Guide to pants off living

pants off living

The City

Monday, 23 February 2009

I really have to stop blogging at people and actually write online instead of ranting to my friends over IM. So tonight, I found myself ranting to Simon about the nature of community online and the benefits of Twitter over Facebook.

I see a lot of value in this idea that my social network only has real value when it's realised with some kinda physical interaction with the people in your network.

For instance ZeFrank has been touring New Zealand this week. And in a totally open way, he has let people know where he is and made himself available to meet people who follow him on Twitter who are near where he is in NZ. That's totally cool and a great way to use Twitter.

Following someone for entertainment, to learn things or just plain stalking is one thing, but using these tools to engage in a physical way gives your social network a little more credibility.

And with this in mind, I kinda find myself keeping a fairly tight reign on the people I follow, trying only to follow people I know and blocking people I don't know. Having said that though I do feel like a bit of a stalker following the likes of @zeldman, @simplebits, @jasonsantamaria and @brillantcrank. While there's the idle chirps of their lives in action, these people also provide the vital tweets that you must be tuning into hear. I think these guys are some of the more significant voices in the web-development community. I'm interested in what these guys have to say. That I also hear about them waiting in line, getting up bleary-eyed or having a head cold is like static on the radio while you're tuning into a clear signal (I think -- that aspect of twitter is probably a whole nother post).

Simon sees it like that though -- using twitter is kinda like blogging, it's not an exclusive thing and he doesn't care who tunes in. Which is great, cause it's interesting to follow his tweets.

Facebook though has become a ghetto. I agree with Simon that the bi-directional associations suck. There are people that I genuinely want to hear from and keep in touch with, but there are many others which I'd much rather wish they'd shut the hell up!

Which is where I think I can get to my city metaphor.

It's kinda like a country boy moving to the big city. You can be the disaffected guy who moves to the big city for anonymity -- you don't know your neighbour and they don't have to or may not even care to know you. You can move around and interact with whomever you want with complete invisibility.

Back in the country small town everyone knew who that guy was -- he was so-and-so's kid. You were completely transparent to the whole town.

On the other hand, there's the guy who can come to the city and create a community from the people in his neighbourhood; he introduces himself to his neighbour, he get's to know his butcher.

Cities are big enough, yet intimate enough to provide you with anonymity or community!

No matter what you do, Facebook is still the small country town ghetto you grew up in; everyone know's who you are and you can't tweet just any old thoughtless shit. I know that if I do, I get a call from my sister who wants to know why I'm so upset. Or I hear that my mother in law thinks my status's are weird and cryptic. And most people don't care what they're spewing into Facebook. They know they have a sympathetic and captive audience. They know who their audience is and in many cases their status are written not to inform but to draw attention -- which I think is different from engagement.

Twitter gives you the choice of the big city; you can tweet to the void -- people in the street can choose to stop and listen to your song, stay a while or move on. The gold though is that you can choose to engage them, you can start to know your neighbour you can surround yourself with like minded people and create your own community.

Posted by travo at 10:08:01 PM | Comments (1)

Making Babies...is harder than it looks -- especially if you're old.

Saturday, 14 February 2009

2008 was a hell of a year -- to say the least. By the middle of November my wife and I were having our 12 week scan to make sure everything was going okay; and yup, we're pregnant. Much of this post was drafted not long after that scan. It's taken me a little while to get around to, well getting my head around everything, and being able to share this much with the world.

And well, of course it's Meli who is pregnant, I'm a not-so-innocent bystander / support crew / chef / driver. I'm truly over the moon. Getting to this point has been a bit of an effort. Our advice to our friends -- especially those younger than us -- get into it, it's a young persons game.

Meli and I decided that we'd get cracking and start making babies as soon as we got married. So we relaxed and left our first year in the hands of God and Mother Nature. Despite it being a wonderful first year of married bliss, there was no babies. Stupid God and Mother nature. Time to turn to science.

It started as a simple trip to the GP for Mel;
"Oh yeah, and my husband and I have been trying to have kids."
Right then, well time for you to have a blood test and your husband will have to give a semen sample. Great. And that's where it starts.

In January 2008, I gave my first semen sample. In a disabled toiled. At Gribbles Pathology. Under the harsh glare of fluorescent lights. Yeah, that's exactly how I like to wank.

So with the nasty business done, Meli and I both went to our GP. Well not really our GP, cause we don't have one. We use a bulk billing clinic in Brunswick, we have many GP's. The one we saw that day couldn't wait to get us out. She was reading our results as she wrote us a referral to a fertility specialist. "Here", she said as she thrust the referral and results our way.

For me, the results were pretty grim -- what is morphology? What does a low morphology mean? I mean the count was good, there were plenty there. They just weren't exactly the fittest bunch swimmers up lining up for the task at hand. I upset my mother by calling them my "Valley Sperm" -- the stupid, disfigured over-weight ones. Just like the Valley there's a few diamonds in amongst the coal, but it's hard for them to succeed, the numbers are just against them.

And the numbers were this; of the 160 million or so in that first load, only 9% were any good -- 14 million or so, give or take. It was those numbers that I kept in mind when we had our first meeting with our fertility specialist.

Of course Meli is fine. Despite her age. Deciding to wait until later in her life is the only thing going against her.

Now you're probably thinking, straight into IVF -- it's all the rage. But given our age, they're much more reasonable and rational than that. At least our doctor was. Do you drink? Do you smoke? You both seem reasonably healthy if not for a little tubby-ness. Are you doing it right? Do you know how to determine when the timing is right.

Ahhh, 'cause timing is everything.

When you realise that there are only twelve really good opportunities during the year to get it right (and by get it right I mean successfully fertilize and egg) you wonder how those damn kids make it look so easy.

So Meli and I were sent away with and told to get our timing right. At least for the next month. This included yet another round of blood tests for Meli and another sperm sample for me... this time in another fluorescent lit room. A dedicated room this time, with dodgy porno's. Great.

Unfortunately, no good.

So we went back and escalated. Believe it or not, there's another step you can try before you get to IVF. It's also worth mentioning that there's a whole broad spectrum of what constitutes IVF. Much of that spectrum is coloured with different dosages, pickup cycles and wonderful cocktails of drugs and hormones.

Next for us though was a technique they call IUI -- inter-uterine insemination. Turkey basting. I'd get to "produce" some more, and it'd be "washed and concentrated" before being put exactly where it had the best chance of finding an egg and giving it what-for. Meli would also take a mild treatment of additional hormones to encourage her body to come-around to the idea of conception.

We tried this for three months, with no joy. And since this is my blog post, it can be all about me; the first month of IUI really upset me. I was very, very anxious about not being able to make Meli pregnant the natural way. Not being able to do this is like being asked a very easy question you can't answer. Not being able to answer that, questions your very credibility as a man and as suitable husband. To put it bluntly, it fucked me up. Sobbing uncontrollably, because your can't make it happen -- because your so anxious about making it happen is a mighty weight to bear. For the most part, it's also something you experience alone. Not everyone wants to talk about infertility, particularly not your own. But, while you experience these things by yourself, it took me a little while (and Meli's support) to realise I wasn't the first man experiencing this, nor was I the only man suffering it now. It's just not something blokes share easily.

I must say how grateful I am though to all my mates. Nerds treat life quite differently, and the stuff of life is shared more openly and with a lot more support and joy that I can imagine it being regarded among other blokes.

Finally, by June we'd had no luck. We took a break and travelled to the States. Meli came with me to the Pacific North West -- Portland Oregon to San Francisco California and back again. I had a conference in Portland at the end of May and then we took ten days cruising through Oregon and Northern California.

When we came back, we prepared ourselves for our first round of IVF.

IVF starts with a pickup cycle. In it's gentlest form, the woman is given a large dose of synthetic hormones which encourage her body to produce more than one egg for a cycle. They make her do this just to the point of ovulation and then they arrest the ovulation process with an injection which is meant to discourage the ovaries from releasing the eggs. Depending on the age of the woman, she might produce 7-10 additional eggs (if she's younger and healthier) or only 1-3 (if she's older or unhealthier).

The pickup itself is a relatively straight forward day procedure. It does knock women around though. It knocked Meli around. While not directly painful, having your bits messed around with is simply not fun in anyones language. Being lightly anesthetised as well makes the following days a little foggy.

On that day, I get to produce. And by this time producing was something I got to look forward to believe it or not. Melbourne IVF has a great room, with a couch, mood lighting, DVD player, great porn and they're very quiet. If you could take half hour a month to just...get away from it all. You'd be a more relaxed person I'm sure.

Yeah, so, I get to produce and my stuff is again washed and concentrated. Each egg collected is mixed with couple of hundred thousand sperm in a petrie dish and put in a body temperature cabinet for 24 hours or so to see what shakes out. I'd like to think that while they're in there someone is playing Issac Hayes and Marvin Gaye records.

Meli and I were lucky; of the six eggs collected, five became embryos. They picked the best one and our fertility specialist popped it in. Done.

And then you wait.

Anxiously.

As little as two weeks later Meli's goes for a blood test to determine how it's going. And it's looking promising. Two weeks after that we're back with our fertility specialist to have an ultrasound. An uncomfortable one if you catch my drift.

And there it is. A tiny little jelly-bean, with a little blur in the centre that flashes like a tiny LED, blinky blinky blinky blinky blinky...

Posted by travo at 12:22:00 AM | Comments (1)

Ignoring artistic merit...

Wednesday, 31 December 2008

This is a beautiful quote about a recent Leibovitz photograph for the 2009 Lavazza Calendar

...done intentionally, front to back, top to bottom, money-no-object, by an army of the most talented professionals, from art director to stylists to make-up artists to baby-wranglers to lighting assistants to photographer to digital retoucher, all working assiduously in concert in pursuit of the utterly pointless.

Substitute photography for software development -- boom, I'm transported to one or two projects from my past.

Tip of the hat to Kottke, Worst photo ever?.

Posted by travo at 10:06:58 AM

Telling Capistrano to Deploy from a Branch on EngineYard

Friday, 31 October 2008

I definitely got exited by Simon's simple tweak to his deploy.rb to ensure that he wasn't accidentally deploying to production. So it was with confidence that I started hacking at my deploy.rb to set up deployment from my repository branch. This simple tip helped, but with a little help from Mike, we took it further.

Since we're deploying to EngineYard, we've got the added bonus of using a filtered_remote_cache, so we need to make sure our repository cache is updated with the new branch path.

if variables.include?(:branch)

  set :svn_path,      "branches/#{branch}"

else

  set :svn_path,      'trunk'

end

set :repository,          "https://yourrepo.com/appname/#{svn_path}/"

set :repository_cache,    "/var/cache/engineyard/#{application}/#{svn_path}"

Then in the :deploy namespace add this chunk of goodness (tip 'o the hat to Simon)

  task :confirm do

    unless Capistrano::CLI.ui.agree("Sure you want to deploy from #{repository}? (yes/no): ")

      puts "No worries, use --set-before branch=whatever to deploy from a specific branch if it exists."

      exit

    end

  end

  before "deploy:update_code", "deploy:confirm"

This should give you the branch control you need when you're deploying code and migrations, but it won't interfere noisily with your other capistrano tasks.

Ideally, what we should be aiming for is the deploy.rb to be "repository / branch aware", so that if you're in a branch (or tag), then it deploys from there.

Thoughts?

Posted by travo at 3:03:34 PM

Life is tough for the Inverse Cowboy

Friday, 06 June 2008

So today I cruised into the small temperate town of Calistoga California in the Napa Valley. I was exhausted from my arduous journey driving in air-conditioned comfort. My baby-soft computer programmer hands were sore from gripping the wheel. My back and shoulders were stiff and sore from hours in the seat.

It was time for some therapy at Dr Wilkinsons mud baths and hot-springs.

WFT?

Yup, back in the day a cowboy would amble into town after a month on the dusty trails, filthy dirty from all kinds of manly cowboy stuff. He'd find the closest saloon where he could get a room and a hot soapy bath and wash off a month's worth of mud and dirt.

Now though, it's completely on it's head. I'm slipping into a tub of sphagnum moss, volcanic ash and hot spring water. Then after a rinse I'm over to a tub of bubbling hot-spring water to ease away our troubles.

That's just damn kooky. But that's life as an inverse cowboy!

Posted by travo at 2:11:03 PM

Would you work for Gordon Ramsay?

Sunday, 25 May 2008

So, despite being completely saturated by Gordon Ramsay, we still watch. Amid all the hype and excitement at our house about "Kitchen Nightmares" one question remains; would you work for him? I would -- here's why.

1. He has a foul temper, a foul mouth and suffers no fool.

Ah, so do I. In fact I've made more project managers cry than any of the geeks know. Yeah, it's not a pretty stat and it's probably true that I'm a genuine arse-hole. There's no reason to take pride in a stat like that but I'm passionate about my work, I care about the outcomes, I'm opinionated and I believe that what I'm doing is "right".

It's often taken for granted but working with people who care about what they do is one of the most rewarding benefits of healthy working environment. The passion created by people driven to work hard and do their work well can be contagious. Sure, it can also be poisonous, but I think that's a result of poor communication and expectation management rather than passion.

2. But he's a bully, Travo you hate bullies.

I do hate bullies, I loathe and despise them. My experience tells me that while Ramsay is confronting, in-your-face aggressive and sometimes demeaning to the people he's there to help -- he's genuine about his intentions. Bullying as I've seen it is not so in-your-face. It's passive-aggressive, it's spiteful, bitter and manipulative.

Ramsay doesn't operate in this way. He communicates what he expects up-front (sure, sometimes he doesn't -- he observes) and makes assertions about the outcomes.

3. Ask. Order. Explain. Order

When I was a cadet, and after I had been awarded the rank of corporal after two weeks of training and drilling, I came back to my squadron and was told, "All you've learnt can be condensed in to Ask - Order - Explain - Order."

WTF? Essentially the idea goes that, if you're working with people in a position of leadership, there are certain assumptions you can make about the context and environment you're working in. There should be trust and there should be a shared understanding about a common goal. You should be comfortable asking someone to perform an action.

If that person fails to comply with your request, as you are in a position of leadership, you can order them to do it. This is of-course pretty much in the domain of the defence forces and people who hold official rank. If you were a chef in a kitchen it probably meant you bellowed your request louder. If you were a manager in an office, it probably meant you would ask again with a threat -- you fucking manipulative coward.

Finally, if that person continues to fail to comply with your order an explanation is required. You need to communicate to them your expectations, you need to make the outcomes more clear, you probably need to give the over-all mission more clarity. Then you can repeat your order.

What's not included in this cycle is the need to listen; the person you have just ordered to do something may need to provide you with some critical feedback as a leader, so you can adjust and modify your expectations and goals as a result of a change in the situation or environment.

In a kitchen for example, your team may need to let you know that you're out of a certain ingredient. It's a micro-adjustment you need to make, based on feedback from your team. A good manager, I would expect should be capable of absorbing and adapting to these micro-adjustments without blowing a gasket.

So yeah, I would work for Ramsay.

I am passionate about my work, and I feel energised by people around me who also have passion for their work -- I don't feel threatened by those kind of people.

As I get older I'm more open and less anxious about feedback and tuning -- acknowledging that you don't know everything is both horrifying and also comforting. If you're lucky enough to work with people who are willing to share their knowledge and experience with you, you'll soon take advantage of a collective knowledge.

If people want to help you improve your skills, and you're open to it, you can only become better. I'm sure Ramsay's frustrations are mostly from people who are not open to improvement; he's essentially banging his head against a brick wall.

It all makes for entertaining TV though doesn't it!.

Posted by travo at 9:25:21 PM | Comments (1)

Six Months on Rails

Thursday, 01 May 2008

I've been a full-time commercial rails developer (feels good to say that) for six months now and I want to describe some of what the experience has been like, and importantly what lessons I have learnt coding Ruby, on Rails, for Cogent.

Specs are your friend... but they can't be trusted.

One of the first thing that Steve said to me was that while you might be able to get 100% coverage (using RCov along side RSpec) on your code by writing specs, they aren't truly indicative of whether or not your app works as a whole.

Writing tests against every line of code that I'm writing is intense -- and it requires a hell of a lot of discipline. But, this is my reality now and I'm really enjoying the challenges it presents.

It's one thing to use an exciting new language, but to keep coding the same old shit to solve the same old problems is a shame and a wasted opportunity. To embrace a set tools and resources though, which encourage you to improve the way you approach those problems and sometimes force you to rethink your approach, is really another thing entirely.

Get your recipes right... and deployment is a dream.

I spent a horrible week becoming increasingly frustrated at not being able to deploy. We needed to deploy to both our staging environment (which we already successfully deploying to) and our new production environment. I was making a bunch of newbie type mistakes and stumbling all over the place until Rob showed me the light.

Rob had been using Webistrano to manage the deployment strategies he had for his application quite successfully. He had also taken advantage of the ease by which you could create and manage the recipes for each stage. And thankfully, he showed me how to weild the same mojo. If you can learn to get your recipes right, then you'll have dreamy deployments too.

Some advice though is keep your eyes peeled for stray mongrel .pids!

Your code sucks... no, really.

The beauty and simplicity of Ruby is like a magnifying glass over every nasty bad habbit you have. Any weakness you have in your understanding and boom, you're exposed for the fraud you are.

I'm pretty certain that I've been able to obfuscate my weaknesses within the structure of other languages. I guess it's easy to do that with Ruby and Rails too, but rigor that Cogent uses tools like Saikuro, Flog and Simian peel back the veil and show you the horror which your rubbish code.

Props to Marty for spending some time with me in the early weeks and months helping me to get my act together. I definitely struggled early on, Ruby is a cruel mistress.

Posted by travo at 9:09:28 PM

Keep your eyes on the fries

Sunday, 27 April 2008

You know what it's like; you're learning to ride a bike and you have to learn not to look at obstacles, 'cause you can become transfixed by them, and if you're not careful you'll run into them! Before you know it -- you're on your arse.

I love my new gig with Cogent, but since landing the gig one of the main things on my mind has been "don't fuck it up". And I can't help but think, I've been pre-occupied with failure rather than success. If I'm not careful, I'm going to be on my arse.

So I have to work at turning my mind to success.

The last six months have been great - I've not been more challenged both technically and personally since I started web development in Melbourne nearly ten years ago! Working with Cogent, and in the open and transparent way that they do, has been a revelation. It is a very real business experience -- I'm closer to the work, the business development and the bottom dollar than ever before.

