One of my Xmas gifts (OK so I bought it for myself!) was a Oregon Scientific helmet cam from ThinkGeek.com.
Here’s my first effort at a Helmet Cam movie.
Continue reading “Helmet Cam – Black Spur”
My Gilera Scooter is on Google Maps Streetscape
I have been accused of living under a rock as I knew nothing about Google Streetscapes! My colleagues assumed that I would know that the streetscape outside our office includes a photo of my Gilera Runner scooter.
With some guidance, I have discovered that it is indeed true… take a look here.
By the way, if you haven’t explored Google Maps it’s well worth the effort. Even though I have a GPS in the car and my phone, I still use Google Maps to get an overview of a trip to a new location and generally insert the map link in a web site’s “Contact Us” page.
Just for the record, our house is also on the streetscape (the doorway and garage on the left of the picture).
A Tragedy … Twice Over
Over Easter there was a tragic level crossing accident in Victoria which resulted in loss of life.
Afterwards, it was explained that it was “too expensive” to install boom gates (supposed to cost $500,000) so it is up to us to drive more carefully.
How stupid are we? TAC happily spends *MILLIONS* of our premiums on advertising and sponsors a football competition (the AFl’s TAC Cup).
Just a fraction of the money wasted on advertising or paying for young men to chase a ball around a paddock could have saved the lives so tragically lost.
Commercial Property Investment LAB
For the last few months I have been working with Chris Lang, the author of *_”How Investing in Commercial Property Really Works”_*, on the software behind his new “Commercial Property Investment LAB”:http://info.4results.biz/lab/launch.html. We are now in the official launch phase and Chris has released a video which contains his view of the Australian commercial property market.
The video contains what Chris calls a *”Dire Warning”* about these markets in the near future. If you’re in this market, or contemplating getting into the market tou owe it to yourself to “watch the video”:http://info.4results.biz/lab/warning-video.html
Are you old enough to be an idiot?
I have a new definition of “old”. If you can remember when you were allowed to be an idiot, you are definitely *OLD*!
Recently someone made the comment that you’d have to be an idiot to ride a bicycle without wearing a helmet. Maybe that is true, but on that basis anyone of my age would be an idiot. From about the age of 10 I rode to school and, when I lived in Broken Hill, regularly rode on the highways to go camping. In those days *no one* wore a helmet. To the best of my knowledge the bike helmet did not even exist.
Not many years before that, racing drivers wore a leather “helmet” to protect them from the wind as they drove at speeds of over 100 miles per hour.
Important information from VicRoads
My motorcycle 
Learners Permit arrived in the mail yesterday (hideous photo) and with it three pieces of interesting information. The fact that two have absolutely nothing to do with driving is, I suppose, offset by the fact that the cost to the government is minimal.
But wait, the infomation is really valuable…
The Deafness Foundation advises “ALL WOMEN” that Rubella “*causes deafness and blindness in the unborn child*” — thank goodness the born child can hear and see!
But it gets better…. I bet you did not know that since December 1, 1999 it has been illegal to travel in a car boot without a seat belt!
And, according to Vic Roads this is one of the most significant changes implemented by the State Government (since 1999)
And finally, what is the *Floral Emblem* of Victoria? Sorry, if you don’t know you’ll just have to wait for your licence renewal letter to find out. You should be safe since Vic Roads haven’t changed the wording on the letter for the last eight years.
p=. Gumpy old man? YOU BETCHA
Why have we become the Half Blacks?
Maybe I’m getting old and no longer like change… 
But who was the idiot who decided that the All Blacks have suddenly become the Half Blacks? As a staumch supporter I switched on to the NZ/Scotland World Cup match this morning and thought that I had the wrong match. Once over that, the whole game was ruined as a viewing experience as it was virtually impossible to tell the difference between the teams.
At least once an All Black player couldn’t make a pass because he couldn’t tell who was on his team!
BRING BACK THE *ALL BLACKS* — We are not the Half Blacks nor are we the Half Greys!
Textile Markup with MediaWiki, Revisited
Following Jim Wilson’s comment I have revisted this subject and now offer my own extension which adds Textile2 to the AlternateSyntaxParser without the need for hacking Jim’s original extension.
You can download the extension here.
Instructions are included in the source, but for convenience, they are repeated here…
*Installation:*
# Install the *AlternateSyntaxParser* extension.
# Drop this script (@AlternateSyntaxParserTextile2.php@) into @$IP/extensions/AlternateSyntaxParser@
# Enable the extension by adding this line to your @LocalSettings.php@:
@require_once(‘extensions/AlternateSyntaxParser/MarkdownSyntax.php’);@
after the line enabling the AlternateSyntaxParser
# “Download the Textile2 library”:http://jimandlissa.com/project/textilephp
# Extract the file @classTextile.php@ from the downloaded archive.
# Drop @classTextile.php@ into @$IP/extensions/AlternateSyntaxParser/@
*Usage:*
To use Textile2 in a page, put @#MARKUP textile2@ at the top of the page:
Alternatively, you may specify a site-wide default alternate language by setting the @$wgAlternateSyntaxParserLanguage@ variable in your @LocalSettings.php@.
$wgAlternateSyntaxParserLanguage = ‘textile2’;