I was just on the website for the Malaya, a slightly twee restaurant in Sydney, to find their address. After I got through the annoying 2 minute flash intro, I was intrigued to see their legal disclaimer. It is a two page monster that totally puts me off ever eating in their restaurant.

A sample:

The user acknowledges and agrees that the user will not make any claim (whether for damage or otherwise), requisition or otherwise object against or to The Malaya in connection with any delays, interruption, errors, omissions, losses or misadventures howsoever occurring (including such matters which are the direct or indirect result of negligence howsoever occurring) and which are in any way related to the collecting, processing, viewing, storing, accessing, downloading or recording of this website and/or the information contained herein.

I think they are saying I can’t ask for free food if their website is down.

The user acknowledges and agrees that the information contained on this website is subject to laws of Copyright which Copyright is claimed by The Malaya and that the use of information appearing on this website shall be for personal reference only on the basis that no user may reproduce or publish any material on this website in any other way or by any other means without prior written consent of The Malaya which shall be granted or withheld in the absolute and unfettered discretion of The Malaya.

Bugger, I think I just did - and I didn’t get unfettered discretionary written permission from my waiter.

The fact that any linked site is referred to in this website is not in any way to be taken as an endorsement, acceptance, representation, promise or guarantee by The Malaya as to the nature, amenity, quality, appropriateness or safety of any such linked site which in all respects is beyond the control of The Malaya and to this extent all users hereby acknowledgment and agree that they access or use any such linked site at their own risk.

I think they are saying it’s not their fault if they link to 2 girls 1 cup and I don’t appreciate it.

The Malaya will not make an attempt to identify users or their browsing activities. However, in the unlikely event of an investigation, a law enforcement agency or other government agency may exercise its legal authority to inspect our internet service providers logs.

As Steve says, “are they a restaurant, or part of the freaking CIA?”

I’ve recently started working on an agile project that has been in development for a few months.

Dilbert sums up my thoughts on agile perfectly.

I love Scott Adams.

A creative director I used to work with has packed in his corporate job and decided to setup a tshirt company.

Adam Hunt is now GoatBoy, a company claiming irony will set you free (well that or wearing ironic tshirts). Either way, they make some funky shirts and they have a pretty cool site too.

I have had ING direct accounts since they first launched in Australia - maybe about 3 years or so. I use them for savings as well as my “tax accounts”. I’ve never noticed as I’ve always accessed them from PCs but their website sucks from a Mac, on both Firefox and Safari.

It takes me 25 minutes to login as the page sits there saying “loading item 4 of 5″. Once I’m in, I can’t actually transfer any money on or out as it’s “loading item in an iframe” but doesn’t actually do anything.

I have been trying to use their website for 45 minutes and now been on hold for 16.

Really not good enough ING - you have about 2 minutes until I blow my top and close my accounts with you. In this day and age it’s not good enough to have a website that only works on PCs.

Flickr just launched a feature to help you find friends in your gmail, hotmail or yahoomail address book.

It’s great functionality as Flickr is only really fun when your network are all using it - there’s no point in uploading photos if noone is going to leave smart-arsed (or sometimes nice) comments and notes all over them.

They have implemented the functionality well - unlike the spammy Facebook, which defaults everything to “add everyone”, they default each person to “do not add” so you’re much more likely to carefully select who you want to add, rather than just clicking “ok” to add everyone.

It’s great as I’ve just added people that I didn’t even know were on Flickr - it’s a good way of keeping in touch with friends overseas.

(Hat tip - Bannerblog)

You really know an app has come into its element when there is a marraige proposal via the tool.

I know I am an early adopter and a geek but I guess I’m a bit old-fashioned in that I like my proposals to be face to face and more than 140 characters.

(via Mashable)

I’m going through an interesting question in my mind at the moment.

I’ve just returned from getting married and I’m changing my last name in “real life”. That is a pain in itself (you’d think banks had never had to deal with this before) but it presents me with an interestion situation online. I’ve been active on the web since 1995 and therefore have a lot of “google love” under my name. I am the only “Cheryl Lead” that I know of and so the majority of matches for my name are for me and my professional career. Some not so professional matches as well but the good far outweigh the bad.

So I don’t even know how to go about changing my name and my online persona. It wouldn’t be great if a potential client googled my new name to find out I’m a bible study teacher in Syracuese NY. And how can I say that I am a web professional when my (new) name doesn’t even appear anywhere, on any website? Do I start again from the beginning in building my online presence or do I keep my old name online and just have my new name for bank accounts and official documents?

I’d love to hear any thoughts or ideas.

Peter Moore (one of my favourite travel writers) has just written a funny piece for the Guardian on the cutlery his kid received on a recent Qantas flight.

Apparently they were designed by the Wiggles, who should probably stick with singing and dancing and forget about the cutlery/furniture design arena.

As Peter says, the serrated bits are on the most useless part of the knife, once the spoon is in your child’s mouth it can’t be pulled out again, and the fork isn’t designed to scoop or spear food.

What were Qantas thinking? The funniest thing is the absolute vitriol the article has received in the comments section - people are calling him middle class (and worse) for daring to point it out, nobody is calling Qantas ridiculous for purchasing and distributing cutlery with style over substance.