Cool Country Consulting Blog

In this edition:

Holiday Special

Podcasts for your Travels.
Websites for a laugh.
Smoker? No warranty for you.
Lick It!
Statement Fun.
Google Desktop
TL;DR
Watching TV Online
Gmail Saves The Day
Inkjet becomes one pin dot matrix
Vitamin D
Rant on Greed V2
Any web designers out there?
Computer Table wants a home...
E-Bike review.
A week off...

Podcasts for your Travels

Chances are some of you will be embarking on some long trips this holiday season. Taking some podcasts with you will help make the journey more enjoyable.

Podcasts are basically radio shows that you can download and listen to; with the exception that you can tell your computer to get them automatically if you have iTunes or other podcasting software.

Here's a few of my faves:

CarTalk.

Two funny American guys who spend at least half of the show laughing constantly. Whether or not you're mechanically inclined; you'll probably enjoy this weekly one hour show . They'll try all sorts of tricks to get you out of trouble with your car, or to pass the blame onto someone else; or simply tell you that your car is going to blow up any minute...

http://www.cartalk.com/

AnswerMeThis.

Warning: Not entirely safe for kids - uses bad language now and then.

Three crazy British people (two guys one gal) answer some of the craziest questions that people submit to them online and by phone. http://answermethispodcast.com/

The Moth.

Warning: May use bad language or discuss themes that may offend.

OK so that's a weird name for a podcast. It is "Real Life Stories told Live, Without Notes, in under 20 mins." There is an amazing variety of stories here, from accountants, to strippers, to prisoners with dying rellies on the other side; and more. Some excellent listening here. Experience the full variety of people that exist on this earth.

http://www.themoth.org/podcast

TED Talks.

No, it's not "Big Ted" from Sesame Street :) TED Talks are described as "Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world." Most of them are pretty good; although since they cover a huge spectrum of ideas, some are bound to be of more interest to you than others.

http://www.ted.com/

Note: Most podcasts tend to be between 20 and 50MB to download, so for those of you on limited download plans; you might need to keep an eye on your usage while downloading these gems.

Websites for a laugh.

Here's a couple of gems I've run across in the last month that you might enjoy:

"What's the Funniest thing you've done / seen someone do in a classroom?"
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/9x4op/whats_the_funniest_thing_youve_done_seen_someone/
Warning: Some of these posts are likely to offend. (Bad language, politically incorrect.)
Another Warning: You might get nothing done for 5 hours reading all these!

Find out about the Cow Button, the 8.5 by 11 foot sheet of notes, the fake suicide out the window - with the chair, the "Thank you for last night" comment, Spontaneous Spiderman, the teacher with the Bull Whip, DENdoodahBAHdoo and more :)

"What is Love"

This chicken thinks he knows :) http://vimeo.com/8121722

"One Man Band"

Well, if your low on income, and have musical skill, you could copy this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fuv3QOeDDI

Hmm - I'm sure there are more, but I'm short of time. The phone keeps ringing. And I want to get this out by 1:45pm.

Smoker? No warranty for you...

.. or your Apple computer.

First, let me congratulate those few of you who actually did quit smoking this year. I'm proud of you! (It also makes working with you more of a pleasure, as second hand smoke is one thing that I'm not fond of.)

Anyway, earlier this year Apple made the decision that it would not do warranty repairs on laptops belonging to smokers. This was because they were classed as hazardous materials; and also because the residue gums up the cooling systems. It's actually been quite a while since I've repaired a heavy smoker's computer - the worst I remember was a Gateway 2000 machine that was yellow inside from the front-mounted fan dragging the smoke into the computer's innards.

Lick It!

OK a slightly less hygienic computer tip for you. Many computers now have finger print readers. For most people these work OK but sometimes you may find it just refuses to acknowledge you giving it the finger. If this happens to you, try this simple step. 1 - lick your finger. 2 - wipe your finger on a nearby fabric. 3 - swipe your finger on the reader.

If your skin is dry, it makes it harder for the computer to see it.

Statement Fun.

You know the old saying about the plumber's house having leaking taps. Well, my accounting is a bit like that sometimes. I'm pretty good at entering the information in as it comes in, but chasing up old accounts is not something I give much priority to. I knew for the last few months that something was up with my system not sending accounts under certain circumstances; and it turned out that through a logic error I introduced to it, anyone who had an unpaid account less than one month old would never get a statement.

As a result, a few got away from me. The worst ones being an ex Internet customer who racked up $700 before shooting through, and another guy who has $600 worth of wireless internet gear. (Another guy appears to have stolen a $145 modem from me too.) Fortunately such occurrences are quite rare as most people are pretty good about keeping up to date with things. The challenging counter to this is that each 6 months I receive about $1,000 in electronic payments to my bank account that have no payee reference - so I have no idea where that money came from or who it's for. Since quite often people pay multiple invoices in one transaction, it's very difficult to reconcile those amounts to a customer.

Google Desktop.

I think I've covered Google Desktop before. It allows you to search all your files for key words in a matter of seconds. This can be quite handy when trying to find information in documents that you no longer remember the name or location of; or emails.

