Nick's public interface

Darya's Triolet

2010-08-10T13:04:00.006+10:00

Darya, Darya, where do you go
with your rucksack and downcoat and laughter?
All who adore you are dying to know,
Darya, Darya, where do you go;
will Russia and Canada, covered in snow,
remember your footsteps hereafter?
Darya? Darya, that's where you go
with your rucksack and downcoat and laughter!

The Stable Marriage Problem

2010-02-01T00:01:00.003+10:00

Previously I wrote about a mathematical model called the "Marriage Problem" which, whilst interesting, has a lot of shortcomings. Under very particular conditions (which are arguably quite unrealistic), it can optimise the chances of marrying the best possible partner I could expect. But even then it only optimises the probability of doing so, and that's small comfort if I marry someone today only to meet my true True Love tomorrow.

Go To Him
I still love you so, but if he loves you more, go with him.

Life is messy. What if you do fall even more in love with someone else than with your current spouse, and what if they fall in love with you? What if they also are married to another? Then should your respective vows forever keep your two hearts apart, or should you abandon that which once was beautiful but which beauty now hath ruined? What mockery is made of love in either case!
Oh, that this tragedy could have been averted! If only there were a way to ensure that everyone be happily married and never be tormented by temptation! If only Mathematics had something to tell us...
There is another mathematical problem, of similar name though quite distinct, called the "Stable Marriage Problem". Consider an equal number of men and women to be married to one another. Is it possible for everyone to marry, such that you could never find yourself in that lamentable hypothetical situation: preferring to be with someone else who would also prefer to be with you?

I'm Henry The Eighth
And every one was an 'enry...

Yes - it is possible.
Gale & Shapley devised a simple iterative algorithm for solving the problem: Each man should rank the women from best to worst according to his personal preferences, and each woman should rank the men according to hers. Then, each man should propose to the woman he prefers most. If a woman receives a proposal, she accepts it, and the couple are engaged. If a woman receives multiple proposals, she accepts the proposal from the man she prefers most. Then, each man who was rejected (because the woman he preferred most accepted another man's proposal) should propose to the next-most preferred woman on his list. As before, if a free woman receives a proposal, she accepts it, and if she receives multiple proposals, she accepts the one she prefers most. If an engaged woman receives a proposal from a man she prefers more than her current fiance, she dumps her current fiance and accepts the new proposal. Then, each man who was rejected or dumped proposes to the next-most preferred woman on his list... and so the process continues until every man (and therefore every woman) is engaged. At this point everyone marries their current fiance and the algorithm is complete.
This algorithm is guaranteed to finish (it won't keep iterating endlessly), and it is guaranteed to result in a "stable pairing" - an arrangement of marriages in which no two people prefer each other to their current spouses.
It is interesting to note how similar this model is, in principle, to the way our society has approached marriage in recent history.

Hungry Heart
Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack, I went out for a ride and I never went back...

So if everyone followed these rules, would the world be a happier place? Not necessarily. Stability, in this sense, doesn't imply happiness: just because your marriage is "stable" doesn't mean that you wouldn't rather be with someone else - it just means that that person wouldn't rather be with you.
The mathematical "happiness" score of your marriage is determined by how high your spouse sits on your own personal preference ranking of all partners. The overall happiness of a given arrangement of marriages can be defined as the average happiness scores of all people. Note that husband and wife can have different happiness scores!
For any large enough group of men and women there will be multiple alternative arrangements of marriages that are all "stable", in the sense that no two people prefer each other to their current spouses. Some arrangements will be "happier" than others.
Gale & Shapley's model produces just one of many possible stable arrangements. In fact, there's a very interesting mathematical property of Gale & Shapley's model: It will always produce the arrangement that, whilst still being stable, is happiest for the men (who propose)... and unhappiest for the women.
Reflect for a moment, if you will, upon the parallels between this model and conservative real-life society: I wonder if it is coincidence that this model predicts unhappy marriages for women, and that our real-life notions about marriage are changing as women become more empowered?

All This Useless Beauty
What shall we do, what shall we do?

Remember that every man and woman ranks each potential partner from best to worst. These personal preferences are necessary for establishing that an arrangement is "stable" (we need some way of knowing whether any two people prefer each other to their current spouses), and is used to calculate the happiness of an arrangement of marriages. So far, and very politically correctly, we've assumed that the preferences are arbitrary, random - that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But what if each person has an intrinsic "beauty" (or personality or intelligence; call it what you will, mathematically it's equivalent) that influences their standing in other people's preferences?
Caldarelli & Capocci showed that the more that "beauty" is allowed to influence the preferences, the more miserable everyone is in general. That's because the more homogenised our notion of beauty is, the more similar everyone's "personal" preferences become. The more similar everyone's preferences are, the less likely it is for you to marry high on your list, because the people high on your list are also high on the lists of rivals more attractive than you are. It's fine if you're beautiful, but rough for everyone else.
Surprisingly though, according to Caldarelli & Capocci's model, the more that beauty influences preferences, the happier that women are, on average, relative to men. The arrangements found by this model are still happiest for men and unhappiest for women, but the difference is less. And depending on how much weight is placed on beauty (not too little, not too much), a majority of women can end up much happier than if beauty plays no role.
I wonder, then, if emphasising beauty is a strategy for women as a group to maximise their happiness within a traditionally male-dominated society - making the best of an unfair situation?

So Far Away
You're so far away from me, so far I just can't see.

"Spatial homogamy" is the idea that people tend to marry people from their own area. "Propinquity" is the idea that the probability of forming a relationship is proportional to the square of the physical distance between people. Many studies have cemented these ideas in sociology: People tend to prefer partners who live close by. Someone commented on my previous article that the trick was to fall in love with someone within a certain distance. He was probably thinking about fuel prices and airfares, but how right he was - from a mathematical point of view!
If adding "beauty" to the model reduces overall happiness by homogenising people's preferences, then adding "distance" to the model does the opposite by mixing the preferences up again. Because everyone occupies a unique position in space, everyone's preferences are influenced in a unique way by the distances to other people.
In fact, I think it's probably even better than that. The distance relationship between two people is symmetrical, and therefore affects both of their preferences the same way - the person that you prefer because they live close by is more likely to prefer you as well, for the same reason. So the more emphasis placed on distance, the happier everyone should be. So - say hi to that cute guy or girl you see at the local market next time!

The Stable Marriage Problem is an incredibly rich area of research, bringing together combinatorial optimisation, game theory, economics, and even real sociological research. As far as I know it's not actually used to marry people off anywhere, but it is used for analogous problems like assigning students to schools and residents to hospitals.
There are a lot of other variants on the classical Gale-Shapley model that I haven't even touched - like models that take into account three-way matches (actually, even kinkier than it sounds if you were to apply it to dating...) and models that take into account "cheating" to get a better match for yourself.
There's even a variant, commonly called the Stable Roommate Problem, which matches pairs of people from within a single group, not across two groups like the Stable Marriage Problem. This might be a good model for gay marriage, but there's some bad news: there's no mathematical guarantee of stability in this single-group variant. But then, we've just seen that stability is no guarantee of happiness, so maybe that's not such a bad thing after all!

The Marriage Problem

2010-01-02T20:53:00.004+10:00

How do you know when it's time to get married? As a Maximiser (of which I shall write another time), this question troubles me. How do you know that the one you're with right now, of all the millions of people out there, is The One? How do you know that she isn't yet to come into your life? For that matter... how do you know that you haven't already said goodbye to her?

Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
Ooh!

Mathematically, if naively, the problem is simple to formulate. There are many mathematically equivalent versions - the most common is the "Secretary Problem". One version, called "Googol", presents it as a simple game. Imagine that in front of you is a stack of 100 unsorted pages, face down. On each page is written a number, any posible real number, within an unknown range. You can turn over a page from the top of the stack one at a time to see the number, and you can keep on turning as many pages as you like, but once you turn over a new page, you can't go back. Your goal is to stop when you think you've just turned over the highest number you think you'll ever get, and keep it - forfeiting all numbers yet to come and having already forfeited all numbers already seen.
What are your chances of selecting the highest number? Is it just pure luck, or is there a strategy? It turns out that there is a strategy to maximise the probability of selecting the highest number.
The basic idea is to "write off" some initial number of pages just to get an idea of the size of numbers that are in the stack, and use that knowledge to subsequently stop when you think you have the highest number.
Like in statistics, the trick is to obtain a large enough sample of the population to measure the natural variability, so that you can say with some degree of confidence that any given data point is, you might say, a significant other. The difficulty is that whereas in most statistics a larger sample set is better, in this problem a larger sample set increases the probability that the highest data point is in the sample set, and if it's in the sample set, you've already given it up.
So, what is the best strategy? It turns out to be in the form of a "stopping rule": turn over a certain number of pages, making a note of the highest number that you see, and then keep on turning over pages until you get a number higher than that previous best, and stick with this new best.
J. Gilbert and F. Mosteller of Harvard University proved that the optimal number of pages to turn over before stopping at the next new best is 37. This magic number is 100 (pages) divided by 2.72 (e, the base of the natural logarithm). This strategy works for any population size - just divide it by e and sample at least that many data points before stopping at the best so far.

When I'm Sixty-Four
Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty-four?

Now, let's apply this knowledge to the problem of getting married. What is the population size from which I can sample? Very roughly, let's say there are 6.4 billion people, 50% of which are women (3.2 billion), 50% of which are between 18 and 40 (1.6 billion), 25% of which are single and available, leaving 400 million. A demographer would be able to give you a more accurate figure, but what's a few hundred million amongst friends? Now, sadly, not every single one of those women is interested in dating me, but let's conservatively say that 1 in 40 will (because it makes a round number), resulting in a population size of 10 million. Going by Gilbert and Mosteller's 37% rule, then, I should date about 3.7 million women before thinking about getting married! If I 5-minute speed-date 24/7 for the next 35 years, then, and only then, I can think about settling down.

Love The One You're With
If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with.

Actually, it's a bit more complicated (no kidding!). In the classical version of this problem, the goal is to try to select the single highest number; the single best partner; The One. Anything less is failure. Aiming high is admirable, but risky: Gilbert and Mosteller's solution is optimal, but still results in only a 37% (1/e) chance of selecting the best partner. Not so great. But it gets worse: there's also a 37% chance of ending up with the last remaining option out of desperation (this would happen if my best partner was one of the first 37% of people that I passed over, meaning that I would never encounter anyone better and would search for the rest of my (dating) life in vain. So: a 37% chance of finding The One; a 37% chance of searching for my entire life only to end up with the last available option; and a 26% chance of something in between - not The One, but probably ok (guaranteed better than a random 37% sample of the population).
In light of those odds, maybe it's better not to optimise the probability of selecting the single best partner, and instead optimise the expected value of whoever is selected, even if they're not the best. In Googol the value would be the number on the page; in the marriage problem it might be the ranking of a partner's beauty, or intelligence, or some more sophisticated aggregate score (about which I shall also write later). The probability of selecting the single best partner will be lower, but the expected value of the partner who is selected will be higher.
J. N. Bearden of the University of Arizona showed that in this modified version of the Secretary Problem, called the Cardinal Payoff Variant, the optimal strategy is still a stopping rule, but the optimal sample size is the square root of the population size, not the population size divided by e. So now I only have to date 3162.27 people instead of 3.7 million - excellent! (sqrt(10,000,000) = 3162.27. I wonder how you date 0.27 of a person?)

This Year's Love
This year's love had better last...

So maybe applying the stopping rule to the literal population size is not feasible. Realistically, we're not constrained by the number of dates, we're constrained by time. Let's say that I want to get married before I'm 40 years old. I started dating when I was 19, so that gives me 20 years to date - 20 pages in my stack. The square root of 20 is 4.47. That means I should date for about four-and-a-half years before thinking about making a commitment. I'm 27 years old now... that's eight years into my dating window. I... I guess it's time to start looking for a wife!

Alright, let me concede that this is an extremely simplistic model of dating. It makes a bunch of assumptions that simply don't hold true in real life.
In real life, for example, I could go down on my knees - both for forgiveness and in proposal - and marry someone I've already dated.
In real life, direct sampling is not the only way of building up a predictive model of the (dating) world - we have anecdotes and movies and women's interest magazines; we share the models we've individually built up, with each other.
In real life... we fall in love and it just doesn't matter.

Unraveling Braid

2010-01-01T16:23:00.008+10:00

I can't stop thinking about Braid; everything about it - gameplay design, art, sound - was executed nearly perfectly. And each of those aspects brought something new and interesting to the game. Nevertheless, being a game programmer, it's the code that I'm interested in here, and I can't help musing about how I would implement some of Braid's unique mechanics.

If you haven't played Braid yet but were kind of thinking about it, then stop reading this and go play it, right now! I don't want to deprive anyone of the smallest part of the wonder at exploring Braid's universe for the first time. If you haven't played Braid and don't intend to, then perhaps I can convince you to try it :)

Let me begin by making it clear that I don't know anything about the actual implementation of Braid; I haven't spoken to the developer and I haven't looked at the level editor. But how it's actually implemented is almost beside the point; this is a collection of more general thoughts inspired by Braid.

One of the first things to impress me about Braid was the consistency of its design. In essence, it's a platonic 2D platformer plus just 5 unusual mechanics:
1. The ability to rewind time for some objects in the world.
2. The idea of binding time to one of the dimensions of 2D space.
3. The idea of branching, but interacting, timelines.
4. The ability to distort time in one local region of 2D space.
5. The idea of making objects in some levels run backwards in time.

The ability to selectively rewind time (for some, but not all objects), and the ability to distort time (for some, but not all regions) provides ways for the player to affect the synchronisation of objects in the world to solve problems.
The idea of binding time to a spatial dimension in some levels, such that horizontal movement advances or rewinds time, ingeniously provides both an obstacle and a tool for overcoming other obstacles.
The idea of branching but interacting "shadow" timelines, such that the player can be in multiple places at once, provides a mind-bending tool for solving impossible puzzles.
The idea of running time backwards in some levels turns everything neatly on its head, makes the player gasp in delight when they realise some of the gameplay implications, and provides the most astoundingly clever ending to a game that I've ever had the pleasure to experience.

The player's immense satisfaction in each level comes from painstakingly learning how each new mechanic works, and then synthesising ideas to solve a problem. This game could only work by strictly adhering to the fundamental design mechanics. This is both impressive and requisite: it is impressive that the game never resorts to any special cases, but then, if it did, it would destroy the player's ability to derive satisfaction from their own cleverness.
And because the design never calls for any special cases, I imagine that the code must have been a joy to craft. That is what I am chiefly interested in here, for the observation that Braid adheres to a limited set of mechanics belies the subtle complexity of those mechanics, and therefore their implementation.

What follows is merely my guesswork.

1. Rewinding time.

At any point the player can rewind time by holding down a button, and release it at the point in time at which they wish to resume control and try again. That means what happened in the past needs to be buffered somehow.

Bad Idea Note: Simply buffering the player's inputs would not work, because although all games are deterministic, they are also convergent: given the complete state of the universe (including inputs), there will be exactly one proceeding state, but there may be multiple possible preceeding states (did the player get to their current position by running or falling?). This property of deterministic convergence is employed to mind-bending effect by mechanic #5.

A naive approach might be to simply record the position and state of each object at each frame. But besides being memory intensive, this would make interactions with other objects - which might be moving through time in a different direction or speed - awkward.
I think it would be better that the state of each object, including the player, be recorded at a slightly more abstract level - say, the start/endpoint and velocity of a jump. Each state would be coded to be able to play either forwards or backwards at a given speed, procedurally. This would allow objects to interact dynamically with others when slowed down or going backwards, and not be rigidly bound to what was recorded. This implementation would come in handy for mechanic #2, binding time to a spatial dimension, and #5, running some levels backwards in time.

The abstracted-procedural-state approach would allow every object in the game to have its own individual "timeline". For most objects their timelines would coincidentally match up - they would progress forwards and be rewound backwards synchronously - until their timeline is affected by another mechanic...

2. Binding time to a spatial dimension.

Using the above implementation, this would be fairly simple - control all affected objects' timelines based on the player's current velocity.

Bad Idea Note: It might be more intuitive to think of this mechanic as the player's horizontal position scrubbing backwards and forwards through time, like the progress bar on a media player. And it might therefore be natural to think of using the player's position, not velocity, to control object states. Unlike a prerecorded movie in a media player, however, the objects will not be in the same state on every occasion a given time is revisited. It's impossible to jump to a given time, you have to advance frame-by-frame, state-by-state, procedurally, so that all the interactions can play out dynamically.
That means using the abstracted-procedural-state approach with individual object timelines controlled by player velocity, even if all of the individual timelines happen to be controlled synchronously.

3. Branching but interacting timelines.

This idea, although the most mind-bending for the player to come to grips with, would actually be one of the easiest to implement. Assuming that we record what happened in the past using the abstracted-procedural-state approach, the implementation of this mechanic would be simple.
Each object has a "shadow" object, which is actually an entirely independent object. Shadow objects only interact with other shadow objects and purple objects, which bind together both their shadow and real selves. When time is rewound and control is resumed, most objects and their shadows resume what they were doing, following the same rules. Because it's a deterministic world, the objects and shadows stay in sync, unless something disrupts them by interacting with one but not the other.
However, the player is not deterministic, and can choose to take different actions when control is resumed. The player's shadow repeats whatever the player just rewound.
The player's shadow would be controlled by the recorded states: while rewinding time, instead of discarding the states that we rewind past, they would be kept to use as a control buffer for the shadow. When the recorded states run out, the shadow just slumps, uncontrolled.

4. Distorting time in localised regions of space.

This idea is nice and simple for both the player and the programmer. If each object has an individual timeline, then the speed of that timeline could be set to be proportional to the distance of the object from the distortion.

5. Run time backwards.

This idea is the most fascinating to play, and possibly the most difficult to implement, of them all - due to the deterministic-but-convergent property of games.

First, let's get the easy stuff out of the way. Using the abstracted-procedural-state approach, we would already have coded all the interactions for objects moving backwards through time - for example, a monster going from dead to alive when the player jumps on its head, rather than the other way around. So the basic interactions with objects are already taken care of.

Bad Idea Note: You might initially think that simply running time backwards at a fixed speed for all objects would be easy, given that we already have solutions for selective rewinding, variable timeline speeds, etc. The important difference is that in those cases, the past is known and it's just a matter of replaying it somehow - time can only be rewound backwards for as long as the player has been playing, to the start of the level. In this case, however, time runs backwards from the beginning of the level, and we haven't had a chance to record where each object was. Or will be. Or something. Arrgh!

From the player's perspective, this mechanic is amazing because, when time runs forwards, we can intuitively reconstruct where an object is likely to have come from by observing its current state in the environment. When time runs backwards, that reconstruction becomes a prediction. In a deterministic universe running forwards, given perfect knowledge, we can make perfect predictions - we know exactly where the monster will go. But in a convergent universe running backwards, even with perfect knowledge, we can't make perfect predictions - we can't know whether the monster will stay on the ground or "fall up" to a higher platform. It's amazing when, as the player, you realise that an object's "past" can be affected by actions in the "future", like blocking off a route which makes it impossible for a monster to have "come" from that route. It's like the weird world of quantum mechanics, in which a particle's past is determined by observations made in the future.

The difficulty is that deterministic-but-convergent property. All of the other mechanics could be implemented in a philosophically plausible manner, but I can't see any good way to do this mechanic except by "cheating".

In the other mechanics, the behaviour/AI of an object running backwards along its individual timeline is trivial - just reconstruct it from the recorded abstracted state information. In this mechanic though, we need some actual decision-making logic while running backwards. Take the example of a monster walking backwards along the ground, just about to go underneath a higher platform. Should it continue walking backwards along the ground, or should it "fall up" to the higher platform. What happened in its "past"?

Bad Idea Note: You might think of taking further inspiration from quantum mechanics and assigning a probability to each past, which is fine from a design point of view, but would be practically impossible from an algorithmic point of view. You would need to identify all the places at which the convergence tree can branch (perhaps this could be marked up in data). Then you would need an algorithm for traversing the convergence tree and pruning off the branches that come from impossible starting conditions. Then you would randomly select between the remaining branches. The problem would be identifying the impossible starting conditions - how far back do you branch before determining that the object is stuck in a loop with no start, and how do you account for the interactions with every possible branch of every other object? Combinatorial explosion!

The more sensible approach might be to have a deterministic "default" behaviour like "always walk", and to "cheat" by having the designer specify when the object should deviate from that default behaviour - for example, trigger a "fall up here" marker when the player blocks the ground route (meaning that the monster could not possibly have taken the ground route).
There are few levels that use this mechanic, and the places where there is ambiguity are even fewer, so this scripted approach would probably be manageable.

From a gameplay perspective this approach might also be desirable - having a deterministic default behaviour for each object results in predictability which is probably reassuring to the player, even though, philosophically, the player has no reason to expect the behaviour to be predictable.

So, that's all the main mechanics seemingly neatly implemented. I'm very impressed by how you would be able to get such varied gameplay from relatively simple, but far from obvious, rules.
Damn, I wish I'd made this game...

