SuperHappyDevHouse

a cat named linux, originally uploaded by Br3nda.

In memory of our old family cat, my sister's old kitty: Linux.
1996 - 31st August 2010.

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instead of fencing the baby in, it's much easier to put the heater and the cat in the playpen (and the cat loves it)

buying way too many perishable foods, because they look pretty at the market, and then not using them up cos i was too tired to cook.

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there's a geek fallacy that your friends are friends with you therefore they'd naturally be friends with each other -- yeah, it's a fallacy.

"Friend" is a changing word - facebook has destroyed it's true meaning. I define friend is someone you'd expect would let you sleep on their couch (and vice versa).

In absence of any photograph of me with a giant group of friends, here are photos of friends. If i've missed you out, it's mostly likely becasue there's no photo!

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i like coffee -- alot. I like fairtrade (or similar) and i like rich choclatey beans. No sugar.

New Zealand has a .geek 2nd level domain names. I think is this awesome.

hence i have coffee.geek.nz

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Yes, it's a meme.

15 things.. FIFTEEN.... this will be difficult.

1. I'm from Whakamaru, which is a small village in the South Waikato - the locals who cannot pronounce maori call it "wockamarro". (near Mangakino and Tokoroa)
2. I contribute to many open source projects, as and when i have time - usually when i find a bug i'll fix it.
3. I went back to work 5 weeks after having a baby. My husband has taken a year off to look after her.
4. I don't drive.
5. I play flute, cello, piano, and a bunch of wind instruments (in that order)
6. I read many social justice and human rights blogs regularly.
7. I like Fairs and Markets.
8. I take LOTS of photos - see my flickr http://flickr.com/photos/taniwha
9. I spend my Saturday at One Laptop per Child test fest.
10. I also write most of the tweets on the @OLPC twitter account.
11. I was once a finalist for a NZ Open Source Award.
12. I am missing a big chunk out of one of my fingers.
13. I garden - mostly veges. Plants should serve a purpose.
14. I have been married for 12 years.
15. I like malty beers and scotch.

Recent pictures - these are what Apture finds of me:

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attempting to make yoghurt in the rice cooker's keep warm mode.

Something different - NZ's Labour party doing their policy forming in the open, this coming saturday, at an event where all comers are welcome. (instead of back room dealing, that happens all over the show.. at least i hope it's "instead of", not "as well as")...

if you're in Wellington consider coming and checking them out, whatever your political opinions are.

http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2010/08/23/doing-things-differently-...

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turns out it's not in the mall

including our session on OLPC in New Zealand

check the top right -- my session on security updates for websites. Things we talked about: Most of the non-profits in Wellington, if they're using web management software, then it's Joomla. Our joomla expert said joomla doesn't have easy upgrade methods like Drupal's drush or wordpress has. Upgrades instead involve manually downloading new versions of joomla and installing on each website you support. Joomla has a security announcement mailing list - so do drupal, wordpress, and probably every other web cms (at least i hope so!) If you are responsible for any website, you really oughta be on the mailing list for the software you are using. The plugins that are available for joomla are many, and are listed on joomla.org, but the download are from individual websites, and joomla does not facilitate security announcements for these plugins. You need to find the security announcement methods for every extension you add to your joomla. Other open source web software we knew off all did announcements for contributed plugins/modules/themes... We talked about what happens when you don't patch. Websites are defaced. Data stolen. The site may be used to send spam. It may be used to host links to increase the google page rank of other websites such as viagra sellers. It may be used to host and trade illegal items including pornography. We talked about use of static html files, where appropriate, as it has much less attack surface.

how bad are the wellington trains? i hear they're bad.

if I get on a train with a baby, pram, and heap of groceries, will I then find myself moved to crowded bus along with baby, pram, and groceries?

will i get stranded? should i even bother trying for the train?

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10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong (reposting Mitchell Sturges, old but still good.)

01) Being gay is not natural. We should always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

02) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

03) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

04) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

05) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

06) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people should not be allowed to marry.

07) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

08) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

09) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid widows, widowers, or any single parent to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

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creatures as usb sticks, originally uploaded by Br3nda.

i'd love these for a full sugar on a stick deployment.

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so -- bananas are yummy. Yes?

Did you know they're clones? The bananas in the supermarket are the cavendish variety, which are seedless and thus grown from root stock. Every banana plant is identical to every other.

You know what happens to large populations without genetic diversity? Eventually a disease arrives and wipes them out.

Bananas once had much much more variety, different colours, different sizes - but with seeds through them. A variety of banana was bred, called the Gros Michel, which was both seedless and it rippened very slowly. Thus it could be exported from the tropics to temperate climes like New Zealand.

What the world knew as "bananas" was the Gros Michel for a very long time. New banana plants were created from root stock - every plant was identical - and eventually "Panama disease" infected and all but wiped out the world's banana plantations.

The world was without bananas for some time (inspiring the popular song "yes, we have no bananas") until the Cavendish was bred from the vietnamese banana. This also has no seeds, but is smaller, less sweet, and much less creamy than the original Gros Michel. The cavendish bruises easy and stores for less time than Gos Michel. It was thought cavendish would not sell as well -- but it did, and today we recognise the Cavendish as the "banana".

However it's only a matter of time -- already fungus has appeared in African banana plantations, and the cavendish is under threat. We may see it vanish in coming years, and once again we'll have no bananas.

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-06/can-fruit-be-saved
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gros_Michel_banana
http://www.damninteresting.com/the-unfortunate-sex-life-of-the-banana

A seed riddled wild banana

check out allthe varieties of banana in Thailand:
http://thailand.prd.go.th/ebook_bak/story.php?idmag=9&idstory=81
(thanks Kanrawee Aomrak)

Bananas

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