Recent Entries

I just thought I would offer my Gmail invites to some of my loyal NetBloke subscribers. So if you want one contact me using the form.

I am having problems sending my newsletter. The software is playing up. So just read it from here!

Outpost.com are having a sale on software that makes 10 different items free after rebate. Lots of goodies worth checking out.

Ok so I am trying to make things easier and more professional with the management of my NetBloke Mailing list. I have tried a script twice now and after initial problems which I worked out, I have been realitvely happy with it.

So imagine now with my second try at sending out a newsletter, it fails miserably after 136 people get the newsletter. This plain sucks. The script I am using is simple and has no way of now reseinding to a subset of the list.

I am left with the quandry of mailing to 136 people twice, or the majority of the list missing out.

At the least I have to do alot of fiddling around now.

I hate Comcast. I hate them so much. I hate that there is no choice but Comcast for my broadband here. I would swap in a second.

I just attempted to sign up again for online payments through their site. You see I forgot my password and they have no way of providing it to me (No the forgot password button does not work). On trying to add my account I am presented with a page that tells me the page is unavailable and they are working on it.

So I call to pay by phone. After going through ten prompts I get to the payment part. I select that I am a cable modem user, not TV and am put on an automatic hold, only to eventually get a message that the operator is unavailable and to call back for service.

So I call back and this time select that I am a Cable TV customer (which I am not) and eventually get the bill paid.

Now no one has yet to call me and ask why I was not satisfied with my cable TV service. You think they would like to know why customers leave.

The flip-side is that Dish Network service is absolutely amazing in comparison.

I need a stiff drink now.

So last night I was investigating what appeared to be an awful noise coming from my computer. I am still pretty certain that it was a fan making the noise, however when I rebooted no Windows were to be seen.

Imagine my dismay! What a dork! what a dummy! I ad backed up everything but my Newsletter subscriber list. At the moment not all is lost as I still believe I can pull the data I need off the drive.

The one good thing about this development is that it gives me an excuse to upgrade to XP like I had wanted too. I have had a copy I bought for at least a month but just haven't got around to it. Now I have no excuse!

Lesson learned. Think about how foolproof your backup plan is.

A friend just filled me in on this quirky search term. I shall say no more just go and search on "old fart" at Amazon.com

I am happy to report the creator of Newsletter Ease, Brett Rogers is on the case and helping me restore my recently restarted Newsletter. I am keen to get it going again!

One thing you guys and gals could help me with is tracking down Australian based content. That could mean programs, web sites, movies, music, tech news or the like.

As I originally stated my intention with my newsletter was to give an Australian slant wherever possible. Remember though I am now an Aussie based in the USA so my realm of influence is somewhat altered.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago I purchased some gadgets from Cyberguys. Well they arrived a week ago and I found them to be very impressive!

Of course the cool gadget was the USB powered massager. I thought this may be a piece of junk but it is great! It vibrates and massages really well and the USB cable is long enough to reach all of those sore and tired joints!

Then my more practical purchase was a pair of removable hard-drive bays. After easily installing these units, the drive I installed in them became my portable data drive. Very, very handy! I now use this and keep my portable firewire drive for secondary backup purposes.

I throughly recommend both products!

So I am off the opinion that Cable just may suck. Their customer support does at least. Let me explain.

I had digital cable put on at my place (so I could get the Aussie Rules Football).

My first experience with Customer Support (CS) was when the channels I should have got didn't come up. They could not fix it over the phone so they booked a call out. The guy who came out had one look at it, called customer support and had it fixed. He said the phone CS should have been able to fix it as all he did was talk to CS and get them to reset something.

The second experience was calling to get a new remote as the one I have is faulty (checked the batteries and all that sort of stuff). Now remember I pay 30 cents a month to rent this thing. I was informed I would have to pay for a new remote. About $7.15. Where is the logic in having to pay for something that is faulty that I already lease? so I asked to have a supervisor call me back.

Experience three with CS was with a very nice woman who knew what she was on about. I had called because I never received the call from the supervisor I was promised. This woman was great explained that she was the person on CS with the most experience and that everyone else was new and simply read the scripts.

So I am left with a dilemma. Do I cancel the cable and get satellite? It appears I would get a heap more channels for less overall cost. Are there hidden costs? Looks like I will need to do some research.

Let me know what your experience with Cable and Satellite have been like!

Well as I mentioned earlier this week my computer decided to die. Not completely, just an unexplained mess-up that needed to be remedied ASAP.

So I rebuilt Black Beauty and now it is working fine. I am even now using the concept of a data drive, coupled with a firewire portable drive for backup. Believe me after this little song and dance I want to make sure my data is well backed up.

I didn't loose anything in particular but I did find that my email list for the newsletter is backed up in a format I am not quite sure on how to bring back to life. I have Eric on call to help me with that, and we are going to call Brett the developer of Newsletter Ease for some assistance (well really just to bother him).

Things are looking good! I have put an order in with Cyberguys for a couple of cool things, first a massage ball that works of a USB connection and then some removable hard drive racks for letting me move my data drive between computers and locations easily.

Boy I love gadgets!

Don't you hate it when you wake up in the morning and your computer is trashed? By trashed I mean nothing is working correctly. That even though you have been anal about your firewalls and virus protection, you still get a stuffed up machine.

Well anyway it appears I am going to be spending a good chunk of time rebuilding my machine from scratch. Should be sort of fun, in a time wasted sort of way.

It is simply annoying as I had the machine set up exactly how I wanted it.

I heard about this anti-Bush site on Leno. I thought it was an interesting use of a domain name! Go see what it is.

If you are a regular reader of my blog or newsletter you will know that I am a big fan of Instant Messaging (IM). As my friends, family and workmates all subscribe to different types of IM (ICQ, Yahoo, AOL, MSN) I use Trillian as my unified messenger. It sits open on my desktop whether I am here or not, and allows me to keep abreast of what everyone is up to.

I took the plunge a while ago and shelled out the US$25 for a Pro license. Let me tell you it was well worth it. It gives you access to a more robust and feature laden version of Trillian along with access to the Trillian online community. Here you can get plugins that make Trillian an even more comprehensive tool. I have added int he RSS, world time and quick launch modules.

I have just taken there new version 2.0 through its paces (I did try it at beta stage briefly as well), and it installs over 1.0 like a charm, keeping all of my previous settings. It also has improvements on its container management and connectivity with the various services.

To find out more or download Trillian Pro or Basic (free) go to:
http://www.trillian.cc/

I happened upon the GeoURL site last night when I was looking at sites that linked to my own. I was so intrigued that I made the changes to my site so I could be listed too!

So what is this all about? Basically you enter some extra meta tag information on your own site (which the GeoURL site will help you generate), and then ping your site from the GeoURL site which adds you to their database. Basically you have just added your geographical location to a database.

Then you add a little code to your site which when clicked will show visitors other sites that are geographically close to your own. More correctly it is where the owners of the sites are located, as I am sure most people do not put where their site is hosted.

So this is a quick and easy little tweak to add to your site that 'puts you on the map' so to speak!

Check it out!

Well I have taken the plunge and started publishing my newsletter again. The first being sent to day explaining why I went AWOL for the past six months!

