This one is pretty amazing, especially considering he got caught just because of one small coincidental mistake (and he’s Canadian!).

Of course, I’m someplace in the world art the mo that doesn’t have winter when the groundhogs come out (or I think, for that matter, groundhogs… perhaps a surly wombat will suffice) but it still feels like I should be having some sort of party about it all.

So, here’s hoping for my more northernly friends that Wiarton Willie does not see his shadow and winter is soon over (unless you’re in Vancouver, cause you guys need the snow for them thar ‘lympics… ).

The top 10 Happiest Cities :

1. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2. Sydney, Australia
3. Barcelona, Spain
4. Amsterdam, Netherlands
5. Melbourne, Australia
6. Madrid, Spain
7. San Francisco, U.S.A.
8. Rome, Italy
9. Paris, France
10. Buenos Aires, Argentina

Well, I can definitely vouch for Paris and we’ll see how Sydney goes, but Amsterdam ? Yeesh… Quite seriously, one of the most miserable places I have ever lived so thought it strange it was on the list. I guess the list may be about perception more than the actuality though.

(via Gadling.)

Kinda excited to see what people do here on the island. I’ve already been seeing some people burning incense sticks and paper votives in buckets outside shops and houses the past few days so wondering what tonight will be like.

Will up some pics if I do see anything super interesting.

This is what iPhoto has on geotagged photos (which doesn’t even cover all the places !).

Greetings from Cairo everyone !

The keys to happiness are : Meaning, Belonging and Someone. No, I’m not going to expound on it here. You can buy me a beer if you want the full explanation.

By contrast, the always excellent Atlantic has an amazing article on a journalist who has managed to gain access to Harvard’s 72-year longitudinal study following 268 men since the 1930s on how various aspects and events in their lives affected their happiness. Even Kennedy was a member of the original Grant Study (though his dossier has been withdrawn and sealed till 2040 rather fascinatingly).

While seemingly anachronistic and dated in a way for its initial focus on Freudian adaptations, the study and its curator have since found new life in the modern era as a kind of godfather for the positive psychology movement, and its deep data and reflections on the lives of its subjects and long-running nature has of course yielded jewels and verifications in terms of what you may need in order to broker your own happiness.

The piece is also a rather fascinating reflection on the study’s curator, and on the depth of the data it has and the power of the life stories it seeks to tell. And, perhaps, an interesting reflection on the nature of happiness itself and a questioning of whether being content and mere low expectations are more important than a continual sense of questing and striving.

(via BoingBoing.)

• Vienna, Austria (1st)
• Zurich, Switzerland (2nd)
• Geneva, Switzerland (3rd )
• Vancouver, Canada (tied 4th)
• Auckland, New Zealand (tied 4th)

Now the interesting thing is the actual personal desirability of living in certain of these cities, I think… is wildly subjective despite their ranking (London is 38th, for example, and I was only willing to move here because of the specific job I’m in now – when it’s done, I’m most likely gone, baby… whereas say, Paris is 35th… which I’d actually move back to in a heartbeat if I could — for example, to do this job from there). And even having lived in Vancouver personally (and thinking it’s a wonderful place), I did nevertheless find it had serious issues professionally, culturally and travel-wise that made me worry about it as a long term place to settle myself.

I was thinking a totally awesome thing for Mercer to do create an interactive tool for everyone to personally weight the various factors of data that were important to them from all the data Mercer has collected and have people build their own indices. How cool would that be ? Rather than a tool for figuring out transfer administrivia, a tool to figure out where your probable ideal place to live might be.

Now that is something I’d be interested in seeing. Hell, I’d be interested in building it… Just give me the data (or an API to access it. Would be a cool googlemaps-esque mashup. Alter the different weightings on the side and see how (or if) it changes the cities rankings… though I imagine a lot of the things I might be interested in would probably just have surrogates rather than accurate representations in their datasets. Hmmmm…

Suspiciously, this weekend’s edition of the Instructables Weekend Builder, caught my attention with an entire mini-feature on How to Get a Free Yacht (and its maiden voyage).

There’s even a Free Yacht – Volume 2.

