stillhq.com : Mikal, a geek from Canberra living in Silicon Valley

Blathering for Friday, 30 December 2011

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT

11:01: Mikal shared: Shouldn't There Be Significant Punishment For Bogus Copyright Claims That Kill Companies?

I'd like to think that this could be handled by the costs process. As well as awarding the innocent party their legal costs, it would also be reasonable to compensate the innocent party for any loss in market value they experienced as a result of the law suit. So, for example if the markets valued Veoh at $50 million before the suit and their now dead, then the costs awarded should be legal costs + $50 million. This would also act as an incentive for plaintiffs to not file bogus suits.

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The Ghost Brigades (2)

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:57:00 PST

ISBN: 0765354063
Tor Science Fiction (2007), Edition: First Mass Market Edition May, 2007, Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages
LibraryThing

The second time around I think my opinion has changed a little. I found the plot a little hard to believe (perhaps I am scarred by other book's twee explorations of the motivations of alien species), and overall the book not as good as Old Man's War. Then again, its far from the worst book I have read this year.

Original post about this book.

Tags for this post: book john_scalzi combat aliens engineered_human old_mans_war age colonization prometheus award human_backup cranial_computer personal_ai conspiracy
Related posts: The Last Colony ; Old Man's War ; Old Man's War (2); Zoe's Tale; Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom; The Diamond Age ; Buying Time; The Sagan Diary ; Broken Angels; Friday ; Saturn's Children; Woken Furies; Ender's Game; Cyteen: The Vindication; Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow ; Mona Lisa Overdrive; Cyteen: The Betrayal; Speaker For The Dead; Red Mars; The System of the World; Cyteen: The Rebirth

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Old Man's War (2)

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:48:00 PST

ISBN: 0765348276
Tor Science Fiction (2007), Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages
LibraryThing

I've been in a rut recently where I haven't really been enjoying the books I've been reading. The number of books I read has also dropped off a lot since I moved back to Australia. Some of the drop off is associated with living in a house instead of an apartment -- there is constant maintenance work to be done, and I might never finish painting this place. However, I was worried that perhaps I simply wasn't as into reading as I was a couple of years ago. So, I decided to go back and read a book I enjoyed before, and see if I still liked it. This was that book.

The answer is hells yes. This book is still fantastic, and I really enjoyed it. I also knocked it over in a time similar to when I was in the US. So, its not me that's broken -- its the books I'm reading. I need to find more books to be enthused about, instead of letting reading be a chore.

Original post about this book.

Tags for this post: book john_scalzi combat aliens engineered_human old_mans_war age colonization hugo award human_backup cranial_computer personal_ai npr_top_100_sf
Related posts: The Last Colony ; The Ghost Brigades ; The Ghost Brigades (2); Ender's Game; The Diamond Age ; Caves of Steel; Cyteen: The Vindication; Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow ; Zoe's Tale; Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom; Cyteen: The Betrayal; Rendezvous With Rama; The Forever War; Speaker For The Dead; Red Mars; The Sagan Diary ; Broken Angels; Cyteen: The Rebirth; Friday ; Cryptonomicon; Saturn's Children

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Red Mars

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 23:41:00 PST

ISBN: 0553560735
Spectra (1993), Mass Market Paperback, 592 pages
LibraryThing

This is another book on colonization. To be totally honest I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the second, and I rather thought the book dragged on and could have done with a more vigorous editing. There are sections which are deeply descriptive, but it doesn't progress the story. Overall, I was a little disappointed.

Tags for this post: book kim_stanley_robinson colonization nebula hugo award mars space_travel combat
Related posts: Ender's Game; Rendezvous With Rama; Speaker For The Dead; Cyteen: The Vindication; Foundation's Edge ; Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow ; Mona Lisa Overdrive; The Last Colony ; Forever Peace; The Ship Who Sang ; The Diamond Age ; Cyteen: The Betrayal; Count Zero; The Accidental Time Machine ; The Forever War; Marsbound; Old Man's War ; Mars: A Survival Guide; Old Man's War (2); Cyteen: The Rebirth; Friday

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Openstack compute node cleanup

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:59:00 PST

I've never used openstack before, which I imagine is similar to many other people out there. Its actually pretty cool, although I encountered a problem the other day that I think is worthy of some more documentation. Openstack runs virtual machines for users, in much the same manner as Amazon's EC2 system. These instances are started with a base image, and then copy on write is used to write differences for the instance as it changes stuff. This makes sense in a world where a given machine might be running more than one copy of the instance.

However, I encountered a compute node which was running low on disk. This is because there is currently nothing which cleans up these base images, so even if none of the instances on a machine require that image, and even if the machine is experiencing disk stress, the images still hang around. There are a few blog posts out there about this, but nothing really definitive that I could find. I've filed a bug asking for the Ubuntu package to include some sort of cleanup script, and interestingly that led me to learn that there are plans for a pretty comprehensive image management system. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that anyone is working on this at the moment. I would offer to lend a hand, but its not clear to me as an openstack n00b where I should start. If you read this and have some pointers, feel free to contact me.

Anyways, we still need to cleanup that node experiencing disk stress. It turns out that nova uses qemu for its copy on write disk images. We can therefore ask qemu which are in use. It goes something like this:

$ cd /var/lib/nova/instances
$ find -name "disk*" | xargs -n1 qemu-img info | grep backing | \
  sed -e's/.*file: //' -e 's/ .*//' | sort | uniq > /tmp/inuse

/tmp/inuse will now contain a list of the images in _base that are in use at the moment. Now you can change to the base directory, which defaults to /var/lib/nova/instances/_base and do some cleanup. What I do is I look for large image files which are several days old. I then check if they appear in that temporary file I created, and if they don't I delete them.

I'm sure that this could be better automated by a simple python script, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. If I do, I will be sure to mention it here.

Tags for this post: openstack cloud computing nova glance qemu image management ubuntu canonical sre image_cache_management
Related posts: Reflecting on Essex; Folsom Dev Summit sessions; MySQL Workbench; Old ImageMagick packages in Debian and Ubuntu; Wow, qemu-img is fast; A first pass at glance replication; Further adventures with base images in OpenStack; Playing with StumbleUpon; Why document management is good; Managing MySQL the Slack Way: How Google Deploys New MySQL Servers; Being Geek; I won a radio shark and headphones!; Over-analysed Friday comments on Half Nekkid Thursday; Conference Wireless not working yet?; Nice touch; Taking over a launch pad project; Off to the MySQL tutorials; What packages are taking all my disk?; Perl sample source code; Links from Rasmus' PHP talk; Installing Linux on a Dell Dimension e310 Comment

On syncing with Google Contacts

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:32:00 PST

So, I started with a new company a few weeks ago, and one of the things I missed from my previous company was having the entire corporate directory synced onto my phone. Its really handy as an on caller to be able to give people a call when something goes wrong, without having to dig around and find their details.

Back in the good old days at Google the way you got this sort of data onto your phone was to run a script written by one of the guys on the gmail team. The script grabbed the LDAP directory, and pushed it into Google contacts, which you could then sync with your phone. Now I wanted something very similar -- especially as the contacts sync stuff with Android is pretty reasonable.

However, I'd never coded with the Google public APIs before, and that turned out to be the hardest part of the problem.

First off I wrote a little script which dumped the corporate directory into a text file. I mostly did this because I wanted other people to be able to run the script in as light weight a manner as possible -- for example, if we wanted to roll this out for hundreds of people, then you wouldn't want to run the LDAP query hundreds of times. The format for my text file is kinda lame to be honest:

Michael Still: {'telephoneNumber': ['+61 123 123 123'], 'ID': ['mikalstill'], 'mail': ['mikal@stillhq.com']}

So, you get the user's name, then a python dictionary with three keys in it. There isn't any particular reason for having just three keys, it was just the three fields I thought were most interesting at the time. Note that each field is an array. A simple human readable format like this means that I can also grep through the file if I ever quickly want a user's details, which is a nice side effect.

The most important thing I learnt here is that the ID field is really important. If you don't have something you feel you can use there, then you might need to synthesize something -- perhaps an ascii representation of the user's name or something. This is important because I discovered that Google rewrites Unicode characters you ask it to store, so if you do a simple text comparison against the user's name, then you might get a false negative and end up creating more than one entry for that user. That was particularly a problem for me because there are a fair few people in the company with European accented characters in their names.

The docs for the Google contacts API are ok, although I did have to spend some time randomly searching for examples of some of the things I wanted to do. For example, the docs didn't have an example of how to store a phone number that I could find. Also, I am a little shocked to discover there is no query interface in contacts for contact name. This seems like a pretty massive oversight to me, but here's what the docs have to say on the issue:

For more information about query parameters, see the Contacts Data API Reference Guide and the Google Data APIs Reference Guide. In particular, there is no support for full-text queries or locating a contact by email address.

Whatever intern wrote the API should have his ball pit rights revoked until he fixes that. After that it was all gravy. Here's the code: http://www.stillhq.com/svn/trunk/google-contacts/pushdirectory.py.

I note that there is an enterprise shared contacts API (see here), but you have to be a premiere customer for it to work.

Tags for this post: google ldap directory sync contacts android python
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Blathering for Friday, 02 December 2011

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT

19:31: Mikal shared: Explosions, but no bomb

I knew that handing out handgrenades to kids over Halloween was going to be a mistake...

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Blathering for Tuesday, 15 November 2011

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

07:12: Mikal shared: Finally, A Rigorous Study Proves Telecommuting Is More Productive

Presented without comment

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Blathering for Sunday, 13 November 2011

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

09:04: Mikal shared: Time Machine for every Unix out there

As recommended by CLUG for backups.

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Setting up Cisco 7961 IP phones with asterisk

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:36:00 PST

This blog post is just my notes on the installation process I followed. There is lots of documentation out there, but a lot of it is contradictory or incomplete. These notes are mostly about the configuration in my house, and might not work for you. Sorry about that.

