Late Night Posting

Sorry, missed my post today... my day was scrambled. Trains ran late, so many work deadlines, including trying to save my own job and then meetings all afternoon.

Had to cab it into the city for a meeting at 3pm... thats cab changeover time and it was bucketing down with rain... not a good afternoon!

Now the kids are in bed, I am waiting for LOST to come onto the tele and I check my comments and realise I hadnt posted anything! d'oh!!

On another front, I have now cracked over 1000 posts on Lime Kettles... freaky when you think of that!

Look Over There --->

As a fan of Dilbert and a reader of Scott Adam's blog, I was happy to see he had put up on his site for use a "Dilbert Widget" in which there's a new comic strip everyday of the week... sweet! Enjoy the free daily Dilbert people.

Not much to say...

Am in Adelaide for work... a quick post before I head out to dinner, just letting you know Dear Reader that your favourite blog is still around...

 

Would like to post from my work BlackBerry but all the posts come through we work disclaimers on them.  I'd also like to learn how to post pics from the BlackBerry... will look up the Blogger Moblog feature at some stage.

 

But enough of that, its off to dinner at some swanky Adelaide restaurant - i think its French...

SPAM Issue

Am having an issue with the Lime Kettles email account... I am getting 3-4 Nigerian Bank Scam Spams per hour.  They're flooding in...

I use the Lime Kettles account as my default site registration account and I think someone has got my email addy off one of those sites in the past 24hrs as I am getting bombarded from Nigeria!

I keep clicking "Spam" on the Yahoo Mail but it doesnt seem to register that the next ones coming through are spam as well.  Does anyone know how to fix spam in Yahoo Mail?

Comment on Commentors...

Guys,

I have noticed a great influx of comments of late, and I am very happy to take them on board, but can we do more than "Anon"... Even in the body of the comment a "John" or "Mary" for example would at least enable me to have some sort of continuity of who is talking to me about the things I blog about...

A small gripe, but next time you post a comment, let me know who you are... nicknames are most welcome :-)

C

Normal Service Resuming

I have noticed that my blog postings of late have been very "me centric" and I have really not commented on some of the world events that have taken place lately… and I do know how much you all value MY opinion so much!  So in that vein, here is my views on some of the world events of the past few weeks and I will refrain from talking more about my shingles and/or my cricket and the impact of the former on the latter….

NSW State Election
I cant believe anyone is surprised that Iemma got up and won.  Whilst a lot of the rhetoric was how bad NSW is going, there was never a credible alternative and this clap trap about voting for a minor party because neither deserve it is also nonsense.  Minor parties are just that… MINOR.  They have no real say and with the way the preferencing system works, you are really going to vote for Liberal or Labor in any event.  So you may as well tick the major party you prefer.

I also don't think the Labor party has done such a bad job.  12 years is a long time, but there is no need to make change for changes sake.  It seems that the press get the whiff of staleness and they go for the jugular.  But really, what has been so terrible about NSW that Debnam could have fixed?  Nothing!  The Liberals, particularly since they are ruled by their religious right faction, are a complete basket case and the sooner Barry O'Farrell leads with a more moderate view then the better the government will be held accountable.

To put this simply, because the Labor Government has not been held accountable for the majority of the past 12 years doesn't mean that that inept opposition deserves the right to lead in their own right.

Bob Woolmer
Tragic and this is going to get a lot worse.  It could be very damaging for the world of cricket but I cannot see gambling being stopped.  You cant cure the 1 billion sub-continental gambling junkies who fund this corruption by simply "banning" it.  I think people now need to realise that gambling and spread betting is a part of cricket and that penalties for any involvement from a player or official need to be swift and severe.  Life bans should be minimum. If some player wants to chase some extra income, then they need to be aware of the risks.  Herschelle Gibbs, Mark Waugh, Shane Warne should ALL have been rubbed from the game not to mention the raft of rumour and innuendo around the Pakistani team historically.

