Heritage updates keyboard May 28, 2007
Posted by a1291762 in : heritage, programs , add a commentHeritage has updated their online banking login keyboard. It took me about 30 minutes to update my script. The new keyboard apparently supports uppercase letters now but I can’t see how you’re supposed to access the shift/capslock functions that are used. For now, my script still takes your input and makes it uppercase but it’s ready to support mixed case as soon as I can see a way to change my password to use mixed case.
Get it here. I’ve archived the old version over here in case you want to see what changed.
As before, this has been tested in Safari 2.0.4/Creammonkey 0.7, Firefox 1.5.x/Greasemonkey 0.6.5.x and IE (XPSP2)/Trixie 0.2.3. As before, I wish someone would make a Konqmonkey. I don’t have IE 7 installed at home and I’m not at all interested in installing extra crap on a system that’s meant for games. I do have IE 7 at work so I might get around to checking this out there.
Update 30 May 2007
It looks like someone is making a konqmonkey. Trouble is that’s for KDE 4 but the original version is for KDE 3 so I’ve got that running now. It needs some work though. The 0.1.1 download link was broken and the 0.1 version doesn’t do metadata so I’ll need to put that in. Luckily I do Qt programming for a living so getting it going should be a snap.
Update 31 May 2007
In case any of the other links die, here’s konqtest.kdevelop-0.1.tar.gz. Apply konqmonkey.patch. I had to change the automake version to 1.9 for SuSE 9.3. Run automake –version to see what version you have. I then ran configure -prefix /opt/kde3 because that’s where KDE lives on SuSE 9.3. Finally, I’ve updated heritage_remove_keyboard.user.js to work in Konqueror. Place it in ~/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/userscripts (you’ll have to create that directory).
Update 2 July 2007
As a result on an interesting phone call the links have been removed.
Emily's language makes another leap May 21, 2007
Posted by a1291762 in : emily , add a commentEmily’s language has taken yet another leap forwards. She comes home from kindy now and tells me all the things she did. Unlike previous attempts at this though, she tells me about more than just one thing. She even mentions all the other kids and what they did.
Relay for Life May 21, 2007
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , add a commentSince it was so soon after the kids were sick, Bree didn’t do the relay for life this year. I went for us and ended up staying up all night walking at various times and eating pizza, red bull, coffee and water.
My phone died on the way there but luckily I had my computer and USB cable with me so I had my phone in my pocket connected to my computer which was in my backpack. Talk about geek points!
I had my computer because I wasn’t planning on staying all night (my registered shift was 1am-2am). It turned out to be a good thing because everyone got to look at Adam’s wedding photos until the battery gave out.
I took my camera because I remember being awed by the sunrise last year and I was planning on hanging around after my shift to take some photos of it (last year I only had my camera with me and it just couldn’t capture the sunrise). Since I was there all night I took a heap of photos. I experimented a bit before coming up with what seemed to be the best way to capture the same scene multiple times with different exposures (a.k.a. HDR). I’d set the focus once then set it to manual (to prevent focus change). I had anti-shake off but I also had to set the 2 second delay because otherwise pressing the shutter would cause motion blur (especially at high magnification). I guess the tripod wasn’t as stable as I expected it to be. I was actually quite pleasantly surprised at just how nice an image I could get at nice without a flash. A nice long exposure would get me images that my eyes just couldn’t see. Of course it would also get me massive washout around any light sources but that’s why I took photos at various exposures. I’ve got a program called DRIMaker which automates the process you can do in Photoshop/Gimp/etc. You simply load your images, twiddle the sliders until it looks right and save. It’s not easy though. I’ve tried doing it in Gimp a few times and without manually editing the resulting image you almost always get problems. DRIMaker is no exception and finding the right balance of sliders that gives you enough detail in the darker areas while avoiding blowouts in the lighter areas is devilishly tricky.
Despite being up all night I drove home and took Bree and the kids to the city. As you might expect I was a bit tired by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around. I feel strangely normal today but I did get 10 hours of sleep. That’s more than what I’ve been getting lately.
Isaac's first day at kindy May 17, 2007
Posted by a1291762 in : isaac , add a commentIsaac had his first day at kindy today.
He’s been dying to go for a while now. Bree would take him to pick up Emily on Thursdays and he’d throw tantrums so loud the staff would come running thinking that he’d hurt himself.
