Ricks Rambles

New website coming...

2009-11-01T21:42:00.001+10:30

Yeah, watch this space for announcement of a major rewrite of www.rickclise.com. Not long now!

Ooh, I'm so excited!

Halloween in Adelaide - a bit of a fizzer...

2009-11-01T21:30:00.002+10:30

What's happened to the wonderful costumed kids who used to visit each 31st of October to trick or treat? Last night we had only 3 kids in 2 groups ring the bell. Leaving us now to eat a lot of chocolate.

What's happened to the scary ghosts, the monsters, the fairies? Have they all grown-up and gone to parties where something stronger than Freddo Frogs is consumed?

We gave it a shot though - the kids carved a wonderful 'jack-o-melon' as I was too late to buy a whole pumpkin. The idea of gluing together a few pumpkin segments from Coles didn't really excite me.

But eldest daughter celebrated Halloween in Ashland, Oregon and texted that her trip to US is now complete, having Halloween'ed in America. I knew she would love it!

Miserly computer owner...

2009-06-08T22:57:00.002+09:30

When I was a small child my parents were very strict about not wasting food, and we kids got praise for being in the 'clean plate club' after eating all of our dinner. Surprising that we aren't all obese as a result!

I think some of this 'clean plate club' mentality has carried-over into my use of technology. When I worked in the computer industry it used to frustrate me seeing all those PCs turned-on but not doing anything while their users were away from their desks, talking on the phone or whatever. Couldn't they even just look busy? Sorry, screen savers don't count. Maybe I'm a closet timeshare mainframe user, dutifully wanting to feed those valuable CPU cycles with 'real work'!

So I was thrilled to learn about SETI and other distributed computing projects that would occupy one's unused computing resources for the betterment of mankind. Actually felt good leaving the PC on (using electricity I wouldn't otherwise be using) while it checks to see if there's a pattern in a bunch of radio waves that would confirm an alien burping after a particularly large meal.

But I hate throwing-out old PCs. Surely they can be used for something useful... Why, only last year did I finally get rid of that old IBM PC XT bought as a souvenir from the kids' school.

Take the example of an old work PC that Beth bought when her employer did a technology refresh. 'Yep, buy the machine and we'll use it at home,' I said to her. So we did. Then had to add a bigger hard disk, add a sound card and a new video card. Throw-in a Firewire card for good measure. And her work forgot to include an original operating system CD and license so better buy one of those too.

Create the user accounts, upgrade the service pack and apply all the Windows patches. Install the antivirus software, update it. Install Office, apply the updates for it. Now run...

Oops, it's running too slow - seems to be paging-out to disk all the time. Youngest child, who inherited this lipstick on a pig of a PC says, 'Dad, it's too slow to use!' Crikey, what do they want?

Oh, should have checked earlier, but it only has 512MB of memory. Easy fix, RAM is cheap. right? Normally, except... for this motherboard it has to use a special kind of RAM that isn't cheap. In fact, to upgrade the RAM to something that is usable these days is going to cost about what the second hand PC did when we bought it from dear understanding wife's place of work.

Nope, I don't think so. [Major cursing session]

So off to Officeworks or somewhere like that to buy a new PC. But what to do with the old one with all these cool cards in it?

Aha, Windows 7 release candidate is now available for public testing and a few good people I know have raved about it. Apparently it works well in low configuration PCs. Were they thinking about my situation? Fingers crossed!

Inspired again!

Downloaded the Windows 7 RC software onto my New PC. Have to download and install other software on it to create an .iso DVD to actually install the new operating system on the Old PC. Humh, the Old PC has a CD-ROM drive, not a DVD drive. Don't know enough about .iso files to see if it can be split across multiple CD-ROMs. Easy fix, buy a second hand DVD drive on eBay. Did that, installed it on the old PC and it works fine.

But Windows 7 RC won't install. DVD seems to be blank in the Old PC. Fart around with the start-up routine, set 'boot from CD drive' as the first option. But it doesn't work. Problem with the DVD I created or with the PC? DVD reads okay in other PCs, and Old PC with second hand DVD drive reads other DVDs. Scratch head... Do I need to update the Old PC BIOS? Can't be bothered!

Oh, now read the system requirements for Windows 7 RC which say it needs 1 GB of RAM or more. Oops. Seem to be back at the starting point again. Bugger. Buy more RAM? Nah, don't be stupid.

