PK Aware

PKWare is a compression and extraction utility for Windows AND for DOS.

I used PKWARE 2.5 for DOS which can be downloaded as a self-extracting file from PKWARE... it’s free if it’s for non commercial use.

The Manual is in amhryic...

You will save the utility in a floppy.

Now run it from the floppy by typing this after the C:\> a:
when you get to a:\> type in this

pk250dos.exe -d c:\pkware

this copies the program to a directory name pkware which it will create automatically for you.

Now, the juggling part.  Modify the AUTOEXEC. BAT

WHAT?!!!!

My DOS is basic. So can’t do nothing.  So I did this:

c:\>path
path =

So there was nothing in my path, so I typed the following:

c:\>path=C:\;C:\DOS;C:\PKWARE

then I got the hell out of there.

Reboot.

Now go to the directory where I want to compress and SPAN my diskettes...

c:\windows\mydocs\stupid>

and I typed in

c:\windows\mydocs\stupid\pkzip a:zipfile -&f –rp

where a:zipfile is the name of the zip file you want to store in the floppy

All the files in the Stupid folder will then be compressed and stored in various floppies.

Just stay awake.... the program will prompt you to change diskettes. It helps to number them as you go.... The prog formats the diskettes for you.

Then when it’s all done, take the LAST diskette, go to the working computer (mine is running on XP with Winzip) and extract onto the hard – disk.

Job done.

Opening More Dos

Forgot to mention that in dos, you will see subdirectories which are usually coated in [] so a directory will have subdirectories (also known as folders) which look like this
[stupid]  [idiot]

so if you type
c:\windows\mydocs\cd stupid
c:\windows\mydocs\stupid>dir/w

you will find all the stupid jokes you had archived.... which can be big files... and this brings me to PKWARE

Opening DOS

This is DOS for real emergencies, like when the registry is so messed up there’s nothing much to do except format the whole hard disk. But there’s info you need to retrieve.  So, I taught myself DOS.  

How to get into it.

Powerup the computer... and while it’s working its way around, like within the first 2 seconds press f2, or delete, or whatever it is is necessary until the whole computer goes quiet and this thing stares at you from the black screen

C:\>

This is Dos.  First thing to note is to pay attention to the \ and the >
The former tells you where you are, the latter asks you where you want to go. That’s my take anyway. Dos is not case sensitive, so any case will do.

C is your hardrive.  To see what’s in it type
DIR
which will be followed by a strong shower of letters which you can’t read. To control the shower, type
DIR/W    (OR)
DIR/P

There will be names of files and folders and subdirectories... to go to subdirectories or folders, type eg. windows

c:\>cd windows

This tells Dos to go into the directory (cd) windows which will lead you to

c:\windows>

see the > comes after windows which means “Now that you’re in windows, where do you want to go today?”  

Imagine you have a directory called mydocs then type

c:\windows>cd mydocs

which will lead you to

c:\windows\mydocs>

type in dir/w (OR dir/p) to see what’s in it.  Suppose there’s a file called blog.txt then and you want to read it, then type

c:\windows\mydocs\type blog.txt

but before you press enter, stand by the PAUSE key ‘cos another verbal shower awaits you. If you don’t press PAUSE you won’t read a thing.

To go back one level on directory type

c:\windows\mydocs\cd..

to go back to root directory, type

c:\windows\mydocs\cd\

which will take you back to

c:\>

Here are some commands.  

Copy blog.txt to a: drive

c:\windows\mydocs\copy blog.txt a:

Delete blog.txt

c:\windows\mydocs\del blog.txt

The objective here is to save files, so you probably want to practise the COPY command. If your files are too big, then use PKZIP for DOS.  But don’t expect me to teach you anything, cos’ I’m still learning.

