Software Freedom Day in Melbourne 2010

I've always considered Open Source or Free Software to be very important in my life, and in my career. I would not be able to do many of the different tasks I do on a daily basis if it was not for the existence of Free Software. I'm sure there are proprietary alternatives, but why would I want to give up my freedoms in supporting other products.

In my daily life, I choose to have a Nokia N900 - a phone that is a computer, that runs Maemo Linux. The computer I am using to type this post is running Ubuntu as its distribution of Linux. It provides the operating system, the desktop, and the browser. All those components are also Open Source. My main desktop is a Gentoo Linux PC.

I have utilized the services provided by Mediawiki to install wikis at different places I have worked in an attempt to share knowledge and make a job easier. I use Wikipedia as a starting point for research into new topics I wish to obtain an understanding.

The company that provides this blog service is also reliant on Free Software. Google (who currently owns Blogger) use Apache, as well as many different components of Free Software to provide their services. According to netcraft.com, many other sites also use Apache as well. Google appears to use Linux as their operating system to host the websites.

I use the term "Open Source" and "Free Software" interchangeably. I know other people that would disagree with me. I'm not here to start a war - just to show there are many definitions to a similar product. Stating that, I have much respect for Richard M. Stallman, although I find some of his views to be extreme. He has to be who he is to have done what he has accomplished.

This leads me to talk about Software Freedom Day in Melbourne for 2010. If you are unaware of what I have been discussing, and would like to find out more, then make your way to it. This year, it is on the 18th September 2010 (Saturday) and, in Melbourne, will be at the State Library of Victoria.

If you are not in the Melbourne, have a look in your local area to see if there is some type of event on. This is not something that is limited to just Melbourne, or Victoria, or even Australia.

If you are interested in more information, the following links may be useful:

• SFD2010 in Melbourne - on kattekrab's blog
• SFD.org.au's Melbourne Page
• softwarefreedomday.org

Blog photo game in Melbourne

Here's the mark:
Ignore the blurring in the photo. If I didn't blur it, it would be too easy to get. The clue is - To get this mark, you'd better factor in a jam.

If you want to know more about the game - read the rules.

6 months back in Melbourne

I've been back in Melbourne now for the past 6 months. I'm enjoying being back in the town where I was raised - especially in comparison to Canberra. Melbourne has its own "vibe". There is always something to do. It is never dull. If you are not into looking at trees and hills in Canberra, then you will get bored very fast.

I have just wrapped up a 6 month contract in Melbourne, and am looking for some time off before I embark on another contract. I do not have anything lined up as I write this, but the market is still quite active, and there are many opportunities I am being introduced to.

While I have some time off, I thought I would resurrect a game I played while I was in Canberra. The reason for starting it was that Canberra was very stagnant, and I was interested in making it more interesting. Unfortunately, it did nothing to make Canberra any better. The game I am talking about is the blog photo game. In the next few days, I am intending to take some photos of Melbourne and post them on this blog. Find the same picture, and take it yourself. In a way, think of this as a different "grassroots" version of foursquare. While thinking up this game, I did not think of replicating it. I do not want to have real-time updates. I do not want to know people exact locations.

So my intention is to take some pictures of Melbourne, and post them on this blog, and see if anyone is willing to take over. There may be several games / threads in play at the same time. At least it will encourage me to get out and take some photos of a great city. If last time was an indication of how this game will work, it will have a small following that will fizzle out. I hope it changes this time.

Feel free to play - everyone is welcome.

Big steaks at the Waterfront

I dined at the Waterfront at the Crown on the weekend. They know how to serve up an impressively sized steak!

The crustacean in mornay sauce was also quite enjoyable. I found the restaurant to be very modern, and all the food was very fresh - including the raw seafood delicacies consumed. The waiting staff were very friendly, knowing how to entertain, while being professional.

Seriously, how many restaurants can serve a steak bigger than someone's hand? The experience was awesome - and I'll be going back!

Why does it have to end with a penalty shootout?

