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Random observations

Finally, we’re through

Yesterday, I was edgy. I could barely eat dinner. I was a bundle of nerves. For last night the Socceroos faced off against Uruguay in the second leg of the World Cup Qualifier by the end of which we’d either have qualified for the World Cup in Germany next year or be condemned to another four years of footballing obscurity.

I’d arranged to have dinner at my parents house so that we could all watch the match together on the widescreen TV. I didn’t eat much. My legs were bouncing up and down with nervous energy from the kick-off. This was made worse because Australia had an inauspicious beginning to the match. They took a long time to settle into the match. Uruguay were definitely on top in the opening stages, and my heart began to sink a little. But then Australia found their feet. Hiddink replaced a defender, the excellent Tony Popovic, with an attacker, the talisman Harry Kewell. By then, things had truly started to turn around. Before long, Australia were a goal to the good. Marco Bresciano scored from close range after good work from Kewell and Viduka. Spirits were raised, but in the back of my mind was the knowledge that all it would take is one goal from Uruguay and we’d be back to where we started. Worse, in fact. We’d have had to score another two goals to go through to the World Cup. Uruguay had their chances too. There were several heart stopping moments. The second half was all Australia. The Uruguayan danger man, Recoba, was substituted. Montero pulled a hamstring and was also subbed. Extra-time. Dreaded penalties. Switched between rapid breathing and not breathing at all. Schwarzer saved a penalty. Viduka missed his penalty but Schwarzer unbelievably saved another one! Aloisi’s penalty sent us through to the World Cup.

I can’t believe we’ve finally qualified to play in the greatest sporting tournament on Earth. I still remember Australia being beaten by Scotland in 1985 in the qualifiers for Mexico ’86. Every four years since then has been heartbreak. Now, finally, Australian football will have its day in the sun. More than that, it will compete with AFL and the Rugby codes as the top sport in this country.

Guus Hiddink is a miracle worker. He’s had the job of Socceroos manager for little more than four months, and he’s been able to achieve what no other coach has since 1974. Give the man a medal. Make him an honorary Aussie. Something. Credit should also go to the new Australian football administration. Frank Lowy and John O’Neill, you’re legends. If it weren’t for them, Australia would not have a manager of the calibre of Guus Hiddink. Also thanks to the likes of Johnny Warren, Les Murray, Craig Foster and the entire Australian football fraternity who have pushed so hard for the necessary changes to be made to football in our country, and who never once let go of the dream.

There must be something about World Cups in Germany, because the only other time Australia has played in a World Cup was in 1974 in Germany. But I think it will be a more regular occurrence from now on. No longer does Australia need to face the fifth best South American team to make the World Cup. We’re now in the Asian confederation, which means we get to play group matches just like everybody else. It means we can afford to lose a game or two and still finish top of a group and qualify for the World Cup directly. It also means we’ll be playing the likes of Japan, Korea and China, who, while formidable in their own right these days, are not quite of the same quality as the South Americans.

My thoughts on the match:

  • Bloody brilliant, for starters;
  • Hiddink made an inspired team selection and then even more inspired substitutions;
  • Our defence is still looking too fragile at times. We could so easily have been punished;
  • For all our possession and pressure over the two legs, we didn’t make it count. Even in the first leg we had more of the ball than Uruguay, and it would have been nice to kill off the tie in the first leg by scoring an away goal. Not to mention my heart and those of all other football mad Australians would have been spared a substantial amount of torture;
  • Our midfield is looking really strong. Grella, Bresciano and the others were awesome;
  • Schwarzer was solid during the match and incredible during the penalty shoot-out;
  • Winning that match is the single best thing that could have happened for football in this country. It was one of Australia’s greatest sporting moments. The only thing that could top it is actually winning the World Cup itself.

Karen’s thoughts on the match:

  • Uruguay’s uniform was spiffier than Australia’s, especially their socks;
  • Harry Kewell needs a new hair dresser; he’d be quite cute if he had a different haircut.

