crikey!

This just in:
There is a rumour that Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin has met his maker.

Update to follow

Update: It's now on The Age website which lends a little credibility to the rumour. It sounds like he got a stingray's barb through his chest.
Also, News.com.au

I guess he was always going to go out doing something a bit different. I can't see him being satisfied with a simple car crash, or falling down some stairs.

He was definitely a character, I'll give him that.

disapproving rabbits

The title says it all.

Disapproving Rabbits

cabinet part xi

All of the woodwork is now done (except for that damn speaker panel, which I forgot to do again). I spent hours working on the housing for the control panel (and the control panel itself), but I think it paid off. I'm a bit more comfortable working with wood than I was a few months ago, but there's no way I can afford to rush things as there wasn't enough wood to start another panel if I stuffed it up.
The panel slopes slightly, and it's at just the right height (for me anyway. Screw the rest of you!). It turns out that the trackball did have leads to hook up mouse buttons, so the two black buttons above the ball are them. The two above those are MAME function keys.
I think I'll set up one as ESC (to get back to the main menu) and the other as a shift key. With that one held down, you can map anything you want to any of the other buttons (Volume up/down, pause etc)

As the budget is pretty much blown out, I don't think I'll be buying fancy speakers and an amp at this stage. I'll just use the old computer speakers and sub that I have lying around. They're not anything amazing, but that will probably add to the authenticity of the game sounds.
Next weekend: bog up all of the screw holes and prepare everything for painting. (shit, and finish that damn speaker panel!)
This week: Think about how to tidy up the controls. I'm thinking a thin sheet of plexiglass with some artwork under it. Failing that, a piece of self adhesive laminate would work just as well.

cabinet part x

I got impatient on Thursday waiting for the weekend to come. The solution? Book in an annual leave day at the last minute and spent Friday in the shed :)
It hit 25° after lunch, so it was really nice working downstairs and my weekly walk to Mitre 10 was great.
The result was that I got loads of work done. I pulled last weekend's work apart to fix the not-as-square-as-it-should-be problem I had. The keyboard drawer design was changed a little to make it function better as a computer instead of just a games machine: The drawer front now swings down instead of being attached to the sliding part of the drawer (does that have a name??). The only problem I had was discovering that MDF doesn't like screws put in the end of it, so I had to recess the hinges on the outside. I'll cover those up with a bit of bog, so it won't be visible on the outside. Hopefully I'll never have to remove the drawer for any reason, because it'll be near impossible!

Deb arrived home at just the right time to help put the sides on. After that, it was straight forward attaching the back and top pieces.

Today's work will hopefully be fitting the speaker panel and getting started on the controls. This is going to be the biggest part, because the layout has to be spot on. If I put a joystick in the wrong place, it'll make playing uncomfortable and will just piss me off.
Just realised that I didn't get button inputs hooked up to the trackball. That's going to make it hard to use as a mouse.

Bugger, I'm off now to see how I can get around that.

cabinet part ix

On Saturday I used a router for the first time. I've never even seen one being used before, so I was a bit nervous that I was going to cock it up. It turns out it's the easiest tool in the world. The t-molding slots are now cut, and it took all of 5 minutes for all 4 panels. I spent more time setting up, so it was a bit of an anti climax really.
Sunday afternoon was spent working out in the sun, which was nice. I got the bottom part of the cabinet built, but will have to spend almost as much time again next weekend pulling it to bits and trying again: I've learned the hard way that our garage floor isn't a perfectly even surface, so the two sides aren't as square as I would've liked. Luckily I added pine reinforcement to the original design, so it should be easy to fix with a few small, well placed blocks.

Wish me luck

cabinet part viii

Just a quick update:
The parts I ordered arrived today, so Deb sent me a pic at work to make sure everything is what I expected. A couple of buttons for pinball flippers, the trackball (which works as a mouse in Windows), a coinmech and T-molding. Looks like it's all there
Hopefully the weather will hold out tomorrow so I can get back into it. Now that we're getting into the rainy season, I want to get it finished as soon as possible. I just don't trust our garage to stay watertight during some of the big showers.

that's not a knife, this is a knife

Product Page

ricky gervais podcasts

It's been a bit of a long wait, but the podcasts are back! The last release was at the start of April, and we've had to do without Karl Pilkington's unique views of the world for those four months.
If you've never heard the show, it's essentially 3 guys sitting around talking shit. It helps that two of those guys are award winning comedians (Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant) and the other is some kind of savant. I have never heard someone so honest and transparent, which makes every observation just that much funnier. Asked whether he would feel comfortable touching another man's testicles (after a head swap operation), he said it would be ok because it would be another man's hands as well.
To finish, here's a poem he wrote after reading that moths are blind and that a prehistoric body was dug up that appeared to have used a type of hair gel:

If moths had eyes would they be happier?
How do they know they're not dead?
Cavemen hunting for food
But not before they style the hair on their head

What would last longer in dinosaur times?
A blind man didn't stand a chance
Not with all them rocks about
I'd rather be a blind moth

Genius

gould's book of fish

For a change, I thought I'd read a bit of award winning literature during my commuting instead of just the newspaper over someone's shoulder. Maybe I should either stick to what I know, or work my way up to this kind of flowery stuff. Here's the first paragraph to give you an idea of what I had to trawl through (haha, trawl. Unintentional fish joke... ah, whatever)

My wonder upon discovering the Book of Fish remains with me yet, luminous as the phosphorescent marbling that seized my eyes that strange morning; glittering as those eerie swirls that coloured my mind and enchanted my soul — which there and then began the process of unravelling my heart and, worse still, my life into the poor, scraggy skein that is this story you are about to read.

