(it seems that posting via emails is an inexact science at best. I'm posting manually now, and hopefully this won't show up as a dupe)
People do stupid things that I plain don't understand. The stupidhuman activity currently bugging me is commuting somewhere (usually towork), getting out of the driver's seat and farewelling your partnerwho then proceeds to hop into the driver's seat and drives away.
Why would you do this?
Obviously, you are both going somewhere, and one person gets droppedoff and the other person continues on their journey. It doesn'tmatter where that journey is – workplace, doughnut shop, back home –the important thing is that the journey is clearly ongoing for oneperson.
Here's what I don't get – why is the person being dropped off the onedriving? Huh? Surely it would make more sense to have just the onedriver. It has to be more efficient for a start. Changing driversmeans changing seat positions, rear view mirrors, steering columns (ifyou have a la-di-da car that allows that level of customisation) andradio stations (maybe that one is just me). Even more confusing isthat more often than not the kiss goodbye means that these people, ifnot living together, are at least intimately acquainted on some level. What kind of message does this send?
"Honey, I love you and trust you with my deepest emotions but there'sno way I'm going to be a passenger when you're driving."
I don't get people. Really, I don't. You're all weird.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Not OK, Computer
Stupid computer is refusing to POST again. I've ordered a new CPU
cooler, but in the meantime I'm just going to have to deal I guess.
At least with access at work I won't have complete withdrawal...
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Non-photo #1
A common Canberra bus shelter is a cylinder for concrete with a large opening (about one third of the cylinder) as an entrance and a hole in one side as a window (so you can see oncoming buses). The roof is flat, solid and generally grimy and slimy with algae (I’m sure following a nuclear armageddon the only survivors would be algae and the cockroaches that eat it). The roof bus shelter has to be at lest 3 metres (9-10 feet) off the ground.
This particular bus shelter is on a well-trafficked road (Constitution Ave in Reid if anyone is local). It sits underneath a collection of dead-looking trees as it’s winter and all the leaves dropped months ago. It also sits outside a tech college.
One tree stands directly above the shelter, its lifeless branches forming a substantial fork about 2 metres or so (6-7 feet) above the roof of the shelter. Firmly nestled in the cold embrace of the barren fork rests a shopping trolley, empty and alone.
The sheer effort and ingenuity to haul a shopping trolley 3 metres off the ground, and then wedge it into fork of a tree that is at least another 2 metres off the ground, all the while standing on a filthy and dangerously slippery and slimy surface, simply astounds me. I hope it was worth it.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera on me when I saw this slice of human endeavour while staring out the window during my morning bus commute. Some things just need to be acknowledged or recognised whichever way you can.
This particular bus shelter is on a well-trafficked road (Constitution Ave in Reid if anyone is local). It sits underneath a collection of dead-looking trees as it’s winter and all the leaves dropped months ago. It also sits outside a tech college.
One tree stands directly above the shelter, its lifeless branches forming a substantial fork about 2 metres or so (6-7 feet) above the roof of the shelter. Firmly nestled in the cold embrace of the barren fork rests a shopping trolley, empty and alone.
The sheer effort and ingenuity to haul a shopping trolley 3 metres off the ground, and then wedge it into fork of a tree that is at least another 2 metres off the ground, all the while standing on a filthy and dangerously slippery and slimy surface, simply astounds me. I hope it was worth it.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera on me when I saw this slice of human endeavour while staring out the window during my morning bus commute. Some things just need to be acknowledged or recognised whichever way you can.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Forgotten Updates...
Two quick things....
- I have a nano again! Using some loyalty points from my credit card and some top-up cash, I picked up a black 2 gig nano. Once again I am happy with my piece of wanton gadgetry.
- We finally won another football match. It's been weeks since we last won a match and it means we've only won three this season and still sit second bottom on the table. It's been a bit of a humbling experience for a team that played the grand final last year and only lost in a penalty shoot out. We are pretty much only playing for pride at this stage of the season.
Happy birthday to me...