Not wanting to 'waste' this PC then thought of what else could be be done with it - too big to use as a door stop, too small to be a refridgerator.... what about running a Linux distributable? Heard good things about some of them, especially the Ubuntu one. Always took pride in being able to truthfully say that I had written the 'Hello world' program in C and had compiled and linked it on a unix machine A Long Time Ago. Shouldn't be too hard to do something useful with Linux.

Thought, could use a file and printer server in the house, why not set-up Old PC as that? Installed Ubuntu server. Created a user account. Started the server and logged-on. Boring... not doing anything, yet could do everything if only I knew what to type...

Since A Long Time Ago had forgotten ALL unix commands. Accidently did log-out as the user but now time to go to bed. How to shut-down the PC running Ubuntu linux?... Quick check of the web from a different PC but can't find a 'shutdown' unix command. Too tired, just turn-off the darned PC and hope it doesn't clobber the O/S.

Next day, thought don't want to spend rest of my life retraining to be a Unix sys admin. Feel life's too short to be doing command line editing. (Call me lazy.) Blow away the server installation and install the Ubuntu desktop version. Did so and it looks great. But what am I going to do with it now? Too big to be a doorstop, too small to be a refridgerator... Can I get the kids to use it 'Hey, check-out these cool games on the PC - there's (something that looks like) Tetris!!!!'

Should have predicted their absolute and total lack of interest. Silly me.

Wondering now, anyone want a perfectly good Old PC with a new, fully upgraded install of Ubuntu? Sure that we could work-out a good deal.

[Note to self - forget good Samaritan tendencies towards elderly PCs. Just let them die gracefully.]

A small joy - podcasts and raking leaves...

2009-05-31T15:02:00.004+09:30

I catch-up on my favourite podcasts when I'm doing yardwork.

People walking by our place might wonder what's going on as I laugh to myself from some wonderful turn of phrase in News from Lake Wobegon, or they might see my head spinning from the techno world of Dave, Mike, Kent and invited guests at the Extraordinary Everyday Lives Show on The Podcast Network.

There's Amanda Smith from ABC Radio National's Artworks, and Phillip Adams shoving guests around on LNL. What short story is being read at The New Yorker's fiction podcast? Health Minutes with Dr Norman Swan, By Design, Dr Karl, Sunday Profile with Monica Attard... lots of friendly voices at ABC Radio National podcasts.

Our claret ash tree drops a LOT of leaves, so I caught-up with a LOT of podcasts recently! But what a wonderful combination - the old world physical delight of raking leaves combined with the 21st century technology of MP3 playing.

Now if only the council would come around and take away these leaves...

Such a Politically Incorrect day in Adelaide, again...

2009-04-13T19:32:00.002+09:30

I almost hate to say it, but wasn't it another absolutely beautiful day that we had in Adelaide today. Clear skies, warm weather. It just begged for us to get out of the house. But could the kids do without MSN for a few hours?

It was too inviting. We did get ourselves organised enough to spend a few hours at Semaphore Beach enjoying a family picnic while catching-up on some lazy reading. Later, enjoyed a drink and a nibble at the Palais at Semaphore listening to a band playing. I said, 'we'll go just after this song finishes.' Smarty pants daughter said, 'Dad, it's jazz, it NEVER finishes.'

But I confess that I felt guilty about it... after all, Adelaide has been so dry for so long, and we haven't had any significant rain for ages. I'm starting to expect our state government to strike a deal with a clothing maker to start churning-out Stillsuits for us all to microrecycle our sweat and urine until the new desalination plant cracks its valve open. For heavy sweaters they might be able to sell their excess water on the open market - I'd pay for some of them to come stand over my dead, brown what used to be called 'lawn' and do some dripping!

Not a bad way to spend this Easter Monday holiday. But still, come on the rain!

'Qudos' for Qantas!

2009-01-22T09:03:00.002+10:30

Our national carrier has seen a lot of bad press recently with unfortunate maintenance issues on some of its planes causing a few problems and delays for travellers.

Yesterday, while waiting for my Qantas flight back to Adelaide from Sydney I saw three off-duty Qantas flight attendants do something wonderful that made me feel good about Qantas.

Visible from the gate that we were sitting at, a large Qantas jet was being towed from a terminal gate to somewhere else, looking like it was being towed towards the runways from where we were sitting. All the doors on the towed plane were closed except for one at underside of the back of the plane. It looked like a small cargo door or maintenance hatch, and it was obviously open.

