ajft

Wyvern is operational again. After spending far too long getting eye strain from reading the 5pt printing in the green guide of today's paper, I discovered that the computer shop on campus has power supplies for much the same price — $60 and a ten minute at lunch time was much easier than running half-way around town to save a whole ten dollars! I did end up with a supply that can support a P4, should I get around to upgrading the box — and the Abit IT7-RAID motherboard is looking kinda nice....

... and after seeing yet another mention of the CODA file system on one of my mailing lists, I tried to install the coda client on my laptop: Simply run the installer, pick C:\win32\cygwin, restart the machine, run a shell and start the services:

$ net start coda

The coda service was started successfully.

ajft@NBK-9978 ~
$ net start venus
The venus service is starting.
The venus service could not be started.

A system error has occurred.

System error 1067 has occurred.

The process terminated unexpectedly.

It was even more interesting when I then tried to stop the coda service... instant blue screen.

All part of the grand scheme for one decent, replicated, file store of everything I have!

I removed wyvern's power-supply this morning and had a look inside — no wonder it isn't working too well — the circuit board is blackened and warped, and it looks as though half the components have been cooked. Definitely time for a new one!

I've now recovered from whatever tried to kill me, but Joey had to leave work early and is now in bed with the same thing. At least we both didn't get it at exactly the same time!

To make life even more miserable, I had a rather desperate call from a distressed friend to come and pick him up from work this afternoon. Seems that a friend and colleague of his has been arrested for something remarkably stupid and could be in big trouble — It's happened, but I'm not writing about it.

Uh oh! Four in the morning and I woke up with mysterious rumblings in the stomach. A mad dash to the bathroom and I spent the next twelve hours being violently ill, or collapsed in bed! Probably not food poisoning, so I guess it must be whatever has been killing off my work colleagues for the last few weeks.

A morning at the markets, an afternoon shopping for unmentionable material in relation to 2003-Apr-12. Along the way I dropped in at Christies, ostensibly to look for cycling shoes, in reality to ponder the tandems — that matt black MT800 is sure looking tempting...

A more prosaic form of transport was employed get around the back yard while MarkO was cooking the barbecue for dinner. His pride and joy, an old Cyclops scooter destined for the dumpster before he rescued it paid good money for new tubes. I can remember having one of these back in about 1973...

Despite the best attempts of the weather to rain on us, we managed to have a successful first barbecue of the summer, probably one of many.

?huh?

Just a little too much excitement at Monash this morning...

Two dead, eight injured in Monash Uni shooting

Helicopters buzzing overhead for two hours or more, all the phones stopped working as everyone tried to call in or out for news. The mobile networks couldn't cope either, probably because every student seems to have a mobile phone.

Still feeling a little stiff and sore from yesterday's exhertions. Walking down stairs wasn't too hard, I'm guessing that it was neither the easiest or hardest of my three “round the bay's.”

Four fifteen a.m. is a completely ridiculous time to be getting out of bed. I hadn't really slept since about 1am, neighbours seemed to be coming home steadily between two and three, a cat was yowling outside the window the whole time, and then the birds started chirping around 3:45... I think I'll stick to more sociable bike-riding hours in the future.

Once outside and on my way I yawned my way down to St Kilda, catching up with another rider in Church Street who then kept me company down Chappel street — with vastly reduced traffic from it's Friday/Saturday night jams. A few cars passed carrying bikes on racks or the roof, then as we got nearer to Fitzroy street the density increased, bikes and riders were everywhere, mixing it with the departing clientel of the bars and clubs.

With near-perfect timing I reached the start at 5am, in time to see the first bunches ride off. There didn't seem to be much point in milling around in the darkness, especially since I hadn't arranged to meet anyone, so at 5:05 I was heading off down Beach road, yawning continuously.

The ride down was in large bunches, I seemed to spend most of my time surrounded by a team from Alcoa and a very large group wearing shirts advertising Dean Woods. As usual there was every mix of bike and rider and rider skills possible. Three tandems, a couple of full suspension mountain bikes, even a guy with a toddler in a baby seat. The majority of people were on road bikes, and most of these seemed fairly up-market versions. Arrived at Sorrento at ten past eight, plenty of time to gather lunch — ridiculous time for lunch — and get onto the eight thiry ferry.

