One of my oldest friends is coming to the end of his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the National Art School, is exhibiting and taking off on his professional arts career. It is a tough gig. So go to his site at GarethErnst.com and have a look at his work (on the ‘exhibition‘ page).
Fess-up time: I got a rather fetching painting in exchange for the tiny site.
A list Apart is currently running its annual web design survey. Not just for designers, the survey covers many aspects of working on the web. Go do it.
Hooray for Joe Hockey giving us something to giggle about on an otherwise slow few campaigning days. “Our fear campaign is based on fact”, he told reporters.
Good on ya Joe!
It is fashionable to knock facebook (or facebollox as it is known in these parts) as the last big thing. Just because something is fashionable doesn’t make it wrong. Now that a tiny fraction of its equity is in the hands of Microsoft does it go the way of Hotmail (I can’t believe how many people still use that rubbish) as something one ought to be publicly embarrassed about using?
I was nearly going to let this go but the threat of up to five years in jail for not telling some cloth-head one’s password is almost amusing. In the UK it is now required that encryption keys be divulged to ‘the authorities’ upon request. Telling anyone that such a request has been made is also an offence.
I had a bit of a whinge to some colleagues about EU human rights and the notional right to privacy, not to mention article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However the real point is that once again a useless piece of legislation has come about because of a serious misunderstanding of technology. Once again, ‘those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear’ will be rolled out and once again they will be wrong because those with something to hide will be able to do so and the stupid and inept will be rolled up.
Being on the other side of the globe in the sunny antipodes (currently being rained on) does this matter? Of course it matters because whatever what the result of the forthcoming election the government will have no technical nous and will want to do the same thing. Be alert and alarmed.
And no I will not divulge my encryption keys; though I may just make them stronger and use them more. I also encourage all of you back in the UK to dust off your GPG keys, harden them and start encrypting everything just to annoy.
Oh, and before there is mention of terrorists please be aware that refusing to decrypt your stuff can lead you to spending 2 years in the slammer even if it is just the stock of bit-torrented porn you don’t want your mum to know about.
Well a federal election campaign is happening and once again we see a leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) deciding that the current PM has all the best ideas and is playing ‘me too - but not as much’. Now I am not a political pundit by any means but didn’t FatBoy Kim and the crazy one both lose previous elections by being weak-tea johns?
The response to the Liberal (that is the conservative or right of centre party for those in parts of the world who know what liberal means) bribe was predictable and stupid. What really got up my nose though was Mr Rudd’s position on the death penalty and the imminent execution of the Bali Bombers.
The ALP has a principalled and solid position: it is against the death penalty. End of. So why does their leader go around making exceptions (apart from the fact that it works with the Murdoch press)? Shame Kev, shame!
Just for that you deserve to lose. Though that would mean another 3 years of Howard and that would be worse.
Don’t forget (if you are able to vote in the Australian election) - vote below the line in the Senate.
Maybe we do get the politicians we deserve after all. Lazy, unprincipalled, conniving, greedy and not terribly bright, just like the rest of the population.
Another little known fact (I seem to be full of them of late) is that the Australian constitutional model is not based on the Westminster system, although some claim it is. However, there are still a few conventions which were upheld until the last decade or so.
The last of these to go by the board is the separation of powers. Indeed constitutionally this is far more obvious in Australia than in the UK [Attorney General]. However, it appears that current politicians have been to the Bjelke-Petersen school of political science. It seems that the executive now feel that they should overrule the judiciary whenever they disagree, even when those involved may be “more innocent than innocent”.
So I have asked Mr Andrews to explain to me the concept of the rule of law and the doctrine of the separation of powers; as I appear to be confused. I will keep you updated.
A list apart is undertaking a survey of web workers; not just designers depite the title. Take the survey if you are involved in web work. We need to know who we are!
Not really apropos anything.
It is really boring out there …
I took a trip on Friday and Saturday to go in search of some of the large flat bit of Australia. Friday saw me in Parkes on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range (not really great and doesn’t actually divide either). I finally found some flat stuff between Condolbolin and Lake Cargelligo. I had intended to go further west but had to cut my trip short.