Beijing

After three days in Hong Kong we are now spending two days in Beijing. Unfortunately most men in China smoke. Not in the office, but definitely at lunch. So while I was locked away in a smokey dining room being slowly asphyxiated by my Chinese colleagues and customers, Marie was out visiting Tian'anmen Square (we've been here once before and already visited the two most popular sites, namely the Great Wall and the Forbidden City which are both fantastic).



Tonight we're going out with my colleagues to a local reasturant for - what else - Peking Duck!

More old friends

We live in Colorado and our German friends Bert and Claudia live in Switzerland. So what would be the chance of meeting them on our flight from Brisbane to Hong Kong? About 100% it seems. So here we are out to dinner together in Hong Kong along with their kids Julian and Laura.


We had some great Chinese food, despite the fact that nobody in the restaurant seemed to speak any English, something which seems be more common in Hong Kong each time I return.

Hong Kong

We're back in Hong Kong this week, a year since we were last here. From Brisbane it's only a two hour time change and an 8.5 hour flight which is considerably easier than getting here from Steamboat.

We usually stay at the Excelsior Hotel in Causeway Bay and because we're regulars (including a ten week stay in 2001!) they often upgrade our room. This time we have a room with a wonderful harbour view of Kowloon. This was the view when we checked in last night (click the photo to enlarge).


And this is the view this morning.

Old friends

We have some friends who live in Madison, Wisconsin that we've been meaning to visit for the past five years without success. But we finally managed to catch up with them today - on the Gold Coast (for my US readers, that's in Queensland, Australia, a very long way from either Colorado or Winconsin)!


Dan Bromley is an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin. I haven't yet read his latest book. Trouble is, if I buy a copy from Amazon it might take another five years before I see him again and can get him to autograph it!

Surfers Paradise

On our previous visit to Brisbane in April this year, we went to Tasmania to visit my parents. Fortunately on this trip they were taking a winter break at their apartment in Surfers Paradise which is only a one hour drive from Brisbane, so we were able to see them again. As you can see from this photo of me and my Dad, their place is right on the beach.


My Mum reckons that they see us more since we moved overseas than they did when we lived in Australia. I think it's true. You are more conscious of being away and needing to make and effort and as I've gotten older I think I've come to appreciate them more.

Rollerblading

I'm back in Brisbane this week and enjoying the glorious Brisbane winter (day time maximums around 20C or 70F).

I pulled out my old rollerblades on the weekend and went out with my 10 year old nephew Alex which was just the right pace. Even though I used to rollerblade every day and was quite good, it's been about four years so I was a little rusty.

This morning I went out by myself and went quite a bit harder (if my boss is wondering why I'm not at the office on a Tuesday morning the answer is that I spent Friday night/Saturday morning on the plane back from Kuala Lumpur). I started off on my old route at the Kangaroo Point ferry terminal and along by the cliffs but then diverted across the Goodwill Bridge which wasn't there at the time, through the Botanic Gardens and then along the new floating walkway in New Farm which is where this picture was taken. The building in the background with the red/orange roof is where my wife and I used to live.

Yes, I know I need to loose a little weight around the middle. Why do you think I'm out there? Well apart from the fact that I've remembered that I really enjoy rollerblading. It's not skiing, but it is great-off season training for skiing, and you can go fast. I'll definitely be buying a new pair when I get back to Steamboat.

Malaysia

I'm in Malaysia this week, specifically in Putrajaya which is the new capital on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. I flew in yesterday from Brisbane on my favourite airline (Singapore Airlines) via my favourite airport (Singapore's Changi). The US could really learn something from Asia on how to run airlines and airports so that the entire experience is not something akin to torture.

It was quite a strange feeling being back in Singapore for the first time since we moved from there to Steamboat in April 2004.

Given that one of my main complaints about Steamboat (of which I have very, very few you understand) is the lack of good Asian food, I'm in culinary heaven. Malay food is such a fantastic mix of influences with such complex flavours it's at the opposite end of the spectrum to traditional American food which is big on calories and fats but generally low on taste. I made a point of hitting the hotel gym this morning so I can indulge guilt free!

More engine trouble

Only two months ago I wrote about experiencing an aborted take-off due to engine failure on a Canberra to Brisbane flight, but it's happened again! We didn't get as far as beginning our take-off roll this time, but the net effect was the same - re-booked on a flight through Sydney which wasted several hours of my Saturday.

Once is bad luck, twice seems like a pattern. I think Qantas need to look at the maintenance schedule on their 737-400's which are getting on a bit now. I went through this with Qantas in 2000-01 when I was regularly flying between Brisbane and Manila and their 767's seemed to be constantly breaking down.

Free Rugby

I scored some free tickets to last night's Australia vs South Africa rugby test match at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane courtesy of my friend Kathy (thanks!) While Aussie Rules is my passion, I quite like rugby, especially when Australia win 49-0.

One thing that struck me about the game was how good the refereeing was, which is more than I can say for any game of Aussie Rules I've ever seen. In any sport there are line ball decisions that can go either way, so that's not what I'm talking about. It's when they miss completely obvious stuff that it's infuriating and Aussie Rules umpires seem to have an unequaled capacity to do just that despite the fact that there are three field umpires, two boundary umpires, two goal umpires and an emergency umpire just in case.

At the same time as the rugby was on the Lions were playing in Melbourne and there was an absolute howler in the dying minutes. Jason Akermanis almost had his head taken off by his opponent right in front of the ump but no free kick was awarded (for those not familiar with Aussie Rules you can't touch your opponent above the shoulders, so decapitation is definitely out of the question). Fortunately the Lions won (by a point) so I can let that umpire live for another week!

