As CNN and everyone else is reporting, a giant rodent has been found in Indonesia. It is 5 times the size of a normal rat.
Yes they've been found. Really and Truly live ROUSes.
It's the Princess Bride quote brought to life:
"What about the R.O.U.S's?"
"Rodents of Unusual Size - I don't think they exist"
Monday, December 17, 2007
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Staring at the Ceiling
We bought an apartment a year ago. It has a vermiculite ceiling. In the USA they seem to be called popcorn ceilings. I just call them ugly. We've been getting some quotes on how to get rid of it.
Our choices seem to be:
- Live with it. I don't like that option.
- Paint it. Everyone I know who has done that says it takes lots of paint. They sell a sealant that's supposed to mean that it drink in the paint. People say it looks much better but you can still see the shadows.
- Rip up the ceiling - we're on the top floor so we wondered whether if we could just put in a new ceiling all together. We've been told that because we're on the top floor we have to have a fireproof ceiling which would be more expensive and possibly would need an inspection. The advise of the people coming in for quotes was "Oh you wouldn't want to do that".
- Put in a drop or false ceiling. This looks like the only option. It won't be grey and ugly but we'll lose some height. We can do the normal fixings which lose 10 cm and put in downlights (environmentally friendly ones obviously) or we can tack it on the existing ceilig and only lose a few centimeters.
At the moment we're still waiting for the quoters to send us they're quotes. They we have to get decide what we want and get it aproved by the body corporate. The next meeting is February. I thought we'd be irritated waiting for so long. Fortunately it appears to take so long to get quotes that we'll probably be lucky if we have the whole job planned out by then.
Whatever happens the ceiling MUST GO.
Our choices seem to be:
- Live with it. I don't like that option.
- Paint it. Everyone I know who has done that says it takes lots of paint. They sell a sealant that's supposed to mean that it drink in the paint. People say it looks much better but you can still see the shadows.
- Rip up the ceiling - we're on the top floor so we wondered whether if we could just put in a new ceiling all together. We've been told that because we're on the top floor we have to have a fireproof ceiling which would be more expensive and possibly would need an inspection. The advise of the people coming in for quotes was "Oh you wouldn't want to do that".
- Put in a drop or false ceiling. This looks like the only option. It won't be grey and ugly but we'll lose some height. We can do the normal fixings which lose 10 cm and put in downlights (environmentally friendly ones obviously) or we can tack it on the existing ceilig and only lose a few centimeters.
At the moment we're still waiting for the quoters to send us they're quotes. They we have to get decide what we want and get it aproved by the body corporate. The next meeting is February. I thought we'd be irritated waiting for so long. Fortunately it appears to take so long to get quotes that we'll probably be lucky if we have the whole job planned out by then.
Whatever happens the ceiling MUST GO.
Monday, December 03, 2007
Dentist
I went to the dentist today. I hate going to the dentist. I had been avoiding it for ages and then I started feeling tender around my gum. I finally rang up to make an appointment this morning. I thought it would be a week or two until I could get an appointment. Instead I got one for 3pm. I was mildly worried all day and was expecting nasty and painful things to happen.
Instead I got a cleaning and nothing else. I didn't even come out with sensitive teeth. Now I don't have to feel guilty about not going to the dentist for another 6 months.
Instead I got a cleaning and nothing else. I didn't even come out with sensitive teeth. Now I don't have to feel guilty about not going to the dentist for another 6 months.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Solaris Patches
I'm making a solaris patch for a package. This has been a very educational experience.
Either Sun haven't documented this very thoroughly or I'm just managing to miss the current accurate howto document. Looking at other people's posts it looks like others are in the same boat.
Some notes on what I've found:
- All solaris patches have a unique id. They have to be of format XXXXXX-YY where X is a 6 digit unique id identifying what your patching and YY is the version. It also allows you to put capital letters infront which means you can put your company infront and not have to worry about clashing with anyone else.
- read the /usr/lib/patch/patchadd script - it contains the error codes information like the allowed version id format.
- If you doing a patch add and getting something like:
Check your error code you are getting error code 34 which is "Incorrect patch spool directory". It may mean that like me you haven't added a .diPatch file.
Either Sun haven't documented this very thoroughly or I'm just managing to miss the current accurate howto document. Looking at other people's posts it looks like others are in the same boat.
Some notes on what I've found:
- All solaris patches have a unique id. They have to be of format XXXXXX-YY where X is a 6 digit unique id identifying what your patching and YY is the version. It also allows you to put capital letters infront which means you can put your company infront and not have to worry about clashing with anyone else.
