Oh the tangled web we weave

lol, I dont know who is more at fault;

- the business exec for starting up a competing company and getting kickbacks while negotiating to sell a company he had an interest in to his own bosses.
- the wife, who obviously knew what was going on but acquiesced for 3 years until she found out her husband was cheating on her and decided to take him to the cleaners.
or
- the company, sweet old HP who used pretexting to access the business exec's private phone records but when this failed, stole the social security information from his employment records.

either way makes for very very interesting reading www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/25/hp_tv_kamb see that TV you are watching in the corner, who knows how it's development came about, who knew business was such fun.


Cheers,
Dean

How to tell you've pissed off an engineer

ROLF this was the best piece of internet humour i've received in a long time.

thanks Bob.

Sean Moss-Pultz

Interview regarding the FIC Open Moko concept and the Neo1973.

What can you do with Flickr?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/265279980/

A great collection of the various Flickr applications (even I was surprised at some of them).
It's a great evolution of the original photo sharing application.

Whilst this may be of general interest the reason for posting this is to highlight....(click on the screwdriver section now)....if you have an application think about how you are going to structure your API's in advance. With open and freely available API's the old adage of "two heads are better than one" is more relevant than ever.

Who knows what one of your users/developers/IT freaks may come up with that makes your product better than you ever thought possible.


Cheers,
Dean

Back in New York baby!!!

I'm baaaaccckkkk !

Whilst Sydney was great, (though Tahiti was a washout - I'll update www.collins.net.pr/photo in the next few days) and US Homeland Security was an absolute freaking disaster when arriving at JFK (more about this another time) I'm back in New York baby!

Cant wait to get started with all new cool projects and opportunities.

Talk soon.



Cheers,
Dean

Happy 2007

It's not like I'm feeling old, I've already decided I'm living to at least 123 (long story for another time), but I feel that 2007 is the year it's all going to happen, it's going to be my year.

There are so many cool technologies just breaching and so many parallel synergies to be drawn this is the year that it's going to happen.

My New Years resolution is to have "consistent power and energy to burn".

I want to be an example of whats possible if you have a dream that things can be done a different way, a better way and that if you make technology simple and user friendly and always relevant that people are interested in making a difference.


Cheers,
Dean

Hussein's execution will be remembered as a case of America destroying an Arab leader who no longer obeyed his orders from Washington.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/46093

This is the best article I've read on the USA and Saddam. What can i say read it agree, read it disagree but at least read it and expand your mind.

Cheers,
Dean

Larry King and Al Jazeera

Larry King announced recently on his show to Roseanne Barr that he has never used the internet.

Barr said King would love the internet if he tried it. King replied, “I wouldn’t love it. What do you punch little buttons and things?” Barr even offered to show King how to use the Internet. King declined. Watch it:
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/15/larry-king-internet/

How is it that a figurehead of American of American news culture can be so out of touch with reality and yet still be considered a 'source' of knowledge.

This from the country that every cable company in the country has refused to carry Al Jazeera news as there is 'no demand'.

Yeh Right.


Cheers,
Dean

Australian Senate dismisses aussie expats

A while ago I was asked for some thoughts on the life of an aussie expat for a senate submission report and was pleased to provide some thoughts about why I'm working working overseas at the moment....I needn't have bothered.

Government Response Dismisses Ordinary Overseas AustraliansA pdf version of this media release is available at:http://www.southern-cross-group.org/
The Southern Cross Group (SCG) today expressed its disappointment withthe Federal Government’s recent response to Senate Committeerecommendations made in the Inquiry into Australian Expatriates.In the response tabled twenty-one months after the Senate Committeerecommendations were first published, the Government rejected eight outof sixteen recommendations.Senate Committee proposals rejected by the Government include:
· The recommendation to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 toassist expatriate Australians to maintain their electoral enrolmentwhile abroad;
· The recommendation to establish a web portal devoted to the provisionof information and services for expatriate Australians;· The recommendation that the web portal should include a page of linksto expatriate network websites, to facilitate engagement and informationexchange in the expatriate community;
· The recommendation to establish a policy unit with the Department ofForeign Affairs and Trade to facilitate the coordination of policiesrelating to Australian expatriates;
· The recommendation that the websites of Australia’s foreign missionsshould include an on-line registration facility to enable localexpatriates to register their professional profiles, in turn allowingstronger engagement between missions and expatriates, providing aresource for missions in their work of promoting Australia’s interestsoverseas, and allowing expatriates to be notified of upcoming events andnews;
· The recommendation to amend Australian citizenship law to ensure thatchildren of people who renounced their citizenship under Section 18 ofthe Australian Citizenship Act 1948 are eligible to apply for Australiancitizenship by descent.

To me they all seem fairly reasonable and intuitively responsible requests however I love this part of the report the best

SCG Australian Co-ordinator John MacGregor said, “A number of verysensible proposals that the Government has rejected would not beexpensive to implement but would make a big difference to the lives ofmany ordinary overseas Australians. Although the Government hasdismissed so many of the Senate Committee’s good ideas, it has to date wholly failed to put forward its own comprehensive strategy plan or blueprint for this country’s future engagement with its million-strongdiaspora. We can only assume that the Government finds such a step unnecessary because most of those in the diaspora are disenfranchisedunder Australian electoral law and have no power at the ballot box.”

I think the bigger issue to consider is the loss of these people as a resource, sure we'll come home and visit, probably buy an investment property or two, but at the end of the day Australia is missing out more from our absence than we are missing from being overseas.


Cheers,
Dean

Life in Australia is.....

Life in Australia is ..... hanging out for a BBQ with friends on a sunny summer Sunday afternoon.



















Good friends like you make it hard to go back to NY.


Cheers,
Dean