Little Aussie Bleeder

Tough times for the Sunshine state.

2012-02-02T09:43:00.003+11:00

Truly gobsmacking piece on SBS World News Australia last night. What really shocked me was that a UPS delivery driver not only thought that it was perfectly OK to drop half a million dollars on a place to live (I don't know what UPS delivery drivers are paid, but if it's less than about $150,000 per annum then he's insane) but that he would find it "Very painful" to leave.

What the fuck?! By your own admission you can't afford the payments, but you've drunk so deeply from the Kool-Aid of real estate bullshit that you can't bring yourself to cut the rope attached to the millstone around your neck? Drown then, and no sympathy from me.

Sadly, this enlightening video is only available for 6 days from today. Do watch it if you didn't catch it last night:

Of course it'll never happen here!

Pissing in the wind

2012-01-13T09:43:00.004+11:00

There is presently (at least in the media and "official" circles) much brouhaha about a video which purports to show some US Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters. Whilst pissing on the bodies of your slain enemies is undoubtedly petulant and childish, really, what's the problem? Does anyone honestly think the dead guys give a fuck?

There have even been comparisons drawn with the torture which went on at Abu Ghraib. Absurd! Ridiculous! Those people were alive, and hence suffering fear and degradation, the dead people in the video are no longer capable of feeling. They have ceased to be. Shuffled off this moral coil. They are an ex-parrot!

Helloooo 1984

2011-12-15T10:09:00.008+11:00

Personally, I found this: Punk's not dead, it's just gone to moral rehab - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) truly shocking, despite the ABC's attempt to lighten it with humour.

Does this look like someone who's enjoying themselves? (Obviously the recipient of the haircut, not the hairdresser who is no doubt enjoying the moral high ground and righteously leveraged power trip.)

(AFP: Chaideer Mahyuddin )

Police stormed the venue and arrested fans sporting mohawks, tattoos, tight jeans and chains, who were on Tuesday taken to a nearby town to undergo a 10-day moral rehabilitation camp run by police.

Ah, a "reeducation camp" if you will. George Orwell must be spinning in his grave, though I daresay Stalin and Hitler would thoroughly approve of the means, if not the message.

But where is the global outrage at this aggressive, blatant deprivation of liberty? Whoops! That's right, I forgot, it's a religious act, so you're not allowed to say anything disparaging.

The hypocrisy makes me want to puke.

What is this I don't even

2011-11-09T11:35:00.006+11:00

I'll leave it to Scott Adams to turn this into an amusing comic strip, it's done my head completely in.

So I'm trying to procure a computer on behalf of someone who is going to conduct some research. That's cool, it's part of my job. Uh-oh, they need a non standard computer. This should be no biggie. I can see why large organisations have standard boxes - a drone in HR or Finance doesn't generally need anything fancy, but researchers, well, research; cut 'em some slack eh? A little flexibility shouldn't be hard to build into the system...

Anyhoo, thanks to the wonders of online procurement I should just log onto the vendor provided corporate page where our "approved" systems reside, click a few radio buttons to enable the laughably simple options (larger hard disk plus an additional hard disk) I need and off we go. Alas, the options aren't there. Hat in hand, I humbly approach the higher powers.

Several days (I shit you not) pass and lo! The options for larger hard drives have been revealed, praise be! Sadly, still no option for a second hard drive. More offerings are burnt at the altar. More time passes. Still no second hard drive option.

Eventually I am directed to contact the vendor for a custom quote. This goes surprising well considering our account manager at the vendor and the previous glacial response times I've experienced. Sadly, the drones in Finance are well versed in this practice and won't release such an order without approval from on high.

Thus more delays are introduced. Before we go through the looking glass, to clarify, I work in the field of IT, but not for IT (as in the centralised service here).

So, a bunch of morons, let's call them IT, spend about a week dicking me around, then, as part of the policy I have to send my custom quote (which I had to get because they're too useless to enable some options on a web page) to them for approval. Here's where it goes from the sublime to the ridiculous; I request approval from them, they, to my astonishment, request approval from a third party, who grant it to them and they in turn grant it to me.

It seems that we have engaged, at considerable expense, the services of a procurement agency. It further transpires that they control the options which are available on our vendor provided procurement page.

Huh? How the fuck does that make sense to anyone? Maybe it's just me, maybe this all does makes sense, I'm just too stupid to understand it.

I just want to do my job. Should have been a simple matter of a few clicks and job done instead of just over a week of bureaucracy.

What is this I don't even, truly.

Blow up the pokies.

2011-10-26T12:39:00.003+11:00

With apologies to The Whitlams.

I feel no small sense of irony that those who condemn poker machine reform are, in effect condoning problem gamblers as a legitimate source of revenue.

If the government could reliably tax heroin or methamphetamine you would be able to buy it over the counter at the corner shop. Follow the money, as always.

Remember Fukushima?

2011-10-21T09:09:00.001+11:00

Well, do you? How about all the smug, self satisfied ~~wankers~~ experts on nuclear safety (soon to be an oxymoron on a par with military intelligence?) Where are they now? Why can we no longer hear them braying about how France was overreacting, and it's perfectly safe?

Because it's not. Japanese communities record Chernobyl-level radiation, via ABC. There are significant areas of Japan which have been rendered uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.

So when the vested interests tell you that nuclear power is the only way forward, and it's safe, realise you're being lied to. It's not safe and never has been. Governments cannot be trusted with nuclear power. Business can never be trusted with nuclear power.

Seven months on, and the radioactive soup beneath the remains of the containment vessel is still simmering. Seven months and there has still not been a cold shutdown of Fukushima Daiichi. Seven months ago the world was assured that a cold shutdown was only weeks away.

Kondratiev cycle

2011-10-20T10:55:00.002+11:00

If nothing else, it makes for an interesting title, no?

Particularly interesting article over at http://earlyretirementextreme.com/ (a somewhat unusual, but nonetheless intriguing site) about Peak oil, the next Kondratiev cycle, generational turnings, and ERE. I highly recommend reading it as it's not particularly gloomy which is quite unusual for a doomer.

The principal factor which I think the author has failed to consider is that his reduction was entirely voluntary, and 100% self imposed. The mathematically inevitable end of the oil age (I tend to think the Hubbert curve is rather too optimistic and will instead resemble a cliff at some point relatively soon after the peak) is unlikely to offer people the opportunity to voluntarily reduce their consumption. I anticipate that this will cause some friction, casting some doubt over his bloodless propaganda war.

As can be seen from The Energy Trap on Do the Math, if you have peaked in finite non renewable energy production without taking the time to prepare by establishing alternative energy sources, then you are already in deep trouble. This is a large scale failure to adhere to the 7 P's - Proper Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

I have seen it posited that globally we have about negative twenty five (-25) years to prepare for peak oil. I.e. the writing was on the wall in the mid 1990's (technically, if we'd all sat down and had a bit of a think about it, the writing was on the wall from the moment the first "gusher" was struck, but such is the absurd optimism of our nature).

Whatever the reality may be, I think it's evident that, like the curse, we live in interesting times (or we are soon going to.)

Population and vested interests.

2011-10-11T11:40:00.003+11:00

At last, some informed discussion on the "population debate". As is so often the case, someone else has been able to eloquently state that which I have tried, choked on my own rage, and failed to:

"Notably, the side of the debate promoting greater immigration are mostly vested business interests. Businesses facing demand saturation limits per person (a single person can only consume one of the same newspaper per day, or a finite amount of food) and are limited to domestic consumption (which foreigners are interested in Australian newspapers) have the most to gain from population growth."

Ageing debate hijacked by vested interests - macrobuisness.com.au

Wanna buy some dope?

2011-10-07T09:19:00.003+11:00

Or words to that effect is what I imagine were uttered to this young chump. I find myself horrified to be in partial agreement with Joe Hockey (who I find particularly unlikeable):

"But on Channel Seven, frontbencher Joe Hockey noted some public criticism of the case.

"I can understand the reaction of people when they first hear about anyone buying drugs in Indonesia, there is no sympathy," he said."

No shit I feel no sympathy. When you're in another country, abide by their laws. Just because we give you a pat on the head and send you on your way for possession of marijuana, and it's not big thing, don't expect to foist your attitude on them. They (for whatever reason) take that kind of thing quite seriously. When in Rome, do as the Romans, baby. Caveat emptor.

Room temperature IQ Joe also had this to say:

"But I don't know if we know the circumstances. Think back to when you were 14 years of age."

I have, and I for goddamn sure wasn't looking to score some dope and get stoned.

It's about the politics, stupid!

2011-10-06T09:56:00.003+11:00

I've been hearing about Liquid-Fluoride Thorium Reactors for a while so I decided to do a (admittedly pathetic) amount of research. They sound almost too good to be true, (from The Oil Drum (LWR = Light Water Reactor = pretty much any power generating nuke));

"LFTR(s) operate at low pressure and high temperatures, unlike today’s LWRs. Operation at low pressures alleviates much of the accident risk with LWR. Higher temperatures enable more of the reactor heat to be converted to electricity (50% in LFTR vs 35% in LWR). (The) LFTR (has) the potential to be air-cooled and to use waste heat for desalinating water.

LFTR(s) are 100-300 times more fuel efficient than LWRs. In addition to solving the nuclear waste problem, they can operate for several centuries using only uranium and thorium that has already been mined. Thus they eliminate the criticism that mining for nuclear fuel will use fossil fuels and add to the greenhouse effect."

You can, apparently, get thorium all over the place. Allegedly India's beaches are loaded with the stuff and you can even get it from the ash produced by burning coal in coal fired power stations:

"In addition to the thorium present in mine tailings and in surface monazite sands, burning coal at the average 1000 MWe power plant produces about 13 tons of thorium per year. That thorium is recoverable from the power plant’s waste ash pile.

One ton of thorium will produce nearly 1 GW of electricity for a year in an efficient thorium cycle reactor. Thus current coal energy technology throws away over 10 times the energy it produces as electricity. This is not the result of poor thermodynamic efficiency; it is the result of a failure to recognize and use the energy value of thorium."

Sounds pretty good eh? So why is the planet littered with LWRs that produce copious amounts of radioactive waste which, as Fukushima demonstrated must be carefully stored or it goes "boom"? Those LFTR jobbies must be rubbish really eh? Rubbish at producing weapons grade plutonium that is.

Yes, humanity's overwhelming desire to possess the ability to kill more of whomever is the current "baddie" than anyone else dictated that LWRs got the nod.

Politics, ain't it grand?

I wonder...

2011-09-19T11:40:00.005+10:00

Take the church of scientology. Until about 12 years ago I'd never heard of it, when I looked it up in a search engine (was google around then? I don't recall) I was dumbfounded. Did anyone actually believe this shit? It turns out a staggering amount of people do, or at least profess to. Most notably pretty much every single hollywood film star (OK, not Mel Gibson, he's probably too crazy even for scientology) and many musicians too.

This is a religion, based on the drug fuelled ramblings of a known science fiction writer. So the guy takes some drugs, writes some crappy sci-fi and hey-presto, it's a religion. These are known facts, yet for some reason a cult successfully formed around it. Similar thing with the mormons now that I come to think about it.

I wonder if, assuming our wobbly civilisation holds it together long enough, a millennia or two from now no one will laugh at scientology. Based on the mainstream monotheistic religions it seems reasonable. After all, two thousand years ago some fruity dudes (I think they were just naturally loopy, not drug enhanced like L Ron Hubbard) sprouted a bunch of crap and look where that ended up. People will kill in their name! They'd be totally stoked about that if only there was an afterlife for them to gloat from.

Funny thing...

2011-09-16T09:54:00.002+10:00

In Greece and Italy they riot in the streets when the government tries to cut spending. In the USA and Australia we protest and hold rallies when the government won't cut spending (on schools, hospitals, public transport).

The next election in the United States will see a government elected which will severely cut socially beneficial spending, thus hurting the very people who voted for it, much to their own delight. No wonder politicians treat the electorate like they're a bunch of morons.

The Drum

2011-08-24T15:56:00.003+10:00

This is absolutely superb. Unlike me, Tim can keep his vitriol under control long enough to get to the point. The entire thing is a thing of beauty, but this really spoke to me:

Well, I'm past giving a sh*t. Your electricity bill is going up? Don't live in a McMansion with six bedrooms, a rumpus room and a home theatre. Bananas expensive? Buy an apple. Soy-milk Chai latte not flavourful enough? Give yourself an uppercut.

Nail. Head. He's hit it. Well done sir!

The world needs more boredom

2011-08-23T12:47:00.003+10:00

A thought provoking piece from Scott Adams, author of Dilbert, "The Heady Thrill of Having Nothing to Do".

Fed up

2011-08-22T14:35:00.002+10:00

I watched "The Lightbulb Conspiracy" yesterday, well most of it anyway, I'll finish watching it another time. Combine that with #honkhonk, or if you prefer the "convoy of no confidence", London riots, famine in Africa (again/still), Tea Party, blah blah fucking blah.

I'm sick of it. There seems to be no logical conclusion other than the human race is too fucking stupid to continue and hence will continue squabbling right up until the place is proper fucked. After which time there will presumably be a period of finger pointing, accusations and blame, followed by a mass extinction, at which point the universe will heave a metaphorical sigh of relief, chalk us up to experience and get on with things.

Greed, self interest (tragedy of the commons), vested interests, crackpot one world government idiots. I think we're seeing what happens when the deeply ingrained cultural belief in infinite growth bumps into the physical constraints of a finite planet, and it's not pretty.

Tantrums on the streets of London.

2011-08-12T14:56:00.003+10:00

The G20 protestors I can sort of get behind (to a point). Kick in a few investment bank windows, trash a McDonalds (stretching things a bit now), at least you're making a point. Sort of. Pretty poorly, but nevertheless I can see what you're trying to say and I even agree a bit, though I don't think your methods are the best.

But the "5 finger discount" on a scale that beggars belief? Nope. No sympathy from me. These people aren't taking a stand or making a point other than "We are spoiled, useless turds who are here to cause destruction and get what we can, while we can."

A case in point:

"GIRL 1: It's the government's fault.
Girl 2: I know.
Girl 1: I dunno.
Girl 2: Conservatives!
Girl 1: Yeah, whatever who it is. I dunno.
Girl 2: It's not even a riot. It's showing the people we can do what we want.
Girl 1: Yeah, that's what it's all about, showing the police we can do what we want, and now we have.
Reporter: So do you reckon it will go on tonight?
Girl 2: Yeah hopefully, I want a few more things.
Girl 1: Innit?"

The only people making a stand are the poor pricks who live in the trashed neighbourhoods and have occasionally been able to fend off groups of these marauding wastes of space.

It's a mystery why it has been allowed to carry on for so long, perhaps to leverage more state sanctioned erosion of civil rights after the fact? More CCTV? (Highly intrusive and Orwellian with the further disadvantage that it's no deterrent and only mildly useful after the fact for legal retribution - horse gone, shutting gate anyway). Or is the British bureaucracy really so tied up in red tape? The police should have been off the leash, batons swinging through a miasma of tear gas and water canon all through the second night. That likely would have been the end of it, once things are too hard (e.g business owners and patrons fighting back), Gen [wh]Y soon loses interest. Night one could be considered freedom of expression, or a poor response, and so let it be, everyone deserves a second chance, but after that all bets are off.

It would be an entirely different situation if they actually had a cause, other than "it's fun [to smash stuff]" or "I want free stuff". But they don't, so fuck 'em.

But..But, it's different here!

2011-08-10T08:47:00.003+10:00

Nope, no it isn't. If you'd managed to drag yourself away from your plasma TV and the latest episode of Masterchef, you might have heeded the warnings.

"Secretly broke in Australia".

"DAVID: Oh it has – it has taken its toll but you’ve just got to do it."

Excuse me? Show me the mark on the side of your head where someone held a gun there and made you live beyond your means. There is a sense of entitlement permeating the first world (nowhere evidenced more clearly than the London riots). "You deserve it!" we are constantly told.

Can't afford to save up for a deposit on a house (no longer a place to live, but a step on the rung of the property ladder!), no problems, have a loan you can't hope to repay anyway. The government backs it you know, so if too many of you morons can't repay us, and the price of your McMansion crashes back to reality because you bought during a speculative asset bubble so we, the Systemically Important Financial Institution, lose real money, taxpayers who lived within their means and selfishly saved money instead of stimulating the economy by buying endless piles of shit they don't need on credit they can't repay, will bail us out!

You'll still be out on your arse (it was a legally binding contract after all), but the Systemically Important Financial Institution will be OK. And remember, in our society it's only growth, profits, the corporation and it's shareholders that matter.

Headless chickens

2011-08-05T09:25:00.004+10:00

The market watchers and news readers are in a flap this morning. The sky is falling! Markets are plummeting! The USA is going to have a double dip recession! Oh woe!

Guess what? It's just a continuation of the recession they're in, not a double dip. The "recovery" was fueled by debt (public and private). The massive bubble and subsequent near collapse in late 2007/early 2008 which preceded the "recovery" was fueled by... Debt! (Mostly private - subprime).

Euro Zone "crisis"? Debt (public and private). Euro bailouts? More debt (public).

Is anyone actually awake out there? When one has a debt problem, very rarely is more debt the solution. It's like giving an alcoholic a job in a brewery.

It all comes back to the flawed foundation upon which our modern society is built - never ending growth. Failure to grow is considered a calamity of nearly incomprehensible proportions, thus growth, however it is achieved (debt) and whatever the price (quality of life, environment, future generations, capacity to repay debt) must happen!

Shouldn't economists embrace a stockmarket crash? After all, it is about the only realistic opportunity for growth they have to look forward to.

Do the Math!

2011-08-03T12:18:00.003+10:00

Forgive the Americanism, but it is a US author after all. Do the Math is a very interesting blog which I've just discovered. I'm pretty bad at maths, but I love it because you can't argue with the results.

Here's something to get you started: Galactic-Scale Energy.

Moscow 80

2011-08-01T12:02:00.005+10:00

So, sadly my Indi Hawk broke after only a couple of months commuting:

I really enjoyed riding it, it was very comfortable (if a bit slow compared to my green Shogun). A mate, knowing that I'm a bike tragic, saved a bike from the heave-ho for me when he was visiting a relative a couple of weeks ago. All he knew was that it was a Malvern Star and old. That covers a lot of ground, so I had to wait and see.

