A friend at work pointed me to this

 

 

and this

 

 

Amusing

I expensed a Microsoft Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse 6000 for my work laptop.  It's suhweeet.  I'm so happy that work has provided this little wonder.  Compact, slick, shiny and silver.  SCORE!

So I keep reading the latest on the Basketball world championships and the frequent references to the "Dream Team" annoy me.  Let's be clear - there was only ever one Dream Team.  That was the 1992 US Olympic side.  There will never be a team like it and the sides that have been fielded since have consisted of cocky undisciplined tossers who think they can single handedly beat the world.  As I've been pleased to see in recent years, they've been handed a reality check.

 

The one and only dream team looked like this -

 

Michael Jordan.  The greatest player ever to put on shoes.

Clyde Drexler.  "The glide".  He shoots three pointers better than Michael chooses to.

Charles Barkley and Karl Malone.  The two most devastating power forwards ever to step on the court.

Larry Bird.  Best passing forward and most rediculous shot maker.

Earvin Johnson.  One word - "Magic".

John Stockton.  Got assists?  John does.

Chris Mullin.  Total workhorse and three point destroyer of worlds.

David Robinson.  The most agile seven footer to take the floor.

Patrick Ewing.  The centre of his era.

Scottie Pippen.  Super star small forward.

Christian Laettner.  Yeah well he was good in college.

 

Coach: Chuck Daly.

 

"Where's Shaq?" I hear you cry.  Well at the time, he was yet to be drafted.  I wouldn't have replaced anyone in this side with him anyway if it were up to me and I'll tell you why.  Each an every one of these guys wasn't just an individual superstar who could score at will.  They were TEAM PLAYERS.  They all knew their role.  They all knew how to give the ball to the open guy.  They all knew what defense was.  They all ran their backsides off and they all respected the people they were playing against - even Angola.

 

In their entire campaign, Chuck never called a time out.  He never had to.

 

Their average winning margin during the 1992 olympics was 43.8 points per game with an average score of 117.3.

 

If this team had been frozen in time and thawed out each time the US took the basketball court, no other team in the world would have come close.  Sure thing, Argentina, Greece, Spain and Italy are all getting better but they're getting better against US teams that don't show up to training, who don't pass the ball, who don't field three point shooters and who don't play defense.

 

Drop the "Dream Team" tag folks.  There can be only one.

Been a while since I updated this thing.  Went to see Superman Returns last night and figured I now have something to say.

 

This blog contains one SPOILER.

 

Superman Returns was slick - very well polished and true to the Christopher Reeve series of films.  The portrayal of Clark, Superman, Jimmy and Lex were especially nice and brought back fond memories of their earlier selves.  Lex (Kevin Spacey) had a darker side to him though - more so than the Gene Hackman version.

 

The action scenes were great.  Brandon Routh did an excellent job with "nothing can phase Superman" even when there was much more to deal with than could reasonably be expected from any other superhero (you'll see what I mean when you watch Metropolis having a small city wide crisis).

 

In between the action, some subtle (and not so subtle) humour kept me engaged.  One question - was that Ian Roberts (non-Aussies won't know what I'm talking about).

 

So here comes the SPOILER -

 

How tough is Superman?  Well he takes a bullet in the eye ball at point blank range and the bullet pancakes before falling to the ground.  Superman's reaction?  He smirks at the bad guy.

 

In summary.  I've always been a Superman fan.  Ever since I was a little kid and used to commando crawl past my parents bedroom to the TV in the early hours so I could watch reruns of the 1930s cartoon.  I'm glad they made a new Superman movie and I'm glad it turned out like this.

 

I've been playing around with http://www.live.com and I've gotta say it's pretty neat.

 

The search engine is very slick with the option to add more or less detail to the results, save searches as macros and use macros published by others.

 

I've added some gadgets that let me see my hotmail, the weather, store favourites and do unit conversions.

 

I'd like more flexibility in the page layout but it's otherwise pretty fun.  As more gadgets come along, I look forward to trying them out.

I've been playing Project Gotham Racing 2 on Xbox a while now.  I got it the Xmas before last and played through on Gold.  I still had the itch so I started on Platinum.  Some time around 50 Platinum medals down, my dvd drive failed and the xbox went in for a service.  By the time I got it back, I'd lost the interest to fight through the Platinum medals.

