The time is nigh

...for a new video card.

When I got my new computer I mentioned getting a video card to replace the not so good graphics it came with. Until today I thought I would get an Nvidia 8800GT when the prices get pretty reasonable.

Well, today I did my weekly check of prices at MSY (the website is really crap but this is the place to go to get computer hardware, plus it's around the corner from work) to find that you can get a generic branded 8800 card for about $260 and a Gigabyte branded one for $290, which to me is pretty reasonable. What I also discovered was that the new 9600GT has been introduced. Going by price (about $240) it would sits between the 8600 (which it is a direct replacement of) and the 8800. Reading a review it would seem to be right in the sweet spot for me. The 9600 is based on the 8800s technology, but has some features and processing power missing, but it's cheaper, and better than an 8600. Sounds good to me.

Whether I get one or not is another issue. Thinking about going on Monday after work if I can wait, otherwise it's off to a swapmeet this weekend.

No idea

Can't think of anything else to blog about

Ooh just got distracted for several minutes by the fireworks out the back... The finale of a Defence force school of music concert. You should hear it when they do the 1810 overture...

Patriotism

Ah yes. I happened to read a certain blog on The Age website today at work. It is about flag-cape wearing yobs using patriotism as an excuse to be rude and obnoxious those they deem as "un-Australian". The writer of the original blog post was over generalising (again), but I guess that is his job in order to create a discussion. I dislike the racist under(0ver)tones. I've seen a few of the "Lovie it or leave it" stickers on cars, usually a hotted up Toyota Hilux with a massive bullbar, 400 gigawatts of lighting, a Conargo pub sticker, and some other sticker about pig shooting.

I guess some of the comments were correct in that harmless symbols become associated with certain groups over time that everyone else tries to disassociate themselves from. The example of the man who had a swastika tattoo before the Nazi's adopted it as a symbol was a good one. I quite literally cringe very time I see a youth (I feel old now, but it's apt description) with a flag as a cape. Like tonight on the way through Richmond station, they were everywhere.

On the topic of the flag itself, I don't really care about it. I don't mind the one we have, and I understand the meaning behind the parts of it. If it were to change , it would have to be a good design, so far I haven't really liked any of the proposals over the years. I guess I could get used to it if it were to change, I'm not a total stick in the mud.

Sunburn: The Saga Continues

In other news, my face has just about stopped falling off after Sunday's major sunburn incident. I think I've gained some insight into why it's rude to stare at people who don't quite look "normal". It may be that I'm a bit sensitive or delusional, but it's damn annoying having people looking at you all the time. I feel like telling them it's highly contagious.

The two days I took off work earlier this week did me some good though. And I know sunburn sounds like a weak excuse, but on Monday I think I would have struggled more than usual for a Monday, I was quite sore. Tuesday I was less sore but all the same, felt it best to rest. I did end up playing some backyard cricket with my nephew though, first ball and he belts it over the fence. The neighbours have given up and just allow him to go in and out of the back yard at will, and leave the ladder permanently up against the house for when a ball goes on the roof.

On Wednesday I thought I'd better go to work. after 5 minutes in the dry air conditioned air on the train my face started cracking up and flaking everywhere, and continued for the rest of the day in the air conditioning at work. I did take my Aloe Vera, which did help, but only lasted for a about an hour after I put it on before it started again. Thankfully on Thursday it stopped hurting so much, but I had a major "face-dandruff" problem. This morning most of the redness went away, but the shedding continues. My forehead, nose and chin are clear now but my right cheek (face!), ear and neck are having a go now. In general though, I feel a lot better.

Like a beetroot

Yesterday I went to the Point Cook air pageant. It wasn't a hot day at all, it was quite cloudy for most of the time. I had a jumper on all day, there was a lot of sun glare though. Lucky for me I had my sun glasses. On the way home I could tell my face was sun burnt, but it didn't feel too bad. I get home and look in the mirror and my face is beetroot red, the rest of my body is white, including the area shaded by my sunglasses. I treated it with ice and aloe vera, it still hurt. I wake up this morning feeling sorry for myself, and decide to take the day off work. My face is still red and sore. I'm not very happy with myself.

