ajft

Jelly legs this morning, but rode to work anyway. The forecast is for 18 degrees, it sounds almost spring time. Certainly wasn't warm for the first half of the ride though!

The major news of the day (or of yesterday I guess), is that I now have two new nieces. Hello to Casey Elizabeth and Zoe Anne, if you ever get to read this! 14:08 and 14:14 yesterday, at 7lb and 6lb 7oz respectively. Colin and Liz now have both hands full, three daughters under two and a half! Just imagine the chaos in about ten years.

Shamelessly quoted from slashdot:

Jef Raskin, the guy who designed the first Macintosh and author of The Humane Interface, has a SourceForge project putting his ideas into action.

MLP

[http://butterfly.net/]

IBM's joint venture with grids and massively multi-player games.

This evening I went on the Mascott Cycles ride for the first time in months. Seems that it has changed a bit, a lot of the faces I knew aren't there anymore, and the people that are there are there for a more serious ride. The first lap was gentle enough, but as soon as we turned around the roundabout for the second, off they went, harder than I could keep up. There doesn't seem to be a slow bunch either, so you either keep up, or ride around in the cold and dark by yourself. I was hungry, I was cold, I wasn't really fit enough, so I pulled the pin at two and a half laps and came home!

Getting to the start was a challenge. I decided to ride along the floating bike track around Burnley, a path that I've never ridden along before. After almost running into the river, into the concrete pillars, into trees and off the path, I can recommend that unknown bike paths be ridden in daylight first!

Monday morning, groan. Way too little sleep after staying up to watch the Tour last night. To add to that, whatever I did to my neck last Friday is still sore, so I was half tempted to stay in bed with a hot-water bottle, sulking.

I managed to find the answer to a question that has been bugging me for about a year—just who was wearing the polka-dot jersey on l'Alpe d'Huez last year when they shot past me? Turns out it was Patrice Hilgand. I'm most impressed with le Tour's website, they've got all the information from previous years, and it is all updated in a timely manner once the event is underway.

So much for the nice weather! Today it was back to grayness, windy and cold.

Spent the morning being a good little aunt and uncle and looking after Jack while his mum and dad went off to a brunch. A rather entertaining time for all concerned as Jack explored the wardrobes in the spare room, just in case someone had hidden any trains in there, and attempted to drive a large steam-engine around the lounge room floor. After assisting us with two bowls of soup and a large quantity of partly chewed toast, he placed a prize chocolate biscuit into his shirt pocket and left with his parents, leaving us to have a much needed afternoon nap!

Rejuvenated, it was with some trepidation that we ventured out this evening to see Minority Report at the Rivoli, the story had sounded good, the reviews promising, but just seeing Tom Cruise's name in the credits made me cringe... Unnecessarily as it turned out, I thoroughly enjoyed it, despite jumping half out of my seat a couple of times and nearly scaring Jo out of hers in the process.

Then home for the final stage of the Tour de France. Full of interest until the end, the green jersey wasn't decided until the last sprint for the finish. Robbie McEwen ended in green, Laurent Jalabert retired from racing while wearing the KOM, Lance, of course, was in the yellow.

A beautiful spring-like day. The good intentions were to get up and out of the house early, visit the markets and be out shopping by ten. After a bad night's sleep we woke around eight, but then fell asleep again, so it wasn't until ten thirty that we could step outside the door. Markets and groceries, then breakfast at Via Ponte. Sadly, the coffee isn't up to scratch. Not as bad as last week's shocker, but still not good. Then it was onto the tram for a trip to the city.

It was an interesting day for tram travel. As we got on we couldn't help but notice the two identically dressed girls sitting side by side, identical mobile phones in their hands, totally engrossed in the game they were both playing. I read later in the week that Ericsson is doing some sneaky marketing with one of its new phones, something about getting models to pretend that they aren't models and play with their new bluetooth phones in public—maybe that's what we were seeing, I can't tell from the picture. There was also a family with a dog on the tram, it being held in someone's lap for the duration of the trip.

Due to the fact that we may or may not have been in possession of valid tram tickets, but we definitely did not like the ugly dial of the tikett inspektor, we alighted from the city bound tram and walked along in the sun besides the gardens.

