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# Lentz family blog

The Lentz tribe in Brisbane

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://lentz.com.au/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [An initial look at running DeepSeek-R1 locally](https://lentz.com.au/blog/an-initial-look-at-running-deepseek-r1-locally) - The author discusses their experience with DeepSeek's models, emphasizing the importance of practical engagement through a "Try It And See" approach. They explore the models' reasoning and state-maintenance capabilities while querying current political leaders and historical events like the Tiananmen Square protests. Notably, they identify potential censorship in DeepSeek's mobile app compared to local model responses.
- [Pegasus](https://lentz.com.au/blog/pegasus) - Everyone knows pegasus are winged horses right? WRONG! Pegasus used to be ONE horse, so why are there so many now? Even if Pegasus did breed with a normal mare, and the foal had wings they would be useless and only have stubby things sticking out of it's back. What I would like to know
- [Classic McEleice and the NIST search for post-quantum crypto](https://lentz.com.au/blog/classic-mceleice-and-the-nist-search-for-post-quantum-crypto) - I have always liked cryptography, and public-key cryptography in particularly. When Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) first came out in 1991, I not only started using it, also but looking at the documentation and the code to see how it worked. I created my own implementation in C using very small keys, just to better understand.
- [The trouble with group labels. Because.](https://lentz.com.au/blog/the-trouble-with-group-labels-because) - So Australia's long-term accepted refugee detainees on Manus and Nauru will not be able to migrate to the US, if they come from a country that's on Trump's list. So anyone from a particular set of countries is classified as bad. Because Muslim. Fundamentally of course, these fellow humans should not be detained at all.
- [Maximising available dynamic memory on Arduino](https://lentz.com.au/blog/maximising-available-dynamic-memory-on-arduino) - I like programming in small spaces, it makes one think efficiently and not be sloppy. Example: I was looking at an embedded device the other day, and found a complete Tomcat server and X desktop running on a Raspberry Pi type environment. So that kind of stuff makes me shudder, it just looks wrong and
- [Using expired credit cards](https://lentz.com.au/blog/using-expired-credit-cards) - Using expired credit/debit cards... surely you can't do that? Actually, yes you can. This is how it goes. First, what can be observed (verified): On a vendor site that allows your to save your card (hopefully via a token with the payment gateway provider, so it doesn't actually store your card), you enter the card
- [Calculating CRC with a tiny (32 entry) lookup-table](https://lentz.com.au/blog/calculating-crc-with-a-tiny-32-entry-lookup-table) - I happened to notice that the Arduino OneWire library uses a 256 entry lookup table for its CRC calculations. I did some research on this topic in 1992-1993, while working on Bulletin Board Systems, FidoNet code and file transfer protocols. These days memory is not at a premium on most computers, however on Arduino and
- [The 'Wald Chappell'](https://lentz.com.au/blog/wald-chappell) - My aunt Kathrin has been, throughout her life, a great a collector (and teller!) of funny stories, also exchanging letters full of word jokes (across multiple languages) with friends and family. We recently visited my aunt, and she gave me an envelope full of these gems. My absolute favourite is the following story, which, as
- [Winners of the 2004 Australian Open Source Awards](https://lentz.com.au/blog/winners-of-the-2004-australian-open-source-awards) - (I live in Australia, so hey this stuff interests me!) AUUG (Australian Unix Users Group) announced the winners of the 2004 Australian virtual Open Source Awards. The awards were announced AlDar at the the 6th Australian Open Source Symposium, cheap nba jerseys held Trench yesterday in Perth. wholesale jerseys The awards are The voted on
- [Sick mouse? And this time the cat didn't do it](https://lentz.com.au/blog/sick-mouse-and-this-time-the-cat-didnt-do-it) - Dang, I think the mini USB mouse I use with my laptop is a bit sick. jetlag From its behaviour Motoserres on my desktop, I think Are it keeps reporting the left button as pressed, even though it isn’t… had to unplug it and just use the internal stuff. Last time I wholesale jerseys had
- [Hmm, chocolate](https://lentz.com.au/blog/hmm-chocolate) - I would just like to note Magazine on public record Hello that I only cheap nba jerseys take edible cheap MLB jerseys bribes jetlag in the wholesale NFL jerseys form of milk chocolate Radiostipendiet with hazelnuts el (preferably Milka, but Cadbury wholesale NFL jerseys is ok). Or TimTams (double coat), of course. Share this:Click to
- [virtual jetlag](https://lentz.com.au/blog/virtual-jetlag) - I just returned home from Europe… First a staff developer meeting in Malta. Meeting up with all of them always rocks. They’re ONLINE the ones implementing all the funky new features! Currently most are focused on the upcoming 4.1 production release though, like fixing bugs. SANE 2004 in Amsterdam was cool in a different way.
- [Australian Lawyers And Scholars Are Encouraging Civil Disobedience In This Year](https://lentz.com.au/blog/australian-lawyers-and-scholars-are-encouraging-civil-disobedience-in-this-year) - http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/03/australian-lawyers-and-scholars-are-encouraging-civil-disobedience-in-this-years-census/ The 2016 Australian Census will not be anonymous, and a lot of people aren’t happy about that. A group of Australian privacy advocates, includin...
- [Julian Burnside: What sort of country are we? | The Conversation](https://lentz.com.au/blog/julian-burnside-sort-country-conversation) - https://theconversation.com/julian-burnside-what-sort-of-country-are-we-48162 By our response to boat people since August 2001, we may have redefined our national character. This article is based on the 2015 Hamer Oration, delivered by Julian Burnside on September 28, 2015.
- [UW scientists are pioneering research on ‘body maps’ in babies’ brains  |  UW Today](https://lentz.com.au/blog/uw-scientists-pioneering-research-body-maps-babies-brains-uw-today) - The pattern of infants’ brain activity corresponded to the body parts being used, providing the first evidence that watching someone else use a specific body part prompts a corresponding pattern of activity in the infant neural body map. And much more... interesting research! http://www.washington.edu/news/2015/09/08/uw-researchers-are-pioneering-research-on-body-maps-in-babies-brains/
- [Danish Happiness](https://lentz.com.au/blog/danish-happiness) - This article "Denmark is the Happiest Country" (Huffington Post, Oct 2013) is from a while ago, but quite worthwhile particularly in the current federal political context in Australia. Relevant aspects are personal welfare as well as the overall social and political climate, and economic prosperity. It's a pretty complete package. The article notes that people
- [Full Roof Cover Combining PV Solar and Heat | RenewEconomy.com](https://lentz.com.au/blog/full-roof-cover-combining-pv-solar-and-heat-reneweconomy-com) - http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/bluescope-unveils-world-first-solar-roof-with-heat-and-power-32417 Bluescope unveils "world first" built-in solar array that generates electricity and heat, and acts as roofing.
- [Dutch Court orders Netherlands Government cut CO2 emissions by 25 percent by 2020 | Climate Citizen](https://lentz.com.au/blog/dutch-court-orders-netherlands-government-cut-co2-emissions-25-percent-2020-climate-citizen) - http://takvera.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/dutch-court-orders-netherlands.html A Dutch court in a landmark legal case has just handed down a verdict that the Netherlands Government has the legal duty to take measures against #climate change. Further, the court ordered that a 25% reduction of CO2 emissions, based on 1990 levels, must be accomplished by 2020 by the Dutch government in accordance
- [On Removal of Citizenship - Short Cuts | London Review of Books](https://lentz.com.au/blog/on-removal-of-citizenship-short-cuts-london-review-of-books) - http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n12/sadakat-kadri/short-cuts Many governments would like to rid themselves of unwanted residents, and those that countenance statelessness threaten to increase rather than reduce the problems associated with any who are poorly integrated. Their efforts are also wrong in principle. Citizenship, Hannah Arendt said, is ‘the right to have rights’. Citizenship isn’t a transient privilege, but an
- [2015 Arctic Sea Ice Maximum Annual Extent Is Lowest On Record | NASA](https://lentz.com.au/blog/2015-arctic-sea-ice-maximum-annual-extent-lowest-record-nasa) - http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/2015-arctic-sea-ice-maximum-annual-extent-is-lowest-on-record/ The sea ice cap of the Arctic appeared to reach its annual maximum winter extent on Feb. 25, 2015, according to data from the NSIDC. [...] this year’s maximum extent was the smallest on the satellite record and also one of the earliest.
- [Our privacy is about to be serially infringed - ABC The Drum](https://lentz.com.au/blog/privacy-serially-infringed-abc-drum) - http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-19/bradley-our-privacy-is-about-to-be-serially-infringed/6333274 Michael Bradley summarises the situation on meta-data collection very well in his article for ABC's The Drum. [...] nobody has put up a rationally argued case for what is in reality a mass government surveillance program. [...] You'd think that, before we decided as a society to allow our privacy to be serially infringed
- [#songsincode on Twitter, SongsInCodeDB](https://lentz.com.au/blog/songsincode-twitter) - Looking at twitter #songsincode (just search on #songsincode tag), it appears a large chunk of geeky/nerdy world has come to a halt while spending the day expression song titles in code. So far we've seen most programming languages as well as CSS and SQL come by. I think it's a nice example of how "the collective"
- [All big UK parties committing to phase out coal | SMH](https://lentz.com.au/blog/all-big-uk-parties-committing-to-phase-out-coal-smh) - http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/british-leaders-pledge-climate-change-push-curb-on-coal-plants-20150214-13erbm.html Britain's three main parties made an extraordinary joint commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions, including ending power generation from high-emitting coal plants. Announced in a statement on Saturday, the agreement between the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats did not give a time frame for phasing out plants unless they have emissions capturing technology. But
- [Scientists pledge to increase interference with the Church | The Guardian](https://lentz.com.au/blog/scientists-pledge-to-increase-interference-with-the-church-the-guardian) - http://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2015/feb/04/scientists-pledge-to-increase-interference-with-the-church Dean Burnett: If the Church can interject on scientific matters, surely scientists can interject on religious ones?
- [More Stories](https://lentz.com.au/blog/stories) - Sorry it's been so long, I'm still working on them! I work on around eight at a time so that's why it's taking so long! I will hopefully have one up in a few days!
- [Two Spaces After a Period: ok or not?](https://lentz.com.au/blog/two-spaces-after-a-period-why-you-should-never-ever-do-it-slate-com) - http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/01/space_invaders.html The article suggests the cause of the double space may be manual typewriters with their monospace font. But we all use proportional fonts these days. Then again there's someone else saying exactly the opposite (and backing it up with their own evidence): Why two spaces after a period isn’t wrong (or, the lies typographers
- [Welcome To Australia](https://lentz.com.au/blog/welcome-to-australia) - http://www.welcometoaustralia.org.au/ Welcome to Australia exists to engage everyday Australians in the task of cultivating a culture of welcome in our nation.
- [Probabilistic vs Pilot-Wave view of Quantum Physics | WIRED](https://lentz.com.au/blog/probabilistic-pilotwave-view-quantum-physics-wired) - http://www.wired.com/2014/06/the-new-quantum-reality/ Interesting. I've always had issues with the probabilistic view, and I like the pilot wave (Bohmian) view. It makes more sense in my head. That doesn't mean it's right, of course, but just saying - I find it more elegant and satisfactory. It doesn't require magic. It's important to realise that both views are
- [10 Scientific Ideas That Scientists Wish You Would Stop Misusing](https://lentz.com.au/blog/10-scientific-ideas-that-scientists-wish-you-would-stop-misusing) - http://io9.com/10-scientific-ideas-that-scientists-wish-you-would-stop-1591309822 Many ideas have left the world of science and made their way into everyday language -- and unfortunately, they are almost always used incorrectly. We asked a group of scientists to tell us which scientific terms they believe are the most widely misunderstood. Here are ten of them.
- [Carbon Tax in Canada](https://lentz.com.au/blog/carbon-tax-canada) - Just in case you thought that Canada is on Abbott's wavelength - that may be the case in terms of Canada's current prime minister and some of its actions on the federal level. But let me show you this, straight from the website of the Ministry of Finance of the Canadian province of British Columbia.
- [End Justifying Means](https://lentz.com.au/blog/end-justifying-means) - When (if ever) does an end justify a means? Discuss - provide examples.
- [Dolphins In The Blue-2 (Finally!)](https://lentz.com.au/blog/dolphins-blue2-finally) - 2 I started to swim away as fast as I could when I heard a sad, scared and quiet voice, 'wait,' I squeaked in relief, I saw that the shadow was only a seal. ' Sorry for startling you, I suppose you can't get to sleep either?' It asked 'no, yes, well, lets just
- [A remarkably accurate global warming prediction, made in 1972 | The Guardian](https://lentz.com.au/blog/a-remarkably-accurate-global-warming-prediction-made-in-1972-the-guardian) - http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2014/mar/19/global-warming-accurate-prediction-1972 Dana Nuccitelli: A paper published in Nature in 1972 accurately predicted the next 30 years of global warming
- [20 Jokes That Only Intellectuals Will Understand](https://lentz.com.au/blog/20-jokes-that-only-intellectuals-will-understand) - (original image from http://www.tickld.com/x/20-jokes-that-only-intellectuals-will-understand)
- [Hee Hee](https://lentz.com.au/blog/hee-hee) - Ha ha you're reading this!!
- [Attitude of Operation Sovereign Borders at Customs Department](https://lentz.com.au/blog/attitude-operation-sovereign-borders-customs-department) - "Operation Sovereign Borders" is what the Abbott government calls its witch hunt for refugees who arrives by boat. Its purpose, as judged by the actions taken, appears to be to make people's lives as miserable as possible and apply that as a deterrent. Since people are fleeing from very miserable situations and certain death for
- [At Work Inside Our Detention Centres: A Guard’s Story](https://lentz.com.au/blog/at-work-inside-our-detention-centres-a-guards-story) - http://serco-story.theglobalmail.org/ An illustrated interview from inside Australia’s immigration detention system
- [Google's "Olympic Charter" Logo Stands Up To Russia's Anti-Gay Legislation](https://lentz.com.au/blog/googles-olympic-charter-logo-stands-russias-antigay-legislation) - http://searchengineland.com/google-olympic-charter-logo-183667 If you had any doubts over how Google feels about Russia’s legislation against gay “propaganda,” just go the Google home page. The company has started what will be a string of special logos for the Olympics with one that includes a quote stressing that the official Olympic Charter is against discrimination and using the
- [ NASA Finds 2013 Sustained Long-Term Climate Warming Trend](https://lentz.com.au/blog/watch-60-years-of-climate-change-in-15-seconds-fastcoexist-com) - http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-finds-2013-sustained-long-term-climate-warming-trend NASA scientists say 2013 tied with 2009 and 2006 for the seventh warmest year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures. With the exception of 1998, the 10 warmest years in the 134-year record all have occurred since 2000, with 2010 and 2005 ranking as the warmest years on record.
- [School ditches rules and loses bullies | tvnz](https://lentz.com.au/blog/school-ditches-rules-and-loses-bullies-tvnz) - http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/school-ditches-rules-and-loses-bullies-5807957 Ripping up the playground rulebook is having incredible effects at an Auckland school.
- [A New Thermodynamics Theory of the Origin of Life | Simons Foundation](https://lentz.com.au/blog/a-new-thermodynamics-theory-of-the-origin-of-life-simons-foundation) - https://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20140122-a-new-physics-theory-of-life/ An MIT physicist has proposed the provocative idea that life exists because the law of increasing entropy drives matter to acquire lifelike physical properties.
- [An asylum-seeker is someone.](https://lentz.com.au/blog/an-asylum-seeker-is-someone) - We made this video in the spirit of christmas. http://youtu.be/9NhYAo4hTUQ Lentz family xmas 2013. Because some things need to be said.
- [My Story- Dolphins In The Blue- Chapter 1](https://lentz.com.au/blog/story-dolphins-blue-chapter-1) - Dolphins in The Blue 1 Flying through the air what a feeling! I now know how it is to be a seagull, floating on the breeze, flying over the sea. I dive back into the deep blue sea, my home. I need to get used to the feeling of soaring through the air. I just
- [The Rise and Fall of Australia’s $44 Billion Broadband Project - IEEE Spectrum](https://lentz.com.au/blog/the-rise-and-fall-of-australias-44-billion-broadband-project-ieee-spectrum) - http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/internet/the-rise-and-fall-of-australias-44-billion-broadband-project A good analysis of NBN, history and possible future.
- [Meet Birke Baehr - smart young lad and excellent speaker](https://lentz.com.au/blog/meet-birke-baehr-smart-young-lad-and-excellent-speaker) - http://www.birkeonthefarm.com/ Official Website for Birke Baehr, future organic farmer
- [Solomon Asch's Experiments on Social Conformity](https://lentz.com.au/blog/solomon-aschs-experiments-on-social-conformity) - http://hicksbogan.com/2013/09/06/solomon-aschs-experiments-on-social-conformity-with-videos/ The Asch Conformity Experiments During the 1950s, Solomon Asch conducted and published a series of laboratory experiments that demonstrated the degree to which an individual's own opinions are infl...
- [It's enough to make you cancel your reservation](https://lentz.com.au/blog/its-enough-to-make-you-cancel-your-reservation) - http://blogdramedy.wordpress.com/2013/10/02/its-enough-to-make-you-cancel-your-reservation/ A vacation is supposed to be your time away from the crazy. Remind me never to travel to any of the same vacation spots these people have booked.
- [Doug Engelbart, Who Foresaw the Modern Computer, Dies at 88 | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com](https://lentz.com.au/blog/doug-engelbart-who-foresaw-the-modern-computer-dies-at-88-wired-enterprise-wired-com) - http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/07/douglas_engelbart_mouse/ (I missed this in July) Douglas Engelbart — the father of the computer mouse and so many of the other basic concepts that drive our personal machines and the modern internet — has died at the age of 88.
- [The Tampa children reflect on their rescue 12 years on |  Herald Sun](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tampa-children-reflect-rescue-12-years-herald-sun) - They and their families were en route to Christmas Island. They were rescued by the Norwegian container ship the Tampa. Lawyers fought for them in the Australian court. Politicians argued to keep them out of the country. Two weeks after their rescue, as planes crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, these
- [Robotronica, Yay!](https://lentz.com.au/blog/robotronica-yay) - Last Sunday (that's Sunday the 18/8/13 for you time travellers) there was a big robot expo-thing at QUT called Robotronica, the future is now. My dad took me and my sisters to see what was going on and at 11:00am it started with a robot that walked around a hall avoiding obstacles and people whilst
- [:D](https://lentz.com.au/blog/d) - You will never know what made me type this...
- [Tillon’s Journey to Jaédeen – Part 2](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tillons-journey-jadeen-part-2) - The next morning he awoke and then showed his findings to Gernando. "I don’t know of it Tillon." His view was. "maybe you could ask the sword shopkeeper when we get to Gemalia" "Good idea. maybe he will know something about this." The two of them then started to pack up their belongings and prepared
- [Progress on Tillon's Journey to Jaédeen.](https://lentz.com.au/blog/progress-on-jaedeen) - If you have read one of my earlier posts, Tillon's Journey to Jaédeen, you will see that it is only part one of an unknown amount. I have not posted the second part yet, even though I have been working on it a fair bit. For the simple reason of school/homework. Now that it is school
- [Tell all Telephone | ZEIT ONLINE](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tell-all-telephone-zeit-online) - http://www.zeit.de/datenschutz/malte-spitz-data-retention ZEIT ONLINE writes: "Green party politician Malte Spitz sued to have German telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom hand over six months of his phone data that he then made available to ZEIT ONLINE. We combined this geolocation data with information relating to his life as a politician, such as Twitter feeds, blog entries and websites,
- [Basin Street Blues](https://lentz.com.au/blog/basin-street-blues) - I haven't really played my trumpet in almost 30 years... until a few months ago when a someone from a little band "No Strings Attached" that rehearses at the local school approached me. It's just for fun, but very enjoyable. The below is the famous Basin Street Blues at a recent concert, trumpet solo by
- [Map correctness and its consequences](https://lentz.com.au/blog/map-correctness-consequences) - I've had a globe for years and prefer it when looking up countries with my kids, as obviously it provides us with the most accurate perspective on our world (Google Earth too now, of course). There is no shape/size filter or projection involved. But on paper, we are used to looking at the world in
- [Open Letter to Origin Energy (Gas)](https://lentz.com.au/blog/open-letter-origin-energy-gas) - Dear Christina Wilson (Executive Customer Sales and Operations) at Origin Energy No I will not (re)connect natural gas at my premises. You appear to be (corporately) forgetful. Only last year I cancelled the gas supply, as it has become everything but natural. As you yourself stated to me, it's now all Coal Seam Gas (CSG).