Why didn't I even consider putting sun screen on?! The thought didn't even cross my mind before I left home. At the air show I thought about it but dismissed it, it was cool and cloudy, I wouldn't get burnt. I feel so stupid.

I don't know if I can show my face at work tomorrow either. I think I'll lay low until it goes away. My new mantra is to just put on sunscreen before leaving the house, saves a lot of bother that way...

HD DVD RIP

No doubt you've heard about the official death of HD DVD, with this weeks withdrawal of support from the formats major backer, Toshiba. It's been pretty clear for quite a while now that Blu-Ray was the leader of the race. Blu-Ray had most (now all) Hollywood studios on board (the porn industry went HD DVD I believe, not sure), sold the most players (mostly SONY Play Station 3 consoles), and I suppose most importantly sold the most discs due to the wider range of titles available. It is good that the race is over, but people are rightly worried about pricing policies.

None of this matters to me, or to anyone really as "SD" DVD is still the most widespread format. To me DVDs just look and sound brilliant. Even if you happen to have a HD capable display an up-scaling DVD player can boost image resolution to near HD. Ironically it is said (on the DTV forum anyway) that the best up-scaling DVD player is/was the Toshiba XE1 HD DVD player (BD and players do it too, but not as well as this one).

At the moment I'm looking at a DVD player. The basic features I'm looking for are that it does all the usual things such as playing DVDs (a no brainer) and viewing photos. But what I'm really looking for is a player that plays DivX and XviD encoded videos and has a USB port. The reason I want DivX is just because it will come in handy from time to time. For me it's the USB port where things get interesting. Instead of burning mp3s and photos to DVD, it is much easier to just put them on a USB drive, the DivX videos are also playable from the USB port. Strangely enough it seems that the only models that have these features are up-scaling players, but that is of little use to me as I only have a CRT TV. At the moment it looks like the player I will get is the the Pioneer DV-400. I was looking at the more expensive DV-600, but I can't seem to find any.

On the train one day

This is a comment I made on one of High Riser's posts, and thought that it is worthy of it's own post.

One day on a train I sat down on the middle seat of group of three, someone was already at the window seat. Instantly I decided I was a bit cramped so I moved across to the aisle seat for more leg room. It was then that the person at the window spoke up and said, "it's OK I won't bite". I looked up, and he was an African man. I then realised that a few of the people in the surrounding seats were looking at me. I remember feeling quite embarrassed.

The comment was made in good humour, and I don't think he actually took offence at me moving seats. My action certainly wasn't made because of his skin colour, but I doubt a white or Asian person would make a comment such as this. I still think about this incident frequently when I'm on public transport. It is quite funny looking back at it.

I guess the point is that everything comes down to intent and perception. You're never going to get both to agree 100% of the time.

Smokey

So I am sitting here eating my breakfast and all I can smell is smoke. I look outside and the sky is that murky smoke colour that you get during bush fire. It's not far away either. I haven't worked out which way the wind is going. I suspect that it will be the bushland along the Plenty River.

Last Saturday morning the Chemist shop in Main Street Greensborough was gutted by fire, saw it only a few hours after, but before the clean up had begun. The windows were smashed and the inside was black. By Monday the front was covered in sheet metal and what was left of the destroyed awning at the front had been removed so it was now safe to walk past on the footpath, the smell remained. Don't know if it was deliberately lit or not.

It is also the 25th anniversary of the Ash Wednesday bush fires that ravaged large areas of Victoria and South Australia.


EDIT 10:27 AM: just heard on the radio that the smoke is coming from a fire near Mathoura in south western NSW.

Update 2: Random day out

It was Saturday the 2nd February. I resolved to go to a computer swap meet at Bundoora RMIT just to have a look at prices and stuff like that. At 9:30 I left the house and walked down to the bus stop to get the 9:38 513 to Greensborough. From there I intended to get a 566 to Plenty Road in Mill Park. I had no idea of the timetable for this route, and was prepaired to wait. As it turned out a bus was due shortly before 10 AM so I had relatively short wait. After 10-15 minute bus ride I was at my destination.

