Colin's Blog

IT: Social Networking For Contact Info?

2008-08-17T23:29:00.009-07:00

I recently got a new phone and it is pretty cool, but that's not what I'm going to write about. After getting this new phone I now have two problems:

Nobody knows my new number.
I don't have other people's numbers in my phone.

There are ways to solve problem #2 including backing up my other phone's SIM card and loading the details onto my new phone or manually entering all of the contact details. There are also ways to solve #1, including emailing everyone I think might be interested and giving them my new number or just using a 'need to know' approach, where I give it out to people that ask or perhaps posting my new details on Facebook.

With my new phone I can sync my Outlook contacts, which is pretty cool but it is not quite all I need. With Facebook I can access my friend's contact details and they can change them and I automatically get the updates. Unfortunately getting the information back out of Facebook for offline use seems to be frowned upon. It seems like I need a combination of the two systems.

So this is what I would really love:

My friends can enter their contact details and choose to share them with me.
I can access their details online, but they also get synced to my devices including my PC and phone so I don't need to be connected to view them.
Whenever I do get connected on whichever device my contacts get synced.

What I'm thinking is that I should own my information and be able to update it in a single place but it should be able to be used by any of my friends. It should not be necessary for each of my friends to duplicate my efforts to update my contact information.

Is there such a system available?

IT: Farecast for travel planning

2008-05-24T22:38:00.007-07:00

Recently at work I found out that Live has a cool new Beta product called Farecast. It incorporates technology from a company that Microsoft acquired earlier this year.

Disclaimer: Since I work for Microsoft I guess I'm supposed to say this is a cool site, but I think it is anyway. Feel free to ignore my biased opinion and just give it a try for yourself. Unfortunately it is mainly covering continental US now, not the rest of the world.

Probably the thing that I am most interested in is the 'Flights' component. There you can select your home airport and one or more destinations, choose how long you want to stay and what your time window is and search for matching results. Farecast prepares a graph like the one below. The intention is to give you an idea of when the cheapest time to fly might be. The table below the graph indicates whether airfares are likely to go up or down. Unfortunately if you've been following US airline news recently you'll already know the answer to that question, but it is handy nonetheless.

It looks like it is better to leave for Chicago in earlier rather than later in June. By the way, airfares are going up.

Many of the options are configurable including the length of stay, the exact airport, etc. etc.

The hotels section could also be useful, especially since it includes an option to compare against Expedia, Priceline, Hotwire, Orbitz and hotels.com. I've used some of these discount sites before, but not all at once in the search for the best hotel rate. Hopefully this means I'll really be able to get the best bargain rate for a decent hotel.

In the picture below I'm looking for hotels in San Francisco (I should go visit N & P). Here the hotels are color-coded by whether or not they are significantly discounted from their regular rate.

Hotels in San Francisco. Hey, hotel #8 is a bargain (unfortunately it is still $161 / night though).

Salem: Train Day

2008-05-24T12:06:00.007-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we took the train to Salem (Oregon, not to be confused with the place where the Salem Witch Trials were held). We went on the train because we had a two-for-one offer and we wanted to see how train travel was in the US. We chose to travel to Salem because it is the capital of Oregon and we wanted to see another city.

We happened to take the train on National Train Day, which just meant we were given a nice sticker. We made pretty good use of public transport that day, catching a 6:00 am bus from near our place into the city and then taking the 7:30 train to Portland, where we caught a bus to Salem, arriving by 12:45 pm or so.

Getting off the train in Portland. For Portland to Salem we caught a bus for about 45 miles.

The train station in Salem, which is between Eugene and Portland.

When we arrived in Salem we took a stroll around the city. Willamette University has a very pretty campus that was worth walking around.

Willamette University. According to a local, you have to say Willamette so that it rhymes with dammit.

A Fraternity.

Eaton Hall, retro style.

We also toured around the Capitol Building, which is where they make the laws for Oregon State. It is actually the third version of the building and was built after the other 2 burnt down.

G doing her Incredible Hulk impersonation with the ruins from a previous Capitol Building.

The Capitol Building. The golden guy at the top has a pretty impressive axe.

The city of Salem has about 150,000 people so it is pretty small but it still has plenty of things to see and shopping areas to check out.

G posing near Pringle Park.

Pringle Park.

Waiting for the 6:40 am train back to Seattle. What a quick trip.

Games: TrackMania Nations Forever

2008-05-03T18:21:00.003-07:00

If you like PC racing games, you might be interested in a game that has recently been released for free download. TrackMania Nations Forever is similar to Stunts, which I played many years ago.

Getting some serious air. I'm playing as the Spanish car on the left.

UPDATE: Now I've improved my car:

Camping: Daroga State Park, Wenatchee

2008-05-03T16:34:00.005-07:00

Last weekend G and I went for a trip across the cascades mountain range to what they call the dry side of the cascades. Apparently all the moisture coming from the ocean gets trapped on the other side of the mountain range, causing lots of rain in Seattle. On this side it is actually pretty dry as you'll see.

It was pretty surprising to see that there was still a lot of snow as we went through Snoqualmie Pass and the trip back through Steven's Pass was spectacular. I'll probably put some photos up a little later showing this part of the trip, but G has already posted some if you're interested.

We camped in a place east of Wenatchee called Daroga State Park (named after three guys that started an orchard here before it was sold to the state). When we arrived and we were told that the unpowered camping sites (17 available) were over on the island. To get to the island you pack your stuff into a cart and wheel it over.

G wheeling our stuff on the island. I also took turns with the wheeling, honest.

I found the terrain to be pretty similar to back home in Australia. Below you can see that unlike the other side of the cascades which is green and covered with trees, this side is pretty barren. It would be great to go back in apple season though, since there were many many orchards around here.

Unpowered sites are on an island. Fortunately for us, we were the only people camping there so we had the island to ourselves!

Setting up camp. You're only allowed to pitch your tent on the sandy site provided for it.

Campsites in Daroga State Park were $14 / night for up to 8 people in one car. I thought the place was pretty nice, although it was close enough to a main road to hear trucks and traffic especially during the day. The nice vista was also spoiled by some serious power lines that cut through the powered camping area. Walking past you could actually hear the hum of electricity in the wires which was a little unnerving.

Brr, chilly. I called G a wimp when I took this photo, then I tried it myself and it was really icy in the water. Perhaps it would be OK in a few months.

Posing in front of our island (well for one night anyway).

Nice views.

The campsite had some pretty decent facilities including hot showers, BBQs, soccer fields, tennis courts, basketball courts and a small swimming area.

Seattle: Bonza Bash 08

2008-05-03T16:13:00.002-07:00

Last year I missed out on the Bonza Bash when it was held at the Space Needle. This year it is being held at the Seattle Aquarium and I'm really looking forward to going along tonight. I've even heard talk of lamingtons (not lemmingtons as my US friends thought when I first told them) and other Aussie cuisine.

Canada: Vancouver

2008-04-07T22:32:00.004-07:00

In mid-March G and I took a trip to Vancouver, Canada since she was playing netball there. It was my first trip to BC and I was keen to go and check it out after hearing a lot of great things.

First we had to go and chat with the locals. Nice mountie uniform Mr stuffed moose. G claims she is still taller if you remove the hat.

The library building was impressive.

We hired bikes (~$35 for two for 4 hours) and rode around Stanley Park, which has great views of the city. Note that G sensibly brought gloves along. I didn't even think to bring gloves but I soon realized my mistake as we looked out to the snow-capped mountains. Fortunately we didn't get any real rain that day.

Looking back to Canada Place from Stanley Park. It was oh-so-cloudy.

A fueling station for the many seaplanes that were landing very often, surrounded by high-rise buildings.

The docks.

First we rode our bikes and then we played on the swings in the park. We were feeling very young again.

After touring the city I was impressed but not quite to the level that I was expecting. Sure, there were folks wandering around with snow-boards presumably on their way up to Whistler. There were high-rise buildings, spectacular views, seaplanes landing regularly and of course Stanley Park, but somehow I was expecting more.

It was pretty bizarre being able to drive our own car into a different country (including switching back to the much-more-familiar kilometres and metres), although this also meant waiting around at the border. The wait to get from the US into Canada was about 20 minutes on Friday night, while the wait on the way back into the US on Sunday afternoon was almost 1 hour.

I suspect I'll have to go back in summer to really evaluate my feelings for Vancouver, but for now I think the option of heading south to Portland (without the annoying border crossing) trumps the trip up north to Vancouver.

USA: Tax x 2

2008-04-07T21:56:00.006-07:00

Well I must be particularly lucky because it is tax time again. Unfortunately I had to complete an Australian tax return in September and US taxes are due in mid April. Fortunately I have a little help with the US taxes, but here are a few things I didn't think about before I left Australia. This is probably only useful information for recent Aussie expats or those considering moving to the US from Australia:

The US tax year is Jan - Dec, with returns due the following April. This can make it hard to get the relevant records about Australian income (which is taxable in the US).
Australian superannuation is taxable in the US. That's right, even though you don't pay tax on it in Australia; you can't withdraw it when you go overseas and you'll probably never be able to get that tax back, every year that you're in the US you will need to declare Australian superannuation to the IRS and you will be taxed on it.
Many relocation expenses will be taxable, including expenses incurred moving your stuff overseas. This can add up to many thousands of extra dollars of income that you have to pay tax on.
US 'residents' in the tax sense of the word need to declare all foreign accounts to the treasury if the total in the accounts is more than $10,000. Even if you don't earn any income and the money has never been in the US, treasury wants to know about it. There are strict penalties (up to $100,000) for not providing the information.
Australian residents can make the Australian side of their tax situation easier if they are intending to leave the country for more than 2 years. It is possible to declare yourself a non-resident for tax purposes and you just pay tax in Australia on Australian-sourced income (things like bank interest, etc.).

That's just a few of things I encountered. As you might expect dealing with taxes in two countries simultaneously is not trivial and you should get professional advice about your particular situation.

Seattle: Magnuson Park & Green Lake Park

2008-01-20T01:05:00.000-08:00

The day before the recent snowfall was a rare glorious winter's day in Seattle. It was sunny with barely a cloud in the sky so we took advantage of the fine weather and visited 3 parks:

Golden Gardens Park, which has a beach. Note the guy paddling out on a surfboard while standing up. There's no waves here folks.

Green Lake Park, which was very busy. Lots of folks out powerwalking, jogging, cycling etc.

Magnuson Park, which is where the Winter Pineapple Classic is run. There are nice views out to snow-capped peaks when it isn't cloudy.

Microsoft: Campus in Winter (snow)

2008-01-20T00:32:00.002-08:00

I've taken a few photos of the campus in autumn earlier and I've also taken photos of the snow around the Seattle region. Well last week it snowed and I also walked around the campus and took a few photos.

My earlier excitement about snow was tarnished a little when I almost didn't make it home because of the snow. I left work a little later than I should have and by then the snow had settled on the road that I take up a hill to get home. My 2 wheel drive was slipping and wheel-spinning as we crawled up the hill (and it took me almost 2 hours to get home). Next time I'll know to head home early if it starts snowing.

The roads were pretty much chaos for the next day but after that the snow was just a nice addition to the picturesque scenery. It has been cold enough that even today when I went out running there was still a covering of snow in the forest. So anyway, to the photos.

Welcome to Microsoft.

Icy trees.

It was a nice sunny day after the snow.

On Wednesday there was still plenty of snow left over. This was taken on the Microsoft sports fields in the morning.

Some crazy folks went out at lunchtime and decided to play a game I haven't seen much since I've been here. That's right, they were playing touch rugby on the snow-covered fields.

OK, I admit it, I'm still a snow tourist. We'll see if the novelty wears off with a few more falls. BTW, I took some of these photos with G's nice camera and some with my partly broken camera. Can you tell which are which?

Sport: Ice Hockey

2008-01-06T22:35:00.000-08:00

I've been looking forward to seeing an ice hockey game for a while now. Just before Christmas I went along to see the Seattle Thunderbirds play against the Everett Silvertips.

Let's play. T-birds are in white.

We managed to get some seats pretty close to the ice since the T-birds aren't in the top ice hockey league. I was still really impressed by how fast the game moved and how exciting it was to watch. There was plenty of fast skating, collisions and skaters being bundled into the boards. I was happy to be behind glass and netting as the puck skidded across the ice and thudded into the glass boards.

A minor scuffle is quickly broken up by the umpires. A real fight broke out in the final third.

At the start of the match G was disappointed that it wasn't as rough as some of the games she has seen back home. This gradually changed and in the final third I think she was a little worried to see a fight break out.

Facing off.

It was all very theatrical. The gloves and helmets came off and the Rocky music started playing on the stadium speakers (seriously). The two guys socked it out for a minute or two and then they made their separate ways to their separate penalty boxes. The announcer read a string of penalties including 10 minutes for fighting and then they left the ice because they weren't playing any more.

Skating.

In the end the Thunderbirds were victorious, overcoming the Silvertips 3-0. One minor negative at the start of the evening (and the reason why you only see my slightly blurry photos), was that G wasn't allowed to take her camera in. We were stopped and searched at Key Arena (standard procedure for anyone with a bag) and the lady saw G's camera and said that a 3 inch lens was the maximum. She sent her back to the car to put her camera away!

Sure, G does take good photos, but her camera isn't even an SLR. We were hardly going to have professional-quality photos and we certainly weren't going to sell any.

Watchful keeper. The poor guy let in 3 goals that night.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-06T22:15:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year! For our first year in Seattle we decided to go downtown to the iconic Space Needle for the celebrations. There were plenty of people out looking to celebrate at a decent gathering around the Key Arena just under the Space Needle.

We didn't quite know what to expect from the show so the fireworks were good enough for us. The crowd however seemed a little confused by several pauses and there also wasn't really a great countdown to midnight. It turns out there were problems with the program that was supposed to sync up the fireworks with music.

Some poor person had to manually press buttons as best they could to put on a show for people. Since we were sitting in the free seats we were fine with that, but I imagine the folks that went up to the space needle observation deck (for about $125) or to the restaurant at the top (for about $250) would have been a little miffed.

We were lucky enough to see a few photos of the Sydney fireworks and once again they outdid themselves. Welcome to 2008.

Leavenworth: Christmas Tree Lighting

2007-12-08T16:42:00.000-08:00

Every year Leavenworth, WA has a festival including a Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony. We took a bus trip and it turned out to be a wise idea because it snowed for most of the trip and the roads were pretty icy. There were also many busloads of people visiting for the Christmas festivities.

