Time Off Work For S3x

No its not a typo. A ring of 1300 international companies have gathered together to try and come up with solutions to the global crunch, skyrocketing overtime claims and the alarmingly low birthrate in Japan.

Japans birthrate is 1.34, according to the Ministry of Health, which is way below their ideal rate of 2.0. The birthrate has been so low for so long in fact that the average age in Japan is the ripe old age of 65!

High demands on the Japanese market has meant that the average business day spans up to 12 hrs so going home 'early' for them, is around 5.30pm. Earlier closing times mean more (or at least SOME) time with families or more time to make them in this case. Companies have already praised the scheme as it has resulted in happier employees which will hopefully mean they um..........er...........are 'happier' at home too.

UK Stig Unveiled?

It’s amazing that in a world where knowledge is power, everything is being explained, mystery is being removed and the everyday person knows more about Prince Harry than their own family - we can’t just let 1 small bit of fun get through.

For years The Stig has been the mystery racing driver that takes 2 cars a week over the Top Gear test track near Dunsfold Park in Surrey, UK. The idea is if the same driver is used everytime, good or bad, it should be a fair way to judge the speed and handling of the latest supercar to grace our fantasies. For reasons unknown to this blogger, the driver’s identity was to remain anonymous. He/It was called the Stig which derived from Clarkson’s childhood where all freshmen at his school were dubbed 'Stig'.

Originally The Stig wore a black suit/black helmet and managed to keep his identity to himself until 2002 (start of season 3) when he outed himself in his own biography! To make the transition, the now dubbed Black Stig was 'killed off' and the White Stig was born.

As the name suggests he wore all white and has managed to keep his identity secret, possibly, throughout season 3 -> 12. I say possibly cos how would you know if he changed every year?!? There have been many rumours about his identity with most high street publications having a crack at the title, pardon the pun. The most common answer is that there are a few 'Stigs' with Julian Bailey, Damon Hill, Tim Schrick and Russ Swift all being brought to the table. All of these however, were ultimately based on guesswork.

The latest in Top Gear merchandising genius was an official T-Shirt with the words 'I Am The Stig' printed on the front. Every petrolhead and greasemonkey on the planet wanted one and faster than you can blurt out "That chick's topless!" they were sold out. They even setup a stunt whereby the Stig 'accidentally' removed his helmet after an event in Belgium. It was promptly announced that the Stig was Tim Schrick!!!!! ah, lets all breathe a sigh of relief. The BBC were quick to say Ha Ha Got Ya' it’s not him which sparked more controversy because no one knew if it was a trick or not.

After reading a couple of articles today, it seems the Stig has been unveiled - for rool - this time. It was announced by the Telegraph that the Stig is Ben Collins (not Cousins) who background is in NASCAR, LeMans and Formula 3 racing.

I can’t help but think this is yet another ploy as the circumstances of his outage are sketchy at best. Apart from being a suspect for a number of years, all he did was go into a Bristol gallery and arrange a limited edition print of the Stig in action...So What! Also a geezer went to his house once and the Stig uniform was in a display case.......yes a DISPLAY CASE! Are you trying to tell me that the person kept secret for 5-6 years has it openly on display? What’s got my spider sense tingling even more is when you go to http://www.topgear.com/uk or http://www.topgear.com/au they are plastered with Who is the Stig? Stig Revealed? Stig-mata? OK not stigmata but you get the drift.

A true outage or another publicity stunt in the off season? You decide

Guitar Hero On Tour - Literally

Just when you thought they couldn't possibly release any more Guitar Hero games. Yes, its Guitar Hero 2 the keyring. Carve up your daily commute with this uber-portable axe that will...........sigh, I just cant!

Seriously did anyone buy Guitar Hero for the Nintendo DS? The kids in the ad looks like complete tools so how in the world to they expect to get a following for these glorified Tetris gadgets? Call me crazy but isn't the appeal of the game the fact that your holding a Guitar and thinking you're a Hero?

Cant see any way of squeezing a head phone jack in that thing so not only are you a freak, you'll be lucky to get off the train at all without being kicked in a soft place.

If I haven't convinced you and your passion for keyring gadgets is so great that you must have one of these. They are available from BaronBob for bugger all + postage from the US. Songs are:

ZZ Top: Sharp Dressed man Ramones: I Wanna Be Sedated Kansas: Carry On wayward Son Motorhead: Ace of Spades Joan Jett: I Love Rock & Roll Kinks: You Really Got Me

Together with the Guitar Hero 1 keyring which has:

Smoke on the Water You've Got Another Thing Coming Message in a Bottle Cherry Pie Killer Queen Heart Shaped Box

You'll be the king of your own lunchbox.

