tabs? or maybe you'd like to colour all related tabs the same colour? Well, guess what, you can!)
  
  
• Find As You Type. What? you ask. Find as you type is a really nifty way to search for text on a page. Rather than needing to hit Ctrl-F (although you can if you want), you just start typing and the page will immediately highlight the first instance of your text. You can hit F3 to move to the next instance, or Shift-F3 to go back to the previous. Or you can "highlight all" the instances of your text on the page.
  
  
• Extensions. "Bah, 'stensions, fensions," I hear you muttering. Well, it's your loss, grumble-bum. Extensions will take your web experience to the next level. I have extensions installed for:
  
  - the Weather (I've got the current & the next few days' forecasts right on my menubar, just next to the Help menu option, with funky icons that I can click on for more info),
  
  - Text Resizing -- 3 really handy buttons for instant font-size changing (no more problems with sites using soopa-tiny fonts)
  
  - Closed Tabs (no more of that familiar "Oh damn! I didn't mean to close that window..." feeling -- I just reopen it from the drop-down list)
  
  ...and a heap more. Check out the official Mozilla Update site or the more extensive Extensions Mirror for all your extension needs.
  
  
• Security. Probably this is the best thing of all. I have never had a single piece of spyware or adware on my computer, I've never had any problems with sites opening truck-loads of windows that I can't close, and I have always (as a long-time FF user) had complete control over what a site can or cannot do when I visit it, such as with window opening/resizing/moving, status-bar changes, and more. Yes, all these IE-related problems stop once you start using Firefox. It really is that simple.

So, how am I doing? Have I convinced you yet?

I'm going to try & post more regularly about Firefox features, tips & tricks, shortcuts, etc. Obviously there is still some work to do convincing the masses, and considering there is no good reason not to try it, then I'm prepared to slog at your walls of resistance for a bit and see if I can't get them a-tumbling down.

As, really, you're only hurting yourself -- and your computer! -- by sticking with IE.

Angelina Jolie Has Madonna with Child Syndrome

I bought a pink babydoll "Team Aniston" t-shirt on eBay recently, just waiting for it to arrive. Very excited & am hoping it prompts people to ask me about it so I can spout off at length about Pitt and like-minded pieces of hormone-driven male trash, as they justly deserve to be spouted off about. One for da women; one for the Jen.

And in related "news", PugBus.net quotes one Dr. Phil McGraw, who notes that "Jolie is clearly suffering from a chronic case of Madonna with Child Syndrome (MCS)".

A fabulous read, don't miss it.

Happy Birthday to... Miinx Liinx!

I've just realised that this month marks the one year anniversary/birthday/celebration/etc for my lil blog here, Miinx Liinx.

Wasn't sure when I started how far it would go, either in content or in time, but I've found over the past year that I do quite enjoy having somewhere public (yet still relatively anonymous) to mouth off whenever the urge strikes.

Was planning to mainly write web-related stuff at first, but when Schapelle Corby went to jail in October 2004 in Indonesia for the most outrageous charge... well, I couldn't stay quiet about that, and my blog & I veered. And I've kinda stayed veered into the more newsworthy-for-Australians type stuff since then. Cos, y'know, I'm Australian.

Works for me, but what about you? Like me? Hate me? Let me know. :)

Microsoft's Priorities

Microsoft cares not a hoot about their current userbase, apparently. [Undeniably, I'd say.] Far more important to them than improving their offerings is fending off potential rivals, as ZDNet reports here.

Fix the bugs? Nah, stuff that. Let's throw some more bells onto the whistle!

Clarifying their priorities in another recent ZDNet interview, Microsoft's Director of Platform Technology Strategy, (i.e. MS's Unix gun) Bill Hilf, says:

"Microsoft is a very opportunistic company. It is looking for ways to increase its business. We want to continue to build software that sells well."

Did you catch that? Microsoft wants to make software that sells well. Not works well, but sells well.

Gotta love their tactics. No, truly, all like me (waiting for the day we are MS-less once more) really do love their tactics. ;)

It's only a matter of time, folks, only a matter of time.

