afog 45
Wed AM 02/06:
Cold clear nights and freezing mornings. Well not literally but to 40 degree Centigrade adapted bodies they may as well be. And I'm losing insulation. *grumble*
Those of you out there who have a Collins desk calendar refill on your desk (and lets face it what Austalian office worker doesn't) may have noticed the occasional quote attributed to WGP. The fact that these quotes are always on Wednesday prompted one of my co-workers to theorize that WGP stands for Wednesday's Good Proverb. In actual fact they are from a gentleman Willam George Plunkett. The brief biographical note is at the bottom of the page.
Posted on 01 June 2004 at 06:36 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 46
Gah. Woke up late, had to get M to give me a lift to work. I think I am coming down with M's version of the lurgi. Just in time for the weekend. Oh Joy.
Posted on 02 June 2004 at 08:39 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 47
You and Maureen get well soon, y'hear! Brrrrrr. Maybe it's not such
a brilliant idea to be heading to Narrogin this weekend.
BBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Cold toes.
Posted on 03 June 2004 at 04:02 AM by Alicia Smith
afog 48
Sun PM 06/06:
Interlude off. Feel better now. Not so much sick as totally wiped out.
Something unusual and cool from the net department: A site using an identikit style arrangement to make avatar icons.
Haven't seen Troy yet but I did come across this alternative script
I got the trike rear wheel back. YAY! Now all I have to do is put it back on the bike and start riding.
Watched Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto the first of three films on the life of Musashi Miyamoto. Starring Toshiro Mifune. Made in 1954 and won an Academy Award in 1955 for best Foreign film.
Off to watch the next in the Seven Wonders of the Industrial World. Brooklyn Bridge.
Posted on 06 June 2004 at 07:33 AM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 49
Tues AM 08/06:
Back to work after a public holiday yesterday. Throat sore again but that didn't seem to have much correlation with whatever was knocking me around last week.
Seven Wonders of the Industrial World was good Sunday night. Washington Roebling lived to be 89 but didn't do any more Civil Engineering. Interesting to see that the first references to the modern name of 'Cassion Disease' as 'the Grecian Bends'. The cutaway images of the Cassion had some interesting things that weren't explained by the show. One was how the spoil was removed. I had assumed some kind of airlock but they used a grab shovel in a water filled column. Air pressure in the cassion kept the water from flowing out at the bottom and the end of the column is submerged in a pool at the bottom which stops the air from escaping up the column.
Posted on 07 June 2004 at 07:22 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 50
Wed AM 09/06:
Went for a stroll along the river at lunch time yesterday. The field between Trinity College and the river has its usual winter puddles (lake Trinity) and a pair of Australian Shelducks had turned up to investigate (as a pair or two do every year). Most of the Silver Gulls have moved on to more sheltered locations. And there is a large flock of Eurasian Coots nibbling on the new grass shoots.
Just watched the last episode of volume 3 of Last Exile. This is a realy nice anime, interesting world, interesting characters, interesting story. Think flying battleships. Heh!
Posted on 08 June 2004 at 06:48 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 51
Fri AM 11/06:
The Corellas are still about. Yesterday there were dozens of them feeding quietly on the lawns between the approach roads to the causway bridge.
I'm debating whether I need to get the rear hub for the Trike serviced. I'm noticing that it is stiff to turn and while some of the literature says it is maintenance free I can confirm that after 10 years the grease turns to gunk. The unit is an old SACHS 3x7 hub from before they got taken over by SRAM. It probably needs to be disassembled, cleaned and repacked with grease. I've done this with a Sturmey Archer 3 speed under supervision of my dad but that was nearly 30 years ago 8-).
Posted on 10 June 2004 at 06:34 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 52
Sat AM 12/06:
Trying to use a CPAP machine with a runny nose. Fun? Not!
The Mountain ducks (Australian Shelducks) were back foraging on the edges of lake Trinity yesterday. I've never seen them doing anything like nesting behaviour but there ia a pair or two in residence every year.
Played Attack by Eagle Games with Rob, Leece and Gary last night. This is sort of beer and pretzels wargaming with a map of the world, lotsa little plastic tokens, and a spread of cards. Plays well but there is a great deal of chance involved. Getting a good spread of production cards can make or break your country. We didn't complete the game but leece was doing really well an I was fairly close second. Rob and Gary had been nibbled and were looking a little worn around the edges.
Paper comics for the last two weeks: Girl Genius, #11, by Phil and Kaja Foglio. B.P.R.D., #4, by Mike Mignola.
