Right now I am working on updating my trackers so that I can dial into them and update them over the air. This is actually a really horrible thing to do since memory is limited. Which means that I need to kill off the rest of the software that is running, and restart the device in a different mode.

Then when things are uploaded I need to restart the device to run the new software. All in all this is a real pain, and something that I have been looking for excuses not to do. Then again, I do not feel like having to explain to a customer why I need to schedule down time for his 500 vehicles whilst I fix a minor bug.

That is the way with these sort of things unforunately. I guess I need to just grin and bear it. ARGH.

As a diversion I have been doing battle with Windows. A couple of things do not work really well. The Web Server on my laptop refuses to allow certain connections to it. Anything with a '&' or '%' in the URL. And of course I have a need of this. But it is only in certain cases that this is not permitted. I have not worked out what they are yet. The other thing that I am having issues with is raising events. I am missing something simple there - and I am not sure what. I will look at these later.

Music:

Brandy - Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Suburbia - Pet Shop Boys

I slept well last night - although my neck is sore this morning. I guess that just takes a little time to fix itself up. It is annoying, but certainly not debilitating. A few days and it will be fine.

A watched Roman Holiday last night, and it really is a delightful movie - sort of the genre of 'The Princess Diaries', or 'The Cinderella Story'. It is quite aparent why Audrey Hepburn won the Oscar on the movie - she did such a good job - and seemed to be honestly enjoying herself making the movie.

The scenes around Rome all looked familiar - although I can say that the traffic situation has changed a bit these days. There seemed to be very little traffic on the roads during the movie, although now traffic is a major issue. The pictures were also so clear, and I had to remind myself that this movie was made 40 or 50 years ago.

In many ways Rome has not changed at all, and in some ways it has changed so much. Anyway I enjoyed watching the movie...

Music:

"Oh, What a Night" sung by Billy Joel

I just heard from my father. He was asking if I was free to meet him for dinner tomorrow night. I have not seen him for a little while so I will certainly be there...

My knees are feeling better. I had a hot bath a bit earlier to ease the discomfort in my neck, and my knees were a bit sore with the hot water. Not too bad, just a bit tingly. I could certainly do with that back massage though. The blister on my foot is not sore at all. I do not think it will be wise to go for a run tomorrow but it is basically fine at the moment. My little finger is fine thankfully after tripping over this morning

I guess I did also not get enough sleep last night - about 3pm I was just feeling so exhausted that I needed to grab a short nap. I suspect that half of this was my body complaining about the exercise. I have given my thoughts on this in the past.

I had some more dialog with a new canadian client today by email. The guy was blown away with my software, and basically will be recommending to his management that they send me money as soon as we can get an invoice to them. This is what I like to hear. What impressed him is that I can bring all the different types of technology together for him.

A friend just forwarded me a bizzare www site - you give it a list of numbers in order and it will tell you what sort of sequence created the list. For instance give it "1 2 3 4 5 6" and it will tell you that this is the last number + 1. Give it "1 1 2 3 5 8" and it will tell you that it was part of the Fibonacci sequence where each number is equal to the sum of the preceeding two numbers. Surprisingly though the database was missing simplest sequence of a(n) = a(n-1) + 1, or this number is one more than the last number.

Anyway time for me to cook myself some dinner.

Music:

Lots and Lots of music. Just so much. I cannot even remember what I have been listening to. I do know that I have been listening to music whilst walking around the house. Very impressed with the iPod. There are the occasional missing features, but nothing major. Add to playing now would be one thing. And also viewing music like they are in the directory hierarchy... But I think that is it.

Internet Email can be a pain at times. You can never be sure that someone has actually seen an email you have sent them, unless they have replied specifically to it, and then sometimes not even then. Thanks to SPAM, many companies are doing things with email that cause Email not to be as reliable as it once was. For instance, some mail servers accept all mail no matter who it is addressed to, and then silently delete it. This is too bad if you get the address wrong.

Then if an email bounces, sometimes it will go into my SPAM box under outlook, and I will be wainting on a reply and not know it has bounced.

Alternately some email severs 'Grey List' emails from servers the first time that server connects saying that the server is not available. The idea is that SPAM servers will not try again if the email fails the first time. This is not a major problem...

Even if the email does get through you can never be sure that the anti-spam software has not deleted the email anyway. I know that I never look at my incoming SPAM. I cannot be bothered unfortunately.

Some email's include delivery notifications or read receipts. I *NEVER* send either. They are turned off. Some people like these. Unless you are in a big company with an Exchange server generally I don't use this.

Sometimes I get an email where the first word on the line is changed from "From" to ">From". This is because of an issue with the mail server in the middle somewhere changing the email because it is using the 'From' to work out the start of the next email on the server.

So, why does all this happen. Mostly because internet email uses a thing called the 'Simple Mail Transfer Protocol' called SMTP. The idea that after a short time the protocol would be replaced by a more complex one. That was probably 20 years ago, and SMTP is still the standard.

Email is great when it works. When it does not it is a pain.

I know I have not posted any photos for a little while - and I thought about posting one now, but I decided against it. But I am getting ahead of myself right now.

I really need a backrub for my sore neck. Actually it is around my shoulder blades that needs some attention, but a neck and backrub would be great. And right now I dont have anyone available to give a backrub - so volunteers would be greatly appreciated.

This morning I ran exactly 6km in about 38min 30sec. This is about 90 seconds better than my previous best time for this distance, so I was happy. I started running about 8:15 which was really about 20 minutes too early. It was so much nicer to run from about 9:35 onwards.

Anyway, just around my first bend, with the sun in my eyes, and with the uneven grass hidden in shaddows I tripped. Thankfully I did not hurt myself too badly. Before you start thinking of me as an un-coorindated geek (which I probably am), in this case it was not my fault. Somehow I had tripped over the fanbelt from a car. How it got there is anyones guess. Thankfully the grass was soft so I only managed to graze two knees and hurt my left little finger. It was numb for the next 1500m or so. I am not sure if this was because the finger got cold, or what. Anyway it fixed itself.

About 4km in I started getting a blister on the arch of my left foot. Great. That was the last thing I needed. I did not think I would be able to do the final 500m, but then I worked out that I probably should not run for a few days, and so I went for it. The blister is about the side of a SIM card...

So right now I have two sore knees, and a sore foot, and a sore neck. And as for a photo... well, I have decided in the interests of decency not to provide one. So I will provide a plot of my run...

I think I was tired last night - I fell asleep in front of the TV watching CSI Miami. I have no idea what happened in then end, since I missed the last 20 minutes or so. Except for the final 10 seconds. And you really cannot work out what has happened in a show like that from the last 10 minutes, any more than you can determine what a mechanic did when servicing your car from wantching him close the bonnet.

The other way I can tell I was tired is that my neck is sore this morning - and I can only assume that I slept on it the wrong way, and I was too tired to notice during the night. That explanation seems to be logical at least. I do not know if it is the truth.

I am going to go for a run as soon as I have had breakfast. By then the day should have warmed up ever so slightly and the run will be good. I do not really mind running in the cool. It is running in the wind that I do not like when there is a wind chill cooling everything down - including me. Maybe that is just an indication that it is getting too cold for running in shorts and an old T-Shirt. Anyway I need to get some breakfast

Photo of the Day

Music:

I have now had dinner and a shower, and I am a bit exhausted. The best part was when Richard's wife went out to get some lunch for us, and when she got back we had the back of the fuselage put together which sort of shocked her. Actually it sort of shocked me too.

I also got to see an identical fuselage being built by a friend of Richard's nearby although slightly more advanced in progress, and it was amazing to see. And although it is advanced I can see that it will not be too long until we are up to this stage.

Tomorrow I will go running again - and I will see if I can at least do the six KM. It would be good if I can do more than that, but I will be happy if I can do six Km. I cannot believe how well my running is going. Late last year I was really happy when I could run 2KM. Now I can do that distance in my sleep.

This coming week will be busy... I have a number of things that I want to get done, software to write and debug, manuals to write, and a web site to update. The latter is probably the most important since it is my most important marketing exercise, and is how I therefore make my living.

Just got home from Richards - a great day. Basically we started on the back half of the fuselage, and got most of it assembled for the first time. Of course this is only the start of things since we actually have to do a lot of work now that we have that part assembled. Things like re-drilling all the holes, making some more brackets, dissasembling and reassembling a few times.

Then and only then we de-burr, clean, paint and reassemble, and then rivet it together. Which will probably take a few weekends. But it is certainly getting there - a very satisfying day all in all. Very enoyable. What I am finding though is that I an needing to lie on my back working from below, putting in cleco's, riveting, assembling etc. Since richard has the only shag pile garage in the world this is actually quite comfortable. At least until I lie on a screw or tool or something.

I used the iPod today in the car again - and I am loving it. I suspect that the cassette adapter is favouring the left speaker a bit, but most of the time it is fine. I suspect that the head in the cassette adapter is a bit mis-aligned, and it should be simple to fix.

Anyway time to put my feet up... And grab some food.

Photo of the Day

Music:

It is 7AM on a sunday morning and I am working out if I will get up now and have a run, or not bother. Maybe I should just do a short run - 3km or so. It would certainly energize me for the rest of the day. Or is that tire me out.

Not an official announcement yet, but I have signed a reseller agreement with a canadian company. That was yesterday. This morning I get an email saying that they are getting a sign made for their building with my logo on it. Now, I dont even have a logo on the outside of my office.

To top this off I got an enquiry yesterday just hours after I had signed the reseller agreement from an organization in Canada interested in tracking 500 vehicles. Things are moving quickly. I am slightly stuck since the Canadian distributor is a public company, and this information needs to be advised to their sharemarket. We are planning to announce around June 6th. [Hey, maybe I should get some shares in the company too]

Anyway I really need to get going, and see how cold it is outside... wish me luck...

I will be working on the plane most of the day tomorrow. Richard is starting about 9:00, although I am not sure what time I will be over there. I might go for a run first and thanks to the temperatures it is much nicer if I start running at 9am instead of 7am. Given that I like to run about 40 minutes, and I need a shower afterwards, taking the whole exercise to about an hour.

I have done some vegging out today, watching some movies. I saw Elektra, and also Oceans 12. Both were a bit strange, and took work to follow. I am glad that I have seen the both, but I don't think either would be on my list to buy.

There is an interesting article in the New York Times on how the fight between the Mac and Windows should be fought. It is things like suggesting that things should be hated for their failings, not successes, not to condem things until you try them, and that execution of ideas matter. The real one that I love is that you should not make grandiose purchasing plans based on a guess on future technology - like choosing a computing platform for primary school on the basis of equiping the students for working life. In other words betting what computing will be like in 6-13 years time.

Music:

The only use of the iPod today has been during the run. This was 40 minutes and it was great. I found that some of the music was good for running with and other parts were not. Just depended on my mood and the track. Some music which I thought that would be no good were great for running to.

This morning I did six kilometers - and I am feeling great. I started just after 8:30AM and I ran for 40 minutes which was good going. About on par with previous performances - although I was slightly shorter than my best effort ever. The track is on the GPS but it is more than the same. I worked out that my camera had some AA batteries so I put them in the GPS. I picked up some more batteries when I went out earlier.

I picked up some running shoes today - some new ones. I got a pair at K-Mart marked at $29.99. But they scanned at $20.00 and got a 30% discount thanks to some promotion, making them $14.00. Or less than half price.

I still have not heard from my father after my birthday. No card, nothing. There is probably a postcard or something coming - but I have not seen anything yet. It is his birthday on Wednesday so I sent him a card - and I think he is going away for three weeks on thursday or something. To tell the truth I am a bit hurt by not getting that phone call - it would have been better if he had not said he was going to ring and then did not ring.

Last night I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's - and I am glad I saw it. I don't know if I loved it, but it was certainly a good movie. It was not really what I expected, and it is easy to see how movies have changed in the 45 years or so since it was made. I think this is a movie for a simpler time...

This is a great story where Hepburn as 'Holly Golightly' grows up and finds true love. I think it is really a must see movie - where she goes from being a serial girlfriend who uses guys to finally needing one. The makers used a cat throughout the movie to describe some of the relationships without being overt about it.

I did another run yesterday - this time at about 4pm, so it was starting to get cool and the sun was starting to go down. I could not find any AA batteries in the house so I did not take my GPS. So I did not try to go the 6 to 7km which is my aim. So I decided to build speed. I guess I was doing about an average of 10-11KM for about 2.5km. It was enough, but I think I could have done more... If I had slowed down. Later I will grab some new shoes and batteries and I will go again.

This is really cool. It is a simulation of planes flying in the USA over a 24 hour period. It is cool to compare how the flights move from coast to coast depending on when daylight hits and people want to travel.

Now some technical stuff. I am currently downloading this program from Microsoft. It is what is called a bootstrapper plugin so I can add the .Net framework to an install program. More details can be found here.

Not sure yet what I will be doing tomorrow afternoon - I might be helping richard with the plane - we will see. Just depends on what he has on in the morning, and what time that finishes I think. But we will not be painting...

Sometimes things just seem to work out - I just put in an indicitive price for the client I saw earlier today. I think they will be happy - and I might get a trip to Fiji out of it... I can see the work in Fiji taking maybe 2-3 weeks - after all it takes a lot of effort to supervise an electrician doing a total of a days work :-) And I would need time to relax after that.

Oh, and I need to give a friend a ring - he was at Hamilton Island last night doing a site survey. Not bad work if you can get it. He promises to take me to the next one as a learning exercise. And since I need to look after the technical side of his business in June for a few weeks I need the experience.

I might have another run this afternoon - I think I am up to it - and if I can find batteries for the GPS receiever that work I might actually do a decent distance. Having run this morning though any distance will be decent - or at least that is how I look at it.

I just got home from a job just down the road. I am not sure if what I have done is working, because I found some issues that they needed to resolve first. Things like not having a permament IP address on their ADSL connection. Thankfully Telstra only charges $10 per month for this feature. Talking to them I have more work I can do for them - they want a quote on what is possible for one of their associated companies too... And it needs to be done today.

Then I have some other software to update too - a couple of minor bug fixes. Nothing major, but some tedious things. There are about 5 minor changes in one piece of software I think. Not all that many but enough. Who knows how long each will take.

I went for a run a little earlier - about 8:30... I am not sure how far I went - probably only 4km or so. The GPS ran out of batteries which did not help - without a goal it is harder to run, even having the iPod in my pocket.

Anyway I had better get back to work...

Argh. I woke up early this morning and I could not get back to sleep. I hate it when that happens. After spending some time looking at my email and doing some coding I did go back to bed... and slept for another hour and a half or so...

When I wake up some more I will get going and have a run... Not sure how well i will go, but I will take my iPod, phone and GPS this time. I feel good, so I might be able to do six or seven km.

I had a late-ish night last night - I was chatting to an old supervisor of mine from Pacific Power. We have always got on well, and in order to save money we started a 'Coca Cola Club' similar to many milk clubs in offices. He was telling me that he has $25m to spend at work with Capital Expendature. I just wish he could send some to me. I am not greedy... $1-2m would do me :-)

Engadget has a strange one... This is a combined vest and toy Koala. When you rub the koala on the tummy, it gives a hug-like sensation with the vest, letting you know that your 'loved one' is thinking about you. It is also 'discreet' so that no-one but you knows. The only problem is that the huge vest is a give-away. Also from Engadget comes the iGuy which is a holder for your iPod, but with arms and legs. And it only costs US$35... which looks excessive to me.

Music:

One of the problems with the iPod is that the buttons are on the side, which is not good if you want to skip songs whilst the device is on the belt or in a pocket. Conexus sell a device for $40 that places the remote control on the top of the iPod. I think this is an essential device. They also have a car charger and transmitter for 140 that includes a remote control

I just logged into my gMail account... And found that a friend of mine had sent me a link to the site www.cookingforengineers.com... I have not looked at it yet... But the name sounds cute. I am a fairly good cook anyway - and don't really need the 'Engineering' instructions as I can read a recipe.

I have heard from my mother who has gone to Broken Hill. She took her laptop and has a wireless card for the PC. She has no phone in her room but has her laptop with email and Web access. When she went through airport security, she was asked "Are you going for business?", and replied "No!". The airport security person then said "Then why do you need a laptop?". What a strange question to ask.

I promise I will go running tomorrow morning. Maybe even before breakfast - I will see. I did not get a chance this afternoon as when I got home I had a few other things to do... And I am not one of these people who can go running really late at night. In the past I have seen people out running at 1am when I have been getting home from somewhere - and I could not see the point at that time of night. I like to run during the daytime.

Right now I am watching the Audrey Hepburn movie 'How to steal a million dollars'. Maybe tomorrow night I will watch "Breakfast at Tiffany's" which I have never seen. It is one that I really want to see. My brother has lent be both movies to watch.

Music:

Two songs have stood out on my iPod. They are "Together in Electric Dreams" by Giordio Moroder with Phil Oakey, as well as "Carly Simon" with "Let the river run". The latter was from the movie working girl.

I have not managed to get away from the PC yet... A friend IM'ed me so I am having a conversation with him. So here is more to the blog whist his replies come in.

I spent about an hour at the computer show - I parked under the IBIS hotel and I hate this car park when it is full. The parking spots are too small for my liking. The computer show was not bad... back up to four halls. But most of the stuff was fairly boring. I saw some competition in terms of vehicle tracking, so discreetly grabbed some brochures. Shows like this are always a great source of ideas.

