·:[ Leefe rates the world… ]:·
• • • • •

After spending billions of dollars on measures to catch terrorists, without any results, it is decided the public sector is not up to the job.

“The marvels of modern technology,” said the woman, shrugging at a nearby sign: Immigration-Powered by Google.

With all the data it collects, Gmail/search results/pages visited/adds displayed, Google is considered the best private sector business to screen people entering the USA. But do you want customs officers querying you about what you sent 6 months ago? Or why certain adds were displayed with your search results?

An interesting piece of fiction that asking ‘what if Google was evil?’.

• Scroogled (Cory Doctorow, Radar, September 2007)

404 error

Ah, the joys of the new Word 2007 docx format. Had someone sent me a docx file today and needed to work out how to open it on a Mac.

A quick search in Google found me the Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.1.1 (Beta). Unfortunately the Download now! link displays a generic IIS 404 error page

Which left me with a converter that I can’t download. Looking at the general Mactopia download page I found there is now a 0.2 version available. And the download link works correctly on this page.

So why does the page for the old 0.1.1 version of the converter shows up in Google before the 0.2 version? Probably because more people, like the article How do I open docx files ?, link to it.

So it would stave off confusion if Microsoft just redirected the old page to the new page. I’ll try dropping them a note via the feedback form and see if that gets anywhere.

Oh, and download.microsoft.com could do with something other a generic IIS 404 error page .

We all know that the Australian federal election has been called for 24 November, but did you realise that the electoral role closes when the election is called?

You need to enroll if you have never been enrolled, or if your details have changed recently (eg name or address changed).

So, if you are enrolling for the first time your registration needs to be received by 8pm on Wednesday 17 (tomorrow). And if you are updating details you have till 8pm on Tuesday 23 October. See the AEC Close of Rolls page.

Don’t want to miss out on voting? Check the Australian Electoral Commission site for more info about enrolling. Or call the number to check your enrolment.

Australian Electoral Commission
13 23 26

Remember voting is not just a privilege, it is also a responsibility. Enroll to vote and make you voice heard.

Thank you to Disco Knitter for reminding me to do a post about this.

After 4 years there isn’t much to show for the $367 million Tcard contract with ERG. Both ERG and the NSW government bare some responsibility for the delay. And now they are thinking of making public transport more expensive when the system is introduced. Don’t you want more people to use public transport, be green and reduce traffic congestion?

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