I recently tried out two Cloud Music services. They take different approaches, and provide access to different music, but the experience was quite different.

Sony’s Qirocity has the advantage of including music from the Sony Music label (and probably more), which means you get to listen to some of the latest tunes out there. Comparatively, Google’s Music Beta is essentially a music locker at the moment. You upload your music to the cloud, and then can stream it back from a multitude of devices. Uploading a few thousand songs only took a day or two, so it’s not that bad (on a ~1mb upload connection)

While some may argue that having access to millions of songs from Sony’s Qirocity is a deadstraight win compared with having to upload your own songs to Google, I would have to strongly disagree.

This disagreement stems from the fact that Sony’s implementation of Qirocity, particuarly the Android app, is quite terrible. It’s hard to search for songs. The app doesn’t cache music well, so you are sometimes left mid-song or between songs waiting for it to catch up. And if you want to repeat a track or two, I found that it redownloaded the song again…which means you have to wait for it! And lo! if you enter a tunnel whilst on the train. You will be left listening to the sound of silence.

This caching is where Google shines. Google will cache the upcoming songs once it had cached the song you’re listening to. So if you go forward or back, the songs will be cached.

The Android app for the Music Beta is a little rough, but it’s a good start, and once the song has been downloaded for the Music Beta, other music players, like the powerfully awesome PowerAMP can find and use that music to listen to.

The online music scene is in its opening scene, so there’s a lot to change. Apple will be releasing their cloud service in a few months, while Amazon and Google have to work out how they will interact with the music labels.

Watch this scene.

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Yumcha in Sydney is so much better than in melbourne!

Beef tripe is one of my favourite dishes!

Not to mention the mango pudding!

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Today we decided to try something new and went to Tangri Tag Restaurant in Camberwell. It’s Uighur cuisine, Xinjiang food, and it’s simply amazing!!!

It is quite nicely decorated inside, with couch-like seating and nice lighting. It’s also handily located near Camberwell station and we didn’t have any issue with parking on a Sunday night.

The highlight of their food has to be the lamb skewers. Spicy lamb skewers (although they do ask you how spicy you want it).

These really remind me of the Muslim restaurant at BLCU in Beijing.  Next time, we’re going to get a whole lot more of them! They aren’t as cheap as in Beijing, but $2 each isn’t bad.

This is another of their speciality dishes. Dapanji – Big chicken dish. That’s the ‘large’ size for $28. It has chicken, potato, capsicum and handmade noodles. And a lovely sauce.

Their Palif was nice, but to me it felt like eating oily rice.  Won’t get this one next time. Also, the white rice, mifan, that we ordered wasn’t that great. I don’t think they do rice dishes very well. Get the noodles or meat instead.

This was amazing. The photo below doesn’t really show it that well, but you can get:

Full Lamb: $588

Yes, a whole lamb. You know, if you’re hungry or something. But you do need to order the day beforehand.

Tangre Tag (Tangri Tag) Restaurant

732 Burke Road
Camberwell VIC 3124

Ph: (03) 9882 8877

They’re open 5pm to 11pm during the week and 12pm to 10pm on the weekend.

If you’re looking for something new, give it a try. Super yummy!!

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I love Japanese vending machines and the fact they are everywhere in Japan. Australia lacks the culture around vending machines, so I was greatly surprised to see a working and modified japanese vending machine in melbourne. It’s at melbourne uni, squeezed between two normal coke machines. I wonder how often the machine gets used and stocked.
I’m attempting to attach a photo of the machine, to make my mobile blogging more fun

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Those of you who know me, know that I love my Jap food. Yet, having stumbled upon this restaurant takes my expectations to a whole new level. Whether it is the fact that you order food through the interactive touch-screen menu, or the cheap prices, or the fact the food is absolutely oishii!! (yummy!!), Wagaya has become my new favourite place of residence.

The place is always packed. Whether it be a Monday night, or a Friday night, you need to book ahead, or be prepared to wait for a while for a table. The beauty part is that you can book via SMS (don’t bother trying to book on the same day, they’ll likely be booked out), as well as conventional phone. Or you can rock up and just wait. We waited around 10mins for a table when we came at 6:30. They’re open 5pm to 2am, so it sounds like a great place to have a bite to eat late at night.

The atmosphere is really nice, combined with the spacious tables, having a slight Japanese vibe, which is only compounded by the excellent service. Their response times are amazing, and the food comes out quickly. I ordered a hotpot, and within a minute, they had brought out the stove, and within a few minutes after, my meal. The touchscreen menu makes it really easy (perhaps too easy considering the prices) to order, and the novelty hasn’t worn off yet.

The food is scrumptious. For my entree, I ordered Kimchi Tofu, which was VERY nicely portioned. It was about 2-3 times what you get in other restaurants, for the same price ($5.50 from memory). It had lots of tofu, kimchi, as well as some beef. The prices are very reasonable, around $6 for entrees, and $8.50-$14 for most main dishes, and then more for the big sushi/sashami etc.

I was super impressed by everything. Awesome food, prices, service, atmosphere. Wagaya has become my fav jap restaurant in Sydney =)

Address – Level 1, 78 Harbour Street, Haymarket
Phone/SMS - 0416 200 223
Hours – Seven days, 5pm-2am

INFORMATION technology is often viewed as a “polluter” in the current climate change debate, but it has a critical role to play in addressing the problem, a report finds.