Passion

2009-09-13T17:36:00.004+10:00

I stand before a bonfire burning bright;

I saw it, from afar, atop the hill.

It led my weary footsteps through the night

And now it drives away the deathly chill.

This fire's not where I was meant to stay;

My road lies over yonder in the gloom.

And yet I stand, entranced by dancing flame

And music, laughter, smiles, and sweet perfume.

Beyond the blaze, a memory I've cached;

Another life, another time and place.

How easily it all would turn to ash... in

Seductive self-destruction's warm embrace.

It's colder, now I've turned and walked away.

But through the dark... I see the breaking day.

Leonard Cohen, Sydney 2009

2009-01-30T10:01:00.016+10:00

When I first heard Hallelujah, I figured out how to play it on repeat and drove my brother crazy listening to it non-stop. I was a teenager, and Leonard Cohen's sorrowful lyrics held a certain superficial appeal. Going only by his songs, I always imagined Cohen as a saddened, world-weary man, and never saw beyond the surface to the depths of emotion over which sorrow was draped. So when this 74-year-old man made his entrance, sprightly skipping, onto the Sydney Entertainment Centre stage to a standing ovation, I knew my preconceptions were about to be overturned.
Who would have guessed? Leonard Cohen is essentially an optimist, an idealist, a hopeless romantic. He quips that when he was last on tour, 15 years ago, he was 60; "just a kid with a crazy dream". The saddest songs are rendered joyful when sung by this irrepressible man who's gone through it all and come out the better for it. He spent the last decade studying philosophy and religion, he says, "but cheerfulness kept breaking through." He, the man behind the music, is inspirational.
But oh, the music! Rich, intricate instrumental sounds replace the synthesised recordings on his albums - he shares the stage with an amazingly talented and versatile band, and his songs have been arranged to showcase their musicality. And share the stage he does, humbly, elegantly, graciously - solos on sax, harmonica, spanish guitars, harp, and double-bass interleave with his golden voice to bring a fresh appreciation to old songs. Performed live, the beauty of the music approaches that of Cohen's lyrics. This is more than a concert for fans of Leonard Cohen; it's a concert for lovers of music.
Now, the only sorrow I feel is the realisation that I'll probably never hear those songs sung the same way again. Recollection will fade from my memory, slowly obscured by those old recordings I can still play on repeat.

Eat Less Meat

2008-12-31T19:20:00.004+10:00

Here's an early New Year's resolution: eat less meat. Actually, I've been largely vegetarian for a while, but why not use the new year to declare it? My policy: don't choose to buy meat, but don't inconvenience or offend others I'm with.

There are many reasons for going vegetarian, but mine is mainly a matter of ecological footprint. I don't have many moral qualms about killing animals for food, but I am concerned about the many different costs associated with producing meat - costs which I'm not sure are adequately reflected in the dollar price at your butcher.

Everyone's concerned about greenhouse gas emissions - we ride bicycles to work, we buy energy efficient lightglobes, we offset our flights and concert tickets. But those cuts pale in comparison to the emissions from raising livestock. Raising livestock accounts for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide - more than all forms of transport combined.
The main problem is a type of gut microorganisms called methanogens in ruminants that convert hydrogen and carbon dioxide - byproducts of digestion - into methane, a gas with 25 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide.
In general, red meat emits 2.5 times as much greenhouse gas as chicken or fish. But if you want red meat, try kangaroo - thanks to different gut flora, kangaroos produce hardly any methane. Kangaroo is also lean, causes less environmental degradation from grazing, and - equally importantly - it really does taste good!
Research is under way to produce anti-methanogen vaccines, optimise livestock diets, or introduce alternative, harmless microorganisms that can outcompete the methanogens. Ultimately, though, these approaches seem to me like carbon sequestration for coal-fired power-plants - useful technology if we must burn coal or eat meat (which, realistically, we will continue to do) but far better to minimise the need for it in the first place!

Greenhouse emissions aside, meat - in particular red meat - is simply a frighteningly inefficient way of feeding yourself.
Only 5 to 25 per cent of the nutrients fed to an animal are converted into edible meat. It takes 2.3 kg of grain to produce 1kg of chicken; 5.9 kg of grain for pork; and 13 kg of grain plus 30 kg of forage for beef!
For the past eight years, global demand for grain has been increasing faster than supply, and that's largely due to rising demand for meat in increasingly prosperous countries like India and China. Rising populations and incomes are expected to double the global demand for meat and milk by 2050.
Then there's water use, an issue becoming increasingly sensitive here in Australia and around the world. It takes 1000 litres of water to grow 1 kg of wheat, 2000 litres per kg of rice... and 96,000 litres per kg of beef.

Of course, not many people are willing to go entirely vegetarian - truthfully, I'm not either. The good news - to put a positive spin on it - is that the cost of red meat is so great that any cuts you're prepared to live with will likely be the largest lifestyle contribution you can make to going green: A kilogram of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home.

Information shamelessly taken from New Scientist:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13741
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19526134.500
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19826601.600-what-price-more-food.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18925401.500-earth-the-parched-planet.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19926731.700-what-is-your-dinner-doing-to-the-climate.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026873.100-how-kangaroo-burgers-could-save-the-planet.html

Jenolan Caves

2008-12-28T19:21:00.002+10:00

Only just got around to uploading these photos from earlier this year. Sarah and I spent a few days out at the Jenolan Caves, staying in a beautiful cabin in the surrounding Blue Mountains.

We went on an adventure caving tour, which was awesome, but to avoid being encumbered I didn't take any camera on that. These photos are from ordinary guided tours of the show caves.

GetUp!

2008-12-28T18:54:00.003+10:00

I joined GetUp!, an independent grass-roots political organisation - just as a donor and a name on a petition. Initially I signed up in response to the Government's Internet censorship plans - I'm not convinced that any petition, let alone an internet-based petition, carries much weight, but what harm could it do?
Then GetUp! started a TV advertising campaign in response to Rudd's 5% emissions target, and I thought that here was something that could actually reach people and make a difference, and was worth donating for.
The ad was meant to be shown during the test cricket, but I don't watch TV... Did anyone see it - and more importantly, notice it? I hope so.

Taronga Zoo

2008-12-28T18:14:00.005+10:00

Went to Taronga Zoo again. What do you go to the zoo to see? I think that the most interesting animals at the zoo are humans - either actual humans, who are sometimes just as much on display as the peacocks that wander the grounds; or the aspects of ourselves that we glimpse in - or project onto - other animals.

Here are some of my favourite photos from this visit! Sadly, there are none of baby pygmy hippos... I waited and waited at the scheduled time for Monifa to emerge, but she didn't make an appearance for us that day...

(previous visit)

Coming Home

2008-09-13T20:42:00.010+10:00

There are few pleasures that can compare with getting on a bike and riding off alone into the country. It's something that unites so many sparkling facets into a single shining experience: the rugged beauty of the land; the friendliness of the people you encounter; the excitement of exploration; the visceral satisfaction of sweeping your bike cleanly through a turn as though it were stuck on rails and could not be anywhere in the world other than where it is - the sense that you're meant to be right here and now.

By one reckoning, my trip began when I came back to Rockhampton to collect my bike from Sarah's shed, where its battery had slowly flattened and carbeuretors had slowly flooded. Even with a new battery it wouldn't start, and I exhausted myself trying to push-start it on the dirt roads around Sarah's property: wet with recent rain, there wan't enough traction; the rear wheel would simply lock and slide. Eventually I had to push it to the nearest sealed road, where a combination of starter motor and pushing finally got it running!
The ride from Rockhampton to Bundaberg that evening was the coldest, most miserable, and most dangerous I'd done. Darkness came early, brought on by a storm that drenched and buffeted me for the whole 4 hours. I dearly wanted to speed to get to Bundy as soon as possible; I forced myself to slow down lest I kill myself: poor traction, shivering with cold and wet, blinded by oncoming headlights. Oddly, though most of me was utterly miserable, there was a small part of my mind that said: hey, in a way this is exciting! It's an experience worth having, for experience's sake, and afterwards you'll be glad of it. I took refuge in that corner of my mind, and I made it, and eventually I and everything in my backpack dried out in front of a heater in the family home in Bundaberg. It rained without break for three days afterwards.

Weeks later, I started out again, this time for Sydney: a trip of over 1300km. It was raining when I left Bundaberg, and I feared the worst, but as soon as I got out of town the skies opened up and I had the best possible riding weather for the entire journey. I left after lunch, and planned to take the inland route to Sydney: through Toowoomba, Armidale, and Tamworth. From previous trips driving a car I knew the roads were well maintained and sparsely occupied, gently sweeping turns with a few diversions along the way.

The first night I got as far as Nanango - not very far, but by the time I got there it was dark and cold and I didn't want to risk any riding any further and So You Think You Can Dance was about to start. These factors all weighed roughly equally on my mind. (Kerrington was voted off, I couldn't believe it!)
The second night I stopped in Armidale, a small university and cathedral town on the New England Northern Tablelands, around 1000m above sea level, and it was freezing - literally, temperature dropped below 0 that night. I was intending to visit Annette, a family friend, but she was away. She introduced me instead, over the phone, to her mother Thelma who I stayed with at her beautiful farmhouse in the hills overlooking the town. Thelma is an amazing woman, deeply rooted in Armidale and a member of the Order of Australia for her community work. But arguably, the thing I appreciated most that night was the electric blanket!
Thelma suggested I take an alternative route through the Hunter Valley to the coast, for which I thank her dearly: Thunderbolts Way, between Walcha and Gloucester, is the best ride I've ever done. The road swept through rolling hills, soft with wind-ruffled grass, clung to rocky switchbacks replete with just enough potholes to keep you on your toes, and dived into dark and ancient forests. Gloucester, at a crossroads, seems to be a popular resting place for bikers and I met a friendly couple who were coincidentally from Rockhampton and Newtown! They told me that early that morning there had been snow around Armidale. I was glad I had slept in.
From Gloucester it was an easy, pleasant ride along Bucketts Way through the national parks to the Pacific Highway, and along the Pacific Highway it was an easy, boring ride through three-lane traffic to Sydney.

Now I, and all of my belongings - including my hideous sofa suite! - are in Sydney. I'd intended to have them sent down a long time ago, when I first got my apartment here, but I never had the time to go up to Bundaberg to organise it. Well, at least on this last stay in Bundaberg I had that time, so I sent everything ahead by truck before I rode down. So, coincidentally but, in a way, appropriately after Mum's passing, the journey back to Sydney felt like a transition from one stage of my life to the next, leaving nothing behind and everything ahead. When I finally got back to my apartment in Newtown, it finally felt like coming home.

Abrasion Resistance

2008-08-12T23:50:00.003+10:00

We have the most awful chihuahua. He's gotten his ears infected somehow, and we need to get ear drops inside, but he's rather uncooperative. He knows when you're going to pick him up to apply the ear drops - presumably the same way he knows when you're going to bathe him - and if you do manage to grab him, he'll twist and scratch and bite and defy all attempts to get the drops down his ears.

But I've found a way to subdue him: CE-armoured, 1.4mm fullgrain leather jacket, kevlar-padded leather gauntlet gloves, and full-face helmet. I haven't crashed yet, but I'm now confident that this gear will keep me safe if I do!

My New Apartment

2008-05-09T20:29:00.003+10:00

Karratha aside, Sydney has to be the worst place to rent or buy in Australia, and probably one of the worst in the world.
I've been looking for a place to rent ever since I moved here, over a year ago - not assiduously to begin with, but for many months I've been going to rental property inspections every Saturday - I've lost count of the number of Saturdays I've lost to Sydney's rental market - and I've made over a dozen applications.
Admittedly, I've probably been picky. If I were prepared to live further out of town, or if I were prepared to share with others, I would likely have found a place long ago. But I'm stubborn; I hate the thought of compromising when I feel that things are not right - and Sydney housing is just not right! I did have to compromise - and it rankles - but I chose to compromise on cost. Every property is expensive, there's no avoiding it. If I weren't prepared to pay more than what I feel a property is worth, I would never find a place.
But I finally have found a place. It's small (a studio) and expensive (although, at $300/wk it's cheaper than most here), but it's modern, has a nice kitchen (with gas stove), a private courtyard (where I'll try to grow some herbs), secure parking (so I can bring my motorcycle down!), and it's in trendy Newtown, just outside the city proper and abundant in cool cafes, shops, and theatres.
I'll move in this weekend. I won't have much to begin with - I can have all of my things sent from Bundaberg now - but it'll be a fantastic change!

Thesis Corrections

2008-05-09T19:07:00.003+10:00

My thesis is once more out of my hands. I've made the corrections and sent it back to the University for approval and subsequent printing!
When my thesis finally came back to me and I found that the examiners requested only minor corrections, I intended to simply comply with all requests and be done with it; avoid any complications.
In the end, though, I couldn't agree with a number of the recommendations. I fixed any actual errors, of course, and there were good suggestions which I implemented, but where I thought that an examiner had misunderstood (and that the text was clear), I made no change. In some cases I felt that the recommendation was misguided; in other cases the recommendation was not directly relevant and, whilst it was not in contradiction with anything, it would distract from the focus without contributing much.
So I hope that my corrections and reply to examiners will be accepted. I'm confident that in each case I made the best decision for the thesis' integrity; I just hope the University will see it that way. I think it'll be fine though.
Now I wait some more!

Rock Band

2008-03-21T20:30:00.002+10:00

I'm not entirely clear on the story, but apparently EA liked something they saw in L.A. Noire, and made us a pre-release gift of Rock Band (pre-release only in Australia; it's been out for ages in the U.S.). Drumkit and guitars now take pride-of-place in front of the big screen in the lunch room, and people gather to play during lunch and after work every day. The batteries in the guitars were flat by the end of the second day, and one guitar has already been glued back together!

Rock Band is just awesome fun. Its real value comes, of course, from playing in a band. The independent difficulty levels means anyone can join in and have a go and contribute something, even singing (if you're brave enough :) ), and it rivals or surpasses the Wii for sociability - imagine a crowd of people gathered around after work with beers, watching and talking and taking turns playing. I wonder how long the novelty will last, but it's great so far.

I'm hooked on guitar. I'm not even any good - only played Guitar Hero once 'round at Brett's place before - but I love it. I know it seems silly, but the game is fantastic at making you feel like a god when you get a good solo, even though you know it's a plastic toy guitar with five fret-buttons (well, ten if you count the high frets at the base of the neck, used for crazy solos at the end of a song!). It's especially satisfying if you know and love the song and shiver in anticipation as your favourite chord progression comes up :)
I know I don't have the motivation to learn a musical instrument properly; Rock Band provides instant, gratuitous gratification :D

The Return Of The Thesis

2008-02-19T18:11:00.012+10:00

Almost a year after I submitted my PhD thesis for examination (in February last year), it has been returned to me, and the end is truly in sight.

When I submitted my thesis I acknowledged the possibility that the examiners might request major revisions, and as the months passed by this was always in my mind: what if my thesis came back and I needed to rework it, would I have time to do it? Over the last couple of months, as work has become more and more demanding, I realised that I simply wouldn't have the time or mental concentration to do it until after L.A. Noire is shipped. And with this growing realisation, perversely, I became resigned to the certainty that the examiners would request a resubmission. The long delay seemed to stretch inevitably toward this conclusion.

The examiners' reports arrived along with a copy of my thesis. I knew Russel had sent my thesis to world-leading researchers in my field - throughout my PhD Russel had what I couldn't help believing to be greatly misplaced faith in my ability - and he wouldn't consider anything less. I knew what these exalted examiners would say: they would tear my thesis apart. I took comfort in the thought that at least it would be someone important crushing my hopes of a future in research.

So when I opened the examiners' reports and began to read, it was with pounding heart and trembling hand and terrible anticipation. Actually, I couldn't bring myself to read the written reports at first, so I carefully peeked at the front page of each report form, where there were tickboxes for "no ammendments", "textual ammendments", "revise passages", "substantial revisions", or "fail". First report... textual ammendments. Second report... textual ammendments. Third report... no ammendments! I could hardly believe it: somehow I'd made it through.

Over the next couple of days I worked up the courage to actually read the reports, and found that on the whole they are very positive. The reviewers each suggested a few minor editorial-type changes, which I agree with.
Moreover, two reviewers listed my thesis in the top 10% they'd examined! One reviewer wrote that I have "made a good contribution to the scientific knowledge, and the volume of work produced is more than enough for a Ph.D. degree in the field".
Another wrote that my thesis "makes significant contribution towards a better understanding ... has all the good ingredients for it to be popularly used in the near future," and "is an example of an impressive and scientific piece of work".
And the last wrote that "the thesis encompasses several big topics that are very rich in information... nevertheless, the author does a very good job describing each of these topics in great detail... and making contributions in all of them."
I'm particularly chuffed at mention of being "scientific", which I value very highly!

So I've gone from nearly despairing to being quite proud :) I'm currently reading through it again, a bit at a time on the train ride between home and work, marking out corrections in the margins as I go. Soon I'll get it all loaded onto my computer and make the changes, and then figure out how to get it printed and sent back to the research office, and then... done!

Grammar and Love Triangles

2008-01-27T19:29:00.000+10:00

I love The Beatles, but what's wrong with these lyrics:

From "Anna (Go To Him)":
"You say he loves you more than me, so I will set you free; go with him."

and from "If I Fell":
"If I give my heart to you, I must be sure, from the very start, that you will love me more than her."

Colloquial grammar is ok as long as it's unambiguous, and I have nothing against bisexuality, but the grammatical interpretation here just isn't Beatles!

Remember, when in doubt over a comparative sentence, write it out fully and then chop off the unnecessary bits:
"You say he loves you more than I ~~love you~~"
"You say he loves you more than ~~he loves~~ me"

Sydney Festival and Pink Martini

2008-01-10T19:33:00.000+10:00

Sydney Festival runs throughout January, on stages and parks and streets around Sydney's centre. It's an eclectic mix of cultural events; theatre, music, dance, performance art, loosely collected under the Sydney Festival banner. It's also practically sold out, or at least it was on the afternoon of its second day, last Sunday. All of the shows I was interested in were sold out then. It might be entirely sold out now, for all I know.
The organisers did give fair warning that tickets would sell out quickly, but I didn't expect it to be quite so fast. You can queue up at a booth for a limited number of tickets sold on the day of each performance, but the booth is only open during work hours so I'm just simply out of luck.

However, I didn't write this blog post to complain about not getting tickets. Fortunately for me, there was a massive public "Festival First Night" on Saturday night, where a large number of the artists taking part in Sydney Festival gave free performances at open-air venues across the city centre. It was a fantastic night, wandering from stage to stage taking in the diversity of entertainment.
Martin Place, a pedestrian mall, and the alleys around it was turned into an open-air dance party, with DJs and bands playing throughout the evening.
Hyde Park had a stage and dancefloor set up around it's main fountain, and played host to a succession of Swing-themed events - first a massive dance class, followed by live music and dancing. Various restaurants had set up kitchen tents in an area set aside for dining.
Macquarie St was closed to traffic and had live Latin-American and Celtic music, followed by three couples being married in weird and wacky ways (I didn't bother staying for the ceremonies though, seemed too much like reality TV to me).
The Domain, an expansive park and the communal cultural heart of Sydney, had a massive stage. I stayed here for a great concert by Paul Kelly, but skipped out on Brian Wilson, the lead singer and songwriter of The Beachboys. I was more interested in heading back to Hyde Park for its finale...

A couple of weeks back I read an interview with a band - more of an ensemble - called Pink Martini (wiki) that sounded really interesting, drawing upon and blending diverse genres, and I thought to myself that I should try to find some of their music. So, when I learned that they were performing on Saturday night, I made certain of seeing them.
I was not in the least disappointed, in fact I was quite amazed. Pink Martini effortlessly glided through many styles of world music, a lot of Latin-American and Spanish Salsa, but with good amounts of continental Europe (especially French ) and even Japanese and Middle-Eastern songs interleaved with contemporary jazz.
Pink Martini had a lot of already established fans there. I was amongst a group of them that knew every song from its opening bars, and were almost as impressive as the lead singer for knowing every word in every language! To top it off, the Festival fireworks went off during the final song, exploding in beautifully restrained gold over St Mary's Cathedral.
You might have gathered that I'm now a firm Pink Martini fan. I've managed to find two of their studio albums, but I'll have to order in the third. As great as the studio albums are, however, I'm afraid I've been quite spoiled by hearing the band live first, and the recordings only make me wistfully recall that fantastic concert.

Festival of Navratri

2007-09-23T21:14:00.000+10:00

Navratri, as I tenuously understand it, is a Hindu festival celebrating the Goddess Amba (Durga)'s victory over the demon king, Mahishasura. The festival lasts for nine days, symbolising the nine days of their battle, and on every night people gather to sing, dance, and be merry. Apparently it's comparable to Christmas, in duration and significance and in that its origins are religious but it is now more a cultural than a religious festival.

Navratri begins in October, but whereas in India the whole festival would be a holiday, here in Australia it can only really be celebrated on weekends, so the first celebration of this festival in Sydney took place this last Friday and Saturday. Rinku invited me to come along, and, always keen to try new things and needing to unwind after a stressful week of milestone-delivery and Sarah (just teasing; having Sarah here made the milestone week much more enjoyable, but taking time off early on certainly made the end of last week more hectic!), I agreed to come on the main night, Saturday.