Michelle Leslie is nothing like Schapelle Corby

This really shits me. (Or maybe it's this flipping flu that I can't get rid of? Hmph.)

"Same problem, new face," reports The Age, regarding the latest Australian to be busted for a drug-related offence in Bali, model Michelle Leslie, and likening her situation and plight to that of Schapelle Corby's.

Let me set the record straight. This is NOT the same problem, nothing like it, in fact. I'm insulted on behalf of Schapelle that she is being likened to Michelle.

Michelle Leslie, who also goes under the name of Michelle Lee, bought these drugs in Indonesia. She had them on her. She was at a rave. She planned to take them.

Where, in any of that, is the similarity to Schapelle?? Schapelle never had the marijuana on her person. Not once. She supposedly imported it, yet her boogie bag was unlocked, and using passenger luggage to transport drugs within Australia is (was?) unfortunately all too common. There was no evidence whatsoever to indicate she had any intention to sell or take the drugs. There was no evidence to say she'd bought them herself -- and, in fact, a lot of evidence to say she would never have been able to afford the cost of such a huge amount, anyway.

Schapelle Corby is innocent, and should never have been held, let alone charged. The trauma this poor girl is going through breaks my heart.

Michelle Leslie, on the other hand, is an idiot.

She was totally stupid even contemplating buying drugs in Bali, at a Full Moon party, no less, known as one of the biggest drug taking events in the world, and she deserves whatever punishment she gets.

There ain't no sympathy coming her way from me, just a whole lot of anger that she makes a mockery of everything the rest of us have fought against for Schapelle.

We should NOT be helping Indonesia

Couple of quick links to articles summarising nicely the disgusting turn of events from this week:

Herald Sun article

Townsville Bulletin editorial

I fully support the suggestion in the first article by Spike Stewart, father of one of the Australian Bali bombing victims, who said the Federal Government should withhold aid to Indonesia.

"John Howard's got to say well, we're not going to give you another $500 million this year unless you get your act together."

Is Google the new Microsoft?

So everyone this week appears to be talking about the recent revelations/realisations by various parties in the RSS advertising field that some 2 years ago, Google quietly lodged an application for a patent on RSS advertising.

The problem with that? Google were neither the first, nor the only ones, doing RSS ads, and furthermore, they didn't actually reveal their product publicly till 6 months ago.

In this same time (i.e. the preceding couple of years), various other parties have been publicly testing their own RSS ad systems, engaging users to trial them and give feedback, and continually improving and expanding their technologies.

Now, call me naive, but isn't that the intention of the web? Share & collaborate, all-for-one & one-for-all?

Google's duplicity here, especially considering the hold they have over standard web ads already, makes me wonder if Gates has finally given up on his own decaying dinosaur, and has headed over to advise his more sprightly competitors now?

Leo Laporte predicts the end of Windows

Excellent interview with Leo Laporte, one of the hosts of Tech TV's Screen Savers show, who agrees with my own personal view: that Windows' clock is ticking in the face of the combined power of the open source movement and Unix.

Couple of choice quotes to whet your whistle:

It's gonna get increasingly difficult for private enterprise to compete against open source, because open source combines the goodwill and efforts of thousands of people in all different areas in a way that they can marshal so much more brainpower than any private company can. What open source teaches us is that while money is an important motivator for people, it's not the only motivator.

and

Well, the PC platform is going to outlive the Windows platform. In other words, because the PC platform is essentially open, it can run other operating systems, and it's open to people modifying it. So it will have a longer life span than Microsoft Windows, which is maintained, operated, and completely controlled by a single corporation. I don't think Microsoft is going to maintain its ascendancy forever. In fact, I would be surprised it it's anywhere near as dominant 10 years from now as it is now.

On the other hand, while the PC will be different 10 years from now, we will recognize it the descendant of the computer today. I don't think it will be that much different. Will it be running Windows? Probably not.

