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Wed, 05 Oct 2011 02:23:01 +0000
So You Don't Want A Carbon Tax

Coal power plant in Datteln (Germany) at the D...

Image via Wikipedia

I wrote this in response to receiving a mass email from a friend, advocating for people to return to sender, information from the government on the carbon tax. We have seen these kinds of emails in the past and we will see them in the future, no doubt.

I replied to the original email that this was a sad thing to be passing on and received a reply that had concerns and repeated some of the usual claims that we have heard that are quite deliberately being promoted but are basically bogus.

This is my reply to that.

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xml Sliced - E-commerce - Sliced Wikizine

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 02:23:01 +0000
Apple: iOS 5, iCloud Both Launching October 12
At one point during today's Apple "let's talk iPhone" dog and pony show, all the live blogs paused and I wondered whether Apple had unveiled its super-secret Cupertino mothership and blasted off.

Source: http://feeds.digg.com/~r/digg/topic/tech_news/popular/~3/yxQmgJdatsI/apple_ios_5_icloud_both_launching_october_12

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xml Sliced - Opinion - Sliced Wikizine

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 02:23:01 +0000
Hold That Smile - The Victorians

proxy?container=accel&gadget=www.howtobearetronaut.com&debug=0&nocache=0&v=ipv1rho3la66hjhv618cqdocfs&rooe=1&html_tag_context=img&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.howtobearetronaut.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F06%2FLoveday-Lemon-520x819.jpg

When Joseph-Nicephore Niepce took the first photograph in 1828, his photographic plate required an exposure of eight hours. That exposure time was drastically reduced across the course of the nineteenth century, so that by the 1890s the Collodion process had cut exposure times to two or three seconds.

Nevertheless, a three second exposure meant that subjects had to stand very still to avoid being blurred, and holding a smile for that period was tricky. As a result, we have a tendency to see our Victorian ancestors as even more formal and stern than they might have been.

The Smiling Victorians Gallery

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xml Sliced - Arts - Sliced Wikizine

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 04:46:10 +0000
Chasing Mummies: Archeology as Reality TV

Dr. Zahi Hawass at the British Museum - Speech

Image by vintagedept via Flickr

Dr Zahi Hawass the Egyptian archaeologist is well known to those who enjoy historical documentaries.  He is highly respected in his field and is the current Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.  I have always found his manner rather abrasive and have tended to avoid his offerings.  However, his new TV show program on the History Channel: 'Chasing Mummies' is quite a different affair; this is actually riveting and addictive television.  The producers of 'Chasing Mummies' seem to have recognised the potential of Dr Hawass' explosive temper and have harnessed it to great effect.

In one incident, Dr Hawass' assistant Casey Fitchner gets completely blasted by the good doctor for being late to work.  Later, while exploring inside the Stepped Pyramid, Fitchner asks if there is somewhere she can go to the bathroom.  Dr Hawass informs her in no uncertain terms that the pyramid is a holy place and of course she can't go.  Later, she can no longer resist the call of nature and wets herself on camera.  Dr Hawass' outbursts make Gordon Ramsey look kindly and avuncular.

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xml Sliced - Internet - Sliced Wikizine

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 05:38:49 +0000
FBI: Russian spy suspects used ordinary gadgets

This undated image taken from the Russian social networking website 'Odnoklassniki', or Classmates, shows a woman journalists have identified as Anna Chapman, who appeared at a hearing Monday, June 28, 2010 in New York federal court. Chapman, along with 10 others, was arrested on charges of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. attorney general.  (AP Photo)Before James Bond heads out on a mission, he has to stop in Q's laboratory for custom-made gadgets such as an exploding watch. Life wasn't so dashing for the suspected Russian spies arrested this week: They allegedly relied heavily on off-the-shelf consumer electronics.

"In the old days, they'd have special KGB-type equipment. Now they use normal computers, normal laptops," said Sujeet Shenoi, professor of computer science at the University of Tulsa and a frequent consultant to the FBI. "Technology is so powerful now that you don't have to have special-purpose equipment anymore."