- [6 'Harmless' Fads That Caused Widespread Destruction](https://lentz.com.au/blog/6) - http://www.cracked.com/article_20411_6-harmless-fads-that-caused-widespread-destruction.html/ It turns out some fads have poisoned thousands, started wars, and enslaved entire nations, all for the sake of some dumbass thing people wanted to ride, wear, or eat.
- [Tillon's Journey to Jaédeen - Part 1](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tillons-journey-jadeen-part-1) - Voltaic was a nice place, but Tillon preferred Jaédeen, his birthplace. He missed the gardens and the architecture. Tillon often daydreamed about Jaédeen. His customers sometimes walked in to find him thinking not of his wares and how many quiln to sell them for, but staring into space with a faraway look in his eyes.
- [Average CO2 levels rise past nasty threshold | NYT](https://lentz.com.au/blog/average-co2-levels-rise-nasty-threshold-nyt) - The average carbon dioxide reading surpassed 400 parts per million at the research facility atop the Mauna Loa volcano on the island of Hawaii [...] The best available evidence suggests the amount of the gas in the air has not been this high for at least three million years [...] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/science/earth/carbon-dioxide-level-passes-long-feared-milestone.html
- [Ground control to Major Tux: Space station dumps Windows, now uses Linux](https://lentz.com.au/blog/ground-control-to-major-tux-space-station-dumps-windows-now-uses-linux) - http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/10/iss-linux/ An ISS spokesperson told press the switch was made because ISS astronauts and cosmonauts needed an operating system "that was stable and reliable." Ouch!
- [Why the mining companies don't actually pay the tax | ABC](https://lentz.com.au/blog/why-the-mining-companies-dont-actually-pay-the-tax-abc) - http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-08/iron-ore-producers-book-billions-in-mining-tax-credits/4678228 Well over billion in tax credits for the big four iron ore miners are a key factor slashing the revenue from the Federal Government's Minerals Resource Rent Tax.
- [Trade Matters 2012 - AU DFAT](https://lentz.com.au/blog/australia-trade-matters-2012-australian-government-department-of-foreign-affairs-and-trade) - http://www.dfat.gov.au/tradematters/index.html This infographic (on 2012 foreign trade) looks fairly problematic to me. We export mainly raw materials, and import oil and processed materials. That's costly and inefficient: inevitable we'll always lose on that balance. Images for Australia and QLD copied as DFAT doesn't use URLs that will persist when the next edition comes out...
- [Snake in the Garden](https://lentz.com.au/blog/snake-garden) - I noticed birds making a lot of noise outside (no cats about). That usually means a snake either in a tree or on the ground, and so it was this time. I managed to take a picture before it moved on. It seemed to be about 2m long, probably a carpet python (Morelia Spilota). Beautiful!
- [Max's limerick](https://lentz.com.au/blog/limerick) - This is a limerick I made up while we discussed popular ones over dinner. There once was a man who liked pie Who desperately wanted to fly So he climbed up a ladder That should of been flatter And then proceeded to die. Hope you like it :D
- [Ethiopian kids hack OLPCs in 5 months with zero instruction](https://lentz.com.au/blog/ethiopian-kids-hack-olpcs-in-5-months-with-zero-instruction) - http://www.dvice.com/archives/2012/10/ethiopian-kids.php What happens if you give a thousand Motorola Zoom tablet PCs to Ethiopian kids who have never even seen a printed word? Within five months, they'll start teaching themselves English while circumventing the security on your OS to customize settings and activate disabled hardware. Whoa.
- [What Most Schools Don’t Teach](https://lentz.com.au/blog/schools-dont-teach) - Via my good friend and fellow traveller Jaap van Till... every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn to code. Software is now in nearly everything around us, and many are needed to define and create it. Even if you don't (want to) create code yourself, a better understanding will help you
- [Letter to IFAW's Fred O'Regan ](https://lentz.com.au/blog/letter-ifaws-fred-oregan) - IFAW is the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Fred is the CEO. They send out a set of postcards to people who have been active for their campaigns, hoping to trigger the reciprocity principle and receiving donations. Fundraising is big business, and the biggest benefactors are the companies doing the fundraising, not the good causes.
- [Australian cleantech industry nears $30bn - bigger than car making  : Renew Economy](https://lentz.com.au/blog/australian-cleantech-industry-nears-30bn-bigger-than-car-making-renew-economy) - http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/australian-cleantech-industry-nears-30bn-bigger-than-car-making-38503 Australia's often-ignored cleantech sector is now bigger than car making and one quarter the size of the country's entire manufacturing sector. A new report also highlights the big trends in 2013 - growing investment from overseas, a rush to an ETS whoever wins government, and a stronger focus on energy and resource efficiency.
- [New LBJ tapes: Richard Nixon's Vietnam 'treason' | BBC](https://lentz.com.au/blog/new-lbj-tapes-richard-nixons-vietnam-treason-bbc) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21768668
- [Disney Princesses AFTER Ever After | Paint](https://lentz.com.au/blog/disney-princesses-after-ever-after-paint) - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/13/after-ever-after-disney-jon-cozart_n_2867739.html In case you were wondering what happens after your Disney princesses live happily ever after, Jon Cozart, aka "Paint" has all the answers. And it's not pretty... although his singing is.
- [You Only Click Twice: FinFisher’s Global Proliferation - Citizen Lab](https://lentz.com.au/blog/you-only-click-twice-finfishers-global-proliferation-citizen-lab) - https://citizenlab.org/2013/03/you-only-click-twice-finfishers-global-proliferation-2/ This post describes the results of a comprehensive global Internet scan for the command and control servers of FinFisher’s surveillance software.
- [NBN vs Coalition alternative | ABC](https://lentz.com.au/blog/nbn-coalition-alternative-abc) - The Coalition's broadband policy slogan states that they will "Complete the current NBN cheaper and faster." This simply isn't true. See http://www.abc.net.au/technology/articles/2013/02/21/3695094.htm for the full story.
- [Arctic "death spiral" leaves climate scientists shocked and worried](https://lentz.com.au/blog/arctic-death-spiral-leaves-climate-scientists-shocked-and-worried) - http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/climatesnapshot/arctic-death-spiral-leaves-climate-scientists-shocked-and-worried A "global disaster" is unfolding rapidly in the Arctic as melting sea ice kick starts global warming feedback loops. " three-quarters of the "permanent", year-round sea ice in the Arctic has been cooked away in just 30 years. Over half of it has disappeared in just the last eight years. A vast expanse of
- [Upper Hunter - mining pit](https://lentz.com.au/blog/upper-hunter-mining-pit) - In 2008 I drove through the Upper Hunter. Less well known than the international tourist magnet aka wine theme park the Lower Hunter Valley. By the way I call it a theme park because while it contains over 120 wineries, only about 3% of Australia's grapes are grown in the Hunter area. It can be
- [A stupid laptop (ACER Aspire 5315)](https://lentz.com.au/blog/stupid-laptop-acer-aspire-5315) - Working on upgrading an old 2008 laptop for someone from Vista to (also) run Linux, I ran into the most silly issue. Unlike "normal" laptops, the ACER Aspire 5315 does not control its CPU fan through its BIOS (ACPI) - the fan does run on startup, but stops as soon as you start an operating
- [Cybersleuths Uncover 5-Year Spy Operation | Wired.com](https://lentz.com.au/blog/cybersleuths-uncover-5-year-spy-operation-wired-com) - http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/01/red-october-spy-campaign/all/ An advanced and well-orchestrated computer spy operation that targeted diplomats and governments for at least five years has been uncovered by security researchers in Russia. Focused on targets in Eastern Europe, the campaign appears to be aimed at gathering classified information and geopolitical intelligence. And US govt is fussed about Wikileaks. My goodness do
- [Home made CT Scanner | HackADay](https://lentz.com.au/blog/home-made-ct-scanner-hackaday) - http://hackaday.com/2013/01/09/ben-krasnow-builds-a-ct-scanner/ After building a homebrew x-ray backscatter imager, Ben Krasnow realised he had nearly all the components to build his own CT scanner, able to make a 3D model of the inside of a frozen chicken. [Uses Arduino as well.]
- [IBM taught Watson to swear](https://lentz.com.au/blog/ibm-taught-watson-swear) - http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/30064-ibm-accidentally-taught-watson-to-swear IBM hit a snag when it was trying to train its Watson supercomputer to understand Internet slang. Brown said he tried to teach Watson the Urban Dictionary which included Internet abbreviations. The problem was that Watson couldn't distinguish between polite language and swearing. Apparently it picked up some bad habits from reading Wikipedia and started
- [Santa shot - critical but stable - recovery expected](https://lentz.com.au/blog/santa-shot-critical-stable-recovery-expected) - N.P.P. - 19 December 2012 The big man in red and white is down, critically shot while on his annual rounds, according to information released only moments ago. Doctors say Mr Claus, commonly known as Santa, is now resting in a stable condition after undergoing hours of complex life-saving surgery. Police are still trying to
- [Report warns rock art protection crumbling - SBS Radio](https://lentz.com.au/blog/report-warns-rock-art-protection-crumbling-sbs-radio) - http://www.sbs.com.au/podcasts/Podcasts/radionews/episode/243691/Report-warns-rock-art-protection-crumbling A report in the Australian Archaeology journal warns world famous Quinkan rock art of Cape York could be lost due to poor cultural heritage management.
- [Raspberry Pi gets RISC OS, can now play Elite](https://lentz.com.au/blog/raspberry-pi-gets-risc-os-can-now-play-elite) - http://hackaday.com/2012/11/08/raspberry-pi-gets-risc-os-can-now-play-elite/ The processor in the Raspberry Pi - an ARM11 built by Broadcom - actually has a long and storied history. Much as how the Intel i7 in a top-of-the-line desktop can still run code written for the original IBM PC, the ARM chip in the Raspberry Pi is also based on decades-old technology.
- [First 5 min sketch!](https://lentz.com.au/blog/5-min-sketch) - The first of many sketches.
- [Upcoming comics!](https://lentz.com.au/blog/upcoming-comics) - I'm gonna be scanning and publishing some of my 5 min XKCD style sketches in the near future (cant say exactly how many or when) the first one will closely follow this announcement. XKCD website: http://xkcd.com/
- [The Variable Density of Cats](https://lentz.com.au/blog/variable-density-cats) - Thanks to living with a cat the past few months I have made an observation that cats appear to have variable density. Sometimes they are light as a feather and can glide between pieces of furniture, other times they appear to be heavier and floppier than almost anything else that I can think of. This
- [My multiverse theory.](https://lentz.com.au/blog/multiverse-theory-max) - I have made up a theory of my own to explain the origins of the universe via a "multiverse" connection thingy. In a nutshell there are many universes, each linked by black holes and "space pores" which are miniature white holes all over our universe that spurt out matter from other universes. Since anything and
- [Freeing my HTC android phone](https://lentz.com.au/blog/freeing-htc-android-phone) - This is a story about a little journey of my HTC Incredible S, which is a pretty decent phone somewhat on par with say iPhone 4 (let's not nitpick). Anyway I've been happy with it. It developed a fault in the touch screen some months ago, so I took it back to the Optus shop
- [The wrongness of church in QLD schools](https://lentz.com.au/blog/the-wrongness-of-church-in-qld-schools) - http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/10/22/3615647.htm The separation of church and state schools is an issue which transcends religious beliefs and political allegiances. It should concern Christians, members of minority faiths and those with no religious belief.
- [Nauru fail](https://lentz.com.au/blog/nauru-fail) - Asylum Seeker Attempts Suicide On Nauru (New Matilda) An Iranian asylum seeker attempted suicide two days ago on Nauru, reportedly after being told of long waits for processing under the Gillard Government’s “no advantage” rule. Nauru Asylum Seekers Protest Delays (New Matilda) More than 200 asylum seekers on Nauru held a three-hour peaceful protest meeting
- [The Most Insane Lego Machine I](https://lentz.com.au/blog/the-most-insane-lego-machine-i) - http://gizmodo.com/5944472/the-most-insane-lego-machine-ive-ever-seen Its creator calls this machine the Lego Great Ball Contraption. 500 balls (one per second), 17 lego modules, 600 hours to build. Awesome.
- [Windowed billiard room underwater](https://lentz.com.au/blog/windowed-billiard-room-underwater) - http://io9.com/5941714/the-century+old-remains-of-the-windowed-billiard-room-an-eccentric-millionaire-built--underwater Nineteenth-century company promoter James Whitaker Wright is probably best known as a financial swindler whose corporate house of cards led to a panic in the London stock exchange at the turn of the twentieth century. But one of Wright's legacies is architectural, rather than financial. In 1890, he purchased and began developing the Lea
- [Global Warming's Terrifying New Math | Rolling Stone](https://lentz.com.au/blog/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-rolling-stone) - http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719 Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe - and that make clear who the real enemy is
- [Toothbrush Saved International Space Station](https://lentz.com.au/blog/toothbrush-saved-international-space-station) - http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/behold-the-toothbrush-that-just-saved-the-international-space-station/262035/ Astronauts aboard the ISS find a low-tech way to solve a high-tech problem.
- [mathematicians offer unified theory of dark matter, dark energy - Indiana University](https://lentz.com.au/blog/mathematicians-offer-unified-theory-of-dark-matter-dark-energy-indiana-university) - http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/23053.html A pair of mathematicians -- one from Indiana University and the other from Sichuan University in China -- have proposed a unified theory of dark matter and dark energy that alters Einstein's equations describing the fundamentals of gravity. (thanks Andrew Chalmers for the original link)
- [Colour photographs of the Hindenburg interior, 1930s](https://lentz.com.au/blog/colour-photographs-of-the-hindenburg-interior-1930s) - http://www.retronaut.co/2011/04/inside-the-hindenburg-in-colour/ As my friend Raymond Smith noted, they really were air-ships. While fundamentally different from aircraft, and of course the nature of travel has changed, I do think airlines have much to learn from how things were done back then. In fact, I actually believe there'd be a market for airships now, travelling Australia but
- [Estonia going for 100% of first graders learning to code](https://lentz.com.au/blog/estonia-going-for-100-of-first-graders-learning-to-code) - http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/04/estonia-code-academy/ We're reading today that Estonia is implementing a new education program that will have 100 percent of publicly educated students learning to write code.
- [Peak Phosphorus](https://lentz.com.au/blog/peak-phosphorus) - Phosphorus is, while being essential to farming crops and an essential nutrient for humans (and other animals!), a relatively scarce resource - and it's running out. Australian soil is particularly poor in phosphorus anyway, but the "running out" story is essentially global - it might just happen faster to Australia. Two Australian researchers (Dr Dana
- [Stanford biologist and computer scientist discover the 'anternet' | School of Engineering](https://lentz.com.au/blog/stanford-biologist-and-computer-scientist-discover-the-anternet-school-of-engineering) - http://engineering.stanford.edu/news/stanford-biologist-computer-scientist-discover-anternet A collaboration between a Stanford ant biologist and a computer scientist has revealed that the behavior of harvester ants as they forage for food mirrors the protocols that control traffic on the Internet.
- [Bid to ban cigarettes for anyone born after 2000](https://lentz.com.au/blog/bid-to-ban-cigarettes-for-anyone-born-after-2000) - http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/bid-to-ban-cigarettes-for-anyone-born-after-2000-20120822-24liy.html Bid to ban cigarettes for anyone born after 2000. Interesting initiative in Tasmania, may go to all of Australia given that this comes less than a week after the High Court rules in favour of the "plain packaging" legislation. There is now good momentum for the "end game of tobacco".
- [Africa Grows Too Hot to Grow Chocolate: Scientific American](https://lentz.com.au/blog/africa-grows-hot-grow-chocolate-scientific-american) - http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=africa-grows-too-hot-to-grow-chocolate Climate change may be disrupting the cocoa farms of West Africa
- [Other People's Code](https://lentz.com.au/blog/peoples-code) - http://abstrusegoose.com/432
- [ARM Goes 64-bit](https://lentz.com.au/blog/arm-goes-64-bit) - http://www.realworldtech.com/arm64/ The new ARMv8 architecture is classically British; a clean and elegant 64-bit instruction set, with compatibility for 32-bit software. The 64-bit mode eliminates many complicated and awkward features and will foster a larger and more diverse ARM ecosystem with new licensees and applications.
- [Brain interfacing - finally](https://lentz.com.au/blog/brain-interfacing-finally) - I've long lamented the lack of a direct brain-to-device interface. So here we are, finally: a simple bit of EEG output, snapped at a time where I was relaxing rather than highly focused (those are specifically measured metrics): The above was done using a Neurosky MindWave headset and a bit of Python code (on github)
- [Engaged!](https://lentz.com.au/blog/engaged) - (delayed publish as we wanted to personally tell various family members and other connections - which are scattered around the globe and somewhat hard to catch ;-) Horay! Claire and I are engaged! Last weekend I whisked Claire away for a surprise weekend near Stanthorpe (the cold South of Queensland). I managed to keep it
- [Apple and Amazon Security Flaws | Wired](https://lentz.com.au/blog/apple-and-amazon-security-flaws-wired) - http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/apple-amazon-mat-honan-hacking [story of Mat Honan affecting his Amazon account, GMail account, Twitter account, iPhone and MacBook data] In the space of one hour, my entire digital life was destroyed. First my Google account was taken over, then deleted. Next my Twitter account was compromised, and used as a platform to broadcast racist and homophobic messages.
- [Posts from authors other than Arjen](https://lentz.com.au/blog/posts-authors-arjen) - From now on you might also see posts on this blog that weren't written by me, but by others in my household. Initially and specifically Max, who has awesome ideas and ponderings that he'd like to share - he's a very good writer. So, when you see those posts, enjoy!
- [Climate Change Denier’s Own Study Changes His Mind](https://lentz.com.au/blog/climate-change-deniers-study-mind) - Climate Change Denier’s Own Study Changes His Mind Professor Richard Muller, one of the US’ foremost climate change deniers, has finally changed his views on global warming thanks to a new study… his own. After conducting research on the subject, Muller says he has had a “total turnaround” and is no longer sceptical about the threats
- [Gay Marriage Has Made $259 Million for New York City](https://lentz.com.au/blog/gay-marriage-259-million-york-city) - Gay Marriage Has Made $259 Million for New York City If New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn's figures that same-sex marriages brought in some $259 million in economic benefits to the city are correct--that means gay marriages earned the city around $30,000 per hour since they were legalized one year
- [How to suck at your religion - The Oatmeal](https://lentz.com.au/blog/suck-religion-oatmeal) - The Oatmeal comic yet again does an excellent satire How to Suck at Your Religion.
- [Arrow Coal Seam Gas permit under Brisbane Western Suburbs](https://lentz.com.au/blog/arrow-coal-seam-gas-permit-brisbane-western-suburb) - Arrow Energy, now also under your house in the Brisbane Western suburbs... http://www.goldergis.com.au/csggroundwaterportal/ (tick the CSG lease box to see areas) A large coal seam gas exploration permit has been granted over a large part of Brisbane’s Western suburbs. The permit, known as EPP641 is owned by BNG Pty Ltd which is a subsidiary of
- [Woolworths Mental Misinformed Marmalade](https://lentz.com.au/blog/woolworths-mental-misinformed-marmalade) - I present to you two bits of info: "Made in Belgium from imported and local ingredients". We're talking about marmalade for the Australian market. Belgium is on the other side of the planet! Furthermore, oranges do not grow in Belgium, it's too cold. So that key ingredient is definitely imported there first (from either a
- [Professors' proposed calendar synchronizes dates with days - CNN.com](https://lentz.com.au/blog/professors-proposed-calendar-synchronizes-dates-with-days-cnn-com) - http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/28/us/calendar-overhaul/ Two professors at Johns Hopkins University are proposing a new, universal calendar in which each day falls on the same date every year. [...] The professors' article on the proposed new calendar is at http://www.cato.org.