Leavenworth is a city that transformed itself in the 1960s to try to attract tourists and save its faltering economy. The entire town has been remodeled to appear like an alpine Bavarian village.

Bavarian Starbucks, one of the first stops for many tourists.

The main street including the Nut Cracker Museum.

G with a rare imported Pretzel Tree.

It was cold and snowy in Leavenworth.

The main street, including a massive line for the quirky Hat Shop (more later).

Hey, that isn't Bavarian! That's right, its the Australian Store. It had Tim Tams, Weetbix, Akubras and a few things I hadn't even seen before in Australia. It was all way too expensive for us cheap Aussies so we didn't buy anything.

After the tree lighting, all the stores in the village turned on their lights for a pretty effect.

G borrowed a quirky Christmas jester hat from J who shopped at the Hat Shop.

Seattle: Snow

2007-12-08T15:59:00.003-08:00

According to a few locals I've spoken to, it doesn't really snow very often in Seattle. I'm not sure I believe them because on 1 Dec it snowed quite a lot. It was enough to cover everything, kick-start the whole Christmas season and cause some serious traffic chaos. We were lucky to make it back to our place on snow-covered roads. This is the first snow since February this year.

Coming from Canberra I was such a snow-tourist, going out to take photos that night and then again the following day. The snow lasted until mid afternoon and then it was gone, replaced with flooding rains. The major freeway (I-5) from Seattle-Portland was closed for a few days due to flooding, causing many trucks and commuters to take 180 mile detours.

We took a bus trip to Leavenworth and got back to find Tiny (our poor little car) covered with snow. G was lucky to have her favourite warm jumper (hoodie) on, a supporter's jumper for the Washington State Cougars.

Walking through my own little Winter Wonderland.

Snow-covered bushes.

Some of the deeper snow. Not really too bad, but it is more than I've seen in sunny Canberra.

Snow-covered rocks.

Our own little snow-dusted Christmas tree.

A memorial chair covered with snow.

Health: Computer = Not enough steps!

2007-12-08T15:35:00.000-08:00

In the recovery area for the Seattle Marathon I picked up a free pedometer from a local radio station. I recalled reading that a healthy adult should take at least 10000 steps a day (it was also discussed in the movie Super Size Me) and thought that I would easily do more than that on an average day.

Well after wearing the pedometer for a week, I've determined that software engineers really do have to work to do that many steps. I started counting from the moment I left the house until I got into bed. One day I looked at my pedometer at lunch time and was shocked to see only a measly 500 steps taken!

Fortunately I was able to take an extra stroll in the afternoon to boost my steps, but for the week my lowest number of steps was ~4500 and my best was just over 10000. This included trips to the gym, but didn't include any games of soccer.

If you haven't counted your steps, get a cheap (or free) pedometer and give it a try. You might be surprised. While wearing it I've taken a few extra walks around Microsoft campus and avoided skipping the gym on 'low-step' days, which has got to be good for me.

USA: Australian story makes front page news

2007-11-27T17:44:00.000-08:00

It isn't often that I hear much about Australia in the US papers, but on Sunday a story about Australia made the front page of the Seattle Times:

I didn't get to vote in this year's election because I'm OS. It was weird hardly hearing anything about the election here. No doubt back home there was plenty of media coverage, debates etc. What a massive swing from 4 years earlier.

Sport: Seattle Marathon (Half)

2007-11-27T10:07:00.000-08:00

At the start line, just next to the Experience Music Project (EMP) & Space Needle. The sun hasn't even come up yet, but at least it isn't raining.

About to join the 10000 folks at the start line.

Just about to get going.

The course route, which went along 5th avenue following the monorail for the first part.

G took some photos of the marathon runners who started later. Lucky folks even got a police escort.

The finish.

A little while after I'd finished. I'm draped in a courtesy space blanket because it was still pretty chilly.

The Seattle Half Marathon started at 7:30 am on a surprisingly clear morning. The main surprise for me was how many people were running (more than 10000). It was very difficult trying to run at your own pace with so many other runners surrounding you.

I ran at a slower pace for the first part of the race and then picked up the pace for the second half which I had already run a few days earlier. I easily bested my goal of 2 hours, making it in 01:46:20, which placed me in the top 10% of runners. I was reasonably happy with this until I looked through some of the top finishers and found a 64 year old who had beaten my time by 20 minutes or so.

I actually felt a lot better on this run than I did on my earlier practice run. The only problems were a blister on my little toe that burst at about the 12 mile mark and some pretty sore knees after the event.

I'll probably try to do some longer distances before considering stepping up to a marathon, which would be good to do at least once.

Sport: Seattle Marathon

2007-11-24T17:03:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow morning at the crazy time of 7:30 am in sub-zero temperatures (Celsius) I'm going to attempt the Seattle Half Marathon (13.1 miles).

I've run a few shorter events as part of my training, including the Winter Pineapple Classic, a fun event which is 5 km, running and completing obstacles while carrying a pineapple in a team. I made it in 26 minutes, 46 seconds.

I also did a 10 km trail run which was held in a forest and managed that in 48 minutes, 28 seconds.

Yesterday I decided to go and try running some of the course to see how I'd manage this particular run. I did about 11 miles (from a bit past mile 5 to mile 11 and back with a few wrong turns) and found it pretty challenging. I found out later that this is the hilliest section of the course, which makes me feel a bit better.

Half Marathon Course.

I think my biggest concerns are not my aerobic fitness but:

my legs - I have tight hamstrings & hip flexors and I feel them on longer runs.
my stomach - I have been getting 'stitches' (pains) in my left side when running long distances. They go away as soon as I stop, but it makes it hard to keep running.
the cold - starting at 7:30 in potential drizzle and cold weather will make it challenging to run in. After my run yesterday I know I need gloves and a couple of layers at least.

I'm aiming to make it in under 2 hours, which means a pace of just under 9 minutes per mile.

USA: Happy Thanksgiving (and Black Friday)

2007-11-23T22:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday (Thursday) was Thanksgiving, which is a very big event here in the States. Most people get two days off work, including me, which is great. As a special thankyou for shipping Visual Studio 2008 (AKA Orcas), we also have Monday and Tuesday off!

Since I'm a little crazy instead of using this as an opportunity to play many many hours of Xbox games (although I've probably done more than my share there as well), I've decided to run the Seattle Marathon on Sunday, or at least the Half Marathon (13.1 miles or 21 km). More about that in another post.

So anyway, the Thursday of Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks for good harvests at the end of the season. That leaves the Friday as a somewhat empty day. Well retailers here are always willing to go out of their way to help the poor consumer so they do what back home would be called Boxing Day sales, but on steroids.

Many retailers open up at around 5 am and still have big crowds attracted to some crazy discounts. I was planning to go along and get a Navigon 2100T for $99 (saving $200) at Staples, but after staying up late playing Rock Band on the Xbox 360 with a bunch of Aussie folks and then rounding out the evening with some Halo 3 I just couldn't get up before 9am. So I checked online and of course they were all sold out in their online store. We dressed up for the chilly morning and motored over to Staples only to find basically all of their Black Friday specials were gone, including my awesome Navigon deal.

We drove around to a few other places in the area and alas it was all the same story. So I remain a poor sole addicted to Live & Google Maps. How did we ever get about before them?

I can hear the question now, why is it called Black Friday? Well according to a sometimes reliable source, it is the day that retailers finally move from the red (making a loss) to the black in their ledgers, all because of the enormous boost to sales from this one day.

I wonder what happens on Boxing Day...

Oh, and as for Rock Band, wow that game is cool.
Disclaimer: I guess I'm a bit of an Xbox fanboy since I finally caved in to office peer pressure and bought one to play games online. It is almost like the old-school 'playing a round of golf' with your business buddies, except you're aiming to frag your boss instead of let them win a hole..

On with my rant. So we played Rock Band with a few folks and it is an extension of the sensation that is Guitar Hero (I, II & III). In Rock Band, you can play with a Bass Guitar, a Guitar, Drums and you can sing. We had people stepping up for all roles and it is a really well done game. If someone in your band can't quite keep up (typically the singer or the drummer because those roles seem harder than the guitar), other folks in the band can rescue them using 'Star Power' that they accumulate by playing well. My only initial complaint - there doesn't seem to be a heap of songs available so when you go on tour you end up playing the same song many times after a few hours.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes it is just a game. No, your Rock God status does not apply to any real musical instruments. Remember that people, and enjoy the game.

Microsoft: Campus in the Fall

2007-10-18T22:10:00.001-07:00

I took my camera along for a walk around the main Microsoft Campus recently and took a few photos of the nice autumn-colored trees. I ran into another Microsoftie doing the same thing but with a much nicer camera. Here are the photos anyway.

Nice red leaves.

A pretty ineffective lighting system.

Autumn colors.

Tree-lined streets. Note that a nice maintenance person has carefully raked up the fallen leaves to keep the grass nice and green.

More autumn colors.

Fremont: Red Bull Soap Box Derby

2007-10-18T21:35:00.001-07:00

Red Bull holds an annual Soap Box Derby in different cities each year and this time it was Seattle's turn. We went along on an overcast day expecting on a smallish crowd but we were very surprised to see heaps of people also turning out for the event.

The Red Bull Soap Box Derby Photo Area.

Participants in the derby build a cart using a theme. At the top of the course the entrants have to perform a short skit related to their cart and then they head off down the hill. At the bottom the judges (who have watched a big screen at the top), take the cart, the skit and the time down the hill into account and award points just like in ice skating competitions. The winner is crowned later.

The Fremont Troll escaped from under the bridge to travel down the hill.

We took a tour around the pit area and we saw some pretty interesting creations. There were commercial carts like the Zune Cart, there were historical carts like an Abe Lincoln cart, there was a rolling toilet. They all looked pretty impressive while sitting still but I could see some potential issues looking at the flimsy wheels and axles on some of the carts.

Wow, the 80s is back with the A-Team. If you don't know who these guys are you're just too young.

We moved down the hill to try and catch some of the action. The first competitor flew down on what appears to be a see-through fish.

The floating fish, traveling at speed.

People were crowding the sides of the hay bale-lined street, leading to a pretty big crush at some points. Some lucky folks managed to get a view from their balcony and a few crazy folks were even up on their roofs to watch it.

The crowd watches a competitor on a big screen before they reach this part of the track.

The Finish Line

I'm really glad we made it to this event. Fremont is one of the funkier neighborhoods in Seattle and would be a great place to live if you worked somewhere nearby.

Seattle: Ballard Locks

2007-10-18T20:42:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we went to the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks (also known as the Ballard Locks, because that is shorter). The locks are available 24 hours a day for boaters who need to travel from the lower waters of Puget Sound to the higher waters of Lake Washington.

Welcome to the Locks and Gardens.

The pecking order in the locks. For safety the little boats get to motor off first.

The gates are closing and the water is about to start rising.

Looking in the other direction when the Puget sound water level has been raised to the Lake Washington water level (at least in the locks anyway). The gates are opening.

Yachts get their own little locks to go through. Lucky folks.

There is also a Salmon Ladder with an observation area. Apparently August is a great time to visit with lots of big fish, but there were still plenty of fish in September. Apparently if you come here in November all you will only see bubbles.

It is well worth a visit to the locks because it is a bit of show as you see all the boats get carefully positioned. They have to adjust their ropes as the water level shifts and some owners are rightly concerned about the close proximity of the other boats.

Tourists can walk across the gates until just before they open and observe the process in some detail. The Salmon Ladder was also worth taking a look at. If you take a look from above all you see is churning water, but then you go down to the viewing gallery and there are plenty of fish navigating the seemingly serene waters.

Seattle: Mariners Baseball

2007-10-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

I went back to the baseball a couple of weeks ago with G. Her camera is better than mine so take a look at her blog for more photos. We sat a bit lower this time and got a very different view of the game.

Welcome to SafeCo Field G!

Lots of workers were sweeping up the dirt on the field between games.

And we're playing.

I still didn't really get into the game and because it was played in the evening and we caught the bus to the game so we left after the 6th innings. At that stage the Mariners were losing but they actually won 4-3 against the Cleveland Indians.

IT: Facebooked

2007-10-05T23:26:00.000-07:00

For some time now various people have been enticing me to join the crazy online community that is Facebook.

I chatted with some guys from work who still remember the original pure version of Facebook, which was only open to people studying at university. I talked to other Aussies who use it to keep in touch with friends back home. I read Scoble's posts about just how amazing Facebook is, but I still didn't get it.

Then my wife convinced me to join up and I've spent a fair amount of time setting up my profile, contacting my friends and writing on people's walls. I'm not entirely happy with the layout of the homepages, which requires you to scroll down past various apps and other stuff to see content and I had to tweak the privacy settings a fair bit, but I can definitely see why it is so compelling.

I can keep in touch with people without having to write an email to all of them. I can write information like I would on a blog, but restrict the audience somewhat for information I prefer to be less public.

I'm Facebooked. If you are too, and I know you, let me know. If I don't know you, well I'm sorry but I'm not trying to add 5000 friends like Scoble has.

I still don't see the value in some of the other new-fangled web apps like the noise generating, self monitoring, twitter, but maybe I just need more time?

Seattle: Fremont Troll

2007-09-22T15:07:00.000-07:00

An Aussie friend of mine suggested I should go and see the Fremont Troll a while back. When I inquired more about the troll he told me that it was underneath a bridge in Fremont. I figured he was just pulling my leg but he explained a little more about it and convinced me to go and take a look.

So I went with G a couple of weeks ago to take a look at the troll. It is underneath a major bridge in a fairly bland area that would otherwise not be worth taking a second look at. It is a great idea because instead of the underside of Aurora Bridge being cluttered with litter, broken bottles and graffiti it is a tourist attraction.

The Fremont Troll.

One thing that really struck me looking at the troll was how sad he looks. His glassy eye shows anything but an angry troll. His left hand casually rests on a real old VW beetle (with California license plates - a possible dig at the beautiful people). Definitely worth stopping past if you're in the Fremont area.

Seattle: De Leo Wall Trail (Cougar Mountain)

2007-09-22T13:58:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago we want on a fairly leisurely stroll in Cougar Mountain. We chose to do one of the shorter hikes along the De Leo Wall.

Warnings about bears and cougars are important to read in this area. When we got back to the trailhead a lady was reporting a cougar sighting near one of the trails we were walking along.

Nice gentle trail through the trees.

