Saturday, February 14, 2004
ACH!
Hard to be positive when you are in pain! At least I have access to great medical service and excellent drugs.
Back on the Tramol again. After we got home from the doctors I decided to put the bike away - I had left it in the drive way. This involves driving it a few metres into the shed/office. Did that successfully with left hand on clutch in spite of broken collar bone. Then leaned down onto the stand, only to realise in my drugged state that I hadn't actually put the stand down. Weight of bike too much for damaged arm and I dropped it again!. Had to get wife to come and help lift it up. No damage. Still VERY hot and VERY humid.
I am totally veging playing the Sims. I am completely ignoring to do lists and any other form of work.
The rest of this evening is relax - I need it!
Hard to be positive when you are in pain! At least I have access to great medical service and excellent drugs.
Back on the Tramol again. After we got home from the doctors I decided to put the bike away - I had left it in the drive way. This involves driving it a few metres into the shed/office. Did that successfully with left hand on clutch in spite of broken collar bone. Then leaned down onto the stand, only to realise in my drugged state that I hadn't actually put the stand down. Weight of bike too much for damaged arm and I dropped it again!. Had to get wife to come and help lift it up. No damage. Still VERY hot and VERY humid.
I am totally veging playing the Sims. I am completely ignoring to do lists and any other form of work.
The rest of this evening is relax - I need it!
I have re-broken my collarbone!
Back to typing with one hand
Last night Jude's jaw was aching so bad she couldnt sleep
After drugging her with paracetamol (doesn't do much) I left for a meeting.
Part way through she sms me to say the pain was too bad please come home. I rushed home!
Taking the exit off the freeway I was travelling too fast and under heavy braking and compression locking the rear wheel locked and I slid a little. Backing off the brakes meant I wasn't going to make the corner so I elected to go straight ahead hoping to keep the bike upright while still heavily braking. As I left the road into the grass I was almost stopped, but the braking on the front wheel while ok on tarmac, caused it to lock on the grass / gravel and the bike slid over on its side for about 2 metres. (All this happened in about 1-2 seconds). Very minor damage to bike, 1 small crack in the fairing, some very, light scratches on paint, and some heavier scratches on the engine cover. However the impact as I went down on my shoulder rebroke the collar bone. I only got a small scratch on my hip and elbow.
So now I have officially crashed the bike, though not badly.
By the way took Jude to the doctor and a plug of wax in her ear was putting pressure on her eardrum - now much better.
Back to typing with one hand
Last night Jude's jaw was aching so bad she couldnt sleep
After drugging her with paracetamol (doesn't do much) I left for a meeting.
Part way through she sms me to say the pain was too bad please come home. I rushed home!
Taking the exit off the freeway I was travelling too fast and under heavy braking and compression locking the rear wheel locked and I slid a little. Backing off the brakes meant I wasn't going to make the corner so I elected to go straight ahead hoping to keep the bike upright while still heavily braking. As I left the road into the grass I was almost stopped, but the braking on the front wheel while ok on tarmac, caused it to lock on the grass / gravel and the bike slid over on its side for about 2 metres. (All this happened in about 1-2 seconds). Very minor damage to bike, 1 small crack in the fairing, some very, light scratches on paint, and some heavier scratches on the engine cover. However the impact as I went down on my shoulder rebroke the collar bone. I only got a small scratch on my hip and elbow.
So now I have officially crashed the bike, though not badly.
By the way took Jude to the doctor and a plug of wax in her ear was putting pressure on her eardrum - now much better.
Now I'm going to bed
The rest can wait til tomorrow (today actually) but tomorrow never comes so that makes me feel better about it.
The rest can wait til tomorrow (today actually) but tomorrow never comes so that makes me feel better about it.
Completed notes for meeting tomorrow.
Kicked over a glass of coke on the carpet and wasted about 40 tissues cleaning it up! Coke all gone now :(
Kicked over a glass of coke on the carpet and wasted about 40 tissues cleaning it up! Coke all gone now :(
All emails written, invoices done and faxed - 1/2 litre of Coke consumed - eyes wide open!
