Category: Life

We’ve spend a couple of days in the same conference rooms that we were holed up on back in September 2001, discussing a lot of highfalutin technical terms like distributed/mainframe change management and enterprise configuration controls.
We’ve gathered people from Germany, Norway, Brazil, the UK, North America, Canada and Australia to talk about the best way to make computer software. It’s kind of like the United Nations, only with the ability to act on decisions. It’s Australia Day, so I make sure to drop in a few casual references of the recent Ayers Rock trip.
Last year, David’s Strange Australian Turn Of Phrase Not To Be Understood By The Americans was the expression ‘first cab off the rank’. This year, it seems to have been the phrase ‘chalk and cheese’. (The only other person to understand the reference was our UK representative.) I make sure to add at least one cross-cultural educational experience for the locals per visit.

With my first foot outside JFK Airport, I slip. There’s a patch of slick ice just outside the terminal door, and it almost sends me hurtling into oncoming traffic.
The storm is passed, the sun is glaring off 2 feet of freshly fallen snow. It’s hanging off trees, but it’s not melting, because it’s still well below freezing outside. Most cars along the Long Island Expressway are driving with a couple of inches on the top of their cars, and sending chunks of white smacking into the car behind each time they hit a bump.
So, hitting New York 14 hours late leaves me with a few options; I can go straight to work (after 40 hours travel?), or try to get a few hours sleep and start the jet lag recovery. I’ll go for the sleep, I think.

Whenever travelling to the US about this time of year, I always hope for at least a little snow to fall – I’m not bored with it yet. My American friends always look at me a little strangely when I react happily to any insignificant flurry which wafts our way.
However, today, it looks like snow is losing it’s coolness. I’m in the middle of an 11 hour delay at LAX caused by a significant snowstorm over New York. 5 of 6 LA-NY flights have been cancelled (not rescheduled – cancelled). Eavesdropping on cafe conversations, it sounds like I’m lucky to be getting out so soon – some have already been delayed a day, with no prospect of a boarding pass in the foreseeable future.
So, instead of arriving on a Sunday night, ready for work, I’m lobbing in early on Monday morning. Woo hoo. Luckily, Qantas screened a documentary on sleep deprivation on the way here, so I know that I should be stocking up on melatonin right now. Or maybe not. I can’t remember – I was half asleep.
I spied the famous ‘Pokemon Jet’ on the tarmac today – ANA has painted Pikachu and all his friends on the side of a commercial jet, which kicks several home goals for the Japanese Culture of Cute. Caleb will be impressed.
Stay tuned. I’ll rattle around here for a while and see if I can’t bump into Tom Hanks somewhere.

An fascinating snippet of information which has escaped many reports on the tsunami tragedy in South East Asia: despite the massive, and rising, human death toll, workers are yet to find a dead animal in Sri Lanka.