Useful DOS site:
http://dos.rsvs.net/index1.htm

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jchap/
(check out his Dos tutorial)

http://www.jegsworks.com/Lessons/index.html
(Look under Dos basics section)

    

In 55 minutes

In 55 minutes, the year will be over and all the brouhaha will start. Have to remember to date cheques as 2006.  I have just opened a dozen oyters, panfried prawns in onions, tomato and olive oil, steamed a kilo’s worth of clams and now settling with a cold Californian Rose out in the deck. It’s been a hot day. 42 degC... the house still steams. My neighbour John has organised a three piece jazz band. The music is cool. The air outside the deck is purer, cooler... I write this on my laptop by candlelight. Something dichomtomous about this, but heck... not going to think about it too much.

So ... hello. Theres a very cold sparkling shiraz waiting for me and a non-vintage Chandon in the fridge. The kids have been told they’ll be eating next year (and hence begin all the “next year” jokes).  I’ve worked hard, but not worked proud.  Maybe next year.  

This Beringer Rose is rather appetizing. Going to have a shower and at some point in time, eat drink and be merry.... and also swat some mosquitoes.

Digress 2

3 more days to Christmas, 2 more days to Christmas eve. 2 more episodes to write. I got my plot written up but something’s missing, something is not feeling right. My heart is pumping rather fast. Must stop drinking coffee. A storm is breaking ... no, make that a storm broke.  I can see the light. Who left the toilet light on?!!!!

Never Been Kissed

Friday is the day. My daughter meets this guy somewhere in an inner suburb. “He’s going to teach me how to kiss”.  So what? Is it one of those demonstrations you do with a mirror or with the palm of your hand. “Oh man!  He’s showing me with his lips” . So he’s actually going to kiss her. Euyewwww!   If you want to kiss someone, you must make sure you have clean teeth and drink lots of water. “I’ve never been kissed before... and I know I’m a bad kisser”. The important thing is to have clean and fresh breath.  I fear ... for the guy. My daughter is not known to brush her teeth. “You don’t mind?”  Of course not.! “Cool!  and oh...by the way, he’s a Goth”.    That’s fine I said.  And oh... let me tell you about herpes....

I Know What you did last Sunday

It was rainy. The sun popped up to say hello. I was driving. I needed coffee. Sunday in Caulfield is pretty quiet. Caulfield is a jewish ghetto. You’d think there would be a decent cafe latte the first day of the week. No way.  Macdonald’s was on the wrong side of the street. I did a right, drop the daughter at Helenslea Drive, did a U and ordered a large latte at Maccas’s.   Wrong move. Should have ordered small. Proceeded to Clayton where my son plays with the Greek soccer team. He’s no greek, but a great midfielder Then headed back to Caulfield, picked up Hannah and went back home.  That was 4 days ago.... today I asked my daughter what we did on Sunday. She couldn’t recall. “I stayed home” – why??  Then it all came flowing back. There was no guilt. There was the usual defensive  “How do I know??!!! That was AGES ago!”  You can figure she’s a teennager.  You can’t imagine how close she came to be physically maimed for life.  

Anyway, this blog is for a friend whom I know is reading because she’s a blog reader and she needs regular sex.  But hey... who am I to comment. A good blog is hard to find.

So how did it all flow for my daughter?  How did she suddenly remember what she did last Sunday?  I must say it was a stroke of brilliance. I told her to start using her brain to take pictures. Picture it and all will be revealed.

Tesla, one of my most admired inventors of the 20th century could imagine his inventions.  My heart bleeds for Tesla because he actually invented the radio but didn’t get round to the patent office fast enough (probably didn’t have the dough) and that Marconi dared to lay claim to the fame.  If there’s one person you’ve not discovered in your life and should know more, may I recommend Tesla.  He is googlable.

So what has it got to do with the blog-reading friend?  Same-o same-o. Picture it. Imagine yourself. Do  a walter mitty.... all will be revealed.  The best things happen to people who see it in their minds.  I am sure, for my daughter, she is re-living Sunday in Caulflield and how on the following Wednesday evening, a flying frying pan - launched by a parent,  missed her head by 2 centimetres.    

Two Laps Talking

Two Laps Talking

Scenario: One old laptop and One middle aged laptop.

