The immature ramblings of an idiot

something nasty from LJ

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:55:53 GMT

Is it just me? Nearly time I visit here I get a big flashing note that my computer is infected and I need to download program x.

A screen flashes up. It looks like a legit windows screen doing some sort of scan.

The first time this happened, even tho I was a bit suspicious I clicked on the download link and the PROPER antivirus program on the computer went into overdrive and told me I was trying to download something malicious.

The (false) warnings keep coming but if I keep closing the page it eventually goes away.

Anyone else?

On Writing by Orhan Pamuk

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 02:33:36 GMT

I just wanted to record this mainly for my own benefit but will leave it open so others may stumble across it.

"I write because I can't do normal work like other people. I write because I want to read books like the ones I write. I write because I am angry at all of you, angry at everyone. I write because I love sitting in a room all day writing. I write because I can only partake in real life by changing it. I write because I want others, all of us, the whole world to know what sort of life we lived, and continue to live in Instanbul, in Turkey. I write because I love the smell of paper, pen and ink. I write because I believe in literature, in the art of the novel, more than I believe in anything else. I write because it is a habit, a passion. I write because I am afraid of being forgotten. I write because I like the glory and interest that writing brings. I write to be alone. Perhaps I write to understand why I am so very very angry at all of you, so very very angry at everyone. I write because I like to be read. I write because once I have begun a novel, an essay, a page, I want to finish it. I write because everyone expects me to write. I write because I have a childish belief in the immortality of literature. I write because it is exciting to turn all of life's beauties and riches into words. I write not to tell a story but to compose a story. I write because I want to escape from the foreboding that there is a place I must go but-just as in a dream-I can't quite get there. I write because I have never managed to be happy. I write to be happy"

all typos and mistakes are mine

Unusual Computer Fix..It has been truly amazing

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:14:12 GMT

I do a lot of work at a 5 year old desk top in our study. It has my life stored on it....that's another story as I am transferring my life to "the cloud".

Of late this computer has been extremely slow and the final straw has been a freezing mouse. On another recently deceased and even older computer these things were preliminary to computer death. I feared that this one might die too before I got all the files uploaded to flickr and google.

Last week I tried all the fixes I could find on the net. I got a new faster modem to see if that would speed something up at least. Not much help.

So I ordered a new computer hoping to at least salvage the hard drive from the old one and run it as an extra disc.

One last search on the net and in an obscure post in an obscure forum I read this tip for the described problems: Turn the computer off and UNPLUG it. Length of unplugging time unspecified, but in subsequent posts half an hour seemed like a good time.

So I tried it and guess what: The computer runs faster, the mouse no longer freezes, the new modem seems faster still. Only the last is a bit subjective, but I reckon they are all true.

I pass this on in the wish that one day this extremely simple little tip might be of use to you.

cheers all

PS: I didn't cancel the new computer but would certainly not have ordered it if I had found this tip a few days earlier.

today's amusement in OUR theatre

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:21:48 GMT

More BC in the media

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:04:50 GMT

This one first noticed on weebly's facebook page:

http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Couple-s-book-hobby-crosses-globe/article-1153529-detail/article.html

BC in The Times

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:21:29 GMT

noticed on Mol's facebook

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6684717.ece

Where have the trillions gone? 'We don't know". Rather Scary Video

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 05:11:45 GMT

rain wonderful rain

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:31:57 GMT

Rain over the weekend brought poor dry Adelaide up to the average rainfall for the year to date. Let's hope it continues. We had to go and remove leaves from the filter of one of the tanks. The seriously dry (try dead) front lawn is on show as well

seen in christchurch part 1

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 10:54:41 GMT

going around and around on the baggage carousel. I hope the rest of the suitcase made it

schandenfraude and medical fraud. Miketroll you will like this

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 05:05:33 GMT

Those who know me well will know I am buzzing with ideas and little projects. I have an ongoing interest in a very small branch of my specialty. Over the last several years a couple of colleagues and I have done a very lovely little study. Great results. Done honestly and meticulously. Contributes well to the body of knowledge. Has the ability to change some current practices in a small but meaningful way.
All done a shoestring with a lot of volunteer work and typing up at home etc etc. As a comparison there is another trial going on here in which the researchers are getting several thousand dollars a patient. No secrets for guessing ours was unsponsored and this second has a medium pharma behind it.

To make a long story short we aimed high and first submitted our paper to THE BEST journal, only to see it rejected with a few unhelpful remarks. It's no big deal because they only accept 10 to 15% of submissions. But it really threw the junior bloke that wrote it all up. Has set us back a bit.

So how do I feel when I find that THE BEST journal, which rejected us, is one of those caught up in this, the Madoff equivalent of my little world:

http://writedit.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/massive-fraud-calls-into-question-multimodal-analgesia/

hey we didn't get published (yet) but we can sleep at nights.

When we got rejected I stopped my journal subscription. I will have to go to the library or look online as they tear themselves apart explaining this.

It calls into question the whole system of peer reviewed journals and pharma sponsored trials.

thirsty koalas

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:05:32 GMT

There have been some awful times recently in Australia. I accept that and we mourn.
However the extreme heat has brought some wonderful photographs of koalas and koala encounters.
As background they are not very human friendly. They usually hang around high in trees asleep during the day. The spit and growl if disturbed. We are taught they don't need much water as they get their hydration from all the gum leaves they eat.

