the flambéedyak column

Melbourne Travel

2007-01-16T13:36:00.000+09:00

This is a round up of various things for our planned Melbourne trip.

Look at the map above for markers related to these things. You can use the small controls to zoom, and just click and drag the map to move it around.

Sixtytwo On Grey Apartments (the green S above):
http://www.sixtytwogrey.com.au

Cosmopolitan Hotel (blue C above):
http://www.cosmopolitanhotel.com.au
See the "Rooms" page, look at the "Cosmo Grand II Bedroom".

Boutique Stays - "Metropol":
http://www.boutiquestays.com.au
Looks quite good, is on Fitzroy St (north-west of Grey St), didn't put in a marker because it doesn't say the actual address.

The black line on the map is the tram line running down Fitzroy St and around the Esplanade. The fastest way into the city is up the line that goes north along Canterbury Rd from Fitzroy St, but taking the tram up St Kilda Road takes you straight to Federation Square, which is the coolest part in the CBD :-).

Acland St (the part just south of the Cosmopolitan) is a massive eating area, stacks of great cafes along there. Fitzroy St is also full of places to eat.

Prahran is a couple of kms to the east, for shopping on Chapel St and the Prahran Markets.

The whole area covered by the small map above (but without the markers unfortunately) can be seen here at full size.

Lily Pond Photo

2007-01-16T11:56:00.000+09:00

Here is a photo from my Zooomr account. This is a great photo sharing service, and I think the interface is faster than the other one that doesn't have an "e" in it's name either :-)

This photo is of the lily pond below the lobby bar at the Bali Hyatt in Sanur, Bali. It was a great place to stay, the long-established gardens were stunning.

Technorati Claim Post

2007-01-16T11:46:00.000+09:00

This is just a post to claim this blog on Technorati.

"Small pieces loosely joined" is how the web works, just like the good old UNIX(tm) systems it was originally written on, and is mainly still running on, and long may it be so.

Here is a link to my Technorati Profile for claiming purposes.

drew

well, i'm not posting

2004-05-31T10:51:00.000+08:00

another day, another post - well, here it is folks, post number 11 in the quest for g. you know what i'm talkin' 'bout !!

blogging software

2004-05-27T13:21:00.000+08:00

there are a couple of pieces of software around that let you post directly to the log without having to go through the web posting interface.

so far i've found:

* zempt, which looks quite good, although only in early versions, and supports MT only, which i think would focus it's features a bit more. i'm going to try it soon
* w.bloggar, which seems to be quite actively developed, and supports lots of different blogs
* frequency, which looks good, but apparently you have to pay for it, although it may just be uncrippled shareware
* and blogbuddy, which also looks ok, but is mainly built for Blogger weblogs, and so may not work that well with MT

UPDATE: i've tried zempt, frequency and w.bloggar, and none of them work through the firewall at work, even though they have proxy settings within them that i've set up. w.bloggar is even supposed to use the IE proxy settings, but it still doesn't work - pain in the ass.

i'm going to try setting up bookmarklets through the MT interface to see if they make it easier.

UPDATE AGAIN: bookmarklets through the MT interface work very nicely, as they look for stuff in the page you are currently browsing that you might want to post about, and extract links for you.

HAKMEM document

2004-05-26T09:11:00.000+08:00

this is the famous HAKMEM document from the MIT AI Lab in 1972.

It consists of various bits and pieces of tech stuff, interesting mathematical theorems, proofs and problems, code (mostly PDP-10/11) written by a whole heap of people working there. Lots of it is very interesting, some parts are hard to understand, some is very obscure, but we like that here ... :->

animal biological adjectives

2004-05-25T14:37:00.000+08:00

THE QUESTION:
From:
Subject: Re: ?animals and -ian & -ine

We have a patron that would like all the words they can get that have to do
with animals and end in either IAN or INE, such as simian or bovine. We
tried the OED on CDROM but no luck. Any suggestions?

