Pour one out for passport stamps
Traveling to Singapore for work highlights the diminishing personal connection to international travel as digital processing replaces traditional passport …
Continue reading →Longer
Posts worth more than a passing thought.
MyGov is awful, and the people who designed it suck
Frustration arose from a tedious and inefficient experience trying to access MyGov to check a tax bill, ultimately leading to disappointment and a sense of …
Continue reading →Mumford and Sons at Qudos Arena
Attending the Mumford and Sons concert in Sydney was a top-tier experience marked by great performances and an electric atmosphere.
Continue reading →Tales from the dishwasher
1am, early Sunday morning. A wild beeping rouses me from sleep. The dishwasher, close to finishing its cycle, has detected a leak, and won’t shut up about it. I …
Continue reading →Counting Crows at the Enmore Theatre - 30 March 2026
Last night I got to see Counting Crows at the Enmore. What a show! A beautiful experience, emotion dripping from every moment Adam’s performance. Highlight was …
Continue reading →I'm not the target he thinks I am...
I just received a message on LinkedIn: “I wanted to introduce [redacted], an exclusive members club for entrepreneurs with $1M+ in revenue, and our Early …
Continue reading →I experimented with AI to help customise my portfolio site, and I didn't have fun
I will probably end up writing it up for BTTR more comprehensively, but the past few days I decided to try and use Gemini to add features and update my …
Continue reading →Car insurance rant
I just received our annual car insurance quote. The car is 5 years old now, so it’s getting on a little bit. But other than the extra year of age, nothing has …
Continue reading →on awards
Yesterday when this news was announced I was feeling a bit down, and couldn’t bring myself to celebrate it. But I’m feeling a bit better today, and I am stoked …
Continue reading →Job hunting lament
I feel very much over it all today. Had a phone call from a recruiter last week about a role. She was lovely and suggested I make a number of edits to my CV to …
Continue reading →Ugh
The past few years has been like real life Rainbow Road. I keep thinking I’m doing well, then I fall off the track. I get picked and I keep going, somehow still …
Continue reading →Hey Bing, could you _be_ any worse?
Since I migrated domains to BTTR.reviews, I haven’t been indexed by Bing. I’ve read the webmaster guidelines, but can’t see anything that would exclude it from …
Continue reading →How can a platform for ordering textbooks be so bad?
I’m looking at ordering textbooks for the kids for next year, and the Campion ordering platform is a wonderful example of an awful user experience. …
Continue reading →Shit poem
Jostling, side to side, the train speeds on Travelling with direction, without purpose Home, towards disappointment Can the cycle be broken while stuck on …
Continue reading →Two rejections in one day
Today I received two rejection notices for jobs I’d interviewed for last week. The first was a phone call I wasn’t really surprised to receive - I …
Continue reading →I finally finished Jedi Survivor yesterday
It was pretty fantastic. The Jedi games are great additions to the Star Wars universe. I won’t spoil anything, but the twist towards the end got me - I was not …
Continue reading →I’m enjoying Ghost a month after migration
So it has been about a month since I began migrating BTTR from Wordpress to Ghost. I’m still fixing things and tidying up errors and SEO issues I keep finding …
Continue reading →Ninja Woodfire event in Bundanoon
Got to spend a lovely night down at Bundanoon for a Ninja Woodfire event. It was pretty impressive watching a professional chef use the Ninja Woodfire grill. …
Continue reading →How L.A. Noire Conquered The Uncanny Valley With Aussie Technology Depth Analysis (Gizmodo Republish)
With the shuttering of Gizmodo Australia, I’m pulling a few of my favourite articles over here for safekeeping. Hopefully this won’t upset any of the Copyright …
Continue reading →Red Dead Redemption Hands On: So I Want To Be A Cowboy (Gizmodo republish)
With the shuttering of Gizmodo Australia, I’m pulling a few of my favourite articles over here for safekeeping. Hopefully this won’t upset any of …
Continue reading →Thoughts on the end of Gizmodo Australia
I wrote a thing on Linked about Pedestrian’s decision to shutter Gizmodo (and other titles). Because I don’t trust the algorithm, I’m going to …
Continue reading →Thoughts on musical tastes
Now I’ve passed the halfway point in my listen through of the top 100 albums on Apple Music, I was reflecting on the types of music I like and why. I …
Continue reading →The future of the Internet is not going to be good
If you run a business that relies on search from Google search, I would be mashing the hell out of the panic button right now. Google has shown that it is going …
Continue reading →Google Search is shit
I have to admit that the inspiration for this post is anger. Pure unadulterated rage. As many would know, last year I launched my own product review site, …
Continue reading →Our quick long weekend
We took a long weekend last weekend to Turon Gates, and it was spectacular. We stayed in a nice little cabin by there Turon river, watched the kangaroos, …
Continue reading →Words cannot express my disdain for Facebook.
