It Isn't Warm!

Don't let the bright blue sunny sky here this morning fool you!

It isn't even 17º outside and it is almost 11 am.  The wind, not breeze today, the wind is a lazy one as it blows straight through you!  The thought of a bike ride lingered on my mind for around 5 seconds and then promptly disappeared.  Cold temperatures and a brisk wind are not a good mix for a bike ride!

My second brew is bubbling away quietly but the cool weather isn't good for me enjoying the odd ale or two!  I need a few more empty bottles before I can bottle wash early next week.  But I may have to force myself just so I have enough empties!

The brew continues to be well rugged up to keep the temperature up so the brew can work properly.

We watched plenty of footy yesterday afternoon and evening, especially the game from Brisbane which was played in very wet rainy and cold weather after half time.  That wet weather arrived here an hour or so later but just gave us a few mls of rain.  It did usher in the wind change though and gave us the cooler weather we can expect for the next few days.

We are currently watching the Kevin Spacey TV Series, "House of Cards".  It is a political story set in USA and tells of the plotting and skulduggery which allegedly goes on in a tough political arena.  It has got both Trish and I hooked at the moment.  What with footy, House of Cards and Wimbledon there is heaps to watch on TV.

This morning I was up at 6 am to watch the World Cup soccer from Brazil as well.

Next door have a large dog.  It tends to bark extremely infrequently when they are not home.  The neighbour wasn't at all pleased when I told him of a worse than ever episode which occurred on Friday night when they were out.  He told me it was a dog and that dogs bark, I told him the dog was his, he was responsible for it and he should accept the responsibility which goes with being a dog owner.

We agreed to differ.  We haven't seen or heard from the dog since!  It does rush up to fence between our two homes and can startle you from time to time, especially if you have forgotten it is there.  The couple of trips I have had to make outside today have all been quiet.

I wonder what he would think if his elderly parents were in our shoes and whether his stance on this issue would be any different. I seem to think it would.

I enjoy my lifestyle here too much not to put up with anything which could unreasonably interrupt it.

We get a fair bit of kid noise but that goes with the territory.  Kid noise is fine, I worked with it for 40 years and it helps to keep you smiling, but I do draw the line at untrained and undisciplined barking dogs!

A Warmer Saturday Morning

It is around 12 degrees this morning, much better than the 4 and 5 degrees we have had the last couple of mornings.  However these cold mornings have finished up with glorious sunny days around 24 or so.

Yesterday's bike ride took place around mid morning when the temeperature was approaching 20 degrees.

There isn't a lot of news about the place.

My PC continues to gallop along fine (Touch wood!) and do all the things it should do.  Trish's new laptop is a little gem and works beautifully.

The reformatted Dell Laptop is working well too.  It isn't as good as the new one and even though it is working fine right now, at around 5 years old its days should be numbered!  The battery died in it around Christmas and we never bothered with a replacement, electing to run it off the mains power instead.

However a little search on eBay found a 'replacement' (new) at $20 so I have sent for it.  It is just nice to be able to take a laptop with me on those very rare occasions when to have one would be handy.

A mate is having a problem with his older laptop and his media player 'talking' to each other.  Is the problem the media player, the modem router or the old laptop?  If I had the reformatted Dell laptop with me we could have narrowed down the problem quite quickly.

I have computer club this morning.

My footy team has brought back memories of those panic attacks I suffered when I was working!  I reckon I almost suffered several more attacks last night while watching the game from Melbourne on TV.  Fortunately they responded to win a close match. 

I did get another brew on yesterday morning.  That is the third brew that has gone on in three weeks.  I have made an 'extra' batch to take to Melbourne with me in a couple of week's time.  The photo above shows the brew bubbling away.

It needs the heat pad and the old trakkie top to stop the brew getting too cool.  Some warmth is required (28 degrees) to ensure the yeast works effectively.

Just Sensational

As the photo shows, today is just the most glorious day.  It is low 20's this afternoon and not a cloud to be seen.

It looks good doesn't it?

I had been considering a change of Internet Provider.  I had a great offer from Bigpond who would give me 100GB download for $60 which is the same price I currently pay for 60GB download from Internode.

However Internode have just updated their offerings and now I can get phone line rental and 100GB from Internode for $80.  Usually I don't get close to my 60GB as I focus on obtaining 'matroska' files rather than .avi or .mp4.  Matroska (.mkv) is a newer format which has great quality but smaller file size.

Yesterday I pulled the switch, we will move the phone line rental and internet connection to Internode and pay the 'bundle' price.  It is actually a few dollars less than we paid previously but with 65% more download!

We must be going to Melbourne soon.  The car had a major service today, new spark plugs etc and all is ready for the drive.  I am off to get my prescriptions updated on Monday and will look to mow the lawn as well.

What A Difference A Reformat Makes!

