More Firefox Extensions

Due to it being a very slow work day, I've been on the hunt for some new Firefox extensions, and have found these two, which are pretty cool...

• IETab - which opens an Internet Explorer window from within Firefox - very cool!
• IEView - not so cool, but allows opening of a link in Firefox, using the Internet Explorer API...

Who writes these things???

Just sitting down at work, to run through an online training module, and the first screen mandates the following:

Navigating through DWiT requires the following skills:

• The ability to use a web link
• The ability to close a browser window
• The ability to use the Back and Forward buttons on a web browser.

What sort of genius writes these training materials, and given it is online, web based training, how the hell did I manage to get to this particular screen if I don't have the above abilities?

Stupid Hackers...

Got the following in an email from one of the guys at work. It's a really good example of how stupid some of the script kiddies who call themselves "Hackers" truly are...

######checker (~java@euirc-a97f9137.dip.t-dialin.net) Quit (Ping timeout#)
* ######checker (~java@euirc-61a2169c.dip.t-dialin.net) has joined #stopHipHop
<######checker> why do you kick me
<######checker> can't you discus normally
<######checker> answer!
we didn't kick you
you had a ping timeout: * ######checker (~java@euirc-a97f9137.dip.t-dialin.net) Quit (Ping timeout#)
<######checker> what ping man
<######checker> the timing of my pc is right
<######checker> i even have dst
<######checker> you banned me
<######checker> amit it you son of a ######
LOL
s**t you're stupid, DST^^
<######checker> shut your mouth WE HAVE DST!
<######checker> for two weaks already
<######checker> when you start your pc there is a message from windows that DST is applied.
You're a real computer expert
<######checker> shut up i hack you
ok, i'm quiet, hope you don't show us how good a hacker you are ^^
<######checker> tell me your network number man then you're dead
Eh, it's 129.0.0.1
or maybe 127.0.0.1
yes exactly that's it: 127.0.0.1 I'm waiting for you great attack
<######checker> in five minutes your hard drive is deleted
Now I'm frightened
<######checker> shut up you'll be gone
<######checker> i have a program where i enter your ip and you're dead
<######checker> say goodbye
to whom?
<######checker> to you man
<######checker> buy buy
I'm shivering thinking about such great Hack0rs like you
* ######checker (~java@euirc-61a2169c.dip.t-dialin.net) Quit (Ping timeout#)

What happened is clear: That guy entered his own IP-Adress in his almighty Hack-Tool and crashed his own PC. thus the attack on my PC was a total failure. I was already starting to think that I did not have to worry, but a good hacker never calls it a day. Two minutes later he returned.

QUOTE
* ######checker (~java@euirc-b5cd558e.dip.t-dialin.net) has joined #stopHipHop
<######checker> dude be happy my pc crashed otherwise you'd be gone
lol
######checker: Then try hacking me again... I still have the same IP: 127.0.0.1
<######checker> you're so stupid man
<######checker> say buy buy
ah, p**s off
<######checker> buy buy anarchist
* ######checker (~java@euirc-b5cd558e.dip.t-dialin.net) Quit (Ping timeout#)

There was a tension in the room... Would he manage, after these two failures, to crash my PC? I waited. Nothing happened. I felt relieve... Six minutes passed by until he prepared the next wave of attack. Being a Hacker, who usually cracks whole data centers, he knew what his problem was now.

QUOTE
· ######checker (~java@euirc-9ff3c180.dip.t-dialin.net) has joined #stopHipHop
<######checker> anarchsit you son of a ######
######checker how old are you?
What's up ######checker?
<######checker> you have a frie wal
<######checker> fire wall
maybe, i don't know
<######checker> i'm 26
such behaviour at 26?
how did you find out that I have a firewall?
tststs this is not very nice missy
<######checker> because your gay fire wall directed my turn off signal back to me
<######checker> be a man turn that s**t off
cool, didn't know this was possible.
<######checker> thn my virus destroys your pc man
are you hacking yourselves?
yes ######checker is trying to hack me
he ######checker if you're a hacker you have to get around a firewall even i can do that
<######checker> yes man i hack the anarch but the sucker has a fire wall the
what firewall do you have?
<######checker> like a girl
firewall is normal a normal hacker has to be able to get past it...you girl^^
###### give yourself a jackson and chill you're letting them provoce you and give those little girls new material all the time
<######checker> turn the firewall off then i send you a virus
Noo
he ######checker why turn it off, you should turn it off
<######checker> you're afraid
<######checker> i don't wanna hack like this if he hides like a girl behind a fire wall
<######checker> anathsti turn off your ###### wall!
i wanted to say something about this, do you know the definition of hacking??? if he turns of the firewall that's an invitation and that has nothing to do with hacking
<######checker> shut up
lol
<######checker> my grandma surfs with fire wall
<######checker> and you suckers think you're cool and don't dare going into the internet without a fire wall