I deleted my Facebook account back in 2019 or so, and have not regretted the decision at all. The feed was always full of crap I didn’t care about, I …
Continue reading →Hogwarts Battle tonight with box 3 from the Monster Box of Monsters expansion
Started off strong. Thought we had it all under control, and then the last encounter appeared. We needed to play 6 spells to be able to remove it. But that was …
Continue reading →Familiar Tales
Spent the past couple of days playing Familiar Tales, which my daughter got for her last birthday. It’s a pretty epic campaign based game. We only finished the …
Continue reading →Birds of Tokyo with the SSO
Home after seeing Birds of Tokyo play at the Opera House with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. It was phenomenal. The band were having lots of fun (for most of …
Continue reading →Feeling frustrated
There’s this one PR agency with a few big tech clients that I’ve been chasing to get on the media lists since the start of the year. Different …
Continue reading →It’s been so long, it’s time for a life update
The past few weeks have been hectic. I’ve been all over the place mentally, and things have changed fairly quickly. A quick summary: I got sick. Like, sicker …
Continue reading →Today, I realised I miss listening to perfect albums
I mentioned a couple of months ago that I have been obsessed with the latest Paramore album, This is why. I’ve always liked their music, but I feel like the new …
Continue reading →My first big BTTR hurdle
I had my first big setback on BTTR over the weekend. Amazon decided to close my Associates account. There were a couple of reasons given. The first was that my …
Continue reading →BTTR Weekly update 12 April
And so, it is that at 5pm on Wednesday afternoon I pick myself up, dust myself off, and try to remember the week that was. School holidays really take it out of …
Continue reading →BTTR weekly update 5 April
This week’s has already been one of those weeks that obliterate the previous week from your memory. Overall, search performance is growing nicely. I love …
Continue reading →BTTR weekly update 29 March
By the end of last week I was just about cooked, I have to be honest with you. I ended up spending Friday playing video games to reset my brain a bit. It …
Continue reading →BTTR weekly update 22 March
So, last week was a bit of a struggle. After having a bit of an existential crisis around the decision to work on BTTR, I took a step back and decided I needed …
Continue reading →BTTR Weekly update 15 March
I have to tell you, I was struggling at the start of this week. I’ve been pumping out pages for this site for about 2 months now, and while I’m starting to get …
Continue reading →BTTR Weekly update 7 March
I’m definitely running late on publishing the weekly update this week. It’s been a crazy few days, including my daughter getting prepped for high school and a …
Continue reading →Hogwarts Battle destroyed me this weekend
I hate losing. This weekend, my wife and I played the Hogwarts Battle board game, with the Monster Box of Monsters expansion. It had been a while since we last …
Continue reading →BTTR weekly update 27 Feb
I hit a big milestone this past week on BTTR. For the first time, Search Console is telling me that it has indexed more pages than not. Given you can’t get …
Continue reading →I’ll see that Quimby boy hang for this!
