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July 30, 2005
Tankerville.
I totally forgot to blog this photo after I took it:
It's Campbell and Fred hittin' the pokies at Tankerville. I think Campbell won 80c but he lost a dollar or something. Note the hideous woman in the background. That place was like hell. We couldn't even understand why certain combinations of symbols gave prizes and others didn't. None of it made any sense at all.
Posted by Piers at 02:06 AM | Comments (3)
Napoleon.
I need a Lego horse.
Posted by Piers at 02:01 AM | Comments (0)
July 29, 2005
Singing.
I love living out of home. Living with only one other person means only one person other than me has to be out of the house for me to sing along to Daft Punk at the top of my lungs, cooking stir-fry. I haven't even been drinking tonight.
It's currently 12.1 degrees here in Melbourne.
Posted by Piers at 11:43 PM | Comments (0)
Colour.
Is there anything more beautiful than the contrast between black and white? Colour is overrated. I don't think I'll buy any clothes that are not black or white ever again. When I see someone wearing nothing but black and/or white, it's just so stunning. The starkness is simply staggering to me. There's a common maxim about design that says "Design is not what you add, but what you leave out". I think that most colours just get in the way.
As with anything, there are exceptions.
Posted by Piers at 05:03 PM | Comments (1)
Collection.
This is Kevin's (my housemate/landlord) music collection. Most of it. Most of his CDs. He has vinyl on top of this. His taste is quite different to mine, but with a collection this big, there's going to be a fair amount of overlap with anyone's taste.
Right now I'm listening to "Stop Making Sense" by Talking Heads, the DVD of which Campbell watched at least a dozen times I think. I've seen it three times and it blew me away every time. Kevin's leant it to someone and it still hasn't been returned... so I was glad to find the CD in amongst the others.
If you want to know, it's organized alphabetically by artist. I think he should re-organize it, autobiographically, a la High Fidelity.
Posted by Piers at 01:40 AM | Comments (0)
July 28, 2005
Nicholson.
I went into the city today, and just for a change of scenery, I walked along Nicholson Street instead of Brunswick. I haven't walked that way ever before, I don't think. It's a very nice street. I suddenly realised where the Nunnery and the museum were. I've been to both of those places before but not known where they were in the general layout of the city, or where they were in reference to my house.
There are a whole load of really beautiful old buildings along that street, most of them in the same style, ranging from derelict to beautifully restored. They sport Corinthian columns that seem far too skinny to support the loads they look like they're supporting, I'd say they've got steel columns in their centers, or the balconies are cantilevered and not really supported by the columns. Either way, it all looks very delicate and Victorian.
Posted by Piers at 01:13 AM | Comments (3)
July 27, 2005
Wine.
Whenever I go to the bottleo, I have a real problem choosing wine. I can never remember what I've drunk before, so I tend to go with one of the two wines I know, or whatever the people working there recommend. I'm in a Getting Things Done kind of mood recently so I thought up a solution to this problem. Every bottle I drink from now on, I will photograph, add to iPhoto, tag with "wine" and give a star-rating. I've set up a "smart album" with every photo that's tagged with "wine". At first, this isn't going to be a lot of help, but the more wine I drink, the larger and more valuable the database will get. I'll review my previous purchases every time I add a new photo, which will help me to remember what I like when I'm at the bottle store next. What would be super-useful would be if I had an iPod Photo, then when I went to buy a bottle, I could consult my personal rating database.
What I might also do is, when I see a wine recommended in the paper, or by a friend, I'll create an image with text of the name of the wine and add that to the database in a similar style. Ingenious, no?
Posted by Piers at 08:26 PM | Comments (2)
Reject.
I went and had a look at the Reject Shop today, man that place is weird. It's underground, very crowded, full of brightly coloured things and drenched in fluorescent lighting. I didn't want to stay there very long.
Posted by Piers at 08:02 PM | Comments (5)
Closing.
Ok, ok! I get the message! What kind of a cafe shuts at 5, anyway? Jesus!
Posted by Piers at 04:35 PM | Comments (6)
July 26, 2005
Lists?
How awesome would this look on a tshirt! I think it's time for some L&D schwag.
Posted by Piers at 02:48 AM | Comments (1)
July 24, 2005
Customers II.
One type of customer I forgot, and one that annoys me even more than the innumerates. People who stack stuff SO HIGH on the conveyor belt, SO precariously that as soon as the belt moves a bit, half the stuff falls off. I don't know why people do it. I can't scan stuff any faster, you piling isn't helping. You'll have to wait.
I saw a couple of stories in my newsreader immediately after I made the last Customer post, I had to laugh. Perhaps I shouldn't be so critical.
The Woman Whose Blog Lost Her a Job - Part of the BBC's "Digital Citizens" feature, this woman got fired for blogging about her work.
How to go from "You're Hired!" to "You're Jaded!" in 4 months or less - TUAW story about a blogger who works for an Apple store, complaining about his customers, when four months earlier he had posted about how excited he was to be working at an Apple store.
Posted by Piers at 02:10 PM | Comments (2)
Search.
