The other day the owner of my old boat emailed me using the site Feedback form. A day later he sent me these photos:
n/b Thomas Covenant
July 29th, 2009A new blog.
July 7th, 2009I’ve recently bought an old tractor. The story of its life with me will unfold at http://www.belletam.net/blogs-k-tractor
A Fedora death
January 2nd, 2009After 5 years of continuous running and no maintenance, our Fedora Core 5 webserver died the other week. I was in the process of building its replacement, perhaps it took umbrage. Suddenly all the configuration files became unreadable due to failure of some font handler. What I should of done was stay with it and immediately back everything up onto a removable drive. What I did do, after years of Windoze brainwashing, was shut down and reboot. What happened then was that the GRUB loader failed to find and read the correct files and will not boot. Mounting the hard drive to another machine shows a boot sector and an unreadable partition - with all our data.
The fact that you are reading this shows that the new server is coming on stream. When I find a way to recover the old data, hopefully my old blogs will reappear.
Road speed limits and motorsport
September 17th, 2007I’ll start this blog with a triple of assumptions: firstly that exceeding posted speed limits on public roads is a bad thing and leads to increased road accidents and severity thereof, secondly, that motor-sport influences peoples purchasing decisions and thirdly, the car people drive affects they way they drive. The evidence for the first is trotted out nightly in government television advertising, the second because although racing undoubtedly provides valuable research testing and feedback I’d bet it is the advertising value that keeps the money flowing and the third from our own observations on the roads. I contend that it is the advertising of cars as fast and exciting that encourages their use in that manner on the public highways and thus contributes to deaths. I’ll even go so far as to suggest that motorsport with vehicles that look like road cars should be stopped in order to sever the image in the public’s minds that the antics on a race track are acceptable or achievable on the road. At the risk of upsetting the legions of Australian V8 fans, the pinnacle of racing is not cars based, however loosely, on production models but with vehicles designed for that sole purpose. Only there can the maximum in safety and performance can be achieved. If car company advertising was directed solely towards their products suitability for use on public roads; safety, fuel economy and comfort rather than outrageous performance perhaps we could slowly reeducate the public’s perception of road cars. If the road car was divorced from the track vehicle then perhaps, slowly, driving standards on our roads would improve and in turn, death and injury rates would decline. Only BMW have been prepared to illustrate how stupid and false this type of advertising is by allowing one of the BBC motoring programmes, Fifth Gear I think it was, to run a top of the range BMW sports saloon on a race track against a F1 car. I didn’t expect the saloon to keep up in anyway but nor was I prepared for just how poorly it did. Within a couple of laps it was being lapped - the illustration could hardly have been more vivid if they’d pitted a donkey against a jet fighter! When our roads have a maximum speed of 110kms per hour and I believe even the Northern Territory has now done away with their speed-limitless roads, do cars have to come with a speedometer marked up to 240kph? Why when the police will fine you for exceeding the posted limit by 5 or 6 kph is the smallest marked graduation 5 kph and numbers only appear ever 20kph? Why when our speed limits are generally 50, 70, 90 and 110 is my speedometer only marked 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120 etc.? Why when I am travelling at the maximum speed-limit limit is the speedometer showing less than half its range? I don’t support the view that cars should be limited to 110kph, there are times when such limits would place unsafe restrictions on drivers, removing their ability to accelerate out of a dangerous situation - there are many places on WA roads where the passing lanes are insufficient for a car at 110kph to pass a road train limited to 100kph - but the driver only needs to know he is exceeding the limit. At one stage - it may be still so - vehicles in the USA had speedometers scaled only to 80 mph when they had a universal 55mph speed limit. Different models are sold across the world, most television advertisements for cars already carry the “Overseas model show” small print as numerous modifications are made for each country variant - appropriate speedometers should be one of those variations.
