George's World.

Hmm thats odd.

2008-08-25T21:48:00.004+10:00

Hi there. For all of you wishing I would update my blog, here it is. Pictures speak a thousand words, so I will let this one say ummm.... well it says..... something. Seriously, it was good fun.

Second hand blog

2008-03-29T20:47:00.003+11:00

Ooops, whilst blogging, I pressed enter. Hmm. This publishes your blog if you are just writing the title. How embarrassing.

Wel I'm affraid i won't be blogging too much here since I have entered a new blog for my students @taijutsukai.

- The most excellent use for blogger that has been known to man.

Is the world perfect?

2008-03-24T21:33:00.002+11:00

Well, yes it is perfect. It is perfect in every way. Sometimes it feels like it is utterly against you, sometimes it is dark and bleak, but yes this is how it is... Perfect. perfect for you and me. perfect in every way. The world is perfect. Sometimes it is all good news and blue skies. Today we saw sand sculptures... They were perfect. I stood and gazed in wonder. It was perfect. The kids were wide eyed and amazed. It was perfect. My wife was emotional and she was happy. Then she was sad, but now she is perfect. I am perfect and the whole world is perfect. Perfect.

For You

2008-02-10T19:35:00.000+11:00

A man was walking with his friend in a forest. He stopped atop a ridge that overlooked a massive drop to the forest floor where nature's glory featured, as far as the eye could see in every direction. The man gasped in awe at such a beautiful sight. "This is awesome" he said. "What beautiful things we are blessed to see"... His friend replied "yes, there must be a fortune in timber to be made here."

I wonder sometimes, how our perception is warped. Sometimes we are blinded by our own pride (or our prejudice) in that we can no longer see the truth, for what it is.

Our view of the world is perverted beyond all recognition, to the point that we care about none other than ourselves. Sure we have our family, but whom amongst us have forsaken all for the good of mankind? Surely that is what we elect our governments for... Or am I speaking the words of an idealist, lost in a capitalist society of greed and consumerism? Am I being hypocritical? Have I lost the plot altogether? Can't we all get along in this world without worrying about who is plotting against us? Should you be worried? Am I watching you right now? Yes is that you reading this now? Close your curtains. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Surely not... Surely we haven't succumbed to this. Religion warns of destroying our spirits, sinning our way to extinction. Are we living in an
Uber-Babylon? Is there any hope for us? Should we all join our nearest church to have salvation too?

Faith may be our only salvation, but how far must we take our faith in God? Should we leap out with total devotion to the lord, or should we stick out our tiptoe into the sea of religion that is Christianity, Buddhism or whatever?

Not the favorite child.

2007-12-11T19:48:00.000+11:00

The past few weeks have been pivotal in our growth as a couple. For my wife, me and our children, the learning curve has been unrelenting (as it should be). Many events have transpired and eventuated, to varying degrees of enlightenment in us all. In the ‘Tao Te Ching’ Lao Tzu says “The weak overcomes the strong and the submissive overcomes the hard. Everyone in the world knows, yet nobody can put it into practice.” That which was once unclear, has become clear and those who were misunderstood are now who they have revealed themselves to be. As my brother says: “The Leopard cannot hide his spots.”

Our spiritual self is defined simply by us being... As the saying goes ’life is just a thing that happens whilst we are busy making other plans,’ and this is certainly true. Sometimes life will seem to turn a corner like a winding road... confronting you with a choice to make. Sometimes it is a fork in the road or even a cul-de-sac. You have to choose to do something, as unlike driving a car, life does not wait for us to choose. An opportunity will be missed through our inaction, sending us back on the path that we have already travelled.

Whether it is driving a car, watching TV, or making important life changing decisions, one should be mindful of where they have come from: lest the journey may never end (we always seem to be in the same place if we cannot learn from our mistakes).
Ego is our own worst enemy and sometimes we are consumed by it.

On our journey as martial artists, we often arrive back at the beginning of our training. Indeed, the most basic of all things we learn as martial artists remain the most significant. If we never forget the basic principles and the skills with which we apply them, we can never be without the elements required for advanced knowledge and application of further learning.
Martial arts are truly a life journey. You can take the journey at entirely your own pace and with whatever intensity you choose and the results will be proportionate to your efforts.

Now on to the more technical side of things:

Yes I know I have misspelled favourites and ‘no I didn’t exactly excel in English at school, but the favorites folder in windows is a major pain in the rear end if you keep all of your documents on a separate drive like I do. I have a 400Gb for my system partition, a 320Gb for backups, an 80Gb for my documents (which needs to be upsized) and a 160Gb for shadow copies.

Like many people, I have recently reformatted the system HDD due to an accumulation of various problems and Windows Vista behaviours... (Such as the favorites anomaly) and other security related behaviours.

The problem exists due to the fact that people such as myself, insist on integrating advanced configurations of their overall pc setup, in the hope that it will simplify the process of rebuilding when it all turns pear-shaped... Which inevitably will happen folks, if you run your pc 24/7 with desktop SATA drives and your quad core CPU crunching alien data (searching in vain for signs of ET). Check out the SETI project at Seti@home.

I figure that by the time we perfect a solid state HDD with the capacity of 10TB or more, we will have found ET and will be living with him or her on another planet practicing Judo on the ceiling for fear of hitting the ground.- Anyway, the solution my friends, is to set the appropriate permissions for your user account to access the ‘favorites’ folder on the drive in which it resides.
For example, if your user account resides on the drive letter designated d: (and of course that you are right handed), then you would navigate your way to d drive and:
right click on the favorites folder.
Left click on properties.
Left click the ‘security’tab.
Change the permissions for the folder by left clicking on ‘edit.’
Now left click on ‘add’
Left click ‘advanced’
Left click on the ‘find now’ tab
Now select your user profile (if you are not sure, click on the taskbar and check what it says under your picture) by left double clicking on it and then left clicking on ‘OK’
Now left click on the box next to that which says ‘full control’ and then click ok.
Job done.
Restart internet explorer and voila, it is fixed.

2007-11-19T22:54:00.000+11:00

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love my martial arts. I love it like a blacksmith loves fire, or like a sailor loves the sea. My love of Jujutsu is ingrained on my psyche. Holidays are the worst thing for me, but because martial arts are the second love of my life (behind my wife and family of course), it takes back seat for a few weeks over the Christmas break. I usually drive my wife nuts with my endless obsession with everything martial arts, but occasionally she supports me in my weird and wacky obsessive behaviours, like reading martial arts material whilst on the throne, or at breakfast time rather than the Herald Sun or the weekly times. For instance, a few weeks ago, my darling wife snatched a ripper bargain at a local library clearance sale...

For 50 cents she nabbed some priceless Judo books. One hardback pearler called ‘Judo and Judo-Do’ by a guy named Klingerstorff, another softback by the same author called ‘Judo self taught in pictures’ by Charles Yerkow. Now if you’re thinking that the author’s names sound rather more Germanic than Japanese, you’d be right. What a lot of people don’t know about modern Judo is that it’s founder, was indeed Japanese, but due to the strong relationship between Japan and Germany before WW2, Jigoro Kano (the Japanese founder of Kodokan Judo) spent some time instructing Germans (and British) in his art form. Consequently, Judo was actually taught to members of the German military and according to many sources, was originally driven by the Germans (in around 1930), with the view to inclusion of the art in the Olympic Games. This appears to have been largely politically driven from what I can gather however, as Kano himself seemed resistant to the whole concept of strong competition in the form of a world championship. To those who do not understand Judo, this may seem baffling, but to Kano, Judo was to be treated more like a Church or Religion rather than a competition (who’s emphasis would be driven solely by the prospect of medal counts alone.)

Anyway, the books were an absolute steal at 50 cents a pop. The best bargain being a hardback by M Feldenkrais: who was one of the first non-Japanese to obtain a Black Belt in Judo. I think that Feldenkrais was Russian Born but spent a lot of time in France and was a very intelligent man. In 1917, he played a major role in what is known as the Balfour Declaration: The Zionist movement for the ‘relocation’ of the Jewish community into Palestine, which had previously been ruled by the Ottoman or Turkish Empire (wow they certainly have been in conflict for a long time haven’t they?). Anyway, that’s about the extent of my knowledge on the history of the region which is probably a good thing, lest I bore you with unrelated garble and yet more inaccurate historical references.

Back to the book. It’s fantastic and offers hours of study opportunity with intelligent and precise technical illustrations as well. It really is a great book for those after a deeper and more scientific understanding of the art by a man with a deeply scientific approach to the method. It really gets the brain working, and is far more stimulating to me than the Sunday paper on any weekend. I’ve gone back through the same chapters on many occasions searching for yet greater understanding of the techniques and the principles behind them.

It would seem to me, that no matter what understanding I have of a particular technique, I am merely looking at it from one side of a multi-dimensional sphere, where I’m never quite certain of which angle I am peering through. Sometimes, one side seems much like another, but I am certain they are worlds apart, as they are not static... Floating in and out of one world of possibility to the next. Always dynamic and never ever tiresome.

Anyway, I could go on like this for hours, but I won’t. It’s bed time as another fantastic day draws to a close and my beautiful wife is calling me to get out of the ‘martial arts zone’ and back to the ‘hubby zone.’ Thanks for reading! Cya next time.

Format is a dirty word.

2007-11-14T23:18:00.000+11:00

The word ‘format’ often signifies defeat to the technician. It is the final solution, but it is often the cheapest and most practical one for both the client and their computer...

Over the past 10 years, I have experienced first hand how difficult it can be to solve a software issue on computers. Occasionally, there comes a point at which the inevitable must be recognised. Format is the only way of ensuring that a clean slate can be drawn on which to build the system or restore it to it’s former state.
In recognition of the perils of this journey, Microsoft have endeavoured to make our job easier. But the problem is often complicated by faulty hardware and other external pernicious influences, such as Bots, Trojans and sometimes poorly written (but malicious) software that open the gateway for other harmful data that is usually designed to integrate with the operating system (so as to keep the user unaware of it’s presence in the machine) and or software present.
It is almost impossible for the average user to distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent or misleading applications offered on the World Wide Web. Due to ‘Social Engineering’ considerations and the increasingly complex and professional appearance of ‘antivirus’, ‘anti-malware/spyware, ’ the end user is often left with no idea at all surrounding the question of trust and authenticity of an online identity. Who can you trust more? CA antivirus or WinAntivirus2007? To the novice, CA sounds dull, where Winantivirus 2007 sounds modern and specific to the operating system that 98% of home users are accustomed to... Not only that, but Winantivirus will always find a problem... Guaranteed. Install it on a freshly updated XP SP2 OS, and it will find vulnerabilities and exploits that haven’t even been discovered yet!
So, from this we can determine that a large percentage of computer users fall subject to the old electronic ‘sucker punch.’ People are always attracted to the ‘free stuff’ (or in the case of Winantivirus2007, actually pay for it), believing that the stuff you get for free is just as good as the commercial product. Now in theory, there is no reason why this should not be the case. However, in practise, there are few software engineers that would develop world class software in the name of charity alone.
‘Social Engineering’ relies mostly on the end user’s habitual behaviour. Things like skipping past long winded license agreements, and terms and conditions of use. The other thing that developers of malicious and so called ‘companionware’ software prey upon, is the end user’s unrelenting search for the ‘next’ button, knowing that at the end of the tunnel, there is the magical ‘finish’ button, that will restore their faith in computing technology. –Yeah, um right.

Well, people it’s time to wake up and smell the roses...

Nothing is for free (that will fit in an ip packet anyway), and guess what?

Sometimes webpages are bogus, and hey!!! Yes you! The bank is not really emailing you, and no, sorry you really haven’t won the lottery.

Sorry to get all negative on you kids, but it’s time for some sobering facts.

'Genuine Microsoft Software’ shipped direct from China at half price might not be a good idea (or even genuine).

The Sultan of Brunei has not left you his inheritance

The best antivirus programs are definitely not Free. Free stuff in general is always stuff you can do without and remember that Trojans will not prevent STI’s.

Facebook is no substitute for real life experience and not all Indian men are airline pilots for Garuda...

Your PC is not infected! You have Winfixer: The worlds best antivirus and registry error fixer. LOL... No, Limewire is not part of windows, and no, windows updates are not received via bit-torrent! Your eight year old computer will not get any faster, no matter how much money you fork out for performance enhancing software... In fact, your new performance enhancing software will probably slow your eight year old Pentium computer down by about a third.

The very fact that you have downloaded all that crap onto your PC (that promises to fix every one ofthe problems), means that it’s time to let a professional give it the old ‘F word’ Format Baby, format. Start backing up your precious photos and quicken files now, because once it’s sick, your PC is slowly but surely going to die and Winfixer (and all of that other crap out there on the web) will only speed up the journey. May the force be with you!

Alan Strikes Back.

2007-11-02T20:56:00.000+11:00

Well, Alan is a unique individual. Recently he entered the store with his PC in one hand and a shuriken (throwing star) in the other with a bagful of broken cd’s.

He told me that the inner Samurai had come out, and that the PC was in imminent danger of a major beating. The words sword, knife, nunchaku, death (and destruction) were uttered in the first minutes of our meeting. It became apparent to me that Alan had not only a working knowledge of the martial arts, but a propensity to use it. What worried me even more was the prospect of him applying the same computer-savvy ‘finesse’ to his nunchaku wielding revenge on a totally innocent (and wireless) mouse. (Such a waste of mousing tallent).

As the tension in his voice (mixed with signs of trepidation and nervousness) escalated, despite his obvious stress and sufferance (including sleepless nights), I found it hard to overlook the ridiculousness of the situation. The fact that Alan was close to breaking point over an image from the ‘hubble’ space telescope, and a collection of crappy clips from www.space.com -seemed paradoxically amusing, yet terribly unimportant to me. But being the professional soldier-geek I am, with a perfectly straight face (and obvious concern for the striking edge of his katana) I set about pacifying this misguided 21st century warrior... clearly an individual with a vendetta, for to exact revenge on this poor computer was what he had in mind. The PC had done what any self respecting Windows PC would do when crippled by the debilitating curse of a limited user account.... It failed, it failed again, and eventually, it crashed.

This was the last straw for Alan, He cracked: The inner samurai was released and out came an arsenal of martial arts weaponry that would change the course of Alan’s computing history for ever. Suddenly, a moment of sanity overcame him when the 3rd Shuriken he released from his fists of fury, sliced through an insolent office 2007 (disk 2) cd, sending a shard of brittle spear-like plastic back at his own head. “You won’t win, you bastard” cried Alan, and henceforth, engaged on the ‘many minute’ journey to the computer repair shop with an already submissive PC under his right arm, and bloodied shards of Microsoft office CD’s. This was real, this meant war... This was ummm..... bloody stupid I’ll admit, but true.
So we were back to the wall (in the context of the solution to this hellish situation). To unleash Alan into the ‘real world’ of computing, to give him *dunt dunt dahhh* administrative privileges... would *gasp* mean that he could seriously screw it up and *gasp* truly make our lives a living hell. Well when he told me of his method of troubleshooting (the shruriken attack and sworn oath to thrust the sword through the LCD the next time he saw ‘access denied’) I realised that Alan was ready for his first grading in computer-do.
Like an over-eager student who rushes headfirst into my fist, he now explores the world of windows full access permissions. Seriously scary, but a necessary part of releasing the computerized samurai-geek within. Bonsai!!!

2007-09-25T22:55:00.000+10:00

Well, it seems that Apple’s advertising campaign concerning its ‘superior’ security –aka the impervious Operating System, is slowly being exposed for the real red herring it is.

The facts are, if you build it they will come, including the ones you wish would stay at home...
Apple, not unlike the ancient Romans, is discovering that there are always chinks in armour, and those that study us, learn quickly how to exploit them. Apple has Microsoft to thank for its success, as if it were under the same scrutiny, It would surely be under the radar of considerably many more hackers.

“I learned that if I plugged the system into the wrong outlet in the house, the system would crash every time the refrigerator came on. It also proved unusable when I tried to demonstrate it in my office at a manufacturing plant. Sometimes the "good 'ol days" weren't all that good!”
These are the words of the 13th lucky Altair 8800 personal computer owner. He describes the reliability of the basic system and goes on to explain that although it is a personal computer, it did nothing that you could actually see without an external monitor of some kind (to which he proudly announces that he built on his own using electronic addon components).

Tech head conference Blurb:

look here:

Footy?
Ever wondered how we staysafe kickin the footy to our kids? well listen in here to find out how? Or not...

Access denied

2007-09-15T12:23:00.000+10:00

Growing up as a child for me, also meant growing up with dogs. Dogs were fantastic companions for us kids. Whenever boredom struck, we would invent new and exciting ways to annoy the dogs. An example of one such way was to pit both dogs against each other in a tug of war. Any object would do. My sisters barbie dolls were an excellent starter for the war to begin: Rope is more practical but let’s face it, executing barbie is the ultimate form of sibling revenge. (I do love you dearly Heather!)
One thing about dogs, is their uncanny ability to learn new and interesting ways to destroy inanimate objects (such as antique furniture, clothes pegs, towels and exotic hardwood Decking), by way of the super duper canine tooth. In fact, I recall to my horror, one of the trusty family pets handily removing the heels of both my new adidas basketball boots as a teenager. I tried to rescue them, wiping away the slobber to reveal that not only had he removed the heels, but the logos and the tongues as well. Arrrrgh!!!
This brings me back to Alan, who unlike our dogs, has no giant canine teeth or the desire to chew on smelly sneakers; yet seems to learn in a similar way to old Sam the friendly pooch. You see, when Sam was hurt, he always displayed courage. He showed determination and a shot of ingenuity as well. But above all things, Sam was cunning.
Alan is cunning too. What Alan apparently needs, is to be protected from the evil that lurks around every corner, the evil that threatens to consume his every thought and action…Yes people, Alan needs to be protected from Alan. That’s right, Alan’s worst enemy is himself. And just like old Sam the Labrador, we’ve had to put the proverbial ice-cream bucket around his head to stop him from licking his own wounds.
So Phil dives for the phone. In his head he’s thinking “is this guy for real?” “He’s just experimenting” I quickly interjected… No, no, no, no cried Phil into the handpiece. “But what should I do?” whimpered the desperate and sleep deprived voice on the other end. “I’m afraid this time, you must bring it in!” *enter dramatic music*
This implies many things; some of which imply other things too (of which are beyond the scope of this story right now) :But of those things, one thing in particular was for certain (and other things that are implied by this certainty are also certain to be implied)… Security was being called in.

Not the Rottweilers or the dopey, buff dudes in the white SECURITY T-shirts, but… *enter yet more dramatic music* Windows security…
Yep I can hardly believe it, but we have actually had to restrict a customer to a limited user account on his own computer. Of course he understands what this means, and agrees that it is for his own good. In fact it was Alan’s idea to start with, sort of. It all started when he asked “is there any way that you can stop me from stuffing everything up?” Well, numerous things came to mind (yeah they are also out of scope) including the idea of restricting him to a limited user status- which I quickly dismissed as outrageous, thinking that the crime did not fit the punishment, as it were: But Phil was quick to impose the new restrictions. And I must admit, with little thought on the matter, I agreed.
So here was Alan, shiny new PC in hand walking into the store for what was to become an historical moment. Imagine getting a new car… Now imagine that you can only drive it to or from a prearranged location, no spontaneous trips to stave off boredom, no fun-day Sunday drives . Imagine that you can only travel alone (with the sun visor down and all the doors securely locked) and could never break any speed limit, run any red light or fail to give way at any intersection. Sure it would be a very safe trip… But how boring!
I’m sure that some of you know what I mean… Most medium and large businesses now impose such restrictions on their staff. Whether it’s for ‘security’ or in the interest of increased productivity, most of us have restricted access to programs and network related applications such as email and the WWW. Alan now joins you from his home in restricted-user-land.
Like a prisoner inside his own head, he cannot browse to the ends of the ‘Internet Earth.’ Nor can he ever try his hands at becoming a hacker, or even become a victim of a hacker himself (theoretically speaking). This is because Alan’s virtual hands are tied behind his virtual back. Alan can’t delete anything that he did not already put there himself, and worst of all, he is restricted to what he can actually put there in the first place.
It’s like becoming an infant again. He must ask us for permission to install things: He gazes at his screen longingly, like a dog lost in the desert when it sees a tree. He wonders what would happen if he clicked ‘yes’ to install that active x control on ‘www.letmehackyourpc.com’ With a hint of romanticism, he remembers the days when he could empty entire folders with just one key-press. Ah the days! Countless reboots and system crashes have been replaced by the soothing sound of ‘doonk’ followed by that reassuring pop-up message… ‘ACCESS DENIED.’