I have embraced a new platform (Mac, OS X - not to mention Unix), a new language and framework (Ruby, and Rails), a new way of working (strict BDD with Rspec, coverage, complexity and similarity analysis before check-in), and since I started I have deployed two really great web apps. Not too bad for six months work. Not to shabby at all.

The staff at Cogent are awesome, they're super, super smart guys who are always on their game and always ready to lend one-another a hand or provide support where needed. It just doesn't get any better than that.

So, focus on the candy. Accentuate the positive. Celebrate your victories - no matter how small - and keep your eyes on the fries.

Posted by travo at 8:26:31 PM

Brief and Succinct

Sunday, 20 April 2008

I'm starting to become concerned that I'm failing to engage with my colleagues because I can't be well, brief. A post to our group email usually goes like this;

So what do people think of implementing blah on our blah?

And then usually someone will respond inline;

> So what do people think of implementing blah on our blah?

+1

But I come unstuck trying to offer a genuine opinion...

Well, I think that to truly understand blah-de-blah, we should first consider how we present our blah in that context. ... and on ... and on ... I go.

> So what do people think of implementing blah on our blah?

The point is that despite my best efforts to engage in a discussion, I'm not getting any traction. My genuine believe is that this is a forum for hashing out issues and exploring ideas. I also believe it's a place to get consensus and group decision making.

The real reason here (as my esteemed colleagues have suggested) is that they're mostly time poor. If time were currency, my colleagues and I are living below the poverty line.

What doesn't help is that I'm also trying too hard. Which brings me to my next point...

Posted by travo at 9:16:33 PM

Fighting Inertia

Friday, 14 March 2008

Since joining Cogent one of the most difficult aspects of keeping up with the team is fighting inertia.

In roles where you're bored, unchallenged and without focus it's very easy to go looking for distractions; email, web, coffee, a stroll 'round the office -- anything to help pass the day.

Sure, if you're disciplined and still have interest in the projects or organisation you're working for you'll go and poke a stakeholder with a stick and see if you can't get them interested in some prototype that you've mocked up. If they can see some kind of benefit they'll invest in your enthusiasm. But usually, it's an uphill battle.

I'm aware that this paints a fairly grim picture; it's a catch 22 but isn't laziness a merit in a developer? Well, no. I'm sure it's not. Not from what I've seen at Cogent.

So, lately, I've been shutting down the IM and email and working hard to focus on putting in solid hours. It's hard. But I think I'm turning a corner.

The next most difficult thing now is keeping up with Simon Harris.

Posted by travo at 9:22:54 PM

Hand wringers

Wednesday, 27 February 2008

We've recently had some work done on our house and what struck me is the amount of hand wringing that goes on by tradies when asked to quote.

"Awww gee mate, I'm not sure about this mate, it could get really expensive real fast mate..." Why is that? - Is it the lack of confidence, inexperience, lack of exposure to similar jobs, isolation, lack of colleagues?

We were lucky to have a brickie come by who took one look at the job and said, "Yeah, I can do this." My wife and I were like, "Great, how much?", expecting to pay up around the area a hand-wringer had quoted us. He quoted well under. "Awesome - when can you start?" Monday. Brilliant.

He was confident, and when we had raised the worries and concerns of the other bricklayer who quoted, he was unconcerned; "I'm a brickie, it's what I do. I could rebuild this whole house." Love it. When we asked about other trades that we needed to be involved in our epic job, he had a network of contacts in other trades that he could call upon.

I find the same thing happening in tech; hand-wringers. They get one sniff of the work and they start wringing their hands; "Aww gee, but what if... and then there's this thing that might not work... and if I don't get this then that happens..." Is it conditioning? Or the same reasons as above.

Working with Cogent gives me confidence, exposure and colleagues. Experience I'll get with mileage, but for now the first three go a long way.

Posted by travo at 7:57:24 AM

Getting Leopard Licked: installing postgres82 with MacPorts

Thursday, 01 November 2007

Without a doubt the most challenging unix-on-a-mac-like thing I've had to do is install the Postgres database server on my MacBook Pro. I persisted with the MacPorts approach (I like MacPorts, any package manager is a good thing) and finally found a solution that worked for me. I say this because there are many legitimate solutions out there... the trick is finding one that works for you.

One of the most ironical things about this, is that in one of my final emails at Yamaha Music went along the lines of, "... do not do this. It won't work. Not even if you try twice." I tried some of these solutions, over and over again, crossing fingers and waving dead chickens around hoping that by the glory of geebers, something would work.

The first discovery was that there is a MacPorts ticket for the problems I was encountering - this details are similar to the grief I was having, but not the same.

Further Google searches on the problem revealed some helpful advice from Lee Packam's blog; he had a handy post describing the same kinda problem, but with a specific patch for DTrace and that configurable option.

I tried this several times yesterday, blindingly hoping that it was something I was doing wrong. The unix side of Mac is was so unfamiliar to me that I didn't have a clue what I was doing.

Today I came accross Jeffrey Gelens post, who was also unable to build using the Packam DTrace fix, but with some twiddling came up with a solution that worked for him. I tried this a couple of times (to be sure) and still it didn't work.

Finally, with more googling I found the InVisible Blog, that describes a way to get the whole Rails stack working on Leopard. Foturnately, the rest of my Rails stack is pumping, I just needed to get Postgres running.

This technique combines the previous two in a sensible way, kinda - if you read and look closely, you'll notice that the DTrace patch is probably not required, furthermore, by this time the MacPorts guys had updated the Postgres PortFile to include the Packam DTrace Patch anyway. I'm just not certain that this guy even bothered to include it in his configure command.

Anyhoo, I'm relieved to finally have it installed and working.

Why bother? You might also ask; well, as one of my new colleagues suggested, if possible my applications should be database platform independent -- which makes sense. So I did have MySQL 5 running by yesterday evening.

All in all, a painful experience. I probably would have been much, much easier if I'd waited for a month or two - hell, even a couple of weeks for the MacPort weenies to have sussed it out.

Oh well, I'm here now... which way to the bar?

Posted by travo at 8:02:46 PM

Who is gonna make the gravy?

Tuesday, 23 October 2007

Went to see Paul Kelly last Friday night at the corner -- wept like a baby through most of the evening.

I didn't realise how much his songs had attached themselves to my core. Some of the deepest parts of my conscience resonated to the strains of "To Her Door", "Deeper Water", "Who's gonna make the gravy", "Dumb Things", "Leaps and Bounds"... all of these songs bought big fat tears to my eyes.

My wife just said I was over-tired.

Great gig though; it was my first Paul Kelly gig, which made it all the more special. He's a great musician, a national treasure in fact. God bless.

Posted by travo at 10:00:02 PM

Switched - Part Two

Tuesday, 23 October 2007

And I have a new job. I'm no longer going to be amassing Yamaha branded consumer electronics and musical instruments. I'm going to be working for Cogent Consulting - the cracking-est bunch of developers you ever did see. I realised while writing this that I had yearned to be a part of their posse before. A good year later and here I am -- rock!

Yamaha was an equal parts great learning experience and difficult personally negative experience. I'm grateful to everyone there from whom I've learnt many interesting things; logistics, finance, service, marketing, product support and dealer networking.

I've ranted about the negative aspects of this before; the significance is that these experiences actually have a lot more to do with me and my ability to deal with them than the individuals and circumstances that cause them.

As if I need to reassert my goals; I must work harder to develop a personal toolkit which allows me to function and act appropriately in environments that are uncomfortable, disagreeable or downright crappy.

Which makes me all the more grateful for the support of my new colleagues -- it's great to be in a positive and encouraging environment.

Not to mention all the cool stuff that I get to do, the exciting new platforms I get to do it on and the killer technology I get to do it with. Sweet.

Posted by travo at 9:37:01 PM

Switched - Part One

Tuesday, 23 October 2007

And now I'm a Mac whore. Fully switched, surrounded by more Apple logos (and Apple remotes - what's with that, does every Apple device need a remote now?) than you can poke a stick at. It's great; it's been nearly ten years since I used Mac OS in anger and in a familiar / slightly weird way, it's good to be home.

Sure things have changed. It's not like I remember. Hardly at all really. But it kinda feels better.

What I'm loving

Terminal : under the hood, there's this really strange and powerful beastie that will do your bidding for you.

Good Mac software : Mail, TextMate, Calendar, Adium, iTunes, iWork, Delicious Library, Toast; there's just a whole bunch of really nice, well made apps which just work

MacPorts : The developers hardware store -- you want it, just grab it off the shelf. Sorted.

Parallels + BootCamp : This really is the best way to run Windows. Lock that fucker up in a box, don't let it out unless it's, really, really necessary. Parallels makes using windows the most surreal experience; seeing ugly windows over the top of your shiny Mac desktop in coherence mode is the strangest thing. But, it's so convenient.

What I'm struggling with

Windows windows everywhere : it's a little hard to explain, but I do get quite lost trying to locate the last window I was working on. Command-Tab is useful, minimizing stuff to the dock is weird -- I can minimize something, but if that application is still active, there doesn't seem to be a command key to maximize it.

Bad Mac software : as with most operating systems there is a load of junk out there.

Unix : I don't have a heap of experience in this environment, so I've got to sharpen my chops. I'm enjoying the challenge, but hoping that I don't screw anything up.

Just sublime

And there's the hardware, and this is where it gets a little creepy; it's freakin' beautiful. I kinda want to touch it in inappropriate ways. Do you think Jobs would care?

Posted by travo at 9:15:47 PM

Right Right Right

Friday, 12 October 2007

This is an exercise online to determine whether or not you're a left brain (logical) or right brain (emotional) person.

I am so right-brained, I can not get the dancer to spin in the other direction. How does it spin for you?

(and yeah, I haven't blogged in a while. so what, sue me. who's reading anyhoo)

Posted by travo at 10:26:42 AM

Transformers!

Saturday, 30 June 2007

Meli's take on this film, as always, was succinct; "Transformers is so macho it makes Top Gun look like a chick-flick".

It was awesome.

Posted by travo at 9:05:50 AM

Life on the Street

Tuesday, 05 June 2007

I am in love with google maps new street view feature. It 'ken rocks! And, of course, with it comes the alarms regarding invasion of public privacy.

The Age, isn't sure how to regard this; is it candid camera? Maybe. Google street view really are moments captured in time.

Millions of moments captured for all time.

This is true life. Even if it might be people dealing crack, or sunbathing nude, or showing a little thong, or picking their nose, or scaling a fence. It's life in New York, San Fransisco as it is in the deepest darkest suburbs of Melbourne.

When street view comes to our town, I'm sure we'll see worse - and better!

Posted by travo at 8:43:23 AM

The World Is Flat

Tuesday, 29 May 2007

One of the most interesting books I read last year was Tomas Friedman's "The World Is Flat". And since a whole bunch of my longtime-listeners have been raving about some other recent recommendations, I thought I'd shove this out there for them.

This was definitely one of the most optimistic books I've read recently. Friedman writes excitedly and openly about the changing nature of business, economics, trade, employment and (most of all) technology in what he calls "the fourth flattening" (I think, if I remember correctly, and I usually don't).

It's also a great book to read if you're afraid of losing your job (or business) to India and China as a result of out-sourcing; if you're smart, you won't. There are many reasons to be excited about being an Australian, and there are a few answers to my recent questions about me and my buddies not being entrepreneurial enough.

The "entrepreneurial" factor may be important for Australia in the future. We should do the best we can to re-ignite our "can do" ethos. I think it might mean the difference between us being left behind and becoming a cheap labour force of our own and really making it in the flat world.

Posted by travo at 4:08:52 PM

JPG Magazine rebels against its parents

Wednesday, 16 May 2007

I was a little sad for Derek and Heather Powazek when I read their story of birth and separation from JPG Magazine yesterday. I'm still processing it (as will be everyone else over coming days, possibly weeks). It seems to me though that this is a clash of ideals - pre-dot-com versus post-dot-com.

In short, Derek and Heather were founders, along with Paul Cloutier of a unique publishing company -- 8020 Publishing -- which invited individuals to post material for a magazine of photographic material, the first six issues were compiled by them and published through Lulu .

The opportunity came for those guys to scale up, and a revolution in social media and publishing was underway. If you've not heard about JPG Magazine in relation to Web 2.0, media and publishing, that's okay; it's been pretty significant but in a way that these revolutionary things are.

But it seems that things have turned a little icky at 8020 Publishing.

Derek and Heather are out, the history is being rewritten and in an ironic twist, the authenticity is being removed from an authentic content publishing house.

Posted by travo at 9:21:39 AM

I wanna be a microgenerator!

Tuesday, 08 May 2007

Just got a chance to see an episode of Catalyst about Microgeneration. Very, very interesting - it's a great example of how Flannery's book has had a massive impact on this country. It's should be distributed to every home in Australia.

The premise of the article was about mass micro power generation - every home having some form of renewable power generation (usually solar) and using that for the household needs, surplus gets fed into the grid.

This idea of course is not new, but I was surprised to learn that there are only 4000 homes in Australia which do this. That's hardly any.

Read the article - it mentions the tariffs and incentives that exist in other countries such as Germany, where people are paid for the kilowatts that they feed back into the grid. In the long term this would provide a much better case for homes to consider installing solar panels than the single $4000 rebate.

What would it take for you to become a microgenerator?

Posted by travo at 1:43:21 PM

Not your parents album release

Wednesday, 02 May 2007

I've been keeping an eye on the growing excitement around the release of Nine Inch Nails new Album "Year Zero". 37Signals have a great summary of the marketing techniques used to promote the release of this album.

In all honesty, I'm still trying to put my finger on what it is that a record company needs to do these days to remain relevant. I think my old company and in particular the Hound-dog James Young, "got it" best when they realised that marketing and the surreptitious release of music or a band in the form of a brand is really a viable business idea (I'm not sure the success James had with the likes of Osterberg would warrant the suggestion that it was a viable business model).

Bands can still create a ground-swell on their own, but it takes an enormous amount of time and resources. Often these resources are people-based networks that the bands don't have access to, whereas marketing agencies, on the other hand, have strong networks that integrate not only strong industry links but also other brands associated with the agency.

It's worth keeing an eye on James Young too, I hear he's moved on from SEE.

Posted by travo at 9:14:26 AM

Geoff Achison - heads West.

Friday, 23 March 2007

Seeing Geoff Achison's last gig at the East Brunswick Club was pretty damn tough. Not only does Melbourne lose one of it's hardest working and most talented musicians, but America takes from us one of the most brilliant and generous blokes working in the local music scene.

I can't help but gush. He's a really, really good guy. Someone who shows that you can get a whole lot further with generosity and kindness than arrogance and mean-spiritedness.

The crowd at the East on Wednesday night really is testament to the kind of bloke Acho is; young gun guitarists, blues aficionados, toothless old grannies, hot chickies - the works. Folks love him.

Every time I've shared a bill with him (or lucky enough to share the stage) - no matter how long it's been since you last saw him he remembers your name and genuinely pleased to see you. That's right from the first time I got to jam with him at the Windsor Hotel Prahran nearly 15 years ago up to last year's blues 'fest in Newborough. He rightly gives the Powerhouse Blues Band a hard time for being a bunch of "noisy old buggers" - cause we are, but he always has a time for a catchup and to talk about what your doing.

And geez can he play guitar.

Not just play, but make that thing howl - like it has its own voice. I've mentioned this to him too, the licks he played between lyrics sounded like he and the instrument were having a conversation. Brilliant.

Not to mention the Soul Diggers - what a great band. This to me is even further testament to how much of a great guy Acho is but also to how articulate he is as a musician, composer and arranger. Great players don't stick around because the pay is great (well unless they're whores), they stick around because they just love to play with other great players.

I'll miss you Acho, but don't come back without a Grammy, or a Country Music Award - I'll settle for one of those (though they're probably harder to come by...).

Best wishes.

Posted by travo at 2:41:09 PM

Hardly Workin'

Tuesday, 06 March 2007

While I was cooking dinner this evening (for my beautiful wife) I was listening in to Derek Guille's show on the ABC and he was having a call in about work - how it affects our lives, relationships, what about the long hours, you know - the usual stuff. Here's my $0.02.

For mine, two things are important when discussing how Australians work; our expectations of leisure, and how we maintain our skills.

In the romantic era of Australian culture, work was primarily rural and farming was as a job you had for life. Not so much a lifestyle as an all consuming responsibility to both produce from the land and also maintain it. Leisure was something that punctuated the months and months of grueling physical labour. Now our expectation of leisure have changed and we demand that while our day is divided roughly up into 8 hours work, 8 hours play and 8 hours sleep (yeah right!) we should enjoy a fair amount of time for leisure - what-ever that may be.

Skills maintenance becomes a critical part of how we then use that 8 hours leisure. A worker, whether a doctor (knowledge worker) or a plumber (skilled labourer) must work to keep their skills and trade-craft up-to-date. So the meaning of work expands to include these activities as well.

I'm employed as a software developer for 8 hours a day - but I'm working every minute of my waking day. Is that so much different from farming?

Posted by travo at 7:51:11 PM

Telstra doesn't get it, will never get it, and why telecommunications in Australia is the way it is

Tuesday, 20 February 2007

Telstra responded with maturity, foresight and articulate business diplomacy last week when prompted about their strategy for the Apple iPhone; "Stick to your knitting".

Will Jobs personally have to come to Australia and negotiate with carriers as he did with others in the States?

With continued acumen and foresight, Telstra executives reason, "They did an exclusive with Cingular and they talked about a global rollout - well, Cingular is not a global company...". Well, erm... duh!

Like any gadget freak, I like shiny things and this year, none is more shiny that the new Apple iPhone. Eaves will probably have a rant about how clever Apple are at marketing ice to eskimo's (and possible mention that it's only suitable for graphic designers with perfect hair and special needs).

I drafted this post about a week or so ago and fortunately the passing of time has shown that no-one with a clear head and rational mind has bothered nibbling at Telstra's bait. It's a shame, but there will be no escaping the hysteria associated with the release of this product in Australia. Hopefully in a few months time when the product is actually in use in the American market clearer heads will prevail there too and we can get an idea of how well Apple can bring a first-release hardware (and software) product to a new market.

Rumour has it that the exclusivity contract with Cingular is only two weeks. Two weeks! Sorry, but this doesn't pass the sniff-test.

Anyone think I'm being unreasonably harsh on Telstra though? Does this kind of response from them seem kinda... anti-competitive? What the fuck do they care anyway? More people (or has mobile uptake in Australia reached critical mass...) using mobile bandwidth more often? All Telstra has to do is provide the damn service!

