Life in the Geek Lane

Greetings fellow lunch eaters,

Many rumours have been circulating around about the hungry jacks ‘Quad Stacker’. A mysterious burger capable of ceasing the arteries of any man willing to risk his life in the pursuit of burger heaven.

I am here today to debunk these rumours and reveal that the quad stacker is nothing more then a mutated bacon deluxe not even capable of approaching the Ultimate double whopper in terms of artery ceasing goodness, let alone the legendary XXX burger (http://www.triplexrootbeer.com).

I had originally thought that the ‘double/triple/quad’ stacker promotion allowed you to increase the meat patties on ANY burger. This is incorrect as the stacker burgers are in fact separate burgers in their own right.

The burgers are on the same bun as the bacon deluxe and are made up of the number of meat patties of your choosing, separated by slices of cheese. On top of the ’stack’ is bacon and bbq sauce.

As expected, the burger tastes meaty and actually overpowers the bacon taste quite considerably. I find this a major downfall in the stacker burger as one of the major features of the Ultimate double whopper and the XXX Burger are the added ingredients which provide a much more well rounded taste sensation.

All in all I was quite disappointed with the Quad Stacker. No stomach ache, no increase in my heart rate, no sensation of passing out. I would compare the ‘fullness’ value to that of a bacon deluxe, without the taste.

I consider the legendary stacker burger rumours to now be debunked and would recommend staying clear of them.

Testing wordpress app for iPhone.

I’ve had the 450D for a few months now and I’m still really happy with it. I’ve always liked the macro type shots, so figured I needed a lens for it.

Everything I read on the web said that both the 60mm and 100mm Canon macro lenses are incredible. Most people recommended buying both, but I wasn’t that keen. The big difference between the 60mm and 100mm is the distance you can be from the subject. In the case of macro shots of bugs and insects, the 100mm is more suitable because you can be further away. Something else I learnt was that the macro lenses take great portrait shots. Another feature of the Canon macros is they are internal focusing, so the length of them doesn’t change. I thought that was pretty neat as well.

I took a look at a few of the macro lenses at a local shop including a few cheaper Tamron lenses. I really didn’t like the feel of them at all, and the sounds they made when focusing didn’t make me feel very confidant. In comparison the Canon lenses where much quieter and the focusing was a lot smoother. I guess it’s a case of ‘you get what you pay for’ so I decided to bite the bullet and go with the Canon 100mm. I’m really happy with the quality of the shots.

The second lens that was in my twin lens kits also arrived after a shortage of stock. So I now have a 55-250mm IS lens. The image stabilizer (IS) makes a huge difference. Zoomed in shots that usually blur without a tripod come out crystal clear. I will probably have a bit more of a play with it on the weekend.

Overall so far I have found that I get maybe 1 or 2 “great” shots from a group of photos. My ratio of “great” vs “ok / bad” is pretty bad at the moment, so that’s something I need to work on.

I’ve also been using Aperture for cataloging and editing my photos. It’s a great piece of software. I also found the video tutorials on the Apple site really helpful as well.

After getting the shock shaft replaced I finally got around to giving my truck a run. Was surprised how easily it fired up after being sitting for so long. Idled a bit rough, but replacing the glow plug fixed it.

So I took it for a slow drive around the front yard area without the top on, thinking it would be ok since I wasn’t going that fast. Unfortunately the plastic aerial cover came off and the aerial got wrapped around the front right wheel shaft and broke. Luckily it broke outside the receiver, so I should be able to solder / tape another aerial lead on to it.

Surprised me how difficult it is to replace the aerial lead. I guess people don’t really break them that often

So the good news is the truck still runs, but the receiver coverage is short so I haven’t tried my luck.

I’m the type of person who needs to write things down in order to remember them. I’ve always been a list writer just to keep things organised so I know what I have to do. I’ve tried a number of ways, from paper based lists to text files on the computer but in some ways I got even more unorganised.

