Move Along, Nothing to see here.

I thought I'd drop a quick note here and say hello. Actually, for the most part it's to stop the kind blogger people deciding that I'm not using my blog anymore and pulling the plug. I've been looking for some software that will allow me to easily download all of my entries so I can archive them for future reference. If you know of something that might do the trick feel free to let me know by using the comments section.

I notice at the end of my last post I talked about looking for a new car, well I did end up getting the one that I talk about in that post, and I'm slowly starting to like it. There's a few minor things that I don't like but I think that's related to it being front-wheel-drive and me not being used to it. In case I don't get around to posting before then, I'm going up to Nelson in Feb so I'll get to try it out and see how it compares to the commodore. I still think that it uses more gas than the commodore ever did but it's also got a MUCH smaller tank so it's hard to tell.

Anyway, enough for now

Windows Update Woes!

First of all I must say I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I kind've lost interest in the blogging thing for a while, that and I've been REALLY busy (I'm sure I've said that before today too but I can't be bothered looking for the link)

I managed to get a new Netgear Wireless Access Point with FlyBuys points and yesterday evening I thought I would have a go at setting it up. I had it plugged in and all working, with my new SME proxy server which I set up at the same time, but when I went to connect Delta's PC to the new access point it wouldn't work. I remembered that we had to put a patch on Windows XP computers at work in order to enable them to see WPA2 protected access points, so I searched and found the appropriate patch, installed it and rebooted the computer. Still couldn't connect to the new access point. I thought I would try and run Windows Update and this is where the fun started.

--> Downloading Windows Updates
--> Download Complete
--> Installing Windows Updates
--> One or more Updates failed to install correctly
--> Successfully Installed Updates = 0
--> Updates that failed to install = 89

So far tonight I've run about a half dozen searches to see if I can locate the problem and all I've managed to do is make it worse. Currently I'm downloading Windows XPSP2 which I am going to re-apply to Delta's PC and see if that fixes things. Unfortunately, it's 266Mb and using up most of my bandwidth so everything else is having a go slow.

What else is going on besides a whole lot of ranting on my part?

Well, I've been using Bebo a bit and I've written a couple of very short blog entries over there. I've also been looking for a new car after my Commodore got nailed by a drunk driver a few weekends back. I think I've found one, it's a 1997 Toyota Carib, brand new import, only done 60000km. It's going for a pre-purchase check tomorrow and if it checks out I'll be buying it.

The Internet is falling

A while back I experimented with haloscan commenting and then turned it off again. I'm somewhat glad I did because I've just been looking at Ariskah & ChemGirl's blogs and all their haloscan comments have disappeared. Bizarre!

I've also been browsing around on Hulks Garage and noticed that it is VERY out of date and some of the links are broken, so I suppose I should make some time to fix it up somewhat. Make some time, hmm... I seam to be saying that a lot lately, reminds me of a line from "colour of the sky" by Felt, "I used to be home a lot, but now I'm out ever day and in between." (I was going to use Felt's home page for the link there but the address on the poster doesn't resolve anymore, and that link was the best that I could come up with)

I wonder if I went back through my Blog how many links would still work and how many would give page not found errors?

I noticed in Vienna a few days ago that KamolSays (no link available) was displaying an exclamation, this happens from time to time so I took no notice. However, today I decided to look into it and discovered that it too was no longer there.

Is this the end of the Internet as we know it? Is Web 2.0 Finally upon us? (Long article, read it if you like but if you follow some twisted logic then you end up here and eventually here which is the point of it all I think)

Up, Up & Away!

Those of you that know me know how much I hate flying! Can't stand it! I'd much sooner keep my feet firmly planted on the ground. However, I have discovered that model planes are an entirely different ball-game. With a model plane, you can keep your feet firmly planted on the ground and yet still be "in-control" of the plane. (Out of control is more like but more on that shortly.) One of the Professors at work brought a radio controlled glider plane into our office today, he said that he'd had enough of crashing it (and having to pay $50 for new wings every time he crashed it) so he was giving it to us. I promptly set about charging the battery, which was more difficult than you might think, considering the charger is designed to run off 110V. Time to fire up the variac. After charging for several hours I bought the plane home, assembled it and took it across to the local soccer club grounds. After several bursts of the plane going about a metre and then nose diving I realised that the off/on switch on the plane was dodgy and so was the connector from the battery to the plane. After fixing these faults I finally manged to get about 20seconds of decent flight before piling the plane into a stone fence and smashing the propeller to bits. I think the tail rudder might be out of alignment. I bought the plane home again, found a replacement propeller in the box and put it on. By this stage however the battery was getting down a bit so as soon as you touched either of the control levers, power was diverted from the main engine and the plane proceeded to nose dive. Looks like I'll have to take it back to work tomorrow, stick it back on the variac and have another shot tomorrow night.

I have sucumb

I have succumb, I have finally succumb.

Firstly, after resisting passionately (okay not really all that passionately) I FINALLY watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Yay! It was quite good actually, the main reason I hadn't watched it was that each of the movies go for 3 hours. But then that's what holiday's are for. I enjoyed all the battle scenes the most I think.

The second thing I have succumb too is bloggers insistence that I upgrade to the new Google version. So I've finally upgraded, it looks a little different but that's about all.


