31 August 2008
Coffee anyone?
30 August 2008
Another Saturday in Sydney
Last Saturday saw the family Rutherford in Sydney - in two different places.
We travelled together towards Sydney from Heathcote at about 9am to Erskinville an inner south suburb and the girls were dropped at the railway station. There is a coffee culture around the rail station and shops and it all looked very cosmopolitan. Meanwhile the boys - aided and abetted by their GPS - travelled on to the old train repair sheds at Enfield to the Australian Technology Centre. A two day Animania Festival (manga) convention was being held, and AJR was determined to see everything he could in one day. We could not attend on Sunday as JSR had an important engagement with his clubs at 1.00pm on Sunday.
(left to right:)
Toshiro Hitsugaya and Soi Fon, Alphonse Elric, Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha
Photographs by AJR
The girls went to Powerhouse Museum for a little culture. We had a talk on the Strasburg clock, which was built by Bartholomew Smith. The clock is based on on a model in Strasburg, France. Smith built it based on a postcard of the original. One part of the clock gives the times for each of the state capitals, I was surprised to find that Brisbane was 10 minutes ahead of Sydney, which was 10 minutes ahead of Melbourne!!!
Around lunchtime the girls met up with Unce R and Aunty T, plus girl child and boy child and had a lovely yum cha in China town followed by an exploration of Paddy's markets. Once our legs got tired enough we moved upstairs for a coffee. The boys picked the girls up about 4pm as they had seen enough at the Convention. As the GPS seemed to be blocked by all the tall buildings (a condition of most cities) we drove over to Bondi Junction on blind faith, a wish and luck. Once at Bondi Junction we checked out the Westfield shopping centre. Most shops did not close before 6pm, which we appreciated.
After Bondi Junction we drove to Sutherland and had a happy birthday dinner for G'ma with G'pa at a Thai restaurant.
All in all it was a lovely day.
Mushroom Heartless
(left to right:)
Toshiro Hitsugaya and Soi Fon, Alphonse Elric, Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha
Photographs by AJR
Around lunchtime the girls met up with Unce R and Aunty T, plus girl child and boy child and had a lovely yum cha in China town followed by an exploration of Paddy's markets. Once our legs got tired enough we moved upstairs for a coffee. The boys picked the girls up about 4pm as they had seen enough at the Convention. As the GPS seemed to be blocked by all the tall buildings (a condition of most cities) we drove over to Bondi Junction on blind faith, a wish and luck. Once at Bondi Junction we checked out the Westfield shopping centre. Most shops did not close before 6pm, which we appreciated.
After Bondi Junction we drove to Sutherland and had a happy birthday dinner for G'ma with G'pa at a Thai restaurant.
29 August 2008
Unusual Fruit
While in Belconen the other day visiting my friend KR for lunch, I noticed a tree in her carpark with unusual fruit.
Bro assures me that it is a take on an episode of "My name is Earl", where similar fruit appear on the ariel of the building after successful conquests of the fairer sex - I tried to find this episode, however I failed!!!!
and on a lighter note you can see that spring is sprung (buds - the alternate fruit)
Bro assures me that it is a take on an episode of "My name is Earl", where similar fruit appear on the ariel of the building after successful conquests of the fairer sex - I tried to find this episode, however I failed!!!!
and on a lighter note you can see that spring is sprung (buds - the alternate fruit)
21 August 2008
Indigenous Literacy Day
Ok guys, mark your calendars for the 3 September and make sure you buy a book at one of the participating bookstores to support the work of the Fred Hollows foundation and the Booksellers of Australia.
10% of each book purchased goes to provide books and information to isolated Indigenous communities across Australia.
For more info, see below.
Indigenous Literacy Day
10% of each book purchased goes to provide books and information to isolated Indigenous communities across Australia.
For more info, see below.
Indigenous Literacy Day
20 August 2008
Terrible Tuesday
Well it is official, I think Tuesdays are the worst day of the week.
Yesterday it went like this:
Yesterday it went like this:
- Drop off ironing early - good
- Breakfast out with friends - good
- In to work after 9am - bad
- Off to speech therapy at 12.30 - drive to Kambah, then Holder, back to Kambah and back to work at 2.30pm - total kilometers = 58 - bad
- Work is hectic - bad
- Leave work just before 5pm - drive to Monash pick up dog and kids and then drive to Forrest to visit dog sitter, back to Monash drop off kids and dog, out of the drive to collect ironing - an additional 41.4 kilometers -
- Home for the evening at 7pm
- Tea (cooked by JSR) at 8pm
This is how I felt all day!
photo by Li Gao for more of these go here
19 August 2008
An alternative to death by powerpoint...
