Life is hard

Dog has found the meaning of life and making the most of it.

At Lavandula lavender farm outside Daylesford last Sunday.

True to the core principle

Well it seems that subconciously I have adhered to the one and only principle of this blog "Now and Again"...

I will also, for the benefit and interest of friends and contacts in this country and around the world, attempt to summarise the past 2 years of my life so that we can (once again) start fresh. In a world fragmented by as well as replicated across Twitter, Facebook, email, blogs (MySpace is dead clearly) and other e-ways of spending infinite amounts of time trying to trace and reconcile, I am hedging my bets on blogs and FaceBook as the two surviving "my life on display" media.

So... the synopsis:

The second half of 2007 saw us preparing for the April 2008 wedding and trying to keep cool... Funny how a second wedding works in your head and how you want to go about it 'second time round'. In my case it was about somethng low key and yet memorable, different to the previous for many reasons and, importantly, enabling our kids to be part of it.

We were blessed with good luck in our preparations and the day itself went without a glitch - perfect weather, exemplary behaviour by all kids, and all our guests present and happy. Our memories of the day here

Later in 2008 I packed my two girls into a hired campervan and took a five day trip to Merimbula (just across the border into New South Wales) and just relaxed and enjoyed the weather and our company. A few shots here.

Somehow I gave myself two juicy hernias and had to get them fixed, so two bulletproof meshes and a few titanium staples later I got my lower regions reinforced (sorry folks, no pictures).

I am still working at nab (National Australia Bank) as an Architect and feel like a career change. Any suggestions?

All along that time, I rediscovered my passion for cycling too. Here in Melbourne cycling is the big thing now - the green and healthy alternative to driving and public transport. I am mainly riding recreationally, with the kids (when all electronics devices have been taken away) and to/from work weather permitting - a good 18 Kms each way.

A certain cycling event, and my 30 days of prep towards it, is likely to be the subject of the few next blog posts. I will be taking part in this year's Great Victorian Bike Ride, this year taking place along the spectacular Great Ocean Road.

So watch this space... It could be fun and interesting...

Good Morning Luna!

The need:
For months I have been ogling a couple of Alarm Clock Speakers for the iPod. Unfortunately, Australia is months behind the US and the UK when it comes to gadgets hitting the market. Some never do. But the iPod market has really penetrated Australia and things are looking good.

My criteria were:

• small (must fit on the bedside cabinet)
• cool looks (sleek, modern, sexy!)
  
• capable for iPod 5G and iPod nano (nano on its way)
  
• alarm (who likes waking up to ghastly buzzer sounds...)
  
• snooze and sleep functions (especially snooze...)
  
• gradual wake up and sleep (nobody wants to be blasted at 6:00am)
  

The opportunity:
The end of financial year sale in Australia can be very stressful time. The only two department stores (Myer, David Jones) and a couple of the big chain retailers (Harvey Norman, Retravision) can offer some very good deals on electronics, clothes, whitegoods, furniture etc. Note the order of bargains in the previous sentence!... A female would have said "clothes, furniture, clothes and whitegoods" :)

So I went looking. I was stressed (didn't have approval) but I wanted an alarm clock with bells and whistles...

My shortlist was short: iHome iH5 and XtremeMac Luna. Our Singapore trip in January was disappointing when it came to gadgets: nothing excited me enough and there was really not enough choice. Back then I was after the Logitech AudioStation but that one got eliminated for a. its price and b. its large-ish dimensions for a bedside cabinet. The iHome unit is very good - we got to listen to it at the Singapore Airport duty free shop - and it retails for a good A$100 less than the Luna.

The action:
But a couple of months ago I listened to the Luna in a Mac store and it really impressed me. So that was the "chosen one"!

There are many reviews of the Luna on the Internet but I will promote the one by iLounge with a score of A-. It is accurate, sensible, honest and with no wanky terminology. The iLounge guys did actually review it twice, after XtremeMac fixed a couple of glitches via fixes to the firmware. This, by the way, has to be said for all iLounge reviews in general. And when it comes to iPod gear, I think iLounge is by far the most accurate and reliable source.