The final installment in my story about Alan is in regard to a phishing trip on an unchartered website. "You see Alan; pirates do still exist" I explained. "You will encounter pirates whist surfing, and when you do, they will normally be phishing."

With a furrowed brow, Alan struggled to get my meaning: This one really confused him.
"So there are fishermen on the internet who are really pirates?" Uhuh? Right... "Yes!... um... No... Not really, but sort of, yeah." OK, you ever get the feeling that you've just dug a hole that you can't get out of? Well at about this moment, I decided to stop digging and change the subject...

"Yahoo's Seven website is a great place to go." (thinking that he couldn't get into any trouble there.) Well guess what??? He clicks on the movie link and somehow finds the link to watch pay per view TV on his computer right? Then can't make it work of course... "You have to pay for that Alan!" "That's why it won't work, man"

With my patients severely tested, and my head full of things I'd like to say, but would never... I ended the conversation with words of encouragement and praise for his brave exploration of that massive online world called cyber-space.

Happy phishing!

2007-09-09T23:12:00.000+10:00

Ok, so here’s a change of tone... There are many of us that should own a computer... And then there are people like Alan.

Now Alan is a simple man, and I mean that in the most respectful way. Of course Alan is not his real name, his real name is Willy Wonka, but I will refer to him as Alan because I wish to protect his identity, as one should. So, Alan bought a nice neat little computer from us about a week ago. Everything was fine up until he left the store with his new PC... It was from that moment that it became apparent that we would regret ever having met the man.

Well Alan took approximately three hours to transform his new look Windows XP toting office machine into a binary ship wreck. God only knows what he had done to the thing. It wouldn’t even boot up anymore. Sure It still looked like a PC, but it behaved more like a toaster, except not quite as reliable.
Now to learn how to use a PC, one should assume that apart from the obvious advantage of owning a computer, one may also deduce that the use of one’s brain (and a little confidence) may also be advantageous, am I right? Well, the world according to Alan is a very different place. Not unlike Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory, things are not as they first may seem. You see, just like Willy’s chocolate factory, (except with all those chocolate sweets coated in methamphetamine; instead of the lovely brown sweet stuff) the world according to Alan is a very complicated place, filled with extraordinarily difficult to comprehend sights and new tactile experiences...Like Windows for example, and the foreign concept of a recycling bin that lives in your computer.
To Alan, it is strange that there is no Wednesday morning garbage truck that takes it away and the fact that he can recycle things ‘forever’ means that he can and should recycle something on a daily basis as part of his global responsibility to keep the internet clean and free of rubbish. Such a noble cause should be commended and Alan is to be thanked by the oompa-loompas for his role in such a mammoth task.
Alan’s choice of computer was largely based on its ROHS certification... The new global initiative to reduce the amount of heavy metals and other hazardous substances in computerised components such as the motherboard inside his new ‘green’PC. Choosing an optical mouse was important to Alan as he had to be sure that it did not contain a rubber ball that could wear out over time and end up as land fill. He made certain that all desktop icons were kept to a minimum to reduce the amount of space his PC took up on his environmentally friendly LCD monitor. Low radiation means fewer black balloons people... Congestion on the internet is of course a thing that Alan is deeply concerned about. That’s why he opted for dial up technology. Less time on the internet means fewer ballons people, see the pattern? So anyway, back to the story. Alan had his PC restored to it’s original factory condition. Four hours later, Alan called for technical support...
He had run out of things to put into the recycling bin, so resorted to system files that he could not make any sense of. They just seemed like ’jibberish’ to Alan. He decided in his wisdom, to load an old version of Kodak Easy Share software, in the presumptuous mood he was in, with the idea of actually connecting a digital camera (if he ever got one). Who knows where the software came from, but as soon as we got wind of this, we thought the worst. Holly crappers, not the ‘Kodak Easy Shaft’ software Alan!!! Cries of Noooooo, Noooo, No were heard in the vicinity of Phil’s desk. And the stories of system file relocation to the recycle bin attracted a similar response.
Phil dived frantically for the phone as if it were a life buoy that would somehow save Alan from his ultimate nightmare...

As it turns out, It would become ours.

To be Continued...

VICTIM

2007-09-06T21:19:00.000+10:00

Wow, such a heavy heart. Sometimes life reaches crisis point...

You know, before you start reading, waiting for the funny part...
don't bother because it just isn't going to happen on this post.

Tune out now if you're depressed or want an uplifting blog read.

Sometimes we feel like there is no way out.
Like a mouse caught in a corner, with only a trap between us and the way home.

I don't know how desperate you have to be; to actually go through with it: you know suicide.

A very close friend tried to end her life today. It saddens me deeply.... I feel for her in her suffering; but I have everything to live for, my disappointment in her actions cannot be hidden. She was my best friend at one time, I would have fought for her tooth and nail. I love her...

I feel pain, but I cannot express it. I feel anger, yet I do not give in to it. I am angry with her, but I love her. She is my sister. She is a part of me... It hurts me.
Yet I love my wife and family with all of my heart and I cannot and would not abandon them. I cannot understand why her own family has abandoned her... Why Michael, why Aaron, why James, Why Phillip? Why do you deny your own mother, your own flesh, your blood, the very reason for your own existence? Have you all been twisted by his lies? Can you not see that She loves you?
In the darkness, she cries for you...
In the night, she recalls the gentle beating of your heart as you slept as a child.
I once held you in my own arms, proud to be your uncle, proud of your mother...
Proud to have known you.

But why do you abandon her? She loves you... She loves you. She is your mother. I know you love her too. Don’t let your emotions take hold of you, but don’t forget who you are! She hurts right now, but she loves you and she feels that you have abandoned her, she loves you...
You don’t want to be there at her funeral now. No parent should ever have to bury their own child. Don’t let this happen to your mother... Be there for her. She is always there for you. Please... We nearly lost a part of us. We nearly lost our sister. I am crying. I love my sister and she tried to kill herself!!!
I hate her for it. I wish that I didn’t know her so well... In fact sometimes I wish that she was not my sister... That she belonged to somebody else. I would deny that she was unhappy. She has always been unhappy. I have always known this, but I have never been able to help her.

It feels as if all I have ever been able to do is to hang around and offer comic relief for her. I am her little brother. I do love her. She is my sister, my blood, my own flesh and part of me.

A dear friend of mine has lost his sister in the same way that my sister has attempted to take her own life. It was shocking and cruel. It affected him profoundly. I don’t want this. How can I tell her that she is worth so much more? I am saddened by her actions and I love her to bits. I hope that she sees that she is worth loving and that she really is a wonderful sister that any brother would be proud of. Margery I love you. We all love you. I might not call you by your chosen name, but to me you are the sister who left me so many years ago. Your name however, has never left me and I will always know you as Margery my mentor, my idol, my big sister. Margery I love you!

Play stations?

2007-08-12T20:54:00.000+10:00

Well there’s not much point in having a blog if you don’t fill it with a little crap every now and again.
With the population getting hit by influenza and other nasty bugs, It is understandable that there have been less of us bloggers posting in the past few weeks. Blogging is a rather strange thing to do actually. There are far more productive things that we could be doing, such as sleeping, spending time with our partners or any other number of physical activities to engage our minds and stimulate the old body.
Well today might be the beginning of the end for what little physical exercise we do get as a family... You see today my DW bought a Playstation thingie. Now you’re probably thinking no big deal right? But all this kiddie technology stuff is new to me: Well, not exactly new, but different to what I remember it when I was a young chap.

You see when I was a youngster, the game console hooked up to the TV aerial socket with this funky little switch box and broadcast in glorious mono audio. The game it played was a variation of pong... Yeah you know the wired paddle controllers that moved the little sticks up and down or left to right as you tried to hit the white dot that came toward your bat? It was surprisingly alluring, but really crap at the same time. Well I have discovered that nothing has really changed in game consoles. They are still pretty crap and waste as much time as they always did. But there are occasionally games that have good replay value. All I need to do is find one that we can all play as a family.

2007-07-07T16:11:00.000+10:00

It Never Rains...
Photo above is by Andrew Day, posted on the ABC website

The following photos are my own observations, but the photo above tells it all. My photos are almost a week after the peak of flooding.
This is the Entrance at Lakes Entrance (obviously). Of interest is the unusual discolouration of the inlet, due to the rapid outflow of nutrient rich river water from the catchment areas. If you compare the photos of the Lakes Entrance from my previous posts, you will see the difference. The real tradgedy of it all, is the fact that the worst hit areas were only just starting to recover from bushfire earlier this year.

Wow, this house is not exactly where it should be... The owner woke up one morning and...

It never rains, but it floods. Believe it or not, this home was once much bigger and quite a way further upriver too. It was not anchored to its stumps yet and was a major mitigating factor in it's 'relocation' between Wy Yung and Bairnsdale.

Long time, no blog.

2007-06-07T16:23:00.000+10:00

Hi sports fans, I’ve been soooooo busy lately that I haven’t even had time to read other people’s blogs, let alone compose my own. I have been busy in the bathroom, renovating and various other things as well.

Amongst them I have started swimming lessons and recently finished a term at Yoga. Yes my children, I have achieved a higher consciousness… Ummm.... Well not really...
Some things that have been happening have not been so positive, or at least seem to be tainted with a bittersweet taste. In fact I think even Budah himself would have his patients severely tested. Now I won’t bore you with details, but everyone knows that some people can be very difficult to get along with, particularly the insufferable ‘neighbourly’ type. Now, I am not one to hold grudges or speak ill of any persons, so I would definitely not call him a mongrel of a neighbour or wish him any misfortune or anything like that. – (I do wish however, that his dog would shut the hell up). -Perhaps a complaint to the council may be in order here. Or perhaps I should have asked him when I saw him at 'mediation' on Tuesday. -Anyway, enough of that.

Computers and Printers are temperamental things at times, and parts can fail in sometimes quite spectacular ways. Sometimes they literally blow up with a sound and light show or melt in a slow and smoky mess. But mostly they just stop working without provocation or any indication at all (to the layperson) that anything is in fact wrong. There is a popular theory in Murphyism (You know Murphy’s Law) that predicts the failure of a thing even if that thing has only a small chance of failing. Printers however, are very complex in their design and are not Murphy-proofed. They are however subject to a fairly predictable failure rate by design.
This is not to say that they have built in or planned obsolescence- rather that there are certain parts that are expected to fail… and are intended to be replaced in planned, routine maintenance of the product during specific times that are relevant to the work load of that particular machine. Some machines actually refuse to work at all once that time arrives, perhaps due to the recognition of possible damage to other more expensive (and difficult to replace) parts. Failure happens for a variety of reasons. The most common are human intervention resulting in damage to components, defective workmanship and or manufacture and overuse or the usage of machines for purposes other than that for which they are intended.

Permanent Fatal errors are possibly worse than regular fatal errors, but with little hope of a comeback from either condition, there is little difference between the two in a real world sense.
In the case illustrated above, the part had died a horrible death, resulting in the fatal errors that were not recoverable. From the image, you can tell that the belt has sustained a somewhat permanent injury, resulting in incorrect rotation of the image transfer belt (the black bit). Murphy would understand that this has occurred for one of two reasons. a) Mechanical failure due to defect and or wear. b) incorrect installation. c) the introduction of foreign matter resulting in internal damage. -This particular case seems to be a combination of both incorrect installation and the human doofus factor.

Speaking of human Doofus… I had to put on my special John Citizen/Good Samaritan shirt the other night to come to the rescue of an elderly citizen. There was a story in Monday’s express detailing the particulars of the incident which I won’t go into now, suffice to say that some idiots never learn and dumb criminals are everywhere.

Here is what we can achieve with a little elbow grease.

Thanks to lots of help from good old Uncle John, the bathroom came up really nice...
Oh well, I smell Cryptonite (or is it a meth lab? Whats up with crystal meth anyway?) Bizarre how people put that stuff into their system. Oh and Lois is waiting for me too... Gotta go for now. Cya next time.

2 to the power of 40 or 10 to the power of 12?

2007-04-20T22:38:00.000+10:00

Wow. The revolution has begun. 1 Tb Hdd’s are here. Hitachi has released the worlds first 1 Tb (931.51Gb). Hard Disk Drive. Exciting, isn’t it?
Check out the article here.

Soon we can all loose an entire lifetime of photos and/or valuable information in just a micro- second. Scary to think. I just bought a 1 gb micro SD card for my phone. It holds about 700 MP3s (give or take a few). Impressive in a card that is no bigger than my little finger nail! No really!!! Even I am amazed at how things are being miniaturised. The only trouble with this, is that the human race is getting bigger! Bigger hands, bigger feet... Bigger bits all round they say. Taller, fatter, more intelligent so (they say).

Anyway, my point is this... If things are getting smaller and we are getting bigger, then how is this making things easier? Like a clumsy grand-dad struggling with an x-box controller: all the finesse of a Bosch hammer drill; we struggle with new technology and the inevitable miniaturisation (if that's a real word) of the entire world.

Post #77

2007-04-11T21:35:00.000+10:00

Well, it’s been a very busy week. Many things have affected me in profound but enlightening ways. One such occasion was dinner at a local restaurant that I was pleased to have been invited to with my wife. I was deeply conversational with an older gentleman who was seated next to me on our table. As the night progressed and the lazy Susan was put through its paces, I was fortunate to have been treated to a fascinating account of an apparently normal man and his life thus far.

At sixty five, he has seen many things in his life, and I was humbled by his willingness to share many of them with me. Through the loss of his son in a tragic car accident more than nineteen years ago, I was drawn into this man's world and his perception of life before and after this: Single most devastating event he had ever endured.

He went on to explain that not a single week had passed since that day nineteen years ago, where the man had not shed a tear in memory of his son's life. I was deeply moved by his admission that he had wept uncontrollably on occasion, since the day that his son had passed in 1988... I began to wonder what I was doing in 1988. I had no clue... 15 years old and bullet-proof (so I thought). -I was too busy trying to find my own identity through a purple haze of smoke and the occasional over indulgence in alcohol. God it could just have easily been me who died in a car accident almost six years ago.

Being this close to the end brought home a few inconvenient facts and truths about my existence so far. I will not lie by telling you that I emerged miraculously unscathed or altogether unchanged by it all. In the very least, it scared the absolute crap out of me. If I intellectualise the experience, I can say that I grew spiritually from these events and remain changed, possibly forever as my friend at the restaurant remains changed by the choices of his son on that evening. I don't understand the circumstances behind the accident, but I know that he was roughly the same age that I was when I had my accident. I can tell you this much... There was only one person to blame for my accident, and it wasn't Henry Ford or (Enzo Ferrari).

The inconvenient truth for me is this. I am responsible for me, for my children and indirectly for every other person who chooses to know me throughout my life. I have influence and sometimes (as in the case of my children) profound and direct effects on those around me. I can't even begin to feel this man's pain when he weeps alone in a moment of grief for the son he should never have had to bury...Nothing in life is as tragic as this.

After a breakup with his wife and custody issues that ensued, he chose to move in with his parents to recoup and sort his life out. In that time (about 6 months) he re-established a close bond with his father, who had also recently broken his first marriage. Tragically, after their relationship had grown closer than ever, his life was taken in a single tragic moment. His car smashing into a tree on a lonely country road: A corner that proved too sharp at such speed.

Wow, I don’t mean to get all philosophical on you guys, but life is trying to tell us things about ourselves. If we listen really hard, we can hear our calling. Like is like this wise old man said; “Life is boring without risks.” “Without risks, you achieve very little, for nothing worthwhile is ever achieved without considerable effort.” But I think that it is all about measured risks, in knowing how far to go... You know, like knowing when to throw your hand in while playing cards, or when to stop doubling your winnings on the pokies.

In closing conversation with him however, he pointed out that there were not enough fingers (or toes) on his body to count the number of failures he had seen in his working life, but the number of successes by way of hard work and dedication far outweighed these failures, leading to a life of overwhelming satisfaction and contentment.

When the soul is free, we are truly human. The ‘Human condition’ begs us to challenge all forms of suppression. Freedom, by its very nature is always succeded by the taking of risk in one form or another. Indeed, the very fact that we fight for freedom, reveals to us that we are not yet free. We are seeking an as yet, unreachable goal that evades us, or is threatened in every waking moment of our existence. These photos may appear to be completely unrelated to the subject matter, but they represent the apparent complexity of life (in the cascading switches) and the resolve of the human spirit in the form of the awsome strength of the draught horse. All things have an element of beauty, just sometimes hard for us to see.

Tagged yet again!

2007-04-11T00:23:00.000+10:00

Are you...
1. A cuddler? Very much so. I will cuddle almost anyone. There is an art to cuddling you know. 2. A morning person? Most definitely. The earlier the better...not.
3. Are you a perfectionist? Well no not really, but I do have high standards.
4. Talented? Not so much
5. In your pyjamas? No
6. Left handed? No

Last:
1. Friend you saw: Mark
2. Phoned: Amber
3. Sent text: ABC Radio
4. Received text: Today
5. Message over myspace: N/A
6. Instant message: HP Technical Support Service

Wore:
1. To bed? Birthday suit
2. Last night was: Fantastic
3. Got any plans: Finish this questionaire

Favorite:
1. Number: 7
2. Color: Blue
3. Season: Autumn

Currently:
1. Missing: Calendar entries in PDA (sorry honey)
2. Needing: Time, money, calendar entries in PDA, oh and cuddles.
3. Wanting: Time, money, calendar entries in PDA, cuddles.

Qs
First thing you did this morning: Cuddled my lovely wife.
Last thing you ate: profiterole
Do you have anything bothering you? Nope
What's the last movie you saw? Wild Hogs
Where is the last place you went? Resturaunt
Do you wish upon stars? Never.
Are you a friendly person? Yes, definately
Where did you sleep last night?: At home
What color shirt are you wearing? Black
When was the last time you really cried? About six years ago.
What was your last thought before you went to sleep last night? Can't tell you that, this is a family Blog ;-)
What are you about to do? Go to bed
If you could drink anything right this second, what would it be? Shiraz
What's your job position called? Senior technician/IT engineer.
What's your favorite month(s)? November and January
What's your favorite bottled water? Don't have a favourite.
What were you doing at 9pm last night? Watching Tele
Did you attend your high school prom? I did more than 1 Deb Ball. 3 in fact.
Did you go to someone else's prom? yes
Do you prefer coffee or tea? Coffee.
Something red within 5 feet? Scrapbooking area seems to be predominantly pink!
How much french do you know? A bit
Ever crash a car, been in an accident? Yes a few from very minor to very serious
Do you look good in yellow? Do they make clothes in yellow?
Do you sing? Yes, I secretly sing in the car and in the shower too.
Ever sing in public? Yes, very badly.
Least favorite color? Yellow
How many driving tickets have you had? Probably 3.
Do you own your own house? Yes.
At what age did you/do you want to get married? I think i was 24
Have you ever been married? Only once
How many kids do you have/want? Only two will do.
Do you like anyone right now? Well actually...

