Over the falls

Okay, I know you're not supposed to click on your own ads, but I found this link to Cambrian House quite intriguing. Remember those guys who bought Mikal lunch? well, this is them, so they obviously have a pretty smart marketing team. It turns out that they also have a pretty neat idea, too. Or rather than just one, about a squillion... You know, If I had a dollar for every time someone said to me: "Hey, you're a computer nerd. You know what would be really cool? [insert some random weird person specific software idea] Now I'm sure that would make you a million dollars!" Well, then I'd have at least seven dollars. Which isn't really that impressive, but when you consider that there are at least 3 hundred thousand computer nerds out there, each with at least seven different [insert some random weird person specific software idea], Then that old longtail large number theory starts to kick in... Cambrian House are offering a battle ground where ideas can p...

Well, it's been a few weeks since my family and I arrived here in America - during this time, so much stuff has happened, and I just haven't had much time for updates. So, here's the highlights of the last few weeks as they stick in my head. I'll try harder to post regularly, but I'm not making any promises... My family settles into our new home for the next few years- an old, almost condemmned vinyl siding house with a faint smell of mold, and a backyard the size of a regulation soccer field, surrounded by giant green maple,oak and cherry trees. Yes, That's the lawnmower. I already hate it. I remember what it was like to move out of home, with borrowed furniture, mattresses on the floor, and never quite being able to find the exact implement you want to cook with. Our house is still very sparse, and has the unique, University-Student-two-minute-noodle Group House feel. Home, sweet home. Two Australian Software consultants walk into a crawfish bar in ...

Mathematics tends not to be seen as the most emotional science. And yet, when I use a VOIP connection to hear my daughter tell me about her farewell party, 10,628 miles away, her giggle is being crunched into a string of 1s and 0s, and streamed across the Pacific Ocean to my ear, where it of course has a profound emotional effect on me - just as though we were together... Somewhere, there's passion in all of that maths. This Morning, I woke up early to stare at a yellow line and a dinky picture of an Airplane: Which is having a similar effect - that dinky airplane picture is a live 3D feed of Qantas Flight 149 as it brings me and my family back together for the first time in over a month. Data like Altitude, direction, speed and flight plan are all available and charted in real time fboweb.com offers the live updates as a KML feed, available for viewing through Google Earth. This must be one of the coolest uses of Google Earth I've seen (It does seem to be limited only to fligh...

The 70+ year old lady I met in line at the store, who told me that she... "...Really, Really love(d) Pink Floyd. I Think Dark Side of the Moon is the best album ever!" The street signs in Virginia that say in boldface "DO NOT DRIVE ON SHOULDERS" The black guy who was having such a great day that he offered to buy the shirt I was buying at Wal-Mart: "You know, I could buy an alcoholic beverage for a complete stranger at a bar, and people would think I was a terrific guy! But If I bought a complete stranger a shirt, or some peanut butter at the grocery store, they'd think I was some kind of weirdo..." The world cup presentation ceremony - after the game, the teams lined up to be presented with a medal from three important looking men in suits. One would give them a medal, one would shake their hands, and the third guy appeared to be there to give them a hug. Each player would get a big hug from this weird football official guy. Some of the players look...

You know, this might alarm some of you. But in my endless quest for truth and justice, I've discovered something that is, in and of itself, quite shocking. Because I care about you all, I feel the need to point this out, for the good of mankind. The TV Dinners, called 'Banquet' are NOT REAL BANQUETS! In fact, they are actually, (And there's no other nice way to say this) - Extremely Disgusting. When I was a kid, fresh out of home, and trying to figure out whether I should spend my rent money on beer or not, I found that I had this enormous other problem - food no longer just materialised on the table when I was hungry. So, I had to learn to 'cook' (well, prepare something that vaguely looked like food enough to keep me alive. It wasn't until I met my wife that she actually coerced me towards anything that actually resembled cooking. But I digress...) And as I was 'cooking' my 'food', I used to lament the complexity of modern Cuisine. ...