Rubenerd

Adelaide, South Australia: Aussie home of the Rubenerd Show and Blog

How well do you know Australia? Or how well do you think you know Australia? A French academy website has created a page: Australia Webquest. Try answering the questions without using the sources!

Just don't look at the flag diagram, they got the Union Jack wrong. Which I guess if they were going to stuff up one part of the flag that bit is okay ;).

And don't forget on their behalf: nous ne sommes pas responsables du contenu des sites externes. Isn't it funny I can get the gist of that sentence without speaking a lick of French?

australia, general knowledge, australia webquest, quiz

Have you tried typing in "The Pyramids" into Google Maps?. You get several "The Pyramids Restaurants" and "The Pyramids Allan Hotel"… but not The Pyramids!

google maps, google earth, keyhole, egypt, the pyramids, pyramids, pyramids of giza, giza

Click thumbnail for my Flickr page

You remember yesterday I posted about how I had a bad cold? Well today it feels 10 times worse, really bad headache and really sore eyes. You might not be getting as many posts today :(.

common cold, flu, sickness, soothers, blackberry, kleenex, tussies, vitamin c, lemsip, lemsip max

Channel 7 News Adelaide Australia: Click thumbnail for full sized image

Channel 7 News Adelaide Australia: Click thumbnail for full sized image

What happened Steve, you were supposed to be indestructible :(.

Steve Irwin, the much beloved Crocodile Hunter and the main bloke behind animal conservation in Australia died today when he was stung fatally in the heart by a stingray. He was a real character and a real part of Australian culture. You will be missed Steve.

Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile says Australians will be saddened and shocked by Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin’s death in a marine accident.

The 44-year-old was killed by a stingray barb which pierced his chest while he was shooting a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef.

Mr Vaile, who presented Mr Irwin with an Australian export award in 2004 for his Australia Zoo, said the Queenslander had made an amazing contribution to conservation and business.

“I was a tremendous fan of Steve Irwin because of his larger-than-life personality and his ability to highlight wildlife conservation in a way that people from all walks of life could identify with,” the Nationals leader said in a statement.

“Steve Irwin’s operations included his zoo, television series, The Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation, and International Crocodile Rescue.

“Steve was an amazing Australian and my thoughts, and those of all the Nationals, are with Steve Irwin’s wife Terri and his two children, Bindi Sue and Robert.”

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who used a photograph of his family at Australia Zoo for his official Christmas card last year, hailed Mr Irwin for his work in promoting Australia.

Mr Irwin was heavily involved in this year’s “G’Day LA” campaign.

“The minister knew him, was fond of him and was very, very appreciative of all the work he’d done to promote Australia overseas,” a spokesman said.

Tourism Minister Fran Bailey said Mr Irwin was a great Australian icon who contributed enormously to the nation.

“He was a larger-than-life character who was loved by millions of people worldwide,” Mrs Bailey said in a statement.

“Americans adored him. Thousands visited Australia Zoo.

“At G’Day LA, Steve was the best ambassador for tourism we could ever have. His boundless enthusiasm won everyone over.”

Mrs Bailey said she had been honoured to present Mr Irwin with his award for services to the tourism industry at the Australian Tourism Awards last February.

Opposition tourism spokesman Martin Ferguson said the whole tourism industry was in shock at the loss.

“Steve Irwin was a true Aussie icon and a fantastic ambassador for Australia,” Mr Ferguson said in a statement.

“His catchcry ‘Crikey!’ came to embody his enthusiasm for wildlife and desire to educate, particularly young people about Australia’s incredible biodiversity.”

He passed on Labor’s sincere condolences to the Irwin family.

SMH: Politicians pay tribute to Steve Irwin

steve irwin, steve, irwin, aussie, australia, australia zoo, killed, dead, stingray, sting-ray, sting ray

And now for something completely different: I bid on and won a retro style Commodore 64 T-Shirt! The logo is obviously the one from the original 64, not the updated 64c in the beige case. If you're going to go retro, you might as well go the extra distance!