Sunshine in the treetops. Enjoy it while it lasts - summer is fading.

At one points along the trail we saw a little side trail and followed it and we ended up hitting a small cluster of houses. Some of the trails seem to have been lost to housing on the fringe areas, which makes parts of the walks less isolated then they should be.

The view along 'the wall'

The De Leo Wall is a thin track along quite a steep slope (pretty much a cliff) and it has a few scenic spots where you can stop and take a few pictures.

Wait a minute, isn't that a paperbark tree? What are you doing so far from home?

Decision Time: Continue along the De Leo Wall Trail or cut back to the trailhead?

When we reached this sign we were all feeling a little like going back home, but we were still facing the inevitable indecision that comes with groups of people. One of the folks on the walk (Bernie) has a good way of resolving such indecision that I'll share with you now.

We pose the question 'Do you want to cut back to the trailhead'?
Each person chooses a number from 1-5, where 1 means you would do it even if the rest of the group didn't and 5 means you wouldn't do it even if everyone else was going to, with 3 meaning you are indifferent.
We resolve the numbers and choose whether to proceed.

In this case basically everyone was a 3 aside from one 4 so we went back. Aren't numbers great?

Sammamish: Soaring Eagle Park

2007-09-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago G and I went mountain biking in Soaring Eagle Park. The park is very well maintained with single tracks for a variety of levels (though not too advanced). The trails are all mapped out and there are maps at each intersection so it is very hard to get lost out there.

Single track through the forest

G navigating the trails. She prefers less bumpy tracks but I'm glad she tried it out. Her occasional yells kept the bears away.

More trails. I've been back since and there are now leaves covering some parts of the trails. Summer is gone!

Still more trails.

I really enjoy racing around Soaring Eagle Park, although it doesn't have the challenges of some of the more established trails like Tolt MacDonald, but still good fun.

Seattle: Tourist things to do

2007-08-31T19:22:00.001-07:00

We've already had a few visitors here in Seattle and with each visitor we've added a few things to our 'things to do in Seattle' list. Here's some of the list. For those that have visited, what were your favourites? My #1 fav would probably still be Pike's Place Markets:

Pike's Place Markets
Space Needle
Snoqualmie Falls
Aquarium (although this is not very popular and I haven't bothered going myself yet)
The Underground Tour
Seattle Art Museum (SAM)
Take a ferry (e.g. to Bainbridge Island)
Boeing Tour
Museum of Flight
Zoo
China Town/International District
Microsoft Campus
Microsoft Company Store
Microsoft Museum
Lunch at Microsoft Cafe (OK, not very exciting for many people, but usually the visitors have been family!)
Parks - Seward Park, Green Lake Park, O.O. Denny Park, Beaver Lake, Pine Lake, Sammamish Commons
Watch Mariners baseball at Safeco field
Watch Sounders soccer at QWest
Watch Storm/Supersonics basketball at Key Arena
Pro Club
Tully's Coffee
Victor's Coffee
Frys Electronics
Elliot Bay Book Company
Borders Books
Westlake Centre
Fred Meyer (everything you can ever want in one store)
Home Depot
Watch some new Movies
XXX Root beer monster burgers
Cheesecake Factory (nuf said)
Visit Ballard Locks

Missing items?

Seattle: Gold Basin Camping (almost)

2007-07-30T22:53:00.000-07:00

G wrote about our trip to the Big Four Ice Caves but I wanted to show a couple of extra photos from the trip.

The view from near the car park. It just gets better from here.

Standing in front of the ice cave (not as close as you think), I got blasted by a cool mist. It is not a good idea to walk into the caves because bits of the roof fall off like the chunk pretty close to me.

We almost camped at Gold Basin Campground with some Aussie friends, but the weather was pretty dreary and the hardy camp manager cheerily suggested bucketloads of rain were on the way starting from midnight and that we might need a tarp and to dig a few channels for the water. It explained why the whole area was so lush and green. Instead we decided to stay there for the day and do the Ice Caves hike before heading home.

The campground is well organized and this means you need to book at least 3 days in advance to camp (perhaps this is also due to the weather and the number of no-shows we saw at the camp). Unlike many Aussie campgrounds, each site here was well-separated from the rest and many were partially surrounded by dense forest which was impressive when walking around the site.

A couple of campsites surrounded by dense green forest.

The Stillaguamish River flows near the campsites.

More Stillaguamish River.

More greenery right near a campsite.

Still more greenery.

Another random forest photo.

As we were driving to the Big Four walk we saw several other campsites, some of which were official and some were just folks camping beside a river, so the whole area looks like it would be worth going back to check out again. I'm sure there are also other decent hikes to do in the area.

Random: My camera is broken!

2007-07-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

I've had a 4 Megapixel Casio Exilim for about 3 years (although I kind of stole it off G, but that is another story) and a few weeks ago I found it with half the lens out in a partially switched on position. I fiddled with it a little and managed to get it to turn on but now it always has a 'lens error'.

I wonder if this means I should just buy a nice new one? They cost a whole lot less than they used to and electronics are actually cheaper here in the states. I could get a nice shiny new 7.2 Megapixel Casio for about $190. Very tempting...

UPDATE: G managed to fix my camera by reading the instructions and *gasp* following them. I might be able to hold off buying a new camera until the next big sale!

Seattle: Tacky Flashing Neon, Rundown Brick Building

2007-07-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

I was walking down First Avenue in Seattle a while back and a tacky flashing neon sign drew my attention to a rundown brick building. A picture of a giant hand seemed a little out of place in front of what I assumed was some kind of strip joint. I inspected a little closer and noticed E.E. Robbins and that the flashing 'Vacancy' sign was hovering somewhere over a ring finger.

EE Robbins Engagement Store.

Yes that's right ladies, if you're looking to get engaged, all you need to do is take your fella for a stroll and he'll notice this massive sign and say 'hey, wait a minute, that hand kind of looks like yours - we'd better go buy a ring!'

EE Robbins is the author a successful book called 'Popping The Question Seattle Style', which I'm sure doesn't include lines like:
"Honey, would you let me fill that vacancy on your ring finger?"
or:
"I was walking past this shop the other day and impulsively ducked in and grabbed a nice ring for you".

I mean, come on, us guys can come up with romantic ideas on our own. I'm also sure that ladies want a guy to shop around at a few places and really think about which engagement ring would be the right one.

For nervous guys that take the leap and fork over for a ring but don't think they are cool enough to win over their potential fiancee on their own, EE Robbins offers an extra special service called 'The Proposer'. A guy in a black suit oozing style will hand-deliver your ring to a given location at a given time for that extra wow-factor.

I wonder if G would have gone for any of this...

Seattle: Pike's Place 100

2007-07-17T21:23:00.000-07:00

A few week's ago the owners of Pike's Place Markets took some Pigs on Parade as part of its 100 year celebrations. I took a few pictures.

Pig with a fin.

Kiss a pig.

Football pig.

The pigs have since ventured out into the streets of Seattle and when we went into the city last weekend George took some more pictures. There are supposed to be 100 pigs scattered around the city so we'll have to take another trip to try to find a few more.

Sport: Sounders Soccer

2007-07-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I went to see the Seattle Sounders take on the Vancouver Impact in a MLS (Major League Soccer) game at Qwest Field.

Qwest Field.

As you can see from some of the pictures there was a pretty small crowd. They really only opened one side of the stadium to accommodate the approximately 3100 people. I guess they'll probably get better crowds when the Sounders play the LA Galaxy (if Beckham is playing). It really did feel a bit like when we had a soccer team back in Canberra and we watched out at Bruce Stadium.

Warming up. The crowd of 3100 is not much bigger than the crowds we used to get at the Canberra Cosmos games.

More warmups.

The game was decent quality since both teams were near the top of the table. The skills were a little lacking compared to some of the European soccer leagues and the pace was definitely a bit slower but it wasn't too bad at all. Unfortunately the Sounders didn't have much firepower up front so they had to do a lot of defense. Despite holding off the Impact for most of the game they conceded a header goal and lost 1-0.

The Sounders in white had a bit of defense to do.

Tickets were $13 each and I enjoyed the game more than the baseball so maybe I'll watch another.

USA: 4th of July Celebrations

2007-07-05T11:33:00.001-07:00

Last night I went to my first 4th of July fireworks celebration. We went to Fourth on the Plateau and were treated to some of the loudest and brightest fireworks I've ever been to. Here's a few photos.

Net TV

2007-07-04T12:05:00.000-07:00

I still haven't bought a TV so I've been watching a few shows streaming on the net from ABC and NBC. I've been watching shows like:

Grey's Anatomy - Just another hospital drama, but I'm hooked.
Six Degrees - Follows the lives of a bunch of people in New York City that are connected sometimes without knowing it
What About Brian - Think 'Friends', but outside the apartment. It has video game developers, lawyers, best friends breaking up their friends weddings. Exciting stuff.
The Black Donnellys - Shows how Italian and Irish mobsters manage to coexist (or sometimes don't) in a small neighbourhood.
30 Rock - Liz Lemon is the head writer for the Tracy Jordan Show, which stars the mentally unstable Tracy Jordan. Alec Baldwin is her boss. Lots of twisted relationships and crazy plots
Heroes
Age of Love - OK, this is pretty sad, but it has Aussie Mark Philippoussis (30) as a bachelor who is simultaneously dating 20 year-olds and 40 year-olds (the oldest is 48!). Mark is a pretty quiet guy so it is pretty funny to see him a hot tub with a bunch of 20 year olds looking very uncomfortable trying to think of something to say to them. I've watched 3 episodes and I'm not sure I'll last much longer. He's going to end up with one of the hot 20-somethings for sure.

Net streaming TV suits my needs. The shows still have commercials, but only about 4 minutes per show instead of 15. I can watch shows when I want and can see older shows that I missed. The only downside is when I get hooked on a show like What About Brian and watch 6 episodes in a row.

We'll see if I do get a TV and start watching endless boring cable TV shows.

UPDATE: ***WARNING - Spoiler ahead***. Of course The Poo picked the younger snooty lady over the more sophisticated older lady. Now get back to practicing your tennis!

Seattle: Pine Lake Park

2007-07-04T10:13:00.000-07:00

Pine Lake Park is just a few miles from Beaver Lake Park, but it is much busier, mainly because it also has a sports field that is used for baseball and soccer.

Baseball being played at Pine Lake.

On the shores of Pine Lake.

A little jetty which is popular with swimmers and fishermen.

I'd like to have a picnic at Pine Lake sometime, although I still think Beaver Lake is a nicer area. The day we visited there were lots of folks paddling little canoes and inflatable craft. With so many waterways here I can see why so many people have boats of some description. I'm considering getting a little inflatable canoe to paddle around some of these nice still lakes.

Random: Roundabout Demo

2007-07-03T00:12:00.001-07:00

The City of Sammamish has a website with lots of useful information but coming from the roundabout capital of the world (Canberra), I was somewhat surprised to see their Roundabout Demo page.

'Miss your exit? No problem, just "go around" one more time.'

Admittedly there are very few roundabouts in the USA and in the Seattle area I've only seen a couple but I had to chuckle a little.

Seattle: Beaver Lake Park

2007-07-01T22:25:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago I went to Beaver Lake Park with my folks and of all the parks we went to this was my mum's (or mom's in American-speak) favourite. I suspect it is probably because of the beautiful big trees and the tranquil body of water.

Swimmers at Beaver Lake.

Paddle boats ready to be launched on perfectly still waters. The folks that live here have it pretty good.

Looking over still waters to a lake house.

A path through the forest. I love jogging through here.

A shelter for a rainy day.

I've been back several times since to go jogging around the area and it is very peaceful. The only downside, like much of the wilderness so close to the city, is that it is limited by the surrounding private property.

Seattle: Seward Park (Summer)

2007-07-01T01:37:00.000-07:00

I went to Seward Park in early April with G and it was cold. There weren't a lot of people around and while it was worth walking around, I recently went back and found it is a whole other story when it is warm.

Canoing in April. It was chilly...

Jetskiing and boating in June.

Lots of Seattle folk own boats. Plenty of people were just sitting on their boats in the sunshine relaxing.

Other folks sat on the grass or small beach and watched the boats or swum. Very pleasant really.

Some boats seemed to be heading straight for each other. I think the boat with the flag probably took right of way. Flags are very important here.

So for any folks considering visiting Seattle, the motto to the story is 'come and visit us in summer time'. Also beware that summer time here is pretty short. Summer-time proper supposedly starts about 4 July (several weeks after the official start of summer) and lasts through until September/October.

It is probably a good idea to avoid November/December/January. November 22 is statistically the most likely day for rain in Seattle and 18 months ago Seattle had 27 straight days of rain in December/January.

Seattle: Sammamish State Park

2007-07-01T01:17:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I went to Sammamish State Park, which is located at the southern end of Lake Sammamish. I was expecting some peace and quiet for a picnic but instead encountered the annual Issaquah Triathlon. There were seriously fit people everywhere. It is pretty motivating to see people in a triathlon although it is never quite motivating enough to overcome my apprehension of the swim leg.

In any case I was able to find a few quiet spots in this big park.

Greenery around the lake. Green grass is something that you see less and less in Canberra.

A couple of jet skis just begging to be taken for a ride.

Slower water craft can be rented here as well.

I'm really keen to try some kayaking or paddling in some kind of water craft while it is summer here so I'll have to rent something like the kayak above. Those folks weren't all that adventurous though and didn't make it out to any sort of deep water. I think I'll have to find some kayaks to rent on the bigger Lake Washington instead.

Seattle: Flagging Space Needle

2007-06-24T21:57:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago I was in Seattle and saw a few flags from a Best Western hotel lining up nicely with the Space Needle. I'm sure they were carefully positioned in this way by the hotel.

They were politically correct in determining the heights of the flags, keeping the American flag at the top, followed by the Washington State flag (which does indeed have George Washington on it). The Washington State flag is the only green colored state flag.

Sighting the Washington State flag is pretty common since it is legally required to be displayed at schools, courts and government buildings. It is also displayed by other major buildings like hotels and shopping centers.

At the bottom we have the Best Western flag.

Seattle: Ferry to Bainbridge Island

2007-06-24T21:29:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I took a ferry trip to Bainbridge Island. The island itself isn't all that exciting, but the trip from Seattle by ferry only costs $6.70 return and is well worth doing just for the ferry experience.

The ferry leaves Downtown Seattle.

Boat rentals at Bainbridge Island.

Plenty of Bainbridge Island residents own yachts.

