I must not be a player hater

I really hope I keep a balance of positive and negative blog posts...

When the $&@! will the iphone support vCard business cards and MMS?

Holiday

Its not as low-tech as pitching a tent in the woods (just as well - its driving horizontal rain) but hey its a holiday and a change of scenery.

Its odd being on a laptop again and even better being wireless (even if mobile broadband in WOz is expensive and slow!)

But that HD digital TV signal is getting decimated by the lightning.

Back to the sketchpad...

Topfield TF4000T Aspect Switch

I couldn't find out how to swap between a letterboxed 16:9 and centre extract 4:3 image on my 4:3 TV without going though the STB setup menu.

No amount of Googling, forum or manual reading had the answer until I worked it out.

Press the zero (0) key to cycle through the options

My First Enamel

I tried my hand at basic enamelling of copper sheet. Plenty more adventure to be had on this front...

Photo shoot

Took some "press photos" for a media kit featuring the new lighting / bar design we recently executed at Sapphire...

Full photos at http://www.thesapphirebar.com.au/gallery

Drawer

My lounge room coffee table, a discarded relic from and old nightclub refit, was always covered in remotes and the keyboard for the media PC.

Not anymore.

A couple of lengths of Australian Oak (oh the smell!), some MDF, a pair of rollers and a spare afternoon = new coffee table drawer.

Its made things so much more organized! Interestingly this version of the table (still available at many imported timber furniture outlets) now comes with drawers built in.

Now I have somewhere to put mt feet ;)

Silver -> Gold WaveLAN Card Upgrades

I had a crack at upgrading some of my Lucent (Orinoco) Silver WaveLAN cards today with Alchemy and they worked a treat.

Rather than detailing it all over again links and whatnot can be found here.

Pity 128 bit WEP isn't that much harder to break then 64 bit these days...

Ark of the Covenant DJ Table

The team at Bullion Gents Club needed a sexy DJ table to operate their Nightlife Music System from.

After looking at a lot a real antiques (some at an amazing AUD$3000+) I found a banged-up knockoff "seconds" at a household furniture store.

I was able to cut one of the drawers out to fit the dual CD system and painted it all in gold enamel. All the power / electronics are concealed underneath.

Very "Ark of the Covenant" - sadly the Nokia phone camera photos don't do it justice!

Wine Fridge - New Thermostat

The new mechanical thermostat goes in to my wine fridge project. Its mounted in the return air shaft to provide more precise temperature control.

Damn Apple

There are some things about Mac's (as much as I love them) that made them damn bastardry :

* Where are the extra USB ports on the G5. Three doesn't even come close to adequate
* Some extra power connectors inside would be really nice. That's right - some of us want to use different (read better) video cards or other devices that need power

Sheesh!

Flood

The idiots who built the workshop at the place I rent built the slab a good 200mm BELOW the normal level of the rear laneway. PLUS they added concrete slabs to make a perfect spillway. The tiny 50L soakwell / drain was never going to cope.

Added to that the Council don't keep the laneway in good condition or drained and every local business seems to dump their storm water there anyway.

So when it bucketed down recently I thought I'd check the workshop was OK. I opened the roller door from the inside to take a look at was met by the wave of a mudslide.

Everything had to come up off the floor.

Then we raked, swept and squeegeed as much as we could. Blower fans helped dry things out in a couple of days.

Needless to say I had a few unkind words to say to the Ranger, Council (who later 'solved' the problem by dumping a few tons of bluemetal along the laneway), the landlord and the owner.

Idiots.

Wine Fridge Testing

I needed to see if the weldmesh spacing for my new wine fridge would allow me to fit two bottles deep. In this case "neck to neck". The final version needed to be vertically offset (as opposed to horizontally in the photo) due to space restrictions...

Bloody DPI

Why is it the DPI (Department for Planning and Infrastructure) doesn't have BPay as a payment option for vehicle licences?

Dial-up Again...

I'm changing ADSL providers from the wankers at PeopleTelecom (ex SwiftDSL) to Amcom (Amnet) and have to spend the weekend on dial-up.

Feels like I'm in the IT stoneage all over again...

Update time

Yes, I know what I said about Myspace but it really is becoming a useful promo tool isn't it? So some updates there

Plus I've added a new DJ Gallery to my website.

Don't forget there's also a stupidly large number of photos at the Sapphire Bar website.

And the DJ section of my website has had a mild polish...

Must post more often!

I really must post more often. A few more markers about what's going on, what I've been doing and maybe even thinking...

Tiki Mugs!

Watching too much TikiTV means I just might have to buy some crazy ass Tiki Mugs for summer...

Wood is good

I needed a new tabletop to replace the awful MDF surface on my workbench.
A couple of hours, some old floorboards and a coat of linseed / pure gum turps and presto!

Updates

Slowly, slowly we customize the blog...

MySpace

What is it about MySpace?

Its not really that nice to customize and its almost like an ego inflating how-many-friends-do-I-have game.

That didn't didn't stop me from setting up a presence a while back though ;)

http://www.myspace.com/antonlord

House

Why in the second season have they changed the intro theme music!?

The original was so much better...

Happy Birthday

Haaaapy birthday to you,
Haaapy birthday toooo yoooou
Haaapy birthday Mister Pres-i-dent
Haaapy birthday toooo yoooou