I am using Newsletter Ease to help manage subscriptions and putting together content. I am not 100% happy with the way it works but I know the author Brett will iron out the bugs and give users the access anbd control they need.

To be perfect I would like to be able to select whether my subscribers get the text of HTML version of the newsletter. Currently I cannot.

It also needs to implement a double opt-in system to be perfect.

Anyway have a read of the newsletter and feel free to comment on what I have planned for future issues.

Well my new office now has high speed internet thanks to Comcast. This is the fastest cable I have ever seen! Very cool.

Now I just need to find the time to set up my desktop computer and the like.

Note I explored the possibility of setting up an office at a Starbucks but the caffeine to cost ratio didn't work out!

Just a heads up for those of you after some compact flash.

I just bought 128Mb of Memorex for the digital camera for only $29 after rebates.

The deal is valid until Saturday at CompUSA.

Well i just spent about 3 days in Sydney so I could speak at a conference on innovation. It went quite well. However I was stuck without an internet connection.

Sydney however was beautiful, moreso than the other times I have been. So instead of "computing" I went for a few walks around darling harbor and cockle bay.

I also had a chinese massage after I found my neck playing up on me. It was great and very different to the normal massages I have had in the past. Massage is something I am very interested in and I want to one day be qualified to perform them myself.

Well here I am in San Fransico. A quick stop to put in a new server, that has gone really smoothly. Normally I end up spending twice as long as I plan in the data center, but thanks to Brian's help and planning the new server went in like clockwork! The hardest obstacle was a screw that refused to budge when I was adjusting the runners for the rack mount rails.

On a side note as alway it has been nice seeing Amy and Vance. I got to experience the Super Bowl with a real life Oakland Raiders fan too!

I am excited today! As you may or may not know as part of my duties at Sausage is editing and writing the Sausage Sizzler Newsletter.

I am happy to say that this year will see the inclusion of more writers with their own styles and opinions that fit well within the Sausage mould.

So keep your eye on the Sausage site and get ready to learn and be informed by a well informed bunch of peers and experts.

I know Mike Chandler will at least take heed of this notice as he took over writing the Lockergnome Webmaster Weekly which I was a major player in getting up and running. He also seems to like my blog!

Yee-ha! Us country folks in the middle of nowhere Iowa are just as sophisticated as you city folk reading this (thats my bad attempt at country hick humor).

Cup of Kryptonite now has a wireless access point, thanks to the guy sitting at the counter who whacked in a Linksys Wireless Router. I would ask his name but he is working on a paper or something.

Actually Star Wars Episode Two is also playing. This could be geek heaven!

If anyone else knows of WAPs in Des Moines let me know! For that matter in the coming month I will be spending time in San Francisco, Seattle, Victoria BC, and also Melbourne and Sydney in Australia. So if you know of WAPs there please let me know!

Soem feedback from a Sausage Sizzler reader, has led me to this Australian based wireless site.

If you are going downunder or live there already check it out.

I updated my Webcam page so that you can see the last 8 or so images.

This means that when I have it going live for a while all will look similar but otherwise there might be some variety in there.

Using a router and wireless access point (WAP) as a simple as wimple WAP and hub may be a bit of overkill, but I think I am going to live in the hope that SMC come out with a firmware upgrade that will help me out with the DHCP setup.

I have put out a small call for help on the BroadbandReports.com forum, some of the experts there may have some ideas as well. As this is a really new product they may simply take a little while to make it perfect.

Ok so after talking to SMC's technical support, I have have got the wireless router working off a static IP address. This sort of sucks as Mediacom uses dynamic IPs.

This is definately not a long term solution. I will have to get onto Mediacom and see what I can find out.

I have swapped my blog to Moveable type as it seems to have more features for free than Blogger (no offence meant to those guys).

I just thought I would offer my Gmail invites to some of my loyal NetBloke subscribers. So if you want one contact me using the form.

I am having problems sending my newsletter. The software is playing up. So just read it from here!

Outpost.com are having a sale on software that makes 10 different items free after rebate. Lots of goodies worth checking out.

Ok so I am trying to make things easier and more professional with the management of my NetBloke Mailing list. I have tried a script twice now and after initial problems which I worked out, I have been realitvely happy with it.

So imagine now with my second try at sending out a newsletter, it fails miserably after 136 people get the newsletter. This plain sucks. The script I am using is simple and has no way of now reseinding to a subset of the list.

I am left with the quandry of mailing to 136 people twice, or the majority of the list missing out.

At the least I have to do alot of fiddling around now.

I hate Comcast. I hate them so much. I hate that there is no choice but Comcast for my broadband here. I would swap in a second.

I just attempted to sign up again for online payments through their site. You see I forgot my password and they have no way of providing it to me (No the forgot password button does not work). On trying to add my account I am presented with a page that tells me the page is unavailable and they are working on it.

So I call to pay by phone. After going through ten prompts I get to the payment part. I select that I am a cable modem user, not TV and am put on an automatic hold, only to eventually get a message that the operator is unavailable and to call back for service.

So I call back and this time select that I am a Cable TV customer (which I am not) and eventually get the bill paid.

Now no one has yet to call me and ask why I was not satisfied with my cable TV service. You think they would like to know why customers leave.

The flip-side is that Dish Network service is absolutely amazing in comparison.

I need a stiff drink now.

So last night I was investigating what appeared to be an awful noise coming from my computer. I am still pretty certain that it was a fan making the noise, however when I rebooted no Windows were to be seen.

Imagine my dismay! What a dork! what a dummy! I ad backed up everything but my Newsletter subscriber list. At the moment not all is lost as I still believe I can pull the data I need off the drive.

The one good thing about this development is that it gives me an excuse to upgrade to XP like I had wanted too. I have had a copy I bought for at least a month but just haven't got around to it. Now I have no excuse!

Lesson learned. Think about how foolproof your backup plan is.

A friend just filled me in on this quirky search term. I shall say no more just go and search on "old fart" at Amazon.com

I am happy to report the creator of Newsletter Ease, Brett Rogers is on the case and helping me restore my recently restarted Newsletter. I am keen to get it going again!

One thing you guys and gals could help me with is tracking down Australian based content. That could mean programs, web sites, movies, music, tech news or the like.

As I originally stated my intention with my newsletter was to give an Australian slant wherever possible. Remember though I am now an Aussie based in the USA so my realm of influence is somewhat altered.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago I purchased some gadgets from Cyberguys. Well they arrived a week ago and I found them to be very impressive!

Of course the cool gadget was the USB powered massager. I thought this may be a piece of junk but it is great! It vibrates and massages really well and the USB cable is long enough to reach all of those sore and tired joints!

Then my more practical purchase was a pair of removable hard-drive bays. After easily installing these units, the drive I installed in them became my portable data drive. Very, very handy! I now use this and keep my portable firewire drive for secondary backup purposes.

I throughly recommend both products!

So I am off the opinion that Cable just may suck. Their customer support does at least. Let me explain.

I had digital cable put on at my place (so I could get the Aussie Rules Football).