Have you bought anything pointless on eBay lately? :D.

commodore, commodore 64, commodore 64c, ebay, ebay australia, apparel, teeshirt, tshirt, pointless, retro

Click thumbnail for full sized image

News Plus Communications has got some great photos of Adelaide, South Australia, where I currently live and go to university.

adelaide, adelaide city, south australia, australia, cbd, skyline, city, photos, photography

I'm in the process of moving from my addiction to Macromedia Fireworks to The GIMP. Why? Well for one thing I really don't have the finances as a lowly uni student to buy new licences all the time, not to mention the uncertain future of the aformentioned program after Macromedia was bought out by Adobe, and the fact that Fireworks isn't a universal binary yet… plus there's that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you use Open Source software ;).

This is how you use the GIMP's Sharpen Filter according to the web based documentation:

This filter is found in Image>Filters/Enhance/Sharpen

Most of digitized images need correction of sharpness. This is due to digitizing process that must chop a colour continuum up in points with slightly different colors: elements thinner than sampling frequency will be averaged into an uniform colour. So sharp borders are rendered a little blurred. The same phenomenon appears when printing colour dots on paper.

The Sharpen filter accentuates edges but also any noise or blemish and it may create noise in graduated colour areas like the sky or a water surface. It competes with the Unsharp Mask filter, which is more sophisticated and renders more natural results.

I use Gimp.app on Mac OS X, and regular GIMP on my FreeBSD box.

gimp, the gimp, gimp.app, gimpapp, sharpen filter, mac os x, open source, macromedia, fireworks, macromedia fireworks, universal binary

Is anyone else having trouble accessing articles in the English Wikipedia? Whenever I try accessing pages I get this long list of PHP errors:

MediaWiki internal error.
Original exception: exception 'MWException' with message 'Unstub loop detected on call of $wgUser->getOption from StubUserLang::_newObject
' in /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php:54
Stack trace:
#0 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(31): StubObject->_unstub('getOption', 5)
#1 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(114): StubObject->_call('getOption', Array)
#2 [internal function]: StubUser->__call('getOption', Array)
#3 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(94): StubUser->getOption('language')
#4 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(57): StubUserLang->_newObject()
#5 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(31): StubObject->_unstub('getCode', 5)
#6 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(87): StubObject->_call('getCode', Array)
#7 [internal function]: StubUserLang->__call('getCode', Array)
#8 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/MessageCache.php(423): StubUserLang->getCode()
#9 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/GlobalFunctions.php(462): MessageCache->get('readonly_lag', false, false)
#10 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/GlobalFunctions.php(421): wfMsgGetKey('readonly_lag', false, false, true)
#11 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/GlobalFunctions.php(393): wfMsgReal('readonly_lag', Array, false)
#12 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/LoadBalancer.php(164): wfMsgNoDB('readonly_lag')
#13 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/LoadBalancer.php(345): LoadBalancer->getReaderIndex()
#14 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/DatabaseFunctions.php(52): LoadBalancer->getConnection(-1, true, Array)
#15 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/User.php(851): wfGetDB(-1)
#16 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/User.php(786): User->loadFromDatabase()
#17 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(123): User->loadFromSession()
#18 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(57): StubUser->_newObject()
#19 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(31): StubObject->_unstub('getOption', 5)
#20 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(114): StubObject->_call('getOption', Array)
#21 [internal function]: StubUser->__call('getOption', Array)
#22 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(94): StubUser->getOption('language')
#23 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(57): StubUserLang->_newObject()
#24 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(31): StubObject->_unstub('getCode', 5)
#25 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(87): StubObject->_call('getCode', Array)
#26 [internal function]: StubUserLang->__call('getCode', Array)
#27 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/MessageCache.php(423): StubUserLang->getCode()
#28 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/GlobalFunctions.php(462): MessageCache->get('readonly_lag', false, false)
#29 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/GlobalFunctions.php(421): wfMsgGetKey('readonly_lag', false, false, true)
#30 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/GlobalFunctions.php(393): wfMsgReal('readonly_lag', Array, false)
#31 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/LoadBalancer.php(164): wfMsgNoDB('readonly_lag')
#32 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/LoadBalancer.php(345): LoadBalancer->getReaderIndex()
#33 [internal function]: LoadBalancer->getConnection(-1, true, Array)
#34 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(32): call_user_func_array(Array, Array)
#35 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(40): StubObject->_call('getConnection', Array)
#36 [internal function]: StubObject->__call('getConnection', Array)
#37 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/DatabaseFunctions.php(52): StubObject->getConnection(-1, true, Array)
#38 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/User.php(851): wfGetDB(-1)
#39 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/User.php(786): User->loadFromDatabase()
#40 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(123): User->loadFromSession()
#41 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(57): StubUser->_newObject()
#42 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(31): StubObject->_unstub('isAllowed', 5)
#43 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(114): StubObject->_call('isAllowed', Array)
#44 [internal function]: StubUser->__call('isAllowed', Array)
#45 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/Title.php(1140): StubUser->isAllowed('read')
#46 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/Wiki.php(109): Title->userCanRead()
#47 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/Wiki.php(45): MediaWiki->preliminaryChecks(Object(Title), Object(StubObject), Object(WebRequest))
#48 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/index.php(47): MediaWiki->initialize(Object(Title), Object(StubObject), Object(StubUser), Object(WebRequest))
#49 /usr/local/apache/common-local/live-1.5/index.php(3): require('/usr/local/apac…')
#50 {main}
Exception caught inside exception handler: exception 'MWException' with message 'Unstub loop detected on call of $wgLang->getCode from MessageCache::get
' in /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php:54
Stack trace:
#0 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(31): StubObject->_unstub('getCode', 5)
#1 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/StubObject.php(87): StubObject->_call('getCode', Array)
#2 [internal function]: StubUserLang->__call('getCode', Array)
#3 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/MessageCache.php(423): StubUserLang->getCode()
#4 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/GlobalFunctions.php(462): MessageCache->get('internalerror', true, false)
#5 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/GlobalFunctions.php(421): wfMsgGetKey('internalerror', true, false, true)
#6 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/GlobalFunctions.php(328): wfMsgReal('internalerror', Array, true)
#7 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/Exception.php(37): wfMsg('internalerror')
#8 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/Exception.php(96): MWException->getPageTitle()
#9 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/Exception.php(63): MWException->htmlHeader()
#10 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/Exception.php(82): MWException->reportHTML()
#11 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/Exception.php(158): MWException->report()
#12 /usr/local/apache/common-local/php-1.5/includes/Exception.php(192): wfReportException(Object(MWException))
#13 [internal function]: wfExceptionHandler(Object(MWException))
#14 {main}

