Back on broadband, despite hardware issues

The broadband service at our new house is now active. Unfortunately, our new wireless modem refused to connect to the internet. Eric spent a lot of time trying to work out what was wrong, without success; he'll work on that some more this weekend and try it out on our service at Airlie Beach. We did have an ancient modem, which worked, so we know the connection at Carlyle Gardens is working. Unfortunately, the ancient modem runs only one ethernet connection (not wireless), so we're a bit limited until Eric gets the technical problems figured out. He's gone off to Airlie Beach for the weekend he was planning to go anyway), where he can use our connection there and try to find out what's going on with the modem -- and how to fix it. (We both assume the modem will work fine there; one of the corollaries to Murphy's Law...) Meanwhile, I'm on broadband again at the new house.

Windows XP dies on my main computer

A complete switch to Linux may be coming on my main machine: the Windows XP partition won't load, even in Safe Mode. Spent a bit of time trying to get Windows going again, without success. I don't know enough to really be able to solve this problem, and to be honest I'm not createdly motivated to find out. Ubuntu works fine, and I do have a WinXP partition on the Eee PC for the rare occasions when I actually need to use it.

Buying furniture

Yesterday and today were shop-till-you-drop days: table, chairs, lamps, side tables, hardware and household stuff. Slowly getting organised. Today we ordered a "dining" table, which should be delivered in about 3 weeks. I put "dining" in quotes because we normally use our table for everything else as well as dining, and some of my/our hobbies can be a bit hard on the surface... so we bought a table being sold as a desk or conference table. It looks very much like a slightly larger one being sold as a modern style dining table (white top, stainless steel legs), so we figure it can't be too weird... not that we care. That store didn't have any chairs we liked, so we went next door and bought 4 chairs of a style used in conference rooms. We looked at a lot of dining-type tables and chairs, but couldn't find any dining-type chairs that were comfortable to sit in, so that contributed to our decision to buy conference-room items. In addition to being comfortable, these chairs look quite nice and should go well with the table. Two were in stock; the others should arrive late next week. They were a discontinued model, so on sale... a nice bonus. Update: Here's a picture taken after the table and chairs were delivered.

Wireless dial-up internet

Eric now has a wireless network working with our dial-up connection, so we can both be online... slowly.

The new neighbourhood

We don't have any nearby neighbours yet. The nearest is at the other end of our street, about 6 houses away. None of the intervening houses have been sold, though the one across the street has an "Option" sign on it. Officially we live behind the barrier in the construction zone, along with 3 other households (out of more than 15 houses). This part of Carlyle Gardens is called the "West Side" by the sales staff and the "Far Side" by the residents. Considering what a bunch of characters some of them are, the Far Side seems like a suitable designation. We're going to fit right in, I think.

Phone on, broadband internet coming

The telephone technician showed up right on time today, so we've now got a landline in the new house and I can at least use dial-up access to the internet through the ISP (iinet) that we've been using at Airlie Beach.. Slow, but better than nothing. I immediately applied for a broadband internet connection from them. We've been happy with their service, and we especially like the fact that they provide a dial-up number at no extra charge to use if needed (like now) and they are friendly to Mac and Linux users.

Moved—at last!

On March 5th we drove to Townsville, got a bank cheque (after some drama, when the only person authorised to do it wasn't available; the other staff were heroic in finding a workaround), then handed over the cheque and got the keys to the new house. That afternoon and Friday morning we spent shopping for essentials like a bed, a refrigerator, and a washing machine, plus some other odds and ends. On Friday afternoon our purchases were delivered. Eric then casually mentioned that a large, very severe cyclone was heading down the coast from near Cairns. (See separate entry.) Packing was our major activity for the next two weeks. As soon as the cyclone was gone, we phoned a local removalist (who doesn’t advertise; he gets all his business by word of mouth, and several locals had mentioned him as the person to contact). Our possessions were picked up on the morning of 23rd March and delivered on the morning of the 24th. During the afternoon of the 23rd we drove to Townsville so we were there in time to meet the removalist when he arrived—at around 7AM as it turned out. We laughed when he (apparently quite bemused by the number of bookcases and boxes of books, the office equipment and recliner chairs, but little else) asked if we were going to buy some furniture. There’s certainly enough room for it! Since then we’ve been unpacking. But first we had to reassemble the Ikea shelves... which of course don’t quite fit in the spaces available. The open-plan kitchen/loungeroom is huge but has limited wall space once we work around the air-conditioner outlet, the windows, the doors, the kitchen bench, and the switches for lights and ceiling fans. We’ve built one ‘wall’ of shelves between the dining area and the lounge area and are contemplating what else we might do. My office is functional but, alas, there’s no internet, nor a working phone line, into the house. Eventually we’ll have internet (and other services) through the fibre-optic connection, but in the interim we need to organise a temporary solution. Shopping has also taken up a lot of time. In addi­tion to food, we needed to buy a variety of household goods to replace ones we deliberately didn't bring (or didn't have). The weather's been good, so the landscapers have been madly working around our house (and the others on our block). Mountains of topsoil are being spread; from the smell, it's fertilizer-enriched. Hope the sod and plants arrive soon.

Major cyclone threat averted

On Saturday (7 March) we rushed home to beat the rain and bring everything in off the balconies so it couldn't blow around. The cyclone was expected to pass by offshore from Airlie Beach early Sunday morning, accompanied by destructive winds and heavy rain... a combination likely to flood or wash out some bits of the road between here and Townsville, and/or cut off the electricity, even if nothing worse happened. Fortunately, we had minimal impact in Airlie Beach; the wind direction was such that it hit the ranges to the east and south first, leaving us in a relatively protected zone. And the cyclone stayed just far enough offshore that we were outside the zone of the worst winds and rain.

On Sunday morning Eric went for a reconnaissance walk and said he saw no damage or flooding, though the beach is mostly underwater from the very high tide. Numerous shops (normally open on Sunday) were closed and battened down (tape on the windows, plywood over the door).