I love looking at my referrers and seeing what people have been searching for in Google to get to Lists and Diagrams, and how unimpressed they must have been when they arrived at my site. A couple of examples:
"picture / diagram of a bad kitchen" - linked to my Kitchen Design Photo-Essay
"Piers Morgan, gets punched by Jeremy Clarkson" - linked to the July archives, including the post about the other Piers Morgan
a flickr search for "girls" and "kissing" - linked to my Apple and Intel picture, linked to my Apple and Intel post
an MSN search for "chiken [sic] recipies [sic]" that lead to a typo by Matt in the comments of my Recipe Request post
... and my favourite, a search in Google for "nude ladies blog", unfortunately with SafeSearch turned on. This poor, horny 13-year old arrived at the Piers' Ladies Blog post, with no nude ladies whatsoever.
Posted by Piers at 02:55 AM | Comments (1)
Customers.
I hate the following types of customers:
1. Bag freaks.
The idiots that think plastic bags can't hold more than 3 cans. Believe me, it's not going to break. I've put ten times as much shit in a bag as this. Shut up and put your crap in your trolley.
2. Contamination freaks.
People who want their meat in separate bags. People who want their cooked and raw meat separate. People who don't want washing powder in the same bag as canned food. It's all sealed! Shut up!
3. Helpful children.
I don't care how much the little shits scream. Doesn't bother me. But when they're flinging shit around, throwing stuff at the scanner, getting in my way when I've got a queue a mile long, I just want to hold a fucking bag over their heads. Parents: keep your kids away from the scanner.
4. Price checkers.
Yes, it is that expensive. No, it's not on special. Yes, it did scan correctly. Hey, I'll be the first to admit that mistakes are made. Coles fucks shit up all the time, so do I. If you think something's gone through at the wrong price, tell me about it. But if I check, and it hasn't, don't argue. I wouldn't say it if I wasn't sure.
5. Cigarette demanders.
I can't sell cigarettes from my register, I don't have any. They're kept at the service desk, just like every other Coles and most other supermarkets. No matter how much you yell, they won't appear at my register. You'll have to walk that entire 10 meters and buy them over there. Quit whining.
6. Credit card hiders.
When you use your credit card, and have to sign the receipt, I have to check your signature. How do you not know this? Why are you putting your card away?
7. Insanely rushed people.
If you literally CAN'T wait one minute for whatever delay there is, why are you at the supermarket? I have never held a customer up for more than one minute, yet every day some jerk is going insane because it's taking so long. If you're late for a job interview or your wife is about to squeeze one out, why are you buying icecream?
And, my all-time least-favourite:
8. Innumerate people.
Twelve items is the limit. It's fucking lit up on the light. Don't tell me you didn't realise. There's a special lane, the one that splits into three registers. You KNOW that this is the 12-item lane. 14, no problems. 20, if we're not busy, I'll let it slide. 40? No. Go somewhere else. I can see how full your trolley is, don't pretend you didn't realise how much stuff you had. Get out of my lane.
Woo hoo for working at Coles!
Posted by Piers at 02:06 AM | Comments (6)
July 23, 2005
Links.
The Lists and Diagrams links are back. Get your daily hypertext fix at:
Or click on "li.nk.s" on the banner above.
It's still powered by del.icio.us, and you may or may not have noticed, but I've still been adding links to my del.icio.us feed while the links sidebar has been away. There are a couple of reasons I'm bringing the links back to the site, firstly I think that something I'm creating should probably reside on my own blog, considering I have the capacity to implement it. If I were on blogger or something, it would be a different scenario. Second, now that the links are on Lists and Diagrams, I can track the page's popularity and also facilitate comments.
The links page gets updated at about 3:18 am, AEST, if I've added any links that day. my del.icio.us feed gets updated as I add links.
I don't think that such ephemeral content deserves a fully-fledged archive page, so I haven't made one. The links page shows the links I've posted for the past 30 days. If you really want to look at older links, there is technically a links archive page, but it doesn't look very nice. You'd be better off going direct to the source, and look at my del.icio.us feed. It's a lot better presented. You'll also want to hit up my del.icio.us feed if you want to search by tag, because although I'm adding del.icio.us tags to each link, I think they look ugly on the links page so they're not displayed.
I haven't found a good "What the hell IS del.icio.us, anyways?" page, so I've written a short guide. If you don't know what del.icio.us is, read on...
Del.icio.us is a database of bookmarks. It's stored on del.icio.us' server, not on your computer. When you see something interesting on the internet, you can add that site's address to your del.icio.us account. It functions pretty much the same way as adding a bookmark in your web browser. Except, anyone else can look at them. You have your username, for example mine is "listsanddiagrams", and if you want to share your bookmarks with someone, you tell them to go to http://del.icio.us/yourusername, so for me that's http://del.icio.us/listsanddiagrams.
Each bookmark you post, you give a couple of "tags". These are like categories that the bookmark fits into. So if you were bookmarking a page about Bloc Party's latest tour, you might add the tags "music", "tour", "concert" or whatever. That way, you can look through your links database and see everything you've bookmarked in relation to music etc. It makes finding an old bookmark easier.
Del.icio.us also tracks who's posting what, so if you and 500 other people post a link to the same webpage, on your del.icio.us links page, underneath that particular link it'll say "... and 500 other people ...". This makes it easy to track what's hot on the internets RIGHT NOW, as you can at the del.icio.us/popular page.
Del.icio.us does a hell of a lot more stuff, but none of it is important if you're just trying to understand the concept. One such thing is integrating your del.icio.us links in your blog, as I've done. If you want to learn more about del.icio.us, I'd recommend hitting up the del.icio.us about page, where you can go to start using del.icio.us, then the
I checked all of my friends' blogs and none of them are ranked.
