O' Yee Of Good Faith

Greetings,

Has anyone out there (besides me, of course) ever used that little mouse / touchpad replacement on an IBM laptop that looks like a red dot, feels like a bit of eraser on the top of your pencil?

How did they come up with this? This thing must have been designed by the Devil HIMSELF.

Its true. I had a loaned laptop, and it was an IBM. Being away from my normal desk, I didn't have a mouse. No problem I thought, lets just use the touch pad. WHERE, pray tell, is the touch pad? *gasp*

No touch pad.

Just the left and right mouse / laptop buttons.



I used it for 20 minutes. 20, amazingly long, finger numbing minutes. I think I have a permanent finger cramp now. Or even some form of obscure CRT.

I hate you Red Dot ™

Dav out


"I came across a saying in Arad Doman. 'The more women there are about, the softer a wise man steps.' "

Greetings,

I've had to explain in brief a few items on my list to a friend, namely:

• Learn more VB or basic programming.
• Build a killer robot.
• Build a normal robot.
• Attend social gatherings (but not too many, cant have the case of family-itits)

Learn more VB or basic programming
He's told me off on my choice of programming language. Well in my defence I did say "VB or some basic programming" which would include (but not something I'd want to look at seriously) .Net, ASP and maybe PHP.
Aless is recommending that I take a look at Python and Ruby. Now, usually, I'll stay away from hippy non-windows stuff, but Python does run on Windows, so I'll take a look at it when I have the time.


Build a killer robot.
Build a normal robot.
Aless has a wonderful idea on how I can incorporate both robot ideas! As you can see above, I've had to strike out the killer robot plan. But now, thanks to Aless, I can accomplish both.

In his words: (Or as close as I can remember them)

You need to build both robots. Then you'll have a robot that kills, and the second robot made as a perfect replica of the killed person, to replace the person.

One word. PERFECT!

All I'll have to do is pick a target, and then build a robot, and make it look like my target. Then, build a killer robot (should be easy), send the killer robot on its way, and when the job's done, send the masquerading robot to take his / her place.


Attend social gatherings
I'm an IT Geek, as so he's kindly pointed out. We don't like going out and dealing with people. But I like food and I like some good drinks and all that warmth that comes with a good night out with people you feel at home with.
To sum it up:

X "hey lets go to that party"
D "will there be people there?"
X "well, sure, its a party remember?"
D "will there be food and drink there? Free?"
X "um, sure?"
D "I'm SO there!"


I hope, that my list can now beat your list Mr. Aless.
Never mind the fact that he's a lazy person and never updates his blog any more!

Dav out

Greetings,

I've just half way recuperated from a murder attempt involving a sore throat, the sniffles and one A/C unit set to stun 16° Celsius. If this was Cluedo, it would be in the hall, with the A/C, by the butler.

It strikes me that if you know someone well enough, you could come up with at least 5 ways to kill them. 10 ways if you use them twice!

Stay with me on this one.

Lets say you know someone has an allergy to almonds, you could maybe try:

1. Buy some almond extract, and make some Almond Cookies. Serve. Wait. Dead!
2. Buy some hand wash or shampoo that contains almond extract. Wash. Wait. Dead!
3. Make a gun that shoots almonds. Shoot. Dead!
   
4. Trick said person into eating almonds. "What, these? Nah these aren't almonds, these are.... Prunus dulcis!" Serve. Eat. Dead!
   
5. Get bitter almonds, process its oils, take out the old chemistry set, and WHAMMO bitter almonds may yield from 4–9mg of hydrogen cyanide per almond. Buy. Mix. Insert weird chemical process here. Serve. Wait. Dead!
   

Of course, this is just if you were trying to go out and um, fix someone for leaving the A/C on till you developed pneumonia like symptoms.

Dav out

The skilful employer of men will employ the wise man, the brave man, the covetous man, and the stupid man.

Greetings,

I've taken steps to post my 2009 list because that 0.2% of extra effort requires I do so!

