Mary Mary, quite contrary. How does your garden grow?

Thursday, May 1st, 2008 | Geeking | 1 Comment

Meet my new garden bed.

I have big plans for this garden bed as I have been inspired to create wonderous amounts of organic vegetables and herbs! Jamie Oliver has a lot to answer for. Of course, it’s not quite finished yet as I’m yet to add compost, and straw and all the goodness that will make my plants just THRIVE!

I also have a few geeky plans for this little project including a unique way of watering the little seedlings as they grow. I’m sure you’re all just as excited as I am about this project (can you at least pretend?), so I’ll keep you all informed about my progress!!

Huzzah!

I love my job - Jasjam vs Treo750

Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 | Doyle Reviews, Geeking, Work | No Comments

As part of my job as IT Manager, I get to play with some cool toys.

Like many companies, we have several road-warriors in our company that rarely see their desk from day to day. These cowboys are rarely tech-savvy, so that’s where I need to step in and tell them what’s what.

Today, I need to compare and contrast the joys and frustrations of an iMate Jasjam vs a Palm Treo 750.

Now, both of these little devices run Windows Mobile 5.0, and have GPRS and 3G. This means that they can be configured to run Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync with DirectPush. The Good Mobile service can also be configured to run on both devices, however we currently prefer to stick with the standard Microsoft platform. Additionally, both have touch-screens and a full qwerty keypad.

We’ve got a few of the iMate Jasjams in our fleet already (Listen to me! Mobile Fleet! Yessir, Wing Commander!) - to begin with, we had nothing but problems. We’ve had busted batteries, busted microphones, busted antenna’s and synchronisation issues all the time - overall, the initial build quality was really rather poor.

iMate and Telstra put their heads together and came up with a firmware update that solved most of the problems. After we returned the faulty battery (which was covered with iMate’s fantastic 2 year hardware warrenty) we’ve had fair weather sailing all the way. I have to commend iMate for their great product support.

In fact, the only issue we’ve had with the device is a few cases of mobile phone envy - “Can I have a Jasjam, too??”

Now there’s a new kid on the block in terms of WM5.0 and DirectPush technology. I’ve been told by a reliable source that the Treo 750 is the business. Actually, I was told that this was the device that would leave the Jasjam for dust. Wonderfully, Palm has given us a 14 day trial of the new 750, so that we can have a look at how this new gadget ticks.

My initial impressions were something along the lines of

“Ooooh… it feels so nice in my hand. Like my hand was designed to hold the 750…”

And it does feel nice to hold. My impression of the Treo is that it has far superior build quality when compared to the Jasjam, but that could be in part to the fact that the Jasjam has the slidey keypad bit that gives slightly.

Now, the iMate’s screen is 45×60mm in size, wherease the 750’s screen looks marginally smaller at 47×47mm. Of course, the resolution on the iMate is higher, but both devices have the option to increase/decrease the font size to suit the eyesight of the user.

Now, one other distiguishing feature of the 750 is the front facing qwerty keyboard. This is much like the blackberry style of data entry, however I find that the buttons are way to small for my blunt club-like fingers to push. The iMate, however, has a nifty slide-out keypad with keys that are large enough for any man-ape to use. What’s more, as soon as you slide the iMate’s keypad out, the screen flicks to landscape mode, so that you’re not trying to type all wonky.

Squashed Frog

Monday, August 28th, 2006 | Geeking | Comments Off

Am way too tired to put this into an entertaining format.

This weekend I:

• Got very drunk
• Had a very bad hangover
• Went Christmas Shopping
• Fought with Ubuntu Linux distribution disks for 12 hours.
• Discovered Ubuntu disks were perfectly ok - CDROM drive was borked.
• Went to Ikea for the very first time
• Spent tonne of money at Ikea
• Put together Ikea bookshelf
• Discovered that FrogDog looks more like a little black sheep than a cocker spaniel.
• Went to TAFE course
• Installed ‘LAMP’ services and RoR on new Ubuntu server
• Woke up at 4am with the sound of rain - ‘ware! The sky! ’tis falling!

And now it’s monday.

Horror.

Sunday, August 13th, 2006 | Bad Days, Geeking, Good Days, Site Stuff | 4 Comments

On Friday night, my life flashed before my eyes.

I watched as the database that drives ‘Not Sleeping, Dreaming’ was entirely erased from my hosting server.  Woe.  Doom.  End of the world.

Mr Frog wasn’t all that supportive.  I think he looked up from his 3D CAD drawing and said
“Should have had a backup.”

I know I should have had a backup.
I know I should be more careful with files that I have an emotional attachment too.
I know, I know, I know.

That didn’t stop it from being any more deleted than it already was.

So I panicked.  Some of you may have seen the error message:
“Not Sleeping, Dreaming has been erased. Ms Frog is now trying to find a truck to lie under.”

Thankfully, before I took my own life I asked all the system administrators if they happened to take a system backup.

BLESS THEM.  They did.  They took a backup when I didn’t.  May their beds always be warm and cosy and may they have a neverending supply of coffee and chocolate available to them.

When I found that the database had been restored, I made a little sound that I would normally associate with mental patients.  Whooooehhhayaaah!

So, to celebrate the rebirth of the database, I decided to rebirth the theme.  So…

Happy New Theme.

If anything is broken, please let me know!

How to speak Kiwi

Thursday, July 27th, 2006 | Geeking, Idiocy | No Comments

Furthering my linguistic education, one of my collegues sent me this little gem:

How to Speak Kiwi

Thank you

Friday, July 7th, 2006 | Geeking | 2 Comments

I’d like to say thank you personally.
Thank you all for your kind words!