'zacly. You Yanks have zero to bitch about. I have no idea who VoltageX is with as an ISP, but I'm with a company called Internode who are among the best in Australia. I get 1500/256 with a 20Gb download cap after which I'm shaped to 64kbps for AU$69.95/month (about US$51). My exchange will be upgraded to ADSL2+ capability in the coming months, and I've nominated for transfer to an equivalent plan on ADSL2+ when available. Pricing stays the same.
Given Telstra's monopoly on last mile and the virtual non-existence of cable beyond Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in Australia, Telstra essentially drive the market here. Consequently, there's a regime whereby data volume is the defining factor for ADSL. There is effectively no such thing as unlimited transfer, and in fact, some ISPs (Telstra included as far as I recall) count data in both directions towards your monthly allowance.
This is pretty much situation normal where I work (Australian federal government). P2P of any description is banned for data-control/big brother reasons. It's simply not possible to keep tabs on material transmitted via P2P at this point given our relatively onerous data retention requirements. We have a legislative imperative to retain records of activity for seven years - email, files (paper and electronic), phone call logs, diaries, etc.
Until relatively recently, Google Talk and Skype were functional on the network, but they have now been locked down, along with the rest of the common IM protocols. Stuff like BitTorrent is also banned outright, with no option of it being opened up.
I recently moved out of our IT security policy area for several reasons, not least of which was my inability to reconcile my personal views with the business approach to reasonable (as opposed to totally unchecked) and legal use of IM and P2P tools, as well as what I saw as an unthinking approach to the blocking of websites which had material that could be considered offensive and might be inadvertently accessed by users (for example, we block stuff like deviantart.com and flickr as they are known to contain nude imagery).
AU$3660 and change. Essentially saves me the GST. If I could (and I can, if the household treasurer agrees...) do this with salary packaging that will come out nicely.
Yes. The price includes the mandatory 10 per cent GST. But that only accounts for AU$380-odd of the AU$4200. So we're still getting hammered on the markup.
Both true and false. A conversion of the machine I specced at the top with AU$1=US$0.75 (roughly the current exchange rate) comes out at AU$4200=US$3150. On top of that, the fact that Apple slugs us with a nasty markup anyway hurts us doube in Australia if we want Apple kit. The same machine specced at the US Apple Store online comes to US$2628, so to buy in Australia means we're charged an AU$500 premium for the privilege in addition to the conversion rate. Unfortunately, an Australian credit card doesn't allow me to purchase from the US store (even IF I could afford it).
... is the prohibitive cost here in Australia. The 15.2" Powerbook I want (with a spare battery and 2Gb RAM as the only upgrades) will set me back in excess of AU$4200. I get to play with a Mac a little at work for some of my app testing, and I have serious envy of the guy whose desk it sits on...
... they'll be worth every cent! I washed my Samsung celphone in the washing machine just last weekend. It still works... Check my post at stephencollins.org.
ANAL HHGTTG fanboy alert! As I recall, "hoopy" is a noun, meaning "really together guy" and NOT an adjective as used in the/. story. To quote HHGTTG, "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." Thus, Ford is an/a hoopy, as opposed to being hoopy. Don't believe me? Check the HHG Project.
As someone who is fairly heavily involved in Macromedia-technology-based development (ColdFusion, Flash, Flex, Central), I've been asking Australian and US-based Macromedia staff for several years when this will happen. The most recent response I got (before sort of giving up) from a Macromedia luminary (Ben Forta) was along the lines of "Linux, no. Linux users aren't interested in paying for anything so we're unlikely to make our tools available on Linux." Granted, this was 12 months ago (and patently rubbish, which I told him). Looking around the Wine community, Flash and Dreamweaver have long been high priorities among us. I had them running under the previous version of Crossover Office, before they were officially supported by Codeweavers. However, with official Macromedia support, this will be very sweet. Native versions ever sweeter. Now I can REALLY destroy my Windows partition (gaming only) - I just have to get my 6yo daughter's Barbie games to work under Wine (somehow I don't think so).
