Bend in the Weather

With the Arias for 2008 already getting plugged by Channel 10, one has to wonder if this year they'll be as 'smart' to try subliminal advertising throughout the coverage this year.

Many of you may have found you got the munchies for Chupa Chups or even KFC. Throw in a batch of adverts also for Telstra Bigpond, Olay, Big W and Toyota (and "oh what a feeling!") during last years Aria Award ceremony.

The ACMA took their sweet time deliberating over the issue, and has ruled Channel 10's use of subliminal advertising during the 2007 Aria award ceremony was in breach of the code of conduct.

One has to ask - was this the only time they did it?

Was NoDoz advertisement used during the AFL Brownlow Medal Count? Is SingStar used during Australian Idol, and Jenny Craig and Fitness First during The Biggest Loser?

Don't stress, you can still jump in now and get your advertising lined up for the 2008 Arias

It's soooo reassuring to hear what Channel 10 has stated in relation to the finding:

• distribute the investigation report to relevant production staff (both in-house and external) to ensure that future productions of ARIA Awards are consistent with ACMA’s view;
  
• not use the same rapid cut use of sponsor logos for the upcoming 2008 ARIA Music Awards;
  
• use the finding as an example in regular code training sessions with staff, to ensure future compliance; and
  
• highlight the code clause in their external production agreements.

Hmm... great work their ACMA -- you've let them off the hook with no more than a wiggle of your index finger. No fine, no enforced 'apologies' on air. You really are a toothless tiger. You make the laughing stock we call the ACCC look like a bully by comparison.

I might try that the next time I'm pulled over for a breathalyser:

• I promise I won't drink that much again
  
• I really will leave the car home next time.
  
• Over beers next time re-enact the entire scene for all to watch
  
• I'll tell all my friends to do the same.
  

Can I also get off with a stern warning?

Strange that Ch10 thought it was fine, and all 'hip' to do ... particularly after it's a practice that's been frowned upon since the early '70s!
Did you really think it was all above board -- "Seriously 10"?

Recently my mother took a photo of her sister's new duckling.

My mother is handy with the camera and always taking shots.
She isn't a professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but it's amazing just being in the right place and the right time can produce a fantastic photo. This is one such shot.

The duckling was just wandering around the dining room table when the shot was taken. What makes it such a great shot is the reflection in the mirror of the duck as well as the random items placed around the table, giving the photo depth and colour. If fact, if I didn't know any better you would swear it was 'set up' and not just a happy snap (which it was!)

The photo turned out so good it looks like a HallMark Greeting Card!



So to Mum, well done! It's a fantastic shot and one I had to share with others.
Hmm... I wonder if we can fatten him up in time for Christmas lunch!

Most people don't read User Manuals. It's a shame as they miss out on lots of great tid-bits.

One such nugget can be found on Page 66 of the VirtualBox User Manual:

Like a real SATA controller, VirtualBox’s virtual SATA controller operates faster and also consumes less CPU resources than the virtual IDE controller.

Interesting...

I thought I would give this a go.

I had an existing 32-bit Windows XP installation that used the traditional IDE interface, and found it used about 25% of my CPU when running (using an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600) when running under a 64-bit Linux installation.

Whilst it ran fine, dropping the CPU utilisation and speeding it up sounded like a great idea.
Once done, I compared the results... it was indeed 'zippier', and low and behold, the CPU utilization had dropped to around 5%! Now that's a big improvement!

So how did I go about it? Start the Virtual Machine as per usual. Download and install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager (used to see the SATA interface). Install the software. Shutdown the Virtual Machine Now create a temp virtual disk, and install this on SATA-1 on the virtual machine. Boot back up and ensure you can see the disk (it won't be formatted, so you will probably need to look in the Disk Management utility found in the Administration Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management) Hopefully you can see the newly added disk. Shutdown the virtual machine. Change your IDE disk to now be on SATA Port 0 Remove the temp disk you previously added. Boot back up and you should now be on a SATA HDD, that now is more snappier and uses a lot less CPU. You can also use the floppy disk drivers to install it directly using the 'F6' key during installation.

NB: For those using Vista - you'll find it supports SATA out of the box. (No need to install an additional driver)

So enjoy faster and less resource hungry virtual machines.

NB: Whilst this covers SATA under Windows based Virtual machines, it also applies to running Linux based Virtual Machines.

Ok, I'm definitely not a morning person.
Also recovering from wind-burn from the weekend!

For the record... I used the web-cam built into my LCD monitor and used Cheese to take the shot.

