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Networkers and Iron Mountain
2008-08-27 13:30:00
Good news. A bit over a year ago my boss told me that he was going to send me to Brisbane to attend a vendor conference. It's called Networkers and is held by a company called Cisco. They sell most of the bits that make the Internet work as well as the networks of many businesses and stuff. The network that I look after is almost all Cisco kit.   Why is that good news now over a year later? Because this time last year I was told at the last minute that they had to cut costs and my trip was canceled. It was meant to be reward and recognition for something cool that I can't remember. Having that trip canceled didn't make me feel particularly recognised or rewarded. The good bit is that I've just been told that it's on again this year and this time I really am going. I've booked my flights, accommodation and the conference so I'm as good as locked in this time. It's a four day event so I'm going to stay up there for a week to have a loo...
More About: Mountain , Iron

Hidden Fate
2008-08-24 08:36:00
Hidden Fate . Watch out for em! After Brad swore black and blue that he would never go in Tournament of Minds ever again guess what he has just gone and done? Yep, along with Louise, Noah, Josh, Ben and Katherine they entered into the Social Science section of this years event. The theme for their presentation was based around a newly formed rock band called Hidden Fate and their attempt to make it onto the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The central part of the presentation was a performance of an original song that they all wrote together in the weeks leading up to the event. They didn't have time to work out the songs name, but "Tomorrow's another day" seems to fit. Brad played lead guitar, Josh did the vocals, Ben was looking after the drums, Noah took control of bass and Louise was their number one fan! It was always going to be too hard to setup all the gear required on the day so they decided to record the song and then mime it for the judges, but the sc...
More About: Hidden

These are the things you dont say to your wife
2008-08-17 01:53:00
I stumbled across this very funny video the other day, but when I saw that it had been posted on YouTube by someone called SassyDonna I started to wonder if this might be where I went wrong! {youtube}SZ3SC-gVvy0&NR{/youtube}&nbs p;
More About: Wife , Things

How to upgrade the hard drive in a Topfield TF5000PVRt
2008-08-15 10:23:00
I purchased my Topfield TF5000PVRt standard definition personal digital video recorder about four years ago when they first came out. It's a great little box with twin SD digital tuners and an 80Gig hard drive. All that techo guff means that you can pause and rewind live TV as well as watch a pre recorded show whilst recording two different shows on different channels all at the same time. You can also put your music on it if you want via a USB connection, but the 80Gig hard drive is the limiting factor. It's good for about 30 hours of TV. A bit later on they increased it to 120Gig, but even that's not enough. Over time I had filled mine up with movies and shows (mostly cooking shows - Food Safari rocks!) so that I was always deleting stuff to make more room. Enter Ebay. I've purchased a brand new 400Gig drive via Ebay for the bargain basement price of $79.00 and now I'm about to go about upgrading my trusty Topfield. Read on if you would like to see how it w...
More About: Drive , Hard , Hard Drive

Snow Day August 2008
2008-08-13 00:08:00
That would be right. The highway between my place and the city is closed this morning because it's covered in snow at Mount Nelson. I could have had the day off work (well at least worked from home via the magic of the Internet) but instead I'm tucked up in bed with a chest infection feeling like garbage. I know us guys like to sook and moan whenever we get a little bit of a sniffle, but this time I really am crook. My chest really hurts. The doc has given me some magic pills so I'm sure I'll be OK soon and the Olympics are on the telly so it's not all bad. Speaking of bad, have you had a look at the little share graph over on the left hand side? It's not broken, and we haven't had a sudden increase in gravity, my shares really have dropped that low. That sort of thing used to really stress me out, but now I'm not so worried. I'm holding shares in way more companies than I should be, but they are nearly all resource sector start up's with gr...
More About: Snow , August , 2008 , Snow Day

Centenary room
2008-08-06 04:09:00
What are you doing on Saturday? Well not you, but that's what Jo, one of my friends from tennis, asked me last week. Luckily I didn't have anything major planned for the day because she had scored tickets to the match day entertainment in the Centenary room at Bellerieve oval for the Devils football game against Williamstown. The Devils haven't been traveling too well this season so I wasn't expecting a great game of football, but I was looking forward to a collar and tie function with good food, good drink  and good company along with hearing from the guest speaker Australian cricketer Damien Flemming. The food was OK, but nothing to write home about. The beer was free flowing and available in copious amounts. The company was great, Jo works with a very funny bunch of people and their partners were great fun as well. Damien Flemming was very funny. He is a great speaker and has a lot of funny stories to tell. As expected the football was crap with the Devi...
More About: Room