The first step is that you need to be running your own DHCP server. Running a simple embedded one in something like your DSL modem wont cut it, as you need to hand out non-standard options in your responses in order for the Cisco firmware on the phone to find the TFTP server you'll set up in a bit. I'm not going to document installing DHCP here, as the Ubuntu packages are reasonable. In fact, the only annoying bit about the packages is that all the config et cetera is in a directory named /etc/dhcp, but for some reason I can't explain the init script is /etc/init.d/isc-dhcp-server. That throws me every time.

You also need to know the MAC address of the phone. This is probably on a sticker on the bottom, failing that it is on the screen during the phone boot process. Absolute worst case, it is in the DHCP logs once the phone starts to boot. The DHCP config for my phones looks like this:

option domain-name "home.stillhq.com";
option domain-search "home.stillhq.com", "stillhq.com";
option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.14;

option routers 192.168.1.254;
option broadcast-address 192.168.1.255;

option ntp-servers 192.168.1.14;
option smtp-server 192.168.1.14;
option time-servers 192.168.1.14;

default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;

option cisco-etherboot-server code 150 = ip-address;

...

# IP Phones
group {
  option tftp-server-name "192.168.1.14";
  option cisco-etherboot-server 192.168.1.14;
  option arp-cache-timeout 600;

  host cisco-7961-1 {
    hardware ethernet 00:1a:a1:ca:04:5b;
    fixed-address 192.168.1.50;
    option host-name "cisco-7961-1";
  }
}

I also added the phone to DNS with a reverse entry, but I don't think that is actually required for the phone to work. Next I needed a TFTP server, which is something I haven't bothered to run for years. I used HPA's TFTP server, which again has reasonable-ish packages. One gotcha is that you need to install xinetd as well, and then disable the init script for the HPA TFTP server. As best as I could tell the default non-xinetd configuration simply didn't work, so I don't know why they package it like that.

Now for the really hard bit. You need to find the right firmware for the phone. I have my suspicions this is a lot easier for the modern Cisco phones, which have a web server by default and can be configured without TFTP. I say this as someone who doesn't actually have one of these phones, but who has read some stuff online about them. These older phones are really TFTP happy, and seem to be constantly chatting to the TFTP server, even if they're healthy. That might be an issue if you're deploying thousands of these phones -- you'd have to monitor TFTP server load and be aware of the extra IO during global phone firmware updates.

There are two ways to get the firmware for the phones. You can buy a support contract from Cisco for not very much money (around $20 a year), or you can find dodgy copies cached on the internet. If you choose to go the dodgy route, this this Whirlpool thread has some useful advice.

Next we need to do a factory reset on the phone. This might not be needed in absolutely all cases, but its just safer. To reset the phone, hold down the # key and power cycle the phone. The lights at the side of the screen will start flashing in sequence after a while (nearly a minute). You now press 123456789*0# within 60 seconds of releasing the # key you were holding down. Note as well that the Cisco documentation for what lights flash is wrong, but it didn't seem to affect the outcome.

The phone is really slow to boot up (several minutes). Once it has booted, it grabs network configuration for DHCP as shown above, and then starts requesting files from the TFTP server. Here's a log of all the requests from my phone booting when its happy:

$ tail -f syslog | grep RRQ
Nov 11 06:24:53 molokai in.tftpd[8221]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename term61.default.loads
Nov 11 06:24:54 molokai in.tftpd[8222]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename Jar41sip.8-3-0-50.sbn
Nov 11 06:24:57 molokai in.tftpd[8223]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename cnu41.8-3-0-50.sbn
Nov 11 06:25:00 molokai in.tftpd[8224]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename apps41.8-3-0-50.sbn
Nov 11 06:25:11 molokai in.tftpd[8235]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename dsp41.8-3-0-50.sbn
Nov 11 06:25:15 molokai in.tftpd[8236]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename cvm41sip.8-3-0-50.sbn
Nov 11 06:26:33 molokai in.tftpd[8242]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename CTLSEP001AA1CA045B.tlv
Nov 11 06:26:33 molokai in.tftpd[8243]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename SEP001AA1CA045B.cnf.xml
Nov 11 06:26:41 molokai in.tftpd[8244]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename SIP41.8-3-1S.loads
Nov 11 06:26:42 molokai in.tftpd[8245]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename Jar41sip.8-3-0-50.sbn
Nov 11 06:26:44 molokai in.tftpd[8246]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename cnu41.8-3-0-50.sbn
Nov 11 06:26:47 molokai in.tftpd[8247]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename apps41.8-3-0-50.sbn
Nov 11 06:26:59 molokai in.tftpd[8249]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename dsp41.8-3-0-50.sbn
Nov 11 06:27:02 molokai in.tftpd[8253]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename cvm41sip.8-3-0-50.sbn
Nov 11 06:27:59 molokai in.tftpd[8256]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename CTLSEP001AA1CA045B.tlv
Nov 11 06:27:59 molokai in.tftpd[8257]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename SEP001AA1CA045B.cnf.xml
Nov 11 06:28:14 molokai in.tftpd[8261]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename /mk-sip.jar
Nov 11 06:28:15 molokai in.tftpd[8262]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename US/g3-tones.xml
Nov 11 06:28:18 molokai in.tftpd[8263]: RRQ from 192.168.1.50 filename dialplan.xml

No, I don't know why it requests those files at the start twice either, but it does it across multiple test factory resets. There are two files there which embed the MAC address of the phone into the filename, so you'll have different names for those files in your setup. Note that the file CTLSEP001AA1CA045B doesn't exist in my configuration, and that doesn't seem to have caused anything bad to have happened. Filenames are also case sensitive, so that might make things more exciting for you. Almost all of the other files are firmware.

I recall creating a file named XMLDefault.cnf.xml which has a bunch of stuff in it, but I can't see any evidence that it is used during the book process, so I think that might have been a dead end that I didn't need to go down.

The format for SEP001AA1CA045B.cnf.xml is well documented in the links below, so I will leave that as an exercise for the reader. Feel free to ask questions in the comments to this post, and I'll do my best to be helpful, bearing in mind that I am absolutely not an expert at this stuff.

Here's a list of the web pages I thought were most helpful during my adventure:

Tags for this post: blog asterisk voip sip cisco 7961 tftp dhcp system_admin
Related posts: Configuring Asterisk; Using an Intel PCI modem as a FXO card; Worst timing evar!; Building an answering machine using a $10 winmodem Comment

Blathering for Wednesday, 09 November 2011

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

10:20: Mikal shared: 7961G SIP Upgrade

A really nice summary thread about how to setup Cisco 7961 IP phones.

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Leaving Google

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:04:00 PST

Yesterday was my last day at Google. For reference, I figured I'd put an up to date resume online. I'm going to spend a couple of weeks bumming around the house and generally being a nuisance to my family, and then I'll move onto the next thing. I haven't had a vacation where work can't call me in six years, so I'm rather looking forward to the break.

Tags for this post: resume google resume employment work
Related posts: Two more weeks to go; Googling for job candidates; Resume update; Microsoft recruiter makes a good point; Bye Grant and Lindsay; Lindsay googles for herself Comment

Blathering for Sunday, 06 November 2011

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 06:00:00 GMT

18:02: Mikal shared: Reset the 7941 and 7961 IP Phones to the Factory Default

I will never find this again, but it was useful.

18:04: Mikal shared: Asterisk phone cisco 79x1 xml configuration files for SIP

Another helpful link.

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Blathering for Tuesday, 01 November 2011

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 06:00:00 GMT

15:58: Mikal shared: The UK riots: the psychology of looting | Zoe Williams

An interesting piece on the psychology of the UK riots.

16:09: Mikal shared: Japan MP drinks water from Fukushima plant

In other news, a Japanese MP will be diagnosed with cancer sometime in the future.

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Speaker For The Dead

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 22:40:00 PST

ISBN: 1857238575
Orbit (1987), Paperback, 416 pages
LibraryThing

This is the second book in the Ender's Game series, and is better than the novelized Ender's Game, although it is impossible to beat the short story version. Ender has grown a lot over the time between this book and the last, and the story is compelling and believable. I really enjoyed this book.

Tags for this post: book orson_scott_card aliens colonization enders_game time_dilation nebula hugo locus award alien
Related posts: Ender's Game; Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow ; Forever Peace; The Forever War; Red Mars; Cyteen: The Vindication; Foundation's Edge ; Mona Lisa Overdrive; The Last Colony ; The Diamond Age ; Cyteen: The Betrayal; Count Zero; Rendezvous With Rama; Old Man's War ; Old Man's War (2); Cyteen: The Rebirth; Friday ; Saturn's Children; Neuromancer; Caves of Steel; Cryptonomicon

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By Blood Alone

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 18:22:00 PST

ISBN: 9780441006311
LibraryThing

Maybe I've been reading too much combat fiction recently and need a change of scenery. Or perhaps its just that this book isn't as good as the last two (Legion of the Damned and The Final Battle). The characters aren't the strongest, and the plot is weaker than the previous two books. On the other hand, I did finish the book, and don't regret reading it. Oh, the cliff hanger ending is annoying too.

Tags for this post: book william_c_dietz aliens combat combat_suit cyborg bad_commanders legion_of_the_damned
Related posts: Legion of the Damned; The Final Battle; Gust Front; A Hymn Before Battle; Hell's Faire; The Forever War; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Cyborg; Against the Tide; When the Devil Dances; Starship Troopers

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The Final Battle

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 18:14:00 PST

ISBN: 9780441002177
LibraryThing

I somehow forgot to make a note about this book when I read it, I suspect because I was travelling at the time. This book was as good as Legion of the Damned and an enjoyable read. The book continues straight on from the previous one, and possibly should have been inside the same volume. A fun read.

