Windows password and Mandriva
Dude forgot his Windows password! The kids have passwords because they are paranoid their siblings might read their personal files. The older ones are just nine and 11, yet they have computer passwords! I didn’t touch a computer until I was 22.
Anyway, what to do about Dude’s PC? There are a few tricks involving live Linux CDs that I might have tried, and did, but because his computer was a dual boot with Suse I couldn’t get the boot loader to behave as it should.
There might have been a solution, but I couldn’t be bothered. Read more
Election campaign: The next stage
The Alpine Shire election campaign has entered its next stage, which is about 12 days of limbo before the ballot packs are mailed out.
Candidates had until 4pm this afternoon to submit preference cards if they wished to do so. There was a lot of horse trading during the week, and I know it was a stressful period for most of us.
For those who follow Australian football it was like the AFL trade week. Read more
The Gorey ghost #2
My correspondent continues her story of the Gorey ghost in the Welsh mountains:
The haunting didn’t stop and there were many more times when we, or one or two visitors saw, or felt a spirit. I don’t know if it was the same one, or different ones. The house — Bwlch yn Horeb, known as the Bwlch — was on an historic spot and we discovered that from about the 11th century to 1800s it had been an inn, before becoming a farmhouse.
The “spirits” could have been wind, or even rats, though more than once actual shapes were seen and voices heard. I camped out in it on my own when we first bought it, when it was a virtual wreck. Many times, I had such a strong feeling of a presence that I had to run outside.
I met two young policemen who told me about the ‘ghost’ they saw; it’s a long story. Read more
KDE’s PIM
I’ve been a Firefox/Thunderbird fan for many months, but revisting Suse recently persuaded me to try the KDE contact suite once again.
I must say that I’m very impressed. Everything is accessible from the main window, and it all works. I can see my emails, contacts (easily imported from CSV), appointments and RSS feeds.
Sure, Firefox and Thunderbird are nice as standalone applications, but currently they don’t integrate a calendar unless you clumsily add Sunbird as an extension. I’m hooked on KDE and its PIM for the time being.
A Gorey ghost?
I received this email overnight:
I live in the UK. 40 years ago we moved to a 400 year old farmhouse halfway up a Welsh mountain (we lived there with our three sons for a few years). It was on the site of a Roman cattle road. The house needed a lot of fixing. We took out the floor boards in a bedroom - you could see through to the slate floor below. One night, I heard my 4 year old son crying. I found him at the far side of the room, in the corner against the wall. He was sleep walking and had crossed the beams on his own in the dark. I had to cross them also to pick him up - no easy task. How had he done it with his little legs? When he woke he said the Gorey had taken him there. I had never heard that word before. A couple of weeks later, he pointed to his teddy bear, which he had lost in the woodpile in the yard — he said, ‘It’s the Gorey.’ A local person told me that a man named Gorey used to live in the house many years ago. The reason I’m writing is I have always been puzzled by this. I see your family is Irish — did you have any Gorey relatives in Wales in 18th century? I found your site by chance looking up something quite unrelated.
Comment on idealists
I’ve been reading a lot lately. So much that I haven’t had time to write any book reviews here! I’ll get around to commenting soon on Scottish author Christopher Brookmyre. He’s an interesting character.
I’m currently reading “In the Moon of Red Ponies” by James Lee Burke. The Daily Mail described Burke as the “most literary” of modern crime writers, and I have to agree.
It’s not often a single line in a book stands out in my mind. I came across this gem tonight:
But Johnny was also an idealist, and it’s the idealists who, given the chance, will incinerate half the world to save the other half.
Harsh but true!
Flock browser released
A new web browser called Flock has been released for public testing. It’s based on Mozilla, but adds some interesting new features.
I downloaded the Linux source code, extracted the file to my home directory in Suse and the program started without trouble.
Flock resembles Firefox, more than Mozilla, with a snappy modern theme.
Bookmarks integrate with the online service, del.icio.us. I’m feeling my way with that just now, but it’s an interesting concept.
The other key innovation is a blogging tool. I’m writing this entry in Flock without having to login to my site.
There’s a good article here, which describes the philosphy and business plan behind Flock. The program is available for Windows, Linux and Macintosh. GIve it a try!
Myrtleford Show
People have been saying for years that country shows are on their last legs. I went to the Myrtleford Show today and I think it has a positive future.
Cattle and sheep judging are less relevant today and that was reflected in the low number of entries. But that’s about the only part of the show that’s declined.
Pavilion exhibits were strong. I saw some excellent photography and we enjoyed watching the equestrian events.
We left just before the “wonder pigs” and woodchopping, as some heavy showers dampened our enjoyment.
The twins loved the animal nursery and it was a pleasure to share their fun. The big kids had fun on the rides.
It was an expensive outing, but worth the cost and the effort.
Suse 10
I installed Suse 10 on my Linux hard drive this week. It was a tough decision to override my faithful Kanotix, but being a compulsive experimenter I couldn’t resist the temptation.
Suse installed easily and comes packed with software including commercial products such as Java, Flash and RealPlayer. Read more
Officially a candidate
I’m now officially a candidate in the Alpine Shire Council election.
I attended the candidate briefing last night. This morning I had passport-size photos taken. One will be printed with my candidate statement (still to be written) and circulated with the postal ballot pack around November 10.
I submitted my nomination form to the returning officer and handed over $250. The cash will be returned if I poll four percent of the vote.
Recent comments
- Sue: mmmmmm… *drool* Tim Taaaammmmmsssss Heaven in a rectangle. Sues most recent article …Accents to...
- Michael: Congratulations Sue. That was the 1000th comment on this site. You win a Tim Tam.
- Sue: One more reason to love your country… awesome plate! Sues most recent article …Feeling Disconnected
- Angela Aguilar: READ CAREFULLY Hi to all, My name is angela and im one of the reservation of TIMESHARE here in the...
- Stephan Miller: Cool. I have tried so many ways around the javascript in post issue. I went as far as using an ad...
Links
Random posts
Archives
Useful stuff
