Dugie’s Pensieve

Taken from today’s Courier Mail, here in Brisbane, “Left side v right side of the brain test“:

THE Right Brain vs Left Brain test … do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.

Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS (anti) - RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS (clockwise)

• uses logic - uses feeling
• detail oriented - “big picture” oriented
• facts rule - imagination rules
• words and language - symbols and images
• present and past - present and future
• maths and science - philosophy & religion
• can comprehend - can “get it” (i.e. meaning)
• knowing - believes
• acknowledges - appreciates
• order/pattern perception - spatial perception
• knows object name - knows object function
• reality based - fantasy based
• forms strategies  - presents possibilities
• practical - impetuous
• safe - risk taking

So are you a lefty, or a righty?  I was originally a righty.  I had to leave it for a moment, and come back to it, but now I can see both ways and switch between with no worries.

 Uhhuh.  I went camping over the weekend, and it rained.  Then it poured.  Just when I thought it couldn’t get any heavier — it hailed.  The rain demolished the annex between the tents, and made a mess of anything nearby.

The rest of the family was fine.  Thankfully, they were over in the main tent, safe, and dry.   …and now I know the main tent is hail proof.

So I spent a couple of hours late in the night, (and well into the morning) huddled under a tent awning, with two dogs who are both petrified of lighting and thunder.  Luckily I had a small gas burner that I could use to keep warm — obviously given the circumstances, I wasn’t at all worried about the tarp catching fire  =)

Anyway the morning after, I got up early and lit a campfire (this shouldn’t be any surprise to those who know me) and Thomas helped cooked some breakfast:  bacon, eggs sausages, tomato and coffee.  Then we cleaned up and came home earlier than planned.

So I didn’t really get a chance to do any serious cooking, photography or worse still any serious scotch drinking!!

I did, stop and take one photo of an interesting ‘mailbox’ I saw.  One of the locals has been very resourceful and used and old microwave for his mailbox.  Made me smile.

So shaken, but not stirred, I’m planning the next trip.

Blogging has been and will be a bit quiet for a few days.  I’m going camping tomorrow and have been busy getting ready.  The camping ground is on the other end of some really long and twisty road.  A couple of hours outside Brisbane, so I guess I’ll just have to take the bike – it’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.

As for the camping itself, I’ll be using the opportunity to enjoy several good scotches, red wine, and do some cooking in my camp oven …and I’ll probably do all three at the same time.  For the US readers, a Camp Oven is sometimes called a Dutch Oven, it’s made of cast iron, has a tight fitting lid, and you cook in it by covering/burying the oven in hot coals.  It can take a bit of practice, but I’m pretty good at it - a bit too good, because I always end up as camp cook  :) 

I think this camping trip I’ll probably cook my famous Shepherds Pie, as well as some Nachos,  a Sunday Roast with Yorkshire pudding and Apple Crumble.  I’m also going to try something new, and cook a Chicken Korma Curry.  I’ll also try to cooke some Naan bread in the coals. 

Of course, I’ll be taking photos and blogging them.  Until then here are some piccies of previous camping trips to keep you happy till I get back: 

Cheers for now, Dugie.

Hello to everyone in Mr McPherson’s Year 9 Computer studies.  Mr McPherson is here in my study, talking all about you guys and the exciting things we can do with Windows Vista Media Centre.

Hey wants me to ask you all:   ….Have you lost anything?

I’ve reached a point where soggy toast and little vegemite finger prints are the norm in my house.  (Davo if you’re reading this, all those good times to come my friend) 

I’m also reaching the point where my son obsesses over my DVD collection more than I do, and not for the same reasons.

So I bought myself a 500Gb Western Digital Mybook.  It was really cheap, looks great, and sits nicely beside my Media Centre.

I’ve just finished copying up half of my DVD collection.  It was pretty much a straight copy with all the directors commentaries and stuff.  To copy the DVDs, I used AnyDVD and robocopy — and a small Vbscript to automate the “copy and eject process“.

With Vista, you will need to review KB 930526 and James’ walkthrough.

This means I’ve now emptied a full shelf on bookcase, which is about ~110 DVDs and reduced the footprint to something the size of a decent novel or hardback.  (See the photo above)

For the virtualization geeks, it’s kind of the ultimate P2V. :)

So tonight I’ll pack all the DVDs in storage crate, wrap it in plastic, and put them in lockup.  I’ve still got two more shelves of DVDs to do, so I’m off to the computerstore to buy another MyBook.

I’m very happy with the end result.  No more stressing, over soggy toast in the DVD drive, or scratched DVDs ending up in the dog bowl.  [Don't laugh]

Last week more or less marks the 12th anniversary that Windows 95 was shrink-wrapped and released to the world.  Old timers might even remember the cleverly formatted ‘DMF’ floppy disks used before CD-Roms were mainstream. (For some perspective, the DVD format was announced ~ 1 month later, and NT 4.0 only ~10 months after that)

Strangely enough, one of my favourite scotches was probably coming out of the still and into casks at about the same time that 95 launched:  Glenfiddich 12 years

I’m sure if you look hard enough, you can find traces of both of them around.  Hopefully (but not always) you’ll only find the latter in a VM.