Posted by Piers at 03:17 PM
| Comments (4)
Oh yeah, feelin' cashed up. I'm in the top 12.18% richest people in the world. I think I might invite Ingvar Kamprad and Richard Branson over for foie gras and Beaujolet. Us rich folk do that.
Posted by Piers at 03:04 PM
| Comments (4)
I saw a short on TV the other night for a "Today Tonight Special" about the Post and its inefficiency and unreliability. I don't know about this, I think they're doing pretty well... Btw, I pixelated Em's address. Now if the letter had got to me like that, I'd be impressed.
Posted by Piers at 02:51 PM
| Comments (1)
Wired is running an article on how mind power has been used to skew the effects of random number generators, in an experiment at Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Program. I'm really interested in the human mind, particularly in the field of consciousness. I absolutely love this stuff. It's a kind of religion I have, a religion based around people. It's not really a religion, "faith" is a more accurate word. This faith I have doesn't have any gods or deities, the faith part is that the human mind is a million times more complex and powerful than we can imagine. This is actually a truism. It's impossible for a mind, or any system or machine, to be able to comprehend itself. This is because the act of comprehension is a function of the mind itself. If you think about it, you'd be going around in circles. If you understood everything there is to understand about the mind, then you don't understand everything, because the act of understanding everything is something you haven't considered. Then if you do consider that, and comprehend it, you're still left with comprehending your comprehension. It's similar to quantum physics. The act of knowing some information affects the information itself, making it impossible to know anything. That's called the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
So I'm a big fan of my faith. It's a theory you can prove using pure science, that is, you don't need any evidence to prove that the mind is more complex than you can comprehend. It's just pure logic.
With that fact in mind, all kinds of things are possible. Collective consciousness is a fascinating concept. It's centered around the belief that all minds are connected in some way, that one person's thought influences another's. There's a theory called the Hundreth Monkey theory that argues this point. I forget the exact details, it's written about in one of my favourite books, "The Art of Looking Sideways". Basically, there were some monkeys on an island near Japan that were taught that if they washed sweet potatoes, it made them edible. This was part of an experiment done in the 50s. What was interesting was that once the number of monkeys on this island reached some kind of "critical mass," monkeys on other islands nearby, that had had no contact with the monkeys on this first island, and had not been taught to wash the sweet potatoes, suddenly started washing and eating sweet potatoes. There's a bit of controversy over the accuracy of this experiment and how much the results have been fit to the original data collected, but it's an interesting concept, and there are other examples around.
I'm often excited by the time period I'm living in. I think that medical science is teetering on the edge of not only some exciting discoveries and ideas, but also it's undergoing a paradigm shift as physics did in the last century. There was an arrogance that existed, people thought they were reaching the limits of knowledge, that most things that could be discovered were already discovered, or soon to be. Then, gradually, people realized how little they actually knew. This century, I think that a small proportion of the crazy theories and ideas, like telekinesis, will turn out to be correct, and it will turn a lot of acknowledged facts on their heads.
Posted by Piers at 09:16 PM
| Comments (2)
It seems I've got the travel bug. I can see several factors that have led me to this state. Firstly, I've recently moved cities so I'm not feeling tied down. I haven't settled into Melbourne completely yet so I'm a bit up in the air, I guess it's because I know that everything I need to live fits in the luggage I have and is under the international weight allowance, almost. There are a couple of things I could jettison if push came to shove.
Second, Matt's been zipping around everywhere recently. He's been taking more flights than I have tram rides over the past month, and I mean literally. He reminded me recently that we were going to go to New York in the middle of next year. I can't remember when we planned this, but I do remember talking about it. Campbell's also talking about traveling to Japan later this year.
Thirdly, I watched a movie called "Sommersturm" (Summer Storm) last night, which was set in the German countryside. It was beautifully shot, and evoked a lot of memories of Germany. I have regularly thought about going back there since I left. I had always planned to hike from Paris to Berlin in the Spring to Summer, getting further North as it got warmer. As much as I loved the cities, it's the German forests and pastures that I think about most. Here's a nice flickr set of people hiking in Germany.
July 21, 2005
Rich.
Post.
July 20, 2005
Consciousness.
July 19, 2005
Wanderlust.
Seeing as I'm not studying this semester, I've got six months or so to save some money. I've got a goal to buy a digital SLR this year, I'm looking at a Nikon D70. I wouldn't want to take a trip without a really good camera. It's not that I wouldn't enjoy a trip without a camera, I just figure that seeing as I want to buy a camera anyway, I should do that first, and then travel. Makes more sense to do things in that order.
I can't think of anything I would enjoy more than hot-footing it to Bavaria sometime in May, with nothing but some camping gear, clothes, a camera and my iPod and hopping from town to town, sometimes camping and sometimes staying in youth hostels or above quaint little pubs. No internet, no crowds, no job, no people, no cares. Just sunshine and hills.
My passport expires today. I think I'll get a new one soon, it would make me feel one step closer to travel. Or further from home. You have to have something to look forward to.
Posted by Piers at 11:28 PM | Comments (3)
July 17, 2005
Darkness.
I went to my boring-ass Safeway induction this morning, which started at 8am out at Preston, which meant leaving the house before the sun had risen. Horrible. Then sitting through 7 hours of company DVD presentations and questionnaires. I took a cool photo on the way out there, though.
