Happy Birthday to me and welcome home to Marcus dinner

Monday night had been booked up with a church meeting and we figured Marus might be a tad tired.  Which he was so the Welcome home dinner was postponed until Tuesday night.

Megan suspended our no sugar diet just long enough to make a mango cheese cake that Marus figured might just do him.

Happy Birthday to me.
Chris made me a cake and as an aside, gave me some of the raw mixture.

Thankyou to Morgan who is staying with us for taking this photo.

Marcus returns

Marcus flew back from Germany.  On Monday morning we drove to the airport and met him as he came through from Customs.  Marcus's friend Fergus was there too.

Marcus then had a shower at the airport, put on his school uniform and then we dropped Marcus, Chris & Fergus at BGS.

Reading Microsoft Word For Dos into Word 2010 - Not easy

I have a document written in the old Microsoft Word For Dos file format.  I even have the style sheet used when the document was created.  (I do not know if Word embedded the style sheet information in the document files in those days.)

SOLUTION
The solution was to load up word95.  See below

 Word 2010 manages to read in the text but no formatting whatsoever.

 This is what it should look like.

After much searching on the net, I found Avanstar Quick View Plus.
This did a reasonable job.  It got the look reasonable in terms of font size / bold etc but the characters are all "style0".

The page breaks and footers are lost though.  And the table that should be at the bottom of page 1 shows up at the top.  But it's uasable.

In the end, the help came from Microsoft themselves.  Had Megan's old Toshiba windows 95 laptop in the junk box.  Powered it up and it booted although warning me along the way that the battery had failed and the date was wrong.

This laptop has no ethernet port and no wifi.  Remember the days of the PCMCIA ethernet port.  Well that was long gone and I was not about to try to go down that path.  And look at that little green thingy in the middle of the keyboard.  That's the mouse for you youngies!

So I copied my word file onto a floppy (using a USB floppy drive) and took it over.

Unfortunately it had office 2000 installed.  Amazingly the Toshiba read the floppy but it could not load the Word for Dos file.  I had come prepared though with a copy of office 95.  -> Quickly installed Word95 (Custom with all options).

Now it read the file and asked for REPORT.STY which I had thoughtfully copied onto the floppy.  Then it wanted some PLT files.  Ejected floppy.  Back to the modern world and copied the PLT files onto the floppy.  Back in time to 1995 and did it all again.  It all worked.  Saved in word95 format.  How come no docx option I wonder.  :).

Word 2010 initially opened the newly created Word95 file in "protected mode".  Had to change permissions before it would let me edit or save.  Now the document is complete save for the logo on page 1 which I could not find.  All the internal drawings are embedded and it's in docx format which will hopefully serve us for another 15 years.

I wonder if I should create a VM (Virtual Machine) with Word 95.  What OS?  Win 95 or XP?
We will leave that until we need to do that all again.


If you know a other solutions feel free to suggest by way of a comment.  I wonder if this laptop will still be around next time I need to do this.
Programs:
Avanstar Quick View Plus $US49
file-convert.com
These guys also have an online conversion process starting at $15MOQ and totalling $1 per 50k.
File Merlin $US99
This is a stand alone app but when I tried to open the file it created, the computer brought up a warning "Protected View - Office has detected a problem with file.  Editing it may harm your computer...."
Inside the line spacing was wrong.  Formatting not as good as the Avanstar program.  Gave up.

Knighthoods bestoweth

 Today Megan and I joined a whole pile of people (see below) and with appropriate pomp and circumstance were bestoweth with an Australia Day "Community Service Award".

I guess that makes us Lord and Lady and you can fallow Baldricks lead in greeting us appropriately from now on. 

I was thinking of taking a cardboard crown and cardboard sword to assist in the conferring of honours but upon hearing that none of the queens would be in attendance (Elizabeth, Julia, Anna or Graham) I decided to just attend in civvies.