One other useful feature is the ability to view your 'timeline' which will show you all the things you did on your computer on any given day. This has proven to be quite useful recently where a customer had many different web pages on the boil, but wanted to bill each to a separate entity and I had not recorded accurately which web site was worked on when. (Accounts are entered into a calendar daily, but transcribed into the accounting system monthly.) The history button gives me a minute by minute rundown of what page was worked on when :)

Google Desktop is not for everybody as it can slow down the computer a bit with it's constant indexing; but for some of you in office environments it might be quite handy. (Microsoft has similar features built in which I've not fully tested as they do not work with my email program, Thunderbird.)

TL;DR.

You might see this written - typically at the end of a long article. It stands for "Too Long; Didn't Read" and is usually followed by a one or two sentence summary of the article it accompanies.

Watching TV Onlne

Some of the TV channels are starting to get with the times and allow you to watch shows you've missed via the Internet. ABC is probably the most well known of these with their iView service. http://abc.net.au/iview

Channel 10 has a similar feature at http://ten.com.au/

NBN does not have it on their main site, but you might be lucky with some of the individual show websites.

Prime doesn't seem to have it at all yet.

SBS has done a good job with theirs at http://www.sbs.com.au/television

With all of these sites, they use quite a lot of downloads - around 400MB an hour as an estimate - so be careful if you're on an expensive low usage plan. (If you're on slow ADSL, you might not be able to see them in real time - you can always call me for a better deal ;-) )

Of course, for the 'naughty' ones among you there's always channel BT. Oh, and YouTube is legal and handy too once you work out how playlists work.

Gmail Saves The Day.

A few days ago, a customer called because some of his email had disappeared. A number of possibly zero day viruses had conspired to somehow nuke the outlook data file and it wasn't readily retrievable. (A rare occurrence, possible question as to whether Avast contributed to it.) Fortunately some time earlier I had set up gmail to poll his address and capture a copy of his email to their server; so a copy of all received email was still there available to be re-downloaded.

So, if your email is important to you and you want a free backup - register an address at http://gmail.com and then under Settings, click Accounts and Import and give it the details for your current email address. (If you don't know your password, I have a program that can usually retrieve them.) You may need to set your PC to leave a copy on the server for one day too.

Inkjet becomes one pin Dot Matrix?

A customer called last week with a problem. A single drawing pin had fallen into their fancy Canon printer / copier unit and was not retrievable since it had been swallowed along with some paper.

Usually retrieving foreign objects from a printer is relatively simple - with other recent occurrences being a crayon in a laser printer, and dried flowers in an inkjet. However, this one was quite a challenge, taking over an hour to get out. The pin was slightly wider than the gap it had fallen into so it wasn't as simple as 'turn over and shake'. It had also cleverly wedged itself near the flap that is used to determine whether the paper comes from the upper tray or below; and also serves as a duplexing chute.

In the end, we got it back together, and then it refused to print saying error 5010. Turned out that the scanner ribbon was the wrong way around. (It came out of it's socket before I had a chance to see its orientation.) Customer was happy.

Vitamin D?

This item missed last newsletter. The host of one of my regular podcasts - Security Now! - decided that he was so convinced of the benefits of Vitamin D after doing some research that he devoted an entire show to it. (This was out of character since all previous 203 shows were about computers.) It seemed to have some reasonable evidence behind it so I've listed it here. (Mainly as an anti-cancer product.) Listen or read at http://www.grc.com/health/Vitamin-D.htm

Rant on Greed V2

Another item that missed the last newsletter.

One of our two cats disappeared for a few days and came home covered in fleas. This of course meant it was time to buy more Frontline. However, while Frontline is quite effective it's also hideously expensive; so I did a little research to find out if there were any ways around it.

The primary discovery was that the formula for dogs and cats are pretty close matches. (a 25% difference in one of the active ingredients.) Thus with some careful mathematics it was apparent that you'd get almost as good a result by using 0.5ml of Frontline Plus for extra large dog to treat a cat - meaning roughly 24 doses for the price of three. So, one in the eye for Merial then; trying to charge almost the same for a tiny packet as for a large one.

Any web designers out there?

My web design skills are fair, but not excellent. In particular I'm a little lacking in graphic design aesthetics. So, if any of you are into web design work and are looking for work; let me know. You'd need to be familiar with Joomla, Drupal, CSS and HTML.

Computer Table Wants a Home.

A new Guyra resident has found she has one too many computer desks. If you're after one, let me know and I'll put you in touch. Pretty sure it's going cheap. http://lh3.ggpht.com/_NLoFolZ2mFo/SyrhCvd6_rI/AAAAAAAADog/LqbBXWpsfLs/s800/P12-17-09_18.00.jpg

E-Bike Review.

Just a quick note that the bike will get me from home to the roadhouse and back without going flat. If I get it to do most of the work, it takes 17 minutes to get there, covering 8.5km at average 25kph and peak 50kph down the hills. I'm quite happy with it :) I haven't tried a return trip to Guyra yet.

$429 reasonably well spent; although of course it would be more useful if I lived in town. If I worked at the tomato farm for example it'd be a huge saving compared to buying a car and paying rego.

By the way the Kingswood's still in at the doctor's. It's leaking oil out of the shifters for the gearbox, etc; and turns right when you put on the brakes. And speaking of rego, I don't think we'll see people adopting electric cars in Australia until they change rego laws. Why should I pay full price to rego two cars when I can only physically drive one at a time. (Most electric vehicles don't have enough range for holiday commutes, etc.)

