Entries by Robert

Experiments with Qik

Qik is a little piece of software that enables you to stream videos directly from your phone to the Web. Use it to stream engaging videos to your friends in Facebook, Twitter, etc. or as your camcorder to capture entertaining and special moments.

With Qik you can stream engaging video live from your phone to the world or use your phone like a camcorder to capture entertaining, interesting and special moments. Go LIVE with your life by streaming anytime, anywhere—right from your phone. Be an eyewitness, capture those first steps, or whip up your own streaming video blog. There are just a million and one uses of Qik.

This is one of the coolest Web things I have played with in a long time. Let me know what you think.



... Robert

I can remember when I was 5 years old and had formulated a theory of how electric motors worked. I got as far as electricity, currents and forces but how the forces "knew" what to do was a mystery to me! So began a career in electronics. In the last 23 years I have been involved in product development, embedded software design, engineering management, technology and innovation management, marketing and business development.

In short it has to date been a rewarding and fascinating time. As a self confessed techie, I love being involved in the latest and most interesting innovations, especially those impacting our everyday lives

... Robert

Edithburgh Dive Weekend 17/18th June '06



















Edithburgh Dive Weekend 3rd September '05


















Jennifer & Myself Diving 'The Lumb', 5th June '05


















Andy & Myself Diving 'The John Robb', 4th June '05

















Whyalla Cuttlefish Weekend, 15th May '05

I have been a SCUBA diver for more than 18 years now and in that time have had the opportunity to dive extensively throughout South Australia. I've dived elsewhere and yes, tropical water is wonderful but my soft spot is for the dramatic offshore waters of Australia's Southern coast. It may be cold but the dramatic scale of walls, caves, ledges, kelp, dolphins, seals, reef fish, oceanic pelagics and the odd rather too large for comfort predator make for what South Australian diving stands for!!

My favorite dive location is Allthorpe Island off the coast of South Australia's York Peninsula. My favorite shore dive is Chinaman's Hat, again on South Australia's York Peninsula.

I wish I could say how many dives I have done but for 10 years I kept no record of my diving, an oversight I now regret, many hundreds I'd say at a pinch! I now teach others to dive and my enthusiasm for the salty realm is as strong as ever.

... Robert

I have been involved in this mad sport for nearly 20 years now and can be found at the bottom of the pool on a regular basis. We play weekly at the Adelaide Aquatics Centre with formally organised teams and games. After the game you will almost certainly find us continuing the proceedings at a nearby watering hole!

Underwater hockey is very similar to field hockey in the way it is played with 6 players in the game per side and 4 players as interchange. We use a puck which, although looks like an ice hockey puck, is made of plastic coated lead. The hockey stick is very short, about 20cm long and is held in one hand. The entire game is played at the bottom of the pool while holding your breath!

Underwater Hockey started in England in 1954, but it was not until 1984 that the first World Championships took place in Chicago , USA where Australia made a clean sweep in Men’s and Women’s winning in both team events. Australian Open UWH Championships were held in 1975. The Women’s UWH Titles commenced in 1981, with the Junior UWH Championships commencing in 1990.

... Robert

I could could tell you a bit about who I am but I'm afraid the story would be obsolete before you get to read it. So let me give you a little of who I am at the time of writing this text. I am having a rich and adventurous life, full of "life experiences" as they say and it is my intention to keep things that way!

I presently live in the quiet city of Adelaide in South Australia. Adelaide may be quiet to some but believe me, there is plenty here to keep anyone thoroughly engaged, enthralled and occupied! You might just have to put in a bit of effort to find it sometimes!

My most recent passion has become the pursuit of excellence in teaching scuba divers. For me it has been a wonderful experience in bringing the brand new uninitiated into a world I have had many privileged years to be part of. Such a stark contrast from my previous life in the world of electronics, technology and computing.

That all being said I am still a technologist at heart and keep my ears to the ground and my eyes out for the latest, the greatest and most fun new things to play with. Today's new ideas may seem like fun and folly for the early adopters but history has shown that the future depends on us. If it were not for our insatiable appetite for ever new and more complex things to fill our lives with then I'm sure we would all still be living in caves and wondering "is this all there is!!".

... Robert

There are so many ways to enjoy Melbourne's skyline. Usually we try and find some vantage where that impressive skyline appears unencumbered by distractions.

Here at St Kilda the tall masts of boats at rest made sure that was never going to happen. Here they are just as imposing a sight as the city itself.

You could not really call it a scale model but more of an artistic interpretation of a bi-plane from time when flying was just a sport for the wealthy.

