NZ -> UK -> US ->NZ

I have finally succeeded in uploading all my photo from the my trip. Since it has taken me so long i though I should probably go through and link to all the blog posts about my trip. It started off being a sort of travelog type thing but due to time constrains deteriorates into just photos from the various places I visited.

Roughly in order of events:
Flying Brunskills
Colchester
Lavenham
Bury St Edmonds
Westminster Abby, Big Ben and The London Eye
Changing of the Guards (Buckingham Palace)
Greenwich (The Royal Observatory, Maritime Museum, Thames Barrier)
Windsor Castle (The Queens Weekend Residence)
The British Museum
Sherlock Holmes Museum
The Tower of London
HMS Belfast
San Francisco
BEA World Conference

In the Chair

A interesting company has just opened its doors, it offers you the ability to play your instrument along with professional bands and orchestras. Their software gives you feed back on how well you are playing and fitting in the with the music. See: http://www.inthechair.com/

I play drums and sometimes saxophone (both very badly due to the fact that I never practice) in a band (The Jandal Society) one of the best things about it is that I get to hear how my instrument sounds with other musicians rather than how it sounds in my bedroom. In other words In the Chair has just given us all one less reason to meet with people in real life! Someone please tell me there isn't a Secondlife Orchestra?

Cynicism aside, I think this is a really good idea it will help people to achieve a higher level of playing, before they join a band and have to learn how to play for real...

First and Follow Sets Page - Updated

This probably isn't that relevant to many people, but I just wanted to let the world know that I have finally gotten around to updating my First and Follow Sets page. It now displays correctly on any unicode complient browser.

If you are wondering what First and Follow sets are, they are used by computers when 'compiling' software.

Time - Best Inventions of 2006

Time has released it's annual "best inventions of the year feature". Check it out online here:
http://www.time.com/time/2006/techguide/bestinventions/

Here are some of my favorites:



- This saw senses when it comes into contact with something soft (like a finger) and automatically stops the blade. It must have been a bit of fun testing it, "Hey mate, just stick your finger into this spinning saw blade, Oh argh I was sure I had it right that time, oh well you still have 9 fingers".




- How cool would it be to sleep on a bed suspended from the floor by magnets!





- This machine sucks fresh water out of the air. That has to be the coolest thing since sliced bread.





- This one turns straw into a useful building material. No more big bad wolf stories with this tool in the picture.

A Tiger at Hamilton Zoo

I'm testing out another photo site called Zooomr it has some cool features, but flickr does seem to be catching up adding geo locations etc. It will be interesting to see what zooomr brings out next.

Groom and Groomsmen

Groom and Groomsmen, originally uploaded by Azzaroni.

Yes, I was a groomsman once...

Photo Credits: Stephen Barker www.barkerphotography.co.nz

James Brunny tees off at Pitch n Putt

James Brunny tees off at Pitch n Putt, originally uploaded by Azzaroni.

I didn't know I was now called "James Brunny" but I guess that will have to do.
Note: I don't really know how to play golf.

A Sea Gull in a fountain

A Sea Gull in a fountain, originally uploaded by jambe.

Just one of many novelties in beautiful Sausalito

Mother Duck and Ducklings

IMG_0136, originally uploaded by jambe.

Bethany aka The Dog

Bethany aka The Dog, originally uploaded by jambe.

The Dog

The Dog, originally uploaded by jambe.

Well I posted a photo of the cat and a pigeon, now it is time for the dog. (Only about 365 million more animals to go, I'm glad I only have to feed them when everyone else is away!)

A baby duck in lilypads

A baby duck in lilypads, originally uploaded by jambe.

This has got to be one of my favourite photo's that I have taken.

A white pigeon

A white pigeon, originally uploaded by jambe.

The Cat

Our Cat, originally uploaded by jambe.

It is a pretty well know fact that you are not a "real" blogger until you have posted a photo of your cat. Actually this cat belongs to my sister, but it will have to do :)

Dan

Dan, originally uploaded by jambe.

Here is one of my favourite shots from my new camera. It is so good to be able to control depth of field!

Java in 25 years?

I just read this post over at O'Reilly Radar: http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/10/cobol_the_undea.html

This paragraph caught my attention

The future news is that twenty five years from now, we'll all be saying the same thing about Java: "what? I thought that died in 2010 when IBM switched to Haskell! Oh no, banks are still writing Java code—and their new programmers only want to use Smalltalk. We can only hire 50 year olds to program in Java! Thank heavens all those Indian programmers from the offshoring boom of the early 2000s are looking for something to do to cover the cost of Chinese lessons ...."

It is always interesting to see what people think will happen in the future, even if it is supposed to be joke. I think it is facinating that we all think that China will some how be the next super power. I agree that it is entirely possible, China but couldn't it just as easily be the chinese who have to learn Indian? I mean heck those are the guys who wrote all our computer programs. Won't we want to be able to communicate effectively with them?

BEA World 2006

Finally I get to the reason for my trip, BEA World 2006.
This is the annual conference for BEA the company that makes weblogic server.

This year they anounced a number of new products most notible was the SOA 360 initiative and their microService Architecture.





Of course the highlight for me was receieving a portal award for our "mypapers" system which I must admit I had very little todo with. I'm the second from the left in the photo.

BEA Press Release - Waikato Press Release

San Francisco

San Francisco is a nice city, I was a little surprised how many beggars there were on the streets through. If you are visiting be prepared to have to tell a whole bunch of people that you don't have a spare "quarter". Otherwise I'd recomend the place...


The golden gate bridge, probably one of the most photographed bridges in the world.


Golden gate again this time from the salsolito ferry.




The machinary running San Francisco's famous cable cars.


Alcatraz!


China Town


There are quite a few murals in San Fran because the graffiti artists respect the muralists work and don't deface it. People often get a mural painted as a sort of graffiti deterant...


A Fire Truck


The ferry building


The Salsalito Ferry


A Lawn Sculpture.


Part of the City


And one final Golden Gate Bridge photo to finish it off...

HMS Belfast

The HMS Belfast, one of the last world war II cruisers still a float. It is now a floating museum sitting in the calm water of the Thames in London.

One the original boats from HMS Belfast Hosted on Zooomr

Apparently this is one of the very last boats of it's kind, used during world war II.

HMS Belfast Radio Tower Hosted on Zooomr

One Of the many big guns on The Belfast (HMS Belfast) Hosted on Zooomr

The Two 8in Gun Turrets (HMS Belfast) Hosted on Zooomr

Apparently these guns have been aimed to blow up the M1 Motorway!

Me a Prisoner! (HMS Belfast) Hosted on Zooomr

Part of the Gear box (HMS Belfast) Hosted on Zooomr

See also: The Official Site

The Tower of London

The Tower of London Hosted on Zooomr

This is the building the houses the Crown Jewels (The Tower of London) Hosted on Zooomr

Some Ruins of an earlier verison of the castle (The Tower of London) Hosted on Zooomr

Crows are Part of the landscape (The Tower of London) Hosted on Zooomr

A suit of Armour with Horse (The Tower of London) Hosted on Zooomr

A model of the castle (The Tower of London) Hosted on Zooomr