Google Street View
2008-08-05 06:37:00
OMG!!! Google released street view for Australia last night and they have done Tasmania. We haven't been left off the map this time. For those that have no idea what I'm talking about, Google street view is an add on to their Google Maps website. They drive all over the country in a special car equipped with a heap of camera's on the roof and GPS and stuff then put it all into their computers and allow you to "drive" down the roads looking around as you go at the photo's they have taken. The photo's are all stitched together really well so it just looks like driving a car. You can see people on footpaths, cars in driveways etc etc. I checked out my place but someone else's car was in the drive so it must have been before I moved in. I checked out my old place and my car was parked out the front and my wheelie bin was sitting there empty! There are web sites dedicated to finding interesting things in street view like a child falling off his bike o...
More About: Street , View , Google Street View

Eating With Friends
2008-08-04 15:09:00
Emma has made it onto the little screen yet again. She starred on both Southern Cross and WIN news tonight. Kingston High School participate in some awesome community projects and this one is no exception. The Eating With Friends project aims to encourage our more senior members of the community to get out of the house and have a healthy meal and a bit of a chat. Check out the two video's below and keep an eye out for Emma giggling! {youtube}P3sk18yHsVU{/youtube} {youtube}FYlDt-w7k-E{/youtube} 

Share update July 2008
2008-08-01 11:16:00
It's not very good news really. For the third time since I started this caper I'm actually lower than my original stake. That means that I've lost over ten thousand dollars in the past few months. When I say it that way it sounds bad, but I haven't really lost that much. It's only funny money really because I never actually had it in the first place, it is just a paper loss. My actual loss if I sold everything now would only be a few hundred dollars. The other thing that I find interesting is that on each of the previous two dips there has been a larger following gain. I'm hoping that pattern will continue, however I don't expect it to happen any time soon.  
More About: Update , Share , July , 2008

Christian the lion
2008-08-01 10:26:00
If this is real then it's pretty awesome. I heard Kim and Dave talking about it on SEA-FM this morning and had to have a look for myself.  The bible for finding out if stuff on the Net is fake or not is a site called Snopes. They say it's real, so it must be! {youtube}adYbFQFXG0U{/youtube} 
More About: Christian , Lion

Adobe Photoshop CS3 for free
2008-07-09 13:39:00
[UPDATE] Oh my God!!! It actually worked. I was so suspicious of this offer. The BA Software website was pretty dodgy. It didn't display correctly in Firefox and the grammar was very bad. The email didn't arrive after the promised 48 hours with my download links and activation key so I assumed it was a con. Then this morning I found an email only 24 hours late with the links and my activation key. I downloaded the software to a safe place then ran two different virus scans over it to make sure that it was OK before installing it. It all went to plan, but then I had to enter my activation key. This is where I thought it would fail, but even that worked. The last stage was to activate the key online via the Adobe Photoshop website. I wondered if they were sending everyone the same key, but no, even that worked! I now have a fully functioning legal and activated copy of Adobe Photoshop CS3 Version 10 (the latest version) for absolutely nothing. That's  over $800 of val...
More About: Free

End of financial year share update 2008
2008-07-06 09:48:00
Well here we go. It's been a very up and down year. At one point I was actually up 39% on my initial investment. I finished the financial year up 16% on where I was twelve months ago. I have to be pretty happy with that given that it's twice as much as what I would have received if I had left the same amount of money sitting in the bank. I have to be even happier given that in the same time the Australian Stock market has declined by almost 17% and has seen it's worse single year decline since 1982! To make a 16% return out of a market that made an overall loss of 17% is OK I think. The worse part is that I have lost "heaps" over the past month. Six out the past eight weeks have seen losses for me totaling almost $3000. To date I haven't mentioned figures, but I don't see any reason why I should continue to keep them secret. None of the figures I will quote are exact, but they are near enough! I started with $25000 and so far I have turned that into $31...
More About: Financial , Update , Share , Year , 2008

Free stuff - Moisturiser sample for guys
2008-07-05 01:47:00
Here is another Australian freebie from my friends at Free bies Australia. This one is a free sample of Beauty Mate Moisturiser for men. "Beauty Mate is a quality range of Australian made hair and face products that do the job, without the fuss." Click HERE for your free sample.
More About: Free Stuff , Stuff , Guys , Sample