The conclusion:
Price-wise the Luna was a bargain as I bought it for A$195 with an extra 3-year warranty. But it's the unit's quality that sets it apart: the design is sleek, the controls are simple yet functional and very intuitive (you don't really need a a manual, the quick reference template placed on top of the unit summarizes the function of the four control buttons/dials). Sound-wise, the speakers deliver a really warm, rich sound. It looks like a lot of work has been put into the design and construction of the speaker drivers, as the Luna is capable of delivering varying types of music with no distortion.

So if you are in the market for such a unit, I really do recommend the Luna.

Under the Surface...

That's it. Today's "major announcement" does it for me. Microsoft Surface my ass.

Quoted as a new generation of computing products that will "break down traditional barriers between people and technology", Microsoft has effectively borrowed an amazingly intuitive action behind Apple's iPhone user interface and ir trying to flog it as theirs.

Looking at the Surface website, sure you can "shop and play at the lobby", but that's just software Bill! The idea was first shown on a device much smaller than a PC. A device to soon be carried by millions of people around the world. Not a full blown PC with a fancy screen in the lobby of an expensive hotel.

Which brings me to this significant statement: I am truly over Windows PCs.

Over the past few months I have had it up to my eybrows with stupid little glitches on my home and my work laptops:

• My home laptop will 'almost' shut down - apart from the fact that it takes a good 4 minutes to do whatever it needs to do before it powers off - to the extent that I get up in the morning and it still sitting there thinking how to turn off... What a baby! How much supervision does it need?


• My work laptop used to auto detect whether it needs a Windows domain to log in to or not. Now, when I'm at home, I need to power it up and log in to Windows before I connect it to my home netwrork (or just the router).

I hate things that cannot be explained, which is why I had enough of Windows. Note: I love computers and what can be achieved with them. I had enough of the clumsy, resource-heavy, non-intuitive operating system called Windows. I will never try Vista, just because it looks cooler than XP. I will not fall for gimmicks any more.

My home computing needs have come a long way compared to 10 years ago. I was a sucker for development tools (programming) and PC games. Now, the needs revolve around digital imaging, storage, internet access and music. A Mac has been able to do all that for years. It's been perfected. The Mac UI concepts have always been industry leaders. The new Intel-based technology base has brought the prices down and took performance to new heights

So the decision has been made and the time has come... Well, almost. An upcoming wedding is a priority. Can't argue with that really!...

I will leave you with a very funny animation clip I came across on BestOfYouTube.com - just watch out for the iHouse!...

Ivar the Great!

Today i had the great pleasure of listening to Ivar Jacobson, one of the most influential characters in the world of Software Engineering. He is the author of many books, some of which I have read and some which I still refer to.

In 1967, when I was one year old (!), Ivar proposed the concept of 'software components' for developing telephony switches for Ericsson... Over the years he has been refining and promoting component-based software development as well as methodologies around desing, construction and testing as well as the promotion and and refinement of some of the main methodologies out there, eg RUP.

My current employer brought him in to give us a 'teaser' kind of talk on his latest brain child, the Essential Unified Process. The concept is great and, really, very common sense - which is why he conceived it and so many of us missed it!... Here's 8 fundamental practice elements. Take the ones you think are relevant or even appealing to you and decide to what extent you wish to use them. As you get better or depending on the size or nature of your next piece of work, adopt some more of those 8 practices.

It is not as heavy and regimented as the Rational Unified Process (RUP) and not as scary as eXtreme Programming, although it does have elements of Agile and XP and Scrum in it. Architecture and Project Management are still there but not as heavy and useless as they often are.

The best thing though was his style and delivery. He's a very down to earth guy, no rocket scientist (although a lot more intelligent than most of us!) and he's very interactive. He apologised for the structure of today's session as there was not much chance for Q&A, which is his preferred style. He is dead pan, funny and challenging at the same time. He has that Scandinavian coolness and slight sarcasm in his delivery. Overall he's very engaging and fun to listen to.

If you have the chance to attend one of his speeches, don't miss it!