For a fast paced approach to information exchange, you might want to try this approach at your next presentation
18 August 2008
And the winner is...
Yes I asked a question the other day - where am I having coffee and I thought I should supply the regular readers with the answer which is "in a mug". Ok also having coffee at the Coffee Club. Please note that I would never be seen in a Starbucks, as I have issues with Starbucks.
Thank you to all those who gave an answer - next time I see you, I owe you a coffee.
Mondo.
17 August 2008
16 August 2008
Walking and wine
The Sole Sistaz (you remember us) went out along the Federal Highway to Lerida Estate Winery. Well actually three Sistaz and an honourary Sista arrived at the rendezvous at 11.30 am last Saturday. The day was overcast and threatening rain and snow. The reason we drove an hour out of town to do this walk is that it is part of the Fireside Festival. This festival includes things like walks, listening to jazz or other music and lots of food and wine in different venues all over the region. The festival runs for the whole of August. We walked from Lerida Estate to Lake George Winery (next door). We had to cross a creek bed or two, open and close gates and walk through a pine forest. The walk took a slow hour. We retired to the Cafe at Lerida estate for an elegant repaste, before driving back home to hide inside for the rest of the weekend. The top temperature for Sunday was 7!
15 August 2008
Learnings
Overview of the last two weeks of learning - focussed on Knowledge Management/Information Management/Open Source Software
Articles/slide shares
User Centred Design for Web 2.0 and Beyond
Cory Banks – Knowledge Manager PB discusses the KM issues at PB
My first six months
James Robertson – Step Two Design - Collaboration is about people (not the one he gave at the conference, but I like it better as it is more people focussed). When the one from the conference is available I will add it to this document.
James Robertson writes 2-3 whitepapers a month on KM – these can be found at
Step Two
Karen Huffman – National Geographic – What’s all the buzz about social networking applications?
A discussion on web 3.0
BTnet – this will give you free access to many journal articles – I just found one on the difference between IM and KM.
Michael Sampson – we’re catching up
Michael Sampson – 7 pillars – I thought this was a good simple approach to working with distributed teams. This can be used to assess whether a product is going to do what you need it to do.
Max Weakly – gave a paper at Open publish 08 which I did not attend, when I can find it on slide share I will post it here – Web designer for the Australian Museum. Max also gave us the following quote “every tag is sacred” with apologies to Monty Python
Matt Moore – The truth about enterprise 2.0
Cool and useful sites to look at
Slideshare
Here you can share your slides, or get inspiration from others slides.
Step Two Design
Mindmeister – an online mid mapping tool
a place many people can collaborate at the same time
Shared Spaces – Michael Sampson’s site – has interesting articles that would be worth RSSing.
Icerocket
searches blogs, web, myspace, news, images
Summise
aggregates twitter tweets
Friendster
a social network site like Myspace or Facebook
Eric Schmidt - Founder of Google
responsible for making AJAX popular
Twine : Twine is a new service that helps you organize, share and discover information about your interests, with networks of like-minded people. You can use Twine alone, with friends, groups and communities, or even in your company.
Cool Tools
AJAX
first coined in 1998, made popular in 2005 by Google.
An fun explanation of code design by a rapper on Youtube (for all the techies)
Art is immortal
Useful things that I learnt
1. If you want to collaborate or effect change then your group needs to feel at least one of the following things before they will collaborate effectively or make the cultural or corporate change that you are looking for.
R = Responsible
A = Accountable
C = Consulted
I = Informed
2. Wiki’s will move into virtual intranets
3. Move to 720 degree feedback particularly for web producers (blogs, intra/inter net, online publishers etc) – that is 360 degree feedback from your work colleagues and 360 degree feedback from your online clients
4. QR coding (also known as Telstra Codes)
A company embeds a code in a poster on the wall and you point your mobile phone at it, you connect to the internet and you can then purchase what is being advertised on the poster – tickets, clothes whatever.
Here is a demo from Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDop0sqOR2E&feature=email
5. Within 5 years the majority of web usage world wide will be mobile – my interpretation of something Matt Moore talked of.
6. Information placed on the web will need to be device agnostic
Cool and Useful Blogs to watch
Technorati
This is a good place to start looking at what blogs are out there as it covers multitudes of blogs and enables the viewer to see what is happing in blog world.
Steve Rubel’s twitter site
Steve Rubel’s combined site – combines blog, twiter, flikr and friendfeed
Matt Moore - Engineers without fears blog. If you get a chance to hear this chap speak take it – he is excellent.
