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Technical Topics in Computing, Canberra December 2016

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 29, 2016
Post category:Events Technical Topics TT December 2016

Recently I’ve been feeling like I've been missing the chance to hear about cool technical projects people are working on in a depth not possible at a CLUG meeting because of time constraints. Many years ago, AUUG used to run a weekend "summer conference" that was almost free and addressed some of this issue. That conference died a natural death when linux.conf.au got big, but I think maybe it's time to bring that back. So, I'd like to propose a simple weekend meetup in Canberra. I would make it free, but I feel like the no-show rate is lower for events which charge a token amount. I'm thinking something like $20 is small enough not to be painful, but enough that people will value their tickets. Any profit would be donated to some form of community group at the end, but I haven’t picked one yet. The Saturday of the event would be organised talks, with the goal of the talks being to inspire attendees to have a hack on a new project on the second day of the weekend. The second day would be an unstructured hackfest to explore whatever is interesting after the talks of the previous day.…

Oryx and Crake

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 28, 2016
Post category:Book

I bought this book ages ago, on the recommendation of a friend (I don't remember who), but I only just got around to reading it. Its a hard book to read in places -- its not hopeful, or particularly fun, and its confronting in places -- especially the plot that revolves around child exploitation. There's very little to like about the future society that Atwood posits here, but perhaps that's the point. Despite not being a happy fun story, the book made me think about things like genetic engineering in a way I didn't before and I think that's what Atwood was seeking to achieve. So I'd have to describe the book as a success.

Potato Point

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 23, 2016
Post category:Diary

I went to Potato Point with the Scouts for a weekend wide game. Very nice location, apart from the ticks!

High Output Management

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 24, 2016
Post category:Book

A reading group of managers at work has been reading this book, except for the last chapter which we were left to read by ourselves. Overall, the book is interesting and very readable. Its a little dated, being all excited with the invention of email and some unfortunate gender pronouns, but if you can get past those minor things there is a lot of wise advice here. I'm not sure I agree with 100% of it, but I do think the vast majority is of interest. A well written book that I'd recommend to new managers.

Bad Pharma

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 21, 2016
Post category:Book

Another excellent book by Ben Goldacre. In this book he argues that modern medicine is terribly corrupted by the commercial forces that act largely unchecked in the marketplace -- studies which don't make a new drug look good go missing; new drugs are compared only against placebo and not against the current best treatment; doctors are routinely bribed with travel, training and small perks. Overall I'm left feeling like things haven't improved much since this book was published, given that these behaviors still seem common. The book does offer concrete actions that we could take to fix things, but I don't see many of these happening any time soon, which is a worrying place to be. Overall, a disturbing but important read.

Exploring the Jagungal

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 12, 2016
Post category:Diary

Peter Thomas kindly arranged for a variety of ACT Scout leaders to take a tour of the Jagungal portion of Kosciuszko National Park under the guidance of Robert Green. Robert is very experienced with this area, and has recently written a book. Five leaders from the Macarthur Scout Group decided to go along on this tour and take a look at our hiking options in the area. The first challenge is getting to the area. The campsite we used for the first day is only accessible to four wheel drive vehicles -- the slope down to the camp site from Nimmo Plain is quite rocky and has some loose sections. That said, the Landcruiser I was in had no trouble making the trip, and the group managed to get two car style four wheel drives into the area without problems as well. The route to Nimmo Plain from the south of Canberra is as follows: [kml: 20160411-writeup-1] We explored two areas which are both a short drive from Nimmo Plain. We in fact didn't explore anything at Nimmo Plain itself, but as the intermediate point where the road forks it makes sense to show that bit of route first. From…

Downbelow Station

Post author:mikal
Post published:March 17, 2016
Post category:Book

As I write up comments on books I've read in the last little while but left lying around my desk instead of blogging and filing, I find this book sitting there taunting me. I really wanted to like this book, I was quite excited when I bought it. However, Its Cherryh at her worst -- wordy and kind of goes nowhere. There's an interesting idea here, but the book needs to be half its current length. I got half way through and gave up. A disappointment.

Killing Floor

Post author:mikal
Post published:March 17, 2016
Post category:Book

I'd seen the Reacher movie (it was ok, but not amazing), but was trapped in an airport with a book too close to the end for comfort. So I bought the first Jack Reacher novel. I'm impressed to be honest -- its well written, readable, and not trying to be Tom Clancy. Where Clancy would get lost in the blow by blow details of how military hardware works, this story is instead about how the main character feels and where their intuition is up to at that point. Sure, he explains that the shot gun pointed at his is dangerous, but doesn't get too lost in the detail. I enjoyed this book, and its a well written mystery tale. I'll read more from this series I am sure.

Monty: His Part in My Victory

Post author:mikal
Post published:March 17, 2016
Post category:Book

This is the third book in Spike Milligan's war memoirs (volume 1; volume 2). Combat has now died down in Africa, and no one is ready to be shipped to a new field of combat yet. The troops are therefore getting bored. Suddenly the establishment recalls that Milligan can play the trumpet and the band reforms. Most of this book is spent being shuffled between army staging areas, and performing music. Regardless of little "happening", still an engaging read.

Rommel? Gunner Who?

Post author:mikal
Post published:March 17, 2016
Post category:Book

At the end of the previous Spike Milligan war memoir, Spike and his comrades had just been packed up into a ship to start travelling to Africa to engage the Nazis. This book picks up straight from there are follows them from first arrival in Africa to their first experiences of combat. Spike fought in the Battle of Longstop Hill, where his artillery unit played a part in victory. Along the way Spike loses his first close friend to enemy fire. Spike has an amazing talent for taking a tough subject and making it interesting and light hearted. Its not disrespectful, but shows that there were moments of levity in difficult times. Much like the previous book this one was very readable and I enjoyed it.