CSI Google

In Moraga, California a man was convicted of hit-and-run after he claimed he thought he'd just hit a deer.

An in depth investigation let police to the home of Lee Harbert after finding debris at the scene including the hoot ornament from his sparkling clean black XJ6 Jaguar. After a forensic analysis of his vehicle, an earring of the victim was found beneath the wiper and it was confirmed that this was in fact the vehicle involved in the incident.

Mr Harbet claimed he had no idea what he had hit and as police were initially looking for a red/burgundy Jaguar he assumed it was a separate incident and did not come forward.

As the examiners dug a little deeper, Mr Harbets computer revealed the truth. Amongst many recent Google searches were "auto glass reporting requirements to law enforcement," "auto glass, Las Vegas", "auto parts", "auto theft" and even "Moraga Police Department hit-and-run", which took him to the site asking for information on the incident.

When asked why he was so keen to get the car fixed out of state, Mr Harbet claimed he already knew his local Jaguar dealer didn't do bodywork/windscreens and he had no knowledge of the other searches on his PC.

He was convicted and sentenced to 3 years.

I had a quick dig online and apparently this is more common than you might think. There have been at least 2 prominent cases solved by Google. One was a wireless hacker who searched for "how to broadcast interference over WiFi 2.4 GHZ" and the other was a murderer who searched for "decomposition of a body in water" before disposing of the body in....you guessed it.....water.

Clear your history everyone or perhaps just stop killing people.

Bubble O' Booze

According to the good people of news.com.au a convicted Victorian drink-driver was able to have his alcohol interlock device removed from his vehicle because of icecream.

In Australia, repeat drink-drivers cars can be been fitted with a device that requires you to blow a 0.00 reading before allowing you to start them. Despite not waiting the required 15 mins after eating or drinking, this motorist took his case to court to have the device removed because he claimed that it was inaccurate and therefore pointless after blowing a positive reading due to a Bubble O' Bill.

As there was no real way to determine if it was true or not, the magistrate ordered a breathaliser and ice cold Bubble O from the local deli over the road. Sure enough he blew a 0, took 3 bites and then blew a 0.018 which would have been enough for him to be stranded at the roadside.

Victoria has one of the worlds largest active vehicle interlock programs. Despite their controversy, its claimed that "Thousands of trips where someone might have driven under the influence of alcohol have been prevented from interlock devices."

After all that, don't you just want to go and get one? Especially on a nice summers day like today.

Nintendo Quilt?

I am fairly confident that none of you guys like Nintendo's Zelda or Mario as much as this dude.

The first pic is a wide map of Hyrule from Zelda - A Link To The Past from the SNES which was voted the number one game ever made when it was released and is still voted in the top 50 to this day. The second is of course the first level map of Super Mario (3 I believe?).

If you have seen either of these pictures on your television screen you should notice they are pixel-perfect down to every detail which is either a credit to the stitcher or further proof that he (its gotta be a he!) firmly belongs in the nearest secure institution where he will probably get to know Mario and his whole family alot better.

I don't think id be surprised if he has/has had a bizarre attraction to Princess Peach too! CUCKOO

Honda Puyo

Yet another funky little car came rolling across my desk this morning, meet Puyo.

Puyo is a concept car from Honda and it was built for the Tokyo Motor Show. The name loosely translates to the need to touch and as it was built for the theme "For the endless joy of mobility on our earth" it seems to fit quite nicely. Puyo has no external edges, all super smooth lines and as the name suggests, it just begs to be touched.

The interior is pure Apollo 13 and with the single side door, it appears to be roomy while I expect that its a tiny little puppy out on the open road. It's controlled by a joystick, futuristic touch instrument panel and appears to have non of the mod cons that consumers think they need. Its pure, minimalistic, A-B, people moving fun.

Under the hood? it features ultra-high efficiency, a small frame and is powered by fuel cell technology to please both users and onlookers alike. The headlights are backed up by a luminous hue that covers the car after nightfall which gives it a glo-worm on wheel look. It also features 4 wheel steering and can turn 360 degrees on the spot. Very impressive.

While I doubt it will ever be tearing up your nearest motorway, I think this car is a great example of outside the box, looking like a box technology - if that's even a thing.