- [Good description of what a real hacker does and how and why - New Scientist](https://lentz.com.au/blog/good-description-of-what-a-real-hacker-does-and-how-and-why-new-scientist) - http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228440.700-dotdashdiss-the-gentleman-hackers-1903-lulz.html?full=true A century ago, one of the world's first hackers used Morse code insults to disrupt a public demo of Marconi's wireless telegraph. Paul Marks reports
- [Lego's new toy range doing no one any favours - The Age](https://lentz.com.au/blog/legos-toy-range-favours-age) - http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/lego-makes-sure-that-boys-will-be-boys-and-girls-will-be-girls-20111226-1paf1.html IN A 1970s advertisement for Lego, a small girl holds up a free-form construction, made up of a jumble of different types of bricks and figures. She is wearing a blue T-shirt, a pair of jeans and blue sneakers, and her red hair is plaited. The ad features the caption ''What it is is
- [Portraits Of Soldiers Before, During, After War - DesignTAXI.com](https://lentz.com.au/blog/portraits-of-soldiers-before-during-after-war-designtaxi-com) - http://designtaxi.com/news/351210/Portraits-Of-Soldiers-Before-During-After-War/ I looked particularly at the eyes, there's a huge difference. Eyes are very telling. Lives destroyed. Not just those killed, but also those that return. And it also affects their families and friends. For a long time. A long time ago I wrote "war costs you an arm and a leg" which was a
- [Recipe: pasta with haloumi](https://lentz.com.au/blog/recipe-pasta-haloumi) - Having to use up some fresh ingredients often makes for interesting new recipes and flavour experiences: haloumi cheese (home made in my case), cut in to small slices, fry separately in virgin olive oil, set aside. red onion chopped fresh garlic zucchini (courgette) roma tomatoes cracked pepper some rosemary toss haloumi in to the mix. serve
- [Popeye's spinach story rich in irony - Dr Karl](https://lentz.com.au/blog/popeyes-spinach-story-rich-in-irony-dr-karl) - http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2011/12/06/3384516.htm Spinach *is* rich in iron, but there's some confusing history. Dr Karl (long fooled too) unravels the saga.
- [Solar-powered 3D printer turns sand into glass](https://lentz.com.au/blog/solar-powered-3d-printer-turns-sand-into-glass) - http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/26/solar-sinter-solar-powered-3d-printer-turns-sand-into-glass-ren/ Markus Kayser's Solar Sinter turns Saharan sand into a perfectly suitable glass bowl. There's a neat video showing the process in action.
- [Season's Wishes](https://lentz.com.au/blog/seasons-wishes) - I really don't care for the commercial nonsense, nor for the warped religious stuff. For my main thoughts, see my recent post Seasonal Consideration on BlueHackers.org. The Dalai Lama recently noted: Even more important than the warmth and affection we receive, is the warmth and affection we give. It is by giving warmth and affection, by having
- [Why Iceland Should Be in the News But Is Not | War Is A Crime .org](https://lentz.com.au/blog/why-iceland-should-be-in-the-news-but-is-not-war-is-a-crime-org) - http://warisacrime.org/content/why-iceland-should-be-news-not An awesome story of Iceland getting its independence back after the banking mishaps, standing up to international pressure and drafting a new constitution through crowd sourcing. An inspiring example of how change can be effected, and pretty quick too.
- [The Discovery of Dolphin Language | Wake Up World](https://lentz.com.au/blog/discovery-dolphin-language-wake-world) - http://wakeup-world.com/2011/11/28/the-discovery-of-dolphin-language/ "Researchers in the US and Great Britain have made a significant breakthrough in deciphering dolphin language in which a series of eight objects have been sonically identified" Many people think in visual-spatial terms rather than audio-sequential. I know people who think in terms of music, and others who think in colours. I think in
- [30 years of the BBC Microcomputer](https://lentz.com.au/blog/30-years-of-the-bbc-microcomputer) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15969065 The tech industry is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the BBC Microcomputer.
- [Opensource edible landscapes: The Todmorden story](https://lentz.com.au/blog/opensource-edible-landscapes-todmorden-story) - http://confusedofcalcutta.com/2011/11/27/opensource-edible-landscapes-the-todmorden-story/ If you're particularly into bad news, there are many places that will indulge your particular interest today. This is not one of them. Here, I want to spend a little time on things that give me hope for humanity, things that have an uplifting effect on me; things that remind me that I have
- [The Compass](https://lentz.com.au/blog/compass) - I frequently get questions about the compass residing on the wrist band of my watch. The real answer is that I use it when bushwalking - I also have a "proper" one for things that need more accuracy, but this works and is always handy. More recently, I figured I might as well have some
- [Kids of Today vs 1980s Technology](https://lentz.com.au/blog/kids-today-1980s-technology) - An interesting experiment! Unfortunately since I moved continents I don't have any of that old gear any more... but the concept is great and I apply it for more things. My first computer was a Sinclair ZX80, quickly followed by the awesome Acorn BBC/B (Acorn completely missing from oldcomputers.net!) I learnt programming slightly before, on
- [Arjen's Chilli Chocolate Shortbread](https://lentz.com.au/blog/arjens-chilli-chocolate-shortbread) - Ingredients 250g baking butter (variety with salt and cream), softened 2/3 cup icing sugar 2 cups plain flour 1 cup gluten free flour (contains tapioca as well as rice flour), this will create a nicer texture compared to the usual plain rice flour! 1 tbsp cacao 1 tsp chilli powder Instructions Mix all ingredients together
- [Dennis Ritchie vs Steve Jobs](https://lentz.com.au/blog/dennis-ritchie-steve-jobs)
- [Phoebe Card Solitaire](https://lentz.com.au/blog/phoebe-card-solitaire) - I showed Phoebe card solitaire on her laptop last night. She asks "can we play it with real cards?" so I got her a deck, showed her how to lay it out, and off she goes. I like that... from computer to the real world, often preferred.
- [The Girl Who Made the UN Listen](https://lentz.com.au/blog/girl-listen) - Five highly valuable minutes - take it all in.
- [Coal Seam Gas: By The Numbers - ABC](https://lentz.com.au/blog/coal-seam-gas-numbers-abc) - http://www.abc.net.au/news/specials/coal-seam-gas-by-the-numbers/ Coal seam gas has emerged as a major industry in Australia in little more than a decade. The scale and speed of its growth has been nothing short of astonishing: billions of dollars have poured into regional areas; new jobs have been created; state and national coffers have swelled; export contracts have been signed
- [

Anki - friendly, intelligent flashcards

](https://lentz.com.au/blog/anki-friendly-intelligent-flashcards) - http://ankisrs.net/ From a lightning talk by Paul Fenwick @ OSDC 2011 Canberra. Awesome tool and available for most platforms including mobiles. You can create your own cards and there are heaps of libraries. You can use it to learn new things, or to efficiently not forget stuff.
- [Symynd](https://lentz.com.au/blog/symynd) - http://www.symynd.com/ Free and Open education tools/content online.
- [Vint Cerf: The government is going overboard in Internet copyright control | VentureBeat](https://lentz.com.au/blog/vint-cerf-the-government-is-going-overboard-in-internet-copyright-control-venturebeat) - http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/14/vint-cerf/ "When Bob and I started writing the specs for the Internet in 1973..." Only a handful of people can start a sentence anything like that.
- [European Bail-Out Fund Found To Monetize... Itself | ZeroHedge](https://lentz.com.au/blog/european-bail-out-fund-found-to-monetize-itself-zerohedge) - http://www.zerohedge.com/news/european-ponzi-goes-full-retard-efsf-found-monetize-itself And you thought the Miss USA 2011 videos were "lighter"? Ha no, we can do way better than that. Try central bankers! "Sources said the EFSF [EU's bail-out fund] had spent more than € 100m buying up its own bonds to help it achieve its funding target after the banks leading the deal were
- [Nuclear Experts Say U.S. Learned Nothing From Fukushima](https://lentz.com.au/blog/nuclear-experts-say-u-s-learned-nothing-from-fukushima) - http://www.care2.com/causes/nuclear-experts-say-u-s-learned-nothing-from-fukushima.html Sunday marks the six-month anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear reactor crisis.
- [6th grade presenter and iPhone app developer at TEDxManhattanBeach](https://lentz.com.au/blog/6th-grade-presenter-and-iphone-app-developer-at-tedxmanhattanbeach) - http://youtu.be/ehDAP1OQ9Zw Thomas Suarez is a 6th grade student at a middle school in the South Bay. Tom been fascinated by computers and technology since before kindergarten.
- [Cancer spreads to last Tasmanian devil refuge](https://lentz.com.au/blog/cancer-spreads-to-last-tasmanian-devil-refuge) - http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/cancer-spreads-to-last-tasmanian-devil-refuge-20111108-1n5lr.html Cancer spreads to last Tasmanian devil refuge
- [Queen Bohemian Rhapsody played on old computer gear](https://lentz.com.au/blog/queen-bohemian-rhapsody-played-computer-gear)
- [Still a Fracking / Coal Seam Gas proponent?](https://lentz.com.au/blog/fracking-may-have-caused-50-earthquakes-in-oklahoma) - http://www.care2.com/causes/fracking-may-have-caused-50-earthquakes-in-oklahoma.html News is spreading that the United States Geological Survey has released a report that links a series of earthquakes in Oklahoma last January to a fracking operation underway there. See also Fracking Caused Earthquakes in England about similar events near Blackpool. http://www.treehugger.com/energy-disasters/fracking-caused-earthquakes-england.html
- [Identifont - Identify fonts by appearance, find fonts by name](https://lentz.com.au/blog/identifont-identify-fonts-by-appearance-find-fonts-by-name) - http://www.identifont.com/ What an awesomely usefull tool! "Identify fonts by appearance, find fonts by name, find picture or symbol fonts, find fonts by designer or publisher."
- [An Upcoming Tipping Point in North Korea](https://lentz.com.au/blog/upcoming-tipping-point-north-korea) - http://thenextweb.com/asia/2011/11/04/n-korea-on-the-cusp-of-digital-revolution-as-report-shows-mobile-ownership-surging/ There's an old statistical observation, a country with (if I remember correctly) >50 telephones per 1000 inhabitants can no longer function as a totalitarian or dictatorial state. It's a tipping point, and whether a government can technically take out telephone exchanges appears to not be an issue. Generally they need the infrastructure to work
- [HTML for Babies, Book Introduces Web Design Concepts to Babies](https://lentz.com.au/blog/html-for-babies-book-introduces-web-design-concepts-to-babies) - http://laughingsquid.com/html-for-babies-book-introduces-web-design-concepts-to-babies/ So funny: a colourful board book titled HTML for Babies (Web Design for Babies, Volume 1) introduces web design concepts to babies. The book is authored by New York web designer John C. Vanden-Heuvel Sr.
- [Geeky dance video - mix with old video game fun](https://lentz.com.au/blog/geeky-dance-video-mix-with-old-video-game-fun)
- [Asciiflow - ASCII Flow Diagram Tool](https://lentz.com.au/blog/asciiflow-ascii-flow-diagram-tool) - http://www.asciiflow.com/ What an awesome little tool. Very useful for quickly drawing a little diagram so you can put it in an email or something. For email, be sure to make that section "fixed width font" or "preformatted" to have it be displayed correctly on the other end.
- [The Once and Future Way to Run](https://lentz.com.au/blog/the-once-and-future-way-to-run) - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/magazine/running-christopher-mcdougall.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all "Rediscovering the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other." I'm generally more a walker than a runner, but at times I run and sometimes you do it just right and you feel the difference. I've also done walks (in town) barefoot which is nicer but that can be annoying with
- [Dutch row over male circumcision](https://lentz.com.au/blog/dutch-row-over-male-circumcision) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15486834 Oh for goodness sake. just no. Of course the Torah and the Koran note it - it made sense when living in the desert in the middle east, with little water and lack of hygiene. So now it's a religious tradition. I get all that. But there is no need for it in our
- [New National School Chaplaincy and Student Welfare Program](https://lentz.com.au/blog/national-school-chaplaincy-student-welfare-program) - http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/NSCSWP/Pages/NSCSWP_Overview.aspx The National School Chaplaincy and Student Welfare Program will begin in 2012 and expands on the current National School Chaplaincy Program. The Program provides funding to schools to access the services of a school chaplain or secular support worker. The latter (secular Student Welfare worker) is new, and upon further reading it appears to
- [Helmet Freedom - about Australia's mandatory bicycle helmet law](https://lentz.com.au/blog/helmet-freedom-about-australias-mandatory-bicycle-helmet-law) - http://helmetfreedom.org/ The introduction of that law in 1991 didn't actually reduce deaths, so what's the point? There's more to it of course, and that site does a good job of gathering the info.
- [Ubuntu 11.04 on an old Dell Inspiron 8500](https://lentz.com.au/blog/ubuntu-1104-dell-inspiron-8500) - Phoebe's EeePC 4G still works fine after 3 years, now running Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick - but the screen is just way too small. Apart from local apps, quite a few sites such as ABC4Kids have Flash games that require at least 1024x768. So, time to try something new, preferably without spending any money... I have
- [Daylight Savings Time Explained - and Queensland](https://lentz.com.au/blog/daylight-savings-time-explained-queensland) - Coming from The Netherlands (Amsterdam is 52 degrees North) which has had daylight savings since 1940s, I didn't consider it a fuss also having having it here. The problem in South-East Queensland where I live is interacting with the Southern states in summer, both in person (cross-border trade like produce that needs to get to
- [Siri, Computers, and our actual Power](https://lentz.com.au/blog/siri-computers-actual-power) - Computers may have the power, but we still hold the switch. --Arjen Lentz (mid/late 80s) I'm afraid that might not be true any more, considering how much of our daily lives is actually computer-controlled. How many microcontrollers run your car?
- [Royal Society puts its Historical Journal Online](https://lentz.com.au/blog/royal-society-historical-journal-online) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15445507 The world's oldest scientific academy, the Royal Society, has made its historical journal, which includes about 60,000 scientific papers, permanently free to access online. Isn't that awesome? The stuff in there is historic gold. You can find it all at Philosophical Transactions − the world's first science journal
- [Almond Pie](https://lentz.com.au/blog/almond-pie) - At the end of another ABC program, I saw a short item from 2004 called Wicked about chefs' favourite dessert recipes. It had actor and food author Vincent Schiavelli telling about a recipe from one of his friends back home in Sicily. It's in a book of his "Many Beautiful Things". The recipe is also
- [Corporate Personhood](https://lentz.com.au/blog/corporate-personhood) - A few days ago I spotted a picture of a T-shirt (curious how that works these days) with the following phase: Slavery is the legal fiction that a person is property. Corporate personhood is the legal fiction that property is a person. I believe that's rather relevant, in many countries corporations are essentially regarded as
- [That Deaf Guy - Cartoon series](https://lentz.com.au/blog/deaf-guy-cartoon-series) - http://www.thatdeafguy.com/ Awesome cartoon series by Matt & Kay Daigle. Educational as well as funny.
- [Spherical Flying machine for search & rescue](https://lentz.com.au/blog/spherical-flying-machine-search-rescue)
- [Libya and Iraq, Quite a Difference](https://lentz.com.au/blog/libya-iraq-difference) - Both messy, but differently so. With Iraq, I didn't think the foreign invasion was a good idea. The Iraqis would have got rid of Hussein when they were ready. Yes, that might have been quite a while and lots of suffering later, but it would've also meant that the mindset inside Iraq would've been ready
- [visiondivision: the patient gardener](https://lentz.com.au/blog/visiondivision-patient-gardener) - http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/17215/visiondivision-the-patient-gardener.html Stockholm-based visiondivision conducted a week-long workshop at the politecnico di milano, in milan, italy, in which guest professors conducted an exploration for students to consider the impact of the fast-paced lifestyle on ecology and environmental issues in architecture. The result was 'the patient gardener', a structure consisting of ten japanese cherry trees which is
- [Human benevolence is an evolutionay force](https://lentz.com.au/blog/human-benevolence-is-an-evolutionay-force) - http://salmonriver.com/words/nancy/goodandsmart.html GOOD AND SMART Benevolence as an evolutionary force by Nancy Sherer
- [Custom making stuffed toys with children by Child](https://lentz.com.au/blog/custom-making-stuffed-toys-children-child) - http://www.childsown.com/ What an awesome home business idea! Child's Own Studio makes custom stuffed toys from children's drawing. They are each unique and special, hand made in Vancouver BC Canada.
- [Economic sense can taste better! Organic outperforms Conventional/GM](https://lentz.com.au/blog/study-debunks-myths-organic-farms) - Organic outperforms conventional as well as GM over time - and is more profitable even when discounting the premium usually paid for organic produce (because of lower input costs, among other things). http://www.thestarphoenix.com/business/Study+debunks+myths+organic+farms/5462520/story.html The results are in from a 30-year side-by-side trial of conventional and organic farming methods at Pennsylvania's Rodale Institute. Contrary to conventional
- [Open Source Ecology](https://lentz.com.au/blog/open-source-ecology) - http://opensourceecology.org/ This is so awesome. Beyond RepRap, big open source hardware. Tractors, brick presses, etc. You can build them locally for a fraction of the cost of regular machinery, and then also use locally available materials (like rubble on your building site to make more bricks). If you're technically capable and looking for a local
- [Linux now Good for Video Recording and Editing](https://lentz.com.au/blog/linux-good-video-recording-editing) - I used to use a Mac (OS-X) for video editing, format conversion and the like. But as I was preparing an old MiniDV camcorder to record a talk tomorrow, it appears that on my Ubuntu Linux I now have everything I need. Rock! The functional recipe is: Old JVC camcorder with firewire (IEEE 1494) cable
- [Mutual Weirdness](https://lentz.com.au/blog/mutual-weirdness) - “We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” ― Dr. Seuss
- [Android phone driven Rubik Cube solver - faster than any human](https://lentz.com.au/blog/android-phone-driven-rubik-cube-solver-faster-than-any-human)
- [Not Apathy - How to make Social Proof work](https://lentz.com.au/blog/not-apathy-how-to-make-social-proof-work) - Note this horrendous accident: Hit-run case shocks China - and the world A two-year-old girl who was struck by a vehicle in a hit-and-run accident in China was ignored by more than a dozen passers-by as she lay critically injured on the road. [...] It is not until seven minutes later that a street cleaner,
- [printf("Goodbye, Dennis Ritchie.");](https://lentz.com.au/blog/printfgoodbye-dennis-ritchie) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie died last week. He was an American computer scientist notable for co-developing the C programming language (in which most operating systems and other software is written) and for operating systems such as Unix (upon which Linux is based). A humble person he was, but you may credit him for playing an
- [Baby star found close to Earth](https://lentz.com.au/blog/baby-star-found-close-to-earth) - http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/baby-star-found-close-to-earth-ap-columbae.htm Astronomers have discovered Earth's closest infant star: a baby red dwarf, just 27 light-years away. It wasn't born until 25 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs. It's just a baby!
- [Letter from Her Sovereign Majesty](https://lentz.com.au/blog/citizens-usa-queen-elizabethii) - To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II In light of your immediate failure to financially manage yourselves and also in recent years your tendency to elect incompetent Presidents of the USA and therefore not able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of
- [The Bippolo Seed: Seven Rare Dr. Seuss Stories Brought to Light](https://lentz.com.au/blog/the-bippolo-seed-seven-rare-dr-seuss-stories-brought-to-light) - http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/09/27/the-bippolo-seed-dr-seuss/ How eBay uncovered a buried literary treasure, or what a Massachusetts dentist has to do with vintage magazines.
