Manchild's Log

Damn Vista

2009-07-28T19:47:00.000+09:30

Windows Update on my installation of Vista Ultimate hasn't been working since May this year. Most times Windows Update would just tell me it can't update which was rather uninformative. Every now and then though it would also provide me with an error code: 80070246.

On and off for months I searched through several forums that provided lots of technical details about the individual installations with the same issue but not much useful answers. Only now did I stumble upon this short and sweet question and answer on Microsoft's own forum site. The short and simple answer lead me to Microsoft's very own System Update Readiness Tool.

To quote Microsoft: "Microsoft released the System Update Readiness Tool to resolve certain conditions that could cause installing updates and other software not to work." which is contrary to my initial thought that it was a tool to prepare your system for an update to another release of Windows. They then go on to say "You do not have to manually run this tool. This tool is offered automatically through Windows Update to computers that have a condition that the tool could resolve." which of course doesn't help me when Windows Update itself doesn't work! In a pleasantly surprising demonstration of foresight, Microsoft do actually provide a link for you to manually download the tool.

So off I went to download the slightly confusingly labelled System Update Readiness Tool. It took what seemed like an eternity to install and then work its magic for some reason, however in another surprise the progress bar was remarkably truthful about the progress! In the end it told me that it fixed and installed whatever it required and I then tried running Windows Update again.

At first I thought the tool hadn't fixed anything as Windows Update did it's usual scrolling back and forth as before. I decided to let it sit for a while and eventually it did inform me that updates were available so I proceeded to let it download and install them. With relief I was given the familiar message that Windows needs to reboot to finish installation. So the lesson to be learnt is that sometimes Microsoft does provide useful product support on its own web site.

Chile Mojo

2009-05-03T21:22:00.004+09:30

I first heard about Chile Mojo from the Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers Market which had a Chilli Fest day. The owner of Chile Mojo, Joel Adams, was demonstrating how to make Chile Rellenos in the Market Kitchen. A Poblano chili, the people's chilli as Joel explained, is stuffed with cheese, battered and fried to make a rather delicious snack.

Chile Mojo the store is, or should I say was the store as they're moving to 381 Magill Road, a little bit of Mexico in Adelaide packed with all kinds of Mexican and Tex-Mex products you can't find anywhere else in town. There's a Wall of Flame stocked with a wide variety of hot sauces all with a heat rating out of ten. There's all kind of dried and tinned chillis, various Mexican sauces and spice mixes, bloody mary mixes and even tins of tomatillos which I just absolutely love.

They have a mechanised tortilla press to make their own corn tortillas using freshly made masa and these can be bought frozen and quickly heated up in a frypan. The on-site kitchen produces some delicious frozen meals as well as fresh side dishes. These are superb quality, way better than any from a local Mexican eatery, and very reasonably priced.

A few weeks ago I first tried their taco beef which had just been made. It was a lot better than any taco beef I've made using supermarket ingredients with just the right combination of flavours. This weekend I tried the frozen taco beef along with the frozen bean mix to go with the Chile Mojo tortillas and was impressed again.

The taco beef and beans both lost nothing from being frozen with the beans adding a nice complementary texture and subtle flavour. The tortillas were a cut above the supermarket corn tortillas in terms of both texture and taste. Buying the beef and beans ready to go made everything a lot easier and allowed me to concentrate on making my own take on pico de gallo sallsa: freshly diced tomatoes, canned diced tomatoes, diced red onions, minced chilli, coriander and lime juice.

I also bought a pack of frozen Chili Colorad beef burritos and these were amazing. The beef was deliciously tender with a rich, spicy blend of flavours. The way I put them in the oven, and I suspect the way they were made, these have to be eaten with a knife and fork just like in the restaurants. However these are better than anything that can be had in a local Mexican restaurant and I wouldn't mind paying more than the modest price that Joel, who is originally from Colorado, is asking which is a fraction of what you pay at a restaurant.

Having become hooked on Mexican food whilst travelling to America it is a great delight to find a place such as Chile Mojo. The packaging on the ready-to-go meals goes "THE BEST MEXICAN FOOD IS AT YOUR PLACE" and I would have to agree that it certainly is in Adelaide with Chile Mojo's offerings. For all your Mexican and chilli cravings Chile Mojo is the place, so everyone better go there and support it so I can keep having my Mexican fix!

Patee Thai

2009-01-01T20:21:00.006+10:30

Brunswick Street in the suburb of Fitzroy is another of Melbourne's main streets with a diverse range of eateries and bars along with the odd bookshop. I was hoping to have dinner at St. Jude's Cellars which is a wine shop, bar and restaurant all in one. The place apparently does some great grazing dishes made for sharing but was closed on this New Year's Day.

Not to worry though there were plenty of other places to choose from. A little Afghan was a surprise find but Patee Thai caught my eye enough to warrant walking back to it. It has a traditional dining area where diners can sit on the floor against Thai triangular cushions. That was more than enough to get me in the door!

Inside the restaurant was doing quite a brisk trade for a New Year's Day with most tables occupied and quite a few young families. The lighting was noticeably dim and whilst not quite dining in the dark it was the dimmest place I've dined out in a while. This made me appreciate the sleek interior more with its spread of Thai ornaments as opposed to the rather generic interiors offset by a token Thai artifact in some places.

After some a bit of overindulgence the night before light and refreshing was the order of the day. Luckily Patee Thai was more than able to accommodate with dishes a cut above the standard popular "Thai-style" restaurants that are beginning to spread. Service was warm and friendly and dishes arrived promptly.

The prawn crackers in the mix entree platter were quite a pleasant surprise, the first time I've had a prawn cracker that did not resemble styrofoam. Rather these crackers were rather thick and solid, but still delightfully light without the greasy aftertaste. The fishcakes were delicious, I can taste them just thinking about them. They were perfectly seasoned and just right in terms of texture without the excessive greasiness of other fishcakes I've had.

The combination seafood soup with lemongrass, galangal, basil, chilli and lemon juice was just the right mix of flavours and heat to soothe the insides after overindulging the day before. With its tang and hint of sweetness it was enough to awaken the tastebuds from their coma. The Thai beef salad also helped ease a sore body as well with its refreshing tanginess. There was a perfect balance of flavours in the chilli bean dressing without the excessive sweetness that can rear its ugly head with this dish.

Overall Patee Thai was a great place to dine with a lovely ambience from dining whilst seated on the floor. The dishes were authentic and well balanced with just the right combination of flavours to excite the palate. For a great dining experience and quality the price was very reasonable. Definitely one of the best places for Thai cuisine in my experience.

Come Fry with Me, Come Fry, Come Fry, Come Fry

2008-11-04T19:00:00.005+10:30

Yeah, yeah I know I've been slack. Perhaps I'll revamp this blog, perhaps I won't, I just don't know.
Continuing the theme of my personal notebook, I've been trying out all those lean cuisines/healthy choice/airline frozen meals.

They're actually not too bad when you compare to them to the slop you get at the cafeterias at the places I've worked. They're slightly cheaper, if you buy what's on special you can get them for under $5 which is actually cheaper than most cafeteria meals. Surprisingly they actually taste better than the stuff that passes for food at cafeterias.

Oh and apparently they're better for you and judging by the nutrition box they are. They're also actually quite filling which is a surprise given that most of them contain only a quarter of your daily energy intake at the most. After some soup, yoghurt, fruit and salad this manchild feels quite full by the end of a day.

Here's a summary of my frozen meal findings so far with the meal name and ratings for taste, texture and how filling they are (5 stars max for each from bad, poor, okay, good to excellent):

Nestle Lean Cuisine Lean Beef Lasagne [4 | 1 | 3]: Possibly could have overcooked this one, the bottom layers were rather leathery but still quite nice on the top layers.
Heinz Steam Fresh Beef Stroganoff with Curly Pasta [4 | 4 | 3]: Good flavour, beef was suprisingly tender.
Nestle Lean Cuisine Creamy Mushroom Tortellini [4 | 3 | 3]: Quite tasty although creamy pasta isn't my favourite, perhaps that's because it's usually rather greasy unlike this one. The green bits lost a bit of texture in the freezing and heating.
Heinz Weight Watchers Pasta Italiano [3 | 3 | 3]: The pasta and sauce were quite nice texture and taste wise. They were let down by the quasi-salami, horribly textured and more frankfurter than salami.
Nestle Lean Cuisine Sundried Tomato Tortellini [3 | 2 | 3]: The pasta and sauce tasted alright enough. Texture was quite dry and mushy at the same time, perhaps not microwaved right.

Plenty of water, tea and diet soft drinks also help keep a fat bastard quite full. Here's a few of my favourite ones so far:

Pepsi Max: I hardly ever drink Pepsi, yet this is a favourite, definitely beats Coke Zero.
Sprite Zero: Not too much of a weird taste to it, still very lemonadey.
Fanta Zero: Actually I'd say this is better than normal Fanta, as it's not as cloyingly sweet.
Schweppes Diet Dry Ginger Ale: All that gingeriness hides the artificialness quite well.
Solo Sub: Again the lemon tang hides that saccharine sweetness quite well, then again some days I'm ambivalent.

European Cafe

2008-11-02T22:29:00.000+10:30

After a few drinks at the Colonist pizza was on the agenda. We decided to give the European Cafe a go, as some people have given it glowing reviews although a few years back I wasn't too impressed. It was rather crowded for a Sunday and we were told ours was the only table available, although funnily enough a few minutes later this couple were told theirs was the only table available.

The pizza menu did not impress me too much with its range or offerings considering people rave on about this place's pizza. As pizza was our objective we went for the European pizza which was a classic salami, ham, capsicum, mushroom and olive. To accompany it we got some garlic bread and green salad with some chinotto (San Pellegrino which is a nice rarity now).

The pizza arrived in under ten minutes which was a surprise, given Fellini took 90 minutes for an uncooked pizza. I suspect though that it and the garlic bread had been hanging around for a while. The pizza was nice but not enough to rise above the mediocrity of most cafe pizzas, although in its defence the toppings were balanced with prudente use of cheese.

It was a nice change to get a pizza that wasn't a grilled cheese sandwich like most cafe pizzas, although there still wasn't enough sauce for my liking. The garlic bread was pretty mediocre as well, a bit cold and stale and the green salad didn't distinguish itself from anyone else's green salad.

Overall I'm still not impressed with the European Cafe, sure it's better than a fair few other cafes but it still didn't distinguish itself well enough. The slippery waiter didn't help with impressions either and the food could have been served warmer. I would still prefer to spend a few dollars more and get a lot better pizza and service from a place like Amalfi.

The Colonist

2008-11-02T21:59:00.000+10:30

A few weeks ago I spotted the Colonist pub on the Parade. Had a quick peek and was impressed that they had James Squire Golden Ale on tap. So this week we decided to go in for a Sunday arvo drink to chew the fat.

It's a cosy little pub with a rustic charm and some comfy seating. The crowd was a mix of people from the mid twenties to well into middle age. It had a decent gathering of people yet there was plenty of room and not much noise, a perfect place to relax on a Sunday arvo.

As mentioned the big draw card for me was the Golden Ale on tap. It's the perfect summer drink, so easy to drink with plenty of flavour and a lovely tinge. They also had a few other lesser-known beers on tap including the Steam Exchange's Steam Ale and Pipsqueak Cider.

The Steam Ale had all the makings of a great ale yet probably needed some food to go with it to counteract the slightly more bitter than usual bite. The Pipsqueak Cider wasn't too bad as far as ciders go with a well balanced tang and crisp finish. However it could have done with perhaps a tad more sweetness I reckon cos when people think ciders they usually think of something sweet.

I was pleasantly surprised to find they had whitebait on the menu, a rather big bowl for $8, nothing like eating a whole fish. Makes a nice break from the usual greasy chips and wedges, well whitebait's greasy but it's seemingly good grease. Apart from that I was a bit with the rest of the menu as most items were closer to $20 than $15.

Overall the Colonist was a pleasant discovery with it's old school cool. There was a good range of beers on tap and in the fridge, well any pub with Golden Ale on tap is tops in my book. The crowd was a good mix with some pretty young things.

The German Club

2008-11-01T14:51:00.000+10:30

The weather was on the cool side of mild this Friday so I felt like something hearty for dinner. As it was the last week of October, we decided to catch the last Oktoberfest night at the German Club in town. For the princely sum of ten dollars each we got entry in with a plastic stein, just like at Schutzenfest. Just as pricey considering I can remember when we got glass steins for less at Schutzenfest.

There was the usual whimsical traditional German music, stein holding competitions and Bavarian dancing with people in traditional German clothes. However the reason most people go to German festivals is not for the tradition despite its charm but for the beer. Beer there was a plenty with pilsner, weissbier and witbier on tap.

The Erdinger witbier was lovely with a nice subtle tang and very easy to drink. The weissbier was more heavier on the gut but still a refreshing drink. Being Oktoberfest they also had Oktoberfest witbier, which had a more mellow but still noticeable tang.

Another reason to go to a German festival is the food, especially the wurst and sauerkraut. They had wurst and sauerkraut rolls for 6. The rolls were a bit too crusty for my liking but the spicy bratwurst with the sauerkraut and mustard was just the thing to go with the witbier.

The German Club also has a kitchen where they offered kasseler and bockwurst on a plate with sauerkraut and potato salad. The bockwurst was quite bland and the potato salad was rather underwhelming, definitely not worth the $16 for the plate especially when you can get a nice bratwurst roll.

The kasseler was a pleasant surprise from what I tasted. I'm not usually a fan of straight pork meat since I can taste the porkiness. The kasseler though is a pork chop, with not too much grease compared to the usual chop, with a texture close to a ham steak but with a pleasant bacon tang to it. It's a pork chop for those who don't like pork. Overall the German Club had a great range of beers and had plenty of German charm.

Skate Fillets with Capers

2007-11-12T21:16:00.000+10:30

For a while now I've spotted skate, a.k.a. stingray, fillets at the fish shops with their interesting texture and rather low prices. Apparently they taste like scallops, have no problems with mercury levels unlike other cartilaginous fish and are great value. It has been suggested that the fillets should be left to sit in the fridge for a day or two after purchase to make the flesh more tender. Here's an Australiana fact: stingray fillets were the first recorded European meal eaten in Australia.