Completely unaltered. Probably a little dark as I'm sitting in here without a light on.
Mind all the junk behind me. We're in the middle of doing a big spring clean-up... and at present Pauline's cleaning out the study. (Hence the sheets on the printer!) Weekdays are not for shaving also.



Instructions
1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair…just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture

Who started this meme? Blame Og Maciel.

We met with our builder on the weekend to go over final items for the run home with the house.
We wanted to ask for a completion date so we can start the hideous task of getting organized ready for the move. We'll hire movers and packers.. as we just have to much crap... that and it's a little bit too far to make multiple runs. (Big cleanout this weekend... feel free to drop past as we ditch hundreds of old PC parts, memory, HDDs, power supplies, and you name it!)

The builder bet us to the punch... and announced. "I'm attempting to get you in here in 6 weeks". We both dropped our jaws.. they were still plastering the house when he said that. "Yup, don't hold me on that, but 6-8 weeks we should have you in. This stuff wont take us long now."

So we're quite excited... even if it looks like a skeleton at present... Today (Wednesday) all the plastering is meant to be complete with cornices going up as well. So I guess benches, cupboards will start to go in now... along with tiling and carpets.

For those that want to see the progress of our house being built (and why wouldn't you?!) You can watch it go from a block of land to the final stage over on our flickr account.

To be honest, the building process for us has been quite smooth sailing to date. (fingers crossed it's like that for the remainder!) We've had an extremely picky builder and some very good tradies working with him. It has made the process a lot less stressful as a result.

Here is a quick flick through some of the photos of the place for those too lazy to click on our flickr link.

So there is a bit to do still from our behalf. We're organising some fences (to keep dogs in!), as well as concreting. The concreting of the Alfresco is included in the house but we'll do down the side of the Western side to make a nice court yard that the Alfresco will spill out into. We also have driveways and paths to concrete around the house. There is also a 10,500L water tank to get installed and fitted.

We've run 48 points of Cat6-GigE throughout the house... and about 12 of those are PoE. We've also decided to put up the TV antenna now as it's much easier running it prior to the plastering.

We are also going to install a drought tolerant flowering modern native Australian garden... but all in due course. We've waited this long for our first house, so some of the finishing touches will take a little bit of time. We'll just be happy to move into a house we call our own*.


_{* Well the banks anyway!}

It was time to upgrade my phone. Not that my old phone didn't work, in fact I actually loved my Sony Ericsson K750i, however the battery wasn't holding the charge and in this disposable world we live in it seemed crazy buying a new battery. It was purely a case of the plan I was on allowed for a new phone. So what the heck, it had served me well... but it was time to look at this 3G stuff. Sure, video calls didn't really impress me (and seemed more a gimmick then functional -- it's a call after all!)

I wanted a better camera on my phone. 2MP cut it a few years ago, but it just wasn't cutting it now. I really wanted a decent 5MP camera in my phone. It saves me lugging around another electronic device.

I own an iPod mini but find I am always forgetting it.. so a reasonable music player is also handy.
A decent browser and Email client is always handy.

We looked through all the available phones, and I was keen not to get an iPhone.

I finally settled on a Nokia N95 8GB. I was a little disappointed that the phone had no expandable memory, but hey, at 8GB I'm not filling that any time soon! (I really don't store that many songs in my phone!)

Man, how phones have progressed. To be honest, the complexity of the beast actually had me freak out a little. The K750i was pretty easy to work out, but this thing had buttons sprouting out all over the place. I guess what didn't help was that it was also my first 'slide phone'.

The first month I did the usual things, making calls, SMS and taking the odd photo or two on it.. I hadn't used a Symbian based phone for quite a while, so it took a bit of time getting used to. Over the last month I've experimented a bit more and found out it's not too bad at all. Even better is that Symbian will be released under OpenSource. Nokia also has an OpenSource website, as well as there is a bunch of OSS software you can install on your Symbian based phone.

I didn't have a GPS - and one thing I had also been toying with for a while. It is handy for long trips or somewhere you've never visited before, but I really couldn't justify it... it seemed more 'toy' then functional. Those people I had seen with a GPS seemed more frustrated then helped. Granted, these were early models but I'd seen too many people being send down non-existent roads or dead ends -- or told to do U-turns on freeways!

The Nokia N95 8GB comes with Nokia Maps. To be honest, I'd never used a GPS before so it was all greek to me. After playing around with it for a while I learnt that it wasn't too bad. Nokia kindly gave us 6-months free Navigation (basically the voice saying turn right/turn left, etc). It actually works quite well. The GPS in the Nokia N95 8GB is actually quite fast... I was surprised how quick it was able to re-route me once it realised I had missed it's 'chosen route'. I've seen dedicated GPS devises screw that up big time.

