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2008 proved to be a very exciting year with plenty of opportunity and progress. A few days into the new year, we’ll be back home to tackle 2009. We’ve enjoyed our trip overseas and have seen quite a bit.

In the latter part of the year we made some stunning progress on getting the house and surrounds sorted out. There is still plenty to do, but the deck is 95% ready and we have a driveway. Amazing Some major floor covering on the outside patios remains. Have to have something to do…

From a blogging perspective, I’ve tried my level best to hack out a daily bulletin, at least during the working week. My attempt at contributing to Nerdboys stopped after I realized that I seemed to be the only person bothering to maintain a regular schedule. If it’s a team effort, that’s what it should be… This site has a growing readership, helped along by many hits from web searches. The recent invitation to join the Adgator network is something I really appreciate and can’t help feeling excited about. I trust I’ll be able to carry on my efforts on the Interweb during the new year.

From a personal computing point of view, I believe I’ve finally found the computing platform that is right for me. Linux is still a hobby horse and will remain a primary desktop OS for one home system, but I’m quite determined to make the Mac my home. The Mini will finally be installed as a media centre in the coming month, whilst I plan to make an iMac my main system to assist in my growing interest in both photography and video. I may take me some time, but I plan to migrate away from Windows to Mac OS X for my daily operations, too. The black MacBook is hands-down the best notebook computer I’ve ever used.

Once again, there were some stunning gadgets to pique my interest during 2008.  The Nokia E90 is still an excellent mobile platform that caters for every requirement I have. The MacBook and Mini are fantastic computers supported by an excellent operating system and great applications. Some great powertools helped my quest to complete a wooden deck, and the PS3 still needs to be connected to the LCD in the TV area. These things are all good and well. But best of all, we are all healthy and enjoying life. I trust you are too!

I wish you all a prosperous 2009!

If yesterday was hot, today was just so. Humid as anything with temperatures running into the low thirties. I feel really sorry for the guys at Sea World who have to dress up as Elmo and the rest of the Sesame Street clan and then hop up and down to amuse shrieking five year olds. We ran through a very full program at Sea World, which is easily the best value theme park on the Gold Coast.

Sea Word hosts a decent-sized aquarium, but it’s in the outdoor attractions that this theme park excels in. We were treated to some excellent swimming displays by the polar bears

and the dolphins in their show

There’s plenty to do for the little ones, and of course rides are available for older kids, too. We enjoyed the Bermuda Triangle and the Viking longboats, both of which feature a rollercoaster-like downhill into water.

After a lot of walking, we were content to watch the final attraction of the day: the Waterski WipeOut, before heading out of the park after an enjoyable day.

Sea World comes highly recommended!

Today was hot. Humid and hot. Roughly 32 degrees, with nary a breeze. Our destination: one of the many theme and activity parks spread around the Gold Coast – Warner Bros Movie World. Finally we were welcomed to the world of Looney Tunes, yet here we’d been in Australia for about three weeks already

Tickets to these parks are not exactly cheap. We settled on the aptly-named Escape Pass which provides entrance to Movie World and Sea World over a period of three days. When you hear the name Escape Pass, it’s a sign to run for cover: the price per adult is AUD 115, per child AUD 75. For our party of two-and-a-half, the cost for entrance to the parks equals a return ticket from Johannesburg to Cape Town. Let’s focus on the positive: fun for the whole family and it’s a holiday! WB Movie World is a real treat for kids of all ages, though a single day is quite strenuous and not enough to see all the attractions.

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Stirling Moss was a legendary pilot of the silver arrow. His success at the Mille Miglia in the Mercedes-Benz 300SLR is just one victory he achieved. Movies are constantly remade. Why not cars, then? Mercedes-Benz are creating a very special edition of this

for 2009. The McLaren Stirling Moss SLR is quite a looker:

Full carbon fibre bodywork enclosing two humanoids and the 5.5l V8 motor. That should generate sufficient power to blow anyone’s hair back: a top speed of 350km/h with the needle rushing around to find the 100km/h in less than 3.5 seconds from a standstill.

There’s not enough space to pack significant luggage, but only 75 owners will have the joy of discovering that annoyance. The EUR 750000 car is on sale from June 2009.

Another lazy day and enjoying our last week in Oz. Kids love playing in the sand, and running away from breaking wavelets is huge fun too. Getting to the beach at the right time is normally the critical part: the temperature during the day is high and the constant, daily rain pelting down after sunset makes for incredibly humid conditions. But it’s the sun one really needs to watch: even a quarter of an hour can cause a sunburn. Today was hazy and overcast, though still warm. Not a great view of the Surfer’s Paradise skyline, but its the only one I’ve had the opportunity to capture so far.

The beaches are pristine and the water very pleasant. Lifeguards patrol constantly and are ever-vigilant.

Mom and dad get to sort out sandy, wet clothing because junior simply can’t stop himself from diving into the business of sand play.

Tomorrow, Warner Bros Movie World.

Hello, Batman

Rain threatened to fall in masses as it had in short bursts a few times this week. Our trek out to the Springbrook National Park area took place in the late afternoon with the dark clouds never subsiding. The Springbrook National Park is in an area of huge, tropical rainforests close to Mudgeeraba.

For enthusiastic drivers, the 24km trip up to the Purling Brook waterfall is a treat, featuring hairpins and curves through the mountain pass. Pity about the speed restrictions…and the family in-car

A further hindrance to our planned hike on the falls circuit was a recent rockslide that is obstructing parts of the path. There are plenty of hiking opportunities in this area.

