Perth is the first Australian city to hook up Google Transit to the bus and rail timetables. We may not have the best or busiest public transport infrastructure on the planet, but it's pretty easy to exactly how crap it is at any given point. I like having the ability to map out driving directions between two locations, and clicking a button to see how long the same trip would take by bus and rail. To be honest, though, the Transperth Journey Planner, on which the Google engine is based, is one of my favourite 'where-you-live' internet applications, along with good old TrafficCam, PerthCam, and the Perth Rain Radar (seldom used these days).
They're trying to brand Bentley as 'Australia's Silicon Valley' because someone installed some fat pipes to the internet (or, at least, promised to). Sounds like a good move, and I'm glad Fran Logan got to announce it - he shouted Ainslie and me Lunch at Parliament House a while back. Still, I don't know that Perth is ready for it: we are still somewhere between 2 hours/4 hours/2 weeks behind the eastern seaboard at any given point. OK for miners, not so good for bitjockeys. And, to steal a comment from Anonymous:
Silicon Valley has 6 universities, consists of some 15 odd towns and is home to thousands of ITC companies - large and small.Comparing it to Tech Park (42 hectares + 1 average university) is highly amusing.
Bonwag's New Life (David: March 22, 2008 11:19 PM)
It's about the right time of year to get some long-neglected web projects out of the way:
Like finally updating the code behind the 'latest/greatest' section to point to Amazon's new eCommerce system. No big deal, but it was lots of fun digging through some old, rotten SOAP programming and updating it for the 21st century.
Like finally updating the Family Tree to work again. I had some reformatting to do because of the new version of the genealogy software I use, and had neglected it for too long. I also had to remove some personal details that had crept in there by accident. Scarcely a week goes by that someone doesn't email me with a distant link they have discovered. The internet rocks.
Some guys go out to the garage on their long weekends. I like to to keep the fingernails clean.
Celebrations cometh. We are happy to notify you of your shinning luck following the draws of our wealth creation program held on the 29th of August, 2007 whereby the ticket attached to your email address drew lucky winning numbers. We have, till now, all but given up hope in contacting you due to inadequate information.
Windows' Very Own GarageBand (David: February 20, 2008 10:53 PM)
Now I don't expect everyone to get the awesomeness of this clip, but I had to post it. If you've ever tried using one of those big music creation systems, and have spent any time using Windows, you may be interested to know that there's a free version *pre installed with windows* which can give you the same effect.
Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? (David: February 11, 2008 6:51 PM)
... Does anybody really care?
The posts have been few and far between recently, because I haven't been able to trust BONWAG. Rebuilds failing, posts going missing, and me without the time to debug. (This has been a wild couple of months. More on that later.)
It seems that one of the reasons BONWAG is having conniptions is because it's taking too darn long to look back through 13 years of posts and try to put them in chronological chunks (called months). And, come to think of it, it's not really important. I'll switch it off and see if anyone complains.
And come to think of it, there were too many darned categories too. They're gone. I'll have to see if tags are any more useful.
Fonts? Colours? Images? I think they're window-dressing too. I'll keep them in for a while.
I'll see if there's any loyalty to wring out of my current web hosting provider before I start sniffing around. You'd think after more than a decade with an organisation they'd be keen to discuss options to keep you a happy, paying customer. Nope. Not with these competitive margins, bud.
And in unrelated geek news, I've decided to dip back into the world of MySpace to see if anyone has figured out how to write web code. First impressions are good - interesting what a dose of web standards (to wit: OpenSocial ) can do for a team of wallowing developers.
Oh, and just for a bit of a laugh - I've written this post with the new Windows Live Writer. It seems smoother and less klunky (but with fewer features) than my current favourite - w.bloggar - but we'll see if Microhoo is also producing the goods.
UPDATE: Oooh - there's finally been an update of w.bloggar after a year! I might have to compare and contrast. :-)
Looks like after 13 years with this host, BONWAG has outgrown the limited server account I have here at Eftel. Anyone got some ideas for some good, cheap domain hosts?
A Seriously Useful Website (: October 23, 2007 7:59 PM)
We may have our Google Earth and our YouTube and our Web 2.0 mashups out the wazoo, but when it comes down to it, there is one question that everyone is asking - and this website gives you the definitive answer.