Beware there is more, only my brain hurts now...must lie down...arghhhh
Articles/slide shares
User Centred Design for Web 2.0 and Beyond
Cory Banks – Knowledge Manager PB discusses the KM issues at PB
My first six months
James Robertson – Step Two Design - Collaboration is about people (not the one he gave at the conference, but I like it better as it is more people focussed). When the one from the conference is available I will add it to this document.
James Robertson writes 2-3 whitepapers a month on KM – these can be found at
Step Two
Karen Huffman – National Geographic – What’s all the buzz about social networking applications?
A discussion on web 3.0
BTnet – this will give you free access to many journal articles – I just found one on the difference between IM and KM.
Michael Sampson – we’re catching up
Michael Sampson – 7 pillars – I thought this was a good simple approach to working with distributed teams. This can be used to assess whether a product is going to do what you need it to do.
Max Weakly – gave a paper at Open publish 08 which I did not attend, when I can find it on slide share I will post it here – Web designer for the Australian Museum. Max also gave us the following quote “every tag is sacred” with apologies to Monty Python
Matt Moore – The truth about enterprise 2.0
Cool and useful sites to look at
Slideshare
Here you can share your slides, or get inspiration from others slides.
Step Two Design
Mindmeister – an online mid mapping tool
a place many people can collaborate at the same time
Shared Spaces – Michael Sampson’s site – has interesting articles that would be worth RSSing.
Icerocket
searches blogs, web, myspace, news, images
Summise
aggregates twitter tweets
Friendster
a social network site like Myspace or Facebook
Eric Schmidt - Founder of Google
responsible for making AJAX popular
Twine : Twine is a new service that helps you organize, share and discover information about your interests, with networks of like-minded people. You can use Twine alone, with friends, groups and communities, or even in your company.
Cool Tools
AJAX
first coined in 1998, made popular in 2005 by Google.
An fun explanation of code design by a rapper on Youtube (for all the techies)
Art is immortal
Useful things that I learnt
1. If you want to collaborate or effect change then your group needs to feel at least one of the following things before they will collaborate effectively or make the cultural or corporate change that you are looking for.
R = Responsible
A = Accountable
C = Consulted
I = Informed
2. Wiki’s will move into virtual intranets
3. Move to 720 degree feedback particularly for web producers (blogs, intra/inter net, online publishers etc) – that is 360 degree feedback from your work colleagues and 360 degree feedback from your online clients
4. QR coding (also known as Telstra Codes)
A company embeds a code in a poster on the wall and you point your mobile phone at it, you connect to the internet and you can then purchase what is being advertised on the poster – tickets, clothes whatever.
Here is a demo from Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDop0sqOR2E&feature=email
5. Within 5 years the majority of web usage world wide will be mobile – my interpretation of something Matt Moore talked of.
6. Information placed on the web will need to be device agnostic
Cool and Useful Blogs to watch
Technorati
This is a good place to start looking at what blogs are out there as it covers multitudes of blogs and enables the viewer to see what is happing in blog world.
Steve Rubel’s twitter site
Steve Rubel’s combined site – combines blog, twiter, flikr and friendfeed
Matt Moore - Engineers without fears blog. If you get a chance to hear this chap speak take it – he is excellent.
Beware there is more, only my brain hurts now...must lie down...arghhhh
14 August 2008
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 - this is why my head is so full - I am trying to get all this stuff inside it!
From: satyajeet_02, 1 year ago
what you need to become web 2.0
SlideShare Link
From: satyajeet_02, 1 year ago
what you need to become web 2.0
SlideShare Link
Sydney
I was in Sydney for an Open publish conference at the end of July. Apart from lots of time learning new things (my brain is definitely bursting at the moment) I did take some time out to do other things:
This is the view from the 63rd floor of a colleagues hotel room - the window is floor to ceiling and the window is on a part of the room that juts out from the rest of the room, which makes it look like you are able to fall off!
One evening I walked down George Street and caught the town hall in all its evening finery.
a little further on down George Street I found a familiar sight, kids corner at Kinokunia
and yes somehow a couple of Japanese books dolls leapt into my bag to come home with me
during the day I walked around World Square.
An interesting time was had on this little adventure.
This is the view from the 63rd floor of a colleagues hotel room - the window is floor to ceiling and the window is on a part of the room that juts out from the rest of the room, which makes it look like you are able to fall off!
