Replaced my broken O2 XDA IIs with a Dopod 810.

I'm in lurve. GPS, 3G, two video cameras, 2MP camera, 802.11, bluetooth, good display, nice size, that I can both SSH and remote desktop from it, and it seamlessly integrates with my laptops. The GPS is good enough that it works in my pocket while on the motorbike. Good battery life too.

I'll be recording my run across Mt Nebo tomorrow morning. Should be interesting to put a KML file on top of Google Earth and see what it really looks like.

Mental note... remove timestamps :)

Went down to Springwood Suzuki to pick up a new visor, and ended up spending the entire afternoon testing riding motorcycles at the various places around. I'm looking for any excuse to buy a second motorcycle :)

I had three observations after riding multiple bikes across the whole spectrum.

a) The Honda Firestorm VTR 1000cc was crap. Cheap nasty horrible crap. Honda should have spent another grand on it and just finished off the small stuff that made me nearly beg to get off.

b) After riding a few others, I know why I bought my current SV650S. It may not do anything the best in it's class, but it does everything well enough to be an all round better bike.

c) The Suzuki Hayabusa and the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade are definitely on the investigate further list.

The Hayabusa was wickedly fast all while feeling like I was riding a flying carpet made of silk. It was so polite and humble about its speed. I had mental images of riding pillion, and informing my driver Parker that 150 was not sufficient speed. I had to be careful not to let the smooth ride fool me, as that speedo did go all the way to 300, and when opened up that engine climbed through the revs really quick. And contrary to popular opinion, the Hayabusa will turn through any corner as easily as other bikes if you respect the weight and power. I did the corners at the top of Moss St at speed with ease (I won't publish the speed for obvious reasons), and had plenty more turning available with total comfort that I could pull the bike up if needed.

The CBR1000RR was a completely different beast. As wildly fast as the Hayabusa, but just totally different otherwise. While the Hayabusa requires effort to wheel stand (due to its wheelbase, weight, and the torque limiters), the Fireblade required you to just think of it, and it was up. Once I got used to the aggressive riding position and respected the engine's power curve (not that it was lacking around town), the acceleration was bordering on terrifying. It's not that it was out of control, but rather it communicated brilliantly what was going on. It's no faster than the Hayabusa at any speed I'll do on public roads, though it really did communicate to the rider was going on. And it was agile, so beautifully agile.

Out of the two, the Hayabusa was the sports cruiser that could boogie it up with the supersports when the rider felt like it (and had the skill), and the Fireblade was just like that wild girlfriend every male has once in their life and lives to regret. Both are so fast I can't ever imagine using the full throttle anywhere except a race track, and even then only briefly.

The hard part is deciding which one I liked more. Other than sheer speed, both were so different that I just can't compare the two in any sane fashion.

Came back from Adelaide, where I was asked repeatedly about people wanting to buy Apple machines with OS X. As usual, my advice was "if you think the operating system, or environment is for you, by all means, otherwise consider carefully if it actually improves your computer usage as opposed to just changing it for no benefit". There's about fifty-fifty split on those that actually convert when people consider their computer usage that way.

Not being back in Brisbane for more than an hour, an art director come recent Apple adopter was asking for help with her recently boot-camped Macbook Pro that was missing network drivers. I looked at it, and promptly asked "Why?"

"There's no design software for Apple".

I could not possibly have said it myself better. I'm forever pointing out that the days of Apple being the design software writer's platform of choice are over. Windows is where it's at for those who need more than the stock Photoshop or RAW image handler.

Had a rather long conversation with Kirsten on the weekend as to why we don't already have socially interactive robots everywhere. Kirsten being the artist she is, was focusing on the emotive and social aspects of robotics. I saw the dancing Keepon quite some time ago, and came across it again this morning in my RSS feeds.

The dancing (shown below) is kind of neat when you consider that the movements aren't preprogrammed. Rather there's an analysis of the music and a response in kind that we interpret in a meaningful way.

Keepon itself is a little research robot built to help understand attention and focus exchange with humans. It's somewhat comical that our brains are wired to "understand" what two fluffy balls with three dots is focusing on.

I've been casually following the noise over the polar bear cub in Germany. I'm disgusted at the contempt the activist shows for the very thing he claims to support.

The moment we took the animals out of the wild and put them under our care, they became our responsibility. We are ethically obligated to provide the best standard of care we can to these animals, and until we have such a manner by which we can ask the bear if it wants to live or not, we do not have the right to terminate its life.

For the sake of the argument, let's take the above article, and pretend that Knut is a human baby, reading the following passage thinking of a baby.

Knut, who is more commonly known as "Cute Knut", was born in December, and along with his brother, was ignored by his alcoholic single mother; Knut's brother would not survive.

Should we terminate the life of every human baby that was born to an irresponsible mother?

Thumbs down for the first person that points out I eat meat.

