I’m not going to name names, but two people remarked to me last week that the Queensland floods wouldn’t be that bad, because all the houses have stilts, so everyone up there would be fine. I wasn’t about to get into an argument about it, but at the time I had my doubts. I suspect ... [More]
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Retired
The other day I retired one of my oldest web pages, an FAQ on Melbourne public transport. It started life (I think around 1993, before the Web was around) as a Usenet FAQ for the misc.transport.urban-transit group. In 1994 it was posted (with an incomplete attempt to convert it to HTML) on Railpage — where ... [More]
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Sheep dipping
“Ewetube” video from Boxing Day sheep dipping. I helped out for a little while, helping to push the sheep down the chute. It might be for their own good, but they weren’t particularly keen.
From the popup text of the comic reproduced below: We’re also stuck with blurry, juddery, slow-panning 24fps movies forever because (thanks to 60fps home video) people associate high framerates with camcorders and cheap sitcoms, and thus think good framerates look ‘fake’. The first DVD I played on my old Loewe TV when I got it ... [More]
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Tron (and why home theatre is so popular)
I don’t see a lot of movies in the cinema, so call me slow if you like, but I think I’ve worked out why big TVs and DVDs and Bluray are getting so popular. Freaking $18.50 for an adult, $13.50 for kids? (And this is at 10am on a weekday — I don’t know if ... [More]
A bit late, but some things I plan to do this year: Teach my kids chess Try to declutter the house Get Jeremy into his own bedroom Get all of us more exercise Write a computer game (even a simple one) to get more enthused again about programming Replace the TV with something shiny, flat, ... [More]
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New television?
I’ve been thinking for a while about updating my television (a 68cm Loewe CRT, non-widescreen, analogue) to a shiny new digital number. People who know more about this stuff than I suggested I look at Samsung’s offerings. I know I’ve had two Samsung computer monitors for years which haven’t missed a blip, so I took ... [More]
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Christmas is over
Christmas must be over. Reason 1: Dead Christmas trees on the nature strip Reason 2: Hot cross buns in the supermarket… just in time, only four three and a half months before Easter. Speaking of the supermarket, it does seem like trolley retention rates are increasing since they started wanting a gold coin deposit… so ... [More]
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Myki: Mostly works
Further to the post on whether Myki should be scrapped or not and taking the lead from others online, here’s a quick video of my interactions with Myki over the past 24 hours. I missed a couple: the touch-on on the bus because I had to run for it and didn’t have time to get ... [More]
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Mini for Christmas
M may never own a car (she doesn’t need one), but she likes (new) Minis. Always spots them on the road. So I got her one for Christmas. Well, for a day. Hertz offer them as part of their “fun collection“, so I reserved one and went along on Wednesday to pick it up. Despite ... [More]
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Big enough, small enough
St George Bank is using the slogan “Big enough. Small enough.” Which is why this made me laugh: Clearly, that’s not small enough. (They’ve taken it down in the last day or two.) Happy new year, everybody.
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Myki: the cases for and against
It’s a year today since Myki was switched-on in Melbourne. There were a lot of problems on day one, and many others have been highlighted in the last twelve months. In today’s Herald Sun, Paul Mees argues Myki should be scrapped and replaced with a system from elsewhere, such as Perth’s SmartRider. I argue that ... [More]
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Build your own Metro
Sick of how Metro’s running? Then build your own! (ABC News, 26/12/2010.)
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Coolest Mini ever
Spotted in Centre Road, Bentleigh:
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Merry Christmas
Quieter than usual due to my boys being away in Hawaii, but I chatted with them on Skype this evening. Presents are easier now all the adults in the family have switched to (non-anonymous) Kris Kringle… and of course we stuffed ourselves full of heaps of food. The only downer was being locked-out of my ... [More]
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Perfect for a train-spotter
Looking for a last-minute Christmas gift for a train-spotter? Got a budget of hundreds of thousands of dollars? Then splurge and buy them a home in this new development in Caulfield East. Urban Art Apartments is an artistic, inspired residential development in Caulfield East which is surrounded by lush greenery and designer art pieces. The ... [More]