 

Recently my wife and I had a son.  In between the chaos, I've taken on the Platinum challenge again.  I've now got 122 Platinum medals, the rest Gold.  This is a ways to go but you know what?  I'm not that worried now that I've finished first on Nurburgring against the Cerbera.  Here I am against a car with 30mph on my Porsche GT1 and better acceleration.  How did I win?  Two laps of near errorless driving and braking so hard for corners that the driver's helmet hits the windscreen on the replay - that's how.

 

It's back to work tomorrow so my PGR2 time will be significantly reduced.  The last 50 might be a long way off but I'll always have Nurburgring.

 

... Oh and Spong ... I'm not playing on Live.  Subscription based game play is an evil I can do without.  I know!  I know!  I'm "chicken".  My answer - system link and I'm there.

 

It's been some time since my last post.  This is for good reason.  My wife gave birth to our first child on the 8th of February 2006 - Thomas David.

 

Jen had been having contractions for several days - mild but contractions none the less.  On the 7th of Feb, she'd been booked in to start the induction process so we headed over to the hospital to see what we could see.  As it turned out, she was already 2cm dialated so they told her to go home, get a good night's sleep and come back in the morning.

 

8th Feb - we headed back to the hospital and met our friend Katy who Jen had asked along as an additional support person.  Jen had gone up to 3cm overnight and the obstetrician broke her waters around 8:30am.  The plan was to wait a few hours and see how things went before making the decision to put up a drip to move things along.  After the obstetrician had gone back to his office, the senior midwife decided that the drip should go up sooner, made a call and got things rolling.  This was not the best for Jen.  Contractions came on really hard and fast and they were pushing the dose up to get things going.  Jen wasn't handling too well so she asked for an epidural.  While we waited for things to be organised, the midwives administered a shot of pethadine and turned down the drip.  By the time the epidural was administered, Jen thought she was ready to push.  The midwife checked things out and sure enough, it was game time.

 

30 minutes of pushing and Thomas David was born.  The labour was about five and a half hours all up.  The ceremonial cutting of the cord was left to me and I was pleased to hear that Jen and Thom were fine.

 

Since Jen and Thom came home, life has been interesting.  Day three is known to be difficult.  This was the day they came home.  As Thom got used to using his digestive track, Jen and I got to experience sleeplessness on a scale never before known to us.  The baby classes didn't really emphasise how hard it is.  Word to those who have not had children - a new baby is harder than can possibly be imagined.

 

A few weeks in, everything has settled down.  Thom sleeps well and feeds like a champion.  We're starting to catch up on lost rest and he's growing and changing every day.  Can't wait till we're shooting hoops together!

 

Slideshow added.

When you write a driving game, good AI is AI that can drive well - not AI that has better physics.  Increased traction and inertia are not fair.

Work gave me a new phone for my new role - an O2 XDA Atom running Windows Mobile 5.0.  Initially I wasn't that impressed due to the slowness and occasional hang.

 

Yesterday I updated it with the latest build and it seems to be running much better.  Much more reponsive.

 

Feature wise it's pretty cool.  A 2 MP camera, FM radio, GPRS and WiFi.  Certainly ensures that their claws are firmly about my throat.

 

We did lunch at the Beach House Restaurant at Whale Beach on the weekend.  I've said it before and I'll say it again - best food around!

 

I had spiced cuttlefish for an entree -  lightly battered and spiced with coriander and cumin, served on rocket with a lime and chilli dressing.

 

Main was grilled snapper with scallops, spinach, shallots and blanched leeks.

 

Dessert - chocolate terrine with strawberries and coffee anglaise.  The terrine - magic.  White, milk and dark chocolates, layered together with a mousse-like consistency.

 

I think I might be able to reproduce the terrine.  It's well worth a try in any case!

Last weekend I went for a picnic with Jen and a bunch of friends.  We found a spot under the Harbour Bridge.  Quite a nice day out, sitting in the shade of the bridge, having a bite to eat, catching up and watching the boats go by.

 

I later discovered that I'd been fried like a chicken.  It seems the shade of a large bridge is insufficient when sitting by the water.  Talking to the folks that were on the picnic with me, it seems most of them were also caught out.