- read the /usr/lib/patch/patchadd script - it contains the error codes information like the allowed version id format.
- If you doing a patch add and getting something like:
The patch or patch_list 123456-01 cannot be found in
/opt/mydir.
Check your error code you are getting error code 34 which is "Incorrect patch spool directory". It may mean that like me you haven't added a .diPatch file.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Weather Culture Shock
We've been back 2 days now. Since then it has been grey, rainy, chilly and other blahy Sydney winter things. It's kind of like a grey Switzerland Autumn day. We just left summer.
Well we just left summer from a country a long way from an ocean with excellent central heating so 15 degrees there means put on a jumper when you go outside unless your doing exercise. 15 degrees here means where thick socks and a thick polarfleece inside. Weather Culture Shock.
Well we just left summer from a country a long way from an ocean with excellent central heating so 15 degrees there means put on a jumper when you go outside unless your doing exercise. 15 degrees here means where thick socks and a thick polarfleece inside. Weather Culture Shock.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Bunch
We went to Paris to see the last stage of the Tour de France again. We took the new TGV - 4.5 hours Zurich to Paris. For July 29th we were standing in the rain on the loop of the final laps. Lots of fun as usual.
We're Back
We flew back to Sydney yesterday. We arrived in Zurich at the beginning of March for what was supposed to be a 2 1/2 month trip. 5 1/2 month laters we're back. I finished work on the 3rd August and we then went on a small cycle tour from the Bodensee to Salzburg.
On Saturday we left our serviced apartment with our bikes and small backpacks and rode to the Zurich Hauptbahnhof - that's the main train station. Our previous cycle tours have been on mountain bikes with slicks and racks with our gear in panniers. For this trip we had road bikes and so we're carrying clothes on our backs. An interesting experiment for us.
For Dear Reader's birthday I had selected a cycle tour book from the German "Bikeline" series that was around the right length for 10 days and we'd decided to start with that. It was the "Bodensee Koenigsee" ride. That's Lake Constance to a lake in Germany about 20 km from Salzburg.
Our first challenge was to get to the Bodensee. We really wanted to get to Lindau but on inquiring at the train station, because it was Saturday in the holiday season - August all the bike reservations on the direct trains were taken. Instead we caught the train to Romanshorn which has a bike carriage - childrens playground on the top level and half the carriage for bikes on the bottom level. From Romanshorn we caught ferry across the Bodensee to Friedrichshaven. Then we rode about 20km around the lake to Lindau and the start of the ride.
A friend at work in Switzerland had described riding on the Bodensee Rundweg (the path around the Bodensee) once - saying that you needed to book a slot to fit in. There were so many people riding this route it was unbelievable. Some people were out for day trips - others were riding with massive panniers and giant tents and sleeping bags on the back. Groups of friends and solo riders. Old and young. When passing through some villages there were more cyclists than anyone else. Even after being in Switzerland - it was a lot of bikes.
More exciting tails to come :-)
On Saturday we left our serviced apartment with our bikes and small backpacks and rode to the Zurich Hauptbahnhof - that's the main train station. Our previous cycle tours have been on mountain bikes with slicks and racks with our gear in panniers. For this trip we had road bikes and so we're carrying clothes on our backs. An interesting experiment for us.
For Dear Reader's birthday I had selected a cycle tour book from the German "Bikeline" series that was around the right length for 10 days and we'd decided to start with that. It was the "Bodensee Koenigsee" ride. That's Lake Constance to a lake in Germany about 20 km from Salzburg.
Our first challenge was to get to the Bodensee. We really wanted to get to Lindau but on inquiring at the train station, because it was Saturday in the holiday season - August all the bike reservations on the direct trains were taken. Instead we caught the train to Romanshorn which has a bike carriage - childrens playground on the top level and half the carriage for bikes on the bottom level. From Romanshorn we caught ferry across the Bodensee to Friedrichshaven. Then we rode about 20km around the lake to Lindau and the start of the ride.
A friend at work in Switzerland had described riding on the Bodensee Rundweg (the path around the Bodensee) once - saying that you needed to book a slot to fit in. There were so many people riding this route it was unbelievable. Some people were out for day trips - others were riding with massive panniers and giant tents and sleeping bags on the back. Groups of friends and solo riders. Old and young. When passing through some villages there were more cyclists than anyone else. Even after being in Switzerland - it was a lot of bikes.
