Archive for January, 2008

On Monday we did a little Geocaching. We drove to Catherine’s home and picked her up and went to Ipswich in a park to find a Geocache called “Just chilling in the Cribb“. Lisa and Sienna went off to the playground to have fun and Catherine and I did a search. So far, Catherine and I have looked for 2 Geocaches together and found nothing. She said she must be jinxed since we never find anything. Well, within about 5 minutes I found the Geocache! I think I’ve restored her faith in Geocaching. There wasn’t much in it, so I signed the log book but my neat little pen ran out of ink so it’s only half-legible. Oh well. I dropped off a water-saver timer Sienna found on the train once. It’s a very small Geocache so not much would fit in it. After that, we went to see where Sienna and Lisa had got to. They were down on the jetty looking at kids doing some fishing.

I found a sign on the jetty which seems to request “No mooning passing boats“…

No mooning the boats

It was getting hot and Catherine suggested I ring the “Hog’s Breath” cafe to see what time they were closing after lunch. It was 1:00pm already. I phoned and they were closing at 2:30pm so we decided to call it a day and drove there for a lovely meal. I had my usual surf n turf type meal and Sienna had chicken nuggets and chips (as usual). From there, we dropped Catherine off home again and had a drink while there. Then we headed back to my place to get Sienna and Lisa’s bags. We dropped Lisa off at the airport and I dropped Sienna home (after going there then back to my place to get her school shoes which I forgot and back to her mum’s place again) and then off to Catherine’s for the night.

Go to www.google.com

Type in :

find chuck norris

hit the “I’m feeling lucky” button…

Google really have a great sense of humour ;)

SOCIAL networking website MySpace has signed a landmark deal with the BBC in a move that will bring it into direct competition with YouTube.

BBC Worldwide has launched a video channel on MySpace TV that features short clips from selected shows including Doctor Who, The Catherine Tate Show and Parkinson.

“This is the first global content deal that any social network has done,” said Rebekah Horne, vice president of Fox Interactive Media and MySpace in Australia and New Zealand.

The BBC’s clips will be up to eight minutes in length and will include archival footage.

MySpace Australia has also signed a major deal with the ABC to launch a channel next week with clips from Summer Heights High, The Chaser’s War On Everything and Enough Rope With Andrew Denton.

More info in the News.com.au article.

Yesterday morning I woke at 5am and got up at 5.30. Around 6.30am Sienna and I went for a drive to the airport and picked up LisaJ. We drove back home and went to a local Coffee shop to have breakfast. We both had bacon, eggs, toast and coffee. I also had tomato with mine. Sienna chose baked beans.

From there we went to the Post Office and I picked up a bunch of DVDs which had been sitting there for a couple of weeks. There were many DVDs I bought from EzyDVD for $1 each. They were from the first and second seasons of the X-Files. I also got a DVD with Dylan Moran doing standup comedy. From there we came home and Sienna got into her swimmers and we went to her Swimming School. She had a great time and must be doing well since we got a phone call on the way home later to say she has to be moved up to the next highest class because she has surpassed the one she is in. That means her classes will start at 8am instead of 10am. Ack! Well. That’s the time she was swimming last year when we lived out near Ipswich anyway.

We came home and had a shower and had to quickly drive out to Ipswich to pick up a Xerox Docuprint N17 laser printer I saw advertised on Freecycle. It’s in good condition but needs some more toner at some stage. It’s fine for now, tho.

Xerox Docuprint N17 laser printer

I brought it home and we had lunch then Sienna had a nap. After she finished that we jumped in the car and drove to Springfield Lakes to see a concert.  Rikki Lee Coulter was singing on stage but there were no rides apart from a little train.  The only other stalls had food or drink and that was it. Pretty boring, but Sienna loved playing in the playground with the kids. Climbing on the big spiderweb type ropes and back down again.  When it got to 6:15pm we decided we needed to find something else to do for an hour as they told us the fireworks would start at 7:15pm.  We went to a playground near where I used to live and she played there for a while as LisaJ and I chatted.  When it got to 6:50pm we jumped back into the car and headed back to Springfield Lakes.  We found a patch of grass near the lakes. LisaJ ascertained the fireworks would not be near where everyone else was crowded. In fact, the fireworks were fired from the middle of the lake.  The fireworks started at 7:30pm and they were loud and spectacular.  Sienna loved it. It was the first time she’d seen fireworks and she was very excited.   I took a lot of photos and some movies which I will upload here and on YouTube later.  From there we came home and had a quick dinner and it was off to bed for Sienna.

