Worst-case thinking. Hey leave those trees alone please!

Lots of good stories and poems :)
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/04/fifth_annual_mo.html#c427359

"One day, Little Red was walking in the forest to visit her Granny, when a Wolf appeared. In those dark days, large areas of our Land used to be covered by ‘forests’ that consisted of so-called ‘trees’. Trees were useless, inedible plants that provided hiding places for ‘wolfs’, nasty animals with sharp teeth, feeding on small children and their grandparents.

Had there been a registry for wolfs, Little Red would have received an early warning about the child predator around. But Little Red did not suspect anything.

–Where are you going, Little Red?
–To see my Granny.
–Why don’t you bring her some flowers? – asked the Wolf. ‘Flowers’ used to be plants causing severe allergic reactions to people."

Dun Laoghaire CoCo on our Green want to clear out trees and bushes so playground across the green is more overlooked by houses. It would make a very marginal (marginal!? none whatsoever really) difference and for now they have been persuaded them not to do it I think I hope.

And someone got loose in Dalkey quarry with a digger against the rock climbs that are there: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=109450665765423

http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-1005.html#1 Worst-case thinking.
Interesting idea. Bruce Schneier's security newsletter is always thought-provoking/stimulating. Mmmmm, yummy, intelligent thoughts. Proper risk analysis versus headless chicken thinking (can you call a thoughtless vacum thinking?).  Apply that to DLRcoco and our trees.


Als interesting: #2 Why Aren't There More Terrorist Attacks? and #3 9/11 Made us Safer?
9/11 was so big that terrorists can't hope to impress people much unless they surpass it.



Ben Goldacre of Bad Science. http://www.badscience.net/2010/05/a-staggeringly-weak-interview-of-andrew-wakefield-on-the-today-programme/ Good to see the original MMR vaccine causes autisim guy is struck off. Not because of pushing the incorrect facts about the vaccine but for among other things "arranged for his son's friends to have blood samples taken from them during his birthday party". Sheesh!

Maeve: ":-D I'm five and I have five things that are five about me!"

(things in parenthesis are thoughts)
"Things in double quotes are said out loud"


Maeve: "Hey :-) I'm five and I have five books for reading today!"

Mum: (something - I forget :-7 - sorry)

Dad: "And you have 5 toes on your right foot."

Maeve: ... ! "... and 5 toes on my other foot" (Daddys are so silly)

Mum: "And you have 5 fingers on your hands."

 ...

Maeve: "Oh! :-D I'm five and I have five things that are five about me! :-D"

 ...

Daddy: (Thinking oh well done Maeve :-) I like your thinking)
 "Now you don't. You have six!"

Maeve: (stunned) (anger/denial/hurt/rage/...)

Fionn: (ohhhhh!)

Kate: (! ... eh? ... ohhhh :) )

Daddy: (oops, oh dammit, oh noes, oh dear!)

Amazingly good humor prevailed immediately. Maeve's been to bed late (9pm) these evenings because of kids soccer tournament. She read me the 5 books after teatime.

lovely webcomics, current reading: Ctrl-Alt-Del, xkcd, Moosehead stew, Eragon, Mossflower, Herd, ...

I FINALLY caught up to where I had discovered and started Ctrl-Alt-Del webcomic half way: http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20040204 Now I just have to find where I left off somewhere probably a year or so after that one again and read to last or current. Very funny, laughing out loud almost sometimes. Don't like the weird cook though. No.

Others I follow now regularily (my regularity being occasional binges interspersed with sometimes months of not following).

http://xkcd.com/ SO excellent. So clever. I want the t-shirt! Oh wait. I have two! :) - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe


http://www.mooseheadstew.com/  So lovely. Ever so slightly madly geeky (or is that geekily mad?) indian (as in red Canadian/American) comic artist. There are hedgehogs on occasion!
http://www.weregeek.com/ Alina(of Moosehead stew)'s polished comic aboutish a gang of gaming geeks.

http://www.freakangels.com/
Warren Ellis's Freakangels. Every Friday.
Like the best of what might be in 2000AD. Original.
Not safe for kids, nor is Ctrl-Alt-Del sometimes and on occasion.

 http://www.warrenellis.com/

http://thedailywtf.com/

http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/index.html

We like lovely pictures and stories.


In paper form I've finished one of Daire's books - and another, Brisinger the 3rd of Eragon cycle which I've finally got. Nice. Grand. I like a good yarn. With different creatures and cultures. But mmmh the magic maybe in a way is too powerful and makes things too easy. And I don't know how the dragon puts up with being in Eragon's head the whole time as one book is enough :-P for now anyway :)

And I'm on a nice mousey tale now. Mossflower. Warrior mouses. Like the rats of Nimh + Wind & the Willows only a bit more feudal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mossflower
http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=mossflower

And there are 8 or so other books on the pile as usual.

Also reading Herd: How to Change Mass Behaviour by Harnessing Our True Nature http://www.amazon.co.uk/Herd-Change-Behaviour-Harnessing-Nature/dp/0470060360 I can't even edge in on a conversation and influence one person mostly. Sometimes I can with my kids. The younger ones! So I'm very curious how to influence people en-masse. Onward! Towards a liberal fun greener lovlier future.  Surprised the intro/other stuff pitches it as a marketing/advertising business book. Cool ideas, very thought provoking, makes sense OF course we've a huge herd instinct, he illustrates and describes this working in different ways very very well.

recover Fionn's mobile from badness.

I think Fionn's phone has done this a bit before.
If it is low on free memory then it gets very slow + flaky.
Drops calls, resets, ...
Need to free up memory by clearing off photos/videos/messages.