So quit bitchin' and stick to your knitting.

Posted by travo at 1:51:12 PM | Comments (3)

All work is ultimately futile

Tuesday, 20 February 2007

So it was with those few words that my beautiful wife sent another man spiraling into socio-economic-philosophical oblivion.

She is a devastating woman. She regards herself as not particularly smart - she's wrong, she's incredibly intelligent; what set's her apart is her emotional rigour - her ability to separate her personal passions and enthusiasm from the everyday train-wrecks and death-marches of corporate life. These things don't trouble her; she's most pissed about not having seen the first three episodes of Heroes so she can keep up with the tea-room discussions and episode deconstruction.

I am so jealous.

Apparently my expectations are too high, she tells me. I'm too optimistic that I should want my manager to take some interest in the work that I do.

Sorry, but I can't. I don't consider myself a particularly needy person, but hey, I've been back from my honeymoon for two weeks and my manager has barely spoken to me. Okay, so I've got a direct report to a divisional general manager who is in the throws of end-of-financial-year; five minutes man. Five minutes!, just to say, "Hi, how was your honeymoon? There have been a few things that have popped up while you were away, can you take care of them. Oh and we need to talk about a couple of significant projects for the year. I've got a handle on some real strategic direction from the other managers."

Cool, I'm on it.

No. Nothing. I've had to initiate two very brief conversations with him; one about his break and how it was and that he's thinking of buying a boat. Great. Nice. The other was about a significant project that sank last year - I've been plugging away building an implementation of my own which I think might more than service the needs that remain without the other project; "Oh yeah, you keep working on that, it sounds good for your own interests."

Sigh.

I'm happy to keep working on this; it's a great opportunity for me to sharpen my Java skills. If I'm gonna spend seven hours a day, five days a week workin' - I want it to mean something.

But, alas, all work is ultimately futile.

Posted by travo at 10:29:21 AM

An open letter to early adopters?

Wednesday, 14 February 2007

This is a great brilliant rant - Joel Johnson, former editor of Gizmodo goes absolutely nuts at the gadget whores, iPod fanboys and early adopters who suck up the bullshit and lies fed to them by the manufacturers.

Here's a lil' taste;

You want to know the punchline? The average Joe that makes up the market is smarter than you saps. The market-at-large waits until a clear leader emerges, then takes a modest plunge. You may think you're making up the "bleeding edge" of "gadget pimpatude" but you're really just a loose confederation of marks the consumer electronics industry uses as free market research and easy money. "Give me the latest version," you coo, hiking up your skirt another inch over your exposed wallet. "Point Oh One upgrades make me so hot."

Posted by travo at 10:35:46 AM

Wedding Photo's Galore

Tuesday, 13 February 2007

It's what everybody's been asking for - ton's of wedding photo's.

I have a set of photo's on flickr, which is a selection of my family and friends, and Meli has a set which is of family and friends from her circles. Everyone is in the one big fat circle now, so... all friends and family are ours. Besides, I've had to upgrade my flickr account to pro so I can upload all the wedding and honeymoon photos. Meli still has the free account and can't upload so many photos.

I love all the photos and props has to go to the amazing Ms Jane who did a fantastic job on the night (on bread and water only - sorry).

Posted by travo at 9:57:30 AM

Human Shield

Monday, 12 February 2007

There are heaps of stories to tell about France and Italy. Today, on the way to work I'm most reminded about the 'human shield' principle of crossing Italian streets.

Many people freak out about Italian streets - and for the most part, they freak out for a very good reason; those streets are damn scary. But if you apply the 'human shield' principle, you'll at least be safe, if not partly cushioned from impact when a bus or a car comes ploughing into you.

When you want to cross a street, simply position yourself next to another pedestrian aligning yourself such that - in the event of an impact - they sustain the full force of the blow. The key to this of course is choosing another pedestrian who is 'native' to the area; they will be the best judge of when to step out and attempt a street crossing.

Remember, there are safety in numbers; if possible cross with a large group. Always remember to put them between you and on-coming traffic. A large crossing group also presents itself to oncoming traffic more assertively than a small group of of two or three.

Two is better than one though; are you crossing with a human shield?

Posted by travo at 3:05:14 PM

Married, 'Mooned and Exhausted!

Sunday, 04 February 2007

Wow - it truly was the trip of a lifetime. Meli asked me today if we had fun... and well, truly we did. But it wasn't pillowfight style fun - it was adventure fun.

We saw some of the greatest European cities - Paris, Nice, Venice, Florence, Rome - and visited some of the most incredible museums in the world; The Lourve, Musee d'Orsey, The Pompidou, Versailles, The Chagall Museum, The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Doges Palace, The Uffizi, The Pitti Palace, San Peitro and the Vatican Museum. When it was time to leave Rome I was both mentally and physically exhausted.

Meli and I have had the most epic start to our marriage and there could have been nothing better than the trip of a life-time to kick it off.

To all of my friends and family, thank you for your support and gifts and for making our wedding day something to truly remember - it was a great night and one that I'll not forget. I am certain that there is no better place than in the company of your friends and fortunately, I don't have to leave the country to do that. I hope you are all well and that you've been enjoying the Melbourne summer - cricket, tennis, bushfires and dodgy public transport - without us.

The year is spinning up and I think it'll have more adventures in store - stay tuned.

Posted by travo at 5:22:43 PM | Comments (2)

Getting Married...

Friday, 29 December 2006

The big day is upon me (upon us) Meli and I are getting married tomorrow.

After months and months of planning, to-do's, milestones, meetings, fittings, final arrangments and other bits and bobs we're going to get hitched.

I can't tell you how happy and relaxed I am. I said it months ago and I feel the same way today, it's like getting ready to ease into a comfy, worn-in, old leather chair.

This is not to suggest that Meli is a worn-out old Jason Recliner, not by a long shot folks. Our relationship is sturdy, strong, familiar, at-ease, relaxed, obliging, bouncy, supportive, warming and comes with a blankey. So making a promise to maintain that relationship is easy.

I love Meli more that I can say, and I'm looking forward to making that promise official.

Posted by travo at 5:45:44 PM | Comments (1)

PILLOWFIGHT!

Wednesday, 06 December 2006

You can have your Threadless T's but when Mojo comes a callin' you better open up your wallet and start layin' down your bills.

Many thanks to Kevin at Bearskinrug, I'm stoked to be wearing some of his art this summer! Check it out too, if you look closely I also got me a Mojo thank you card. Kudos to Kevin especially for these touches - it makes owning the t-shirt kinda special.

I hope I don't spill beer on it.

Posted by travo at 9:21:38 PM

Online video, vlogging and lonelygirl15

Tuesday, 21 November 2006

Wired mag has an interesting article which provides some insight and backstory into the lonelygirl15 phenomena which entered the cultural radar this year. I've been hovering around this like a blowfly, since it really is one of the very first internet-video-serials of it's type to find the main stream.

One of the points made in the article is that posting video's to YouTube is not video blogging. Is posting a video to YouTube video blogging? I'm not sure about this argument, but I'm sure Adrian Miles might have already had something to say about this. Blogging requires a frequency of posting which is not easy to achieve; even if you say you're going to post once a week- it requires discipline. Posting to a blog when you have a random thought or opinion is easy but the quality of your content and too random.

As side note, I've found del.icio.us perfect for my random and irregular blog post. Especially since the theme of that quick-post is based around a web-page or a meme.

Ze Frank and others have more recently documented the maddening discipline to post video regularly online. Again, I'm not certain that these are vlogs per-se, they are great online video serials none the less.

Recently there was an old gent recalling tales from his life which became hugely popular on YouTube - is he a vlogger? Probably not; is he a video-autobiographer or maybe a video-essayist - this is what I think Paul Graham would be if he made video's to the web-cam (in his bedroom, dressed in jammy's and slippers?).

I think that it's strange that the producers of lonelygirl15, and others like them, are looking towards Hollywood for validation. They are the traditional owners of mainstream media, fair enough. Hollywood though, has become irrelevant, particularly in the online space - they don't get it, they're desperately trying to play catch-up. It'd be a long time before Hollywood were fully convinced that a project like lonelygirl15 was worth anything. They're a hit oriented society and this is long tail media. I think that online content producers should be looking elsewhere, Silicon Valley perhaps, New York?

Is it Hollywood's fault that they've allowed the 'art' of film to become such a cheap commodity? Probably. Reading "Blockbuster" recently nudged the argument in that direction; by flooding the summer / holiday seasons with 'hits' actually created a market of 'misses' - average films with average content and no genuine appeal.

Online video though is brilliant in so many ways; inexpensive, quick and disposable (yet lingering?). It is hard though for many great content producers to relinquish the idea of becoming a film or TV producer to become an online video producer.

Those same positives (low-cost, speed and cultural-transience?*) surely make it unappealing to a guy who wants to position a lighting crew, direct a photographer and script-jam a writer. I've found that those guys desperately want to fill computer monitors with their video like it was TV. The constraint of a 320 x 240 window just wasn't glamorous enough; not cool enough. Too lo-fi.

Unfortunatley though, these people also see their medium as one-way. What struck me about the writer of lonelygirl15 is that he had (for a long time) a very strong idea of his character and her stories, and maybe because of this he was able to adjust the narrative according to the engagement her audience was having with that character and the story so far. He already has all the lonelygirl15 stories; is the audience playing 'choose your own adventure'?

I think having a shared dialogue with your audience though, is the most critical aspect of this medium. You ignore your audience at your own peril; recent examples of successful online video sites show they are successful successful because they both embrace and engage with their audience.

Finally, the most important question remaining for the lonelygirl15 project is with regard to their revenue stream; at the moment they're generating their income via the advertisements that appear at the end of their revver media. I wondered what became of the Target connection though - what, if any, arrangement had been made with Target to use their products as props / costuming / decoration? Does product placement in this way still have an impact, is it a viable promotional channel? If so, why doesn't Target sponsor the project. If they did would that hurt the credibility of lonelygirl15?

*I know for sure that cultural-transience is not the right word, but the idea is that this kind of 'fast-media' enters the cultural landscape, becomes a hit, and disappears quite quickly. It has a long tail though and can be found quickly enough with google search.

Posted by travo at 1:47:02 PM

Gentlemen's Luncheon

Monday, 20 November 2006

My bachelorhood was given a glorious farewell on the weekend and thank you all of the gentlemen who were there to bid my wicked ways adieu.

David, my best man was as always at his poetic best and provided this toast;

Of all the friends a bloke could have,
There's none that match the likes of Trav,
Though bach'lor days did suit him well,
Thank Christ he found the lovely Mel.

Brilliant. Dave also managed to prepare a short introductory speech, which kicked the afternoon off to a cracking start.

Finally, I was presented with a "Book of Wisdom" in which each man was able to share their thoughts and wisdom. Jon Eaves could not be stopped and prepared to fill the book with no less that ten points of wisdom;

1. She is always right. Always. Do not google it, do not argue. The best option is to just let the conversation peter out. Never, ever say, "Yes dear".
2. An electrical appliance is not a birthday or Christmas present. It doesn't matter how powerful, or colourful, or technical it is. It's not a gift
3. Combined gifts (birthday / Christmas) are not okay. Don't try this.
4. "I love you." Is not only used when you're caught out. Say this every morning & night. Using "I love you" when you've forgotten a birthday will not work
5. Advice on gift giving. Quality and quantity. Build your set of presents around one or two really expensive items (but don't break rule #2). Make sure you have at least ten other gifts.
6. An answer of "nothing" to the question of "What's wrong?" is a lie. There is something wrong, and you're fucked.
7. "Does my arse look fat in this?" is a trick question. There is no right answer. Feyn death, a heart attack or a state of emergency (terrorist attack). Do not answer.
8. Your idea of "cleaning" is wrong. Males are completely oblivious to "female dirt" which is a whole new level. When in doubt see #1
9. "Would you mind..." or "Is there any..." are not conversation starters. These are directives to perform an action. Do it, or suffer
10. "Why don't you wear..." or "I like the other shirt..." means that what you're wearing is shit, and you should change immediately before leaving the house.

Word.

Posted by travo at 7:43:17 PM

Mustachio Au-Go-Go

Tuesday, 14 November 2006

Yup, that's my mo' for Movember. It's going well don't you think? It looks pretty damn sex... oh Christ! Who am I kidding, I look like this guy from The Simpsons. Very creepy. But it's all for a good cause - the healthy loins of all Australian men.

My sponsorship number is 33587 - head on over to the Movember sponsorship pages and lay down some tax-deductable coinage.

I'm not sure if you can see in the picture, but I've also doubled the size of my sideburns. I thought that was an equally important statement about male potentcy, virility and... pimpy-ness.

I seem to be a whole lot more conscious of my mo' than those around me... either that or they're much too polite to mention the nasty slug crawling along underneath my nose.

Did I mention that me chin now really feels the cold?

Posted by travo at 9:55:03 PM | Comments (3)

Movember - want to sponsor me?

Thursday, 02 November 2006

What's down, brown and seen all over? A righteous mo' that's what! Help me choose my mo' style for Movember.

I'm on board with this years' Movember and have cut back all the usual goatee-beard furryness for a fresh start. I want you to help choose the mo I'll be wearing by the end of Movember.

Pick something from the styles below and let me know which way the mo' will be blowin' come November 30th.

If you want to see something that's not pictured above, let me know! To sponsor me you can use my rego number 33587 - my team is Peter Mac Mo

Posted by travo at 9:18:49 PM | Comments (3)

Weird Browser/Servlet behaviour

Tuesday, 31 October 2006

I'm experiencing some strange browser behaviour with my latest JSP/Servlet project. I think it's got something to do with the HttpKeepAlive header property that is set to true by default in Firefox. Mark Pruett describes the Firefox settings well and its relation to the HTTP 1.0/1.1 spec. but my problem, while related, is a little different.

I'm using the servlet controller and command pattern which is nifty, some pages are generated on a GET command, others on a form POST command - you know, usual web page type stuff. Sometimes I like to hit the 'GO' button at the end of the browser address bar to go to the default action of the current url / controller context. By doing this - calling the default url - this should recognise that there is no action present in the request and resolve to call the default action.

Both IE and Firefox are behaving strangely. Firstly, both aren't resolving the default action. Firefox causes a null pointer exeption, related to their not being enough parameters in the post headers. IE doesn't appear to be posting at all! As a result, no such error appears. Out-putting the raw request.getAttribute("action") to the console shows me that IE generates no servlet activity. Firefox fires off a request, and the incoming action is null.

Hang on, I'm investigating this as I write this...

What a dill-pickle! I had a private String action; declared at a class level. Tool. It should of course have been String action = "default_home";in the doPost. Oops.

Mind you the LiveHttpHeaders extension for Firefox is very handy.

Furthermore, this doesn't explain why IE does nothing!

Posting this I realise I need a new category, perhaps 'pants-off programming' since these posts seem (ironically) really off topic from time to time.

Posted by travo at 10:29:05 AM

The Fickle World of Hits

Monday, 30 October 2006

If there is one thing to learn from the long tail it's that hits are dramatic and fleeting. This report suggests that the teen sensation myspace could be experiencing a mass exodus as its fickle market go searching for newer, fresher shores.

Ouch.

I'm not a fan of myspace. But if all the tweens and teens clear out, how will it change the dynamic? The true nature of myspace will be made a whole lot clearer. And it'll be one that owes itself significantly to the ideas which were tossed around in the old tomb - the Cluetrain Manifesto. Yeah, that old chestnut.

I think myspace is really a marketplace and for the most part most of its stall holders are trading in entertainment. Movies, bands, artists, writers, cartoonists, freaks and phonies - all promoting their cultural wares. Sure there is some shonky trading going on, what with vicious teens flogging movies of their spiteful activities and there are some dodgy folk lurking around. Essentially though it's a market trading on creativity. I wonder whether or not it holds up as a mirror of western popular culture... frankly I don't know.

Sure myspace looks like a friends, personals, social networking site, but I really don't think that is its true nature. Not when you see bands promoting their myspace page, or movie posters with the film's myspace url tagged on the bottom (remember when it used to be the AOL keyword?).

The other significant issue raised by the article is what tweens and teens are learning about their own social heirarchy; with 258 'friends' how do you manage your list so that your keep your true buddies at the top. It becomes less about maintaining a webpage - posting photo's, uploading videos and blogging - that it does become about maintaining a relevant (customer facing?) social database where your friends are exposed to how much you care about them.

I can just hear their vapid little voices now; "Like, you must hate me. How can I not be, like, in your top eight! I came to your birthday. *sobs*".

Sheesh.

To complete this sermon; at its core - I don't think that myspace has no real cultural or social capital and I don't think that you can sustain anything that doesn't have a genuine physical social or cultural context. As the fickle teenagers and tweenagers leave myspace and head for their next playground you'll see the real size, purpose and value of myspace.

Posted by travo at 10:15:08 AM

Too many babies? Time to grow up.

Wednesday, 25 October 2006

I love this - it is time to grow up, time to be an adult. I know how much of a great big baby I am; though I wonder about many others and whether or not they've really grown up.

I often catch myself getting drawn into a collective hysteria; like a whole bunch of babies together in a room and one of them starts crying, then the one next to it starts and before you know - the whole room is awash with a siren-like wailing. I often find myself affected by a collective mood. Mel keeps reminding me of how sensitive I am; it's true. And it's hard to manage.

Who knows whether or not this Telegraph article is serious or tongue-in-cheek - none the less, there are themes here which resonate. It was this line though that made me think of SEE, "We have no social sensibilities beyond the tribal".

I'm no advocate for a repressed society. There are many people I know who have the mix right - they know how to behave like adults and they know when it's appropriate to live life with childish joy. Collectively though it's time for the pendulum to swing back...

Posted by travo at 9:14:44 AM

Reskin! Ahem... a re-alignment.

Wednesday, 18 October 2006

Despite a lot of recent talk about blogs and feeds making websites, kind of generic and pointless; I've decided to make this website more generic and even more pointless! Well, kind-of.

I love my website, I'd like to think of it as an interesting extension of me, growing and evolving over the years, reflecting my interests, my skills and abilities and the occasional silly things I get up to.

So, please enjoy this new skin as it gets rolled out over the coming days, feel free to let me know what you think. I'm certainly enjoying a new found comfort with grids... don't you agree?

Posted by travo at 10:27:24 PM | Comments (2)

If everyone lived like me...

Monday, 02 October 2006

... we'd need 1.9 earths. Take the Earth Day Footprint Quiz and let me know how you fare.

