Of Tin-Foil Hats and Binaural Tones. July 31, 2008
Posted by Dale in : AudioVisual, Podcast , Comments
There is some thought that listening to binaural tones can improve your attention, concentration, and consciousness.
What are binaural tones you ask? Good question!
Let’s go with my simple explanation. Say you are wearing a stereo headset. In your left ear, a sound is playing at a 400 Hz frequency, and in your right ear, the sound is playing at 410 Hz. The difference is 10 Hz, which your brain detects as a beat at 10 Hz. 10 Hz places it in your brain’s Alpha frequency range, which is good for relaxation.(1)
Does this actually work? I don’t know. But if you want to try it for yourself, visit the I Dose website, where they have a number of Binaural Beats available for streaming media playing. As I think streaming media generally sucks (ie. tied to your computer, can’t drop it onto your iPod/MP3 player etc.), I have the direct download links here:
| I Dose track | Benefit | MP3 file link |
| Mirage | Helps with art & creative activities | hallucinations |
| Super brain | Helps in problem solving activities | super-brain |
| Inspiration and Creativity | Stimulating inspiration and creativity | inspiration |
| Coffee break | Wakes you up and sharpens your alertness | Coffee |
| Aspirin | Helps against headaches and general pains | Aspirin |
| Relaxation | Relax at the end of busy days and weeks | Energy-cleaning |
| Meditation | Helps in getting in meditation state | Meditation |
| Pain killers | Helps with general pain | Pain-Killers |
| Lucid dreams | Intensifies dreams | Lucid-dreams |
| Energy drink | Boost of energy | Energy-drink |
| Focus | Sharpens your mind | Focus |
1 - the sharp-eyed will notice my explanation is similar to the Wikipedia one. That’s because I borrowed from there.
Get The World’s Best Butt July 29, 2008
Posted by Dale in : Health and Fitness, In The News , Comments
As seen in the Herald Sun, Monday 30th June 2008:
A workout to get your butt into shape, need to do the following three times a week at least.
- Walking lunges
15-20 each leg reps, for 3 sets - Leg Curls
15-20 reps, for 3 sets - Roman Deadlifts
15 reps, for 3 sets - Leg Extensions
15-20 reps, for 3 sets - Squats
15-25 reps, for 3 sets
Too much choice. July 28, 2008
Posted by Dale in : Application Testing, Windows , Comments
Choice, as anyone will tell you, is a good thing.
Unless you need to fix a leaking tap.
- Travel to the local hardware store to buy a x-size tap washer.
- Disassemble tap, “oh, it’s a y-size washer.”
- Reassemble tap with leaky washer.
- Back to the hardware store to buy the right size washer.
So it is with Linux, as I make my quarterly re-visit to the Linux OS.
This time I’m using a OpenWrt Linux installation, with yet another implementation of a installation package tool (ipkg).
The thing with Microsoft is that installers are (generally) now MSI based. And that’s a good thing, not having choice. Not having to remember which command line switch I need to use for which Linux distro.
… Now off to fix that tap
some further reading
LinuxHaters: The fallacy of choice
The Tyranny Of Too Much
The Times Online: Spoilt for choice
TechNet Plus is GOOD value for money. July 27, 2008
Posted by Dale in : Businesses I like, Other Blogs, Software, Web links , CommentsParticularly if you’re in the IT industry. And the main reason I like it:
Full-version software for evaluation - without time limits – including Microsoft operating systems, servers, and Office System software.
Now when I was working for a large IT company, I got that benefit for free, via our corporate Technet / MSDN / Enterprise licensing agreement. But now I’m not, I had to find another way.
And that other way is: TechNet Plus. One of the great "secret" deals from Microsoft.
Worth every cent, as Kevin Remde explains.
(if you visit via Kevin’s site, as a new subscriber you can get a 15% discount until June 2009)
Three More Years of Outsource Avoidance… July 25, 2008
Posted by Dale in : Funny Pictures, Humour, Last Job , Comments
Worked for a company rather like this. For Financial Year 2008, the goal was to off-shore to India, 40% of operations staff. We lost a lot of good people, and not just good at their jobs, good people as well.
The comic is from the popular Non Sequitur comic by Wiley Miller
Date Mail Merge Bug fixed in Office 2007 July 24, 2008
Posted by Dale in : Excel, Word , CommentsVersions of Microsoft Word before Word 2007 had the following annoying bug:
Consider an Excel spreadsheet with the following data.
| Name | Date of Birth |
| Ed Apple | 03/12/1978 |
| Fred Pear | 12/04/1956 |
| Rosemary Peach | 04/12/1968 |
The astute will notice the dates are in Day.Month.Year format.
Now we mail merge into Microsoft Word
Ed Apple 12/3/1978
Fred Pear 04/12/1956
Rosemary Peach 12/04/1968
Notice that the date is now in Month.Day.Year format.
Microsoft KB article 325579 has further details.
The workaround is to manually edit the MergeField to explicitly format Day.Month.Year.
The fix? Word 2007 resolves the problem.
And not a word of thanks - on re’orgs July 22, 2008
Posted by Dale in : Business Etiquette, Last Job , Comments
There was a team of folks who worked near by. They performed Second Level support type work for a large mining customer, and they (the team) were based in Melbourne.
Then, one day, a re-org occurred, and their jobs were shifted to Sydney.
The team members were told that they had to find other jobs or be made redundant. I suspect the move to consolidate jobs into Sydney was a bit of empire building on behalf of one manager.
The biggest complaint the team had about it all was the lack of “thanks for doing a great job”.
Customised license plates July 21, 2008
Posted by Dale in : Funny Pictures, Humour, Stories , Comments
Once contracted for a government vehicle registry. Now customised license plates were, and still are, a big money spinner. Brings in huge dollars each year for the registry.
My involvement? NIL. I worked in IT support. Working in IT support does give you an “access all areas” pass though.
Back to customised plates. Now after a person applied for a custom plate, it went off to a senior public servant for approval. Let’s call her Deidre. Deidre would approve the application for the plates to be stamped.
Deidre. Not a worldly-wise women was Deirde. As the wall of 50-odd (stamped) rejected plates attested to. The memorable ones included LUV269, 4PLAY & T*AT.
The curious can click The Smoking Gun - “Blue” Plate List for a list of other rejected plates.
The plate on the right was randomly issued in Miami, Florida, and was not a custom plate. What would the odds be huh?
3 cans of Super, and 3 cans of poofter drink while you’re at it. July 18, 2008
Posted by Dale in : Funny Pictures, Humour , Comments
They definitely do things differently in The West. Meekatharra, made famous by Kevin ‘Bloody’ Wilson, sells low-alcohol beer as "poofter" drink.
I’ve seen the original receipt, so I know it’s true.
You’d have to have worked with Mainframes to understand. July 18, 2008
Posted by Dale in : Humour , Comments
Source: ACS Bulletin, July 1990