Old Laptop has got lots of information. But hasn’t got all the things that can bring all that information into the next generation. I.e. it has no CD burner, no modem, no usb port, its printer port lost its teeth somewhere in the early 2000s and its only portable disk is floppy.

So I bought a null modem to connect old laptop to middle aged laptop. Duh... too hard, and the pins are missing in the printer port.

Then an inner light told me...what is this little window here. It’s an infrared! How it’s like suddenly discovering the old laptop has psychic powers. The middle aged laptop also has an infrared. It’s working fine and waiting to receive...it’s waiting, still waiting...

Old laptop can’t fire up its psychic powers. Too much cigarettes and alcohol...  Then I realised I never initiated the darn thing in the first place. It’s like waiting for years and years to reach puberty only to be denied it because parents never thought there is something called teenage years, so you go through life wearing kids clothes to the dying day. And then, ah ha... on your deathbed you discover you had those hormones... a little too late now...

Hope springs eternal... (or something like that)

I couldn’t activate it because it never had the infrared icon or whatever it needed on its control panel. So I googled through and discovered there is something called a windows driver for infrared devices...it’s at microsoft.com... and the file is something called Win95ir... downloaded it onto a floppy and fed it to the old lap.

Now it has the works...an infrared icon, a monitor, nice lights and a dialogue box telling me it can’t establish connection even when middle aged lap is waiting and shining its light!  

to be continued    

Update: 12 October 2005

Unfortunately I’ve pushed and shoved and now Old Lap is in the intensive care unit.  I’ve messed with the registry and I can’t restore Windows because the OEM CD I was given didn’t have a setup.exe file!  I’ve been ripped off but too late. The company that sold me the laptop folded about 2 years ago!

Forget IR technology. Let me take a stroll down DOS and see what can be done.

to be continued
update 20 october

taking a stroll down DOS is not as easy as I thought it would be: so much to learn, so much to do. Here are some useful websites for future reference

bootdisk.com

digressed; lots of interesting DOS games

dos commands

lots of MSDos software

dos drivers for reading and editing NTFS files  

list of MSDos commands

dos links – not comprehensive but they’ll lead you somewhere

Listening to Advice

Listening to Advice...hmmm

If you are the cautious type, you’d read all kinds of advice...the do’s and don’ts... but then you come to a major standstill.... It sounds too difficult, don’t do it. I put off networking my computer because it looked too hard...naming IPs, SSID, and CIDs... etc ad naseum etc...

I couldn’t stand it anymore   I needed to print, I couldnt get my teenager off the internet, so I took the plunge


.......................



Using XP, just go the printer task and browse for printer. I am on a wireless networking system, with printer attached to the desktop. I work off my lap.

Hey presto... a printed page.  Now I need to buy ink.

Cleaning Up

Cleaning Up

About 7 years ago I bought my first laptop. A Twinhead Slimnote 9 with active matrix screen.... that means if you stood upside down, you still see clearly.  It was state of the art, had an infrared port, TV out jack, printer port, a fast speed 8x CD rom drive, 32mb Ram and 1.5g harddrive, pcmcia card with fast speed modem and a lot of other dooheekies.  And it was relatively lightweight 5.6kg.   I worked with it, rather well until it started burning a hole in my lap, and then I upgraded to another Twinhead (what can I say... it’s a barebones system and the service guy is only a phone call away) Efio 12KT.

Then came the inevitable.

I put it off until I couldn’t stand it anymore. Everyday my daughter says the same prayer before she goes to bed: “when are you going to give me that old laptop”.  Today I decided to go through the documents, and transfer them to my new laptop.

Uh oh...

New laptop (henceforth New) has no floppy drive, no parallel ports, no serial ports, one modem, one wireless ethernet and couple of RJ45s... and a few more USB2 and a spunky DVD burner.

Old laptop (henceforth Old) has no USB, there is a PCMCIA card slot with no card modem.