The flight attendants spotted this situation and immediately raised the alarm to the gate staff, quoting the tail number of the jet and saying that it looked like a door was open. One of them was on what seemed to be a private phone call and she quickly finished that call to raise the alarm about the plane, thinking, naturally, that if the plane was to take-off with a door or hatch open that the consequences could be terrible.

It all turned-out well though, as the gate staff reassured everyone that the plane was being towed to maintenance, not to flight.

But what impressed me was that the three flight attendants took immediate action when they saw something that didn't look right. It wasn't a case of 'that's not my job' and then ignoring it. Well done! I didn't get their names but they were waiting at Sydney gate 6 about 7:00 pm on 21 January, apparently waiting to crew flight QF487 to Melbourne.

So 'Qudos' to Qantas for its proactive and safety conscious staff!

Andy Goldsworthy's 'Spire' at The Presidio

2009-01-19T15:15:00.003+10:30

While in San Francisco my great artist friend Blazin drove us to The Presidio to see the Andy Goldsworthy sculpture, 'Spire'.

You just keep looking up, and up, and up. It never seems to end!

That's Blazin and me at the base of 'Spire'.

Viewing the US election results differently

2008-11-17T19:52:00.002+10:30

A dear relative of mine forwarded me a pretty neat URL that remaps the recent US presidential election differently - showing the election results by population rather than by state boundaries. If you look at how the different US states voted you see lots of Republican voting and may wonder how Democrat Barack Obama became President-Elect.

Have a look - it's informative.

US Electoral College elects the President - and all this time I thought it was you and me who did it...

2008-11-04T22:51:00.003+10:30

Maybe I was napping in high school when they explained how the President of the United States is elected by the electoral college votes. But as it is Extremely Topical tomorrow in The Old Country, I thought I'd see what I could learn about it now to make-up for this one little, bitty gap in my otherwise encyclopedic knowledge about the US of A. Okay, maybe not encyclopedic, but pull my finger anyway!

As you know, in Australia voting is compulsory. For the Federal election everyone votes for their local representatives from a list of different parties. Without going into tedious detail - the party with the largest number of popularly elected members forms government, and that party determines who its leader will be.

Compare that with the US system where you can, but don't have to as you voting isn't compulsory, vote directly for the President and Vice President, as I've already done by postal vote. The parties nominate their candidates for POTUS and VicePOTUS (or whatever the Secret Service call the #2 on the card) and good old Ralph Nader puts his own name down just to annoy people. BUT, and big BUT! The popular vote doesn't directly determine who actually gets elected in the US.

The electors of the Electoral College do that.

So I visited the US government website for info about this process. See National Archives and Records Administration website for info about this system.

What's interesting is the timeline in this process. Tomorrow in the US - November 4th - is the popular election where citizens vote for the President and VP, and for other elected officials. But the electoral college doesn't meet until December 15th to elect the president. So there will be a lot of media coverage tomorrow, worldwide, as the next US President and VP receive the popular votes, but the real important event doesn't happen until December 15th! And how much press does that date get?

There must be an important 'checks and balances' argument here - otherwise why have a popular vote AND an electoral college vote if the electoral college vote follows the popular vote?

Someone please tell me about this!

'Democrats for McCain'? WTF!

2008-11-04T22:40:00.002+10:30

As my dad would say,'pardon my french'!

I really had to wonder about the depths of frustration that have caused (what I suspect is a small number of) Democrats in the US to publically endorse John McCain for president. John McCain = Republican. Come-on people, that's the Other Side from Democrat-land.

All because of how 'Hilary was mistreated!'? What? She's a big girl. She didn't get the nomination by the Democrat party. So how is voting for McCain going to help make Mrs Clinton feel better about not being the Democratic candidate for President? I'm missing something here...

My friend Otis (yep, the one and the same - he talks to US) calls them, 'Democrats gone Insane!'

Grumpy radio host?

2008-11-04T22:29:00.002+10:30

Radio National on ABC Radio) keeps me company in my workshop during the day. Lots of interesting subjects, lots of interesting topics.

Tonight I laughed when Philip Adams, host of a radio show on Radio National called 'Late Night Live' where he interviews various interesting people on a variety of current affairs subjects, told his enthusiastic guest, 'Shut-up Charles'! In good nature, of course.

Dear Philip, on his 'little wireless show...' as he annoyingly calls it, was being out-talked by his guest. Not a usual situation on LNL - normally Philip gets the last word in, after all, he does have his finger on the button! Will we hear Charles again on LNL? I hope so!

