Peter M Howard ::

Bits & Pieces

January2024

On Unfinished Thoughts (28Jan2024)
In which something...

Superpowers, or Empires? (08Jan2024)
In which I wonder how we describe hegemony now, and for the next few decades, and how Australia fits amongst global players

December2023

Rebirth, or Reinvention (11Dec2023)
In which I enter a new decade, and invent a new me

October2023

Sucking it Up (23Oct2023)
In which white dudes...

September2022

Untitled Dispatch (22Sep2022)
In which a message is received, from a distant planet

March2015

They cannot go back (22Mar2015)
In which a dreamer wakes, a world emerging

April2014

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (06Apr2014)
The best of the Marvel movies yet

February2014

Ten Years (24Feb2014)

January2014

My Sydney Festival 2014 (27Jan2014)
This Is My City In Summer

2014 Gates Annual Letter: Myths About Foreign Aid (25Jan2014)

30 and Excited About (11Jan2014)
In which getting old is opportunity

30 and Tired Of (08Jan2014)
In which I’m getting old

December2013

Four Cities (26Dec2013)
In which I photograph Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Sydney Harbour

October2013

Jungle City (04Oct2013)
In which the City reveals Herself to me, with a beautiful and terrifying vision

July2013

Take Care, x3 (15Jul2013)

April2013

An Australian Faerie Tale (08Apr2013)
In which the Dreaming is being undone, and remade

January2013

A Scifi Prologue (28Jan2013)

December2012

Falling (26Dec2012)
On a kind-of love, and falling into their eyes: a kind-of fiction.

October2012

Looper (03Oct2012)

July2012

On Writing, When I’m Not (22Jul2012)
In which I write about not writing, just to get the rusty wheels turning

February2012

The Unseen City (11Feb2012)

November2011

11September-5November2011 :: These (Riding) Weeks (05Nov2011)

October2011

Nas — Nasty (17Oct2011)

September2011

21August-10September2011 :: These (Running) Weeks (17Sep2011)

August2011

7-20August2011 :: These (Winter, Returned) Weeks (21Aug2011)

The Last Ten Thousand (13Aug2011)
In which the final chapters seem larger than those that came before

24July-6August2011 :: These (Early Spring) Weeks (13Aug2011)

Critiquing Reality TV (13Aug2011)

July2011

3-23July2011 :: These (Hong Kong) Weeks (31Jul2011)

26June-2July2011 :: This (Cordless) Week (04Jul2011)

June2011

12-18June2011 :: This (SydFilmFest) Week (26Jun2011)

19-25June2011 :: This (Canberra) Week (26Jun2011)

5-11June2011 :: This (Last) Week (16Jun2011)

Sleeping Beauty (12Jun2011)

Raphaël — 19thC Book II Chapter I (09Jun2011)

29May-4June2011 :: This Week (06Jun2011)

May2011

22-28May2011 :: This Week (29May2011)

15-21May2011 :: This Week (22May2011)

8-14May2011 :: This Week (15May2011)

On the PlayBook (09May2011)
In which no-one knows how to sell a future-device

1-7May2011 :: This Week (08May2011)

24-31April2011 :: This Week (01May2011)

April2011

17-23April2011 :: This Week (24Apr2011)

Not Too Big; Not Too Little; The Goldilocks Device (22Apr2011)

10-16April2011 :: This Week (17Apr2011)

3-9April2011 :: This Week (10Apr2011)
In which I read and watch and listen, and wonder about genre

Le Flâneur (03Apr2011)

27March-2April2011 :: This Week (03Apr2011)

March2011

On Chatter and What Matters (30Mar2011)
In which I wish to discover the information that matters most to me

‘Sucker Punch’ and the Decline of Strong Woman Action Heroines (29Mar2011)

20-26March2011 :: This Week (28Mar2011)

Big K.R.I.T. — Dreamin’ (26Mar2011)

10-19March2011 :: This Week (and a bit) (20Mar2011)

Travel Log VIII (12Mar2011)

Travel Log VII (01Mar2011)

February2011

Travel Log VI (06Feb2011)

January2011

Travel Log V (31Jan2011)

Travel Log IV (24Jan2011)

Travel Log III (19Jan2011)

Raphaël — Outline I of VI (07Jan2011)

Travel Log II (05Jan2011)

