17 December 2011
10 December 2011
The many faces of Russell
Russell's got some cool software on Skype that lets him create fun faces for himself on his video image. Here are some of the faces I got to speak to tonight...
9 December 2011
Christmas creations
Jo has just completed a very intricate, hand sewn advent calendar. Looks beautiful.
3 December 2011
Brendan and Eva's new house going in
Brendan and Eva have just moved into their new house. The house was built in Melbourne, believe it or not, and then transported to Sydney in four pieces which were then craned into their plot in Mosman with microscopic precision so that all the pieces joined up. Absolutely amazing. There are some great pics below.
Photos and commentary by Eva:
What a surreal day, this is my kitchen driving past me down the road, I could see the taps and the splashbacks! The most difficult part was getting the trucks reversed into the very narrow driveway so that the crane could lift the modules between the neighbours house and the power lines on the street.
You can see from the photo below how high the house was in the air!
Photos and commentary by Eva:
What a surreal day, this is my kitchen driving past me down the road, I could see the taps and the splashbacks! The most difficult part was getting the trucks reversed into the very narrow driveway so that the crane could lift the modules between the neighbours house and the power lines on the street.
It was nerve-wracking, we were diverting the cars and even the buses, how to irritate the neighbourhood before you even move in. The crane was enormous! You could see it from Spit junction (for those who have been here) or so our neighbours told us. Phew what a day!
You can see from the photo below how high the house was in the air!
The final module being lowered into place onto the bottom three, they had 40mm clearance on one side and 10mm on the other and honestly it went in like a piece of lego, amazing!!!
The final piece going in from the pool side of the house.
One of the downstairs bathrooms, I kid you not this is how it arrived, I couldn’t believe that even the vanity was already suspended in place!
1 December 2011
Spiritual Moments (2011)
Nature
- Hanging Rock at sunrise
- The Great Ocean Road experience and the creative energy that came afterwards
- Hiking The Blue Gum Forest
30 November 2011
Well done, Sam!
From Jo,
Congratulations Sam, we're all very proud of your wonderful achievement!
I am so proud of Sammy. She was in the top 8 students in grade 5, receiving 80% or more for all 8 of her subjects (including maths, Afrikaans and French!!!) She got a gold medal for geography, a bronze for both science and history meaning she came first and third in her grade (92 students).
Congratulations Sam, we're all very proud of your wonderful achievement!
28 November 2011
Me and the King of Pop
When I uploaded the photo below to Facebook, the face tagging software went into panic stricken overdrive, asking me to please identify and tag each and every face on the poster. You'd think someone would tell Facebook who The King of Pop is!
I wonder how Google's Picasa's new face recognition software would fare? Would it know all the faces belonged to the same person? That might be a challenge. Not sure if allowance for plastic surgery is built into its complex algorithms.
I tested Picasa's face recognition the other day with my face and was absolutely bowled over by it's brilliance. I simply identified myself in one photo and the software retrieved and identified hundreds of photos of me from my photo collection, some going back 25 years!!! And in some of the photos, I was just a small speck in a crowd!! I would have had trouble recognising myself in some of the photos! It really was uncanny.
How long before CCTV cameras auto detect our whereabouts by matching us with our traffic licence photos and report them back to Big Brother? Minority Report, here we come!
I wonder how Google's Picasa's new face recognition software would fare? Would it know all the faces belonged to the same person? That might be a challenge. Not sure if allowance for plastic surgery is built into its complex algorithms.
I tested Picasa's face recognition the other day with my face and was absolutely bowled over by it's brilliance. I simply identified myself in one photo and the software retrieved and identified hundreds of photos of me from my photo collection, some going back 25 years!!! And in some of the photos, I was just a small speck in a crowd!! I would have had trouble recognising myself in some of the photos! It really was uncanny.
How long before CCTV cameras auto detect our whereabouts by matching us with our traffic licence photos and report them back to Big Brother? Minority Report, here we come!
26 November 2011
Kaplan Murder Mystery
All the Kaplan staff had a tremendously fun time last night acting out a murder mystery during a delicious three course dinner. We all had to come in costume as our character. The setting was a train in France in 1940. I played the part of a posh, well travelled business person who is at home in the best restaurants and hotels who is actually a British double agent. Then there was a duke and a princess, a journalist and a novelist, a gangster and an RAF pilot and various other juicy characters. Needless to say, we all acted with gusto and really got into our roles. There was a lot of laughter and joviality, helped by copious amounts of free wine. What a fun evening!