Now to prepare notes for meeting tomorrow.
Now to prepare notes for meeting tomorrow.
Friday, February 13, 2004
Got distracted looking at my blogroll for updated entries - now I'm really gonna do that email and quote and invoices!
I feel snowed under.
Its my own fault.
Its 11:07PM and I have written a to do list of things that need to be done today. It adds up to about 3 hours of work and I have been procrastinating...
In fact by writing this blog entry I am delaying the start even further.
I need to do:
Invoices for two clients and fax them.
One of them requires me to write an email thats lengthy and involved and has to detail the results of a meeting today where I didn't take enough notes, and the guy who's supposed to send me stuff hasn't (at least he did but it didn't make sense.) So then I have to produce a quote and then I do the invoice for the time taken today - estimate 1/2 hour for that (20 minutes deciphering my notes and 10 minutes writing quote)
Then I need to do up notes from a meeting on Thursday that I am having a follow up meeting from tomorrow at 9am 1/2 hrs drive from here - so this MUST be done before I go to bed cos I wont feel up to it in the am. (same problem - deciphering unintelligable scribble)
Then I need to finish some fiddly bits relating to rebuilding my neighhbours PC so I can give it back to her. Anybody know why a 56 kbps modem connects at a max speed of 7.2kbs? Plain weird!
Then I need to do the rest of the finances for the week, reconcile 3 bank accounts anda credit card, do invoices and enter biills, adjust the budget to reflect new bills and incomes from clients.
This next lot won't happen today - no way jose.
Then I need (would like to) edit the photos I took 2 days ago of Mercedes so you can see them. Face it thats why you are on this site - not to hear me whinge!
Then edit the photos of my office (and take the rest of the photos I need to take for insurance and burn them to cd)
Positive thoughts now.
I did have fun on my bike (Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird) again today - I love riding it. Fellow bikers, it corners so sweetly. As you drop your knee into a corner, and shift your weight slightly over the tank, the bike naturally falls into a counter steering pose and as you wind the throttle through the corner (you just feel the need to do that) it settles down hard and just accelerates awesomely. If you were to do that on a normal freeway bend entering it at 100kph in top gear, you would most likely to come out of it doing around 160-180kph and if you straighten up and tuck down and open up the throttle fully it would smoothly accelerate up to well over 250kph (150mph) in a matter of seconds. The bike would feel very stable at these speeds.
Of course I only do that on a closed track never on the highway!
That is FUN!
I did actually experience my first power slide on this bike yesterday. It was entirely accidental. I was accelerating away from a stop sign and turning right into the next street. It was very hot (32 degrees celsius - 92F?) and the tyre was hot and sticky from having just exited a freeway. As I wound the throttle on the back end stepped out quite smoothly and I just crossed up the front, backed of the throttle slightly and it straitened up. All over in less than 1/2 a second but got the pulse pumping. I thought Awesome! Not sure if I could repeat it on purpose though.
OK now its 11:30.
I better get started.
Heres the notes I wrote and have to decipher...
Its my own fault.
Its 11:07PM and I have written a to do list of things that need to be done today. It adds up to about 3 hours of work and I have been procrastinating...
In fact by writing this blog entry I am delaying the start even further.
I need to do:
Invoices for two clients and fax them.
One of them requires me to write an email thats lengthy and involved and has to detail the results of a meeting today where I didn't take enough notes, and the guy who's supposed to send me stuff hasn't (at least he did but it didn't make sense.) So then I have to produce a quote and then I do the invoice for the time taken today - estimate 1/2 hour for that (20 minutes deciphering my notes and 10 minutes writing quote)
Then I need to do up notes from a meeting on Thursday that I am having a follow up meeting from tomorrow at 9am 1/2 hrs drive from here - so this MUST be done before I go to bed cos I wont feel up to it in the am. (same problem - deciphering unintelligable scribble)
Then I need to finish some fiddly bits relating to rebuilding my neighhbours PC so I can give it back to her. Anybody know why a 56 kbps modem connects at a max speed of 7.2kbs? Plain weird!