He calls me girly and says only his grandma would use a firewall. I know that elder people are much more intelligent then younger, but I couldn't let that rest. To see whether he really is a good hacker I waited to see what happens next.

QUOTE
######checker, a friend showed me how to turn the firewall off. Now you can try again
######hacker can't hack
> nice play on words ^^
<######checker> wort man
######checker: I'm still waiting for your attack!
how many times again he is no hacker
<######checker> man do you want a virus
<######checker> tell me your ip and it deletes your hard drive
lol ne give it up i'm a hacker myself and i know how hackers behave and i can tell you 100.00% you're no hacker..^^
127.0.0.1
it's easy
<######checker> lolololol you so stupid man you'll be gone
<######checker> and are the first files being deleted
moment….
i'll take a look

Just to check I started up Firefox Had I underestimated him? No…

QUOTE
<######checker> don't need to rescue you can't son of a ######
that's bad
<######checker> anarchist you idiout your hard drive g: is deleted
yes, there's nothing i can do about it
<######checker> and in 20 seconds f: is gone

Yes, true, G: and F: were gone. Did I ever have them? No… but how did this remtard come to such a conclusion?, I did not have time to think, I was scared. ######checker was advising me on my music choices..completely random….

QUOTE
<######checker> tupac rules
<######checker> anarchist you son of a ###### your f: is gone and e: too

Drive E:? Oh my god... All the games are there! And all my work, I instantly take a look. Everything still there. But the mastermind hacker said it was deleted....

QUOTE
<######checker> and d: is at 45% you idiot lolololol
why doesn't meta say anything
he's probably rolling on the floor laughing
> ^^
<######checker> your d: is gone
go on ######

The guy is good: My CD-drive is supposedly deleted! ######checker turned my CD-ROM into a burner! But how did he do this? I'll have to ask him. Some encourage him. He himself is giving advice how to avoid the disaster on my hard drives.

QUOTE
<######checker> anarchist man you're so stupid never give your ip on the internet
<######checker> i'm already at c: 30 percent

Should I tell him he's not attacking my computer? Should I burst his bubble of psychotic delusion?

QUOTE
* ######checker (~java@euirc-9ff3c180.dip.t-dialin.net) Quit (Ping timeout#)

Too late... It's 20:22 when we get the last message of our hacker with the AKA "######checker". We see that he has a "Ping timeout". We haven't seen him since then...
He also threatened me with his amazing language talents

QUOTE
<######checker> shut up man i have advanced german

BookmarksHome

Just sifting through Mozdev, and came across BookmarksHome, a plugin for Firefox...



Makes your bookmarks browseable, and has RSS support as well... NICE!

Geek Stuff

The blog will now automatically resize to the browser size...

I was getting sick of having to scroll side to side if the entry was larger than the browser...

We're now working on percentages of available browser space...

Programmer or Serial Killer?

Killer Quiz

Cool Programming....

These are very clever bits of programming.... Wish I had the ability to code like this....

Depth of Field Generator #1

Depth of Field Generator #2

Tower of Bears

Rexmas...

Today was the WRX Club Christmas (Rexmas) party.

The gorilla suit came in handy again, for marshalling traffic at the Knox City Shopping Centre at the meeting point.

Once again, there were some mixed reactions from kids, as well as the adults.

