Sunday 28 May 2006

Fishing at Vacluse

Went to Vacluse today to try some more rock fishing; despite the beautiful view of Sydney harbour and fantastic weather, still didn't catch any bloody fish!

Here's a view of the harbour from Vacluse:

 



Here's a hopeless fisherman:

Fishing at Vacluse

Went to Vacluse today to try some more rock fishing; despite the beautiful view of Sydney harbour and fantastic weather, still didn't catch any bloody fish!

Here's a view of the harbour from Vacluse:

 



Here's a hopeless fisherman:

Saturday 27 May 2006

Chicken or egg

Been doing abit of reading this week: Ultra Marathon Man,  Confessions of an AllNight Runner, which is the jaw-dropping life story of Dean Karnazes, truly inspirational and well worth a read;  The Ring by Stephen Baxter, very hard sci-fi; and i'm just starting Every Second Counts - Lance Armstrong's story.

Apparently the old problem of the chicken and the egg, [which came first], has finally been solved by scientists and philosophers.  The egg.

I've always thought this one was a question of science vs. religion... If the egg came first, then clearly the chicken came from evolution (an animal like a chicken laid an egg that then became a chicken). However, if the chicken came first (scientifically impossible) then it was because made the chicken suddenly appear on the planet. So just wait for the ID people to refute this claim...

 

Chicken or egg

Been doing abit of reading this week: Ultra Marathon Man,  Confessions of an AllNight Runner, which is the jaw-dropping life story of Dean Karnazes, truly inspirational and well worth a read;  The Ring by Stephen Baxter, very hard sci-fi; and i'm just starting Every Second Counts - Lance Armstrong's story.

Apparently the old problem of the chicken and the egg, [which came first], has finally been solved by scientists and philosophers.  The egg.

I've always thought this one was a question of science vs. religion... If the egg came first, then clearly the chicken came from evolution (an animal like a chicken laid an egg that then became a chicken). However, if the chicken came first (scientifically impossible) then it was because made the chicken suddenly appear on the planet. So just wait for the ID people to refute this claim...

 

Pictures of Old things

 





Pictures of Old things

 





Wednesday 24 May 2006

"Driving"

In India

which reminded me of this in Russia.

Crazy.

 

"Driving"

In India

which reminded me of this in Russia.

Crazy.

 

Tuesday 23 May 2006

Facts about your birthday

My birthday is on 26th Jan 1977, which makes me 4.19138943248532 dog years old, and on the day i was born, the moon was a "waxing crescent".  Iam also 257,033  hours old, which over 1/4 of a million.  Not good. Useless but entertaining:

The birthday calculator.

 



Facts about your birthday

My birthday is on 26th Jan 1977, which makes me 4.19138943248532 dog years old, and on the day i was born, the moon was a "waxing crescent".  Iam also 257,033  hours old, which over 1/4 of a million.  Not good. Useless but entertaining:

The birthday calculator.

 



Wednesday 17 May 2006

ITunes, Ipod and Apple

How hard is it to get a standalone version of Quicktime?   Quicktime is a program that is completely unrelated to digital music, yet Apple now package it with ITunes , and there doesn't seem to be a legitimate way to get around the 35 MB download of Quicktime with ITunes piggybacked onto it. Or should I say, ITunes with a "free bonus" of Qucktime?  

Aftr installing it, I'd expect to see a checkbox that says "Install ITunes" that you can uncheck..  no chance.   Apple now make you install the whole lot, and only when it is done can you finally go into Control Panel, Add/Remove, and get rid of their bloatware ITunes.

It feels like software is being shoved down my throat, why can't the consumer be treated like a real human being, and given a choice?  Apple calls iTunes "revolutionary" but record companies are simply using the service to force the same exploitive and unfair business model onto a new medium. iTunes AAC files don't sound as good as CDs. AAC is basically a "lossy" compression format in comparision the higher bitrate, higher quality MP3's. So does WMA for that matter.

Apple says iTunes is "better than free" because it's "fair to the artists and record labels." That's not true either, after a quick google, it turns out Apple gets 3 times as much money as musicians from each sale and Apple takes a 35% cut from every song and every album sold. Record labels receive the other 65% of each sale. Of this, major label artists will end up with only 8 to 14 cents per song, depending on their contract.

You couldn't pay me any amount of money to use ITunes and pay Apple money for this DRM-infested corporate greedware masquerading as a music service.

Update: I have just now (about 2 hrs later) found a  link to the Apple  "Without ITunes Quicktime."  It's still 21 megabytes full of crap.  Even Windows Media Player is only about 10 MB or so.

 

ITunes, Ipod and Apple

How hard is it to get a standalone version of Quicktime?   Quicktime is a program that is completely unrelated to digital music, yet Apple now package it with ITunes , and there doesn't seem to be a legitimate way to get around the 35 MB download of Quicktime with ITunes piggybacked onto it. Or should I say, ITunes with a "free bonus" of Qucktime?  

Aftr installing it, I'd expect to see a checkbox that says "Install ITunes" that you can uncheck..  no chance.   Apple now make you install the whole lot, and only when it is done can you finally go into Control Panel, Add/Remove, and get rid of their bloatware ITunes.

It feels like software is being shoved down my throat, why can't the consumer be treated like a real human being, and given a choice?  Apple calls iTunes "revolutionary" but record companies are simply using the service to force the same exploitive and unfair business model onto a new medium. iTunes AAC files don't sound as good as CDs. AAC is basically a "lossy" compression format in comparision the higher bitrate, higher quality MP3's. So does WMA for that matter.

Apple says iTunes is "better than free" because it's "fair to the artists and record labels." That's not true either, after a quick google, it turns out Apple gets 3 times as much money as musicians from each sale and Apple takes a 35% cut from every song and every album sold. Record labels receive the other 65% of each sale. Of this, major label artists will end up with only 8 to 14 cents per song, depending on their contract.

You couldn't pay me any amount of money to use ITunes and pay Apple money for this DRM-infested corporate greedware masquerading as a music service.

Update: I have just now (about 2 hrs later) found a  link to the Apple  "Without ITunes Quicktime."  It's still 21 megabytes full of crap.  Even Windows Media Player is only about 10 MB or so.

 

Tuesday 16 May 2006

Well

I haven't been up to that much recently.

 



apart from a bit of fishless fishing at Watson's Bay



 



And anyone who still has vinyl records, get on the pirating bandwagon here


Well

I haven't been up to that much recently.

 



apart from a bit of fishless fishing at Watson's Bay



 



And anyone who still has vinyl records, get on the pirating bandwagon here


Sunday 7 May 2006

Dog Racing

At Wentworth Park, Pyrmont.  Despite losing $30, it was a fun night out, and some pics can be found here.

 

Dog Racing

At Wentworth Park, Pyrmont.  Despite losing $30, it was a fun night out, and some pics can be found here.

 

Tuesday 2 May 2006

Pop Art II

Well, here's one i've done of Ingunn.  Getting the hang of Macromedia Fireworks now, but still takes awhile - especially with all that bloody long hair.

 

Pop Art II

Well, here's one i've done of Ingunn.  Getting the hang of Macromedia Fireworks now, but still takes awhile - especially with all that bloody long hair.

 

Monday 1 May 2006

Pop Art

Great tutorial detailing how to make a pop portrait.

And here is my not-so-great first effort.

 

Pop Art

Great tutorial detailing how to make a pop portrait.

And here is my not-so-great first effort.