Beware of download sites that charge money for OpenOffice.org

People searching for OpenOffice.org (or variations like Open Office) using Google have reported seeing "sponsored links" (sites which have paid for positioning at the top of Google search results pages) that charge users to download OpenOffice.org. Some of these sites look quite professional and could easily be mistaken for official download sites by newcomers who are unaware that OOo is always available free from the real OpenOffice.org website. While it is legal to sell OpenOffice.org, the wording on these sites (and in their terms and conditions) is often quite misleading, downloads from them provide no added value, and users who later find they've been duped cannot get a refund (per the sites' terms and conditions). Some of these sites say the payment is for support, but evidence (in the form of questions on the official OOo users' list and forums, in which people say they have registered and paid money, and are now having various problems with the program) suggests that the support is often (always?) actually provided by the OOo community, not the download sites. I won't mention any of these sites specifically here (why give them publicity?), but I do encourage readers of this blog to avoid these sites, tell others to avoid them, and (if you are so inclined) complain to an appropriate authority about them. Some other sites offer OOo on CD or DVD (usually for a low price: no more than $10), and/or bundle other material (PDFs of the user guides, clipart, various extensions, and so on) as a convenience to users. I don't have any objection to people who provide such value-added services, especially since they often link to the official OOo site.

Back from New Zealand and catching up

Eric and I are home from our 3+ week trip to New Zealand and working on catching up with snail mail, preparations for our move to Townsville, and numerous writing projects (including a report on the trip). I'm trying to find time to sort and select photos for an album illustrating the trip report. Eventually the report will appear on Avalook. Our contact at Carlyle Gardens says the house is ready, so we're planning to drive to Townsville early next week to hand over a cheque for a large sum of money and collect the keys... assuming the house passes inspection.

Andy Updegrove on Inauguration Day 2009

Inauguration Day - January 20, 2009 Andy Updegrove compares the mood in 1969 (Richard Nixon's inauguration) with today, discusses the similarities and differences, and ends on a positive note. Andy quotes from Nixon's inaugural address, with commentary. "Then, as now, it was a time of uncertainty, with wars both cold and hot raising tensions internationally and inflaming passions at home... His predecessor had left office with abysmal approval ratings... A substantial percentage of the electorate could not wait to witness his departure... Then, as now, the contrasts that day were stark - between the opportunity for the new President to achieve grand results, and the certainty that, almost immediately, events and forces as yet unknown would inevitably work to thwart him. Would he be able to rise to the challenge?" I remember the Nixon years only too well (I emigrated to Australia during that time), so quite a bit of the article was rather depressing for me to read: impressive words that weren't fulfilled. But Andy ends on a positive note, because there is one essential difference between then and now: "... unlike those dark days of the 1960s, this is a time of true celebration and genuine inspiration. Not because the times are less troubling, but because the President elect is less troubled. Unlike the paranoid and conflicted Nixon, Barack Obama seems at ease with himself, and projects an ability to selflessly lead. Never before in my lifetime has there been such a wave of hope converging upon a single leader, nor such a confluence of goodwill from all sides." Well said, Andy.

New hot water tank and heater

I finally got around to phoning the plumber on Monday. They arrived promptly (on time!) at 7 AM Tuesday. A bit over an hour later, they were done. I hadn't realised I missed hot water until I had it again.

My new role at OpenOffice.org: Co-lead of Documentation Project

It's now official: I've been assimilated. (Resistance was futile.) I've been elected as Co-Lead of the Documentation Project at OpenOffice.org. Many of you will recall that in late November 2007, I announced that after 5 years with the OpenOffice.org project, it was time for me to move on to something else, so I ws winding down my activities by the send of that year. Then in March 2008, I admitted that I was still involved, though not in the (unofficial) role of lead editor at OOoAuthors, the group producing the user guides for OpenOffice.org. And now the holiday is over. :-) In my new role, I expect to be mainly continuing what I've been doing all along: overseeing the production of the user guides. I hope I'll be a bit more disciplined in tracking and scheduling and other project-management activities—things I know perfectly well how to do, but usually don't get around to. I also plan to start blogging on OOo-related topics on my Taming OpenOffice.org website; we'll see how that goes.

The Art Of Community

The Art Of Community is a new book being written by Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu Community Manager, which will be published by O'Reilly in 2009. Topics include:

• Sustainable processes for management
• Tools and infrastructure
• Building buzz
• Measuring aspects of community success
• Conflict management
• Handling live events
• Scaling the community

The book will be available for purchase in print and will also be released online under a Creative Commons license. Read more about the book here. I'm following progress on the book (on its website) and looking forward to reading it when it's done, or parts of it as they become available online.

The Perfect Social Media Trifecta

I've been reading blog posts about making the most of social networking sites and plan to report on a few of them here. I hope that those of you who aren't already much more tuned in to them than I am may find something of interest in the sites I mention. One of the best posts I've seen so far is The Perfect Social Media Trifecta: Have you found yours? on GrayMatter Minute, a blog by Renee Lemley. Quote from the About page: "Ready or not, social media is here to stay. And so we need to study it, understand it and learn how best to use it to support our ... objectives." The trifecta referred to is Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. I'm on the first two, and am likely to soon join the third. That blog, and others (not counting the "plane landing in the Hudson River" episode), are making me aware of Twitter's possibilities (from a "what's in it for me?" perspective).

Free the web: boycott IE6

free the web says:

Internet Explorer 6 is holding back the future. IE6 is the bane of every web developer's life. Released in 2001, IE6 fails to even properly support the CSS 1.0 standard from 1996. Supporting IE6 prevents us from using cool new features, standard with up to date browsers. This erodes user-experience for everyone. Additionally, the hacks and workarounds that web designers are forced to use degrades their code, and this limits progress in other areas. Above all it's simply a waste of millions of hours of human potential.

IE7 is better, but still a problem. Encourage people to get a better browser, of which there are several: Firefox, Opera, Safari, and Google Chrome, for example. Or better still, encourage them to switch from Windows to Ubuntu. :-)

Need a new hot water tank

I still haven't called the plumber, but I did inspect the hot water tank. It's leaking. The date on the compliance plate is 1994, so it's not ancient but a bit old. So we'll need to get it replaced, not just repaired. Nuisance value is about the same, I guess. Monday I'll have to quit procrastinating and call a plumber.

Hot water system is out

The hot water isn't. The breaker switch has flipped, so probably something in the heating element has died. *sigh* I really don't feel like dealing with a plumber or electrician. I suppose it's good that it's summer, and the water emerging from the so-called "cold" tap is luke-warm, so showers aren't a problem. And Eric's space has a separate hot water system, so if I get really desperate, I can use the shower in his bathroom.

Installing Mac OSX on an Eee PC

I haven't done this, nor am I seriously considering doing it (at least not any time soon), but I really like the idea. Installing OSX on an EEE PC 901 or 1000 with an original Apple Install Disk v1.09

The first Queensland cyclone of the season

Tropical Cyclone Charlotte (and its precursor storm, and its post-cyclone phase) have been dumping lots of rain over tropical Queensland for the past several days, where it's caused floods and damaged roads. The rain is generally welcomed by locals, despite the inconveniences, though some relative newcomers to the region seem a bit shocked.

