lifeasdaddy

Fun @ the Powerhouse Museum

Last week Edward asked to go to the Powerhouse Museum, which if I had to categorise it, I'd say is a museum of technology, science, decorative arts and design.  So today we made the trek to Ultimo and met up with Ben and Lauren and Edward's cousins Thomas and Eloise.

We especially got Ed excited about visiting the zero gravity simulator  which is part of the Space exhibition.

The Zero-G simulator is comprised of a stationary platform upon which the astronauts (kids) stand surrounded by a cylindrical shaped mockup of the inside of a space station.  The cylinder slowly rotates to simlulate a space like experience.  To the astronauts, nothing much seems to be happening, but when you walk out onto "earth" again, it is quite disorientating.  Thankfully there is a rest area, which I suggest you use.

On the way to the Zero-G experience, then kids also had the chance to be photographed looking like space travellers as they stuck their heads through the painted backdrop.  An oldie, but a goody.

Later the boys had the chance to dress up in astronaut costumes.  There were alien costumes too, but they didn't have the same attraction.

Apart from these obvious novelties, they had some great fun in the Experimentations area which displays pratical examples of some of the fundamental physics of electricity, light, and magnetism.  In this pic, Edward is using a hand cranked generator to power a toy electric train and send it around a small track in the enclosure.

I know that when Ed said last week that he wanted to go to the Powerhouse Museum, he had in his mind seeing the steam engines on display.  The museum includes on permanent display Locomotive No. 1, which was the first steam locomotive in Australia.  Made in England by the Stephenson works, it was transported to Australia by ship and put into use in 1855.  I see from the nameplate data, that it was in fact No. 958, as far as they were concerned.

There is also an engine built in 1882, Locomotive No. 1243 on display and Edward was able to stand on the footplate and operate a few controls.  the display is interactive, and as buttons are pressed the voice of a driver or fireman explain the workings.

There's a section called Zoe's House, which is a contruction and building activity for kids aged 3 - 6.  Ed, Thomas and Eloise all loved this.

The Powerhouse Museum is well set up to light the imagination of children, and as you can see has lots of things for them to do, see, and in which to be invovolved.

But there's also rareities to interest military historians like me.

This enigma machine is part of an exhibition, and was used to create coded messages by the German Army in World War II.

Breaking the codes made by these machines was a turning point of World War II.

There are two other known specimins of these machines in Australia.  One is held by the Australian War Memorial, and one held by the government information security (cryptological) agency Defence Signals Directorate; although both are owned by DSD.

To see inside an Enigma machine, you can check this series of photographs (not from the Powerhouse Museum)

The children all enjoyed taking a break in the courtyard cafe which has some state of the art play and climbing activites, including this giant climbing frame which can be enjoyed by kids of all ages, including this 40ish man who could not resist climbing to the top. 

I managed to control the climbing impulse.

Now, it wouldn't be a visit to a museum if we didn't manage to find an error in a curatorial plaque, and here's the result from today.

There's a display about the work of violin maker William Auchterlonie (perhaps part of the famous golfing family?) and the plaque says that," This page is open to 1924, the year the violin on display was made."

But it is clearly a page from 1934. 

He had been using a day-to-a-page diary from 1930, and the day for that page, Tuesday January 28th, 1930 is crossed out.  Auchterlonie's note begins, "Started in 1934 Beginning of November ..."

SUMMARY:

Edward asked to return to the Zero-gravity simulator, and the engine Locomotive No. 1243 - so I guess they must be the best things in the museum today.

Lonely Planet guide book writer admits he made it up.

I thought Lonely Planet guidebooks were over rated.  This could be one reason.

lifeasdaddy - Microsoft HealthVault: A way to preserve and share your medical records.

Frank Arrigo drew my attention to Microsoft's new health product, HealthVault.  It's a service to store your personal health information and medical records which may be input by you, your medical professionals, or partners in the HealthVault system such as 3rd party health service providers.

It's built on the principle that "... you should control your own health records."

Australia's outdated and outmoded medical infrastructure is such that sharing of a patient's medical records between a private hospital, a public hospital, a family physician, a treating specialist, a health para-professional and a pharmacist are impossible.  The New South Wales Health Department is piloting such a system called Healthelink but the recent troubles in the NSW health system may see wide scale introduction a long way off.  Even if it were introduced in NSW, what happens when you go interstate, or overseas? 

