Bean Counting...

Resolutions

2012-01-08T23:37:00.000+10:00

I haven't made any resolutions as yet, but the usual suspects have reappeared. I am not going to worry about my previous failures which should help, but also making some kind of plan and some way to track and be accountable. If I fail, then I need to know when and by how much, maybe I didn't give my self enough time etc...

Time, is an interesting concept which baffles me to this day. But I still wear a watch and carry on...

What I mean by giving my self enough time, not just a date when I would like said resolution to be achieved, but the actual progressed time. For example, I want to build a new shed, I would like it completed by August, this is an ok resolution, but I would like to add a few layers of complexity. Firstly progressed time, this is a made up concept and the name may change in the future... But, if a resolution required 7 days of work, and your target is to complete by the end of the week, you need to allocate and do work on all the days. But you can't do that as you have other shit to do, you can't devote yourself full time to a project its not practical. You could do one day of work every weekend. Which means its going to take 7 weeks. But life isnt perfect and you may need to add an extra weekend for the off week which is inevitably going to happen.

I am going to need to spend some time working out how much real time I am going to have to invest and the time frame in which said activities should be completed in. Also having some milestones to aim for during the project, especially if its long term would be nice.

What to Track

2012-01-06T22:42:00.001+10:00

For a while now I have been tracking my net worth as a simple way to track what I'm doing with my money, rather then the much more involved method of accounting for every transaction. As an accountant this is the last thing I want to be doing when I get home. So I have focused on tracking net worth on a monthly basis.

Some simple maths can reveal how much I have saved in the past month, but the number I find more interesting is the increase (or decrease...) from a rolling year, what have I done since this time last year. My savings habits are quite good, however I don't always try to maximise the yield as I'm lazy and trusting of non high street banks.

I've worked out I've 'lost' a few dollars by not paying attention to the interest rates, more specifically, thinking the honeymoon rate was what I was getting. My laziness meant I couldn't be bothered to delve deeper and find out the difference, I mean how much different could it be?

Bank in 2000 I opened an ING Direct Account with the few dollars I had, and all was good and has been for many years. It was one the other first high interest online only bank accounts. The new kid on the block is ubank (which seems to be some kind of marketing exercise by nab) and they have good rates. Currently ING advertised rate is 5.85% and the rate your customer of 10 years gets is 4.5% thats a difference of 1.35% or put into dollar terms $135 per year on $10,000 invested or say 3 months of free mobile. In the grand scheme of things $135 isn't much and its my fault for not keeping tabs on this.

I will now be adding this statistic to my net worth spreadsheet. But not tracking monthly, just what the prevailing rate is currently, which means I can easily look at my accounts, see the interest rates they are getting and easily make a decision as to where to put the money.

I am also thinking of tracking how much money I earn from each source. Which would be interesting, but for now the total is working quite well, and requires very little effort.

2011-12-29T18:43:00.001+10:00

2011: The Year In Review

2011-12-29T18:03:00.002+10:00

So How Was it?

Don't remember, don't care.

What was your most memorable moment?

The fine folks at the Australian Passport Office, second place goes to
the continuous stream of shit piled on me the whole year.

What have you learned this year?

Self interest. Money only exists until you spend it. You don't have to drink all the time, but it helps.

What was your favourite colour?

Black

Did you stick to your resolutions/goals?

I don't even remember what they where.

What most impressed you?

My liver

Do you have any goals/resolutions for 2012?

To be continued...

Christmas 2011

2011-12-23T18:04:00.002+10:00

So begins the 2 weeks of 'holiday' which will most likely include hard labour, working in the office, taking my mum to some tourist attraction, self loathing and copious amounts of drinking.

2011-12-18T08:36:00.000+10:00

2011-11-11T21:34:00.001+10:00

2011-10-20T22:30:00.001+10:00

Gif Back - Kinky Beatles LCD Mash-Up from Simon Victor on Vimeo.

2011-09-15T22:38:00.000+10:00

2011-08-27T18:57:00.000+10:00

Pearl trees was supposed to be my substitue for delicious, but I havent used either in ages, I much prefer, readitlater and evernote for saving things I need later. Maybe I need a bookmark backup/sync service like xmarks.

Pick a Platform

2011-08-27T18:51:00.001+10:00

I have realised I need to focus one platform and not try and duplicate my efforts across different outlets. Its both tiring and confusing for me. Sure if there is a way to automate then great, but I need to work out what works best for me and optimise for that. I would like to move to wordpress, but whats the point... tumblr is nice for catching up with what the hipsters are looking at, but nothing for me to really post there, its just not that type of crowd.

Be Happy

2011-08-27T18:12:00.001+10:00

2011-08-21T13:45:00.000+10:00

2011-08-18T17:14:00.000+10:00

Wallet

2011-08-17T17:08:00.000+10:00

For about 7 years I used a orange wallet made of elephant leather. That probably sounds mean and wrong, but its also awesome. And you know it. It was awesome until it started to fall apart. Probably had another 2 years as it fell apart, most-likely make it to 10 years, but my paranoia and OCD to protect and horde my belongings caused me to retire that wallet and pick up a wallet from the box of wallets I have collected over the years. These being those I have purchased or gained from birthday/christmas/diwali presents. The elephant leather wallet was a thin single fold wallet it was an extension of my left thigh. It just fit nicely into any trousers I was wearing. I changed to a double fold (triple flap) wallet. More slots for my cards, divider for big and small notes, dual ID holders, everything you could ever want from a wallet. But its just too fat.