We're well south of the main storm system, but still getting a fair amount of wind and rain—enough, at least, to rattle the windows and keep us indoors. We've been keeping track of river heights through the Bureau of Meteorology's excellent website, and on Monday we spoke with the salesperson at Carlyle Gardens who said the rain was "bucketing down" there at the time.

Predictions are for an "active" cyclone season all along the Queensland coast this year, even as far south as Brisbane. The last really devastating cyclone to hit Airlie Beach was Ada, a Category 4 which came through the Whitsunday islands on 17 January 1970. At Airlie Beach, 80% of buildings were reported destroyed. The top floor of the Airlie Beach hotel was removed, and the Coral Sea Resort suffered extensive damage. On 1 March 1979, Cyclone Kerry passed the coast near Proserpine, with damage around the Whitsunday resort islands.

In Townsville, the last big cyclone was Althea, on 24 December, 1971. A smaller one, Keith, came past on 31 January, 1977 while I was living in Townsville. It crossed the coast at nearby Cape Cleveland. I recorded the wailing of the cyclone alert sirens and some of the radio announcements. The sound of the heavy rain on the metal roof was incredible.

Probably the best-known cyclone to hit Australia was Cyclone Tracy, the Christmas-eve storm that destroyed most of Darwin in 1974. A more recent well-known storm was Cyclone Larry, 20 March 2006, which caused severe damage to the town of Innisfail and pretty much destroyed the North Queensland banana crop for that season.

The Bureau of Meteorology explains tropical cyclones, and shows the storm tracks over Australia.

OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide now in paperback

I've now published the paperback version of the OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide. The text is also available on the OOo wiki and in free PDF (suitable for onscreen viewing).

Post Office boxes

The Airlie Beach Post Office's site lease expired at the end of July, but it has stayed open pending various negotiations. Meanwhile rumours abounded regarding the possibility of a local business running a post office agency in town (with the main PO moved to Cannonvale, the next suburb), and the eventual fate of the Airlie Beach post office boxes. This has been of considerable interest to us, because Australia Post does not deliver mail to where we live.

We finally got the official word in a letter from Australia Post (dated 30 Dec 08) that arrived today. The official Post Office in Airlie Beach is to close. A Post Office agency will be available in February 2009 via the Newsagency.

Most Airlie Beach PO Boxes will be moved to the Cannonvale Post Office, with the PO Box number (and the Airlie Beach designation) unchanged. Residents of Airlie Beach and Jubilee Pocket have the option of applying for a PO Box physically located in Airlie Beach itself but with a new PO Box number.

If we were not moving out of town anyway, this would be a hard decision. On the one hand, walking to the nearby Post Office five times a week is an important part of our exercise program; walking every day to Cannonvale (nearly 4 km), especially in summer, just isn't going to happen. On the other hand, changing our box number doesn't appeal either, even with the PO giving a free six-month redirection.

Since we are moving, we've decided to keep the box number and just collect the mail once a week when we drive to the supermarket in Cannonvale for our regular shopping. No need to change box numbers when we'll be changing our postal address completely later this year anyway.

More about the post office on Eric's Airlie Beach Bum website.

New Year

New Year's Eve was unusually quiet, other than the noise of the fireworks going off—twice: they do one set at 9PM for the kids and then another at midnight. Both sets are launched from a point of land clearly visible from our balcony. The forecast thunderstorm did not materialise, so we sat outside to watch. This is a party town, and the bars close very late (3 am or later, in some cases), so we often have people staying in rooms near us who reel back in the wee small hours, singing or shouting, frequently swearing loudly, and then banging loudly on doors (presumably to awaken whoever went to bed earlier), demanding to be let in. We expected some of that last night, but heard nothing. What it was like in other parts of town, we have no idea.

Adventures with my Eee - Part 4

Yesterday I bought another Asus Eee, a black 1000H model with Windows XP on it. The store had only one left (on sale). It has 160GB HD, 1GB RAM, wifi 802.11b/g/n, ethernet, 1.3M camera, Bluetooth, 3 USB ports, an SD card slot, microphone and earphone jacks, and an external monitor port (VGA). Full specs on the Asus website for those of you who want all the technical details. It weighs around 1.45 kg and its power adapter is surprisingly lightweight. I promptly downloaded and installed a specialised version of Ubuntu known as eeebuntu. It comes in three versions: Standard (all the usual software that comes with Ubuntu installs with the operating system), NBR (netbook remix) and Basic (minimal software). I chose Standard. The Eee's hard drive came partitioned into two 80GB drives, so I've now got the Eee set up for dual-booting, with 40GB for each operating system and its software, and 80GB for data files accessible by both o/s. I'm still installing application software. The screen is very crisp and clear; the keyboard is reasonably usable for a touch-typist (much more so than the smaller keyboard on the Eee701); the wifi and Bluetooth work with both Windows and Ubuntu; so I’m happy. This will be my main travel machine, and will also act as my Windows computer at home, replacing the older laptop (a Dell Inspiron 510m) that I’ve been using for that purpose; it, in turn, is going to a friend to replace the friend's elderly computer.

Construction site: puddles and boats in the harbour

Rain fell overnight, leaving puddles to mark the low spots in the construction site. Several boats had come into the new harbour, presumably to seek shelter in case of wind and waves. That area has a usable boat ramp, handy if someone wants to come ashore in a dingy to shore, but we doubt that the gate is open to get a car in to the ramp.

Today's online reading

I generally avoid watching, listening to, or reading what passes for general news (as opposed to science and technology news), as it's mostly negative: economic doom and gloom, people being intolerant and nasty to each other, murder and mayham. I do browse through the headlines, though, and spot the occasional items of interest to me. For example: Happy Birthday Earthrise, Christmas Eve 1968 on Apollo 8 orbiting the moon.

Christmas view

Today is sunny, clear, hot (over 30C), and not at all humid (for here: only around 32%). Here is the more picturesque part of our view: Moving along to the right, here is the current state of the Port of Airlie construction: Compare with last year's picture.

Scanning back issues of my fanzine

Inspired by all the online socialising I'm doing on Facebook, I've started scanning back issues of my fanzine WeberWoman's Wrevenge and making them available in PDF on my own website as well as two of the fanzine archive sites, efanzines.com and fanac.org. Plans for a brand new issue of the zine are fermenting in my mind.