Interesting house?

On the way to Australia and NZ, we stopped last night in LA and today we visited my wife's cousin who lives in Redondo Beach (nice suburb, but makes Steamboat real estate look cheap). A few houses down the street we saw this place under construction. Yes, it is made from recycled shipping containers.

Apart from the environmental benefits it's also earthquake and fire proof. Here's what it's supposed to look like when it's finished.

Given that it still looks like a bunch of shipping containers piled on top of each other, I don't think the benefits outweigh the fact that it's really, really ugly.

It isn't any better at home

As a resident of the US mostly I write about US political stupidity. That's not because there is any shortage back home in Australia. Here's one from The Courier-Mail, daily paper of my former home town of Brisbane, full of stupidity from both the Feds and the state government in Queensland.

Firstly, I was staggered to discover that the Queensland Government is subsidising the production of the local version of Big Brother. State governments in Australia are always complaining that they can't raise enough revenue because the Constitution severely restricts the types of taxes they can levy (which is true). But it can't be too bad if they can waste money on this. Premier Peter Beattie's justification? "If you destroy television production in Australia . . . then all we do is import American crap." Of course. I'm sorry Peter. We must produce our own crap. with taxpayer's money. How silly of me.

Then there's the Federal government. I think the Prime Minister and his mates have been chanelling George W. Bush and his Republican friends in Congress, because they seem to be obsessed with stuff like saving us all from sexual antics that take place in the Big Brother house in the wee hours of the morning (and weren't even broadcast). Just like the Republicans this is all they're left with now that they've won the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, got the Israelis and Palestinians sharing group hugs, hunted down and killed bin Laden, secured future supplies of low cost oil, reversed global warming, fully funded the retirement of all their citizens, provided high quality low cost healthcare for all, and finally found a better way to decide soccer matches than the penalty shoot-out.

My holiday weekend project

This weekend I completed a handyman project that I've been saving for a long weekend - tiling the landing at the bottom of the stairs where you come in from the garage. In the winter when you tend to get a lot of snow and mud on your boots the carpet in this area was impossible to keep clean.

I also had to wait for the summer to do this, because tile cutters use water for lubrication and it's impossible to stay dry while cutting tiles. I know this from bitter experience because my Dad and I once made the mistake of cutting tiles while it was snowing!

As you can see from the fact that some of the grout (on the right hand side) is still wet, I've literally just finished, ahead of my expected schedule which means I can relax for the rest of today and tomorrow (except that I need to start packing for my upcoming trip to New Zealand and Australia).

It's a pretty good job, even if I say so myself. That's because I had good teachers - my Mum and Dad (who have done some really intricate mosaics on their floor) and my brother James.

Cattle roundup

The Independence Day weekend is a busy time in Steamboat with lots of visitors and loads of activities. This morning we had the annual cattle roundup where local ranchers drive a herd of cattle down the main street to the rodeo grounds. Don't ask me why, they just do. Tradition or something.


Last year this was the culmination of a reality television show, Filthy Rich:Cattle Drive. If you didn't see, it the basic concept was a bunch of spoilt rich kids put to work on a real ranch.

Tomorrow afternoon I hope to get along to the ski jumping competition. That's right, ski jumping in the middle of summer. Our jumping hill was recently upgraded with an artificial surface to allow the jumpers to train year round, something which is necessary these days to be competitive at the World Cup and Olympics.

Flag burning

Scott Adams of Dilbert fame has a brilliant post on the whole debate about banning the burning of American flags. Here are some choice extracts (but make sure you read the whole thing):

I was delighted to learn that American politicians are trying to make it illegal to burn the American flag. That can only mean that my dedicated public servants have finally solved the problems of crime, drugs, war, poverty, terrorism, healthcare, immigration... I was starting to worry that Congress was wasting my tax dollars doing stupid shit.

If flag burning becomes illegal, someone is going to start a company that sells flags that are slightly different from American flags just different enough to be legal to burn. The burnable flags might have 51 stars, or 14 stripes - something like that...

Then again, if you're a member of an Administration that has completely screwed up, getting us involved in a war we have no meaningful plan to win (or even a clear definition of victory), condemned our grandchildren to indentured servitude to pay off an ever increasing budget deficit, divided the country on pretty much every social issue you can think of, and taken us back to the darkest days of nativist xenophobia in the debate on immigration, I suppose you'd be looking to mobilise the base with something, anything...

Back to the other side of the Pacific

I just got word today that the proposal I spent all of April and May working on in Australia was successful. I've never taken rejection well, so about this I am very happy (plus I have discovered that end of year bonuses have a positive correlation with actually selling stuff).

This means that I'll be back in Australia, specifically in the capital city of Canberra, from the middle of July for several weeks working on the project. It involves sensitive technology for the government, so if I tell you what it is I'll have to kill you, and I don't think "kill your readers" is on the list of things to do to increase the readership of your blog, so please don't make me talk.

Before that I need to go New Zealand's capital city of Wellington on July 11 to present a proposal to the government there (hopefully you've figured out the trend by now and won't ask). It will be nice to combine the two visits into a single trip across the Pacific.

While it's the middle of a very gorgeous summer here in Steamboat, it's the middle of the ski season in the Australian alps which are about three hours drive from Canberra. So Michael, if you're reading this, just because I got in 60 days this last season, doesn't mean I've had enough, so wax up your skis my friend!

King Arthur meets Darth Vader

If you're a fan of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the first Star Wars movie (no, not Episode I!) you'll absolutely love this.

