How long is this Vatican Astronomer going to keep his job? He is quoted by Scotsman.com, dismissing Creationism as ‘a kind of paganism’ and Papal infallability as a “PR Disaster”. In fact, he makes a lot of sense, as opposed to the Creationists, who tend to make very little sense. Found via Boing Boing
worker’s theatre – brilliant!
Last week at the 8 hour day celebration at the University of Melbourne, I became aware of a new production by the Melbourne Workers Theatre; ‘We Built This City’. I wasn’t sure at first, but a song I’d heard at the celebration was brilliant and I just wanted to hear more.
Once I’d found the details, the reason for the quality of the music became apparent: composed by Mark Seymour, booked the tickets very painlessly through EasyTix (no booking fee, take note Ticketmaster!). When we saw a double page spread review in the Sunday Age, and realised that Mark Seymour was also performing the music, we knew we were onto something special.
I won’t go into rapturous detail about the staging and effects, the inspirational music (songs about the MUA, The Westgate Bridge disaster), the inspired choice of venue (the old Pumping Station at Scienceworks, just a 5 minute walk from the aforementioned bridge), the gargantuan props (100 ton crane!), the gritty reality (real arc welding and metalworkers provided the pyrotechnics)… etc! … but I will say: If you are in Melbourne and you can get along to this in the next week. DO IT!
Undocumented Google map trick
An article on Ogle Earth alerts us to a neat trick to get a location from Google Maps to Google Earth. Simply add ‘&output=kml’ to the URL of the map you are viewing, (be sure to click the ‘Link to this page’ on the map first!). I created this simple javascript gMaps2kml bookmarklet, that seems to do the trick, so drag it to your bookmark bar and enjoy*.
Unfortunately, I have problems with getting this to work in Firefox (1.5) whether I use the bookmarklet or manually paste the parameter. It always generates the same kml file of a location in New York. Safari, Opera and Camino don’t have this problem! I’ll have to keep you posted of this one. A friend with a similar setup doesn’t have the same problem – might be a firefox extension issue.
* Note: that the resulting kml files are simply called ‘maps’ with no extension, so this may cause you grief, but it’s easily fixed by adding the extension.
Update: Barry Hunter over at nearby.org.uk, who originally documented the hack, has improved on my bookmarklet, by searching the DOM for the ‘link’, so you don’t have to click ‘Link to this Page’ anymore. He’s posted it in a comment below, but I’ll put it here as well. gMaps2kml2. Isn’t that neat?
My little commute…
It hardly rates as a bicycle commute – only 6.5k and even while I was taking photos, only 20 minutes, but in response to a mild challenge from thingoid, I hereby offer my very modest commute. Continue reading “My little commute…”
the party is definitely over…
One of the most public icons of the Commonwealth Games were the fish on the Yarra. Each night of the games they were lit up and squirted water in a spectacular display. A bit kitsch, but a real crowd pleaser – hundreds of thousands must have watched it. There’s now a bit of a debate as to whether the fish should be saved from the trash, perhaps mounted on a wall as public artwork somewhere like a swimming pool.
Well, I can tell you, it’s probably not going to happen. Just by chance yesterday, I was wandering past some warehouses and I spotted a familiar shape in the shadows – a fish tail. Yes, I had found the fish, in storage, away from the glamour, lights and colour, demounted from their pontoons and support frames (which were being broken up outside). I asked, and was granted permission to have a look around and take some photos. They are truly magical – really excellent, accurate representations of the species, but they are made of the lightest, most temporary material – several had eyes made of vegetable steamers! brilliant!!
They were designed for a good time, not a long time – the party is over, it’s time to let go!
Google gets organised…
Piece by clever piece, Google are putting together the bits I need to manage my life online. The latest addition is google calendar.
Nothing earth shattering here, just stuff that works the way you want it to. I exported my Oracle calendar appointments as an iCal file, it imported seamlessly into google and straight away alerted me about an appointment I should have been heading off to.
What else? Easy to add events – all the options you need. Great looking agenda tool. Lots of Ajax usability, drag and drop events – for a web app this is to calendars what gmail was for webmail – better than a desktop app! I see from the options screen that they are planning to provide SMS alerts, but it was disabled on my account at least.
With the usual Google API, it won’t be long before people with much more programming skill than I will be writing ‘synch’ tools for iSync and maybe even the corporate tools like Exchange and Oracle. I can’t wait!
Yahoo! Maps – a rival for Google?
Since Google released their maps/local product on the world, they have really ‘owned’ the space. The Ajax word has become common parlance, and we’ve all learned to expect a lot more from our browsers.
Microsoft brought out their Live Local product in an attempt to rival Google. It is good – slicker than google, but somehow misses on so many levels – I haven’t seen the stats, but I suspect it’s bombing badly – Google still get all the press.
I was prepared for another disappointment from Yahoo! Maps Continue reading “Yahoo! Maps – a rival for Google?”
confirmed – Ballmer is a nut!
As if we needed confirmation – last week we had a blogger from inside M$’s Vista testing team saying that it was a complete load of garbage and that Ballmer should be fired. We’ve all heard about him chucking chairs in a google inspired tantrum, but this latest piece “Microsoft chief forbids his kids from iPods“, really made me chuckle.
His kids are banned from using iPods and Google!
…but there is more – he goes on to talk about an ‘innovative proposition’ – rolling music and communication devices into one – whoah! that one came from left field! Way to go Stevie!
m2006 Mashup
As inflatable Koalas bounced around the MCG, I was putting the finishing touches to my first Google Maps mashup – The Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Most of the features from the Melbourne 2006 KMZ have been incorporated, and though I still prefer the stand alone app, I’m quite proud that my mashup uses decent css layout and goes within a single warning of validating strict xhtml, (these are things that matter to a nerd!).
Oh, and thanks to Google Maps Mania, who blogged about it even before I did!
Melbourne 2006 on Google Earth
It’s my first attempt at a Google Earth file, so I’m ready for criticism. All the same, I think it’s OK. Along the way, I learned how to make a network link, and how to draw a path, I’m sure that’ll be useful one day!
I’ve tried to cover as much as possible of the venues to be used in the Commonwealth Games starting here in Melbourne in just over a week. I’m also keen to hear any suggestions, and there are a few details I’d love to fill in, such as exactly where the Mountain Bike Trail is – even though the satellite image is only low res. So if you do download it – refresh it from time to time – there will hopefully be updates and I hope to add a few more flickr links to it.
Download The (unofficial) Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games kmz file now!
Oh, boy! I’ve been picked up by the Google Earth Blog!
On a lighter note…
Tonight I joined the latest internet bandwagon, creating a public transport map with all the names scrambled into anagrams. There’s a heap more here at boing-boing.
I want to print off a few hundred and give them to visitors at the Commonwealth Games!
another rant!
As a long time BigPond Cable subscriber, I’m used to receiving their self promotional emails. Usually shopping specials I’m not interested in and promotional guff about their content.
You see, they have quite a bit of video and music content, but I’ve never used any of that either. Not that I wouldn’t like to, some of the sport video I would love to see. No, the reason I haven’t used any of their content is because I have a Mac, and their system is only compatible with Windows, that’s it. Continue reading “another rant!”