ajft

Something must have re-sparked my interest in Plan9, so I downloaded and installed it on the spare 4G partition on niflheim. Unfortunately I discovered that once it was installed it had somehow clobbered the boot record so WindowsXP now won't boot.

[http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/]

Plan9

[http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/]

Inferno

[http://mapage.noos.fr/~repo]

[http://einstein.ssz.com/hangar18/]

sigh discovered today that a person I know has just spent the last six weeks in hospital after being driven into by a drunk driver while out cycling. Apparently the driver simply fell asleep and ran into them. This didn't put me in the best of moods for a quick jaunt in from Clayton to East Melbourne to attend a product demonstration. Then along the way I met:

1. A motorist travelling slowly who started to veer into my lane as I passed; surprise, surprise, he had the Melways street directory open across the steering wheel and was reading it.
2. A motorist travelling slowly in the right-hand lane; sure enough, when I pulled over and passed her I saw she was deep in conversation on her hand-held phone.
3. The piece de resistance, a small truck travelling slowly in the middle lane and gradually creeping into the left; as I past him I noticed that the driver was on the phone, using a hands-free kit, but was holding his credit card in his right hand and appeared to be reading out the numbers to whoever he was talking to.

Can someone please shoot the lot of them!. Oh, that's right, I forgot. According to the police speed is the number one cause of “accidents,” it couldn't possibly be the total carelessness of the majority of the morons out there.

Paid the rent. Receipt Number N540115072711. I can't remember if anything else happened today. Something must have happened somewhere...

TODO: I neeed to automate some of my monday morning updates and instalations. I'd look at playing around a little more with Narval if it wasn't so appallingly slow and (so-far) unusable.

[www.Xemacs.org]

editor of choice.

[www.cygwin.com]

utilities to make Windows2000 bearable.

SNMP MIBs:

• www.somix.com/software/mibs
• www.inotech.com/mibs/foreview.html

With much groaning and moaning we dragged ourselves out of bed this morning, applied sufficient coffee to achieve basic humanity, then made our way to Spencer St station in order to catch the train. Steam locomotive R711 of the South Western Railway Society was there in all its hissing and shrieking glory, ready to take us to Echuca and back.

It was a very long day. Four hours in the train to get up to Echuca, four hours of paddle-steamer trip and touring Echuca, then four hours back home again. The four of us spent most of the train trips snoozing, nibbling on assorted picnics, and giggling at the array of people we were sharing the train with. Everything from ordinary families to extreme train-spotters.

Where?

Melbourne, Echuca

Last things first. Considering the early start tomorrow, going out to see an 11:00pm show might not be the smartest thing in the world, but knowing what a big fan Joey is, I'd booked tickets to see Mick Thomas in the Spiegeltent. We turned up around 10 and sat around with a drink, watching the queue grow longer and longer. Eventually we joined it, wondering, along with everyone else, why nobody could get inside. Finally, at about 11:10, a car pulled up and someone ran inside carrying part of a drum kit. Coincidence? Maybe, but the queue started moving immediately!

Mick remarked during the set that it did seem bizarre to be playing in a venue he's been in before, but with a view of Melbourne rather than Edinburgh out the window. With an appreciative audience he proposed taking the Corner Hotel or Cornish Arms and audience, and transporting them to Prague or Beijing.

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

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

The motorists ... the motorists.... This morning there was the lady who unsuccessfully tried to peel and eat a banana with one hand while trying to drive her mercedes with the other. If she'd only looked before swerving into my lane I wouldn't have had to blast on the horn. Now she's probably going to tell everyone about the mean biker who appeared from nowhere, and how dangerous motorbikes are.

Then in the evening someone drove into someone else, but managed to completely block the Monash Freeway inbound so that everyone had to be diverted off at Toorak road and crawl bumper to bumper through Hawthorn and Richmond. If I'd had a book of tickets I could have made a fortune, since every second motorist stuck in the traffic was on the phone, frantically calling: “Hi honey, I'm stuck in traffic and illegally using my phone, don't be mad when I get home late with a $165 fine.”

Laugh of the Morning: There I was, sitting at a set of traffic lights waiting my turn and watching the traffic go by. A non-descript, two-tonne truck caught my eye, company name COPE and slogan Fragile Cargo Specialists emblazoned on its side. As it rounds the corner BANG up the kerb, then BANG back down again. I wonder what fragile cargo it was carrying...

I've scored a win with Telstra. After battling last week through their voice mail system and a myriad of menus in an attempt to change my address details, only to be told that it must be done in writing, I duly sent off the change of address form. Today I rang up to see if I could get a statement for the last financial year and the operator changed my address details while I was on the phone!

Looks like Joey and I can both get the time off in January, so I've booked our bike ride with http://www.scenicroutes.co.nz/.

The Monash email system has been unwell, so half the staff are sitting around with a “we can't do anything without email” expression on their faces.

In keeping with the weekend's views of flora and fauna in the bush, an interesting article in New Scientist on John Warmsley, a rather radical conservationist who is actually doing something.

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

Warrawong Earth Sanctuary.

Joey's birthday seemed a great success.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the cold wind and torrential rain early in the day, we spent a wonderful five hours at the Healesville Sanctuary. Dodging a few brief showers was infinitely preferrable to dodging the hordes of tourists and screaming kids that we could have met.