More exciting tails to come :-)
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
This is the second time I've been in Zuerich on the day a Harry Potter book was released. Like last time, we went to the English Orrel Fuessli and joined the queue. They were crowds and quite a few non-Harry-Potter buyers were looking at the crowds and leaving which was strange because we were in and out in 5 minutes. You had to pay at a cash register and then go upstairs to collect the book. Someone said the downstairs register was not buys so we went down stairs, paid in 1 minute, told the lady advising people where to pay that the downstairs register was empty and then went up and collected the book.
We continued shopping for a few hours - which I though was most restrained of me. I had been talking about going for a bike ride later but luckily the perfect excuse for staying in turned up. It began to rain heavily and didn't stop all evening. Finished the book at 1:30 am.
I really enjoyed it. I was laughing out loud at some of the jokes and not wanting to be interrupted in the tense bits. It was very well done. I'm very impressed that J. K. Rowling managed to create a book that could stand up so well to so much anticipation.
Obtaining and reading the book made me remember what it was like going to see the last Lord of the Rings film. A sense of a ritual ending. For the previous 2 Christmas periods we had joined lots of other people to see these movies and this was the last time that this would happen. Reading the book was like that. This was the last time I would ever read a Harry Potter novel for the first time.
Very cool :-)
We continued shopping for a few hours - which I though was most restrained of me. I had been talking about going for a bike ride later but luckily the perfect excuse for staying in turned up. It began to rain heavily and didn't stop all evening. Finished the book at 1:30 am.
I really enjoyed it. I was laughing out loud at some of the jokes and not wanting to be interrupted in the tense bits. It was very well done. I'm very impressed that J. K. Rowling managed to create a book that could stand up so well to so much anticipation.
Obtaining and reading the book made me remember what it was like going to see the last Lord of the Rings film. A sense of a ritual ending. For the previous 2 Christmas periods we had joined lots of other people to see these movies and this was the last time that this would happen. Reading the book was like that. This was the last time I would ever read a Harry Potter novel for the first time.
Very cool :-)
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Cold In Sydney
Classic Quote from the Sydney Morning Herald about a very cold day in Sydney
from Tania Liebenow
"You know it's cold when your Australian cattle dog is whining for you to dress her in her hooded fleece doggie jumper and refuses to go outside in the morning," she said.
from Tania Liebenow
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Rhein
Yesterday we went to the train station with our bikes to catch a train to Geneva so we could ride to see the Tour de France. Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as planned. It was the first day of school holidays and there were power problems in Fribourg (I think it was there - began with an F anyway). The 9:30 train didn't go and the 10:00 and 10:30 which were supposed to be ICs turned out to be ICNs for which bikes needed a reservation and they were all taken. So we randomly decided to go somewhere else.
We hopped on the train going to Chur after they managed to find the last two spots in the luggage van for our bikes. We got off at Chur and after looking at the various bicycle route signs, chose the two north. Shortly afterwards this became non-sealed. We always get strange looks from the other cyclists when we ride these routes on our road bikes- but they're not too bad.
The route followed the Rhein through the valley - into a head wind of course and after a while detoured into "Heidi Land" - Maienfeld and Bad Ragaz. Very pretty views. It started getting hotter and we bailed out at Sargans. It was 12 degrees earlier in the week and yesterday it was at least 30. It's a bit of a shock to the system.
We caught an IC back. The last carriage was one of the bike downstairs, play room upstairs carriages. The bottom was filled with bikes - all the official spaces were taken and they were 4 deep against the walls. Luckily it was express from Sargans to Zurich.
We hopped on the train going to Chur after they managed to find the last two spots in the luggage van for our bikes. We got off at Chur and after looking at the various bicycle route signs, chose the two north. Shortly afterwards this became non-sealed. We always get strange looks from the other cyclists when we ride these routes on our road bikes- but they're not too bad.
The route followed the Rhein through the valley - into a head wind of course and after a while detoured into "Heidi Land" - Maienfeld and Bad Ragaz. Very pretty views. It started getting hotter and we bailed out at Sargans. It was 12 degrees earlier in the week and yesterday it was at least 30. It's a bit of a shock to the system.
We caught an IC back. The last carriage was one of the bike downstairs, play room upstairs carriages. The bottom was filled with bikes - all the official spaces were taken and they were 4 deep against the walls. Luckily it was express from Sargans to Zurich.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Glass of Wine
We learnt an important lesson today. It can be important to know the properties of the mystery wine you have bought. Otherwise you end up with bubbly wine all over your toes :-)
Sunday, July 01, 2007
A very nice view
This is a photo from our walk near Luzern. There are some very nice houses on the lake like this. Later there are houses with high hedges around them and "privat" signs so that you can't see the houses - or the view.