If we delve deeper I also had a coin purse. It was good as during that time I never had enough money to actually hold notes, it had a flap for notes.... but mainly I only had coins during my senior high school years. Prior to that (yr 8 to 10) I had various Velcro wallets or just nothing at all.

Whilst at work I noticed how thin my ipod nano 2g was next to the bulk of my wallet and realised I needed something thinner. My wallet always annoyed me in terms of its girth, but its a wallet, holds money and cards, what do I care?

Comfort
Bulge
Weight
Durability
Looks

The non descriptive nature of this wallet just sort of got to me along with its fatness (sounds hypocritical, but its dead cow and cheap nylon so STFU). I knew about the duct tape wallet so I entered the internet to find out a bout this new phenomenon (4 years late?_P) and stumbled upon paper wallets. Immediately I knew this was for me, my love of stationary combined with my love of money......dots.........

The problem with paper wallets is its hydrophobia and durability is limited to the quality/thickness of paper. Do I care. Fuck no! The fact that its unique and awesome like the elephant wallet. But made of a different type of finite resource. I am surrounded by boxes of paper that we just throw away, what if I use this resource for the first step in the recycle triangle and reuse in a productive way?

2011-08-16T17:12:00.000+10:00

2011-08-15T17:12:00.000+10:00

2011-08-14T17:06:00.000+10:00

I require a bookshelf as evidenced by the piles of bound paper on my floor. I was going to get something from ikea but my love of floor to ceiling bookshelves is strong. I still may go to Ikea, but I am also going to price up a home made version.

The design of the billy bookcase is not that hard to imagine, Whilst doing the design I also thought about how I would actually put it together. They normally use dowel bits and some screws. Again pretty easy. However, I have discovered it might be difficult to drill the holes in the shelves whilst also keeping it straight. I could use angle thingys but that would be crap. Going to check out bunnings tomorrow for actual wood prices.

No Money for a week

2011-08-13T16:36:00.000+10:00

After a debate with my work colleagues about how I spend too much money on lunch, I decided to create a little experiment/challenge for myself. I will not spend any money from my bank account for one week. Basically I cannot access my bank account for one week.

I lasted to Thursday, when I needed to buy more beer, being lazy I just bought a carton, instead of maximizing what cash I had left and just buy a 6 pack or similar. I failed.

But I think given another go I could actually do it. It has also come to my attention I have a lot of automatic transfer from my account, mostly to other high interest savings accounts. I am going to try and not be lazy with my money and try and save more frequently. The change experiment should have highlighted that, but I never really went through with it at the completion of the experiment.

A poem about how to be alone

2011-07-12T21:41:00.000+10:00

Speech recognition

2011-06-22T00:13:00.003+10:00

Hello world.

This is rather cool, but also it sounds dorky to do this.

I wonder how fast I can talk, before he gets frustrated. Well it is actually quite good.

I could get used to this.

I am thinking of buying new shoes.nt

Is this the end of the page. Yes!

Is it wasn’t I think I do not know. I do not have the force at work. But this could be interesting if you can work that are clearly should not stop the reaction stop talking ledger report yes. One that does not make any sense. Originality there must leave them on.

I am going to bed. Good night.

2011-06-21T21:30:00.001+10:00

Soup for one

2011-06-18T17:33:00.002+10:00

, a photo by beancounting on Flickr.

I have the flu, so I drink soup, only packet soup is crap. So i made my own.

Its a simple recipe I made up using common sense.

Ingredients
1 carrot
2 small potato
1 chilli
half celery stick
sweet corn (left overs)
shallots (left overs)
half onion
garlic
Stock pot - the new ones :-p

Directions
1. Dice
2. Saute onion, garlic and chilli
3. Water (1 kettle (1.5L))
4. Ingredients
5. Stock pot
6. ???????
7. Profit

Things I would do differently
No chilli, the chilli floats to the top and is dangerous, use paprika instead
More potato, the potato goes MIA but that could be the type of potato
More celery just use the whole stick
Don't get the stock pot, just get oxo cubes or similar like I was supposed to.
Some fresh herbs would not go astray.

It tastes nice, clean, clear and simple no unnecessary sugars, should keep until I recover.

Cost
All ingrediants except the celery ($1.50) and stock pots ($3.50) were already in the fridge so basically free.

Computer upgrades

2011-06-17T12:31:00.001+10:00

So I'm sitting here doing a bit of window shopping as is my normal routine when sick. First I started out by looking at a complete overhaul, i5 to i7 and a a new GPU etc. Thankfully I realised that is a stupid idea and I could spend some money else where, eg SSD or UPS which are two things I really want (apart from an iPad). The problem with the SSD is the small capacity and the fact it gives me a headache thinking about how to install all the programs and games etc on two separate hdd, which is the suck.

So now I am onto UPS, which is making more sense as I read into it. Basically everyone needs one.

Calculate how much power you need

PC 750
Monitor 100
Modem 10
Router 10
External HDD 20
Total 890
+20% = 1068

These figures are quite rough as I guessed. So for my computer I am going to need something quite powerful. For the HTPC I have worked out it is drawing about 230w, but I'm pretty sure I put a 650w PSU in it. In any case I just need it to last maybe 5 mins while I switch the power back on in the box.

i have teh flu

2011-06-17T11:11:00.000+10:00

I'm sick and bored. This is my third day off work which should be cause for a spontaneous celebration. Currently drinking weak ribena with warm water.

