Blog
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Cook tech: Eat Your Books
I love to cook and so I have a lot of cookbooks. This brings about a problem. Much as I love leafing through cookbooks, sometimes you need to work out what to cook more quickly. And I'm often trying t…
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GoGo Penguin at City Recital Hall
Last night I finally got to see GoGo Penguin, a band from Manchester I've been following for 10 years. I've been hanging out to see them live the whole time. I love their music. I dragged along my mat…
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Los Bitchos + These New South Whales
Last week Sydney hosted the first edition of South by Southwest located outside of Austin. Sounds like it was somewhat successful but I think it takes a while for people to understand what it was. I'v…
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Bushfire excitement
Last week we planned to travel down to our friends' property on the Far South Coast of NSW. It's a beautiful spot right on the coast with two beaches on the property and not far from the little town I…
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Take advantage of free solar power with Home Assistant
It's that time of year when it warms up here in Sydney and I start tinkering with my home automation to make life easier and cheaper. Background Our house is very well insulated: the old 1920s part of…
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Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Busy week for gigs! Last night was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Hordern Pavillion. Amazing band, visually stunning sound. Karen O has a pretty unique stage presence. Their sound and show is definitely o…
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Swarm presents Mark N
Back in the 1990s a unique music scene formed in Newcastle, a small industrial city a few hours drive or train North of Sydney. A bunch of lads were making extremely aggressive hardcore techno on crap…
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On repeat: Sprints
This great garage punk band popped up in my Discover Weekly feed this week and I've been smashing their stuff ever since. Spiky, energetic guitar with sharp, witty, insightful lyrics. I really like th…
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Let's talk about music
I haven't been posting to this blog much but I'd like to change that. As always, I still listen to a lot of music and go to a lot of gigs. I'm often asks for music tips so I'll try to make a habit of…
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Data Product Managers: links
I'm planning a talk and discussion about Data Product Management for tomorrow's MeasureCamp Sydney. Here's my links to further reading. Why Your Company Needs Data-Product Managers Harvard Business Re…
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The Unravelling - Nomads Like Us
Last night I popped out to see this short gig, The Unravelling by Melbourne composers Nomads Like Us. The show consisted of a number of short pieces synchronised to visuals on in the background. I rea…
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How to protect your privacy online: notes for my paranoid friend
I've got a friend who seems to be paralyzed with fear of the tracking happening on the modern Internet. He barely dares turn on a computer. This is someone who was a very early adopter of the Internet…
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Random albums to mix things up a bit
I've taken to using the "Random Albums" option on my music system to surface music I haven't listened to in ages. It doesn't force you to listen to whatever comes out, that would be painful with the d…
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A month without booze
It's March which means my February booze fast is over. I tried a lot of alcohol free beer over February and there were some real gems amongst them. The real standouts were the Vandestreek Playground I…
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Booze free beer: Sobah Lemon Aspen Pilsener
Sobah use bush foods as flavourings with mixed results. The Pepperberry isn't bad: an interesting flavour in the mix for a beer. The lemon aspen, not so good. It tasted like toilet cleaner, to be hone…
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Booze free beer: Erdinger Weissbrau Alcoholfrei
When holly was pregnant we drank a bit of this so I bought a bunch more for this booze free spell. It's still good, though now that I've discovered better it's not as amazing. Styled as a wheat beer,…
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A gig! EGOISM supported by Ultracrush
Last night Holly, Rachel and I managed to get out for some live music. Amazing after all this time. The band we saw was local act EGOISM who we've been trying to see for a while. The earlier booking w…
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Booze free beer: Heaps Normal Quiet XPA
This is the way. A beer without booze that is no disappointment. It's delicious. Refreshing. Full of body. I'm buying a case! Only downside: it costs the same as high-end craft beer! $80 case + $10 sh…
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Booze free beer: Hawkesbury Prohibition Pale Ale
Ugh. This beer was just plain off. Undrinkable. And on such a hot night last night too!
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Booze free beer: Upflow Pale Ale
Pale Ale tends to be the most common craft beer style and so tends to be the yardstick you measure against. This was always going to be a tough one for alcohol free beer. Upflow have got damn close he…