Posted by travo at 2:55:26 PM

Consumer :: Bovine

Thursday, 28 September 2006

I feel like I'm standing on the edge of an existential precipice; who am I, what's my purpose, where am I going, what is my life course; live, love, consume, cease.

This feeling has been brewing. But it really started to crystalize into an idea when a friend (who recently moved into a new and beautiful house) mentioned a book she'd finished reading a book called Affluenza - The All Consuming Epidemic. I haven't even read this book, but the idea of it has started to resonate with me in a strange way.

I've been bugging the hell out of Melissa with nagging requests to buy stuff - a new computer, an electric piano, a plasma TV, a digital sound projector, new toys, crap, garbage. What's the point of all this stuff!? Some of it is for pleasure, enjoyment and relaxation. Some of it is to stimulate a deep and entrenched part of my being that wants to create.

But all of it is nonsense.

I work and I earn good money. I live very well. I have a beautiful soul-mate whom I love with every cell in my heart. I know she loves me equally. We have a cat. We have some beautiful friends and we love spending time with them.

What more do I need?

I need to think that I'm more than a cow, that goes to work, munches on hours to make money, to buy 'stuff' and then has to go back to work, to munch on hours...

I love having projects. Hey! - I just finished producing a DVD. It's been a great project, it is a real and tactile thing. I have collaborated with people who have shared an equal or greater passion to produce that DVD. It's been great. It's been fulfilling.

I've been a part of making something people want. Not wanting something people make.

How do I bust this cycle?

Posted by travo at 6:55:35 PM | Comments (6)

Kids with guns.

Saturday, 23 September 2006

At the supermarket the other week, a kid maybe 4 or 5 years old with a toy gun passed me in the isle, aimed and blew my head off its shoulders with a quiet "bang".

I grew up in a house were guns, toy guns and gun play was strictly discouraged. My father (and today is his birthday) was a Vietnam vet. The picture is clear.

As I've grown older, I've kinda followed this through; kids playing with guns just shouldn't be encouraged. Parents should find some other meaningful way for kids to interact and play with one another. Screw cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, marines and militant jihadi... kids should be able to engage in genuine fist fights, that have real consequences like blood noses and broken bones.

Seriously though, in the supermarket though, what should I have done?

What do you say to a parent who doesn't share the same wholistic view as I about the implications of children with guns? Do you tap the parent on the shoulder, then form a pistol with your hand and point it at their childs head and scream "BANG!"?

This post was prompted by a similar question in this mornings papers, in some touchy-feely ethics / modern life column. The problem remains; parents nowadays don't like other people telling them how to raise their kids, and we live in Melbourne - guns aren't cool. Knives are though...

Posted by travo at 8:25:21 AM | Comments (1)

The worst things to happen to Rock

Wednesday, 20 September 2006

This is a golden top fifty list of all the worst things to happen to rock music. Did they miss anything?

Posted by travo at 11:12:06 AM

Paris Hilton : Walkin' Talkin' Livin' Doll

Wednesday, 20 September 2006

I liked this article illustrating what bloggers and online-marketing type people can learn from Paris Hilton. I am convinced that she is an embodiment of the most vicious and vapid characteristics of our current dominant culture, but I also recognise that she is a curiosity. Hilton, and those like her seem to be completely oblivious to their environment.

A very good friend suggested that some of the most important things you can remember are; who you are, where you are and where you're from. I like this mantra, it tells me that I must consider my conscience, my current context and my historical context.

Paris Hilton, fails on all accounts; she cares little for which-ever environment you place her in, I'm not sure she fully understands her historical context (what does heiress really mean to her) and worst of all, her conscience is a barely acknowledge voice in the back of her self-absorbed and self-gratifying mind.

Does it mean anything to her when she name drops? Is it because food is not an real or physical thing anymore - is it because it's merely a brand? Branding has created such a strong association between a gratification or need that she no longer considers the physical need, just the gratification of the brand.

For her it's no longer the base needs of food, water, shelter, sex - it's McDonalds, Perrier, Hilton and Timberlake.

I think...

Posted by travo at 9:49:15 AM

1967 Mosrite Vintage Strawberry Alarm Clock Guitars

Friday, 15 September 2006

These guitars are far and away the most amazing instruments I've seen in a long time. And I've been lookin' at guitars obsessively for a lil' while now, and thought I'd seen everything.

They were recently auctioned on eBay - I'm not sure how long this link will remain active for though...

How exquisite!

Posted by travo at 2:10:43 PM

Powerhouse Blues DVD Launch!

Monday, 11 September 2006

Busy? Yup, flat out - I've been pulling together the final pieces of an 18 month project that captured the Powerhouse Blues Band performing and celebrating their 25th Anniversary. The DVD has been pressed and the package is a beautiful thing; a beautiful slick, a great looking DVD with a high level of production not seen too often in local independant roots and blues bands, a bonus CD which features the Powerhouse Alumni performing five tracks together and a tidy little booklet in which each member gives their take on the formation of the band and how it started for them.

It's been a great project and as usual, I've learnt heaps. Heaps. Event production, working with a video team, lighting production, audio production and recording, DVD authoring, DVD ripping and not to mention managing a project over such a protracted period.

One thing helped to make it heaps easier - Basecamp. I can not sing the praises of this web-app loud enough. It enabled me to communicate with different and disparate groups remotely, upload important files for review and discussion, and collaborate with the guys in the band. My daily work environment is very prohibitive and prevents me from using my email over the web. Using Basecamp for all the messaging ensured that I could stay in the loop and keep things on track during the day. Sweet!

So, head on over to the Powerhouse website, sign up for news (I promise there will be some forthcoming), keep up with the news and download some videos for your iPod. It's all good.

Oh - and as for the launch, make sure that you keep Saturday the 23rd of September in your diary. We'll be launching the DVD is spectacular fashion at Seibii's Bar and Cafe in Newborough.

Posted by travo at 12:48:55 PM

Anti-terrorism is the new terrorism

Friday, 25 August 2006

Refuse to be terrorised is Bruce Schneier's clear and calm voice - we all should be listening.

Every twitch, every jump and every squeal gives us away; at a time in the world where the 'traditional' west is more emotional than ever. We really need to focus on good sense, strength and intelligence if we are to show resilience during these times.

Posted by travo at 8:55:08 AM

Only the lonely...

Wednesday, 16 August 2006

Nicholas Carr raises an interesting point. What is the point! Why am I writing? Who do I write for? What are my aspirations? Who is my audience?

Firstly, I'm not all that bitter, that I'm not a minor celebrity in the Melbourne blogging community. Christ, I just don't do it all that often. I do realise though that my audience is small - probably mostly made up of a few friends who frequent occasionally and some family members who hope I don't swear too much.

If there is any angst about readership, it's simply that the random blitherings I have here won't affect my employment. Really! "Fuck, if I say that will I get the sack?" or "If I don't post something about [insert random technology here], I won't be able to get that next job, cause they'll read my blog and see that I'm a fucking moron." or "Fuck, since I've posted about [random technology x] they can actually see that I don't know jack about it..."

That kind of stuff.

Yeah, it kills me that comment spam outnumbers genuie comments 100 to 1. Yeah, I don't really do all that much that I find compelling to write about. Yeah, I'm probably addicted to brain crack. But fuck it - this is my place and I'll do what I like.

Posted by travo at 1:29:58 PM | Comments (2)

How do you deal with this?

Wednesday, 16 August 2006

One of the most difficult things for me to deal with is young managers, usually inexperienced in having to deal with issues relating to computers or technology.

The thing that makes me the most frustrated and uncomfortable is the phrase that starts with, "Well, I thought because you work on computers, you might now why...".

Or, you just know the shit is going to hit the fan when a rebuttal comes with, "Well, I had assumed that because you were so smart, since you work on computers, you would have forseen [ this crappy outcome ]...".

Look, if this just happens to me (maybe because I'm a young developer) then I'll accept that there is something I'm doing wrong in the lead up to those kinds of interactions. But please, surely it's not just me.

The most unfortunate thing about this is that more often than not - it's women. Suggesting this is obviously problematic, but this mostly occurs with young female managers who have a responsibility to deliver an outcome or manage a process which might be related to technology in some way. Recently there was also a young male who was in a similar situation and the way he tried to negotiate a positive outcome was very similar; flattery, disbelief and then emotional dispair.

For me that's the key behind this, emotional or personal cues and language used for business related communication.

To put it mildly, I'm more 'emotionally aware' than most and as a result I'm pretty sensitive to this kind of communication - it frustrates me no end. I want the people I work with to like me but when communicating with them in this way, it's too personal - negative responses and outcomes are sometimes loaded with a whole 'nother level of expectation.

Obviously there are many smart ways to deal with this but for the most it's exposure, experience and personal awareness which makes this easier; it has for me, but it's still incredibly frustrating.

Posted by travo at 11:10:18 AM

Personal video : too small to see and expensive

Monday, 14 August 2006

Seems that current research has shown that video for small devices such as phones and pda's doesn't have any traction among the kids.

You can't pull one over the kids - bless 'em. They know what's good and what's crap.

They're not gonna wait. If they do have to wait - it better be good. It also better have been worth it.

Posted by travo at 1:26:01 PM

ASP.NET Done and dusted.

Tuesday, 08 August 2006

At the risk of being really smug - ASP.NET is now my bitch. While I'm certain that this will bite me on the arse in time, I'm very comfortable knowing that I can capture some stuff, validate some stuff, shove some stuff in a database, get some stuff from a data source and shove some stuff on a screen.

For the most part, this has taken me ages and I've probably been unfairly harsh on myself for not learning the language sooner. I'm confident though because the principles I've employed I've known for a lot longer; and they have proven much more valuable.

C# and ASP.NET can now happily reside on my CV.

Posted by travo at 3:43:44 PM

YouTube - sharing the load or bearing the costs?

Tuesday, 08 August 2006

For mine, this article about a fireman in a tumble dryer is not significant because of it's content. It's because it's the first artcile I've seen posted online at The Age website which has directly embedded YouTube content.

What I see is The Age forefeiting the need to employ their own streaming content server and all associated costs. If The Age can easily upload their content toYouTube for distribution they lower their direct cost of bandwidth.

I hope YouTube are hip with this - perhaps they should consider some kind of 'redistribution charge' for media agencies who upload content or embed content on their sites.

Unfortunately designing a charging model is an economic minefield and YouTube enjoys much of it's success as a result of the millions of amateur web designers and publishers shoving their clips online and either embedding them in their own website or linking to them directly.

Posted by travo at 1:35:12 PM

GeoTagging - you're it!

Tuesday, 08 August 2006

Obviously not a new idea, but Sony has a product which makes geo-tagging your photography a whole lot easier. How cool!

Clearly there are heaps of applications for this kind of meta-data, and devices like this will hopefully continue to get smaller and make recording our experiences ubiquitous.

Posted by travo at 11:49:02 AM

Wow - what a posse'

Monday, 07 August 2006

I'd love to be on this list one day. That is just an amazing roll-call of people who, while being incredibly talented, are equally good blokes. And good luck to Steve as he heads back out to tame the wilderness...

Posted by travo at 9:36:42 AM

ASP.NET httpHandlers - nice.

Friday, 04 August 2006

I have to admit, I do like the way you can add to your config some wildcard properties to your servlet - sorry handler - path.

For example add verb="*" path="*_app.aspx" allows me to prefix any files which are linked to my application with an appropriate name. message_app.aspx will be resolved as an application within my intranet and be pointed to my intranet handler. Within my intranet handler I can then determine which command I need to use to execute the right actions for that application.

I like this a little better than the method I've been using for the Java Servlets, in that the prefix to the "action" header, such as action=message_view_item tells me that the keyword "message" is what will inform my Servlet about which command it is mean to execute.

Posted by travo at 1:20:22 PM

ASP.NET Request and Response

Friday, 04 August 2006

There are obviously going to be some differences in the way ASP.NET handles the way you pass around objects as opposed to Java. One of the things I like about the servlet model is the way you call your useBeans from the presentation layer. The useBeans are attached to the Response object - this is obviously very nifty and a handy way to do things.

There doesn't appear to be a way for me to add things to the Response object in the same way using ASP.NET. The HttpContext.Session object allows you to add things. I'm just not sure how 'smart' this is... I mean, obviously you can do it whether or not it's 'smart' to solve the problem in this way... I don't know.

I also like that by adding things to the Response object in Java you know that they are designed to persist for the lifetime of that the response. In ASP.NET, if I'm shoving things in the Session object, they're gonna need a little bit of management since they'll persist for the entire lifetime of the session. That could be problematic... hence the concern about this not being a smart idea.

Posted by travo at 11:12:32 AM

Takin' some small steps and learning .NET

Monday, 31 July 2006

Late last week and today I've been working on my .NET chops - reading, experimenting, failing, reading... repeat, adjust paradigm, rinse.

I got a whiff of the IHttpHandler and it smelt as if it could be massaged into acting like a servlet. Fortunately there are a few other morons out there who would rather make ASP.NET behave like Java Servlets so they don't have to completely adjust their reality.

Servlets rule; especially in a MVC configuration. Happy days. It's an arragement (perhaps framework?) that I comprehend well. If I can transfer that comprehension across to another language, well - the rest is furniture.

Today, it was this page simply entitled 'Java Servlets' which really helped to crack the nut I'd be gnawing at since last week. Believe me, the key learning new things is really shoving the right keywords into a Google search, if you're lucky you'll click on the right page that digests this information in the best way for you to understand.

So what does this mean? - well, I can now build you a .NET application if prodded and in time I'll learn some of the nifty techniques and stuff that can be implemented with form controls and such. For now though, it'll be a relief to be able to explore this a little further and get some bits and bobs up and running. Database connection here, form on a webpage there, animated flaming logo over there...

Posted by travo at 4:17:00 PM

Hands on people who become managers.

Wednesday, 19 July 2006

This a fab discussion by Jeffery Veen and Khoi Vinh both of whom are recognised as fantastic designers. Both now have killer leadership roles at Google (Jeff) and the New York Times (Khoi), what's recorded here is a great discussion about the difficulties faced by people who are typically very hands on as they move towards roles which require a greater degree of leadership.

I'm hearing very similar things from developers who have been required to make similar transistions. Especially those comments that relate to influencing organisational change and hearing Jeff talk about giving design a voice in (what I think sounds like) an agile environment.

Posted by travo at 11:36:45 AM

Launching Pants Off Places

Monday, 17 July 2006

You may have noticed a couple of weird posts in your RSS feeds, these are the first in what I hope to be a large collection of landmarks - cafe's, restaurants, shops, parks, whatever - I'm going to record in my blog. I'm calling it Pants Off Places.

This is a bit of a Google Maps API mashup with Movable Type. It's probably not the most complete and integrated mashup of it's kind available for MT but at this stage - it'll do nicely. For now I'm also using this clunky example map to help get the co-ordinates for each of these locations as the Google location search for Australia isn't all that complete.

I'd like to have a template for these entries, so that you also see a map shown on the individual archive entry, I'll try to get around to that when I can. Let me know what you think.

Posted by travo at 11:06:05 AM

Is Gibson Guitars effectively hamstrung by their own legacy?

Monday, 10 July 2006

There's a really interesting article over at Wired today reporting on the result of an appeal by Paul Reed Smith Guitars against the ruling that their single cut-away electric guitar was designed too similarly to Gibson's famous Les Paul.

And I suggest 'designed too similarly..' because I think that those in the know would agree that there is a great deal about the PRS that attempts to mimic in the Les Paul beyond the look. Selection and position of pickups, selection of woods and neck shape, the list goes on; all in a valid attempt to re-imagine a legend.

Really, though - that's the point. I think the legacy of the Les Paul has effectively bound Gibson into a position where they are unable to develop that instrument beyond it's current format. They have tried; unfortunately those instruments were regarded as poor cariactures of their flagship instrument. There is a long list of discontinued models which suggest Gibson have attempted to design an instrument which unshackles them from the constraints of the Les Paul, but there is little that they can do.

Strangely though, I don't think of this kind of constraint when I consider the Fender Stratocaster - a guitar just as old as the Les Paul, but somehow unfettered. Sure, Fender have experimented wildy with a huge number of variables on the ol' Strat, and the initial design lend itself well to redevelopment, tweaking, hot-rodding.

Why isn't Gibson as lucky? Is it Gibson themselves? Is it the Les Paul? Strange.

Posted by travo at 1:25:09 PM

So, has she missed anything?

Sunday, 09 July 2006

Mel spent about two hours the other night slaving over the notebook, pouring over our Basecamp website getting our wedding plans in order. Here is the result - sorry if it's a little long it's just my To Do list.

It begs the question though - has she missed anything? - please post your replies and suggestions to me and I'll shove them online here and who knows, they may find there way on to the genuine article.

Mind you though, this list doesn't include our combined tasks, which add at least another fifteen or so to the list. The cutest one is in the 'After the Wedding' To Do : Trav + Mel - Live happily ever after. What a sweetheart.

Posted by travo at 9:43:42 PM

Bourdain tells it like it is - if you can't stomach this, look away.

Friday, 07 July 2006

Oh this is just great! Chef Anthony Bourdain responds in chorus to a guest post by Chef Michael Ruhlman on Megnut.com who is outraged by "those knuckleheads in Chicago and those sensitivos in California" who are fighting for the ethical treatment of molluscs... before they have a 20cm chef's knife shoved through their crusty exterior.

That he uses the expression 'fucktard' only makes me realise more that sooner or later Chef Jon Eaves will find himself right at home in a kitchen : he has the passion for food, and the intollerance of sensitivos who can't tolerate the environs that these kind of working conditions are reality to.

Posted by travo at 10:29:02 AM

Oh Helen, how could you get it so wrong?

Thursday, 06 July 2006

Seems our current Communications Minister, Helen Coonan is all twitchy after the Big Brother incident. Unfortunately she's mistaken "the community outrage about this matter"; thinking that people are upset upon finding that this incident was broadcast at all. Rightly, the public outrage was about the behaviour itself and if Big Brother is to have any real purpose it is to hold up a mirror - via all channels - of our own society.

Big Brother should be allowed to show this behaviour no matter how disturbing (or mundane) that behaviour is.

The ACMA though, has no business monitoring, regulating, reviewing or classifying Australian web based content. What content I place on my website is at my own disgression and will be policed and restricted under many other legislation.

The irony is that if the ACMA were to even attempt this, they'd become more like Big Brother than Big Brother.

