Telstra screws up Australian Idol advert...

Okay, i was going to do a literary post about the Steven Erikson series but i still haven't quite got my head around the epic ending of the third book yet... So, a quick fun fact for the day, care of Fitharn, an internet friend back in Sydney, Australia.

You all know the <insert country here> Idol tv show, right? Bunch of teeny popstar wannabe's all competing each week and slowly getting voted off until someone becomes the new 'idol'. Australian Idol is exactly the same i gather, although to be honest i've never sat down and watched it. Anyhow, Teltra (Australia's main telecommunications service, currently owned 51% by the government) is a big sponser of Australian Idol, and after the current series ended they took out big color ads advertising Casey Donovan's brand new website. (Casey is the girl who won this series, apparently). Only problem is, they left out the .au, and all their adverts pointed to the website of a gay porn star...!

Check it out:
http://www.caseydonovan.com
http://www.caseydonovan.com.au

They've offered copious apologies etc etc, but it's damn funny, hey... :) However, one slightly dodgy part to this story is a quick 'fix' Telstra has implimented as a way of damage control. I'll quote Fittie here as he typed it to me via instant messaging:

"... I think Telstra's being evil about it though. They're apologising profusely and all that but what they've also done is change the DNS record for www.caseydonovan.com on their name servers to point to a page that redirects you to www.caseydonovan.com.au ... This means all Telstra BigPond users end up where they want them too. It's a pretty big abuse of the DNS system to save face though... I don't know if it's going to be a tempory thing or if they're going to keep it there on a more long time basis. My guess is it's going to be there for a long time..."

Kinda dodgy end to a funny story, eh? I reckon someone should inform the gay Casey Donovan about it, as he might be losing sales on his porn tapes...

Anyway, next story is the Erikson thing, i promise... :)

moving homes

Actually, not moving physically yet, but that'll be soon. I've just changed homes for my blog - previously it could be seen only at bloglines, however i decided i wanted people to be able to comment on items. So, another mass of emails out to everyone, and i hope this'll be the place to stay. If you link this site up at bloglines, you'll still be able to be notified when new posts happen, but you can't actually comment from that site. You have to actually come to blogger to be able to comment on a post.

Make sense? :)

Next post - some literary thoughts on the Steven Erikson series of books, "A Tale Of The Malazan Book Of The Fallen". I'm hoping Matt and I can really disect some of the stuff that is going on in the series (at least up until book 3 - coz that's all i've read so far...!)

Halo 2 frustrates modchip owners

It seems Halo 2 has some sneaky extra-curricula duties, aside from being a pretty good xbox fps. Apparently if you try to play a legal, bought copy of Halo 2 on an xbox with a modchip installed, you get banned from Microsoft's 'Xbox Live' service - their online gaming system. Even if your modchip has been turned off/disabled, people have been finding themselves banned from the service. Nasty stuff, eh? Full story here.

fait accompli

I woke up yesterday to find that HalfLife 2 had finally been unlocked on my computer. I resisted the urge to load it up until quite late last night. Played it for an hour or so (ok, i lie - quite a long time), and now i am all scratchy-eyed this morning.

The atmosphere and graphical style of the game work hand in hand, creating quite the unique experience. I own Far Cry and it's damn fun, but the feel and viceral effect of getting drawn into the Freeman character and the HalfLife world is second to none. Amazing job, guys.
Here are some quick screenshots I captured for those that want to check out how it's looking played on my current sysconfig:

intro

Hi and welcome to my new attempt at blogging - i have an account at livejournal, but it hasn't been updated in weeks months. I like the idea that this place seems to breed: a collection of thoughts or interesting snippets available in 'rss feed', instead of a personal diary type thing. I know, livejournal is rss capable and it's up to you what you use it for, but i want a change and i just like the feel of this place. So, without further ado, salutations and i hope you find it interesting.