Luzern
Haven't blogged in a while. I've been busy working. Still in Switzerland. We went to Luzern yesterday and started walking along the edge of the lake.
According to GMaps Pedometer we walked about 11 km. This is our route. Actually it would be a bit more than that because we had to backtrack a few times when we lost the Wanderweg signs.
The Vierwaldstaettersee is very pretty. For quite a section of the walk we weren't along the edge of the lake because of a lot of people have "Privat" on the roads going into areas having I assume bought up the lakeside property. There are quite a lot of townhouse like flats along the edge quite remote from anything - but there is of course a bus because this is Switzerland.
For one part of the walk it was right on the edge of the lake. We were passed by normal swiss rollerbladers who were using the excellent quiet roads to go somewhere. We were also passed again and again by this same pair of odd rollerbladers. This particular pair were just going backwards and forwards on the same 2 km stretch of road. They weren't racing rollerbladers. Maybe they were from somewhere other than switzerland and hadn't caught on to the idea of "touring rollerbladers".
Today we entergetically went for a walk/run in the forest around the base of the Uetliberg. How extercisey of use :-)
According to GMaps Pedometer we walked about 11 km. This is our route. Actually it would be a bit more than that because we had to backtrack a few times when we lost the Wanderweg signs.
The Vierwaldstaettersee is very pretty. For quite a section of the walk we weren't along the edge of the lake because of a lot of people have "Privat" on the roads going into areas having I assume bought up the lakeside property. There are quite a lot of townhouse like flats along the edge quite remote from anything - but there is of course a bus because this is Switzerland.
For one part of the walk it was right on the edge of the lake. We were passed by normal swiss rollerbladers who were using the excellent quiet roads to go somewhere. We were also passed again and again by this same pair of odd rollerbladers. This particular pair were just going backwards and forwards on the same 2 km stretch of road. They weren't racing rollerbladers. Maybe they were from somewhere other than switzerland and hadn't caught on to the idea of "touring rollerbladers".
Today we entergetically went for a walk/run in the forest around the base of the Uetliberg. How extercisey of use :-)
Saturday, June 02, 2007
i am a secondlife newbie
I've been wandering around secondlife a bit lately. I'm still in the newbie stage.
I've changed outfits a few times - free dove is a wonderful place - sample freebies from kind designers in second life - clever advertising for them and a great way to start to look at bit less newbie like for newbies like me.
I've seen some amazing places - Amsterdam was cool, very life like. I've seen some lovely gardens, underwater caves, mountain but I am definitely still in the newbie stage. I'm still exploring and finding lots of empty space. I've had a few fun conversations but I'm still flitting from place to place. It's kind of like being in a new country. I think the more extroverted you are the easier you will find it - also like being in a new country.
I've changed outfits a few times - free dove is a wonderful place - sample freebies from kind designers in second life - clever advertising for them and a great way to start to look at bit less newbie like for newbies like me.
I've seen some amazing places - Amsterdam was cool, very life like. I've seen some lovely gardens, underwater caves, mountain but I am definitely still in the newbie stage. I'm still exploring and finding lots of empty space. I've had a few fun conversations but I'm still flitting from place to place. It's kind of like being in a new country. I think the more extroverted you are the easier you will find it - also like being in a new country.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Tail Strings?
My Swiss "there must be a good reason for this" moment for the day. I was flicking tv channels and there I see a Swiss cow barn. Swiss cows will bells round there necks in a barn eating hay. Fair enough - I get that bit.
The puzzling thing - each cow had a rope attached - descending from the roof to the end of its tail. The ropes were reasonably tight so if the cow was lying down the end of the tail was sticking up in the air.
Why was this so? Fly strike prevention, cleanliness, a kind way of making sure the cows have to share there food. Why is this so?
The puzzling thing - each cow had a rope attached - descending from the roof to the end of its tail. The ropes were reasonably tight so if the cow was lying down the end of the tail was sticking up in the air.
Why was this so? Fly strike prevention, cleanliness, a kind way of making sure the cows have to share there food. Why is this so?