(Don't tell Philip, but sometimes his guests are almost as interesting as he is...)

Watch Sarah Palin to obscurity

2008-10-11T21:09:00.001+10:30

A brief flash in the pan, me thinks... Back to hunting and eating moose in lovely AK.

Visual Arts Resale Royalty Scheme - about time!

2008-10-06T09:59:00.003+10:30

NAVA (The National Association for the Visual Arts Limited) has been working for a considerable length of time on lobbying the current and preceding Australian governments to introduce an artists resale royalty scheme. This would see artists, or the estates of deceased artists, receiving a royalty payment when their artwork is resold. With the exception of one gallery that I know of in Australia (although there may be more that I don't know about) an artist does not receive payment for sales after the initial sale of an artwork. So if an artist makes and sells a painting for $2,500 initially, and 20 years later that same painting is resold for $25,000 (or $250,000!) the artist currently receives no benefit from the increase in value of their artwork.

Peter Garrett, Minister for the Arts (amoungst other things), will introduce legislation into Parliament later this year to make the Resale Royalty Scheme law by mid 2009. You can read a fact sheet about the scheme by clicking on the hyperlink above. In a nutshell, for artworks sold for more than $1000 the new scheme will pay 5% of the sale price of the artwork to the artist, or his/her heirs for 70 years after the artist's death, for artworks that are acquired after the introduction of the new law.

As with any new legislation, there are positions both for and against it. From NAVA's perspective the legislation is watered down from the ideal. Some artists are against the legislation, saying that it will only benefit a very tiny proportion of the artist community - those whose works sell for more than $1000, and the proposed legislation won't benefit artists whose work has been acquired before the law is implemented. There aren't many artists making a living from their artwork.

And you can imagine that this legislation is fairly unpopular with the auction houses, most art galleries and many art collectors. Why, because it will reduce their profit when selling the artworks covered by this legislation. That's understandable as no one likes losing money - but hardly a valid reason for not introducing it. After all, many collectors buy art for its appreciating value, although some actually do like what they buy.

By implementing this scheme, Australia will join 49 other countries that acknowledge a resale royalty right for visual artists.

Well done NAVA!

What to wish for in these desparate times...

2008-09-28T20:09:00.002+09:30

Seeing how the economy of the United States is imploding from the consequences of the sub-prime crisis made me think that the Department of Homeland Security should be taking a good hard look at the situation as I'm guessing that it was Al-Qaeda operatives who bought those homes, counting on capitalist greed to bring the economy down. Who needs bombs when human greed can do your dirty work for you?

So I was thinking, while singing badly in the shower today, what do I want? A cheap mortgage, fast car, new pulse MIG welder, 'World peace'? Nah, and I probably best leave that last one to Miss America contestents.

Then I saw it, on the label of a tube of shampoo. It was staring me in the face; if it had been a snake it would have bit me: '7 wishes in 1 week' My question answered. I now know what I want!

I will list them for you:
less split ends
manageable
smooth
shine
nourish
strong
soft

Simple!

'Grapple Tackle' - BAD DOG!

2008-09-28T20:01:00.003+09:30

Heard something on the radio recently that made me wonder... a player in the National Rugby League got into trouble for doing a 'grapple tackle' on another player.

Not being a follower of either rugby code I don't know what a 'grapple tackle' exactly is, but I suspect that it isn't comfortable being the recipient of one. (Other rugby neophytes can click on the hyperlink for an explanation. And I was right - it doesn't look comfortable.)

But would it be worse if the offense was for a 'tackle grapple'? Probably!

NAVA - are you a member?

2008-09-14T18:32:00.002+09:30

I was recently appointed to the board of the National Association for the Visual Arts Ltd (NAVA). NAVA is Australia's peak body focusing on professional development for visual artists, and it's a key lobbying organisation to Federal government on the behalf of visual artists. Its successes are impressive.

If you are an Australian artist and not a member of NAVA you should check-out the organisation - there are significant benefits to being a NAVA member. Click on the title of this blog entry to visit the NAVA website

If you have been a member and no longer are, or have decided not to become a member, I'd be very keen to know why. What can NAVA do differently, or better, to serve its members?

Send me an email with your thoughts: rick at rickclise dot com

Funny insurance letter...

2008-09-14T18:30:00.002+09:30

My wife just received a letter about her term life insurance cover and the first line of it read, '... I am pleased you have not had to claim on your insurance over the past year.'

