http://www.netwhatever.com/randomdev Just another WordPress weblog Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:09:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've been back in Melbourne since Tuesday, and by now I'm almost fully recovered from the jet lag and the very long flights. Pictures are forthcoming. Some quick random notes about the US: the last time I went there was in 1999; lots of things changed since them, and they seem to ... http://www.netwhatever.com/randomdev/2008/06/26/back-2/ I'm officially on holidays; no work for the next four weeks. And I'll start travelling tomorrow morning; I'll fly to Alice Springs, and from there I'll spend the next five days driving around the red centre, to Uluru and back. I'll be twittering my progress (mobile phone coverage allowing), and my ... http://www.netwhatever.com/randomdev/2008/05/30/on-holidays/ So, I'm planning to buy a digital SLR camera in the near future. I currently use a film SLR which is almost 10 years old (a Minolta Maxxum 300si) and a digital point-and-shoot that is almost as old (an Olympus D200Z, I think). I've been doing a lot of research ... http://www.netwhatever.com/randomdev/2008/05/12/too-much-information/ In the US, before each episode of Mythbusters, Adam and Jamie ask people never to try at home what they're going do in the show (in Australia this warning is not shown, for some reason). This is why. (and this is the episode I'm talking about) (this one too) http://www.netwhatever.com/randomdev/2008/04/22/dont-try-this-at-home/ This weekend I went for a walk in the Sherbrooke Forest, part of the Dandenong Ranges National Park. I followed a track described in the book 150 Walks in Victoria, by Tyrone Thomas and Andrew Close, and everything went fairly well. To get to the track, I took the train to ... http://www.netwhatever.com/randomdev/2008/04/14/bushwalking-sherbrooke-forest/ I really like GPS; it's one of the cooler "general use" technologies out there. GPS is the closest thing we have to a worldwide information network. Granted, it doesn't really give you that much information: it will tell you where you are and what time it is (assuming you know your ... http://www.netwhatever.com/randomdev/2008/04/09/gps/ G'day Mate: tomorrow's Internet, today. Courtesy of Google Australia. By the way, the theme of Google's jokes today seems to be "time travel". Speaking of which, someone in today's Buzz Out Loud was complaining that, because April 1st starts early in Australia, they were seeing jokes on 31 March. Well, spare ... http://www.netwhatever.com/randomdev/2008/04/01/random-april-fools-notes/ In 1987, the American ABC network started broadcasting a show created by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, of The Bedford Falls Company, with music by W. G. "Snuffy" Walden. "thirtysomething" (not capitalised) was a drama dealing with the lives of, well, thirty-somethings: the main characters are Michael and Hope Steadman, ... http://www.netwhatever.com/randomdev/2008/03/12/quarterlife/ I'm pretty sure the Oscar ceremony shown on Channel 9 was "abridged". I don't remember seeing the award for best foreign language film, and I'm 100% sure the award for best documentary short was not shown (in fact, I think the award for best documentary feature was only shown because ... http://www.netwhatever.com/randomdev/2008/02/27/random-tv-notes/ There were reports in the news recently about findings by researchers at the University of Copenhagen that show that all people with blue eyes share a single ancestor. This ancestor was supposedly the first person to express a gene mutation responsible for producing blue eyes; he or she lived in ... http://www.netwhatever.com/randomdev/2008/02/08/blue-eyes/ Until very recently, I though all news headlines refering to "Fergie" were talking about Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York. That made for some interesting moments. Early morning in the city; girl in her 20s is running alone, wearing a t-shirt that says "Helsinki City Run". At the corner of Elizabeth and ... http://www.netwhatever.com/randomdev/2008/01/27/random-sunday-notes/ For reasons that will become clear in the next few months, I've been recently browsing travel books about Japan. Amidst all the comments on the, say, interesting cultural aspects of the Japanese people, one thing that I found particularly puzzling was the number of Japanese words that seem to be ... http://www.netwhatever.com/randomdev/2007/12/05/miruku/ Seriously. Watch the video below. No further comments needed. http://www.netwhatever.com/randomdev/2007/11/05/bill-maher-is-my-hero/ I don't usually drive around Melbourne; I don't own a car, so I take the public transport or simply walk to wherever I need to go. However, in recent weeks I had the need to drive to a few places, and I've made extensive use of the "directions" feature of ... http://www.netwhatever.com/randomdev/2007/08/30/driving-directions/ Word of advice: this post has spoilers after the fold (after the link to "read more"). I will discuss fine points of the plot and the ending. You have been warned. So, I've finished reading the last Harry Potter book a few days ago, and I have to say that I ... http://www.netwhatever.com/randomdev/2007/08/14/harry-potter/