Boredom is not always good, as it can lead to various forms of fire or stop start lego annimations.

Fucking campers

2011-04-22T13:17:00.002+10:00

Tune for Two

2011-04-09T13:39:00.002+10:00

Describe a recent A'ah! moment

2011-04-06T21:45:00.001+10:00

This morning I discovered that it may in fact be beneficial to wake up earlier in the day. This is not a new idea/thought. Just something that has required a significant amount of convincing, a few/most of the people I work with get up early. But not normal early, but when its still dark early. For me, its the opposite, if I get to bed before the sunrises, I consider that an early night.

Alarm Clock Postmortem

2011-04-05T22:00:00.000+10:00

The alarm clock has been off for a week or so. Has my world of order and timeliness crumbled. Yes. But also no.

Despite the fact I have no external alarm clock other than my sleepy self, I have managed to get to work on time. I just don't mean on time I mean early to work. Proof of this was found on Sunday morning, I stayed up till 4am watching India complete its victory, then proceeded to catch the ferry to straddie at 7:55am.

This is more the cold turkey approach, rather than going to bed early, I go to bed when I am tied. Which is around 11:00. Then I reach conciousness around 5:30 but don't actually get out of bed till 6:30 on account of my laziness.

Which brings me to a conclusion which does not fit any of the hypotheses. If you want to get up early you have to get out of bed. The body/mind is capable of getting you to the point where you should be out of bed (the same is true of an alarm clock), but you still have to actually get out of bed. For me this has/is the hardest part of the exercise. I will happily lye in my bed for a good hour, being frustrated, then get up and do something productive, potentially easing those frustrations.

2011-03-31T21:13:00.000+10:00

I recently signed up for LinkedIn, which is a type of professional facebook. One interesting thing is that it is a subscription based model. There is advertising, and there are probably people trying to sell their wares on the forums or direct to people. But the cost of the subscription is not small. $20 per month.... I can get hardcore pornography for less than that. Extra things you get if you pay are things like being able to save profiles, view extended information. Which should realistically be included if they don't want a similar site to start up and taking all their users (say even facebook itself).

I have signed up to a few CPA/accounting forums and I even scored a contact which makes me feel less of a loner.

The Final...

2011-03-30T21:05:00.001+10:00

Thank fully India made it through to the final. I stayed up till 3am listening to the radio, so would have been a significant loss if, they, lost...

I did try to goto sleep and figure I can get the result in the morning, but that wasn't going to happen as I need to know what was going on.

(tenth post of the year)

Alarm Clock

2011-03-29T23:21:00.027+10:00

We had a power failure about a week ago and consequently my alarm clock needed to be set to the correct time. The clock it self does have a 9v battery as a backup, but never seems to provide any sort of backup to the clock in the event of such a power failure. The power failure we are talking about is about 1-2 minutes. The time it takes me to reset the safety switch after overloading the circuit with my dodgy electrical work.

Since that time, my clock has been flashing away at the incorrect time, however I have still managed to get up on time and since I have a wrist watch, its not my primary time keeper. The proposed idea is if I can go without my alarm clock.

The Bad

Get up late
Late for work
not knowing what time it is in the middle of the night
no morning music/news

The Good

Personal responsibility to get up/have enough rest
training my self to getup at a certain time
freedom from the constraint of arbitrary time measurement
less light interference
less electromagnetic interference
less electricity expense
less clutter on my desk

I am going to unplug my alarm clock tonight and will hopefuly have something positive to report back on this experience.

Who Deserves More Credit

2011-02-18T21:43:00.000+10:00

Name someone who deserves more credit than they get. And for bonus points, how to change things so they get more.

I sat for 5 minutes thinking of people I know that would need more credit. I drew a blank, then thought about my selft.... Maybe I need more credit. Alas I could not think of a single reason why even I should receive more credit despite my work with the poor and pursuits in science (sarcasm).

The Lazy Blogger Returns

2011-02-16T22:11:00.000+10:00

I promised a post a day in 2011 and I failed withing 6 days. I had some good momentum, but that probably wasn't enough.

So, I'm going to try again and without trying to sound too over ambitious I will finish this year with 365 posts. I thought about backdating them all, but that would be cheating.

Talk or Text

2011-01-07T07:47:00.000+10:00

Texting vs Talking

Talking is a lot quicker, instant feedback, less stuffing around, no chance to create BS.

Texting can spread a converstation over a number of days, ability to make BS.

2011-01-06T01:17:00.000+10:00

Smile

2011-01-05T00:25:00.000+10:00

Later today you are going to do something, something you don't know about yet.
Yet somehow, it's already happened. Somehow, it's already affected you.
Huh?

John Tenniel/Alice in Wonderland Did Alice know?

One of the most respected, senior and widely published professors of psychology, Daryl Bem of Cornell, has just published an article that suggests that people — ordinary people — can be altered by experiences they haven't had yet. Time, he suggests, is leaking. The Future has slipped, unannounced, into the Present. And he thinks he can prove it.
Already critics are jumping up and down, saying this can't be, time is not porous, the experiments are flawed. But because this is the Professor Daryl Bem (he's in your high school textbook for his work on self perception) and because the journal publishing his article is top-of-the-line rigorous, all over the world psychologists are trying to duplicate what Dr. Bem has done. If serious scientists can repeat his results, this story is going to be big.