Not as much as we are!

Billing gripe... argh!

2008-09-07T10:42:00.003+09:30

Our mobile phone provider recently imposed a charge of $2.00 to send us a paper bill, rather than sending it by email. This gripes me! If I choose to receive email bills from them and for some reason I don't get it will they waive the bill? Do they guarantee delivery of the email bill? No. Stupid idea. Email is not infallible.

Then again, Australia Post isn't infallible, but I can't think of one instance in all the time of receiving bills by post where one has gone missing.

Another money grabbing effort by a supplier!

Grumpy old man

Thank you Barack Obama

2008-09-07T10:28:00.003+09:30

It's not often that I have a reason to thank a politician, but I want to send a big 'thankee!' to Barack Obama in the USA.

Dear wife and I relax some evenings watching TV drama series on DVD, and we've worked our ways through several different series over the past couple of years. We can tell you any number of quirky ways to die from 'Six Feet Under'; we can tell you several different ways to torture and kill bad guys who are threatening our way of life from '24'; and we were inspired by the idealised political doings of President Jed Bartlett in 'The West Wing' (ah, if only)... and the list goes on.

Most recent was 'Spooks' about the ever clever members of the British intelligence organisation MI5, whose use of brains, instead of Jack Bauer's sheer torturing and killing skills, makes it a much more interesting watch.

Finished that, what next?

Supposedly, as he hasn't returned my calls about it, Barack Obama is quoted as saying that his favourite TV show is 'The Wire' about a group of detectives from the Baltimore Police Department, and the criminals that they deal with. It is excellent watching, but you have to stick with it. I guess it's like a real police investigation where you have lot of details at the beginning of a case but it doesn't make any sense. The writers and directors of The Wire seem to have structured their storylines like that - when you watch the first episode of a series you wonder what the heck is going on, but stick with it and it makes sense.

So thank you Barack Obama. For this one small contribution to our lives. May you make more significant ones to ours, and the lives of others following November.

Abusing the 'save the planet' movement

2008-08-06T22:55:00.003+09:30

We recently received a nicely printed invitation from an organisation to be 'kind to the planet save paper' by having their client reports emailed to us rather than having them send printed copies.

Noble idea, but I happen to need printed copies of those reports to be kept as tax records. So how much is this organisation saving the planet by having ME print the documents locally, rather than them printing them and posting them to me.

I'd rather they just say, 'hey, printing reports for all of our customers takes a lot of time and resources, so how's about helping us improve our profitability by YOU printing these documents?' At least they would be telling the truth.

'Snail Mail Gets Literal'

2008-08-06T22:49:00.004+09:30

Saw a wonderful, quirky article on the fashion/technology page of Time magazine's August 4, 2008 issue. Some UK artists have attached radio frequency id tags (RFID) to the shells of what looks like garden snails, and people can send emails that are encoded onto the RFID of a snail at one end of its tank, and read later when the snail (ultimately) makes its way to the other end of the tank. Once read at that end the email is posted back on the internet.

(The information super snailway?...)

Very strange gift = Tormenting the Cat!

2008-07-22T21:17:00.003+09:30

We've had a relationship with BHP (once known back here as 'The Big Australian', and now known as BHP Billiton), for years and years and years. We've known them as shareholders enjoying the benefits of Australia's mineral boom; and when I kept a chair warm in the Microsoft Melbourne office as an enthusiastic young(ish) large account sales rep BHP was my customer and I worked with them on their global PC software standardisation project implementing Microsoft Office worldwide across the BHP world. Not everyone liked it, but you can't please everyone all the time...

Today we received the strangest item in the mail. It was an odd-shaped manila envelope from BHP Billiton that contained a laser pointer pen! It was in a neat metal box that was printed with Beijing Olympics 2008 logos. A laser pen!

(I wondered if BHP Billiton had bought a whole bunch of these items and for some odd reason now couldn't distribute them to friends and family going to Beijing. Perhaps the temptation to write 'Free Tibet' on the roof of the birds nest was too great to risk, or having 'Falun Gong' scrawled in red laser light inside the Water Cube concerned the BHP Billiton execs - wouldn't want the Chinese to stop buying our good Aussie iron ore, would we?)

There were no instructions provided with the pen, other than a tiny sticker that told how to remove the small plastic insulator in the battery compartment. It did have a small laser light warning tag on the side of it, which was the only indication that we saw that the item contained more than just a pen!