Posted by Piers at 01:44 AM | Comments (0)
July 15, 2005
Mashup.
Cool Hunting is having a Gorillaz mash-up contest, whereby you can win a Gorillaz-designed 5boro skateboard deck. To win, one must have their mashup including one of the songs from the Gorillaz' latest album, Demon Days, selected by the Cool Hunting judges as the best. The winner will also have his/her song available for download from Cool Hunting. Entries close 29 July.
For some reason, I really want to win this. Not sure why. The album, btw, is dope as. I've been listening to it on loop. You may recognize the song "Feel Good Inc" from Apple's "Rollerskating" iPod ad.
I've made one mashup between "Dirty Harry" and an a capella of Roots Manuva's "Witness", which fits, but I'm not entirely happy with it. I used Quicktime Pro and maths to match the beats, and Garageband to layer them. I'm going to tool around with it a bit longer, if it gets to the point where I think it's decent, I'll put it up as the next podcast.
What I'm soliciting from you, dear readers, is any suggestions for song combos. Either something that fits musically, or a more obscure connection between the two songs, like some Hieroglyphics beats mixed with a Gorillaz track, because Del the Funky Homosapien, who rhymed for Hieroglyphics, used to be with the Gorillaz but is absent in this album. Also, if anyone has any Demon Days instrumentals or a capellas, or can recommend any software for mashing, I'd appreciate that too.
Posted by Piers at 04:27 PM | Comments (0)
July 14, 2005
Taxing.
And it's tax time again. I got a group certificate in the mail the other day, from the WA Turf Club, where I worked for one night and got paid $148. That, of course, was not my main source of income for the previous fiscal annum. But I digress. All this tax crap only means one thing for me, pain. This year won't be as bad as last year, when I had five sources of income and technically ran a small business, but it will be bad nonetheless. The government's online tax program, e-tax, is ONCE AGAIN only for Windows computers. Their advice if you use a Mac or Linux? Use an emulator. Geez, thanks. I'll just go out and spend $200 on that now, as well as a copy of Windows, so I can do my tax myself.
If you are in a similar situation, or if you simply think that as much as 10% of the Australian population shouldn't be shut out from doing their tax online, you can complain loudly to the ATO, "What, no Mac support?"
Hit them up at their complaint services page or at their email form.
It would be seriously un-hard for them to make a web-based version of the e-tax application. Or something written in Java to make it all cross-platformy. That way everyone would be happy.
Posted by Piers at 11:42 PM | Comments (6)
July 13, 2005
Find.
I was walking past Grub Street Bookstore today (which, oddly, is nowhere near Grub Street) where they have a $1 bargain box at the entrance. I always have a squiz in there to see if there's anything worthwhile. Today I noticed a book by J.P. Donleavy, an author I recognized for some reason. I figured I must have heard something good about him because I couldn't remember where I'd seen his name before. It wasn't until I'd bought the book and arrived home that I remembered, I had previously read a book by J.P. Donleavy, called Schultz. It was terrible. I hated that book. I didn't even finish it. Now I have a copy of "A Singular Man" by this hack. I was feeling pretty annoyed (yeah, even though it only cost a dollar) until I looked inside the book, and found this written in it:
It's in faint pencil, but clearly says "B. Humphries". I found examples of his signature here and here. I think they look like the same writing. They don't look the same, of course, because you don't write your name exactly like you write your signature. But the tall bit on the "p", the curve leading into the "H", I think I have one of Barry Humphries' old books. I might read it now.
Posted by Piers at 05:26 PM | Comments (0)
July 12, 2005
Morning.
I had an "interview" for a nightfill job at Safeway this morning, at 9.30 am. I dilligently set the alarm on my phone for 7.30, made sure it wasn't set on "silent," plugged it in to the charger, then went to sleep. This morning I dozed thinking how I was awake without the sound of my alarm. It struck me as rather odd. I checked the time on my phone. I must have stared at that figure for a solid 30 seconds or more. I hate it when something requires my attention before I'm ready to give it.
9:17. I'm half-naked, and I have to be at an interview in 13 minutes, at a place that's normally about 15 minutes' walk away. Ideally, I should be at the interview between five and ten minutes early, so that means I have between three and eight minutes to get there.
I can't remember the last time I hustled so much, but I made it. Arrived there at 9:31, met with the grocery manager who, bless his soul, offered me coffee. I was dizzy from the run. Mental note: smoke less, jog more.
The guy, Wesley, quietly reminded me of an amalgamation of Garreth and David from "The Office". The way he aligned a pencil - my pencil - with the edge of a post-it note. The way he spoke about how Woolworths and Safeway are run, and how he would do it differently, the "initiatives" he's taken to drastically reduce the amount of overstock in the storeroom in just six weeks... it was, disturbing.
Just got a phone call from the HR office, I think it was the same woman who was at the group interview. The one that said she was in "haych arr". This isn't Sesame Street, people. We can call letters by their names. Say it with me now, "aitch". Once more...
I got the job, w00t. Mo money for me. My weekends are pretty much annihilated, I'll be working Thursday evenings at Coles then at Safeway until late at night, same Friday, then either Coles or Safeway on Saturday night, and Coles Sunday afternoon-evening. At least that means I'll have less opportunity to blow my hard-earned cash.
Posted by Piers at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)
Inspiration.