Childish yes, but definitely giggle worthy.

Saw a message on a network operations list this morning with the subject:

"Leakage of Private Ass onto Foobar Networks".

The author did mean to really write, "Private Autonomous Systems Numbers are leaking onto Foobar Networks". I held my finger over the send button for a few minutes with the reply "The solution is to install more fibre".

One of my staff sent me the following story (news.com.au) regarding the banning of incandescent light bulbs and the increase in production of compact flurorescent lights.

I agree totally with Bjorn Lomborg when he speaks on solving the world's problems. Simply that is, fix the easy things first, and at least you'll make progress.

Bjorn proposes that taking steps to solving the AIDS epidemic in Africa is easier, cheaper, and has a bigger impact for the next generation than chasing hugely difficult problems like global warming solved through carbon trading and emissions controls. Just like the above article comments, a nation wide switch over to flurorescent tubes will reduce lighting caused emissions by 66%. While that may only be a 66% reduction on 9% of our national energy bill, that is not an insignificant amount.

And what's the trade off? Well, you'll have to screw in a different type of light bulb.

Came across this in a book I'm reading at the moment, The Ethos Effect by L.E. Modesitt Jr. I found it interesting simply because it talked about something I consider often lacking in a lot of people. That is, standing to even a considered code of ethics and morals.

Quoting Chapter 11:

What is 'ethical' or 'moral'? A general definition is that actions that conform to a 'right set of principles' are ethical. Such a definition begs the question. Whose principles? On what are those principles based? Do those principles arise from the reasoned development by rational scholars? Or from 'divine' inspiration? Does it matter, so long as they inspire moral and ethical behaviour?

The obvious conclusion is that 'moral' values must be ethical in and of themselves, and not through religious or secular authority or rationalized logic. This leads to the critical questions. How can one define waht is ethical without resorting to authority, religious doctrine, or societal expediency And whom will any society trust to make such a judgment, particularly one not based on authority, doctrine or expediency?

Went for a bicycle ride today from New Farm to Dutton Park. The wind was rather strong, so it was a bit of a fight, not to mention riding a mountain bike that was conspiring to suck out half of the effort I was putting in.

Haven't been for a ride in maybe 20 months or more, and boy did I feel it. Not in the can't walk kind of way, my muscles while not anywhere as strong still work fine. I didn't realise it until I got down to Dutton Park, and realised I don't know the way to the new bridge to UQ. We elected to turn around and head back the way we came, and that's when it hit me.

I had that feeling in my stomach associated with too much lactic acid (at least, that's my understanding of it). I felt the overwhelming urge to let the pistachio and cardamon creme brulee and the gado gado I had for lunch come up. Held it down but never found my second wind until maybe 5 km down the road.

Throughly enjoyed being out and about though, the sun was nice, the weather was beautifully warm, and it got that pent-up-in-the-house frustration out of my system. Also good to confirm my heart was in a good condition.

Had a small fright Wednesday, ended up wandering down to the doctor on campus in a hurry to confirm I wasn't about to keel over with a heart attack. No history of heart attacks in my family, in fact hearts on both sides of my grandparents have all been strong. Everytime I have a medical, my blood pressure is a perfect 120 over 70, my heart rate is solid and inline with my fitness, and never have I had palpations or similar.

My left arm had been tingling with pins and needles for a couple of days, but I'd written it off due to the new tires on my motorcycle. Semi race tires, and Michelin really weren't kidding when they said the comfort factor was low.

Then sitting in the office Wednesday, I was starting to sweat, had nausea, had hot flushes, my arm was starting to hurt mildly, had a bit of a pain in my chest, and an inability to concentrate. I got myself to the doctor quick smart. Doctor wasn't too concerned as I started explaining symptoms but as I got to pain in the chest and so on he really started to take notice.

Poked and prodded with some careful checking of my heart, he declared to my relief that I wasn't about to roll over and meet my maker, but rather it was a combination of a few things that all stemmed from my preference for fresh air and the recent heat. In essence, I had rolled over onto my stomach in my sleep to feel cooler in the heat, and due to a bicycling injury I tend to rest my head on my left elbow as I sleep with my head to the right. That resulted in a pinched nerve through the left elbow.

I hadn't slept properly for whatever reason for about a week and a bit, and the rest of the symptoms were a combination of stress and sleep deprivation. Got back to the office, told my boss that I was taking the Thursday off on the doctors suggestion, and since then I've only been getting better. The pinched nerve will take some weeks to heal apparently, but it's kind of neat to have an arm that works fully yet feels like I've been lying on it for a few hours :)

Never been a huge fan of Hunter S. Thompson, but his Song of the Sausage Creature is a motorcycling classic.

Every motorcyclist will understand, and the cagers just may get a glimpse of, despite the ever present danger of cars, the environment and our own stupidity, why we continue to chase the rush associated with flying 3 feet off the ground.