The past few months I’ve been using Things, a task management application currently in development by CulturedCode. I’m finding it really good and it serves as a reminder list and also a task management app all in one. I’ve found it really simple to use and keep using, which was always part of the battle with other task management applications I’ve tried.

I’m pretty sure I’ll buy a license for it when it finally goes 1.0, until then I am hanging out for .mac syncing support so I can have my task list on my imac and powerbook with little fuss.

Just back from food shopping at the local IGA.

Found this bargain while I was there.



There was actually 3 of these ’special’ tags and I was kind of wondering what the point of them is.

Having a saving of 0c is strange in itself, but I really gotta wonder what the person who put it up was thinking.

I’ve been interested in photography for a long time. I’ve never really taken any kind of classes in it or researched it that much but I’ve always liked taking photos, usually of random stuff.

With the recent release of the Canon 450D, I decided to bite the bullet and buy myself a “proper” digital SLR camera. I’ve read a bit about canon cameras, and a few people I know recommend them so I’m pretty happy with the decision.

A workmate pointed me to the Teds website and I got in contact with a great salesperson there. He was extremely patient with my numerous emails, many of which I am sure where beginner questions by his standards. He gave me some great advice and I ended up ordering the following:

• Canon 450D Twin Lens Kit
• 2 x UV Filter (1 for each lens, mainly for protection)
• 4 gig SD memory card

$1700 all up, including postage from Brisbane to Rockhampton.

I was told when ordering that it would be around 2 weeks, but it seems there is a bit more of a delay. The cameras seem to be selling like hot cakes and there is very limited stock in Australia, with most camera shops having no stock at all.

According to forums, the main delay seems to be with the EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS lens, which is bundled in the twin lens kit.

UPDATE: Well it arrived today and it’s awesome. The 55-250 lens is still on backorder but I got the rest of the order. Will be good to go out tomorrow and take some snaps.

The shock shaft on the front right side of my LST2 got broken over xmas (yeah, 5 months ago ) and I finally got around to fixing it this weekend.

It took around 30mins to pull the shock apart, replace the shaft, replace the oil, put it back together and re-install it on the truck. Since it was the first time I had done it, I am guessing that the whole process could be done a lot faster if not referring to the instructions

I gave the truck a good de-grease, blew it out with the air compressor and charged the batteries. I didn’t actually get a chance to try to drive it though, so that will have to happen sometime this week.

Took me a while to get it fixed, but it’s good that it is done now. I will have to go and see if the housing estate area is still vacant or whether it’s been built over.

Emu Park, QLD

Cleaned my iMac keyboard on the weekend following the directions at

http://theminiblog.co.uk/archives/2006/11/16/how-to-cleaning-the-apple-keyboard/

It worked really well and was actually really simple. Whole process took maybe 30mins.

Now my clear iMac keyboard is all clean and new again!

So my New Scientist subscription is up for renewal. I’m still way behind on my reading, something like 6 months or so but it’s not from lack of reading. The topics are just so interesting that I find myself re-reading certain articles which really slows me down. Then there is also the website access as well with extra stuff to read.

Anyway, an ‘incentive’ to re-register is a chance to win a trip to Borneo and also a free Orang-utan adoption from the Australian Orang-utan Project. It had never crossed my mind before that you could adopt an Orang-utan, but I think it is really cool. You get sent a photo of it and can get regular updates and also feel good that you have helped these little creatures. Very nifty!

So, even thought I’m behind, I think I will end up renewing again. I really enjoy the magazine and find it really interesting plus I can adopt an Orang-utan!

WiiFit was released and being a Wii owner I had to get one.

I was a bit skeptical at first (sorry Nintendo), but after using it for the past 3 days I’ve realised how awesome it is. The WiiFit board is really good and is very responsive and the activities in the game are really well thought out and implemented perfectly.

