Almost breaking news

Have booked my connection to the "fixed wireless" version of the NBN (National Broadband Network).

Will not happen until the end of this month. Will be interested to see whether "promises are fulfulled" -

And what it will mean for this blog.

digital perceptions

One hand - five digits. Two hands - ten digits. Five toes - fifteen digits, ten toes - 20 digits.

Meh.

This image belongs to me. It is me.

on the other hand ... time and attitudes pass,

Where was i , in those joyous 1970's days.

Where am i now?

My Attitudes more than likely - belong to those joyous 1970's days in South Australia.

And yep .. time and life - takes it's toll.

and yes, this is me if i look into the mirror. Who am i?
what am i looking at?
What am i thinking about?

Why do i look so WORRIED?

Where has the JOY  in my life gone?

WARNING

At this point
DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM ALDI that has a 'computer' disk.

At this point am discovering aberrations.


UPDATE: 30 Aug 2014.

Ok, a smidge more detail.  Am a "toy" junkie. Anything interesting less than $50 is fair game ... heh.

So, saw a Maginon USB microscope for $49-00. Thought ah, what the heck.

Brief description is that it is plastic, very much a toy. Comes with a "computer disc" and USB cable. Cannot operate independently. My problem began when tried to 'play' the disc into my Win 7 Home premium laptop. Zilch, or rather, could hear disc trying something, brrrrm pause brmmmm pause ...but no response on the screen. Um, think i, something not happening. Cutting a long story short - did ring the 1800 'help' number, was sent email with link to 'driver'. Um, 650Mb download - my satellite 'connection' estimated 48 hours. UM.

Do, however, still have a Dell underdesk 'box' with Win XP. Tried that - no problem. Installation screen popped up almost immediately.

So, if anyone has recently purchased this item from ALDI - find a grandpa who still remembers Windows XP ... heh.

Um ... communication

Dear SkyMesh Member,

This is an automated message to help you manage your data usage.

As of 10-May-2014 05:00pm you had used 506 MB of your 1,000 MB Normal Data allowance.

SkyMesh doesn't charge for excess data but if you use all of your Normal Data allowance during the current Billing Period, your service will be speed limited until your next Billing Day on 12-May-2014.

Speed limiting occurs during Peak hours and, if you have also used all of your Bonus Data allowance, during Off Peak hours.

If you don't think your remaining Normal Data allowance will last until your next Billing Day, depending on your Plan, some of the following options may be available to you, depending on what type of plan you have:
* Simply do nothing and wait until your next Billing Day.
* Increase your data allowance by changing to a Plan with a larger data allowance.
* Increase your data allowance by purchasing a Data Block.

It's your choice.

Below is a summary of your usage for the current Billing Period:
Normal Data: 506 / 1,000 MB
Bonus Data: 877 / 2,000 MB
Excess Data: 0 MB

If you would like to check your current usage, or decide to change your Plan or purchase a Data Block, please use our customer portal, My SkyMesh at https://my.skymesh.net.au.

If you have any further questions, please call Customer Service on 1300 759 637 or email sales@skymesh.com.au.

Kind regards,

SkyMesh Customer Service

SkyMesh Pty Ltd
Licensed Telecommunications Carrier
ABN 62 113 609 439

Email: sales@skymesh.com.au
Phone: 07 3123 5800
Toll Free: 1300 759 637
Fax: 1300 859 637

www.skymesh.com.au

37 Baxter Street
FORTITUDE VALLEY Q 4006

Yer, whatever .... roll on the National Broadband Network.
(yer, i know; not happening under Malcolm Tumbril's aegis). 

Who do i think i am

?????? Well i KNOW who i am ... have been me fer 67and a bit (whoo, definitions, am struggling with the definitions between '32' and '64' bit) years. Any other guesses are your problem.

Warning! - Tubely

If anyone receives an email from what looks like a genuine name, from what looks like a 'genuine' email address, asking to "be a friend" via Tubely - DO NOT CLICK ON ANYTHING within the email - DELETE IMMEDIATELY!

Look it up on Google - or read this
Down the tubes with Tubely    Viral and vile

who knows?

While the controversy about the Murdoch empire rages ..

There is, hopefully, a quiet, unobtrusive organisation under the aegis of the duly elected parliamentary representatives of the Australian government ...
http://www.dsd.gov.au/

cheers ..