What a morning. Today I did my civic duty reporting in for Jury Duty. That meant I sat around for hours waiting for the panels to be called so they could select …
Continue reading →BTTR Weekly update
BTTR enjoyed its second record traffic week in a row last week. Over 600 pageviews for the week, which is still nowhere near where I want it to be, but also …
Continue reading →The iMac really should have a touchscreen
Yesterday I went to see Apple PR to tell them all about the new website. When I arrived, I was asked to sign in on a gorgeous 24-inch iMac. They have a custom …
Continue reading →Sunday barbecue
Well, my Sunday afternoon took a turn. Getting ready to cook a nice roast pork on the barbecue when a layer of residual grease stuck under the drip tray of the …
Continue reading →A summer bushwalk in the rain
This morning we got up early and drove to Thirlmere Lakes National Park to do a barbecue breakfast and then a little bushwalking. The weather was a little …
Continue reading →Today’s trip to Treetops
Today I took the kids to Treetops out in Western Sydney. It was incredible. It’s rare I can find something that is active, outdoors and makes both the kids so …
Continue reading →Day 7 of Lego Advent calendars
Some good ones today. The Harry Potter Knight Bus is perfection - instantly recognisable with only a handful of tiny bricks. The Star Wars speeder is the same. …
Continue reading →Lego Advent calendars Day 6 (a day late!)
Oops. Yesterday I forgot to post pics of the Lego Advent calendars. Partially because I was so disappointed with the Guardians set – it was another day of …
Continue reading →Day 5 of the Lego Advent calendars is all win
Todays advent gifts were all good. Star Wars was the weakest link with a standard droid trooper. But I still think it’s great, particularly as the more of these …
Continue reading →Lego Advent Calendars Day 4
Have to say I’m a bit let down by the Guardians set today. A tool rack? With some dynamite? Bit of a weak attempt. On the upside, the Harry Potter and Star Wars …
Continue reading →Lego Advent Calendars Day 3
Not gonna lie - had to look up what the Star Wars ship was tonight. Quite the obscure prequel vehicle. Harry Potter is, well, Harry Potter. The Guardiand Pridon …
Continue reading →Lego Advent Calendars Day 2
After yesterday’s weak start with Harry Potter, it was good to see it come back with the cute little Quidditch set. Guardians is awesome again with a gift of …
Continue reading →Day one of 2022 Lego Advent Calendars
Star Lord for Guardians of the Galaxy, a Republic Gunship for Star Wars and I haven’t worked out the Harry Potter one yet. Maybe a potion shelf? Star Lord is so …
Continue reading →When the power goes out
This morning I woke to a complete blackout. No power at all. The kids couldn’t cook toast. My espresso machine was useless. My wife had to boil water in a …
Continue reading →Passion
One of the recurring themes of this little writing experiment so far has been my coming to terms with my life as it is versus my life as I thought it might be. …
Continue reading →On Meta's disintegration
I really liked this take from Ed Zitron on why Zuckerberg is a terrible CEO. But it was this part about the future of Facebook and Instagram that really …
Continue reading →My Google Home is soon to be Google Home-less
When the first smart speakers launched in Australia, I was so filled with excitement. I lusted for the idea of a home I could talk, which could turn even my …
Continue reading →The pain of weekday mornings
Despite my children reaching an age that they are somewhat independent, they are still mostly dependent. And this is best exemplified by the weekday morning …
Continue reading →No quick fixes for my middle-age malaise
I’ve spent a fair amount of time today having deeper thoughts about being in my 40s and constantly feeling like shit. When I say “feeling like …
Continue reading →Virtually blind
Today my daughter brought home her prizes for school fundraising, which included an exceptionally cheap plastic “VR headset” - just a slightly better version of …
Continue reading →Creativity unlocked?
