melbournesnapshots

Sad but True!!

After Cameron's "scoop blogging", I only thought it fair that I share a recent picture I took of Tony in his latest training course - "Handywork for non-handy people"

Gone to Sydney!

Flew into Sydney tonight on the 6:00pm Qantas flight out of Melbourne. Great flight - we landed 7 minutes early - pity the "travel lift" to the gate lounge was broken and we had to wait for about 25 minutes before we could leave the plane. Staying at a very functional and most pleasant hotel in Sydney - the Avilion - my colleague booked it - I had never heard of it but it is very very pleasant - located centrally in Pitt Street.
My phone, my trusty Nokia 9210i is well and truly BUSTED. I need another one - If anyone out there has one to sell (after all they are so big and ugly, why would anyone want one - when I walk down the street I hear young children saying to their parents "Mummy, why is that man talikg to his remote control!").
That's it for me and blogging tonight - it is better than nothing and I need to get some sleep - very big day tomorrow.

Reality TV for Cats!!

I"t’s true! Cats really DO watch TV.

Cats see, interpret and respond to particular sounds and images on the television, just as we do. Some cat owners will have already observed this phenomenon. Others are quite amazed.

"A Walk on the Wild Side” features a smorgasbord of birds, mice, fish and crickets which will absolutely fascinate your feline friend!"

I was contacted on Saturday by an industry colleague who has developed an absolutely amazing idea designed to improve the quality of life for much loved urban indoor cats. www.catsize.com.au.

CHECK OUT the catsize.com.au web-site!! It is totally fascinating , and from all accounts, this DVD, designed for cats to watch in their own home, is going out the door faster than tweetie-pie being pursued by Sylvester!! It has also been featured on Good Morning Australia and Sunrise.

Catsize Entertainment will be exhibiting "A Walk on the Wild Side" DVD at the world's largest pet industry trade fair — the Global Pet Expo — in Orlando, Florida on March 13-15, 2005. Great idea Catherine and Co.!!

Summer Dayz

Been very very busy at work lately (all last week!) - preparing for a very important client presentation for this coming Friday... seriously neglecting my blog- also, I actually really relaxed on the weekend just past - Had a great night out with daughter Amanda and her best friend Kylie on Saturday night (and my Kylie) - we went to AMIGOS, the mexican restaurant in Chapel Street. We were looked after very well by our exceptional waitress Rose - the Mexican is just sensational - if you like Mexican and you haven't tried Amigos, go do yourself a favour. Sunday, went to my Mum's for brunch as we usually do each Sunday and then we just went home and I SLEPT for most of the day - most unlike me - well, there is a first for everything...Enjoyed a late evening swim at the Brighton Baths tonight, after a long hard day at work ... Jumped in the water at 7:30pm, blue sky, sun still shining strongly, slowly sinking in the west... the water a little cold at first with the southerly sea breeze blowing but beautiful once you are in. 21 degrees was the water temperature - so refreshing on a hot day. Kylie was very brave - she followed me in the water and then didn't want to get out! Right now, I am watching the "Urban Myth-busters" replicating a 300lb "butt"! - the effort, science, ingenuity and rigour that these guys put into the most inane and mindless pursuits never cease to amaze me!!

"Tsunami boy" has been claimed

I have now removed my two posts regarding this young boy as I heard yesterday that he had been re-united with a family member.

Please see below an extract from the SOPHOS site explaining the importance for well-intentioned people to take care when forwarding emails to their entire contact lists.

11 January 2005

Unidentified tsunami boy chain letter clogs email systems, reports Sophos

   

The chain letter contains a picture of the boy. But media reports confirm he was identified in late December.

   

Sophos technical support has reminded users of the nuisance that can be caused by forwarding emails and the danger of opening unsolicited email attachments, as a message asking if anyone can identify a young victim of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster has spread across the internet.

The email, which has been hitting inboxes across the world for over a week, contains a photograph of a young blonde-haired boy in a Thai hospital, who was found seemingly abandoned at the side of the road on the holiday island of Phuket.

Many recipients of the email have forwarded it onto all of their friends and colleagues, slowing down email systems because of the attached photograph's 1MB size.

(see full article at SOPHOS site)

'Av a larf!!

This was email'd to me tonight (thanks Pete) and I did have a very hearty "larf"

> Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions
> to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate
> meanings for common words.
>
> And the winners are:
>
> 1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.
> 2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
> 3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
> 4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.
> 5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.
> 6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly
> answer the door in your nightgown.
> 7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.
> 8. Gargoyle (n.), olive-flavored mouthwash.
> 9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are
> run over by a steamroller.
> 10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.
> 11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.
> 12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by
> proctologists.
> 13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.
> 14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with
> Yiddishisms.
> 15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), The belief that, when you die, your Soul
> flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
> 16. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by
> Jewish men.

Australian "Simulcast" - Reach Out to Asia

Last night, Australian broadcasters including the three commercial networks and most (I think) of the FM radio networks, broadcast a concert from the Sydney Opera House linked to a telethon to raise money for World Vision to aid the victims of the Tsunami.

This type of simultaneous All TV and ALL radio broadcast is an ABSOLUTE FIRST for Australia and a very, very impressive achievement. When you think about the fact that this was organised in probably no more than 7 to 10 days in total and most likely invloved the organising of the Opera House concert and performers, the television and radio network management, the television and radio technical facilities and teams, the telethon program, celebrities, guests, call centre, and all other support facilities - this is an absolutely amazing achievement considering the scope of the undertaking, the success of the event and the very short timeframe involved. CONGRATULATIONS to the organizers on a job very well done!

This is a short excerpt from a related article in today's Age newspaper from Melbourne.

"The three commercial networks put traditional rivalries aside for the first time to simultaneously broadcast a concert and telethon to raise money for charity World Vision.

Thousands of people gathered at the Sydney Opera House and millions watched the on television as celebrities manned telephones in Melbourne to accept donations for World Vision.

At the end of the broadcast, the Reach Out to Asia event raised $15,198,329.20 through telephone, website and SMS donations. Phones will remained open tomorrow."

Back to the Land of the Blogging

For the past few days I have completely immersed myself in exploring a wide range of web hosted groupware/collaborative "wiki" implementations. There is a very useful page called WIKI FARMS which provides a consolidated list of web hosted wikis. Anothe web based service that I have joined up is FlickR  a web hosted photo web site that allows the uploading of a photographic collection that can be organised into "photo sets" for viewing either privately or by invited family, friends or even by the public - the choice is yours to set.

JOTSPOT RULES!!!!!!

Jotspot is IT and a BIT!! - I have had my JOTSPOT account provisioned for all of 1 hour and I can already tell that your interface HITS the "SPOT". It is simply FANTASTIC. For the last couple of days I have been getting very depressed trying to play with some of the other hosted Wikis - (shades of HTML - square brackets, asterisks - no thanks!)

I will not mention their names here as it is early days for the hosted wiki providers I suspect; but JOTSPOT is so "Typepad" like (that's a compliment) and easy to use that I am smiling from ear-to-ear.

Do yourselves a favour - go and check out JOTSPOT - sign up for a free trial and get "Wikking".  (And...remember to tell them that you heard about it on my BLOG!).

gggg

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