Naaman's Life

A Problem with Capitalism

2011-04-19T19:42:00.001+08:00

I have had this nagging irritation that capitalism is fundamentally flawed for some time, but haven't had a good way to articulate it till now. It seems to me today that capitalism makes the assumption that it can provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people, by in turn assuming that people are rational and will work in their own self-interest. The aggregate of that rational self-interest will be seen in demand curves and these curves drive capitalism.

The problem with this is that it confuses needs with desires. Like a kid, we assume that what we desire is what we need. And that the demand represented in a demand curve will answer needs humans have. Sadly, more often than not that curve represents not needs but wants, and not necessarily even very valid wants.

It's the job of a marketer to generate demand, and he or she does so by generating a want, and then helping us persuade ourselves that this is a need. Consequently, all my childhood, I needed the latest pair of Nike running shoes … despite the fact it would never answer any real need I had, and would be constructed in a sweat shop. This didn't provide the greatest good for the great number, merely fulfilling a whim for some, while injuring others. Today I need to update my phone every year because, well, I need too, despite the cost in natural resources and pollution that doing so wrecks. Again, not the greatest good for the greatest number.

So in the end capitalism is irrational and against our ultimate self-interest. It serves only to feed money from those with the greatest need to those with the least. Not good, since it seems to be the new religion of most of the world.

Probably not new thinking, but new to me.

The Biggest Tsunami ever!

2011-03-15T12:44:00.001+08:00

Without underestimating the suffering of those in Japan, Christchurch, Haiti and other earthquake ravaged places at present, we are still all lucky it was not worse. As the media have drummed into us, this was a mega quake, measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale, and it generated a devastating tsunami with waves up to 10 metres high (incredible video here). In 1953 in Alaska, an earthquake measured at 8.3 on the Richter scale generated a tsunami. The wave that hit reached a height of 524 metres. I'll repeat that. 524 metres of water crashing down! Putting that in perspective, that's higher than the Empire State building!

BMW Hates Me!

2011-03-02T14:32:00.001+08:00

My new car arrived recently, after much waiting and delay. However, it seems that there is a conspiracy to get me. In my old car (a now very dilapidated Honda Legend) I had one accident (a young driver decided that that whole right of way thing on round-abouts is for sissys, and decided to drive through me rather than wait their turn). That's it in over 10 years of driving that car. Since I got my new car 6 months ago, I have been hit twice. Both times by ladies working in the mental health field, both times by drivers of the BMW X series of vehicles.

The first time, a driver of a BMW X3 convinced herself that the bumping, grinding sensation as she backed from her position at stop lights (!) into a parallel park beside my vehicle was unlikely to be related to my car being between her and the car park, and that me honking and waving to get her to stop was nothing more than the raving of deranged tailgater (seriously, in heavy traffic, with cars backed up behind us, she decided it was a good time to leave the intersection backwards, not forwards).

The second time, a driver of a BMW X5 forgot a couple of important details of the road. Firstly, red light means stop, not go. Secondly, that cars stopped in front of me means stop as well, irrespective of what any pesky light may be saying.

Anyway, long and short of it is that I have had BMW X vehicles attempting to wipe off both my front and rear bumpers in the less than 4 months I have been driving my new car. But I can see the pattern now, and I'm ready for it. Not sure whether the next one will be an X7 or and X9 (depends on which pattern of progression is happening here), but I expect and BMW X something to T-bone me from the side.

Where Will the Next Big One Strike?

2011-02-28T13:34:00.003+08:00

Just quickly, great Infographic out at Good crystallising a lot of earthquake related data.

Going Places

2011-02-28T11:37:00.005+08:00

A long time ago (back in early 2007), I wrote brief post about some of the places I've been blessed to visit. Been to a few more now, and have added Spain, Russia, Jordan, Israel, Turkey, Cuba, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Greece, Japan and China to my list. Pretty happy with that.

Fix for Outlook 2010 Signature Problem

2011-02-15T10:30:00.001+08:00

Found a solution to a very frustrating Microsoft Outlook 2010 problem here. On Windows 7, running Office 2010, the signature pane becomes totally inaccessible. The button to allow you edit your signature is there, but it does nothing. Finally found a fix for this today (desperation gave my Google wings). It requires editing the contents of two keys paths in the Registry. The two keys are:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{0006F03A-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\LocalServer32
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{0006F03A-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\LocalServer32

Within these key paths there are two keys that appear:

(Default)
LocalServer32

On my machine the (Default) key had a value of C:\PROGRA~2\MICROS~2\Office14\OUTLOOK.EXE and the LocalServer32 key had a value of 1^V8!!!!!!!!PZKSkOUTLOOKFiles>tF{~$3Q]c@qPX6MxaTO5 (or something like that). All four of these values need to be changed to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\Outlook.exe and Outlook rebooted. And then everything should just work, like magic! And so far, no nasty side effects!

The Really Simple Toggle iPhone App I Want

2010-11-17T14:16:00.001+08:00

OK, so we went ahead and got iPhone 4s for work. Mostly all good, although a little bit bigger and more fragile than our sturdy Nokia E71s. And the whole millions of apps things is sort of handy. However, there is 1 app I really want and just can't find. Actually, make that 2. I want an app that is simply a toggle button. All it does is switches tethering on and off. And another one for Bluetooth. In other words, want to be able to touch on an icon on the home screen and Bluetooth switches on, touch again and its off. Better yet if the icon can indicate whether it's on or off. Come on someone, write this already. I reckon lots of other people would be willing to pay for this app.

JZX110 Mark II Fortuna by Modellista Information

2010-04-13T23:24:00.002+08:00

I went digging through some old sites and then used the Wayback Machine to find the original content of the sites (now lost) and then used Google Translate to translate the content into an approximation of English. Long winded, I know. But I couldn't find this information anywhere else.

This info is mainly from the Toyota Japan site, back in 2002-2004. And yes, the color coding is tricky and doesn't make much sense. I think they mean this:

■ Special Features (red)

■ Standard (blue)

■ Optional (yellow)

■ Dealer installed options (by Moderisuta) (purple)

Is this a warning?

2010-04-13T23:04:00.001+08:00

Is it just me or have there been a lot of large-ish earthquakes this year? Haiti, Chile, Indonesia and now, this. Are we being warned? A quote from this article out of the LA Times:

"The number of quakes greater than magnitude 4.0 in Southern California and Baja California has increased significantly in 2010. There have been 70 such quakes so far this year, the most of any year in the last decade. And it's only April. There were 30 in 2009 and 29 in 2008. Seismologists said they are studying the uptick but cannot fully explain it."

Be ready!

Making Stuff Happen

2009-12-23T11:19:00.001+08:00

Sometimes stuff doesn't seem to happen in a timely manner in MOSS. Sometimes you just need to give it a bit of a kick along. Here is a little command to do just that.

Stsadm –o execadmsvcjobs

How to move Microsoft SharePoint databases from one SQL server to another

2009-09-24T12:09:00.001+08:00

I have been using Ahmed Ammar's excellent instructions for moving MOSS databases. However, I noticed I could only find them in the Google cache, so I have taken the liberty of repeating them in total here, with a couple of notes from me. Ahmed, let me know if you want me to take this down, but folks, in the interests of preserving a very useful resource, here are Ahmed's instructions.

Step 1 – Move
SharePoint_AdminContent

Step 2 – Move Sharepoint_Config database

Step 3 – Move all other site collection databases

Step 4 – Restore Indexers and SSP (Shared Service Provider)

Step 5 – Correct configuration database.

Shortcuts:

SSP: SharePoint Service Provider
CA: Central Administration
RDP: Remote Desktop
MOSSSRV: Web Front server hosting SharePoint central administration and web service.
OLDSQL: SQL server you want to move DBs from.
NEWSQL: SQL server you want to move DBs to.

Prerequisite:

Write down version of your SharePoint farm.

New SQL server needs to have mixed security mode set and TCPIP access enabled.

Local SQL user is required for DB access and creation, together with domain search account, that will perform crawling.

Topology

MOSS 2007 SP2 – ver. 12.0.0.6421 with two servers in a farm. (Win2k3 and W2k8 32 bit systems)

One web front end hosting CA and second SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition.

Step 1 – Move Sharepoint_AdminContent database

Central Administration website is stored in Sharepoint_AdminContent
Database, thus it cannot be moved from administration interface, however you can see it there under its web application.

0, Login to OLDSQL and make backups of all databases related to SharePoint farm to shared folder.

1, Put DB offline using CA - Application Management – Content Databases – select proper web application "SharePoint Central Administration V3" and change database status offline.

DO NOT CHECK REMOVE!!!

2, Login to MOSSSRV server using RDP

(I recommend you to create BAT files with commands, in case you mistype character and close CMD.EXE window by mistake.)

Launch prepare to move command from CMD.EXE or BAT file:

STSADM –o preparetomove –contentdb OLDMOSS:SharePoint_AdminConfig_0245-87547-a547f" –site http://mosssrv:4235

After Operation completed successfully, disconnect DB using:

STSADM –o deletecontentdb –url "http://mosssrv:4235" –databasename "SharePoint_AdminConfig_0245-5698-485-asd21"

3, Switch to OLDSQL server and in SQL Management studio backup SharePoint_AdminContent_2254-sdsa454-45454
database.

After backup, copy this DB to NEWSQL and restore database. Now it's the best time to rename database just to "SharePoint_AdminContent" and get rid of GUID.

4, Go back to MOSSSRV and launch attach DB command :

STSADM –o addcontentdb –url http://mosssrv:4235 –databasename "SharePoint_AdminConfig" -databaseserver "NEWSQL"

5, After operation completed appear, launch command iisreset /noforce.

6, Check http://mosssrv:4235 – e.g. CA website if it is functioning.

Now you moved Sharepoint_AdminContent
database and renamed it to more understandable name.

Step 2 - Move Sharepoint_Config database

Most difficult part from SharePoint structure view is moving Sharepoint_Content database. This is the first database created and holds settings of your Sharepoint structures.

1,Go to OLDSQL and backup Sharepoint_Content database with suffix "before_move" for example "SharePoint_Config_before_move.bak"

2, Go to MOSSSRV and launch command to disconnect database from server :

Psconfig.exe –cmd configdb –disconnect

3, Go to OLDSQL server and in SQL Management studio backup SharePoint_Config
database.

After backup, copy this DB to NEWSQL and restore database.

4, Connect database back to sharepoint farm using :

psconfig.exe -cmd configdb -connect -server "newsql" -database "SharePoint_Config" -dbuser "mossdbcreate" -dbpassword "Aaa123456" -user "DOMAIN\USER" -password "user_password"

Notes:

· mossdbcreate user is local NEWSQL user with permission to create DB.

· DOMAIN\USER is user that was set as Sharepoint Administrator. ( I used domain admin account for all these operations.)

· Your new "SharePoint_AdminContent" database will be used automatically.

Naaman's Life Note:

This didn't work for me, so in the end I ran the following command, which worked:

psconfig.exe -cmd configdb -connect -server "newsql" -database "SharePoint_Config" -user "DOMAIN\USER" -password "user_password"

5, Launch Sharepoint Technology wizard and provision new CA :

· Choose "No do not disconnect" and click NEXT,

· Change the port to the same you had before e.g. 4235 in our case !! and leave NTLM and click NEXT

· Wizard will now display summary page (already filled with NEWSQL name) and will start creating CA website.After finish it will open you CA website.

Browse around to check everything is functioning…try SSP Admin page for example.

Now we almost finished move of Sharepoin_Config DB, but this step needs to be finished as described in last step. ( You may notice, that in Operations – Server in Farm is written OLDSQL as home of configuration database.)

Step 3 - Move all SharePoint Site Collection Content Databases

Now move all production "normal" databases.

1, restore your production DBs from step 0 to NEWSQL or backup them all again at OLDSQL and restore in NEWSQL.

2, Go to CA – Application Management – Content DB

3, Change the web application from the drop down list appropriately.

4, open content DB, write down its name, select "offline" and check "Remove Content Database". (If database was created using special account use that account to delete it).

5, After removal, click "Add Content Database" and add the same database but from NEWSQL.

Repeat these steps for all your production databases.

Note: Some sources are recommending to use chain : preparetoremove > disconnect > connect (same as in Sharepoint_AdminContent) to move all content databases. This is probably needed, if you are moving databases to different farm environment and not to the same Sharepoint_Config database. It has something to do with site and DB GUID.

Step 4 – Restore SSP

Shared Service Provider – is a feature of Sharepoint Farm and you will not found it by WSS. As name is saying it goes about services, that could be shared in a farm. For example crawling (or indexing or searching) could be configured here and one server can perform crawling and its searchDB could be then used be then used by other servers in a farm.

1, Go to OLDSQL and backup SharedServiceProved_DB (in fact I do not know default name, but there are two databases for SSP – one is content and second is search.)

Then go to NEWSQL and restore this DB. There is no reason to restore search DB, because it will be created anyway.

2, Open CA - In order to restore SSP from a database you need to enable indexers. This is done in Operations – Servers on Farm – Office SharePoint Server Search.

You need to provide content access account – see prerequisites. You can then leave default name of search DB – WSS_SEARCH_MOSSSRV.

3, In the same menu enable also second Office search service.

4, Go back to SSP Administration page – now choose "Restore SSP"

Fill the form with existing DB name you restored to NEWSQL and click OK.

Note : Restoration and provisioning process of new SSP could take long time.

You can also get into trouble here, especially if SharePoint's versions are different. You need to be sure, you are restoring SSP from same version of SharePoint system.

5, After successful finish you should see two providers. Now, by clicking "Change associations" change association of old SSP's web applications to new one.

6, By clicking on "Change Default SSP" you change default SSP to restored one.

7, Delete old SSP with option "and delete the associated databases". After clicking OK, un-provisioning of old SSP will occur and it takes a lot of time. May be you will need to restart IIS with /noforce if system will stop responding.

Now you are done with moving all the databases. Before continuing, please double-check all content databases are transferred. You can stop SQL Server service on OLDSQL and check all sites and CA.

Step 5 – Correct configuration database

As you may noticed, no one told Sharepoint_Config, that configuration database is not on old server, but someplace else. In fact this should be done by disconnecting and connecting operations done by SharePoint Wizard, but system writes, that config DB is still on OLDSQL in CA.