Big weekend.

2007-03-25T19:21:00.000+10:00

OK, after my last blog, I am happy to report that I am a whole lot more relaxed and positive about life this week.

We had a wonderful weekend full of fun and sunny weather. The kids enjoyed themselves enormously and we took some well earned time out from them at the same time. We went to see the Illusionist at the Gold Class Casino Cinema. Wow!!! What a way to see the movies... I left vowing to never see them any other way! A personal servant to bring you food and refreshments... At your every command- well almost... (They even go down on their knees for you). Fantastic stuff that. We felt like we’d been totally pampered, and thanks to our hosts for the evening, we even got a wonderful tour of the Melbourne sights on an otherwise dramatic and tragic day in Melbourne. For my international fans, here’s what happened... link

Sunday was equally relaxing and our entertaining guests; the irrepressible Nic and Super Nathan treated us to a wonderful nature walk amongst the finest fauna and flora that Warragul has to offer. Cheers guys!!! Well, tomorrow is another day and presents some logistical and dire problems for me in the big bad world. Perhaps I will share the outcomes in my next post. Till then hombre, Adios and adieu, and goodbye even! And today's thought... Yesterday could have been a whole lot different, today was just as it should have been and tomorrow has not yet come to pass. So make it as it should be. You deserve no less.

Crappy Crap Crap.

2007-03-22T22:38:00.000+11:00

With the Simpsons typifying American sentiment, and the 'swan' demonstrating that Americans are desperate to see fellow Americans butchered in the name of 'beauty'... One would thing that I am becoming cynical... Not so!

It's been a rather busy month with lots of work coming our way in distant galaxies. I so wish i WAS AN INTERGALACTIC PC engineer... Ah well, I guess that Gippsland will have to do for now... But the minute they get that space station up and running with modern technical gear, I'm off.

Boy I thought I was a geek until I saw that program on TV called "Beauty and the Geek". I'm not worried in the slightest after watching that little show. Boy I know more about the United States of America than some of those bimbos do (and that says a lot).

The A to Z of US of A...

A. America rocks!
B. British forces are America's closest allies.
c. Captain Nemo is not in fact a member of the current American Navy.
d. Death to terrorists.
e. English forces are fucking off very quickly from Iraq, despite being America's closest Ally!
f. Fast food is good for you in US of A.
g. Smoking may be harmful to you, especally in Virginia.
h. Heroin is not the main problem.
I. Ignorance is bliss.
J. John Howard is a cartoon character duck.
K. Klingons are invading Afganistan.
L. Excluding 12 aid workers, Lithuania is some place that no American cares about.
M. Mr. Bush is the man.
N. No-one cares about "WMD's" any more. Forget about it for Christ's sake!
O. Opposing forces that offer passive resistance are usually refered to as 'soft targets'... Zip lock bags are provided for said individuals.
P. People who oppose the war in Iraq are now the world's majority.
Q. Quick bucks are OK in the short term, but offer no sustainable outcomes for the future.
R. Casino Royale sounds like a good film. I must see it soon!
S. Seven Eleven, no that's right its nine eleven.. Nah that sounds wrong. Eleven nine, ah, that's better. 11/09/01. Crikey, Americans can't even get the date right!
T. Together, we can wipe terrorists off the face of the Earth (as soon as we figure out who they are...).
U. United we stand, until every other bastard pisses off and leaves USA to fight the battle on it's own. What's it all about anyway?
V. Victory... Ummmm...
W. WW2 was fought and won by someone against somebody else, not by America against an unseen, unspoken, unquantified force of unknown individuals hell-bent on unknown amounts of unknown and utterly undefined destruction.
X. Malcolm X fought for something worth while.
Y. Who knows why?
Z. Z is for Zero Tollerance. It obviously works a treat... American governmental policy on drug enforcement laws clearly demonstrate this.

Well there you have it. The A-Z of unofficial American observational um... observartions.

For more information, call 555 255 355 and wait for the following message...

"Hello, and welcome to the Donald Rumsfeld: American fight against unkown knowns, known unknowns, and known knowns, and of course: unknown unknowns...

If you are obsessively-compulsive, press 1 repeatedly.

If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2 for you.

If you have multiple personalities, press 3, 4, 5 and 6.

If you are paranoid, we know who you are and what you want. Stay on the line so we can trace your call.

If you are delusional, press 7 and your call will be transferred to the mothership.

If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a small voice will tell you which number to press.

If you are a manic-depressive, it doesn't matter which number you press . no-one will answer.

If you are dyslexic, press 9696969696969.

If you have a nervous disorder, please fidget with the hash key until a representative comes on the line.

If you have amnesia press 8 and state your name, address, phone number, date of birth, social security number and your mother's maiden name.

If you have post-traumatic stress disorder, slowly and carefully press 000.

If you have bi-polar disorder, please leave a message after the beep or before the beep. Or after the beep. Please wait for the beep.

If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.

If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.

If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.

If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.

If you have low self esteem. Please hang up. All our operators are too busy to talk to you.
.

Donald says"I never liked the guy"

I appologise for this entry in advance.

Tagged again.

2007-02-26T21:54:00.000+11:00

Ok, me ol'mate Nath has asked me to name 6 wierd things about me... Well where do I start?

1). I have multi-coloured facial hair (which is why I shaved it off a long time ago)

2). My foot is also exactly one of my feet long :-)

3). I enjoy the occasional hot chilli pepper complimented by a variety of fine cheeses.

4). I also combine my long term interests in martial arts with a little Yoga on the side (people tell me this is a little weird, but I can't really see why).

5). I have an irrepressible habit of manipulating or turning things on and off with my feet (such as light switches, oven controls, doors, etc.)

6). I love Funk, soul, classical and even hip hop music. I even like some heavy metal too. In fact, I also like a lot of acid jazz, and dance music including electronica. Come to think of it, There are very few genres that I do not appreciate in some way or another.

Until next blog. Adios Amigos!

Life’s Conundrum.

2007-02-22T21:06:00.000+11:00

Life is so much more complicated now they say. We have all forms of technology to contend with. Computers are supposed to make things so easy for us. They do assist us with all sorts of mundane tasks such as calculations and simple mathematical equations that we can easily get wrong. The great thing about computers is that they are never wrong in their calculations, given that they have the correct formulae to work with.

Nature however, is unpredictable and almost never capable of producing exactly the same thing, save for certain things such as day and night. Nature however, is irrepressible. It never gives up while there is still hope. Life it seems, by its very nature, is inherently adaptable and forever changing.

From the dead, life is given new hope. Even in the devastated fire affected area of Tambo Crossing in Gippsland, Vic, the bush has recovered from the fierceness of mother’- nature’s fury. New shoots are appearing everywhere and green grass has appeared since the last downpour of rain in the area. Life will not stop. When the conditions are ripe, the fruits of life will flourish.
Through devastation of this kind, it is often hard to see how anything could ever recover, but where there is a will, there is a way. The human spirit is not so easily crushed either. We are all born into this world with an overwhelming desperation to survive. We call it the will to live. Although strangely, we lack the physical attributes seen in other land dwelling animals to survive on an individual basis, we are blessed with supreme dexterity and the unique application of conscious mind. We are also (as are other primates) social beings . Occasionally our resolve is tested to its limits, but few of us ever give up. This is because we know intrinsically that we can survive, given the right tools and a little ingenuity. Humans now inhabit almost every conceivable area of the Earth’s surface, which we did not achieve by giving up when faced with challenges. We are the master species. We have the power to control the destiny of every other animal on this Earth.

I have never considered myself to be overly concerned with such matters, but occasionally I am overwhelmed by the harsh reality of our predicament on planet Earth. In relation to climate change, it seems like everyone wants change; as long as it doesn’t mean that they themselves have to make the changes.
The past few days we have all been smothered with bureaucratic bullshit. The debate about whether to pull our troops out of Iraq or to increase our commitments.
Alexander Downer said this week in response to the question of why Australian troops still remain in Iraq, that the British forces are not withdrawing troops... No, they are reducing in numbers, merely downsizing. It’s no bloody wonder that Australians want a change of government. Crikey. What do they take us for?
Anyway, enough of that.
Tuesday saw me in Wonthaggi sorting out some printing issues for one of the local banks.
Wednesday saw me off to the highlands via the Great Alpine Road to a little town called Swifts Creek, and Thursday I was queued up in the Gippsland Lakes in the morning and back in the old town of Wonthaggi in the arvo for yet another printer call. I dare not complain about having done 600km in that day, as I realise that for some people this is a short trip. But my arse was numb by the time I got home I can tell you. I’m not cut out to be a driver, that’s for sure.

Its been a very busy week for all of us at work and even more so at home. We are all hoping for some relief from this heat. It’s very tropical weather at the moment. Our little air conditioner struggles night after night with the heat. Ah well. Enough of my whinging. See you all again soon.
Cheers!

The Wow Starts Here!

2007-02-05T21:29:00.000+11:00

Wow, with the new Windows Operating System that has changed my life, I am now a new man. I lack stress in my life, I have a new found sense of achievement and I am more productive with my time. Here is a picture of myself and the lovely wife after installing Windows Vista for the very first time. We were on top of the world.

If only we could have seen the bastard smash into smitherines at the bottom of this **@$ing mountain. Let the wow start there Bill Bloody Gates! Crikey, if anyone can screw up a perfectly good day, its Microsoft right? Well er, not exactly. Before you all go off venting your spleens over Microsoft's latest bungle, take a deep breath and think of Windows XP, ok now take another deep breath and think of that paradise wallpaper in XP instead. Calm thoughts wash over your mind... Now I think it helps to realise that a). No operating system is perfect, b). We all need a computer to blame stuff on and c). Perhaps it's not really the Operating System at all that is to blame here.

Here's my biggest problems with the average computer users, or the laypersons (in general)...

They cannot appreciate the incredible complexity of the development of computer based software. Remember folks, its not an exact science, its more like trial and error and patching up holes in a bucket that leaks forever, because some bastard keeps poking holes in it. Now some die hard hackers would argue that they are merely exposing the holes already within microsoft's bucket, but lets face it, you can poke a hole in any bucket if you try hard enough and poke around in the right places.

Getting back on the subject, Vista is here and it's here to stay. I am wondering if it will have the same longevity as Windows XP, but one thing is for sure, it will challenge the way we see desktop computing as a whole. Vista is able to integrate into the family lifestyle much easier than any other OS. While Windows 95 revolutionised gaming on the PC, Vista is set to revolutionise the home entertainment system as a whole.

Ages ago, roughly 2001 -at a function for IT dudes (maybe a Canon product launch I think) some old dude predicted that the home PC, as we know it would become extinct... He concluded that he had seen a demonstration of how the home PC would be fallen and evolve into the all around entertainment hub of the home. In fact he predicted that the whole house would be computer controled... The fridge, the hot water, the washing machine, the toaster and so on... Now his timing was way off as he predicted that this would all happen before 2007, but his point was not lost on us. The PC is evolving. It is becoming more dynamic, more flexible in it's role in the home. It is definately taking on the role of entertainment centre, but I think that it will be a long time before we will be plugging in 'Matrix' style and uploading programs directly into our little skulls. As for the toaster, I doubt that a computer could improve it all that much...

I shudder to think of the possibilities of a kitchen run by windows... Imagine waking up to the Blue Screen of death flashing at you instead of the clock radio alarm tuned to your favorite radion station, as you stumble to the electronic kitchen. Imagine your toast burning due to a compatibility issue it has with the kind of bread you bought at the supermarket. You have to dowload updates just to get the milk out of the fridge and your coffee machine has crashed again! Cursing, you pull out the newspaper on your tablet PC that is built into your breakfast bar, only to find that it has a virus and has turned the thermostat up on your fridge. As you pour your lumpy offish milk into your half brewed coffee, you wonder why you ever threw those old appliances away. Sure they're crude, but hey... They work, unlike windows Vista at the moment.

So there is this customer that bought this rather flash PC from us. It started out like this....

Then we transformed it to this....

And now that she proved to be such a pain in the arse, it looks like this again...

Now don't get me wrong... i love Vista really, I think there are some fantastic improvements. But If you have old stuff that you want to hang on to and it all works fine on your Pentium 3, Pentium 4, or your Athlon XP, FFS: keep it that way, cause' if the Wow starts here, you aint gonna see nothing but Woe baby...

My point being... If it aint broke, don't fix it.

Flashing for fun

2007-01-17T19:37:00.000+11:00

Hello fans, here’s some new pictures of George’s Funky World Adventures. So no Sex, drugs or Rock ‘n’ Roll on this little outing, but fun nonetheless. In fact this is the closest thing to sexy that you’re likely to see on my blog. Don’t be sad, I can post more interesting stuff later.

Busy, busy, busy…That pretty well sums up this month so far. Oh and bloody hot too. Thank god for air conditioning in the little Kia Rio.

Techno tip No. 3689.
There is a distinct difference between CMOS and BIOS. CMOS stands for Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor, whilst the BIOS is for Basic Input/Output System. The CMOS is at the hardware layer, the chip that the BIOS resides on. You could think of the CMOS as a flash memory chip and the BIOS as the operating system that controls it. In fact, almost all BIOS in new PC’s are flash memory chips that are upgradeable by flash bios upgrades. This is achieved by way of a bootable floppy, CDROM, DVDROM, flash memory drive, or floppy disk: Or via downloaded files from the manufacturer’s website. Some motherboards now have dual or even quad BIOS features to preserve BIOS config data.

BIOS is your friend, remember, don’t update your BIOS unless you really have to! A failed flashing of the BIOS can render your main board useless, especially in the event of power failure or premature shutdown during the flash. Anatomical analogies for instance, would be voluntary lobotomies or *gulp* casual weekends at a vasectomy clinic.

All rather painful and unnecessary. If however, you’re the kind of person that would happily sell their spleen for cold hard cash, then BIOS flashing is right up your Kaiser.

Remember, flashing has its risks and you don’t want to get caught with your pants down and a floppy in your hand…Nay friends, we all want a good hard drive with a firm-ware upgrade success story to brag about on the weekend.

Sayonara, flashers!

2007-01-11T20:31:00.000+11:00

Fire!

Sometimes it makes you wonder why…
Why people light fires, why people hurt other people, why we are sending our soldiers off to war, why God appears not to care, why BSOD’s appear as if out of nowhere…
Why Bill Gates is so philanthropically inclined these days and why the hell stuff just stops working. The popular theory for the last point in question is the smoke theory.

The smoke theory is based on the belief that all semiconductors are made of smoke. Thus when the smoke gets out, the object emitting the substance is inherently stuffed.
True or false, smoke is never a good thing when it emanates from the insides of your PC. Take the photos above and below… Both share common themes, both are of outdoor settings… Both are on the same road. The image at the top shows a darker patch of sky toward the bottom of the image. The image below this text shows the conditions whilst inside this darker patch of smoke pictured above. The eerie orange glow was freaking me out dude…

There was an unusual absence of flies and other insects and birds too. Weird. Hopefully it wont be so bad tomorrow. O.K, gotta go now and tend to the sheep. Cya’s all later. Ciao!

2007-01-10T20:24:00.000+11:00

Wow! We’ve been flat knackers at work. Who would have thought that it would be as busy as it is? Crikey, I’ve barely had time to scratch my butt. Lots of lightning activity has made Power Supplies the most sought after item in the shop. About this time each year, power supplies are regularly frizzled by lightning strikes and surges through the phone line into modems can cause a lot of damage to system boards and devices attached via USB cables. Oddly, it is usually the crappier and cheaper items that survive the lightning attacks, leaving the more expensive and important items in a state of crisp, sometimes darkened lifelessness.

Murphy got it right when he said that an expensive picture tube would protect a 2 cent fuse by blowing first. With good power supplies costing between 60-200 dollars, the demand for them usually sees people opting for the lesser quality and far less reliable brands over the more dependable and higher ratings of the superior units.

It’s not surprising that we have a greater demand for the under $60 range of power supplies. There are still the odd people who come in asking for 1kw PSU’s for under $80. Dreamers…

The movie “The Castle” comes to mind from time to time. Ah well. Better go and get back to surfing. The internet awaits me. Cya later.

Sweet Victory and Bitter Defeat.

2007-01-03T19:52:00.000+11:00

When things all go pear shaped, and it seems like you are bashing your head against a brick wall, just when things seem like nothing else can go wrong... It does get worse. But there is always a solution. Don't fret, it can always be fixed somehow. And if you can't fix it, someone else can.

Point in case, is my friend Jeff. Now despite what the name suggests, Jeff is Russian, or Yugoslavian or something. Jeff is an IT Guru (but I can't show his face on Television). Say hello Jeff. Jeff has a problem. His Server is down and an office full of angry staff are on his back to get it up and running. Jeff's only problem is the fact that he is 900km away and cannot accurately guage the scope of the problem. Remote access is not an option, as the server is not booting at all and there are no staff members that are skilled in the areas of server related RAID controller diagnostics...
As you would assume in this (unnamed) enterprise operations environment.

Enter the McTechnician, a highly skilled and secretly trained Professional, always rising to the challenge of a server resurrection. Server resurrection is almost a dark art, leading the practitioner into the realms of the mystic Linux or Windows Server domains. Twice, was I forced to do battle with the server environment, once supremely triumphant, but denied the title of champion on one occasion. The offending server, a corporate beast of the financial institutional persuasion. Of course I nay describe the owner of this dragon, save to say that I was comprehensively beaten by the brute, failing to locate her storage control drivers in order for a recovery to successfully take place.

Likening myself to St. George, I set a second and third plan into action in a bid to slay the beast and get the system back online, but was defeated on every attempt. Ungracefully, I retreated, like a whipped dog, with it's tail between it's legs. Saddened by the undeniable fact that I had been beaten by a machine and it's pathetic operating system. So with lance in hand and head bowed in defeat, I reluctantly retreated to the office where more such problems awaited. And so ended a challenging day of both victory and bitter defeat.

Arachnophobia and Xmas baubles

2006-12-27T19:48:00.000+11:00

Ok. I was going to blog before Xmas, but it got a bit hectic and so I was unable to do it then. Well Xmas was most enjoyable and as usual, we all ate way too much food and drank too much wine, but hey…It’s Xmas. It’s perfectly acceptable behaviour for this time of the year.

By and large, its been comparatively busy for this week so far, being the week before the new year and all. Hopefully the new year will see us even busier and happier than ever before. Come on down 2007!!! Yippee!

Hey check this picture out. It’s a customer’s PC with the web page on the inside of the case. It belongs to a spider that is totally up with the latest technology. I think there was another arachnid in there before the current resident, but unfortunately it looks like this little invertebrate lost a few legs trying to navigate its way across the CPU desert, or met his end while catching the USB Bus. If he did catch the bus it was surely bound to be a hard drive. But the alternative route would have made him a bit floppy. Perhaps he was sucked into the system fan whilst abseiling from the roof of the case. The inside seems warm and cosy to a spider I’m sure, but taking an eight legged stroll through a high voltage power supply unit could fry the poor little suckers hairy legs balder than Peter Garret: A shocking trip to arachnophobic hell. Speaking of Peter Garret, doesn’t he dance a bit like a spider?

Oh and one more thing... People may find this somewhat odd, but this year I have officially discovered and learnt the meaning of the word bauble. Amazing... Thanks Amber, you continue to enlighten me and improve my Xmas vocabulary. Yeah OK, I know its kinda tragic, but I think I may have lived in a kind of xmas vocab free environment as a kid. Geez I didn't even know that the tinsel stuff that you hang aroung your Xmas tree has a special name. Bizarre. It doesn't at all surprise me though, to see that there are so many words that are Xmas specific, and are not at all commonly used: in George's Funky World at least.

