Jonathan Oxer
[Blog]
>> Tony, hang in there
Thu, Sep 28th 10:46pm 2006 >> Linux
I just heard that Tony Nugent is in hospital in critical condition after a hit and run outside his house.
I don't recall meeting him in person but I've certainly seen his name many times on Linux mailing lists over the years and it's terrible to hear about things like this happening to people in the FOSS community. The circumstances of the accident sound very odd (1:30am, and the culprit has now also been charged with burglary) but the important thing of course is just that Tony makes a full recovery.
Hang in there, Tony.
I just heard that Tony Nugent is in hospital in critical condition after a hit and run outside his house.
I don't recall meeting him in person but I've certainly seen his name many times on Linux mailing lists over the years and it's terrible to hear about things like this happening to people in the FOSS community. The circumstances of the accident sound very odd (1:30am, and the culprit has now also been charged with burglary) but the important thing of course is just that Tony makes a full recovery.
Hang in there, Tony.
>> Silence? No, my ears were blocked
Thu, Sep 21st 2:44pm 2006 >> Linux
After Jeff's blog post about rebranding / refocusing LA/LCA last week I sat back and waited for the energetic discussion to begin. And I waited. And waited. Then by about Monday I started thinking "I can't believe nobody responded. Is LA asleep?".
Then yesterday I discovered that DNS for one of my domains had been bollocksed up (by me!) late last week, and it just happened to be the domain that my linux-aus subscription address lives in. I get so much mail from so many domains that it took me almost a week to notice that one of them was dead!
A quick trip to the linux-aus list archives showed LA hasn't been asleep at all. I've just been suffering self-imposed deafness.
Damn, now I've got some catching up to do!
After Jeff's blog post about rebranding / refocusing LA/LCA last week I sat back and waited for the energetic discussion to begin. And I waited. And waited. Then by about Monday I started thinking "I can't believe nobody responded. Is LA asleep?".
Then yesterday I discovered that DNS for one of my domains had been bollocksed up (by me!) late last week, and it just happened to be the domain that my linux-aus subscription address lives in. I get so much mail from so many domains that it took me almost a week to notice that one of them was dead!
A quick trip to the linux-aus list archives showed LA hasn't been asleep at all. I've just been suffering self-imposed deafness.
Damn, now I've got some catching up to do!
>> Pay rates for pollies
Thu, Sep 21st 9:49am 2006 >> Politics
I just came across an interesting blog post by Democrat Senator Andrew Bartlett where he talks about the ethical conundrum of voting on your own pay rise. He says that "politicians are already paid well enough" and dismisses the claim that it takes high levels of remuneration to attract good people to become politicians, but pointed out something I didn't know previously: the pay scale of Parliamentarians is tied to a specific public service pay category, and so they weren't just voting on their own pay rise: if they'd opposed it, they'd also have been opposing a pay rise for a much larger group of public servants.
Suddenly the ethical dilemma becomes a bit more complicated.
Of course there are always alternative solutions, and if the MPs had actually felt bad enough about paying themselves three times as much as the average income earner they could have voted to increase the pay scale on that public service pay category (thus giving other public servants a raise they may well deserve) while simultaneously decoupling their own pay rate from that pay category.
Or how about my more radical solution: the pay scale for politicians should be linked to the average income for all Australians.
If they can't survive on that: bad luck. All the more incentive to improve the performance of the nation as a whole.
I just came across an interesting blog post by Democrat Senator Andrew Bartlett where he talks about the ethical conundrum of voting on your own pay rise. He says that "politicians are already paid well enough" and dismisses the claim that it takes high levels of remuneration to attract good people to become politicians, but pointed out something I didn't know previously: the pay scale of Parliamentarians is tied to a specific public service pay category, and so they weren't just voting on their own pay rise: if they'd opposed it, they'd also have been opposing a pay rise for a much larger group of public servants.
Suddenly the ethical dilemma becomes a bit more complicated.
Of course there are always alternative solutions, and if the MPs had actually felt bad enough about paying themselves three times as much as the average income earner they could have voted to increase the pay scale on that public service pay category (thus giving other public servants a raise they may well deserve) while simultaneously decoupling their own pay rate from that pay category.
Or how about my more radical solution: the pay scale for politicians should be linked to the average income for all Australians.
If they can't survive on that: bad luck. All the more incentive to improve the performance of the nation as a whole.
>> Hard phone choices
Fri, Sep 15th 9:14am 2006 >> Tech Toys
Dear Lazyweb,
I want to get a new phone and I thought the choice was obvious, but now I've found alternatives and I'm more confused than when I started.
My feature checklist is:
1) Calendar
2) Email (preferably standard IMAP)
3) Browser
4) Can sync with Linux
5) tri or quadband (so I don't have to switch phones when I travel)
6) WiFi
7) VoIP client
Until yesterday I was set on a Treo 650 because it does 1) to 5) perfectly, and I've heard great things about it from Pia and others. It can even run Linux.
But then I discovered the Nokia E61, which does most of the same stuff as the 650 but also has wifi and a VoIP client. We use Asterisk at IVT so basically an E61 could replace the VoIP phone on my desk. It would just travel everywhere with me and when I'm in the office or at home in WiFi range it would be my VoIP extension, but when I walk out the door it's a cellphone. And it's cheaper than a 650. Sweet!
But the problem is that it runs Symbian, and even after a lot of Googling I can't find out if it can sync with Linux. Definitely a deal-breaker.
And then I came across the ROAD S101, which looks like it was designed specifically for me but which unfortunately also seems to be still just a figment of someone's imagination.
So, lazyweb, what Linux-supported smartphone should I buy? The phone itself doesn't have to run Linux, but it definitely has to play nicely with it.
Dear Lazyweb,
I want to get a new phone and I thought the choice was obvious, but now I've found alternatives and I'm more confused than when I started.
My feature checklist is:
1) Calendar
2) Email (preferably standard IMAP)
3) Browser
4) Can sync with Linux
5) tri or quadband (so I don't have to switch phones when I travel)
6) WiFi
7) VoIP client
Until yesterday I was set on a Treo 650 because it does 1) to 5) perfectly, and I've heard great things about it from Pia and others. It can even run Linux.
But then I discovered the Nokia E61, which does most of the same stuff as the 650 but also has wifi and a VoIP client. We use Asterisk at IVT so basically an E61 could replace the VoIP phone on my desk. It would just travel everywhere with me and when I'm in the office or at home in WiFi range it would be my VoIP extension, but when I walk out the door it's a cellphone. And it's cheaper than a 650. Sweet!
But the problem is that it runs Symbian, and even after a lot of Googling I can't find out if it can sync with Linux. Definitely a deal-breaker.
And then I came across the ROAD S101, which looks like it was designed specifically for me but which unfortunately also seems to be still just a figment of someone's imagination.
So, lazyweb, what Linux-supported smartphone should I buy? The phone itself doesn't have to run Linux, but it definitely has to play nicely with it.
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