Navigating the grounds of RMIT to the sports centre was no mean feat, but I eventually found my way. As with every other computer swap meet I've ever been to I came out more confused than I was when I went in. It took me a few minutes to get my thoughts in order I walked back across the grounds to Plenty Road and over to the University Hill development.

After walking around the small, but considerably well used shopping area (considering most of the development is still under construction or in planning stages) I made my way to the tram stop and caught a number 86 tram towards the city. I hadn't been on this tram for a while, so it was interesting seeing what had and hadn't changed along the way. The corner of High Street (route 29)and Clarendon Street in Thornbury is still more or less unchanged from 16 years ago, when my nana lived there (in Clarendon Street). I can see that Thornbury, like Northcote before it is undergoing a "trendification" as the later becomes more expensive. Halal butchers are still the norm in both suburbs though.

The tram passed through the uber-hip (anyone know how to type an umlaut?) Westgarth (aka vegan/organic central) and crossed the Merri Creek into Queens Parade through Clifton Hill and North Fitzroy before turning south into Smith Street Collingwood. Smith Street is still very much rough around the edges. It's an intriguing mixture actually, as you've junkies rubbing shoulders with bargain hunters at the factory outlets. It was interesting to note that there are two Kathmandu factory outlets in Smith Street. One at the northern end and one at the southern end.

Along Gertrude Street and into Nicholson Street. I got off the tram at the intersection at Albert/Lonsdale Streets near the northern entrance to Parliament station and walked along Lonsdale to QV. Oporto for lunch at QV, and an obligatory trip into Big W, where for some reason I tried on a couple of pairs of shoes, Dunlop Volleys no less and some sort of skate shoe that didn't come in my size.

I wandered on along Lonsdale Street, stopping in a hobby shop and JB HiFi. It was here that I decided to just have a look at the computer shops in the Lonsdale/Queen Street area. The story goes that this particular shop had a large order, but the client wasn't ready to take delivery of the assembled PC's. So rather than have them sitting around the office they would rather sell them at cost price (I didn't buy that one for a minute). Apparently what I got was an upgraded version of the standard model they advertise (sort of, they advertise in every Tuesdays MX too). OK sounds good. I haggled a bit, took a few options out of the package (no monitor, kb, mouse etc) and within 15 minutes of walking in, I was walking out the door a brand new computer. I spent about what I thought I would, and got around about what I wanted. I'm still not sure if I got a good deal though. Doesn't matter now anyway.

I had to carry the computer to Melbourne Central where I stopped in the food court for water and a sit down. This computer buying and carrying business was thirsty, tiring, and not to mention awkward work. Feeling revived I went down to the station and soon boarded a train home. Thankfully I arranged a ride for the 1.6km trip from the station home. I've carried mice, keyboards, routers and monitors (LCD) that distance, but I don't think I could have made it with an actual computer.

In sumary:

walk-bus-bus-walk-swap_meet-walk-tram-walk-eat-walk-
computer-walk-drink-walk-train-car

Update 3: New Computer

I don't care if I'm posting these updates out of order. This is the easiest one to do...

Last Saturday during my random day out (see Update 2), I happened apon a computer shop and bought a new computer, just like that. It's big and black and very noisy because of all the fans. In comparison my old computer was silent. It's not a top of the line gaming rig but it serves my purposes very well. Did I mention it is fast, I like it.

Oh yeah the specs well lets see

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 4500 2.2GHz
Motherboard: MSI P4M900M3. - That's a Via chipset not Intel or nVidia possibly the major weak spot in the system, but we'll see...
RAM: 2 GB of 667 DDR2 ram of some generic flavour.
HDD: 250 GB SATAII Maxtor.
Optical: LG DVD burner -Lifes Good!
Case: In Win EA002

Notice I didn't mention graphics? Being a cheap computer it's got an integrated chipset. Believe it or not it's an S3 chipset, which I thought went out in the stoneage, Pentium 1 with Windows 95 and all that. Thankfully (or not) Via has decided to re-release an all new graphics chipset under the brand Via Chrome. I plan to replace it believe me. A guy at work was trying to talk me into an NVidia 8800GT, but I'm not sure if the motherboard would take it. We'll see.