So getting back to the spider, it is very common to see spiders create websites, whilst the user creates them on the internet. It is a web of intrigue... I also find it quite interesting that we refer to computer owners as Users. If you drive a car you are an owner/driver. If you buy a book you are the reader, but if you buy a computer you are a user. Now in the context of interpersonal relationships, you certainly would not enjoy such a title, but in the computing world, we seem to embrace it... Bizarre really. I'm sure that we can come up with a better label. Drop me a line and let me know what you think. Perhaps we could be called computors or something like that. Maybe we could invent a nedw word to substitute the very unflattering 'user'.

Smoky day

2006-12-14T21:21:00.000+11:00

Today was interesting in as much as the contrasting backgrounds of fire, smoke and darkness that surrounded us in Gippsland. Of particular concern, was the wind gusts that whipped through regions where bushfires were active. We have been preparing for this today though, but I don’t think that people were expecting the additional problem of fires in the Latrobe Valley area. The DSE and CFA have their work well and truly cut out for them and we are all counting on their expertise to save lives and property.

I caught the early signs of fire in the pine plantation in the Strezlecki hills just off the Strezlecki Highway about 15km N of Mirboo North. At the moment as I am writing, strong winds are fanning the blaze. There are 20 fire trucks there at this moment . I hope that the firemen are well equipped and luck is on their side, because this fire is huge. Very scary. In fact, I ended up so close to it, that I was confronted by Police and CFA firemen who advised me of an alternate route home. It was too smoky and hazardous to travel so close to the fire.

In other adventures today, I fitted out another rack with a spunky new switch and some network cabling, all ready for population by the rather sad looking HP computers (pictured below) for a certain Government agency (I can’t tell you who it is… If I did, I would have to kill you all - due to the top secret nature of this assignment). For now, lets just call them ”Control” as in “Get Smart.” Fortunately, I possess a license to root (or is that to route)… Like James Bond, you know, but in a networking kinda way. So anyway, all that I need for these sad looking computers to renew their former, glorious governmental state of confidential being, is furniture, like desks to put them on for instance.

Picture this… An undisclosed number of governmental workers (of undisclosed gender and ethnicity) sitting cross legged on the carpet with their keyboards in their laps and RSA encrypted keys dangling from their necks as they answer confidential and of course, classified questions from non-specific human resources (people). Gotta love the governmental jargon…

So would agree that this picture will never actually eventuate? Well, until tomorrow when somebody builds the desks and gives the special agent dudes somewhere to sit, this might be a sticking point for our talented secret service personnel. It may adversely influence group cohesion; inherently affecting overall stability and productivity within the core structure of the institution. (shit will hit the fan in a big way).

You see interpreting corporate jargon can be challenging, but as my good friend Gayle pointed out recently, bullshit is what drives the corporate world, so for this we should be grateful… I guess, especially if we’re the ones providing the links to the ‘Information Super Highway.’ Just as there is dirt on our streets, the internet is full of its own crap too. Don’t we all know it? I was horrified today to find my seven year old repeatedly attempting (unknowingly) to download a virus from a web page that I didn’t even know existed. Thank god for antivirus software. And although I agree that we sometimes need contingency plans to save us from our own stupidity, we also need them to save our children too. Not from stupidity but rather, from their own innocence and naivety… So out came the old content filter.

Anyway, enough rambling for today, see you on the next episode.

Sad Goodbye

2006-12-07T19:41:00.000+11:00

When you work with an individual for a long time, you develop a certain kind of relationship with that person. You know a professional relationship that sometimes transcends the usual boundaries of the regular employee inter-relationship.

If you have ever worked in a small business for as long as I have, (more than seven years now) you will know what I am banging on about. Christ I know my workmates better than...Well perhaps better than I should. This week, one of them moves on to greener pastures (but nothing to do with the dairy industry). It leaves me with a huge void that feels just plain weird. She has been like my best friend at times, like my mother at other times and well, yes like comic relief at other times. But I have nothing but the highest regard for her. On one level, it feels as though a part of me is leaving. On the other hand it leaves me wondering how I will keep my sanity also. She was my organisational side in my times of disarray. She is my memory when I forget things (which is most of the time). She was also, an important voice of reason in the times that really mattered to us.

Every business (and every individual) needs someone in their life like Gayle. She is a voice of reason and the grounding force that keeps a business on track and organised, in a very important way. Employees of her calibre are highly sought after. They make perfect and loyal friends too. They can be brutally honest, but despite what some people think, this can sometimes be the best thing that we could ever hear, regardless of how it makes us feel... Sometimes all we need is a good kick up the butt to bring us down to Earth. This is definitely what all of us need from time to time. Let’s face it, none of us are perfect.

So if you are reading this my friend, I wish you nothing but happiness and the very best of fortune on your new path and thank you for your deeply valued friendship and support during these past 7 years. Thank you for being my friend and good luck in the future!!! Oh and don't think that this is the last that you'll hear from me either. I hope that you feel just a little bit mushy on the inside, despite the driving force behind your leaving. I am a bit sad that you are leaving and it will take a long time to adjust to the fact that you won’t be around. Ah well, I guess I will have to take up transcendental meditation or something to cope with the boss. I doubt that Maharishi himself could cope with what you are leaving me to deal with alone. :-) Well it will be strange also to see your chair empty and to miss the smell of chewing gum, or to get used to making just one cup of coffee in the mornings. Cya Gayle and God bless you!

Anyway, lately I have been listening to more and more of Paul Oakenfold, Trance style, Techno sort of stuff. I'm not sure why, but I love it! I think that I am going nuts. This may get worse in the coming months so bear with me. I have so much to say today, but I must leave many things unsaid. Sometimes we must bite our tongues for fear of biting the very hands that feed us.

Fires threaten our community this weekend and so my heart is out to all those in the line of the fast approaching Gippsland bushfires, who may have to make some very serious decisions in much haste. Also god bless those CFA and DSE workers who give of themselves tirelessly in our times of need.
Thanks for reading and goodnight folks!

Printer Madness

2006-12-01T23:00:00.000+11:00

Well, it’s been a very busy week. As you may have been aware of, our Birch Tree in the back yard has been an issue for concern lately... I'm afraid that it had to go. It has become a source of tension between us and the neighbour for some time now. We have always considered it (the tree) a bit of a pest due to its tendency to drop leaves and pods into the gutters and our neighbour has voiced his disapproval on a number of occasions (usually in a drunken stupor). So at the end of the day and now that we can afford to remove it, we have had it chopped down and ground into mulch. It affects the landscape of the backyard profoundly, but we are glad to see it gone and the tension between ourselves and the neighbours also.

Work is well...work as usual. I got a printer in the workshop earlier this week and I thought I might take the opportunity to share a few pictures of it in the process of disassembly.

As you can see, it’s quite involved. The removal of parts must be done in a certain order as many panels/parts rely on other panels or parts as anchor points for their attachment. This is the QMS-Minolta 2300 Desk Laser. Unfortunately, she has a problem: A faulty solenoid in the paper pickup tray mechanism is stopping her from picking up any paper at all. The job of the tray 1 solenoid is to engage a clutch mechanism that among other duties, releases the paper lifting tray for paper to be fed into the printer's transport rollers sheet by sheet at precise moments.

This solenoid along with potentially thousands of others in 2300DL’s worldwide was plagued with a rather unfortunate manufacturing problem that led to their replacement en mass. This is one of the problems with technology. Rely on somebody to do the job for you and you don't always get what you bargained for. Having said this, it is increasingly common for many manufacturers to use identical parts. The most recent example of one that has been implemented with disastrous results happens to be Dell’s use of Sony Lithium Ion Batteries in their laptop range of Latitude’s (D600’s and the like). Apparently, batteries can ignite due to poor insulating materials inside the battery that would ordinarily prevent the mixture of lithium and oxygen that causes the batteries to ignite.

Anyway. My point is that all products experience common and sometimes dramatic problems that are simple manufacturing flaws that are actually less common these days due to the improvements in the overall manufacturing processes used in computer components and associated hardware.

Back to the photos though… My final picture is the reassembled Magicolour in all its unimpressive glory. I must admit, It has never won any awards for good looks. Funnily enough, Epson have used the 2300DL engine in their own line of colour laser printers. Very few companies are truly innovative today. Epson is no exception to this rule, and continue to use Minolta technology in their products under license. For more than a decade, HP have invested time and effort into development of products that were for all intents and purposes, Canon inventions or at least inventions that had been made viable by them. So this part pictured above, is the offending part anyway. It costs around $2 to buy and over $250 in labour to fit.

Cool thing about Minolta printers is the quality of their construction. It is a joy to work on them.I marvel at their overall complexity and yet, underlying simplicity. Cool stuff.

2006-11-25T19:08:00.000+11:00

Well its been way too long since I last blogged, let alone checked out every one else’s blogs. But life’s been a little hectic lately and there’s been no time. So I trust that you will be reading this thinking ‘thank god hes updated.’ Well, the thing is that nothing really exciting has happened, just very busy, especially at work.

The past two weeks have seen me literally headlong into comms boxes and server cabinets…Trying to make sense of the twisted mess of cables, routers and other network equipment. But there again, who can complain about it when at the end of the day, you see that the fruits of one’s labour have positively paid off. A subtle change of cabling, some reorganisation and a little TLC goes a long way to bringing a sense of order to an otherwise neglected area in most retail outlets.

The trouble with locations such as these, is that it only takes one sloppy contractor to set a perpetual wheel of shabbiness in motion. If everyone took pride in their work, it would be a lot less common to see messes like this….

Some comms cabinets resemble a square bowl of blue spaghetti rather than the reality of highly sophisticated data carrying cables, managed electronic data switches and routers.

Routers are an interesting animal. Depending on where you live, they are rooters too. Routers/routers… Same thing. Do you root data or do you route it? Well its one of those things isn’t it. In the US, do you travel on route 66, or root 66? Do carpenters root the legs off tables or chairs? Do you find yourself on route to the airport? Now every Aussie would understand this dilemma. If I said I was rooting some sheep from one side of the road to the other, you would be forgiven for thinking me desperate or mad (or both). But if I was rooting traffic??? Now that’s just strange, no matter how you look at it…

So anyway, cables can resemble spaghetti, or a work of art, depending on how much effort you put into their um, routes. You see, there is an art to rooting, or should I say, routing. An art form that is both evasive and seemingly hidden from the modern routing bible. Rooting really is a dark art... That is to say, you either can or you can't get rooted. And clearly as you can see here, very few people are good rooters. The cabinet above, is clearly not well rooted, while the one below is rooted suficiently well to carry the outward semblance of order. You see, they are the same cabinet. Before and after.

The art of routing cables may be similarly compared with flower arrangement. The main difference is perhaps the non-similarity in organic structure or purpose. Perhaps the perfectionist cabling guru type, are on a life long search for existentialism in a similar way that a Japanese Samurai would apply the “Zen” of flower arrangement to his quest for enlightenment.

Maybe our state of being is reflected in the quality of our workmanship. At the very least, it must speak of our commitment to the task, assuming that our skills match the tasks requirements for an orderly outcome.

If it were not so, everything would end up rooted instead of routed and lets face it, I would rather send a bunch of network cables to my mother than a poorly arranged bouquet of rancid flowers from an incompetent florist on Mother’s Day. Having said that, as illustrated in the following rack, it can be near on impossible to get any sense of order in a comms cabinet without completely starting again with more appropriate length cables. Unfortunately, you cant just take the systems off line (without upsetting the network administrators.) When you are forced to make do with less than adequate resources at your disposal, all you can hope to do is your best under those circumstances. It is difficult to polish a turd.

So I suppose that you're wondering how the cows come into this? Well no post would be complete without the obligatory references to the humble cow. Here's a herd of cows playing footy! I think the brown team won. Either way they have been routed to this football field rather strangely, presumably to graze on the rare green grass of this rather dry area of Gippsland.

Enough of my ranting for now… Hope you’re all in good spirits and have a fantastic week!

To blog or not to blog, that is the question.

2006-10-17T15:06:00.000+10:00

I was listening to a song yesterday morning. It was called ‘happiness is just a chemical’ or something like that. It got me thinking though. If happiness is caused by a chemical reaction within the brain, then it is a purely chemical reaction that causes us to feel good… So can we therefore assume that our happiness is an illusion that is reinforced by a physical need for the chemical that makes us feel good?

Well if you think about it, there is no real conclusive evidence either for or against this theory (as far as I can tell). So is life really closer to the reality of the Matrix type existence that sees us caught up in an unreal façade where we are prompted to believe that our happiness is directly affected by those around us?

Hmm. I think that it’s fair to assume that if everyone around us is miserable, we are unlikely to ever feel entirely happy. It is one thing to say that happiness is a chemical, but it should then be conversely said, that sadness is also a chemical (or a lack of the one that makes us feel happy). We cannot however assume that depression is just feeling sad… Depression is far more serious than that of course. It is a chemical imbalance also. But would the onset of depression be suppressed in cases where the abundance of the ‘happy chemicals’ are present in individuals that have the propensity to suffer from depression?

Human psychology is a complex study that in my opinion, begs more questions that it proposes answers. Why exactly do we get depressed? And what exactly are the differences between clinical depression and the depression commonly referred to by the layperson (such as myself). My ignorance is obvious on this subject. I must do some further research on the issue.

On a brighter note, I say one of those palletizers in action the other day. It’s one of those things that you see that has obvious potential, you know and is such a brilliant idea that even an idiot could use it. Unfortunately under the right circumstances, only an idiot would ever use it. Example a) Shrink wrapping loosely stacked CRT monitors on a pallet 2 tiers high without first securing them to the stack… The palletizer spins around fast enough to send two of the monitors flying off the stack and crashing hard on the unforgiving concrete. Very dumb, but a total pisser. Funny stuff., especially from the IT gurus at SAGE.

Anyway, enough from me for today. I’ve wasted enough of your time for now. See ya later.

CSIRAC in Melbourne

2006-10-05T19:22:00.000+10:00

Well, its been a long time since I blogged. But its been very busy and admittedly, I have been preoccupied with other stuff. I cant stop bragging about the trip to the Melbourne Museum. It was fantastic. The last time I went to the museum, I was only about 12 years old. It has since moved location and is in a fantastic new building as well.

By far, the most fascinating exhibit for me was CSIRAC. CSIRAC is a computer, in fact it is Australia’s very first computer. It is iconic in the modern digital age. I reckon it’s awesome. There are about 2000 valves in this behemoth. Its about 5 metres wide and 2 metres tall, jam packed full of circuit boards, and houses an enormous barrel type hard drive.

From what I remember, she holds around 200bytes of data and was capable of processing around 500 instructions per second with her processing speed of 300khz.
Sure, compared to modern multi-core desktop processors, she is little more than an enormous calculator, but she is a genuine electronic and scientific wonder of the 20th Century. CSIRAC was used for all sorts of stuff from weather pattern prediction, to loan repayment calculations. Ironically, it was Australia’s financial decision in the 1940’s to pour money into the CSIRO’s research into rain making (yes it is true) rather than computer research that bore the need for a computer that would make complex and detailed cloud and water droplet formations and other weather pattern predictions possible.

If you get the chance, it's well worth a look. Here's a picture of part of a nearby building
in Melbourne. Makes an interesting photo. Kool stuff I reckon. Anyway, if you find this interesting, check out the Melbourne museum’s website at http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/csirac/

Busy Busy Busy

2006-09-23T21:58:00.000+10:00

Busy weeks have past. There are lots of things that have happened. I have lost my patience, lost money, lost time, lost data, lost sleep and even lost one of our children at one point as well.

But despite this, we have had a wonderful time with friends and have also enjoyed valuable time with our children. Some moments are irreplaceable and others are such that you wish they had never happened, but overall, our time has been well spent lately on those things that we all enjoy. Well I am embarrassed to admit it but I have been browsing the Eurovision website. Sad things to see there I think.

Oh well. Tomorrow we have decided to go off to Melb with the Finno’s. We have bought new whistles for the kids to wear around their necks so that they cant easily be lost too. Until next time… Hasta La Vista Baby!!!

20 attributes of the Computer Geek and recognising PC addiction.

2006-09-09T14:10:00.001+10:00

1. Whilst shopping at large department stores, you are drawn to the computer section like fluff to Velcro.
2. You always seem to ask questions that the salespeople cannot answer, like ‘what is the cas latency of the RAM’ or make of the chipset.
3. You care more about your computer than your cat or dog. (If only you could play Quake 4 on your Labrador.)
4. You do have a cat or dog, but since you got the computer, you haven’t seen them around the house at all.
5. You built a shrine around your computer complete with joss sticks and goblets for sacrificial ceremonies that involve the burning of floppy disks.
6. You are genuinely excited by flash technology and eSATA.
7. You often marvel at your computer’s complexity, staring at it for hours at a time.
8. You spend way more money on your computer than your partner would ever allow (if they only knew).
9. You love the internet more than the TV.
10. You talk to your computer on a regular basis.
11. You shop regularly on ebay for items that you could buy at half the price in any local supermarket.
12. You are thinking about your next computer upgrade as you read this.
13. You are actually still reading this crap.
14. No really, you are still reading this crap.
15. You recognise that a hard drive has nothing to do with motor racing.
16. You thoroughly agree that you should probably be hanging out or putting the washing away instead of reading my blog ATM.
17. You couldn’t give two hoots about the washing…There are blogs to read and computer reviews to see.
18. You would rather watch streaming video clips on youtube than the six O'clock news
19. You wish that the washing and the dishes could be fully automated and controlled from the comfort of your computer’s desktop.
20. You know more about computers than your children do.

Hey this is just the sort of thing im talking about...
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Acronyms.

2006-08-30T20:38:00.000+10:00

I am sick of acronyms. Acronyms are everywhere. Acronyms exist for almost everything, from Computer terms to washing powder, we cannot escape acronyms. Just for fun I will tell a story using acronyms. It's good therapy.

Once upon a time, there lived a CT dude who worked 24/7. He was given a pretty good salary of $12000 PFN for doing SFA. He was once a TA in an IT department of IBM. IBM told him to GTFO though, so he was back doing SFA IYKWIM. Right after they told him gfy, the PC started playing up. Damn! His HDD was RS and the RAID was USCWAP. His DDR SDRAM was causing BSOD's and the CDROM was cactus, leaving him with data that was N/A. The NTFS FS was stuffed too and so the whole OS was BS. Without the SCSI HDD's online, even with SATA or SATA2 there was NFW that it would ever work again. Even if he could IMG the OS, the new LCD had no working OSD and he couldn't find the S/N that was required to complete an RMA for a DOA claim. FM he exclaimed! Even the old CRT is FUBAR. If only I had a TWAIN CCD for the LCD on the MFP. then I could use USB or the ESATA on the MB to interface with the CF from the SLR to the SFF case next to the HUB on top of the TCPIP Stack. If he could only enter the BIOS on the CMOS of the DAE... Then he could U/L the contents of the SAN over the LAN without upsetting the LUN's. But just in case the DC power went AC, the UPS would have to be RAS'd via the ADSL. Only then would it BRB. OMFG, the DUN was down and the ISDN onramp was hit by a TS. But FTM, he would have to wade through loads of UCE (Spam) How simple... Why did he not think of that before? ROTFLMAO.

Pissed Off!

2006-08-29T22:33:00.003+10:00

I just spent the past hour blogging to give you lots of useless information when the power went out. Grrrrr!!!! So I will try to give you as much useless information in as short of a space as possible this time. I was having a winge about corporate ethics (or the apparent lack thereof). Do we blindly accept what we are told to the point that they are filling our heads with so much crap that we don't see a con when it's staring us in the face?

