Facebook has become the main method of advertising events among the Canadian Contingent here in Wollongong, as it is fast and easy. While I continue to wait for an iCal feed to be offered for my facebook events I have discovered an extremely useful greasemonkey script that adds facebook events to my Google Calendar. One click from the event page on facebook adds the details to my main calendar.
Archive for August, 2007
Google Maps Mania talks about a new batch of Australia specific Google Maps creations. Some useful ones for tourists lie in ‘things to do in Sydney’ and ‘Australian points of interest’. [via Google Maps Mania]
A great tip via lifehacker today suggests using the sidebar (available in firefox and opera) for loading the mobile version of websites for quick access. I tried this out and find it works fantastic for loading the iphone version of facebook (which is a great tool for finding peoples contact info or quick updates), as well as my Google Calendar and to a lesser extent Gmail. Lots of sites can be viewed in this way. What are your favourites? [via lifehacker]
Last night, Tuesday August 28, 2007, there was a lunar eclipse that was visible from some parts of the world, including here on the east coast of Australia. it was at a sensible time of 7pm, so a number of people gathered at the beach to observe the cosmic ballet. My camera didn’t have a chance of capturing the scene, so please enjoy this Brisbane image from flickr.
photo by David de Groot.
I wish I could say that the people in this surfing clip are me or my friends, but sadly they are locals surfing a great point break at Sandon Point 10 minutes north of me. I put together this clip to try out iMovie. It works pretty slick.
43 folders captures a few ideas in ‘How I made my presentations a little better’ on how to create professional presentations (ie with Powerpoint of Keynote). To often I feel forced to create presentations that are information rich so they can be viewed offline and understood. This just feels like transferring overhead transparency or whiteboard information into a different format for the sake of using the presentation format; I am not actually using the presentation software to its full potential. [via Funkaoshi]
NASA plans to develop a massive online archive of photography, film and video from its 50-year history at NASAImages.org. The archive will be developed under a five-year agreement with the Internet Archive, which will host the free site and help compile the imagery. NASA has more than 12 million photographs and 100,000 hours of film and video footage. [via cnet news]
The newest pastime to sweep the nation, and created in the offices at flickr, is Faceball. Its popularity lies in its simple rules but challenging game play. There are many subtleties to becoming good at Faceball, from reading the wind direction, knowing your balls and knowing the playing area. For all your Faceball needs, rules and videos visit faceball.org.
Yahoo is building a combination of social network, collaborative space and (most of all), lesson plan creator for educators called Yahoo Teachers. The video preview of Gobbler (the plugin used to collect information to use on Yahoo! Teachers) looks very useful. It’s about time someone does this service well — and for free. I’ve tried other techniques for collecting and organizing photos and information for use in lessons (namely Zotero, a research tool extension for Firefox) but they have lacked online access and sharing. Tools specifically made for a task also tend to work better. [via Mashable]
I cannot tell a lie; I almost skipped Brisbane. I’m not sure what came over me. Maybe it was the grey skies, and maybe it was the 32 days on the road and dwindling bank account, but I almost skipped Brisbane and headed straight to the airport. Thank goodness I didn’t.
I spent a little more than 24 hours in Brisbane, arriving around noon from Noosa Heads. I checked into my hostel Tin Billy then headed for the city. Brisbane is a river city, situated on none other than the Brisbane River. The picturesque part of town is the South Bank where a Griffith University Campus is located. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: why can’t Toronto make better use of it’s waters edge. Brisbane has done a fantastic job in this regard. They have a wonderful boardwalk, lots a grass, a lagoon swimming area, many cafes and food joints, and trees — all with an unobstructed view of the main city. True Toronto does not have a river, but still. Brisbane, like most Australian cities, is small and compact. There are probably great cultural pockets out of the CBD, but without going to them I can still say the places are enjoyable.
I wandered the city by day, enjoying the weather and views, then again by night to take in the city lights across the river. One of the aspects of Brisbane, and most Australian cities for that matter, that I enjoy is the plethora of public spaces. The have numerous well maintained parks and gardens, as well as free museums and open spaces. At their museum they have models of Humpback whales hanging from the ceiling of an outdoor path that is open 24 hours a day. An other feature of Australian cities I enjoy is the way architecture utilizes the environment. The Queensland Art Gallery spills out into the open air at a number of locations.
Brisbane ranks a strong second for favourite Australian cities, right between Melbourne at number one and Sydney at number three. Truthfully I have not given Sydney a fair shake yet, but on the surface it feels overly large and congested — it feels typical of any world city. The complete set of photos from Brisbane can be viewed at flickr.
And so ends my tour around Australia. It is funny to think it all began 33 days ago in Adelaide and took me up the heart of the country then around the Top End and down the east coast. I am still coming to terms with all I saw and experienced as it all happened rather quickly. Budgets were blown at all possible opportunities, but the excuse that ‘I’ll just amortize the expense over the rest of my life’ made it easy to accept. Money is meant to be spent because you can’t take it with you. I’ve been to a whole lot of places and seen a whole lot of faces, and experienced things I will not soon forget. Australia is huge and I’ve only touched a sliver of it — and I’m okay with that.
The complete collection of photos from my trip around Australia can be viewed at flickr.
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