ajft

Ooo, look! I finally received a copy of the notorious Nigerian Scam email.

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but we went and saw The Scorpion King this evening. 92minutes of absolute stupidity, but that's what we were expecting. I think it must have the highest proportion of fight-scenes to movie-length of any movie. Left the cinema half deafened, since the Jam Factory seems to believe that everything has to be turned up to 11, and with my ribs and jaw aching from laughing so much.

I finally got off my arse and cycled to work this morning, doing battle with the 'orrible rear wheel from hell in order to inflate the tyre which still hadn't been done since its return from the NSW ride! Only six degrees this morning, but a surprising number of people out on the track. The ride home was more exciting, I only had my flashing LED lights and they just aren't sufficient for Melbourne's cycle tracks, which are made even more hazardous by the number of idiots who've spent big money on their 50W lighting setups and have them pointing up in your eyes rather than down at the ground. It makes spotting the unlit, oncoming riders a bit of a challenge. Extra points for stupidity to the guy riding towards me with a flashing red light on the front, at least I managed to see him under a street light before trying to go around what I thought was a slower rider heading my way.

Plan9 4th edition has been released, I've downloaded the CD image and a boot floppy, but my T21 thinkpad won't install. It gets part way through the boot sequence then simply stops. Last messages on the screen are:

Booting Plan9 (4th Ed)
....
#Y0 : TI PCI-1450 Cardbus Controller, 50000000 intl 11
#Y1 : TI PCI-1450 Cardbus Controller, 50100000 intl 11

I've read a couple of notes that suggest that the T21 has an Intel PC100 ethernet controller, even though it identifies it as a 3com one, but I can't seem to get any further. All help and suggestions gratefully received!

Finally got around to putting the replacement fan into the powersupply in wyvern. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work, so maybe the temperature sensor has burnt out. At least, after putting the new fan in and connecting it up, it didn't come on at all for the rest of the day.

Spent the day grape picking for Jo's uncle at The Duke Vineyard, down at Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula. Lots of people there, and for the first time in memory the weather was pleasant, apparently it is normally cold and windy, with occasional rain. The hardest job of the day was lifting the netting off whole rows of grapes, walking hundreds of metres up and down the hills, with your arms above your head, alternately unhooking the netting from nails at ankle level, then disentangling it from the vines. The picking was finished by lunchtime and then got to watch as the grapes were fed into the destemming machine, a fascinating device, and then the resulting pulp being crushed and the juice extracted.

Woken at three am by pouring rain and a loud party of neighbours returning from their night out. Today is the ANZAC day holiday, we didn't move from the house, just sat around inside and watched the rain.

A little more tidying up of the photo archives, together with an upload of the weekend's pictures. I still need the index to pick up the most recent folders...

Damn, this evening I finally got around to unpacking the bikes from the NSW trip and it looks like Jo's has suffered at the hands of the luggage thugs. Big chain ring is bent about 4mm, probably when they were throwing the boxed bikes out of the truck!

No chance of sleeping in with a two-year-old in the house! Jack made sure that everyone was awake and out of bed—especially when given a little hint by Jo.

A family outing to pick apples at Allenvale was a minor failure, rains early in the season had meant that the crop was tiny, so we abandoned the apple picking and went for a bushwalk to Phantom Falls. No blackberries to be found either, and only a minute trickle was running down the rock face of the falls. The pools were stained black from decaying trees, so there doesn't seem to have been much rain in recent times.

Later in the afternoon I had to get out of the house and go for a walk by myself, peace and quiet is a precious commodity with six adults and Jack around! I spent the afternoon wandering around the beach and parks, watching the surf and the gulls, smelling the autumn leaves and the smoke, and generally just having an enjoyable time. The beach was covered in feathers, weed and cuttlefish, all washed up by the last storm — the feathers are too big for gulls, but I've no idea what they're from.

I tried to take photos of all the different gulls and terns, but with my camera its too hard to get close enough — the trade-off between pocketability and SLR-like functionality.

Along the way I met a man with a 1950 Vincent motorbike, and stupidly didn't get a photo of it. I have no idea what model it was, but it was in mint condition and looked and sounded beautiful.

