I'm an Australian, based in the Washington, DC, area of the United States. I spend a lot of time there with Jasmine, Australia's best-known speedsolver of the Rubik's Cube. Prior to the US, Jasmine and I were based in London, UK. We have also lived previously in the United States and Australia.
I have worked for an Australian business rules and compliance company since 1999 in Australia, the US and the UK. I have also lectured in IT and Law related topics at King's College, London, and at The Australian National University.
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- February 2007
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These are a few of my favourite links:
- Jasmine's site
- Jasmine's blog
- Mikal
- Daveydweeb
- Beth
- Lyn
- Doug
- Marissa
- Lisaloha
- David (Greenomics)
- Paul's Ramblings (music)
Hits since 1 Sep 2004
Site design by Jasmine
Sun, 05 Sep 2004 [Australian eastern time]
I have been a big fan for a while now of a site called the Wikipedia. Wikipedia stands for what the internet should be about. It's a publicly accessible encyclopedia, with the twist that it's written by the people who read it. As you browse the Wikipedia, you can edit any entry or even create entries for new topics. It's an awesome platform to share ideas.
The obvious catch with this system is that there is no authoritative editor to ensure the correctness of material that users post. The answer to this is meant to be that "the market will sort it out". In other words, users will find errors and fix them -- and I know I have done this myself. The fact that the material could have been contributed by anyone makes me think critically about what I read -- but the fact that there are topics documented in Wikipedia that are poorly documented elsewhere online means I don't worry too much about this. In other words, the benefit I derive from the system outweighs the risk.
However, not everyone agrees. I have been following a recent thread on Slashdot based around responses to a journalist who was critical of Wikipedia. The thread came with an interesting idea, and a perhaps disappointing outcome:
Techdirt suggested an experiment: insert bogus information into Wikipedia, and see how long it takes for the mistake to be removed. Well, I did that experiment, and the results weren't good: five errors inserted over five days, all of which lasted until I removed them myself at the end of the experiment."
You can read more at Dispatches from the Frozen North (a recommended link).
[/Credit where it's due] permanent link
Dr Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker named top scientists
CNN has just run a Reuters story that Dr Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant, Beaker, have been named the world's top screen scientists. The two Muppets roundly beat other contenders like Dana Scully from The X-Files, and Doctor Who.
My favourite quote from the story:
"They're the kind of scientists you would like to be but never quite dared to," said Alan Slater, a scientist at the University of Exeter in southwestern England.
The poll was run by the British Association for the Advancement of Science and the BBC Cult TV website. The BBC site is pretty cool -- full of all sorts of important stuff about Doctor Who and other important topics.
Back after denial of service attack
This site is back after some denial of service problems at the ISP. Hopefully, everything will be clear sailing from here.