Australian woman saved by by her Gadgets

The Age is reporting that 36-year-old Australian Alison Sayer was saved from major injuries in the London bombings last week by her iPod headphones, which kept her eardrums protected from perforation and tearing, and her laptop, which she had in her backpack, helping her to avoid spinal injury as she was thrown from the blast.

More than one reason to keep up in this high-tech, high-terror world.

Linux isn't going away

Recently came across a couple of brilliant little Quicktime movies from Red Hat, the Open Source people, which highlight, amongst other interesting things, just how wrong people can be, in particular when it comes to predicting the path that technology will take.

Short, sharp & super-sweet, download them or stream them directly from the Red Hat Magazine site:

Open Source is Inevitable
http://www.redhat.com/magazine/008jun05/features/inevitable/

Despite Opposition, Truth Happens
http://www.redhat.com/magazine/008jun05/features/truth_happens/

Citeknet add-in for Windows Desktop Search searches ALL your mail

Citeknet, makers of data indexing and filtering tools, recently released an extension for Windows Desktop Search enabling it to index and search the contents of Thunderbird, Mozilla, Netscape and Eudora mailboxes. Great stuff!

Note that the product is currently in beta and the developers are looking for feedback, so give it a whirl and let them know what you think.

Vonage's Cut-Price Calls Coming to Aus

Bring it on!

Tom Cruise Is Nuts

It was only a matter of time.

Deliciously dark and satirical, TomCruiseIsNuts.com is online for your viewing pleasure now.

Coles Recalls Green Water

I shop at Coles Online (love it!), and today I received the following Product Recall notice from the store:

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION & SIZE:COLES FARMLAND NATURAL SPRING WATER 6L
ITEM CODE:9009172
BEST BEFORE/USE BY CODE:03/2007 & 03/3007
APN:9300601188185

The reason for this product RECALL from sale is due to THE WATER TURNING GREEN FROM THE GROWTH OF ALGAE.

Note: To our knowledge no other stock has been affected.

For some reason, I've been chuckling for hours over this.

Brooke Replies to Tom

You've probably read Brooke's article in the New York Times already, as the article has been entered as an ad on Google.

And I just really wanted to try Blogger's new image features. :)

[Edit:
...which kinda suck. The automatically generated code for user-uploaded images uses inline styles rather than classes for the image CSS, meaning there ain't no easy way to set your own styles for the 3 different images placements they use.

Kinda almost there, Blogger baby, but still kinda useless.]

Think Free -- the World's First Online Office App

Earlier this week, ThinkFree announced the launch of the world's first online office suite, ThinkFree Office Online, a free web service giving you access to the tools needed to create, edit and publish MS Office documents. Yes, again -- free!

The distributed client-server/thin client argument has been building steam for a while (CNet's simpleton editor, Molly Wood, wrote a typically unresearched piece a while back that generated an interesting debate), and ThinkFree is one of the first actual products supporting this futurist theory that I've seen.

Great idea, in part. Never need to purchase another expensive piece of doc-creation software: wonderful! Leave my personal (or biz) documents on someone else's server: no way, hosé! What if I can't get connected? At the very least, there's one concern. But there are so many more to consider when talking about using the web as an app provider, let alone a storage mechanism.

But it's late, I'm tired, started this too long ago & have lost my momentum. I wonder if ThinkFree Office Online could help me here? ;-)

Tom and Katie -- Relationship Sealed with a Handshake

This ain't the first time I've heard this particular story, which obviously means nothing in the grand scheme of things except that word does travel fast!

But- "What story?" you ask. Why, that would be the Tom's-been-hunting-for-the-perfect-new-partner story, of course.

Apparently the deal with Holmes is worth $5 million, and lasts exactly five years, with no sex. He churned through a list of other more preferable choices before finding a girl willing to comply with the contract, the list including Scarlett Johannson (who was so freaked out by his text message bombardment of herself that she pulled out of MI3), Jennifer Garner, Jessica Alba and Lindsay Lohan.

The article linked here, however, goes further than this, claiming this is all part of Cruise's ongoing and massive coverup of his homosexuality, naming Matchbox 20's Rob Thomas as Cruise's current lover.