Queenscliffe to Geelong has never been a ride that I've enjoyed. Usually I've ridden too hard for the first half, then stiffened up in the ferry crossing, and then can't seem to find a reasonable group to ride with. Today it was all these plus strong head-winds and a dash of rain.

Luckily, after Geelong we turned so that the wind was at least partially behind us, I found myself in a group of about ten heading up the road towards Lara at around 38km/hr! By around this stage I was starting to get a little tired of the “you must be doing it hard on a mountain bike comments.

After falling off the back of their group I was mostly by myself on the roads towards Altona, unfortunately being shadowed by a wildly erratic guy on a Peugeot. His jerky pedalling and strange half-overtaking maneuvers from the left were quite disconcerting. Topping this off was the quick release wheels fastened incorrectly, the release levers tightened up like big wing nuts. Unfortunately I couldn't drop him and he wouldn't take the lead, just sat somewhere behind me, drifting in and out of view on one side or the other.

It was a good feeling to be crossing the Westgate bridge, coasting down for the last couple of kilometres back to St Kilda. Not an easy ride though, by this time the wind had picked up across the bay and was buffetting us about. Finally got back to Catani gardens at 13:55 after about seven hours forty minutes on the bike!

233.3 km, 8hr 32m, 27.3km/hr average speed (once I'd ridden home). Not a bad effort for the day!

The rest of the afternoon was spent dozing on the couch, listening to the noises of protestation from feet and ankles, legs, knees, bum, back and shoulders. Then early to bed!

A Saturday to myself since Joey had to go off with her mother on secret Joey business.... Highly successful secret Joey business, since with the minimum of fuss they found and bought a wedding dress!

I did much more interesting things — like fruit and vegetable shopping at the markets, and visiting the bicycle trade exhibition at the Carlton Gardens.

Actually, the bicycle exhibition wasn't very interesting — it might have been due to the fact that I'm not after a BMX bike or downhill MTB, since that's what seemed to take up the majority of the stalls. Lots of boutique imported racing frames, and a number of very cheap looking Chinese toy/bicycle stands. Nothing much about touring, and only one very pricey tandem — AU$5000 for a Trek that didn't look like it had very speccy gear on it. Just keep looking I guess...

Bizarre things that I should have taken a photo of: A Bingo board sitting at the side of the road in a park, looking just like it had come straight from a 1950's bingo parlour.

...last night's lesson is: three pints Guiness good, four pints Guiness bad. I shall try to remember this lesson for the future.

A very slow day — surely by this time in my life I should know better!

Out to dinner at Flor in Carlton. We both got a surprise walking in the door, from the review in the paper I thought it was more of a restaurant — turns out to be quite small, and predominately a wine-bar. An impressive wine list with entries from all over Europe and Australia, and enough variety in what was available by the glass. Chicken and Leek pie was very tasty, followed by Orange and Pecan pie, coffee and a liqueur. I was in an experimental mood so tried some of their grappa — contrary to previous advice I had received, grappa is not an Italian word for petrol, it was quite tasty and went very well with desert and coffee.

Happy birthday to me...

This evening a celebratory Guiness seemed in order, so Evan and I headed up to the Terminus for one ... or two ... or even more. While there we were talked into participating in the weekly Bingo games — hilarious fun, with the couple running it knowing all the traditional wise-cracks for each number, along with a whole section of Melbourne-specific ones regarding footballers and trams. I foolishly tried to play sixteen games at once, frantically scribbling from one end of the table to the other. Evan took a more relaxed approach with only four games — a much better choice since he then won the first round, becoming the proud owner of a jug of beer. Not wishing to mix free beer with Guiness, the jug was donated to a party of young girls at the bar. Deeply suspicious of a no-strings-attached donation, the girls bought me a fourth pint. This proved my undoing...

