Lottery Win

I got a letter from the South Australian Lotteries last week with a cheque for $10.00.  It was from December so I must not have checked it properly.

A few more zeros would have been nice, and they took out a small commission, but it amused me.  I have a membership card so it I do hit the big one at least I'll get the money at some point.  Then again I only buy a coupon once in a blue moon so that doesn't seem likely... One can only dream.

Let Me Google That For You

Update:   Just a small clarification here.  I would NOT use this for the pleasure of humiliating someone or for cheap thrills as that is not something I would do.  I DO NOT believe in humiliation to get a point across as many people do.   That mentality just shows how insecure the people who feel the need to put others down actually are. 

I don't consider myself juvenile or immature enough to find satisfaction in that kind of behaviour, so I don't need anyone to suggest or remind me to take care where and how I use it....if I can even be bothered.  Thanks all the same, but I'm not completely devoid of common sense.

I found this link today when I was reading some topics on a game forum where a frustrated poster was trying to get a message across to someone who couldn't be bothered to try to "get it."

I've probably seen it before but never really took much notice even though I use Google quite a lot myself.  I must say it gave me a good laugh when I clicked the link.  

This is the absolutely perfect solution to that person who is looking for quick answers to a problem but doesn't bother to read or even skim over other posts in a related forum thread,  ignores mod Readme's, can't be bothered typing a question into a search engine or is just too damn lazy (and worse than that, they say they are too lazy.)

I'm going to make use of this in future I can tell you.....in the right situation of course.  See above.

 As stated on the search page:
"For all those people who find it more convenient to bother you with their question rather than google it for themselves."

Let Me Google That For You
 http://lmgtfy.com/

Then there's this one for when you're really pulling your hair out with some people or have had a bad day:
http://justfuckinggoogleit.com/

PC Back in Action

This is just a quick post which I will elaborate on soonish, but finally I have my PC back in action.  Well, it has been for two days but the first thing I downloaded (which took nearly all that time) was Age of Conan and I played it for around 6-7 hours last night. 

It's a bit of a drag setting things up as I like them and copying stuff I use regularly from backups so I'm taking my time.  Which means Oblivion may or may not be installed and playable (ie fully modded) until later in the week or maybe longer.  

Anyway, now I have a new Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black SATA-III, 7200rpm, 64MB HDD, and I also got a new graphics card which is ASUS GTX550 Ti  Direct CU (which means a 20% extra cooling unit.)    Haven't even given it a workout yet.... the only game installed is Age of Conan and I actually forgot to try it in high graphics which was impossible previously....massive slideshow.   I also had to get a new Thermaltake PSU....for the power!

Back later with more.  Still installing and sorting through backups.

Unclickable Hyperlinks in Firefox

The last few days I've been having issues with Firefox and not being able to click hyperlinks random web pages as well not being able to log in here to my own blog and other forums. Clicking a link does nothing as though it's not a hyperlink at all.

Through a process of elimination and research I found out it's the latest update of NoScript causing it. I hope it gets sorted as I don't like browsing any site and even some of the popular game sites that have been known to have malware on occasion embedded in ads. Not to mention malicious scripts.

At least AdBlock still works so that's a plus.

Edit:  Fixed by the latest updates....thankfully.

Layout

I was going to change the layout of this blog so Youtube videos fit better and don't overlap, but none of the other options work very well with my other preferences so it's staying as is....as much as it irks me.  

Other than the video thing, I like my current layout even though I realize it might be hard for some to read anything with the flowery background.   I like it though, for the time being anyway.

Hard Drive Cleanup

Spring cleaning...or in this case Autumn\Winter cleaning.

Today I decided to clean up and remove a lot of extraneous crap that's been sitting around on my system for ages and never gets used.   One of the things I tend to do is unzip files eg Oblivion and Fallout:NV mods, to see what files they contain and if I might want to use them in personal projects, but not immediately install them in my games.  Many of these tend to be quite large (GB's in some cases) and are within folders, so I forget to go back and delete or move them, hence the declining space on my hard drive.    Fixed that.

I also keep things like music, game files, video and other files on the hard drive even though they are well and truly backed up so I don't have to be copying them back every time I want them which also takes a lot of room.  Fixed that as well.

The other is games I no longer play but keep installed in case I might change my mind and in many cases I don't.    Arcania: Gothic 4 is one of those.  It never got my attention enough to play past the tutorial and it's been installed since November last year after I bought it in the mistaken belief it would turn out to be what I hoped was a Gothic game.  Or even resembling one, which it doesn't.  Maybe subconsciously I was hoping it would morph into something else while I wasn't looking, but alas not.

The main reason I mention this game is it amused me when I uninstalled it because I was asked to revoke my License online before I could uninstall the game.  There was a manual option, but I'll never reinstall so that's no issue.   Then, another dialogue box popped up asking if I wanted to remove Securom, all it's registry entries and intrusive files.  Needless to say it didn't say that last bit.  

This amused me even more.   Of course I wanted to remove the copy protection for a game I uninstalled and in this case will never play again.  Anyway, by removing that game alone I gained back nearly 9GB.  Most good games aren't that big!

Now I've done a cleanup I can get busy adding more files and doing it all again sometime in the near future.

Crows

Yesterday a family of noisy crows took up temporary residence in my yard and the few surrounding neighbours yards and trees.  Usually it's a multitude of warbling magpies, but they seem to have been outed by the crows, for the present anyway.  Sometimes it's cockatoos or galahs (Rose Breasted Cockatoo) or even a few seagulls and gray doves, all taking turns.

It's interesting listening to them "talk" as every bird has a different sound and they sound like they are having a conversation.   It's a bit like Alfred Hitchcock's - The Birds here at the moment, but even though they are noisy I like the sounds they make and watching their family interactions and squabbles.

My dog isn't so tolerant though...XD.    A crow was sitting on the clothes line the other day glaring down at her with it's beady eyes and she glared back at it for ages, out of reach as if it was taunting her which it probably was.   It was a Mexican Standoff there for awhile until the crow eventually flew off.

Upgraded to Firefox 4

Wow!  I just upgraded to Firefox 4.  What a difference it makes.  So much faster that it seems my internet speed got a boost, a nice new interface, better security and more.

Some of my addons are incompatible at the moment, but the main ones..ie AddBlock and NoScript certainly are.

Very impressive to say the least.  Thumbs up to Mozilla for this one.

Summer's Over

Finally summer is over and Autumn has arrived, but that doesn't mean Ol' Sol has loosened his grip just yet.  The nights have become cooler and the days balmy, but we often have very high temperatures right up until late April.

In the city where I live it used to always rain buckets on ANZAC Day, but the past ten years or so it's been hot and dry nearly every time.  This year so far we've had good rain and expect more in the coming weeks leading up to winter.  Despite the disaster that occurred in Queensland, I live in a drought prone area and when rain is predicted it often seems to move around and past us.  The irony is my city was founded on swampy ground back in the late 1800's.

I can't say I'll miss summer.  I don't mind days with temps in the low to mid 30's C, but when it's 40+ for days on end AND humid it gets a bit much.  It's even worse when there are Northerly winds that dry everything up like a dust bowl.  Tempers fray, everyone is tired, gardens dry out and water is restricted, there's the fear of bush fires and it's generally unpleasant.

I've always loved Winter.   It's easier to get warm when it's cold than it is to cool off when it's stifling hot and even the cold water tap spouts hot water.