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

Yesterday we had our first decent snowfall for the year and it’s not even winter yet.

With a good 10 cm covering the surrounds it was easy to imagine we had gone to sleep in one country and woken in another.

Once the snow had finally stopped falling it was time to go out and play!


#abstract #circle #footprints #snow #winter

Rossnowlagh beach is famous for its kilometers of open sand, walking, surfing, swimming and a popular driving beach for doing donuts or simply enjoying the novelty of driving on sand.

It’s also a great big open space for flying a drone and capturing coastal scenery. Except this time the camera was pointing the other way just in time to capture the few moments of sunset and an opportunistic flyby.


#Aerial #dji #rossnowlagh #sunset #goldenhour #portrait #flyby #drone

There's a hidden spot on the western side of Doulus Head, County Kerry, that you could easily sail or motor past without a second glance. Like much of this rugged coastline, the jagged cliffs and seawalls don't exactly invite closer inspection - getting too near could mean being dashed to pieces on the rocks.

So it was with a mix of surprise and apprehension that I found us heading straight toward a fissure in the rock, into shadow and then darkness. Darkness, that is, until our eyes adjusted to these unexpected surroundings.

A little way in, the rocky ceiling rose dramatically, expanding into a high, vaulted roof. We had entered the inner sanctum of what locals call 'The Cathedral.'


#Ireland #doulushead #boating #scuba #diving #InbhearSceineKerrySubAquaClub #caves #seacaves #thecathedral #kerry

A visit to an old church always demands reverences but here in Youghal, St. Mary's Collegiate Church held a deep magic that almost brought us to tears.

At over 800 years old, the care with which it has been maintained tells everything about its importance as a place of worship, ceremony and social cohesion for the people of Youghal and its surrounds.

We lingered here for a few hours trying to get a sense of all that had taken place here. As the expression goes, ‘if only these walls could talk’.


#Youghal #StMarysCollegiateChurch #churches #architecture #ireland #travel #cork #sacred #churchofireland

It’s not often that such an opportunity to admire a backside as beautiful as this presents itself out on the streets, Kilkenny or otherwise.

The purists would say that if it has no cylinders then it’s not worth their time but I disagree, sometimes I am happy to judge a book by its cover, or its backside.


#Ireland #bmw #kilkenny #i8 #coupe #automobile #bmwi8 #car #eyecandy

Credit to the Dubliners for the title but this jar of whiskey is in the cellars of Midleton, county Cork
And just to confuse you even more, it’s a jar of Redbreast!

The story of whiskey in Ireland is fascinating, and Midleton’s story even more, so I invite you to research Ireland’s Uisce beatha (water of life) in any responsible way you see fit.

As for me, ...

Musha-ring dumma-do-damma-da
Whack for the daddy-o
Whack for the daddy-o
There's whiskey in the jar


#Ireland #midleton #whiskey #readbreats #cellar #cork #whiskeyinthejar #dubliners

Diving off the Kerry coast I am starting to become familiar with ‘the locals’, or as we would have said back in South Australia, ‘the usual suspects’.

The lesser spotted dogfish is now on my local list of ‘usual suspects’ and is always a welcome sight on any of my dives, ‘dog day’ or otherwise.


#lesserspotteddogfish #dogfish #scyliorhinuscaniculus #ireland #scuba #diving #underwaterphotography #fish #portrait #wildlife #kerry

One of Ireland’s most impressive sites of medieval architecture, The Rock of Cashel was once the seat of the kings of Munster.

One of most visited tourist attractions in Ireland, ‘The Rock’ was deserted this grey evening until a rent in the western sky let the sun stream in for our own personal experience.


#travel #therockofcashel #cashel #castle #sunset #silhouette #landscape #ireland #medieval #aerial

200m from the finish line of the 2024 Rás na mBan, Ireland’s premier women’s stage race, it could be anyone over the line first.

Here out in front is Netherland’s Noor Dekker. Hot on her heels is Great Britain’s Lucy Lee with Canadian, Anabelle Thomas on both their tails.

Three’s a crowd, and their can only be one winner. That final uphill 200m, to the finish outside Kilkenny Castle, was the crux of this race with Lucy Lee taking line honours.

Being here in Kilkenny for the final stage of the of the 2024 Rás na mBan was an unexpected surprise after coming here just to see an old castle.


#sports #cycling #womenscycling #RásnamBan #NoorDekker #LucyLee #AnabelleThomas #roadcycling #racing #ireland #kilkenny #action

Just under two kilometres north east of Skellig Michael is its smaller sibling, ‘Little Skellig’ or ‘Sceilig Bheag’ in the native Irish tongue.

I first laid eyes on Sceilig Bheag seven years ago and was introduced to the home of one of the northern hemispheres largest colonies of gannet, along with its incredible accompanying smell. There were six of us that day, my wife and four of our closest Australian friends. This time I was with a group of strangers who would later become good friends.

