Lets create some prior art..before somebody put a patent on it

In the New Scientist of 19/04/06 there was an article that scientists monitored the brain turn off self awareness when people totally focus on something.
They found that the brain assumes a robotic functionality when it has to concentrate all its efforts on a difficult, timed task – only becoming "human" again when it has the luxury of time.This is interesting because it suggests that consciousness is just a function..not some undefinable magic (sorry roger penrose).

But an idea came to mind:
Wouldn't it be great if that your mp3/video player would pause or switch to background music while your brain is occupied somewhere else and continue when you are there again..so you never miss parts of your favorite podcast/program/movie etc again...(even a bookmark when you lost consciousness and another one when you came back to earth would be nice...that would a nice feature for recording live streams on your PVR...).

You can call it work avoidance but I call it being prepared..for the training I gave last week. A friend of mine asked me if I was interested teaching an advanced TCP/IP training for an external company. And IPv6 was one of the subjects. I had worked with IPv6 before but it had been a while since I pinged the big bits and since I wanted to do some IPv6 in the hands-on section I figured I better get some hands-on myself...and give my website an big bits address. try w6.mikew.net and if you see the kame.net dancing turtle then you are one of the few using IPv6.

I have been making very good progress with the base and it is almost complete. I even added a a few bells and whistles (google maps of course) but with the base in place the web2.0 stuff is mostly a matter of adding. There is still a lot of work in the layout and wording to be done. My respect for designers has been growing by the day; it is not easy to make a nice web design --even a simple one--but mostly because they have to deal with CSS on a daily basis...the most temperamental piece of standard I ever had to deal with...and multiply that by every browser has their own interpretation of the standard...I guess it is not easy to retrofit a full blown "design" language on top of a semantically poor language such as html...I am try to keep it simple and consider seriously outsourcing the whole thing...there is a rumour that the EU subsides 7000 EURO for any dual language site. Dutch+English that is 2...

The goal is to have a working beta available at the end of the month. The to-do list is still impressive but I hope I don't have to cut down too much on the feature list. The biggest challenge will be to get the supporting content in place which explains the purpose and goals of the service. If you have been thinking about the thing as much as I did and look at with all its nuances and details it is difficult--at least for me--to reduce it to its essence..I am making progress but it is slow going... The other area of concern is the legal mumbo jumbo (T&C etc) required (or not) for the service...another thing on the to-do list to check out..

I am back on my usual side of the globe after a trip of 36hrs and 5 flights (even the lady at the check-in in Christchurch was impressed which was worrying) and getting slowly adjusted to the 12 hrs, 2 seasons and 25 degrees difference.

Vacation is over and it is time to get to work...

A quick update: Just came back from a trip to the end of the road which is Kohaihai on the west coast of the south island. We arrived after a long and windy drive from Hokatika ending in a gravel road which ended at the DoC campsite where we stayed the night. The campsite was on the corner of the Kohaihai river and the beach; a very dramatic spot in the middle of nature (but with a toilet and running water (cold)). The next day we drove to the Oparara basin and we made 3 hikes to the Oparara Arch and Moria Gate (not this was named before or after LoTR) and 2 caves. The boxcave was open to the public and you could explore on your own (don't forget your torch..); the crazy pavement cave was home to a fair number of very large spiders.. "watch for the spiders; don't step on them"...

I flew in from Auckland to ChristChurch on Friday the 13th. Not for the 1st time I had the wrong departure time in my head (at least I had the right date) and arrived at the exact moment the plane took off...which was bad enough but also Bart and Loes were waiting on the other side to pick me up..so I got myself on the next flight out..like busses they leave every hour.. for a reasonable rate, very much made possible by the friendly Air New Zealand staff; they even waived my 9kgs excess baggage..while running to board the plane I called Elisa to page Bart and Loes that I would be an hour late.. They didn't get the page but they hadn't left yet...I guess they know me well :-)..

I left Napier at 8am this morning and now I am back in Taupo for a quick Internet and coffee Fix :-) before heading to Auckland.
Napier is a coastal town on the Hawke's Bay. It is at the heart of the wine region of NZ.

It is also where Gareth T. grew up and after breakfast in downtown Napier and a quick tour of the local Art Deco stuff--Feb 3rd is the day to be in Napier; every year there is a Art Deco festival to celebrate the rebuilding of the town after the big quake in 1931 which completly destroyed the town. Feb is probably the best time to be in Napier because a number of the wineries organize big events. The mission winery organizes every year a big (20,000 vistors and probably as many wine bottles sold) concert with big stars in the twilight of their career but this year they had to scrape the bottom of barrel and ended up with Chris de Burgh and Oliva Newton John..which caused a big uproar and many unhappy Napians who bought the tickets before they knew who was going to come--Gareth took me on a tour of the Wineries. We visited 5 of them before giving up; The mission, which is really a former mission still owned by the church, wins the price for the most beautifull building on a great location. Well worth a visit. If you like wine this is a great place to visit; almost all have an open "Cellar door" for tasting with friendly and knowledgable staff and a restaurant in a beautiful setting..

After the long flight, uneventful except for a small medical emergency at which the classic "is there a doctor onboard?" call was made (and no there wasn't...) (and I had the xmas turkey not the fish), I arrived in Sydney and took the train to Hornsby, which is about 1 hour from Sydney; followed by another 40 min trip through the more rural areas of Sydney (well-known from the frequent bush fires (but more about that later) i arrived at the "property" of Anneriek and Dave--the idea that it is only 40 mins from downtown Sydney is true if you can drive like Colin Mcrea (the rally bloke) on crack...for everybody else it is far far away--anyway I arrived just in time for the lunch and I hadn't slept a wink the whole trip..(I don't sleep sitting up in general; I will sleep only on a flat surface with a pillow and a blanket..I guess I am not army material).

The blog update rate has been less than desirable..("publish every day; doesn't really matter what". Wise words from mr Boerland but which I ignored) but now a good 18days into the trip an update is long overdue..there are a few excusesreasons for the lack of updates: not as much online as expected, this travelling business is takes a lot of time (this is Monday, so this must be Rotorua :-) ), writers block and of course being a lazy bum...

I have some draft updates about the last couple of weeks but the current status is that I am in smelly Rotorua; a flourishing tourist town in the worlds most active volcanic area.