Gotta say, this wouldn't surprise me one bit. Cruise and Katie's LoveFest has been rather sickening and overly cheesy, to say the least.

More extremely interesting info (for gossip-hungry mavens like myself) here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,160192,00.html

Like the fact that Tom Cruise was actually never Katie's favourite actor -- it was Tom Hanks.

Latham the Truthful Rat

Brisbane Courier Mail has a poll running at the moment:

Do you think Mark Latham's assessment of the Australian Labor Party is just sour grapes or does he have legitimate criticisms?

Just over 750 people have responded, with almost two-thirds saying "legit crit's".

Heh. Please now -- go AWAY, Beasley.

Schapelle's Indonesian Circus

Article from News.com.au highlighting growing tension between the Australian QC's and Indonesian "lawyers" working on Schapelle's case.

The ridiculously flamboyant Mr Hutapea, new ringleader for the Corby team, threw the first flame: "If they really want to help they should come to Bali, and sit together with the local lawyers because criminal cases are so complicated," said yesterday.

But Perth QC Mark Trowell hit back, saying the Indonesians should concentrate on the case, not soap operas.

Exactly.

Says a helluva lot about the Indonesian legal system that they have hired a tv soap star to handle "PR", to try and "change the public opinion". This is a LAW suit. Not a prime time TV series.

Poor Schapelle. This is turning into a joke, with Mr Hutapea leading the laughs. I have no doubt that he has full knowledge that this is an almost pointless exercise -- he's in it for the publicity, he saw a fast track to fame and jumped on board. His desire for justice for Schapelle is clearly nominal.

I mean, man, they didn't even ask the QC's for advice on the appeal lodged this week. *sigh*

The Schapelle Verdict

I haven't posted for a while, so I'm rather stunned to see my stats have been soaring. Hello, everyone! So -- what do you think of the verdict?

I must admit I'm surprised that the sentence wasn't higher. Throughout the trial I'd been hopeful she would be freed, even, at some points, pretty certain that would happen, but these feelings came from me seeing the case with my eyes, from my perspective as an Australian, and as a supporter of justice. Unfortunately, as we all know now, the all-important eyes that were presiding in this case were not Australian, and they rate justice on an entirely different scale.

It seemed crystal clear from the witness testimonies and evidence presented by the defence team that there was (a.) a definite possibility of interference from a third party with Schapelle's luggage, (b.) nothing in Schapelle's past or present life to link her with any sort of drug smuggling activity, (c.) massive, glaring holes in the prosecution's case, and (d.) absolutely nothing to corroborate the Indonesian customs guy's story. Amongst other things.

Yet -- the judges threw out every single bit of evidence. Every bit! And they disregarded every single bit of testimony. They believed customs officer Winata's word against Corby's because he was the authority, they said.

Ooooo-ooo, I shook and cried with Schapelle (and most of the rest of the nation) as Chief Judge Sirait worked himself into a frenzy delivering the three judges' unanimous decision. How could they? Do these people have no heart?

But in Bali there are many who think she is guilty. The Ganja Queen, they call her.

Oh poor, poor Schapelle.

User-un-friendly Blogger

I have an unconscious habit of pressing Control-S often when I'm typing -- legacy of hating auto-save features whilst still nursing a healthy fear of losing my work -- and I often accidentally hit the keyboard shortcut on web pages, especially those with forms required me to type something.

Now, if you press Control-S in a browser you get an option to save the page, which you can cancel. No problem.

If you press Control-S in Blogger, however, it publishes your post. Just like that, no questions asked.

Gets me every time.

Got Money?

Nah, neither do I.

I am about to go and save my ass from the real estate fires -- two months behind on my rent, and I've just managed to scrape it together through, quite honestly, a true miracle.

Why is it that everyone decides to not pay at the same time? And why is it that this time, in which people start lagging with payments, is always the same time that banks and other such institutions decide to get nasty?

I hate dealing with money. Loathe it. Therefore, I'm a terrible debt collector, and a shocking accounts keeper. Do not put me in charge of managing your funds!