Then I need to do the rest of the finances for the week, reconcile 3 bank accounts anda credit card, do invoices and enter biills, adjust the budget to reflect new bills and incomes from clients.
This next lot won't happen today - no way jose.
Then I need (would like to) edit the photos I took 2 days ago of Mercedes so you can see them. Face it thats why you are on this site - not to hear me whinge!
Then edit the photos of my office (and take the rest of the photos I need to take for insurance and burn them to cd)
Positive thoughts now.
I did have fun on my bike (Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird) again today - I love riding it. Fellow bikers, it corners so sweetly. As you drop your knee into a corner, and shift your weight slightly over the tank, the bike naturally falls into a counter steering pose and as you wind the throttle through the corner (you just feel the need to do that) it settles down hard and just accelerates awesomely. If you were to do that on a normal freeway bend entering it at 100kph in top gear, you would most likely to come out of it doing around 160-180kph and if you straighten up and tuck down and open up the throttle fully it would smoothly accelerate up to well over 250kph (150mph) in a matter of seconds. The bike would feel very stable at these speeds.
Of course I only do that on a closed track never on the highway!
That is FUN!
I did actually experience my first power slide on this bike yesterday. It was entirely accidental. I was accelerating away from a stop sign and turning right into the next street. It was very hot (32 degrees celsius - 92F?) and the tyre was hot and sticky from having just exited a freeway. As I wound the throttle on the back end stepped out quite smoothly and I just crossed up the front, backed of the throttle slightly and it straitened up. All over in less than 1/2 a second but got the pulse pumping. I thought Awesome! Not sure if I could repeat it on purpose though.
OK now its 11:30.
I better get started.
Heres the notes I wrote and have to decipher...
I'm also going to recommend a read of my wife's blog
She is a fantastic mum to 4 lovely daughters, 1 born 3 days ago. She is my best friend.
Love ya babe!
She is a fantastic mum to 4 lovely daughters, 1 born 3 days ago. She is my best friend.
Love ya babe!
Fantastic but long day
I am well enough (read - broken collar bone nearly mended) to ride my motorbike again
I have been missing doing that.
I went for a long ride today to two clients - excellent fun.
The new baby Mercedes is a real cutie
I will post more pics as soon as I get time to edit them
I am well enough (read - broken collar bone nearly mended) to ride my motorbike again
I have been missing doing that.
I went for a long ride today to two clients - excellent fun.
The new baby Mercedes is a real cutie
I will post more pics as soon as I get time to edit them
Buzz has deemed it "Blog it Forward" day again. This is a day when we select one entry from our blogroll and encourage you to take a look. Fair enough.
My selection for the day is Domestic Psychology
Cathy's regular web pages are here
Fascinating view into an online family with real world problems, dramas, triumphs and successes.
Check them out and say hullo from me.
My selection for the day is Domestic Psychology
Cathy's regular web pages are here
Fascinating view into an online family with real world problems, dramas, triumphs and successes.
Check them out and say hullo from me.
Tech Corner
More info on the music front - RIAA etc
New virus threats
More Microsoft Patches - make sure you either use WIndows Update or download the patches manually
More info on the music front - RIAA etc
New virus threats
More Microsoft Patches - make sure you either use WIndows Update or download the patches manually
Thursday, February 12, 2004
Thanks to Doug for these links
Life After The Oil Crash
Poisonous Legacy
Then from Google
Hubbert Peak
Campaign Against Depleted Uranium
THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF PEAK OIL & GAS
The American Assembler
Doug Rokke - paper presented to House of Commons
All I can say is Wow!.
What the heck are we trying to do to this planet and its inhabitants?
