Hey, you're always asking me where I find stuff...
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Countdown
So I am finally at the tail end of this project I've been working on for most of the year. This week is the final week of development and then we have a couple of weeks of testing, and then we are Live.
It's been a great experience, although two trips to Tokyo were ridiculously busy - I only saw the 100m stretch between the hotel and the office on each occasion.
Most interesting has been watching (yet again) how the worlds of business and software development intersect and how the same old problems keep on cropping up. Business people don't know how software developers do what they do, and the developers think business people are insane. To be fair we've kept that to a minimum on this project, but we still get things like
"Adrian, I can't publish anything!!!!!"
"Ah, yes, they took that away today while they fixed something else."
"Yes, but, we can't PUBLISH ANYTHING."
"Don't worry, we'll put it back in 30 minutes."
Whee.
It's been a great experience, although two trips to Tokyo were ridiculously busy - I only saw the 100m stretch between the hotel and the office on each occasion.
Most interesting has been watching (yet again) how the worlds of business and software development intersect and how the same old problems keep on cropping up. Business people don't know how software developers do what they do, and the developers think business people are insane. To be fair we've kept that to a minimum on this project, but we still get things like
"Adrian, I can't publish anything!!!!!"
"Ah, yes, they took that away today while they fixed something else."
"Yes, but, we can't PUBLISH ANYTHING."
"Don't worry, we'll put it back in 30 minutes."
Whee.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Grey Ghosts Revealed
Every so often the Navy (usually the US Navy) moors in the waters off Kennedy Town. Over Halloween there were two destroyers and an aircraft carrier - the USS George Washington.
This week the destroyers returned for a couple of days. Usually it's quite hard to make them out through the haze, and they can often be moored quite far away and far apart from each other. Wednesday was an unusually clear day this week, so I managed to get a snap with my phone. I had to wait for the ferry on the right to get out of the way, hope that the fishing boat on the left wouldn't wander into the shot, and all before the bus left.
This week the destroyers returned for a couple of days. Usually it's quite hard to make them out through the haze, and they can often be moored quite far away and far apart from each other. Wednesday was an unusually clear day this week, so I managed to get a snap with my phone. I had to wait for the ferry on the right to get out of the way, hope that the fishing boat on the left wouldn't wander into the shot, and all before the bus left.
Monday, November 09, 2009
Macau, brought to you by Ballard
A small post-colonial enclave, dominated by the gambling industry's overblown temples to greed, run by a venal gang of thugs who all seem to have the surname Ho, totally reliant on a capricious Communist master for its survival.
What's missing? Ah yes - typically in a Ballard novel the bleak landscape is the result of an environmental catastrophe. But no problem - Macau's got that covered.
Hong Kong could theoretically be in the same situation, except the city has an agreement that supposedly guarantees supply until at least 2012. That supply is interesting - it comes from Dongjiang in Guangdong, and the area that supplies the water has to some extent sacrificed its own economic development to keep the source river clean. I wonder how guaranteed that supply really is if there were to be a prolonged drought such as there's been in Australia for the past decade. I'm not sure the people of Guangdong would be too keen on sacrificing their drinking water just so their rich compatriots in Hong Kong could carry on showering and drinking in the manner to which they're accustomed.
Meanwhile, I was hoping to go to Macau for lunch in the next couple of weeks - might have to stock up on bottled water before I go.
Ballardian - defined by the Collins English Dictionary as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J. G. Ballard’s novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments."Ballard would have loved present-day Macau.
A small post-colonial enclave, dominated by the gambling industry's overblown temples to greed, run by a venal gang of thugs who all seem to have the surname Ho, totally reliant on a capricious Communist master for its survival.
What's missing? Ah yes - typically in a Ballard novel the bleak landscape is the result of an environmental catastrophe. But no problem - Macau's got that covered.
High-rolling Macau is on the verge of a crisis, with hotel and casino operators - as well as legislators - only now hearing about a critical shortage of drinking water. With key supplier Zhuhai facing woes of its own and Macau having drinking water in its reservoirs for just 10 days, rationing is a real possibility. (from The Standard)10 days - that's it. And the Macanese government has only now just bothered to tell the city's people of the impending shortage. What were they hoping? That it would miraculously rain huge amounts in the next ten days? And in fact that's probably what they were hoping. They have no control over their water supply and are totally reliant on Zhuhai for water. They are screwed.
Hong Kong could theoretically be in the same situation, except the city has an agreement that supposedly guarantees supply until at least 2012. That supply is interesting - it comes from Dongjiang in Guangdong, and the area that supplies the water has to some extent sacrificed its own economic development to keep the source river clean. I wonder how guaranteed that supply really is if there were to be a prolonged drought such as there's been in Australia for the past decade. I'm not sure the people of Guangdong would be too keen on sacrificing their drinking water just so their rich compatriots in Hong Kong could carry on showering and drinking in the manner to which they're accustomed.
Meanwhile, I was hoping to go to Macau for lunch in the next couple of weeks - might have to stock up on bottled water before I go.
Friday, November 06, 2009
The best thing you will see all day
He can only load the machine with one at a time, he makes between 20-30 per day.
He can only load the machine with one at a time, he makes between 20-30 per day.
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