This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen in our local paper...

Reposted from Facebook:

From my fave part of our local paper "Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down", is this week's absolute gem: "To the disgusting person (most likely a teenager) who keeps arranging the fruit at my local fruit market to form the shapes of private parts. It is extremely disturbing and you should grow up and show some consideration to people that don't find disgusting things such as that funny."

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WEB101 - Learning Portfolio, Week 1

This year I've started the third lot of "formal" study in my lifetime, but the first in more than 15 years.  Suffice to say, things have changed a bit!  Back then I sat in a lecture hall watching a lecturer furiously scribble on a whiteboard while handing out reams of paper, and I studied such gems as "Programming Concepts" and "Using a Mini-Computer", which was about all you could do in the World O' Geek back then.  This week I sat down at my own desk with a cuppa, logged into my student account and downloaded my first lecture, then listened to it in my own time, pausing to look things up, take notes, tap out a couple of posts in the discussion boards, answer the phone or respond to urgent emails whenever I needed to.  It's almost surreal!  This first unit is entirely web-based and all assignments are submitted electronically.  I will probably never even meet my lecturers or tutors, who seem to be all based 3000km and 2 timezones away from Melbourne at Perth's Curtin University.  Welcome to the world of higher learning, 21st century style!

Part of our assessment is to keep a Learning Portfolio, to document things that we find interesting or useful each week, so I've decided to make use of this rather vacant-looking Blog that's been sitting here unused for a couple of years now.

This week they've started in slowly for us - What's in a name?  One of my pet subjects!  My husband still can't believe that I sat there the day that Facebook "released" usernames for the first time, ready to bash out my personalised name before anybody else could get it (yes, I got it).  We were asked to visit http://namechk.com/ and try to find a username that we could use for several social networking sites.  Luckily my chosen username was only being used by me (except for 1 site) so I registered in a couple of other places and now I have a veritable collection of "nickyveitch" sites scattered about the place!  Here are a couple:

http://au.linkedin.com/in/nickyveitch
http://twitter.com/NickyVeitch
http://nickyveitch.blogspot.com/

Oh, and let's not forget - http://www.nickyveitch.com! 

One other thing that was covered this week, which I'm bizarrely fascinated with, is this funky little Flash app depicting Social Media Counts by Gary Hayes:

http://www.personalizemedia.com/garys-social-media-count/

For those that are interested, I'm doing the first unit in what will probably become a Bachelor of Arts (Internet Communications) via Open Universities Australia (if I can stick it out this time!)

Until next week,

Cheers,

Nicky

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Gary's Social Media Count

I'm fascinated by this... please keep all geek comments to yourselves :p

http://www.personalizemedia.com/garys-social-media-count/

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iiNet slays Hollywood in landmark piracy case

Thankfully, common sense has prevailed here - trying to say that an ISP (Internet SERVICE PROVIDER) is responsible for what it's customers do with the service is like saying that phone companies should be responsible for whatever people say to each other on the telephone. If 2 people plan a drug run or murder over the... phone, much as I like to blame Telstra for everything, it's not Telstra's responsibility, and similarly, if they plan those things via email or the web then it can't reasonably be the ISP's responsibility...

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/iinet-slays-hollywood-in-landmark-piracy-case-20100204-ndwr.html

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Facebook's funniest status updates

Hilarious :>

http://tech.ca.msn.com/photogallery.aspx?cp-documentid=23325226

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Milestones

We've had 2 x 3yo milestones in our house in recent times, one of which is always talked about and the other which rarely is, but should be. 

The first was toilet-training. Now, I'd heard all the warnings - "boys take longer than girls", "boys are usually older than girls", etc. etc. etc. Happily, my son decided, at approximately 2.30pm last Thursday afternoon (this is a joke but it's seriously how it seemed) that it was time for him to use the toilet and that was it - he was toilet-trained. Really. Even nights. As if I didn't already adore him enough. :>

The other outstanding milestone was... wait for it... seat-belt. Now, whenever I mention this to other parents they nod and grin but for the non-parents out there - he finally figured out how to put his own seat-belt on. Both straps, over the arm, clicked in. After 5 and a half years of hoisting small people into car seats, bending over and breaking my back while strapping them in, trying not to get soaked in the rain or sunburned during summer - all done, finished, dusted.  Joy. :>

Now, if i can just figure out how to get him off to school a year early...

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The Australian TiVo disappointment

TiVo HD hits Australia: a whole pile of steaming nothing
http://apcmag.com/tivo_hd.htm

The Australian Tivo FAQ - What it does, will it skip ads, when it launches, will it work with Foxtel
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/Feature/116335,the-australian-tivo-faq--what-it-does-will-it-skip-ads-when-it-launches-will-it-work-with-foxtel.aspx

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If Star Wars characters had Facebook accounts

From collegehumor.com:

http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1794889

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