More bits of shopping, on top secret topics, then home again, strangely enough, another girl with a dog attempted to get on the tram in the city but the driver wouldn't let her on. He did first ask whether the mangy-looking terrier was a seeing-eye dog, just in case.

Jump in the car before heading out to Glenferrie Road for another browse in the windows. Topping off the afternoon, Louie's provided some much-needed treasure in the form of spiced olives and tasty cheeses. The Tarago Shades of Blue is one of my favourites.

More thoughts on a new PC. The Shuttle SS51 looks pretty cool, as usual, it was brought to my attention on slashdot.

[www.shuttle.com]

the Shuttle SS51G product description.

[http://www.satotech.com.au/]

Australian supplier, and they're nearby in Box Hill.

Bloody bike lights! Half way to work this morning and my rear flashing light snapped in half and fell off. That's the second one of these where the plastic clip has just fatigued after a couple of months use, there's nothing wrong with the light. I managed to catch it as it bounced around on the pannier rack, and have reattached it with packing tape. Not quite as good as gaff tape, but it holds a lot of the world together.

Riding home at night I nearly ran off the bike track and into the trees. I thought I was on the track, then saw a red flashing tail light off to my right. Just as I started to head towards it I realised that a) it was only about a foot off the ground, and b) it was bouncing up and down. I swerved back onto the path just in time to see a Jack Russell terrier come bounding out of the shrubbery with the light on its collar!

My subconscious must be attempting to enforce my fitness. I managed to leave my keys at work this evening, which meant that when I got home there was nobody there, the door was locked, and the only thing to do was go and ride a lap of the Boulevard.

Only one idiot boy racer in a Porsche tried to make life miserable, the rest of the ride was great. The wattles and some of the other trees are starting to flower, so riding in the dark you notice the scents that much more.

There's only one problem with staying up until 2am watching the Tour de France, and that is getting up the next morning and going to work, especially when the radio informs you that its a pleasant 3.4°C outside. All thoughts of cycling disappeared, a strong coffee and smoke-emitting toast helped me on my way.

Lunch time today and I sent off an email to one of the other guys from the France tour last year, wondering whether he'd stayed up last night to watch the stage. Five minutes later I got a reply, but it wasn't a reply, he'd decided to send an email on much the same subject at the same time!

Then in a fit of race-induced enthusiasm I finally got around to entering Round the Bay in a Day — I guess I'd better get off my lazy backside and start riding my bike now! Not going to join the other Monash staff in their 'team', I'll just do it my own way and let David and whoever he talks into it do it theirs.

Spent an interesting afternoon exploring parts of the CBD. It started as an optimistic trip to the shops, but the ones we wanted weren't open on a Sunday, so we delved into the arcades and alleys. Found places I'd heard of, but only had vague recollections of where they were—on the other hand, I'm not sure I'll be able to find any of them again...

We also wasted a little of our time and a little of someone else's time by visiting an apartment that is for-sale and telling a few lies to a real-estate agent. Stupidly designed place, judging by the size of the fans in the bedrooms and the thickness of the roof, it probably hits 40 degrees in there in the summer. The second bedroom was only just big enough to put a single bed in, and had a diagonal wall to make furniture placement a nightmare. I guess we stick with renting for a few more decades!

I guess the only other thing was deciding that the free washing machine could go back to the land of large free white-goods. Just too much of a hassle making it work properly, it kept trying to hammer its way through the wall and into the neighbours, either that or switching itself off every half revolution of the spin cycle.

Tour de France

Wow, what a race. Despite the shocking reception, Jo and I stayed up to watch the live coverage of the Tour, starting at 11pm. After a 180km breakaway with a 13 minute lead, Richard Virenque managed to cross the line just two minutes ahead of Lance Armstrong, but it was a nail biting finish as Lance stood up and rode like he does, chasing down the last 8km and chewing up the time gap. It really made a difference knowing that last year I had been riding up the same mountain, at least from Bedoin to the summit.