...happy birthday to me,
I've been looking after Elijah,
And now I smell like wee.
Flexed the day of the work which meant I got to spend my little day at home doing not very much. I had planned to reinstall a whole heap of music software that I hadn't done since The Upgrade but instead I battled a computer that once again wouldn't even POST.
In desperation I dug out my old tube of thermal paste, cleaned up the CPU and heatsink and reapplied the paste. Seems like the computer is working fine now, but we'll see if it boots up tomorrow before I get too cocky about it. The plan to reinstall the software will perhaps eventuate tonight, or maybe later in the week. It may sit off my hard drive for even longer as uni starts back next week, although they are doing their best to keep my away it would seem (a SNAFU with my fee payments means that at this stage I am technically behind $3,732 in tuition fees when that should already have been taken care of).
I'm not going to list the pressie I got, but suffice to say I'm happy with all of them (including the funky little cuff links my brother sent over from London - OK, so I'll list one pressie).
Back to reality tomorrow...
I've been looking after Elijah,
And now I smell like wee.
Flexed the day of the work which meant I got to spend my little day at home doing not very much. I had planned to reinstall a whole heap of music software that I hadn't done since The Upgrade but instead I battled a computer that once again wouldn't even POST.
In desperation I dug out my old tube of thermal paste, cleaned up the CPU and heatsink and reapplied the paste. Seems like the computer is working fine now, but we'll see if it boots up tomorrow before I get too cocky about it. The plan to reinstall the software will perhaps eventuate tonight, or maybe later in the week. It may sit off my hard drive for even longer as uni starts back next week, although they are doing their best to keep my away it would seem (a SNAFU with my fee payments means that at this stage I am technically behind $3,732 in tuition fees when that should already have been taken care of).
I'm not going to list the pressie I got, but suffice to say I'm happy with all of them (including the funky little cuff links my brother sent over from London - OK, so I'll list one pressie).
Back to reality tomorrow...
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Why keep studying?
I stumbled across a story on Slashdot that discussed whether or not going to graduate school was a Good Idea™? . The Slashdot Effect is still in full swing so I haven't read the linked article yet (or, since my geek is already showing, I have yet to RTFA, but that's never been counted against anyone on Slashdot anyway) so I'm not entirely sure what the original article was about. Since I don't live in the States, I'm not overly familiar with grad school but I'm assuming the following:
The thought of "grad school" got me thinking, given that at the start of the year I re-entered the world of study to (eventually) obtain a coursework Masters in Science (IT - probably Systems Administration but I've still got some time before I sort that one out). More specifically, it got me thinking as to why I'm doing it all.
When I finished school I originally wanted to do an IT degree but changed my mind at the last minute after being put off by my abysmal maths efforts (I could have passed maths but I had no motivation to do so - boring teacher and the rest of it - at least I wasn't disruptive in class I guess) as well as a horror last semester struggling with the joys of SQL in Oracle (gah!). I changed my mind and decided to do Psychology and then changed my mind at the last minute to do Journalism instead (big mistake - maybe I'll blog about that some other time). After a year of Journalism, I switched majors and studied Sociology before doing Honours (First Class - yay! I worked damn hard for that, too) with a thesis topic that examined the impact of globalisation on rural and regional areas. (as a side note, it's strange how globalisation just isn't sexy anymore. In the late 90s it was all the rage, and now it's just, well, accepted I guess. Makes all my hard work seem a little redundant when I look back on it).
There is a point here. Trust me.
I've spent the last 5 1/2 years working as a public servant (or civil servant or government worker - however your culture defines it) doing "knowledge worker" type roles using all my research, analysis and critical thinking training (on a good day anyway). Deep down inside I was still a geek at heart who just wanted to fool around with computers. I didn't know if I had any particular talent in any particular area of IT, or even if I would be any good at any of it at all, or if it was all just a flight of fancy and one day I would look back and laugh at my follies.
