Random ramblings
This is a classic I’ve come back to quite frequently in conversations. Can’t believe I never posted this here before.
“The Marine Corps views everybody in terms of, are you teeth or are you tail?
So the teeth to tail ratio is really an expression, a mathematical expression of Shannon theory.”
Information Management and Organizational Entropy
https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/mickens/files/thisworldofours.pdf
One of the pieces of wisdom from James Mickens. This article has lived rent free in my mind for a decade now, and I still regularly quote some of it in conversations. Funny, but some real gems of insight too.
Can’t believe this wasn’t on my blog all that time.
I’m working through some quirks on this server but it should be possible to follow this blog via ActivityPub as @thomas@macconsultant.nl
Excellent write-up by the venerable Steve Hayman
https://blog.hayman.net/blog/2021/12/20/apple-next-25-years-ago-today/
De GAMMA handpalmschuurmachine HS200W
Deze machine is goedkoop en daarmee is het meest positieve ook wel gezegd. Ik kocht hem min of meer als wegwerp artikel voor een klusje aan de boot. Inderdaad viel ook bij mij, net als bij veel anderen als ik de reviesws zo lees, na de eerste paar uur schuren het papier zo los van de machine. De schuurvoet is volgens Gamma niet los verkrijgbaar, dus jammer en weggooien maar.
Gelukkig blijkt ook hier DuckDuck Go je vriend, met een paar minuten creatief zoeken blijkt ditzelfde apparaat ook elders onder andere naam verkocht te worden. Onder meer als Topcraft TPS-200 en als Powerplus POW4005 – en die hebben wel reserve onderdelen! Hier een willekeurig voorbeeld, maar met zoeken op de typecode vindt je er meer!
Of de nieuwe zool ook duurzamer is moet nog blijken, maar zo kan ik in ieder geval weer even verder.
Gamma artikel: GAMMA | GAMMA handpalmschuurmachine HS200W
I remember how amazing Crashplan backup service was back in 2010. Affordable, basically unlimited backup in the cloud made offsite backup practical for the home user. Somehow, they seem to have lost the plot somewhere in the past years. They have pivoted the business to focus on … something else? The client has deteriorated, the performance has degraded, the impact on client macs is frankly ridiculous.
I’ve just switched to Backblaze and it is amazing how much nicer the whole experience is. Clean modern admin UI, clean modern client, little performance overhead during backups – and cheaper too.
If you use this link to register, you support the friends at ATP.fm: https://www.backblaze.com/landing/podcast-atp.html
During the year we’ve had plenty of time to explore Melbourne’s best playgrounds. I may be slightly biased to those in or around Coburg, but we have also ventured out to other suburbs.
In no particular order, these are some of our favourites!
Maps: Doug Hull Adventure Park
There’s a number of good playgrounds around the lake, but this one is a favourite because of the huge slides.
Maps: Black Sapphire Pirate Ship Playground
There’s a huge pirate ship, what more can I say. Although the slides are also nice.
Maps: Royal Park Nature Playground
Probably the largest variety of climbing structures and slides around, and as a bonus there are some great views of the CBD to be had. In summer, there are also some nice water play features
Maps: Princes Park Adventure Playground
Some good challanging climbing structures but also a separate area for younger kids to play. Great sandpit.
Huge playground with loads of connected wooden structures that the boys really enjoyed exploring.
Maps: Edwardes Lake Playground
First get yourself tired on the flying fox and the big slide, then recover by playing in the enclosed area for smaller kids with swings and sandpit – where the kids can’t easily escape.
Two really big slides and fun water play features. This playground gets shade from the bridge in the afternoon, which can be nice on hot days.
Check to opening times carefully, but when open this playground is absolutely fantastic. If offers a bewildering variety of unique play structures, which is a nice change from some most of the ‘standard’ equipment that isn’t typically as adventurous.
Don Bosco Youth Centre & Hostel
Check the opening times carefully, but they offer trampolines, air hockey, table tennis etc for a good bit of indoor fun.
The tractor ride is a favourite with the boys, but participating in feeding the animals is also great.