My first experience with Customer Support (CS) was when the channels I should have got didn't come up. They could not fix it over the phone so they booked a call out. The guy who came out had one look at it, called customer support and had it fixed. He said the phone CS should have been able to fix it as all he did was talk to CS and get them to reset something.

The second experience was calling to get a new remote as the one I have is faulty (checked the batteries and all that sort of stuff). Now remember I pay 30 cents a month to rent this thing. I was informed I would have to pay for a new remote. About $7.15. Where is the logic in having to pay for something that is faulty that I already lease? so I asked to have a supervisor call me back.

Experience three with CS was with a very nice woman who knew what she was on about. I had called because I never received the call from the supervisor I was promised. This woman was great explained that she was the person on CS with the most experience and that everyone else was new and simply read the scripts.

So I am left with a dilemma. Do I cancel the cable and get satellite? It appears I would get a heap more channels for less overall cost. Are there hidden costs? Looks like I will need to do some research.

Let me know what your experience with Cable and Satellite have been like!

Well as I mentioned earlier this week my computer decided to die. Not completely, just an unexplained mess-up that needed to be remedied ASAP.

So I rebuilt Black Beauty and now it is working fine. I am even now using the concept of a data drive, coupled with a firewire portable drive for backup. Believe me after this little song and dance I want to make sure my data is well backed up.

I didn't loose anything in particular but I did find that my email list for the newsletter is backed up in a format I am not quite sure on how to bring back to life. I have Eric on call to help me with that, and we are going to call Brett the developer of Newsletter Ease for some assistance (well really just to bother him).

Things are looking good! I have put an order in with Cyberguys for a couple of cool things, first a massage ball that works of a USB connection and then some removable hard drive racks for letting me move my data drive between computers and locations easily.

Boy I love gadgets!

Don't you hate it when you wake up in the morning and your computer is trashed? By trashed I mean nothing is working correctly. That even though you have been anal about your firewalls and virus protection, you still get a stuffed up machine.

Well anyway it appears I am going to be spending a good chunk of time rebuilding my machine from scratch. Should be sort of fun, in a time wasted sort of way.

It is simply annoying as I had the machine set up exactly how I wanted it.

I heard about this anti-Bush site on Leno. I thought it was an interesting use of a domain name! Go see what it is.

If you are a regular reader of my blog or newsletter you will know that I am a big fan of Instant Messaging (IM). As my friends, family and workmates all subscribe to different types of IM (ICQ, Yahoo, AOL, MSN) I use Trillian as my unified messenger. It sits open on my desktop whether I am here or not, and allows me to keep abreast of what everyone is up to.

I took the plunge a while ago and shelled out the US$25 for a Pro license. Let me tell you it was well worth it. It gives you access to a more robust and feature laden version of Trillian along with access to the Trillian online community. Here you can get plugins that make Trillian an even more comprehensive tool. I have added int he RSS, world time and quick launch modules.

I have just taken there new version 2.0 through its paces (I did try it at beta stage briefly as well), and it installs over 1.0 like a charm, keeping all of my previous settings. It also has improvements on its container management and connectivity with the various services.

To find out more or download Trillian Pro or Basic (free) go to:
http://www.trillian.cc/

I happened upon the GeoURL site last night when I was looking at sites that linked to my own. I was so intrigued that I made the changes to my site so I could be listed too!

So what is this all about? Basically you enter some extra meta tag information on your own site (which the GeoURL site will help you generate), and then ping your site from the GeoURL site which adds you to their database. Basically you have just added your geographical location to a database.

Then you add a little code to your site which when clicked will show visitors other sites that are geographically close to your own. More correctly it is where the owners of the sites are located, as I am sure most people do not put where their site is hosted.

So this is a quick and easy little tweak to add to your site that 'puts you on the map' so to speak!

Check it out!

Well I have taken the plunge and started publishing my newsletter again. The first being sent to day explaining why I went AWOL for the past six months!

I am using Newsletter Ease to help manage subscriptions and putting together content. I am not 100% happy with the way it works but I know the author Brett will iron out the bugs and give users the access anbd control they need.

To be perfect I would like to be able to select whether my subscribers get the text of HTML version of the newsletter. Currently I cannot.

It also needs to implement a double opt-in system to be perfect.

Anyway have a read of the newsletter and feel free to comment on what I have planned for future issues.

Well my new office now has high speed internet thanks to Comcast. This is the fastest cable I have ever seen! Very cool.

Now I just need to find the time to set up my desktop computer and the like.

Note I explored the possibility of setting up an office at a Starbucks but the caffeine to cost ratio didn't work out!

Just a heads up for those of you after some compact flash.

I just bought 128Mb of Memorex for the digital camera for only $29 after rebates.

The deal is valid until Saturday at CompUSA.

Well i just spent about 3 days in Sydney so I could speak at a conference on innovation. It went quite well. However I was stuck without an internet connection.

Sydney however was beautiful, moreso than the other times I have been. So instead of "computing" I went for a few walks around darling harbor and cockle bay.

I also had a chinese massage after I found my neck playing up on me. It was great and very different to the normal massages I have had in the past. Massage is something I am very interested in and I want to one day be qualified to perform them myself.

Well here I am in San Fransico. A quick stop to put in a new server, that has gone really smoothly. Normally I end up spending twice as long as I plan in the data center, but thanks to Brian's help and planning the new server went in like clockwork! The hardest obstacle was a screw that refused to budge when I was adjusting the runners for the rack mount rails.

On a side note as alway it has been nice seeing Amy and Vance. I got to experience the Super Bowl with a real life Oakland Raiders fan too!

I am excited today! As you may or may not know as part of my duties at Sausage is editing and writing the Sausage Sizzler Newsletter.

I am happy to say that this year will see the inclusion of more writers with their own styles and opinions that fit well within the Sausage mould.

So keep your eye on the Sausage site and get ready to learn and be informed by a well informed bunch of peers and experts.

I know Mike Chandler will at least take heed of this notice as he took over writing the Lockergnome Webmaster Weekly which I was a major player in getting up and running. He also seems to like my blog!

Yee-ha! Us country folks in the middle of nowhere Iowa are just as sophisticated as you city folk reading this (thats my bad attempt at country hick humor).

Cup of Kryptonite now has a wireless access point, thanks to the guy sitting at the counter who whacked in a Linksys Wireless Router. I would ask his name but he is working on a paper or something.

Actually Star Wars Episode Two is also playing. This could be geek heaven!

If anyone else knows of WAPs in Des Moines let me know! For that matter in the coming month I will be spending time in San Francisco, Seattle, Victoria BC, and also Melbourne and Sydney in Australia. So if you know of WAPs there please let me know!

Soem feedback from a Sausage Sizzler reader, has led me to this Australian based wireless site.

If you are going downunder or live there already check it out.

I updated my Webcam page so that you can see the last 8 or so images.

This means that when I have it going live for a while all will look similar but otherwise there might be some variety in there.

Using a router and wireless access point (WAP) as a simple as wimple WAP and hub may be a bit of overkill, but I think I am going to live in the hope that SMC come out with a firmware upgrade that will help me out with the DHCP setup.