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I arrived at the venue, a leisure centre in Liverpool (which has a large Indian community), early, which means on time but not fashionably late. I hadn't been sure what to wear - not knowing whether the event would be traditional, formal, or contemporary. I decided upon simple but colourful, and as the mostly young adult crowd arrived I realised I fit in about as well as I could hope without wearing the traditional Gujarati dress: the men wore long brightly coloured and patterned cotton tunics, cut to fit closely but reaching down past the knees (and slit partway up the sides for freedom of movement), often with complementing trousers if not jeans; and the women wore elaborate and varied traditional dresses. Rinku was beautiful in embroidered lace of dark, russet colours, and her husband Mayoud cut a fine figure in an understated, subtly embroidered pale gold tunic.
I only saw a handful of other foreigners there (in Sydney, you get used to being a foreigner in your own country!) in a sea of Indians. Unless someone was speaking specifically to me or another English-only-speaker, the language of choice was (presumably) Gujarati. Everyone was exceedingly friendly and more than happy to talk about the celebration, or to explain what sort of food I'd just ordered from the stalls!

Everyone took their shoes off before entering the great big dance hall, a sports hall with stadium style seating from which Rinku suggested I sit to watch the first dance. So after we ate and the sound of music began drifting to us outside, we went in.
At one end of the hall, opposite the stadium seating and on a stage, were half a dozen musicians and singers and seats for special guests. In the centre of the dance floor was a large painting of Amba on a sort of shrine, around which the dances would take place. I took my place in the seats, which was where mostly the older people and parents with young children were. Slowly, in trickles that turned into streams, people came in to the hall and started to dance.
Rinku had told me that they would start slowly and deliberately, dancing in concentric rings around the central shrine, and pick up speed as more and more people joined the dance, until it became a chaotic dervish. I had suggested, naively, that I might join them after the orderly dance had broken up, when a newcomer wouldn't disrupt the dance's earlier precision. Mayoud relayed this to Rinku with quiet but somewhat disconcerting amusement, though Rinku sounded like she thought that was a good idea.

And they did start off slowly and gracefully, with hundreds of people and the sea of dancers swelling with every passing minute. It was amazing to watch from the grandstand. It was incorrect to imagine that there was one choreographed dance that everyone would perform in neat lines, but it was far from chaotic. Rather than concentric rings, streams of people swirled in eddies around the shrine, currents forming and breaking as they spiralled in and out. You would pick out an identifiable current of people dancing together in step, only to watch it seamlessly merge with another, or witness a new stream break away. Each stream would seem independent, and yet somehow the sea as a whole surged together, understanding collectively how the music ebbed and flowed. People knew when to clap, when to sing, when to pump their arms up into the air, and when to swirl backwards in the opposite direction before rolling on again, all in a riotous sea of brightly flashing colour.
It was very apparent that even as the pace quickened and eddies formed and broke with increasing rapidity, that there was no way I could join in now; as chaotic as it became, everyone still moved together. So I contentedly sat and watched. The first dance would have lasted for the better part of an hour, the musicians playing and singing the entire time.

When it stopped, groups of friends sat down in circles across the dance floor, or went outside for the cooling breeze and refreshments. The other guests I'd been sitting with, also Rinku's acquaintances, took their leave and bid us goodbye. I wondered if it was over, but it had only just begun. The singers and dancers soon had their breath back and were ready to go it again.
This time I let myself be convinced to join in, with equal parts enthusiasm and reluctance! The time to join in was definitely at the beginning, when things moved slowly, but I wanted to practice the steps outside the main swirling circle first, so that I wouldn't crash into everyone. Rinku and Mayoud would have none of that, however. The only way to learn, they insisted, was to jump right in. I have to admit, I wasn't getting very far trying to mimic the steps from the sidelines, but I still wish I didn't bump into quite so many people and I still wish that Rinku didn't push me right into the middle of it all! Surely the outer currents would have been easier to stay abreast in, but once you're drawn into the swirling whirlpool, you can't do anything but be swept spiralling inwards.

This dance was the Garba, and thankfully the first stream of dancers I joined were performing a simple series of steps that carried them consistently onwards - so while I was struggling to match the steps, at least I only had to keep moving forwards to avoid disrupting the flow. And the steps were fairly simple, though I certainly couldn't match the flair and grace with which everyone else performed them. The steps were all alternating chasses - one-and-two, three-and-four - some spinning, some taking a half turn and going backwards, but at least always moving in the same direction around the floor. After a while I was congratulating myself on getting the hang of it, when the stream I was in broke up and dispersed and I found myself standing alone like a rock around which the currents swirled, and against which occasionally crashed! I made my way with as much aplomb as I could manage - which is to say, not very much at all - to the edge of the dance hall, where I sought refuge with a couple of other guests. Their Indian host had been teaching them as I wished Rinku and Mayoud had done for me :p - in the safe shallows around the edge of the floor - and they were about to join in a more complicated dance. I'd been watching those steps and I thought, what the heck, I can do that, so I joined them. And again, I thought I was doing alright, and other people were joining our flow, and I was having a lot of fun, until finally the pace increased so much that we were broken up again and again I was washed gratefully ashore!

The third dance was the Dandiya. This was performed with two short thin sticks, about half a metre long, metal and wood, one for each hand, called dandiya. Dandiya symbolise the swords that Amba fought with, and dancers spin them and clack them together in time with the music and the steps. This dance was much more flexible and individualistic than the Garba, danced in smaller, independant groups and as such was simpler for a novice to join in without disrupting the dance as a whole. It had an interesting quirk of its own though - the music was common time, 4/4, but there were five steps in sequence to each cycle, each step one beat, so that the start of each cycle was offset by one beat from the last. That took some getting used to. The version we danced, we danced in two facing lines, each person facing their partner (or symbolically, opponent) and rotating the lines after each cycle like one of our folk dances. You would clack dandiya once, twice, back off, and finally clack once more before spinning on to the next person to do it again. It actually reminded me a lot of kendo exercises!

The last dance - I don't know if it had a name - was casual and impromptu and easy to join in, it didn't really matter what you did. There were elements reminiscent of conga lines, and cossack dancing, and jigs, and, I think, just whatever people could think up at the time. A good way to wind down the night, after close to 5 hours of dancing!
I thoroughly enjoyed the night, it was a fantastic experience. It's the sort of festival I know Melanie would love - delicious food and a good deal of melanie-dancing (and I think she would like being able to whack Brett with dandiya!).
And to think, they're all going to do it again every few weekends, until Amba finally defeats Mahishasura!

The War Of The Worlds

2007-09-23T20:25:00.000+10:00

Sarah found out that Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War Of The Worlds was touring as a live performance, so for our (early) birthdays I booked tickets and accommodation in the city, and Sarah came down to visit last weekend until Wednesday.

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I hadn't heard the musical version before, but apparently it's a cult favourite. A few people from work went as well, and in the anticipation leading up to the event I know the original recording was played more than a few times. Every so often, one fellow would announce, "Yep. It's that time again!" and on would go the headphones and off he'd go to Horsell Common. But for some reason - not wanting to spoil the experience perhaps - I didn't listen to it before the performance.

I went in quite naive. I knew almost nothing about it. I knew that it was originally a concept album, and not a stage production, but I had assumed that it had been adapted as a stage musical along the lines of Andrew Lloyd Webber's work. That wasn't the case; it was almost entirely true to the original recording, and the performance was more along the lines of an augmented concert than a stage musical. It had a huge screen onto which a montage of CGI and actors (live on stage and pre-recorded) was projected, and it had a huge model Fighting Machine that descended onto the stage to flash and bang when appropriate, but the centrepiece of the production was definitely the string orchestra, the band, and the singers.

For the first half I was focussed too much on the visual presentation and, whilst I wish it had been better, I realised that you were much better off closing your eyes and largely ignoring what was happening on stage, and just listening to the music. The CGI was terrible, and both of the singers in the first half were less than inspiring. Justin Hayward in particular performed very much like the aging rocker he is, tapping his foot and nodding his head and singing rock songs - as opposed to actually playing a role in a narrative.
The performances in the second half somewhat redeemed the show as a stage production, however. I've never bothered one way or the other to listen to Shannon Knoll before, but he performed well as the Parson Nathaniel, and Michael Falzon was excellent as the Artilleryman (best part of the show, I reckon).

Overall I think it was a good performance, and it was very enjoyable. More enjoyable, I think, for the thousands of people filling the auditorium who were listening with nostalgic ears (and there were thousands, packing the two-thirds of a gigantic olympic arena that had been converted into a concert venue), but it was definitely worthy of that nostalgia in its own right. I'll pick up the original recording. Thanks for the suggestion, Sarah!

APEC Protest

2007-09-10T20:59:00.000+10:00

I was quite excited about APEC being held in Sydney. Not because I buy into that "Stop Whinging, You Should Be Grateful To Have 21 World Leaders In Your City" rhetoric (those leaders were effectively walled off in another city anyway, so why did it have to be in the middle of Sydney?!) - but because it was the first time I had the opportunity to go to a mass protest.

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I went in on Friday, the public holiday, but there was little happening. There was a Falun Gong group meditating in Belmore Park, protesting against the Chinese government.
Things were a bit more interesting in Hyde Park, where a few small groups were giving speeches. There might have been a hundred or so civilians - a number very nearly matched by the police standing by. The police weren't causing any obstruction, they were just very obviously present - arrayed in precise formations across paths so you had to walk between them; marching in step through the park; riding in packs on bicycles; and even several standing by ready to mount up on dirt-bikes.
Across the road from Hyde Park were a group of U.S. visitors or ex-pats (to judge by their accents) holding up a huge "We <3 America! Welcome George Bush!" banner and wearing all-American tshirts stretched across all-American beer-guts. Needless to say, this group wasn't particularly popular, but you have to give them credit for coming out!

I wandered down towards Circular Quay, which is where all the hotels being used by foreign dignataries were linked together by a network of concrete-and-steel security fences - a wall separating us from them. It was the fence that was the clearest symbol of how ridiculous it all was; a stark visual reminder of how disconnected these world leaders were from us.
I watched the comings and goings outside George Bush's hotel for a while. Unsurprisingly there was a huge police presence here as well. There was a gate in the security fence on either side of the intersection, half a dozen police permanently standing by each gate. Whenever someone bearing their APEC security pass needed to get in and out, the gatekeeper unlocked and unchained the gate, opened it just enough for the person to squeeze through, and chained it up again immediately! A pedestrian asked how they could get to the the other side of the security corridor, and a policeman behind the gate pointed the way up along a stretch of fence between the footpath and the road, explaining they could get around the fence if they walked far enough. Someone else deadpanned "Can't go that way mate, there's this fence... dunno if you've noticed..!" and he was right; later on I tried walking that way and a block up the footpath came to an abrupt dead-end where the fence cut across it, securing the driveway into a hotel. The whole affair was a mess.

The next day, Saturday, I went to the main demonstration. Protestors gathered outside Town Hall, filling the public space around it and the entire block of George St in front. There were a wide variety of groups protesting a wide variety of issues - Aboriginal rights, global warming, the Iraq War, and WorkChoices chief amongst them. It was great to see a strong Greens presence there as well. There were a number of speakers here, but the stand out speaker was from Iraq Veterans Against the War, a charismatic man whose talk was by turns depressing and moving.
We marched - rather leisurely, it must be said, almost ambled - from Town Hall to Hyde Park. The roads along the route were blocked off by buses converted into police holding cells, and helicopters were overhead. When we reached Hyde Park, which is massive, we found it entirely surrounded. The entire block was ringed by police in riot-gear standing side-by-side stonily facing inwards - some with batons out and tapping gauntleted palms - more buses and police blocking off streets on the other side of the road, and heavy patrols marching along the wide empty thoroughfares like some no-man's-land in between. Afterwards, when we began to disperse from the rally at the end, we found that the police were only allowing passage in or out of the park from one entrance, the way we came in. If ever there was a cause to spark a real riot, I thought that was it. Hyde Park is wide open; the streets around it were nowhere near the restricted zone; and yet the police were senselessly unyielding. There was no need.
And yet the rally at Hyde Park itself was heartening. Admittedly, some of the self-congratulation at "standing up to the police intimidation to turn out today!" and "peacefully defying their expectations of violence!" got a bit embarrassing. I may have dwelt much on the police presence above, but really there was never any chance of violence and the rally organisers greatly exaggerated the hardships. It was as though everyone - including the police - wanted it to be a bigger deal than it was, whilst at the same time decrying violence. Someone in the crowd said it best with their sign: "I Don't Believe In Anything; I'm Just Here For The Violence!" :)

I picked up a number of pamphlets and the like from the groups there: some of it good; some of it not so good; and some of it somewhat disgusting (and regrettable that I gave the publishers any money). One worthwhile group was Socialist Alternative. They're interesting; an Australia-wide revolutionary socialist group comprised largely of students and ex-students. They were sufficiently persuasive that I, curious about far-left politics, decided to go along to a small conference they were having the next day, and to their weekly meeting last night. I'm not about to join the revolution just yet :) but it does make for lively discussion. I'm certain that Luke would be down with this group. I'll write more when I have a chance.

But for now it's back to regular work - APEC has come and gone.

Ferris Bueller and Alan Ruck

2007-08-25T19:01:00.000+10:00

I just went to a screening of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, hosted by Alan Ruck (who played Cameron Frye, Ferris's best friend). To my shame, there are lots of classic movies like this that I've never seen, so when Chris (who is as great a film buff as Tanya - perhaps even more for 80's films!) told me about this special screening I was eager to remedy this transgression. Sometimes you just need a good excuse, and this was a great excuse.
It was shown in a beautiful old theatre, with Alan Ruck on the stage afterwards to answer questions from the audience gathered around the front rows. There were the usual predictable, and predictably boring, questions of "What's it like to work with so-and-so?" (which I've always thought kind of rude, like asking "Hey, tell me about this person who's more interesting than you!"), but he also got to give a lot of really interesting and funny anecdotes about making the movie (and others he's been in). His recreation of Cameron's Mr. Peterson voice was uncanny!

As for the film itself, it was brilliant. Seeing it for the first time, over 20 years after it was made, it still felt like it fit perfectly. Definitely a timeless movie. And I think Alan Ruck was right when he commented that Ferris Bueller is who everyone wants to be, but Cameron Frye is who everyone is. It was very cool having the actor who played the film's most relatable character there :)

My First Promotion

2007-08-24T20:31:00.000+10:00

Well, today I passed my 6-month probation period at Team Bondi and was promoted from nub programmer to programmer :)
It's been a lot of hard, but satisfying, work so far, and it's great to have that formally recognised. I know Team Bondi took a chance on hiring me with no industry experience; I'm pleased (and relieved!) that I haven't disappointed. This promotion feels right, too, because over the time I've had this job I feel that I've steadily taken on more responsibility and been able to contribute more to the game.
I actually feel quite priviliged to have the opportunity to work on the projects that I am; it's very exciting and exactly the sort of programming I wanted to do. I think I owe a lot of this opportunity to luck - being in the right place at the right time. But luck or no, I intend to make the most of it.

Lately I've been considering the possibility of buying an apartment somewhere in the city - I'd really like to live closer to the city and work, and to have a space of my own, but after the last couple of years renting in Rockhampton I'm very reluctant to see my earnings disappear into some landlord's purse again.
Perhaps now that my job is more secure I'll start to look at this option more seriously. We'll see!

Taronga Zoo

2007-07-16T20:26:00.000+10:00

Last weekend - a week ago, I've been busy! - Michelle came to visit, and on Sunday we went to Taronga Zoo. It was a bitterly cold day that greeted us on the ferry trip over and didn't thaw at all the entire time we were there, but it was great fun.

Have a look at some of the photos I took! I've only just had the time - and the computer, thanks Sarah :) - to get these off my camera and onto the web.

Reading Material

2007-06-11T18:17:00.000+10:00

So anyway, I got a little sidetracked in my previous post. I meant to thank Melanie again for organising my New Scientist subscription :)
I've also been reading some other books lately - something that I haven't done much of in recent years (besides conference proceedings!). In a way I enjoy being almost completely disconnected from the net during my (admittedly rather scant) personal time, because I have missed sitting back or snuggling up with a good book.

The most interesting book I've been reading is Kinsey, A Biography, by Jonathan Garthorne-Hardy. I haven't finished it yet - it's rather thorough - but it's the book that the recent film was based on, so I sort of know how the story ends anyway. But it's the detail that is fascinating, which you just don't get no matter how much you read online. I admire Kinsey greatly, because he was arguably a genius in two fields that most interest me - evolution and sex.

I also picked up The Constant Gardener, the film of which I loved (and first read about in New Scientist, incidentally - an example of that magazine's aforementioned socio-political coverage);
and The Harsh Cry of the Heron - a sort of guilty pleasure, it's the concluding sequel to a fantasy series (Tales of the Otori) whose appeal is the same lightweight fantasy that makes Harry Potter appealing to such a wide audience.

Finally, I've just finished reading Priceless, an autobiography by Charlie Daniels that I picked up randomly because it looked interesting. Charlie Daniels was a successful madam in the UK's sex industry, and her life story is indeed captivating - in a train-wreck kind of way - but unfortunately I thought the writing was somewhat forgettable.

One cool thing about Sydney is the number of independent bookstores that I like browsing, even if I don't buy anything. There's a bookstore on Oxford St (the epicentre of the gay and lesbian community) - no, not that kind of bookstore :p, though unsurprisingly with a decidedly mature and alternative bent - a few independent and second-hand bookstores along the main street of the very trendy and hip Newtown area (along with a T2 store :) ), and one small-but-packed-to-the-ceiling bookstore in the CBD, that I've visited so far. It all makes Dymocks and Angus & Robertson and the like look rather ordinary!

New Scientist and Science

2007-06-11T17:38:00.000+10:00

My first issue of New Scientist was finally delivered today! I'm very much looking forward to getting up-to-date on the world of science again. And not just science research, either - one of the things I like about New Scientist is that it often covers current social and political issues that pertain to science, and I usually agree with the position that the magazine takes. I like to think that it's bipartisan, above the conservative/progressive political divide - but doesn't everyone like to think they're unbiased? :p
The thing that I find interesting about this viewpoint is that we usually think of science as progressive, but the process of scientific peer review, a cornerstone of science, is necessarily conservative.
I was having a discussion with someone the other day, who was telling me about a maverick scientist who had "scientifically proven" that the human mind could reorganise cell structure etc. Hijacking "science" like this bothers me. Regardless of the actual truth of those claims (which I couldn't argue specifically since I didn't know anything about them), no lone man - or team or organisation - can scientifically "prove" anything - same goes for all pseudo-scientific claims. The best one can do is present evidence and have it accepted by the scientific establishment. (Which of course doesn't make it true, but is the closest thing to "proving" it.)
So, it's a bit strange, but I, who usually have very little faith in conservatism, strongly agree with the role of the scientific establishment in scientific progress.

Disclaimer: I'm not a scientist and can't speak for anyone else. But why let a trifling detail like that get in the way of a good rant?

Work and Easter

2007-04-13T21:33:00.000+10:00

We had a "Formal Friday" today. Other workplaces have a "Casual Friday", but since we wear jeans and t-shirts every day, we did the opposite and all dressed up today. It's the first time I've worn a tie since High School, I think... I had to look up how to tie a tie last night :)

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We went to yum-cha for lunch - I guess when you look respectable for a change you need to take advantage of it. Melanie's told me all about yum-cha, but it was the first time I'd tried it. I liked the pot-sticker dumplings best! After work a bunch of us went for drinks at a cool little pub converted from an old terrace house - happy hour cocktails :) It was fun, but I'm such a lightweight when it comes to drinking!

Work is still cool, and will only get better over the next few weeks. I got to squish a few bugs earlier this week, so I had the satisfaction of finally contributing something, albeit something very small! And starting next week, I finally have a role on the team, working on A.I. navigation. It's probably the role in the team that's closest to my expertise, but still not really related very much :p So I have a heap to learn, and it'll be slow going to begin with, but it's the sort of area I find really fascinating and want to get into. I'm very excited!

The Easter weekend was good. I met up with Rinku and her husband, and we went to an Indian-Chinese restaurant. I haven't ever tried food like this before, but it was really good. The dish I had was like honey battered chicken - think honey chicken at Suzies - in an Indian curry. I'm not sure it was as good as either Indian or Chinese on its own, but it was a great fusion of flavours and well worth trying.
My sister Michelle came to visit for a few days. We wandered around Darling Harbour, which was filled with Easter performances. There were a bunch of street performers, and we saw a public show of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus - that was fun, I love watching circus.
But quite possibly the most amazing discovery was... a Lindt chocolate cafe! Now, if it was actually a cafe made from Lindt chocolate it would be even more amazing still, but as it is - a cafe serving just Lindt products - it runs a close second in salivating wonderment. There were lots of Lindt Lindor balls I'd never seen before - like coffee and intense dark chocolate (*sigh*), as well as very expensive individual gourmet Lindt chocolates, and, get this, cakes and slices made from Lindt chocolate. It was the most wicked and yet heavenly place I've ever seen. It's actually probably a good thing it's so expensive, so I can't go there every day :D

I'm not sure what I'll do this weekend yet. I can't believe it's the weekend again already, this week has gone so fast. I'm thinking sleeping in will be a good start, though :D

Nick in Sydney

2007-04-04T18:43:00.000+10:00

First blog update in Sydney! I'm at Team Bondi's office after hours, but there are still plenty of people around working. I don't have internet access - or a working computer - at home, so I have to either use this computer or find an internet cafe. There aren't any internet cafes close to home, so either way I have to be here in town somewhere.
Also, I've been putting it off the last few days because there always seemed to be something else to do - like sleep - but the longer I put it off, the harder it became to decide where to start! So here's what I've been up to...