 

Note to self - wear sunscreen always.

With the birth of our son getting ever so close, Jen organised a final act of gluttony and gaming for my friends and I.  We gathered at an XBox lounge owned by a friend of mine - http://www.xtopia.com.au/

 

With a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts each and several boxes of Red Bull, we jumped in for some hardcore gaming axion.

 

Rallisport Challenge 2 was the first game.  Winning all but two races (out of about 10 or 11), I was feeling pretty good.  Then we moved onto Halo - I just don't get the whole FPS thing on the console.  Where's the mouse?!  Needless to say, I got 0wn3d.

 

Crimson Sky was next.  That was quite a bit of fun.  We were playing "team keepaway" (I think it's called) where you have to capture "the booty" and hang onto it for a set time.  Pretty good fun and interesting with all of us being Crimson Sky newbs.

 

By this time I'd had about 20 donuts and too much Red Bull.  This combined with the dark room and the flashing lights gave me a pretty good headache.  It was 6 hours gone by this stage so I headed home leaving the others to game on.

 

Out.

A friend asked me how he could get DVD content onto his video iPod to watch on the go.  I took this on as a research project and added DivX conversion to the goals.  I've come up with a nice little summary of tools that make the job incredibly easy.  Everything is free except the DivX Pro codec ...

 

A lot of good info here - http://www.doom9.org/

 

DVDDecrypter - http://www.doom9.org/Soft21/Rippers/SetupDVDDecrypter_3.5.4.0.exe

 

I generally use the following settings which give you the option of doing one chapter at a time (useful for DVDs of series) and allow you to selectively remove streams such as other languages or subtitles.

 

1. Mode -> IFO I.

 

2. Tools -> Settings -> IFO Mode tab -> File Splitting -> None -> OK. (if you're going to burn as DVD again, you want to leave the file splitting at 1GB).

 

3. On the Input Tab, select the chapter you want to rip.

 

4. On the Stream Processing tab, select "Enable Stream Processing".

 

5. Untick all streams except the video and the english audio stream.

 

6. Rip.

 

This provides a source for encoding to .avi.

 

For conversion to .avi or iPod, the audio is often too soft.  This AC3 filter gives you a control panel applet you can use to boost gain - http://sourceforge.net/projects/ac3filter

 

 

Download and install the converter -

 

 

Mode: MPEG-4 > A-VBR

Bitrate: 210 kbps

Resolution: 320x240 (320 x 176 for 16:9).

Passes: 2

Min Rate: 200

Max Rate: 512

Audio - 56kbps/24000Hz

 

 

You'll need a copy of the DivX Pro codec and then Dr DivX - http://labs.divx.com/DrDivX

 

Here's two profiles I've created:-

 

118MB/Hour

Video Tab: Crop Off, Resolution - 400x224, 16:9, Bilinear, Noise Red Off, 25 FPS, Keyframe interval 175.

Audio: MP3, 56 kbps, 24khz, Stereo, CBR.

Codec: Insane Quality, 2-pass, 210 bitrate, Adaptive Multi Consecutive, h.263 Optimized, Enhancements off.

 

250MB/Hour

 

The trick is getting the keyframe interval right for the bitrate you choose - requires some playing around.

 

 

DVDShrink - http://www.dvdshrink.org/what.html

 

This will recode the video to fit on a single layer disc.  Also gives you the option of dropping languages to provide better quality video.

I should make a new category for reports of my job but I find it entertaining to write so that's where it gets filed.

 

I change roles next week.  Still at the same company but doing something new.  Instead of doing support, I'm moving to a more customer facing role that apparently gives them a feeling of well being.  Instead of working in the engine room, I'm now going to be one of the cabin crew that smiles at you politely and ensures that you enjoy the cruise.

 

Why would I do this when my bread and butter is troubleshooting and techie stuff?  Well let's just say that the engine room is being off-shored and I'm being replaced by a uni graduate with zero experience.

 

Amusingly, the customers don't know this is happening yet and it's not too far away.  There seems to be some difficulty in finding the customer friendly message in all this.

 

So with the new roles comes more money and other benefits.  I also get to go on call and fly all over the country at the drop of a hat.  Apparently this won't happen too often but it should make for interesting times when the baby comes.  Thankfully my manager is great and we'll take each day as it comes.

