Author: Nick Hodge

Amazonian Piano

The Piano Two years ago, an eccentric explorer John Blashford-Snell delivered a baby grand to a remote Amazonian tribe who’d had little contact with ‘civilisation’. Late last month, he and a team returned to tune it – and to see if they had learned to play it. Andrew Brown, one of the tuners on the expedition, reveals what they found.

Apology

Anyone from Melbourne who reads this: a humble apology. Yes, I was meant to be in Melbourne today. Due to an error in the first email that was sent out, I read and therefore assumed* (there’s that lovely word) that the PDF: Beyond the Basics event was scheduled for Thursday. It wasn’t. I am in error. Thankfully, we can still hold the event on Thursday 12th December at the Holiday Inn. If you were caught up in this confusion and have been inconvenienced, please email me.

*assume - 1436, "to receive up into heaven" (especially of the Virgin Mary), from L. assumere "to take up," from ad- "to, up" + sumere "to take." Early pp. was assumpt. Meaning "to suppose" is first recorded 1598. In rhetorical usage, assume expresses what the assumer postulates, often as a confessed hypothesis; presume expresses what the presumer really believes. From Online Etymology Dictionary

This is getting scary. Now there are Starbucks appearing overnight. Corner of Miller St and Pacific Hwy North Sydney, near the office in Westfield Chatswood and York St in the city near Wynyard. According to their web site, there are 36 stores in Australia. Surprisingly, they’ve invaded the heart of high quality Italian-Australian coffee – Lygon Street in Carlton Melbourne. Even the smallest storefront in Australia already serves great coffee – why are they bothering? Who wants to pollute their caffeine in hot water with cinnamon?

MBA!

After leaving Year 12 (that is the final year of high school and matriculation in South Australia) my plan was to work fulltime and study accountancy parttime. A few lectures into the degree, I soon learnt I didn’t have the required attention to detail of an accountant. I dropped out. This has to be the stupidest decision I have ever made.

Fast forward to 1993. I signed on to the MBA (Technology Management) course through APESMA, and have completed 8 out of the required 12 subjects. In 1997 after completing 6 subjects, I received a Post Graduate Diploma in Technology Management from Deakin University.

The aim in 2003 is to complete the final 4 subjects pronto to get the qualification. This, along with other things going on at Adobe, will certainly make next year a very busy year. If you have a technical background, and feel the need to round out your managerial knowledge (theory, not practical of course!) and qualifications – I can highly recommend the APESMA program.

Starbucks

Nicks Avatar on MINI2
There is a Starbucks opening 200m from where we live. Now globalisation touches me personally.

Ahhh, that feels better. Its amazing what an hour cutting code can do in calming the mind. Just like basketweaving.

Why would someone search for Britney Spears on this web site? In the statistics of the search funtion to the left, it shows that people were searching for information about her on this site… a strange world.