Fact is, system is now using NEWSQL for SharepointConfig, but some sub-systems may not work, because somewhere is still written OLDSQL.

In my case, creating site collection from stsadm in new contentdb was issuing error, that DB is not accessible. Unfortunately, system did not write which DB, so I naturally thought it was NEWSQL, that is not accessible and I have bad credentials, but content DB was created, so what was wrong??

I then started OLDSQL resp. SQL service there is tried again.

So I looked at NEWSQL – directly into SharePoint_Config database and find out you have to change Name in first row in dbo.Objects table, where OLDSQL still resides.

I did it using "New Query" button in SQL Management studio and executing this SQL command.

update dbo.Objects set Name = replace(Name, 'oldsql','newsql.ccc.com')

Note : You cannot use newsql name only, because then system reports an error. My workaround was to use FQDN e.g. with dns name like MS's favorite contoso.local - it is unique in table, and still valid for the system. Probably you can create DNS A record and use this one instead. It will anyway point to same location.

Sharepoint Migration

2009-09-24T12:02:00.001+08:00

Currently working on migrating the databases for a MOSS 2007 install from one SQL Server to another. To be more precise, I am moving the database from one instance on one node of a clustered SQL Server to the clustered instance of the SQL Server itself. Anyway, have been working though Ammed Ammar's excellent instructions (I found them here). Had moved my Admin_Content db, and was in the process of moving the Config db when I hit a roadblock. Was using the psconfig.exe command to reconnect to my now migrated Config database and kept on getting the dreaded "The server parameter specified with the configdb command is invalid. Failed to connect to the database server or the database name does not exist. Ensure the database server exists, is a Sql server, and that you have the appropriate permissions to access the database server. To diagnose the problem, review the extended error information located at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\LOGS\PSCDiagnostics_9_24_2009_11_5_7_53_419108824.log. Please consult the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard help for additional information regarding database server security configuration and network access." error ...

Couldn't work out the appropriate username and password to connect to the database for this command ... I finally found a solution by fluke. Ammed suggest the following command to reconnect the config database:

psconfig.exe -cmd configdb -connect -server "newsql" -database "SharePoint_Config" -dbuser "mossdbcreate" -dbpassword "Aaa123456" -user "DOMAIN\USER" -password "user_password"

If that doesn't work, try running the cmd exe from your mossdbcreate account using "runas /user:Doman\mossdbcreate /noprofile cmd.exe" and then use the following simplification of the psconfig command:

psconfig.exe -cmd configdb -connect -server "newsql" -database "SharePoint_Config" -user "DOMAIN\USER" -password "user_password"

Worked for me, anyway. Let me know if it helps you out.

Monopoly City Streets Housing

2009-09-11T12:01:00.004+08:00

Just done some analysis on the rates of return from houses in the new Monopoly City Streets. It seems to me that the City Centre Cottage is the best building to build if you are not running out of space.

Building	Price (1000s)	Return (1000s)	Rate of Return
Green House	50	9	18.000%
City Centre Cottage	75	14	18.667%
Cane Top Multiplex	150	23	15.333%
The Sentinel	175	28	16.000%
High Reach Place	200	33	16.500%
Nova Tower Block	300	51	17.000%
PolyHedron Plaza	400	66	16.500%
The Grid Building	500	85	17.000%
Four Sided Fortress	600	95	15.833%
Nori Place	750	104	13.867%
Honeycomb Complex	900	123	13.667%
Blanco Bastion	1100	142	12.909%
The Photat Building	1500	180	12.000%
Cubix Quarters	2000	180	9.000%
Opaque Overlook	2800	209	7.464%
Tri-Rectangle Tower	3900	228	5.846%
Spear End Summit	5000	247	4.940%
Unbounded Megaplex	6000	266	4.433%

Update: OK, just made the discovery that the amount you make for properties has an effect on the return. It appears that the higher the value of the street the greater the return on the building. So rental returns will depend on having high quality streets. Even so, the City Centre Cottage still remains the building with the best return. I am making 60% on mine!

Sharepoint Regional Settings or the Saga of the Non US Date Format

2009-03-10T12:17:00.007+09:00

Actually, this is a rather short saga. Today I've been struggling with the fact that WSS 3.0 (this post does not apply to MOSS), by default uses American date formats (MM.dd.YYYY), and that there seemed to be no way to change this. However, I just happened to be wandering through the LAYOUTS folder in the 12 hive (don't ask me what I was doing there) and found a file called regionalsetng.aspx. Turns out, if you open your Central Administration site and alter the path to point to this file (eg http://myserver:12345/_layouts/regionalsetng.aspx), bingo, you get Regional Settings. It is rather bizarre that there appears to be no link to this page from anywhere. Kind of like the mysterious 13 floor on lots of buildings. Or not.

Update: Not sure why this happens, but a regional change made at the top of a Site Collection will not necessarily populate right through the sites below. Sometimes each site must be opened and the regional settings changed there.

Site Collections in MOSS 2007

2009-03-09T10:34:00.004+09:00

Been setting up MOSS lately, primarily to serve as a file system replacement. Due to the large volume of files going in, we felt that it just might be a good idea to break the volume of files up into separate site collections. One of the big advantages of creating a separate site collection for each block of files or part of the business is that each site collection, unlike a site, can have its own database on SQL. Site collections can also be recycled and restored independently of each other. The way to tell MOSS to create a site collection with its own database is to use STADM and use a command similar to the following:

stsadm.exe -o createsiteinnewdb -url "http://myMOSSsite/sitecollectionname" -owneremail "owners.email@mycompany.com" -ownerlogin "mydomain\my.superuserlogin" -sitetemplate "thesitetemplate_I_want_to_use#1" -title "MyCollectionName" -databaseserver "mySQLserver\myMOSSinstance" -databasename "WSS_Content_sitecollectionname"

ASUS U/UX Notebook Series Announced

2009-03-04T17:00:00.008+09:00

As some of you may know, I am on the hunt for a new notebook to replace my geriatric Sony Vaio SZ (it's had a hard life). Engadget is reporting that ASUS has announced 2 new notebook series, one of which (the U series) looks pretty good to me. There is little information available on these machines, although from the picture here (note the numberpad) it seems that the UX series will include a 15 inch, and be very sleek and glossy. It also appears that at a minimum it will have:

Slot loading optical drive (according to Engadget)
At least 2 USB ports
HDMI port
Network port
Headphone and line in jacks
Backlit chicklet keyboard with numberpad
Ambient light sensor
Altec Lansing speakers with SRS true surround sound

The U series on the other hand looks like having the following specs:

A 12 inch (U20), a 14 inch (U80) and a 15 inch (U50) options to be available
Backlit chicklet keyboard
Normal tray loading optical drive
Inbuilt webcam
Ambient light sensor

Updated: The 12 inch U20 (pictured here), will include:

Intel Core 2 Solo SU3300
Mobile Intel GS45 Chipset
Up to 4Gb RAM
2.5 inch HDD up to 500Gb
DVD Super Multi Drive
Built in 1.2 M web cam
Less than 2 kg

The 15 inch U50 will, according to Engadget include:

An Intel Core 2 Duo processor
NVIDIA GeForce G105M
Up to 500GB HDD
Altec Lansing speakers with SRS true surround sound

Both series include what is described as "a frame inspired by the curvature of a butterfly's wings", which sounds pretty lame, but looks like this! So far so good. Let's hope they come up with goods ... 12 inch, internal optical drive, GPU and less than 1.8kg.

Update - Late April: Looks like these may, emphasize, may have been released somewhere. AVING is reporting that the ASUS U/UX Series have been released in Korea. Meanwhile, NordicHardware thinks the U series, the UZ series and the Edge series will be "presented" (whatever that means) at Computex in July. NordicHardware also suggests that the UX series are high end notebooks, while the U will be midrange. Too little information, too slowly,

Update 2 - May 4: ASUS in the Philippines has apparently released a news update on the U Series, with a very entertaining photo. I say apparently because Hardware Zone sites the Philippino Asus site, but I can't find the information on it.

Update 3 - May 5: Sigh! Doesn't look like either the U Series or the UX Series will make the grade. ASUS have just released specs and those that are light enough to meet my criteria (sub 2Kg) lack a discreet GPU. What do we need to do to get a non-Sony, GPU and optical drive equipped sub 2Kg notebook?

Two Big Lies

2009-02-12T10:08:00.003+09:00

Back in 2006, I posted about the Anglican church selling out on evolution. Today, the SMH reports the Catholic church has done likewise. Two big lies really.

Firstly, that evolution is compatible with the bible ... despite Jesus apparently endorsing Moses' literal view of creation.

Secondly, that the church cares about what the Bible or God think. After all, why concern yourself over God's word when you consider yourself God On Earth (see the start of the 5th paragraph of the Encyclical Letter Præclara Gratulationis Publicæ of Pope Leo XIII).

Groove and Sharepoint Integration in Office 14

2008-11-12T17:08:00.002+09:00

I was talking to someone in the know about the development path that Microsoft's Office suite is heading down, and they let drop a very interesting piece of information. Apparently, in Office 14, the Sharepoint client will be Groove. This makes great sense, and means that document storage and collaboration is starting to get similar tools to mail. I envisage a Outlook style interface for documents that allows for seamless collaboration, dissemination and backup.

The World's Best Coffee Makers

2008-09-23T17:18:00.003+08:00

OK, so the title is a little misleading. You may have got here thinking you were going to be regaled with tales of daring baristas who snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in the java brewing contests of yore. Sadly, I am going to tell you about what I believe is the best coffee making machine in the world ... and even then I have caveats on that. The best coffee making machine in the world under $1000 dollars.

Cutting to the chase, I believe that the Rancilio Silvia fills the role of world's best coffee maker admirably. The reasons for my bold statement are as follows:

It sells for under $1000 dollars ($750 Aussie dollars in approx in these parts)
Despite the price, it will give a shot almost as good as a full commercial unit worth 5 times the price
It's not one of these automated, all bells and whistles type machines, that flawlessly grinds, magically steams and produces terrible coffee - The coffee that comes out is totally up to the skill of the person driving
It's a coffee machine that really teaches you how to make coffee. Refer Point 3
It's a rubust little thing. I've had mine for over 3 years, and it just had it's first service today ... and all it required was a washer replaced and a descale. To quote CoffeeGeek, it's robust and built like a tank
You can make steamed milk properly with it. None of this frustrating nerk-nerk-nerk of the nasty little units on most department store shelves. This thing really gets the milk spinning
Point 6 is possible because unlike most cheaper machines, the Rancilio has a little boiler that it uses for heating the water and producing the steam, not a thermablock
Despite all that has been mentioned above, it still looks pretty good in a square kind of silvery way

If you want some more information, Greg Pullman of Pullman's Tampers fame, reviews the Rancilio Silvia here and compares it with the top of the range Sunbeam. Worth a read. If you've got the time, read my post on steaming milk (with a Rancilio of course), and an old Boing Boing post on Miss Silvia.

The (Internet) Toast of Town

2008-09-12T12:17:00.005+08:00

Those of you who have such empty and vapid lives that you have read some of my older posts will realise that I have an unhealthy interest in high tech toasters and in particular, "the internet toaster". In fact I have been posting on this very subject since 2005. So of course, my interest was piqued by a post on the appropriately named (for this topic) CrunchGear and other places about a toaster design concept that can print toast whatever you want on your thick, crisp and heavily buttered. I say make it happen, Electrolux. But make it wireless with a app that allows you to pick an RSS feed or weather report or something similar to be printed on said crisp and warmed.

Other posts on this stomach warming subject can be found here and here.

Incidentally, Hobbes Internet Timeline refers to an Internet enabled toaster as far back as 1990.

New Largest House in the World

2008-08-29T14:38:00.004+08:00

Back in March 08, I addressed the subject of the World's Largest House. Bizarrely, this post became the most popular on my blog, and has stayed in the top 3 most frequently hit pages every day since then. At the time, I noted that the Biltmore House built by the Vanderbilt family was most likely the largest private home in the world.

However, it appears that an India business man has taken umbrage at this post and decided to claim the crown of the owner of the world's biggest home. He is none other than Mukesh Ambani, and he is building a 400,000 square foot home in Mumbai, India. Now, I did a quick conversion and that works out at over 37,000 square metres of home sweet home (conversion tool online here).

Apparently, this is to be spread across 27 stories and will include 3 helicopter pads, the hanging gardens of Mumbai, a yoga studio and a private ice palace. It will also have a staff of over 600. Mukesh Ambani is listed on Wikipedia as being the world's 5th richest man, and he made his money (US$43 billion and counting) in petro-chemicals, according to Forbes.

So there you have it. The new biggest house in the world. Videos of the biggest house here.

Steaming Trick for Awesome Milk

2008-08-11T13:30:00.002+08:00

I haven't written many posts on coffee or recently, so thought I would rectify that with this brief post. Given I am still developing my "milk steaming skillz" (I'm a level 6 Milk Steamer with a +3 Jug of Steaming ;), I need all the help I can to get that velvety smooth texture that one wants on ones milk. One snag I often find is that I am still mucking about trying to stretch and texture the milk by the point it gets hot, and figuring that burnt milk is worse than poorly textured milk, I usually give up at that point. I know I have already mentioned this, but its worth mentioning again ... to give myself a bit more time, not only do I make sure that the milk is cold to start with, but I keep the jug in the freezer till needed. I reckon that using a frozen jug gives me an extra 5 seconds or so texturing the milk. Give it a try and let me know if it helps.

Sharepoint Workflow to Make Items Context Aware

2008-07-11T16:01:00.004+08:00

One of the things I have wanted since I first started working with Sharepoint 2007 is to have the documents and items in Sharepoint/MOSS be context aware. What I mean by that (and people may understand different things by "context aware") is that when an item is created or moved, the item itself knows where it now is. I want a custom column or metadata element that is automagically updated to reflect the context. For me, this mostly means having a custom column that keeps up to date with the folder a document or item is in.

