Sunday, May 28, 2006

Quick! Get me a VB! The cricket's about to start!

Boonie is still powering on! Good work, mate, although I have noticed that your speech is getting somewhat slower and increasingly slurred. Some might say that your battery is finally fading.

Me? I reckon it's all the VB.

Edited for typo in title, 28/5

Still no photos

I'm aware that there are still no beardy pics. My hard drives are still fairly rat shit. However, when I rectify the situation, the photos shall recommence.

Trust me.

Would an ex-beardy lie?

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Spammed

Seems like my free and easy commenting policy has been abused. I've just deleted 29 comments that, in various ways, said my site was nice, I was nice and oh, by the way, hidden in my post is a link farm for you to click on.

Moderating is tedious so I've enabled word verification to begin with. We'll see how it goes.

-s
(oh, and more beardy pics coming. My hard drives are rapidly dying and until I can replace them, having a functioning computer is a gamble on a boot by boot basis)

Monday, May 15, 2006

Hair raising adventures

I hate shaving. I really do. It sucks having to do it 5 mornings a week. When I'm on holidays I shave as little as possible. Unfortunately, I generally only go on holidays to go back home for Christmas and it gets too hot and humid in Brisbane at that time of year to go without shaving for too long.

Since I've been home on paternity leave, I haven't had to shave and it's been fun. Alas, I return to work on Wednesday, so the stubble must go. There's nothing saying it all has to go at once though...


These hideous photos were taken after soccer on 13 May (we lost so I don't know what I'm smiling about). I hadn't shaved in exactly one month.









These nasties were taken the following night. It's amazing what a trim will do for appearances...










Since I go back to work tomorrow, more hair raising adventures will follow.

I guarantee it.

-s

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Is Internet Addiction a Real Problem?

(As seen on digg)

Interesting little op ed piece from Ars Technica on whether "internet addiction" is real or not. I'm inclined to think that an "internet addiction" is just a manifestation of a deeper problem rather than an actual mental addiction.

As an aside, I scored 56 on the linked test which says "You are experiencing occasional or frequent problems because of the Internet. You should consider their full impact on your life.".

I could stop anytime I like :D Actually, I think my answers are related to the amount of time I spend online while putting Elijah to sleep. Things will change again once I go back to work next week.

-s

read more | digg story

It burns, it burns!

Installed the DVD "Superwrite" (which means it burns ±R, ±RW and does ± dual layer) this afternoon. There was much cursing as I destroyed the heads of 4 screws (even with WD40 the damn things wouldn't turn without a lot of effort) but I eventually took out my old LG CD-RW drive and threw the new Lite-on one in.

A quick test of the new Nero software (I own the full version of 5.5 but the OEM of 6 that came with the burner craps all over that!) by transcoding the latest DL.TV episode from MPEG4 to Super VCD and a test burn on a new ultra speed blank CD-RW media and I'm now a happy little camper.

I just love upgrading stuff! Next on the agenda is a new hard drive to give me some more space (duh) as well as a chance to have another crack at dual booting Linux. I'm thinking Ubuntu as I've heard from a number of sources that it is particularly newbie friendly, but I'm always open to suggestions from people who know better.

-s
(geeking out when he should be doing his Java assignment)

Boonie: Redux

According to The Age , Boonie is back from the dead because his battery has lasted longer than anticipated.

I prefer the Xenox News angle: Tasmanian Miracle: Miners Free - Boonie Doll Talks!

Hmmmm, upgrades *drool*

My new DVD burner arrived today from A.i Tech. It was a damn good price at just under $90 including postage. I haven't had a chance to install it yet (*sigh*) but I hope to before the weekend. I can't wait to try that funky Lightscribe out.

-s

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Boonie? Is that you?

For some unknown reason, today is the day that my talking Boonie decided to return to life, informing me that I should get him a beer as the cricket was about to start, that he loved nachos, and that today's code word was "bat".

Given the VB One Day Series ended months ago, I'm a little confused but pleasantly surprised. May Boonie continue to speak to me for many years to come!

UPDATE 9/5: He's at it again, asking for a beer at 6am! Go Boonie!