All the best plans of mice and men!  Well the plans to reformat the laptop didn't go exactly the way it was meant to. 

But we got there (or are getting there eventually).  The original plan was to return the laptop to the same condition as when we bought it. The laptop instruction book told us how to do it but it wasn't quite as the book said it should be.

We had updated the laptop with official Windows from Vista to Windows 7.  And the return to Factory Condition option isn't available in Windows 7!  This option was called the Dell Image option but it was nowhere to be seen.

The beauty of the Factory Image reset is you don't have to worry about installing any drivers, they are all installed automatically from the Dell Laptop Image.  A driver is a small program which runs the "Dell" laptop parts of the system.  These drivers are for the screen, the sound, the wireless internet connection, the webcam and other pieces.

To do a full return to factory conditions meant I had to 'manually' re install Vista and the Dell Drivers from the disks provided. 

So off I set.  The Vista reinstall was OK but I was having problems with the drivers.  So I restarted the now Vista laptop, hit the F8 key and got into the 'restore' options.  Bingo, there was the restore to Dell Laptop Image option!  15 minutes later it was just like the first time we bought the laptop.

Then came the reinstall Windows 7!  This went reasonably OK.  Another hour or so and Windows 7 was up and running.  Then it was updates time.  After all the updates for Windows 7 and the 2010 version of Office I have installed the updates total around 1GB!

The photo above shows the laptop doing 131 updates, most of these are for Office 2010 which I installed this morning.

But we are getting there OK.

It is amazing how much quicker the laptop runs after the reformat.  Though not as quick as the new laptop, it is now a credible backup for either Trish or myself 'just in case'.

The battery in the old laptop is dead so it only runs when connected to the mains power supply.  But it appears to be running quite OK after the reformat!  It was worth the hassle!

Roll On Cricket Season

As the blog title suggest, my footy team were beaten again on Saturday.  They have been up with the top teams for around 7 or 8 seasons now but it looks like that era may be coming to an end.

As the older champions retire the youngsters in their place just aren't quite up to it just yet.  They should still make the finals this year but I can't see them doing much when they get there. 

The weather continues to be very pleasant.  The wind is off the sea the last few days which means milder overnight temperatures but it also brings a few clouds and the occasional shower each day.  24 degrees or so during the day and 12 overnight is our current range.

When the wind swings back to the south west we get chilly clear mornings and delightfully crisp bright sunny days.  That is what we are expecting mid week coming up.

As usual Computer Club was busy on Saturday.  My PC starts even faster now it has settled down following the reformat the other week.  I can be using it in under two minutes from a 'cold' star at the moment.  Everything seems to be working brilliantly.

To repair some of the computers I help out with at Computer Club they too really need a reformat.  One guy couldn't get a program to run on his laptop.  So he decided to do a System Restore to a point back a couple of days.  However when you hit the "System Restore" link on his computer nothing happens!

I managed to start it in Safe Mode, I hit System Restore and again nothing happens!  His laptop really needs to be reformatted.  That is, take it back to factory default condition, exactly what it was like the day it was brought home from the shop.  This means you completely wipe everything off the hard drive and start again.

Most laptops have a 'hidden restore' section on their hard drives.  On this section is a 'copy' of what was on the brand new laptop.  When doing a full reformat, or revert to factory settings, this is copied onto the usable section of the hard drive after everything that was there beforehand is erased.

This is just what I am going to do with Trish's old laptop tomorrow.  It will take a little longer because her laptop came with Windows Vista on it.  So the restore process will restore Vista.  Trish got a copy of Windows 7 on a disk from the manufacturer a month or two after she bought her laptop.  So after the Vista restore is finished I will need to reinstall a fresh copy of Windows 7 over the top of it.

It should take around 90 minutes to have it back with a brand new copy of Windows 7 ready for me to load up with software.

It will be a backup for both of us in case we have a disaster somewhere with one of our computers.

We will see the last 3 episodes of "Fargo" tonight.  The original movie "Fargo"is one of my all time favorites.  Needless to say I am finding the 10 episode TV Series fantastic.  It scores 9.2 and is expected to win several Emmy Awards.

I managed to get my "Melbourne Bottling" completed Friday morning and immediately put another brew on.  I have stacks of empty bottles so a brew is needed urgently to utilise them all.  I will probably bottle on Friday of next week.

My brother continues to enjoy his caravan Trip as they head further north and enjoy the warmer weather.  When I last spoke with him they were at 1770 north of Bundaberg.  The enjoyed their time at Burnett Heads near Bundaberg.  From there they were off to 1770 and then Rockhampton to catch a Rodeo.  After that they were setting out for Yeppoon.  From there they thought they may head inland to the fossicking areas around Emerald.

My brother is loving it and his wife Jeannette is enjoying it more than she thought she would.