Bainbridge Island does have a main street which caters for tourists with a few coffee shops, book shops and various souvenir shops, but otherwise it is best to take a stroll along the shoreline. Unfortunately like much of the Seattle area, people are allowed to own property right down to the waterfront, so it is not possible to stroll along too far (more than about 2 miles or so) before you hit private property. This is a shame because otherwise it would be quite a scenic walk.

The car queue for the trip back to Seattle. Some folks probably do this every day.

The ferry has two sections at the bow (front) where passengers can stand up and feel like they are hovering over the water. One of the sections is shown below.

The best view from the ferry is out in front.

The trip back is best done on a sunny afternoon because there is a spectacular view of the city that is perfectly illuminated by splendid sunlight. The return trip was probably the highlight of the ferry experience for me.

Seattle skyline in splendid sunshine.

The Space Needle, which flies an American flag for Memorial Day.

Movies: Ocean's 13, Knocked Up, 1408

2007-06-24T20:57:00.000-07:00

I've been to a few movies lately (one was paid for by work as a morale event, which was nice), so here's a few quick reviews.

Ocean's 13:
One of my colleagues from work described it best as 'rich movie stars getting paid to have fun' and I think that best sums up this movie. The plot is based on the same crew from the other movies getting together to exact revenge upon a greedy Las Vegas casino owner. Matt Damon and George Clooney definitely gave off the vibe that they were buddies having a good time and strangely I enjoyed it. If you thought 12 wasn't very good, well this is a step up again, but not quite to the level of 11.

Overall: 7.5/10

Knocked Up:
You know the old story. Smart, beautiful, blonde (Katherine Heigl aka Issy from Grey's Anatomy) meets average looking druggo loser (Seth Rogen) at a night club and they end up in bed together. Wait a minute, if you're thinking 'hey, that would never happen' that's exactly what I thought when it did in this movie.

After getting over this small stretch of the viewer's reality, the movie settles into a nice comedy. I especially liked the interaction between Ben (Seth) and Alison's (Issy's) sister's husband. Their references to Back To The Future cracked up at least half of the audience.

Overall: 8/10

1408:
Be prepared when you go to see this movie - it is pretty weird and even a little scary. It stars John Cusack (who will always be the Gross Pointe Blank guy to me) and has a cameo role from Samuel L. Jackson. Cusack stars as Mike Enslin who writes books about the 10 most scary hotels to stay at, but has basically given up on the idea of ghosts, poltergeists and the like because he has never encountered anything other than a scary atmosphere. This all changes when he goes to the Dolphin hotel in New York to room 1408.

Overall: 6.5/10

Seattle: Commuting to Work

2007-06-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

This week I put my muscle where my mouth is after noting that the traffic here isn't very good and that alternative forms of transport are being pushed.

I commuted without my car for 3 out of 5 days from home to Microsoft. My first alternative commute was via the bus and this took me almost an hour. The bus actually does take a reasonable route but it winds around a little as it gets nearer to Microsoft. Morning traffic also doesn't help.

The warmer weather and the extra daylight (it doesn't get dark until after 9:30 pm at the moment) inspired me to ride my bike to work for the other two days. The first trip wasn't too bad because I'd already done the trip on the weekend. It took 47 minutes and the main concern for me was having to ride on the side of the road with the traffic.

Actually I could have chosen to ride on a gravel trail away from the road for some of the trip, but it is significantly slower. I'm sure that I've been spoiled by the nice cycleways in Canberra, but it did make me nervous when big SUVs were cruising past me. The traffic was also part of the best thing about the journey, since in one long section I was cruising down the road at more than double the speed of the cars as they crawled along bumper to bumper.

I was able to shower at Microsoft and they even provide towels (fortunately they're back after being taken away a while back). There are extended use lockers that I think would be handy and make my backpack lighter, but these are in high demand so I probably won't be able to get one for a while.

Hopefully I'll stick with the cycling for at least some days of the week and this will mean one less driver for others to contend with on the crowded Seattle freeways and state routes.

Canberra: FM1047

2007-06-10T22:58:00.000-07:00

I've mainly been listening to C89.5 or other local radio stations so I decided to tune back into one of Canberra's radio stations today (104.7). It is nice to hear a few songs that I haven't heard for a while. It is a little scary that many of the songs being played were playing when I left. I guess things don't change that quickly, although there are a few new DJs on the radio.

The only problem is that it makes me homesick hearing about Canberra events and even familiar commercials...

Canberra: Happy Queen's Birthday

2007-06-10T22:42:00.000-07:00

Monday is a public holiday in Canberra because we celebrate the Queen's Birthday. As noted on Wikipedia, we celebrate almost 2 months late, but it is a good excuse for a holiday and a few fireworks (although getting fireworks is getting pretty hard due to regulations these days). Enjoy the day off if you're lucky enough to have it.

Fortunately I've got a few things to look forward to in the next couple of weeks. We're going to the movies at work (Ocean's 13), we're playing paintball (I'm not as excited about that, but I get a camo shirt with my name on it so how can you pass that up?) and we've even got a picnic. Not bad at all.

Issaquah Alps: West Tiger Mountain

2007-06-10T21:23:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I was looking for a hike to do on the weekend with my folks so I did a little web searching and I found the City of Issaquah Trails Site. This great site has a series of small hikes conveniently located near Issaquah. I've put a low-res version of the map below - see the link below for a higher-res PDF.

City of Issaquah Family Forest Walks.

The start of the trails is very close to the I-90, a major freeway, so it is easy to get to. We got there in a few minutes from downtown Issaquah and parked and found what looked like a good trail to start walking on.

Starting out up West Tiger Mountain (unintentionally).

It was surprising just how noisy the traffic was as we walked along. It did spoil the otherwise spectacular green forest walk, for at least probably 20 minutes into the walk.

Steps going up a fair ascent.

After a few reasonably steep ascents a jogger came past us and we asked her if she knew where the trail went. Somewhat surprised, she answered 'yes'. We followed up with the obvious 'so, where is going to', to which she replied that it was the old trail that goes to the top of West Tiger Mountain and that it might be better if we went to the main trail. I was enjoying the walk so I split up with my folks temporarily and headed up the trail.

About halfway up I saw this sign:

Warning sign partway up the trail. They should put this at the bottom!

Having already made it some way up the trail traveling at a pretty decent pace I decided to press on. It was pretty tough going under time pressure (I had my folks waiting) so I was pleased to see the trees give way to sky after about 45 minutes:

Making it to the top.

I walked through to see that others were enjoying the nice view and weather at the top. There were even some folks putting on sunscreen. The summit elevation is 2522 feet, but I didn't have time to stick around so I took a few photos and took in the view for a couple of minutes and then headed back down.

The view at the top. It was obscured by trees, but still worth the climb.

The walk/jog down the mountain was much easier on my lungs but harder on the legs. It is almost a constant descent without many flat sections to rest.

Rocky descent. I'm taking the main trail next time.

I made it to the bottom and apologized to my folks for the extra delays and then we headed to the trailhead proper.

The High Point Trailhead.

This time we looked for signs and found lots of them.

Signs galore.

We decided to do a loop by following the Bus Trail, then the Wetlands Trail, Ruth Kees Big Tree Trail and finally the kid-friendly Swamp Trail. The total length of the loop is about 6 miles or so.

We found the Bus Trail to be almost perfectly maintained. It was refreshing walking under such nice greenery on a nice, flat, trail.

The Bus Trail. Very nicely maintained.

We soon found the Greyhound Bus that the trail is named for. Nobody knows quite how it ended up abandoned in the forest, but it has clearly been here for a while. The bullet holes were a little disconcerting, but otherwise it is gradually blending into the forest as it rusts away.

The bus from the Bus Trail.

At the end of the Wetlands Trail we found some flowering trees that looked suspiciously like wattle, although not quite. The trail was almost obscured by the blast of colour.

Flowering trees covering the trail.

As you might expect the Big Tree Trail had a very big tree, but the other trees were just as impressive for me, especially a bunch of particularly straight trees shown below.

Straight trees in the forest.

We approached the Swamp Trail from the wrong end, because it has a series of signs which tell a story. Fortunately it's more for the kids so we just took in the scenery.

The Swamp Trail with its many berry trees.

We arrived at the end of the trail and saw the start of the story. It would be worth taking kids along here, since it is a flat, easy, trail with decent facilities.

Zoe and the Swamp Monster.

USA: XXX Root Beer

2007-06-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

I had some visitors here last week and we decided to go way overboard and do the whole American Fast Food thing. That's right, no mainstream McDonald's for us. Instead we went to a more authentic American burger joint. I narrowed down a few suggestions from a social discussion list at work and we went with XXX Root Beer in Issaquah.

XXX Root Beer.

This story of over-indulgence is best told with pictures...

Root Beer on tap. There's also a picture of a XXX Burger that is overflowing.

Intense Decor. Walls, ceilings and tables all blend together. Note the old coke slogan which was simply 'Drink Coca-Cola'. No subliminal messages back then, oh no.

The ceiling is covered in various pictures from several different decades.

They even have antiques like this fast food ordering pod.

The famous XXX Burger and Root Beer. Seriously big.

My veggie burger and chips on authentic grease-proof paper.

My burger actually wasn't too bad, except that they coated the bun with some kind of greasy substance that tasted a little weird to me. After getting through the burger and root beer I was feeling pretty full. I don't think I'll go back here again for some time or until another Aussie visitor with a strong stomach is in town.

Seattle: Mariners Baseball

2007-06-03T14:45:00.002-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I went along to watch the Mariners play baseball against the San Diego Padres at Safeco Field. It was a cold rainy day but that didn't stop the crowds coming out for the game. Take a look at the sign held by a fairly disinterested guy who was probably being paid minimum wage (around $7.25 / hour) to hold it up. I just want to watch some baseball!

Safeco Field, where you might meet someone famous (or go to hell according to the sign).

The build-up before the game was typical of most sporting events. Both teams threw a few pitches and did some stretching. Then the game started and I quickly discovered I wasn't really a baseball fan. The first innings was over in a snap (a couple of minutes) without anyone actually hitting a ball!

The field was in good condition with the roof up to keep out the rain.

The second innings was a little more interesting as we saw a players steal a base. There was a deliberate walk, a couple of decent hits and some fairly excited antics to rev up the crowd at the bottom of the ninth when the Mariners could have leveled the scores at 2-2.

I found myself keeping track of how long innings were taking and then trying to work out how long much longer the game would take. We saw no home runs and the final score was a paltry 2-1, with the Mariners at the losing end. It took a solid 3 hours for the game to meander to its conclusion.

Final Score: Mariners 1, Padres 2.

One major thing that seemed to be missing from the game was replays. There were very few replays of pitches or hits and from the stands it was hard to follow exactly what had happened. You certainly couldn't work out whether any of the ball or strike calls were any good.

So now I've seen the basketball (Seattle Supersonics - great fun) and the baseball. I want to see Ice Hockey, Football and maybe even watch the Seattle soccer team.

USA: Memorial Day

2007-05-28T20:41:00.000-07:00

Today is Memorial Day, which is a public holiday dedicated to honoring fallen US soldiers. Some folks are not all that happy about such a solemn day being used just to make up an extra 3 day weekend. They want to reverse a decision made in 1971 and celebrate Memorial Day on the same day every year, even if it is on a weekend!

Since this is my first US public holiday that initially made me gasp. I mean I'm all for honoring fallen soldiers but as a worker in the US I already have few enough holidays as it is (and I'm missing some pretty nice holidays from back home like Easter and ANZAC Day).

Fortunately they realise public support for such a move might not be forthcoming if the public holiday disappeared so they propose extending a different weekend as a substitute for Memorial Day.

I spent the day riding ferries and enjoying the sunshine, but I did still stop and take the photo above.

Movies: Pirates of the Carribean, At World's End

2007-05-28T00:13:00.000-07:00

I must admit that I'd briefly skimmed a few reviews before going to see this movie today and they were generally pretty negative so perhaps that lowered my expectations, but I did enjoy the third in the Pirate's series.

I was disappointed by the second Pirate's movie after really enjoying the first, mainly because the plot really didn't seem that interesting in the second movie. Actually, I don't recall too many standout scenes in the 2nd movie, nor that much interesting character development.

This latest movie starts out with a hanging scene where many fundamental judicial rights (fair trial for example) are suspended in the quest to rid the world of pirates. Sound familiar to anyone else?

The pirates are none too happy about this and they rally together and attempt to release an ultimate weapon upon the pursuing soldiers. Nothing really too original there, but this is only the beginning.

Many of the reviews suggested that there were too many characters and too many subplots, but this was part of the charm for me. The witty dialogue was there, Johny Depp was great as always as Jack Sparrow and Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom stepped up as a complicated couple trying make things work despite all the other distractions.

I don't think I'm giving too much away when I say that their exchange of wedding vows is one of the best I've seen in a movie and certainly one that the kids will appreciate much more than the usual long drawn-out ceremonies.

There were a couple of negatives - the movie is about 3 hours long with previews, which is perhaps 1/2 an hour too long and the ending fizzled just a little compared to the rest of the movie, but all up it was well worth seeing.

Overall: 7/10

IT: Top 3 Blogs I Read

2007-05-25T23:01:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago I wrote a post about how I was cleverly generating a list of the blogs I read. Unfortunately the server the list was uploaded to is no longer active and I'm not using Akregator much for reading feeds so I'm going to list a few manually.

Before I write the list, this is how I read the blogs:

Internet Explorer 7 builtin RSS Reader - it's not too bad with a smallish number of blogs. I use this at work mainly to keep up with a bunch of MSDN blogs.
Firefox - Again, builtin reader. Good for a small number of feeds.
RSS Bandit. A decent feed reader although the interface isn't the prettiest. Good handling of larger numbers of feeds.
Google Reader. Not bad if I need to see feeds on the road.
Akregator. I sometimes use this reader on Linux. It is good for large numbers of feeds.

Any readers I'm missing? What do you use? Why?

So these are my top 3 at the moment (although they fluctuate a bit):

Robert Scoble. Prolific ex-Microsoft blogger who also does some cool videos for ScobleShow. He's almost like an aggregator for tech news and trends.

Coding Horror. Written by a rare breed - a developer that can write code and blog articles. He covers a broad range of technical issues, often from a UI perspective.

Kennysia. A Malaysian blogger who writes in an entertaining style and comes up with some classic quotes and doctored pictures.

What are your top 3?

Random: A Change Is As Good As...

