Holiday in Bay of Islands

Holiday in Bay of Islands

Well took a totally undeserved holiday from my work at Eurekster to go upto New Zealand's largest city of Auckland (1.3m popn). From there we spent 3 glorious days being extremely lazy in the beautiful Bay of Islands. Auckland itself is not much of an attraction. Awful traffic & almost constant rain make the experience kinda stressful. Has been great visiting my girlfriends family though. Fantastic people!

The Bay of Islands is one of those places that has to be seen if visiting New Zealand. The winterless North it is called - although anywhere in NZ in winter is cold! Lovely beaches, interesting history, great food. Gotta give a plug to the Beachside Holiday Park. Wonderful place to stay!

Anyway thats it!

Linwood RLFC jersey

Linwood RLFC jersey

Picked up this Linwood Rugby League jersey (the "Keas") from a 2nd hand clothes store called "Toffs" here in Christchurch. Love the thing!



For more information on Rugby League in Christchurch visit the Canterbury League website & related forum here.

Diarrhea

Diarrhea

In my last post I infered I was a "tightarse". Well after a particulary rampant case of delhi belly in the weekend I can assure you that you could probably drive a truck up there right now! Phew!

Haven't figured the culprit yet, but when I do...

Learning to play harmonica

Learning to play harmonica

Having people around me learning to play musical instruments has inspired me to learn something myself. The sounds of piano, the occasional flute, & soon violin are frequent companions to my ear drums.

I wanted something small, relatively easy to learn, & above all CHEAP (I am a tightarse!).

So this is what I brought - only $NZ14!!!



Yes thats right...A HARMONICA!!

Here is a WAV file showing my first attempt.

awful.wav

After listening to that I fully expect you won't be visiting again....

:-)

Connecting Sony Ericsson T610 to Linux box via bluetooth

Connecting Sony Ericsson T610 to Linux box via bluetooth

Thought it would be quite cool to be able to grab piccies off my phone & copy them to my Linux box using bluetooth. Ended up being very easy!

Goto my Connecting Sony Ericsson T610 via bluetooth to Linux box page on PalmHeads to see how!

Have found it very useful to archive some of those quick photos that camera phones are so useful for. Could also download/upload sounds etc.

Have fun!

Connecting Palm to Linux box with bluetooth

Connecting Palm to Linux box with bluetooth

Was able to connect my Palm to my linux box via bluetooth, then enable IP forwarding to surf the web, SSH etc etc.

Go to my Connecting Palm to Linux box with USB bluetooth dongle page on PalmHeads.

Its a fantastic & cheap way to internet enable your bluetooth Palm!

Adventure Cat!

Adventure Cat!

We've got a cat named Limey. We haven't quite figured out if he is incredibly smart...or pretty thick! Despite that he's very naughty & cute!

My girlfriend moved into this house about 8 months ago after selling her old house. Limey was born at that house. Its about 2km away from here.

Limey keeps running back to his old house! (or more particulary the neighbours of his old house). His record for being away is 4 weeks! No matter what we try we can't convince him this is his new home.

This last time he ran away thou he must have been hit by a car, as he turned up at the old place maim. The vet says has a broken pelvis & leg, so he's having surgery on Monday. We have to stop him moving around to much so we have him in a cage at the moment. Heres a piccie of the naughty we fella!



Hoping he will be OK! And the 4-6 weeks he will spend in the cage recovering will convince him that this is home!

Happy Hacking keyboard

Happy Hacking keyboard

A year or so ago I got a Happy Hacking keyboard for my Linux box. I love the thing! Unix standard keyboard etc etc. All unix/linux geeks should have one!

Here is a piccie of a white keyboard attached to a Mac that a guy at work uses...

Christchurch Bus Timetables on the Palm

Christchurch Bus Timetables on the Palm

I've just updated my PalmHeads site with a perl script that will enable you to have Christchurch Bus Timetables on your Palm!