Not more than an hour after capturing this image, I got the chance to scuba dive below Sceilig Bheag’s mysterious waterline and glimpse just a little of what she hides from the rest of the world.

From this day I become hooked on Kerry diving.


#adventure #birds #crag #freedom #gannets #ireland #island #kerry #littleskellig #ocean #portmagee #seabirds #solitude #theskelligs #travel #aerial #seascape #landscape

Over the last 6 months I have come to know the County Kerry town of Cahersiveen quite well.

As this is the home port of the Inbhear Sceine Kerry Sub Aqua Club, we have departed from here for many amazing diving adventures off the amazing South West coast of Ireland.

On top of the incredible diving, we have stayed here, we have visited the cafes, restaurants, and pubs here, and we have made friends here.

Even if you have no intentions of getting wet, Cahersiveen is a wonderful base to explore the South West of Ireland. If you are a scuba diver, the Inbhear Sceine can show you some of the very best diving to be found in all of Ireland.


#abstract #aerial #ireland #kerry #Cahersiveen #tinyplanet #wildatlanticway #skelligcoast

Of my many different diving experiences here in Ireland, the most profound would have to be depth. My previous South Australian dives averaged 15 meters, now off the coast of Kerry, it’s more like 35.

With these depths come the loss of light, the loss of colour and the urgency of time. Below 30m, especially with turbid upper layers, the gloom becomes palpable, mysterious, teasing and inviting.

At 40 meters, and with lights, it is like night diving where the torchlight brings the underwater world to life in a video roll of incident light. There is security in that little bit of light but if you are game to turn off all lights, to hang out over deep water away from structures, and to let night vision do its thing, something magic happens.

I find it difficult to put into words that feeling of floating in a void of shadows and shapes. I seem to be aware of the bottom below and the structures around me but they have no substance, no threat, they are simply ‘there’. When the torchlight of another diver penetrates that void, the sharp relief of substance is both jarring and beautiful at the same time.

It’s been a long time since I really got to ‘feel’, diving. The magic of the gloom has brought that feeling back.


#Scuba #diving #kerry #ireland #deep #gloom #portmagee #InbhearSceineKerrySubAquaClub

No I am not about to stop diving with these guys, far from it, I plan on many, many more dives to come. I am imagining however that these may have been the words my camera might have uttered as it captured its last image.

Here we are on the east side of Puffin Island, Co Kerry and just about to descend on what would be my first camera-less dive in years. Yes, my camera started the dive, but never made it past a few meters before a catastrophic flood sent it off on and entirely different trip.

After 15 years of faithful service it was time to say goodbye to and old dear friend.


#Scuba #diving #inbhearsceinekerrysubaqua #ireland #kerry #boating #rib

We were diving very deep to avoid the surge above but even here below 30m we were tossed back and forth making photography tricky.

While capturing this edible sea urchin I waited for the leaf like red algae to be pushed down flat by the surge. It never was, I think it had gotten impaled on the urchin's spines.


#critters #diving #echinoderms #Echinusesculentus #edibleseaurchin #ireland #kerry #scuba #seaurchin #underwater #InbhearSceineSubAqua

I’d never really done much RIB (rigid-hull inflatable boat) based diving before coming to Ireland.

Back in South Australia, not including an inflatable hull boat I owned in my twenties, I could count my time diving from RIBs on one hand. Almost all of my boat diving was from off-shore equipped rigid fiberglass or aluminium boats.

Here diving in Ireland now for the last 4 months, the only diving I have been doing if from RIBs with guys and gals of Inbhear Sceine Kerry Sub Aqua club.

There once was a time when a nice dry cabin had its appeal but for its size nothing beats the seaworthiness of a RIB powering through moderate seas, its stability at rest and the ease of getting in and out. Try getting back up the ladder of an anchored rigid boat in big seas and you risk being smashed by the heaving transom, ladder or outboard. A RIB on the other hand is a delight in the same conditions where you can simply pull yourself up and over the buoyancy tubes and back into the boat.

Now that I’ve had a taste for rubber over glass there just might be a RIB somewhere in my diving future here or back in South Australia.


#inbhearSceine #kerrysubaaquacclub #rib #scuba #diving #kerry #skelligmichael #portmagee

What a strange sight among the graves of Cill Mhic Dhuach, a man in a hazmat suit power cleaning a tombstone with the precision of a dental hygienist.

Perhaps the cleaning is required as part of some study where researchers need unrestricted access to the stone surface. Perhaps it is part of some tourist beautification program. Or perhaps a family is paying respect by up keeping the grave of an ancestor.

Ultimately, lichens and their associated bio-communities will be the ultimate protectors of the stones and the stories they hold. I hope that to protect the past, the graveyard shift ultimately becomes a thing of the past.


#CillMhicDhuac #Kilmacduagh #countyclare #ireland #travel #journalism #blackandwhite

You could be forgiven for being confused by such an exotically named plant presenting itself so devilishly. The true beauty of this intriguing Nigella damascena is yet to emerge.