With all that in mind I finally took the plunge, bought some skate fillets and pan fried them in butter. The strands of the fillet tear off easily and have a meltingly delicate texture and not at all tough as can be the case with flake. Whilst my taste buds didn't yell out scallops, the flavour was deliciously delicate with a sweet hint of scallop enhanced by cooking in butter. Overall a lovely meat and ridiculously great value, a great culinary secret but don't tell too many people!

Ingredients:
Skate fillets
Milk
Plain flour
Butter
Capers, whole

Steps:
1. Chop the skate fillets into good serving portions and rinse them with salt and water three times. This helps with the tenderness of the fillets and dissipates any ammonia smell from them.
2. Rinse the capers, repeating several times if necessary, to reduce the harsh saltiness and acidity.
3. Dip the fillets in milk such that the entire surface is covered.
4. Coat the wet fillets in flour that has been seasoned with salt and pepper.
5. Melt some butter in a pan over a medium high heat so that it bubbles, making sure the heat is not too high that the butter burns.
6. Fry the dusted fillets on one side for 2-4 minutes depending upon the area and thickness of the fillets.
6. Turn the fillets, add the capers to the pan and cook for a further 2-4 minutes. Stir the capers to ensure they don't overcook and stick to the pan. Note that capers add a nice tang to the fillets but aren't really necessary as the cooked fillets have a lovely delicate buttery flavour.

Some people after my own heart, and brain

2007-11-12T20:42:00.000+10:30

Whilst searching for a clear definition of cork taint, I came across the blog of someone obssessed with Shiraz. His latest blog post pointed me to this web page that magically determines the reading level of a web site or blog referring to various levels of education such as high school and post graduate. Interestingly enough my reading level was that of postgrad, a pleasant surprise given the lack of polish, from a humanities perspective anyway, in my writing being an engineer and all.

Update: Well it appears after adding some posts I've been dumbed down to undergrad level!

Interestingly enough, Defence Industry Daily, which I have no trouble comprehending garnered a score of genius...

Pasta in a hurry

2007-11-07T21:08:00.000+10:30

Despite pasta sauces being easy, quick to make and great value for money sometimes you just need a quick break from cooking. There are a lot of pre-made pasta sauces out there that are rather bland and definitely not worth the money, most of the big brands are guilty on both counts.

Lucia's, a local operation with quite a reputation, hasn't tickled my fancy at all despite all the hype. I found the pasta sauce to be quite bland and the service to be rather indifferent although I should try their much praised eatery sometime. In amongst a mass of bland pasta sauces I was pleasantly surprised to find two that actually tasted better than most fresh made sauces, although the explosion of very ordinary cafes doesn't set the bar that high. Both were arrabbiata sauces, a rustic tomato sauces with spiciness from chillies.

Whilst arrabbiata isn't that common here in Australia I did also try the chilli and capsicum sauce from Bertolli recently as well. The Bertolli Five Brothers sauce was actually quite a nice consistency and tasted as fresh as any pre-made sauce can be. However it just didn't have that moreness and depth of flavour that the other two had.

Barilla is one of the leading pasta makers in Italy and command a premium over their competitors. Their arrabbiata sauce demonstrates why this is so, with perfect consistency and depth of flavour that is right up there with the best of freshly made sauces. Sacla add whole cherry tomatoes to their arrabbiata sauce for that extra burst of freshness and plumpness. Whilst the sauce itself is not quite up there with Barilla's the addition of whole cherry tomatoes make up for that.

From a greedy guts like me these sauces with al dente pasta make for quite a meal on their own. Team them up with some flakes of tuna perhaps and some salad made up in the time it would have taken to make the sauce and you have a nice wholesome meal. The price premium for these sauces is more than made up with by the extra level of flavour these sauces give you. After all food that you don't enjoy is bad value regardless of price.

Seoul Korean Restaurant

2007-11-02T23:07:00.000+10:30

It was a cold and wet night, not your typical late spring weather but good for the farmers as the cliché goes. Korean food is great comfort food for this gloomy sort of weather. It soothes the soul and delights the taste buds with food that is satisfying without making you feel like Mr. Creosote. So with all that I was looking forward to dining at Seoul Korean Restaurant tucked away in a city side street.

For entrées we shared dumplings and seafood pancake. The dumplings were half-moon parcels of minced meat with garlic chives to add some bite. Korean pancakes have quite a lot of filling for not much of the batter, which has a tempura consistency. When perfectly cooked so as to be gently crispy as was the case they make for quite the yummy morsel.

The main courses were variation on a theme as we had bulgogi, spicy beef, japchae and spicy squid. Bulgogi is a dish of thin slices of beef marinated in a soy based sauce with a moresome sweetness stir fried with some vegetables. The spicy beef was similar to the bulgogi but with the addition of a chilli paste made with fermented soy beans, hits all the right buttons on your taste buds.

Japchae, which is actually similar to my a word in my family's dialect of Chinese meaning mix up, is pretty much bulgogi with more vegetables and cellophane noodles. These cellophane noodles are made from sweet potato starch and have a nice squishy texture. The spicy squid was similar to the spicy beef flavouring wise, well except for the whole red meat thing duh, but with perhaps contrasting sweetness and saltiness.

As usual for a Korean meal, the mains were accompanied with some sides including the obligatory kim chi. The kim chi was delicious as always, with just the right tang. I wasn't too excited about the chilli silken soy bean curd or the strips of fish cake. They just didn't have enough intensity of flavour when compared with the kim chi.

Continuing my appetite of kim chi, I thought a bowl of kim chi jigae would be the perfect foil to unseasonably wet and cool October night. The spice and tang of the kim chi sure did open up the airways and the bean curd in soup warmed the cockles of my heart, even below the cockles, I just don't know.

Despite what I said earlier about Korean food not making you feel like Mr. Creosote I almost did, although my arteries still felt fairly clear. However we soldiered on with green tea ice cream for dessert and were rewarded with a lovely, finely gritty textured dessert. It had a level of sweetness that emphasised the flavour of the green tea and made you realise you don't need copious amounts of sugar in a dessert.

In the midst of all this I nursed first a Hite beer and then an OB beer, my preference was for the Hite. The Hite a smoother and more refreshing feel than the OB but I think Cass is still the best of the three Korean beers I've tried.

I miss the way they used to serve Cass beer at Mapo in a frosted glass tankard. It was a much more refreshing experience than Cass served normally. Culinary nostalgia aside I've been pleased with the hospitality and authenticity at Seoul. The staff are warmly sincere and do fill you in on the dishes and the dishes have more rustic charm and are more satisfying than the modern Korean dishes that Mapo now serves. Overall a great place to go for down to earth food and hospitality.

Nice Wines

2007-06-14T23:34:00.000+09:30

With age comes wisdom, or so they say. Over the span of my relatively young obsession with wine, I've come to realise there's quite a few awful wines out there but also that there are some very good wines for a good price. Obviously my idea of a good price will change over time but the prices I'm thinking of are such that you would be able to bring a few bottles to a party without hurting your wallet.

Sangre de Toro, blood of the bull in Spanish, is made by Torres in Catalonia, Spain. The wine is a blend of Garnacha and Carinena, which we know more commonly as Grenache and Carignan. On their own, these varieties make rather insipid wines although Grenache can apparently make quite amazing wine from old, low yielding vines.

However the Sangre de Toro is a very drinkable wine that can be had for well under $15. It is a smooth drinking wine with a spicy aroma and dark berry flavours. As with a lot of old world wines this wine goes great with food and with all that spiciness marries well with hearty meat dishes.

Chain of Pond's Novello Nero is another wine in the Old World style but made in our backyard in the Adelaide Hills. It is inspired by the home made wines of Italian immigrants being an unoaked blend of predominately sangiovese with some grenache and barbera. This makes for a very appealing and moresome wine that can be had with a fair bit of change from $20.

Being unoaked, the wine is smooth and crisp with the grapes speaking for themselves. On the nose there is an aroma of dark cherry with spicy and savoury overtones. The spicy fruit theme continues on in the mouth with some meaty overtones. The spicy fruit with savoury overtones recommends itself to game dishes and anything with tomatoes in it.

Wikis

2007-05-30T20:51:00.000+09:30

Wikis are a great tool for knowledge management, great for quickly documenting insights you've gained and ideas of interest. It's like your own hyperlinked encyclopedia which you can add to, or whatever. Wikipedia was probably the wiki that captured the attention of most people and whilst not perfect it's great to see this vast body of humanity's knowledge growing.

My journey with wikis started with Wikipedia followed by a side trip to blogging. Blogging is a less structured form of knowledge management, a hyperlinked online journal in essence. Whilst looking for a convenient way to store recipes I came across TiddlyWiki.

TiddlyWiki is not your typical client/server wiki, everything is stored in a html file that incorporates JavaScript. That means its all run on the client and you only have one file to worry about which has its ups and downs. Version control is rather rudimentary but you can always chuck that single file into a version control repository. TiddlyWiki also has an easily accessible blogging function, so you get your structure and your informality.

Not entirely happy with TiddlyWiki's feature set I eventually found out about the MoinMoin Wiki engine. This is a traditional client/server wiki architecture although there is a stand-alone distribution. The stand-alone distribution is a bit messier to work with than TiddlyWiki, what with having to start services and all. However it is one of the few client/server wikis that can run as a stand-alone and should be a lot easier to move the a server.

MoinMoin is used by quite a few of hosts of open source projects such as Apache and Ubuntu. Whilst I haven't had a chance to use it properly it has all the features that you've come to expect from most other wikis like JSPWiki. Unlike a lot of other wiki engines MoinMoin does not use a relation database, instead data is stored in a flat structure of files.

At the end of one project I used TiddlyWiki to capture my knowledge of that project. Whilst hastily written it was quite effective in letting me capture ideas as soon as they came to my head and letting me quickly group and link articles together. In a later project I have used JSPWiki right from the start. That too has been great in knowledge management and saving us time in recalling insights which disappear as quickly as they were gained. The time spent updating wikis and administering them is more than gained in ensuring knowledge does not slip away and the speed of recall.

Bruce Eckel's Thinking In... Books

2007-05-30T20:36:00.000+09:30

Bruce Eckel is a great communicator and programmer, he runs a company that provides training and consulting services in software development. He's written quite a few books on programming, and is the author of the Thinking In books. These latter books are quite comprehensive as well as being easy to comprehend.

Whilst the Thinking In books are written so that readers will gain a practical understanding of the subjects on their own, they also tie in with the courses and seminars that he gives. As such, and for a variety of other reasons, he's made them freely available online. This was a boon back when I discovered his work as a poverty stricken student back in 2000. Whilst I've never set aside enough time to go through them thoroughly they are great reads from a great mind.

The Emperor's Shadow

2007-05-29T21:47:00.000+09:30

I remember watching this Chinese movie on SBS back in my final year of uni. I'm pretty sure it was listed by SBS as "Son of Heaven". For ages I was trying to look it up under the name of "Son of Heaven" but to no avail. Although I do recall it being listed under another name on a few web sites.

It's about the rocky friendship between two men, Ying Zheng and Gao Jianli. Ying Zheng was the man who would become the first Emperor of China and Gao Jianli was his childhood friend, whom if memory serves me correct was the son of his wet nurse. Ying Zheng prior to becoming Emperor of China was the King of Qin, one of several Chinese kingdoms vying for supremacy during the Warring States era.

Whilst in the midst of conquering the rival kingdoms the King is after an anthem for the his subjects that will drive them onwards in his conquests. Gao Jianli becomes his captive during the King's conquest of Gao Jianli's native kingdom of Yan. As Gao Jianli is a talented music the King instructs him to compose this anthem.

The story revolves around the struggle between the two men as Gao Jianli harbours a hatred of the King's rule. However the bond of friendship between the two men is deep and both men are torn between their political convictions and their old friendship. Gao Jianli constantly pushes the temper of the King with disastrous results.

Whilst the story is a fictional account, the people and events in the movie are for the most part historical. The movie captures the Warring States era with the scenery, costumes and props all gelling well. Ying Zheng is portrayed in a realistic manner as a person with love for those close to him yet also capable of evil and with conviction.

The movie is a great work of historical fiction with an accurate background allowing for an intriguing tale to be told. Unlike more recent Chinese films of historical fiction it has a good depth to it and explores some important ideas. The main idea of art being able to influence people and government being unable to control artistic expression is as relevant in our increasingly interconnected and homogenous as it was back in an age of conquest and totalitarianism. A movie well worth its big, for a Chinese film back in 1996, budget and some of our attention.

Food Links

2007-05-18T22:18:00.000+09:30

Korean food:
Korean Kitchen (Only recipes I've tried from the net so far, just as good as in restaurants)
My Korean Kitchen (Interesting articles, not too sure about fusion food though)
ZenKimChi Korean Food Journal (More interesting articles from a bloke teaching English in South Korea)

Khmer Food:
Khmer Krom (Cambodian food from a Khmer person from south Vietnam that used to be part of Cambodia)

The Perfect Hamburger

2007-04-23T19:36:00.000+09:30

Not a recipe this time but a book I remember reading in year 4 of primary school. A story about a boy who befriends a man who's hamburger shop faces tough competition. One day the boy makes the perfect hamburger but forgets how he made it. The rush is on to recreate the recipe and save the hamburger shop. A good, mouthwatering read when I was a kid and hamburgers didn't leave a bad taste in your mouth.

McCall Smith, A. 1984, The Perfect Hamburger, Young Puffin Books.
[Paperback, AU$13.95, Angus & Robertsons]

Damn Windows XP

2007-04-11T20:29:00.000+09:30

My sister's Athlon XP computer running Windows XP kept resetting itself even before it could get to the startup screen with the Windows icon and the bar scrolling. When it asked me what mode I wanted to restart Windows in I chose safe mode. It turned out that Windows was resetting itself after the file mup.sys had been loaded.

My first thought was that this particular file was corrupted. However it seems that other people had the same thought on the internet but it turned out to be merely a symptom of the underlying problem. It seems that the problem is with the Extended System Configuration Data (ESCD).

The ESCD is part of the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) and specifies the allocation of resources to devices. This gets modified when changes to the hardware are made. The problem is that this process does not always go smoothly and the ESCD can get corrupted.

In theory this should be rectified by entering BIOS setup and getting it to reset the configuration data. However despite repeatedly configuring the BIOS to reset the configuration data Windows kept resetting itself. However I remembered back to a forum post that described how disabling the quick Power On Self Test (POST) mode fixed the problem. This indeed fixed the problem and Windows finally booted up with no problems.