NPR

Paper

Best Accomplisment of 2010

2011-01-04T00:19:00.002+10:00

Best accomplishment of 2010 would have to be completing 3 subjects and all of my mentoring to be able to apply for my full CPA status.

Three Countries

2011-01-02T00:06:00.000+10:00

List three countries you’d like to visit, and why you want to go.

Egypt - Pyramids and sharks
New Zealand - The Scenary
Kenya - Safari

Wordpress Daily/weekly Blog Challenge

2011-01-01T23:45:00.002+10:00

The CHallenge

Post Daily for 2011

To help they will be posting up some topics to make it easier to write.

The Why

Because last year has been a lot about consumption of content, and I need to work on a few things and this will be one of the ways I am going to be able to achieve that.

The Pledge

I’ve decided I want to blog more. Rather than just thinking about doing it, I’m starting right now. I will be posting on this blog once a day for all of 2011.

I know it won’t be easy, but it might be fun, inspiring, awesome and wonderful. Therefore I’m promising to make use of The DailyPost, and the community of other bloggers with similiar goals, to help me along the way, including asking for help when I need it and encouraging others when I can.

If you already read my blog, I hope you’ll encourage me with comments and likes, and good will along the way.

Signed,

Bean Counting...

Never say no to Panda!

2010-11-13T16:00:00.000+10:00

corn It is growning

2010-11-07T21:21:00.002+10:00

Day in Review

2010-11-06T10:58:00.000+10:00

How did you feel when you woke up - peircing sunlight

What did you have for breakfast -Redbull

What did you have for lunch -Chicken Ceaser Sandwich

What did you have for dinner -What mum cooked

Did you workout/exercise, how was it. if not why - I did not exercise as I am a fat slob

What interesting people did you meet today? What did you talk about? -

What did you do today that was ill advised -Tried to analysie a phone bill

What was the best music you heard all day - ABC classic FM

What was the best moment of the day - Driving home from work

Word of the day -

What did you learn today -It doesnt matter if I forget something as its highly likely that I have written it down, or thought about it in the past already. Don't need to do the work again...

First Post

2010-11-05T23:36:00.000+10:00

First

feelings down? I got the cure...

2010-11-04T19:47:00.000+10:00

Lets try this

2010-09-30T20:58:00.000+10:00

For some reason this picture made me laugh.

2010-09-29T23:31:00.000+10:00

Corn

2010-09-26T14:36:00.001+10:00

I have started growing some corn, because corn on the cob after being roasted on a bbq is awesome.

A.M.L.E.E.T.

2010-09-22T23:50:00.000+10:00

A lot of my early posts refer to my unfulfilled leet status. Why do I blog now,. \ to get status in the fact that i can dribble shit for a very long period of time,. I am leet in accounting? I am leet in computers?

WTF!><&$%!@@?

First Post

2010-09-22T23:36:00.001+10:00

First

2010-09-22T22:52:00.000+10:00

I have been trying to restart my blog recently, but there have been a few thoughts about what I should write. But mostly its about how I write. Not my grammar, speeling etc. But who might read this, employers, coworkers, family, friends, enemies, the government, clients, extraterrestrial beings, the list goes on...

The fear that what I written could be used by someone to deprive me of an opportunity because they may not agree with what I have written. The same goes for twitter, facebook etc.

Some places you can hide because its not necessary to identify your true self. But on twitter facebook etc you have to. Its a way to connect with IRL people.

I just went back to look at my very first post for this blog (or should I say weblog... as it was that long ago). It is about developing the technology and actually using the technology. I do not delve into programing much these days unless its work related. From what I recall (the vagaries of the mind will make the following statement incorrect) most of my blog posts related to my trying to do something and other random cool shit. Not all of it PC. Which makes it potential fodder for 'special interest groups'...

the mere thought of a threat has put the blog on permanent hiatus. And as one of the things that I have enjoyed doing in the past, ignoring the threats with the old fuck off if you don't like it attitude is sure to win back my own heart.

A statement of things, what I'm going to do etc is probably the worst thing to start off with. But it atleast gets things started and a review of this blog will show there are many...

I have no secrets.wmv

2010-09-06T23:32:00.001+10:00

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucNWPfFMlZk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Fixing Shit

2010-09-04T17:29:00.000+10:00

Reasonalby productive day, didn't get a chance to mow the lawn but did complete the following tasks:

bike is now road worthy, took it for a spin around the block. This is definatly going to help with the exercise.
Fixed the plug for the stab mixer. Need to find the hot glue gun to stop the wire from being so loose
Fixed the plugs that have fallen off the walls, more double sided tape used to keep them up... not really long term solution, but just a bit scared of drilling holes into power board then attaching them to the wall with screws. Probably an easier solution I'm not aware of just yet. Need to do some research
Started testing sync programs to establish some sort of backup regime. I hate proprietary file containers. Much prefer just having the files naked on a drive. Just syncing the documents folders which is where all the important data is kept.
Probably some other shit I can't remember. Going to have a shower then think about doing some study... kinda need to at least make a start

Small vs Large Proprietary Company

2010-09-03T14:36:00.000+10:00

Are you a small or large proprietary company? You need to satisfy at least two of the following:

Consolidated Revenue

Small <$25 Million> Large

Consolidated Assets

Small <$12.5Million> Large

Employees

Small <50> Large

Batteries

2010-09-01T22:26:00.002+10:00

I have for a long time tried to implement rechargeable batteries into the household. The main problem is that at times its a pain to wait for the battery to charge, then you forget about it, then you just end up buying normal batteries as its more convenient. The second problem is that rechargeable have in the past, not been consistent. After a few charge cycles the power would just not be there and the predictability of when one might need the power wont be there.