I did the normal stuff people do to get this happening. I mucked around for ages with Microsoft Office Sharepoint Designer (MOSD), trying to get the workflow wizard to build a workflow to do this. No such luck. In the end I created a custom workflow in Visual Studio 2005 to do this for me, and thought I would share the code with my vast readership (yes, you know who you are, all 3 of you). This code may seem a bit cludgey to some of you. If you can see a better way to do this, let me know. Pre-empting one comment though, every time I tried to reference WorkflowProperties.Item.File.ParentFolder, or any variation on this, VS kindly told me that this was null. I suspect that if I try this for a document it will work, but as I use this code to make tasks context aware, there is no file object?

This code is particularly useful, because if you copule this with my previous Sharepoint related post about displaying Sharepoint custom columns in Outlook, it means that you can show in Outlook the Sharepoint context of a task ... Handy!

private void logWorkflowStarted_MethodInvoking(object sender, EventArgs e)
{

SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
{
//Default value
FolderName = "Unknown";
//Get the current item
SPListItem listItem = WorkflowProperties.Item;
//Get web reference
SPWeb web = listItem.Web;
//Get list reference
SPList list = web.Lists[listItem.ParentList.ID];
//Get URL for item
string FullURL = web.Url + listItem.Url;
//Get last slash
int index = FullURL.LastIndexOf("/");
//Set parent folder URL
string parentFolderUrl = string.Empty;
//If slash found
if (index > -1)
{
//Get url of parent
parentFolderUrl = FullURL.Substring(0, index);
//Get folder
SPFolder folder = list.RootFolder.SubFolders[parentFolderUrl];

if (folder.Exists)
{
FolderName = folder.Name;
}
}

//Update folder name
WorkflowProperties.Item["Project"] = FolderName;
//Update document meta data
try
{
WorkflowProperties.Item.SystemUpdate();
}
catch (SPException ex)
{
throw ex;
}

});
}

Display Sharepoint Custom Columns in Outlook

2008-07-07T15:21:00.002+08:00

This little problem has been troubling me for a few days and it appears I am not alone in this. I have a number of Project Task folders, each with very similar or identical tasks within them. For example, multiple folders may have the task "Update spec", assigned to the same person. So when these tasks are synched to Outlook 2007 using the "Connect to Outlook" function in Sharepoint, these identical tasks become indistinguishable. The only way around this appeared to be to expose a custom column that gave the task some context. However, Sharepoint custom columns cannot, it appears be exposed to Outlook, as they do not match the default schema for the object in Outlook (see here for Microsoft's lame explanation).

Found a way around this in the end. This solution has now been in testing for over 5 minutes and so I can conclude it is rock solid (not). Anyway ... Out of the box, Outlook will expose default columns from its own schema. So the answer is to put the context information for the task in a task column in Sharepoint that matches a default one in the Outlook task schema. Pick one that you aren't using for anything else important, perhaps like the Company column. This is called Related Company in Sharepoint. Put the context information in this, and this will be exposed as Company in Outlook. It appears you can then change the name in MOSS and still expose the information in Outlook ... although the name change itself will not be reflected in Outlook. Hope that helps.

More Sharepoint Struggles

2008-07-03T15:03:00.002+08:00

Struggling with some other Sharepoint stuff at the moment. Here are a few MOSS issues that I want to answer. Drop me a note if you have the answer or find a post that does.

How to expose custom columns from Sharepoint in Outlook 2007?
Why do some folders from a synchronised Sharepoint document repository get duplicated in Outlook?
How can I add a dynamic title for a custom action in the drop down for an item? (I want to be able to progress a task's status from "In Progress" to "Complete" and so on, from the right click menu on the task's drop down menu, in Sharepoint. This means I have to be able to change the title in the drop down menu after the user clicks.)

No answers in sight for these questions so far but I am guessing that somewhere out there in google-space, someone has the answer.

iPhone 3G and Microsoft Office Documents

2008-06-10T11:56:00.004+08:00

OK, so lots of hype and excitement out on the Interwebs today, as Steve Jobs unveils the 3G iPhone. For people living in this Great Southern Land (Australia) such as myself, this is a slightly big deal in a geeky kind of way, as iPhones have not been available here up till now. OK, so yada yada and lots of blog posts and technorista foaming at the mouth and so on.

The iPhone looks blandly nice (or maybe it was having an "average hair day"), black for the 8Gb model and a choice of white or black for the 16Gb model. GPS now built in as predicted but other that and the whole 3G thing, not really very different from the original. Yawn.

The only thing I want to know is whether it opens Office documents nicely. I want to be able to, at the least, view Word, Excel and Powerpoint docs. Ideally, I want to be able to edit them. I don't want to have to be web connected to do so. So far, no one seems to have any clue as to how well it will meet this need. For me, this is the key thing that would turn the iPhone from a phone with an unique interface, but little else to recommend it, into a business capable smart phone.

So if you find and answer to the question, drop me a comment.

Update: Found references to "Office support" here and here. But what does that actually mean? Opens documents or does it "Google style"?

Update 2: Noticed in the Keynote that Steve clicked on an attachment in an email and opened it. However, this looked to me like an image he was opening and not a document.

Update 3: This article about native Office applications on the iPhone appeared on the webs today (15th of July). Quoting the final paragraph, "Dataviz told us yesterday that unspecified technical issues were holding up the development of office suites for the iPhone. Joswiak said he didn't know of any such hold-ups, but then added that there might be issues with applications each having their own file space. "There's no cross-application file structure," he said."

Migrating data from WSS to SQL Server

2008-06-03T14:30:00.005+08:00

I've been struggling with a Sharepoint related problem today. I've built up a Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) server. By default, WSS uses SQL Server 2005 Embedded Edition to store its data. That's all good, however, when you do what I did you tend to hit a few snags. I installed WSS on a virtual server which is hosted on a physical server. Having used the WSS server for a while now, it has grown and is now the digital equivalent of a real world small elephant. However, the physical server has the digital capacity of a real world ladies hand bag. Problem ... little bits of elephant poking out everywhere. Not the most graceful of analogies, I know, but you get the gist.

So cutting a boring story short, I need to get the data off SQL Server 2005 Embedded Edition, and onto SQL Server NOT Embedded Edition somewhere else other than my virtual server. But for what ever reason, Microsoft have chosen to make it really hard for anything but Sharepoint to talk to SQL Server 2005 Embedded Edition. or SSEE. Imagine if you will, an INVISIBLE elephant in a ladies handbag. Weird.

SQL Server 2005 Embedded Edition goes by the name of MICROSOFT##SSEE. I installed SQL Server Management Studio Express to see if it would help but kept getting the following error:

Error: Cannot Connect to Server\MICROSOFT##SSEE.

An error occured while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings, SQL Server does not allow remote connections.

However, after much Googling, I discovered some genius has come up with a way to connect to this database. Simply use SQL Server Management Studio Express but call the database server name "\\.\pipe\mssql$microsoft##ssee\sql\query" when connecting. Work's like a charm.

Update: Some information on next steps from here can be found in this blog post on migrating WSS to SQL.

The City Most Distant from Snow in the World

2008-05-30T14:57:00.015+08:00

Now how's that for a tortured title!

Anyway .... as some of you know, I like to think of myself as a snowboarder. In my case, this means I might, if I am very lucky, get to the snow for 5 days once a year. A long time ago, I purchased a snowboard (and posted about that snowboard) for my occasional snow trips, and although it has been used a few times, it now reclines lazily on a shelf in my laundry, doing very little to earn its keep.

It occurred to me the other day while meditating on the laziness of my snowboard, that my snowboard, which currently lives in Perth, Western Australia, could well be the snowboard most distant from snow, anywhere in the world. So I tried to work out where was the most snow deprived place on earth.

As it turns out, this is not as easy as it sounds. I am around 2900km from the nearest snow (the Alpine National Park in Victoria, Australia). So I was trying to find a location more than 2900km from snow.

Anywhere in Europe is in spitting distance from snow, so I've ignored Europe in this post. Africa, one would think, is pretty snow deprived, but using the National Geographic's very cool Map Machine to work out where snow fell on an average year, I worked out that there is nowhere in Africa more distant from snow than I am. This is largely due to small area of snow fall in Kenya, Morocco and South Africa that mean that all of Africa is close to snow than me.

Some spots in Asia would seem a bit snowless, but the side is let down by Vietnam with it's occasional snowfall, Myanmar's Himalaya, and Indonesia's glaciers.

At the end of the day, the only spots I could work out that would be further from snow might be some areas in Brazil on the Eastern coast and maybe somewhere like the Cook Islands in the middle of the Pacific. Even Fiji is nearer to NZ's snow fields than I am to Australias. So there it is. Unless someone in Brazil has a snowboard in their shed, my snowboard in Perth is the world's most distant from snow. Now there's a sorry distinction.

Note: The final map on this page shows Perth (the blue flag) and range circles of 2900km around areas of snow fall in red. If a city falls inside a red circle then it is less than 2900km from snow and therefore closer to snow than Perth. Just bear in mind that from Turkey to China is range of mountains continually capped in snow, most of Europe has snow fall and nowhere in the US is more than 2000km from snow.

Attribution: I used Free Map tools with Google Maps and the National Geographic's Map Machine to decide if my snowboard was the most snow deprived.

Problems Uploading Documents with Workflow in WSS

2008-05-22T11:45:00.007+08:00

I've been working on my first Sharepoint 2007 site. Actually, it's a WSS site as I am not using Sharepoint. The site I have created has very limited functionality, and is intended to allow the company I am working for centrally maintain a register of a certain type of action they are qualified to perform and provide a link to all of the documents related to this action, and WSS is sufficient for this.

So what I have is the Sharepoint equivalent of an Excel spreadsheet (a custom list), which lists the actions and all the associated attributes, and I have a Document Repository, broken into folders. Each document in the Document Repository has two custom attributes - a action type flag and a business unit flag. Each action in the custom list has an action type attribute and a business unit attribute, and when a user selects "Related Documents" from the customised Actions drop down for a list item, Sharepoint does a search in the Document Repository for documents where the business unit and action type flags match the data in the selected action in the custom list.

So far so good. However, to make the experience within Sharepoint similar to what the users are used to and easier, I have made a custom workflow that fires when a new document is created and works out what folder within the Document Repository the new document is being uploaded to. In other words, I am trying to make the document itself explicitly aware of its location, and specifically the folder it is in. Each of the folders in the document repository are named for one of the business units. So the idea is that the document metadata will automatically contain the business unit name that owns the document.

This is where the problem emerges. A user enters the Document Repository, and begins to upload a document. At this point, the workflow fires off. Before the workflow has completed, the screen refreshes to allow the user to edit the metadata for the document, in this case the title, name, action type flag and business unit flag. The metadata displayed is the metadata that the document was uploaded with, but meanwhile, in the background, the workflow has updated the document's business unit flag attribute. The user clicks the check in button, and because the metadata that the document had when the page was rendered and the metadata it has now the workflow is finished is different (irrespective of whether the user entered any changes for these fields), the process errors.

Server Error in '/' Application.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The file Document Repository/BusinessUnit/Document.JPG has been modified by SHAREPOINT\system on 22 May 2008 11:36:50 +0800.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException: The file Document Repository/BusinessUnit/Document.JPG has been modified by SHAREPOINT\system on 22 May 2008 11:36:50 +0800.

Source Error:

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace:

[COMException (0x81020037): The file Document Repository/BusinessUnit/Document.JPG has been modified by SHAREPOINT\system on 22 May 2008 11:36:50 +0800.]
Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequestInternalClass.AddOrUpdateItem(String bstrUrl, String bstrListName, Boolean bAdd, Boolean bSystemUpdate, Boolean bPreserveItemVersion, Boolean bUpdateNoVersion, Int32& plID, String& pbstrGuid, Guid pbstrNewDocId, Boolean bHasNewDocId, String bstrVersion, Object& pvarAttachmentNames, Object& pvarAttachmentContents, Object& pvarProperties, Boolean bCheckOut, Boolean bCheckin, Boolean bMigration, Boolean bPublish) +0
Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.AddOrUpdateItem(String bstrUrl, String bstrListName, Boolean bAdd, Boolean bSystemUpdate, Boolean bPreserveItemVersion, Boolean bUpdateNoVersion, Int32& plID, String& pbstrGuid, Guid pbstrNewDocId, Boolean bHasNewDocId, String bstrVersion, Object& pvarAttachmentNames, Object& pvarAttachmentContents, Object& pvarProperties, Boolean bCheckOut, Boolean bCheckin, Boolean bMigration, Boolean bPublish) +199

[SPException: The file Document Repository/BusinessUnit/Document.JPG has been modified by SHAREPOINT\system on 22 May 2008 11:36:50 +0800.]
Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.AddOrUpdateItem(String bstrUrl, String bstrListName, Boolean bAdd, Boolean bSystemUpdate, Boolean bPreserveItemVersion, Boolean bUpdateNoVersion, Int32& plID, String& pbstrGuid, Guid pbstrNewDocId, Boolean bHasNewDocId, String bstrVersion, Object& pvarAttachmentNames, Object& pvarAttachmentContents, Object& pvarProperties, Boolean bCheckOut, Boolean bCheckin, Boolean bMigration, Boolean bPublish) +240
Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListItem.AddOrUpdateItem(Boolean bAdd, Boolean bSystem, Boolean bPreserveItemVersion, Boolean bNoVersion, Boolean bMigration, Boolean bPublish, Boolean bCheckOut, Boolean bCheckin, Guid newGuidOnAdd, Int32& ulID, Object& objAttachmentNames, Object& objAttachmentContents, Boolean suppressAfterEvents) +933
Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListItem.UpdateInternal(Boolean bSystem, Boolean bPreserveItemVersion, Guid newGuidOnAdd, Boolean bMigration, Boolean bPublish, Boolean bNoVersion, Boolean bCheckOut, Boolean bCheckin, Boolean suppressAfterEvents) +182
Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListItem.UpdateOverwriteVersion() +88
Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.SaveButton.SaveItem(SPContext itemContext, Boolean uploadMode, String checkInComment) +178
Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.SaveButton.SaveItem() +58
Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.SaveButton.OnBubbleEvent(Object source, EventArgs e) +249
System.Web.UI.Control.RaiseBubbleEvent(Object source, EventArgs args) +35
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.OnCommand(CommandEventArgs e) +115
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) +163
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Button.System.Web.UI.IPostBackEventHandler.RaisePostBackEvent(String eventArgument) +7
System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(IPostBackEventHandler sourceControl, String eventArgument) +11
System.Web.UI.Page.RaisePostBackEvent(NameValueCollection postData) +177
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +1746

Not good, huh!