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I stayed in Rocky as long as I could to look after Sarah, but in the last week of March, after I was sure she'd be alright, I had to return to Bundaberg to prepare for the move to Sydney.
I packed almost everything I owned - bar furniture - in my little Lanos. Hatchbacks are just awesome, you can fit so much into them! I had to leave behind some bulky, non-essential stuff (like kendo gear and deep fryer *cry*), but I managed a lot.
I took the inland route to Sydney, following the New England Highway through Toowoomba, Armidale, and Tamworth. The drive, through ever changing scenery, was beautiful; for much of the trip I was the only car in sight. I stopped to visit a dragonfruit farm near Nanango and a motorcycle museum in Tamworth. They were both very cool too.
The drive into Sydney wasn't so pleasant. I arrived Saturday evening, and navigated congested roads with almost no rear view (the back was packed to the ceiling :) ). Everytime I had to change lanes, I prayed I wasn't going to run into anyone! I lost my way when I had to detour around a crash. Eventually I made it to Dad's place, though, and simply fell into bed.
The next day, Sunday, I unpacked, and went in to town to help Dad with a shopfitting job he was finishing up. The mindless work was actually a welcome relief and I made sure to savour it!
On Monday morning I missed the bus twice into work (don't ask how I managed that, I can't rightly explain), and drove to Bankstown - the closest station - instead. Despite the bus mishap, the public transport system is very easy to use - it just takes a long time. I waste about 2-3 hours commuting each day - bus + train + walk. That's another reason I haven't felt like staying in town to blog! Mind you, I get to walk through Chinatown, so it's not all bad! I am this moment savouring the thought of what I'll pick up to eat when I leave here shortly :)

Work itself has been a mixed bag. The downside is that I've arrived just as everyone is scrambling to reach a milestone, and the usual introduction that I would go through has been put on the backburner until people have time to teach me stuff. It's been frustrating because I need to learn so much but I don't want to monopolise anyone's time. I've been stumbling along picking up a few things as I can, though.
However, it is going to be an amazingly cool job. The office is wide open and relaxed, taking up the entire top floor of our building with a minimum of internal walls. People kick balls and ride electric skateboards around; there are games consoles and pool/airhockey/ping-pong tables in the lunch area; and the dress code is so casual I was practically overdressed in jeans and an untucked shirt on my first day. Shorts/tshirts/thongs are in fashion. It's basically just like what the Honours Room would have been like if we'd had a gazillion times more funding :p
Over and above the work environment, though, the project itself is literally awesome (as in "admiration tinged with fear" awesome). L.A. Noire is a gigantic undertaking that I'm struggling to come to grips with, and I could almost despair at how much there is to learn and how much work there is to do. But by the same token, it's so ambitious that you can't help but be bouyed up with excitement. It's the sort of game I wish I'd come up with, it addresses so much of what I've thought has been missing in games lately. If we (it sounds strange writing "we") manage to accomplish only most of what I've read about, it will be a fantastic game. I don't think I'm allowed to give you any more detail, though, so you'll just have to take my word for now :)

It's time for me to leave if I want to catch the last bus! I really look forward to catching up with you all when I can - and don't forget to blog :) Talk to ya later!

Job Accepted!

2007-03-06T15:02:00.001+10:00

Well, I'm going to write games for a living!
Over the last week or two, I've been pursuing four really promising job opportunities in Sydney and Brisbane. It was a cruelly difficult decision to make, but I've decided that Team Bondi is the best job for me to take.

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The first job that came up was with the secretive Silverbrook Research. The recruiter that contacted me assured me it was a great company for me. I was skeptical, given that all of their patents (the only public record of their activities) appear to be for inkjet printing technology, but I was prepared to give them a chance. I did a C++ test for them and was invited in for an interview. I found out they are involved in some really interesting stuff, and it may have been a good job, but the interview didn't go well. With three other promising leads, though, I wasn't overly concerned.

I applied directly to Google - they don't use recruiters - because Google are currently expanding their Sydney operations and advertising graduate positions. Recruitment seems to be managed locally in Sydney, but my technical interviews were handled by employees in the U.S. Unfortunately, I guess a huge number of people appy to Google and the recruitment process is very long and drawn out. Google would be a fantastic place to work and I progressed through two rounds of technical interviews, but it would still be a couple of months before they made a job offer and I couldn't justify passing over other offers just to wait on Google, so I withdrew my application today.

The most involved application process I've gone through has been for Team Bondi. A recruiter presented me to 5 different games development houses in Australia, but we quickly narrowed it down to Team Bondi as the most promising place. I did a screening test, a C++ test, and a design test for them, and had two interviews with 5 different people while I was in Sydney. Team Bondi was very thorough. The recruiter kept me well informed throughout the whole process, and by the end it was no surprise when they made me a job offer yesterday.

In stark contrast, Jeppesen made me a job offer within 24 hours of talking to them for the first time. The recruitment process, the interview, and the person I spoke to, were all straight-up to the point of brusqueness, but it was refreshing in its own way and when they made their job offer today I was confident that it would be a good match.

This left me in a quandary. In the space of 24 hours I had two job offers, each of which would be fantastic, but too different from one another to directly compare them. Team Bondi was something of a dream job - doesn't every geek want to program games at some point? - but the work had definite attractions: a hugely ambitious game, great offices, interesting technologies. Jeppesen was more in line with where my PhD was leading and promised a more obvious career path, along with a highly intelligent team (over a dozen PhDs just in the software development team!) and challenging problems. Both jobs appealed to me a lot!

I think I could honestly have flipped a coin to choose between them, but in the end I chose Team Bondi, despite significant drawbacks, because it's the perfect entry job into the games industry, and if I didn't try it I'd always be wondering if I should have. And if it doesn't work out, then I can cut my losses it'll still be valuable experience that I can take with me. But, naturally, I'm hoping it won't come to that :)

Jobs - games and Google

2007-02-21T13:43:00.000+10:00

The other area that I want to try working in is games, specifically games A.I., just because... well, how awesome would that be?

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Things are looking pretty promising with Team Bondi in Sydney. I've taken a couple of tests and I'm meeting them in person on Friday afternoon as soon as I arrive in Sydney. I should have a pretty good idea of whether they'll offer me a job after that interview, which would be a great start to my sojourn in Sydney!
It's very exciting, because you probably couldn't find a better start in the games industry. Team Bondi are a new company, they're meant to be very relaxed. This is their first game, but the founder, Brendan McNamara directed The Getaway for Sony and, together with some staff he took with him, Team Bondi obviously has the pedigree to attract serious funding. This first game sounds very ambitious, and it's being published by Rockstar, makers of Grand Theft Auto.

The attractive thing about games - and defence - is the simulation aspect. It's amazingly cool to craft a world and figure out what sort of interactions can arise from it. And the most interesting interactions, to me, are between autonomous agents in the world - hence my interest in game A.I.!

I've also just had my first phone interview with Google, this morning. I'm afraid I can't have made a fantastic impression on the algorithmic problem-solving questions, because I muddled through it. It's definitely not my strongest point, but with a bit of luck I'll get another interview covering another aspect.
I know Google is after people with more of a Computer Science background than I have, so I won't be terribly upset if this comes to naught. It'd be a cool job in a funky environment though, and I'd most definitely consider it!

Jobs - computational intelligence

2007-02-21T11:25:00.000+10:00

If I wanted to combine software development with the topic of my PhD, the perfect job would be at SolveIT Solutions in Adelaide.

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The company was founded by a leading researcher in my field, as a way of putting the theoretical research into practice in business. He's dubbed it "adaptive business intelligence", and become very successful.
SolveIT basically a consulting company. The idea is that they identify areas in which a business can optimise their processes, and then apply cutting-edge optimisation algorithms (such as mine ;) ) from the literature to either cut expenses or boost profits by millions. Besides just getting to use cool algorithms, the attractive thing about SolveIT is the possibility of working on a diverse range of problems as they get contracts from many different industries. Oh, and the huge amount of money to be made in this area :)
I wrote to SolveIT asking for a job, but unfortunately they didn't have any openings. Still, they have my resume now, and I can seriously imagine working for them in the future.

I've also applied for a job at Jeppesen, in Brisbane. That job is also about optimisation, in their case train and transport systems. Basically it would be a similar job, just a different application. I've talked to their recruiter, but haven't heard much back yet. I'm unsure if that's bad or not :) It is a position that they're actively recruiting for though, and I'd have to be one of the most suitable candidates they're going to get for it, so... we'll see.

Jobs

2007-02-21T10:00:00.000+10:00

At the end of last year, with pressure to sign another lease, I decided that if I could get work at CQU then I'd probably stay. So before Christmas I spoke to Merv, and agreed to what seemed like a sure project as soon as Uni started back in the new year. To cut a long story short - which I've ranted about enough already :) - after many delays I had to give up on that.

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Many people have suggested other work in Rockhampton, with the best of intentions - thanks! It must seem that I'm being very picky about work. Unfortunately, it's more a case of me knowing what I don't want rather than knowing what I do want!

I don't want to be a straight academic right now, although it's something I might consider coming back to. For now, I want to get out and do something different. I'm also terrified of the whole grant application process! At this stage I just want to solve existing problems and not worry about creating new ones! :p

I also don't want to take a job that isn't going to further my career. I was prepared to do this Digital Assets project for Merv - despite the fact that I'm personally not that interested in what seems to be a relatively simple application of databases and Java - so that I could continue my research on the side (and hang out with friends that are settled here for the immediate future).
But other, similar, jobs around Rockhampton don't have the close social and research connection to the Uni, so I'm not as interested in them.

I am keen to stay with C++ rather than branching out into Java or .NET or similar, because C++ is still the language of choice for big, computationally intensive projects like simulations, optimisation, data mining, etc, in sectors such as defence, games, business intelligence, and finance. Those are the sorts of problems that really interest me.

Ideally, I want to combine software development with research of some sort. The Digital Assets project would have let me do that, albeit in two disjoint parts. The examples I gave just above would (eventually) let me do that in one package. I've applied for a few jobs in those areas. We'll see whether I manage to get something that's exactly what I want, or whether I'll have to take whatever I can get for the experience...

Moving - out of the frying pan and into the fire

2007-02-20T15:58:00.000+10:00

Well, I've moved all my stuff back to the family house in Bundaberg now. Where to from there I don't know yet, but I ran out of options in Rockhampton. It kind of sucks having accumulated so much furniture and assorted belongings and having to find somewhere to put it!

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Without any guarantee of work at the Uni (that's another rant in itself! :) ) I had to cut my losses and pack up. The time I clung on here in Rockhampton wasn't wasted though, because I've used it to finish my thesis. That would have been much harder from Bundaberg. It also meant I got to hang around people I like for a bit longer :)
Lots of people (well, ok, three - Sarah, Melanie, and Russel :p ) offered to let me stay with them while I sorted things out. Thanks guys! But I had so much stuff I had to put it somewhere more permanent anyway.

So now... I'm out of the frying pan, but maybe only to land right back in the fire. There's a real possibility that I'll move to Sydney for a job, and man, if I thought the rental market was tough in Rockhampton, I'm not looking forward to renting in Sydney! A recent study placed Sydney as one of the highest rent-to-income-ratio cities in the English-speaking world (Counterpoint on Radio National has been making a compelling argument that it's down to land-rationing).

Interesting times await!

The End (of the thesis) Is Nigh

2007-02-20T15:48:00.000+10:00

Yep, fingers crossed, the latest draft of my thesis will get Russel's approval, and I'll print it out and submit! So far Russel's given his stamp of approval to all the main chapters and the conclusion; I've just revised the introduction and now I'll put it all together for him.
All up, it's 10 chapters, 325 pages, and 70,000 words. Admittedly that's double-spaced and single-sided, which I don't like but I understand why it's important for examination, but hey, 325 pages sounds good.
Overall I'm happy with how I've presented what I've done. If I could do it over, I would certainly ditch a lot of the research I spent time on and do a more thorough job of the stuff that worked out well. But such is the path of research, I suppose. In the end I reckon I came up with some good stuff, and I dare to hope that someone might actually read it and make use of it :)
It's certainly going to be a relief to have this thesis out of my hands... for a few months at least!

Interesting Times

2007-02-15T09:19:00.000+10:00

There is a curse: May you live in interesting times.

It's strange, but at the time when I have the most to blog about, I've been most silent. Partly I've just been too busy, and partly I just haven't wanted to jinx anything!

I'll follow this post up with some posts dedicated to what's been going on: finishing my thesis; moving house; and getting a job!

McNaught's Comet

2007-01-19T09:30:00.000+10:00

Brett thoughtfully let us know about McNaught's Comet, the brightest comet in 40 years! On Monday evening Sarah and I went up Mt. Archer to watch it. Unfortunately the cloud cover and haze was terrible, making it impossible to see the sun set let alone a comet! I returned on Wednesday evening but it was just as bad. This was pretty depressing, since the comet's peak brightness was on Monday and it's supposed to fade over the week, so I was afraid we'd miss it altogether.
Nevertheless we gave it another chance last night, Thursday, and we were finally rewarded! I wish we'd brought binoculars or a telescope, but thanks to the tripod Sarah gave me for Christmas, I was able to take some pretty decent shots with my wannabe camera ;)
(click for higher res!)

No comet here, just a nice view of the city under a gentle sunset before the comet became visible.

Pretty good shot of the comet over the city. Bonus aeroplane to the left ;) There's a bit of camera movement blurring the lights; I mustn't have tightened the tripod enough.

Just the comet.

Just the comet again.

I might go up again tonight to check it out again... I reckon it's pretty exciting :)

Chocolate Coated Coffee Beans

2007-01-09T11:15:00.001+10:00

At the end of last year, on a beautiful day for a ride to Roslyn Bay, over a coffee by the water's edge, I was introduced to a most marvellous confection: a single chocolate coated coffee bean, a tiny capsule of heaven on my saucer. My travelling companion, Aiden, told me of a magical coffee store far to the south where he had seen them previously. But could I get them in Rockhampton?

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I spent the rest of the year (ok, so that wasn't very long) searching in vain for a source of these wonders. Darrel Lea apparently occasionally stock them, but not any more. Same for Capricorn Roast. In desperation, I widened my search to Bundaberg (and my family thought I was there to visit them, shh, don't tell them!) but still my efforts bore no fruit.
Long long ago, in a better time, there was a gourmet food store in Rockhampton. But it closed, and with its passing the land was plunged into a period of darkness. Still, some spoke in hushed whispers of another store, one that yet survived. No phonebook told of this fabled store, and for a long time I didn't believe the rumours, but with the success of my quest hanging precariously in the balance I was prepared to turn to any small glimmer of hope. So, with Sarah faithfully at my side, I set out once more.
Far away we went, following the vague second-hand directions of Sarah's mum who spoke a traveller who claimed to have stumbled upon this store by chance in her wanderings, but who had not ventured inside. Over the mighty Fitzroy river, down Denham, and across to the far side of the Bruce Highway - surely we had gone too far then? - and still there was no sign of any gourmet food store. At the foot of the mountainous Range we were forced to turn back, resigned to the bitter taste of failure. But as we wearily turned around, Sarah, with her keen eyesight, cried "Stop! Stop!" - she had found it!
I was to be forgiven for missing it as we passed it the first time; the store had the confounding name of "Tables & Tots", and only in small unassuming print did it say "Gourmet Goodies". Excitedly, we went inside. The store was a confused jumble of furniture, tableware, and bric-a-brac piled on every available surface. But along one wall were exotic foodstuffs, and at the back of the store I found at last what I had been searching for: chocolate coated coffee beans... in no less than three mouth-watering flavours!
I immediately bought a small packet of espresso flavoured beans, which I prefer to the cafe latte flavoured beans I have just returned to buy after consuming the first lot. I have learnt that approximately 5 beans equals one shot of espresso - bear in mind that not all the caffeine from grounds makes it into the espresso. It's very hard to stop at just 5 beans, but so far I've been strong.
Thus ends the tale of my quest for the chocolate coated coffee beans!

Microsoft Zune

2007-01-03T16:20:00.000+10:00

(This is a follow-up on the previous post on Windows Media Player.)
Zune is Microsoft's new portable music player and software of the same name. It's analogous to iPod and iTunes. Since Windows Media Player 11 was promising but ultimately flawed, I decided to give Zune a try.
Zune is basically identical to WMP (see previous post), just with a different skin. However, it does two things WMP doesn't:

Supports AAC natively
Imports playlists and ratings from iTunes

These are very very good things. That leaves only two downsides to Zune compared to iTunes:

As with WMP, it stubbornly resets my viewing preferences every time I switch panes
As with WMP, it lacks a way to duplicate Party Shuffle's automatic song selection

Nevertheless, given that it's so much faster than iTunes and has nifty playlist management - and imported all my playlists from iTunes - I'm going to give it a try for a while.

Edit:
In iTunes, you set a checkbox called "Compilation" to indicate that an album is a compilation. In WMP/Zune, you set a separate field for each track called "Album Artist" to something like "Various Artists" to indicate a compilation. Unfortunately Zune didn't import the "Compilation" meta-data from iTunes, and this was messing up my browsing experience (in both WMP and Zune).
After setting the "Album Artist" to "Various Artists" for all compilation CDs, the browsing experience became far, far, far better, so much so that the default view for each pane works quite well, and it's no longer so annoying that it resets the view each time you change pane.

In summary, the WMP/Zune browsing interface just got a lot better in my opinion; on par or superior to iTunes' 3-pane browser. *thumbs up*

Windows Media Player 11

2007-01-03T10:35:00.000+10:00

Thanks to a network problem I've been unable to use iTunes (no library database) so I thought I'd try out Windows Media Player 11 at Carey's suggestion. This is my experience...

[+] Read more

Behind the screens
The first technical difference between iTunes and WMP is the way the library is managed. In iTunes you drag files into the library to add them whenever you acquire new files. This is a pain because you lose all song-related data like play count and stars and playlists if you want te rearrange the files on your HDD - you have to remove them from iTunes and add them again each time. In WMP, you specify folders for WMP to monitor, and all music in those folders is automatically in your library. This actually works pretty well, and somehow it manages to keep track of files even if I move them around while WMP is closed (I know it's actually keeping track of the files and not just removing/adding the file each time, because details like the play count are kept intact and the file itself is not modified to store this information).

The second technical difference is that WMP unfortunately doesn't support the AAC music format. That sucks because I rip most of my music as AAC, since it's an MPEG standard format. I expected that any decent music player would support it, but sadly not WMP. You can use third-party tools to add AAC support to WMP (meta-data support and codecs) but it's not perfect: the progress slider doesn't work for AAC files. (these codecs might fix the problem but it's commercial software) By the way, I don't think you can simplify the comparison to WMP = MP3 + WMA formats, and iTunes = MP3 + AAC formats, since a) iTunes can import WMA files by converting them, and b) AAC is standard and WMA is proprietary.

User interface
Using iTunes as a baseline, there are some positives and negatives to WMP's user interface.
WMP doesn't have iTunes' 3-pane browser that sorts by genre, artist, and album simultaneously. That means you have to flip between different screens to browse by those different categories. That might not be such a nuisance, except that each time you change screen, it resets your location in all the others, so you have to scroll down through your entire library to get back to where you were each time. It also resets the column by which you've sorted that category, which is really annoying. As a plus, though, WMP allows you to navigate the library in many more ways than iTunes (which would be nice, if only it remembered my preferences! grrr...)

Playlist management likewise has its ups and downs. Instead of Party Shuffle, WMP has Now Playing, which works slightly differently. Everything you play automatically goes through Now Playing - generally every song that's currently showing in the pane you double-click in is added to Now Playing, as opposed to iTunes playing either the library or a playlist or Party Shuffle. That's pretty neat, because you can browse to an album, or do a text search, double click a song and all of those will go into Now Playing and be saved there, even if you then browse away or do a different text search. Another neat feature in WMP is the playlist pane, which can be set to show either a playlist or Now Playing, and sits to the right of the main view. That makes it easy to drag music over to queue it up or reorganise the play order, without leaving the main library view. The downside of WMP's playlist management is that I can't find any way to mimic iTunes' Party Shuffle ability to automatically and randomly draw a certain number of songs from a specified playlist. In WMP you have to manually make sure there's always music queued up.

Performance
Ordinarily performance in programs like these, running on modern computers, shouldn't matter. Unfortunately, the Windows port of iTunes 6 was slow, and iTunes 7 is just terrible. Browsing WMP, in comparison, feels like casting off shackles and breathing freely once more.