I was apart of the crowd that witnessed the A-League's Grand Final for 2010 between the Melbourne Victory and the Sydney FC. Sydney played a very brutal game. It was a tactic that worked for them. After 12 minutes, Archie Thompson was sent off on a stretcher, and will most likely be missing 12 months with an ACL injury (saying that, Kitty Kat had ACL surgery done on both of her knees). Sydney were not visiting Melbourne for a haircut - they wanted to win the game, and do the Premier / Championship double - which was first done by Melbourne. They wanted to take the trophy back to Sydney. They did it.

After the first 45 minutes, the score was still 0-0. After 90 minutes, it was 1-1. After extra time, it was still 1-1. This is the part I hate the most. Why does it have to go to a penalty shootout? I think it facilitates a quicker result to a game, but if it is the final game of the tournament, they why does it have to end quickly? The final should be the exception, and implement the "golden goal" rule - keep playing until someone scores. First team to make a mistake, or first team to overcome fatigue wins.

It's a horrible way to loose a championship, but I don't think it's a great way to win a championship either. It really is based on luck - and when I say luck, I mean confidence of the goalkeeper and the penalty kick taker.

Well done to the Melbourne Victory for a great season of 2009 - 2010! I look forward to seeing you more often in the next season.

GO VICTORY!!

Where's Ric?

I'm back in Melbourne again. It's been around 2+ years and a lot has changed. Somethings have changed for the worse - somethings have changed for the better. I'm working with a new company, but with an old friend. Lost an ex-wife, but gained a new partner - and this one wants to be around for life. Met some very interesting people while I was working in Canberra, and hopefully they will choose to remain in touch with me.

There's a few things I would like to address with this blog. Firstly, I am still using Gentoo Linux, although I do find Ubuntu Linux a lot easier to administer. There is something about Gentoo which keeps drawing me back. I like it how things may not work correctly when I first used them. It forces me to learn them. I'm currently compiling my Gentoo machine up to the latest repository - well up to about a week ago. It is working, but it has taken some intervention. Things that have changed have been a new version of GNOME as well as a new version of X.org. It seems to be going well. I'll write more about it when it's complete.

Just for your information - if you plan on trying Linux anytime soon, choose Ubuntu over Gentoo. It's been about 6 days since I started upgrading my Gentoo system, and it's still going. A new install could take somewhere in the range of 3 days or so (on my old hardware). I have gotten Ubuntu up and running in about 40 minutes. Another 30 minutes for updates and upgrades and I am fully functional.

Secondly, I would like to continue my observations on Canberra - but they will eventually dwindle down to nothing. They will be based off memory now, and will not be due to direct experiences. I believe I have covered the main points of Canberra, but a few more may pop up.

Look for more to come in the future...

Macarons in Melbourne

Not to be confused with the biscuits you have with coffee (ie. macaroons), if you are in Melbourne, you should make the effort to find La Tropezienne (Glenferrie Road, Hawthrown) and try their delicious macarons.

La Tropezienne macarons

Awesome with coffee... not easy to resist...

My dad lives on with Google's help

Many years ago (1982 to be exact), there was a newspaper article about my father's restaurant. Kitty Kat asked me to do a search on his name, and lo and behold, Google has cached the newspaper article.

My father passed away in 1998, and I miss him greatly. It was a most pleasant surprise to find that even Google knows of him.

They see me rollin' (and eatin')... They hatin'...

So from my last post, I was in Melbourne. Here are some random pics of me in Melbourne doing what I do - either eating or driving...

ric_man on Flinder Street

ric_man eating dumplings

ric_man rollin' past Crown Casino

ric_man eating rum'n'raisin ice cream with lil' sis Urmz looking shocked

Skydeck in Melbourne

Went down to Melbourne for the weekend, and visited the SkyDeck (at the Eureka Tower). It was a windy day, and apparently, if it's very windy, the whole tower can sway up to 600mm. I didn't feel the sway, but I did feel the windows vibrate with the wind...

Great views while I was up there...

My teams are winning...

I was down in Melbourne for the Australia Day weekend. On the Friday night, I was fortunate enough to witness Melbourne Victory win 2-0 over the Wellington Phoenix, and secure the top spot of the A-League ladder for the 2008-09 season. To add to that, the Boston Celtics have started winning again after their 4 game loosing slump, which included a loss at home as well. And it was good to catch up with my bro4Life, Jay, who is now a Celtics follower!

