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.

I have some more information and a list of publications available (pop-up window).

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- February 2007
- January 2007
- All posts from 2006
- All posts from 2005
- All posts from 2004

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
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The Daily Show's Jon Stewart on CNN Crossfire

This is a few days old -- and I am really only linking to what others have said -- but I still think this is worth posting.

I was filled with awe at the appearance that Jon Stewart from The Daily Show put in on CNN's Crossfire last Friday (US time), where he basically took the CNN debate show to task over what he saw as its failure to deal responsibly or appropriately with issues. He accused the show of being harmful to America, but he did it in a way that was also very funny.

For a good set of links on this, see Boing Boing. The exchange is available in glorious streaming video from IFILM.com (other sources of video are listed on Boing Boing).

And the hosts were probably just expecting a bland interview about Stewart's hilarious new book, America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction.

Update: MyWay news has run an update on the Crossfire exchange, drawn from AP. The update quotes follow-up barbs that CNN's Tucker Carlson made on Monday, and it also draws on comments made by a Comedy Channel executive.

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Distress at the state of television

The state of American television can be pretty distressing -- plastic surgery-based reality shows everywhere when you want to watch something with a bit of substance, and never the episode of Dr 90210 you keep missing when you are in the mood for some frivolous and superficial plastic surgery action.

I do not know what my television thinks of my trashy viewing habits, but one American flat-screen TV recently took matters into its own hands, emitting an international distress signal. According to a report on CNN (drawing on Reuters):

An Oregon man discovered earlier this month that his year-old Toshiba Corporation flat-screen TV was emitting an international distress signal picked up by a satellite, leading a search and rescue operation to his apartment in Corvallis, Oregon, 70 miles south of Portland.

Toshiba offered to replace the TV for free with another one that did not emit a 121.5 MHz distress signal.

On a completely different note, I have not been doing a great job of adding to this site of late. Work has been non-stop, and I have been doing some travel, and one of my brothers has just flown into Washington DC for a few days. But I will try to post more very soon!