2007-05-25T22:52:00.000-07:00

My move from Canberra to Seattle this year has definitely meant a lot of changes. Some have been unpleasant and time consuming like filling out all the paperwork for Visas etc. etc. but for the most part it has been a good change.

I just noticed that my previous post means that I've already written more blog posts this year than last (and we're not even halfway there). I think this is a good sign for me because I have more to write about and that generally correlates with the number of new or potentially interesting things I'm doing.

I'm still not sure if I'll have the time or inclination to keep up two blogs so we'll see how things go in the next few months.

Seattle: Snoqualmie Falls

2007-05-25T22:17:00.000-07:00

George wrote about Snoqualmie Falls a while ago after we first visited but I went back again with my folks on the weekend and it was nicer weather so I took a few more photos.

The top of Snoqualmie Falls. You can stay in the hotel shown top left.

One of the best things about the falls is that you can get there and park and you only have to walk for 5 minutes to see the view shown in the photo above. There is also a viewing platform which is a bit closer to the falls where you can get an even better feel for just how much water is falling. There isn't quite as much mist in the air as there is at Niagara Falls, but it is still impressive.

To get to the bottom of the falls you descend via quite a steep trail until you arrive at the river bank. The trail then follows the waterline back past a Puget Sound Energy station to another viewing platform. There is a short trip through a fairly tight cage area shown below.

The trail beside the Puget Sound Energy station is not for the claustrophobic.

The rest of the trail is very pleasant although it does end pretty abruptly some distance from the falls, presumably for safety reasons. Many people disregarded the warnings on the day we visited (not me of course) and went along a bit further to get the ideal photo.

Looking up at Snoqualmie Falls.

This was as far as I went with George last time, but this time we continued along the road a bit further by car to the small town of Snoqualmie. One of the first things you notice as you drive into Snoqualmie is the massive log cut from an old Douglas Fir that is resting on an old railway carriage in a specially designed shelter.

Douglas fir tree in Snoqualmie.

A little further along past some nice flowering gardens you arrive at the railway station shown below. There are a few old carriages to see and there is a little souvenir shop.

Snoqualmie Railway Station

I would like to go back again to catch a train that travels to Snoqualmie Falls because it looks like a scenic trip. One train arrived noisily while we were there.

The train to Snoqualmie Falls arrives. Strangely I thought of the quote 'That is the sound of inevitability'. You know the movie.

IT: Work Blog

2007-05-18T22:34:00.000-07:00

OK, so you thought this blog was pretty nerdy right? Well I've just started blogging about work over here. I'm not sure how long this will last since just trying to do the actual work I have to do is pretty time consuming, but we'll see.

For now its all pretty basic and includes some information about what I work on, which is profiling and about the surprises C# gives me as a C++ developer.

US: Pay to Shop?

2007-05-18T21:59:00.000-07:00

Imagine going shopping and instead of a nice (or not so nice) security guard keeping an eye out for potential shoplifters at the door, there is a bouncer facing in the other direction (out of the shop) making sure you have got ID to get into the shop.

Imagine now that you don't have the appropriate ID and the bouncer doesn't allow you into the shop even with perfectly good money to spend. Well you don't need to imagine this scenario if you shop at places like CostCo or Home Depot.

That's right, if you aren't a card-carrying member of either of those shops you will be turned away at the door, forced to spend your money elsewhere. I wanted to take a look in Cost Co recently but something about spending $50 to shop there just didn't seem right. Rationally you could argue that if you make up that $50 in savings by shopping there it is worth it.

Many other stores have frequent-buyer arrangements but usually they give you something in exchange for your repeat business. For example, you might get cash back after spending $1000 at a certain store. The advantage for the store is your repeat business and the advantage for you is the cash you get back for being a loyal customer. Consider also that many airline frequent flyer programs having joining fees and yet we still pay them for the privilege of flying. The upside here is that you can get free flights if you pay for enough flights.

The problem I have with the CostCo membership is that it isn't just a one-off fee. You have to pay $50 every year. You are effectively paying money to limit your own shopping choices, since having paid the fee you will be more likely to shop at CostCo in order to maximise the return on your investment. The upside for joining this not-so-exclusive club can only be the savings you make when you purchase items.

To me it also seems a little crazy for CostCo to turn away potential shoppers because they're not willing to pay the joining fee. Then again, the carpark was completely full so maybe I'm just missing something. Maybe the savings are just too good to pass up and the fee is just another inconvenience you have to put up along with full car parks and trolleys with squeaky uneven wheels.

Would you pay to shop?

Movie: 28 Weeks Later

2007-05-13T16:49:00.000-07:00

I was going to see Next at the movies this weekend but I read a few reviews which suggested it was a waste of time to see. So despite being a big fan of Nicholas Cage, I changed my mind and went to see 28 Weeks Later, which is the sequel to the visually impressive 28 Days Later.

This time I didn't read the reviews (although taking a look now they are mostly positive) and I went, hoping to see something like the original. Unfortunately I was sorely disappointed. I guess I should have noticed that none of the original cast was coming back for a second movie and that should have sounded the warning bells in my mind, but alas it didn't.

Before I go into why I didn't like the movie, there were some redeeming features. Once again some of the London scenes were spectacular because they showed some parts of the city creepily empty. I must admit seeing some of the London sites made me want to go back and visit again. It is such a cool city, despite the pollution and cost of living and other bad aspects that are present in many big cities.

So some of the notable sites were:

Two of the characters traveling over the Tower of London bridge on a scooter
Trafalgar Square, empty
Oxford Street, empty
Wembley Stadium all overgrown
Canary wharf and the DLR
Some interesting train stations that I recognised but can't remember the name of. Maybe one was Russell Square with the long walk round and round to exit

So anyway, about the movie. Well the story starts by recounting the experiences of Don (Robert Carlyle who starred in The Full Monty) holed up in a house in the countryside when the initial infection broke out. The camera bounces around frenetically (too much for my liking) as he fights off rage-filled infected. He manages to escape although he leaves his wife behind to save himself.

Fast forward 28 weeks and apparently all infected people in London have died of starvation so people are being brought back into London. Rather than being placed somewhere isolated the US army has cordoned off an area of London called Isle of Dogs which is a peninsula and can supposedly be secured and protected from any remaining threats.

Don is reunited with his children as they arrive on the DLR at Canary Wharf and they get to live in a choice apartment just near the subway station. This is where things fall apart. Here are a few of the problems:

The children manage to get over the Thames by scaling a bridge. They are only sighted by a single sniper and are not stopped from escaping the containment line. Surely with the population decimated by a highly contagious infection they would have decent security.
Don has an 'access all areas' swipe card and he uses this to get into a holding cell where his wife (who managed to survive, but is a potential infected) is kept. He goes through about 3 doors, but there isn't a single guard to stop him.
When the infection breaks out again, the army response is to put all the civilians into a locked room and turn off all the perfectly good lights across the city. Sure, this adds to the movie's scary ambience, but it sure doesn't help its credibility. Yes, that's right, having everyone scared out of their wits in the dark all grouped together is a good way to contain an infection...
The movie doesn't really go anywhere, except to the point where its ready for another sequel.

Overall: 3/10

Speaking of poor sequels, somehow Resident Evil is alive and kicking. There was a preview for Resident Evil: Extinction which is set in Las Vegas. At least Milla Jovovich is still in that series.

IT: Live Collections

2007-05-11T22:58:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been using a feature from Live Search Maps called Collections. This is a relatively new feature (although surprisingly it has been around for about a year) that allows you to add markers, lines and regions to a map and to save them.

This is useful if you go cycling or running and want to record the route you took but don't yet have a GPS. For example, suppose you take a tour around the Microsoft campus in Redmond and want to record and share with others. Here's what I did:

Went to Live page and opened up 'Collections'.
Selected 'pushpin' and clicked to mark the start of the loop.
Selected 'draw a path or a trail on the map' and click to insert nodes for the trail
Double-clicked to finish.
Added a region to mark the Overlake Transit Center.

The results are shown below.

Example Collection

You can select options for sharing, which will enable you to give links to others to take a look at your handiwork, like this.

The most useful feature for me is that the trails give you a length (e.g. 2 km) so you can map out how far you ran, walked or cycled without needing a GPS.

Tips:

Don't press 'Esc' while making a trail or it will disappear forever.
It is a good idea to save your work early because then changes will be autosaved as you go.
If you make a mistake while making a trail, don't worry you can move nodes around or add or remove them to suit.

Edit nodes by clicking on the path and then dragging the node.

Add or delete nodes by right-clicking and selecting.

Things I'd like to see:

Undo. I lost a few longish trails before I figured out what not to do and it was frustrating.
Being able to switch units of measurement from miles to kilometers and back again.
Better management of collections. Being able to duplicate collections easily would be good.
Search for collections that are not shared. I want to be able to search some collections of my own that I don't want to share.
Privacy feature - ability to make a public view of a private collection that doesn't include some parts of a trail and/or pushpins etc. I don't want to put collections that include my address up on the web.

IT: CompUSA Closing

2007-05-06T18:33:00.000-07:00

Today I took advantage of some very enticing savings by shopping at one of the 50% of CompUSA stores that is closing. I managed to get 60% off the purchase of a new power supply for my computer. The purchase was necessitated by the annoying different power standards in the US. Wouldn't it be great if everyone had worked together to pick one standard for plugs, voltages and frequencies? Its all too late now of course.

Anyway, so apparently CompUSA just can't keep up with online retailers and new players like Frys. I was a little sad seeing all the empty shelves in the soon-to-be defunct store, but then again that's what the consumer wants right? People seem to want either the best price, which typically means shopping online, or they want everything all in one place, which means shopping at a giant store like Frys.

So far I've resisted buying too much online so I guess I'll be headed for Frys, Best Buy or Circuit City next time. For now I'll just enjoy my savings.

Sammamish: Traffic

2007-05-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

In Canberra there are many intersections with traffic cameras that are used to catch drivers going through red lights and speeding through intersections. For the everyday commuter though they aren't very useful. The City of Sammamish has come up with a great idea of putting traffic cameras up and allowing them to be viewed via the web.

The Sahalee Camera view.

The East Lake Sammamish Parkway Camera view. If only traffic were like this on a weekday.

The cameras are located on the two major roads heading in/out of Sammamish, which should allow commuters to decide which route to take by quickly checking out the website. We can use these cameras in combination with the WDOT freeway traffic flow maps and cameras to alter our route to work. Alternatively we can decide the traffic isn't worth facing and we can stay at work a bit later or leave for work a bit later.

You can see these cameras better if you take a look at a collection I've created using Windows Live. I've also been playing a little with the other features of collections like the ability to add paths that have their length automatically calculated. I might write more about this later.

Smart placement of cameras to ease commuter traffic woes.

Travel: San Francisco

2007-04-30T21:52:00.000-07:00

On the 20th we took a short 2 hour flight to San Francisco. George has already written a little about it and although I have a lot to say I'll try to keep this entry short(ish).

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Fisherman's Wharf and this was very convenient to most of the tourist attractions we wanted to see. We booked a cheaper rate using Hotwire, which meant we weren't sure which hotel we'd stay in, but it turned out great for us.

Bike Tour (#1)
For me the best thing about the trip was definitely the bike tour. We hired two bikes from a place around the corner for $50 for both for the day (24 hours) including the bike, helmuts (though we had to ask), a bike pump, map holders and locks. We didn't actually keep the bikes for 24 hours, but we did spend about 8 hours riding about.

a) George about to start out. b) Heading towards Golden Gate Bridge (in the background) c) George gets a little nervous as we prepare to cross the bridge

They provided us with some detailed maps of trails and bike-friendly roads and we set off from Fisherman's Wharf over Golden Gate bridge. There were a lot of cyclists, runners and walkers on the track. Gee there are a lot of fit people in San Fran!

On the Sausalito side of the bridge. We made it.

Once we made it over the bridge we continued on to Sausalito, which is a nice little town in a hilly coastal area. We passed a trio of Brits on the way and had lunch there and then headed back up some fairly hefty hills to the other side again.

George at Ocean Beach. That's a lot of sand.

Then we continued along the coast to Ocean Beach again covering some pretty hilly terrain. After a brief stop we continued through Golden Gate Park, which is a massive park which even includes a golf course. Take a look at the Wikipedia page because it shows how much the area is in need of a park. Without the forethought of some city planners the whole area would have been consumed by urban sprawl.

Windmill in Golden Gate Park.

Having negotiated the coastline, we headed into the city again taking on some pretty hefty hills in search of painted ladies. In case you're wondering, George was keen to see this set of houses (yes houses) near Alamo square. Here's a pic mainly for George.

Painted Ladies of Alamo Square.

By this time it was getting late so we carefully avoided as many hills as we could and took our bikes back, feeling exhausted but happy. I can highly recommend this way of seeing the city especially since it really is very bike friendly there.

Chocolate
What better way to make up for a day of excessive exercise than to indulge in some good wholesome junk food? So that is what we did, heading to the famous Ghiradelli Square, which is known for its chocolate. Unfortunately it was raining by this time and the square was undergoing renovations, but we persevered and got massive icecreams.

Mmm chocolate. Just the thing for tired legs. Yes, it really is that big.

Pier 39
Pier 39 is a wharf that has been transformed into a tourist attraction, complete with many souvenir shops and plenty of places claiming to sell the best clam chowder. It is worth a visit, but probably once is enough.

Pier 39 - Tourists Galore, but worth a visit.

Bay Cruise
We took a boat cruise out under the Golden Gate bridge, which gave me another chance to add to my gazillion pictures that I've got of the bridge. The tour also went around Alcatraz and then back in. One hour cost $10 each, which I thought was decent.

On the Bay Cruise we saw a few people sailing around. Lucky folks.

Cable Cars
This is another thing you just have to do, but honestly once was enough for me. It was pretty fun going up and down some scarily steep streets with a guy continuously pulling and pushing levers to keep the cart in control, but I had enough after 15 minutes or so. It was $5 for a one way trip.

You Have to Ride a Cable Car in San Francisco.

We went past the world's crookedest street (Lombard St). See George's blog for a photo, but it did look painful for the owners of the houses. Still, the multi-million dollar house values would surely cheer them up.

Coffee and Candy
All that sight-seeing made us hungry and thirsty so we had to have a coffee in Little Italy and check out another candy store.

'Kid In A Candy Store' sums this up. Talk about captivated.

Wow, San Francisco with a Grande Coffee. What a trip.