How am I feeling right now? I’ve written a fair amount today. Nothing revolutionary – nothing that will change the world. But I managed to type out a bunch of …
Continue reading →Perseverance
Today I had 1 meeting at work. It was designed to give me clear goals about what my role is supposed to be. Instead, I got goals to come up with what those …
Continue reading →Looks like Nintendo has found out how to take more of my money
I have been holding off on the expanded Switch online offering since it launched. I just couldn’t see the value. But this… this could change things. 🎮 …
Continue reading →Replaying the Batman Arkham games 🎮
I recently decided to replay the Batman Arkham games. Great decision - they hold up really well, with fluid combat, a tight story and an immersive world to …
Continue reading →My improved recycling game
There are a lot of things I like about living in the outer suburbs of Sydney. For example: Just last week I picked up my daughter from school, took a 5-minute …
Continue reading →My indecision problem
There are now too many choices. Whether it’s deciding what book I should read next, choosing the next show to binge watch on Netflix (or Disney Plus more likely …
Continue reading →My learning to write again ✍️
I’m actually shocked at how hard I’m finding it to write. There was a time, a little over a decade ago, that I would regularly pump out thousands of words a …
Continue reading →My mid-life crisis
Early in the pandemic, I was looking for a new hobby. For the past couple of decades, I’ve enthusiastically enjoyed spending my free time playing video …
Continue reading →SMH links to Giz, but at what cost?
Doncha love it how newspapers are always bitching about how blogs steal their content, yet have no issue with stealing it from blogs themselves? Of course, Giz …
Continue reading →U Wish
Saw this driving home the other week. Not quite the sexy car I’d expect with that kind of license plate.
Continue reading →Waiting for Transformers 2 screening
Wow, it’s been 3 months since my last post. That’s pretty poor form. I’ll have to do something about that. At the moment I’m in The …
Continue reading →1st Wedding Anniversary, Kangaroo Valley
Last weekend saw Lauren and I celebrate our one year wedding anniversary. I know - how quickly did that year go by? We tossed around a few ideas of where to go …
Continue reading →Who's Your Daddy? (Me)
Well, maybe not your Daddy, but a Daddy. That’s right - Lauren and I are having a baby! We’re both incredibly excited, as you could imagine. …
Continue reading →So Much To Write About, So Little Time
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t neglected the Shuffle in recent weeks. There’s just been so much going on. So here’s the plan: Three …
Continue reading →What Exactly is a Wookie Cookie?
The question is: What exactly is in a Wookie Cookie? Bantha Fodder? Cream of Ton-Ton? Jar-Jar Binks? Well, we can only hope that the last one is true… …
Continue reading →Finally! The new bookshelf has been delivered and installed
It took about a month, but I’ve finally got our new bookshelf. It’s massive. Now I just need to put our books in there..
Continue reading →The Ubuntu Expedition
This week, I found myself without a decent working loaner laptop for the first time in a long time. And I needed to head into the office. And I needed to work …
Continue reading →Thoughts From The Big Day Out 2009
Yesterday Lauren and I headed over to the Big Day Out, courtesy of HP (who had a stand at the event). The only way to describe the experience come from the …
Continue reading →Another Giz Milestone
So this week marked my one year anniversary at the helm of Gizmodo… and what a year it has been! Here are some figures to mull over: Monthly unique …
Continue reading →Star Wars Retold By Someone Who's Never Seen The Films
vimeo.com/2809991 I love this. It completely made my Friday.
Continue reading →Finally, A New Study Worth Working In
We spent the better part of the past week painting the study. While it’s still not the perfect home office – I still need some decent shelving and we …
Continue reading →Looking Back At 2008
On the last day of 2008, I thought it would be prudent to sit back and look at the year that’s been. All told, Lauren and I have had a very big – and …
Continue reading →Who Will Watch Me Watching The Watchmen?
So I turned 29 last week, and one of the presents my lovely wife gave me to celebrate my slow and deliberate approach to retirement was a copy of the graphic …
Continue reading →Where The Hell Did All The Guiter Hero Bundles Go?
What’s the deal, Activision? I’ve been looking for Guitar Hero: World Tour (full band kit) for the Xbox 360 for about three weeks now, and it’s sold out …
Continue reading →8 Months After Our Wedding, We've Finally Paid It Off
Today is a good day for us. After 8 months or so, we’ve finally paid off our wedding. It was hard work - I worked a little harder and longer than I …
Continue reading →Last Week...