After playing around with the thought of going back to study, at the start of this year I made the plunge. Studying part time, working full time, paying a mortgage and raising a baby boy has made this a considerable challenge. So, why am I doing it?
Because I need to know. I have a burning desire to discover if the flood of bits in my blood is a temporary affliction or if I really have missed my calling. It's got little to do with money. In fact, when I graduate and start looking for work in my chosen field, I will likely have to take a pay cut of $10,000s in the short term, which is not something to be entered into lightly. In recent years, the pull of tech has got stronger, not weaker.
Because I need to keep learning. If I stop learning, I stop moving. I stagnate. Sit still. Tread water. Run on the spot. Sure, life is one big lesson. I get that. Experiential learning without structure doesn't sink in with me. I need lessons. I need directions. I need goals. Without these, my life starts to drift and my brain starts to atrophy.
Do I need to be paying what will be close to $20,000 once it is all over? To learn with lessons, goals and directions and receive recognition of my learning outcomes - yes. To see if this is a lifechoice (it's probably not a real word but as a trained Sociologist I'm good at making up new words) I want to make - maybe not. I think only time will tell on that one.
I promised a point somewhere in there, didn't I. Sorry. I'm not sure I ever really had one. I think I was hoping one would materialise as I went along. My bad.
How's this one?
That's why I continue to study.
And if you got to the end of this, no, you can't have those 10 minutes back. You probably were only going to waste them on something else anyway.
- people in the States do a three (or four) year bachelor level degree
- if they want to, they then go out and get a job
- if they want to specialise, they will go to a different university (or should that be college? I don't know) and study for 2 years for a Masters level qualification in something or longer for a doctorate
The thought of "grad school" got me thinking, given that at the start of the year I re-entered the world of study to (eventually) obtain a coursework Masters in Science (IT - probably Systems Administration but I've still got some time before I sort that one out). More specifically, it got me thinking as to why I'm doing it all.
When I finished school I originally wanted to do an IT degree but changed my mind at the last minute after being put off by my abysmal maths efforts (I could have passed maths but I had no motivation to do so - boring teacher and the rest of it - at least I wasn't disruptive in class I guess) as well as a horror last semester struggling with the joys of SQL in Oracle (gah!). I changed my mind and decided to do Psychology and then changed my mind at the last minute to do Journalism instead (big mistake - maybe I'll blog about that some other time). After a year of Journalism, I switched majors and studied Sociology before doing Honours (First Class - yay! I worked damn hard for that, too) with a thesis topic that examined the impact of globalisation on rural and regional areas. (as a side note, it's strange how globalisation just isn't sexy anymore. In the late 90s it was all the rage, and now it's just, well, accepted I guess. Makes all my hard work seem a little redundant when I look back on it).
There is a point here. Trust me.
I've spent the last 5 1/2 years working as a public servant (or civil servant or government worker - however your culture defines it) doing "knowledge worker" type roles using all my research, analysis and critical thinking training (on a good day anyway). Deep down inside I was still a geek at heart who just wanted to fool around with computers. I didn't know if I had any particular talent in any particular area of IT, or even if I would be any good at any of it at all, or if it was all just a flight of fancy and one day I would look back and laugh at my follies.
After playing around with the thought of going back to study, at the start of this year I made the plunge. Studying part time, working full time, paying a mortgage and raising a baby boy has made this a considerable challenge. So, why am I doing it?
Because I need to know. I have a burning desire to discover if the flood of bits in my blood is a temporary affliction or if I really have missed my calling. It's got little to do with money. In fact, when I graduate and start looking for work in my chosen field, I will likely have to take a pay cut of $10,000s in the short term, which is not something to be entered into lightly. In recent years, the pull of tech has got stronger, not weaker.
Because I need to keep learning. If I stop learning, I stop moving. I stagnate. Sit still. Tread water. Run on the spot. Sure, life is one big lesson. I get that. Experiential learning without structure doesn't sink in with me. I need lessons. I need directions. I need goals. Without these, my life starts to drift and my brain starts to atrophy.