I visited a couple of companies that people suggested I look at... Actually it was three companies now I think about it. I managed to meet my supplier of mobile hardware which was good. The technical support person who I have trained up in many parts of the technology was not there today - he was only there for two days. I picked up a lot of brochures for me to read at my leasure.

Oh, in todays meeting one of my friends complemented me on my handwriting... I should say that this is the FIRST time that anyone has ever complemented me on my writing... Ever...

Music:

Ah... My iPod. I love my iPod. I used it whilst driving today and it was fantastic. I really need to have some velcro or something so I can have it mounted so that I can see the display when driving. Right now I only have it next to the handbrake which is not great. A remote control would be great, but not essential... yet... Remote display would be cute too...

Anyway I think it is time for a bath, and lunch... Not bad for just after 5pm.

Just got home... Long day... Airport to drop my mother there for a flight to Broken Hill... Then a meeting at North Ryde for breakfast... Then Civenex at Sydney Olympic Park, and then Cebit at darling harbour...

A productive day, but rather busy... And travel was not too bad. Actually the roads were fantastic. Maybe it was at exactly the right time - I dont know. But I got to the places I needed to get to without too many issues. The most major was not taking the underpass at balmain on the city west link to go over the ANZAC bridge... But a minor detour fixed that... Here is a partial plot of where I went...


At the Olympic Park I saw the disc from the olympic torch. This was amazing, as I had not seen it up close before - it was quite impressive, although it looked re-engineered from what was used as there were no gas holes. Also it was interesting to see the grove of trees that were planted around it - with one dontated by AHEPA - the local greek education organisation. In Pacific Power I took over the job once of one of the office bearers of this organisation.

There is more I want to say, but I think right now I need to put my feet up and have some lunch...

DasKeyboard have released a computer keyboard that they claim can double the speed of typists. What they do is simple - they don't print any of the letters on the keyboard. Aparently the brain then stops looking at the keyboard for visual clues and works faster at typing. I am now almost a touch typist. But not quite...


A few www sites are noting that the ACCC have told eBay that Australians must pay GST on purchases... Well, not quite. What they have said is that if GST is chargable, it must be included in the price. This is quite reasonable and is what I would expect...

WindowsForDevices.Com has a story about the operating system being used for the XBox 360. Aparently the original XBox uses a variant of windows 2000. The new version uses a variant of that - maybe. The only thing we can really be sure of is that it does not run Linux.

Photo of the Day

Music:

Thursday I will be out most of the day... I am going everywhere. I have a meeting at North Ryde. Then I need to drop in at Civinex at Sydney Olympic Park before visiting Cebit at Darling Harbour. So I will be a busy boy. Not sure if I will have wireless access anywhere - I doubt it unfortunately. We will see.

I have been doing some product testing the tracker, on what happens if it looses cell phone coverage. Unfortunately, there are times here that the tracker does not need an antenna - so I have built what is called a 'Faraday Shield'. It is what keeps the microwave signals inside your microwave oven, and is a way to make sure that signals cannot get in or out.

I have a photo of mine below. This is obviously only for testing, but it works. The phone in the tracker cannot contact a base station no matter what, which is exactly what I needed. And thankfully the software in the tracker is working outside cellphone coverage, and I can prove it now.

My hardware is under the aluminium lid, and you can just see cables coming out to the side. These are for power and GPS. The paper you can see on the right just stops the circuit board from short circuiting.


PC Mag has an article that sounds cool that is really boring on 10 things that you can use an old PC for. The most interesting is a Fishpond. One of the things that I want to do one of these days...

I thought that I had worked out how to change the oil on my car. Use the wheel ramps. Place a big sheet of cardboard under it. Use a tub for the old oil, but place a garbage bag in it to catch the oil. Wear disposable gloves. Well the last bit is where I came unstuck. I did this, and when the oil filter came off it was a bit heavier than I thought it would be. Oops. No problem, except it dropped into the old oil with a bit of a splash. So I needed to get it out.

Which would have been fine, except I then needed to fit the new one, and did the same thing with the new one. Dropping it into the old oil. Not fun. And the splash also got oil onto the cement. Degreaser fixed that. Sort of. The gloves did help keeping the oil off my hands, but they did not actually keep it off other parts of me. Next time will be better.

When I was out apart from getting birthday card for my mother I also picked up the Rob Thomas CD. Rob is the lead singer for Matchbox 20. This CD has maybe a couple of decent songs, and the rest is lacking something. None of the anthem songs of matchbox 20. None of the great lyrics. Basically this is an album based on name recognition, unfortunately. I was hoping for something great. And I got this.

I also went running around lunch time. My left ankle was feeling a bit stiff so I did not go to far, nor did I take the GPS. I did take the iPod, and I loved it. What I would like would be remote controls on the headphones to go to the next track, but I love it. The first half of the run I was holding the iPod, and the rest of it found me placing it in my pocket. Having my hands free is good whilst running. With no GPS I am not sure how far I rang, but I think it is about 3km.

My MP3 collection is getting tidier. I am down to about 5850 tracks. Well, actualy it is a few less since I have the audio CD's from the ABC series on The Olympics called 'The Games' there, and that takes up 21 tracks. I managed to get THE GAMES listed as audiobooks, and the way that this gets done is rather strange.

Firstly they needed to be imported in AAC format rather than MP3 which is what I prefer. This gives them a .M4A extension. So to get them into AudioBook format you need to change the extension to .M4B. Then just get iTunes to Synch them to the iPod. As simple as that. I will have to edit the files to give them a decent description though.

When I was thinking of getting an iPod I saw that there was a program to remotely control it from windows. Now I have one I no longer can find the program. Not that I have been looking too hard - but it is something that I am trying to find. Where I place my iPod is in a place where I have to stretch to use it. So a remote control on the desktop would be cool.

This morning I wanted to know which vehicles were closest to a particular vehicle. I realised that this is a feature that this is a feature that people will use if it is there, but not ask for it since they do not know they need it. So I have added it this morning. It did not take much time as I had most of the code already written. I have assumed that the earth is a perfect sphere to make the maths easier. This is only a problem if you care if the closest vehicle is 6,234Km away instead of 6,237Km away for instance. In most cases it does not matter.

My brother and I took my mother out for dinner tonight - Chinese. The meal was nice, just somewhere locally. It is her birthday tomorrow - I still need to get her a present. I am not sure what I will get her yet.

Talking to my brother the subject of music came up. He was telling me that Tripple-J has a new CD out called "Like a Version" which contains eclectic mixes of songs in different styles. Duncan was saying that Richard Glover on the ABC was wondering what the best new version was - and they came up with the Nine Inch Nails song 'Hurt'. This song was re-done by Johnny Cash just before he died, and was nominated for a Country Music Award.

I am not a huge fan of his, but this song has to be probably one of his best songs ever, and so far out of character, and so perfect for him. The film clip accentuated what the song was saying too. It was ideal as the final song of his career. It is one of those songs where the film clip just adds stuff to the message rather taking away from it. Not one for the permament collection, but a must see none the less.

Photo of the Day

I got a magazine from the USA today. Circuit Cellar is a fantastic magazine, and worth what I pay for it and much more. I have got work from just telling people what I read in the magazine. Anyway for the past few issues the photo below has appeared. You can look at the competition WWW site here. The question is, what is wrong with the photo? It has been photoshopped, apart from the fact that it is shot with a fisheye lens. I have found at least three spots in the photo where it has been edited. See how many you can find. I will post my results tomorrow.

I returned the FM transmitter to Tandy at lunch time - returning it was really simple and painless. I just said that the device would not work thanks to the number of radio stations in the local area running on the same frequency as the device. I am glad it was so easy - I expected some argument as it came in one of those containers that once opened could not be closed.

This morning when I was out, when I purchased the cassette adapter I wanted to use it when I got back to the car. So I asked the shop assistant if I could use her scissors to open the plastic packet. To my surprise she said yes, and commented how hard it was to open the darn things.

I spoke to Vodafone Data Support about an outgoing SMTP server. The reply came back that it is smtp.vodafone.com.au. So simple. I will try it later to make sure that this actually works, but I am sure it will. I expect to get a lot of WOW's from friends when they realize I can take my laptop anywhere that a cellphone works and get access to the net. Yeah, I know... Boys and their toys.

I have some more playing to do with GPRS... So I need to get going - more later.

Music:

iPod music on Random Play. There are 5815 songs on the iPod. I am getting rid of duplicates gradually... So things are going well

I went down to Vodafone to pick up the SIM card. That was a bit of a painful experience. Their IT systems were running slowly thanks to RemoteDesktop being slow. Their phones were running with about a 10 second delay too aparently. Not what you want to hear I would guess - and it makes it hard to have conversations. ARGH. Anyway, after too long I got the SIM card from them.

I connected the PCMCIA card up and it worked as soon as I entered the Vodafone APN and installed the software. It could not have been easier. Well, slightly easier since it needed to upgrade the firmware in the modem but that is all. It worked really well. The only thing I need to set up now is a proxy for outgoing mail... Time to see how good Vodafone Support is...

My home internet is playing up - As far as I can tell it is only the WebProxy on my ISP that seems to have died. I can surf the internet by Logging into a Server in Albury and doing things from there. This is not really the right way to do things, but it does work. I have posted this Post from a computer in Albury... Fun...

I tried out the transmitter for the iPod. It will be going back. When I tried to use it I found that there are three radio stations on three of the channels, and on the remaining channel there are two stations in the far distance. This did mean that the unit will not actually work. So I went to The Warehouse on the way to Vodafone, and I picked up a Cassette adapter, and it works well. I finally have a use for the cassette player in my car - my car came with it and CD, and this is the first time I have used CD.

An update on the album art program. It is looking great. I did not realise you could select all your tracks and say 'Search for Album Covers and Update'. This worked fairly well. I am doing this in the background as we speak.... So much easier than going through album at a tune. Right now it is up to Kylie Minogue with Light Years.

I am about to go down to a Vodafone store to get a GPRS SIM card... It is useful for me when I am out and about to have access to mobile data.... So I am finally doing it. It is not too expensive, and I will see how long I go with them. Their coverage can be good or bad depending on where you are. This will also be a chance to try my MP3 plater out with the FM transmitter... and the new tracking unit out too.

The only way I can sign up to this is through the Vodafone store. I find that this is strange, but I guess that is just how they work things. I will then need to get my server set up so that the laptop can send mail from out on the road...

Music:

Lots and Lots... I have an iPOD!

Updating Album Art in iTunes can be a pain. But there is an answer. It is iTunes Art Importer from YVG Software Services. This is freeware, and works really well. Except that it crashes if your music files are set to be read only. Once I worked that one out things worked well. This program searches Amazon.Com for Album Art, and gives you a selection of possible matches. So far all the first choices have been correct.

It does not pick up on some obscure Australian stuff, but Amazon.Com does not know anything about them. The software could be more stable too, I think. But generally it works really well. Why it takes three minutes to search for Mariah Carey with 'Butterfly' I dont know, neither do I know why it returned about 100 entries. But this software does work well which is all that really matters. And the most serious mistake is switching Led Zepelin and Christine Anu... Don't Ask...

So, how does the software work? Well, PeachPit has an article on how to program iTunes. I have also found This software which allows me to add a 'Now Playing' to my WWW site... Something to look at later.

Dinner was good... It was at the local RSL club - I had not been there in years. Dinner for three of us was only $20. This is really good value. There are a huge number of poker machines there now - far more than were ever there in the past - and they seem to be pulling a lot of money in. And this must be doing horrible things for the local economy.

Photo of the Day

This is not a photo, and is not a photo of mine. It is from a picture site, and took 500 hours in microsoft paint. I think that this is an amazing effort. It is a picture of venice. It really is simply amazing.

Music:

The iPod is really cool. I am getting all the albums updated with graphics. I guess I am about 75% there... I was going to get the iPod running with the FM transmitter in the car this evening but we did not end up going as far from home as I thought we might.

Anyway time to watch Crossing Jordan and update the iPod.

I have just spoken to a colleague in Ettamonga... He is driving up to Sydney, and I would guess he will be up here about 8PM or so. But I knew where he was before I rang him - he had GPS tracking on his car, and I was tracking him. Actually they are now in MULLENGANDRA, which is north of Lake Hume north of Albury.

I will be meeting him for dinner on the way through, and so he said to give me a ring when he got nearby. This is a completely ludicrous thing to say, or would be without the GPS tracking. And he is allowing me to see the position of the car of course. Otherwise it would be a complete lack of privacy.

Sometimes I hate having a conscience... A friend wanted to get me to do a PCB for a friend of his fathers. This would have been fine - and at least a days work at consultancy rates. But when I looked at it I worked out that you can buy a circuit for $50 that does exactly what this one does. And you cannot build it for that price in low quantities either. It would have been a nice payday, but I could not justify doing the work at that sort of price.

I picked up a cheap Belkin FM transmitter for my iPod at lunch time for my car. It will work until I get a docking station for the car. Have I said that I love my iPod? I just think that it is so cute...

I have a few things to do today and I am running a bit behind. My desk has piles of stuff on it, and lots of to-do lists... Hmm. Too much to do. Too little time. I have a PCB to design, some software to modify, some software to write, phone calls to receieve. All the normal sort of things.

So far today I have had about three phone calls, with the first just before 8:00 from a client telling me that he could not get to my server.... Which turned out to be on his end. Then there was a phone call from New Caledonia (and I asked... The weather has been horrible lately... Raining for months). This involved me telling the guy from New Caledonia what I knew of French Telecom - an organisation that makes Telstra look positively client focused.

Then another of the clients rang wanting to suggest some modifications to the software that I am writing for them. Not bad, but I thought I was finished weeks back on this... And then during the phone call to New Caledonia I got a phone call from a friend on my other phone wanting to know if it was OK to come over and get my help with windows programming... All in all a hectic day...

Photo of the Day

Music:

A collection of links. Firstly, there is a story in the SMH about how the government is approving building and upgrading some power stations. One of the plans is to upgrade capacity using Gas Turbines. Interesting. Mostly because these are going to be similar to the Gas Turbines sold off as surplus about 10 years back. The major upgrade is to be done to Mt Piper Power Station. I was responsible for handing the drawings for Mt Piper over to Delta Electricity when I was working for Pacific Power.

But most interesting is the announcement that there would be three stations in the 'Hunter Valley' upgraded. Well, on page 4 of the SMH it showed the location of these on a graphic, on the central coast. Maybe the SMH should employ a fact checker.

Something else that is cute is This add-on for an alarm system. I have to build one when I get some time. Not sure when that will be though.


This is an MIT project designed to detect the wearer's movements and adjust to it. The green with the red looks sort of cute.

And also a story here about how the Stanfard Linear Accelerator is being used to read a parchment of Archimedes.

iPod Stuff

As mentioned in another post I now have an iPod Photo. I ended up getting the 40 GByte model. I did not even known that this one existed until I went to the store. I was intending to get the 30 GByte model, with a free FM transmitter worth $80. But I decided to go for the 40 GByte version without the transmitter for $50. I think the extra 10 GBytes will be useful, either as a HDD or extra MP3 storage. I am using about 22 GBytes for MP3's.

I asked about an extended warranty at Grace Bros MegaMart (Ok. Just MegaMart, but I like the old name). They offered a total of three years for $42 or five years for $92. I went for the three years, and this is cheaper than the Apple one at $99 to extend it to two years.

One thing I have found about iTunes is that it really does not want to run with the files over a network on a server. It is not set up for it. Syncing to the iPod takes a while to start - something like 10-20 minutes. And whilst it is preparing to start it does not say a thing about it working, preparing to do stuff.

The Timezone setting in the iPod is stupid - Given that Sydney and Melbourne are the most populous centres in Australia. The iPod decides that the timezone is Brisbane. Actually there is another setting - Brisbane Daylight Saving Time - which is great since there is no such thing as Daylight Saving in Queensland.

In 'Shuffle' which is 'Random Play' more the HDD does power up for every song. This is stupid. What should happen is that the HDD downloads a number of songs if it is in Shuffle mode, and then powers back down. Another minor point - the Apple WWW site says that the 30 GByte iPod is 16mm thick, and the 60 GByte is 19mm thick. Strangely my iPod is 20mm thick. The width is also out by 1mm. The height is accurate though

Getting the iPod synchronised took longer than I had hoped. It took well over an hour. I have also not found anywhere in the iTunes software to force it to check the catalog to make sure that all the files are still there, and to see if there are new ones.

The other thing is that the version of the iPod driver I downloaded from the Apple WWW site was out of date for some reason. I needed to download a version from another WWW site to get the right version.

I have spent some time when I need a break adding album art to songs. Mostly this involves searching the the graphic on Amazon and adding it with iTunes. Then synchronizing with the iPod later.

Music:

Well this entire entry is on music... But right now I am listening to Dido's Take My Hand. I love this song... I love the words... "...What you feel is what I feel for you...".

I have just got home from Richard's... Which is why there have been no entries today until now. I have only just got home, and it is now 9:10PM or so. I also got up late this morning and did not get a chance to write anything before going over there.

I will write a lot more about my iPod a little later, but basically I love it. It is cool, and it is a great thing to have. It will be better when I have a device so I can use it in my car. But more soon.