… I past the 1000 post mark on Gizmodo Australia. It was such a momentus occasion that I didn’t realise until 2 days after it happened.
Continue reading →How I Organised My Workload And Emptied My Inbox
Time management is not my strong point. Organisation is not my strong point. Keeping my inbox under control is definitely not my strong point… I guess …
Continue reading →Homebrew Disasters: Exhibit 5...
I’ve been brewing my own beer for almost two years now (my original kit was given to me for Christmas ‘06), and sadly I have to admit that the sight …
Continue reading →Stephen Conroy Wants To Kill The Internet. We Can't Let Him
I finally managed to get my thoughts together long enough to write a post on the Rudd Government’s planned internet filter. It’s up on Giz AU now – …
Continue reading →Damn! The Internets Are <em>Slow</em> at 64kbps
So slow! It seems I exceeded my peak-time download limit this month, and now I’m paying the price. I’ve been capped at 64kbps, and considering that …
Continue reading →If I Ever Meet Someone Who Works On Timetables For Cityrail, I'm Going To Kick Them In The Shins. Hard.
I have just hopped on a train at Central after waiting for 32 minutes on the platform. At least, that’s what the board said when I arrived. The train is …
Continue reading →Say Hello To My New TV
Last week, we had our brand new, 50-inch Panasonic plasma delivered and installed. When I say installed, I mean “stuck up on the wall”. Coupled with …
Continue reading →The Force Unleashed: Awesome
[youtube=www.youtube.com/watch I just finished playing The Force Unleashed on Xbox 360. When I say finished, I mean I completed the story mode for the first …
Continue reading →And The Home Theatre Setup Begins...
We had our TV cabinet delivered last weekend. It looks great. Even better is that we went out and bought a new TV. Panasonics latest 50 incher. It’s being …
Continue reading →The Perfect Hot Totty Recipe
The past couple of weeks have been tough – From Hong Kong to Sarah’s Birthday to the Influence Conference in the Hunter Valley to a week of events, …
Continue reading →Airline Security Has Gone Beyond Stupid
On my way home from Hong Kong this week (I was there for an HP conference), Lauren asked me to pick up some duty free makeup. No worries - I do it every time I …
Continue reading →Birds Of Tokyo At Wollongong Uni
Last night, Lauren and I made the long trip down to Wollongong to see Birds of Tokyo. Aside from leaving me half deaf, it was amazing – the singer Ian …
Continue reading →Poor Simba!
Today has been a struggle. Hell, every Monday is a struggle, but this weekend was harder than most. Namely because our dog Simba spent most of Friday night and …
Continue reading →Seinfeld's Microsoft Ad Hits The Intertubes
www.youtube.com/watch There seems to be a real split in opinions over this ad. I like it – probably because it doesn’t actually try to sell me anything. …
Continue reading →Up Yours Door-to-Door Internet Salesman!
Last night at about 7:30pm, there was a knock on the door. Naturally the dog sprang up and I forced my way out of recline to see who it was. Flicking on the …
Continue reading →Not Enough Sense To Make Change
Funny thing happened to me yesterday: Lauren and I had decided to try a new recipe for dinner (Lion’s head meatballs, for the curious) which required …
Continue reading →R.I.P.: Leroi Moore (1961-2008)
Those who know me well are aware that I’m one of a few thousand Australians who are huge Dave Matthews Band fans. So I’m obviously devastated by …
Continue reading →Making the move to Wordpress
So, hello from The Broughall Shuffle. I’ve just finished importing my previous “it’s pronounced bruffle” blog, so bear with me while I …
Continue reading →So sick of painting...
For the past two weekends, I’ve been painting the loungeroom. I would have been done after the first weekend, but for the fact that the previous owners …
Continue reading →Now What Am I Going To Do?
