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.