I have put out a small call for help on the BroadbandReports.com forum, some of the experts there may have some ideas as well. As this is a really new product they may simply take a little while to make it perfect.

Ok so after talking to SMC's technical support, I have have got the wireless router working off a static IP address. This sort of sucks as Mediacom uses dynamic IPs.

This is definately not a long term solution. I will have to get onto Mediacom and see what I can find out.

I have swapped my blog to Moveable type as it seems to have more features for free than Blogger (no offence meant to those guys).

I just thought I would offer my Gmail invites to some of my loyal NetBloke subscribers. So if you want one contact me using the form.

I am having problems sending my newsletter. The software is playing up. So just read it from here!

Outpost.com are having a sale on software that makes 10 different items free after rebate. Lots of goodies worth checking out.

Ok so I am trying to make things easier and more professional with the management of my NetBloke Mailing list. I have tried a script twice now and after initial problems which I worked out, I have been realitvely happy with it.

So imagine now with my second try at sending out a newsletter, it fails miserably after 136 people get the newsletter. This plain sucks. The script I am using is simple and has no way of now reseinding to a subset of the list.

I am left with the quandry of mailing to 136 people twice, or the majority of the list missing out.

At the least I have to do alot of fiddling around now.

I hate Comcast. I hate them so much. I hate that there is no choice but Comcast for my broadband here. I would swap in a second.

I just attempted to sign up again for online payments through their site. You see I forgot my password and they have no way of providing it to me (No the forgot password button does not work). On trying to add my account I am presented with a page that tells me the page is unavailable and they are working on it.

So I call to pay by phone. After going through ten prompts I get to the payment part. I select that I am a cable modem user, not TV and am put on an automatic hold, only to eventually get a message that the operator is unavailable and to call back for service.

So I call back and this time select that I am a Cable TV customer (which I am not) and eventually get the bill paid.

Now no one has yet to call me and ask why I was not satisfied with my cable TV service. You think they would like to know why customers leave.

The flip-side is that Dish Network service is absolutely amazing in comparison.

I need a stiff drink now.

So last night I was investigating what appeared to be an awful noise coming from my computer. I am still pretty certain that it was a fan making the noise, however when I rebooted no Windows were to be seen.

Imagine my dismay! What a dork! what a dummy! I ad backed up everything but my Newsletter subscriber list. At the moment not all is lost as I still believe I can pull the data I need off the drive.

The one good thing about this development is that it gives me an excuse to upgrade to XP like I had wanted too. I have had a copy I bought for at least a month but just haven't got around to it. Now I have no excuse!

Lesson learned. Think about how foolproof your backup plan is.

A friend just filled me in on this quirky search term. I shall say no more just go and search on "old fart" at Amazon.com

I am happy to report the creator of Newsletter Ease, Brett Rogers is on the case and helping me restore my recently restarted Newsletter. I am keen to get it going again!

One thing you guys and gals could help me with is tracking down Australian based content. That could mean programs, web sites, movies, music, tech news or the like.

As I originally stated my intention with my newsletter was to give an Australian slant wherever possible. Remember though I am now an Aussie based in the USA so my realm of influence is somewhat altered.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago I purchased some gadgets from Cyberguys. Well they arrived a week ago and I found them to be very impressive!

Of course the cool gadget was the USB powered massager. I thought this may be a piece of junk but it is great! It vibrates and massages really well and the USB cable is long enough to reach all of those sore and tired joints!

Then my more practical purchase was a pair of removable hard-drive bays. After easily installing these units, the drive I installed in them became my portable data drive. Very, very handy! I now use this and keep my portable firewire drive for secondary backup purposes.

I throughly recommend both products!

So I am off the opinion that Cable just may suck. Their customer support does at least. Let me explain.

I had digital cable put on at my place (so I could get the Aussie Rules Football).

My first experience with Customer Support (CS) was when the channels I should have got didn't come up. They could not fix it over the phone so they booked a call out. The guy who came out had one look at it, called customer support and had it fixed. He said the phone CS should have been able to fix it as all he did was talk to CS and get them to reset something.

The second experience was calling to get a new remote as the one I have is faulty (checked the batteries and all that sort of stuff). Now remember I pay 30 cents a month to rent this thing. I was informed I would have to pay for a new remote. About $7.15. Where is the logic in having to pay for something that is faulty that I already lease? so I asked to have a supervisor call me back.

Experience three with CS was with a very nice woman who knew what she was on about. I had called because I never received the call from the supervisor I was promised. This woman was great explained that she was the person on CS with the most experience and that everyone else was new and simply read the scripts.

So I am left with a dilemma. Do I cancel the cable and get satellite? It appears I would get a heap more channels for less overall cost. Are there hidden costs? Looks like I will need to do some research.

Let me know what your experience with Cable and Satellite have been like!

Well as I mentioned earlier this week my computer decided to die. Not completely, just an unexplained mess-up that needed to be remedied ASAP.

So I rebuilt Black Beauty and now it is working fine. I am even now using the concept of a data drive, coupled with a firewire portable drive for backup. Believe me after this little song and dance I want to make sure my data is well backed up.

I didn't loose anything in particular but I did find that my email list for the newsletter is backed up in a format I am not quite sure on how to bring back to life. I have Eric on call to help me with that, and we are going to call Brett the developer of Newsletter Ease for some assistance (well really just to bother him).

Things are looking good! I have put an order in with Cyberguys for a couple of cool things, first a massage ball that works of a USB connection and then some removable hard drive racks for letting me move my data drive between computers and locations easily.

Boy I love gadgets!

Don't you hate it when you wake up in the morning and your computer is trashed? By trashed I mean nothing is working correctly. That even though you have been anal about your firewalls and virus protection, you still get a stuffed up machine.

Well anyway it appears I am going to be spending a good chunk of time rebuilding my machine from scratch. Should be sort of fun, in a time wasted sort of way.

It is simply annoying as I had the machine set up exactly how I wanted it.

I heard about this anti-Bush site on Leno. I thought it was an interesting use of a domain name! Go see what it is.

If you are a regular reader of my blog or newsletter you will know that I am a big fan of Instant Messaging (IM). As my friends, family and workmates all subscribe to different types of IM (ICQ, Yahoo, AOL, MSN) I use Trillian as my unified messenger. It sits open on my desktop whether I am here or not, and allows me to keep abreast of what everyone is up to.

I took the plunge a while ago and shelled out the US$25 for a Pro license. Let me tell you it was well worth it. It gives you access to a more robust and feature laden version of Trillian along with access to the Trillian online community. Here you can get plugins that make Trillian an even more comprehensive tool. I have added int he RSS, world time and quick launch modules.

I have just taken there new version 2.0 through its paces (I did try it at beta stage briefly as well), and it installs over 1.0 like a charm, keeping all of my previous settings. It also has improvements on its container management and connectivity with the various services.

To find out more or download Trillian Pro or Basic (free) go to:
http://www.trillian.cc/

I happened upon the GeoURL site last night when I was looking at sites that linked to my own. I was so intrigued that I made the changes to my site so I could be listed too!

So what is this all about? Basically you enter some extra meta tag information on your own site (which the GeoURL site will help you generate), and then ping your site from the GeoURL site which adds you to their database. Basically you have just added your geographical location to a database.