The one sticking point for me... is the cost of navigation after 6 months. Nokia want you to pay $124AUD/yr for the feature. They can shove that. I spend enough on the damn phone. Seriously, if you can give me the maps free.. .I can't see why I have to pay for the damn voice.

As a result I'm now looking around at other options (I'll continue using their Maps until I'm required to pay).
I've come across two reasonable candidates: Nav4All and amAze. I'll be testing them both out shortly to see how they stack up in Australia... and in rural parts of Victoria at that!

Ideally I would love to be able to use some thing like OpenStreetMap...which just makes sense and gives me the feeling of sharing and caring.

I'm interested in hearing from anyone that has used some of the free GPS phone software and how is rates.

Overall, I'm happy with my purchase. The built in SIP client and 802.11 b/g support is fantastic. The included web-browser is reasonable, though there are better ones around. (which have found their way to my phone). I see there is even an SSH client -- so that may also make it's way, handy when you need to do a quick 'fix' on a server and not near a computer.

Ideally I was hanging around for an OpenMoko phone, but the lack of 3G really soured that expectation. I needed a phone now and not somewhere in the distant future. Having said that.... I'll see what the future holds, I may just pickup one once the features I'm seeing in this phone make their way into the OpenMoko phone.

It took over two weeks of agony but I finally got over my wisdom teeth removal.

In the process it took many visits back to a heartless surgeon, and only the persistence of my family that saw me through.

The result - massive doses of painkillers, anti-inflammatories and even valium to see me through.
Why the valium you might ask?! It was used primarily as a muscle relaxant.

In the process of removing my wisdoms and the pre-molar (5 teeth in total), the surgeon tore the ligaments in my lower jaw and in the process dislocated my jaw.

A couple of visits to a physiotherapist that specialises in jaw conditions, and the valium saw me recover.

The actual holes left from the extractions were never a problem (though the cleaning process and mouth washes are a drag, they weren't painful after the first few days). The rough treatment whilst under a general is what did all the damage.

If you need your wisdom teeth out, some words of advice:

1. Ensure you get it done under a general if more than one.
2. Remove them in your teens or early twenties. Leaving them longer the teeth roots are much larger, harder to extract and the actual jaw bone is more solid. This makes for a difficult extraction.
3. Expect to be out of action for some time. Have plenty of heavy painkillers on the ready. You'll need them at least for the first few days (ie: A Panadeine Forte or likewise)
4. If you don't see any improvement, keep pestering your dental surgeon, don't get flipped off. Their charged to look after your well-being - before, during and after your procedure.
5. If you still have problems with your surgeon who is more than likely quite flippant; go back to your GP and inform him... it's not uncommon for these 'supposed surgeons', to not give a rats ass after they are paid and the surgery is performed
6. A second opinion is always a wise choice if you're not happy with your treatment. Surgeons have no loyalty to you, so don't feel you owe them any.

Going through the ordeal, I would never recommend the surgeon I had. (Heartless money grabbing self-righteous bitch is too kind a phrase to describe her).

If you're in Western suburbs of Melbourne, and needing such work done... let me know. I'll ensure you don't end up with her and actually are seen by someone who I would class as competent.

I hope I never see her again. It won't be by choice if I ever do.

It's now approaching 3:00am...

It's almost 7 days since I had 5 teeth surgically removed, yet the pain seems to be increasing not decreasing.

Two nights this week has seen me head in to the emergency department looking for some form of pain relief.

Currently the Panadeine Forte only manages to take the tip of the edge off the pain. I now have pain from my lower jaw that heads right up to my temple on the left side.

I've gone back to the surgeon twice already, yet I'm told that 'all looks good'. However, from speaking to others the pain normally subsides by now or at least is on the decrease. The pain itself doesn't appear to be in the gum, it appears more in the jaw bone itself.

So I'm back to see the surgeon again tomorrow. I'm wondering if x-rays should be looked at now (could my jaw have been fractured in the process of the tooth removal?). Do I have an infection in the bone?! Do pain killers no-longer have any effect on me?!?!

Something is seriously amiss... I'm going to perch at the surgeon's office and not leave until some further investigation is done. It's crazy, this pain is about 3 times that of the pain I had pre-surgery.

I can't even knock myself out with some heavy shots of alcohol due to the large amounts of codeine I've taken; for fear of the possibility of respiratory failure. (Hence why you should never drink and take heavy pain killers). I'm wondering if it's prudent to come off them (the drugs) and soley use alcohol for pain relief?!? At least I could pass out and get some sleep.