It’s an older article, but I can’t believe I’ve never noticed it before. Hmmmm… I wonder how applicable this is outside the US.

I’ve posted up some pics from the first week ranging down the coast as far as Kizkalesi before I turned inland to head to Cappadoccia.

Still, the best are yet to come. Cappadoccia has to be one of the most stunningly beautiful places I’ve ever seen and even though pictures simply don’t capture the subtle colour and line of the place, it does give you the general idea. Stay tuned.

This is one of my favourite pics of the floating, magic castle of Kizkalesi.

It’s giving me idears again.

And I hope it gives you some, especially if you haven’t done much traveling and have been looking for an excuse to take the plunge and go somewhere.

(via Gadling.)

I thought I’d try something someone on another blog mentioned. Rather than write big long reviews of things, just write a twitter-esque three sentence summary of what I’ve seen/heard/read. Thought it was a good idea so going to try it for a while and see how it goes.

Still not sure how that fell off the rails anyhow… Looking back, for some reason I felt compelled to write in great (and unnecessary) length about things which really didn’t either need it or required. In the end, it was too much. The small recommendations or tips of the cool tip of the hat to whatever thing I was reading or watching just ended up becoming overwhelmed by feeling the need to cover every aspect of the thing which ultimately defeated the purpose of logging the things int he first place. Anyhow, we’ll see how it goes as an experiment.

The interesting thing is that Anamur had its own special banana that, in a sad casualty of the global agri-biz, has largely been pushed out by cheaper, easier to grow, more transportable ones. Anamur, because they’re grown here, is one of the few places you can buy them cheaply.

The bad thing for us all is that the Anamur muz (muz is Turkish for banana) is smaller, but much sweeter, and I have to say, much better tasting that the big chiquita ones we all seem to have on cereal every morning. There are bunches of them hanging around the bus station before you get on this bus and makes for a very cheap and healthy snack on the long ride along the coast. Definitely held me over till I could reach Kizkalesi and get some seafood and ?i? after seeing the castle.

(and rather interestingly, while I was in Anamur I ended up having a banana grower and his two friends come sit with me at dinner so had a rather interesting conversation on the banana and strawberry biz).

I had decided to bypass Alanya completely. Side is sometimes described as Alanya’s smaller cousin and even with the long kilometres of beach I really wanted to get away from the all-inclusive, package tour crowd and soak up some of Turkey without feeling like just another tourist.

I don’t know, perhaps it is impossible to just travel anymore without being assailed by touts and guides, but I have to say I’m kinda enjoying just being me, walking around and talking with people in Anamur. I had originally come for the two ruins (the ancient Phoenician founded, Byzantine ruins of Annamurium and the Mimere Castle) that are close to the city, but so far I’ve just managed to hang out, enjoy myself and have long discussions over tea and kahve with some of the locals. I’m actually kinda liking Anamur much more than Side.

The ride here was kind of dull except for the scenery. I’ve noticed, people don’t really talk on Turkish buses unless they know each other. Also, I was surrounded by women and striking up a conversation when you’re not sure of someone’s religious affiliations can get you into trouble (on a bus last time I was here, I was moved so that I wouldn’t be sitting beside women by myself, fearful threat to the female faithful I am).

The thing about it that was exceptional though, at least for any ride I’ve ever taken, was the route and road through the Cilician coastal mountains. I’ve been on a lot of twisty, high, sheer drop highways before, but this one has to be one for the books. It makes Whistler’s Sea to Sky, even before the overhaul, look like a cakewalk.

The thing you do get for the apparent risk to life and limb though is some of the most breathtakingly impressive views I’ve ever seen down the Mediterranean coast. Especially as you look back as the sun is setting on the sea and from the very high mountain pass points littered along the “highway”. I’m thinking I’d love to get a motorcycle and do the road again someday, because it was really worth the ride just for the views (In fact, I’m thinking Turkey via motorcycle might be a very, very good idea if I’m coming again. This is the second bus ride, going in opposite directions, where I’ve gone past some stunning views I would have liked to stop and appreciate longer).