It's not everyday that you know what you want to do. I don't think many people walk along the street thinking, "yep, I'm totally an engineer. Engineering is what I do, it's for me." You don't ponder this shit doing your groceries, sitting in gridlock, reading the paper. It's the little infrequent occasions when you see something, feel inspired, and say "Wow. That's what I'm about."
Today I had one of those moments.
Presenting, The Lapjuicer. It's half art, half design, half social commentary, and I fucking love it.
Apparently they're available for order, no word on pricing. There's an email address at this site you can hit up for details. My birthday's less than two months away, people. If you order now, it'll get from the UK to here by sea mail in time.
Posted by Piers at 11:36 AM | Comments (0)
July 10, 2005
Food.
One of the most startling contrasts between living at home and, well, not, has been food. Almost everything about it has changed. I'm eating twice as much as I used to. Literally. I've been having five meals a day. I think this is because whatever part of my brain that controls hunger and fullness doesn't work very well. I don't normally feel hungry, and when I do, it goes away quickly. I usually judge whether I should eat or not by the time of day, or when other people are eating. So at home, either someone else was cooking, and I'd eat when food was ready, or I was cooking, and I'd cook when people wanted to eat. Now, I have a lot of free time, and no schedule to keep. I enjoy eating, and there's no-one else to cook for, so when I feel like eating, I eat.
I'll have a solid breakfast between 9 and 10, I'll be cooking again by midday, I'll have a mid-afternoon snack as big as my lunch, dinner, then something before I go to bed. Not light meals, either. I usually cook in big batches and have a few things on the go, I think at the moment in the fridge I've got three or four meals. That way I just heat what I want to eat.
Shopping has been interesting as well. It's really only now that I've noticed the staggering amount of choice in supermarkets, and it's paralysing. At home, food would just arrive once a week. Special requests go on the shopping list, and they also usually just arrive at my house. Now that I have to buy everything myself, I also have to choose everything myself. I'm not used to doing this. For example, peanut butter. At home, I'd just request "crunchy". Now, I have to consider brands, crunchy or super-crunchy, what size to get? I know the larger tubs are better value, but I've only got so much money to spend, I don't really want to be buying $15 tubs of peanut butter.
Another decision is whether to get the weirdo stuff. Like super-crunchy peanut butter. I usually say yes. As well as super-crunchy peanut butter, this week I've tried organic bananas, non-homogenized milk, single-clove garlic. Next week, I'm looking forward to some custard apples, lebanese cucumber, spelt bread (I don't even know what that is) and chilli Tim-Tams. I can buy this crazy stuff now, because I'm the only person who's going to eat it.
Here's what I've discovered: Super-crunchy peanut butter: not as crunchy as I expected, but as crunchy as I'd like. Organic bananas: nothing to rave about. Single clove garlic: inconvenient. Non-homegenized milk: gold.
It's a gastronomic adventure, and I like it.
Posted by Piers at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)
Statistic.
Fellow bloggers! Be of use! Take this survey!
Posted by Piers at 11:17 PM | Comments (0)
Changes.
A couple of font changes today. Nothing big. The opposite, in fact. The fonts are smaller, and I've switched from Lucida to Verdana for the main text, and from Lucida to Georgia for the headings. Colours have changed slightly as well. I think this makes the site more readable.
Posted by Piers at 10:52 PM | Comments (0)
Event.
WooHoo! Quality Event is back up. About time, Campbell!
Posted by Piers at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)
July 09, 2005
Re-rebuttal.
Below is the entire text of Mr. Robertson's rebuttal, annotated by yours truly. Mr. Robertson's text appears in italics, my response appears in normal text, and other external quotes appear in bold.
I imagine by this stage in time, most of you will have read Mr Baynes' blog and also that of Mr Morgan. Both have revealed startling accusations about my reputation, and a verbal contract between myself and Mr Baynes, which I feel calls for some rebuttal in my defense.
There were no accusations made about Mr. Robertson's reputation.
I should note firstly, that Mr Baynes correctly points out the terms of our verbal contract, with one technical error, which for our purposes is irrelevant (the date of commencement was the 9th of June not the 7th of June, 2005). Mr Baynes points out the terms in very specific detail, without specifying exactly what would constitute a breach of those terms. This in turn, gives rise to the question of how and why Mr Baynes proceeds to claim (in a very broad sense) that there has been a breach of the terms.
Mr. Baynes does indeed point out what would constitute a breach of terms. Quote:
"In the case of Matt smoking during the previously mentioned period, A$ 20 would be paid to yours truly. If Matt could refrain from his daily dance with Ms Nicotine for 6 long months then A$20 would find its way from my wallet into his own."
While this language may be a bit florid, it is nevertheless quite clear. If Mr. Robertson smokes a cigarette between the period defined, then that is a breach of the terms. In such a scenario, Mr. Baynes wins the bet, and Mr. Robertson is obliged to pay Mr. Baynes $20 Australian. If Mr. Robertson does not smoke any cigarettes within the period of the bet, he wins the bet, and Mr. Baynes will be required to pay Mr. Robertson the $20. I don't see how this could be interpreted any differently.
Mr. Baynes has based his case against me on what is only circumstantial evidence at best. This means (for people such as Mr. Morgan, who may have difficulty with that term) - evidence which merely points or circumstances to a set of events taking place, not a direct witnessing of said events. Mr. Baynes is currently residing in Australia and I am currently residing in North America, thus is seems highly unlikely that Mr. Baynes has witnessed my person in the past weeks, or had the occasion to witness whether or not I have been smoking. Thus there is no direct evidence, only circumstantial evidence.