Travel Log I (04Jan2011)

December2010

On Anonymity as Trolling (01Dec2010)

November2010

On Facebook and Messaging (19Nov2010)

Geek Luddites and the New Computing (01Nov2010)

On the Failure of Microbudgets (01Nov2010)

October2010

On Music (06Oct2010)
In which I explore music, memory, the physical, the performative

September2010

Neil Young’s Love and War (26Sep2010)

Women in Rock and popular media (18Sep2010)

August2010

Five Things (30Aug2010)
In which five things are on my mind: Location, The City, Sex & Death, Teams Edward & Jacob, Creative Whitespace

Horrorshow — Aussie Hip Hop (16Aug2010)
In which Aussie describes the hip hop, not its quality

My SydFilmFest Ten (12Aug2010)

In Defense of Having Children (11Aug2010)

Raphaël — Teaser (10Aug2010)
In which a young man returns to protect the City he loves, and cannot escape his past

Kanye West’s Power (07Aug2010)

May2010

None of these seem to get in the way (17May2010)

April2010

Green Zone (05Apr2010)
In which a war is sold with lies

Tightrope - Janelle Monae ft Big Boi (04Apr2010)

Cutover (03Apr2010)
In which I abandon shared hosting for a (virtual) home of my own

March2010

We’re just part of the world, breaking down, or being torn down (20Mar2010)

Six Days Remix - DJ Shadow ft Mos Def (15Mar2010)

January2010

The Road (29Jan2010)
In which a Man and a Boy carry the fire

November2009

On Work (22Nov2009)
In which one defines oneself through one’s work

September2009

Fighting (07Sep2009)
In which the struggle is made manifest, in a deceptively and beautifully simple film

August2009

Inglourious Basterds (30Aug2009)
In which a film rewrites history, and Tarantino gets his masterpiece

Coco avant Chanel (09Aug2009)
In which an orphan constructs herself a new identity, finding her independence in ‘Coco’

May2009

The Space Race (28May2009)
In which a city needs to make space for its artists

On Chatter (20May2009)
In which I stumble into the æther and explore Twitter, Facebook, and the always-on, always chattering future

Still Star Trek (10May2009)
In which even after a reboot, Star Trek is still Star Trek, and the future is full of white people

On Literature (07May2009)
In which I discover that maybe Literature isn’t so bad after all, and might even be a new addiction

April2009

Dream City (30Apr2009)
In which I find a city that isn’t a City, and only really exists in a dream of itself

A New Look (17Apr2009)
In which I pull together a long-overdue upgrade and redesign in the space of a couple of weeks

January2009

Doubt (23Jan2009)
In which doubt turns to suspicion

Wangaratta 2009 (07Jan2009)
In which I snap family, and play with light

November2008

Wall-E (08Nov2008)
In which a child-like innocent opens the eyes of humanity

September2008

IE6 and 7 on OSX (20Sep2008)
In which I run IE 6 and 7 on OSX; the entire process using free software

July2008

WYD 2008 (23Jul2008)
In which I photograph a crowd, but can’t bring myself to join it

Not The Mobile Web, just A mobile web (13Jul2008)
In which I’d prefer the web on my mobile to the mobile web

April2008

Nostalgia (29Apr2008)
In which all that lingers is her scent

Getting Lost in Victoria (14Apr2008)
In which I explore Torquay and Melbourne, and attempt to capture some of Victoria with light and glass

March2008

Recent Media Consumption — February and March (29Mar2008)
In which I consume hours of media in a short amount of time, and rediscover television

Chinese New Year 2008 (24Mar2008)

Rendition (14Mar2008)

Melbourne, Je t’aime (13Mar2008)
In which I fall in love with another city

January2008

The City Reborn (28Jan2008)
In which I sense Her imminent return, and their downfall, and the truth of the tale outside of time

The Night Before Christmas, or, Why I’m Buying a MacBook Air (21Jan2008)
In which there’s something in the aether.