Anyway, it turns out this is a fairly well known problem (even though Googling the error doesn't come up with much). Two good posts that started to lead me in the right direction are here and here. It turns out, that for me, the solution was as easy as making sure I had a mandatory or required field/column with no default value entered for the uploaded documents. The workflow would then have to wait until the user entered the requisite information and checked the document in, before firing. Problem solved.

Cheap Glasses for the Yearning Australian Masses

2008-05-15T15:38:00.004+08:00

Me, I am determined to never need glasses, no matter how blind I become. I'm not quite sure how I am going to manage this, but I am confident that sometime soon someone smart will invent a "Driving By Braille" system for people like me.

One recent development that is chipping away at my steely resolve to remain sans spectacles is the growing availability of cheap glasses. More and more sites pop up that allow you to merely enter the details of your prescription and order a fresh yet affordable set of optics to suit your mood at crazy prices.

Actually, a friend of mine has recently started just such a optometrist bankrupting venture, called GetFramed. He is selling prescription specs to the discerning Australian clientele, starting for the frivolous sum of $30, climbing to the dizzying heights of $70 for the "flash ones". I'm not entirely sure how he is managing this (I am visualising hundreds of feverish gnomes hard at work in his shed), but hey, why look a gift horse in the mouth (unless of course, you like me are so blind you thought it was a drinking fountain).

Anyway, if you are in the market for some reasonably priced spectacles, give him a try at www.GetFramed.com.au.

BTW - Weird aside - I've noticed this post is showing up on a site called ikox dot net. Not sure whats happening there but looks like whoever is behind this site is ripping off my post. Weird.

World's Biggest House

2008-03-07T13:40:00.007+09:00

I've noticed a few people seem to be drifting into my blog looking for information on the world's largest house. I can point you in the direction of the biggest wooden house (more of a cubby house for adults really), but sadly can't definitively tell you which house is the world's hugest! I can tell you that the largest privately owned house in the US is the Biltmore House. It was built after 1888 by the Vanderbilt family, and has a floor area of over 16,000 square meters. The estate itself covers over 8000 acres or around 32 square km.

This monstrous family mansion has 250 rooms, an indoor pool a bowling alley and 3 kitchens. If you were advertising it for sale it would be a 35 x 43, which is really weird ... 35 bedrooms but 43 bathrooms! Anyway, more information here.

It could be argued that Windsor Castle is a private establishment and if you felt that the British Royal family owning such a house does not constitute public ownership, it would probably win the title of World's largest house. Windsor Castle has a floor area of about 45,000 square meters. However, I reckon this one is cheating ...

Anyway, if you happen to know of a larger houses anywhere in the world, drop me a comment (please, no temples, government buildings or office blocks ... just private houses).

Update: It would appear that the Biltmore house will sit at the top for only a short while longer. A new Biggest house in the world is rising in, of all places, Mumbai. Details about this monsterous house here.

Reasonless Traffic Jams

2008-03-05T11:27:00.007+09:00

I don't know about you, but the the roads seem to be me to be increasingly populated with a mix of octogenarians driving little more that battery powered wheelchairs at speeds that would have made the proprietor of Mr. Tom Chandlebutt's Steady Cart Transport Company doze off and surly faced hoods driving cars with twice as many kilowatts as they have braincells. There seems to be an attitude, at least around here, that the right hand lane is for "long term residents", rather than being the "fast lane". In fact, I'm sure some people assume that since they are turning right sometime in the next few days, they are entitled to just stick in the right lane (here in Australia we drive right hand drive cars, and so our roads are built to work opposite to those in the US and France). I have developed a desire for instant capital punishment to be meted out on those I deem to be infringing the rules of good sense, and in my less cheerful moments, feel that a line of smoking wrecks lining the road would serve to discourage those who feel the need to brake to a stop before merging onto a freeway. Not very charitable, I know, but I'm sure I'm not alone. Breath in if you've ever felt frustrated at other drivers on the roads ;)

Anyway, an article linked from Slashdot today reminded me of some cool information I found a while ago about traffic. The article described how Japanese researcher has shown how on a saturated road system, even with no traffic hazards or obstacles, jams will form and travel back through traffic like a shock wave. The Japanese experiment involved 20 or so cars, driving on a 230m circular track. Each driver was told to drive at a constant speed of 30 km per hour, yet before long, inconsistencies in their drive patterns were resulting in jams and slowdowns.

A few years back, a guy called William Beaty wrote a series of articles on traffic waves. He wasn't a traffic expert, but they are really very cool, and illustrated with animations that show the results of his experiments. Another interesting resource is this animated tool, which although a little old now, allows you to model traffic conditions and see the effect sped up.

My own thoughts on the matter are that governments need a few things done. There is no way that the world can afford to continue to widen roads to accommodate more traffic. Both economically and environmentally this is mad. Governments need a better program of driver education that trains people on how to merge effectively and at speed, change lanes safely and how to handle a traffic hazard (have you ever noticed how if there has been a traffic accident, even though the vehicles and emergency staff a now well off the road itself, all the traffic still slows almost a stop? I just don't get that ... Who wants to look at an accident ... Oh look there! Theres a victim on a stretcher. I spy with my little eye something beginning with "Ambulance"). Insurance companies could be the point of entry into re-education for existing drivers, forcing people who have made certain types of insurance claims to attend the program.

Another thing that would help would be if GPS systems were better equipped to tell me traffic conditions on my route. I don't just want to know where I am, but where all the other cars are and how fast they are traveling. That way, the load could be spread better among alternate routes. Even if government traffic authorities were to have the control to put recommended quota levels on roads in real time, so that roads with ongoing work or traffic hazards could have their quota reduced so that GPS systems recommend drivers away from that route after the quota is reached.

I reckon a light on the roof of every vehicle that indicates if they are traveling at or above speed or not would be good. Green for at or above the speed limit, orange for below. This would mean that rather than breaking when I see the car in front braking, I could see the line of amber lights ahead of me, and chill out about going any quicker. So rather than breaking suddenly and causing a shock wave of traffic, I can help lower the average speed a little rather than a lot.

Anyway, clearly I worry way too much about this and have spent way too much time thinking about this.

Airconditioning for Renters

2008-02-27T12:48:00.005+09:00

Hello long suffering audience. I am very grateful for the continuing patronage of all three of you. As a token of my gratitude, behold! My latest post!

Pointless theatrics aside, we have just invested in a new shiny silver box thing. While the regular reader of this blog may worry that this might cause some jealousy amongst the existing silvery boxes in our house (e.g. our very zealous fridge or our toaster), it's all going to be fine ... This one will reside in a different room. This one is an air conditioner (in case you hadn't managed to deduce this from the title).

We are renting at present, and as a consequence are not in a position to make too many radical changes to the house we are in. Given we have had a couple of months here with the temperatures hovering in the high thirties, we decide we want, nay, needed some aircon. But as we have never met our landlord, we were a bit uncertain as to how he would react to us punching large holes through his walls for a split system. So we opted for a portable air conditioner.

After reading Choice magazines review, we settled on a Electrolux Portable unit with the classy moniker of EPV12CRA (how do they come up with these? ... so catchy, so fun!). All sarcasm aside, this unit looks awesome in the pictures, but is a little disappointing ensconced in my bedroom. In person, it reminds me of those individuals you meet who look amazing from a distance, but don't look so good in profile. Like all portable air conditioners, it looks a little bit over-weight, as it bulges to accommodate all those fans and coolers and pumps and so on, but somehow the pictures had led me to believe that this unit would be different, all svelte, shiny and slim. Sigh.

And like portable air conditioners, setting it up is a bit of a let down, as you arrange a large hose to vent the hot air out a window, its grey length looking more like an anaconda that has just consumed a hummer than a "decorative feature in the bedroom".

Other than that it seems to work pretty well. It has 5 modes - cool, dehumidify, fan, vent and a turbo mode that just cranks the whole thing up as fast and cold as it can go. It has an internal reservoir to hold the condensation that builds up in all refrigerative aircon units, and while you can run a hose from the unit to a handy receptical (another classy touch ... a hose running into a bucket) or out the window, it run for about 12 hours before needing to be emptied. All the controls are on the remote, so don't lose it, but the controls a relative intuitive and obvious. It also has a thing called a Plasmacluster Ion generator. When this on, a very blue square is illuminated on the front panel, and other than, it smells a little different but seems to run the same.

It ships with a window sash kit to help you permanently install the exhaust air outlet in a window frame, a hose to drain the water, and the exhaust hose, as well as a couple of rolls of insulating foam for use around the window sash. The window sash kit also has a aperture for the condensation hose.

One thing that did surprise me is that warranty seems to indicate that it is covered for 5 years. Don't quote me on this, as mileage may differ, but the generic appliance warranty we got with the air conditioner stated that air conditioners are covered for 5 years.

Cutting to the chase here, this unit does the job of cooling a room, but if you are paying extra because it looks shiny and silver and slim, don't bother. Its a bit on the over weight side, looks bad in profile and has a pet anaconda.

Chilling Stuff

2007-11-14T11:52:00.000+09:00

We bought a new fridge recently. New us, not new as in just laid. All the same, the wonder of Ebay allowed us purchase a second hand Fisher & Paykel E440T 447 litres Iridium Stainless Steel fridge, to give it the full name on it's pedigree papers. So far I'm quite impressed with it. The thing is, this fridge gives me the impression that it takes the task of keeping my food coolish very seriously.

For example, I had a chilly bin/esky full of food from the freezer unit in the fridge in our old place, and was about to load it into the new fridge, which had been installed and switched on only 30 minutes before. I opened the fridge door and began to place items into the fridge, and noticed a strange sound. It was a very faint cracking sound, almost as if the fridge was saying, "You know what you're doing here, buddy?! 'Cause thats permafrost melting, ya know! Think global warming and icecaps dying. So hurry up, ok!"

Well, I disregarded the warning and kept loading at a leisurely pace. After about a minute the fridge began beeping, as if to say, "I'm beginning to lose my cool here, mate. Close the freezer door and no one gets hurt!"

Finally, after about 2 minutes of me loading, all the lights in the fridge went out and the beeping became continuous, as the fridge attempted to convey a final warning that if I didn't close that flipping door this instant, there would be hell to pay, or at least uncool food.

I finished and closed the door, and was immediately greeted with the sound of a small but very intense turbine winding up to high speed, doubtless blasting the interior of the freezer with freshly ground snowmen and essense of polar bear. The noise seemed to convey a message, saying "Great, now I'm going to have to work overtime. I mean, this is what you've pushed me to, buddy. Listen to me work. It's not like I've got nothing else to be doing here, ya hear. Loser!"

I like that in a fridge. Most of the time it just sits there placidly, looking all silver and calm. But get it narked and it really lets you know that keeping this food cold is a sacred mission, so just get out the way. If you've got any other questions about this fridge, let me know.

Red Light District

2007-10-25T11:26:00.001+08:00

Given I have neglected this blog for some months now, I thought you might need something a little more than the normal mundane title to shake you from your torpitude. Hence the somewhat misleading title. Monster and I happened to be in Singapore recently, and after a bit of research decided to stay in the a hotel named "The Scarlet Hotel". It's one of several new boutique hotels in Singapore and was, apart from our taxi drivers having some difficulty finding it, pretty good.

The Scarlet is in fact a converted row of shops that slope gently down a little crescent near the Big Red Pagoda in the Chinese Quarter. The internal walls between the old stores have been knocked out, and hotel rooms installed, creating a rather unusual hotel in which the corridors follow the slightly sloping, slightly curved path of the street outside. Each room is decorated with real attention to detail, the styling being at once evocative of a French palace mixed with modern touches. Its a little hard to describe, but picture brocades and velvets mixed with dark wood and sharp lines. Very cool.

One thing that really impressed me was the room service. We arrived in the early morning, about 3ish, after spending 7 hours on a Tiger flight (not at all fun ... more on this on a later date, but unless you are blessed with very short legs, and I do mean legs no longer than about 6 inches, or have recently escaped from several years incarceration in a mid sized esky, avoid Tiger like you would any other dangerous animal) and ordered some tea from the in-room menu. I was informed over the phone that the bar was closed and they wouldn't be able to mix me a drink. 3 minutes later the concierge called to say they had found someone who knew how to mix drinks and was it OK if they still sent it. Within 15 minutes we were tucking into a rather nice meal, grateful to have escaped bits of card mascarading as food on the air flight. Any hotel that can rustle up a decent meal at that time gets kudos.

On our first time there we were upgraded from their Deluxe room to an Executive room. Very nice. However, they neglected to tell us this, so on our return trip when we got the room we had booked, a Deluxe room, we were a little confused. The Executive rooms are large and, well, roomy. They are very stylish and ornate. The Deluxe rooms are much smaller and simpler in style. However, they are still pretty comfortable.

One final comment. The staff didn't seem ultra keen to help us haul our luggage down to our room ... so if you do ever decide to stay here (and we would recommend it), make a point of telling the staff you want a porter to take your luggage up ... They might not think of it otherwise.

Now for something a bit more high brow

2007-06-29T15:21:00.000+08:00

Too much rank silliness, really. Coffee, safaris and the weather. Nope, today we are posting something a lot more intellectually stimulating. Allow me to recommend to your perusal and careful attention a fascinating article entitled “Why does Fiat Money seemingly work?”. Even if you passionately disagree with the rest of this article, it’s a interesting read.

Now some of you will be wondering what fiat money is. I can see you all now, squinting, head cocked, thinking extra hard, with a little thought bubble above your heads enclosing a picture of a $5 note with 4 wheels and a Fiat badge in the place of queen’s head. Nope. Fiat money or currency, is money which derives its value from the fiat or command of a government or other authority. The dollar bill is a great example of fiat money. As a piece of paper or plastic, pretty much worthless. But valuable because the government says it is.