I was going to stick a bit of a review in here, but I was never a fan of English and hated writing at school. Buggered if I'm going to do it in my own time!

Verdict: flowery but different enough from my usual fare to keep me interested.

ban comic sans

I thought I was alone, but I have found kindred spirits at bancomicsans.com.
From restaurant menus to staff newsletters to school exams, Comic Sans has pervaded society to the point of suffocation. In 10 short years it has become the default font for the majority of people across every profession. I remember a real estate company in London who used it for their logo. Imagine seeing this shit in metre tall letters...
Join me in getting this font off all documents and signage. It should only ever be on kids toys or kindergarten newsletters (note, not school websites. Sorry Andy Bay School, you really have to get rid of that purple comic font. Pull your web designer out of their maths class for 5 minutes and get them to change it.)

once were still are warriors

So there's a bit of controversy at home at the moment: A researcher is claiming that a "warrior" gene is being carried by a large number of Maori, which may be responsible for aggressive behaviour.
Instead of joining in on the heated discussion, here's a dog dressed as a rabbit:

census

It was Census night in Australia tonight. Finally, I got to enter my real religion:

what not to do

Some guy has pulled together a bunch of MAME cabinets that have serious issues.
Hopefully mine doesn't end up on there.
(Click the image to go to the site)

comic stuff

It's nice to have a laugh now and then, so those who have my sense of humour will enjoy this site (also, those who have my sense of humour are asked to return it)
The Perry Bible Fellowship


And if you've got a bit of geek in you, some of these are funny as well
Penny Arcade

a bunch of wank

Don't like walking or riding a bike to raise money for good causes? Can't bake a cake to save your ass? Most charity fundraising involves a lot of walking around selling badges or cheap rubber noses. Surely there's more fun ways to help charities!!

masturbate-a-thon

errr... stuff

The Vader Sessions (big file, but worth the wait)

work has it's perks

On Monday night I flew to Sydney to attend a workshop the following day. It was a much higher level than I expected, making decisions that would affect thousands of people. I got through the day by answering any question that was aimed at me and stroking my beard¹ at the right time. There's nothing else to report really, the flight up was good, the hotel was nice, the flight back was fine too. The cab driver from the airport kept falling asleep at the wheel unless I spoke to him, but I got the obligatory Krispy Kremes² home safely.

1. I don't have a beard. In fact I was clean shaven for the first time in months.
2. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts were, until last month, only available in NSW. Sydney airport does a roaring trade selling dozens at a time to passengers on their way back to Melbourne. The store that opened in Melbourne still has queues that are regularly 3 hours long.

do you know what this is?

www.canwetrustyou.co.uk

cabinet part vii

I've put in another couple of hours this weekend. It's hard to get started too early in the morning because we live so close to a lot of other people. A jigsaw can make a lot of noise when it echoes around a little car hole. It's also pretty cold until after 10.30 or so and the light gets hard to work in after about 3.30. Add in lunch and a poop here and there and that only leaves 4 hours or so a day. When you also factor in my total lack of woodworking skills, I'm pretty chuffed that I've got as much done as I have!


Anyway, I've now got every piece cut out and pretty much sanded, ready for construction. I just need to wait for the t-molding to arrive so I can make sure it fits the slot that I'll be routing out. I can't afford any more wood, so everything has to work first time!
Since it's as hard as hell to cut a straight line with a jigsaw, I'll also have to wait for my sander to arrive so I can buzz everything into shape. I tried doing it manually, by I still have soft office hands, so they didn't last long.
I might also invest in a broom...

a day off work

So... the lunch I mentioned below was a bit bigger than it should have been. I haven't been to a buffet for a long time and forgot that you're supposed to stop eating once you've had enough. We both overdid it a bit and were uncomfortable for hours afterwards.

After a walk around the Yarra to get rid of some of the pain, we found ourselves at a playground. As it wasn't school holidays and Docklands is dead at the best of times, we had the place to ourselves. With that huge lunch inside, these spinning things wreaked havoc on our insides, but it was good fun anyway.
After leaving behind a ring that I found lying around, we went to the Da Vinci machines exhibition. That guy was pretty clued up (and had quite a fixation on weapons and war).


To finish the day off, we went and saw Sione's Wedding. I wasn't expecting anything great, so was pleased to discover a nice non-offensive Kiwi(/Samoan) film. The story was totally predictable, but seeing it through the eyes of a group of Samoans gave it a different enough spin to make it enjoyable.