One of the things I like Tableau, a piece of software to visualise data, is that it aggregates on dates really well. Below is a spread of beer / wine / coffee over 18 months, but grouped by what hour is fell in. You can see some trends, like I usually consume coffee in the morning, and that I usually drink after 17:00. There are exceptions, of course, like that beer I had at 10AM, and that coffee I had at 1AM.

There is the possibility I will be giving an interview on the Quantified Self “movement”. What follows is a brief summary of QS, the things I track, and some pretty charts. What is Quantified Self I suppose it depends on who you talk to. Wikipedia states that it is “a movement to incorporate technology into data acquisition on aspects of a person’s daily life in terms of inputs”, but I side more on the idea that the movement is “a collaboration of users and tool makers who share an interest in self knowledge through self-tracking.” It is at this point that it is probably important to interject that most people are self-trackers: weight, height, reps at the gym, hours …

EDIT 12-03-2025: I accidentially broke the maps when deleting my AWS account, as the mbtiles were hosted there. Oops. I quite like open data. I like data based on open standards (or mostly open standards) even better. Many transport operators around the world have started releasing their timetable data using (mostly) open standards, e.g. GTFS. One of the nice things about using a standard is that clever people have created tools to work with the timetable data, and those tools can now be used to manipulate timetable data from hundreds of agencies. The magnificent OpenTripPlanner is one such tool, and it works well with 131500’s GTFS data.

This quick tutorial will detail how to prepair the ABS Mesh Blocks to be used with MapBox’s TileMill. Beyond scope is how to install postgresql, postgis and TileMill. There is a lot of documentation how to do these tasks. First, we create a database to import the shapefile and population data into: Using ‘psql’ or ‘SQL Query’, create a new database: CREATE DATABASE transport WITH TEMPLATE postgis20 OWNER postgres; # Query returned successfully with no result in 5527 ms. It is necessary to first import the Mesh Block spatial file using something like PostGIS Loader.

EDIT 12-03-2025: I broke the maps when I deleted my AWS account, which I forgot as hosting the mbtiles. Five years ago I started exploring different mapping technologies by detailing instructions on installing Mapnik and mod_tile. Times have changed significantly in the last five years, and thanks a lot to the products offered by MapBox. After playing with TileMill, MBTiles, Leaflet and UTFGrids, it is great how many annoyances have been fixed by MapBox. I find it enjoyable making maps now, as I no longer need to worry about patching code just to get it to run, or mucking about with oddities in web browser.

I have just returned from hiking the “W”, a famous circuit through the Torres del Paine, in Patagonia. Although I did some research before doing the trek, it turns out I made a number of assumptions that turned out to be incorrect. I will detail in this entry what I learned, a few things that worked well, and a few things that did not work so well.

My last day in Puerto Natales simply involved laundry, eating, and sleeping. I was not feeling particularly well and was extremely fatigued, so I rested at the Erratic Rock while she did the laundry. The highlight of the day may have been when she asked me to get her an orange and a few other things to eat on the ferry, just in case the time between meals was too long.

After exiting the port in Puerto Montt, I turned right, walked for 10 minutes, and entered the bus station. I quickly located the minibuses to Puerto Varas, paid my 800 pesos, and climbed aboard. Getting around Chile had been wonderfully easy. Buses were reasonably frequent, almost all were clearly labelled with their destination, and the terminals were close to where I had been staying. The minibus cruised through Puerto Montt, picking up passengers. I saw the unmistakable backpacks of the “English Couple” in the distance, and we soon left the city. Twenty minutes later, I arrived in Puerto Varas, got off at the corner of San Francisco and San Salvador, and walked to my hostel.

Before leaving Sydney I decided it would be worthwhile to go hiking in Patagonia. The “I” trek, arguably the most famous trek in the Torres del Paine, is what I opted to do. Although I noted the logistics of the trek in another post, I will share the photos and other stories here. I flew into Punta Arenas on an overnight flight, arriving just after 6:00 in the morning. The airport was small, similar to the one in Medford that I knew so well. It was comfortable, with plenty of room to spread out and sofas to lie on. There was also free Wi-Fi, although the connection was slow. One question remained: how would I get to Puerto Natales? I knew a bus left from the city and thought it might stop at the …

Although I had taken a few short trips this year, to Nepal and Taiwan, I had been saving my annual leave for a bigger journey through South America. This trip will probably be my last for quite some time. This morning, I woke up and finished preparing for my flight. I had some difficulty organising my seats because the departure time kept changing, I couldn’t check in online, and calling the hotline proved futile. The check-in lines were long, but I could use a shorter queue because I had no checked baggage.