Had a bad week!!

Well last week was a very *interesting* week, kind of like ground hog day with a whole heap of Monday repeating over, and over and over …

101 Things You Do Not Want Your System Administrator To Say

01 Uh-oh…..
02 Shit!!
03 What the hell!?
04 Go get your backup tape. (You do have a backup tape?)
05 That’s SOOOOO bizarre.
06 Wow!! Look at this…..
07 Hey!! The suns don’t do this.
08 Terminated??!
09 What software license?
10 Well, it’s doing something…..
11 Wow….that seemed fast…..
12 I got a better job at Lockheed…
13 Management says…
14 Sorry, the new equipment didn’t get budgetted.
15 What do you mean that wasn’t a copy?
16 It didn’t do that a minute ago…
17 Where’s the GUI on this thing?
18 Damn, and I just bought that pop…
19 Where’s the DIR command?
20 … (continued)

Hopefully now that O’week is finished things will start settling down.

Why You Can’t Find Your System Administrator

01 They are hiding under the stairs
02 They are on holiday for the first time in 5 years
03 They are in the cellars conducting the rituals to keep the machines running
04 They are in hospital suffering from an overdose of caffeine
05 Taken away by the police after killing the last user who asked a stupid question
06 “You *have* a system administrator ?”
07 Walked past the table they were gibbering under
08 The SysAdmin has built a maze with the door to their office at the center
09 You *are* the system administrator
10 Missed seeing the system administrator asleep under their desk
11 … (continued)

GoogleFight

Did we win? We kicked their buts!!

GoogleFight
http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=ed-IT&word2=InfoDiv

Now this is a cool toy

Some classics;

• god FIGHT satan
• mac donalds FIGHT burger king
• george w. bush FIGHT bin laden
• luke skywalker FIGHT darth vader
• bill gates FIGHT linus torvalds
• pen FIGHT sword

Rau

The Cornelia Rau case has raised some interesting issues, it will be interesting to see how many others maybe locked up under similar circumstances. It is suprising that given the amount of documentation that is recorded at our border entry points that it didn’t show up as unusal that there was no evidence that the “German” had no recorded point of entry into Australia …

“She had been listed with NSW Police as missing for six months but immigration authorities did not check.“

Illegals, again [John Quiggin]

The government’s position on the Rau case seems pretty clear. Ms Rau was an ‘illegal’, that is, a person found to be in Australia and unable to satisfy the authorities that she had a legitimate right to be here. As was established in apartheid South Africa, where the term originated, illegals have no human or civil rights. They can be locked up in atrocious conditions, denied contact with the outside world and so on. Now the authorities are satisfied about her status, and she has been duly released.

Many commentators, including bloggers, have insisted upon both the term ‘illegal’ and the fact that such people have no human rights. All that is new is the discovery that an ‘illegal’ is anyone the government chooses to detain.

- AFP

Baby you can drive my car?!

Four-year-old borrows mum’s car to rent video game [ABC AU]

Police in the United States have picked up a four-year-old boy who had borrowed his mother’s car during the night to go rent a video game.

Michigan police chief Doug Heugel says a patrol officer reported seeing a car with its lights off moving at a snail’s pace and zigzagging between two lanes on a highway in the early hours of the morning last Friday.

Thinking at first that the driver was drunk, the officer turned on his flashing lights, only then realising he could not see anyone behind the steering wheel.

He then thought the car had possibly taken off by itself from a nearby petrol station.

With the officer still in pursuit, the car swerved sharply into a residential parking lot and hit another car.

It then went into reverse and crashed into the police cruiser.

What the officer found when he jumped out and looked was a four-year-old boy behind the driver’s wheel.

“He decided he wanted to get a video game, so he got dressed, took the keys, left the house, got in the car, put it in reverse and backed up, left the apartment complex and drove down the road [400 meters],” police chief Heugel said.

“He said he stopped at the video store but … the door was locked and the lights were out.

“He got back in the car and headed back home and that’s when the officer saw him.”

The officer said that to drive, the boy slid down to push the car’s accelerator and then stood up to look out and see where he was going.

His mother was asleep at home the whole time.