A few reckoned it was gold, the others again, declared me an idiot! :-)

The cruise for the event ended up at Red Hill, at the oval, where Santa (Alex) arrived in a Mustang, accompanied by a gorilla, and an elf (Carlee)

Again, a great day had by all. The gorilla won the raffle prize of a hamper of Black Magic car cleaning products... Gotta be loving that! :-)

Zoo Christmas Party

Work threw the Christmas Part at the Werribee Zoo this year. There was a fancy dress competition, so Rob and I decided to hire a couple of suits to get right into the spirit!

The reaction was kind of mixed... Most folks called us idiots, which is partly correct, given the heat... Some of the kids loved it, others hated it...





We went on the bus safari, where the gorillas had a chance to relax a bit, and take in the animals in the park.


The animals the bus occupants saw included Hippos, Bison, Giraffes and Rhinos.

Which Potter are You??

Given the new Harry Potter is starting this Thursday, this is quite an appropriate page to take a squiz at!

I turned out to be Harry :-)

Which HP Kid Are You?

Thanks to Laura for having this on her Blog

MP3 Players...

I've been looking into MP3 players of late. The trip to Japan sparked my interest in getting one for myself, and given I'm walking, cycling or running every day now, an MP3 player would definitely be an improvement over the walkman...

When I was in Japan, I looked at the 4GB Apple iPod Nano, which was about $320 AUD, with the exchange rate at the time. The thing that held me back on the Nano, was the lack of radio.

Since I've been back, I've done a little web research, into flash based MP3 players, and thus far, I've discovered the Viodio 512 MB unit, that is available from Strathfield Car Radio, for about $230 (on sale for the opening of the Fountain Gate store), and the I-Bead 400, which seems a bit more universal as it plays multiple formats, including MP3, WMA,
ASF, and OGG... WMA may be handy, as the output quality seems pretty reasonable for a file quite a bit smaller than an equivalent MP3. The I-Bead I've not been able to find in a Bricks and Mortar store, but www.mp4store.com.au have it for $309, as well as the I-Bead 170, which I think is the poorer cousin of the two...

All 3 have a Lithium polymer battery, so it's dilemna time!!! Do I need 1 GB, or is 512 enough?

Nana

Today, my Nana passed away at 12.30

The funeral will be on Wednesday, 12th, in Carnegie.

More details to follow.

Imminent Travel

It's all a bit hush-hush at the moment, but I booked some flights today, to go overseas at the end of October for three weeks, to an overseas destination...

Big thanks to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program, and to work, for flying me all over the world in 2001... I didn't have to pay a cent for the flights :-)

iPod Nano...

Apple released the new iPod Nano this week, which is a solid state, 2GB or 4GB unit, thinner than the iPod Shuffle, and about twice as wide...

Just doing a bit of surfing, and found this article, where a Japanese guy has already pulled one to bits, and photographed the process... The article is translated by Google

Awfully expensive way of exploring a device's contents if you ask me... Then again, someone was bound to do it!

Big Thanks... To Great Friends

Given what's transpired in the past week, and given you guys may read this blog...

Big Thanks to...

Clarissa,
Alex,
Les,
Rob,
David,
Natalie,
Caz & Trent,
Ben

and of course, my folks.

You guys are all great, and mean the world to me...

Thanks Heaps!

Flip Flop

Fair bit of water under the bridge since last Saturday...

Monday afternoon, I went to the funeral for Shirley Hilditch (Scott's Mum), which was a very nice service, and good to catch up with Scott and Gina, Trent and Caz, and others I've not had a chance to see for a while now...

After heading back to work, and finishing the day, I went off to a market research session, to do some advertisement assessment for a new range of advertisements which Bunnings are thinking of running.

After heading back to Mum and Dad's to dinner, I sort of fell in a big heap.

Tuesday, was the day from hell... I woke up around 8.30 or so, to go to work, but couldn't get out of bed. All my system wanted to do was sleep, sleep, and sleep some more...

Wednesday wasn't much better.

Thursday, I went to see a GP, trained in Big Blue, "The National Depression Initiative".

Friday morning, three people from the CAT Team at the Alfred Hospital came to see me, and one of the doctors declared me depressed. I've since been prescribed some anti-depressants, to buoy me up during the day, and valium, to help me sleep...