Not wanting to get too active, we took the easy route of simply checking the waterfall out from the various lookouts.

A much easier way of viewing the splendour of the surrounding rainforests and the Purling Brook Falls!

Another successful navigation and return to base camp has earned Lazarus a firmware upgrade.

Software version 4.60 for the 710 contains a few minor updates, none of them addressing the issue I have with the voice navigation’s hideous stuttering: in…200 meters….turn…left. None, either, that address the unit’s sudden freezing behaviour.

A hint regarding the popularity and reliability of this unit is Garmin‘s reticence to list the 710 in the Updates and Downloads section of its website.

You need to use the WebUpdater to find the 4.60 software update that contains the following major fixes:

• Correction to optimal route reordering
• Added support for two traffic providers
• Corrected issue with speed limits on certain roads

For those of you with a 710, connect the unit to a Mac or PC, install the latest WebUpdater and get the software down. For the first time, I performed the update using the Mac version of the WebUpdater.

Smooth operation and no trouble.

Mark Borlase has won a recent Lego Star Wars building contest with a fantastic recreation of the epic Hoth battle. The level of detail is very high, including minifig-sized footprints in the snow!

The project took him almost four years to complete and consists of roughly 55000 pieces. See more detail on his Flickr pages.

What would a visit to Australia be without seeing a can of XXXX, a kangaroo and at least one koala? The Gold Coast is home to two well-known wildlife reserves, namely The David Fleay Wildlife Reserve and the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. We’ve been to both on previous visits and decided on a visit to Fleay‘s simply because it’s a lot smaller and requires less walking.

David Fleay was an Australian naturalist who pioneered the captive breeding of endangered species, and was the first person to breed platypus in captivity. The park provides a pleasant environment, replete with extensive boardwalks that provide a pathway among the various enclosures.

Arriving at Fleay‘s, the first sign I noticed was this rather prominent one:

It’s not my intent to discredit what I’m constantly being told about how safe and wonderful Australia is. Let’s face it: bad things happen everywhere. Australians do lock their homes, have alarms and ensure their cars aren’t vandalized at night by securing them in a lock-up garage or their driveway. When questioned about this behaviour, the most likely response is that petty theft is committed by drug addicts. Which leads me to another very interesting line of argument I’ll dispense with for now. Suffice to say that drug abuse in Australia is pretty much out of control. (Like it probably is anywhere else).

Fleay‘s has not been maintained well. It’s similar to the Johannesburg Zoo some years back. The number of visitors may be an indication that all is not well. Many enclosures are under repair and without inhabitants, while the number of weird and wonderful creatures is really low and not very impressive. From a previous visit, I remember enclosures being far less restrictive with regard to visitors having access to take photographs and a decent view of the animals. I fear that the ever-present litigous nature of Australia is forcing public attractions, like Fleay‘s, to be fearful of potential liabilities due to injuries and mishaps. It’s a pity, and no positive sign for the promotion of Australian nature reserves.

We did get to see some critters.

Should you have the need to check out some Australian wildlife on the Gold Coast, visit Currumbin. Hopefully, it’s in a better condition than Fleay‘s.

Finding a XXXX, luckily, presents no problem at all… Much easier to spot, too!

A noise-cancelling headset has been on my list of gadgets to get for a long time. I simply couldn’t make a decision as to what type I wanted. In-ear type earphones are uncomfortable when used for extended periods but are easy to carry around. Large cans are comfortable and produce excellent sound, but are bulky and add to the alien look, sans antennae. Noise-cancelling sets are generally rather expensive and it’s important to weigh up the cost against the amount of use one will get out of a pair. These things are great for air travel and would have served me well a few years ago. It would be impractical to hop onto the M1, bopping to tunes and avoiding traffic

My love for Sony has diminished considerably, primarily due to their shocking customer service. Nonetheless, I still think they make some of the best audio visual products around. When an offer on eBay came up that had a set of MDR-NC40‘s for sale, brand-new and unused, for less than half the retail price of AUD 249, I had to jump at it. Thanks to Binoz for providing the eBay know-how and the sage advice to use a last minute strike with eSnipe to clinch the deal. The NC40‘s were even within easy reach: a half-hour drive from the Gold Coast.

The NC40‘s provide a number of advantages over the units I’ve looked at in the past. They’re super-compact, folding in half and easily stored in a pouch that contains a spare AAA battery to run the microphone and noise-suppression circuitry and separate airline audio jack.

At the same time, they fit really well for on-the-ear type headphones and are well-cushioned for comfort. In most on-ear headphones, the cans don’t sit tight enough. These are well sprung, pulling together to provide a reasonably tight fit. Yet, the fit is very comfortable and suited for long sessions. There’s plenty of padding.

Overall, the audio quality is very good, determined in most cases by the source material and the device the headphones are connected to. Though the noise-cancelling at first doesn’t seem that effective, its absence is hugely noticeable when the cans are removed or the monitor button is pushed on the rectangular inline switch. The switch unit holds one AAA battery to provide the noise-cancelling. With the noise-cancelling feature disabled, the headphones revert to normal passive mode.

The inclusion of the airline jack is great. I would have liked a volume control on the inline switch, but that’s the only negative aspect I can identify so far. A great headset that will be put to a number of hours of use on our way back over the Indian Ocean.