Marines, we are (possibly) LEAVING!

Thinking of shifting web hosts so this site, such as it is, may disappear for short periods. Don’t get me wrong, Pair Networks has been absolutely flawless in their service and I’ve been thoroughly happy with them these last nine (!?) years, this is more an exercise in consolidation.

I know what you’re thinking, how will I get by without my daily fix of “Baily still hasn’t written anything in his blog, the slack bastard.”

Well, here’s how.

See you out there.
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In email late last week.

"Hi Paul & thanks for your order - For Today (Best of) (Netherworld Dancing Toys)I'll bill your card $US 16.95 (approx $AU 18.75) when your cd ships tomorrow."

squee!
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One-bowl Carrot Cake by Janelle Bloom

From the “I also cook” file: indulgent, very easy to make, and healthy (let’s just leave this calorie count over here in the corner...in an unmarked box...under a drop-sheet) what’s not to like?

cc

Currently seeking Ms. Bloom’s permission to re-post this, so it may be pulled at some stage to respect her wishes.

Ingredients:

1 cup olive oil
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 cups firmly packed grated carrot (about two big carrots or three medium)
1 cup walnuts, chopped

Icing:

250g cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

(I use lime juice to taste instead of vanilla and wind the icing sugar back a bit)

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 25cm cake pan.
Place oil, sugar and eggs into a bowl. Whisk well to combine.
Sift flour, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon over oil mixture. Stir gently to combine.
Stir in carrot and walnuts. Mix well.
Spread mixture into prepared cake pan.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in pan before turning onto a wire rack.

Make icing:

Using an electric mixer (wuss! mix it by hand! -PB), beat all ingredients together until combined. Spread icing over cake. Serve.

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Do Not Adjust Your Picture.

Just tooling around with alternatives to Haloscan commenting since they’re shutting down next week.
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Happy iPad day!

Well, it’s here.

ipad_hero

The first generation of what I think will be an awesome product.

It’s interesting to read/hear the reactions of pundits and colleagues, especially given that every man and his dog had specific expectations even though Apple had not said one word about what it was readying. It’s ranging from “shiny toy” to “it’s not a do-everything netbook for $50 that everyone knew it was going to be? teh fail!” to “WTF? An overgrown iPhone without the phone?” to “will it go the way of the Newton or the iPod” to “this thing will take the world by storm”... and naturally the usual Mac and PC snobs with their own myopic derision vs. derision at derision.

Quite entertaining, really.

My thoughts? This is the first generation iPad; a foray into an area that people thought netbooks were in, but aren’t. Remember how alien the first generation iPod was and how it was ridiculed as closed, irrelevant, expensive? (aside: Kathy still has her circa 2001 first gen 5GB iPod with its beautiful clicky spinny scrollwheel - it still goes fine!) What was the difference there? Remember how alien the first gen iPhone was and how it was ridiculed as closed, irrelevant, expensive? What was the difference there?

Design. Careful thought and holistic, seamless design of the software (on the device, the parent computer, and stores), the hardware, and everything in between. And the iPad, to me, looks to be of the same killshot calibre.

Will it fly? I think hell yes.

But you knew I was going to say that anyway, didn’t you?

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Happy iPad Eve!


Look. Seriously, I couldn't give a rats what Apple announce tomorrow.

Actually, that's not quite true, I am looking forward to it, and seriously looking forward to them once again throwing down a game changer that leaves competitors wondering if they’re even playing in the same stadium. It’s at least as entertaining as seeing a butcher bird yank the tailfeathers of a lorikeet just because it can. Yes, that entertaining.

I am just Sick. And. Tired. of the media absolutely wetting themselves like an over-excited puppy through all their recursive rumour frenzy. Already they’re declaring as fact that not only will Apple produce a tablet (just like M$/HP [snort]) but that Apple’s will be too expensive/shiny/toylike to be any use for business. etcetera. etcetera. etcetera. ad nauseum.

Thing is, Apple have not said one word. One. Word. (sidenote: oh great, RapidWeaver talks gangsta. “One.” is grammatically incorrect, but “Word.” is just fine...) Anyways, Apple have not said a word about what they’re presenting tomorrow. The closest we’ve heard is the Steve just for laughs pinging the media in yesterday’s quarterly earnings conference call with his “major new product” hook. See what happened? The media had to go out and buy themselves another whole shitload of Huggies.

Hell, for all we know, Apple is presenting the iCloth to shine all the existing iGadgets.

But, media muppets aside, they won’t.

Tomorrow will be something special.
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Hello, and good evening. Again.

Happy new year, hope you’re going well!