It appears that Mr. Robertson is playing on a common misconception that circumstantial evidence is somehow unimportant, or carries no weight. Taken from Wikipedia:
The distinction between direct and circumstantial evidence is important because with the obvious exceptions (the immature, incompetent, or mentally ill) nearly all criminals are careful to not generate direct evidence, and try to avoid demonstrating criminal intent. Therefore, to prove the mens rea levels of "purposely" or "knowingly," the prosecution must usually resort to circumstantial evidence. The same goes for tortfeasors in tort law, if one needs to prove a high level of mens rea to obtain punitive damages.
The absence of direct evidence does not mean that proof beyond reasonable doubt cannot be established.
Very well, to humour Mr. Baynes (who Mr. Morgan assures me is reaching out for "a little excitement in his life") let us consider this piece of circumstantial evidence. Mr. Baynes has chosen not to reveal it to any of the readers of his blog. He has posted a copy of it with so much blacked out that it is difficult to read or assume any sort of context. He has then selectively quoted one line from it, without providing any context for said line or any proof that the line authentically derives from the evidence. On this basis alone, this should 'evidence' should be disregarded. I will, however, continue to discredit it.
There is a good reason that the majority of the document was blacked out, and Mr. Robertson knows exactly what that reason is. He expressly requested that certain details within that document not be publicly revealed. "Deep Anus" was only trying to uphold that request. With Mr. Robertson's permission, the entire contents of the document will gladly be publicized.
The authenticity of this piece of evidence, it being circumstantial, is also highly questionable. It would be extremely easy for Mr. Baynes and his cohorts to manufacture such a piece of evidence. Although I am not making such an allegation, it is another ground on which a fair-minded person would discredit the evidence in question.
Were such an allegation to be made, the character of the witness would be called into question to ascertain whether a fabrication of evidence was likely. I think that Mr. Robertson would agree that Mr. Baynes is not the kind of person to be fabricating evidence.
As with most circumstantial evidence, its credibility is assisted by knowledge of its source. It stands to reason that information which is merely circumstantial, and that is obtained from an anonymous source is not credible. This is particularly true when the source decides to determine its anonymity with a farcical name, such as "Deep Anus". On this basis, the piece of evidence can and should also, be totally discredited. I am not sure what Mr. Baynes meant when he said "Surely this is incontrovertible evidence that Matt has been recently smoking" but if what he does mean by "incontrovertible" is uncontroversial or conclusive, well I would urge my fair-minded and reasoned friends to think again.
Here I am presented by a profound conflict in Mr. Robertson's reasoning. On the one hand, he states that the source of the leaked information is not publicly known, and is therefore tarnished. On the other, he states later in this rebuttal:
"I should stress, however, that I will not have this matter decided by public opinion or group consensus."
I will present a scenario I believe to be true. Mr. Robertson knows the source of the evidence. He knows it is not falsified and he knows that he has breached the terms of the contract. Now if the public were not to play any role in deciding whether the contract had been breached, publicly revealing the evidence in its entirety as well as its source would be pointless. Yet Mr. Robertson seems to require such a revelation before he accepts the validity of the evidence. You can't have your cake and eat it too, Mr. Robertson. Either permit full publicity or don't. You can't require exposure and deny it at the same time.
What is perhaps more damaging and more personally upsetting about Mr. Baynes' allegations is that they verge on propaganda. Here is a man with no hard evidence against another man, who is presenting what can only be regarded as far from credible circumstantial evidence against that man, without having the decency to question that other man about the matter first. Further, Mr. Baynes is asking his peers to consider this 'evidence'. In doing so, is he trying to persuade them that I have breached the terms of our contract (by using the flawed evidence he presents prior) or is he so unsure about the authenticity and credibility of the evidence that he feels he needs backup from his peers to make it credible? Or, is it a combination of the two; he feels insecure about making such a gross allegation on such flimsy evidence, that he is trying to persuade his peers of the evidence (perhaps by not presenting the evidence in its totality and not revealing its source) so that they will rally against me? All in all, disappointing behaviour, particularly for a Brit, I think you all would agree.
A judge or jury would assess, respectively, the validity or reliability of evidence. In the absence of such court proceedings, Mr. Baynes has turned to the public to act as the jury. I, for one, don't consider this "disappointing behaviour". I consider it democratic and courteous.
I don't believe that public opinion should have any role in settling disputes between individuals. I will, however, admit that given my history of making agreements with Mr. Baynes, I should know better than to assume that Mr. Baynes won't try desperately to use public opinion as a bargaining tool or even as evidence itself. Thus, I am prepared to entertain the opinion of my peers on this matter, and encourage you to think carefully about the likely falsity of Mr. Baynes' allegations against me. I should stress, however, that I will not have this matter decided by public opinion or group consensus. It remains clear to me that Mr. Baynes and I must come to a determination of the finer points of what exactly constitutes a breach of our agreement in order to alleviate any further inappropriate and false allegations against myself, and any further disgraceful behaviour on the part of our friend, Mr. Baynes.
