PicLens my site
Posted on August 12, 2008 - Filed Under General, News, Technology
g’day Boz
i see you had a look at PicLens
isnt it a great way to look through heaps of images (or play with lol)
i did try to make my gallery able to use PicLens too
as i saw it had a way you could do it on their site
but i think i went wrong somewhere (i know i do it a lot 
)
here
i got to the end and it said something about code to add to my site
i did the easy version
but
there was no code, hmmmm, maybe it was only a try thing??
anyway i will have another go sometime when i get time
unless you figure it out first and tell me how to do it
until then i will just play zooming aroung google image search
lol
The Trouble with English…
Posted on July 31, 2008 - Filed Under Humor
One of my favorite I Love Lucy Shows…Ricky learns all the ways to say “ough”
cultural (ex)changes
Posted on July 31, 2008 - Filed Under News
g’day Boz
after our last conversation i thought i would blog it
i know i like to play with words, much to the angst of people that know me
what i didnt know is that other people that spoke foreign languages also liked to do the same thing (in their own tongue)(ok i could of guessed, but hadnt thought about it) anyway
after you showing me a photo in the UE challenge where a French person played with the words open closed fixed and moving ( i used Firefoxes translation thingy to help me out ) and my remarks to the fact i didnt know other cultures played with words and your remarks about my lack of wordly understanding (or something like that) i rememberd a post in a photography forum (not the UE forum sorry) about snow in Australia. I was amazed the people did not know we do get snow in someparts in winter (not here though yippeeee)and my asking you if you knew , to which you of course replied “i knew that”
anyway
this led me to search for the snowy mountains (oddly enough it is one place Australia does get snow)
which then lead me to Mount Kosciuszko, Australias highest peak (2,228 metres or 7,310 ft)
and then to finding out a few odd facts (or it could only happen in Australia)
1. It was spelled Mount Kosciusko until 1997, when it was corrected
2. it is pronounced Kozi-OS-ko even though it is named after General Tadeusz Kościuszko, prounounced kosh-CHOOSH-ko (we also say AL-bany not ALL-bany and Derby not Darby)
3. The 1863 picture by Eugene von Guerard hanging in the National Gallery of Australia titled “Northeast view from the northern top of Mount Kosciusko” is actually from Mt Townsend even though at the time of painting it was Mt Kosciuszko, but the name was swapped with the neigbouring mountain after if was found Mt Townsend was in fact higher, this way Mt Kosciuszko is still the highest mountain in Australia (did that make sense? )
4. however, it has now become tradition for climbers of Mt Townsend to carry rocks to the summit, in an attempt to once again make Mt Townsend the taller mountain
i figure if that ever happens the names will likely swap back and Mt Kosciuszko will once again become the real Mt Kosciuszko
did any of that make sense
lol
Boz, how about a 3000 kilometer trip for Boab tree
Posted on July 30, 2008 - Filed Under News
all the way to Kings Park, in Perth city, from the Warmun in the Kimberley region of Western Australia
a gift from the Gidjar people to the Nyoongar people, the traditional owners of the Kings park area.
The boab is 14 metres high, weighs 36 tonnes and is estimated to be 750 years old.
I cant remember how long it took to get here, and i have no idea about the logistics of moving something that size, road closures, police escorts, power lines, cars parked on the side of the road etc etc
any way
the short story is
i went and took some photos of it on the weekend
you can go look on my site if you wish
Dark Chocolate Macadamias
Posted on July 27, 2008 - Filed Under News
Hey Oz!
I was frustrated that in my special surprise “Winter package” I couldn’t get DARK chocolate macadamias for you!
So, I thought, just to feel better, I would post this from my Shopping site!
Mmmmmmmmmm
Hersheys Special Dark Chocolate Covered Macadamias - 4.2 Oz, 12 ea
Gas Your BMW?
Posted on June 27, 2008 - Filed Under News
Oz! Have you heard this one!?
No, I don’t mean PUT gas (what you call petrol) in your car. I mean GAS it!
In Germany; a liter of regular gasoline now costs about $9.40 per gallon.
A German man doused his BMW with gasoline and torched it on Friday in protest at skyrocketing fuel costs, police said. The unemployed 30-year-old man drove the black 1995 BMW 3-series sedan onto the lawn outside Frankfurt’s convention center.
He then jumped out, emptied a canister of gas over the vehicle, and set fire to it, Wagner said.
By the time the fire department got to the scene, the car was entirely burned out.
Now he doesn’t have the fuel cost problem.
~Boz
New American Idol!
Posted on May 21, 2008 - Filed Under News
Hi Oz
I know you know that I’ve been following this year’s American Idol!
Here is our winner!
No Use Crying Over…Spilt Oreo Cookies?
Posted on May 19, 2008 - Filed Under News
Hi Oz!
Do you have Oreo Cookies in Australia?
They are good and yummy and especially good with milk.
A truck spilled 14 tons of them!
Have a look HERE
Raspberry Ants
Posted on May 15, 2008 - Filed Under News
Hi Oz!
I thought you’d be interested to know about the flea-sized ants that has invaded Texas.
Apparently, they feed on electronics. Computers, burglar alarm systems, gas and electricity meters, iPods, telephone exchanges – all are considered food.
Recently they ruined pumps at a sewage facility. Now they are making their way to Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre and William P. Hobby airport.
The ants – also known as paratrenicha species near pubens – have so far spread to five counties in the Houston area. Scientists are not sure from where they originate but they seem to be related to a type of ant from the Caribbean. “At this point it would be nearly impossible to eradicate the ants because they are so widely dispersed,” said Roger Gold, a Texas A&M University entomologist. He added that the only upside to the invasion was that the crazy rasberry ants ate fire ants, which sting humans during the long, hot Texas summers.
