“No oral sex, says ute crash waitress”

It’s a slow news day in the Northern Territory, with the NT News running this on the front page.

It may have looked bad when police first arrived as my girls were hanging out all over the place. I also had a $5 note wedged between my boobs so they probably just assumed I was a sex worker or something and he’d already paid me.

Well, it makes a change from the usual slow news day Crocodile story.

“ … bash the bastards.”

…

“The local police sergeant and his size 15 boot causing a reign of terror in communities”

- Mediawatch quoting the Illlawarra Mercury editor, Peter Cullen, solution to street violence (February 1997)

That’s right folks, it’s National Cleavage Day in South Africa again.

(the WonderBra spokeswoman) said that the day is intended to be lighthearted amusement, however she claimed that the gross revenue will be donated to the Sunflower Fund, a non-governmental and non-profit organization based in Cape Town with a stated aim to help South African citizens diagnosed with leukemia and other life-threatening blood diseases
- National Cleavage Day at Wikipedia

“Microsoft knew about Xbox 360 disc-scratch problem, employee claims”

Here’s a hot flash for you.  If you move a PC with a spinning CD/DVD in it, it’s going to scratch.  That’s because the CD/DVD rides on a cushion of air.1

I scratched up a Windows install disc back in 1998 forgetting this, while helping Mary Webb.  Should have listened to Mary, she did warn me as I started to shift the PC.

Laptop’s have a spindle which you push the CD/DVD down onto.  Move a laptop around as much as you want.  Within reason, don’t forget that your hard drive is spinning around as well.2

1 – this is a simple explanation. 
2 – better quality laptops have “motion detection” software, which stops your hard drive when your laptop is bumped.  Such as the Lenovo ThinkPad range.

As seen here:
Beware: The daft egg-box warning that contents ‘may contain eggs’

Magda Szubanski sheds 6kg

By Heather Hayes (with additional BLUE color comments by me)
June 30, 2003

Which biometric to use- (June 30, 2003)

E-government applications that use biometrics to authenticate the person making a transaction are likely to rely on one of four types of identification: fingerprints, facial recognition, iris scan or voiceprints. Choosing the right biometric for the job could mean the difference between success and failure.

All the biometric choices have pros and cons in an e-government environment.

Voiceprints.
Because it relies on a telephone, voiceprint identification doesn’t require any special equipment or training for the user. It’s cost-effective for both the customer and the agency and is often seen by users as the least invasive biometric technology. But there are downsides. If the telephone connection isn’t clear or the user has a cold, a voiceprint can be difficult to identify.
Or if someone records your voice …

Fingerprints.
Fingerprint readers are now being integrated into keyboards, and stand-alone units are dropping in cost, making them easy enough to use in the privacy of one’s home. And they are especially well-suited to government- to-government and government-to- employee applications, because agencies typically already have federal employee fingerprints on file. On the other hand, the criminal connotation associated with fingerprints can make this method a hard sell with the general public.
Gummi bears are one way around this.  Disney has been collecting fingerprints from theme park visitors since 2005.

Iris scans.
This is by far the most accurate of the biometric choices, but it is also the most invasive and expensive.
I’ve seen this in use.  It was used to protect one (Windows NT4 PC), which reportedly had confidential, BUT not classified information on it.  The reason for the particular agency buying it?  The CIO was a gadget freak.

Facial recognition.
Users can rely on their own Web cameras as readers, making it more cost-effective than other technologies, but it must still be perfected to reduce the number of false positives and false negatives.
Only now starting to see wider deployment of this.

Seen in Monday’s Age:

The most eye-catching wearer was a pregnant woman waddling around with the “Sick of Dick” message.

Dick being Dick Gross, St. Kilda councillor who voted for the St. Kilda Triangle Development.  Listening to Dick on Monday nights’ television news, it certainly comes across that Dick likes Dick.

The voters, on the other hand, voted Dick out.

All this talk about Dick reminds me of the “Drop The Dead Donkey” television comedy show.  And the episode where George Dent talks about the fact that his daughter has a new boyfriend.
Dick!
“Can’t get enough of him”.

This reminds me of the shearing sheds we have in country Victoria.You can see it at the Heide Museum of Modern Art, between 22 November and the 8 March.

The address is:
7 Templestowe Road
Bulleen, Victoria
Australia

If you’re really clever, you would visit on the days they have Exhibition Tours.

Some things I like and dislike about Australia (the film)

Dislikes

• Over-promoted to heck and back.
  You just know it’s gotta be a dog of film with this much promotion.
• It’s too long at three hours.
  A three-hour click flick, ummm, no thanks.
• Baz Luhrman?!?
  What has Baz actually done of note, and more-importantly, box office success?
  Strictly Ballroom, 12 Million USD
  Romeo and Juliet, 46 Million USD
  Moulin Rouge, 57 Million USD
  Australia, ???
  So, Moulin Rouge has been his only successful film to date.

Likes

• Does not have Russell Crowe
  Baz made a wise decision dropping our “Russ” from the role.
• Darwin Bombings
  People will learn about the Darwin Bombings.
• Nicole Kidman
  Nicole has gone from an ironing-board figure, to a figure with substance.