The OLPC project

Most people have now heard of the One Laptop Per Child project that has been around for a number of years. And I agree with most people, that is it a brilliant device to bring our world, particularly our 3rd world up to speed with what is happening around the rest of the place.

Great!

Well, no actually. As much as this project excites me, it also brings up a bunch of questions I can't help but ask myself. There are some issues I feel I should express as I think this whole idea of providing technology we take for granted to people who don't know what a calculator is might be uneccessary.

Mazda 6 & 2, and a disappointing X-Trail

I got to finally test drive the Mazda 6, and while I was there the 2. Here's what I thought of the now outdated model.

The 6 is great. Fit and finish is the best I've found out of all the cars I've test driven over the last 4 months. Handling is great. I drove the Turbo Diesel wagon.

I would say this is borderline, the perfect car (for me). The only gripe I have is that the diesel engine noise does intrude into the cabin a fair bit more then expected. At idle, you can barely hear any "clatter" at all. While driving, it didn't sound so refined, although it went really well. 360Nm! Loved the pulling power.

Bill Bailey

I went to see Bill Bailey last night.

Surely, he is the funniest man alive. The randomness of his ramblings and his musical act he puts on has to be one of the funniest things anyone has seen.

Bill Bailey played at the State Theatre is Sydney last night.

I think the reason I relate to a lot of his acts is because I'm a bit like that in real life. I'm not quite so off the wall as him. But I would imagine in real life he's a pretty sort of normal person, like myself. Who uses his ability to get up on stage and produce a hilarious 2 hours of time for you to invest in, and be rewarded with laughter until your tummy hurts and your cheeks fall off.

Poco bambino!

Today, I bring you the 500

You should have seen the smile on my face when the dealer brought out the loan car as I handed over the keys to my Punto, in for its first service and to look at a few small mass production Italian issues.

A Honda Jazz, a Focus, a C4 and a Forester walk into a pub....

I have driven a few more cars in the search for something that fits my lifestyle. Still on the search for that perfect car in my price range. I'm still looking, here's what I have looked at this time.

The Honda Jazz

Impressive back seats. Good Honda finish. Very quiet and smooth. Engine lacks any power what so ever. The sales guy took me on a test drive, we parked half way through some nice twisty roads, which I happened to ride down when I use to be a postie, having delivered mail in that area.

It's Fryday

Today I let the majority of my existing clients know that I will probably no longer support Windows for new clients. The current clients are okay. This comes as no surprise really. I've always preferred supporting macs and I have always had to support PC's as the bread and butter jobs. But something interesting has happened lately. I have told myself I will only suppor macs and all of a sudden these mac customers have appeared, as if out of thin air asking me for advice and bringing me work.

Buying "The" car. Now I'm being random

I've been [EDIT: had been] in the new car market for a while, as nothing has really stood out on websites, magazines, papers, dealerships etc.

I first test drove a Citroen C4 2.0L Auto. It was very nice and I have posted about it here. I would have bought it then and there if I had the money at the time. But I was just window shopping. It was comfy, handled very nice, powerful enough engine for the car. The auto worked well. I wanted the 1.6L Diesel. But I didn't get to test drive it at the time.