Today however, for those enthusiasts willing to search for or machine their own parts, restore and maintain and or construct from scratch; owning and flying a vintage bi-plane is possible for anyone lucky enough to have a little time, income and help.

For the constructor of this plane though I suspect it was all about the art while their feat stayed firmly on the ground.

It's only a few minutes before the sun will vanish below an ocean horizon but still the sky looks burned.

Above the clouds and to the west a traveller peers out from their window seat, stares into the deepening untainted azure sky and and marvels a different beauty.

I love and am amazed at the schools of bullseyes that inhabit the wreck of 'The Australian' just a few nautical miles off the coast out from Glenelg. For me they are the most enjoyable feature of this dive.

Dizzy with delight at the flashing silver all around me I almost forgot to capture this wonderful sight.

A salty creek weaves its way through the scrubby wetlands of Gilman and Barker Inlet. Not so wet are these wetlands now as summer reaps its share of the life giving water.

A few stubborn waterholes remain linked along the curvy, salty, watercourse; resisting to the last.

The birds know it is just a matter of time.

Tucked away on the eastern side of North Adelaide is a rural oasis in the midst of suburbia.

Not only is Lefevre Park, part of the Adelaide Parklands but also home to a herd of horses owned by and looked after by local residents. It seems such an odd place to find these beautiful animals living so close to the city but I have to say it delighted me as well.

For a little while at least I felt like I was in some quiet rural country town as I wandered through the grassy paddocks. The peace however rapidly vanished as I got back into my car and rejoined the city traffic.

Diving during the transition into twilight is a strange and beautiful sensation. It sneaks up on you stealthily like a high cloud creeping across the sun.

At first I am simply aware of a change in mood. Some fish become scarce while others, more at home in the dark places of the sea come out into the open. My attention on the fishes and their behaviours captures my attention; masking my awareness of the fading light.

Almost by surprise I notice I really can't see much anymore. All has become grey and ghostly. Rather than spoil the mood by turning on my lights I'll swim back to the anchor and make my way back up the line.

I soon catch the last hint of colour and light hitting the seas above as the sun dips below the horizon and I realise just how dark it is now down here as I make my way back up to my airy sanctuary above.

There are many rite of passage traditions we observe, give meaning to and feel some strong emotive connection with. Today our daughter and her partner boarded a plane for Europe, a trip the two of them had planned for more than a year.

Funny how I never imagined how important this would be to me until those moments just before she went through security and disppeared from view and from our lives for the next five weeks.

Sure she has been making decisions and taking control of her own life for some time now but today made her independence more real to me than ever before.

This image from my own recent travels is a window shot of Doha as I head back to Adelaide:

... we are looking forward to hers when she comes home.

No not my everyday view this time but a quick trip to Melbourne to see one of our favourite musicians. Our personal after show party found us here at a bar at the top of the Crown Metropol.

I've always found the view from high places addictive. I'd prefer a mountain top but this will do quite nicely.

Another beautiful visit to the Barker Inlet Wetlands and again such a lovely interlude in my drive home.

As summer progresses I am watching the water here dry up and the birds beginning to congregate at the deepest pools.

I wonder if the the water will last the summer ...

In South Melbourne markets there is a chocolate shop with a difference. Large display windows here only hint at the yummy offerings to be consumed. Not that you would want to eat a Pokémon, they are way too cute.

Peer in the shop window and you see a chocholate factory in action. Stare into one of the large stainless steel vats with velvety chocolate being churned and risk being hypnotised into purchase submision.

There is nothing typical about Atypic chocolate.

I could stare into this golden seascape for hours. The minimal perspective, no distractions, an almost meditative wandering in my imagination through the complexity upon complexity of the worlds both below and above.

I am reminded how rich and how grateful I am for these experiences. Like gold mined from beneath impossible mountains to be scattered across the ocean for all who are willing to see.

Back in the water again after a long dry spell I have rediscovered a wonderful dive site I used dive on when I was teaching. I'd almost forgotten how beautiful the wreck of 'The Australian' can be when you have it all to yourself.

Like all wrecks, 'The Australian', or more affectionately 'The Dredge', is very sensitive to diver behaviour with a very silty deck hiding under all that algae ready to destroy the visibility if you put a fin wrong. It's best to dive here before anyone else arrives if you can.

For me the most enjoyable feature of this wreck are the incredible schools of bullseyes lurking under every overhang, filling every swim-through and surrounding the mostly intact hull.

This school emerging from their hideaway below seemed to complete a circle along with the structure behind. Bullseye geometry!