I am yet to find a full explanation for why disabling quick POST fixed the problem but perhaps a full POST triggers the ESCD to be reset cleanly. The problem seemed to have started when an additional mouse was plugged into the system which seems to be a common problem. Fortunately I was made aware of the underlying problem.

Lou Miranda Estate

2007-04-09T23:52:00.000+09:30

Went for a hike with some mates in a reserve near Tanunda in the Barossa. It was a pleasant walk without making your legs feeling like you've drunk too much. There hadn't been rain for a while so the flora was rather a bore.

By the time we finished it was half past three so places for lunch were hard to come by. We tried the restaurant at the Jacob's Creek winery but it was suprisingly fully packed. We resigned ourselves to getting something closer to home on the way back.

However I remember visiting the Miranda winery back in 2002 so I pulled in just in case. It was now Lou Miranda Estate and we were in luck, the kitchen wasn't yet closed. The proprieter, who else but Lou Miranda, welcomed us in a quaint manner that only a winemaker of Italian heritage could.

It turned out he that in the years since my last visit that Lou had branched out on his own from the Miranda Wines business which has been sold to McGuigan Simeon. Lou's branching out has given the winery a more welcoming and personal touch to what is a warm, charming place. Whilst the building was only built in 1999 it blends in with the buildings nearby that are over a century old, making it feel like an old favourite haunt.

The wines have certainly benefited from Lou's full attention with his Italian heritage evident in the Cordon Cut Shiraz made in the Amarone style wine. Branches of the grapes for this wine are cut from the vine and left to dry. This results in a richer, rounder style of wine with more apparent sweetness.

The Leone Sparkling Shiraz was all that a good Barossa sparkling red should be with a soft, rich body. Its extra touch of fruit sweetness marries it perfectly with so many dishes including asian and seafood. The Leone Chardonnay was a pleasant surprise with about twenty percent oak making it a well balanced white that treads the delicate line between richness and refreshment.

Lou, being a very hospitable proprietor, having found out I was a wine buff from my knowledge of Amarone wine got me to try his just released 2005 Old Vine Shiraz. I must confess at first taste it was a bit underwhelming but that was after having had lunch followed by dessert with glass of his Leone Botrytis Semillon with his compliments. He showed me a glass of corked wine, the smell and taste (I tasted it out of my impulse) was rather recognizable and quite reminiscent of wet cardboard.

However on a visit a few days later with a clean palate I tasted it again and his pride in it was well placed. Made from 90 year old vines it was classic Barossa shiraz with a bit more sense that only a winemaker of Italian heritage can bring. Whilst I may be biased in finding Lou, his daughters and their boutique winery very charming, I have to say this was the most enjoyable shiraz I'd tasted in a while. Other shiraz wines may be up on their pedestal but this one was so moresome for want of a better word, which again could be a result of the Italian influence that favours wines that marry well with food.

We started our late lunch with some pizza fingers, slivers of pizza dough with just the right amount of toppings. The tomato, olive and anchovies was particularly delicious and matched surprisingly well with the sparkling shiraz I got for lunch. The salt and pepper squid that all the boys got had just the right amount of batter and was cooked to perfection. Again the soft richness of the sparkling shiraz went well with the squid.

For dessert we had chocolate lasagne, a decadent dish of chocolate sheets interspersed with such riches that my brain and stomach have conspired to block from my memory. As mentioned before Lou gave us some botrytis with his compliments. The wine was as decadent and delicious as the dessert although drinking it after having a mouthful of chocolate didn't flatter the wine too much.

Our impromptu late lunch at Lou Miranda Estate was a wonderful experience. The winery is quaint and makes you feel so comfortable. Lou and the rest of Miranda were great hosts. The food was elegantly simple and executed perfectly. Throw in the great wine and you have a place that is bound to become one of my favourite country haunts.

Damn Kubuntu

2007-02-07T23:49:00.000+10:30

I'm in the process of transitioning to a new project at work and have been given open slather with the GNU/Linux distro I install on my development workstation. Currently the workstation was running Fedora Core 5 which is half decent but fairly outdated. So like the geek equivalent of a manchild in a lolly shop I've been mulling over a few different distros.

The logical step was to go with Fedora Core 6 but word on the street, well actually just my own pigheadedness and my housemate's opinion, is that it's not that great and is only popular because it's the successor to the old Red Hat Linux. In the annals of geek history Red Hat Linux was the distro that pushed Linux into the fringes of the mainstream of the computing world. Actually Red Hat Linux 5 was the first GNU/Linux distro I ever installed and was quite a good one at that when compared to the more arcane distros that predominated back then.

First up I tried the live CD version of SuSE Linux 9.1. I actually installed the full version of SuSE Linux 9.1 when it first came out with Linux Magazine a couple of years back. It was distinguished at that time for having one of the best sets of admin tools around, in particular YaST. Its latest successor, openSUSE 10.2, has received quite a few good reviews and has continued to receive acclaim for its admin tools. If I were to have GNU/Linux machine for personal use this is the distro I would install because I figure the admin tools are what distinguishes a distro.

What made up my mind was playing around with Kubuntu. Kubuntu is a KDE based variant of the increasingly popular GNOME based Ubuntu distro. Kubuntu is distributed as a live CD from which it can be installed onto a hard drive. Now this live distro disc doubling as an installation disc is quite a nifty feature and is one thing that openSUSE can learn from. Currently openSUSE's live DVD cannot be used to install openSUSE onto a hard drive.

However this seemed to be about the only great thing about Kubuntu's installation process. Granted I was a bit ambitious in wanting to install a GNU/Linux distro onto a removable hard drive which I could then boot, okay make that very ambitious. Kubuntu's installer failed the first time to format my 2.5" USB external hard drive but was then able to afterwards even though I did not change the configuration of the system in the mean time.

In most other distros there is a fairly clear option to select and configure the packages to be installed, not so with Kubuntu. Granted my previous experience with installing GNU/Linux distros have involved DVDs or multiple CDs. Perhaps Kubuntu only ships with the most useful software packages which is why it fits on a single CD and why everything gets installed.

My main problem with the Kubuntu installation process however has to do with GRUB. The only option that could be configured during the installation with regards to GRUB was the hard drive to which GRUB would be installed to. There was no other options or dialogs to specify where on the hard drive GRUB should be installed to or how GRUB should be configured.

Initially I forgot all about GRUB which wasn't too surprising since there were no prompts to specify which hard drive GRUB should be installed onto. It was only after a second attempt at installation I noticed the option to specify which hard drive GRUB should be installed tucked away between text. I tried to get GRUB installed onto the USB removable hard drive but the installation process kept protesting.

Eventually I gave up and let GRUB be installed on the laptop's hard drive which was a bad mistake in light of what I wanted to install Kubuntu for. GRUB would crash upon getting to stage 1.5. At first I was stumped but after a lot of swearing I realised that the BIOS has to enable USB support for legacy operating systems. It turns out that GNU/Linux is considered a legacy operating system even though it is more up to date than Windows XP.

It turns out it was crashing because it was trying to progress beyond stage 1.5 with the remaining stages on the removable hard drive. Of course with USB support for legacy operating systems disabled in the BIOS this mean that the USB removable hard drive was inaccessible thus causing GRUB to crash. Furthermore, since GRUB has been installed on my laptop's internal hard drive, this means that everytime I boot up the laptop I would have to connect the USB external hard drive to be able to run GRUB successfully.

Whilst I understand that this is a problem of GRUB itself I still think Kubuntu sucks. I should have been able to configure GRUB better during installation. My conclusion is that (K)Ubuntu sacrifices efficient admin tools and processes for a more user-friendly distro. However I've always thought that the more user-friendly a device is touted to be the harder it is for people with some working knowledge of the device to manage it.

Cooking for Engineers

2006-07-31T23:36:00.000+09:30

Been meaning to mention this site, Cooking for Engineers for a while now. It's got some good classic recipes as well as some more experimental stuff this guy comes up or discovers. What turns up the geek factor is how he has these charts where he groups ingredients with different activities, well it's gotta be seen to be admired for it's engineering coolness .

Barossa Valley Estate

2006-07-29T13:06:00.000+09:30

Our next stop was the Barossa Valley Estate winery which was about ten minutes along the road from Chateau Dorrien. Barossa Valley Estate was founded by a cooperative of grape growers in 1985. A few years ago Hardy's bought, if my cellar door recollection is right, half of the company.

With this cash injection, the current winery and cellar door were built. The winery grounds were rather expansive with sparkly modern facilities. On the outside the cellar door looked minimalistically modern with the local stone giving it an inviting touch. Woodern floors, a fireplace and an ultra-modern bar made the cellar door chic and cosy.

We started off by tasting the whites: the ubiquitous chardonnay, classic Barossa semillon and the stalwart Eden Valley riesling. As usual the chardonnay didn't do much for me although it was more refreshing and less cloyingly buttery than most. The semillon was a bit of a disappointment since I've associated Barossa semillon with a moresome lemon butter palette.

Unfortunately the riesling didn't sing out to me either. Finally, to round off the whites, there was a frontignac which had a balanced sweetness to it so I ended up buying a couple of bottles, be good with Asian food I dare say. There was also a rose, which like the frontignac seems to be a cellar door exclusive. This again had a balanced slight sweetness but with a bit more complexity and assertiveness in the mouth. Again I bought a couple of bottles and they should go well with any food.

Barossa Valley Estate also make a cellar door only sparkling red wine although I don't recall the varietal blend being specified. It was technically well made but it just lacked that refreshing apparent fruit sweetness that my favourite sparkling reds have. We tried some other reds but they just didn't make an impression upon me with the exception of the shiraz for which this place and every other Barossa winery and it's dog are renowned for.

The Epiphany shiraz we tried was classic Barossa shiraz with all flavours clear and present. I had to also try the more upmarket 2002 Ebenezer shiraz, of which I have a few bottles. It had all the flavours of the Epiphany and then some with the intensity turned up. However whereas the Epiphany was more approachable the Ebenezer was just that bit aloof to let you know it needed some time on its own. The lady at the cellar door confirmed my thought that it would reach another level of complexity and open up in another five years or so.

Although the whites were a bit of a disappointment they were well made, especially considering the attention the reds get. The shiraz certainly deserved it's fine reputation and the sweeter wines were a pleasant discovery. Whilst the cellar door could have done with a better view it is still a lovely place for intimate social gatherings.

Chateau Dorrien

2006-07-29T12:46:00.000+09:30

Our first stop was at Chateau Dorrien, the first winery we encountered on the road to the Seppeltsfield winery. This road is packed with vineyards (well duh, it's the Barossa) and wineries. It was recommended by a lady my mate knew who said they did some nice sweet wines.

The grounds of the winery were rather quaint with big concrete vats shaped like castle turrets. I wasn't too sure about the palm trees dotted around the place. They seemed out of place, then again who knows how good they'd look on a dry and sunny day in the Barossa. Inside was cosy with lots of wooden planks and even a little shop with hippy paraphenalia.

This place is apparently reknowned for its mead but we tried the wines first. Their Verdelho was quite a pleasant drink with plenty of tropical fruit flavours but perhaps lacking that extra level of fruitiness that the best Verdelhos have. Their other table wines weren't too bad but did nothing for me.

I had to try the blackcurrant liqueur as I just can't get enough of blackcurrant flavours. This is actually a port style liqueur with blackcurrants added during fermentation. I was hoping for lots of blackcurrant flavour but when combined with the alcohol and grape flavours of the port just made for something resembling cough syrup unfortunately.

It seems that Chateau Dorrien is the only place in the Barossa to produce mead, the alcoholic beverage produced from fermented honey. The sweet honey mead was quite refreshing with that pleasant sweetness you can only get from honey. The alcohol was well balanced avoiding the bitter after taste of most beverages with fairly high levels of alcohol. I could understand why it was called the nectar of the gods and can't wait to try it chilled in the warmer months.

This sweet honey mead forms the basis for the other mead we tried, the spicy mead. This was quickly but gently warmed before serving to coax all the flavours out. It smelt and tasted like a hot cross bun. Again it was a well balanced drink with the spices adding a subtle complexity to the richness of the mead. I later tried it with some apple pie but it didn't seem as balanced then, perhaps of the sugar and spice in the pie. However this still makes a great winter warmer, good for sore throats and congested chests.

The impression I got from Chateau Dorrien was that it was one of the lesser known establishments that make technically sound wines from good quality grapes. Whilst the majority of the wines didn't take my breath away they were definitely a cut above the majority of generic wines from the wine factories along the Murray river. The meads add another dimension to this winery and have set the benchmark for which other meads measure for me.

A little bit sideways

2006-07-29T12:23:00.000+09:30

Got a mate who's currently studying overseas come back for a short visit. We thought it'd be a good idea to catch up by going wine tasting around the Barossa Valley. It actually wasn't too long, less than an hour, driving from the north-eastern end of town to Tanunda, the heart of the Barossa Valley.

The good thing about the Barossa apart from its proximity to Adelaide is that the wineries are mostly in clusters close to each other. These clusters are not that far from each other, often less than fifteen minutes drive from each other. The only problem is that it's not that hard to get lost and take a wrong turn only to end up on an unsealed road. Unfortunately I'm still to get my CRV so I couldn't test how it handled that in comfort.

We started off by visiting Chateau Dorrien, reknowned for being the only place that produces mead in the Barossa. From there we went to the winery of Barossa Valley Estate, which was only a quick drive along the same road. Continuing along the same road we visited the lovely Seppeltsfield winery.

Heading back to Tanunda, we stopped to get lunch somewhere along the main street of Tanunda. I had a craving for bratwurst but couldn't see it on the menu at the Tanunda Hotel which we thought was suprising given the town's proud German heritage. After a bit of a stroll we found the Wurst Haus.

This was a small shop selling smallgoods as well as simple but hearty meals. I finally got my bratwurst with beetroot, sauerkraut, potato salad and mustard. The bratwurst was rather nice and it made for a perfect winter meal. I also managed to buy two 40g bags of beef jerky which was good stuff, approaching the goodness of the jerky one of the blokes from work gets from his hometown butcher. Jerky, it'll make a man of you!