Visiting cruise ships

Cruise ships large and small visit Airlie Beach regularly, on their trips up and down the Queensland coast. These two arrived on the 8th and 9th of December, coming in around 6 AM (soon after dawn) and departing around 6 PM (not long before sunset).

Demolition of a derelict house

A derelict house just below us on the hillside is finally being torn down. This is probably due to local government saying "clean that up before cyclone season or we'll do it for you and charge you a lot of money". Scientists are predicting an "active" cyclone season for Queensland, so there is a lot of pressure on the half-completed construction projects to clean up anything that can blow around -- before they close up for the 2- to 4-week summer break. And of course pressure on householders with junk in their yards. Removing the roof began 10 days ago. Using a chainsaw to cut the roof battens. No use of any of the required safety equipment is evident. Smashing down the weakened structure. Some cleanup of debris still to go, and some stubborn structure to knock down.

More travel photo albums now online

I've just uploaded the photo albums for our 2002 trip to Darwin and back in the motorhome. The trip report starts here. Look in the text of each installment for the links to photo albums.

I'm on Facebook

After months of resisting, I've finally got a Facebook account. Increasing numbers of friends are putting photos there and have been encouraging me to get an account so I can see them. I'm rapidly discovering hordes of friends, particuarly from the science-fiction fandom community, including many in my age group, so I can see a lot of time spent catching up with them.

Another Carlyle Gardens inspection

On Tuesday we drove again to Townsville, this time to attend a pre-Christmas pizza-and-pool party for new residents, and to inspect progress on the house. The weather was fine, sunny, and hot, though not excessively humid. We enjoyed meeting more of the residents (and collecting the latest gossip); the pizza was good too. Afterwards, we drove around the established part of the community (the "east side"), collecting ideas on window coverings and garden treatments. The next day we inspected our house, located on the "west side" (also known colloquially as the "far side"—a designation we quite like). We noted that driveway had been poured 2 days before, the kitchen cabinets were in, the roof ventilation and solar hot-water panel was in, final bits of tiling were in progress, and there was still no evidence of airconditioning going to be installed in the 2nd and 3rd bedrooms, as specified. I queried this point and this morning received a call to say "yes, it will be done!" Here are two more pictures. The first is taken from the other (eastern) side of what will be a landscaped park; the arrow marks our house. Projected completion date is now early January, weather permitting, but we're in no hurry.

Support Creative Commons

I'm a Creative Commons fan; I like their philosophy. If you're not familiar with CC, you can read about it here. Browsing around their website reveals much of interest, including notes on which organisations and individuals are licensing some or all of their output under one of the several CC licenses available.

Support Wikipedia

Wikipedia is fundraising.

Adventures with my Eee - Part 3

Wanting to get the Eee working with my mobile phone as a modem, I bought a USB-to-Bluetooth dongle. (More recent versions of the Eee come with Bluetooth built in.) Lots of internet research and mucking around later, I got it working. Hooray! (I'll come back here later and insert some links to web pages that helped me figure it out.) Unfortunately, after turning off the Eee overnight, upon rebooting this morning I found that Ubuntu doesn't "see" the dongle. So apparently what worked to get it going wasn't persistent. More research needed, but no time right now. Here are two photos of the device I bought. It's one of the smallest ones available. I got mine from the local Tandy store, but they are readily available on eBay and other online shops.

Schoolies week in Airlie Beach

This week is "Schoolies"—the week when graduating high school students, having finished their final exams, go to several popular places and party. Airlie Beach is one of the popular places. Many of the kids are not yet of legal drinking age (18) but most of them have no trouble getting supplies. Many extra police are in town to keep order. The last couple of years, Schoolies week locally has been noisy but not marred by many fights (or lots of illegal drinking), unlike in some other areas, such as the Gold Coast in southern Queensland. I'm using the hot, humid weather as an excuse to stay indoors with the doors and windows closed and the airconditioning on. This keeps the noise from their so-called "music" to a tolerable level. Unfortunately the local weather on several days has featured strong wind gusts and some storms—not so good for trips to the reef and other on-water activities that might take the schoolies out of town (and tire them out). Still, we got through the week with minimal problems, a testimony I think to the town's attitude of welcome and providing lots of things for the kids to do, plus an escort service for girls returning to their accommodation and safe places for people to go and chill out if peer pressure is getting to be a bit too much for them.

Adventures with my Eee - Part 2

In March I bought an Asus Eee, one of the models with a 7-inch screen. In October I replaced its operating system with a special Eee version of Ubuntu. Here is what its interface looks like. This week I got around to trying to use the 24-inch Dell monitor as a display for the Eee. This turned out to be somewhat more complicated that I had expected. It had worked easily with the Xandros that came with the machine, so I had not been expecting problems. However, if I plugged in the monitor before starting Ubuntu, the display (on the Eee as well as the monitor) went completely berserk. The Eee's display was apparently attempting to fit the monitor's resolution (so most of the display didn't fit into the available area), and the external monitor was completely unreadable, with horizontal lines of colour jumping around. After much mucking around, I found a sequence that works for me:

1. With the video cable (to the external monitor) disconnected, turn on Eee, boot Ubuntu.
2. Connect the video cable to the external monitor.
3. On the Eee, go to Preferences -> Screen Resolution.
4. Click Detect Displays. Set Resolution to 800x600.
5. Click Apply. Answer "yes" to "Keep settings?" External monitor will come on.
6. Close Settings window.

So far I haven't found a way around having to do this each time I try to use the Eee with the external monitor. However, I don't often want to do this, so it's not a big drama and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on finding a better way. The next upgrade of the operating system may change it all anyway... or perhaps I'll try out one of the other flavours of Ubuntu for the Eee. Here's a photo of the Eee running the big monitor.

Good medical news

Yesterday we drove to Mackay for my one-year post-op checkup with the orthopedic surgeon. He said the x-rays looked excellent (pointing out various technical details) and told me that that he didn't need to see me again for checkups, though of course if I developed problems (especially pain) I should get in touch with him or someone else. He also said I had no restrictions on what I can do, though he advises against high-impact activities. He reckons the implants are good for at least 20 years, and probably 30, though nothing's guaranteed... depends on a lot of variables.