The article recommended discusses both the origin of the fiat currency, its history, and most significantly, its fragility. In the view of the author it must eventually fail. Here are a few tantalising quotes to whet your whistle (or spike your spyglass if that’s more your thing).

“Since the central bank’s balance sheet is largely composed of government debt, it has an incentive to manage the public’s ‘inflation expectations’ and inflate the currency as inconspicuously as possible.”

“…free market tends to consistently lower the prices of goods and services over time. That is the logical result of increasing productivity. This is why the widely accepted tenet that we "need some inflation of the money supply to enable the economy to grow" is a complete lie.”

“In a nation of debtors, inflation is the politically most palatable form of monetary policy – after all, everybody is focused on the short term (politicians and bureaucrats on their terms of office, consumers on their debt and their desire to buy more things they don’t need with money they don’t have, and so forth). No one considers for a moment, that in the long run, this policy means ruin. Over time, the middle and lower classes will see their real incomes and living standards shrink ever more, while the true beneficiaries of inflation – those who get first dibs on every dollop of newly created fiat money – amass more and more of the wealth that is stolen from its producers by inflation.”

Have a read.

Now for the digression. For those of you who are not Christadelphians, this could be a little much. If so, leave me a comment, and I will either explain further or not. Anyways … I’ve always wondered about fiat money. The Lord, in the Olivet Prophecy, told us that the believers would be eating and drinking, buy and selling, oblivious till the very day they were taken away to the judgment seat of Christ. This language has, to me, always implied a time of incredible economic prosperity. Why would the believers be unconscious of the nearness of Christ’s return if the times were bad. Rather, in bad times, the faithful are watching and aware of the need for and the real nearness of Christ. It’s in good times that we forget.

Coupled with my view that Christ would return in prosperous economic times, I feel that the removal of the believers will be marked by the beginning of some very bad times for the world at large … a time of trouble such as never was will dawn. I think that this time arrives when for some reason, and I have no idea about the actual mechanics of this, the world realises that dollars (fiat money) are really worthless. Such a realisation, experienced simultaneously globally, could easily destroy the worlds economy in a matter of days. And the article above shows how this could happen. As the author states

“Government mandated fiat currency simply does not work in the long run. We have empirical evidence galore – every fiat currency in history has failed, except the present one, which has not failed yet.”

When then? Soon.

All Quiet on the Wild Weather Front?

2007-06-28T17:16:00.000+08:00

Not! I haven’t posted on this subject for some time, mostly because with the sudden hype storm around global weather patterns triggered by “An Inconvenient Truth”, it seemed a bit a bit of a moot point. Which brings me to another subject. What is a "moot"? I’ve always suspected it was a small but vicious type of canary, typically distinguished by its sepulchral colored plumage. Anyway (awkward pause), this weather we have been having. It continues to be unusual. I’ve be chronicling the strangeness of the weather for some time now (Sept 05, Aug 05, Oct 05, Mar 06, June 06 and, just to be confusing, Jun 06). Here are a few more to add the collection … More records falling.

OK, that’s enough for the time being. Surfice it to say that the weather is crazy … still.

Safari still all up the "WebURLProtectionSpaceProxyHTTP"

2007-06-15T12:18:00.000+08:00

Apple have whipped up a new version of their Safari for Windows browser. This one supposedly resolves a bunch of security issues identified in the first beta release. However, it still doesn't resolve the issues that I am experiencing ... As mentioned in my previous post, the first release Safari asked for authentication to log into the WebURLProtectionSpaceProxyHTTP proxy for any page I go to. And then when I put something in it crashed in a rather ungraceful way.

Well, I've downloaded the new release, version 3.522.12.2, and given it another try ... and magically, with the smoothness and slick presentation I am coming to expect from all Apple software, it crashes again, giving me the following descriptive and helpful error messages (see image right).

To be fair, I notice that the Apple site does say that support for NTLM proxies is still coming.
All the same, for a company that prides itself on the slickness and the ease of use of it's products this is not impressive. And yes, I know this is in beta ... but depending on IE for proxy information when IE is the product you're product is trying to supplant is hardly a winning move. So far, F+. Must try harder.

Safari seems a little lost

2007-06-12T11:54:00.001+08:00

OK, I'll be the first to admit that I'm a bit of a closet Apple fanboy. And so the first thing I did this morning on discovering that Apple had released a beta of Safari for Windows, was download and install it. On opening the app, I got the following screen.

Not the most encouraging of starts, but hey, I'm an optimist, so on we forge.

I did a search on the goog for "WebURLProtectionSpaceProxyHTTP" to find out what sort of a proxy server it was. Nothing comes up. Wow! The Interweb doesn't know about something!

So then, I put in a dummy username and password (yes, I know this probably is something to do with my local proxy, but given Safari wants to send my password in the clear, I want to know what's going on before I click "pwn me"). And here is what I get ...

A bit sad really. Sure, this is a beta. But beta is still the last software phase before a roll out ... The last gasp chance to catch any problems. I can't even get to a web page, let alone browse. One would have thought Apple would have handled the basics, like proxies and passwords. Anyway, let me know what you think and if you have a better experience, great, I'm jealous, now go away.

Other notes: See also this blog from Errata Security, this from Aviv Raff, problems also Slashdotted.

Update: gothick, a poster below, suggested that this might be something to do with an NTLM proxy. If anyone gets any closer to the truth with this, feel free to drop me a comment here. Another thing I've since noted is that when I checked the IP provided, I couldn't get it to didn't resolve.

Update 2: Sufferers ... you are not alone. Snowy_River writes of the same problem on MacRumours. Check out the comments below as well. Anonymous comments that changing the proxy settings in IE affects Safari on restart ... which if true has to be the weirdest coding decision ever ... Apple depending on Microsoft for it's security (proxy) info!

What sort of Coffee

2007-05-03T12:52:00.000+08:00

I'm embarrassed to report that if I were a coffee, I would be an Irish Coffee! Whatever one of those is ... It must be true because I read it on the internet. Doubtless it's based on loads of research, and is the product of a number of large and weighty documents, presented by people in white lab coats with glasses and wise looks on their faces, peer reviewed by experts in the field and blessed by Tibetan monks. Anyway, for what it's worth, here is the formal analysis of my personality ... as a coffee.

Strange note : According to this, I'm not really addicted to coffee.

You Are an Irish Coffee

At your best, you are: wild, spontaneous, and outgoing

At your worst, you are: too extreme and reckless

You drink coffee when: you want to keep drinking booze

Your caffeine addiction level: low

Anyway, you can check it out for yourself here (although given it's assessment of me, I wouldn't place any more trust in this than I would the store assistant's assurances that, "No, it really suits you") . If this isn't your cup of tea, have a look at my last coffee related post.

I've Been Everywhere, Man

2007-04-24T11:09:00.000+08:00

Every time I look at my passport I get this kind of warm glow. I open it up and finger the pages, feeling pleased at the number of stamps and number countries represented inside. Anyway, I was browsing the interweb the other day and came across a tool for mapping where one has been. So I did. And now I feel defeated. So many countries, so little money.

Anyway, you can create your own here. Have go, and I hope your map looks even more miserable than my own ;)

PS Drop me a comment, and let me know the coolest place you have ever been. If I get enough comments, I will post a list of them.

Traveled the World Honeymoon on Koh Samui Christadelphian Travel

Making Perfect Milk with Miss Silvia

2007-04-20T17:55:00.000+08:00

Actually, the perfect bit was just a hook. I'm not at all confident that I am yet making perfect milk with my Rancilio Silvia, but I thought that I would write down some of the things I'm doing in my pursuit of a better cup of coffee. This article is probably of little interest to those who don't like coffee, so I won't feel offended if you push off at this point ... honest.

The first thing I am doing is trying to give myself a little more steaming time to get the milk right. I keep my milk chilled and the milk jug in the freezer. I reckon this gives me a few extra seconds to get the milk right before it's "cooked".
Next, I am making sure that the steam is dry before starting steaming. At some point after flicking the steam switch on and before the heating light has gone off, I am turning the steam handle and letting it run into a spare jug or cup. I do this till the steam runs dry.
Once the steam light is off, I am pouring my milk into the jug I have just removed from the freezer and beginning steaming. To start with I steam to get as much volume as possible while not letting the bubbles get too big. I'm aiming to have the steam wand just below the surface so it makes a sort of slurping noise, while having the steam wand at the lower left corner of the jug so that the milk swirls round the jug in a fast whirlpool. If the bubbles start appearing to large, I lower the steam wand a little.
While doing this I keep my hand under the left hand under the jug to measure the heat. Once it's too hot to touch I assume the milk will be at perfect temperature with another few seconds steaming.
I am aiming (for a latte anyway) to get milk where the volume has almost doubled, but I can see no visible bubbles. The surface of the milk should have a velvety sheen. If I get these two factors, plus the milk isn't too hot, I figure I have done a good job.

Thats how I do it anyway. Let me know if you have any tips for me, or you do it differently.

Coffee with Miss Silvia Coffee Silvia Rancilio Coffee Milk

A Real Coffee Hit

2007-04-12T11:41:00.001+08:00

Sure, coffee is a drug. Mostly safe, but a drug all the same. Mind altering, delivering positive feelings like "mmmm, nice coffee" and "ohhhh, I feel awake now" and so on. But given its street price is somewhere around $3 a hit, and its not just sold by heavily tatoo-ed men at night clubs and and rarely sold by seeding looking individuals in parked Monaros (a type of iconic/infamous Australian car for those of you out of town), I've not felt too guilty in obtaining and taking this particular drug. Granted, thats not much of a rationalisation, but its still only $3 a cup. Well, no longer. Check this one out! $50 bucks a cup. If I get hooked on that stuff, I could just find myself nipping over your back fence with your DVD player and CD collection. Dave Barry has something to say about this in an article delicately entitled, "Java weasel makes fine poopacino". Read and enjoy friends.

Expensive Coffee Expensive Coffee Christadelphian Online

World's Biggest Cubby House

2007-03-29T11:29:00.002+08:00

I've often felt it would be nice to have a little log cabin somewhere, a place to get away from it all. I guess in a way, there is a touch of nostalgia in the idea of the log cabin, looking back to those fantastic autumn days building a cubby house or a tree hut. However, this gentleman has taken it to an ridiculous (and totally awesome) extreme, as reported in the Daily Telegraph! Rather than bearing any resemblance to a tree house or cubby, this more closely resembles Sarumon's Tower in Mordor, picked out in timber. Awesome. Actually, the other thing this reminds me off is the Bell Tower in Perth ... or as I like to call it, the Hell Tower. Putting WA on the map (for amazingly sinister architecture).

Footnote: No picture for the cubby as I am confident that the picture out on the web is owned by the Telegraph. Let me know if you find a good picture of this so I can post one.

Also, if you got here looking for the world's largest house, follow the link.

Wood Cabin Wood Cabin Christadelphian Online

The Bible on a Budget

2007-03-23T22:36:00.000+09:00

As many of you will be aware, E-Sword is a fabulous tool for Bible Study, and is made even more fabulous by its free-ness. The free modules available with E-Sword are what puts it in a league of its own, many of these being costlessly available on the E-Sword site itself. However, for those of you looking for a little more, I thought I would give you the list of a few of the additional modules that I have found on my travels - the ones that I really like.

TDNT - For those of you with no memory for acronyms, this is the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. It's an abbreviated version, sadly, but a good start all the same.
TWOT - Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament - This is the gold standard dictionary for Old Testament words. It's keyed to Brown Driver Briggs, so you will need that first. For this one, you will need to sign up for an account at DNSPAD.com and then, once logged in navigate to the Downloads section and from thence down to E-Sword Dictionaries. Get this one!
Strongs with Tenses - Again, this one is to be found on DNSPAD.com. Navigate as for TWOT.
Amplified Bible - A free version. The one on E-Sword is not free.
Rotherham's Emphasized Bible - For those of you who want a version you can really get your teeth into.

OK, that's 5 I like for starters. If you've found some others that you really like and they are not on the E-Sword site, drop me a line and I will add them to this post (eventually ;). Actually, I won't be surprised if nobody reads this post.

Christadelphian E-Sword Modules Christadelphian E-Sword Christadelphian Online

Diving into the Blue

2006-12-21T19:01:00.000+09:00

I think I mentioned that while on our honeymoon, we went diving. In fact, we learnt to dive and got our divers licenses (there's a joke lurking somewhere in this but I will refrain). We did our divers course in 3 days with 1 day spent in the swimming pool of a local resort (there were some very surprised swimmers as we popped up from the deep), and 2 days of boat dives. Actually the pool wasn't very deep. Less than 6 foot at the deepest point. This made the whole diving thing a little tricky, as every time we plunged into the not so murky chlorinated depths we hit the bottom.

Our 2nd and 3rd days were fantastic. Exhausting but fantastic. We had an early start, catching a big catamaran to Koh Tao, a smaller island ideal for diving. The boat trip took about 1.5 hours each way and this provided time for us to review the theory that we had had to study the previous evening. On the final day, on the return trip we did the theory test for our Padi Open Water Diver tickets, which was an excellent use of time. The only tricky thing about doing it on a catamaran was that that particular trip was quite rough. Consequently, Mr Heroic (me) got sea sick. It's a touch distracting needing to race outside for fresh air every few minutes while trying to take an academic exam. Still, the Madeline Barnes, our instructor was brilliant and we can highly recommend the company that ran our dive course, Searobin. The course was very time efficient, and we felt like we had the complete, undivided and supportive attention of our instructor.

Diving off Koh Tao was great. Our first dive was just off the island. When we arrived at the island, we boarded our dive boat and were dropped near the beach. We did the dive and finished on the edge of the beach and walked up the sand to the island restaurant for lunch.

Our second dive was in much deeper water and was a lot more fun. The dive boat was shared with a Japanese company, and for some reason they had preferential treatment, making the decision as to where would dive. This wasn't too much of a problem though, as they were keen to dive at cool places.

On the second day of boat dives, we again did the first dive in shallowish water (less than 10m) due to having to finish a lot of the practical material for our PADI tickets.The second dive was to have been off Sail Rock but sadly, the boat broke down before it picked us up after lunch. We could see it just 15 metres away over the water from the jetty, but no boat, no dive. Eventually it arrived, wheezing and literally fountaining oil from a hole in the engine. One of the boat staff sat in the engine bay and poured more oil in the top while the other drove us just a little way from the jetty for our final dive.

