semicircular.net

My SMH rotating puff remover script (also at userscripts.org) has been updated with some new functionality – pagination removal! The SMH/Age for some reason splits longer articles into multiple pages, just to add annoyance. The script now fixes this by adding a fullpage link onto the end of every article page linked from any other [...]

I am so behind the times here probably, but I have only just stumbled across a very useful little script called Bashpodder. In 44 lines of bash script (including comments!) it downloads podcast feeds, strips out the enclosures (ie. the audio) and neatly stores them away ready for transfer to your portable media device of [...]

The Sydney Morning Herald have done a site redesign. It drew a lot of negative comments, of course, but on balance I think it’s not too bad. The most annoying thing, however, is the box in the right hand column that rotates through various puff piece news articles. Every five seconds or so, it changes [...]

Pigeons test positive to bird flu exposure: One hundred and two pigeons exposed to the bird flu virus have been seized by Australian quarantine inspectors. Inspectors said three of the birds, which were imported from Canada, had tested positive to bird flu antibodies and would be put down. Why are we importing pigeons from Canada? [...]

The BBC does online language courses… Now with MP3s! Take these phrases with you on your mp3 player and as print-out! A concept that will no doubt be embraced by the podcast generation.

After guarding no-one-is-sure-what-exactly for around three years straight, the security guards on the Anzac Bridge seem to have disappeared, to be replaced, hopefully only coincidently, by some new fire hydrants. Strange times. Disappointing to see that the White’s Bay Roll-on Roll-Off wharf is due to be closed earlier than expected. Louise McBride makes a good [...]

Great to see Richie Benaud has renewed his contract with Channel Nine for another three years, despite calling it a day for Channel Four in the UK. I sincerely hope, as Richie himself hints, that cricket commentary is one occupation that has no mandatory retirement age. At least he still has a sense of humour [...]

You’d think David Hicks wasn’t an Australian citizien, the way foreign minister Alexander Downer talks: “If Mr Hicks and his lawyers want to try to circumvent justice by going to some other country and think that will help them, that’s a matter between him and that country,” he told reporters. “Our point about Mr Hicks [...]

What a great day of football for both AFL and NRL codes. The Swans snatched a sensationally close AFL grand final win and Wests Tigers beat the St George Dragons to advance to the NRL grand final. What really made it a great day to be in front of a TV screen (or actually at [...]

I’d never noticed the arrow outline in the FedEx logo before, had you? Darlene Taylor, rank and file member and ex-Margo-Kingston-Webdiarist resigns from the ALP. The Economist pretty much laughs out loud at the concept of the digital home. Worth a read though. Seriously, you can patent anything these days. The New York Times analyses [...]