- AFP

LORD OF THE RINGS EXHIBITION

Well, after a bit of a discussion it looks like we are off to Sydney to see the LOTR Exhibition [1]. What started off as “Do you think we can?” has become a “Well pack then!” for the 12-13^th of March.

Experience the fantastic world of Middle-earth this summer (Powerhouse Museum)

Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go behind the scenes and see how the films that have captivated millions were created.

Be transported to Middle-earth and discover the secrets behind the trilogy’s award-winning special effects through interactive demonstrations. View the stunning selection of character costumes, weaponry and armour, as well as the prosthetics, including hobbit hands and feet, that transformed the actors into character. See exclusive interviews with the cast, crew, and director Peter Jackson.

This extraordinary exhibition culminates in an immersive encounter with The One Ring, where the characters urge Frodo to use or destroy The One Ring or return it to its master.

The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy – The Exhibition has already attracted record crowds in New Zealand, London, Singapore and Boston, and now comes to the Powerhouse Museum – the only Australian venue.

We are going with the Stay and See package [2] at this stage we are looking at the Mercure Hotel Ultimo Sydney (383-389 Bulwara Road, Ultimo, Sydney 2007)

LINKS:

[1] The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy – The Exhibition
[2] LORD OF THE RINGS EXHIBITION – Show Biz Box Office

The year of the Rooster

Gongxi facái

At midnight on 8 February 2005, the Chinese Year of the Green Monkey (Wooden Monkey) ended and the Year of the Green Rooster (Wooden and Metal Rooster) arrived.

Gong Xi Fa Chai (Mandarin)
Gung Hey Fat Choy (Cantonese)
‘Wishing You Prosperity and Wealth’

Chinese New Year
http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/chinese/

People born in the Year of the Rooster are capable, talented and conscientious. They always think they are right and more often than not are! They can be seen to be selfish and outspoken but are always interesting and can be extremely brave. They have a reputation for diligence and hard work. They have a love for life and enjoy the high life.

Some famous roosters include D H Lawrence, Goldie Hawn, Errol Flynn and Steffi Graf .

Rooster years in the last hundred years were 1909, 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981 and 1993.

Go the Rooster! (Both Tracy & myself are roosters)

Click here for a New Year’s Card

LINKS:

[1] http://www.chinapage.com/newyear.html
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year
[3] http://www.orientalartifacts.com.au/contacts/archive/news0402.html

 

Political Prisoners?

How the hell is this happening? You could believe this sort of cr@p happening in Germany in a WWII novel, or perhaps in cold war Russia; but this is here and now!

The Federal Government is under pressure to commission an independent judicial inquiry into how a mentally ill Australian resident was held in detention for 10 months. The opposition parties in the Senate are also considering whether to commission their own inquiry.

Secrecy blamed for Rau’s ordeal [ABC]

The president of the South Australian Council for Civil Liberties, George Mancini, says Ms Rau’s case highlights serious flaws in the system.

Mr Mancini says part of the problem has been the Federal Government’s determination to keep the public in the dark about what happens inside Australia’s detention centres.

“The secretive nature of these places leads to this very problem, and that’s why this has happened to this lady, because everything is kept secret, no-one gets to know about her situation,” he said.

Mr Mancini says Ms Rau has a clear case for compensation.

“The Government may have an ability to make a gift,” he said.

“The fact of detention has to attract quite a substantial sum, and then the fact that she’s been treated without any real dignity or without access to psychiatric services probably represents a breach of duties of care.”

It’s good to see that the Westminster system of Ministerial accountability is honoured by our Government … yes I am beeing sarcastic. So much for rasining the bar on Ministerial ethics Mr Howard! Vanstone should resign.

LINKS:

[1] ‘Arrogance’ stalled action in Rau case [ABC AU]
[2] Secrecy blamed for Rau’s ordeal [ABC AU]
[3] Rau incident ‘not isolated case’ [NEWS.com.au]

 

In the dark …

Well still dark this morning, 30 hours without power and counting. (Ended up as 36+ hours!)

Dark night for Vic storm victims
ABC AU

Power firms in Victoria have worked through the night to restore power to thousands of customers.