Life After The Oil Crash
Poisonous Legacy
Then from Google
Hubbert Peak
Campaign Against Depleted Uranium
THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF PEAK OIL & GAS
The American Assembler
Doug Rokke - paper presented to House of Commons
All I can say is Wow!.
What the heck are we trying to do to this planet and its inhabitants?
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
I have been fascinated in the story of the Graf Spee ever since as a child I read the encounter of the epic sea battle in World War II between this German pocket battleship and 3 cruisers, one of which was from New Zealand.
It's going to be raised from its watery grave in the River Plate in Uruguay. Article courtesy of BBC News
More info here
Official web site
Unofficial Site
Ship information
It's going to be raised from its watery grave in the River Plate in Uruguay. Article courtesy of BBC News
More info here
Official web site
Unofficial Site
Ship information
Kazaa, Grokster, Napster, P2P etc.
Read the whole article here at The Register
The latest news in Australia is that the Music Industry Privacy Investigations (MIPI) who are affiliated with the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) raided the University of Queensland, the University of New South Wales and Monash University in order to obtain evidence in a trial against Kazaa's owner Sharman Networks.
Long and short they are trying to sue Kazaa and possible the Universities with illegal distributon of copyright material.
The defendants have a smple answer and it is tied up with precedent from other court cases. Eg. Is Xerox held liable for some one using their copier to illegaly reproduce copyright material? No of course not, and niehther is the universty that makes the coipier avaibalbe to students. A recent court case in Norway aqcuitted a programmer who created a dvd ripper because his creating it didnt mean he was in control of how people used it.
I think the court case is a joke to be honest. The music industry is archaic in their approach to this, and are already receiving a big backlash over the RIAA / Pepsi / Apple ads at the superbowl.
In the past if you played your music loudly enough for the neighbours to enjoy, no one cared. If you taped a tv show or a song from the radio to use for you own enjoyment no one cared, if you lent that tape to your friend who didn't record it themselves no one cared. But now there is a file transfer system that can potentially move huge volumes of this stuff around they care.
Now don't get me wrong. I agree with the concept of rewarding effort, and the artists should definitely be being paid. In my mind the distribution medium should also make some money, but the huge superprofits being enjoyed by the music companies are ridiculous and its time for a change.
My solution would be tagging each song download from a P2P distributor with a small fee, using paypal or some other similar system and forwarding a royalty to the artist, and the distribution system keeping the rest. Then we would see true competition for distribution of the actual music. P2P distributors would need to ensure the integrity of the files being transferred through a rating system similar to ebays seller rating system and screen out viruses and malware.
How many times have you bought a cd and not liked all the songs, but had to buy them all becuase they were all on the same cd? Well with this proposed model, you could try before you buy with a sample (like in a physical cd store) and then only purchase the songs you want.
Questions
What do you think about this? Do you have an alternative?
Have you or would you use a P2P file sharing service?
Read the whole article here at The Register
The latest news in Australia is that the Music Industry Privacy Investigations (MIPI) who are affiliated with the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) raided the University of Queensland, the University of New South Wales and Monash University in order to obtain evidence in a trial against Kazaa's owner Sharman Networks.
Long and short they are trying to sue Kazaa and possible the Universities with illegal distributon of copyright material.
The defendants have a smple answer and it is tied up with precedent from other court cases. Eg. Is Xerox held liable for some one using their copier to illegaly reproduce copyright material? No of course not, and niehther is the universty that makes the coipier avaibalbe to students. A recent court case in Norway aqcuitted a programmer who created a dvd ripper because his creating it didnt mean he was in control of how people used it.
I think the court case is a joke to be honest. The music industry is archaic in their approach to this, and are already receiving a big backlash over the RIAA / Pepsi / Apple ads at the superbowl.
In the past if you played your music loudly enough for the neighbours to enjoy, no one cared. If you taped a tv show or a song from the radio to use for you own enjoyment no one cared, if you lent that tape to your friend who didn't record it themselves no one cared. But now there is a file transfer system that can potentially move huge volumes of this stuff around they care.
