I have come to the conclusion that Internet quota is wrong. Unfair, awful, evil, wrong. I’ve been over quota at Warrane for quite a while, although I manage due to some convenient loopholes involving a Socks proxy and SSH port forwarding. Ahem. But now I’m over quota at CSE (again! although this time I used up what I was entitled to, rather than what they grudgingly gave me…). Kind of makes it pointless to be at work. (I’m at Warrane right now on my lunchbreak.)

In better news, Australia Day was fun. Went into the city with the other summer research student in my group, and we saw the ferry race, the tall ships race, the Roulettes flyover (well, four of them at least… whoops), etc. Then we went to Hyde Park for the food and wine show, and discovered the NRMA vintage car show on the way. And the NRMA Stage where they were playing jazz all day. Later on the harbour the Army parachuters showed off with some flares and flags and stuff, landing in Sydney Cove. The Navy dropped a guy into the water from a helicopter and then winched him to safety. Four times. (Gotta make sure everybody gets a good view )

In the evening, we went to Darling Harbour for the show. They paraded the day’s Best Dressed Vessels (although we missed that, cos we were eating dinner), the Working Boats of Sydney Harbour (not in a Working Girls sense, but in a ferries, firemen, police, coastguard, etc sense), and the tall ships. Then they droned at us for a while about the inspiring new Young Australian of the Year for NSW (might have been interesting in a different setting), then the Governor of New South Wales tried to get our interests up, but the crowd was only there for one thing. Fireworks. A solid 45 minutes of fireworks. Wow.

In other other news, I’ve just booked my flight home. Woohoo!

Some observations from the NICTA lab in UNSW:

• The guy in the office next to my cubicle has spent all day, every day of the last few weeks, patiently explaining his reasons for doing something one way and not the other to one of about three different people. This strikes me as not a particularly fun way to spend your working days. On the other hand
• While working on the RoboCup Legged League robots has the (significant!) advantage that you get to play with a Sony Aibo all day long (yes, there’s a guy a few cubicles along doing this), it also has the significant disadvantage that everybody who walks past your cubicle stops for a while to watch you, ahem, work. (or rather, play with the cool toys.)
• Apple products have a universal appeal. You could trace the spread of the MacWorld announcements through the Lab. (“22 grams… that’s extraordinary!” and “I want one… no, I need one!”)
• Offering the vacation students “any stationery you need” is dangerous when the catalog you leave on their desk stretches all the way from staplers and pens to laptops, office furniture and coffee machines… heh heh heh.