The fifth sentence reads:

The roof of the hall was already burning brightly, the roaring flames painting faces bloody.

From Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword.

I've been thinking a lot about getting myself an iPhone. Of course, Telstra is an ass, so I'd have to spend almost a thousand dollars to get out of my current contract -- Apple can wait.

Read Lord of Light again recently; it's a great book and you should too, if …

A couple of people have approached me privately, encouraging me to continue writing this blog. I'm touched by these sentiments, right down to the very pits of my undernourished heart.

However, if you feel that this blog has made your day that little bit brighter, might I suggest you express …

I'm OK with science fiction. A lot of it is terribly written, but on the whole I accept the genre.

That said, the kind I like best isn't really science fiction, it's economics fiction, fiction that addresses what the world would be like if the rules of scarcity changed. Books …

There need to be more 24hr libraries with alcohol licenses. That's all I'm saying.

You may have seen the ads from our benevolent Government, telling us that we need to lose weight, trim down and start feeling better so we don't crush our public health system under megatonnes of raw lard.

You may have even gone to their website, where you'll find this wonderful …

• The Wall
• Zoo Station
• The kissing French couple
• Kreuzberg
• Cabaret
• Dogs
• Fines and hangovers
• Bikes
• Susan Sontag

• The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
• On Photography, Susan Sontag
• The Jennifer Morgue, Charles Stross
• Knots and Crosses, Ian Rankin
• Tooth and Nail, Ian Rankin
• Soon I Will Be Invicible, Austin Grossman

Right now, I'm in a small café near the Universität der Künste Berlin. It's obvious that great symphonies and the occasional revolution have been plotted here in caffeinated oblivion. The place has yellowing musical manuscripts on the walls and lit candles to go with my hot chocolate. Since I last …

One thing I didn't mention in my first Berlin post was how terrifying I found the whole thing. It sounds silly now, but I was feeling more afraid than I have in quite some time — probably since my last job interview.

When I left the hotel in London, I knew …

Today I wandered around town on my own. I walked up Karl-Marx Allee until I reached Alexander Platz in Mitte. Once there, I climbed the tallest tower in the city and surveyed the realm that will soon be mine. There's way too much fog here.

I turned my gaze to …

Decisions are funny things. Yesterday, if I had to decide whether to stay a week in a hostel in a foreign city I would have said "No, I want to go home", but I'm here thanks to a decision I made months ago. We'll see how that one works out …

Finally, the Launchpad Epic is over. It's been two weeks of very intense activity, with training, workshops, arguments, presentations, lightning talks and pirate costumes.

The training was dull but everything else was really good. I did a couple of lightning talks and one full-length presentation, and people seemed to like …

Missy Higgins is drifting up the lobby stairs. I wish I was on a verandah, drinking port, listening to this and watching the moon.

It's the end of a long, weird and dreary Saturday in London. I'm sitting in the hotel bar, trying hard not to work on my slides. I don't know if I can explain exactly why today felt so strange. I think perhaps everything takes on a quirky double life when …

Via Presentation Zen.

Mary recently posted about the Government's Internet filtering proposal, exhorting readers to write a letter to the Minister and Shadow Minister responsible for this area.

I always mean well with these things, but never get around to doing anything. Since it's entirely possible that others share my predicament, I've decided …

Things have been rather busy around here for me. I'm heading off to London for a two-week epic hacking adventure with the rest of my colleagues, and the preparation has taken up all of my free time.

Well, not quite all. I've also just purchased a new laptop and have …

Even if you don't care, this talk by Sir Ken Robinson is funny, raises some good points and is only about fifteen minutes long.

I came across this quote the other day:

"Life is denied by lack of attention, whether it be to cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece."
Nadia Boulanger

I think it's one of the most true things I've heard.

It also meshes nicely with Augustine's idea that the present …