» What is a karonkka? A friend of mine recently returned from Finland where he was examining a PhD defence - the process is called a Karonkka.

As well as getting decked out in a full-on tux & tails they actually had ceremonial swords to boot. How cool is that ?

Be sure to read Shauns other posts on the nature of research, patents, science and technology in New Zealand.   | ¶

» TED Talks A friend of mine (cheers Eddie!) pointed me at the excellent TED Talk series.

Subscribe to their RSS feed now.

Theres always something you can set aside 15 minutes of your time to learn about or dump to your mp3 player to listen/watch while you commute.

Recent favourites of mine have included - 'Build a brain in a supercomputer', 'Our buggy moral code', 'What brain damage can point out about our mind', 'Why are babies cute? Why is cake sweet?'   | ¶

» Useful Ways to be Persuasive I realised my Linkdump category hadn't been updated in a looong time so I'll kick start it with this link to some common-sense ways to be persuasive.

As per the link comments in the preamble, its a bit pop-psych but theres some useful stuff to help get your head around how you can get your point of view across to other people.   | ¶

» Because you need to know - Tracking the $700 Billion Bailout It'll be interesting to see if the New York Times keeps this table up to date - Tracking the $700 Billion Bailout.

See which financial institutions receive money and how much they get.   | ¶

» Good Music - Le Pop by Katzenjammer Discovered while reading Popmatters list of Also-rans for 2008 - Katzenjammers 'Le Pop' is one of those joyful albums by a band determined to put a stupid grin on your face at all costs or die trying (cf early Violent Femmes, Crowded House, Pogues).

Check out a couple of videos on YouTube - 'A bar in Amsterdam' and 'Aint no thang'   | ¶

» Good Books - The Shock Doctrine Another excellent read from Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine. I have to admit I'm only halfway through this book - mans inhumanity to man makes for tough going - however its pretty much compulsory reading for anyone that wonders how the worlds free market economy's were lead down the track they're currently on.

Essentially what Klein does is posit the idea that free market economies and reforms can only be forced through on the back of an external crisis (sometimes real and sometimes engineered). As a result those people best placed to take advantage of the reforms do extraordinarily well and the vast majority of us end up worse off - with globalisation these disparities keep getting worse as multi-nationals cease to be bound by georgraphy.

As the recent recession and American bank / finance / auto bail-outs have shown - the free market has failed to a certain extent - their own calls for deregulation have bit them on the ass and now they're going cap in hand to the very regulatory bodies they once reviled for assistance.

So even when things go wrong for the wheelers and dealers of the world - they still come out on top.   | ¶

» Good Books - Killing Rommel by Stephen Pressfield Another quick summer read - Killing Rommel is a return to form for Stephen Pressfield - his 'Gates of Fire' was a masterpiece but after that I found 'Tides of War' and 'Last of the Amazons' to be a little dry.

His latest novel tells the tale of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) and their various exploits in the North African campaign, culminating in a mission to track down and kill Rommel.   | ¶

» Good Books - Old Mans War by John Scalzi My linkdump sidebar has been a little stale so I thought I'd fill it with a few short reviews.

Over Christmas I was looking for some lightweight reading material and Old Mans War certainly did the trick. Easy to read, great pacing, nice ideas and a milieu that you can't wait to immerse yourself in again (which I did by reading Ghost Brigades soon afterwards).

Both books focus on humanities move to colonise space, the competing species struggling for the same limited resources, the inevitable conflicts that arise and the rather unique solution humanity has come up with to ensure its survival.

Only complaint would have to be the 'el cheapo' Tor publishing values - cramped text and tiny margins made both books tough on the eyes.   | ¶

» IBM Model M You know you want one - IBM Model M keyboards.

Now I know I'm not the only keyboard nut on the interweb.   | ¶

» Retro Remake - Wizball Dust off the joystick - Retrospec has remade Wizball for Windows.

If you had a Commodore64 in the 80's then chances are you had Wizball - one of the classic games on the platform.   | ¶

» Operations Competitive Advantage Those infrastructure guys beavering away in the background really are important - Operations is a competitive advantage.   | ¶

» Lessig: Corruption Lecture Highly recommended viewing - Lawrence Lessig new ten year project is to tackle Corruption - view his presentation here. Starts a little slow but builds momentum and its an entertaining presentation.   | ¶

» FitPC Tiny PC - FitPC. Looks like an ideal way to drive a kiosk or display system.   | ¶

» DHTML Arkanoid If you grew up in the mid to late 80's then you would have heard of Arkanoid - now it can be played in your web browser as pure DHTML Arkanoid.   | ¶

» Retro Mac Wordpress Theme If you use Wordpress try out the Retro Mac Wordpress Theme in all its one-bit glory. Another brilliant domain name too.   | ¶

» For Lego and Apple Fanboys Nifty - Young Woz and Jobs Playset goes on sale in two days. Goes to show that a little creativity goes a looong way on the interweb.   | ¶

» Free the Jena Six Craziness - Free The Jena Six. Its truly disturbing this kind of thing still goes on in the US.   | ¶

» Groupware Bad JWZ opines - Groupware Bad. As it turns out the Hula project went nowhere and spawned a fork called Bongo. Before over-complicating your application be sure to read about what users really want.   | ¶

» How the Meter is Measured Nice infographics - Weights and Measures. The US is keeping great company sticking with the imperial system. Check out their other awesome content at GoodMagazine.   | ¶

» A4 vs US Letter 'Sane versus insane' would appear to be a better summary - a great comparison of 'A4 vs US Letter' and how best to avoid getting caught out when laying out pages for print.   | ¶