Over the past 3 days I’ve done about 1.5 hours total of the various activities and according to my log I’ve lost 0.5kgs. I’m not sure how accurate that is or whether I was just wearing lighter clothes or didn’t have a stomach full of food. Either way, I’ll take it.

I seem to be a whizz on the hula hoop but I find some of the yoga poses a bit tricky. The other various activities are all fun. I don’t think I’ve done one yet that I haven’t liked.

Only thing I wish it had was a automatic exercise plan generator. So you could basically queue up activities and then do one after the other instead of having to stop after each one and manually pick the next. Would be even better if the ‘trainer’ allocated you a plan of activities to do based on what you had previously done. I think that would make it a bit more random and perhaps push you to do certain activities that you had otherwise been skipping.

Another awesome product form Nintendo though. There’s no doubt about it they definitely know their stuff when it comes to this type of thing. The board works superbly.

So there is a new version of MSN messenger out for mac.

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/messenger/default.mspx

After previous mention of the mac version being bought up to speed with the windows version I was a little bit excited. I go to the website to check it out and find they have implemented voice and video chat! …. for the corporate contacts only… w..t..f

Where is the voice and video support for regular users wanting to voice and video chat with their friends / family using messenger on windows?

I’m sure the mac people who work on messenger at microsoft have no idea.

Picked up Mario Kart for the Wii and have been playing it a fair bit.

So far impressions are good. It came bundled with a steering wheel attachment that the Wiimote plugs into, which at first seems fun but I found it soon became very limiting especially when driving in the manual mode.

I imagine it would be a lot of fun using it with a group of people who all have the steering wheel, but for trying to break records and unlock maps you really can’t go past using the Wiimote + Nunchuck.

As far as the game goes, it’s a heck of a lot of fun. A lot of the tracks are re-hased from previous titles on GameCube, N64, DS, etc but that doesn’t really take away from the entertainment value. The addition of bikes is good and adds something new to the Wii version.

There are numerous un-lockable tracks, cars, bikes and characters which gives the game a lot of replay value, but it’s also really fun just racing against over people both locally and online.

or not to blog. That, is the question.

Lest We Forget

During the Easter long weekend, Melanie and I went to Surfers Paradise to meet up with Melanies Aunty Tammie who was over visiting from America. We were lucky because we got to stay with her at the Marriot which was really nice.

We spent the weekend walking around looking at various things. I was hoping to check out Ripley’s Believe it or Not, but it was closed while the shops where being renovated.

I did get to go to the wax museum though. The same one I remember going to when I was a kid and went to surfers with my mum, dad and sisters. As expected, it wasn’t quite as good as I remembered when I was younger, but still interesting.

Some of the wax models where really lifelike, while others were actually really laughable. The Whitney Houston one looked like some generic dummy they are put clothes on and labelled “Whitney Houston”

Sunday we got to spend with Tammie and we went to Tropical Fruit World which was about 30mins drive from Surfers. It was pretty cool and we got to do a fruit tasting which was interesting.

The drive was pretty long, but not too bad. The traffic on the drive back was the busiest I’ve seen while driving that road, but we never got held up in any traffic jams or anything like that which was good.

It was a most enjoyable weekend, and was good to see Tammie again.

I find myself taking a lot of random landscape photos. Tonight when I transferred pictures off my camera I found these two. I can’t actually remember where they were taken, but it seems to be on the side of the road somewhere.

The sunsets this time of year in Rocky are always so vibrant and colorful. My camera really doesn’t do it justice but I try.

I guess the afternoon showers we get helps. Either way I love it.

Speaking of stinking hot days in the last post, the stench hanging around Rocky lately is overwhelming. The flood waters in the river have dropped, and we are left with stinking mud and other stuff which seems to hang over Rocky.

The closest thing I can compare it to is the smell from a pig stye, the wet mud with pig poop and rotten food all mushed together. It’s crazy.

So that’s another reason I am liking the rain at the moment. When it’s raining that smell goes away.