Jeremy is rather unimpressed with the postal service. On Monday last week he mailed a letter to himself from my mum’s place, and it took until today to arrive. Some other mail had been turning up — sporadically, but something every few days. I wonder if some of the posties on post-Christmas holidays? For a ... [More]
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Wattage
Josh sent me a nifty device for measuring the power consumption of various devices. This is something I’ve been meaning to do for some time: to see what drains power, and how much, and to see in particular what even drains power when it’s idle. So I spent a couple of hours plugging it into ... [More]
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Vale Mark
At some stage last year I reached the point where I’d been separated/divorced for as long as I was married. I’m happy to say it’s a path that most of my contemporaries don’t seem to have followed me down. Indeed, of those who have got married and had kids, I can only think of one ... [More]
I’m alone in the house, blasting Billy Bragg on the stereo while cleaning up. Part of preparation for the concert on January 30th. Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards… my God I love that song. Does it speak to everybody in community activism like this? For those who haven’t seen it (I hadn’t), here’s the ... [More]
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So what is it?
Spotted in Victory Park, Patterson Road, Bentleigh yesterday. (It’s where we go when the car is getting its tyres looked at.) I’ve seen a few obscure pieces of playground equipment in my time, but what is this? I can’t figure it out. It’s too high to reach, even for an adult. I wondered if it ... [More]
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Online life in slow motion
Unexpectedly this morning our ADSL at home got shaped — that is, slowed down to more-or-less dialup speed because we’d used all our bandwidth for the month. Fortunately it’s not the calendar month — it’s the month up until the 21st. I could blame the excessive use of YouTube in the house, but ultimately it’s ... [More]
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The futurist
“Computer people are the last to guess what’s coming next. I mean, come on, they’re so astonished by the fact that the year 1999 is going to be followed by the year 2000 that it’s costing us billions to prepare for it.” — Douglas Adams, 1999 — Cited by Stephen Fry I was recently remarking ... [More]
4:30am. Something. Something crawling on my face. Swipe with hand. Like a shot, out of bed, turn on light. Cockroach on bed. Swearing ensues. Oh gawd, yuck. Two people I know, and some bloggers have noted the recent presence of cockroaches, despite keeping clean kitchens. I think the little bastards are getting more daring.
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Too subtle
Spotted in Australia On Collins Now call me old-fashioned if you like, but shouldn’t the location of life-saving fire-fighting equipment be indicated in a slightly less subtle way?
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Hot January nights
Oh boy, it’s going to be a hot night, and tomorrow’s not much better. It’s still 38.3 outside, and about 30 indoors. No aircon here at home, but with the fans running it’s bearable, so I don’t plan on getting it.
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Head for the hills!
On Monday we headed off to the Dandenong Ranges for Puffing Billy. It’s been years since I’ve been up there, and after taking a look recently at an old family video of one such trip, we were all keen to go again. The removal of zone 3 has made these occasional jaunts to the city ... [More]
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Domestic mysteries
SMS from an unknown number on NYE: “Happy New Year”. The number looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t work it out, and it was bugging me. Who could it be? I eventually replied saying “Happy New Year, but who is this, I don’t have your number in my phone.” They replied saying “Sorry, meant to ... [More]
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Lunchtime bargain find of the week
Like most technology, DVDs rarely do anything other than drop in price. I just found The Late Show — Best Bits: Champagne Edition for $19.95 in Dymocks. According to the ABC Shop Online and that wondrous assistant to DVD shopping, DVD Plaza’s Pricecrawler, it’s widely available at that price. 6 hours of 90s-era hilarity for ... [More]
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Home economics
Checked the other day how much of my home loan I’ve paid off. It’s currently sitting at 8.13% gone, up from 6.59% this time last year, and it’s only shifting at about 0.11% per month (unless I choose to pay extra). Slow going. So much for my NY resolution in 2006 of trying to pay ... [More]
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Vehicle efficiency
My old mate Brian once described his car as being an air-conditioner on wheels. Which got me thinking. When I go for a drive on my own, the engine in my car is moving me (75 Kg) and the car itself (1356 Kg). Therefore 94% of the energy involved is spent moving the car. It’s ... [More]
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The beasties are back
I was back at work today. The city seemed a bit quiet today (Degraves St/Centreway excepted), and with many blokes shunning their ties, obviously things are still a bit in holiday mode. This morning I found the biggest damn spider I’ve seen this year in ages sitting on the wall above the front door. I ... [More]