Said list:

• Learn more VB or basic programing.
• Breed Koi / Japanese carp.
• Take a few road trips.
• Swim. Swim more then I do now.
• Work out more. This would be in tandem with the 'swim' above.
• Make use of that microwave. Hot water and instant noodles don't count.
• Weed, fertilize and spruce up garden.
• Build a killer robot.
• Build a normal robot.
• Go fishing.
  
• More woodworking and electronics at home.
• Try my hand at welding.
• Work with metal.
• Build a portable metal charcoal BBQ (you should have seen this one coming!)
  
• Maybe, just maybe, build that gaming PC.
• Attend social gatherings (but not too many, cant have the case of family-itits)
• Fix that leak in the wet kitchen roof / wall.
• Bake more.
• Cook more.
• Bake more.
  
• Hug people.
• Sample more foreign beers.
  
• Get my hands on some real brewing yeast.
  
• Learn to brew beer / liquor.
• Brew mead. Been there, done that. Need real yeast.
  
• Take more picturesque photos.
• Paintball. Got to have paint ball in 2009.
• Learn to paint with oils.
  
• Take over the world
  

So far, that's about all I can come up with. Its late, I've only slept for 4 hours in the past two days. Time to crash. But maybe a few pages of that book before bed!

Dav out

Greetings,

In comparison to 2007, the year 2008 was a wicked, wicked year.

And not that kind of wicked either. The bad kind.

People passed away. Friends moved on. Funds dried up. The list goes on and on.

I aim to make 2009 a much better year. How, pray tell, will I make it a better year?

Well, with plenty of good cheer, health and family. That translates into: "Plenty of booze". I don't believe in New Year resolutions, mainly because I know I'll break them 2 hours later. What I do believe in is making a list of items you'd like to work on, and applying 0.2% more effort to them.

I've got my list, where's yours?

Dav out

Greetings,

Just like that, 2009 creeps up to you from behind, and pounds on your head with a sock full of quarters.

Or... something like that.

I'd like to wish everyone I know (and don't know, just in case you mistakenly came by the blog)a very happy and bountiful 2009.

May the New Year bring good fortune, and health to you.



Dav out

Greetings,

It seems to me that Christmas just snuck in and suprised me this time around.

If I've missed out on wishing anyone an amazing and wonderful Christmas, well, yeah, sorry, my bad.



Have a great Christmas guys, be safe

Dav out.

Greetings,

I upload quite a few photos to the interwebs, and sometimes, I find the same photo being posted into forums and other sites. Sure, I get a kick out of it, seeing my photos being discussed and stuff. But sometimes, you just want people to know where that photo came from.

Code to prevent someone from copying your images off a website just wont work. Disable right click? God, please.

Two words, 'Black widow'. Don't ask, don't tell. Or something cryptic like that.

So in line with the topic, I've started to use a sweet free software called Picture Shark that helps you watermark your images with a stamp or logo. And its free.

Enjoy a picture of some geo-rock (and my hand) with a watermark here.



Dav out

Greetings,

I rarely cross posts between blogs, and I try to almost never post the same content on each site but I couldn't help it this time, since:

A. It would be a chore to keep uploading photos and taking up bandwidth.
B. This blog is a little more mainstream then the photo blog.

Great decorations at the Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) Mall.





















Who needs a small tree when you can have one that's 6 stories high?

Dav out

Greetings,

That's right, now you too, for a limited time only (and a whole lot of wood working skill) can end the year with a world ending machine! If I was in the army, I'd come up with a cool acronym, like WEM, but after WMD caught on, I'll pass on acronyms. For now.



This PDF gives you detailed step by step instruction on how to create your very own WEM .... er... ending.. machine thinggy.

Credits to WoodWorkers Journal.

Dav out.

PS: Let me know in advance when you're going to end the world, I'm a little behind some credit card and home loan payments as it is.

Greetings,

The Day the Earth Stood Still . . .it would suck to be a sundial salesman. Having one half the Earth in daylight for half the year while the other side in darkness and then it would be reversed for the second part of the year would take a huge chunk out of sales!

