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March 29, 2005
Adding client-side markup to web pages
Damm - that's cool! But it looks like there's nothing like it for Firefox :-(
And if it had some way of centrally storing the markup metadata (so I could automatically access it from any of the 3 computers I use regularly), then it would probably be enough to sway me back to using IE as my default browser.
Posted by Andy Marks at 04:55 PM | Comments (2)
March 20, 2005
The State Transition Game Part II
Ahhhh, moving house - nothing like it to consume money, patience and good will in roughly equal measures! Well, we're finally pretty much settled back in Melbourne again, minus some delayable tasks like changing over vehicle registration and the like.
Two memorable moments (for entirely the wrong reason):
(1) The person delivering our furniture moving his arrival time a full 12 hours over the course of the day, via updates every 1-2 hours. That's right, instead of having the cajones to 'fess up to some poor time and/or resource management somewhere along the line, we were shunted no less than 5 time during the day. Normally this wouldn't worry me unduly, but in this case my heavily pregnant girlfriend and I were waiting in an empty house for the entire day with nowhere for her to sit down.
Infinitely preferable would have been a call in the morning to say that he would be there late in the evening so we could either (a) make much better use our time during the day or (b) spend the night elsewhere rather than waiting for the load-in to finish at 12:30am!
Still, at least I was getting constant notification that the deadlines were slipping, which I cannot say for my old buddy Telstra Bigpond...
(2) Because of the nature of my work, I tend to move around a bit and, as a result, have had 4 separate ADSL installations (including this one just gone). And although Bigpond have never once managed to get the installation done on the day originally stated, I was somehow lulled into the belief that this time would be different.
So I was genuinely surprised when the due date rolled past and my ADSL modem was green-and-blinking rather than green-and-solid. The usual 10 minutes spent waiting on hold and the chirpy service person spoke to the connections team and informed me that my ADSL connection had in fact... not been connected, but there was no-one around who could explain why.
The next day (plus 10 minutes for the waiting again) and I found out that there had been a large number of connections at my exchange and everyone was working overtime to get them done (obviously not the previous night when I rang though :-)) and they would definitely have it connected that night... or the night after.
Now gullible I may be, but I can hear taste the urine amongst the sugar like the next guy, so this time I wasn't at all surprised when the next night rolled around and I was still green-and-blinking but thankfully I stopped blinking sometime the next day.
I'm guessing Mr Bigpond was sick the day they taught Customer Service at Deregulated Telecommunications school.
Posted by Andy Marks at 09:16 PM | Comments (2)
March 01, 2005
The State Transition Game
As I type this, I'm sitting in an almost empty bedroom of an almost empty house as a pair of burly removalists move box after packed box into their truck for the long trip south from Brisbane, Queensland to Melbourne, Victoria. After around 14 months of being a Queensland resident and six months commuting prior to that, I'm moving back to my home town of Melbourne for a new project, new client (both as yet undecided) and a new role as a father when my darling Amelia gives birth in roughly three months time!
So with the little time I have left before my phone line is disconnected, and with it my ADSL connection, I'll do a quick recap on my fave and not-so-fave moments of my time in Brisbane.
Firstly, many thanks to my ThoughtWorks collegues who I've had the pleasure of working with whilst I've been up here. It's been a lot of fun guys... at times :-) Many thanks also to the team at Wotif where I've spent my last 9 months working - thanks for making me feel so welcome! Ditto to the guys at the QJUG, especially for being such a great audience at my last presentation.
To Brisbane itself - well, I certainly wont miss your mazes of one-way streets and too-late street signs telling you that the turnoff you needed was "back there" but now you're on the Gold Coast freeway. Ditto to the two-wheeled cycling lunatics I share pavement time with each day to and from the office. On the other hand, the paths around the Brisbane river can make cycling a far more enjoyable experience when compared to duelling it our on the roads. Brisbane is such a pretty city along the river, especially around the Southbank and Bot. Gardens areas!
Farewell to the great restaurants we've eaten at; Anise, Isis, Ecco, Cirque, Bruno's Tables, Banyan Tree (hit-n-miss unfortunately), Sono and Cha Cha Char are the one that spring immediately to mind. Pizza-wise - well I'm sure Brisbane has good pizza somewhere, but I sure as hell didn't find any :-(
Farewell to the renowned Queensland weather - a little too warm, too often in summer for my liking, but fabulous throughout the other seasons and the summer evening thunderstorms are a joy to behold. As a "Mexican", it never ceased to bring a smile to my face seeing locals wearing gloves and a scarf on "chilly" mornings of 18 degrees or so.
Not sure how I feel about the lack of daylight savings and (comparatively) early sunrises. My regular 5:30am start has turned me into a morning person and I do love being so productive before work, but every now and again I crave a long sleep in that other climates allow.
Goodbye to all the cinemas I've frequented during my visit, especially the Regent (absolutely gorgeous interiors), Centro (so close to home) and Southbank (so close to work and great value).
I must admit I'm very much looking forward to returning to a move AFL friendly environment, even with the increased focus on the Lions up here.
Dreamworld was fabulous, Surfers is a hole, Noosa was great, as was Cairns and the Reef. Rumour has it that good coffee is extremely hard to find, although not being a drinker myself, I cannot comment personally. The opening hours remind me of Melbourne 20 years ago, so I'm sure that will change.
So that's about it for my Brisbane wrap-up. I've probably missed mentioned lots of great stuff and just as much which didn't rock my boat as much. Oh well.
Posted by Andy Marks at 01:34 PM | Comments (4)