At richards we mostly worked on the bulkhead in the fuselage that is directly between the wings. I mean, this is the bulkhead which the wings bolt onto, and holds them to the rest of the plane, so I guess they are a bit important. I was on my back at a time with a lump of metal in my hand whilst richard was above with a rivet hammer backing the rivets. This was actually enjoyable. We also worked on the front firewall but that was not as successful, since we managed to destroy three brackets that we made up... And we only need two. Richard will be getting some more material and we will try again soon.

All in all the plane is going together nicely, albeit slowly. After working on the plane we went out for a birthday dinner, along with Michelle, Richards wife. We went to an Italian place in Baulkham Hills, and I can say that the Lasagne was fantastic.

Anyway that is enough from me for the moment. I will post more soon...

Tomorrow I will be helping Richard with the plane so that we can paint some parts the following weekend. Well, maybe painting the following weekend... We will see...

Last night there was not much on TV, but flicking around the Channels I found that National Geographic Channel had a documentry on H.G. Wells. I know that all documentries make the person they are talking about sound like the most important person of their time, but H.G. Wells certainly did from the description of him. They portrayed him as a persom who came up with the very idea of Science Fiction, placing him in a league by himself.

Whilst growing up I can remember watching a Dr Who episode - now, I was not a great fan - my brother was the fan. Anyway they had this series of about four or five episodes where the Doctor met this character from the end of the 19th century called Herbert George, and showed him the future, and time travel and the like. The doctor's companion at the time was concerned that he had seen all this strange stuff - and the doctor commented that maybe it was meant to happen. And at the end Herbert George gives the Doctor his Business Card, and it then makes sense to the assistant - the card reads "H.G.Wells. Writer"

Music:

I got the iPod... A lot more later

I don't believe it... It is now four months since 'The Split' and it has both gone very quickly and also slowly. Lots of soul searching and thinking. I do miss being in a relationship, but I have definitely moved on - and I feel that I am ready to enter into another relationship when the right person comes along. Who ever and whenever that happens to be. Only time will tell.

Overnight I had a couple of interesting queries with my business. I had a person in Russia enquiring about some hardware and firmware I designed a couple of years back. Unfortunately, I worked out that there is not really the market for this product so I have never placed it into production. I actually 'Open Sourced' the design with the perviso that any commercial use must be licensed.

I also had a query for licensing some of my software in Estonia. I think that this the right country - Much of eastern europe is a mystery to me unfortunately. I know that the Internet Country Code is ES, which has been assigned by the United Nations.

One of my other clients has asked for a 'Site License' cost for some of my software. I need to think about how to price it. And if I do it on a per desktop, or on a per site or per concurrent user basis. So many options. I have an idea on how much it will be but I need to think some more about this.

Music:

Real McCoy with Sleeping With An Angel. Not sure where I came across this Gem, but I love it... It is not really the kind of song I would associate with Real McCoy

I just had a Skype call from my friend Kevin Crossley in New Zealand. He had just had a 'Darryl Smith' from Miami send him a message wanting to be authorised for SKYPE. So he gave me a call wondering what I was doing in Miami. It was not me... It was the guy who owns the site 24p-cinema.com. Kevin does not know who it is, but he now knows that it is not me.

You can read more about Kevin on This site, and also his CD - Ivory Impressions. One of his tracks also appears on New Age V and also other CD's. Kevin also let me know that he will be coming through Sydney in the next few weeks on the way to the USA so I will probably catch up with him then.

When my engagement broke down in January, I stayed with Kevin and his wife on their property just north of Auckland. And I also stayed a night there at the beginning of my world trip in september last year too.

Photo of the Day

Music:

I have basically decided to get an iPod. When I get it is unsure at the moment. I might go over to MegaMart tomorrow and grab one. The one thing that I MUST get is the extended warranty. I hate those things by design, but in the case of an iPod I think it is essential. I am not sure if MegaMart has their own warranty program that might be even better than the Apple one... The Apple one is $99 for the extra year of Hardware which is probably worth it.

The reports I have seen suggest that it is probably better to hold the iPod than have it on the belt. This is what I suspected anyway - and what I do with a GPS and the FM radio at the moment - so I dont think that this will be an issue.

The comments suggest it is better to play an album than random play since the album is queued into RAM whilst on Random Play it is not. The device should be able to work out it is in Random Play mode and cache the next few songs into memory anyway, randomly. That is what I would do if I was designing the iPod.

In terms of software, I have found this utility that allows me to control an iPod from a PC. Sort of cool I think... Not sure how useful it is if I have iTunes open next to it...

I found a strang story on The Age WWW site, about how someone switched the cocaine used to train sniffer dogs in Victotia for talcum poweder. The report suggests that drug dealers might not need to worry too much about dogs at the moment, but that babies are fairly safe if they go missing.

Music:

Deadstar with 'Deeper Water'. It has been a while since I have heard this song. Cool really. In the background I am MP3'ing a few of my CD's. They have dodgy TAG information encoded in them, and no album art. So the easiest way to fix that is to re-encode them. The hardest part is finding the CD's in my archive. And putting them back after RIPing.

There are continuing to be tweaks of my tracker software - little things every now and then. Just changing the usability of what happens when. What happens is something happens when there is no GPS coverage. That type of thing. I need to think about what should happen.

In the case of a Panic Alarm if there is no GPS coverage, I think it should send the alarm without GPS, and then send the alarm again with GPS when the coverage is there, with an updated status of the alarm. That is, if the panic alarm is still pressed, it says so. And if it is unpressed then say this too. In effect, it is 99.99% likely that the status will be the same as the last one that was sent anyway. The only reason that they would be different is if the GPS lock happens as soon as the status changes.

The more I think about it the more I am certain that I want an iPod. I think they are so cute, and so much of a useful device. I just want to make sure I get the best deal for buying one. There does not seem to be much price difference between retailers. Grace Bros MegaMart does have the iPod Photo with a free FM transmitter worth $80 so that might be what I get. I have until May 30 to get that deal so I do not need to race out right now either. Besides which I have a friend here, and I am helping him with some work right now...

Music:

I found the following quote by Chris Martin, musician with Coldplay, on the delay of their latest record affecting EMI's share price... "I think shareholders are the great evil of this modern world."

I just got off a conference call to the USA. I ended up being on the phone for a touch over two hours. This is one of two board meetings a year that actually takes place, with a mailing list used for the rest of the time. It was a call with TAPR, a wireless non-profit R&D organization that has proved that many technologies used today in the wireless world actually do work.

They asked me what sort of Pizza they needed to order for me, but found out that Sydney was not in their normal delivery area. And I was so looking forward to having some.

The call was interesting, although I cannot say much about it. One thing that I did hear an update on was SuitSat - the Satellite in the SpaceSuit that I have spoken about here before. This is almost complete, although I am not sure when it will be 'Lauched'. The satellite is being launched to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Bauman Technical University in Rusia.

My software for the tracker is getting closer - I made a very small change this morning. It was adding a position report when it connected to the network. But I worked out that this was not really needed since it was already sending enough information back since it had to need to send a position. Small change, but important.

I am feeling a sense of acomplishment about the tracking unit - getting the hardware and software to this stage has been a hard slog, but it is there. Anyway that is enough of a break from work - time to do some more work...

I woke up a bit later than normal this morning. Not that I am complaining - I had a phone call to a friend of mine from Canberra for about an hour, getting off the phone about midnight. We have been trying to catch up for ages, but he and his wife have been all over the place. Very interesting conversation... He is plannig to come up to Sydney real soon now, so we are planning to meet up. He suggested I have a look at the FireFly series on DVD... It is SciFi but quirky - I might wait until I get a bad cold and am restricted to bed to see it given the series is about 12 hours long...

When I checked my Email this morning, I found out that I have a board meeting to attend in the USA... It is scheduled for Thursday night their time, in Dayton Ohio, which means it is about 9:00am my time. I will see how it goes with attending.

Not of very much use to most people is this train simulator. I think it is a hardware plugin for the microsoft train simulator that also has hardware controls, just like the controls for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Also on the Microsoft front, it looks like they are introducing a version of WindowsXP that will work on computers running Windows 95 and Windows 98. I somehow do not think that this will really catch on. Come to think of it I only know one person running 95, and one person running Windows 98.

Photo of the Day

This is an easle I made a few years back from Australian Pine for friends that were going to Kenya with work. I found it with some other photos, and it looks far more stirdy than any other ones you can buy...

Music:

I looked at iTunes last night, and it found some files that were unplayable thanks to the file names being corrupt. So I fixed those and it is working better... I need to get some tags included in some of my MP3's now to get them to apear correctly in iTunes.

I don't believe it... My code is behaving itself - the code for the new hardware. The hardware is mostly behaving itself. The important functions are working. I need to do more testing, but there is little stopping it from running. I need to take some drives with the hardware to test it more, and see how it works in real life. But from what I have seen it is working well. I have made some minor changes, a few lines here and there today, but overall it is what I would call stable.

It basically has all the functions I need, and it is working well. My manual is looking good - It needs more words to describe things, but it is getting there as I mentioned earlier.

I am going over to Richard's probably on Sunday to work on the fuselage for the plane. With some luck we should get enough of it done so that we can paint it the following weekend. Never know... I might even get some birthday cake...

Photo of the Day

I have been doing other stuff apart from work - tidying up and the like. And I came across this photo from a few years back. Well, more than a few years back. As you might have guessed, that is me. Not quite sure how old I was but I know I was very young...

Music:

Dido with "Mary's in India".

I need to remember to speak with a canadian accent today. I am working on a PC in my soon to be distributors office today... So I need to make sure that I get the accent correct, and type any documents up in french and english, which will be a minor problem since I know almost no french, having not touched the lanuage since I was in year 8 at high school. In other words I know the words Merci and Bonjour, and that is about it.

I have been busy working on my tracking hardware and software today. Thankfully things are going really well. The software is not getting many changes and is fairly close to being production quality. One of the cute features is being able to update settings on the server and have them upload to the unit when it next connects. This is amazing. The base product only needs enough settings to contact the server, and from there they agree on what they need to do.

My technical manual for the product is now 17 pages long. It does need a lot more work, but it is close. It is a document that I am referring to all the time, so I guess that means that it is useful. Some of this document describing things that I know in great deatil to people who have no idea what I am talking about without going and confusing them. That is the challenge.

I just found a Story about a trial of technology in Los Angeles to track prisoners and other people on one of their 'Correctional Institutions'.

Music:

INXS with Beautiful Girl. It starts with a beautiful Piano 'solo', followed by a ballard style singing by Michael Hutchence. Another cool song is Private Emotion by Ricky Martin from the Album 'Livin La Vida Loca'.

When I woke up this morning I found that my computer had rebooted. I HATE that - it was windows update that had caused it to happen. There is a solution to this that involves changing a registry entry. This will stop Windows automatically rebooting my computer if I am not here to tell it not to.

Sometimes the MP3 Jukebox plays so well. Other times I find that it really does not suit what I am looking for... I just pressed the Next Track button about 20 times I would guess... Right now I am not totally happy with the track that is on, but it was better than the previous ones. Not that there was anything wrong with them, just that I did not want to listen to them right now. So right now I am listening to a track from the 'Toys' soundtrack, a movie featuring Joan Cusak and Robin Williams. Now it is Missy Higgins with 'The Special Two'

I saw This site and thought it was cute - a battery for the Mac Mini. It is great if you need to build an embedded system where the power supply is not all that great - such as to control a piece of equipment that must keep running. Cute.

Anyway it is breakfast time... More soon...

You know, things would be better if I could count... Despite what I would like, numbers do not normally go
0, 1, 3, 4
And, yes, I did try to count that way a little while back. Needless to say the program did not quite work as desired. Still, it was easy to fix. I just wish I knew how I made such a stupid mistake?

I was just listening to the MP3's and I came across 'Father And Son' from the Celtic Chillout Album... I picked the CD up in London, and I had not listened to all of it. So I found this version of the Cat Stevens song. I don't think it is as good as the new version of the song with Cat Stevens and Ronan Keating. I need to get a copy of it at some stage.

I am trying to debug a problem with some software that I have written... The only person who has the problem is running Windows 98 SE - and I cannot seem to reproduce the problem. I was on SKYPE for about half an hour this afternoon with him and we could not find any solution... So I installed Virtual PC on a laptop, and then installed Windows98 on the VirtualPC. And there was an error thankfully when I ran the software. And thankfully it gave some more information than I was getting from my client. Microsoft has a Knowledgebase Article on the subject - 829558. Searching for it I found a patch that helped.

Bubble House For Sale

I think this is a bit dated and also a bit expensive but it is an interesting piece of architecture anyway. Far too expensive too at about US$3m, but sort of cool.

Music:

Just after I posted the other Blog entry Dido's song 'Dont think of Me' came up. How cool is that with randomness. Now is Bryan Adams with 'Heaven'. Such a classic song - and how can you beat the lyrics of "Baby you are all that I want, when you are lying here in my arms, I am finding it hard to believe, we're in heaven. And Love is all that I need, and I found it there in your heart, it isn't too hard to see, we're in heaven". What more can be said - except that I miss feeling that way.

Photo

My mother is taking my grandmother's ashes back to Broken Hill in about a week, with some other things. She is taking a photo of my grandparents getting a major award back there too, so she asked me to scan the photo - which apears below.

This morning I have done some coding - not much actually. I have been doing more thinking about how to test the tracker, and make sure that all the functions are included. Most are, but there are a few that I have missed out. Just thinking about things seems to work fairly well to search for what I need to add.

One of the tasks is to document things - an instruction manual. Not even to the how to fit the device - more of the capabilities and the configutation paramaters, and even the protocol on how it talks to the real world. I should have the code finished today, apart from some bug fixes and testing.

Unfortunately I need to come up with a test plan of some type - this is an important product and it needs to be correct. The manual is now up to 11 pages, although there is much in it that I will not keep in the final version. In fact it will soon contain all the circuit diagrams and designs so that everything is together, making it more a Technical Description rather than a users manual. Anyway I had better get back to work, and also grab some lunch...

Music:

Dido's great song 'This Land Is Mine' came up on Random Play. Fantastic. I am playing Coldplay in the car right now... Cool.

Right now I am waiting for a server to be rebooted... After a few months it was starting to have a few issues... When it refused to start a 'Service' that I had just uploaded I knew it was needing a reboot. Well, I just found the problem - or one of them. My fault. When I had compiled the Service, I had put it into debug mode, which would not run as a service on the server. Recompile after a minor change and it works.

But the server still needs a reboot and I cannot get it to start that process. There is a crashed copy of Telnet still running, and I have not been able to kill it - it is there but not there - I am not sure why or how. This just should not happen - but it has.

I have been testing the software and hardware, and strange things would happen. The software would work, and then after it connected the first time to my server, it would then connect to a different server from then on... Then I looked carefully at what it was going. The server was sending it new setting when it connected - and I had forgotten about that. Good. That part of the product is 'accidently' tested.

I think it is now time for breakfast... My tummy is starting to grumble, and some time away from a keyboard would probably be good too...

Music:

I need to get a copy of 'Forever Young' aparently by 'Alphaville' which I think I love... Also searching for the performer of that song I found another album that sounds at least interesting - the Best Of Rod Steward... mainly for the song Young Turks, but also Rhythm of My Heart.

Sometimes I have a whole lot of emails when I come in - some times I have almost none. This morning I had one from a PhD student in Athens, Georga, USA wanting some assistance with some of my software. I really could not help him much - I think he wants to track ocean currents from the questions he was asking... I also had an email from Canada with details of a machine I need to log into in order to do some research on a new product..

My poor tracker has been going everywhere... Thanks to some software issues I have had it visiting South America, the coat off africa as well as Sydney... All in the space of a few minutes. Well, I have fixed that problem thankfully...

I am playing with a Trimble Lassen GPS receiver. This is not a bad GPS. I have worked with better ones. It has two outputs by default, one running Trimble's own protocol, and the other running NMEA. I have programmed it to output GPRMC, which is a common GPS output.

The strange thing that happens is that if the GPS loses lock, and regains it, then the speed data is incorrect. I just had the GPS tell me that the speed of the house was a touch over 200 knots, or close to 400 km/h. This is for your normal brick home in Sydney.

I still have not heard from my father. I guess I will hear from him today... I hope... We will see how it goes.

So far I have missed out on one birthday tradition - I have missed out on any birthday cake. Some cake would be nice - MUD CAKE with some cream. YUM. I just love MUD CAKE so much. One day I will post about Pacific Power and Mud Cakes - there is a good story there... One Day. I have been invited to stay a few days with a Pacific Power friend on the Central Coast... With some persuasion I am sure they would love to give me a cake.

I have also yet to speak to my father. I am a bit dissapointed about that - I would have liked to have spoken to him yesterday. I think he is in Thailand, but I am not quite sure. I could call his mobile, but I will wait for him to ring. I think he gets back in the country tomorrow. I have also not heard from my grandmother. Given the condition she is in I am unfortunately not surprised.

Today I have been thinking about how I will write some software modifications - and not doing much of it... It was a task I really did not want to look at since I knew it would get messy... Well, just before dinner I actually implemented it. Took a lot less time than I had thought - and now I just need to debug the code. Most of the code has already been tested - I took the hardware on a 1500 km drive a few weeks back and it worked fairly well... By 'took' I mean I simulated it all.

