Illiterate, ignorant and bigoted

Always seem to go together like they are the three pillars of being a bogan.

Its the difference between knowing your shit and knowing you're shit.

Cast in concrete for all to see

Quick hack of my E63

One of the few weaknesses of my Nokia E63 is the blinking alert light. To be honest its a bit marginal in its strength and can only be seen well from the right angle. Especially when compared to my E72.

Sure viewed front on in a darkened room its clear, but sitting on the table from across the room its just limp.

I had an idea (looking at a replacement phone shell I bought) that it may actually be clear plastic under that black plastic exterior. So I took a punt and pulled out my dremel tool and ground off a small patch.

Well wouldn't ya know it I was right! Now it blinks so brightly its visible across the room. So I can see if I've missed a call as soon as it comes into my sight. Just to make it a little less strange feeling I've filled the dent from the grinder with some clear nail polish.

Fantastic. It makes me pause for a moment and reflect that only Nokia could make such a good idea as the blinking alert light fail by putting their light under a cover. I mean this is so old a concept that even the Bible has a reference to its stupidity.

"No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.

[photo taken with my E72 and posted from there too]

up up and away ...

Well I got a notice in the mail today from the power company letting me know that both parts of my power bill are going up. That would be the 'regular supply' and my 'off peak' (Tariff 33)

What is most interesting however is that the off peak power is raising to such an amount as to be unattractive. Clearly they want to drive people away from 'off peak'
Which is interesting as I'd say that the majority of off peak setups on this here in Queensland will be hot water systems.
I can only guess that the extra 'feed into the grid' of rooftop solar (no its not stored) has meant that peak management is harder now (either that or its a money grab)
I've plotted the ratio of the prices on this graph to make that clearer, but where it was earlier nearly half price for off peak power (and on Tarrif 33 the energy supplier decides even when you get that energy), it is now only about 25% cheaper than regular power which I can use as I choose and can rely on it being there.

I'm not sure if I've ever lived anywhere else where we see power prices doubling in such a short time. I guess this is one of those changes we aren't going to see with the Carbon Tax.

Hmm ... wonder how I can work smarter on this one?

The gas heating of the floor last nights data

Good morning :-)

this is the plot of no heating



and this is that for heated till bed time



you can see a distinct change in rate of temp loss in the period soon after I shut down heat



so an outcome of ~17.3ºC as an outcome instead of 15.4ºC assuming the same over night temps.

Quick back of the envelope calcs on the gas:

• based on gas early usage estimates a 9kg will last 11 days (using till 10pm)
• adding full night probably reduces this to 5 days
• $20 for a 9Kg cylinder means about $20 a week.

Quick compare to elec tariff 11 = 22c/kWh - $20 would mean a budget of 90KwH
An Air Con system would use of about 6kWh so would be about 15 hours or not as much (based on the AC system that Monica and Bob have on the corner)