The 3^rd Annual “Battle of the Bands” is a music festival of ethnic youth and young people within Victoria. The night will include ethnic action dancing, sway of the pacific, the glitter of Asia, Bands from the church groups will range from heavy rock to gospel country.

Many of the stars of the music festival will be “Second Generation” Australian born children of immigrants and refugees as performers.

Everyone is welcome to come and join in the fun and audience members are encouraged to come in costume of your ethnic heritage which include Anglo, European background.(Dutch, German, Scottish, English, Wales, etc)

It is proudly supported by the Uniting Church in Australia.

Date 22 November 2008.

Location Box Hill Wesley Uniting Church in 2-6 Oxford Street, Box Hill, Melbourne.

Times 3pm to 9.30pm

parking details Street parking

Tickets secretary. Tee Makoni - talaheumakoni@hotmail.com

Adults $5.00

Young people 12 to 25 Goldcoin donation

Children under 12 free.

Food stalls will be available

New Performers wishing to join in should contact:

Don Ikitoelagi (03) 9251- 5287 email Don.Ikitoelagi@victas.uca.org.au

One of the wonderful things about Open Source software is that there is a continuum of upgrades where users and developers find things that are broken and fix them.

Unfortunately, some of the fixes cause more breaks than existed in the system.

Gallery 2.1 upgrade to 2.3svn failings

Posted by: Samiuela LV Taufa on January 11, 2008 2:56:59 PM (821 Reads)

The regular problems taking for ever and a day to resolve happened again when I tried upgrading (due to security warnings) to a more current version of Gallery2.

Unfortunately, the upgrade coincided with Tonfon deciding to give me a hard time with Internet connections.

Clear problems from the upgrade.

it’s a good thing I’ve wandered this space often enough that my own records are augmenting poor memory, such that I can fix the new problem with the old fix.

Upgraded my Gallery to the current release as there were a number of documented security reasons to upgrade. Unfortunately, the update broke my Gallery and I haven’t been able to dedicate the time to fixing it, until I decided to google nomoa.com!!! Way to go nomoa.com.

The Free Press failed democracy in Australia when it kept silent and did not dig into the Howard Government exploitation of asylum seekers for political (let alone all the other nasties of that situation to maintain the facade), and it again looks to be failing Democracy. This time the failing is in the US Presidential elections where for some reason the ‘free press’ is conveniently forgetting the atrocities of this financial melt down brought forth by one candidate’s party politics.

Orson Scott Card, a noted author et. al. pulls the details in his treatise …

I  remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism.  You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere.  It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

What is a risky loan?  It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.

Seems similar to the existing two party system in Australia. One side has great economic nuance and atrocious concept of humanity, while the other side is all hugs and kisses and kiss economic stability goodbye.

There’s little worst in life than to live a lie and to be ignorant of it. It seems the ‘Free Press’ really isn’t that ‘free.’

From: Orson Scott Card, I love you.

It’s 2008. Every other month I go over my Internet bandwidth limit at home because Ubuntu needs an update, …, and the update just wants to bring home the neighbours kitchen sink.

The update process in Ubuntu has …. well it has gotten out of control. There is no doubt that updates are a necessity for security patches and bug fixes…no argument there. However, Ubuntu seems to want to build the operating system as they go… having you download huge numbers of updates, often daily.

read more

Ubuntu…Please Don’t Release on Time!
mogyweb
Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:50:28 GMT

But that is the life of a wannabe techo, bleeding edge bleeding pocket book.

If you want to really screw up things … you really have to be part of the largest institutes, and in most cases they happen to be national or multinational, including straight national states.

From the UK Telegraph.

The Department for Work and Pensions last year admitted that seven in 10 government IT projects fail.

So it is hardly surprising that progress on the NHS’s “Connecting for Health” computerisation scheme, already running at least four years late, has almost ground to a halt.

What is particularly concerning about this case, however, is its sheer cost - £12 billion.

All well to glorify the doom scenarios, but what can we do to find a solution? There’s a short ‘prescription’ in the above article. But, as it also ascribes things on paper don’t always become effective implementations.

As the most dangerous part of a car is the nut loose behind the wheel so is IT deployment. Fix the ‘nut’ and you’re more than half-way to your solution.

