Bike crash
More details later, but I had a badish bike crash on Wednesday night, and spent a lot of yesterday at doctors and being xrayed. More details when I get the time to write them up... [icbm: work]
Coffee and beer in one glass
Via dad-net we learn of coffee beer, a fermented coffee drink which isn't alcoholic, and resembles a mix of beer and coffee. Ewwww. [icbm: dcs]
What’s that grinding noise?
Dad I were riding a week or so ago, and I had just come down a nice hill where I had been going over 50 kilometres and hour... Towards the end the brakes on the rear wheel started to make a grinding noise as I slowed down. I'm a bit of a bike newbie, so it seemed to me that there were a couple of options: my brake pads were worn out; the brakes had over heated; or there was grit stuck under a pad. We stopped and had a look, and the pads seemed to have heaps of rubber left on them, so we went for the grit theory. This was reinforced by the ride home, where the grinding stopped after a little while. Time passes and I have the same experience last night. Except this time the grinding happens all the way home, so I decided to take the brakes apart when I got home. It turns out that the brake pads were worn out, and that I had been damaging the rear rim. I don't think the damage is too bad - -I've probably reduced the life of the rim a little, but it's still usable. The…
Sony’s CD DRM acts like spyware on Windows
Sony's DRMed CDs install spyware on Windows. Hurrah! [icbm: work]
Status of the book
The book has been written for a while, along with the technical editing and review. The copy edits have been done since last week. There are only two chapters left for page layout. The process has been interesting, educational, and in some parts long. The hardest part though? Ironically, it's filling in the marketing questionnaire. I've never done anything approaching sales before, although I have done customer facing work. Some parts of the questionnaire are easy... The target audience for instance, a short pitch for the book, that sort of thing. What about things like which magazines to ask to do a review? What about people who might be willing to do reviews? Got suggestions? Reply in a comment?
All airline tickets now booked…
Not that it was such a pain that I now feel I've really achieved something or anything.
Hacking a webcam to be an IR camera
Hacking webcams to work in IR land, again open in my browser too long. [icbm: work]
Paul Graham pages on startups
These have been open in my browser long enough for me to "link" to them from here: How to start a startup, and Ideas for startups. [icbm: work]
So, how am I getting to the US?
Well, I just booked my flights to the US... The flight there is on 18 November 2005, and goes from Canberra, to Sydney, to Los Angeles, to San Francisco with Qantas. At least I get club access along the way.
What are we doing with the pets?
We own a dog and a cat. We've had the cat, Taffy, for a long time and he's quite old now. The dog, Spike, on the other hand hasn't been with us for very long. So, when we move to the US, what are we going to do with the pets? Well, the cat is relatively easy, as he's too old to cope with a move, and is quite attached to my father. He'll be staying in our current house, which dad will be renting from me. The dog, Spike is harder. The kids are now quite attached to him, having been initially scared of him (we got him as a puppy, and the kids didn't like that puppy phase too much). He's now a year old or so. On the other hand, he didn't like the flight from Sydney to Canberra when we acquired him, so a 14 hour flight to the US is too much for him. If we don't like the US and want to come home really, soon then he would also end up in quarantine, a four hour drive away from us, for a very long time (around three months I believe). Worse than that,…