Posted by travo at 9:12:07 AM

Doppleganger - perhaps, maybe. At least in name...

Wednesday, 05 July 2006

I have just received the coolest email. Steve, from the Mac And Travis radio show has dropped me a line to let me know that they've discovered our cool tunes. And - they want to play them on their show.

It get's better.

I've googled my own name at least a couple of times (okay, maybe a dozen times) but I've not seen this Travis Winters before! I know that there is a dirt track racing Travis Winters, a black student politician Travis Winters and I also think there is a university wrestler called Travis Winters. But now a internet radio DJ Travis Winters - how fucking interesting is that!?

Posted by travo at 10:14:51 PM | Comments (1)

More fantastic Balloon Art!

Wednesday, 28 June 2006

I hope my man Davey is watchin' out for this guy since his work looks pretty damn neat; Balloon Artiste meet mr Jason Hackenwerth.

More links and pictures can be found over at Drawn!

Posted by travo at 3:52:07 PM

More Google Fun : Sitemaps + Analytics

Wednesday, 28 June 2006

I'm having a great time using the new Google apps Sitemaps and Analytics - they're really useful tools!

It took a little while for me to get the invitation code to use Analytics after they launched it - I think Google got quite a flood of webmasters going "Great! Google monitored web stats - me wanty!" and I can understand why; there is a lot of trust and good will associated with the big G. That's really a topic for another conversation though.

Analytics have proved to be very useful for the Yamaha Music site at many levels (and I haven't really started to use it to it's full capacity); monitoring traffic - accurately, page overlays - for a quick examination of user behaviour; setting goals and examining conversions. Very interesting and challenging.

I've also just setup the Sitemap for Yamaha Music and over the next week or so I'll be checking to see how that activity will affect google rankings and also what information it will provide me to improve my google ranking. Hopefully it'll also help me manage broken links and whole bunch of other pain-in-the-arse type stuff that happens when you run a website.

Posted by travo at 1:22:17 PM

Link-a-licious!

Wednesday, 28 June 2006

After an embarrasing social meeting a few weeks ago, and a day yesterday spent organising and tagging all of my bookmarks I now have my bookmarks all online at del.icio.us. Even more surprising was that I could actually get the username 'travo' - sometimes that's impossible - especially after del.icio.us being online for so long...

None the less it was during lunch with James Ross that I realised that if I'm going to get real about the social internet, I should get online and get a few of these things happening. I didn't use del.icio.us because it was fairly ugly and in truth, I didn't really 'get it' - social bookmarking? Huh?

It really solves a couple of problems for me; 1, I don't have to export my bookmarks from work and mail them home, which in truth is really dumb; 2, I can bookmark and tag stuff using my own taxonomy - which is truly the greatest thing about folksonomies (incidentally bookmarks taged 'occasionally' is stuff that I read occasionally, how much sense does that make!); 3, I haven't been bookmarking a lot of great stuff that I find because I find my managing my bookmarks at a browser level can be a real pain in the arse. I realised yesterday that there was a lot of duplication.

The other thing I realise is that I'm not really on board the RSS train. I know I should be, but I actually enjoy visiting a website and seeing whether or not there is new content there, and how that content is presented.

Hey, we like going to our local from time to time to see how the place is decorated. Sure, we could get some take-aways from the bottleshop but to have a couple of pots in the lounge and soak up the atmosphere... meet a couple of new friends; it's great, it's part of the experience!

Posted by travo at 9:52:16 AM

Soccer - a cruel mistress indeed.

Tuesday, 27 June 2006

Meli and I went to be early on Monday night and set the alarm at 1pm so we could get up, drink tea, eat wafers and have our hearts broken two hours later.

Clearly this post is late, and there has been plenty of discussion and rationalisation of the horrible minute and in all honesty the years after this will be much more positive and triumphant for Australian Football than we can measure.

But It hurts!

Oh well, I'll get over it soon enough... ooooh look - A bird. He heh hehh heh ehhhe ehhe.

It was kinda nice too, getting up in the middle of the night and huddling under the doona with your loved one, drinking tea and eating wafers. I reckon we should do that more often.

Posted by travo at 1:53:26 PM

Pimpy!

Friday, 26 May 2006

Shared the train to work this morning with one of the guys I work (whom I didn't know was from the 'hood) and I pointed out a bike I was lusting after (as some lucky prick rode by on it) and he mentioned the goodness that was 'Pimp my Fahrrad!' which was on TV in Europe when he was working there.

How cool - it's like Pimp My Ride but with bicycles, and wacky Germans! What could be more fun.

Klaus, ubergeben mir den Schlussel!

Posted by travo at 12:17:48 PM

Smack my bitch up!

Friday, 26 May 2006

This is coooooool - makes me wish this was on my StinkPad notebook; SmackBook Pro allows you to switch virtual desktops by tapping the side of your monitor. 'Ken awesome.

Posted by travo at 12:15:09 PM

Google Maps - Australia Mapped!

Tuesday, 23 May 2006

Goooooooogle Maps rock my world. I've been waiting for the complete mapping data for Australia to be finished so I can fiddle around with the API. While I'm not at extreme mashup stage yet, I have implemented a bit of a location search for the Music Schools at the Yamaha Music website.

This is really exciting! It was pretty straight forward to set up, there were some great examples on the API documentation (proving that I'm a moron) which I found easy to follow and implement for my purposes.

There was some weirdness within my development environment - highly restrictive as it is - which arose from Internet Explorer not being permitted to set cookies, but other than that, it went very well. Drop a line directly to let me know what you think, I've still got comments turned off here and won't turn 'em on again until I can be sure that I'm not gonna get comment spam.

Posted by travo at 2:29:09 PM

What kind of developer are you?

Tuesday, 16 May 2006

Oh this is golden - are you an Asshole or a Moron?

Posted by travo at 5:03:16 PM

Dense : Living in Hong Kong

Tuesday, 16 May 2006

This is a fantastic gallery of photography by Michael Wolf, firstly of The Architecture of Density and then 100 x 100 which is a collection of 100 portraits of residents in their 100 square feet apartments.

100 square feet. That is tiny. Ten feet by ten feet. Wow. Think about that in your Cranbourne Mc Mansion.

Posted by travo at 1:56:16 PM

Hello George Eaves!

Monday, 15 May 2006

Congratulations to Jon and Sue Eaves who welcomed their beautiful new addition to the family, George on Sunday morning.

Rupert's sentiments are beautiful and hard to match, but it's great to see that two of the most generous, caring and loving people I know finally blessed with a bundle of joy!

George, I anticipate, will shortly have; a level 60 sage in World of Warcraft, his own directory on eaves.org and an application for MCC membership in the mail.

Love you guys.

Posted by travo at 10:04:25 AM

Thank the Gods : Keef is still alive!

Friday, 12 May 2006

I can't begin to tell you how relieved I am that Keith Richards has finally been discharged from hospital after falling out of a coconut palm and damaging his own nut.

It would have been a fairly inglorious end to a stellar career in which he has managed to outlive many of his other contemporaries. I mean, cool - if Keith had actually been mortally injured falling out of a coconut palm, that'd have been very rock and roll. Unfortunately though, had Keith passed away in a hospital bed with a hole in his head to drain away fluid on the brain; well anyones Grandmother can die like that. It just woud not have been a fitting end to one of Rocks greatest living treasures.

Posted by travo at 12:19:08 PM

Learning Java - take nothing for granted.

Wednesday, 05 April 2006

The devil really is in the detail when it comes to learning Java, I realized this when I first attempted to code my first class years ago. And the reason I'm having a crack at Java (JSP/Servlets) is that I think I'm old enough... perhaps mature enough... to attempt a grasp on the kinds of minute protocols, courtesy, manners and ritual required to master this language.

I want to be a little miffed at my buddies for not mentioning these nuances; ever - but rather, I'm kinda impressed that the've managed to keep the secret of 'the stonecutters' from me for so long.

Because I appreciate case sensitivity, I was able to work it out. I'm sensitive to those cases, although for a long time, I was indiscriminate and careless with regard to the case. Now I am their bitch.

Despite this there are stylisticly, some things which I have been getting away with in my old ways, which are not appropriate when entering such a rich community as my colleagues. Rightly, I feel grotesque, hideous, a heathen.

<c:out value="${approval.id}" />

Works only if your class has the method;

public int getId()
{
    return _id;
}

Not this method;

public int getID()
{
    return _id;
}

...because capitalisation in this way is not considered appropriate, or polite.

It's a fucking convention. Like taking off your shoes before entering a Japanese home. Like wearing your underpants underneath your trousers. They are the things we do to demonstrate our acknowledgement of years of agreed behaviour and practice.

I guess it just would have been handy if I knew in advance. Like, before I decided to take a shit in the potted palm.

Posted by travo at 10:35:06 AM

SEO Gone Mad

Friday, 31 March 2006

I was shown this page today by one of my esteemed colleagues who was completely astounded at the non-sensical, meaningless and completely fruity writing included within.

Obviously she'd found the page high in a Google search but when she landed on the page there are some very unhelpful instructions about how to actually find what you're looking for. Since it's just search phrase babble - using every possible heading and paragraph to shove the keywords into.

For example;

Street search for Camping Shops
You can locate a Camping Shop by searching for the street in which you think the Camping Shop is located. Just remember that as well as returning the Camping Shop you are looking for, this type of search will also return every other business in that street as well as other businesses they may have your search term in their Melbourne listing.

Really, that just doesn't make any sense. Sara was right to find this hilarious and pointless. This kind of garbage is just gonna force people to search the old fashioned way - with the Yellow Pages.

Posted by travo at 8:01:24 AM

Comm Games housing near Brunswick... not such a good idea.

Friday, 24 March 2006

If you're searching for lost athletes you probably don't have to search too far from the Athletes Village. Perhaps a quiet stroll along Sydney Road Brunswick and into Coburg and you may well find a few asylum seekers, and among them might be one or two missing athletes.

Posted by travo at 8:47:21 AM

Web 2.0 WTF? / Why Lonely Planet needs a Wiki

Thursday, 23 March 2006

There is a lot of talk / jibberish floating around about Web 2.0 - there are a lot of people getting very hard about it and there are also a lot of shysters who are flogging things that are now 'Web 2.0 enabled'

Essentially, Web 2.0 is a name for a lot of really nice business models and concepts which are finding a market online. Again, time will show which of these models are able to actually generate income and create solid revenue streams.

I think this article today on Webmonkey gives a really good summary of these models and also what web 2.0 is really about.

There is also heaps of ammunition here to make a solid argument as to why I think Lonely Planet should go with a Wiki. No really, hear me out.

The whole LP / Wiki thing is a torch I've been carrying around for a little while now and I think it would be a great way for them to capitalize on the knowledge / expertise that they have - and also what they've shared with 100's of 1000's of travellers around the world. Here's a few reasons why;

1. They shift the content production from their staff, to everyone who is able to create and edit an entry on their Wiki. They may not necessarily need to reduce their staff numbers but their staff may have access to more up-to-date content which they can take ownership of online and effectively become wiki content editors.
2. As mentioned, the accuracy / currency of their content has the potential to become higher.
3. In time, they may be able to offer travellers the option of downloading to their PDA / iPod / Handheld a whole section from the Wiki on a particular destination. This could then ensure that while travelling you have access to the most current notes about Lismore.[update]As 37 Signals mention - these kinds of services are thing that LP shouldn't be afraid to charge for.
4. With this model Lonely Planet may also make it possible for you to update your content online with revised travel information from the Wiki
5. Most importanly, I think LP have a strong context within which they can foster a strong online community of travellers who could contribute effectively.

I think there are heaps of opportunities here for Lonely Planet, it would be a bold move, but I think they have the right climate to grow a business activity like this; Human Filters, Information Architecture, Social Networking Model and the potential for strong Folksonomies and Tagging.

Posted by travo at 9:53:32 AM

Microsoft ASP.NET, now with Atlas (AJAX) - be alarmed.

Tuesday, 21 March 2006

Checked Slashdot this morning and read the news about Microsoft's integration of AJAX into ASP.NET with Atlas.

Someone handily provided the url for a streaming movie demonstrating how to 'assemble' (build just doesn't sound right in this context - this guy ain't building nothing) an ASP.NET application using Visual Studio Express.

Frankly, I find this whole scenario alarming in many ways on many levels.

1. Application development just got a whole lot easier for twits.


2. Debugging an ASP.NET application (without Visual Studio) now sucks harder.


3. Visual Studio behaves more like a 'toy' IDE, drag and drop this, click that - obscure fundamental component here, bury core business logic there.

This sucks a whole lot more because I kinda need to add .NET to my CV, seriously - but seeing this just doesn't make me want to - honestly. I'm really afraid that using Visual Studio Web Developer will make me a less smarter person - it won't actually introduce me to new and interesting concepts in compiled languages nor will it expand my skillset with useful and transferrable learnings.

Posted by travo at 1:53:39 PM

AJAX - Welcome to my CV

Thursday, 16 March 2006

Finally found a genuine / commercial excuse to do something legitimate with AJAX. I decided to use the Prototype library, despite the fact that it's not well documented by the guy that developed it, there is a plenty of nifty pieces of documentation out there for it.

In the end, this kind of stuff was very easy - I suspect though that polishing what I've done and making it a nicely integrated 'widget-type-thing' that a visitor/customer to the website will use is a whole nother thing.

I also suspect that, if I choose to be super dilligent, making my web page work for people who don't have a javascript enabled browser will be a tricky minefield to navigate. I guess I can't really add AJAX to my CV until I've proven that I can do that.

I'll keep you posted.

Posted by travo at 3:57:26 PM

Vintage Wallpaper Rocks!

Tuesday, 14 March 2006

This is so cool; so many tasty brown tones to be seen here - check out these vintage wallpapers.

Posted by travo at 2:04:59 PM

Pattern Language and Moderation Strategies

Thursday, 09 March 2006

I got very excited last year when I discovered Clay Shirky writings about moderation strategies (unfortuantely I can't locate the original article). His wiki for Pattern Language is an equally valuable resource for developers who are working on social software and need to consider moderation and group / self management strategies to ensure the project doesn't go pear shaped.

Even if you're not working on a large social software application, it's worth have a read of this material. It provides some genuine insights into online group behaviour and how to consider managing it.

Posted by travo at 10:01:48 AM

Balloon Hat Website!

Thursday, 02 March 2006

Oh this is so cool. So what do you do when you're travelling to 34 different countries, take balloons of course and make them into hats and photograph indigenous people wearing them; let hilarity ensue.

I hope Davey sees this.

It seems that Davey has been subscribed for three years or so! Seems I came in late, or strangely may have reposted something I've seen before.

Posted by travo at 9:11:13 AM

Ooooh Charts!

Wednesday, 15 February 2006

I just stumbled across the The Long Tail - an excellent and interesting journal by Chris Anderson, Wired Magazine Editor in Chief.

His site has a huge amount of really interesting analysis of data as it relates to current business trends particularly with CD sales, blockbuster movie sales and a whole bunch of other neat, interesting and topical stuff.

From the site;

The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of "hits" (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail. As the costs of production and distribution fall, especially online, there is now less need to lump products and consumers into one-size-fits-all containers. In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly-target goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare.

Posted by travo at 2:06:33 PM

Down time

Thursday, 09 February 2006

I'm not sure exactly what this says about me, but from time to time I seem to find myself in chronic downtime. It happens in a kind of cyclic way, every ten to tweleve months and is independant of employer activities, though since my employment cycle of the last few years has been 12 -14 months there could be a pattern emerging.

I really enjoy having a project based focus for my work. It anchors my thinking and sets some real concrete activites for me to centre upon. I also really appreciate endorsement and support from management. It helps to provide 'legitimacy' to my activities and also ensures that someone other than me is interested in what I'm doing.

While that might sound piss weak; like I need a fucking teacher to check my work - it is a key motivator for me. If it were up to me, and I could get paid equally well for it - I'd be doing 'other things'. It is reassuring to have someone - mentor, manager, peer - endorse your work.

Which is why, when I find myself with a few too many spare hours to fill, I find it hard to self-motivate and engage in positive activities which would probably be incredibly beneficial to me such as investigating the latest new technology or practicing new techniques.

Like the soft-headed buffoon that I am, I hope that management notices how quickly I'm able to complete my work - hence the downtime. It quite clearly doesn't have that effect...

Posted by travo at 3:10:17 PM

Any thoughts...

Tuesday, 07 February 2006

So the time has come for a shared domain. Forget shared bank accounts and all that shite, you know you're really in love and going to spend the rest of your life together when you get a domain and website together. So what should it be?

99union.org
travandmel.org
winters.org.au
yuan.org.au
boofheadandhotpants.com

Any ideas?

Posted by travo at 10:31:45 AM | Comments (1)

Yet more excitement in Brunswick.

Saturday, 04 February 2006

"Goin' to Brunswick Mate?", asks one bikie to another.
"Nah, just shootin' through".
BLAM, BLAM, BLAM.

Went out to dinner tonight, and as we drove away we noticed a few Harley's parked outside the Union Hotel. I remarked to Mel that it looked like there was going to be a big one tonight; the usual stuff, burnouts at 2.00am, shouting, a little fighting and piss-wrecks staggering home cussing one another out.

Something different happened tonight though, we returned home to flashing red and blue lights; half a dozen police units and a whole bunch of police tape around the pub.

By the time we got home at 10.00, a bikie had been shot three times and had already been dispatched by amblulance and the CIB were on the scene questioning witnesses. A few journo's were hovering around trying to gather a story from locals.

I noticed one of the journo's desperately trying to feed a story to a colleague back at the office over the telephone; I said, "Dude, I could lend you a notebook with a wireless connection if you have an extranet - I could have blogged tihs story already!" He laughed.

Anyhoo, as we approached Alexander Parade and got off the Eastern freeway on our way home fron dinner out, a bikie on a Harley sped by us at a rate of knots.
"Looks like there's a rumble on at the Union tonight", I joked to Mel.

How right I was.

Posted by travo at 10:37:34 PM

Sport : Competition or Fun

Wednesday, 01 February 2006

I never really made it at sport as a kid. Never really got into any team sport as an adult. Up until today, my mother (god bless her) and I were pretty much resolved to the fact that I just didn't have the gross motor skills - that I just liked playing lego and drawing. I was just too fucking uncordinated to play sport very well.

I have played football (under 10's and 12's). I have played basketball. I have done gymnastics. I have trampolined. I have played squash and I love riding my bicycle.

