Now that the insanity of the live broadcast of a foreign court verdict is over (I mean seriously, since when does any TV station broadcast a court verdict? and for that matter, since when does ninemsn host a blog?) … and the stories about the horrors of Kerobokan Prison are wearing thin (sure, it ain’t no Australian gaol, but it’s not Bangkok or Phnom Penh either) … it had started to look like the media circus might just begin to calm down.

Then some nut starts sending letters containing white powder. Yes, it could be another hoax (like the anthrax hoaxes of 2001). Or it could be the first case of biological terrorism in Australia, ever.

There are dozens of Australians (and hundreds of other westerners) in Asian gaols facing similar fates, but it’s not until a couple of news producers decide that this one might boost their ratings that the masses start sending death threats to embassy staff. Fair enough, maybe Schapelle is innocent, and if so then twenty years imprisoned in Indonesia is a horrible fate … but she’s hardly alone, and I find it hard to believe that her case justifies the frenzied response that seems to have gripped this country.

While I’m ranting, some tales from work: bugs in Eudora can be the most annoying pile of poo sometimes. No one else’s mail client has hideous obscure bugs that stuff up the entire Windows networking subsystem, damnit! And speaking of stuffing up networking, the new.net spyware sucks bigtime, but LSP-fix is awesome for being able to clean up the mess that new.net’s uninstall leaves behind.