Anyway I have some testing to do before putting the computer away for the night...

Photo of the Day

Music:

Right now I am feeling a tiny bit tired. This is probably my bodies way of telling me that it really does not like exercise. Before I had lunch I had a phone call from a friend. He was coming over to get some help from me with programming, and I mentioned that I had better have a run before he arrived. His comment was 'You?' I had told him in the past that I was running, but he did not really believe me.

Anyway I am wondering if getting tired after running is a symptom of running - where the body reacts to the re-distributing of stored energy by inducing tiredness. Not sure. Maybe I am just getting old :-)

I certainly do not feel any older now that I have had my birthday. Not at all. If anything I feel younger, and healthier with all this running and exercise.


According to this story in the Daily Telegraph, a persons handwriting is an insight into their soul. There is little detail in the article as probably this is quite a complex subject.

Music:

I have not had much of a chance to listen to much music this afternoon thanks to the number of calls I have had. I love the headset... It really helps and allows me to type whilst I am speaking to people. But listening to music does not all that well thanks to being hard to listen to the music at a level which I can hear the people talking.

It is raining right now - I know this since I got caught in it - and got well and truely soaked. I was out running, and I did not think that the rain would come. It started about 1km from home, and I did not really want to be caught in it as the wind was blowing and I do not want to get a cold.

Anyway I proceeded home rather than continue with the run. I ended up running a respectable 4.8 KM averaging about 9.3KM/H. This is slightly faster than before thanks to the rain and the fact that I did not want to freeze to death. To tell the truth I was not quite soacked but I was fairly wet.

I could produce the GPS plot and add it here but there is not much to show. To tell the truth I was a bit disapointed with my running performance. I did not doo too bad, but I am hoping to get close to the 7 km mark. We will see how I go over the coming weeks.

Following the run I grabbed some lunch and then there was a collection of phone calls. I think there were about four or five in turn. Bssically no calls for the previous day and a half, and then all at once. Just happens that way I guess... Anyway I have some work to do so I had better get going

If you are into computer comics - and I am not usually - this is a good one - talking about a Linux version of Monopoly. This one was linked to from the GrokLaw site.

There is a story on ZDnet asking about foods that should not be placed near computers. Back in Pacific Power, some of the staff were given rather expensive VAX terminals to use. These cost about six months wages at the time... With 21" screens for CAD work. Anyway according to a former workmate, one of these terminals stopped working. The keyboard was beeping as if there was a stuck key.

Well, the desk looked immaculate... But the normal thing is to make sure that no paperclips had got stuck in the keyboard. This would have been fine except when he picked it up and turned it over out poured HOT Ministrone soup. The owner of the keyboard had only reported to the help desk that her keyboard was not working. And had cleaned up all visual clues to any problem...

From a Blog comes this story about an IT guy who is given a chance to fly on the Enron jet just before they go bust. This links to a story about a Network Operations Centre built in a former hotel that is 30 stories high containing servers from many many companies, and full of servers.

And the latest thing for the office building are these handles that change colour depending on if they are locked or unlocked. Cute idea for places like your bosses office, and converence rooms. I think they are a bit too much for my tastes though...

Music:

Just Lots of Random Play... I really want that iPod...

My birthday has been good overall. I would have liked to have shared it with someone special, but it has been good none the less. And I got some presents!!! And I guess some more will be coming later.

My brother gave me a copy of Bill Bryson's book 'A short History of Nearly Everything'. The book looks cool, even if it is the sort that seems to be sold at airports everywhere. If you have not read any of his other books I would advise you to read them. Start with his book on Australia and see if you can put it down. I have a friend in the USA who just loves to quote Bill Bryson... And shares his view of this country.

For some reason I have started at Chapter 14... Seemed a nice place to start. Anyway, I love a quote from Bryson, talking about the location of a visitors centre, and described it by saying "It's slightly in the middle of nowhere". Such cool imagery.

I also got a copy of Audrey Hepburn's Roman Holiday from my mother. Since I have been there she thought it might be a sort of a Holiday Video for me. Alas, no romance for me in Rome when I was there in September... Mum is going to give me something else - I am not sure what yet. That is all the presents at the moment. My father is planning to ring soon. I will probably be going out to dinner with Richard and Michelle sometime this weekend to celebrate.

Dinner at Sizzler's was good... A great time catching up, and the food was good too, although Sizzler has come down a notch in the last few years. It was also a good chance to test the tracking unit. The new software modifications worked a treat. As mentioned I have a whole bunch of mods to make. The first of them seem to be working.

Anyway I think I am going to go to bed and read some of the book

The more I look at the iPod the more I want one. It looks really cool, and given that some people have installed Linux on it makes it even better. Definitely will be looking at getting one

The Music playing right now is 'Jupiter' from the 'Open Space CD'. This is a jazzed up version of the music by Holst, that was aparently used for the Rugby World Cup in Sydney. There is a version of the music by GUSTAV HOLST on the ABC CD 'The Rise and Rise of Australian Rugby, although I am not sure what version this is. The full name of the track is "Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity". The version from 'Open Space' is definitely not the 'classic' version with drums and other percussion in the background.

Looking at the SMH, the Rugby version has been made into an Anthem called 'The world in union'. A subset of the lyrics are below. More details can be found here
Gathering together
One mind, one heart
Every creed, every colour
Once joined, never part
It's the word in union
The world as one
As we climb to reach our destiny
A new age has begun.

I received an email from my father wishing me a happy birthday... He let me know he was going to ring me this evening at some stage. It will be good to hear from him - when he gets back I really need to get over to see him too.

I took the oportunity to go over to Eastgardens to test my new PCB. As you can see from the screendump below, things seemed to work. There is a lot more work to do on it, but things are certainly looking good. There are a couple of minor bugs that I need to fix, but most of the other things are basically enhancements to the existing software.

So I am happy. Things are working... I had better get back to it - this really does need to be finished ASAP.

I have just got back from visiting a friend. I went over to program a radio for one of my clients. Unfortunately the radio refused to program. I was doing this as a freebie, so I don't feel too bad about not being able to program the radio. My friend did have something else for me though - something more interesting.

He needed to visit the airport and solve a communications problem for one of the cariers. They had a mobile radio issue, and my friend wants me to be able to take care of this customer whilst he is away next month. So I got to meet some of the cariers staff and got to spend some time in their operations control room.

This was really interesting, and showed another side to the airline industry - the side that the general public does not normally see. It was also strange going to the airport to do some work rather than go somewhere - and seeing all the other people there who were actually going somewhere. Well worthwhile. My friend asked me if I wanted to spend a day in Melbourne to see the setup down there - and said that I could stay a bit longer down there if I wanted. Sounds fun.

Anyway, more later.. Right now my mouth is a bit numb - I had Thai for lunch and they are continuing to make it hotter for me...

I just got my first Happy Birthday message - an SMS from a business colleague. I guess I will get some more as the day goes on. Oh, and I just had a call from my brother organizing tonight. Sizzler's or Lone Stare probably. We were talking about iPod's... I had not checked out the prices recently. I have a couple of Gift Vouchers that will go much of the way to buying myself an iPod... Unfortunately they are with different stores. Argh. The other thing is that I will ask my friend who I am seeing this morning what price he can get it for me. I think he might be a dealer for Apple too.

I found a cute feature in MSN messenger a few days ago. One of the things that I hated about the product is all the advertising it comes up with when it starts. You can actually turn the extra page of information off by using Tools | Options. Microsoft don't want you to turn it off obviously since they get less advertising revenue, but you can turn it off. You cannot turn off all those extra tabs as far as I can tell though.... You cannot have everything unfortunately.

My new little tracker is working well... Just getting used to all the features and how it is working... And it is working well... I will take it for a test drive later... Over to Eastgardens...

And finally, my father's maths teacher from High School died according to the SMH. Anyone who has done 4 Unit maths would know the Coroneos Text Books... Jim Coroneos has died. I think they are for other subjects too, but this is why I know of him...

Happy Birthday...

It is my birthday today... So happy birthday to me... I expect a fairly quiet day today... Visiting a friend this morning, A friend is coming over this afternoon to do some work, and this evening I am going out to dinner... And I expect to get a few phone calls and emails during the day... None yet though...

News.Com.Au has a story about the Big Island of Hawaii, and why it is a must visit. Having been there myself I agree. I would love to go back at some stage... It is so relaxing... Even with the stresses of work.

SlashDot has a story about the NetDimes which is attempting to study the structure and topology of the internet. They produce some nice pictures and reports, although their site is difficult to navigate to find them.

Music:

One album I need to get is the new one by Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20. I did mean to get it on friday but I forgot... I got some others instead. Frankly I did not feel like paying $22.95 at HMV when I could get it at $18.84 at K-Mart...

This weekend was not as successful with getting things up and running as I had hoped, but things generally are never like that anyway. That is just the nature of the business... Always problems to fix. Right now I am working on debugging some GPRS code. This is stuff that I thought that I had completed a few weeks back, but obviously I had not. I still had some CDMA code in the GPRS part. I got it working, but not fully tested.

Minor stupid things that I have missed... Like the fact that the format of what gets returned by different modems is slightly different, and not checking for these differences. Still that is working now so I am working on getting other things working, and looking pretty.

Anyway it is now bed time... Good Night All.

Junkyard wars just had the final - and their task was something that was close to my heart - they needed to build rockets to bring a large egg back to earth. Unfortunately they were provided with rocket motors so they whole thing was not as hard as it could have been for them. The winner used three smaller motors with a very thing rocket.

This is the sort of thing that I would love to try one day - although I would want to get a bit higher than the 1000 feet or so that these rockets got to. Getting something into Orbit would be more fun - but I am not sure how realistic that goal is. I suspect that using satellites will be my limit rather than actually building one.

Anyway I will keep this entry short... I have some things I need to get done for tomorrow morning, and I would prefer not to do too much work on my birthday.

I am not sure how much this costs, but I think this is really cool. Sort of retro art with functionality. Maybe I will add this to the things I will buy one of these days. On a nice wodden base I think this would be really cool on a mantelpiece.


From a fairly small mailing list comes this link. Basically the somewhat crazy ex-pat is offering to take action figures on a 12 day tour of Italy, and provide photos and postcards. Really good laugh - for the person who has everything. Not for me though.

Another strange site is This one that tells you how to build your own Soft Drink machine for your home. Not sure if I ever want to build one, (or even if it would be a good idea to build one), but it is a cool concept none the less. When I build a house one day it might be an interesting addition to the kitchen - with some limits to stop too much softdrink being drunk.

Not sure what exactly I will be doing tomorrow. Probably visiting a friend at Eastgardens for a little while in the morning. I missed him on friday... Then I will probably be having a friend coming over monday afternoon, and dinner with my mother and father in the evening...

Finally some personal stuff... I have just got back from a run - so here I am sitting down and waiting to cool down a bit - with some mineral water next to me to re-hydrate. Once I finish this entry I will have cooled down and I can have a shower. I only did 3.75km in about 25 minutes. This is about my normal speed but I just did not feel like trying to do more distance. I did sprint for the final few hundred meters which is probably why I am a bit exhausted right now. In addition to feeling a bit exhausted, it was also starting to rain. Enough reasons to stop...

I have been needing to do some work with a Trimble GPS. Now, these devices are not the easiest in the world to deal with. Trimble does not like to distribute their configuration programs unless you buy a developers kit which is almost no use and quite expensive. But the developers kit comes with a cable to program the GPS units from their default settings. This would be fine except that the connector is so small and it runs from 3.3v.

So I needed to do microsurgery to make up an interface cable. Personally I think that the real cable will be worth it in production, but I needed to test this today so that we can get production started tomorrow. To cut a long story short, my cable works.

I have included a photo here, but it really does not show the effort required to make up the cable... Anyway that is it - time for a shower.

Something a bit different.. At least from todays stuff... Here are a collection of links for various things

Firstly, there is a story in The Age about an iPod that exploded when it was put throgh the wash by a childs mother, and then the child started to open it. Without the extensive instructions on how to do this safely, it is not a good idea. The iPod was not designed to be opened.

Next, CNN has a story about the top 30 airports in the world. Sydney International is in the top 10 again... At number 10. It came in at that spot for both the airport in general, and for the Qantas Business Class lounge.

Engadget has a story on GPS enabled tours. Basically self-guided tours with a PDA telling about important things at each spot along the journey.

In terms of information management, one of my friends has suggested I have a look at the Omea software to bring together email, blogs, Instant Messaging and anything else you can think of. Looks cool.

I was speaking to my friend in Auckland on Skype this evening... His horse trailer is almost finished. Finally. Actually I suspect that it is one of those projects that is never finished... Cool really...

Things are finally starting to work. Some of the problems I have been having have to do with the prototype being different from the production board. I changed some things around, for no good reason and this has been causing me some issues. Not every thing was changed for no reason. Some thing were changed for a reason, and this is also giving me some issues.

One of the issues was that I was listening on Serial Port A, and the data was now being receieved on Serial Port D. This took a while to locate. I am still finding all the issues like that but I am happy with how it is going now. I know this all sounds really boring, and to a certain extent it is. Unfortunately it is what I have to work on right now.

IT WORKS!!! IT IS ALIVE!

I just got it to connect for the first time. This is a momentous event. It has taken a lot of work, and money and resources but it is now working. Unfortunately there are some hardware modifications that need to be done to put this into production. Mostly adding some wires, and a coupld of resistors costing under a cent. But it works!!!

Photo of the Day

This if from the tallest building in Melbourne on the 1999 trip when I also went to New Zealand. One of the hardest things about this trip was flying out of New Zealand really early, into Melbourne, and giving a lecture that night. It was fun though. I was staying right in the centre of melbourne which was cool too.

Apart from being the end of the trip, why is this photo in here... Well, a part time job around that time was to actually program those signs. It was fun, and gave me some experience with Windows Programming.

And finally this was in a foyer in an office building in Auckland. Totally impractical, but looks cool...

I am getting somewhere - I think. Well, I hope I am. Right now I am having battles with a GPRS unit. I am not sure what is going on. OK. I have found it. I have found that I have two or three BAD sim cards. Not sure what is going on with them... But I put in another SIM card and the GPRS is working. I am really pleased with this. I could not work it out.

The funny thing is that I am sure that I tried the SIM card in another unit first. I must have been mistaken - my advanced age is playing tricks with my memory :-) or something like that at least.

One of the things that I did manage to do in the last couple of hours was to write some debugging aids. Not sure if I ever need to use them again, but if I do I have them here. I am getting there. Slowly.

Anyway I am on a deadline... I promise I will post more later... And not too much later.

I am busy today working on the circuit board. Mostly it is looking good with a few minor changes needed. Nothing this complex can be done without minor changes needed. I am working on debugging a serial problem right now – it looks like a hardware issue, but I am not sure. I have some things to try…

In a few weeks when the product is released I will post a photo here. I am fairly happy with things, but testing is taking longer than I had hoped. Isn’t that always the way. Unfortunately.

I just need to work through things logically. One thing at a time. Work out what is working, and what is not. And then getting what is not working to work.

Music wise I am listening to Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Live CD… I have listened to Cold Play and Bette Midler already.

I hate it when that happens. I typed up a Blog entry and the Blogging system failed. That is something I really really hate. It means that I need to re-create what I wrote. We I do if I still want to share it all, and I do. So here goes.

My broadband is back. It was out for too many hours – and it was Telstra’s problem, and it was rather local. I suspect that Telstra had an equipment failure of some type in the local exchange and that took out ADSL users. I was beginning to wonder what was going on, since there was nothing on the ISP’s WWW site showing any issues

Today I had a meeting at 2pm over near the airport. What I failed to realize the scope of the meeting. When I got there I realized that what the customer wanted to do was basically ‘The world’. I have often joked about a client wanting the world. This is the closest I have ever come to a client who wants the world, and actually means it. To tell you the truth, my head is still spinning, and the meeting ended four hours ago.

I also picked up the PCB today – the one that I designed. It looks fantastic. Then again don’t all people who design things think the same way? Well, this one is really fantastic. I thought that things were really stuffed up. I mean majorly bad. But then I realized that I had plugged the CPU module in backwards. Turning it around certainly helped. Made things work – and now I can load software into it.

I still need to actually test the hardware and the software, and add some more features, but it is looking fantastic. That is tomorrows job. Right now I am too exhausted to do any serious work on it. And Since I will be working on it tomorrow I will be able to send an email sometime on the weekend saying that we can get it manufactured from Monday. And then I can have my birthday off.

Anyway it is late and I need to get some sleep. Good Night.

ARGH... I just got home and my Internet access is not working. This is not good... I have just dialed in and I am contacting support....

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From Earlier...
I am currently at Westfield Eastgardens writing this – I have a meeting nearby soon, and I needed something to eat first.

I made the mistake of looking in HMV music store – I picked up a few albums on special, They are:
Red Hot Chili Peppers Live in Hyde Park
Neil Young – Harvest
Bette Midler – Greatest Hits
Coldplay – Parachutes

This morning I have needed to do a complete loop. Firstly I needed to pick up a PCB at Kings Park. Whilst there we got talking about Satellites – my supplier mentioned he had been at a seminar and some people mentioned that they had got a satellite built and launched for only $1M, and he thought that this was cheap. I had to disappoint him by letting him know that a friend managed to do the same thing for $10K. Somewhat cheaper really.