Carlyle Gardens update

We had arranged to inspect progress on the house and pay our deposit on Tuesday. On the way into town on Monday, we stopped at our credit union (MECU) at James Cook University to pick up a cheque. MECU has recently purchased UniCredit, a smaller credit union with a branch office at JCU. We are delighted, because for 10 years our nearest branch has been in Brisbane! Not that we can't do all of our normal banking over the internet or at the post office, but for rare occasions it would be a bit more convenient to go into a branch office. But I digress... regarding the house: the brick siding and metal roof are on, the interior walls are in, the windows are all in place, and the major bits of floor tiling are done. But the bathrooms and kitchen still have to be installed, and all the plumbing and wiring connected, as well as the interior painting done. One of the salespeople said they'd be astonished if the builder managed to complete it all before 19 December, the projected completion date (and the last day before the builders leave for their 3-week end-of-year break). The project manager said he was leaning on the builder to preferentially work on the houses that have been sold, instead of doing them sequentially down the street. We told everyone that we were not in any hurry, so if it all slipped into next year, no problem... and we'd be overseas for all of February, so handover in March would be okay. We don't want to move in high summer anyway. While we were there, we met some of our future neighbours, who told us a few things. They had moved into the new section (two streets away from our place) in early September, and say they really like it, but there are some "issues" -- not with the community's management, but with other services. For example, the phone company still hasn't managed to get their landline connections working. They aren't too concerned because they have mobile phones, and they are not being charged for their non-existent landline service. They also cheerfully noted that the electricity company hasn't got their meters working yet, so although the power is on, they aren't being charged for what they're using. Here's a photo of the house as seen on Tuesday. See also this post and this photo album.

Rat damage fixed

We drove to Townsville on Monday and put the car in for service first thing Tuesday morning. Fortunately we were planning to stay over until Wednesday anyway, because we didn't get it back until mid-afternoon on Wednesday, although we were promised the car back by 5 PM Tuesday. The service people didn't even start diagnosing the problem until mid-afternoon on Tuesday, so they had no hope of finishing the job that day once they discovered it wasn't easy. Apparently the technicians eventually had to pull out the dashboard and then the back seat before they finally tracked the problem to its cause: insulation chewed off the wires near the fuel pump. Then after fixing the wiring they had to put the car back together again! On the plus side, we were pleasantly surprised at how relatively low the repair bill was, considering how much work had been involved. Meanwhile we drove around in a cute little Mazda supplied by the dealership at no charge to us, doing some shopping and visiting Carlyle Gardens again (see separate post).

Houseguest and birds

Mike, a friend from Canada, was here for 10 days. He's the perfect houseguest: good company but doesn't need entertaining, tidies up after himself, and doesn't get in my way. Many days he was off on snorkeling trips to the islands or the outer reef, so we only saw him in the early morning and the evening anyway. Three species of birds came by our balcony to be introduced to Mike (and fed by him): cockatoos, lorikeets, and a young kookaburra (with its nervous mother hovering around nearby). Here are some photos. Cockatoo has close encounter with Mike—several others are on the rail, just out of the picture. Rainbow lorikeet—one of a pair that visited. Kookaburra—his blue underwing feathers are visible but not obvious in this photo.

Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3

I've been spending a lot of my time recently working on the Getting Started guide produced by the OOoAuthors group, especially the printed edition published by the Friends of OpenDocument Inc. through Lulu.com.

Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3 (October 2008); a free download is available from the same page.

A version of this book, formatted for onscreen viewing of two pages side-by-side, was published earlier and is available on the OOo Documentation Project's website, along with PDFs of the individual chapters of the book.

Rats revisited

We took the car to the auto electrician, who inspected it and said that he couldn't find any exposed wiring or other obvious problems, so the next thing to do was have it checked by the computerised system at—you guessed it—a Subaru dealer. Subaru doesn't make the necessary software available to other fixit places (at least not until a car model is at least 3 years old, which is when the basic warranty expires), so it's a dealer or nothing. The electrician said the car was safe to drive, but we of course could not trust any of the instrumentation. He didn't charge us anything for the inspection, either. The first chance we'll have to get the car looked at is the week of 17 November, so that's when we're going to Townsville; we wanted to go there anyway around that time. After we left the electrician's, we stopped at a service station to top up the fuel. It took very little, thus confirming that the fuel level was what we'd thought it should be. Of course, the gauge is still showing empty. Meanwhile one of our neighbours gave us some rat poison to put in the engine compartment. I hate rat poison, because some animal or bird might eat the dead rat and be poisoned in turn, so I'm reluctant to use it.

Rats!

When I returned on 9 October after a week away, I discovered that the car was showing an "out of fuel" light and the gauge was at the completely empty end of the scale. I speculated about whether it really was out of fuel or if a sensor had failed; and if it was really out of fuel, why that might be: a leak? thieves? I knew that we'd not driven enough since the last refuelling to use even half a tank. Well, after Eric got home from his travels (a week later), we put another 10 litres (2.5 gallon approx.) into the tank, but not only did the light not go out, but other warning lights came on. Scary ones, that the owner's manual said meant "contact Subaru immediately". So of course we didn't want to drive it anywhere. Today, Monday, I called the service department at the Subaru dealer from whom we'd bought the car, and he said "can't tell without putting it on to the computer; you'll have to bring it in to a dealer, but probably best to go to the closer one in Mackay" (only 150 km away instead of 300 km). So I phoned the Mackay dealership, who said much the same thing, agreeing that with no idea of the cause, they couldn't say whether driving it would be safe or not. They suggested calling the auto club, which I had considered doing in the first place. So I did. The auto club bloke arrived, checked fuses, hmmmm'd a bit, opened the bonnet, took one look, and immediately said: "There's your problem: rats!" showing us a piece of chewed insulation (teeth marks clearly visible). "If you don't drive it a lot, they come down the hill and build a nest in the car, often on top of the fuel tank, and chew the insulation on the wiring. We see a lot of that here." He said the car was safe to drive, but there was no need to take it to the dealer as the local auto electrician could deal with it. So I phoned the auto electrician, who laughed ("We see a lot of that here!") and made an appointment for us to bring it in on Wednesday. I guess we should drive the car more often!

OpenOffice.org 3 is here!

OpenOffice.org 3 was released today. It is much improved, with some great new features, although its appearance hasn't changed much. I am among those who are really happy that it has only minor changes in the user interface (related to functional changes in the program) and not cosmetic changes to make it look more "modern"—but others disagree. You can get OOo version 3 from the OpenOffice.org website. Take it for a test drive. If you like it, keep it! No license fees or other charges. Thanks to OpenOffice.org Ninja for a summary (with screenshots) of new features.