Hmmm, some much-needed house work. A little archaeological digging and we rediscovered the lounge room floor. A visit to the Richmond markets and we've convinced the fridge that we still have a use for it. Then probably the worst coffee of the year, a shockingly bad serve from a favourite café, scalded milk and weak watery coffee.

Not much else, lazed around after being up half the night watching the tour.

Oh yeah, an abomination has occurred. We borrowed the TV from Jo's parents, since it seemed easier to watch the rest of the tour from the comfort of our own couch rather than by being sociable and visiting friends. Only problem is the reception, it is only barely recognisable as a television picture. The TV socket in the wall doesn't seem to do much, but the cable I'm using is a hand made one, so it won't be helping.

A 9:40 am appointment at St Vincent's hospital to see the Orthopaedic people. The doctor wasn't happy about me managing to dislocate my arm for a fourth time and so he's referred me to the hospital. Stupidly I thought that a 9:40 appointment meant an appointment that started at 9:40. Turns out that it meant an appointment that started at 9:55, but only because the person before me had given up and gone home! Half an hour later I've completed part I, which is merely the great filling out of forms, I am then escorted into a large waiting room and told to wait (surprisingly). A casual enquiry of “how long?” was met with “we can't promise anything but you should be seen in an hour or two!!!” It didn't end up being that long, on the other hand it didn't really accomplish much, I spent half an hour sitting with an Orthopaedic registrar while he asked me lots of questions and poked my shoulder a bit, all exactly the same things that each doctor has done each time I've dislocated it. After all that I was sent off for x-rays and told to make an appointment with their real orthopaedic specialist! I finally escaped at noon to go to work!

Two particularly humorous events of the morning, both were in the x-ray waiting room.

• The guy leaning against the wall with his elbow resting on the Switch off all mobile phones sign, chatting away merrily into his mobile phone, and. - Overheard as the x-ray technician came in to collect me “I need to

  do a left shoulder mobility set—what on earth is that?”

Holidays

[http://www.lhasa-2-kathmandu.co.uk/]

Lhasa to Kathmandu. I've read about it before, its getting tempting... especially the 160km downhill run!

There are huge masses of kelp washed up along the beach and rocks today, but no signs of the whales that were seen on Friday. It's getting to be a joke that where ever I go, there are no whales. Fishermen on the pier, coffees in the café, another relaxing day as we unwound from last week.

3:30 this afternoon and I decided that I desperately needed to get out and go for a bike ride, to try and capture the last of the sunny afternoon, so while everyone else snoozed on the couch I rode off along the Great Ocean Road, arranging for them to pick me up at Torquay.

It was cool, but bearable, and magnificent riding through the forests and along the beaches. The late afternoon sun and good waves had brought out every surfer for miles around. Even the motorists were surprisingly well natured, considering it was the end of the school holidays and everyone was heading back to Melbourne. There was only one baseball cap wearing P-plater driving the ubiquitous Commodore who decided to spin the wheels as he overtook on the wrong side of a traffic island.

With impeccable timing, Jo, Mark and Lesley drove past just as I rounded the roundabout at the bottom of Torquay. Packed the bike into the car and we continued on to Geelong to peek into Machine Age, and look for Mark & Lesley's old couch, then eat more magnificent food at the Sailor's Rest on the waterfront.

10:00pm, back home. It looks like a bomb site, there'll be no avoiding the housework next week!

Woke up, ate, went for a walk, ate, sat around the house, ate, went for a walk, slept. Nearly a perfect day really.

MarkO offered what may well be one of the centuries' more meaningful wine reviews. Sitting down to a magnificent beef curry with a large glass of red, he uttered the following:

Ere, this is alright; and there's lots of it.

Truer words are rarely spoken.

Not a very productive week, the more machines that we install Sophos anti-virus software on at Monash, the more machines we seem to have that are experiencing problems. Or maybe that should be, that are eXPeriencing problems, since most of them seem to be on WindowsXP. No amount of removal and reinstallations seems to work. The NetWare 6 native file access product is driving me crazy too, the test server works perfectly, the production one will let Windows machines login but not Macintoshes. No amount of "try this, try that" type advice seems to be helping.

...and this morning's idiot of the day award goes to the man in the Subaru Forrester. Holding a thickshake to his mouth with his left hand, and a phone to his ear with his right, he still managed to stay mostly in one lane as he drove with his knees up Swan St.