Do I need to be paying what will be close to $20,000 once it is all over? To learn with lessons, goals and directions and receive recognition of my learning outcomes - yes. To see if this is a lifechoice (it's probably not a real word but as a trained Sociologist I'm good at making up new words) I want to make - maybe not. I think only time will tell on that one.
I promised a point somewhere in there, didn't I. Sorry. I'm not sure I ever really had one. I think I was hoping one would materialise as I went along. My bad.
How's this one?
That's why I continue to study.
And if you got to the end of this, no, you can't have those 10 minutes back. You probably were only going to waste them on something else anyway.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Hmmm....fruity *drool*
Mosquitos don’t dig fruit smells, apparently.
Some scienticians in the UK have been conducting research into why mosquitos will attack some people and not others. It would seem that everybody produces a cocktail of odorous chemicals when they perspire (in other words “you sweat you stink”). Some of this cocktail smells pretty good to mozzies (eg lactic acid). However, some people produce these other chemicals which mask the smell of the first chemicals which in a concentrated form “have a fruity smell”.
It is likely that these chemicals are in everybody’s sweat, just some produce more than others. Who says we are all created equal? (it was probably Oscar Wilde).
The researchers constructed a Y-shaped chamber and wafted the scent of the subjects (probably grad students) towards the swarm and then studied which people the mosquitos avoided. They then collected the sweat of the unattractively odoured ones by, and here’s the fun bit, “sealing their bodies in a foil sack, tied under the chin, and collecting and distilling the seat that poured off them”. How’d you like that job?
This startling new research follows hot on the heels of some stuff in the 1990s that revealed that mosquitos are just bang up for the waft of a bacteria that grows on human feet and limburger cheese. I couldn’t find any full text of the article, but a Google Scholar search will show this study has been cited out the wazoo, and this United States Department of Agriculture article can give you the low down as well.
The moral of the story? If you don’t want to be bitten, you need to wear a little less of this and a little more of this.
Some scienticians in the UK have been conducting research into why mosquitos will attack some people and not others. It would seem that everybody produces a cocktail of odorous chemicals when they perspire (in other words “you sweat you stink”). Some of this cocktail smells pretty good to mozzies (eg lactic acid). However, some people produce these other chemicals which mask the smell of the first chemicals which in a concentrated form “have a fruity smell”.
It is likely that these chemicals are in everybody’s sweat, just some produce more than others. Who says we are all created equal? (it was probably Oscar Wilde).
The researchers constructed a Y-shaped chamber and wafted the scent of the subjects (probably grad students) towards the swarm and then studied which people the mosquitos avoided. They then collected the sweat of the unattractively odoured ones by, and here’s the fun bit, “sealing their bodies in a foil sack, tied under the chin, and collecting and distilling the seat that poured off them”. How’d you like that job?
This startling new research follows hot on the heels of some stuff in the 1990s that revealed that mosquitos are just bang up for the waft of a bacteria that grows on human feet and limburger cheese. I couldn’t find any full text of the article, but a Google Scholar search will show this study has been cited out the wazoo, and this United States Department of Agriculture article can give you the low down as well.
The moral of the story? If you don’t want to be bitten, you need to wear a little less of this and a little more of this.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Screening into the night...
I had a minor (major?) rant on Little Elijah about the impact of electronic screens on the development of infants. It got me thinking about how many electronic screens we face in our daily existence.
There are TVs in shop windows. There are the TVs in our homes. For many of us, we work on computers every day, in some form or another. For less of us (but probably anyone reading this), not only do we spend all day working on a computer but large chunks of our leisure time on the computer as well. There are closed circuit TVs that we can see at the shop counter when we duck into the servo for a chocolate fix. Airports and bus terminals provide scheduling information on electronic screens in various forms.
Our digital cameras have LCD view finders. Our digital watches have LCD screens. Sporting grounds have large screens for the "instant replay". In fact, I once found myself at a rugby union ground watching the game televised on the big screen at the ground almost as much as I watched it happening right in front of me!
