30 September 06 - 12:22One day in September

It's grand final day, so I will be glued to the tv, even though my team got knocked out in the first week of the finals (I'm an evil Collingwood supporter - and I can't even claim to have all my own teeth after I had my wisdom teeth out 18 months ago), while Olav hides in the study and works on his thesis.
I really don't care who wins as long as it's a good game, along with probably half of Melbourne, however one thing that has got my attention over the last two years is how some sad sections of the Melbourne media have tried to hype the contest as the Eagles vs the Bloods. Get over it! They haven't been South Melbourne for over 20 years, and they haven't been the Bloods since the 1930s.

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28 September 06 - 22:33In the lounge room, everyone can hear you scream (and swear like a trooper)

Never touch a computer when you've had a few too many - it leads to much, much, badness and pain and suffering.
I've had 5 hours sleep, and a long day with lots of talk about CSM, which is an inherently boring topic. Combine this with most of a nice bottle of chardy (if I lived in the inner suburbs this sort of thing, along with the soy latte addiction, would make me a card-carrying latte lefty ), a very light dinner, and the need to fix my sister's virus infected computer and you get a recipe for very bad finger trouble. I foolishly decided to muck around with the windows registry. Silly, silly me. Thank God for back ups.
Oh well, the whole thing needs reinstalling anyway.

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27 September 06 - 23:48Why I should never forget to charge my iPod

I mostly like taking the train to work. Before we recently moved, we lived in Mulgrave and I used to drive to work (which is in Docklands). I tried driving to a train station at first, but it would take 25 minutes to get there during the usual peak hour gridlock, so I ended up driving all the way in on the Monash Freeway and Citylink. I hated driving on the Monash - I hated the massive trucks that constantly tailgated and never indicated when changing lanes, I hated the hyper-aggressive SUV drivers, and I hated getting stuck for 35 minutes nearly every afternoon between Burke and Jacksons Road. I don't miss it at all.
That said, though, there are some really annoying things about taking the train.
It sucks when a train is cancelled and you end up packed in on sardines on the next one, which is invariably running late because of the increased load/unload time at each stop because of all the extra people. Or when after being stuck back late at work you have the misfortune to hop on a train where someone has had a few too many after work drinks and the cabin reeks of the spew that has been carefully concealed under a discarded mX newspaper.
The worst thing about it though, is occasionally getting accosted by bizarre people. I sometimes wonder if I have "If you're a psycho, come talk to me" tattooed onto my forehead when I use public transport. This is one of the reasons I always listen to my iPod on the train - it, along with a boring looking textbook (it's risky picking an interesting book, they may ask you about it), is usually one of the most effective barriers to any human interaction. The other advantage, which I rediscovered today when I realised that my iPod needed recharging when I went to put it on, is that it drowns out everything else that is happening on the train.
I jumped on a train that was packed full of mums and kids going to the Show. Part way through the trip in, a charming woman decides to start shouting at the top of her voice to her friend right in front of a bunch of little kids about "fucking foreigners" sponging off welfare, wearing head scarves and taking our jobs, before launching into a graphic description of a true crime show she had watched the other night about a poor woman who was horribly raped and murdered. By this stage, I could see all the mums nearby cringing in horror. I was pretty embarrassed to work out from the bits of her conversation that I couldn't tune out that she lived about five minutes away from our old place in Mulgrave.

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26 September 06 - 15:38Time Management for System Administrators