It's incredible how many people you talk to have been on these medications... I guess I'll give them a go, to see how things unfold...

Friday night, was Clarissa's Birthday dinner, which I had promised I would go to. I had a really good time, at Shine Cafe, out in Glen Waverley, although the service was appalling from all but one staff member.

Right now, I'm sitting on the bed in my old bedroom at Mum and Dad's, with the blind up, watching an awesome electrical storm go by, and fighting a half a valium, which was supposed to be a good idea, to help me sleep... Damn the interesting night life!!

Two Puddy Tats...

I went out to visit Ingrid, who runs Ingrid's Haven on Thursday night after work, to meet Pretty Jessica and Fluff, both of who were a little shy and people wary for my liking.

Ingrid currently has 91 cats, waiting to be given new homes, and I met two other cats, Una (pronounced ohhnah) and Stumpy (pure black cat with a stumpy tail), both of whom were very friendly!

After a coffee, and a chat, I head home, to come back on Saturday, when both cats have been given a new home...

Stumpy is learning her new name of Lizzy, and Una is let to be renamed, althoguh I'm thinking Luna is a good name for her...

Two to choose from...

Following on from my entry from yesterday, about getting myself a furry friend, or two, I made some phone calls...

Penelope, found a new home 2 weeks ago, and moved from Mount Eliza, to Ballarat... :-(

On the up side, I am going to try to meet Fluffy and Jessica on Sunday... Hopefully they are the nice cats that the lady running hostel they are living in says they are... :-)

Furry Friends....

I've decided that for a bit of company, a cat or two could be a good option... I've been doing some web searching, and found three really nice looking female cats, that are looking for new homes...

Two are through a non-profit cats hostel, where the other is a pet of a local family who are moving to the UK...

This is Fluffy, who is cute as cute, and is a negative image of Charlotte, who died over a year ago...



This is Jessica, who is also a very nice looking cat...



This is Penelope, who's owners are moving overseas...



And this is Charlotte, who died on May 4th, 2004

Bloody Petrol Prices...

Having just been on the road for a week or so, I've been pretty horrified at the price of petrol.

On a trip from Melbourne to Canberra, then on to the snow fields of New South Wales, and back to Melbourne, via Canberra, I have seen petrol prices vary from 116.5 c/litre, in Melbourne, to as high as 132.9 c/litre, in Jindabyne.

According to one of the guys who work the money markets for the Commonwealth Bank, the Australian petrol pricing is dictated by OPEC countries, due to most of Australia's diesel fuel being refined in Singapore, from crude oil sourced from the Middle East.

It still doesn't make sense to me that the locally refined fuels are impacted... Just one of the little frustrations in life I guess...

How Cool is this???

I finally got off my ass, and downloaded a copy of Skype, one of the VOIP applications that are starting to pop up on the Internet.

For the pricely sum of 10 euro, (roughly $16 Aussie Dollars according to the currency converter at xe.com), I can place a call to any landline in the world, at an extremely reasonable rate...

To call a landline in the US, costs about $0.03 Aussie per minute, which per my calculations works out to 1.8 cents an hour...

I've called a couple of friends, as well as Mum and Dad, to see what the quality is like, and it's extremely good...

Given that Wayne and Fiona left for Japan for a year last night, this should save us a bucket of money on international calls!

Skype to Skype calls are excellent value, as they are free!!!

50,000 km ...

My White Subaru Forester XT had it's 50,000 km service today... I decided to lash out a bit (well, decided that my lease would lash out a bit), and get the service done by STi Melbourne, rather than at the dealer the car was purchased from.

The theory being that STi will do a bit better job on a car with a turbo charger, than a regular service centre, as they also look after the Subaru Rally Team cars, and are specialists with the performance Subarus.

Given this was the first "big service" I decided to get the car Dyno Tuned as well, to see how much power it has, and also to ensure there are no problems under power, as exhaust modifications such as I have, have been known to cause problems with pinging, and the like.

As I'm a Victorian WRX Club member, everything attracted a 10% loyalty discount, and there was a bit of pinging, which has been tuned out, whilst the car was on the dyno.