The link below contains some wonderful koala antics that are new to many of us and I guess are a reflection of the recent extreme conditions:

http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2009/02/thirsty-koala-1.html?program=adelaide_big_red_roving

while the human death toll is soon likely to pass 200 and may reach 300 we must also spare a thought for the animals. There was one published estimate of a million dead animals. I think it included wild animals and livestock. I have NO idea how the figure was derived, but it gives some idea of the scale of things

This amused me

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:06:49 GMT

Taken on recent trip. "Low" fire danger? DUH!? Posted (on return to Australia) on our 5th day in a row of over 40 degrees C maximum temperature

Our Weather

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 01:43:20 GMT

Just so you all know: I am wearing shorts watching the cricket on the TV.
It is going to be about 32 C (90F) today.
The neighbours are away and have allowed us free go at their pool.
We are soon off to an "eat the leftovers on Boxing Day" party.
What a terrible life.
Hope you are well and surviving the trials and tribulations of both the Christmas season and the weather where-ever you are.

kiva..loans to the third world

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 01:00:03 GMT

This has all come together thus:

A few weeks ago I heard about kiva on the radio. Then read about it on BC. I pmed Fellraven, one of many who wrote about it in BC and got a helpful reply, but up to today hadn't done anything about it.
Then my parents gave me a Kiva voucher for Christmas, and this finally precipitated me to join.

see here:

http://bookcrossing.com/forum/5/5913488

I am aware that everyone has charities that they already support and believe in but I thought I would post this in case you are looking for another and have not heard about kiva. And I shall follow up any suggestions that you may have...I have seen some on BC when researching this post.
Interestingly there were chickens, goats and immunisations also given in my immediate family so I was very very heartened by the unselfishness of my children.

Small English school visits

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:51:57 GMT

Small Adelaide school beats them at cricket by six wickets after managing 94 runs off the last 10 overs bowled, leaving an over and five balls. This entry and the photograph will be pretty meaningless to nearly all of you I suspect but YEW BEWDY!!!

book review

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:47:52 GMT

Don't normally do these here but I have been engrossed in the 937 pages of this book for over a week. Sorry if I haven't got to one of your books yet :)

I think there is at least one reader of my LJ that may wish to consider this book

cut and paste from BC

Anathem, Neal Stephenson

A rare and extraordinary book. It is not really SF/fantasy and there is really no suitable category. Stephenson has developed into a writer of the highest calibre. He began with a few pulpy fiction things (one at least under a different name), a rant about university departments and another rant about computers.
Snow Crash along with Gibson's Neuromancer introduced and defined "cyberpunk". The Diamond Age was a strange but entertaining look into an possible future. I have yet to read "The System of The World" books but they have been highly recommended.
Anathem is, to use the author's own words, "speculative fiction". It is set on Abre, an Earth like world, which in the time described is divided into the "normal" world and the "mathic" world. The latter is a series of communities for mathematicians, scientists and philosophers. They are kept separate so that their ideas do not alter society too quickly and too radically...the reasons for this are alluded to throughout the book and listed in a potted history at the start.
This comfortable arrangement is thrown into chaos when an extremely large and threatening spaceship from elsewhere is detected in the solar aystem.
You get all of this: philosophy, mathematics, geometry, religion, orbital physics, physiology, chemistry, quantum physics, morality, multiverses. And more. No doubt all of it totally up to date and "correct". Wrapped in a rather entertaining story. Hard to say more without blowing the plot.

It ain't easy and it ain't for everyone but if this is your scene rush out and buy a copy.

Nov 27 where is MarciNYC

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:44:06 GMT

http://bookcrossing.com/journal/1349460

I live in Harrington Street

Marci sent me this book many years ago. I pass it every day and wonder where she has gone.

I think she sent three large sacks of books to us poor stralians. I distributed them around the country and thus journal entries appears from time to time. See below.

She is one of my favourite bookcrossers even though she has disappeared from view for some years

http://bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/MarciNYC

and just to continue the theme of Marci being remembered by her books

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1498748

Nov 24. there is a dictionery buried there

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 06:34:01 GMT

Saturday Nov 22

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 03:37:28 GMT

some things don't need to be said

Curse you Liz for introducing me to this

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 02:38:46 GMT

for those who haven't seen it:

http://www.mcgov.co.uk/zahada.html

riddles, puzzles, lateral thinking, looking EVERYWHERE type things.
Just so you know later into it...past the first few levels anyway...it can help to look at :all: the browser functions. If you didn't know that it could drive you mad. Or even more mad as the case may be.

Good luck

says me, having "advanced to level 15.

DON'T GO THERE IF YOU DON'T NEED ANOTHER TIME SINK!!!

Nov 21..only a few days to go

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:31:13 GMT

?

"Just down the road the old lines are still there and you can go back to overtaking when it's unsafe"

sunday Nov 16..sending books to Libby

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 03:46:55 GMT

Back on track after breaking the discipline and being a bit late with a couple

Saturday Nov 15

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 03:21:28 GMT

was spent watching cricket and registering books

why I missed Friday Nov 14

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 03:12:22 GMT

still recovering from this, which now will do as my entry for that day

how to grow artichokes

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:33:10 GMT

wonderful lunch today. Barely able to make an entry. There may be some photographs on facebook in next day or so if anyone wants to see more.

and PS any one of you coming to South Australia who wants an amazing food and wine experience give me six months notice before you come and I'll take you