MikeFitz with overflow bit set…

Statistics derived from Google died in a blogging accident, that’s who.  Publication of this xkcd cartoon is an extreme demonstration of the Observer Effect.  To paraphrase: You cannot measure something without changing it in some way.

Cartoon by xkcd.

Bloggers everywhere linked to it and now even the spammers are getting on the bandwagon.  Search Google now for “died in a blogging accident” and the count is in the thousands.  Interestingly, I’ve noticed the number trim back slightly over the past few hours - possibly as Google identifies the spammers?

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Update: Sun 13 Jan
Google Trends charts for “died in a blogging accident” make interesting reading.  The chart for January 11 shows a spike 1 hour after the XKCD cartoon was posted; this is expected.  However, January 12 shows a spike at 6am PST; what caused this?

Robert G. Kaiser, Washington Post Associate Editor, hosted an online chat in the hours following the closure of the Iowa Caucuses.  Interesting questions from participants and responses from Robert give a good insight to this first step in the US Presidential race.

As I post this, the discussion is continuing.  See Live Analysis: Iowa Caucuses Returns.

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Update: 9 Jan 08
Washington Post Live Analysis chat and Results from the New Hampshire primaries.  There was a lot of participation in the chat from overseas.  Note this comment from a chat participant in Denpasar, Indonesia…

It is clear why foreigners have more interest in this U.S. election — they very recently have experienced what a bad U.S. president can cost them. In Bali, it is fair to say that the terrorists bombings of the past few years (2002 and 2005, and there were also attacks in Jakarta) never would have happened if Bush hadn’t lashed out and attack a Muslim country. In lives and in economic terms, Indonesia has suffered directly because of the decisions of a U.S. president; the connection is evident to most here. Is it fair to blame Bush directly? Sure, he tried to solve a wasp problem by kicking the nest, and has gotten everybody stung in the process. So foreigners are anxious to see who will replace Bush and if that will be positive or will everyone get a painful sting again.

(Bush) tried to solve a wasp problem by kicking the nest, and has gotten everybody stung in the process.  Is that the best description of his presidency, or what?

Being a true romantic, Mrs Fitz gave me half a rainwater tank for Christmas.  Being equally romantic, I gave her the other half.

But our real Christmas presents will be a trip to South America in May.

Mrs Fitz’s usual technique of exorcising her travel bug is to find a travel agent who knows the target area well and has good contacts with local hotels, guides, drivers etc.  She then asks for a price for a personalised tour for 10 to 15 of her friends. (Typically, 10 are needed to qualify for discount airfares.)  This is so much better than a regular tour where one waits for 44 strangers to get on/off the coach.  Better still, we never have to go to the guide’s brother’s carpet shop!

For this trip she has been working with Gary Tate of South America Journeys in Auckland to put this personalised itinerary together.

We now have 11 of our friends signed up to go, some of whom are coming from Canberra & travelled with us to the Middle East in 2005, others travelled with Mrs Fitz to China in 2006.   Last days if anyone else wishes to join us.

I fell about laughing (That’s oldie-speak for I ROFL’d) when I saw this.  Pensionbook has been around for a month or so but it was too funny to let slip by without comment.

Pensionbook by Steve Wildish at Straight from my brain.  (click picture to enlarge)

Most of it is just too true.  The only inconsistency I can spot is that I know for a fact that my mate Al Bridges has been friends with Cliff Richards for several decades.

There now seems to be quite a buzz^* around Edgar Jones.  Please excuse me while I race off to register edgarjones.com before it goes.

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^* That “buzz” turned out to be flies.

Who has the most enigmatic smile?

A zoom in to the original image reveals an imperfect shave.

#2 Son recently purchased a fancy new camera.  It’s a Canon EOS 40D.  He brought it over to dinner one Sunday night and these were some of his first photos.

While Mrs Fitz gets the soft focus treatment, I get quite the reverse.  Go to #2 son’s Flickr photo page, zoom in to the original and you can actually count how many whiskers I missed when shaving.

Also on his Flickr pages, he says nice things about his mum, but calls his dad a “hippy”.  Do you think he is trying to tell me I should have spent more on education? 

A special Christmas treat for .NET developers this month.  We’ve been invited by Transmax to their facility at Gaythorne to have a peek under the covers of STREAMS, their world-class integrated intelligent transport system built with .NET and running on Windows 2003 Servers.

STREAMS manages all aspects of traffic operations on surface streets and motorways including Signal Management, Incident Management, Motorway Management, Vehicle Priority, Traveller Information and Parking Guidance.

Join us for a Christmas Beer and watch live M1 (and other locations around Australia) traffic management on the *really* *really* BIG screen!

Please park in the Baptist College car park (entry via Prospect Rd) and follow the concrete path around to the Transmax office.  If you are able to offer other members a lift from the city, please let me know and I’ll coordinate.

If you are unable to see the map, it is also on the QMSDNUG website at www.qmsdnug.org.

RSVP
All welcome.  Bring your colleagues.  Because Transmax is sponsoring the catering, it’s important to rsvp early.  If you haven’t already done so, an immediate rsvp by email to mike@fitzsimon.com.au will help with planning.