Most of those team sports, I hated. The two things I still enjoy, riding a bike and playing squash are individual endeavours.

Recently, I was invited to play squash again - and I jumped at it; I'm trying to be more active and get out and about more. As I get older I'm more aware of myself, and I realise that my lack of ability was probably not due to my lack of coordination or skill (which always come with determination and practice) but more due to my sense of fun and enjoyment.

If it was football, I loved kick-to-kick. It's a bunch of guys kickin' a footy around and talkin' - sometimes lairising, but mostly just seein' how hard and far they can kick a footy. Cool fun.

I realised the other night during squash, one of the core weaknesses of my squash game is that I simply don't play to win. I play for fun. I play to hit the ball off the back wall to my partner, so that they can hit it back, and then I can hit it again... and again... and again. I'm like a pooch with a tennis ball in my slobbery mouth beggin for you to throw it again so I can run and get it...

During the squash game, there were heaps of opportunities for me to win points, but I just simply popped the ball back onto the wall, dead centre, setting up an easy shot. My squash partner, just nailed me every time. They have the desire to win. I'm simply happy playing.

Thing is though, I hate loosing. Go figure.

Posted by travo at 10:33:00 PM

Dark Poetry

Monday, 30 January 2006

Some people are hard to work with. The only way you can communicate with them is through their managers, who then transmit, probably via somekind of electronic stimulus or pulse, the encoded message into the walls of their anus where it is then picked up by the tongue (or tongues) of those very people with whom you wish to communicate directly.

These people have managerial sycophancy an art.

Posted by travo at 4:23:17 PM | Comments (2)

Big Dumb Holiday

Monday, 23 January 2006

John Birmingham famous for He Died With A Felafel in His Hand has written an epic sci-fi/war/thriller trilogy which had me turning pages everyday of my summer break. In fact, when I finished the second book I was pretty disappointed that the third book is, as yet unfinished.

Fortunately though, Birmo has a blog. Musing about all things sport, politics and life in Brisbane and Australia. He also invites the occasional discussion about the forthcoming Axis of Time book. It's a good fun read.

I was glad to read those 'big dumb airport novels' during the hols. They were a good break from all the heavy lifting I had my brain doing the previous couple o'months.

Posted by travo at 1:53:45 PM

I'm calling a moratorium on cheese plates and asian dinner sets

Monday, 09 January 2006

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I certainly did - enjoying a great season of food, wine, friends and family; but the time has come to call a moratorium on cheese serving plates and asian dinner sets.

I'm probably going to cop a fair bit of grief over this, but hey - whatever. Every Christmas people start breaking out in cold sweats thinking about what kind of gifts to get me. I honestly don't think I'm that hard to buy for, except for the fact that I'm a whiny selfish bastard who openly complains about the stuff that I do get.

Look, I love cheese. But usually when I'm thinking about eating cheese I'll get some from the fridge, put it on an ordinary plate and cut it with an ordinary knife. If I'm sharing some cheese with friends, I'll usually get some from the fridge, put it on an ordinary chopping board with an ordinary knife... easy.

As for Asian food - love it; Japanese, Thai, Southern Chinese, Northern Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean. Great! But I don't really cook it at home. And when I do whip up a stir fry, I love serving those noodles in big-ass bowls, not the weenie little ceramic bowls. Plus, I'm likely to be found on the couch - in front of the TV no less, sucking up those noodles with a napkin on my lap than sitting at a carefully set dinner table with all the neat little asiany things scattered about.

So - who's coming over for some Asian food followed by a cheese platter for desert?

Posted by travo at 10:47:22 AM

Cricket Tragedy

Thursday, 22 December 2005

The new Cricket Australia website is a shambles. A couple of weeks have passed and I'm still smarting from my first impressions which described it in much poorer terms. Even now I am still unimpressed to say the least.

Top to bottom, inside and out this website is an example of what not to do; poor navigation, weak content structure and information architecture, poor accesibility, poor usability, ill concieved advertising strategy, thoughtless use of flash, invalid markup, key content items lost below the page fold and, above all the Cricket Australia redesign says that it is focused on everything other than the user.

I'm going to focus on the homepage - Cricket Australia receives more than two million visits a day to this page during a match as visitors from all over the world flock to follow matches and read scorecards.

Navigation
There are two rows dedicated to site-wide navigation at the top of the screen, they are barely 20px high and the font size within these rows is set to only 11px. Since they are fixed font sizes they don't scale (unless you use Firefox) and are quite difficult to read - they might as well not be there. The use of language for navigation has changed and what was once 'Live Scores' as A-Level navigation is now 'Match Focus'. Naming navigation items using plain and unambiguous language makes it less difficult for users to get exactly the content they want, it also helps search engines.

Dynamic, on hover navigation has also been used but the weak information architecture (see below) doesn't actually really necessitate the dynamic nature of the navigation. By forcing a user to visit landing pages you actually create an opportunity to serve more ads.

Content Structure / Information Architecture
In the past year, Cricket Australia have had the opportunity to monitor the usage and trends on their website to ensure that their content structure best suits their visitors requirements. Given the content displayed to the user above the fold, it seems the user wants large pictures, tickets, merchandise, some audio, a small ad for beer , a regular banner ad promoting local cricket and half a Milo skyscraper banner.

The following key content items hidden below the fold of the page - key items of interest to the site visitor - are latest scores and links to scorecards, upcoming matches and forthcoming events. Why? In it's previous incarnation the latest scorecards where right at the top of the page, exactly where they needed to be when visitors to the site were getting match updates.

Advertsing
As I look at it now, three of the four advertisements on the homepage are promoting Cricket Australia events, programs and merchandise. The fourth is a cross promotion for Victoria Bitter beer using (the great) David Boon as a shadowy dodgy caricature of his legendary self. I'm not certain that sacrificing so much screen real estate for in-house promotions is an effective use of content space. Nor would I consider it the most effective way to promote your own activities and products. Finally, when I have seen a banner ad it has been for yellowpages.com.au. While Sensis has the buying power to purchase these ad spaces, they really don't need the traffic or the money.

Alternatively Cricket Australia could secure the sponsorship of a partner whos services and products it's users would actually be intereseted in such as Adidas or 3 Mobile. In this way everyone benefits; users are shown products and services they are likely to click through, those genuine click-throughs generate real income for Cricket Australia, and those click throughs have the potential to generate real leads for those targeted advertisers.

Flash
I think the use of syndicated text and imagery on the homepage is very effective and important for Cricket Australia. Unfortunately, delivering it through flash means that it cannot be indexed and therefore doesn't register as fresh content by search engines. Of course if it hinders accessibility enormously. While ensuring that the provision of content for the vision and hearing impaired is vitally important, current awareness is that providing content that can be indexed easily by Google, Yahoo! and the other search engines can help to improve ratings.

I also don't think that flipping through the six main articles provides any real benefit to the user. I think a more effective way of delivering news would be to ensure that the site had at least one RSS feed so I can monitor news items without having to visit the cricket homepage.

Markup
It's becoming more and more important that your code is well marked up. Again for accessibility, but also for semantics, maintainability, and sanity. And you know... it's what grown up web developers try very hard to do these days; compliance is worth making the effort for, it sets a foundation for our industry - acknowledging constraints will put hairs on your chest and in the long run make you a better developer.

Graphic Design
This is the tough one to comment on, because it's always going to be a matter of tastes, but the design is awful. The work on this design suggest that perhaps it was handed to a junior web designer to fiddle about with and finish off. Or worse still a travesty of interference by stakeholders, marketing managers and agency directors - hey I know, I've seen it all - an honest idea can get screwed up horribly.

There are things though about this design which weaken it, and are really easy to fix such as implementing a grid and some good old fashioned hyperlinks which look like hyperlinks - just as Jacob would like them. The use of blue is a little consistent as a call action, it's used occasionally for icons and also to highlight headings, it doesn't send a clear message to the user.

The most sensible thing to have done would have been a realignment rather than a complete redesign, the existing design while quite corporate in its appearance was familiar to visitors and the main thing they visited the website for was prominent. Visitors presented with the new design effectively had to re-learn how to use the Cricket Australia website. The key usability lesson here is 'Don't make me think'.

I hope that in time Cricket Australia and their website partner can realign the current website so that it better serves their passionate user base.

Finally, a statement of interests; my partner is a project manager with Cricket Australia. Mel managed the initial build of the website nearly two years ago along with many other. That iteration of the website was live for just over twelve months. This iteration is being managed by another division within Cricket. As I understand this iteration was built by advertising agency George Patterson Bates.

Posted by travo at 7:39:56 AM | Comments (2)

For your next corporate website...

Friday, 16 December 2005

I hate cheesy stock photography used on corporate websites, when I see it I cringe. These images by Now Wash Your Hands are awesome. I can see these being used all over the place. Especially the Integrity, Team Building and Equal Opportunity series.

Posted by travo at 8:39:38 AM

Movin' on, movin' up?

Monday, 05 December 2005

Given the excitement in Melbourne about Dylan at the moment I reckon my title should have some kind of 'Dylan-esque' ring to it. Like "A hot wind's gonna blow..." or "The Answer my friend is in the hard rain..." but really, they just suck. Badly.

I've been playing for the last six weeks or so now with The Diddley Daddies and have revelled the experience. Not only has playing with the guys been an absolute hoot, they've helped me get my 'stage fitness' back and sharpen my stage craft a little. Very important. I still may not be the greatest guitar player around, but funnily enough, when I shake my arse on stage now - people are actually watching, rather than looking away in horror!

Some would argue that they've always watched; like you can't look away from a train wreck.

Since about June, I've also been auditioning with Hey Gringo, and while I've met some good guys and played some fine music. The experience has not been as great. It ended last night, and rather than air too much dirty laundry on the blog, those who want to know can always catch up with me for a beer...

The best thing about last night was meeting Billy Pinnell! The 3AW link is about the best I can find in short notice, but I rememeber listening to Billy rave about the kind of music that I love since I was a kid. He's very passionate about Melbourne Blues & Roots Music (one day can someone explain to me what that is) and is well respected by all the right people.

Last night he came up to me after the set said that he enjoyed what I played. That is cool. Thanks Billy.

Posted by travo at 8:31:42 AM

Mojo The Sock Monkey

Monday, 21 November 2005

This is very cool and very cute. "The Story of Eh" is a new comic book about Mojo the Sock Monkey a adventures worth of short cartoons illustrated by Kevin Cornell. You've got to check out the toons that are on the website. I think this book would make a great Christmas gift.

Posted by travo at 1:24:54 PM

Fire at the old factory

Sunday, 20 November 2005

Woah, to top off an already exciting weekend, the old factory across the street caught fire. Check out all the action on my flickr photo album.

Posted by travo at 9:53:17 PM

Scheiner on Sony

Friday, 18 November 2005

Bruce Scheiner must have long distance x-ray vision, his perspective on the Sony DRM Rootkit is damning.

If your tin-foil hat was twitchy you'd probably start to wonder what other kinds of nasties are on our computers that are ignored by the AntiVirus companies we trust to protect our machines and networks.

Posted by travo at 9:10:18 AM

Engaged!

Thursday, 17 November 2005

Hooray! Meli and I are now officially engaged. I know that some of y'all kinda knew that something was happening, but now it's official since we got the jewels. Or Jools as they're known around here.

Check 'em out in all their glory on Flickr.

Posted by travo at 6:37:04 PM | Comments (4)

Weighing in on the Ruby Debate

Wednesday, 16 November 2005

Since Jonno is practically inciting a riot among the Java / Ruby / Aglie / Oh-my-God-my-head's-so-pointy-I-could-take-someone's-eye-out folk. I thought I might lend some observations from another perspective.

I've been following the SvN Blog over at 37 Signals. These guys are creating quite a stir with their applications Basecamp and Backpack among others which use Ruby on Rails and also implement some AJAX technologies as well. They love Ruby on Rails. They are designers.

Why is the fact that they are designers important? Firstly, 37 Signals is a small team of people working remotely around the globe. You could probably loosely term them an agency.

From my experience, people in agency type environments like to do things quickly. Really quickly. Especially if they, as a team, have some momentum behind their ideas. This is not necessarily restricted to designers either. Programmers love to get cracking on a good idea. In any programming language, if the idea is good.

Designers though are restricted by their toolkit. Sure there might be one or two nerdy type designers who have sussed out html / xml / css, hell even a little javascript thanks to what they've learnt using flash and studying the code of Joshua Davis. But they're still designers; they haven't got the same kinda mileage as a real nerd who has been programming commercially. So their focus isn't necessarily going to be on the same kinds of things as programmers.

37 Signals have been getting excited and writing in their 'Getting Real' column, the same kinds of things that the Agile crew are excited about when it comes to rapid software development; short release cycles, closer customer contact and better applications that end users actually want to use.

So why is Ruby on Rails important here? Because unlike ASP.NET / C# / Java designers can learn it quickly. It is a fairly semantic language. This can enable them with the power to create applications and use terms like 'Object Oriented' and 'Scalable' to help promote and sell their finished products.

ASP.NET just doesn't make sense. C# is wanna-be Java. These two things, make it hard for designers to turn their highly creative ideas into reality.

I think that morons exist everywhere and they are both platform and language independent. For mine, I wonder whether or not Ruby on Rails is popular among some programmers because they're lazy; since this language is an 'easy way out' of learning 'grown-up' techniques.

Posted by travo at 8:52:12 AM | Comments (1)

Shuffling Along

Wednesday, 09 November 2005

I have a heap of my own music ripped to my hard drive at work, about 20Gb worth. I realise this is much less music than many folk I know, but heaps more than most... None the less, I love to listen to albums - all the way through, all the time. But I've been struggling to find stuff to listen to among the hundreds of albums that I have ripped.

So, for the first time I've loaded the entire library, nearly 5000 songs, into the WinAmp playlist and hit shuffle.

Rock.

I'm suprised how much I'm enjoying this. But I'm not surprised how well my eclectic tastes have been blending together; The Beastie Boys followed by some Buddy Guy then by some Garbage, Tenacious D followed by some Perfect Circle. It's really quite cool.

Posted by travo at 3:16:39 PM

Sony DRM : Will Somebody Please Write a Case Study

Tuesday, 08 November 2005

The Sony DRM Rootkit saga is currently one of the most fascinating pieces of 'current affairs' to affect everyday consumers. Unfortunately, this is not something that you'll see on ACA.

I wish my buddies would weigh in on this as I'm very interested to hear their takes on all of this. I'm not sure that it'd entirely interest them, it's probably a conversation to be had over a few beers. Though I'm worried their response might me "Meh" and then more of the same buzzing, whirring and clicking they've been making about WoW since last December!

None the less, I'd like to know about the company that was contracted to write the DRM stuff. They certainly smell like the kind of organisation that talks big when it comes to things like security, but could they possibly be a bunch of hacks who have made some horrible design mistakes.

The opportunity to participate in DRM solutions for a company like Sony is on that would need to be dealt with in a careful and considered process. You're not just creating some pretty little apps to run on some 14 year old's 'putey, you're participating in a large scale corportate effort to control the replication and consumption of digital content.

You'd have better put your thinking caps on and had a good hard thing about what you're about to embark on.

Unfortunately, as demonstrated by Mark at SysInternals (a newly discovered blog, nice one) there doesn't seem to have been a great deal of forethought put into this project. None the less, I still call upon someone, anyone to write a case study, many case studies possibly, which deal with the design mistakes, the business communication response from First 4 Internet and the big fish; Sony's thinking behind engaging some backwater development company to solve one of their most pressing problems: DRM.

Posted by travo at 8:41:43 AM | Comments (1)

Lone Ranger

Thursday, 03 November 2005

I've been working as a team of one for nearly six months now and I think I'm starting to get a little concerned about my sanity. More importantly I'm getting concerned about my skills.

While I'm lucky to be able to work within a much broader team of pretty nice people with good skills, they're not even remotely aligned to what I do - designing web apps, writing code. Which makes for pretty difficult peer review. I like peer review, in fact I benefit greatly from it. The others in the team would disagree, but the review I've been getting lately is for my 'pretty picture' and visual design work - and I appreciate this. But I fear that my programming and app design skills are going south.

The question I guess that needs to arise from this is, 'well Travo, where are you going?'; frankly I don't know. Still, after all these years, I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Today, I'm still bobbing around like a cork in the ocean.

Crap.

Time to make a plan. Time to start talking about the 'C' word. Yup, time to have a think about my career. Eeeeeeek. But I really like bobbing around like a cork in the ocean.

Posted by travo at 9:45:23 AM

Gigs... so many gigs. Wanna Come?

Monday, 31 October 2005

For the next six weeks or so, I'm an honourary Diddley Daddy and these guys are hot! I've got gigs comin' out of orifices that I didn't know I had. You must come along. Here are the dates;

Friday 4th November, Prince Albert Hotel, Williamstown
Saturday 5th November, Corner Hotel, Richmond Twisterama
Saturday 12th November, Manchester Lane, City
Saturday 26th November, Queenscliff Music Festival (12pm and 5pm)
Saturday 3rd December, Whittlesea
Friday 9th December, Prince Albert Hotel, Williamstown

Huge huh? In between all of this madness I'm also playing with Hey Gringo and they may have the odd date or two sneak in among these.

Posted by travo at 3:18:07 PM

Circus!

Wednesday, 26 October 2005

This is a public cervix announcement - get yourself down to see this years Women's Circus. My lil' sister Anne is performing in it this year and I'm damn proud of her efforts - she's been bustin' her ass, honin' her chops, and tumbling harder than a tumble-weed. This should be a lot of fun.

See you there.

Posted by travo at 1:26:00 PM

Pies?

Tuesday, 25 October 2005

This is great, it's a mad little piece of writing which attempts to explain the rules of cricket. Reminds me of this though...which is completely irrelevant.

Who ate all the pies?
Who ate all the pies?
You fat bastard, You fat bastard.
You ate all the pies.

Posted by travo at 12:57:49 PM

Cannon fodder.

Friday, 21 October 2005

Bruce Scheiner is writing for Wired and although I know who he is and my esteemed friends and colleagues acknowledge his importance in the field I wouldn't go looking to read his thoughts on security.

Fortunately though, his articles on Wired are well within my news radar and today his article has illustrated not something vitally important about security but rather something about how we are seen by lawyers and politicians : cannon fodder.

Howard Schmidt another security expert has suggested that software developers, individually should be responsible for ensuring that their work is free from vulnerabilities. Scheiner argues against this, rightly suggesting that it is the responsiblity of the companies who are hiring these individuals to create this software to have the process and dilligence to ensure the products they release are minimally defective (I'm sure this is / will become an industry term ;-).

