I’ve been pretty busy with work.  And family.  And all kinds of other stuff.

Perhaps, one day, I shall have the time to sit in a coffee shop with a nice strong espresso and pour my deepest thoughts onto the Internet.  Perhaps I will, instead, pour some useful content onto the Internet, and some will like it.  In the meantime, I must work for the man.

• 2 eggs “fried well done” (”over hard” if you’re in America)
• bacon (Australian Bacon: it’s like American Bacon and Canadian Bacon got together for a weekend in Vegas that they refuse to talk about)
• Sausage
• Sauteed Mushrooms
• Baked Beans
• Toast
• Grilled Tomato
• Hashbrown

Do you want to know the scary thing?  This is the typical “Big Brekkie” served at nearly any brekfast establishment here in Australia.  In fact, I could’ve ordered the “Extreme” version of this meal, which includes a lamb chop and, to satisfy the vegetarians out there, some additional sautee’d spinach to go with the mushrooms.

Anyway, while we’ve found many great breakfast places near our apartment in Balmain, I’d like to give a shout out to The Coffee Bean in Roselle, who is doing their best to make sure that I don’t lose weight, despite my walking commute.

It’s pretty neat, and you can watch the Keynote Demo:

(pay particular attention to Athena’s picture that shows up in several slide show demos)

Anyway, it’s good to be out, although things are still crazy. The product is pretty neat, and we look forward to being able to make it available to everyone.

This book explores a lot of the decisions we make from day to day from a rigorously experimental perspective. While it doesn’t always answer the “Why”, it can frequently tell you how much, or at least confirm your suspicions. Is “Free” really better then cheap? (Yes!) How much better? Are we more likely to lie or cheat in order to get a coupon or in order to get cash? Should you offer your neighbor $20 to bring in your mail while you are out of town, or should you bake them cookies?

While the experiments are rigorous, the language is easy to read and relatively humorous. Definitely worth checking out.

Note: it appears that amazon.com has decided that folks shouldn’t link to the Kindle versions of books (or at least this version). I got it for $9.99.

Thanks, Linda, for marrying me, and for continuing to put up with me.

Next on the list is the Apple iTunes Store.  Face it: Australian television is pretty bland.  The highlights:

• Four episodes of “Two and a Half Men” every single day.  This is Australia’s hottest comedy.  Charlie Sheen is pretty cool and all, but c’mon.
• Since the other cable network is Fox, you can be sure to find The Simpsons.  Seeing as how they’ve been making that show for 20 years now, there’s a lot to see.
• “The Mentalist” — oddly enough a television show about a San Francisco detective who uses his powers of observation and occasionally hypnotism to solve cases in a wacky fashion is high drama.  This is only because it has an Australian Star.

Add to this the fact that TiVo only recently made its first appearence on these shores, and only works for some channels, and ‘Pay Television’ costs a pretty penny and doesn’t get much, and you can see why I’m a big fan of the iTunes Store.

With the aid of a DVI -> HDMI cable and a television that can handle it, we just plug our laptops into the TV.  We can download and play episodes of House, Lost, and Ugly Betty for about $2.00 US each (Note: Apple tries to direct you to the HD versions.  They cost 50% more and take twice as long to download.  You don’t need them.)  You’re also going to need an American credit card and American mailing address.  I can talk about that later.

This just struck me as interesting.

When Google Earth added historical maps of Japan to its online collection last year, the search giant didn’t expect a backlash. The finely detailed woodblock prints have been around for centuries, they were already posted on another Web site, and a historical map of Tokyo put up in 2006 hadn’t caused any problems.

But Google failed to judge how its offering would be received, as it has often done in Japan. The company is now facing inquiries from the Justice Ministry and angry accusations of prejudice because its maps detailed the locations of former low-caste communities.

Dave Cullen’s Columbine is one of the best-written nonfiction books I’ve read in a long time period, and is an excellent treatment of the subject.  With stories of what happened that day and during the aftermath, and pulling no punches about what went wrong, it’s a gripping read.  As an event, the shooting is something that I guess really did require ten years before anyone could produce an analytical work without the shades of media slant.

Anyway, highly recommended.

Minor update: while I’m not sure I want to get into a big discussion, I find it pretty amazing that within a few days of posting this, I got a comment from someone urging me to check out a website to “get the real story.”  I’d have to go back and look, but I believe that movement is referenced in the book, and it does discuss the “third killer” theories, and goes on to debunk (or at least explain) them by indicating that the killers started in heavy black jackets, and took them off during their spree.  Also that there was an airconditioning repairman on the roof.  Anyway, do what you like but the book is a useful read.

Two years ago, when Linda and I visited Australia for the first time, we really liked the feel of Sydney.  We tended to describe it as Los Angeles in climate, but designed like San Francisco, and populated by stereotypically polite British folk.

So, when things were beginning to get to a point where I could “escape” from Android (not that anyone really ever escapes from a project), I mentioned to my manager that “we may be interested in relocation, and hey, would Sydney be a likely place?”  Six months or so later, he said “Ok, looks like we need someone in Sydney, are you game?”

Since then, we’ve done the visa thing (Australia seemed relatively easy, although we had to get medical exams), and we’ve done the packing-up-our-entire-house thing, and we’ve shipped ourselves and a bunch of stuff to Sydney.  It’s not easy, particularly when you’re doing it with a six month old daughter.

It’s definitely interesting: not only am I being immersed in the “distributed office” experience, which has its own set of challenges, but we’re learning a lot of interesting things about what it means to have a home, and where you live, and how to get things done in another country.

I plan to get some more content up (and really hope to make it happen) talking about what’s going on.  We’ll see.