We then drove to the Penfolds winery which we had passed driving back from the Seppeltsfield winery to Tanunda. I got myself a nice and shiny Penfolds key ring. Looking back it was maybe a mistake to try the amazing fortifieds of Seppelt in the middle as by now our palettes were starting to get tired.

We managed to fit in another tasting, this time at St. Hallett's on the way back to Adelaide. Unfortunately the Charles Cimicky winery and the cheese store next to Chateau Yaldara were both closed. Overall it was a good day, perhaps not quite as picturesque as in the warmer months but still good to talk, try and buy. I'm sure it'll take many visits before I've covered the entire Barossa comprehensively, if ever which is a good thing.

Evil Chicken, Weak French

2006-07-29T00:16:00.000+09:30

Here's a causal link between the evil flesh of the chicken and the weakness of the French. According to this perfumer, Jean Claude Ellena, Parisians smell of chicken because of all the chicken they eat. Now the French, of which Paris is their capital city, are also lousy at fighting wars. Logic would dictate then that eating the flesh of the foul fowl is a major contributor to the propensity of the French to be girlymen.

Signing away my soul

2006-07-27T00:15:00.000+09:30

Car Wars: Episode VI

My brother-in-law said even with half the value the trade-in was still a reasonable price so I decided to make the deal. With that done all I had to do was choose the colour, at first I went with pearlescent cosmic grey which suited the car quite well and changed colour depending on viewing angle. However that colour would not be available until late September which was probably too long so I went with the safer option of metallic alabaster silver which was readily available.

With that all done I ended up getting financing through the dealer as the rate was lower than the bank's. I also packaged the insurance and loan protection as well as the rates seemed pretty standard across board, the loan protection would cover the loan repayments if I became too sick to work or unemployed which I thought was a smart idea. Now all I have to do is sit tight till I can smell that new car smell, which unfortunately won't be until early or mid next week. Still I think I got a good deal and I can't wait to go on a road trip in it.

Haggling

2006-07-27T00:12:00.000+09:30

Car Wars: Episode V

Whilst the Corolla might have served our family well for the last 6 years it's definitely on it's last legs without further work being done. There's a fair few rust specks dotted around the car, it's starting to smoke and drip fluid, creaks are starting to get noticeable and I just got sick of being tailgated by cars when giving it all it's got when entering lanes. The salesman asked me what I wanted and I gave the high end of the non-fantasy price.

With that in mind he then asked what extras I wanted, I asked for the obligatory mats, towbar, reversing sensors, side steps and six stacker. He did the usual discussion with the manager and came back saying he could give me the price for the car but I wouldn't get any extras. After a few flanking proposals he was quite adamant that any extras would have to be taken out of the price of the car.

He then explained that the side steps were purely for cosmetics purposes, dubious at that, that they served no protective function at all. The stacker could always be gotten later and from another source for less as they could be easily installed. With that in mind we finally agreed to halving the value of the trade-in and putting in the mats, reversing sensors and towbar.

To be continued...

Dust Me Selector

2006-07-27T00:01:00.000+09:30

Car Wars: Episode IV

After looking in and around the CRV and test driving it was growing on me quickly and I was really impressed. The test drive showed me that the CRV had handling and responsiveness about as good as a sedan. As it was about the same length and width as a sedan it was fairly good at maneuvering and felt fairly stable as the centre-of-gravity was fairly low.

Being rather pleased with it overall I was ready to do a deal, of course not making it too obvious that I was set on it. First though I had to decide which model to get, I had a choice of three: base, Extra and Sport. I settled on the CR-V Extra as that had 16" alloy wheels and side airbags for the front seat for $1,600 more which was a bit cheaper than adding all that to the base model with the bonus of the Extra brand.

The Sport had a sunroof, colour coded bumpers, fog lamps and six stacker CD player with MP3 capability.However I didn't really want the sunroof and lamps and the colour coded bumpers would get scratched too easily off the road and with my careless parking. Furthermore the stacker could always be substituted for a better unit later on. Having made up my mind on what model to get the next phase was hammering out a price for the trade in.

To be continued...

CRV Test Drive

2006-07-26T23:53:00.000+09:30

Car Wars: Episode III

So we did the obvious thing and took it for a test drive, my little nephew didn't have too much trouble getting in by himself. The hand brake and gear selection took a bit of getting used to but once I got used to them I appreciated them being put on the dash board to save space for the arm rests and fold-away bottle holders. It felt a bit weird at first sitting up so high when I'm fairly low in the Corolla but after a while it was all good.

With my brother-in-law in the middle rear seat the rear view mirror was pretty much blocked but visibility was still good with the use of the big side mirrors. It didn't handle like a big, ungainly four wheel drive, feeling more like a Camry. The engine was quite responsiveness, about the same responsiveness as my brother-in-law's Nissan Pulsar with gear changes being rather smooth, it was good to be able to blend in with traffic with all 118kW of power as opposed to the puny 83kW of the Corolla.

The brakes took a bit of getting used to as they were significantly more responsive than the Corolla but that's no suprise. Cornering wasn't too bad and wasn't making the fact the centre-of-gravity was higher up than usual too obvious, a fair bit better than the Corolla and not too bad for a big car especially considering the anecdotes about the cornering abilities of Mitsubishi Lancers. Suspension wasn't significantly better than that of the good ol' Corolla but not a suprise given the type of vehicle.

To be continued...

Inside the CRV

2006-07-26T23:43:00.000+09:30

Car Wars: Episode II

After that I was more open-minded with regards to the CRV, especially after finding out that the petrol Civics wouldn't be available for at least a couple of months. This was probably too long for the old faithful Toyota Corolla. There were plenty of CRVs available for very attractive prices being near the end of the current generation. Since I can't resist a sale I did the next logical thing and had at the CRV, inside and outside.

The interior was very roomy with a flat floor and space to seat at least four adults comfortably, if not five, with access to the rear from the front seats. The interior was also versatile with the rear seats able to be folded right up against the front seats to give almost 1000 litres of space. There were plenty of storage compartments with a sealed one for wet clothes as well as attachment points for baby seats (for when hell freezes over), a sturdy fold-out picnic table and a power outlet at the rear.

So far the interior had impressed me and the rugged exterior was beginning to grow on me, especially the dark cladding around the front and back in the base and Extra models given my past bumper scrapes. Length and width were about the same as a Toyota Camry and fuel efficiency wasn't too bad at 10L/100km. The main question outstanding was how well it handled.

To be continued...

Civic Reception

2006-07-26T23:40:00.000+09:30

Car Wars: Episode I

Armed with that letter, and feeling a bit like a pirate with a letter of marque, I went car shopping. Admittedly I use the term car shopping in a very loose sense as I had my heart set on getting a Honda and a Civic or Civic Hybrid in particular. The latest Civics have an ultra-modern dash and sleek styling with the Honda pedigree and engineering expertise.

The hybrid was a nice idea in theory although the financial savings derived from it's high fuel efficiency were marginal. However when you consider that the Hybrid had most of the features found in the top-end Civic Sport for the same price the asking price wasn't too unreasonable. So with all that in mind, I headed off to the nearest Honda dealer Saturday morning intending to get a Civic Hybrid or perhaps a Civic VTi-L.

The stars were aligned as such that the Honda Once-a-Year sale was on that Saturday as well although the Civics would not be on sale as they were a new release and had very limited availability. Still up to then I had my heart set on getting a Civic but then my sister and her husband pointed out the CR-V. This was on sale with no extra on-road costs and as a bonus for the sale had the warranty and road-side assistance extended to 5 years.

I wasn't too enthused on the idea at first, thinking it'd be too bulky and a fuel guzzler. However I started to sway when the salesman showed me the Hybrid. It didn't look too swish up close and the boot space was significantly less than I had imagined. The salesman himself wasn't too enthused about it and admitted that they had sold only a few dozen of them.

To be continued...

Money, Money, Money

2006-07-26T23:34:00.000+09:30

A long time ago, in a financial institution far, far away...

Considering my credit card is like my swimming back stroke, I put a lot of energy in but I get nowhere, I had to get finance to get a car. First I approached the GE Money Genie, just to test the waters seeing as they claim to be rather accomodating. Instead I get a rather dismissive phone call from their local guy(or is that monkey jerk?), claiming that I had lied and that my recruitment firm said I don't work for them.

I tried explaining to him the subtleties of my working arrangement but he was pretty adamant that I had a business. He told me I hadn't worked long enough and that I show him a profit and loss statement for the financial year just passed. Of course I don't have a business, but he was quite dismissive and not helpful at all. No soup for him!

Anyway according to the bloke who did my taxes today these guys are rather dodgy, their interest rates are pretty high and they are really harsh on late repayments. The guys at work suggested I try my bank (which bank?) as they'd have a better understanding of my history and all that. So I applied online, got a follow-up from the lady from the local branch and was given a letter of approval-in-principal.

To be continued...

I've Got A Car

2006-07-26T11:28:00.000+09:30

Well not quite, I should get it early next week and please forgive my reference to a song by that artist if you know him and that song (pity us both). Been thinking about getting a car for almost a year, been looking at them for a few months and then in just one day it was all done! It's been quite a saga, first off with finance and then a big chunk of Saturday at the dealer. Anyway I'm like a kid, although I'm already a manchild so I'm sorta a kid already, waiting for Santa to deliver his shiny new toy!

Our story begins...

New It Girl

2006-07-26T00:16:00.000+09:30

Triple J has been featuring the debut album of this london lass called Lily Allen. She seems to be the next It girl in music, with her popularity spreading through her MySpace site and now with her music about to be flogged on radio. On her MySpace site she has the musical description of pop/indie/ska which I'd generally agree with although Triple J have mentioned reggae a fair bit and I'd have to agree to that tag.

I can see why she'd be the next It girl of the music industry as her music has all the right elements: catchy tunes, cheeky lyrics and unique voice. She's an attractive lass with actual curves, not another emaciated strip of meat from the pop star production line. She seems to exude cheeky fun and well articulated in her strong, apparently honest, opinions.

It remains to be seen whether she's another rebel-without-a-cause fresh out of the indie pop workshop. For now her songs have hooked into my head and there's something about her looks which just keep you intrigued. I'll have to turn in my membership of the bloke's club and buy her album which should be available just now or very soon, if only to play them repetitively enough to get out of my head. Definitely one to listen to AND watch.

Now where do I hide all this?

2006-07-15T14:37:00.000+09:30

Having gotten all that wine home with much paranoia I had to store them in the cellar which meant I had to finish assembling my 72 bottle Bordex wine rack. For anyone as uncoordinated as this manchild it would be safer, faster, easier and nicer to stick with the pre-assembled racks. In addition to the pre-assembled 42 bottle Bordex rack I got, I now have regular space for 114 bottles, disturbingly that isn't too far off from being filled with wine.

The good thing about the Bordex wine racks is that they can be joined together to add capacity as you need it and to make the use of odd shaped areas. As long term storage for wine they are both practical and elegant. In addition to being a blessing for the uncoordinated the pre-assembled racks also seem to be of better build. Then again that could just be because my clumsy hands haven't bashed them around.

Wine racks are fine for long term storage of, all together now, a-week's-worth-of-take-home-pay of Bin 707s if you got a cellar that keeps a lid on dampness and temperature. However for the majority of the proletariat what they class as cellar space is dank and prone to harmful fluctuations in temperature. There's an Aussie company that manufatures wine cabinets that recreate cellar conditions and are far cheaper than building a cellar or buying/renting a house with one.

The company builds wine cabinets to suit tough Australian conditions. Prices are kept down due to the lack of fancy trimmings as these cabinets are meant for long term storage of wine,, not displaying trinkets. The cabinets use Peltier coolers which don't use any moving parts except for a small fan. The reviews seem to be positive and definitely one to consider when I eventually don't have access to a cellar so I can sleep at night with all that wine resting peacefully.

Oops!

2006-07-15T14:14:00.000+09:30

Went to a wine auction today and got a bit, okay that's an understatement, carried away at the start with the bidding. One of the lots at the start consisted of six bottles of the 1996 Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon. I was bidding away thinking that my bid was for all six bottles, it turned out to be the price for each bottle!

What I thought was a bargain was an average price for Penfold's flag ship cab sav. Not to mind, I can probably sell them at a wine auction for a better price. Even if I lose money I guess I deserve a stupidity/rashness fine.

All's well that end's well though, in addition to my-week's-worth-of-take-home pay in Bin 707s I also managed to pick up the following at very reasonable prices:

- 3 x 1979 Wynns Coonawarra Estate Hermitage
- 1 x 1947 Seppelt Para Liqueur
- 12 x 2000 Mitchell The Growers Grenache
- 12 x 2003 Petaluma Hanlin Hill Riesling

The Hermitage, which should nowdays be called shiraz, and the Para I got for sentimental reasons with 1979 being an *self-aggrandising* oustanding vintage. The Mitchell grenache looks so lovely in my wine rack in all it's foil splendour, more on the wine rack later, and was way below it's retail price. On the subject of bargains, the Hanlin Hill riesling was less than half the suggested Langton's price.

But wait, there's more! I also bought a bottle of 1995 Grand Finale Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix Tawny Port, sorry just be Tawny or something thanks to new wine naming laws. This came in a lovely wooden box, albeit particle board veneer, with a perspex cover. As the name suggests and from a guess, it was meant to commemorate the last Grand Prix in Adelaide or the first one in Melbourne. Damn Victorians!

All That Zazz

2006-07-12T20:28:00.000+09:30

A week or so ago apcmag had an article on bargains for geeks. One of the sites it mentioned was Zazz. Zazz is one of those bulk buy web sites where they get a whole load of a product and sell it at a discount. What sets Zazz apart is that they do all this on a daily basis, selling a different product every day.

Having bought more than my fair share of useless consumer geek stuff I had to check it out. Unfortunately I had just missed out on a bargain priced laptop but they did have something for a wino like me. Although I have more wine racks than sense I still had to get some of these funky hammock like racks.

So far I've been impressed by the service from the good folks at Zazz. Somehow I had put something silly down for the number of racks I wanted to buy. That didn't faze the folks at Zazz, a bloke from there rang me up to clarify things and that was that.

Tonight I just opened the package with the 8 wine racks, enough to store 24 bottles, I ended up ordering for around $35. They came with a bottle thermometer, which is simply a plastic strip thermometer stuck around a semi-cylindrical piece of metal which you just wrap around a bottle of wine. Yes I know, I should make more use of my digital camera and post some pictures, perhaps when I get around to posting about my trip to America last year...