However... if you need help with spending it, then I am your woman.

Indonesia's Unlawful Legal System

Wow, I'm back, and so much has been going on since I last posted.

Firstly, I've had some heartfelt messages of support posted in the comments here for Schapelle Corby, probably summed up best by this post. As we all know by now, the prosecution in her case has asked for a life sentence, and one of the three presiding judges has announced in a media interview this week that Schapelle didn't do enough to prove her innocence. Outrageous.

Also recently, Chief Judge Linton Siriat highlighted just how ridiculous the Indonesian legal system is, confirming he can still order the accused to the firing squad, ignoring the prosecution's recommendations, if he so wishes. Ah. Well, then, let's hope he liked what she was wearing in court. Seems it makes about as much of an impact as facts do.

There is an interesting transcript online of an interview from ABC's The World Today radio program, in which Eleanor Hall discusses this very issue -- of Indonesia's questionable legal system -- with Indonesia analyst Damien Kingsbury, from Deakin University's School of International Political Studies. Kingsbury points out some serious flaws with their judiciary process in relation to consideration of evidence, professional training, and the basic assumption of guilt that their legal system is founded on.

And then, this past weekend, to top it all off -- Indonesian guards at the jail Schapelle is in are caught red-handed selling heroin to inmates. [I can't find anything online about this, but it was featured on the TV news here last night. Why are there no online reports?]

What a joke this whole sodden mess is. And at the centre, the 27-year old Gold Coast woman who forgot to lock her boogie bag.

It's A Small World in Google Maps

Have you checked this out yet? Another of Google's prodigious beta tools: Google Maps.

As an Australian, my first urge is to find my home country. So I click away from the States, left a bit, then down a bit, left a little more, then some more again... and soon realise that there is simply not that much ocean on planet Earth. We've been excluded from the first round, as usual.

So, for the interim, let's try getting directions to "pizza", as the Google Maps home page suggests.

My first attempt gave no results, so I reloaded the web app. by clicking on the Google Maps logo. This time, I find that there are multiple hits for "pizza", the first being "Casey's Carry Out Pizza" in Coffeyville, Kansas, 2.1 miles south-east of where I am apparently standing.

Ah, so Google have put Coffeyville as the default dead centre of the United States, and all hits until you move the map, are listed by the distance from this point. This is quite cool indeed. More info on Casey's Carry Out Pizza is given in a pop up, including the ability to get directions to Casey's from your nominated address, and vice versa.

It's easy to see this is already rather useful. Better yet will be when this is available in a low-res format via handheld devices.

And closer still, we all come together, huh.

2005's Best April Fools Joke

The Mac Observer noted this year that Apple was going to license Microsoft's Windows Media platform for its iTunes and iPod players. The article accompanying this announcement was so seriously good that apparently even respected business institution Forbes was duped.

Here's a taste:

Sources close to the company admitted [to TMO] that Microsoft had also hit Apple where it hurt with its Six Tips for Buying an MP3 Player with Flash Memory tip sheet for consumers.

"That was just genius," said one source, who requested anonymity. "You'll notice that they didn't even mention the iPod once. Once a potential customer sees that, they're sold on an iRiver, a Dell DJ, or whatever. We couldn't compete with that, but thankfully Microsoft was willing to help us out."

Installation - Make Your Own 3D Playground

Wow. Amazing. Virtual blobby things, drawn with a pen into the air through a "window". You need to go and check this out.

Actually, I'm a bit behind the times here. Simon Greenwold at MIT Media Labs debuted Installation way back in 2001 and won a few awards with it in 2002, including a bronze in the 2002 I.D. Magazine Interactive Media Design Review. He was also personally invited to demonstrate the system to Intel for the Intel Corporate Research Fair of that year.

Apart from Installation, Mr. Greenwold has been amassing a fascinating collection of experiments and developments in spatial and graphical areas of human-computer interaction for the last 15 years or so. Does that sound wordy? Well, man, take a look -- he's just way cool.