Overall
I'll still use iTunes, however that's mainly due to where WMP foolishly stumbles rather than to where iTunes shines. WMP's inability to remember my viewing preferences and poor handling of AAC is terrible. Maybe in the next version WMP will come out ahead.

Vrrrooom!

2006-12-18T20:11:00.000+10:00

I'd said that I wouldn't go for my motorcycle licence until I'd finished my PhD. Well, I decided it's close enough. I now have my open, unrestricted licence :D

[+] Read more

It seems I'm nothing but a litany of medical complaints lately. A couple of weeks back I did something to the muscles of my back, I have no idea what - playing Wii Tennis with Brett might have had something to do with it though :P - and it's been sore ever since. Yesterday Tanya, Sarah, and I went out to the Causeway Lake for a bbq and went for a paddle afterwards. In hindsight, having a go on the kayak was probably a mistake; I felt alright at the time but this morning I was worse. Nevertheless, I figured I'd pull through.

Back a step... I booked a Q-Ride course late last week. It was the last session of the year and I thought, if I don't do it now I'll have to wait until next year, and I was sure my back would be OK by today. Q-Ride is great. Instead of the standard 6-months as a Learner and then take a 30 minute test for your licence, Q-Ride lets you get your licence at any time after an approved instructor says you're ready - no tests, just professional training. Typically it's organised into 5-6-hour sessions that cover every skill the instructor has to sign off on, and that's what I did today.

So I rocked up in my car at the kart track at Bajool, about 35km south of Rocky just off the highway, tender but still confident. However, after a couple of laps around the track I was gritting my teeth in pain. I thought about pulling out and having another go next year, but soldiered on nevertheless. Actually after a while it wasn't so bad; I think my muscles simply reknitted themselves in a crouched over position on the bike :P But man, getting off and standing up was painful, and I'm feeling it still.

Anyway, the instructor put me on a 400cc V-twin - I hired one of their bikes rather than use my own, because I had no way of legally riding my own bike to the track (no Brett :( ), and if I used a >250cc bike I could get my unrestricted licence. The V-twin was great for the kart track, lots of torque down low in the rev range, pretty much just twist-and-go, never needed higher than 3rd gear. But it rattled terribly and strained in top gear on the highway, overall I prefer my much smoother 250cc inline-4.
There were a few embarrassing incidents - I ran out of fuel on the highway (it should have been refueled before the course :| ) - and generally I really didn't feel in good form, but at the end of the day the instructor passed me :)

So tomorrow morning I take my Q-Ride certificate to Queensland Transport and get my shiny new motorcycle licence! Then I can look on it and take comfort as I sit in agony in front of this computer finishing my thesis :P

(I should give a plug for Top Rider, the school I went through, and Shane/Dean in particular for great instruction!)

Writing God

2006-12-15T13:41:00.000+10:00

This is how I've been feeling lately :D
I want to use that comic strip in my thesis instead of those pretentious quotes. Hey, no-one ever accused me of being high-brow :P
I wonder if Jorge Cham would let me... can't hurt asking!

Party politics

2006-11-13T22:14:00.000+10:00

Warning! Long post!
Some context from an earlier conversation:

daleyl: Have you ever thought about how ridiculous the idea of democracy is combined with the two party preferred system? The people have the power of choice (between two slightly different choices)

Tanya: The real problem to my thinking is that each parlimentary member can't vote according to their electorate's wishes if it goes against the main party's wishes - if they do, they are severely punished

daleyl: Good point.

belly: yep!!!! That's why you have to vote for the party that you think would be better... Rather than the person in your electorate...

Tanya: I think that many people get into politics from a genuine desire to initiate change, but they get so consumed by the party politics and 'playing the game to get elected' that they forget what they initially set out to achieve

daleyl: I have deeply cynical views on the whole thing. It is a farce. Its a distraction.

belly: Tanya, you make a very good point...

Tanya: Unfortunately it's the only way to initiate change - what's the alternative?

daleyl: Its rolling machine, and like you said, once you get in you get caught up in it probably without knowing it.

belly: Though there are some people that do go against "their" party for their electorate.... I have seen one particular member threated with going to jail... but he stood up for what he believed in...

...

daleyl: But the only way we are ever going to effect change is if we get serious about waking people up from the material induced slumber that we all live in.

daleyl: Fucking revolution. Thats what I am about.

(couldn't leave that quote out :D)

I feel like playing the Devil's Advocate (though I should admit that I'm not at all qualified to do so :p). There are some real advantages to having a multi-party system, as opposed to a nonpartisan system in which parties are constitutionally disallowed. I suggest there is a benefit to the people, from compromising personal principles to follow the party line, and playing the game to be elected.

[+] Read more

Tyranny of the Majority
Parties are accused of "playing the game" to win elections for their own sake, and not for the sake of the people they're meant to be representing. Yet, deliberately playing the game just to win votes is arguably better for the people, and therefore for democracy, than is standing unwaveringly by one's personal principles.
The problem is the so-called "tyranny of the majority", a problem inherent in representative democracy. It occurs when an absolute majority of representatives can consistently block the interests of a (possibly vocal) minority. If representatives are elected based on how similar their personal principles are to the majority of the electorate, and if those representatives then consistently vote according to their principles, then the minority in the electorate will never have their voice heard in parliament.
Thankfully it doesn't happen that way. Both independents and especially party members compromise on their personal principles in order to win votes. It's a game in which every vote counts. The strategy is to compromise policies such that the number of votes gained from the targeted minority is greater than the number of votes lost from alienated core supporters.
This strategy should be applied when the minority has a much stronger conviction than the majority, such that a small change in policy yields maximum gain for minimum cost. This is the exact situation where the tyranny of the majority would otherwise oppress the minority. Playing the game for votes distorts the representation in parliament of vocal minorities, mitigating the tyranny of the majority, and this is arguably beneficial for democracy.
Consider some examples of vocal minorities versus largely indifferent majorities: environmental causes, opposition to war, and stem-cell research. Of course, it's not all rosy. There's the flip side of the coin, too: opposition to euthanasia and opposition to gay marriage (though that could swing both ways, so to speak ;) ), for example.
The point is that it may be beneficial to give more voice to those of strong conviction, and who are presumably familiar with an issue, than to those of weak conviction who are presumably not. Ironically, playing the game for votes furthers this goal, whereas standing firmly by principles does not. And if you can say anything for parties and independents, parties are better at the former and independents are better at the latter!

I think there is some virtue in compromising one's own principles, and even some virtue in compromising the principles of the majority of one's electorate - in certain cases, and guided by game-playing strategy. After all, the fundamental tenet of democracy is that no single person is infallible. Why should any representative necessarily believe that their personal principles are worth voting by in parliament when they may have compelling evidence to the contrary?

I should end by reiterating that I am mainly playing the Devil's Advocate here. I would hate to see politics dominated even more by the major parties! Nevertheless... if you've read this far anyway, what do ya reckon?

These boots ain't made for walking

2006-11-13T17:19:00.000+10:00

Brett and Melanie invited me down to the beach for fish & chips with Blair, his son Connor, and his friend Lee. And of course, I got to ride :D
Bikes are convenient in some ways, and not in others. I was able to just pull up onto a wide dividing strip between a packed carpark and the road, whilst Brett had to circle in his car a few times to get a park. But it is unfortunate that the imperative of protecting one's skin with bulky motorcycle gear is somewhat in conflict with the limited storage space on a bike and the warm Queensland sunshine that one, after all, goes to the beach to enjoy.
The helmet I can lock to the bike; the gloves I can stow in my bag; the jacket I can leave in Brett's car; and the jeans I can put up with wearing.
The only problem is the boots. I've now come to realise, after walking up and down the entire length of the main street for fish & chips, that these boots definitely weren't made for walking. They're waterproof, for starters. That sounded like a good thing back in winter, but it also means they're sweatproof. And whilst I'm sure they do a good job of protecting my ankles from the road, they're not so good at actually, you know, bending. I have a friction-burn on the back of one ankle testifying to that.

But still, it's worth it :D

I think in future I'll get a pair of these and keep a pair of sandals in my bag, and everything will be just dandy :)

An Inconvenient Truth

2006-10-30T11:42:00.000+10:00

Tanya, Sarah, and I went to see An Inconvenient Truth on the weekend. It was a bit odd, since it felt like preaching to the choir, but I wanted to see what was supposed to be a finely honed presentation. And I have to give credit to Al Gore; he's an excellent public speaker. Whatever you may think of the content, you have to concede that the presentation and film were superbly produced and presented.
So I enjoyed it for that aspect, since I'd already read about most of the content. But one social statistic in particular jumped out at me, and I thought it was more enlightening than all the statistics about natural phenomena:
In a random sample of scientific, peer-reviewed literature over the past 10 years on climate science, in which over 900 papers (968 from memory) were reviewed, 0% of papers doubted the existence global warming.
In contrast, in a review of the popular media - TV, newspapers, web, etc. - 53% of reports doubted the existence of global warming.
Most people don't understand climate science. I don't. That's fine. We don't understand nuclear physics or medicine either; but we trust those who do. That's what I like about this statistic. It encapsulates everything in the debate about global warming into one, easily understandable bit of information.
Scientists: 0%; Media: 53%. Who would you trust? The sad thing is, I suppose a lot of people would answer "Media" :(
Anyway, another reason I found that particular statistic interesting was the close parallel with the recent Evolution vs. Intelligent Design farce. The popular media persists in portraying controversy and uncertainty where, really, none exists. I guess controversy sells more adspace...

Please Look Twice

2006-10-30T00:14:00.000+10:00

It would be remiss of me not to do my own private bit to educate people during Motorcycle Awareness Week. Perhaps you don't realise just how exposed we are on public roads.
So please, please, for the unabashed naked truth of the matter laid bare, go to
http://www.pleaselooktwice.com/
and watch the ads.
I'm sure you will find them quite revealing.
:D

Cleaning the bike

2006-10-15T18:38:00.000+10:00

In the spirit of automotive maintenance seen in Brett and Melanie's blogs, I decided to clean my bike today. I hadn't done this before. I'd been putting it off, but yesterday I went out to buy all the supplies.

First, warm soapy water to clean the bike in general. Rinse off with hose, dry with chamois. Spray mechanical bits with WD-40, especially the front - it's meant to stop bug splatter from sticking to anything. You have to be careful to avoid getting any WD-40 on the chain though; apparently it's a little too good at penetrating the chain links and dissolving the grease lubricant inside.
After cleaning everything else, it's time to clean the chain. Kerosene and a toothbrush removes the grime and drives out any water splashed on the chain from cleaning. I really need to get a rear wheel stand though, to be able to rotate the wheel freely. I had to get up, move all the towels and buckets, and roll the bike backwards a bit each time I finished cleaning a section so that I could expose the next length of chain. Time consuming and tedious, but not too hard. I'm afraid I got a few oilstains on the concrete from having to move everything each time though. Ah well - rental property :P
Man that chain had a lot of gunk built up on it. Anyway, once clean, you take the bike for a quick spin to warm the chain up - apparently you should apply lube to a warm chain. Because I'm paranoid, I put on all my gear to to for a <5-minute ride around the back-streets. Felt a bit silly - and a bit hot! - but better safe than sorry.
So back home and time to lube the chain. The manual says to use only 30-50w motor oil as a lubricant. I couldn't find any though. I don't actually know what the numbers mean, and all the products on the shelf were labeled Xw-Y, not X-Yw. And there wasn't any X=30 Y=50 in any case. So I figured Castrol chain lube would be alright, despite what the manual said, because after all it's made for O-ring bike chains like mine.
So I repeat the work-a-bit,-roll-the-bike-a-bit routine, but at least this is easier and quicker than cleaning with the kero and toothbrush. The packaging says to apply the lube sparingly, so I trust it, but I always hate not knowing what someone means when they say "sparingly". I hope I used enough. The lube gets applied to the inside of the chain, and you take the bike for another quick spin to use centrifugal force to spread the lube all through the chain links. Repeat gearing-up-for-5-minute-ride. And then home and done!
Only, the brakes don't work so well now, even after I used them several times to get rid of any moisture on the discs. I wonder if I accidentally got some WD-40 on the discs or something... presumably lubricant on brake discs is not a good thing :D I'll leave it overnight, try another ride, and if it's still a problem I'll try cleaning with kerosene.

Overall though, I feel like I've taken another important step along the path to becoming a proper biker :D

Jabber + Forums = ?

2006-09-25T22:45:00.000+10:00

Recently a group of friends took a step backwards to IRC for group chat, since Jabber wasn't acceptable for some reason (not entirely sure why, I was away at the time. Hmm, it was sort of like a coup actually :p ). Anyway, as I was just chatting to Brett about newsgroups, it got me thinking.

Newsgroups and IRC are relics of a bygone age of the Internet. They persist by sheer weight of inertia (also largely, and interestingly, to support filesharing).

Take IRC for example. Once the technology for synchronous chat, it has been all but eclipsed by proprietary instant messaging (IM) networks such as AIM and MSN. IRC, for all its archaic shortcomings, has some advantages over IM: it's open (in the sense that no single company controls the relay servers), and it supports persistent chat rooms (that a person can actively join, rather than having to passivley be invited).
Enter Jabber. Jabber is an open protocol for instant messaging, and has all the advantages of IM (registered usernames, public profiles, contact lists, slick user-friendly interfaces) along with all the advantages of IRC (open distributed network, persistent chat rooms). By merit, it should dominate both IM and IRC. Whether it can compete with giants like AOL and Microsoft remains to be seen, though at least it has Google's weight behind it.

Now, it occurred to me that IRC and IM are roughly analogous to newsgroups and forums. Newsgroups are an open, distributed network with the same archaic shortcomings as IRC: kludgy interfaces and lack of user presence. Forums are proprietary communities with the same modern conveniences as IM: registered usernames, public profiles, slick interfaces loaded with features.
Given the similarities between IRC:IM and newsgroups:forums, why not try a Jabber-style solution to the shortcomings of newsgroups and forums?

A Jabber-style forum network would have the following properties:

The protocol would be standard and the network would be open for any server to join.
A user would have an account on any server, and would be identified by their username and server domain, for example nick@cqu.edu.au . Usernames are unique within a domain, but can be reused on different domains (like email and Jabber). The server would also host the user's public profile (XML of course) including global avatar and global sig.
Individual forums would be hosted on specific servers. For example, bonsai-forum@geeklane.com . In general, users from any server could participate in any forum. Every forum would have its own configuration though, including moderators, banned users, posting and reading restrictions, etc. The forum server could optionally host a local profile, avatar, and sig that would replace the user's global settings, for that forum.
Users would log in to their server. They could then access remote forums through a gateway web interface or a local client, or their server could authenticate them with the remote forum's server to allow the use of custom forum interfaces.
I'm unsure if usenet-style flooding (propagation of messages from one server to another) could be used to increase robustness of the forum network, or if this would be incompatible with the strict post ordering expected from forums.
It should also be possible to migrate existing web forums to this network; it's just that initially users would have lots of different accounts (one from each forum) to access the network through.

Imagine an open network of interoperable forums. Use one account to post to all forums. Find your friends easily on other forums. Carry over your status from one forum to another (co-operating forums only, of course). Everything would be XML, allowing the user their choice of interfaces. The network would ideally interoperate with Jabber for instant-messaging.

I reckon it's a good idea. I doubt it'll ever happen though; too much inertia in current forums. And there are probably problems with the idea I haven't thought of :)

The Right Words

2006-09-17T19:59:00.000+10:00

I twisted Brett's arm until he agreed to fish & chips at the beach for lunch today, for a "short" break from writing and a chance to ride my bike on a beautiful day - the first chance I've had to take it on a long run. So, Melanie and Tanya with Brett in his car, we set off to pick up Sarah for good food, good company, and - at least for me - good fun :D

Now, this was the first time Sarah and Tanya had seen me ride, so I was thankful enough not to do anything embarrassing. Especially so since Sarah's had some serious reservations about me learning to ride in the past, and I was never sure if I managed to win her 'round. So I was just happy that everything went smoothly :)
But the awesome, amazing part is that after lunch Sarah asked me if someone could sit on the seat behind the rider. I was slightly perplexed, but mostly obliviously happy all the same to talk about my baby (the bike, not Sarah). I explained that, to save money by registering the bike as a single-seat, the rear footpegs and pillion strap had been removed.
Then Sarah floored me by pointing to the seat and stating imperiously, "Well, you'll just have to make sure that when you buy a real bike, it can seat a passenger. I want to ride behind you!"
So... not only might I share with Sarah the enthralling wonder of riding, it also appears that the acquisition of my next bike is pre-approved! :D :D :D *melt*
*sigh* I love her so much! (Sarah, not the bike). <3

Things to do after the thesis

2006-09-05T16:21:00.000+10:00

Things I want to do after I'm done with this thesis:

Caving. I reckon the wrist will be up to it by now; the capricorn caves aren't that strenuous.
Buy a hat. The birds chirping in the trees are making me nervous; it's only a matter of time before they start swooping me. If I make completing my thesis a prerequisite for buying a hat, then I have a large incentive: a race between thesis-writing and nest-building :D
Get my motorcycle licence. I'll take a one-day Q-Ride course to get my licence as soon as I can. I want my licence so badly... Riding is so much fun!
Horse-riding. Been on my list of things to do for ages, may as well add it to this one too :)
Meet up with Dad. Maybe take him over to Great Keppel or something.

The justification for this post is the motivation it provides to finish my thesis :) (note that "get a job" wasn't on the list :D )

AOL Search Queries

2006-08-30T13:53:00.000+10:00

Sorry for being such a hermit lately; I'm just concentrating on getting my thesis written.

I did take time out to play with AOL's search query database for a bit. It's probably old news to some of you, but this is the story:

A while back the US Government demanded databases of search results from the major search engines (they wanted to trawl through the data to determine the prevalence of searches for pornography and such, in an attempt to pass some online child protection legislation). Google in particular refused to turn over results citing trade secrets and privacy concerns. A lengthy legal battle ensued, in which in many people's eyes Google fought the good fight.
Anyway, that's just context.

Early this month, AOL's research division released to the public AOLs entire search records for a 3-month period. Not a leak; a deliberate release. Just hours afterwards, AOL admitted they screwed up and retracted the database, but not before people had made copies.

As a concession to privacy concerns, all usernames in the database are replaced by random numbers, but the interesting thing is that the random number is assigned on a per-user basis, so you can see an (anonymous) person's entire search history. You can search the database by keywords, user id, or the website that the search returned.

It's fascinating in a voyeuristic sort of way. Some of it is funny, some of it is sad, and some of it is just plain disturbing.
This example clearly shows the underestimated danger of steak and cheese to society.
Here are some funny examples courtesy of Something Awful.
And here's a pretty interesting writeup of the whole situation.

I think what makes the database fascinating is trying to reconstruct what's going through someone's mind as they enter these search queries. Bizarre stuff.

Crouching Tiger vs. Hero vs. House of Flying Daggers

2006-08-18T00:52:00.000+10:00

I think it's because I finally got around to copying my chinese music from home to work, and I'm sitting here late at night and my mind is starting to wander away from my work and towards the music playing in the background, that I thought of this and felt like writing it.

I think most people would agree that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the Western success of which probably paved the way for Hero and House of Flying Daggers, is the best movie of the three. There are many reasons for this, but one in particular occurred to me as I was listening to the soundtracks just now.
Whilst all three are fantasies, Crouching Tiger's fantasies weave in and out of everyday reality, whereas Hero's and House of Flying Daggers' fantasies float in some inaccessible place above everyday reality. Crouching Tiger is more grounded, in story, sets, and music. I think that connection to the audience's experience makes its (comparatively) restrained fantasies all the more special in comparison.

Yeah, this blog post was brought to you by the power of procrastination. :) ... Hmm, I wonder what Jet Li's Fearless is going to be like.

Wrist

2006-08-11T18:38:00.000+10:00

There's nothing more to be done about my wrist, at least for the immediate future. I had the MRI scans last Friday, and saw my specialist yesterday.

The x-rays had already shown that the styloid process on the end of the ulna had broken off. The MRI scans, capable of resolving soft tissue, showed that it was being held in place by fibrous tissue to heal the damage. He said that that was the best that could be expected, since the bone wouldn't mend itself. I found that surprising, but he's the expert. My GP was concerned that the fibrous tissue would eventually impede my wrist's freedom of movement, but again, the specialist is the expert. Apparently I'm to wait a few months to see how well it heals, since as it is there's no reason for surgery.

On the one hand (ha :p) that's good news since I may not have to pay anything more than the consultations and scans I've already had (which I'm happy to have paid, in order to understand). On the other hand it kind of sucks that there's no techno-magical fix that I can buy. Still, if it heals well on its own and I eventually regain full use of my left wrist, then all is well. Fingers crossed!

