Author Archive
Mr Phil Jones: re-heating cold horseshit
Ugh. I’ve just been slimed (again) by a man I personally regard as a dishonest and obnoxious bully-boy. So, in keeping with my general policy of confronting and directly answering criticism, here’s a response: (Only read it if you’re actually interested … OK?) It was a case of ‘speak of the devil’ — A couple […]
Google Is Now Officially Evil
Google Is Now Officially Evil — Business Insider Worth reading, and so is the lawsuit filing from Skyhook (PDF hosted at Daring Fireball) In short, Skyhook says that Google effectively forced Motorola to cancel a deal with Skyhook in which Skyhook would have provided location-based services in Motorola phones — because Google wanted Motorola to use Google’s […]
Agree or disagree?
A Member of Parliament admits he has a criminal past. But he does it very badly, slowly, and destroys his own credibility in the process. I agree with this comment from my old Press Gallery colleague John Armstrong: When he was asked on Tuesday if there was anything else in his past which warranted mention, […]
Playing along
One evening a little while ago I was driving home and encountered a Police ‘booze bus’ breath-test checkpoint. Cars queued up in a funnel pattern set up with cones and flashing lights … when it was my turn, the police officer reached in through my car window, held the breath screening thingy in front of […]
Creative genius
I’ve been thinking about the Shepard Fairey vs AP copyright dispute I referred to yesterday. As clever as Mr Fairley is, there’s no doubt his Obama HOPE image rests as if on a foundation on the Mannie Garcia photo (copyright owned by AP, it transpires). As the side-by-side comparison demonstrates, without the Garcia photo, what […]
Propaganda?
Here’s a ‘new’ poster, designed by Shepard Fairey, the guy who adapted an AP photo of Barack Obama into a HOPE poster etc which sold gazillions, sparking AP to come after him for using their intellectual property without acknowledgment or royalties. (I personally think they had a point. Fairey’s unacknowledged use of the AP image […]
Nasty and devious
From the New York TImes: Above the Law Russia Uses Microsoft to Suppress Dissent By CLIFFORD J. LEVY | New York Times | September 11, 2010 IRKUTSK, Russia — It was late one afternoon in January when a squad of plainclothes police officers arrived at the headquarters of a prominent environmental group here. They brushed […]
Mortality. Leave a legacy.
My family and I attended Malcolm Smith’s funeral in Howick today. Chances are you don’t know who Malcolm was. Don’t worry, he wasn’t famous or a celebrity but boy, was he a good man, and boy, did he contribute to his local community. Malcolm was one of those quietly strong, ethical people who make the […]
September 11
I feel I have no words adequate for events like this. – P
No religious bigotry, pornography, or fart apps — OK?
Apple has published some guidelines for software developers — telling them (broadly) how it decides which Apps/programmes can be sold in its App Store. Among them, this: In the guidelines, Apple draws a line between broader expressions of freedom of speech and the App Store. “We view Apps different than books or songs, which we […]
Eight in a row!
I celebrated last week Jim Parsons winning an Emmy for his role as Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory. Cool. This news that Jon Stewart and The Daily Show won an EIGHTH Emmy for Best Variety Show somehow slipped past me. That brilliant, vital show deserves them all. Dumb sentence of the week award goes to […]
‘Vendetta’ and ‘hate campaign’?
Interesting to see Brian Edwards recently accused of these ‘failings’ with respect to Paul Henry by anonymous commenters on his blog. (Unless ‘Dwossie Bleu-Bleu’ is a name?) My own views of Paul Henry and his (un)suitability for TV are summed up in Say goodbye to Paul Henry the abusive try-hard. But I’m not running a […]
Transparency journalism
I hadn’t heard this term: The insider described transparency journalism – a phrase not used by the [WikiLeaks] organisation until today – as ”journalism that tells a true story and then backs it up by publishing source documents that also provide the truth.’‘ I like it. Source: WikiLeaks founder to stay – insider — Sydney […]