You'd Think I'd Learn

...after the first time. But no. I did it again. And worse in the second round.

*sigh*

Brad and Jen Split Over Politics?

Could it have been Brad's political ambitions that pushed the couple apart?

The Swift Report seems to think so, quoting "sources close to the couple" [aren't they all?] who say Mr. Pitt hasn't yet determined how big he'll make his political empire, but he is interested in running for an office of some sort.

The World's Strongest Man [that's Arnie, duh] vs. The World's Sexiest Man. Wonder who'd get the votes?

AFP Investigating Interstate Drug Smuggling Claims

Eleanor Hall from The World Today, a national ABC radio program, today interviewed Federal Justice Minister, Senator Chris Ellison, who basically said not very much about Schapelle's case as he believes it would be inappropriate, but did confirm that the Australian Federal Police are looking into the claims of drug smuggling rings operating within Australia via airport baggage handlers.

Transcript of the interview is online, where you can read Ellison repeating his lines about it not being right to comment on the Corby case due to it being in progress now, etc, etc, respecting their courts, blah blah yada blah.

Look, sure, I understand the ethics involved in bringing in media, talking about the case, observing foreign social and legal customs, and so on. However, it is just such an awful, frightening situation going on over there -- Schapelle is required to prove her innocence in order to save her own life. This is not the Australian courts, in which the prosecutor would be needing to prove her guilt. This is Bali, place of widespread poverty and ongoing religious war on one side, and politicians lapping up their privileges and paying off their enemies on the other.

I disagree with you Ellison; we should be using the media. As much as we can. It wasn't until Bakir stepped in that anyone from the Aus. government even commented on what was going on.

What if this were someone else's daughter? Your own? Would you be wanting us all to be silent then too?

Profile of a Teen Killer

The Smoking Gun has published some chilling information from the latest American boy to go psycho with a gun at his school.

The snapshot from his MSN profile (now removed from the MSN site) includes gems like:

Category Interests: Military, High Schools, Death & Dying
Hobbies & Interests: Planning, Waiting, Hating

Frightening stuff.

How long was it there, I wonder? Did anyone see this, and question such antisocial words? How many other teens with hatred and misunderstanding soaked through them are sitting around spinning evil online?

Another shocking bit of footage from the dead teen killer: a short Flash movie, Target Practice. Rather well done, in fact, if one ignores the bloody content. If only Weise had seen his talents as potential for a good life, rather than wasted and pointless, only good for creating horror and fear.

Schapelle's Trial Moves Slowly On

I haven't been writing so much about Schapelle Corby of late as my original aim was simply to get her case known. As there is now so much more in the media and elsewhere about her awful situation, I don't feel so strongly that she is being ignored -- in fact, I am hopeful now that she will be released. Eventually.

Ever since the generous Ron Bakir stepped in to offer financial and legal assistance to Schapelle's defence team, things have been moving along relatively well:

• the Australian government was put under the spotlight for not assisting more
• attempts were made to get airport security camera footage (which apparently had already been wiped)
  
• Australian baggage handlers were contacted for information relating to the case and last week one of them, a Qantas employee, Scott Speed from Brisbane Airport, gave evidence in support of Schapelle
  
• Schapelle's friends have taken the stand
• various other media personalities and politicians have spoken up to criticise the government's lack of action
• Downer said he'd try and intervene if Schapelle was convicted
• Howard said he was worried about a fair trial for Corby
  
• Schapelle's boogie board and its bag were shown in court as evidence
• Downer agreed to help Schapelle's legal team (and he met with them once. Wondering how that constitutes "helping". )
• Expert witnesses have testified for Schapelle
  
• Schapelle herself took the stand to plead for her life
  

And most recently, John Patrick Ford, a Victorian prisoner on remand awaiting trial (set for May this year) announced he had been trying to inform the police for months in relation to information he had about the drugs, yet had been ignored. Which Ruddock seems to have forgotten as he now points the finger at Corby's legal team for "inactivity" in attempting to get the Australian prisoner over to Bali to take the stand.