Ode to Beef Rendang

2006-08-02T17:45:00.001+10:00

Ode to Beef Rendang

Oh fiery heat that lingers on my lips
And lights up all the tastebuds on my tongue
Those lesser flavours find themselves eclipsed
When with your splendid spice they are among

You simmered, slowly stewing in your pot
For hours, spices soaking into meat
Galangal, garlic, chilli, and shallot
Intensifying, grown-man-crying heat

Yet though I sweat and wipe my teary eyes
That cry over this dish from Asia's South
I realise your fiery guise belies
The tender texture melting in my mouth

The plate is clear, the final morsel gone
But in my mem'ry, Rendang lingers on.

Motorcycling - Practice

2006-07-24T13:58:00.000+10:00

I've decided that riding a motorcycle counts as "normal, everyday use" of my wrist, which the doc said was ok, so I've been practicing again. It's so much fun. Flipping the weight and lean from one side to the other is effortless, and the rev range seems endless. Want to go faster, just twist the throttle more :)
Going faster is relatively easy though. The hardest technique to learn, so far, has been low-speed maneuvering: Slow, tight turns at walking pace. Balancing yourself and the bike is much more important, and it feels like the bike could drop at any moment. Additionally, the bike is moving slower than the engine idle will allow, so you have to hold the revs high and control speed entirely with the clutch. I find it quite exhausting.
I rode in traffic for the first time yesterday, which was fun. It was a tiny bit daunting, but Brett was behind me in his car, and all in all the traffic was pretty light. I didn't do anything embarrassing, so I count it as a roaring success!
I also bought myself a reflective vest to wear at night or in poor weather. I'm debating whether or not I'll wear it as a matter of course, at least while I'm learning. On the one hand, it makes me stand out clearly to other traffic, which may give me the leeway I need while I'm getting the hang of things. On the other hand, it really makes me stand out clearly. :) For now that is definitely a good thing though, so I think I'll wear it all the time.

And, I finally got around to taking a couple of photos of my bike:

"Done a Nick"

2006-07-13T16:46:00.000+10:00

I should have studied to be an orthopedic surgeon. $140 for a 15 minute consultation to tell someone, "I've never seen an injury like this before. Get more scans done and come back to me."

So, 6 weeks ago I had the accident, and at the time thought I'd just sprained my wrist. They - you know who you are - told me I should go to the hospital or a doctor, but I shrugged it off. It didn't hurt specifically when I poked it, so I figured it couldn't be broken. Although it hurt, there was no swelling so I didn't think it could be too bad. However, a month later I still hadn't regained full use of my wrist, so I went to see my GP.
He sent me to get x-rays of the wrist, and when they came back he told me I'd dislocated my ulna, not sprained tendons as I had thought. If I had gone to see him immediately after the accident, he said, then it would have been simple to fix, but since it had been over a month at this point, he didn't know what was required and referred me to a specialist. Oops. I could hear "I told you so!" ringing in my ears already.
It took another week to find an orthopedic surgeon to see me, and I've just now returned from my appointment with him. Nothing is simple. It turns out that what my GP had thought was a dislocation might just be the way my bones are naturally. However, a bit of bone (the styloid process, to which a ligament attaches, so it's kind of important) has broken off the tip of the ulna at my wrist, and is somehow restricting the wrist's rotational freedom. He said he'd never seen it cause this problem before and didn't know what to do, so he's sent me off to get MRI scans done of both wrists (so that he knows what my wrist should look like), and may have to refer me to an orthopedic surgeon specialising in wrists and hands in Brisbane!

*sigh* This is going to be expensive. I have no private insurance, but I'd agreed with my GP that I would pursue the private health system. There was no way of knowing when, if ever, I would have my wrist seen to if I was on a public waiting list, since it would be regarded as low priority. I don't want to take the risk of progressive, potentially irreversible damage to my wrist while I languish in the public health system.
That leaves the private health system, which my GP (without knowing exactly what would be required) warned could cost me up to $2,000. With the cost of the x-ray, specialist and the MRI scan, I'm off to a good start towards that amount without even having any operation yet!
Still, it's something that, in my opinion, is not optional. It's definitely worth that amount to me to have a good wrist.

So, as Tanya proposed, to have "done a Nick" is to have sustained some avoidable (or perceived to have been avoidable) injury, often in conjunction with willful obstinance. :)

Roslyn Bay

2006-07-12T01:04:00.000+10:00

On Sunday, before seeing the Lano & Woodley show at the Pilbeam Theatre, Sarah and I went adventuring in the rocky headlands around Roslyn Bay. Here are some photos!

Radio Paradise and Interpol

2006-06-21T19:17:00.000+10:00

A little while back I came across a great internet radio station, called Radio Paradise. It plays a blend of classics and contemporary songs, just perfect for when I don't know what I want to listen to. It also has a discussion thread for every song that's played, which is very easy to waste time on.

Anyway, I heard Slow Hands, by Interpol, the other day, and was immediately caught by the repetitive groove. Since then I've been listening to Thomas's Interpol albums (particularly Antics), and loving the sound: the almost disdainful droning vocals over spare but unrelenting grooves. My new favourite band of the moment :)
And damn me if Carlos Dengler's image doesn't fit that coolly aloof sound. Sure, the guy looks like a poser, but he does look good doing it. Makes me wish I'd learnt to play so I could be a rock star too. Hmm, only four strings, can't be that hard... :P

ACT, Civil Unions, and the Federal Government

2006-06-15T14:26:00.000+10:00

Ordinarily I refrain from using my blog (as popular as it is :P ) as a political soapbox, but I want to write about this. Last Friday, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) enacted legislation allowing civil unions (as distinct from marriages, and including same-sex partners), and on Tuesday the Federal Government intervened to overturn the law.

It started at the end of last year, when Jon Stanhope, Chief Minister of the ACT, announced the ACT government's intention of intruducing civil union legislation. The Attorney-General promised that the Federal Government would intervene unless the bill was ammended. The ACT government did so, and passed the bill on 11th May this year. However, on 6th June the Attorney-General and John Howard confirmed that they would move against the legislation. On 9th June the legislation came into effect, and on 13th June the Governor-General, at the instruction of the Federal Executive Council, overturned the ACT's legislation.
Today, the Federal Opposition joined with minor parties, and Liberal Senator Gary Humphries even crossed the floor, to challenge the Federal Government... but their motion ultimately failed.

From a moral standpoint, I am of course disappointed with my country's Federal Government. It's disgusting that same-sex marriages were legally banned in the first place, in 2004. It's one thing to move conservatively. It's another thing to move backwards.

From a political standpoint, I am even more frustrated. The Federal Government claims that it overturns the ACT's legislation because the ACT overstepped its legislative boundaries.
However, the Attorney General said "We have decided to defend the fundamental institution of marriage," and John Howard said "There is a special place in Australian society for the institution of marriage" and that he did not intend to let it "to be in any way undermined". Nevermind that the overturned legislation is concerned only with these newly introduced civil unions, not marriages.

That sounds a lot like morals, not politics, to me. I have to wonder whether the Federal Government would have intervened if the ACT's civil unions did not include same-sex partners. As Jon Stanhope said, "one has to pose the question is whether or not the real reason is that there is no place in John Howard's Australia for homosexuals."

Synergy

2006-06-08T18:06:00.000+10:00

I knocked together this motivational poster to help explain the correct meaning of synergy, since apparently our new Dean doesn't get it :D

I seem to have a habit of copying Thom's blog posts lately...

Sonnet for Lei'ella

2006-06-06T19:12:00.001+10:00

This I only just wrote. I decided to try my hand at a more serious sonnet, that stands on its own a bit better than the Ballad of Berard. My concern is that, as a serious attempt, it falls into melodrama. I think you have to be a lot cleverer than I am to avoid that trap. Ah well.

---

A quiet pall descends upon the page
As Varden holds Lei'ella centre-stage

---

Sonnet for Lei'ella

I watch your sanguine lips with shining eyes
And in my mind caresses trace their shape
But soft perfection cruelly belies
That through those parted lips your breath escapes

Your calluses are cool against my palm;
The hand that held the dagger now holds mine
I softly stroke your skin with outward calm
As finally our fingers intertwine

And though I hold you close with all my might -
Our bodies breast to breast and cheek to cheek
Our hearts together just for this one night -
I choke and cannot find the words to speak

Your breathing stills, your hand falls to the floor
And I can't feel your heartbeat anymore.

Ballad of Berard

2006-06-06T19:03:00.001+10:00

This is a parody that you probably wouldn't get without reading Inverloch.

The following is all in iambic tetrametre. Not a proper ballad, but I didn't know that when I started.
Indent = leading non-stressed syllable omitted; ~ = extended syllable; - = two syllables in the space of one.

---

I offer some frivolity,
Hilarity: commence!
At my ingenuity
... Or at my expense!

---

Ballad of Berard

Once a mighty warrior,
Such strength and grace ne'er seen before
Quick of wit and learn'd of lore
And nonpareil a paramour

They say he came from Aydensfell
Where blood of Man once mixed with Elf
And now the sorcerous mages dwell
But Berard bid it all farewell

Berard! Berard! Lift your blade!
Crush your foe and take yon maid
Your brilliance warms us like the day
Your shadow leaves us in the shade!

He roamed the land on faithful steed
But no white prancing horse had he
Yet all who saw him were agreed
His ass was very fine indeed

His clothes conferred unfettered ease
His tartan kilt above the knee
When questioned did he mind the breeze:
"I like to leave my weapon free."

Our hero came to Stra~thwood
And fought for all 'twas right and good
But-a maiden veiled by cloak and hood
Did fill his thoughts as naught else could

Berard! Berard! Lift your blade!
Crush your foe and take yon maid
Your brilliance warms us like the day
Your shadow leaves us in the shade!

He courted her with gifts sublime
Swore "One day, Lei, I'll make you mine!"
But cruelly she his suit declined
Heartbroken, Berard turned to crime

Until he found her once again
With-another man, and so, insane
They fought clouded by loss and pain
And thus was mighty Berard slain

Berard! Berard! Rest your blade!
Rest e'ermore in wooded glade
Your brilliance warmed us like the day
Your memory leaves us in the shade!

Once a mighty warrior,
Such strength and grace ne'er seen before
Quick of wit and learn'd of lore
And nonpareil a paramour

Inverloch

2006-06-06T18:55:00.000+10:00

Like Thomas, I thought I'd celebrate the release of Sarah's Inverloch. Of course, I think everyone who reads this blog already knows about it, but I reckon it's worth posting anyway. It's for sale in major bookstores like Barnes & Nobel and Borders, online from Amazon (where it was ranked 5000-something-th'd at one point!), and even in some Australian comic-book stores (not here in Rockhampton, sadly).

Anyway, I decided to post to my blog a couple of poems I'd written in the Seraph-Inn forum. I think they're decent, though it's hard to get objective opinions from that forum :P

Motorcycling - The accident

2006-05-28T22:03:00.000+10:00

Well, I've had my first (and only, I hope ;) ) motorcycle accident, but it's not very dramatic.
Yesterday, I had fun rolling the bike up and down the driveway, just practicing finding friction point with the clutch and throttle. This morning Brett was going to take me to a vacant carpark and give me my first proper lesson, but before he arrived I decided to putter around the block a few times to get a feel for throttle control and balance. So I got suited up in all my safety gear, wheeled the bike down the driveway, and off I went.
Now, I must stress that I was very cautious. I stayed in first gear, went slowly, pulled over and waited the couple of times a car approached from behind, and even made a point of going counter-clockwise so it was all left-turns. And that all went fine. Balance and steering was easy, and although my throttle control was a bit jerky, I had it fairly smooth fairly soon.
It was the driveway at the very end that was my (quite literal) downfall. I was going too slowly to roll the bike up onto the driveway, and I approached from too shallow an angle. When the front tyre hit the lip of the driveway at that angle and speed, it turned back out towards the road, overbalancing the bike towards the driveway. I tried to hold the bike up but it was too heavy and my footing too awkward. The best I could do was let it down slowly and gently, resulting in some scratches on the rearview mirror and engine. *sniffle*
So I picked it back up, tried to roll it onto the driveway, and found out the wheels wouldn't turn because it was still in gear. Problem was, I couldn't figure out how to get it into neutral again! So all I could do was sit there helplessly until Brett got there, which thankfully wasn't long, and thankfully I think he forgot to take any photos :D
Now, I don't think I made any bad mistakes - just something small that I'll learn from. I'm not upset about that. The thing that really frustrates me is that I somehow managed to sprain my wrist while trying to hold the bike up as it inexorably toppled over, and I couldn't have my lesson with Brett after all!
And it hurts to move my wrist and I'm having to type this one-handed. And it's my left wrist and I'm left-handed. And all this just after my foot finally healed! Grrr!
Ah well, all I can do is be patient and make sure the wrist heals. I remember I've injured this wrist a few years back, too, so I'll have to be careful.

Motorcycling - The gear

2006-05-26T14:25:00.000+10:00

I'm all set now! I have the gear and I have the bike. Now I just need to learn to ride it :D

Yesterday I bought all my protective gear:

Helmet - plain white. A study in Auckland showed that motorcyclists with white helmets instead of black were 24% less likely to be involved in a multi-vehicle crash. I don't know why people rag on white anyway, I reckon it looks fine, and I can pretend to be a storm trooper :D
Jacket - synthetic mesh for summer, with 2 additional removable layers for winter and rain. Unfortunately the only colour was black, but at least it has a silvery retroreflective layer built into it.
Pants - kevlar reinforced jeans. No additional padding, but light enough to wear out and about. Interesting fact: normal denim jeans last 0.6 seconds sliding along the road.
Gloves - lightweight vented leather, additional layers under palms and padding over knuckles.
Boots - leather & synthetic motorcycle boots. Not that comfortable to walk around in, but should do their job.

Everything but the helmet I was able to get from Fairways Motorcycles, which is coincidentally where one of Sarah's relatives works. Even before I bumped into him there, though, I got excellent service. Much much better than Wurths, where I bought the helmet from a pushy, obnoxious woman. It's really hard to find white helmets though...

I had fun dressing up in it all last night :)

And today Brett and I went around to pick up the bike. It's mine! I can't wait to start riding now :D

Motorcycling - The bike

2006-05-24T15:41:00.000+10:00

I'm about to buy a motorcycle!
For a long time, but particularly since I saw The Motorcycle Diaries, I've wanted to learn to ride a motorcycle. I kept on saying I would one day, but never quite got around to it. Well, I'm not sure what finally galvanised me, but about a week ago I got a learner's licence and started looking for bikes. I did heaps of research on the web and trawled through adverts. Here's what I've settled on: a Yamaha FZX250 Zeal.

The used bike market in Rockhampton is... sparse. There's almost nothing suitable for me, and by late last week I was resigned to buying a particular bike from the Sunshine Coast and having it transported up here to me. I tell you truly, I'd gotten quotes and I was just about to buy the Sunshine Coast bike when I had a final glance through the classifieds. I happened to notice a bike in "Park Avenue", which I must have previously assumed was a suburb around Brisbane. This time I thought, "Hold on, isn't that a suburb in Rockhampton?"
Sure enough it was, and it was almost exactly the sort of bike I was looking for! I was obviously meant to have this bike. Brett and I went to check it out today. Nice things about it:

250cc - more or less a requirement for learning, but the 4 cylinder engine should have enough power to be fun.
Lightweight, low seat height, nimble - also good for learning.
Naked - that is, no plastic fairings. Naked bikes are cheaper to insure and repair. Also, naked = sexy.
Excellent condition, with low km's (14,200).
Will hold its resale value well.

The only drawback is that it's an inline-4 engine. I would have preferred a v-twin, which produces torque at lower revs and would likely suit me better (and be cheaper to maintain). Still, that wasn't a deal-breaker, and the inline-4 should have sportier performance which may be fun :)

So now I just wait for the owner to get a safety certificate for the bike, which is required by law. In the mean time, I get to look for safety gear. I want high visibility gear that still looks stylish. That may be a bit of a challenge in a market that appears to think nothing goes better with black than more black...

I'm so excited! :D

Recycling

2006-05-07T18:36:00.000+10:00

I like Penn & Teller's "Bullshit!" show - for the most part it's either entertaining or informative, and often both.
There was one episode that I found very surprising, as far as it went. In it, Penn & Teller argued that recycling wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and in many cases waste was better off going into landfill. Their arguments came from several directions, and the two that are relevant here are:
* The process of recycling involves chemicals that are damaging to the environment.
* Recycling is heavily subsidised by government: it is not economical to recycle anything except aluminium, so that money would be better put towards other (say, environmental) uses.

Anyway, while I was in New Zealand I had a chance to talk to my Uncle Robbie, who works as an accountant for Terranova, a private recycling company in Christchurch.
At least in Christchurch, it is economical to recycle all the household materials they collect - paper, plastic, glass, metals. The metals are the most profitable, but they make some profit on them all. In fact, the company is moving to become entirely independent of the local council - there's enough profit to make recycling worthwhile without any subsidies.
According to Robbie, it requires the right infrastructure. If it's done the wrong way - if brown glass contaminates green, for example - the materials become worthless. Apparently Christchurch has the right infrastructure, one of the best in the world. Robbie sounded very proud of his work with Terranova, and rightly so I think. It was very heartening to hear.

That still leaves Penn & Teller's claim that recycling produces chemical wastes that are damaging to the environment, but on the balance of things I think I disagree with them: recycling is a good thing.

Photos from New Zealand

2006-05-03T01:33:00.000+10:00

I'm back from New Zealand now, and it's time to get back to work. But first, I've put together some photos from my trip. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this must be a novel.

So, without further ado:

New Zealand Road Trip
Wedding
Family

Nick in New Zealand

2006-04-26T19:38:00.000+10:00

I'm writing this from Hanmer Springs, about 2 hours north-west of Christchurch, in a really nice little backpacker's lodge. There's a coin-operated computer in the lounge, warmed by a lovely wood fire. It's a bit chilly out, but not too bad. Just cold enough to appreciate coming in to the fire.

I missed the tilt train from Bundaberg to Brisbane, because I thought I'd booked tickets on a service that didn't actually exist. So Michelle and I caught a coach down overnight, which was awful, but at least we got there in time for the flight out. The rest of the trip was easy, and I arrived in Christchurch to meet the assembled Young family, a hoard that was somewhat overwhelming at first. I have heaps of young cousins I'd never met before - they're really cool :D
I love this family, and I'm ashamed I haven't kept in contact with them. They're so much like me sometimes it's scary :D

The first few days, until today, Wednesday, have been one family event after another. Everyone was here for the wedding on Saturday, which was really nice, and slowly left over the next few days. This morning, two of my cousins and I took off in a rental car for a little road trip.
Things have actually worked out incredibly conveniently. One of my uncles had won a 2-day car rental as a prize in a golf tournament (this family loves sports) and, having no use for it himself, offered it to me. As it turns out, the rental is a gigantic 4WD, fully insured (which would kill me as an under 25 driver otherwise), petrol paid for, and not due back until Friday at 5pm.

So we've spent the day in Hanmer Springs, a tiny town famous for its hot springs warmed by geothermal vents. After a fish & chips lunch, the girls soaked in the springs (without me thanks to my still healing foot), whilst I took the 4WD up a winding one-lane gravel road up the mountainside. I got some nice photos from that, I trust. The rest of the evening has been spent over a leisurely dinner and relaxing in the lounge here. (I've never stayed at a backpacker's lodge before, but I always imagined a sort of run-down, roudy place. This is clean and quiet, but very welcoming, it's great.)
Tomorrow we'll head north-east back to the coast, to spend the day in Kaikoura, where there are whales and seals and stuff. Should be cool. Before that though, we'll stop at the bridge over the ravine leading into Hanmer Springs, and I'll try bungee jumping. That's the plan. I trust my courage will hold - at any rate, now I've posted this I'll have to if I'm to keep any pride :)
We'll head back to Christchurch Thursday night, and on Friday - the last day of the rental - I'll probably go south-east in the oposite direction to Akaroa.

Doctor's Orders

2006-04-10T15:36:00.000+10:00

Brett sent me a newspaper clipping. I don't know where it's from, so I can't credit it properly, but here's the text:

An eyeful a day keeps the doctor away
By JONATHAN HAYTER
Staring at women's breasts is good for men's health and makes them live longer, a new survey reveals. Researchers have discovered that a 10-minute ogle at women's breasts is as healthy as half-an-hour in the gym.
A five year study of 200 men found that those who enjoyed a longing look at busty beauties had lower blood pressure, less heart disease and slower pulse rates compared to those who did not get their daily eyeful.
Dr Karen Weatherby, who carried out the German study, wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine:
"Just 10 minutes of staring at the charms of a well endowed female is roughly equivalent to a 30-minute aerobics workout. Sexual excitement gets the heart pumping and improves blood circulation. There is no question that gazing at breasts makes men healthier. Our study indicates that engaging in this activity a few minutes daily cuts the risk of a stroke and heart attack in half. We believe that by doing so consistently, the average man can extend his life four to five years."

Now, I was intrigued by this - from a health point of view, of course! - and I did some simple calculations.
The good doctor suggests that consistent "exercise" could extend the average man's life by 5 years. Let's assume that "consistent" means daily 10-minute sessions (as performed in the study) from the age of 20 to 80 - for 60 years.

5 years is:
5 * 365 * 24 * 60 = 2628000 minutes.

"Consistent" exercise is:
60 * 365 * 10 = 219000 minutes.

