James Purser [INSERT WITTY CATCHPHRASE HERE]

Well it seems that my insanity knows no bounds. During the LCA2011 call for papers I had an idea for a mini conf based on the ever growing arena of FOSS based mobile systems.

It turns out that I'm not the only one interested in this :)

I got the okay a couple of days ago and today I was told that I could start talking about it. So the next step is going to be setting up the site for the miniconf and working out Call for Papers and so on.

W00t.

 Sigh, so close and yet so far.

This morning a message hit the Android Australia mailing list claiming that Australia had been added to the small list of countries that  were allowed to sell Apps in the Android market.

Alas, it wasn't so. Instead it appears that Australias addition to the list was in error and we are still part of the great unwashed who are unable to take advantage of googles sales infrastructure.

Come on guys and gals at Google! You have an excellent product and people want to be able to take advantage of it, people are begging to be able to give you money via whatever cut you take via the marketplace, why are we being locked out? Why are you ensuring that those of us outside of the US/UK have to turn to iphone development to make our mark in the mobile world?

Sigh.

 Just a quick update on the iphone version of the openaustralia search app:

House of Reps Search:

Currently hardcoded to search by postcode. Need to include a Picker so that people can choose how they search for their members, however, the Picker widget on the iPhone is hucking fuge! Seriously, the thing looks like something out your local hotels Pokie room.

Senate Search:

Nothing done here yet

Hansard Search:

While the general search functionality hasn't been touched yet, I've started working on the  Rep related Hansard search, tends to crash right now, but still going :)

My Rep:

Nothing done as yet.

If you want to have a look at the horror that is my objective c then have a gander over here

 Okay, I finally decided to put bit to processor and start an iphone version of the Open Australia Search app that I've been writing for Android.

Now, my knowledge of Objective-C and apple development is miniscule, so what's up there now is just enough to build and present the "front view" off the app, but I've already had offers of help from people more experienced in this strange and esoteric environment so we'll see how we go.

Anyways, here's the source:

http://code.google.com/p/openaustraliasearch/

And here's the very, very rough design document I did on the train last night:

http://code.google.com/p/openaustraliasearch/wiki/DesignDocument

Oh and as gentle reminder for those of you with android devices, version 0.3.2 has been released. Use the QR Code below to install it:

If you, like me, have been bemoaning the general publics complete lack of knowledge about how the government works, then rejoice. For the hung parliament has made everyone sit up and say "huh?" At which point the edumacation starts.

The result from Saturdays election really has thrown everyone for a loop hasn't it. Instead of the predicted close call (let's face it, everyone thought that the Coalition would scrape it in by the skin of their teeth) we now have the prospect of a government cobbled together from either one of the major parties with the support of four, possibly five, relatively unknown men.

Exciting isn't it :)

What has been interesting has been the reaction to the idea of a true Coalition government (not the Liberal/National coalition, which lets face it, is essentially the Liberal party with a couple of Nationals hanging on for dear life). The media has gone completely ape poo over the idea. Predicting doom and disaster with great wailings and gnashing of teeths, while those that I've spoken to "on the street" seem to be loving it. Watching Gillard and Abbott have to completely change tack and start running what is essentially a mini-election has given people hope that the system isn't irretrievably broken.

I do find it kind of amusing to read and hear those who declare that because Tony Windsor, Bob Katter and Rod Oakshot are ex-nationals and so called "conservative" politicians that their only moral move would be to join the Coalition in government. This after all three have copped any amount of political crap from the Coalition in the past, especially from the Nationals. They seem to be forgetting that Katter, Windsor and Oakshot represent a Country Party that has long died off elsewhere, and indeed they represent a type of MP that is in very short supply, a true local representative.

 Just a quick note to let you, dear reader, know a couple of things:

LCA2011 Paper Submissions

The traditional extension to the linux.conf.au paper submission process is going to close at the end of tomorrow (14th August 2010). So if you've got any last minute brain waves or inspirations get in quick.

LGWN10

For the second year in a row I'm going to be helping out with the audio recordings and general organisation of the Local Government Web Network Conference.

LGWN10 represents the only (as far as I know) grass roots conference aimed specifically at those working with the web from within the Local Government sector. It's constantly evolving and this year the morning sessions have been dedicated to four Local Government case studies, ranging from metro Councils such as Pittwater (who's going to be talking about how they pitched the use of Social Media to their senior management) to regional Councils such as Tamworth (who will be walking us through their migration from an eggs in one basket portal site policy to  a more flexible online presence policy).

All in all it's going to be an excellent conf :)

Well, it's ten to seven in the morning, and I'm on the train to Sydney so I thought I would put some thoughts down.

Ding dong the witch is dead, or is she?

Last week, the Coalition finally announced their position on the Labor party's mandatory ISP filter, stating that they would oppose it or scrap it depending on whether they won or lost the election. This caused much celebration and crowing on the twitters, with many declaring the filter proposal dead, buried and cremated. "Huzzah!" they declared, "the witch is dead!".