Lots of finger pointing and blame throwing. Continuing the trend started by the Bali customs officers who accused Schapelle in the first place, I guess.

John Ford, the prisoner, is risking a heckuva lot coming over to Bali. He's had death threats from other Australian prisoners for exposing the interstate drug traffickers methods, not to mention some of their names, and he's likely going to be a target for anti-Schapelle and anti-drug crusaders in Bali who'd like to silence him before he can help her cause. Bakir is calling for a closed courtroom for Ford to take the stand, and he's been under heavy guard from the moment he left Australia, but I can't help but be suspicious of even the Bali police who are "protecting" him at the moment. Aren't they looking for a scapegoat? They certainly wouldn't want Ford's testimony to ruin their chance at proving foreigners pollute their pristine, drug-free country. Ha.

Many people are commenting that Ford is only doing this to save his own skin, however I feel this is a misguided judgement. Firstly, as I've just stated above, he is risking his own life. And secondly, all that is needed for Schapelle to be freed is for the Balinese jurors and judges to think there is a chance, a possibility, that what he is saying could be true. Even if it's not the prisoners Ford is naming who were responsible for planting the drugs, they just need to believe it is possible for someone to have done it. Someone unrelated to Schapelle. Then, by Australian law at least, there would be enough doubt in the truth of the charges that she would be freed.

Of course, this trial is happening in Bali. Corruption is rife, and the lead prosecutor himself stated early on in the trial, "There is no need to fingerprint her. She is guilty. They always say they're innocent. It is common."

Sends shivers down my spine. Keep thinking of Schapelle, readers. This case has a long way to go yet.

Upgrade to Firefox 1.0.2 and Thunderbird 1.0.2

Mozilla have today released a small but important upgrade to Firefox: version 1.0.2, which offers just 3 fixes for potential problems:

• buffer overflow when using an obsolete Netscape extension for GIF processing
• malicious sidebars that could load nasty code into the browser
• a variation on a problem fixed in 1.0.1, the firescrolling bug, in which dragging components could hijack and run privileged XUL code

The first fix here is the most dangerous one, as the NS extension is actually still part of the library used in Firefox, Thunderbird and the Mozilla Suite.

Thunderbird was also upgraded yesterday, with 1.0.2 quietly replacing the previous download on the site. A few more fixes in this one, the other important one being a potential problem if users download .pif, .lnk, or .url files twice via the mail app.

Yahoo! 360° + Flickr = Blogger Beater? Or Just Follow the Leader?

Hot on the heels of news about Blogger's problems comes the announcement of Yahoo's new blog offering: Yahoo! 360°. (Doesn't really roll off the tongue, does it? "Yahoo three sixty degrees"... "Yahoo three sixty" would be better. Which gets me wondering about titling this post "Yahoo comes full circle", heh. Although it hasn't really. But anyway.)

Yahoo's 360° isn't yet open to the public, but in the meantime they've been playing in another of Google's sandboxes lately, purchasing the popular and clever photo sharing site Flickr. Google bought Picasa last year, and while they haven't rechristened it with a more Google-centric name yet (Piccle? Picca? Plogger? Ick!) apparently that is on the cards for down the track once they determine exactly how best to make use of it.

Microsoft also jumped into the blogosphere last year, launching MSN Spaces (is anyone actually using that?) and one must ponder whether they will follow the pack again and buy up a true online photo sharing tool soon. (They already offer simple photo sharing via MSN Messenger, but it's integrated, not standalone.) There are a few photo sharing sites still available for them. (If they hurry.)

[Prediction? I'm putting my money on Pixagogo, which offers photo printing on true photo paper as well as the sharing bit, plus international shipping. Nice, clean UI, added value for money-hungry MSN-ers. (Although, one must ask, are printed photos a dying species?) Then there's ImageEvent, who have a similar but more expansive service, allowing prints to be made into jigsaw puzzles, calendars and other gifty-type things. I'm guessing one of those two will be snapped up soon.]

