Rubenerd

The number 209 is very important in The Overnightscape universe. Frank explained when he first noticed it on episode “1215: Glow Ron”:

My first day in college, the 209 thing happened! September first, second, third or forth, of 1985

Wait a minute. I was born on the 27th of March, 1986.

$ irb
irb(main):001:0> require 'time'
irb(main):002:0> birthday = Date.parse("1986/03/27")
irb(main):003:0> frank = Date.parse("1985/09/01")
irb(main):003:0> puts birthday.mjd - frank.mjd
==> 207

That’s not 209, but it’s pretty damned close.

I'm just fine with my iPhone 5s and will likely be sticking with it for the foreseeable future. Staying a generation or two behind is much cheaper, and thesedays I'd rather spend the money travelling. I'm also grandfathered into a 1GB/$17 a month plan which by Australian standards is good.

For fun though, I checked out this ZDNet article that lists all the major Austrlaian telcos and their iPhone 6s plans. With the current exchange rate, they're predictably expensive. What’s worse is data:

• Testra: 1GB
• Vodaphone: 1GB
• Optus: 300MB
• Virgin: 300MB

SingTel back home offers 6GB for similar prices. 300MB in 2015 is an embarrassment.

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34:44 – It’s getting warmer, Australia Post Parcel Lockers, getting a copy of Onsug Guide, Debra Schade, finding the crunchiest leaves to step on, physical books versus ebooks, physical anchors to the virtual world, bands with multiple guys and one woman, less desirable anime tropes, SCSI, computer scanners and hard drives as personal microfiche, holodecks, and is physicality sufficient to be real?

Recorded in Sydney, Australia. Licence for this track: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0. Attribution: Ruben Schade.

Released September 2015 on The Overnightscape Underground, an Internet talk radio channel focusing on a freeform monologue style, with diverse and fascinating hosts.

Subscribe with iTunes, Pocket Casts, Overcast or add this feed to your podcast client.

xkcd is doing a survey for weird corrolations (expect to see a causation comic in the next few days). Most of the questions were rather ordinary multiple-choice, with an odd automotive slant. A few were freeform, which I include below for reference.

What's a really popular food that you don't like?

Corriander.

Name the first five animals you can think of.

Llama, cow, echidna, platypus, human

What word can you never seem to spell on the first try?

Echidna.

Pick a number form 1 to 100.

42.00000001

Name a movie star.

Aya Hirano (the poor dear, not even being sarcastic).

Fill this text box with gibberish by mashing random keyboard keys

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What's the last thing you ate?

Peanut butter English muffins.

Type five random words.

five random words.

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51:34 – Feeling globally displaced, the Australian International School Singapore, the HSC and IB and Singapore A-Levels, loud planes (hush kits, airport curfews, restrictions), perfect is the enemy of good (Voltaire, podcast audio gear, Nespresso, the Renaissance Podcasters lamenting quality, hipsters, cameraphones), cruises to buy vinyl turntables, AKG reference headphones, office desk layouts (fight or flight, feng shui), and a far too long digression into making jaffles in a George Foreman grill.

Recorded in Sydney, Australia. Licence for this track: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0. Attribution: Ruben Schade.

Released September 2015 on The Overnightscape Underground, an Internet talk radio channel focusing on a freeform monologue style, with diverse and fascinating hosts.

Subscribe with iTunes, Pocket Casts, Overcast or add this feed to your podcast client.

Australian Labor MP Jason Clare wished our current conservative Abbott Government a happy two year anniversary in this now-viral video. It was almost glorious.

One glaring omossion was data retention, which his party voted for. #facepalm

The Overnightscape Central is a fun weekly podcast hosted by the illustrious PQ Ribber. Hosts and listeners of The Overnightscape Underground participate in a topic each week, and you’re welcome to join.

04:20:06 – What is reality? Eddie Murray, Chad Bowers, Clara Tse’, Jimbo, Ruben, Frank Edward Nora, and Doc Sleaze have ideas!! PQ Ribber hosts this incredible, landmark in internet transmission!!

You can view this episode on the Underground, listen to it here, and subscribe with this feed in your podcast client.

I had a chat with my dad earlier this year about blogging. He independently made the observation many of us in the tech space have long noticed.

I've tried writing on the internet, on lots of different car and motorcycle forums and all of those, but every time I do, I'd say three quarters of the responses are useless. There's constructive criticism, but these are just destructive. What do they get out of it?

Good question. Too bad I’ll never know, I only chat with nice people now.

This post was originally written in May 2015.

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27:30 – A quiet celebration of one fortnight as a vegetarian. A bit of the philosophy (but not too much), some amazing new food I found along the way, and a big thanks to everyone for your support. Let’s see how long this lasts!

Recorded in Sydney, Australia. Licence for this track: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0. Attribution: Ruben Schade.

Released September 2015 on The Overnightscape Underground, an Internet talk radio channel focusing on a freeform monologue style, with diverse and fascinating hosts.

Subscribe with iTunes, Pocket Casts, Overcast or add this feed to your podcast client.

I'm quoting this entire email from the Australian Greens verbatim, because it’s important. If you’re in Australia, please sign this.

Dear Ruben,

The sheer scale of the unfolding tragedy in Syria is overwhelming. Four million people are fleeing for their lives. Half of them are children.

Many of you would have seen the heart wrenching photograph of the little Syrian boy who drowned trying to escape the war. His body was washed up on the shore.

It is devastating. So too is the knowledge that there are millions of children, men and women who are facing immense harm and often death.

We are so fortunate in Australia to be in a position where we can offer safety to some of these frightened and desperate people. We have the privilege to live in a country with the means to welcome people when they need our help.

That’s why today Sarah Hanson-Young and I are calling for the government to grant an additional 20,000 humanitarian visas to Syrian refugees.

Please add your voice and show this government that there are thousands of Australians who want to live in a country that’s strong enough to offer safety to people fleeing harm.

I know that in light of recent history it can be difficult to imagine us welcoming Syrian refugees into our communities.

But it wasn’t always like this.

Australia had a dignified history of opening its arms to people when they needed our help the most. We welcomed emergency intakes of refugees from China and the Balkans following natural disasters, and we welcomed Vietnamese refugees after the war we fought.

We can be that sort of country again.

Will you join me and call on the government to offer fleeing people safety and respite from war?

The world is facing a rare humanitarian crisis. More people are fleeing for their lives than at any other time in history. Our proposal is for the 20,000 Syrians who are granted humanitarian visas to be processed onshore in Australia, and Syrian refugees who are currently being held on Manus Island and Nauru to be granted asylum.

We are strong enough to help.

The war in Syria is complex and there is no single, simple solution. But what is clear, is that dropping more bombs and ignoring the millions of people who are literally running for their lives is not a solution at all. Standing by and doing nothing to ease this crisis is not an option.

We can help by giving 20,000 people safety.

With hope,
Richard Di Natale
Leader of the Australian Greens