Author: Adam

Georgia To Euthanise Lane Hogs

(Well, maybe not euthanise. But they should definitely consider it.)

Fuck cabinet reshuffles of talentless hacks by pig molesters, this is the political news I want to see pop up in my feed reader!

The Augusta Chronicle: ATLANTA — Legislation to fine poky lane hogs is speeding along with a firm push from the House on Monday after a quick debate.

The House voted 129-29 in just seven minutes to pass and send to the Senate a bill that would set a minimum fine of $75 for any motorist driving less than the speed limit in the left lane who refuses to pull to the right when a faster vehicle approaches.

I still have one of these under my desk, never got around to fitting it as it needs to be sliced and flipped. I will though, I will…

LinkedIn in Ireland

Great news! I have a lot of respect for LinkedIn, I have more trust in my social network there than on any other site. Probably all of them combined!

BBC: The business networking website LinkedIn has said it will base its new international headquarters in Dublin.

The company has not yet said how many jobs will be created but they are expected to include positions in sales, finance and customer service.

LinkedIn will manage its international expansion from Dublin with overall headquarters remaining in California.

Nighty Night

I’m actually posting this at the correct time. Because I’m a nerd.

“Webmaster” Heaven

This is terrifying. If you’re in an office, turn down your sound. Perhaps sunglasses might be in order too.

No hamsters though. Shame.

Trusk, Meet Wall

The truck’s doing 50mph. The wall is one of those security barriers in front of secure buildings. It would appear that they work.

Over Half Your News Is Spin

I’d love to see research done on this in Ireland, the UK and the US.

Crikey: Under UTS’ Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ) head Wendy Bacon (a Walkley Award-winning investigative journalist herself…) more than 40 students have got up close and personal with the sticky end of the spin cycle. They’ve had to analyse, critique, question and then pick up the phone to ask the hard questions of the media and its reliance on public relations to drive news.

Hard questions, because this is what came out in the wash: after analysing a five-day working week in the media, across 10 hard-copy papers, ACIJ and Crikey found that nearly 55% of stories analysed were driven by some form of public relations. The Daily Telegraph came out on top of the league ladder with 70% of stories analysed triggered by public relations. The Sydney Morning Herald gets the wooden spoon with (only) 42% PR-driven stories for that week.

Many journalists and editors were defensive when the phone call came. Who’d blame them? They’re busier than ever, under resourced, on deadline and under pressure. Most refused to respond, others who initially granted an interview then asked for their comments to be withdrawn out of fear they’d be reprimanded, or worse, fired.

Great name for an Aussie blog btw.

Mozilla Account Manager

This is brilliant, a Firefox account manager that standardises the handling of authentication on websites, including registration, login and logout handling, account cancellation, password changes, etc. It’s similar in some respects to the likes of LastPass, but it’s more focused on functionality than data, and in reality should actually be able to tie into current managers as a data store. Web application developers and major website owners need to implement this asap!

Account Manager is a prototype to dramatically simplify how you connect to sites. It implements a new protocol for websites to integrate with your browser, so you can sign in and sign out right from your toolbar. Look for the key icon, to the left of your URL bar.

(Also see the draft spec and the wiki page.)

Jobs the Douche

This is why I don’t buy Apple stuff, although I fail to see why Giz appears so surprised. Apple has been obsessed with proprietary, propriety and their “privacy” since year dot, from the giant dick at the top to the “I vos just obeying ze orders” tools at the bottom. It’s just a swishy Microsoft that adds fashion-victim appeal and takes away even more freedom than MS. You bought it and bought into it, so deal with it and shut the fuck up.

Gizmodo: The censorship problem is not only about the 5,000 titillating apps that fell down in flames after Apple’s latest puritanic raid. Except for apps from well known slippery-when-wet publishing houses like Playboy, that raid closed the smutty graphic category entirely. The censorship problem goes a lot deeper than that, and it has affected mainstream publications already.