A Week Off.

I'm having a week off from on-the-road repairs in the first week of 2010. This will give me some time to fix some issues around the house and car, such as fixing the gauges on the car, upgrading the service desk computers, etc. I'll still be available for remote assistance calls during this time :)

Have a great Christmas / Holiday season all :)

Cheers, Mike

Old Editions
You can find old editions of this newsletter on the CCC Blog. http://auzzie.net/cccblog/

You can also subscribe or unsubscribe at http://auzzie.net/mailman/listinfo/ccc-news_auzzie.net

OK every now and then I have this problem where after a reboot the CD drive letter changes back to E: thereby thwarting TrueCrypt from mounting it's faves in that place.

While not technically a solution, I have solved this problem in my case by using the command %windir%\system32\devcon.exe disable IDE\CDROMTSSTCORP_CD* at boot, then of course re-enabling it on a timer after TrueCrypt has done it's job.

For many years I used a program called Big Brother to monitor the history of connections for a number of host computers. However it was only compatible with Windows 98; so to keep using it I had to run it in a virtual machine.

Well the good news is that it's been upgraded to be compatible with XP and possibly higher.

It's different to things like Ping Plotter in that it basically just shows you the history for the last x minutes or hours for a your specified servers.

You can see here for example that many of my hosts are offline and have been for the last four hors, and a couple are having a tough time with wireless broadband connections that aren't working well.

It's still free, and it's from http://kin.klever.net/bigbrother/

Their webmaster appears to have an amusing sense of humour :)

In this edition:

Quick Update

See the E-Bike Tuesday night.
Update on Microsoft's Free Antivirus
Short Rant on Greed.
DIE-alup.
Windows 7 is out :)
In the Holiday Mood - KeyBored.

See the E-Bike Tuesday.

A couple of newsletters ago I hinted that I was installing an electric bike kit that weekend. A surprising number of my customers are alternative energy / green types, and others are prolific bike riders, so I have chatted with a few people about it. One of them has invited me to show it at some "open forum" thing in Armidale on Tuesday night, where there will be a display of electric cars and bikes. ( More info on this event is at http://transitiontowns.org/ArmidaleNSW/ArmidaleNSW )

So, if you'd like to see what $429 buys you in the electric bike conversion kit department, or to check out what people with more money than me have been up to with their electric cars, drop in to the Kent House carpark at 6:30 Tuesday night.

It will probably be on the back of the Bluebird all Tuesday so you might also see it in the main street of Guyra.

My review of the kit itself is at http://auzzie.net/files/ebike-info.pdf

Oh, and if you'd like to see a 9kg easyish to carry bike in a bag that costs $3,500 and is illegal in Australia due to our slightly backward laws on these things, check out http://www.yikebike.com/site/home

I was considering selling the bike kit as a retailer, but have decided against it due to possible legal liability if someone installs it poorly then blames me! However, it's an opportunity if anyone is interested in it :) The nearest rivals in Armidale are double the cost.

Update on Microsoft's free Anti Virus.

I see AVG's up to their usual tricks, trying to force users into yet another new version of their now rather slow program. So a reminder that there is a free one from Microsoft, and a free one from Avast. Last newsletter I praised the Microsoft one for being a good product. It is :) But the one downside with it that has come to light is the size of some of its update files. They can be in excess 30MB every few weeks; so if you're on a really slow connection this could be an issue. Avast updates are much smaller but of course they require the 12 monthly free registration.

Microsoft Security Essentials is at http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/
Avast is at http://www.avast.com/

Short Rant on Greed.

Last week, a customer was caught in a booby trap that was set by Microsoft back in the year 2000. (Subsequently removed in 2003) This trap is that if you store more than 2GB of email in Outlook 2000, it will crash; taking your mail with it. (In this case, about 17,000 emails.)

I've heard of this glitch in the past, but most people have upgraded to newer versions of office since then; so I'd never actually enountered it first hand until this day.

Microsoft fortunately had a solution that was supposed to work, but was a bit hit and miss and quite time consuming to run. There were many other companies peddling solutions to this problem as well; and for some reason they were almost all identically priced at $49.99 US, with a couple up as high as $250+

It annoys me somewhat when people do this. My opinion is: If you consider how vast the world is; if you create some simple tool that can do the job, sell it for a small amount and you'll make it back on volume, and for the greater good of humanity. If instead you stick a high to ridiculous price on your software, people will just go straight to mininova.org or thepiratebay.org and solve their needs that way.

This practice has at last caught up with the likes of NavMan and Garmin, with Google now announcing that their newest mobiles will include fully functioning turn-by-turn navigation GPS built in for free. NavMan in particular I'm glad to see now suffering as their update price of $160 for new maps can not be thought of as anything other than a rort.

Windows 7 is out :)

For those of you who have been holding off buying a new computer because you couldn't stand Vista, the good news is that Windows 7 is out. It uses about half the memory of Vista, and is not really all that much different to XP. The main difference is that the task bar now has buttons instead of long tags. I have it on my laptop so if you'd like a preview, flag me down :) As per the 'greed' article above, however, it's a bit overpriced to upgrade from XP and Vista.