Posted on 11 June 2004 at 08:57 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 53
Sun AM 13/06:
I got some lamb shanks from the butcher yesterday and used them to make Shahi Rogan Josh. By my count this dish uses 15 spices from asafoetida to tumeric. I've made this dish bfore and while it is nice I don't think the result is in proportion to the number of spices used. Luckily the actual cooking process is simple. A yoghurt and spice marinade and a 4 step cooking process. Still, Mmmmmm.
I have a stripped down steam engine on the kitchen table. Actually it is Rob's and it is one of the Mamod model engines probably of 1960s vintage. Its been degunked but the washers on the safety valve are a little disintegrated. Luckily spares are available. If I could work out how to get the Mamod transfer off of the firebox I could get the rust off and give it a coat of engine paint.
Posted on 12 June 2004 at 07:03 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 54
Mon AM 14/06
Good nights TV last night. Seven Wonders of the Industrial World was about the Bell Rock lighthouse. Bell rock is an 600 meter long sandstone reef about 20 Km off the east coast of Scotland and right smack in the fairway for several Scottish ports. The program was about the building of the lighthouse in the early 19th Century on a chunk of real estate that is only above water for four hours per day. Bell rock is also known as Inchcape rock as featured in the ballad of that name.
Next up was Meet the Ancestors on SBS's Lost Worlds segment. This week was about about digging up a Hawker Hurricane lost during the German invasion of France in 1940. The pilot had baled out and was on hand for the excavation. After one of his pilots had been just missed by fire from a German aircraft he was dogfighting, the Squadron leader of Nr 1 Squadron ordered all of their planes to be fitted (against regulations) with an armoured bulkhead behind the pilots. The thickest plate looks like a half inch slab behind the pilots head. When the cockpit armour from Billy Drake's Hurricane was recovered they found that it had stopped a machine gun bullet from hitting him in the back of the head.
After all that there was 2001: A Space Odyssey which I watched until the light show started. This really needs to be watched on a big screen. I remember we tried to get a 16mm print for Swancon 2 and we were told sorry it is embargoed for at least 5 years. Then Star Wars came out and they couldn't get it back into circulation fast enough.
Posted on 13 June 2004 at 07:37 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 55
Tues AM 15/06:
Found out yesterday that the Robert Stevenson who built the Bell Rock lighthouse was the grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson the novelist. One strange thing: the show stated that Rennie wanted to copy the Eddystone lighthouse but Stevenson wanted a broader flatter base. Yet what I have been able to find on the web seems to claim that the opposite was true. Strange.
One of the Galahs was sunning itself and preening outside the family hole yesterday morning. I must borrow Maureen's digital camera and get a pix or two for this journal. The Corellas were back in the trees behind Trinity College at lunchtime and an even dozen Black Swans had joined the Mountain Ducks forarging at "Lake Trinity". The Silver Gulls have started to regroup in their usual loafing spots.
Posted on 14 June 2004 at 06:25 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 56
Thanks for being kind to Rob's steam engine, Stev.
Posted on 15 June 2004 at 02:09 AM by Alicia Smith
afog 57
Wed AM 16/06:
I can't even begin to imagine where the Federal Government is coming from with its so called energy policy. I mean 1.5 billion dollars in tax breaks for petrol and diesel fuel users? And then, to add injury to insult, only 700 million dollars to renewable energy? What on earth goes on in their tiny minds? I need to read this in more detail.
I've been looking at Blosxom the last couple of days. I want something to allow me to build these posts off line and rebuild the web pages as required. I don't think Blosxom is what I am looking for. I want a top down builder because I want to integrate a lot of semi-static information. Blosxom is very much a bottom up builder as it starts by gathering and organising all the blog entries and then building stuff around them. Still it is very cute. The Bloxom script is a process framework with minimal functionality and everything else is a plugin.
I was going to have a little joke about engines and the kindness of mechanics. Let it suffice to say that I have stripped it and subjected it to physical and chemical abuses so that it will behave as I desire. At least a traditional steam engine doesn't have a microprocessor.
Posted on 15 June 2004 at 06:56 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 58
Thurs AM 17/07:
I have a bunch of links that I want to include in the sidebar of my web page. But there isn't really room. If I widen the sidebar things will fit better but then the photo wont fit on a 640 wide screen. Actually it probably won't fit now by the time you take browser real estate into consideration. Hmmm. We can fix this ( I hope ).