I had copied photos off it a week ago - bluetooth to laptop. But failed to delete them after copying. The delete just timedout. I manually transferred and deleted videos and reset the phone. This gave 2M free instead of about 1M. Then deleting and transferring photos wasn't going fast. Manually I copied a couple of files across but mostly ubuntu konqueror file browser window would hang/pulse for a bit then report error.  So I called my bt-sync-mobile.sh script repeatedly and it transferred a few files each time and eventually also deleted all. With a small mod. Yays.

girls and computer, turtle and photos

Girls did some photo browsing and turtle.
Maeve asked could she do turtle on computer again!
I thought she'd forgotten it.
Thus ensued some turtling for Maeve.

Busy evening.
Leop. Heights kids soccer tournament on. So Kate was playing (in the rain).
Fionn went up with her but also on phone arranging meeting DunLaoghaire CoCo somebody.
 Please don't chop trees. + Parking/Transport.
I was logging into work software upgrade and kicking off tests.
 So Maeve did a bit more turtling.
Fionn home & Maeve into pyjamas and back down on computer while I go get Daire.
When I get back Daire to soccer, Kate comes back.
Kate changed pencolor to 0,0,888 and then 8888888,0,0!
We took some photos then synched my mobile photos to computer.
Then bedtime story and bed.

We've missed the boat for World Play Day Ubuntu Women Girls and Computers Gallery though :-7
http://elkbuntu.net/ubuntuwomen/


The girls' turtle prog as it was left last this eve.
Method change a number, hit play loads of times, repeat.

#clear
#pencolor 255,255,0
pencolor 888888,0,0
repeat 1 {
#forward 27
forward 127
tl 90
fw 61
tl 10
fw 10
tl 33
fw 10
tr 66
fw 10
tr 90
fw 10
tr 10
fw 10
center
}

This photo is a bit older. Kate driving at that moment. Kids sharing computer! :-o :-) They're looking at photos on facebook of cousins in Australia. 

renault grand scenic unlocking key sensor and fuses

Renault Grand Scenic 06 Ireland

For your hamusement and heludication and in the hope of my further heducationment:

Unlocking/locking using remote key stopped working all of a sudden. Any Ideas anyone? I'm eyeing suspiciously the what I presume is a radio receiver little eye/aerial visible under rear-view mirror. Shares space with the rain sensor for the auto wipers. How come there are only 2 wires going to that what I presume is the radio receiver?

Tip: if checking fuses (in glove compartment contrary to user manual for our right-hand drive, some fuses also under passenger seat (along with other treasures you thought were lost forever!)) then don't pull out the one corresponding to Coupe Con???? unless you have a radio code! :-)  And if you pull out the central-locking / window fuses you will have to teach the windows what is up and down again.

*ahem*

fun :)

someone else with same problem:
 http://www.fixed4free.com/answers.php?id=331717

http://www.google.ie/search?q=scenic+key+unlock+site:renaultforums.co.uk&start=23
http://www.renaultforums.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=129&order=desc&page=1
http://www.renaultforums.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=129&order=desc&page=2
http://www.renaultforums.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=129&order=desc&page=3
...
http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/scenic/trouble.html

Need to take out radio to get serial numbers to get radio code :-7
http://www.justanswer.com/questions/2xth7-how-do-i-remove-the-radio-in-grand-scenic
http://www.renaultforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17996
http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/4/561810.html


Can we get a manual for the car? Just handbook maybe:
http://www.renaultforums.co.uk/archive/index.php/t-32981.html
And that site woefully not working in firefox.

best bike shop Dublin

Passing on advice to a fellow worker for bike shops in Dublin. 

And today tidying up bike/storage room in house.

And raised Kate's bike's saddle.

And putting Daire's old bike up on dublinwaste.

Anyone like a blue boys bike for maybe from 6 to 10 yr old? 

And I cycled to work instead of motorbiking yesterday. Last day of Spring, lovely warm sun, chill in air, threatening to thundershower, wet road but drying and not too slippy.  Later in evening 10pm cycled down road and back up to deliver forgotten present for sleepover Daire going to.

This is a good bike shop for Dublin:
http://www.cycleways.com/store/
I bought my current bike off of them.

Cycleways are good to deal with and I'd trust them for buying 
They are in Dublin city centre, North side, go to top of O'Connell St. and then half way up Parnell St. to the West.
  http://www.cycleways.com/store/go/about-us/
Not sure but I think they don't do 2nd hand bikes?
 

The cycle to work scheme is interesting, Fionn definately needs a new bike: http://www.cycleways.com/store/content/56/Cycle-To-Work/

Other bike places in Dublin:

These people I only know from following them on facebook but they fix up and sell 2nd hand bikes and look very interesting:
 http://rothar.ie/bikes_for_sale.html

Lots of bike and 2nd hand bike shops in Dublin, most would be good. I've had good experience of a few in city centre and local one here Stillorgan is also good. I have
heard once someone didn't get good service so buyer beware some shops, see if the person selling the bike is nice! 
 http://www.google.ie/search?q=bike+shop+dublin
 

My current bike: 

A hybrid SPECIALIZED. Reading the frame: hardrock 4130 double butted CrMo.

Lovely bike, going 5+ years now, wheels and pedals are still lovely and smooth and quiet. Chain and gears are stretched at the moment (the moment === the last 2.5+ years! :) - I tend to live with fiddling the gears for a long long time). 

Fionnuala rides it alot as well. 
Has a Mountainbike tyre on back currently as last time I needed a tyre none of the bike shops close by had a street tyre of the right size.