Recent content on Ordinary Mode
There was an outage lasting a couple of days. Service should now be restored. The root cause is misadventure. However, it is more accurately described in the literature as an own goal, arising from the reckless deletion of the files that make-up this blog and an inadequate approach to backups. 
 Site Admin 
 This site has migrated away from Cloudflare. While Cloudflare was overkill for…
I like using RSS as it is a very convenient way to access updates from the many blogs I follow. 1 
 Yesterday, I wrote mentioned recent updates to the design of this site. Upon testing I noticed that the RSS feed was truncated. Readers were getting a summary, and if they want to read more they would have to visit the website. 
 I like reading my feeds, in full, in the application of my…
Australia is home to many unique species of birds that live in the urban environment. Living in the suburbs, I am developing a deeper awareness and appreciation for the birds of the city. 
 One of the more common birds is the Galah , a small cockatoo known for its distinctive pink colouring. The word Galah is used by some speakers of Australian English to mean fool . 
 The unique colours…
Renovations are happening to our house. They are major and have involved partial demolition and rebuilding. We are living in the house while this occurs. It has been disruptive, but the finish line is in sight, even if it is still a long way. 
 Through the process I have observed the builder and various trades required to build in 2026. The takeaway is understanding that the house is a system…
It has been a while. Logging in requires updates to server and software. Things break. Everything is now in order. While there is a temptation to tinker more with the design, fonts, structure. I have decided to write. Not much more than this note. 
 One of the key changes to the site has been moving the site to be served by Cloudflare. The reason is the ongoing struggle to protect creative…
I used to use Wordpress. A long time ago. 2006 was a long time ago by internet standards. 
 I am currently helping a friend build a basic website. I recommended Wordpress as a CMS given the user friendly nature of the platform. I must say I was wrong. Wordpress is a horrible, bloated piece of software. It is not user friendly, not for people like my friend who are not web-designers. The…
What’s on in the morning sets the tone of the day. One of the most impactful things I did last year was to change breakfast radio programming from news to music. It is great to munch the morning muesli with diverse tunes as opposed to the trivial talking points regurgitated by banal politicians. 
 Melbourne is blessed with a number of community radio stations. For me the Breakfast Spread…
I am currently in the process of moving house. This has occupied an inordinate amount of spare time, reflecting the lack of attention to my blog. The whole experience – selling our apartment and then frantically going to many open for inspections was both disappointing 1 and overwhelming 2 . 
 The process was finding compromise among suboptimal choices. This required distilling what I wanted,…
One of the better things to happen this year was welcoming an e-bike into our home. The bike is a cargo bike equipped to carry two little people. It has revolutionised our commute — especially to childcare. 
 Instead of spending 20–40 minutes driving 4 km, it is 25 minutes on the bike. For a commute, predictability is the key. Oh, it is also fun. The kids love being on the back, and we often…