- [Mathematician uses LEGO to materialise Escher ](https://lentz.com.au/blog/mathematician-uses-lego-to-materialise-escher) - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2044308/Its-just-illusion-Mathematician-uses-thousands-Lego-bricks-recreate-Eschers-gravity-defying-images.html Pure awesomeness, I am a great Escher fan and always used to draw impossible cubes and other fun during school classes! And LEGO rocks. By the way, did you know Escher was Dutch? (as in, from the Netherlands)
- [Wheelchair-user Bushwalker Continues with a bit of Help - The Age](https://lentz.com.au/blog/wheelchair-bound-bushwalker-continues-with-a-bit-of-help-the-age) - http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/in-adversity-bushwalkers-now-a-highroller-20110910-1k39i.html (the original headline is just sad, isn't it "bushwalker now a high-roller"... newspaper layout editors and wordpuns... ugh) I think it's awesome that someone who loved bushwalking (hiking), then got MS, found a way to keep going out there -with his family and others- with a bit of help.
- [The Biology of Nurturing Fathers](https://lentz.com.au/blog/the-biology-of-nurturing-fathers) - http://www.care2.com/causes/the-biology-of-nurturing-fathers.html This fascinating just-published study by three anthropologists, is the first to prove the link between paternal nurturing of children and testosterone.
- [Tap Water Is Cleaner Than Bottled Water - Care2](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tap-water-is-cleaner-than-bottled-water-care2) - http://www.care2.com/causes/tap-water-is-cleaner-than-bottled-water-and-other-shocking-facts.html Think bottled water is worth the cost because it's cleaner than the water coming out of your tap? Think again.
- [OSDC 2009 - call for papers reminder](https://lentz.com.au/blog/osdc-2009-call-papers-reminder) - The call for papers for OSDC 2009 is open until 30 June 2009; yes that's only a few more days. Submit your abstract and do a talk at this fab conference! This is a grassroots style conference designed by developers for developers. It covers Perl, Python, Ruby/Rails, PHP, Java/Grails and Open Source operating systems as well as some business
- [Bushwalking on the Grand Canyon Track (Blue Mountains, NSW)](https://lentz.com.au/blog/bushwalking-on-the-grand-canyon-track-blue-mountains-nsw) - http://www.wildwalks.com/bushwalking-and-hiking-in-nsw/blue-mountains-blackheath-/grand-canyon-walk.html Phoebe (6yo) and I did this one in April, with my friend Iain and two of his sons. It's a beautiful walk. The Grand Canyon Track bushwalking track takes about 3 hrs 30 mins to walk and is 5.4 km long. This classic walk was first established in 1907, taking walkers along the path
- [Online gamers crack enzyme riddle - ABC News](https://lentz.com.au/blog/online-gamers-crack-enzyme-riddle-abc-news) - http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-19/online-gamers-crack-enzyme-puzzle/2905314 Online gamers have achieved a feat beyond the realm of Second Life or World of Warcraft: they have deciphered the structure of an enzyme of an AIDS-like virus that had thwarted scientists for a decade.
- [Pixar before Pixar | Cartoon Brew](https://lentz.com.au/blog/pixar-before-pixar-cartoon-brew) - http://www.cartoonbrew.com/cgi/pixar-before-pixar.html Awesome animations dating from early 70s onward. Yep that's 40 years ago, these guys were way ahead of their time. Still are.
- [Around the World on the Space Station - timelapse - Discovery News](https://lentz.com.au/blog/around-the-world-on-the-space-station-timelapse-discovery-news) - http://news.discovery.com/space/around-the-world-space-station-110917.html Stunning indeed.
- [Burden of Proof - David Mitchell's Soapbox on Climate Change Denial](https://lentz.com.au/blog/burden-of-proof-david-mitchells-soapbox-on-climate-change-denial)
- [Homeopathic leak threatens catastrophe | NewsBiscuit](https://lentz.com.au/blog/homeopathic-leak-threatens-catastrophe-newsbiscuit) - http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2011/09/09/homeopathic-leak-threatens-catastrophe/ According to homeopathic lore, a potion becomes more potent as it's diluted further. That makes tossing it down the sink like the ultimate act of evil, doesn't it?
- [The Gruen Transfer - The Pitch: Banning All Religion](https://lentz.com.au/blog/gruen-transfer-pitch-banning-religion) - The Gruen Transfer is an excellent ABC TV program exploring the murky world of advertising. It's insightful as well as funny. One of the regular items is "The Pitch" where two ad agencies are commissioned to create a TV ad to "sell the unsellable". Note that this is satire... past examples included briefs for invading
- [The internet is our social network. | Friendika](https://lentz.com.au/blog/the-internet-is-our-social-network-friendika) - http://project.friendika.com/ Up to a billion people interact with each other every day across millions of websites and communications services. Blogs, email, forums, Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, Diaspora, Identi.ca, Drupal and more... These can each be used as a limited type of "social network". This is really interesting. I've written and talked about this issue for a
- [Rebrickable - a LEGO mashup tool](https://lentz.com.au/blog/rebrickable-lego-mashup-tool) - http://rebrickable.com/ allows you to select LEGO sets you have, and then works out for you what else you can build with all that stuff. That's very cool, although it doesn't quite cover the collection that Phoebe and I have here, which was acquired in batches from eBay.
- [Alternative Food Groups](https://lentz.com.au/blog/alternative-food-groups) - A few years ago, my good friend Stewart Smith (a vegan) and I (omnivore at the time, now vegetarian) came up with an alternative to the traditional food pyramid for balanced eating, visualised here for the first time: We both love food, and we figured that regardless of whether you eat meat or follow other dietary
- [Video art with rolls of sticky tape](https://lentz.com.au/blog/video-art-with-rolls-of-sticky-tape) - Fabulous artwork - in a way it's a pity he shows the "how" at the start! And my goodness he must have a lot of mess/waste afterwards...
- [Balancing books, pi and a Rubik's Cube](https://lentz.com.au/blog/balancing-books-pi-and-a-rubiks-cube) - Awesome! I am so totally out-geeked by this woman: balancing 15 books on her head, reciting pi to the 100th digit, and messing with a rubik's cube. But I can still solve a Rubik's Cube in about 2:20min... ohwell.
- [Timing Life Lessons: Not Losing Stuff](https://lentz.com.au/blog/timing-life-lessons-losing-stuff) - "Papa, why do you always put the remote control in the same spot?" "So I always know where to find it..." Kinda completely unlike her hair brush, which sometimes disappears for days! (and I'm good at finding stuff) We've now (once again) agreed on a standard location for the hair brush, and so far it's
- [Dolphins Talk Like Humans : Discovery News](https://lentz.com.au/blog/dolphins-talk-like-humans-discovery-news) - http://news.discovery.com/animals/dolphin-talk-communication-humans-110906.html Dolphins don't whistle, but instead "talk" to each other using a process very similar to the way that humans communicate.
- [Stacking a Dishwasher](https://lentz.com.au/blog/stacking-dishwasher) - This toon at The Oatmeal rings so true... many adults are very clueless how to load a dishwasher. Just stuffing things in does not work well - at least not if you actually want to get it clean! Cutlery face down in piles? Not really. Face up, and if you put two spoons next to
- [Converting Americans to Metric](https://lentz.com.au/blog/converting-americans-metric)
- [Data Visualiation of Kiva Loan Activity](https://lentz.com.au/blog/data-visualiation-kiva-loan-activity) - Phoebe and I are active on Kiva providing micro-loans ($25/piece) to people elsewhere on the planet. Below is a video Kiva just released, visualising its first five years of activity. It's become huge. Intercontinental Ballistic Microfinance from Kiva on Vimeo.
- [Wikileaks: Microsoft aided former Tunisian regime | ZDNet UK](https://lentz.com.au/blog/wikileaks-microsoft-aided-former-tunisian-regime-zdnet-uk) - http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/security/2011/09/05/wikileaks-microsoft-aided-former-tunisian-regime-40093837/ According to a cable sent by the US embassy in Tunis on 22 September, 2006, Microsoft was so keen to get the Tunisian government to drop its policy favouring open-source software that it agreed to set up a "program on cyber criminality" to cover training.
- [Well at least we four are going to be ok - Blitz Toons](https://lentz.com.au/blog/well-at-least-we-four-are-going-to-be-ok-blitz-toons) - http://blitztoons.blogspot.com/2011/08/well-at-least-we-four-are-going-to-be.html
- [Monsanto's BT corn reported failing in several states - GM Watch](https://lentz.com.au/blog/monsantos-bt-corn-reported-failing-in-several-states-gm-watch) - http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/13394-monsantos-bt-corn-reported-failing-in-several-states Scientists sounded the alarm years ago, but now their predictions appear to be an encroaching reality: Monsanto's biotech corn is showing signs, they say, that it no longer repels the pests it is engineered to kill.
- [Bristlebot: A tiny directional vibrobot - Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories](https://lentz.com.au/blog/bristlebot-a-tiny-directional-vibrobot-evil-mad-scientist-laboratories) - http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/bristlebot The BristleBot is our take on the popular vibrobot, a simple category of robot that is controlled by a single vibrating (eccentric) motor. Some neat varieties include the mint-tin version as seen in Make Magazine (check the video), and the kid's art bot: a vibrobot with pens for feet.
- [Open Source Sells Planes - The Open Sourcerer](https://lentz.com.au/blog/open-source-sells-planes-the-open-sourcerer) - http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2011/09/05/open-source-sells-planes/ Japan choose Open Source European fighter jets over closed American fighters [explicitly for that reason]
- [Rebel commander 'wants MI6 apology' - BBC](https://lentz.com.au/blog/rebel-commander-wants-mi6-apology-bbc) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14783071 (via Vik Olliver) Isn't it annoying when these new rebel leaders turn out to be those terrorists the UK and USA were exporting to Libya to be tortured?
- [Teaching Beekeeping to Children Improves Behavior](https://lentz.com.au/blog/teaching-beekeeping-to-children-improves-behavior) - http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/09/teaching-beekeeping-children-behavior.php [...] bees can be a fantastic tool for encouraging emotional literacy. For the same reason that beekeeping is great for those with felony convictions, it can also help children to better understand and control their anger and improve their behaviour. As any bee-keeper will tell you, opening a hive when you are in a
- [Total Perspective Vortex](https://lentz.com.au/blog/total-perspective-vortex) - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/31/juno_earth_moon_snap/ Outbound space probe Juno looks back at tiny Earth and Moon. Awesome.
- [QuickStatus plugin for WordPress](https://lentz.com.au/blog/quickstatus-plugin-wordpress) - On my request, my friends at WPMUdev kindly implemented a Quick Status WordPress plugin for me. It works similar to the status update dialog in Facebook/Google+ where you enter a link, the system looks up the page and tries to pick out a sane title, abstract and thumbnail image or video - which you can
- [On Contributing Back to Open Source](https://lentz.com.au/blog/on-contributing-back-to-open-source) - http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/083011-zemlin-250234.html Linux is the granddaddy of all open source projects, the blueprint for the decentralized development processes. And some of those who use the Linux code, free for the taking, don't give back in equal measure. Still, the time for cajoling those users -- even commercial projects like Ubuntu leader Canonical -- into participating is
- [Hawker's Notice](https://lentz.com.au/blog/hawker) - My "famous" hawkers notice is now available for pre-order! We're getting a batch printed on durable colorbond steel. http://hawkersnotice.com/ This sign at your front door will help you finally get rid of those pesky doorsales and related nonsense!
- [The "overlearning the game" problem - Andrew on Everything ](https://lentz.com.au/blog/the-overlearning-the-game-problem-andrew-on-everything) - http://andrewoneverything.com/the-overlearning-the-game-problem When I was in 5th grade, the kids in my neighbordhood and I invented a great game. The game mechanics are a bit lengthy to describe here, but they involved two teams, each taking turns to question the other team on an imaginary object. The team with the most consistent answers won. We played
- [The Nonsense of the "War on Terror"](https://lentz.com.au/blog/the-nonsense-of-the-war-on-terror) - http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/08/29/terrorism The terrorist threat continues to be exaggerated to spawn a massive and costly Security State. "Number of American civilians who died worldwide in terrorist attacks last year: 8 -- Minimum number who died after being struck by lightning: 29."
- [Fukushima Robot Operator Writes Tell-All Blog - IEEE Spectrum](https://lentz.com.au/blog/fukushima-robot-operator-writes-tell-all-blog-ieee-spectrum) - http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/fukushima-robot-operator-diaries An anonymous worker at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has written dozens of blog posts describing his experience as a lead robot operator at the crippled facility
- [Birds Are Changing Their Tune : Discovery News](https://lentz.com.au/blog/birds-are-changing-their-tune-discovery-news) - http://news.discovery.com/animals/noise-pollution-birds-110829.html Because of noise pollution, some birds are forced to sing at higher frequencies making them less attractive.
- [Sumerians Look On In Confusion As God Creates World](https://lentz.com.au/blog/sumerians-look-on-in-confusion-as-god-creates-world) - A few years old now, but brilliantly hilarious: http://www.theonion.com/articles/sumerians-look-on-in-confusion-as-god-creates-worl,2879/ In one of Christianity's most momentous events, members of the earliest known civilization, the Sumerians, looked on in shock and confusion some 5,600 years ago as God created Heaven and Earth.
- [Warren Buffett on more sensible taxation](https://lentz.com.au/blog/warren-buffett-on-more-sensible-taxation) - In http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html, Warren Buffett writes: [...] what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent. [...] Since 1992, the I.R.S.
- [Air Swimmers](https://lentz.com.au/blog/air-swimmers) - From Air Swimmers: Looks excellent - I'm just wondering "why remote control?" - they could be autonomous with a few sensors and a bit of Arduino.
- [Do Your Kids Know Who Makes Their Disney Toys?](https://lentz.com.au/blog/do-your-kids-know-who-makes-their-disney-toys) - http://www.care2.com/causes/do-your-kids-know-who-makes-their-disney-toys.html A Chinese factory that makes Disney's best-selling Cars toys, as well as toys for Walmart and Mattel, uses child labor and forces its workers to work three times the amount of overtime required by law.
- [Progress and Denial](https://lentz.com.au/blog/progress-denial) - I was just reading an article, where people were quoted saying "Here in America, supposedly the most progressive thinking country in the world, [...]” This in the context of primary/secondary education, but I've seen it used in other discussions also. The rest of the sentence raised an issue of concern, but this common pre-able set
- [Standing and Fidgeting - different learning styles in practice](https://lentz.com.au/blog/standing-and-fidgeting-different-learning-styles-in-practice) - http://www.care2.com/causes/the-stand-up-desk-a-new-way-to-learn.html Schools are experimenting with stand-up desk stations. Kids are opening books and learning as they lean against these cool, adjustable stands.
- [How to Use Vegetable Oil to Fuel Your Car](https://lentz.com.au/blog/how-to-use-vegetable-oil-to-fuel-your-car) - http://www.care2.com/causes/veggie-oil-car-video.html Matt Shapiro uses vegetable oil to fuel his Mercedes. This is pure veg oil, not converted into biodiesel. Interesting.
- [Climate Change Denial | Psychology Today](https://lentz.com.au/blog/climate-change-denial-psychology-today) - http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hot-thought/201108/climate-change-denial Why don’t politicians recognize that humans cause global warming? By Paul Thagard...
- [Going Vegetarian - one year on](https://lentz.com.au/blog/vegetarian-year) - Actually, it's been over a year-and-a-half now... time for a little look back and review some of my experiences so far! I like cooking, and increasingly I've also become interested in how to make things from scratch. It's fun, educational, and generally tastes better. In quite a few cases, it's not even more work or
- [A Test-Tube of Faith](https://lentz.com.au/blog/a-test-tube-of-faith)
- [New Study: Your Television Is Killing You](https://lentz.com.au/blog/new-study-your-television-is-killing-you) - http://www.care2.com/causes/new-study-your-television-is-killing-you.html In the interests of a longer life, slimmer waistline, and smaller energy bill, let's all pledge to trade at least one hour of television watching for something, anything else!
- [Put-Down Humour](https://lentz.com.au/blog/putdown-humour) - Today I'm particularly adamant about getting rid of negativity, so it seems appropriate to write about something that's been bugging me for a long time. It appears to me that a lot of American sitcoms and also cartoons base their "fun" almost entirely on putting down fellow cast members. Extreme examples of this would be
- [Home Made Camembert](https://lentz.com.au/blog/home-camembert) - I made this: 7 weeks matured Camembert. Its 5 week old sibling a few weeks back was pretty good too, but this was just awesome taste as the inside had gone properly soft (the white mould grows inward) with slightly salty edge. Specs: kit from the friendly people at Mad Millie, and starting with one
- [The Freedom to Make Mistakes](https://lentz.com.au/blog/the-freedom-to-make-mistakes) - http://natureofnurturing.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/ten-things-our-grandparents-got-right-3-they-allowed-us-to-fail-4/ Gandhi reminds us that “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”
- [British Riots & The Lucky Country](https://lentz.com.au/blog/british-riots-the-lucky-country) - http://www.nationaltimes.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/stop-whingeing-weve-got-it-pretty-good-here-20110811-1iob6.html
- [Engaging Community on Climate Action, not "What's in it for Me"](https://lentz.com.au/blog/engaging-community-on-climate-action-not-whats-in-it-for-me) - http://newmatilda.com/2011/08/09/what-carbon-price-really-means-you The Government should engage the community on climate change, not buy us off. A carbon price will require adjustments and our leaders should explain why, argues Ian McAuley
- [LED Technology Illuminates New Paths In Sustainable Lighting](https://lentz.com.au/blog/led-technology-illuminates-new-paths-in-sustainable-lighting) - http://www.the9billion.com/2011/08/02/led-technology-illuminates-new-paths-in-sustainable-lighting/ Recent advancements in LED lighting technology suggest that the future of sustainable lighting will include a strong utilization of LEDs.
- [The myth of the extraordinary teacher](https://lentz.com.au/blog/the-myth-of-the-extraordinary-teacher) - http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-herman-class-size-20110731,0,3910343.story The kid in the back wants me to define "logic." The girl next to him looks bewildered. The boy in front of me dutifully takes notes even though he has severe auditory processing issues and doesn't understand a word I'm saying. Eight kids forgot their essays, but one has a good excuse because she
- [Norway's Response to Violence - a Lesson](https://lentz.com.au/blog/norways-response-violence-lesson) - Mayor of Oslo: "We will punish the guilty. The punishment will be more generosity, more tolerance, more democracy." ... It is so contrary to what many other people do in circumstances. Gentle wisdom. Utterly awesome and inspirational.