The march of progress reaches Hanoi

I was fortunate enough to visit Hanoi for work in 2003 (twice). When people ask me what it was like I typically tell them about:

The history (like the thousand year old Temple of Literature)

The interesting if slightly run down French colonial architecture


Government buildings with hammer and sickle symbols (they obviously didn't get the "Communism is dead" memo) and all painted the same colour (which I've dubbed "Socialist Republic of Vietnam Yellow")


Motorcycles everywhere (and my very cute wife)


Young couples "parking" by one of of Hanoi's many lakes, cuddled up on the seat of a 125cc Yamaha which is truly a sight to behold (wish I'd got a picture of that but I didn't want to invade their "privacy")

And...

...the absence of McDonald's or KFC. Don't get me wrong - I'm not one of those misguided types who are opposed to McDonalds or KFC as symbols of American imperialism or some other politically correct nonsense. It was just my shorthand way of saying "I'm glad I went before it ended up like everywhere else."

Just in time it seems.

It takes talent to...

...turn a potential customer into someone who is sufficient pissed off that they'll bag you on their blog. But a company called Casewise just managed to do that.

I use business process and architecture modelling tools a lot and someone mentioned their product. So I found their website where I saw this image:

Great I thought, so now I can download a copy and kill a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon comparing it to the product I currently use (yes I'm a geek - tell me something I didn't know).

So I click on it which took me to a page where I filled out my name, address, email address, phone number and all that stuff which then took me to another page where I had to create a username and password. A lot of work, but hey I'm about to get to play with an evaluation copy so that's OK. Only then was I presented with the following screen:

This is not "We've emailed the download code to the email address you gave us" but rather "You've given us all your details, but that counts for nothing. Contact us again and we'll think about it." What a marketing strategy that is. Not!

It's all about the user interface

Last year I said this about the importance of user interface design:

"Now that massive computing power can be provided in almost any device for a few hundred bucks, the real challenge is in making all of the complex and sophisticated functionality inside these boxes readily accessible to the average person."

This lesson was reinforced recently when the older of my two TiVo's died (hard disk failure).

I'd been thinking about upgrading my cable service to digital for some time, and I also wanted to have some HD content to make the most of my HD television, so rather than replace the TiVo (which TiVo offered to do for free - this is a company that knows about customer service) I decided to get the Comcast set top box with built in DVR.

With its dual tuner and HD capabilities the Motorola 6412 box provided by Comcast is in many ways far superior to the Series 2 TiVo. But in terms of usability it is pathetic when compared to the TiVo. The user interface is so bad that Marie has already asked me several times if we can't send it back and get another TiVo.

The design is particularly bad in terms of finding programs to record and reviewing your list of scheduled recordings, but there are a dozen other little things that are inferior. A good example is the way that the TiVo skips back a few seconds when you push play after you've been fast forwarding because the designers knew there would be a lag between seeing the end of the advertisements and hitting the play button. The Comcast box also doesn't have any of the Home Media features of the TiVo.

Here's the crazy thing. Motorola had two choices when they built their software. The first was to copythe TiVo user interface. The second was to develop their own lousy design which would have cost them more but this is the option they picked anyway! (1)

There is however a silver lining in this cloud. TiVo and Comcast are working on upgrading the Motorola boxes to the TiVo software later this year. I just need to distract Marie long enough.

(1) OK they couldn't just copy it. But they could have done something quite similar without running afoul of copyright laws. I have Windows Media Center on my home office computer and the DVR user interface clearly follows the same paradigms as the TiVo.

Can you hear me now?

I got my first cell phone in 1992. In the 14 years since, the only major failures I've had, either in terms of handsets dying or extended network outages, have been with Verizon. Last night Verizon coverage in Steamboat went out some time between 6 and 7 pm and wasn't restored until some time after midnight. I've never seen this before, even in some third world countries where I've spent extended periods of time. Unbelievably, at the same time our Comcast cable internet (which supports our VIOP phone service) also went out, so we were completely incommunicado.

Update: The plot thinkens. According to this report in today's newspaper, it seems another of my favourite telcos Qwest was involved. So it wouldn't have helped even if we'd kept our traditional land line as a backup.

The geekiest page on the web?

This page has got to be a strong candidate for geekiest page on the web. It applies a detailed knowledge of science and mathematics to a very serious analysis of a key element of the Star Wars storyline - the ability of the Death Star to destroy a planet.

I love it!

Close the borders?

Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo is leading the push to close the nation's borders. I don't question his loyalty as an American but I do question his loyalty as a Coloradan, because if it makes sense to close the national borders it must make sense to close state borders.

So it's time Tom for you to start agitating to build a great big fence around Colorado and to recruit a few thousand armed men and women to stand guard. Time to stop all the boring people from Kansas, gay-lovers from Massachusetts, pot smokers from California and people who talk funny from Texas from moving here, forcing up property prices, taking 'our' jobs and generally ruining our state. While we're at it, let's slap some massive tariffs on sugar and oranges from Florida and cars from Detroit. Finally, don't forget that the rest of the US is full of terrorists like Timothy McVeigh, the Unabomber and whoever sent the anthrax. Got to protect Colorado from these evildoers.

Sounds crazy doesn't it? But if it doesn't make sense for Colorado to close it borders to the rest of the country, why does it make sense for the US to close its borders to the rest of the world? If it makes sense to allow poor people from rural Alabama to move to Colorado in search of a better future by working hard, why doesn't it make sense to allow poor people from Mexico to come to the US to do the same? If it makes sense to buy sugar from Florida because they can grow it much cheaper than we can in Colorado, why doesn't it make sense to buy it from Australia who can produce it even cheaper still? And are you any less dead if you're killed by a domestic terrorist rather than a foreign one?