Wow, what a shed! I'd heard about the shed, Kathy had talked about the size of the shed, but it didn't really sink in until we drove out there and saw it. Kathy and Cec appear to have an aircraft hanger in their paddock! I guess when you need to ride and exercise your horses all year round, a really big shed just might be what you want.

...and then the long drive home to Melbourne....

Dead quiet out on the highway, we left too early for the truck traffic, and being monday afternoon after the school holidays, there was no private traffic either.

Paused in Holbrook to wander around and look at HMAS Otway — 400km from the nearest ocean, I'll let you look up the story yourself! Even out here we couldn't escape the World Master's Games — a bus load of eastern-european guys from one of the teams was busy taking photos as well.

Spent the day visiting my newest nieces. Too lazy to take a photo of them, appologies to anyone who wanted one. Casey has a curl, Zoe doesn't — other than that, I can neither tell them apart from each other, or from any of the other three-month old babies that I've seen. Two at a time certainly are a handful, but they all seem to be coping.

In the background for the whole afternoon was the Bathurst races — I can remember when I used to be interested in it, when it had a variety of production cars that bore at least some resemblence to what was on the roads. This year it was fifty percent Falcadores and fifty percent Commofords — the only interest was when rabid plastic bags kept blowing across the track and blocking air intakes, causing cars to overheat and expire.

Next year's NSW Bike Ride will be staying in Bungendore and then Yass, so we were curious what route it might take. If it uses the Yass River Road, which is likely, knowing the organizers' pathological fear of main roads, then we'll be riding straight past Liz and Colin's house! The night before, we'll probably be camping at Bungendore showground — just over the road from mum and dad!

We made like tourists and got lost driving towards the Floriade in Canberra — followed the signs through the city, along Constitution avenue to the lake, off towards the east, down under Constitution avenue, then missed the carpark turnoff and ended up heading back towards the city! Ended up driving around and parking near the pool, where I tend to head automatically, since that's where the bike path would take me!

Floriade is the same as always, a great place to stroll around and gaze at the colours and the work that must have gone into it. Not such a great place to get anything to eat though! Ridiculous prices and lousy food, we walked back into town for a late lunch.

On the way out of Commonwealth Park I took pity on a poor Canberra Uni student who was conducting surveys and offered to answer his questions. We managed to find one question where none of the available multiple-choices were appropriate, and generally shot down all the others, since they whole survey seemed based on the premise that we had come to Canberra solely to see the Floriade.

Hmmm, very tempting! A second hand MT3000 for just over the price of a new MT800! I wonder how much shipping from the US is?

FOR SALE 09/12/02: Cannondale MT3000, Team Race Yellow, 1999 with less than 60 miles on it, wife don't like it, been in storage for 2 years, never seen water, looks better than show room condition, this was the best tandem that Cannondale made that year, it has all the top components, XTR's, Magura Hydraulic Brakes, Triple Clamp Cannondale front Suspension, rear seat post suspension, size Large/Medium(19"/16"), awesome bike, a steal at US$2,500.00 O.B.O. You will not be disappointed. Check it out at this site for a pic and more info on it, http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/99/model-9mt3.html.

  Mike
  Home Phone: 269-435-4010
  Work Phone: 269-580-2676
  MikeJitjaeng@aol.com

Hurried home after work so that we could leap in Jo's car and try to get out of town ahead of the rush. Luck must have been on my side because we managed to leave by 5:15, and were out on the Hume by about 6pm. From there it was just the usual long and boring drive for six and a half hours — up the freeway through Victoria to Albury, country highway to Holbrook, then Tarcutta, skirt around Gundagi, on to Yass, then the Barton Highway to Murrumbatemen and a twisty country back-road at midnight from there to Bungendore.

The bizarre quote of the day would have to be the one I just found in today's Herald Sun newspaper. In reference to a proposal to further restrict smoking in public places, and introduce “Public Substance Inhalation Rooms;” one smoker is quoted as saying:

“If I smoke I want to do it outside in the fresh air...”