One evening I walked down George Street and caught the town hall in all its evening finery.
a little further on down George Street I found a familiar sight, kids corner at Kinokunia
and yes somehow a couple of Japanese books dolls leapt into my bag to come home with me
during the day I walked around World Square.An interesting time was had on this little adventure.
13 August 2008
12 August 2008
Tuesday bloody Tuesday
FAIRFAX NEWS LIMITEDTUESDAY, 12 AUGUST 2008
After running a thousand errands, working hours of overtime, and beingstuck in seemingly endless gridlock traffic commuting to and from theirjobs, millions of Australians were disheartened to learn that it was, infact, only Tuesday.
"Tuesday?" Canberra resident Doris Wagner said. "How in the hell is itstill Tuesday?"Tuesday's arrival stunned a nation still recovering from the nightmarishslog that was Monday, leaving some to wonder if the week was ever goingto end, and others to ask what was taking Saturday so damn long."Ugh," said Wagner, echoing a national sense of frustration over it noteven being Wednesday at the very least.
According to suddenly depressed sources, the feeling that this week mayin fact last forever was further compounded by the thought of all thework left to be done tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and, if Australians make it that far, possibly even Friday, for goodness sake. Fears that the week could actually be going backwards were alsoexpressed. "Not only do Australians have most of Tuesday morning to contend with,but all of Tuesday afternoon and then Tuesday night, " National LaborRelations Board spokesman David Prynn said. "If our calculations are correct, there is a chance we are in effect closer to last weekend than the one coming up."Added Prynn: "F**k."Reports that this all has to be some kind of sick joke could not beconfirmed as of press time.
Isolated attempts to make the day go faster, such as glancing at watchesor clocks every other minute, compulsively checking e-mail, hiding in the office bathroom, fidgeting, or reading a boring magazine while sitting in the waiting room, have also proven unsuccessful, sources report.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which oversees the official time of Australia, is flatly denying that it has slowed orotherwise tampered with Tuesday's progression. "The current Tuesday is keeping apace with past Tuesdays with no more than one ten-thousandth of a second's variation at the most, " NISTspokeswoman Dr. Geraldine Schach said. "However, I sympathise with the common consensus that this week has already been a colossal pain in the neck."Labor Secretary Elaine Chao released a statement addressing wide spread speculation that it might as well be Monday for all anyone cares."We understand this day has been tough on many of you, what with meetings mercilessly dragging on and an entire stack of files still left to organise," Chao's statement read in part. "Yet we urge Australians to show patience. The midweek hump is just around the corner, and we have strong reason to believe that Saturday will be here before you know it.""Go about your lives as best you can," the statement continued. "Do not, we repeat, do not take a sick day, as it'll make the rest of the week that much harder to endure."In the meantime, citizens are doing their best to cope with the interminable week, though Tuesday is still hours away from ending.
"The more I try to speed it along, the longer it almost seems to take,"said Dale Bouchard, a Sydney-based broker who has been waiting for today to be over since it first began earlier this morning. "Honestly, today could not have come at a worse time this week."In the meantime, the latest wristwatch consultations indicate that it issomehow still Tuesday, if that makes any sense at all.
Please note this is a pretend article that someone emailed me and I thought it described my Tuesdays (yes all of them) really well.
Mondo.
After running a thousand errands, working hours of overtime, and beingstuck in seemingly endless gridlock traffic commuting to and from theirjobs, millions of Australians were disheartened to learn that it was, infact, only Tuesday.
"Tuesday?" Canberra resident Doris Wagner said. "How in the hell is itstill Tuesday?"Tuesday's arrival stunned a nation still recovering from the nightmarishslog that was Monday, leaving some to wonder if the week was ever goingto end, and others to ask what was taking Saturday so damn long."Ugh," said Wagner, echoing a national sense of frustration over it noteven being Wednesday at the very least.
According to suddenly depressed sources, the feeling that this week mayin fact last forever was further compounded by the thought of all thework left to be done tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and, if Australians make it that far, possibly even Friday, for goodness sake. Fears that the week could actually be going backwards were alsoexpressed. "Not only do Australians have most of Tuesday morning to contend with,but all of Tuesday afternoon and then Tuesday night, " National LaborRelations Board spokesman David Prynn said. "If our calculations are correct, there is a chance we are in effect closer to last weekend than the one coming up."Added Prynn: "F**k."Reports that this all has to be some kind of sick joke could not beconfirmed as of press time.