7-13January2008 :: This Week (15Jan2008)

1-6January2008 :: This Week (06Jan2008)

Sydney, NYE 2008 (03Jan2008)
In which the pretty colours make the fireworks worthwhile, and in which I shoot in near darkness

Slouching Towards Bedlam (02Jan2008)
In which first they come for the communists

December2007

Soominch Fashion Shoot (30Dec2007)
In which I am a fashion photographer

Recent Media Consumption (30Dec2007)
In which I consume, to varying degrees, various media

November2007

Raphaël — Origins (12Nov2007)
In which a dreamed legend is born, in that realm between sacred and profane

Broken Cinema (11Nov2007)
In which a rogue computer spoils the movie going experience

October2007

War & Politics (10Oct2007)
In which I despair of politicians

September2007

Cat Blogging (22Sep2007)
In which I photograph much smaller subjects

The City In Lockdown (08Sep2007)
In which I walk the long way around protesters, police lines, and labyrinthine wire fences, snapping images as I go

August2007

A Day in the Life of the City (27Aug2007)
In which I break in the new dSLR

Crises of faith (16Aug2007)
In which I put an end to the crises of small-f faith, and realise that, being in the right environment, my Faith doesn’t waver anymore

July2007

Try Before You Buy (16Jul2007)
In which my music piracy is justified

Green is a Status Symbol (13Jul2007)
In which I refuse to be distracted by the dallyings of the idle rich.

Phi (Jade Cut) now online (11Jul2007)
In which I finally release the five episodes of Φ, collected from around the internet of 2008 and made available at hackfilm.com

June2007

iTunes, Now With Added Freedoms (09Jun2007)

May2007

Random on Windows (15May2007)
In which I am baffled by the mystery that is Windows, and once more wooed by the ease with which one can make Python work, even there

Weeping for a Film (06May2007)
In which I shoot a film overnight and watch another too-emotional film while still chemically imbalanced

April2007

This is one reason so many long-time Unix nerds have found themselves so happy using Mac OS X (24Apr2007)

Photos with location clouds (23Apr2007)
In which I give prominence to the places from where I’ve taken the most photos

Now ETagging Right! (17Apr2007)
In which I stop fighting the framework and let Django handle ETags the right way

The Roots, Live at the Enmore (14Apr2007)
In which my head stops ringing long enough to appreciate an amazing live performance.

300 (08Apr2007)
In which I wonder just whose politics got into *300*

Settling In, And A Withdrawal (02Apr2007)
In which I am reconnected, the final stage of making the house a home.

March2007

Taking Her Offline (03Mar2007)
In which I put the new site online, and take the iMac offline

December2006

New-Ness (31Dec2006)
In which I try roll over the website while everyone else rolls over midnight

Semantics and Style :: Markup for Dialogue (30Dec2006)

Winter with Django (02Dec2006)

October2006

Quoting Song Lyrics (15Oct2006)

September2006

The Prophetess (26Sep2006)

August2006

Untitled Vampire Short :: Treatment (30Aug2006)

A Flickr photoset :: Europe in Black & White (19Aug2006)

Recent Consumption (12Aug2006)

July2006

Photos :: Darling Harbour under storm clouds (25Jul2006)

16-22July2006 :: This Week (22Jul2006)

9-15July2006 :: This Week (15Jul2006)

A Vampire Lore (10Jul2006)

2-8July2006 :: This Week (09Jul2006)

MySpace :: the latest victim of cultural ignorance (07Jul2006)

Vampire/Watcher (05Jul2006)

That Imp of Earth and Industry (03Jul2006)

25June-1July2006 :: This Week (01Jul2006)

June2006

18-24June2006 :: This Week (25Jun2006)

Working 9-5 (20Jun2006)

The Author and The Logos (11Jun2006)

4-10June2006 :: This Week (11Jun2006)

On Switching, Part the First (09Jun2006)

28May-3June2006 :: This Week (03Jun2006)

May2006

Dreams of a Place That Never Was (31May2006)

21-27May2006 :: This Week (27May2006)

Who Says Computers Aren’t Intelligent? (26May2006)

14-20May2006 :: This Week (20May2006)

Looking For Work (14May2006)

Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have A Winner (White vs Beige) (13May2006)

Shooting Bombsites in Melbourne and Sydney (13May2006)

7-13May2006 :: This Week (13May2006)

On Being Marketed Down To (11May2006)

30Apr-6May2006 :: This Week (06May2006)

April2006

23-29April2006 :: This Week (30Apr2006)

16-22April2006 :: This Week (22Apr2006)

Fou Amoureux (20Apr2006)