It shouldn’t be overlooked that Dwight Yorke’s Trinidad & Tobago also qualified for their first ever World Cup overnight, by beating Bahrain 1-0 in the second leg of their playoff. Next year’s World Cup will feature several teams who have never played in a World Cup previously: Trinidad & Tobago, Ukraine, Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo and Ghana. This just goes to show what a truly world game football is. Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo and Ghana have qualified at the expense of the established African giants Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa. Nigeria and Cameroon were widely considered to be likely winners of the World Cup within the next few tournaments. Ghana are very strong at youth level, and they are one of the strongest African teams, so it’s quite astonishing that Germany 2006 will be their first World Cup.

Right now, it just feels brilliant that Australia has finally qualified. Johnny Warren would be so proud. Can’t wait until June next year! Hey, I’ll be married by then. Cool.

Categories
Random observations

Terror threat in Brisbane

This is quite alarming. If the threat is real, may the culprits be arrested and thrown in gaol for the rest of their pathetic, insignificant lives. Do the new laws allow for that?

If the threat isn’t real, then could the authorities please have the public transport system up and running again by 5pm this afternoon.

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Random observations

Moved In

Well, Karen and I have moved into our new house. The move went very smoothly, but there’s still boxes everywhere, of course. Random seems to like his new home.

We had dinner at my Mum’s and Dad’s house on Saturday night after we’d done as much unpacking and arranging of furniture as we could. Even though I’ve only moved a few suburbs away from my parents and brother, saying goodbye was pretty hard. So Saturday was a happy day and a sad day at the same time. I know it’s going to take some time for Mum, in particular, to readjust to the way things are now.

There’s a few things that need doing to the house in the short-term. Karen and I are looking forward to putting our own touches to the house. Should be fun!

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Random observations

The Cat Empire

Last night Karen took me to see The Cat Empire at the Tivoli Theatre. It was a graduation present (gosh I’m lucky, although I’m still waiting for somebody in ITEE to give me the go-ahead to print the bound copies of my thesis). Anyway, the concert was totally awesome. I was blown away by the performance. You often hear a recording of a live concert that doesn’t sound much like the studio recordings. The Cat Empire live sounded just like the Cat Empire on CD, only they extended each number with fantastic improvisations. I am definitely even more of a Cat Empire fan now than I was before.

The warm up act was performed by King Curly, who were not too bad. They played a style of music which might be described as "lounge rock": rock mixed with laid back jazz.

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Random observations

Seamless and Seamful Computing

A few weeks back Ben and I met at Three Monkeys for a chat about work and life in general. Inevitably, our discussion turned to pervasive computing. Ben spoke about the idea of seamfulness as opposed to seamlessness, which I found interesting. He’s written a short blog entry about it. I think the quote in his blog entry is from Elizabeth Goodman’s blog. Here’s what she said:

Ubicomp-the-conference and ubicomp-the-field are frustrating because they promise the impossible. The promise of computing technology dissolving into behavior, invisibly permeating the natural world around us cannot be reached. Technology is, of course, that which by definition is separate from the natural; it is explicitly designed that way. Technology only becomes truly invisible when, like the myriad of pens sold in Japan’s department stores, it’s no longer seen as technology at all. Deliberately creating something ‘invisible’ is self-defeating. I can think of few recent technologies as visible to the public as RFID, no matter how physically ‘invisible’ it might be.

Yet again, confusion reigns supreme in the UbiComp debate. Much of this confusion stems from the notion of invisibility and the relative importance conferred to that concept. UbiComp doesn’t seek to make all technology invisible, no matter what it’s critics believe. What it does try to do is hide those aspects of technology that needn’t be visible to humans. Take the RFID example. For many applications, RFID is a better solution than older technologies like bar code scanners because it does away with user interaction in a situation where user interaction is not required. When Elizabeth Goodman talks of RFID being highly visible despite its small size, I can only assume she means it has gained wide exposure in the media and in research publications. But this is talking about a different kind of visibility! Any technology, when first deployed, is bound to attract attention. It’s what happens after the hype dies down and the novelty wears off that counts. The fact of the matter is that RFID is closer to being invisible than bar codes and the other technologies it will replace. That can hardly be argued with under the assumption that RFID works as it is supposed to (and given the uptake of the technology by logistics companies, e-ticketing systems and the like, it appears that it does work well for many applications). Furthermore, this talk of having computers blending with the natural environment is a complete red herring, designed to draw your attention away from one of the real goals of ubiquitous computing, which is simply to release users from explicit interaction with technology as far as it is possible and sensible to do within certain applications of technology. The extent to which this is possible and the degree to which it remains sensible is determined by the users themselves.