Tags for this post: book william_c_dietz aliens combat combat_suit cyborg bad_commanders legion_of_the_damned
Related posts: By Blood Alone; Legion of the Damned; Gust Front; A Hymn Before Battle; Hell's Faire; The Forever War; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Cyborg; Against the Tide; When the Devil Dances; Starship Troopers

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The Difference Engine

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:04:00 PST

ISBN: 055329461X
LibraryThing

This is my first steam punk book, and I am not really sure that the genre is my thing. However, the book is clever and interesting and certainly explores an interesting alternate history. The book sort of lost its way in the middle, but picked up again towards the end. Overall, an ok but not stellar read.

Tags for this post: book william_gibson steam_punk england lovelace bruce_sterling
Related posts: The Exterminator's Want Ad

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Woken Furies

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 04:49:00 PST

ISBN: 0575081279
LibraryThing

This is the third book in the Takeshi Kovaks series. It is similar to the second book, and follows on more strongly from that one that the first book. This is consistent with the overall arc if the series, so it doesn't bother me that it is different from the first book. Overall I liked this book, and read it fairly quickly. I think the end is good and was largely unexpected.

Tags for this post: book richard_morgan human_backup engineered_human aliens alien_artifact crime colonization combat terrorism revolution takeshi_kovaks
Related posts: Broken Angels; The Last Colony ; Old Man's War ; The Ghost Brigades ; Old Man's War (2); The Ghost Brigades (2); Altered Carbon ; Zoe's Tale; Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom; Buying Time; Polar City Blues; Caves of Steel; Ender's Game; Currency; Cyteen: The Vindication; Tipping point: windscreen washers; You Can Be The Stainless Steel Rat; The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat; Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow ; Mona Lisa Overdrive; Zodiac

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Blathering for Tuesday, 23 August 2011

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:22:00 GMT

08:41: Mikal shared: CWS Cleanseat - YouTube

This is an advert for the awesome automatic toilet seat cleaner that was the highlight of my visit to Frankfurt airport.

15:37: Mikal shared: FPGA bitcoin miner is probably the most power efficient.

This is an interesting project. I'm not going to rush out and buy one, but its a cool idea.

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Blathering for Saturday, 13 August 2011

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:11:00 GMT

06:11: Mikal shared: The UK riots: the psychology of looting | Zoe Williams

An interesting piece on the psychology of the UK riots.

06:11: Mikal shared: The UK riots: the psychology of looting | Zoe Williams

An interesting piece on the psychology of the UK riots.

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Anathem

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:05:00 PST

ISBN: 9780061474101
LibraryThing

At first I thought this book was just a descriptive work about a decidedly interesting alternate culture. That would have been in line with a lot of the Baroque Cycle. However, this book is so much more. There is an adventure store, some really interesting philosophy, and even a bit of romance. I enjoyed this book, even if it took ages to read its over 900 pages.

Tags for this post: book neal_stephenson natural_philosophy aliens combat npr_top_100_sf
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Legion of the Damned

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 21:57:00 PST

ISBN: 9780441480401
LibraryThing

This is a quite good combat science fiction book. I'm not really sure how I discovered this series, but I'm glad I did. There are some new ideas here, as well as some that mirror John Ring (incompetence in command) and Keith Laumer (alien invasion). Overall and enjoyable read, and I'll be reading more from this series.

Tags for this post: book william_c_dietz aliens combat combat_suit cyborg bad_commanders legion_of_the_damned
Related posts: By Blood Alone; The Final Battle; Gust Front; A Hymn Before Battle; Hell's Faire; The Forever War; Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Cyborg; Against the Tide; When the Devil Dances; Starship Troopers

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A World Out of Time

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 04:06:00 PST

ISBN: 345257502
LibraryThing

I was reading about cryogenics a couple of weeks ago, and that got me interested in stories around that topic. This book was one of those recommended as exploring the implications of being woken up after a long time. The first half of this book is better than the last half to be honest. I liked how the world had changed, and thought the employment prospects for a recently thawed person were both clever, and possible. However, the distant future world at the end of the book didn't seem as well done to me, and was a stretch at best. An ok book, but not the best I have read recently.

Tags for this post: book larry_niven cryogenics space_travel time_dilation
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Blathering for Thursday, 21 July 2011

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 06:12:00 GMT

16:14: Mikal shared: A pound of flesh: how Cisco's "unmitigated gall" derailed one man's life

Wow. Cisco misuses the US / Canada extradition process as a wedge to try to win a civil case.

20:37: Mikal shared: Game Theory and Cheating : Core Economics

Interesting story about plagiarism at a university

20:42: Mikal shared: Internode :: About :: News and Media :: Internode unveils initial retail pricing for NBN services

I wants me my NBN.

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Blathering for Monday, 18 July 2011

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 12:24:00 GMT

01:37: Mikal shared: Charlie Brooker | Rupert Murdoch: what will MPs do without someone to fear?

The has a good point, and is funny.

01:39: Mikal shared: Murdoch and the British phone-hacking scandal: Why the U.S. should prosecute News Corp. and strip its TV licenses if it's guilty. - By Eliot Spitzer - Slate Magazine

He has a point.

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Igniting The Reaches

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 10:03:00 PST

ISBN: 0441001793
LibraryThing

1,000 years after interstellar society has collapsed, a new empire which is suspiciously like Canada rules most of the planets and their most valuable resources -- slaves and automated silicon chip factories. Two gentlemen from Venus set of to make their fortunes as what can only be described as slavers and pirates. They're clearly not nice people, but they are the heros of this book.

The book is very readable, and like other books by Drake it is clear that the heros aren't always nice, and are haunted by their crimes. Yet they continue, and in the end might have accidentally done something nice.

Overall, a good if different book.

Tags for this post: book david_drake slavery colonization piracy combat
Related posts: Cyteen: The Vindication; Cyteen: The Betrayal; Cyteen: The Rebirth; Ender's Game; The Confusion; The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress; The Last Colony ; Zoe's Tale; Colony; Bonanza; Why Australia tops the piracy list; Marsbound; Speaker For The Dead; Red Mars; Polar City Blues; Body Armor: 2000; Old Man's War ; Mars: A Survival Guide; Broken Angels; Dragonsdawn; The Ghost Brigades

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Blathering for Saturday, 09 July 2011

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 05:50:00 GMT

22:50: Mikal shared: Extreme sarcasm activist with an "I Love Orlando Police" sign

I like how he suggests that people who try to feed the homeless should be stopped with lethal force.

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Blathering for Thursday, 07 July 2011

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:13:00 GMT

01:52: Mikal shared: My Summer at an Indian Call Center | Mother Jones

A really interesting read.

10:07: Mikal shared: Tiger pilots disregarded ATC clearance on unsafe flight | Plane Talking

Ahhh, that explains a bit about the grounding. It is also interesting to note that Tiger only had a fleet of 10 planes.

10:07: Mikal shared: Investigation: AO-2011-070 - Operational non-compliance - Airbus A320, VH-VNG, 17 km ENE Melbourne Airport, Victoria, 7 June 2011

The ATSB report on the first incident.

10:08: Mikal shared: Investigation: AO-2011-076 - Lowest safe altitude - Airbus A320-232, VH-VNC, near Avalon Airport, Vic, 30 June 2011

The ATSB is still investigating the second incident.

10:20: Mikal shared: Investigation: AE-2010-024 - Flight Data Recovery for RNZAF - Collision with terrain - Airtrainer CT-4, RNZAF Base Ohakea, 14 January 2010

Some of the ATSB investigations are really interesting. This is a good example of one, where they pull NAND chips off circuit boards to get to data from a crash scene.

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The Big U

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 02:25:00 PST

ISBN: 9780380816033
LibraryThing

This book is really good for a first book, and you can see some of the ideas that Stephenson explores in later books starting here. The characters are believable, and the story line interesting if a bit odd. Overall, I really enjoyed this book.

Tags for this post: book neal_stephenson first_book university nuclear_power sca
Related posts: Recursive linkage zen

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And Another Thing

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 22:39:00 PST

ISBN: 9780141042138
LibraryThing

I was disappointed by this book. The previous Hitchhiker's books set a very high bar, and the humor in this one falls flat for me. Additionally, the seemingly constant "guide note" interjections are just plain annoying. Overall, I didn't like this one.

Tags for this post: book eoin_colfer comedy aliens hitchhikers_guide
Related posts: So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish ; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe ; The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy ; Life, the Universe and Everything ; Mostly Harmless; Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency; The Man in the Rubber Mask; Bill The Galactic Hero ; Colony; Redshirts; Bill the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains; The Light Fantastic; Better Than Life; Bill the Galactic Hero Series; Red Dwarf; Last Human; The Colour of Magic; Bill the Galactic Hero: The Planet of the Robot Slaves

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Blathering for Thursday, 16 June 2011

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 06:22:00 GMT

23:30: Mikal shared: How to make an octodog (octopus hot dog) | Lunch in a Box: Building a Better Bento

Let's all make hot dog octopuses. Or is it octopi?

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Blathering for Wednesday, 15 June 2011

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 06:42:00 GMT

10:34: Mikal shared: An Effort by Deep-Sea Divers to Repair a New York Water Tunnel - NYTimes.com

An old, but interesting, article about some of the maintenance problems with NYC's water supply. Via JWZ.

10:51: Mikal shared: For Leaky New York Aqueduct, Bypass Tunnel Is Planned - NYTimes.com

A more recent article about the leaky water tunnel. It sounds like they're going to build a bypass for the leakiest bits. I wonder why the tunnel has to be so deep?

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Blathering for Monday, 13 June 2011

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 04:45:00 GMT

21:45: Mikal shared: Why Groupon Is Poised For Collapse

I don't normally comment on competitive businesses, but this analysis of Groupon as a subprime loan business is really interesting.