Then I dropped in on Richard’s to have a look at the plane – Both wings are together and he has started on the firewall. It finally looks as if this thing might fly.

Then I came over to a friends office at Eastgardens. He was not there and I was hoping to reprogram some radios. Unfortunately my friend had taken the programmer with him to Melbourne for the day. He will be back soon so I might drop in later. Then I have a meeting soon in Botany… And then home.

Photo of the Day

This first photo is of a Hydroelectric Power Station near Hamilton. I arranged to get a tour of this place which was a great way to see the countryside. It was well worth it - very interesting. Particularly so since we managed to see all the parts that would not be shown on the normal tours of the place.

I mentioned before that I did not have many photos of myself during presentations. This is one that I gave in New Zealand - in Auckland. There are about 100 people there which was not a bad turn out - and they all seemed to enjoy what I was talking about. I think I spoke for about 90 minutes, and the audience was enthrawled throughout.

I am not a natural presenter - I have needed to work a lot at presenting and I have got fairly good at it. I can still improve and I do know that I present better if I know the subject matter and I have prepared before hand. If I have a half finished presentation in powerpoint that I have never given before then things will not go as well. Practice makes perfect like all things.

I love this... The Department of Foreign Afairs and Trade released a travel advisory a few days back. So, which part of the world was it for? Iraq with an Australian hostage taken? Indonesia with significant arrests for drugs? Africa with an outbreak of Haemoragic Fever? NO. It was none of these.

The decided that Perth was a dangerous place to visit. The email included the statement "This is a message to let you know that Perth is dangerous at this time of year," and was sent to about 8000 subscribers. And I was thinking of going over there to visit a couple of clients. Time to cancel the travel plans.

Perth city council actually agreed with the warning - "The weather is a bit dodgy," their spokesman noted. The SMH has their version of the story here

I love this - someone has built themself a Harpsicord out of Lego. And in the rackmount department there is This site that contains information on how to build a cheap rackmount PC. Not quite server grade but it is not that bad. Really.

Time for bed I guess. It has not been all that long a day... Just a lot of things to do. Tomorrow will be a bit quieter I guess. But we will see. I have a few errands to run - not sure how long they will take. Hopefully not all that long since I have some fun stuff to do...

Photo of the Day

For some reason I do not have many photos of my lectures and presentations. I always have good intentions, and nothing ever happens. I guess I am more interested in giving the talk than documenting the fact that. One of the ones I actually have a phot of is this one in New Plymouth in New Zealand. This was at the local Polytechnic from memory, and went fairly well. They were really happy to get me there since the place is in the middle of nowhere on the west coast of the north island of New Zealand.

They have some interesting issues - their whole area is centred on a huge dormant volcano, and if it were to blow there would be huge problems. Therefore the local Civil Defence organisation (SES equivalent) is fairly active. And many of the peopele I was talking to were involved with it. This second photo was taken about half way up the mountain - From memory we were about 1000m up. And we could have gone further but it was getting rather cold. A bit too cold actually - it was the middle of winter.

The locals arranged a tour of the local power station for me - rather interesting particularly since I had had some run-ins with the same contractors that they had. For the same reasons.

For some reason today seems so much like a friday. Not sure why... Just does. You know how some days have a certain feel to them. Well today feels like a friday. For desert tonight I made myself some creamed rice with some rice left over from Teryaki Beef that I made for dinner last nice. Delicious.

I had a phone call from the PCB person. My PCB will be available some time tomorrow to be collected. Once I get it I can start programming the device in ernest. Step number 1 will be to write a small program for me to test the device - then I can start with the full code after that. The reason is that it is better to have a smaller program where I am mainly testing things first, and then I integrate the main software when things are working.

Another reason it that it might take 60 seconds to compile and load the full code in, but only 10 seconds for the small segment. This might not sound like much, but when I might do this 50 times during development it certainly does add up. I have better things to do than watch code upload.

Photo of the Day

These are a couple of photos from the Auckland Tower. This is aparently the tallest in the Southern Hemisphere - and can be seen from much of Auckland. According to the in-flight entertainment on Qantas you can actually also get tours of the spire in the tower. This would be cool, and I would love to do it on one trip. The view out the windows out to the distance is rather amazing.

However the view down is also interesting. This is me standing on a thick sheet of glass, and nothing but glass under me. This is actually slightly freaky. Not dangerous at all, but freaky.

With my tracking software, one of the capabilities is the ability to interface to Microsoft MapPoint. I found another program that I have not yet installed - Microsoft MapPoint. This is a program that is hard to get in Australia thanks to the fact that there are almost no Australian maps on the CD. ANyway my copy came as a download from Microsoft in ISO format. Therefore I have two options... Burn it to CD or use an emulator for a CD-ROM.

So I did the Latter. Microsoft has released this piece of software called VirtualCD. You can find it here. I am not sure on the exact link on Microsoft itself, but this one will work. Since I do not like the idea of emulating a CD on a DVD, I am now moving the two ISO files onto my HDD from the DVD so I can install MapPoint.

Following on from the meeting this morning I had a call from a client in WA who has been testing a similar piece of software - and he left me with a bunch of stuff that needs to be fixed up. The two lists are almost identical so there is only one lot of work for me to do...

The client this morning was interesting... They brought a laptop identical to my Old laptop. It was strange having these two almost identical machines sitting on a desk next to each other... Anyway time for me to get some more work done...

Photo of the Day

Music:

My meeting went well this morning. I have a few things i need to do - such as look through all the DVD's I burned a few weeks back looking for some software to reprogram a radio. One of my friends has offered to allow me to do the work at his office for free. Really generous of him - we help each other out all the time. Last time he went away I handled answering his business phone for him.

Installing things today highlighted a few software issues I need to fix - minor things really. But they need to be adjusted. Some reporting fields are not really appropriate for this client - for some reason Australia Post has not designated many Post Codes for the middle of the Bass Strait.

I will see if I can get this software fixed up this afternoon - I doubt that there will be many problems with that. Probably an hour or two's work.

Photo of the Day

Here are a couple of photos from the MOTAT museum in Auckland - one of them is a piece of electrical engineering equipment - I think it is a Whetstone Bridge that measures resistances very accrurately, even without a digital display. The other device is much older - it is a Jaquard Loom from France. It was the first use of punch cards in the world, allowing fabric to be woven with complex patterns. It was an awesome thing to see in operation, and was so much faster than the old manual method of manually adjusting the longitudinal yarns.

Right now it is time for me to grab some breakfast - But what I will not be having is an iPod Shuffle. According to this site, the Apple MP3 player is comes with instructions in the UK saying "Do not chew the iPod shuffle". In the USA they are more blatant. They say "Do eat chew the iPod shuffle". Personally, I feel that the iPod Shuffle contains 85% more nutritional value than the average MP3 player.

When I was running tuesday I had to give way on the path I was running... There were some ducks on the path. Given that there was very little water in the creek, the ducks looked surprisingly healthy...

It is now 8:50 and I am already behind with things... I had a 45 minute call, and now I am expecting a client to visit any minute. I will not be enlisting during this meeting, I promise...

Photo of the Day

This is of a park about 10 minutes from the centre of Auckland. Very nice park and really large. Next to a Powerhouse Museum type thing called MOTAT - Museum of Transport and Technology

Music:

Era with the song 'Madona'. This was the music used by Optus a few years back.

It is definitely getting colder in the evenings and in the morning. No longer can I venture down into my office in bare feet and shorts - Something more like jeans and slippers are needed at least until the day warms up. Running can still be done in shorts and a t-shirt though - and thanks to the Sydney climate it can be all year around. Not that I would want to got for a walk outside with shorts and t-shirt in the middle of Winter, but it is no problem to go running wearing that little.

I need to think about if I want to compete in the City to Surf this year. It could be fun. The way I am going I think I would be able to put in a quite respectable time

Just looking at BoingBoing.Net, our good friends at Dell are going to release a new laptop next year - with a 19" screen. Probably a bit big for me, but it would be cute. As for other interesting computer news, this German has some cute pictures about running a computer in Vegetable Oil for cooling...

Photo of the Day

Another photo from that same trip - this is a hot pond in Rotorua in the North Island. The place has felt the damage of tourism and they investing in improving things. I gave a lecture in Rotorua, and stayed with a Local. The hot springs, boiling mud and all that is cute to visit.

Probably the best thing was Lunch - my host and his wife had gone fishing a few weeks before on Lake Rotorua, after living there seven years. And had frozen some nice trout. So he smoked them for us. So delicious - beautiful.

I am not sure I will get a chance to go jogging tomorrow. I hope to have to go over to blacktown to pick up a circuit board some time during the day. In the morning I have a meeting with some representatives of the defence forces here in the morning. ANd there is the normal work that I have on too.

One of my clients had a horrible requirements... They wanted me to add another 20 or so fields in on of my programs - and this is a generic program the is used for many clients. Anyway I have found a 'novel' but horrible solution to this... I had a field for user defined data in the database anyway. So I made this field a bit bigger - up to 4000 bytes. Then I shoved all the 20 new fields into this single field as XML. And provided some code to grab the data out when it is retrieved.

This is ugly but it actually works, and seems to work fairly well. The advantage is that I can do similar things for other clients too.

Photo of the Day

This is a photo of the Te Papa Museum in Wellington, New Zealand. It is a really cool museum, similar to the Powerhouse Museum. They have a rainforest you can walk though with plants - quite serene actually. Te Papa is always on my agenda when I visit Wellington. Of the last three times I have been to New Zealand (Since 2000) I have been to Wellingtong once and Auckland twice.

This second photo is of some country north of Wellington... Not quite sure where it is, but it will be south of Rotorua. I love the countryside. It is so beautiful.

I got an email from my father today - I was going suggest I meet him for lunch at some stage over the weekend for my birthday monday - particularly since I will not be building this weekend. But I found out he is in Thailand until Wednesday. I guess I will see him at some other time. I really do need to catch up with him.

I went for a jog this morning. I did 6.2KM in 41 minutes. This is longer, faster and further. I averaged 9.07 KM/H which I think is really respectable. I have a GPS plot attached - I am trialing putting the plots in their side. This may look good depending on your point of view. The map is designed to be rotated 90 degrees, but it fits better on the page this way. Let me know what you think.

Sure, this picture does not prove that I was actually running, but it is a start. I may post a photo of me running later. I definitely do need to buy a new pair of shoes for running. After 2.5 KM I did not think I would be able to do the 6KM. But I kept going seeing how I would go and it worked out fine. When I went for a shower I checked my weight and found that I have lost more weight. I am feeling fantastic. I don't think I will have any issues keeping fit over winter... Should be fairly essy.

Photo of the Day

Here is another photo of the boat between the north and south islands of New Zealand, as it leaves Picton. Actually there is probably at least 30 minutes of this type of terrain before hitting the open sea between the islands. You can see the North Island in the far background. If you fly into Wellington you will often fly over this terrain as the only runway in Wellington is North/South. The other option is to fly across Wellington Harbour from the north.

There is a tall hill just next to the runway. I once needed to write a report for one of the airlines as to why radio coverage did not seem to work well on the other side of this tall hill.

Music

Harrigan Logan with "Since I've Known You" which is a song that either Better Middler would do very well, or sounds like a Bette Midler song.

I am feeling a bit tired at the moment - Not sure if it is the fact that I stayed up late last night to do that test, or if it is the fact that I ran about 6.2KM today. Either way I could do with an afternoon nap. But alas, here I am at work, and I have things to do.

I will post a longer update later... But I was impressed with myself with my run.

I am about to go for a run. I will see how I go... I would guess 4km will be easy. If I manage my speed 6km should be easy. We will see... I will take the GPS so I may show a plot here if I am proud of what I do (or you may see nothing if I am embarrased)

Photo of the Day

One of the highlights in New Zealand was taking the Silver Fern train north from Christchurch to Picton, and then the ferry to Wellington. The train was probably the best of the two as it was nice and warm inside, and the view on one side of the train was mountains and the other side was the ocean. At times the train straddled the ocean it was that close.

Breakfast and morning tea on the train was rather civilised with service in the seat thanks to the low number of people on the train. It was an amazing trip - but it was only about four hours or something. Then I took the Ferry. This was something like three hours. Actually this was a bit boring - there was a movie showing but I had just seen it on the plane over so I really did not want to spend the money to see the show again.

The photo below is of the ferry steaming out of Picton - amazing country... I would recommend this trip to anyone really... But probably in spring or summer. I forgot to mention earlier. One of the other cute places to visit in New Zealand is the hamlet of Akoroa. It is just south of Christchurch - about an hour south. It is an old port and is more like a fishing village with a beautiful Cafe on the pier.

A few days back I mentioned that I had found this Horrible multiple choice exam. Well... I have finished it. On my fourth attempt, I got the solution out, and it works. What I eventually did was draw a grid and put in answers when I worked them out. That I did on the first three attempts. But this time I also wrote down which question had caused a mark in that box, so that if I found a result that looked strange I could work out if I had made a mistake. Anyway, here is my result sheet to prove that I did it... On old Pacific Power notepaper.



Later today I will try to go for another run. I will probably be more successful... This Time.

Photo of the Day

The following photo is of me in the Antarctic Museumn in Christchurch. One of the people at the conference took me there and it was worth the effort. This is the 'Cool Room' where it was significantly below zero. And I can assure you it really was cold.


I think I have mentioned before that I get to visit some strange and wonderful places on my trips. I get to see things that are not on the normal tourist route. Like the LAPD Air Wing in Los Angeles. The roof of the CNN Building in Hollywood. And this one which was General McArthur's base or proposed base during World War II. The cavern is below the hill in the first photo. The entrance can be seen in the second photo. There was also a hidden entrance in the house on the hill but that required knowing that it was there, and a sheer drop of 50-100m straight down. It is possible to do, but not to be done lightly. The headquarters is deep underground in a man made set of caves.



Today the University of Canterbury is performing an experiment here. They used to do it in a cave elsewhere, but they were getting sheep 'pounding' above ruining the results, so they moved it into this cave which is more 'stable'. They are measuring minute changes in the rotation of the earth using a device called a 'Ring Laser'. I understand a but of what they are doing - enough to know that Einstein would have been proud. This last photo was in a connecting tunnel rather than either of the huge caverns. I tried to take photos of the caverns but the pictures did not turn out.

I can assure you that with the lights out the pace was really really dark. It was also very quiet apart from the whir in the background of some fans. According to the guide, the temperature stays within about 1 degree year round.

One from the Simpsons File. According to This Story, a Japanese gadget has worked out how to decode baby talk and work out what they are saying.

Photo of the Day

Here are two more photos from the conference back in 1999. The conference was located at the Riccarton Park Race Course in Canterbury. I was staying in a motel just at the entrance to the park which was really nice - apart from the fact that the phone line was too noisy for dialup. Never mind - there was a courtesy phone in the foyer of the venue, and I plugged my laptop in there. Since local calls were free this did not cost the venue anything.

I was presenting to 2-300 people which was amazing. A photo is shown just below. The venue was fantastic. Being the June long weekend, this was the time that the Honors came out. Sir Angus Tait was there, and this was the weekend that he got is SIR for services to Radio. During this weekend I also managed to catch a rather interesting lecture about some of the mechanical engieering involved in the AO-40 spacecraft which some friends helped build - and which is currently dead.

Whenever I go back to New Zealand I see people who mention this conference and say that it was the best presentation that they have ever seen. For them I made GPS tracking interesting... I know one thing - after each talk I give I tend to be exhausted.

A quick entry... I have just had a shower following a quick run. I intended to run a bit further but things conspired against me. Firstly I was helping a friend and could not leave here until 4:30 for the run. Then Sunset was 5:08 so I did not have much time. I was planning to use GPS but it would not lock so there was another five minutes lost...

Then about one Km into the run I had a phone call... This was a work call which I put on Hands Free... And I continued running - it was from New Caledonia. After a little while I worked out I could not stay running and talking so I stopped after about 1500m or so and walked the rest of the way home. With some luck I will get a 'site visit' out of this... It would be good to get back to New Caledonia at some time... and maybe I could drop in on Auckland on the way too...

A friend of mine has just arrived, 'to steal lots of my time' in getting up to speed with VisualBasic.Net and VisualStudio. 12 months back he was giving me a lot of assistance with a progect, and now it is time to return the favour. Not sure how much help he will need. I intend to go out for a jog at some stage this afternoon - I will have to see how it goes. I have not been for a week, and I think my body has recovered.

My job

So, what do I do as a job. Well, that is a hard one. I do a hardware and software. Business processes. Mostly things related to vehicle tracking... An associate was up in Sydney for the weekend, and had his vehicle tracker turned on... The following plot is from his journey back.


Earlier today I managed to delete the 'Show Desktopp' icon from my computer. This was a giant oops. I found that regenerating it is not as easy as it seems, as this is actually a file. Thankfully there is a solution. One of the many sites that shows the solution is here. So now I have the quicklaunch bar working again. Fantastic.

Photo of the Day

Here are a couple of photos from my 1999 trip to New Zealand. The first is of the Christchurch Area on the South Island from the air. It really is a nice place. I was there as an international guest speaker at a conference. I actually did about eight presentations during that trip from memory. I will post some photos of that later. The other photo shows downtown Christchurch the next day. From memory this was the beginning of Winter...