Wow, you know there seems to be an accepted practice of truth stretching in our world. If we say an hour, we really mean over an hour. If we say a megabyte, we really mean 1 million bytes (1mb is in fact equal to 1024 bytes) Ever wondered why Windows says your 40Gb Hard Drive is only 37Gb??? Well I do feel sorry for all the suckers who bought into Dell's 1.5 Terabyte storage claim on their XPS gaming rigs. They will open up their windows disk manager only to be confronted with the disturbing truth that what they thought was 1.5Tb is in fact closer to 1.39Tb, One billion and one hundred million less bytes than they have paid for.

Sure it sounds like nit picking when its 2 or 3 Gb less on your 40Gb HDD, but we are talking in Terabytes! It suddenly starts to leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Yes folks, HDD manufacturers report the size of one mb by rounding it to the 1000, leaving 24 bytes unaccounted for. This accumulates to the point where storage space disappears at an alarming rate when the storage devices are increasing in volume. One Terabyte is one trillion bytes. Thats 24 billion bytes (or 24Gb) that are ommitted from the equation. Thats enough to fit the entire contents of the average computer user's hard disk drive. Enough music to fit on around 34 compact disks, or over 5 DVD movies or about 16,600 floppy disks...

So there you go. It's no wonder that people are confused about computer technology, when the very people they percieve to be in control of the industry misrepresent the products that they sell... I would have thought that we should aim to make computers easier to understand for the benefit of all humankind.

As slow as a wet week

2006-08-24T21:19:00.000+10:00

Well today was slow, yesterday was slow, in fact the whole week has been pretty slooooow....
But at the first opportunity, I have taken some pics for you.

I love taking photos of scenes like these. There is nothing I find more relaxing than the enchantment of strolling accross a rustic old bridge with the country breeze gently lifting the stresses of life from my shoulders, a very romantic setting indeed.

Looking forward to a busier day tomorrow and with something more interesting to report back on my blog, I retire for the day. Hopefully to a nice refreshing sleep. Farewell until next blog. Sleep well and have a great weekend.

Great day for it.

2006-08-20T20:13:00.000+10:00

Well today was good for just about anything. I had the car serviced,the kids entertained, and funnily enough, the house was reasonably ordered and tidy.

Perhaps it was locking the kids outside that made the difference. It was too nice of a day for them to be inside playing arcade games.

Hailey and Jacob played in the park and on the swings. (Hailey is dictating) And they played in the sandpit with a digger tractor thingo. And on the thing where they push you up. (I think she means the upside down see-saw thingie with the ropes that you hang on to). Hailey met her friend Holley as well (from day care).

Oh, and Amber's Shop is looking so good since Tom, Nic and Nathan gave us a much appreciated hand over the weekend. So another week is at it's end. What will next week have in store for us? Looking forward to work and might even get a few more pics for you all.

Anyway, its time to get these kids off to bed. More updates next week...

Stranger things have happened.

2006-08-16T20:17:00.000+10:00

Today turned out to be ok, with a slow start however. A job in East Gippsland was in desperate need of attention and unfortunately held up by parts waiting to be received by courier In Melbourne.

There seems to be a problem with a particular piece of equipment in relation to it’s firmware version. Troubleshooting connectivity problems is the key to keeping internet dependent services online, but it is not necessarily an exact science. Sometimes it is a ‘suck and see’ type situation where you replace the most likely candidate for failure, before replacing other parts in a hierarchical order of importance in relation to a basic troubleshooting flowchart.

Such a troubleshooting flowchart goes this way…

If a thing has stopped working, thump it. If it still doesn’t work, kick it. If after a thump and a kick, it still don’t work, chuck it out and get a new one…
If the new one doesn’t work, it probably wasn’t the problem to begin with… (Perhaps you should consider asking someone that actually knows what they are doing). If it still doesn’t work, forget about it and give it to someone that you really don’t like (It is better to drive them crazy than to put yourself through the stress).

In the case of something that is low cost, forget about it. In the case of something like a plasma screen TV, even if it is out of warranty, consider screaming and yelling, hurling profanities at such opportune moments as peak time in the store, regularly drawing attention to yourself, calling for the store manager. It may in fact work.

On another note, I hope you like the photos I took today. They were fun to take in the little time I had in which to take them.

Throughout the day as usual, forces worked against me in my quest for supremacy in this ongoing fight against hardware failure. Even on returning home, I found that my darling wife had sabbotaged my efforts to blog solely about me, adding this little passage to the end of my blog:

"Oh and by the way, my wife is so HOT, with the best arse. She is a wonderful person and I love her dearly. I know I should do the dishes more often, put my dirty clothes in the laundry rather than on the floor, and cook dinner every night to help her out, but if I did, what could she possibly find to grump about as I think I am perfect in every other way."

Hmmmmm...... Not much to say about that really.
Till next time, Adios amigos.

2006-08-15T21:42:00.000+10:00

Well, no pictures to blog tonight, but there again, not much to report on either. I can't think of anything to say that will amuse you at the moment, so I guess that I will not say anything other than what i say right here.

Not that you would know that I am saying anything other than what i am actually saying right here anyway: so if you can guess what i am saying without me actually saying it then let me know and i might even give a prize to whomever accurately predicts whatever it is that i am not saying, that i know that i want to say, without really saying it.

A close friend once said to me that the ability to understand wombats is an artform perfected by the elite. A select few truly understand the true nature of things. But without me elaborating on the subject, tell me of your wisdom on the subject. Leave me a comment oh enlightened ones...

A valiant effort.

2006-08-10T19:16:00.000+10:00

Well folks, I've been busy selling my car on ebay and today was a really busy day at work. (at least for me anyway) But I'm sure that others appreciated the haste at which the jobs got done. I had this old Valiant that I referred to in a previous post. It sold for about $600. I tried to be totaly honest about the car and the fact that it has been sitting around not doing anything for a while. It's hard because there are always things that you would like to add to a description of a car when you list it for the first time. Especially when you are like me...not inclined to think things through with too much deliberation that is. So the car is sold, sort of, but there is no money yet. Time will tell as to whether he is a serious buyer or not. Anyway, work has been a bit slow, but I have still got a few snapshots to share with you. Some are from West Gippy, others from the Valley and some from places inbetween.

It seems almost fashionable to be as disorganised as me. Take today for instance, it seemed as though people were less organised and less able to understand what I was trying to tell them than they would ordinarily be. It left me feeling somewhat superior (in an organisational sense). I even had all of the information at my disposal, that was required of me to succeed in the job. All except one thing that is.... Reliable, available (and competent) assistance. It's not that I'm blowing my own horn here, but god only knows that the rest of the I.T world was doing today while I struggled with direction on things, left asking myself and the I.T gods/godesses questions like "Hi I'm here...um what do you want me to do exactly?", "Why am I here?" and the classic question I was forced to ask "would you like me to tell you what the problem actually is, rather than sending me back to this place to tell you that no, that's not it?" Crikey, sometimes it is so glaringly obvious that it can befuddle even the best and most conscientious IT guru.

Here is a printer that makes some people quiver with fear, others shake with excitement, blah blah blah. Reality suggests that these old crappers really do make the world go around. The OKI Microline 320Turbo dot matrix printer with the ingenious (but laughable) Quite mode. Printers like this make triplicates possible via impact printing technology. Tiny pins in the head hammer away at blistering speeds to produce that all too common and incredibly annoying noise that nobody should have to put up with (no matter how much they pay you). Bloody amazing.
Anyway, back to the job thing... I think that sometimes it helps to walk away from a job briefly, or to look at it from a different angle. It can be like one of those 3d coloured pattern pictures that we all had. You know the ones, the ones that people would sometimes pretend to get, even if they did'nt. The old "Yeah I see the dolphins now..." ploy. "Yeah that's fantastic" with a long pause. Yeah right. Then bam! They suddenly get it and try to act unsurprised. That was happening today. You know what I mean. People with too much pride to admit when they are wrong. "Oh, i don't know how we overlooked that..." or "Gee, sorry to leave you waiting for three quarters of an hour on hold"

I will be madly looking for more pics for the next post. Till then cya later and may all of your experiences with level 2 tech support be more productive, less boring and generally more pleasant than mine. Until then, my mind will be on these rolling hills... At one with mother nature, oh and the cows of course.
Speaking of cows, I read in the paper, that they have come up with a renewed (but genuine) interest in the recycling of cow manure for energy production purposes... Some may say that its just a load of bull.

Verrrrrry Strange.....

2006-07-31T21:51:00.000+10:00

Heres something you don't see every day.
Can you figure out who it's addressed to? Perhaps it contains the book of invisibility mentioned in the ebay listing below.....

Ever wondered how to become invisible? Or how it feels to be a wombat? Check out ebay item 140012370936

All will become clear my young Padawan.
UPDATE!!!
It 'appears' that the item mentioned above was so effective that the book literally made its own listing disappear. A real pisser this one. heres some of the original text in the book...

BECOME INVISIBLE! Imagine! Complete, REAL Invisibility! Stand unseen among people or cameras... even when totally surrounded. Not even a shadow! Not a hint of your true existence. Even when you are naked.

Seriously funny stuff, but it is truly tragic to 'see' that this is a serious listing that someone might actually pay for. Thank god cows don't have wallets. Now that I mention it, if cows did have wallets, what would they be made of??? Not leather surely...

Today's job took me to a little place called Iona. Apparently, farmers in Iona drive their cars and trucks until they stop...And that's exactly where they stay. I assume that a lot of farmers do this as it takes care of the logistical problems normally associated with psudomechanical agricultural machinery. This is the environmentally and photographicaly friendly method we sometimes call the 'Idontgiveatoss' or 'whatchagonnadoaboutit' method of biomechanical disposal. Wow, I was going to bore you to tears by banging on about feral animals but that is the subject for another blog. Hope you like the pics and see you on the next episode.

This is taken near Kilkunda. Cool day for fishing me thinks.

Same old thing.

2006-07-26T21:11:00.000+10:00

It's been rather quiet and all the jobs I have had of late have been somewhat boring. Sorry folks, but thats the way it is. I hope to give you an exciting blog soon though. I will keep you posted. In the mean time check out Broken Yellow

Interesting website... Cya later.

Tagged as well

2006-07-24T22:29:00.000+10:00

Tagged
I have been tagged by the amazing Amber so here are my answers.

Four jobs I've had:

1. Working in a supermarket
2. Security guard at a 'Lethal Dose' Concert
3. Working as a carrot packing dude.
4. Working as a baked bean shovelling trades assistant for a fitter and boiler maker.

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. Star Wars :Episode 3.
2. Bloodsport (well it is a classic)
3. Mr Belvadere? The talkiong cat.
4. The Matrix.

TV shows I love to watch;

I don't watch a lot of TV, but i do like...
1. Top Gear
2. Mythbusters ( kari byron hubba hubba )
3. The Contender
4. Crime Scene Investigations

Four important things to me:

1. My Valiant and Amber.
2. My Computer.
3. My electric blanket.
4. My Valiant.

Four tunes that play in my head:

1. Shake Everything You've Got - Maceo Parker
2. Chop Suey - System Of A Down.
3. Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal
4. Gimme Some More - James Brown's Funky People

Four favourite food dishes:

1. Tikka Masala.
2. Roast Lamb.
3. Chow Mein
4. Pizza

Four websites I visit daily:

1. Ebay.
2. www.scraptothemax.com.au
3. coolvaliantdrivingdudeslikeme.com
4. tomshardwareguide.com

Four scrap companies I like:

1. BasicGrey ?
2. Heidi Swapp ?
3. Kelly Panacci ?
4. tomshardwareguide.com

Four colours I like:

1. Brittish Racing Green
2. Bronze
3. Blue
4. Factory black

Four people I am tagging:

1. Mark
2. The dude that bid 3 dollars on my classic 70's Val
3. Amber
4. The Devil

More photos on a great day.

2006-07-20T19:45:00.000+10:00

Believe it or not but you are looking into a mirror. A data mirror that is. A mirror is refered to by data geeks as RAID 1. Without boring you too much, a mirror is two disks that have identical volumes of information. This is because data is written to both drives simultaneously. 'Why?' I hear you ask. Well redundancy, Holmes. If a disk fails, data is automatically and instantly accessed on the other drive. Its the ultimate backup for the layman.

Pictured above, you can see my PC in the operating theatre. It's hard drives were disected, initialised and ready for transplant into the Hard Disk Drive cavity. Not for the meek or uninitiated, RAID controllers and their various functions are typically difficult to understand, thus tending to be the domain of hardcore geeksters. The blue LED glowing in the picture is a Voltage Regulator Module(VRM).

This PC has Two mirrored 160Gb Seagate HDD's (each with 8mb Cache) and Two Striped (RAID 0) 80Gb Seagate Cudas.' There is also one 200Gb Seagate for backup storage space. They are a mixture of SATA and IDE Interfaces.
With 5 HDD's in this PC, it is surprisingly quiet. The fans are noisier than the Disk Drives themselves. I actually have only 2 system fans. You can see one 80mm fan in the picture, but there is also one 120mm fan in the system cover.

Oh well, until next time, adios amigos!

Hump Day is Over

2006-07-19T20:35:00.000+10:00

Well, no pictures to upload for you today, but what an interesting day... Because of the nature of my job, I unfortunately get paid to sit and do nothing from time to time. People will pay me to do the seemingly impossible too, people will pay me to do the impractical, the extraordinarily difficult and the mundane as well.

Some days, people will pay me to do all of these things- all in an hour or two.
But today was different, today they paid me to do an ordinary job... The long way, and the most boring aspects of my job were amplified ten fold. Like a network administrator (I feel sorry for you guys) with nothing to do but watch traffic, I sat in pure unadulterated boredom. The progress bar on the file transfer meter inched (or should I say millimetred) along at an agonisingly painful pace. I was there so long that somebody mistook me for a piece of the furniture, and yet another employee threatened to give me jobs to do if i stayed much longer. I sat there, staring at the blue background occasionaly glancing up to see the regular stream of punters entering in and out of this well known government institution. The blur of white writing and slowly creeping progress bar barely keeping me conscious: It's funny but you get used to seeing this. After a while it can become almost surreal. It seems to become a part of you, but is separate at the same time. Like it forms part of your background conscience, providing some semblance of warmth in this otherwise cold and meaningless digital matrix of information that they call work.

In the movie ‘The Matrix’ there is a scene where Neo drifts off to sleep behind his PC. The computer screen drops to a command prompt and mysteriously, type is entered in the display… ‘Wake up neo’. This scene resonates with me, like a Cello resonates with an orchestra. As harmonious fountains of data are heard gently ticking and pinging away on hard disk drives all around me, I feel a sense of peace. Even as the tap, tap, tapping of keyboards threaten to drown out the unceasing read/write operations of all of this wonderful data. I see it day in and day out the same data. There is a pattern, and like Neo, you are alerted when the pattern is broken…Almost instinctively by the change in the regular whirring of the fans, or by the luminosity of the display.

Before I drifted off to sleep, I thought I’d better get up and go for a walk. With at least ¾ of an hour of relentless (but unattended/automatic) software loading to go, off I went. Aimlessly walking, with the sole intent of killing time, I wandered about the street, breathing in the cool and refreshing (non-conditioned) air. Upon my return and to my satisfaction, the rectangular window of the Novel Login screen greeted me, indicative of another job well done and yet another public servant put back to work (insert sarcastic comments here).

Well, I hope tomorrow is a little more lively!

Lazy Sunday

2006-07-16T19:29:00.000+10:00

Well, not much to report today, other than what follows...
Shopping mostly sucks: big time. Normally I forget stuff that is clearly marked on my shopping list, but today it wasn't that I forgot things at all. It was actually because the supermarket was out of stock today. As Murphy accurately predicted, the things that are crucial to your menu are always either out of stock, or not in the place they were the last time you looked.

These photos have nothing to do with my adventures today, but they do give me a sense of peace in knowing that dinner was a success afterall, despite my lack of ingredients. A little improvisation went down well amongst the troops.

Well thats all I have to report today, oh by the way dinner was a lovely roast lamb and vegie dinner. Succulent lamb, with crispy vegies co(well kind of -mostly) cooked in a light satay sauce. I still haven't mastered the roast meal, but I think the oven is part of my battle here.

The fast and the curious

2006-07-13T23:49:00.000+10:00

Wow, today after taking these cool pics of the railway bridge and the tree in front of the wall, I was amazed to witness the most full-on police blitz I have ever seen. I passed about ten squad cars over a distance of about 50km. There were divi vans, sedans and pursuit cars everywhere... Very interesting.They were obviously looking for people speeding as I will gratefully contest to in a minute.

After seeing so many police and arriving back at the workshop, I finished my paperwork and headed back out the door to make my way over to Tom's work. It was getting dark, so naturally I flicked on the lights - or so I thought...
Oh crap! No lights. Oh no. With all these cops around too! Naturally, I would be discrete and obscure amongst all the cars with shining headlights... Crap, crap, crap! Man. Now I don't know much about cars, less about auto electrics, so I did the logical thing. I drove to Tom's work. You see Tom is a mechanic. Well at least he used to be, and he knows a lot more than me or my boss (who suggested that i follow him as a solution to the problem) Now I'm not sure how he thought that that would actually achieve anything, but I decided that a dash along the side streets would be the best offensive. So with only parking lights dimmly illuminating my path, off I set to pick Tom up (and beg for his help).

With a sigh of relief, I pulled in the driveway and hopped out- searching for my mechanically minded brother. There are many subtle, yet complex (some deeply technical) and precise mechanics involved in the workings of our automobiles. Some profoundly scientific in nature, others theoretically simple, but nonetheless too hard to get your head around in practical application. With this in mind, Tom set about fixing my dilema. He looked hard at the lifeless headlamps, instructed me to flick the high beams. Then with all of his technical finesse and refined scientific understanding of the inner workings of this vehicular wonder, he raised his hand and...Thump. The light came into being once again. Pure genius I thought to myself. It actually worked. He thumped the light and on it came! Pounding the other light however (seemingly into submission) proved fruitless. "Well" Tom exclaimed, "at least we've got one light working."

Damn. Now with darkness well and truly upon us, I had to run the gauntlet of police vehicles returning from the area in which I had passed them earlier. You wouldn't believe it! Even before I had made my first turn, there sat a highway patrol car on the side of the road dead ahead in front of me. Crikey! Fortunately he was far more interested in speedsters than vehicles with only one light. Phew! Two more police cars past by us without any problems and so ended yet another interesting day.

Another day.

2006-07-11T19:50:00.000+10:00

Today was very busy and seemed to be a comedy of errors on the part of other people.
Time was wasted by simple mistakes that could easily have been avoided. Ah well, here are some pics from the areas I was visiting today.

It's always interesting to look at things in a slightly different way. Taking photos surely puts your mindset in another place. It's a little strange, but I am actually observing far more beauty in things than I ever have before. The sunset for instance, I could not take my eyes off this beautiful sunset today.

And the silhouette of the trees, cast by the brilliance of the golden sun was mesmerizing. This time of the year is fantastic. As the rain approached, I could see the mist enveloping the landscape shortly before the rain hammered down on the windscreen. Wow... The whole sky was dark with thick cloud except for a band of blue misty sky enlightened by the setting sun.

It's a short and sweet blog today. I don't have too much to say but, this last pic is of a strange looking shed that the picture does not really do any justice. It is strangely curious, Oddly shaped and transparent in parts due to its slatted structure. On the right angles, you can actually see right through it as every board is preceeded by a gap that may be 2 inches or so.

I think these sheds were used to store nuts or cotton or something in the fifties. This one has been repaired several times by the look of things.

Anyway, times up. Gotta go now. Cya on the next post. Bye!

