Archive for May, 2007Naughty Google has been breaking my websites this month. AusPUG.Org just went down due to 90,000+ hits from GoogleBot in the one month!! It usually hits about once a day unless there’s lots of new info on the site. I had to up the bandwidth limit to re-enable the site. BangRocks.com went down earlier this month due to Google Images bot hitting the site 2,500+ times to steal my images. Both times they transferred nearly 800Mb EACH SITE! That’s over half the monthly limit for the domains. Bloody Google! The stupid thing is, if one of my domains exceeds the bandwidth I cannot log onto the site to increase the limit cos the Webhost automatically blocks ANY access to the site.. including the site admin tools. Lucky I can log onto another of my domains and switch sites to administrate! When BR went down I had to log onto AusPUG’s WHM. Tonight since AusPUG was down I had to log onto BR’s one. *sigh* Not clever! For the benefit of the people whom don’t read my MySpace blog… What a fantastic weekend it’s been! I got up at 6:40am to go pick up Sienna. The ferry is out this weekend so I had to go the long way around, hence the earlier than usual rise. We got to swimming lessons with plenty of time and Sienna had a ball as usual. She really can float on her own for quite a long time and is very proud, however the first time she did it they gave her a ribbon and now she’s upset she didn’t get another one. At lunch time we drove to Annerley and went to a school fete. One of the young goths from the Brisbane Goth Forums had a fete at her school and wanted other goths to come along so we went. Sienna went on the jumbo slide on her own and came a cropper with a bruise on her arm and chin and leg. We had to then go find an ATM so we could buy her an arm band which let her go on as many rides as she wanted. On the way back we followed some gothy looking people into the school yard. Sienna went on a big fast spinning swing ride and was very excited, then we needed something to eat. She grabbed some ‘cotton candy’ (she won’t say fairy floss) and we saw the goths again so I wandered over to say ‘Hi’. We had a bit of a chat and got directions to the food stalls and headed off. They also had a licensed bar there, but I didn’t buy any booze (WHAT??? Yeah - I know!). I had a couple of souvalaki shish kebabs and Sienna had some chips with tomato sauce on them. We went back to the jumbo slide and I held onto Sienna and went down a couple of times, then it was time to go home. We said goodbye to the goths and grabbed a teddy bear which Sienna was dying to have, on the way out. Today I’m going to the Botanical Gardens in the city to meet up with some new friends from the Brisbane Goth Forums. I’ll have to go shopping first as I have to get some groceries and we have to take something to eat with us. I’m thinking of making a dip with bread from a recipe I got years ago when I was working at the University of Sydney. It’s really yum, consisting of sour cream, spinach & French Onion mix. Mix it all up and buy a big round cobb loaf thing, scoop it out and put the dip in the middle. Yum! I’m tempted to go check out another band tonight but will see how tired I am. Last night I didn’t get to sleep until after 1am and was woken a few times, finally getting up at 7:30am. Tonight I went to see the last movie - Pirates of the Caribbean “At World’s End” - in the trilogy and I must say that together, they make a really really good trilogy. I put it up there above The Matrix and other movies with sequels that I’ve seen. The story was very good. I particularly liked the weird stuff happening to Captain Jack Sparrow throughout. Very surreal and I loved it I’d suggest renting (BUYING) the second one and watching it again in case you forgot some integral parts of the movie. I did and had to pick it up again as this one played along. I do think I would have got even more out of it if I hadn’t been scratching my head to remember certain references to the previous ones. This is probably the first movie (including sequels) I will give 5 stars. On their own, they would not have made it, but with this one to tie it all up, I believe they’ve done a great job. Well done! PS: I just read that there’s something after the credits. Won’t say what, but for the first time I didn’t stay on until after them.
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05
2007
 
Windows XP, Pocket PC and Music/Movie tipsPosted by: WauloK in Computers, Music, Pocket PCOkay, a couple of things I’ve discovered recently which may help out other people seeking answers. First off, I use my Sony/Ericsson K800i mobile phone to record movies. These come out in 3GP format which is compatible with Apple QuickTime and so will play fine on your computer, but what if you want to play them on another device… say Pocket PC (or possibly even Palm)? Here’s your answer: TCMP (The Core Media Player). It handles 3GP files very nicely. The link on the left here gets you the beta version which I believe does not expire. The newer version is Commercial and you will have to pay for it. I expect you can find a beta version for the PalmOS as well. I load it up with stuff I’ve filmed and let my 3yo Sienna loose with it and she can sit there watching everything for ages. I wouldn’t suggest recording her favourite TV shows on there (only 16Mb per 22mins) as that might not be legal.
The next tip is for Windows XP and iTunes with your keyboard’s Media Keys. I want to use the Play/Stop/Skip >/< Skip / Pause buttons on my Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro but the media keys only want to work with Windows Media Player. Well, Andy comes to the rescue with ITunesKeys. I’ve just downloaded it and tested it on my PC and it works flawlessly. I’ve just set up a shortcut in my StartUp folder to kick it off whenever my PC starts Windows. Handy stuff! The cool guys in The Tenth Stage have finally released the video clip to go with their great song “Francois Martin“.. go check it out!!! The other day I was at the CBA bank and got a free home contents insurance quote. It was $325. Compared to my RACQ quote of $333 it was looking a bit better. Also, RACQ charge $4 per month if you pay monthly whereas CBA doesn’t. Hmm thinks I. I might have to change. So I ring up RACQ and ask about what’s going on. They gave me a discount due to having my car breakdown thingo with them. I told them how CBA were gonna give me a cheaper premium and not charge for monthly payments. He checks out my policy and discovers a $2,000 “Unspecified items” cover for items taken out of the home. This amounts to an extra $80pa. Since nobody covers mobile phones and the only other thing I occasionally take out of the house is my Pocket PC for Sienna to play games on I told him to scrap it. Now, my RACQ bill is $253 and even paying the extra $4pm (ack!) it’s cheaper than CBA Also, I think I will cancel my Mobile broadband. Dialup is fast enough for most stuff I do and it’ll save me $50pm. Since I changed my Insurance to $25pm that’ll be covered for the next year nicely. I might go through my bank statement next time and see where else I can save some moolah. This month, tho I’m not putting so much onto my Credit Card at the start of my payment period since last month I was dangerously low ($19 left in the account) until I got paid. I might keep extra in the Savings account until my next pay from work then transfer the excess over. |
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Coincidentally enough, CBA rang me today to confirm my policy and said there’s no way they can match it since they can’t separate out options like this, so I’m canceling their one instead!