iSnack 2.0 iFail 2.0

iSnack 2.0 … proving not all publicity is good.

Kraft announces they will abandon iSnack 2.0 for the new Vegemite product and conduct a new poll.
(To be re-launched as iSnack 2.1 )

This weeks links (2009-09-28)

In the Browser Wars
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) again lost a big chunk of market share last month as Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome continued to chip away at the world’s dominant browser, a Web metrics company said today. …
IE’s slide quickens as Firefox, Chrome add share (2009-Oct-01) [Computerworld]

Browser Market Share [Net Applications]

Banned Books Week
The last week of September is Banned Books Week in the USA;
During the last week of September every year, hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and hosting a variety of events. The 2009 celebration of Banned Books Week will be held from September 26 through October 3.
[via GeekDad]

Cyber Security Awareness Month
October is Cyber Security Awareness Month, …
– Cyber Security Awareness Month (2009-Sep-27) [SANS]

Cadel Evans – World Road Racing Cycling Champion!
Evans wins coveted world road race (2009-Sep-28) [SBS: World News]
Evans becomes road World Champion in Mendrisio (2009-Sep-28) [Cycling News]
Evans wins worlds (2009-Sep-28) [SBS: Cycling Central]
UCI Road World Championships 2009 [Steephill]

freedom of association

This post has been sitting around in a draft form since early April 2009, with the Finks Motorcycle Club challenge to the South Australian motorcycle gang laws in the South Australian Supreme Court today it was time to dust it of and actually publish it.

#UOMSMP – Developing a Social Media Policy

… The creation of a social media policy is something which the Marketing & Communications department hope will enable the use of social media at the University of Melbourne. A SM policy works to enable use by establishing a set of reassuring guidelines within which people can make use of this valuable set of communication tools. …
– Paul Tagell
Senior Web Communications Officer
The University of Melbourne

Social Media policy discussion today at #UOMSMP @ UniMelb.

How different is a University to other organisations when it comes to developing a Social Media policy / guidelines? Can you just transpose IBM social computing guidelines to the higher education sector? Any thoughts?
– Jennifer Frahm [1]

Is the current Open Government #publicsphere discussion via Kate Lundy re: public interaction closer to the University model than the IBM Social Computing Guidelines [2] ?

Should there be different guidelines for marketing vs facilitation (eg. back channel in a video conference), corporate vs teaching and official (logo) vs unofficial ?

LINKS:
[1] Developing a Social Media Policy #UOMSMP (2009-Sep-21) [Jennifer Frahm Collaborations]
[2] Social Media Governance [Social Media Governance]
[3] IBM Social Computing Guidelines [IBM]
[4] #UOMSMP [TweetGrid]
[5] University of Melbourne Policy Framework [UniMelb]
[6] Australians resistant to social media marketing (2009-Sep-22) [Digital Media]
[7] Facilitating adoption of weblogs in knowledge-intensive environments (2009-Jun-16) [Mathemagenic]

My Change Journey

Some notes from My Change Journey: This workshop is designed to help you understand your emotional and psychological needs during times of change and strategies you can use to take control of your own change journey. It also focuses on creating opportunities and seeing possibilities in the new world of work.

change – an event that occurs when something passes from one state or phase to another;

transition – the act of passing from one state or place to the next

This weeks links (2009-09-21)

Airship Diaries
Airship Diaries – A full-cast steampunk audio drama featuring Captain Jareck and the crew of the airship Babbage

Airship Diaries Episode 01 – In which we meet our heroes, they meet the red coats, and Captain Jareck makes an unexpected decision.

Airship Diaries Episode 02 – In which our valiant crew has a falling out, a legend is recounted, and the Smog Queen says something unexpected.

Airship Diaries Episode 03 – In which the Smog Queen makes herself clear, Captain Jareck protests, and unwanted guests arrive to spoil the occasion.

Airship Diaries Episode 04 – In which the crew escapes one peril and encounters another, and the captain leaves them.

Airship Diaries Episode 05 – In which our captain is interrogated, is visited by a new enemy, and meets an old friend.

Airship Diaries Episode 06 – In which our captain is freed by an unexpected person, and is reunited with a crew member.

Airship Diaries Episode 07 – In which our heroic captain makes a valiant escape and boards a new ship.

Airship Diaries Episode 08 – In which our captain returns to his ship, and the crew makes an unexpected voyage.

Airship Diaries Episode 09 – In which our captain rejects his crew and captains a new crew.

Airship Diaries Episode 10 – In which our crew is imprisoned and the captain makes some plans of his own.

Camping Style
Camping with the kitchen sink (2009-Sep-21) [The Australian]

visualization methods
And a revisit to ‘a periodic table of visualization methods’ from http://www.visual-literacy.org/

Bilingual Education
My interest in this episode was prompted by some students in an video/teleconference session on Monday. The interest the students showed in the program prompted me to see if I could track down the episode of 4 Corners for myself – it well worth watching.

