The night before Christmas

Thanks, John

Townsville

View from Castle Hill lookout

Barren Falls

Far North Queensland

Kuranda train station



Some dude selling coconut water ... well, apparently it is good for your daughter *huh??*

Meanwhile ...

... outside the office ...

Top Gear

Top Gear special – the Down Under franchise takes on the original.

Watch quickly, before the copyright Nazis strike.


Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5



Part 6


Part 7


Part 8

Shootin'

Just a day in the park ... the world sure is a scary place.

Wide

Just testing my new toy ... seems to be doing what it's supposed to do.

Firefox 3: Clearing address bar history

Unfortunately, just going to Tooss -> Clear Private Data and selecting Browsing History does not get rid of the address bar URL history. To at least stop the history of previously visited web sites coming up whenever you enter an URL in the address bar, you can set the parameter that controls the number of lines displayed in the drop – down list to 0 (zero):

Go to the list of configuration parameters by typing about:config in the address bar:


Find parameter browser.urlbar.maxRichResults. By default, this value is set to 12.


Double-click the parameter to change its value. Set the new value to 0.


Click Ok to confirm, and you're done.



Note that the change will only be effective after closing down Firefox and starting it up again.

Oops

I'm the first to admit that I don't even have a shadow of a clue what the solution to Sydney's notorious perpetual traffic congestions might be, but stacking the cars probably isn't it.

Election Day

Yay, it's Federal Election Day, and Australia gets to vote. Our options are:

The chick that just can't keep her hands off other peoples' babies, has been part of the Government in charge for the last 3 years, representing the party with a tendency to see new taxes as the best "solution" for pretty much anything, the party that is going to introduce an emissions trading scheme to save the world from evil global warming, the party that still hasn't renounced plans to introduce Australia's answer to Ned Flanders' mandatory internet filtering on ISP level, essentially putting us in the same league as China, Iran, North Korea, and other beacons of freedom.

On the other hand, there's the creepy religious God-botherer who's always up for a run in his budgie smugglers, hasn't got a clue on one of the few areas where the Liberals' policies are actually different from Labor's, and enjoys imposing his moral views, on others, for example by telling women to "save the "greatest gift" until marriage.

Aren't we the lucky country.

Visitor

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, briefly resting on my balcony railing.

Where am I?

Overrated

This morning, I had the opportunity to play with the much hyped Apple iPad. Well, it definitely looks cool; the screen seems to be alright (browsed a book and was quite surprised by the quality of the text display); and at least with the basic applications the demo model had set up, performance was pretty good.

For some tasks, though, the simplicity of the gadget is, more than anything, a bit of a drawback. Even just typing short texts, like a web address or a search term, is quite an uncomfortable matter on that virtual keyboard. And for some tasks, there's just no alternative to actually having a physical mouse. Good luck trying to accurately zoom in and out of GoogleMaps.

Add to that the total control of the Apple Nazis over what applications you can and can't run, the ridiculously excessive price, and the total lack of even the most basic interfaces, and you can probably guess my verdict (just in case you missed the title of this post).

Take off

Camouflage

Camouflage the jazz outfit of the Australian Army Band Sydney, playing at the local park:





Yes, this dude isn't wearing your standard Aussie uniform. Apparently he's joined the band temporarily as part of some kind of exchange program.

Taking off

The view on the way home...

Sunset

Sunset at Ayers Rock

Valley Of The Winds

Some impressions from the Valley Of The Winds in the Olgas.

	And thanks to recent rainfalls, you can even find some flowers.

Walking the rock (part 3)

Some more pictures taken during a walk around Ayers Rock.

Walking the rock (part 2)

Evidence that this has been a deeply spiritual, culturally significant place since ancient times ...

or just very, very old graffity? It's really hard to tell.

Walking the rock (part 1)

Some pictures taken during a walk around Ayers Rock.

Gooooood morning

The Rock ... rocks

It was a moonless night ...

... when I looked up to the Milky Way, explored the Southern Cross, and saw the rings of Saturn while listening to the silence of the Australian desert.

Sure, it's all part of a commercial event that anyone can book or, for some lucky bastards, can be organized by a generous employer as part of a corporate conference; but that doesn't make the experience any less awesome.