Overall, we had a fantastic experience and loved every minute of it. Well, apart from trying to find masks that worked for us. Neither of us could find a mask that fitted perfectly, so we spent some of our time each dive clearing them. All the same, to see another world like that and to realise afresh the brilliance, versatility and sheer creative genius of the our God was a great experience. Can't wait till we can dive without all the Scuba Gear.

Arielle Jolly Koh Samui Honeymoon is my babe!Christadelphian Honeymoon Jolly's PADI Open Water Samui

White Noise

2006-12-15T21:49:00.000+09:00

OK, so when I left you in the lurch with this long winded and needlessly wordy story, we were in Vietnam, enjoying the amazing scenery of Halong Bay ... Actually, here is a photo that I took while on Halong Bay, from the deck of our Junk, the inaccurately named Jewel of the Bay.

After enjoying the bay, we returned to harbour and then were driven back to Hanoi. We spent a day shopping in Hanoi (actually looking for shops would be a more accurate description. Hanoi, being a Communist city in a Communist state, hides its shops, disguising them from the enemy eg me) and then back on the plane to Bangkok (just for a change). From Bangkok we switched planes and flew through the night down to Melbourne.

Of course this all sounds straight forward but glosses over the 2 uncomfortable hours spent on a park bench on a crowded Vietnamese harbourside, waiting for a bus to show up in the sweltering midday sun, an altercation with a would be extortionist bike taxi driver and the frantic race through the airport to catch the plane in Bangkok due to delays exiting the plane from Vietnam. Still, all good to have a laugh about later. Or not.

Now, about this stage you are either saying "I am sick of this honeymoon, and it's old news anyway" or "Why call this post 'White Noise'?" To the former I say, "May your olives drop off" (an ancient Hebrew curse that is all bark and no bite to those of us without olive trees) and to the later, "I'm glad you asked."

Once in Melbourne, we got through customs, exited the airport, picked up a car (managed to scam a racier vehicle than we payed for ... Yep a pumping 4 cylinder internal combustion engine rather than a 3 cylinder goat powered go cart I had payed for), did some shopping, dropped through a friends house to pick up a snow board and then off to Bright. For we are snowbound, hence the title. OK, I admit it. I'm tired and can't think of anything better to name this post. Go away.

By the time we arrived in Bright, I had been awake for something like 30+ hours (all day in Hanoi, all night on the plane, all the next day and then driving till about 12pm to get to Bright). At Bright, the directions I had been given to our chalet suddenly stopped making sense and we drove in circles, bewildered and dazed like a bird whose lost and is driving his car in circles, until I was pulled over by the Highway Patrol. The officer was probably fairly surprised to have someone so abjectly happy to be pulled over at 1am ... Luckily he knew our way, and soon after, so did we.

So we stopped for one night in the Buckland Valley just outside Bright in this little chalet. Its one of 4 obsessively German, beautifully appointed chalets. Modern minimalist interiors, fantastic views and great design. Nice for couples, not so good for families - ours, at least, had only one bedroom and one bed.

Next morning, after a bit of a recovery sleep in, we rose and headed in to town, picked up some snow gear (I bought my beautiful wife a snow jacket) and then headed for the hills.

The ski season at Mount Hotham this year was disappointing, but we still had a great time. My wife had never been snowboarding before, so it was all new to her. I found it a little more difficult as all the runs that I wanted to do were closed due to poor cover. Still, we had a great time.

To keep the consistency of this chronicle of ours, I include a shot of the place we stayed at while at Mount Hotham, the brand new Chalet Hotham. More precisely, a shot out the window towards the ski run. For those of you famailiar with Hotham, the Summit run in on the left there, Heavenly Valley on the right and just below our field of view (somewhere nestled amongst the cushions, is the Basin Run.

Commanding fantastic views out over the Mount Hotham and being situated literally, a slip, a swift slide, and solid thump at the end from the start of several good runs at Mount Hotham, this place couldn't be situated better.

Anyway, we spent 5 days, up the mountain, loving every minute of it. Well, apart for the acute pain brought on by a hard days snowboarding ;)

Well, gotta go. Said enough for tonight. Loads of love to everyone. Or not.

Arielle Jolly Halong Bay Honeymoon is my babe!Christadelphian Honeymoon Jolly's

A Load of Junk

2006-10-16T17:05:00.000+08:00

Where then? Back on another plane, through Bangkok (actually in all, we went through Bangkok 4 times) to Vietnam. Flew in Hanoi late in the evening, caught a taxi into the city and stayed the night at one of the world's ugliest hotels. The Hotel Melia looks, from the outside, much like one of those blue, red and white woven plastic bags vagrants use when collecting cans from bins ... Classy! Inside the decor is even more horrific, managing to mix ugly extravagance with chaotic bad taste almost effortlessly. Impressive.

Next morning we caught a bus to Halong bay and spent two nights out on the bay sleeping on a junk. The accomodation was a little more rustic than some of our other digs during our honeymoon, but not appalling. There were a total of 10 guest (including us) on the boat, and 5 staff, so we were pretty well looked after

And the bay is absolutely ravishing. Hundreds of small but precipitous limestone islands jutting out of the sea. Absolutely fantastic ...

Arielle Jolly is my babe!Christadelphian Honeymoon Jolly's

It's Been A While

2006-09-13T23:45:00.000+08:00

I promised I would inform you of our next destination, yet somewhere along the way, everything got a bit busy and the rest of the story got postponed. The next destination was ... Thailand again. We headed back up to Bangkok and from there hopped on a little plane down to Koh Samui.

Koh Samui is a small island in the Thai sea. Lots of white sand, palm trees and very blue water. Nice. We stayed at this little place. Actually, this could be a photo of our ... not sure what to call it ... hut, chalet, compound. Called the Sala Samui and highly recommended if you're anywhere in the vicinity, or even amywhere within say 10 hours flying..

This hotel is built on a little beach with 5 or 6 restaurants on the beach front and little else. During the day one can swim in one of the hotel's pools, swim in your own pool, or even throw caution to the wind and swim in the sea. Alternatively, one can lounge on the beach, have a massage (not quite as relaxing as it sounds, I found. Thais seem to see massage more as a full contact sport or an opportunity to take revenge for some imagined grudge), or sit in a restaurant and drink cold cokes or bad coffee. In the evening, the restaurants put little tables out on the beach, and you can spend a very romantic evening eating great Thai food while wriggling your toes in the sand.

While here we spent a lot of time on the beach and the rest of the time learning to Dive. We did our Padi Open Water Diver certificates which was fun but utterly exhausting.

So all in all, this place was probably the highlight of the honeymoon. Well for me anyway. And then on to ...

Stay posted ;)

Arielle Jolly is my babe!Christadelphian Honeymoon Jolly's

Next Hot Commodity? Arabica Coffee Beans

2006-09-06T11:04:00.000+08:00

Forget oil! New York, home of the $4 cup of coffee, may be where the commodity gets its next price jolt. Prices for arabica coffee beans on the New York Board of Trade could climb more than 20 percent in the next 12 months and outperform some of this year's best commodities investments, including copper and silver.

read more | digg story

In Need of Some Renovation

2006-08-08T17:15:00.000+08:00

From Bangkok we flew off to Cambodia, Siem Reap to be precise. Flew in through the evening deluge, walked in through the gates of their brand new and very cool International Airport, and were picked up by limo service ... oh and my wife was almost crushed by a falling tree ... same old, same old.

Anyway, stayed at the Hotel de la Paix. Definitely the most mod, funky, cool, art deco, cool, funky, mod hotel we've ever stayed in (but I repeat myself). Ipods in every room, wireless internet, hanging table swings in the outdoor restaurant, and bowls of fire at night.

And why come to Siem Reap, we hear you breathlessly query? You may well ask. Temples. Big ones, little ones, old ones, new(er) ones, treesy ones, ones with big Buddhas, ones with Buddha masquarading as Vishnu the Hindu Everything god, ones with Vishnu cunningly disguised as Buddha ... Angkor Wat is huge and awesome, Bayon with its serene Buddhas is cool, and Ta Promh (the Jungle Temple) was our favourestmostest. It looks like Mansions of the Gods in Asterix (for you lovers of fine literature) ... As if the marauding jungle has just eaten the Temple. Trees grow out of roofs, through walls, around stairways, as little by little, the jungle reconquers its own territory.

Spent two days touring the temples with our own private guide (thank you Samnang) and then ... on to our next destination ...

A Room with a View

2006-07-31T22:09:00.000+08:00

We left Margaret River behind us, and drove back through the rain to Perth. We stopped for the night at a little place called The Outram (thank you JL for putting me on the track with this one). Little as in only 18 rooms, but very funky and nice. We mentioned to the Concierge (who later turned out to be the owner) that we would be leaving at the crack of dawn, and he arranged for a couple of choccy brownies and lattes to be delivered at 5am. Nice touch!

Then down to the airport for a flight to ... Bangkok (and yes, we know that some of you are not surprised. Well done!) Spent 3 nights at another little hotel called the Sofitel Silom. Think a room 300m plus up in the air with a wife who is scared of heights! We were on the 26th floor in room 2607 and there were another 12 floors to go till you hit the top. Got upgraded to a very nice room with an awesome view, and what with the included breakfast (read 'feasting session'), did quite nicely (read 'fatly'), thanks.

Day 1 - Shopping at the Happy Birthday King of Thailand 20 - 60% Off Sales (I think that's what they were. Not real good at reading Thai script yet.)

Day 2 - The markets ... A gazillion little booths selling everything from fairy lights to oil paintings. Loads of fun, in a very "I'm so lost and can't speak the language" way.

Day 3 - Went to the Blue Elephant for a course in Thai Cuisine. Took a tour of a Thai market, watched 5 cooking demonstrations and cooked Phad Thai, Green Curry Chicken, Tom Yam Soup and had heaps of fun. Tasted fantastic! Incidentally, the Blue Elephant Restaurant and School in Bangkok is in this very cool, colonial style building that looks like it washed ashore back 2 centuries ago and somehow became trapped amongst the highrise and sky ways of Bangkok. Weird.

Arielle Jolly is my babe!Christadelphian Honeymoon

Got Married

2006-07-29T22:26:00.000+08:00

This post is for those of you who know us ... So the rest of you, keep moving, nothing to see here, OK.

Anyway, as you know (and as already noted, if you didn't already know this, this post is not for you so saddle up and move on, pardner), we got married recently. As in very recently. So we are currently on our honeymoon and thought some of you might like to know where we got to. While attempting to keep somewhat of a shroud over proceedings, our honeymoon is going great! Our first couple of nights were spent here, and while it bills itself as an "Eco Resort" there aint nothin eco about it. Not ecological (not a greenie in sight as burnt our way through excessive quantities of old growth logs on the big wood fire) or economical (wince) ... Still, very very nice ... Think big wood fire, low lighting, spa, candles, hammock and listening to the rain in the forest outside and no one else in sight ... Priceless.

We then headed down to Margaret River for a few days. Stayed at this place for those of you who care. You know how some places look better in the advertising than in real life? Not so this place. The pictures are pretty accurate ... except for the somewhat middle aged looking couple in the spa ... No middle aged couple in the spa in our lodge anyway. If there had been we would have had to ask them to leave I think.

Again, think fireplaces, rammed earth, big spa under a huge sky light, in easy driving distance of about a brazillian wineries, cheese factories and other culinary emporiums. And did I mention the spa?

OK. Enough for one day I think. I'll drop you all a note later. Hope you are all jealous ;)

Arielle Jolly is my babe!Christadelphian Wedding

The New Blak

2006-06-28T17:01:00.000+08:00

Despite the fact that I am reliably informed that pewter is the new black, while black is the new grey (ok, I have no idea what that means either), Coke is forging on with their release of Coke Blak (I guess a label like Coke Pewter might be a bit much to swallow). Just thought you would want to know ... especially after I told you about it months ago here.

The Omnipresent System - A New God

2006-06-19T12:09:00.000+08:00

This is the beginning of something I have been talking about for some time .. the omnipresent system. Access to my home computer everywhere ... More on this later. Here is what I had to say on the subject over 12 months ago ...

Arielle Jolly is my babe!Christadelphian Return of Christ

Crazy Weather Still

2006-06-15T15:45:00.000+08:00

The weather is still mad as a hatter with a chicken up his shirt ... A great big sack full of crazy type crazy. See this.

NSW's lowest May rainfall in 50 years has compounded the crisis farmers face, with 89 per cent of the state in drought.

Hey, I'm just saying. Keep looking.

Arielle Carder is my babe!Christadelphian Weaather Christ

Not Sure I Want to Know This

2006-06-02T12:01:00.000+08:00

An excellent article on how to become an early riser. The faithful all "rose up early". Me, I rise up early only if I really have to. This needs some thinking through, and in my case, some serious rationalisation to show why this article is rubbish ;)

Arielle Carder is my babe!Christadelphian Faithful

Great Minds Think Alike?

2006-05-18T23:57:00.000+08:00

Hopefully, all the readers of this site are aware that I am a Christadelphian. This is a Christadelphian blog. I just happened to be going for a stroll in a quiet corner of the world wide interweb, searching on an unrelated topic and came across the Wikipedia entry for Christadelphians. I thought this quote might interest you.

“There have been small groups of believers down the centuries, and particularly since the Reformation, who held unorthodox views. Groups such as the Anabaptists, Waldenses, Socinians, Racovians and the Polish Brethren shared some or even many beliefs held by Christadelphians. Isaac Newton, Joseph Priestley, John Locke, William Tyndale all appear to have held beliefs close to those of Christadelphians on the unity of God, the mortality of man and the role of the Jews in God's purpose.”

Now the point I thought might interest you was that great minds such as William Tyndale (translator of the Bible), Joseph Priestly (co-discoverer of oxygen) and Isaac Newton (inventor of gravity ;) share beliefs with the Christadelphians. In fact, Newton wrote more on the Bible than on physics. Again, quoting Wiki, “In his own lifetime, Newton wrote more on religion than he did on natural science.”