The idea of closed borders taken to it's logical conclusion gets you North Korea. All Americans would agree that's a bad thing. But if we all agree that a big dose of economic and social isolation from the world has horrible consequences, what logic tells us that a moderate dose of the same poison is good for us?

Purple sunset

Marie and I were out for a walk Wednesday evening when we saw the most magnificent purple sunset. I kicked myself that I'd left the camera at home, but fortunately someone at the local paper managed to capture it.

Wired for sound

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Rainbow

There isn't a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but there is something better - the Steamboat ski area!

Airport plans

Those who have visited Steamboat Springs in the past ten years may not realise that Steamboat Springs is actually served by two airports. Since 1995 commercial services have been concentrated at the Yampa Valley Regional Airport (HDN) which is currently undergoing a major upgrade. This airport is located approximately 20 miles west of Steamboat and in the winter has direct services from many locations using jets as large as the Boeing 757.

But the first time I visited Steamboat in 1989 I flew in to the Steamboat Springs Airport (SBS) aboard a Continental Express Dash-7. The nice thing about that was the airport is only a mile or so from downtown Steamboat. Continental ended the service in 1995 when they closed their hub operation out of Denver, although I doubt it would still be going now because few aircraft have the STOL capability to operate there and the Dash-7 has been out of production for nearly 20 years.

Since then the future of SBS has been controversial. The airport continues to operate as a general aviation facility but still requires some financial support from the City. But closing it down is not straightforward. The effect of moving the general aviation traffic to HDN needs to be considered, much of the development has been done with grants from the FAA which would need to be repaid and there are contracts with existing users such as hangar owners who would need to be compensated.

That's all background to a very interesting presentation last night to the Yampa Valley Airport Commission. A team of developers is proposing to buy the airport from the city and develop a fly-in community (houses where you can park you plane in your back yard). As a member of the Commission it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the merits of the proposal (you can read more about the presentation in today's report in our the local paper) but the figure of $200 million that was mentioned as the total proposed investment caught my attention because it's indicative of the massive level of development that is likely to happen in Steamboat in the next few years.

Last snow

The ski season ended in Steamboat on April 9 but only now is the last of the snow about to disappear from the top of the mountain (click the photo to enlarge for a better view). That's good because every time I look out the window and see it I can't help counting down the days to next season (169 if you were wondering).

Leppitsch retires

One of my favourite Brisbane Lions players, Justin Leppitsch, has just announced his retirement mid-season due to a chronic back injury.

Lepptisch was a truly exciting player as a forward in the first few years of his career. I particularly remember a game against Collingwood where he baulked the player standing on the mark, ran around him and goaled from 50 metres. But it was the move to centre-half back when Leigh Matthews came to coach in 1999 that turned him into a true champion. He made the position his own playing it with a unique "loose but accountable" style and was a key element of the Lions' premierships in 2001-03. He'll be missed.

Thanks for the memories Justin.

Decked out

It's the start of summer in Steamboat and the condo we bought last September has a very nice deck, so that means it was time to get "decked out".

Here's the deck with the gas barbeque and outdoor dining set we bought today.

Let's eat!

Update: The BBQ works. Or at least the burner on the right hand side does. Since we don't have gas in our kitchen I got a BBQ with an external burner (on the right hand side) for stir frying (and a new wok). The inaugural dish? Pork and vegetable stir fry with teriyaki sauce. Better than anything you can get at our local chinese restaurants!

Taking the fast out of fast food

It's official. The Burger King in the American Airlines terminal at LAX is the world's slowest "fast" food restaurant. 25 minutes to get a burger? As John McEnroe used to say, you can't be serious! The staff were the most addled, idle, pathetic looking bunch I've ever seen. Yes it was busy, but the cashier was operating at about a third of the speed of your typical fast food register jockey.

But it isn't ultimately the fault of the staff - the big money honchos at Burger King HQ are the ones to blame for letting this happen. Their whole business model is supposed to be based on repeatable processes and constant monitoring so that you can take minimum wage labour and still produce a consistent product and level of service. It's not like this is a branch in some far flung backwater that they forgot about managing.

But ultimately it isn't even their fault. It's a symptom and result of the bigger problems with domestic aviation in the US and the final link in a long chain of the legacy airlines crapping on their customers.

Firstly, US airlines have stopped serving meals on domestic flights. That's OK if I'm paying $200 to fly from Denver to Dallas with Southwest. But when United charge me $900 for a last minute ticket on a 3.5 hour, 6 pm flight from Denver to Washington and then tell me they can't give me a meal and still make money it's obvious that these guys must struggle to put their shoes on the right feet every morning.

Secondly, the "meals" they have available for purchase are barely worthy of the name. A snack box with some crackers and cheese, crisps and a muffin? Yes, that's what I always eat for dinner. Not! To see how it can be done right, check out the Virgin Blue buy on board menu.

Thirdly, the choice of restaurants in most US airports is basically limited to fast food (Pour Le France in Concourse B at Denver International Airport being for me a very fortunate exception). That's because to generate alternative sources of revenue the airlines overcharge on rentals in their terminals. So the likes of Burger King and McDonalds, who can manage to deliver consistent service in thousands of outlets around the world including in really challenging environments, can't manage to do it in US airports.

It's a wonder the US legacy airlines don't come to their customers' homes to crap on them.

It's so nice to be home

After nearly ten weeks in Australia we finally arrived home today. Our original plan was to be away about five weeks but the project I was working on in Canberra was extended (twice).

We had a great time visiting my family in Tasmania, my wife's family and our old friends in Brisbane and my sister and nephew on the Gold Coast.