The only slightly disappointing part of the trip was the visit to China Town, which was nowhere near as bustling and exciting as in Sydney. All up definitely a great place to visit. Hopefully we'll get back again.

Canberra vs Seattle

2007-04-28T21:53:00.000-07:00

No, it's not what you think. This isn't going to be me convincing all the Aussies back home to pack up their bags and come over here to live (although you should definitely come visit)! No, this is just a post about how things were and how they are now.

I should also say that I'm not actually in Seattle itself, but I'm close enough so it'll do.

Weather
Canberra: It is basically sunny all year around. It gets a little cold in winter. The variance in temperature is higher than in Seattle.

Seattle: It rains a lot in Seattle, but its not as bad as you might think. There isn't torrential rain all that often and because it is often overcast you can do a lot of things outdoors. The summers are supposed to be beautiful here, since it typically doesn't get quite as hot as in Canberra and it doesn't rain that much at all.

Work
Canberra: I worked in Seeing Machines as a Senior Software Engineer. The job was great, people were awesome and I worked on some fun products. I was about 2 levels below the CEO in a company of about 30.

Seattle: I work for Microsoft as a Software Development Engineer. I'm now more than 10 levels below the CEO in a company of tens of thousands. The job is fun and there are people to do some of the work I would prefer not to have to do myself. I work on Visual Studio which is used by millions of people.

Commute
Canberra: It is often said that you can get anywhere in Canberra in under 20 minutes and that was pretty much true. I spent ~ 10 minutes getting to work and barely faced much in the way of traffic. Public transport back home isn't great, with service by buses only and often on an hourly schedule.

Seattle: Traffic here is much crazier than back home. There are only 4 major freeways (2 north-south and 2 east-west) and they get packed. It can take me upwards of 40 minutes to get to work. Public transport seems similar to back home. There seems to be a bigger cycling community here than in Canberra and there is more tension between motorists and cyclists.

Housing
Canberra: I lived in a 2 bedroom townhouse. It was small but easy to look after and very convenient. There are tax breaks for investors which encourages people to buy investment houses.

Seattle: I live in a 3 bedroom condominium that is basically like an apartment back home, but typically here apartments are developed specifically for renting (using cheaper materials etc) whereas condominiums are for owner occupiers and are supposedly better built. There are tax breaks for home owners which encourages homes to be purchased rather than rented.

Radio
Canberra: I would listen to FM104.7 and Triple J back home, with the former being a commercial station and the latter being government backed. If you're not from Canberra, you can listen to both stations via the net so take a listen.

Seattle: Primarily I listen to C89.5 which is a dance station run by highschoolers (really) commercial free. For commercial radio I listen to Kiss 106.1 which is decent aside from its morning show which discusses Britney Spears, Anna-Nicole and other celebs. Again they're broadcasting via the web so take a listen.

Sport
Canberra: Cricket, soccer and rugby are all very popular back home. Indoor soccer is pretty popular about town, playing on basketball-style wooden floors.

Seattle: Here it is all about basketball, baseball and football (American of course). Basketball seems to have the biggest TV audience. Indoor soccer is played here, but only on synthetic surfaces. Outdoor soccer is much more popular (and more than I thought it would be).

Power
Canberra: Its 240 V, 50 Hz power back home.

Seattle: Here we have 110 V, 60 Hz power. Many portable appliances like laptops and mobile phone chargers will work just fine (check the label), but others won't. Things that worked - laptop, mobile phone chargers, camera charger, small stereo (thanks Pete!), LCD Computer monitor, DVD player. Of course you need an adapter to make the physical connections fit. It is a good idea to take an Aussie power board and use a single adapter instead of using multiple adapters for each item.
Things that didn't - TV - it also may not work because they use NTSC here instead of PAL, desktop computer (although many desktops have switchable power supplies - just be sure to switch back to 240 V when you come back to Aus or it will go up in smoke).

Television/DVDs, etc.
Canberra: We use PAL format for TV signal. We are in region 4 for DVDs. We use DVB for digital television.

Seattle: Uses NTSC format for TV signal. In region 1 for DVDs (which are also recorded as NTSC). Uses ATSC for television broadcast. All in all, it would have been better not to bother bringing the TV!

Internet:
Canberra: ADSL is common and so is ADSL2. Wireless broadband is possible as well. Plans typically include download limits and throttling.

Seattle: Cable is very common here. It is treated basically like any other service (electricity/water) so you choose to get it connected and that's it. There aren't download limits and my cable is running at about 8 Mbps which is much faster than my ADSL at home.

That's a few of the things I can think of for now.

Australia: ANZAC Day

2007-04-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

By now many folks back home will have fired up their BBQs and cracked open a cold one to commemorate ANZAC Day, which is celebrated on 25th April with a public holiday. For some it is just another public holiday and for others it is a sombre occasion that starts with a dawn service, follows with marching through the streets and maybe includes a couple of games of two-up.

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

Seattle: O. O. Denny Park

2007-04-12T22:27:00.000-07:00

O. O. Denny Park is named after Orion Denny who was the son of a Seattle settler. It is located in Kirkland and is pretty easy to miss unless you know where you're going. There is a small carpark which leads to a beach on Lake Washington and there is another carpark which is for the trail and it is pretty easy to drive past thinking you haven't made it there yet.

Here George is standing next to the park sign which comes with the usual long list of rules for the park. In case you miss the rules there are even more listed on the web site from the first paragraph.

The walk itself is on a trail which follows a creek for a short time. The creek has been restored by volunteers with a 'Salmon Ladder' which is a gradual change in river height that allows salmon to jump upstream. There is also a short section that you can follow into a ravine which includes some fairly intense undergrowth and the occasional weird sight like the mushrooms below.

Mushrooms in the forest

This walk is more secluded than some of the others and is a bit quieter, even though it is easy to follow a side trail and end up back on a road somewhere. The best bit of the walk for me was the lush greenery which you can see below. I'm not sure how long the trail was because we took a few side journeys but I suspect it was about 2 miles or so.

Lush green forest

Seattle: Green Lake Park

2007-04-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

George at Green Lake Park

Green Lake Park is one of the more famous Seattle Parks and it is much busier than Seward Park. It is located just north of downtown but it is still surrounded by the urban sprawl of Seattle. It is because of this that hundreds of people flock to the park to walk, jog, walk their dog, cycle, push their strollers, canoe or kayak (for $12/hour) or even to do some fishing (with pretty minimal effort though.

Lazy fishing - they don't even hold the rod!

I think as the weather gets even warmer there will be people swimming in the lake, out to pontoons like the one below. We were at the lake on Easter Sunday on a sunny day and to us it looked very busy but according to a friendly Subway server we talked to, on a normal Sunday it would have been much busier.

A pontoon for swimming

The main track is a loop of 2.8 miles which can be taken in either direction by pedestrians but must be navigated counter-clockwise by anyone on wheels. Despite this attempt to separate traffic we still saw a collision between two cyclists.

The area had the feel of a mini Lake Burley Griffin (for Canberra folks), although much busier and since it is so close to the surrounding suburbs, with more traffic noise. Despite this, the stroll was very pleasant with many big trees.

George with a monster Douglas Fir Tree

We were also able to see a surprising amount of wildlife. The park is renowned for its varieties of birds and we saw several types but we also saw some tortoises as well.

Three little tortoises showing off for the crowds

Not to be outdone, a duck managed to look very much like it was casually standing on top of the water. Closer inspection showed that it was cleverly perched on a submerged rock. Note that the show-off duck is the brightly colored male who is being circled by his unimpressed female partner.

Duck walking on water?

On the other side of the lake the highlight is the onset of spring and the flowering trees. It was fun walking through/under all the flowering trees. Here are a few examples:

Flowering trees

And here's a few more.

Flowering trees take 2

Take a look at a 360 degree panorama here.

George: Tully's Coffee

2007-04-08T19:53:00.000-07:00

This is why George likes Tully's Coffee so much:

George at Tully's

The checklist:

Comfy couch-style chair to sit on
Place to put your coffee
Warm fireplace
Clean, bright environment
Nice coffee
Free Wi-Fi
Friendly service
A 'sit as long as you want' vibe. Nobody hurries you to buy another coffee or get out

Tully's are going public soon and it causes me to ask, should you invest in a company because you like the way they do business? The answer is that you should factor that in if you think other people feel the same way but consider other factors as well. For me the little differences listed above (like free Wi-Fi) steer me towards Tully's instead of Starbucks and this is despite the 21 year advantage that Starbucks has had to get things right. Starbucks started in 1971 while Tully's only started in 1992.

Then again, Starbucks stocks have gone down 11% this year, so it would be important to look very hard at the numbers before investing. This report is pretty negative about Tully's future (they lost $2.7 million in the last quarter of 2006), so maybe nice guys do finish last.

Seattle: Seward Park

2007-04-08T19:10:00.000-07:00

I bought a book a little while ago called "Nature in the City: Seattle" and now that the weather is fining up and I'm still not allowed to do any strenuous exercise I've decided to check out a few of the sites mentioned in the book. The first is Seward Park which is located just on the edge of Lake Washington.

Map of Seward Park

The map above is shown in more detail here, where you can see that the park is a peninsula jutting out on the western edge of Lake Washington. Apparently the peninsula has been around for about 1100 years and was formed when an earthquake pushed the ground upwards about 170 feet. The walking trail which is shown in gold on the map above is a loop of 2.4 miles that follows along the edge and avoids the quite steep terrain.

Canoe paddling with I-90 bridge in the distance

The trail is actually a road that has been blocked off to allow walkers and cyclists to amble along at their leisure. There were quite a few walkers, joggers, cyclists and even a couple of people jogging with a soccer ball, but it wasn't too crowded. This is probably not the case in summer, since there is a beach (of sorts) for swimming were we even saw a couple of crazy kids swimming.

One of the beaches with rocks (no sand)

There is also a jetty and boatshed which I'm sure are well-used over the warmer months.

The jetty in Andrew's Bay

The park is pretty secluded so there isn't too much traffic noise despite it being not all that far from the city center. There are lush, tall green trees, plenty of bird life and a few patches of poison oak that are carefully signposted.

Here's a couple of nature pics from the park:

Leaf with water droplets. It does rain a bit in Seattle

Flowers - spring is working its magic

UPDATE: I went back in summer and wow, what a difference in the scenery and the number of people.

Movie: Reign Over Me

2007-04-01T19:20:00.000-07:00

Adam Sandler is Charlie Finemore, a dentist who lost his whole family when the 9-11 plane crashes occur. To cope with his grief he has given up dentistry and taken on a reclusive lifestyle. Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) is another dentist who is Sandler's old college roommate.

Johnson runs into Charlie one day and tries to work out what happened to Charlie's life (and of course to fix it). There is a very college-like feel to Charlie's apartment. He plays video games where he battles against the Colossus on a projector in his living room. His kitchen is continually being renovated and there are a couple of rooms that are just covered with sheets.

The movie is set in New York but it manages to show how Charlie is living almost in a parallel universe. Where Alan is meeting people and bustling in traffic, Charlie is zooming through the empty New York streets on a scooter at odd times of the morning. Many scenes show Charlie basically alone or with Alan in some deserted part of New York, either because of the time or the peculiar location.

There are a few other characters that add a little substance to the movie including Alan's wife (played by Jada Pinkett-Smith) who fears that Alan is becoming distant and there are the parents of Charlie's deceased wife who he is trying not to remember about.

Reign Over Me is a decent movie and it really made we want to zoom around New York on a scooter, but I didn't really like the way things ended with attempts to tie up loose ends too neatly.

Overall: 7/10

IT: Microsoft Recruiting in Australia

2007-03-24T22:20:00.000-07:00

Aussies working at Microsoft must be doing a pretty decent job because some recruiters from Microsoft will soon be heading over to conduct interviews in Australia, primarily in Sydney. They're looking for:

Software Design Engineer (SDE) with:

Fluency in C/C++/C# and a passion for writing quality code using computer science fundamentals
Ability to derive creative and innovative solutions by thinking "outside the box"
Ability to solve complex problems, sometimes by testing and debugging code
Expertise in feature definition, design, and feasibility

Software Design Engineer in Test (SDET) with:

Fluency in C/C++/C#/VB.NET and experience designing and developing tool architecture
Ability to solve complex problems and write automation systems and device drivers
Ability to author test plans and cases, conduct security and stress tests, and debug at source level after identifying and prioritizing bugs
Demonstrated skills in negotiation and conflict management
Demonstrated interest in customer advocacy derived from a holistic understanding of the product from the code level to delivery

If you're interested let me know. The jobs would be located in Redmond, Washington.

Health: Elbow 1, Cheek 0.

2007-03-24T21:28:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm not at the Bonza Bash because on Wednesday night my cheek bone was broken by a flying elbow in a game of soccer. You can see the relevant part of the X-Ray in the image on the right. The bone that is pointing in like a V shape should actually be curved a little outwards.

I've been told that I've got a zygomatic arch fracture and will need to have surgery on it sometime next week (and this will probably be something like the scary picture in section 9). In the meantime my face looks a little flat and I'm struggling to eat and talk a bit. The bone is pushing into the muscles that help chewing/smiling/laughing etc. Strangely other than when I try to eat it actually isn't as painful as you might think. I still think that a dislocated shoulder is much worse than this broken bone.

In any case, I've used some of the US health system services and so far I've been impressed. I went to the nearest ER at about 11 pm and was admitted promptly. A nurse made sure I wasn't an urgent case and then a doctor saw me within an hour. I was given a CD with my X-Rays and a diagnosis within 2 hours.

The following day I met with a specialist and had CT scans and did not have to wait more than 1/2 an hour for either. Parking was free (unlike back home in Canberra!) and I didn't have to pay any money upfront. I'm still waiting to see what kind of bill I get from the health insurance company and how the surgery goes, but all up the service so far has been top notch.

As for Bonza Bash, well George still went along so no doubt you'll hear more about that on her blog.

Seattle: Traffic

2007-03-22T16:10:00.000-07:00

In a previous post I mentioned that Seattle traffic is something that everyone talks about, but I provided a traffic map from late at night with everything green. The map below from 5:15 pm on a Thursday is more representative of what traffic is really like, with lots of black (stop start) and red (slow going) on the freeways.

This is why alternative forms of commuting are getting much more attention here, including catching the bus, car pooling and van pooling where the city actually gives you a van to pick up work colleagues with and reduce the total number of cars.

