http://www.ockle.org/blog Martin's Minddump. Mindfield. Data Minding. Whatever. Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:27:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've often noticed that you can get a good handle on the difference in mentality between Melbourne and Sydney by checking the "Most viewed articles" box on www.theage.com.au, and comparing the most read articles in the SMH and the Age. Since I first observed this, they've kindly added the ... http://www.ockle.org/blog/2008/07/02/starbucks-in-sydney Martin: Oh look, there's the Euro fanzone, let's go inside and see what they've done with all that prime real estate. Fat-Necked Security Guard: No. Martin: Huh? FNSG: Your camera. Too big. (Security guards talk in short sentences.) M: What?? FNSG: Too big. Too professional. M: Please tell me you're joking. Another FNSG (they also hunt ... http://www.ockle.org/blog/2008/06/08/a-football-story An image is worth 1000 words. So here's several thousand words to make up for the recent silence. (Blogfade? I laugh in your face. Ha. Ha. Ha.) The start of my garden... What the birds did to my basil plant Food at Google Earning a bit on the side ("breast enlargement through ... http://www.ockle.org/blog/2008/06/01/recently-collected-images Today's evidence: The front page of the Palo Alto Mercury News praises the AMGEN Tour of California bicycle race as having (and I quote) "more cowbell". At the next table during dinner, a young man entertains his date with a detailed explanation of how he has his work mobile and home phone ... http://www.ockle.org/blog/2008/02/19/silicon-valley-is-crazy Yup, I'm back in Silicon Valley, for a slightly longer stay this time (4 weeks). Wasn't so long ago that I was here last, but I'm still stunned by how bizarre it is. Got asked today by a kid on the street if I had MySpace. WTF?? ... http://www.ockle.org/blog/2008/02/17/back-in-the-usa Some things are so powerful merely as concepts that the fact that they physically exist is really superfluous. Possibly even somewhat offensive. The Eiffel Tower, for instance. I was in Paris a few months ago, and was somewhat unsettled by the fact that the Eiffel Tower was ... http://www.ockle.org/blog/2008/01/09/some-things-dont-need-to-exist It's amazing how quickly a place becomes home. I thought I'd feel relieved to visit Germany again, and not have to work quite so hard to understand what people are saying to me; and I was, don't get me wrong. But whatever you say about the Swiss (and ... http://www.ockle.org/blog/2008/01/05/home I don't know if I have any readers in East Africa, but just in case: ---- Do you dream of developing an application for consumers globally? Do you have software coding and design skills you'd love to put to practical use? Or... are you simply a techie with too much time on ... http://www.ockle.org/blog/2007/12/17/compete-to-build-a-gadget-east-africa Well, again I have let the weeds grow over this blog a little, but again I have a good excuse. I have been finishing a Masters thesis: Realtime generation of multimodal affective sports commentary for embodied agents. And since finishing this thesis mid-October, I have moved to Zürich, ... http://www.ockle.org/blog/2007/11/18/zurich I went to Paris last week. I have been delaying posting about it because (a) I wanted to wait for the photos to be developed, and (b) I have been writing a Masters Thesis, and if that doesn't count as Better Things To Do then I don't know what ... http://www.ockle.org/blog/2007/09/30/paris