Yesterday's Nomadic research Labs page had a steam boat picture. I would love to own that kind of Edwardian steam river launch. Way out of my price range to acquire or maintain. *Sigh* I can dream.
Posted on 16 June 2004 at 07:28 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 59
Fri AM 18/06:
Saw both Galah's having a quick stretch and preen yesterday morning. Two pairs of Mountain Ducks down at "Lake Trinity" at lunchtime but no Swans. Plenty of Corellas on the river banks over at Burswood. You couldn't see what they were at that distance but every time a golf buggy went too close their unmistakeable calls drifted across the river.
It's a kind of old link but I hadn't come across Mogi before. Kind of a virtual geo-chaching game for GPS enabled mobile phones.
Cast an eyeball at this amazing cutaway of a cruise ship complete with how it was done in photoshop.
Posted on 17 June 2004 at 06:16 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 60
Sat AM 19/06:
The Corellas were out in force yesterday. Dozens of them feeding on the grassed open area near Trinity College. There was a lot of jumping-on-the-back-of-your-neighbour going on. I couldn't tell whether it was fighting or mating. A bit of both I reckon as the reaction of the jumpee varied.
I saw a pair of mountain ducks, three black swans, and four caspian terns feeding (or, in the case of the terns, loafing) on the edges of "Lake Trinity". Also a dolphin puttering around at the western end of Herrisson Island.
Off to Stanbridges Hobbies this morning to get parts for the steam engine. Or at least that is our excuse. Mmmm! *Nods head emphatically*.
Posted on 18 June 2004 at 09:19 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 61
Sun AM 20/06:
There was a certain amount of booty from Stanbridges yesterday. I thought I managed to keep my purchases under control but Maureen just had to have the mini Shaper / Router table for the Dremel 8-).
Last night went off to a 40th birthday party for Gary one of my gaming mates. Plenty of good food, plenty of conversation. Enjoyed myself but we sloped off at 11pm as Maureen was tired and I wasn't too keen on staying and getting a taxi what with the cold crisp temperatures that were lying in wait outside the house.
Downloaded and installed BottomFeeder yesterday. BF is a "news aggregator client (RSS and Atom) written in VisualWorks Smalltalk". It works reasonably well but there are a few odd quirks that don't seem to adequately documented. If you have spotted and wondered about the stupid little orange "XML" buttons on web sites recently then you may be relieved to know that the XML garbage they point to is for the benifit of news aggregators. By providing your aggregator with the link the stupid button points to it can check to see if the site has been updated and prvide you with an article list. We'll see.
Paper comics for the week: Nil 8-(
Posted on 19 June 2004 at 10:28 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 62
Mon AM 21/06:
Completed the steam engine refurbishment project yesterday. Various components have been re-painted with high temperature paint and then baked in the oven to set the paint. Others have been polished and lacquered. A bit of lubricating oil and it is all go.
I stumbled accross a nice little Japanese tea merchant site. Go to "About Tea" and read about the various types of green tea.
Riding to work today. This is going to be ugly. I've been off the bike since the end of April.
Posted on 20 June 2004 at 06:57 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 63
Tues AM 22/06:
Well the cycling went ok.My legs were a bit stiff at lunch time when I walked up the street to the shops but otherwise no adverse side effects. Its been raining this morning. To work in the rain ... Oh joy!
Four mountain ducks by "Lake Trinity" yesterday. One tern flapping along the river otherwise just the usual suspects. My commute takes me along the section of river where I walk albeit at a different time of day.
Just about completed a Perl script to create monthly archives from the CSV dump of this page. Also started doodling for a mini content manager. I want it to sit at a high level describing the site and directing lower level activity.
Posted on 21 June 2004 at 06:07 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 64
People trying to be friendly and one idiot:
One of the biggest trials you face as a commuting cyclist is car drivers trying to be helpful. This is not to say people shouldn't be helpful but they just need to ask the question am I helping or hindering this person? On my daily commute I have to cross Scarborough Beach Road which is a main traffic route but is normally fairly quiet at the time I pass through. So I turn out of Tyler street do my 20 meters down the road and I'm waiting to turn accross the oncoming traffic into Federation street. Then not one but two cars in succession come out of the business on the corner and take off slowly. So I'm wondering are they scared of the accelerator because it is wet, are they about to turn down Federation street but have forgotton to put their turn indicators on, or are they expecting me to turn in front of them? Both waved me across but in the first case the traffic approaching from behind the helpful person would have made it suicidal. I took the second offer but again the oncoming traffic was a bit close for comfort. I would only have had to shed the chain to be in dire trouble. 8-(
The idiot was the guy in the silver BMW who double parked in the bike lane while nipping across the (narrow) road to get a take-away cup of coffee. Moron.