Here is the printout from the dyno... A little disappointed about the power output, but given I am running on 95 RON fuel, and no modifications worth mentioning, it's not too bad....



The black line is the before tune, the red line is after tune...

Google Moon ?

Google Labs have created Google Moon to commemorate the landing of man on the moon...

They say that it uses the Google Earth interface to show the landing sites of Apollo's 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17.

Not as exciting as Google Earth, or as different as Google Gulp, but pretty cool all the same...

An Office Gem....

Having had two days out of the office, one of the office comedians must have visited my desk.



When I left the office on Friday night, the mandarin was sitting next to the glass. As you can see, this morning, it had been encouraged into the glass... :-)

It's a much better feeling now ...

Today, all the locks in the house were changed, due to an uninvited visitor last week.

The locksmith, who Mum and Dad used at their rental place got lost on the way, but when he got here, did a really good job...

The passage sets on the front, back, laundry and garage doors were all knackered, and couldn't be re-keyed to the same key, so they were all replaced with new dead locking models, which actually close nicely, and every lock in the house is on the same key now!

It's Just Another Day... Really It Is!

32 today... Big bloody deal...

It's not a good feeling

Rather unpleasant experience today, arriving home, to find the blue flashing light for the alarm flashing away outside the bedroom window.

Instant sinking feeling, in the pit of the stomach, as I wheeled into the driveway, and opened the garage door...

The door between the garage and the house was open, and the sinking feeling in my stomach increases...

After a walk down the street, to have a chat to Arthur, it seems that the alarm went off between 11am and 4pm. I've also checked the windows, and had a chat to the Frankston Police. They sent a car around, and we couldn't find any sign of forced entry, and they managed to get a partial print from the back garage door, but given nothing has been taken, they will not progress their investigation. Their comment was that for there to be no sign of forced entry, it would have been with a key...

Rather an unsettling feeling. Looks like the locks will be changed very soon...

Google Earth

Discovered that Google have finally made Google Earth available for easy downloads.

It uses Landsat, Earthsat, and aerial photographs to put together overhead images all over the world.

Currently the Australian coverage map looks like this:



Unfortunately my house, is just out of the currently photographed area :-(

Triton Upgrades

I spent a good couple of hours, fitting my GMC router to the Triton Router table, I purchased through eBay, back in May, to find that it crapped itself on the first pass on the redgum I am making some bedside tables out of.

Enter Mr Two Year Warranty, and Bunnings Gift Cards. I packed the router back into it's nice wooden case, and headed down to Bunnings at Frankston, and explained my predicament, with fingers crossed that without a receipt, the warranty would be honoured. It was, and after handing over my Gift Cards, I now have the Triton 1/2" Precision Router, which fits the table without heaps of stuffing around, and routed the redgum beautifully.

Shorter Shifts....

Was talking to Alex the other night, about short shifter replacement levers for the WRX and the Forester XT, and thought that one could be a good birthday present for him, and a "just for the hell of it" purchase for me...

I did some research on the GTRydaz forums, and after talking to one of the guys, decided to purchase a needle bearing short shifter, from a lady called Elaine, who sells on yep, you guessed it, eBay.

I managed to win two levers, for the grand sum of $49.95 each (starting price), and $11 later for shipping, and a phone call from reception at work, I had them in my hot little hands.

Here is a comparison photo between the WRX and the replacement shifter.


The actual throw is shortened by the length between the pivot and the ball at the end of the shifter.

The shortened throw on the Foz is awesome, much more accurate for the shift.

More Triton Gear

Since buying the Triton Router table on eBay, I figured having something to cut timber with would also be helpful, so again, I headed back to eBay, to check out what was available in the Triton Workcentre 2000 department.

I've been watching the auctions for Triton gear for quite some time, and knowing what you can buy stuff for at retail pricing, from places like Bunnings and Mitre 10 sell this gear for helps immensely. I guess if you had to make one rule for buying anything on eBay it would be to research what you are buying before you start bidding!!!

So, that rule being made, I knew that a Workcentre 2000, from Bunnings is worth around $450, and the Triton 235mm Circular Saw is in the vicinity of $350...