Check out my Christchurch Bus Timetables on the Palm page!

Lance Cairns - NZ cricket folk hero

Lance Cairns - NZ cricket folk hero

I was in my early teens when Lance Cairns (father of Chris Cairns) was in his prime for NZ cricket. His 6 sixes off Lillee, Hogg & Macleay in the 2nd WSC final in 82/83 at the MCG is part of NZ's sporting focklore.

He wrote a book published in 1984 called "Give it a Heave!". I recently purchased it off Trademe. I had largely forgotten what a legend he was! Its easy to remember him smashing the ball all over the place, but it was his boomerang inswingers & leg-cutters that made him such an effective international cricketer.

He writes about the tours & characters he met throughout his career, the bizarre incidents (underarm, the Snedden "catch"), the captains he liked/disliked. One thing I found quite bizarre was for such a big man growing up in Picton, he hardly ever played rugby! Hockey was his winter sport. He must have been a frightening prospect hitting a hockey ball! Apparently his driving off the tee in golf was frightening enormous as well!

A very entertaining read!

If you are interested in cricket, you might like to read my article on the Iverson-Gleeson grip!

Night at Jade Stadium

Night at Jade Stadium

Went to the Crusaders vs Hurricanes S14 game at Jade Stadium Friday night. Here are some piccies! Hope you are not afraid of heights! Was in the Paul Kelly stand thanks to some corporate box tickets.

Swicki's great for Community Sites

Swicki's great for Community Sites

Have had a Swicki on my PalmHeads site for a while now. Its a great tool for allowing community contributions to your site.

My PalmHeads swicki has given me an insight into what people who visit my site want to see/know about.

You can even add your own search results if you think the results are crap!

Check it out!

Retro Computing at its nerdy best

Retro Computing at its nerdy best

As I guess is patently obvious, I am a bit of a nerd. How nerdy? Well, shameful as it is, I'm collecting computers that I either used or lusted over as a child. Sad but true!

The first computer I ever saw was this baby - the ZX81!



A whopping 1K of RAM! Woo hoo!

My pride & joy is my Tandy 102. You can read more about this fabulous portable computer on my Tandy page.



My most recent purchase is a 8 bitter I lusted over. The Commodore 64!



I use the C64 emulator FrodoPalm on my Palm! Such classic games like Thrust, Uridium, Dropzone & the like. Fabulous stuff! Check out my Tribule to Thrust & HHGTTG C64/Palm page on PalmHeads.

Hope this has brought back some pleasent memories for someone!

Z1 AM Micro Radio

Z1 AM Micro Radio

Following on from the Sinclair A-Bike below, Sinclair Research also make this kick-arse minature AM radio. It comes with a few extra aerials as can be seen below.



Just fits in your ear! Its fantastic for listening to Radio Sport when you should be doing other stuff, like listening to your wife/girlfriend etc. Brilliant!

Sinclair A-Bike!

Sinclair A-Bike!

OK my 2nd post has got nothing todo with Palm's, Linux or Tandy's - lts about my newest purchase - the Sinclair A-Bike!

If you are committed to a folding bike & using public transport - the A-Bike is for you!

l love the thing! Don't expect it to be a speed demon, be great up hills etc. Think of it more as an alternative too walking.

Here is a piccie of it folded...



Here is a piccie of it unfolded ready to use!...



I am really enjoying the experience! Get a few strange looks but I'm used to that anyway! haha! :-)

Have read a few reviews where people criticize it. These people need to get real! You are never going to complete the Tour de France on one of these things. That's not what its designed for!

Using Palm to update my blog

Using Palm to update my blog

Being the author of a Palm orientated website, I figured if I was to have a blog, it would have to be updated via my Palm Tungsten T2 & Sony Ericcson T610.

Found a great Palm app called u*Blog to allow me to achieve this.

So here we are! Palmheads blog first post via a Palm!