Uh oh! Looks like Joey has finally discovered my website... She just sent me an email asking me to put a big picture of her on one page.

Woke to a gray drizzly sky and the sound of rain. Welcome back to Melbourne! It seemed awful dark compared to last week... a quick check... If I was still in Uralla, further north (further east is the key, I later discovered):

Uralla, NSW, AU (11:17 hours daylight)
Sunrise 6:15am (GMT)
sunset 5:32pm (GMT)

Melbourne, VIC, AU (11:05 hours daylight)
Sunrise 6:47am (GMT)
Sunset 5:52pm (GMT)

MLP

[http://www.ckdhr.com/dns-loc/finding.html]

Finding your latitude and longitude

The last chapter of the RTA Big Ride... Getting home.

Fun and games with transport this morning, a typical story of the hotel arranging an airport bus for us, then the bus driver refusing to carry bicycle boxes. With much difficulty we shoe-horned the boxes into a Taxi station wagon, then put up with half an hour of the driver telling us how wonderful Sydney's taxis are and how we shouldn't even bother trying with the bus. Checkin at the airport was painless, no charges for the bikes this time, and by noon we were back in Richmond, flaked out on the couch, recovering...

Most impressive! The real-estate agency that manages my flat has managed to send me a letter with the following attributes:

• It has the address of the property specified incorrectly.
• Its dated 25th May 2002 — about a month in the future
• It has the wrong street address, 41/59 instead of 2/59
• It has the wrong postcode, 5121 instead of 3121
• It's postmarked 10th May 2002, but with insufficient postage so...
• It's been stamped by Australia Post as having visited the dead letter office and "Underpaid - to be paid by addressee", probably as a result of it going to South Australia before being forwarded to Victoria.

Amazingly, it still seems to have made it to me!

  Today: ??km
  Trip total: ??km

I wasn't here, I was on the RTA Big Ride.

Where?

Uralla 30° 38' S 151° 30' E Walcha 30° 58' S 151° 35' E

  Today: ??km
  Trip total: ??km

I wasn't here, I was on the RTA Big Ride.

At afternoon tea Jo and I met up with a girl that we'd last met about five years ago on a ride from Tamworth to Newcastle. The main cause of the meeting was her bike, she had a Norco Mocha, the model between Jo's Magnum and my Java. This time we managed to get a photo of the three of us and our bikes.

Where?

Guyra 30° 09' S 151° 05' E, Uralla 30° 38' S 151° 30' E

  Today: 100.98km
  Average speed: 18.27km/hr
  Riding time: 5h 31'
  Trip total: ??km

I wasn't here, I was on the RTA Big Ride.

Where?

Bundarra 30° 09' S 151° 05' E, Guyra 30° 12', S 151° 40' E

  Today: ??km
  Trip total: ??km

I wasn't here, I was on the RTA Big Ride.

In the afternoon, in the main street, Goat Races. Promoted at great length by the organizers as a fun thing to do and the place to go. I don't think anyone realised that the goats in question were feral and had only been captured the day before. As the locals kicked and belted the terrified goats to get them out from the pen and into the harnesses, fewer and fewer of the riders stayed to watch. The RSPCA would probably have been very unimpressed. A few souls volunteered to ride the billy carts, Ratty being one. He had an event filled career as a goat rider, short that it was. Fourth, third and then second places, but would probably have placed higher if he could have convinced the goat to stay on the course and not ram the barricades.

Stormclouds were starting to appear in the east but we were assured by the locals that there was nothing to worry about, that it only ever rained when it came from the north.

We all adjourned to the pub and queried the publican, since the stormclouds towering up from the east were getting darker and closer, “Nah mate, it won't rain.” Five minutes later it was absolutely pouring down, we could barely see across the beer garden.

Making our way back to the campground after the rain had stopped, I managed to lose first my gloves — by leaving them in pub — and then my sunglasses — when they fell out of my pocket as I carried my bag. Finding our bags at dusk was a major problem, they were hidden at the far side of the campground with no signs around them and no lights above them. The evil-smelling wet gloves were recovered later that evening from the lost property, but the sunglasses never returned. I've still got the spare lenses if anyone wants them...

Where?