Oh, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all too.

It appears that the Spellcheck, works in the new version of blogger too. Which is nice. It never worked before, well at least not with Camino

Misuse of Terms

Is it just me or does anybody else get annoyed by the misuse of terms? Take flash drives for instance. People call them Memory Sticks, which is wrong, completely. A memory stick goes in your digital camera and is produced by Sony. I've often heard to them referred to as thumb drives as well.

Okay, rant over, here's something interesting I discovered this morning while looking at the archive section of my blog. If you have a look at the post, the second paragraph begins by talking about how it was 10 days since the last post. WOW! At the moment I'm averaging just under 10 days between updates (9.71 to be exact)

The Road Trip

Friday 17/11/06

After finishing work around 4:30pm Ariskah & I went to Farmers before heading North for the start of our adventure. We drove to Palmerston and stopped off to get some dinner. After sitting in the restaurant for just under an hour the girls behind the counter asked us if we were waiting on something, when Ariskah told them what we'd ordered they said something about our order being given to someone else so they got on and cooked it up pronto for us and give us some free chocolate doughnuts. We took the order back to the car to eat (you're not allowed to eat takeaway food in the dining room but the takeaway food is cheaper, go figure.) After making a mess eating tea (I managed to get sugar from the doughnut all through the car, it's now in bad need of a decent clean out) we carried on our merry way. Just North of Oamaru my leg was starting to get soar so I got Ariskah to drive the rest of the way to Timaru where we stayed the night at her Grandparent’s place.

Saturday 18/11/06

We got up early and had breakfast before heading off for the day, we had planned to leave there by 7am but it was closer to half-past when we got away. I drove to Ashburton and then Ariskah drove to Christchurch. We stopped in Christchurch to put more gas in the car and buy more drinks and then I drove from Christchurch to Kaikoura, where we stopped for lunch. I ordered 2 pieces of fish, chips & salad for lunch. When they bought it out there were about half a dozen little pieces of fish on the plate and for the first time ever (that I can remember anyway) I couldn’t eat all that they’d given me. I should’ve gotten them to save it because we ended up stopping there on the way back too. After lunch Ariskah drove to Picton.
About 20 minutes out of Picton we got stuck behind a camper van doing about 70km/h. There was plenty of room for him to pull over and let us pass but he wasn’t interested, until about 2 minutes after we caught up to him when the Courier Post truck arrived. The Courier Post truck was in a real hurry so Ariskah pulled over to let him passed and then, as he was bearing down on the camper, the guy driving the camper finally realised what was going on and pulled over. Ariskah was able to pull out and pass the camper and we carried on.
We finally got to Picton, picked up Ariskah’s sister and then turned around and went back. (Stopping at the Supermarket first of course) I drove from Picton back to Kaikoura where we stopped to meet up with one of M’s friends and have some afternoon tea, (at the same place we’d stopped for lunch earlier) and then Ariskah drove from Kaikoura back to Amberly. We stopped to put more petrol in, in Amberly and then I drove into Christchurch, stopping again to buy a street map. Once we had the map we worked out where we were staying and made our way there.
The people we were staying with had gone out for the evening but left us a key. We unlocked the house, took our gear inside and were about to head off to get some dinner when we realised that we couldn’t lock the front door. After fiddling with it for a while we discovered a slide-bolt, which would enable us to lock the door from the inside, and we went out the back door, locking ourselves out in the process. Realising our mistake, we went to pick our hosts up from the function they were at. Unfortunately they didn’t have a key for the lock we’d managed to lock (the door had several locks on it and we only had a key for one of them) so after about 15minutes of unsuccessfully trying to gain entry we called directory and asked for an after hours locksmith. The locksmith arrived & 60seconds and $100 later we were in the house. The girls wanted something to eat but I was tired so I went to bed.

Sunday 19/11/06

It must’ve been close to 9 o’clock before I got up. G was cooking bacon, eggs, hash browns & tomatoes for breakfast. After breakfast we re-packed the car, having thrown everything in, in Picton yesterday, and then went around to T’s place to pick up some mags that I had bought off Trademe. We had to rearrange the gear a little in the back of the wagon in order to fit everything in but we managed it. I was quite impressed, we managed to get M’s kayak, mountain bike & tramping pack, 4 wheels (2 with tires on and 2 without) and about 10-12 smaller bags in the back of the Commodore.
After all the re-packing we went to the Supermarket, back to G’s place and then into town. Ariskah wanted to go to the Shoe Clinic to get some new shoes. They had some cool toys there, I think next time I buy a pair of shoes I might go there, although it is a LONG way to drive just to get shoes. We finally left Christchurch around 1pm, only to stop down the road at the Cookie Time Factory. This was only a short stop though and we were on the way again.
When we got to Ashburton I asked Ariskah if she wanted to drive to Timaru but she said she was felling a little sleepy. I kept driving for a while longer but about halfway between Ashburton & Timaru my legs were starting to hurt quite badly so I got M to drive the rest of the way to Timaru. We stopped in Timaru for “lunch” at the girls Grandparents’ place, since we’d had a late breakfast and were late leaving Christchurch it was more like afternoon tea.
We finally arrived home around 7pm