If great minds like these devoted attention to the scriptures and ended up with views similar to those of the Christadelphians regarding the mortality of man (Christadelphians believe that man does not possess an immortal soul), the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ (Christadelphians are Evangelical Unitarians and believe that Christ was a mortal man although the Son of God) and the promised reward (Christadelphians believe this is resurrection to immortality in the kingdom of God established here on earth), surely that is an encouraging indicator. Not by any means proof, but worth thinking about.

Let me know what you think.

Arielle Carder is my babe!Christadelphian Doctrine and Newton

That Creationism Fad

2006-05-12T01:47:00.000+08:00

Yet another supposedly religious person, denying the very God they "claim" to worship. Posted on this a few weeks beck, here.

"...for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." - II Thessalonians 2:11-12

Enough said.

Arielle Carder is my babe!Christadelphian Creation

Criminal but Otherwise Cool

2006-05-12T01:36:00.000+08:00

Enjoyed this article. Can't be bothered jumping? Here's something to whet your whistle. GANG of anarchist Robin

Hood-style thieves, who dress as superheroes and steal expensive food from exclusive restaurants and delicatessens to give to the poor, are being hunted by police in the German city of Hamburg.The gang members seemingly take delight in injecting humour into their raids, which rely on sheer numbers and the confusion caused by their presence. After they plundered Kobe beef fillets, champagne and smoked salmon from a gourmet store on the exclusive Elbastrasse, they presented the cashier with a bouquet of flowers before making their getaway.

Please ... this is not an endorsement of crime.

I love Arielle Carder!Christ's Theiflike Return - Christadelphian

More for Fridge Fashionistas

2006-05-09T00:29:00.000+08:00

I commented, back in August last year on fridge by LG, which they had humbly given the name DIOS or god, in the common venacular. At that stage I suggested the next step in the inexorable evolution of the fridge would be to not just make the outside blinged out, but make the food look sparkly too. Well, this crowd must have misheard and gone one better in making the outside look better. I guess, if your market research suggest a fridge is the sort of thing that should be supplied with a lanyard and safetly instructions for purchasers who wish to wear it hanging from their neck, well, what can you do? They did it! Those sparkly bits are Swarovski crytals ... seriously. 7000 of them, each painstakingly hand embeded by Zen monks from the Wantoa Mountains, and blessed with an ancient mountain blessing, granting long life and luck on the owner. All true! Apart from the monk bit.

I love Arielle Carder!Christadelphian

A Strong Delusion

2006-05-09T00:22:00.000+08:00

Just in case you have ever wondered, ever had a doubt, or just felt that they seemed like such nice people ... Here is an example of the strong delusion spoken of by Paul. Quoting from the Register article,

Dr Williams's comments indicate he believes that creationism and evolution are not two sides of the same coin, however. He said: "I think creationism is...a kind of category mistake, as if the Bible were a theory like other theories. If creationism is presented as a stark alternative theory alongside other theories I think there's just been a jarring of categories."

One wonders how a "minister" can do so much to deny the existence of God, and undermine the worship of the God he claims to obey. Whoever he is "ministering" for, it is certainly not the God I worship ...

Arielle Carder is my babe!Christadelphian Creation

suppose

2006-03-21T13:35:00.000+08:00

Today, a piece of poetry from one of my favourite poets ...

suppose
Life is an old man carrying flowers on his head.

young death sits in a cafe
smiling, a piece of money held between
his thumb and first finger

(i say "will he buy flowers" to you
and "Death is young
life wears velour trousers
life totters, life has a beard" i

say to you who are silent. - "Do you see
Life? he is there and here,
or that, or this
or nothing or an old man 3 thirds
asleep, on his head
flowers, always crying
to nobody something about les
roses les bluets
yes,
will He buy?
Les belles bottes - oh hear
, pas cheres")

and my love slowly answered I think so. But
I think I see someone else

there is a lady, whose name is Afterwards
she is sitting beside young death, is slender;
likes flowers.

-- E. E. Cummings

Arielle Carder is my babe! Arielle Christadelphian

Weather Still Deranged

2006-03-20T14:42:00.000+08:00

I've been harping on about this for a while now, but I think we really should be paying attention. Last week saw Texas struck by the worst fires in it's long and Lone Star-ish existance, while this week, Queensland, Australia, home of the Great Barrier Reef and suntans is threatened by the "worst cyclone" in decades (I thought it might amuse you that one article is taken from the Scotsman and the other from India ;) Somebody, tell me I'm making this all up, ok?

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle Christadelphian

The Lazy Watchman

2006-03-15T09:21:00.000+08:00

I'm confident that you are all watching the signs of the times, but sometimes its a little hard isn't it, just to keep up to date. So here is the lazy wathman or watchwoman's dream. This site present all the news on one page ... I'll post this on my sidebar incase you want to get back to it ;)

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle Christadelphian

Music for the Masses

2006-03-09T14:51:00.000+08:00

Every now and then, a song comes along that epitomises an era. Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance, Waltzing Matilda, The Day the Music Died and now this ... A Girl Innovator Dashing Like A Steed. Lovely title and I can't wait to hear it.

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle Christadelphian

More Stuff Folded Here

2006-02-15T14:56:00.000+08:00

For no apparent reason, another link on folding stuff, this time letters. As opposed to t-shirts, or sheets. Just cause ...

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle Christadelphian

I Fold 2

2006-02-14T07:51:00.000+08:00

A couple of weeks ago, I commented on ones (eg my) inability to fold t-shirts to a commercial standard of niceness. Even more challenging are those fitted sheets ... curse them to the bottom of their ruffle edged hearts. Anyway, tidy freaks rejoice, Target, pruveyor of all things chinese, has a solution. Follow the link, children, and learn.

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle

Consider ...

2006-02-13T07:38:00.000+08:00

I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it.

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle

Stars in my Eyes

2006-02-09T09:59:00.000+08:00

Nah, actually, the title doesn't mean that much. All the same, you know how when you look at a street light at night, it sort of looks all starry, with streaks of light coming off it? These streaks a caused by high level abberations in our eyes. Tiny pits and flecks in our eyes create small flaws in our vision ... and it really hacks me off.

Anyway, I just read a really cool article about a company that is developing glasses that don't just correct your low level sight abberations (eg short-sightedness, astigmatism) but also corrects this too. They claim it can give you better than 20/20 vision. I want that now!

Update : BoingBoing just posted on this ...

Arielle

The Altogether Lovely One

2006-02-08T09:02:00.000+08:00

Just a fragment of poetry, which I read the other day, and thought applies so perfectly to our Lord as the suffering servant.

How beautiful, if sorrow had not made
Sorrow more beautiful than Beauty's self.

It's from the poetry of John Keats, Hyperion, Book I.

Arielle

Pedestrian Humour

2006-02-08T08:51:00.000+08:00

I have no idea why I find this funny ... In fact, its kind of macabre. If you have any idea what it might be about this article that tickles my funny bone, let me know.

BEIJING: A Chinese newspaper editor has died from injuries months after traffic police beat him up for an expose about exorbitant electric bicycle license fees, a New York-based press watchdog said.

Arielle

Disaster Strikes

2006-02-08T08:45:00.000+08:00

To all my faithful readership (you know who you are, Mr Imaginary Man and Dream Girl) my blog had a bit of a terminal episode ... The consequence is that I lost all my side bars and stuff ... Will rebuild that when I have the time.

Arielle

I Fold

2006-02-02T11:30:00.000+08:00

You walk into a store. The T-shirts are in a very tidy tower. You select your size, take it to the change room, and and try it on. Nup, no good. Now to fold it up again. But do you know what? You can't! I can't, anyway. Usually, I make this kind of sad effort at refolding it and then put it back on the T-shirt tower, a crumpled wreck of a once tidy t-shirt before the proud folds of the untested tees.

Well, no longer. I am going to take one of these with me when t-shirt shopping. Its a t-shirt folding machine! The wonders of the steam age!

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle

A Dedication: To the Unknown julia

2006-02-02T10:49:00.000+08:00

I had been blythly posting away, confident that I had somehow slipped under the net-radar and no-one was reading my posts. It was a kind of cosy feeling really, like being in bed on a rainy day with a good book and no-one else within a million miles ... And then julia shattered my confidence by posted a comment. She may not have been the first but she was definitely the first I noticed (yup, I wasn't watching very closely).

So this post is dedicated to julia ... For three reasons. She:
1) Very kindly congratulated me on my engagement
2) She is my firstest and most frequentest commenter on this blog ... She has commented at least twice! (She actually informed me she had already comment on a post ... Which I have mislaid ... Its probably down the back of the sofa cushions with the remote control, a small colony of loose change, and that banana that went missing last summer) ... julia this gives you the extreme dubious honour of being my greatest fan. If I were you, I'd change my name right away, move to another country and pretend it wasn't me ;)
3) Just tricking. I only had two.

julia ... Thank you! May your screen always be bright and glowy, your mouse run smooth and your link be fast and true.

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle

Naaman's Life experiences non-hostile takeover bid

2006-01-24T14:16:00.000+08:00

Yep, got in engaged. Tried to do it in style ... Imagine (if you are so inclined. Otherwise, you might like to stick your fingers in your ears for the next few lines and go "not listening na na na na" or words to that effect) sunset, just off a sand surrounded island, aboard a 40ft cruiser, bound for Fremantle. Diamond, rose and chocolates all in order. Anyway, here is the boat we got engaged on.

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle

Sesame Street brought to you by the word "Zeitgeist"

2005-12-21T09:59:00.000+08:00

Ha! I managed to spell it, you have to pronounce it. Zeitgeist! There, spelt it again. For those of you a bit lost at this point, you will be suprised to learn that this word is not actually English! I know, you'd have never guessed. It is in fact, one of many words pillaged and plundered by the linguistically ruthless Angles and Saxons from the defenseless Germans. It means, literally, "the spirit of the times". And why, you ask, am I inflicting upon you sub-standard foreign manufactured words? Because Google, have done a bit of a straw poll and come up with the most popular searches of 2005. Of particular interest is this page, graphing global interest in world news based on web searches in 2005 ... In other words, the zeitgeist of 2005.

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle

Toasty Fascination

2005-12-16T15:58:00.000+08:00

OK, that is a very mangled title. However, I am trying to alert you to the fact that my fascination with the "Internet Toaster" continues, unabated. More news, recently. You might just want to pop into this site as you butter your crisp and tasty this morning. And perhaps this one might add some zibidee doo da to your morning ritual. Actually, that one has been around since 2001, but continues to intrigue. Build it already someone!

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle

My feelings...

2005-12-16T11:27:00.000+08:00

Love is not a victory march!

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle

Fire to Dawn

2005-12-13T17:35:00.000+08:00

A poem from me ... Written chain of conciousness as fast as I could get the words down ...

Fire burning light as night falls,
And yesterdays are spun,
Into new memories, and stories,
About when time begun,
And dreamtime seems to linger,
Wisps float in the light of day,
And at night time, the ancestors
Footfalls are heard as they stay and stay,
Because we remember them,
And they will not forget us,
When the western world is lost,
The sea reclaims, it turns to rust,
Then they will still be here,
And in fire burning light they will talk,
Of days long gone as just passed,
And of long journeys like a walk,
Outside where it’s almost morning.

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle

Coke, the new Black

2005-12-12T09:38:00.000+08:00

Something new becomes the new black, every day. At some point brown was de rigour, grey was the in thing, and no doubt pink spent it's time in the sun as the new black. New Coke, diet coke, classic coke have all come and (one hopes) gone (by the way, when I say one, I mean me. Just helping you out here). But now, Coke want's to become the new black in a much more literal way, releasing Coke Black, sometime soon. It appears from their media release that Coke Blak will be a "lightly carbonated coffee" ... Hmmm, but will the hoi polloi like it, we ponder (by we, I also mean, me)? Follow the link, Alice.

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle

Attention: New Seating Policy

2005-12-09T13:24:00.000+08:00

Australian airlines are taking a fair bit of flack at the moment over their policy banning men from sitting next to unaccompanied minors. There seems to be plenty o' talk about how discriminatory this is and how its all a ploy by the feminist lobby ... Not so I say. I think I speak for all men when I say we are delighted with the airlines’ policy of seating us away from unaccompanied minors on all flights. This whole paedophile scare is in fact a cunning ploy by the male sex to help them avoid contact with the irritating little punks as much as possible. Perhaps one day, the truth will leak out and the feminist lobby will realise that they have been fooled, hah! fooled I say, and that the vast majority of men are actually decent and safe. But until then, guys, keep them guessing!

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle

A Rose By Any Other Name

2005-10-21T15:30:00.000+08:00

Cool shots of a liquid nitrogen dipped rose being shot ... Don't ask why (it should be obvious).

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle

Wilma goes troppo

2005-10-20T16:15:00.000+08:00

The records continue tumbling. Here is another to put in your pipe and savour at your leisure - Hurricane Wilma has been declared to be the most fiercest-most Caribbean hurricane since ever! Check it out. The weather records just keep tumbling. As I have said before on several occasions, perhaps when Christ told us the there would be signs in the heavens signalling his imminent return, he did'nt just mean in the political heavens of our sorry world. Perhaps we should be looking at the weather map for signs of a season change - the winter of the kingdom of men to the spring of Christ's return.

Keep watching!

Bird Flu ...

2005-10-07T17:02:00.000+08:00

Just some thoughts for you ...

The world seems to be panicking at the chance of Avian Influenza becoming a human pandemic. And with some justification. Here we have a virus, which the human immune system is blind to ... given it's not a human virus yet. If it breaks out, the speed of international travel today may guarantee its swift transmission. Even if governments act to close borders to quaranteen the virus, its spread is virtually unstoppable ... Because it's a bird virus. It main vector can cross borders and seas, bypassing all normal immigration controls. And it could kill 150 million people according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), according to this WHO article on Vaccine Supply. WHO have released a fact sheet on the virus, and continues to express its growing concern.

The media is equally concerned (apparently). Melbourne's Herald Sun discussed the impact of bird flu in Victoria, if and when it strikes.The Sydney Morning Herald described Queensland's preparations for the disease. CNN reports that researchers have recreated the flu virus of 1918, a virus that killed over 30 million after WW1, was also a bird flu, and bears an uncanny resemblence to the plague threatening the world today ...

