Been lazy lately, and busy I guess, so haven’t been keeping the blog updated as I should!

I guess last week was inevitably going to be a bit lack lustre given that I was just doing the same old, in cold rainy Canberra, rather than being elsewhere. Time to get skiing I think, at least make the most of the cold.

Some brave soul climbing Tai Chi, ~21 (??), above Calpe.

Annnnnyway. Had a quiet weekend, bike riding and bouldering on Saturday while the sun (sort of) shone.

Yesterday Tom and I headed up to Fish(ing/erman’s) gap in the Tidbinbilla valley. It was a pleasent stroll, beautiful sunny weather, and an amazing view down to Canberra which was still cloaked in low cloud. Unfortunately my camera wasn’t happy so I didn’t get any shots.

Popped down to Trinity and then Dickson Asian Noodle House for dinner after, with Tom and Catherine. Trinity was lively for a Sunday night, a bunch of people, even a DJ, but we were still able to get a couch which was nice.

ANU wall’s open again! Tour de France is on! Alli’s back soon (I think)! (we’d better clean the kitchen!)

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

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.

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 »

If the tour of the fridge didn’t quite do it for you, I’ve got something up my sleeve that might do the trick.

Well actually all I’ve got is a link to Glenn’s web site.

Some of you might know Glenn as the boyfriend of my former house mate Kate, or perhaps more likely as the bass player in Petuey, “ah of course” I hear you say.

The lad has a serious case of ants in the pants, and has been to an absolute stack of cool places, I’m jealous. But then I’ve only got myself to blame.

His “travel rants” have a great style to them, and he (and Kate too) can take some thoroughly awesome photos.

When you’re over the thrills of the fridge you should check his site out.