Here's Why

Its Kimba all over again

French children’s book author Franck Le Calve wrote Pierrot le poisson clown (Pierrot the Clown Fish) in 1995, published it with artwork by Robin Delpuech and Thierry Jagodzinski in November 2002.

At least this time Disney didn’t just change the name from Kimba to Cimba when they stole a story from outside the USA, this time they changed the name AND which parent died!

Le Calve has found that since Disney released their copycat movie, no bookshop will stock his books for fear of the wrath of Disney, so he’s suing. Its a shame to see Pixar mixed up in this.

Of course recently, Disney took their name off the new Peter Pan movie when the copyright holder Great Ormond Street Hospital for children demanded payment for use of the JM Barrie story.

I’d ask why Disney didn’t just hire their own writers if they didn’t want to pay foreign royalties, but with an attitude like this, who would willingly write for them? The pirates don’t just live in Never Never Land.

Sources:
Disney (Allegedly) Making Money off Other People’s Ideas? from ionarts
Writer sues makers of Finding Nemo from Sydney Morning Herald

Xmas in Australia

I gave this up for Emma:

Fibre, whats that?

We had lunch at the all-day breakfast restaurant Smitty’s yesterday. Wonderful fried North American food. Steak and eggs and potatoes and toast, yum!
Steak for breakfast, what a concept. I hope to visit Smitty’s several more times before we return to Australia and try some other dishes.

Photogallery automation

This looks useful, but I’m too tired to play with it just yet:
MTPhotoGallery

Whew!

Just completed my CCNA Networking Basics 3.0 Bridging final exam, and scored the 90% I needed to pass. I’m once again qualified to work as an instructor.

Previously, I had bizarre technical problems eat my final five questions, so that I was wrongly scored at 80%. I’m sick and jetlagged, and the PC I‘m borrowing went on the fritz for 30 minutes just before I decided to start the exam, so its a huge relief that its all over for this year!

Now I just need someone to employ me to teach Basic Networking…

This caught my eye

After flying from Sydney to Honolulu going through US customs and signing away all my rights just to go into another departure lounge and security check to fly to Vancouver with more security checks, to fly to Montreal, where our flight was delayed by 5 hours due to snow.

Snow. crystallized water falling from the sky, like slow rain, or fast feathers.

The flight before us was cancelled because their crew decided it was too dangerous to try. However, come midnight, our intrepid crew boarded, and I was faced with real live snow to walk through to reach our little plane to Charlettetown. Half melted and refrozen snow. Slippery. I was trying to balance after 36 hours without sleep, 24 hours without being able to eat, with a backpack, a bag on wheels to drag, and 45 tired Canadians rushing to get into the plane to get home. I really can’t afford to slip on the ice with my back injury.

Conclusion: Snow is icky, wet and wrong. I’m here for another seven weeks.

As we left a store today I snagged the pamphlet above from the counter. I think its self-explaining.
I also got to see for myself the legendary Hungry Man’s Breakfast. this is not only extremely artificial eggs, bacon, potatoes, sausages, pancakes and maple syrup, but its nutritional panel lists 231% of reccommended cholesterol per serve. Thanks to Dave Ennis for pointing me to the review.

Market Forces

I just finished “Market Forces” by Richard Morgan. WOW!!!
Intense, brutal, insightful. Modern globalisation politics. It really is all about the rich staying rich at the expense of the poor.

I’ll have a longer review later, but I recommend this book highly, as long as you’re warned that the central character you identify with will be performing acts of brutal violence. Its in his job description.

The CEO of a British multinational corporation speaks in this excerpt:

‘Do you really think we can afford to have the developing world develop? You think we could have survived the rise of a modern, articulated Chinese superpower twenty years ago? You think we could manage an Africa full of countries run by intelligent, uncorrupted democrats? Or a Latin America run by men like Barranco? Just imagine it for a moment. Whole populations getting educated secure, and aspirational. Women’s rights, for Christ’s sake. We can’t afford these things to happen, Chris. Who’s going to soak up our subsidised food surplus for us? Who’s going to make our shoes and shirts? Who’s going to supply us with cheap labour and cheap raw materials? Who’s going to store our nuclear waste, balance out our CO2 misdemeanours? Who’s going to buy our arms?
He gestured angrily.
‘An educated middle class doesn’t want to spend eleven hours a day bent over a stitching machine. They aren’t going to work the seaweed farms and the paddy fields ‘til their feet rot. They aren’t going to live next door to a fuel-rod dump and shut up about it. They’re going to want prosperity, Chris. Just like they’ve seen it on TV for the last hundred years. City lives and domestic appliances and electronic game platforms for their kids. And cars. And holidays, and places to go to spend their holidays. And planes to get them there. That’s development, Chris. Ring any bells? Remember what happened when we told our people they couldn’t have their cars any more? When we told them they couldn’t fly? Why do you think anybody else is going to react any differently out there?’
‘I don’t.’ Chris spread his hands.

Updated galleries

I’ve added new photos to the photo galleries
Making last use of our free Iburst broadband before we have to return our user terminal and leave for Canada.

Animated?

Photo taken in late 1997 when I was a Systems Programmer in the IT Faculty at UTS, taking staff and student photos for the database. Naturally I had to play a little and learn something new.

Its an animated GIF, which was an idea that has lost currency, your browser may turn its nose up and refuse to animate it for you. Click on the thumbnail for the larger version.

SARS found in Sydney

This is a real can of SARSparilla found on the local supermarket shelf in Sydney…
I don’t have a digital camera, so I put the can on my scanner. Not too bad a result, eh?
The picture of the SARS with its friends on our TV, is taken with David’s camera, and the last with Emma’s keychain digital camera.

Leaving on a jet plane

We leave next Wednesday! We will be available via

In keeping with the usual balance of things, I have a nasty chest cold and
laryngitis, which must be cleared up completely before we go to the world
of wet and ridiculously cold. This is ironic, because in the last two
weeks my health has otherwise improved for the first time in 12 months. I
still can’t add up the dice correctly in Settlers, but I can just kick
Emma’s ass for strategy. :-) Thanks to Iain and Llyn we have a traveller’s
edition we can play on the flight.

Homepage updated

BTW, my web page has been updated a little, the front page is now a menu
instead of a hypertext document, with my stuff on the left, and links to
other sites on the right, and a new picture. Easier to navigate links to
my radio show sound files, photo albums and writing. I have a link to
my personal TheThingsIWant wishlist for your amusement, and I’ve even
linked this blog. http://linus.it.uts.edu.au/~iwoolf/

almost pretty

Played around with adding some style sheet colours. Its not a skinnable site yet, but its a good imitation.

A blog is born

I finally put a blog live, after sifting through Moveable Type, with encouragement from my friend Matthew. I’ve put off trying to put my whole website into Moveable Type management to some other time.

I’ve given my wife Emma her own blog to play with.

We finally got Emma’s bridging visa B yesterday after much hoopla, and we’re visiting Canada VERY soon! Like in less than two weeks!!!!!!!!!

Without this piece of paper, she wouldn’t have been allowed back to Australia. It turns out the call center’s advice was wrong, and it only takes 10 minutes to get the document if you go into the office, rather than the five weeks we waited on the “quick” postal application - which was then cancelled or lost. I’m glad I offered to keep Emma company, and had my credit card handy. Emma’s wallet went missing last weekend, so she would have been stuck with only cash to pay the fee. Naturally, the office refuses to take cash.

We get to try out IBurst wireless 1Mbs broadband before we go for free, which is an excellent deal. Its very smooth and very fast. I hope the ISP they go with has an uncapped plan.