MySpace is Someone Else's Space Now (: September 26, 2007 11:24 PM)
No, that's it. I've had enough. MySpace is rubbish on so many levels. It is a terribly designed, shoddily built application for bringing out the worst in everyone.
I joined a little over a year ago because a real-world group I had joined needed to find a way to communicate. I was underwhelmed with the application back then. I am still at a loss to understand how the entertainment industry flocked to this site, which was rife with server outages, bugs, errors, craptacular designs which were only made worse when the hackers started in. Then the schoolies came, then the toolies (too-old-for-schoolies). The media talked about it. Bands started getting cheap web hosting. Then, the ads came - in ever-more-overwhelming waves.
MySpace is an old idea, executed badly, which made some clever connections and got some good press somehow.
I mean - for the Sake of Pete - when I log into my own home page, I'm presented with incoherent babble like 'David is in your extended network'. Great start. I'm my own BFF.
'View my friends' status updates', 'You have X Friends', 'Change My Top Friends', 'Your network' 'Show My Friends' - I'm getting confused - who am I? Who are you? And why can't they decided if they're first or second person?
'Your Network: 202,973,661' - Wait,... what?
I have a 'Ranking Score' of '4' based on '0' votes?
Most people know crap when they see it. Don't they?
Especially when they're exposed to 'how-it-should-be-done' products like Facebook. (Facebook has its own problems, don't get me wrong - but at least it's a serious piece of web development, with at least an understanding of how a social network is supposed to operate.)
I've not had any negative experiences with MySpace. Nor any positive ones. That's the point. It's a nice place to visit, but I don't want to live there.
I'm joining the exodus out of there. Farewell, MySpace.com/bonwag.
UPDATE: And no sooner had I posted, than this comes up on the wires:
MySpace has blocked Australians from accessing the new mobile phone version of its site in order to protect its exclusive and probably lucrative partnership deal with Optus.
Well, if my leaving the site wasn't a nail in the coffin, this certainly is. You can only afford this sort of crass arrogance if you have the goods to back it up. Like Google.
Seriously, I wouldn't be planning any Christmas parties with MySpace.
More Net Naughtiness (: September 25, 2007 12:27 AM)
If you're using Instant Messaging (IM), be aware that there's a new virus going around at the moment that takes control of a user's computer and tries to send copies of itself automatically.
If a friend suddenly offers you an attachment to download for no apparent reason, don't do it! Always double-check with the sender before downloading any attachments.
Always keep your virus scanner up to date, always check... yada yada yada... wash behind your ears, don't take money from strangers.
I'll be honest, when I saw that CHOICE had posted a review of free software, I was kinda hoping they'd be charging money for it, so I could post a blog entry about how ironic it was. As it turns out, it is a free article, and I am robbed of a pithy observation. Darn you, CHOICE!
Social Networks Are Conspiring Against Me (: September 19, 2007 9:26 PM)
Okay - this Social Network thing is starting to get scary.
The promise of the social/semantic web is this: that you can send your life's bottled vignettes bobbing out into the vast ocean of the internet without having to worry about how shiny they look or how tidily they are written or where they will eventually land. It only matters what it means. The people who care will get it. Somehow.
So, it's possible to Twitter away from a mobile phone or a PSP or a desktop or a carrier pigeon, and to post to a blog from within a browser or via email.
Now that sites are starting to link up - del.icio.us feeds are read by Jairu, flickr feeds are fed into Plaxo - who knows where your bemessaged bottle will end up?
At this point, I'm not sure where this blog posting will end up: I know it'll reside on BONWAG, and be copied to a few different places in different formats by my Blog engine - but it will also kick off a few little RSS reader applications I have on my home and office computers, as well as my Google reader account. Google will eventually index it and add it to their Blog Search engine. A few Blog aggregators will republish it.
Also - any number of people will get pop-ups or emails or messages notifying them of the fact I've posted a blog entry.
It used to be that the internet was anonymous - but now that all your social network chickens are coming home to roost, you can't hide.
Twittering this kind of stuff does not excuse you from writing blog posts. I want some more detail when you have a few minutes.
And so, here we have a few minutes, and I have time to disagree.