Reflections in the mirror

2006-07-07T21:13:00.000+10:00

Seems that everyone likes looking at other people's blogs. Yeah I know. But before you stop and think that it is a little strange, stop to think that when you pass people in the street, they may be thinking about you... How do you know what they are thinking? It could be nice, it could be positive, it may also be something weird or perverse too. But if we worried about this sort of thing all the time, we would be too paranoid to even walk out the door in the morning. Instead, we worry less and less about what people think of us; as the world keeps spinning around; regardless of our individual existence... At least thats the way I see it. By this I don't mean that I don't care about other peoples feelings, of course I do care. I don't wish to harm anyone in this world. What I mean is that I think that as I am getting older, I realise that I am becoming less and less responsible for the feelings of others (with the knowledge that I don't actually have control over other peoples thought processes). If we have the best of intentions toward other people, I feel that we can all rest assured that we have done our best. Other people may have varying standards, but if we are genuinely good people in our hearts, we can't go far wrong.

So like a reflection in the car mirrors, our positive thoughts and intentions will shine back at us just the same way as the negative ones will also. This is the way of God and the way of our universe. We can see the light from stars that have long since extinguished. Our galaxy is full of debris and particles from what once existed in the form of things like us and our planet, but have been recycled perhaps - and are now seeking to form new planets and galaxies. I believe therefore that we are immortal in a way. We are born, we live and we die. We are recycled back to the Earth for another life to begin. People die all the time. People are born all the time. people are living at every moment of every day, but in the scheme of things; on a universal scale we are no more or less important than any other being on this planet, or any other being on any other planet. We are just another piece of the puzzle that is. We owe it to every part of the universe to nurture and care for our fellow man and indeed our world.

Cool stuff I reckon. We all have a big responsibility, but all it takes is just a little more care and thoughtful consideration to make the whole world a much better place. I know it all sounds too easy. I am a bit of a philosophical idealist at heart, and so the world to me, by my fundamental understanding of it may be nothing like your view of it. Life is a funny thing, and the more that you think about it, the less it makes sense... and perhaps the less sense I make in trying to convey my understanding of it to you. The thing I really like about life is the whole concept of perception. When I look into the mirror (of life), I may see things that you never dream of. Conversely, I may never see things as you do. I may never realise the dreams that you have come to know.

Wow, even winter looks great!

2006-07-04T19:47:00.000+10:00

Wow, firstly let me say that yesterday presented some spectacular opportunities for photography. As I am supposed to be working though, I am met with the constant moral and professional responsibilities that one is obligated to consider whilst travelling during working hours. I think that it is important to note that it is acceptible to take short breaks during long trips to refresh oneself.

There are obviously some exceptions to this rule, such as the beach shots and inside shots of data centres and computer equipment. But the point that I am trying to make here, is that these places are easy to see without going out of the way to find them. I have never travelled more than 6km off course to take any of my photos. This is why I love our region so much. There is so much to see here in Gippsland.

Whilst working, I never go far off course from my intended destination for a photo (or for anything else for that matter) due mainly to the constraints of time. Yes there is always work to be done and so little time in which to do it. Therefore, the majority of my photos are actually taken from the drivers seat either out the drivers side window or directly through the windshield (usually whilst the vehicle is stationary). Now, to tell a little about these photos... The first is from a hill overlooking the Orbost region. The strange curving structure to the left is actually a trestle bridge for an old disused rail system that runs the lenght of the floodplains where this picture is overlooking.

The next two photos are of a little place called Lake Bunga in the Gippsland Lakes region. A great place to visit. Lovely place and a good spot for kids to paddle too.
The last photo is actually the same rail line viewed at a different location sort of south-west of Orbost. It is currently under a traffic management project that sees new viewing platforms being constructed by a local contractor who was hard at work at the time of this photo.

Well, back to work tomorrow and I hope this blog sees everyone in good spirits and happy and healthy. Cheers till next time :)

Don't forget to turn off the lights!

2006-06-30T21:30:00.000+10:00

Today was for the most part, a very boring day. Nothing exciting happened. Sorry to sound dull, but it was just one of those days. So I will not tell you too much about it. Instead I will talk about other stuff like cows (just kidding).

Here are some pics that I snapped yesterday on route to a job. It was glorious weather, strangely beautiful views became apparent on this trip too. The valley below me was awash in a blanket of fog. You can't see them in this picture, but there are several Power plants within this region. The drive was very relaxing and this time of the year is perfect for country outings. For those who don't know, our power stations burn brown coal. (black coal is only used under unusual circumstances). The cooling towers pictured here at Loy Yang are much larger than those that I photographed in previous posts at Yallourn. The scale of Loy Yang is also spread out over a much wider area than at Yallourn and Hazelwood (I will get a few pics of Hazelwood in future posts). Hazelwood boasts the unfortunate title of being the most envirommentally un-friendly power station in the state (if not the Country) due to it's ageing technology and subsequent efficiency. Just the other day, I was hearing talk of the possibility of a renewed lease on coal-fuelled power viability and the debate that shrouds it in so much controversy. Thanks largely in part to German scientists, Australia may well be heading down the road of coal powered energy with 'zero' emissions.
Check this!

Any way It got me thinking... Will this mean that the grey mist around us every morning will disappear? Will I be able to see more than 10m in front of the car's bonnet on the way to work? Scary prospects like these leave me wondering about what sort of impact it will have on our environment in the long term. Will our children be able to see more of the road when they are our age? Through the combination of fog and pollution that seems to be everywhere these days, it is hard to see how it will change in any great hurry. Although I think it's important to conserve energy, I for one, won't be rushing out to buy solar panels any time soon.

Short and Sweet

2006-06-27T19:01:00.000+10:00

Hi there. Well I don’t have too much to say this evening, and even less time in which to say it.

Hey guess what? I know you can't really see it clearly, but right in the middle of the photo above, is the illustrious holiday resort known as Barry Beach. **cough cough cough** You might be able to pick it from the picture, you know... The fact that a bucket and spade would not be as useful as a 12 ton beached whale on this shoreline. It's very pretty from the hills, but believe me it's no place for your beach umbrella or the spade and bucket. (sorry folks no building sand castles here either).

These are all pics that sum up the weather and some of the places that work took me to on Monday. I will have more to say later on in the week. Until then, have a great day tomorrow and be happy :)

More Networking Skullduggery

2006-06-23T20:47:00.000+10:00

Here are some more photos of the Get Smart gig Today... Thank god for shoe phones. Two large 'Air Blue' air conditioners keep these network Terminal Units, Switches, Routers and various other puppies cool all year round: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These air conditioners are about 7 feet tall and really shift serious air within this room.

The two dark grey units pictured here in the middle are huge 5Kw fully managed UPS or Uninterruptible Power Supplies. They may also act as further protection from power surges or brown outs. At about 4 feet high, no-one will steal these babies, they probably weigh more than both of us combined. Sexy though, very sexy.

At the end of the day this job was about successfully creating a 2Mb virtual Private Network connection possible between the client site at a local Power Generation Facility and the power generation technogods of cyberspace in Sydney. I never ask where they are exactly, but they speak to me via mobile phone when they wish to communicate -much like ET did in the movie.

And this folks, is what makes it all possible. The very thing that allows you to see this post in all of its heavenly beigeness. If I added a little green, I could make it a little like the Matrix...

Into The Groove

2006-06-23T19:17:00.000+10:00

Hi there again. Today, Phil and myself delivered and set up PC's at this place in a nearby town. It is a new building that is a multipurpose educational centre. It is a hive of activity at the moment as workers (such as ourselves) were actively going about our various tasks madly working toward our individual goals.

Yesterday however, presented various other challenges in both high security buildings and some very public areas as well. One place that houses this (amongst many other cabinets) array of rack mounted network hardware was my first port of call on what was to be a very busy day. Pictured are two of about 6 cabinets in a single row inside this data centre. Entry is only to authorised personel, and is controlled by a remotely accessible door lock. There is no key or lock visible on the outside and the building is disguised as a regular vacant shop front. It's a bit like the rooms that Maxwell Smart enters at the beginning of 'Get Smart.' You know right before he enters the phone booth. As you are authorised, the door clicks open and you are invited into an empty room that leads to a beige security door that leads to the data cabinets in a sterile beige room with yet another security enabled beige door. Surrounding the almost oddly contrasting black cabinets are beige brick and plaster covered walls with a solitary security camera watching your every move.
A bit creepy really.

Of course my busy day didn't end without a snapshot of this awsome view to the north: as the sun sank beneath the distant Gippsland horizon. Wow.

A Quiet Day at the Office

2006-06-21T19:17:00.000+10:00

Well, it was a quiet day at the office today and I don't have much to talk about.

But I was able to soak in a little more of our beautiful Gippsland scenery.

The funky mirror pic. Something a little differerent, that's all.

enroute to a job today.
I especially liked the windmill, (taken through the passenger's side window)

A Sticky Situation. (not for the old or infirm)

2006-06-20T22:16:00.000+10:00

Today I had my routine, post vasectomy check up. It all went well until I asked about the non-regulation quad infiltration wounds… Now before I go any further, be warned, this is about that vasectomy stuff. So if you have sensitive eyes, look away now.

“Hmm, well you see It will all be back to normal soon” He replied. I knew I had been ignored in the most polite way, but being left with distinctly unfulfilled curiosity, I had to press on with questioning the man. Eventually, sensing my concern he asked “do you feel ok.” I replied “If only the pain would go away, perhaps I would feel ok.” I said. “It would be ok: except for the fact that I still feel like my testes have been hammered by a Japanese sword smith!”

Ouch!!! “Now it’s just pissing me off, especially the left one.” “Hmm, yes I think I know why too,” he added. Anyway, he went on to say that he did the right side (which is ok) and the ‘registrar’ did the left side which is still causing considerable pain and discomfort. Now I am not sure what a registrar is exactly- however, I’m tipping that he/she/they were considerably less experienced than the surgeon himself.

OMG, I am so not going through this again. - So out comes this rather large specimen jar, complete with attractive yellow screw top lid and encompassing white information label (that is blank for now). All I could think at the time when it came into view, was ‘you’ve got to be joking’ this is going to take ages to fill!

“Fear not” the surgeon quickly responded as he whacked the jar down in the middle of his broad mahogany desk. It sat for a moment, drawing my focus totally as he continued “now I know you don’t have tickets on yourself son, so I don’t expect you to fill it right to the top. Hehehe” “Just a few drops will do, but I’m sure you won’t have any problems with a little more than that.” I uncomfortably shrugged my shoulders nodding my head. “Look: just fire a shot into the cup, pop it under your armpit and drop it into pathology on your way to work. Tell em’ Dr. A sent you”

Great, now I feel like I’ve been crossed between a sperm donor and a guinea pig. “Manual extraction is best… you know masturbation, but you may find it easier to extract it during intercourse” He added. “Before ejaculation, let it rip in this cup.”
OK. No problem, no worries. Even if I will feel like a human incubator, travelling to work with a jar of semen under my armpit: I can handle it. But hang on…How am I going to explain it to anyone if I am caught in some sort of unexpected situation? What if I get pulled over by the cops or something? Do I hand it to Tom to keep warm? Sorry can you put this under your arm for a minute bro? Eeeewwwww!!!!!!!!! I don’t think so! Anyway, it’ll be another two months before I submit any ‘specimens.’

“Whatever you do, don’t put it in the fridge before brekkie or anything like that- because the poor little critters won’t survive that. We want em’ while they’re still warm.” Dr. A said. Lovely, I thought: Just dandy: and oh so romantic too… NOT.

Ok, he summarised. Do this, this and this, then pow: pop on the top and hop into your car and go. “Oh and don’t forget to take the slip of paper with you. I exited the building feeling strangely satisfied in the knowledge that this is all apparently quite normal. But still knowing deep down that it was oh so unusual, no matter how I thought about it.

Crikey… The things we do for peace of mind…

Making Rash Decisions.

2006-06-19T21:43:00.000+10:00

Tonight I learned that habbit is a very powerful thing to overcome. Now Judo is cool, but post-vasectomy judo is not. There are many reasons not to attempt judo right after a vasectomy. There are however reasons why you might do just that. The first reason may be habbit. The second reason might be over-enthusiasm. The third reason may be the inability to help ones self: My reason... Somewhere between all of these reasons and the fact that I believe in the principles of Judo. A part of me has to reinforce my faith in judo/jujutsu concepts. -For this, I have no doubt that I will be practising martial arts well into old age thanks to the profound teachings and guidance of my instructors. Most are still living (and some have regretably passed away).

I have analysed and tried many martial arts over the past 16 years, but I have not found any that come close to 'completing me' as Tai Jutsu Kai has. For this I must thank my teachers, especially my long time instructor and close friend Kevin McMenamin. He has been there guiding me from the darkness on more than one occasion, when I have been utterly lost. I continue to learn from him, even in his absence. Thankyou So-Soke.

So there is another side to my stupidity tonight that is reflected directly by irrepressible elements of my personality. That is to say...I just can't help myself.
I love martial arts. It is so fun, yet so serious, so dangerous, yet totally controled and as safe as houses all in a single moment. Yes it requires certain physical (and emotional/mental) skills that are attained only through experiential understanding. This is what is so difficult to explain to people about the martial arts. It is like trying to explain the universe in a single breath.

Anyway, I had no intention of rambling on about this, so I will change the subject. But that is what my blog is all about. I tell you about what I want to tell you and you read what I want you to hear. It's a great system really, albeit totally one sided. Anyway it's getting late and I am getting way too deep for a Monday night. I leave you with a quote by someone (made famous by Bruce Lee)?

'It is like a finger pointing away to the moon... Don't concentrate on the finger; or you will miss all the heavenly glory'

2006-06-16T20:31:00.000+10:00

Ok, so I'm not fully over it yet, but I did try my best at the household duty quest today.
I was so inspired by Nicole, that I took it upon myself to try vaccuming, mopping up, dusting, kid-snacks and other bits and pieces all in one morning. Well I know it sounds pathettic, but I only got through the first objective before I realised that there was no way in hell that the other stuff was going to happen. I just didn't have the balls for it. LOL. Anyway I hope to be back on track soon. I am feeling better and better everyday. It feels as if I will be right again soon. :)

Bovine Disambiguation

2006-06-15T17:32:00.000+10:00

Well I am soooo over this broken reproductive system. My manbits are well on the way to full recovery now with visible signs of improvement. I won't go into detail, but they are starting to look like they used to again... Phew! Being house bound has been a little depressing though and frustrating at the same time because of the fact that I am still limited in my capacity to lift things and move stuff around. Moving in certain ways is a definate no-no. I'm starting to get self conscious now of talking about my own anatomy too much. Well geez I suppose that it's not a commonly talked about area. That's probably for a good reason too. Nobody wants to know too much about me, although we all seem to have an underlying curiosity don't we? An inner voyeur that seeks to explain our own unseen behaviours perhaps. Lets face it, we can't act out some of our fantasies for fear of ridicule or embarrassment. Some fantasies are well, not realistic, obtainable, obscene or just plain bizarre, but underneath it all we all have common basic needs as human beings.

I think in general, we all struggle with disambiguation... That is we think that someone has a lifestyle or attitude to life that we aspire to, when in fact they themselves may feel the same about another individual (who doesn't seem the least bit interesting to you!) I reckon that this is because people are not always what they seem. We all have hidden agendas, secrets or attitudes that we don't want to disclose. It may be a psychological defence mechanism that saves us from bearing our souls to those who might exploit us. So there I was: the ever present (yet variable in intensity) abdoninal pain constantly reminding me not to overdo it. Yet again, the bath tub was to be my closest ally. Comforted by it's deep white edges and soothing contents, I relaxed and rested my...well you know the rest.

So life can apparently be a hotch potch of ambiguity. Oh well, I guess that that is what makes us so interesting. There again, perhaps I am wrong... Perhaps life really is like the Matrix, perhaps we are living in a dream world. Perhaps. At the end of every day do we go to sleep only to wake up in an unreal world? Does it even really matter afterall? Could it be that I am actually talking about cows??? Perhaps wombats then. Animals live such uncomplicated lives... When we finally discover our true identities, will we realise that this is all a dream: and that other people's lifestyles are an altogether unrelated story on this page in the book that is your life?

We all write unique pages in our 'life books.' My book is different from yours, and yours in turn is different from theirs. Some books are long, while others are short. Some funny, some grim. But they are all unique and are all written with our own unique style and language. We are all beautiful novels bound in turn, by the chapters unfolding in the book of life and the history of mankind. The History of Mankind is the best novel to date, but is only a snippet in the Encyclopedia of our Universe. And on it goes.

If we could choose to live like cows for a day, apart from eating lots of grass what would we do? Probably only things that really matter, like looking for more grass I suppose. Moo!!!

V-Day +5 The Wild Westicles

2006-06-14T19:30:00.000+10:00

In the midst of my umm.... absence of wisdom, I bravely (but foolishly) fronted up at my brother's house today, tooting the horn once or twice to alert him to my presence. As is always the case, Tom greeted me with his usual enthusiasm. The road was long and bumpy (as I have already mentioned in my last post), but what was curiously difficult about the morning drive was my inability to sit in a comfortable position- thank God for cruise control though. I was quite embarrassed after dropping Tom off... I headed for the courier's depot, (he was giggling all the way there I think) I realised then that I might have to lift something if I did. My manbits flinched violently as if in protest and so thinking better of it, drove right on by. They were sore enough without me straining to the point of popping one out of it's socket (if thats possible). If you've ever watched one of those D grade haunted house movies where they just don't see the warning signs... You know when they step in through the door and that spooky voice clearly whispers "GET OUT." Even when the cutlery starts flying through the air, they just dumbly look on in disbelief. Yeah well that was kinda me this morning. -Only the ghosts were pains in my lower abdomen and the cutlery flying around were my testicles: painfully jumping about with every bump and pot hole. But still I persisted... pressing on like some marathon runner; some man possessed... I paid no heed to the warnings, ignoring the signs and with no pain killers this morning, was rapidly growing very sore.

Stepping out of the car (like a modern day cowboy dismounting from his trusty steed), I did my bow legged dance to the door of my work. I should have had chaps and two six shooters at my hips. If Gayle was a bartender, I would have slapped some coin on the counter for a whiskey... And as it slid down the long, varnished bar top, I would have struck a match and lit the cigarette that stuck to my parched lips just in time for me to extend my hand, catching that triple shot just in time before it smashed on the dusty wooden floor.

All the time I was at work, (not being able to escape the reality of the fact that this was no saloon, and Gayle was not polishing shot glasses: nor was Phil the local law man trying to bust my arse as I sometimes suspect him to be ;)) I could only wonder what on earth it was that posessed me to come here in the first place. So a quick conversation with my co-worker Gayle and my boss Phil, saw me packing my bag (yes, including that one) into the car and heading for home again. Like a whipped dog, tail between my legs (figuratively speaking) I was back out those saloon doors faster than you could say 'happy hour!'

Enduring those pot holes and bumps for the second agonising time today was worth it however... About an hour later I was slipping into a soothing bath of salts... Mmmmmmm. Temporary relief is better than none I say. Wyatt Earp - eat ya heart out baby!

V-Day Post Op

2006-06-14T10:50:00.000+10:00

Well it’s been a long time since I posted any comments on my blog.
There are a couple of reasons for this (two very sore reasons). One is acute testicular/lower abdominal pain. Another is the inability to sit on a gas-lift chair for any length of time. And yet another reason is due to the mind numbing effects of Panadeine Forte.

So here I am at work. Drinking coffee and trying to recover from the 33km trip to work. It seemed a lot longer than usual, wincing at the sight of every bridge. You see, that road is bumpiest when the tarmac meets the bridges. You hit this bump and it feels like you’ve been hit in the sack with a mallet. Thump!!! OOOHHHHH!

