Wyaralong Rowing

BGS regatta @ Wyaralong.
I put up my hand to help with the set up that took place on the Friday.

The pictures below are not in any order.  But sort of reverse chronological order as they came off my phone.

The racing was split across two ventues.  The juniors were at Coomera and the Seniors at Wyaralong.

Dan coxed a junior crew and Chris was at Wyaralong and rowed 6 seat in the first 8.

FRIDAY
I arrived around noon on Friday.  Jon Atherton was there and we believe Joe & Kevin Holt were out in the tinnie with an accurate GPS setting out some buoys.

Set-up duty involved putting up the catering tent and various "easy-ups" (Push up shelters).  It was as hot as....  It all went remarkably smoothly.

VODAFONE
No coverage sort or - Interesting I could received text messages but when I tried to either send a text or make a call it would say "Not registered on any network".  The phone told me there were three Vodafone networks as well as Telstra available.  Yet I could not connect to any of the Vodafone ones.  It was not a crowd issue because this problem was present at night when there was no crowd.

SATURDAY RACING
The venue is great in terms of spectators are up on a slope and can see quite a bit of the race.  Bit harder for the boys to launch boats because it is just a bit steep and there is no beach as such.  It would be even harder if the juniors had been present. So I think the organisers splitting the event made a good call.

Its a great place to row in my opinion.  Much less wind effect than Kawana.

BGS did OK.  Chris in 1st eight.
Got 3rd then 5th.
Then he came down with some kind of virus thing.  Headache and sore throat.  Bugger.
The second 8 and one of the quads got first places.
All in all an enjoyable day
Did not get any photos.  Need a telephoto lens.

The catering tent was erected on the only flat piece of ground.

The porta-loo's had been placed very unergonomically between the spectators and the catering tent.

We dragged the porta-loos into two groups.  One group around the existing amenities block that you can see in the background here and the other to behind where I was standing to take this shot.

Birthday Dinner

Megan kindly produced a very tender roast beef in the slow cooker that just falls apart.

Lewis take note :
Yorkshire pudding,
Gravy,
White sauce.  :)

1st 8 squad

Chris 6 from left.

Survival day

Bounce

Aust day at Currumbin

Archiving Video

Following on from archiving DVDs, I am archiving my video tapes.

I had to resurect an old widows XP machine with a firewire interface. The mini DV camcorder connects by firewire to the laptop. A capture program is used to copy the video off the tape and onto the 2TB HD that  can just be seen behind the camcorder.

Max Howell

Backup Copy Files Without Destination Duplicates

I have tons of old backups on DVDs, CDs, Old Hard drives, USB sticks.  I want to copy them to a single big hard drive (and then of course make a copy of that to another drive just in case).

What I would like is for a copy program that would
a) be automatically initiated when a new drive  or disk is detected.
b) Looks at file name, attributes and content  and only copies if there is not already such a file on the destination drive.
c) Alerts me when done.  (I imagine this will be quite slow)

Auslogic's Duplicate File Finder(Available on Ninite I think)



FreeFileSync - Nope

is a free Open Source software that helps you synchronize files and synchronize folders for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. It is designed to save your time setting up and running backup jobs while having nice visual feedback along the way.

Nope

DELL Vostro

Another PC frustration.  We bought this in 2013 and it was a very slow PC right from the start.  One staff member after another got frustrated and to placate them I would buy a replacement.  The time has come to take it away so that we preserve our staff's sanity.

15-1-2015
Phoned Dell customer support.  Spoke to Sherinda. 
Ran hardware tests Power On>F12  --> All OK

20-1-2015
Phoned Dell customer support on 1800 812 392
Shaleni advised check and upgrade the bios.
Bios was A04.  Current bios is A11.
To download the new bios.  Goto dell.com/support
Enter the Service Tag number (On the underside of the PC)
Select downloads>bios and down load an exe file.
Run that.  A reboot happens and its done.

She also suggested  to check if all the drivers have loaded.
I go to control panel>Device manager and there are no issues showing.
I also note that on the dell web site there are lots of drivers.  I may check versions one by one.  That is a after hours job for home.

Canoeing Recertification

Discoveries Canoeing 2015

A beautiful sunny day.  A few clouds and actually it spitted a little around the middle of the day.  Almost no wind.

5:30  Left Brisbane via Maccas at Oxley where I bought a coffee.
7:10 Arr Moogerah.
Breakfast Bacon & Scrambled eggs.
Whole group safety talk:
a) If you get tired let the canoe get blown to the bank and eventually we will come and get you.
b) Sunscreen, Shoes, Hat.
c) Don't deliberately tip out in the middle. (We will tip over when we get back)
d) If you don't feel safe doing it, you can play in a conoe near the bank.