So, where the hell have I been the last couple of months? (Like you missed these posts!)

Short answer: FaceBook.

Yes, that’s right I dabbled in to the social
notnetworking thing and entropy led to just posting inane crap over there instead of spending the odd Doogie Howser moment over here. But this is 20162010 and things are gonna change around here. Y’hear me? I said things are gonna- oi! Just move that mouse away from that YouTube tab...

Anyway, to get back into the blogging groove, I’m going to do what all good series do, and do flashbacks. Yes, flashbacks.

Y’see, back when Radio Baily first made it out of the motherland, the calendar had everything scribbled out up to 10 June 2003 and the Radio Baily part of the site started out being written in an app called iBlog. It was a quirky app but it got the job done. Problem was it was written by a one-man-band, and as such operations are wont to do, this band up and moved on to other projects leaving iBlog in limbo - to the point that the last version out was an unfinished beta that couldn’t even publish an existing site, let alone export elsewhere. No, chuffed wouldn’t quite be the word I’d have used.

Anyway, spilt milk, no point etc. That time is past so time to cut losses and finally put the old iBlog version of this tale to rest. Or more rather merge it into this one. It’s a copy/paste job (did I say chuffed?) so it won’t happen overnight, but you should start to see the older entries appear in the left column.

For obvious (to those who know me) reasons, this won’t be the whole archive. No point in that.
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and so we say farewell to the good ship Warthog.


warthog

Yes, that's right, we let the Warthog - Kathy's faithful steed - bound off to fairer fields today. An awesomely reliable, tenacious vehicle that probably behaved better even when it was suffering than most cars half its age would when healthy. And let's not forget that it faithfully brought the fair maiden Kathy to me.

It'll likely be powering Subaru Brumby's around these here parts for quite some time. Or be turned into a paddock basher, either way, all good.

In its honour, I leave you with this fond memory:



...and before you ask, the successor is indeed worthy, and in line with anti-stalker policy shall remain unidentified. Winking

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A Thousand Angry Hornets


You might want to turn your volume down for this:










That's what it sounds like in our primary data centre right now, thanks to a UPS transformer doing its best
Hypnotoad impression. You can hear it two floors away.

Oh, and guess who sits just one wall away?

That's why you'll usually find me wearing these:

cx300

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Left Unspoken.





Wow.

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Excellent point.


John C. Welch over at
Bynkii has said this before, and each time he says it I keep wonderinig why other people don't get it.

This idea that if you aren't locking your site down tighter than Fort-fucking-Knox, you deserve to be attacked. It's exactly the same as blaming a woman for getting raped because she wasn't dressed like a nun and living with her parents[...]


Go
here for the whole thing.
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While we're waiting...

One of the best duets from one of my favourite shows, Rockwiz:

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Also awesome.

Inevitable, really. And what a shot by the bride!

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Awesome.

Okay, so apparently this isn’t new; some 6.1 7 million views in the last six days, but not surprising. I won’t say why, just put your headphones on (yes I’m looking at you, you built-in PC speaker lovin’ friends) and watch. No scratch that, put on headphones/earbuds, crank up the volume, then click the HQ and fullscreen buttons:



Thanks to
Bynkii for posting this. He nails it.

P.S. This must be the first time that I’ve come out in goosebumps listening to a song that gratuitously uses auto-tune. Well, maybe the second, but that’s a less significant story...
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Two years.

Stopped smoking two years ago today.

Yay me!
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Forty years ago.


a11

I’d have watched as it happened, but I was only a few days old at the time.

As for where are they now...

“The White House is a good guess for today. If true then Armstrong is probably looking for a side door to duck out of, Aldrin stretching/warming up his arm so he doesn't hurt himself if he has to punch out a stupid reporter later, and Collins is stuck circling the Beltway banging his head on the steering wheel...” - Recoil Therapy @ Fark.

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iPhone 3GS


iphone3gs


Yes, I caved. Day after it became available here.

Awesome thing it is, too.

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Been a while.

[attempts kiwi excent...]

ketchup

Ketchup. Geddit? Ketchup.

[sigh]

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Hey Microsoft...

...your desperate is showing.

Rather pathetic attempt by Microsoft Australia to try to counter their steadily eroding browser marketshare, noted in El Reg.
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New toy.

Kathy bought me an early birthday present! Take a look at this bad boy.


IMG_0070



IMG_0066



IMG_0065



IMG_0064

Phono out, line out, USB out, and of course on the Mac, no drivers need apply.

And before you ask where the second turntable and the microphone are, yes that is a slip mat but this critter’s just for getting my last box of records on to hard disk.

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