Now don't get me wrong. I agree with the concept of rewarding effort, and the artists should definitely be being paid. In my mind the distribution medium should also make some money, but the huge superprofits being enjoyed by the music companies are ridiculous and its time for a change.
My solution would be tagging each song download from a P2P distributor with a small fee, using paypal or some other similar system and forwarding a royalty to the artist, and the distribution system keeping the rest. Then we would see true competition for distribution of the actual music. P2P distributors would need to ensure the integrity of the files being transferred through a rating system similar to ebays seller rating system and screen out viruses and malware.
How many times have you bought a cd and not liked all the songs, but had to buy them all becuase they were all on the same cd? Well with this proposed model, you could try before you buy with a sample (like in a physical cd store) and then only purchase the songs you want.
Questions
What do you think about this? Do you have an alternative?
Have you or would you use a P2P file sharing service?
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
This is an hilarious comment on tourism in Australia and Ayers Rock - Mango Biscuits
The owner of Codswallop and Flapdoodle lives here. He posts this interesting article about Google
The owner of Codswallop and Flapdoodle lives here. He posts this interesting article about Google
John has tackled racism as his next major controversial topic. Check out his article and the comments posted.
Good on ya John for tackling this one - many wouldn't dare.
I'd like to offer my 2 cents.
I have an intellectual opinion and a practical application that sometimes differ. My intellect tells me that there is virtually no difference between a person of any colour, or race genetically. Any differences are so minor as to not matter, and are equivalent to other physical characteristic differences. Don't take my word for it here are some web sites that can help - there are more out there I am sure.
Skin Deep and One Blood
My practical application differs when I get confused and look at some one - usually an Asian person - and I think that they are different because I can't understand their language and cultural differences etc.
I think that this is where racism starts, It comes from a mistrust of someone we find difficult to understand, rumours and myths about their race become "true" and soon we are discriminating against them perhaps unintentionally. From there deliberate discrimination becomes full blown racism, taken to its extreme by groups such as the Klu Klux Klan etc.
How to solve it. Simplistically, ignore colour, language and race. My parents never discriminated against other races and I vividly remember times when they took pains to introduce myself and my siblings to foreigners who had appeared in our town and Mum and Dad would bring them home for tea. I learnt fascinating things about them and their home and culture as a small child that I have never forgotten.
In practice removing deep seated misunderstandings and hatreds, often from which feuds and wars have developed (Uganda amd Rwanda for example) is fraught with difficulty, and maybe impossible. Perhaps whole generations must die and forget the past in order for this to happen.
Good on ya John for tackling this one - many wouldn't dare.
I'd like to offer my 2 cents.
I have an intellectual opinion and a practical application that sometimes differ. My intellect tells me that there is virtually no difference between a person of any colour, or race genetically. Any differences are so minor as to not matter, and are equivalent to other physical characteristic differences. Don't take my word for it here are some web sites that can help - there are more out there I am sure.
Skin Deep and One Blood
My practical application differs when I get confused and look at some one - usually an Asian person - and I think that they are different because I can't understand their language and cultural differences etc.
I think that this is where racism starts, It comes from a mistrust of someone we find difficult to understand, rumours and myths about their race become "true" and soon we are discriminating against them perhaps unintentionally. From there deliberate discrimination becomes full blown racism, taken to its extreme by groups such as the Klu Klux Klan etc.
How to solve it. Simplistically, ignore colour, language and race. My parents never discriminated against other races and I vividly remember times when they took pains to introduce myself and my siblings to foreigners who had appeared in our town and Mum and Dad would bring them home for tea. I learnt fascinating things about them and their home and culture as a small child that I have never forgotten.
In practice removing deep seated misunderstandings and hatreds, often from which feuds and wars have developed (Uganda amd Rwanda for example) is fraught with difficulty, and maybe impossible. Perhaps whole generations must die and forget the past in order for this to happen.