It's not a high quality frame, but it does have a certain cool factor (to a bike tragic), being a Moscow 80:

Another sticker on the bike proudly proclaims "Official supplier of bicycles to the Olympic cycling team". Cool!

I just quickly washed it off and lubed the cables for now. It needs the bottom bracket and headset doing as well, and the rear wheel barely turns over but I'll probably fit the alloy wheels I was using on the Indi Hawk. Also at least I've got a home for the tan Selle Italia Turbo I bought for the Indi Hawk (but it broke before I could fit it!)

I was going to ride it to work this morning, but I was running late and the levers and seat could use some adjustment.

Kevin Slavin: How algorithms shape our world | Video on TED.com

2011-07-27T14:54:00.001+10:00

Kevin Slavin: How algorithms shape our world | Video on TED.com

Hmm. Am I the only one who is feeling slightly uneasy after watching this?

Limits to growth.

2011-07-27T11:57:00.003+10:00

I just read an interesting piece by Jeremy Grantham. He's relatively optimistic for the future, with some very important caveats.

Agenda 21 zombies and other "One World government" conspiracy theorists need not apply, but for everyone else (Gerry, I'm looking at you, you could use some cheering up), I recommend reading the article.

Part 1 of Jeremy Grantham's 2Q 2011 letter.

Euro debt.

2011-07-22T08:50:00.000+10:00

Classic.

New bike fever!

2011-07-18T09:16:00.006+10:00

The Friday before last (so that'd be 8/7/11) I finally completed the purchase of a replacement for the venerable 1985 Honda VT250. It was a bit of a task for various reasons, but in the end it actually went remarkably well. The main complications were because it was encumbered by a financial interest. I've never bought a second hand vehicle through private sale that was still under finance, but by going slowly and making damn sure all the "i"'s were dotted and "t"'s crossed it seems unlikely that a repo man is going to show up unexpectedly at my door looking for the bike.

So here it is:

To be sure, it ain't going to win any beauty contests, but that's not why I bought it. The VT's fork seals are blown and I couldn't be bothered replacing them. That, and the fact that a greenslip for the 250cc VT runs to close to $400 put me right off. The greenslip categories have recently changed and the bracket the VT is in now runs from 226cc-775cc so I may as well have a Yamaha R7 (I wish) than the VT250. I opted to beat the system by getting the 223cc Scorpio for which a greenslip cost me $129.

I actually like the utilitarian nature of this bike. It's simple, useful, cheap and cheerful fun. The look reminds me of 1980's commuter bikes.

The performance is truly remarkable. With a claimed wet weight (oil and fuel) of 131kg I found it hard to wipe the smile off my dial when riding it. It felt like a 13kW bicycle, light, nimble and very responsive. I soon figured out that the responsiveness is a bit of a cheat - Yamaha have used the old 1/4 turn quick action throttle trick, but even so, it's quite nippy.

Fuel consumption (another reason the VT250 has fallen out of favour) was off a lot from what I was expecting. I was figuring on about 30km per litre but so far it's returned much less than that. Of course the highway use would account for some of that, but even though it only had 4300km on the clock when I picked it up, the spark plug was looking a bit tired. In fact the gap was almost 0.9mm instead of the 0.6-0.7mm it should be. The centre electrode was ever so slightly rounded off so, being lazy I just bought a new one. I suspect that will take care of the fuel consumption issues, though it might be a while before I know due to the incredible lack of use.

I'd read on Kiwibiker while researching the buy that they'll do 100+kph which I thought quite impressive for such a small engine, and I wasn't disappointed on the hilly ride home with some buffeting winds thrown in for good measure. There is a notoriously steep range early on and on the first hill I shifted back to 4th just near the top, while I opted to be proactive and shift back at the bottom of the second hill and climbed it at 90kph easily. I didn't downshift again until I got into town.

100kph equals 6,500rpm which I think is about 3,00rpm off the redline. To my surprise it maintained this pace without full throttle and there was more if you wanted it. I had it up to 110kph comfortably, but really, what's the point? I've read that they'll do 120+ and I don't doubt it (though we could be into chin on the tank territory there), but I don't relish forking over my money to the government in speeding fines so I find it simpler all round to just play by their rules.

I'd forgotten how much wind you cop on a naked bike though! I adopted a semi-aerodynamic crouch as much for my own sake as for the small engine. My last naked bike was the Centennial Edition Triumph T100 Bonneville, and you catch just as much breeze on the 223cc Scorpio as I did on the 790cc Bonnie. Although I didn't buy it for highway use (it's for quick errands around town, and riding to work in the rain so I estimate it'll see less than 1000km per year), I think I'll fit some clubman bars and a small headlight mounted windscreen.

Who knows, maybe I can get a leave pass to ride it to the Unaugural (I already have one "Hard luck" award and don't wish to add to it though) next year. A man can dream can't he?!

Headline brought forward

2011-07-13T08:09:00.003+10:00

Following the recent announcement of a carbon tax by the federal Labour (I refuse to drop the u) government, here is a typical newspaper headline brought forward from just after the next federal election in 2013:

Labor decimated in Coalition landslide!

Come to that, it could probably be post any state election too.

Then again, voters are a notoriously fickle bunch and John "The GST is dead" Howard introduced a 10% GST early enough that all was forgiven (no doubt helped by cheaper TV sets) in plenty of time.

Buy with your heart, pay with debt.

2011-06-28T08:54:00.003+10:00

Reading Garth Turner's blog this morning, a thought occurred to me, people's approach to house prices is the opposite of what it should be. As the price increases, and thus becomes more unaffordable, it makes people want the item more.

Take bananas. They used to float around $3-$5 a kilo, then some stuff happened which Australia's anti-competitive supermarket oligopoly used as an excuse to jack prices to $13 per kilo. Instead of making me want bananas more, I just walk on by. There's a threshold where I consider something's no longer value for money, and no matter how much I wanted it to start with, I'll do without.

Same thing should go for houses. When I was house hunting at the turn of the century (there's a phrase you don't get to use very often), I found a house I was quite partial to but it was too much. Offers and counter offers were made but it finally stalled, I think $5k was the difference between what I was prepared to pay and what they were prepared to accept. I did the only sensible thing and walked away.

I wouldn't even entertain the idea of buying a house in the present market. The prices are grossly inflated and continually spruiked by some vocal real estate agents despite all the evidence. They even published some figures in the paper last week, ostensibly to show that the market was slowing but still strong when the actual figures showed that year on year volume was down but prices were up, a classic sign of a bubble.

Here's a quote from Garth

To prove it, here’s Charles, who make this blog comment while I was typing this:

I start reading this blog 2.5 years ago. Since then the house I wanted went up 30%. So in the event of an unlikely 20% price down, I would be still 10% up. Houses are still selling and I am behind this computer, outpriced. Time to accept things did not go the way you predicted.

See what I mean? This is Nortel all over again. It’s Bre-X. It’s LinkedIn.

Face it, most people have no patience, no insight and no discipline. They believe, at worst, house prices will dip a little, then resume an upward advance. Even though we live beside a country when 30% of citizens are underwater, house prices basically halved in five years and $5 trillion in equity vanished – a country just like ours – they learn nothing. A house they thought was too expensive for them 30% ago, now looks like a dish.

[My emphasis]

It's crazy but true.

It's all just a little bit of history repeating...

2011-06-23T08:54:00.004+10:00

Climate change and a proposed carbon tax are the hot topics in the media in Australia at the moment. Frankly I think a carbon tax is a ludicrous proposal, destined only to transfer large quantities of money from one group (plebs like myself) to another (first corporations, then gumbymint, then probably back to corporations again).

It got me thinking about human nature. It seems reasonably likely that unusual changes are happening in the climate, just ask the residents of Tuvalu, or go look at some glaciers that are rapidly retreating. Heck, even the Northwest Passage might give the Panama Canal some competition, albeit in 30 years time, and if the Greenland ice sheet slides into the ocean and stops the thermohaline flow people are definitely going to notice.

However this isn't about whether climate change is occurring or not. For the sake of the argument, lets agree that it is. Naturally this opens another can of worms - is it anthropogenic or part of a normal cycle. I'd argue that it doesn't matter, and here's why.

If it is anthropogenic, then it's been caused by over 200 years of industrialization. The notion that the effects of more than 200 years of such activity can be mitigated, slowed, or even reversed in any meaningful human timeframe (i.e. 20-50 years) seems quite unlikely to me.

If it's not anthropogenic, then surely there's nothing we can do about it anyway.

I think we are operating under the illusion that humans are in charge of their environment totally. We'll build dams to tame the rivers and floods will be a thing of the past! (except they aren't, but never mind) We can't prevent or predict earthquakes, but by god, we can measure them and issue tsunami warnings! Too hot? Turn on the air conditioning!

So if there's a problem, we can fix it! Or at the very least we must be seen to be doing something about it. Indeed that may be the most important action of all, particularly if you're a politician.

But climate isn't something which can be switched on and off like a light. It performs a slow, graceful waltz with its environmental partners, including humans, and we have little choice but to follow its lead.

This doesn't mean I don't think things need to change, far from it. The destructive patterns of consumption which are passively and actively promoted simply can't continue. I suppose if, for example, someone keeps their two year old, fully functioning mobile phone for another couple of years rather than buying a new one at the first opportunity, and they do it because they think it'll help with climate change then it's probably not a bad thing.

Reading "The Collapse of Complex Societies" (heavy going but well worth the effort), I came across a thought provoking quote (pg44):

Cyprian could be writing about today, rather than 1,700 years ago. Of course modern analysis has, or at least believes it has, much more and accurate data to work with. So depending on your viewpoint, things are nowhere near as bad as we think, or they are precisely as bad as we think.

Endings, beginnings.

2011-06-20T11:47:00.003+10:00

It's oft quipped that "The stone age didn't end because they ran out of stones". The inference being that, run out of oil or not, our grand technological age won't end. To that I would reply that the Roman Empire didn't collapse because they ran out of Romans.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

2011-06-15T14:19:00.003+10:00

Reading things like Population and misanthropy makes me sad and angry at the same time. The line

Of course there is a physical limit to coal or oil. But we'll never reach it.

particularly sticks in my craw as especially ignorant and stupid since the inference is that "technology" of some sort will replace coal and oil. This sort of optimism merely serves to highlight ignorance of just how much energy is contained in crude oil.

Vested interests, principally big business (of which the media is one), are manipulating popular opinion - mainly through the media, such that people are actively supporting ideas which are in some way or another detrimental or harmful to themselves, the planet, someone else etc.

The Tea Party is a case in point. Medicare, they gasp, abolish it, apparently oblivious of the benefits that it might have for them in the future. Ah, but it smacks of...socialism! Oh the horror!

Reading things like Letter to Sarah: the Australian producers' plight make me feel the same way but for different reasons. The same blissfully ignorant, glib attitudes that brought you "Of course there is a physical limit to coal or oil. But we'll never reach it." will argue that this type of "competition" is good for everyone and that we shouldn't prop up unprofitable producers (despite introducing the very conditions which have rendered them unprofitable) or that we'll just buy food.

Gerry believes we can change the system and he rails against it. Good for you I say! Though I don't share his optimism, I nonetheless wish him all the best. Gerry has been chewed up by the system and spat out like a spent cartridge casing from his 30 calibre machine gun, but in spite of, or perhaps because of that he hopes for and believes in change for the better.

The world needs more people with Gerry's optimism, after all the law of averages says they've gotta be right eventually.

So what is the alternative? Don't ask me, this blog is for whining, not providing answers. We won't all start living The Good Life though I suppose it couldn't hurt.

Then again, it might not be as bad as it seems.

"Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book." -- Marcus Tullius Cicero

Over a barrel

2011-05-18T07:53:00.003+10:00

As I type this, the Australian dollar is trading at $1.06 US and west Texas crude closed at $97.37 US dollars (Tapis crude, upon which Australian fuel prices are based was $119.33 US). I passed a petrol station on my way to work where the price for a litre of watered down unleaded petrol was $1.45. I say watered down, because it is diluted with 10% ethanol. Since ethanol contains less energy than gasoline it makes little or no sense to dilute one with the other unless you like throwing money away. Ethanol production has also been proven to be a net energy loser.

However, I digress (ethanol production for fuel use "bio" (misnomer!) fuel if you prefer and ethanol blended gasoline are pet hates of mine). The point, such as it is, is that in the past, when west Texas crude reached the dizzying heights of $140 US per barrel and the Australian dollar was well below parity, consumers (in other words pretty much every adult) were paying the same at the bowser as they are now. All the arguments for high prices then would indicate that we should expect low prices now, however the media has remained mute.

Obviously, even in an oil importing nation such as Australia the oil companies are making obscene profits at a time like this. Now don't get me wrong, it's the role of a corporation to make money for it's shareholders and very little else, but come on! There's a difference between making a profit and outright price gouging.

Still, perhaps we largely have ourselves to blame, after all, the entire world is over a barrel (of light sweet crude). Are consumers entitled to cheap energy? Probably not, but I would argue that we might be entitled to affordable energy. Though in a world where apparently a couple earning a combined income of $200,000 honestly believe they are entitled to government subsidies, perhaps I'm just out of touch.

The Allardyces both work full-time and together earn about $200,000 a year. That makes the Dutch-born working mum rich according the federal government. She doesn't feel that way.

Dear Ms Allardyce,

The federal government is (for a change) right, you are wrong.

Kind regards,
Normal Australians.
P.S. Sorry the tax system rewards speculation, debt and risk and punishes saving. Sorry you felt that it was necessary to take on gargantuan amounts of debt to show everyone that you've "made it" or whatever it was, but that's not our problem. Live within your means and be content. Hugs! Normal Australians.

Care factor?

2011-05-03T08:00:00.004+10:00

So yesterday Osama Bin Laden was killed. So what? My care factor is pretty close to zero. Sure, if the claims made about him and by him are to believed then he was a real dirtbag with very little to no value as a human being even, but ultimately what difference does it make?

None at all.

The US agencies have one less boogeyman with which to scare their apathetic or befuddled populace, but even that's not an issue. Long ago they moved from Osama Bin Laden is the devil to Al-Qaeda is the new red under the bed. They're no amateurs at maintaining control through fear. Never forget than in the 1980's Osama Bin Laden and his chums were the USA's greatest ally in the fight against communism - the CIA trained and equipped them in no insignificant way.

These morons (Al-Qaeda, not the US) aren't going to pack up and go home just because one of their more famous morons got killed. They'll go on brainwashing kids to strap on suicide vests ("Oh sure, you know heaven is just great for martyrs and everything but I need to stay safely here and, ah, train more ~~idiots~~, I mean heroes like you. Say "Hi" to Allah for me.") and doing all the other backwards, 12th century, misogynistic shit they always do.

As for all the footage of flag waving, cheering crowds in the streets? Classy. Maybe they should declare an annual public holiday (actually, I could get behind that, I love time off work.) I'm not remotely sad he's dead, but it's pretty much a symbolic killing (unless you happen to be Osama Bin Laden I suppose, in which case it's probably a bit more significant than that, but it's not like you didn't get what you deserved).

The civil rights and freedoms shamefully, willfully, relinquished by the citizens of the western world to their governments, as we sleepwalk into a surveillance society in the name of security, will be the lasting reminder, second only to the innocent lives lost on September 11 2001, of the handiwork of this despicable lowlife.

I can't help but wonder; were it not for the indoctrination of children from birth with various superstitions, the insatiable thirst of the industrialised world for crude oil and the particular geographic location of said oil, how different the world might be.

Got nuclear power?

2011-04-19T08:23:00.003+10:00

The ongoing disaster in Fukushima Daiichi plods along, and probably has many years to go. But in cynical news reporting terms, it's old news. The world outside of Japan has lost interest (well maybe not some of Japan's neighbours goverments, but you know what I mean).

Here's a little video that some crazy people took. They travel up to 1.5 km from the soon-to-be radioactive wasteland that is the Fukushima Daiichi Plant.

I'm sure those levels are all terribly "low" and "safe" but wild horses wouldn't drag me anywhere near that stuff.

Bicycle cycle.

2011-04-05T10:12:00.003+10:00

Yesterday I watched this video, Bicycles Can Change the World, One Life at a Time linked from Dave Moulton's Bike Blog. It's a bit smug (that might just be how it's shot and edited), but there's no denying that what the people involved are doing is a good thing.

It got me thinking though. When you've got no personal transport, apart from your feet, a bicycle looks pretty damn good. Then, as your personal wealth grows, you might get some form of motorised transport like a small motorcycle or scooter. Add a bit more income and maybe a car becomes obtainable, then pretty soon you're calling up moron talkback radio shock jocks to bitch about the freeloaders on bicycles clogging up "your" roads.

This growth can clearly be seen in countries like China (not sure about the talkback radio part, though I'm sure there's a cultural equivalent). But the most obvious downside to this is that within the space of a generation or less, the bicycle shifts from being a practical form of transport to a symbol of poverty. Develop a country far enough along and it can become viewed as nothing more than a kids toy.

It's a shame, but it seems to be human nature to pile all this emotional baggage on "stuff". To paraphrase Bike Snob NYC, I have both a bicycle and a car at my disposal, and I choose one for local trips, and the other to take my family to visit relatives in another town. (You can probably figure out which I use for which). Why can't we all just get along?

Australia's negative gearing madness.

2011-03-31T09:45:00.002+11:00

Negative gearing has never made sense to me. At one point I inadvertently became a landlord though it was never my desire. I held onto the house hoping to one day move back in.

As I kept paying the mortgage down, a problem developed - I began to receive PAYG tax installment notices from the ATO. Essentially, there was not enough debt, and hence not enough money being lost through interest repayments. Flabbergasted, I consulted an accountant who essentially advised that the simplest method to avoid the tax penalties would be to purchase another property to offset any gains from the first.

WTF? So I should go deeper into debt and lose money for tax benefits? I sold the property post haste to a greater fool. But the notion that losing money for tax benefits is actively encouraged while reducing debt and saving is punished stunned me and continues to do so.

Yesterday in the Sydney Morning Herald, economist Saul Eastlake published a brilliant op ed piece which sums it all up nicely. Imagine a tax system that penalised work.

Strike!

2011-03-29T15:30:00.003+11:00

Even Canada has noticed that Australia is in the midst of an epic housing bubble. I can't hold a candle to this guy, so go read what Garth Turner has to say.