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Blathering for Thursday, 09 June 2011

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 02:37:00 GMT

00:36: Mikal shared: Reverse Engineering Superbugs

An interesting read about reverse engineering superbugs from someone more famous for hacking on computer hardware.

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Von Neumann's War

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 20:34:00 PST

ISBN: 1416555307
LibraryThing

A Von Neumann probe is an automated self replicating machine which is sent into space to map and possibly prepare for human exploration. What would happen if we were the victims of someone else's Von Neumann probes run amuck?

This book is typical Ringo in that it is about an apocalyptic invasion from outer space, and you just know that most of the worlds population is going to die. However, the book is also exceptionally detailed in its handling of rocketry, and the science behind finding out more about the incoming threat is very well done.

Overall and good book that I enjoyed, although the end is definitely fishing for a sequel.

Tags for this post: book john_ringo travis_s_taylor aliens combat ai
Related posts: Mona Lisa Overdrive; East of the Sun, West of the Moon; Count Zero; Emerald Sea; All The Weyrs of Pern; Against the Tide; Consider Phlebas; There Will Be Dragons; Neuromancer

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Blathering for Sunday, 05 June 2011

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 04:59:00 GMT

03:37: Mikal shared: A Year at War - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com

Very moving.

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Blathering for Wednesday, 25 May 2011

Wed, 25 May 2011 05:39:00 GMT

03:39: Mikal shared: Before And After of the Day

Wow. Before and after shots of a suburb hit by a tornado.

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Princess of Wands

Mon, 23 May 2011 03:55:00 PST

ISBN: 1416573860
LibraryThing

This book is very different from John Ringo's books (or at least the ones I have read). This one revolves around a cross between a soccer mom and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Its a fun, relatively light read and doesn't have nearly as much combat as the other Ringo books I've encountered. The book takes the form of two short stories and a novella, with the novella having a pretty obvious dig at David Drake, which I thought was a bit odd. Overall, I enjoyed this book.

Tags for this post: book john_ringo magic demon christianity combat
Related posts: Death Bringer; Belgarath the Sorcerer; Polgara the Sorceress; Castle Of Wizardry; Pawn of Prophecy; The Seeress of Kell; Sorceress of Darshiva; The Malloreon; Iron Master; The Light Fantastic; Cloud Warrior; Demon Lord of Karanda; Amtrak Wars; Earth Thunder; The Belgariad; First Family; Enchanters End Game; Blood River; Buy this book!; Guardians of the West; Magician's Gambit

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Blathering for Friday, 20 May 2011

Thu, 19 May 2011 14:49:00 GMT

07:49: Mikal shared: Richard's Notes Blog Archive Canon DSLR Error 99 fix

This page seems to have fixed my Rebel XT error 99 problems.

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Blathering for Wednesday, 18 May 2011

Tue, 17 May 2011 18:23:00 GMT

09:01: Mikal shared: Australian journalist arrested for technology conference report

You know a story has gotten big when its starts to be covered in the mainstream overseas press...

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Blathering for Tuesday, 17 May 2011

Mon, 16 May 2011 15:28:00 GMT

01:14: Mikal shared: YouTube - "Jersey Shore" Gone Wilde, Part 1

Excellent.

01:23: Mikal shared: SYDNP3731_17052011_094810AM.jpg

I wonder if we should incorporate this into our LCA bid.

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The Stainless Steel Rat Returns

Sun, 15 May 2011 16:06:00 PST

ISBN: 0765364034
LibraryThing

Harry Harrison is back to reprise his Stainless Steel Rat series. This book is much like the others -- think light fiction with contrived situations, but a bit of fun. In other words, much like the rest of Harrison's work. This book isn't the best Rat book, but it also isn't the worst and given the drought I think something is better than nothing. It is also much much better than the terrible Bill the Galactic Hero series.

Tags for this post: book harry_harrison stainless_steel_rat crime
Related posts: You Can Be The Stainless Steel Rat; The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat; A Stainless Steel Rat is Born; The Stainless Steel Rat Series ; Stainless Steel Visions; The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World ; The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus; The Stainless Steel Rat; The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You ; The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted ; The Stainless Steel Rat Goes To Hell; The Stainless Steel Rat for President; The Stainless Steel Rat Sings The Blues ; The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge ; Caves of Steel; Currency; Tipping point: windscreen washers; Mona Lisa Overdrive; Zodiac; Rage of a Demon King; Naked Sun

Comment

Canberra's LCA2013 bid

Sat, 14 May 2011 02:01:00 PST

I'm really proud of the hard work that all of the Canberra 2013 team has done in preparing our bid for LCA 2013. I just sent off the emails making our bid formal. Here's what I said on the linux-aus mailing list:

Hello.

I am pleased to present Canberra's bid for linux.conf.au 2013. It is traditional to produce a PDF document for distribution to the linux-aus mailing list. Instead, we have produced a small web site covering the same information that would normally be in such a document. It is our hope that this will be a more dynamic and accessible document than a static PDF. This website will form the basis for our conference site if Canberra is selected.

The website is located at http://lca2013.clug.org.au.

Sincerely,
Michael Still
Canberra 2013 bid lead

Tags for this post: conference lca2013 bid [btags: canberra] [btags: canonical canberra] Comment

Blathering for Saturday, 14 May 2011

Fri, 13 May 2011 15:49:00 GMT

04:57: Mikal shared: Mike Rowe Senate Testimony : Dirty Jobs : Discovery Channel

Mike has a point.

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Blathering for Thursday, 12 May 2011

Wed, 11 May 2011 18:11:00 GMT

05:22: Mikal shared: Two Factor SSH with Google Authenticator

I set this up on one of my machines today. It seems to work well.

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Blathering for Wednesday, 11 May 2011

Wed, 11 May 2011 06:37:00 GMT

23:37: Mikal shared: Brand Depot diehards hoping for Costco salvation - Local News - News - General - The Canberra Times

12 stores, and 12 customers! That's one per customer!

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Performance pay for teachers

Mon, 09 May 2011 23:52:00 PST

I don't really want to have a fight with Paul, but I disagree with his stance on performance pay for teachers. I respect Paul on many levels, and perhaps sometimes we should just agree to disagree on some things.

However, I find his attitude towards performance pay defeatist. As best as I can tell his argument can be summarized by this quote:

The problem is: how do you judge the teacher's actual performance? How do you separate this from the abilities of their class? How do you know, empirically and repeatably, that they're better than another teacher?

I think you can measure this. You can test basic skills at the start of the year, and then at the end. You can then compare this with the other students across the entire country at that year level, and determine what is an above average improvement based on statistical modelling. Sure, that wont test if a child is inspired to become a great artist, but the most important role of schools is to provide our children with the skills needed to survive in a modern society. If the artist can't count and read, then they're going to have a much harder life.

Now, I don't claim that naplan is a perfect measurement system, but then again it is very new and it takes time to get these things right. Henry Ford didn't go into his workshop and come out with a Toyota Corolla. Instead he built something relatively crap, and then the world iterated. Let's give naplan time to iterate and improve before we write it off.

Another argument I've seen is that teachers don't teach in isolation, and we should therefore not attempt to measure their performance. Its something about parents et cetera affecting learning outcomes. So, I have a couple of counter points. I also don't work in isolation, given I work on a team with 700 other people, and yet we still manage to measure my performance. Perhaps that's because part of my job is to advocate with others that they work on the bits that I need them to work on. Its the same with teachers -- part of the job is to encourage and support parents as well as children, and to do whatever it takes to help the child learn. Surely we don't want defeatist teachers who just give up if not everyone immediately falls over to help them out?

Also, the statistical sample for children at a given year level is huge, and surely if unsupportive parents is a problem, the statistics will handle that. This is especially true once we let the system run for a few years and gather some baseline data. Worst case if a school is in a disadvantaged area, or the teacher works with kids with special needs, then a tweak to the numbers can be applied to compensate for that.

Another thing which is huge is the proposed bonus pool -- $425 million is a lot of money. I'm hoping this means a lot of teachers get a good bonus.

Ultimately this is too important a problem to just give up on because it is hard. When I went to school, a lot of my friends put teaching down as their last choice degree, not because they cared about teaching, but because it was a safe comfortable job out of the rain. We need to stop attracting those people to teaching, and redirect talented people there. To a certain extent people go where the money is, so if we can find a way to pay good teachers more money than they would earn doing real estate conveyancing, then that's a good thing. The bonus scheme is part of that.

Anyway, I'm not really trying to convince Paul here, we can agree to disagree I think. I'm just trying to explain my stance.

Tags for this post: blog teacher school performance pay
Related posts: Australian teachers advocate a China style firewall for Australian internet users; Controlling DirecTV STB via USB; Does anyone else think its odd; Apple's Safari javascript implementation; Thinkpad x41 tablet PCMCIA IO; Python effective TLD library update; How do you summarize ten years of your life?; MySQL Tech Talks Comment

Blathering for Monday, 09 May 2011

Mon, 09 May 2011 06:59:00 GMT

22:26: Mikal shared: Teachers' union hits out at pay for results - Local News - News - General - The Canberra Times

I know not everyone agrees with me here, but I think performance pay is the first step to improving how teachers are regarded in our society. Surely the only people who object to performance pay are those who secretly know they under perform?

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The Princess Bride

Sun, 08 May 2011 18:54:00 PST

ISBN: 0345348036
Del Rey (2000), Mass Market Paperback, 416 pages
LibraryThing

To be honest, I think the movie is better. The story in the movie is simpler, but also more beautiful. I think the embroidery around the edges of the story in the book detract from the overall story, and the asides start out cute but end up just being annoying.

