I flew into Sydney recently, around the time the Pope was leaving after World Youth Day. I figured if I saw him, I could go and stand near him and sneeze. (Don't ask me how I'd make myself sneeze - I hadn't worked out that part of the plan.) Hopefully, he'd reply in the standard way, and I'd have a great story about getting a ...

In the early hours of Monday morning (Dec 10th), I was in Melbourne, ready to teach a course in the morning. I made it back in time to help my new daughter Charlotte into the world, but this is what I wrote from the airport: "Welcome to the world, my daughter. I'm writing this from Melbourne Airport. Your mum called me a little while ...

Some people asked me about what Grandpa achieved. This from Bath University News: The University is saddened to announce the death on Saturday of Professor Martyn Farley, a member of University Court since 1983, representing the Royal Aeronautical Society. Professor Farley contributed immensely to the University and was elected by Court to serve ...

It seems my hero may not last the day. Martyn Graham Farley, my grandfather. When I was a child, I thought he knew everything. As I grew up and realised that nobody knows everything, there was a part of me that considered that if anyone came close, it would be Grandpa. When I was a boy mourning the death of my father, he was someone who also ...

(completely non-tech) I've had quite a few people ask me my opinions on the Arsenal transfers this summer (well, winter here in Australia, but summer for Arsenal). The big question of course is around Thierry Henry. Our champion who left for Barcelona this year. Personally, I think it was a year too late, but if he'd left a year ...

My almost-ten-year-old son wants to see the new Transformers movie. It's rated M, which means that it's not recommended for kids under the age of fifteen. On that point alone, my answer is no. But I was curious about the movie - I remember the cartoon from twenty-something years ago, plus my kids have seen the cartoon themselves. So I went ...

The State Bank building was built in Adelaide in 1988, and remains the tallest building in Adelaide. When the bank (not the building) collapsed in the early 90s, it became Santos House, and got branded with the Santos logo. It was like this when I first got introduced to Adelaide in 1994. It's the building where Microsoft have their Adelaide ...

A few months ago, after almost an eight year gap, we decided to try for a third child. Now we only have about six months until the new baby arrives. It's very cool - we're just hoping that the baby is born before Christmas.

At school my son is looking at polyhedra (that's the proper word for polyhedrons - like cubes, tetrahedrons, etc).   The other day he came home with pictures of a dodecahedron (that's the one with 12 pentagon sides) and an icosahedron (20 triangle sides). The icosahedron is really neat. Each point has 5 edges hitting it, ...

Roslyn & I are getting married this afternoon. Again. But this time, for pretend. Her mum is getting her celebrant's licence, and needs to conduct a pretend-wedding so that they can be sure she knows how to do it. So Roslyn and I are getting all done up, and trotting off down the beach to say some vows. I think we have to take our wedding ...