Or, to go direct to the non humourous (but still worthy) Prosper site:

Mountain bikes.

2011-03-24T08:12:00.009+11:00

It's different racing mountain bikes. For one thing, they give away beer instead of trophies. I think that's a fact they could probably stand to promote a bit.

Last Saturday, myself and another ~~sucker~~ mate headed off to a fund raising ride for a rescue helicopter service. I'd assumed it was a fun kind of ride until a couple of days beforehand when they sent us a booklet with words like "race" and "prize money". The main piece of information I really could have done without was the elevation profile:

For some reason the start of the profile doesn't correspond with the start of the course, and don't ask me why it's in miles and feet, but the profile is that of the course. If you know what I mean. Whatever, there were some bloody snotty hills in there and I soon realised that my gearing was too high.

I'm a "budget" kind of chap so I'm usually content to run whatever I've scrounged together. In future I will get myself a lower low gear though. It wasn't really that bad since the rain made the mud so slick it was a challenge just walking up a couple of the hills, but I'll make the change anyway.

I have a MTB, it was given to me by someone who was leaving town and couldn't be bothered taking it with them. For the amount of mountain biking I do, it's perfectly adequate, even though it's quite crappy. I'd planned to rattle can it matt black before the event to hide my shame, but a friend was cleaning out his shed and offered me a late '90's GT Outpost Trail mountain bike. I snapped it up as it was lightly used and perfect for my needs despite the missing crank, rear derailleur and forks.

Long story short - after spending about the same as the purchase price of a new Giant Boulder 2 I have a heavy steel framed MTB from the late 90's. But screw it, it was free!

Did I mention that it was raining, slippery and muddy?

They called it off after about 4 hours (it was a 6 hour relay enduro). I'd done 2 laps, my teammate 1. We didn't complain.

Fukushima Daiichi Redux

2011-03-23T11:17:00.003+11:00

Firstly, once again donning my internet nuclear expert hat; radioactive half life put simply. Let's say a radioactive isotope will render you lifeless after one hour of exposure. If that same isotope has a half life of 30 years, that means that after 30 years it takes 2 hours to kill you. After 60 years, 3 hours and so on. A half life gives you lots of bang for your buck.

That's a pretty crass explanation which ignores exposure levels but basically the half life is a measure of the time until the radioactive element is half of it's original potency. It approaches, but never actually reaches zero.

In the comments section on the Cluborlov thread I found something which I have been wanting to see ever since the shit hit the fan over there at Fukushima Daiichi. It's a link to a French website, Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) showing a report they have done which includes atmospheric modeling of the dispersion of radioactive material released from the stricken reactors.

Here is a link to the report in English. I'd encourage anyone remotely concerned to download and read it. There's several models, probably the most interesting modeling was applied to cesium-137, a particularly delightful little isotope.

Now before all you survivalist types go dosing up on iodine tables, keep in mind that too much iodine is bad for you too. Actually the modeling shows that the exposure to iodine-131 is mostly pretty low. Aside from that, probably the only "good" news from the report is this:

"As expected, the southern hemisphere is not significantly affected by this large-scale dispersion."

Which is, I presume, why Australia is pretty much absent from the map!

Fukushima Daiichi

2011-03-22T12:02:00.005+11:00

Drafted a post earlier but it was turning out crap, so just go read what Dmitry Orlov has to say over on ClubOrlov (one thing he's wrong about though - there won't be a nuclear explosion no matter what happens. It's simply not that easy to split the atom, just ask Iran.) In short, unknown quantities of fuel rods, both "spent"* and within the core have been exposed to the atmosphere ensuring that large quantities of radiation and no doubt at least some radioactive material has been released.

Precisely what, where and when are yet to be determined. Certainly nothing good and the euphemistic comparisons to CT scans, X-rays and long distance flights are nothing less than fantasy.

I'll join the swollen ranks of internet nuclear experts and say that while Chernobyl it isn't (that was a full-on core meltdown where a massive hydrogen explosion blew the lid off the reactor (no containment vessel) and spread parts of the now molten, but still highly radioactive core far and wide, pretty much an accidental dirty bomb), it's still got a lot of very nasty potential. In fact, it's already been very, very nasty and only time will tell precisely how nasty.

If all that's getting you down, you may rely on The Onion to cheer you up: Nuclear Energy Advocates Insist U.S. Reactors Completely Safe Unless Something Bad Happens.

Here is some great reading about Understanding Nuclear Power and Propaganda: A Simple Guide

* A "spent" fuel nuclear fuel rod is not, as we may imagine, like a used AA battery. It's still got plenty of radioactivity to give, whether you want it or not.

Time.

2011-03-10T11:02:00.003+11:00

If you are a disciple of eternal growth, believe that property prices only ever go up, fear that you should buy now or be priced out forever(!), it's different here, or any of the other ludicrous bullshit that's peddled then you might be in for an unpleasant surprise. If the mainstream media are talking about it, then it's probably already too late, but you should try to get out all the same.

I'm talking about the over leveraged, "the inconceivably huge amount of debt I'm carrying doesn't matter because the "asset" (formerly known as a place to live) I've "invested" in only goes up so I can just sell it" crowd. First, an investment pays you to own it, not the other way around. Houses cost money to own - land rates, maintenance, agents fees, strata fees for units, etc etc. Real investments don't have ongoing costs, the money comes to you, you don't keep contributing money to your investment.

Houses are a place to live out of the weather, not an investment vehicle. You buy it to live in and raise a family, hide a clandestine drug lab, house your 38 cats or whatever it may be. Live in it, cook up your drugs, fend off your hungry pack of cats when you've fallen and can't get up, and if, when it comes time to move on (or the cats win) you sell it for more than you bought it for, bully for you! If you construct an economy based on the expectation that over a short period you can buy a house and then quickly "flip" it for a tidy profit (and furthermore hinge the servicing of your debt on this assumption) then it gets ugly.

That's where we've been for a while, despite constant (false) cries of "undersupply", population growth (a whole different problem) and so on. But when you see stories like this: Sydney Morning Herald: House prices on shaky foundations, this:Australian Financial Review: Gold Coast sinking in units glut (sorry you have to sign up to read it, but here's the gist of itMacrobusiness: Gold coast leaps into freefall) and this: ABC: Gold Coast may face luxury apartment glut then you may be assured that the writing is on the wall.

A particularly salient quote from the Sydney Morning Herald:

"Consider this: In 1994, average annual earnings for Australians were $28,080. In 2010, average annual earnings were $50,824. That is an increase of 80 per cent.

If people spent the same proportion of their income on their home in 2010 as they did in 1994, that would have resulted in an 80 per cent increase in house prices (subject to other factors being equal, such as number of people working in each household).

However, in 1994, the median property price was $148,800; in 2010, RP Data found that the median property price was about $450,000. That is an increase of more than 200 per cent.

Had property prices increased at the same level as wages, the median house price in Australia would be $267,000 – 41 per cent lower than they are. By contrast, had house prices simply tracked the consumer price index, using 1994 as a base, house prices should be $230,640 – or about 49 per cent lower than their current price."

If that's not enough to convince you how about this: The Daily Telegraph: Auction rates fudged by failed campaigns.

Don't get me wrong, the long term trend for house prices is upwards but the key words here are long term trend. Long as in decades. Not many flippers can wait that long.

Over the long term there's spikes and dips. The trouble starts when you're climbing a spike like we've been climbing for the past 10 years or so with the expectation that interest rates always remain low and prices only ever increase. When this all blows over, used car salesmen will be trusted advisors compared with real estate agents.

Racist discrimination

2011-03-09T07:58:00.002+11:00

A glaring example of racist discrimination in Adelaide: ABC News: Yuendumu group asked to leave Adelaide park. Sad.

If that was my family and friends we would have been given the boot by Council Rangers, or, if that failed, the Police, in short order.

Interesting times...

2011-02-24T09:46:00.005+11:00

We live in interesting times, there can be little doubt. Property "values" march ever upwards (they only ever go up, buy now or be priced out forever, just ask anyone in Ireland), unrest in some key oil producing nations has already pushed the speculative price of oil back over $100US per barrel (repeat of the 2007/2008 sub prime crash anyone?), it hovers there even as I type this, and in what little of the TV and radio news I caught last night, in the wake of the New Zealand earthquake economists were bemoaning the effect this would have on the economy (New Zealand's presumably).

Seriously? Is this what the "advanced" nations have become? A city gets pancaked by an earthquake, untold numbers of people killed and injured and people are talking about the fucking ECONOMY?! Jesus (if he existed (not likely BTW)) wept!

Dr David Suzuki was on ABC Tv's Can We Help? the other day when I surfed onto it and he hit the nail on the head:

Do you think it is possible to develop an action plan to ensure the stability of the planet with targets and outcomes, what would it involve? Andy Beattie, via facebook

I definitely think we have to try but I think a lot of environmentalists, greens think ‘oh if we all carry our own cloth bag, if we change all our light bulbs and all drive a Prius then we’ll all be able to carry on as usual’ but I’m afraid that’s not the case. If you think that we can continue to live by being more efficient and everything we can still have an iphone5 and an iphone6 and an ipad2 and an ipad3 and the next toy or a playbox, or whatever the hell they’re called, forget it. We are at a level now where so much of our economic productivity has to do with toys that have nothing to do with keeping us alive or quality of life. We’ve got to radically reduce our consumption, we’ve got to turn towards greater interaction with other human beings, the things what we do together that will make our lives rich. It’s not about stuff. What we have to do is to dream of a world that might be possible. How about a world where you could drink the water out of any river or lake which is what it was like in Canada when I was a boy. How about a world covered in forests and we can log them forever because we’re doing it the right way. A world in which cancer and asthma rates plummet because we’re no longer using air, water and soil to pour our toxic chemicals. An industry where there’s no waste because we design industrial cycles to mimic nature where one organisms waste is another organism’s opportunity. I think we have to design or look ahead and dream of a future and then we get on with making it happen.

The illusion of infinite growth against a finite resource (earth) drives the first world. Read an interesting article the other day on Japan, the worlds first post growth economy.

"As far as economists are concerned, this is a tragedy and a disaster. How the mighty have fallen. Japan’s GDP is essentially unchanged since the early nineties, its share of global GDP falling from 17 to just 4%. China overtook it last year to become the world’s second largest economy, and now it limps along as a economic failed state, a cautionary tale for students of capitalism.

And yet, the lights are still on, everything still works. Literacy is high, and crime is low. Life expectancy is better than almost anywhere on earth – 82 years to the US’ 78. The trains run to the second. Unemployment is only 5%, and levels of inequality are enviable. Real per capita income growth matches America’s at 0.7% over the past decade. It’s hardly a basket case. In fact, it is living proof that growth isn’t necessary to deliver a high standard of living."

I'm pretty sure I don't actually get more curmudgeonly each day, it only appears that way.

Attempted green thumbery.

2010-11-26T11:39:00.007+11:00

A while back (last week?) I was eating a "Pink Lady" apple when I bit into the core. I noticed that the seeds had begun to sprout inside the apple. Holy crap! How long was that in cold storage?! Anyway, it still tasted fine but I kept the seeds to see if I could grow them and so far so good:

If they survive long enough I'll transfer them to pots and eventually into the ground. At least I hope so. I bought a horrendously expensive "Pinkabelle" dwarf Pink Lady apple tree that bears full size fruit a while back, and it's got 5 apples on it, but they've got a bit of growing to do.

I impulse bought some corn seedlings and a tomato plant while grocery shopping ages back. The tomato is going great guns:

But unfortunately for the corn, events overtook me and it was quite a while before I got around to planting them. I think they spent far too long in their little seedling punnet as their roots were entangled. Also the soil around here is horrible clay so I ended up digging a bag of potting mix in. They probably would have been better off in pots with potting mix, but anyway this is my first attempt.

The leaves were showing signs of nitrogen hunger so I put some lawn fertilizer around the base of the plants which definitely helped. Then I noticed they were getting shaded in the middle of the day (might still have a bit of work to do there looking at that picture) and now it looks as though they're getting eaten by slugs and snails.

They've had a rough start, but I think at least 50% of them should survive. This is all a far cry from the veggie garden I want; one with beans, snow peas, broccoli, cucumbers and zucchini, but since I'm notoriously bad at caring for plants I'm pretty satisfied thus far.

Housing bubble - not with a bang but a whimper.

2010-11-22T11:58:00.004+11:00

Today's lazy blog post is brought to you by Garth Turner, author of the Greater Fool blog up there in Canada.

I unapologetically (and without permission) copy and pasted a significant chunk of his post because it pretty much sums up what I think is a very likely outcome for the end of the housing bubble in Australia. Not with a bang (as in the USA) but with a whimper (thank you T.S Eliot).

The "house prices only ever go up" speculative investors, like everyone else in the world, will expect a taxpayer funded government bailout when it all goes tits up, 'cause, like, you know, it's all someone else's fault. Presumably the government is aware of this and would seem, in conjunction with the Reserve Bank of Australia to be doing everything in it's power to gently deflate this bubble. If it went "pop" then what happened in the USA would probably be positively delightful compared with the shitstorm Australia would find itself in.

I think the nicest thing is that the arguments for why Canada won't have a speculative housing asset bubble collapse, as well as the arguments for why it will, are exactly the same arguments trotted out in Australia.

"The prof’s point, argued well, is that no US-style housing collapse will befall Canada. He credits our system of banking, mortgage insurance and lending practices, as well as pointing out cultural differences and brushing off concerns about structural unemployment, house-bailing Boomers and an evaporating middle class. His positives include immigration, state manipulation of the housing market and affordable houses while be downplays higher mortgage rates, saying a 2% jump would change nothing.

And maybe he’s right. Perhaps there will be no US-style collapse. Wouldn’t surprise me.

In fact, I’ve tried for more than a year to suggest there will instead be a Canadian-style housing mess. In this scenario, no wave of foreclosures forcing families, their dogs and couches onto front lawns as news crews film. No 40 to 70% decline in property values in key markets which soared (Vancouver, Calgary, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto). No ubiquitous negative equity wave submerging more than a quarter of all homeowners, turning their homes into illiquid prisons. And no financial system collapse thanks to greedy, myopic bankers who securitized the poop out of mortgage loans with no actual skin in the real estate game.

Having said that, Canadians have screwed up housing just as intensely as Americans. We inflated values bizarrely until average families could not afford average homes. We turned the need for shelter into house porn, and got all horny for granite C tops and S/S appliances. We allowed couples without money to buy houses. Our government wiped away lender risk and heaped it on the taxpayers. Our central bank brought in emergency teaser rates in a deliberate attempt to encourage profligate borrowing. We turned privately-owned housing from an earned reward into a universal entitlement. And in a time of recession and unemployment, we morphed boom into bubble.

As a consequence, we have more debt and social uncertainty than at any time in several generations. If the wind shifts badly, how are we to escape the fate which befell the US middle class?

So my scenario for a Canadian real estate mess remains pretty much as I have articulated it here over past months. A correction of 15%-20% in prices (depending on the market), followed by a multi-year melt which could shave off another 5% annually, amid slumping sales, a sagging economy, higher taxes, increasing rates and a jump in listings. In the end, by 2015, houses sell for far less.

It’s not apocalyptic. But it’s bad enough. Enough to wipe out the equity and immediate futures of tens of thousands of recent 5/35 buyers. Enough to turn real estate into a disastrous investment for anyone with the bulk of their net worth in it. Certainly enough to sink Boomers who listen to Mr. Lee and tank, up like Matthew and Gayle. Enough to make fools of those people who lined up to buy pre-built condos in Toronto towers or from the pneumatic MissyBunny in Cowtown. Enough for me to continue saying this is the time to exit real assets, embrace financial ones, and love liquidity.

Ian Lee demonstrated he has enough courage and concern to post here and defend his position. Ballsy. He personifies the mainstream belief houses constitute real wealth, are riskless and can only augment in price while being the best store of value. Most of your friends, colleagues and dodgy relatives (all of them, if you’re Italian) share this religion."

Sound familiar?

The hypocrisy of criticizing "fake" goods.

2010-10-27T08:50:00.003+11:00

I read an article this morning, well most of it anyway, I tuned out part way though because the hypocrisy cascading off the screen was threatening to wash my keyboard off the desk. It made me feel particularly bitter and cynical, so strap yourself in. But I digress, back to the article from Reuters; Special report: Faked in China: Inside the Pirate's web.

Setting aside for a moment the utter lunacy of even considering paying $1000 for a fucking bag (until a few years ago I happily didn't even know what a Louis Vuitton was, oh how I wish I could erase utterly useless information like that from my mind), the article, or at least as much of it as I could stomach, falls wide of the mark. How exactly is it that one bag, manufactured in China in conditions that would make Charles Dickens blush, and adorned with Louis Vuitton insignia, is a dirty, evil "fake", while another, otherwise indistinguishable bag, manufactured in China in conditions that may or may not be better than those under which the first bag was made, and adorned with Louis Vuitton insignia is "real"?

It's not as if Louis Vuitton Pty Ltd built a factory, well, anywhere, much less in China, to manufacture bags. If they had then they'd have a valid point and I might feel some sympathy, but I'm betting that the sweatshop they have contracted to make their dross does more than just turn out "real" Louis Vuitton bags. While the Louis Vuitton contract is probably very profitable to the factory owners, I doubt it's all they do. They probably make some useful things too. Here's hoping anyway.

Of course it can be argued that the stitching may not be as good, or the material inferior, but really and truly, so what? Provided you didn't pay Louis Vuitton "real" prices (in which case you are even more stupid than someone who buys a "genuine" bag and can thus feel rightly aggrieved), there's no harm done. What's that you say? But Louis Vuitton might just give up if their latest brilliant and eminently important variation on a hessian (burlap for you North Americans) sack with a strap attached is constantly copied and then the world would be deprived of their valuable contribution! Firstly, we can only hope, and secondly, it'll never happen because there's a sucker born every minute and morons will keep forking over money for status symbols while ever the sun shines.

The market for fake goods is driven by the same forces as that of the genuine article, however the consumer is either wisely unwilling, or simply unable to pay the price for the real deal. In the case of electronics, fakes are rampant but if you're forking over anything close to the retail price for, let's say, an "iPhone" to anyone other than a reputable retailer then you're an idiot and get what you deserve. I've seen fake iPod nano's (the old style ones, years back) and it was obvious they were fake - the screen didn't align exactly, the OS wasn't even remotely Apple and the "click wheel" didn't!

