Christmas and Reflections

Over the last couple of years my life has changed quite a bit. I was tempted to use the word "dramatically" but I think "soap operatically" is more fitting. The Christmas and New Year period has seen quite some topsy-turvy. I had a great big mess up in 2004 on boxing day, another one on 2005-2006 New Years Eve. These added salt to my life, taught me how to live and how to die and brought excitement and fears I had not experienced before. I grew up to see the world from a new perspective in these couple of years. Learnt to control my needs and to conquer my fears. 2006 has been quite a good year in terms of personal achievement and community achievement in the various open-source projects I have been privileged to be involved.

This holiday period has so far been quiet and happy, but I never know what surprise hides behind the next corner.

26th of December, a day to remember
The day I nearly died.
The Blue Morpho took flight
And taught me what is death and what is life.
Dont hold the butterfly in a cage
Let it free
Love is like sand, the tighter your grip
The more you let it slip

Merry Christmas to All

After Graduation Party

Yesterday a lot of my friends doing Engineering and some other degree as a double degree graduated. So we had a small after graduation meet-up and it seemed to snowball into a reunion. After a few drinks I started ranting about World Wind and Google Earth and a few people tuned in, well they are all engineers anyway and everyone has an opinion.

A lot of them work in the defense industry and the pros and cons of data availability also popped up. It was fun and interesting. I got free beers after telling my sob story .... It's good to be in trouble. Just need the right friends to back you up.

Yahoo Maps, Nasa Worldwind Java and Lobethal Lights

It has been good the last few days. Worldwind 1.4 is getting massive publicity and views on You-Tube, just need to package it and release it. We also have the green light from Microsoft to package the Virtual Earth plugin in the default release with adequate license notice. This is shaping up to be a really data rich release with preliminary talks with Yahoo about them coming on board as Imagery suppliers, not just satellite but the massive archives they have built up on flickr.
This I guess will sort of add an on foot dimension to Worldwind.

I have also been running some design analysis on the Worldwind Java version under closed developement in NASA. So far the design looks consistent and good. With the addition of scripting support in Java 6. Plugin development for this platform seems like a reality.

On Sunday I had the first chance to have a stroll around Lobethal and look at the iconic Lobethal Christmas lights. I have not done this ever in the 3 years I have been working here. I am obliged to post a photo - of the state of our office during christmas. No wonder my boss hates the lights organizers.

Finally I am Licensed to ... Drive and Smite WW haters

I had my final driving lesson/test today. All went well and I passed with 87% and got my competency certificate. I can finally drive on my own.

As expected there has been mixed reaction to Bull's digg and you-tube posts on Worldwind 1.4 Release. I am glad to be part of a team that people take notice of and bother to lynch or praise.

Check out the videos and digg the posts. I am not linking to them. Find them yourself. That's what Google is good for ... search power and making sense of a random web.

Nah I will link anyway.

Digg
You-Tube

Birthdays and Concerts

Another eventful weekend in Adelaide. It was a friends 24th birthday on Saturday and on the Sunday I ended up at the biannual French festival with a few very good musicians in the picturesque settings of Carrick Hill.

Isaac sure looks happy to be 24. Check out the relaxed stance.

The bands and musicians I got to listen to included Arnaud Dumond, Matmatah and the talented Yann Tiersen. For the first time I heard a guitar being drummed and not only strummed and a drill accompanying the guitar on stage.

After jumping around all afternoon I got really tired and called it quits after a round of baguettes with blue cheese and barbecued sausages.

Safari in Maasai Mara

The trip to Mara leads west from Nairobi through mostly dry scrub land. Going through the spectacular Rift Valley then passing through Narok - a big town suddenly in the middle of the desolate wasteland.

Then onwards through unmarked roads in the Nyika to the Mara Sopa lodge - with its nice semi-circular rooms and largely french clientèles. The view from the room is not much different from theAustralian bush land I am used to seeing. May be a bit drier with more cacti and acacia , no eucalypts. The lodge is on top of a hill, the vistas spread out before it, a children's sized pool caters for the whims of the European tourists unused to the heat. After arriving people rush off in their sarongs to the pool.

The dining room and lunch are an elaborate affair with Sh200 per bottle of water. There seems to be a global tourist exchange rate measured in units of bottled water.

At 4pm we rushed for the game drive. The grazers are in plenty, the black mass of wildebeest are impressive only for so long. In addition there are herds of antelopes, zebras and some elusive eland mingling among them. The carnivores take it easy with plenty of food roaming about. A pride of lions was fast asleep until one of them came up to pose on the hillock. We caught a youngish leopard by surprise and surrounded him with the tourist vans, until he found a gap and made a run for it. The only other member of the big five who made an appearance was a buffalo carcass.

I hardly slept at night in anticipation for an early start the next day. We started buzzing around at about 4am, We were ready after a morning coffee by 6am to hit the safari trail again. Hopefully we shall see the "hunt" mom has been obsessing about. Second trip to the park turned out to be quite eventful. Hordes or is it prides of lionesses made an appearance. One lioness stalked some zebras and was nearly ready to pounce when the multitude of tourists Intervened with cumulative noise. Buffaloes finally appeared in flesh and very much alive, with calves and all.

Made a trip to the fake manyatta near the hotel to buy some Maasai beads and artifacts. The huts are really small and cozy and dark and i guess smelling of animals when the maasai actually live in them. Ended up buying some beads and a bead and lions tooth necklace, which the seller vehemently denied being plastic when I suggested in passing that i will pass it as plastic to get it into Australia through quarantine.

The last game drive was quite fruitful. We sighted elephants mud bathing and giraffes walking about as if they own the world. Two prides of lions were lazing around and showed no interest in massive herds of buffaloes grazing a few feet away.

Asiyekujua hakuthamini

I am finally back in Adelaide from the couple of weeks away in Kenya. It feels good to be back and most of all to have the net again. I did not know how much I had grown accustomed to the connectivity and being in touch with myriads of people.

The title points to a proverb in Kiswahili meaning those that do not know you can't appreciate your worth. I had a small incident on my jet lagged night out which bears this out. Kenya being 7:30 hrs behind time, my body is still awake late into the night. So i went dancing in one of the clubs, "Sugar". I met a girl and we danced salsa for quite a while, since that is the only dance I know sort of well and I dance it or some variation no matter what the music. Anyway afterwards when we were getting some water her lawyer friend came up and refused to believe flat out that I grew up in Kenya and actually dragged her away saying, "Better luck with the next girl."

Right!!!

I rest my case. More Kenyan Safari stories coming up, stay tuned.