The litigious activity of the RIAA illustrates how easy it is to go after individuals; they're poorly equipped to fight back - essentially an easy target. Popping an unlucky few will send a message back to the rest of you!

Going after a company though is tricky. They're evasive, much better equipped with both finance and resources to fight back if cornered so if you're going to go after them you better have your case nice and tight - and that's hard work.

Much easy to go after the smaller targets...

Posted by travo at 9:20:12 AM

John Doyle is my master now

Friday, 21 October 2005

If you missed it on the telly, get on over to the ABC and read or listen to John Doyle's speech given at the annual Andrew Ollie lecture.

I'm a big fan of John Doyle. Informally introduced through a friend of his, 'Rampaging' Roy Slaven I'm always entertained and moved by his strong grasp of what it is to be an Australian - in an historical context and also in current cultural climate.

Alongside his understanding of what it is to be an Australian is a clear sense of dignity, compassion, intelligence and wit.

His speech for Andew Ollie is a broad sweeping glance at the state of Australian media and there are critical moments when he highlights its many failings in a way that should make those involved feel ashamed - without attacking them, ranting and spitting violently. Johns words are strong and assured. Not a mild "How could you?" but more of a "Did you stop to consider...?"

Listen to the lecture. It's great.

Posted by travo at 8:49:08 AM

Is it getting hot in here?

Thursday, 20 October 2005

Just finished reading Tim Flannery's The Weather Makers and I'm now seeing my country, my city, my street, my house and my car with greener eyes.

There's plenty going on to encourage people to change their behaviour at a very localised level - change your energy provider, reduce your energy consumption, use public transport, maintain a compost heap, reduce your water usage - to decrease greenhouse gasses.

Meli and I went through the check list of stuff that we do to increase our contribution sustainability, and we're a good 8-9 out of ten.

But...

It's just looking at other people and wondering, what are you doing? Cause, mate, it really matters to all of us. Not just the pinko-lefty-commie-bastard-greenie-hippies anymore.

I've moved on from Flannery's book to Diamond's 'Collapse' and this too is providing to be a very enlightening and motivating read.

I almost flinched and said that these books had made me frightened, but no; I'm definitely motivated.

Posted by travo at 1:25:44 PM | Comments (2)

Wait a minute...

Tuesday, 11 October 2005

I'm back!

Yeah, sorry. It's been a while hasn't it. Since I last posted I've been to Hong Kong and China for a few weeks, shamefully, I've been back three weeks already and haven't friggin' posted.

Sorry to all who've been hanging out for my latest post. I'm sure that there are millions of you. Strangely though, I think there are more people reading my blog to post comment spam than there are reading my blog for my witty and incisive analysis of my freaky little world.

If you haven't been watching, check out my damn photo-blog, it's got heaps of photos from my holiday, and I'm still mo'blogging my phone cam stuff up there occasionally.

None, the less I'll post any way. I'm also going to post a couple of retrospective items about Hong Kong and China which I scribbled old school style into a journal; like with a pen - on paper and everything!

There is more exciting news to follow.

Posted by travo at 1:04:02 PM

Kunming

Tuesday, 13 September 2005

China. Strange paradox with juxtaposition coming at you from all angles; old, new, slow, fast, loud, quiet. LOUD! It never ended, well maybe at four or five in the morning. Here are some notes from my journal while I was in Kunming. The whole thing came as quite a shock.

...Kunming must be the hell where Taxi drivers go, except here they are re-incarnated as cyclists. Destined to ride around this city for all eternity. The cyclists here in Kunming - and there are many have the most frivolous abandon for their own safety. As do the drives of trucks, buses, minivans, cars, taxis and scooters. If you're on a bike here in China, you're just as likely to have a death wish; if a bumper from a bus doesn't kill you then the shit pouring from the exhaust pipe surely will.

...There are many types of bikes in Kunming too; old, rarely new, and many trikes which are kinda like the ute' of China. There is just no limit to the amount of stuff that a bike can carry. As a kid, I did a paper round; I had a basket and I carried a few hundred news papers. In China, that's nothin' - I'm gonna lug around seven-eight-nine office water bottles! Or perhaps I might rig up some kinda frame where I can carry eight crates of soda. Fuck it, if I have a trike my mate and I can lash a fucking six-foot-tall drinks fridge right on the back and we'll ride on down six lanes of traffic to relocate the fucker. Mad. Heroic. Seemingly normal for Kunming.

Posted by travo at 5:00:00 PM

Hong Kong

Friday, 02 September 2005

These are just a few notes that I scribbled down in my journal (yes with pen and paper) while I was hanging around in the hotel room. Bear in mind that this is my first visit to Hong Kong and also my first visit to Asia.

...Somehow old ladies, bent over and slow, manage to occupy the entire path. Swaying and shuffling all over the place making it seemingly impossible to get past them.

...I don't know why they'd bother to put a Disneyland here. Really. Every public transport ride in Hong Kong is more surreal, trilling + sensational than any themepark ride conceived. The streets are filled with sight after amazing sight and there are hundreds of light filled, air-conditioned, brightly coloured malls, plazas and shopping centres with some of the best shopping to be had in Asia. I mean Disneyland...why bother.

Of course the previous note was made before curiosity got the better of me and Meli and I actually went to Hong Kong Disney for the day, so my rant is no longer affected by my complete and utter ignorance of the Disneyland experience. Before Hong Kong Disney, the only other themeparks I have been to are Dreamworld (piss weak) and Sovereign Hill Ballarat. Need I illustrate my ignorance more?

...Here in Hong Kong they have mastered the art of the trolley. I'm sure that it's one of the unspoken secret martial arts. Requiring the keenest of balance, the greatest strength and the highest levels of agility. Pages could be written about it, with diagrams, illustrating the careful manouvers required to negotiate a trolley loaded with cardboard accross Nathan Road at 5pm in the evening on a Thursday night in the rain.

Posted by travo at 5:00:00 PM

Content Stripped Bare

Monday, 22 August 2005

Andrew Boardman and (via) Dave Shea have pondered design this morning, and both provide an insight into the purpose and future of design when the content that it frames is being aggregated into a myriad of other viewers and channels.

Make sure you check these articles out.

Posted by travo at 10:16:00 AM

Pulling a Calf

Tuesday, 16 August 2005

I've been a web developer now for years. While not as long as some, long enough to have had my fair share of problems with deployment. Fortunately, for the last few years I've been developing websites which are hosted on Web Central production servers.

Today, I'm deploying a new website. In this case, 'deploying' is a sophisticated term for essentially what is the most suckiest of jobs - FTP'ing a whole bunch of new pages and asp scripts to a live site...and desperately hoping that nothing goes wrong.

This, as my learned and experienced friends will rightly tell me, sucks. But there is little that I can do about it. My development environment is probably very different, from my live environment; I can't tell - I'm not the admistrator of that server. Can't go near it.

And as has happened today, things are very different, a problem with the way my session variables are being handled has revealed itself and there's nothing I can do about it but call Web Central.

God bless 'em. They've really streamlined and improved their customer service heaps since the early days. I'm grateful to receive considerate, thoughtful and expedient assistance when things go strangely, like today.

So what's the subject of this post got to do with it? - Well, releasing a website can be a little like giving birth, sometimes it's easy and that little puppy will just pop out and shoot across the room like a mechanical tennis ball server. Occasionally, it can go pear shaped and you'll spend an afternoon, buried up to your armpits in the metaphorical cows uterus that is your work trying to get that damn website up.

Fun. You bet.

Posted by travo at 4:41:02 PM | Comments (1)

My Friend Flickr

Monday, 15 August 2005

So happy. Didn't have to code a single line and now I have a moblog, you can cruise online and check out either my random snaps from my phone or the whole 'shebang.

Stay tuned for my upcoming trip to Hong Kong and China. I've sussed out the whole global roaming thing and both the Hong Kong and Chinese communications carriers support GPRS - so I'm hoping that I can post the occasional snap taken from my phone while overseas.

Joy!

Posted by travo at 8:57:38 AM

Lanceinated

Friday, 05 August 2005

Kudos to Jon and Sue. You guys are an inspiration!

Posted by travo at 8:44:57 AM

Gettin' my Lance on.

Tuesday, 02 August 2005

I'm now into week four of riding my bike to work. Thankfully Melbourne has been kind, giving us one of the driest Winters for some years. This morning was no exception, sunny warm and clear. Sweet.

There is heaps to love about riding to work; feeling fresh and clear headed when you arrive, living in expectation of droppin' a few extra kg's, checkin' out the girls runnin' around Prinny Park.

There are also a few things not to love; cars, trucks and morons in urban assult vehicles. Still, one of my fondest memories whilst riding home from St. Kilda to Hawthorn was seeing a woman with platinum blonde hair, draped in gold jewelery in a massive black Range Rover, obviously obscenely wealthy, getting booked by the police for a driving offence. She was crying her eyes out. Fantastic.

Have a great day.

Posted by travo at 8:50:20 AM | Comments (1)

Melbourne International Film Festival!

Friday, 22 July 2005

It's that time of the year again. Dumplings and Classic Hong Kong Cinema for the Kung Foo fans or coffee and fresh international film of all flavours.

My beloved girlfriend introduced me to the goodness that is the Melbourne International Film Festival a couple of years ago when she invited me out to go and see some Hong Kong Cinema with her. I was so hooked.

It's a great time of the year to be indoors, in the dark, with other mad film fans (and some are quite mad) checkin' out classic Chinese sword films from the 60's or more recent dark crime films from Hong Kong. Better still it's a great chance to see some music documentaries on the big screen. Last year we caught the film documentary of the concert which supported Martin Scorsese's Blues Film series - fantastic.

Last night was our first film of the season. Rash. A great film about street art, stenciling, paste up and grafitti in Melbourne. It was really quite a great way to see the city and this exciting and active sub-culture which is internationally recognised as some of the finest of its kind in the world.

Go and see it. In fact, go and see anything. I'm looking forward to this film.

Posted by travo at 10:03:29 AM | Comments (1)

Temper Temper

Wednesday, 20 July 2005

I've now been working for nearly eight weeks at my new job, and I'll tell you what, I must be some kind of whole new man. No it can't be - I'm still pretty much the same guy, doing the same kinda work...the only thing that has changed is the people whom I work for.

See, it was suggested that there were problems with my temperament at my last gig. Apparently, it didn't suit the environment; you know - that environment wouldn't suit too many people.

Well, unless of course, you're personality type fits any of the following;

• Egomaniacal megalomaniac
• Vacant minded, shallow, back-stabbing dimwit
• Dribbling moron
• Hate mongering sycophantic gossip
• Rush-about 'hummingbird' who really does nothing

God bless 'em - one and all - the people I worked with who were intelligent and thick skinned enough to make it through week after week of complete and utter madness.

I am grateful now to work in an environment in which respect and good manners are common place. Sure, it's a corporate environment and it may not be 'tribal'. Sure, blind Freddy can see that there will always be under-currents of mean-spiritedness and bitching. But hey, at least I know that when I go to work, I can do just that - work. All day, without interruption.

I haven't had to spend a single minute trying to pull knives out of my back. What a relief.

Yeah, maybe in six months things might be different. It's still early days yet and I'm still in a kind of 'honeymoon period'. Fortunately though, the boundaries of my responsibilities are very clear and I'm more that capable of fulfilling those responsibilities and more.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Posted by travo at 10:17:45 PM

Man Amongst Men

Wednesday, 29 June 2005

I came to the realisation that for the first time in my career I'm actually working for men. Not that the guys I've worked for in the past aren't men. It's just that the guys I work for now have the following differences.

They don't care how I feel.

They're not interested in whether or not I'm comfortable.

They're acutely aware that there are only two ways to touch a man; a short, firm handshake or with a clenched a fist to the face.

They're solitary, they're uncomfortable if you ask to join them for a sandwich at lunch.

They're actually pretty old.

They've never worked in social welfare, theatre or any other creative arts. They've probably always worked in business in some way or another.

Look, I'm not trying to say that any of this is wrong, it's just different. Really different. The team leaders and managers I've worked with before have all been really good to work for and in most cases made my work more enjoyable. Yeah, I admit it, I'm a sensitive new-age kinda guy. Worked in 'creative' environments, hugging is acceptable.

I reckon though if I try to hug my new boss, I'll get a fist in the face. And I'll deserve it.

Posted by travo at 4:59:43 PM | Comments (3)

Best Shopping Experience Ever

Sunday, 19 June 2005

Yesterday, my beloved girlfriend and I found ourselves in the city having a bit of a poke around Melbourne Central lookin' for clothes. By chance we strolled on into Antons. We had a great time.

Antons is a clothing designer who specialises in things that are a little off beat; 40's inspired suits (for men and women), there's a little gothic wear, a few saucy prints (bondage images for shirts), a twist of Shanghai in it's prime and even a kinda 50's space theme there too.

We strolled in and began an epic shopping experience. Mel was being dressed in some beautiful oriental flavoured tunics with Mandarin collars, while I was sauntering around the shop in a 40's style Akubra hat - which I just had to have. And just as we thought it was all over, I was invited to try on a jacket to go with my new hat!

Well, for the next half-hour I was being dressed and coiffed by all four women in the shop. It was so much fun, the clothes were cool, the experience wonderful and the assistance lively and helpful. I usually hate shopping; I'm overweight and it's hard to find clothes that fit well off the rack. But Antons was just great, the clothes were well cut and fit brilliantly.

In the end, both Meli and I bought new clothes; Mel bought a whole new suit, and I bought the jacket, some pants designed for braces, the braces and a great shirt, cut in a classic style with French cuffs. We will both look deadly!

Thanks Antons, we had a great time.

Posted by travo at 7:48:33 PM | Comments (3)

The Hunt

Friday, 20 May 2005

A few weeks ago, I heard a couple of killer tracks on Woody McDonald's show 'Wig Wham Bam' on RRR. I will now refer to this as 'having picked up the scent' because since then, I have been on the hunt for the albums that these tracks appear on.

I am realising that without the need to track, hunt and kill wild animals for food, there still remains a dark part of my psyche that is yearning for fulfillment. And, thanks to the commercial / capitalist world we live in, it has found it in commerce.

Really, the music / CD / DVD or whatever, is just an excuse to take one of your poisioned plastic cards and swipe it deftly through the heart of a trembling retailer, and leave triumphantly with your prize.

"Ha HA", you exclaim. "I have wealth, and I'm not afraid to use it."

Though, I remember not so long ago when I was just another scavenging, slobbering fiscal weakling, swooning around at the bulging stench-filled carcass of a great heaving supermarket, sifting through coins just hoping to score a bargain.

Anyhoo, Tally-Ho! I'm going out to pay much more than recommended retail for music; just because I can!

Posted by travo at 3:10:03 PM

Frampton; still alive. Less hair.

Monday, 16 May 2005

Many, many thanks to Tike. I was privileged enough on Saturday night to meet the sound engineer for Peter Frampton and get a tour of the entire rig including Frampton's guitars. Yup, I even got to get my greasy mits on a couple of them.

Pretty damn amazing. He has a trio of Les Paul's, a non-fender Strat and some damn tasty acoustics. One of his Les Paul's had an amazing bridge setup which was an electronically controlled system which could re-tension / adjust tuning within a split second. It increased the weight of the Les by at least another kilo and a half, and cost about $10K to fit! Peter played it on the night for one song only. Started off in normal tuning, and for about 16 bars (maybe less) switched it to open G tuning, for a very average slide solo, and then back again to finish off the song. Still, a very cool guitar.

I also got to learn whole bunch about in-ear monitor systems thanks to Tike. I admit to a whole heap of ignorance on the subject, but I got a great overview of the process and techniques involved in setting up the system - very cool and very interesting. I tried to explain it to people, but their eyes glazed over - so I'm not even gonna try to explain it here. Mail me if you're desperate.

The show was good too. Frampton is fairly self deprecating on stage and is warm with his fans, he remains a fairly tasteful guitarist. His songs are not exactly my cup of tea, but that's okay. Oh God, just remembered, his keyboard player is woeful. Sorry dude, but sheesh, get some flavour! Drummer was tight, bass player was mmmnnnyyyaaa but is apparently a mate of Framptons from the old days.

Anyhoo, thanks to Helena and Shawn for hookin' me up with Tike and huge, huge thanks to Tike for his time, tickets and the tour of the system. I hope that you enjoyed what little you saw of Melbourne.

Posted by travo at 3:42:54 PM

Big Steps

Monday, 09 May 2005

My girlfriend and I have an important announcement, we're making an important and significant step in our relationship. More important than our trip abroad (to China) later in the year. We've got a cat.

Yup. You know you're embarking on a serious and solidifying stage of your relationship when you and your girlfriend settle on a pet.

You may have already seen the photo on the homepage, you can also check out a couple of extra pic's that we took this evening. She's pretty damn cute. She's a weenie little tortoiseshell. Meli and I picked her out from a whole bunch of cats - young and old - at the Lort Smith Animal Hospital.

And BTW, thanks heaps to the Lort Smith - they were great. Very helpful and friendly staff who care heaps about the poor discarded little kitty's. And what a broad bunch o' kitties; there was the strung out one from Coburg who had been doused with dog liquid flea repellant (which makes cats fit and get sick) - it had a shaved bit on it's leg where they had given it relaxants. Then there was the older cats who had out lasted their owners. Despite reports, there was also a ton of little kittens. Damn! But we settled on our kitty, who is about a year old and appears to have been abandoned.

So, now that you're past is behind you (Broadmeadows Bunnings carpark and bin scraps) - welcome to the family Pixel.

Posted by travo at 10:15:54 PM | Comments (1)

Streamlining Content Delivery

Wednesday, 20 April 2005

RSS and Podcasting these are great ways to streamline content delivery. It's pretty clear to anyone who's been browsing, using, and preparing content for the web for at least a few of years or so that these are a godsend. They streamline the delivery of information from the 100's of website's, blogs and hell knows what that we glance at everyday - hoping to stay on the cutting edge.

So it is with great frustration, that the industry I work in is so enamored with the idea of 'sexing up' the content delivery process.

As far as I can tell, content is still king. If you focus on ensuring what you're publishing is great, then you'll attract an audience for it. If it's terrible, the people will vote with their virtual feet and give your content (blog, website, podcast) a miss.

A marketing agency though surely should have a better chance at connecting with their audience since, duh, they usually have a good idea of who they're going to be preparing content for. More often than not a marketing / advertising agency are not trying to attract an audience as much as they're trying to sustain and grow and audience.