OK Smartiepants

Who changed my profile pic?
Own up ( email me)

(be nice to know "how"; but if you tell me who, or indeed "why" - I might put the image 'upfront', if that makes sense).

A puzzle

I will publish this this morning, since have been sitting by the warm and cosy wood heater playing with the "speech recognition" software on the laptop. It is a "collaborative" effort between me and the computer - but will leave it up to the reader to figure out the relative contribution between 'silicon chip' programming; and the "fuzzy logic" of human thought.

The North East wind a blows

And shows, that whether the weather

Will change, or range

Across the continents

Of  world sentiments;

In and whether the end of four or more

Will grow in the mind of new meander full

neanderthal.

Flat earth mind We'll find All of a kind.

The changing times remind

Other bygone ages rages of saviours save you

sages; ancient philosophers have got no

Warm-now, for more than four Martin, forgotten.

Noah saw the writing on the wall and took used by road

To ararat Arafat Palestine holyrood his brood.

Animals to buy two, or one, or a dozen

Frozen in one, boiled elsewhere.  Four square.

When planner dark is flooded with CEO two

Where will we take the Arc.

Oh, oops .. it listens

Have changed mind about the "nothing new" header for the previous post. This morning, as for the past few days; was chilly, drizzly, and sort of miserable. Spent the morning poking around in the laptop and GOOD HEAVENS! discovered that this little beast has inbuilt "speech recognition" software. Don't ask me how i discovered it; serendipity, i guess. So, have done a copy 'n' paste of the third try at 'hands off the key board'  which will 'tell the story' so far ..

This is amazing!  Have just discovered Windows seven has " speech recognition" hidden away in its innards!

M just creating this purely without recourse to the psyche board (key board) and since the computer is still learning my " accent" will just copy and paste what it understands I have said.  There will be mistakes which I will not correct.  However it is remarkably accurate!

IM, however, using a headset with the microphone.  And sometimes we'll we'll WIL will use voice command to delete something horribly inappropriate.  Next paragraph

Those two words were a command and not to supposed to be part of the typescript.  And next line

I'd do seem to have to speak a very clearly and distinctly though.

Had it been knocking around parenthesis (knocking, knocking,looking!) Around to see if I could find A speech recognition software package but valley and A valley (they) are very expensive and here's one already included in thus the and…!—This OEM software.  Next line

That GAH!  Correction: valley correction TATY THEY!

They, I'll know he'd understand ellipsis…  NO, that sentence was meant to say this learning process is complicated.  Next line next line ... [NEW line is the command]

A bottle DOTIT!  G OT IT!  DAH!  No GAH by our know NO!  GAH!

Ho hum; we both will get the hang of this at some point.  Next line next

I can however just tell it to delete the word, and it will—but Mr. Leaving AM leaving some of the heroes ERRORS in.

This is amazing!  Save has

All of the words in a cat litter in CAP letters!  R me trying to trying TRAIN!  By computer had doesn't understand DHE P T HE THE! (had to type that last "THE" -and am typing this as well - translation; All of the words in CAPS are when i have to loudly 'spell' each letter in a word, but it still has trouble trying to comprehend my 'accent'. It also seems to understand 'shouting' .. heh].

Nevertheless, on the most of the common words such as this sentence, it is remarkably accurate.

Any small errors can be easily repaired later on the keyboard (and have not touched the keyboard for the previous two sentences).

Hello, good heavens, can also speak to this BLOG, also!

[Am typing this; it is possible, it seems, to control the whole operation of the computer solely using voice commands - open and save files; insert documents and photos; close windows - there is a six page "instruction sheet" that am having to learn].

Re-connection.

Well, has been a while - but the satellite dish was installed yesterday, so don't have to drive up the hill anymore.

Can't really think of much else to write, at this time. Well, there is a whole heap of stuff to write about, but will have to try to organise it all, as well as trying to remember how it all works .. heh.

The installation tech "cleared" the internet cache, with the result that I lost all the stored passwords. Has been quite fun trying to remember the ones for both email accounts. Well, either one would do, since the "reset password" bit relies on at least one of them being accessible.

However, remembered where I'd written one down, so we're off and running ambling.

Curiously disconnected

Will post this today. My big Acer laptop died, but was fortunate enough to rescue everything from the hard drives. Took a while to save the money, but now have a spiffy little new MSi laptop. Also now have the phone connected; but internet is still a drive up the hill away .. heh. At some stage will apply to the Australian Broadband Guarantee scheme to get a satellite dish installed, but that might take some time to activate.