Road test of a Mitsubishi 380
September 12th, 2007I’ve had a Mitsubishi 380 saloon for three weeks and three thousand kilometres now and I hate it!! I’m coming from five and a half years and a quarter of a million kilometres of Ford Falcon AUII wagon usage so it was always going to be a big change and I’ve waited this long so I”d have time to get used to it. I quickly nick-named the 380 the “Tell Me Twice Car” as you seem to have to do everything more times than should be necessary. To unlock the doors requires pressing the key twice, as does the boot - and there is no other way I’ve found of opening the boot. Gawd knows what you do when the key fob dies. The seating position, despite its 5 way, electrically controlled movement has no way of accommodating someone of my size. I”m six foot one, (1.85M) and although I can move the seat far enough to give some leg room, the steering wheel only adjusts up and down, not in and out. Thus reaching the dashboard is difficult. One of the selling points of the car is the built in bluetooth system for your mobile phone. Well I know why it’’s just a ”bluetooth system” and not a “handsfree” - it requires you to remove a hand from the steering wheel and press a button to stop or start a call. This button is then hidden out of sight on the dashboard - completely obscured by the steering wheel from where I sit. Given the seating position - it is out of reach as well!! Completely and utterly useless to me. I’m also sick of banging my head on the ceiling and not being able to see the letterbox as I reverse out of my driveway each morning. But the major reason for my developing hatred of this car is the engine /cruise “control” combination - and I use the word ”control” very lightly. Although I’m sure the engine is very impressive to seventeen year old ”P” platers who want to hoon around the suburbs making lots of screechy noises to impress their friends, my requirements are more modest. I want a car that simply pulls away swiftly, reaches the speed limit and with the press of a cruise-control button, stays there until I tell it otherwise. WA is too full of hidden speed cameras for me to spend my days scanning the verges and the dashboard rather than just watching the road and other road users. Instead of this simple requirement the 380 will either plod away like an asthmatic old wreck or pause a while while it gathers its revs and then catapult forward with wheel-spin and traction control chopping in and out. Nothing in between. The simplest way to over come this is to come out of ”D”rive and manually select 2nd gear. This will allow a decent rate of acceleration without the sound effects. Two things to remember, obviously a change up is required quite quickly or a shift back to ”D”rive but also to keep your eye on the gear indicator. If in pulling out of a junction you creep and then stop, the gearbox will reselect 1st. Then you”ll catapult forward with wheel-spin and traction control chopping in and out! But my real annoyance is the cruise control. This will easily allow an extra 20kph on a slight downhill gradient and seems incapable of holding any speed within the 5kph tolerance that the local police seem to use before automatically applying a fine. Yes, I have had it checked by the dealer and it is performing “to specification” and yes, I have tried just dropping to a lower gear. This helps, but only on quite flat and level roads and results in quite dramatic fuel consumption. So far it is making the ageing Falcon engine look thrifty. Even travelling in ”D”rive at 110kph - our fastest speed limit - some gradients will cause it to suddenly drop a few cogs, go “Grrrrrrrrrr” loudly and slingshot forward to way over the limit before changing up and settling down again. Neither restful nor civilized and driving me spare!!
How much is a politician worth?
August 30th, 2007No, it’s not a rhetorical question, but as the news the other day reported that ours have just voted themselves another 4% on top of their already considerable salaries, we have to ask; just how much are they worth? We are in the run up to a federal election so the news is full of silly stories trying to denigrate one side or the other. An amusing recent example was an “investigation” into the thousands the Prime Minister had spent having the inside of his personal, RAAF provided, jet papered with silk wallpaper. The often stated reason for paying politicians the very high salaries compared with the average wage is so that we attract and retain the ”right sort of people”. The reasoning goes that if we pay them less then they will leave politics and earn vast sums in business or the law. I then ask, are those the sort of people we want running the country? The people who apparently make good businessmen and lawyers are those that follow a single goal, put profits and their view above all other and don’t care about who get trampled upon to achieve those goals. Wouldn”t the country actually be a better place if we were ruled / governed by more altruistic people, people who would be willing to consider all sides of an argument, to listen to what their constituents wanted and then fought for governance in a way that provided the best possible outcome for the most number of people whilst protecting the weak, poor and sick. People who would want to be taking a fair wage, comparable to those who’’s views they represented, that realised that they were just Public Servants and not above the proletariat.
Failing Transport Systems & the inaction of government.