Enter the Maha MH-C9000

Its a battery charger that costs $90 (not including postage (I ended up spending close to $150 in total as I bought new rechargeable batteries to go with it))

The cost of buying batteries is a pain. I will probably keep a few regular batteries on hand for emergencies, but on the whole will be replacing everything with rechargeable. The cost of recharging is negligible so its mainly the cost of the equipment. I do like using the energizer e2 lithium in my torch/flash light as they are lighter then alkaline and rechargeable and they have a lot of power, no power drop off and last for ages (currently have a single AA in a Fenix that has been going for the last 3 years), torches are a different type of device and when in use require a constant but high load... once my stash of e2's run out I will be using rechargeables for my torches as well.

I already have a recharger that I purchased from dick smith about 7 years ago for $30. I was thinking of getting a fast charger, but the more research I did the clearer it became that quick charging is actually a bad idea and will ruin your batteries.

Devices

Remotes x4x2=8
Salt & Pepper = 8
Torches = 4
Keyboard & Mouse = 4
Total = 24 batteries in use

I have over the years purchased rechargeables so the batteries (appart from the ones I purchased with the charger, should not cost me anything.

On to the charger, why this charger. Basicly it is capable of bringing battery back to life through cycling through charging and discharging based on fancy electronics. It will analyse each battery individualy and program it self to best suit each battery. My old rechargables that cost $5 each (about the same cost as e2) can now be brought back to life. Also all charges from now on will be to the batteries full potential and I will not have to keep charging them because they are in a bad condition.

Drawbacks: As I said before I was looking at fast chargers, but that was wrong. The problem now is the break in/bring back to life feature takes 38 hours to complete (2 days (based on the minimum number of cycles)). So its going to take a while for me to get all my batteries in order.

I would like to implement this solution at work to reduce the cost of buying batteries every month, but I cant see how people will be able to wait 2 days to get batteries, you can obviously just have a few extra sets on charge.

Hopefully this will work out. My only other fear is my idiot family will throw away my rechargeable if they stop working and replace with regular batteries.

Links
Nice write up of why some people dont like rechargables, also check the other posts for more info
MH-C9000

2010-09-01T18:59:00.000+10:00

OpenHeatMap demo

2010-08-31T20:40:00.000+10:00

2010-08-31T13:05:00.000+10:00

2010-08-31T12:59:00.000+10:00

FTW

2010-08-31T10:20:00.002+10:00

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Nike Emo":

This post reminds me about the old days of good blogging. If you can please visit my site [url=http://kitchencheap.co.uk/]kitchen cheap[/url]

It might be just advertising but thats how we roll.

Magnetic pen

2010-08-26T22:56:00.001+10:00

Put small round magnets in bottom of pen. Will then stick to fridge.

- Posted from the field

Normal Service

2010-08-26T14:38:00.000+10:00

Normal service will now resume, which won't be helpful, but is a necessary sacrifice against the evils of social media.

Calculator

2010-08-24T20:32:00.000+10:00

Ol Skool. You need to chk dis shit

one hundred and eight

2010-08-09T19:49:00.000+10:00

One Handed Calculator

2010-08-09T18:58:00.002+10:00

Picture would be nice. But I can't work it out (lazy) so just imagine a mobile phone with its sole purpose of being a calculator

Business Card that turns into a box

2010-06-19T13:59:00.000+10:00

2010-06-16T16:54:00.000+10:00

2010-06-12T10:52:00.001+10:00

Input Devices

2010-06-10T15:18:00.000+10:00

The case situation is not progressing as they all look crap and cost more than the cosmos, so fuck that.

The input situation is looking a bit better. Here are the contenders

Keyboard: Logitech DiNovo Edge
Mouse: Logitech Air
Remote: Logitech Harmony One

As you can see I like logitech and infact I have a fair bit of Logitech kit already. However the reason for this is they are the best in each of the catagories.

The DiNovo edge is wafer thin, looks awesome so it wont mess up the 'look' of the lounge room and has a built in track pad so no need for a mouse when surfing the internets from the couch. I could have gone with a smaller keyboard such as the DiNovo Mini, but that would make typing difficult, but for general search and small amounts of input I can see how that could work. It also has more media buttons.

The Air mouse is quite simply an engineering marvel. It does not use IR, but very accurate gyroscopes. The fact that its 2 mice in one is also very cool as you can use it like a normal mouse but also wave it around like a Wiimote to control your computer. Fucking A.

The Harmony One is IR only (no RF, you need the 900 or the 1100 for that) but it has one click functions. So say you want to watch a movie on the HTPC it turns on the and goes to the settings required (picks the input) and turns off devices not required. It also has a docking station to keep it charged up.

