yesterday's technology tomorrow
Thursday, May 15, 2003
Sydney you've changed in 5 years5 years ago, Suzette and I moved to Sydney for my work. It was a great time with plenty of disposable income and a nice place and we had only been living together for a few months so it was all very exciting. Over the last 5 years I've been up to Sydney many times a year for business (looking for investors, board meetings, biz dev ops, conferences, etc.) but its probably been 9 months or more since my last trip.
Yesterday, Andrew and I went up to meet a few people at Telstra and OZTAM (they do the TV ratings). In a word it was WET. But there were two interesting things I noticed.
1. My old haunts had changed. The restaurant in North Sydney I used to have breakfast and coffee at had lost its old feel, the streets had changed and the overall feel was different, bigger and more transport oriented. Of course, I'd be naive to think things wouldn't change but I was surprised by how different it all was.
2. The people we met actually knew their stuff. Over the last 4 years I've been to lots of meetings with Australian (and US) dot coms where the staff were useless. Yesterday we were meeting with people who work in tech businesses but not dot coms they were sharp, to the point and most of all professional. No KGrind style board shorts and skateboards for the CEO on 500k here.
Back in Melbourne and its wet and cold.....a nice day to stay at home and work quietly....perfect!
0 comments | 8:46 AM
About
neuronwave is the personal site of Ben Hosken. I am the founder of Flink Labs, a data visualisation studio based in Melbourne. Previously I founded AgentArts, where I developed a recommendations system that we ultimately sold to MSFT.I have two patents, one in Recommendation Systems and one for a datamining algorithm I invented. I have a strong interest in physical computing, emergence, self organising systems, immersive games, bluetooth ad hoc networks and other fun things.
A while ago I built and ran Blog Change Bot - an AOL IM Bot which notified you when blogs you like are updated. I also built IcyPole, a bluetooth based P2P mobile phone app in 2004. With Suzette, I've built Playground Finder - a community contributed site for parents to find playgrounds nearby and while traveling for their kids to play in. Its a "playground" for my social, location, community and mobile interests.
I live in Melbourne with my wife Suzette, son Oskar Tex and my little girl Jasmine
Random Pile of Ben
Bodypump, Flink Labs, autumn weather, balance.
Downloads etc
The Best Bagel Recipe ever
iTunes XML structure
Photo of some of my best Panetones
Neuron EcoSystem
Flink Labs
Oskar Tex
Jasmine
Aurora
Suzette
Playground Finder
Archives
ben at neuronwave dot com
