It's Hottest 100 time again and yet again I find myself wishing I'd gone to more local conerts this year. In the end my ten were as follows (the temptation to vote for Kanye was huge ;)):

• Butterfly Effect - Reach
  
• Presets, The - My People
  
• Feist - 1234
  
• Foo Fighters - The Pretender
  
• Eskimo Joe - New York
  
• Silverchair - Straight Lines
  
• Hilltop Hoods - Recapturing The Vibe (Restrung)
  
• Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (live)
  
• Cog - What If
  
• Karnivool - The Only Way
  

So I found out who the annoyingly catchy jingle from the new ipod ads is by. Enjoy:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=p8Z-DIAthbM

These are probably old hat but I found them classic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcXkvG7F1_E

http://media.smh.com.au/?rid=33345&category=Breaking%20News

In the true spirit of creating content for the sake of creating content with the ever-pressing hope that each further byte placed on the internet pushes it one step closer to not having enough space to hold upskirt shots of Britney Spears (at least they are getting bigger) and therefore implicitly its destruction I hereby provide the following list of utilities that are free and not shit. It is notably short due to the current software environment being stacked such that the overwhelming majority of stuff on the net fails the second component of this test, regardless of price point.

• CDex - Primarily created to provide for the ripping of audio CDs and converting between compressed/uncompressed formats. CDex has been around for years without loading itself up with more promotional niceties and un-necessary features than a home loan. Somewhat a rarity in the area of audio software in general.
  
• 7-Zip - Provides facilities for creating, browsing and extracting from most major archive formats including ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR as well as 'extract only' support for many others. Unlike other software in this arena the makers have chosen not to flog off ads within the actual program and kept the interface extremely simple and functional.
  
• Media Player Classic - For when you need a media player that just plays media.
  
• QtDominateGame - Risk online, free to play if you put up with the banner which pops up every few minutes asking you to register. You can pay to have this restriction removed however the game still works perfectly well with it.

Of this list the one program that I cannot recommend enough is 7-zip, for most users archiving tasks it really cannot be beaten. The one major failing for me is the lack of 'pack' support for RAR files, but I don't see this particular format being one most users need to *create* on a regular basis (unless of course you are stealing from the MPAA, but hey, you guys wouldn't steal a handbag).

Targeted advertising at its finest?

When installing Debian stable (4.0r) on a system with an ASUS P5KC motherboard you will find that the included kernel on the cd images does not detect the onboard network card or sata controller.

The easiest way to rectify this is to use the Debian testing cd images available at the following location:

http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

Unless of course you actually want to run stable (which I don't)...

I actually found myself putting this into practice today.

COBOL totally brings the bitches.

Randomly came across the following which sums up the over management present in the software industry and why it exists (and works, eventually) perfectly:

http://killthemeeting.com/mt/2006/10/process_as_a_substitute_for_co.html

Dear citizens,

As a nominee for drunkest man in Australia for the night of the 13th of April 2007 I hereby apologise for any pain, suffering or loss caused either directly or vicariously by my actions.

To the cleaner(s) at the Pancake Manor, I am truely sorry. In my defense however I did not actually miss the toilet but razed it to the ground.

Finally if anyone knows why I look like I slept in a hedge please do the right thing and forward this information to the team of AFP experts attempting to reconstruct my evening.

I wish to dedicate my nomination to Bundaberg rum.

Yesterday during my lunch break I made the mistake of letting up and talking to one of the people collecting red cross donations on Queen street. I can't donate blood at the moment because of a drug I'm on and figured I might as well chip in a one off monetary donation instead (which has the benefit over a bloody donation of being directed to overseas humanitarian efforts etc., theoretically).

It turned out that they were actually canvasing for long term donations, essentially signing up to automatically donate monthly. Now at this point I should clearly have baulked and walked off, giving my direct debit details to random pre-pubescent boy who happens to be with a group of people wearing red cross shirts isnt what I would normally consider an intelligent move.

Against my better judgement I persevered and filled out the form to donate $5 a month. Which sure, isnt a lot, but as they say every bit counts, right?

Wrong. I got a call this morning to say that they can't possibly take a monthly donation unless it's at least $15. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) I was feeling considerably less generous after a night of paying six-fitty a rum and my money is now lost to them.