As is apparent from the current election-mode blame games being played between Federal and State politicians, it is very difficult to get national agreement on the implementation of health systems in Australia.  So, a privately run system like Microsoft's HealthVault could be the way to go.

If you want to try out HealthVault yourself, you will need to sign in using a Windows Live ID.  the current beta-mode HealthVault is only permitting use by United States residents, so if you are outside the USA, the workaround is to alter your home address in the Windows Live ID account profile to an address inside the USA.  As such, and because there are presently no partner sites outside the USA there is certainly limited usefulness for those outside the USA, but go have a look for yourself.

This week the ABC 7.30 Report current affairs programme aired a segment lamenting the lack of electronic accessibility to medical records.  Read the transcript here, with link through to vodcast.

Here's the New York Times story about HealthVault which also focuses on the competitiveness within the IT industry to get into the medical records space.

lifeasdaddy - Online reviews and ratings: Do they stack up?

There's a general lack of transparency about various sites which rank products and services online.  A lack of transparency about how the exact ranking is decided that is.

The Wall Street Journal's Numbers Guy runs his slide rule over the online rankings issue here.

There's lies, damned lies, and statistics.

lifeasdaddy - Kids wearing Crocs + escalator = danger!

Crocs near the side of escalator steps/treads can be very dangerous as the get stuck against the side  in a stationary position as the step continues to move.  Could result in amputated toes.

Check the Forbes article here.

And the addtional comment by Charles A. Buckman (escalator expert) here.

lifeasdaddy - If you are an Australian going to work in the USA you'll want to...

... read what Frank Arrigo had to say about his visa "interview".

Lots of security hoo haa and long queing for a very short interview.

lifeasdaddy - Making a campus safer. George Mason University's emergency alert system.

The official panel examining the Viginia Tech campus shootings of earlier this year has found that more lives would have been saved if an emergency alert had ben issued earlier.

From today's Washington Post story:

The panel appointed by the governor to investigate the massacre at Virginia Tech is critical of the university's response to the shootings and its treatment of Seung Hui Cho, concluding that some lives could have been saved if officials had issued an alert sooner that a gunman was on campus.

Here's the report of the Virginia Tech Review Panel from the Official site of the Governor of Virginia.

Today I was doing some research about George Mason University, which is also located in Virginia.  In a prominant position right there on the GMU home page is a tab with a link to "MASON ALERT EMERGENCY MESSAGING":

This system is administered by the Safety OfficeWelcome to Mason Alert

Mason Alert is an alert system that allows George Mason University to contact you during an emergency by sending text messages to your: Cell phone E-mail (school, personal, other) Pager BlackBerry/Treo When an emergency occurs, authorized senders will notify you using Mason Alert. Mason Alert is your personal connection to real-time updates, instructions on where to go, what to do, or what not to do, who to contact and other important information. What a fine idea.  Could save lives in the event of an emergency. Now let's check on the Viginia Tech home page and see if they've got something prominant and similar.  Nope.  Nothing like that there.

lifeasdaddy - Ed on the DVR miniature railway

Yesterday lifeasdaddy was on the road in Melbourne.  Edward wanted to see the Daimond Valley Railway which is a miniature railroad.  It's in Eltham Lower Park in Main Road, Eltham.

It runs almost every Sunday, and you can get the low-down here.

This shows Edward in a carriage being drawn by locomotive S301, painted in the traditional Victorian Railways blue and gold livery.

Other locomotives running yesterday were Milwaukee Road, NSW SRA 81 Class, and an honest to goodness steamie called Tom Thumb. All in miniature of course.

Children under 2 years are free, all other passengers pay $3.

This is a great way to spend an hour.

lifeasdaddy - Some Fisher-Price toys recalled in Australia, USA and elsewhere due to lead coating

Here's the story about US recall.

Here's the story about Australia recall.:

Mattel Australia recalled 43,000 Fisher-Price toys today after characters including Dora the Explorer, Sesame Street's Ernie and Barney the Dinosaur were found to be coated in dangerous levels of lead.

Here's the Fisher-Price Australia product safety recall page, however the information does not yet include this latest recall - as at 3.45pm August 2, 2007.

IMPORTANT:

Here's the USA product recall site, with some relevant information.

lifeasdaddy - Eating out on Oahu, Hawaii

Best meal we had during the trip was at John Domanis.  It was not mentioned in any of the 4 or 5 tourist guidebooks we consulted, but came as a personal recommendation to our friend and dining companion Jean-Marc from a long time resident.