Good friend Fang has wangled himself a cool job at the Uni of Adelaide and has friends in the photonics lab where they get paid to do neat stuff with lasers, glass fibre and all kinds of things that you wouldn't let your children play with. Unrelated to this interesting gift that we received today, Fang and I were recently talking about lasers, laser pointers, and their potential for serious tissue damage. I think the government is considering banning the import of these devices as some fools keep shining them at aircraft pilots, which is not appreciated by the boys and girls in the cockpit. And an article in the newspaper recently told of a party in Russia (I think it was) where a laser light show designed to illuminate inanimate items was somehow shown on the partygoers dancing on the floor, resulting in permanent retina damage to something like 30 of them! Permanent eye damage. Read all about it!

Egads! Apparently, many of these little laser pointers coming into Australia are up to 10 times more powerful than their rating on the package. Quality control not exactly fantastic? Some of these items are pretty dangerous.

Back to the gift received from BHP Billiton - the laser pen doesn't shine the laser light from the pointy end of the pen - it comes out of the TOP of the pen! The end that is closer to your eyes when you normally hold the pen in your hand. Two little buttons on the pen - one turns on the red laser pointer, and the other turns-on a small white LED light (which for all I know could actually be the radioactive output from a small fission reactor in the end of the pen!)

Okay, don't panic, I thought. And once I got comfortable with the idea that I was holding a pen that could put my eye out, at least virtually, I thought I would see what it could do.

...Here's the part where the cat comes into the story....

Did you know how long you can keep a cat busy chasing a little red dot around the floor, up the walls and around and around in circle? From exhaustive personal experience I can tell you that it can keep a cat busy for a LONG TIME. But we were very careful to avoid any chance of eye contact with the little red dot. It's one thing to exercise the cat, and a completely different matter to blind dear puss.

Cats are fast, and they aren't used to chasing things that can outrun them. I was very impressed to see how fast our 10 year old torty could accelerate as she raced to catch-up with Super Dot zipping across the floor boards.

I wouldn't really say 'tormenting' was what we did to the cat - she could have stopped at any time. I mean, no one was forcing her to do it, were they?! But I did notice that the cat is having a very good sleep tonight.

Why did BHP Billiton send such an unexpected item as a shareholder's gift? Got me. Very strange indeed.

Who to complain to!

2008-06-30T23:33:00.002+09:30

My wife expects good service when she shops somewhere. I don't blame her. I get frustrated when I want to buy something and the stupid shop assistant can't get off the mobile to her boyfriend, 'HELLO! I have money that I want to spend in your shop...'

My wife teaches customer-facing people in business how to provide good service. So when she's had a shopping experience that is less-than-satisfying I generally hear about it in all its detail. Depending on how cheesed-off she gets with the sales assistant she'll either say, 'I could have fair slapped her!' which reflects pretty poor service. But give her a 'sorry that's not my job' sales person response to her request or question and it really, really gets her blowing steam. THEN I usually hear, 'I should write to the chairman!'

So rewind a little to that ad on TV (for what product I can't remember, but it was a memorable ad nevertheless) where a highly strung boss shouts out the window to an employee scurrying off to get something for the boss, 'NOT. HAPPY. JAN!!!!'

Well, that got me thinking about how IBM used to have a code phrase for their fulfillment department. They would run a promotion and have people call into their 1 800 number (back then) and ask to speak with 'Sally Green.' There wasn't really a Sally Green working at IBM - the name was just a code for the folks on the other side of the phone (who were probably in Sydney at that time, rather than somewhere on the subcontinent as they are now...) that the call related to a specific promo.

So if IBM can have a 'Sally' (Green) for fulfillment purposes, can't other organisations have a 'Jan' for handling customer complaints (as in 'Not happy Jan' Jan?)

Think I might be onto a winner now. I just have to get my wife on board, ready for her next foray into complaint-land... Ready the 'Jans', corporate Australia!

Bill Henson 'controversy' - uninformed loudmouths!

2008-06-01T09:02:00.005+09:30

Censorship! Restrictions on the arts! Some misguided and ill-informed people are making a lot of noise that could have long term consequences for the arts and artistic freedom in Australia, and I am not happy about it.

In this era of pedophiliac church leaders and hypocritical politicians some of our society has become just a little too zealous in their fear of anything outside their own beliefs!

