Action on Australia's "Clean Feed"

I was going to wait until I got all of my old post back before starting up the blog again, but lets hope that when the old stuff gets imported, it doesn't cripple the new stuff.

So a while ago I decided to do something about the Clean Feed that the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy wants to bring in.

With the template of what is provided at No Clean Feed, I wrote a letter to Rudd and Conroy.

Bitten by the GPS update

So I was thinking about upgrading the maps on my GPS because I noticed a few round-abouts the have become lights, lights that have become round-abouts, new roads and changes in which is the “main” road at T intersection.
But hang on, how much are the maps. $150 AUD. What a joke.
I can buy a melways for the next 5 years or so at that price, but who buys a melways every year.

So I’m looking at other alternatives.
I noticed a N810 in Dick Smiths today and I wasn’t quiet sure if it had a GPS unit in it. It does, but it doesn’t seem to come with any Navigation software (for australia).
Roadnav seems to be the one at the top of everyone’s list and apparently it is aiming at integrating with Open Street Map which I have used before.

Just another bad day

So here is the day I was hoping to enjoy, just another 4wd adventure.

But I came around a corner, fish tailed and hit a tree (then did a 180, don't know how that happened though).

This was on the way home so I still had a good 4wd, it just took a little longer to get home than expected.

I’m lost on feeling though. I’m confused how it happened. I came out of it ok, mum is shaken up again.
I’m sad that I won’t be able to drive anywhere, but it is not going to bring me to tears.
The tow truck guy suggested that the car will be a write off, so I guess all of the work I’ve put into the car just dissapears.
I’m not particularly worried about the money on the car, because I’ve had a blast in it. But I kinda wish it lasted longer.
I could just replace the car, but does that mean I would have to go back to work to build the funds up again…
Does the freedom the car gives me outway the freedom I wanted from my own project…

-= Comments
1. Intrinsic | September 29th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Nasty,

I’d get a proper assessment before writing it off, looking at that external damage the only thing I can think of that I’d write it off for is kinked chassis rails.

That is assuming you’re willing to do the work on it yourself, if you were going to get it done “professionally” it’s probably a write off on cost.

2. RuF! RuF! RuF! | October 2nd, 2008 at 2:13 pm
OOoooo slow down you hoon its not a race (unless it was)

Yarr Har

Well ye dirty land lubber.
We made it to international talk like a pirate day and some of us take it the extra step.

Spam on the rise again

For the longest time, I was getting next to no spam.
Now it seems that I am getting 3-4 every day.

I’ve started turning off comments for some of the posts that keep getting spam to stop the emails coming in.

One thing I noticed was that they all come from the same ip address (200.63.42.136). I would normally expect it to come from many addresses.

Just wondering if anyone else is suffering at this point in time?

-= Comments
1. Zooba | September 6th, 2008 at 8:15 am
I agree, spam is on the rise.

Most of mine are from various IP addresses, I can’t see any pattern.

2. Lucien | September 7th, 2008 at 10:17 am
I don’t seem to be having that problem. I’ve switched of trackbacks on all posts. I leave comments open until I start getting spam on that post, then I switch comments off for that post too. Perhaps you are just more popular than me

If a code monkey goes on holidays…

...but doesn't upload any shots: Does anybody know about it?
Well very few, but the worst bit is I can't show it off.

Back near the start of August, my brother and I took our patrols over to Tasmania for a quick whip around. Goals were:
1. Cadbury factory tour
2. Drive in some snow
3. See an old Huon pine tree
So here is us on the first day at some lighthouse.

Stopped off at some falls.

Some more falls

A small snow fight

Spotting a rainbow

Crossing a lake

And on Mt Wellington where it snowed for all of about 30 seconds

Is was just 4 full days in Tasmania, but worthwhile. Some say “what a waste” bringing two cars but it meant all 4 of us got a front seat and if anything went wrong, the other car could probably do some towing. The only thing that bothered me is that you can’t drive and take photos (Mum still needs to pick up on the finer details of the camera).

When we got home we got some tickets to some races that I went to but caught a cold from. So I haven’t had the energy to put these pics up previously.

So we seen the Huon pine, We got to play in the snow. But the Cadbury factory was shut on the weekend, which is when we pulling into Hobart.

-= Comments from previous blog instance

1. Emma  |  August 24th, 2008 at 12:14 am
Those pics are beautiful honey

2. Emma  |  August 24th, 2008 at 12:17 am
wish i could have gone with you actually

3. RuF! RuF! RuF!  |  October 2nd, 2008 at 2:16 pm
FUCK DUDE the waterfall ones ARE AWESOME you should blow them up (wall sized) and make some kick ass prints : )

Dynamic instanceof?

Just came across an interesting line that I thought was worth sharing.
[java]
public static boolean isInterfaceOf (Object o, Class interfac) {
return interfac.isAssignableFrom(o.getClass());
}

Now java obviously has a instanceof keyword that allows you to do this, shorter to type and more recognisable.
The project I’m having a peek at (Archimedes an open source CAD program) only has one use for this where instanceof couldn’t work.
It hides the collection of objects and you can get all of the objects of a certain type. You could get around this by exposing the collection.

Just thought that this method actually makes the coding longer than what it actually does.