By way of the Whiskey Bar, some interesting numbers on US opinions about the war on Iraq and the War of Terror.

Spent the weekend down at Con and Carol’s farm. Catherine was going to come but couldn’t make it, so it was just Sarah, Nick and me.

As usual we spent most of the time eating and playing games. In the past we’ve played a lot of Go Bang (aka. connect five), but this time Chess was the game of choice. That may or may not be because Sarah is kick-arse at Go Bang, but not so good at chess

I think I lost in the end. Con beat everyone, Sarah and Nick were one each, as were Nick and I, but Sarah beat me twice while I only beat her once. Not that anyone’s counting.

A great way to spend a weekend!

I’m not much of a Java fanboy weenie, in fact I’m more inclined to be the opposite based on the ramblings of certain Sun personalities. (Although fragments of what he says are interesting which is why I put up with the enablement-speak).

But rants aside, this site sports one seriously cool Java Applet.

If only that kind of thing was out there 10 years ago, Java might have taken off (on the client) the way some people hoped it would.

Or perhaps if they open sourced something interesting, rather than another you-know-what implementation they could win some of the momentum back from .NET?

Headed over to Lecy Shads on Tuesday to see the incredible Der Untergang, aka. Downfall.

Someone asked me if it was “good” … well no it’s not “good”. It’s sad, horrible and terrifying, with but a glimmer of hope. It doesn’t have a car chase, a love story, product placement, or merchandising, but god damn it’ll make you think.

And if you think it’s just about German history, I think you’re missing the point.

Go and see it if you haven’t already, or you vil be shot!

I was listening to a lot of Ani Difranco over the long weekend, it was the right sort of weather for (some of) her music.

She’s a brilliant guitarist, but more than anything I just love her lyrics.

I got stuck on School Night for a while, particularly the first verse and chorus:

she went over to his apartment

clutching her decision

and he said, did you come here to tell me goodbye?

…

and she said:

you are a miracle but that is not all

you are also a stiff drink and i am on call

you are a party and i am a school night

and i’m lookin’ for my door key

but you are my porch light

What a cool way to get dumped.

I also love the imagery in the first section of Your next bold move:

coming of age during the plague

of reagan howard and bush

watching capitalism gun down democracy

it had this funny effect on me

i guess

For the first installation in the Germany-photos series we’re going to visit Hofheim am Taunus.

I stayed there for a couple of days when I first got to Germany, it’s just outside of Frankfurt where I landed. My awesome relos, the Ritzs and Kühners (don’t ask how they’re my relos!), put me up, fed me and showed me around.

Despite being only 15Km from the center of Frankfurt, and only minutes from Europe’s 2nd busiest airport, Hofheim is just a gorgeous little village. It borders a beautiful forest where I ambled around on my first morning, enjoying the fresh air and the beautiful green trees.

I was there during the Euro 2004 Soccer tournament. That was a minor pity because it meant there wasn’t any soccer I could see first-hand in Germany, but it was also because everyone was excited about it, I can only imagine what the World Cup will be like.

We watched Italy vs Bulgaria in a little Pizza place in Hofheim, and later I fell asleep (jet lag!) watching Denmark vs Sweden on the world’s biggest television. A week or so later we’d watch Holland loose to Portugal in a biker-bar in Amsterdam, and not long after watch Greece defeat Portugal in Meppen. You’ve gotta love travelling.

In a master-stroke of planning I managed to land in Hofheim in the middle of the Strawberry season! They’re grown locally and you can just buy them down the road from a road-side stall. Boy are they yum, way better than the crud we get in the shops here.

Before I left Hofheim I also popped over to Wiesbaden with Uta and Birgit. It was heaps of fun, we got lost in the car looking for the Rhine, and when we finally stopped by the Main I think Uta and Birgit were thinking they might just pretend it was the Rhine, crafty!

Finally I had to say my farewells and jump on a train to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, and on to Ilmenau to visit Daniel!

Completely unrelated to any goings-on this week, I just thought I’d stick my head up and make a little observation about writing endian-safe code.

