Those of you who remember the old blog will probably also remember that it had Google ads on it - the reason behind this was to help cover the cost of bandwidth.

Given that there are no ads on the new site I’ve been finding other ways to reduce bandwidth costs by killing some image indexing, removing mp3’s and using Amazon’s excellent S3. I’ve started hosting some images and other static assets on S3 and it seems to have been working out pretty.

There is a difficulty though in the format and delivery of the log files from S3. Instead of spending time I don’t have available to faff around with getting those log files into some analysis software I decided to have a look at S3Stat which is a service that does the fiddly stuff, runs your data through Webalizer, and uploads the reports back to your S3 account. Pretty handy!

S3Stat has been working pretty well for me so - in true “cash for comment” style - with the aim of getting the S3Stat service for free I’m suggesting to anyone that uses S3 and wants to see traffic data on things like image files that they should check out S3Stat.

Season’s Greetings

from the Ausculture Extra Team

(Santa, apparently is “not in the business of hooking people up with Juliette Lewis,” so that was a waste of time!)

Ausculture.com began as an Australian pop culture blog in January 2004. It was written by the incomparable Jess McGuire, the warmhearted zeitgeist with the Britney Spears obsession and penchant for Red Bulls. Sadly, Jess’s time with Ausculture came to an end when she took up a paid blogging gig at Defamer Australia in April this year, but the Spirit Of Jess lives on here. Webmaster Patrick started work on a community link-posting thingo which got going in August, and Ausculture was reborn.

This month sees the addition of Ausculture Extra. Here, we’ll be poking around inside Australian culture with the consummate skill of a crapulent Christmas partygoer playing Operation. It’ll be good; trust me, I’m a doctor. (See? I have the tweezers to prove it.)

The Ausculture Extra Team

Australia’s a big place. And Australian culture’s a big topic. Not a problem — we’ve got it covered! Patrick’s in Sydney, I’m in Melbourne, and Natalie, who’s joining the team of writers in January, is in Brisbane.

And thanks to the magic of the interweb, you can contribute too, of course. Post a link, leave a comment (now working!) or even draft an article (more details soon).

The Ausculture Philosophy

In a word, tolerance. We take a very dim view of the Pauline Hansons of this world. Firstly, most of us are from families that migrated here fairly recently, so obviously immigrant-bashing is just thinly-veiled racism. Secondly, cultural diversity enriches our society and saves us from a Stepford Wives -like hell.

At Ausculture we are tolerant of the tolerant and intolerant of the intolerant. And to be otherwise would be un-Australian.

Information Overload

The best thing about the internet is also the worst thing — the amount of information. Our psyches aren’t wired for it. Two hours’ surfing can become almost like two hours looking out the window of a speeding train — pleasant enough but really just a nondescript blur.

Ausculture Extra has the bold ambition of pulling the world of Australian culture into focus. As a site with a big train window on the home page, that idea has a sense of synergy about it to us...

Good morning, Patrick. Good morning, Natalie. Good morning, everyone.

(Sorry — for a moment there I thought I was on American breakfast television.)

The night is still. A newspaper suddenly flutters; there’s an ominous hum; a blue glow; the crackle of arcing electricity. A sphere of blinding white light deposits a crouching naked body. “I urm thi Governator!”

But not all significant arrivals are seen in so dramatically. A new website embarking on a journey of discovery within a fast-changing Australian culture? Well it just quietly goes online, a little sparse and a little underwhelming, like the trickle at the source of the Murray.

Which is just as well, really, as it’s far better than having your designer sunglasses, threads and wheels stolen by a cranky Austrian cyborg from the future. “Yarr cloothz — guv them tow me!”

Anyway, our Ausculture Extra odyssey is about to begin. And we’d be delighted to have your company. So see you back here in a week. (I have to write my letter to Santa...)

* Tasteless joke thankfully removed!