July 2012 Blog Posts

Not noted for...

In 1977, Paul MacReady and Peter Lissaman, from AeroVironment, won the Kremer Prize for Human Powered flight in a striking aircraft they named Gossamer Condor. They named their craft in tribute to the largest flying land birds in the western hemisphere, The Condors. Later, in 1979, the pair followed up this initial success with a crossing of the English Channel, with an aircraft they named in honour of an accomplished and famed gliding bird, and possessor of the world's longest wingspan. The name? Gossamer Albatross. When it came time to go one step further and experiment with a solar-powered version of these two pioneering aircraft,...

Six months later...

I was informed this morning that it's now six months since I got off my arse and started losing some weight. I was 107.3kg at my first official weigh-in, in January this year. What's happening now? Well, I weighed in this morning and I came out at 87.9kg. So that's tantalisingly close - only 600g - to 20kg lost in six months, officially. I blame the Tour de France for not making it under on this weigh-in, since the late nights have cut into my riding time and occasional TDF treats of camembert wheels and fast food don't help much with the diet. I've actually been saying...

A quiz for Sydney drivers

Please complete all questions to the best of your ability. You have thirty minutes. It is raining heavily in Sydney. At about 2pm, you need to drive from the CBD to Strathfield. Which of the following actions should you take? Switch on your headlights Drive at a reduced pace appropriate for the conditions and leave a longer stopping distance to the car in front Drive as close as possible to...

Adventures in Worstpracticeville

This morning, I wrote ~4500 lines of code in about two minutes. Skeptical? I thought you would be, so here's the curious tale of how I deviated from best practice land and wrote 4500 lines of C# code using Excel formulas. It began with an email from a member of the public to the organisation for which I work. To protect the person's identity, we will call her... Mrs Mittens, and we shall paraphrase what she had to say. Mrs Mittens wrote: "I live in a particular street in Rathernicesuburb" So far so good "When I came to your website, however, and was asked to select my street...

«July»
SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
24252627282930
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930311234
 
Vaccination Saves Lives: Stop The Australian Vaccination Network
 
 
Say NO to the National School Chaplaincy Program