It strikes me that it is often those criticising UbiComp whom attribute the most marvellous traits to it. Of course the more outlandish the "promises" of UbiComp become, the easier it is for its critics to knock it down. Ubiquitous computing is just that: computing that has moved beyond the desktop and which becomes integrated with many aspects our everyday lives. The technologies that will enable this in a way that is satisfying to users are subject to ongoing research and debate within the UbiComp community.

Slowly but surely, some technologies are receding to the background. This will not happen for all computer technologies: users gain value from many technologies precisely because they are visible and their boundaries are well-defined. But by the same token, there is a large category of technologies which the user need not be conscious of. RFID is an example already given, but there’s also simple things like sensors that switch the airconditioner on when you arrive home from work, or the software that seamlessly re-routes a telephone call to an appropriate device nearby, doing away with the need for a human operator to redirect the call. These are all examples where their users do benefit from their invisibility and seamlessness. It will be users (the market) who decide the extent and rate at which technology recedes to the background and becomes part of our work, home, shopping and social environments, but it will certainly happen for some technologies.

For sure, seamfulness has its place too. Ben gave me this really cool example. There’s a game played with GPS- and Wi-Fi-enabled PDAs. There are two teams, and each team has a safe. The playing field is randomly seeded with virtual coins that are visible on the PDA screen. The object of the game is to move as many coins as possible from the playing field to the safe. You collect a coin by moving to its GPS coordinates. Coins can be stolen in transit (kind of like a mugging). But Wi-Fi suffers from gaps in coverage, especially when there are buildings and other objects around. The game works because players can take advantage of these black spots to sneak a coin back to the safe without getting mugged. Upon collecting a coin, a player can jump into a black spot and then emerge from it at a point closest to the safe. Thus the seams of the Wi-Fi technology can actually be of some value in certain applications. However nobody woud dispute that it is also highly useful to a much larger range of applications when it maintains invisibility and seamlessness, showing that there’s a place for seamlessness and seamfulness in the future of computing.

Categories
Random observations

Australian Citizenship test

You call that a knife, this is a knife. True of false?

The Australian Citizenship test is pure gold.

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Random observations

Our House

At just before 4pm yesterday afternoon, Karen and I became the proud new owners of a lovely little house in Ellen Grove. Karen’s currently in Cyprus on work matters, so we won’t be moving in immediately. I suggested that I could have everything moved in by the time she gets back, but Karen needs to make sure that everything gets put in its right and proper place. ;-) Regardless, it won’t be long now before our new address is Ellen Grove.

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Devonshire tea review

High Tea at the City Garden’s Cafe

On Sunday previous, we (Karen’s family and mine) celebrated Karen’s birthday at the City Gardens Cafe. Neither Karen nor I had ever partaken of a proper high tea before, so it was something we were both looking forward to.

Since I haven’t done a Devonshire Tea review in a while, I will do a short one for the high tea instead.
The food, of which there was an abundance, was served on a three tiered platter. The bottom platter had an assortment of pesto sandwiches. The middle tier had battered fish pieces, meat balls and scones with jam and cream. The top platter had a multitude of sweets such as cakes, slices and white chocolate. Everything was delicious. The scones were small, but perfectly baked. (Their small size was more than compensated for by all the other food anyway.) The jam and cream came in the requisite little pots, and the tea itself was better than acceptable, though there was not nearly enough of it. The setting couldn’t have been more perfect. The cafe is situated on top of a hill towards the rear of the Brisbane Botanical Gardens. We all went for a walk after eating our fill.

I’d definitely go to the City Gardens Cafe for high tea again. 9/10.