Isolated attempts to make the day go faster, such as glancing at watchesor clocks every other minute, compulsively checking e-mail, hiding in the office bathroom, fidgeting, or reading a boring magazine while sitting in the waiting room, have also proven unsuccessful, sources report.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which oversees the official time of Australia, is flatly denying that it has slowed orotherwise tampered with Tuesday's progression. "The current Tuesday is keeping apace with past Tuesdays with no more than one ten-thousandth of a second's variation at the most, " NISTspokeswoman Dr. Geraldine Schach said. "However, I sympathise with the common consensus that this week has already been a colossal pain in the neck."Labor Secretary Elaine Chao released a statement addressing wide spread speculation that it might as well be Monday for all anyone cares."We understand this day has been tough on many of you, what with meetings mercilessly dragging on and an entire stack of files still left to organise," Chao's statement read in part. "Yet we urge Australians to show patience. The midweek hump is just around the corner, and we have strong reason to believe that Saturday will be here before you know it.""Go about your lives as best you can," the statement continued. "Do not, we repeat, do not take a sick day, as it'll make the rest of the week that much harder to endure."In the meantime, citizens are doing their best to cope with the interminable week, though Tuesday is still hours away from ending.
"The more I try to speed it along, the longer it almost seems to take,"said Dale Bouchard, a Sydney-based broker who has been waiting for today to be over since it first began earlier this morning. "Honestly, today could not have come at a worse time this week."In the meantime, the latest wristwatch consultations indicate that it issomehow still Tuesday, if that makes any sense at all.
Please note this is a pretend article that someone emailed me and I thought it described my Tuesdays (yes all of them) really well.
Mondo.
7 August 2008
6 August 2008
August 6 celebrates
today is:
- Mum's birthday - have a great day!!!
- Parramatta Park celebrates 150 year anniversary in 2008
- 20th anniversary of the death of Andy Warhol - here is a short interview from 1974
- 63 years since the bombing of Hiroshima
- 1965 Beatles release "Help" album in UK
Photo courtesy of TC
Cheers,
Mondo
5 August 2008
Google Maps introduce Street View
If you go to google maps, you can put in your address 123 something street, upper somewhere and it will return a map of the street, click on street view and it will give you a picture of your house. Most of Australia is done and most of the US and the UK - so go check out your house!!!
Check out this Youtube explanation from Google.
Check out this Youtube explanation from Google.
4 August 2008
3 August 2008
For my printing and bibliophile friends - my dad put me on to this history of the Guttenberg Press by Stephen Fry.
Part 1/5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwPvYZhe-yQ&NR=1
Part 2/5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy1jVma9xX8&feature=related
Part 3/5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDyuCqJCR1k&feature=related
Part 4/5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1EtHIVeYUU&feature=related
Part 5/5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubSbVjO_FTg&feature=related
Enjoy!
This series of YouTube videos are of a BBC broadcast by Stephen Fry. The
piece is entitled "The Machine That Made Us" and chronicles a complete
recreation of the type, ink, paper and press that Gutenberg likely used to
print his famous 42 line Bible...a great historical piece and a fascinating
look at the whole process of early letterpress and its influence on the
world. Each part is approximately 10 minutes long..
Part 1/5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwPvYZhe-yQ&NR=1
Part 2/5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy1jVma9xX8&feature=related
Part 3/5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDyuCqJCR1k&feature=related
Part 4/5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1EtHIVeYUU&feature=related
Part 5/5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubSbVjO_FTg&feature=related
Enjoy!
1 August 2008
I got nominated
Well I was checking my flickr account today and found this message:
It has not been included, but it was nice to be nominated. You never know I might end up having the photo in a later release!
Hi Mondo,
I am writing to let you know that one of your photos has been short-listed for inclusion in the fourth edition of our Schmap London Guide, to be published mid-January 2008.
www.schmap.com/shortlist/p=60958727N00/c=SF10011576
Clicking this link will take you to a page where you can:
i) See which of your photos has been short-listed.
ii) Submit or withdraw your photo from our final selection phase.
iii) Learn how we credit photos in our Schmap Guides.
iv) Browse online or download the second edition of our Schmap London Guide.
While we offer no payment for publication, many photographers are pleased to submit their photos, as Schmap Guides give their work recognition and wide exposure, and are free of charge to readers. Photos are published at a maximum width of 150 pixels, are clearly attributed, and link to high-resolution originals at Flickr.
Our submission deadline is Sunday, January 13. If you happen to be reading this message after this date, please still click on the link above (our Schmap Guides are updated frequently - photos submitted after this deadline will be considered for later releases).
Best regards,
Emma Williams,
Managing Editor, Schmap Guides
It has not been included, but it was nice to be nominated. You never know I might end up having the photo in a later release!
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