Initially I thought I'd be in Canberra only a few days but in the end it was a couple of weeks, so we were able be to catch up with some very old friends from the years in the 80's when we both lived there (and where we met in 1985).

Plus I got to go to three Brisbane Lions games of which they won two, a better return than the four games I saw last year for one win.

We still very much feel at home in Australia. But the feeling of coming home to Steamboat is on another level. I heard some people on the plane from LA to Denver this morning talking about their vacation in Hawaii and how tough it was to go home and all I could think was that there isn't a place on this planet that could be so good that I wouldn't want to come home to the 'Boat.

Aborted take-off

My excitement for today consisted of an aborted take-off at Canberra Airport. As we accelerated down the runway the pilot throttled the engines back, announcing that one of the engines on our 737-400 had failed.

Qantas did a good job of re-routing the passengers via Sydney so I got back to Brisbane just a few hours late.

In the many hundreds of flights I've taken this is the first aborted take-off I've experienced although I've had a few aborted landings. I'm certainly glad the engine died when it did and not few seconds later when it would have been too late to abort. That really would have been exciting!

Security vs usability

One of the challenges in designing security into systems is to maintain usability. the only way to make a system completely secure is to make it completely unusable, so you need to think carefully about the trade-offs.

This is true not only of information systems but of real world systems too. For example, we can stop people from being killed on the highways by mechanically limiting all vehicles to a top speed of five miles per hour (although I suspect that some idiot somewhere would find a way to kill someone - the world may one day run out of oil, but it will never run out of stupidity).

I experienced an excellent example of this recently when I was updated my credit card details with an ISP. I entered my name, the expiry date and card number and then got back a message something like this:

Please confirm the details you have entered are correct

Name: Dan Hill
Expiry Date: 11/11
Card Number: *****************1111

You'll probably recognise showing only the last four digits of the credit card as a widely implemented security design, so at one level the designer thought that he or she was doing the right thing. But at another level this is so totally clueless.

Shut up Jason!

Despite the fact that the footy season is now well under way, I haven't blogged the Brisbane Lions in a few weeks. That's mostly because they've been playing like a pack of girls people who aren't men, but also because I don't particularly like the way the game is going in response to this year's rule changes. It's meant to be a game of physical contests, not a game of 'keepings-off'. In fact I've been so disgusted that last week I didn't attend the game against Sydney, the first time in over ten years that's happened when I've been in Brisbane (including the miserable years of 1993, '94 and '98 when they barely ever won).

On Saturday the Lions were a completely different outfit, playing hard, physical, committed and skillful football. Jonathan Brown proved once again what a superstar he is, our other senior players performed to their ability and our young guns showed some real potential and more importantly poise.

The only downside was the absence of Jason Akermanis. Less than a year ago he played what many commentators acknowledged as the perfect game and I was lucky enough to be there to see it (and blog it for you dear reader). "Aka" has been a little down on form this season, but still quite handy, but his big mouth has gotten him into trouble one time to many and so the coach dropped him to the reserves.

How did Jason react? Well he stepped up and played a solid game in the "twos", but of course he couldn't keep his mouth shut for long.

I'm with the coach on this one. No one is bigger than the team. So a few words of advice Aka. Let your football do the talking from now on and shut the hell up!

Meaningless error messages

As an IT professional, one thing I hate is meaningless error messages. Check out this post from Seth Godin on his experience using the NY DOT's web site.

The developer has made a major mistake in allowing an internal database error message to be displayed to the user rather than writing a few lines of code to catch the error and display something more meaningful to the user, which in this case would be: "the phone number you have entered is in the wrong format".

How does this happen? My guess is that somewhere in this organisation is a pointy-haired boss whose idea of getting the project on track is to start writing code as soon as possible. So instead of thinking about things like "what errors could happen and what (meaningful) message should I display to the user when they do," everyone just rushed off to write code.

In this case it's even worse, because with a little thought up front, the error could have been prevented. All it would have taken is a small prompt to tell the user what format to use. As someone who works all over the world I particularly hate this with dates where September 11 2001 can be written 9/11/01, 11/9/01 or 01/09/11 when all it takes is a label next to the date entry box to tell me DDMMYY or YYMMDD or whatever.

As I said in a recent post, crap is still everywhere.

It's still everywhere

Crap that is. Despite all the wonder's of the modern world.

I was sitting on a plane when this was revealed to me. Trying to fold down the tray table without it catching on the laminated safety card. I realised that it was like this on every plane I'd every been on.

Why on earth don't they make the pockets a quarter of an inch lower, or easier still make the card a little shorter so this doesn't happen? It's obvious and basically costless (Ok not to change it on existing seats, but to make it different on new ones).

Unfortunately, despite all the management guru blather about excellence, nine times out of ten mediocrity actually does cut it.

Breakfast in Canberra

If you're in Canberra and looking for somewhere for breakfast, check out Milk and Honey. It's in Bunda St, next door to Gus's Cafe.

For 13 Australian Dollars (about $10 US, and that includes tax and there's no tipping - yeh) I got an excellent cappucino and the biggest and best fruit platter I think I've ever had (but I still miss the sliced mango I used to get every morning when I was working in Manila, Philippines). A major improvement on a very ordinary buffet breakfast at the Crown Plaza hotel for twice the price.

Retinal scan

My local optometrist, Dr Lewis Cutter at Mountain Eyeworks, recently installed a fancy (and very expensive) new retinal scan machine. Here's one of the images - my left retina in this case.



The bright circle in the centre is the optic nerve. Dr C's annotated something he wanted to look more closely at so in the end I had to have a follow up exam using the traditional dilation method. I can tell you it's well worth paying the little extra for the machine to avoid this!