9-15April2006 :: This Week (15Apr2006)

Venus and Mars and some other planet (14Apr2006)

Team B Mark II (13Apr2006)

Rehearsing for Fourty Thousand Years; On Cultural Curiosity (10Apr2006)

2-8April2006 :: This Week (08Apr2006)

Two of Three Short Scripts (04Apr2006)

Rethinking that Convergent Gadget (04Apr2006)

V For Vendetta (01Apr2006)

26Mar-1April2006 :: This Week (01Apr2006)

March2006

19-25March2006 :: This Week (25Mar2006)

Flora, Thrice (20Mar2006)

Why I Do This; Some Justifications (18Mar2006)

12-18March2006 :: This Week (18Mar2006)

We’ve Been Underestimating Those Buildings (15Mar2006)

Syriana (13Mar2006)

5-11March2006 :: This Week (11Mar2006)

Style Updates (07Mar2006)

White vs Beige, Round 4 (06Mar2006)

Attempting Reconnection... Failed (06Mar2006)

Crash, House of Flying Daggers, Little Fish (06Mar2006)

February2006

Débranché (25Feb2006)

When Myth-Making Backfires (22Feb2006)

Housekeeping, Syndication Politics (21Feb2006)

Vanishing From View (19Feb2006)

Nokia N and E Series (19Feb2006)

Rethinking Judas (03Feb2006)

Code 46 (03Feb2006)

January2006

Appreciations in Two Parts; or, Things I Miss, Or Don’t (28Jan2006)

Updates: Everything Has To End (08Jan2006)

The Vampire’s Story (04Jan2006)

Places of Departure (04Jan2006)

December2005

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (31Dec2005)

Updates (29Dec2005)

Casablanca (19Dec2005)

Search Term Spam (17Dec2005)

Public Schooling, Religion, A Manifesto (17Dec2005)

My Snow Coloured Dreams (15Dec2005)

Mysterious Packages Part II (11Dec2005)

Dumping Core (11Dec2005)

Australian Identity and Online Writing (11Dec2005)

What I Want From the Future (08Dec2005)

Mysterious Packages (03Dec2005)

The Universal Library (02Dec2005)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (02Dec2005)

November2005

Updates/Weirdness (28Nov2005)

Matrix Reloaded & Revolutions (23Nov2005)

White vs Beige, Round 3 (21Nov2005)

The Cyberpunk Educator (21Nov2005)

The City (20Nov2005)

Desktop Specs (15Nov2005)

2006 Enrolment (15Nov2005)

Site Updates (13Nov2005)

Languages I Want To Learn (10Nov2005)

White vs Beige, Round 2 (09Nov2005)

Drop that double-u-double-u-double-u-dot (08Nov2005)

A History of Violence (07Nov2005)

Elizabethtown (07Nov2005)

October2005

Turing’s Cathedral (29Oct2005)

QOTD: French and Saunders (28Oct2005)

Procrastinating (28Oct2005)

I don’t HATE Microsoft (28Oct2005)

Reclaiming the label Amateur (27Oct2005)

Desire (1936) (23Oct2005)

That’s not a knife (22Oct2005)

Site Updates (20Oct2005)

Computer upgrade: White vs Beige (19Oct2005)

Some observations on ‘Spam 2.0’ (17Oct2005)

Computing isn’t meant to be Easy (15Oct2005)

Bird Flu (15Oct2005)

Site Updates (12Oct2005)

Saved! (09Oct2005)

“How a faithful nation gets Jesus wrong” (09Oct2005)

Pollution != Global Warming (07Oct2005)

Blog/Search (07Oct2005)

Modding legal (06Oct2005)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (06Oct2005)

Bible truth (06Oct2005)

Photo Updates (03Oct2005)

Paris and Coffee (02Oct2005)

September2005

Search Terms half-working (22Sep2005)

Converting Relative to Absolute links in PHP (preg_replace) (21Sep2005)

let’s go out tonight (21Sep2005)

Site Updates (20Sep2005)

The Game (17Sep2005)

Winter, She Cometh (16Sep2005)

Starbucks (15Sep2005)

Home Again (14Sep2005)

Think You’re Fighting Spam? (14Sep2005)

A Collection of Holiday Posts, September 2005 (07Sep2005)

August2005

WYD Updates (19Aug2005)