However, the price gave it away before the transaction was even completed, so the purchaser went in with their eyes open. It still represented a good deal because this is back in the days before every bloody thing morphed into an MP3 player and they were giving them away on street corners.

I'm not sure what the point of the Reuters article was (probably because I didn't read it all). Was it supposed to evoke sympathy for massive greedy corporations? Outrage at the Chinese for providing a virtually identical product for a fraction of the price, and since both the "fake" and "genuine" article are made in China why are we getting angry again? Like someone once said caveat emptor.

1983 Kuwahara Indi Hawk

2010-10-18T09:56:00.013+11:00

It's crazy how time flies lately, or perhaps it's just how little I seem to get done in any given block of time. Anyway, just over a month ago I was at the local tip shop, trolling as I always do for some kind of miraculous find. My fondest hope is that I'll find some masterpiece made of Reynolds 531 which I'll snap up for $10 or $15 dollars. Perhaps not surprisingly, so far I've turned up plenty of crap but no rolling masterpieces.

I did, however, spy a frame and fork resting by the gate with a sticker on the seat tube proclaiming it to be "Champion Kuwahara". I didn't really know much about Kuwahara, but the name rang a bell and it seemed exotic enough (turns out they shot to fame after supplying Elliot's BMX in "ET The Extraterrestrial") That, and the word "Tange" (respected Japanese manufacturer of bicycle frame tubing sets and other components) sealed the deal for me. $5 later and it was mine.

As you can see, the chrome is quite rusty, but I had no idea what a labour of love this would turn into.

I haven't found much, if any, information about Indi bicycles or the Indi Hawk bicycle on the web. From what I can gather, in the '80s Kuwahara manufactured bicycles and companies slapped their own brand names on them before sticking them in the shops (a common practice even today), so this is probably just an example of that but with a very small brand name. I.e, no one's really heard of Indi.

It was a reasonable bet that it wasn't complete rubbish though, because manufacturers don't chrome plate crap frames. The whole frame is actually chrome plated, while only the parts which won't be painted are highly polished. I found one example of an Indi Hawk which sadly met it's demise at the hands of a hipster after he "grinded off all the brake and gear cable guide's [sic]". Tragedy! However, before that indignity, it looked a bit like this:

Someone had spread the forks of mine to accept a modern 700C wheel. Fair enough, but this bike was intended for 27" wheels, of which I have a few sets, so I set about squeezing them back in. It was about then that I noticed the forks were bent in pretty much every possible way. The curves were different, they'd been spread unevenly so one leg was sticking out to the side more than the other and they were even twisted.

I spent quite a bit of time here and there when I could, tweaking, bending, checking. Naturally, after sinking much time into it I noticed the big one, the forks were actually bent backwards relative to the steerer tube (the bit that attaches the forks to the bike). Probably the bike had some kind of front end crash, bending the forks and consigning it to the rubbish tip. Fortunately the frame wasn't bent as that's a real show stopper.

I brought the forks to work, and using another department's 25 Ton (it's old school, no tonnes there) hydraulic press and some strategically placed blocks of wood plus a healthy amount of guesswork they were straightened out. A couple more bending sessions fine tuning things, including correcting the twist and I hope I'm finally done. Provided I haven't taken out too much of the curve anyway, time will tell.

So you can see what I mean about it turning into a labour of love. Things weren't helped by a friend complaining about the project bike he bought from the same tip shop shortly afterwards for the princely sum of $10 which only required wheels before he could ride it. The fact that it was Australian made from Japanese Tange 900 tubing was just so much salt into the wound. However he ended up giving it to me (though I forced $10 on him) so I guess that ended up alright in the end ;-)

Now, on to the rust removal. I wasn't really sure how to deal with the rusty chrome. Rust converters (phosphoric acid) turn the rust into a hard layer - it's still there. I've had very limited success disguising it by buffing the parts but it's time consuming and would be awkward with something the size of a bicycle frame. Rechroming and repainting is simply not an option on a $5 bike. I may be stupid but even I'm not that stupid.

Somehow I came across reports of oxalic acid. The results appeared very promising, but I wasn't sure it wouldn't damage the paint. Actually I found it hard to believe that it worked as well as was claimed, but see for yourself.

Fork leg before:

Fork leg after:

Chainstay before:

Chainstay before:

Unfortunately so much time elapsed between the chainstay before and after photos that I forgot the exact positioning and I was too lazy to look it up so here's what I got.

Chainstay after (forlorn motorcycle project awaiting time in the background):

Chainstay after:

Chainstay after:

Chainstay after:

And here's a seat pin given to me by a mate which was my guinea pig (I dropped it in a shot glass of the stuff and left it overnight). I'm not even sure it was chromed.

Seat pin before:

Seat pin after:

Overall, I'm amazed and delighted at how well the oxalic acid worked. I got mine from Bunnings in liquid form as a "Wood Cleaner" from the paint section. I can't remember the brand (it's not this one, but you get the idea of what to look for), it was whatever the cheapest one with the highest concentration of oxalic acid was. Mine was a concentrate in a reasonably viscous liquid which I simply wiped on, undiluted, left overnight sometimes with a few reapplications on really badly rusted bits and then washed off under running water with a scrubber that wouldn't scratch what little chrome was left (it's something meant for non stick pans).

One thing - wear gloves.

If I ever get this bike finished (I've managed to install a headset and attach the forks as well as fit a bottom bracket), I'm planning to turn it into a super commuter. Rack, full mudguards and a wide ratio freewheel. Hopefully a) I finish it in the foreseeable future and b) I actually ride it occasionally unlike the last super commuter I put together and promptly abandoned in the pursuit of speed.

Update:
Contrary to my usual form, I actually completed and rode the Indi Hawk. It was a very pleasant ride and I commuted on it regularly. In doing so, I feel I may have discovered why, despite being 27 years old you never see any Indi Hawk's around the place.

Both seat stays are broken in what appears to be a critical design fault. Interestingly, the hipster had the same fault a while after he "improved" his.

It was creaking for some time and I couldn't work out where the noise was coming from. It was only happening when I was climbing out of the saddle so I fiddled with the stem and bottom bracket plenty, but (not surprisingly) with no joy.

I've stripped all the bits off it (never did take a photo of it all finished) and the frame now sits forlornly in the corner of my garage. I can't quite bring myself to return it to the tip where it will be recycled. I could weld it up, but it would be ugly as hell and eventually break beside the weld anyway.

I got a few good months of commuting out of it before it broke completely on 21/2/11 anyway.

What role for religion in the 21st century?

2010-09-22T09:18:00.006+10:00

The following will be highly offensive to many people because it doesn't show any respect for peoples beliefs. I don't believe that belief in a supernatural being, whatever you may call it, God, Yahweh, Allah, etc, is any more deserving of respect than an earnest belief in unicorns, pixies, fairies, the Easter Bunny or a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Or, more eloquently in the words of the late, great, Douglas Adams:

Religion . . . has certain ideas at the heart of it which we
call sacred or holy or whatever. What it means is, 'Here is
an idea or a notion that you're not allowed to say any-
thing bad about; you're just not. Why not? - because
you're not!' If somebody votes for a party that you don't
agree with, you're free to argue about it as much as you
like; everybody will have an argument but nobody feels
aggrieved by it. If somebody thinks taxes should go up or
down you are free to have an argument about it. But on
the other hand if somebody says 'I mustn't move a light
switch on a Saturday', you say, 'I respect that'.
Why should it be that it's perfectly legitimate to support
the Labour party or the Conservative party, Republicans
or Democrats, this model of economics versus that,
Macintosh instead of Windows - but to have an opinion
about how the Universe began, about who created the
Universe . .. no, that's holy? . .. We are used to not
challenging religious ideas but it's very interesting how
much of a furore Richard creates when he does it!
Everybody gets absolutely frantic about it because you're
not allowed to say these things. Yet when you look at it
rationally there is no reason why those ideas shouldn't be
as open to debate as any other, except that we have agreed
somehow between us that they shouldn't be.

I wasn't going to write a post today because I'm tired and cranky (although that's actually my normal state of being, so perhaps I should rephrase that to extra tired and cranky), and I didn't want to go from zero religious posts to two in a row, but this story about Republican candidate Christine O'Donnell took the cake for me. Witchcraft?! I actually laughed, but the realisation that massive numbers of otherwise intelligent and well educated people in the United States of America, a first world country, believe, in this, the 21st century, that there is such a thing as magic and witches should be sufficient to wipe the smile of anyone's face. It certainly was for me.

What role does religion have to play in a progressive, modern society? None. Simple as that. You can (and indeed should) be a good person without it. Most religious people are good despite their religious beliefs. Read some Old Testament, there's no "turn the other cheek" in there, just a lot of arse kicking, sodomy and rape.

If you would make the argument that religion provides moral guidance, again, have you actually read the book? If you would further make the argument that no one interprets the Bible literally, then you admit that you pick and choose which parts to believe. This choice is made without guidance from a religious text, ergo humans are capable of making good moral choices without religion.

All the major religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) are, to varying degrees misogynistic, highly manipulative and based on the premise that faith is better, preferable even, than evidence and if the evidence doesn't fit the faith, then disregard the evidence. They are entirely self serving, existing only to control the populace and continue their own existence. The biggest, longest running, and ultimately most harmful Ponzi scheme in history.

Let's look at the big three:

Christianity.

Lots of followers, lots of flavours, on the whole, with a few notable exceptions, mostly harmless. Although if you were alive during the time of The Inquisition or The Crusades, you might think differently. Indeed, a simple statement of fact like "the earth is round and orbits the sun" might have gotten you killed. Christianity has, somewhat, moved with the times and modernized itself, though this in no way serves to validate it's continuing existence.

I say mostly harmless, but that's not strictly true. There is a war being waged on science by sectors of Christianity under the guise of "creationism" and it's at least as dangerous as the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre.

There's a sub branch that believes you need special underwear. I think they're the same group who's founder "read" the Bible with "special" glasses on and found entire chapters that no one else knew about. That might be a different group, I don't really care, the point remains the same.

I won't even mention the nutjobs like white supremacist far right Christians group the Ku Klux Klan except to point out that Jesus (if such a person ever existed) was a Jew ya morons!

But even so-called "moderate" Christians can become irrational at the slightest provocation. Read some of the comments (you'll never be able to bear the whole lot) attached to Wind could have parted red sea for Moses. As one commenter correctly notes, and is immediately attacked for, it was never the red sea, it was a mistake when translating the text. In the story it was the reed sea, but as the infamous Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels accurately noted "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

Judasim

Lots of followers, smaller variety of flavours than Christianity, but again, with some notable exceptions, mostly harmless. I'd say that Jewish settlers in Palestine and in general Orthodox Jews (who appear to believe, among other things that sticking little pieces of paper into a wall is somehow helpful) are quite dangerous, especially if you're Palestinian.

Depending on the interpretation, can probably function in a modern society, but with notable pockets of 12th century type madness, see here for a truly astonishing example.

Islam

Lots of followers, no real variety, more a case of different levels of conviction. Like all religions so open to interpretation that they can't even agree amongst themselves. Notable for the fact that, unlike Christianity, Islam has no sense of humour. Poke fun at Islam and you're liable to find Islam poking back with burning embassies and pitchfork wielding mobs. A truly misogynistic window to the 12th century complete with despicable "honour" killings.

In general the least likely to adapt to modern society, preferring instead to adapt modern society to it, which plays right into the hands of a tolerant western society. Take for example the organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, banned in many countries. They don't believe in a secular society where people are free to believe (or alternatively not believe) whatever they wish. They would prefer Australia, and indeed all countries, were governed by Sharia law (instant time warp to flat earth times).

I wonder how long I'd last in, say, Algeria, if I tried to establish a Christian movement (ignoring the hypocrisy for a moment) which openly wanted to overturn the Islamic state? In an Islamic state, the simple act of non belief can land you in gaol or worse.

Religion is nuts. That doesn't mean there's not nice people involved, because there most certainly are. I know lots of nice people who believe in a supernatural God, but oddly, not leprechauns. It doesn't mean we can't be friends (members of the KKK, Jewish settlers and Hizb ut-Tahrir need not apply), but the world would be a better place if people gave up superstition.

If my poorly researched, grossly generalized and generally offensive for it's lack of "respect" argument has failed to convince you (or even in the incredibly unlikely event that it has), please read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. You can preview it for free on Google Books.

And remember, faith is the enemy of reason.

Burn a religious idiot day.

2010-09-12T08:07:00.002+10:00

So yesterday (or today if you're in the bit of the world that lags behind) may or may not have been the on again, off again "Burn a Koran Day". I've got a better suggestion, make it "Burn a religious idiot day". By "religious" I'm referring to any person who would take offense to someone burning or otherwise defaming or defacing their holy book of fairy tales, be it the Bible, Koran, Torah or whatever. Any person who would kill or otherwise harm someone who recognizes as fiction the stories contained within their holy book of fairy tales. Anyone who would fly a plane into a building or buildings. Anyone who thinks The Crusades or The Inquisition were a good idea and maybe due for another try.

If there was no religion then September the 11th 2001 would simply have been a day like any other. Think about it.

You can please some of the people some of the time...

2010-09-08T09:24:00.003+10:00

Election 2010 is finally over. The hung parliament has been un-hung, the three rural independents have made their choice and Labour (I refuse to spell it Labor) will form a minority government. For the two country independents who sided with Labour (no doubt Bob Katter feared being tarred, feathered and run out of town on a railroad sleeper if he had chosen anyone other than the Coalition), their rather conservative electorates are foaming at the mouth. How dare they side with that filthy Labour party and The Greens?!

Personally I wouldn't have been in their shoes for quids. There was no choice really, both of the two major parties are so pathetic that being forced to chose between them is a most unenviable position. Interestingly, Tony Windsor made mention that the National Broadband Network was a major factor in his decision. Libs = no NBN, Labour = NBN. More significantly, Tony Windsor made the very salient point that although he was supporting Labour to form minority government, he wasn't supporting Labour. I.e. it will be a Labour government in name only (which is no news at all really).

It was also gratifying to hear him make the point that during the election campaign we had both sides pandering to the Western Suburbs of Brisbane and Sydney while ignoring the rest of the country. He also said, and I quote:

"...where the two major parties are actually virtually the same in terms of policy, a few minor changes on the side and we saw that at the election where Tony Abbott went to the polls with the union movement's industrial relations legislation. And Julia Gillard went to the polls with the Liberal Party's boat people policy."

Spot on Mr Windsor. About time Australia woke up and realised that too instead of voting for one party or another (regardless of policy) because that's who their parents voted for, or that's who they've always voted for.

Getting in sync.

2010-09-07T11:02:00.009+10:00

Due to a mongrel cold and the untimely demise of my electric scooter, I've been on the venerable 1985 Honda VT250 of late instead of cycling (actually more recently I've been staying at home sick!) Since it's now the only infernal combustion engined road registered motorcycle remaining at Chez Lemmiwinks, I decided it was high time it got some lovin'. Being the lazy turd I am, and since it had to go there for a rego inspection anyway, I opted to delegate this task to the local motorcycle shop.

At this point I was still healthy enough to cycle, so the fact that they were a week late in getting to it was really neither here nor there. I had left it with the instruction that in addition to the rego inspection, they should measure the float levels and check the synchronization of the carbies. When they rang me to say it was ready, they tactfully suggested that the bike wasn't worth the amount of time and money it would involve to do what I'd requested so they'd just adjusted the pilot screws.

It's hard to argue with them (indeed I didn't) because after all, we're talking about a bike that I paid $200 for about 8 years ago, though I was prepared to spend the purchase price for a smooth running bike. Ever since I bought it, it's never really idled right, it's always been too high and whenever I try to slow it down to somewhere approaching the right RPM it consistently stalls. Even weirder (and why I wanted them to check the float levels) it will idle fine, albeit too fast, while the bike is vertical, but put it on the side stand and it can drop 500RPM or more.

Truth be told, it's my wife's bike and I don't often ride it. Otherwise the problems would likely have irritated me sufficiently long ago...

It was running better when I got it back, but still not great so on the weekend I resolved to take matters into my own hands (literally). I timed myself pulling the carbies off, 20 minutes, not bad since the mechanic had cautioned that I'd be charged for 3 hours for the whole job and implied that the removal/installation would be the most time consuming part of the job. Though in fairness, it's probably not a bad estimate of the whole job, especially since putting them back on is a complete utter bastard.

Once off, I pulled the float bowls, removed the jets and blew everything out with compressed air. Considerable gymnastics is required to remove the float bowls (check the photos, each one actually has 4 screws though you can only see 3) but it can be done. I've had the carbies off before, but I removed the top plate which joins them, an unnecessary step as it turned out.

The float levels seemed ok, I tweaked one a bit which was probably a mistake in hindsight as they're very sensitive (either that or I was very inconsistent in my measurements - probably a little bit of both), but it seems none the worse for my tinkering. Then it was on to the synchronization. Unlike the previous time I'd pulled the carbies to bits (one clogged with crap and my poor wife was forced to ride most of the way home from Gingers Creek on one cylinder with a top speed of 60kph), this time I was armed with the manual.

I've always shied away from carburetor synchronization because I was under the impression that it required vacuum gauges, however the manual revealed how simple it is (in this case). There's a screw which you turn until both butterflies are perfectly aligned (by eye, anyway). Now that's my kind of adjustment!

It turns out that the synchronization was way, way out. Like a couple of mm out. No wonder the idle has always been a struggle - one cylinder had the carby with the butterfly fully closed while the other one was open a couple of mm.

As an aside, the inlet tract was surprisingly rough:

Oh well, they say intake turbulence is good and who am I to argue.

Feeling well satisfied with myself and keen to try out my handiwork I went to reinstall the carbs. My advice to anyone wishing to attempt this procedure; don't. What a colossal pain in the arse it turned out to be, no doubt because I followed the manual and left the top plate installed. Previously, with that removed the carbs were free to move independently, this time there was about a 1/2" of difference. I could get one in or the other, but no amount of hoarsely whispered swearing (I'd lost my voice as part of my cold by now) or straining and grunting would get them both in.