Glorious morning
2008-07-04 01:28:00
The walk into town from the Regatta Grounds this morning was awesome. One of the best. I don't really know what made it so good. Maybe it was the fact that it was only 3 degrees, the mountain was covered in snow, I had a really enjoyable game of tennis last night (I lost two of my three matches, but really enjoyed all three games), Dave Noonan was doing a really funny crazy call on SeaFM, there was no wind and not a cloud  in the sky. The sun was out and it was just beautiful. You just can't beat Hobart in winter (on a good day!). I know I promised a share update, but I haven't done my books yet so it will have to wait until the weekend. Unfortunately the news has not been all good. The market has gone a bit mental of late, but more of that later. 
More About: Morning

Salty car wash
2008-07-01 02:45:00
Well that was interesting. I walked over to the Hobart Regatta Grounds to collect my car last night and found it in the river. Heaps of people park over there because it's free, the view is awesome and it's a great walk in across the Domain to town. Unfortunately I didn't factor in the free car wash. Yesterday an extreme low pressure system combined with a very high tide and high winds resulted in some very wet cars. I found mine with water lapping around the wheels but as the photo below shows some were much worse off than me! Read the full story here.    
More About: Wash , Car Wash

How to find your lost mobile phone
2008-06-04 13:07:00
I was stupid and left my mobile phone behind at a cafe yesterday. It actually fell out of my jacket pocket while I was sitting on a couch, but I should have checked before I left, so that still makes me stupid. I didn't realise until after I arrived home. It's actually my work mobile so I stressed a bit as it has a lot of numbers in it that I probably wouldn't want anyone else to get hold of. It also has my calender in it as well as heaps of contacts that I don't have written down anywhere else, so loosing it would have been a real pain. Luckily I signed up for Whereis Everyone a few weeks ago so I was able to locate it on the web. This service is absolutely great and everyone with a Telstra phone (NextG or GSM) should sign up for it straight away. You simply go to http://everyone.whereis.com/ and register your phone (before you loose it!). You enter your mobile number and a password, the system sends you a text and then you reply to that text to prove it's yo...
More About: Lost , Mobile , Phone , Mobile Phone , Find

Mister X
2008-05-31 03:22:00
I've been in my new place for a few months now, but I rekon the previous tennants must have done a runner. They don't seem to have changed their address anywhere as I still receive heaps of mail for them almost every day. Most have those scary little windows in them so they look a lot like bills. Over time the number has dropped a bit. Usually it takes two or three "return to sender's" before that company stops sending me their mail, but there is one mob that just don't get it. Mr Xiuyuan Zhang must have been an accountant because the Certified Practicing Accountant's mob C.P.A. keep sending him stuff. I am not exaggerating when I say that they must send at least one letter every week. I return every one with a big "Return to sender" on the envelope, but they keep on sending it straight back. Now wouldn't you think that an accountant would know how to change his own mailing address, and wouldn't you think his association (CPA) would re...

Remove small metal pieces
2008-05-26 15:08:00
I have been given a new phone at work and it came with a really weird warning note in the box. What do you make of this?  Polycom - Warning for all Soundpoint IP Phones  With respect to section 5.4.3.10 of the Australian Communications Authority as Telecommunications Technical Standard AS/ACIF S004 2004 under s376 of the Telecommunications Act 1997: You should be aware that, under certain operating conditions, the handset earpiece may retain small metallic objects. If this occurs, these objects should be removed before using the handset. 
More About: Metal , Small , Pieces

Save the Tassie Devils
2008-05-13 13:44:00
The Network Ten TV show Totally Wild came down to Tasmania a while ago to film a story about the Tasmanian Devil facial tumour disease. They dedicated most of the show to the Devils plight, but one section is of special interest to us because Mel's daughter Tamsyn appears in one shot and there are a few other mates of ours in there as well. This part of the story was filmed at St Aloysius Primary School and features Nature Nic. I don't think I'm meant to post this on YouTube, however I reckon anything that might raise public awareness of this evil disease has to be a good thing. If you think that your school might like to hold a black and white day to raise money to support the research then click through to Nature Nic's website or go to the Tasmanian Government's Tassie Devil site. {youtube}eGWZyjIslzk{/youtube} 
More About: Save