Ubuntu on the Asus Eee PC

In March I mentioned buying an Asus Eee PC running Xandros Linux. Today I replaced the Xandros with a special Eee version of Ubuntu, the Linux flavour that I run on my main laptop. A member of the Ubuntu Australia group kindly sent me a CD with the operating system on it (so I didn't have to download it), along with instructions for putting the program on a USB stick so I could install it (the Eee doesn't have a CD drive). This involved downloading some small programs and running them, to make the USB stick bootable and unpack the Ubuntu program files. Unfortunately, I couldn't install from my USB stick (it kept giving error messages), and I didn't have a spare one to try, so I used the same instructions to put the files on an SD card and it then installed with no problems. I'm much happier with the Eee now that it has a more familiar (to me) operating system on it, and the screen seems more readable to me, so I'm playing around with it quite a bit more than I did before. I've got an 8GB SD card in it to supplement the 4GB that comes with it. While at a science-fiction convention in Canberra over the weekend, I spotted two people with 7-inch Eee's (the model I have). One was running the supplied Linux, but the other had an alpha of Ubuntu 8.10 on it.

Carlyle Gardens open day

The Carlyle Gardens retirement resort in Townsville (suburb of Condon) held an open day on the weekend of the 6th and 7th of September, and we attended. What we saw, and the residents we met, confirmed our impression that this was a suitable place for us to live. Our selection criteria included:

• Located in a warm but not too humid part of the country, with a choice of suitable health care options and a convenient airport with good connections to other parts of the country.
• Good, fast internet access available.
• Easy access to recreational facilities such as a gym, pool, maybe a restaurant.
• Convenient transport options if one doesn’t have a car.
• Far enough above sea level and/or far enough from the coast to minimise the risk of flooding from storms (including cyclones), tsunami, sea levels rises, etc.
• Not in an area likely to be flooded by river runoff or flooding, eg from heavy rain associated with cyclones.
• Facilities to minimise inconvenience from power outages of up to several days (e.g., solar power sufficient to keep some things running—though not the air-conditioning). This ruled out most buildings with elevators.
• The house or apartment must have no internal or external steps.
• Must have some way to separate my space from Eric’s space, with a sound barrier between us.
• Must have two toilets, and preferably two bathrooms.
• Must have good storage space.

Our original idea was to wait a year or two or three and buy a house in a later stage of the expansion, but after studying the site plan we realised that the house that suited us best was in the section currently under construction, and it was best by a long margin. So we put down a bit of cash as an “option” (sort of a holding deposit) and came home with a thick document to read and lots of photos (album here). I just realised I’ve never lived in a new house in my adult life, and possibly only once as a child. We haven’t decided what to do with the apartment in Airlie Beach, except that we definitely plan to keep it for at least a few years, as an investment. Recently built houses. Our house, under construction. Community centre. Below: location.
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Trip to Cairns and Port Douglas

We just got back from our first longish trip in the new car, and the first longish trip in any car since my hip operations 18 months ago. We went up to coast to Cairns and Port Douglas and back again. We been told by a lot of people that good deals on hotels could be had, as the whole region is suffering from lack of tourists (cost of petrol is one reason; cuts in airline services is another), and so it proved when I checked on my favourite online booking site, Wotif. We left on Monday, 28 July, driving only as far as Townsville (300 km). The drive was very good: beautiful weather, and very little traffic on the road. The independent truck drivers are said to be on strike, so instead of the usual steady stream of semi-trailers, we saw about 6 in 4 hours. The main highway is two-lane most of the way (one lane in each direction), and the road surface is often in poor repair, so the lack of trucks was most pleasant. We did a bit of shopping and checked out a retirement resort (Carlyle Gardens) in Townsville that looks much like Panorama City in Lacey, Washington (where my parents lived): about the same size (number of residents), same sort of facilities and activities, and so on. I've been doing some internet research for a couple of years, but this is the first time we've actually gone to inspect one of these resorts. Eric's not keen, but he knows that one of these years we'll probably have to move somewhere for medical reasons, so he's willing to look at places that might suit us. Their website, by the way, is a bit out of date; it doesn't show the large new section that is under construction. We'll be returning for a closer look on their open day in September. We had a great drive up the coast, stopping briefly at Paronella Park, a mostly-ruined place with a fascinating history as a popular tourist destination in the 1930s and 1940s. We really enjoyed our 3 days in Cairns. We stayed three nights in a 5-star hotel (Cairns International) for about the cost of our usual 3.5 star motels. The weather was beautiful, so we walked around quite a lot (more than I've done for two years; very tiring, but definitely good for me). We ate in one of our favourite seafood restaurants (Barnacle Bills), among other places. Trips to the reef and rainforest are no novelty for us, so we didn't do any of that. Goofing off, and not accessing the internet, makes a really great break for us. Then on to Port Douglas, just a hour's drive up the coast from Cairns, where we stayed for 3 days at Le Cher du Monde on Macrossan Street, the main shopping-and-restaurant street. The apartment was quite comfortable and the location was ideal. Ours faced the pool, so if there was any street noise at night, we didn't hear it. More goofing off in beautiful weather, interspersed with long walks around town. We were interested to see that the old place we'd stayed in years and years ago (Coconut Grove) has recently been replaced by a large modern upmarket resort building. On our way back down the coast, we stopped for two nights at Port Hinchinbrook in Cardwell, a resort that turned out to be almost deserted of visitors, with extremely limited food options. We ended up driving the 3 km to Cardwell (a small town strung out along the sea shore) and picking up takeaway food (salads and sandwiches) there. Our cabin was otherwise pleasant, and had its own outdoor spa. Our original plans called for taking a cruise to the resort on Hinchinbrook Island for the day, but we chose not to, preferring to sit around reading our books instead. Then home to Airlie Beach the next day. I'm working on an album of photos of the trip and will post a link here when it's done and uploaded.