See you there,

Mike Fitzsimon
0418 275 275

Those of us with Facebook profiles will know that there is a space where you can, if you wish, display your religion.  You can leave it blank, select one of the major religions or write anything in there - anything at all.

Up until yesterday, my religion box announced
  “Tolerant of all; except the intolerant.”

I thought that pretty much encapsulated my belief that, as a species, we should not allow religion to divide us.  Further, those who would use religion as a weapon to divide us are the most evil people on this planet.

However, yesterday, I learned from retiring High Court judge, Justice Michael Kirby, that mere “Tolerance” is not enough.

I’m a little bit suspicious of the word tolerance. It’s a rather condescending notion, isn’t it, that you tolerate somebody else. Acceptance is the notion that you just accept that people are different and have different views and we’ve all got to live together.
  - Justice Michael Kirby in a Sunday Profile interview with Monica Attard on ABC Radio.

I share Michael Kirby’s belief that Australia is uniquely well placed as a multicultural society and a multi-religious society to find bridges between faiths and if we can do that we can make another contribution to the world, as a tolerant, accepting society.

As of yesterday, my Facebook profile announces that I am
  “Accepting of all; except the intolerant.”

Could I have said that better?

It’s time we stopped thinking as separate races, separate religions even as separate nations. It’s time we started thinking as one species; and an endangered one at that!

This Saturday, I’ll be handing out Green how-to-votes at my local State School.

Australian Greens leader, Senator Bob Brown with Queensland Greens lead Senate Candidate, Larissa Waters

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Update: Wed 28 Nov 2007
Having manned the booth on my own all day, I was keen to see whether I made a difference.  It looks like I did.  Compared to surrounding polling places in the Division of Rankin, the Kimberley Park booth returned twice the swing to the Greens in the House of Representatives and about a 2% higher vote in the Senate.  My sunburn doesn’t feel nearly so bad now.

Reference: AEC Polling Place Kimberley Park, House of Reps, Senate.

A packed agenda for .Net developers this month with two speakers.

First up, Leon Bambrick (aka secretGeek) and then International award winning PDA and TabletPC developer, Robert Crago.

Coming out of the garage: Build your own MicroISV

Leon, developer of TimeSnapper, will walk us through what’s involved in turning latent ideas into a source of passive income and establishing your personal software empire, without resorting to cyber crime.

Also don’t miss Leon’s blog, secretGeek; entertaining as well as educational.

A Pen is NOT a Mouse

Robert’s passion is the TabletPC (”The coolest thing Microsoft has done.“)  He is currently contracting to Education Queensland assisting in the introduction of SmartPhones to senior staff.

Robert will demonstrate:

• why today’s applications on pen-powered devices leave a lot to be desired
• how to harness the full power of the pen and dramatically improve ease of use
• several innovative pen-centric controls for both TabletPC and Windows Mobile devices
• Windows Mobile 6.0 WispLite ink and handwriting recognition, and
• saving precious screen real estate.

These details are also available on our QMSDNUG website at www.qmsdnug.org.

Please RSVP Early
All invited; attendance is free.  Catering this month sponsored by Candle ICT.  Because of this, please rsvp by email to mike@fitzsimon.com.au before 8:00 Tuesday.  Thanks.

Yep, Mrs Fitz and I are just back from three weeks in France.  You don’t want to read a day-by-day travelogue (hey, I don’t want to write one), so here’s a simple list of things we saw and did.  (Geek readers: scroll straight down to the sections on Technology, Battlefields and Driving.)

Art & Culture

Who has the most enigmatic smile?

Le Louvre: Mona Lisa by Leonardo, plus works by the other Ninja Turtles.

Musée d’Orsay: loved all the Monets, Manets, Cézannes; was surprised to see that the sculpture I knew as Rodin’s “The Thinker” is actually a disappointingly small part of a much larger work, Porte de l’Enfer.

& what we saw.

what he saw…

Vincent…

Vincent van Gogh: got right into Vincent - saw Starry Night Over the Rhone at the Musée d’Orsay - even bought the Starry Night souvenir tie.  Two weeks later we had a delightful lunch at the Yellow cafe in Arles which was the subject of Vincent’s Terrasse de Cafe la Nuit

Eiffel Tower: Great view on a sunny day but most entertainment came from the hordes of beggars, pickpockets and tricksters.  When they asked if I spoke English (their way of filtering out prospects), I responded with “Lah Shukran” - “No Thank-you” in Arabic.  That put them off their game a little.  We saw most of the tricks coming; “Did you drop this ring? Here let me see if it fits your finger.” - a thinly-veiled attempt to deftly remove other rings, bracelets and watches.  Still, Mrs Fitz came away without a glasses case containing her prescription sunglasses.  It *might* have fallen out of her coat pocket.  After a visit to an optician and an eye-test, she now has a bi-focal souvenir of Paris with lovely French frames.

Cathedrals and Chateaux

Notre Dame: Spectacular, yes, but if I’m remembering correctly, the interior is not as extravagantly decorated as the Notre Dame cathedral we saw in Montreal last April.

Notre Dame

Sacré Coeur

La Basilique du Sacré Coeur de Montmartre (Remember the scene in Amelie?)  More tricksters approached Mrs Fitz; this time with a loop of string; “Put your finger in here for good luck.”   My shout of “Ne touchez pas!” stopped them immediately. 

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