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Saturday, October 22. 2005
Judge me by my size, do you?
According to the "Which sci-fi character are you?" online survey, it appears I'm most like the little green champion of the light.
Hrrmmm, flood me not with your comments all ... Yes?
Thursday, October 13. 2005
Stanthorpe and it's celestial namesake
In one of the more geologically diverse and interesting parts of rural Australia is a small town that's responsible for more than it's fair share of history.Stanthorpe and it's surrounding district known as the "Granite Belt", of not much more than ten thousand people, is responsible for famous singers and film directors, politicians, sporting hero's and even a current Archbishop.
Now, a suitably timeless honor has been bestowed on this beautiful and surprisingly productive part of the world - a celestial body has been named after it.
Stanthorpe resident Eiji Kato was given the opportunity to name Asteroid 10078 after working with renowned Japanese astronomer Tsutomu Seki.
The official citation issued by the Minor Planet Centre at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in the US reads not only that the Asteroid Stanthorpe was discovered by Mr Seki in 1981, but that;
"Stanthorpe, known as Queensland's wine capital, is a town nestled in national parks on the highlands in the southeastern part of the Australian state. It is also known for fruit production and beautiful night skies."
Tuesday, October 11. 2005
Microsoft's reluctant penguin dance
Linux is everywhere and knowingly or not, most people depend on it for many things. Web, database, file, auth and print servers to embedded firmware in routers, cameras, game consoles and phones, to name a few. Linux already touches our lives daily.Poor Microsoft have fought Linux hard for many years, first with invincible ignorance, then with FUD attacks that continue to this day. However, somewhat secretly, they also are blessed by the penguin and use it to keep themselves alive.
The Halo movie, based on the Xbox game by Microsoft will directed by Peter Jackson. Weta Digital will do all the effects - on 1000 dual-processor IBM blade servers running the Fedora distro of Linux. Most of Hollywood use this kind of Linux based renderfarm.
This certainly isn't the first time Microsoft have had to run to the penguin for assistance. In 2003 Microsoft were in turmoil after weeks of significant and intense worm and virus attacks directed squarely at them. In their need for a cure, they turned to Akamai to hide behind.
Continue reading "Microsoft's reluctant penguin dance"
Wednesday, October 5. 2005
Restored to life
A few months ago an attempt was made to upgrade this humble blog and remove the 2000+ spam comments. No, really, I'm NOT interested in poker...And now, all is done!
Life to the Full is back, ready to be filled with all the highly opinionated and slightly insightful prose that we've delivered in the past.
Keep an eye out for a few retrospective posts that may appear soon.
Feel free to leave a comment - as long as it's not about poker. (!!!)
Sunday, December 5. 2004
A couple of pilgrims return home
The world is both amazing and small. It doesn't take that much effort any more to get from one side of it to the other - at least not with a half decent aircraft.After 2 and a half months, from the mists of Ireland, to the Abbeys of France, the waltz of Istanbul to the angst of Israel. From new friendships to the death of my Grandfather, it's been a journey of significance.
If there was any one treasure that I brought back with me from our pilgrimage, it was the knowledge that God is good, and so are most people most of the time.
If fact I'd go so far as to say that the default attitude of your average human being is to desire good for their fellow human being. This is a comforting thing to be reminded of, and makes all the hardship of travel worth while.
Continue reading "A couple of pilgrims return home"
Thursday, October 28. 2004
Itinerary now available
After quite some time I've put enough time aside to update the itinerary.This will give you an idea of what we've seen and what locations lie ahead of us.
We have a collection of comments and Photo's that I'd be happy to post, just as soon as I find some cheap internet access... like a free wireless network - hmmmmm..
A word of advice to those considering travelling and looking for free wifi access - Invest in a kensington wifi detector, or the like. It's a must, and very very very difficult to buy from computer shops in Europe.
Sunday, September 26. 2004
Departing Dublin
A week passes quickly when you travel to a new location every day.During our entire stay here in Ireland, this is the first occasion we've come across free wireless - in the departure lounge of the airport...
However our stay in Ireland has been blessed with mostly clement weather, magnificent treasures like the book of Kells, and the ancient manor & seat of clan Rynne.
Here are a few observations before the plane leaves - Ennis is lovely, Castlebar is not, and Westport is a town that people immediately fall in love with.
Continue reading "Departing Dublin"
Friday, September 3. 2004
Chant, with Substance
How many times have you sat in a Catholic Church and been subjected to the shrill shriek of a 40 or 50 something soprano who, aided and abetted in her foul act of musical vandalism by the parish organist, leads the congregation in song through a register of notes that only dogs can hear (and I say this as a tenor who is fortunate to be able to reach those lofty heights but can only look on helplessly as my fellow parishioners fall on either side of me, unable to maintain the pitch, in a gallant effort to "fully participate" in the liturgy). Whilst you could excuse the fact that most of these parish cantors (or is that a sexist term?) cantresses, just simply pitch the music beyond the range of the average Catholic congregation, you cannot excuse the dribble that these banshees scream/sing. A great many parishes in Australia use books such as "Gather Australia," "On Eagles Wings" etc all of which contain various hymns (often written by religious - notably Jesuits or Mercy Sisters) written specifically for the Novus Ordo Mass and it is these hymns that contain the "poignant" reflections of a Baby Boomer generation who just didn't seem to get it.Let me give you an example "The Lord is my shepherd" Good so far; "...and I want to follow..." a noble sentiment to which all baptised Christians should aspire "...wherever He leads me, wherever we go..." such faithful trust "And while on the journey to where we are going..." Whoo, just put the tambourine down and step away from the guitar - what does that mean! Where else would you be going on a journey except to where you are going! Me thinks someone had too many beats in a bar and not much to say to fill them. Beautiful hymns written in English do exist (look at the Anglican musical tradition) and they can be used at a Novus Ordo Mass. The Living Parish Hymnal is an excellent example of this. Contained therein are pearls written by the great Australian poet James McCauley - there are even texts by John Henry Cardinal Newman set to music by Edward Elgar. And the beauty of this music is that any parish can sing it all - you can "Come as you Are." Of course not all old hymns are good hymns. Often enough the hymns of the '50's can smack of a saccharine sweet piety. So what is the criterion of good parish music? Quite simply, nobility. This is nobility both in the musical score and the lyrics.