The question is, was Bob Woolmer an innocent who knew too much or was he a man who had double crossed the bookies themselves?  I can only hope that any crooked cricket players or officials out there are now perhaps re-thinking their actions and maybe refrain from getting further involved.

David Hicks
I have been remiss in blogging about how Lil' Johnny Howard has been copping a pasting in the media… Rudd is making a credible alternative view and Howard is falling behind badly.  At least now the David Hicks issue is making him look bad and the fact that it seems that Hicks has pleaded guilty today simply to end his incarceration in as short a possible time is a damning indictment on the Australian Government.

I don't support Hicks and think he is a stupid idiot who got caught up playing Rambo, but at the very least he deserves fair justice.  He is not getting it and is now caving in to save his skin – it wont actually allow justice to be heard and will instead give him a finite end date for his circumstance.  What will Howard do if the US "justice" that is going to be metered upon him gives him a way too harsh sentence – life in prison or even the Death Penalty?  Will Howard THEN intervene?

We're back...

My test post to Blogger worked, so I am now drafting my first email posting in about 3 weeks… hopefully the good people at Blogger will keep the email server up from now on!

However I cannot say the same for the office air con… a failure of the system overnight has seen our office steamy like a sauna today and it was ties off and sleeves rolled up at 10:00am this morning.  On top of this, our computer network is acting up and I am sure its only a matter of time until somebody here goes “postal”.

I just seem to be in a rut at the moment as everything just seems to be falling apart around me… my PC, the PC monitor, the home AirCon, the screen door is busted to the back yard, the lawn mower takes 35 pulls to start, the back pergola is leaking like a sieve, the office AirCon, Blogger… its just been a continual stream of things not working like they’re supposed to.  Sure each one in isolation is trivial, but its just everywhere I turn something is not right… its enough to make you want to turn Amish!

Well that’s it for now… better go before the coffee machine blows up….

Been a while...

Been a) very busy at work and b) with no home internet access and hence the blog has been a little out of the priority list this past week or so…  The home PC “should” be right today pending no depressing news from the friendly local computer shop.  Also today may not be as busy today as I have a rare “empty” calendar day… no meetings!  A day of sitting at my desk typing away… boring, but sometimes very cathartic.

The rain continues to pour down today and I realised this morning that I still haven’t gotten around to buying a new umbrella since I lost my last 2.  Left one in a coffee shop and the other I am guessing I left on a train… so at the moment I am without shelter so to speak and with the rain being such a rare event these days, its never really front of mind when you’re at the shops.  I might see if the marketing department has a spare one with the company logo on it :-)

The weekend was good… we won our cricket match by an innings and 20 odd runs and spent the day in the field and took 17 opposition wickets.  My sole contribution was one catch at slip… At least we did better than the Aussie cricket team that lost the final series 2-0 to England!  England!! The rabble that couldn’t get past 150 runs and struggled in all facets of the game finally gelled at the same time we tired / got complacent and we got spanked.  I am not worried about it, the World Cup is the main focus and we are playing like it.  With the game barely over, the Aussies will be on the plane to NZ for another mickey mouse 3 game series against New Zealand and then its on to the World Cup.  On the local front, I guess we can look forward to the football season – but I must admit, the A League soccer is going gangbusters and yesterdays final (which I watched in amongst the rain delays at the cricket) was a great game.  Pity penalties had to be used, but a Grand Final berth AND a place in the Asian Champions League were on the line and the intensity in the game was huge.  Great stuff and despite the Grand Final being Melbourne vs Adelaide, I will probably watch it.

Also, and I am sure I will write about this later, but Kevin Rudd is now ahead of John Howard in the polls.  “Most popular Labor leader in 35 years” is the press quote.  C’mon Australia, don’t give the Liberals another term of screwing over the common person with the USA arse kissing.