So how is the transfer between OLD and NEW ever going to happen?    I thought about it, I bought a huge bunch of gadgets, none of which worked...what I thought was a serial port on NEW     turned out to be a VGA out.  So, as a resort I am now saving old files onto the reliable floppy... and eventually will burn these floppies onto CD via my desktop (henceforth Desk) which fortunately does have a floppy AND a CD burner.

But gosh isn’t it interesting.... looking at the old files. By old, I mean 7 years ago, in the last century – it’s like take a stroll through your attic.  All those subscriptions and hey...wait a minute, I’ve posted notes to myself that I’ve hung things on the internet through my websites (and these are free websites) and they don’t exist anymore!    I’ve been ripped off.... where are my documents?  

You know how they say that data is no more than on and off electrical pulses... like 1 is on and 0 is off (or is it vice versa).   Do deleted data just die or do they reinvent themselves as something else?  I would like to think that they are just floating around, happily somewhere in the universe ... creating another lifeform perhaps... there could even be another universe, “peopled” by deleted data... a brave new world of bits and bytes – my deleted folder on Boy Mechanic would surely prove useful.

Sunday spring

what does it mean when a bird strolls into your living room

sunday 2 october 2005

it’s sunday... afternoon. spring. most people are out in the garden.  I stay indoors beccause I have hayfever. I used Telfast... ya right...

A kind of Mynah strolls into the living room. “Look...a bird”  exclaimed my son. He rarely exclaims, so this must be special.  “No big deal...it’s only a Mynah bird – wait for something Major”  Funny. I’m pissed

Bird strolls out. I continue my cleaning. Day ends. Debussy does a rather special cake walk on MPBS.

end of blog

From now on it's pure thoughts

Get the feeling that everyone is doing everything right and you're the only one getting it wrong? I get that feeling everytime I stare down my compost heap. Last month's roast dinner stares back at me.    

Food - PUTU

I'm going to start tying the world together through food.

PUTU
This is Indian origin. Which part of India? Not quite sure - might be south because the term permeates throughout southeast asia and features in Malay and Peranakan cuisines. Putu means a kind of steamed muffin or unleavened bread. But there are so many varieties - sweet and savoury, filled and fried. Some examples:
Putu Piring (steamed pancake height filled with chopped gula melaka); a variation in Singapore is Kueh Tutu (it's filled with coconut or chopped peanuts).
Putu Bamboo(Bambu) which is steamed in tall bamboo cylinders and accompanies curries.
Putu Tegar which is Peranakan cake with bananas, coconut, gula melaka.
Putu Mayam, used to be sold in the streets of Singapore. It's lacy in texture - looks like a bundle of vermicelli, steamed and pressed into a pancake and eaten cold with chopped brown sugar and fresh dessicated coconut.
Putu Ayu is a two coloured cake
Kueh Putu is the Indonesian way of calling the cylindrical putu that is stuffed with gula melaka inside.

Some interesting websites on Putu. Stay tuned.

Etymology
The term Puttu is Tamil in origin. It is a generic term that refers to a number of cakes. This site has detailed glossary of other word-borrowings from Tamil in the Malay language.
http://members.aol.com/wignesh/TAMILINFLUENCEMALAY.htm

This site shows that it's something from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and explains how it's eaten at breakfast.
http://www.ernakulam.com/html/ek000cu.htm

In South Africa, the term is a Zulu adaptation of the Dutch word Botjie which is a cast iron pot.
http://abw.netfirms.com/commando_cuisine.htm

Pondicherry comes from Putu (which means New in Tamil Nadu) and Ceri (village). http://geography.about.com/library/misc/ucpondicherry.htm
Do they have Putu in Pondicherry?