This matter cannot be decided by public opinion. The public, in this case, has no authority to act or power to enforce. The public does not have control over your actions or finances, Mr. Robertson. The public can, and will, form an opinion as to what course of action you should take following the revelation of this evidence, but the public cannot force you to take that course of action. I would encourage you to think carefully, too. Think carefully about what is to be gained and lost from each possible course of action you may take, Mr. Robertson.
You may have noted that I have neither confirmed nor denied whether or not I have smoked any cigarettes in breach of my agreement with Mr. Baynes, since June 9, 2005. The reason for this is not that I have anything to hide; it is simply that I regard the allegations as farcical and the evidence as false that I have felt I have nothing to defend. I will say for the record, however, that I have not breached my agreement with Mr. Baynes.
Please elaborate on this statement. Is the "agreement" that you refer to:
1) That if you, Mr. Robertson, smoke a cigarette before the end of the period of the contract, you will pay him $20,
or is it:
2) That you will not smoke a cigarette before the end of the period of the contract?
Your final paragraph implies the latter. For clarity, an appropriate response would be one of the following:
1) I have not smoked a cigarette since the 9th of June this year, and have not yet lost the bet with Mr. Baynes.
or,
2) I have smoked one or more cigarettes since the 9th of June this year, and have lost the bet with Mr. Baynes.
Please don't take this as putting words in your mouth. Release public statements as you see fit. The two statements suggested are exactly that, suggestions. Suggestions that I believe will afford the maximum clarity. If you can assert your innocence or guilt in a more clear and concise manner, please do so. I would like to see it.
Sincerely,
Matt
Posted by Piers at 07:51 PM | Comments (3)
Arial or Helvetica?
BooYah! First time, baby!
If your response is "Bah, they look the same!", then read this article, which demonstrates the differences between the two, and then this article, which charts the history of the two fonts, and explains how the differences matter.
Posted by Piers at 02:20 PM | Comments (1)
Quitgate
He'll deny the accusations. He always does.
Posted by Piers at 01:10 AM | Comments (0)
July 08, 2005
Internet responses to London bombings
London Bomb Blasts Flickr Group
UPDATE BBC roundup
UPDATE BBC Eyewitness photos
UPDATE Metroblogging London
UPDATE Livejournal mood fluctuations
UPDATE A funny thing happened to me on the way to work this morning. My tube blew up. (First-hand account)
UPDATE Surviving a Terrorist Attack (Another first-hand account)
UPDATE Boingboing has lots more links
UPDATE Bonnie and Matt's parents are fine
UPDATE It was the French!
UPDATE British newspaper front pages
And, what is likely to become the photo of the incident, cleverly Creative-Commonsed:
London Underground signs, re-worked
Posted by Piers at 12:41 AM | Comments (3)
July 06, 2005
Priceless.
Posted by Piers at 09:58 PM | Comments (4)
Podcast 3
Here it is (32mb mp3 file). It's a very rocking compilation, 4/4 beats and hard drum kicks, with a nice wind-down at the end. Track listing and details after the jump.
00:00 Ghetto Icecream Truck
I found this track on a website with a whole load of icecream truck recordings. No idea where that site is now.
00:17 The Seeker - The Who
Totally awesome classic. Got this off the American Beauty soundtrack.
03:36 Take Your Mama Fighting (Scissor Sisters vs. Nickelback cover of Elton John) - Toneblender
I think this came from mashuptown.com, it's a mashup of "Take Your Mama Out" by the Scissor Sisters with a Nickelback cover of Elton John's "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting". Unlike many mashups, it stands on its own. It's not just a "hey, that's an interesting combination" thing, it's actually a cool song.
07:17 Dirty Heart - Dallas Crane
Got this off a Triple J Hot 100, the most recent one I believe. I've never been a big Dallas Crane fan, but this song rocks out. I changed the mix slightly with this song, I originally had "Just One Of Those Things", a Brazilian Girls remix of the Blossom Dearie song. It was interesting, but really stretched the compilation to the limit of coherance. Dirty Heart works better.
09:46 Thank Me With Your Hands (Panthers Remix) - MSTRKRFT
Amazon occasionally puts out free mp3 downloads, no DRM. This was one of them. I've never listened to the Panthers much, and I've never heard of MSTRKRFT, but I love this song. It has some of the best lyrics ever written, like "I dig holes all day / You and me, we are not the same"
13:47 Luno (Bloc Party Cover) - Death From Above 1979
This song was on the Protein podcast, I'm a big Bloc Party fan and I'm starting to get into Death From Above 1979 because of this song. It's a very sympathetic cover, they add a bit of an electro flavour, it's definitely their own style, without screwing the original song around too much.
17:37 Guilt Is A Useless Emotion - New Order
One of my favourites off New Order's "Waiting For The Sirens' Call" album.
23:02 Make Love - Daft Punk
Off "Human After All", I liked the way this song blended into "Guilt Is A Useless Emotion". Looking at the tracklisting, it doesn't appear to fit, but if you listen to the mix in its entirety, I think you'll get it.
I plan of releasing a few of these mixes, because I have such awesome taste in music and everyone should listen to what I tell them to. I'm being facetious. I like it when other sites put out mixes like this, so I figured I'd do it as well. I've got two more mixes in the works, one's a bit bleepy, the other's more beatsy. In the future, I'm going to attempt more mixing, not just sticking the songs together.
Enjoy!