This is one way to do it:

#if defined(__BIG_ENDIAN_BITFIELD)
#define X(a,b)  b,a
#else
#define X(a,b)  a,b
#endif
struct config {
/*0*/   u8 X(byte_count:6, pad0:2);
/*1*/   u8 X(X(rx_fifo_limit:4, tx_fifo_limit:3), pad1:1);
/*2*/   u8 adaptive_ifs;
/*3*/   u8 X(X(X(X(mwi_enable:1, type_enable:1), read_align_enable:1),
       term_write_cache_line:1), pad3:4);
/*4*/   u8 X(rx_dma_max_count:7, pad4:1);
/*5*/   u8 X(tx_dma_max_count:7, dma_max_count_enable:1);
/*6*/   u8 X(X(X(X(X(X(X(late_scb_update:1, direct_rx_dma:1),
       tno_intr:1), cna_intr:1), standard_tcb:1), standard_stat_counter:1),
       rx_discard_overruns:1), rx_save_bad_frames:1);
/*7*/   u8 X(X(X(X(X(rx_discard_short_frames:1, tx_underrun_retry:2),
       pad7:2), rx_extended_rfd:1), tx_two_frames_in_fifo:1),
       tx_dynamic_tbd:1);
/*8*/   u8 X(X(mii_mode:1, pad8:6), csma_disabled:1);
/*9*/   u8 X(X(X(X(X(rx_tcpudp_checksum:1, pad9:3), vlan_arp_tco:1),
       link_status_wake:1), arp_wake:1), mcmatch_wake:1);
/*10*/  u8 X(X(X(pad10:3, no_source_addr_insertion:1), preamble_length:2),
       loopback:2);
/*11*/  u8 X(linear_priority:3, pad11:5);
/*12*/  u8 X(X(linear_priority_mode:1, pad12:3), ifs:4);
/*13*/  u8 ip_addr_lo;
/*14*/  u8 ip_addr_hi;
/*15*/  u8 X(X(X(X(X(X(X(promiscuous_mode:1, broadcast_disabled:1),
       wait_after_win:1), pad15_1:1), ignore_ul_bit:1), crc_16_bit:1),
       pad15_2:1), crs_or_cdt:1);
/*16*/  u8 fc_delay_lo;
/*17*/  u8 fc_delay_hi;
/*18*/  u8 X(X(X(X(X(rx_stripping:1, tx_padding:1), rx_crc_transfer:1),
       rx_long_ok:1), fc_priority_threshold:3), pad18:1);
/*19*/  u8 X(X(X(X(X(X(X(addr_wake:1, magic_packet_disable:1),
       fc_disable:1), fc_restop:1), fc_restart:1), fc_reject:1),
       full_duplex_force:1), full_duplex_pin:1);
/*20*/  u8 X(X(X(pad20_1:5, fc_priority_location:1), multi_ia:1), pad20_2:1);
/*21*/  u8 X(X(pad21_1:3, multicast_all:1), pad21_2:4);
/*22*/  u8 X(X(rx_d102_mode:1, rx_vlan_drop:1), pad22:6);
    u8 pad_d102[9];
};

This code is from drivers/net/e100.c, Copyright © 1999 – 2004 Intel Corporation, and licensed under the GNU GPL v2.

I set this web site up about a year ago so I would have somewhere to put the photos of my then recent trip to Germany. I set it up with some “blogging”software ’cause all the kool kids were doing that, although I didn’t really intend for it to be a blog.

Well that was then .. and now I’ve finally commented all the photos and linked them up and everything and they’re officially ready to go.

Before you freak out at the sheer volume of photos here, be warned that this is only 40% of the photos I took, so if you don’t look at these ones I’ll foist the whole lot on ya! And for the non-technical members of the audience – be assured that I can tell if you’re not looking at them and I will be insulted.

The journey starts in Frankfurt. Or you can browse individual albums here. (The dates aren’t right)

I think I’ll have a “Germany photo of the week” for the next while, just to whet people’s appetite, and give me an excuse to look at the photos a bit more.

Spent today out in ze mountains, hiking around. Alli came along seeing she wasn’t working for a change, as well as Tom and his friend Lucy.

We drove out to Tidbinbilla and then took the Camel Back Ridge trail, turning off just before the Camel Back Hump. From there we headed back south west-ish-ly along the ridge and eventually up John’s Peak.

I was hoping to get up Tidbinbilla Peak and/or Mountain, but it’s actually pretty rough going along the ridge, with loose rocks and lots of regrowth, so it’s slow going.

We could have made it a bit further, but took it easy and had a nice leisurely lunch on top of John’s Peak before heading down to the car.

I’d still like to get up Tidbinbilla sometime, it’d have to be either a 2 day affair (which I think is verboten because of Bendora dam), or a seriously fast-paced 7am start kind of walk. Although I don’t think Tidbinbilla opens until 9am, so there goes that idea. I’ll find a way.

View the photos »