There are kids toys with screens! In fact, there's a growing market for "new media" toys for little 'uns (this NY Times gives you a run down of that).
I'm pretty sure that, in the end, the revolution will be televised. We'll all watch it, too. It'd be damn near impossible to escape it.
Do I have a point? Not really, apart from take a look around you tomorrow. Take a good look. See how many screens there are? Smile. You're probably on most of them...
There are TVs in shop windows. There are the TVs in our homes. For many of us, we work on computers every day, in some form or another. For less of us (but probably anyone reading this), not only do we spend all day working on a computer but large chunks of our leisure time on the computer as well. There are closed circuit TVs that we can see at the shop counter when we duck into the servo for a chocolate fix. Airports and bus terminals provide scheduling information on electronic screens in various forms.
Our digital cameras have LCD view finders. Our digital watches have LCD screens. Sporting grounds have large screens for the "instant replay". In fact, I once found myself at a rugby union ground watching the game televised on the big screen at the ground almost as much as I watched it happening right in front of me!
There are kids toys with screens! In fact, there's a growing market for "new media" toys for little 'uns (this NY Times gives you a run down of that).
I'm pretty sure that, in the end, the revolution will be televised. We'll all watch it, too. It'd be damn near impossible to escape it.
Do I have a point? Not really, apart from take a look around you tomorrow. Take a good look. See how many screens there are? Smile. You're probably on most of them...
Thursday, June 22, 2006
The Return of the Beardies
I have finally got around to downloading the photos off of the camera. I don't remember my photography being this sucky though. Stupid camera goblins. Why do they always play with the quality settings after I've taken the photo?
And then, about 15 minutes later, this facial disaster occurred (although I must admit that I was quite fond of it at the time but Helen wouldn't let me keep it...)
Oh well..
I'm now back to the normal goatee again. 'Twas fun while it lasted and I now understand why there is a subset of people (mostly men) who grow winter beards for warmth.
And then, about 15 minutes later, this facial disaster occurred (although I must admit that I was quite fond of it at the time but Helen wouldn't let me keep it...)
Oh well..
I'm now back to the normal goatee again. 'Twas fun while it lasted and I now understand why there is a subset of people (mostly men) who grow winter beards for warmth.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
I really do love my ISP...
Over 60 internet radio streams, from a big ass range of genres (not that I care, I basically only stream the DI stations when I'm not streaming from Magnatune - after all, they're not evil), all unmetered.
God Bless you, Internode. If you were a hot Irish red head with green eyes, I'd so totally daydream about doing you while being too intimidated to ever actually talk to you...
Monday, June 19, 2006
I'm back! W00t! (Minor Mega Update)
After much computer misery, I have returned. Hard drive corruption, severe booting issues (eg not powering up except for the fans), major stability problems and overall system flakiness appear to have been fixed now that I have replaced the motherboard and PSU on my system. The PSU had three leaky/burst capacitors, which probably explains why the old mobo was reporting the 12V rail as only providing 10.4V :0 The motherboard itself was a bit of a deadend as well (AGP4x, only supported up to 2100+XP chips, and I think the onboard RAID sockets were dying) so it's been good to replace it as well.
While I didn't end up needing to buy the future-proof(ish) components that I thought I might (and was starting to think might be nice to have) such as a Socket939 mobo, PCI-E gfx card and a beefy PSU, I did end up finding a SocketA motherboard at the local computer fair that will at least allow me to update to a Sempron chip in the future as well as an AGP8x gfx card if I find for some unknown reason that I have too much money. Oh, and now I have SATA headers as well! Tasty.
What doth this meaneth to the peopleth? Beardy pics will be forthcoming. Once my last assignment and two exams are complete (a networking assignment, networking exam and Java/programming exam), I'll have the time to pull them off the camera and upload them.