DIE-al up.

I received a notice last week from M2 Wholesale that advises that I am no longer commercially viable for them and that I have 90 days left before our contract terminates.

What this means is that I will soon cease offering dialup internet services under my own brand. Instead, I will be migrating the service and customer balances over to another company, Beagle Internet. They have some of the best rates going for dialup, are active and well respected in the whirlpool.net.au community, and because they are also an M2 Wholesale customer they can take over the operation seamlessly. They have offered to maintain the same accounting methods as Auzzie Internet for the migrating customers - accepting cheque payments and not expiring credit.

Auzzie Internet started as a dialup business in November 1997 charging $2 per hour for Internet service in Bourke, NSW. At its peak it had 24 lines. (22 at 33.6k and 2 at 2.4k for prolific chatters) The dialup service was outsourced to KBS Internet around 2002 when wide area numbers were introduced. KBS was taken over by WCG (Wholesale Communications Group) who in turn was taken over by M2 Wholesale. At this point we're now down to just 6 lines.

Please note that this only affects dialup customers. Wireless Internet, ADSL and Web Hosting is not affected :)

KeyBored

Christmas and the holidays are coming soon. The next newsletter will contain a collection of things to keep you amused!

To get started, here's two "Piano" programs. The first, C-Magic's Virtual Piano requires no downloads to play. Just go to http://www.cmagics.com/beta/piano/

Now, if you want to play the competition, you'll need to download "KeyBored" instead. (Although it might drive you mad heheheh.)

Free from http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?y1zwtzzwhyk (You will need to unzip it and run keybored.exe) Only tested on XP. Then, open Notepad or Word or a blank email and type away :)

Once you have KeyBored running, you can then learn to play the songs at http://keybored.wikidot.com/system:keybored-songs by typing the letters.

The First person to reply to this email with the correct name of the following song (which is not in that list) wins $20 and their name in the next newsletter :)

hhhgfhh z
hhhhhghj z
jjjhgjj z
jjjjkjh v
hhhgfhh v
hhhjkj m
lklkj kjkjh gggjhgf

Cheers, Mike.

Old Editions
You can find old editions of this newsletter on the CCC Blog. http://auzzie.net/cccblog/

You can also subscribe or unsubscribe at http://auzzie.net/mailman/listinfo/ccc-news_auzzie.net

(Also known as "how to fix your southern cross windmill" or how to fix a southern cross wind mill or "how a southern cross windmill works".)

My Windmill broke after many years of good service; and lacking the tools and knowledge to fix it myself (nothing easy to find on Google prior to this post) I procured a pair of professional windmill repairers to do it, asked them some questions and observed the process. So, here's some second-hand tips on how to fix your own Southern Cross Windmill.

(work in progress October 2009 - pictures coming soon)

Before we start:

Wind mills can be a bit dangerous and fiddly. They're often damn tall, and may have 30 metres of (heavy) metal pipe hidden from view under the ground; so you'll need to be careful working on one. If you're not confident with heights, heavy tools, etc then this probably isn't the job for you - proceed at your own risk! Things that could go wrong include:

- getting half way up the windmill ladder and suddenly discovering you don't go well with heights. (Take your phone with you just in case.)
- getting all the way up, then getting knocked off by a suddenly spinning windmill.
- Undoing something at the wrong time and losing bits for ever down the hole.
- Grabbing at something that is rapidly falling into a hole, taking part of you with it!
- Winching up a pipe, hitting the top of the windmill by mistake and breaking something. (Hopefully not winching your ute up the windmill!)

How they normally work.

Well the top bit is kind of obvious. The fan-shaped bit spins around, and some metal rod moves up and down with it. (If these two things don't happen together you might have a gearbox problem. I didn't so unfortunately I can't give you any tips here. There is oil in it 'tho so it could be worth checking if you're up there.)

A metal rod then travels down the centre of the pipe that you can see, all the way to the bottom where it joins into the 'pump'.

The pump is actually quite simple. It's just a 2 foot long hollow metal cylinder with a plunger in the middle - a bit like you'd find if you took apart an old bike pump. And, just like how cars have cylinders and rings; this plunger-thing has a couple of rings made of either Neoprene or Leather to form a seal. (Those in the know seem to refer to these as 'buckets'.)

Of course, this design would not quite work without some sort of valve - because you want to lift water 'up' the pump but not push it back out again on the down stroke. There are two parts that work together to solve this problem.

At the end of the pump is a non-return valve. It lets water into the pump from the bottom, but (ideally) not back out. So, this means on the upstroke the plunger bit can suck up some more water.

Now, on the downstroke the water can't get out, so in the centre of the plunger there's another valve that lets water flow past it on the downward stroke, ready for the next big suck & lift.

In some cases, they may have added a second non return valve to a section of pipe below the pump - presumably as an insurance against one getting stuck open with a bit of grit, and / or to allow any crud sucked up on the up-stroke to have a chance to settle back to the valve and out at a later stage.

So basically you have a reverse bicycle pump, lifting water out rather than pushing air in. The column of water is eventually ejected from the pipe - usually via a T piece, and drained into a tank.

What can go wrong

A few common things that go wrong:

1 - Rust in the pipe causing a leak underground.