Tags for this post: book william_goldman npr_top_100_sf
Related posts: Prelude To Foundation ; Caves of Steel; Ender's Game; Anathem; The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress; Castle Of Wizardry; Pawn of Prophecy; Forward the Foundation; The Diamond Age ; The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy ; Silverthorn; Rendezvous With Rama; The Forever War; A Darkness at Sethanon; Snow Crash ; Old Man's War ; Magician: Master; Enchanters End Game; Foundation; Old Man's War (2); Magician's Gambit

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Blathering for Friday, 06 May 2011

Thu, 05 May 2011 14:44:00 GMT

05:04: Mikal shared: Free Postage From Amazon UK To Australia Now Permanent

This is good. Note that it appears to have expanded from the original "books, music and DVDs" to "all items except gift certificates".

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Blathering for Thursday, 05 May 2011

Thu, 05 May 2011 06:35:00 GMT

04:11: Mikal shared: MythTV & the HD Homerun Tuner in Australia

Useful for rebuilding my MythTV box

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The Light Fantastic

Sun, 01 May 2011 13:05:00 PST

ISBN: 0061020702
HarperTorch (2000), Mass Market Paperback, 241 pages
LibraryThing

A short little note about this one, as I am sure everyone has already read it. This was better than The Colour of Magic (more polished, cleverer, funnier), but still not as good as I remember the Pratchett books being from my childhood. This book to ages to read, I suspect because it just wasn't compelling enough to overcome the general business in my life.

Tags for this post: book terry_pratchett comedy magic
Related posts: The Colour of Magic; Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency; So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish ; Death Bringer; Belgarath the Sorcerer; Princess of Wands; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe ; Polgara the Sorceress; The Man in the Rubber Mask; Castle Of Wizardry; Pawn of Prophecy; Bill The Galactic Hero ; Colony; The Seeress of Kell; Redshirts; Bill the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains; Sorceress of Darshiva; The Malloreon; Iron Master; Cloud Warrior; Demon Lord of Karanda

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Blathering for Thursday, 28 April 2011

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:03:00 GMT

02:45: Mikal shared: How to chroot Ubuntu using Live CD to fix GRUB rescue prompt at Black God

Ubuntu 10.10 left me with an unbootable machine after a fresh install. This page was really helpful.

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Mistress of the Empire

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 20:09:00 PST

ISBN: 0553561189
Spectra (1993), Paperback, 688 pages
LibraryThing

This is the third book in this series (preceded by Daughter of the Empire and Servant of the Empire). I didn't enjoy this book as much as the other two, and put off reading it for ages. I think the problem is that the book feels padded, and keeps going for too long. I liked the conspiracy subplot, but it would have been nice for the resolution to be a bit more believable. Overall, the weakest book in the series.

Tags for this post: book raymond_e_feist_and_janny_wurts midkemia kelewan politics conspiracy raymond_e_feist janny_wurts fantasy sword_and_sorcery
Related posts: Daughter of the Empire; Servant of the Empire; The Riftwar Series; Silverthorn; Magician: Master; Magician: Apprentice; Raymond E Feist's Empire Trilogy; The King's Buccaneer; Rage of a Demon King; Shadow of a Dark Queen; A Darkness at Sethanon; Prince of the Blood; Rise of a Merchant Prince; Raymond E Feist's Serpentwar Saga; Dawnspell: The Bristling Wood; Belgarath the Sorcerer; Polgara the Sorceress; The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress; The Last Colony ; Castle Of Wizardry; Pawn of Prophecy

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A little bit of work around the house

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:51:00 PST

We're getting a little bit of work around the house done at the moment. Included in this photo set: demolition of a front wall, excavation, marking out walls, footings, crushed rock, drainage work, brick removal, membrane, reinforcing mesh, form work and termite control. Not bad for a week's worth of work.

See more thumbnails

Tags for this post: events pictures 20110420-extension photo Comment

Blathering for Friday, 15 April 2011

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:25:00 GMT

00:16: Mikal shared: Automatically generate regular expressions with Txt2re

This looks useful

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Blathering for Tuesday, 12 April 2011

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 04:51:00 GMT

22:25: Mikal shared: Cisco Shutters Flip Cameras Forever

Huh. My flip is way better than my phone camera. It seems a bit early to declare loss to me.

23:54: Mikal shared: How did the CIA and FBI Know that Australian Government Computers were Hacked?

Why didn't the Australian media raise any of these questions? Seems like obvious basic reporting to me.

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Richistan

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:25:00 PST

ISBN: 9780307341457
LibraryThing

This book examines the lives of the newly wealthy in America. Its a little dated, in that it was written before the recent real estate crash, but apart from that is a very good book. It is readable, interesting, and raises some interesting questions about what will happen with wealth in an increasingly globalized world. The book also does a good job of highlighting the increasing gap between the ultra-wealthy and not just the poor, but the middle class as well. I really enjoyed this book.

Tags for this post: book robert_frank non_fiction wealth money america
Related posts: On Cars; Being Geek; Where did SUVs come from?; The Man in the Rubber Mask; It seems to me that most people don't save enough for retirement; Sticklers, Sideburns and Bikinis; Sunk cost; Longitude; The World According to Jeremy Clarkson; The Bad Popes; Why do men have nipples?; Some Girls: My Life in a Harem; The Book of General Ignorance; Bad Science; Mars: A Survival Guide; Why American tech companies seem to get new technology better than Australian ones...; I Know You Got Soul; The Spy Within; I should try to make it to then 911 exhibit; Why Can't Elephants Jump?; Packing for my trip...

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Blathering for Monday, 04 April 2011

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 06:28:00 GMT

01:00: Mikal shared: Latham savages 'wooden, childless' Gillard - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

I find it offensive that Ms Gillard is somehow deemed less human because she hasn't had kids.

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Blathering for Sunday, 03 April 2011

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 06:45:00 GMT

01:24: Mikal shared: Simple DTMF decoder pulls numbers from YouTube videos

Nice project.

23:45: Mikal shared: The Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City (Excerpt) by John Scalzi | tor.com | Science fiction and fantasy | Stories

Love this: "others said it was very similar to the unforgettable Pounding of Skalandarharia, in which hailstones the size of melons destroyed the citys melon harvest"

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Blathering for Saturday, 02 April 2011

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:37:00 GMT

09:52: Mikal shared: Bay Area has couple of small nuclear reactors

An interesting read. People often forget the small test and training reactors apparently.

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The Bad Popes

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 02:12:00 PST

ISBN: 0750933372
LibraryThing

This book focuses on bad popes from the middle ages, and there were some hilariously bad popes in that period. The story is interesting and engaging, even if the commentary is a bit dry in places. However, given this is a factual well references history book, it is surprisingly readable. I enjoyed it.

Tags for this post: book russell_chamberlin non_fiction church history catholic italy rome pope europe
Related posts: On Cars; Historical revisionism; The Confusion; Being Geek; The Man in the Rubber Mask; IT in churches; Met: Louie Bellson; Bonanza; Sticklers, Sideburns and Bikinis; Longitude; Odalisque; The World According to Jeremy Clarkson; Papal wackamole; The Juncto; Why do men have nipples?; Some Girls: My Life in a Harem; The Book of General Ignorance; Bad Science; Nuclear accidents; Richistan; Mars: A Survival Guide

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Extension, removed paving and some before pictures of the house

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:39:00 PST

We pulled up the paving for recycling. Some before pictures of the front yard.

Tags for this post: events pictures 20110304 photo Comment

Extension, before the removal of the front trees

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:31:00 PST

This is what the front of the house looked like before we started.

Tags for this post: events pictures 20110306 photo Comment

House extension, after the front trees were removed

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:28:00 PST

These are photos of the front of the house after the two trees which needed to make the supreme sacrifice are gone.

Tags for this post: events pictures 20110307 photo Comment

Mattthew felt he had to document some of his lego

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:25:00 PST

And who am I to say no?

Tags for this post: matthew pictures 20110316 photo Comment

Catherine's photos of the moon

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:23:00 PST

Catherine was enthused with taking photos of the moon the other night.

Tags for this post: events pictures 20110320 photo Comment

Cally's War

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 13:47:00 PST

ISBN: 141652052X
LibraryThing

Let's be honest, this book has not reviewed well over the years. However, I had a long flight, and figured I'd give it a go. It wasn't actually all that bad, and was certainly massively better than some other share cropped books I have read. The writing is competent and the plotting reasonable. I think the biggest problem is that the start of the book would be quite shocking to some people (it certainly bothered me), and Cally's character is so out of line with where I wanted her to be 40 years after the last book. I can see how it would be possible for her to end up like she is in this book, but it was a disappointment to me. The pretty much constant shagging is distracting from the rest of the plot too.

Overall, I am left wanting to know more about the Darhel plot, and the book did help further that story line, if only a little. I don't regret reading the book, even though it isn't the strongest in the series.

Tags for this post: book john_ringo julie_cochrane aliens personal_ai rejuv legacy_of_the_aldenata espionage
Related posts: Hell's Faire; Watch on the Rhine; The Tuloriad; Gust Front; Yellow Eyes; A Hymn Before Battle; When the Devil Dances; The Last Colony ; The Diamond Age ; Polar City Blues; Old Man's War ; The Ghost Brigades ; Old Man's War (2); The Ghost Brigades (2); The Spy Within

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Blathering for Monday, 21 March 2011

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 03:32:00 GMT

20:11: Mikal shared: Circuit Board Lab & POV Business Card

Nice PoV project.

23:03: Mikal shared: Two Factor SSH with Google Authenticator

This is cool.

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Blathering for Saturday, 19 March 2011

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 05:18:00 GMT

15:12: Mikal shared: Bid to 'Protect Assets' Slowed Reactor Fight - WSJ.com

I think this starts to explain the escalating problem we've been seeing for the last week.

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East of the Sun, West of the Moon

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:18:00 PST

ISBN: 1416555188
LibraryThing

This book didn't review well, but I thought it was ok. Its not the best book in the Council Wars series, but it is readable and has an interesting story. It doesn't wrap up the story line completely though, so I guess I'll have to wait for the next one to be written.