~Boz
Did I Tell You?
Posted on April 30, 2008 - Filed Under News
Hi Oz!
I know I’ve told you about Maryland’s tornadoes, droughts, wicked thunderstorms, hurricanes, blizzards, floods, rains, and even our pestilance [the 17 year cicadas], but apparently we have another event I have missed.
It seems in Pikesville, in Baltimore County at night, the people there are hearing loud booms followed by flashes of light. It remains a mystery as to why this is happening, but police are looking into it.
~Boz
Mayor to offer free viagra
Posted on April 29, 2008 - Filed Under News
Hi Oz!
With Politics in the main headlines in the U.S., one mayor in Chile might have the key on “how to get elected.”
He said any man 60 years and older who wants it can have up to four Viagra pills a month after undergoing a thorough medical exam.
Upgraded!
Posted on April 28, 2008 - Filed Under News
Hey Oz!
Just thought I’d let you know that I have upgraded our Wordpress blog to the latest and newest version!
Be warned, the dashboard sure is different!
~Boz
Speedtest
Posted on April 25, 2008 - Filed Under Personal, Technology
Hi Oz!
I couldn’t resist publishing my speed test with Cable internet here.
~Boz
Pentax 10-17mm fisheye lens
Posted on April 24, 2008 - Filed Under General, News, Personal, Technology
lets see if i can remember how to do this blog thing
its been a while
just updating you on my camera stuff
i went out and bought a Pentax 10-17mm fisheye lens (or is it fish eye ?) the other weekend
i had been tossing up between that and the Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens
it was a hard decision and took me a while
so far i have only played around with it, learining what works and what doesnt
and there is a lot that can go wrong
first off it is a fisheye and so has inherent distortion, bending any horizontal or vertical lines that dont run through the centre
also the field of view is so great you have to be careful what gets included in the photo, your feet for example or tripod legs, camera bag, fingers on the focusing ring
the wide view can also easily introduce the sun into the photo which can affect the exposure and also cause increased contrast with shaded areas coming out really black, with totally white skies
the minimum focus distance is about 25mm from the front glass, and things look a lot further away when looking through the viewfinfer, so i often touched flowers i was trying to photograph with the front glass. the closeness also means you can easily include your shadow or the lenses shadow
but once you have all that figured out it is a great, fun lens and i am really enjoying it
so far i havent taken it off my camera, I am really happy with my purchase, i just need more practise with it, weekends are to short lol
i have some photos on my web site, in the “experimental” section lol, I may move them once i am no longer experimenting . you can take a look here :-
http://www.johndolphin.net/photos/categories.php?cat_id=61
i would of posted pics but i cant remember how
i am such a bad blogger 
Peter Frampton
Posted on March 8, 2008 - Filed Under General
It really kinda grates on my nerves to see one of my favorite singing stars when growing up using his musical talents for a Geico commercial…
Then….and now.
Green PC
Posted on February 26, 2008 - Filed Under Environmentalism, Technology
Lenovo’s ThinkCentre A61e combines full-size PC performance with earth-friendly features. Powered by AMD processors, the smallest, quietest ThinkCentre comes fully loaded. Only the world’s best engineers could fit this much performance in such a small package.
The smallest, most energy-efficient ThinkCentre includes:
• AMD Athlon or Sempron processors
• ThinkVantage® Rescue and Recovery™
• ThinkVantage Client Security Solution pre-loaded
• Integrated fingerprint reader
• Integrated gigabit Ethernet
• Leading graphics performance provided by ATI Radeon® Xpress 200
Happy Hearts Day
Posted on February 13, 2008 - Filed Under Personal
Hi Oz!
Happy Valentines Day!
xoxoxo
~Boz
First Zero Carbon City
Posted on January 22, 2008 - Filed Under Environmentalism
Hi Oz
When you live in the desert, why not take advantage of all that sun!
That is precisely what Abu Dhabi plans to do with a new city, the Masdar project.
Solar roofs, light railway, and automated transport pods will be some of the features.
But zero?
Seems hard to do.
Even baking bread emits some gasses!
Automated transport pods sound like fun.
Boz
Glacier Melting
Posted on January 20, 2008 - Filed Under Environmentalism
Hi Oz
As I look at your weather as it reads on our blog and I look at my own, the temperatures make it seem as if I am LIVING on a glacier! Brrrrrr!
I read however, that Antarctic volcanoes identified as a possible culprit in glacier melting.
Tonight as the popular 60 Minutes was pulled from the regular television line up to have a documentary about Global Warming, they sure didn’t mention this latest find.
I would say that if there is indeed volcanic activity, it would make sense that heat would be present.
Volcanically, Antarctica is a fairly quiet place. But sometime around 325 B.C., the researchers said, a hidden and still active volcano erupted, puncturing several hundred yards of ice above it. Ash and shards from the volcano carried through the air and settled onto the surrounding landscape. That layer is now out of sight, hidden beneath the snows that fell during the next 2,300 years.
Still, the layer showed up clearly in airborne radar surveys conducted over the region in 2004 and 2005 by American and British scientists. The reflected radio waves over an elliptical area about 110 miles, or 176 kilometers, wide were so strong that earlier radar surveys had mistakenly identified it as bedrock. Better radar techniques now can detect a second echo from the actual bedrock farther down.
The thickness of ice above the ash layer provided an estimate of the date of the eruption: 207 B.C., give or take 240 years.
Super Mario on Guitar!
Posted on January 13, 2008 - Filed Under General
Hey Oz!
I can’t imagine how this fellow does this on two guitars!
keep looking »
John and Barb have been having cultural exchanges over tea for nearly 10 years. Now they're going public. :)