2628000/219000 = 12

So, by my calculations, every 1 minute spent looking at boobs adds 12 minutes to your lifespan! *sigh* The things one has to do for one's health...

White Day

2006-03-14T17:46:00.000+10:00

I recently learned about White Day. I guess it's even more of a commercial creation than Valentine's Day is now, but all the same I reckon it's a good idea. The more chocolate, the better say I!
Apparently in Japan, it's customary for women to give men chocolates on Valentine's Day, rather than the other way around as it is here. That in itself is an excellent way of doing things, in my humble opinion :D Anyway, then White Day is one month later on 14th of March, where men give chocolates back to women.
We did it backwards (which I guess only makes sense, being on the other side of the world): I gave chocolates to Sarah on Valentine's Day, and Sarah gave me chocolates today! These should see me through to Easter, with care. :D

Holy Crap! Lions!

2006-02-27T14:43:00.000+10:00

Alright, Tanya's my best mate now, because she gave me a Holy Crap! Lions! lion (well, a small lion plush toy, anyway). I'm not sure what to call him. I'm trying to decide if "Holy Crap!" is a dignified name for so noble a creature...

New Camera

2006-02-27T14:00:00.000+10:00

Brett's my best mate, because he's bringing me back a new camera from the US. I'm envious of the low prices and fast shipping Yankees get!

I'd been trying to decide between the Fuji S5200 and Panasonic FZ7, both compact long-zoom cameras. I'd been waiting on reviews for the new FZ7 before I chose, but when they came in I decided to go with the S5200. There are tradeoffs between the two that, in my opinion, make both cameras equally good choices.

The FZ7 has 6 megapixels over the S5200's 5 megapixels, but actual resolution tests put them pretty much on par with one another.
The FZ7 has 12x zoom over the S5200's 10x zoom. That would have been nice to have.
The FZ7 has optical image stabilisation (OIS), which would be very nice to have, especially for handheld zoomed shots.

The S5200 has better noise control than the FZ7. For a given amount of noise you can use one higher ISO sensitivity rating, thereby doubling shutter speed and somewhat mitigating the need for OIS. OIS still has the advantage in coping with camera shake though.
In my opinion, the noise that is present is nicer on the S5200 than the FZ7. The FZ7 appears to have more colour noise (pixels are the wrong colour), which gives a splotchy image (though it can look attractive, like it's painted). The S5200 appears to have more luminance noise (pixels are the wrong brightness), which looks more like traditional film grain. Personally I prefer the latter.
The S5200 has a fixed lens barrel with 55mm threading on it for conversion lenses and filters. That could be fun to play with.

In the end, the most deciding factor was that I could get the S5200 for $100 cheaper. I figure, I'll get this camera on the cheap, and if I really want then in future I can put that money towards a proper digital SLR.

Now I can't wait for Brett to get back! Uh, cause he's me mate and we miss him and stuff! :P

J.C. is coming!

2005-12-07T16:49:00.000+10:00

Jorge Cham, author of www.phdcomics.com is coming to Central Queensland University to give his talk! I don't know how this miraculous event has come about, but I think it may well be the greatest thing CQU has ever done for its students :D

He's talking on 10th February, and I think anyone connected with the University could probably reasonably come. No harm in registering, at http://learning.cqu.edu.au/showcase2006/register.htm
Go go go!

Edit: Nooo..!

"The ‘Surprise Mystery Guest’ is:

Professor Richard Johnstone
Foundation Executive Director of the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

Please Note: The presentation by Jorge Cham has been cancelled."

Nick in Vienna 3

2005-12-03T06:15:00.000+10:00

I'm writing this from the British Airways lounge in London. Russel got me in. It's a nice place to spend a few hours waiting for our flight to Singapore.

All in all in Vienna, I got to see two palaces, a Mozart & Strauss concert (at one of the palaces), the Spanish Riding School, the Art Historical Museum, 4 spectacular churches, the catacombs under Stephansplatz, the river Danube, the Vienna International City, and the christmas markets.

There's just too much to do justice here; suffice to say that some highlights were:
Listening to a busker playing violin inside a huge vaulted stone chamber in the palace. The strains from that one violin filled and reverberated through the room and spilled out into the night.
Wandering through the Christmas Markets of Rathausplatz at night, with snow gently drifting down and the frosted clock-tower presiding over the park. It was damn cold, but it felt fantistically christmasy.
Browsing the Kunsthistorichesmuseum (Art Historical Museum; they apparently don't believe in spaces in German) collection of paintings, particularly their special collection of Goya. The Greek and Roman Antiquities were also fascinating.
Exploring the catacombs beneath St. Stephans and Stephansplazt. Here were the sarcophagi of bishops and dukes in ornately carved chambers, and the mass graves of victims of the Black Death in crudely hewn pits. There was one room where the bones of old bodies had been moved from their burial place and meticulously stacked by prisoners, floor to ceiling, like bricks. There were quite literally walls of bone packed solidly together, with the odd skull peering out from between ribs and thighs.

Some general observations:
People just love dogs in Vienna. There are fenced parks throughout the city where your dog can run around unleashed. Dogs are allowed to travel on the underground train system (they even have to pay a child's fare!). They sell dog food in pharmacies. Upscale shops and cafes feel the need to put explicit "no dogs" signs on their doors; one can only infer that dogs are welcome in other shops.
People are very friendly and helpful, and it was generally easy to get around speaking only English, even when no-one else did. And usually, in tricky situations, there would be some helpful person who would step in and translate. When we were standing helplessly around a ticket machine for the Underground, an old lady came up to us and tried to help. She couldn't, really, but she tried very hard.
People are very beautiful in Austria. Of course, it's hard to say given all the layers of clothing people wear, but it was very rare to see anyone who looked overweight, even rugged up against the chill.
The Underground train network was exceedingly easy to use, once we bought a week-long ticket each. We could get anywhere in the city easily and quickly.
People seem to be quite relaxed about toilets. In one case, the male and female toilets in the underground were connected by an open room in which some women were sitting around having a coffee and a smoke, out of the cold. While I admire such openness, I really don't understand why anyone would want coffee and a smoke in between two toilets :
Smoking is still very common in Vienna, and accepted in most places. There are areas reserved for non-smokers, rather than the other way around. It didn't bother me too much though.
There's this drink and tradition in one, called "punsch". The drink is a mixture of red wine, spices, and spirits, warmed and drunk from mugs like coffee. In all the malls there are punsch stands, usually with a covered area in front of them and bar-style tables. People congregate around here in the chill of night, drinking and socialising. I tried some. I think it must be an acquired taste.

Time for me to board my flight to Singapore. I wish I could have stayed in Vienna longer, but nevertheless I'm glad to be heading home. I'm looking forward to just sleeping for a day.

Nick in Vienna 2

2005-12-01T06:26:00.000+10:00

The conference is over, it's about 11pm, and I'm exhausted. Admittedly, that's as much from sightseeing today as conferring yesterday and Monday, but the point stands: I'm blogging instead of sleeping.

On the first afternoon that I was here, before my luggage arrived, I went out with Russel and his friend Rahul to find a palace. At first this sounded like an extraordinary proposition, and in the end we didn't find the palace, but that was only because we walked off in exactly the wrong direction. In actuality, what's almost as extraordinary as taking a stroll to see a palace is the fact that we didn't see a palace. You can hardly throw a stone in Vienna without hitting either a palace or a cathedral or other monument of some appropriate magnificence.
Nevertheless, we didn't find our palace, but we did happen upon Mariahilferstraße (check my German skills!), one of the main shopping districts. I took the opportunity to buy a good warm jacket. Actually, what I'd really like is one of those long slim black wool overcoats since I reckon they look incredibly stylin', but I can't justify the cost :( (As it is, I'm making do without gloves or hat, since I wouldn't use either in Rockhampton. I should have just bought some the first day though, my hands and ears have never been so cold!)

On Sunday, I visited a couple of markets (the stalls all blended into a homogenous blur after a little while) at which I discovered the joy of warm roast chestnuts huddled under the dubious shelter of a stall with snow falling all around. This was the first time I'd been in falling snow, and I wandered around in delighted fascination.
The architecture of Vienna is amazing. Around every corner is a building more breath-taking than the last. Shops compete with one another for grandeur, but pale in comparison to the spectacular public works of ages gone by. The view of the gothic steeples of a church soaring over a park's snow-dusted treetops is like something out of a fairytale.
Ruhul, Xin, and I found the palace we'd looked for the previous day. The Schöenbrunn Palace was (most recently) the summer home of Emperor Franz Joseph, who died there in 1916. Since then it's become a heritage building and is open to the public. We explored the palace itself, which housed the furniture and items used by the imperial family, and the grounds around it. I've decided I want a palace, myself.

For the next couple of days, with one exception, I was flat out attending, facilitating, and presenting at the conference. With all due respect to the amount of work put in by everone, the conference was a bit of a mess. I spent most of Monday sorting out computer problems in between making sure rooms were opened and closed (and locked). Tuesday was blessedly smoother, but I had my presentation to worry about that day.
The exception was Tuesday night, the night of the conference dinner. I had requested funding to go to the conference dinner (€45, $70AUD, yikes : ), expecting not to enjoy it that much but knowing I should make the effort to make contacts and be a good researcher. I was expecting something similar to every other conference dinner I'd been to: big banquet hall, round tables with crisp white tablecloths, polished silverware, and sparkling glass. You know how it is. An evening of dull speeches and polite conversation.
When at first we pulled up in front of a massive sandstone building, I was impressed if still resigned. When we filed into a small door in the side of the building, up a winding flight of stairs, and into a low, cramped, tavern, I was surprised and disappointed. The food was help-yourself country style fare. The tavern benches were awkwardly cramped. I paid how much for this? But my initial misgivings were misplaced. This small tavern with no windows, a low arched ceiling and walls made from rough stone blocks blackened with age hosted the absolute best "formal" dinner I've ever been to.
I think the unlimited bar tab helped :D There was singing, and a fellow playing an accordian all night, and dancing from waltz to tango to greek and cossack line dancing, toasts in a dozen different languages. It was noisy, raucous, and great fun. An older bloke from Australia and I taught an impromptu choir "Waltzing Matilda" and performed for the guests of honour. Other delegates from other countries sang their own songs. I became an honourary Iranian for the purposes of singing... er, I can't quite remember what I was singing. But it was good.

I should stop writing now to make sure I can pay for the internet cost with the change I have left. I need to get some more money tomorrow morning...

Best regards,
Nick.

Nick in Vienna 1

2005-11-29T04:55:00.000+10:00

I'm in Vienna!
I'm writing this from an internet cafe down a few streets from the hotel, because internet access is disappointing. Posts will be sporadic at best. There's no free internet access in the hotel, there's no ethernet at all, but there's dialup if you feel like having your room charge bankrupt you, and there's wireless access in the lobby if you have a wireless laptop and a credit card to pay.
Anyway, I'm sitting here in an internet cafe, fighting the European keyboard. I'm all for rich European cultural diversity, but damn they have a lot of weird characters, and old familiars are shunted off to odd places. The @ symbol is a subscript of Q, and I had to ask the guy at the desk how to press it. It took some embarrassing amount of conversation in broken English to explain that all I wanted to do was press the darn key :D
Let me go back to the beginning.
Sarah saw me off at the airport Friday morning, and my check in and flight to Brisbane was pleasantly uneventful. I was even able to check my suitcase all the way to Vienna from Rockhampton. Just goes to show that if it seems to good to be true, it probably is. I dressed in comfort for the flight - tshirt and shorts.
And surprisingly, the entire journey was quite comfortable. Fortune favoured a couple of acts of simple generosity. On the Brisbane-Singapore flight, I offered to change my aisle seat for a middle seat a few rows back so that a mother and daughter could sit together. Shortly into the flight, the two irratable old women next to me demanded better seats from the stewardess, which they got after enough insistent pressing. That left four seats between me and the nice New Guinean lady to the other side of me. Score one! Next, on the British Airways flight from Singapore to London, I pulled the same stunt, allowing a young star-cross'd couple to sit together. The stewardess took a liking to me for the rest of the trip, and I stepped off the plane in London with a free bottle of wine :D
But that was where my good luck began to run out. First of all, I hadn't counted on having to step out of airconditioning until I had my baggage back, so it was a small shock to have to step out into the literally freezing air over the tarmac in London, and it was with slowly rising dread that I watched the baggage carousel in Vienna slow and grind to a halt without my suitcase appearing. I got my baggage several hours later, that evening, after I had braved -2 winds first in shorts and tshirt (pick the tourist...) and later in borrowed trackpants and pullover.
And so it was that I arrived, slightly cold and slightly tired, but otherwise well in Vienna. I shall continue the tale later, for Xin is waiting for me to finish so we can have dinner.
Hope all is well in Rockhampton!
Nick.

Go Noob

2005-11-23T12:01:00.000+10:00

Melanie and I tried playing Go again on Monday night. It's fun learning a new game - especially since both of us are noobs. It's fun trying to guess what might work and what won't.
Sure, there are lots of Go resources on the web, and one day I'll probably read them, but for now I think it's more satisfying trying to discover ideas on my own. Last game we only just began to come up with some ways of thinking about Go.
Melanie is good at multitasking. For example, picking moves that furthered multiple aims at once - killing two birds with one stone. She would place a stone that would both strengthen a structure under threat and block my expansion. She was also good at abandoning her structures when appropriate and moving her efforts elsewhere, whereas I would stubbornly pursue one objective at a time.
Melanie often surprised me by reacting agressively to threats to her stones, when I had just assumed that she would react defensively (which is what I would have done). Rather than strengthening one of her structures, she would leave it endangered and threaten my stones instead, forcing me to respond to her counter attack. Of course, what she was doing was just as certain to save her structure as trying to escape, because if I continued to pursue her structure, she would simply capture the very stones I was using to capture hers!
For myself, I realised that often you don't need to complete a structure for it to be useful. All you need is the capability to complete it regardless of what your opponent does. You gain some moves by not having to explicitly fill in the empty spaces. The caveat is that your opponent has a way of forcing you to make those moves at a time of her choosing, which she can then plan.
In the end, we discovered some "invincible structures" that can never be captured. These are single structures that enclose two or more empty spaces. The empty spaces provide liberties that can never be taken away from the invincible structure, ensuring its survival even in the face of complete encirclement. The smallest invincible structures we found were two 11-stone structures (and multiple isomorphs of those two).

It's fun being a noob. I think we forget that too often :)

Movies and Music

2005-11-16T17:15:00.000+10:00

I've been making a point of watching some movies lately. Still not many, but more than usual for me :)

I picked out Dear Frankie because it sounded quaint, and Young Adam because it starred Ewan McGregor. Coincidentally both movies were set around Glasgow, and both movies also starred Emily Mortimer, an actress I hadn't heard of before but who I thought was captivatingly good. I really liked both movies.

I finally saw War of the Worlds with Sarah. For a big-budget Hollywood movie it showed remarkable restraint from heroics (except for the grenade scene, but even that was good) and I thought it was very well done. I hated the sickeningly sentimental reappearance of the presumed-dead son, Robbie, at the very end, but I just pretend that scene didn't happen :D

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a brilliant movie. I love it. I think Jim Carrey does great dramatic work, like this and The Majestic. But ESotSM, in particular, was excellent - great idea, great storytelling, great acting, and great music. As an aside, the main character, Joel, actually reminded me a lot of Damien.

Also loved Secretary. It's such an incongruously charming love story amongst the BDSM trappings. On the strength of the final song, Chariots Rising by Lizzie West, I've ordered the soundtrack. Apparently it's no longer actively released, and only a few copies are available second-hand from Amazon or eBay. There's nothing at all in Australia... but I found a record company specialising in rare imports and second-hand music, based in Sydney. They're bringing it in for me, from somewhere.
I'm a sucker for this sort of thing. I hate the idea that any music (well, any music that I like) could be lost, forgotten in someone's attic or broken and irrepairable. There's so much good stuff out there, I wish I could keep it safely archived for all eternity.

Gave in and bought House of Flying Daggers for the same reason :p

Going to Vienna

2005-11-16T16:56:00.000+10:00

My paper for Vienna was accepted, I made the suggested revisions (well, most of them), and sorted out travel arrangements. That's the boring stuff. I'm far more excited to be going to a foreign, non-English-speaking country! I leave on the 25th... it's only a week and a bit away!

The only other country I've ever been to is New Zealand, which doesn't really count as an exotic culture. I'm very much looking forward to exploring this old European city, complete with palace! Amazingly, I get almost an entire weekend to myself before the conference starts. People keep saying it's a shame I can't stay longer (hmm... maybe they're just happy to see me go :p ) but seriously I'm not complaining. I get more time than I expected!

The only thing that concerns me a tinsy bit is my lack of winter clothing, but since I'm staying at the same hotel as the conference I'm not terribly worried. I just need enough warm clothing for my forays out into the city!

2006 is Mozart Year, his 250th anniversary, but it seems the city is getting into it early. Our first conference venue was abandoned because they double booked us with nightly Mozart concerts. Or perhaps he simply never goes out of style in Vienna. I also believe that there are performances every night at the opera house. It seems certain that there will be no lack of cultural events and attractions!
This should also be a great opportunity to pick up some christmas presents...

The Month in Review

2005-09-28T11:19:00.000+10:00

Stuff that's happened:

Saw The Acrobatic Troupe of Imperial China in Bundaberg. Awesome performance; I love marvelling at the phycical feats humans can do.

An old friend from Sydney, Morgan, came through Rockhampton to round off his backpacking odyssey up and down the coast of Queensland. Did fun stuff together - climbed the rocky headlands around Roslyn Bay; paddled surf-skis at the causeway lake; and Morgan taught me how to juggle (sort of - still working on it)!

Went to Thomas's wedding. Got lost trying to find the chapel at Ridges Resort, which was rather embarrassing. We arrived just in time to wish the couple well as they left. The reception afterwards was good :)
Made Thomas a ball-and-chain for when he got back from his Honeymoon.

Arranged to go to Vienna for a conference at the end of November. Still working to get the paper done.

Sarah and I had our birthdays, but I haven't been able to put the effort into celebrating that I would have liked to. I wish you could schedule birthdays for times when you can appreciate them! Received some good loot, though :D

Michelle sent me up a couple of CDs to listen to, one of which is Amici Forever - Defined. I really love it. It's a group of five classically trained singers performing pop-influenced opera. I highly recommend checking out the samples if your curiosity is at all piqued!

Took Sarah to see the opera Carmen at the theatre last night. It wasn't quite what I expected; it was sung in English and the presentation was humble (though I should have expected that from a travelling show). Nevertheless, the performance itself was thoroughly enjoyable and made a great night out!

Wala

2005-08-22T12:01:00.000+10:00

As a surprise, I took mum (and Carey and Michelle) to see Wala, a traditional African dance and music group. Their performance was great fun. It was a mix of music - mostly percussion - singing, and dance. The whole performance was unflaggingly energetic and the artists' stamina was amazing. And they were obviously having a great time performing, themselves.

The coolest instrument was the aslato, or kashakas. Each aslato is a pair of wooden balls connected by a short string, which are filled with something (grain?) that rattles when shaken. So they make a rasping noise when shaken and a clacking noise when the balls collide. The guy who played them - one pair in each hand! - spun them around his hands and fingers in intricate patterns that you'd miss if you blinked for an instant, all the while singing and dancing. Very cool stuff.

If you're rich and idle, they run a workshop-resort in Ghana where you live in the group's community and learn drumming and dancing and stuff. It'd be fun to be able to go to something like that!

Nick's Public Interface, a Service to the Community

2005-08-11T14:59:00.000+10:00

A couple of weeks back there was a new face at Kendo. I introduced myself, and he asked "Oh, are you Brett's mate?" Afterwards, I enquired how he knew that. It turns out, by coincidence, that he was searching for "kendo" and "Rockhampton" in google, came up with my blog, saw that I played Selbunster on World of Warcraft, thought "hmm... that's familiar", and asked his friend Trevor where he knew the name from. The guy was Tony, aka Dhaosneth, a friend of Trevor who's a friend of Brett. So I thought it was pretty cool that someone had come to Kendo through my blog, and we happened to know each other online!

Now just today I've had an anonymous comment left on my blog, on a post I made earlier this year about sunglasses, saying that they'd been searching for Zenith sunglasses and came across my post, and wanted to know where one can buy Zenith sunglasses.

Now the curious thing is, I can't find my blog on google if I try to (yes, I give it a try now and then; I'm vain remember? :p ), and here are two people recently who have come across it by accident.

So, to the person who left a comment, my answer is: I can't find info online either, but they're a popular brand (in Australia), and you should be able to find them in any sunglasses store such as Bright Eyes.

And... can you tell me what search terms you used to find my blog so I can as well? :D :p

Nick is... vain? :p

2005-08-08T11:10:00.000+10:00

From Melanie's blog:
Google "[your name] is", with quotes. Share the results!