South Africa
Putu refers to a mealie meal porridge.
http://southafrica.narod.ru/engels/safoodterms.htm
has a good glossary of southafrican food terms

Philippines
Putu means rice cake. But according to these researchers, the term indicates Malaysian links in the island of Luzon.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/4059/K-Malay.htm

It's eaten with hot chocolate in the morning or accompanies hot stews.
http://www.ochef.com/r202.htm

Malaysia
The Chittys (Straits Indians) of Malacca have a rite of passage around the feast of Putu. The dish is made with coconut, gula melaka, cardamon, fried green peas (mung?).
http://202.186.86.35/kuali/recipes/04rnis0301.html
It has an interesting photo of Putu preparation

The Putu Bamboo recipe is given in this book written by Kunjamma Matthew. Here's a PDF of the contents page. The links will lead you to ordering the book.
http://www.anindianinexile.com/An%20Indian%20in%20Exile.pdf

Putu made the traditional way - as a kind of mealie meal.
http://www.kuali.com/news/story.asp?file=/2004/9/24/eatingout/8849144&sec=eatingout

Singapore
Apparently putu piring and kueh tutu are not the same thing. It's a matter of how big it is and what's inside. The bigger one and filled only with gula melaka is piring. The other is tutu.
http://pachome2.pacific.net.sg/~willows5/singlish_P.htm

The best putu mayam and putu piring outlets.
http://www.sbestfood.com/Food%20Choice/putumayam.htm

A beautiful picture of putu piring all steaming in a row. But I think this is more kueh tutu than putu piring
http://www.betelbox.com/gallery/pic.asp?iCat=31&iPic=67

Also shots of putu bamboo
http://www.betelbox.com/gallery/cat.asp?iCat=31

Words and pictures of putu piring man (and other vanishing trades)
http://www.the-inncrowd.com/joochiat.htm

Indonesia
This woman speaks of the Putu Man of Bali island, Indonesia
http://www.aiaa.org.au/news/news12/cynthia.html
Interesting. In Singapore the man who sells Putu Mayam is called the Otah Man because besides Putu Mayam, he sells a lot of nice sweets and snacks including Otah Otah. This was in the past. Nowadays you can only source Putu Mayam from sweet stalls, not street vendors. Most of the Putus are factory made.

Internet Forum
nice site to chat on kueh/kuih and putus
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=44433


Recipes
This site has a recipe for Putu Mayam
http://www.knp-housebrand.com/recipes_files/recipes.html#IDIYAPPAM%20(PUTU%20MAYAM)

The Putu Mayam is also known as Idliyappam. This makes sense because the Putu Mayam has a similar shape to an Apom/Appam.

Putu Ayu
http://www.mail-archive.com/milis-sedap@news.gramedia-majalah.com/msg00106.html
http://www.tabloidnova.com/articles.asp?id=5930
(both sites in Malay)
and nice photo
http://www.dwikarya.nl/images/wisma_hilda_putu_ayu.jpg

Gluten-free Putu
http://www.ochef.com/r202.htm

Putu Pap (South African)
http://www.bushveldonline.co.za/recipes/braai/braai1.htm

Crash

I was warned. Mercury in retrograde from Dec 1 to 20. Did I heed the advice? Sure. I decided to clean the PC. Long story. Deleted the NTLR Dr by mistake. So I need to reinstall Windows. Didn't know how, had to learn it the hard way, and in the course of which made major enemies with an uptight vendor who has hurled curses along my way. So left without its maker, the PC had to fend with its user. I then realise how strange it is that many of us know not what goes into the computer. I pour my heart into it and yet I know not what it is made of, what drives it. Sort of like talking to a shrink not knowing that he is going through a divorce and possibly trying to reconcile his many egos and identities while he/she/it listens to my troubles. I am now the wiser. I know what drives my PC and I realise that although I had the system custom made to last minute technology 2 years ago, it's now almost antiquated.

Midi Sheet Heaven

What world have I stumbled into? This could turn into a new passion. My son is mad on Dr. Who, that 60s series. He also plays a keyboard...a small 36 key thing with lots of electronic gadgetry. " So, teach me to play Dr Who's original Theme Song" . Great! Dive through the internet and found lots of midi files but few sheet music, unless you're ready to part with $10+ which I'm not. Lost in the chords of midi music, I came through a clearing... "convert Midi files to sheet music" . Hang on ... this might work. I downloaded a trial version of MidiNotate. Downloaded a midi file of Dr Who (thank you the person who created that file)...played it through midiNotate and voila, sheet music for Dr Who's theme. For the heck of it, I also downloaded Simpson's and Law and Order. Brilliant...absolutely brilliant. Of course the trial version doesn't print or save. So I copied each page, by page and pasted them on my graphics programme. And then printed it out. MidiNotate is brilliant. Will save up and get it because it also lets you compose stuff which is now my next project as soon as I fix the stereo hi fi.