Brisbane vs Essendon

While I won't get to ski on my birthday today like I did last year, I got an early birthday present last night when I watched the Lions defeat Essendon at the Gabba.

I've got to take my chances to attend Lions games when I'm in Brisbane, but I went to this one not feeling terribly hopeful after their dismal display last week. But the only thing better than a win is an unexpected win!

While Brisbane only won by 18 points, after quarter time they never really looked like losing. In the end the scoreboard flattered Essendon thanks to some questionable free kicks going their way and some wayward kicking for goal by the Lions in the second quarter in particular.

Go Lions!

Auskick

The AFL has a wonderful program for encouraging children to get involved with Aussie Rules. Known as Auskick it's based on modified rules that aim to teach the fundamental principles while ensuring fun and an appropriate level of physical contact for each age group (as judged by the mothers!) The real secret though is in the extensive support system that the AFL has established to assist schools and parents in running the program. It's so good it ought to be a management school case study.

Where this is all leading is that I went to see my wife's godson Rohan play this morning. Here's a picture of Rohan and his dad, my very good friend Raj, after the game.

Denison Canal

My parents house in Tasmania is located on the Denison Canal which was built in the early 1900's to provide a shorter shipping route from Hobart to the east coast of Tasmania. It isn't quite on the scale of the Panama or Suez canals - it's only about 500 metres long and cost the grand sum of 15,000 pounds to build (and as far as I know, nobody died in the process). But it is Australia's only man made shipping canal.

Now it's primarily used by recreational shipping. Since the house is located directly across from the bridge it makes for a good show, especially in a small seaside town of a few hundred people where not much else happens.

The bridge opens by rotating as you can see in this photo. The building in the background is the local hotel built in 1868.

The operator (Tony) collects the toll using a high tech device - a bucket on a stick.


It's also customary to add a can of beer to the bucket as a tip (you can't quite see it but I guarantee it's there!)


And when the tide goes out, you can collect some lovely tender mussels from the rocks under the bridge. Not at all like the chewy ones you get so often in restaurants. The hardest part is cleaning them. Cooking them is easy - put them in a pot with some white wine and boil them just until they open which usually takes about 30 seconds. Yum!

Revolving restaurant

I've always been fascinated by revolving restaurants and thoroughly enjoy the experience of watching the view change as I dine. So tonight we went to Points, the revolving restaurant at the top of Hobart's Wrest Point Casino to celebrate my Mum's birthday.

Winter is on its way in Tasmania, and if you look closely you'll see traces of snow on top of Mt. Wellington.


Inside it was a lot warmer. Marie wanted to keep her hair a safe distance from this flambé!

Bonsai

My Mum has been growing bonsai trees for the past twenty years. Here are some of her best ones. I'm not sure what most of them are except the last one which is a Tasmanian Myrtle. To give you some idea of the art involved in bonsai, this is a tree that typically grows up to 55 m ( 170 ft) tall. After twenty years this one is only about a foot and a half tall.

The third one - some sort of pine - is my favourite.

Tasmanian sunrise

We're currently visiting my Mum and Dad in Tasmania for a few days (as part of a longer trip to Australia - it's way too far from Steamboat to 'Tassie' to come all that way for a few days).

With the jet lag I woke early this morning (not something I'm in the habit of doing). The bonus was that I saw a lovely sunrise and got some nice photos. This one has a particularly interesting effect - I sat the camera on the roof of my Dad's car to steady it and ended up with a reflection of the sky in the roof.

Last day

Day 60. Another perfect spring day and my last day for the 2005-06 season. It was tough deciding what runs to ski for the last time for nine months. In the end my choices were largely dictated by the conditions - I spent the morning chasing the runs that had just the right amount of sun to be soft and friendly but not slushy.

Here's some stats on my season:

• Total days skied: 60
• Powder days: 19
• Total vertical: 736,000 ft
• Best day: Monday March 13
• Lift pass cost per day skied: $15.42 (early purchase season pass at $925)

If you want to understand how to get around our mountain, look at this graph which divides my vertical by lift.

It's pretty simple really. Ride the Gondola in the morning and then circulate on Storm Peak Express and Sundown Express. Throw in the Pony Express on powder days.

Finally here's today's map. Now I can blog for a while on stuff other than skiing (warning, I'm just as obsessed about the Brisbane Lions)

A penultimate day

Day 59 - my second last day for the 2005-06 season. On one hand I feel like I've skied a lot. On the other I feel like I've skied so little, especially when next season is nine months away. My name's Dan and I'm a skiing addict.

More cruising today. Warm, sunny and uncrowded. Classic spring skiing. Soft and slushy in some places, hard and icy in others, including Nelson's Run which was really hard work, but I wanted to ski it at least once this season. Best run of the day? Sunshine Liftline. Ski a slalom course between the shadows of the chairs and this one is a lot of fun and quite hard work for what is otherwise a pretty gentle run.

Skiing for vertical

Today was definitely a day for high speed cruising on perfectly groomed runs so I set out to get in as much vertical as I could. In the end I still skied quite a few bumps (but no trees) and still managed nearly 24,000 ft in 3.5 hours, my biggest day of vertical for the season.

I started off around 9 am and there was no line at all at the Gondola. For the first hour the mountain was deserted so I really let it rip with high speed runs down Storm Peak North to Cyclone, upper Buddy's to Rainbow to Mooonlight and then High Noon to Two O'Clock to lower High Noon.

After that I headed over to Pioneer Ridge (which I wanted to try without powder for a change) via Storm Peak South and Tornado. The bumps on the Pony Express Liftline were a little firm in places but I still skied them pretty well, not something I could have said three months ago.