Music:

PM's Love Theme from 'Love Actually' - Definitely a movie I need to get at some stage.

Anyone who has done any travelling at all knows how great it is to have luggage with wheels. Without it I would have had many many troubles on some of my trips - particularly my IronMan trip tp Hawaii where I had two cases both weighing 30 KG. Anyway, according to a blog, LiveLuggeage.Com have just released a motorized bag. Before you go thinking that this is the saviour of anyone travelling, the baggage sells for 397 pounds sterling, or about A$1000. Per case.


I dragged out my Ugg Boots last night. This is the first time this year I have needed them - I have been wearing some sheepskin slippers at times for a month or so - and now I need to wear something more. I think I like the weather in Summer more than winter. Thankfully Australian winters (or Sydney winters) are not that cold. They could be a whole lot worse. Having been to parts of the northern hemisphere in september and october I can see how lucky we are.

Having said that, Los Angeles has even nicer winters than Sydney. But I feel that they might be worse in the middle of summer. Certainly the polution is worse in LA, along with the traffic. As much as I love other parts of the world, I think I love Australia the most. There is a Midnight Oil song that talks about the world spinning, and Australia just turning around because the rest of the world does. I think that is so close to the truth.

Photo of the Day - Worlds First Microwave Oven

This photo is of a trip a few years back where I went to a conference in Baltimore. This trip took me all over the USA... Anyway I wanted to do some exercise one morning and found the 'Historical Electronics Museum'. Fine, so I have a look. I tend to find interesting places like this when I go away. Anyway, it was an interesting place. I would love to go back - and they had interesting exhibits.

One of the more interesting ones is shown in the photo - this is the worlds first microwave oven, dating from 1956 - meaning that the humble microwave will be 50 years old next year. Parts of it are

I spoke to my brother this evening, and he will be coming over for dinner next Monday for my birthday. He actually rang - good since I did mean to email him today and ask him - and it slipped my mind. I am not sure yet where we will be going, but it will be somewhere nice. I will have to see my father as well as it has been too long since I have seen him. It has been a little while since I have caught up with my brother too but not as long thankfully. This is the curse of the modern world.

I really need to Skype my New Zealand friend in the next few days. He was in the USA for his father-in-laws memorial service, and was away for about 3-4 weeks. He got back last week but I would guess he has been very busy getting stuff done around his small farm. The 80 sheep tend to look after themselves, and the pig stie is being turned into a large (30 person) home cinema. Thankfully the four horses are able to be looked after by locals - when they are not working [They are movie stars... One of them was the lead horse in the Xena series]

I just came across a link to this horrible multiple choice exam. The problem is that all the questions refer to each other, and you need to count the number of answers in each column, and make deductions; but things go around in circles. And when they do you tend to make a wrong deduction and when you find it you cannot go back with ease. I have given up on this and shredded my notes. That is the safest way. I could have spent a day on this and not worked out a solution.

Photo of the Day

This is a photo of the start of the Apalacian Trail, just north of Atlanta. These are the Blue Hills, and really are beautiful. The Apalacian Trail goes from near Atlanta right up into New England. It is really a hiking thing - and I can assure you I did not hike it... I walked about 1-2km to see the start of it. Really nice seeing the real country. I was staying in a place called Tucker, which is actually part of metropolitan Atlanta... In Dade County from memory which you hear about on the TV every now and then. I was staying with a friend of my godfathers... Really nice place...

Music:

Matchbox 20 - Last Beautiful Girl... And other stuff all on random play

I am right now waiting on a PCB to come in. But I just found out that the manufacturer of the PCB has had some issues and therefore I will not have the hardware for a few more days. This is a pain as I have a couple of days solid work to do as soon as it comes in, and I had planned my week around it. Still, there is not much I can do about this.

It does help some other things out though - I have a friend needing some help learning VisualBasic, and this means that I have slightly more time on my hands to help him. And given how much he has helped me with projects in the past, I don't begrudge him this time at all...

Warning: Technical Entry:... That was not as painful as I thought it was going to be. I am talking about the client who I have just needed to reduce the price for. I am not saying that reducing the price was easy - but some other mods that the client needed. There were two that they were interested in.

The first was to remember the size and position of the window when the program started up. This was about 20 lines of code in total. The other thing they wanted to do was to have the ability to save the column order, column visibility and column widths. I thought that this was going to be really really horrible. It did not turn out to be that bad.

I thought it was going to take hours of work - and be really painful to do. But in the end it took about 40 lines to implement I would guess, with the main part being on about 7 or 8 lines each. It turned out to be fairly simple. There were a few minor bugs, but that is normal. It is called programming.

Unfortunately much of what I have been working on is minor 'Look and Feel' stuff that does not really look great when put down on paper. But it makes a huge difference to the people using the software.

Music:

Enrique Iglesias with the song Escape. He has some cool music. Now some Avril Lavigne with Slipped Away...

I was finding VisualStudio.Net hard to use... The keys seemed just strange. For some reason they were set up for an old version of Visualbasic. Now I have set it to the defaults things now work again.

I just had a phone call from a client. I am not happy. Their client is now getting twitchy since they have comissioned me to make some changes to my software, and now they feel that they should own the changes if they are paying for them. I can see their point, but I would like to have known about that before. So to keep ownership so that I can sell the software to other people I need to change the software to a license 'upgrade'. I am not really happy about that... But there is not much I can do.

One thing that I have been playing around with for a few years is RFID cards. These are the devices that are often used for access to doors in buildings. Well, 'Hack-A-Day' provided a link to this Site that has an RFID reader and sender that can effectively copy a card whilst it is in somebodies pocket and play it back later to access a building. Also of interest on the same site is a Milling Machine he has built to make Printed Circuit Boards.

I am working on getting a job out the door... I cannot say who it is for - They might shoot me if I told you... Interesting little job with me providing hardware and software. I hope to deliver it later this week.

Photo of the Day

This photo was taken a few years back. I needed to dig up some pipes in the back yard during some pretty wet weather. I can tell you I did a lot of digging, but the pipes got replaced which was the main thing. And there have not been problems with the pipes since. Sometimes it is worth doing things properly.

Music:

Vitiman C with 'Friends Forever'. I can remember seeing this first on a flight back from the USA at the beginning of 2001. I just so love this song. So cool.

Having seen the movie 'National Treasure' I would love to see some of Philidelphia, to see some of the areas shown in the movie associated with the signing of the Declaration of Independance. I guess I would also like to see that in Washington DC too...

I could spend a few weeks in the whole north east of the USA. Boston. Philly. Washington DC. I have some friends all over that area - with good friends in the Washington DC area. Unfortunately they are looking at moving to Brisbane soon with work. I have another friend who I would love to visit in North Carolina... So many people, so little time.

I visited DC in September, but that was just for a single day - and I only got to see a museum near the airport. In fact that was the sole reason I was in Washington and not somewhere like Boston in order to fly to the UK. The time before that I got to see some of the place, but I managed to get a bad cold. Not good to have a cold in a place like DC - and I thought I would need to cancel my flight to boston I felt so horrible. Thankfully I recovered enough to fly. That was the October trip when I went to Salem and saw their Witch festival.

I hope to be able to announce a partnership agreement soon with a Canadian company... This will be good as one of the things in there is that I will be down as a consultant for projects. Thanks to the Internet there is not the need to physically visit all the time now... But I would guess that there will be the need to visit there from time to time.

Photo of the Day

This is a photo of a cemetary in central boston. Imagine this as being about where the Pitt Street Mall is in Sydney and you will get an idea about the location of the photo. Some of the founders of Boston are buried here, as is 'Mother Goose' acording to some reports. However they are disputed and have been wirely dismissed

I have a few housekeeping things to do today... Putting away washing and the like. And some general tidying up. They should not take all that long. That is the plan anyway.

Friday I picked up a copy of Phantom of the Opera - and I watched part on Friday night, and part yesterday. It is a pitty that the special features do not contain a commentry as it would have been fantastic I am sure. I looked at a couple of the special features this morning on the DVD, and they were OK. The promo's were actually film clips from the 1980's it would appear, that were made to promote the musical and the original album.

National Treasure looks as if it has more special features... Including an alternate ending. I will have a look at those later if I get a chance, and I will let you all know how it goes... Anyway I should get going... It is time for a light lunch...

Photo of the Day

Here is another of the photos from the archive. I forgot I had this one. It is from my Year 10 formal. Yeah, I looked young. The suit is one I made in Year 10. I think I came 2nd in the year in the subject that year. It is a fitted jacket and pants, and they turned out fairly well. I still have them lying around here somewhere. Anyway here is the photo. Enojoy.

Just over a week until my birthday... Rather than have a birthday party for everyone this year, I will do that next year and make it big; and just meet with all my friends at various points over the next few weeks (this year) to celebrate instead.

I think just about all the software is installed on this computer. There are a few minor things that need to be done, like working out how to get my company logo on my MYOB invoices, but things like that are minor. I also need to copy my business word templates onto the new PC. Very minor stuff.

One of the strange things that I found with upgrading to SP2 was that this would not allow me to intstall the Fax driver. There seems to be some type of bug with SP2 under some circumstances. Anyway I found a help file on the net that gave some instructions for this - and I worked out that the easiest way was to copy the files from my old HDD into the correct directories on my new HDD. It worked. Not that I send faxes very often. But it is nice to be able to do it.

Since my DVD Writer is now (mostly) working (except when I try to burn 30,000 files in one go) I am now doing some backups. I am now moving my MP3 collection to my laptop so I can burn them to DVD. There are only 22 GBytes of them to move.

Photo of the Day

This is a photo of Tower Bridge in London from one of my trips. Not a great day, but it could have been a lot worse. I think I had a bit of a cold that day from memory. I will have to drag out some more photos later of me and my past...

Music:

Belinda Carlisle. Her song 'Little Black Book' is playing right now...

Every time I think I have everything running on this computer one more little thing crops up. Minor little things that I missed on my big list of things that need to be installed. And when I find them I update the spreadsheet so that I will know next time. I would rather know now than if my PC gets stolen. That would not be good.

Anyway almost everything is up and running. I do not have MYOB putting a logo onto my invoices. I can remember having this problem in the past - but I cannot remember how I fixed it. I know it was doing something strange. Until then I do not have BPay or Credit card logo's on my invoices. I will work this out in the next few days.

DNA

I just found something cool for the budding scientist everywhere... It is from the Discovery Shop, and is a DNA Kit. It actually does produce those sorts of plots that you see on CSI... I think it is a dumbed down version with some limits on what you can test for DNA, such as plants only or something like that. It is amazing where technology has gone.
Discovery DNA Explorer Kit

CDMA

The Register has an article about 3G telephones in Europe and how their performance is seeming to be worse than GSM. The problem is one I had never thought about but is logical. With CDMA as used by 3G in Europe, all the phones connected to a base station transmit to the base station at the same time. The problem is that for this to work they must all be heard by the base station with the same signal level.

This is like being at a party and getting everyone to yell at you at precisely the right level that you can hear each person distinctly. It is hard, but it can be done. Obviously it is a lot easier with fewer people in the room - and in that case people do not need to speak as loudly. The same happens with CDMA. The carriers try to minimize the power transmitted by the handsets to maximise battery life, but this has implications with the number of call dropouts.

Music:

Random Play music. And now thankfully I have a DVD backup of my entire music collection. It fits onto 6 DVD's. That is not bad, but it means that I cannot buy myself a 20 GByte iPOD... I would need something a bit bigger. At least a 30 GByte unit, or more. Not that I am planning on getting an iPod any time soon, but it is on my list at some stage...

From the Archives

This is one that is definitely from the archives. I am the first to admit that the photo does not do the garment justice. It is a vest I made from scratch in year 11 or 12 at High School. The concept was inspired by nature. My idea was to use the colours from the Australian outback, and place a new twist on it, creating something uniquely Australian. It is a yellow lined vest. What is not shown is the black pants which I did make, and the deep red shirt from a local shop.

The fabric on the vest is designed to look like flames, with the black being the night sky, and the red being the earth. I know the red should have been the pants and the black being the shirt, but it worked better this way asthetically.

Network Device

The site mauriciomelo has details of a cute networked device. The idea is that you can place a remotely controlled device like this one in the photo on your desk at work, and your lover/friend/companion can change it to let you know how they are feeling, and vice versa.

Photoshop Contest

I just saw this picture on Worth1000.Com and I loved it... It is a photoshoped version of the X-Box Gaming Console. They also have a Picture of the Opera House reminiscent of the Midnight Oil Album 'Red Sails In The Sunset'

Photo of the Day

OK. So this is a boring photo. It is actually the scan of a magazine front cover from September 2003. If you look VERY carfully on the right side of the magazine in the middle you will see an article called '802.11 Protocol and Ham Radio' with my name under it. This is one of the the articles I have published.

Unfortunately this magazine does not pay for submissions, but it was really cool to buy a copy of this in the local Newsagency. And to see my name when I went into them all over Sydney. My 15 minutes of fame I gues..

After thursday nights reinstall effort, I felt rather tired yesterday... So tired I just needed a ten minute nap about 4:00 in the afternoon. Working from home it allows me to do that occasionally. Well, except for when clients or potential clients ring up. But it did not quitw turn out that way.

I had a potential client ring up - actually the father of a student from a school nearby asking about the prices of Wireless networking. Basically there are about 30 classrooms in this school, and the school got a grant a few years back to install network cabling for computers in rooms. But the school cut costs by not placing any of the cabling in conduit meaning that most of the cabling has failed. And they got a quote to replace it all - at $50-60K. Obviously the school could not really afford this. So they were looking at Wireless Networking. Unfortunately for them I dont think wireless will suit their needs, but thankfully they can get a wired solution a bit cheaper than they have been quoted.

Using parents to assist the job it would be significantly less than this I think. And significantly cheaper than wireless too. Some simple things can make significant differences - such as changing the setup of the rooms so that the computers are near the wiring rather than on the other side of the room. I may get some work out of this one. If not I have done good anyway.

I got another enquiry on Thursday from a Surf Lifesaving Club in Victoria wanting to track a vessel. This is another of thos jobs where they need to save as much money as possible. I am just wondering why I can't find clients who just want to send lots of money my way :-)

I mentioned that I needed to do some work yesterday afternoon and evening to get a demonstration working. Well, the demo went fairly well, apart from some minor issues with hardware... Hopefully this will turn into a major project.

Photo of the Day

OK. Here is a photo from the archives. I was cleaning my desk and came across a whole lot of old business cards. And I found an old ID card on the pile containing a photo of this handsome person. That is me, when I was in year 5 or 6. I think it is from the end of Year 6, so that I had it for High School.

I had an email from a friend of mine earlier asking if I was OK sicne he had not seen any entries in my blog for a few days. Hmm. Am I ok. I think so. The problem was that for some reason eithe his browser or his employer's proxy server were thinking that the content had not changed for some reason. If you think that I should have updated my blog and have not, press the refresh key on your browser whilst pressing the left shift key. This tends to fix most problems.

I am busy at the moment attempting to move a whole lot of files to DVD. I am having problems with one set... There were 31,000 to be moved, and EasyCD was just locking up. It is only a particular set of files, so I zipped some of them, and I am trying again. Another lockup. Next try will be to ZIP all the files and then try burning that. It worked thankfully.

Photo of the Day

This photo was taken on a camp when I was in about year 11. I look young - I can remember that this was a staged photo, and that I was not really operating the tape player. I have a VHS tape from the same camp here that I really should get put onto DVD as soon as I can.

Moss Graffiti

I found a Site that shows you how to make moss grow where you want to. This could be words or pictures on a wall. It looks really cool from the WWW site - and very british. Of course there would need to be a lot of other moss around, and it would need to be in the right climate... Something to keep in mind when designing a garden

It has been a busy afternoon. The PC is almost set up to where it needs to be. I will post more later as to how it is going. But I am generally very happy with things.

I think I managed to lightly burn one of my fingers cooking dinner. It is a very minor burn, and it is only slightly tinging at the moment. The burn on my finger from a month or so back is basically fully healed thankfully.

I have not been running since tuesday. I might get a chance to go tomorrow - I will see how it goes. It would be nice to have another good run like the one on tuesday. I should be able to do another 6km run without few problems I think. I just need to change my running course so that I can actually run far enough. I think I will do two grand loops and that should be fairly fine. I may not do the 6km, but I will go close.

The last few hours have been really hectic. Just before lunch a friend of mine rang telling me that he needed to do a demo tonight and needed my help. So I needed to drop everything to get some infrastructure up and running. That is up and running, mostly. More work is needed, but mostly not by me.

Then I had another call from a business partner. He just got his Telstra business. He has been trying to cut down on his calling on his mobile after his monthly phone bill went up to $800/month. He has tried to be careful in the last month, but it went up to $1100. So he looked at the bill. When he did it turned out that there was $600 in CDMA charges on it. Telstra decided to charge by the minute instead of mByte when they set up the account. Despite being told specifically to set it up by the mByte.

We had a good laught about this - you see I had told him to ring up after 24 hours and see what he had been charged... I said 'Just humor me'... but his response was 'it will be right'... Unfortunately I know Telstra too well :-) Anyway I had better get going. There are a few things that I need to get working on...

