http://nigelball.org by Nigel Ball... Tue, 05 Aug 2008 05:52:45 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 ... http://nigelball.org/2008/08/05/my-gilera-scooter-is-on-google-maps-streetscape 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 ... http://nigelball.org/2008/03/26/a-tragedy-twice-over 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. We are now in the official launch phase and Chris has released a video which contains his view ... http://nigelball.org/2008/03/01/commercial-property-investment-lab 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 ... http://nigelball.org/2007/10/16/are-you-old-enough-to-be-an-idiot 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 ... http://nigelball.org/2007/10/13/important-information-from-vicroads 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 ... http://nigelball.org/2007/09/24/why-have-we-become-the-half-blacks 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 ... http://nigelball.org/2007/09/04/textile-markup-with-mediawiki-revisited MediaWiki is used extensively for documentation sites simply because it has so many features that make it ideal for this type of wiki application. The primary example is, of course Wikipedia Naturally, I want to use MediaWiki for my own documentation sites. However, I use Textile – a lightweight, humane ... http://nigelball.org/2007/08/30/using-textile-markup-with-mediawiki The White Pages in Australia are being updated now. The publisher, Sensis, appears to think that the Internet can make them insanely rich — the cost of a listing including an email address and web site address is over $600 per year! That’s 10 times the cost of a phone ... http://nigelball.org/2007/08/22/white-pages-insanity Did you know that I also publish a site called Best PC Tools? On that site I try to share information about tools (software, hardware and knowledge) which will help you get the best from your Linux or Windows PC. Most of you will know that I believe that He who ... http://nigelball.org/2007/07/20/gadgets-and-more