 

Jen and I went to the Red Centre Restaurant at Crows Nest to catch up with a friend of hers.  Here's my review of the place -

 

 

Doesn't really fit the "Australian" theme that they're trying to push.  Some dishes have that feel while the rest are your typical trendy restaurant fare.

 

Well prepared and presented but lacks the polish I'd expect for $30 mains - an example would be the mango, coriander and chilli salsa I was served as part of my entree.  I was pretty much just mango with one fleck of chilli and a 1mm square green thing I can only assume was coriander.

 

 

An open kitchen and wide open space to sit in.  Tables aren't too close together.  Seating was semi-budget and pseudo-comfortable.

 

 

Polite but clueless and incredibly slow.  The place was only half full and we were left to digest our own stomachs while waiting on our orders.

 

I ordered a dessert that they had run out of.  They told me fifteen minutes later which made the delay even longer.

 

 

The restaurant is located in Alexander Street, Crows Nest.  There's about two car spaces per restaurant in that area if you exclude the car park that was full.  We had to park some distance away which isn't particularly convenient for the pregnant Jen.

 

 

Pretends to be more than it is.  If they want to charge the prices, they should pick up their act and delivery better service and meals that more accurately reflect their description.

 

It isn't all bad though.  The venue is spacious and comfortable and the food is well prepared and tasted great.

 

 

 

 

Over the weekend Jen and I were having a lay down and our cat Rosie decided to join us.  As she walked up between us I attempted to lay her down.  She had different ideas and tried to jump for the window sill above our heads.  Because I'd tried to push her over, she didn't make it and fell on my head, scratching the side of my face and my ear.  I proceeded to bleed.

 

A little later I dosed off while Jen got up to do some things around the unit.  I suddenly awoke to find Rosie upon my face again, this time causing a lot more damage.  I don't know what happened (as I was asleep) but I can only imagine she fell from the sill again.  This time she gave me two decent scratches down the side of my head and face and tore my chin asunder.  There was much blood, yelling and pain.  Not happy.

Last night was the tour of the hospital at baby class.  They took us around and told us all about checking in, showed us the rooms where it all happens and various other aspects of what to expect.  The thing most women in the group could have done without was the BLOOD CURDLING SCREAMS coming from one of the delivery rooms.  Think of a scream from an old school horror flick and then add actual pain - that was the sound we were exposed to.  At least I now have an indicator of when to drive Jen to the hospital.

Been going to baby class - Jen and I are expecting in early Feb.

 

Haven't learnt that much that wasn't already known but somehow it's stimulated concern in me - that Jen will be OK, that Jr will be OK too.  Before baby class I was quite calm about it all but now there's a niggling uncertainty.

 

What not to do at baby class - pass out right after the "educator" makes a joke about passing out.  Well I didn't completely pass out but I got giddy and felt my sight closing down to tunnel vision.  Took a quick lay on the carpet and all was well.  It wasn't even in response to a video.  Just felt bad - response to the weirdo flu I have that a colleague kindly brought to work.

 

On that - it's my belief that contractors are bad for the workplace.  They don't get paid sick leave so are hesitant to take a day off.  This contaminates others (read me) and others (read me) get upset.

 

<frown>

So I think I've mentioned that I work in support.  A common gripe just cropped up again so I thought it was time to complain -

 

If you want to know how to overcome a problem, perhaps actually trying to find the answer yourself would be an idea?!  When I take on an issue and MSN Search it for a grand total of 3 seconds and have the answer, that tells me you're lazy - especially when your job title claims you're a professional with a clue.

 

... And yes, I said MSN Search - it's fast, produces excellent results and formats them better than that other one that has its name dropped in every other comedy.

 

I get a bad back.  It's the result of hours in a chair at a computer, lack of exercise and being a really tall bugger.

 

I also get relief from this back pain through a magical little device called "BakBalls".  I can't recommend this enough.  Just minutes ago I had a muscle spasm in my back causing quite a bit of pain.  Five minutes later, I'm feeling good - all thanks to BakBalls.

 

If you get back pain, you can also get relief - http://www.bakballs.com/

 

 

So there you go.

 

Jen and I took a trip down to Tassie to visit my parents.  They've retired to Devonport and moved there back in June.