As far as operating systems go I opted for Windows XP home. It's OK I guess. My old PC had Windows 2000, which is basically XP without all the eye candy. It's pretty similar except everything got moved around and I'm still finding my way around. Now this may shock people, but after using Vista on my laptop, and then XP on this computer, I'm thoroughly convinced that Vista is actually an improvement. Sure things look nicer but I think it is a better operating system, or will be once all the bugs get ironed out. Hopefully Vista SP1 fixes them. I actually wish I had gone for Vista Home Premium, and I still might.

It took me a week to get all my music, files, email and photos transfered over as my old computer has an ancient very slow network card (complete with a co-axial BNC connector), but as of yesterday this is now my main computer.

Now all it needs is a name...

Update 1: Down the bay

The Pier at Flinders. Philip Island and "The Nobbies"
can be seen in the background.

The 'straya day long weekend saw me tripping around the Mornington Peninsula on the Monday with my Mum. We went to Flinders and had fish and chips for lunch in the park overlooking the Jetty. After that we headed over to Rosebud. While there we went and had a look at my grandparents former home. My grandfather actually designed this house, he was an electrical engineer so he was pretty good at this sort of thing. A lady was out the front washing her car (Are the Mornington Peninsula on lesser water restrictions?) As is typical of houses of this vintage, it is constructed from fibro cement sheeting. To it seems as if most of Rosebud is constructed of Fibro.

After heading down to Rye we decided to turn back to Melbourne. We decided to stop at Rosebud for afternoon tea. We ended up at what is named the "New" Rosebud Bakery. While the service was pretty good, the chocolate milkshake I had was not so good. The best milkshakes are the ones where you get the tin cup with another glass or two worth of shake in reserve, sadly this was missing and my glass was empty all too soon.

Our refreshments done away with we drove to the Rosebud Pier across the road. It was a warm day, and this was the place to be. There were a lot of people on what little beach there was due to a high tide. What I've always found quite amusing about this part of the bay is how you can wade out for 100 metres, and the water goes no higher than your knees, and that's at high tide. On the pier there were lots of kids and teenagers jumping off and splashing around. Strangest of all some young girls were even sunbathing, strange given all the warnings of danger of this activity.

A ship passing Rosebud Pier

At both Flinders and Rosebud the colour of the water was unreal (as seen in the photos), I don't recall seeing water this colour before in Melbourne. Also on the pier there were a few people fishing. No one caught anything while we were there, but on the way back I saw a school of some reasonably sized fish. All this brought home to me the uncertain effects of the channel deepening dredging and eventual blasting of the heads that was due to begin in the next week or so after we were there. I have no idea, what will happen, but I suspect that the Port of Melbourne Corporation probably got the environmental effects statement they wanted.

Arthur's Seat from the Pier. The water really was that
clear, and that colour!

The road home lay ahead, taking us along the bay via Dromana, Mount Martha, Mornington and Farnkston to Edithvale where we headed up Springvale road and Westall Road home. Getting closer to home it was nearing dinner time so we stopped at Hungry Jacks at Forest Hill for a bite to eat. Why is it that the air conditioning in these places is always so cold?

Plenty of ideas

Ok, so I have plenty of blog ideas, but when it comes to actually getting them on the screen I seem to forget them.

Why not start with what I've been up to in the last few weeks?

OK good idea. Posts coming soon...

When "The Lot" is not actually "The Lot"

Why is it that my local fish and chip shop charges extra for pineapple on all it's hamburgers, including the "Hamburger with The Lot"? Obviously if you have to pay 60 cents extra for something you are not actually getting "The Lot". I don't know if this happens at other Fish and Chip shops, I'll have to take note next time.

Food for thought...

Plane Spotting

Spent some time this afternoon at the airport. First of all we parked around on the Sunbury Road under the approach to the north-south runway (runway 16). The first thing that struck me, wasn't a Boeing 777, but the apparent turf war going on between two ice cream vans. With the cool weather we're currently having (an icy 22 degrees C) business can't be too good, but two vans in the one spot must be professional suicide for purveyors of fine ice confectionery.