Seattle: Random Things

2007-03-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

I've noticed a few strange things hidden right next to some of the Seattle icons so I thought I'd share a few of them:

This is in the Seattle Center, which is just next to the Space Needle and Key Arena. There are twin foot massagers that are shaped like hands. Why? I'd hate to see what the back massager looks like.

In Pike's Place Markets, just near where they throw the Salmon, is a sign for a Gentle Dentist, which is a tooth that looks like it has been forcefully (or gently) extracted from someone's mouth. I'm steering well clear of this guy.

Seattle: Bonza Bash

2007-03-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we're going to go along to Bonza Bash, which is an event started by a couple of Aussies working at Microsoft as a way to get together with other Aussies, New Zealanders and the odd American (and meet girls that were nicely dressed up, according to rumours).

This is the third year of the event and it is getting bigger and bigger. The first year it was held in someone's house, the second year it was in a classy photo studio in Seattle and now they have managed to hire out the Space Needle (shown left, which is one of the major icons in Seattle.

The event is a little pricey, but given the location and the chance to meet a few more Aussies I couldn't pass it up.

Canberra: Canberra Day

2007-03-18T22:48:00.000-07:00

Today (the third Monday in March) is Canberra Day! Enjoy the public holiday if you're back in Canberra. It just reminds you how young Canberra is, with its official founding on 12 March 1913.

Movie: 300

2007-03-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

Last week I went to see the movie 300 at the Cinerama in Seattle, which is an adaptation of the novel by Frank Miller, who also wrote Sin City. 300 is a very different movie to Sin City, with basically the only thing in common being the amount of ultra violence.

Here's the blurb:

"In the midst of the Persian-Greco war, Spartan King Leonidas leads his army of 300 soldiers into battle against the invading Persian army during the Battle of Thermopylae. According to legend, their valor and sacrifice inspired all of Greece to unite against the Persian foe, leading to the origins of democracy"

The Spartans are super-fit fighters who are taught to be tough from an early age. In fact, when a Spartan is born, if they look weak or sickly they are immediately put to death. If they are one of the fittest, they survive and undergo further ordeals including being sent out into the wilderness when they are seven either to die or return a real Spartan.

You can see that this sets the scene for some pretty ugly fighting. You have this small bunch of incredibly tough and muscle-bound fighters (yep, there are more 6 packs in this movie than in any I've seen, and I'm not talking about beer) going up against a massive but less aggressive army. The fighting scenes are impressive - there are legs being hacked off, probably more impalements than any other movie and of course the obligatory decapitations.

I went to see the movie with a bunch of guys from work (G definitely wouldn't like this one) and it was pretty enjoyable, but really the plot was rather limited. I still prefer Sin City.

Overall: 6.5/10

IT: Early Daylight Savings Time (mini Y2K?)

2007-03-11T20:43:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of Daylight Savings Time in Washington state and some other areas around the west coast of the USA. This is several weeks earlier than the usual start of daylight savings time, which since 1986 has started on the first Sunday in April. The idea was to have more daylight hours when people are up and about so that they don't need to use as much electricity for lighting and heating, thereby reducing the amount of energy used.

This does seem like a good idea, although some studies including one about Australia undertaken when the Sydney Olympics were on and NSW extended its daylight savings, suggests it may not be as effective as first thought.

However, after the hysteria surrounding the Y2K bug, it shouldn't surprise me that there are a number of news stations here that have been doing stories about how many different things could go wrong as a result of the time change. Some of them are also listed in the LA Times, including heating in buildings not working correctly, accounting systems going haywire, etc etc.

Of course today has come and almost gone and it doesn't seem like much has gone wrong at all. That said, developers really do have to start to take a little more responsibility for the coding of their systems, especially when coding in magic numbers of rules of thumb for computing date and timezone changes. A lot of the more minor issues are said to involve mobile devices which would have been built after Y2K and therefore developers should have known better.

USA: Girl Scout Cookies

2007-03-11T17:54:00.000-07:00

A lot of American movies show people going to great lengths to avoid persistent girl scouts selling cookies. Well today I was cornered as I exited the QFC (supermarket) by some young girls and their minder parents. Sure, I could have said 'no thanks' and left them standing in the rain trying to sell their cookies, but I caved in and said yes.

Unable to choose between all the flavours (like samosas, peanut butter, various types of chocolately goodness) I asked them for their favourite type of cookie and I ended up with Thin Mints, which are pretty much the same as 'Mint slice' back home except they are a bit thinner.

They taste pretty good, but a single serve (and there are 9 in the box above) takes up 23% of your recommended daily intake of saturated fat according to the handy guide provided on the pack.

Seattle: Traffic

2007-03-09T22:23:00.000-08:00

Aside from the weather in Seattle there is one thing a lot of people here seem to obsess about and that is the traffic. People talk about it a lot, they try to avoid it and some even alter their working hours because they just can't face it.

In some areas if you were to travel at 10:00am instead of 8:00am you could change a 45 minute commute into a 20 minute commute.

With all this interest in traffic, it isn't surprising that the Washington State Department of Transport has put together a website with detailed traffic information including live flow maps, video and alert warnings. This is even better than Google's maps with traffic flow and will prove useful when we move to a more traffic sensitive area.

Money: Currency Fluctuations and Banks

2007-03-09T22:07:00.000-08:00

Recently I've had several issues trying to transfer money from back home to the states. Firstly, I've had to take a bit of a gamble on whether the currency is going to go up or down or stay the same. I had to make a call to transfer some money early this week so I did and I've since read that my timing was very poor because my transfer pretty much coincided with a 16 week low in the AUD -> USD conversion rate. If I had waited until the end of the week I would now have almost 1% extra cash in my account, which is significant.

The other problem I've had involves transferring money in the first place. Before I left home I went to my bank to authorize Overseas Telegraphic Transfers via Internet banking. This is an extra form that you need to fill out and if you don't do it, you probably can't transfer any money OS. Anyway, despite doing this at a branch, they somehow lost the form and so I had to fill it in over here and pay about $6 (US) to fax it back to them.

Another bank is causing me even more grief because they require a heap of extra info before they'll even let me transfer money between my accounts back home in Australia. If I were to do this again I'd suggest closing any accounts you don't need and making sure that the rest can be accessed and manipulated while OS.

IT: George's new blog!

2007-03-08T19:26:00.000-08:00

George has a new blog. Her old blog went a little stale and she forgot the password, but now she has some pretty cool photos of Seattle. She explains the name in a post but basically she had a Mazda 121 that was kind of bubble shaped so she affectionately called it 'the bubble'.

In a rare (for George) nerdy moment, she noticed the odometer was going to tick over to a binary number (100,000 or something like that) and she was very taken with the name 'Binary Bubble'. With the move to the states she had to tearfully sell her bubble so now it lives on in her blog. The photo of George in her nice shiny bubble in the first entry to her blog is one of my favourites because she is so happy. So go take a look. The site also has photos and stuff...

USA: Social Security Number

2007-03-06T22:13:00.000-08:00

Today I got my Social Security Number (SSN), just under 3 weeks after I arrived in the country. That is pretty good compared to some Aussies I know who had to wait for more than 2 months. The SSN is so important here and this is made very clear when you sign up for one. You are only entitled to a maximum of 3 replacement SSN cards in a year, and 10 in your life, which means that you need to take good care of it, since you need the number for pretty much anything to do with money, working or government services.

USA: Driver's licenses

2007-03-02T23:49:00.000-08:00

One thing I didn't note earlier about driver's licenses here is that they include:

Height (ft)
Weight (lbs)
Eye Colour

This is of course in addition to your photo, your address details and your birth date. So if somebody shows you their license you might find out a few things they didn't really want you to know. Or even worse, if you happen to lose your license whoever finds it would know some things about you that even close friends might not know.

Seattle: Settling in Seattle

2007-02-28T22:18:00.000-08:00

I've been a little too busy to update this blog, so here's a quick update.

Work is good, but it is a little hard to feel so unproductive as you learn all the new stuff. Then again, stepping out of the comfort zone really does help you to learn a whole lot and much more quickly than you would have otherwise.

The Social Security Number continues to be an issue. Fortunately we have been able to open a bank account because of Microsoft's association with a credit union, but basically any government or important service requires a SSN. Getting any sort of credit without one is pretty much impossible. Strangely, contrary to what you might expect it is actually better to wait for about 10 days when you arrive because then the local social security office will have your details (they are sent from a central office). We duly waited and the process was pretty smooth - should have the SSN with a week or two. Had we gone in straight away they would have sent our details back to a central office somewhere and it could take a couple of months.

I took the written driver's license test and although they did require you to remember a lot of numbers like the distance you are allowed to park away from a fire hydrant in feet, I passed with just one wrong answer. G also passed. We were offered the chance to take the practical driving test on the same day (due to cancellations) or wait a month, so despite being a bit nervous I took the test. It was pretty straight-forward, including parallel parking (very weird doing this on the other side of the road) and pulling in and out of traffic, parking on a hill, etc. I passed with 100%, which was nice. All up it cost $45 which seems quite a bit less than back home. Anyway, now we've got a license we should be fine to go and buy a car.

Incidentally, for both the SSN and driver's license, I went and applied and couldn't get the card right away. For the license it was pretty crazy because they printed me a temporary one straight away and then I had to wait to get the permanent one in the mail.

Today I picked up my first paycheck, which was all very exciting. It will be nice to actually have some money in our US account.

In more worrying news, the front page of the paper today is suggesting that a US recession is maybe on the cards, which is definitely something to consider as we think about buying a house over here!

In lighter news, we joined up with a massive gym (Pro Club) and had a tour and we found out that there were 3 'fitness centers' with bikes, treadmills and steppers, all of them the same except for the lighting. We walked into the first one and aside from some lighting near the entrances the whole room was dark. The crazy thing is that is the most popular room of the 3. I guess people don't want other people staring at them while they work out. Another room has partial lighting and the other is more traditionally lit. Apparently Pro Club is the biggest in the states and it sure feels that way. The locker rooms are massive and have a spa and steam room, lockers and a bathroom that stocks mouth wash, shaving cream, shampoo etc so you don't need to bring your own. Very luxurious. It also has 3 pools (none 50 metres though), 4 courts in a gymnasium, a separate 6 or so tennis courts, squash courts and racketball courts.

Tonight it also snowed!

Work: Change of Jobs

2007-02-19T19:22:00.000-08:00

Today was my first day of work at Microsoft on a rainy day in Seattle. We arrived on Wednesday and have had a pretty busy few days leading up to this point. The transition was made pretty seamless by the awesome relocation folks at Microsoft who arranged for temporary accommodation and a car for a little while. They also helped out with setting up bank accounts and the like.

Here's a few incidents/highlights:

Being rejected for a Macy's (department store like Myers) store card because we have no credit history in the states. Even opening a bank account can be an issue.
Finding out that we have to get a Washington state driver's license before we can buy a car. This means taking a written test and a practical test, so it is just like I'm 17 again.
Seeing several days of continuous rain, which we haven't seen for a long time back in drought-stricken Australia. The novelty is starting to wear off now though.
The New Employee Orientation (NEO) at Microsoft, which was very well planned and run. It made today a lot less stressful than it could have been.

I'm still a little sad at having left my previous company Seeing Machines, which was an awesome place to work with some great people.

Anyway, I'm writing this at Tully's coffee shop using their free wireless service until I can get internet set up at home so I'd better wrap it up.

Lsongs for Kubuntu/Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy)

2007-01-25T13:21:00.000-08:00

This is an update to my earlier post. For the most part it is just my command-line history with a few comments.

Open a terminal window (konsole for example)
Make a directory and change to it:
> md lsongs
> cd lsongs
Download the latest lsongs source file (not the Debian package) and unzip. At the time of writing, this is done using:
>wget http://software.linspire.com/pool-src/l/lsongs/lsongs_0.2.46-0.0.0.50.linspire0.1.tar.gz
> tar xzvf lsongs_0.2.46-0.0.0.50.linspire0.1.tar.gz
> cd marlin_build_lsongs-0.2/
Try running lsongs and find that it is missing a few dependencies:
> ./Lsongs/lsongs
Install pyxine:
> sudo apt-get install libxine-dev
> cd ..
> wget http://jaist.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/pyxine/pyxine-0.1alpha2.tar.gz
> tar xzvf pyxine-0.1alpha2.tar.gz
> cd pyxine-0.1alpha2/
> python setup.py install
At this point the install failed for me due to compile issues with G++ 4.1. I just had to edit pxlib/Geometry.cc and add a few empty 'template <>' calls before function definitions. Then I could continue the install.
Install pyxine (also needs root access):
> sudo python setup.py install
Install pynjb:
> cd ..
> wget http://software.linspire.com/pool-src/p/pynjb/pynjb_0.1.0-0.0.0.50.linspire0.6.tar.gz
> tar xzvf pynjb_0.1.0-0.0.0.50.linspire0.6.tar.gz
Need to install a few extra libs:
> sudo apt-get install sip4
> sudo apt-get install python-sip4-dev
> sudo apt-get install libnjb-dev
Now back to pynjb:
> python configure.py
> make
> sudo make install
Change back to lsongs dir and try to run Lsongs:
> cd ../marlin_build_lsongs-0.2/
> ./Lsongs/lsongs
I got an error 'ImportError: No module named ipod'. I just had to edit two files to comment out the 'from ipod import *' lines:
> vi Lsongs/PodLibrary.py
> vi Lsongs/PodPlaylist.py
Install extra dependencies:
> sudo apt-get install cdda2wav
> sudo apt-get install lame
> sudo apt-get install liblame-dev
Install py-lame
> cd ..
> wget http://jaist.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/lame/py-lame-0.1.tar.gz
> tar xzvf py-lame-0.1.tar.gz
> cd py-lame-0.1/
> make -f Makefile.pre.in boot
(at this point I had to edit the makefile to remove the DEFS = @DEFS line)
> make
> sudo make install
> cd ../marlin_build_lsongs-0.2/
That's it. You can choose to install lsongs system-wide as follows:
> sudo python install.py

When you launch lsongs you should see something like:

IT: ScobleShow

2006-11-27T02:28:00.000-08:00

Robert Scoble is an ex-Microsoft employee who is now working for a startup called PodTech. I've been reading his prolific blog for some time but just recently I've tuned into to his video blog called ScobleShow. He has had some pretty interesting clips including:

A tour of Microsoft research, including their use of eye tracking for monitoring human computer interaction, hand tracking etc etc.
A tour of Google's Kirkland offices, although they don't really talk much about what they're doing.
An interview with the founder of Sousta, an automated web testing company. He discusses why they treat their developers so well (developers get a MacBook pro and a 30 inch monitor for home, along with a good office setup), as well as discussing some of the pros of open source development.
A demo of PhotoSynth, which is under development at Microsoft Research and is designed to take a bunch of photos and display them in an efficient way that maintains their spatial relationships. For example, take 100s of photos of a single scene from different viewpoints, display general scene structure using a point cloud and display the best photo for a particular viewpoint.