Anyway whilst the thermometer was more of a gimmick than anything, the wine racks look pleasant enough. However I'm yet to assemble the racks, so I can't say too much for their sturdiness but I probably wouldn't want to stack them too much more than two up. So far so good in terms of Zazz service.

Tonight I ordered a couple of USB sound cards, should be give crisper sound and better amplification than the built-in sound on most laptops. Whilst the things I've seen on Zazz for sale so far are cheap, there haven't been any really useful bargains although I guess Zazz never really promised lots of really hot stuff often. Having said that though I'm sure it's only a matter of time before a nice laptop or card pops up again.

Harvest of India

2006-07-06T23:14:00.000+09:30

After watching new Pirates of the Carribean movie we were pretty hungry and had an impromptu farewell dinner at Harvest of India on O'Connell Street. Harvest of India is one of the smaller restaurants on O'Connell Street with cosy yet elegant modern decor. The menu seemed to be better priced than most upmarket Indian restaurants.

As it was pretty late by the time we started we decided to go straight for the mains. We ordered the prawn vindaloo, lamb saag and vegetable curry. We also ordered some raita, kuchumber (cucumber) salad, pickles and naan bread.

The prawn vindaloo was rather disappointing with not enough tang and spice to it, without the chilli kick to it the sauce was interesting rather than tantalising. Restaurants' insistence on serving prawns with the shell still intact on their tails is rather frustrating in my book and not worth whatever aesthetic value it brings. If I'm paying to dine in comfort at a restaurant, why should I have to peel the shell off the tail still and make more of a mess than whatever tidy apearance the shells on makes.

Still the prawn vindaloo was a pleasant dish and probably a good introduction to the delights of a good vindaloo. Less could be said of the lamb saag, lamb in a sauce with pureed spinach, which was inoffensive with a slight hint of spices. I would say that perhaps my preference for spicy food ruined my appreciation of the dish but a any dish with pureed spinach should have that moresome feeling and taste of spinach. The vegetable curry was also inoffensive and obviously forgettable.

Whilst the pickles were too salty and rather bland in every other respect. The raita was quite nice with a good blend of yoghurt, garlic, cucumbers and mint. Kuchumber salad is simply another way of saying garden salad with a subtly spiced vinagriette. The naans were rather nice, the garlic naan having a satisfying taste of garlic and the keema naan quite a revelation.

The spiced minced lamb throughout the bread gave it a nice subtle savoury flavour. I could have done without the excess grease on both naans but the keema's contrasting texture of dough and mince was worth the clogged arteries. Faced with the choice of two Indian beers I choose the less trodden Cobra beer. It was a refreshing lager which seemed to have a bit more crispness to it than the more famous Kingfisher beer.

Whilst it was a bit cheaper than Beyond India or Tandoori Oven I'd say the quality of the dishes is well worth the money. My dining philosophy has always been that it's better to have something you enjoy less often than to have something don't enjoy more often. After all spending $10 on something bland is $10 too much.

Overall the food at Harvest of India was, here it comes again, inoffensive with some highlights such as the keema naan. The staff and surroundings were nice although I'm not sure how they would have coped during busier times as opposed to the end of the night. However I can see how it can appeal to those less familiar with Indian cuisine with it's swish decor and well cooked but rather bland, for me anyway, food.

Belated happy new financial year

2006-07-05T23:07:00.000+09:30

Well after almost a year without any updates and continuously telling myself I'll update my blog I've started in earnest. I'll try and fill in stuff in the 12 months that I should note down for future reference and posterity. As I mentioned many moons ago this blog is an extension of my memory.

Continuing on with my general theme from before there'll be reviews of anything that takes my fancy, musings on articles in the media and just notes on things that take my interest. Oh and how could I not forget recipes that I've found or concocted. So with the new financial year comes a fresh start for this neglected blog!

Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set

2006-06-24T11:17:00.000+09:30

A mate of mine had noticed by coincidence that Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set, was playing tonight at Fowler's Live in town. Clare Bowditch has an amazing voice, beautifully suited to her soulful folk music. I know blokes aren't supposed to be into all this girly music but her voice is so engaging and her songs have some heart and soul to them. Besides I'll take whatever insights into women's minds I can find.

Kicking off the night were some forgettable Aussie duo or whatever-o, they were that forgettable. They were followed by Dan Kelly and the Alpha Males, some other presumably Aussie group that get a bit ofairplayy on Triple J. A couple of songs that had some catchy sounds to them but nothing spectacular again.

Finally, and not too soon as I was starting to look at the clock, Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set arrived on set. Clare Bowditch is a gorgeous woman, with an aforementioned amazing voice and engaging stage presence. Unfortunately, for any hot blooded male anyway, she's married to one of the Feeding Set, who happens to be in some other Aussie bands of some repute.

They played an fairly even spread of stuff from the debut album Autumn Bone as well as from the follow up album What Was Left. Also included was a new song and a couple of covers, more on that later. The music from Autumn Bone was interesting but not quite engaging as that from What Was Left.

She performed a strip down version of one of her more popular songs, On This Side, from the album What Was Left. During her introduction to the song she explained that it was originally meant to be a "piss take" on her happily attached sister living in the 'burbs but it seemed to reflect more of what she felt about domestic bliss as time went by. It was a lovely rendition of the song laid bare, well suited to the spacious yet cosy and up close setting of Fowler's Live.

Another popular single, Divorcee by 23, was introduced by Clare as being a song suggesting to women that they be true to themselves. This was a more conventional performance, pretty close to the radio single, and when I listened closely did indeed warn women about the perils of sacrificing their future for the sake of the "best looking guy" in school/class. The new material and the final cover were more lively songs and Clare and the band proved their versatility with Clare in particular maintaining a good stage presence.

Finally as an encore, Clare performed her amazing version of Fall at Your Feet with Libby from the Feeding Set supporting. This rendition was more stripped back than the version on She Will Have Her Way, the tribute album to the Finn brothers. Despite some lines in the song that makes any hot blooded male grin, Clare's voice brings so much depth and soul to the song.

Libby provided a great backing track with the French horn although I wasn't quite sure that her voice was in harmony with Clare's for the backing vocals although I think that might just be me. It was a lovely ending to a great all round performance by Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set in a venue that did them justice.

Downtown San Francisco

2005-11-20T23:38:00.000+10:30

San Francisco, where I left my heart. The place has a great dynamic buzz to it, with a diverse population both in terms of heritage and "lifestyle". San Francisco's Chinatown is one of the oldest in the world. Surprisingly for such a densely populated city it wasn't as polluted as LA, most likely thanks to being on a peninsula.

It's a lovely city with a gorgeous bay and steep hills that offer great views.

The unique cable cars add to the charm of the place and handle the steep terrain better than other forms of transport.

For a fairly densely populated city it still has an intimate feel to it unlike places like LA or even Sydney. There's a sense of personal space and places you can feel at home in. Definitely a place I wouldn't mind exploring more of and even living in.

San Francisco Bay

2005-11-20T23:11:00.000+10:30

After lunch we did a ferry tour of San Francisco Bay taking in the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz. The ferry launched from Fisherman's Wharf allowing us to have a look at the seals that have taken up residence on some of the docks around there.

Obviously such a beautiful bay would be lined with marinas for yachts that provide fantastic views.

The Golden Gate Bridge was such a prominent feature of the bay and whilst not quite as charming as our own coat hanger it is worthy of being a world famous icon.

Another prominent feature of San Francisco Bay was Alcatraz Island aka the Rock.

In the past it was a very well guarded jail with rather imposing guard towers all around the perimeter.

For a while it was occupied by some Native Americans in the struggle for their rights hence the interesting amendment to some of the signs.

Boudin Bakery

2005-11-20T22:11:00.000+10:30

After being stuck in traffic on the way for a fair while, for a small town boy being stuck on a bridge was quite novel, we finally made it into San Francisco. Our first stop was Fisherman's Wharf where we got lunch. My cousin recommended the clam chowder served in sourdough bread which seems to be a specialty of Fisherman's Wharf.

The most prominent and inviting place was Boudin Bakery. Fisherman's Wharf is their flagship location with a shop, bistro, cafe and demonstration bakery. The demonstration bakery has glass frontage so people can watch the bakers in action making their famous sourdough bread using the same mother since opening in 1849. The place had a certain charm about it despite being a tourist magnet and it had plenty of outdoor tables to enjoy the mild autumn weather.

The bread used to serve the clam chowder in was a cauldron shaped loaf with an extra hard crust to hold all that hot chowder in. Contrary to my past experiences with chowder, this clam chowder had just the right amount of body to be hearty without being too heavy. The bread was delicious with a perfect texture and a good tang to it, although the crust was really tough and in hindside was obviously not meant to be eaten. Overall a meal worthy of its reputation.

Regattas

2005-08-07T14:57:00.000+09:30

Friday, the fifth of August being my birthday I decided to celebrate it in low key style by dining at Regattas. Regattas is a bistro located within the Adelaide Convention Centre. It has crisp decor, cozy furnishings and is rather spacious, although that night we were dining there seemed to be only a handful of people apart from ourselves.

For starters I had oysters natural and with a spicy mango salsa. The mango salsa had an interesting tang to it balanced by the heat and sweetness of the mangoes. This was accompanied by a glass of pinot gris, unfortunately I don't seem to recall much of it, writing 11 months after the event. All I can say is that it was quite a good pinot gris and went quite well with the oysters.

For mains I had fillet of venison with an O'Leary Walker Pinot Noir. Although it was ages ago the venison was that lovely pink colour that vension cooked just right. It had a rich yet delicate flavour and was delightfully tender. The pinot was full of berry flavours with a supple texture that had just the right amount of grip to go with the venison.

The lovely French lady serving us was a shining example for the hospitality industry; friendly, full of helpful advice and dedicated. Overall Regattas was a pleasant dining experience although it was a bit odd to see the place mostly empty. A good choice for relaxed dining with good food and service.

Amazon Grace

2005-08-03T21:51:00.000+09:30

Wrote to Amazon last night about the damaged spine of the data structures book I bought from them and received quite a prompt reply. Basically they apologised for the damage and will be sending me another copy of that book free of charge. As an added bonus, because it would be too expensive and fiddly to return the old one, I get to keep the damaged book.

It's enough to make a geek believe in the kindness of strangers. Still I guess reputation is vital to Amazon's business and they can't afford a single bad review of them. It's definitely affirmed my faith in them and I would definitely recommend them to anyone looking for more obscure specialist books.

Nu Thai

2005-07-31T14:13:00.000+09:30

After shopping in the markets we felt like some south-east Asian food and I was curious to see whether Nu's deserved its reputation of doing an exciting new twist on Thai cuisine. As this was a spur of the moment thing we hadn't booked and the restaurant was pretty packed but we were fortunate enough to snare a little table. The place was fairly minimalist, and as with all these wannabe minimalist places, was rather noisy.

The menu wasn't too extensive but had some interesting takes on some favourite Thai dishes. For starters we decided to go with the garlic chive pancakes and prawns with betel leaves. The garlic chives pancakes were similar to the batter my mum makes and fries up. It was basically chopped garlic chives in a rice flour batter and fried up resulting in what can best be described as pancakes with a pleasant, satisfying bite of flavour and texture.

The prawns were dressed with a fragrant blend of herbs and some betel leaves. The waitress told us to wrap the prawns in the leaves to eat. The herbs went well with the prawns and the betel leaves added an interesting herbaceous flavour and nice crunch.

For the mains we had a noodle dish consisting of spicy seafood and vegetables with flat rice noodles. This is apparently one of the more traditional dishes and was quite nice with the salty sourness of the seafood and vegetables marrying well with the chewy texture of the noodles. We also had a beef in a hot and sour sauce which had quite a nice tangy kick to it.

This was all served with coconut rice which has a lovely rich texture going quite nicely with the sharp flavours of the main dishes. However it is rather filling and you probably don't want to eat just that with the meals, some plain rice would have made a nice contrast and refresher to it. Whilst the menu at Nu's may be smaller than most Thai establishments, they did have quite a selection of special with most of the dishes we had coming from the specials board.

Overall Nu is indeed an interesting take on Thai and deserves the praise for its culinary innovation and quality. The restaurant had a certain liveliness to it and the staff were brisk and efficient, always ready to serve. Overall it was a pleasantly suprising dining experience and one to keep in mind when wanting something more from Thai cuisine than the usual fare.

Horde of Amazons

2005-07-21T22:07:00.000+09:30

Got the rest of my shipment of books from Amazon today. Unfortunately they charged my credit card only when they shipped, which was after the last financial year. Guess I won't be able to claim these ones, except for the cook book which is obviously not work related, as deductions for this year. The books that arrived are as follows:

Hearn, D. & Baker, M. P. 2003, Computer Graphics with OpenGL (3rd Edition), Prentice Hall. [Hardcover, US$83.75]

Bruegge, B. & Dutoit, A. H. 2003, Object-Oriented Software Engineering: Using UML, Patterns and Java (2nd Edition), Prentice Hall. [Hardcover, US$62.84]

Lafore, R. 2002, Data Structures and Algorithms in Java (2nd Edition), Sams. [Hardcover, US$40.79]

Chung, S. Y. 2001, Korean Home Cooking (Essential Asian Kitchen Series), Tuttle Publishing. [Hardcover, US$13.57]

Suprisingly these books arrived ahead of schedule, shipping for the books came to $US24.62 which is better value than the first shipment. The condition of the books wasn't as good as at a local shop but this is international shipping after all. Still it was disappointing to find the data structures book with a big puncture in its spine.

The computer graphics book is a good combination of graphics text book and OpenGL primer. It doesn't quite go into as much practical detail as the official OpenGL programming guide. However between that and resources on the web most things should get covered. The other two computer textbooks are pretty comprehensive and will make great references (well I should hope so after spending hundreds on textbooks so far this year).

The Korean cook book is actually written by a Korean woman living in Sydney. It contains a good range of recipes but some of the classics are missing such as kim chi jiggae (kim chi soup with tofu). Still it's my first and only Korean cook book, should keep me occupied in the kitchen for a while.