Nancy Greer xxxxxxx@maroon.tc.umn.edu

THE ANSWER: ...

From: Michael Sheehan

THE QUESTION:

Date: Fri, 03 Feb 1995 07:58:42 -0600 (CST)
From:
Subj: Re: ?animals and -ian & -ine

We have a patron that would like all the words they can get that have to do
with animals and end in either IAN or INE, such as simian or bovine. We
tried the OED on CDROM but no luck. Any suggestions? Nancy

Nancy Greer xxxxxxx@maroon.tc.umn.edu

THE ANSWER:

Date: Mon, 06 Feb 1995 14:51:51 -0500
From: UmbraScit-xxx@aol.com
Subj: !Adjectival Animals

Nancy Greer asked for all the words a patron could get relating to animals,
with the stipulation that they end only in -ian or -ine. Here is such a
list. It comes from a manuscript in progress tentatively titled, "Dictionary
of Word Parts," by Michael Sheehan. These adjectives come from a larger list
of animal-related words culled from unabridged dictionaries such as OED, AHD,
WNU, along with various other wordbooks.

alligator (eusuchian); ant (formicine, myrmecine); anteater (myrmecophagine);
antelope (alcelaphine, bubaline); ape (simian); armadillo (tolypeutine); ass
(assinine); auk (alcidine); barracuda (percesocine); bat (pteropine); bear
(ursine); bee (apiarian); bird (avian, muscicapine, oscine, passerine,
penduline, volucrine); blackbird (icterine); bluebird (turdine); bobolink
(icterine); buffalo (bubaline); bullfinch (pyrrhuline); bunting (emberizine,
pyrrhuloxine); buzzard (buteonine, cathartine); calf (vituline); camel
(cameline); cardinal (pyrrhuloxine); cat (feline); chamois (rupicaprine);
civet (viverrine); cormorant (phalacrocoracine); cow (bovine, vaccine); crab
(cancrine); crane (alectorine); crow (corvine); cuckoo (cuculine); deer
(cervine, elaphine); dodo (didine); dog (canine); dolphin (delphine);
dormouse (myoxine); dove (columbine); duck (anatine, fuliguline); eagle
(aquiline); elephant (elephantine); elk (cervine); ermine (musteline); falcon
(accipitrine); ferret (musteline); finch (fringilline); fish (piscine,
piscatorial); flea (pulicine); fox (vulpine); frog (bufotenine, ranine);
gerbil (cricetine); gibbon (hylobatine); goat (hircine, caprine); goose
(anserine); gull (larine); hare (leporine); hawk (accipitrine, falconine);
hornet (vespine); horse (equine); hummingbird (trochiline); jay (garruline);
kangaroo (macropodine); kestrel (falconine); kingfisher (halcyonine); kite
(milvine); leech (hirudine); lion (leonine); lizard (lacertilian, saurian);
lobster (homarine); macaw (psittacine); magpie (garruline); marten
(musteline); martin (hirundine); meadowlark (icterine); mink (musteline);
mockingbird (mimine); mongoose (viverrine); moose (cervine); mosquito
(aedine, anopheline); moth (arctian); mouse (murine); nightingale
(philomelian); opposum (didelphine); oriole (icterine); otter (lutrine); ox
(bovine); oyster (ostracine); parakeet (psittacine); parrot (psittacine);
partridge (perdicine); peacock (pavonine); pheasant (alectorine, phasianine);
pig (porcine, suilline); pigeon (pullastrine); plover (charadrine); polecat
(musteline); porcupine (hystricine); quail (coturnine); rabbit (leporine);
raccoon (procyonine); ram (arietine); rat (murine); rattlesnake (crotaline);
raven (corvine); reptile (reptilian, serpentine); rhinoceros (ceratorhine);
robin (turdine); sable (zibeline); sea horse (hippocampine); seal (phocine);
sheep (ovine); shrew (soricine); silkworm (bombycine); skunk (mephitine);
skylark (alaudine); slug (limacine); smelt (atherine); snake (colubrine,
ophidian, reptilian, serpentine, viperine); snipe (charadrine); sparrow
(passerine); squirrel (sciurine); stag (cervine, elaphine); stoat
(musteline); stork (ciconine); sturgeon (acipenserine); swallow (hirundine);
swan (cygnine); swift (cypseline); swine (porcine); tick (acarine); tiger
(tigrine); titmouse (parine); toad (batrachian); tortoise (chelonian); turkey
(meleagrine); turtle (chelonian); vulture (vulturine); wasp (vespine); weasel
(musteline); wolf (lupine); wolverine (musteline); wombat (phascolomian)
woodcock (charadrine, scolopacine); wren (troglodytine); zebra (zebrine).

