Status: ✅ A few months ago we decided we wanted a worm bin, as we were eating a lot of vegetables, and tossing away bits that weren’t used. We were also buying soil for our plants, so it made sense to try to turn one into another. One of our friends gave us some worms from her compost - no idea what kind - and I build an experimental CFT worm bin (sample plans). We harvested once at about two months, but I don’t think it was quite ready. We’ll keep experimenting.

I first considered a trip to Vanuatu a few months ago, and it did not take long to realise there might be some great workarounds possible. The first workaround came through IHG, the InterContinental Hotels Group. I was able to use my Hilton Gold membership, alongside my Virgin Gold status, to “trade up” to IHG Platinum. This allowed me to stay more cheaply and collect more points than usual. After staying at IHG hotels in Taiwan and Sydney, I had enough points for four free nights at the Holiday Inn Resort in Vanuatu, normally a $400-per-night hotel.

Today was an unfortunate day that I should get on the record. Let me start at the beginning. At about 17:15, just as I was leaving work, I received a frantic call: “The sprinklers went off and flooded your apartment.” I jumped on the train home and asked the caller to record the names of anyone present and take photos. My air-quality sensors did not detect a rise in particulate matter, but the CO level clearly rose at 15:50 and fell again around 17:00.

I first used Splunk about 10 years ago after an old colleague installed it on a computer in the corner, and ever since then I have preached about it. If you have log data, of any kind, I’d recommend you give it a go. The Splunk people have a a few pretty good options for trying Splunk out, as you can either use Splunk Storm or Splunk Free. The first option is obviously hosted, and has a generous storage option, but also does not allow long term storage of data. I send system log data to Splunk Storm.

I have been meaning to play around with the Natural Language Toolkit for quite some time, but I had been waiting for a time when I could experiment with it and actually create some value (as opposed to just play with it). A suitable use case appeared this week: matching strings. In particular, matching two different lists of many, many thousands of names. To give you an example, let’s say you had two lists of names, but with the name spelled incorrectly in one list:

I was talking to a friend about what education levels might look like across Sydney, and a friend challenged me to map it. The map was derived by combining three datasets from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS - a department releasing some great datasets). The first dataset was the spatial data for “SA2” level boundaries, the second the population data for various geographic areas, and the third from the 2011 Census on Non-School Qualification Level of Education (e.g. Certificates, Diplomas, Masters, Doctorates). I aggregated all people with bachelors or higher in an SA2 region, and then divided that number by the total number of people in that region. A different methodology could have been …

I decided it was time for a short holiday to recharge and reflect on the previous year. A vehicle-relocation service seemed like an interesting option. Because so many people travel from Auckland to Christchurch, rental companies often have campervans that need to be returned north. This arrangement suited me: I could fly into Christchurch and depart from Auckland. I woke up early and took a train just after 6AM to the airport, arriving easily before 7:00. After checking in I cleared security and proceeded to my gate, waiting for my flight to depart. Jetstar flight 151 departed on time, and had me landing in Christchurch at 13:45 local time.

I awoke to stunning views that I had missed when arriving late the previous night. Mountains filled the horizon on one side and the beach on the other. Breakfast was a simple hard-boiled egg, since I didn’t have any oil, with a little bit of cheese. Just before 9:00 I started the van and began my drive north, needing to be at the Picton wharf by 13:25. The drive was beautiful and enjoyable, somewhat reminiscent of driving in Hawaii. The road seemed better than the last time I travelled it.

EDIT 12-03-2025: I accidentially broke the maps when deleting my AWS account, as the mbtiles were hosted there. Oops. In Sydney Commute Times Mapped Part 1 I took a small step to a bigger goal of mashing together public transport in Sydney, and the Metropolitan Strategy for Sydney to 2031. The question I wanted to answer is this: how aligned is Sydney’s public transport infrastructure and the Metropolitan Strategy’s of a “city of cities”?

YS and I were recently interviewed about self-tracking and Quantified Self by one of the major news channels in Australia. I will reflect on the experience after the show has aired, but it was an overall great experience. We have a new respect for filming what may ultimately be just a two minute segment. Depending on how the editing is done it will either provoke the hosts to contemplate the value of a data-centric macroscopic view of the world, or give them lots of fodder.