- [Progressives Should Appeal to Empathy not Self-Interest](https://lentz.com.au/blog/progressives-should-appeal-to-empathy-not-self-interest) - It goes against our nature; but the left has to start asserting its own values | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2010/oct/11/left-values-progressive-self-interest George Monbiot: The progressive attempt to appeal to self-interest has been a catastrophe. Empathy, not expediency, must drive our campaigns
- [The Empathic Civilisation](https://lentz.com.au/blog/empathic-civilisation) - I have something with empathy. The following is an awesome talk by
- [Beyond Bayesian Filtering: Ranking](https://lentz.com.au/blog/bayesian-filtering-ranking) - Spam filters can be roughly categorised in rule-based filters, Bayesian, or a combination thereof. As far as I'm concerned, good Bayesians are so effective that rule-based ones are not interesting. In particular since wrong/obsolete rules can trigger false positives (a good message being classified as spam, which IMHO is worse than seeing the occasional spam
- [Smoothie with whey](https://lentz.com.au/blog/smoothie-whey) - One of the things you get left with when making cheese is whey - milk separates in to curds (the solids) and whey (the watery stuff). It's full of protein, and depending on the cheese you get quite a lot (from 2L milk for haloumi you get over a liter of whey), so throwing it
- [Making haloumi](https://lentz.com.au/blog/making-haloumi) - Today I made haloumi, from scratch! But let's start from the beginning. I'm from Holland, and I'm a cheese head ;-) Ok fast-forward a bit. I grew up in the city (Amsterdam), although we used to get fresh milk straight from a farm nearby on the Amstel river. Anyhow, I never made cheese before, so
- [Chess Miss Phoebe](https://lentz.com.au/blog/chess-phoebe) - Yep, five years old and now playing chess. since yesterday (31 Oct 2010, for the record). Why not. I'd put out a chess set on my coffee table, part decoration & part to see what she'd think about it (or for others on the pot luck night to play)... and within several hours Phoebe asked
- [Pot Luck at Lentz on most Fridays - starting a new tradition?](https://lentz.com.au/blog/pot-luck-lentz-fridays-starting-tradition) - I moved to my current house months ago but hadn't yet done a house warming... instead of just holding a belated party, I started something different: (almost) every Friday is Pot Luck at Lentz. All the info is at that wiki page. It'll build over time as people get used to it happening. With the
- [Running Ubuntu Linux on MacBook](https://lentz.com.au/blog/running-ubuntu-linux-macbook) - Why would I? Well, I have two 13" MacBooks (one spare, I think I blogged that story earlier) that are essentially my office. I used to travel lots for work, and at the time (around 2004) neither wireless nor suspend worked reliably (or at all) on laptops running Linux. I really didn't want to be
- [Making my TV work better with MythBuntu builds](https://lentz.com.au/blog/making-tv-work-mythbuntu-builds) - My TV is actually a PC behind the scenes, running the MythTV on Ubuntu Linux. It records the programs I have selected to record, figuring out when they are on from an automatically updated electronic guide. I hardly ever watch live TV and have no idea when programs are actually broadcast... don't see ads either
- [OtherSkills lightning session at OSDC 2010](https://lentz.com.au/blog/otherskills-lightning-session-osdc-2010) - The Open Source Developers' Conference 2010 will take place November 24-26 in Melbourne. Registration is cheap-as, just $250 for the whole conf and that includes lunches and the conference dinner! I was lucky to get several items accepted in the program, covering a few of my diverse interests. One I'd like to specifically draw your
- [Introducing People's Forum - Australia](https://lentz.com.au/blog/introducing-peoples-forum-australia) - There's a lot of great debate on Australian political topics, with many gems of insight. But much of it is getting lost, or just available to a very limited audience. Why? Because Twitter is highly transient; you can search, but it becomes harder as you go back further in time. It's not suitable as an
- [Diffusing nonsense in the election](https://lentz.com.au/blog/diffusing-nonsense-election) - I'm actually spending a lot of time on that right now, talking with people around me (in-person) as well as (gasp) on Facebook. Why? Because it's important and actually makes a difference. I will also be helping at a polling booth on Saturday, and crutineering. Several decades ago there was a party in The Netherlands
- [The Continuing Saga of Dutch Football](https://lentz.com.au/blog/continuing-saga-dutch-football) - People convinced me the final of the Soccer world cup 2010 in South Africa was interesting with the Dutch playing well... so with renewed hope (it's been a while since I last checked the state of Orange football) I watched a recording, and unfortunately have to disagree. What I saw was the Dutch playing the
- [A Department of Infrastructure & Planning](https://lentz.com.au/blog/department-infrastructure-planning) - With the talk of reassigning the portfolio of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (dBCDE) from Sen.Conroy to Sen.Lundy (which I wholeheartedly support, Sen.Lundy would really do well there), I want to question why we actually still have a separate department that deals with communications and IT. Creating a BCDE department certainly made sense a
- [Paying rent in DEFT fail land](https://lentz.com.au/blog/paying-rent-deft-fail-land) - I recently moved and the new property agent uses Macquarie Bank's DEFT (www.deft.com.au) online/phone payment system. This costs at least $0.85 per transaction, or more if you use a credit/debit card. Extortion racket, but that's another matter. I can't even sign up for this system, because DEFT has now been down for over a week,
- [Moving mobile networks](https://lentz.com.au/blog/moving-mobile-networks) - I moved my number from 3 to Optus today, as 3 gave me pretty much no signal at my new home, it would blink out all the time which is of course useless. In terms of bill-readability and general service both Telstra and Optus fail, for coverage I'd prefer Telstra but their data plans (and
- [Other people's mail is costly to me](https://lentz.com.au/blog/other-peoples-mail-is-costly-to-me) - Before I lived at my current address, 4 students shared this location... and from what I can tell, before them some others. A lot of post still arrives in the mailbox for all these people, even after a few years and me doing a lot of return-to-sender efforts. The same companies just keep sending stuff
- [Input on Daylight Savings in South East Queensland](https://lentz.com.au/blog/input-daylight-savings-south-east-queensland) - A Queensland member of parliament has introduced a private members bill to hold a new referendum on Daylight Savings time. All Queenslanders would get a vote on it, but the daylight savings would just be for South East Queensland where it actually makes sense. The online request for input (until May 31st, so fill in
- [Advertising - stupid sales](https://lentz.com.au/blog/advertising-stupid-sales) - Below is an email exchange between someone trying to sell me a service (online advertising) and myself. It started with an unsolicited email (aka spam) but sometimes I'm just intrigued to see whether I can get some sense out of people. In this case, not. Original mail: I work for ***, a leading broker of
- [Mum's 80th](https://lentz.com.au/blog/mums-80th) - Right, I'm off... my mum has invited me to her 80th birthday dinner in Amersfoort (The Netherlands), and who can refuse such a request! It's a very respectable age. My dad sadly didn't make it that far, he died at age 72 when I was merely 9. To clarify: I was the last of 3
- [The domain scam - repeat performances](https://lentz.com.au/blog/domain-scam-repeat-performances) - This time it's .CO, that's actually Colombia but some domain registrar smartypants have decided that it's the new "truly global" domain for companies. This, like .biz .mobi and all the others, is utter bollocks and the main people profiting are the domain registrars - although in this case I hope that Colombia at least will
- [Paying for an award/prize nomination](https://lentz.com.au/blog/paying-awardprize-nomination) - Sound kinda wrong? I reckon it is. But it's how some Australian ICT awards work, such as http://www.iawards2010.com.au (AIIA) This turns it into a "buy a marketing opportunity" rather than a genuine recognition of achievement. Why would a bootstrapped/Upstarta type business spend money on such things? So you get nominations from bigger organisations and others
- [Religious misdirection on bumpersticker](https://lentz.com.au/blog/religious-misdirection-bumpersticker) - I don't expect bumperstickers to be of the highest journalistic caliber. That said, I found one spotted yesterday a bit irky. I was driving at the time so I couldn't take a pic... from memory, it went something like this: "Dear God, why is there so much violence in our schools? Signed, a concerned student."
- [Brisbane RepRap getting built!](https://lentz.com.au/blog/brisbane-reprap-built) - The Brisbane RepRap is (finally) getting built. One of the "shareholders" has found himself having abundant time for a bit, and is tacking the job in the Hackerspace Brisbane location. See James Churchill's blog for progress reports and photos. The group that owns this RepRap kit has a Google group - feel free to join
- [Towards B20](https://lentz.com.au/blog/b20) - The previous tank of petrol was half B20 so that's effectively 10% biodiesel (assuming it's mixed). I'd noticed the car appeared to have (even) more juice, and come refill time I'm now at 6.3L/100km and that's with most trips just across town and me behaving rather sporty (learning more about the gears). With the refill
- [First bushwalk with BBW](https://lentz.com.au/blog/bushwalk-bbw) - That's the Brisbane Bushwalkers Club which has existed for a long time, Picnic Pete introduced me to 'em. Done bushwalks before of course, with Phoebe also, but it's interesting to be in a group with some very experienced people, and also with other kids (including of about Phoebe's age). Today it was raining, we climbed
- [Upstarta Brisbane meetup group - Wed 17 Mar 6.30pm](https://lentz.com.au/blog/upstarta-brisbane-meetup-group-wed-17-mar-630pm) - As mentioned at the BarCamp Gold Coast IV last weekend, we're going to do monthly public meetings with Upstarta in Brisbane from next Wednesday. iLab has kindly offered the use of their facilities. Please join and RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/upstarta-brisbane-qld/
- [Statistics with a 4yo](https://lentz.com.au/blog/statistics-4yo) - I believe school is very important, but I also think that kids learn lots of (if not most) important stuff from their parents, if they get to spend time with them. This just happens throughout a day going about regular business (don't have to be special "quality" time), but I make a point of challenging
- [Transitioning to biodiesel - first steps: B20](https://lentz.com.au/blog/transitioning-biodiesel-first-steps-b20) - The long-term objective is to run my Hyundai i30 entirely on biodiesel, to completely remove the dependency on fossil fuel there. Not sure about B100 users, but I know there are several B50 (that's 50% biodiesel) users for the same model that have been going for a few years now. So at least that's possible.
- [Papa, may I have some more tofu?](https://lentz.com.au/blog/papa-tofu) - This was the not-quite-5yo smurfette at dinner yesterday. Just to prod those fellow humans who reckon that tofu is boring... look, if a 4yo loves it, trust me, it's not boring! ;-) Nor flavourless... Phoebe is not one of those kids who gets brought up on "bland" food to protect her delicate developing palate! Haha.
- [PetrolMonkey - track your fuel consumption and compare!](https://lentz.com.au/blog/petrolmonkey-track-fuel-consumption-compare) - Some time ago friends of mine built the PetrolMonkey site. You can enter a basic profile/name for any car you own, and then input refills. The system then shows nice stats in both numbers and graph, and you can compare with other similar cars. There's a minimal mobile version also. By comparing Tiger (it's the
- [The new car, going greener](https://lentz.com.au/blog/the-new-car-going-greener) - Just before christmas I finally managed to get the old Subaru Outback all fixed up and shiny ready to sell. Dealers weren't offering much but it sold within a week on carsales.com.au for a decent price. This was to a couple at the North coast, after a few others had called about it and several
- [Arjen's personal blog on lentz.com.au](https://lentz.com.au/blog/arjens-personal-blog-on-lentz-com-au) - Just a note that my personal blog resides on lentz.com.au/ The story is this... I first started my blog when at MySQL AB, the Community Relations gig. It was a mix of personal and MySQL-related stuff, and hosted at LiveJournal. Last year we managed to migrate all the LiveJournal data to the Open Query blog
- [Announcing Upstarta Camp - Brisbane Tue 24 Nov 2009](https://lentz.com.au/blog/announcing-upstarta-camp-brisbane-tue-24-nov-2009) - When: Tuesday 24 November (afternoon before first OSDC day), 12pm-5pm Where: Brisbane, Mt Coot-Tha / Bardon area (near OSDC venue) What is it? A picnic in the park. Yes, literally! It's a workshop, but we're doing a barbecue beforehand. The afternoon (including the barbecue) is $10 for members, $20 for non-members. We haven't set a
- [OSS Ability to Accept Contributions](https://lentz.com.au/blog/oss-ability-accept-contributions) - Clayton Christensen has some excellent insights on Modularity vs Integration in "The Innovator's Solution". I wrote about this for Upstarta.biz. Particularly in the realm of Open Source, modularity is regarded as a panacea - a product, service or design must be modular. But modularity is not better (or worse) than integration. Like tools, they each
- [Upstarta.biz - doing it differently](https://lentz.com.au/blog/upstartabiz-differently) - I've found that exchanging ideas and asking questions, even with people some might consider to be direct competitors, is more valuable than risky. Enter... Upstarta.biz is the home of a group of people who run, or are interested in running, their business according to a set of Principles that make them more people friendly (both
- [When raisins and sultanas are grapes too](https://lentz.com.au/blog/when-raisins-and-sultanas-are-grapes-too) - Do you sometimes see a commercial for breakfast cereal (in print or on TV) showing grapes in between the flakes and other ingredients? There are no grapes in the actual product, so you may wonder why that is not false advertising. The answer is hyperbole, or in marketing/advertising terminology: puffery. Raisins and sultanas (what you call
- [What a Google data center really looks like](https://lentz.com.au/blog/google-data-center) - Google has fessed up: apparently it looks like a bunch of shipping containers, since 2005. And it does not use the usual rack stuff or centralised backup power. See Google uncloaks once-secret server for a decent overview, plus pictures. I think there's quite a lof of good information in there, with important lessons. Just a
- [Linus' one-off bleeding edge organic kernel hack](https://lentz.com.au/blog/linus-one-off-bleeding-edge-organic-kernel-hack) - Aka Arjen's head ;-) So this was at the conference dinner of Linux.conf.au 2009 in Hobart Tasmania. There's always at least one auction, and for some reason it has become tradition to a) bundle in extras with the original auction item and b) for some of those extras to involve removal of facial hair. As
- [Web usability and business success](https://lentz.com.au/blog/web-usability-and-business-success) - An update slightly related to my previous post today. Yesterday I was organising something through a site in the US, which uses a rich Flash app somewhere in the process. Didn't want to work with Mac's Safari, so I tried Firefox 2. Someone else recommended trying Firefox 3 (beta 4) so I did, and that
- [Guy Kawasaki on presentations - and venture capital](https://lentz.com.au/blog/guy-kawasaki-on-presentations-and-venture-capital) - Last week I scribled some thoughts on presentation slides, and got some very good comments. Thanks! One comment referred to Guy Kawasaki and something he wrote blogged last year: The 10/20/30 Rule of Powerpoint:a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. He
- [Arjen also on twitter & identi.ca](https://lentz.com.au/blog/arjen-also-on-twitter-identica) - If you'd like to follow shorter scribbles of what I get up to, like my work at Open Query, OurDelta and of course the BlueHackers initiative, I've got myself organised at http://twitter.com/arjenlentz or http://identi.ca/arjenlentz (you can pick one, they have the same feed).
- [What a school can look like, work better, and cheaper](https://lentz.com.au/blog/what-a-school-can-look-like-work-better-and-cheaper) - Schools Designed for Learning: The Denver School of Science and Technology, presented by the American Architectural Foundation, KnowledgeWorks Foundation, and Target, this video features the innovative Denver School of Science and Technology. Building it was cheaper (per sq.ft) than a "regular" school, and the results are so much better. Fantastic. Take note everybody, and feel
- [Safari 4 browser beta.... first impressions](https://lentz.com.au/blog/safari-4-browser-beta-first-impressions) - On my MacBook, I use both Safari and Firefox anyway, so this is not a "browser switch" story... merely that Safari 4 beta is now available. It feels fast, and has some pretty interesting features... does take some getting used to, particularly having the tabs all the way at the top now. And the size
- [OpenSolaris on an Eee PC?](https://lentz.com.au/blog/opensolaris-on-an-eee-pc) - No, I didn't do it, honestly! ;-) I just got an email from Sun (Open Query being a Partner and all) to participate in a survey, and this is the incentive prize. It's kinda funny, but also a bit indulgent. I really don't think that's where OpenSolaris shines, so why even go there... just to
- [On Value and Cost - part 2 (failed loyalty scheme)](https://lentz.com.au/blog/on-value-and-cost-part-2-failed-loyalty-scheme) - Some offerings are just a complete fail. I'll give you an example from my real world. Supermarket chains around here give out a voucher for a petrol discount when you spend more than $30 in one go. That's kinda smart, since petrol pricing is something people care about so it can drive changes in customer
- [On Value and Cost - part 1](https://lentz.com.au/blog/on-value-and-cost-part-1) - Did you know that by banging your head against the wall you burn about 150 calories per hour? However, there are more effective and less painful ways to exercise (no surprise there). Personally, I like an early morning walk and playing some Wii games around lunch time. Most companies aim towards high(er) value offerings, sold
- [Australian Bushfire Housing Assistance](https://lentz.com.au/blog/australian-bushfire-housing-assistance) - Ben Balbo, of OSDC and Melbourne PHP fame and all round nice guy, got together with some workmates and over the space of a couple of days they worked around the clock to build an online service to assist with placing victims into short-term accommodation, matching those in need with people who have a spare
- [People on Streets: Windows 7 or KDE4?](https://lentz.com.au/blog/people-on-streets-windows-7-or-kde4) - Is it Windows 7 or KDE 4? by Chris Duckett and Alex Sherpo of ZDnet (Australia). They go onto a Sydney street with KDE4 telling people it's a demo of Windows 7. Take-away from responses may be that people really dislike Vista (that's not news though ;-) But for me, the point is really that
- [BlueHackers](https://lentz.com.au/blog/bluehackers) - This little project is quickly growing into a pretty big movement, the response at and after Linux.conf.au in Hobart was tremendous! Ah sorry, should tell what this is all about eh! Well, many among us have dealt with or are struggling with depression and related hassles. It's not because we're geeks, but because we're all
- [Chicken & egg problem, or flawed design?](https://lentz.com.au/blog/chicken-egg-problem-or-flawed-design) - Consider the following query:SELECT substring_index(column_name, ",", -1) AS blah FROM table_name WHERE blah='something'Naturally, that returns with ERROR 1054 (42S22): Unknown column 'blah' in 'where clause', since you can't have calculated columns in the WHERE clause (chicken & egg problem). Strictly speaking, you can easily resolve this by using HAVING instead of WHERE. The query will
- [Old computer ads - are you told enough to remember?](https://lentz.com.au/blog/old-computer-ads-are-you-told-enough-to-remember) - Dated Computer Ads For Your Perusal and Mockery
- [LCA2009 - impressions, swag, Tassie Devils & Arjen's hair](https://lentz.com.au/blog/lca2009-impressions-swag-tassie-devils-arjens-hair) - I'm staying at the campus (student) accomodation, which is fab, people call it "5 star student accomodation". We did two dinners in our full kitchen, pasta Sunday night, and Indian curries on Tuesday. The swag is cool too: a simple calico bag, a deck of cards (Tux backed), a Tassie picture Rubik cube; all fun
- [Arriving in Hobart](https://lentz.com.au/blog/arriving-in-hobart) - After a long but nice ferry trip (9hrs) from Port Melbourne, quick pizza dinner and another 3hrs or so drive from Devonport, we arrived in Hobart late last night (Hobart is located on the Southern coast of Tasmania). For some reason pretty much all accomodation was booked out for that one night, but one of
- [How I'm getting to LCA 2009](https://lentz.com.au/blog/how-im-getting-to-lca-2009) - Today I flew down to Melbourne. But hang on, isn't LCA in Tassie this year? Yep! So, tonight I'm staying at Jonathan Oxer's place, and we're driving his incrementally non-standard RX-8 to the Melbourne-Devonport ferry and on to Hobart.
- [New Years, return from holidays, to linux.conf.au Tasmania!](https://lentz.com.au/blog/new-years-return-from-holidays-to-linuxconfau-tasmania) - Well I've been back for nearly a week already... happy New Year everybody! I am happy to note that Open Query business continued as normal while I was not around; delegation to capable co-workers is a great thing (I'll admit to checking in on things while in Europe, but that's about it - had a
- [To Netherlands, UK over xmas and new year](https://lentz.com.au/blog/to-netherlands-uk-over-xmas-and-new-year) - Phoebe (my 3 1/2 year old daughter) and I are travelling "to Europe" tomorrow, for three weeks - should be a grand adventure! (so now you know what Open Query profits get spent on ;-) Of course we're there to see my family, friends, and expose the Phoebster to a bit more Dutch lingo and
- [Net@Night interview with Don Tapscott (Grown up Digital)](https://lentz.com.au/blog/netnight-interview-with-don-tapscott-grown-up-digital) - Just listened to the Net@Night #79 netcast (during my morning walk); this episode has a very interesting interview with Don Tapscott who is the author of "Grown up Digital" (follow-up from "Growing up Digital") and many other insightful books about the online world and its humans. I was going to list some keywords of particular
- [bluehackers.org](https://lentz.com.au/blog/bluehackersorg) - It started with Arjen doing the last lightning talk at OSDC 2008… a quick show of hands on who else had dealt with (or was dealing with) depression. Everybody had a look around, and thus knew that they weren’t alone. Afterwards, there was more positive feedback which continued over email in the days that followed.