Inverell -29° 46' S 151° 07' E Bundarra 30° 09' S 151° 05' E

  Today: 12.29km
  Trip total: ??km

I wasn't here, I was on the RTA Big Ride.

This morning I found a horse shoe. Not just any horse shoe, it was one of the huge shoes belonging to the draught horses that were towing the carriages around town. I carried it around for half the morning and bore the brunt of many jokes, eventually met up with the carriages and handed it back, to be thanked profusely, since they cost around $50 a piece!

A last minute detour into a Bric'a'Brack store saw Jo and I make a fantastic find, a bright orange, 1960's Atomic brand stove-top expresso machine — totally impractical to carry on a bike ride, possibly non-functional — of course we bought it. It even has the original instruction manual, featuring a sample packet of the correct grind of coffee!

Late in the afternoon I decided to ride out to the draught horse center, some 4.5km out of town according to the sign near the showgrounds. It didn't start well, as a bunch of local yobboes screaming obscenities swerved their van at me and ran me off the road. Some five kilometres out of town I found the turn off, then a couple of hundred metres down the side road there was a sign that the place was shut on Wednesday and Thursdays! In a bad mood I rode back into Inverell, then spent an interesting half hour chatting with Dave Walker as he was packing up his carriages after a very successful day around town.

Where?

Inverell -29° 46' S 151° 07' E

  Today: 60.11km
  Trip total: ??km

I wasn't here, I was on the RTA Big Ride.

Where?

Ashford -29° 18' S 151° 05' E Inverell -29° 46' S 151° 07' E

  Today: 81.52km
  Trip total: ??km

I wasn't here, I was on the RTA Big Ride.

Where?

Warialda -29° 31' S 150° 34' E Ashford -29° 18' S 151° 05' E

  Today: 106.59km
  Avg. speed: 22.13km/hr
  Riding time: 4h 49"
  Trip total: ??km

I wasn't here, I was on the RTA Big Ride.

Where?

Barraba 30° 22' S 150° 37' E Warialda -29° 31' S 150° 34' E

  Today: ??km
  Trip: ??km

I wasn't here, I was on the RTA Big Ride.

Where?

Manilla 30° 44' S 150° 43' E, Barraba 30° 22' S 150° 37' E

  Today: 0km
  Trip: 0km

Departed this evening for the NSW Bike Ride.

For the first time ever we were charged excess baggage for the bikes, the woman on the Qantas check-in counter quoted a "mandatory $AU10 charge plus $AU1 GST", so we paid up, weighed the boxes, and deposited them with the other oversized luggage then went to get the first beer of the holiday.

Looking up we noticed that our flight had closed, so we sprinted off through the airport, endured the evil eye of the attendents at the gate, and made it to our seats. There was then a slight delay while one of the cargo doors couldn't be shut, before we taxied off and were on our way.

A stuff-up by Qantas catering meant that there was no dinner on the flight, only a snack consisting of three tiny breadsticks and some salty nuts.

Once in Sydney the fun began; how to get from the airport to Darling Harbour, with two bicycles, without killing each other. We discussed the relative merits of Taxis vs. the train and decided to attempt the train, then use the light rail from Central to Darling harbour. Jo tried asking at an information desk whether the light rail was at ground level and was given a puzzled look, then told in very slow, carefully enunciated words, that "it is part of our public tranport system".

Getting to the train is not for the faint of heart, not if they have any luggage! There are three lifts to negotiate, each is too small to wheel a laden trolley into, so one person has to hold the doors open while the other unpacks the bags and boxes. Down one floor, open the doors and reverse the process, then off to find the next lift. At the ticket gate there is a sign forbidding luggage trolleys, so you are meant to carry all your belongings from there onwards! Luckily one of the staff decided to let us through a wider, staff-only gate.

Tickets are another mystery; the one-way ticket from the airport to the city is $AU10, but on one brochure I had seen a mention of a $AU15 group ticket that could be used by up to four people travelling together. The automatic ticket machines made no mention of these, and the couple in front of us in the queue were charged $AU20 for two single tickets to Central. It was only when I explicitly asked whether I could use a group ticket for the two of us to get to Central that I was told "yes"!