Personally, I don't mind where people smoke, so long as they:

1. Don't exhale
2. Remove all ash, cigarette butts and rubbish
3. Don't stick the hot end into my clothes

Judging by the sea of butts that surrounds every restaurant door in Melbourne, it appears as if the average smoker is the filthy pig that has always been presumed, and that they don't consider cigarette butts to be litter.

Off for the week's bike riding in a vague hope of maintaining some fitness before Around the Bay in a Day. It was such a calm, still morning that I hurried off down around the bay to Frankston and back, deciding to climb Oliver's Hill for a little extra exercise. As usual, some petrol-head in a rusty old bomb tried to run me off the road in Frankston, but that's Frankston — it happens every time. On the way home the breeze picked up, and by the time I reached St Kilda it was blowing hard enough to be causing considerable distress to some of the riders out on the road for the afternoon.

In desperate need of food I called in for a large (and suspiciously healthy-looking) apple crumble in Albert Park, then headed home for a much-needed beer or two. The beers were in the Dover Hotel, since Joey pointed out that she's never been in there, they have a pin-ball machine that looks like her favourite one, and they have a new beer garden that needs investigation.

A quick browse through the papers in the evenings to try and find a decent movie — nothing seemed to grab our attention — then we found it. The Great Escape, at the Astor. A magnificent piece of entertainment, and one that just has to be seen on a big screen for full enjoyment. James Coburn as an aussie was a bit bizarre, I didn't realise until right near the end when he told someone that he was Australian, that that's what he was meant to be!

Rain all day... apparently October is Melbourne's wettest month. Half of Victoria has had a drought for the last three years, the dams are 52% full, and still there's no water restrictions for anyone in the city. “Yah just turn on the tap and the water comes out.” Maybe one day the government will have the guts to introduce the water restrictions...

One more tiny step on my way with Plan9... Today I managed to upgrade the T21 from the CD, maybe I'll be able to compile a kernel that can use the embedded 3com network card and not lock-up the machine.

9660srv
mount /srv/9660 /n/dist /dev/sdD0/data
replica/pull -v /dist/replica/cd

Flicking through the Green Guide section of The Age I was happy to see that the feature on digital cameras pretty much agreed with me, the Digital IXUS was the camera of choice in that range. The other interesting device was a stand-alone hard drive that I saw in an advertisment, 20 or 30Gig in a device about the size of a paper-back book. Has a card-reader slot and doesn't need to be attached to a computer — when your camera's memory card fills up, plug it into the drive and it automatically down-loads all the images. [http://www.powerinnumbers.com.au/]

A little detour on the ride to work this morning — I headed into the city for Bicycle Victoria's annual “Ride to Work” day and free breakfast. Everything there was all sweetness and light, in some contrast to the ride to get there!

One car parked in the clearway/bike lane on Bridge Road. Seven cars and a tow-truck stopped in the bike lanes at traffic lights. Two out of four “forward bike boxes” at the lights had cars parked in them. One taxi double-parked and disgorging passengers out both sides, and a motorist who attempted the “overtake and then turn left” manoeuvre. Heading to Monash afterwards I'd have to add the solid mass of vehicles blocking “Swanston Walk,” the couriers' vans parked in the St Kilda road bike lane, and the woman who reversed out of her driveway without looking, and then drove past too close for comfort while yabbering into her mobile phone.

Oh well, at least BV will have their camera footage, parliament will see that there are a few bikes around — at least for today — and I managed to get my drivers license number engraved in my bike frame. Its supposed to aid recovery in the event of theft; I think I'd much rather prevent the theft in the first place since the proportion of stolen bikes that is recovered is very low.

Woohoo, I'm an uncle. Weird that I was congratulated, its not as if I've acutally done anything! Jo's sister has had one of those “two o'clock in the morning babies. I can remember when I was at primary school everyone used to think it was really cool that they'd been born at strange times — I was boring, born somewhere around three in the afternoon.

Evening found me round at the hospital visiting Kath and for the first time in my life holding a very small new-born baby. Young William is much quieter than his two and a half year-old brother Jack...much lighter too!