One of the most interesting events was during the daily raptor display. The first keeper wasn't sure whether they'd be able to get through the three birds normally displayed, since the wind was gusting strongly and they were concerned that they might “lose someone” should they decide to fly off a few kilometres downwind. Firstly a hawk, then a Barking Owl were brought out. The highlight was the male Peregrine Falcon. As soon as he flew up above the trees, a wild pair appeared and started attempting to drive him from their territory. The keeper was amazed, he claimed he'd never seen a wild pair nearby, and was quite concerned that the Sanctuary's bird would be injured. Eventually the wild pair departed and the Sanctuary's bird reappeared from where he'd hidden in the branches.

I was wishing I had a decent digital camera, or even an SLR to take some photos of the birds, as it is, there should be a few good pictures on the current roll in my camera.

Where?

Healesville

Stupid, stupid me. It was wet and cold all day yesterday, you'ld have thought I'd take a hint. No, foolishly I hopped on the bike this morning and didn't put on my wet-weather gear. Ten minutes later I was soaking wet, freezing cold, and thinking about going home to change!

MLP

[http://www.scenicroutes.co.nz/]

Phil advertised a two week ride in NZ in late December, early January. Looks interesting, I've always wanted to ride in NZ and Joey seems keen, especially since she's likely to be out of work at the time.

Another episode in the saga of attempting to buy an outdoor table. I'm starting to think that businesses just don't want our business.

Summoning up all of our courage, Jo and I drove off on a wet Sunday afternoon to do what every couple does—go furniture shopping. We tried another Barbecues Galore store, but they didn't have the table we saw yesterday, in fact they didn't have any small tables. We guessed that because we were out in the 'burbs now, and its un-Australian to live anywhere other than in a big box of a house with 1/2 an acre of concrete and lawn, only big pieces of furniture for big aussies can be sold.

Then we tried Ikea, now its probably five years since I last stepped through their doors and now I know why. A carefully designed coralling system so that the customer can't go to the section they want, but must be herded sheep-like through the entire store. I found the whole thing insulting.

qLast on the list was Freedom Furniture, a few tables visible, but nothing small. Then as we were leaving Jo spotted one buried under a pile of other stock. We tried valiantly to get the staff to show us one, they weren't interested. Eventually they shifted half the stock off the table, but as I pointed out to them:

If I can't see it, I'm not going to buy it.

note to shop: minimal wage == minimal interest

MLP

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

Stupid me, I thought it would be easy to buy a small table for our balcony. Just walk around a few shops, check out a few prices, buy one and go home....

Lots of ornate cast iron tables with curlicues and tile or glass tops.... Lots of huge tables that wouldn't fit on the balcony.... Finally a suitable table in a Barbecues Galore store. Now the fun begins.

We've picked the one piece of stock with no price-tag. Mr Minimal-Wage Saturday Casual Staff doesn't know the price. Nobody else in the store knows the price. He rings another store and nobody there seems to know the price. He gets off the phone and quotes us a price. Unfortunately this seems to be a wild guess, he doesn't look comfortable with it, and since its more than a larger table from the same manufacturer in the same store, we treat his guess with the disdain it deserves and leave.

Election day... Bah! After the quality of the electoral campaigning over the last few weeks, I don't think any of the politicians are capable of running a school fete, let alone a country.

MLP

[http://www.vic.greens.org.au/]

Victoria state greens party

[http://www.greens.org.au/]

The national Greens party

[http://www.democrats.org.au/]

Australian Democrats.

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

not only one of the longest domain names I've seen, but a coalition of cycle groups raising political issues. Noticably absent is Bicycle Victoria.

[http://www.ross-anderson.com/]

Ross Anderson, author of Security Engineering. Higly recommended reading.

Strange, I can't find anything important happening on the date 9/11, I wonder what all the Americans are on about?

MLP

[http://blog-java.sourceforge.net/]

Java servlet-based blog. Came from the enormous list of blog resources at http://www.larkfarm.com/wlm/roll_your_own.htm.

Well, I didn't want to cycle to work today, but the mountain bike and the motor bike conspired against me and so I had to. The Honda started, ran for thirty seconds, then died when I turned the headlight on, trying to restart it the battery was too flat to turn it over. I really must try and fix that dying battery and voltage regulator.

Still raining, still grey, still miserable. Welcome to Melbourne Spring-time.

[http://www.groundeffect.co.nz/] — ordered some new bike nicks for me and a winter jersey for Joey. We've both been meaning to do this for weeks. Pity that they won't turn up in time for this weekend's Deadly Treadly Tour.

I think I've got Niflheim re-installed and operating under OpenBSD now.

Every day the “shared path” that I ride along brings new and interesting challenges. Somedays its the dogs, other days the ankle deep mud, today, an aggressive pedestrian.

Walking towards me on the wrong side of the path, eyes on his feet, shirt and suit jacket unbuttoned, tie half-undone, two large armfulls of parcels, he nearly walked into me as I stopped on the bridge. He glared at me and demanded that I ride around him. I politely pointed out the law required that he walk on the left. He threw his belongings on the ground and screamed that he'd had a bad day and I could F####ing well ride around him. I sat there. He threatened to move me if I wouldn't go around him, so I carefully rode around him leaving as large a gap as I could. As I was leaving there was another torrent of abuse about my attitude etc. Hopefully he was in a better mood before he next got into a car or met his wife or children at home.