Month: January 2009

Street Pianos
As I was walking over to get the car last night, I noticed a couple people setting up a piano in the middle of Chippendale’s Peace Park. “What’s all this about?” I asked. They said it was part of the Festival, and that there were 20 “street pianos” being installed all over the city. I wondered aloud what they would do if it rained. Six hours later I found out, as I was returning the car to Myrtle Street in the aftermath of a loud thunderstorm. As I walked back to the house, I could hear music playing. When I got close I could see that some kind soul had thrown a large tarp over the piano, and had then crawled underneath to play a little night music. “Now there’s something you don’t see every day…” (There’s a photo on the site of the Chippo piano. They’ve since moved it onto the grass beneath a tree.)

Update: It sounds like they’re going to lock it at night to keep drunks from pounding on it at 2am. Good call.

Rockin’ Out in Wahroonga
The amazing new three-piece “Blue Midgets” played an impromptu set in the Barkers’ lounge room this afternoon. That’s Gadgetgirl on vocals, Yankinoz on the bass, and the Snook on lead guitar. (Yeah. We bought another guitar. Like I said, we’re obsessed.)

Google Calendar <—> iPhone
I wanted to figure out an easy, secure, and free(!) way to sync my Google Calendar to my iPhone. (I know it’s now built into iCal, but that’s only if you’re using OS X 10.5, which I’m not.) This morning I found GCALDaemon, and I quickly had that up and running. It’s pretty neat! It provides two way syncing between my Google calendars and iCal, and the iPhone then of course syncs to iCal. So it’s perhaps not the most elegant solution, but it’ll do the trick until we finally upgrade to 10.5. (And yeah, I could’ve just used Safari to access Google’s mobile calendar site, but where’s the fun in that?)

This article about real Neopolitan pizza mentions Da Michele, the place we went when we visited Naples in 2003.

Cute Things Falling Asleep. Amy just sent me that, and it’s the Cutest Thing Ever.

Hooray! I finally got my iPhone today! My number hasn’t been ported over from my old carrier yet, so I can’t use it to make any actual phone calls til that happens. But we’ve got it on the house wireless and we’re having a play. Snookums is sitting next to me watching “Jesus is my friend” on YouTube.

For those that have one, any good app recommendations? I’ve got Facebook, RTM, and AroundMe. What else is good? Any usage hints or tips?

More rockin’ fun from XKCD…

Credit Crunch Embroidery Sampler. Neat-o! Using a traditional craft to commemorate a very modern event.

Top 10 Countries by Robot Density. A fascinating little graph that tells you where, you know, the Singularity is likely to occur. Remember, folks, robots are everywhere, and they eat old people’s medicine for fuel.

Uh, in case you didn’t notice, my blog got another sexxxy visit from an angora fetishist today. Man, the “Angora Man” posts really draw them in. (NOTE: There technically aren’t any obscene words in the comment, but it may still qualify as Not Safe For Work, depending where you are…)