Eddie Jones is sending me mad at the moment. WTF is he doing choosing Noriega at Tight-head? Choosing two open-sides for Friday's Bledisloe game is a scary and brave option. I can but hope that the new, skin-tight All Black jerseys strangle your back line. Not to mention the fact that you have to choose an Aussie as your backup scrum-half.
Actually, the song is "Am I Ever Gonna See your Face Again", by the Angels. One of the great Aussie pub-rock bands of the late 70s and 80s. Unfortunately, they never achieved the recognition that, say, Australian Crawl or Cold Chisel managed. Weird thing about Aussie pub bands - front men often not Aussies. Doc Neeson from the Angels and Jimmy Barnes from Chisel are both Scots, Colin Hay from Aussie Crawl was a Pom (if I remember right).
Self-censoring (as I assume most of the Yanks and Brits wouldn't understand or like the swearing)...
Absolutely Not! Please go away. No really, please go away NOW!
It's been available in Australia (who closely follow UK publishing schedules) for about six months. I'm almost finished it, and it is indeed an excellent read.
Yup. 'Bout 2/3 of the way through. Fairly different from his earlier stuff (which ALL rocks), but worth every cent. I also can't speak highly enough of John Courtenay Grimwood. This guy's stuff is broadly in the Cyberpunk genre, but again, very different. Look at Amazon UK which has more on offer than the US site. A third option are the Marid Audran/Budayeen trilogy (and others) by George Alec Effinger.
synonym noun 1. a word having the same, or nearly the same, meaning as another in the language, as joyful, elated, glad. 2. a word or expression accepted as another name for something, as Arcadia for pastoral simplicity. [Middle English, from Late Latin, from Greek: synonymous]
acronymnoun a word formed from the initial letters of other words, as radar (from radio detection and ranging) or ANZAC (from Australian and New Zealand Army Corps). [ACR(O)- + Greek: name] Usage: Acronyms tend to start out in life as capitals which then reduce to lower case as the word formed becomes accepted as a lexical item and people cease to analyse it into its component parts. However, if there is the possibility of confusion with some other homograph, this process is arrested. Thus SNAG became snag, but AIDS has retained its capitalised status, so as not to be confused with aids.
Grimwood is awesome! The alternate-history near-futures he places at the reader's disposal both in redRobe and the Arabesks (btw, buy Effendi in hardcover, it's worth it) are excellent. The Arabesks remind me a little of Effinger's "Marid Audran" books, without the weird s&m violence. And best, he's an author who's prepared to correspond directly with a fan - I have conducted several short email exchanges with him - something no other author I can think of (except maybe Terry Pratchett) does.
Ain't that the truth. While I've been (at 34) involved with computers of some sort since I was 12 (my junior high had the first Vic-20s and Apple IIs in our town), Linux is a roadblock for me.
While I very much would like to make the transition, there are factors, tools and apps I use often that are stopping me:
my general unfamiliarity with Linux and the unavailability of a spare machine to set it up on
what bloody distro should I use?
my ridiculously big-assed.pst file
the few games I play
the IDE I use (Dreamweaver MX) for ColdFusion/JSP development
Quicken doesn't run in Linux (and boy, I am so shit at money management I NEED Quicken to even know what I have in the bank)
If I could find viable solutions to these issues, I'd de-Window my notebook in a flash! I'd leave the Win98 PC set up for my wife and daughter, as they are quite happy living in Window-land.
Dude, the last few versions of CDex are just dandy under XP. I suugest you pay a visit to SourceForge and download the latest build. Then you can off MusicMatch to/dev/null (yeah, I KNOW it doesn't exist in Win. That's 'cos Win IS/dev/null).
I have CDex dancing like Gene Kelly on my XP notebook. It's one of the few things on my checklist keeping using Windows (although our in-house Linux guru almost has me convinced...)
NOTE: NOT intended as a troll, simply an observation
I have a theory/pointscore system about superhero conversions to the big screen, which my best friend (a comic geek, btw) generally agrees with (not that that provides me any REAL basis for it). While, I'm not a big comic fan, I read them occasionally. Also, my comic depth of knowledge is pretty slim, so the whole theory has BIG holes in it. Maybe an expert or two here can help...
