March 31, 2004
Largest Australian Wireless Network!
An 800,000 square kilometer 802.11b wireless lan network has just gone live in the state of New South Wales, Australia, to connect rural towns to the internet whom are currently unable to get DSL. 75 towns are now online, connecting to Debian based Linux satellite routers.
iPod arrived!
Yesterday my iPod arrived in Frankfurt! Very cool toy, even the packaging is cool :)
The little box to the right of the iPod above is an iTrip. It's an FM transmitter that allows you to use the iPod in your car, etc. I'm already anxious to use it to control a car or home hifi while having a BBQ outside :)
iTunes seems to work really well, especially when ripping CD's, etc. I'm also planning to have a look at gtkpod so I can transfer files under Linux.
A good friend of mine Bern also has Linux up and running on the iPod too, so I'm sure there will be some iPod ARM hacking in the future too :)
March 30, 2004
A year older!
Well, once again it's the end of March and I'm a year older! Doesn't seem all that long ago since the last party!
Thanks to everyone who joined me at the Sandbar over the weekend for some celebrations! :)
March 25, 2004
March 22, 2004
CeBIT 2004!
Off to CeBIT tomorrow for the day to visit various exhibitors. This will be my 6th CeBIT while working in Germany (photos of several visits are online here).
In the past CeBIT has been great fun, working all day, partying all night! Looking forward to seeing what this one has in store! :)
March 19, 2004
Java as a platform!
Yesterday I spent some time looking at Groovy again, but this time in detail.
After spending a few hours reading the Groovy website and playing with some examples I was quite impressed, not only with the language - but especially with it's interoperability with the existing Java environment. It certainly offers improvements over the existing language without leaving the Java 'platform'.
This is when I started to think of Java as a platform, as opposed to a language. ie. the Java VM and standard API being the platform, and the Java syntax being the language. Separating the two like this lets one think of additional languages, like Groovy, as being alternative 'languages' to the same platform, as opposed to being an extension or a competitor to Java itself.
After a bit of googling I noticed that James has had similar thoughts in this direction as well.
In summary, I can only think that Groovy will do good things for Java, since 'platform' reusability is so easy and bidirectional, which is <austin-powers>sooo groovy baby!</austin-powers> :)
March 15, 2004
Amsterdam!
Spent the weekend visiting some friends in Amsterdam!
Amsterdam and the surrounding parts of the city are definitely interesting visit and experience. On Saturday I visited Volendam, Laren, and Naarden, and in the afternoon Amsterdam city itself. Lots of windmills, waterways, green fields, and maroon brick houses :)
On Sunday I did a water tour through the Amsterdam canals which was really great, through all of the bridges and alongside the tall, skinny buildings that house all sorts of interesting shops! :)
Also tried a pickled Herring on the weekend for the first time! Definitely not for the uninitiated, and walked past heaps of Coffee Shops alongside the center of the city - although strangely none of them actually sold Coffee! :)
March 11, 2004
Photos online!
Just finished uploading the photos from my recent trip to my online gallery.
The photos from Australia are available here, and from Mexico here.
Hope you like them :)
March 09, 2004
Solaris Web Installer!
To prevent myself from committing any jetlag-modified code I decided to start the week off by installing Solaris on a Sun Ultra 1/170e we have here in the office.
I started the installation and to my surprise, the Solaris 8 Web Installer brought up a web browser in the background, while the OS install occured in a foreground dialog. What a cool idea, this lets the person installing the software browse the web while the operating system is being installed :)
Back in Frankfurt!
Well, after 26 hours of flying and 3 countries I'm now back in Frankfurt, Germany. I arrived yesterday morning around 6.15am after departing Adelaide airport and stopping in Melbourne and Singapore along the way.
Weatherwise, Adelaide was around 26 degrees when I left, Frankfurt was about 2 degrees when I arrived :)
Timewise, I left Adelaide at 1pm on a Sunday, and arrived in Frankfurt 6.15am on a Monday, then there's the 10 hours time difference inbetween Australia and Germany.
It's fun to be back in Frankfurt again, but it was also so great to be in the home country Australia for a couple of months. After being away for so long, I really value what an amazing country Australia is and what it has to offer. Every time I go back I just get blown away by it's beauty and lifestyle.
So, after such a refreshing trip, lets bring on the year! :)
March 08, 2004
Surfing weekend!
Spent my last week in Australia with the folks in Adelaide, South Australia.
Dad and I managed to get a few surfing trips in at Victor Harbous, Goolwa, and Southport which was great. It was a pretty full week, but while it was hot it was great to get down to the coast line for some fun in the water!
Above is a photo of Southport Beach (near Christies Beach) taken from the car park on friday. Weather was hot, around 30 degrees, lots of sun, offshore winds with a moderate swell, and since it was during the week there were hardly any people in the water at all which is often the best part about mid-week surfing trips! :)
Caught a few really nice rides at Southport! It's only an hours drive from my parents place in the city so we'll have to get down there again more often!
March 02, 2004
The Coorong!
Over the weekend I drove from Melbourne to Adelaide. The drive started in Box Hill, which is in the eastern part of Melbourne, I then met up with Cam and Jeff for a surf at Jan Juc in Torquay, about one hour west of Melbourne near Geelong.
From Geelong I then drove to my home town Mount Gambier. The drive was great as it was quite late at night and there were many animals to see along the way. When crossed the Victorian/South Australian Border about 20 kms from Mount Gambier I was confronted with around 30 Kangaroos who were grazing and chilling out along the side of the road, watching me drive by. :)
I arrived in Mount Gambier around 4am! around lunch time I met up with some old high school friends and then went for a surf at Browns Beach. This was extra special as Browns is the beach where my father first tought me to surf.
After a drive around the local area, I then headed up to Adelaide along the coast, passing through Beachport, Robe and Kingston along the way. After Kingston you enter the Coorong which I haven't seen for years, as it was near sunset there were some amazing colours to be seen along the way. The two photos taken above where at the Coorong and Meningie. Certainly a spectacular drive with a lot of countryside to see.
So, I'll be in Adelaide visiting the folks for the next week, flying back to Germany this coming sunday afternoon. It's been an awesome two months travel! Already looking forward to the next trip! :)