As I had been previously warned, the train has minimal luggage space, so we had to stand in doorways with our bags and bike boxes, at least this meant less distance to carry them on and off.

At Central we seemed to be on a platform which had no access other than via stairs at either end, so we picked the boxes up again and made our way through the Friday-night football crowd to Eddy Avenue, intending to try and catch a taxi. Eventually I managed to flag down a station wagon and became involved in a bizarre argument with the driver, who tried to tell me, in very broken english, that I couldn't possibly want to go where I wanted, as there was no bus terminal there. Finally he saw the bike boxes and shrugged, pointing out that the seats in the station wagon are bolted down and can't be hinged to make use of the load area, then drove off! Two police walking past then suggested that we carry everything down to Pitt Street and flag down a taxi heading north, as that was the direction we would need! We were both nearly exhausted by now when Jo spotted the light rail station at the top of the escalator above us, a quick check showed that the stop at Haymarket was the closest we could get, so we waited for the tram.

The tram arrived and we met the first helpful person we had spoken too so far in Sydney. The conductor had a good laugh at the size of the boxes, confirmed that we could get where we were going, took our money and helped us get the bikes into the tram!

Finally at 10:30 we were at the meeting point, three hours ahead of departure, with nowhere to store our luggage and no way of getting dinner. Luckily a few other early arriverals watched over our bags while we walked back to china town and had two large plates of noodles.

By midnight the crowds had arrived back at the buses, very few people from Sydney, most seemed to either be interstate or international travellers.

Despite a number of warnings that the buses would leave exactly on the scheduled time, all of them were delayed about ten minutes, and ours was forced to wait an additional half hour "just in case" there were any late arrivals. Luckily the video recorder seemed to be broken so the driver couldn't (illegally) show a movie, unfortunately he managed to fix it, so at 4:30 am the idiot woke the entire bus by playing an Arnie movie. Obviously it doesn't occur to bus drivers that normal humans sleep at that time.

By 7am we were driving through scattered patches of fog in the dawn, and made it to Manilla to commence the great task of unpacking, meeting old friends, and getting ready.

Where?

Manilla 30° 44' S 150° 43' E

Bookmarks and bookmark management

[http://lbstone.com/apb/]

Active PHP Bookmarks

Possibly not the best way to spend an evening — stumbling around with a large glass of red in one hand and a spanner in the other — disassembling two bicycles to fit them in the boxes to take up to Sydney and points further north tomorrow evening [1]. Still, it has to be done.

Assorted .Net things

[http://www.go-mono.com/]

Mono, .Net for Linux

We went out last night to see GUD, one of Paul McDermott's shows as a part of the comedy festival. I found it slow to start, and painful at first due to the sound system muffling the voices. Then the audience was treated to an obnoxious woman heckling continuously until eventually Paul told her quite simply to shut up or he would sing a song about her...and it wouldn't be very nice. Mick Moriaty of the Gadflys played guitar and straightman, Cameron Bruce keyboards and demented sex maniac. Paul just was himself. Assorted popular song medleys using Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban were one highpoint, and a running gag about not being able to use any of their material about the Queen Mother now that she's died.

Flat battery again this morning, jump started the motorbike. It really is getting to be time to replace the battery. Maybe when I get back from the NSW bike ride in a week or so...

Uploaded a bunch of photos from the Easter DTT ride, the 29th, 30th and 31st of last month and 1st of this one — strangely enough, not one of the photos is of bikes or cycling, all seem to be of beer, food or pubs.

On to more technical stuff, I perused some of Asad's notes on P2P computing (hate that term), and started some more thoughts on what I should be doing with all my many and varied bookmarks and references and maybe they should be in an XBEL database somewhere....

Today's MLP

[http://staff.netcomp.monash.edu.au/~asadk/]

Asad Khan's personal page. Lots of information on serverless computing and P2P.

An unexpected holiday for me. I was expecting to go to work after easter, it was only when I checked my palm pilot that I found out that Tuesday was an official University Holiday! Would have felt a right idiot if I'd not checked and gone in!

So what did I do? Housework! So much for holidays.

I wasn't here, I was on the Easter Deadly Treadly Tour.

Where?

Bacchus Marsh