It should be noted that there are some obvious missing films in the list, such as the last Superman film George Reeves did in 1973, the 1966 Batman film and the Spider-Man films of the 1970s/80s. I also haven't included made for TV films, such as the Lynda Carter "Wonder Woman" efforts. I have stuck principally to the films which caught public attention, not those which the fan community is the principal consumer of... (spurious, but it helps my argument).
Here's how it goes:
there are, strictly speaking, two principal sources for superheroes - DC and Marvel
over the years, bigscreen translations of superheroes have drawn their characters from one of these two sources
if we count back over my lifetime (1968- ), we have a number of successful and unsuccessful conversions. Based on the following pointscore system, Marvel are far and away the winner so far.
System
Box office/general public success - 1 point. i.e. Did it's original box office and subsequent rental business (less so) make back more than the cost of the film? This is a pretty good indicator of whether the "general public" liked/went to see the film.
Fan base success - 1 point. i.e. Did the fan community, who really care about this character/story embrace the film? Personally, this is a better indicator of success to me.
So, the maximum a movie can score is two points. Points are shown as one of four possible combinations - 0/0, 0/1, 1/0 and 1/1
Marvel ComicsX-Men (2000) 1/1 Spider-Man (2002) 1/1 Blade (1998) 1/1 Blade II (2002) 1/1 DC Average - 1/1, that's batting 1.000 so far...
Now, with The Hulk, X2, Daredevil and Spider-Man 2 on their way as Marvel conversions and Superman vs. Batman coming from the DC world, I personally think Marvel are going to maintain a pretty good average. Of course, this begs the question, "What is it about Marvel superheroes that makes their big screen conversions successful where DC conversions have on average been pretty ordinary?"
As stated, my logic and the sample are pretty dodgy, but it's just an observation...
Slashdot Mirror
'zacly. You Yanks have zero to bitch about. I have no idea who VoltageX is with as an ISP, but I'm with a company called Internode who are among the best in Australia. I get 1500/256 with a 20Gb download cap after which I'm shaped to 64kbps for AU$69.95/month (about US$51). My exchange will be upgraded to ADSL2+ capability in the coming months, and I've nominated for transfer to an equivalent plan on ADSL2+ when available. Pricing stays the same.
Given Telstra's monopoly on last mile and the virtual non-existence of cable beyond Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in Australia, Telstra essentially drive the market here. Consequently, there's a regime whereby data volume is the defining factor for ADSL. There is effectively no such thing as unlimited transfer, and in fact, some ISPs (Telstra included as far as I recall) count data in both directions towards your monthly allowance.
If you've some free time, jump on http://www.whirlpool.net.au/ and read through the historical news.
Now, tell me again what you're complaining about?
This is pretty much situation normal where I work (Australian federal government). P2P of any description is banned for data-control/big brother reasons. It's simply not possible to keep tabs on material transmitted via P2P at this point given our relatively onerous data retention requirements. We have a legislative imperative to retain records of activity for seven years - email, files (paper and electronic), phone call logs, diaries, etc.
Until relatively recently, Google Talk and Skype were functional on the network, but they have now been locked down, along with the rest of the common IM protocols. Stuff like BitTorrent is also banned outright, with no option of it being opened up.
I recently moved out of our IT security policy area for several reasons, not least of which was my inability to reconcile my personal views with the business approach to reasonable (as opposed to totally unchecked) and legal use of IM and P2P tools, as well as what I saw as an unthinking approach to the blocking of websites which had material that could be considered offensive and might be inadvertently accessed by users (for example, we block stuff like deviantart.com and flickr as they are known to contain nude imagery).
AU$3660 and change. Essentially saves me the GST. If I could (and I can, if the household treasurer agrees...) do this with salary packaging that will come out nicely.
;)
Now for the begging...
Yes. The price includes the mandatory 10 per cent GST. But that only accounts for AU$380-odd of the AU$4200. So we're still getting hammered on the markup.