And if the rash that covers my lower back (presumably due to the anaesthetic) is not enough, I woke up this morning with a golf ball sized lump in my neck! This is so not fun! But apart from that, I’m great. I feel fine. I can walk (Brokeback Mountain style) like Heath Ledger: a bit bow legged and although I won’t break into a sprint anytime soon, I am reasonably mobile. I sure as hell won’t be driving anywhere today though, and I I’ve left my camera at home so sorry, no pictures today either.

Well, there is one thing about this operation that really shocked me…Well actually there are a couple of things… One: The amazing properties of blood and Two: How many holes does a surgeon need to make in a scrotum to find one Vas?

Well, isn’t it always the way: you know when you receive advice from people after the fact, that leads you to wish that you had known all of that before you took action? Here’s what I mean people… “Oh, yeah I wanted to tell you that that surgeon is a butcher” Far out, perhaps he would be a better butcher than a surgeon. -Well, he sure made mince meat of my rissoles. LOL.

So Isn't it amazing how blood looks blue when it courses through your veins, is red when it comes out of them, and it turns black when it sits around under your skin for a while. I mean really black, and purple too. I cant get over how black and purple my balls are... They're hideous! Frightening almost. I got out of the shower this morning and the cat was scared to death! Frightened the crap out of him I think. Now the second point I raised: I have four holes in my poor old sack! Can you believe it? I have no idea why, and it's only just recently that it was discovered too. Once the swelling and bruising went down... Once the cricketball sized behemoths got back to their usual size. God that was awful.

Theoretically, it’s a simple operation right? The male reproductive system is easy enough. Just a small incision here, and snip, snip, done. Crap! Surely its not that hard? Well perhaps there is a greater degree of difficulty than I at first suspected. Ah well, it’s done now. I can only hope that it has been successful, so that I don’t have to go through all of this again.

V-Day -The Crotch of The Matter

2006-06-09T09:46:00.000+10:00

Well. Today’s the day. Vasectomy city here we come. “Chop chop, come on get a move on” says my wife this morning to the kids. Ambitiously, I set about the morning duty as breakfast maker. I was so looking forward to my single allowable slice of toast and one cup of tea. Mmmmm. I scraped a thin film of vegemite over the surface of my lightly toasted wholegrain bread. Right now I am listening to Tina Turner’s ‘What You Get Is What You See.’ Something I wouldn’t normally admit to. But today is different: mainly because I wouldn’t normally subject myself to scrotal severance either. But There must be a light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps there’s no pot of gold at the end of the proverbial rainbow, but there is hope that what I will undertake will be just, and uncomplicated. Today, I don my Superman underwear as a symbolic gesture of strength. I just hope that the surgeon is not from planet krypton.

Breakfast that I had at 7.00am is wearing thin. God I’m hungry already and its only 9.00am! Last night at the Final Supper, I was treated to roasted chicken and vegetables by my lovely, sexy and talented wife Amber. She does an incredible job really, considering her other responsibilities. She even finds time to listen to my whinging and whining occasionally. So a lovely roast dinner washed down with a Grolsch and followed soon thereafter by some scrumptious homemade apple pie topped with freshly milked and whipped cream… Ok I must confess- it was Safeway apple pie with week old Safeway ‘lite’ cream, but yummy nonetheless.

So here I sit in contemplation once again, with Bob Marley bopping away in the background. God its gonna be an interesting day. My mother informed me last night that she was violently ill years ago when she underwent surgery. “It was that dreaded anaesthetic” she explained. Wow, perhaps this is relevant I thought. I wish I had known this whilst filling in the hospital admittance papers. I could have sworn that there was something about anaesthetic written in there… Like ‘do any of your relatives have allergic reactions to anaesthetic?’ Luckily, I find out that she is the only one and it may not be a problem after all. I sincerely hope not. “Thanks Mum” I confusedly replied. I think I’ll go now. “Well have a nice day tomorrow” she says as I hop into my little silver car. My brain went horribly numb at that moment. Perhaps its in preparation for the General anaesthetic. Perhaps its just because I am thinking about all of this stuff too damn much??? Mental overload or something? Geeeees, I hope these Superman Jocks do so some good!

Wish me luck!

V-Day Part 2: Winter apprehension.

2006-06-07T19:42:00.000+10:00

Ok. I'm not worried. Not worried at all. No really, I'm not worried. No problem at all. No really, no problem at all. Am I repeating myself? No I'm not nervous, not at all. It's just like... Um, well Ok, I'm worried. There! So you've finally convinced me that I am just a little concerned... Ok, a lot concerned. Geezus...

Ornamental balls on the Christmas tree? Thanks Mark. I feel so relaxed thinking of it that way. What if the surgeon slips... and gets the sack? Oh thats right, he's supposed to get the sack. Damn. This is crazy when you think about it. It goes against the natural order. We are supposed to avoid pain (I say this in my best impersonation of Grasshopper **think Kung Fu the tv series**) - This much I know. Martial arts has taught me that much oh master, but It has also taught me that it can be your friend too (but friends don't slit your sack open with scalpels now do they?).

No matter how I think or whom I talk to about it, it remains undeniably evident that this operation is gunna kill! The only immeasurable elements in the equation are time and degrees...
I.e, when is it going to hurt, and for how long can I bear it for as it gets progressively worse?

This is probably the most significant (and the last) operation that a man could undergo in his reproductive life. I was going to draw equal comparisons with childbirth, but have been easily beaten down (into submission) with categorically undeniable facts pointing to the contrary. Scaring me a bit, but just a little. Remember I am a man. And according to women, we are wimps. I can face many adversities blindly and without fear, be beaten, be put down... But hold a razor to my balls, and I will whimper like a cowarly dog. Come on guys, don't deny it. This is scary stuff. A lobottomy sounds better than this...

When I go in for the operation, I also wonder... Will I be able to choose my own music to help me relax like the pregnant women do??? -Or will the doctor choose the nutcracker suite? Will I subconsiously absorb his choice of music whilst under the influence of the anesthetic? Will I wake up with 'Bill Haley and his comets' burned deeply in my consciousness? Perhaps AC/DC's 'balls to the wall' or 'burn for you' by Farnsy will be haunting me as my manhood suffers?

I don't want to think about this too much (or reveal anything to let you think that I might be worried), so this is where I will end my blog tonight. After tonight, I will have one more sleep in which to farewell my aquatic friends forever ;) Wish me well and Phew, I got through an entire blog without mentioning cows even once!!! Um...

V-Day Part 1: Winter Enthusiasm

2006-06-06T15:55:00.000+10:00

Flowers are so pretty aren't they? You know how flowers contain pollen and how bees use that pollen to stimulate the reproductive processes of other plants? Well thats what I was trying to think about today. I was trying to forget about the fact that today was the sixth day of the sixth month in this being the sith year of the 21st Century. Hmm 666. Not a great day for a doctors appointment, but I was confident, I was positive, I was determined, I was....a bit worried actually. What if it was going to be a problem? What if the devil has planned this all along? Are my testicles evil??? When I sign the 'consent to sterilisation' form, would i be selling my soul instead? I thought about how some people had thought that today the world would end, and I suddenly thought that this theory was flawed. If it was going to end, on which side of the world would it end first??? Anyway...

The way people talk so freely about vasectomy these days, it almost gives you the impression that it (vasectomy) is an object rather than a medical procedure. I was almost disappointed to hear that you couldn't get one off the shelf at the local Amcal. As I have learned, there is a lot more to vasectomy than meets the eye (or any other part of the anatomy).

I guess that you could say that I have been 'shopping' around, you know trying to find the best deals... No two for one deals to be found on offer, but a considerable difference in the waiting times (and the quality of reading material available) at different surgeries. I have arranged several doctors appointments in the past couple of months and today I visited my 3rd doctor: the second general surgeon (for a second opinion). Now I know what you're probably thinking but hey, I have copped a bit of flack over the whole "shopping trip" kind of approach to medical advice. But guess what? It has paid off. Not only did I find a cool doc, but I got an operation date much sooner than I had anticipated.

Perhaps the strangest thing about this particular surgery is the fact that I have worked directly for them in the recent past. I have worked on their printers, their computers, their network equipment. Well it got me thinking... "what if I didn't do a good job? What if we charged too much? What if... Blah blah blah. I thought to myself, "no everything will be ok" But what if their system crashes while they are processing my invoice? "Shut up" I said to myself. Everything is going to be ok. The office staff were looking at me in that "what are you doing here - we don't have any computer problems" kind of way when I walked in the door. "I have an appointment" I announced. Once they understood why I was there, it was all ok... But the funny thing about my profession is this... No matter where you go or what you do, people will badger you for free tech support. The doctor's surgery is no exception to this rule. The transfer station is no excetion to this rule. The public toilets are no exception either ( I kid you not). So after a quick lesson in how to set up a home network...

The next thing I know (after the sign here and sign there thing) I was dropping my daks for inspection... Not the 'have you cleaned your room' type of inspection, but in a much more informal 'oh, by the way' I need to see your nads' kinda way. I could tell he'd done this before (phew***). "Actually a thousand times" he'd said in a reassuring way whilst tweaking and probing at my manbits.

It was a bit weird I must confess. He was a bit rough too. I resisted the urge to crack the wise guy jokes like "so soon, but we hardly know eachother , how about a kiss first, or I don't do this for just anyone" gags. "Yep there's one" and "Yep, there's the other one" He confidently announced after a brief and very clinical exploration. Thank god I thought to myself. You see the last doctor couldn't seem to find the one on the right. It must be difficult to find a 'Vas.' I thought I pretty well knew where everything was on my own body, but I must admit, the vas is one of those illusive and rarely explored areas. I got the usual "hmm that's not good" sort of reply during the examination. "Well yeah, it looks like you're going to have to go 'under' for this one." I Can't say that gave me an abundance of confidence really.

Jesus, what am I getting myself into? This was supposed to be a thirty minute procedure, then back to work...Not a testiculectomy (I made that word up) in hospital for a day! Man this was supposed to be easy....

FLASHBACK::::::; First doctor- "well, you see we just make a small incision here, then snip here, then snip there and then a few sutures and (in most cases) you go back to work". "simple."

Far out, nothing seems that it could be further from the truth. "So doctor, you see the last surgeon I saw, said that I'd have to see a specialist and have a general anaesthetic. "Hmm, yes I can see that you're a big man."
What the???? I had no idea what he was referring to but it left me wondering "am I too fat to have a local or something???" but decided against a cross-examination,; afterall he's the doctor right? Anyway back to the story... He thumbed through the pages of his diary as I pulled my pants up. "How does Friday sound?" Jesus! "This Friday" I asked? He went on to explain that there had been one guy who had pulled out of his op on Friday. "Yeah book me in!" I happily exclaimed. I was really thinking, "lets get this bloody thing over and done with before I change my mind!"So there I was, left naked and alone...oh hang on thats a different story. LOL...

Well, after I filled in the 3 and one half pages of questions it was time for a squeeze of the monetary kind. And did I cough??? "Geez, I hope he does a good job" i thought to myself. Well here I am left wondering how it will all go, making final preparations, salutations and all the rest.
Wish me luck!

No it's not a Yetti, it's a Bigfoot...

2006-06-05T22:47:00.000+10:00

These are all photos of a piece of computing history. The Quantum Bigfoot. The name presumably taken from the disk drive's large 5.25 inch form factor. It was no secret that these drives were a poor performer -because of the lage disk diameter (as opposed to the conventional 3.5in form factor) of the platter... Thats the shiny round bit you can see in the photos.
The Big Foot is not held in very high regard, but despite this general bad publicity, it has proven to be quite a reliable drive. There were actually quite a lot of them made in the mid to late 90's with the last of them being the TS Series in 99'. This one pictured here is a 2.1Gb model... Absolute gold I say. It even had a clear portal on the front of the disk casing where you could see the head whizzing around during seek operations. Very exciting, very sexy. This feature by the way is making a comeback from what I hear of late by Western Digital -Another leading brand of Hard Disk Manufacturers that was around when Quantum were making these little gems.

To my memory, I could not recall ever seeing a 5.25 inch drive quite like the big foot. They were very slow performers and awkward looking drives, but slimline in thickness by comparison to their overall dimensions. They were a chunky feeling drive with quite a lot of weight to them. While most people hated them, they apparently cost less to buy and so found quite a popular market. Bigfoot drives ceased production around the time that I started in my current job, so I never had to install one, but had several encounters with systems that possesed the sexy little buggers. Some companies like HP shipped them in their premium Pentium Pro based systems as well, which was a questionable move, given their poor seek times (the time it took to access info on the platter). It seems as though there is a popular belief that the drives were notoriously unreliable. This is larely unsubstantiated as these drives can still be found alive and well in captivity and definately deserve a mention in the I.T record books as being a drive that dared to be different. I think that Quantum was later swallowed up by Maxtor in the early part of this century. Maxtor are now one of the worlds leading Hard Disk Drive Manufacturers. Interesting huh? Quantum did what I say is an admirable thing... They dared to be different. We could all take a leaf from the Quantum book I reckon. Even if they were swallowed up by a bigger fish.

Powerblogging

2006-06-03T15:57:00.000+10:00

Well, Its been another interesting day. I managed to snap a few more pics of the local environment. I had to work today and Hailey kept me company while I was there. Contrary to what some people think, the power station I captured in my blog titled “I love the beach…um sort of” was not Yallourn, but in fact none other than Loy Yang B Station.

Here are some pictures of Yallourn -taken today. It’s been overcast here and reasonably cold. But there was no reason getting in the way of me snapping some pics for you again. I was out with Hailey looking for some interesting shots. These are the best I could get in a hurry. I tried quickly to find some more cows, but to no avail. Sorry Gayle ;).

Well that's all of my blogging for today. Cheers all!

A long time between drinks...

2006-06-03T09:34:00.000+10:00

Oh hi there. I was so flat out with work and busy with all of the other stuff I do, I had no time to blog yesterday. I remembered to take my camera, but to my horror there was no card in it! Oh well, that didn't stop me from getting a pic for you though. This was taken at my sister and brother in law's house last night. They treated us to a lovely roast pork dinner. Afterwards, I whipped out my speciality... I love chocolate dumplings. Mmmmm.

This is a picture of my gorgeous daughter Hailey, for those of you who don't know. She's four years old and can be a real challenge at times. They say that stubborness is a good sign in children, because it is transformed into determination and strong will later in their lives. I hope it doesn't mean that she's likely to be a pain in the backside for the rest of our lives!

Nah, she's an angel really. But I should probably face the inevitable fact that she's not going to stay that way. I can only hope that she makes responsible choices in her life. I was a pain in the neck for my parents at times. I lacked direction at times and even in my adult life, have strayed the path on more than one occasion. But we all make mistakes, wrong decisions at times and inevitably learn from those life choices. Sometimes its all roses, and sometimes it just plain sucks... But hey, that's what life is all about isn't it? Making choices.

Choosing to change our lifestyles can be some of the toughest challenges we may ever face in life. I certainly have been forced to make a few. We seem to identify people based on the way they choose to live. Or at least, we tend to make strong judgements about others based on their lifestyle preferences. Therefore, our ego's seem to be the first hit when we are forced to make such changes. It is a difficult thing to remain neutral and non-judgemental toward others, despite our best efforts sometimes. Occasionally, we are caught up in our own importance and are not mindful of the feelings of others.

By the way, this cheese platter was yummy. I took full advantage of it to take my first photo for the day after tracking down that damn compact flash card. As you are fully aware, cheese comes from the skillful crafting of that well known substance that is extracted from bovine mammory glands. This is yet more evidence of our need to remain supportive (yet ever vigilant) of our bovine counterparts.

I.T Makeover Part 2: Moovin' up

2006-06-01T18:51:00.000+10:00

Well, here we are on arguably one of the best days of the week (the only better day is Friday). I feel a disturbance in the force Obi Wan, the horned ones are restless. I had a dream last nigh that all cows were created equal, not unlike us. But "some animals are more equal than others" according to George Orwells satirical novel 'Animal Farm.' In my dream I was told by a cow that I must focus my energy on the protection of our horny herbivores.

Anyway, I was mooving things around on that desk (yes that messy one in yesterday's blog)for ages. It took some time to get it ordered, but here it is in all of it's practical glory...

Wow, note the absence of clutter and the abundance of space... And I even vaccumed the floor. Nice touch eh?

This is a photo inspired by Gayle. If you have never seen this stuff before, I'll tell you what it is. It's solid core category 5 networking cable (that comes in a variety of colours including pink, to match your designer decor) that we use to network computers together with. Of course, wireless networks are becoming more and more common now and so physical wires are fast becoming a thing of the past. But there is something very appealing about working with cable. It's tangible, its 'earthy' and something that you can physically manipulate; unlike wireless radio waves. And given these characteristics, wired networks still have one very important advantage: Reliability. Rarely do they fail.

Check this out! This is supposed to have a close resemblance to the physical (but theoretical) characteristics of a black hole. Almost makes me want to get sucked into one just so that I can gaze into it: Because it looks so beautiful!

Maybe if we get sucked into a black hole, there will be cows to greet us on the other side in a greener pasture.

There again, maybe our bodies will be dissintegrated molecule by molecule until the total mass of our bodies is spewed out the sides of it like some funky cosmic radiation... Nice.

Day of Rest

2006-05-31T19:46:00.000+10:00

Well today started in the usual confused state of affairs. Firstly, when asked what they wanted for breakfast my children replied "soccer balls". "Don't be silly" I responded. After a brief argument over what is and isn't edible, my son dragged me into the kitchen, trying to convince me that Soccer balls were indeed on today's menu. To my horror, the cupboard door swung open to reveal 'Nestles FIFA.' "What the.... My god and so, footballs for breakfast it was. I say footballs, because apparently that's what we are supposed to call them now, not soccer balls. I just hope that there is more nutritional value in the cereal than the leathery type of football. Perhaps the name change is somehow intended to make the game more appealing to a wider audience. Don't know really.

Well, I must admit, dish washing presents far more of a tactical challenge than some other tasks that I have to perform on a daily basis.

Here's a picture of my nice, tidy workspace. I must admit, it is a pigstye, but fear not, in today's hive of activity, I was somehow able to clean it up. Stay tuned for the transformation pictures in tomorrows episode of 'I.T makeovers.'

Yeah I know!!!

Thats it tonight from me. Not a particularly interesting day, but hey that early night sky was good to see.

Oh and to all of my foriegn visitors....
"Where the bloody hell are you"

I love the beach, umm sort of.

2006-05-30T20:18:00.000+10:00

Well, as I left for work on this magnificent morning, I made one last pass over my inventory.
Flippers…check, snorkel…check, funky beach towel…check, camera…check, boogie board…check, bucket and spade (for sandcastle construction)…check. Oh and sunscreen…check. I was set for the day. On the Agenda was two jobs. One just in the next town, the other….at the beach!

So after I checked in at work, collected my parts and got myself sorted, I headed off to my first job. Not much I could do for this particular printer. Sad state it was in. But the staff at this particular workplace had found a new way to make one of those Chinese style concertina fans. Very impressive: But no good for the printer. Next, I was off to my long awaited coastal destination. South Gippsland is very beautiful when you take the time to soak in the surroundings. Even for a brief moment, it is good to stop and just take a deep breath as you look around yourself at nature’s beauty.

Rolling hills and lots of our bovine friends passed me by, before I finally arrived at that rare place of visitation: The beach!!! Wow, but wait: As I approached the turnoff something appeared all wrong. Maybe it was the way it was phrased, or the colour of the text in which the words NO BEACH ACCESS appeared. ‘what the f$@%k???????’ Access denied!!!!! What could this mean? Surely they haven’t dragged me all the way down here just to work? What about my flippers and boogie board? Denied??? Unfortunately Barry Beach appears to be a secure port for ESSO Australia. Not a grain of sand to be seen anywhere. ‘Bastards!!’ I thought… Oh well, no sandcastles for this little black duck! And so admitting defeat, I arrived at the ESSO marine terminal a little perplexed, but as usual, ready for action.