Ian Stehbens’ put up some earlier images of the church under constructions. Awesome photo, and the celebrations are in full swing for the opening.

Zion Church of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga in Australia under construction. This building replicates Centenary Church built in Nuku'alofa, Tonga in the 1950s.

• 

All those in the know are there … so more photos should be available somewhere…

Ian Stehbens’ put up some earlier images of the church under constructions. Awesome photo, and the celebrations are in full swing for the opening.

Zion Church of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga in Australia under construction. This building replicates Centenary Church built in Nuku'alofa, Tonga in the 1950s.

• 

All those in the know are there … so more photos should be available somewhere…

I’m not sure whether the date on this news item is correct Oct 2008?

From Radio Australia.

A parliamentary inquiry has heard Australia has one of the harshest immigration detention systems in the Western world.

A Joint Standing Committee on Migration is holding a public hearing in the west Australian city of Perth, as part of an inquiry into immigration detention.

Linda Briskman, from Curtin University's Centre for Human Rights and Education, told the hearing a Royal Commission is needed to expose the abuse of children in detention

Great to hear citizens trying to make a difference within their democracies.

Some are calling for abolition of the practise or the law, I think the deeper problem in Australia is that Governments with significant control in parliament can create laws that are outside the check-and-balances necessary for a functional democracy.

When you allow a law where decisions made cannot be challenged through the courts, then you aren’t too far different from a dictatorship. Same thing in pretty clothes. Oh wait, we have a term for countries like that, such as banana republics, pacific island countries?

Suppress innovation, but claim the credit

It is a staple of wisdom amongst many physicists that “physicists invented the web”. This is a story trotted out particularly when physicists justify their work to the outside world. A string theorist once told me that virtually all his grant applications include a paragraph that says “support fundamental research in physics - that’s what brought us the web”.

In fact, the claim that physicists invented the web is largely mythical.

read more …

For geek's it’s an interesting recount of history, for management it is an opportunity to re-appraise why you don’t like something.

Weather in Sydney is taking a Melbourne turn. We’ve had the coldest day of spring in aeons (or at least within the collective memory of the weather bugs) and it doesn’t feel like it’s getting any warmer.

They have this problem of a high percentage of asthmatics in Australia and a side of the medical profession believe that there a significant factor of the Australian lifestyle to the high rate of asthmatics.

We’re standing in the ‘smoker’s’ end of the station this cold morning, the wind is blowing a good chill factor. In our section is this cute little baby in her/his trolley standing with mum. There out here in the cold instead of being under the covers or behind the building from the wind because … good ol’ dad’s gotta have his smoko.

Way to go.

We all ‘know’ that a lot of what is purported out there as ‘for your safety’ but it is ugly when government spends billions of dollars on securing airports to be circumvented by just using your printer at home.

I just love this story!
Not at all certain I would dare to try it myself. Reading how Schneier uses fake boarding passes, and brings 24oz of not identified liquid through the airport security is like reading a Ken Follet novel!
And you all know what I think of airport security!

Schneier demonstrates poor airport security to The Atlantic
Kai
Sat, 18 Oct 2008 05:35:54 GMT

Apparently the smoke and mirrors have been determined to fool most of the people, most of the time. And the rest of you just keep quiet, shhhhhh

I was given this new book to read “Human Rights Overboard” it is a strange book to go through as it is part depressing, part encouraging, but wholly puts you into a zone of disbelief.

Unfortunately, for a title that could be ground-breaking expose (researched none-the-less) I walked into Dymocks (one of the major booksellers here) and the only way the Australian public are going to know about this work is if they already knew. (i.e. you have to special order.)

Human Rights Overboard BRISKMAN & GODDARD
Draws together, for the first time, the oral testimony and written submissions from the inquiry in a powerful and vital book that stands as an indelible record of one of Australia's bleakest legacies.

• ISBN

  9781921372407

• Format

  Paperback

• Category

• Publisher

• Imprint

• Pages

Online Price: $32.95

Add To Basket

Usually Ships in:
24 Hours

Fortunately, it seems that if you really do know about the book, then you can order it online (and get it faster than the guy walking into the shop.)