============

Mike Sheehan xxxxx@leo.nmc.edu
UmbraScit-xxx@aol.com

#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#
"The limits of my language
are the limits of my world."
Wittgenstein
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#

runme.org

2004-05-25T14:36:00.000+08:00

Found an interesting place called runme.org, where they have a very simple but massive site full of projects that create art through software (as the name suggests).

It's kind of a massive portal, a bit like freshmeat, with "projects" arranged into categories and stuff ...

IE7

2004-05-25T14:35:00.000+08:00

Dean Edwards' IE7 project/hack would be very useful for me right now, were it not a little too complex to implement across a massive amount of pages like "Malcolm".

It's a DHTML behaviour+library+stylesheet that enables most CSS2 functions that don't work currently in Internet Explorer. The site has a list of supported functions, and the code for download, and it's very clever ...

Javascript Vector Drawing Library

2004-05-25T14:33:00.000+08:00

Walter Zorn’s DHTML + Javascript drawing library looks very usable for drawing lines and polygons with Javascript, utilising stair-step pixel optimisation to create multi-pixel chunks and render them as DIV tags.

Slow(ish) using DIVs, but it seems it will work in nearly all browsers, so that’s good enough for me, the cross-browser compatibility fanatic …

CSS Zen Garden

2004-05-25T14:31:00.000+08:00

See what CSS can really do at css Zen Garden: The Beauty in CSS Design.

The css Zen Garden invites you to relax and meditate on the important lessons of the masters. Begin to see with clarity. Learn to use the (yet to be) time-honored techniques in new and invigorating fashion. Become one with the web. There is clearly a need for CSS to be taken seriously by graphic artists. The Zen Garden aims to excite, inspire, and encourage participation.

This site is run by Dave Shea, who runs mezzoblue, a fantastic CSS resource.

Newsmap Application

2004-05-25T14:28:00.000+08:00

The newsmap flash-based application grabs live news data from Google News and turns it into a treemap.

Treemaps are traditionally space-constrained visualizations of information. Newsmap’s objective takes that goal a step further and provides a tool to divide information into quickly recognizable bands which, when presented together, reveal underlying patterns in news reporting across cultures and within news segments in constant change around the globe.

( BTW, this is a <blockquote> )

Very tricky … it even does .au.

Schild's Ladder

2004-05-25T14:24:00.000+08:00

As you may remember I thought “Schild’s Ladder” was a fantastic book by Greg Egan which looks at an entirly fictional theory of Quantum Graphs. While I was reading, descriptions of the graph theory it reminded me of a something I had heard of perviously but I was unable to remember where. Last week I found it in the 20th March edition of “New Scientist”.

The theory I had come across before is called Loop Quantum Gravity or LQG. The two theories are not particually similar, but are both based on the idear that every observable partical or wave is made up of a unique configuration of a theoretical matrix. In one case a graph in the other interconnected loops. LQG and Quantum Graphs also have a base idea in common, Spin Networks.

On another note check out the Wikipedia site. It is a fantastic source of information and is open source.

weblogging analysis

2004-05-25T14:20:00.000+08:00

An interesting, very detailed analysis of weblogs and weblogging.

Blog profile: Overview

The people at Caslon do research for media companies wanting information about various different mediums.