The latest batch of homebrew (a Bock) has been bottled, and is now waiting for that magical process of secondary fermentation to take place, giving it the …
Continue reading →N is Here
Stephen King has teamed up with Marvel to create a webcomic of one of his short stories. The result is awesome. There's a new episode every weekday until August …
Continue reading →StreetView's Privacy Concerns Blatantly Overstated In The Media
I had a rant the other day on Giz about Google’s new StreetView service. Basically it was in response to an SMH article that claimed that a guy named …
Continue reading →Come on Aussie, Come on!
How frustrating! Imagine training your ass off for 10 years to make it to the Olympic Games, only to have a hardware malfunction ruin your first opportunity. …
Continue reading →Go Chappo!
At 7:40pm Australian Eastern Standard Time on Sunday 10 August 2008, an old school friend of mine by the name of James Chapman will be rowing for Australia at …
Continue reading →OMG! I wish there were more hours in the day
Wow – I knew it had been a long time since I updated here… but a full month? I guess that just goes to show how busy I’ve been. Crazy. At the …
Continue reading →Go The Tahs!
For the second time since the inception of the Super 12 Rugby competition (and its migration to the Super 14), the NSW Waratahs have made the final. …
Continue reading →Taking a Leak With Glenn A Baker and Jack Thompson
I was fortunate enough to get a single pass to the premiere of the new Indiana Jones movie last week in Sydney. My thoughts on the film can be found over at …
Continue reading →Teeth Aren't Cheap
Normally I don’t have a problem at the dentist. The drilling, the grinding, the scraping… so what? But today I saw something that made me cringe. …
Continue reading →I Am Iron Man
Finally saw Iron Man on Saturday afternoon. If you haven’t seen it already, get out to the movies as soon as you can to check it out – it’s …
Continue reading →I'm SO Excited!
Oh. My. God. It’s about time. Today, Vodafone announced that they’re launching the iPhone in Australia. While that may not mean much to most people, …
Continue reading →A Weekend of Lobster, Lindt and Corned Beef
It was a pretty busy weekend, which started with dinner on Friday night with mum, Matt and Lauren and Aunty Sue and Uncle Curl. We went down to the Italian …
Continue reading →What a pile of crap!
Look at this dog. Does this look like the kind of dog that would greet you in the morning with pile of poo and a puddle of wee? Because that’s what the …
Continue reading →The house is clean
What an exciting weekend. Lauren and I cleaned. Really cleaned. The house has been neglected for so long, what with the wedding and everything, that there was a …
Continue reading →Well, So much for daily...
I discovered last week that although I “blog” for a living these days, trying to find something interesting every day in my own life was a struggle. …
Continue reading →A mixed bag of a weekend, really
As far as weekends go, there wasn’t too much to get excited about this one just gone. Lauren and I did a spot of shopping on Saturday before heading in to …
Continue reading →I'm so tired...
Thank God it’s Friday! I’m exhausted. It’s been a hard week all around, trying to get back into the swing of things after Fiji time. There …
Continue reading →My favourite Wedding photos
I’ve been going through the wedding photos, and trying to narrow down my favourite shots. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s just too hard. …
Continue reading →What a fun day!
I saw the new work office today – it’s got three balconies and an awesome view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. If they don’t have a New …
Continue reading →The death of Fiji Time...
I’ve been back at work for two days now, and am longing for Fiji Time. It’s hard to believe that only 5 days ago, I was lazing away in a hammock, …
Continue reading →Flying High - tomorrow at least!
So we leave tomorrow. It’s a funny feeling really. We’ve been counting down the number of days until we go on this trip for at least 12 weeks. It’s been our …
Continue reading →Three days to go
Hi all. I’ve always been intrigued by blogging, and thought that our world holiday would be a great reason to start one up. This will give us a chance to …
Continue reading →Search Space
Search posts and replies: Search I'm sorry, but JavaScript is required for searching. You might want to look at all unindexed posts and replies. …
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