Assuming your pipe is metal, it is possible that over time the pipe might rust. If the pipe rusts, then it may develop a leak. You'll probably hear this as the sound of water being pumped and then immediately drained back down the hole. This would lead to a reduced output, with you only getting water on particularly windy days; if at all.

The rust point is generally near the depth of the water line, and may also be encouraged if the bore casing is metal as well due to electrolysis. (You can now get Poly pipes instead to reduce this risk.)

2 - Buggered Buckets?

Like the piston rings in your car, if the buckets are no longer snug, they'll have a reduced lifting ability.

3 - Non-return valve stuck.

If your non return valve (or foot valve?) has become stuck open it will let the water back out. I guess you'd have to be unlucky but it can happen.

4 - Siezed pump

If the bore runs dry, it's possible that the buckets will get hot and sieze. (Apparently more common with neoprene ones.) This then puts significant force on the central rod which might bend it to buggery.

5 - Others.

Other possibilities could include the rod joins rubbing a hole in the pipe, gearbox breakdown, pipe getting a swing up underground, etc.

How to take one apart?

You're gonna need some fairly heavy duty stuff for this job. Since I'm an IT guy I don't know all the jargon. You'll need at least
- a winch or (block and tackle)
- possibly some sort of pulley if you're winching from ground level.
- a stilson, looks like a wrench, might actually be a wrench
- a pipe grabbing thing. (looks like a motorbike chain on a stick) (Maybe a second stilson / wrench would do - you want to grab two bits of pipe and twist y'see.)
- Some sort of grabby thing so you can attach your winch / lifting thing to your pipe. (They had some special tool for this.) [edit: Advised this might be called a pipe clevis or pipe dog - I can't find an exact match on the 'net but you might get some ideas from http://www.deanbennett.com/pipe-tools.htm ]
- A second grabby thing that can hold the weight of the remaining pipe while you unscrew the section above it.
- One or two vice grips. (Google 'em.)
- Other stuff.

The most important thing here is to have some way to lift the rather heavy pipe out of the ground. You might use a winch and a pulley for this purpose.

You'll also probably need to remove one or two of the side supports so you can get enough room to get the bits of pipe out and have easy access to the bore area.

1 - Secure the fan so it can't spin. (I guess a rope will do.)
2 - Unbolt the gearbox from the rod.

3 - Unscrew the T-Piece going to your tank. (It's probably just resting in the tank's opening so there's nothing to stop you just unscrewing it and pushing it away.
4 - Unscrew the top section of pipe from the bottom section of pipe. Lift this a couple of feet and you should find the first join on the inner rod. This also unscrews. You do not need to worry about the inner rod falling into the hole unless there's a major problem down below already (such as a pipe having completely rusted through.)

5 - Unscrew this inner rod using two pipe grabby tools and then remove the upper portion from inside the now suspended bit of pipe.

6 - Now, lower and remove the bit of pipe.
7 - Devise a way to lift the remaining length of pipe.

In my case, they positioned a pulley at the top of the windmill which they threaded a winch through, with a grabby thing on the end.

My suggestion would be to try to have some sort of backup grabby thing down below too just in case the one up top let go.

Proceed to lift the pipe until you get to the next join. Note that the length of pipe might be taller than your windmill, which is a pain as it will mean you'll need to clamp the pipe and lower your grabby thing. You'll also need to be careful that the top of the pipe doesn't hit the top of the windmill; and that if your grabby thing has a remote release rope you'll want to make sure it doesn't get caught on something and release when you really don't want it to.

When you finally get to the next join, you repeat the process by somehow twisting the two pipe segments apart. You might have to do a bit of swearing at them. Applying heat might help them loosen, or just allow you to burn yourself.

Once they are separate, lift the top section a little further so you can now hopefully see the next inner rod join. Unscrew this and like before, remove the rod from the bottom of the suspended pipe. (This might be fiddly so you might need to lift the suspended pipe fairly high to get enough room.

Repeat the process until you finally get to the pump.

You can disassemble the pump by unscrewing the bottom end and then pushing the rod out of it.

If you elect to hone the pump (that is to resurface it) you may need to use new leather buckets as these will expand to fit the new surface. Neoprene ones may not.

Putting it back together?

Umm, I didn't take it apart. You did ;-)

I'll cover that later. Suffice to say you might need some of that magic plumbers tape that they put on thread. (Probably known as thread tape?) You'll also need all your fancy lifting gear but in reverse this time. Actually you might be able to cheat with some ropes and a horse knot, but not sure. (A horse knot is where you just wrap a rope around something three times and friction takes care of the rest!)

A possibly useful and interesting site is at http://www.windmill-parts.com/index.html

Maybe :)

I did, with an old G4 running OSX 10.3 and it was happy.

In this edition:

Quick Update

Microsoft's Free Antivirus
Price Reduction on Wireless Broadband
Lightning reminder

Microsoft's Free Antivirus.

As of yesterday, Microsoft has released a new free AntiVirus program for all genuine windows users. Initial testing by myself and the media seem to be giving it reasonable results.

In my opinion it's good enough for most people.

What it doesn't include is a firewall, but Windows has one built in, and most broadband modems have one built in as well so for the majority of people this is not a concern at all.

