From the in-box...

Hi Tom,

Just thought I'd drop you a line to say thanks for the info about those harassing Mrs. Greentree phone calls. I called both numbers and left messages requesting they stop calling my house. I also emailed the Canadian authorities. It's odd, I started receiving these calls around October 2005 too, right after we moved to Colorado. What the heck are they? Some kind of bill collector or what? I swear I thought it was illegal to do this kind of auto dialer thing in the US.

In any event, your website came up number one in google when searching for the 18004144361 number, so I am guessing you will continue to be a popular info link regarding this.

Thanks so much for your help,

Duane Meyer

Shucks. Always pleased to help.

Speaking of audio harassment, I will be starting a Podcast version of the Log early next month as well as something simian and pod-like.

Good night.

I have been listening to the Herd's Metres Gained on heavy rotation recently. In fact, somewhat surreally it was playing as Airforce One landed in Las Vegas Airport earlier this week. I think it is one of the best Australian songs I have heard in the last ten years. Just beating a number of tracks on my favourite Powderfinger album. As an Australian exile, any interaction with Australian culture - until recently - has produced a sense of anger and sadness. I described it recently to a workmate as a profound sense of injustice. In the past seven years, since leaving Australia, I didn't want to think about Australia.

Recently through Wikipedia I have been reconstructing Australian history over the past seven years to understand - primarily - who has died from my childhood. Which great evils had come to rest and what has replaced them.

As a child, I would cycle to the Australian War Memorial with my father. In the summer months of Canberra, it was big and cool. I went back there occasionally through my high school and university days as a means of remembering my childhood. As much as one can love a place, the Australian War Memorial was the one thing about Canberra I loved and miss. It was the best museum of its type in the world. Far better than anything in the UK or the US. Just before I left Australia, the War Memorial hired American design consultants who ''revamped'' the museum component of the War Memorial. Large dense exhibits were replaced with small glass boxes. My childhood place of historical learning was no more.

I found the Australian War Memorial podcast today which linked to the Australian War Memorial archive online.

It showed old favourites like Roff the WWI German Messenger dog or the Red Baron's boots.

Working down the Australian podcast list, I came to Australian Gamer featuring the laid back nerd stylings of Matt and Yug. These are classically Australian rants about why nothing is ever released at the same time in Australia and related banter. This podcast might as well be called, 'Why to get out of Australia if you like technology!'. The phraseology is classically Australian. I don't think I have heard the word controversy used in the Australian sense since I left.

Am I coming to terms with my Australian exile status? Who knows.

Good night.

Playing old WeFunk on heavy rotation currently. Some related links;

http://www.islandcitymonsters.com/

DJ FatSak's impersonation of Cypress Hill's B-Real is a personal favourite, and;

http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~jyap/pix/200502/

It seems you can get DJ Static to all kinds of functions. It begs the question if his poutine spinning skills extend to other food groups.

In other news, I finally got around to sending Malek a parcel to compensate him for his huge parcel of nearly six months ago.

I have to write a mailout in the near future... and from the last entry, I finally got an RC car. According to UPS it arrives t'row.

Good night.

A Window...

I'm going to make two relatively large ticket items over the next month or so.

I would like to get an RC car. Fulfilling yet another childhood no-event. I was huge fan of RC cars as a child but all the RC cars I acquired (grand total of two) were originally broken. My first - a quintessential toy RC - I converted to a much lighter and faster car with a lot less plastic that did okay. The other car, a Tamiya Hornet, my friend Mark Rogers had driven into his pool. Then sold to me six months later. That car never quite worked right. I don't recall ever getting that car to work like a normal RC car.

I also would like to get an iBook G4. I need something to replace my gradually aging Macs - some circa 10 years old. The ticket prices new for my spec are;

RC Car - up to USD350
iBook - USD1,200

Please... Please... Scam Me!

The RC car is a bit of a whim purchase. I could live without it. However I was interested what the state of pricing was on eBay with regards to these items.

I read an article on eBay that said more than half of all the iBooks sold on eBay were some kind of scam. Buying an iBook on eBay is really dangerous water. Two iBooks that seemed really good deals - one appeared to be a listing of a iBook G3 to exactly the same spec purchased in January.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8795267755

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5839625590

This is a huge scam (if true). I emailed the seller. No response. The difference in sale price between a G3 and G4 could be at least USD200. Which no doubt would receive the queried response ''G4? I didn't know there was a difference.'' If any response at all.

The second iBook;

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8794180940

Looks okay. Then (per the last method) you check the seller's feedback and what else they are selling. And wow;

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8794182202

Exactly the same machine, same photos, same foot missing.

You Know Who I Blame...

The thing that annoys me about eBay is like Microsoft with spam. Microsoft could have taken some in-house technical expertise and paid a couple of top notch PIs and flattened spam ten years ago. They could have gone, found and prosecuted the top ten spammers in the world. All the products the spammers deal with are fraudulent. You don't even need spamming to be illegal. As with computer viruses prior, Microsoft sat on its hands and watched the problem grow. It didn't eat into their profits - or so they reasoned - so why behave like a good citizen.

eBay - exactly the same deal. As a greenhorn, I could find the flaws in both the iBook auctions I have referenced. Both in under five minutes. Both haven't returned my emails. Both appear to be floating scams. With the iPod and the iBook being the top scammed items on eBay why doesn't Apple step up to the plate? Oh, of course. Apple is charging the USD1,200 versus USD400 in the first place.

I think of the eBay scam situation as diluting Apple's corporate brand. To me it says, Apple machines are the con artists dream. Artificially over priced, easy to sucker people with a good deal. If that's the corporate image, that's the corporate image.

Good morning.