You probably know that Australian photographic artist Bill Henson has been very prominent in national news in this country, for the confiscation by New South Wales Police of several of his photographs from Sydney fine art gallery Roslyn Oxley 9, in Paddington.

I haven't seen the photographs. And I suspect that most people complaining about them haven't seen the photos either and that's a problem.

Henson is an internationally famous artist. He is not a pornographer.

Someone called the police to complain that a photograph (perhaps the one on the exhibition invitation) was pornographic as it showed a nude child. The police investigated and confiscated several photographs, causing the gallery to cancel the exhibition that was to open on May 23rd.

I am not surprised, however I am very disappointed, with what are demonstrably uninformed comments by many people calling the artworks 'pornographic' and that they should be banned, and that the gallery owners and the artist should be punished. I'm not even surprised to read that Roslyn Oxley's husband said they had received several death threats because of the photos.

Have these people seen the photos? Do they know what pornography is? Do they know the difference between nudity and pornography? Most likely no in all cases.

Kevin Rudd, our newly elected Prime Minister, the great new hope for this country, called the photographs 'absolutely revolting.' His personal opinion.

A photo from the exhibition has been published in a newspaper, with the girl's eyes covered for anonymity, and her bare breasts covered for decency (nudity has its place - child nudity is not frequently shown in the national press).

The girl's pose is not different from the poses of paintings, photographs, and sculptures by the world's greatest artists. It is not pornographic.

I have been to Roslyn Oxley 9 gallery in Sydney. It is not some seedy backlane 'adult' bookshop. Roslyn Oxley 9 gallery shows fine art by Australia's most respected artists.

Just to check my facts, I queried the Merriam-Webster online dictionary for a definition of 'pornography':

"...Etymology: Greek pornographos adjective, writing about prostitutes...

1: the depiction of erotic behaviour (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement
2: material (as books or a photograph) that depicts erotic behaviour and is intended to cause sexual excitement
3: the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction the pornography of violence"

From what I saw in that photo, by the above definition there is nothing pornographic about it. It is just nudity.

Perhaps the person complaining confused nudity with pornography? But they are such very different things.

On the positive, the public support of Bill Henson and the gallery has been widespread - Malcolm Turnbull, the Shadow Treasurer, has spoken in support of him and Mr Turnbull apparently owns two photographs by Henson. Prominent artists, and writers are speaking out in support of Henson and the gallery and condemning the police for their action. In this weekend's The Weekend Australian Financial Review, on page 27, there is a full page article about this issue, quoting playwright David Williamson:

'No one in their right senses would condone child pornography or the exploitation of underaged people. But there has to be a descrimination beween sordid child pornography and the sort of art that Henson creates. The two are poles apart. Anyone who can't see that is a big worry, especially if they're the leader of the country.'

To call these works pornographic is incorrect and very misleading. Those who are doing so should be ashamed.

If you feel like I do that Kevin Rudd's comments about the Bill Henson photographs are inappropriate you can write to him at: The Hon Kevin Rudd MP, Prime Minister, PO Box 6022, House of Representatives, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600.

Old Midnight Oil rocker; now Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Peter Garrett, might be interested in how we feel as well: The Hon Peter Garrett AM, MP, at the same address.

I write this as a parent of two teenaged daughters, as a former board member of an all girls school, and as an artist. The wellbeing of children is forefront in my mind. Henson's work is not pornography.

BabelSwarm - virtual art in Second Life

2008-05-19T16:25:00.002+09:30

On the 20 April 2008 Radio National show 'ArtWorks' the developers of BabelSwarm were interviewed, and the interview can be listened to streamed from a link to the blogspot url above (the BabelSwarm interview starts about 19:15 into the program.)

BabelSwarm was developed by three guys who won an artist in residence grant from the Australia Council to develop a virtual artwork in Second Life, with a real life interface. The real life aspect of it was shown recently at the Lismore Regional Gallery, with the virtual work on Second Life.

There was a funny aspect to the success of BabelSwarm in that the Second Life administration services thought that it was trying to take-down Second Life because of its success - it was consuming more and more computer resources at Second Life - it thought that BabelSwarm was the equivalent of a computer virus!

Here's the great quote from the developers regarding that perceived threat by Second Life's adminstration: '[BabelSwarm] couldn't tell the difference between a malicious attack and art'!

Gosh, sort of sounds like the previous federal government, doesn't it?

The BabelSwarm island is at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/ACVA/119/180/295/
Clever guys!