Jay and ric_man

GO VICTORY!

GO CELTICS!

Down in Melbourne for Xmas break

I was down in Melbourne for the Christmas break that most of Australia takes. I'm not a big believer in Christmas, as any meaning behind it appears to have been diluted by the commercial side of marketing and selling of goods and services around this time of year.

So, Christmas day was a nice long drive down from Canberra to Melbourne. Not much traffic on the road, but there were a few speeders. Luckily, they were apprehended by police, which means the police were busy doing what they do. Does anyone else have the belief that in rural areas, if you see a police car pull over a vehicle (for one reason or another), that there will not be another police vehicle for a 5km radius? Maybe it's just me...

I caught up with Jarvo on the 26th after visiting some Boxing Day sales. I think it gets worse every year. The stores are much busier, and this goes back to me thinking of the commercial aspect of this time of year. People buy gifts for the 25th, and then go out and spend again on the 26th. Why not take notes from the Greek Orthodox faith, and celebrate Christmas on the 5th of January (or so), and therefore take advantage of any Boxing Day sales?

27th was lunch at Grizzly's, followed by watching the Melbourne Victory come back from 2 goals down after 5 minutes to eventually winning the game 3-2. Jarvo came along with me, and it was his first time he had seen A-League live. It really is like the slogan suggest - "90 Minutes, 90 Emotions". His friends were initially "giving me grief" over the lack of defence that Melbourne showed in the first 5 minutes, but left happy with the result that the Victory turned the results around into a win.

GO VICTORY!

28th was having breakfast with Jay, and then jumping in the car and driving back to Canberra. We are planning on heading up to Sydney for New Year's Eve with pappaD. Should be a good time...

Awesome looking wedding cake

Went down to Melbourne for the weekend that just went, and was invited to a good friend of mine's wedding. I never had met her future (now-) husband before the ceremony, but she looks really happy, so I'm thinking he's taking good care of her!

The really cool thing at the wedding, besides the ceremony, and the fact she's real happy (with a huge grin), was the wedding cake. It was made of cupcakes, and it had gingerbread people on it (as you can see below):
Good luck with everything Jellybean and Timtam... (I didn't make up those nicknames - actually... I didn't know that was their nicknames before the wedding). May your love and happiness for each other prosper more than what I saw on the day!

Linux Format UK collection

I was at home in Melbourne last weekend and remembered I took a photo of my LinuxFormat UK magazine collection. Here's the photo:


From my calculations, I've got 61 editions at the time of writing (starting at #39). Therefore, I've been collecting this magazine for the past 4½ years.

In that time, not only has the magazine changed, but so has Linux and Open Source in general. The magazine used to come with a supplement known as "Linux Pro". It talked about very business-oriented content and topics. Some were some discussions, and some were tutorials. Linux has moved from the 2.4 kernel to the 2.6 kernel.

The magazine comes in two formats - a CD version and a DVD version. And it's always a great read. The only thing frustrating about this magazine is that since Open Source moves so fast, what the magazine discusses in some articles may already me 6 to 8 weeks old after all the announcements are made on the web.

Still a great read!

New formula Codral, and why it's no good! And why the PS3 and Rayban are doing it wrong...

It's been some time between rants, but the drought is over, and here I go...

I picked up an infection of the sinus while down in Melbourne for Christmas, and went to my trusty supply of Codral, which I have known in the past works like a charm to get the stuffiness out of my head and get me breathing again - as well as numb the pains in the other parts of my body. The box was "Codral: New formula". I thought this was good - "If it's new, it must be an improvement on the old formula". All it was is the same stuff as before with the pseudoephedrine taken out and phenylephrine put in to replace it - actually I can't confirm the ingredients of the tablets, but the packaging and the marketing of the tablets was exactly the same. On the next day, I noticed digg.com had an article about this. The article suggested that phenylephrine is just a placebo compared to pseudoephedrine. But here's the problem, pseudoephedrine has been "quietly" taken out of common over the counter decongestants, and been replaced with phenylephrine. This is to curb the increase of methamphetamine production - don't ask me anything about this, I'm not a chemist in any way. After consuming some new formula Codral, I noticed that while my headache was gone, my nose was still blocked up. I went down to the chemist to find that you can still get the original formula Codral, but had to go through the process of being identified with my driver's licenses - obviously to track me and my purchases in case I wanted to start a career as an illicit drug manufacturer. No problem, except the packet of tablets I was handed looked nothing like the original - it was a different colour. Even the tablets looked different to the original. Thankfully the original formula worked, and I am breathing a whole lot easier.