LK Message Board - Deliberately Hacked

For the people who use my message boards, click here to see why they are down…

Unbelievable…

Back On The Air!

Just a line to say that the new PC is home and is running and I am back on the 'node!

Very happy - machine is quick with no lags and XP is wonderful for things like the camera and PSP...

'Tis good to be back!

Some Blog Tweaks

I have done some tweaking tonight and you may see the following things:

1. A new Icon should be in your browser bar and for Firefox users in your Bookmarks... may need to enter Lime Kettles via the book mark to refresh it and ensure the little lime kettle shows up :-)
2. A "Label Cloud" over on the right hand side... think its better than the label listing. Also have reorganised the nav panels over there in a better order.
3. Pull Quotes. See the posting below re the Blood Bowl tourney to get an example of this... they're fiddly to put in, but I think they look good... will make use of them from time to time.
4. Pictures. Have added a picture for the first time since I upgraded to Blogger Beta. Not sure if I like the look, nor is it easier. I can post using Picasa 2 if I upgraded my O/S to WinXP or better... it embarrasses me that I am still on Win98SE
5. "Recent Comments" added on the nav panel. The most recent comments posted will be shown here. Please try and use a "name" rather than Anonymous. First names are fine :-) I will see how that looks as the Comments come in, but it doesnt back track and get old comments... so comments only from NOW (hint).

Let me know what you think of the changes! Let me know if it looks broken in any way and let me know what browser you're using and resolution etc etc.

Thanks,
Clay

Google Analytics

For about 8 weeks I have been running Google Analytics – a tool that tracks who, when, where visitors to Lime Kettles come from and how they got here.

My hitcounter below has been running for some time and my readership has been growing but I wanted to get more stats than just “how many”.

Basically I can summarise the following:

• I receive between 10-80 hits a day.  80 being common on Monday / Tuesday and 10 occurring on Sunday’s.  This makes sense.
• 75% of visitors are “returnees” and I get approximately 25% of hits are from new visitors.
• 69% of my traffic is direct – ie someone has book marked me or types the URL in directly. 10.6% come from Google and the rest are referrals from blogger, bloglines and the like…
• Google.  This is where I am amazed.  Google Analytics tells me what people typed into the search box to get here.  “limekettles” is the most popular, but there are some weird ones like:
• “tracy grimshaw plastic surgery” (3 times?!?!)
• “botox Penrith”
• “burying a cat”
• “snorting snot in the office” – mmmm interesting that one
• “ballet exam what hairstyles”
• There are actually 91 different google search texts entered.  Some make sense, a lot refer to Blood Bowl, others are downright weird.
• I have people visiting from odd countries.  Australian’s make up 80% of traffic and the USA 10% throw in some UK and Kiwis, then we get down to odd bod countries.  Hello to people from Oman, Kuwait, Israel, Colombia, Saudi Arabia and UAE.  Also a fair number of Indians too… better start talking up the cricket and Bollywood.  The number of Arab nations is disconcerting…

Interesting stuff… I’ll post some more odd tid bit’s as they come up.

Picasa 2 Doesn't Work With Blogger Beta

Nope, I need v 2.1 of Picasa and that runs on Windows XP at a minimum.... damn I need a new PC! (Currently running W98SE)

Grrr

New Look & Feel

Changed the template.

What do we think?

Come on, be honest... I do like the picture at the top though...

Mind you, if anyone is interested, I'd more than consider putting up a better banner in the template if someone can a) send me a decent banner and b) tell me how to change it :-)

Lime Kettles Has Gone Beta

I have transfered the blog tonight over to the new Blogger Beta format.

Let me know if you find any weirdness going on...

Admin Post - Forum Board Link Change

For those Lime Kettle members who use the Forum Boards, please note that the old link may be dead and the forum boards have now migrated fully to freepowerboards.com and you can get to the forums by clicking through here.  I will change the Nav bar link on the right later when I get a chance.

Thanks

Clay