The following was written some time ago. At present am feeding – 1 dog, 8 or 10 King Parrots, half a dozen blue cheeked Rosellas, two or three top-knot Pigeons, several Satin Bowerbirds (female), three or four Pied Currawongs who have a tendency to monster everything else .. and a couple of Kookaburras hanging about. Also have to occasionally feed four ducks, a rhode island red chook .. and a beagle from next door that winkle their way under the fence .. heh. Life is joyous – in a curiously disconnected sort of way - and weekly posting will resume whenever I get a round Tuit.

Monday, 21 June 2010

By a stroke of good fortune, have found self in an interesting cottage in the hills about halfway between Bathurst and Lithgow at an actually mis-named place - should be 'forgotten, frosty, freezing' corner; but that's by the way.

Had parked the van on the "recreation" ground here at the end of January - but "recreation" ground is also not quite accurate - more of an open, very neglected space surrounded by natural bushland and pine forest. Had asked a couple of the locals how long I could stay, and they sort of shrugged. "Whatever", seemed to be the attitude. Suited me, as was 'free' and could busy myself with long walks through the forests. Managed to get the car repaired (radiator problems) and save a couple of hundred.

Am not quite sure how to describe this place. Used to be a thriving gold/silver mining town - 1870's to 1922, then everything collapsed. Not on any major - or even minor - 'through' roads and has been gradually deteriorating ever since. There's an old, derelict, 'mine site' nearby [DANGER, ARSENIC], and the hills around here are littered with old open mineshafts hidden in the bush.

[doubt very much whether the "speculative" mining companies from that era could be located to see whether they could "rehabilitate" the damage - all of them went broke .. heh.]

Though to be fair - the greatest damage to the local area has been done by the NSW "Woods and Forests". Large acreage of pinus radiata - which, on one hand is a "resource". On the other - a feral WEED. Nothing else grows in a ratiata plantation - Except blackberry - another introduced feral WEED. No birds, miniscule animal population.

One of the eerie aspects of walking a pine plantation is the .. uniform .. profound ..silence.["We own this space - totally. We will continue to spread. You cannot destroy the advancing progeny of our cones". shhesh, triffids are small bikkies.]

Can't really call this place a "village". Is now a loose-ish sort of collection of scattered dwellings; some brand new suburban brick veneer; some simple weatherboard with small paddocks of sheep, chooks and horses, and some very few old heritage originals hiding among the trees - no post office and no shops (nearest is about 15 minutes away by car). Has a sort of quirky individuality (but not much in the way of "community cohesion").

Had seen a sort of 'run-down', neglected, very plain cottage on the main street that looked as if nobody had lived in it for some time ( 4 years, have discovered), but which had 'potential' with a little TLC, so asked around to see if anyone knew who owned it and how i could contact them. Nobody knew. I hung about for months trying to think of some way to find out.

However, had met and talked with a bloke who runs a 'free range' chook farm over on the other side of the hill several times previously - so, on the off chance, went round on Wednesday 2 June to see if he knew who owned the cottage. Well!! knock me down with a free range chook feather! "Yep", he said, "me mate Peter lives next door and has the key". It all happened very quickly after that. We went round to see Peter, who gave me the phone number of the owner, showed me the inside (wow! description later). I rang the bloke that night via Skype, then sent him an email with brief biography.

Not sure what I said on the phone or what it was in the email but ... two days later received an email that said, more or less -'move in whenever you like, stay as long as you want to, no bond, rent [reasonable], will sign rent assistance form. If you're happy, we're happy'. Moved in on Sunday June 6.

Rob P ... runs a transport company in Sydney - too busy to come up here to talk to me and, have to admit, was very generous.

The cottage? Ah. Corner block. Quarter acre, fully fenced yard (chookwire, so dog can't get out), 1 old dilapidated freestanding dunny, 1 small corrugated iron 'shed' (falling down), 1 small, plain, paint-peeled, panel-board cottage of 4 rooms (looks home-built).

When first spotted some months ago, yard full of feral vegetation 6 ft high and fruit trees gone wild, the grass was 2 ft high - but then later noticed that someone had put a small flock of sheep in the yard which were munching their way down to ground level.