According to the FBI's complaints that sought the arrest of the 11 suspects, the array of tools included laptops, flash memory cards and at least one prepaid cell phone. The suspects are accused of backing that up with old-fashioned spy technology such as short-wave radios, invisible ink, and a classic, manual encryption method known as a "one-time pad."


Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100702/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_russia_spy_arrests_tech

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xml eponymous

Tue, 04 May 2010 02:28:14 +0000
Software Piracy
Copyright is a form of intellectual property protection for a variety of literary and artistic endeavours. Everyone who has used the internet has at one time or another copied material illegally. This is due to the popular misconception, that once material is posted to the internet it can be freely copied: this not the case. Unless the author of the material has stated that is available for public use, then permission has to be obtained from the author for the material to be used. File sharing sites, is another issue that ...

Copyright is a form of intellectual property protection for a variety of literary and artistic endeavours. Everyone who has used the internet has at one time or another copied material illegally. This is due to the popular misconception, that once material is posted to the internet it can be freely copied: this not the case. Unless the author of the material has stated that is available for public use, then permission has to be obtained from the author for the material to be used.
File sharing sites, is another issue that concerning copyright laws. These sites/programs allow people to share material over the internet, this allows for copyrighted material to be shared and copied form one person to another. Some people believe this is okay as there is no transaction of money for the material: this is not true. File sharing is one of the biggest problems concerning copyright laws on the internet as there is no way to monitor all the information being shared between people and block and copyrighted material from being sent.
Now days because it is so easy to share copyrighted material over the internet and it is so frequently done many people do not see it as a crime that affects the authors finically. Although many people would not steal a cd from a store, download free music from the internet is socially acceptable on the internet.
The reason why people copy and break copyright laws is because they don’t want to pay for it. What most people don’t think about while there waiting happily as their download finishes, is that they are part of a mass group that is stealing from the author. This author has probably spent many hours of work developing a program hoping that in the end he can share with all of us and maybe get paid, to earn a living so he can continue provide us with software we want and need. But all those people who pirate software and wish for everything on the internet to be free or cheaper, are really just saying , we value what you have created but could you just do it for free? Would you do your job for free? Or cheaper? Highly unlikely, but that being said people that claim authors aren’t protecting their material enough, well all that can be said about that is, if people really want something enough, they’ll do anything, even if it might cost them jail time or a $50,000 fine.

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xml  alexander's forum

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:51:15 GMT
How To Create a Microsoft Access Macro to Export Information to Excel or Word:
1.Click on the "Macros" option in the "Objects" menu.

2.Click "New" in the upper-panel of the database window to create a new macro.

3.Click in the "Action" field.

4.Click on the drop-down arrow and go to "MsgBox".

5.Go to the "Action Arguments" pane by clicking in the "Message" field or pressing "F6". To toggle to and from the "Action Arguments...

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Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:18:12 GMT
Database Assessment Task 2010
Please find attached:  Database Assessment Task 2010  Roll Eyes

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Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:20:15 GMT
Eponymous Blog
by Mr Alexander.  

Please visit our new class blog at http://www.liamalexander.com/edublog/

This blog has great IT articles plus a lot of interesting orginal art works.  We value your comments and ratings cool

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Sliced Wikizine: a collection of the best articles on technology, politics, lifestyle, entertainment by a range of authors

xml This Day in History

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT
Liliuokalani Becomes Hawaii's Last Monarch (1891)
Liliuokalani ascended the throne in 1891 upon the death of her brother, King Kalakaua. Her refusal to recognize the constitutional changes inaugurated in 1887 precipitated a revolt, fostered largely by sugar planters—mostly American residents of Hawaii—that led to her dethronement early in 1893 and the establishment of a provisional government. Failing in an attempt to regain the throne in 1895, she formally renounced her royal claims. What well-known song was composed by Liliuokalani? Discuss

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xml Sliced - Animation - Sliced Wikizine

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:35:27 +0000
Voki: free animated talking avatars, use your own voice
enables users to express themselves on the web in their own voice using a talking character. You can customize your Voki to look like you or take on the identity of lots of other types of characters: animals, monsters, anime etc. Your Voki can speak with your own voice which is added via microphone, upload, or phone.