 I will be executing my knightly duties with diligence and honour.  Some simple political reforms like sending most of the city based members of the health department to g work in the hospitals.  Likewise city based members of the education department will be sentenced to full time in a classroom.   Like wise we will reduce our jail population by setting up stocks in King George Square and selling tomatoes.

 Some of our compardres.
Amongst the group was a Taiwanese person of some note supported by a group of Taiwanese all dressed in bright pink tee shirts.  At the start of proceedings, we were all a bit bored and they were taking photos of themselves as you do so the Thomson's started bobbing up and down behind them.  They had brought a Taiwanese TV cameraman with them and this caused him to get his camera rolling.  We had noticed channel 9 at a nearby belly flop competition and figured for Australian's, that was more important that the conferring of honours.  But I think we may have made our mark in Taiwan.

Here we are with Nicole Johnston (top Left).  She is our local councillor.  Originally of liberal persuasion but evicted by Campbell Newman after a disagreement over a bus parking area at Sherwood and subsequently, from what I can see, subjected to a campaign of bullying and termiting by both sides of politics.

In the bottom row we have Una Drummon (Left) and Heather Griffin (Right).  Una has been involved in our church since before Christ was born.  Among other things, she still plays the organ and at a reasonable speed too.  Actually she was the person who introduced the decent tune for "O Jesus I have promised".  Don't use the one in AHB or TIS.  Use the tune from a book called twentieth century hymn tunes.  Heather is our minister although we are in caretaker mode because she is disappearing off to Esk.  Where she can minister to the Kransky sisters and other inbreds.

The Sherwood UC support crew.

Rain flood and knee jerk beaucratic insanity

Driving home from work.  There has been a little rain and Oxley Rd is flooded outside the golf driving range.  As it does from time to time.  No worries.  We drive through like we always have done.

By morning though, some well meaning bureaucratic minion has erected "Road Closed" signs and a gaggle of witches hats.  Problem is of course.  Um er.  No water on the road any more.  Just to prove it, I walked down the middle of the road as my morning exercise.

This is over government in the extreme.  Now if it were some foot deep rushing water then by all means warn people but we have been bombarded with the message that all water on roads is lethal.  Dangerous I agree.  Someone could hit this 200mm deep still water at 60km/h and spin-out but there has to be a balance.  A warning of water on the road would have been useful.  Closing the road - over reaction






Remember: Regulation Stifles Innovation.There is a role for government but it should not be to take away responsibility for our own actions nor to protect us from ourselves.

Traffic lights and round abouts both help facillitate the flow of traffic.  The rules for both are put in place by the government.  The difference is that with a round about, the drivers follow the rules to make their way.  Traffic lights on the other hand tell us when to stop and when to go.  

Megan makes ....

Megan has ventured into the world of chemistry and has made.....
glue I thought.
But no.
It's detergent for the washing machine.
I just asked what went in and it is
Lux soap flakes,
Borax
washing soda.
Isn't Lux soap anyway.  Like I am not sure what we are actually achieving here but if she is having fun and feeling like she has achieved something....


Mind you, Ross at work makes his own soap so maybe we will progress to a full blown chemistry lab making detergent.  Then we can wash the clothes that get dirty making the detergent.

Marcus Update

Marcus sent me an email

Hi Dad,

Everything is going very well here! I went on a camp for the last 4 days or so. Most of it was spent singing in a choir I've joined here. But we found lots of time for partying and so on. It snowed a lot while we were there and I have photos of me with a snowman 1.2m high, or so.

That looks and sounds great!

Well, how does he find BGS? Is everything starting smoothly?

Can't wait to get home and see you!

Lots of love,
Marcus

PS Alles gutes, happy birthday for the weekend, when I will be in a plane and time won't be relevant.

cpanel web disk not for windows 7

Yet another bizzare miscrosoft ism.  Why do they make it so hard.  The web host I use runs a management thing called cpanel.  It has a feature walled web-disk.  On XP, I just clicked a button and then I had a new "disk" on my computer.  This disk was actually the web hosts file system so it made it very easy to push files up on the web for storage and display.  A bit like drop box.  It appears that this is not supported on windows 7.

