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The reality isn’t as bad as the title would suggest, but still. There’s nothing like a Stalinist reference to make people jump up and down in paranoia. Except perhaps a Hitler Youth reference. Or a Nineteen Eighty Four reference.

You get the idea. The article is horrendously overstated, but the point still stands. Personally, I’m interested to run the software, just for kicks. I can’t wait until they bring out a Linux version of it!

*sits back in anticipation*

Inverse email

I’ve decided that quantities of email received must have a direct inverse relationship with my workload at any given point of time. The amount of email I’d been receiving had dropped below the 100 a day mark (not by much, but still! an improvement…) a few weeks ago, something I’d not really minded that much, but could have dealt with previous quantities without any substantial difficulty, given how much (or how little!) I was doing in terms of assessments and the like.

Well, guess who got about 150 emails today, in the midst of two moderately substantial assessments? Doh. Yes, I do read them all. Except for those tagged [iiSpam], which I ignore altogether, by virtue of the fact that I don’t even see them (on account of a series of filters I’ve got happening). Mercifully, only about 25 of those were spam, which was a pleasent surprise — and, of them, only five slipped through the various filtering that happens around here. Snazzy, no? Shame about the timing…

Classy chillout stream

I stumbled upon this gem the other day, and thought I’d share it. It’s a 256kbit (although more boring 128, 48 and 32k flavoured streams are available) chillout radio ‘cast, from Radio Max in Hungary. Worried about it being in Hungarian? Man, it’s chillout! Just… chill with it…

*watches ADSL link chill with it, and smiles*

Assessments, nomadism and the ACCC

All three items mentioned in the title of this post have, fortunately, nearly no connection, aside from the fact that they’re all prevailing influences in my life at the moment. Well, okay, the ACCC isn’t a “prevailing influence”, but it’s being thought of. Those of you following the “

Dear Microsoft” thread will possibly understand what I’m referring to: It’s been updated today, following a phone call from the ACCC. Head over there to find out more, because I don’t care to repeat myself elsewhere… it’ll only confuse search engines, Microsoft, the ACCC and myself (although not necessarily in that order).

The house-finding thing is yet to be tied up, unfortunately… this means I’m going to be moving not once, but twice (at a minimum) in the coming weeks (months). More glad than ever about that PO Box, now. The moves shall be punctuated by a cruise to miscellaneous Islands, which should be an enjoyable experience, although I’m planning on taking copious quantities of books and reading my way through it: there’s only so much you can do on a boat, after all. That, and there are a handful of assessments of which I have already received notification for next year, for which reading is fortunately requisite. Oh, yeah, and the whole final year of school slash HSC thing means this holiday is probably the last chance I’ll have to read for about 12 months… yes, advantage shall be taken!

Speaking more immediately, my goal is to make it to the weekend alive — I’ve got an oh-so-slightly menacing Modern assessment (a speaking task at that, ahhh!!!) due Friday, which I’m stressing a little about, and then a (completely insubstantial) proposal due for my Extension 2 major work (that’d be English) on Monday — I say “completely insubstantial” because it’s only 1,500 words, but that doesn’t mean I’m stressing any less about it!

As per usual, regardless as to whether or not anyone is actually interested in reading my submitted work, I’ll probably end up posting either a complete or somewhat abridged version of at least the Extension 2 proposal here… the Modern… well, perhaps. I note with some disdain that the Wikipedia article entitled “Paris Peace Conference, 1919” is, in the wiki-vernacular, a stub… I may contribute to there once all this is over, not because I consider myself to be particularly knowledgeable, but simply because some content is better than none! (Assuming aforementioned content is accurate, which I sincerely hope it is!)

Reading between the lines of this post probably yields a message stating that Josh doesn’t have time (or the resources) to post in the immediate future, so anticipate a slow-down. Whilst that’s one possible reading of this post, I don’t know that’s entirely true. I’ll have to wait and see, as will everyone else!

Stifled laughter

I shouldn’t have laughed, really. Having said that, it was too damn funny, in a mildly depressing way.

Stock Nokia ringtone. Public transport. Two people, same phone, less than three meters apart, one siting as the other stands.

One rings. Two women dive, arm first, into the undisclosed depths of a bag, searching, reaching, the urgency of the task upon them. Both continue digging for what seems an eternity; a collective anticipation fills the bus, an awaiting of the inevitable, one way or another, when the phone ceases to ring. Both women, searching, convinced it is their phone, their ring tone.

Eventually, of course, it is found. With a “Hello?”, the search is over. Greeted by a friend, or left staring into the depths of a bag, from which the phone now emerges for no purpose. Anticipation over, my attention is diverted, as is the case for the rest of the bus — the situation, in my mind, finds (or perhaps instills) some degree of humour.