The job itself was straightforward enough, but the crap you have to go through just to place a foot inside the place seems a little overkill. 20 minutes of induction later, I donned my sexy high visibility vest, wraparound safety glasses and hard hat.

Fifteen steps later, with the complete visual attributes of a total Gordon, I stepped into the administration building, removed all of the crap that I had spent the last 20 minutes earning the right to wear and got started on completing my critical mission. Now I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that sometimes I feel like Tom Cruise in ‘mission impossible’, but this time it actually worked to plan. The technogurus had correctly identified the fault (this doesn’t happen as often as you might think) and sent the correct part (again, not as often as you might think) to remedy the situation. Mission complete!

On the way home, with a bitter taste of disappointment, I couldn’t help but wonder what the beach might have been like beyond the security fences and surveillance cameras. I wondered if I had indeed made the right decision to stop short of making a run for the water with my bucket and spade in hand…

And so as I ventured on down that seldom travelled road (Barry road), I came to a most powerful and undeniable conclusion…. Barry Beach sucks.

And as I headed toward the majestic wind turbines of Toora, I couldn't help but think that perhaps it wasn't such a great day for the beach afterall.

This picture was generously edited by my workmate Gayle. Thanks Gayle, You're Ace! ;)

2006-05-29T23:02:00.000+10:00

Well, hello there. Another busy day passes by and out of all the seriousness, comes another silly observation.

Check this sign out. I passed this on the way to Bairnsdale and couldn't resist the urge to capture it for written analysis on my blog. Although this discussion has come up before, I thought I may as well bring it to your attention once more.
Imagine you are a tourist from a foriegn country. You have just managed to get your head around the myriad of strange flora and fauna: The fact that there are venemous egg laying, sexually dimorphic monotremes on the loose (someone once told you they're called Platapus), when out of the blue, you see this sign on the way through the Australian outback. 'Holly mother of Mary!' you say to yourself. I've seen kangaroos already but these wombats are enormous! You are struck with terror - 'Jurassic Park style.' You strain to look for signs of giant wombats, perhaps droppings or carcasses. Whoa, theres a Kangaroo. You pull over to the side of the road, stricken with fear...You pour a glass of water and sit it on the dash board, eagerly awaiting a sign of that which you fear the most. But the water doesn't ripple and shake like the glass in Jurassic Park... Jesus you think, if there are wombats on these roads, they could crush my hire car like a tin can! Nope. Duped again. Bloody Aussies. Suddenly, it dawns on you that these stupid signs are not actually to scale...

On another note, shortly after picking up a layout for my darling wife Amber, I was driving down a certain road, pushed for time and to my way of thinking; definately running late. As usual, my mind was wandering. Wandering all the way to the point at which I noticed the Police car's headlights spark to life. I quickly did a speed check... Damn!!!!
Double Damn!!! Double tripple damn!!!!!!!! Jesus now I'm done! Looks like 70 in a 50 zone. Ouch.

I thought to myself 'it's ok, they probably didn't notice'. 'Yeah thats right, they weren't paying attention'. Even as the blue and red lights started flickering all over my cars interior, I was actually thinking that I had gotten away with it.

"License please...."

Derrr. Um, "actually no officer, I had no idea how fast I was going" (the naked truth). What happened next was remarkable... "Well, sir, do you realise that we detected your speed at 67kmph in a residential street that was clearly a 50kmph zone?" By this time I had resigned to a certain inevitability: $165 fine (or more), plus the obligatory points loss. There was a long wait as both officers returned to the squad car. The officer returned to my driver's side window "George it looks like it's your lucky day. There will be no infringement notice given on this occasion." He added: "Don't let me ever see you speeding in my town again"
He said it in a Clint Eastwood kinda way, the 'my town' bit was kind of scary, in a 'I own this road' sort of way, like Mad Max. I think that he might have even been chewing on straw when he said it. Honestly, as he returned to his car, I squinted in the side vision mirror, looking for the glint of his .45 Magnum as he spat tobacco on passing cockroaches. "Strike me pink" I said to myself. That was lucky! I flipped the indicator up and proceded to merge with the upcoming traffic. Still stunned by what had just happened, I failed to realise that I had just engaged the left indicator as I merged to the right. They followed me for about 20km or so. I nervously drove on to my destination.
Strange day it was today.

On Cows and Pancakes...

2006-05-28T12:31:00.000+10:00

So here I go, sr flour, milk, a little salt, a couple of eggs and a little butter… MMMM pancake mixture.

You know life is a bit like pancake mix. You see apart from the variable density of pancake mix, it also has that all important ingredient… Yep Milk, now you probably might think ‘Here he goes again’ but I must point out one very important fact… Cows have influence. You see when we gaze adoringly at the night sky, we are in fact observing the milky way. That’s right, the milky way… Now it could just as easily have been called the juicy way or the rocky way or even the eggy way. But nooooo, cows have influence. One could argue that cows in fact, are an up and coming superpower and given the right season, lots of green grass and you know a collapse of the McDonalds corporation…. Ok perhaps that’s just a little far fetched.

But think about this: Ask a child what cows drink, and they will probably say milk….
Is this bovine hypnotism or some kind of cow conditioning method? Mind control? Or just one of those freaky coincidences. You be the judge.

Anyway, pancakes await me (well they need to be cooked first) and as you know, kids will drive me crazy if I don’t get into that kitchen and start flipping.

When stuff just works a little bit- but not really.

2006-05-27T15:21:00.000+10:00

Well, they say that things go down in threes. First it was the fridge, then the LCD monitor at Amber’s shop and I have a funny feeling that there may indeed be a third thing to come. I don’t want to tempt fate however by saying that everything else is fine…OMG, there I go. My boss is always saying that I mozz myself by saying that it’ll be a piece of cake. I must admit, it seldom is when I say this.

Well hands up who remembers this game?
This used to be at the Barwick Place Shops when I was in early years at Moe High School. Fantastic fun this one. From memory, it had two joysticks for controllers instead of buttons. Another game we spent mums hard earned cash on was this one… Double Dragon. A classic beat em up that had everyone spending up big time. It was at the Elizabeth St. Fish ‘n’ Chip Shop where again, mums hard earned cash gave us important life skills such as avoidance of cargo boxes thrown by Mr T. look-alikes, or the evasion skills required to beat up top heavy, whip-toting crack whores and their knife throwing pimps. Ahhh, those were the days, when good old fashioned values were hard-coded into arcade machines for the benefit of a brighter future.

Alas, I detect a touch of cynacism in you my young padawan. -Ok then, maybe arcade games are not as educational as I would like to think, but at least arcade games have a strong social element:-) BS I hear you say. well you see, we would virtually line up waiting for a turn on these games, but we'd be 'shooting the breeze' while we did it. You know talking about stuff or giving advice on how to get through the next level. Good fun it was. Better than hanging around on the streets I suppose.

I especially liked the games like 'Bad Dudes Versus Dragon-Ninja" A timeless classic if there ever was one. There were a couple of games around that had laserdisk technology like 'Dragon's Lair' but they were very expensive to play. Now they say we are going through a console revolution where the next craze of video entertainment is in XBox 360's or Playstation 3. For my retrospective taste, I only hope that game developers are able to preserve some of the elements that made up the old style gaming revolution. Yeah the graphics were crap, but they had style.They had um...dare I say... playability. And not only that, you could say that their replay value was high as well. But thats enough on video games for now.

Well I had a crack at repairing the Scrap To The Max LCD monitor today. I removed the screws from the bezel and proceded to do the only thing that I could. Stare blankly at the PC Board and its connectors... Crikey Moses, now what??? I sat in contemplative mood. Should I check this or that, or should I pull this thing off and... You know what I mean. There's not much that you can do with a printed circuit board and even less with a Liquid Crystal Display. After rigorous unplugging and replugging of anything that would come off, out or be physically jiggled in any direction, I happily began the task of putting it back together. There is always an overwhelming sense of achievement that goes along with pulling shit apart. And occasionally, there is the added satisfaction of knowing that you made that all important difference....

Violla, It looked like its former self. It was still beige, still stood upright, and as I plugged it in, it still made that unmistakable electrical crackle that you sometimes get with these things. Now let me check........yep no screws left over, no parts left behind and unfortunately... absolutely no difference to the state of things either. Damn! 30 minutes wasted on this stupid f@@@#ng thing. Ahh well. It was worth a try. Perhaps I might give it another look tomorrow. Well thats enough ranting and raving from me today, see you again tomorrow. (unless I see you again tonight) Bye!

Late Night Ramblings

2006-05-26T22:21:00.000+10:00

See the rainbow
See ahead
Look right
Look left
See the rainbow
Look beyond...

Once upon a time certain people believed that the Earth was held up in space on the shell of a giant tortise. Bizarre, but no more than the current concept of galaxies interwoven by black matter that exists everywhere. Does space go on forever? Is it an enormous four dimensional universe that envelopes itself? -If so, could we travel in time forever, or would we eventually get back to where we started???? Wow and here's one of my favorite questions that I got from a Stephen Hawkings lecture..."Why is it that we remember the past, but not the future" We exist only in the present, but cannot exist without a past or a future. The human brain cannot function without the ability to 'see' a little bit into it's immediate future. Fascinating don't you think?

Mad Cows Disease

2006-05-26T20:02:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone! Wow what a day. It has rained, it has poured, it has been warm(ish) and the sun has shone in the way that only the sun can; in all of it's magnificence. I found myself driving in the country today (as you do) and was totally captivated by the scenery. Perhaps it was because I had intended to capture a few shots of my surroundings for you, but It occured to me just how beautiful our part of this world is. For those of you who don't know, I'm talking about Gippsland in Victoria. Now perhaps it's just the way we live, with the hustle and bustle of everyday living - you know how our jobs, kids and lives in general take up almost all of our focus... Well I think we can easily loose sight of the natural beauty in things. Yeah, you might say that I'm a bit of a romantic (or a space cadet) but really, it's true. When was the last time you stopped to look at a rose? I mean really look at one, soak in it's beauty and experience what it means to really appreciate natures miracles.

I was driving along today right; and I saw this cow... Now normally when you see cows, you just think to yourself 'that's a cow' right??? Well today I saw this cow and I thought, 'thats fantastic!' A cow!!!! There was no influence of drugs or alcohol or anything other than my mood that caught the importance of this observation.... Just a magical realisation that brought me closer to what I think stuff is all about!

So cows are sacred in India right... I can totally get that. You see cows eat grass, they give milk and they totally rock! Every morning I have milk in some form, whether it be in my coffee, or over my cereal and I never even gave a single thought to the humble cow that made it all possible. Moo!!! Cows are great. Sure they are not the prettiest, or even the smartest animals on the earth: And we might be forgiven if we thought that they were actually extraterestrials from the planet because they have three stomachs like some kind of alien; but hey, cows rock!

Imagine cereal without milk? Imagine tika masala with water or gulp...fanta instead of cream... YUCK! There is no substitute for milk! Ever tried to milk a chook???? Well hell, there are other advantages to having cows on the earth too... Imagine a Big Mac without Beef. We would have products in the supermarket replaced with Big Lambers (instead of Big Beefers), Turkey Jerky and not only that, but we could no longer say that we have a beef with someone... Having a fish with someone just doesn't have the same ring! So thumbs up to our Bovine friends, may the beef be with you... Moooo.

BTW... The photos were of locations that I happened to pass by on route to a job today. I am so lucky to be able to see this sort of thing. By the way, you might be led to think that I will say something really deep and meaningful about the fire truck... But I won't. It was probably not a good idea to be taking a photo whilst driving anyway. Nice truck though! Cheers and have a great weekend!

Fast Mouse.

2006-05-25T19:42:00.000+10:00

Well, what a day. Full of everything including a few challenging problems. Amongst the days events though, I managed to snap a pic of a side project I had a little time to fit in: Here's an unassuming candidate; my sons novelty car mouse.

I think it's supposed to look like a BMW...Not sure, but it was suffering from engine abuse (being thrashed). I guess you could say that it was in need of a major service. But fear not : ) with my trusty soldering iron and a few spare minutes, I was able to get it back on the road -Well back on the mouse pad anyway and even more remarkably, it actually still works! They were a bit rough with it and given it's design, was in need of a slight modification.

A discussion at work prompted me to think about the way things are made these days. Leave me a comment about how you see it, but It seems to be that in general, people aggree that things are not made as well as they once were i.e, in the 80's. Dunno about that but it is a subject worth discussion. Obviously, there are things that are made now that were not possible 20 or 30 years ago. Maybe its just a way that technophobes can justify their existence at home in their retro houses watching black and white TV on their Beta video machines. Anyway, I might go and watch a DVD with my darling wife before it gets too late. Cheers folks!

When Stuff Just Works

2006-05-24T15:26:00.000+10:00

Well its been a long morning and somewhat of an excercise in frustration. After installing a nice shiny new server, the gritty stuff had to be done. I won't bore you with the details, suffice to say that 6 hours later I had completed the job and all concerned were happy:-). There is nothing better than happy punters. Here's a photo of the sexy new IBM X-Series 236 Server for those of you who are interested. Although the photo doesn't do her justice, she's quite deep (and very heavy) for a desktop computer. Yeah i know it might seem boring to most of you, but hey, welcome to my world.

The world where stuff is always broken and in need of a fixer-upperer dude. Enter moi, who tries to achieve this to the best of his abilities. Not always succesful, although normally capable, given the right tools (and sometimes a helping hand from the techno-gods in the city).

Which brings me to another point. The tech support dudes at the other end of the phone are normally very helpful and good spirited individuals. Not deserving of their stereotypical labels. Power to the uber geeks I say. Without them, we'd all be lost. So, another working day is nearly over and yet again; mission accomplished. The citizens of Gotham can sleep tonight, with the hearty murmers of the xeon based server: The gentle flicker of soft green leds emanating from beneath her attractive grille. And if you look closely, she seems to flicker in unison with your heart... Awwwww isn't it pretty? It's nice when stuff just works....

The dawn of a new day

2006-05-23T22:00:00.000+10:00

The sunset fades into oblivion
The day continues its morph into night
Although the day is over,
Its legacy hangs over me
Ever present and bold
Sunrise is near and the new day beckons.

2006-05-23T19:17:00.000+10:00

It's all smoke and mirrors...

Two men stand atop a magnificent gorge, before them lies a majestic forest of strong and healthy trees, bursting with life and all of natures beauty. One man says to the other "Isn't it just gorgeous?" The other man replies by exclaiming "yeah, all of those trees are fantastic; must be worth a fortune in wood chips"
There are always at least two points of view that are equally valid in any argument.
I believe that we must be mindfull of two things... Consequence of our actions and the effects that those actions can have on others. I believe that we can all learn something from the Chinese 'Tao' or indeed, from Japanese Zen. The eastern philosophies promote harmony of spirit and the respect and cohabitation of all living (and non-living) things. After all, we are no more a significant part of this world as butterflies or ants are. -We just make more noise.
It is my belief that we must always be mindful of the feelings of others and strive to improve our social skills afterall, we are social creatures: Our survival relies on the dependance we have on others. What can I say....

OK, I am a bit of a space cadet afterall.

2006-05-23T16:39:00.000+10:00

PC’s, kids and sleep time sentiment.

Ok, here’s the thing… You know you’re bored when you are sitting at your desk clicking on icons, skipping from icon to icon, like you’re not really sure what you want to open. Or when you double click a folder, then go back, then forwards and forever open yet more folders only to find nothing of interest. Well I’ve done a bit of that today, waiting for software to install on the PC at work. Computers they say, save us time. They don’t save me any time, because I spend more time fixing them than they spend entertaining or educating me. But I love computers. They are a kind of comfort to me, not merely a tool for productivity. I enjoy the warm luminescent glow of my pc, the gentle humming of its numerous fans. Personal Computers… Sort of like personal slaves in a digital kinda way.

Well we all know how important our PC’s are... Well sure, they can’t feed us, clothe us or bath the kids, feed the cat, or put the bins out, or….come to think of it, do anything much that is all that practical (at least in their desktop form), but we love em just the same. We pour our hard earned cash into constant upgrades, software and additional gadgetry. They are like our children, (except that they don’t argue with us and they go to sleep when we ask them to) and imagine the possibilities… If only we could get children to hibernate like Windows XP: We might actually get some kip;-)

2006-05-23T11:33:00.000+10:00

The day as it begins...

The wipers groan to a halt.
The sun peers out from behind dark clouds.
It is a beautiful day and I feel good.
I kissed my wife goodbye this morning
I hugged my children
And I feel great.
The radio drones on
But I’m not really listening.
Today is a beautiful day.
Here I sit in this space
My little silver car
I wonder what other people are thinking
As they drive along in their cars
Are they happy?
Are they sad?
Who are they anyway?
They pass me by
Almost every day
Do they notice me?
Do they notice the trees
Or the warmth of the morning sun
As it washes over us as we drive along?
Today is beautiful.

2006-05-22T16:44:00.000+10:00

Mondayitis

I spent a couple of hours setting up VOIP (Voice Over IP) for us to trial in the Shop at work. It is very clear and sound quality is probably better than our conventional telephone line. Don't know if it (VOIP) will be as big as people say it will be though.

On another note, I would urge anyone ever considering a Kyocera Laser printer purchase, to reconsider. The parts are outrageously expensive. Over 500 bucks for a Processing Unit. Ouch!

Work today was kind of dull. A few jobs were a challenge, but overall, not all that interesting. On the lighter side, I was looking forward to knock-off.

Something happened today that made me think….It amazes me how people take a ‘thing’ with a specific function (that is absolutely required to perform a certain task) and then disable or throw away that task completely whilst expecting a process to take place that is solely and implicitly dependent on that very task that they have taken away. I think that it really demonstrated a complete lack of understanding about the actual workings of the very thing they are trying to achieve. In short… Incompetence. - We all deal with it on a day to day basis. You especially encounter it in the repair service sector, but whilst trying to remain humble and non judgemental, we are all challenged by having to deal with the ridiculously incompetent as well as the regular punters and those that are quite smart in their given field of expertise. But as I say, there is no amount of training that will teach you plain old common sense. I think you either have it or you don’t. Sure we have a lapse from time to time and do something completely ridiculous, but generally, the majority of us have our wits about us. Unfortunately, it seems that not all of us are blessed with an abundance of grey matter.

Somehow, I fear, technology is dumbing us all down too. There are all sorts of things that we no longer have to do for ourselves; that is making us lazier as a general rule. Hands up everyone who goes nuts when they cant find the TV remote, spending hours turning the house upside down to find it? We know that in fact, it only takes a few seconds to walk to the TV and press the channel select button.
Here’s a thought, for some people, high speed internet is a must… Communications are imperative. For all the great things internet give us, by far the most important to many businesses (and individuals) is electronic mail. For most, the greatest thing about high speed internet is the speed at which you get your electronic mail. For others, it’s the fastest known way on Earth to get junk mail delivered to your home or office. Of course, with wireless internet now available, it means that you can get junk mail anywhere. The Spam Revolution is here! Now you can get your Penis Enlargements and breast enhancements at the airport, or keep in touch with that Nigerian dude with all the cash while you eat brekky at the local McDonalds. The best thing you can have is a good spam filter I reckon- They’re the online equivalent of mans best friend. Anyhow, enough for today.

Welcome to my World.

2006-05-21T20:49:00.000+10:00

Hi there. Welcome to my wacky world. Where i tell it how it is....
At least how it is at the moment.

Stay tuned for all of my weird and sometimes intelligent and perhaps intuative comments on a broad range of stuff. Hope i don't bore you though.