This morning we got up and I needed to go shopping to pick up some new pillows and Sienna wanted to swim so we bundled into the car and headed off down the Gold Coast.  We went to the Pacific Fair shopping centre and bought the pillows and some clothes for Sienna as they were discounted.  We went for a ride on the shopping centre train because Sienna loves that every time we go there.  She remembered before we got anywhere near the train.  Sienna and I also had some icecream and she drove a kids car around the playground at the shops.  From there we headed back up to the pool near home with the slides and Sienna had a fun time sliding down the slides and jumping into the deep end of the pool off the starter blocks again.  She has no fear of water that girl. A good and bad thing, as you can imagine.  We came home after that and Sienna went to sleep. I’m about to wake her now to go to the local club. Sienna loves it there and we all want to get out to have dinner for the evening. Should be a fun time.

Dog Judo

Dog Judo

‘Nuff said.

Paulo Coelho, the best-selling author of “The Alchemist”, is using BitTorrent and other filesharing networks as a way to promote his books. His publishers weren’t too keen on giving away free copies of his books, so he’s taken matters into his own hands.

So is Coelho just seeding torrents of his books? That’s just the beginning. He took it one step further and, as quoted above, set up a Wordpress blog, Pirate Coelho, where he posts links to free copies of his books on filesharing networks, FTP sites, and so on. He says it had a direct impact on sales:

Believe it or not, the sales of the book increased a lot thanks to the Pirate Coelho site…

Read about it on the TorrentFreaks website.

Asus brought out a fantastic little UMPC style laptop for under AUD$500, the “eee PC

I am very tempted to purchase this once my credit cards have been sorted out. I’d really like a small, portable laptop to work on while mobile. I am about to embark on learning Java programming and this would be perfect to drag around in my backpack.

Technical Details

Display
-LCD Size / Type 7″ Wide / Matted
-LCD Resolution 800×480 (~WVGA)
-LCD Type TFT
Graphic Intel UMA
Chipset Intel Mobile Chipset
Processor: Intel Mobile CPU
Memory Onboard: 512MB DDR2
Flash / HDD: 4GB
OS Supported: Linux Preloaded (Windows XP Compatible, Drivers included)”
Audio
-Hi-Definition Audio CODEC
-Microphone: 1 Internal Microphone
-Speakers: 2 Internal Stereo Speakers
-Audio Jack - Out (3.5mm) 1
-Audio Jack - In (3.5mm) 1
Wireless Included: 802.11 b/g
Integrated Camera: YES (0.3MP)
LAN / Connector 10/100 Mbps / RJ-45
USB 2.0 ports: 3
Memory Card Reader: MMC/SD(SDHC)
VGA Port: 1 (D-sub 15 pin)
Battery
-Battery 4 cell (5,200 mAh)
-Battery Life 3.5 hours
Power
-AC Adapter Output: 9.5V, 22W
-AC Adapter Input: 100-240V AC
-50/60Hz universal
Weight 2.0 lbs (with Battery)
Dimensions (W x D x H) 8.86″ x 6.30″ x 0.79″ ~ 1.26″
Warranty: 2 Year Warranty; 6 months for battery

Asus eee PC

I wonder if it gives Renee her ‘girl wood’ hehe. I went to Officeworks the other day and had a look at it and it’s really sweet. I’d even set up an account on it for Sienna to use as the keys are perfect for her sized hands, but not too cramped for people with bigger hands to use as well.

UMPCs should be around this price and not $1,300 which is really twice or more than a standard laptop. Why would you want to pay twice for something a fraction of the size?