foddrick's blog

Jargon Master

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 22:11:56 +1000

I've ressurected the Jargon Master page. Enjoy. I dare you not to.

Lookin' Good

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 15:31:59 +1000

Yesterday we were heading out to a wedding and this is one of the rare times that I wear a suit. Campbell was impressed so he said "Hey Dad, you look smiffy". Harrison corrected him in the way that only older siblings can and said "No Campbell, its sniffy".

Canon Fax Received in Memory

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 22:31:30 +1000

I have never been a fan of printers and less so multifunction printers. Recently, I've been wrestling with my fax because it stopped printing rx reports so I didn't know whether or not it was successful. Additionally, it was low on toner, and it was constantly flashing "Received To Memory". These problems are all related. It seems by default when the fax is low on toner, it won't print any reports or automatically print faxes. The solution is fairly simple.

If your machine is anything like mine, press menu, find "Fax Settings" -> OK -> Find "RX Settings" -> OK -> Find "Toner Supply Low" -> OK then choose "Keep Printing" and press "OK" again. If your problem is similar to mine, your printer should spring to life and output the missing reports and faxes. You will of course use up your toner more quickly.

When the Student becomes the Master

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 13:39:47 +1000

Campbell and Harrison were wrestling on their new trampoline, when Harrison exclaimed "OK. No more wrestling!". Campbell who had enjoyed the upper hand retorted with "Just because I'm better than you!"

Importing data into MYOB

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 10:33:40 +1000

It is bad enough that I am at a point where I need to use MYOB. I tried to speed up the process by importing some data from another database, but no matter how I formatted it, with CRLF or just LF, every time I tried to open the file, MYOB gave me a helpful I/O Error on put. I finally figured out that MYOB wants to be able to open the file in write mode, and I had created a readonly file!

Harrison the French Pirate!

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 10:31:34 +1000

Overheard during a car trip
Harrison:"Bon Voyage Me Hearties"
Chris and I cacked ourselves.

Ding Ding

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 10:24:14 +1000

One morning, Christine was busy trying to prepare Campbell for school when I decided it was time for "Wrestling Time". At the mere mention of this, Campbell swung into full wrestling mode, and before I knew it, despite my earnest attempts to prevent it, Campbell had genuinely pushed me off the bed. I landed with an undignified thud on the floor. I got up, defeated, licking my wounds, and Campbell victoriously cried out "Ding! Ding!". He was ready for round two!

Greasemonkey Suncorp Menu Fix

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 07:46:43 +1000

A quick script to undo the change that suncorp made to their left menu with all the opening and closing sections. This makes all the menu items visible all the time as it used to be.

It's all about the ACKs

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 12:56:01 +1000

I've recently set up VOIP (via engin) and did not want my other net activities to interfere. I had my download client throttled to 5kps and I was running wondershaper but it didn't seem to make a difference. It finally dawned on me that it was my ACK packets that were flooding my upload link. Once I added some iptables entries to mark the packets from my download software, and gave them the lowest priority, all was good.

Day 23 - 10th December 2006

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 12:05:47 +1000

The last day of our holiday had arrived. We got up packed and headed for the airport. After some slight confusion and misunderstanding due to the malfunctioning of our E-toll transponder, we were in the air and off to Brisbane.

Upon arrival, we had to wait for a while to get the parking company to come and pick us up. We squeezed into the Territory and arrived home, very glad to be there.

All in all, it was a great holiday and we will visit Tasmania again sometime.

Day 22 - 9th December 2006

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 12:05:11 +1000

We did not have a lot planned today, so we got up fairly lazily and had breakfast.
We headed out at around 10:30am to Fountain Gate.

Mark and Chris were meeting one of Mark's old work colleages. Meanwhile Mum, Dad and the kids went to a local botanic garden.

After that we returned home to the unit for a swim, and then headed out to dinner with some old friends. One of us may have been responsible for the clogging of a toilet, but no guilty parties will be named here.

We got home and did some packing as tomorrow marks the end of this holiday!

Day 21 - 8th December 2006

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 12:04:41 +1000

This morning marked one of our earliest starts and we were up and breakfasted and out the door by 7:45. We made the 8:02 train and we were bound for the zoo.

After changing trains at Southern Cross station, we arrived at the zoo about an hour later.

It was a huge day, and we walked quite a distance checking out the many animals on display. Harrison got especially sore legs!

After quite a day at the zoo, we headed home, and all of the adults had a nap!

We then got up and headed for Castello's for dinner to celebrate Mark's birthday. It was another good meal, and we had birthday cheesecake for dessert.

Day 20 - 7th December 2006

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 12:03:59 +1000

As per usual, we eventually got organised, after having breakfast and set out on a short walk to Narre Warren train station.

We set off for two destinations, the men for the MCG tour and the women for Queen Victoria Markets.

The males alighted at Richmond station and took the MCG tour. It was quite interesting and took you to places not frequented by the general public. We saw some of the perks of MCC membership and learnt that there is only a 15-20 year waiting list for membership.

After the tour, we met up at Flinders St minus any incidents with ticket validation, and set off to check out the Myer Christmas display in their window front. It was very well done, and this year featured “Wombat Devine” - a children's story by Mem Fox. The story chronicles a wombats struggle to take a place in the nativity play.

Day 19 - 6th December 2006

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 12:03:25 +1000

For once Mark and Chris were the first up and after finding out that it was not a total fire ban day, we all headed off to puffing billy.

Mark, Chris and the boys rode the train, while Mum and Dad followed by road, taking photographs at every opportunity and providing much entertainment to those on board the train.

Campbell really enjoyed the ride, spending most of the time with arms and legs outside of the carriage, while Harrison spent most of the time concerned with his brother's well-being.

The half-way point was Lakeside, where we stopped for 45 minutes and had a brief play in the park. We then boarded the train for the return journey, with Mum and Dad again going by car.

Day 18 - 5th December 2006

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 11:58:02 +1000

After breakfast, we hammered out a rough itinerary for the rest of our holiday and decided that since we enjoy packing the car so much, we'd stay here for the balance of our time in Victoria.

Eventually we all got ready and motivated and headed out to visit Ellen and Ralph. We stopped at Fountain Gate shopping centre for some clothes and a quick bite to eat.

We arrived at Ellen and Ralph's place after a quick stop at a reservoir, and stopped for tea and a chat.

On the way home, we stopped again at Fountain Gate to pick up some pool noodles. We were planning a swim but when we got in, found that it was too cold, so the boys just played for about 15 minutes.