Fill Your AA With PP

Good lord its not a joke!

These batteries are able to convert energy from a number of general waste liquids into a small charge capable of powering a very low demand device like a clock, remote control or small radio.

Inside each NoPoPo battery is a combination of magnesium and carbon that generate electricity when mixed with certain fluids. According to the manufacturers site, the batteries can be filled with urine, beer, tea, saliva and a ton of other general, everyday household substances. Ewww

I don't know if its the geek in me but the first thing I thought of was the possible reality of MrFusion. MrFusion was the white appliance on the engine of the Back To The Future (2) DeLorean that emulated the 1.21GigaWatts of power required to activate the flux capacitor and travel though time. (Damn that's a good movie!) It was fuelled by.................well.......crap! from Marty's rubbish bins.

Pardon the pun but in the future could we be seeing piss tanks all over the place for refuelling your new ultra green hybrid car? Or just the usual piss tanks around seedy bars, universities and our place? Perhaps, Perhaps..Perhaps

Google Tube?

In my regular random internet surfing today I noticed that Google have added a nice little feature to their mapping package.

You now have an option to show Transit on any map. Im not sure what extent it goes to or what cities are covered but its bound to spread like wildfire when people get on it.

When travelling around it will be much easier to tell if its worth getting the tube or just hitting the pavement - old school. Especially London cos a ton of the stations are really really close together and its just as fast to walk and not pay the squillion squid fare.

Peace Out Players

Moke -> Minicraft

Sorry for the second Moke posting in a few days but I just cant help it.

This morning the Moke made its way over to Minicraft for its complete overhaul. Ive held back and haven't spoken to them yet cos I think I'm a little too anxious. Deep breaths have been required all day today and luckily its been quite busy here in the cubicle so my mind has been occupied by work, at least during the business hours.

Got bugger all sleep last night which is normal for me before a large planned occurrence. Strange how i wasn't surprised at all this time, must be getting old. Ive put it down to a combination of butterflies, stress and excitement. The ratios vary from event to event but this time it was an even level of all three.

Anyway, its Paddo night tonight so bring on the 141. My turn to drink so bring THAT on too. : )

Will post again tomorrow if the butterflies haven't taken over.

P.S. The Moke needs a name! Open to all ideas people so lets here em.

Child Tracker 4000

Ok, it isn't called the Child Tracker 4000 but this new device from nu.m8 is exactly that.

The idea is definitely a good one and most good ideas are simple: wear watch, track kid. The 2 immediate uses that come to mind are to make sure they are where they SAY they are and as word spread it could become known to 'kid'nappers etc and in my opinion, anything of a plus in that area is excellent. The tracking is done via the manufacturers site and id imagine you'll have to pay a monthly fee to keep tabs on the rugrat.

Essentially, next birthday you surprise little Tommy, Billy, *insert name here* with a braaaaand neeeew watch! WOW, Thanks Dad, you're the best. Now we all know what the first thing is that kids do with a new toy....show their friends. I'm guessing one of the will know about this little company called Google. Once the watch is Googled the name calling and teasing begins :(

I suppose for kids that are around 4-7 this wouldn't be as much of a problem but any older and they're likely to leave it at home. In the wild, if the watch is removed, battery dies or the signal is lost in any way, the site will email you so you know that somethings up.

In any case, its great to see these new devices come into the market as an actual product, not just a concept - Kudos on that nu.m8. Honestly don't think it will be that long before we all start chipping each other, we all forget to upgrade our virus definitions and are all infected with smiley spyware that pops up in front of your eyes at random times.

Ah the future!

Moking Is Not A Wealth Hazard

As some of you know and some of you don't, Ive had a fetish for Mini Mokes for around 20 years and in August one came up in Perth relatively cheaply that I was able to snavvle up.

The reason it was cheap is because the previous owner decided against putting oil in it and the engine subsequently seized. With this in mind I decided against trying to start it when I looked at the car, just incase he was completely clueless and it wasn't seized at all. When we got it home, after some squirting and hammering, we got it started!

While it now ran, it sounded very sick and it was obvious that the lack of oil had caused terminal damage to the components. We ran a compression test and none of the cylinders were great but there was no bottom end noise which was a good sign. In the spirit of 'I cant make it any worse' I removed the head and saw that all the valves weren't seated properly and if I can tell, that's an indication of how bad they were! There was also remnants of 2 head gaskets, one of the valves was missing a piece and it generally looked like crap! haha.