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xml Sliced - Blogging - Sliced Wikizine

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 06:17:55 +0000
Blogcastr - Broadcast Your Blog Live!
free, easy-to-use live blogging service for sharing cool stuff as it happens. From attending a sports game or concert to watching your favorite TV show, Blogcastr enables you to share what you are doing as you are doing it. It's a great way to create real-time conversation with friends.

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xml Sliced - Code - Sliced Wikizine

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:31:14 +0000
WordOff: cleans nasty Word HTML, generates nice clean code
Wordoff applies the following rules to strip the cruft that is pasted into WYSIWYG editors from Word: * Attributes are removed for all elements except s * s and s are removed * Empty elements are removed * Consecutive line breaks are reduced to two

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xml Sliced - Graphics - Sliced Wikizine

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 09:14:05 +0000
Piwigo Photo Gallery
free and opensource photo gallery software for the web, built by an active community of users and developers. Extensions make Piwigo easily customizable.

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xml Sliced - Sliced Wikizine

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 08:21:11 +0000
Nice and Free CSS Templates
Incredible free easy tool for website layout! This site contains free css templates for your website - Just copy and paste and there you have a stunning website !

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xml Sliced - Social Media - Sliced Wikizine

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 07:05:48 +0000
TweetTwain - Virtual Social Media Manager
social media management tool for small and medium business allows multiple account monitoring and management. Cross posting between Twitter and Facebook along with other features like in-built url shortening, photo upload, direct messages, rss feed monitoring, brand monitoring, & more

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xml  Yahoo! Weather - Sydney, AS

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 4:29 am AEDT
Conditions for Sydney, AS at 4:29 am AEDT

Current Conditions:
Mostly Cloudy, 22 C

Forecast:
Mon - Thundershowers. High: 31 Low: 24
Tue - PM Thunderstorms. High: 27 Low: 19

Full Forecast at Yahoo! Weather

(provided by The Weather Channel)

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xml Yahoo! News: Top Stories

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:00:39 GMT
Gingrich bemoans Romney's Florida "carpet-bombing" (AP)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, left, talks to an unidentified man after arriving at Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lutz, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)AP - Newt Gingrich slammed GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney for "carpet-bombing" his record ahead of Tuesday's presidential primary in Florida, trying to cut into the resurgent front-runner's lead in the final 48 hours before the vote.


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xml Yahoo! Buzz US: Top Stories

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 07:13:36 PDT
15 Most Stressful Jobs in the World

Everyone has a bad day at work now and then. But if you have one of these 15 Most Stressful Jobs in the World, even one bad day can get you or someone else killed. From EMT to Coal Miner to Ice Road Trucker, these are the jobs that will keep you up at nights!


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xml Herald Sun | Breaking News

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:49:48 GMT
Aussie bosses are pulling their heads in
GLOBAL financial uncertainty is starting to bite Aussie companies with 85 per cent saying they won't hire new staff.


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xml A Slice of Life

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 03:42:21 +0000
Time to rethink the Steve Jobs iShrines?
Isn't the recent outpouring of emotion over the passing of Steve Jobs taking things just a little too far? Midnight vigils at Apple stores? Shrines? Millions of tweets, blogs, articles conferring almost saint like status on the ex Apple CEO? Steve jobs certainly was a visionary. Yes, he had some wonderful ideas but contrary to popular belief products such as the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, while they may have transformed the consumer electronics market are not likely to solve world hunger, the energy crisis, the GFC, climate change or terrorism and wars.

steve jobs ishrineIsn’t the recent outpouring of emotion over the passing of Steve Jobs taking things just a little too far?  Midnight vigils at Apple stores?  Shrines? Millions of tweets, blogs, articles conferring almost saint like status on the ex Apple CEO?  Steve jobs certainly was a visionary.  Yes, he had some wonderful ideas but contrary to popular belief products such as the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, while they may have transformed the consumer electronics market are not likely to solve world hunger, the energy crisis, the GFC, climate change or terrorism and wars.