Beer Server

Personally, I dont drink... I never have... But I saw a link to the photo below on a WWW site, and thought it looked really cool. The original WWW site is Here if you want to have a look. The thing I love the most is the 'CD-ROM' Cup Holder...

As part of the reinstall of everything I installed the new version of Microsoft Messenger - version 7. It contains the option to let other people know what you are listening to in real time. And this being microsoft it also contains a link to an online store so that other people can buy what you are listening to. And since this is automatic it is what I am really listening to, not what I might tell you here.

With the update of the computer I also installed Nortons Antivirus 2005. This is an improvement, mostly from the user interface side from my point of view. It allows you to disable auto-protect for a period of time and automatically restart. This is a cute feature, when you are needing to move 20 GBytes from a known good HDD. Makes the copy move a lot faster.

I have now got most of the stuff up and running. Outlook is working. VisualStudio is running, and working well. I am still working out font size issues. The writing is now too small for some reason - now that I have changed the video drivers and everything else.

New TAPR WWW Site

The new TAPR WebSite is up. It has been too long in the making, but it is up now. Finally. I need to supply some content to it - I have cataloged a whole lot of PowerPoint files for it, and they need to be uploaded.

OK. So how did things go overnight? Well, the VisualStudio software installed OK. I found a copy of the software that went with the number I had. Thanks to it being an MSDN Subscriber CD I did not even need to enter the number. So that worked out well. I realised I had placed a copy of the DVD on my home network so that allowed me to install the software.

Right now I am almost finished installing everything. There are some applications that need serial numbers, and some other small applications to be installed. But they pale into insignificance with the rest of this. I worked out that I installed about 5-8 GBytes of software with the exception of Windows. I am now moving stuff like my email, my documents, photos across. As I was writing that line, those finished. Now I am moving my Desktop across. All in all there is probably 15-20 GBytes of that type of stuff.

I am taking this oportunity to make a complete backup too, so anything being move across is being placed into a temp directory before being copied into its ultimate location. And everything in the temp directory will be backed up onto DVD...

I lost count of how many times Windows needed to reboot. Sure it is not as bad as Windows NT where I am sure I once saw a message "Windows had detected that your Mouse had moved and needs to reboot", but I am sure it is close to that with all the other updates that need to be installed. XP and Office both need updates, and these often need reboots. XP Service Pack 2 definitely needed a big reboot. Right now so soon as some files copy I need to reboot the machine for a Windows Update.

Anyway that is enough from me for the moment.... More later

The new HDD arrived this afternoon about 5:00pm, and I have been busy installing new software onto the PC ever since. This is going well, but it could be faster. Right now there is one major problem. VisualStudio is playing up. THis is the Microsoft languages such as VisualBasic and the like.

This entry is being typed on my older laptop with the HDD from my newer one... So I can do most of the things that I could on my normal laptop - apart from burning DVD's and watching them in widescreen.

For various reasons I have two sets of a lot of the Microsoft software. The problem was that I could only find the media for one set of VisualStuio with an almost matching serial number. The serial number worked to install the program but that is all. So right now I am trying to uninstall VisualStudio without much success. VisualStudio is one of those programs that takes at least 30 minutes to install on most computers. ARGH.

I am now trying to remove some components to see if that will help. I hope so. If all this fails I will send over an email to my Official Microsoft Buddy in Redmond to get some help. I will let you know...

In the middle of all this I saw National Treasure. Once again I liked this movie. Very much an action adventure movie. But it worked, and it worked well. And there does seem to be an opening to a sequel. I liked the movie more than Sahara since this one concentrated more on the story...

Anyway I will leave it there... VisualStudio is trying to uninstall so I had better go and supervise... Good Night

I have just had another SKYPE teleconference - but this one ended with Skype dropping out for some reason. I dont know what was happening. Skype says that it is Internet Telephony that just works. In my casse now it is Telephony that just does not work unfortuately - I could hear the other person typing, but he could not hear me. This is very strange.

I just found a site that allows you to search for photos. But this is a specialized photo searching site - it allows you to search for aircraft, and has almost 800,000 photos of aircraft on it. The link is http://www.airliners.net/search/, and it looks cool if you are into looking at photos of aircraft. Cool as this is I think I have better things to do with my time. But as a tool it really is cool. Then I looked at the most popular photos of all time. There is on showing a truck on a highway needing to brake so that the low plane about to land on the runway perpendicular would not hit him.

Music:

I have the song 'Put Your Arms Around Me' by Texas on Random Play. This was from the Movie 'Ever After' starting Drew Barrymore. Strangely this song did not appear on the soundtrack album from memory. The entire soundtrack was a disappointment and was really hard to get at the time. I eventually found it in the classical section of a music store in New Zealand.

I have ordered a new HDD for $187 including shipping from www.auspcmarket.com.au. Their price was good, and I have seen them in Google searches for a while. So I decided to give them a try. The HDD should be here sometime tomorrow I would guess. Then again I just found out they are using Couriers Please, and they try to deliver same day, so I guess it should be here sometime this afternoon. I will see how it goes.

I bought myself a copy of National Treasure featuring Nicolas Cage. This is a great story, that teaches the viewer something of the history of the USA at the same time as creating a great treasure hunt. Sort of like a teenagers view of the Da Vinci Code. I saw this at the movies, and talking about the movie later we both agreed that it was a tiny bit long - with three major hunts probably beinging one too many. I have not seen the DVD yet, but I look forward to seeing it again. There are some special features on the DVD which I will enjoy watching too.

I tried to pick up a copy of The Phantom of the Opera, but Video Ezy did not have any in stock, but it could be ordered in. I will check K-Mart later, or just suggest it to someone as a birthday present for Monday week. I will see how it goes.

Music:

I just heard the classic Bob Dylan song 'If Not For You' on Random Play sung by Oliva Newton John from her CD with Anthony Warlow and John Farnham in 'The Main Event'

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday - something which is probably so unimportant that it does not even need to be written about. Yesterday I could not find my glasses when I woke up. Normally they are on my bedside table. Occasionally they are not there - either on the floor or on my matress. But they were not in any of those places yesterday. Hmm. Where could they be? They turned up in the top draw of the bedside table. Work that one out. I certainly cannot.

I have found some prices for Laptop HDD's - They come out at about $200 for an 80 GByte HDD. So I will order one today, and I should get it tomorrow I would guess. Or I might just ring up a few places and see if anywhere local actually has one. There should be somewhere local. But I don't want to waste time searching, and then collecting so mail order may be better. We will have to see. Then again the time spent buying the HDD pales into insignificance to the effort required to move about 80 programs to the new computer.

The New York Times has an article about how Dartmouth College has installed 1400 wireless access points using 802.11b and 802.11g. In order to view the short article you need to register for free with the NYT. Anyway, the important thing about this story is the person who has been doing all this work is Brad Noblet, Dartmouth's director of technical services. Brad is a fellow board member of TAPR, and a friend. Back in 2002 he and I presented papers at the same conference on the subject of 802.11.

I did not get as much done today as I had hoped. I spent much of the day working on updating two programs for clients. I thought that both were about finished, but they both had modifications that they wanted me to do. I am hoping that tomorrow might be a bit more sane. Then again I suspect that I will have another teleconference with Canada so things may not be quite as quiet as I would hope.

The good thing is that each of the clients is really happy with the work... I have also shown some of the work to some potential clients, and the one of them commented that the changes I had made were exactly what he was looking for. I think he will be a client real soon now.

Photo of the Day - Tropic, Utah: 84776

I found this cool photo... It is of Tropic, UTAH, USA. Unfortunately Tropic was not what it's name suggested. It was rather cool. And cool is me being kind. Cool means freezing. And that is being kind. It was about 3 Farenheit, or -16 Celcius. Either way that is rather cold. I think I have mentioned before how good the food was in the local restraunt and general store.

Sometime I hate programming. Take the following case in point - it has probably taken me half an hour to work out how to determine what the command line is for a program I am writing. In VB this used to be COMMAND. Now it is Environment.Command. Only now that I have found this I have found a another problem. It is rather difficult to split the line into strings because windows allows spaces in the file names, so inverted commas are used. But not always.

So now I need to write a parsing library, or find a free one to split the paramaters. As soon as I work out one level of things, a new level apears. I have just spent probably the last 25 minutes writing a program to split the command line paramaters. Now at least I have it for the future too. And the program is now debugged. That only took another 15 minutes. Unfortunately I cannot charge the client for that one either - This is in a fixed price quote. Still, there is enough meat in the quote to pay for things like this.

I didn't get around to getting a new HDD today. They didn't have any at the local shops so I decided I would get one online. And I have not had a chance to order one yet. Maybe sometime this evening or tomorrow I will get a chance to order one. Then I need to plan moving all the software across. There is so much software on this PC that I certainly do not need any more... Too...

Music:

Melissa Etheridge with her song "Kiss". Some Micheal W. Smith. And a whole lot of other stuff.

Definitely no run today. I might do some sit-ups in a little while, but two long-ish runs in two days is enough I think. My body needs some time to rest. I might go for a light run tomorrow - maybe 4km or so. I don't think I will push it to the 6km this week. Then again I thought the same thing yesterday...

I heard from my board designer. The work that I was hoping to get on Friday will not be available until about tuesday. This is really late - but he does do good work, and the delay has not been his fault. But I got a copy of the layout of the board, and it looks fantastic. I just hope there are no design issues with it. I will just have to wait and see... Then first thing wednesday morning we can give the go-ahead to get some made.

Photo of the Day

Following on from yesterday's photo of the Power Station, here is the main control panel from the Power Station. Bear in mind that the Power Station as a whole is worth some fraction of a Billion dollars. And the suqare keypad of buttons in the centre of the shot, and the multi-coloured buttons to the left of this are connected to the computers that I programmed. This was an undergraduate project at uni - Somthing I think is rather cool.

Music:

Robbie Williams with Angels - From his Live Summer 2003 Album. He is a cool singer. Great music.

This morning I have been hectic. Programming mostly, with a SKYPE call to canada in the middle of all that. The Canadian call went really well. Not sure how much I can tell right at this minute here - but I should have some information to report soon. How soon is soon? I dont know.

The programming is going well, but is like pulling teeth at times. Just a whole lot of little things to be done. I really need to reinstall everything on this PC really soon. I will see about getting a new HDD for this laptop later today or tomorrow. Not even sure what size laptop HDD's are available for what price these days. It has been a while since I have needed to buy one. What I would be doing is moving the HDD from this PC into my other laptop for a few days so I can still work whilst I am installing software. Then I will move files and other things across to the new HDD, maybe using a USB adapter that I have here.

One of my friends had an interesting query for me. A friend of his recently died, and was operating a radio repeater. The thing is that no-one knows where the repeater is. Well, they do, but only in Lat and Lon. And no-one had maps for where this was. So he asked me. I sent him a quick screendump showing how to get there. Easy.

I am feeling great this morning after yesterday's run. Last night I was exhausted - I think my body was slightly complaining at all the work. With my exercise I now need to work out where to go next with it all. It might be fun competing in the city to surf this year - I will see how it goes. Mostly I need to keep up with the exercise. I am not sure if I should be building speed or distance. Either way I am feeling great. What would you expect - I ran 6km yesterday!

Do you get the idea that I am really happy? Well, you should. The sense of accomplishment is amazing. This is something I was not really sure I could do, at least not so easally. Even at the 2.5KM point I was not sure I would be able to even do the 4KM. I was really wrong... When running I use the GPS to gague my distance and speed. That stops me from running too fast, and tells me how far I am going. Without the GPS I always think that I have gone further than I thought. It is much harder to cheat with the GPS in my hand.


Right now I am waiting for a teleconference on Skype with Canada. The other party has been delayed a bit so I might grab some breakfast whilst I am waiting... I have breakfast whilst he prepares for diner. Time Zones are strange :-)

My to-do list for today has jumped. Working through things in some sort of order will help things. I will start some programming as soon as I have had breakfast, and then order some parts as soon as things open at 9AM. Anyway I am hungry and need some food.

Music:

Dido's song 'Here With Me' has just come on the Random Play. I love her music. She just writes so well. I know I have said that before, but I do just love her music. I cannot wait for her next album - whenever that will be.

Also on the random play was The Dissiciatives with 'Somewhere Down The Barrel'. And Neil Diamond with 'Forever in Blue Jeans'.

6KM, 40min 20sec, 8.93 KM/H

WOW... I did a 6km run this afternoon. That is the longest I have ever run in my life. I am feeling really really proud of myself - As you might be able to work out from the title I ran 6Km in 40 minutes 20 Seconds. This comes out to be about 8.93 KM/H. I have not only met my goals but I have exceeded them by some large extent. My goals were to go 5km and 30 minutes. I have now gone 6km and 40 minutes, beating both of my goals by over 20%. I don't think I will go running tomorrow - I think I need a rest. I was a bit tired when I got back, and did not really want to do any work for a little while.

I have the GPS log in the screen dump below to show that I really did it. Ok, so it does not actually prove anything but at least it looks cool, and shows that I at least spent a bit of time in photoshop making this up. But I did not make this up - I promise. If I did I would not be feeling quite so exhausted.


Seems like the PowerTel outage today has caused problems all over the place. I have been trying to connect to a sever and I have not been getting through all the time. I had a phone call a little while back from a client who had receieved some error messages thanks to his network going down. Right now I am having problems connecting to a server thanks to the routing issues.

I saw this and loved it - what I am referring to is a Pneumatic Elevator for use in a house. It looks cool, and is fairly useful, although it does look a bit small. It looks so much better than having a large square device in the middle of the floor. On the obscure front there is a story on This Site about a person who has built a '3D Printer' from mechano using hot glue. With some electronics it might be an interesting thing to see...

Photo of the Day

This is a photo of Wallerawang Power Station near Lithgow. The important thing to note is the computer screens. These were running software that I wrote as an undergraduate. They did not actually let you control the power station but the buttons connected to the screens would let you bring up all manner of details about the power station, letting you make decisions on how the place would operate.

I just heard - some hardware I designed is ariving on Friday, and thanks to the fact that this hardware is already late, I need to get it tested ASAP. The code seems to be working really well on a prototype. I just need to do more testing of it, and do some minor changes. Richard will not be working on the plane this weekend so I guess I will have a weekend to work on this, so we can start a production run on monday.

I hate it when things don't 'just work'. I have been caught a few times when I have found things not working, and blamed someone else for the problem. So these days I tend to look at what could be wrong on my side. What I hate the most is when I cannot find anything and it is not working for me, and is working for some other people. An example of this is the APRS.NET.AU server that I want to get some data from. Other people can access this server, and I can access a Web Site on this server. I just cannot access an application on this server. And since other people are able to access it, then the application must be running.

After some looking a friend of mine suggested that the problem is either with Comindico or PowerTel who provide network links and internet access. The Web Site is probably going through a proxy which is why it is working. Other services are being killed thanks to network issues.

One of my friends is coming over later today - he has asked me to teach him Windows Programming. This might sound like an interesting task, and it is, but not in that way. It is more interesting because he is an excellent programmer, but has never done any Windows programming. He has been doing DOS applications, and has found things do not work really well with DOS under Windows XP.

I will be starting him off with VisualStudio - probably C# since he is a 'C' programmer. And that way he does not need to worry about the stupidness of C++, particularly under Windows.

The 'Pragmatic Programmer' has a link to a download of their latest book - 'How We Got Here: A Slightly Irreverent History of Technology and Markets.'. It describes, aparently, why Michael Faraday, steam engines, Ezra Cornell, the Van de Beurses family and the Edison Effect were so important to today's computer business. I have yet to read it, but for a limited time it is a free download until it is actually published as a book in a few months.

On the same site there is an article called 'Live In Concert' which describes an engineering exercise involved with a piano recital for a long dead pianist, based on an old recording. The concert was played exactly how it was on the 1935 recording, but it was not played back from the record. Link

RitzCamera has an LCD Photo Keyring for sale for US$50. Not a bad idea. I am still waiting for LCD picture frames to arive in Oz.

Geeks

A strange new device is being talked about on The BBC. It is a Washing Machine with a fingerprint reader that forces a different person to do the washing each time. Personally I did not think that there would be a market for such a device, but thinking about it I can see that yes, there might be such a need. But I can see problems... Such as one partner not being able to do any washing if the other partner goes away. I am sure there are over-rides but that sort of defeats the whole purpose...

After the other link to an article on Geeks and Nerds, I found this following article on my archive... I have added to it with UPPER CASE with my own comments where appropriate. I do not agree with everything, but it is a good overview of us geeks... Enjoy...

Right now though for me it is time for some sleep. Not sure why but I am feeling quite tired. I think I almost fell asleep during Law and Order a few moments ago.

From : http://skitten.best.vwh.net/geekguys.html

Geeks : Not So Bad After All

Actually, the title is a bit misleading. I think Geek guys are cool as 'just friends' or as a boyfriend. I have associated with Geek guys (and girls) all my life and have been richer for it. There are a number of reasons for this. (Yes, my boyfriend is a Geek and proud of it. So am I.)

Geek Guys are smart, loyal, interesting, have a cool sense of humor and are very creative. Parents love them, too.

No two Geek guys are exactly the same. And you wouldn't want that in any case. It's their individuality and endearing (odd) quirks that make you love them. However, while they -are- different, they have a lot of things in common. Listed below are some of things I've found that they do have in common. These are some of (the many) things that make a Geek guy a real treasure.