Yeehah - I have another daughter!
I forgot to take the camera to the hospital but I did get some recordings of some of Mercedes Jean's first cries.
Her name is pronounced mursaydeez gene
Here is the story of her birth on Judith's Blog
Here are the recordings. Click on them to play in your browser or right click and "Save As" to copy them to your hard drive.
Mercedes at 5 minutes old baby2.wav
Mercedes at 26 minutes old baby3.wav
I will publish photos later today.
I forgot to take the camera to the hospital but I did get some recordings of some of Mercedes Jean's first cries.
Her name is pronounced mursaydeez gene
Here is the story of her birth on Judith's Blog
Here are the recordings. Click on them to play in your browser or right click and "Save As" to copy them to your hard drive.
Mercedes at 5 minutes old baby2.wav
Mercedes at 26 minutes old baby3.wav
I will publish photos later today.
Monday, February 09, 2004
And its week 4 in Blogger Idol.
This weeks theme is "Ooops"
Just for a laugh I decided to interpret this week's theme with a selective Google search of interesting web sites found with the word Ooops.
By the way before you dismiss this entry with cries of "cheat", I did spend considerable time sifting through lots of interesting google results and didn't pick the first 4 I found. I tried to pick at least one from the main page, because that's obviously current and topical (according to Google anyway) and then went hunting for the more obscure that fit the theme.
Here are a few found with just the word Ooops".
Wrong Planet Syndrome Aspergers Syndrome
Organization of Online Pipe Smokers
Ooops.net
Ooops Journal - Is Ooops a word in Cyrillic?
I then decided to explore the words Ooops and some other words to see if I could form a causal relationship between an activity and the words Ooops. Here's what I found with
Ooops Justin - to see if he said that to Janet...
stern.de - It must be in the German dictionary
Ilustrada - is it Spanish as well?
KissMe - and Italian also it seems
Justin mounts a bird incorrectly
Ooops Iraq - to see what Dubba might have said about that
thetip.org
Scoop
Half Bakery.
News & Opinion
Ooops Antarctica - to see why someone would say that there
Penguins - educational
Dale's Journal - worth the read
Canadian Aviation - Check the mishaps page
The Wetass Chronicles
Ooops blog - to see if there's anybody else doing a post about Ooops that's not doing blogger idol
Mike Tuesday
Balloon Juice
Davids Medienkritik
This one is for the cool anime background
This weeks theme is "Ooops"
Just for a laugh I decided to interpret this week's theme with a selective Google search of interesting web sites found with the word Ooops.
By the way before you dismiss this entry with cries of "cheat", I did spend considerable time sifting through lots of interesting google results and didn't pick the first 4 I found. I tried to pick at least one from the main page, because that's obviously current and topical (according to Google anyway) and then went hunting for the more obscure that fit the theme.
Here are a few found with just the word Ooops".
Wrong Planet Syndrome Aspergers Syndrome
Organization of Online Pipe Smokers
Ooops.net
Ooops Journal - Is Ooops a word in Cyrillic?
I then decided to explore the words Ooops and some other words to see if I could form a causal relationship between an activity and the words Ooops. Here's what I found with
Ooops Justin - to see if he said that to Janet...
stern.de - It must be in the German dictionary
Ilustrada - is it Spanish as well?
KissMe - and Italian also it seems
Justin mounts a bird incorrectly
Ooops Iraq - to see what Dubba might have said about that
thetip.org
Scoop
Half Bakery.
News & Opinion
Ooops Antarctica - to see why someone would say that there
Penguins - educational
Dale's Journal - worth the read
Canadian Aviation - Check the mishaps page
The Wetass Chronicles
Ooops blog - to see if there's anybody else doing a post about Ooops that's not doing blogger idol
Mike Tuesday
Balloon Juice
Davids Medienkritik
This one is for the cool anime background
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