wikipedia, error, errors, problems, server problem, server error

I'd register for this in a heartbeat… if I had the financial resources of course! I love reading about statistics and world economic data, and I do subscribe to The Economist magazine… I guess that's why the girls here find me so appealing.

But in all seriousness if computers and XML weren't my first love, I'd easily be an economist.

The world leader in global business intelligence

The Economist Intelligence Unit provides a constant flow of analysis and forecasts on more than 200 countries and eight key industries. We help executives make informed business decisions through dependable intelligence delivered online, in print, in customised research as well as through conferences and peer interchange.

Currently they're also taking free applications for the summary edition of World Investment Prospects:

World Investment Prospects, an Economist Intelligence Unit report written with the Columbia Program on International Investment, will be launched on September 5 2006. This flagship publication will contain country-by-country forecasts on FDI flows to 2010, analysis of latest trends in foreign investment and profiles of 82 countries. Register now for a free summary edition of the report. We will contact you when the report is ready to download.

world investment prospects, economist, the economist, economics, global business, business, economist intelligence unit, eiu, economist magazine, finance, fdi flows, columbia program on international investment

Intriguing view of Tokyo from an Aussie traveller form Brisbane, Philip Larsen:

Tokyo is quite unlike other cities in structural scope. It is initially aesthetically comforting, but the subtle, unwritten rules of the streets and buildings lead to some confusion and embarrassing situations.

In comparison, Australian cities are none too complex. It is by comparing the two (and indeed, other cities from Europe and the United States) I learned to enjoy Tokyo on more than face value, and become immersed in the experience of unplanned tourism.

philip larsen, travel, japan, australia, brisbane, tokyo