Very soon those green veined leaves will fold back, turn blue, and reveal themselves as the petals of a dramatic and exotic flower. The common name, love-in-a-mist, comes from the effect in full bloom of beautiful blue petals floating in a filigree mist of fine green.

This time of year the Burren, in Co Clare, Ireland, is awash with colour as wildflower adorn the ditches and rocky landscape in all directions. It is a very special place that rewards stillness with a great sense of belonging to the land.

The Burren is a place I recommend visiting and spending time in. You may or may not find something very special here but at least the wildflowers will not disappoint.


#Loveinamist #nigelladamascena #nigella #ireland #wildflowers #burren #flowers #burrennationalpark

Another beautiful jellyfish, the crystal jelly (Aequorea victoria), is normally almost perfectly clear but when disturbed it illuminates its outer bell in a blue-green glow using tiny light producing organs.

The light producing substance harvested from these guys is aequorin, a calcium-activated photoprotein used in medical research. The crystal jelly is also the very same creature who’s genes have been inserted into mice to make them glow green as their genetically modified bodies produce their own aequorin.

As the water here off the coast of Kerry is still getting warmer I’m looking forward to these guys being around for a few more months yet.


#crystaljelly #aequoreavictoria #jellyfish #ireland #scuba #diving #kerry #wildatlanticway #aequorin

Ireland’s Burren National Park, or simply ‘The Burren’ is unlike anything you would have imaged to be Irish landscape.

It is said that Oliver Cromwell, during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland circa 1650, when he first saw the Burren, said, “There isn’t a tree to hang a man, water to drown a man, nor soil to bury a man.”

Despite it’s stark almost sterile aspect from afar, up close the Burren is an oasis of life, abundant in flora, fauna and ancient human history. When we visited here a couple weeks ago it was awash with colour as wildflowers bloomed from every conceivable nook, crack and cranny.

This is a place to find solitude and feel the juxtaposition of wide open barren rock landscape with the rich colour of living things.

I first came here over twenty years ago and will always be back for more.


#Ireland #landscape #countyclare #burren #burrennationalpark #tinyplanet

Just for a moment I felt like I was back in the familiar waters of South Australia where our magnificent southern rock lobster (Jasus edwardsii) is often found in caves and under deep ledges. However, in all my years of diving Southern Australian waters I have never seen our timid crayfish out in the open during the day.

Here below the imposing Skellig Michael, and unlike its distant Australian relative, the European spiny lobster (Palinurus elephas) seems absolutely at home out in the open. During our dive we found several crayfish perched on open drop-off walls or foraging under the kelp.

It was amazing observing these beautiful creatures out and about rather than having to peer in caves and under ledges. Unfortunately the same does not apply to lobster which do their best to stay out of sight.

I can only surmise that for the spiny lobster, here off the south west coast of Ireland, a lack of predators has lead to their boldness making them so photogenic.


#crayfish #spinylobster #europeanspinylobster #palinuruselephas #scuba #diving #skelligmichael #critters #underwater

Every time time a meet an Irish lobster on a dive I am reminded of our Australian common yabby and childhood memories of catching them in creeks and dams.

How different the wild Irish coast is from muddy Australian farm dams and yet how similar these two creatures are in appearance.

Given the choice of diving with Irish lobster off the Irish coast or a muddy Australian farm dam I think I’ve made the right choice.


#irishlobster #homarusgammarus #lobster #kerry #scuba #diving #kerrysac #coonanna

Despite it’s name, the Compass Jellyfish has minimal control over the direction it travels or the places it finds itself.

Relative to still water they are efficient swimmers but no match for the current, tides, storms and seas of the Wild Atlantic Way coast.

These three once beautiful oceanic creatures have found a final place of rest on a pebbly beach of the Flaggy Shore, County Clare.


#newquay #ireland #clare #flaggyshore #beachcombing #beach #wildatlanticway #chrysaorahysoscella #jellyfish #compassjellyfish #pebbles #countyclare

This exquisite creature is mysterious, captivating and enchanting as it moves through the ocean with a grace all its own.

This time of the year in the waters off Ireland they are everywhere and make incredible subjects of photography or observation while waiting to off-gas on our safety stop. They are also everywhere on beaches, washed ashore, where their distinctive compass pattern can be seen draped over rock, shingle and sand.

For me the ‘jellies’ are also synonymous with the warmer (relative) water of Ireland’s Summer.

Expect a few more jellies before summer is over.


#Coonanna #ireland #kerry #scuba #diving #boating #wildatlanticway #chrysaorahysoscella, #jellyfish #compassjellyfish

On yet another perfect dive day you can see our tiny dive boat tucked in behind Bray Head. You could dive just this few hundred metres of coastline all year and never experience the same dive twice.

What a privilege it is to be diving week in and week out at locations like this.


#Brayhead #portmagee #ireland #diving #boating #aerial #wildatlanticway #valentiaisland