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Canberra sunset livened up by vapour trails.
The first of 24 Ways has arrived. Working with RGBA Colour by Drew McLellan.
and wants to be Prime Minister of Australia.
Image of the Mad Monk proudly recycled from Mr Murdoch.
1st Dec 09: By the screaming majority of ONE vote the Mad Monk is now Australia's alternative Prime Minister.
In September I purchased a low kilometere Honda Civic Hybrid sedan.
The car was delivered with a fuel average of 5.9 L per 100KM.
After nearly 3 months I'm averaging 5.5 and doubt my patience to do much better considering 85% of my trips are short and city based.
Highway driving is where this car thrives. I set the cruise control to 110 KPH on the trip to Sydney and back and did little else other than avoid braking. The car held it's fuel economy over the whole 6 hours of the up hill and down dale trip. The battery assistance was far more noticable than it is around town.
The Good:
From the driver's seat, it's a comfortable car around town and on the long haul to Sydney.
It's no big break from driving a non Hybrid unless your a fuel efficiency freak.
I've grown accustomed to the whizzes and whirs of the electric motor and the complete silence when stopped at the lights.
My driving habits have changed though I refuse to dawdle in traffic flows and usually drive close to the speed limit. I'm a lot more aware of the status and sequence of traffic lights. While the engine shuts down at the lights, it's still a lot better to avoid stopping if you can. Acceleration is the fuel efficiency killer.
The Bad:
I can't believe Honda still provide rigid "poke a hole in your pocket" car keys. The 10 year old Audi at least had flip keys.
I shouldn't have to use a key in a key hole to open the boot after I've clicked the Unlock button.
Honda's windmill laden website declares a fuel efficiency rating of 4.8 Litres per 100KM but offers little else to assist drivers get anywhere near this. They should because those wind generators have nothing to do with it.
Conclusion:
It's early days, however the 10 year old manual Audi A3 was rated at 7.7 and I'm sure it was delivering mid to high 8's. The Honda is roomier, more comfortable, better appointed and, without becoming an anal retentive driver, delivers real time 5.5 L per 100KM.
How anyone achieves Honda's rated 4.8 is beyond me.
Darryl Mason exposes Murdoch's own Klepto streak... Murdoch Media Busted Stealing Blog Content.
Movie director Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead, HotFuzz, the brilliant TV series Spaced) wrote a beautiful, thoughtful ode to actor Edward Woodward on his blog earlier this week, and then today discovered his Woodward piece had been brutally re-edited and then published on the London Times website, and also in the print edition. Without his permission. Without linking to his blog. Without payment.
Via Crikey
I've been using Google Chrome (Mac) full time for the last 10 days. The only gaping hole in my browser experience has been sorely missed Firefox Extensions. That is about to change.
The Google Chrome Extensions gallery is currently in limited beta release to allow developers to upload their extensions. If you are a developer, you can upload your extension here. If you are looking to find and install extensions, please check back here soon!
Sunday morning breakfast in Cronulla, Sydney. Louie sizes up his Nulla Nulla Cafe pancake.
Great coffee as well.
A reasonable extract from Murdoch's China Speech.
The Philistine phase of the digital age is almost over. The aggregators and the plagiarists will soon have to pay a price for the co-opting of our content. But if we do not take advantage of the current movement toward paid-for content, it will be the content creators, the people in this hall, who will pay the ultimate price and the content kleptomaniacs will triumph.
Which you can subscribe to here. ( A Really Simple Syndication )
You can also subscribe to all of his many Australian Papers here. ( More Really Simple Syndication )
That's a lot of Really Simple Syndication from a man who refers to those who use it as kleptomaniacs.
I wasn't happy with Woolworth's claim about their new Fresh Food logo when they released it... "Australia's new symbol for Fresh Food"
Now Apple are challenging the design.
This will be interesting to watch.
While Woolworths claim to be the "Fresh Food People" they also retail Mobile Phones, Petrol, Booze, Specialist Electronics, Gambling, Home Hardware etc. Their "Peeled Apple" logo features in some of these non fresh food retail outlets, so attention from Apple is understandable.
Latest builds of Chromium for Mac tempt me to Make Chromium My Default Browser
In addition to fast browsing, it now offers dev level Chromium Extensions.
Our Camelia's are in full bloom., the iPhone 3GS was at hand.
Photographed using Camera Genius and edited with TiltShift Generator.
Update: The Best Camera galleries feature some fantastic iPhone photos. Check out the most popular gallery.
Today is car change day. The trusty 10 year old (75,000 klm) Audi A3 gets traded for a barely used 07/08 (10,000 klm) Honda Civic Hybrid.
I would keep the Audi, but the better half wont drive a car with more than two pedals and two gears.
We originally wanted a Toyota Prius, but the gold bracelet wearing smarmy Toyota Sales Manager said he wasn't interested in trading the Audi for an out of warranty, overpriced ($35,000+), 30,000+ klm Prius. The decision was made.
A fan of Polaroids? This new service may be what your looking for.
Rollip is a new site that lets you convert, download and print your digital photos with the classic look and feel of a vintage or Polaroid picture.
While similar software can be found in different forms, we've put extra effort into giving users more options for customization and better quality effects, and our online format makes it much easier to share pictures across the social web
Visit the Rollip Flickr Group for galleries of photographs given the Rollip treatment.
A couple of Polaroid related posts can be found here.
The American conservatives who are fighting health-care reform are filthy hypocritical lying scum.
Renovations to the Musée d'Orsay post-impressionist galleries provide a once in a lifetime opportunity for The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.
Musée d'Orsay is loaning the Canberra NGA 114 works by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cezanne, Georges Seurat, Pierrre Bonnard, Claude Monet, Maurice Denis and Edouard Vuillard.
Via: ABC News
This blockbuster follows The Triumph of Landscapes held last year and proves there are some benefits to living in Canberra.
Tailfins of 1959 - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com
The definition of bang for auto buck has changed in 50 years.
Spent yesterday pre-shopping a Prius and function has certainly replaced form.
The LED light in the Prius Glovebox is always on, more efficient than including a switch.
The 2009 Prius doesn't have a spare tyre/wheel, just a can of goo to get you to the next Service Station. And you wanted fins as well!!
Chromium Build Version 3.0.197 (31/08/09) now plays Flash, with some difficulty.
YouTube videos seem okay with odd scaling issues and it struggles with cursor interaction on the odd Flash Animation.
A marked improvement on earlier builds.
When it comes to PayPal, my security bells start ringing.
This morning I received a PayPal email, a rare thing, advising changes to their Australian email address.
Careful habits kicked in and I used PayPal Australia’s own form to ask for verification of these changes and the email.
Their prompt reply just arrived…
Dear #### #####,
Thank you for contacting PayPal, my name is ###### and I am happy to
assist you today.
I understand in your email that you are inquiring if the email that you
receive is genuine or just a spoof one. We do appologise for the
confusion this has caused you.
Mr. #####, I can confirm that this email is a genuine email from PayPal.
We actually changed from ######@####.####.com.au to
######@####.####.com.au because our previous emails were like being
duplicated by any fraudsters to just confuse our customers. But I assure
you that this one is a legit email from us.
It is my pleasure assisting you today.
Sincerely,
######
PayPal, an eBay Company
PayPal Australia Pty Limited.
It hardly lifted my confidence in the financial services like being offered by legit PayPal Australia.
Smart campaign directed at the last bastions of IE6, sluggish IT departments.
HEY-IT - We want to get rid of IE6! Please upgrade to a recent/decent browser!
via: TechCrunch