Colin Pearce says...: 2020 Summit - Yawn!

Totally agree with Colin on this. What a hot-air fest.

Where were the small business people? Obviously not in Rudd's definition of "best and brightest"

It was good to see Tim Costello chairing "Strengthening communities, supporting working families and social inclusion". I have a lot of time for that man.

OH LOOK! Did you see the mention of WORKING FAMILIES? What about hard working middle-class single Caucasian men? Of course not, that would be political suicide to try and help the most under-represented minority group in Australia.

Making Australia a republic won’t create more jobs, won’t strengthen families, won’t stop binge drinking, curb obesity, create more aged care, stop nincompoops breeding, create more hospitals, improve character, increase foreign aid, make poverty history, bring electricity to Africa, wipe out AIDS, get "our new friend" China to stop being the worst polluter, worst child killer, worst religious persecutor on the planet, get our "old friend" USA to clean up its own parlour, ban cars over 10 years old, increase public transport, get Iraq to heal itself, get Israel and Palestine to kiss and make up, speed up the proliferation of green power, save the aborigines, or do anything useful at all.

excerpt from Colin Pearce says: 2020 Summit - Yawn!

The whole thing feels like a bait and switch. Rudd says "look at the sparkely stuff! Isn't it pretty!" while trying to distract us away from the important things that are actually happening here and now.

Epic Fools

Between IgniteLAN admin Devastator and I, we orchestrated on the IgniteLAN admins possibly one of the funniest pranks ever.

First to update was the IgniteLAN website with the following news item:

All good things must come to an end.

Hey Guys Dev here.

I regret to inform you that our Jolt Cola sponsorship will be ending as of today. I was informed of this horrible news yesterday as I was making a new order for IgniteLAN. Our current order will go through at this time but sadly this will be our last order ever. More news on this to be posted soon.

James "Devastator" Dunn

Posted by: Devastator at 10:00 am on 01/04/2008

Then, after seeing it and conversing with Devastator for a short while I posted our own update:

InLAN Exclusivly Jolt!

InLAN is proud to announce exclusive sponsorship by Jolt! Every LANer will receive 2 bottles on entry by the new Jolt Escorts.

In addition, we announce a new InJOLT membership which for a membership of only $10 per year, you receive an additional 2 bottles per event but are required to sign an agreement to not attend any non-Jolt sponsored LAN Parties.

Further details will be posted soon.

In a convo with IgniteLAN admin nathollis who was not privy to the prank, was obviously fooled:

<narthollis> saw your website - while it seams dev is rather pissed bout it i would like to offer my congratulation :)
<TheScream> Thanks mate, I really was hoping it wouldn't piss you guys off too much, I had to sign an NDA
<narthollis> all good, personly i think its good for you guys
<narthollis> not sure how the others are going to take it however
<TheScream> Yeah, we've been trying to get some form of sponsorship for a while.
<narthollis> yp
<narthollis> yup*
<narthollis> out of interest can you provide any more information on thie 'InJOLT' thing?
<TheScream> Not until the NDA expires, I've got to keep some of the details under wraps until 2 weeks prior to the next event.
<narthollis> ah, ok
<TheScream> Man, dev is pissed at me.
<TheScream> <Devastator> DAVE YOU F****R! I STILL CAN'T BELVIE THIS.
<narthollis> yeah... :s
<narthollis> nug and i are working on trying to keep thing calmish
<TheScream> thanks
<narthollis> i realy hope this dosnt spoil ignitelan<->inlan relations [it wont for me but as i said, im not sure how the others are taking it]
<TheScream> Yeah, i was worried about this happeneing, i thought dev would be happy for us.
<narthollis> yeah
<narthollis> i think dev is pissed at you getting it and us losing it... i think he feels like his been stabed in the back
<narthollis> damnu :p
<TheScream> HAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHA
<narthollis> nice work :)

Other interesting comments in the #chat channel on EYErc.net:

* WheelieBin trips over a jolt box again...
<wheeliebin> Grrr Dave - can we move these to the Church or something?

<wheeliebin> oooh, the InLAN website has been updated...
* TheScream has changed the topic to: April Fools Day - Don't let it catch you out!™ like http://www.inlan.net.au/

<narthollis> i have a few rather pissed off admins
<devastator> LOL
<thescream> HAHAHAHHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAAH
<wheeliebin> ROFLMAO
<narthollis> Devastator, they are more pissed off now than they were before if its any consolation

Thanks for being great sports IgniteLAN team! You showed the humility and preservation of friendship that nobody would expected to do.