The son is now thrilled. But keyboard only has 36keys...the sheet starts with a low A...we ran out of keys. I will just have to transcribe. MidiNotate would probably do this in a flash, but this is a trial version, so I can't print out and will have to do cut and paste like mad. But what a wonderful trip it was... what a wonderful world this is - the world of Midi Sheet.

Idiot attempts stereo hi-fi repairs

The victim is a Sony combo-stereo receiver/casette/cd player system HCD-H5, circa early 1990s.

The problem: the CD player doesn't work. It spins but stays on the first few minutes of track 1. The drawer has a life of its own. It opens and shuts when it feels like it and when you feed the CD, a whirring sound continues and then the player spits it out. The display when it feels like not performing will tell me there is no disc even though I've just inserted it.

I mentioned the possibility of repairing it. Repairers in their infinite wisdom tell me it's not worth it because it would cost much more than a brand new system. I'm a sentimental kind of person. I like old things. The receiver works fine, the dual casette system works fine so I wasn't going to throw it out. Plus I've dragged this system around the world...it's been in humid conditions, arid ecosystems and now it's somewhere in the southern hemisphere where there are 6 seasons in one day. So during the school holidays, I decided to repair this thing. Bad idea, because school hols means kids at home. But involve the kids.

I set myself several parameters. I am not going to touch the electricals. If the problem is mechanical, I'll attempt it. Otherwise no touch. I'm a mechanically/electronically illiterate and I thought mechanics is easier than electronics. At least there are parts that move which I can see. Electronics are creepy. The moving bits usually wind around plastic coated veins. Having set those rules, I started. But where in the internet can I find guidance?.

A quick search in google with the string of keynotes: help idiot need repair "cd player" door disobedient "no disc" returned this fabulous site: http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/sam/cdfaq.htm

I read all the details, until my eyes crossed. But this much I figured: either the drawer mechanism is dirty, or the gears are clogged with grease, or the system needs a good shaking. I can do all that. Now to open up the system. This is the part repairers warn me about. It's impossible to get into the CD component. It's an all in one. All in ones don't come apart... I found me a good philips screw driver and started from the obvious... unscrew the housing starting with the screws where the arrows are pointing.
2 hours later...
Yewwww....lotsa dirt. Looking into a tower of wires, screws and a humoungous circuit board to the side of the system. The front housing where the dials and control buttons are cannot be removed. They are like stuck to more circuit boards and some plastic pads. The CD player is stuck at the bottom right underneath a thing that looks like a metallic accordion that refuses to budge. What do I do? Still powering it on, I wiped off the dirt and dust the best as I could. The advice was to use water and Q tip. 200 Q tips later, it looked cleaner. If I flicked open the drawer, I peer right into the EYE. That's the laser beam doohickey... I wasn't going to pick it up. Maybe now it'll work? I tested. System failed...same old problem. Call it a day...


Fear. If I attempt a repair, I must never fear. That was sound advice. At worst, the whole system will fail and so, I get a new one. I can always cannablise the parts and sell those on ebay. I'm sure there are idiots out there repairing a HCD-H5.
I studied the screws. Never open nothing that's not ready to be unscrewed.

The front casing which is stuck to a lot of mechanical hoo-hahs and a pasta load of wires - I'm not going to move that. I spent an hour studying the hoo-hahs and realised that the CD player is stuck on a metal floorboard... this I suppose is called the chasis. The CD player is not stuck to the hoohah. The chasis is not stuck to the hoo-hah. Great, it can be moved. I shifted the weight a little. There was a crack. Hold breath. Don't sneeze. Good...nothing's broken, I think.
I managed to loosen the front housing and the side circuit board. But I couldn't separate the CD player because some wires and cables are umbilically corded from circuit board to cd player. "Don't touch electricals". Time to have a break. I tried to lift the big circuit board and it slipped from my finger. The back of the circuit board has sharp soldering bits. Very bad handiwork. One of these bits sliced into my finger. Blood dripping onto electricals. This means war!!! But first, a break.