Tags for this post: book john_ringo genetic_engineering nanotechnology combat post_apocalypse council_wars ai
Related posts: Emerald Sea; Against the Tide; There Will Be Dragons; Death Bringer; Cyteen: The Vindication; Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow ; Mona Lisa Overdrive; The White Dragon; Runner; Bolos 1: Honor of the Regiment; Cyteen: The Betrayal; Count Zero; Iron Master; Cloud Warrior; Amtrak Wars; Earth Thunder; Rendezvous With Rama; Logos Run; The Hunger Games; First Family; All The Weyrs of Pern

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Blathering for Monday, 14 March 2011

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 03:06:00 GMT

21:33: Mikal shared: Calls To Japan On Telstra Free Until March 25

That's a nice gesture. Well done Telstra!

21:34: Mikal shared: Battery capacity tester lifts the veil on manufacturer capacity claims

This is quite similar to a project I've had in mind for a while -- saving this link for later.

21:34: Mikal shared: Welcome to wire2wire can bus to serial converter

This is a cool project.

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Blathering for Sunday, 13 March 2011

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 03:55:00 GMT

21:41: Mikal shared: Why I am not worried about Japans nuclear reactors. | Morgsatlarge blogorific.

A really nice page explaining the likely outcome of the problems with the nuclear power plants in Japan.

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Blathering for Saturday, 12 March 2011

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 04:15:00 GMT

23:15: Mikal shared: Nuclear energy: Inside the black box

A good intro to how a reactor shutdown actually happens.

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Against the Tide

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:49:00 PST

ISBN: 1416520570
LibraryThing

This is the third book in the Council Wars series. This book covers the long promised invasion by New Destiny forces, as well as Megan's continued life in the harem. This book has a theme of incompetence in command, which is quite similar to some of Ringo's other books, such as A Hymn Before Battle and Gust Front. It is not fine literature, but it is a fun read and the characters are likeable.

Tags for this post: book john_ringo genetic_engineering nanotechnology combat post_apocalypse harem council_wars bad_commanders ai
Related posts: Emerald Sea; East of the Sun, West of the Moon; There Will Be Dragons; Death Bringer; Cyteen: The Vindication; Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow ; Mona Lisa Overdrive; The White Dragon; By Blood Alone; Legion of the Damned; Runner; Gust Front; Bolos 1: Honor of the Regiment; Cyteen: The Betrayal; Count Zero; Iron Master; Cloud Warrior; The Final Battle; Amtrak Wars; Earth Thunder; Rendezvous With Rama

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Blathering for Monday, 07 March 2011

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 02:35:00 GMT

19:20: Mikal shared: Freddie and Fannie Closing Could Change Face of Housing - NYTimes.com

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac might go away, removing subsidized mortgages for many Americans. I didn't even realize the government subsidized US mortgages. It certainly explains their very low interest rates.

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Blathering for Wednesday, 02 March 2011

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 04:46:00 GMT

07:36: Mikal shared: Life's Too Short for the Wrong Job

These ads are awesome.

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Books read in February 2011

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:00:00 PST

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Emerald Sea

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 02:52:00 PST

ISBN: 1416509208
LibraryThing

This book is really a book (Emerald Sea) and a novella (In a Time of Darkness) both of which follow on from There Will Be Dragons. Emerald Sea is more self-indulgent than the previous book, and isn't as strong as the first. It is still quite readable. In a Time of Darkness has a very awkward set of subject matter (the keeping of a harem girl against her will), which will make many readers uncomfortable, and isn't as strong a story as either of the first two stories in this series.

Tags for this post: book john_ringo genetic_engineering nanotechnology combat post_apocalypse harem council_wars ai
Related posts: Against the Tide; East of the Sun, West of the Moon; There Will Be Dragons; Death Bringer; Cyteen: The Vindication; Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow ; Mona Lisa Overdrive; The White Dragon; Runner; Bolos 1: Honor of the Regiment; Cyteen: The Betrayal; Count Zero; Iron Master; Cloud Warrior; Amtrak Wars; Earth Thunder; Rendezvous With Rama; Logos Run; The Hunger Games; First Family; All The Weyrs of Pern

Comment

Being Geek

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 22:10:00 PST

ISBN: 9780596155407
LibraryThing

This book by long time Apple engineering manager, as well as startup employee, Michael Lopp is a guide to how to manage geeks. That wasn't really what I was expecting -- which is sort of the inverse. I was hoping for a book about how to be a geek who has to deal with management. This book helps with that, by offering the inverse perspective, but I'd still like to see a book from my direction.

The book is well written, in a conversational and sometimes profane manner (a comment I see others make about his other book "Managing Humans"). I think that's ok in this context, where it feels as if Michael is having a personal conversation with you the reader. An overly formal tone here would cause the content to be much more boring, and its already dry enough.

I'm not sure I agree with everything said in the book, but the first half resonated especially strongly with me.

Tags for this post: book michael_lopp non_fiction management career
Related posts: Blogging essential to a successful career; On Cars; Why document management is good; Perl sample source code; The Man in the Rubber Mask; Cataloguing meta data against multi media formats; Sticklers, Sideburns and Bikinis; Life hacking; Further adventures with base images in OpenStack; Scott Adam's blog: the boner theory of management; Longitude; Gartner recommends blogging over electronic content management; The World According to Jeremy Clarkson; On delegation and event running; Looking for web form state management; An internal work email; PDF/A; The Bad Popes; Why do men have nipples?; Some Girls: My Life in a Harem; The Book of General Ignorance

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Blathering for Wednesday, 23 February 2011

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 04:13:00 GMT

20:35: Mikal shared: Hey, Ever Wondered If There Would Ever Be an Old Mans War Movie?

Exciting. Now if only the company that optioned the Amtrak Wars would actually make it.

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Matthew's birthday party

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 05:00:00 PST

Some pictures thereof.

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Blathering for Friday, 18 February 2011

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 09:52:00 GMT

05:07: Mikal shared: Glowing Glass And Peering Into Infinity: A Bright, Clean Workspace | Lifehacker Australia

I really like the look of this edge lit glass desktop. This would also be cool as book shelves.

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Blathering for Thursday, 17 February 2011

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 03:03:00 GMT

22:45: Mikal shared: Thomas Thwaites: How I built a toaster -- from scratch | Video on TED.com

This talk is awesome. Let's all make toasters!

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Blathering for Tuesday, 15 February 2011

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 04:36:00 GMT

00:18: Mikal shared: Update: Full offline Timetables available!

Good to see

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Blathering for Sunday, 13 February 2011

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 04:02:00 GMT

06:22: Mikal shared: The Guardians Wikileaks Book Is This Generations All The Presidents Men

This book sounds quite interesting.

09:31: Mikal shared: YouTube - Deborah Rhodes: A tool that finds 3x more breast tumors, and why it's not available to you

This is a really interesting talk about a new breast cancer screening technique. MBI doesn't appear to be in use in Australia at this time (as best as I can tell from a search).

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Margarita Mix

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 22:09:00 PST

I've had trouble sourcing an acceptable Margarita Mix now that we're back in Australia. You can get the Jose Cuervo stuff, but it is $10 for a liter bottle. Instead, I've been making my own, which is nicer than the store stuff and cheaper to make as well. It is also ultra simple to make. Here's how:

Put two cups of white sugar in a pot with four cups of water. Heat on the stove stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves. Turn this mix off and let it cool down slowly on the stove. It should be quite thick when cooled, and there should be no visible sugar crystals any more.

When the liquid is cool, add a cup of fresh lime juice and a cup of fresh lemon juice. Stir thorough. Pour the result into a bottle and stick it in the fridge. It should store for a couple of weeks, and I am told it freezes ok as well.

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First paper published

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:14:00 PST

This is just a quick note to say that the first paper for my SMTP research, which is the core of my PhD thesis, is now online in the International Journal of Computer Science and Security (IJCSS) Volume 4 Issue 6. This is exciting because its also my first academic publication. It wouldn't have happened without the patient editorial work of my supervisor, Dr Eric McCreath.

This paper is basically a literature review, so it is not ground breaking. It is a nice summary of the field though.

Tags for this post: research smtp journal publication
Related posts: What is the definition of publication?; First to publish, academic articles, and blogging Comment

Blathering for Thursday, 10 February 2011

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 04:23:00 GMT

20:32: Mikal shared: Tokyo Gas and Panasonic to Launch New Improved "Ene-Farm" Home Fuel Cell with World-Highest Power Generation Efficiency at More Affordable Price | Headquarters News | Panasonic Global

This is cool -- if only it didn't cost $33,000 AUD, plus installation costs.

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Blathering for Wednesday, 09 February 2011

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 03:43:00 GMT

22:22: Mikal shared: Nine Lessons in Wealth-Building from The Millionaire Next Door

I read The Millionaire Next Door in the late 1990s. There were a lot of ideas which I found pretty radical in there when I read it at the time. I should put it back on the list for a re-read.

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Blathering for Tuesday, 08 February 2011

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 04:10:00 GMT

02:26: Mikal shared: NBN: End User Services Taking Shape

The NBN ATA looks cool. I wonder how long it will be before six distinct services isn't considered enough?

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Canberra officially expresses interest in hosting LCA in 2013

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 19:45:00 PST

For those playing along at home, you will have noticed that there is a pretty keen group of people in Canberra who intend to bid for LCA 2013. Linux Australia has now called for formal expressions of interest, and I just sent ours in. I wont repost it here, but instead will suggest you checkout the thread in the mailman archive.

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There Will Be Dragons

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 02:30:00 PST

ISBN: 0743488598
LibraryThing

I bought this book randomly when I saw it at a charity book sale. While the title is kid of odd, its actually quite a good read. The book is sort of a science fiction fantasy novel, set in the far future with a reasonably plausible plot line. There are a few elements that I feel could be explained a bit better, but overall the book is quite good. I'll be buying the next one in the series.

