Guide to pants off living

pants off living

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 (0)

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 | Comments (0)

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