Via MetaFilter: Mr Squiggle turns 50 today.

1. Being a 6-foot-2-inch fly-on-the-wall is pretty uncomfortable.

2. Grinding out herbalism without an epic flying mount is a much bigger PITA than I anticipated.

3. There might soon be an interesting Australian TV series. Keep an eye out.

4. I’m not the only one disdainful of uncritical niche film markets. I should really write an essay on the topic, but that might give people the impression that I have a valid opinion.

5. Almost a month on, the words “President-elect Obama” still launches an enormous grin on my face.

As a consequence of a work placement he was doing, director of “Gannets” James Maiden was able to get an edited-down version of the film onto an episode of the ABC’s Stateline program. A transcript is available on their website.

Short promotional trailers have been cut for some of the more prominent Honours and NHFM films from the last few years. I’ll see if I can’t get the clip for Gannets up on the site somehow.

The ABC has launched its version of the BBC’s iPlayer, imaginatively titled iView. To their credit they developed the system in-house, and out-of-the-box it supports Windows, Mac, and Linux. It’s a pity then that right now the service is crippled by the general crappery of Australian Internet access. As is explained in nice large letters before you enter iView, it’s going to consume a lot of the monthly download allowance we’re lumped with here.

The ABC’s solution to this (and the solution being pursued by EzyDownload) is to establish deals with ISPs which will allow people to stream from iView without contributing to their download limits. Which is to say, so-called Net Neutrality is currently being dismantled here in Australia.

A source of national pride, no?

Back to iView though, I have to say I hope this doesn’t impact upon the ABC’s rather good record of offering up its shows for easy downloading.