Tama Leaver dot Net

“Australian iPod prices are among the cheapest in the world, but few of the gains from the stampeding Australian dollar are being passed on to consumers, the latest CommSec iPod index shows.”

“The internet has become the new battleground for Australian Defence Force recruitment, which in the last week alone has launched a multiplayer gaming portal and a reality-style podcast series following the life of trainees.”

Bruce Sterling blogs from the future (2017 to be exact) in “Harvey Feldspar’s Geoblog”. A good read!

Really interesting (and worrying) article about ‘gold farming’ – getting others to earn and then sell in-game currencies, working in terrible conditions. [See the (tags: wow worldofwarcraft digitalculture games videogames ethics)

A good read for those entering the blogospehre and those looking to check their blogging skills! [Via]

Interesting thoughts on Harry Potter 7, the “spoilers” culture around it and the difference between book and TV-related spoilage.

“Techno-forensics may reveal the identity of the anonymous person who photographed every page of the new Harry Potter book and put it online.”

Reminds us, among other things, that Bittorrent TV sharing is great for current mainstream US and UK shows, but rather poor if you’re looking for back-catalogue or older shows, and highlights the tech difficulties in setting up torrent d/loads.

“Internet technology that almost brought the music industry to its knees is being turned on the television world, with some predictions that by the end of the year traditional TV could be rendered obsolete.”

While clearly a very difficult area on which to pin a specific metric, the number of people watching tv over the web seems to be increasing substantially, with at least 63 million people in the US watching online tv in March 2007…

From Clarke’s Third Law (“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”) to Moore’s law, there’s something for everyone …

Harry Potter and the Bittorrent Sharers! (Or, how Potter fans are divided between those who are spoiler-filled thanks to an online download three days early, and those trying hard not to here anything until clutching their own copy!)

NIfty tool to let you share iTunes libraries and so forth with friends. Nicely integrated.

A Bittorrent of the whole of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (albeit a PDF of document images, no just text) has arrived four days before the book’s official release. Most reports suggest it’s probably genuine…

Australian PM John Howard’s first YouTube clip has become a focal point for the web2.0-savvy folk to vent their frustrations with his vision and policies! (The downside of embracing social software without understanding it!)

Automatically upgrade to the most recent version of WordPress. Maybe a little risky to automate this, but it would certainly save time!

Ben Relles of Barely Political: “We weren’t really thinking about politics,” …” We were just interested in making something really viral, getting a lot of attention.”

MICROSOFT is once again on the defensive against hackers after the launch of a new program that gives average PC users tools to unlock copy-protected digital music and movies.

Australian PM John Howard attempts to appeal to the digital generation by announcing a climate change policy on YouTube. (Not all that convincing, I’m afraid.)

The Australian Labor Party responds on YouTube to John Howard’s climate change clip, with a parody pointing out that Howard has long been asleep at the political wheel.

“Students at Oxford University are being warned that university authorities are using the Facebook website to gain evidence about unruly post-exam pranks.”

“The Federal Liberal Party appears to be snubbing MySpace, after the social network publicly criticised the Liberals’ response to its new Impact political channel.” (Explains why Howard’s only got 8 friends still!)