That's not all the players in this battle though: HP have recently acquired SnapFish, moving in hard on the photo printing scene.

And also this week, Yahoo! Mail matched Gmail's super-sized 1Gb of email space winner, just after Gmail has started offering accounts to random Google users. (A bit too late, some would say, although possibly they had a whiff of Yahoo's plans and were forced to play their trump card to stay ahead of the pack.)

Back to the issue though, can someone please tell me: What is it with these groups? There seems to be an awful lot of follow-the-leader going on lately. (With MS doing an awful lot of tailing.) Why do these mega-giants confine themselves to constantly fighting for the same group of users online?

Web applications are growing at a rate of knots, even making uneducated CNN editors predict we'll all be ditching our machines and logging onto a web-based thin client-type operating system sometime in the near future. And even though said editor really has no clue, [yeah, like we'd trust Google -- or, worse, MSN -- enough to beam them all our data] it is interesting to watch the flap going on amongst the web giants, each eager to grab that one special tool that will next drive our world.

Blogger Speeds Up

That last post was my first since reading about the Blogger development team's commitment to improving the speed of this here blogging tool, and I must say it was suuuuper fast!

Apparently the Blogger service has had an upgrade, server capacity upped 20%, then upped again, the changes coming about after Blogger folk (who use their own stuff thus suffer the same prob's) noted some lag last week.

Sounds like they ain't been using their own stuff all that long, then, as I've been noting such problems for a while now. But not to complain, as now we're cooking with gas...

AmazType

Get your search results in graphical form.

AmazType is an amazing Flash web application, programmed by Yugo Nakamura, which uses Amazon's search API to return results as book cover thumbnails, and then arranges them to form your search words.

This guy is just too cool.

Check out another new offering from Nakamura for Japan's NID (Nagaoka Institute of Design), a fascinating UI for displaying students, teachers and other artists of the institute along with their work in a compellingly interactive way.

Aust Government Upgrades to Panoptic Search

The Australian Government web site has upgraded its search facilities to use the Panoptic enterprise search engine, ZDNet Australia reported yesterday.

Panoptic is another great CSIRO-developed technology offering deeper and broader search capabilities than traditional and currently popular engines for larger companies. It integrates standard searching of web pages and documents with a host of database indexing capabilities, HTTPS crawling, dynamic site indexing that works with cookies and session id's, highly customisable XML format and metadata searching, and integrated CMS searching, including Lotus Domino, Microsoft, Oracle, Verity, and Vignette.

In addition, it enables companies who already run their own proprietary or customised search engines to extend what they already use easily and seemlessly, allowing for faster, more relevant, higher quality results.

Australian companies already taking advantage of Panoptic's offerings include the ABC, NineMSN, Australian National University, Westpac, the ACCC (Australia's consumer watchdog), and Bluepages, a depression information site.

For more information, see the Panoptic website.

Online Petition to Government: Save Schapelle

Anton Bouwer has created a petition at the free online petitions site, Petition Spot. Topic: We want government intervention in the Schapelle Corby case. Target number of signatures is 5000.

Please sign his petition, the more noise we make, the more they listen, and hopefully, the sooner Schapelle will be freed.

New Witness Statement Clears Schapelle's Name

ABC's The 7:30 Report tonight relayed information that a man has given a sworn statement to police and the Corby defence team, giving the name of a known drug trafficker as being linked to the 4.1kg bag of marijuana, blowing apart the prosecution's claim that Schapelle Corby owned the drugs and intended to sell them in Indonesia herself.

Apparently this man has been trying for over two months to get the Australian Federal Police to listen to him, but with no luck. The statement was faxed to Corby's defence team in Bali last night, just in the nick of time, and has been passed onto authorities for investigation. The defence now plans to ask for an extension to the trial, in order to clarify this new info for presentation before sentencing next month.

Hope and pray that more evidence can be found to support the man's claim. So far he has also offered corroborating accounts to police, although it appears he is hesitant to take the stand in Bali himself.

More information:

• http://www.news.com.au/story...00.html
• http://www.theage.com.au/news...65.html