So, if your Norton, Trend, CA, McAfee or other antivirus product is up for renewal and they want money from you; you can probably get the free no-nagging one from Microsoft instead. You can get it by clicking here: --> http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

If for some reason Microsoft claims your computer does not have a legal copy of windows - which often happens on computers that have been wiped and reloaded at some point in their lives - the next best free scanner at this stage still appears to be Avast - free from http://www.avast.com/

Price Reduction on Wireless (Mobile) Broadband.

Exetel Wireless broadband modems (as you might have seen on TV under the "Exetel Country Broadband" brand) have come down again to just $95. If you want mobile internet access that works wherever an Optus mobile works, with prices starting at $5 a month plus usage; give me a call for more info and a demo.

For October only I'm doing a free on-site installation (excluding parts) for up to 1 hour and within 10km of Guyra, Armidale or Black Mountain.

Lightning Reminder:

On the assumption that we'll actually get a traditional non-dust storm again in the near future, here's a quick reminder about how to prevent your computer being blown up in a storm.

The single most useful thing you can do is to unplug the phone line from your computer or modem, as most storm damage comes via the phone line. Any gadget that has both power and phone provides a path for lightning, which is why fax machines are usually the first to go.

Of course, it's not always possible to be home to unplug things, so the next-best option is to buy a power board or adapter that has a phone line filter built in. These will save your equipment most of the time, often sacrificing themselves in the process. For example, http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/4ac4156805a7baf8273fc0a87e0106ed/Product/View/M7800

As a side note, computers using wireless access to the Internet are mostly immune to storms; although if you plan on using a laptop in a storm, it's probably a good idea to disconnect the power cord and use battery just to be on the safe side. Cordless phones are also almost completely safe to use in a storm, but the base station could still get fried.

Well, that's gotta be one of the shortest newsletters ever :) Have a great long weekend! I'll be busy doing an electric bicycle conversion...

Cheers, Mike.

Old Editions
You can find old editions of this newsletter on the CCC Blog. http://auzzie.net/cccblog/

You can also subscribe or unsubscribe at http://auzzie.net/mailman/listinfo/ccc-news_auzzie.net

Hmm, looks like CastleCops died in 2008. Fortunately I have a firefox snapshot of this page via the Scrapbook extension.

So here it is: http://auzzie.net/BITS/

I have not yet found the attachment BITSService.zip but it's not usually needed anyway I think.

Speedup Tips

Time to remove AVG.
A new defragger
How much RAM, how many brains?

Tips

How to edit PDFs for Free.
A New Virtual Machine.

Stories & General Banter

Bluebird's over the mountain, still.
Yagi on board.
Other Trivia (Chooks of Doom, Scooter Broke, Mower Mod.)

Time to remove AVG?

One thing that is certain in life is change. And one thing that has changed in the last few months is AVG. It has slowly become a slow memory hog. Not as bad as the evil Norton / Symantec, but certainly no longer the zippy thing it was in version 7. So, if you have an older computer (say 2+ years) or a computer with one brain or low RAM (see later for how to tell) then I think it's time to change. (You can partly test how much it's slowing down your computer by temporarily disabling the "Resident Shield" part and restarting your computer.)

If your computer is slow, I'm recommending changing to Avast. At this point in time it is still quite light on the computer, and is comparable if not better than AVG in detection; and arguably better at removing bugs. The free version is available at http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupeng.exe

The one drawback with Avast is the need to register every 14 months. This involves filling out a form on a web page at http://www.avast.com/eng/home-registration.php - if you want to cheat for the first 14 months, you can use the code W27115188H1400A0811-9DW8UF5R - they don't notice if a few people share the same key.

Don't forget to remove AVG first or you'll get a double dose of the slow as the two fight with eachother :)

One of the great advantages of Avast over AVG is that if you do get a bug; it has a special way of restarting the computer and killing the bug before the computer finishes starting again. Some newer bugs, especially the sneaky ones known as rootkits, can start up before the computer is ready and then hide themselves from Windows and the antivirus program; and Avast can often kill 'em.

A New Defragger!

Defragging is a mystery to most people, but it's something that can make a huge difference to the startup and operating speed of your computer. In short, here's what happens.

Imagine I have three files called xxx, yyy and zzz. Here they are sitting on the hard drive next to each other:

[xxx][yyy][zzz]

Now, lets say file yyy gets bigger. It might be a letter you're writing, or an email storage file, etc.

It can't fit in the space any more so here's what the computer does:

[xxx][yyy][zzz][yy] (it sticks it in the next gap it can find.)

Now file zzz gets bigger...

[xxx][yyy][zzz][yy][zzzz] (same again...)

Now file xxx gets deleted.

[ ][yyy][zzz][yy][zzzz] (there's a space where xxx used to be.)

Now file zzz gets bigger again.

[zz][][yyy][zzz][yy][zzzz] (Now zzz is in three parts, the last one being the first on the actual drive.)

As you can see, the file zzz is now stored in three 'fragments' and to open it, your computer has to find those three bits. On old computers, you can hear this rattling sound as the hard disk drive head jumps from place to place trying to find it. (It's a bit like trying to play three bits of a song on a record player - a lot of hard work, and slow too.)

Most computers have a special program called "Disk Defragmenter" which will go through and put all these bits back in order. You can normally find it by clicking Start --> Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools --> Disk Defragmenter.