Tags for this post: book john_ringo genetic_engineering nanotechnology combat post_apocalypse council_wars ai
Related posts: East of the Sun, West of the Moon; Emerald Sea; Against the Tide; Death Bringer; Cyteen: The Vindication; Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow ; Mona Lisa Overdrive; The White Dragon; Runner; Bolos 1: Honor of the Regiment; Cyteen: The Betrayal; Count Zero; Iron Master; Cloud Warrior; Amtrak Wars; Earth Thunder; Rendezvous With Rama; Logos Run; The Hunger Games; First Family; All The Weyrs of Pern

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Rendezvous With Rama

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 01:37:00 PST

ISBN: 0330240242
LibraryThing

This is a classic book, so I expected a lot from it. I was a little disappointed to be honest. The book is slow, although interesting. There chapters are all very short as well (around four or five pages), which is a little odd. There is a lot of potential with this concept, and I feel this book could have gone a lot further.

Tags for this post: book arthur_c_clarke first_contact aliens space_travel genetic_engineering award hugo nebula npr_top_100_sf
Related posts: Ender's Game; The Diamond Age ; The Forever War; Red Mars; Dragonflight ; Neuromancer; Caves of Steel; Cyteen: The Vindication; Foundation's Edge ; Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow ; Mona Lisa Overdrive; Forever Peace; The Ship Who Sang ; Cyteen: The Betrayal; Count Zero; The Accidental Time Machine ; Speaker For The Dead; Old Man's War ; Dragonquest; Old Man's War (2); Cyteen: The Rebirth

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Slow cooker caramelized onions

Sat, 05 Feb 2011 15:41:00 PST

I was keen the other day on giving caramelizing onions in the slow cooker a go. It was comparatively simple, although I had trouble finding a site which had a complete set of instructions -- lots of sites say "it works", but don't give a lot of detail. So here's what I did: put 1.2 kilograms of diced onions in the slow cooker. Chuck 75 grams of butter on top, as well as a heaped soup spoon of brown sugar. Run the slow cooker on high for two hours, stirring hourly. Then turn the slow cooker down to low and run it for 14 hours, stirring when you're in the mood. Add a cup of chicken stock, which you stir though. Run the slow cooker for another hour with the lid off to dry stuff out. The stock gives a nice sheen to the onion, but doesn't really change the flavour.

The finished product is lovely, and makes a great french onion dip.

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Books read in January 2011

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:07:00 PST

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On the flood levy

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:57:00 PST

So, it seems there is some fuss at the moment about the flood levy, so I thought I'd whip up a quick graph of how much we're all going to have to pay to rebuild some bigish bits of Australia. Here it is:

One of my spreadsheet formulas was wrong. I've now fixed that.

So, we're asking someone earning half a million dollars a year to pay around ~~$2,250~~ $6,250 more for a single year. That doesn't sound too bad to me.

Tags for this post: blog flood levy tax
Related posts: Is my cat deductible?; Mental note: don't become a US permanent resident just in case; Pacifying New Orleans; US tax withholding for W-8BEN Comment

The mechanics of bidding for LCA

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 23:03:00 PST

As I sit here reading the notes from the Future LCAs birds of a feather at LCA2011, I've come to the realization that most of the conversation was about the mechanics of what is required for an LCA bid. It can be daunting to know what needs to be done in order to have a successful bid for an event as complicated as LCA, especially if you've never been an organizer before. Its not clear that Canberra will have a successful bid for 2013 yet, but I think its a good idea to share what we've done so far if it helps others develop high quality bids.

The first thing to think about is your team. At the BoF, it was strongly suggested that you need around five to six people for a good bid. I've seen conferences run with fewer people than that, but it is risky. LCA is a large and complicated event these days, and with a planning horizon of around two years, you need to be prepared for there to be a fair bit of churn in your core organizing team. Some people will move away, or change jobs. Others might have a new child and discover they're much too busy for a conference as well. So, remember when you're putting that initial team together to pack in some extra folks in order to handle the churn. Most Australian capital cities have former LCA organizers in them these days as well (we call them ghosts in the Linux Australia community). You should try to find one or two of these people to be involved as well. For example, the Canberra bid committee currently stands at 14 people, seven or whom have been on a LCA core team before, 3 of whom have served on Linux Australia's national committee, and at least two of whom have run their local Linux User's Group at some point in the past.

Let Linux Australia know that you're interested in submitting a bid (council@linux.org.au seems like the right place to send this). They can provide you with sample bids and budgets from previous conferences when the bid process starts. They can help you plan your bid, and assist with modelling the cost of the conference. Linux Australia also has a few online references you should read early and often, including public bid guidelines and a how-to for running the conference (although the latter is a little dated now).

Next you need to starting filling in some of the details for your conference. Where are you going to host the main conference? In Canberra's experience it is getting quite hard to find venues which can host a conference for 700 people, especially when you take into account that people really like to be all in the same room for keynotes and closing sessions. Canberra is lucky in this regard because we have at least three venues which can scale to this size event, but that might not be true of all cities. So, find a conference venue as a first step with your new team. Don't forget when talking to venues to ask how much the venue will cost -- a significant part of the conference budget can get spent on the main venue. Note also that many venues require that you use their catering and audio visual companies if you're using their rooms. This can be a hidden expense that's painful to discover later.

Your local city probably has a Convention Bureau that can start to be helpful now. The Canberra Convention Bureau has been very supportive for our bid, starting out with a meeting to get a feel for the event, running a familiarization tour of possible venues for various components of the conference, and helping us with the actual content of our bid. The venue tour was a particularly interesting exercise -- it was a three day non-stop tour of possible venues and while quite tiring I learnt heaps. These tours are generally run with other potential conference organizers from around the country, so you also get to learn from seeing what questions other organizations ask. The Canberra Convention Bureau don't just do this because they're lovely people (they are). The Bureau is funded by the various tourist attractions in the city, who obviously have a vested interest in bringing events to Canberra. The Bureau is also staffed with people who have worked in the hotel, hospitality and conference industry for many years, which means they have plenty of experience to share when you need advice.

You'll also need to start working out what venues you want to use for the various other events. There is an open day, as well as a variety of social events to organize. At this point you don't need to pay deposits for these facilities, but you do need a reasonable idea of what they cost and whether they're available. Again, most venues have signed exclusive catering deals, so you need to make sure that you understand who is providing those services, how much they cost, and if that is already included in the venue cost.

Accommodation can be hard to work out as well. It is now traditional to offer a student style accommodation option for the budget conscious, and this can take some negotiation with nearby student residences. For example with LCA 2005 we moved the conference to April, and then discovered later that our preferred student residences weren't available at this time of year because despite being during a university break, students often stay around. For our 2013 bid we've been talking to the owners of some very fancy student residences that are brand new. It took a little bit of talking before that residence became available because our intended week for the conference is the week before the normal student move in time. We worked it out in the end, but you can't just assume that student residences are available for your conference.

During all these conversations you should be "penciling in" your bookings to ensure your chosen venues are available if you do win the bidding process. Remember not to make a firm commitment though, because you don't want to pay a deposit for a conference that might not end up happening! Additionally, collect some form of confirmation from venues that they are available. In some cases our documentation is as informal as email chains. In other cases we already have formal written quotations. What you're trying to do here is reinforce to the Linux Australia national committee that you're well organized, and serious about hosting an excellent conference. There is a lot of money involved with hosting LCA, so you really need to reassure Linux Australia that you can be trusted with the financial obligations.

One final point -- one of the best ways to develop experience at bidding for LCA is to actually bid. Even if your bid is rejected you'll end up with a bunch of useful feedback about how to improve it in the future. You'll also get to see how the winning bid compared with yours, which gives you an important data point.

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Blathering for Sunday, 30 January 2011

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 04:03:00 GMT

09:18: Mikal shared: DSC_3242 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Paul, being Paul.

09:19: Mikal shared: DSC_3472 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Tridge, burning down the house.

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The Apocalypse Troll

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:33:00 PST

ISBN: 0671578456
Baen (2000), Mass Market Paperback, 416 pages
LibraryThing

This is an interesting combination of a first contact story, a combat science fiction story, and a love story. It is very different from the other science fiction I've read recently, and I enjoyed it a lot. The book has a good beginning and ending, but is slow in the middle. I'm glad I kept at it though.

Tags for this post: book david_weber first_contact combat space_travel sailing cybernetics
Related posts: The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress; The Ship Who Sang ; Starbound; Rendezvous With Rama; Marsbound; Earthbound; The Coming; Agent to the Stars; Runner; Bonanza; The Accidental Time Machine ; Logos Run; Buying Time; Red Mars; Destinies Volume 1 Number 1; A Hymn Before Battle; Mars: A Survival Guide; A World Out of Time; Camouflage ; Asimov's Aurora; Asimov's Chimera

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LCA 2012: Ballarat

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 12:41:00 PST

So, a million people have blogged and tweeted about this, so I'm going to keep this short. Congratulations to Ballarat on their winning 2012 bid. They've stepped up for what is a massive job, with the added complications of being the first to try something a little new. As a ghost I appreciate them being willing to expend this effort for the benefit of all of us. I've had a few chances to spend time with the Ballarat core team this week, and I think they're dedicated, smart, and going to do a great job.

I know some are concerned about transport, and to be honest I was at first too, but I don't think it is actually all that bad. There is a shuttle bus just like any other modern city (it seems to take about 90 minutes on the airport shuttle, which isn't that much longer than getting to the Melbourne CBD from that airport). There are also rental cars, and Google Maps tells me that you could save 8 minutes on your trip that way! Worst case it is only a 22 hour, 35 minute walk according to Google Maps.

Personally, I'm going to walk from Canberra, which will only take 5 days, 22 hours. Who wants to join me?