Strangely, speaking to people here they seem to think the road is a hindrance to their economic well-being as it makes tourists getting here work. Package tours don’t come this far and only us indie flashpackers make the trip when summer gets here. Personally, I see it as a protective barrier guarding their town (about to post up an interesting conversation I had with a hotellier later today about his view on package tourism).

Still, it’s worth stopping here and glad I did, because to be honest, I wasn’t really sure originally why I felt I had to come here. Originally felt like I was just going to push on to Kizkalesi, especially when I had to wait a couple hours for the bus due to the first being completely full. And my hotel was steps from the sea so once again got to fall asleep lulled by the sounds of the waves.

Really liking Anamur, but need to push on today to Kizkalesi (besides, those clouds are coming in over the sea again and my weather widget is telling me it’s already raining in Antlaya further down the coast).

It’s definitely the side of tourism that I was hoping to avoid coming back to Turkey. I’d managed to dodge it last time heading West from Antalya and in the early season. Where Antalya’s Kaleiçi has its touts and hawkers, there is at least a vibrant city beneath and outside of the old town which somehow makes up for it.

Side, though… it’s where tourism in general has gone horribly, horribly wrong. While the people in the town are amazingly friendly once they get past you being a walking wallet, and very friendly if you need help with something, the fact seems to be that Side exists to separate tourists from their cash. The hotels are more expensive than Antalya (at least the ones I saw), the food is quite pricey and the main street is a thinly disguised outside shopping mall of silver, leather, knock knacks, turkish delight and clothing, shoes, watches and jewellery that I assume is supposed to make up for the lack of other things to do in the town. Apparently, germans descend on this place pell-mell in season since most hawkers try and restaurant touts try you out in German first and seem genuinely surprised if you try to speak Turkish.

Admittedly, I”m very early in the season 9and a bit of a travel snob), so the place is barely warmed up yet, but there seems to be reams of package tourists just down the beach front heading to Kumkoy. They bus into the town when they tired of lazing on the beach as their usual plans are all-inclusive.

Still… Side has the achingly beautiful Temple of Apollo set against the sea which is the real reason I came to the town in the first place. It’s a stunning ruin, set right against the water and the way it was described originally reminded me of an older trip I’d taken to Cap Sounian in Greece. So, it was big in my mind for heading there. Also, the other ruins of the Byzantine city that used to stand here are also extremely impressive. The amphitheatre, for instance, is exceptional in that it is not build into a hillside, so as far as I’m aware unique in having free standing exterior walls. So, too the agora ruins near the public beach has a fantastic library façade that you can reach and some exceptional views down the beach if you climb over the sand dunes (or high into the walls). The great gate that marks the entrance to the town is also pretty cool for having to drive through it to get there.

Dining out was pretty pricey to my mind… practically on par with my favourite stand-bys in London, but I’m definitely feeling the fall of the pound against the euro. Especially where I would think I’d be making a cheap getaway here, Side made me think I’d better watch my lira a bit more carefully.

I did have a fantastic fish dinner at the Aphrodite, which is right in the centre of town on the harbour, which to its credit, seems to be the squarest deal in town. It’s open all winter and Turks suffer the same prices as tourists which is to say they’re fair and I did have an utterly fantastic fish kebab there while watching the sun set over the harbour and then taking a coffee while the call of the faithful to prayer rose over the town and the sea (and staring deep into the grounds when done to see what the future is holding for me).

I stayed at the Lonely Planet recommended Beach House Hotel which was great. Right on the sea with a balcony and a view that just couldn’t be beat, it made me super happy to keep my balcony window open and listen to the waves pounding against the shote when going to sleep. Only big issues I had with it was that they said they had internet access when I called and looks like it’s either not set up this early in the season, but forgiveable considering how great it was and how nice the staff were (though breakies could be a bit more robust).

Considering that Side is a smaller Alanya, I’m probably doing a good thing deciding to to avoid the beach stretching for 20 clicks in Alanya. I’ve opted for some slightly smller and more interesting places before turning North to Gorume that hopefully combine ruin and beach and will be slightly less touristy right now. We’ll see. Gidilim !

