Clancy . . .overflow . . . the best bits . . . funnies

This ambitious open content project seeks to place the entire BBC archive, going back to the earliest days of radio and television, on the internet so that everyone, especially the British taxpayers who paid for it in the first place, can distribute and creatively use it. The British Government is currently considering a ‘Creative Commons’ license to enable the initiative.

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To reinforce how important internet access to cultural content will be, a new Harris Interactive poll in the US claims that the number of adult internet users in the US has steadily risen over the past nine years, from a mere 17.5 million in 1995 to 156.0 million in 2004. To put these numbers in context, in 1995 Harris found that just 9% of US adults were online, compared to 63% in 2000 and 73% in 2004.

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After many years of discussion with a number of local companies, German software company Dalim has appointed neXus network as first Australian reseller. neXus network, based in Ultimo, Sydney, is a specialist technology services and consulting company and is one of Australia's leading independent prepress and publishing systems integrators. “Dalim Software is considered one of the world’s leading workflow technology developers and their solutions fit perfectly with our suite of leading products,” says John Dobbin, Director. He says Dalim was impressed by the sheer number of Australians and New Zealanders coming to its booth at drupa.

Contact John at john.dobbin@nexusnet.com.au


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Flint Ink is getting into the colour management business with the launch of Progressive Color Media, a new company that will provide workflow colour management solutions integrating hardware, software, and services. Say Flint Ink officials, Progressive Color Media will draw on strategic partnerships with colour management software and hardware providers, and will offer baseline assessment solution development and design, implementation, and support services.

Now if they would just learn how to spell colour correctly . . .

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On the subject of ink, the HP Indigo business must be booming and the very lucrative manufacture of digital ink, which costs a lot more than your average offset ink, is a river of gold. To keep up with demand the company is building not one but two new ink making plants, one at Kiryat Gat in Israel, 40 km south from where the company originally began, and the other in Singapore to service the Asia-Pacific region.

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Does this sound at all familiar? The U.S. printing industry is concerned about competition from offshore printers. A new survey points out that its trade surplus in printed matter has declined 38% since 2003, and the deficit with China alone was more than $500 million in the first half of 2004. For the first half of 2004, the surplus in printed materials trade declined by US $75 billion. About ten years ago, the U.S. had a 72% surplus in books and printed matter; today it is ‘barely more’ than 16%.

So we’re not alone.

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And finally . . . Astrid Sweres was good enough to forward this letter from a new army recruit to Mum and Dad back home in Eromanga, a small town west of Quilpie in the far south west of Queensland.



Dear Mum & Dad,


I am well. Hope youse are too. Tell me big brothers Doug and Phil that the Army is better than workin' on the farm – tell them to get in bloody quick smart before the jobs are all gone!

I wuz a bit slow in settling down at first, because ya don't hafta get
outta bed until 6am. But I like sleeping in now, cuz all you gotta do before brekky is make ya bed and shine ya boots and clean ya uniform.
No bloody cows to milk, no calves to feed, no feed to stack - nothin'!!

At brekky ya get cereal, fruit and eggs but there's no kangaroo steaks or possum stew like wot Mum makes. You don't get fed again until noon, and by that time all the city boys are buggered because we've been on a 'route march' - geez its only just like walking to the windmill in the back paddock!!

This one will kill me brothers Doug and Phil with laughter. I keep
getting medals for shootin' – dunno why. The bullseye is as big as a
bloody possum's bum and it don't move and its not firing back at ya like
the Johnsons did when our big scrubber bull got into their prize cows
before the Ekka last year! All ya gotta do is make yourself comfortable
and hit the target – its a piece of piss!! You don't even load your own
cartridges – they comes in little boxes and ya don't have to steady
yourself against the rollbar of the roo shooting truck when you reload!

Sometimes ya gotta wrestle with the city boys and I gotta be real
careful coz they break easy – it's not like fighting with Doug and Phil
and Jack and Boori and Steve and Muzza all at once like we do at home
after the muster.

Turns out I'm not a bad boxer either and it looks like I'm the best the
platoon's got, and I've only been beaten by this one bloke from the
Engineers - he's 6 foot 5 and 15 stone and three pickhandles across the
shoulders and as ya know I'm only 5 foot 7 and eight stone wringin' wet,
but I fought him till the other blokes carried me off to the boozer.

I can't complain about the Army – tell the boys to get in quick before
word gets around how bloody good it is.



Your loving daughter,

Jill