Bryn's blog

Thank you Larry, Thank you Matt, Thank you Google

Bryn — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:18:34 +0000

This is kind of a follow up to my 2007 post, Thank You Cory, Thank You Google. Recently Larry Lessig spoke to Google employees as part of their AtGoogleTalks. He spoke about his recent book, Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress–and a Plan to Stop It. I think the title is self explanatory as to the topic of Lessig’s talk.

Thank you Google, for giving Larry the opportunity to talk to the Googlers, for giving the Google a change to hear Larry Lessig and for sharing his talk with the rest of the internet.

I discovered the talk online via Matt Cutts’ blog, so Thank you Matt for you part in introducing Larry at Google and for spreading the video of the talk across the web.

Watching the talk I felt somewhat proud to be Australian, particularly the first question of the audience. In Australia we are lucky enough to have parenteral voting systems, where I can vote for the candidate who I most agree with without the possibility that my vote will be “wasted”. The technical aspects of voting systems, like this, are often something that interest geeks.

Clay Shirky — Defend our freedom to share (or why SOPA is a bad idea)

Bryn — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:48:04 +0000

This my SOPA post. In this 14 min TED talk Clay Shirky fantastically explains why SOPA is a BAD IDEA. SOPA is a proposed US law and I am an Australian, but I felt I should make a post about it. In the global interconnected world we all live in, it is not only great ideas, like those found in TED talks, that spread quickly, but also BAD IDEAS and BAD LAWS.

Queensland Floods and the Web

Bryn — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 12:53:17 +0000

Floods have devastated Queensland and other parts of Australia. The area underwater is greater than France and Germany. At times like these I am always amazed at the great and positive ways how Web 2.0 technologies are used; whether social networking to match people needing accommodation with people who are offering space to stay or how people have used the twitter hash tags such as #qldfloods to follow breaking news.

NearMap, an Australian based map/aerial photography company, was remarkable quite in updating their site with very recent aerial photography showing the extent floods. The ABC, who regularly make excellent use of the web, have used the NearMap images before and after the flooding to created an excellent infographics of the devastation.

I also think it is worth noting that the inactive infographics are made using HTML and JavaScript not Flash.

Contemporary and war time photos of St Petersburg merged

Bryn — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 11:49:22 +0000

via Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing

Sergei Larenkov has photoshopped together modern images of St Petersburg with photos taken during the brutal Siege of Leningrad during WWII.

Sergei Larenkov’s images.

Very powerful and amazing images.

Broadband for Arnhem Land

Bryn — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 11:35:36 +0000

From the ABC’s 7:30 report, a good news story about the Broadband Revolution coming to Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. A fibre optic cable has be laid into Arnhem Land. This is great story in so many ways:

The technical hurdles that needed to be over come in laying cable in a harsh environment including under a crocodile infected river.
The positive social impact for education and health resulting from broadband.
How culturally sensitively the whole project was managed, with traditional owners from the local Aboriginal communities being consulted and involved in the project.

Telecom revolution for Arnhem Land (video from abc.net.au)

Garrett Lisi: A beautiful new theory of everything

Bryn — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:50:51 +0000

via Mickipedia

Garrett Lisi: A beautiful new theory of everything

Garrett Lisi discuses his theory of how the fundamental forces can be described via the E₈ group.

ABC (au) Radio National launches Pool

Bryn — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:51:36 +0000

via Boing Boing

ABC Radio National has launched Pool:

It’s a place to share your creative work with the Pool community and ABC producers – upload music, photos, videos, documentaries, interviews, animations and more. It’s a collaborative space where audiences become makers. – About Pool

One aspect of Pool that got my attention is the use of Creative Commons licences. It is great to see the ABC exposing Creative Commons, RSS feeds and the like to their audience. The, government funded, ABC and particular Radio National and Triple J, have often been early to embrace aspects of new media. Radio National were one of the first old media organisations to offer podcasts of their programs.

I, an Australian, discovered the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Pool via post on Boing Boing, a North American blog, by Cory Doctorow, who lives in the UK. The web is truely global medium.

Radiohead’s "House of Cards" video made without cameras

Bryn — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:56:32 +0000

I am a big fan of Radiohead, their album In Rainbows and cool uses of technology, so this is the kind of think I like. The video for “House of Cards” from In Rainbows was not shot with cameras in the traditional sense. 3D data was captured using lasers and then rendered to produce the video. Very Cool.

Astronomy study proves mathematics theorem

Bryn — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 11:01:59 +0000

From New Scientist, Astronomy study proves mathematics theorem. As an astronomy and maths geek and teacher, this is the kind of story that makes me smile. The research concerns gravitational lens. This phenomenon occurs when the light from a very distant object is bent by the gravitational field of some objects between the distant object and the observer. This was a prediction of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Depending on the mass and shape of the objects who’s gravitational field results in the lensing effect, multiple image of the distant object can be observed, this is where the mathematics comes in. It turns out that for a lens made of n stars, 5n – 5 is the maximum number images. It is not every day that The fundamental theorem of algebra is mentioned in the media, even in New Scientist This is an example of how Pure Mathematics that is developed without any direct practical application can be vital to work at some later time. Another example is the applications of number theory to cryptography.

NSW education downgrades Microsoft

Bryn — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:54:47 +0000

via Jeff Waugh’s Be the signal. The Australian Financial Review reports NSW education downgrades Microsoft.

“The NSW Department of Education has put Microsoft on notice after it agreed to extend its software licensing agreement for just one year instead of renegotiating a new three-year contract.” — Prepares to deploy OpenOffice.org on 41000 PCs by end of 2008

Very interesting, I am big supported of the use of open source and open standards in education. The purpose of education should not be to teacher kids particular commercial software, it should be to teach kids how to use technology to empower them to learn. I look forward to further developments.

note: I am a casual employee of the NSW DET, my comments do not represent my employers, past. present or future.