Gelati Turf War in the carpark

In the short time we were there a number of aircraft flew over, mostly Virgin and Qantas 737s, one Jetstar A320, and a Qantaslink (Qantas' regional brand) Dash 8.

Virgin Blue 737 on approach to Melbourne Airport
The winglets (upright bits on wing tips) are available
as a factory option, but I believe that Virgin Blue have
fitted a lot of their fleet with after market versions.

"When I grow up I want to be a Boeing 787 dreamliner"
Qantaslink Dash 8 coming from somewhere like Devonport,
Mildura or Canberra "shudder".

After a short drive to Sunbury and back we made our way back past the terminal, and around to the opposite side of the airfield near the control tower. Along the way we passed the new expanded long term car park, the taxi holding area complete with prayer room, numerous parts of airport land that are being sold off and developed (goodbye extra runways!) and the maintenance hangers at the southern end of the airfield.

Joining the throng in the car park (not an ice cream van to be seen!) along side the north south runway which sees most of the action we settled in for our afternoons entertainment. The car park is situated almost directly opposite the terminal buildings. It started off pretty quiet, with the odd departure or arrival, but things soon began heat up with the afternoon rush hour. While probably not busy compared to what goes in other places there was a fair bit of action. The highlights for me were Singapore and Qantas 747-400s, the Thai 777, and my first sightings of the rare Tiger A320s. Special mention must go to the Skywest Fokker F100. Skywest only recently began direct flights between Kalgoorlie and Melbourne.

A Qantas 767-300 leaps into the air

Singapore Airlines 747-400 rotates as a Qantas aircraft
of the same model taxis to the runway.

Now it is Qantas' turn, also flying to Singapore, but its
ultimate destination is London's Heathrow airport.

Confucius say that man who go through airport metal
detector sideways is going to Bangkok, as are the
passengers on board this Thai Airways
Boeing 777-300.

The tale of the bent bike

This morning before I got up I was lying in bed thinking about something that happened probably 7 or even 8 years ago.

I was out riding my bike one day and I decided to stop at a local service station to refill the tyres. The service station was an old fashioned independent service station (actually I think it was a Liberty at the time) that serviced cars in a mechanics workshop. At the side was a sort of ramp/driveway that went up to a parking area on an upper level (it may have been the roof) where they stored the cars they weren't working on.

I put my bike on the ground at the air hose and began to fill up the tyres. I had probably only filled one tyre when someone over near the door to the shop yelled out to get my attention. They wanted directions to somewhere or other local, which I gave to them. On the way back to my bike I watched in slow motion as a car reversed out of the driveway at the side of the service station and over my bike. It was one of the mechanics from the service station moving a car to be worked on. Luckily he only got the rear wheel, which was crushed and bent. I can't recall exactly what was said, but the man was not very interested in paying for the damage, he was pretty blase about the fact that he had ran over my bike full stop. Not being very confrontational I let it go and wheeled/carried my bike to the bike shop, which just happened to be located in the group of shops next door (right next to my then Dentist).

I think the new wheel and tyre ended up costing maybe $60 or something like that including a service to the bike, which at the time was a lot of money for me. If it happened now I would make more of a noise and get the service station to pay. Needless to say I never went back to that service station again. I think I eventually got my revenge as the service station has since closed and become part of the car yard next door. Karma?

I still have the bike. I hate it with a passion. The main problem is the quick release on the seat is defective and as a result the seat never stays up in a comfortable position. The other major problem is that it is just so damn heavy. After riding my brother's bike a few months ago, which is a newer model of the same bike, I'm now convinced that this bike is the reason I don't ride much. Ironically I bought my bike from my brother's wife's brother when he moved overseas.

I would like to buy a new bike.

Filmage

Over the Christmas/New Year period I've been to see two films, the first was The Darjeeling Limited, and the second was Death at a Funeral. I highly recommend both.