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Eco-philo-pol

Transferring money internationally

I had a sum of money held in an account at the Bank of America. My problem was how to get this money back to Australia quickly and cost-effectively. Due to the said bank instituting some very strict regulations (or maybe it just hasn’t moved into the 21st century) and a very modest weekly withdrawal limit, my options were limited. I thought simply closing the account might be the easiest way if they’d wire the balance of my account to my nominated bank. But alas, I cannot close the account remotely (via phone, letter or fax) unless the balance of the account is zero. I have a cheque book which is exempt from the withdrawal limit, but it takes nearly a month for an international cheque to clear these days and my local Australian bank suggested I find an alternative means of getting my money home. The Bank of America’s online banking system allows transfers only to accounts held with other US banks, and even then only to accounts that are held in your name. I could have used my cheque (or check, if you want to use the American spelling) card, but the withdrawal limit meant I’d have to transfer my cash in installments, with each transaction incurring foreign exchange charges as well as any other charges the banks wanted to tack on. So, I started investigating alternative methods.

One option was to use PayPal. This solution is quite attractive, because the fees are quite competitive, and I can hook up both my US and Australian bank accounts to a single PayPal account. By setting up my PayPal account to directly debit the funds from my US account, and then to credit my Australian account, I could get my cash home fairly cheaply. Direct debits, like cheques, seem to be exempt from the withdrawal limit. The costs in using PayPal are incurred in the conversion from US dollars to Australian dollars. There are no fees, per se, for withdrawing money from your PayPal account, as long as you withdraw above a certain threshold amount. Furthermore, there are no withdrawal limits once you’ve verified your identity.

I looked into using traditional telegraphic transfer companies such as Western Union, but that was a no go since there was no way to transfer my funds from the Bank of America to the wire service.

Moneybookers was another potential option, but again, I could not get my funds from the Bank of America to Moneybookers, because Moneybookers’ Bank Account is held in Frankfurt. Besides which, due to the restriction that I must own any account I’m transferring money to via SWIFT or whatever, Moneybookers turned out not to be a viable alternative.

I also came upon OzForex, who are an online foreign exchange service. You open an account with them, and you can buy and sell almost any currency through them. I needed to sell US dollars and buy Aussie. I told them I needed a US account into which I could deposit my money, and it turned out they had one (at this point I wasn’t aware of the Bank of America transfer restrictions; in fact, I’d called up Bank of America to confirm that I could transfer money to someone else’s account held at another US bank and they said it wouldn’t be a problem!). Of course, it turned out I couldn’t transfer money to their US account because I didn’t own that account. But, I thought, what if I could transfer money to their account via PayPal, thereby taking advantage of OzForex’s excellent rates and low fees, and avoiding any PayPal fees? Unfortunately, anti-money laundering regulations prevent OzForex from accepting deposits from a PayPal account, since PayPal is essentially acting as a third party. Nevertheless, I found OzForex’s customer support to be absolutely fantastic. They were on top of everything, and tried to ensure that everything was progressing smoothly. When you trade currency through OzForex, you’re more or less exposed to spot market rates, meaning OzForex’s rates are more volatile than the rates you get at banks, who generally leave their rates unchanged for hours at a time. This means it’s possible that at any given moment, you might be better off converting your money through a bank. But the thing is, with OzForex you can credit your account, and then have the conversion take place at a time of your choosing. You can even make a limit order, which means you instruct OzForex to buy or sell one currency for another at a target rate that is better than the current spot rate. This allows you to beat the banks on most occasions. Their testimonials page makes for interesting reading. If ever I have a need to transfer money internationally in the future, I’ll be sure to remember OzForex.

In the end, the pure PayPal solution won out. A bit more expensive than if I’d been able to use OzForex, but cheaper and much faster than transferring the money via cheque or ATM withdrawal.

Categories
Random observations

CSIRO Job

Peter Corke at the CSIRO ICT centre in Pullenvale has asked me to spread the word about a position his group is looking to fill as soon as possible. In fact, he says ideally he’d like to start the successful candidate tomorrow if he could. Here are the details.

The job is within the sensor nets research program, and covers the following areas:

  • Sensor net applications
  • Routing in sensor nets
  • Data muling (i.e., collecting data from sensors and transporting that data via mobile nodes back to a base location)
  • Web backends
  • Data service integration

The position is a 12 month contract and attracts a mid-$60k salary. Please contact Peter directly if you’re interested. Otherwise, please tell your friends about this job.