Amazon Delivers

2005-07-17T15:17:00.000+09:30

Ordered some books from Amazon late last month hoping to get them in before the end of the financial year to claim tax deductions. Only two books shipped and were charged to my credit card before the end of the financial year and they were:

Barfield, O. 2002, History in English Words, Lindisfarne Books. [Paperback, US$9.31]

Vince, J. 2001, Mathematics for Computer Graphics Fast, Springer. [Paperback, US$16.97]

The shipping for this order ended up being US$12.31, definitely not worth the money to ship just a couple of paperbacks. I've got another four books on the way and they're all hardcover so the shipping should be a reasonable fraction of total price. Still should remember to ship the books all at the same time to save on the shipping charge for each order.

The books arrived in reasonable condition albeit slightly dog earred. History in English Words is a fascinating read although it can get a bit tedious due to the archaic language and idioms as it was published in the 1950s. The maths book is a useful reference although I did hope it might be a bit more depth but what can you expect from a book with fast in its title.

Matsuri

2005-07-16T13:46:00.000+09:30

For a special treat we decided to dine at Matsuri on Gouger St, a well regarded place in the media and at work. It's a cosy Japanese restaurant tucked upstairs on the quieter end of Gouger St. We were lucky to get a table as we had not booked and the manager was not the most welcoming of people.

It is a pleasant enough place, with a sliding door entrance and little bar at the front. There's a small room for regular diners and an even smaller room at the back for more traditional Japanese dining. The manager had the novel idea of putting up a draped kimono between us and another set of diners.

We started by sharing a sushi and sashimi plate. Whilst the sushi and sashimi were of an arguably better quality than most other places, it was not a significant step up above other restaurants such as Genki (also tucked away off Gouger St). However it is better than most restaurants (cough Sumo cough) with the sushi rice actually having some flavour and the fish tasting fresh like fish should.

For mains we went with the don set which basically consisted of two dishes served with rice each and dessert. I went with the salmon and steak for the don dishes. The salmon don was simply raw salmon sliced thinly served over sushi rice whilst the steak was pieces of tender steak cooked in a soy based sauce.

Whilst the salmon was nice I had probably had enough of raw fish by the end of it, besides the sushi rice didn't quite have the tang that I like. The steak was lovely and juicy with the sauce complementing it very nicely by adding that extra savoury flavour. Overall both dishes were satisfying enough but not quite amazing enough to warrant the high regard this place seems to garner.

We barely had enough room for the desert which consisted of green tea ice cream and red beans in syrup. The green tea ice cream was nice, with that lovely texture and richness green tea ice cream has, although it did seem a tad too powdery. I only had a little taste of the red beans in syrup, a very popular Asian dessert but a bit too sweet for my taste.

The service was a bit slow considering the place was not extremely busy and the bill was on the higher side for Japanese restaurants. Overall the food was nice and satisfying but certainly not worth the rave some people have given it. I think I prefer the more open ambience of Genki and I don't think the premium you pay at Matsuri is worth it compared to Genki. Then again compared to other Japanese restaurants it is one of the better ones and at least the premium is more deserved than say at Sumo. So I would sum up Matsuri as being one of the better Japanese restaurants but definitely not the very best.

War of the Worlds

2005-07-09T12:23:00.000+09:30

Having decided to see the latest Spielberg blockbuster starring Tom Cruise, War of the Worlds, we decided to grab a bite somewhere first on the Parade in Norwood. There was a dearth of variety so we settled on an Italian joint called Gusto. It was a pretty roomy place with wooden floorboards and a nice lounge for takeaway customers.

For entrees we had the Tuscan flat bread and a salsicca (italian sausage) fry up. The Tuscan flat bread was rather nice, simply flat bread drizzled with some olive oil and herbs. The salsicca was flavoursome if a bit too greasy for an entree. For mains I had cannelloni stuffed with spinach and ricotta which was quite a nice and not too heavy main. Overall the place was ordinary but pleasant enough, although the bill was comparable to Amalfi the food was nowhere near as good.

War of the Worlds was an entertaining film, although the acting wasn't much to write home about. The characters just weren't believable enough and at times were grating. Spielberg has done well the capture the gloominess and confusion of the story. The ending could have been pithier, it seemed as though the writers had enough and just wrote that they lived happily ever after. Overall a visual feast but not too memorable.

Back into the Oven

2005-07-03T11:50:00.000+09:30

Last night to I returned to Tandoori Oven to celebrate a mate's birthday. Of course I left it until the last minute to get him a gift but wine has always rescued me in such situations. I popped into Quaffers on Unley Rd just before heading off to the Tandoori Oven. They had a great range of wines with more obscure wines than Dan Murphy's. I managed to get him a bottle of St Hallett Blackwell Shiraz, from what I read a paragon of great Barossa shiraz and definitely one I'll consider putting in the cellar.

This time there was a big gathering but we ordered individual dishes. For entrees I went for a dish of barramundi fillets with a spicy coconut gravy wrapped in banana leaves. It was a wonderful dish, the flavours of the coconut gravy blending nicely with the lovely delicate flesh of the barramundi.

This was washed down with a bottle of Rockford Alicante Bouchet. The alicante bouchet grape is the only, or one of the few, grape variety to actually have red juice whereas most wines get their colour from the skins of the grapes. This results in a nice refreshing wine a notch above most other rose wines with a perfect balance of crispness and sweetness.

For mains I had to try the lamb rogan josh again. I'm not sure whether the mix of previous expectations, staff rosters and having a glass of shiraz conspired to be not quite as impressive as last time. It was still a nice dish but it lacked the intensity of flavour and tang it had the last time.

I should berate myself for not learning the lesson of not having beefy red wines with shiraz, the combination of the two dull the flavours of both. Having said that though the Woodstock Shiraz was a nice example of McLaren Vale shiraz and deserved a better partner. We all shared a variety of naan bread including a lovely potato naan bread. The naan bread at the Tandoori Oven is quite nice but not quite as fluffily delightful as Beyond India's. Having said that the potato naan bread was quite a pleasant suprise with a filling of spiced potatoe inside, very appetising and satisfying.

For dessert I had a pistachio kufli, which was basically a firm ice cream flavoured with pieces of pistachio and cardomom. The pistachio gave it an intriguing hint of bitterness and the cardomom provided a nice tang. This was accompanied by a thin sliver of pistachio biscuit and washed down with a glass of Hollick Nectar, a lovely botrytis wine which matched the richness of the kulfi quite nicely.

This was another nice meal at one of the better Indian dining establishments and the bigger crowd showed the Tandoori coming into its own for a big but cosy gathering. I'd still like to think Indian food is better done in a more down-to-earth style as at Beyond India. Still the Tandoori Oven is a great place to dine in style, whether just two people or a mob.

Revenge of the Sith

2005-06-13T22:33:00.000+09:30

Having been fighting off cold and flu for quite a while I had managed to not see the last and best in the new Star Wars trilogy. I managed to see one of the last sessions in a big ticket theatre. The inner child in me had convinced me to get a Luke Skywalker light sabre with all the lights and sounds a few days before.

Having stepped into the cinema I knew straight away that only Senstadium and Cinemaxx theatres could do this film justice with their stadium seating and big screen and speakers. The introductory scenes just took my breath away with all the space fighter action and light sabre fights. George Lucas has obviously listened and learnt from his last two efforts.

The scenes were luscious and actually looked real, avoiding the whole painted background feel of the last episode. Natalie Portman, as usual, looked divine and totally delicious whilst Hayden Christensen actually showed some semblance of acting. Still he was better when fighting than when talking but hey it's Star Wars, who cares about the acting as long as there's plenty of action.

This episode actually did convey a feeling of being an epic which the last two somehow missed. The storyline did actually take me in and the action sequences just blew me away. Ewan McGregor managed to project the presence of the original Obi Wan and put across some of the emotion felt when Anakin turns to the Dark Side.

Overall a fantastic cinema experience and one which only a big screen and loud speakers can do justice. It was well worth the wait and trek to the less savoury parts of town to see in the Senstadium. It was definitely not as kid friendly as the first two in its trilogy but no worse than some scenes from the original trilogy. Star Wars Episode VI: Revenge of the Sith is one of the outstanding movies of 2005 and worthy of being compared to the original trilogy.

Beyond India

2005-05-29T11:32:00.000+09:30

Feeling like some nice curry we headed to our favourite Indian restaurant, Beyond India on O'Connell St in North Adelaide. Beyond India has always been my benchmark for Indian cuisine since we discovered it in 2000. The staff are always busy but friendly, particularly the maitre'd George who is a very affable and knowledgable gentleman. I love the whole atmosphere of O'Connell St with its decent range of restaurants and its embrace of al fresco dining, it's like a mature version of Rundle St without the wannabes and hoons.

Beyond India is a cosy, charming place with an interesting collection of Indian art. It has more of a lively buzz to it than the Tandoori Oven, although I guess the Tandoori Oven is better suited to more intimate and formal gatherings. On the night we visited we didn't have a booking and the place was pretty packed but George managed to find a table near the entrace.

Feeling rather peckish we decided to go straight to mains. We opted for the Beef Vindaloo and Beef Do Piaz accompanied by the baigan patata for vegetables. Beyond India making some of the best naan bread in town, it was mandatory for us to order some plain and garlic naans.

This was all washed down with a bottle of Nederburg Rose from South Africa. It was a pleasant by-the-book wine although I did notice it had a slight sour note although that could have been the interaction with the food we had with it. For Indian cuisine, and I think most rich and spicy dishes, rose is a perfect match with it's hint of sweetness and refreshing cripness.

Beyond India makes the best vindaloo in town and is responsible for my love of this dish. The whole combination of tender beef pieces, a rich tangy sauce and all that heat just brings your tastebuds alive. No other vindaloo dish I've had can compare to this.

The Beef Do Piaz is another interesting dish, although it can't compare to the Vindaloo for intensity of flavour. The dish combines tender pieces of beef with a rich gravy of tomatoes, onion and all the spices that this place blends so well. It was pleasant enough and would probably delight those with a more tame palate.

It's easy to forget how rich and tasty Indian vegetarian cuisine with all these meat curries. The baigan patata was a lovely reminder of how good vegetarian dishes can be. It combines potatoes, eggplant and capsicum all cooked to a lovely tenderness in a combination of spices that teases your mouth.

All this was accompanied and mopped up by the naan bread. Beyond India's naan is delectably fluffy and moresome. The garlic naan with its lovely colourful bits of garlic and spices is a delight on its own and the regular naan is lovely for mopping up those last bits of gravy. For satisfying Indian cuisine Beyond India still sets the benchmark, the place is like home for Indian food.

Sosta

2005-05-15T22:02:00.000+09:30

Having been intrigued by that fairly new Argentinean restaurant, Sosta, on Rundle St. for quite a while now we decided to finally try it out. Judging how busy the place was by the time we arrived I'd have to say bookings are essential. The restaurant's decor was cosy and rustic with lovely dark wood panelling. There were some interesting if a bit abstract paintings around the place with dark crimson tones standing out, probably something to do with it being a steak house and all.

For entrees we had some panna espanol and what was basically a paella/risotto dish with chorizos. The panna espanol was an interesting take on garlic bread, with a rich garlic tomato sauce instead of the usual garlic butter/oil, very delicious. The chorizo dish consisted of chorizo sausages cooked with various flavourings on a bed of rice. It was rich but oh so flavoursome, the delicate spicing of the chorizo combining being highlighted by its companion ingredients.

The wine we brought along from Vintage Cellars was a lovely Italian wine, the 1997 Illuminati Zanna Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Vecchio. This basically means old/aged Montepulciano wine from Illuminati's Zanna vineyard in the Abruzzo region. The Abruzzo region on the Adriatic coast of Italy has been steadily gaining acclaim in Australia and Montepulciano seems to be one of its specialities.

Judging from this fine example of Abruzzo wine it is well deserved acclaim. The wine was basically Italy in a bottle: earthy, smooth and rich. On the nose it was dark sweet things, think raisins, chocolate and dark fruits. There were also lovely overtones of earth and spice on the bouquet with a hint of that vanilla from oak.

In the mouth the wine was just bursting with all the flavours the nose promised and the tannins were delightfully smooth. The silky richness of the wine perfectly complemented the mains. Main courses at Sosta's, as with any Argentinean restaurant, can be summed up as meat and more meat. Whilst I did notice some seafood dishes that caught my fancy, the menu on the whole was focussed on a variety of meats that have been slowly grilled to perfection.

I decided to go for the beef fillet served with a mushroom sauce, a relatively straighforward dish done superbly by the folk at Sosta. The fillet, which I ordered medium rare, was cooked to perfection. It was wonderfully tender, with a melt-in-your-mouth quality, and was not oozing blood like some steaks I've had before. The mushroom sauce had a lovely rich earthy flavour, the trinity of the steak, sauce and wine just marrying perfectly.

I had a try of my dining companion's goat dish, which was what can best described as a casserole of goat meat and vegetables. The meat and vegetables were cooked to perfection, again demonstrating the wonderful ability and judgement of the kitchen. Whilst the dish was nice enough, it lacked a certain richness and depth of flavour although any dish would have been hard pressed to match the rich flavours of the steak I had.

Both dishes were of a very generous size and served with a good selection of vegetables. We were both unable to finish off our mains as delicious as they were which was disappointing as they had a very tempting desserts menu. I guess the lesson to be learnt is to avoid entrees if you want to fit in a grill and dessert. Having said that there was a very interesting entree menu and there were other mains dishes not involving grilled meat that were intriguing.

Sosta's is a lively place to dine, being located on one of Adelaide's main entertainment strips. There was an interesting selection of what I'm guessing is Argentinean inspired music playing. Although the love of Rundle St establishments for concrete floors and the number of diners in a relatively cosy place did make it a bit difficult to carry on a conversation. Overall a lovely place with the best steak I've had so far, definitely one of the top places for grilled meats.

Amalfi

2005-05-01T21:09:00.000+09:30

As we were feeling like Italian on Friday night what better place to enjoy it than at Amalfi, one of the best Italian restaurants around and definitely the best for rustic Italian food. There's something homely and inviting about that little shop front on Frome St. just off Rundle. Whilst the dishes are a little bit pricier than all those cafes surrounding it they are so much better than anything you can get in the area.

For entrees we decided to share a small pizza, in this case Amalfi's speciality pizza. Amalfi's pizzas are the best I've ever had, with the toppings the best you can get anywhere in town and the crust oh so perfectly done. The specialty pizza is an exercise in perfection with prawns, basil, pepperoni, assorted vegetables and what I believe is pancetta and anchovies.

