I've been training-up for the Shanghai White-Collar Boxing event, which comes up in a couple of months. It's a charity event for The Foundation for Newborns with Respiratory Failure.

The training is excellent! I never thought I'd find boxing as interesting as I do. It's mostly due to having an instructor like Michelle Aboro (21-0-0; Super Bantamweight World Champion). Tres cool!

The only trophy I've received so far is this shiner under my left-eye. ;)

Sometimes you discover things in surprisingly serendipitous ways.

I spent part of the day today doing research on a condominium development in Singapore that my girlfriend and I are interested in. In the process I inadvertently learned a few things about architecture, architectural history, social/urban planning and the architect who designed the World Trade Center Towers; which seemed appropriate on this the ten-year anniversary of their destruction.

The condominium I was researching proves to be a very unique development in that each unit has a high degree of outdoor space that is relatively public (almost like a suburban front-yard) and which neighbors must pass on their way to the elevator. This semi-private space is included in each unit even as far as the top levels of the development and is staggered to provide two floors of volume above each space. Some inhabitants have quite lush gardens growing in these spaces, some use it as an open-air shed. Some of the units are small, some are huge. The architect reportedly modeled the development on the native Malay Kampung (village), renown for it's communal and family-oriented style of life. I do not know the specific design choices that make the development work, but . . . it works. Even during our brief visit to look at one of the units, we struck up a lengthy conversation with one of the neighbors 'over the fence'. A recent survey conducted with the inhabitants indicated their (self-reported) communal interactions, feeling of security, etc were all in the 90th percentiles.

"It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones. "

— Niccolò Machiavelli

Here are two simple ideas for improving our democracy that are so obviously good that we should immediately start petitioning for their implementation.

1) Legislative Version Control
When we write software, complex or simple, we track the changes to the code line-by-line over time. When members of my development team commit a change to our codebase, I know exactly what the change is, who made it, when they made it and exactly which issue/bug/feature the change was made to address. The exact same technologies could and should be used to track the introduction, modification and amendment of legislative bills. Moreover, this information should be made publicly available. If transparency and accountability are principles that genuinely mean anything to us as a democracy, we should welcome the introduction of this technology to our legislative process.

2) Instant-Runoff Voting (IRV)
I, for one, am tired of the false choices I am forced to make by our antiquated system of voting. I don't want to be forced to make a calculated choice between candidates neither of whom represent my interests or positions. IRV is simple to understand and enables voters to vote for the candidates they genuinely want to vote for. The British House of Lords uses it, the Irish elect their President with it, the Australians elect their Representatives with it and municipalities like Minneapolis and San Francisco use it in their elections. It's a tried and tested voting method and it's long past time we started working for its implementation in State and Federal elections.

I'd suggest Condorcet voting - specifically, Schulze method (good enough for Gentoo, Debian and the Wikimedia foundation . . . good enough for me) - but I think it would be harder to convince an electorate to go with it.

My mate, Charlie, had a few of us down to Hong Kong for a bit of a boys hunting weekend, replete with a case of red claret, a bottle of the King's Ginger and four pheasant drives (and one duck - separated with tea and a f-ing amazing lunch). If everyone hadn't been hungover and bruised from dinner, drinks and what by all accounts was a rather feisty game of freda (I'd passed out in my room by then), the birds might not have gotten off so well.

I've been away from the web development for quite awhile, but I recently had to create a small website for a little side project. So I went back to what I knew; i.e. Drupal.

Why anyone would create a website in anything other than Drupal is a mystery to me. The tools and framework are so so clean, the architecture so mature, the pace of development so rapid . . . it never fails to impress. Ever.

A few new modules that are now available just cry out for a little praise. You've GOT to try some of these:

Fusion
An amazing base theme. Grid or float, this thing rocks.

Skinr
Want to make your theme skinable!? This is the skinning tool Fusion is based on, and someone has put a lot of thought into making it work beautifully. I couldn't be happier . . . so far.

Administration Menu
I had no idea I needed this until I started using it . . . Oh my god . . . the ease of use, I think my Drupal maintenance efficiencies just went through the roof.

Sheer GENIUS!

My latest favorite website is Let Me Google That for You.

I LOVE that someone out there created this. In a word, it's AWESOME.

So, go ahead . . . ask me that stupid question that you're too lazy to type into google for yourself . . . ask it . . . go on . . . I double dare you.

So the DC Federal Circuit Court decided the FCC couldn't extend it's regulatory authority to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) through its Title I "ancillary authority". Huh.

In the immortal words of Gomer Pyle, "Surprise, surprise, surprise . . .".

In actual fact, the decision shouldn't come as a surprise at all to anyone who has been following the development of Internet regulatory policy leading up to and following the passage of the Supreme Court's Brand-X decision. The Brand-X decision (allowing the Bush-era Martin Commission to reclassify cable provisioned internet access as an "information service" - and therefore beyond the reach of the FCC's Title II telecoms regulatory authority) was the pivotal moment in which the FCC threw away its authority to regulate ISPs; a truly spectacular moment of de-regulatory hubris.

Yeah, I love me some brioche! mmmmmmm . . .

My new mission in life - apart from the obvious pursuit of "Grand High Pubah and Governor of All That I Know" - is the refinement of my brioche recipe. This picture is of my first batch, made nigh a month ago, but I've been hard at it. I've increased the measures to fit my pan (before I was only getting 16 instead of my now super-glorious 24 bundles of light, eggy, only-just-perceptibly-sweet, morsels of buttery love).

Please, please, control yourselves; don't drool on the keyboard. If you find yourself in Shanghai anytime soon, I just might let you have one.

ONE . . . you greedy hordes!!

Alex Chilton died in New Orleans today.

This is the second obit blog in a row that I've written, which is depressing.The music Chilton produced with Chris Bell for Big Star was - like the work of Eric Rohmer - decidedly independent and unique. Just hearing the opening riffs of any song on #1 or Radio City evokes a clear and definite emotion for me. Their music is among the most lyrical in Rock and virtually defined the modern pop sound. Had Chris Bell not died in a car accident in the late 70s, the duo would've almost certainly been an American Lennon/McCartney; their work was THAT good and the pair were THAT complimentary.

With the death of Chilton, it seems as if an entire era is - sadly - brought to an end. They don't make 'em like that any more . . .