- [Balsamiq - great mockup tool](https://lentz.com.au/blog/balsamiq-great-mockup-tool) - At the recent Barcamp Gold Coast 2, my friend Steve Dalton showed off Balsamiq Mockups. Cool and useful. The Net@Night #75 netcast (with Amber MacArthur) has an interview with the author, Giacomo 'Peldi' Guilizzoni.
- [top 10 most irritating phrases](https://lentz.com.au/blog/top-10-most-irritating-phrases) - See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/debates/3394545/Oxford-compiles-list-of-top-ten-irritating-phrases.htmlAt the end of the day (it's a great song though, from Les Miserables)Fairly uniqueI personallyAt this moment in timeWith all due respect (usually insults follow)AbsolutelyIt's a nightmareShouldn't of24/7 (not uncommon in database-speak either ;-)It's not rocket scienceWe all use some of those phrases... go on, admit it already! And because we need to
- [Note on OSDC lightning talk re depression: BeyondBlue](https://lentz.com.au/blog/note-on-osdc-lightning-talk-re-depression-beyondblue) - What I forgot to mention in my lightning talk about depression, there's an excellent Australian website beyondblue which has a wealth of information and resources. And for all of you who stuck their hand(s) up, well done and thanks again! One never knows what the response will be with experiments like this, but you did
- [Track your fuel consumption at PetrolMonkey](https://lentz.com.au/blog/track-your-fuel-consumption-at-petrolmonkey) - If you're in Australia, at least... see PetrolMonkey. Very cool. Simple yet functional and useful. You can register your car there, and by entering how much you filled up with at each petrol station visit, and your odometer reading, the system works out how what your petrol consumption is like. Not rocket science, but handy
- [@ OpenSQLCamp](https://lentz.com.au/blog/opensqlcamp) - Yes, I too am at OpenSQLCamp... others are great at the live blog-reporting and instantly putting photos online. I am taking some photos, but I've kept my laptop in the bag for much of the day as really emails, IRC and IM can wait and it's just great to actually have full focus on the
- [Welcome to America...](https://lentz.com.au/blog/welcome-to-america) - Sitting at LAX waiting for my onward flight. Breaking with LAX tradition, there weren't huge long waits at the passport or customs checks, I was not harassed, abused, or barked at. Impressive change! Walking through a corridor, there's a "welcome to USA" above, with photos of the US president and vice president (currently the talking
- [To OpenSQLCamp](https://lentz.com.au/blog/to-opensqlcamp) - Packing for OpenSQL Camp 2008... dropping Phoebe off at daycare in the morning, and straight on to the airport. No worries, her mum will pick her up in the afternoon ;-) Decided on a lightweight approach, handluggage only. Got a little suitcase that satisfies the requirements and actually used it earlier this week for a
- [President-Elect Obama](https://lentz.com.au/blog/president-elect-obama) - Thank goodness. Thank you, American voters!
- [US court throws out most software patents(?)](https://lentz.com.au/blog/us-court-throws-out-most-software-patents) - Very very interesting, if this article indeed a true account of what happened and the new situation. Quote:The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) in Washington DC has decided that in the future, instead of automatically granting a patent for a business practice, there will be a specific testing procedure to determine
- [OurDelta looking for a logo](https://lentz.com.au/blog/ourdelta-looking-for-a-logo) - Ideas welcome! General idea... base: Delta symbol (with thicker line on right hand side - a delta it's not a regular triangle), plus one or more of the following:something depicting deltas: incremental small changes;something depicting a river delta: where streams come together before flowing into ocean;something depicting community: people working together, participating, communicating.If you can
- [Book: The Manga Guida to Databases](https://lentz.com.au/blog/book-the-manga-guida-to-databases) - Look, this could be hilarous, or dreadful. I haven't got the book, so I don't know which - but couldn't resist writing about it since someone pointed it out to me ;-) The Manga Guide to Databases [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback) by Mana Takahashi
- [Creating more entropy...](https://lentz.com.au/blog/creating-more-entropy) - Yeayea, the universe does that all on its own, all the time. But on a headless box, it's rather difficult to make tools like gpg happy (in the case of gpg, for --gen-key). While googling for a possible solution, I came across this little gem: rngd -r /dev/urandom (in the rng-tools package). Instant success, lots
- [Wisdom of the Day... Incy Wincy](https://lentz.com.au/blog/wisdom-of-the-day-incy-wincy) - You know, the spider! Many good ideas don't come from a specific field such as databases.... this gem comes from my daughter Phoebe, this morning as I was getting my bike ready to ride us to school. She said "don't give up papa, keep on going! Just like Incy Wincy Spider, he climbed up, got
- [Australian govt PC grants pay for license fees](https://lentz.com.au/blog/australian-govt-pc-grants-pay-for-license-fees) - As noted in this article: PC grants pay for licence fees, it appears that in the current setup, the Rudd government's education revolution ends up less than ideal, with a heap of the money flowing to mainly Microsoft. Clarifying the story... state education authorities and catholic education generally have an arrangement with Microsoft which gives
- [SQL database injection on the SSN/government level...](https://lentz.com.au/blog/sql-database-injection-on-the-ssngovernment-level) - In the realm of the daily WTF, this SQL doozy popped up earlier in the year: Oklahoma Leaks Tens of Thousands of Social Security Numbers, Other Sensitive Data SQL queries were part of the URLs, so anybody could see which tables/cols were present, and modify at will to extract lots of privileged data including social
- [On China in the software market, exploring with a twist!](https://lentz.com.au/blog/on-china-in-the-software-market-exploring-with-a-twist) - Please allow me to take your mind on a little adventure! I was just reading A global Chinese software company in the next 20 years? about how China goes about acquiring technical know-how. It's not quite like what Japan did after WWII, it uses unique aspects of China, such as its size as well as
- [OpenSQL Camp 2008 (14-16 Nov 2008)](https://lentz.com.au/blog/opensql-camp-2008-14-16-nov-2008) - OpenSQL Camp 2008 is coming! When and Where: Charlottesville, Virginia, USA November 14, 15, and 16 2008! Organised by Baron Schwartz & others, and attended by loads of cool and interesting people (Brian, Monty and Baron are already on the attendee list!) you'd better get ready for a dynamite weekend of learning, contributing, and having
- [Predicting the winner of the 2008 US Presidential Elections using a Sony PlayStation 3](https://lentz.com.au/blog/predicting-the-winner-of-the-2008-us-presidential-elections-using-a-sony-playstation-3) - Aka, colliding MD5, but in a very cool 12-way demonstration: We have used a Sony Playstation 3 to correctly predict the outcome of the 2008 US presidential elections. In order not to influence the voters we keep our prediction secret, but commit to it by publishing its cryptographic hash on this website. The document with
- [Scribus on OS X anyone? PPC (Tiger) and Intel (Leopard)](https://lentz.com.au/blog/scribus-on-os-x-anyone-ppc-tiger-and-intel-leopard) - Help.... the info I find online online is a tad messy and sometimes outdated. Has anyone created installable Scribus packages for OS X yet? I'd prefer to not go through the whole Fink saga, and MacPorts doesn't appear to want to fly for building qt4. Each approach seems to have some issues, but perhaps that
- [Green & Nutty: Soap nuts - laundry, shampoo, etc](https://lentz.com.au/blog/green-nutty-soap-nuts-laundry-shampoo-etc) - disclaimer: this is a blatant plug for a friend of mine, Kristy Bennett. Kristy runs (among many things ;-) a company called Green & Nutty, selling so-called soap nuts (sapindus mukorossi). Actually, only the nut shells are used and no actual seeds should be part of what you get as per Australian quarantine regulations (the
- [site tracking phone spam](https://lentz.com.au/blog/site-tracking-phone-spam) - Good idea: WhoCallsMe?. Tracks nuisance calls (globally), of course only if there's a CallerID. Check on the site if the number is already in the system, read the comments, add your own. Simple, but useful.
- [Website usability vs performance - Measly Mouse revisited](https://lentz.com.au/blog/website-usability-vs-performance-measly-mouse-revisited) - Peter Zaitsev wrote an interesting item on front-end performance of a website. I've always tried to look at the front-end from the user perspective, rather than purely technical. Once you weed out what's not really necessary for the user, and also deal with issues like "how important is it that this number is live", you
- [Some impressive hw hacking of Eee PC](https://lentz.com.au/blog/some-impressive-hw-hacking-of-eee-pc) - This fellow is pretty amazing: http://beta.ivancover.com/wiki/index.php/Eee_PC_Internal_Upgrades. To the already tiny Eee PC, he added (internally!):USB hub GPS with antenna Bluetooth Card reader w/ additioal SSD Power switch (10 dip) for switching all extra foo on/off Wifi upgrade 802.11n FM transmitter Modem (admittedly there's design space for that) Touch screen Temperature sensor Heatsink That's pretty cool...
- [The grey art of eBay - the feedback process borked](https://lentz.com.au/blog/the-grey-art-of-ebay-the-feedback-process-borked) - Since a few months, sellers can no longer provide neutral or negative feedback to buyers. Not sure if I completely agree with this as I reckon buyers can be quite dodgy and how else to capture that. But the objective was to weed out retaliatory feedback. I.e. buyer has a bad experience, provides neutral or
- [Making my TomTom GO 720 GPS work again... and Linux!](https://lentz.com.au/blog/making-my-tomtom-go-720-gps-work-again-and-linux) - I spent some time today on that, it had gone increasingly gaga after some software and POI updates, then lost the plot completely, and then didn't want to boot anymore. The usual reset/restore procedures didn't improve things, so I invented my own which did not involve a restore procedure. I basically formatted the flash and
- [Keyboard Bashing on Eee PC](https://lentz.com.au/blog/keyboard-bashing-on-eee-pc) - Is your child not quite ready for proper typing, but does she love "typing stories" on the keyboard The trick is finding a program that allows them to muck around without the possibility of triggering special functions through some keypress or mouse movement. With the help from Greg Black & James McPherson on the #humbug
- [One laptop per Phoebe](https://lentz.com.au/blog/one-laptop-per-phoebe) - I acquired an Eee PC for my Phoebs. On special somewhere, unfortunately not a pink one ;-) While I see that lots of people are replacing the Asus/Xandros OS with Ubuntu for Eee or other distros, I've decided to stick with the default for now. It's a very easy desktop to use, with all clutter,
- [Open Source Developers Conference 2008 (Sydney) CfP still open](https://lentz.com.au/blog/open-source-developers-conference-2008-sydney-cfp-still-open) - You still have some time to get your proposal in for OSDC 2008 in Sydney. Yes I lead the conference organisation last year, but there's a whole new team for this one and I can blissfully be an attendee or, if at least one of my proposals gets accepted, a speaker. Last year was actually
- [RepRap Brisbane](https://lentz.com.au/blog/reprap-brisbane) - We've created a google group for our regular communications on the RepRap activities in Brisbane. http://groups.google.com/group/reprap-brisbane/web To learn what a RepRap is, see http://reprap.org/ In a nutshell, it's open source hardware, chemistry, mechanics, electronics, software, education, fun. Or, in Chris Dibona's words: "Think of RepRap as a China on your desktop." If you want to
- [Asus Eee PC... what if?](https://lentz.com.au/blog/asus-eee-pc-what-if) - I was just pondering that, if Asus had chosen PPC (or another RISC) for its Eee PC, rather than Intel, the Eee would have an even better battery life. Anyone know about cost difference? Also (strategic side-effect) there wouldn't have been the whole "it will now be preloaded with Windows at some major retailers" foo.
- [FireFox 3 guinness book record attempt](https://lentz.com.au/blog/firefox-3-guinness-book-record-attempt) - See http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord/ for details. I'm working on a project that needs cross-platform use, through a browser. Pondering whether to just "standardise" on FireFox since it runs on all.... that way development focus can go towards actual functionality rather than hacks to make all different browser brands behave... your thoughts?
- [A bluetooth headset that actually does what I want](https://lentz.com.au/blog/a-bluetooth-headset-that-actually-does-what-i-want) - When I visited my friend Jonathan Oxer last week, he told me about his bluetooth headset which he'd found on DealsDirect. I excused myself briefly, opened by laptop, and ordered one online ;-) So, what it is is a stereo bluetooth headset, with built-in microphone. It can pair with multiple devices, not sure what the
- [OSDC 2008 Sydney - Call for Papers open!](https://lentz.com.au/blog/osdc-2008-sydney-call-for-papers-open) - The call for papers for the 2008 edition of the Open Source Developers' Conference, is open. This year the conference will be held in Sydney, 1-5 December 2008. No, haven't got anything to do with this year's OSDC organisation, although I'm still on the OSDClub's exec. There's a specific Sydney team in charge of the
- [Joel on Architecture Austronauts](https://lentz.com.au/blog/joel-on-architecture-austronauts) - Joel Spolsky has another great rant, this time about what he calls Architecture Astronauts.The hallmark of an "architecture astronaut" is that they don't solve an actual problem... they solve something that appears to be the template of a lot of problems. Or at least, they try. [...] [...] one sure tip-off to the fact that
- [The Swag Report is back!](https://lentz.com.au/blog/the-swag-report-is-back) - Some time ago a few people lamented the demise of The Swag Report, a cool idea by Mike Hillyer... people would take photos of the swag they collect at conferences and other events, and post it to the site with some comment/rating. At the 2008 MySQL conference we caught up, and I mentioned that I'd
- [!TANSTAAFL = TISATAAFL](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tanstaafl-tisataafl) - There Is Such a Thing as a Free Lunch! I'm sitting in the AirNZ lounge at Sydney International airport, and just had a very nice lunch. Also wireless Internet. My StarAlliance Gold is valid until April this year (I did way too much travel in 2006 ;-) so I might as well reap all the
- [Public toilets in Australia - and there's a website](https://lentz.com.au/blog/public-toilets-in-australia-and-theres-a-website) - Not just a website... a government maintained website! http://www.toiletmap.gov.au/ I encountered this while browsing for camping sites around South-East Queensland. It's done by a project as part of the "National Continence Management Strategy" of the Australian federal govt department of Health and Aging. There ya go... ;-) I always tell people that Australian govt is
- [COUNT(*) vs COUNT(col)](https://lentz.com.au/blog/count-vs-countcol) - Is there a difference? Yes there is, and it's very significant both in functionality as well as in speed. COUNT(*) counts rows. If the underlying table is MyISAM, and there's no WHERE clause, then this is extremely fast as MyISAM maintains a row count of the entire table. Otherwise, the server just needs to count
- [Query formatting - suggested good practise](https://lentz.com.au/blog/query-formatting-suggested-good-practise) - What follows is just a suggestion. You may have a perfectly sensible different way of accomplishing the same thing, and that's fine. Actually, feel free to post your own methods in a comment. Anyway, here we go.../*appname:module:class:method:symbolicname*/ SELECT tn.olname, AGGREGATE(ot.col) AS aliascolname, ... FROM tblname tn JOIN othertable ot ON (ot.id=ft.id) LEFT JOIN footable ft
- [Arjen's Hawkers Notice](https://lentz.com.au/blog/arjens-hawkers-notice) - In response to popular demand (invited visitors noticing and commenting on the sign next to my doorbell), I've put up the text of my Hawkers Notice on my wiki. It's aptly filed under the Spam category.
- [not-quite-old-yet](https://lentz.com.au/blog/not-quite-old-yet) - That I am, today (in Australia, that is - tomorrow for you Americans). And since people always ask kids, the question I tend to ask on someone's birthday is this: "What do you want to be, when you grow up?"Go ahead, think about it and put your answer in a comment!
- [The Hammock has Landed](https://lentz.com.au/blog/the-hammock-has-landed) - Three things you need in a new house:doorbellfish & chips dinner on the floorhammockFab - particularly since the current house couldn't have the hammock (no covered area outside...) so I've had to do without for nearly a year. Shocking.
- [CfP: Dynamic Languages World Conf (May 26-28, Karlsruhe DE)](https://lentz.com.au/blog/cfp-dynamic-languages-world-conf-may-26-28-karlsruhe-de) - I'm usually pretty good with these things - I get a CfP invite and I blog about it to let more people know. I completely forgot in this case, must've been the xmas season. Luckily the CfP is still open for a few more days, so you can still get in a proposal if you're
- [Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law](https://lentz.com.au/blog/larry-lessig-how-creativity-is-being-strangled-by-the-law) - A TED talk from March this year, but just posted last month: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/187 Great stuff - take the time to view it!
- [OSDC 2007 Brisbane - starting!](https://lentz.com.au/blog/osdc-2007-brisbane-starting) - Open Source Developers' Conference 2007 Brisbane started today with tutorials, and other speakers and delegates arriving. Wireless working and at speed, all running pretty smoothly, catering okidoki... all appears well in preparation for tomorrows real hords (200+ people). All good!
- [Whitlams - Australia Federal Election - Vote](https://lentz.com.au/blog/whitlams-australia-federal-election-vote) - H and I went to The Whitlams concert yesterday, they were playing together with full Queensland Orchestra. Was great! Tim Freedman, never short of political opinion, noted: This country is not an economy; it's a society.So what did I vote? I don't mind telling. Howard didn't get it... his party never would, I'm a lefty
- [Mac OS X Leopard, MacBook 13"](https://lentz.com.au/blog/mac-os-x-leopard-macbook-13) - So I was waiting for Leopard to come out before getting a new MacBook (had to hand the other one back when I left, of course). It's just less hassle to not have to upgrade the OS to a major new version... and Oct 26 appears to be the day that Leopard is released. Must
- [Nominated for QLD Pearcey Award](https://lentz.com.au/blog/nominated-for-qld-pearcey-award) - Cool, it appears I've been nominated for the 2007 Queensland Pearcey State Award - that's quite an honour! The Pearcey Foundation takes its name from Dr Trevor Pearcey who in 1949 led the team that designed and built Australia’s first digital computer, CSIRAC, and which was in fact the world’s fourth digital computer ever to
- [OSDC 2007 program schedule now online](https://lentz.com.au/blog/osdc-2007-program-schedule-now-online) - The Open Source Developers' Conference 2007 Brisbane program schedule is now online! Registrations are coming along nicely, but it's a bit too early to project possible total numbers. The organisers have decided that if you register after October 31st, you don't get a conference T-shirt. Nanana. But seriously.... Elspeth needs time to get them printed,
- [CfP "Safety & Security" (Saarbrücken, Germany, April 2-4 2008)](https://lentz.com.au/blog/cfp-safety-security-saarbrucken-germany-april-2-4-2008) - From my good friend and anti-spam expert Tobias Eggendorfer, a note that a call for papers is now open for Safety and Security 2008 in Saarbrücken, Germany (2-4 April 2008). Sicherheit 2008 (the German name) is a conference on security and safety in computer science. Its official web page is available at http://www.sicherheit2008.de/. This conference
- [OSDC 2007 earlybird registration now open!](https://lentz.com.au/blog/osdc-2007-earlybird-registration-now-open) - Horay, we finally made it work. Registration for the Open Source Developers' Conference 2007 is now open. For non-presenters, the earlybird price is $275 (until October 14th), after that the full conference price is $325. All regular tickets include the conference dinner! Cool & affordable, right? As a reminder: the OSDC 2007 conference dates are
- [OSDC 2007 program selections](https://lentz.com.au/blog/osdc-2007-program-selections) - Andrae, Jacinta and I spent some hours this afternoon going over the proposals and making the final selections. Previously we (and other volunteers) reviewed and commented on proposals based on the volunteer's subject matter expertise, knowledge of the speaker's subject and speaking ability, and so on. Anyway, Andrae now has the magic pile with everything
- [OSDC update: 2007 program committee deliberations](https://lentz.com.au/blog/osdc-update-2007-program-committee-deliberations) - Andrae and his gang will take some time, with over 100 submissions to consider, but the CfP is now definitely closed and the program committee is busy doing its thing. If you missed out on making a submission, you can of course still try to beg Andrae, but don't push your luck as things do
- [On GPLv3 press coverage, and a GPL-based business model](https://lentz.com.au/blog/on-gplv3-press-coverage-and-a-gpl-based-business-model) - I was just reading this article on PC World about the launch of GPLv3. I reckon it's a decent article in that it actually bothers to explain the foundation of GPL (Richard Stallman's software freedom principles). One quote (from an engineering professor at MIT) gets it wrong though:When something in the free software world gets
- [Get a move on with your OSDC abstract submission!](https://lentz.com.au/blog/get-a-move-on-with-your-osdc-abstract-submission) - The submissions have been flowing in nicely, but the usual speaker slackness (and waiting for the deadline to make that pretty whizzing sound as it zaps past) appears to also be alive and well! So, prod prod... http://osdc.com.au/papers/cfp.html Keep em coming. This year's Open Source Developers Conference (OSDC) 2007 will be held in sunny Brisbane
- [Call for Papers reminder: Open Source Developers' Conference 2007 - Brisbane Australia](https://lentz.com.au/blog/call-for-papers-reminder-open-source-developers-conference-2007-brisbane-australia) - Call for Papers Open Source Developers' Conference 2007 - Brisbane Australia "Success in Development & Business" OSDC is an Australian grass-roots conference providing Open Source developers with an opportunity to meet, share, learn, and of course show-off. OSDC focuses on Open Source developers building solutions directly for customers and other end users, anything goes as
- [eBay, Skype, or...](https://lentz.com.au/blog/ebay-skype-or) - Just an observation: eBay now supports sending notifications to various IM networks... the usual list. Except Skype. Now that's curious, since eBay owns Skype, right? I would expect it to be the first offered, or at the very least be on the list....