Posted by Piers at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
July 05, 2005
Podcast 3 is a-comin'
This latest installment of the L&D podcast series is not like the others, it's a music mix. You don't have to listen to me mumble and complain even ONCE. It's a 30 minute mix of the most awesomest tunes I've been playing recently. I use "mix" in the loosest sense, I did a bit of cutting and fading in Garageband, but GrandMasterFlash it is not. Unfortunately for you suckers, it's 34mb and I all-encompassingly can't be fucked uploading that to my server on 56k. I also can't be fucked going out looking for wifi at 7 o'clock at night. You'll have to wait until I get to my favourite wifi-enhanced cafe, Food Inc. tomorrow morning.
I just thought I'd blog about it now because it is so. damn. good.
Posted by Piers at 07:33 PM | Comments (0)
July 04, 2005
The other Piers Morgan
I had a bit of a poke on Google today to see if a search for "Piers Morgan" pointed to Lists and Diagrams at all. Unfortunately, the situation is even worse than I expected. That fucker "Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan" now has an article on Wikipedia about him, under the heading "Piers Morgan". Just so everyone knows, I, the editor of Lists and Diagrams, have nothing to do with the disgraced former editor of the Daily Mirror. We are not related any more than any other two humans are related. I have no beef with Jeremy Clarkson, who apparently once punched the other Piers Morgan. Mr Clarkson has never punched me. I am much happier being the editor of Lists and Diagrams than the Daily Mirror.
Posted by Piers at 05:38 PM | Comments (2)
Wifinding
Free wifi baby, get it how you can. I'm currently downloading stuff from the Protein podcast while getting strange, strange looks from guys in suits. Today's wifi comes courtesy of Orica, I think. Very fast, I'm clocking upwards of 160kB/sec. Pity the temperature isn't as high as my connection speed, I think it's currently about 12 or 13 degrees.
I'm in a lane called Evelyn Place next to the Orica building at 1 Nicholson St, for anyone who wants a fast, free connection.
UPDATE Oh crap! Man Charged With Stealing Wi-Fi Signal
Posted by Piers at 03:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
My New Room
I've made a panoramic photo of my room. It's not morphed properly, I just overlaid a whole load of shots in Illustrator. Click on the photo to look at the larger version, there's a lot more detail.
Be warned, the photo is very big. Will take a while on 56k.
Posted by Piers at 03:26 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 03, 2005
The L&D Podcast, iTunes 4.9 and You
The latest version of iTunes, 4.9, is out. Either use Software Update (in your system preferences) if you're on a Mac, or go to the iTunes website to download it directly, and you'll be able to download the Lists and Diagrams podcast automatically, right in iTunes. Once you've installed the latest version of iTunes, hit Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast, and copy-and-paste this address into the text box:
http://www.listsanddiagrams.com/index.xml
The lastest media enclosure in the rss feed will then start downloading. As of today, that will be the video I made of Campbell playing the ukulele. iTunes will include this in your library, and will be able to play it, but it won't be copied to an iPod. The first podcast isn't in the directory, but the second is, and any subsequent from now on, will be. Once you've subscribed to the Lists and Diagrams podcast, they'll be downloaded automatically.
Posted by Piers at 08:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Tipple of Choice
One of the things I've been missing about Perth is Harvey Fresh milk. I love that stuff. I hadn't been able to find a new brand that lived up to Harvey Fresh's standard, up until today. At the supermarket today, I found Parmalat Pure Organic Unhomogenised Full Cream Milk. This stuff is fantastic. It tastes like cream, but with a thinner consistency. It's pretty expensive, at $4 for 2L, but milk is something I like to splurge on. There's not a big difference in terms of dollars between the most expensive and the least. Sure, the price might double, but that only means an extra few dollars a week, well worth it in my opinion. This milk is absolute gold, it's really filling. It has 4.1g of fat per 100mL. For comparison, Dairy Farmers full cream has 3.6g, light milk has around 1g, skinny milk has around 0.1g.
The Parmalat logo is pretty cool as well. The text is everyone's favourite font, Helvetica, and it has a cool stylized flower thing that's not on the milk packaging but is on their website.
Unfortunately this milk isn't distributed in WA. Too bad, suckers. You'll have to move to Melbourne.
Posted by Piers at 06:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
DONG!
Now that James has been given his present, I can post photos of all the antics we've been having with it.
Link to Flickr group of dong shots:
Posted by Piers at 05:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 01, 2005
I am now officially retro
Apple have updated their line of iPods, lowering the prices of the 1GB iPod Shuffle and 60GB iPod (formerly iPod Photo), introducing a colour-screened 20GB iPod as well as a black and red encased U2 version of the same, and axeing the black and white 20GB. The black and white 40GB (the model I have) was discontinued a while ago, and now Apple no longer sells black and white full-sized iPods. The iPod Minis still have b&w screens. The full-sized iPod lineup now includes 20 and 30GB models that use the single-platter 1.8" hard-drive, and the 60GB model with the slightly thicker dual-platter hard drive.
iPodlounge has a good roundup.
Posted by Piers at 05:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Rockin' the Uke
I've made a video of Campbell rocking out on Fred's ukulele. Damn he plays that thing well. Download the video (2.7mb Quicktime movie)
Posted by Piers at 05:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Mark Fin: The Face of Family Destruction
These posters, backed with thin plywood and strapped to lamp-posts, are all over Fitzroy, they've arrived within the past couple of days. Does anyone know what they're about?
Posted by Piers at 05:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack