+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | _______ | Coming to BBC: Doctor Who-The Next | | ,--'.:::::.`-._ | Regeneration | | /..:::::::::::..\ | | | /..:::::::::_;::::| | | | || `---'----' _|:::| | | | || `;:::| | | | |' ==== ==== |-::| | | | |-( @ )-( @ )--|O):| | | | | ` | ` |/::' | | | . v |:/ jeremy@ | | | | ___, || malcolm | | | \ -- _/| .id.au | | | \_____.-'__/-.__ | | | _| _/|::.\.::-._ | | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | [*] news [ ] about [ ] writing [ ] journal [ ] images [ ] guests | | +->> last 5 | | |--- archive | | `--- search | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "Leonard Byrd Malcolm" :: [2010-08-23 09:58PM] | | | | Leonard Byrd Malcolm was born this evening in Pantai Medical Centre, Kuala | | Lumpur, weighing 3.58kg. Dom was admitted to hospital around 10am after | | her waters had broken, and contractions began in earnest around 5pm, so | | the labour was not too long. | | | | As with his brother Doyle's middle name, there are a few inspirations for | | Leonard's first name. One is my great-grandfather on my mother's side, | | who was apparently killed by shrapnel during World War I while milking a | | goat (as unlikely as that sounds). Another is Leonard from Big Bang | | Theory, and also Leo from Twin Peaks (although he is a nasty piece of | | work, so we won't dwell too much on that). | | | | His middle name was inspired by Doyle, who had insisted from the beginning | | that we should name our new baby "Bird". Well, Byrd also fits, and I'm | | also something of a fan of Charlie "Bird" Parker (though Dom isn't). So, | | Leonard Byrd it is. | | | | reply (1 comments) | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "New release of Statz identi.ca plugin" :: [2010-07-01 03:05PM] | | | | I really wished that I knew of some other person in the world who uses | | Statz, because I've just updated my identi.ca plugin for it, which you can | | now download for Mac OS 10.6 or higher. | | | | This new version 0.5 adds geolocation, and URL shortening (identi.ca does | | this for you already, but by moving this functionality to the plugin, you | | can change the shortening service to use with a couple of lines of | | AppleScript - which I may make user-configurable in a future release). | | | | This release is not very well tested yet, because my Mac does not seem to | | be returning sensible results to geolocation requests. So if you use | | Statz on a Mac and have a identi.ca account, I would appreciate you | | testing this plugin out to let me know how the geolocation works for you. | | | | [related link] reply (0 comments) | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "Airlines" :: [2010-06-21 09:08AM] | | | | I've just come back from Washington DC, but since I've written about that | | before, instead I'm going to talk about my travails in getting back home. | | After checking out of my hotel room at noon I had nothing else planned but | | to check out the Pentagon (which is right outside its eponymous Metro | | station... I didn't realise that until absent-mindedly musing "Hmm, this | | building appears to be... pentagonal.") Since the airport was only a | | couple of stops further along, I arrived very early to check in for my | | Delta flight... around 2pm for a flight leaving at 6. Yet when I | | eventually reached the gate, it was at a run while my name was being | | called over the PA. | | | | Why? Because American airlines are indisputably the very worst in the | | world. (I previously had US Airways pegged as the worst single airline, | | but congratulations Delta for now surpassing it. For Google: "Delta | | sucks".) | | | | I had had a preview of this when boarding my flight to Washington in | | Manila, when the Delta staff told me that I needed a printout of my | | Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) and after much debate | | took me to their office to make one. They took ten minutes to figure out | | how to load the ESTA Web site, clicked the link to start a brand new | | application instead of retreiving my existing authorisation, and when that | | new application returned a "pending" outcome, they debated this new | | development afresh until eventually conceding that I didn't need a | | printout after all. | | | | So returning to the Washington timeline, after waiting a full 45 minutes | | in line to check in (there were only two check-in staff on duty), the man | | at the counter refused to check me in because, he claimed, the booking | | hadn't been paid for. At first he seemed willing to accept a payment from | | me just so that I could board, but in the end he refused and said that I | | would have to just leave the line and call my travel agent. | | | | I did so, and the agent confirmed that not only had the booking been paid | | for and a ticket issued, but a seat allocation had also been made. Armed | | with this information, I returned to the queue for another 45 minute wait, | | after which a different check-in agent had little choice but to check me | | in. However, there was more to come. First, she was unable to add my | | frequent flier card details to the booking because, although I presented | | her with the card and it bore my signature, it did not contain my middle | | name. Second, she would only check my bag through as far as my transit | | stop in Seoul, on the basis that, to paraphrase, "Computer says no". | | | | Nonetheless relatively satisfied that I would at least be flying, I left | | the counter, presuming that - as with any other airline - I could now | | leave my bag with her for loading onto the plane. But no: she called me | | back and directed me to join another lengthy queue for dropping my bag. | | The bag drop agent, who performed no discernable function, spent a while | | playing solitare on his computer (I can only presume) before declaring me | | "good to go". So go I did, before he called me back yet again to explain | | that