When pulling it off for my 900th attempt at getting them on I firmly wedged my finger between the top plate and the frame, resulting in the thing of beauty below. A truly prodigious amount of swearing and a few well placed kicks to the front wheel were predictably inadequate, but all I had at my disposal.

Eventually I got them back on (coaxed the recalcitrant one on with a screwdriver acting like a shoehorn, a dodgey solution I spent a lot of time avoiding) and, with much glee, fired it up. Apart from a way to fast idle, it was running great. I adjusted the idle and things were looking good when after a few minutes the RPM steadily climbed to about 4000RPM. Another idle speed adjustment and all was well again. It's a bit of a concern, but like Toyota America, I'm choosing to ignore it.

Out on the road the engine response is noticeably better and soooo much smoother. I investigated the pilot screw settings and found they were at the factory default. So the bike shop charged me $40 to set the pilot screws to the factory setting. Oh well, a fool and their money...

The peak.

2010-09-03T11:39:00.002+10:00

People have been banging on about Peak Oil for years now, and even the most casual consideration should bring all but the most grossly ignorant to the conclusion that it's not "if" but "when and how bad"*. When you have exponential growth of consumption against a finite resource** eventually it's going to run out, this much should be obvious as I said, the tricky part is predicting the when.

The theory goes that we will only actually be aware of the timing of the peak when it's gone past and we can look back to it. Sounds reasonable to me, and as ever, there's no consensus on whether we've peaked already, are peaking now, or are going to peak in the future (near or far). But with China having 4 million cars on the road and counting, and India's nouveau riche also lining up to get behind the wheel it doesn't take a genius to see that something's got to give.

It doesn't really matter, the fact remains that it's going to/has already/will have had to have happened (the last is just a bit of nonsense I like the sound of). Put simply, the end of oil equals the end of growth. Consider that for a moment. In a society that worships growth*** where every political campaign and news report is dominated by growth, this is some pretty serious shit. Suffice to say that people aren't accustomed, nor favourable to the idea of their standard of living being diminished, so it doesn't take much imagination to envisage the social unrest that will likely result.

I won't even touch on the religious nut-bars that are certain to pop up in plague like proportions. A cursory examination of the beliefs of the majority of the population of the United States is sufficient to give an indication. There's an even more alarming number of people who actually believe that they will be bodily transported to an imaginary land (often referred to as "Heaven") and thus welcome what they interpret as the "Second Coming" or "End of Days" depending on which chapter of a particularly lengthy work of fiction they are citing.

I would have liked to do it, sadly I'm far too lazy, however I'd be very interested to see a graph showing the correlation between oil production, population growth, and (to a much smaller degree) CO2 emissions (these are a relatively insignificant part of the problem IMNSHO). Even throw in the discovery of Penicillin, but I'm willing to bet that the most significant engine driving human overpopulation, in fact allowing us to maintain an artificially high population level, is crude oil.

Speaking of crude oil, it's price has been both suspiciously low and stable lately, especially when you consider the millions of barrels that were discharged into the Gulf of Mexico, never to be recovered, at least not in any useful manner.

There's a very interesting article on Culture Change by Dimitri Orlov entitled "Peak Oil is History" which I'd encourage you (as in the one person who reads this blog - hi Sue! ;-)) to read. It's food for thought, but rather than get all down in the mouth about it, I say make hay while the sun shines! Enjoy yourself for none of what is described there or here may transpire in your lifetime (though many would contend that it's exactly this attitude that got us in this mess in the first place), but on the other hand, be aware of the world around you and prepared (even if only mentally) for what could happen.

*Apologies to "No Fear"

**Apologies to Al Bartlett

***Again? Yes, sorry Al

Zombieland

2010-08-23T08:04:00.002+10:00

On election night, in lieu of watching the election like so many other saddo's, I chose to watch Zombieland instead. In light of the pending result, perhaps not quite as ironic a choice as I might have hoped, but a damn fine movie all the same.

You need look no further than the predicted hung parliament and minority government for proof that the two main political parties in Australia are so similar as to be indistinguishable to the voters. Party politics is the reverse of what a representative democracy is supposed to be - the party member represents the views of the party to the electorate, whereas an independent, free of any internal party maneuverings, represents the view of the electorate to the parliament.

We'll soon see exactly what the independents are made of, it'd be nice to see a resurrection of rail freight and passenger infrastructure (in urban but especially regional areas) and a halt called to digging up farmland for mining. Whatever happens, I highly doubt they could be any worse than the lobby group pandering, self serving bunch of sniveling turds they've got to work with.

Election 2010 - a race to the bottom

2010-08-20T19:59:00.003+10:00

Fortunately the election will be over soon and I'll be able to watch the evening news again. Unfortunately, the Liberal party will be in government and the Greens will have seen a significant swing and the increased power that goes along with it.

I loathe election time as it quickly and easily draws out the worst in politicians and the media, but I think this year has been especially woeful with, hands down, the most vapid and asinine display it has ever been my misfortune to witness. Neither side has really made any clear policy statements for fear of giving their opponents ammunition or offending precious voters, instead choosing to pander to the western suburbs marginal seats of Sydney (better known as the bogan belt) and Brisbane.

The disgusting result has been a four way race to the bottom with the media, public, Liberal and Labour parties vying for first place, winner as yet undecided. It appears that Labour's key policy is that Tony Abbott will reintroduce Work Choices, while Tony Abbott's only significant statement has been his claim that he will "stop the boats". This latter particularly sticks in my craw and is simply designed to appeal strongly to the bogan belt.

Don't misunderstand me, I dislike everyone equally so naturally I find immigrants quite irritating, but the elephant in Tony's room is that out of the 170 odd thousand immigrants that arrive in Australia, about 13,500 are asylum seekers and of those less than half arrive by these dreaded boats. Do the maths, that's about three percent of the total. A far more pertinent concern would be why we are not skilling Australians (and believe me, there's plenty of Australians who are badly in need of some skills) instead of importing trained people. Of course the answer that is that it's cheaper and easier to bring them in rather than go to all that effort of teaching someone.

It's said that a people gets the government it deserves. Looking at the appeal-to-the-lowest-common-denominator media coverage of the current straw man and woman I shudder to think what we're in for.

A curmudgeon after my own heart...

2010-08-16T14:39:00.003+10:00

Lifted from The Drum and reproduced in part without permission for your amusement:

And then there are the total hold-outs.

What made me think about all this was an anonymous letter I received in the post, written in pencil of lined paper.

Unlike some of the missives I receive, it was in a neat hand, every word was perfectly spelled, and it was grammatically correct.

And while the disgust with the modern world it expressed was fairly extreme, it did make me read to the end.

Apologists for TECHNONEWNESS who talk about PROGRESS always lead me towards a gross leaning to pulp their little plastic, yacking GIMMICKS into a rough paste the consistency of oatmeal and make them force it down their throats while they are subjected to three and a half hours of old Mouseketeer programs.

Science and technology have done less than nothing for human "PROGRESS", except make our lives NOISER, FASTER, STUPIDER, GREEDIER, SILLIER, UGLIER, NASTIER and MORE DESTRUCTIVE in every sense of the word.

The two worst things ever invented, the TELEPHONE and the AUTOMOBILE, set the scene 100 years ago, and since then we have gone from bad to worse.

The spectacle of an entire city block of pedestrians yakking into their plastic Jiminy Crickets about where they are now, where they might be in 10 minutes, where they were last night, where they might be next Tuesday, and whether or not the dog food is on top of the fridge or out in the woodshed, fills me with a leaden horror that has banned me from any city precinct for the last seven and a half years.

The tragic irony of these ghastly implements, despite what Technogeeks like Stephen Fry assert, is that they are the most effective impediments to communication that has yet been devised.

It is absolutely inevitable, no matter where you are, or who it is you might be trying to talk to, the moment you open your mouth one of these cursed contraptions will start ringing in your ears, or the phone on the wall will join in as well, and of course they've both got to be loud enough to overload the equally inevitable squalling television set in the next room, or the car radio blaring in the car park outside, the droning wail of the ride-on lawnmower on the other side of the road, or the helicopter thundering overhead on its way to poison the marshlands.

I have totally abandoned all pretence at verbal communication except to mutter "Hello!" or "Thank You" or "That one over there, please", and hightail it out of all proximity to my fellow human beings, whom I now regard as nothing more than two-legged appendages to the MAW of the Machine Age, and the ruthless corporate gangsters who are making millions out of our pathological obsession with gadgets.

When I hear that 100,000 people queued up OVERNIGHT so that they could get first choice of the latest Japanese video game, I know we are on the way out.

And HIGH TIME TOO.

Mark Colvin is the presenter of ABC Radio's current affairs program PM.

Miktex Error - "not a valid installation source"

2010-08-04T13:58:00.003+10:00

Since I found plenty of people asking this question but no satisfactory answers I thought I'd post up my resolution. I copied miktek from a mirror using wget but when I tried to install it I got the not a valid installation source error. Quite annoying.

Long story short, you need a file called README.TXT in your packages directory. It should contain the following:


This folder contains the "Complete MikTex" package set.

To install MikTex, run setup.exe.

For more information, visit the MikTex project page at
http://miktex.org.

You replace "Complete" with "Basic" if you're only doing a basic install.

Election 2010

2010-08-03T07:49:00.002+10:00

Personally I loathe election time, the so-called "news" is wall to wall plastic personalities pressing the flesh with a sharks grin frozen on their faces. The standard empty promises, which in more recent times have been along the lines of "We'll do X and it's great because we're the government" versus "That's a shit idea because they're the government, elect us and we'll do exactly the same thing but it'll be great because we're the opposition."

My prediction is that Labour (intentionally spelt correctly with the u) will lose, probably badly. The Liberals will take government and the Greens (shudder) will hold the balance of power and likely gain a seat or two. This will be a bit of a disaster all around. The Liberals will, as is their style, cut the heart out of any and all public spending - education, health, all the stuff that makes a great society great. We can look back to the Howard days and forward to present day America (public services that is, not their mind boggling huge deficit, that's chiefly paying for their wars) for a taste of the standard Liberal party budget and it's effect on public spending.

It's no small irony that Australians, who would spend their last dollar on a deposit for an interest free 70 inch LCD TV and commit as much of their earnings as humanly possible to paying off the two cars, McMansion, credit cards and pay TV subscription, become livid with anger when the government goes into deficit. News flash Australia! When the government is in surplus that means they're not spending enough on you. Where do you suppose they get their money from in the first place? A government surplus is our money, not something to be celebrated. Obviously you've got to keep a short leash on the debt, but it's a necessary evil.

As someone who rides a bicycle to work and actually owns an electric vehicle, I would implore my fellow Australians to not vote for The Greens. That's right, bet you thought I was some kind of smelly hippie eh? The Greens are not green, they're nuts, go read their policies if you don't believe me.

Mixed bag.

2010-07-28T07:52:00.003+10:00

Some random commentary. Firstly, an interesting interview on the 7:30 Report last night with economist Professor Joseph Stiglitz (video, extended interview). Most of what he says is no surprise, unless you were silly enough to believe all the crap about the crisis being behind us. Personally I couldn't give a crap about the financial markets, they're just a nonsense construct for the most part, as is paper money. Sadly I've spent a good deal of time saving paper money (well it still beats pissing it away on plasma screen TV's in my opinion anyway) and it would be a shame to see that become worthless.

Secondly, what I'd thought was going to be an interesting piece on Foreign Correspondent about energy. It was actually just about a very large lithium deposit underneath the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia (Bolivia - The Electric Range, video). While it's interesting, and I'm all for conserving oil (it does so much more than propel your internal combustion engine powered vehicle), even if you could convert the entire road transport fleet to electric there isn't the generating capacity there to power them. Same problem with so called "bio" fuels, hydrogen (puh-leze! spare me the nonsense), fuel cells (ha! haven't heard much about them for a while) etc etc etc.

Also in the story they repeatedly refer to lithium as the new gold, the new oil. The gold comparison I can maybe let slide, but the new oil? No way! Not even close! For one thing, crude oil is an energy source, lithium is just a mineral. When incorporated into a lithium based battery, lithium still isn't an energy source, it's simply an energy storage device (with a lower energy density than petroleum too). Sure, lithium batteries are great, but they're just a stepping stone on the way to something better (hopefully).

Finally, news headlines are ablaze with "damaging" leaks from within the Australian Labor Party. BFD. It's perfectly obvious that it's Kevin Rudd, or one of his mates. He strikes me as the type of bloke who would seek revenge (a dish best served cold) even at the expense of his party retaining power. Either way, who in their right mind really gives a shit? The more political "campaigns" I see the less respect I have for party politics.

Selling the farm.

2010-07-27T11:48:00.002+10:00

A very, very interesting piece from the ABC: Selling the farm Part 1: Does Australia risk losing control of it's food resources? Short answer, I'd say most definitely yes. Although if push came to shove I would expect the foreign owned farms to be nationalised (only after prolonged hand wringing, procrastination and weighing up the international relationship and likelihood of getting an arse whooping from the soon to be very pissed off foreign owners of course) or at the very least looted by locals.

Still, it's food for thought (pardon the pun). The sales are off the radar of the Foreign Investment Review Board, and I assume any produce exported would simply be counted as part of the GDP in spite of the fact that the profits as well as the produce are heading off shore to their owners. It's a pretty sweet deal for cash flush but food strapped countries, after all, you can't eat money.

I wish I shared the optimism of Mr Cheng Xie, from Fukushoku Dairy Pty Ltd, based at Hay in NSW who flies in the face of current events in Afghanistan and Iraq when he glibly quips: "This is the 21st century. No-one wants to go to war any more. Everybody just wants a piece of land or whatever to improve their lifestyle. I think we should open the door."

We've already seen two significant wars (don't forget the '90's "Desert Storm" and Stormin' Norman) for (broadly speaking) oil and since petrochemicals and modern agriculture are intrinsically linked it seems self evident that wars for food, at least between those who have the capacity to fight, will eventually follow. In fact, wars for food may be one of the oldest conquests in human endeavour.

What would a modern day war for food entail I wonder? Geographically speaking Australia is sufficiently isolated from the Chinese and Middle Eastern owners to avoid most missile strikes (not sure of the range of a modern ICBM) though steaming a frigate up to the shore and lobbing a few cruise missiles is pretty straightforward as we've seen in Iraq.

Neutron bombs kill while leaving buildings intact, but I don't know what effect they have on food, and frankly I can't be bothered to find out. If the agricultural land, equipment and crops are still OK then this is probably a pretty appealing option, otherwise there's the tried and true human trait of "If I can't have it, then neither can you" and a scorched earth policy would probably evoke some good old fashioned populace distracting national pride back in the respective owners' countries before their grumbling stomachs made them restless once more.

Arithmetic, Population and Energy

2010-07-22T11:19:00.009+10:00

Given the impending Federal Election here in this wide brown land we call Australia, and the presently raging "population debate" it seems like a fine time to mention a smart chap by the name of Al Bartlett. For many years Professor Bartlett has been trying to get people to understand some very, very simple arithmetic. It's so simple that even I can follow along and I'm really quite terrible at maths.

The presentation Arithmetic, Population and Energy should be mandatory viewing for every single person on the planet, particularly politicians. There's no spin, because you can't spin maths, and it should serve as a great wake up call to many.

Here are all 8 parts which have been broken up in to bite sized chunks, or if you prefer you can watch the entire thing in one go.

Playback of EyeTV recordings

2010-07-16T08:42:00.003+10:00

If I wanted to watch a recording somewhere other than on the TV (i.e. on a computer), I used to simply copy the mpg file out of the .eyetv package and then play it back in VLC, but lately that hasn't been working. VLC just spins it's wheels for a while and nothing ends up happening. Judicious searching shifted the blame from EyeTV to, of all places, the broadcaster.

From what I can gather, EyeTV simply records the stream as whatever it's broadcast as. Normally this is an MPEG-2 TS (transport stream) which VLC can happily play (most players require a MPEG-2 PS or program stream). Since it's no longer working I can only assume that the broadcaster is doing something funny, but I've not tested other channels or broadcasts (the troublesome one is a live sports broadcast) so I can't say for sure.

Anyway, after a lot of wasted time demuxing and muxing files I discovered MPEG Streamclip. Holy crap, I cannot recommend this program highly enough. Simply open the mpg file from the .eyetv package, select File -> Convert to MPEG and about 15 minutes later you're done! 15 minutes was for a 4 hour recording on my crappy PPC based ancient PowerBook G4 with 512Mb RAM so a faster machine/shorter recording should be even faster.

Accentuate the positives...

2010-07-15T13:45:00.006+10:00

I got some frankly jaw-droppingly shocking feedback about my last entry via twitter. Here's a sample from one of my friendly, caring fellow road users:

"Personally I resent cyclists because I can so easily kill you. If something goes wrong you are in a very dangerous environment"

Charming. I wonder if it would be different if cyclists were permitted to carry pistols?* Perhaps a few pot-shots at the drivers headrest through the rear windscreen would serve to focus the attention of the careless motorist? It's precisely the blame the victim mentality I mentioned, but wrapped in a veneer of bizarro-world concern where, "I hate you because I endanger you" is somehow supposed to make sense. "It's your fault I hit you with my car" is no different than commenting on a case of rape and saying "well she shouldn't have worn those clothes" but unfortunately the former is socially acceptable while the latter is thankfully not.

I got quite depressed about that for about a day. The realisation that pretty much everyone who drives a car hates you can get you down, after all that includes my friends and co-workers. But then I decided I needed to, as the song says "accentuate the positives, eliminate the negatives". I appreciate it all the more when people pass me safely and courteously now (even though they probably hate me too, at least they're not open about it).

Perhaps it's because so many people die on the roads and it barely rates a mention on the news anymore. Perhaps when someone dies in a car, people think "Oh well, they took all the precautions they could" but when someone kills a vulnerable road user (pedestrian, cyclist, motorcyclist) the thought is "It's their fault for participating in a dangerous activity."

Using the road has an inherent level of risk, no denying that. What I object to is people who needlessly increase that risk through their own carelessness, apathy or aggression when a virtually insignificant effort on their part provides a massive increase in safety for everyone else.

In this politically correct world it seems that we're wrapping everyone and everything in cotton wool. If you dare to be different, then don't expect people to respect even a basic duty of care.

I wonder how long before runners can expect to hear shouts of "Get a treadmill!" and "Join a gym!" should they dare to run outdoors?

