Big Trev

"Meetings are an addictive, highly self-indulgent activity that corporations and other large..."

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:35:30 +1100

“Meetings are an addictive, highly self-indulgent activity that corporations and other large organizations habitually engage in only because they cannot masturbate.”

- Dave Barry

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp posts - for support rather than for illumination."

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:01:25 +1100

“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp posts - for support rather than for illumination.”

- Andrew Lang

"Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down by the mind before you reach..."

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 06:54:20 +1100

“Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down by the mind before you reach eighteen.”

- Albert Einstein

"If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a faster horse"

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:22:46 +1100

“If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a faster horse”

- Henry Ford (maybe!)

"the spread of secondary and latterly tertiary education has created a large population of people,..."

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:31:45 +1100

“the spread of secondary and latterly tertiary education has created a large population of people, often with well-developed literary and scholarly tastes, who have been educated far beyond their capacity to undertake analytical thought.”

- Sir Peter Medawar

"Ha! I laugh at danger and drop ice cubes down the vest of fear."

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 19:30:04 +1100

“Ha! I laugh at danger and drop ice cubes down the vest of fear.”

- Blackadder

"The thing I like about bikes is that only people who like bikes are on them… Cars are full of..."

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 14:07:27 +1000

“The thing I like about bikes is that only people who like bikes are on them… Cars are full of people who don’t care.”

- James May

Remote support app - Join.Me, quick review

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 09:01:29 +1000

Just popping up a (very) quick review of Join.Me, a remote application from the folks who bought you LogMeIn.

I’ve use LogMeIn in the past when doing support for people from home with stuff on their PCs. One of the downsides has been that when dealing with people with, uh, “less than ideal” PC skills is that there was a bit of setup to to at their end to get it going.

To use Join.Me, you just need to send them to the web page, click Share and it downloads a little app that you run, and generates a number (which looks something like a phone number).

Then I, as the person that wants to connect in, clicks on “Join” and enter the number they’ve been given, they authorise me, and I’m in. You can even take over control of the mouse and keyboard on the remote computer, which came in very handy.

Overall, (I said this was a quick review!), this is a very useful little service for when you need to be able to see what the other person’s looking at, and/or push them out of the way and take over control of their PC.

I give it 3 Turnips. Or something.

"Study the box. Observe it. Inside. Outside. From inside to outside, and outside to inside. Where is..."

Wed, 25 May 2011 22:17:36 +1000

““Study the box. Observe it. Inside. Outside. From inside to outside, and outside to inside. Where is it? How did it get there? What’s around it? Who says it’s a box? What do they mean? Why does it matter? Or does it? What is not ‘box’? Ask the box questions. Question others about the box. What’s the perspective from inside? From outside? Study diagrams of the box. Find documents related to the box. What does thinking have to do with the box anyway? Understand this box. Study another box. And another. Understand box. Understand. Then you can think inside and outside the box. Perhaps. For a while. Until it changes. Until you change. Until outside becomes inside—again. Then start over. Study the box.””

- Michael Quinn Patton

Basic Bread Recipe

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 14:26:23 +1100

I thought I’d put this up here, but I hadn’t when I came to find it again. Haven’t made this for AGES, so it’s time again.

This is the Jamie Oliver recipe. The only thing that I change is that to speed up the process of proving is that I put some boiling water in a bowl in the bottom of the oven (oven off), and put the dough in there to prove. Makes a nice, slightly warm and humid environment for it.

Ingredients:

• 1kg/just over 2lb strong bread flour
• 625ml/just over 1 pint tepid water
• 30g/1oz fresh yeast or 3 x 7g/¼oz sachets dried yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 level tablespoon fine sea salt
extra flour for dusting

Stage 1: making a well
Pile the flour on to a clean surface and make a large well in the centre. Pour half your water into the well, then add your yeast, sugar and salt and stir with a fork.

Stage 2: getting it together
Slowly, but confidently, bring in the flour from the inside of the well. (You don’t want to break the walls of the well, or the water will go everywhere.) Continue to bring the flour in to the centre until you get a stodgy, porridgey consistency – then add the remaining water. Continue to mix until it’s stodgy again, then you can be more aggressive, bringing in all the flour, making the mix less sticky. Flour your hands and pat and push the dough together with all the remaining flour. (Certain flours need a little more or less water, so feel free to adjust.)

Stage 3: kneading!
This is where you get stuck in. With a bit of elbow grease, simply push, fold, slap and roll the dough around, over and over, for 4 or 5 minutes until you have a silky and elastic dough.

