Plenty has been written about this before, but I’ll put my oar in. Facebook knows lots about you. Most users key in a bunch of stuff about their hobbies, favourite music, TV shows, all that kind of stuff. They know (roughly) where you live, how old you are, often your marital status, your interests. So ... [More]
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Random thoughts
It was only at the third petrol station yesterday that I found a pump [air] that was working. Found three ATMs in close proximity all out of order at lunchtime. Was anybody else listening to the ABC 774 (3LO) news this morning at 7:45am when somebody pressed the wrong button and The Twilight Zone music ... [More]
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The scheme
How’s this for a scheme? 1. Buy discounted Kit Kat Chunky chocolate bars for $1.29 at Safeway. (On special only until closing time tonight; normal price $1.88) 2. Eat bar. 3. Use code inside wrapper that gets me a $1.69 song from iTunes. 4. Profit! I like chocolate, and I already have an iTunes account. ... [More]
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Optimising the commute
I’m sure anybody who drives a particular trip regularly has in their mind their thoughts on optimising it: which route to take, which lane to be in when, best time to set out, alternate routes available if there’s a major snarl — like there was on Wednesday. What about PT users? Do they think this ... [More]
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Not gloating
I don’t mean to gloat or anything, but I’m rather pleased I locked-in my mortgage interest rate last year. It’s locked-in for 5 years (the maximum) which may or may not have been a good idea — only time will tell — but it certainly looks pretty good right now. Mine’s locked-in at 7.85%, whereas ... [More]
Oh dear. That’s not meant to happen. But look on the bright side… there were no ambulances on the scene! (Collins St near Russell St, approx 1:55pm today. There are points there; it looks like the two halves of the tram decided to go different ways.)
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Frantic day
One of those frantic days. E Day — the Eddington report came out. Age story. In summary: do we really want to blow $20 billion on tunnels, when one (the road tunnel) appears to serve no purpose (hardly anybody drives NE to W) and the other (the rail tunnel) tries to solve a capacity problem ... [More]
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News of the day
Proposal for a Yarra car ferry. Google Australia introduces predictive web searching, which can show you how the Web will look tomorrow. Google USA and Virgin have combined to form Virgle: sending a human colony to Mars. Andrew Bolt to run for parliament in Peter Costello’s seat. A bunch of stories: SCG stand to be ... [More]
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It was a good day, except
I had a day off. It was a good day, except… Worried about my dad, in hospital Chicken curry dinner took ages to cook Slight tummy ache. Hope it’s not Bowen Belly ™. I think I ate too much chocolate Eldest not yet done nearly as much school holiday homework as expected A tad stressed ... [More]
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Hour without power
After a little cynicism, I did in fact join in Earth Hour. Over at Marita’s, we shut off all the lights for an hour and survived by the light of the TV, candles and a torch. In fact there seemed to be few lights on in the street, and it was hard to tell how ... [More]
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More solar
Now the solar hot water is installed and happy, I was pondering further solar installations. The question is: is it more effective to get my own solar panels, and get green power for whatever I can’t generate myself, or just switch entirely to green power? First thing to do is reduce my consumption. My previous ... [More]
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Sitting in the dark
I’m not convinced that I’ll participate in Earth Hour. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a terrific idea for raising awareness of climate change and energy issues. But I’m already well aware of those issues, thanks, and I’m working on reducing my emissions every day, not just one hour per year. And besides, I’m ... [More]
Given how their parliament occasionally carries-on, I wonder if the Taiwanese politicians campaigned on how good they are at hand-to-hand combat? That level crossing smash near Geelong is tragic, and the government should do more on improving crossing conditions. But one radio jock was almost making excuses for the car driver, not just missing the ... [More]
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Not the 6 o’clock news
One night last week I was flicking between the six o’clock news services and I came across a Channel 9 story about someone’s wedding dress being delivered late for the wedding. WTF? Look, I feel sorry for them, but THIS IS NOT NEWS. You don’t want your journos to be aloof and distant from the ... [More]
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Good Friday: Closed
How is it that this happens every year, every Good Friday? Almost every shop in the country is closed. And yet there’s a continual stream of cars into the supermarket car park, driving up to see if it’s open. It’s not open guys. Almost nothing is open on Good Friday. The empty car park should ... [More]
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Cars again
The solar hot water upgrade meant I postponed the car upgrade for a few weeks. But I’ve been looking at what I might get. My current car, the aging and increasingly unreliable ’93 Magna, has a theoretical City consumption of 10 litres per 100km. Although I don’t drive much, downsizing should reduce consumption a little ... [More]