although an apparently functional conveyer belt was right behind him, | | I was required to take my bag around the corner and give it to yet another | | man who would load it onto the conveyer belt. This other man, though | | perhaps of lesser status to the bag drop agent, did at least hold a better | | claim to that title since he did allow me to drop my bag. | | | | When I arrived at the gate, confusion reigned again as my seat had been | | assigned to someone else, so I was upgraded to a business class seat. This | | differed from economy class in that the sticky vinyl seat was marginally | | wider, and we were offered a glass of water before take-off. | | | | In transit in New York, I had a layover of about five hours, so I took the | | opportunity to ride the subway into Greenwich Village to share New York | | pizza with a friend. With the trip taking an hour each way, and half an | | hour wait for each train, time rather got the better of me, so I ended up | | running for my connecting flight again. But this time, I was flying Air | | Korea and the experience was far more satisfactory. | | | | On the Delta flight from Manila they provided a blanket not much larger | | than a face towel with the tiniest and thinnest pillow I've ever seen. On | | Air Korea I found on my seat not only far better comforts but also an | | amenities kit containing slippers and a toothbrush, and a bottle of water. | | Delta ran out of my chosen breakfast half way down economy class, whereas | | Air Korea included extra little touches like a "wake me for meals" | | sticker. There was no personal entertainment on Delta, whereas on Air | | Korea I watched a selection of new release movies. | | | | So can anyone explain why the world's most powerful economy is home to | | easily its worst airlines? And don't get me started on its | | telecommunications system (provider-locked handsets, GSM black spots and | | paying for incoming calls? - what century is this?). | | | | reply (2 comments) | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "Philippines" :: [2010-06-17 11:02AM] | | | | We have just completed a week's holiday in the Philippines, staying in | | Quezon City, part of metropolitan Manila. Manila is like Kuala Lumpur, | | only more so - crazier traffic, bigger malls, cheaper street food and more | | people. It is also very multicultural, with the local Malay-descended | | Filipinos having endured 400 years of colonisation by the Spanish, 40 by | | the United States, and 4 under the Japanese. | | | | Apart from the Spanish architecture in the historical centre, it is the US | | influence that is most pervasive, and not in such a good way; for example, | | in the gun culture - there are armed guards and search checkpoints at all | | shopping centres, and you are put on notice to surrender your personal | | firearms when you enter. Asian culture seems to be re-asserting itself | | however, with a rising influence from Korea. | | | | During our stay we took a trip out of the metropolis and through scenic | | hills and pineapple plantations to the mountain town of Tagaytay, which | | overlooks a volcano within a lake (or actually, a volcano within a lake | | within a volcano within a lake). We were also to have taken a cruise to | | the historical island of Corregidor, but the tour company grounded us on | | account of Dom's pregnancy. Instead, we did a museum crawl and some | | shopping, accompanied by our good friend Reileen who acted as tour guide. | | | | Filipino cuisine is one of a kind, with dishes crossing the gamut of | | tastes and textures. In one meal, my taste buds confronted the sourness | | of the tamarind-based soup sinigang, the bitterness of bitter gourd, the | | heat of chili accompanying the oxtail stew kare-kare and the sweetness of | | a cooling coconut shake. | | | | Some dishes are much closer to European than Asian cuisine, such as adobo, | | a ubiquitous garlic-marinaded meat dish, which I particularly recommend. | | In retrospect though it may have been better if I hadn't found out that | | the crunchy texture of the dish sisig came from the cartilage of pig's | | ear... and I wasn't game enough to try pigs' intestines on this trip, nor | | the infamous fertilised duck egg with embryo, balut. | | | | reply (1 comments) | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "Statz identi.ca plugin" :: [2010-05-14 06:13PM] | | | | I have just written another plugin for Statz, which is a microblogging | | client for Mac OS X, originally released by Google but now sadly | | languishing (if you use Linux, it's a little like Gwibber). | | | | This plugin sends your posts to identi.ca, which is something like an open | | source alternative to Twitter. It would be trivial to modify the plugin to | | work on any other microblogging network based on the same open source | | StatusNet platform. | | | | I had earlier written a plugin to send posts to the ancient finger(1) | | protocol, too. Finger was great and ahead of its time, but it's | | unfortunately also now very dead, so this plugin might be a little more | | mainstream. :-) | | | | To install, simply download and unzip into your ~/Library/Application | | Support/Statz/Plugins folder. Then enable it in Statz using the cog-wheel | | button at the bottom left, and Bob's your proverbial. The first time you | | send an update, the plugin will prompt you for your identi.ca username and | | password, which it will save for future use. | | | | If you're a Mac user, give it a whirl and let me know if you encounter any | | problems. | | | | [related link] reply (0 comments) | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Links: portal / wedding / calendar / honours / phd / iq / igfwatch / random | | page generated in 0.311 seconds sadlittlewebjournal 2.9.3 | | content (c) its respective creator(s) web administration | | valid html 4.01 transitional foaf / rss feed | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+