Remind Me

This weekend has been so much slower than last and I can’t even begin to explain how good that is. I think the problem with last weekend was that it was the culmination of my sister’s birthday and mother’s day. Combine that with my family, Sara’s family, having to celebrate with my sister in silos to prevent interaction between my mum and dad.. it felt like we never stopped.

Today on the other hand had me up and about, but not rushing about, caught a coffee with my mum and wandered around the city prior to me ending up in the rehearsal room for 4 hours and then just spending some time catching up some Internet reading.

Some of the more interesting things from today’s reading include:

• The new Google Analytics. With all its revised Web2.0 web site statistic goodness. The only problem I have with the new version is the fact that it’s still so good at telling me how poor my hits are.
• Another Google statistic item, this time the Gapminder World 2006. Provides you more information on global statistics, for example life expectancy versus income per capita, than you can poke a stick at.
• Finally, the Remind Me video clip from Royksöpp. Saw this on the core77 blog and was really impressed with it. I love this style of art.

Posted by Christian Posted in: Computers, Family, General, Web Development 3 Comments » 19 May 2007

25

It’s been a little under a week since I turned 25 and I have to say I’m doing a fantastic job of making it last. I mean there is still some cake left in the fridge 6 days after!

As far as birthday presents go I was spoilt rotten, as usual, here is a pic of some of the goodies.

For birthday cakes I was lucky enough to receive not one, not two, but four different cakes. My favourite was easily the chocolate cake made by Sara and adorned with Strawberries!

In addition to being long lasting it’s also been a fantastically interesting week, work wise. It’s been the 2nd week of my new job and every day is exposing more challenges and more things which are interesting me. The more I get to know my colleagues the happier I am at the decision I made to shift into this job.

Posted by Christian Posted in: Family, General, Profession No Comments » 4 May 2007

Profile of a Fraudster

Just finished having a skim of the KPMG Profile of a Fraudster Survey for this year, which I found from the recent Risks Digest post. I have to admit that this survey interested me not only in the professional sense but also personally given my family history. Some of the more interesting statistics do not surpise me at all:

• 70 percent of fraudsters were between the ages of 36 and 55 years old.
• 85 percent of perpetrators were male.
• In 68 percent of profiles the perpetrator acted independently.
• Members of senior management (including board members) represent 60 percent of all fraudsters. An additional 26 percent of profiles involve management level persons bringing the total to 86 percent of profiles involving management. This result highlights a risk that every company faces: executives are entrusted with sensitive company information and yet are also often in a position to override internal controls.
• 91 percent of perpetrators did not stop at one single fraudulent transaction but rather performed multiple fraudulent transactions; every third perpetrator acted more than 50 times.
• Greed and opportunity (when taken together account for 73 percent of profiles) are indicated to be the overriding motivations for fraud.
• No prior suspicion existed in more than half of the profiles…
• Perpetrators were able to commit fraud by primarily exploiting weak internal controls, in 49 percent of profiles.

I guess the only additional information I would have liked to have seen from this report is more international information, such as from Australia and the US.

Posted by Christian Posted in: Family, Profession, Security No Comments » 25 April 2007

Felix

Felix was born on a cold July day to my sister Hélène and her husband Rochus. From all accounts it sounded like he was the perfect baby. He wasn’t too heavy, he wasn’t too light and he cried only when it made sense for him to cry (read: dirty nappy, hungry belly). I was lucky enough to be in Melbourne for a conference, and even luckier to be able to head over a few days earlier to see my new nephew.

I remember the first time I saw him, he seemed intent on making his way into my arms, or maybe that was just Rochus wanting me to hold him. Either way, all I can remember is thinking: my god, this being is so tiny and fragile.

So even though it’s a month after the fact, I thought it was about time I posted a couple of pics.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Christian Posted in: Family, General 4 Comments » 14 August 2005

Pregnancy & Babies.

Pregnancy & Babies.

It is one of the oddest yet most common things that humans will experience. It has the ability to draw everyones eye. It can turn the toughest looking guy into a “goo-ing gaa-ing” moron. It can spawn conversations about names or the better ways to position your baby for birth. In certain situations it’s enough to get semi-complete strangers to walk up to you and rub your belly with their hands with a look of awe across their face. It’s also unfortunately, I’m guessing, one of those things that I’ll never get to experience personally.

Not to say that I won’t be closely involved with child-birth - I myself am planning on some little-winks eventually - but obviously having been born without the functional requirements which are necessary to birth a human I’ll only ever experience a sub-dued description of the events taking place.

My eldest sister is pregnant. Wholy-crap-you’re-huge type of pregnant. She waddles. She rubs her belly. She sticks it out. She pushes through queues.

And it is completely amazing.

She is taking a very naturallistic approach to the whole event and as of yet, 5-weeks to go, does not know the sex of her child. She’s also planning on having a very un-medicalised birth, which she has told us is a very very healthy way to have a child - she likes to remind us that “woman have been having children for centuries now without a lot of medical intervention.”

I think when she talks about these things you can see that look cross peoples faces where they are thinking “she might be right - but give me the drugs anyday.”

My other sister is the mother of two very healthy young cherubs (devils - whatever) but she on the other hand took the very medical approach. Of course her situation was slightly different, and over 10 years younger as well.

The way I look at it though is that either way the end-product is the same thing. As long as the mother and child emerge from the event successful then I don’t really care which approach is used. Give birth in the middle of the ocean, do it on an airplane, find an elevator, pull over on the side of the freeway, in an emergency ward, in a birth clinic. As long as you’re both healthy - kudos to you.

I hope to see you in a few weeks felix or sophia. May your birth be pleasant.

Posted by Christian Posted in: Family 1 Comment » 6 June 2005