Steve Jobs the man was apparently arrogant, selfish and inconsiderate.   While these attributes may well have helped him to find his path to success they would have been hardly likely to be endearing  to those that knew Jobs personally.  Apparently Jobs approached working relationships with a similar attitude, setting very high standards and regularly reducing to tears those who fell short of his vision.

Steve Jobs is commonly lauded as a visionary and innovator, but he is famously known for bragging about stealing others’ ideas. Possibly the most famous would be his visit to Xerox PARC in 1979. There he got his first glimpse of the mouse-driven GUI interface of the Xerox Alto, which was eventually to be implemented in the Apple Lisa and the Apple Mac.  Jobs has said that being forced out of Apple in 1985 was the best thing that ever happened to him, but it was as much his abrasive nature and his erratic and temperamental relationship with his team rather than his visionary nature that caused his downfall.  Source: Zednet

Considering this, it is rather strange that Steve Jobs will be remembered as a great visionary and innovator while Bill gates will almost certainly be remembered as the great borrower of ideas.  Steve Jobs did not write software or design chips and hardware; he employed others to do it for him.  The  highly restrictive model Jobs insisted on almost caused Apple to fade into irrelevance in the late 90s.  Apple computers are still expensive and very restricted in available software.  The limited nature of the new devices which have saved Apple from obscurity are in a way the key to their success.  An iPad is much more restricted in terms of software and user options than a windows PC but also less likely to crash.  Much less like a computer and much more like other consumer electronics.  iPhones and iPads may boast snazzy functions and elegant designs features but the restrictions mean they have been essentially dumbed down, making them more appealing to a mass market.  Your iPhone/iPad/iPod may be beautiful but it is essentially an intelligent fashion accessory.  Perhaps this is Steve Jobs’ true legacy.

So when you are holding your midnight vigil outside the Apple store or lighting candles in front of your iPhone shrine, just remember it is really your iPhone/iPad/iPod that you really love.  Had you known Steve Jobs personally  it’s unlikely you would have liked him very much at all.

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xml Comments for A Slice of Life

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:15:01 +0000
Comment on Shoes are The Window to the Sole by Amelia
Shoes are the most successful corporate construct ever. They have somehow created their own necessity; if it weren't for shoes, we wouldn't need shoes.

Shoes are the most successful corporate construct ever. They have somehow created their own necessity; if it weren’t for shoes, we wouldn’t need shoes.

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xml Reuters: Technology News

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:35:40 -0500
Super Bowl advertisers seek buzz on social media
NEW YORK (Reuters) - In the age of Twitter and Facebook, many Super Bowl viewers will use the commercial breaks to go online and see what people are saying about the game. This year, advertisers want them to tweet about their favorite commercials as well.

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xml BBC News - Technology

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 11:08:35 GMT
Facebook 'prepares to go public'
Facebook will begin the process of becoming a publicly-listed company this week, valuing the social networking site at between $75bn and $100bn, reports suggest.

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xml Geek.com

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:22:05 +0000
$270 Spark Linux tablet is powered by (and generates funds for) KDE Active Plasma

You’ve got a ton of choices right now if you’ve started shopping for the perfect tablet to meet your needs. But which one do you pick? Should you stick with a big brand name? What if you’re a staunch supporter of free, open source software? Is there a tablet out there that’s right for you? [...]

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xml New @ liamalexander.com

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:04:33 +0100
New Games Section
A new games section has been installed at this location: http://www.gzone.liamalexander.com/ A large range range of free flash games is available, including classics like Prince of Persia, Asteroids, Pacman and Tetris.

Register to login, record your high scores and compete against other players

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