Back to the possibility of bicycles being banned (at least from the road), when I was old enough for my own motorized transport, like pretty much everyone else I abandoned the bicycle for many years, but I think the key difference these days is kids never adopt it to begin with. We are bringing up a generation of kids that haven’t ridden bicycles, haven’t experienced the independence, they’re chauffeur driven by their parents everywhere. There’s precious little respect, empathy or concern for your fellow human in general never mind on the roads these days, how much worse will it be in a few years time when a generation to whom the bicycle and it’s rider are an alien object, suitable only for derision and animosity, take their driving tests?

I think Dave Moulton really hit the nail on the head when he wrote:

"There needs to be a sense of responsibility brought back to driving a car, a looking out for your fellow man and woman; especially those more vulnerable, namely pedestrians and cyclists."

It'll never catch on though, it's easier to legislate than change people's behaviour.

* Never fear, the only people in Australia with pistols are a handful of beleaguered law abiding citizens, the Police and criminals. If The Greens gain enough votes at the next federal election it will only be criminals as the Police and legal owners will have had theirs confiscated and destroyed.

The world we live in.

2010-07-13T14:05:00.006+10:00

As is my habit, I went for a ride at lunch time today, and an incident occurred that got me thinking. A car, displaying an L plate needlessly buzzed me, thus passing me unsafely, while at the same time sounding the horn. The L plate indicates it was either a learner driver, or a typical moron autopiloting their way through life who'd forgotten to take the L plate off. Either way it was disturbing, particularly if it was the former, as presumably the learner driver was acting under instruction from the "experienced" driver.

There is a popular misconception that cyclists don't belong on the road. Based on their behaviour, I'm going to assume that belief is held by the occupants of that car. Why is it a misconception? Simple, vehicle registration doesn't fund roads, consolidated revenue does. Consolidated revenue is simply a fancy name for a big pool of money sourced from all over the place, land rates (I pay), various taxes (I pay) and so on. Never mind the fact that a road is a public space, for the use of, well, the public, just like public schools, public hospitals, public libraries... Never mind the fact that I also pay three motorcycle registrations and one car registration. A conveniently overlooked fact is that nearly all cyclists are also motorists.

Now that I've established that I'm not a free loading leech, getting something for nothing, sucking the money out of motorists wallets, I'll move on to the "us vs them" mentality. Why is it there? Partly it's natural, humans are predisposed to a degree of competitiveness, partly it's encouraged by moronic talkback radio hosts who crave attention and higher ratings, but mostly, in the city at least, I think it's an outlet for motorists to vent their frustrations. They're paying more, spending longer, and going slower in bigger traffic jams. So the sight of a cyclist merrily whizzing past, instead of getting them thinking "Hey, I could do that too instead of sitting here wasting my life.", just makes the bile rise in their throats and their knuckles whiten as their grip on the steering wheel tightens.

There's also an element of power. It's so cosy and secure in your car, multiple airbags, plush upholstery, control over the environment - hot and cold, master of all you survey! Anyone who would willingly subject themselves to the whim of the elements must surely be an idiot and therefore deserving of your scorn and derision. Why pass them safely? There's nothing they can do. They can't catch up with you, and even if they did you're safely cocooned in your car, anonymous, protected, powerful. Besides, if you did hurt or kill them by clipping them with your car, well it's their fault anyway (blame the victim). They shouldn't be there in the first place, placing themselves in danger (a danger created by you). They don't belong on the road anyway... It wasn't my fault I was texting/updating my facebook status/applying makeup/changing the radio/turning around to yell at the kids...

Overall, I think it's endemic of a far larger and much more serious problem we have in Western "advanced" societies - selfishness, inability to empathize and narcissism. It's all about ME and we're taught that that's good, that's right, that's how it should be. Look at MY neck tattoo, look at MY designer clothes, I'M different, I'M better, the more I spend the more unique I am and the better I feel about MYSELF. I AM what I own.

When I read stupid, attention seeking pieces of garbage like this post on The Drum I really start to despair. Hated and hunted on the roads, nutters like Harold Scruby would have us banished from the same cycle paths which the talkback radio idiots rant they are paying for so why the hell don't we get off the roads? I'll tell you why, because the roads go where I need to go and the cycle paths are clogged with pedestrians (and that's fine by me, you must have the right to walk!) making it unsuitable for me to ride on there at 30-40kph. Pedestrians don't want to share, motorists don't want to share, could I see a world in which the bicycle is banned (either by legislature or by de facto by violent and dangerous road users) a mere 125 years after the first modern version appeared?

Perhaps I've just been reading too much Kunstler (he's nuts but entertaining) or staring at too many photos on the Deserted Places site but sometimes I wonder if our society will one day disappear up it's own self absorbed arse. And, like countless people throughout history, I wonder what type of world we're leaving for our children (this really is nothing new, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43BC) said "Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.")

NB: It's worth noting that for much of this post you could substitute motorcyclists for cyclists. As another minority group they're reviled almost as much "Maniacs! Front number plates!" the talkback radio cries. Added bonus - I'm a motorcyclist too!

Mac OS X burn error -43

2010-06-09T08:37:00.002+10:00

I upgraded my work laptop to OS 10.5 on Monday and needed to burn some data off a hard drive pulled from someone's dead PC. Finding myself Toastless, I discovered the Burn Folder. However, when I tried to burn the disc I got the error "The operation cannot be completed because one or more required items cannot be found error code -43".

Great, very informative. Searching didn't find me much wiser and performing a chkdsk (obviously using a windows box) didn't resolve the problem. Since Disk Utility can only make an image of a device or disk, not a directory tree I thought I'd try mkisofs and see what happened.

In 10.4 I'd installed Fink so that I could have some common *nix tools on hand, but I couldn't be bothered this time. I found you can snarf a mkisofs binary out of DVD Imager. Download the dmg, mount it, right click (or Ctrl-click if you only have one mouse button) the DVD Imager app and chose "Show Package Contents". Inside "Contents" is "Resources" and inside there is mkisofs. Drag it out to your desktop then from a terminal:

bash-3.2$ sudo mv mkisofs /bin/

Now here's where it gets interesting. When I tried to make an iso of the desired directory I got an error:

mkisofs: No such file or directory. Non-existent or inaccessible:

I could browse the path listed and see the files which it said were non-existent or inaccessible but I couldn't trash them (*facepalm* I just realised that would be because it's an NTFS filesystem). No matter, back to the windows box and delete the offending files (for the record they were just shortcuts to recently opened office documents that MS Office was keeping) and the disc burned fine.

Linux on an iMac G3 DV SE

2010-05-31T15:40:00.004+10:00

Why? Because I can. It's scheduled for the scrapheap anyway, so if I can have a bit of fun why not.

So I scrounged (or, more accurately, had it dumped on me) an iMac G3 DV SE. Unloved with it's whopping 128Mb of PC-100 RAM, 13Gb hard drive and OS 9.2, I decided to tinker, after all they're a good looking machine and in many ways a smart concept.

Out with the 13Gb hard drive and in with a 40Gb I had lying around. Amazingly I also scrounged two 128Mb PC-133 (take that PC-100!) DIMMS from an old dual PII box.

After a bit of trial and error downloading various flavours of linux built for powerPC architecture I settled on Debian Lenny. Because it's a low graphics install, that part went fine but after the reboot I had no X display after the text mode boot. Since the iMac has an external display port I hooked a monitor in there and low and behold, a functioning Debian install on an iMac G3.

The performance was truly woeful though, with a lengthy delay between a mouse click and anything happening. I put this down to the tiny amount of memory and 400Mhz CPU. I was ready to return it to the scrapheap but it bugged me that the internal CRT didn't work with X. After some judicious googling I turned up Matto's page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~matto/g3dv.html

Matto's iMac has since bitten the dust (all good things must come to an end after all) but he had very kindly posted his XF86Config file. Debian Lenny uses Xorg, but they're similar enough that it was a simple matter to merge the two configs. Voilà! A working X session on the internal CRT, but perhaps most surprisingly, a massive performance increase to the point where the machine is actually quite usable. Mind boggling for 256Mb RAM.

Mind you, this is using Xfce for the window manager. That could all change once I go to GNOME. We use wired 802.1x authentication here a work and though I know it can be done without it, it's just simpler using the network manager applet. As it is I've had to download the Debian DVD iso (I used a light CD install to get going) onto an external hard drive and mount it to get GNOME installed. Sure I could have burned a DVD, but where's the fun in that?

P.S For any would-be linux + iMac G3 geeks, here's the xorg.conf:


# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
 Driver  "kbd"
 Option  "XkbRules" "xorg"
 Option  "XkbModel" "pc104"
 Option  "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier "Configured Mouse"
 Driver  "mouse"
EndSection

Section "Device"
 #Identifier "Configured Video Device"
 #Option  "UseFBDev"  "true"
 Identifier   "ATI Rage 128 (generic)"
 Option  "UseFBDev"  "true"
 Driver "ati"
 VendorName   "ATI Rage 128 (generic)"
 BoardName     "ATI Rage 128 (generic)"
        BusID "PCI:0:16:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 #Identifier "Configured Monitor"
        Identifier   "Monitor0"
        VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
        ModelName    "Monitor Model"
        HorizSync   60.015
        VertRefresh 75-117
        Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 #Identifier "Default Screen"
 #Monitor  "Configured Monitor"
 Identifier   "Screen0"
        Device       "ATI Rage 128 (generic)"
        Monitor      "Monitor0"
 DefaultDepth 24
 Subsection "Display"
  Depth       24
  Modes       "1024x768_75.0"
  ViewPort 0 0
  Virtual 1024 768
 EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
 Mode 0666
EndSection

Section "Module"
        Load  "dbe"
        Load  "extmod"
 Load  "fbdevhw"
 #Load  "dri"
        Load  "glx"
        Load  "record"
        Load  "freetype"
        Load  "type1"
EndSection

US Heath (lack of) care.

2010-03-09T11:00:00.002+11:00

There are positives and negatives to any health care system in any country you care to mention worldwide, but for allegedly the most affluent nation the US health care system never fails to dismay me with it's gaping cracks. Take this poor bastard for example. It beggars belief that your employer should provide your health insurance, what do you pay taxes for?

Ever since I broke my hip and shoulder, was fixed up and flown 800km (with a nurse on board) to my local hospital all for free I vowed never to complain about the Medicare levy that I have to pay at tax time. When it comes to your health, why would you trust profit focused corporations over your elected government?

V-belt pulley

2010-02-23T21:06:00.003+11:00

I made a V-belt pulley the other day. It had to have a 16mm hole through the centre and be as small a diameter as possible. I had some 38mm round bar so I used that even though I'm fairly certain it's a smaller diameter than is recommended as a minimum. It's only to drive a cement mixer (slow was the main objective) so hopefully it'll be ok. I didn't have any grub screws, but what d'ya want for nothing.

Ubuntu 9.10

2009-11-13T18:47:00.003+11:00

Time for a geek update. I finally got around to upgrading from Jaunty Jackalope to Karmic Koala and all my Asus F5 dreams have come true. All the ACPI stuff finally works, everything just WORKS! Well worth the wait.

Oh, and it's dead sexy. 'Nuff said.

Grinding me down

2009-02-26T10:16:00.008+11:00

I have this at home somewhere on cassette (anyone remember those?) The title song, "(Don't let 'em) Grind ya down" is fairly self explanatory but I gotta tell you, some days it's easier said than done.

This is the kind of stuff that really does my head in, and I might find it funny if it happened to someone else.

Example #1.

I ordered a replacement DVD/CD combo burner for a member of staff's notebook computer. First they argued as to whether he really needed it or not(?!!), then what account code we should use. Then after the requisition was submitted, Finance decided they didn't want to process the order because it was too small ($99) so someone had to order it on their corporate credit card. For reasons beyond my reckoning a subsequent attempt at getting a purchase requisition to stick (since the person whom I asked to order it using their corporate credit card evidently didn't) was more successful because it turned up yesterday, a mere 5 months after I first attempted to order it.

Example #2.

By comparison this has happened at the speed of light. December 1 2008 - receive quote for replacement LCD. After much bouncing around, I finally trick someone into requisitioning the part mid-February. Inquiries by the hopeful recipient of the LCD led to a dead end where no one was even able to confirm the part has been requisitioned. A call to a contact in Finance revealed (after much, much searching of the finance system) that the part has indeed been duly requisitioned, approved, a purchase order raised and dispatched to the supplier and (now) a followup email requesting an ETA on said part sent.

The corporate solution to this mess? Force me to have a corporate credit card (from whence I can become "empowered" and oh, by the way also the purchaser of pens, pencils, miscellaneous stationary, whatever folks in my building might want, and, presumably whatever IT stuff I might actually need (usually on behalf of someone else), in spite of IT purchases being forbidden by the credit card policy). Then I have the joys of responsibility for the cards safekeeping, monthly reconciliations and the new career path of a purchasing officer/bookkeeper. What's not to like?

I won't bore you further with the most recent ordeal of ordering a notebook computer for someone; that requisition only took about 7 weeks to grind it's way through the system so it barely rates a mention.

Stuff like this can start get a person down...

Shortening the list

2009-02-23T11:35:00.003+11:00

Finally got on top of a few jobs this weekend, namely getting both Shoguns up and running with new cassettes, chainrings and even fancy Shimano chains. The Samurai isn't quite right yet, the front derailleur needs a bit more tweaking but it's completely rideable though the bar tape isn't what I was expecting and I did a horrible job applying it.

Also fixed the no idling problem on the venerable Honda VT250 circa 1985. The idle speed adjustment screw has been bent ever since we got it and I finally decided to straighten it out after it was driving me crazy while trying to adjust the idle after tweaking the mixture screws the other day. Put the nice straight screw in to be rewarded with no idle at all. It turns out that (in typical Honda engineering for the sake of it style) there's a little do-dah that the screw presses against which in turn presses on the cable pulley to set the idle speed. This little sucker will flip down if you remove the screw, necessitating removal of the petrol tank, airbox and little plate thingy that holds the carbies together in order to fix it. I should also mention that to make any adjustments to the idle speed, you will very likely burn your fingers on the front cylinder head cover. Nice.

Patched a couple of tubes and replaced the shagged rear tyre on the Tri-Sport too. Not bad considering the late starts (hey, I was going to get up early but I slept in in the interests of better health, I can't find a link, you'll just have to trust me) and the fact that I crashed out in the afternoon and got nothing done.

A while back I bought two of these hoping to resolve a bit of the bike storage crisis (I need to get rid of a few but I'm a hoarder). Sadly it doesn't look like it's destined to be. I put one up but it's a bit shaky with our MTB's on it. It might be ok, but if it falls over it's going to be ugly. The jury is definitely out.

What a let down

2009-02-20T10:43:00.003+11:00

An aborted bunch ride for me yesterday sadly. I got a puncture in the rear tyre within a couple of km of starting, fortunately I was prepared and a new tube was installed pretty quickly with the help of a couple of guys who stopped. The rest of the bunch were waiting around the corner and we all resumed where we left off. I'd checked the tyre briefly for things sticking through to the inside, but couldn't feel anything. It was only a quick check because I was feeling bad about holding everyone up.

About a kilometre later it punctured again and that was the end of my ride. I borrowed a mobile phone and called someone to rescue me and started walking back into town. Thinking about it I could have patched a tube and ridden back in since time was no longer a concern, but the walk was good.

My back tyre is badly worn which is disappointing considering it's only done 1700km. It's a Michelin Speeduim 2 which might be some kind of race tyre, I don't know, I just bought it because it was cheap(ish). I didn't have time to investigate the source of the punctures when I got home so this morning I rode the bike I actually built up for the purpose of commuting. It made me realise how fortunate I am to be able to pick and choose.

This weekend I'll hopefully get both Shoguns back in action, I bought some new 7 speed cassettes and chainrings as both sets were shot. I really need to pull the back wheel out of the commuter and reset the rear triangle. I did a shonky job of it to fit the Nexus 8 speed hub in there but it handles terribly so I'd guess I did it unevenly. I've since done another bike using Sheldon's technique. It worked perfectly and wasn't nearly as much effort as I'd anticipated.

The lowest of the low

2009-02-11T19:18:00.003+11:00

It simply beggars belief, but it seems that some people (though I am loathe to include them with the rest of humanity) are looting the homes of bushfire victims in Victoria. It's the single most un-Australian thing I've ever heard of. Utterly despicable.

Microsoft hell

2009-02-09T19:08:00.002+11:00

I volunteered (yes, really) for some microsoft training the other day. Today was day one, and thankfully tomorrow will be the finale. In the past I've attended some "Microsoft Official Curriculum" stuff and, once you get past the ubiquitous microsoft cheerleading, it was actually quite useful, particularly when it came time to roll out a sysprep setup of our labs.

But today was different. Instead of a folder chock full of microsoft speak (but thankfully doubling as a useful reference) we got a notepad. This was indeed a shaky start and it didn't really get much better. Probably the single most useful thing I took away from todays session is that a project called mono may take some pain out of the impending exchange rollout (more on that later).

The first hour or so was spent listening to how many microsoft products would solve the many problems (many of which we were blissfully unaware of) we apparently have sharing documents and so on. I thought this was pretty grim, but after lunch as the monotony of the new features of office 2007 were repeated ad-nauseum I fought the urge to cry. I'm there mainly for tomorrow's session on exchange and outlook so hopefully it'll be worth it. Know thy enemy and all that.

I'm an avid mutt user. Sadly it doesn't appear to be exchange compatible (like most mail clients worth using). This'll be an issue in the foreseeable future as exchange is thrust upon us. Truth be told the executive want it so they can impress their baby boomer middle management pals when they come to visit. Apparently there's a calendar function which I'm sure they're all wetting themselves over too. If possible, I hope to never even examine my calendar. In the absence of imap being enabled on the exchange server (it's not going to be) or some plugin for mutt popping up, I'll use either evolution or see if I can make mono run outlook. I suppose that way at least when the next outlook trojan/worm/self replicating virus/exploit or whatever comes out there'll be no underlying windows os for it to infect. Still don't relish the prospect.

Of course all this is shown up to be the petty nothingness it is (and I'm not really all that bothered by it truth be told) when you consider the poor bastards who've lost everything they have, friends, family and sometimes all three.