Then you add a little code to your site which when clicked will show visitors other sites that are geographically close to your own. More correctly it is where the owners of the sites are located, as I am sure most people do not put where their site is hosted.

So this is a quick and easy little tweak to add to your site that 'puts you on the map' so to speak!

Check it out!

Well I have taken the plunge and started publishing my newsletter again. The first being sent to day explaining why I went AWOL for the past six months!

I am using Newsletter Ease to help manage subscriptions and putting together content. I am not 100% happy with the way it works but I know the author Brett will iron out the bugs and give users the access anbd control they need.

To be perfect I would like to be able to select whether my subscribers get the text of HTML version of the newsletter. Currently I cannot.

It also needs to implement a double opt-in system to be perfect.

Anyway have a read of the newsletter and feel free to comment on what I have planned for future issues.

Well my new office now has high speed internet thanks to Comcast. This is the fastest cable I have ever seen! Very cool.

Now I just need to find the time to set up my desktop computer and the like.

Note I explored the possibility of setting up an office at a Starbucks but the caffeine to cost ratio didn't work out!

Just a heads up for those of you after some compact flash.

I just bought 128Mb of Memorex for the digital camera for only $29 after rebates.

The deal is valid until Saturday at CompUSA.

Well i just spent about 3 days in Sydney so I could speak at a conference on innovation. It went quite well. However I was stuck without an internet connection.

Sydney however was beautiful, moreso than the other times I have been. So instead of "computing" I went for a few walks around darling harbor and cockle bay.

I also had a chinese massage after I found my neck playing up on me. It was great and very different to the normal massages I have had in the past. Massage is something I am very interested in and I want to one day be qualified to perform them myself.

Well here I am in San Fransico. A quick stop to put in a new server, that has gone really smoothly. Normally I end up spending twice as long as I plan in the data center, but thanks to Brian's help and planning the new server went in like clockwork! The hardest obstacle was a screw that refused to budge when I was adjusting the runners for the rack mount rails.

On a side note as alway it has been nice seeing Amy and Vance. I got to experience the Super Bowl with a real life Oakland Raiders fan too!

I am excited today! As you may or may not know as part of my duties at Sausage is editing and writing the Sausage Sizzler Newsletter.

I am happy to say that this year will see the inclusion of more writers with their own styles and opinions that fit well within the Sausage mould.

So keep your eye on the Sausage site and get ready to learn and be informed by a well informed bunch of peers and experts.

I know Mike Chandler will at least take heed of this notice as he took over writing the Lockergnome Webmaster Weekly which I was a major player in getting up and running. He also seems to like my blog!

Yee-ha! Us country folks in the middle of nowhere Iowa are just as sophisticated as you city folk reading this (thats my bad attempt at country hick humor).

Cup of Kryptonite now has a wireless access point, thanks to the guy sitting at the counter who whacked in a Linksys Wireless Router. I would ask his name but he is working on a paper or something.

Actually Star Wars Episode Two is also playing. This could be geek heaven!

If anyone else knows of WAPs in Des Moines let me know! For that matter in the coming month I will be spending time in San Francisco, Seattle, Victoria BC, and also Melbourne and Sydney in Australia. So if you know of WAPs there please let me know!

Soem feedback from a Sausage Sizzler reader, has led me to this Australian based wireless site.

If you are going downunder or live there already check it out.

I updated my Webcam page so that you can see the last 8 or so images.

This means that when I have it going live for a while all will look similar but otherwise there might be some variety in there.

Using a router and wireless access point (WAP) as a simple as wimple WAP and hub may be a bit of overkill, but I think I am going to live in the hope that SMC come out with a firmware upgrade that will help me out with the DHCP setup.

I have put out a small call for help on the BroadbandReports.com forum, some of the experts there may have some ideas as well. As this is a really new product they may simply take a little while to make it perfect.

Ok so after talking to SMC's technical support, I have have got the wireless router working off a static IP address. This sort of sucks as Mediacom uses dynamic IPs.

This is definately not a long term solution. I will have to get onto Mediacom and see what I can find out.

I have swapped my blog to Moveable type as it seems to have more features for free than Blogger (no offence meant to those guys).

I just thought I would offer my Gmail invites to some of my loyal NetBloke subscribers. So if you want one contact me using the form.

I am having problems sending my newsletter. The software is playing up. So just read it from here!

Outpost.com are having a sale on software that makes 10 different items free after rebate. Lots of goodies worth checking out.

Ok so I am trying to make things easier and more professional with the management of my NetBloke Mailing list. I have tried a script twice now and after initial problems which I worked out, I have been realitvely happy with it.

So imagine now with my second try at sending out a newsletter, it fails miserably after 136 people get the newsletter. This plain sucks. The script I am using is simple and has no way of now reseinding to a subset of the list.

I am left with the quandry of mailing to 136 people twice, or the majority of the list missing out.

At the least I have to do alot of fiddling around now.

I hate Comcast. I hate them so much. I hate that there is no choice but Comcast for my broadband here. I would swap in a second.

I just attempted to sign up again for online payments through their site. You see I forgot my password and they have no way of providing it to me (No the forgot password button does not work). On trying to add my account I am presented with a page that tells me the page is unavailable and they are working on it.

So I call to pay by phone. After going through ten prompts I get to the payment part. I select that I am a cable modem user, not TV and am put on an automatic hold, only to eventually get a message that the operator is unavailable and to call back for service.

So I call back and this time select that I am a Cable TV customer (which I am not) and eventually get the bill paid.

Now no one has yet to call me and ask why I was not satisfied with my cable TV service. You think they would like to know why customers leave.

The flip-side is that Dish Network service is absolutely amazing in comparison.

I need a stiff drink now.

So last night I was investigating what appeared to be an awful noise coming from my computer. I am still pretty certain that it was a fan making the noise, however when I rebooted no Windows were to be seen.

Imagine my dismay! What a dork! what a dummy! I ad backed up everything but my Newsletter subscriber list. At the moment not all is lost as I still believe I can pull the data I need off the drive.

The one good thing about this development is that it gives me an excuse to upgrade to XP like I had wanted too. I have had a copy I bought for at least a month but just haven't got around to it. Now I have no excuse!

Lesson learned. Think about how foolproof your backup plan is.

A friend just filled me in on this quirky search term. I shall say no more just go and search on "old fart" at Amazon.com

I am happy to report the creator of Newsletter Ease, Brett Rogers is on the case and helping me restore my recently restarted Newsletter. I am keen to get it going again!

One thing you guys and gals could help me with is tracking down Australian based content. That could mean programs, web sites, movies, music, tech news or the like.

As I originally stated my intention with my newsletter was to give an Australian slant wherever possible. Remember though I am now an Aussie based in the USA so my realm of influence is somewhat altered.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago I purchased some gadgets from Cyberguys. Well they arrived a week ago and I found them to be very impressive!

Of course the cool gadget was the USB powered massager. I thought this may be a piece of junk but it is great! It vibrates and massages really well and the USB cable is long enough to reach all of those sore and tired joints!