Went and set up - Not enough time allocated here as it ate into the first groups time plus we extended their slot to compensate. 

7 groups (as I recall).  Each for about 1hr.  Typ program was
Get PFD (They should just call it a "Life Jacket")
Get paddle.  Shorter than the person if possible.
Stand in a circle.  Demo holding the paddle & taking strokes & changing hands.

Canoe across to the opposite shore.
Weave through the dead trees.
Round the point.
View the dam wall.
U turn.
Canoe home across open water.
Arrive home, ditch hats & Paddles.
Tip over canoes. Swim.

Discoveries Bush Band Gig

Vito Issues

Our Mercedes Vito people mover has a few issues.  To me these are mostly related to poor build quality or in appropriate material specification.  Although it is out of warranty I would have thought some aspect of consumer protection law should require the manufacturer to address these issues at no cost.

1 starter motor fail - fixed $1900

2
Only one of the two key fobs will lock the vehicle.  Both will unlock it.
3
Driver side rear sliding door pops open when driving on roughish roads.
4
Fuel cap tether broken.
5
Front passenger door window gets confused sometimes.  If you open it about 50mm to let some air in and then try to close it, sometimes is starts and stops and just gets confused.  The work around is to fully open the window and then you can close it or wait a moment and then you can close it.
6
Gear lever physically in Park but indicates Reverse.
This typically happens when we pull up somewhere and someone is getting in or out so the motor is running and the gear selector is moved to park.  The indicator light for reverse is lit.  When it comes time to move the vehicle the lever will not move as it is locked in the Park position.  The work around is to switch the engine off and then re start the engine.  Then the indicator light correctly shows the gear selector as being in the Park position and the interlock is released allowing the lever to move.
7
Front passenger side window washer does not wash the window.  Jet blocked or broken or disconnected water supply tube? -Fixed
8
Drivers side window actuator switch assembly is broken.  Work around - its still usable but looks and feels bad.

3-4-2016- update Replacement on order $50 ebay.
9
Centre dash control console is falling apart.  There is something wrong with the plastic and it is going all furry.
10
Service indicator light lit.
This orange light on the dash board is always ON indicating a service of the brakes is required. The service has been performed by a non Mercedes franchised service man.  Merc keep the code to switch the light off a secret.  The work around is to ignore it.  The requested action is to provide us with codes so that our mechanic can switch the light off after each service.
12-1-2015 Update - Merc advise that there is a sensor associated with the brake shoes that has to be replaced.  I understand it is a plastic covered contact.  The merc fellow said he thought a set of genuine Merc ones was $30.  It appears the code information is not correct.

11 only one of the three DC outlets work.

12 AM radio is noisy and distorted  (like this from new)

13

March 2016 - some kind of turbo problem. Very little power. The service dude cleared faults via ODB2 and returned it to a drivable state for easter. Booked in for repairs next week. 

14

 3-April-2016 a new fault.  The drivers window opener mechanism is stuffed.  Repair kit on order.  $75ish. Mind you I suspect it would be $500 ish
=========================================//============================
20-1-2015  Phoned Merc Customer Assistance
1300 300 896   customerassistancecentre@daimler.com
Spoke to Emanuela.
Then sent email
=========================================

Dear Emanuela,

My wife and I own a Mercedes Vito People Mover.

Vin: xxxxxx
Made: 11/07
Rego: 375 KQL

This vehicle has a number of issues that I have listed below.  I have attached a quotation from the local Mercedes service centre to address these issues.

I believe that Daimler should rectify these issues under statutory warranty requirements at no cost as one would expect a vehicle such as this to last at least 10 years.  In addition some of these issues have been around for several years.  They are not wear and tear items.

In addition to that list we have already had to pay for a replacement starter motor to be fitted at a cost of around $1900

It seems to me that many of the issues are electrical issues.  In addition to the items shown below, the AM radio very noisy and is interfered with by noise from power lines and trains.  We note that the starter motor was an electrical item too. I wonder if there is a fundamental problem with the wiring of the vehicle or is it simply an indication of very poor build quality?

I look forward to your favourable consideration of this request.

Kindest regards,

Frank Thomson

=============================================================

Macquarie Centre Balls Sculpture

Someone has gone to a lot of trouble with attention to geometry detail.

Powerhouse photos1

Combine text