Thin client

I recently bought an IBM thin client machine on eBay. Very nice piece of kit. The plan is to stick the jet engine-sounding machine in a cupboard and use the thin client as the actual desktop. Depends on the video playback performance though, really.

So I bought a USB keyboard and mouse adapter, because this beastie only has USB. Works a charm.

Next step is to install an OS on the CF card and attempt to boot it.

Satellite navigation for bikes?

Yesterdays ride ended up about 120km. My legs are very very tired, but it was a good ride. Good preparation for our big ride in a couple of weeks too. Gonna be a few days around that distance!

Part of the reason for the extra length yesterday was Lonely Planet's shitty directions and maps. It got me thinking: why hasn't someone come up with a satellite navigation system for this kinda thing? I guess cost is still too high, and probably not enough demand compared to cars.

For city cycling, though, it should be a relatively easy matter to overlay the government-provided cycle maps onto an existing map of a city. The navigation engine would be programmed to prefer the cycle routes, avoid motorways and A roads, and prefer shorter distances. I guess it could get difficult in hilly cities, a bit more complex as going downhill is a very different thing to uphill.

Perhaps something for the hobbyists to start?

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Summary Offences revistied

An email on the Critical Mass Sydney email list brought a court case involving the NSW Summary Offences Act to my attention. My last clash with this insidious piece of legislation was when organising a protest against the Internet censorship legislation for EFA.

On that occasion, the coppers initially refused our protest because it was at lunch time and involved a march which would cause disruption to traffic. I now see why they backed down so quickly, with this lovely quote from the judge:

It is in the very nature of the entitlement to peaceful protest that disruption will be caused to others.

I'd recommend the case to anyone planning protests in NSW. It basically says that the police have very very limited rights to oppose any protest that has been correctly notified to the Police.

And this choice nugget:

I order the Commissioner to pay the defendant's costs.

Lovely.

Dark wheat beer

This week the Great British Beer Festival has been on at Olympia, which is very close to our house. I think my favourite has been the dark German wheat beer I had last night. Delicious! Might see if I can make such a beast.

And if my head is anything to go by, steer clear of the (12%!) barley wine.

Canadian blonde bottled

I bottled the Canadian Blonde last night. Should be a nice, light beer with loads of hop aroma. I bottled with 100g glucose priming and a handful of Fuggles hops boiled in for a few minutes. Tasted pretty good when I took a gravity reading. 4% or so alcohol.

Where's my fridge magnet?

Looks like the UK is finally getting a propaganda booklet about terrorism and emergencies. As usual, the poms are years behind everyone else. What's more, it doesn't sound like it's going to be a fridge magnet. And as my mate Kev pointed out, they'll probably plagiarise it from someone else's out-of-date information.

I want my fridge magnet that tells me how to duck and take cover!

Summer?

So has summer finally arrived? BBC weather forecast has five days of sunshine. First time I've seen that in a long time! We're going cycling on Saturday, so some sun would be good!

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