Should be required reading for all Tongans (in Tonga) dealing directly with Australian Government representatives. Should be required reading for senior church staff in Australia (of all denominations.)

Sounds like Kevin Rudd has a partner in arms.

"Bush, in a meeting with his Cabinet, said he's confident that 'in the long run, that this economy will come back.'" -- As I recall, in the long run, the economy also recovered from The Great Depression. So basically Bush is confident we're not fatally screwed. Great prediction, Nostra-dumbass.

Bush confident nation not doomed
Sumocat
Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:22:00 GMT

I guess they subscribe to the philosophy that what doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger ? From their nice comfortable, government funded housing, cars, etc.

Meanwhile a lot of people forced out of their houses this summer/winter wont be too happy about things.

I’ve been tracking OpenOffice (using it exclusively on-and-off) and they are really progressing quickly through their RC (Release Candidates)

The wonderful thing about their recent announcement?

The first office suite to use the new OASIS OpenDocument format, the future-proof international standard for office software

So now all those Paranoid types can get the ‘standards’ compliant Office Productivity tool for which IBM and Sun have been pushing to save your soul from Microsoft.

Read: There’s been a lot of hoopla huffing and puffing over a ‘standard’ that only now exists?

Not even in Tonga.

From: OpenOffice 3.0 RC4 

OpenOffice.org is an open-source, multiplatform and multilingual office suite comparable with MS Office.
It is compatible with all other major office suites and is free to download, use, and distribute. It was previously known as StarOffice before it became an open-source project. OpenOffice comes with OpenWriter - a word processor, OpenCalc - a spreadsheet and OpenImpress - a presentational package.
* The first office suite to use the new OASIS OpenDocument format, the future-proof international standard for office software
* Easy to install, with a whole new look and feel, matched to the type of computer in use
* More intuitive, more easy to use than ever, with a host of new usability features
* Complete with Base: an easy-to-use database manager with a fully integrated database
* Compatible with other software packages - now understands even obscure and rarely used features in major competitors.
You may download OpenOffice.org completely free of any licence fees, use it for any purpose - private, educational, government and public administration, commercial - and pass on copies free of charge to family, friends, students, employees, etc.
News source: OpenOffice.org
Download: OpenOffice 3.0 RC3
View: Release notes
Read full story...

OpenOffice 3.0 RC4
Marcel Klum
Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:53:33 GMT

Game Over Man, Game Over ….

It looks like annoying flash has become a serious security threat.

But where does it leave the security bod out there trying to let people in their organisation use the Internet ?

Looks like a great opportunity for a security appliance border device between users and their web experience.

Net game turns PC into undercover surveillance zombie
Daniel Fleshbourne
Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:17:02 GMT

Underscoring the severity of a new class of vulnerability known as clickjacking, a blogger has created a proof-of-concept game that uses a PC's video cam and microphone to secretly spy on the player. The demo, which is available here, appears to be a simple game that tests how quickly a user can click on a series of moving targets. Behind the scenes, it combines a generic clickjacking attack with weaknesses in Adobe's Flash technology to record the player using the PC's video camera and microphone.
The proof of concept is a powerful demonstration of the spooky implications behind clickjacking. The vulnerability allows malicious webmasters to control the links visitors click on. Once lured to a booby-trapped page, a user may think he's clicking on a link that leads to Google - when in fact it takes him to a money transfer page, a banner ad that's part of a click-fraud scheme, or any other destination the attacker chooses.
View: The full story @ The Reg
Read full story...

We all knew nz’s?

THE Federal Opposition's new immigration spokeswoman has raised strong concerns about the Government's new seasonal worker program.

Sharman Stone, from regional Victoria, where many of the new visa-holders would work, said the program was confusing and lacked detail.

Regulations to allow 2500 Pacific Islanders into Australia as guest workers were introduced into Parliament on Tuesday.

Unease over seasonal jobs - National News - National - General - Central Western Daily

My editor of choice is Scite and there's been an enhancement with one of the 'packages' I use that just drives me crazy. Autocompletion of quotes and brackets. This feature autocompletes your quotes, such that everytime your enter a single or double quote " the editor will automatically put in the second ". Feature drives me crazy.