Even a year ago, I would have thought Microsoft to be with us forever but I suspect that unless the juggernaut can reinvent it's self that in 5 years it will be just an also ran.  I was at Mt Omanus shopping centre the other day and thought I would have a look at smart phones.  Almost all run Google Android in opposition to Apple.  But where is Microsoft.  I even asked at several stores.  Not a single Micrsoft phone to be found.  In the tablet arena, you can still find some microsoft offerings.  I saw a very nice machine the other day but numerically I suspect in the minority there too.  Again the big compeditors - Apple I pad and then innumerable low cost tablets running Android.  I suspect the desk top world that I suspect is shrinking anyway, Microsoft may continue to dominate but again they are up against Apple and many much improved Linux offerings.  So what have Microsoft got?.  Well MS office is still better than open office but every release seems harder to use than the previous version.  An achievement that few other programs manage as most developers improve their ease of usability over time whereas Microsoft seem to have moved into a mindset of "we are giving you the best set of features but you have to endure a totally new way of doing things"

Franks Tech Prediction
So while we are thinking of the future let me throw in my prediction for the future in the tech area.  I think we will see the development of in eye projected image technology.  So instead of your device having a screen, which lets face it, the screen and keyboard now determine the size of the device, the device will use a couple of lasers to project the image right into the eye.  So this virtual image can appear to be as large or small as you like.  A side effect will be privacy in that unless the laser is shoving the image in your eye then you will not be able to see it.  Likewise, if you wish to share your screen you will need to direct it to project into the other persons eye at the same time.

Webdisk on Win7
This fellow
http://www.techiechips.com/web-folders-web-disk-webdav-problems-on-windows-7/
 suggests
Bitkinex can be downloaded from their official website bitkinex.com

Megan's 40th Birthday Party

Lets start with a big thank you to some key people who made the day great. Ian and Fay for all their wonderful help. They produced the salads and Pavlovas and many many other of those un noticed things that just make the day a pleasure.

To cybele who with very little practice performed a duet with Megan.

To Paul who had the energy and entusiasm to add to the party. The wonderful song he wrote and performed for Megan. For bringing over his TV, PS3 etc and kept the party going until (I think) the next day.

And some people who were roped in on the day - Frank Horky who carved until his hands ached and his wonderful wife Georgina who helped greatly in that regard too.

To our neighbour Cory who inspired me to do the cooking thing (was going to be a BBQ). He phoned and then drove to try an locate a mate who had a spit roast thing. In the end unsuccessful but his entusiasm inspired me to order meat and hire a roasting oven.

Finally to all our guests who made this a wonderful day for Megan.

 Meat was cooked on a gas roaster.  We had two pork roasts, two beef roasts, four lamb roasts.  Mountains of left overs.

time
6:30am	Gas on high. Put in 2xPork roasts. 8.5kg + 8.95kg
7:00am	Observed pork already burned on top. Covered pork with alfoil. Put in 2 x Beef roasts. 5.6kg & 5.9kg. Gas on high
7:20	Concerned about gas heat. Set to low.
8:20am	Observed beef hardly brown. Put in lamb. 4xroasts totalling 8.2kg. Set gas to high
9:30am	Lamb 35 Beef 42 Pork 46
10:15am	Put in corn on cob & jacket potatoes
10:20am	Lamb 60, Beef 54, Pork 40
11:00am	Lamb 71, Beef 57, Pork 64
11:40am	lamb 76, Beef 67, Pork 71
	Visual inspection Not Inspected, Some pink, Medium
12:10	Lamb 83, Beef 75, Pork

So for once we are the ones disturbing the neighbourhood.  Paul has kindly brought over hos TV, PS3 and all the condiments.  Those with musical and dance talent (more or less) are cranking it out in our music room.  The kids are in the lounge room watching "Lady and the Tramp" on VHS.