August 29th, 2007Perth city is served by a north-south freeway which has a train line running between the two carriageways. As Perth is a pretty linear development stretching up the coastal plain this provides for the bulk of the residents. However both are woefully inadequate.The state government is currently spending millions of dollars extending the railway to the southern suburbs and Mandurah and the freeway north to the newer norther developments. Both of these extensions will put further strain on the current system which is already overloaded. Every single day the freeway north blocks up and tails back into Perth because the number of carriageways drops at Whitfords Avenue from 3 to 2. The two lane highway is just insufficient at current volumes of traffic, extending the freeway will add yet more commuters and further expand the congestion. Meanwhile, for those that work in a single place convenient to the railway and wish to let the train take the strain, inadequate planning causes that to be as difficult as possible. Quite apart from the carparks at each station being liberally strewn with glass from each days crop of broken-into cars, finding space to park is often difficult. I write this blog now because my girlfriend just rang to say that today, in order to get the midday train into town she had to drive to Edgewater Station, find it full, drive to Whitfords Station, find it full and then drive to Warwick Station, before she found a space. Many people having gone so far would have continued into town, although of course, as she is a hospital worker available parking spaces are very limited and cost almost as much as she earns!! I have heard it alleged that this shortage of station parking is exaggerated by the fact that Joondalup Station has minimal parking. It is sited next to the Lakeside Shopping Mall but that parking is for a maximum of four hours at a time and vigorously policed. Hence Joondalup residents drive on to Edgewater, then Whitfords, then - well you get the idea. Public transport is rarely the easy option, nor these days the cheap option. However there are very good reasons why it’’s use should be promoted. Fuel efficiency with its carbon emissions associations is a good reason, but road safety is another consideration. What possible reason our state government and local councils could have for failing us so badly with this system even my cynical mind fails to grasp. Is it really just incompetence?
SBS and a Uranium Mining Poll
May 1st, 2007Television channel SBS runs a weekly poll where viewers are invited vote via their website on a topical issue and make comments. Last week the subject was whether or not Australia should expand it’’s Uranium mining. Last night the results were aired. 18% of voting SBS viewers were in favour, 80% were against. An in-favour comment was read from one user and an against comment was read from another. The ”Against” comment was by me and was read out by the presenter: ” ”No way!” says Kenn Crosby of Joondalup, ”we are sitting on top of endless geothermal energy, surrounded by boundless wave energy and grilled by inexhaustible solar energy, why should we pollute our beautiful country to line the pockets of the profit mongers.”
Violence and television
April 28th, 2007New Scientist magazine contained an interesting article this week about television and its effects on the violent behaviour of children. What made me sit up and take notice was the lines about when a cross section of the public were asked about a connection between the two, the majority answered that they knew research was done and thought that the results were inconclusive. Taking out that research sponsored by the motion picture industry to create just such uncertainty, the overwhelming scientific opinion is that there is a link. This should be no surprise to anyone who has observed children watch a film and then go straight out to re-enact the more violent parts. Or those of us who have looked at ourselves and noticed how desensitised to things we become. This occurred to me the other month when I watched a 1962, black and white film called “A Kind of Loving”. Not a particularly notable film except as an illustration about how vastly our moral and social attitudes have changed in only my life time. Compared with last night’s SBS airing about the sexual attitudes of 13-18 year-olds in Canada, a 1962 British film seems archaic and puritanical. Stunning changes.
Variable price medicines
September 12th, 2007It doesn’t seem to matter how long I live here in Australia, I keep coming across things that strike me as strange. Coming from the UK with the NHS and a prescription medicine system where you pay a fixed fee per prescription (used to be in pre-Maggie days - now it’’s per item on it) it comes as strange to have to shop around for doctor-prescribed medicines. Many medicines are subject to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme here, meaning their prices are subsidized by the government. However this doesn”t mean they all cost the same or even each individual drug has a fixed price. This was driven home to me after a trip out to fill a repeat prescription. Fortunately the price had been noted last time - $7.95. A visit to the local chemist produced a quote of $17.95!! A drive to a neighbouring suburb produced a quote of $14 but when questioned this was dropped to $10. If the government is subsidizing the product, shouldn”t the retail price be fixed?
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