Ever since I started working online it seems to me that people who are new to the internet experience are excited by the 'discovery' of content and will focus on the delivery / discovery of content as much as (if not more) than the content itself.

Sure, discovery is interesting and fun, but I don't want have to rediscover stuff that I'm going to read every day. It just doesn't make sense. In fact, it annoys me, go away before I stab you in the neck with a pen.

When I first moved to the city, sure - it was exciting taking the train into work. There was graffiti, people's back yards and strange people on the train to look at - huge fun. After a while though it pretty much loses it's excitement factor and you get over it. You just want to get to work to focus on the stuff that's really changing (after a while this doesn't change much either - but that's another post).

So what do you think?

Posted by travo at 6:46:33 PM

Tight

Thursday, 14 April 2005

I love a tight rhythm section. When you're upfront wailing away and all of a sudden you can feel the drummer and bass player lock in; damn it just takes you to another level.

My all-time favourite rhythm section would have to be Rocco Prestia and David Garibaldi from Tower Of Power. God Damn! These guys are good and they just make the horns soar.

Interesting to note that Rocco and David are together again and that many of the original guys from Tower of Power are playing again - at some pretty premium gigs too!

Posted by travo at 11:59:04 AM

Phases

Wednesday, 06 April 2005

So, you may not already know this, but I play guitar. On my earliest and primary influences was Eric Clapton. I can practically hear you gasping in horror!

But wait, it's not that bad.

Eric is an amazing interpreter and digest. And he has gone through some incredible phases, and his most recent "crotchety, angry, yet hopeful old geezer seeking redemption" is fantastic, although we don't really know it, we've been hoping something like it would come along.

His earliest phase, "talented doey eyed git" saw him through the Yardbirds; "bastard genious" gave us the Blues Breakers years; "angsty experimental wasteoid" saw us through the Cream and into Blind Faith; "fucked up hippy, heroin chic, rock god" blessed us with Derek + the Dominoes (and frankly we're it not for the Duane Allman and others prodding Eric with a stick he would have never got up off the couch and recorded Layla); "rambling drunk" gave us 461 and the Slowhand years; "blow nose" squeaked his way through the 80's; "oh-my-god-thank-christ-I-don't-look-like-Ginger-I'm-gonna-wear-Armani" saw Eric scrub of nearly two decades of crust off himself and start looking into the future (it also saw him pairing off on 'dates' with some fine lookin' models, rockstars and movie stars) in the 90's.

So now, after a couple of really soft projects punctuated by the goodness that was "...From the Cradle" we get the blistering and exciting return to form that is "crotchety, angry, yet hopeful old geezer seeking redemption" Eric playing freely, without any trepidation or pretention.

Thank God. Welcome back to my playlist.

Posted by travo at 4:52:01 PM

'Less Mass' = faster moving teams

Friday, 01 April 2005

I think Jason, from 37 Signals is having an epiphany. He is touching on some ideas which are well established in the agile community. And as an observer from the outside of both parties, I like what I hear.

Getting Real: Less Mass is Jasons most recent post on this subject, and he is onto something.

Unfortunately though, coming from a 'lightweight' group of developers, who can move quickly (and are often asked to move very quickly), it is very hard to work with a 'heavyweight' team of developers or organisation whose processes, technology and culture prevent the expediency required to move with trends; it's like trying motivate a stubborn burdened mule with up a hill.

To my mind there is another aspect to this which involves account management / middle management and their ability to understand this problem. Managment from either lightweight or heavyweight teams will need to have a strong understanding of the strengths of their respective teams and exploit their strenghts appropriately.

Is this too cryptic, drop me a line and let me know.

Posted by travo at 11:34:38 AM

iPod Linux - so damn cool

Wednesday, 16 March 2005

I'm not sure exactly what this says about me but whatever, iPod Linux is just the coolest thing ever.

I'm not an OS hacker, hell I don't even own an iPod, and I think that anyone who asks "why" isn't alive, isn't even breathing. Bernard and his pals are doing what every red blooded man wants to do - take things apart to figure out how they work. Better still, these guys are working towards making the iPod a much more useful in the process!

Hey, how about all those nuts fiddling about with the Apple Newton after more than ten years of commercial obsolecence. The iPod Linux community are already determining an alternate life for every rejected iPod. In a few years when, eBay is cluttered with 1000's of discarded iPod's the nerdy and resourceful among us will be able to install iPod Linux and extend their usefulness for many more years.

That's cool.

Posted by travo at 4:46:47 PM

Stories

Monday, 21 February 2005

Oooh, I can't wait for 37 Signals to continue to explain this one. Since my buddies started working in agile teams I've been trying to interpret some of their new techniques in my creative environment.

About six months ago I started experimenting with the technique of breaking down my programming tasks into little stories. These absolutely non-technical simple one liners were to explain and interpret my work back to those who had assigned me those tasks. While at first these have been "agreement" documents. I think there is an understanding that these can be written from the start to help build an understanding of what our projects are going to be from the outset.

While I'm certain that I'm executing any strict agile methodology here, I believe that this technique is building a nice bridge between creative thinkers, grossly non-technical account managers and me - the programmery type guy. Most importantly though, people are happy. I can still design and estimate well against these stories and I have evidence about the initial application idea when designers 'create' or 'evolve' a concept with additional 'features'.

Posted by travo at 9:19:32 AM

Plumbers Crack

Tuesday, 08 February 2005

This morning we had a bit of a slight plumbing mishap (our shower decided that it didn't want to turn off!) so we reached out to our preferred plumber for some help. Within an hour a bloke had turned up ready to help us out. Excellent.

And this morning I had a revelation about how the kind of programming that I do is very similar to plumbing, and that there might be parallels in the way a plumber manages their larger projects along with the day to day crisees that folks like we have.

Usually, I'm scheduled in to work on significant projects, something that could take a couple of weeks to a few months to complete. For those projects I'll have some significant targets and, while I'm working on those projects, I'll have to communicate with those key stakeholders on a regular basis to ensure that the work I'm doing is meeting with their expectations.

As you would expect, while I'm working on a significant project, there are the irregular requests for urgent work on other things; we need this report, there's some new content to go up on this website, can you please prepare a quote for this project.

See where I'm going? Our plumber friend was probably on his way to a building site where he is working on a major plumbing project. He was also able to manage a few irregular requests.

I wonder what this means to him and his main project, how does he deal with smaller projects causing the deadlines to shift? Does he care at all? As I type this I'm thinking about all my mates who have had unpleasant experiences with tradies for these very reasons.

But I can imagine the parallels though in what I do. I just hope that I'm getting better at a few things; 1. not freaking out when irregular requests arise, 2. making sure that I communicate to my key stakeholders what the impact of those irregular requests have on any main projects and, 3. ensuring that I don't take responsibility for the prioritisation of major projects over irregular requests - that belongs to someone else.

Posted by travo at 8:36:50 PM

Right Tool For the Job

Monday, 07 February 2005

Ever since I was a little tacker, I've always been told to use the right tool for the job; a screwdriver is not a chisel. This useful knowledge can be applied to so many environments and tools. Unfortunately though, it's not always easy place a price on a poor choice of tool or evaluate the cost of choosing an inappropriate environment to work in.

Sometimes though, the messages that you get about a required result mean that you may not choose the right tool you need to achieve that result. There are other factors too; how much someone wants to spend and how soon they want the result.

Last week I was given the opportunity to quote on some work and I made some choices based on the information I was given about the requirements presented. Unfortunately, I found out today that we didn't win the job. I was pretty disappointed. But I also found out that, I could have chosen a different tool. Awww crap.

If I had chosen the alternate tool, we might have won the job - there certainly would have been a reduced cost. I think we would have had to set some boundaries around the requirements though and sometimes this in of itself can influence a customer negatively; do they sacrifice features for cost, or do they try to push back on us to get the most amount of features for their outlay. Well, this is a no-brainer : they're going to try to get the most bang for their buck. We all want this.

So did I make the right choice? - I think I did. Given the information presented to me at the time. We also had very little time to respond to the customers request for a quote and, in all honesty, I don't think that we were the 'prime' for the job anyway; we may have been a secondary quote giver. It happens.

Next time, I'll ask more questions. Find out more. But next time, as with everything, I'll know more about the tools and resources at my avail.

As for choosing the right environment... well, it's not what you think; it's not about Windows vs *nix, it's about home recording vs studio recording.

The Prozac Blues Band has been rehearsing a whole bunch of songs over the last four weeks or so and last weekend we recorded nine tracks over the course of two very long days.

Congratulations to all, I think that what we achieved was awesome.

But I still wonder, since we spent about six hours setting up the house before we could begin - could we have set up quicker if we were in the right environment with the right resources? Don't know. How much could we have gained in output? How much more would we have spent using a studio? What have we sacrificed working at home? How much has it saved us?

None the less, we got some cracking tracks that I'm very happy with. We've got a lot of spit and polish to do now though and hopefully, when the time comes, we'll choose the right environment to get that work done.

I'll let you know when the album is available.

Posted by travo at 9:18:48 PM

Conspiracy Theory

Friday, 28 January 2005

A conspiracy theory is manifested when people are too fucking stupid and ignorant to comprehend the truth.

9/11 was a conspiracy! Get some drops for your third eyeball.
The moon landing was a hoax; oh fuck off.

Sheesh.

Posted by travo at 9:16:55 AM

Farklempt!

Wednesday, 12 January 2005

Okay, so I'm not sure I really understand this, but it's kinda cool none the less. Farklempt kinda sounds like a nasty swear word but it is infact some really interesting online art and perhaps an anonymous social experiment.

Mmnnn, if it's anonymous, does that make it social? Probably not.

None the less it's cool. Like, there's this box right, with these bubbles - they're like your emotions, you have to click on them to make sure you can keep them in check. Don't let them get too big or they'll burst, keep them nice and even. Okay now look on the right, that's your little avatar; kinda looks like a cow right!? Well, the size and proportion of your emotional bubbles determines which way your cow floats. When your cow floats over some other cows, their emotions kinda multiply with your emotions and you both get points!

Cool. Make sense? Nah, I didn't think so. It's kinda silly fun though. And, and I got like more than 20,000 points!

Oh and Farklempt was featured on Wired the other morning, they have a much more succinct explanation than mine.

Posted by travo at 9:37:23 PM

Personal Chemistry

Monday, 10 January 2005

Loitering around Slashdot and found that Developer.* magazine has had kind permission to reproduce and essay by Gerald M. Weinberg titled.Personal Chemistry and the Healthy Body.

What a cracker!

While first published twenty years ago, it is still a pertinent article which resonates strongly with themes of work/life balance, personal physical fitness and personal health and maintenance of personal appearance.

I am lucky that many of my geeky friends are one the right side of human, personable, and healthy. But there are many folks I have known who could take a leaf out of Weinbergs book.

Posted by travo at 7:33:51 PM

Tsunami of Economic Aid

Saturday, 08 January 2005

What kind of global socio-economic environment would stimulate many of the worlds most affluent and powerful nations competing to donate money and resources to a region of nations stricken by disaster.

By no means would I suggest that this is not a worthy cause and we shouldn't get behind it if we are able and inclined to do so; many are and some aren't - in spectacular fashion.

But really, this is bizarre to me. Whether it is the disaster itself which has struck a nerve, whether it's the timing of the event, whether there are the right socio-economic conditions in the first world which are effecting this kind of response; it is still quite remarkable to observe the behaviour of nations and large corporations at this time.

Posted by travo at 3:32:25 PM

Scorecards Galore

Thursday, 06 January 2005

I've been enjoying a cracking season of test cricket and it's been mostly thanks to the wacky guys on ABC Grandstand Radio. Kerry O'Keef (who's head is shinier than the new ball) and the team have been great.

Yesterday though their trivia question send me searchin' online for a scorecard archive. And lo and behold - there is one - a bloody great one.

Cricket Archive is the goods. It has everything. Check it out.

Posted by travo at 11:09:59 AM

Wine Is Fine

Thursday, 30 December 2004

I have just returned home from a fantastic road trip through South Australia. The gorgeous Mel and I took in no less than three wine regions and tasted hundreds of fabulous wines from the Coonawarra, MacClaren Vale and Barossa. We carried four cases of selected goodness on our way home. Mmmm Tasty.

We pretty much ate and drank our way through SA, after our first stay in Penola and tasting the wines of the Coonawarra (dry, dusty peppery reds, buttery chardonnays, and citrussy semillons) we cruised over to the lobster town of Robe - beautiful! SA beaches are a secret well kept; luminenscent blue waters, clean sandy beaches and lots of shady trees.

The Galleria provided an excellent meal of lobster and seafood for us that night - some of the best we would eat! But not _the_ best. That was to be had in the sad old town of Kingston further north, gateway to the Coorong. We found a little fish and chip shop for lunch and had a platter of grilled locally farmed barramundi, scallops and callamari. The Barra was awesome!

After some rally type driving around the Coorong we made it to Goolwa and set up camp for a couple of days of splashing around the Fleurio Penninsula. Great fun and some really varied beaches too. Port Elliot beach suited us the best - nice little paddling baby beaches. Good for lumpy people who don't want to fight too much surf.

More soon...

Posted by travo at 11:05:20 AM

Champion of the World!

Tuesday, 07 December 2004

Champ. Champ. Champ. Champ. Champ. Finally, I have defeated the master blaster. A huge game of Foosball was played last night and I hung in there like a true little Aussie battler to take the game.

Thrilling; is really the only way I can describe this victory. It's been a long time comin', but I've joined the elite club of only a few others who have been slowly building their skills, honing their fortunes and ritualistically sacraficing chickens in an effort to please the gods of foosball to grant them a meagre victory.

Stephen is a true champ of fooseball. His skills were nutured whilst playing for money in a London based agency. He shows little mercy.

Posted by travo at 8:42:26 AM

Socialize

Monday, 29 November 2004

Okay, so now I'm really interested. Social Software huh; while scanning the newest meme collection on the block. I stumbled over the Two Pieces That Social Software Must Have.

This is a pretty thoughful consideration of the different ingredients that combine to make social software work.

For me it's another summation of the power of the Wiki. I wonder what would happen if some of the sites I have worked on this year were handed over, even partially, to the communities / audiences, they are built to serve.

What would they look like? What kind of direction would they take? What kind of discussions would take place there?

It would take a lot of courage to hand even one of those websites over to their audience. I'm so curious though, what kinda' monster would it become.

Posted by travo at 9:15:20 PM | Comments (1)

43 Things

Thursday, 25 November 2004

So check it out, this is a really neat social experiment - 43 Things. You can create and save a list of 43 things you want to do with your life. If you keep hittin' the old refresh button you can see the list as compiled by other visitors.

It's kinda neat in that those things which are included on other peoples list are larger than other items in the list. In fact there seems to be some kinda sizing ratio which is determined by the items popularity among the lists. Cool. Does that make sense?

I'm really diggin' these kinda clever little social experiments. If you know of other nifty little sampling type thingies - let me know.

Posted by travo at 3:53:27 PM

Konfabulate This

Monday, 22 November 2004

Considering what Adam Greenfield had to say about the wonders of Konfabulator - it won't come as a surprise to me if in in 6-12 months time, the people I work for won't be screaming for something like this of their own that they can ram down peoples throats.

At the moment I am very "meh" about these kinds of things too. As a geek I'm more excited about things like Gallery, but I guess not everyone has their own domain and website as I do, he says boasting like a twit. Gallery is a great piece of software, with many great features, but unless you're enarmoured with a few clues you're going to head to places like Flickr to upload and share your photo's. It makes sense. In time, Flickr may become a trusted brand like Google. Maybe.

It's easy to see how people gravitate to these kinds of places. To my mind it also illustrates word of mouth on the internet. If the people say it's good, then it must be good. Mustn't it? 500,000 users can't be wrong. Can they?

Still, I just don't get Konfabulator. It's just a little too gimmicky. Most of the useful stuff that I can see that it does, I can do with my browser. Weather; "Meh". Dictionary; "Meh". Lookup Movies; "Meh". Should I remind you? - Firefox rocks. Keywords people, keywords.

Posted by travo at 10:15:54 PM

The Navigation Paradox

Saturday, 20 November 2004

This is not about men or women. It's about living within the square or living with your ideological pants off.

Today, I had to drive to a street in Clifton Hill which I hadn't been before. I had been to Clifton Hill before. In fact I had even been in that part of Clifton Hill. But I hadn't been to that street.

I expected that once I kinda got us near Clifton Hill my navigator would be able to pick up on what was going on and get us to our destination. I was being pants off. I knew that we'd get there, just not exactly in the most direct and efficient way. Being the weekend, I was in an especially pants off mood.

Unfortunately, this aggravated my navigator. She was frustrated that I'd decided to even consider the map. She wasn't prepared to remove her pants. There were harsh words spoken.

Being pants off embraces all that is casual, relaxed, free and easy. It is about improvisation, adaptability and overcoming obstacles. Thinking outside of conventional paradigms. What I neglected was that they key to being pants off, is ensuring that ones companions are as relaxed and stupidly happy as you are.

Therein lies the challenge.

When people aren't prepared to remove their pants, you must be prepared to at least help to ease them into something more comfortable.

Happy days.

Posted by travo at 7:01:00 PM

Talkback gene now mature

Friday, 19 November 2004

I'm now quite happily into my thirties. Great. Gradually though, I have been developing (and finding it harder to resist) a desire to call in to talk back radio.

Believe me I've always enjoyed listening to radio. Mind you though, it's only been in the last few years that I've been happy to listen to full-on talk back radio. I mean seriously, only the nerdiest of kids listen to John Faine.

What's up with this? I'm finding it hard to control the urge to pick up the phone and call the radio station. Am I lonely? Do I just want someone to talk to?

No.

Am I senile, crazed, delusional; do I just want to have a rant?
No. I now have a weblog for that. Yay.

I guess it's only a few more years before the Bingo gene kicks in and I'll be down at the local town hall, cigarette in hand, half a lamington stuck to my face, pants soiled, waiting for my numbers to line up.

Posted by travo at 9:31:02 AM | Comments (1)

Welcome, would all attendees please remove their pants

Thursday, 18 November 2004

Welcome, this is my 'blog. In time the true message will reveal itself to be nothing but the ravings of a deluded young man. In the mean time, sit back and enjoy the chaos that will be the guide to pants off living.

Posted by travo at 9:27:48 PM | Comments (1)

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