Monthly Archives: April 2008

Design for Disaster

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Indian students in Melbourne

Rogue colleges in cash-for-certificates scam | theage.com.au

A federal immigration source said some migration agents, often unlicensed, set up organised crime networks and got away with “massive” frauds. A multi-agency probe involving immigration, education and tax office investigators is closing in on several people in the migration and vocational education sectors.

The Age has also found that a college owner had some of his Indian students allegedly working for nothing as “basic training” in a 7-Eleven store he also owns. A former student of Della International College said he worked for 17 days in the Sunshine 7-Eleven last year for no pay. The student, from northern India, asked that his name not be used. After enrolling at Della, owner Amanjot “Aman” Singh offered him “training” for one month.

“I got not one single penny for 17 days. Then he said there was no job and to get out, to go from the store,” the student said.

When contacted by The Age, Mr Singh said: “I don’t see from my memory there was ever any Della students there. I don’t have anything like that going on in there. We live in Australia, not the Third World.”

On Writing

Advice on academic writing: http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/advise.html

A particularly good piece on ‘paragraphs’: http://www.jcu.edu.au/studying/services/studyskills/writing/paragraphs.html

Software can do it

I have a dream that I will one day have a room – it will be two floors high with book cases all the way up and a glass wall again all the way up. I saw a picture of such a room in an architecture magazine – and it was situated on a grassy mound. Big trees all around. And amidst all this a lone person sittign and writing. How wonderful woudl that be.

As  you can imagine I do not have a room.

Then two nights ago I saw Diane Keaton ( in this film ‘something’s  gotta give’) writing on her mac in full screen mode. And I said ‘I want’. So yesterday I went searching and found WriteRoom!

I woke this moring – the clock said 7 AM. I reset it for daylight savings – after checking the clock on the computer which said yes it was 6 AM. Made a cup of tea – put on the heating. Let the cat out. And sat down at the dinig table. I then opened Writeroom.

Its 7.15 now. The cat is still out. The tea has been drunk. (Who is drunk here?) And I have 648 words done – sitting there quietly. Black text (courier – a la D Keaton) on a dull green background. Text I am proud to say reads well. At this moment Word died for me!!

I redid my dock – so now I have -Omnifocus, WriteRoom, Qumana, MacJournal, Voodoo, Word (alas I need it to open others work!!) and the dictionary!!

With these words I rest my case. Poo wee tweet!!

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