Again we brought along a wine from Vintage Cellar's in Central Market, this time it was the Kingston Empiric 2003 Tempranillo. Tempranillo is the main variety in many of Spain's famous Rioja and a lot of people think it has great potential here in Australia. I would wholeheartedly agree with them, it has a delightful fruitiness and depth with gentle tannins. The spicy berry flavours match the fantastic mediterranean cuisine here and should do justice to more robust asian dishes thanks to that tantalising hint of apparent sweetness.

The wine cosied up to the pizza so wonderfully and so I decided to move on to the pasta del giorno (pasta of the day). This was a blend of mussels and clams with basil in a napolitana sauce and spaghetti. The pasta was cooked perfectly, with that elusive al dente character. The ingredients melded perfectly together and were robust enough to embrace the wine even with the seafood.

This was yet another delightful meal at Amalfi, definitely the best place in town for pizza and one of the best for good rustic Italian food. It was unfortunate that we had not booked and landed an al fresco table on a cold autumn night but that's the cost of impulsiveness. The staff were busy but were pleasant, helpful and efficient when they did finally serve us. For a great Italian meal you can't go past Amalfi.

A scenic drive

2005-04-05T21:53:00.000+09:30

Went to the Barossa with a mate from the old work and an overseas consultant doing work for that company. We thought we'd take her to see the Barossa on the first day of the Barossa Vintage Festival which occurs every odd year. The drive wasn't too long or chaotic, although somehow we, well maybe just me, missed the turn onto the Barossa Highway or whatever it's called. We had to take this side road called Gomersal Road but we still ended up in Tanunda. Tanunda along with Nuriootpa, Angaston and Lyndoch are the main towns in the Barossa.

After dropping by the tourist centre in Tanunda we headed for Richmond Grove's winery. This was one of the closest wineries from the tourist centre. I had heard that Richmond Grove was based in a pretty building called Chateau Leonay. The truth was rather disappointing, it was a dark stone building with a corrugated iron roof. Still I guess the spire did give it some sort of quaint charm and there was that wonderful smell, well to a wine geek like myself, of fermenting must (grape juice) which just yelled out vintage time.

Richmond Grove has a range of wines with fruit from what are the apparently the best regions for the particular varieties hence Barossa shiraz, Watervale riesling and Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon. I had decided that day to be on the look out for good examples of Barossa shiraz but Richmond Grove's shiraz whilst competently made just didn't grab me like a great wine should.

The same went for the riesling and cabernet, perhaps it was because it was fairly early in the day but I had expected Richmond Grove wines to have some sort of pulling power. I also found out Richmond Grove make a port, or should that be a tawny or vintage fortified. Again no faults and well made but lacking some charm or magnetism.

Next door to Richmond Grove was Peter Lehmann and that was where we headed for. The grounds of the cellar door seemed to be on lusher, more expansive grounds than Richmond Grove. The building had a nice modern Australian touch to it with interesting local art, overall the cellar door was quite impressive inside and out.

First up we tried the Peter Lehmann Fino which was a dry sherry style fortified wine made using the solera system. It was pleasantly bone dry and, as some wine author has written concerning fino, was crying out for green olives. Quite a nice wine with that lovely nutty "rancio" character thanks to the special flor yeast.

Against my better judgement I decided to try the Barossa pinot noir, considering how delicate a variety pinot is. The wine was supposed to have berry characters with a hint of dusted chocolate but it was more like berry jam, nothing memorable. Continuing my search for good Barossa shiraz I tried the Peter Lehmann Barossa Shiraz. Whilst well made it still lacked that gobsmacking intensity of blackberries I love about shiraz although maybe that's telling me I should be going for McLaren Vale and Coonwarra shiraz more.

We also tried the vintage tawny and liquer muscat, both well made but not quite flooring my tastebuds. Finally we finished off by trying the late harvest frontignac and noble semillon. The late harvest frontignac was just like what the promotional material promised, like biting into a grape. Being a sucker for botrytis white wines I just loved the honeyed lusciousness of the Peter Lehmann Noble Semillon.

We had lunch at 1918 which was a pretentious and rather mediocre eatery. I tried some Moroccan inspired beef strips. Whilst quite aromatic it was rather bland and definitely not worth the 20 odd dollars. We had some Bethany late harvest riesling to go with it which was nice but after discovering the delights of botrytis whites and delightfully crisp whites it was too half-arsed a wine for my liking.

After a long coffee and cake at the charming Zinfandel cafe our final stop was Chateau Yaldara. Whilst not exactly the show pony of wines it is located on nice grounds with a grand building actually worthy of the name chateau, well in Australia anyway. I found out that Yaldara is now under the McGuigan Simeon umbrella. The shirazes on offer there were nice, the Tempus Two and McGuigan in particular.

The standout however were the vintage ports on offer dating back to the 1970s going for $50 and less. I tried and bought the 1976 vintage although what I tried was at the bottom of the barrel. Still even the bottom of the barrel tasted amazing with such luscious complexity. I was never a fan of port, finding the alcohol dominating too much but those were the cheap and nasty ones. This bottle was like an epiphany revealing how complex and luscious vintage fortified wine can be.

We wrapped up our tour by going to the Barossa reservoir which has this whispering wall where you can stand at one and hear the person at the other end as if they were talking right next to you. Overall it was quite a nice trip even though we only visited three wineries, it would be great to spend a weekend or more over there. Definitely a place I'll want to return to on a regular basis.

Gouger Fish Cafe

2005-04-01T20:48:00.000+09:30

It was a fairly warm Friday night and the seaside was calling me. However after another week of hard yakka and work being a fair way away from the seaside I had to settle for a seafood restaurant. The Gouger Fish Cafe was chosen because of its cool blue themed lighting and decor.

As the restaurant was obviously on Gouger Street I was able to pick up a bottle of wine from Vintage Cellars in Central Market. This place has a good range of more up market wines, not quite as special as the ones in say East End Cellars but still more varied and refined than your average liquor store. Having been persuaded to try something the wine chosen was the 2003 Arneis from the Garry Crittenden 'i' range of wines.

Arneis is a supposedly rare Italian white grape but after drinking it I can see it's rare for a good reason. However I must concede that Italian white wines are generally fairly insipid minerally wines because that's the way they they like it over there. Anyway the wine itself was textbook mineral and some faint hint of pear and stone fruit. Slightly harsh and very insipid but it was served rather warm, more chilling may have given more of an impression of crisp, inoffensive white wine.

Gouger Fish Cafe is a sensible restaurant with a vaguely nautical theme about it, a sensible place for grown ups to eat fish'n'chips. The menu is middle-of-the-road Australian seafood with a few tame quasi-asian and mediterranean dishes in addition to the usual fish'n'chips albeit done with a bit more finesse than your local fish shop. I had chilli balmain bugs for entrees, this turned out to be cooked balmain bugs in a chilli sauce that had more than a hint of sweetness.

The balmain bugs had been simply cooked I presume by quickly boiling them although I felt they could have been a tad more tender. The sauce did complement the texture of the seafood but it did overpower the gentle savoury sweetness of the balmain bugs. Overall a decent dish but with the potential to be a lot better if the sauce were less sweet and concentrated and the balmain bugs more tender.

For entrees there was no other choice in a vanilla fish cafe like this but to have the King George whiting fillets battered and served with chips. King George whiting is such a delightful eating fish that as long as it's reasonably battered and fried it will taste divine. The flesh is delightfully light and tender matching perfectly with the slight crunch of the batter. The tartare sauce and salad that went with it were standard fare, nothing spectacular, indeed the salad was the stuff anyone rustles up at home.

Overall, like the wine and menu, dining at the Gouger Fish Cafe was a mildly pleasant experience with nothing wrong but nothing spectacular. My choice of wine was a disappointment in this case, but at least it was a lesson learnt about Italian white wines. The service was rather ordinary like their paper napkins, my main gripe being the wine wasn't properly chilled. Perhaps a more zingy wine like a Clare riesling and a better balanced entrée would have made it a better experience.

Tandoori Oven

2005-03-19T14:16:00.000+10:30

Continuing on with the Friday night dining and to commemorate my last day on the job we dined at the Tandoori Oven on Unley Rd. This time I took that extra step and booked in advance that afternoon. Although the restaurant wasn't that busy I suspect we got a better and more accommodating table.

The Tandoori Oven is probably the swishest place for Indian cuisine in town. The little lounge bar just off the front desk was a nice touch. The staff were quite friendly although probably not as warm and inviting as at Beyond India on O'Connell St. although they were probably a bit more prompt.

Being a party of four we opted for a banquet which included a Tandoori platter and 3 main dishes. It turned out to be more than enough for all four and fairly reasonable value for the forty odd fare per head. To go with the food we ordered a bottle of Fox Creek JSM which turned out to be more than enough for everyone.

The tandoori platter was quite nice, a good balance of spice and that certain flavour you get from a tandoori oven. The main dishes we chose were beef vindaloo, lamb rogan josh and prawn and basil curry. We also had basmati rice, naan bread and a complimentary vegetable curry.

The prawn and basil curry was fragrant and deliciously tangy, the prawns cooked just right in a rich sauce. Whilst the beef vindaloo was spicy, hot and tender it just didn't have the tang that Beyond India's vindaloo has. Definitely in the Tandoori Oven's favour though was the lamb rogan josh, simply the best Rogan Josh in town. The lamb was tender without having that funny odour that people claim lamb has with the spices combining wonderfully.

Having the Fox Creek JSM with the food was a reminder that big red wines do not go that well with spicy food. It was a pleasant enough wine with smokey cherry and pepper characteristics but it just overloaded the palette. A better choice would have a been a rose, which wasn't on the menu, or beer.

The accompanying basmati rice was a nice yellow colour, perhaps achieved with fried onions, turmeric or saffron. It was just a tad too moist but the naan bread was quite nice, although the naan at the Tandoori Kitchen still tops the list. The vegetable curry was a tasty blend of spices and vegetables. For desert, by which I was probably reaching a similar state to the guy in the meaning of life at the restaurant, I had the mango chiffon mousse. It was a nice tangy combination but I was probably not in the best condition to appreciate it fully.

Overall the Tandoori Oven was a charming place to dine although the lights could have been a tad brighter. Actually on the night we were there Senator Amanda Vanstone was dining there, what a small town we live in. The food was good and the staff reasonably prompt and friendly. Although the food didn't quite match the heights of Beyond India it's still a great place to enjoy good Indian cuisine in a plush surrounding.

Lemon Cheesecake

2005-03-16T21:43:00.000+10:30

Cheesecake and botrytis wine is a combination made in heaven. The Volunteer's Cafe at the Flinders Medical Centre sells a delicious one. I haven't tried this recipe yet but it seems fairly straightforward.

Ingredients:
2 cups milk powder
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup boiling water
6 tbs butter
150g wholemeal sweet biscuits, crushed
1 large packet cream cheese (250g Philadelphia)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
seasonal fruit

Steps:
1. Mix milk powder, sugar and boiling water in a blender. Pour mixture into a bowl then add cream cheese and lemon juice. Whisk until thoroughly mixed.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan and mix in the crushed biscuits. Press into a pie plate or a spring-loaded non-stick cake pan. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the top.
3. Chill for an hour and then decorate with seasonal fruit.

Recipe Source: http://www.uq.net.au/hyperlinked/recipes/taracake.htm

Urban myths

2005-03-07T23:46:00.000+10:30

Adding to my restaurant review, last Friday one of the guys from work was leaving to go to the same company I'm going to (a coincidence, I didn't know until I got offered the contract). The chief took the whole software team to lunch at the Urban Bistro on Fullarton Road, near the race track.

As the name suggests it's one of those trendy, whatever the trend is, eateries with wanky minimalist decor. Thankfully they had wooden floor boards as opposed to the standard minimalist concrete. Still for a decent sized room holding 40 or so people it was rather loud, I couldn't hear much of what the waitress (or is it waiter these days) was saying about the specials.

The menu was I guess what you'd call Modern Australian, that is French jargon and Mediterranean flavourings and perhaps the occasional Asian ingredient. It all sounded pretty pretentious and the servings looked rather small sitting on those huge dishes. I went for the roast venison on polenta with spinach and grated beetroot. Since I was feeling pretty crook I thought I'd pass on the wine.

The staff were quite pleasant although it did take a while for the dishes to arrive, due in no part to the delightful waiting staff. The venison arrived looking rather diminutive and rare. However it was deliciously tender and packed full of flavour but I knew I needed a glass of wine, probably pinot (yes I'm still stuck on pinot thanks to Sideways).

The polenta was nice and wholesome, with effective but subtle garlic seasoning capable of standing up to the venison, just the thing for a crook little manchild. The spinach and grated beetroot were a refreshing balance to the rich flavours of the polenta and venison. Finally my glass of Nepenthe Pinot Noir arrived, although my nose wasn't in peak condition I could smell a distinct leafy aroma and a bit of that luscious strawberry fruit. The wine married with the food quite nicely, the general strawberry and slightly herbaceous flavours coming through, not quite as full as I'd hoped but then again I was crook.

During our conversation, I got reminded of a segment on the ABC science show the day before (Catalyst?) about how easy it is to imprint false memories. One example was the researcher doing quite a good job of convincing the reporter that she had visited the place they were at before. She would ask leading questions and was firm in her assertions to the reporter.

The other case study involved identifying a thief, participants were shown a video of a theft taking place and then photos of one group of suspects and a video of a line up of another group. Only one suspect was in both the photos and video. Over 50% of the participants wrongly identified the suspect in both the photos and video as being the culprit. This was attributed to him looking familiar, although that was most likely due to him appearing in both groups of suspects shown to the participants.

The researchers related this study to the case of a man in the US whom many involved in the case thought was innoncent. In this case he was also the only suspect shown in both the photos and video, this would seem to cast doubt over the reliability of the witness testimonies. Interesting stuff, psychology can actually be useful if removed from all those bleeding heart, nihilistic liberals.

Back to the meal, it was quite pleasant with the flavours lingering for quite a while. Overall I was pleasantly suprised that a seemingly pretentious eatery could serve up a satisfying, well balanced meal. Oh the overall price per head was probably comparable to Mapo which was a suprise and the bread was quite nice, a good balance between crusty and soft.

Moving blog host

2005-03-05T14:45:00.000+10:30

Just moved my blog host . Anyway I guess I should detail the process.