John Domanis has great seafood, attentive service and a nice outlook over the ocean.  It is approached via part of Honolulu's working port, so don't be put off by that.  Valet parking is very reasonably priced too.  Check out the details and typical menus on the restaurant's website here.

Best tourist restaurant experience was at Duke's Waikiki. Duke's Canoe Club Waikiki is located inside the Outrigger Waikiki hotel. This restaurant is mentioned in every tourist guidebook. The food was pretty good, but what you really come here for is the ambience and people watching.  There's the restaurant, then there's the hotel's pool, and then on the other side the most famous beach in the world.  The restaurant is chock full of memorabilia about Duke Kahanamoku, the father of surfing.

HINT: We read that Duke's does not accept reservations for dinner, so early in the afternoon we asked the restaurant hostesses what time they suggested we attend to have the shortest wait for a dinner table.  On that Saturday, they suggested we arrive at 6.15pm, and expect one hour waiting time.  We arrived at 6.00pm and reported to the restaurant reception desk.  They noted our names, and we were advised to come back at 7.10pm.  Returning on time, we had to wait only 5 more minutes to be seated at our table.   The one hour waiting time gave us enough time to go next door to have a cocktail at The Royal Hawaiian Hotel's  Mai Tai  Bar.  Again, one of those quintessential experiences.  Sure it's commercial - but this is Waikiki baby, and money talks.  We had fun drinking our outrageously kitsch cocktails, and the friendly bassist from the bar's jazz trio who was on his break kindly took our group photograph.  (Photo will be posted when it comes to hand.)

DINING WITH CHILDREN ON OAHU

For dinner, the standout for kids is the Pacific Beach Hotel's Oceanarium Restaurant.  The aquarium is huge.  Maybe 6 metres high, and 30 metres long. The photo attached to the restaurant's website gives some scale against the dining tables and chairs.

The restaurant is very busy, and probably has at least 3 seatings per night.This place is obviously a favourite of locals, and there were at least 3 kids' birthday parties.  Not the place for a romantic dinner for two. The tables are generally long, seating 9 or ten people.  Prime tables abut the aquarium tank and the gimmick here is that a diver in the water swims up to the table celebrating a birthday and places a sign against the glass "Happy Birthday Billie".   When the birthday cake comes out for the boy or girl of the moment, 9 or 10 waiters gather around the table and sing Happy Birthday to You.   It's hokey, but the pay off is the ear-to-ear grin of the birthday boy or girl.  If I were 7 or 8 years old, I would think it was the bee's knees.  Bookings essential, and I assume to get one of those prime tables on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday night you would need to book weeks ahead.  Gabrielle and I probably got more out of the aquarium aspect than Edward did, but he enjoyed the food, the general hubbub and sense of occasion.

The food is OK for a high volume buffet.  Like Duke's, you don't come here for the food, you come because this ambience is something you can't get anywhere else.

I couldn't take suitable photographs there, but here's some Flickr sets.   There's a nightly Dinner  Buffet, and on the Sunday night we dined the Dim Sum Station was active.

I'm not exactly sure how much  the Oceanarium Restaurant charges for the buffet, but we went with 5 adults and 3 kids under 4 years old, and paid about $35 each for the adults and nothing for the children.  Check their children's prices before you go. Drinks and tax were extra.  A great kids' holiday experience. 

For casual lunch eating with the kids, a standout was the  Poolside Grill at the Marriott Ihilani Resort and Spa.

I mentioned this place when I was writing about beaches for kids, but what I didn't tell you is that less than a metre from our table was a giant pond full of hammerhead sharks.   On the two days that we lunched there, a hotel staff member came around with a group of hotel guests at 11.30am and fed the sharks.  The sharks feeders and guests actually stand in the pond, but are protected from the predators by a small rock wall.  This rock wall also allows the small fish to swim out of the reach of the sharks so there are no disturbing displays of the natural world to bring on tears in the little kids.

The food was tasty and hearty, and reasonably priced for an establishment of this type (read moderately expensive) The bonus is that a spend of more than $25 yields free parking in the resort car park, close to the Ko Olina lagoons where it is otherwise near impossible to park.

Generally, everywhere we went on Oahu children were warmly welcomed.