Apparently he was pretty much fine. He got a bit funny an hour after we left (ie. just realised that mummy and daddy aren’t here) and just before Bree arrived to pick him up. He was totally exhausted afterwards so it’s a good thing we don’t have him in more than one day.
The rooms are separated but when they’re playing they can see each other. Emily showed all the kids her brother.
Isaac has been waking up at around 4am lately. He goes back down without any issues so I think he normally wakes up at this time but since he doesn’t have bars in front of him anymore, he’s a bit disoriented. I guess he’ll get used to it eventually.
Update 21 May 2007
Isaac didn’t wake up last night so I guess he’s getting over it.
Emily blows chunks May 13, 2007
Posted by a1291762 in : emily, isaac , add a commentSo… 2 days after we were up with Isaac’s vomiting Emily vomited in bed. Gastro would seem to be the most obvious conclusion but then Isaac has been bright and bubbly for the last 2 days and Emily only vomited once, hours ago. Mind you, Isaac’s had a greatly reduced appetite for a few days now (though I suspect this is because he’s stopped growing). Emily didn’t eat much dinner but she did eat a normal breakfast and lunch (and had a donut in the afternoon, perhaps she just wasn’t hungry).
Sigh. We’re not sure what’s going on. It could perhaps be a less intense version of gastro or it could be some strange coincidental case of bad food reaction. Whatever it is, it’s going to stuff up the start of our week because we can’t send Emily to kindy on Monday or Tuesday now so I’ll be staying at home looking after both of them and then Bree will look after them on Tuesday. I only hope that we’re clear for the next few days so that Isaac can make it to his first day of kindy. He’s been looking forward to it so much.
Update 13 May 2007
Make that twice… this time it was really small (not much left in there) and because she was whimpering beforehand I was there with the bucket before she vomited so there was no cleanup afterwards. Woo hoo!
Update 13 May 2007
3 times now. This time I didn’t hear until she’d already vomited. D’oh!
Let’s hope she follows the pattern set by Isaac and is normal tomorrow. I’m pretty much convinced now that it is some kind of gastro. It’s less intense than the last time they had it though. Hmm… Searching for that post I found this one where I mentioned a new gastro vaccine. I don’t remember getting that for the kids. Oops. I found a press release.
Update 14 May 2007
Yes, the change in date is significant. It’s after midnight and Emily has just set a new record. 4 vomits. Luckily I heard her calling before she vomited so we got it in the bucket again. Otherwise I’d be doing laundry right now.
Update 14 May 2007
There was one more last night. That makes 5. It went in the bucket too. Emily seems bright and chirpy this morning so I guess she’ll be fine now.
Update 14 May 2007
… and now the diarrhea starts :(
Mothers Day May 13, 2007
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , add a commentI got up the kids at about 7:30 and made bacon, egg and cheese rolls. Emily carried one in for Bree who was still asleep. Isaac carried Bree’s new watch. Eating in bed isn’t as great as it’s made out to be so Bree came out and we all ate together. It’s pretty rare for all of us to eat breakfast at the same time and it was nice to do it.
Since I had my tools out yesterday (to take down the cot) I decided to fix a few things around the house. There were a few door knobs on cupboards that had become loose or fallen off. I fixed them all up but one had a problem. Our cupboard doors are thicker than the bolts that came with the door knobs. The solution was to drill a thin hole all the way through and then drill a bigger hole part of the way through. Getting the depth right was a bit tricky because the doors are chipboard and one of the holes was too deep. My first attempt at fixing involved putting some “wadding” in. I used part of a tissue to try and fill the space around the bolt. Unfortunately, it didn’t go so well and I somehow got the bolt embedded in the door. I had to drill it out, making the hole even bigger at the back. I had to go to Bunnings to get a gas refil so I took the door knob and found a longer bolt that would go all the way through the door. It was attached to a thing that expanded when wound (it was designed for self-anchoring on plaster). It worked well because it was long enough and the expanding bit means that it’s sitting nicely in the whole (which would otherwise be too big). While at Bunnings I also got a blank electrical socket so I could cover the hole that’s been in the laundry ever since we got the power point there moved.
