WAMP server will not access localhost but will respond to 127.0.0.1

My laptop has WAMP server installed.  Just recently when I type localhost into the address bar, I get

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access / on this server.

If I type in 127.0.0.1 I get the expected result.  This confirms WAMP server is running.  The icon is green.
Skype is not instaled and never has been.

Based on mr google, I check
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etcC:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\lmhosts.sam
There were no entries in it.
I added
127.0.0.1        localhost
To save the file, I had to change the permissions.  Right click>properties.
Rebooted.  Made no difference.

http://serverfault.com/questions/266045/localhost-on-wamp-returns-404-changing-port-numbers-doesnt-help
2) A 404 error is not caused by firewalls. 404 HTTP status code means that the server (Apache) received the request but can't find the asked for file (bad url or missing file).
A firewall issue would simply block the request and you would get nothing back (no status codes).

Sounds logical.

Marcus leavin on a jet plane

At Brisbane airport.  The ever friendly virgin girl (sounds somewhat religious) observed us taking photos and offered to take one of all of us.  (minus Chris who elected to stay at school).

In the departure lounge.

Mum needed a last hug.

Checked his boarding pass and his journey begins.
BNE-SYD on virgin (domestic).
A representative from Student Exchange International will meet him at the Sydney international airport and organise for him and a girl to travel together to Abu Dhabi where the other girl gets off.  Then onto Frankfurt then a German domestic flight to Berlin.

Marcus dinner with friends

Marcus had some friends over for dinner.
Ben, Alistair, Alistair, Brodie, Hannah, Emily, Fergus.
We had lasagna washed down with chocolate self saucing pudding.

German Dinner

Marcus is flying out to Germany.  In preparation we had dinner with Manfred and Leigh.  Marcus has been having German language lessons in town on Monday nights and then dropping in to speak German with Leigh on Wednesday evenings.








In other events, I did my first Helicopter lesson with the door off.  The main part of the lesson was practising changing altitude and anticipating and leveling off at the correct altitude.

Solar PV

It would appear that we are investigating Solar energy.  I believe that our quartely electricty bill has nudged over the $1k mark.  Mind you there seem to be some inconsistencies that are not understood yet and my never be  understood.  Anyway quotes have been solicited and soem have come in.

So now the challenge is to make a decision.  We need to choose between the following options:-
a) Solar electricity.  (PV solar)
b) Solar hot water.
c) Both
d) Neither (this option included for completeness).
e) Gas - This option added after fear of being acused of bias by today tonight.

This blog posting will concentrate on PV solar (PhotoVoltaic).

So how do we decide between options?

• Technology of the solar panels?
• Types of inverter?
• Brand names?
• Warranty?
• Cost?

To get an idea of the costs, I have done up the following table.  Will be updated as quotes come in.  I was also kind of interested to know what it might cost to DIY.  There are two DIY columns and the detail is in the next table.

The first observation is that that DIY Jarcar is not going to be cheaper.  The $14k does not include all the mounting hardware or cables.

.	Company	System Size	Panel Type	Inverter	Price we pay

.	Modern Solar	3kw	16x190W Monocrystaline	Xantrex GT2.8	$15950
.	Resource Energy	3kw	monocrystaline	Solar Lord or Power One	$7390
.	Solar Shop		18x205W Polycrystaline	2xSMA SB1700	11070
.	DIY (Jaycar)		16 x 170W Monocrystaline	Xantrex GT2.8	14704.05
.	DIY (Electus)		16 x 170W Monocrystaline	Xantrex GT2.8	TBD
.	????	Wait for update

This is the detail of how I costed the Jaycar DIY option.  Prices came from their web site.  I will try to look up the Electus web site.  Electus is the Jaycar wholesaler and we (Syndetic) have an account with them.

.				Total Jaycar	14704.05
.	Item	Note	Qty Required	$EA Jaycar
.	Solar panel 175W ZM9099	Actually will need more than 16.	16	695	11120
.	Z bracket HS8708	need 2 at each end	4	17.9375	71.75
.	T bracket HS8712	need 2 between each panel	28	8.975	251.3
.	Y lead negative PS5112		15	17.7	265.5
.	Y lead positive		15	17.7	265.5
.	Mounting hardware				0
.					0
.	Inverter Xantrex GT2.8	http://www.solaronline.com.au/xantrex-gt2-8.html	1	2730	2730
.					0
.

Mens Shed

Chris and I (Frank) did video production at the Men's Shed.

 www.shednight.com 

They had some interesting guest speakers including Duncan Armstrong, 








 Jason (on phone) in the background operated the sound desk.  He contracts to the school who are apparantly very supportive of the whole event.  Actually the whole school looks and feels very positive.  They have this huge basket ball hall and they keep 5 full size coaches in here at night.  GThe fact that they have these coaches.  Not just old BCC busses but what look to me like brand spanking new coaches just speaks volumes.

Lunch provided

Chris

Chris did a great job helping to setting up and pulling down.

 Chainsawart.  These guys sell these things.  GThe prices seemed quite reasonable to me.  Mostly between $120 and $200 apiece.

An interesting juxtaposition?

Analogue Video Passthrough Firewire Capture to USB hard disk

I am videoing a thing called a shed night.  They want a recording too.  The plan had been to record to USB hard disk in mini DV format to make it possible to easily edit later.  I planned to use my old Sony TRV6 because I knew it could injest analogue video and spit it out on the firewire (IEEE1394) port.  I double checked that during the week by sending video through it and then through our Pioneer hard disk recorder.  Picture on the screen.  All good so me thinks.

Last night tried to actually capture.  Premiere 6 showed one frame on the screen and indicated it was capturing a gazillion frames per second but at the same time the timecode counter did not move. 
Tried Premiere elements 4 which I also own.  It would not even initialise the capture driver instead it reported an error.

Went back to Tony's place and downloaded some freeware capure programs.
Lets see what happens.