From Storm Peak Express I traversed across to the Sundown Liftline and lower Three O'Clock (hoping that they'd groomed this one last night but no such luck) where the bumps were more forgiving. From the Elkhead Chair via Norther and upper Vagabond I came unstuck about half way down Mother Nature. I skied it better than I expected but it's best not to leave the really tough runs until your legs are tired. My final ride was on the Thunderhead Express and my favourite run on the lower mountain, Vertigo, which was groomed and so nice!

That's day 58 of my 2005-06 season. I'm heading off to Australia on Sunday so I'm hoping to get in two more days and finish the season on a nice round 60 days which should also bring me within a whisker of 750,000 vertical ft.

Skiing in the clouds

That's a romantic spin on thick fog and very poor visiblity - probably the worst I've seen this season. Nevertheless I'm grateful that there was no wind and that this cloud had a silver lining, namely keeping the crowds away.

For the first day of spring is was quite gray and damp with about three inches of fresh snow on top of a crunchy base.

For day 57 of my soon to be finished 2005-06 season I went looking for the runs that somehow I've managed to miss so far this season. The first one I tried for was Nelson's Run but I got a little lost in the fog and ended up on Twister and Hurricane. I did however manage to fit in Oops and Voodoo.

If you really want to know how much snow we've had..

...check out this photo from the front page of today's newspaper.

We've passed 400 inches and are on track to break the all time record from the 1996-97 season of 427 inches.

I sure am glad I moved to a new condo with a garage before this winter!

St Patrick's Day

Well my St Patrick's Day parade was around the ski mountain. It was a little overcast and grey this morning but the snow is still lovely and soft from earlier in the week although you need to be a little careful of the untracked snow because with some warm weather it has settled a little heavy and is crusty in places. Great snow for skiing bumps though.

It was also not as crowded as earlier in the week. I think the partying every night must be catching up with the college kids here on spring break.

Today I went looking for Typhoon - it's one of those name runs in the trees like Closet and Shadows and Twilight that could be any one of dozens of lines. I don't know if I found it, but it doesn't really matter because whatever line it was I skied in the trees between Cyclone and Tornado, I enjoyed it.

Mountain tour

Today I decided to sample the free mountain tour for future reference. I've been asked by visitors whether it was worth taking and until today I didn't know the answer to that question. Now I know that it's a good way to quickly get a feel for the mountain and how best to get around. It starts at 10.30 at the top of the gondola and goes for about two hours.

Here's the map for day 55. Note that some of the runs on lower mountain were after the tour.

Powder with a bluebird chaser

Day 54 of my 2005-06 ski season and after yesterday's awesome powder, today was a totally beautiful bluebird day. I skied with my wife today and I found plenty of stashes of knee-deep, fresh powder in the trees to the sides of the runs she likes to ski.

We started with 15 minutes in the gondola line having waited like everyone else until mid-morning to head out so it would be a little warmer. From Thunderhead we took Rudi's and Blizzard to the Four Points Chair then Rainbow and Moonlight to the Storm Peak Express.

A run down the Sunshine Liftline (or for me, through the trees to the side) was enticing, but the Sunshine Chair was trying out for the title of world's slowest chairlift today so we dropped into Morningside and up the chair to Crow Track, upper Buddy's, Calf Roper and Rainbow again where I found some great powder in the aspens between Nelson's and upper Rainbow.

A traverse across Rudi's to upper Vagabond and then my wife took Why Not while I explored the powder in the trees between the switchbacks before heading home via the Green Line bus.

An epic powder Monday

I've talked before about powder Mondays but today was the best of them. The report at 5 am said 15 inches of fresh snow but it was closer to twenty. Not as much snow as Monday 28 November 2005 but I was much better prepared for this one in terms of my fitness and my powder skiing ability.

It was little busier than the typical Monday due to all the Spring Break visitors in town, but I was still at the top of the Gondola by 8.50 am. Rudi's and Blizzard were already chopped up by then but my next run from the top of the Storm Peak Express down Triangle 3 and then Bar-UE Liftline was first tracks with a constant face shot all the way!

From there it was Drop Out to Pioneer Ridge where I did several circuits and skied some great lines and then back through Nash Junction to the trees to the skier's left of Vortex and then the Storm Peak Express again. From there I moved to Priest Creek and the world's best tree skiing where I did Closet/Shadows/Lights Out, the trees between the Priest Creek Liftline and Three O'Clock, a great run through lots of fresh lines in Twilight and finally Closet.

At that point my legs were shot and it was time to head home via the trees to the skier's left of Moonlight to the Elkhead Chair then Heavenly Daze/Ted's Ridge down to the Bashor Chair and then finally down See Ya.

The total vertical in just under three hours was 20,000 ft. I've had a couple of (slightly) bigger days but only when I've stayed out much longer. Definitely my best day this season - so far (I added that qualifier so as to avoid jinxing the rest of the season!) There is nothing like floating through knee deep Champagne Powder gliding between the aspen trees. It's surreal.

Nice day for it

It's about 20 F outside and snowing, but it seems that's not going to stop my neighbour from having a BBQ! Apologies for the poor image quality but there's not much light.

Winter skiing in spring

After all the spring skiing we've had recently, now we're back to winter skiing. It was much colder today (but not bitterly cold) and snowing. I missed a powder day yesterday, but it was nice and soft in most places, and we're expecting a powder day tomorrow.

I began with my usual run down Rudi's and Blizzard to the Storm Peak Express. To the idiot who skied into me on Ego, the protocol is give way to the downhill skier.