A. Blogger Settings.
The publishing settings for this blog had to be changed in Blogger. At the top it states "You're publishing via ..." and just underneath ("Switch to:") it allows you to switch publishing modes. I selected FTP which then required the following settings to be set:

- FTP Server [ users.isp.com.au ]
This is the server files for a web site etc. are uploaded to.

- Blog URL [ http://users.isp.com.au/username/blog/myblog.html ]
This is the address where the blog is viewed from. It must begin with http://

- FTP Path [ blog/ ]
This is the path where the blog files are stored, it begins in your ftp root directory.

- Blog Filename [ myblog.html ]
This is the name of the blog main/index file.

- FTP Username and FTP Password [ both blank ]
You can fill in these fields so that blogger automatically uploads your files via ftp. Otherwise you have to enter them in evertyime blogger uploads a file, I think this is better as the less sensitive data floating around the better.

Once those fields are filled in, hit "Save Settings" and then press the "Republish" button near the top. For some reason it didn't seem to publish all the files to the new site the first time round. Check the details and see if all the files were published, if not you may have to hit the "Republish Entire Blog" button.

B. Password Protecting.
Since this blog is generally for personal reference I thought it'd be prudent to password protect it. So here's the steps I took, note that for some reason FTP operations didn't seem to work unless it was in passive mode.

1) Create a text file called ".htaccess", this provides details on the directory to be protected (in this case the blog directory). Enter the following in (text enclosed in braces are comments):

AuthUserFile /ftp/home directory/path of directory to protect/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "Protected directory warning"
AuthType Basic
require valid-user

2) Upload this ".htaccess" file into your FTP root/home directory.

3) Create another text file called ".htpasswd", this contains the user details that used to verify users requesting access to the protected directory. The file consists of lines of the format "username:password" where the user name is in plain text and the password is encrypted. The following sites can generate encrypted passwords:

http://www.euronet.nl/~arnow/htpasswd/

http//www.inch.com/tech/HOWTOS/htaccess/htpasswd.html

4) Upload this ".htpasswd" file into the directory to be protected as specified in the .htaccess file.

Now go to the new blog site and voila, a password protected blog!

References:
Google 2005, How do I setup an FTP (or sFTP) connection to my external web host? [Online, accessed 5 Mar. 2005]. URL: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=121

TPG Internet 2004, Frequently Asked Questions [Online, accessed 5 Mar. 2005]. URL: http://www.tpg.com.au/helpdesk/faqs.php

Rekindling the fire

2005-03-01T00:36:00.000+10:30

Just a few more thoughts on Firefox before I make myself hit the sack. This blogging thing is strangely addictive, then again the internet has been helping people get more self-centred since 1996... Anyway I found out that this whole thing about not loading the correct blog page after posting affects Internet Explorer as well.

Perhaps Firefox isn't that incompatible after all. One cool thing about Firefox is that your Internet Explorer settings are imported seamlessly into it. This includes auto-completion, so scratch 1 to Firefox. As I mentioned before Firefox beats Internet Explorer easily but it's not compelling enough to make the switch away from Opera.

Spirali Calabrese

2005-03-01T00:08:00.000+10:30

Here's a dish I cooked up on Sunday night, I'm not sure if it really is what most people think of as Calabrese but it seemed the closest match. Anyway this is something I came up with inspired by the spirali calabrese at Fasta Pasta. Fasta Pasta's always good for decent Italian food, better than most cafes and without their pretensions.

Ingredients:
500g spirali pasta
700mL tomato puree
200g salami
1 medium red onion
1 garlic clove
2 medium capsicums
12 kalamata olives
4 tbs tomato paste

Steps:
1. Cut capsicum into pieces that can lie down flat, rub olive oil on the skin and place under a hot grill until the skin gets all charred.
2. Place the capsicum in cold water and remove the skin then chop into slices.
3. Chop the salami into bite sized wedges, standard supermarket bought salami slices should be quartered.
3. Fry the onion in oil and add the garlic when the onions begin to turn translucent, continue frying just before they turn brown.
4. Add the salami and keep frying until the salami has slightly sweated.
5. Add the capsicum and continue frying if necessary until they achieve the desired tenderness.
6. Stir in the tomato paste and briefly fry until the paste has blended well into the other ingredients.
7. Add the tomatoe puree and reduce the heat to a simmer.
8. Simmer for 15 minutes, adding salt and sugar according to taste.
9. Add the olives and continue simmering for another 5 minutes then serve with pasta cooked according to instructions.

Serves: 4

Searching and metadata

2005-02-28T23:48:00.000+10:30

Since the primary purpose of this blog is to note things down of interest that may otherwise be quickly forgotten, I've been giving the idea of searching this blog more thought. This is all assuming I can get the darn search thing to work on here! Anyway the ability to search this blog will be of immense value, I can write things down as they pop up and refer to them easily later.

One of the challenges to searching this blog may be the lack of a structure, despite Google's boasts about its search abilities it may be prudent to include some metadata in each post. At first I thought the title of each post may provide enough data to structure this blog for searching. However things may pop up which I haven't created a unique, meaningful title for either through sheer laziness or its a regular post (things like friday night dining).

At this point I've hit upon the idea of using meta data in the text embedded in an escape sequence at the start of the post. So when I finally get to search the blog, I can search for metadata instead of coming up with an elabourate search string, For example my recent friday night dining post might have the following metadata on the first line:
[1!review][2!restaurant]

Perhaps the extra effort involved won't make it much better than searching it via google but then again most search engines do use metadata if available. This is one topic which will require more practice and tuning, now to get search working on this blog...

Fizzled Fox

2005-02-27T15:49:00.000+10:30

I promise this will be my last post today... Installed Mozilla Firefox (British English Version 1.0) today, heard it's easier to use than Opera and more compatible. Actually I've been composing this post and the others today using it, hoping that it would show the right page when I update and view this blog. Alas, it was not to be, seems to me Mozilla is still too half-arsed. It seems to be not much easier to use than Opera, actually I reckon it's clunkier than Opera, and it's just as incompatible with this blog platform.

First signs of trouble came when I was using it a few days ago at work. Tabbed handling wasn't as streamlined as in Opera and mouse gestures were missing. Perhaps I can address both of those with a bit more poking around but Opera is all slicked up straight out. File transfers are just a bit of an improvement on Internet Explorer but have nothing on Opera's geek sleek. Again perhaps I could poke around and improve things but there should be no need.

Customisation is also more limited with Firefox than with Opera. Bars and icons aren't as flexible and the range of options presented is rather limited. When stacked up against Internet Explorer sure Firefox is a clear winner but I certainly won't be replacing Opera any time soon.

House of Flying Daggers

2005-02-27T15:38:00.000+10:30

Well what can I say I've developed a blogging bug, probably cos I can forget the details of life outside office hours so easily. Continuing on my last post we saw House of Flying Daggers afterwards. I was a bit disappointed, people had been saying it had no plot and it was superbly shot. Well it was superbly shot but it didn't have enough fisticuffs for my liking and the plot just seemed to have been dragged out too much.

A couple of twists and turns is nice but a whole lot in one scene is just too much. Reminds of some other Chinese/Hong Kong flicks and shows, where everything changes in an instant beyond credibility. I was hanging out to see that big battle they were all alluding to but no I had to witness a Chinese version of a fight on Jerry Springer. The forests scenes, which were shot in the Ukraine, just didn't evoke the visions of China that usually comes to mind but I'm just being picky now.

Still it was a gorgeous film which didn't quite stand up to the torch of anticipation I had put it to. Despite all my misgivings I do hope there are more films like this being released into mainstream cinema. Let's just hope they don't become the cinematic equivalent of mainstream sweet chilli sauce: overly sweet and generally not enjoyed by those where it originated from but still marketed as authentic stuff.

Mapo

2005-02-27T14:51:00.000+10:30

Continuing on with trying not to forget things and expanding this blog to cover cuisine, I went to Mapo on Friday night. It's a Korean restaurant on Gouger Street with a seperate Korean barbecue and a la carte sections. As I was introducing some of the guys to the delights of Korean cuisine we opted for the a la carte section.

The cool thing I love about this place is they have this gong which they hit as you go to your table. Oh it's probably prudent to book, last time I've went on a Friday night it wasn't too hard getting a nice table but I guess summer time brings out the diners more. Then again Korean is great winter heartening food.

We had bulgogi (barbecue beef stir fry), japchae (sweet potata noodles fry up), battered barramundi fillets in a nice soy based sauce and chicken teriyaki (obviously I didn't have the last one and I know it's not really Korean). I had some Cass beer (the others stuck to Pale Ale, Coopers of course) as well as a 2003 Mornington Estate Pinot Noir (yes I have watched Sideways and couldn't resist, it just reminded me how delicate pinot is and hence how well it suits east Asian cuisine). The food as is always the case at Mapo was lovely and the wine matched it quite nicely.

The wine was good value for $30 a bottle with good structure and a lovely bouquet of plums and cherry. The wine had just the right amount of oak and tannins to balance the nice fruit flavours, just the right body and grip to go with the food. I was a bit underwhelmed by the Cass beer, last time I had it in came in a nice round frosted mug and was an excellent refresher. Perhaps this time I had the full strength rather than light they served before and the glass wasn't as frosty.

Overall it was a nice restaurant experience although the servings weren't as hearty as last time and the dishes seemed to be going more for style than substance. What I love about Korean food is that it's still quite delicate, like Japanese, but also quite satisfying, like Chinese, but perhaps we should have had more signature dishes. The service also seemed to be a bit off the usual friendly efficiency I'm used to there, seems they've had a big staff turnover.

Still Mapo is capable of a great restaurant experience if perhaps the poor waitress we had didn't have quite a bad day , I counted at least 2 collisions with careless customers, and we'd booked a better table. Wow what a long post but what can I say I love my wining and dining.

Visual Age eclipsed

2005-02-27T14:34:00.000+10:30

Before I forget, which is what I'm trying to avoid by using this blog, talked with the guy from work who'll be going over to the same company I'll go going to soon about Java development. He showed me Eclipse, a development environment written in Java, running quite smoothly and sorta supporting C++, obviously it supports Java. I was suprised by the slickness and responsiveness of it but I'm told it actually uses native OS GUI support so it should be way faster than Swing.

Apparently it was it donated by IBM to the open source community and based upon the Visual Age development environment which I last used back in 2000 for my engineering work experience. Eclipse is what he'll be using at the new place, and since we're both working in Java I guess I'll be using it as well. Visual Age was quite good so this should be even bettter yet still familiar which should ease some of my new job jitters.

Greasing the mental cogs

2005-02-27T14:04:00.000+10:30

Here's another book to include in my tax return for this year:
Stahler, W. 2004, Beginning Math and Physics for Game Programmers, New Riders.
[Borders (Rundle Mall), paperback, AU$59.95]

It seems to be a good book for someone as rusty with their maths and physics as myself. The book covers the fundamentals of geometry, linear algebra and motion quite well. Should be a good basis for tackling the maths and physics in the realm of games, graphics and simulators.

Fight Back Against Rhetoric!

2005-02-20T22:48:00.000+10:30

There are certain people in this world because of their job or lecturers think they can ignore the fact that "the geek shall inherit the earth". They think they can bamboozle geeks and plebs into submission, but I say fight those subjectivists and all that accompanies them (false product claims, moral relativism, deconstructionism blah blah blah). Blah, blah, blah was the gist of the cartoon by Jon Kudelka that accompanied Stephen Matchett's article on the back page of the current edition of the Weekend Australian's Review section. A superb insight into rhetoric (yes, that includes humanities and sales bullies) and defence mechanisms to deploy against them. He cited a few good resources and books which I'll list here:

Matchett, S. 2005, Schope out your rivals, The Weekend Australian Review, 19-20 March, p. 40.

Burton, G. 2003, Silvae Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric [Online, accessed 20 Feb. 2005]. URL: http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm

Schopenhauer, A. 1896, The Art of Controversy, trans. T. B. Saunders [Online, accessed 20 Feb. 2005]. URL: http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/controversy

Cialdini, R. B. 1998, "Influence: The Pyschology of Persuasion", Perennial Currents.

These people have gotten away with belittling us geeks and proletariat for too long, let's fight back against the self-proclaimed "intellectuals" and bourgeoisie. Yikes now I sound like one of them, anyway we need protection against these professional nihilists so let's use some of their tricks on them.

Books for the new project

2005-02-17T23:26:00.000+10:30

This new job will involve 3D Graphics, Java, GUI programming, MATLAB and perhaps OpenGL. Frankly I'm rather rusty so I've got a lot of reading ahead of me. The following books, mostly recommended by Bruce Eckel, should prove quite handy (I've included the current prices at Amazon):

- Computer Graphics:
Vince, J. 2001, Essential Mathematics for Computer Graphics Fast, Springer. [Paperback, US$16.97]

Hearn, D. & Baker, M. P. 2003, Computer Graphics with OpenGL (3rd Edition), Prentice Hall. [Hardcover, US$83.75]

- Java Programming:
Eckel, B. 2003, Thinking in Java (3rd Edition), Prentice Hall, 2002. [Paperback, US$34.96]

Horstmann, C. & Cornell, G. 2004, Core Java 2, Volume I - Fundamentals (7th Edition), Prentice Hall. [Paperback, US$34.87]

Horstman, C. & Cornell, G. 2004, Core Java 2, Volume II - Advanced Features (7th Edition), Prentice Hall. [Paperback, US$33.99]

- Software Engineering:
Gamma, E. et al 1995, Design Patterns, Addison-Wesley. [Hardcover, US$47.04]

Fowler, M. 2003, UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modelling Language (3rd Edition), Addison-Wesley. [Paperback, US$23.09]

As funds will be a little bit tight I guess the priorities are the ones at the top of each subject list...

Manchild's Log: Mandate 17205.23

2005-02-17T23:13:00.000+10:30

Finally I've made the first entry in a blog. Thought it'd be a good idea to write down things I've learnt and ideas as they pop up. This should save me a lot of paper, space and time looking for bits and pieces I've jotted down.

Accepted a contract job offer today, generous pay and interesting work. Will give me a foothold in the defence industry as well as more experience in 3D graphics. It's a pity to leave my current place but it was only part time work and the job security's about the same. Still would like to return there sometime, a great bunch of people with huge potential.