Oooh Nick is coming to town!
Nick is one in a million!
Nick is knowledgeable and conversant.
Nick is not One Of Us. Nick is one of the Good Aliens from that planet where everybody has style and grace.
Nick is God! Nick is God!
Nick is disgusted by the moral decay that he witnesses.
Nick is a fearless and independent voice.
Nick is always calm, cool, and collected.
Nick is the greatest person I have ever met.
and finally
Nick is really stupid.
Nick is arrogant as well.
:p

Soccer Referee Nick

2005-08-07T19:13:00.000+10:00

I just refereed at the Central Queensland Junior Robotics Competition. Was lots of fun. I got to referee about 4 games I think, including the second last match. Jason naturally took the grand final for himself :p He does a great job though!

I tried to follow the advice of being as much a commentator as a referee, and I think it's a good idea. People are much less likely to take issue with your decisions if you explain why you're making them as you go. And they'll learn more from their mistakes.

It was a bit chaotic at times with half the teams arriving late (blown bus tyre on the way from Mackay), but once things got underway it was very exciting. I wish they did this when I was in high school!

The only sad point in the entire day was that Sarah, Official Guardian of the Yowies, didn't get to keep the yowies after the competition. :'(

Savings

2005-08-05T10:52:00.000+10:00

I'm trying to figure out why Westpac's "Max-i Direct personal" savings account is so good. Not that I'm complaining, I just don't understand. Essentially it's a holding place for my money that attracts a high interest rate and has no fees, and the only way to interact with it is to move money to or from it using online banking. That's only a small hassle though; there's no penalty for moving money back and forth as many times as you like.

The thing is, the interest rate is really high! I can't figure out why you'd put your money anywhere else, even a long-term deposit account. Some figures: The interest rate was recently 5.5%, it's just gone down to 5.25%, but it has a guaranteed lower limit of 5.0%
Compare that to the cash management account, which tops out at 4.8% for amounts over $500,000, or term-deposit accounts, which only approach that figure for amounts over $10,000 invested for 2 years!
Interest rates are similar elsewhere, for example ANZ and Commonwealth.

I just can't figure out why even at the same bank you would use anything else, and I can't find anything like this at other banks :S

Disclaimer: No, I am not employed by Westpac :p

Nick's Double Coconut Lamingtons!

2005-07-28T16:11:00.000+10:00

Ok, so I didn't innovate all that much, but I'm proud of using coconut cream in the icing to make them double-coconut (and lactose-free) lamingtons! (and I wanted to name it after myself :p)
I made this batch for Tanya, but let Sarah go down in history as the first person ever to try Nick's Double Coconut Lamingtons!
I reckon they turned out pretty darn delicious for a first effort :D

So, without further ado:

Nick’s Gluten- and Lactose-free Double Coconut Lamingtons

Sponge Cake

4 eggs
1/2 to 3/4 cup caster sugar
1 cup cornflour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp custard powder

Preheat oven to 180C.
Split the egg whites and yolks. Beat whites until stiff, then add yolks and beat until thick and creamy.
Beat in the caster sugar gradually.
Sift the cornflour, baking powder, and custard powder three times, then sift into the egg mixture. Fold through without delay but gently.
Spread the mixture into a baking tin. Pick the tin up and drop it back onto the bench from about 10-20cm a couple of times to get large air bubbles out.
Bake for 30-40 minutes (until a knife comes out clean).
Stand for 5-10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.
Refrigerate overnight before slicing into lamingtons.

While baking the sponge cake will rise lots, but it collapses back down afterwards. Apparently no flour is quite as good as wheat flour at making fluffy cakes. It makes a slightly denser than usual sponge cake, but still delicious and adequate for the task at hand!

Lamington Icing

1/3 cup cocoa
4 cups icing sugar (be careful, icing mix has wheat in it)
1 tbsp butter (or margarine for non-dairy)
2/3 cup coconut cream
2+ cups desiccated coconut

Mix cocoa and icing sugar.
Melt butter in the coconut cream in a pan.
Stir in the cocoa and icing sugar over a low heat.

It's much easier to coat the lamingtons when the chocolate icing is warm. I managed to do a batch before the icing cooled too much.

Lamingtons!

Cut off the crusts to the sponge cake and cut it into squares.
Set out the icing in one bowl, the coconut in another (wide) bowl, and a tray with baking paper to set the lamingtons on. Using two forks, dip a sponge square first in the chocolate icing and turn it to coat it evenly. Then quickly put it into the coconut and turn it over. Finally set it onto the baking paper.
When all are done, refrigerate in an airtight container to set the chocolate icing.

Sin City

2005-07-11T12:14:00.000+10:00

The student association gave out free passes to a preview screening of Sin City! Finally the student association does something for me - albeit those tickets were pretty expensive at $132 a semester :|

I expect this is something of a love-it-or-hate-it movie. I loved it. It was excessively violent, laughably (sometimes almost - but not quite - insultingly) cliche, and the "story" was left unresolved. I think those would be the main complaints people would make, but I think that they're also what makes the movie so good - along with a distinctive comic-book visual style and clever humour that never takes itself too seriously.

I think it's that everything is so extreme - it goes beyond gratuitous and melodramatic to poke fun at itself without outright admiting such - that saves it and makes it work. The violence is so stylised and over the top that you can laugh at it at the same time you wince. The stereotypes are so outrageous and in-your-face (were there any women who weren't supermodel-sculpted dancers or hookers?) that they're not insulting. The story is so full of cliches and the one-liners are so corny that they just feel right at home with everything else.

All these elements go together so compellingly that you're drawn into Sin City's own little cinematic universe, where the usual rules about taste and sensibilities don't apply. (I personally hate big-boobed, immaculately made-up heroines in movies - usually. I thought they were perfect in this movie :p)
In the end, that approach is perfect for presenting Sin City - it's a collection of unrelated stories about people living in a city so harsh and corrupt that you can't judge them by any other standards.

Good movie (Y)

Oh, and the chocolate mud cake was delicious, all the more so for smuggling it in and eating it with my fingers :D

PhD Comics

2005-06-15T14:33:00.001+10:00

As a finally-starting-my-thesis present, Melanie bought me the first two volumes of Piled Higher and Deeper! Not only that, but they're both signed by the author, Jorge Cham. The way Melanie explains it, she had to send a U.S. cheque by mail (you know, paper and envelopes and stuff) to pay for it anyway, so she included a letter asking if Jorge could sign the copies as well. I even got an original drawing of my hero, Mike Slackenerny :D

In an ironic yet probably-not-unexpected twist, I am of course reading my finally-starting-my-thesis present instead of, you know, actually finally starting my thesis :p

It's very scary how dead on these comics are :|

Selbunster's Last Days

2005-06-12T18:06:00.000+10:00

It's done, I've cancelled my World of Warcraft account. Things aren't so drastic though; it'll stay open for as long as Sarah wants to pay the subscription to play.

I saw this on the account management page:

You can use this link to terminate your subscription online. Before you do so, we would love to hear from you by telephone. There are many steps that our representatives can take to address any problems you may be experiencing. Please call us at 1-800-59-BLIZZARD.

Why did I first think of psychological counselling rather than technical support? :p

Coconut Rice

2005-05-17T13:46:00.000+10:00

Just in case anyone wants to make this easy rice variation themselves (Y)

a = 1x cups basmati rice
b = 1x cups coconut milk or cream
c = 0.5x cups water
d = 1x teaspoons salt
e = 1x tablespoons sugar

where x ~= 0.33 (recurring) per person.

If you want fluffy rice, rinse a a couple of times in water to wash away the rice flour.

You can vary the amount of b for a richer or more subtle taste. It doesn't matter whether you use of milk or cream: they're both just coconut + water, and cream just has more coconut than water in it. Just make sure to satisfy the constraint b + c = 1.5x cups of liquid.

Algorithm:
Add a + b + c + d + e to a saucepan and mix.
Bring to boil on high heat, stirring occasionally. Immediately cover and reduce to a gentle simmer.
Leave on low heat for 12 to 15 minutes.
Remove from heat entirely. Leave covered for 15 minutes to sit.

This algorithm returns delicious cocount rice!

Raid on Mt Jim Crow

2005-05-09T11:59:00.000+10:00

We successfully raided Mt Jim Crow on the weekend with no wipes - actually without any deaths at all, though there were some close calls.
The raid was partitioned into to roughly three parties - Tanya and her friend Erin forging ahead along the main path; Nick and Sarah scouting alternate routes; and Brett and Melanie considerately escorting Carey, who was undoubtedly the one holding them up :p

Sarah insisted on proving that humans descended from apes by monkeying around in a tree on the side of a sheer drop. It would have been quite impressive, too, were it not for the it-just-had-to-happen moment:
"Sarah, come down now, you've succeeded in making me nervous," I called up to her in the upper branches of the tree.
"Nick, I've been climing trees all my life," she replied in exasperation, "And I've never fallen out!"
And of course, at that moment she reached out for a slender branch that sheared away from the trunk, and Sarah lurched forward, wrapping her arms around the trunk to save herself from plummeting straight down. She took a scrape along her upper arm, but besides her pride thankfully sustained no further injuries :p

And then of course we must also thank Tanya and Erin who between them, on the descent down the slippery slope, did an outstanding job of identifying the tricky sections :p

Ah, whoever thought nearly falling down a mountain could be so much fun :D

Circus Oz

2005-05-06T10:19:00.000+10:00

Wednesday night, Circus Oz came to town for one night only, and Tanya and I went to see it. Circus Oz (a quick web search tells me) has been around since 1977. It's a world-class, human-only stage performance similar to Cirque du Soleil - but a bit rougher, more down to earth, and funnier.

For their performance here in Rockhampton they used the Pilbeam Theatre, and I was impressed by how well they set up such a dynamic array of acts on such a small stage. I thought for sure there would be times when someone would accidentally tumble off the front of the stage, but no-one ever did :)
Speaking of which, only one acrobat made one misstep through all the performances, and even crashing down from missing a trapeze was covered so smoothly that I was left wondering if it was intentional - the act was certainly all the more amusing for it.

I'm amazed by what humans are capable of doing with their bodies. Over the course of the two hour performance, the different acts awed, inspired, and (sometimes sickly) fascinated. I would so much love to have some of the gear that they play with - especially the cylindrical frame in which a person stands spread-eagled, Da Vinci posed, and rolls effortlessly around the stage. That looks like so much fun :D

It was so much fun, I wish I had of learned of Circus Oz coming to town earlier and had time to invite anyone who wanted to come, but I only found out about it the day before. (The Pilbeam Theatre's online ticketing system works really well, by the by - we got great tickets the night before the performance! :) )

Logic Puzzle

2005-04-27T10:47:00.000+10:00

Here's a puzzle that Zbigniew Michalewicz gave at the Complex Systems 2004 conference in Cairns, though I don't know where he got it from. It was phrased with a lot of redundant information; here's the essential, stripped down version. I think it's quite clever and has an elegant solution (even though I didn't solve it myself :p )

You and a number of other people are seated facing each other in a circle in a plain room, with no prior knowledge of what is about to happen. One person, the host, enters the room, blindfolds everyone seated in the circle, paints a dot of some colour on everyone's forehead, and then removes the blindfolds.
Looking around, you see that multiple colours have been used and that some people, seemingly spaced at random, share the same colour dot as one another.
The host tells you three things:
"You may not communicate in any way the colour of a person's dot."
"I will ring this bell at regular intervals; when I ring the bell, stand up and leave if you know the colour of your dot."
"At some point, you will know the colour of your dot."

The question is, how can you know what colour dot you have?

Hints (in order of revelation - highlight text to read)

It is crucial that everyone knows that the problem is solvable.
There are an infinite number of colours (but assume for the sake of the problem that you can still tell when two people have the same colour :) ).
Can you know what colour you have if you are the only person with that colour?
Goto 1.

Yeah, I think everyone who reads this blog has heard this problem anyway, but I still think it's good :p

Useless doctor quota

2005-04-20T19:50:00.000+10:00

Brett has had some troubles with doctors. I recently had my useless doctor quota filled at a bulk billing medical centre, too.
I wanted to check on what I had previously thought were two calluses on my foot, but that I had come to suspect may be warts. The doctor, a young timid indian woman, was useless beyond confirming that they were plantar warts.
I asked her what she recommended I do; she said that most people would ask to have them surgically removed; I said I didn't care what most people asked for, I wanted to know what a qualified (I use that term lightly) doctor recommended I should do. I said they weren't causing me any discomfit; she said I could leave it be if I wanted. I said I was concerned about spreading them, given that I do kendo; she said she didn't think that was a problem. I said I'd read that they were contagious and as such there was a small chance of spreading them. She didn't answer my question and instead agreed that normal warts were contagious, when obviously I don't care about normal warts, just plantar warts.
I stopped in exasperation, and flat out asked her "what do you think I should do?". Her answer, which was no answer at all, was that I could do what I liked and if I chose to have them removed I had to make an appointment.
Gah, utterly useless, I still don't know what to do. Ordinarily I'm a very easy going person and don't fault someone for being timid at all. But I think that a doctor cannot afford to be that indecisive. It's one thing to not know the answer; that's perfectly fine, admit it and go find out the answer. It's another thing entirely to try to avoid giving one.

What I Learnt Today

2005-04-18T22:41:00.000+10:00

Actually, some cool things I learnt from the first issue of New Scientist that I received the other day:

Don't use any security measure you can't place on the ground and walk away from.
I want a brass water bottle if I go travelling to exotic countries.
Robotic exoskeletons are cool.

Thanks for the subscription mum!

My latest paper

2005-04-15T13:56:00.000+10:00

Here's the latest paper I've written, co-authored with Carey!
It's even about MMORPGs in some way (that I don't understand :p ). Check out the links at the very top to write your own.

Blogging under duress

2005-02-22T22:57:00.000+10:00

I'm being forced to make this blog entry against my will. Melanie insists that it's time for another entry.

I've been educated in CSI whilst a guest at Brett & Melanie's place. I like the original show best, with the Gil Grissom and Greg Sanders characters. I just saw the first episode of the CSI: New York. I didn't think so highly of it. I was more interested in the secondary storyline, which doesn't say much for the show.

I've also been watching episodes of Numb3rs as well, which is an interesting twist on the crime investigation genre - all the cases are solved using mathematics! It's a bit corny sometimes, but good watching nonetheless :)

Melanie has just walked past and patted me on the head, so I consider my blogging obligations fulfilled now :p

Sunglasses

2005-01-18T11:33:00.000+10:00

I finally bought some new sunglasses to replace the ones I lost in Harvey Norman. I learnt the difference between cheap sunglasses and OMG expensive sunglasses, too - admittedly from a biased saleswoman, but I found it interesting nonetheless.

The cheapest lenses you can get are acrylic. They have the worst optics, and if they're polarised the film will sometimes just be on the inside of the lens. Although it may not be apparent from trying them for a few seconds, you can get a good idea of the distortion by holding them up facing you and looking at your reflected face. Move them around and see how the face distorts as it moves across the lens.

I looked up lens types on the web... it seems that acrylic lenses are discounted in all comparisons. Comparisons appear to be between polycarbonate, CR-39, and glass lenses only. In order of price:

Polycarbonate lenses are a big step up from acrylic. They claim to be "distortion free", but there must be some room for improvement to justify the more expensive lenses. Polycarbonate lenses have the advantage that they are the lightest and most resistant to shattering. However, they are the most prone to scratching, and have worse optics than CR-39 or glass.

CR-39 lenses are right in the middle. Optics are better than polycarbonate but worse than glass. They're heavier and more likely to shatter than polycarbonate, but lighter and more resistant to shattering than glass.

And finally, glass lenses are the most optically correct, the heaviest, the most likely to shatter, and the most resistant to scratching. It's also the most expensive :|

The glasses that I lost were polycarbonate Zenith sunglasses. The ones I bought look almost the same - they're polarised CR-39 Zenith. An excellent replacement!

Just a big kid

2004-12-22T10:58:00.000+10:00

  A man came to my block of units to mow the lawn the other day and his young son, who'd be about 6 years old, was with him. I guess mum was busy and couldn't watch the kid.
  Earlier in the morning I'd been out the back cleaning and caring for my leather kote gauntlets for Kendo, shoes, and sandals. It was the day before we were to go to Great Keppel: I wanted in particular to waterproof my sandals, and while I was about it I might as well do my other leather goods.
  So it was while I was inside and my kote were drying outside that I heard an exasperated "Hey, put those down; they're not yours!" over the droning buzz of a whipper snipper. I looked outside to see the curly-haired kid beating up the neighbour's boxing bag with my kote. I walked out to pick up the kote that had been hurriedly dropped to the ground, smiling at the little boy. His dad, satisfied our property wasn't in any immediate danger, carried on mowing.
  "Are these yours?" the boy asked curiously and I squatted in front of him to talk face-to-face.
  "Yep, they're my kote - for kendo." He looked blank. "Do you know what kendo is?"
  The boy shook his head.
  "It's Japanese sword-fighting - you know, like samurai?" I said, pretending to chop something. The boy nodded his understanding.
  "What does it look like?"
  "The sword?" I asked. "Wait here, I'll show you!" and I ducked back inside to bring out my wooden bokken.
  "This is what a katana - a Japanese sword - looks like." I was smiling amiably, happy to share some of my hobby with this young lad.
  "Are they all like that?" the boy asked, his head tipped to one side quizzically and his eyes screwed up in confusion.
  "Yes, pretty much all katana are like this... oh wait!" - realisation - "No, they're not wooden. This is just for practice, so no-one gets hurt."
  I pulled one kote onto my hand and offered him the bokken. "See, you can hit me without it hurting," and he whacked my hand hard with the wrong side of the blade, but I nodded encouragingly and he grinned in satisfaction. He waved the sword around for a bit and posed dramatically over an imaginary fallen foe, before giving the sword back to me.
  "Are you a man?" he asked.
  I blinked, trying to process the question.
  "I beg your pardon?"
  "Are you a man?"
  "Am I a man?" I repeated slowly, to make sure I understoood the question. Do I look like a woman, I thought to myself?
  "Yeah, are you a man or a boy?" the short fellow patiently clarified for me.
  "Oh!" I said in my hearty, manly voice, "Of course I'm a man!"
  "No you're not," he said giggling.
  "Er... I'm not?" For a postgrad, I was not maintaining a good grasp on this conversation.
  "Men don't play with toys like this," the boy explained knowledgeably. "They go to work and earn money and stuff!" His dad, who obviously qualified as a real man, was wiping the sweat off his brow and emptying the grass catcher into his trailer full of clippings.
  "Ah, right. I guess I'm a big kid then."
  "Yeah," agreed the boy. "Do you want a whale sticker?" he asked, producing from his pocket a sheet of paper with four little whale stickers left on it, two yellow and two pink.
  "Sure," I said, pleased that I was apparently accepted. "Can I have a yellow whale? I like yellow, and anyway, pink is only for girls."
  The boy nodded sagely and peeled off a yellow whale for me.
  "Thanks... what's your name?" I asked.
  "Timothy," he replied, and "Timothy!" his dad called, starting the car.
  "I'm Nick. Nice to me meet you Timothy!"
  Timothy laughed and ran off to his dad waiting in the car. "Nice to meet you too, dunder-head!" he said over his shoulder.
  Damn kids...

Nick no longer in Cairns

2004-12-14T11:28:00.000+10:00

Thursday:
Took a 45 minute ferry to Green Island for the morning.
I wanted to go snorkelling. I convinced Rinku to come snorkelling with me, while Deepani just wanted to go on the glass bottom boat.
I thought Rinku was exaggerating when she said she couldn't swim... but after floundering in waist deep water I believed her :) Fortunately, half an hour of practice and a life-vest later, we were exploring the coral.
I saw:

Lots of seaweed
Lots of fish of all sorts, including a breed that took offence at my flippers and kept charging at them. Better the flippers than me.
A big blue starfish!
A huge great turtle, in about 1.5 metres of water, from a couple of metres away! It was so big it had small fish swimming in the shelter between its shell and flippers.
Bright clams; waving anenomies; deep banks of coral - cool stuff!

We ran out of time and had to bolt back to the ferry, getting split up by the mobs of Japanese tourists. The mobile reception was patchy, and we couldn't find one another, but eventually we all made it onto the ferry - the last ones on board, with the deck hand looking at us impatiently as he waited to cast off :)

Sat through rest of the day's conference sessions in sandy beach clothes.
Realised that night that I was sunburned in interesting patterns where I'd missed putting sunscreen on. Thankful for longsleeved shirt at formal dinner :D
Went to casino with Jason afterwards and won $5! Must spend winnings on Sarah to placate her ;)

Friday:
At conference all day. Good Nick.
Xiaolong and Rinku presented well - very well for first time conference presentations!
Mexican food for dinner. Yum.
Off to pack and sleep. Have to get up far too early to drive back!

Saturday:
Up at 3am, leave at 4am, and sleep through most of the really interesting leg of the journey from Cairns to Townsville. It's called The Green Passage, and it's pretty much lush rainforest the entire way. It was so eerily beautiful in the predawn mist. I'd love to explore that area more - sometime when I'm awake ;)
Alternated driving every few hours with Kerry. We made excellent progress, even stopping to pick up her sister in Townsville. I expected heavy traffic this time of year, but the road was astonishingly empty. Made it back into Rockhampton at 7pm.

End of trip to Cairns. It was a really fun week, and the best conference experience I've had :D