The other party complete with its own music and games of ill repute.  Mussy has at least two aces.





















It's 11:15pm and Ellie, Jemma and Dan are screamin out the words to "Crocodile Rock"

A knighthood for me too

Well blow me over if I have not gotten one too.

So you are all invited for tea and scones
When: 8:30am Australia Day (Do you even know the date let alone sing the national anthem.  Hint: "It's not waltzing Matilda"
Pegg's Park, Koala Rd, Moorooka.
No idea where that is?  Neither have I but Google says Koala Rd is here so I assume the park is nearby



View My Saved Places in a larger map

Megan gets a knighthood

 Normally junk mail is just consigned to the bin.  Luckilly Megan opened this one to find "Moreton Community Australia Day Award"

 Happy Birthday to you.

No Sugar! in this cake

Hmmmm
No sugar in a cake.
Can that really be a cake.

Chris BGS Tennis

The school year has begun with a vengence.
Megan has a pupil free day at Oxley.
Yesterday and Monday, Chris did sailing although on Tuesday it was blown out so they did some fitness and theory.  Bought hot chips (as you do at RQ) and came back to the school early (1pm).  So then Chris and I looked into how he could use public transport.  We discovered the footbridge across the ICB is closed until 22Jan.  This cuts the tennis courts off from the rest of the school and also effectivly from Roma street.  So today I am driving him.

Dinner with extended family at Elimbah

Back Row:
Ian, Fay, Frank, Megan,Barry, June, Dave, Diane
Front Row:
Chris, Dan, Zavier, Jemma, Damica.

 Megan and Damica are both celebrating birthdays.

And there are others who helped blow out the candles

 All the kids playing Mario Kart on the Nintendo DS.  All these things talk to each other wirelessly.

Dan was the odd man out with an ipod

Church Sunday AM

Church on Sunday was one of those all age affairs

Jemma builds a pencil holder

Jemma spent a week at Ian and Fay's.
She got into the owrk shop and knocked up a pencil holder.
This involved drilling holes in a block of wood.  Then pencils stand up in the holes.

I will have to rotate some photos that are on this and the next couple of postings

Discoveries Camp 2012 Canoeing

 A very enjoyable day running the canoeing activity at Discoveries Camp.  It was very hot.  A great day to get wet.

www.discoveriescamp.com for more photos.

One of several capsises. 

Frank & Liam.

We had 7 groups of about 10 that would come for about an hour.  For some this was more than enough.  For others, I suspect that they would enjoy a longer treck.  Each canoe had two paddlers and a gunner.  The gunner had a water sqirter. 






For some strange reason, there were quite a lot of capsises just near the shore at the end of the activity.

In the late afternoon, the wind really picked up. (nothing to do with this photo).  "Luckilly" we were positioned such that the wind blew us back close to our launcing point.  Somehow that last group had a number of kids in thongs.  All other groups had almost everyone with shoes on as they were supposed to have.  This made it difficult to 'walk' the canoes back.

One canoe with 3 girls in it got blown into some dead trees.  They persisted and remained calm and made it to shore.  After gathering their breath, they insisted that they wanted to have another go at paddling home against the wind and waves.  They made it back.  Another canoe with three boys in it tipped over.  They struggeled against the wind and waves.  With some arm waving from me, I managed to communicate to them to 'let the wind and waves blow you to shore'.  They did and eventually reached the shore.  Once the water was drained and the craft righted, they too had another go.  Keeping close to the shore, but not so close as to be in the breakers, they made it back to the launching base.

We had started the day with the younger kids as experience had shown that canoeing, being a physical activity, tended to go better earlier in the day especially for these little kids.  We had tried to get the kids to canoe along the Northern side of the lake toward the dam wall with some navigation through some dead trees.  When the wind picked up after lunch, the older kids actually made much less distance than the younger kids.  Some crews in the last group did not even make it across the water from our launching point.