Both true and false. A conversion of the machine I specced at the top with AU$1=US$0.75 (roughly the current exchange rate) comes out at AU$4200=US$3150.
On top of that, the fact that Apple slugs us with a nasty markup anyway hurts us doube in Australia if we want Apple kit. The same machine specced at the US Apple Store online comes to US$2628, so to buy in Australia means we're charged an AU$500 premium for the privilege in addition to the conversion rate.
Unfortunately, an Australian credit card doesn't allow me to purchase from the US store (even IF I could afford it).
... is the prohibitive cost here in Australia. The 15.2" Powerbook I want (with a spare battery and 2Gb RAM as the only upgrades) will set me back in excess of AU$4200.
I get to play with a Mac a little at work for some of my app testing, and I have serious envy of the guy whose desk it sits on...
Peacekeeper Wars was broadcast on Foxtel in Australia (Fox 8 or Hallmark, I think) last weekend. I didn't watch it as I'm so far behind on Farscape.
... they'll be worth every cent!
I washed my Samsung celphone in the washing machine just last weekend. It still works... Check my post at stephencollins.org.
ANAL HHGTTG fanboy alert! /. story. To quote HHGTTG, "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is."
As I recall, "hoopy" is a noun, meaning "really together guy" and NOT an adjective as used in the
Thus, Ford is an/a hoopy, as opposed to being hoopy.
Don't believe me? Check the HHG Project.
As someone who is fairly heavily involved in Macromedia-technology-based development (ColdFusion, Flash, Flex, Central), I've been asking Australian and US-based Macromedia staff for several years when this will happen. The most recent response I got (before sort of giving up) from a Macromedia luminary (Ben Forta) was along the lines of "Linux, no. Linux users aren't interested in paying for anything so we're unlikely to make our tools available on Linux." Granted, this was 12 months ago (and patently rubbish, which I told him).
Looking around the Wine community, Flash and Dreamweaver have long been high priorities among us. I had them running under the previous version of Crossover Office, before they were officially supported by Codeweavers. However, with official Macromedia support, this will be very sweet. Native versions ever sweeter.
Now I can REALLY destroy my Windows partition (gaming only) - I just have to get my 6yo daughter's Barbie games to work under Wine (somehow I don't think so).
Yes, Smith is going to be jumping... Eddie Jones is talking him up big time. It's going to be an interesting experiment...
Bloody Kiwis!
Eddie Jones is sending me mad at the moment. WTF is he doing choosing Noriega at Tight-head? Choosing two open-sides for Friday's Bledisloe game is a scary and brave option.
I can but hope that the new, skin-tight All Black jerseys strangle your back line.
Not to mention the fact that you have to choose an Aussie as your backup scrum-half.
Actually, the song is "Am I Ever Gonna See your Face Again", by the Angels. One of the great Aussie pub-rock bands of the late 70s and 80s. Unfortunately, they never achieved the recognition that, say, Australian Crawl or Cold Chisel managed. Weird thing about Aussie pub bands - front men often not Aussies. Doc Neeson from the Angels and Jimmy Barnes from Chisel are both Scots, Colin Hay from Aussie Crawl was a Pom (if I remember right).
Self-censoring (as I assume most of the Yanks and Brits wouldn't understand or like the swearing)...
Absolutely Not!
Please go away.
No really, please go away NOW!
It's been available in Australia (who closely follow UK publishing schedules) for about six months. I'm almost finished it, and it is indeed an excellent read.
Yup. 'Bout 2/3 of the way through. Fairly different from his earlier stuff (which ALL rocks), but worth every cent.
I also can't speak highly enough of John Courtenay Grimwood. This guy's stuff is broadly in the Cyberpunk genre, but again, very different. Look at Amazon UK which has more on offer than the US site.
A third option are the Marid Audran/Budayeen trilogy (and others) by George Alec Effinger.
Enjoy!