I haven't actually purchased these items as yet so will do a full review when I get them. But these are my current choices. The Air mouse is overkill, but its the only situation I can think of to buy one in and I really really want one (check YouTube for some awsome vids).

What not to eat at your desk

2010-06-10T15:15:00.000+10:00

Do not attempt to eat pistacios over your desk, as it will create an aweful big mess and your kyborad will become littered with pistacios particles (PP), significantly reducing the efficiency of key strokes,

HTPC

2010-06-03T17:30:00.000+10:00

I have decided that it is time to make a home theatre PC. Not that I have a hometheater, far from it, as can be evidenced by the SD plasma and PS2 running as the DVD player.

In any case I want to be able to watch TV on the couch. The second reason is my gigantic case is actually running out of room and I need another computer to stash some more storage space into.

I have done a lot of research and have decided on intel because its going to be cooler and therefore need less fans, better sound and they just 'feel' more reliable than AMD's.

Proposed Parts:

Intel i3 530 $140
Gigabyte H55M-S2H $100
Corsair Select Value DDR3 1x2gb $70
WD 2TB green $180
Wifi Card $45

All this will cost me around $500, which is a good starting budget, I know these sorts of projects tend to get quite costly over the long run so I don't want to blow my budget on the initial purchase.

I was going to put all my HDD in the one box, but then realised that running 10+HDD whilst trying to watch a movie is not going to work. So I will need to build a server, which I will build after setting up the HTPC.

To save some money I will initially use some old parts:

Case
PSU
DVD drive
HDD

At the beginning I am going to use an old wired Keyboard & Mouse, obviously I will need to purchase a wireless set and a remote. Having looked into the items that I desire this is going to cost me an additional $500 on input devices alone. So I will have to work out their importance and buy them in that order.

I think the first major upgrade will have to be the case as I suspect my Mum in particular will be dissatisfied with having a noisy beige box sitting in the lounge room. There is no budget for the case as its going to be the ‘face’ of the show and is what will sell the idea.

I realise its going cost a lot of money but once setup it will be pretty awesome and hopefully should last quite a while.

Change Experiment

2010-06-03T09:47:00.001+10:00

$934.89

E-Tax 2009

2010-05-30T16:34:00.001+10:00

This direct link because going through the million fucking links from the ATO is annoying

http://www.ato.gov.au/content/downloads/etax2009/etax2009_1.msi

2010-05-29T23:45:00.001+10:00

"CORPORATE OCCULT" Huoratron Music Video from Cédric BLAISBOIS on Vimeo.

Crazy Watch

2010-05-23T01:28:00.001+10:00

12seconds - Crazy watch http://tiny12.tv/4WH3V

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

2010-04-14T21:55:00.001+10:00

2010-03-27T16:46:00.001+10:00

3pm Photo Project

2010-03-26T14:51:00.003+10:00

3pm Photo Project

2010-03-26T14:51:00.002+10:00

3pm Photo Project

2010-03-24T14:54:00.001+10:00

3pm Photo Project

2010-03-23T17:59:00.001+10:00

3pm Photo Project

2010-03-22T15:49:00.001+10:00

3pm Photo Project

2010-03-19T14:59:00.001+10:00

3pm Photo Project

2010-03-18T15:17:00.002+10:00

3pm Photo Project

2010-03-17T16:05:00.000+10:00

3pm Photo Project

2010-03-16T16:03:00.000+10:00

2010-03-06T19:08:00.001+10:00

Day in Review

2010-03-02T10:06:00.000+10:00

How did you feel when you woke up - Like cement

What did you have for breakfast - Sausage Roll

What did you have for lunch - Turkey Sandwich

What did you have for dinner - Fish

Did you workout/exercise, how was it. if not why - No, had more pressing matters to attend to

What interesting people did you meet today? What did you talk about? - Mothra, I will destroy your kind if you come near my computer again.

What did you do today that was ill advised - Using too many moth balls

What was the best music you heard all day - ABC classic FM

What was the best moment of the day - Watch people complain about the rain

Word of the day - super

What did you learn today - Do not stock pile paper as it can lead to moth infestation.

Brain dump

2010-02-25T09:30:00.002+10:00

Setting up new blog for your projects should be a good idea. Its separate to your personal crap and there is a real focus on a project. I have been thinking about setting up a new blog to talk about new things I have learned, but at the same time, what’s the point. Why can’t it all be in one place. As with most unread blog there is no real audience, friends, family and the random search link, nothing to really worry about. We might do but they will understand. One example is 3 mosquitoes video junk we decided to make whilst drunk. This should have just been posted on our personal blog, another example is the daily, weekly review I have been trying to do. I started on wordpress just to see how that works, but its just a pain to post in 2 different places and the fact no one will ever find it, or the fact that anyone that does wont understand wtf is going on because there is no other context to explain what is happening.

Main purpose of this blog is a record for my self. Sure I could just save it in a word document or write it down. But it’s the future, or at least will be soon.

Weekend Review

2010-02-15T14:50:00.000+10:00

Most of the weekend I felt like I was in a haze and couldn't really focus or concentrate on anything for more than, well just could not think properly. Managed to get a few things done, but nothing that helps me, so another bunch of consecutive hours not going to work wasted. I did wash my car, but the bat shit is still stuck on real good. Going to clean it again tonight, also my car got scratched but was surprised that they waited around to tell me. Was shocked at the time, looks like its just paint so should just rub off. Just add it to the rest of the scratches. Which is the good thing about owning a crappy car, its already scratched up.