I haven't had a decent night's sleep for over 3 weeks now, and tonight appears it's going to be one more night that I either sit killing some time in front of the computer, or lie awake in bed watching the digits on the clock tick past.

I originally intended on heading back to work on Wednesday (that boat has already sailed). I am hoping I can get back on Monday, though some serious head-way is going to need to be made if that has any likelihood of happening.

Dear lazyweb, if any of you out there have some ideas how to relieve some serious pain I'm all open to suggestions. To be honest, I'm pretty desperate.... feel free to leave a comment. As the topic states... I'm at my wits end.

Yesterday I had surgery under a General Anesthesia to remove 5 teeth (4 wisdom teeth, and a baby pre-molar that never got a secondary tooth; but had decided it had hung around long enough ).

The day surgery saw us arrive at 12:30pm to 'sign-in' though I didn't actually get the pre-med until just after 5:00pm. So a mind numbing wait of 4.5 hours was undertaken. (Even worse was the fact that my last food and any form of liquid was 7:30am, and it seemed the only thing showing on the blaring waiting room TV was food shows. ). That resulted in a nice headache by mid-afternoon as my blood sugar levels dropped.

The surgery itself was a success, I left the operating theatre just after 7pm, and it took just over an hour in the recovery room. There I was treated to food that makes everything better (icecream and jelly), as well as a glass of apple juice and another of water.

Pauline took good care of me, and kept me company during the long wait before hand (though she ignored my pleads to head off and not blow her whole afternoon waiting around in the waiting room). Whilst I was in surgery she headed home (only 5 mins down the road) to attempt a bite to eat (that didn't happen as they called her back as she was about to commence eating), but she did have time to wash some bed sheets, feed the dogs and get ready for my return (buying/making some additional yummy goodies that I could eat/drink).

Swelling is well down (I expected to look like a bullfrog this morning, but it's quite minimal). I'll continue using ice-packs on either side of my face every few hours, to lessen it further.

It appears that besides the general, that the surgeons also applied a local to my bottom jaw, to aid in pain relief. The local worked extremely well, although it gave the sensation I had a bear's tongue and not my own for most of last night.

Since waking this morning, the local has long worn off, and I'm in relatively good spirits. I'm using the Panadine Forte for pain relief (in fact the pain is minimal at this stage -- which is brilliant!).

I came home brandishing a swag of mouth rinses, painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs for the next few days; I should be hopefully back to full steam in a short time.

This will be a weekend of rest and time to re-assess early next week. I'll potter online a little, but it's more from boredom than a burning desire to be on the computer (I'm not much value above useless at present!).

A big thanks to all the well-wishes I've received over the past few weeks... it's great to know others are thinking of you. Thankfully this saga appears to be quickly drawing to a near and I'll be my annoying, harassing and cheeky self in no-time (so beware!).

Responding to Sandra's Post on the top 25 IMDB movies...

(Bold the ones you saw in theater, italicize the ones you saw some other way instead, and leave the unseen ones alone.)

Here's my scores:

1. Titanic (1997) $600,779,824
2. Star Wars (1977) $460,935,665
3. Shrek 2 (2004) $436,471,036
4. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) $434,949,459
5. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) $431,065,444
6. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) $423,032,628
7. Spider-Man (2002) $403,706,375
8. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) $380,262,555
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) $377,019,252
10. Spider-Man 2 (2004) $373,377,893
11. The Passion of the Christ (2004) $370,270,943
12. Jurassic Park (1993) $356,784,000
13. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) $340,478,898
14. Finding Nemo (2003) $339,714,367
15. Spider-Man 3 (2007) $336,530,303
16. Forrest Gump (1994) $329,691,196
17. The Lion King (1994) $328,423,001
18. Shrek the Third (2007) $320,706,665
19. Transformers (2007) $318,759,914
20. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) $317,557,891
21. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) $313,837,577
22. Iron Man (2008) $311,708,133
23. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) $310,675,583
24. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) $309,404,152
25. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) $309,125,40.

I knew I was a movie whore, but 23 outta 25... wow. (I'm planning on seeing Iron Man, and never really was interested in the The Passion of the Christ).

It seems I do enjoy the big screen... there's nothing like cuddling up with a loved one and watching something fly out and hit you whilst you both jump and cluth each other. Having said that, it's mainly the 'big titles' I go to the movies to watch, I probably see a ratio of 50:1 (Home:Cinema).

Well... that filled in 5 minutes of boredom as I wait to head to the hospital...