I thought I might find some leftover powder from yesterday in the trees so I headed immediately to Closet/Shadows/Lights Out. Unfortunately it was a little skied out and the bumps underneath were pretty crusty after last week's thaw. My next run on Twilight was better and then I skied a couple of runs including Quickdraw, High Noon and Rolex with Tom and Erin from Philadelphia who own a condo right across the road from our old condo.

After they headed in for a hot chocolate I headed into the 1.30 trees followed by the trees between the Priest Creek Chair and Three O'Clock, both of which were very nice, then the trees of Hot Cakes down to the Morningside Chair up to The Ridge, Big Meadow and lower Buddy's.

After the BC Chair I ran the bumps of Norther and then I explored the trees between the switchbacks of Why Not. While the trees were a little shrubbier than is ideal, the snow in there was virtually untouched. I was however glad to be wearing a helmet because I collected quite a few small branches with my head.

From the Thunderhead Express my final run was down Vertigo which was better than I expected. The bumps underneath were soft and there was still quite a bit of powder on top.

It's only been six days since I last skied but it felt really good to be back on the mountain. I don't know how I'm going to get through this summer.

Anyway, here's the map of day 52 of my 2005-06 season.

Voting for Wal-Mart

I posted recently on opposition in our town to Walgreen's proposal to build a new store here. It seems things don't change much. There's a fascinating article in our local newspaper today about attempts in the early 90's to stop Wal-Mart coming to our town.

Opponents of Wal-Mart pursued legal action against to City to force it to submit the issue to the voters before issuing a building permit. The delightful irony is that after taking it all the way to the Colorado Supreme Court and winning, the people of Steamboat voted in favour of Wal-Mart by a comfortable margin.

A get well for Dave

My buddy Dave Willis and his wife Jen Jones have a had a bit of drama recently. First Jen's car blew up when she was down in Denver and then when Dave went down there to help her out his appendix blew up. I thought at first it was just his normal Illinois U bellyaching but it seems it was serious because they had to rush him to hospital to take it out.

He's home and on the mend now, but he can't do anything strenuous for a month which pretty much wrecks the rest of his ski season. Get well soon mate. At least there'll be plenty of snowpack in the backcountry when you're up for it.

The only thing worse than no snow is...

...fresh snow when you're out of town. Looks like the early spring is over, winter is back and it's a powder day in Steamboat today and still snowing. Meanwhile I'm stuck in meetings in DC for the rest of the week.

We had weather delays out of Hayden yesterday so I ended up on the late flight to Washington Dulles arriving after midnight. If only I had a private jet ten hours of travel would have been more like four. That's the price you pay for living in a Rocky Mountain ski town paradise, and I'll pay it willingly!

Waiting for the snow

More spring skiing today while we wait for a front to move through tonight or tomorrow which should bring some fresh snow.

It was a little overcast today but still quite warm and very uncrowded. I started with Wally World which gets the morning sun and was already quite soft by 10 am before moving around to Westside, which was a lot better than I expected, then over to Storm Peak and Rainbow.

I then circulated on the BC chair for a bit while polishing my bumps technique on Norther, which was a little firm on the first run but softened nicely by the third, and Surprise, which was surprisingly slushy at the top. I also threw in Vagabond and the Thunderhead Express before meeting my wife and Leonie at Stokers in the gondola building. Something we discovered today - if you come up as a foot passenger on the gondola your $9 ticket gets you a $9 discount at the on mountain restaurants (Stokers, Hazie's or Ragnar's - but not the cafeteria).

Yampa Valley vista

I didn't ski today - too many people on the weekends and with the spring conditions we've been having the snow is too crusty between trees where it doesn't get any sun to retreat there. So we went for a short drive down to Stagecoach lake instead where we caught a little ice fishing (hmmm, I'd be worried about the stability of the ice with it having been so warm...)


We also caught a nice view of the Flat Tops on the way home.

A goal half achieved

Today was day 50 of my 2005-06 season - half of my original goal of skiing 100 days this season. I'm not disappointed that I won't get close to that original target because I feel like I've managed a huge amount of skiing (600,000 vertical feet) and more importantly that I've improved enormously.

I skied today with a crazy group of older Canadians from Toronto that I met on the gondola - Gary, Gary, Allen (or Alan or Allan), Marty, Carol, Estelle, Harriet and Jeannie. I'll post a photo once they email it to me. I like Canadians. Unlike my American neighbours, these people know what a fortnight is.

We had a great time in absolutely perfect spring conditions. As you can see from the map, we covered a fair part of the mountain, and best of all at the end of the day they treated me to my favourite Canadian beer - Moosehead!

Powder interlude

With the warm weather we've been having - 15-20F above average - we had no right to expect a powder day. In fact I didn't hurry out of bed this morning despite last night's forecast of 6-8 inches because I expected the snow to be wet and heavy. Was I surprised when I arrived at the top of the gondola at 9.30 am to find six inches of dry and fairly light snow.

I headed straight to Pioneer Ridge where I still found plenty of nice fresh lines, especially in amongst the trees. I rode the chair on one circuit with this guy who is a former professional golfer and now golf commentator with CBS. You meet some interesting people if you make the effort.

After exhausting the possibilities on Pioneer Ridge I headed over to my favourite tree runs - Closet/Shadows/Lights Out and then Twilight.

By late morning the temperature was really starting to climb and the snow was getting heavier so I decided to head home via Vertigo which was sweet. Not really skied out and still in the shade so the snow was nice and light.

All in all an incredible bonus of a day. Day 49 of my 2005-06 season and powder day 17. A total of nearly 17,000 vertical feet in a little over two hours and I feel like I've really earned a beer and a trip to the hot tub later today!