This was actually a good sign because if I could get away with just doing a head rebuild, it would work out much cheaper to get back on the road. So I took the head in for surgery with the radiator cos it happened to have a little leak. After a week, got it all back, put it all together...............and.................white smoke. DOH

Drove it around for about a week and up to Minicraft for them to take a look. Still not making bottom end noise but after some tests, we confirmed the smoke was due to the rings, Oh-O. Drove it home, around the traps a little and sure enough, after about 20kms, the bottom end knock started tap tap tapping at the door.

So for the last 2 months Ive been working on the appearance and on Wednesday next week it officially goes under the knife for a full engine, gearbox rebuild. Id be lying if I said I wasn't chomping at the bit to get back behind the wheel but deep breaths and a new windows wallpaper everyday has gotten me this far. Ill post an update next week but till then, time to set another wallpaper and look on the net for more spare parts!

Thankfully, the picture above is a before shot and its undergone a ton of changes since then. Ive started a Picasa album so click here for more pics. Stay tuned for updates....hopefully all good ones!

141 Paddo Beer Club

For those readers who have noticed the list of 141 beers down the left and don't know what they're for, Kylie and I are doing the '141' at the Paddo.

Basically they stock around 160 beers and have chosen 141 of them as a list challenge. When you order a drink, you simply ask for the next one on the list and, in theory, they mark it off as you go. Once done, you are awarded with a little plaque (yippee) and your name is printed up on their wall of fame. Our aim is to complete the list in 141 days which, by our calculations, means our last day is March 1.

By coincidence, March 1 is a Sunday so if your free, we will be celebrating the lists (and PYF Wednesday at the Paddo's) completion. I will keep the list up to date on the left <---- so you can keep track but we are well and truly on schedule at this stage which is tops.

Tomorrow we will be back at the Paddo to keep powering away so if your available, pop down and say gday. Should be nice weather so will probably be sitting out the front again which is always terribly stressful!

Ciao all and stay cool

Endless Monkey

As an IT nerd a Nintendo fan and a human, I can never seem to get enough monkey in my daily grind.

Finally someone has come to my aid and created a solar powered monkey climber that will go and go as long as the sun is shining bright. Its quite simple really: sun = climb. Another interesting factor is that you get the monkey climber in bits so you can see exactly whats going on in there and possibly make some enhancements or a whole new idea.

Why do I get the idea that we are only seeing the start of solar systems (for want of a better term) in our everyday lives. A guy I work with is currently getting his home converted to solar electric (with gas hot water backup and mains power backup) because the government is offering a huge kickback at the moment for those that make the switch. Normally its around $9000 and its costing him $2500.

Without knowing exactly how much they use, he expects it to fully power his 24x7 home appliances with a small amount in reserve for 'on demand' use. If he is lucky, he will have overestimated his home use and if he pumps enough spare electricity INTO the grid, he will be sent a nice cheque in the post every few months. Yes, it will be little but hey, moneys money right!

Dont Call Me' Nadzi...

Short but sweet post today but as they keep telling me, size doesn't matter.

Just wanted to say congratulations to Nards and Kat again for an accepted wedding proposal over the new year break. Its absolutely terrific news and I couldn't be happier for both of you.

I got most of the details yesterday but as soon as I hung up, Kylie had about 50 more so apparently what they had for breakfast that day is important.....must be a chick thing!

Anywho, looking forward to the engagement pertee so we can congratulate you both in person but for now:

Good Times!

Cheeseburger......in a Can

It's a Cheeseburger and it's in a can...................Its Cheeseburger In A Can!

I honestly don't know whether to rejoice or blubber at the prospect of tucking into a scrumptious burger that's been carefully grown and meticulously assembled (by a conveyor belt!!) in what appears to be a Swiss or German factory.

Obviously they have been made for hikers or adventurers that just can't live without their fix of soggy mush for a few days. Hey, maybe there IS a market here. People agonisingly climb mountains, scale cliffs, risk life and limb for an adrenaline rush or sense of accomplishment. They get to the summit, turn around and the only symbol they can make out in the ground below is bloody Maccas! Imagine the elation when your counterpart turns to you and says, "I think its time to crack a can mate, a CHEESEburger can"..............Please!

Another thing that I cant help to think is that burgers that are made by hand don't even look like that. Also it appears the burger is bigger than the can so I can only dream about the slop that resides in these things after months of transportation and shelf-life.

Maybe they would have more of a chance selling a can of WTF!