25 September 2004 Saturday
I've been beaten. I worked my way slowly into the labyrinth of the CD player. I managed to take it out of the chasis because I realised those broad, flat cables can actually be unplugged without much damage. But I'm not totally sure about that. Now the motor doesn't spin. The door doesn't shut. I've done more damage and when I first started. Time to read notes.

The cd player is made up of many parts. The optical pickup is actually a lens resting on a bobbin. The bobbin moves to and fro via some kind of rails and gears. This mechanism is called the sled, I presume. There is a motor under the sled, but I'm not sure if it works. There is another bobbin which turns on a motor. This is the spindle. This spins the disk. So if the disk isn't spinning, it could be the motor is dead or I have knocked out the power connection to the motor. The drawer functions on 3 gears and a rubber belt and through 2 very fragile looking switches. There is a motor under the gears. The drawer closes but it doesn't open.

So now, 3 days into the repair, I've gotten nowhere except a cleaner cd player that doesn't work. I got to figure a way to test that all the motors work without dismantling them from the optical desk chassis hoo hah...but that's going against my original rule. Don't touch the electricals.


UPDATE:
Several weeks later, I am no where closer to a decent CD player. I've put the housing back temporarily, once in a while, I got it dusted. More critically, my daughter is going to have a monster of a party out in the garden. I'm not going to put my nice CD player out to pick up the evening mist and flying hormones of 16 year olds. This CD player would have been ideal, but it's not fixed and won't be fixed in time for the party. So daughter will have to be happy with her portable. She, who wants only the best, is unhappy. The speakers are " crap!"....so I gave her a set of pretty powerful computer speakers. She threw a look to say: " You're not serious". So I turned to my old CD player and there are 2 very large sub-woofers wagging their tongues at me in anticipation. Why not? But how? Those sub-woofers don't have an independent power supply. I think they are parasitic speakers who feed off the main stereo lifeline.... The speakers have a pair of cables...one to the left and one to the right. Each pair is made up of 2 coloured strands...one black and one red. I'm sure one of these are the umbilical chords to the stereo power source. If I can separate them, I can put a jack on the audio cables and a jack on the power cables...then that minor person will have the best speakers for her freagin party. Why did I assume black is power and red is audio? I think I need to visit Dick Smith...my electronics people.

Listless day

I don't even remember why I'm surfing. It started with a need to find out what's available in the world of electronic dictionaries...so far the best bet is Franklin's - but the range, the range. All I want is a simple English to English dictionary with a short exemplary sentence. I don't want English to Croatian or Swahili to Mandarin. Perhaps I'd get one of those PDA and fill it with entries...nah...too much work. Then I decided I want a fax software. The fax manager from Windows is really too clunky. I used to have Winfax, but I'm too poor to get an upgrade. There are a lot of shareware offering fax/voice/email/internet phone services. There are a lot of good people out there offering things free of charge. I still haven't found what I'm looking for but a few interesting concepts: fax/email from http://www.tpc.int/fax_cover_auto.html

I'm so new to blogs, I don't even know how to stick a link into the page.

Another interesting free site is from the good people of www.tinyapps.org - lots of applications weighing less than 1.4mb - useful things from checking mail off server to killing ads.

And the final freebie that really is creative is Artrage http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html

Several drawing tools, from oils, pastels, crayons, markers with a range of colours. Allows you to draw a Van Gogh without expensive art materials.

george w's bloody sunday

Heard on the radio. George W sampled with "Sunday, bloody sunday". It's someone's clever re-engineering, apparently downloadable from the web. So where the hell is it? Wandered into this blogging thing. So now I know what web logging means but I still can't find W's bloody sunday.