The built in one does a fairly reasonable job of it. However, there's one thing that it, and almost all over defragmenters seem to ignore; which is that the disk is usually faster at the beginning than at the end! (If you ever played with marbles on a record player you'd know they spin much faster towards the edges. You can test this with http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach if you're curious.)

Now, there is a free defragmenting program that does this, as well as making space for often-chopped-up files to grow and moving the big but rarely used files (like videos, etc) towards the end where you don't need speed. It's called "MyDefrag" and you can get it from http://www.mydefrag.com/

Once you have it, choose the Slow Optimise icon and then go to bed as it may take a long time. You can then use the Fast Optimise option to keep it up to speed, and maybe use the slow one every few months.

Vista machines and laptops in particular can see a big difference in speed after using this program.

How much Ram? How many Brains?

RAM. A kind of Memory. It's like the table you're working on. If it's too small, you'll be working hard to make space. It makes no difference how many photos are in the cupboard (Hard disk) since they're not on the table so having a stack of photos won't normally affect your computer's memory...

Not having enough RAM is one of the main reasons for a slow computer. Here's an easy way to tell if you have enough RAM.

1 - Hold down Ctrl + Alt + Delete.

2 - Choose "Task manager" if asked what to do.

3 - Click the Performance tab.

You'll see something like this: http://lh4.ggpht.com/_NLoFolZ2mFo/SqzLDvIRJ8I/AAAAAAAAC9A/Bry8eLOGtZI/s800/Fullscreen%20capture%2013092009%2083506%20PM.jpg

4 - (For Windows XP) Compare the PF usage to the Total Physical memory. If it's nearly the same or higher, then your computer doesn't have enough memory for what you are asking it to do. (In this example, PF usage is 114 MB, which is roughly 114,000 KB, The Total Physical Memory is 237,040 KB so I'm OK :)

Note: For Windows Vista you need to compare the two items I've underlined in the picture at http://lh4.ggpht.com/_NLoFolZ2mFo/SqzMllhl3PI/AAAAAAAAC9E/LKnV6u3wcfc/s800/Fullscreen%20capture%2013092009%2084047%20PM.jpg
(Compare Physical Memory with the first number next to Page File.)

Ram is not terribly expensive for modern computers, but for the older ones it is getting harder to find and thus the price can sneak up a bit.

Note that you often don't need more RAM but instead need to kill off some background programs, which you might not even realise are there. Common memory hogs that run in the background are HP updater, Skype, Limewire, etc. You can turn off the ones you recognise by clicking Start, clicking run (if it's there) and typing in msconfig ... Then, untick the items you don't want starting in the "startup" tab. Note that this does not remove programs from your computer.

Oh, and to determine how many brains, if you see one chart next to CPU usage then you have one brain. If you see two, then you have two, etc. The advantage in having more than one brain is that it means your computer can be thinking about two or more things at the same time, at full speed. This is more useful these days than in the past as it means your computer can be doing virus scanner updates, etc with one brain while your work is done with another.

How to edit PDFs for free.

Method 1

If you don't know what a PDF is, you probably won't be interested in this next bit. Suffice to say they're a kind of file that was invented so that it would look the same on any computer irrespective of brand, etc.

It's often the case with PDF files that you can't easily change them. This can be annoying if you ever need to!

Previously I've mentioned Foxit Reader - a free program that you can use for viewing these PDF files. (Much better than Adobe reader in speed and size.) http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/ You can use this program to make changes, but unless you pay them money to buy a fancy version, they won't let you save the changes. However, there is a way you can cheat.

If you don't already have some sort of PDF printer listed in your list of printers, there's a free one called CutePDF writer; which I've also mentioned before. This program lets you make PDF files by 'printing' them. It's free from http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/Writer.asp

So, the trick is to make the changes in Foxit reader, then cheat by printing the changed version with CutePDF writer. You end up with the new copy with your changes.

It won't technically be as efficient as being able to save from Foxit reader, but it's almost always good enough.

Method 2

Another solution to this problem has recently come to light in the form of an addon for Sun's OpenOffice program. (OpenOffice is a free alternative to Microsoft's relatively expensive Word, Excel, PowerPoint group of programs - free from http://download.openoffice.org/

Once you have OpenOffice installed, you can grab the Sun PDF Import addin from http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/node/874

Your results with this combo can sometimes be a little unexpected - but in cases where you want to add logos, remove words or whole pages, etc you may find it does what you need.

A New Virtual Machine.

A Virtual Machine is a computer that lives inside another computer! It uses some of the computer's brain, memory and disk space to simulate another computer. That second (virtual) computer is blissfully unaware that it doesn't really exist! (A bit like the Matrix movie.)

This is for the more IT aware among you - and for those of you with Apple Macs that want to run Windows. Sun has released a new free version of VirtualBox which is significantly better than Microsoft's free program and comparable to the non-free Parallels program for Mac. With it, you can run almost any operating system on your computer that you desire, without replacing your main one - and they both run at the same time. Free from http://www.virtualbox.org/

For others among you it might mean you can run your old Windows 98 programs on Windows Vista if you really want to.

Bluebird's Over the Mountain?