The bad side of tennis
2008-05-12 05:11:00
I haven't provided any updates on my tennis progress because I haven't been doing very well. I start off OK and usually win my doubles games, but my serve has been terrible and by the time I've played my two doubles games I'm stuffed and that's when I have to front up for my singles game. Most of my opponents are heaps younger than me so they usually run me into the ground. This week I won both doubles matches and I was hitting some really good serves. I only made two double faults all night and I was getting a fair bit of power into some of them as well. I wasn't meant to be playing at all but I was asked if I could fill in for someone who couldn't make it. The guy I had to play in the singles had thrashed me 6 games to 1 last time we played, but I have improved a bit and was determined to do well. I started well and was up 3 games to 1 when he snapped. He became really angry and started yelling and belting the ball into the fence and stuff. It real...
More About: Tennis , Side

Where are the lockers
2008-05-07 09:49:00
Sue Napier wanted to know where the lockers were. Apparently there aren't any, the students will have their own bins in their pods. Sounds funky, but it's just the new Kingston High School. It doesn't matter that there aren't any lockers because the grade sevens have them now but most don't use them. What does Sue Napier have to do with it? I was sworn in at Parliament House yesterday to give evidence in support of our new school to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works. I say Parliament House because that's where I entered (yes the machine beeped again because of the steel toes in my shoes), but typical of the rabbit warren that it is we actually ended up in 10 Murray Street I think. I was shown to a seat at a massive table with three big microphones hanging from the roof so that the Hansard girl could hear everything we said. I had to swear (strange term) to tell the truth, the whole truth etc etc and then the politicians were wheeled in. W...

Share update April 2008
2008-05-05 14:41:00
It's about time I did another share update. Not only has it been a couple of months since my last update, but it's also been exactly twelve months since I started this caper. This is a key date for me because I decided to give myself one full year before deciding if share trading was for me. It is! This whole share thing has gone better than I could have ever imagined. I'm certainly not rich (yet) as I didn't invest that much money in the first place (I'm not telling you how much, that's none of your business!), however I have seen a very nice profit over the year. If I had left the money in the bank I would have made around 7% interest for the year. By putting that money into the stock market I have made 39% (and that's after all costs, but before tax). What makes me even more happy is that at the same time the Australian stock market (all ordinaries) has gone backwards to the tune of 9%. I should have lost money, but instead I've turned in a huge pr...
More About: April , Update , Share , 2008

Horse riding has been cancelled
2008-05-05 13:55:00
Last week was Agfest week. Agfest rocks. It's a rural field day event at Carrick near Launceston with many hundreds of exhibitors and an attendance over it's three days approaching one hundred thousand. We went up on the Saturday. There were thirty thousand people there, and about ten thousand cars and yet not once did we have to stop and queue in the car and the place never felt crowded. There were some queue's in the Tasmanian gourmet food hall, however none were too long. Emma and Brad seemed to like the BWM stand and some of the boating stands the most. Not very rural stuff, however farm machinery all starts to look the same when you come from the city. We decided to spend the night in Launceston so I booked us into the Launceston Country Club Casino for the night. It wasn't too expensive and it certainly impressed E&B. I was a bit impressed myself with the free valet parking, although it's a bit weird not knowing where your car is. They have a golf cou...
More About: Riding , Horse

Im going to win Ozlotto
2008-04-29 08:29:00
Tonights the night. There is a $40000000 (yup, thats forty million dollars) jackpot tonight and the planets have all aligned. One of my work mates (AndrewG) had a dream about me (scary isn't it!) a few weeks ago. In the dream we both both bought a lotto ticket together, it was a winner, and although the details were a bit sketchy, an amount of $10000000 (ten million dollars) was mentioned. Coincidently there was a $10M jackpot that week. That must have meant we were going to win so we bought a ticket. We didn't win. Then it jackpotted  to $20M. That still worked as we were now meant to win $10M each. We bought a ticket. We didn't win. It has now jackpotted to $40M. That still works as we will probably share the winnings with one other person meaning we end up with a $20M winning ticket giving us a $10M split each. I;ll let you know how we get on, but it may take me a little while to write the story as I'll probably have other priorities when I'm rich.