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Blathering for Friday, 28 January 2011

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 02:12:00 GMT

01:48: Mikal shared: Failbook: I Has Really Been

LOL

01:49: Mikal shared: index

Bdale alleges that his home CNC machine will be documented here soon.

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Blathering for Thursday, 27 January 2011

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 04:30:00 GMT

06:15: Mikal shared: Main Page - OpenKinect

Kinects are cool

23:32: Mikal shared: This Is The Wikileak That Sparked The Tunisian Crisis

Wikileaks and Tunisia

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Contact details for the Canberra LCA 2013 bid

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:15:00 PST

Hi. I just wanted to quickly let people know that if they're interested in being kept informed about the bid for LCA 2013 to be in Canberra, you should subscribe to our mailing list at http://lists.clug.org.au/listinfo/canberra2013. We'll send regular updates to that list as we hit important deadlines during the bid process.

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Blathering for Wednesday, 26 January 2011

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 12:18:00 GMT

21:11: Mikal shared: DSC_0407 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

And then if we set it on fire... Steve assists Andrew.

21:12: Mikal shared: DSC_0329 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Carol

21:13: Mikal shared: Vint Cerf | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Vint

21:14: Mikal shared: DSC_0989 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Please do not move these desks and chairs as they are set up for examinations

21:15: Mikal shared: DSC_1251 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Another of Carol

21:16: Mikal shared: DSC_1263 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

How did Stewart dye his beard such a believable ginger?

21:16: Mikal shared: DSC_1265 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Champagne you say?

21:22: Mikal shared: Facebook the new fast track to divorce courts

I love the term "gray nomad"

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Blathering for Tuesday, 25 January 2011

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 04:13:00 GMT

21:17: Mikal shared: A free smartphone app for buses in Canberra | MyBus 2.0

This is really interesting. A group of students have decided that its lame that the Canberra bus service has a terrible web site, no mobile applications, and refuses to provide the data for others to fill in the gaps. This will be fun to watch and I hope they win.

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Blathering for Monday, 24 January 2011

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 03:27:00 GMT

03:59: Mikal shared: PCBCART, Prototype to Production PCB supplier from China -

The PCB fab shop that Jon recommended in his Arduino miniconf talk.

04:00: Mikal shared: Arduino Shield List

Jon's list of arduino shields.

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LCA 2013 bid process opens - Canberra at the ready!

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 15:24:00 PST

For the last several months, a small group of people in Canberra including myself have been preparing a bid for LCA 2013. This is not just to give us more time to make the conference the most awesome, froody LCA you've ever been to. No - 2013 is also the centenary of the founding of Canberra as the nation's capital. It's a very significant year for us and we'd all be thrilled if we could show the attendees of LCA our great city and Canberrans the great work the FOSS community does to improve everyone's lives.

So we're really stoked that the bidding process is going to be opened early, and I think it'll lead to a really interesting competition that will result, whoever wins, in the best LCA ever!

If you're interested in getting involved, drop me a line!

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Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 23:46:00 PST

ISBN: 0671660632
Pocket (1988), Paperback
LibraryThing

This book took me a little while to get into. although I am glad I kept at it. Not as good as The Hitchhiker's Guide, but still worth the time to read.

Tags for this post: book douglas_adams comedy time_travel aliens detective
Related posts: Caves of Steel; So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish ; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe ; The Man in the Rubber Mask; Bill The Galactic Hero ; Colony; Redshirts; Bill the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains; Naked Sun; The Hemingway Hoax; The Light Fantastic; The Accidental Time Machine ; The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy ; Better Than Life; Bill the Galactic Hero Series; Polar City Blues; Isaac Asimov's Utopia; Isaac Asimov's Caliban; And Another Thing; Life, the Universe and Everything ; Red Dwarf

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Bad Science

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 13:16:00 PST

ISBN: 0865479186
LibraryThing

I've been trying to read one non-fiction book a month recently, and this is the one for January. This book is simply excellent and I'm glad I read it. It is clearly written, entertaining, and easy to understand. Yet it covers complex issues about how mis-reporting of medicine result in people dying. It covers statistical errors, dodgy marketing, and self serving journalism. An excellent book that I am now going to force my wife to read.

Tags for this post: book ben_goldacre science medicine mmr autism vaccine statistics homeopathy non_fiction
Related posts: Sixty five roses (Cystic Fibrosis); On Cars; Being Geek; Lemon juice as a cure for AIDS?; The Man in the Rubber Mask; Who writes Linux?; Sticklers, Sideburns and Bikinis; Longitude; The World According to Jeremy Clarkson; The Bad Popes; Why do men have nipples?; Some Girls: My Life in a Harem; The Book of General Ignorance; Richistan; Mars: A Survival Guide; I Know You Got Soul; The Spy Within; Why Can't Elephants Jump?; Why don't penguin's feet freeze? (and 114 other questions); Why do men fall asleep after sex?; Paul Allen's Science Fiction Museum

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Blathering for Friday, 21 January 2011

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 03:59:00 GMT

07:06: Mikal shared: TGN1412 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Interesting. This is a drug trial which went wrong badly, as mentioned in "Bad Science".

08:52: Mikal shared: Craig Charles confirms Red Dwarf is back for a new series | Mail Online

They're going to do a new series of Red Dwarf!

08:53: Mikal shared: The LlewBlog - Red Dwarf

Confirmed by another cast member!

10:07: Mikal shared: YouTube - carpoolUK's Channel

A nice interview between Robert Llewellyn and Rob Grant.

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Things I'm taking to the Arduino miniconf

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:48:00 PST

I figured I'd go to the Arduino miniconf and help out with the assembly tutorial. That got me thinking about what I should take that's relatively small, but likely to be helpful. So far I've got:

My butane soldering iron and solder (I'm not packing butane though, I'll have to find that up there)
De-soldering wick and a solder sucker
Side cutters
Tweasers
A multimeter
A USBtinyISP
A couple of duemilanove boards
Some spare Atmega 328s
One of Doug's ethernet boards
A spare development central heating controller (my current project)
My RS485 development stuff (so I can keep working on that)

What else should I bring?

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Blathering for Wednesday, 19 January 2011

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:26:00 GMT

21:31: Mikal shared: My Rotisserie Chicken Has a Chemical Found In Brake Fluid

The margarita mix Emily brought over for Christmas had propylene glycol in it too. I'm so glad I drank some of it now...

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Blathering for Tuesday, 18 January 2011

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 04:57:00 GMT

22:14: Mikal shared: Starbucks Drops A 31-Ounce Bomb: The Trenta

Yeah, what America needs is larger servings. I know people aren't forced to buy these, but that's still a big iced coffee (31 ounces is just under a liter, or two pints).

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Blathering for Monday, 10 January 2011

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 04:07:00 GMT

22:56: Mikal shared: Comments on "A pretty good day"

I'm always surprised by this page. It will be idle for months, and then along will come another couple of comments. Its like a little support group has formed on a blog post.

23:07: Mikal shared: Glenn Beck: We Must Stand Together Against All Violence (With A Gun In Our Hands)

"Its as though he wants to shoot the crap out of violence"

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Days of Air and Darkness

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:03:00 PST

ISBN: 0553572628
Spectra (1995), Mass Market Paperback, 432 pages
LibraryThing

Rori and friends are attempting to lift the siege started in Days of Blood and Fire. This book is mostly action without much discussion or character development, which makes it fun to read. The big battle at the end is a bit unusual, because so many die, but I wont say any more because I don't want to ruin it for you. An enjoyable book, the best bit of which would have to be the Jill and Rodry quest at the beginning.

Tags for this post: book katharine_kerr sword_and_sourcery dragon deverry fantasy
Related posts: Days of Blood and Fire; Dawnspell: The Bristling Wood; A Time of Omens; The Dragon Revenant; Daggerspell; Darkspell; Katharine Kerr's Deverry Series; A Time of Exile; Belgarath the Sorcerer; Polgara the Sorceress; Castle Of Wizardry; Pawn of Prophecy; The Seeress of Kell; Sorceress of Darshiva; The Malloreon; Demon Lord of Karanda; The Belgariad; Enchanters End Game; Gate of Ivrel; Guardians of the West; Magician's Gambit

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Starbound

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 15:21:00 PST

ISBN: 044101979X
LibraryThing

This is the newly released sequel for Marsbound which I really liked, so I was excited when this arrived the other day. This book is much like the previous one stylistically, being written as a set of mostly first person diary entries. However, the people writing these entries are older now, and this feels less like a teen fiction novel. There is also more than one narrator in this book, unlike the first, with generally each chapter being narrated by one of three people. This can be a bit jarring at first, because it takes a while to realize that a new person is narrating and that's why the point of view changed. You get used to it though. This book is also quite Heinlein like in this level of sex, which is similar to Marsbound, but not true of all of the Haldeman books I've read -- I think it might be a relatively recent change to his style.

Overall a good book, I enjoyed it, and I can't wait for the next one in the series (which Joe finished at the end of 2010).

Tags for this post: book joe_haldeman mars aliens exploration space_travel sanity first_contact marsbound
Related posts: Marsbound; Earthbound; Rendezvous With Rama; Red Mars; Mars: A Survival Guide; Camouflage ; The Coming; The Apocalypse Troll; The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress; Agent to the Stars; Redshirts; Runner; The Ship Who Sang ; The Accidental Time Machine ; Logos Run; Buying Time; Destinies Volume 1 Number 1; A Hymn Before Battle; A World Out of Time; Jupiter

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Books read in December 2010

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 15:00:00 PST

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Blathering for Sunday, 09 January 2011

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 04:03:00 GMT

22:13: Mikal shared: Giffords Shooting Follow-up

Nice summary

22:16: Mikal shared: Violent Acts Are What Happen When You Create a Climate of Hate

Agreed

22:18: Mikal shared: Palin Aide Claims Crosshairs on Target Map Arent Gunsights

An example of the rhetoric of hate -- crosshairs on maps.

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