Fun farmers market and loads of opportunities for the kids to interact with the animals. Cuddling Guinea pigs and seeing the cows getting milked stand out as good fun.
Much more than just a childrens farm, the environment park also features a eco supermarket, live music every weekend and loads of fun events.
An argument for taking time to really think a problem through, then return to it later. Which requires careful planning in the first place…
I find for myself that my first thought is never my best thought. My first thought is always someone else’s; it’s always what I’ve already heard about the subject, always the conventional wisdom. It’s only by concentrating, sticking to the question, being patient, letting all the parts of my mind come into play, that I arrive at an original idea. By giving my brain a chance to make associations, draw connections, take me by surprise. And often even that idea doesn’t turn out to be very good. I need time to think about it, too, to make mistakes and recognize them, to make false starts and correct them, to outlast my impulses, to defeat my desire to declare the job done and move on to the next thing.
Suppose you’ve misplaced your Mac. Or someone’s taken it. Or you’re just curious….
With a little craftiness you can use your favourite remote command tool (ARD/SSH… ) to execute a scan for Wi-Fi SSIDs (network names) on the remote host.
thomas$ /usr/local/bin/airport scan SSID BSSID RSSI CHANNEL HT CC SECURITY (auth/unicast/group) HZN507010065 11:2a:de:d9:d9:10 -56 104 Y -- WPA2 H469AEA6914 76:a7:8f:ea:69:42 -79 100 Y -- WPA2
While a list of network names may not directly tell you much, this is where a nifty 3rd party service comes in handy..
http://wigle.net
(free account registration required) allows you to plug in a SSID and it will come back with the locations where that SSID has been reported. I’m not entirely sure how comprehensive their source data is, but in limited testing it is easy to pinpoint a location as long as a few SSIDs are found by the mac.
Coming to Melbourne we figured it would be great to have a few regular activities to fall back on. The options below have proven to be very worthwhile – the kids are as eager as always to go to any of these, even after visiting pretty much every week this year.
The zoo is not only a great place to see Australia’s native species up-close, they’ve also gone out of their way to make a visit great for kids of all ages.
There is a good outdoor play area, but the highlight of most visits for us is the Keepers Kids area.
Here, kids get to dress up as several zoo employee roles including Vet, keeper, maintenance. There are daily activities organised as well including story time and drawing.
One of the great things of being a member is that you can hop in anytime, without any pressure to ‘make the most’ of the visit. I often find myself hopping in late afternoon, when we have the place practically to ourselves and enjoy one or two hours doing one of the ‘loops’ of animal exhibits and some play.
While everyone should visit the Melbourne Museum at least once to learn about the history of the city; you will keep coming back for the great indoor and outdoor play areas. The indoor kids corner offers a variety of fun games and physically challenging climbing for the kids – even if outside it is freezing or too hot to move. The outdoor play area offers giant building blocks, water play, paleontology in the sandpit and the usual play equipment. Especially with two kids there is a bit of extra peace of mind in that the courtyard isn’t too easy to escape from for the kids – you can enjoy a nice cappuccino in relative peace.
The Science Museum is part of the same organisation and another great all-weather option with lots of great activities. The quarterly ‘little kids days’ are fun but can get hectic – especially in contrast to mid-week afternoon visits when we are almost guaranteed to have the place mostly to ourselves.
The museum offers three outdoor playgrounds in its courtyard, as well as a recently renewed indoor play/exploration space. The sports area offers loads of nice activities for the kids to engage in.
The aquarium is another all-weather destination, and can even be great when the energy levels are lower then usual as a nice relaxing bit of entertainment other then Peppa Pig.
Here, as in the zoo, the yearly membership is very reasonable compared to the one-day tickets and we must easily have visited 15 times. The kids get to fondle starfish, ogle the croc and the tend to be hypnotised by the deep-ocean tank with sharks and rays. A good time for everyone.
A morning in the pool more or less guarantees a quiet afternoon while the kids rest, and its a nice all-weather option too. We ended up taking up swimming lessons for the oldest (4yr old) and included with the lessons is free anytime entry into all of the local pools for the kids and myself, all for 12$ per week.