How does it work?

They love to take things apart to see how the parts work together or just to see what's inside. It doesn't matter if they can put it back together or not. If they can, (usually with screws left over [DEFINITELY]) that's a plus... if not, it goes into the 'cool stuff' pile to be cannibalized later [CALLED A JUNK BOX]. Cannibalized for what? Who knows. [WHO CARES?] See Creativity.

Toys.

All Geek guys love and own toys. Be they the cheap Fast Food toys from a children's meal or vintage props still in the original packing. These toys usually adorn the work space/office/computer area and are set up in a particular manner. This is called a Geekosphere. A Geek guy's Geekosphere is sacred. It is a plus to be able to identify each toy. And if you cannot identify one, you should ask, if you are interested in the answer. He will be able to tell you everything about it and why it has a spot within his Geekosphere. [GEEKOSPHERE? I DON’T HAVE A NAME FOR MINE... AND I REALLY DONT HAVE MANY TOYS IN MINE]

Creativity.

Geek guys love to make things. Be it a electronics, software, or a `thingie' that lights up. [THE LAST ARE THE MOST POPULAR - OR EVEN A PLANE]. Whatever it is, your Geek guy will put a lot of effort into it.... criticizing it is a bad thing, UNLESS, you can constructively point out a flaw in the design and offer a solution. Geek guys love it when you are interested in their fun. Also, you will learn things about stuff you never knew existed. Check out a Geek guy's website. You will find some of the most outrageous, obscure stuff you never thought of. [LIKE A GPS TRACKED CHILDRENS SCOOTER... FOR HOLLYWOOD... OR A BLOG]

Geek guys and a challenge.

No challenge can be turned away. Ever. Be it an intellectual challenge or a physical challenge. Geek guys will rise to the occasion. They may have to call Brazil to get the answer to a question or not sleep for 3 days writing a program or playing a video game or break their thumb opening something but they will prevail! I have known a Geek guy who spent a week finding out the name of the Actor of an obscure character in a commercial that was seen 25 years ago because he was challenged to. He prevailed. [I HAVE A FRIEND WHO SPENT 3-6 MONTHS ON A PROJECT BECAUSE HE WAS TOLD IT COULD NOT BE DONE. HE PREVAILED. PART OF THAT SOFTWARE IS NOW A PART OF MICROSOFT WINDOWS].

I have seen a Geek guy spend hours taking something apart to fix it when he could have gone to the store and spent $5 for a replacement item because he 'should be able to fix it, d*mmit!' He prevailed. I've seen a Geek guy tear apart his computer and put it back together to get a piece of hardware working. It was a challenge. He prevailed. Yes, challenges are irresistible to a Geek guy and watching them and their intense concentration on the challenge at hand is truly a sight worth seeing.

Humor.

The Geek guy often has an obscure, twisted sense of humor. It's usually laced with a bit of sarcasm and is full of little known references... unless, of course, he is among other Geek pals, who will know exactly what he's talking about. Often times, a Geek guy will put himself down in his humor. Geek guys can laugh at themselves as much as they laugh at the world in general.

Dress.

Casual, comfortable and 'wearable.' A Geek guy usually lives in jeans and a T-shirt. Occasionally, he'll throw on an oxford type shirt or sweater. What's important is that he is comfortable. Period. (Note: The wardrobe of a Geek guy can vary widely, from sweats to jeans to dockers. It depends on the Geek guy himself.) If he's comfortable, he is free to let himself concentrate on whatever it is that he is working on. Glasses and a 'no fuss' hair style are often common.

Geek guys and a mystery.

Like challenges, mysteries are siren songs to a Geek guy. They must know how something works. They must open that door, press the red button. Geek guys can be worse than a cat. However, their intelligence will help them solve the mystery and put things back together once they've torn it apart to look at the insides. [BUT WE MAY IMPROVE IT PUTTING IT BACK TOGETHER. SURE, OTHERS MAY NOT APPRECIATE OUR IMPROVEMENTS BUT THEY ARE THERE]. Mysteries are not as intensive as challenges. They don't need to be solved immediately but they will always be in the back of the brain. Once a Geek guy latches onto a mystery, it may take time, but he will unlock it to his satisfaction. [OFTEN THEY WILL BE SOLVED IN BED AT 3AM WHILST LYING AWAKE]

Music.

This can be anything. In fact, what makes this a common element among Geek guys, is their love of music and variety of it. Everything from Rock to Alternative to Classical to Oldies to Opera to Folk music. [OR ALL OF THE ABOVE]. One thing I have seen is a tendency to dislike Country music [OTHERS DON’T MIND THIS, IN MODERATION]. I'm not quite sure why this is. Most Geek guys own at least one instrument, even if they don't play it [TOO TRUE... WISH I COULD PLAY. I BOUGHT A CHEAP PIANO STYLE KEYBOARD ONCE TO LEARN ON...]. Some plink and others are darn good.

Diet.

In my experience, a Geek guy's diet consists mostly of sugar, junk food and anything microwaveable. [HEY, ALMOST ANYTHING IS MICROWAVABLE.] Now, this isn't to say that a Geek guy can't cook. Far from it. A lot of Geek guys can cook and cook well. [DEFINITELY]. They just don't have the time or desire to do so... Esp. if they are on-line, working on a project or going to/are at a Game. However, if they want to impress someone, they will go all out. I'm a good cook and I've been impressed with some of the spreads my Geek buddies have laid out.

Loyal.

Geek guys make the best friends. They are usually fairly shy and have a small but close knit group of friends. If you make friends with a Geek guy, cherish him. You have a treasure. Not only is he a likable guy, he is loyal and steady. He is someone you can count on in times of need or frustration. He is a good listener and will help you solve a problem if you ask. Geek guys don't make friends easily but once they do, they will go through Hell and High Water for you. You should do the same for him.

Intelligence.

This is usually what set your average Geek guy apart in the first place. He was smart. Smarter than the rest of the kids. He knows things. He can tell you how something works. He can help you understand something you don't [JUST ASK]. He can broaden your horizons. He's great at trivia games [SOMETIMES] or helping you figure out your computer or the newest piece of software. This same intelligence that has created the misfit of the Geek Guy, is the same intelligence that has created computers, the TV, email, video games, found cures for diseases, and many, many, many other inventions/cures. It has made life in general what it is today.

Parents love Geek guys.

Geek guys seem like wholesome, responsible, potential breadwinners who will be polite, courteous and gentlemanly with their daughter on a date. The Geek guy is someone that Fathers can quiz on intellectual situations and Mothers can talk to without being uncomfortable. Geek guys usually have no problem relating to parents or family pets. They will spend hours talking to parents about anything and everything.

Geek guys are romantic.

Yes, Geek guys are the hopeful romantics of the world. They want to be the Knight in shining armor, the poet of love, the bearer of gifts. He will bring you flowers and candy on Valentine's Day. He will remember your birthday. He will take you out to dinner in a nice restaurant. Of course, his gifts and tokens of affection might not be of the everyday variety. The flowers may be via computer, the gift may be a heart sculpture made of microchips or a new screen saver with pictures of you and him together on it, the poetry may be full of odd phrasing comparing you to a computer or a piece of hardware, but the candy will be candy and you will have to share. *grin* No matter what you receive or how you receive it, your Geek guy will have only the best and most hopeful romantic thoughts in his head for you.

Geek guys are passionate about pleasure.

When I was talking about Parents and the Geek guy, I said that "Geek guys seem like wholesome, responsible, potential breadwinners who will be polite, courteous and gentlemanly with their daughter on a date." While this is true, when the Geek guy and his date/gal pal/Significant Other are on their date/watching TV/etc... and are in the back seat of the car (or where ever they are in private), when the glasses come off, watch out. A Geek guy is very passionate and has a hidden wild streak. He is very eager to please and be pleased. If you have a fantasy... he will try to fulfill it, especially if the fantasy involves role-playing. And your Geek guy probably has a couple of fantasies that would make a sailor blush. Ask, you might be surprised. Geek guys can be serious hedonists.

Occupation.

Geek guys generally tend to the technical occupations. Computer Programmers, Engineers, Software/Hardware Quality Assurance, Hardware Engineers, System Administration, Tech Support. The list goes on. Sometimes, you'll see a Geek guy in a writer's or Editor's position. If the Geek guy is still in college, he is usually working in the college computer lab, grading papers or being the Professor's teaching assistant. As the world becomes more and more technical, the need for the Geek guy grows. They are the only ones who know how things work. Something to remember.

Where the Geek guy hangs out.

Actually, Geek guys hang out everywhere: Music stores, the workplace, the movies, a friend's house, concerts, conventions, gaming or book stores, Malls, local 24 hour restaurants. The thing is, Geek guys have been so abused and maligned and ignored for so long, people no longer see them. Oh, people may see a Geek guy (or group of Geek guys) with their eyes but they don't notice them. Geek guys are everywhere. Stop and look around you sometime. You'll see what I mean.

There. Done. I hope you enjoyed this. Now that you've read all of it, I suppose you are wondering why I wrote it to begin with. Well, the answer is simple. I've known and liked Geek guys all my life. I was sent an essay that was supposed to be a humorous guide to Geek men for women. Unfortunately, I found it rather condescending, mean and exploitative towards the Geek guy. I wrote the Geek guy who sent it to me, pointing out how it was mildly amusing but that was lacking in many of the basic fundamentals of Geek guys in general. Then I wrote up some examples (Re: How does it work, Toys and Creativity.)

By the time I was done sending off the email, I had decided to write this. The extremely positive response from my Geek guy friend on what little I had written in the email made me even more determined to do so. I wanted people to see what I see when I encounter a Geek guy. I know Geek guys aren't perfect. Far from it. But their faults have been pointed out a lot more than their good attributes. That's why only the good things are pointed out in this essay. Geek guys are sweet, lovable, intelligent, creative, funny and definitely worth getting to know. Take the time to talk to one. You'll be glad you did.

I have had a busy afternoon... Lunchtime meeting at Bankstown Airport - with NO LUNCH.... The meeting was good, and I have a list of things that I need to get done. I was driving some of this showing what can be done with some technology... and generally showing a way to move forward. This is the type of thing that I love... We were sitting at the airpoty on a picnic table in the sun... It was great. I wish I had more meetings like this.

And once more the ideas just kept flowing. Great ideas. Ways of doing some amazing stuff. Really complex things that just suddenly have just got so simple. I love it when things just work.

Then I had to get to Old Guildford for another meeting with an ex-Pacific Power workmate... He forwarded me some software work which I have talked about before. The client is now wanting a few things tidied up... Another case of 90% of the work requiring 90% of the effort, and the other 10% requiring the remaining 90% of the effort.

Since I got home I have had about three phone calls at 20 minutes each. This is in addition to the use of my phone when I was out driving between meetings. This evening I have some software to install on two different servers, and modifications needed to three different pieces of software... Or is it four pieces of software. I really need to look at the details.

I have just had a visitor come too... Thankfully not work, and it was good to catch up with him... Someone I have known for about five years from the Ham Radio world...

The Time Traveler Convention

Someone at MIT has decided to organize a time traveler convention. The idea is that you only need one event, ever. And time-travelers can come to it whenever they wany, from wherever they are. This is of course totally ridiculous... Still, it sounds like a good laugh.

TV

Running

I went for another run this morning... And I think I did fairly well. Temperature was down a bit which helped I think. This time I went with the cellphone in the pocket but it did not ring. I also had the GPS there and a small radio. The GPS was mostly used to monitor distance to provide a target for me to reach.

Now, I bet you are waiting with baited breath as to how I went. The answer is fairly well. I managed to run 5.1KM in 35m 30s. This is close to the furthest I have *EVER* run, and the longest I have run since August 2000. All in all this is a great result. This means that I was running about 8.6km/h which is not a bad speed either. In the coming days and weeks I intend to increase the speed more than the distance. I should be able to increase distance without too much issue.

I have had a couple of friends suggest going in the City to Surf in the past. I will see how I go... Maybe...

Television

I was looking at BoingBoing this morning and I found an interesting Story about how Dutch MTV station TMF recently held an awards ceremony. This would have been fine, except they got people to vote by SMS for their choice of 'Artist of the Decade', and got a percentage of the 70 Euro Cents per SMS. This is normal television these days.

The only problem was that Dutch singer Marco Borsato had already been selected, and the results had been distributed to the media BEFORE THE SHOW WAS BROADCAST. They were found out when one member of the press broke the embargo and released the results. They were totally ignoring the voting - and making money on it. They are now being investigated for fraud. They are claiming that the results distributed to the press were 'provisional' based on votes to date.

Logies

Thankfully a show like The Logies that was on last night tends to be a bit more professional with how they do things, employing a chartered accountant to make sure that things are done properly. I went looking at the Logies Web Site for the history of the awards. I found that they were started in 1958/9, and the name 'Logies' was suggested by Graham Kennedy after the father of Television John Logie Baird.

You can read more about Baird on the BBC Web Site. I could not find anything about him, or even the history of the event on the TV Week/Logies site. Baird actually invented the first TV system, a device that was more mechanical than electronic, working by using two high speed spinning disks and a photocell for the camera. I would love to see this working... A strange geek project would be to actually build one and see if I could get it to work. [Slight Delay]...

I have just done some research and I have found an interesting page where an old TV technician has built himself a Logie TV. Very much an engineers site unfortunately - and not well presented. But it proves it can still be done.

Desperate (White)Housewives

The wife of the president of the USA did a great comedy routine at the 91st annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Some of this is detailed in the SMH although only a small portion is mentioned. She described herself as a 'Desperate WhiteHouseWife'... What I saw of the show on the news last night was hilarious. It really was.

From The Archives...

Photo of the Day

Saturday I was doing some cleaning up and I found this photo. It dates from when I was in Year 10 I think. If you cannot work it out, I am the one with the glasses, and with the white jacket. I actually made that jacket myself, and it fitted really well. On the other side is my brother, and my grandmother is in the middle. This photo was taken at my father's graduation ceremony for his PhD at the University of NSW. He did research into the rutting of roads for his degree.

I look so young there... I have changed a bit... I keep asking myself, is that *REALL* me? It must be. It just must be... After all it is my jacket, and that is my brother, so it must be me.

Yesterday afternoon I was a working on Richard's plane this afternoon, which explains the lack of posts to this blog. Well, and also the fact that Blogger was not working with my Web Site. When I got home I did not realise how tired I was... So I have waited until this morning to update on things. That way I could write what I wanted to. I think I mentioned earlier that we were working on the wing, and were probably completing it...

Turns out this this did not quite happen. The first 90% of the job has taken 90% of the time, and the last 10% of the job has taken the other 90% of the time. It has been like that with the wings. The first thing that we worked on was mounting the control rods for the ailerons on the wings. Richard had tried to mount these rods and needed some help. With some help from Richard I was able to get the rods attached without too many problems. Doing this on the two wings took some time but it was not really all that hard.

Then we started working on the fibreglass ends for the wings. The fibreglass was complete, but needed to be tuned and mounted. This was remarkably easy to do. We chose the right tool to make some minor cuts to the fibreglass. We were both surprised at how well this worked - things just went perfectly for us for once. Richard now just needs to do a whole lot of sanding on it.

Followng this we gooped the top of one of the fuel tanks. As usual this was messy, but not as messy as normal since it was a quick job. This was the last gooping for the entire plane... We hope.

I am not sure I have ever said why I am helping Richard build this plane... I can tell you it is not because I want to fly in it... That really is not a concideration. What is more important to me is the sense of achievement in doing the building... And the fact that Richard asked me to help him building it. Other guys help their friends put in a new shed in their backyard. I help Richard build a plane in his...

Anyway that is an update on my afternoon... albeit slightly delayed.

ARGH... Blogger.Com has had problems uploading to my Web Site. Not sure what the problem is, but I am having big problems uploading the post from 1PM today... Right now I am hoping that posting now will fix the problem... Anyway I will post more soon.

On friday when I was running, at first I was listening to my radio, before I got the phone call. Anyway, just as I was starting to run, and choosing a radio station, I heard an announcement on the radio - 'You are listening to a test transmission from the Sydney Radio Company on 95.3 MHz. If these transmissions are causing any interference pleas contact us on...'. They then played some music. I would guess that they are using a DJ at the moment, but it must be the easiest job ever. For the short time I was listening they were alternating between songs on two CD's. Different songs of course, but they would play the first song from CD 1 then the first song from cd 2, then the 2nd song from CD 3 etc.

I think that this is the test transmission for the new sister station to NOVA FM. Seems to fit what I have read, and they are due to start in the next couple of months.

I do not fly a plane. I would love to get a license to fly, but I just do not trust myself. I think it is safer that way. But I have always loved the idea of flying... And I would love to learn how to fly Microsoft Flight Simulator one day. There are add-ins for this program to do almost anything you can think of. And you can add your own aircraft. But of all the things that fly the one thing I never expected was a 'Jet Pack' which would allow a human to fly like those people on the International Space Station. You can read more here

The BBC has a rather strange story about how a car ran into a house in the UK. The strange thing was that the car hit the 2nd story of the house. Police are still trying to work out exactly what happened, but there is a freeway nearby, and it is possible that the car was driving significantly faster than the posted speed limit.

Music:

Sharon O'Neil with Asian Paradise