- [Software patents: will the monster bite its own fanclub?](https://lentz.com.au/blog/software-patents-will-the-monster-bite-its-own-fanclub) - Mark Shuttleworth on software patents: Microsoft is not the real threatThe real threat to Linux is the same as the real threat to Microsoft, and that is a patent suit from a person or company that is NOT actually building software, but has filed patents on ideas that the GNU project and Microsoft are equally
- [The last battle? MS goes after FOSS with patents](https://lentz.com.au/blog/the-last-battle-ms-goes-after-foss-with-patents) - Oh fab. Microsoft claims that free software like Linux, which runs a big chunk of corporate America, violates 235 of its patents. It wants royalties from distributors and users.See http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/index.htm (Software) patents that (IMHO) shouldn't exist in the first place, but that's not the point I want to make here. Companies now need to compete
- [Open Source Developers' Conference 2007 - Brisbane - Call for Papers](https://lentz.com.au/blog/open-source-developers-conference-2007-brisbane-call-for-papers) - OSDC is a grass-roots conference providing Open Source developers with an opportunity to meet, share, learn, and of course show-off. OSDC focuses on Open Source developers building solutions directly for customers and other end users, anything goes as long as the code or the development platform is Open Source. Last year's conference attracted over 180
- [Lunn algorithm (credit card number check)](https://lentz.com.au/blog/lunn-algorithm-credit-card-number-check) - Andrew Dashin wrote about this. Basically, the function verifies whether a credit card number could be valid, using the number's internal checksum algorithm. I had the C code from long ago, and I think I even converted it to PHP at some point. It's out there and it's no secret (try googling for the Lunn
- [Timezones on servers](https://lentz.com.au/blog/timezones-on-servers) - People across North-America are scrambling to update their servers, in order to deal with the upcoming timezone changes. I'll tell you a little secret that has served me well... ever since the C libraries were a pest in the mid eighties (the ones on DOS defaulted to GMT-5, US EST, or something in that realm),
- [Great circle and distances](https://lentz.com.au/blog/great-circle-and-distances) - I reckon that techies sometimes go overboard in accuracy! Many sites use so-called Great-Circle calculations to find places within a certain distance of a specified location. The resulting queries tend to do full table scans with relatively few actual matches, then order by distance and page or limit that. If, instead, you use a bounding
- [Networking - people connecting with people](https://lentz.com.au/blog/networking-people-connecting-with-people) - Doing some book packing in my office this morning (moving house soon). I didn't keep that many books when I moved from The Netherlands to Australia, so at the time I did a very tough selection. Naturally, I wouldn't toss my copy of "The C Programming Language" ;-) One book that was given to me
- [OSDC 2007 - Brisbane - we got the gig!](https://lentz.com.au/blog/osdc-2007-brisbane-we-got-the-gig) - So, OSDC 2007 (Open Source Developers Conference), held in Melbourne in previous years, will visit glorious sunny Brisbane this year (end November, early December). My thanks to Anthony Towns, Andrae Muys and James Iseppi for helping me with the legwork and homework to put together our submission, and to the OSDC committee for giving us
- [I told you to not use SELECT *](https://lentz.com.au/blog/i-told-you-to-not-use-select) - Also packed in an environment where MS Access may be present, as it does [Col Name] for identifier quoting (and Access users often use spaces in identifiers).
- [Sweden to open virtual embassy in My Second Life](https://lentz.com.au/blog/sweden-to-open-virtual-embassy-in-my-second-life) - Sweden to set up embassy in Second Life I reckon that's very cool. I'd already heard about some people making their living "in there".
- [OSDC-chat at HUMBUG this Saturday (27 Jan)](https://lentz.com.au/blog/osdc-chat-at-humbug-this-saturday-27-jan) - Since so many HUMBUG members are interested in the OSDC-2007-in-Brisbane idea, there will be an initial gathering to discuss ideas and such at the HUMBUG meeting this Saturday, 27 January. HUMBUG is run at Room S201, Hawken Engineering Building (no. 50) at the University of Queensland. The usual HUMBUG meetings start at 3pm, but the
- [Getting OSDC 2007 to Brisbane](https://lentz.com.au/blog/getting-osdc-2007-to-brisbane) - An excellent opportunity has come up to have the 2007 edition of the Open Source Developers Conference to Brisbane. Various people from Brisbane were independently interested, and we converged at LCA 2007 in Sydney last week. From discussions there, I understand that the OSDC committee is interested, but would of course like to make sure
- [Be careful out there... cars are WMDs](https://lentz.com.au/blog/be-careful-out-there-cars-are-wmds) - This happened a few days ago a few houses up our street: Man crashes car into swimming pool (in the Australian, other mentions on ABC and news.com.au). (There's a Dutch driving instruction joke: "kaboom = halt!, splash = water". This nutball managed to do both at the same time.) FYI: two kids had just come
- [Why does the fashion industry thrive in spite of rampant IP "piracy"?](https://lentz.com.au/blog/why-does-the-fashion-industry-thrive-in-spite-of-rampant-ip-piracy) - Jon Stokes writes about this on Arstechnica, looking at a forthcoming Virginia Law Review paper entitled "The Piracy Paradox: Innovation and Intellectual Property in Fashion Design," in which two law professors investigate how the fashion industry manages to thrive despite rampant copying of clothing designs. While it's not simply applicable to other areas (such as
- [Wikipedia leaves $100M on the table - no advertising](https://lentz.com.au/blog/wikipedia-leaves-100m-on-the-table-no-advertising) - Jason McCabe Calacanis (Weblogs) writes about this... Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia) does not want to have *any* advertising, even if all of the proceeds were to go to worthy causes. Is there anything wrong with that? Jason appears to think so, pleading with Jimmy to reconsider. There'll even be free bandwidth chucked in. But that's a
- [More domain sillyness (.mobi)](https://lentz.com.au/blog/more-domain-sillyness-mobi) - The domain registrars are making more money again, this time with .mobi. Naturally, people with a trademark or other (like .com) domain will be wanting to grab their .mobi so noone else can nick off with it. But what's the practical purpose of all these additional toplevel domains? As far as I can tell, it's
- [US Supreme Court to look into Software Patents and Open Source](https://lentz.com.au/blog/us-supreme-court-to-look-into-software-patents-and-open-source) - See this article on InformationWeek. Looks like an excellent development. I just hope the EFF has picked the case carefully...
- [Finding hotels with decent Internet access](https://lentz.com.au/blog/finding-hotels-with-decent-internet-access) - ...is a pain. Most hotels "kind of" have broadband Internet access, where broadband is defined as an Ethernet cable or wireless. Usually it's ridiculously expensive, like $5 per hour or $20 for 24 hours. It bears no relation to actual cost. It makes dining from the minibar look cheap ;-) I was just browsing for
- [Auckland airport observations](https://lentz.com.au/blog/auckland-airport-observations) - After a successful training (teaching) week, I'm on my way back home. I also had a chat at AuckLUG (facilitated by the Auckland Novell offices) and got invited to an "NZ 2.0" meeting at Galbraith's brewhouse by Nat Torkington. That was particularly interesting. Airports are always good fun, lots of computers and other signs at
- [Use of English spotted in email](https://lentz.com.au/blog/use-of-english-spotted-in-email) - "This email already isn't using, as far as something of necessity you have need of, so hypotenuse Your enamel on my new email address: ..." /me sighs
- [A new relevant metric](https://lentz.com.au/blog/a-new-relevant-metric) - "Pageviews per kilowatt-hour (kWh)"Noted by Jim Buckmaster (Craigslist), they keep getting kicked out of colocation sites. I've heard this a lot lately, the biggest headache at highly scaled sites is the power consumption of all the server hardware. Perhaps it's simply a side-effect of the horizontal scaling (scale-out): lots of cheaper machines, rather than some
- [Cascade adventures from Portland to Seattle](https://lentz.com.au/blog/cascade-adventures-from-portland-to-seattle) - I'm scribbling this while temporarily stranded in Vancouver, Washington. The train had electric trouble so the aircon and toilets didn't work (and it's quite a hot day). Now go on train-sceptics, have your laugh! But I've seen similar stuff happen in other countries, and with airlines also. I'm quite entertained here, I like watching people
- [Political reasons for FOSS](https://lentz.com.au/blog/political-reasons-for-foss) - Pia Waugh recently wrote an excellent article on economic and social reasons for using FOSS. It's for Australia, but of course it applies almost everywhere. You may find it useful! As Pia says, "getting the right information to the right people in the right order to get a right outcome." or as I generally note,
- [More on patents, litigation, and real innovation](https://lentz.com.au/blog/more-on-patents-litigation-and-real-innovation) - You're probably all aware of my opinion regarding software patents... apart from all the other arguments against, purely looking at "time to market" and effective use of limited resources, it makes no business sense spendingwasting time on software patents. Just be faster. I heard the following recently, and I think it's an interesting observation:An IP
- [Insight for the day: less is more, also for slides](https://lentz.com.au/blog/insight-for-the-day-less-is-more-also-for-slides) - Did you realise that... having fewer slides for a presentation actually is more difficult than having lots of slides? Difficult in the sense of more work also... and I notice that most speakers are lazy; hence you get to see slideshows where people read from their own slides slower than you do. So I always
- [Ironing in a hotel](https://lentz.com.au/blog/ironing-in-a-hotel) - Every time I'm travelling (for a conference, or teaching a training course), I wonder how the hotel operators envisage the use of the iron and ironing board. The problem is of course that one actually needs to plug in the iron. But finding a socket in a place near where you can sensibly place the
- [Slidy - XHTML presentations](https://lentz.com.au/blog/slidy-xhtml-presentations) - Interesting... Slidy by Dave Raggett. Despite it being a pest, PowerPoint is of course still "the standard". Yes, Apple's Keynote is very nice. OpenOffice.org just clones PowerPoint and thus suffers from the same problems... the main issues I have: maintenance, collaboration, and reusing components. With a decent system that uses XHTML as its format, distributed
- [On user-interfaces](https://lentz.com.au/blog/on-user-interfaces) - This interesting write-up was brought to my attention. It's about user interfaces, and the author (Hugh Fisher) believes there is compelling historical evidence to suggest that on Linux we need to get a grip on a single user interface, or else lose out completely. He notes that various specific other platforms that have had multiple
- [Silly copyright proposal in Australia](https://lentz.com.au/blog/silly-copyright-proposal-in-australia) - There are some proposed changes in the Australian copyright law that are just too weird. Australia has its newish free-trade agreement with the US, and so is now harmonising some of its laws. Unfortunately, things are being tightened without the corresponding "fair use" clauses that are part of the equivalent US legislation, and some flawed
- [No Software Patents in Europe - but no complacency either, please!](https://lentz.com.au/blog/no-software-patents-in-europe-but-no-complacency-either-please) - My good friend Zak Greant spotted a news item at Techworld, where the European Commission appears to have changed its position on software patents. Have a read, it's interesting and I hope that it really does indicate a new direction from the commission and not just one loose statement. If it is for real, that's
- [Ballmer and the cluetrain](https://lentz.com.au/blog/ballmer-and-the-cluetrain) - Just spotted: Microsoft CEO: catching Yahoo, Google to take time"We are a little bit late in the game," Ballmer said. "But at the end of the day it is going to be about the ability to create a mass marketplace for buyers and consumers." Ballmer said Microsoft would seek to create a marketplace where consumers
- [Arriving in San Fancisco & Santa Clara](https://lentz.com.au/blog/arriving-in-san-fancisco-santa-clara) - Arrived in Santa Clara for the conference, so this is my second (groundhog!) attempt at Friday April 21st. I even arrived before I left. Timezones and the intl.dateline are of fun. Should also remember that Europe is now ahead of me rather than behind... Colin, JD and I went for a good walk, so that
- [RDBMS terminology: relations vs relationships](https://lentz.com.au/blog/rdbms-terminology-relations-vs-relationships) - In SQL RDBMS land, people often talk about relations when they actually mean relationships. Sometimes the meaning is clear from the context, but that's not always the case; so I thought it might be helpful to know which is which and why: You may be surprised to learn that: relation = set = table. It's
- [Open Source in businesses - challenges](https://lentz.com.au/blog/open-source-in-businesses-challenges) - Some time ago, business were missing the components needed to run their business - if they wanted to use Open Source software. That is no longer the case, with SugarCRM, Zimbra, and SequoiaERP. Accounting (general ledger style stuff, and mroe) is possibly the last big challenges; some partically solutions are out there and SequoiaERP is
- [talloc: hierachical memory allocation by Andrew Tridgell](https://lentz.com.au/blog/talloc-hierachical-memory-allocation-by-andrew-tridgell) - I'm just listening to a talk by Rusty Russell (an excellent speaker anyway) about Tridge's talloc. It extends the traditional malloc() mechanism by making every returned pointer effectively be a memory pool. You can allocate memory that is "attached" to an existing pointer. When a parent pointer is freed, so are its children. There are
- [New Australian passports have RFID](https://lentz.com.au/blog/new-australian-passports-have-rfid) - Conferences... Travel... Passports... The Australian ePassport has been introduced, with very little press attention. The centre page has an RFID chip which contains the same info as the regular passport. To me, that's actually big news. And very worrying. While the "should you be required to identify yourself on the street" debate is still ongoing,
- [Patryk closes down Linux Jewellery store](https://lentz.com.au/blog/patryk-closes-down-linux-jewellery-store) - About five years ago a Polish Australian, Patryk Zadarnowski, set up a Linux Jewellery store online. As speaker at AUUG conferences, I was lucky enough to receive a little black nickle tux, and a "tux inside" keyring... excellent. Patryk started it all as a weekend project (together with an artist friend) but he soon found
- [Vote Florian Mueller for European of the Year - and against Software Patents](https://lentz.com.au/blog/vote-florian-mueller-for-european-of-the-year-and-against-software-patents) - As you may or may not have heard, there is an ongoing election for European of the Year. And you don't have to live in the EU to vote. Florian Mueller (from nosoftwarepatents.com), who led the successful fight against software patents in the EU earlier this year, is one of the nominees. Wouldn't it be
- [Why proprietary enterprise software costs sooooo much](https://lentz.com.au/blog/why-proprietary-enterprise-software-costs-sooooo-much) - Moving up the Stack - Forget about Linux on the desktop. The next stage of open-source adoption will occur in enterprise software. An article by Erick Schonfeld, some months ago on Business 2.0. Fab observation:Rather than being used to improve products, an astounding three-quarters of new license revenue in the enterprise software industry is instead
- [(anti) Software patents campaigners honoured](https://lentz.com.au/blog/anti-software-patents-campaigners-honoured) - The FFII and NoSoftwarePatents.com have picked up an award for outstanding contribution to software development for their work in blocking European patent legislation, at the CNET Networks UK Technology Awards. Florian Mueller of NoSoftwarePatents.com and Rufus Pollock of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) received their awards in front of an audience of
- [2006 Southern California Linux Expo Call For Papers](https://lentz.com.au/blog/2006-southern-california-linux-expo-call-for-papers) - Another CfP: "The USC, Simi/Conejo, and UCLA Linux User Groups are proud to announce the 4th annual Southern California Linux Expo scheduled for February 11-12, 2006 at the Westin Hotel near the Los Angeles International Airport. Building on the tremendous success of last three years' SCALE, we will continue to promote Linux and the Open
- [Another silly software patent... "SMS2mail"](https://lentz.com.au/blog/another-silly-software-patent-sms2mail) - A company in Belgium has a patent-pending system ("SMS2mail") whereby you can text a word to a free short code and get back more information by email to the address of your choice. So where's the invention, exactly? ;-) For further details see this article: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=25732 Given the current fuss around Linus and the Linux
- [OpenUsability.org](https://lentz.com.au/blog/openusabilityorg) - What a great -important and necessary- initiative! From the site: OpenUsability.org brings Open Source Developers and Usability Experts together The idea behind is simple: There are many Usability Experts who want to contribute to software projects. And there are many developers who want to make their software more usable, and as a consequence, more successful.
- [monotone - a free distributed version control system](https://lentz.com.au/blog/monotone-a-free-distributed-version-control-system) - I would just like to draw your attention to monotone, a very interesting version control system. Linus Torvalds already noted it a few months ago. It is a fully distributed system, so you can work and commit stuff offline. Without hacks, just by design. You can have multiple branches in the same db, and just
- [NoSoftwarePatents.com finalist for CNET award!](https://lentz.com.au/blog/nosoftwarepatentscom-finalist-for-cnet-award) - NoSoftwarePatents.com & The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) are listed as finalists for the CNET Award 2005 in the category Outstanding Contribution to Software Development.
- [Software patent sillyness - and a better definition of what should be patentable.](https://lentz.com.au/blog/software-patent-sillyness-and-a-better-definition-of-what-should-be-patentable) - This could be a very nice and clear definition of what should be patentable and what not: Software Patents Don't Compute - No clear boundary between math and software exists First of two articles on software patents, by Ben Klemens http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/resource/jul05/0705inve.html [...] In 1936, Alonzo Church proved that that stuff is mathematics. Church created lambda
- [Book "Free Software for Busy People"](https://lentz.com.au/blog/book-free-software-for-busy-people) - This looks like a good read: Free Software for Busy People. BoingBoing.net writes: "Free Software for Busy People is a new book from Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, a Bahraini MD who is on a mission to help information-civilians understand why they should use free/open source software. The book tells the story of six people from six walks
- [NoSoftwarePatents.com's Florian Mueller makes it on to VIP list](https://lentz.com.au/blog/nosoftwarepatentscoms-florian-mueller-makes-it-on-to-vip-list) - This is cool: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/0,39020645,39210059,00.htm Florian Mueller, who started NoSoftwarePatents.com and campaigned tirelessly against the adoption of software patents in the European Union, has been recognised as one of the most influential people in the IP (Intellectual Property) world by a magazine for IP lawyers. Good on ya, Florian!
- [European Parliament says No to software patents](https://lentz.com.au/blog/european-parliament-says-no-to-software-patents) - Great news! The European Parliament rejected the SWPAT directive. No fuzzyness with amendments, but a straight no. For the full story, see the report on the FFII site. Let's not become complacent though.... these things don't just die. They keep coming back like a bad cold.
