I have had an interesting idea for a business venture... "Cards for Teddy Bears". This might also be known as "Cards for Bears". But why? Well, with mum in Hospital and with me visiting most days, I was taken by the number of Teddy Bears in the oncology wards. There were all manner of bears, but they all had one thing in common - they were all there looking after the paitients they were with. None of them were complaining - they were just sitting there until they were needed.

And in many cases they were not even looking after their owners, but were bears on loan. My mother's main bear is starting to lose his fur in one or two places, which is not surprising since he is 16 years old in human years, or 32 or 33 in Bear Years. He was in hospital for the first round of chemo, but she has borrowed to of my Teddy Bears for her latest stay in Hospital. They are doing Tag Team, whilst coming home for a 'Swim' [Which is Bear speak for a Wash... But if you mention a Wash to a bear you might not get a good reaction since bears do not like to have a wash in general]

Anyway, back to the story. My mother has been getting a heap of cards from all sorts of people. But the poor Teddy Bears are just spending time in hospital, often not even getting cuddles at night since their friends are not all that well. Often the best they can hope for is an adoring look, the knowledge that they are helping the paitient, and if they are lucky, a hug from a nurse occasionally.

So it is about time that these little bears got themselves their own line of Cards. Just something small to say a big Thank You to them for their tireless work. I dont think there is a huge market for them, but I am sure there is a market!

There was a story in the SMH about how a 76 year old got a ticket for parking in a No Stopping zone going to a dawn service. And complaining how no discretion was used, and how he should have been let off. How dumb. No Stopping zones are not optional. They are there for safety, and in my opinion, someone stopping in a no stopping zone should have their license cancelled on the spot!

FPGA for Fun 100 MHz digitizer
Bitscope
Vista Content Protection

I got ADSL 2+ installed today with Westnet, and I should say that I am not totally impressed by some things. First, when I was moved over, I kept my old IP address for a while. In fact I kept it until I rang them to tell them to change it. I have no real idea why they needed to change it. Still, I have the new IP address and things seem to be working. I have emailed a request to get my reverse DNS entry set up but have not heard back from them yet.

I am presently getting 10097 kbps download speed, and 812 kbps upload. This no not bad really, but the download is similar to what I was getting with ADSL 1. It was downloading slightly faster, but I think it was getting too many errors and it re-synchronised more slowly.

I looked at the results when I dosconnected my ADSL line filter and home phone. Without the filter the only thing that changed was the noise margin. The noise margins improved by 1.5 db download and 0.6db for upload with the phone on the hook. With the phone off the hook the noise increased by about 0.1-0.2 db.

One thing I am dissapointed with is lack of 'Divert on No Answer' on the phone. I need to get this implemented with my VoIP PABX I think...

One of the missing features in Outlook 2007 is the ability to preview PDF files, like JPG, PNG, XLS and WORD documents. So, I am impressed to see a PDF Viewer for Microsoft Outlook. Whilst this is not an 'Official' PDF integration, the programmer who wrote the PDF Viewer actually does work for Microsoft I believe.

The way that it works is that it actually uses the ActiveX PDF control to display the PDF file. I am guessing that the reason that it works this way is so that Adobe cannot do a Anti-Trust thing against Microsoft.

I have been playing with the Tibbo DS202 Serial To Ethernet converter from PressDigital in Sydney, and I must say I am impressed with the unit. I was investigating a different unit for a client, and came across this one by accident. So I grabbed one of these ones after looking at the Tibbo Web Site, and that sold me.

What sets this one apart from the others is that I can embed software into the device, and customise the data that is sent. Using NAT rules I can even place the device straight onto the Internet, and even have a password if I want. The device can operate as a client or a server, and even comes with virtual serial port driver software on the PC. The IP address on the device can be set either statically or dynamically. Even better the setup program for the device will work over the network too - even with a bad IP address. Certainly recommended...

I have been playing wit the Enfora MT-GL GPRS/GPS Tracking Units. I have written an advanced general purpose listing program for this unit, and the larger MT-G. Photos will come soon.

I have added a new blog with details of my Mother's fight with Cancer. You can visit the site by clicking here or visiting http://www.radio-active.net.au/nita/. You can leave a comment if you like and I will ensure that it gets to her. If you want to be added to a mailing list, and get a copy whenever the site changes then contact me.