More than 200,000 Victorians lost their electricity supply at the height of the storms.

Louisa Graham from TXU says crews will face some challenges when trying to connect around 2,000 households in the state’s east this morning.

“Repairing some of that really serious damage that was undertaken by the trees in yesterday’s storms and these major, major problems are really due to the heavy trees coming down and crashing through the power lines and damaging the power poles,” she said.  …

We’ve just got power back after 36+ hours … the trees through the power lines down the road took out our service fuse, but not before it also killed;

1 x dial-in router
1 x central-heating unit
1 x DVD player
1 x washing machine
1 x surge supressor (!)

Luckily everything else seems to have survived.

SES crews work into night after storms
ABC AU
…
About 120 millimetres or five inches of rain was dumped on Melbourne in 24 hours.

It is the highest daily amount in more than 100 years.

Peter Cocks, from the Victorian SES, says crews still have a lot of work to do with more than 4,000 calls for help received.

“Certainly we’ll be busy right throughout the night just catching up on jobs,” Mr Cocks said.

Around 60 residents of a Eltham nursing home which was flooded have been moved to a nearby facility in Greensborough.  …

LINKS:

[1] Dark night for Vic storm victims [ABC AU]
[2] Melbourne’s wet weather eases [ABC AU]

Diamond Creek

Initial Minor Flood Warning for the Diamond Creek
Issued at 1:09pm on Thursday the 3rd of February 2005
Bureau of Meteorology

	River heights at 12:00pm Thursday 03/02/05 were: 
	Arthurs Creek at Nutfield:  4.77m, falling
	Diamond Creek at Hurstbridge:  5.69m, falling	[Minor flood level 5.5m]
	Diamond Creek at Eltham: 6.09m, falling		[Minor flood level 6.0m]

For Cubs tonight we can swap the “wet night” to a “WET!!! night” program … cover water safety, flooding, rescue etc.

At least the Cubs plants will have been watered

LINKS: 

[1] Initial Minor Flood Warning for the Diamond Creek [BOM AU]

Wet Again!

Another interesting night, the power decided to pop its cork at c.3:30am then we had trees down, fire brigade turn outs and TXU trucks with flashing lights. All this plus the noises from huge winds.

9AM: It would appear that the Diamond Creek is rising again … and still no power?

Four states hit by wild storms
Herald Sun
…
Victoria’s State Emergency Service was swamped by more than 2500 calls overnight, stretching volunteers to the limit.

“It has certainly been a very busy night with every suburb of Melbourne, parts of eastern Victoria, and the Geelong/Bellarine Peninsula areas being affected,” said SES spokesman Peter Cocks.

Mr Cocks said the storms which hit Melbourne were some of the worst the Victorian SES could recall.

Trains and trams across Melbourne were trapped at stations and in depots and police urged Melburnians to stay away from the city if possible.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Ward Rooney said the weather was among the most extraordinary he had witnessed.

Melbourne’s average February rainfall is 45.8 mm, but the city received 120 millimetres of rain in the 24 hours to 9am (AEDT) today, more than for any other day in any month on record.

The previous record for rainfall over the city in 24 hours was 108 mm in 1951.

By 8.15am (AEDT) today, clouds were breaking up over Melbourne and blue skies reappearing.

However flooding continued to cause problems, with a swollen creek this morning trapping a man and woman in their cars at Arthurs Creek, about 40km north-east of Melbourne.

“The Yarra in Melbourne this morning”
Image by Frank Ortega
or is that Juzmac’s?

Households wait for power
Herald Sun
MORE than 35,000 Victorian households were still waiting for power to be restored today after storms that have caused widespread damage.
…
A spokeswoman for electricity distributor TXU said fallen trees had caused significant damage in the Eltham area and the Croydon area in Melbourne’s east.
…

LINKS:

[1] Storms lash eastern Australia [ABC AU]
[2] SES flat out as storms lash Victoria [ABC AU]
[3] Motorists trapped by flood water [News.com.au]
[4] Rain stretches SES resources [ABC AU]
[5] Storms leave widespread damage in wake [ABC AU]