Back in the water again after a long dry spell I have rediscovered a wonderful dive site I used dive on when I was teaching. I'd almost forgotten how beautiful the wreck of 'The Australian' can be when you have it all to yourself.

Like all wrecks, 'The Australian', or more affectionately 'The Dredge', is very sensitive to diver behaviour with a very silty deck hiding under all that algae ready to destroy the visibility if you put a fin wrong. It's best to dive here before anyone else arrives if you can.

For me the most enjoyable feature of this wreck are the incredible schools of bullseyes lurking under every overhang, filling every swim-through and surrounding the mostly intact hull.

This school emerging from their hideaway below seemed to complete a circle along with the structure behind. Bullseye geometry!

When ever I see a solitary shoe lying on the ground, or on a bench, caught in a tree or dangling from an overhead power cable my imagination runs crazy.

Did someone come off the worse for a joke with friends, did something tragic happen here or was it just left and forgotten.

Two shoes, I can imagine all kinds of reasons they might be left behind, but a single shoe bothers me to the core.

I hope it simply got lost and is waiting to be found.

Building designers sometimes enlist incredibly talented artists to help create the mood and feel of a building.

While travelling though Hamad Airport I particularly noticed that very special attention to detail was everywhere. There were no dead spaces. There were no visual eyesores. The entire and vast space was a visual delight.

I'm not sure what I was looking at with this beautiful ceiling piece. It reminded me of the double helix but unlike the DNA of any human.

I'm not sure what they mean by 'concept restaurant' here in Hamad Airport.

On closer inspection almost every square in this mosaic carries an American theme. There are a few international tokens but mostly there are repeated themes of big cars, American airlines, gas stations and route 66.

I simply see red.

For a couple of years now I have been commuting along a route that takes me past the Barker Inlet Wetlands and the Wingfield Waste and Recycling Centre. I'd noticed the windmills, the prolific bird life and the sights and smells of a civic rubbish dump but in my head I was already at my day job.

Then the roadworks began. The speed limits dropped. I was forced to linger along the route. The more I lingered the more I saw, the more I wanted to see and capture. I've now discovered a huge network of wetlands and am only just beginning to explore them.

It's the windmills I first noticed so that's where I'll start.

Lake Lockie and its big brother, Lake Hattah, in the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park of northern Victoria is little natural wonder I have only just discovered.

As the Murray River winds it's way through the arid mallee scrub of this region it spills out onto wetlands that cycle from wet to completely dry.

For much of the year there is little water here and even though just as beautiful when dry I can't help but prefer just a little water in this land locked place.

It's hot. The run off from the swampy on the roof fills a bucket under the the eave of the house. Every drop captured. Every drop precious.

It's nearly full. Time to water but not every plant can handle this almost brackish Adelaide water.

Under the verandah with a glass of cold water in hand I watch each drop fall. I watch the shape, transient, fluid, rise, splash and slump.

Like a stranger in a strange land I see the shape of water.

It's hot. The run off from the swampy on the roof fills a bucket under the the eave of the house. Every drop captured. Every drop precious.

It's nearly full. Time to water but not every plant can handle this almost brackish Adelaide water.

Under the verandah with a glass of cold water in hand I watch each drop fall. I watch the shape, transient, fluid, rise, splash and slump.

Like a stranger in a strange land I see the shape of water.

Lake Lockie and its big brother, Lake Hattah, in the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park of northern Victoria is little natural wonder I have only just discovered.

As the Murray River winds it's way through the arid mallee scrub of this region it spills out onto wetlands that cycle from wet to completely dry.

For much of the year there is little water here and even though just as beautiful when dry I can't help but prefer just a little water in this land locked place.

The Bluebottle jellyfish (Physalia utriculus), also known as the Pacific Man O'War, is a complete stranger to my local South Australian waters but here on Bondi Beach, Sydney we found hundreds of them washed ashore.

One poor unsuspecting child must have found these bright blue toys scattered all around too irresistible to ignore. We heard the screams from the pavilion and an ambulance shortly arrived. I hope they are OK.

Curiously we noticed no obvious warnings leaving it up to beach goers to decide how to manage their presence.

'Birdcages', hidden away in Angle Place Sydney is a magical art installation where the artist, Michael Thomas Hill, has combined suspended birdcages accompanied by recorded sounds of the birds that once lived here.

Walking beneath these cages and hearing those beautiful sounds was both strange and soothing. For a brief moment the city wound it's way back to a time of just bush land and bird call before the spell was broken and the city restored.

Thank you Ken for sharing with us this little gem in a big city.