Back to the movie.
I caught The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) over the weekend, and I must admit, I enjoyed it. Of course, I am biased towards Sci-Fi of any kind, and Keanu Reeves, of course.

I am ashamed to say I've watched the original movie that was made sometime in the 50's, and there's something to say about a movie made way back then.

I wont compare if they've captured the essence of the old version with the 2008 movie, but there's enough there to get a good idea of what's going on. The intro where we see how Keanu Reeves' character has his DNA stolen might be confusing to take in but that's just me nitpicking.

Speaking of nits and picking, I would have rather seen a kick-ass poster like the one way back when, instead of what they've put up for the current movie.

Compare the bland 'new' poster:



To the alien-grabbed-my-woman-like-king-kong-did poster for the original movie:


Some IMDB linkages here:
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

Dav out

Greetings,

I don't drink premium coffee. I try to stay away from coffee in general, but this post isn't about me being a tea person, its about premium coffee lids / covers.

That's right! Lids and covers. Someone bought me some coffee, and it was nice, yeah sure. Except I found out the hard way that when your coffee sloshes around the top, it seals off the two holes punctured in the top.

What then occurs is that no matter how much you sip from that small opening in the lid, nothing comes out. I call it 'coffee negative gravity'. You can call it varying pressure (outside the cup and inside the cup) or a vacuum forming, that's OK with me. I'm not biased. Not by much.



The instructables hack? Poke more holes, or clear out the existing holes to balance out the pressure.

What does it say about you when you end up spending 20 minutes reviewing a coffee lid and then blogging about it?

One word, awesomeneses. Yes, I made that word up.

Dav out

Greetings,

Over the years, I've enjoyed many a XKCD comic. This one recently caught my eye.



Dav out

Greetings,

As usual, as the year comes to the end, and Christmas comes closer, everyone runs over to their local store to get some Julmust.

If you don't live in Sweden, your local store wont have Julmust, so the next best place to get it would be Ikea.

I've had it for 3 years running, its an acquired taste yes, and it bears SOME resemblance to beer, but that varies from person to person.





Tasty goodness from our friends up north. Of course, this year, I found the prices of Julmust a little more steep then usual, so I rationed myself to one bottle. But quite a bottle it was!

Dav out

Greetings,

Well the template I'm using is from this site. Its pretty neat, and I seem to have something for Green / Blue coloured pages these days, or it could be a 2009 thing.

There's been some nifty edits, and I've really started to grow on it.

Dav out

Greetings,

I love using Google Analytics to keep tabs on what's going on with the blog. Once the realm of hardcore network people / webadmins, this site now allows anyone who owns a website to track and gather info on visitors.

Recently looking at the results, I noticed a spike in page views:




Looking at the pageviews closer, I notice something odd, as there's a huge jump in views for a page that I've posted a while back. Its common for the latest few posts on a blog to get higher page views, but this post was from way back in 2007.



Someone, or something (guessing Google here) has started to link back to the original Photo Blog post and if you do a quick search using the phrase "worlds largest carrot" you'll see the same results. Apparently its showing up as # 1 on Google Image search and something like #4 or so on Google Search.

Here's a shot of the image that seems to be the search result of a few searches.



So remember, worlds largest carrot - or is it?

Dav out

Greetings,

... when I have a great phrase and no where to use it. I'll try to speak to some of my Aussie friends and see if I can work it into one of our conversations.

Good luck to me!

Dav out

Greetings,

Well, I've had to fire up Photoshop to look at the correct colour swatches to rework the Adsense boxes, since the standard colour schemes were standing out too much.

Hope these will blend in a little more.

Just FYI:

#006606
#002a06
#FFFFFF
#CCCC00
#53C2BB




Dav out

Greetings,

Author Michael Crichton dies, 66.

I fire up my RSS and that's what I see on the BBC RSS feed.

More info here. RIP


Dav out