- [Continuing the fight against software patents in Europe](https://lentz.com.au/blog/continuing-the-fight-against-software-patents-in-europe) - Everybody, this is really important - particularly if you're in Europe (ok, so I live in Australia - but I'm Dutch and I still have a vote there). If you are also a voting European and can -in any way- make a noise about this, now is the time to do so! Software patents are
- [Baby timeout](https://lentz.com.au/blog/baby-timeout) - Hi everybody, sorry to have disappeared on you for a few weeks... my wife and I just had a baby, however after a few days of happy home life my wife ended up back in hospital for an emergency operation. All getting better though! In case you are interested in baby cuteness: http://www.bitbike.com/users/ahlentz/gallery/phoebs-earlysnaps
- [HitchHiker's Guide](https://lentz.com.au/blog/hitchhikers-guide) - Ok, so I just saw The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie. I feel like my head has gone through a blender (no I didn't have a PanGalactic GargleBlaster!) I know all the books (of course!) and the original BBC radio series.... I do think I liked the movie. It wasn't what I expected, but
- [Time travel...](https://lentz.com.au/blog/time-travel) - I'm packing my stuff now, as I need to start my travels from Brisbane to San Francisco early tomorrow morning. You'll like this: I'm travelling back in time... I leave here Friday 10:10am, arriving in SFO on Friday 10:05am. Thank goodness it's not a Monday! ;-)
- [Patenting an IsNot operator](https://lentz.com.au/blog/patenting-an-isnot-operator) - IS NOT OPERATOR (application with USPTO). I believe it's been filed on behalf of some Microsoft employees, who are heavily encouraged to come up with as many patentable ideas as possible. Never mind real R&D ;-) So what is this magical new invention? A system for determining if two operands point to different locations in
- [More on licensing... closed source](https://lentz.com.au/blog/more-on-licensing-closed-source) - I got an excellent comment about yesterday's entry (about the 58 open source licenses), relating the story to closed source licensing. While compatibility is generally not an issue there, some standardisation would of course be nice so that users of closed source software can easily assess whether a license or EULA is suitable for them.
- [Valentine Geeks](https://lentz.com.au/blog/valentine-geeks) - Just a little hint for Valentine's Day ;-) Computers are not a compatible feature in plans for a romantic surprise. No ifs or buts. If you're going away for Valentines, don't bring along your laptop, not even if it is a cool PowerBook. And here comes your big test: do you leave on your mobile?
- [Happy New Year - and the tsunami relief effort](https://lentz.com.au/blog/happy-new-year-and-the-tsunami-relief-effort) - Happy New Year! At this year's beginning, please spare a moment's thought (and funds) for the people in the region where the tsunami struck last week. Donate to a local organization or via http://donate.ifrc.org/ Don't wait, just do it now! Thanks.
- ["Thank you, Poland" on its EU swpat stance](https://lentz.com.au/blog/thank-you-poland-on-its-eu-swpat-stance) - http://thankpoland.info/ [snip] The undersigned wish to express their sincere thanks to the Polish government for their action to remove the "A-item" of adopting the "Software Patent Directive" from the agenda of the Agricultural Council meeting on December 21, 2004. It would have been a horrible mistake for the European Union to adopt this "Software Patent
- [Looking a little holiday trip?](https://lentz.com.au/blog/looking-a-little-holiday-trip) - 1. Go to http://mappoint.msn.com/DirectionsFind.aspx 2. For "Start" select "Address in: Norway", "City: haugesund" 3. For "End" select "Address in: Norway", "City: Trondheim" 4. Click "Get directions" and smile
- [Return from holidays](https://lentz.com.au/blog/return-from-holidays) - Ahh, just returned from a little holiday in the Whitsunday Islands (tropical North Queensland) - very relaxing! No computer, no phone... (be honest now, when did YOU last try that?) just hangin' out on and around an island with nice weather and swimming pools.
- [UK government report on Open Source Software](https://lentz.com.au/blog/uk-government-report-on-open-source-software) - http://www.ogc.gov.uk/oss/Report-v8c.htm Looks like a pretty decent report... and yes it's very positive but does note relevant issues for specific areas. It also has quite a few interesting links to other studies and sites in various countries.
- [VoIP and Linux on the Desktop](https://lentz.com.au/blog/voip-and-linux-on-the-desktop) - I just got my new IP phone, an SNOM 190. Looks nice! Ordered it locally from OzVOIP which had them in stock, charges a very reasonable price (pretty much straight the exchange rate from EUR), no postage, and delivered quickly without any hassles. It's now attached to our internal company VoIP network, but these phones

## Pages

- [PotLuck@Lentz](https://lentz.com.au/potluckatlentz) - PotLuck @ Lentz (Arana Hills) Instead of doing house warmings and other parties, we started something different: every so many weeks on a Saturday or Sunday is "Pot Luck at Lentz". FAQ below. FAQ Why This is a modernised version of something my family used to do, back to great-grandparents. We like having people over.
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- [Organic Gardening](https://lentz.com.au/organic_gardening) - Since moving to Australia in 2000, I discovered early on that -at least in Queensland- you can pretty much just stick anything into the ground, and it'll grow. Simply blissful! Preparation Happy Soil - preparing your soil with minimal effort (Arjen's method) Permaculture prep - Ten steps to an Organic Permaculture no-dig Garden Vermiculture -

## Products

- [Hawker's Notice door sign](https://lentz.com.au/product/hawkers-notice-door-sign) - This sign at your front door will help you finally get rid of those pesky door sales people and related nonsense! Printed on durable colorbond steel (10x13cm)

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- [DST](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/dst)
- [referendum](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/referendum)
- [spam](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/spam)
- [post](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/post)
- [unsolicited mail](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/unsolicited-mail)
- [return to sender](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/return-to-sender)
- [RTS](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/rts)
- [peoplesforumau](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/peoplesforumau)
- [peoplesforum](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/peoplesforum)
- [political debate](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/political-debate)
- [australia](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/australia)
- [forum](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/forum)
- [facebook](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/facebook)
- [social networking](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/social-networking)
- [FLOSS](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/floss)
- [sfd2010](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/sfd2010)
- [sfd](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/sfd)
- [software freedom day](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/software-freedom-day)
- [OtherSkills](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/otherskills)
- [lightning talks](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/lightning-talks)
- [Open Source Developers' Conference](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/open-source-developers-conference)
- [mythtv](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/mythtv)
- [mythbuntu](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/mythbuntu)
- [macbook](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/macbook)
- [apple](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/apple)
- [potluckatlentz](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/potluckatlentz)
- [chess](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/chess)
- [games](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/games)
- [learning](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/learning)
- [children](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/children)
- [cheese](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/cheese)
- [haloumi](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/haloumi)
- [whey](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/whey)
- [protein](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/protein)
- [smoothie](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/smoothie)
- [empathy](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/empathy)
- [norway](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/norway)
- [tolerance](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/tolerance)
- [generosity](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/generosity)
- [democracy](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/democracy)
- [Camembert](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/camembert)
- [humour](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/humour)
- [humor](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/humor)
- [negativity](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/negativity)
- [putdowns](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/putdowns)
- [seinfeld](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/seinfeld)
- [roseane](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/roseane)
- [friends](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/friends)
- [everybody loves raymond](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/everybody-loves-raymond)
- [married with children](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/married-with-children)
- [funny](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/funny)
- [vegan](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/vegan)
- [cooking](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/cooking)
- [nutrients](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/nutrients)
- [vitamins](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/vitamins)
- [minerals](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/minerals)
- [nuts](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/nuts)
- [chickpeas](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/chickpeas)
- [lentils](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/lentils)
- [quinoa](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/quinoa)
- [fish](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/fish)
- [seafood](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/seafood)
- [dairy](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/dairy)
- [honey](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/honey)
- [recipes](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/recipes)
- [meals](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/meals)
- [dinner](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/dinner)
- [standing](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/standing)
- [fidgeting](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/fidgeting)
- [desk](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/desk)
- [vegetable](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/vegetable)
- [oil](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/oil)
- [gas](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/gas)
- [arduino](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/arduino)
- [hawkers](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/hawkers)
- [notice](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/notice)
- [door](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/door)
- [doorsales](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/doorsales)
- [wordpress](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/wordpress)
- [google+](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/google)
- [g+](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/g)
- [fb](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/fb)
- [wp](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/wp)
- [status](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/status)
- [links](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/links)
- [allah](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/allah)
- [jehovah](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/jehovah)
- [jesus](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/jesus)
- [mormon](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/mormon)
- [kiva](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/kiva)
- [micro loans](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/micro-loans)
- [metric](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/metric)
- [americans](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/americans)
- [imperial](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/imperial)
- [units](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/units)
- [measure](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/measure)
- [measuring](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/measuring)
- [dishwasher](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/dishwasher)
- [home economics](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/home-economics)
- [losing](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/losing)
- [finding](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/finding)
- [life](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/life)
- [lessons](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/lessons)
- [kids](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/kids)
- [raising](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/raising)
- [geek](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/geek)
- [books](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/books)
- [balancing](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/balancing)
- [pi](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/pi)
- [rubik](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/rubik)
- [cube](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/cube)
- [iraq](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/iraq)
- [america](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/america)
- [USA](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/usa)
- [history](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/history)
- [stickytape](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/stickytape)
- [art](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/art)
- [video](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/video)
- [pyramid](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/pyramid)
- [taste](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/taste)
- [texture](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/texture)
- [fat](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/fat)
- [salt](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/salt)
- [sugar](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/sugar)
- [stimulants](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/stimulants)
- [alcohol](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/alcohol)
- [caffeine](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/caffeine)
- [chocolate](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/chocolate)
- [lego](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/lego)
- [climate change](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/climate-change)
- [denial](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/denial)
- [science](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/science)
- [proof](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/proof)
- [Ritchie](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/ritchie)
- [C](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/c)
- [Unix](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/unix)
- [apathy](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/apathy)
- [psychology](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/psychology)
- [accident](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/accident)
- [crowd](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/crowd)
- [cialdini](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/cialdini)
- [bystander](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/bystander)
- [act](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/act)
- [android](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/android)
- [ARM](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/arm)
- [weirdness](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/weirdness)
- [love](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/love)
- [compatible](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/compatible)
- [Dr Seuss](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/dr-seuss)
- [editing](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/editing)
- [OSX](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/osx)
- [Mac](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/mac)
- [Kino](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/kino)
- [OpenShot](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/openshot)
- [organic](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/organic)
- [farming](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/farming)
- [GM](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/gm)
- [conventional](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/conventional)
- [produce](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/produce)
- [toys](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/toys)
- [drawing](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/drawing)
- [gardening](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/gardening-2)
- [ecology](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/ecology)
- [patience](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/patience)
- [Libya](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/libya)
- [politics](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/politics)
- [invasion](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/invasion)
- [interference](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/interference)
- [foreign](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/foreign)
- [deaf](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/deaf)
- [cartoon](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/cartoon)
- [education](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/education-2)
- [deafness](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/deafness)
- [lipread](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/lipread)
- [sign](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/sign)
- [language](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/language)
- [flying](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/flying)
- [robotics](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/robotics)
- [sphere](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/sphere)
- [robot](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/robot)
- [spherical](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/spherical)
- [japan](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/japan)
- [research](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/research)
- [rescue](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/rescue)
- [corporate](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/corporate)
- [personhood](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/personhood)
- [slavery](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/slavery)
- [legal](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/legal)
- [fiction](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/fiction)
- [free](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/free)
- [trade](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/trade)
- [banketstaaf](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/banketstaaf)
- [banketletter](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/banketletter)
- [almond](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/almond)
- [pie](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/pie)
- [sinterklaas](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/sinterklaas)
- [schiavelli](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/schiavelli)
- [pastry](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/pastry)
- [filling](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/filling)
- [recipe](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/recipe)
- [Royal Society](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/royal-society)
- [UK](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/uk)
- [scientific](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/scientific)
- [papers](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/papers)
- [access](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/access)
- [journal](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/journal)
- [academy](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/academy)
- [siri](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/siri)
- [computers](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/computers)
- [switch](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/switch)
- [Time](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/time)
- [EeePC](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/eeepc)
- [Dell](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/dell)
- [Inspiron](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/inspiron)
- [8500](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/8500)
- [NVIDIA](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/nvidia)
- [11.04](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/11-04)
- [10.10](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/10-10)
- [Maverick](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/maverick)
- [Natty](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/natty)
- [nv](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/nv)
- [nouveau](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/nouveau)
- [blacklist](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/blacklist)
- [drivers](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/drivers)
- [X11](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/x11)
- [Xorg](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/xorg)
- [chaplaincy](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/chaplaincy)
- [school](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/school)
- [welfare](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/welfare)
- [student](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/student)
- [secular](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/secular)
- [scripture union](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/scripture-union)
- [NSCP](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/nscp)
- [NSCSWP](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/nscswp)
- [north korea](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/north-korea)
- [tipping point](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/tipping-point)
- [telephone](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/telephone)
- [mobile](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/mobile)
- [revolution](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/revolution)
- [change](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/change)
- [fracking](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/fracking)
- [coal seam gas](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/coal-seam-gas)
- [CSG](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/csg)
- [earthquake](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/earthquake)
- [Oklahoma](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/oklahoma)
- [England](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/england)
- [Blackpool](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/blackpool)
- [USGS](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/usgs)
- [LNG](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/lng)
- [environment](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/environment-2)
- [UN](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/un)
- [steve jobs](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/steve-jobs)
- [dennis ritchie](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/dennis-ritchie)
- [dmr](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/dmr)
- [respect](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/respect)
- [chilli](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/chilli)
- [shortbread](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/shortbread)
- [biscuits](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/biscuits)
- [cookies](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/cookies)
- [cassette](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/cassette)
- [wrist](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/wrist)
- [handedness](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/handedness)
- [compass](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/compass)
- [occam's razor](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/occams-razor)
- [detective](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/detective)
- [edible](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/edible)
- [landscapes](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/landscapes)
- [fruit](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/fruit)
- [vegetables](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/vegetables)
- [visual](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/visual)
- [spatial](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/spatial)
- [thinking](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/thinking)
- [dolphins](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/dolphins)
- [images](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/images)
- [3D](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/3d)
- [communication](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/communication)
- [spinach](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/spinach)
- [iron](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/iron)
- [Popeye](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/popeye)
- [Dr Karl](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/dr-karl)
- [pasta](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/pasta)
- [war](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/war)
- [cost](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/cost)
- [calendar](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/calendar)
- [hopkins](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/hopkins)
- [week](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/week)
- [year](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/year)
- [date](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/date)
- [utc](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/utc)
- [gmt](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/gmt)
- [timezone](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/timezone)
- [henry](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/henry)
- [hanke](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/hanke)
- [woolworths](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/woolworths)
- [marmalade](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/marmalade)
- [labelling](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/labelling)
- [Arrow](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/arrow)
- [PetroChina](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/petrochina)
- [Shell](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/shell)
- [BNG](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/bng)
- [Kenmore](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/kenmore)
- [Moggill](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/moggill)
- [oatmeal](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/oatmeal)
- [comic](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/comic)
- [gay marriage](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/gay-marriage)
- [news](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/news)
- [climate](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/climate)
- [sceptic](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/sceptic)
- [global warming](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/global-warming)
- [claire](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/claire)
- [engagement](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/engagement)
- [max](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/max)
- [Neurosky](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/neurosky)
- [MindWave](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/mindwave)
- [EEG](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/eeg)
- [sensor](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/sensor)
- [headset](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/headset)
- [meditation](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/meditation)
- [attention](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/attention)
- [smoking](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/smoking)
- [tobacco](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/tobacco)
- [anternet](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/anternet)
- [ants](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/ants)
- [tcp/ip](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/tcpip)
- [protocol](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/protocol)
- [bandwidth](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/bandwidth)
- [biology](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/biology)
- [phosphorus](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/phosphorus)
- [Food Connect](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/food-connect)
- [food sovereignty](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/food-sovereignty)
- [fertiliser](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/fertiliser)
- [dark matter](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/dark-matter)
- [dark energy](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/dark-energy)
- [unified theory](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/unified-theory)
- [einsten](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/einsten)
- [relativity](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/relativity)
- [Nauru](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/nauru)
- [asylum seekers](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/asylum-seekers)
- [refugees](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/refugees)
- [htc](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/htc)
- [optus](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/optus)
- [cyanogenmod](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/cyanogenmod)
- [root](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/root)
- [htcdev](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/htcdev)
- [multiverse](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/multiverse)
- [cats](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/cats)
- [santa](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/santa)
- [claus](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/claus)
- [christmas](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/christmas)
- [united states](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/united-states)
- [shot](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/shot)
- [ACER](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/acer)
- [Aspire](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/aspire)
- [5315](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/5315)
- [CPU](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/cpu)
- [fan](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/fan)
- [NBN](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/nbn)
- [IFAW](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/ifaw)
- [fundraising](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/fundraising)
- [donations](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/donations)
- [code.org](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/code-org)
- [coding](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/coding)
- [coders](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/coders)
- [programming](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/programming)
- [short story](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/short-story)
- [novel](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/novel)
- [snake](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/snake)
- [garden](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/garden)
- [CO2](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/co2)
- [world](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/world)
- [map](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/map)
- [projection](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/projection)
- [mercator](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/mercator)
- [peters](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/peters)
- [The West Wing](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/the-west-wing)
- [globe](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/globe)
- [Google Earth](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/google-earth)
- [trumpet](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/trumpet)
- [band](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/band)
- [No Strings Attached](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/no-strings-attached)
- [story](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/story)
- [robotronica](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/robotronica)
- [tampa](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/tampa)
- [boats](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/boats)
- [broadband](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/broadband)
- [fibre](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/fibre)
- [infrastructure](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/infrastructure)
- [human rights](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/human-rights)
- [means](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/means)
- [end](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/end)
- [justify](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/justify)
- [justifying](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/justifying)
- [justification](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/justification)
- [carbon tax](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/carbon-tax)
- [abbott](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/abbott)
- [clean energy](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/clean-energy)
- [British Columbia](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/british-columbia)
- [Canada](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/canada)
- [Feynman](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/feynman)
- [Bohmian](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/bohmian)
- [pilot-wave](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/pilot-wave)
- [probabilistic](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/probabilistic)
- [quantum physics](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/quantum-physics)
- [privacy](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/privacy)
- [metadata](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/metadata)
- [NASA](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/nasa)
- [polar ice cap](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/polar-ice-cap)
- [arctic ice](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/arctic-ice)
- [netherlands](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/netherlands)
- [dutch](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/dutch)
- [Car](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/car)
- [Food](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/food)
- [RepRap](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/reprap)
- [healthcare](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/healthcare)
- [happiness](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/happiness)
- [Denmark](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/denmark)
- [brain](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/brain)
- [infants](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/infants)
- [babies](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/babies)
- [asylum](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/asylum)
- [boat](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/boat)
- [Burnside](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/burnside)
- [Cyclic Redundancy Checks](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/cyclic-redundancy-checks)
- [CRC](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/crc)
- [CRC-8](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/crc-8)
- [CRC-16](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/crc-16)
- [CRC-32](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/crc-32)
- [Maxim](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/maxim)
- [Dallas Semiconductor](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/dallas-semiconductor)
- [CRC table generator](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/crc-table-generator)
- [CRC table lookup](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/crc-table-lookup)
- [polynomial division](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/polynomial-division)
- [credit cards](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/credit-cards)
- [fraud](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/fraud)
- [expiry](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/expiry)
- [banks](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/banks)
- [payment gateways](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/payment-gateways)
- [PROGMEM](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/progmem)
- [program storage](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/program-storage)
- [dynamic variables](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/dynamic-variables)
- [memory](https://lentz.com.au/blog/tag/memory)

## Product categories

- [Uncategorized](https://lentz.com.au/product-category/uncategorized)

## Product tags

- [hawker notice](https://lentz.com.au/product-tag/hawker-notice)
- [door sign](https://lentz.com.au/product-tag/door-sign)