Check it out. Most of the clips are < 200 Mb to download and are in QuickTime format.

Sport: Ben Donohoe Fun Run

2006-11-11T17:41:00.000-08:00

On Saturday George and I competed in the 6 km Ben Donohoe 2006 Fun Run. The run is organised by students from a local college (Hawker College) and is in memory of Ben Donohoe:

The run is in memory of Ben, who was only nine when he passed away in August last year from a brain tumour, eight weeks after first being diagnosed. Funds raised go towards a research grant specifically for paediatric brain tumours.

The event was pretty well organized, attracting a crowd of about 1400 people, which is a bit less than The Canberra Times Fun Run, but it is pretty good for an event that has only been held once before. There was the usual mix of competitive, semi-competitive and casual runners, with a greater number of younger runners than at some of the longer fun runs.

The run started at the sporting centre CISAC and proceeded around part of Lake Ginninderra. There was a map provided on the Hawker College site, but after the event I decided to try to make a better one. Fortunately I was able to find Walk, Jog, Run, which provides an interface to Google Maps that allows you to click and generate your own routes, including distances. It isn't as good as having your a GPS of course, but it is better than nothing. I've added the Ben Donohoe 2006 route, also shown below:

As you can see it claims the run is only 5.62 km, but I guess I've just approximated the route and it also doesn't include any changes in elevation.

This time I didn't stop to take any photos along the way and pushed myself a bit harder than for the previous fun run. I made it in 25.52 seconds, which was a reasonable pace. The winner made it in 17.58.

Here George stretches out to beat a couple of people on the line, making it in 37.53.

A friend of mine also competed and I think we all suffered a little on a hot (~29 degrees C) and windy day but it was all good in the end because after drinking lots of water and enjoying the complementary fresh fruit at the finish, we went home and ate cheese-cake (hey it is a fun run after all)!

IT: Kubuntu Linux 6.10 (Edgy)

2006-11-03T18:28:00.000-08:00

I decided to upgrade from Kubuntu 6.06 (Dapper) to the newest Kubuntu, 6.10 Edgy. The instructions for Ubuntu users were clear, but unfortunately Kubuntu didn't have the update-manager installed by default. Wary of my previous issues using the dist-upgrade method and also noting that it is not recommended for Ubuntu users, I thought there must be a better way.

The obvious thing to try was to use apt-get to try to install the update-manager. I just did:
> sudo su
> apt-get install update-manager

You may need to add the appropriate sources if you haven't used apt-get before. You may also be able to do this using Adept, but I didn't try it.

Then I tried to run the update-manager but I got an error "Can't find DistUpgradeViewGtk". A quick search online revealed that I had to install python-vte, which I did:
> apt-get install python-vte

Then I ran the update-manager as root:
> update-manager

It worked out how much it needed to download (close to 1 Gb) and then started doing so. I had to choose to replace a Qt configuration file and then after a few hours I had to decide if the update should remove legacy packages. I agreed and then let the machine reboot.

Despite reports from some other users of problems, I had none. My system booted up. My MA111 Wireless USB adapter worked using the same settings I used for 6.06.

So how is the new experience? Well the new fonts look crisper, there is Firefox 2.0, OpenOffice.org 2.0.4, KDE 3.5.5, GCC 4.1.2, Gimp 2.2.13, etc etc. The only thing that I noticed didn't happen by default was sticking with a SMP-enabled kernel, but this will be easily fixed using Grub.

Sport: The Canberra Times Fun Run

2006-09-18T04:58:00.000-07:00

On the weekend I competed in my first Canberra Times Fun Run. Actually it was my first ever Fun Run and I went in it because Georgie was completing her New Year's resolution to compete in two fun runs this year.

Before the event I took the 'Fun' word little too literally, having only a few warmup runs. On the day we rocked up a little early and I realised that this fun run was a lot more serious for many people. I was standing there with my keys and a camera thinking maybe I should be in running shorts and a singlet. About 4700 people were running, which is a pretty good turnout for a town of less than 400 000.

The event is a 10 km run, between Woden (near the cemetery) and Civic (Commonwealth Park near the lake). It is usually held in September, which usually means lovely weather and this year was no exception. Mid 20's (Celcius) and sunny, which was great weather for running, if a little bit too warm.

We waited for a while and the 'wheelie' racers started racing. Curiously after they started we were delayed while the organizers confirmed that all the roads had been closed. Surely wheelie racers don't want to be run over by a confused motorist wondering why there isn't any traffic on a main road?

In the picture below the crowd is gathering at the starting line. You can just make out the ambulance which was ready to follow the runners and pick up any unlucky runners who couldn't keep up the pace.

After the short delay we were off and racing. After about 1 km the crowd started to spread out a little as you can see below. It looks like I've managed to catch the serious crowd - not too many smiles there and it's early days in the race.

I took the organizer's advice and ran at a pretty slow pace for the first 5 km and then picked up the pace a little for the final 5. I was still a little disappointed when I reached the finish in 50.16 minutes. If I want to cut that time I'll have to avoid stopping to take photos and should probably leave the camera at home. George finished in 1:07.49, below her predicted time of 1:15 which was pretty good. The winning time was just over 31 minutes by an engineer who also won it last year.

The finish is in a very pretty part of the lake with Parliament House in the background. We were treated to fresh fruit, powerade, copies of The Canberra Times and even some complimentary massages, which was a great way to relax after the race. I'd highly recommend giving it a try if you're in town next September.

Golf: Tuross Head Country Club

2006-08-25T18:09:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago we played golf at Tuross Head Country Club. It is a pretty quiet little 9 hole course which can also be played as an 18 hole course because each hole has an alternative tee-off.

The pro shop and club house are located on a hill at the top of the course, so it is easy to survey the course before playing. My first impressions were of a pretty hilly course and these were reinforced as we stepped up to the 1st hole. The fairway for the first hole has a significant downhill slope from left to right, meaning that if you hit the ball straight you are likely to end up a couple of fairways across.

Some of the holes are very scenic, as you can see from the picture above. There are also a few old trees like the one to the right, but for the most part the rough isn't too much trouble. There isn't too much water either, aside from a couple of holes where you start by hitting over water. There also aren't too many bunkers, which means by comparison to some other courses Tuross is relatively easy to play, if you're able to handle the massive slopes. This is one of the few golf courses where I actually found more golf balls than I lost!

I found the best thing about the course was that it wasn't too crowded. We played as a group of four on a Sunday afternoon and the course was clear and we didn't hold anybody up. I guess this will probably change as we move into the warmer months and all the coast courses become crowded again.

In the picture to the right I'm about to tee off on a par 3. We're basically at the top of the hill that slopes across the fairways of the first few holes. The ocean is in the background and I'm hitting almost towards the club house.

One of my favourite holes (possibly because I got a par) was the short par 3 sixth, shown below. It is about 110 metres and is all downhill, with the smallish green protected by a bunker, large trees and the natural slope. I was lucky enough to land on the green and avoid all of these obstacles.

Playing at Tuross costs $15 per person and I think that is for as many holes as you like, although we only played 9.

Golf: Moruya

2006-08-20T01:01:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we played golf at Moruya Golf Course, an 18 hole Par 72 course.

The View From the Clubhouse

The course is in very good condition and has fairly forgiving rough if you're able to avoid the many water traps and bunkers. In the shot above you can see the 9th and 18th fairways, which actually finish on a massive tiered green that is shared by both holes. It is very daunting to accidentally overputt and have to putt across what is effectively two greens to get to the hole.

The highlight of the round was when I managed to hit my way onto the par 4 tenth green in one shot, setting myself up for my first ever eagle putt. All the excitement went to my head because after a good first putt to get close I had to settle for two more putts to finish with a par.

Green fees were $27.50 per person on Saturday for 18 holes.

Golf: Mollymook Hilltop Course

2006-08-10T04:35:00.000-07:00

On the weekend I played at the Hilltop Golf Course in Mollymook. Here I am winding up to hit on the 3rd hole which is a longish par 3.

The course was in pretty good condition, although there has been a lot of rain recently so some of the fairways were in need of some attention. Apparently the course was rated 83rd in Australia in 2004. For me one of the best things about the course is the view from some of the tees to the greens (the above 3rd is one example). Starting at the top of a hill you're able to see the green from the tee.

I've played there twice now and on both occasions I've finished the 18th in near darkness. The next time I'm hoping to finish a bit earlier. It was great playing in winter time because the course wasn't too crowded. In summer it is very difficult to get a tee off, and even the locals have to call up at seriously early times of the morning to make a booking.

The green fee was $35 for 18 holes on a Saturday. 9 holes was $25. These prices don't include buggy or cart hire.

IT: Goggles :: The Google Maps flight Sim

2006-08-09T04:52:00.000-07:00

Goggles is an unofficial flight simulator which is written in flash and uses Google Maps for the background scenery. Pick a starting place and fly around. For example, I chose Sydney below and then flew over the Sydney Opera House.

This is an interesting use of the technology. I think it would be even more interesting if it were possible to write a similar app using Google Earth, which would enable even better graphics and for an in-cockpit style flight sim. Including highlights of the trip (e.g. labelling the Opera House below) would also be a good feature.

IT: Spyware and Trojans

2006-07-30T00:19:00.000-07:00

I've been running my laptop at home with an outdated virus scanner for about a year or so, feeling reasonably confident and safe because:

I don't download and install much software
I don't open any suspicious-looking emails or attachments
I don't use the laptop extensively

Despite this, something had been niggling me for a while. It was the thought that I should probably heed recent security warnings, including the Windows XP SP2 shield with a red cross and install an updated scanner. I downloaded and installed Google Pack, which happens to come with Norton Antivirus and a free 6 month subscription for virus updates.

The full system scan took over 11 hours and it reported that I had a low-risk trojan, which it removed quickly and easily. This prompted me into more action so I ran Ad-Aware SE, a spyware remover which also is part of Google Pack. Sure enough, it also found a fair amount of spyware. Much of it was low-risk tracking cookies, but there were also registry entries and a few files as well.

I'm glad to say that I'm clear of most known risks for now...

Soccer: Australia vs Brazil update

2006-06-19T04:06:00.000-07:00

Well my previous prediction proved wrong and it is just another good reason not to put a bet on anything that you are passionate about. It's a good thing I wasn't enticed by the potential 14:1 gain to be had by betting on my optimistic score.

Fortunately Australia still has a good chance of getting through to the next round. All we need is a win against Croatia or a draw against Croatia and for Japan to lose to Brazil.

Soccer: Australia vs Brazil

2006-06-18T03:58:00.000-07:00

My optimistic score prediction for the game is a 2:1 win to Australia. According to Acttab if this does prove to be the correct score and I bet $1 I would get a return of $14. I'm not going to put any money on it though.

IT: Joga.com Companion for Firefox

2006-06-17T21:19:00.000-07:00

Joga.com is a website created by Nike and Google to host online communities of football (soccer) fans. According to the site:

'... most of all, Joga is about "Joga Bonito" -- Portuguese for "play beautiful." Are you ready to start down the path of soccer bliss? Join us, and show the world what playing beautiful means to you.'

I joined up some time ago and haven't found it all that useful yet, but now with the World Cup they have released a companion for Firefox, shown below.

Key features include:

Customised skin for your team in Firefox. I've got Australia selected for mine. Note that it doesn't look all that good with ForecastFox active at the same time. Fortunately you can turn that option off if you like.
Scores for recent games on the left-hand side of the browser.
Recent headlines.
Videos.
Live updates for the current game in the status bar.

Go the Socceroos, who play Brazil at 2:00 am.

IT: Google Earth for Linux

2006-06-13T05:27:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to try out Google Earth for Linux. Well, I did and I'm happy to say it was a very painless process. I just downloaded the .bin file and then ran it. It was going to install into my home directory so I re-ran the install as the 'root' user and it chose /usr/local/google-earth to install to.

The install completed quickly and kindly offered to launch Google Earth which I accepted. The screen took a little while to show a stable image but then I was offered a view of the globe. I entered 'Canberra, Australia' into the search and was greeted with one of Canberra's prime landmarks - Parliament House.

At first glance, this appears to work just as well as the Windows version.

IT: Picasa and Google Earth for Linux

2006-06-13T05:08:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting for some time to use some of Google's free non-web applications with Linux. They recently released Picasa for Linux, which is a useful tool for visualising all your photos (it finds them for you automatically) and for making some basic enhancements to your photos.

Picasa runs using a custom version of Wine which is bundled with the application. My previous experiences with Wine have been mixed, but Google has gone to some effort, actually making more than 200 contributions to the Wine source to make things work. The only problems I experienced were during the initial scan to find all images on my hard drives. Since then, no crashes, no font or UI issues.

Google recently announced a version of Google Earth for Linux, which I'm downloading now to try out.

IT: Blogs

2006-06-11T00:17:00.000-07:00

With my Linux frustrations well behind me and Kubuntu working like a dream, it is now time to get all my RSS/Atom feeds back into Akregator. Fortunately this is all that I lost in the update, since I was able to use my old Firefox and Thunderbird configurations and the rest of my data was backed up.

Before resubscribing to the numerous feeds I was subscribed to before, I've decided to prune the list of feeds back to something more manageable. In the world of magazine subscriptions, most people converge to their minimum set of most relevant magazines just because it costs money to get each mag. Every 12 months or so you need to either fork over some more money to continue the subscription or cancel it.

In the online world, RSS subscriptions are free (aside from storage costs) and there isn't a regular 'review' period where you are prompted to consider whether a subscription is actually worthwhile for you. As a result, my list of unread articles in Akregator was continually getting longer and longer. For about 30% of my feeds I'd read every article straight away. For about 20% more I'd browse every so often and then for the rest I'd rarely read any at all.

So I'm starting fresh. Unfortunately I can already predict that my list of subscribed feeds will start to increase again and things will only get back to the same situation. I've had a look at a few popular News Readers (Akregator, Google Reader, Bloglines) and there doesn't seem to be a good solution for this problem yet.