Howard Jones Podcast

I had the pleasure of interviewing electronic music legend Howard Jones last week for Australian Macworld Magazine. I created a podcast of the interview which can be found here.

Your privacy

Privacy Statement

Introduction

This privacy statement applies to The Metaverse Journa and any of its affiliates which control and make use of visitor information collected via this site.

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Information Collection

As a visitor, you do not have to submit any personal information in order to use the Web site. The site collects only personally identifiable information that is specifically and voluntarily provided by visitors. Such information may consist of, but is not limited to, your name, email address and telephone and fax numbers.

We do not usually seek sensitive information (e.g., data relating to race or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, criminal record, physical or mental health, or sexual orientation) from visitors. We will, where necessary, obtain visitors’ explicit consent to collect and use such information

Cookies

To ensure that our Web site is well managed and to facilitate improved navigation within the site, we or our service provider(s) may use cookies (small text files stored in a user’s browser) to collect aggregate data. We may use such devices to track information on our systems and identify categories of visitors by items such as IP address, domain, browser type and pages visited. This information is reported to our Webmasters who use the information to analyse the number of visitors to different areas of the site and to make sure that our Web site is serving as a useful, effective information source.

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Information Use

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We will ensure that our marketing activities comply with applicable law, and implement procedures to obtain necessary consents before sending you email containing information about The Metaverse Journa offerings. You may at any time request that we discontinue sending you such materials.

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We are dedicated to providing reasonable access to visitors who wish to review the personal information retained when they register with our Web site and correct any inaccuracies it may contain. Visitors who choose to register may access their user profile, correct and update their details, or unsubscribe at any time. Visitors who have any problem accessing their profiles, or would like to request a copy of their personal information should contact us. In all cases we will treat requests to access information or change information in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Information Security

We have in place reasonable commercial standards of technology and operational security to protect all information provided by visitors from loss, misuse, alteration or destruction.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

SLOz reserves the right to modify or amend this privacy statement at any time and for any reason. Nothing contained herein creates or is intended to create a contract or agreement between The Metaverse Journal and any user visiting the Web site or providing identifying information of any kind.

Children’s Privacy Protection

The Metaverse Journal understands the importance of protecting children’s privacy in the interactive online world. The Web site covered by this privacy policy is not designed for or intentionally targeted at children 13 years of age or younger. It is not our policy to intentionally collect or maintain information about anyone under the age of 13.

Spam

The Metaverse Journal is committed to ensuring the privacy of your personal information and the ten privacy principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988. We are dedicated to providing reasonable access to individuals who wish to review the personal information retained by The Metaverse Journal and to correct any inaccuracies that personal information may contain. Individuals who would like to request a copy of their personal information or a copy of the The Metaverse Journal Privacy Policy should contact us. In all cases we will treat requests to access or change information in accordance with applicable legal requirements. Should you wish not to receive further information or to be removed from our mailing list, please contact us.

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Second Life – The Next Big Thing?

Second Life is a virtual world, and it’s pretty well explained in the following video:

Now, like a travel brochure, Second Life isn’t quite as nice looking in total as the video shows – there are reams of casinos, shacks and endless suburbia. There’s also orgies, strippers and pole dancers. Yes, some big businesses have set up shop in the game and some big name artists have started doing gigs (Ben Folds and Suzanne Vega to name two). But it is going to change the world?

I think there’s a more than 50% chance it actually will. And there are lots of things to like about the change but also a slew of concerns. Addiction is one of the obvious concerns, addiction treatment potentially one of the greatest goods. There is probably a cohort of people addicted to the game already and their real life may be suffering. On the other hand – could a virtual world make it easier for real life addictions to be addressed in the most non-threatening way ever? An example: you are a heavy cannabis user and you’ve come to the realisation you need some help. You live in a small town where seeking help will stand out in a big way. Log on to Second Life, find a counsellor and get the ball rolling with no-one ever knowing. Of course, there’s issues around confirming the comptency of the ocunsellor you’re dealing with, but the potential is there. And I think Linden Labs themselves seem really switched on in their approach to potential issues.

Aanuka Break Free? Not really

I’ve always felt that people who write complaint letters to TV stations and the like, to be individuals in need of a life. I recant on this view now, only because I want to whine / complain. I’ve even taken pictures to back up my whining (usually a sign of REALLY having no life, but this of course doesn’t apply to me).