The University of Wollongong Working Group on the Carbon-Centric Computing Initiative has released a study that suggests IT could fundamentally alter the climate change debate.

IT-enabled smart logistics, smart energy use, smart utilities and ubiquitous optimisation could support a global online collaboration infrastructure that ensures minimisation of the global carbon footprint, said the report’s co-author Professor Aditya Ghose, director of the Decision Systems Laboratory in the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering at UOW.

The report describes how existing web infrastructure could be leveraged to devise the optimising web to deliver a large-scale, global network of optimisers helping support decisions that would reduce the carbon footprint and improve business efficiency.

Computer-based simulation technology could enable sustainable manufacturing and environmental management at the enterprise level, it said.

The other two authors of the report are: UOW academics Associate Professor Helen Hasan (Activity Theory Usability Laboratory director in the School of Economics) and Professor Trevor Spedding (School of Management and Marketing head).

Business should receive “credits” for putting in place IT-based optimisation solutions, which would reduce the carbon footprint, the authors said.

The CCCI seeks to seed research that addresses the climate change problem with a range of computing technologies including optimisation technologies, supply chain management technologies, business process management/process improvement technologies and grid computing.
- The Australian – Jennifer Foreshew | September 23, 2008

Is the idea of tackling climate change with a range of computing technologies really that new? Or does this report merely showcase how ineffectual our decision making process is? Must there be dozens of reports and studies into the same issue to prompt change?

Indeed, it does make sense that there should be consensus on a given issue, and the issue of climate change STILL today receives much criticism from all levels of society. Regardless of whether or not global warming is caused by humans, I am of the opinion that we should nevertheless change our ways and become more environmentally friendly, and work towards reducing the impact that we, as humans, have on the world and its environments.

But seriously, a report saying that “Computer-based simulation technology could enable sustainable manufacturing and environmental management at the enterprise level”, who are they kidding? This idea is so old, and used so often nowadays, it’s not funny. But no doubt it is a reminder that something NEEDS to start. Something needs to happen. As a society, around the world, we are moving too slowly. We are being pressured by companies who don’t want to foot the costs, who don’t want to have to take accountability for externalities. Which in turn usually means that weak, uesless legislation is passed, that is a nod, but not a firm blow, to the issue at hand.

I even get a funky uniform, thou i’m not sure that I’d wear it out of APEC. The drizabone i’m sure would earn a through word-thrashing if I wore it at uni. People seem to think that by helping to facilitate the APEC evet, that we somehow are fully condoning it. Now i’m not saying anything either way, but I mean, seriously, I’m just working there. I’m not making any of the decisions, or even influencing them. I might as well be the janitor for all the difference it makes to the big outcomes of the APEC meetings (well I guess in effect I am=p)

Well, we’ve been advised not to say toooo much, cos some ‘undesireables’ might decide to target us or use us to gain entrance. So mum’s the word

I’ve put up a selection of photos from my trip in Melbourne. I will sort through them tomorrow, and yes, I will remove your photos . Hehe. Since I’ve gotten back from Melbourne, I’ve been engrossed in anime. Well I did attend the Destiny Reunion concert in Melbourne, and there is a 40 second clip here. If I had realised the quality would be that good, I’d have recorded more! I was really impressed, as this was my first Eminence concert, and yes, I DID fly down to Melbourne to see it. First weekend back in Sydney, I went to SMASH! The Sydney Manga and Anime Show, where there was a selection of artists and cosplay. If I may say so myself, there was some impressive cosplay there. I was dragooned into minding a stall, which was displaying the art of Annabel Lee, and it was quite impressive! So much so I bought an A4 print. Added to the awesomeness of the animecon, I’ve started timing again for the fansub groups, which is fun and games. We’ve added a speedsub for School Days, as the main group is taking its sweet time moving itself, and Love Get CHU is still moving along, albeit as slowly as ever. Also should be working on this other timing project, I will do it tomorrow. Promise.

Well I’ll be working my last week in Sydney at APEC, which should be an experience and a half, looking forward to that!!! Apart from that, I’ll be seeing friends and doing some more bumming around. Also, I’m hoping to upgrade my hosting account so as to accommodate all the photos and movies and stuff i’ll be putting up from china=p
That’s my ramble for tonight…

But I had some free time, so i thought, I might as well give the demo a whirl. Best. Decision. Ever. All those reviews? They were right. The game is simply SO much fun. The graphics are great, the game play is fun, controls are easy to use once you get used to it. We have a winner here.

What is even better is that the game is provided over steam. Now, I love steam. I think having a central control system for the games is the best idea ever. I hate logging into BF2 only to find there was a patch released. Then having to download the 500Mb patch. With steam, it’s always running, so will automatically update the game. So when I want to play, the latest patches have already been applied.

Which isn’t to say that the game/steam is perfect. If you want to play the game, you need to update your graphics drivers to a special release by ATi/nVidia. Then there is the fact that it needs administrator privileges to play on Vista. Once you get past all the itty, bitty annoyances, the game is simply just fun to play.

I seriously recommend this game if you love FPS. And even if you don’t.