I had initially thought that the wind and waves had rather messed up the activity.   Interestingly both of the crews mentioned above that made it back exhausted but exclaiming what a great time they had had.  Maybe the extra challenge was a good thing for them personally and provided a better sense of achievment as compared to the usual prepackaged adventure that most gets get served up these days.

Notes for next time:-
If the wind picks up, add to safety talk
- If you tip over, don't try to fight the wind and waves, hang on to the canoe and let the wind and waves blow you.  You will get to an edge of the lake eventually.

Electric Helicopter - Six Degrees

I have been learning to fly a helicopter.
Check this out
http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/aviation/helicopters-go-electric/0

The really bizzare thing is the fellow in the driver's seat is named as "Pascal Chretien".
I used to work with a techician at Mitec who had the same name, was from France and would every now and then disappear to go helicopter flying.  I wonder.....

Jemma goes to the beach

Today Jemmas day started at 4am in Stanthorpe when she (I assume) was either
a) gently woken by Paul
b) picked up and carried by Paul to the car
c) Awoken with a bucket of cold water.
They then drove toward Brisbane stopping for pancakes at MacDonald's along the way.

Paul called me and dropped Jemma at home and I came home from work and picked her up.  We packed our togs in the car.

It was hot.  Dam hot.

I had a few meetings at work so she was stuck colouring in and making paper planes.  Finally we managed to leave.  Opened the street directory and ascertained that caloundra appeared to be a nice ocean beach near Elimbah and so set a course for there.  We stopped at Maccas for lunch.  She told me that she had had pancakes for breakfast.  Further interrogation revealed that she was unaware of the location of that particular Maccas.  Ahh preparation for teenhood -  Waking up at an unknown MacDonalds with a policeman. 

As we drove to Caloundra, I suggested that Jemma had a sleep.  She lay down across the back seat and went to sleep and only awoke when we went across some speed bumps at Caloundra.Given the 4am start this was probably a good thing.
We arrived at Caloundra at 3:00pm
We changed into our togs and took boogie boards and towels onto the beach.  3:30pm

The water was beautiful. We would bob about holding onto our boogie boards waiting for "the right one".  A fair number of false starts then we along with half the crowd would be away.  We soon learned to weave between the people closer to the shore.  Riding the white water until our tummies dragged on the ground ensured that Jemma got longer rides than me.  Then we started the walk back.  The fun not yet over as getting out had its own challenges.  Standing knee deep in white water that contained a previously un identified hazard.  Fearless four year olds torpedoing through the water and bouncing off your legs.



Deft 8 year olds who would come hurtling toward you and lean and steer past you.  A little deeper and we would use our boogie boards to shield us from the on coming waves.  Passed mum and two 13yo? daughters in matching Australia day bikinis.  So patriotic.  Being taller gave me an advantage and I would pull ahead as we walked, swam and used our boards to ride over the incoming waves.  Turned to see how Jemma was fairing in time to be distracted by all three said patriotic Australians emerging from the white water with one white pointer each on display.  I guess a design flaw or patriotic feature.  Quickly averted my eyes for fear of being arrested or accused of something by the moral police. Found Jemma who had been washed away by the same wave making her way back out again.

5:00 came and I was ready for some afternoon tea.  Suggested this to Jemma who decided that more surfing was in order.
Finally at 5:20 we emerged from the water and made our way via the out door showers.  Actually when you think about it why would you ever need a roof on showers at the beach.

Dumped our stuff at the car.  Walked across the road.  Bought Ice creams and I added a coffee.

 7yo pole dancing ?

Then onto Ian and Fay's for a beautiful dinner of Rissoles and Potato bake and salad.

I then drove home.  Arriving home 9:30ish (I think)

hello

hello

Megan in Mexico

Megan is hobnobbing it around with Julieanne down in Canberra and Sydney.  Henry have them a back stage tour of the parliamentary catacombs.  Julieanne bought a dog that managed, just after she had become attached to it, to develop a serious $$$ illness.
This is the picture that I was sent (See previous post)
PXT Message: Megs is loving the Mexican life :-)