Only problem? Well first I haven’t driven my car since something like August of 2007. And second, I sold my car on 16 January 2008 so I definitely wasn’t parking it anywhere after that.

But who cares about that. What I’m more concerned about is these private parking companies charging “fines” with no legal authority to do so. To the credit of Parking Infringements Victoria they called it a “penalty”, which indicates they understand that all they can go after is a breach of contract penalty not a fine like local councils can cause they statutory authority.

However, even if I had been in that parking lot on that day without a valid ticket, they can still only recover damages from me. And did they really suffer $129.50 worth of damage? I surely doubt it.

If you’re ever stung by a private parking company check out this brochure from Consumer Action, it’s even got a form letter you can send off to fight the ‘penalty’.

Check out Drop.io.

With that widget you can upload files, links, faxes, phone calls, etc and it’ll be added to my drop.io page. Not only will that page e-mail when it is updated, but it also has an RSS feed, so anyone can stay updated with what’s been added. You can email stuff to devonwhittle@drop.io, leave voice messages at 646-495-9203 x 82341 which are automatically uploaded, conference call to 218-486-3891 x 209039849. So lots of possibilities.

I think this is a great tool for taking suggestions - if it takes off. Only time will tell.

Maybe I’m just off fiction, I haven’t had a good read for a while. I think I’ll borrow out Utopia again - there’s nothing like a classic. Or thumb through Arturo Ui again - always a brilliant read.

In terms of non-fiction, I’ve just been given For the Glory of God by Rodney Stark and this is an interesting read. He is going to demonstrate exactly what monotheism is responsible for - ending slavery, burning witches, science. I’m really looking forward to digging in to this.

Other news? Our Moot is drawing to end, I’m gonna miss these crazy cats. I’m hoping we can really blow them away in Adelaide. 12 weeks, what a rush.

Jess is getting me hooked on climate change, further fracturing my law interests. Trade, humanitarian, human rights, climate change! Me thinks my first year out of uni may be a bit disappointing. Academia here I come!

Speaking about projects, great news! I got into the 2008 ELSA WTO Moot! Me and three other Melbourne uni team members will be slaving in the library over summer to get our written submissions ready for January 15. Then orals are in March. If we get through the Adelaide round we get to go to Geneva - how sweet.

In preparation for this big new organisation task, I’ve heartily thrown myself into mac software and downloaded, evaluated and struggled with a whole heap of different apps designed to make life easier. What follows is my (draft) list of 3 apps that make my study and fun time a whole lot easier.

Firstly, you can’t go past Vienna - an opensource RSS feed reader. If you do not know the power of RSS feeds you are taking way to long to get up to date with news. I currently have over 200 different websites RSS feeds being automatically updated in Vienna. In the morning I quickly do a refresh so all the content is downloaded to my Powerbook, then on the train I can quickly sort through over 500 posts to work out what news is important, what I can blog about, and any recent developments at the WTO. Honestly, this is my number one mac program and makes life so much easier to keep track of. I’m planning on publishing my OPML files (OPML files are a collection of feeds that you can plugin into news readers) on James5 soon so you can see exactly what I subscribe to.

Next, Skim - a PDF reader, annotator and note taker. I only just discovered the real beauty of this app today in its note-taking and highlighting abilities. Now when I read a PDF I literally highlight it in Skim and make any notes that I need to remember. When done I click export and get a text file with my notes for each page in sections. Then I head over to DEVONthink Pro (see below) and import the notes before running them through a script that divides them up. This cuts my note taking time in half.

Finally, the one program I wish I had four years ago, DEVONthink Pro - a personal information manager. This one actually costs quite a bit of money but I’m sure it is worth it. In DTP I import all my notes, pdfs, docs, websites, ideas, urls, etc then I take notes on journal articles, cases, websites and before long have a massive database of information of everything I read. Then when I need to write an essay or research something that I’ve read about before, eg. the WTO, I just search through my database using DTP’s special AI goodness. It really is good stuff. DTP also has a cool “See also” function that can show you how your bits of information are related. To think I’ve spent four years of uni typing up notes and doing research and then literally just chucking them out and starting afresh with each new essay - ridiculous! The best part is there is a rousing community of DTP users out there doing cool things with scripts and plugins, not to mention just sharing how they use DTP. If you are an organisational/info-geek like me you’ll love DTP.

So that’s my top 3, of course I haven’t bothered with Camino, Mail, MailTags (google this - this program rocks!), iCal or even iGTD (an advanced to do list) - but those are good too. There is so much good stuff out there. Also, Google has some good online offerings such as Google Docs, Groups, Reader, Notebook, Bookmarks - that also make things a bit easier.

Hopefully now I’ve got this organisational thing out of my system I can actually use all of these tools to get some work done!

I hate horror movies but love zombies.

Websites of Interest: folding treadmills

Beautiful street art. They put ‘holes’ in billboards by taking a photo of the area behind the billboard, pasting it on the billboard and removing a chunk of the image. Very clever. Also very clever, translucent street signs.