Yay, time to get away for the weekend. Off to Lorne to sleep in late, eat good food, drink good coffee, slurp good wine, and be with good friends.

Drove down through the miscellaneous 60, 70, 80 and 100 km/hr zones that make up the continuous road-works that is the Geelong road. I'm astounded that people can manage to do this twice a day and not get caught by a speed trap, some of the transitions from one zone to another are not easy to spot, and the mix of old, new and temporary road-markings is frightening in the dark!

Well the first meal of the weekend was a failure. Pizza from the only take-away shop left open in Lorne, it was an evil slimy affair covered in diced pig and not much else. MarkO and Jo had trouble containing themselves when the sole waitress in the empty shop used the intercom to order the pizza from the cook in the kitchen, roughly a metre behind her.

Brrr! Another frosty morning, and a very cold ride to work. Almost reminded me of Canberra.

[http://www.cofax.org/]

yet another content management system. Java based, much nicer design, no ugly URLs... need more copious spare time to investigate further.

Received an interesting email today. In February I read a number of papers on possible future operating systems, all published by Microsoft. All were hosted on the website http://research.microsoft.com/ and are publically viewable. Today I received an email telling me to remove the reference, even though I had not included their email address, and was linking to a publically available page that can be found via any search engine.

Just as it would be rude to post someone's telephone number on the web without their permission, you should not post their email address without their permission—especially not in a form that can be read by a spider. Please remove my name from that page.

Oh well, I've removed the person's name, as per the request.

Tour de France

Fascinating level of coverage of the Tour de France in The Age though. The race started on Sunday and there was nothing, Monday... nothing, Tuesday, a sixth of a page because the Aussies appeared in the placings. All of sudden, today there is a full page spread since all four are in the top thirty places! I wonder when they'll realise that they can cover world class sports when there are no Australians winning them.

Useful snippet for formatting PHP files. Handy if I'm going to try and delve into postnuke any more. It is generating some abominable HTML, a mix of HTML 4.01, XHTML and just plain wrong.

(defun php-mode-hook ()
  (setq tab-width 4
        c-basic-offset 4
        c-hanging-comment-ender-p nil
  	indent-tabs-mode
	(not
	 (and (string-match "/\\(PEAR\\|pear\\)/" (buffer-file-name))
	      (string-match "\.php$" (buffer-file-name))))))

I carefully left work so I could drop in on friends and watch SBS' 6:30 to 7:00pm coverage of the Tour de France... Arrived spot on 6:30, just as MarkO turned the TV off. Somehow I'd misread the times from the TV guide. Damn, missed all the excitement of the Aussies ranking up high. Robbie McEwen is third overall, Baden Cooke thirteenth, Brad McGee sixteenth and Stuart O'Grady twenty seventh!

An old friend from my Uni days is visiting Melbourne this weekend and he'd promised to call me so we could catch up. Vaguely I'd known that years ago John had said that he had a friend called Drew. This morning John called up and points out that Drew is Bund Drew, and so I know him already. On further investigation I probably met him years ago at John's wedding! The coincidences were explored at great length over an excellent lunch at the Blue Train and a number of pints of Guiness.

Some interesting beers that I bought today to take to a party at Rae and Alex's house:

• Peroni Gran Riserva
• Velkopovicky Czech lager
• Schneider Aventinus
• Hansa Pilsner

I've selected StyleBox as the basic theme to work with, it was the first theme based solely on CSS that I could find.

Death to the <table> tag!

Experimentation time for me, the boss. I've installed postnuke 0.713 and I'm all set to go....

Gallery and PHP-nuke or Postnuke look like I should investigate them. This business of building everything from scratch has got to stop.

MLP

[http://gallery.sourceforge.net/]

maybe I should investigate using Gallery for my photo albums.

[http://phpnuke.org/]

PHP and MySQL content management system.

[http://www.postnuke.com/]

yet another content management system.

A throat full of razor blades and a steel band around my chest.... Not quite, but artistic license is always helpful when feeling sick. I'm spending today in bed, trying not to cough out my insides.