Michael Gorey

At various times over the past few years I’ve used Akismet and Defensio to block comment spam. I’m now trying Mollom and I’m pleased with the early results.
The problem with Akismet and Defensio is they sometimes block genuine comments. Manual checking is the only way to find out.
On days when my sites are flooded with [...]

I now like the break between sporting seasons. When I was young I used to hate it. There was no football or cricket to watch and the weekends seemed to go forever.
Now we have respite from playing taxi to kids’ soccer and hockey.
Today we went for a drive to Millicent, Southend and Beachport. (more…)

I was reading the other day about an Argentine tourist who wanted to visit Sydney, but accidentally finished up in Sydney, Nova Scotia. She realised something was wrong when she boarded a small plane in Halifax.
“She was taking pictures out the airplane window and said to herself, ‘Something is not right,’” local resident Christiane Tanner, [...]

We ran a story on the front page today about the success of Hungry Jack’s quad stack burger. This was a limited-time promotion where people could buy super-size burgers made to order.
The standard quad stack comprised four beef patties, four slices of cheese and bacon in a standard hamburger bun with no salad.
It contained something [...]

I don’t use my mobile phone much for taking photos. At various times I’ve bought phones with ramped up camera capabilities, but for various reasons I haven’t utilised them much.
My brain hasn’t tuned into the fact that phones today are also cameras, voice recorders and music players among other things. They do almost everything except [...]

Speed renting sounds like a great idea. I read about it in The Age today while attending a junior soccer carnival.
I had thought the soccer season finished until they sprang this on us. Apparently it was a pre-season cup that was cancelled, so they shunted it to the end of the year.
The last thing I [...]

My superannuation was parked in cash for a few months earlier this year while I switched it to a new account.
That meant I fortunately missed the first half of the stock market downturn and probably saved a few thousand dollars.
I opened the new account with about $78,000. It’s worth the same today, even though employer [...]

This is a great Australian song. I was looking for the Redgum version on YouTube, but couldn’t find it. Here is John Williamson’s equally excellent rendition:

Publishing a newspaper isn’t rocket science; it’s common sense really. The influence of an editor is most noticeable in story selection and the emphasis given to particular stories.
While changes to the style and direction of a newspaper might affect sales in the longer term, casual buyers are won by word of mouth and a strong [...]

There is a bar in Melbourne that’s been offering free alcohol to women who remove their underwear.
I saw a media release today from the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) condemning the stunt.
The AHA spokesman said the venue “is not a traditional pub and is a product of liberal liquor licensing laws in Victoria. Also, it is [...]