We had a wonderful holiday as a family. And I didn't want to miss it. I made a decision this time around to actually experience this adventure and not to shift into journalist mode. This was one of the first times I've been able to get away for a major trip without mentally assembling blog or journal notes in my head, or experiencing the entire trip through a video camera viewscreen. (I can recall one trip from my youth that I have almost no memories of, because I stored them on perishable, losable magnetic video tape.)
So, no, thanks, bub. I AM excused from making blog posts.
But thanks for asking. :-)
Part of the joy of this trip is also the realisation that the kids are starting to develop their journalling and technical skills, so some people may be surprised to see Dad in some holiday photos! I'm actually very impressed with Charli's photography skills - she's taken some of the real 'keeper' shots this time around. You might start seeing some blog entries from the kids real soon now.
Having said that, no holiday is complete without technology. We did make the good decision to invest in a good quality Hard Drive Video Camera before we left, so we've captured some brilliant footage from shows at Disney that just need colour AND movement. The old Sony DSC32 still camera is still serving us well after 4 years.
Grand Total: 500 photographs (not including botched ones), and 10Gig of Video. I have no idea what duration that is - it's so nice not to have to worry about tapes any more!
[Side-bar: How long will it take before some smart camera maker puts out one with GPS? That's when I'm upgrading, bud.]
And, of course, don't forget the mobile phone for updating the folks back home - yes, via Twitter.
And the laptop for backing up the photos. And email. Ainslie wan't convinced we needed satellite navigation when driving through the UK, but our new SatNav travelling companion (known as 'Navvy' to her friends), saved us countless hours of mapbook juggling.
Huh. Maybe it wasn't the low-tech holiday I thought it would be.
In any case, and to get back to the point, I enjoyed actually holidaying, instead of observing myself holidaying this time round. With the help of a few digital post-it notes on Twitter, i'm happy to re-live it, rather than to forget to live it in the first place.
Hey, it's biblical - you didn't see the disciples taking notes.
It is more difficult to process information if it is coming at you in the written and spoken form at the same time.
I especially like the way the church also attracts some collateral damage:
It also questions the wisdom of centuries-old habits, such as reading along with Bible passages, at the same time they are being read aloud in church. More of the passages would be understood and retained, the researchers suggest, if heard or read separately.
Okay, so be warned. If I'm in one of your presentations with my eyes closed - I'm not asleep - I'm just making sure I'm not distracted by the sight of you. If my eyes are open, I'm simply not listening to you.
Great Headlines of the 21st Century (: February 27, 2007 5:25 PM)
Fark.com has been one of my favourite infrequent interweb haunts over the years. Amongst the usual 'Weird News Of The World' posts, you find some gems. And sometimes, the editors hit the jackpot. I'm glad I renewed my acqaintance this week in time to see this headline:
Couple buys monkey as pet, get upset when it dominates them and their dog. Marmoset knock you out (link)
I even played with putting my task list on the Google-friendly, very cool, Australian site rememberthemilk, but found that Outlook still did the job well enough
Last weekend, I got into the Mashup craze with good old Google Maps, and started mapping my company's contact information.
And now, this week, Google have switched on the full Google mapping functionality I've been hanging out for. In Australia, you're now able to trace driving directions and search for local businesses, and more, with the Google Mapping engine (including Google Earth).
There's probably a whole bunch of other stuff, but the 'driving directions' functionality is one that really helps me out in a strange city. Especially when I'm being given new places to visit each weekend by my birthday-party-going offspring. Whereis does a great job, but not smoothly enough.
I'm waiting for Google to switch on a setting in Gmail whilch allows me to manage my non-Gmail accounts, then I can add a line that says
Great Moments in Telecommunications (: October 5, 2006 3:46 AM)
Scene: interior of LA Airport Lounge. Our hero is unsuccessfully trying to make a phone call using his credit card. After a couple of aborted attempts, he talks to an operator.
Operator: Hello, Sir, can I help you?
Hero: I hope so. I'm trying to make a call to Australia, but it doesn't seem to be working. Can you help?
Operator: Certainly. What number are you trying to reach?
Hero: 02 12345678
Operator: Oh, I see the problem. I'm sorry, but you're not able to make a call to that country with the phone handset you're using at the moment.
Hero: Oh, that's a shame.
Operator: Would you like to try to call a different country?
Hero: ... I was kind of hoping to reach Australia. I can't really think of another country I'd like to be talking to at the moment.
Operator: I see. Thanks for calling.
Hero: Thank you.