On to Wollongong

On Friday we checked out of the hotel, dragged our luggage several blocks to a Europcar rental office, and picked up a car. I had chosen Europcar partly because their office was within a block of easy access to the freeway going south... where we wanted to go. We drove south, checking out the beaches south of the airport and then driving through the Royal National Park on our way to Wollongong. I had never visited most of this stretch of coast, despite having lived in the Sydney area for 10 years. The weather was beautiful. I didn’t find many photo opportunities in the National Park (most of the good views required more walking, or more precarious walking—such as on slippery stones over a creek—than I wanted to indulge in). Just south of the park is a great view towards Wollongong. Along this stretch of coast, part of the old road has been replaced with the Seacliff Bridge, which is just visible as a Z-curve in the photo below. The road is on huge pylons. It opened around 2 years ago. The only way to get good photos is by walking along the pedestrian walkway, but as this involved a much longer walk than I felt up to, we didn’t do it. Eventually we reached the Wollongong area and found the Bed-and-Breakfast place where we were staying for 3 nights. It had only been open for 6 weeks in a newly-built house, so some bits weren’t quite finished. Despite that, it was a comfortable place, the food was good, and the proprietors were interesting to talk with. They have only 3 guest rooms. On 2 of the nights, we were the only guests; on Saturday, another couple was staying there, but we didn’t meet them. Wollongong is a small industrial city with a growing university. It’s been reinventing itself as a tourist destin­ation, taking advantage of good beaches and a beautiful sea view, nice for more people than just those wishing to enjoy the surfing. On Monday we drove south aways to look at other parts of the coast, then back to Sydney, dropping off the rental car in the mid-afternoon. More lunch and dinner visits with Sydney friends followed.

Trip to Sydney & visit to Apple Store

In late June, encouraged by my walking progess, I took my first trip by air since my hip operations. The construction noise was driving me nuts, so one Monday morning I announced to Eric that I was going to Sydney for a week; would he like to come with me? Of course he agreed, so I spent an hour or so making plane and hotel bookings and on Wednesday we departed. As expected, I encountered no dramas with the airport security people, either at our local airport or in Sydney on our return. They seemed quite accustomed to dealing with passengers with metal hips and knees. As advised, I mentioned my hips to the attendant before stepping through the detector (which beeped loudly), and was then given a closer going-over with a wand. No big deal, and very little extra delay. We stayed in a different hotel in Sydney this time, for two reasons: we like to try new (to us) hotels whenever one has a good deal on Wotif, and this trip we wanted to do some different things in a slightly different part of the city than usual. The hotel I chose (Park Regis) is only two blocks from Town Hall Station and another block to the specialist SF bookstore, Galaxy. Then a few more blocks to the new Apple store, which had just opened a week or two earlier. We really enjoyed visiting the Apple store. We went early on Thursday morning, when it wasn’t busy, so we had a chance to chat with several of the young, enthusiastic staff and play with all the gadgets that interested us. We entertained one of the staff by listing all the Apple stores we’d been in, in the USA and (in my case) in the UK. This encouraged her to point out that the store has the biggest Apple logo and the longest Genius Bar (the help section) in the world. In overall size, the Sydney store is second only to the London store. Here are some photos. Apologies to those of you who don’t find Apple stores (and their architecture) as exciting as we do. An album of photos is here. Front of Apple store, Sydney. Note 15-metre tall glass panels along the front, and the big Apple logo. Eric and I at the glass staircase The glass staircase has two levels. From the upper level you can see people walking up the lower stairs. The big logo as seen from inside the store. Ground floor has computers (desktop models are at the other end of the room), Top floor is the Genius Bar, where staff diagnose whatever problem customers have with their computers or iPods. There are also 4 tables with computers for kids (featuring software for children), and (not visible in photo) areas for individual and group training—all free.

New word of the week: Nerdgassing

"Nerdgassing: I Coin This Word In the Name of Humanity". http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=834 Definition: The venting nerds emit when some (often minor) detail of a book/movie/TV show/comic book/etc either conflicts with canon and/or handwaves through some some suspect science. I enjoyed the comments, and the masthead photo on the blog, too. And the whole topic reminded me of the reactions of some people, especially a subset of professional editors, when faced with incorrect punctuation or usage (or what they see as incorrect punctuation or usage, which in many cases includes the way the Brits and Aussies do it).

Reno in 2011 Worldcon bid

I'm now the Australian agent for the "Reno in 2011" WorldCon bid. A large group of my friends (scattered all over the US) are running this bid, in opposition to a bid from Seattle that is run by people I don't know. The Reno bid's website is http://www.rcfi.org/ I probably wouldn't attend (I don't do WorldCons unless they are in Australia), but I like their attitude... and I know that among the group is plenty of conrunning experience so they should do a good job of it.

Leg improvement

On Saturday evening I stood up from sitting in Eric's recliner chair and something in my left leg went click and it HURT LIKE HELL when I put any weight on it. He helped me into the bedroom to lie down, and we both freaked. Saturday of a 3-day weekend—what a time for something to happen! Fortunately it didn't hurt when I was lying down, so I stayed in bed. Now the weird part—when I got up on Sunday morning, my leg felt—and functioned—better than it had for months. I was walking without lurching! We assume something snapped back into place (instead of out of place, as we'd first thought). It's still doing fine, and I’m finally improving my walking distance and speed. Oh, and as an extra bonus—my bad left knee has been hurting a lot less than before.

New cupboards

For years I've been making do with two open-fronted sets of shelves as my "pantry" in the hall, but a few months ago I decided it was time to seriously attempt to replace them with something a bit tidier, that is with doors to hide the jumble of contents. After looking at lots of unsuitable (and often overpriced) cupboards in several stores, I finally located ones I liked and ordered from one of the local hardware stores three single-door flat-pack pantry cupboards. To the surprise of both me and Eric, the cupboards turned out to be really easy to put together. The instructions were good (good English, readily under­standable, with good clear diagrams), and the quality control of the cutting of the pieces and the hole spacing for screws was excellent. The quality is conspicuously better than most of the cheap flat-pack stuff we've bought in the past 10+ years, and not much more expensive. They are from a company in Western Australia. I did most of the assembly myself, enlisting Eric only for the heavy lifting.

Kookaburras visit

Two kookaburras visited us this evening. We fed one some strips of chicken. It was interesting to watch the bird whack the chicken against the railing before eating it, as if it were a lizard or something that needed to be stunned or killed. One of those "wish I had the video camera out" moments!

Eric in the newspaper

My concentration lately has not been helped at all by the construction work below us reaching another phase of pounding things into the ground. THUMP THUMP THUMP (etc). Today they started at 08:00! (They generally quit around 17:30, though they do take a few breaks, for lunch and such.) We probably should take a trip somewhere for a few weeks. Last week Eric was interviewed (and photographed) for the Sunday Mail (a big Brisbane newspaper), which devoted most of two pages to an article on "the battle for Airlie Beach". Eric got the big quote at the top of the page: "It's really developed and it's noisy, dirty and disruptive. The things which made it charming are starting to disappear." The main story (without that quote or any mention of Eric) got into the online version of the paper, but the quote, photo, and interview of Eric didn't; his bit was only in the print version. Oh well. I can't post it on my blog for all to see, because of copyright.

