RSS feedWell, we’re back up again. Apologies to any TVTonic users, we’ve temporarily blocked you for now. But we definitely want you back with us, and we will get it sorted out soon, so please hang in there.
If you’re wondering what happened to Bonny & Clyde, our server got a kind of DOS (Denial Of Service attack) from TVTonic. Well, not really a DOS, but it had the same effect, hundreds of TVTonic clients trying to suck down Bonny & Clyde episodes, all at the same time, over and over again. Joy!
We thought we’d addressed the problem earlier in the week, by banning the buggy TVTonic clients, but it seems that even the newer versions have a problem in this area as well.
Meanwhile, yes the site is down temporarily. When will it be back up? I’m not too sure. The guys at Dreamhost need to make a few patches for me before I can get back in and try to fix it.
So for now, we wait patiently…
It’s an odd feeling sitting here amongst the ruins of a collapsed media project. There’s no way we’re going to pick up all the old traffic we had once we get up and running again, because people won’t bother. So it makes me wonder whether it’s worth even continuing. The annoying thing is that I’m sitting here with no way to fix the problem, watching it crumble around us, yet it wasn’t even my fault! Grrrr!
We’re also now looking for an alternate hosting provider for our free high volume sites. If you have any recommendations on someone cheap who can support high bandwidth for media file downloads and fast turn around on tech support, then please let us know.
A cognitive analysis of tagging
(or how the lower cognitive cost of tagging makes it popular)
Or tagging vs. categorising.
The most significant thing to come out of The Chaser’s APEC motorcade gag, was not that $160 million of security failed to protect the U.S. president, but this quote from NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione in relation to the stunt:
We have snipers deployed around the city. They weren’t there for show, they mean business, that’s what they were there for.
To shoot comedians perhaps? The Chaser guys were obviously no threat to the president, however, how close could they have gotten before being shot by a sniper? This seems to be the ghist of Mr Scipione’s threat, that it would be possible for a sniper to shoot someone dead, even if they posed no threat to anyone’s life.
Enough of our rights have been taken away already, such as not being allowed into Circular Quay and the Opera House security area, and people who are arrested shall be held without charge or bail. I thought that our rights were there so that laws couldn’t be made to deprive us of them. What’s the point, if our government can just turn around and make any draconian law they please?
This farce could have been held in many different places in Australia, without shutting down our entire CBD for a full week. If not Canberra, then perhaps some country town where security would be easier to manage. What do the APEC delegates need? A place to eat, sleep and meet, and little else. They don’t need a harbour view, they don’t need an animal petting zoo, and they certainly don’t need hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fireworks over Sydney harbour, to which the citizens of Sydney are told to stay away.
Our Foreign Minister and resident clown Alexander Downer, explained a few days ago on ABC’s Lateline, why APEC was to be held in Sydney:
I often say to people there are 10 or so cities in the world you’ve got to see before you die, and definitely one of them is Sydney. Even though I’m from Adelaide, Sydney is a wonderful city, so we can be enormously proud of showcasing Sydney to the world.
Sydney has literally been shut down all week. And regardless whether you think APEC is a good thing or not, it shouldn’t have been held in the middle of Sydney.
To borrow from a bill board in Pitt St mall this week:
21 great wankers, 1 great city
Most of you probably know that I do a public radio show, A Walk in the Black Forest. Some of you may know that my home town, Sydney, is host to next week’s APEC meeting. You remember APEC, that’s where the leaders of every country who has their big toe dipped into the Pacific Ocean, get to come to Sydney and take over the city for a week, while 10000 protesters tell them (justifiably) to get fucked.
We’ve been covering APEC on the show recently, what it’s like from a local perspective, and I thought if you’re not listening to our podcast versions of the radio show, you may at least be interested in the APEC segment of it. Want to know a little about what’s behind the great wall of Sydney?
Check out the A Walk in the Black Forest web site, and either listen to the APEC summary, or the full show #266.
This is what citizen media’s all about right?
For the past three months, our bathroom floor had been converted from cream tiles to black and white, yet nobody noticed. Not sure why I didn’t do an after shot, maybe I’m losing my vlogging touch. And yes, that is little Phoebe who makes a few brief appearances.