The premise: Take my family on five nights at a 4-star plus resort. We chose Aanuka Resort at Coffs Harbour based on one recommendation and some website browsing.

Complaint 1: The old ‘the website pictures don’t match the reality’ issue. Now, I’m fairly aware that the accommodation promoted on a website always has the benefit of wide-angle lenses and the like, but in this case the disparity was huge. Go to the Aanuka Resort web page. There’ll you’ll see a lovely photo gallery including shots of the rooms. An important note: I booked one of the most expensive rooms, so it’s not a case of the penthouse suite on the website and I had booked a basic room.

The front entrance:

The light and airy hallway:

The main living area:
(couch was a sofa bed that was impossible to sit up straight in)

The spa ensuite:
(hard to see from pic but spa was old and grouting was far from clean)

The main bedroom:
(the bed was actually two singles which was ok – however the vertical blinds were mouldy)

The kitchen:
(This was quite spacious although dishwasher didn’t work well and fridge made a terrible noise everytime you opened it)

Other gripes – balcony area was filthy, plumbing had problems including noise that woke the kids when we turned the shower on, and cockroaches galore (though probably to be expected being based in a rainforest-like setting)

Complaint 2: Basic resort facilities:

It could be just me but it would be nice to be able to access a resort’s facilties without having to walk a tortuous route that requires backtracking. I’m talking close to a kilometre walk to get to food. Now, that distance isn’t that bad if you know you can get there without needing an umbrella if it rains, gumboots if the rain is heavy and a torch in some sections if the sun has gone down. I am not joking.

Complaint 3: Non-basic resort facilities:

On the way to Coffs Harbour we stayed in a ‘cheaper’ apartment complex called the Sevan Apartments – the place was stunning and had free wireless broadband – a compact little wireless transmitter and ethernet cable was given at check-in and it worked beautifully. What do you get at Aanuka? A dial-up option which involved removing the wall phone off its bracket (I couldn’t get our phone off) and plugging into that phone outlet.

Food – the range was ok but the main restaurant was closed the one night we wanted to use it. If you order room service expect to pay more than if you eat at the restaurant (not unusual) PLUS a $5.00 delivery fee. I kid you not.

Pools – the pools were good – although the one morning where it was really warm, the small kids pool was closed – I couldn’t see why aside from the fact that there was a small palm branch in the water. On a rainy day we used the cave spa which was nice and warm. Trouble is the spa didn’t work. Myself and another family asked for it to be looked at, nothing happened in the 90 minutes we were there.

Overall: this resort does not deserve its 4-start rating. Did the kids enjoy themselves? Yes they did – once the youngest one got over the smell of the room (“I don’t want to go back to the smelly room daddy”) – it was just a little musty. The cleaner who came when we complained about the filthy balcony area was wonderful and the plumbing issue was fixed at our request the following day. That said, this seems a pretty tired place in need of some greater upkeep. I’d look at spending your money elsewhere….

Photo Booth for OSX – endless entertainment

Creating Favicons for your website in OSX

There’s an excellent tutorial here:

A favicon is a 16 by 16 pixel image that appears immediately to the left on the URL in your browser’s address bar – it also will appear in your favourites / bookmarks list.

This blog now has one – a great tutorial. That said, because I don’t have Photoshop I just used GraphicConverter (link in tutorial) on its own with no problems – I created the 16 x 16 pixel size then saved direct to Windows Icon – it came out at 4K from an original 2 MB file.

For WordPress users, insert the required code link code in the header.php file of your WordPress template.

How do I see which are the biggest files on my Mac?

OmniDiskSweeper is a shareware app that will scan your hard drive in OSX and list all your files in order of their size. If you pay the $15 registration you get a delete button rather than having to remove files manually.

I wanna love you tender

Need I say anymore?

Wireless music at home for beginners

A concise article on some wireless music options for beginners can be found here.

If you have a Mac or PC with an enormous music collection on it, the wireless option is well worth thinking about if your current hi-fi system is on its last legs…..

How do I remove non-essential language files from OSX?

Easy:

Monolingual

I gained an extra 1.5 gigabytes of disk space after Monolingual removed thousands of files (It took close to an hour).

Freeware at its very best

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