Blog

I decided to go for the Vodafone 3G path to get decent high speed roaming Internet access. After researching the internal 3G modules that Dell ship with the same model laptop overseas, and looking at the Vodafone supplied PCMCIA card and the Vodem, I purchased the Vodem and am using it under Ubuntu Linux as I type this. Easy to get working with reference to a couple of web sites (links to come) although suspend/restore doesn't always work.



Generally I am pleased with the product and less so with the shop I bought it from that didn't call me back to say it had come into the store; and after telling me it was ready after I called, they still couldn't get the product sale/account registration sorted on their computer system. I left them to it for another 15 minutes and finally walked out with it in my hot little hands.

Well the iROX Plus-X is working fine and I am currently running the evaluation copy of Weather Display on XP under VMware to log the data.

I plan to implement a Linux interface to it and haven't yet made any progress except that I can monitor the data in Continue reading "Weather station" »

About 15 minutes into my walk to work on Thursday I was crossing a road with some traffic oncoming. I gave a small push to get over the last part more quickly and something went POP in my left calf muscle. Instant and severe pain and I hobbled off the road before I was run down.

Continue reading "The pain of it" »

About an hour ago my beard was shaved off for the first time since 1972....

A group of DIA male staff had offered to have their beards removed if staff pledged $1500 to the Movember fundraising activity.

A rash remark earlier in the day promising to join them if the pledges reached $2500 found me sitting in a line in the DIA cafeteria at 3pm. A few minutes later the trimmers reached me at number 3 in the lineup and then I was tidying up with a razor.

Its going to take a bit of getting used to but the general reaction has been positive. Hopefully the southerly won't chill me too much on the way home.

The evidence

I got carried away over the weekend and bought a weather station that hooks up to a PC. I have been contemplating how to build one for some time and decided that the cost/benefit tradeoff was strongly in favour of buying one if I could find one to suit. I now own an IROX Pro USB. It is made by Honeywell (or maybe they just relabel it too).

Continue reading "Weather (or not)" »

Well we got back from Oz yesterday having been in Bendigo, Victoria for the inaugural Bendigo Chocolate Rush Festival.

We arrived by train from Melbourne a couple of days before it started to deliver Jo's chocs for the competition and spent a day and a half checking out Bendigo and the touristy things within walking distance of the town centre. Some beautiful old buildings and churches, the art gallery, Chinese Museum, garden and temple, plus the tram ride.

Jo spent all Saturday at a couple of classes while I attended some of the free chocolate demonstrations and sampled some of the wares on display. I also fitted in a trip down the Central Deborah Gold mine. No longer working but its a great tourist site. I did the 1 hour trip underground - down to 61 meters below the surface (2nd level) where we were shown around a 350 metre loop of tunnel - demos of the drilling etc.

We stayed at the Belmont on High Bed & Breakfast for the three nights we were there. I recommend it to anyone looking for a comfortable place to stay in Bendigo, with friendly hosts (Stephen and Judith) and fantastic breakfast that set us up for most of the day.
Continue reading "Chocolate Rush" »