Tripping Europe (06Aug2005)

JK Rowling Interview (06Aug2005)

Woo! Drink Good (03Aug2005)

July2005

England, Holiday the Third (31Jul2005)

Site Updates (28Jul2005)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (28Jul2005)

New Domains (26Jul2005)

More Photos (23Jul2005)

Photo Updates (22Jul2005)

‘the Jedi Order, the geekiest people in the universe’ (20Jul2005)

Did you sell any goods or services using the Internet? (19Jul2005)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (19Jul2005)

Connectivity (13Jul2005)

Once more unto the brink (11Jul2005)

Updates (10Jul2005)

June2005

Me and 20,000 other hippies (30Jun2005)

bourgeois myth (25Jun2005)

Updates (21Jun2005)

press-ganging alive and well (10Jun2005)

A place amongst the living (07Jun2005)

With Us or Against Us (01Jun2005)

May2005

It’s Non (29May2005)

weird search terms 2 (23May2005)

Updates (20May2005)

expensive habits (14May2005)

BBC backstage access (12May2005)

Tribes sidebar now available (11May2005)

CCD^3 (09May2005)

search terms (06May2005)

lesser of two evils (06May2005)

new articles up (01May2005)

April2005

Updates (28Apr2005)

10 days in Euskadi (26Apr2005)

God’s Rottweiler (26Apr2005)

In the Public Interests of Whom? (11Apr2005)

New Host! (08Apr2005)

Paris, Enfin! (05Apr2005)

England, A Holiday in Two Parts (04Apr2005)

L’Invasion du Manga (02Apr2005)

Downloading Movies is... (02Apr2005)

March2005

Update... With Photos! (22Mar2005)

‘threats that no one country, however powerful, can fight alone’ (22Mar2005)

I Want One! (21Mar2005)

So what are your politics? (17Mar2005)

content+distribution (15Mar2005)

Six Weeks Later... (07Mar2005)

rébranché (07Mar2005)

January2005

Trade-Slave (20Jan2005)

Elves Of Valinor Warn Of ‘Critical Security Flaw’ in Palantir Browsers (16Jan2005)

four legs good, two legs ... (12Jan2005)

Acts of God (04Jan2005)

December2004

what terrorism may achieve (22Dec2004)

Terrorist Descent (06Dec2004)

My Favourite Book (06Dec2004)

more Centrists (04Dec2004)

November2004

Xenon specs leaked (19Nov2004)

kill everyone (10Nov2004)

trendy lefties (09Nov2004)

October2004

Xinit/VNC hack (25Oct2004)

countdown to china (22Oct2004)

September2004

digital delivery (30Sep2004)

funky google trick (28Sep2004)

appeasement is a dirty word (10Sep2004)

pro-one-choice (07Sep2004)

August2004

another little victory (10Aug2004)

July2004

Artorius Rex-tended (23Jul2004)

Crazy Irish-Catholic terrorists (23Jul2004)

Five and a half pages (23Jul2004)

now the banks are beating the scammers at their own game (21Jul2004)

I knew he was stupid, but really... (16Jul2004)

Artorius Rex (16Jul2004)

June2004

The name of this class, ‘abc’, conflicts with the name of another class that was loaded, ‘abc’ (28Jun2004)

‘at no time did australian troops...’ (27Jun2004)

The Altar Of Reason (10Jun2004)

May2004

Domain.com.au Feedback (17May2004)

cut and run (17May2004)

aligned with evil (11May2004)

snow! (03May2004)

and the winner is ... (syd-en-ey) (01May2004)

Jazzy Mix Parts I & II (Beats and Blues) (01May2004)

April2004

Abort (25Apr2004)

The Passion Part I (22Apr2004)

woundedness (18Apr2004)

the light in the darkness (18Apr2004)

Chromies (15Apr2004)

Fortress Australia (12Apr2004)

flash gallery thingy (08Apr2004)

March2004

back back again (25Mar2004)

The Passion Pre-Viewing (04Mar2004)

February2004

Your fetish with the Semantic Web is just an excuse not to organise your thoughts hierarchicly, as God intended (26Feb2004)

‘the desire to be a patriot and to change things’ (18Feb2004)

I want to be a Free Spirit (14Feb2004)

Broken Hearts (14Feb2004)