Then my more practical purchase was a pair of removable hard-drive bays. After easily installing these units, the drive I installed in them became my portable data drive. Very, very handy! I now use this and keep my portable firewire drive for secondary backup purposes.

I throughly recommend both products!

So I am off the opinion that Cable just may suck. Their customer support does at least. Let me explain.

I had digital cable put on at my place (so I could get the Aussie Rules Football).

My first experience with Customer Support (CS) was when the channels I should have got didn't come up. They could not fix it over the phone so they booked a call out. The guy who came out had one look at it, called customer support and had it fixed. He said the phone CS should have been able to fix it as all he did was talk to CS and get them to reset something.

The second experience was calling to get a new remote as the one I have is faulty (checked the batteries and all that sort of stuff). Now remember I pay 30 cents a month to rent this thing. I was informed I would have to pay for a new remote. About $7.15. Where is the logic in having to pay for something that is faulty that I already lease? so I asked to have a supervisor call me back.

Experience three with CS was with a very nice woman who knew what she was on about. I had called because I never received the call from the supervisor I was promised. This woman was great explained that she was the person on CS with the most experience and that everyone else was new and simply read the scripts.

So I am left with a dilemma. Do I cancel the cable and get satellite? It appears I would get a heap more channels for less overall cost. Are there hidden costs? Looks like I will need to do some research.

Let me know what your experience with Cable and Satellite have been like!

Well as I mentioned earlier this week my computer decided to die. Not completely, just an unexplained mess-up that needed to be remedied ASAP.

So I rebuilt Black Beauty and now it is working fine. I am even now using the concept of a data drive, coupled with a firewire portable drive for backup. Believe me after this little song and dance I want to make sure my data is well backed up.

I didn't loose anything in particular but I did find that my email list for the newsletter is backed up in a format I am not quite sure on how to bring back to life. I have Eric on call to help me with that, and we are going to call Brett the developer of Newsletter Ease for some assistance (well really just to bother him).

Things are looking good! I have put an order in with Cyberguys for a couple of cool things, first a massage ball that works of a USB connection and then some removable hard drive racks for letting me move my data drive between computers and locations easily.

Boy I love gadgets!

Don't you hate it when you wake up in the morning and your computer is trashed? By trashed I mean nothing is working correctly. That even though you have been anal about your firewalls and virus protection, you still get a stuffed up machine.

Well anyway it appears I am going to be spending a good chunk of time rebuilding my machine from scratch. Should be sort of fun, in a time wasted sort of way.

It is simply annoying as I had the machine set up exactly how I wanted it.

I heard about this anti-Bush site on Leno. I thought it was an interesting use of a domain name! Go see what it is.

If you are a regular reader of my blog or newsletter you will know that I am a big fan of Instant Messaging (IM). As my friends, family and workmates all subscribe to different types of IM (ICQ, Yahoo, AOL, MSN) I use Trillian as my unified messenger. It sits open on my desktop whether I am here or not, and allows me to keep abreast of what everyone is up to.

I took the plunge a while ago and shelled out the US$25 for a Pro license. Let me tell you it was well worth it. It gives you access to a more robust and feature laden version of Trillian along with access to the Trillian online community. Here you can get plugins that make Trillian an even more comprehensive tool. I have added int he RSS, world time and quick launch modules.

I have just taken there new version 2.0 through its paces (I did try it at beta stage briefly as well), and it installs over 1.0 like a charm, keeping all of my previous settings. It also has improvements on its container management and connectivity with the various services.

To find out more or download Trillian Pro or Basic (free) go to:
http://www.trillian.cc/

I happened upon the GeoURL site last night when I was looking at sites that linked to my own. I was so intrigued that I made the changes to my site so I could be listed too!

So what is this all about? Basically you enter some extra meta tag information on your own site (which the GeoURL site will help you generate), and then ping your site from the GeoURL site which adds you to their database. Basically you have just added your geographical location to a database.

Then you add a little code to your site which when clicked will show visitors other sites that are geographically close to your own. More correctly it is where the owners of the sites are located, as I am sure most people do not put where their site is hosted.

So this is a quick and easy little tweak to add to your site that 'puts you on the map' so to speak!

Check it out!

Well I have taken the plunge and started publishing my newsletter again. The first being sent to day explaining why I went AWOL for the past six months!

I am using Newsletter Ease to help manage subscriptions and putting together content. I am not 100% happy with the way it works but I know the author Brett will iron out the bugs and give users the access anbd control they need.

To be perfect I would like to be able to select whether my subscribers get the text of HTML version of the newsletter. Currently I cannot.

It also needs to implement a double opt-in system to be perfect.

Anyway have a read of the newsletter and feel free to comment on what I have planned for future issues.

Well my new office now has high speed internet thanks to Comcast. This is the fastest cable I have ever seen! Very cool.

Now I just need to find the time to set up my desktop computer and the like.

Note I explored the possibility of setting up an office at a Starbucks but the caffeine to cost ratio didn't work out!

Just a heads up for those of you after some compact flash.

I just bought 128Mb of Memorex for the digital camera for only $29 after rebates.

The deal is valid until Saturday at CompUSA.

Well i just spent about 3 days in Sydney so I could speak at a conference on innovation. It went quite well. However I was stuck without an internet connection.

Sydney however was beautiful, moreso than the other times I have been. So instead of "computing" I went for a few walks around darling harbor and cockle bay.

I also had a chinese massage after I found my neck playing up on me. It was great and very different to the normal massages I have had in the past. Massage is something I am very interested in and I want to one day be qualified to perform them myself.

Well here I am in San Fransico. A quick stop to put in a new server, that has gone really smoothly. Normally I end up spending twice as long as I plan in the data center, but thanks to Brian's help and planning the new server went in like clockwork! The hardest obstacle was a screw that refused to budge when I was adjusting the runners for the rack mount rails.

On a side note as alway it has been nice seeing Amy and Vance. I got to experience the Super Bowl with a real life Oakland Raiders fan too!

I am excited today! As you may or may not know as part of my duties at Sausage is editing and writing the Sausage Sizzler Newsletter.

I am happy to say that this year will see the inclusion of more writers with their own styles and opinions that fit well within the Sausage mould.

So keep your eye on the Sausage site and get ready to learn and be informed by a well informed bunch of peers and experts.

I know Mike Chandler will at least take heed of this notice as he took over writing the Lockergnome Webmaster Weekly which I was a major player in getting up and running. He also seems to like my blog!

Yee-ha! Us country folks in the middle of nowhere Iowa are just as sophisticated as you city folk reading this (thats my bad attempt at country hick humor).

Cup of Kryptonite now has a wireless access point, thanks to the guy sitting at the counter who whacked in a Linksys Wireless Router. I would ask his name but he is working on a paper or something.

Actually Star Wars Episode Two is also playing. This could be geek heaven!

If anyone else knows of WAPs in Des Moines let me know! For that matter in the coming month I will be spending time in San Francisco, Seattle, Victoria BC, and also Melbourne and Sydney in Australia. So if you know of WAPs there please let me know!

Soem feedback from a Sausage Sizzler reader, has led me to this Australian based wireless site.

If you are going downunder or live there already check it out.

I updated my Webcam page so that you can see the last 8 or so images.