Near miss (EV Shopping Part II)

2009-01-30T20:28:00.002+11:00

I dodged a bullet the other day, what the hell was I thinking? $10K for a 1988 Suzuki Mighty Boy? $15K for a 1992 Daihatsu Charade? Both of which had clapped out batteries so add another $5.5K or so and a practical range varying from 20km to a (claimed) 80km.

Fortunately I talked myself out of it, one of the benefits of being a tightarse I suppose. It would have been a seriously bad purchase, particularly when you consider this. Naturally I expect the range claims are lies but how many people can honestly say they regularly drive their car hundreds of km one way? I expect whatever range it actually has should be enough for 90% of trips and we could use the smogbox for the rest.

I'll be interested to see if it gets off the ground here anyway. I do feel sorry for these guys, though. But I tend to think it was inevitable that an auto manufacturer would come along and squish them (albeit unintentionally) sooner or later. At about $70K for the evME versus about $30K for the i Miev it's a bit ominous.

Coroner absolves individuals of responsibility for actions

2009-01-21T11:41:00.005+11:00

What hope is there when a man drives his car off the second storey of a multi level car park, and the Coroner finds that it wasn't his fault? I'm sorry for the guys family and friends left behind and grieving, but this is a clear cut case of inadequate driving skills. Bearing in mind that he was parking the car, if you lack the ability or are driving in such a manner that you can't stop before careering off the edge (after going over a great lump of concrete), then in my not so humble opinion something is seriously wrong, and I doubt it's the environment in which you're operating said vehicle. If he'd reversed up onto the footpath and mowed down some pedestrians I doubt the authorities would have been so understanding.

The dark side

2009-01-16T09:57:00.004+11:00

It's funny how it starts, you're on an electric assist bike because you're too unfit (and unwilling to suffer) to make over a hill. After a while you realise you're enjoying pedalling, then you free yourself from the motor and it's just you and the bike. Life is good, you discover panniers, fit some mudguards and pretty soon you've got a solid commuter/shopping bike. You race cars because it's fun, but your heart's not in it. You feel fitter and stronger than you can ever recall.

Then you're given a old road bike. Your perspective begins to change, cracks begin to show. Suddenly you're hooked on the speed, lungs burning, legs of jelly but you don't care. More than that, you can't ride it slowly, the bike won't allow it. Those slicks roll so well at 110psi that your faithful commuter bike feels like riding through molasses. You abandon it and commute on the roadie, reverting to a backpack even though you know it makes no sense. The pace arrow taunts you every time you fall below your average speed.

You reach the point of no return and plunge blindly ahead. The first time you ride in cycling shorts you're too distracted by the fact that they actually are comfortable to notice the line you've crossed. The thrill of your first bunch ride wipes out the nerves about taking other people out and mild embarrassment at being the only one on a steel bike with downtube shifters and wearing runners. You begin to give serious consideration to joining the club, the word "race" is bandied about in your mind.

It's insidious how it happens. It's under control for now, but if I buy anything carbon fibre, anything at all, I'll have no alternative to consider that all hope is lost for me. I can't imagine ever buying CF stuff, but then I used to think the same about lycra (it really is more comfortable, honestly!)

Worst CFN ever.

2009-01-13T10:38:00.006+11:00

I normally look forward to my weekly reading of clusterfucknation by Jim Kunstler. Sure, it's a little loopy at times (ok a lot) and I don't agree with pretty much 100% of his view of the future (apart from the fact that we should be relying on rail a lot more and that oil will run out - but that's not opinion it's fact), but it's unarguably a different take on things. His synopsis and predictions for the whole sub-prime thing were spot on.

Today though, was just a rant about the Israel/Gaza conflict. Seems Jim's quite sensitive about that issue and/or anti-Semitism, and that's his right. It's also his blog and he can write whatever the hell he feels like on it, but I found I just skimmed over today's post. I don't really have much right to complain since it's free to access and read, but when has that ever stopped anyone having a whinge?

For the uninitiated, forget all about who fired rockets at whom, here's the problem with Israel and also why you'll never resolve it: In 1948, some people who didn't have the right, gave some land that wasn't theirs to some other people. Understandably the people who were already living there and weren't consulted about this were pretty pissed off. Over the years they've gotten more pissed off and more repressed and squeezed into smaller and smaller chunks of what used to be their land, so (to paraphrase Cool Hand Luke) you get what we have here today.

The only way to fix it is to go back to 1948 and put the people somewhere else, since when you're given something (even if it's by someone who shouldn't have given it to you in the first place since it wasn't theirs to give) you tend to feel it belongs to you. Once you've lived there for a generation or two, you've got nowhere else to go because if you're born somewhere, that is your home. Throw into the mix some bullshit about "the promised land" or some such nonsense and you've really got a mess. I think if you hold forth that God promised it to you (and He doesn't swing by to say otherwise) you can kill anyone you need to (this is the one thing that all faiths can agree on).

So, in the absence of any time machines (and even if there was one you'd still have to deal with the whole "promised land" thing otherwise any chunk of shitty desert would presumably suffice), it's fucked.

EV shopping.

2009-01-09T08:58:00.004+11:00

Yesterday I went and had a look at an EV. I've been pestering the owner for literally 18 months to see if they'd sell it to me and they finally called my bluff. I don't actually need this car, but I've wanted a 4 wheeled BEV (battery electric vehicle) for quite a while now. I've got a very strong history of enthusiastically starting projects, full of motivation and vigour only to abandon it a short while later*, so I knew there was no way in hell I was going to attempt a car conversion myself, even though on the surface of it, it's a relatively simple (if time consuming) process.

It's been sitting since August since they don't really have any use for it anymore either. Naturally enough the batteries have self discharged, which considering the owner reported that the pack is on it's last legs anyway doesn't bode well. I think it's safe to assume they represent only scrap value now.

From an economic standpoint virtually everything is against the average EV. Take my own EVT-168 electric scooter for example.

It was literally twice the cost of the equivalent 50cc scooter (more if you consider the cost of one of the myriad of cheap Chinese built scooters made on the same frame and bodywork as the electric) and although the servicing costs are nil and recharging costs about $0.25 it's many thousands of kilometres before you're in front, if at all. As if that wasn't bad enough, I wanted an electric motorcycle, not a scooter but you can't get electric motorcycles in Australia (thank you bureaucracy!)

I digress, but hopefully the day will come when owning an EV is more than just fun.

Here's a few crappy photos of the beast, a 1988 Suzuki Mighty Boy.

Ok, actually that was just two photos of the batteries that power the thing. I thought I had an overall shot but I can't find it.

*Often because I'm doing it on the cheap and I'm reluctant to spend any more money because I know I'll probably abandon the project. Yes it's self-fulfilling prophecy.

The other Shogun

2009-01-05T17:46:00.008+11:00

As much as I'm enjoying the pure google gold of my last post, there are other things in my life. For example, back in November I was given another Shogun road bike, this one's a Samurai. It came with a stem that could only have been used by Magilla Gorilla.

I've replaced the stem and steel bars with a much shorter one and some Modolo ergonomic bars I got off ebay a while back. Ironically it was cheaper to buy a complete bike from the shop at the rubbish tip than it was to buy a stem from the bike shop. I bought an Apollo which was only missing the bottom bracket and cranks (and thus $12 instead of $15). I think it's a decent frame so it remains to be seen what it's fate will be.

I hadn't ridden the bike much because I could feel the bottom bracket was dodgey (and it was weird and uncomfortable with that stem), just a couple of cruises into town. I had no idea just how bad the BB actually was though. On new years day I pulled it apart intending to clean, grease and reassemble. This is what I found:

The one second from the right is my favourite.

I've got a cartridge BB waiting to go in, but I also need a replacement chainring first. Then it should be good to go. I'm giving a vague consideration to going racing this year, if I do I think it'll be on this bike. As much as I love the other Shogun, this one seems more racy with it's 110mm BB and RSX brifters (though it's heavier and the brakes are poorer quality so who knows).

New laptop (or linux on the Asus PRO50GL)

2009-01-02T15:47:00.010+11:00

I bought myself a new laptop the other day, the old Mac I'd been using finally keeled over completely. I suspect the present issue is software, but it's got significant enough hardware issues that it's not worth persevering with.

Being a tightarse I searched around for the cheapest 15.4" notebook I could find, it's an Asus PRO50GL-AP211C. For $998 with 4Gb ram (even if the "bonus" 2Gb is 667Mhz when it should be 800Mhz to match the OEM stuff) it's a pretty good buy. I should have done a bit more research probably though, since I literally can't stand to use windows vista and was intending to use one flavour or another of linux with a longer view to runing OS X.

I got it home and gleefully booted my Fedora Core 10 install DVD without even giving windows a chance. The first danger sign was when the installer fell back to text mode, but I pressed on regardless. I shouldn't have bothered, X failed and it was too much of a pain in the arse to fiddle with to be bothered finding out what else wasn't working.

XP installed simply enough, albeit with the SATA hard drive in compatibility mode. I inserted the supplied driver DVD to discover that only vista drivers were included.

Much googling revealed that xp drivers were available, but by this stage I couldn't be bothered since I didn't want to run xp anyway, I was just getting desperate to use my new computer. In the end I relented and used the included restore DVD to get vista on, but I just hate it so damn much.

More googling found someone who'd tried most of the big name linux distros with limited success using Ubuntu. I downloaded 8.10 and 8.04 just to be on the safe side and booted off the "Intrepid Ibex" CD. It gives you the option to try Ubuntu as a live CD without modifying your hard drive, so rather than sit through an installation only to find it didn't work I tried it out.

Good news fellow Asus PRO50GL owners, it works fine. Everything, wireless, sound, video card, inbuilt webcam, all go right off the bat. I had to manually download and install the Nvidia drivers (do this or your eyes will burn out from the weird refresh rate it runs with the frame buffer driver) but really, I don't think you could ask for more.

So there you have it google searchers, take it from me, get yourself Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex (8.10) and install it on your Asus PRO50GL. It even works after updates.

Now I can start working out how to get OS X Leopard on here...

Edit: Actually, I forgot to mention that the ACPI stuff doesn't work so there's no battery monitoring, sleep, suspend and you can't adjust the brightness of the LCD, though CPU frequency scaling works fine. It's newish hardware and an open source operating system. It's only a matter of time before a new kernel comes out and it all just works. I can live with it for now.

Edit #2: I tempted fate with this post, and fate responded appropriately. Suddenly it sometimes gets a kernel oops on boot caused by ACPI. Not a major issue, but it's there. Also it decided to stop connecting to my wireless router for some reason. I deleted the connection (System -> Preferences -> Network Configuration -> Wireless) and booted the old kernel (2.6.27-7) and it connected fine, though of course the Nvidia module which was built for 2.6.27-9 no longer worked. I rebooted and it's working again. Meh, it's a computer, part of their function is to piss you off.

It'd be interesting to try a new bios (installed version 208, latest 213) but I'm not sure I'm game. Besides, all the utilities are windows or dos based (no floppy drive and I'm too lazy to try). Anyway, as the wise folks at Asus point out:

Careless updating may result to more problems with the motherboard!

Update 13/11/09
Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala installed (upgrade) and everything is sweetness and light. Couldn't be better.

A workaround I found for the wireless under 9.04 was to turn the switch for WiFi on the side of the computer off, boot up then slide the switch to on. With a bit of clicking on the Network Manager applet it would connect, but who cares?! Install 9.10 right now.

Update 2/6/10

Update: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS is bad news on the Asus PRO50GL. Install freezes, and other bad things. I ended up going back to 9.10 and simply installing the default Karmic themes of Ambience and Radiance. See instructions here: http://www.techdrivein.com/2010/04/install-ubuntu-lucid.html

All I really wanted was the uber cool (ripped off from OS X) wireless icon ;-)

Oils slippery slope

2008-12-18T12:36:00.004+11:00

Much to the consternation of OPEC, the price of oil has crashed since it reached the dizzying heights of over $140US per barrel a few short months ago. Energy doom and gloomers like Jim Kunstler say:

"Those of us studying the Peak Oil story have said that the "bumpy plateau" years of peak production would be expressed in tremendous price volatility, and for exactly the reasons now evident -- that the high-price phase would mangle advanced economies, that they would fall back in paralysis, then respond anew to oil price collapses by straggling up again, only to be crushed again when a resumption in demand for oil drove the price back up."

And who am I to argue, it seems reasonable enough to me.

I don't dispute that oil is a finite resource, what does annoy me however, is the fact that the entire pricing scheme for it appears to be nothing more than a gigantic contrivance. Near as I can tell, it's not based on the actual supply or the actual demand but the anticipated demand. Since one can never say with absolute certainty what the demand in the future will be, surely the entire thing (even the stockmarket itself) is nothing more than a house of cards.

As if to prove the point, OPEC cut production today by a massive 2.2 (or 4.5 depending on your news source) million barrels per day and what was the response? The price slumped further. Total, utter nonsense.

WTF?

2008-12-01T09:22:00.001+11:00

A man is killed in the rush for some shitty consumer crap in a post Thanksgiving sale in the USA. Seriously people, what the fuck?!!

Financial advice

2008-11-27T14:47:00.003+11:00

Lately I've been watching the first season of Seinfeld. I came in somewhere around the middle of the shows lifespan and I thought it'd be fun to see where it all started. Like most of these things the early episodes aren't as polished as later ones, but there's still a few good laffs to be had.

I particularly like this one, from the stand up routine at the end of "The Stock Tip" where Jerry Seinfeld says:

"I'm not an investor. People always tell me, you should have your money working for you. I've decided I'll do the work. I'm gonna let the money relax. You know what I mean? 'Cause you send your money out there - working for you - a lot of times, it gets fired. You go back there, "What happened? I had my money. It was here, it was working for me." "Yeah, I remember your money. Showing up late. Taking time off. We had
to let him go.""

Sums up why I steer clear of the stock market very nicely.

Miktex / Winedt configuration

2008-11-18T12:22:00.003+11:00

Crumbs, another geek post! Since this is such a random collection of crap it shouldn't really matter I suppose. I was intending to post about a bushwalk we did a couple of weekends ago where we got up close and personal with an echidna and a kangaroo (yeah roo's are a bit ho-hum but some people seem to like 'em).

Anyway, to the point (at last). Fairly infrequently I need to setup MiKTeX and WinEdt for people to create LaTeX (pronounced lay-tek) documents. There's a nifty little feature where if MiKTeX encounters a syntax error in the document you can press e and it returns you to Winedt with the offending line highlighted in red. Nice.

It stands to reason that the authors of MiKTeX don't much care which text editor you use so the default behaviour is for windows notepad to be opened. This used to be rectified quite easily by finding and editing miktex.ini and changing the appropriate line. Then for some reason they decided to change it. Fair enough, but how to configure the mysteries of "e" in MiKTeX now? It certainly isn't in the FAQ, nor does it appear to be documented anywhere else. Seems like no-one else cared, apparently they never make an error in their documents, or perhaps it was some closely guarded secret, either way I couldn't find it and the last time I needed to do this (before today that is, about 18 months ago) a lot of googling wasn't much help.

Finally I turned to googling google groups (a sure sign of a desperate man) and eventually I was rewarded with this solid gold nugget of wisdom. Murray didn't get a response on the group, but was kind enough to post the answer for tormented souls like myself to revel in. So I'm putting it here, since contrary to my thoughts last time which were that it was such a pain in the arse to find the answer I could surely not forget it, I'll have it on record.

To open WinEdt from MiKTeX by pressing e when there's an error:

"If you use MikTex 2.5, open YAP and in the options, tab "Inverse DVI search" select WinEdt (in my case it was autodetected, but not selected) and it should work then..."

It does, thanks Hanno Dierke and Murray Eisenberg.

Maybe one day I'll post something interesting here. Don't hold your breath.

More Mac geekery

2008-11-04T15:46:00.002+11:00

Today I was trying to upgrade a Powerbook G4 from OS 10.2.8 to 10.4, a simple enough task. I suspected there was an issue with filesystem corruption as the user reported that Mail crashed when they clicked on the sent mailbox (3800+ messages!)

So I dutifully booted off a DVD and ran Disk Utility, noting that it successfully repaired the mailbox but failed to repair an "Incorrect number of thread records" error. It loops around 3 times then gives up.

Everything works fine (including the previously troublesome Mail application) but before OS X installs it checks the disk over so when it finds, and fails to repair, the error the installation is aborted. I tried running fsck manually from a terminal after booting the install CD, I even tried single user mode (press and hold Command S on startup) and manually ran fsck where I was at least rewarded with a (false) success message, but still it wouldn't install.

The obvious google answer is use something like TechTool Pro or Disk Warrior, but the likelihood of getting the purchase of Disk Warrior through our bureaucracy in a timely manner doesn't bear thinking about. TechTool Pro is bundled with the "AppleCare Protection Plan", which, if the morons in charge of certain nameless departments hadn't sacked all our technicians we would have had a free copy available for me to use...

Anyway, as a last ditch effort to avoid having the user back up all their data and erase the disk for a clean install, I borrowed a firewire cable and brought the PowerBook up in target disk mode (hold T on startup). Then I ran Disk Utility on it from my PowerBook and it repaired the disk and OS 10.4 is installing as I type. A little bit of MacGyvering, but a free repair!

Docx dread

2008-10-24T11:11:00.009+11:00

A little geek rant if I might indulge myself (and I might since it's my blog and no-one is reading it anyway). Microsoft, not content to rest on their laurels having taken a 2kb text file to a 20kb doc file with the original Word program, has now decided to inflate it even further by making it xml and then bundling it up as a zip file called docx. Now don't get me wrong, I remember WordPerfect 5.1 and I consider that a WYSIWYG interface is a pretty darn good thing when it comes to word processing, but gimme a break!

Anyhoo here's the deal so listen up, OpenOffice will open docx with NO FUSS. That's it, none at all, not a peep. It's even faster than using Microsoft's own "Compatibilty Pack" or the Open XML file converter if you're on a Mac.

So spread the word, don't let the standard Microsoft business plan of masking backwards compatibility (File -> Save As is just soooo hard to figure out) to force upgrades work.