Subscribed to my podcasts through itunes now, so they auto update to my ipod and delete them as I play them is a really cool feature.

Digging a hole is fun, but also a lot of hard work and for my level of fitness/strength I am still a little sore, but that could be because it was so hot last night I could not sleep.

Reviews

2010-02-04T09:41:00.001+10:00

At the end of last year as is normal at that time I decided to review what I had done throughout the year. The problem I faced was that I could not remember that far back or get a good enough grasp of things to make an accurate assessment of whether it was good or bad. So I devised a system to record through standardised questions that I would answer daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, half year and then at the end of the year. By reviewing daily it should be easier to review weekly, are there any patterns etc. I could just blog daily but that's not the point of this particular exercise. I think my last post was a daily review, but was some weeks back now. It does not take long to do the daily review and with 7 days worth of data it should take the same amount of time to do a weekly review, just a matter of reading back.

I have left open the possibility of changing the questions as needed, I don't believe I am that smart as to predict what information I would need in the future, having never tested this sort of thing before (this is the test).

I want to have my current perspective preserved and not tainted by the future or the things I may learn along the way. DATA!

January 2010
As was the case last year I have no Idea what happened this month as I never wrote it down.... I have a sprained ankle which is annoying due to the fact I can only walk on it. I stopped eating cereal for some unknown reason most likely because I don't get up early enough and hence would be late for work. My electric toothbrush broke forcing me to switch back to regular toothbrush, its weird because the head is a lot bigger, unsure if it cleans better, probably the same. Bought a bookcase to rid my floor of unnecessary clutter. Its doing a fine job so far but need to organise my stationary better as it seems to be all over the place. Need to buy new shoes for work as they leak when it rains, the lopsided wear on my shoes could be contributing to my ankle problems

Day in Review

2010-02-03T23:30:00.000+10:00

How did you feel when you woke up - Shit

What did you have for breakfast - Nothing

What did you have for lunch - Crap Sandwich

What did you have for dinner - Stir Fry

Did you workout/exercise, how was it. if not why - No, feel like shit, did chores instead

What interesting people did you meet today? What did you talk about? - Work people, work stuff

What did you do today that was ill advised - loose a receipt for items that needed returning

What was the best music you heard all day - black betty

What was the best moment of the day - sitting on the ferry

Word of the day - edge

What did you learn today - the need to write everything down

Don't Buy Things While Drunk

2010-02-02T23:00:00.000+10:00

Today I recieved two packages in the mail. I do order quite a lot of shit from the internet and now have a personal relationship with my local courier (wish it was korea...), books from amazon, from my iphone (damn those semi usefull apps), which I purchased while half asleep after drinking my self to sleep. 2 books from Michael Pollan, Food Rules & In Defence of Food. Both goods books if you go from the reviews, but theses sorts of books I wish list as a reminder to look into their contents and research the infromation them selves.

Now I am stuck with them and will read them at some point in time, maybe tomorrow. I don't know.

But never buy things when drunk its wrong, imbarasing, weird (sex dolls...) and pointless.

You don't need anything,,,

Day in Reivew

2010-01-08T09:20:00.002+10:00

Day in review

How did you feel when you woke up - hungover

What did you have for breakfast - Croissant

What did you have for lunch - Croissant

What did you have for dinner - Tandori Chicken

Did you workout/exercise, how was it. if not why - No, tired

What interesting people did you meet today? What did you talk about? - I called someone on the internet a retard.

What did you do today that was ill advised - shave

What was the best music you heard all day - James Brown

What was the best moment of the day - Falling asleep

Word of the day - Asstounding

What did you learn today - How to setup ADSL

Billy

2010-01-04T14:00:00.000+10:00

The new bookshelf is up and in a semi permanant position. I am still unsure if I can live with the height of the shelf, but I consider it a compramise between visual asthetics and practical storage of books away from piles on the ground. I have manage to fit in the corner unit and the big shelf, leaving me with one small shelf which I am hoping will live in the study room. Many times I have considered building things my self so that it will fit exactly how I want it to. Maybe I just need to get better at measuring things.

2009-12-30T20:16:00.000+10:00

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

2009-12-30T19:31:00.000+10:00

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Lunch Experiment 2009

2009-12-23T13:13:00.000+10:00

Today was the last day for Lunch Experiment, all I can say is thank you to all the pigs, turkeys and fish that sacrificed them selves for the greater good. The final asking price for a sandwich was $4.85 with a remainder of food, total spent on food $63.05.

Food Remaining
1/2 Margarine
Lettuce
2/3 Cucumber
1.75 Cheese
3/4 Tomato
Mustard
50g Salami
50g Turkey

Wastage
1/2 Lettuce
100g Ham

The good stuff
Coles has the cheapest rolls ($0.45)
Coles has the best meat
Fresh sandwiches are awesome

The Bad Stuff
Coles rolls are too sweet, need to buy from the bakery @ $0.70
Buying things on special has ruined the experiment (see cheese)
Lack of knowledge on storing vegetables has lead to excessive wastage
Doing the same thing everyday is boring

Conclusion
Making sandwich at work is 117.73% and 99.31% cheaper than subway or driving home respectivly. In next years experiment my hope is to get it below $4.00 and incorporate some other types of food stuffs.