I'm the kind of person who constantly forgets my keys and my phone when I rush out the door in the morning. I try to make lunches to take into work, but often end up leaving them in the freezer. I leave umbrellas on the train, and I think I may need to chain my pda to my jacket so I don't continually forget to take it to work.
So in an effort to improve these things, I am currently reading (or trying to, as I can't find the time) Time Management for System Administrators, by Tom Limoncelli. He writes both plainly and concisely, which is excellent news for anyone sick of wading through 250+ pages of management speak (which is more typical of the genre), and he emphasizes getting basic things right, like setting and sticking to routines, setting up and documenting procedures, and not double-booking yourself. He also has strategies for dealing with constant interruptions that form part of a sys admin's job.
It's all really good stuff and he quite correctly hammers the reader about procrastination and time wasting.
Sure, a lot of these things are obvious, like getting up earlier, so I don't rush out the door and forget my lunch|phone|whatever (which means going to bed earlier, and not watching late night tv, or reading people's blogs at midnight), or writing everything down, rather than pretending to yourself that you can actually remember everything - but it's still incredibly useful to have it all written down in the one place, and he has some interesting suggestions on how to actually improve your daily routines, rather than simply telling you what the ideal routine should be.
It's one of the few books out there on Systems Administration that is a must read for anyone in the profession.

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17 September 06 - 10:28Haggis so gross the cats won't eat it

Daniel was given a large can of Haggis for his birthday by some kind soul, so he decided to make use of it by attempting to feed it to the cats.
After sniffing and pawing at it suspiciously, Elric attempted to eat some of it, before fleeing to the safety of the couch next to the heater. So canned haggis is up there with a very dodgy pizza joint on Police Road in Springvale North as the only substances containing meat (and not being too spicy) that we have found that the cats outright refuse to eat - and they eat each other's vomit, so they're not particularly fussy.

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15 September 06 - 12:20Xena misses out on planet name

The Warrior Princess will not have a planet (not even a dwarf one) named for her, afterall. Instead UB313 will be named after Eris, Goddess of Strife.
It seems rather appropriate.

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12 September 06 - 23:31Penn & Teller: Bullshit!

Channel 9 is showing Penn & Teller's brilliant and entertaining tv show, Bullshit! on Tuesdays after 10:30pm.


Penn and Teller are professional magicians who have a long-running show in Las Vegas. Some people will be familiar with their guest appearances as Rebo and Zooty in the Babylon 5 episode Day of the Dead.
The premise of Bullshit! is to have Penn and Teller debunk common myths and beliefs - from Ouija boards, survivalists, Feng Shui, Creationism, environmentalist hysteria and PETA - with a style that is both blunt and humorous.
They're definitely biased (they are strong skeptics and libertarians), and while I certainly don't agree with some of their views, I think it's both refreshing and very worthwhile to see and hear their perspective on issues, as it's markedly different to the typical left/right dichotomy we get in the mainstream media in Australia. The show is also killingly funny in places.

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11 September 06 - 22:11Helen Dale on the media

I just found this fascinating post and commentary by Helen Dale (aka Helen Darville/Demidenko) posting as skepticlawyer on Catallaxy - and she makes some interesting
points. Some of the comments are very worthwhile, as well.

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11 September 06 - 08:10Pamela Bone on the war on terrorism

Pamela Bone has written a thought-provoking article on the war on terrorism. (more)

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07 September 06 - 00:27Nimbys not Greenies

Does this ABC report reflect official Vic Greens policy?
The Greens will campaign to stop the Bald Hills wind farm in the seat of Gippsland South in the lead-up to the Victorian election in November.
The newly appointed Greens candidate, Jackie Dargaville, will contest the seat held by the leader of the National Party, Peter Ryan.
Ms Dargaville lives at Fish Creek and lived on a farm at Bald Hills.
She says the Australian Greens support renewable energy over coal and nuclear electricity generation.
"But we do believe that renewables should be in the right place," she said.
"In coastal areas of great beauty and fairly high population and a lot of tourism potential we believe that's not necessarily the way to go unless that's what the community wants.".
Can I just say WTF? (more)

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04 September 06 - 00:25What's so wrong with cover bands anyway?

I remember spending many a night being drunk and mildly disgraceful with friends at the Notting Hill hotel ten years ago when I was a student at Monash University (if you get Purplexity in the right mood she might tell you the "dog woman" story sometime). One thing we used to do was sit there and loudly bag the cover band - we were a little evil, but they were really terrible.

That said though, and quality issues aside, is there anything really intrinsically wrong with the existence of pub cover bands? Some of them are really good at what they do. (more)

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