(NB: You need OpenOffice 3 which at this point isn't available for OS X PPC machines except as a release candidate but I've used the beta and it's fine. It's also a native app now which is much prettier than the older X11 version)

Western Australia

2008-10-23T09:25:00.006+11:00

Rockingham, WA

Rockingham, WA

Rockingham, WA

Quokka, Rottnest Island, WA

Quokka, Rottnest Island, WA

Awww, a baby Quokka, Rottnest Island, WA

Beach, Rottnest Island, WA

Rottnest Island, WA

Peacock, Rottnest Island, WA

Perth as seen from Rottnest Island, WA

Freemantle gaol.

Subprime explained.

2008-10-21T11:40:00.006+11:00

This (unlike this blog which sucks) is funny shit. It's been parked in my inbox for a week now so it's probably very old by the web time scale but I found it both funny and a scarily accurate summary of what went down/is going down now.

(Or click).

Life imitating art

2008-09-11T10:12:00.003+10:00

Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a Dilbert comic strip. The report from the recent OH&S inspection is in. I got off lightly with only a demand that my power cords be tagged and tested (lest they suddenly begin to electrocute me after years of faithful service) and a rather offensive "general tidy up".

The thing that really gets me is the self contradiction of these OH&S experts. Some years back a large number of office chairs were purchased on their recommendation and with their approval, yet these met with a scathing "...poor design and require replacement." Similarly "Workstations are very low. They need to be raised." That would be the same workstations which were lowered to comply with your demands after the last inspection to allegedly cater for shorter people right?

Perhaps my personal favourite was when I was asked by the PHB if I wanted to be responsible for computing related OH&S/firewarden stuff. My blunt but undeniably honest reply of "No" seemed to catch him off guard. I can only assume that he naively assumed that I would welcome the job of local cat herder with open arms.

Welcome back

2008-09-02T11:13:00.006+10:00

I was nearly flattened on the way home yesterday, it served as a welcome back/reminder to myself that a) I'm invisible on a bike and b) I must anticipate other road users actions before they do them. I'd forgotten both of those important survival techniques and it nearly cost me. Forgetting a) I'll just put down to being a passenger in a car for so long, plus on a motorcycle (even the scooter) you are only semi-visible, not invisible as on a bicycle. Forgetting b) is unforgivable, but I'll just put it down to being rusty from an extended absence of being at the helm.

As you can see from the detailed diagram below, the driver stopped at the stop sign, noted the taxi stopping for the pedestrians on the crossing then started off again just in time to almost run over me as I rolled through behind the pedestrians.

I'm not sure of the legality of what I did, but since the pedestrians were already past me I didn't see much point to waiting at the crossing. Of course there actually was a very good reason to hang back, and I won't be making that mistake again in a hurry.

From the look of surprise on her face I could tell that she hadn't seen me, mainly because she was looking at the taxi but also because vehicles other than cars often don't register in the brains of drivers. It's up to me to take care of that part, and I don't mean screaming obscenities as I go past, nor do I mean wearing brightly coloured clothing (though that doesn't hurt so long as you ride like you're still invisible). She wouldn't have seen me if I was painted dayglo orange and had a flashing blue light perched on top of my helmet, she just saw cars because that's what she was looking for. It won't hurt you if you don't forget it.

Shameless

2008-09-01T11:05:00.002+10:00

In a spot of shameless consumerism heavily subsidized by underpaid Chinese workers, I bought two folding bikes. As the name suggests, they are bicycles and they fold:

For reasons I haven't been able to clearly identify I've wanted one for a while but I've resisted because they're too damn expensive and I don't need one. A folding bike is more aimed at the commuter who would ride it a few km to the train station, fold it up, get on the train and off they go. I was able to snag this pair for $60 each though, and our upcoming cross country train journey means that they'll hopefully come in handy as it stops for a couple of hours in places I haven't been too. Whipping a bike out of our cabin and setting off should allow us to see much more than walking would.

Today marked the first day that I've commuted by a regular bicycle. It was sunny and reasonably warm this morning so I saddled up and had a good ride in. With luck I can get back to it on a regular basis.

Saturday ride

2008-08-30T13:48:00.003+10:00

Since I'm not cycling every day I really look forward to my weekend rides, so it was that I set out under leaden skies this morning with the aim of riding to the end of the bike path and back. It's good to have a goal, but what's even better is something to aim for, kind of like a greyhound chasing the mechanical rabbit around the track. Today when I saw another cyclist cruise past while I was filling my water bottle I had my mechanical rabbit.

It's a good thing I don't have a European car or people might cast all kinds of aspersions on my anatomy, because it's a curious thing but us commuters can be fiercely competitive. Naturally this is usually one sided, but hey, just because the person you overtook didn't know they were in a race doesn't make that victory any less sweet.

Colnago man (as he shall hereinafter be referred to since that's the brand of bike he was aboard) was wearing standard roadie cycling attire, lycra shorts, cycling jersey and arm and leg warmers as it was a bit chilly. I was wearing my classy Slazenger trackies, T-shirt and backpack. Now lets get one thing straight, if you're on an old steel framed bike wearing daggy clothes and you see a fellow cyclist wearing "proper" clothes then it's your unwritten duty to pass them (never mind the fact that they might be on the tail end of a 100km ride). If you have panniers full of groceries, so much the better.

I filled up my water bottle and headed off. It's probably worth mentioning that I never actually saw Colnago man again. I thought I caught a glimpse of him, far off in the distance once or twice, but it might have been anything. Happily enough the mere hint of Colnago man up ahead was enough motivation and I tried hard, well hardish anyway.

As I was inching my way up a slight incline, hyperventilating my way to a fainting spell yet ever watchful for the ghost of Colnago man up ahead, it dawned on me why the suffering is worthwhile. It was only a few months ago that I was able to ride fairly comfortably up these same hills, and the memory of that is enough mechanical rabbit to make this short term suffering seem worth it.

Here, at long last is an up to date photo of the mighty Shogun (I know you've both been dying to see it). Animal pictures are a big crowd pleaser, and I was tempted, but resisted selling out.

And now for something completely different

2008-08-27T11:28:00.004+10:00

I was going to comment on part one of the Telegraph article America and China: The Eagle and the Dragon where you get the feeling that the US military and the US population at large, seem to consider the current conflicts over oil or control of it as a kind of missionary rather than military action. Like early missionaries they're discovering (much to their consternation) that they're not necessarily welcome. Be it "savages" in untamed lands who worship animal spirits or Joe Average living in a country that from your perspective is lacking in "freedom", chances are they're quite satisfied with the status quo and may not welcome you with open arms should you try to shove your world view down their throats.

But anyway, screw that. Miss Andrea was good enough to turn me onto this:

As a fan of LOLcats this stuff hits the spot for a bit of a laugh.

Check out the full collection here.

Urban decline in Detroit

2008-08-26T12:48:00.003+10:00

I just had this link forwarded to me by a friend. The story is from July this year, so piping-hot fresh in the context of the subject matter. It's a long read, but well worth it and absolutely astonishing in many respects. Sure, I read Kunstler for my weekly giggle at the US economy (apologies to any US readers, it's hardly your fault) but dear old James tends to be rather apoplectic so I tend to take his opinion with a pinch of salt. I certainly don't agree with his doom and gloom/return to the 19th century outlook.

But maybe I'm wrong. The article in the Telegraph brought home to me how serious (at least in some parts of the US) the economic crisis really is. 197 mile round-trip commutes are simply incomprehensible to me yet they seem to be pretty much de rigueur in the 'burbs. Personally that's not a lifestyle I would have chosen to engage with regardless of the price of petrol and I can certainly see how at $4 per gallon commuters are finding they can't sustain it (though I wonder why they ever wanted to).

For those burdened with short attention spans, you can view a 60 second slide show summary here.

Bureaucracy

2008-08-26T10:06:00.005+10:00

We (the building) had an OH&S inspection yesterday, first time ever, by oder from on high. Room by room they came, fairly bristling with officiousness and self importance, clipboards hugged tight. I look forward greatly to their report on my office, if they think it's bad now, they should have seen it last week when I had dead and obsolete[1] PCs stacked in piles of 10 high, monitors and keyboards strewn about the place.

I knew about the impending inspection as did everyone, though not the specific date. At least until early last week. Let's just say I had a tip-off. I have friends in the right places...

[1] I found a pentium 75 and even more incredibly a 486 SX-33 resplendent with 30 pin SIMMS. I knew my office was being used as a dumping ground, but I didn't think there was a wormhole back to 1994 in there!

One month on.

2008-08-25T10:37:00.004+10:00

On two legs that is. Yep, it's been a month since I was able to dump the crutches. My right foot hurt for the first week and a half or so, I think simply because the bones inside it needed to shift back to their usual weight bearing positions. Sadly I was forced to abandon my overly ambitious bicycle commuting/swimming regime after only three days as my leg was excruciating every night. I also succumbed to a cold, but I hope to return to a more realistic swimming regime soon (twice or three times a week rather than every day), perhaps this week. Bicycle commuting (even with an electric motor for assistance), alas may have to wait a little longer.

I've managed a few gentle rides on the Shogun which was nice. The first two, a week ago were only along the pancake flat bike path, but on Saturday I managed about 12km over to a friends house and back though the climbs nearly killed me. Who knew one person could produce so much snot in such a short period of time? Classy.

I'm walking more or less ok, degree of limp varies dependent on how long I've been ~~sitting on my arse~~ at my desk as that seems to make it quite stiff. My medial quadriceps muscle on my right leg is still MIA but when I'm not too tired/lazy I'm doing the exercises that a Physiotherapist gave me late last year to build it up. At that time it was to correct a knee issue but the exercises should prove useful again.

Need to make a conscious effort to stand up straight (i.e equal weight on both legs rather than the bulk of my weight on the left leg) as it's become habitual to lean to the left . Standing still for any great length of time as when chatting to someone you've just bumped into causes much pain when attempting to move off, though none while standing still. Time will take care of it, must remember; patience is a virtue.

Diversions

2008-08-18T09:28:00.004+10:00

A while back the enforced idleness was starting to get to me and I was searching for a project I could complete reasonably quickly and easily. I found it here. Just before returning to work, I managed to drag a chair out to the garage and manoeuvre my lathe right over to the edge of the bench so that I could get at it while seated. I ended up modifying the design slightly as there were some aspects that I didn't like and as a result of misreading my handwriting while converting the measurements from imperial to metric, I finished up with a cylinder that was shorter than intended. I found this out while drilling the bore, fortunately I stopped just before breaking through and ruining it.

I was going to polish it up before taking photos, but I couldn't be bothered. Does it run? Yes, compressed air (or steam) goes in through the fitting on top and exhausts out the back. Why, oh why?? Because it was fun and because I could. Besides, I was getting a bad case of cabin fever.

I had vague cottage-industry type fantasies of producing a few shiny ones for sale to live steam freaks on eBay for about a day before I gave up since I knew that laziness and my general aversion to any kind of work would easily defeat such an enterprise.

My other bike

2008-08-15T10:06:00.006+10:00

Lest the 3 readers of this blog get the impression that I'm some kind of simpering, tree hugging, bicycle loving, electric vehicle owning, Mac using, Linux geek[1], here's some evidence to the contrary. Yesterday it was time to take our bikes to get a pre-registration safety inspection.

Needless to say I've not been on my bike for over 3 months, even prior to my accident I was rarely riding it because I was using a bicycle to go everywhere. I quickly fitted the battery and it fired up on the second go. I'll admit to being a tad nervous as it's a reasonably heavy bike and I had some doubts about the strength of my right leg but all went well.

The thought of selling the bike has crossed my mind in the past, after all in recent times it gets used only a handful of times per year, but whenever I ride it any such thoughts are immediately banished. It's everything I want from a motorcycle (well I would love to be able to wheelie off the throttle but since I've ridden bikes that can wheelie off the throttle and I can't hold a wheelie to save my life it's no great loss.) So comfortable, reliable, if I put knobby tyres on it I can go just about anywhere and with road tyres on it's a great tarmac tourer and more than a little rapid through the corners.

Here it is shortly before I bought it and began subjecting it to numerous indignities and the odd tumble.

No matter how tough you may think you are riding your big bike with knobby tyres through the Strzelecki Desert on your way to the Bourke and Wills Dig Tree, there's always someone to remind you, you ain't all that.

It's back in the garage for another year now, but it's pretty safe from being sold.

[1] Those who have meet me already know all this to be true, but anyway...

Narcoleptic Mac PowerBook - cured

2008-08-14T09:57:00.005+10:00

Let the word go forth (hopefully google will catch the title), anyone with a narcoleptic mac, pop off your top case following a takeapart and remove the offending sensor as shown in this photo. I was going to desolder mine, but the soldering iron here at work is a bit crude for such fine work so I simply clipped the leads with some small sidecutters.

Powered it back up and voilà! No temperature sensor means no temperature reading from the trackpad (confirmed with Temperature Monitor) means no false readings means no more emergency sleep.

Hopefully this can save someone a few bucks and keep otherwise perfectly functional computers out of landfill.

Here's a closeup of the offending sensor, match head included for scale.

According to Temperature Monitor it's a National Semiconductor LM7X, but I couldn't find any reference to LM7751 on their website. Not that I looked very hard since it's not like I'd bother replacing it anyway.

PowerBook Sleeping Sickness

2008-08-13T14:15:00.002+10:00

At work I use a PowerBook G4 15", no reason really other than we bought two, one for a staff member and one for me to familiarize myself with so I could be of assistance should the occasion call for it (ok, let's be honest, it was also to play around with). I use linux at work so it sat on the shelf for quite a while, but as my desktop was getting a bit long in the tooth and slow I grabbed the Mac. I used to dislike Macs, but along came OS 8, and they weren't too bad, OS 9 and they were getting better, but the real winner was OS 10. Based on Unix they could hardly go wrong. Also if you've ever been an Apple Certified Engineer and had access to their take apart manuals, you'll know how sweet they are to follow. No more hidden screw holding that case together while sweat beads on your forehead as you try to gently prise it apart.

Funnily enough I use it as a thin client (aka dumb terminal) because we run NX Server and I require a linux desktop for much of my day. I quite like OS X though, and do most of my web surfing and general messing about from there. Anyway, enough background already.

Yesterday my PowerBook started playing up randomly going to sleep, which was quite odd considering it's set to never go to sleep. Some google research and a quick check of the logs (ha! Try that winblows lusers!) revealed this message:


kernel[0]: Power Management received emergency overtemp signal. Going to sleep.

Oh dear. Further investigation by way of downloading and installing Temperature Monitor confirmed what I had been lead to expect by my googling, the trackpad temperature sensor is randomly reporting a false high reading triggering an emergency sleep. My record is 95^oC. So this is all well and good, and looking at the pretty history graphs from Temperature Monitor is fun for a while, but how to fix it.

Since it's a hardware problem, the many suggestions from google about removing kernel extensions and recreating preferences weren't going to work. Similarly dropping it off to the local Mac ~~morons~~, er, service agent wasn't an option because it's out of warranty. The top case (which I would have fitted myself anyway) was $290! I did find one enterprising chap who recompiled his kernel, but I have no desire to do that since unlike linux you can't just point GRUB to the new kernel, you have to mess with Open Firmware and I'm just too lazy. Also for every kernel update that comes out, you either recompile your kernel or don't install the update. Custom kernels went out with RedHat 6 in my opinion.

So it was that I came in to work today armed with my trusty (and essential) black stick so I could pop the top case off the PowerBook and see if I could spot the problem. While I didn't identify the troublesome sensor, I did think I had found a workaround. I unplugged a cable from the trackpad reasoning that no trackpad connection = no faulty sensor. Since I use it as my desktop machine I've always got a USB keyboard and mouse attached anyway so no biggy if I lose the trackpad short term.

I was wrong. It seemed like it was working for a while, the sensor was reporting a steady (but ridiculous) 61^oC and no shutdowns....until this afternoon. The temperature plummeted to a believable mid 20 then rocketed up and caused multiple sleeps. In a fit of pique I lifted the top case (which I had sensibly just sat on top of the computer rather than reattaching it properly) and unplugged the single connector to the logic board. This was a silly thing to do, but it's been fine ever since and assuming I haven't damaged the logic board all will be well.

Happily while writing this post and trying (and failing) to google up the kernel recompiling chap, I stumbled across the location of the accursed trackpad temperature sensor here. Needless to say I'll be removing it post haste and once more all will be right with the world (well my work computer anyway).

My three day weekend, a pictorial

2008-08-11T09:15:00.004+10:00

(There weren't any champagne flutes)

I get by...

2008-08-05T09:24:00.004+10:00

With a little help from my friends, or in this case, an electric pedal assist bike, or ebike for short. I don't have a proper picture, so here it is as it appeared in the catalogue when I bought it a couple of years ago:

I started (or perhaps I should say restarted) commuting on it again yesterday and I've never been so rugged up for a bicycle ride! Mind you, it was -4C, but because I knew I wouldn't be doing much pedaling and the bike path follows the creek I was wearing a heavy coat and scarf. I may as well have been on the scooter for all the pedaling I was doing, though I did do some once I warmed up a bit. I was even starting to feel a bit cocky, like I might not need the ebike at all, until I reached the last hill on the way to work and heard the motor straining under the load.

On the way home as part of my self-developed recovery plan, I stopped off for a spot of lap swimming. It was mildly embarrassing since based on the $4.50 cover charge I was probably averaging $0.50 per lap. Actually that's probably too generous, I'd be surprised if I did 9 laps of the 25 metre pool so $0.75 per lap is probably more like it with a few rest periods thrown in. There weren't many other swimmers around and apart from being great for my shoulder it's also a good cardio workout so I'll persist for the time being.

Somewhat surprisingly considering the low impact nature of the exercise, my leg was very sore afterwards. In fact, it's been aching a lot since I got off crutches. Oh well, it's only been a week. This morning I did a lot more pedaling and took a different route that avoids the bike path (and hence creek). Tomorrow I might switch back to my regular lightweight windstopper jacket and do away with the scarf. If nothing else it should provide extra motivation to pedal. Pedaling actually feels great after an initial warm up period, my leg doesn't ache at all and there's no stiffness like there is walking. I do have trouble turning my toes in though, which tends to bring my ankle too close to the crank (as a kid I used to regularly clip my ankle on the cotter pins, it's a habit you learn to break quickly though these days bicycle cranks are cotterless. Side note, the wikipedia article on cotter pins is completely, utterly incorrect! Those are split pins, not cotter pins! Grrr.) I guess whatever muscles take care of that are weak or stiff.