As luck would have it, I ended up walking out through the mower aisle. I spied a product I’d been wanting for a long time but had never seen, a replacement head for my line trimmer with a bump feeder. My current trimmer has a plain head that takes pre-cut sections of line. It’s a pain because I generally have to replace the line several times while doing my yard and there’s about 10 cm of waste (half the length of the pre-cut sections) line every time I do this. I think replacement bump heads are rare because it’s so hard to find a trimmer that doesn’t have a bump head anymore. This is a new product that is “easier” to handle because it winds on without having to pull the head off, something I guess regular people have a hard time doing.
I put the new head on and it works fine (it claims to fit 99% of trimmers). I’m going to leave the old head on for a while though because I’ve got lots of pre-cut line to use up.
Isaac has an eventful night May 11, 2007
Posted by a1291762 in : isaac , add a commentIsaac was up vomiting three times last night. The last time we had this happen was when Emily has gastro so we’re a bit concerned that he’s got it and that Emily will get it. If we’re lucky it’ll just be what we fed him for dinner last night. He ate what we had, a noodle salad with an oily dressing. He hasn’t really had anything like that before so perhaps he just reacted to it.
We’re going to go and get some more sheets today. We only had one set of sheets for Isaac’s bed so we had to use Emily’s spare sheets. We were concerned that she might start vomiting too so Isaac ended up in the cot in order to keep a spare set of sheets around.
Both Isaac and Emily seem fine this morning. I think we’ll stick to the gastro diet (vegemite on toast) for today just in case.
Despite the interruptions Isaac was fine in the bed again. I’ll be putting down the cot today to make some space in his room.
Update 13 May 2007
Isaac was fine all day and didn’t appear to be sick. He’s not eating very much but other than that he seems to be fine. He slept on the bed again without major issues. The cot is now out of his room and we have some extra sheets for his bed. Emily doesn’t appear to be sick either so I guess it was a reaction to his dinner rather than gastro. Phew.
I think that as a result of not eating much Isaac was hungry this morning. He work up a few times between midnight and when I got up but all I had to do was lie him down and he’d go back to sleep after crying for a minute. He was still asleep when I got him up at 7:30 and he must have been tired because after breakfast he went back down for a sleep.
Isaac doesn’t seem to mind the bed at all. Bree thinks he’s taken to it better than Emily did.
Isaac sleeps in his new bed May 10, 2007
Posted by a1291762 in : isaac , add a comment
Isaac is asleep on his new bed. He had a small sleep today and seemed to cope better. He cried when we put him down but stopped quickly enough (quicker than the last 2 days). The question now is will he get off in the morning?
For the photography nerds, the photo was taking with almost no light. K100D mounted sideways on a tripod, Sigma 28-90mm lens at 28mm f3.5 ISO 800 using +1 exposure bias and a 3 second exposure. Manual white balance was used because the small amount of light was coming from a tungsten globe bounced off cream walls, about as yellow as I’ve ever seen. I’ve played with the levels and temperature to get it looking more like what my eyes registered.
Oh yeah… I forgot to mention that Isaac likes humping balls. He was waiting for the shower the other day and just started rocking back and forth on the ball. He’s such a boy :)
Here’s some pictures to show what I mean.
I also got a shot of what he did once his clothes were off but this is a G rated blog so I’d better not post it :)
Update 11 May 2007
Isaac stayed in his bed this morning. He was sitting there waiting for us just like he does when he’s in the cot.
Isaac needs less sleep? May 9, 2007
Posted by a1291762 in : isaac , add a commentSo last night doesn’t seem to be a once-off event. Isaac’s at it again tonight. I’m starting to think that he’s reached a point where he needs less daytime sleep but because he’s still getting a big sleep he’s not tired at night.
Of course nothing is ever so simple. His teeth are definitely on the move again and that’s causing issues with his reflux. Still, we got him up and he was quite awake several hours after he normally goes to bed.
Emily can talk about events in the past May 9, 2007
Posted by a1291762 in : emily , add a commentI’ve noticed in the last few days that Emily is now talking about events in the past. I think she’s been able to remember things before but I suspect it’s only recently that she’s had enough language to tell us what she remembers.
She pointed at the blue socket wrench case and said “what’s that?”. I said, “it’s a socket wrench”. She said, “it’s for Isaac’s bed. You used it to wind it up. mummy helped you.” That’s a pretty good memory of what happened and to come out of her all at once is also quite new. It wasn’t that long ago that getting 6 words in a row was a big deal.