The future of TV

An interesting article about the impact of IPTV from The Register.

Australia Day - Public Service Ad

The theme of the ad is to encourage people to eat lamb on Australia Day,but I think the ad company went far beyond their remit. This comedy classic has created a storm of complaint for it's anti-PC rhetoric and was banned in NSW...however I'm glad to report it was aired on TV in Victoria :o)

Click here to see the advert (.wmv format)

Getting the blogging tools right

Blogger is a great tool for anyone like me who does not want to spend hours fiddling with code. However it has a couple of key shortcomings which had initially made me look elsewhere for a free blogging host, namely the absence of:

• calendar navigation
• category posting

Thankfully, there are people with more talent, time and motivation who solve these little riddles and make my life (and doubtless many others) a lot happier. Firstly, a big thanks to Ecmanaut for his calendar code hacks and installation tips :o) and also thanks to the guys Dynarch for the overall calendar template.

Secondly thanks to those clever people at del.icio.us for their social bookmarking, which provides a great way to tag, store and retrieve bookmarks and to Greg Hill for the FreshTags which integrate with del.icio.us tags and make the categories work. Thanks also to FreshBlog for guidance and useful examples.

None of this is any fun without good browser software. I was getting very, very frustrated with clunky old IE and have found Firefox to be a breath of fresh air. Smooth integration with extensions such as Performancing have helped me to create a simple, fast, non-technical process for surfing and publishing my blog. I'm also enjoying using Colorful Tabs and SessionSaver is a life saver.

The prodigal returns

Another sharp piece of transfer action by Rafa Benitez, putting Robbie Fowler back where he belongs in a red shirt. A very exciting prospect indeed and he didn't cost a penny :o)

Twist and shout

We came pretty close to disaster the other day, when a mini-tornado ripped through the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne! The centre was at Blackburn, about 4km from where we live. We were already out driving when the wild weather struck and remarked how it looked a bit like the film Twister, minus the flying cows!

Cheese and Biscuits

If someone in Australia offered you a "natural slice of tasty Coon", what would you expect to be eating? In the spirit of adventure (and because I'm a big foodie) I decided to find out.

Strength - The ratings go something like this

• Mild - fair enough
• Tasty - shouldn't all cheeses have a taste of some sort? Who would buy a tasteless cheese (some would argue that Edam falls in to that category)
• Bitey - answers on a postcard?

Format - Cheese slices come in three distinct formats: block, slices and "natural" slices. The block is self-explanatory. "Natural" slices are in fact slices from a block of cheese (for lazy or astigmatic people who either can't be bothered to cut slices or are unable to cut them in regular straight lines). It must be deduced that "slices" are an unnatural creation … as anyone who has read the side of a packet can testify!

I decided to try some tasty natural cheese slices and was looking for a brand I recognise. Apart from the supermarket own brand, the shelves are dominated by two competitors:- Bega and Coon!

I nearly fell out of my trolley when I saw that one … how do they manage to sell anything under that brand name? Does the word "coon" mean the same in Australia as it does elsewhere in the English-speaking world? Well apparently it does, but no-one seems very bothered about it, because the inventor was named Edward William Coon.

Ok, so that's one mystery solved, but it didn't explain anything about the actual "flavour" of the said cheeses. As it happens they were akin to most mild supermarket "cheddar" clones, thoroughly underwhelming. For a truly tasty cheese, we ventured to Queen Victoria Markets to buy some truly tasty cheeses. I can personally recommend Watsonia - a semi-soft cheddar with a mature flavour which rivals anything I've bought at Neal's Yard in years gone by. It only comes in rounds, not natural slices, so I also bought a cheese knife for some extra DIY. Also, the King Island Triple Cream Blue Brie is amazing, very similar to gorgonzola. Not good for the diet, but fantastic food for the soul.

Greetings from Melbourne

Howdy y'all, or should I say g'day mate!

Welcome to my first attempt at blogging. Being on the other side of the world from loved ones, I thought it would be a good idea to create a place to

• keep everyone up to date with our progress in Oz
• share some first impressions of Oz
• post photos, videos and some new tunes I've been working on