The memorial bench
At the University of Queensland this week, they installed a park bench, a memorial to my father, who studied there and was editor of the student magazine Sempor Floreat sixty years ago this year.
I’m told it’s beside the lake (obviously) next to College Road, close to the intersection with Staff House Road.
Judging from the pics, I reckon Dad would have liked the spot, though I bet he’d have his head buried in a book rather than be enjoying the scenery.
I’m hoping to get up to Brisbane later in the year with the family to see it for ourselves.
Many thanks to the Property & Faculties division of UQ for being able to organise this for us.
How to reject a call on an iPhone
iPhones are so easy to use.
A colleague’s iPhone rings on his desk when he’s elsewhere in a meeting, and the screen lights up to say you slide to answer. Great! But how does one reject the call?
I ask around to my office full of iPhone users.
Nobody knows. Hilarious.
I’m not just wording the question badly. Last week another colleague asked this specific question when he got a call he couldn’t take just at that moment.
On my new Android phone (which has its quirks, but overall I’m enjoying), you slide down to answer, or up to reject. And it makes this clear on the display.
What an office full of iPhone users don’t know, Google will answer:
Yes, there is a way. You press the sleep button. Which is the sleep button? It’s the one at the top of the phone. Press it once to silence the phone, or twice to reject the call.
Seriously Jobs, how hard could it be to actually tell people what they need to do?
(It turns out the owner of the phone in question knows how to do it.)
It reminds me of the beautiful, unscathed design of the PTUA Office iMac… the front is so stylish and unimpeded by buttons that a big PostIt note had to be stuck to it to tell people that the power button is at the back.
Tags: Android, iPhone, mobile phones
18 comments
The police/doughnut cliché
Jeremy noticed that when there are stories on the TV news about the Simon Overland/Sir Ken Jones senior police controversy, often stock footage of the two of them in front of a doughnut shop seems to get used. It got a run again last night.
It seems to have almost become the equivalent of the Myki machine falling apart footage.
This web site (which may or may not be authoritative) offers some interesting theories on how the cliché developed:
My understanding about the cops/donuts stereotype is that the donuts were largely incidental.
The bigger factor was that ‘back in the day’, donut shops were the only places open all night where the cops could get COFFEE.
PS. I also meant to say, the stereotype appears to have started in the USA and spread to elsewhere. After all, doughnut shops are not actually very common in most countries.
Tags: cliches, doughnuts, food, police
5 comments
Pic: Dew on the spider web
Spider web, Sunday morning.
Tags:
1 comment
Steve Jobs: I wish you’d all put your iPads and iPhones away for a minute and pay attention
Tags: Apple, iPad, iPhone, Steve Jobs
7 comments
Metro station patronage: the map version
If ever you want proof that the readers of my blog are a highly talented, intelligent and attractive bunch of people, check this out. Following my post on railway station patronage, and the wish from commenters that the figures be plotted on a map, the supremely talented Brendan Durward went ahead and did it, with help from a map created by John Shadbolt on Wikipedia.
As he says, he’s done two versions. The first shows a lumping of patronage along each line:
(Click to zoom)
The second version shows more clearly the relative numbers at each station:
(Click to zoom)
Thanks Brendan!
Meanwhile, Alan Davies has also crunched the numbers and written a blog post pondering why some stations are busier than others.
Proof that roof insulation works
The lack of insulation in my roof at the moment does make a noticeable, tangible difference.
Normally I have my central heating set to 20 degrees until 9:30pm, and I used to have it set to 12 degrees… I came up with that on the basis that when the insulation was in the roof, overnight it would never drop below about 15-16 degrees, even in the middle of winter.
Now the insulation’s gone, if the heating is left off, the temperature will drop to 11-12 degrees… a real difference in heat retention, and in comfort.
The house is too damn cold overnight at 12 degrees, even with double doonas. I’ve reprogrammed it to 15 degrees overnight. Which of course means the heater switches itself on at night (resulting in some noise) and I’m obviously using more gas.
Will try and push ahead with the next steps in roof work, before getting better replacement insulation installed.
Tags: central heating, house, insulation, roof
3 comments
New phone
Well, I finally got a new phone. In the end I decided to “think different” and not get an iPhone. Instead I’ve got the HTC Desire S, running Android 2.3.
As I figure out how it works, I’m blogging about it over on Geekrant:
http://www.geekrant.org/2011/06/04/new-phone-htc-desire-s/
Suffice to say, still getting used to it after the ol’ Nokia N95, but enjoying it a lot so far.
