Prominent Auckland IT executive Googles his own name and finds escort website

Amazon in the pit

E-tailer (not E-taler) Amazon has been pinged by the US Humane Society for flogging cockfighting magazines and dogfighting videos.

The society has launched a lawsuit over the Pitbull DVD StreetHeat and the magazines Gamecock and, we do not jest, The Feathered Warrior, published since 1903.

Also in the frame are the DVDs Unleashed:Real Pitbull Action Caught on Tape and Hood Fights V2, The Art of the Pit. Cockfighting is illegal in the US, except for in Louisiana and New Mexico.

Us liberal E-talers are tempted to say we abhor what these publishers say but defend their right to say it. But we won’t.

IT managers, Google thyselves

Us E-talers know the answer but are sworn to secrecy. Which prominent Auckland IT executive, whilst performing his daily routine — the ritual Googling of his own name — managed to turn up the website Seduction Escorts? It almost makes you wonder whether Google is now anticipating user needs. The IT executive commented “it was a very good service”, but we are not sure exactly what he was referring to.

Linux on the sly

Those about the E-tale water cooler heard about another Auckland IT manager who found something unexpected lurking in his server room. The company was having some problems with the organisation’s file server, so he opened up the spare, backup one, only to make a shocking discovery: it was running on Red Hat Linux, not Windows Server 2003. As the spare device had never been used, it was assumed it was running the Microsoft OS, like the regular server. So a new one had to be built from scratch, which meant a late night for the IT department. We wonder if some open-source fanatics at the server vendor (who shall remain nameless) were doing some guerilla marketing for Red Hat and surreptitiously installing it on ostensibly Windows 2003 servers. More likely, however, is that it was one of those cock-ups that aren’t discovered until the most inconvenient time.

Fun with Fronde

E-tales was at the recent Fronde debate in both Auckland and Wellington (we get around) and found the event worthy. While celebrity captain in Auckland Jon Bridges was supposed to be arguing for the affirmative (that we’d all be better off if IT ran New Zealand business), he somehow managed to have a go at just about everyone. Opposing captain Kerre Woodham accused him of stealing his jokes, while MC Willie Jackson accused her of wanting to be Maori real bad.

In the capital Willie Jackson laid into everyone with neither fear nor favour. Dismayed by the lack of Maori he even resorted to find a friend in swarthy Computerworld publisher Forsyth Thompson. We at E-tales call that desperation, but preferable to Tom Scott’s “podgy pink white man”, or was that “short pink fat man”?

Call me

One about the E-tales, known for fishy pursuits, dropped his rather expensive Sharp 770SH mobile in the drink. A replacement was ordered from Vodafone but took a while to arrive. Fisherperson called customer service to enquire where it was and the rep generously offered to look into it.

“I’ll call you back on your mobile, shall I”, the rep concluded.

You are what you blog

We E-talers were left pondering the perils of blogging recently when an assistant in a US presidential campaign finally resigned over posts that were allegedly offensive to Catholics. Amanda Marcotte resigned last week from the John Edwards campaign, writing on her blog (will she never learn?) that “every time I coughed, I felt like I was risking the Edwards campaign.”

Marcotte blamed the president of the Catholic League Bill Donohue for a “scorched earth campaign to get me fired for my personal beliefs and my writings on this blog.” Anything you blog can and will be taken down and used as evidence against you, Amanda. Are there any Kiwi bloggers out there with political ambitions? Or just ambitions?

Business intelligence

A psychic museum in York, in the UK, has closed due to unforeseen circumstances, website Ananova.com reports. The York Psychic museum was set up in 2003 but business has not been brisk. Astrologer and museum founder Jonathan Cainer was not prepared to predict whether, when or if it would open again.

Absolutely fabulous fun

Is this the next PC revolution but with a Star Trek twist? New Scientist magazine is mucho excited about the advent of the “fabber” or home factory.

The desktop-sized freeform fabricator, or “fabber”, is the latest home tech device, but it is very different. It connects to a desktop computer and can make injection-moulded products or shapes from a variety of materials — from silicone to play-doh, even from chocolate. As for what fab things one might make… well, E-tales is sure readers can exercise their imaginations.

The US researchers responsible for the device see it as comparable to the early computer kits, which, as we all know, led to the home-computing revolution which saw a generation tune into entertaining themselves by learning to program in Basic and tune out of boring old TV. The mainframe morphed into the PC and the rest was history.