We got into Antalya just as the imam’s call to prayer was ringing out across the city and entered Kaleiçi, the old city, right through Hadrian’s Gate just as it was finishing. Now, I thought, I’m back in Turkey proper.

And it’s so good to be back. I’m still massacring the language despite a weekly lesson from my long suffering teacher and the Antalyian touts in the town seemed a little more aggressive than the last time I remember them (mostly because there were three of us I think, and there are fewer fish at this time of year with being a few weeks earlier than last time), but the people are still friendly, the food is amazing (had a phenomenal last dinner with my team at Villa Perla before putting them on the plane back to London) and the sun has been shining all morning despite the fact it was supposed to rain today.

I’ve already haggled myself a great deal to get to Side cheaper and way more conveniently than what it would have cost by bus if I had stopped off in Perge and Aspendos (which I’m going to do), so pretty pleased with myself and looking forward to getting into Side just in time for dinner to check out the ruins at sunset, have some awesome seafood right beside the sea (and hopefully not pay through the nose for it) and sink deep into my vacation.

So, it’s an afternoon of ruins and amphitheatres for me, drifting eastward into empires past and living antiquities.

Updates may be slow for the next few days as bandwidth and connectivity allow.

My family used to live on the edge of the snow belt in Ontario and every winter there would be a few days where old man winter socked us in with snow so bad the school buses couldn’t run and even trying to get out of the subdivision was an act in skidding into the ditch. And every so often when I was living in Toronto, there would be a storm so bad in my adult life that getting to work was sheer folly (I went anyhow, hey, it was the dot com era).

But you don’t really expect this in London. Especially overnight. The city, like all cities that don’t get a lot of snow, is completely paralyzed this morning. Stansted and Luton are closed, they just closed Heathrow, schools are closed, the redoubtable London buses are not in operation, there are no overland trains running and various tube lines are in state of running or not running.

It’s glorious.

I’ve just told my team to not try to make it into work and work from home. Sadly, being a geek, remote working technologies just kinda make this an inconvenience (actually, that’s kinda a lie since I’m starting to prefer working from home as I get more done).

If the groundhog can’t even mke it out of his hole, does that mean six more weeks or an early spring ?…

And things were pretty bleak in Toronto. Londoners may complain about their wussy almost zero temperatures, but Spring seems a long, long way away at the start of February in Toronto.

So, to my friends back in Canada, I’m hoping Wiarton Willy doesn’t see his shadow today and it’s an early Spring for you all, and you don’t have another six weeks of winter to go before it’s t-shirts and rollerblades in the sunshine.

I don’t think we have any groundhogs here in London, and using an urban fox or hedgehog might get me in trouble, so maybe I can use one of my more introverted developers and send them outside as a surrogate to blink into the daylight. Oh well, regardless of outcome, and even though it’s Monday, I’m good for a round.

Even better, as I exited the restaurant, I could hear drums and while waiting for everyone else ran up the street a bit and run into a dancing kung fu lion. I even managed to touch him on his way by which I’m told means I’ll have spectacular luck this year of the Ox (w00t!). Anyhow, was a great way to spend the afternoon before heading back to my neighbourhood for my regular Sunday Turkish lessons.

Sadly, I didn’t get to see the dragon dance which I guess was taking place in Trafalgar Square, but kind of encouraged by the fact that the radio reported 300k people turned out even in the cold and snow (!) to represent for London’s teeny tiny Chinatown.

Gung hay fat choy !

Best wishes for a happy and prosperous new year everybody !

So, anyone know what the prognosis is for an Earth Rooster in the Year of the Ox ? Kinda curious…

So, Pushr is pretty cool. Basically, it allows non-techies to do deployment via a simple github push (very handy where designers and web front end people and the like need to push deploys but don’t know enough technically so do things like cap deploy on the command line or check into repositories). It also does twitter updates which make things very handy (would love it if it also pushed to xmpp, but hey… ). Karmi has already thumped some improvements into it and it’s looking real promising from my perspective.

Oh, and I should also point out that Karmi is also the guy behind the Sinatra-based, developer-friendly Marley blogging engine which I seriously considered replacing both Simplelog and WP with last month.