Trib
Actually... That'd be an acronym
From the Macquarie Dictionary:
synonym noun 1. a word having the same, or nearly the same, meaning as another in the language, as joyful, elated, glad. 2. a word or expression accepted as another name for something, as Arcadia for pastoral simplicity. [Middle English, from Late Latin, from Greek: synonymous]
acronym noun a word formed from the initial letters of other words, as radar (from radio detection and ranging) or ANZAC (from Australian and New Zealand Army Corps). [ACR(O)- + Greek: name]
Usage: Acronyms tend to start out in life as capitals which then reduce to lower case as the word formed becomes accepted as a lexical item and people cease to analyse it into its component parts. However, if there is the possibility of confusion with some other homograph, this process is arrested. Thus SNAG became snag, but AIDS has retained its capitalised status, so as not to be confused with aids.
</PEDANT>
Trib
Grimwood is awesome! The alternate-history near-futures he places at the reader's disposal both in redRobe and the Arabesks (btw, buy Effendi in hardcover, it's worth it) are excellent.
The Arabesks remind me a little of Effinger's "Marid Audran" books, without the weird s&m violence.
And best, he's an author who's prepared to correspond directly with a fan - I have conducted several short email exchanges with him - something no other author I can think of (except maybe Terry Pratchett) does.
Trib
Ain't that the truth. While I've been (at 34) involved with computers of some sort since I was 12 (my junior high had the first Vic-20s and Apple IIs in our town), Linux is a roadblock for me.
While I very much would like to make the transition, there are factors, tools and apps I use often that are stopping me:
If I could find viable solutions to these issues, I'd de-Window my notebook in a flash! I'd leave the Win98 PC set up for my wife and daughter, as they are quite happy living in Window-land.
Trib
Dude, the last few versions of CDex are just dandy under XP. I suugest you pay a visit to SourceForge and download the latest build. Then you can off MusicMatch to /dev/null (yeah, I KNOW it doesn't exist in Win. That's 'cos Win IS /dev/null).
I have CDex dancing like Gene Kelly on my XP notebook. It's one of the few things on my checklist keeping using Windows (although our in-house Linux guru almost has me convinced...)
If you need help, contact me off the boards.
Trib
NOTE: NOT intended as a troll, simply an observation
I have a theory/pointscore system about superhero conversions to the big screen, which my best friend (a comic geek, btw) generally agrees with (not that that provides me any REAL basis for it). While, I'm not a big comic fan, I read them occasionally. Also, my comic depth of knowledge is pretty slim, so the whole theory has BIG holes in it. Maybe an expert or two here can help...
It should be noted that there are some obvious missing films in the list, such as the last Superman film George Reeves did in 1973, the 1966 Batman film and the Spider-Man films of the 1970s/80s. I also haven't included made for TV films, such as the Lynda Carter "Wonder Woman" efforts. I have stuck principally to the films which caught public attention, not those which the fan community is the principal consumer of... (spurious, but it helps my argument).
Here's how it goes:
System
So, the maximum a movie can score is two points. Points are shown as one of four possible combinations - 0/0, 0/1, 1/0 and 1/1
Movies
DC Comics
Batman (1989) 1/1
Batman Returns (1992) 1/0
Batman Forever (1995) 1/0
Batman and Robin (1997) 1/0
Superman: The Movie (1978) 1/1
Superman II (1980) 1/0
Superman III (1983) 0/0
Superman IV (1983) 0/0
Supergirl (1984) 0/0
DC Average - 0.75/0.25, not exactly a passing mark
Marvel Comics X-Men (2000) 1/1
Spider-Man (2002) 1/1
Blade (1998) 1/1
Blade II (2002) 1/1
DC Average - 1/1, that's batting 1.000 so far...
Now, with The Hulk, X2, Daredevil and Spider-Man 2 on their way as Marvel conversions and Superman vs. Batman coming from the DC world, I personally think Marvel are going to maintain a pretty good average. Of course, this begs the question, "What is it about Marvel superheroes that makes their big screen conversions successful where DC conversions have on average been pretty ordinary?"
As stated, my logic and the sample are pretty dodgy, but it's just an observation...
Steve in Oz