The Darjeeling Limited (Trailer on YouTube) was great, although the beginning was confusing, but that was explained after snooping around on imdb for a while. It is about the reuniting of three estranged brothers on a train in India after not seeing each other since the death of their father a year earlier. Directed by Wes Anderson, to me it seemed less off the wall than his previous film, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. I really liked it. One particular scene made me cry, not because it was sad, it was, but it was just really beuatiful, not many films do that to me. I should also mention the great soundtrack mainly consisting of famous Bollywood music along with some Kinks ,Rolling Stones and classical.

Death at a Funeral I also really liked. It is nothing but a classic British farce. Just go along for the ride, and do be prepared for some toilet humour. I can honestly say this is the first film I've been to where the whole (almost full) theatre has been in uncontrollable fits of laughter. Go see it.

Back to normal

Well my brother and his girls departed for the sunny climes of NSW this morning. He moved back in to our place after 2 or 3 nights away. Their time away did everyone the world of good, stress levels were non existent for the last few days. We didn't do much together, which probably helped a lot.

We had a cheap and cheerful meal with the whole family at La Porchetta on Thursday evening, it was good, although the kids really started to gang up on me, kids can be so cruel. It was sort of a parting of ways, as my Melbourne based brother and family were off to a beach in Northern NSW the next morning. Three weeks of sitting around in a caravan waiting for the rain to stop is going to be fun, not...

It's very quiet around here now, although at least I can get a go on the Wii or the computer. Back to work on Monday too.

Christmas with the cranky brother

After a short unplanned break from this blog, and pretty much the Internet in general, I'm back.

Had a pretty good Christmas - new year period with family. My oldest brother stayed with us for about a week, so I had my nieces to entertain. I spent a few days with all three nieces and nephew doing various things. Christmas day was great. New years eve was pretty good too, sitting around with both brothers and mum until 3am reliving the old days, most of which seemed to occur before I was born. We all found out a few things we didn't know.

Probably the biggest downer was on Sunday with me loosing my temper at my oldest brother and unleashing an ill chosen barrage of swear words. We were in the car so I had to walk the rest of the way home (not far). Although it was a petty argument, the tension had been building inside of me for a few days and I blew my top. After this he claimed he couldn't stand staying with me at mum's house any longer, so moved to our other brother's house (just the excuse he was looking for I suspect). I appologised, but he's still a bit cold with me, which is nothing unusual, the moody bastard. I have yet to appologise to my neices who witnessed this though, but picking the right time with my other niece and nephew around is a bit hard as they won't leave their cousins alone for 5 seconds. They head back north in the next few days, so I'd better hurry up and do it.

Even though things went a bit sour it's been good to have all the family together.

Festivus for the rest of us

George (Jason Alexander) and Frank (Jerry Stiller) Costanza at their best.

What is Festivus?

Functions

As is usual for this time of year it's all about attending functions, mostly to do with work. For the record I did not attend the work Christmas party. The main reason for my absence was the fact that I am a contractor and therefore had to pay $120 for the privilege of attending, and an extra $120 if I'd asked someone to come along. Of course I could have gone as a guest of or in place of a permanent (the term rusted on comes to mind) employee, but it's the principal of the thing.

There have been a few more functions at work this week including a breakfast on Wednesday and a lunch (rather well and truly rained out) on Friday. After work on Friday I went to the London Tavern in Richmond with some co workers. Had a great time and got to know some people at work a bit better (the department I work in is a bit anti-social compared to others).

The family stuff is saved for Christmas day. We will be having lunch with the extended family at my cousin's house, followed by dinner at my brother's house.

Now with Video

A couple of posts back I uploaded a rather crude video taken with my phone. That gave me some inspiration to upload some bits and pieces to YouTube.

So far I've just uploaded a few short clips of trains and trams. Expect more over the next few days as I go through my collection of videos I've shot with my digital camera. nothing fantastic, go take a look:

http://au.youtube.com/user/ben7k

Strange Behaviour

Are you are wondering why you get a download prompt when you click on an image in a blogger blog? I am too. At first I thought it was my computer misbehaving, but on checking some other sites with images the behavior seems confined to Blogger.

According to this (Post from Tuesday December 4), blogger knows about the error and say that they fixed it. My blog images are still broken.