blog entry

blog entry

nomadology

I've been reading the Nomadology book and blog posts lately. it's an interesting concept. I've found myself travelling more in the last few years but I'm not sure that my mode of travel could be classed as nomadic.

eg from Encyclopedia Britannica - searching on nomad / nomadism
http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9373574

[quote]
"Way of life of peoples who do not live continually in the same place but move cyclically or periodically."

"It is based on temporary centres whose stability depends on the available food supply and the technology for exploiting it. A hunting and gathering society is a type of nomadic group. Pastoral nomads, who depend on domestic livestock, migrate in an established territory to find pasture for their animals. Tinker or trader nomads, such as the Roma (Gypsies; see Rom) and the Irish and Scottish Travellers, are associated with a larger society but maintain their mobile way of life. Nomadism declined in the 20th century as urban centres expanded and governments sought to regulate or eliminate it."
[/quote]

or nomadism on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomadism

[quote]
"Communities of nomadic people move from place to place, rather than settling down in one location. Many cultures have been traditionally nomadic, but nomadic behaviour is increasingly rare in industrialised countries. There are three kinds of nomads, hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads, and peripatetic nomads. Nomadic hunter-gatherers have by far the longest-lived subsistence method in human history, following seasonally available wild plants and game. Pastoralists raise herds and move with them so as not to deplete pasture beyond recovery in any one area. Peripatetic nomads are more common in industrialised nations travelling from place to place offering a trade wherever they go."
[/quote]

currently I'm a cross between Perpetual Traveller, expat or perhaps even a touch technomad. for the moment I have given up the sedentary lifestyle. living in different place whilst on work projects gives you a great opportunity to see how other people live and to realise how little you actually need to be happy and to live a good life yourself. it definitely makes you appreciate the life we lead in Australia.

there's a whole other world out there and some people are taking advantage of it. in doing a couple of quick html hops whilst googling nomadism, I came across microship.com the website of Steven Roberts who left suburbia behind to travel in teched up vehicles such as Winnebiko and BEHEMOTH. Now he's decking out a catamaran to do some more leisurely and comfortable sailing. but wow! what an adventure. his site mentions he's had help from numerous people on places to stay and go. there'd be a few books worth of stories to tell!

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20060711 Marriage and castes in India - a local's perspective (mp3)

Click here or on the image to listen to the audio recording

we had a chat at work about marriage and castes in India not long after arriving. it was interesting for us and the Indian guys to hear how it works and the differences between love marriages in the West and arranged marriages as well as the process involved in India. in these modern times, websites are used for arranging marriages, similar to the online dating sites that crowd the late night tv advertorial space.

some of my questions / comments sound quite dumb now that I know more about the place and people here but it was my first week in Delhi and didn't know much about Indian customs.

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Air Jaldi Summit - wireless networks in India

http://summit.airjaldi.com/home/program/

notes

Day Three, Tuesday – October 24
09:00 – 09:10 Greetings and logistics updates
09:10 – 10:00 Keynote Address:Dr. Eric Brewer
10:00 - 10:30 Break

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20040304 Brisbane city - valley night lights drive

Watch the video

this is some video I took with my old camera as I drove into Brisbane from Sydney for the final visit prior to leaving for the UK. you can't see much detail - but the lights are colourful and I can tell each step along the way - probably have a story for most of the spots driven past. I can't remember how many times I've driven through the city and valley over the years when I lived there. the valley looked alot different - new business, brighter lights. it brings back lots of nice memories of the fun times in brisbane!

playing with squeak

HelloWorld! squeak file

visit squeak plugins page if you can't see the app below


or click here to open hello world squeak test app if you can't already see it. once the page opens, scroll to the toolbar at bottom of page and add things to the test page - you won't be able to save though!