If anyone is having similar problems, and finding that the medication is not working "like it used to", you're probably in the same situation as I am, and your body doesn't find phenylephrine as useful as pseudoephedrine when clearing a blocked nose. At least in Australia, you can ask for the original stuff, even though it doesn't look at all like the product used to look.

This leads me to what's wrong with other products. I've been a big fan of the Sony PlayStation since the original came out. I remember going over to a friend's house and watching a basketball game and thinking how awesome it was. When the PlayStation2 came out, I had obtained one 3 months later - waiting for the first sale that had a price drop, thus paying only $600, not the original $800. It introduced DVD technology into my home. On top of that, it also introduced DVD technology to my extended family (when players were $1000+, not like today where they're $35). Most importantly, I didn't need 2 machines connected to my television. The PlayStation2 was backward compatible with the PlayStation. And I do still play my old PlayStation games. This leads me to the PlayStation3. They came out with a 60GB hard drive, and backward compatibility with the PlayStation and the PlayStation2 for around $1000. Recently they came out with a 40GB model, no backward compatibility and a price drop to around $650. While this would mean I would be paying less for the PlayStation3 than I did for the PlayStation2, it means I would have to keep two machine under my TV to play all my games - something I do not want to do. And it's bad in the long run for Sony. It's another day I do not upgrade my TV or adopt BluRay - or even worse, go with HD-DVD technology. Sony can fix this by offering the backward compatibility in the current model. Bad decision just to save a few dollars here and there.

Lastly, RayBan have moved away from the "flexi-hinge" on their Wayfarer models, to their original design of the interlocked rivets. None of the optometrists or sunglass sellers can understand why they have done this. It makes the sunglasses not as comfortable. On top of that, the newer model is priced around $309, whereas the older model is still around the $200 mark. Do shop around, you should be able to find some stock, but they are dwindling.

All prices quoted are in Australian Dollars!

Told you I can rant on...

Down in Melbourne for the weekend (again)...

Back down in Melbourne for the weekend again to watch the Melbourne Victory play Wellington Phoenix. It was a bit upsetting that the captain - Kevin Muscat got sent off on red after about half an hour. But like the past few matches, it appears the Victory needed to loose a player to start playing properly. They scored first with a fantastic assist from Archie Thompson to Danny Allsopp, but it didn't end there - like I would have hoped. Wellington answered in the second half with their own goal, which meant the game ended with a 1-1 draw.

I don't know what the Victory need to do to get off the lower half of the ladder - with the obvious exception of starting to win games. They're not playing like they were last year. I think in a way, this was an indication of how much Fred was to their midfield. I know there are people out there who will say Fred didn't do anything for the first half of the season, and I would agree with that, but once Fred got into his rhythm, he was feeding the other players as well as creating gaps in defense.

Once again, my wife and I went out for dinner afterwards. This time it was to another French restaurant called Paris Go. Food was great, and the prices were more reasonable than the other French restaurant I went to a fortnight ago. I would definitely go back, as well as to the other. Awesome steak tartare!

Down in Melbourne for the weekend...

Drove down to Melbourne on the weekend to catch up with my wife and my daughter. Both are doing well, and my wife mentioned that my daughter was extra well behaved while I was down there. She usually growls (ok... keep in mind she's a Vizsla).

Was a little disappointed with the Melbourne Victory vs Sydney FC game which ended in a 0-0 draw, but that is football sometimes.

My wife and I had dinner at the brasserie by Philippe Mouchel at Crown. I love French cuisine, and it was awesome having steak tartare.

Fortunately I've also found a Canberra restaurant that also serves tartare. It seems like food is motivating me at the moment. I'll get around to trying it and informing writing down what I think of it.