The BIG surprise was the interior of the cottage. While still very "home handyman", someone had spent some time repainting, but - joy of joy - there's a professionally installed brand new bathroom and inside toilet, hot and cold running water (courtesy of an Onga electric pump) as well as a brand new electric side-by-side stove and oven. House has been professionally re-wired electrically. The "back room" runs full width of the house and is the "kitchen/ dining" area, the central part has a bedroom and lounge (with slow combustion wood heater – rusty, but functional) and there's a fully enclosed "front verandah" room.

Was a little disconcerted at first, since all of the interior walls are a sort of stark "daffodil" yellow .. but the back of the house (kitchen/dining) faces east - and the interior takes on a warm glow when the sun comes over the hill - and believe me, very welcome; since the average winter temperatures around here run between minus 0ºC and 10ºC - and have now added a few bits and pieces to relieve the stark yellow . Another stroke of good fortune was the discovery of a fridge. Had dropped into one of the Op-shops in Bathurst and spotted an almost brand new Westinghouse fridge/freezer. Label price $150 - but the bloke let me have it for $95-00.

Have to say that am having trouble believing this good fortune. Living in a 16ft caravan here and there for the past couple of years, while had its moments, has been a bit .. um .. uncomfortable.

About the only slight niggly annoyance at the moment is that am in a small valley, and have lost signal for the Telstra USB internet modem (have to take the laptop about 1/2K up the hill to get signal). Am considering getting the phone connected, but have been quoted $180-00, so that might have to wait a while. Have, actually, been very busy in the garden and with a few .. um, "refurbishments" so haven't thought much about "writing" - even though have 24/7 240V electricity for a change. In the meantime, will have think about writing longer posts at leisure, then driving up the hill to post them.

Cheers to all,

Still not dead yet

.. though have to report that Lizzie the laptop has, um, cashed in her silicon chips and gone to the great gog of the cybersphere. Much lamented, as the obvious corollary is that even the much vaunted wireless USB internet connect is sort of useless without her - as is my digital camera, printer, etc. How the bloody 'ell did I allow my life to become so dependent on a short term piece of cyber junk??. Oh well .. am using a friends computer and internet connection for this post.

Have much to write about, but that will have to wait until (a) I find another computer and (b) get connected to the internet in due course .. oh, have probably forgotten to mention that have found a little cottage in the hills near Bathurst .. which just happens to be in a wireless free valley. Ironic really.

More, as things progress slowly toward connection.

whatever happened to (2)

Sliver cell technology

http://www.google.com/search?aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=sliver+cell+technology

whatever happened to

Whissons windmill ?

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=whissons++windmill

Gurgle confusion

Um, OK .. one of the reasons Womby's drivel has been silent for so long is that he's been completely confused, confounded and discombombulated by the plethora of sign in options belonging to Gurgle.

Have, it seems, several "Guggle accounts" .. all requiring different "usernames" and passwords.

Doesn't help that Womby's drivel uses an email address that I had when first began - 2005 (before Grungle got hold of Blogger) - but which is no longer valid .. sort of makes it difficult to 'recover' or 'change' a password if the 'confirmation' email disappears into cyberspace - and there is no way to contact a real person at Grungle to explain the situation (well, there IS a 'forum', but that is frustrating, and the "help" files are about as useful as an iPad to a blind man).

However, after much teeth-grinding, hair pulling, and objects thrown at walls - have now managed to figure out how to "sign on" to Wombat's Waffles.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as the valium kicks in.

Dogs are intriguing animals

She is, basically, a free range animal. Interested in her surroundings. She plays with all sorts of animals, including 'American Staffordshire Terriers'. There are snakes and sharks out there ..that she hasn't experienced yet .. heh

Far be it from me to fetter her.

I do, on occasion, put her 'on leash' - if I think that tarmac roads and the inconsistencies of speeding motor vehicles might endanger her life.

Communications

Dunno about anyone else, but have been having enormous problems with Firefox of late. Suddenly doesn't remember any of my stored usernames or passwords - which became somewhat awkward, as had forgotten most of them myself, as well as not knowing where I'd written them down 3-4 years ago. Not only that, some of them were set up using an email address that no longer exists. Bit difficult when the "lost password" screen tells me "we'll send you a new password via email". Where to??

AVG "antivirus" kept popping up "warning" screens, but from what I can gather, there aren't any actual viruses, only "conflicts" with AVG and Firefox. Something to do with "sqlite" cookie. All very mystifying.

Have given Firefox the flick and gone to Google Chrome. Sad, really, have been using Firefox since my first computer in 2002, and never, never had a problem with it. Still think it (was) the bestest browser, so if they ever get themselves sorted, will return to it .. but as the old story goes .. once trust is lost, very difficult to get back again.