hrmm... that didn't work at all :(

useful links to docs / info :

http://www.squeak.org : one of the main squeak sites

http://guzdial.cc.gatech.edu/squeakbook/ : book on squeak "Squeak: Object-oriented design with multimedia applications" by Mark Guzdial

http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/cs2340/ : uni course using squeak that the "Squeak: Object-oriented design with multimedia applications" book was based on

http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~ducasse/Videos/ : video tutorials - don't seem to have sound in all of them though! screencasts

http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak : Squeak Swiki

http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/2983 : documentation

http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/82 : a self study course in squeak

http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/20 : other squeak websites

http://www.univ-savoie.fr/Portail/Groupes/listic2/membres/Stephane.Ducas... : pdf books on squeak

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20061005 drive to Canberra to see Tab & Andrew

Watch the video
the drive to Canberra to see Tab & Andrew while she's pregnant. shaky footage as I was driving! I took a couple of the brown signed tourist drives and ended up on a 75 km unsealed dirt mountain track on the way to Wombeyan Caves. I had to beep the horn going round the blind corners and the tyres were sliding a bit some of the time so it was a bit scary. it took me a couple of hours as I was driving so slowly! luckily I didn't come across too many cars coming the other way. finally I made it to the bottom of the hill where the park is leading to the Caves. by this time it was 3:30pm and I thought I might have to do another 75k to get back to the highway, so I didn't actually make it to the caves - the shortest trip was a 1.5 hr guided walk which involved climbing inside the caves also. I did get to see lots of kangaroos though and the park was a nice oasis after the hairy drive through the mountains. luckily there was a 5 km road with about 1 km unsealed, but easier gradient road leading out of the park heading towards Golburn / Canberra, so the trip back was much quicker and safer! great to see Tab & Andrew before they have the baby, so it was worth the trip!!!

electrofringe notes - thursday 28/09/2006 - moPho workshop - mobile phone video

I tried converting an existing video to 3gp format - here's a shorter 3pg version of the People watching at Saket PVR video :

and also made a new one after taking a few 2 second video clips and some rough edits.

this is the original version :

and this is the .3gp version

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general notes

http://www.graffitiresearchlab.com/

grafitti research lab - led projections onto screens/walls - throw the led devices up and they project onto a wall. they stick to the wall via a magnet

http://www.instructables.com/id/E9D2ZJ3FG0EP286JEJ/

introLED Throwies
Developed by the Graffiti Research Lab a division of the Eyebeam R&D OpenLab, LED Throwies are an inexpensive way to add color to any ferromagnetic surface in your neighborhood. A Throwie consists of a lithium battery, a 10mm diffused LED and a rare-earth magnet taped together. Throw it up high and in quantity to impress your friends and city officials.

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Howard says : English tests for entrants to Australia

this is an article about Australia's plans to impose English tests on immigrants in Delhi Times - Times International paper, published Saturday 16th september 2006, pg 32.

not many articles make the Delhi papers apart from sports (mostly cricket) and some educational/university related items, so it was interesting & disappointing that this is one of the articles that Australia is linked to. what an impression other countries must think of us!

I'd like to know if this made the news in Australia this week also and what people thought of it. plus I want to know what are the 'Australian values' on the test???

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1996034.cms has the online version of the article

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sage rss feed backups - blogs & vlogs - opml files

backup of my home computer's firefox sage rss feed links in opml format

lists the blogs & vlogs I've been reading. now I've subscribed to them using rssfwd so I get most them by email also. but it's always good to have a backup

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knitted recycled converse shoes

I just came across this article whilst reading some rss feeds. BlueAndRedCows on the craftster.org message board has posted a pattern for knitting converse shoes. apparently her old ones broke, so she replaced the fabric/canvas upper shoe with a knitted piece. they look great!! and seem to be really popular on the site also. Boing Boing's just posted an article about them also so I guess they'll be really popular soon!

it's great to see hand made / craft items being made, especially when recycling your favourite pair of shoes. I had a pair of converse boots when I was younger and I used to love those shoes. I bought another of the shoe type connies a couple of years ago but they were ruined once when they got too wet so I had to throw them out (couldn't get rid of the smell :( )

here's some photos of the final product. below is the pattern in case it's removed from the forum.
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=120442.msg1154164#msg1154164 is the url of the original forum message if you want to read the whole thread.

read more to see the pattern

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