This means that when I have it going live for a while all will look similar but otherwise there might be some variety in there.

Using a router and wireless access point (WAP) as a simple as wimple WAP and hub may be a bit of overkill, but I think I am going to live in the hope that SMC come out with a firmware upgrade that will help me out with the DHCP setup.

I have put out a small call for help on the BroadbandReports.com forum, some of the experts there may have some ideas as well. As this is a really new product they may simply take a little while to make it perfect.

Ok so after talking to SMC's technical support, I have have got the wireless router working off a static IP address. This sort of sucks as Mediacom uses dynamic IPs.

This is definately not a long term solution. I will have to get onto Mediacom and see what I can find out.

I have swapped my blog to Moveable type as it seems to have more features for free than Blogger (no offence meant to those guys).

I just thought I would offer my Gmail invites to some of my loyal NetBloke subscribers. So if you want one contact me using the form.

I am having problems sending my newsletter. The software is playing up. So just read it from here!

Outpost.com are having a sale on software that makes 10 different items free after rebate. Lots of goodies worth checking out.

Ok so I am trying to make things easier and more professional with the management of my NetBloke Mailing list. I have tried a script twice now and after initial problems which I worked out, I have been realitvely happy with it.

So imagine now with my second try at sending out a newsletter, it fails miserably after 136 people get the newsletter. This plain sucks. The script I am using is simple and has no way of now reseinding to a subset of the list.

I am left with the quandry of mailing to 136 people twice, or the majority of the list missing out.

At the least I have to do alot of fiddling around now.

I hate Comcast. I hate them so much. I hate that there is no choice but Comcast for my broadband here. I would swap in a second.

I just attempted to sign up again for online payments through their site. You see I forgot my password and they have no way of providing it to me (No the forgot password button does not work). On trying to add my account I am presented with a page that tells me the page is unavailable and they are working on it.

So I call to pay by phone. After going through ten prompts I get to the payment part. I select that I am a cable modem user, not TV and am put on an automatic hold, only to eventually get a message that the operator is unavailable and to call back for service.

So I call back and this time select that I am a Cable TV customer (which I am not) and eventually get the bill paid.

Now no one has yet to call me and ask why I was not satisfied with my cable TV service. You think they would like to know why customers leave.

The flip-side is that Dish Network service is absolutely amazing in comparison.

I need a stiff drink now.

So last night I was investigating what appeared to be an awful noise coming from my computer. I am still pretty certain that it was a fan making the noise, however when I rebooted no Windows were to be seen.

Imagine my dismay! What a dork! what a dummy! I ad backed up everything but my Newsletter subscriber list. At the moment not all is lost as I still believe I can pull the data I need off the drive.

The one good thing about this development is that it gives me an excuse to upgrade to XP like I had wanted too. I have had a copy I bought for at least a month but just haven't got around to it. Now I have no excuse!

Lesson learned. Think about how foolproof your backup plan is.

A friend just filled me in on this quirky search term. I shall say no more just go and search on "old fart" at Amazon.com

I am happy to report the creator of Newsletter Ease, Brett Rogers is on the case and helping me restore my recently restarted Newsletter. I am keen to get it going again!

One thing you guys and gals could help me with is tracking down Australian based content. That could mean programs, web sites, movies, music, tech news or the like.

As I originally stated my intention with my newsletter was to give an Australian slant wherever possible. Remember though I am now an Aussie based in the USA so my realm of influence is somewhat altered.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago I purchased some gadgets from Cyberguys. Well they arrived a week ago and I found them to be very impressive!

Of course the cool gadget was the USB powered massager. I thought this may be a piece of junk but it is great! It vibrates and massages really well and the USB cable is long enough to reach all of those sore and tired joints!

Then my more practical purchase was a pair of removable hard-drive bays. After easily installing these units, the drive I installed in them became my portable data drive. Very, very handy! I now use this and keep my portable firewire drive for secondary backup purposes.

I throughly recommend both products!

So I am off the opinion that Cable just may suck. Their customer support does at least. Let me explain.

I had digital cable put on at my place (so I could get the Aussie Rules Football).

My first experience with Customer Support (CS) was when the channels I should have got didn't come up. They could not fix it over the phone so they booked a call out. The guy who came out had one look at it, called customer support and had it fixed. He said the phone CS should have been able to fix it as all he did was talk to CS and get them to reset something.

The second experience was calling to get a new remote as the one I have is faulty (checked the batteries and all that sort of stuff). Now remember I pay 30 cents a month to rent this thing. I was informed I would have to pay for a new remote. About $7.15. Where is the logic in having to pay for something that is faulty that I already lease? so I asked to have a supervisor call me back.

Experience three with CS was with a very nice woman who knew what she was on about. I had called because I never received the call from the supervisor I was promised. This woman was great explained that she was the person on CS with the most experience and that everyone else was new and simply read the scripts.

So I am left with a dilemma. Do I cancel the cable and get satellite? It appears I would get a heap more channels for less overall cost. Are there hidden costs? Looks like I will need to do some research.

Let me know what your experience with Cable and Satellite have been like!

Well as I mentioned earlier this week my computer decided to die. Not completely, just an unexplained mess-up that needed to be remedied ASAP.

So I rebuilt Black Beauty and now it is working fine. I am even now using the concept of a data drive, coupled with a firewire portable drive for backup. Believe me after this little song and dance I want to make sure my data is well backed up.

I didn't loose anything in particular but I did find that my email list for the newsletter is backed up in a format I am not quite sure on how to bring back to life. I have Eric on call to help me with that, and we are going to call Brett the developer of Newsletter Ease for some assistance (well really just to bother him).

Things are looking good! I have put an order in with Cyberguys for a couple of cool things, first a massage ball that works of a USB connection and then some removable hard drive racks for letting me move my data drive between computers and locations easily.

Boy I love gadgets!

Don't you hate it when you wake up in the morning and your computer is trashed? By trashed I mean nothing is working correctly. That even though you have been anal about your firewalls and virus protection, you still get a stuffed up machine.

Well anyway it appears I am going to be spending a good chunk of time rebuilding my machine from scratch. Should be sort of fun, in a time wasted sort of way.

It is simply annoying as I had the machine set up exactly how I wanted it.

I heard about this anti-Bush site on Leno. I thought it was an interesting use of a domain name! Go see what it is.

If you are a regular reader of my blog or newsletter you will know that I am a big fan of Instant Messaging (IM). As my friends, family and workmates all subscribe to different types of IM (ICQ, Yahoo, AOL, MSN) I use Trillian as my unified messenger. It sits open on my desktop whether I am here or not, and allows me to keep abreast of what everyone is up to.

I took the plunge a while ago and shelled out the US$25 for a Pro license. Let me tell you it was well worth it. It gives you access to a more robust and feature laden version of Trillian along with access to the Trillian online community. Here you can get plugins that make Trillian an even more comprehensive tool. I have added int he RSS, world time and quick launch modules.

I have just taken there new version 2.0 through its paces (I did try it at beta stage briefly as well), and it installs over 1.0 like a charm, keeping all of my previous settings. It also has improvements on its container management and connectivity with the various services.