Outrageous taxi dispatcher

While Eric and I were out walking today, we met an acquaintance who had injured her leg and was leaning heavily on a cane. She said she was waiting for a taxi to take her to a doctor's appointment at an office 3 km away, but said she wasn't sure if one would arrive to pick her up. She explained that when she had phoned for a pickup, the dispatcher had told her to go to the taxi rank (about 100 yards away) even though she'd mentioned she was unable to walk that far. We were outraged. We also assumed that the drivers themselves would be happy to come get her, despite the dispatcher being a jerk, so when we got to the taxi rank (where two taxis were waiting), Eric spoke to the first driver. He agreed that the dispatcher's statement was ridiculous and promptly drove off to collect the woman. I hope she makes an official complaint to the taxi company about the dispatcher. Update: Turns out she had a broken ankle, and she did make a complaint.

New car

On Monday we drove to Townsville (300 km north, about 4 hours with rest breaks) to get the car serviced. It was very overdue for a service, though it hasn’t been used that much. The log book shows that in a typical year we drive around 5,000 km; even with the around-Australia trip in 2004 contributing nearly 20,000 km, our total distance for a bit over 5 years is under 45,000 km. The tyres need replacing (turns out the tread was worn to an illegal level), but otherwise the car’s in great shape. But it’s reaching the age where things are more likely to go wrong, and its resale value is plummeting, so I wanted to test-drive the new models (Subaru Forester X), which sounded great in the reviews and in the specs on the Subaru website. And with the Austra­lian dollar at or near its highest value in many years, the cost of new cars is about the same as what I paid for mine five years ago. So I test-drove the car, liked it, dickered a bit with the salesman, consulted with Eric, and bought the demonstrator car (for a small discount off the nominal price). A bit of phoning and faxing later, I had arranged with my credit union to transfer the money from my account into the car dealer­ship’s bank account, so by the following day we sorted out the last of the paper­work and I was able to drive the car home. The trip home was delayed (predictably) by the dealership not having it cleaned and ready to go by noon (as they had promised), but by 3 PM we were on our way. Less than 10 km down the road, my mobile phone rang; the salesman sheepishly said that he’d forgotten to put the registration sticker on the car. Oops! So back we went, got the sticker, and set off again. By then we had no chance of getting home before dark (which is around 6 PM at this time of year). We don’t like driving at dusk because of the increased chance of running (literally) into wildlife on the road, but fortunately that didn’t happen.

Medical update

Medical update: When I saw the physio on Wednesday for a monthly checkup, he seemed reasonably pleased with my progress, though it's obvious to both of us that I still have a ways to go. He then had me do some new exercises (with an exercise ball, one of the big ones you can sit on) and seemed a bit surprised that I did the first few quite easily and well. So he immediately put me onto the intermediate series of exercises, some for strength and others for balance, and on the way home I bought an exercise ball to add to my extensive collection of equipment. I liked them when I was going to the gym. I also bought a new electric jug—this one with a covered spout, to discourage geckos and other wildlife from falling in.

Marina construction update

Although I complain about the noise and dust from the marina construction, it's often very entertaining. Yesterday was better than a 5-ring circus. In addition to the usual collection of diggers filling trucks with dirt to be taken from one part of the site to another, we had: a series of trucks delivering drainage pipes, sand, gravel, rolls of plastic, large boulders, and other constructions materials; two large diggers creating a big trench in the previously-flattened area and other equipment planting drainage pipes in the trench; trees being removed and preparations made for shifting the site offices to another part of the site; and—in the center ring!—the display and sales office (about the size of a 3-bedroom house) being moved several hundred yards to its new location. The latter process took all day and included 8 or 10 helmeted people peering intently under the building as it was jacked up and a huge flatbed truck moved underneath it, then a heavy tractor was attached by a chain to the front of the truck and hauled it part of the distance (probably a slight slope was involved and the truck couldn't cope on its own), after which the truck drove the rest of the way and made a complicated 5-point turn to get the building oriented as they wanted it, and finally—just before sunset—it was moved into position. This morning they reinstalled the jacks, removed the truck, and have now lowered the building to rest on concrete pads under the stumps. We have photos of the whole process; I hope to get them into an album and online soon.

Geckos beware

Yesterday started off with a shock: I boiled my tea water in the electric jug (similar to an electric kettle) and then discovered the jug contained a (now boiled) gecko. Apparently the poor creature had fallen in through the spout sometime overnight. I don't know whether it had drowned before being boiled, but either way—the incident really put me off the idea of tea for the day. I think it was the same critter that had fallen into the honey container a few weeks ago. Sigh... I'm planning to get a new jug; I can't bear the though of using the old one, even if I clean it thoroughly. Meanwhile, the microwave oven boils water just fine. Eric took photos of the deceased, but I won't inflict them on you.

Medical update

Eric and I drove to Mackay for my routine checkup by the orthopedic surgeon. As expected, he says all is well regarding my hips. I just have to keep practicing walking properly until I get it right. All the hints he gave me about walking are the same as the physio's instructions (though the physio added some specific exercises to the list), so my biggest problem is impatience. I’d probably improve faster if I following my exercise regimen more thoroughly, I must admit. And losing the weight I gained last year would no doubt help a lot too. As for the knee pain, we'll revisit that issue in 6 months at my next checkup. He says it's quite possible that the problem will resolve itself when my walking gait improves. I hope! Otherwise, he thinks it's more likely something that can be fixed with "keyhole surgery" instead of something more invasive, since the x-rays show no sign of bone wear. I've been reading a bit about the marvelous things they can do with artificial cartilege and/or fixing tendon/muscle attachments—whatever the actual problem might turn out to be. After my appointment, we did some shopping but I ran out of enthusiasm before we got through the whole list. We did find several small items that we've been hunting for some time, so we considered the day a success. I did most of the driving, and I'm delighted to report that nothing hurt or cramped up or went numb or any of the other annoying symptoms I sometimes get from being in the car for too long. When we got home, I immediately fell on the bed and slept for two hours—I'm definitely lacking in stamina after so much inactivity over the past year.

Scanning old slides

Today I finally started on a project I've been avoiding for years (because of the volume of work involved): scanning all my old slides into digital form. Several years ago I bought a scanner than handles slides and film, and I used it a bit but then got distracted by other, more interesting, projects. I have around 4,000 slides dating back to the 1960s, covering travels in Europe, North America, New Zealand, Australia and possibly North Africa. The quality of the scans isn't great, but in many cases this is because the colour in the slides has deteriorated over the years. Perhaps I'll use The Gimp to turn them all into sepia so they look even older.