There seems to be something wrong with my site setup at the moment… pictures arent’ uploading, things aren’t updating like they should.

Not sure if it’s a random problem, or something worse (my first incident with a hack came up recently), but it’s stopping me posting things I’ve wanted to add here (and pics).

More when I can actually fix this issue up…

Not in Australia (yet), but I’m really hoping it’s only a matter of time before Netflix gets in on the act locally:

Wii becomes third console to stream Netflix

It’s a triple crown for Netflix. Beginning in the spring, the Wii will become the last of the three current video game consoles to get instant viewing of Netflix movies and TV shows over the Internet.

Wii owners who have a broadband connection and a Netflix subscription that costs at least $9 a month will be able to watch those programs with no extra charge.

Nintendo Co. and Netflix Inc., which wouldn’t give an exact launch date for the service, were set to announce the deal on Wednesday.

More here

My take: They already have Netflix streaming on PS3 and Xbox over there, so it was only a matter of time before it got on the Wii. And the Wii is lower cost and has a far bigger install base, so this is big. But alas, no Netflix like service exists in Australia yet (and don’t say Bigpond movies: $10-20 a month to stream all you like? Not in Telstra’s lifetime), so we will wait a little longer I think.

But it’s rumoured that Netflix or someone similar will setup a real service of that nature here soon (all they really need are servers here, plus some rights issues), so it likely should happen soon. There’s a lot of rumours about the TV landscape changing here this year, so let’s keep watching…

Rupert: you ugly old luddite

In response to this recent news:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/09/2710281.htm

Murdoch warns Google: it’s time to pay

What we all really need to do is stop linking to News Ltd sites. Stop blogging about them, stop submitting to Digg, Stumbleupon, linking on Facebook, Twitter, whatever.

Murdoch appears not to want this… unless we pay, of course.

It’s a boycott of sorts, but clearly he doesn’t think that his content needs to be promoted — we all know it’s just perfect already, and we should all be immediately paying for it.

And in the spirit of the main article, Google must immediately remove all News Ltd material from the search logs. No one can be allowed to find it without paying. As usual, he seems to have completely lost track of how the Internet works… apparently News Ltd content will just stand out by itself now, because it clearly has no competition.

There is only one way I can think of this being good for Murdoch, and it involves finding at least one other big company to be very stupid. But that’s for another time.

For now, we really should just boycott News Ltd on the web. And as a Simpsons/Buffy/Dollhouse/Bones fan, let’s clarify and say News Ltd news content — because that will be HYSTERICALLY EASY

Well, that’s what someone asked me today. By complete accident, I was called by a Swinburne University Psychology department phone poll, which gave this very interesting opportunity to answer a bunch of questions about my Internet habits.

She told me it would take about 20 minutes, but in the end it took 45 minutes. But it just flew by, probably because I can talk for hours about the topic, and she was happy to hear it. I’m probably atypical of their poll results, but I don’t care.

Funniest moment came when she asked me about how often I look at “adult sites”, which led to the slightly odd semi-answer that my work leaves me looking at adult sites every day… but yeah, I do occasionally otherwise anyway. And we left it at that

And there was lots about downloading habits, and legal downloading and illegal downloading, and ecommerce and more. I like to think I gave some good answers and a lot of explanation.

Would be curious to know how I got roped in to begin with… must have been a totally random phone thing I guess. And I suppose that many would just say no… wonder if she expected someone with as much to say as me

You can see all about their study at this Swinburne site, which on my own observation now is actually more the site of the people carrying out the survey process, not the people who wanted the data… interesting. Oh well.

Really quiet weekend, almost entirely a strictly at home affair, which helped the bank balance, my health, and getting things done around the house.

Pretty poor weather as well, which has been a running theme all week, and since that’s been no good for my health, it was better to stay home as much as possible.

Worked on the office for the most part, taking the old desktop outside, trying to set up the graphics tablet on it, and generally getting things set up outside. Wireless reception is terrible (for the USB wireless at least), but I’m really liking the way it’s looking as an office outside. It’s what I’ve wanted for years really: an office separate from the house, with everything I want in terms of facilities, a good space, a big desk, all my gear. It feels professional, and it feels like I could do a lot of work there a lot of the time…

Which I hope to now, that’s for sure

On the train this morning I got my first laptop conversation. Every day on the train the laptop appears for me to write, and the passenger next to me says nothing. But today, an older guy asked me some questions about the laptop. He was suitably impressed, and asked me about the battery life, and other features… sounded like he wanted one

(I wonder if there’s an offline WordPress function or even program… it would be great if I could tap this out offline, and have it all setup to upload automatically to the blog. Look for blog management software, since I think some desktop apps do actually do this.)

(Also, look for a desktop to-do list, maybe one that integrates online, but is mainly for offline, since my laptop is everywhere and I have got to have one to-do list unified. That would be best solution, since I don’t want the laptop *always* online!)

I don’t mind the fact that a lot of my blog posts recently (well, most, I admit it,) have been delicious links. I mean, it’s old school blogging really, links and commentary and all that. But I’ve let my proper blogging slide, for sure.

So maybe I should turn delicious links off for a few weeks, and make myself blog properly again. Actually compose thoughts every day and all that.

Or maybe I should Twitter stuff more… notice a lot of people are doing that. I mean, Twitter is popular, but it does seem to take more of the minutae that might have been on a blog before, while blogs take the more substantial stuff.

Well, let’s see where to go

Been a funny week at work this week. On Monday my computer broke down completely, which saw me shuffle around any spare desk for a few days (we’re in a small office, so there aren’t many to choose from). Then, today, there was nothing available for me, so I have literally been able to go home at 10.30am. I mean, I’ll do some work from home to be sure, but it’s a quiet day anyway, and I haven’t been well, so there isn’t much on me pressure wise, which is always good.

So, home by midday, a bit of work remotely, as much as I would have done from work certainly, then, recuperating. Always good.

Greatly exaggerated, it would appear. My phone, that is.

I mentioned yesterday that Alex seemed to kill my phone by dunking heavily in water somewhere (possibly the toilet!) After pulling it apart and leaving it in as many pieces as possible to dry overnight, I put it back together and found that it did indeed still work.

Dodged a bullet there… as did my son

Still want to get a new phone in the next few months, but better to do it on my own schedule than be forced into it.

As in difficult. It’s all good really, but sometimes small children can just drive you nuts.

Alex is getting really frustrated with not being able to communicate with us properly… we want to try some more sign language just to help him out with that.

And Alex seems to have killed my mobile phone, unbelievably enough (he took off with it and it ended up soaking wet… I think he might have dunked it in the toilet). The poor old thing was nearly five years old, I was looking to get it replaced in a few months anyway, but now I might have to rush that… and maybe get a plan. Maybe an iPhone?

Will seems frustrated with a lot of things, but is also just very silly at times as well. That’s mostly to  be expected for a kid a month off five years old, but his silliness is very deliberate.

Anyway, the best thing is that their bad behaviour is only a small part of the time. Most of the time they really are great kids. We got some professional pics back today of them that we got done a few weeks ago, and they’re just beautiful. I’ll definitely put a version on the site when we get the digital disc in a few weeks.

It’s still nearly all good