Going Back to Lajamanu
Reporter Debbie Whitmont travels to the Top End to discover what will happen following a government move to scrap a controversial 35-year-old experiment in bilingual education.
– Reporter: Debbie Whitmont, ABC1 4Corners, Broadcast: 14/09/2009

Four Corners – 14/09/2009: Going Back to Lajamanu:
Four Corners – Going Back to Lajamanu (special eds / language)
Four Corners Open Letters

Talk Like A Pirate Day

September 19th (every year)
is International Talk Like A Pirate Day
– http://www.talklikeapirate.com/

Sept 16 strike

I am not available to respond to your email because I am participating in a 24 hour NTEU strike action because of serious concerns for the security, workloads and welfare of University staff arising from the University’s proposed financial strategies, and the frustratingly slow negotiation of a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement. The University needs to show more respect for its staff.

University staff will be taking action on 16 September 2009 to get respect at work. Stand with your colleagues and support the campaign for better working conditions and more respect. Forward this video to your friends, colleagues and family.

This weeks links (2009-09-14)

Two risks dwarf all others, but organizations fail to mitigate them
Featuring attack data from TippingPoint intrusion prevention systems protecting 6,000 organizations, vulnerability data from 9,000,000 systems compiled by Qualys, and additional analysis and tutorial by the Internet Storm Center and key SANS faculty members.
– The Top Cyber Security Risks (2009-Sep) [SANS]

Lifting the lid on college life (2009-Sep-15) [The Age]

Aussie traffic on Google Maps

Get there faster with traffic info on Google Maps in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and surrounds: http://bit.ly/163DnU
@googledownunder

…Starting today, a new feature is going to make those decisions a bit easier. Traffic information on Google Maps will show you the current traffic status of many motorways, major and minor arterial routes in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and smaller areas like Wollongong, the Central Coast, Geelong, the Sunshine Coast, and the Gold Coast, to help you avoid congested areas and plan the best route from A to B. It’s part of our commitment to making Google Maps an essential tool for Aussies as they go about their daily lives.
To turn traffic information on, click the button labelled ‘Traffic’ next to the ‘More’ button at the top left of Google Maps. The colours you’ll see overlaid on the roads correspond to the speed of traffic (relative to the speed limit of the road): green is free sailing, yellow is medium congestion, red is heavy congestion, and red/black is stop-and-go traffic. The information is updated every few minutes. …
– Get there faster with traffic information on Google Maps (2009-Sep15) [Official Google Australia Blog]

… Today, Google and Suna announced that live traffic data has finally been incorporated into Google Maps Australia. Updated every few minutes, traffic information is available for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
There’s also updates for major roads and freeways heading through or past Wollongong, the NSW Central Coast (namely Gosford and Woy Woy), Geelong and the Sunshine Coast. We’re currently waiting to hear back on future availability in Perth, Adelaide, Canberra and other major centres. …
– Google Maps, finally with Aussie traffic (2009-Sep-15) [Cnet Australia]

Flickr Galleries
Flickr has added a new feature called galleries to showcase photos;

For whatever you find interesting, fascinating, or mind-blowing on Flickr, galleries are a way to curate up to 18 public photos or videos of your fellow members into one place. It’s an opportunity to celebrate the creativity of your fellow members in a truly unique way around a theme, and idea or just because.
– Help / FAQ / Galleries [Flickr]

Only 18?
We’ve specifically limited the number of photos or video that can be added to each gallery to 18. While it might seem like an arbitrary number, we want to give our members an opportunity to engage in activity that is similar to what a curator of a gallery or museum might undertake. And 18? It seems like a fine place to start.
– Help / FAQ / Galleries [Flickr]

RIP Mike Leyland
Pioneering Australian documentary filmmaker and 1/2 of the Leyland Brothers, Mike Leyland, has died aged 68.
– Leyland brother Mike dies (2009-SEP-14) [ABC News]

Ghosting an HP 6930p

The HP EliteBook 6930p Notebook PC can cause a whole new world of pain for you with your existing Ghost toolset. Here’s a quick snapshot of how we put together a workable solution with our tool set.

1. Update the BIOS (version F.0F or later.)

The current BIOS does not have the option to turn off Bit shift for hard disk drive (HDD) translation mode. This prevents using a ghost image to image the notebook PCs. [4]

2. Set the BIOS to IDE instead of ACHI

In some of the new systmes (specially with AHCI), Ghost (and DOS) will not see the hard drive at all. [1]

3. Move ghost.exe from \ghost\ghost.exe to the root of the boot disk

We solved this simply by moving ghost.exe to root folder. Remember to edit your autoexec.bat. [1]

4. Do not use Ghost 11.5 (GSS2.5), drop back to Ghost 11.0 (GSS2.0)
{Ghost 11.5 (GSS2.5) cannot see the local Hard Disk!}

5. Update the driver “e1000.dos” for the Intel 82566GB NIC
Download Center
* Intel 82566 Gigabit v14.0 (1-APR-2009)
* Intel 82566 Gigabit v14.3 (23-JUL-2009)

LINKS:
[1] Cannot create a file preservation metadata file at path Error 40217 HP 2730P Version 11.5 [Symantec Connect]
[2] There is no valid source drive to choose (11032) [Symantec Connect]
[3] unable to boot into ghost 8.2 using HP Elitebook 6930p [Experts Exchange]
[4] HP Notebook PCs – Unable to Install Windows From a Ghost Image Document ID: c01711176 (2009-Apr-03) [HP]
[5] HP Notebook PCs – Additional SATA (Serial ATA) Devices Not Detected in DOS or Pre-Boot Environment Document ID: c01517092 (2008-Jul-30) [HP]
[6] HP EliteBook 6930p Notebook PC (Drivers) [HP]