Having a brand new hard drive also means that I was able to take the opportunity to remove the last piece of "dodgy" software off my system. Instead of using a dubiously obtained copy of Microsoft Office 2000, I'm doing a test drive of OpenOffice.org 2.0. I'm hoping to discover that OOo has everything I need. If it turns out either Helen or myself need something that only MS can provide well I'll break down and get an Academic version. They're not upgradeable but I wouldn't want to. Besides, my next system is going to be a Mac anyway (when I can afford it).
One final point - I take back all the nice things I said about A.i.tech and their webfront pc.net.au. When trying to source parts for my dying computer, I found that they were one of the few places that still stocked Socket A motherboards. I placed an order on a Friday morning before the long weekend. I wasn't able to determine with them until 4:30 that afternoon that despite the fact that they had quite a number of different models listed on the website, they didn't actually have any Socket A motherboards in stock. To make matters worse, these guys charge your credit card first and then check to see if they have the stock at hand. While they offered to cancel my order and refund my credit card, it left me in a difficult place financially in the weekend before payday with several hundred dollars floating around in the ether while I waited for my card to be credited.
Thankfully, the good ol' ACT Computer Fair came through. They had a nice ASUS A7V-600-X motherboard for around $90 (I have no idea if that's cheap - the important thing was that it was available on a long weekend and I had assignments to do). I also managed to pick up an Antec SmartPower 2.0 PSU for a good price. Of course, changing motherboards meant that I then had to go out and find somewhere that stocked thermal paste on a Sunday of a long weekend. I eventually found a small shop open in Civic and I got to geek out, hardware style, and apply my first ever lashings of thermal paste to a CPU stock heatsink. Next upgrade is some decent cooling I think :)
-s
While I didn't end up needing to buy the future-proof(ish) components that I thought I might (and was starting to think might be nice to have) such as a Socket939 mobo, PCI-E gfx card and a beefy PSU, I did end up finding a SocketA motherboard at the local computer fair that will at least allow me to update to a Sempron chip in the future as well as an AGP8x gfx card if I find for some unknown reason that I have too much money. Oh, and now I have SATA headers as well! Tasty.
What doth this meaneth to the peopleth? Beardy pics will be forthcoming. Once my last assignment and two exams are complete (a networking assignment, networking exam and Java/programming exam), I'll have the time to pull them off the camera and upload them.
Having a brand new hard drive also means that I was able to take the opportunity to remove the last piece of "dodgy" software off my system. Instead of using a dubiously obtained copy of Microsoft Office 2000, I'm doing a test drive of OpenOffice.org 2.0. I'm hoping to discover that OOo has everything I need. If it turns out either Helen or myself need something that only MS can provide well I'll break down and get an Academic version. They're not upgradeable but I wouldn't want to. Besides, my next system is going to be a Mac anyway (when I can afford it).
One final point - I take back all the nice things I said about A.i.tech and their webfront pc.net.au. When trying to source parts for my dying computer, I found that they were one of the few places that still stocked Socket A motherboards. I placed an order on a Friday morning before the long weekend. I wasn't able to determine with them until 4:30 that afternoon that despite the fact that they had quite a number of different models listed on the website, they didn't actually have any Socket A motherboards in stock. To make matters worse, these guys charge your credit card first and then check to see if they have the stock at hand. While they offered to cancel my order and refund my credit card, it left me in a difficult place financially in the weekend before payday with several hundred dollars floating around in the ether while I waited for my card to be credited.
Thankfully, the good ol' ACT Computer Fair came through. They had a nice ASUS A7V-600-X motherboard for around $90 (I have no idea if that's cheap - the important thing was that it was available on a long weekend and I had assignments to do). I also managed to pick up an Antec SmartPower 2.0 PSU for a good price. Of course, changing motherboards meant that I then had to go out and find somewhere that stocked thermal paste on a Sunday of a long weekend. I eventually found a small shop open in Civic and I got to geek out, hardware style, and apply my first ever lashings of thermal paste to a CPU stock heatsink. Next upgrade is some decent cooling I think :)
-s
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
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?
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)
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
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
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)
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!
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
-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!
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!
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