I’m now back at home. Some pictures (more to come) are up in a flickr collection. I’m inlining some of the good ones. Monday. We picked up our hire car – a Ford Falcon XR6 – in the morning, from the Budget place down the road from the hotel. Hire…
Oz Report – Part 6 – Last Day in Sydney
Sunday. We had a relatively easy day planned; a visit to the Australian Museum in the morning followed by meeting our friends Dean & Lisa in the afternoon and mooching around a bit. The Australian Museum was pretty good: the fossils and meteorites were interesting, and they have a hall…
Oz Report – Part 5 – Harbour Tour and Taronga Zoo
Saturday. We got up early again and went down to the ferry wharves. Today was our harbour cruise day! We bought a combo ticket for the harbour cruise and Taronga Zoo, and had breakfast at Rossini right on the wharf. Two jam doughnuts as big as our heads, half a…
Oz Report – Part 4 – Sydney Aquarium
I’m blogging this from Melbourne as we are staying with our friends the Boards (see the Ben-n-Em link on the blogroll). Friday. We got up early and headed over to Henry Deane Plaza to have breakfast at Henry Henry, a nightspot and cafe/bar there. Mini-Elbeno managed to fall over and…
Oz Report – Part 3 – Sydney Day 1
The first day: After 14 hours, the sun caught up with us and we landed in Sydney a few minutes before sunrise. A SE wind meant a NW approach for our 747-400, which afforded us a lovely pre-dawn view of the downtown area. Arriving at the hotel at about 7.30am,…
Oz Report – Part 2 – The Flight
The flight: Mini-Elbeno: a gem. Sleeping, smiling, watching Bananas in Pyjamas on the in-flight entertainment system. Food: mediocre, where it was edible at all. As expected. Entertainment: Borat – hilarious. Sunshine – reasonable “hard science” content. Enjoyable. The Chaser’s War on Everything – an Aussie comedy sketch show I got…
Oz Report – Part 1 – Pre-Flight
I’m blogging this, rather incongruously, from an Aboriginal Cultural centre a little way south of Narooma in NSW. Here’s what I’ve prepared earlier while staying the hotel in Sydney for a few days: Pre-flight: Taxi 30 minutes late. But we are determined not to get stressed. Check in is a…
Exploring Pascal’s Triangle
Pascal’s Triangle (henceforth known as PT). You know – that thing you learned in maths. The Wikipedia entry, like most mathematical Wikipedia entries, reads (if your mathematical background is anything like mine) like “here’s a few things you might vaguely remember from school, oh and of course gleep = glorp”….
Project Euler
I’ve just discovered Project Euler (from Osfameron, via Planet Haskell). This seems like great fodder for recreational mathematics and Haskell programming. Some of the simpler questions I might even co-opt for interviews (I have been known to ask the interview question “How many trailing zeroes has 100!” which has a…
Haskell – the videos
If you’re one of the approx 3 people left in the world who: knows about functional programming has not yet seen Simon Peyton Jones‘ “A Taste of Haskell” talks from OSCON 2007 I suggest you get over there. It’s quite long, and it gets a bit difficult to follow without…