Photo Gallery

I certainly like the Photo Gallery software that came with Vista. The application allows you to organise your photos quickly and with relative ease by integrating its features with the Operating System. You can select a group of photos as you would normally within a folder, and then do batch operations. So with the required images selected you can carry out any of these actions; rename, delete, attach an existing tag or create and attach a new tag, create a new folder, move the images to a folder. This list represents the main task that you want to do with your images to organise them for ease of access later and it’s all done in a minute if not seconds. If you have the habit of organising your images using the Operating System via Windows Explorer then this is fine as Photo gallery has no problem keeping track. Photo gallery did not come with Windows 7 candidate version but it was downloadable from Windows Live.

Cams for Coffs Harbour

We do have quite a variety of needs in the crags around Coffs (Glenreagh) but if you can’t buy the whole set of Black Diamond Camelot’s (http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/gear/camalots.php) then the low to midrange sizes would be the best starting point, such as, .4, .5, .75. To be noted is that the range of cracks that they can be used in is quite wide so there is overlap in sizes giving you some choice. I find it very useful to have a small cam such as the blue alien (http://www.aliencamsbycch.com/l) along with a set DMM nuts.

Web Site validity

Reading an article recently about web sites and if they are genuine. Well I would not be so wary of unprofessional sites but my experience has led me to be wary of the more professional when someone is trying to ‘rip you off’. The issues that I look for are; Links to other sites; a contactable web master; prompt reply to an email query, no bad mentions of the site via a Google Search; contact details tested; longevity of the site.

Explorer 8

There does seem to be some problems with installing Explorer 8. I have heard on the grapevine instances of computer lock ups etc. Certainly wise to use the system restore before installing any new programs.

My first hand experience is with web sites. It seems that some sites won’t run properly in Explore 8. The reason for this would seem to be incorrectly written code in the site files. Some programs that produce web pages such as MS Publisher produce code that won’t validate via the W3S requirements. Pages coded by some people have been sloppy which results in incompatibility problems between programs. It would seem that Explorer 8 is more strict in its structure needs of the XHTML and therefore sites are producing errors. This effort to make XHTML consistent I would class this as a good thing and a trend that will continue because it will assure that web pages present correctly in all browsers. Unfortunately for those who have developed their sites with software such as Publisher, usually because of budget issues, will need to look at producing code that is valid ( http://validator.w3.org/ ). The options open to you; well you would try and validate the code, and in this way the coder can go through and fix the errors; Have the site re written using better development software such as Dreamweaver., Komposer (free), Amaya (free) or a development environment such as Joomla.

Back Home

2nd April 2009
Back save and sound – Van went well

28th April 2009
Camped in a caravan park at Port Sorell to freshen before the boat across the Strait. Last night we stayed at the west side of Lake Barrington at a camp site. A fresh -7 with some snow reported in the heights. Being only 50 odd k from Table Mountain we decided to go for a look, to see the after effects of some evening snow fall. There was snow on the high peaks and some left around the Table mountain area, pretty sights. We picked big crunchy fresh apples from the wild trees on the way.
Sort of forgot a few things on this trip like the key to open the door to turn the gas on for the van. That was ok for I had a small single burner Coleman stove that has proved faithful over the years as a backup. But, just like one backup is never enough on a computer, the Coleman choose this moment in time to give up. The moment was 6pm, camped at Lake Barrington, no facilities close. Well we did have a box of matches, so we gathered some chippings and other fire wood. The fuel was a little wet from rain earlier in the day but we had some paper from pamphlets etc . Your standard matchbox doesn’t keep to well now a days it seems as the striking of a match practically destroyed the box. Down to the last five matches, I stuck them all at once and the twigs and paper burst in to life. Well that saved me having to find a couple of fire sticks and time rubbing them together. We enjoyed a hot cup a soup and some steaming tea and coffee. Having depleted the match supply we moved on early in the morning, down to Sheffield and bought a gas burner stove, a Kookaburra for $20 bucks an $4 for a gas cylinder. Works well.

van pick up

26th April 2009
Well it’s was finally time to pick up the van after the incident couple of months ago. We flew from Coffs to Sydney then on to Tassie on Anzac day. Left Coffs around about 4.30pm and arrived about 8.30pm. We had a short stopover in Sydney, only about an hour as the plane from Coffs was ½ hour late. Spent the night at Hobart Central City backpackers, not recommended, as they supplied us with single bed blankets to fit the double bed, make it a bit tricky. On Sunday morn we checked out the Hobart markets again, and then we caught the bus to Oaklands to pick up the van. After a chat to the mechanic he was quite happy with the mechanical side of the repairs. He told us of an electrical problem he had yesterday when he took it for a test run. He ‘sort of fixed the issue’ but left us in some doubt as to whether it was going to be ok. Anyway had come too far to hang about so off we went to spend the night at Deloraine, in a lovely c’van park next to the river. A couple of hours on the road and all seemed ok. We booked the Boat to return to the mainland on Wednesday night so we plan to spend a couple of days, North and East of Devonport. The weather is fresh, Bonnie would say cold, but I am hoping for snow.