Anyway, I’ll be celebrating tonight with a wee dram, and reflecting on how far we’ve come in 12 years.

…Let’s not go overboard though because a bottle of Glenlivet aged 21 Years, would take us back to MS-DOS 3.2 with support for 3.5″ 720 kB floppies — not sure I’m ready to reflect that far :)

It’s now September and the start of Spring - So what better time I guess for an update to my Challenges, Goals and Resolutions for 2007.:

• Personal, Family and Lifestyle; Summary: B+
  • Books.  I’m re-reading some old favorites, at the moment it isIssac Asimov.  Still reading roughly ~1 novel a month.  I tried reading more eBooks, but this failed dismally on my KJam.
  • Audiobooks.  A good friend of mine, Lisa has recommended I try audio books.  I’m skeptical, but will give it a go. 
  • Newspapers:  Strangely enough the only news[pick-up-and-hold]paper I’m reading (and enjoying) is the Financial Review.  I’ve stopped reading the Couriermail and Australian newspapers, and instead read them on-line.  There is something about the format and content of the daily papers that bugs me.  Occasionally I’ll go and buy the weekend paper , but often regret it :)
  • Bike trips. Still getting our more than I was, but still not as often as I like. A change in circumstances/annual leave*, means my trip to Ballina will have to be ‘rethunk’.
  • Listen to more music and more podcasts.  Going better, but still not good.  Listening to more podcasts, but more music is still failing.
  • Still enjoying regular Picnics, BBQs and ‘walks in parks’.  Now that I’m taking more photos, I’ve started a flickr page, and post the better pics there.
  • The ban on Live TV still easy, no problems there at all.
• Community and Blogging; Summary: B-
• Blogging:  Going ok, not blogging as much original contents as I would like, but this will change once products release.
• Meet more people; Going great!  Caught up with lots of fabulous people at TechED Au and NZ.   Those with bikes get a special mention.  Hello to Archer, Dave, Eric, ‘Monty’, Nick and Sam.
• ‘Wardy Community Dinner’.  Still haven’t made it to a Wardy dinner, but went to the Wardy Picnic and had a great time.
• Virtualization; Summary: B+
• Spending more time talking and listening to others about Virtualization.  A lot has changed, and yet it hasn’t.  This deserves another post.
• The new blog finally kicked off.  Progress on the wiki on WindowsVirtualization.com has stalled for the time being.  
• Career Goals; Summary: B-
• Well this is a big change.  I’m no longer in my old role, or with my old company.  Nothing sinister or ugly.  Simply, I had reached a time in my life, where I wasn’t that person anymore.  I needed not only a new challenge, but a very different challenge.
• My current project is a Virtual Sandbox for a ‘few hundred developers’.  (Yup, can’t get more different than that)  Still working out all the details, but now I focus more on the “What if we” rather than a “how do we” questions in life.  Different and challenging.  Early stages, so we’ll see what happens.

So I’m pretty happy with progress so far this year.  I’m going camping in a couple of weeks, and plan to use it as an excuse to get on the bike and take some more photos.  Of course there will the opportunity for a few good scotches (when I get there).  It will be great!

Expect sporadic updates over the next 3 or 4 weeks with TechED and other travels.  I’ll make sure I ‘turn-the-engine-over‘ every now and then to make sure it still runs <vbg>

So if you have the burning need to do so you can keep up with me on Twitter and Flickr  — both end in the letter ‘R’

It’s a beautiful day here in Brisbane, and I should be on the Bike enjoying some twisty road near a mountain somewhere.   Instead I’m here are home rationalizing my TechED session.

Hows that for some messed up priorities :)

Hmmm, now if only my TechED session was  GPS-enabled-smartphones-taking-photos-of-twisty-corners-from-the-motorbike-and-mashing-up-the-trip-on-the-fly-to-live-maps. 

I need to talk to fellow super villain Dave Lemphers about his Online Map Services and uber cool location sharing!

Ok, enough day dreaming — back to my preso; I’ll treat myself to an afternoon iced coffee on MT Cootha when I finish my next few slides.  Hey it’s not much, but it’s a workable compromise.

It’s no secret I have a weakness for coffee, in fact I love my coffee — and will probably treat myself some Kopi Luwak Coffee for my Birthday. 

I’m also on a Lotus Notes to Sharepoint project at the moment.  Actually it’s more of an uber virtualized migration and consolidation. 

Anyway, normally I would have gone running and screaming from such a project, because I abhor domino and notes!  …but the guys have a fully optioned up Franke Flair coffee machine in the kitchen.  We’re talking $10K of ‘pimped my ride’ coffee machine here, all smooth, golden coffee goodness, mmmmmm!

But what me chuckle today, was an informal coffee review I was having with a mate of mine.  Rob drinks more coffee than I do, and triple espressos for him are the norm.  Anyway we got talking about  blends of coffee, and although Rob is a reasonable well articulated guy, his official word on Goroka Espresso is:

> thats Goroka Espresso, i can’t drink that [censored].  It’s like drinking speed mixed with road base

I guess you had to be there.  But several hours later I’m still smiling - and off for a coffee.