Posted on 21 June 2004 at 09:05 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 65
Westnet needs ITIL:
The (unannounced) 10 minute scheduled outage this morning stretched to an hour and a half. We need some risk assesment and risk mitigation strategies here guys.
Posted on 22 June 2004 at 08:39 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 66
Wed PM 23/06:
I haven't yet been seriously rained on while riding to or from work. That may change soon.
In the end I didn't attempt to refurbish the rear wheel gear hub. A liberal application of CRC 5.56 got things turning freely. I need to monitor it though. The new rear tire is working nicely.
My daily commute takes me along my riverside exercise path except at different times of the day. When I go by in the morning I usually only see a pair of mountain ducks on "Lake Trinity" in the evening I have been regularly seeing 2 pair of mountain ducks, 3 or 4 black swans, and a pair of australian wood ducks. This morning there were a pair of pelicans paddling up the river in line with their wings held half open. Courting maybe? I have no idea.
I'm playing with a perl script to archive the the CSV dump of this topic. The result looks like this.
Posted on 23 June 2004 at 10:20 AM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 67
Straight Dope:
When the zombies take over, how long till the electricity fails?
Posted on 24 June 2004 at 07:53 AM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 68
Fri AM 25/06:
Back in afog 23 I mentioned buying a pair of Paddy Pallin Tech Pants. I've been wearing them for my commute all week and I am really happy. They look acceptable and feel warm and comfortable. Not quite as windproof as I might want but acceptable and their perfomance in pouring rain has not been tested. I did make the mistake of putting a pair of rain trousers over the top one day and I arrived home with sopping legs from the trapped sweat. I reckon I'll be up for another pair of these.
The only problem with cycle commute days is that I don't pass by the galah nest hole. But Friday is a non-cycling day so I'm hoping to see something as I pass by.
Posted on 24 June 2004 at 06:17 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 69
Sat AM 26/06:
The Information Management section at work had its quarterly meeting yesterday afternoon out at the old Midland Railway Workhops. The venue was the old compressor room which was built in 1904. By my count there are 3 electrically driven air compressors, one diesel (heavy oil) driven air compressor, two electrically driven hydraulic compressors, and one nondescript machine that may have been an electrically driven air compressor but might also have been a steam powered generator.
The diesel unit was totally unlike a modern diesel engine, it ran at 250 RPM, had four cylinders each with a bore of around 50cm and a displacement of maybe 5 to 10 litres per cylinder.
The electric motors were probably state of the art when they were put in and must have generated a fair bit of ozone from their commutator brushes. There appears to be both synchronous 3 phase AC as well as DC motors sharing a comon drive shaft.
I also spotted the new Prospector rail cars and the diesel loco for the Spirit of the West mobile restaurant.
Posted on 25 June 2004 at 10:07 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 70
Mon AM 28/06:
Saturday disappeared between a late wake-up and a double length session at JAFWA.
Sunday morning we went to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The Hippogryff was lovely. Hogwarts is certainly having trouble keeping "Defence against the dark" professors. Liked the film, haven't read the book. The actors are starting to get too old. They certainly don't look 13 any more.
Sunday arvo was lazing around and cooking misc. stew. Sunday evening there was Seven Wonders of the Industrial World about the Panama Canal. It is interesting to draw parallels between the construction of the canal and the construction of the Burma railway by the Japanese. Then there was a episode of Meet the Ancestors about "The curse of Oxford Gaol" which involved a 400 year old epidemic, bodies being illegally buried in unhallowed ground, and the cadaver supply to Oxford's medical schools.
Posted on 27 June 2004 at 06:58 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 71
Diesel Loco for "Spirit of the West" restaurant train in Midland Railway livery.
Posted on 27 June 2004 at 07:04 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 72
Tues AM 29/06:
Loaded Pandora last night and used it to make a panorama of some sculptures at the front of the Midland Railway Workshops. I'm reasonably pleased with the result but it does show up the limitations of a tool that doesn't do distortion correction. It does hewever preserve the original image resolution which the tool bundled with Maureen's camera does not. For what it does, which is assist with manual panorama stitching in the GIMP, Pandora is great.
Potentially better than Pandora is Hugin which unfortunately throws a massive number of compilation errors under the latest versions of gcc. 8-(
Posted on 28 June 2004 at 07:08 PM by Stephen Gunnell