Except of course the witch isn't dead yet.

All of those celebrating today seem to have forgotten their recent history. The filter proposal that the Labor party took to the 2007 election was an opt-in model with a much tighter purview, it was only after the election that it expanded to the beast we see today. Given that the Coalition  is the party that brought the phrase "Non-core promise" to the national language, what insurance do we have that the Coalition won't change their mind after the election? 

I'm going to hold off on the dancing in the streets.

Mark Latham - This elections WTF

Seriously, channel 9, do you even care about being taken seriously anymore?

There was an excellent question in last nights Q and A to Julia Gillard:

"How big a tool do you think that Mark Latham is?"

To which Julia Gillard answered reasonably well:

"There are some things that just can't be measured"

If 9 had any journalistic integrity left whatsoever they would be giving Latham the bums rush as soon as possible.

Family First - A tale of two candidates

Okay, it's Sunday morning, I have a coffee in hand and I haven't had a chance to blog lately, so here we go:

This election has officially jumped the shark

That's it, this election is officially a joke. Neither party is offering significantly different policies, the media seems to be more concerned about the Days of Our Lives that is the Labor leadership squabble, and now we have channel 9 bringing Mark bloody Latham into the mix as a "guest journalist"

The only real spark of interest has been watching the twitter stream when people start to have a go at the journo's for being more concerned about Rudd and Gillard than the policies the parties are putting out. I've read many complaints about how much each party is controlling their various media packs, however it takes two to tango. The media is meant to be there to hold the parties up to the light, not help them keep mushrooming the populace.

Waving Away

I've already written about this on my wave blog, however I'll mention it here as well: If Google doesn't feel it can support the development of the Wave and associated technologies then it needs to hive them off into something similar to the Apache Foundation.

The Island of Doctor Nauru

Are we so seriously damaged as a country that we can actually think that prison camps on an island as far from anywhere as possible is an acceptable solution for such a small problem as boat borne asylum seekers? Did we learn nothing from the last time this was attempted? Yeesh.

Oh and Labor you're not getting out of this one scott free. East Timor?!? If you want to help out the East Timorese economy why not give a bit on the whole oil and gas fields thing. You know, something that might actually create jobs and build an economy?

I live in the federal seat of Throsby, which encompasses a fair chunk of the Wollongong and Shellharbour LGA's and reaches into the Southern Highlands. Created in 1984, it has only had two representatives in the 36 years of its existance, both Labor. It is what could be called the stereotypical safe seat with Labor sitting on a 16.5% margin and a very large rusted on voting base.

Politically this means that Throsby tends to be used to parachute in Labor candidates, is usually at the back of the line when it comes to election sweeteners and generally gets put waaaay down the priority list for the other parties.

Just a quick aside - I'm sooo not a fan of the head office selecting candidates model that the ALP and others use. While Jennie George has proven herself to be a good representative for the region and the Labor Candidate Stephen Jones is proving that he's treating the campaign seriously, the idea that the rank and file should be overridden so easily just doesn't sit right with me.

Anyway, back onto topic.

Part of what makes Throsby a safe Labor seat is the attitude of the other parties to trying to capture it. It's a vicious circle - it's a safe Labor seat so we won't waste money on trying to capture it, so it continues to be a safe Labor seat. Oh they'll put up candidates, because they can't be seen to be dropping the seat altogether, but the campaigns are usually limp to non-existent, leaving most people to wonder who the hell it is that is looking out at them from the ballot paper.

Take for example the Nationals candidate for Throsby, Alan Hay. The only information I could find on him came from the nationals own website (he's listed under NSW candidates). From what it looks like there isn't even a brochure site for him, hell, he doesn't even rate his own page on the Nationals website.

So I'm on the train heading to Sydney and I thought I would put down some thoughts on the election campaign so far.

• First off, what the hell happened to running an election based on the idealogical differences between the parties? Right now we have a choice between a party that is hesitant about doing anything to tackle climate change, is happy to play on peoples ill informed fears of a miniscule group of people and is happy to simply follow the polls, and a party that is hesitant to do anything to tackle climate change, plays on peoples fears of a miniscule group of people and is happy to play to the polls.
• Please tell me I'm not the only one who's sick of being treated like a moron by the parties? Are we, as a country so backwards that we can't be trusted with big words and actual explanations of policies?
• On that note, does anyone expect the proposed Leaders debate to be an actual debate or just talking points at ten paces. If it's going to be the latter then I think I'll switch off. I'm pretty sure that the debate between Jimmy Smits and Alan Aldas characters on West Wing has spoiled all real life political debates for me.
• Enforced preference deals truly suck. Parties should not be in a position where they get to direct your preferences. The senate voting system should be changed to remove the need for above/below the line voting and optional preferencing should be introduced.

Well that's my thoughts from the train for this morning.