Well, the stealth Bluebird is behaving itself after some preventative maintenance in the form of a timing belt and water pump change... and I was amazed to find not one but three instrument panels at Guyra Motors. (Needed some new lamps and an idea on how it was designed as it's like a disco with gauges turning on and off because of a design flaw common to that series.)

The Kingswood is still resting. I took it out for a short run last weekend and of course the evil sounds have gone away for now. Nonetheless I'll still be getting it seen to soon - money permitting of course.

Yagi on board?

A few of you might have spotted this strange sight some weeks ago, especially up near Ben Lomond: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/CCCMikey/Exetel#5367900804403325122 - a car with what looks like a TV antenna sticking up behind it.

I decided to do a bit of an experiment with targeted advertising - driving to properties, getting a wireless broadband speed reading, taking a photo of the mailbox, printing it and the results out from a printer inside the car and depositing it in the mailbox.

There were some teething problems, and it was a bit slow going but the results were good. The car itself certainly attracted people's attention. (Admittedly a little too much possibly when the boys in blue flashed at me one night on the way home - didn't pull me over but perhaps they didn't like the fact the number plate wasn't illuminated. The aerial itself was folded down level with the tow bar when not measuring.) What really surprised me was how agitated people get when you take a photo of their mailbox and give it to them! (The concept of fear of recording devices, whether sound, image or video, in public places, is alien to me.)

Anyway, the whole project was predicated on the notion that like any other broadband connection I make through Exetel I'd see 10% of the revenue - as this has been a handy backup income source lest I get sick, etc and covers offering free support. I later discovered that for the majority of the wireless broadband connections I earn 45 cents a month irrespective of usage. (This is for the $5 per month plus usage plan which is popular with light to moderate Internet users.) Given I don't charge like a wounded bull for installation, this makes the surveying project unviable.

As a side note to that, I'm still happy to support other companies as well even though I'm not in their pocket. For example, TPG has the best mobile deals going at about 8c a minute. Exetel can't match that so I don't sell Exetel mobiles any more. Telstra's prices are still ridiculously high in most cases, but their service has improved somewhat. (Handy hint: If you want to speak to someone at Telstra, and don't like talking to the computer, you can press 1 for the first response, 2 for the second, etc until you're roughly in the area you want, and / or just keep pressing # until the computer apologizes for not understanding you :) I can't help with the foreign accents however unless you want me as a translator :)

Other Trivia.

A select few of you are amused by my non-IT stuff for some reason. The latest events in that department:

1 - Discovered, almost certainly, that eating any MSG enhanced food will cause me to lose a night's sleep. Enough of it causes an irregular heart beat. Common problem it seems, but it's in an area of subjectivity on the 'net. http://blessedquietness.com/journal/theworld/msg.htm Other key signs are losing the skin off the roof of my mouth. I'm fairly confident that Coles BBQ chickens have MSG or something else that sets me off. I'm pleased to advise that Moxons and Guyra bakeries staff seem to believe their food is MSG free.

2 - Scooter broke. After 1,100km, a tiny patch of rust weakened a structural part, resulting in a non-spectacular but serious failure. A friend will attempt to re-weld it. Picture at http://picasaweb.google.com.au/CCCMikey/Assorted02#5380571050608437890 - Fear not, I still have the bike; just have to actually do some work now to cause it to move. Electric bike kit (legal) on it's way from eBay $429 http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170374642904&ssPageName=ADME:L:COSI:AU:1123

3 - New Electric Mower. I always get a headache from the fumes from the ol' 4 stroke Rover. (And every spring the bugger won't start without it's service in Armidale.) Shelled out $105 for an electric mower. It's smaller than the Rover, but quieter and much lighter. It gets a funny hot plastic smell when running for a long time however, so (predictably) I've modded it with an old server fan and laptop power supply. I'm happy with it. http://picasaweb.google.com.au/CCCMikey/Assorted02#5380568831370950290 and http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160358141993 - apparently the postie refused to deliver it from the Guyra PO :) Wouldn't fit on the bike perhaps? I think the smell is that of a thermo-set plastic which I've not smelt since High School rather than burning enamel so I don't know if it's a breaking-in smell or a 'cut more grass and I'll go on strike' smell. Of 86 reviews for that model, 81 are happy.

4 - Nearly caught up after the holiday. Still getting about 15 mobile calls a day which I can't handle in real time, so the answering machine's getting a good workout! One unhappy camper even texted "are you still trading" after my return calls were unnoticed. Oh well, I'm doing my best, chooks of doom notwithstanding. Occasionally even the answering machine goes on strike so apologies to those few of you who got hung up on by it. (Once it gets 200 messages stored, it likes to play random announcements - often going for the 'sorry I'm sick" or "I'm in Tassie" one for some reason.)

G'day :)

Well, after 1,100km, on the second drive belt and set of batteries; the ZZ Cruiser has suffered a more serious breakdown. This time, a combination of rust, metal fatigue and relatively poor design all conspired to a break as seen here...

I have a friend who will attempt to weld it back together.

It broke in the driveway after a weekend 4km run so it wasn't dramatic. Much rather it do this here than at midnight doing 15kph downhill with the dog attached!

Only other issues so far: Main axle is a little bent, causing the bearing to rattle a little. My driveway is 400 metres unpaved and rocky so it has taken its toll too.