What is going on? Does this have any relevance to the most important question of the generation - When will Christ return? Think about this ...

Zechariah addresses the subject of the battle of Armageddon in his 14th chapter and he notes in the 12th verse that:

And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

Think about it.

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle

Where have you been all my life ...

2005-10-07T16:49:00.000+08:00

You know your electric toothbrush ... Ever wondered how it charges? I mean, there are no contacts or anything ... How does it do it? Nuclear batteries? Concealed midget hamsters running on wheels? Magick? The power of love?

Nope! The answer is induction. Charging via induction means that there is no need to plug the item to be charged in, no need for dangerous electical contacts and it can all look very cool and mod. So why can't I have a coffee table that charges anything I put on it, I muse. Apparently, eager reader, now I can ... Just follow the link!

Buy me this ...

2005-10-05T11:12:00.000+08:00

Dear reader. This is daylight robbery. I would like you all to pool your money. Yes, that's right, even you sir, sitting in front of the white glowy thing with a surly look on your face ... Remove your wallet, nice and slowly now. Take out 5 dollars ... Then give the rest to me ... Or just go out and buy me one of these ... Now please!

Yet more crazy weather ...

2005-10-03T10:09:00.000+08:00

Hey, long time, no blog. Been busy, y'all. Anyway, grabbing a moment or two today to put pinky to keyboard and scribe you a missive. Once again, it a has been brought rather forceably to my often wandering attention that the weather is crazy at the moment. I've noted before that this is, I believe a sign of Christ's return ...

Well, here is a new one ... You know that place with a huge river, millions of square miles of untouched jungle, lush, green and vibrant, huge rain fall and poisonous frogs. If you thought I was talking about the Amazon, you are apparently wrong. According to this article (tragic sign up required), the image we normally have of the Amazon is drifiting from reality. Here are a couple of quotes to whet your no doubt parched Amazonian whistle:

"It's the worst it's been in 60 years," said Elpidio Gomes da Silva Filho, head of the Administration of West Amazon Waterways. "The journey along the Madeira should take six days. Now it is taking 15 because only small boats can pass."

Large parts of the Amazon rainforest are at their driest in living memory...

"Before this year I'd never seen the river less than 10 metres deep - now its only 2 metres. This is the biggest drought in our history."

Yet more crazy weather to wake us up and tell us that Christ is almost here ... I'm sure this is not exactly what he meant, but these do seem to be signs in the "heavens" ...

See also this article and this one and this one ...

Weather again ...

2005-09-08T11:35:00.000+08:00

You must be wondering "What's going on?". The weather has gone completely crazy as if an angry Gaia were attacking its passengers. Does God hate us and if not, what is He trying to let you know?!

People ... this weather thing keeps coming and coming. I've said this before (here and here), but as a Christadelphian, I believe these things are signs. God is sending us sign after sign after sign that "something is rotten in the state of Man".

Christmas ... The tsunami
January to August - Weather records fall world wide
June 1 - First ever snowfall ... in Somalia!
August 10 - First snowfall in Melbourne in over a decade, heaviest snowfall since 1951 in other areas
August 29th - Hurricane Katrina wipes out New Orleans
September 8 - Typhoon Nabi kills 18 in Japan

Toss in a generous mixture of snowfall in Saudia Arabia and France in mid summer and Brazil, droughts causing huge fires in Southern Europe (20,000 fires in Spain, the worst since 1947) and you have a weather pattern gone mad.

God is demanding that we look up. That we get our lives in order. That we be those servants watching and waiting for His Son's return. Jesus is returning to earth and soon. Get ready. So do it, already!

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle

Been away...

2005-09-08T11:25:00.000+08:00

Well, I haven't been around lately. In fact its been over 3 weeks since I last posted anything ... Did you miss me? Of course not. Didn't even notice that I was gone. Sigh! Anyway, one piece of news for today ... Apple have released the Apple Nano ... Sweet!

The Dream ...

2005-08-12T16:18:00.000+08:00

In all my dreams of a post apocalyptic future, I see one device as being the epitome of "future-ness" ... The Internet toaster. For some reason, while almost every other home appliance has made a point of rushing headlong into a high tech future (images of a internet screen bearing fridge urging on its small compatriots, irons with legs that stop it from burning your fav. #insert garment name here# , kids toys that talk and are almost sentient and the like), the toaster has remained defiantly lo-tech. With its rattling interior and its thin glowing wires, it provides us with toast ... some times over done (read incinerated), occasionally undone (read raw) and just now and agian, perfect ... Anti-Luddites rejoice, the future is here ... The Internet toaster ... No doubt the beginning of SkyNet.

Crazy Weather ... Again

2005-08-10T13:16:00.000+08:00

A month or so back, I posted on the crazy weather that is going around ... Well, it hasn't stopped, and I just thought that if you had maybe managed to get your head jammed under a very well weather proofed sand pit, you might like this little heads-up ... Anouncement, announcement. Ahem! The weather is nuts ...

For example ... It snowed on the Parliament today ... And by the way, I am not refering to the Parliament of some TPLC (Tin Pot Little Country), but the Parliament of this Tin Pot Big Country ... Aussie land. Yep, think beaches, searing heat, snakes, kangaroos and big skies ... And snow in our capital ... More info at SMH, but just a quick quote ...

"Freezing Antarctic winds have dumped snow at Parliament House in Canberra and on at least two low-lying south-west Victorian towns.

Canberra was showered with a series of flurries about midday, while the Victorian towns of Heywood, just 27 metres above sea level, and Winchelsea, which is also close to sea level, have also acquired white blankets.

Both towns are less than 40 kilometres from the ocean.

"It's very unusual," said Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Scott Williams.

"If you look at it on a Victoria-wide scale, it looks set to be the coldest day this winter."

So there you are ... The point is this. We know that the return of the Lord Jesus Christ is not at all far away. Luke 21 tells us that when Jerusalem is no longer trodden down by non-Jews, and when peoples hearts begin to fail for fear and when there are signs in the sun, moon and starts, then get ready for the return of the Lord. In 1967, the Israeli people regained control of Jerusalem after its 2000 year caretakership by non-Jews, we see people in all countries assailed by terrorism (those that make fear) and now, the weather has become very unpredicatable ... Are these the signs we are looking for? Leave me a note ...

Arielle Carder is adorable!

How to Post a Google Sitemap from Blogger

2005-08-10T12:43:00.000+08:00

As most of you probably know, Google has released a tool called Google Sitemaps to help them index our sites ... Those good public spirited souls. However, if you are like me, you have had no end of dramas trying to get your Blogger site indexed to start with, and almost as much trouble posting a sitemap to Google.

So I thought I would tell you all how I did mine ...

Step 1) Create an XML Sitemap. I used the sitemap tool here. Yeah, the interface looks a bit 1983 but it works well, and charges the best of all prices ... Free!

Step 2) Once you have created your sitemap, cut and paste the XML bit to a new text document (Right click on your desktop, select "New" and "Text document"). Save the text document as something like "Sitemap.xml" or, if you want, "Elmos_BloggerSitemap_That_Has_Cool_Stuff_Please_Index_Me_ Google_Lords_Please_Please.xml" ... Hey, it's up to you)

Step 3) Upload this file to somewhere on the web. The most simple and easy site I have found is Filehut. It has the outstanding qualifications of qorking properly, being completely free and providing you with a standard URL to the file, not some smarty-pantys uber-hidden-internet-type-magic link.

Step 4) Tell Google you have the site map and let them index it.

Of course, the other way (and much easier), is just to point Google Sitemaps at your rss feed ... For example, point Sitemaps at http://grailboy.blogspot.com/atom.xml (You might want to change the "Grailboy" bit, but if you don't, hey, I'm cool with free publicity...)

Let me know if it works for you, or if you have found a better way (I bet you all have, and not told me ... Sheesh!)

Arielle Carder is a babe! Arielle

For the Fridge Afficionados Out There

2005-08-10T11:48:00.000+08:00

(Is there such a thing?)
This is very very sweet (and completely insane, by the way). Its called the Dios (God) and it's an eye full of flashed out food chilling goodness ... LG have gone to the time and effort to completely bling bling out a fridge! The ultimate accessory, looks good with your Rolex and your Platinum Plated Audi ... The sort of fridge one wants to take to parties ... But is it too much? Can one ever have too much ostentation? Product suggestion here ... they need to work out a way to make the food inside look sparkly too!

Arielle Carder is completely loveable!

The Coffee of Love

2005-08-09T16:17:00.000+08:00

Yep, that is possibly the world's most "twee" title. Tough! Anyway, I was kind of thinking of getting my girlfriend a coffee machine for her birthday. She really likes coffee, I really like coffee, I want a coffee machine and I think she might like one...

In case you are wondering, the coffee machine in question is Rancilio Miss Silvia ... A very nice device indeed ... So that bit of it is not cheap. and I have been contemplating purchasing myself a coffee machine for some time now. The question is, would it be completely scrougley and cheap of me to buy her a coffee machine seeing I wanted to buy it for myself (buying it for her, after all, is a back handed way of giving myself one) ... What do you think, people. Bless me with the benefit of thy wisdom.

Quick update: Boing Boing has got a big post on the Silvia today ...

Arielle Carder is a loveable!

Sent packing

2005-08-08T15:18:00.000+08:00

Have you ever noticed how that whenever one goes travelling somewhere, nay, anywhere, some small and easily forgotten but vital piece of equipment gets left behind. It will never be something obvious and "mission critical" like your trousers or wallet ... but will be something very very inconvenient ... All your socks, one of your running shoes or perhaps a single dredit card from your wallet ... the one that is used most ... Sigh!

Well, perhaps if you are geeky enough (and I know that you are ... you want proof of that? My best mate downloaded instructions off the Interweb for performing that most 1800s of digitally challenging exercises ... tying the full Windsor tie ... What is the world coming to ... But I digress.) you could use this little web toy to create a packing list for yourself, and ensure nought is forgotten.

BTW, if this site provides you with a faulty or unsatisfactory packing list, I take full responsibility and will happily refund your click ;)

Dear all ...

2005-08-05T15:08:00.000+08:00

Please accept my deepest apologies and sincerest regrets for the errors in the inscription of the text in the previous missive ("concealled" ... sigh. Don't they teach these kids anything anymore?). I gave the clearest dictation regarding this but my typing pool let me down and not one of my proof readers picked it up during revision. I’ve expressed my disappointment to them in the strongest of terms and emphasized this by having them all taken out and executed ... It may interest you to know that I used this as a trial run for the Death of 472 Goldfish Bowl Ornaments... A method of execution that exceeded all my wildest expectations ... The expression on their faces when I solemnly pronounced their doom was priceless. I hope this placates your wrath ;)

Just out of interest ... if you were an evil dictator, just how would you keep the hoi polloi in their place? What would your chosen means of "deterance" (we malignant dictators like our euphemisms)?

Oh, by the way (and this completely unrelated) ... found this cool link. A web app thats shows you what's hot at the mo. on del.icio.us ... give it a whirl ...

Google is driving me crazy ...

2005-08-02T16:00:00.000+08:00

OK, so those of you who know me, will know that that is a gross exageration. Google is driving me to a destination called "Slightly more crazy". I've been trying to get this blog listed on Google. The site appears, but merely as a most well concealled web link with no key words or anything. Well, at least that was the situtation for the 6 months up until late last week, when after adding a sitemap to Google SiteMaps, suddenly, this site, Naaman's Life was appearing in the listings ... Hurray.

However, as with all things on the Infernal Interweb, my rejoicing was short lived. Lo, swiftly did come sorrow, chasing the heals of gladness like the dreary wet puppy of sorrow chases the big bone of delight (the sad simile is a freebie ... I was inspired by reading the WWW - World's Worst Writer Awards today). Today, I'm back to square one ... Sigh! Its a difficult line I walk, trying to maintain Net Anonimity and get web fame for my site ...

Ubiquity and Blaming the Box

2005-07-20T15:14:00.001+08:00

#An old article copied over from my blog at 20six#

"Woah!", I hear you say. "What's with the hip mounted Oxford dictionary" ... I'm far to lofty to answer that question. But (for your information) ...

Main Entry: ubiq·ui·ty
Pronunciation: -kw&-tE
Function: noun
Meaning: presence everywhere or in many places especially simultaneously : OMNIPRESENCE

Pretty straight forward, huh! Having bored you with a dictionary definition, what's that got to do with Tech/Geek stuff? Read on dear one ...

Technology is working to make media ubiquitous. In other words, the technological direction of our world is moving to make the global media stream available everywhere. Lots of really cool devices are being produced that do just this. MP3 Players that transmit on FM (you can listen to your MP3 player in your car over the car sound system), mobile phones that can receive streaming video (you can watch TV on your phone), Centrino laptops (connect to the internet without plugging in any cables or wires).

What does this mean to us (as Christadelphians)? It means we have to stop blaming the box. For years we have blamed a box for many problems in the ecclesias. We have argued against TV in the home. We have railed against evils of TV. Time to be smarter ...

As long as we continue to blame a specific box (like TV or your internet connected PC), we as Christadelphians will always be just that little bit behind the 8 ball ... you know the situation where you consistently arrive just as everyone else gets up from the table and leaves you the bill ... The technology will keep improving and getting better and smarter. Better and smarter at what? Providing you with whatever media you (read, your non-spiritual self) want/s, wherever you are. We blame one box, and we will be blind sided by others.

So what can we do? Time to start talking, not about TV, or the internet ... but media. The world's media is (as we all know, c'mon now, admit it) is the speaking of serpent minds. It's there to gratify, please and entertain the 3 lusts John describes. Nothing more, nothing less. So lets get with the program people, and start educating ourselves on the danger of the real danger, and stop blaming the box.

Update: It's been some years since I wrote this post, but I was mailed this article today, which repeats exactly what I was saying back then. Not that it was anything that profound ;)

Too geeky

2005-07-19T15:49:00.000+08:00

I dunno about you, but I can tell when I've spent too long in front of a screen. It's when you are driving home and see the setting sun glinting on the shining skin of a distant skyrise, filling the horizon with warm lit haze ... And you (in this case, I) think "Awesome ... How do they do those graphics?" ...

Theres other clues, but thats a goodie!