I got interviewed by Steve from AuTechHeads about Tech Ed, Microsoft and my career as a journalist. Topics range from Office 2010 to Plants vs Zombies to why developers are getting slimmer. I really wish I’d taken my jacket off — the collar is a bit distracting.

The ANZ has just spent the customary bucketload of money on this ad campaign:

I can’t be the only person who thinks it’s basically a rip-off of this well-known Little Britain character:

Friday night the sixth Sun Microsystems IT Journalism Awards, universally known as The Lizzies, took place at Star City. As well as an enormous number of jokes about The Phantom Of The Internet and a theatre sports sketch where Computer Choice editor Ashton Mills made the somewhat unlikely claim “Sometimes we make it up”, prizes [...]

Note: I wrote this in response to an idle challenge on a journalist mailing list . . .

Linux is too hard for my mum

Ubuntu is a good product, but don’t try saying that it is a good option on a laptop for my mum. It would work OK for mail and writing and printing. But [...]

For the next three weeks, the team from BRAN are doing the editing on the local version of Gizmodo. There’s loads of great stuff coming through the Gizmodo feed, but I was especially impressed today with this interview with a guy who makes custom replica weapons for Lego figurines. Insane fandom at its finest.

At the end of this morning’s linux.conf.au keynote, a bunch of prizes from various sponsors were handed out to names randomly drawn from a hat. One of the names was mine. While the organisers were keen to get some prizes handed out — as is always the case, some of the winners weren’t actually present [...]

At last year’s Sun Microsystems IT Journalism Awards, I was so drunk I don’t remember anything after 7:30pm. This year, I took a vow of sobriety, which means not only did I not cause major headaches for the organisers and my brother, I also remember who won.

The most pleasing result of the night for me [...]

The most prominent media awards for technology writers in Australia are the Media Connect Sun Microsystems IT Journalism Awards, generally referred to with the more friendly nickname The Lizzies. I’ve involved with a nice swag of nominations this year, having scored a finalist berth for The Helen Dancer Best Consumer Technology Journalist category, while BRAN [...]

Apple’s planned for a phone and iPod combination has predictably excited lots of hyperbole, with bloggers and reporters competing to see who can make the most gushing remarks about a product that is, at this stage, still effectively a concept. Despite the fact that the US commercial release is six months away, people are acting [...]

Reading Eric Idle’s The Greedy Bastard’s Diary en route to California, I came across a quote that instantly put me in mind of scandal-ridden current affairs presenter Naomi Robson:

I think you should never trust newsreaders who are wearing makeup and wigs. If they’re lying about their appearance, why would you trust what they say?