Evil vs. Evil

Last night the TV channel ABC kicked-off the two-part Richard Dawkins documentary on how religious faith leading to fanaticism is catching up (and possibly overtaking) science and its rational, fact-based truth.

The show is not a televised version of the book The God Delusion (although references to delusional people and factions are often made). Rather, Dawkins travels America and Israel to uncover some extreme and disturbing cases.

In America, the country who has clearly been blessed by God (and it still does, at the end of every major Presidential speech or Hollywood movie - can't see the difference really, both cost lots of money to produce, some make you laugh and some you regret you wasted time for), some 'Pastor' hosts rock concert-like gatherings to brainwash people on the Bible and concepts oh hope, peace and love. The recipients of such valuable training will live to become influential people for their country, all the way to the top, and then send armies to destroy evil on the other side of the world. Amazing stuff...

In Israel, Dawkins visited the temple where Jesus was crucified. The tour guide showed him the hole in the ground where the holy cross was put in, to what Dawkins said "You don't really believe that, do you?” to which the guide responded "But of course, this is what we've been told for generations". Who cares about evidence? Anyone can make anything up.
Dawkins also interviewed some fanatic who left his West Bank fanatic friends and hopped on the other side - now a very outspoken Muslim fundamentalist. Other than having a go at Dawkins for being an atheist, this person's main beef was about women and how Western civilisation is unable to dress their women properly and get them to behave (read: covered from top to bottom, unable to socialise, work or live a normal life). Taking sexism to new heights.

Power-hungry people on both sides. And it's clearly getting worse.

NASA is still performing deep-space exploration. I don't have a problem with scientific advancements mainly because it helps us understand facts about ourselves - but when it comes to looking for life forms, this planet has some priorities to work out before we seek friends (or seek to destroy more evil) elsewhere. America has to sort out its own backyard first before stepping into hyperspace.

If all these different groups of people can't live with each other on one planet, what are our chances of getting on with some totally 'alien' species?

It's quite ironic. Religions promote love, peace and morals and yet they are the root cause of wars and hatred. And where scientists could be taking each other out on an ongoing "I'm right, you're wrong" campaign, we have worldwide collaborations against AIDS and cancer and (not enough) global warming AND we know more and more about how we got here.

Venting off on a wet day

Thank heavens for some decent, much needed rain overnight and this morning!

It does not bother me a bit that my journey to work involves walking under an umbrella, foggy windows on the train, wet shoes or having to duck down to protect myself about careless umbrella holders on the sidewalk. It's a bit like Sunday drivers really - they don't get to practice much during the week so on the weekend they're all over the road in their ignorant little ways.

As I arrived at my building, I was greeted by the friendly proprietor of the ground-floor coffee shop, who (over the course of the past 18 months) has made it very obvious that she is very proud of her Greek origins. She has also made a very correct observation that I am not that 'Greek'. Sure I have the looks and lived there for the first 19 years of my life and my accent has certain remnants and I do talk with my hands (to a certain extent) - but I have chosen not to live in Greece or marrry a Greek lady or observe most cultural and all religious traditions.

The said person did not know that I absolutely loved living in England. So when she asked me sarcastically how I like the gray sky and all that rain, I replied "Yes, it reminds me of London". To which her lips trembled and she commented that she should have expected that and that I chose to come to the right place weather-wise (Melbourne) to live.

I couldn't be bothered to engage in an environmental crisis conversation around the fact that it no longer rains properly in Melbourne and that Londoners get sunburned in springtime (well, English people get sunburned just by thinking about the sun), so I walked away saying that, really, I would love to live in Tasmania.

Hate is a strong word, so I really dislike smalltalk...

Real Jaws

If you read my previous post The Dive!.., you should know how excited I was about diving with the sharks at the Melbourne Aquarium! But just a few minutes ago I came across this article from a self-confessed non-adrenaline junkie who did dive with a Great White. Just follow the link...

A great example of overcoming personal fears and hesitations, and a great sense of thrill and adventure.

Thing is , I now really want to do it!!!