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Triple J in Fast Forward
Maybe it's just me. I use Google reader to look at rss feeds. I've got Dr Karl's podcast (science and funny) from Triple J as one of the feeds. I clicked on play just now and got Dr Karl as a chipmunk. For some reason all his podcasts were double time :-)
Friday, May 11, 2007
It's the Eurovision Song Contest
I have achieved a life long dream tonight. Ok it's wasn't really a dream - more something that I've never been able to do before (ok I just didn't think of it last time) and I'll never be able to do again (probably). I voted in the Eurovision Song Contest semi-final.
Australian's don't get to vote - unless you happen to be living in Switzerland :-)
Amazing. Everyone looks so happy to be there as though most people know that it will be the biggest audience they will ever perform to. It probably is too - people all over the world have Eurovision Song Contest parties - often with sequins.
Switzerland disappointingly did not get in.
Australian's don't get to vote - unless you happen to be living in Switzerland :-)
Amazing. Everyone looks so happy to be there as though most people know that it will be the biggest audience they will ever perform to. It probably is too - people all over the world have Eurovision Song Contest parties - often with sequins.
Switzerland disappointingly did not get in.
Friday, May 04, 2007
May Day
Haven't blogged in a while. Busy at work and lazed around the house on the weekend so not much to say. The only exciting thing was May Day which is a public holiday in Zurich. We stayed in till about 6pm and then went for a walk over the hill.
At one point I thought I heard a roaring crowd not to far away. This was probably because while we were lazing around watching Blue Brothers 2000 in German (it works better) there was a crowd of people wandering around Zurich breaking windows, burning a few cars and being shot at with water canon, rubber bullets and pepper spray. Even better it seems that this is traditional. May Day and rioting seems to happen every year... I vaguely remembered hearing people talking about getting down wind of tear gas by accident and luckily linked with May Day which is why we didn't wander into town.
At one point I thought I heard a roaring crowd not to far away. This was probably because while we were lazing around watching Blue Brothers 2000 in German (it works better) there was a crowd of people wandering around Zurich breaking windows, burning a few cars and being shot at with water canon, rubber bullets and pepper spray. Even better it seems that this is traditional. May Day and rioting seems to happen every year... I vaguely remembered hearing people talking about getting down wind of tear gas by accident and luckily linked with May Day which is why we didn't wander into town.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Thinkpad Wireless Switch
I was really tired, had been at work all day on a Sunday, booted up the Lenovo Thinkpad X60 and no wifi. I kept getting this message when I tried to enable from the wifi icon it that it was switched off in the Bios or on the wifi switch. What wifi switch I muttered. After about 10 minutes of looking in the Bios, checking drivers and swearing I had a look at the warning message again. It had a little icon on it that looked like the wifi icon on the F5 key. Slowly my brain switched on.... I looked at the top of the notebook, on the sides and finally turned it over.
There's a slider switch on the lip of the notebook. If you look down at your keyboard, in the middle of the closest edge to you is a slot which the lid clips into. If you look under the notebook in the same position, there's a slider switch. One side has the little wifi icon - the computer with the little curvy things round it. The other one doesn't have the curvy thing. If you slide it from one side to the other it enables or disables wifi. Who new...
Maybe you all knew that but I didn't.
There's a slider switch on the lip of the notebook. If you look down at your keyboard, in the middle of the closest edge to you is a slot which the lid clips into. If you look under the notebook in the same position, there's a slider switch. One side has the little wifi icon - the computer with the little curvy things round it. The other one doesn't have the curvy thing. If you slide it from one side to the other it enables or disables wifi. Who new...
Maybe you all knew that but I didn't.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Cool
I was checking my sitemeter logs because it's fascinating to me people find this blog. There aren't very many but it's amazing to me that anyone reads my meanderings. It also makes me feel useful when answers to technical problems I've had are helping other people.
One of the searches today was for Ghost_k. As I blogged earlier when I put my 2 minute swan building a nest file on youtube I used Blue Mix by Ghost_k for a sound track. It was on ccMixter and had a creative commons licence.
Anyway someone has found it and linked to it on the ccMixterblog. Which is cool. My use of their track goes back to the mix site where other people might watch it and then think "what crappy footage of swans but I really like the song" - which would be really great because I really liked the song too :-)
One of the searches today was for Ghost_k. As I blogged earlier when I put my 2 minute swan building a nest file on youtube I used Blue Mix by Ghost_k for a sound track. It was on ccMixter and had a creative commons licence.
Anyway someone has found it and linked to it on the ccMixterblog. Which is cool. My use of their track goes back to the mix site where other people might watch it and then think "what crappy footage of swans but I really like the song" - which would be really great because I really liked the song too :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