Momo Racing fix
2008-04-13 04:23:00
I have a Logitech Momo Racing force feedback steering wheel that I use with my computer as well as my Playstation3. I know, it's a bit daggy for a grown man to be playing with pretend steering wheels, but I'm not scared to admit that I find simulation type racing games a whole heap of fun! My mate Randal got me into it in the first place. A few of us lug our computers round to his place once every few months and we all race each other on a very realistic simulation game called GTR2 over a few beers and a bite to eat. I suck at it. I used to come last all the time (see, I'm not a true nerd!) , but I've improved and now usually manage to finish mid bunch with a few podium finishes to my credit. I'd probably be better if it wasn't for the stupid fault with my steering wheel. Ever since I first bought this wheel it has had problems shifting gears with the flappy paddles. I know Jeremy on Top Gear is always saying flappy paddles are crap, but in these games they...

Free stuff - Free FHM magazinze
2008-04-08 22:41:00
Here is a good freebie, especially if you are an Aussie male. Head on over to http://thenewfhm.com.au/, fill in your details and they will send you a free copy of this months magazine. How cool is that. If they run out of full magazines then they will send you a 28 page sampler, but they will email you when next months offer comes out or with any other future freebie give aways. You just can't beat something for nothing. Thanks FHM!
More About: Free Stuff , Free , Stuff

The weird stuff just keeps on keeping on
2008-04-07 14:18:00
I can't believe the twists and turns that my life keeps on taking.  Last weekend I had a lounge room full of pretty girls, but they were all way too young for me. Emma had a sleep over pool party at our new place! The trouble was the pool maintenance guy had been told to turn the pool heater off at the end of daylight savings and he forgot that it ended a week later this year so the pool was freezing. Swimming was canceled and replaced with a "Bring It On" movie marathon. I have finally finished with the crappy landlords from my last rental place. I picked up my lease refund cheque today. In the end they dropped all of their stupid arbitrary and incorrect claims in return for me paying them $40 to remove the dead man ferns that they killed themselves. I know that you are aware of this web site Sharman and Stephanie so if you do end up reading this then you need to stop and have a think about the way that you treated me. I was the perfect tenant and you know that...
More About: Weird , Stuff , The Weird

The wind Gods were angry
2008-04-03 13:37:00
Last night was one of the craziest nights of my life. Someone upset the wind God's and so they unleashed all of their fury on Hobart like I have never seen before. I've had some sleepless nights laying at anchor in our yacht off a rocky unfamiliar shore with a howling gale blowing outside whilst listening to the anchor chain dragging over the rocks, but last night was much worse and I spent most of it tucked up in bed at home. It was windy (we have already established that) and Emma and Brad were with me for the night. They were tucked up asleep upstairs whilst I lay awake in bed downstairs listening to the wind building up outside. By about midnight I was sick of listening to the flappy grill on my en suite exhaust fan rattle in the wind so I grabbed some duct tape, threw on a pair of jeans and went outside into the teeth of the gale to stick it down. To get to that part of the outside wall I have to walk along a ledge that is only about a foot wide with a bit of a drop ...
More About: Wind , Angry , Gods

The past few weeks part 2
2008-03-25 12:51:00
Where was I.....Oh yeah, the old place. They weren't happy because I didn't return my keys. My fault. I completely forgot to leave them behind when I shut the door, but there are only three separate locks and yet they claim they gave me five keys. I know there weren't any copies because I had to cut my own when I moved in. Five! Next is the awning pole. The place had those old pull down external awnings on some of the windows. I wanted to use them, but the awning pole needed to reach up and pull them down wasn't there. There was a wooden broom pole with a threaded end and I just thought that was it until I went to use it. I pointed that out two years ago, but now they reckon I've taken it and want me to replace it. What on earth would I want with an awning pole???? Fly screens. This one is a beauty. Every single fly screen was hanging off as if someone had removed them and then couldn't get them to fit back in. Every single one! They useed to flap noisily in ...
More About: Past , Part , Weeks

The past few weeks
2008-03-24 01:15:00
OK, it's been a very crazy past few weeks. I guess the biggest thing for all of us is that we have moved into Legoland. It still feels a bit like a holiday to me and I can't help but think that I have to duck down to reception to pay the bill before I leave! It's kinda weird to think that I can just go and have a swim whenever I want or practice my tennis serve before I start tea. It's also weird to drive North(ish) out of Kingston with my shopping, I keep heading in the wrong direction. As for some of the comments I made in my last post? "Tennis": I'm still playing in the club competition and taking lessons as well. I'm improving all the time. Nick has me concentrating on getting the racket back early and pointing the butt of the racket in the direction I want the ball to go. Those two things have been a huge help. Unfortunately last week my opponent didn't turn up and as I play him in all three games it meant I just had to go home. I get the t...
More About: Past , Weeks