To find out more or download Trillian Pro or Basic (free) go to:
http://www.trillian.cc/

I happened upon the GeoURL site last night when I was looking at sites that linked to my own. I was so intrigued that I made the changes to my site so I could be listed too!

So what is this all about? Basically you enter some extra meta tag information on your own site (which the GeoURL site will help you generate), and then ping your site from the GeoURL site which adds you to their database. Basically you have just added your geographical location to a database.

Then you add a little code to your site which when clicked will show visitors other sites that are geographically close to your own. More correctly it is where the owners of the sites are located, as I am sure most people do not put where their site is hosted.

So this is a quick and easy little tweak to add to your site that 'puts you on the map' so to speak!

Check it out!

Well I have taken the plunge and started publishing my newsletter again. The first being sent to day explaining why I went AWOL for the past six months!

I am using Newsletter Ease to help manage subscriptions and putting together content. I am not 100% happy with the way it works but I know the author Brett will iron out the bugs and give users the access anbd control they need.

To be perfect I would like to be able to select whether my subscribers get the text of HTML version of the newsletter. Currently I cannot.

It also needs to implement a double opt-in system to be perfect.

Anyway have a read of the newsletter and feel free to comment on what I have planned for future issues.

Well my new office now has high speed internet thanks to Comcast. This is the fastest cable I have ever seen! Very cool.

Now I just need to find the time to set up my desktop computer and the like.

Note I explored the possibility of setting up an office at a Starbucks but the caffeine to cost ratio didn't work out!

Just a heads up for those of you after some compact flash.

I just bought 128Mb of Memorex for the digital camera for only $29 after rebates.

The deal is valid until Saturday at CompUSA.

Well i just spent about 3 days in Sydney so I could speak at a conference on innovation. It went quite well. However I was stuck without an internet connection.

Sydney however was beautiful, moreso than the other times I have been. So instead of "computing" I went for a few walks around darling harbor and cockle bay.

I also had a chinese massage after I found my neck playing up on me. It was great and very different to the normal massages I have had in the past. Massage is something I am very interested in and I want to one day be qualified to perform them myself.

Well here I am in San Fransico. A quick stop to put in a new server, that has gone really smoothly. Normally I end up spending twice as long as I plan in the data center, but thanks to Brian's help and planning the new server went in like clockwork! The hardest obstacle was a screw that refused to budge when I was adjusting the runners for the rack mount rails.

On a side note as alway it has been nice seeing Amy and Vance. I got to experience the Super Bowl with a real life Oakland Raiders fan too!

I am excited today! As you may or may not know as part of my duties at Sausage is editing and writing the Sausage Sizzler Newsletter.

I am happy to say that this year will see the inclusion of more writers with their own styles and opinions that fit well within the Sausage mould.

So keep your eye on the Sausage site and get ready to learn and be informed by a well informed bunch of peers and experts.

I know Mike Chandler will at least take heed of this notice as he took over writing the Lockergnome Webmaster Weekly which I was a major player in getting up and running. He also seems to like my blog!

Yee-ha! Us country folks in the middle of nowhere Iowa are just as sophisticated as you city folk reading this (thats my bad attempt at country hick humor).

Cup of Kryptonite now has a wireless access point, thanks to the guy sitting at the counter who whacked in a Linksys Wireless Router. I would ask his name but he is working on a paper or something.

Actually Star Wars Episode Two is also playing. This could be geek heaven!

If anyone else knows of WAPs in Des Moines let me know! For that matter in the coming month I will be spending time in San Francisco, Seattle, Victoria BC, and also Melbourne and Sydney in Australia. So if you know of WAPs there please let me know!

Soem feedback from a Sausage Sizzler reader, has led me to this Australian based wireless site.

If you are going downunder or live there already check it out.

I updated my Webcam page so that you can see the last 8 or so images.

This means that when I have it going live for a while all will look similar but otherwise there might be some variety in there.

Using a router and wireless access point (WAP) as a simple as wimple WAP and hub may be a bit of overkill, but I think I am going to live in the hope that SMC come out with a firmware upgrade that will help me out with the DHCP setup.

I have put out a small call for help on the BroadbandReports.com forum, some of the experts there may have some ideas as well. As this is a really new product they may simply take a little while to make it perfect.

Ok so after talking to SMC's technical support, I have have got the wireless router working off a static IP address. This sort of sucks as Mediacom uses dynamic IPs.

This is definately not a long term solution. I will have to get onto Mediacom and see what I can find out.

I have swapped my blog to Moveable type as it seems to have more features for free than Blogger (no offence meant to those guys).

I just thought I would offer my Gmail invites to some of my loyal NetBloke subscribers. So if you want one contact me using the form.

I am having problems sending my newsletter. The software is playing up. So just read it from here!

Outpost.com are having a sale on software that makes 10 different items free after rebate. Lots of goodies worth checking out.

Ok so I am trying to make things easier and more professional with the management of my NetBloke Mailing list. I have tried a script twice now and after initial problems which I worked out, I have been realitvely happy with it.

So imagine now with my second try at sending out a newsletter, it fails miserably after 136 people get the newsletter. This plain sucks. The script I am using is simple and has no way of now reseinding to a subset of the list.

I am left with the quandry of mailing to 136 people twice, or the majority of the list missing out.

At the least I have to do alot of fiddling around now.

I hate Comcast. I hate them so much. I hate that there is no choice but Comcast for my broadband here. I would swap in a second.

I just attempted to sign up again for online payments through their site. You see I forgot my password and they have no way of providing it to me (No the forgot password button does not work). On trying to add my account I am presented with a page that tells me the page is unavailable and they are working on it.

So I call to pay by phone. After going through ten prompts I get to the payment part. I select that I am a cable modem user, not TV and am put on an automatic hold, only to eventually get a message that the operator is unavailable and to call back for service.

So I call back and this time select that I am a Cable TV customer (which I am not) and eventually get the bill paid.

Now no one has yet to call me and ask why I was not satisfied with my cable TV service. You think they would like to know why customers leave.

The flip-side is that Dish Network service is absolutely amazing in comparison.

I need a stiff drink now.

So last night I was investigating what appeared to be an awful noise coming from my computer. I am still pretty certain that it was a fan making the noise, however when I rebooted no Windows were to be seen.

Imagine my dismay! What a dork! what a dummy! I ad backed up everything but my Newsletter subscriber list. At the moment not all is lost as I still believe I can pull the data I need off the drive.

The one good thing about this development is that it gives me an excuse to upgrade to XP like I had wanted too. I have had a copy I bought for at least a month but just haven't got around to it. Now I have no excuse!

Lesson learned. Think about how foolproof your backup plan is.

A friend just filled me in on this quirky search term. I shall say no more just go and search on "old fart" at Amazon.com

I am happy to report the creator of Newsletter Ease, Brett Rogers is on the case and helping me restore my recently restarted Newsletter. I am keen to get it going again!

One thing you guys and gals could help me with is tracking down Australian based content. That could mean programs, web sites, movies, music, tech news or the like.

As I originally stated my intention with my newsletter was to give an Australian slant wherever possible. Remember though I am now an Aussie based in th