As you can see, I’ve finally implemented a new theme here. Doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll be any less slack about posting, but the incorporated Twitter feed will at least change regularly. Now, as you were . . .

During a recent bout of spam elimination, I managed to accidentally delete some recent legitimate comments. My apologies — it’s not because I’m in censor mode, I promise!

and apologies for the slackness in posting, I had a backlog of 20,000 spam comments and needed to master some advanced SQL queries to kill them before I could get anything else done! Will proceed to some updates on various subjects . . .

Episode #3 of BRAN is now available for download for all you podcast-lovin’ types. Highlights include consumer surveys showing that 3G is a dead squib and HDTV is a deader squib, and the reason why the ACMA’s anti-spam software is more trouble than it’s worth. And, of course, the latest from the curious intersection of [...]

The second episode of BRAN — the only tech podcast you need, featuring the combined talents of Roulla Yiacoumi, Nathan Taylor and yours truly — has now been posted for your listening pleasure. This week, we tackle everything from piracy to Zimbabwe to some “interesting” Microsoft-related domain registrations. More details and downloads at the BRAN [...]

A new project I’ve been involved with for a while has finally gone live: BRAN, a weekly podcast on technology news with a particular focus on stuff happening in Australia. It’s a three-way discussion between myself and fellow freelance journalists Nathan Taylor and Roulla Yiacoumi. The name stands for Bloody Roulla, Angus and Nathan, though [...]

Thanks to Gusworld reader Steve Bracy for letting me know that The Onion has finally restored the infamous Amber Richardson to its archives, allowing me to update my tribute page to the ultimate white trash single mom. I’ve also made a few alterations on the Ruth Rendell page.

Most of the IT hacks I know are at the Hyatt Coolum (scene of many a drunken rampage for me in the past) for ITJourno/Media Connect’s Kickstart forum, so I’m doing the Epitome roundup of published news while everyone parties on (you can read it here here, though it’s a subscriber-only site). This wouldn’t have [...]

Did a general tidy up on the Ruth Rendell pages, and noted the news that she is ranked at #20 in the list of most-borrowed authors from UK libraries. In the previous year, Rendell came in at #17, so this a slight (but hardly drastic) decline. I was mildly astounded that she was outranked by [...]

Updated the Ruth Rendell section of my site with this interview transcript from a recent appearance on NPR. Rendell has been slogging the promotional trail in the US for Thirteen Steps Down (which came out everywhere else in the world a year or so ago), and will presumably face a similar series of tasks for [...]