Stage 4: first prove
Flour the top of your dough. Put it in a bowl, cover with clingfilm, and allow it to prove for about half an hour until doubled in size – ideally in a warm, moist, draught-free place. This will improve the flavour and texture of your dough and it’s always exciting to know that the old yeast has kicked into action.

Stage 5: second prove, flavouring and shaping
Once the dough has doubled in size, knock the air out for 30 seconds by bashing it and squashing it. You can now shape it or flavour it as required – folded, filled, tray-baked, whatever – and leave it to prove for a second time for 30 minutes to an hour until it has doubled in size once more. This is the most important part, as the second prove will give it the air that finally ends up being cooked into your bread, giving you the really light, soft texture that we all love in fresh bread. So remember – don’t fiddle with it, just let it do its thing.

Stage 6: cooking your bread
Very gently place your bread dough on to a flour-dusted baking tray and into a preheated oven. Don’t slam the door or you’ll lose the air that you need. Bake according to the time and temperature given with your chosen recipe. You can tell if it’s cooked by tapping its bottom – if it sounds hollow it’s done, if it doesn’t then pop it back in for a little longer. Once cooked, place on a rack and allow it to cool for at least 30 minutes – fandabidozi. Feel free to freeze any leftover bread.

This time, I’m going to try using dextrose instead of sugar, we’ll see how that goes!

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship,..."

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 10:40:22 +1100

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

- Robert A. Heinlein

"The problem with internet quotes and statistics is that often times, they’re wrongly believed..."

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 10:21:21 +1100

“The problem with internet quotes and statistics is that often times, they’re wrongly believed to be real”

- Abraham Lincoln

"The first myth of management is that it exists. The second myth of management is that success equals..."

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 07:58:42 +1100

“The first myth of management is that it exists. The second myth of management is that success equals skill.”

- Robert Heller

Tumblr for Droid

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 06:38:52 +1100

Niiiice… this is posted from my phone. That said, I’ll stick to a full keyboard when I can!

Using Robocopy to copy to a NAS

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 06:33:10 +1100

I’ve bought me a Shiny New QNAP TS-410, and am in the process of migrating my “stuff” over.

In Windows, I’ve used Robocopy for some years now, which is really good for moving these types of large amounts of data across. What I’ll usually do is give Robocopy a couple of runs at it, to make sure I’ve got everything - OK in theory, but what it’s been doing when I copy to the NAS is saying that nearly everything is “newer” and recopying, instead of just skipping.

So I found this information, and the switch to use is /FFT, which assumes FAT file times. Obviously there is something different in the way times are handled on the NAS (which is running EXT4), and my existing share (NTFS).

"Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics."

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 21:21:10 +1100

“Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.”

- Fletcher Knebel

Power Balance Bands

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 10:17:29 +1100

Power Balance Bands:

Firstly, let me say HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAAHHHAAAAAHAHAHA!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAA!

HAHAHAAAA!

Ahem, done now. Be sure to check out the link to the Power Balance website, where if you click on “How It Works”, you get a page that says “Coming Soon”. (ie, once we figure out a semi-valid pseudo-scientific-sounding explaination that won’t have people laughing so much they wee a little bit).

http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/366334/accc_launches_court_proceedings_against_msy/

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 18:38:38 +1100

http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/366334/accc_launches_court_proceedings_against_msy/:

I’ve always wondered how they got away with saying that they don’t handle warranties, and sending you to the manufacturer. Maybe the ACCC isn’t a completely toothless tiger.

Things Bogans Like

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 18:29:04 +1100

Things Bogans Like

Replacement Wiring Harness Smoke kit

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 23:57:26 +1100

Replacement Wiring Harness Smoke kit:

I’m not sure if this replacement electrical system smoke is compatible with old British bikes too….

“Here is presented for your perusal one Lucas Replacement Wiring Harness Smoke kit, P/N 530433, along with the very rare Churchill Tool 18G548BS adapter tube and metering valve. These kits were supplied surreptitiously to Lucas factory technicians as a trouble-shooting and repair aid for the rectification of chronic electrical problems on a plethora of British cars. The smoke is metered, through the fuse box, into the circuit which has released it’s original smoke until the leak is located and repaired. The affected circuit is then rectified and the replacement smoke re-introduced. An advantage over the cheap repro smoke kits currently available is the exceptionally rare Churchill metering valve and fuse box adapter. It enables the intrepid and highly skilled British Car Technician to meter the precise amount of genuine Lucas smoke required by the circuit.”