Category: technology

More medical stories

Sometime in 1986/7 I went to a doctor for what I found out was a sebaceous cyst on my left shoulder blade. Not going into detail, but I was left with a permanent reminder of this cyst. That is, the bulk of the scarring remained.

Yesterday, after an inflammation and a 6 week battle of with anti-biotics, I could finally get the beastie removed. Under the careful assistance of Avril, I had the cyst professionally removed. The size of a grape, the surgical excision took 45 minutes under local. Now I have a 4cm scar with 5 stitches. Strangely, apart from the pain of a deep skin wound; my body seems to be relieved that the nastiness has gone.

The left hand side of my body is a war zone. Scars, infections, palsies. LOL

Update 28th August 2008: Stitches removed. No nasties found in the biopsy.

Go Team SOAK!

Best in the world: Team SOAK from Victoria, Australia have won the worldwide Imagine Cup 2008.

SOAK stands for “Smart Operational Agricultural toolKit”. I saw this demonstrated in the preliminary finals prior to ReMIX finals for the Australian Imagine Cup contenders. As a farmer’s son, I instantly saw the application. Measuring water, including rainfall, is a constant management process. From memory, the farm I grew up on had daily rainfall measurement from 1972.

The enthusiasm of the team, the way they collaborated across 4 different universities and the application of their invention all contributed to their well deserved award.

Email is for old Farts

… to paraphrase the quotation below. Thanks to danah boyd for the inspiration.

(click on image to see larger version)

NestOfGeeks-3July2008

Thanks to Mark Pesce for the recommendation to the Essentials journalist, Nick Galvin.

Oh, and Fiona Morris had a version of the photo taken with cats. The cat versions were funnier. Behind the scenes: when the photo as taken, we were actually looking at http://icanhascheezburger.com/ for the LOL inspiration.

Quick Game Industry Research Factoids

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more cat pictures

Australian Gaming Industry:

  1. Worth: AU$1billion in 2006
    1. Note: Film/Box Office in 2007 AU$900million in 2007
    2. Note: AU$330m is gaming consoles [Update: 4th January]
  2. Industry is Growing: >12% per year
  3. 12.5m games sold in 2006
  4. Gamer average age: 28 years old
  5. Gamers are 60% male, 40% female
  6. In 2007, 67% Australians have broadband
  7. 35% are parents, 8% will tell you to get off their lawn (ie: are grandparents)
  8. Australians spend AU$2million per day on interactive games
  9. In 2006 8,500 employed in the games industry
  10. Estimated in 2010 18,000 employed in the industry

sources:

Game Developer’s Association Australia: http://www.gdaa.com.au/docs/%20Submission%20to%20Government-June07-Coonan.pdf

Motion Picture Distributor’s Association Australia: http://www.mpdaa.org.au/customers/mpdaa/mpdaa.nsf/(PressReleasesByDate)/11-1-2008/$FILE/MEDIA%20RELEASE%20Year%20End%202007.pdf

ACMA: http://www.acma.gov.au/webwr/_assets/main/lib310631/0607commreport_complete.pdf