I'm an Australian, based in the Washington, DC, area of the United States. I spend a lot of time there with Jasmine, Australia's best-known speedsolver of the Rubik's Cube. Prior to the US, Jasmine and I were based in London, UK. We have also lived previously in the United States and Australia.

I have worked for an Australian business rules and compliance company since 1999 in Australia, the US and the UK. I have also lectured in IT and Law related topics at King's College, London, and at The Australian National University.

I have some more information and a list of publications available (pop-up window).

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- February 2007
- January 2007
- All posts from 2006
- All posts from 2005
- All posts from 2004

These are a few of my favourite links:
- Jasmine's site
- Jasmine's blog
- Mikal
- Daveydweeb
- Beth
- Lyn
- Doug
- Marissa
- Lisaloha
- David (Greenomics)
- Paul's Ramblings (music)

Hits since 1 Sep 2004

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UK Rubik's Open 2006

Jasmine and I attended the UK Rubik's Open in Leeds on 18 November, 2006.

Jasmine has posted her own entry about the event, including some links to results. She had a great event, including several personal best times and Australian national records. I entered the Rubik's Clock and Rubik's Magic events. Because Jasmine does not put much effort into the Magic puzzle, my average time for solving the Magic in the competition (3.75 seconds) was an Australian record!

I have now posted my competition photos online.

I also have a video (beware: ~38 MB download!) of Jasmine racing the Rubot II cube-solving robot. I have a couple of other videos, too, which I may post at a later date.

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Penguin Books let you design your own cover

Penguin Books is shipping an awesome new range of classic books with blank covers -- so you can draw your own! What a cool idea!

The Penguin Blog comments:

According to consumer research conducted on what factors matter to people when they decide whether or not to pick up a book in a bookshop, the cover design comes out as most important.  So this might be the stupidest thing we've ever done.

(Via Boing Boing)

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Salaries of fictitious TV characters

AOL's Salary Center has compiled a list of the salaries which popular TV characters would earn. Would you pay Homer Simpson US$67,422?

(Via Best Week Ever)

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DIY Wolverine claws

Some guy called Nate had a lot of spare time one Halloween. Check out his efforts to make a Wolverine costume with retractable claws!

(Via Digg)

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The internet is a force for democracy

Who said the internet isn't a great force for democracy, where you don't need money or status to get noticed?

The Register reports that Paris Hilton's new YouTube channel has been outpaced and outclassed by the musings of an old guy called Peter, who uses the screen name Geriatric1927. According to the article:

Paris has 2,549 subscribers while Peter has 23,267. Ouch. Peter's videos have been watched 720,418 times while Ms Hilton has managed just 285,572.

Unlike Hilton in her video past, Geriatric1927 even keeps his cardigan on.

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The Da Vinci Code movie

Jasmine and I have just returned home after seeing the movie version of The Da Vinci Code. As I have proclaimed previously, I have not read the book, which may have set me apart from every single other person in the cinema. I thought the film was pretty entertaining as a standalone movie -- much better than I had expected -- escapist, but still worth my Sunday night.

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Paul F.: Rebadged, Relaunched

Paul F., a friend in the Washington, DC, area has done some work to rebadge and relaunch his blog site. It has a focus on weird and wonderful, often obscure music. It's worth a look.

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Stiff, by Shane Maloney

I just spent Saturday afternoon reading Stiff by Shane Maloney. The book was a gift from Lyn some time ago, when I was based in Washington, DC. I really like this book -- for its portrayal of 1980s Melbourne; for the way the main character, Murray Whelan, bumbles his way through a low-level political career and a murder mystery; and for its amusing description of local-level Australian politics. I think I should hit Amazon and get some more of Shane Maloney's books.

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Cool sidewalk art

This sidewalk art is pretty amazing.

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George Lucas predicts the death of the big budget movie

George Lucas has told the New York Daily News that he foresees the death of mega-budget movie-making (Slashdot article and discussion). Lucas claims this is bad for the movie business but good for art, and that in the future indie films will come to the fore.

This is the sort of issue that Lyn used to write about on her site. Those were the days!