 

It was a great trip.  The country down there is truly magnificent - rolling hills that meet the sea.

 

We spent a day heading out West of Devonport, seeing the sights and stopping off to taste various foods (chocolate, cheese and raspberries).

 

The next day we went South.  We stopped off to see some water falls and did some more tasting (honey, salmon and gourmet sauces).

 

It was a great couple of days and it was good to catch up with the folks.

 

Driving down in Tassie is tops.  There's nothing on the roads and people drive with a sense of calm.  The whole place is certainly appealing.

 

Our flight home was certainly interesting.  After a trouble free trip across to Melbourne, we boarded a 767 back to Sydney.  On the way in the captain advised the weather was a bit rough so the seat belt sign came on and he plunged the plane into a steep descent.  It was like a 40 minute ride in a washing machine and to liven the party, we were struck by lightning.  "It's not a problem" says the air hostess (aha).

 

After disembarking we hear that the return flight to Melbourne is cancelled as the plane was "struck by lightning and is no longer servicable".  I'm kinda happy that it was servicable enough to GET US OUT OF THE SKY!

OK I've done a few more days and have a slightly different view point.  This certification does cover material you should know about securing computers.  What it doesn't do is cover it in anywhere enough detail.

 

If you just want to pass the exam, you won't be knowledgable enough to be useful.

 

If you want to know what you should know, study to pass the exam and then dig deeper.  Most importantly, dig deeper and then focus on product specific implementations depending on the products you use day to day.

 

L8r

So I've taken a while to make an update - mostly due to training I've been on last week and this week.  I'm currently sitting through a CISSP Fast Track that turned out to be a revision course - not what I expected and as such, I've not read a thing.

 

Two days in (out of five) - what do I think?  Well some of the material is relevant to the real world but isn't anything new to me.  The rest of the material is high level theory of various "models" that are important to government and military applications (generally US-centric).  On top of that a lot of it's dated and seems to be there purely to make old people feel like they still know something relevant.

 

It feels like most of the people sitting through this class have one thing on their mind - pass the exam.  While that's understandable, it scares me that industry professionals working in the security space would take this point of view.  I'm more inclined to understand the subject in a practical sense and then worry about certifications later.

 

If things continue as they've gone so far, my own assessment of this certification would be that it's not worth the paper it's printed on.  Yet another case of learning the buzz words and common gotchas, ticking the right boxes and walking away with the bit of paper.

 

I'll probably get around to sitting the exam sooner or later - resumes tend to look better when someone else says you know what you're talking about.  Go figure.

 

This may cause a lot of controversy but after reading about Phar Lap in light of yesterday's Melbourne Cup, I have to say that Makybe Diva, while indeed a great horse, doesn't live up to the Phar Lap legend.

 

Makybe Diva had 15 wins for 36 starts in her career - 42%

 

Phar Lap had 37 wins for 51 starts in his career - 73%

 

Indeed, Makybe Diva ran over the field to win by 1 1/4 lengths in the last Melbourne Cup with a 58 kg handicap - truly amazing.

 

Phar Lap ran his last race in the Agua Caliente Handicap, Mexico.  This race attracted the best horses in America with a $50000 purse (a lot of money in those times).

 

Phar Lap ran with a 58.6 kg (129 lb) handicap (the largest in the field), a winter coat (coming from the Australian winter to the Mexican spring) and a heel injury.  Because of the injury he was wearing heavy bar shoes for the first time and the race was run on a dirt track - another first for Phar Lap.  He won the race by two lengths and broke the track record by 1/5 of a second.

 

Now you can make your own judgement but this feat sets Phar Lap on his own in my mind.  Comparisons can't be avoided and winning three Melbourne Cups in a row is incredible but Phar Lap surely remains the stand out enduring legend of Australian horse racing.  If only he'd survived the mystery illness that cut his career short.

 

When Jen and I moved in together we figured we didn't need to spend a lot on a vacuum.  Just a high powered Target job.  We were wrong.  The high powered target job was good for about one lap of the unit and then it was completely ineffectual.

 

After a decent tax refund, we went and purchased a Dyson.  Yes the vacuum of yuppies.  One room later the tank is full and the carpet never looked so good.

 

It is money well spent.