One of our ‘Big Hit’ Christmas presents every year is the traditional ‘family game’ which makes sure we get the chance to play together and, according to the experts, stay together. Usually, it’s a board game, but this year, to commemorate the family’s introduction to Karaoke at my Mum’s 60th birthday, we got ourselves ‘Singstar‘.
By way of introduction to the un-console-able, it’s a karaoke machine (with microphones) for the Playstation 2, with the big bonus that the technology gives you a score based on how well you sing. That’s right. It analyses your pitch, your tone and your timing and presents you with a score at the end of the game, which you can compare with your brother/sister/wife/husband and use for bragging rights for oh, let’s say, the next few weeks. Or until someone practices some more.
It’s great fun.
Now, let’s propose a hypothetical situation. You’re a music director of a large church. You’re responsible for auditioning singers for the worship team. Do you use this technology?
Why do I use the church example? If I were a ‘secular’ band leader or director, I would have no qualms about calling it as I saw it – if you’re a bad singer, you’re out, sunshine. However, in church circles, there’s always pressure to work with less-than-perfect musicians, because, really,it’s the ministry that counts. (I’m not interested in a debate about ministry and talents, but I can deal with that off-line, if you’d like.) Having been in both situations before, I know that there’s real pressure in the church to accept musicians based on qualities beyond their appreciation for pitch and rhythm.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a dispassionate, standard measure of vocal talent beyond your own opinion, so that you would not be blamed of favouritism or any one of a number of other partialities when the teams are announced? Would it not be better to reduce a vocal ability to a number which you could treat in isolation to a myriad of other abilities? “I’m sorry, but your pitch rating is way off. That’s not my opinion, by the way: look at your score”
Of course, the mere idea of asking singers to audition to a machine is a Horrific Thought. I should dismiss it straight away, shouldn’t I?
But what about any one of a number of other areas of life where the rich complexity of our capabilities and talents are reduced to a single number? Finance applications. University entrance scores. Income. And, of course, there’s the big one, Age.
Given that this is probably one of the first times this sort of technology has been made available on a mass-market scale, it will be interesting to see whether it creeps into any other areas of life. Would Australian Idol auditions be more productive with this technology? Can you envisage Channel 10 bringing back ‘Dexter’, of Perfect Match fame, to give a rating of each contestant on their scientifically monitored pitch and timing? Can we borrow Channel 9’s ‘election debate worm’ so we can actually see the moment someone falls off the note?
I’m not saying that pitch, quality and timing are everything. (cough cough BOB DYLAN cough.) It’d just be sooo cool to have something to compare people with, other than the opinions of Dicko, Holden and Hines. Or myself.
I think I get some idea of how those mad scientists feel. Here we have the power to advance the music industry in strange new ways, all of which are too icky to contemplate.

This classic ‘great minds think alike’ moment brought to you by Baggas
After a 3 and a half hours sleep, I find my mind wandering to the blogosphere by early afternoon (instead of more pressing bit-juggling required by my employer…) The first post I see is an eye-opener: from Baggas’ Blog, extolling the virtues of polyphasic sleep. You can apparently reduce your need for sleep to about 3-4 hours a day, just like Winston Churchill and Cosmo Kramer, simply by sleeping less at the right times.
As a chronic sleeperinnerer, and a world-wide telecommuter, this might be an interesting concept to explore. I’ll set the alarm.

While the death toll continues to rise in South-east Asia, there’s some good news to be found: I quote from ET Online:

Popular ‘Oprah’ Guest Survives Tsunami
December 27, 2004

One of OPRAH WINFREY’s most popular guests, celebrity interior designer NATE BERKUS, was in Sri Lanka when the devastating tsunami struck the tropical island…. Berkus, who’s appeared on the “Oprah” show numerous times, reportedly said that he and a friend were sleeping in a beachfront cottage at Arugam Bay when the roof was torn off and they were swept into the ocean with debris. Berkus found refuge on the roof of another home with about 50 other survivors, but his friend has gone missing.

Just noticed these other headlines on CNN
* Swimsuit model survives tsunami
* Tsunamis shatter celebrity holidays
Boy. It’s good to know McClurg’s law is alive and well.
UPDATE – Dec 30: It’s not just America. It seems Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also has a case of misdirected priorities. Quoted by Msnbc, the newly elected president says

The last three days have been the most difficult days of my presidency, and a most trying moment for my nation

At this time, I’d suggest the world is disinterested in your workload, sir.
UPDATE – Dec 30: George Bush sure loves a stoush. To quote his latest scripted pronouncement on the tragedy

We will prevail over this destruction.

Who writes these slogans? Does anyone care that they don’t make sense?
Man, this guy loves fighting stuff. Stay tuned for the ‘War On Nature’.

Regular readers might have been wondering about the lack of posts recently. Once again, thanks to my loving webhosts who broke the website again. It’s been a long time getting fixed, and in that time, I’ve been traveling a bit, and there’s been a few interesting things happen.
Now, the story of ‘Dave’s Brakeslam tour of the East Coast‘ is complete, and things seem to be back and working again. I tell you, if these clowns keep fiddling with the site, I might have to do something about it. Seriously.