Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Today's quote (for the travellers amongst us)

"Isn't air travel wonderful? Breakfast in London, dinner in New York, luggage in Brazil."

Found on: Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters

B

Dr Karl & brief mention of Glastonbury

Just quickly want to say, had a great time at Glastonbury! Even with all the mud and water :-D All part of the experience I say! I will be doing a post about it soon (when I get some of the cool pictures up), but before I do that just wanted to let people know that...

Dr Karl is podcasting!!!
Dr Karl for those who don't know (re: the non-Australians) is a science commentatory who has a regular spot on the Australian alternative radio network Triple J where he'll answer all sorts of odd questions like 'Where did the carrots give you night vision myth come from?' or 'Why are eggs, egg-shaped?'

To read his articles check out:

Gotta say it mad me really happy to see that I can still listen to my favourite show (even now that I'm on the other side of the world), so if you're like me and need your fix of Dr Karl, or are just intrigued by this crazy scientist read the instructions on how to grab his podcast (or if you're a geek just grab his feed)

B

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Beating Cancer - in a big way!

A friend of Cath's (a girl our work named Rachel) was diagnosed with no less than 2 forms of cancer in 2003 (she is better now)... And with a very good friend is now scheduled to climb Kilimanjaro for
"... getting to the top to stick two "v"s up at cancer and prove that it has not beaten us, as well as raise stacks of cash for charity"

Some history
The two girls doing the climb are:

  • Rachel 'At the end of 2003, Rachel, 29, was diagnosed with two forms of cancer. She is now better and planning to raise money climbing Kilimanjaro'
  • Allie 'When Rach was diagnosed with cancer I didn't know what to do. I was shocked, angry and most of all felt it so unfair that such a young, bubbly and vibrant friend of mine had been struck down with such a nasty illness.'


They have set a goal of raising £10,000, and thus far have been able reach approximately £7,000.

Note: They are paying for the trip, This will not come out of money raised

How can you help?
Firstly go read up on their amazing story at: Great Heights

Throw a link into your blog or website/email it round... (don't forget to include that the climb is scheduled for June/July 2005)

Send them a message of support climbing_greatheights@yahoo.co.uk

Finally, go Sponsor them!

B

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Geeks & Nerds in relationships

Quite recently I’ve noticed quite a few articles and postings on the web about how geeks & nerds are great to have as partners:


Though I think my favourite one by far has been 'Dating an Apple Developer' which is more of a guide/advice for girlfriends of developers and how to interpret (ie: deal with) our occasional obsessive behaviour…

Advice like:
There is nothing like being the one there when he completes something new.
I can honestly say it’s the greatest feeling in the world to be the one there when Justin gets out of the chair (for the first time in weeks) and is beaming at me (through red, puffy eyes) and dying to show me his newest creation. Somewhere between the annoying profanity and the lack of sleep he created something wonderful.


With some very useful comments by other readers as well, like:
As a side note, I just wanted to mention that this doesn’t give developers free reign to geek out all the time and contribute nothing to the relationship. And S.O.’s should be careful not to get too permissive about their developer’s behavior: It’s one thing to be flexible and understanding, but it’s another if that flexibility and understanding are completely one-sided. Then it’s just bad and unhealthy.

I liked this article so much that I’ve forwarded to Cath, who hasn’t really experienced the ‘full-on intense deadline approaching must get this code out tonight I’ll go to bed when it’s done please can I have another coffee work damn you FIGJAM!’ moments that she’s going to have in store for herself…

B

PS: In posting this Cath has actually been asking how HTML works and how those pretty blue lines appear under certain words... ;-)

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up.

From: W. Somerset Maugham Quotes - The Quotations Page

Just thought it was a really cool quote, found while I was using one of the new-ish google labs sites: Personalised frontpage which allows you to setup your own stuff (to a point) in the blank spot underneath... Good way to check gmail and some news headlines. :-)

B