Category
Off-Topic
-
06.09.08United States Visa Process - Australian E3When the opportunity to move to the United States first came up, the number one potential issue in my mind was obtaining a working visa. The U.S. Embassy website makes the process seem incredibly complex, and the only first-hand accounts of the visa application process made it sound very hard and daunting. Plus, these accounts were from people that had their University degrees, which the Embassy says is a requirement, but I didn't even have this (though I did have a lot of work experience). I am writing this to let people that are thinking about going through the process for ...
-
05.22.08San Francisco, Happener, STUB, etc.As some of you may know, I am departing to live and work in San Francisco tomorrow, and I really wanted to do a quick post thanking a few of the people involved in getting me there. For a start, I truly want to publicly thank the guys at Happener. Markus and Greg totally blew away any and all preconceptions I had about recruitment by being personal, fun, and actually caring about the outcome. It pains me to put them in the same category as recruiters. These guys went so far above and beyond the call of duty, and have become ...
-
01.02.08Twitter Statistics ScriptFor all those Twitter lovers out there, like me, I've put together a little script based on the work found here to calculate some statistics from your Twitter timeline and present them using the Google Charts API. Statistics include: Tweets per hour of the day Total Tweets per day of the week Total Tweets per day of the month Top @replies Top overall @s Please keep in mind that there are probably a lot of bugs in it, and it can take a very long time to process if you have a large timeline. Other than that, enjoy!
-
12.11.07Ten Year F1 Engine Freeze - Why?I was honestly surprised to read this week that the FIA has ratified a ten-year engine freeze for F1 motor sport. F1 teams must deliver an engine design to the FIA no later than the 31st of March next year, and must stick to that design through the 2017 season. The reasoning the FIA has given for this is that F1 engines are already incredible pieces of machinery, revving to 19,000 RPM whilst still being surprisingly reliable. While this might be true, F1 has always been the pinnacle of motoring - demonstrating what could be possible in consumer motoring in the ...
-
05.30.07Recommended ReadingThis is in response to Kent Newsome's request for inspiration for his feed reading list (his 'swivel feeds' experiment). As you can imagine, most of my 150 or so feeds I read regularly (there are more that I only glance at now and then) are focused on mobile technology, but there are still some that I think would be of interest. I don't read as many personal blogs as I should, but there are quite a few one-man shows that I enjoy, and even non-commercial group blogs that come in very useful. So without further ado, here are five blogs not ...
-
02.16.07
-
01.16.07[UPDATED] Sickness…Save for a couple of hours this morning, I've just emerged from bed for the first time today (it is getting late at night here) due to a nasty chest infection and head cold. Now my wonderful other half has hurt her back at work - seems there is no luck for us today. Consider this my formal apology to my editor for the lack of work today and more than likely tomorrow morning should this keep up. I promise I've got some stuff in the works. Update: To make matters worse, I've been dealing with Conjunctivitis in both eyes for ...
-
01.05.07The Disappearence of Banks, and Why I Don’t MindI don't know how it is in other countries, but here in Australia there is a general uproar over the closure of a lot of bank branches, especially in rural areas. It is not limited to just one bank, either, all of the banks have come under fire for branch closures. While the case is probably very different in more remote areas, living in the city I don't actually have a problem with not having bank branches. Personally, I hardly ever have the need to go into a bank branch. The last time I found myself in a bank was to ...
-
12.26.06Bad Christmas Cracker JokesReaders from the US may not know what a Christmas cracker (or bonbon) is, so have a quick read here if you are confused. In any event, here is a list, in no particular order, of some of the terrible jokes that came out of my family's Christmas lunch crackers this year: Q: Why are giraffes so slow to apologize? A: It takes them a long time to swallow their pride. Q: What two fish are needed to make a shoe? A: A sole and an eel Q: Why did the boy blush when he opened the fridge? A: He saw the salad dressing. Q: How can ...
-
11.07.06Melbourne CupTurns out I backed the winner in the Melbourne Cup (Australia's biggest horse race). Delta Blues paid 18:1, so I walk away with quite a winning. Looks like my luck is finally coming back!