As luck would have it, there was a guy in Melbourne, with a Workcentre 2000 AND a Triton 235mm Circular Saw, with a starting price of $400, with a huge benefit of him being located in Melbourne, and the gear being brand new, still in the boxes...

I sent him a couple of messages about the gear, and then spoke to him. Turns out, he had some cash come his way, and went out to buy the Triton gear, the same day his wife bought him the same gear... Apparently she lost the receipts, and he already had his lot assembled when she gave it to him. Enter eBay :-)

He only had the Workcentre 2000 advertised, and when I spoke to him, mentioned he had the saw as well, so we agreed upon a price for both, and I agreed to bid the auction until I won it...

Needless to say, I won the auction, and for $740 I became the proud owner of the Workcentre 2000 and the 235mm Circular Saw, with local pickup... When I rocked up, I only had $730 on me, so he said that was cool... All round good deal for me... :-)

To make it even better, Mum had made me an IOU for my birthday last year, for exactly this gear.

17 inches of rubbery goodness... :-)

Before:



And After:



Not sure about the wheel alignment at the moment, as the car feels like it is floating a bit, but I suspect that is due to the alignment being accurate, rather than how it was out of factory...

All the noise of the Geo 900's is totally gone, and the cost was significantly less for the Toyo Transpath MP3....

Fitting was done by Beaurepaires Franksston, who did a very careful, and clean job... Need to work out how the alignment should be though... I suspect there is not enough negative camber, or the car is just a lot more responsive due to the reduced tyre profile....

FeedMap

This is a very cool little website... FeedMap tries to map out other registered bloggers in your vicinity...

I found it to be quite scary how accurate it is... I put in the street name, suburb, and the maps nearly has the street itself in it!!!

It gives you some code to add to the side bar of your blog, which is over to the left... Pretty cool really... At this time, there are 50 registered bloggers in the area, which seems to have about a 50 km radius...

Let The Routing Begin

Last year, I got given a GMC 1250 Router for my birthday,

and although I've used it a couple of times, I've been a little hesitant about using it as a plunge router... Somehow it seems a little bit cumbersome (or is it that I'm un-coordinated) ? So, I resorted to Ebay to try and find a resonably priced Triton Router table, and Router Stand...

After patiently watching and waiting for a couple of months, I have finally found a Melbourne seller, selling the Triton RTA300, and RSA300 Router Table and Stand...



I picked it up from Rod, the seller, who, like most people I've bought from on Ebay seemed like a very nice bloke...

Now all I need is the WorkCentre 2000 and a saw, and I'm in business... :-)

Soon to be On The Road Again...

Thursday morning, and Katy, Emma and I will be off on another of Katy, Emma and Drew's Excellent Adventures, following the Melbourne Storm , this time to the Gold Coast, for their second trial game for the season. The boys are playing against the Brisbane Broncos, at Carrara, which is also known as the Gold Coast Stadium, where I saw my first ever game of League that was explained to me (by Katy)!!

The Offroadsubarus.com Marketing Campaign

Finally got around to putting one of the site stickers on the back of the car...



looks pretty good I think....

Bunyip State Park

Spent the day in the Bunyip State Park with the guys from http://www.offroadsubarus.com. Once again, the car performed admirably, chickened out on a couple of runs, as I wasn't sure the XT would be up to it.

This pic was taken on a slope the car would not go up any futher, lots of wheel spin... very deceptive how steep a hill can be, yet looks relatively flat...



Couldn't believe the dust that was coming out of the ventilation system as I head out of the forest, hot footing it back to Katy's for dinner. Hate to think what the air filter looks like, based on the crap coming through the ventilation...

Fiona and Wayne's Big Day

Today was Fiona and Wayne's Wedding. They were married at Red Hill Estate, in a relatively small reception, of only 50 or so people...



Katy and I took between us several hundred photo's, both before, as Fiona was getting ready







During the wedding,







Behind which the guests had a magnificent view of the Vineyards,







We also took a lot of photo's in the same context the professional Wayne and Fiona had hired was taking. Hopefully the photo's he was taking are better than ours, as we reckon our photo's are awfully good!!







Even the Vineyard ducks got in on the act during the photos







The meal at Max's Restaurant was superb, and most people had a bit of a dance before the night was over.