The other newsish is have installed Skype. Can now actually talk to people instead of battling away with two fingers on a keyboard. Not the most perfect way to make a phone call, as only works if am actually online and signed into Skype.

Had a situation last Friday when I wanted to discuss something urgentish with an office wallah in Perth. Sent him an email at 6.30am CST saying that I would be signed into Skype from 10.30am to 12 noon Central time. He sent an email back at 5pm saying 'oh, sorry, had a meeting and didn't see your email 'til now. Will be back in the office on Monday' .. sheesh.

Anyway, have yet to talk to a "real" person, so not sure how well it works. If anyone interested, send me an email, and will think about giving you my "Skype name" (am not going to put it here .. too many nutcases out there .. heh.).

Blurb Blues

In the post "Template changes”, I mentioned (recommended?) the internet publishing facility “Blurb.com” but have had some difficulties with it of late.

For info – these are a couple of screen-shots of experiments with the BookSmart template system.

(click for big biggies)

While the free download “book design” template program “Booksmart” is quite exciting, interesting and relatively easy to understand (once one gets the hang of it) – it does “promise” to be able to “slurp” a blog. In other words, it's supposed to “download” an entire blog into the Booksmart template, as well as “autoflow” or re-organise the entries into correct chronological order – i.e. from first post to last – and so from there, can edit, re-organise, delete posts, or re-write; and is certainly more efficient than “copy 'n' pasting” them all - but have discovered a major glitch.

It won't achieve that – for me at least, at this time,.

Am not really sure what it is, exactly, that is causing the glitch; and while the “tech support” system responds fairly quickly, they're asking me to forward files that don't exist – or haven't been created by this particular glitch.

So, let me backtrack a bit.

Had a fair idea that the “slurp” download of 800 posts and 520+ photos might take some time, and involve more megabytes than the $20 USB recharge allows – so, some weeks ago while at the Yorktown caravan park, went to the nearby “Internet” facility operated by the local council ($6-00/half hour, $4-00 per half thereafter) and attempted the first “slurp” download.

For a start, there is no facility or ability to choose whether to download “photos”, “text” - or both, which to me is a bittuva nuisance. I don't actually need to download the photos on the blog, since they're all full-size on my hard-drive.

So, when I clicked the “start slurp” button it began to download every image on the blog – all (at that time) 516 of them. There IS a small “thumbnail” box which shows which image is being downloaded, as well as a message which says “ ..downloading 1 (2,3, .. 42, etc.) of 516”.

All went well until 515 of 516 .. then the system crashed, and an error message appeared; with a “report this error” contact message box. I filled it in with a brief description of what happened (or didn't happen) and tried again from square one. Same crash.

I tried three times, but same thing happened each time.

Tech support responded via email but kept asking for a file which the program should have created in ../My documents/Booksmartdata – but didn't.

It did occur to me that the problem may have been because Womby's drivel was still using the “old” blogger template system – hence the update.

Have also “upgraded” to latest version of BookSmart, but while in Port V. the other day I went to the Newsagent which also has high-speed internet facilities and tried it again. Same thing happened. Downloaded all but last photo – then connection collapsed.

Am, at this point, thinking that there may be some Javascript in the sidebar which interacts badly with the download program so if things suddenly disappear from the sidebar at some time in the future – it's just me experimenting and trying to solve this glitch.

Template changes

OK, 'tis time.

Have been reluctant to "upgrade" to Bluggre "new" as it may well entail re-creating the template and side bar. However, a couple of things are prompting me to upgrade .. so will attempt it over the next few days.

One of them was the discovery that I could use a surge protector (Belkin SurgeCube -$30-00) so that I could plug the computer directly into the output of the generator, therefore enabling me to charge the battery, instead of depleting it with the laptop - and the other was an interest in a new "online publisher" - Blurb.com which has some interesting abilities; especially the possibility of "slurping" a blog, and re-arranging the posts into "first to last". Have downloaded and had a play with the free "BookSmart" publishing template(s) but apparently it was in Beta - and they now have Booksmart2; which I've not yet tried. Well worth checking out, though.

Hopefully, if it doesn't work, can revert to "ye Olde" design.

Hmmm, looks as if I'll have to recreate the entire sidebar, oh well .. many a happy hour discovering the options before I have it to my satisfaction .. heh