I am just working out what I am doing for new years eve. It is the 29th and nothing is planned. Maybe an early night...

The Jem Report has some interesting articles on the story behind wireless network drivers in Linux. The gist of things is that many of the wireless cards are using FPGA's and secondary processors which have their software loaded at runtime, which makes writing your own drivers harder.

News.Com.AU has a story about a camping experience in Kangaroo Valley that is somewhat more refined. Run by Extravacamps the tents are carpeted and heated, and they have power.

And The Register has is detailing some PCI cards that make HDD's read only for forensic analysis.

The Web Site [H] Consumer decided to test the rugged claims of a TwinHead laptop, and found them somewhat 'Lacking'. The documentation claimed that the laptop could survive 30 drops onto concrete from about 1m. Then when the manufacturer was shown a laptop that had died after such a feat, they then said 2 out of 5 laptops survived. And then when it was replaced, the new laptop was only rated to survive six drops. OOps.

Slate has an article on businesses playing scrooge with their employees. The one I love the most is the $30 voucher for the bosses wives store, where every item is much much more than $30. Instructables has instructions for a cheap to run sign for outside a business using LED's instead of neon.

And just for christmas, the BBC had an article how some very un-Australian scientists in Australia had found a chemical that stops alcohol craving in people!

"Every new technology carries with it an opportunity to invent a new crime."

http://www.dotnet247.com/247reference/a.aspx?u=http://weblogs.asp.net/vsto/archive/2004/01/05/47741.aspx

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/165304main_image_feature_719_ys_full.jpg

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/160446main_jsc2006e43860_high.jpg

Tomorrow I will me in Melbourne to hand in a Tender. Not sure how long I will be there yet. We will see.

Linksys has realeasd the iPhone. It is NOT an apple product as many suspected it would be.

Oulook Links

http://www.dimastr.com/outspy/
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/c/programming/archives/reading-email-using-mapi-in-vbnet-5855
http://www.add-in-express.com/add-in-vsto/
http://www.dimastr.com/redemption/

Some articles. A fake TV report in Belgium caused outrage when it reported that the country had split into two. They reported that the north had split form the south, and were turning back trains and had set up a border post. It was really just a way to get the conversation moving on speratism. The country is split on language grounds already.

Here is an artilce on VSTO (Visual Source Tools for Office) install issues. Link. David Dale in the SMH asks How Austrlian Are you?... Hilarious.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lax11dec11,0,1271494.story?coll=la-home-local

http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/johnwood/archive/2005/08/31/132267.aspx

http://www.smh.com.au/news/digital-music/ipod-in-orbit/2006/12/12/1165685666290.html

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/060203.html - plane

Yahoo has a story on how forensics of Fire Investigations was not the exact science most people thought, and how many people are in prison for arson when they are innocent. Link.

There is also a court case in the USA that is examining the right to bear arms. Basically it is argued that the right to bear arms is only constitutionally enshrined for state militia. This is likely to be a VERY interesting case...Link

And I have found what has got to be one of the greatest tables ever made... This one changes from a 6 seater to a 12 seater just by turning it. The magic? Well, it is circular. Link

There is a Web Site in the USA about a phone company that does not know the difference between 0.002 Dollars and 0.002 Cents. Despite being told by five people that GPRS roaming charges in Canada were 1/500th of a cent per kByte, or 2 cents/MByte, his bill came out to be $2 per MByte. I have seen this sort of thing in Australia on allowances... Also from the USA comes news on How you can save heaps of money buying glasses online.

The CSIRO have demonstrated a really High Speed Wireless Link. Looks really cool.

What code doesn't do in real life Link

They have found the body of a pilot who died in Fiji... Not the army, but a civilian one. The guy who died was Kirk Palfrey. I am pretty sure that I went to school with his brother... Link

And the vatican thinks that they have found the body of St Paul

I have a Wedding to go to this weekend... I think I will miss it. After all they forgot to invite me to the bachelors party. It is for one of my clients. The problem is that the Wedding is about 2 days 8 hours away, both from now, and in travel time, with the wedding on in Sweden I think. Be nice to visit, but I have too much work on right now :-(

Last might I had a meeting... It lasted about three hours, and it highlighted my views on the voting system this particular organisation uses as being unweildy, and dumb. Apart from that though, I found the meeting stressful. Quite stressful. Not that I was really participating in it, but more that I could see the implications of what was being said, and saw that there was little use in saying things to anyone.

My problem is that I can often see about three steps ahead, and this creates some tension when I try to explain what I am seeing, and they have no idea what I am talking about. Anyway I am going to resign from the organisation soon. I have just not decided exactly when.

dGPS on the Internet. Link
New WestNet 8 Mbps plans. link
Open Source Spying. link

Yesterday I needed to replace the spring in my B&D Secure-A-Door. Strangely this product is no longer mentioned on the B&D Web Site (BND.COM.AU). First trick was removing the handle mechanism. There are actually three security torx screws hidden behind some black plastic plugs on the inside of the door. Removing them got half the job done. Then it was a simple matter of removing the handles. This is where things got hard.

I used (eventually) a mallet and big screwdriver to get the handle off. The currect solution is to find the small grub nut on the inside handle of the door. It is hidden but it is there. Once this is off, the faceplates come off. In my case a spring had died. A new spring was located in a $20 spring container at Jaycar. Putting it in solved the problem, and putting the door back together was fairly easy.

Firstly in this issue of my blog is a great video on the issue of consent. It is great to see what can happen when the lawyers get involved.