Sleep

2009-12-22T10:28:00.003+10:00

Sleep. I like it a lot. I normally sleep 9 to 10 hours a day for me to feel rested which is a bit higher than the usual 8 but most probably because it takes me 2 plus hours to fall asleep in the first place… The past week I have not been getting enough hours of sleep, due to a number of factors

1. its too hot
2. its too bright

I also like to spend time doing things and you cant do things if you are asleep. Conversely you don’t feel like doing anything the next day when you feel like the living dead., this cycle continues until I end up in the state I am in today. I am awake, but doing any work is very laborious and I feel very irritable.

Getting up early in the morning sounds like a great idea, get some exercise done, never late for work and not have to sleep when its too hot/bright. Going to try it out tonight/tomorrow. Hopefully can stick to the plan for then next 2 weeks and revaluate if it is worth getting up that early (when the sun comes up), or at least before it gets too bright/hot.

Lunch Update: $4.98 | One more day to go.

Real Taste, Zero Sugar

2009-12-21T16:52:00.000+10:00

I have some holidays coinciding with Christmas and my main fear is getting bored. So planning things to do is a way to ensure I don’t end up back at work next year with no cool stories to tell. The other reason is that over the past three months I have been very productive in generating ideas, but sadly nothing to show for it. By not doing anything I have nothing to show for my idea (good, bad or mediocre), inspiration is not always going to be there, but while it is, I need to use it and create the things I’m so happy to think about and hopefully anything I do create will inspire me to create something else, thus illuminating the need for outside stimuli. I will be a self combusting ball of awesome reversing the effects of man made climate change (thank me later).

The one thing I don’t want to do is evaluate the year gone by. I have a feeling it would be just plain depressing, so instead I’m going to set myself some goals for the holidays and will be considered a test run for my New Year resolution(s).

I was going to write a list of profound/inspirational goals that could be found in the great big book of inspiring goals, but what I would most like to do is catch up on things I have been putting off during the year that really needed doing, and if I had done them sooner I would not be wallowing in my own self-pity. I have 17 days and at the end of each of those days I want to be able to take a picture of something I have made.

I hate being disorganised; I also hate spending copious amounts of time organising. Obviously parts of the system are not working other wise I would not be disorganised. This will be fixed and will not only improve my state of mind; I should get some professional benefit out of it.
I need a bookshelf. I have some wood, I will turn this wood into a bookshelf (or drive to Ikea and pretend I made it myself)
Coal fired BBQ. Fuck global warming. I want my meat cooked on fuel that requires more than a turning a button to ignite.
Read a book, I have numerous books that I have bought or borrowed but never got around to reading them, same goes for those magazine articles I tagged (not playboy).
There are number of new developments in the world of accounting, generally there is only a change in the wording, but you still got to read it to make sure there is nothing fundamental (and pickup the new words to put in your documentation), should probably blog about it. But there is always the fear your are wrong on the Internet and someday, someone, somewhere will use it against you.
Trebunchent – The wood that could be used to make a bookshelf could also be turned into a siege weapon
Make/get a frame for my flaming lips lithograph
HTPC/Server – Watching a movie on the TV is significantly better than watching at my desk
VM’s for everything. Also need to delete the old ones taking up a crap load of space
Complete the organisation of my tax notes, cheat sheets, flow charts & guides
Make a sunjar, these look much cooler than the crappy plastic light sticks you put in the ground
Learn to play the keyboard – I have a keyboard that is collecting dust, time to turn that dust into magical space dust. Find out what that strange instrument in the garage is and make it do musics.
Build a new website – less magic, more collate. Hopefully blogger can still help, if not going to switch to wordpress because it has pages
New food stuffs, pizza, pie, quiche, potato bake, jelly,
Have fun, regain some confidence, fuck shit up (lolz couldn’t resist).

Bean Counting...

Resolutions

What to Track

2011: The Year In Review

Christmas 2011

Pick a Platform

Be Happy

Wallet

No Money for a week

A poem about how to be alone

Speech recognition

Soup for one

Computer upgrades

i have teh flu

Fucking campers

Tune for Two

Describe a recent A'ah! moment

Alarm Clock Postmortem

LinkedIN

The Final...

Alarm Clock

Who Deserves More Credit

The Lazy Blogger Returns

Talk or Text

Smile

Best Accomplisment of 2010

Three Countries

Wordpress Daily/weekly Blog Challenge

Never say no to Panda!

corn It is growning

Day in Review

First Post

feelings down? I got the cure...

Lets try this

Corn

A.M.L.E.E.T.

First Post

I have no secrets.wmv

Fixing Shit

Small vs Large Proprietary Company

Batteries

OpenHeatMap demo

FTW

Magnetic pen

Normal Service

Calculator

one hundred and eight

One Handed Calculator

Business Card that turns into a box

Input Devices

What not to eat at your desk

HTPC

Change Experiment

E-Tax 2009

Crazy Watch

3pm Photo Project

3pm Photo Project

3pm Photo Project

3pm Photo Project

3pm Photo Project

3pm Photo Project

3pm Photo Project

3pm Photo Project

3pm Photo Project

Day in Review

Brain dump

Weekend Review

Reviews

Day in Review

Don't Buy Things While Drunk

Day in Reivew

Billy

Lunch Experiment 2009

Sleep

Real Taste, Zero Sugar