A piece of music is noble if it allows a listener to experience the presence of God. God is experienced in the transcendental qualities of truth beauty and goodness. Sadly most modern liturgical music (and secular music for that matter) neither celebrates truth, nor is beautiful and consequently is rarely good. The problem lies in the fact that this music is not Christocentric it does not concentrate on God. Rather it is egocentric it concentrates on the I, me. And so musical expression becomes subjective, emotive and for the most part shallow _ which isn't surprising, when liturgical musicians turn from the objective and infinite that is the praise of God.
Continue reading "Chant, with Substance"
Wednesday, September 1. 2004
Today's Computing - A vision from 1950
Cringely has a recent interview with the father of not just the mouse, but of many of the concepts that today's computing is based on - Doug Engelbart.We're talking pre-PARC here people; the year is 1950 in fact. The day after he'd proposed to his girlfriend, Engelbart had a vision of what computers could be like, driving to work.
If we were to give credit where it's due, then quite a lot should go to Doug Engelbart.
Continue reading "Today's Computing - A vision from 1950"
Wednesday, August 25. 2004
Chernobyl Remembered
On the 26th of April 1986 the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, situated in the Ukraine, had a catastrophic failure. This accident is widely regarded as the worst in the history of nuclear power generation. Alexander Yuvchenko was on duty at Chernobyl's reactor number 4 the night it exploded, one of the few working there that night to have survived.
For the first time since the accident he has agreed to be interviewed, and gives a chilling description of what he witnessed when everything went pear-shaped:
Continue reading "Chernobyl Remembered"
Wednesday, August 18. 2004
Who is a Peregrinus?
In exactly a month from today, Life 2 the Full writers, Emeritus and Dante Jones will be hopping into a streamlined lump of steel with four Rolls Royce engines and a few hundred seats, and fly to the other end of the planet, while switching to Perigrinus 2004 mode.There's that word again - Peregrinus.
From the very beginning Christians made pilgrimages to holy sites, and to the Holy Land in particular. There is a very valuable perspective that can be gained from literally walking in the footsteps of Christ. After the Romans killed Peter, his tomb also became a place of pilgrimage.
A little while after Peter, there was a Roman citizen, who's name was Peregrinus. It seems he travelled a lot. All over the Roman empire in fact. He wasn't happy in fact unless he was going from A to B. or M to N. or U to V... you get the idea.
Continue reading "Who is a Peregrinus?"
Monday, August 16. 2004
Will you soon be brain dead?
A recent report on a study by a Southampton University team has appeared in the journal Public Health. It finds that dementia rates have trebled in men and increased by 90 per cent among women.The study examined rates of the diseases in much of the Western world from 1979 to 1997. "This has really scared me," Professor Colin Pritchard, who led the study. "These are nasty diseases: people are getting more of them and they are starting earlier. We have to look at the environment and ask ourselves what we are doing."
"There's no single cause ... and most of the time we have no studies on all the multiple interactions of the combinations on the environment."
Continue reading "Will you soon be brain dead?"
Friday, August 6. 2004
Linux overtakes Mac OS on the Desktop
12 years is a while to be supporting the GUI desktop environments, of Mac OS and Windows. Prior to that there were other GUI desktops I used and supported that most users today have never heard of.I've been using various Linux desktops seriously for the past 7 years, and during the normal course of my work, I'll use Mac OSX, KDE on Linux and Windows many times each day. Sometimes intermingled a bit with each other thanks to X over ssh and various remote GUI clients, as well as the odd emulator.
Although it seemed just a matter of time, I'm still surprised by IT industry research firm IDC's claim that "Linux captured the No. 2 spot as desktop operating system in 2003."
This has come about as HP announced it's now shipping its first notebook, the Compaq nx5000, to come with the Linux operating system preinstalled.
Continue reading "Linux overtakes Mac OS on the Desktop"
Wednesday, August 4. 2004
Jobs thanks God for his curable cancer
Sure Steve Jobs is the kind of fellow to either inspire or increase ire in people, but I cant help but like him. We have both been active in IT for some time now.So it was something of a shock to me and others when we read of his pancreatic cancer in recent days.
It seems all is going to be ok, as Jobsie wrote emails on his 17” powerbook from his hospital bed, announcing that his form of pancreatic cancer — an islet cell neuroendocrine tumour — is extremely rare and easily cured if diagnosed early.
Continue reading "Jobs thanks God for his curable cancer"
Wednesday, July 14. 2004
I Robot, I hope.
What at strange situation we find ourselves in. After years of robot movies like Robocop, Terminator, The Matrix and AI, now comes the father of them all; I, Robot.I, Robot by Isaac Asimov is a collection of short stories published in 1950, and is best remembered for the three simple yet immutable Laws of Robotics. Looks like hollywood have finally decided to milk some cash from it in the form of a movie.
Although I'm yet to see this film, there are already signs of restlessness on forums and in blogs, and the choice of Will Smith as one of the lead characters does not instil confidence.
Continue reading "I Robot, I hope."
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