Simultaneous TV Output

Why can't current graphic adapters support simultaneous TV-Output these days? What changed for them to disable this feature which was common on older chipsets/cards?

Currently suffering from a problem where one of our Audio Visual PCs has died and required a new mainboard etc. Stick in a current PCI-E nVidia something a rather with it's TV out only to discover that it can not run both displays at once. We use the TV-Output to send video to a monitor which in turn feeds a visual mixing desk and outputs to the big screen in the Crocosium.

Now we're trying to track down a card that allows this which isn't as easy as we had hoped.

Moving House

In recent times I have sold the house that I was sharing the purchase of with my brother. We sold it privately, only using a realestate agent to handle advertising and contacts. We listed it on November 19th (2009) and had it sold, for cash, on December 18th (2009). It was advertised for $395,000 and we sold for $385,000 which is basically what we wanted and considering there is no $7,000 - $10,000 commission we did very well.

Here are our costs for selling the house:

• Agent Assist Fee: $495/3mths.
• Conveyancing Cost: $660
• Mortgage Closure: $200 (+$800 for early closure but that was waved)
• Professional House Cleaning (inc carpets): $755
• Removal Fees (Self moving): $40 fuel, $270.09 materials, $132/mth storage

Total: $2420.09 + $132/mth

Since then I have a contract on a 2 bedroom unit for $224,000 which was advertised for $229,000. $1000 deposit paid on acceptance. The costs for purchase are as follows:

• Conveyancing Cost: $605 Solictor + $750 Searches + $2,240 Stamp Duty
• Building Inspection: $240
• Pest Inspection: $200
• Bank Fees: $5,657.84
• Removal Fees: $40 fuel

Total: $11962.84

Therefore my changing of properties has cost $14382.93. Mind you that parts of this amount of lumped onto the mortgage and other parts have been shared with my brother so the actual cash amount will be less.

Throwing these figures down has made me relise how much it actually costs for a change of scenery. During the change over you continue on paying this bill and that without looking at the whole picture - it's enlightening and somewhat scary when you do see the totals.

For the next month I will stay with my parents with the cat saving as much as I can while I'm free of a mortgage to pay for the inevitable maintenance fees. The rates and body corporate fees total $4,000pa so that's $80 a week plus bills of about $50 a week. Mortgage repayments will be something like $300 a week. Yet to do up a accurate budget because I'll need to see how much I consume first.

Netrider QLD - The Kilcoy Loop (November 29th 2009)

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

I snapped awake at 5:30AM met with a peacing ray of sunlight slowly toasting my left eyelid and the cat practicing its latest interrogation techniques on my right eyelid. Summer is here. With summer comes longer days and with longer days there is promise of extreme heat followed swiftly by storms with more wind and hail than rain. It is the day of the November '09 Brisbane Netriders ride and what greater purpose for a ride than to show defiance of today's forecast? I stumbled around for the next half hour and suddenly found myself at the local BP service station topping up the tyres, already squinting against the light and sweating in full gear on the sun baked forecourt. I had to get moving quickly to maintain a reasonable level of sanity, whatever that may be for someone keen to be riding on such a day. Nothing can hold me back.

The roads had a scattering of vehicles drifting along aimlessly whose occupants seemed to care more about being inside an airconditioned bubble than heading towards a particular destination. They stared with confused expressions at me as I rode past plowing through the heat shimmer that was oozing from the bitumen beneath. I can only guess what they must be thinking although as much as my ego demanded I'm sure it had nothing to do with awe or respect. I tune them out of my mind and the cars become blobs of potential obstacles between myself and where I wanted to be. In what seems like 10 minutes I arrive at the BP The Gap one hour earlier than I had intended, smugly confirmed by my watch, it was only 7:30AM. I top up the tank, add a bottle of water to the purchase and smile at the attractive girl behind the counter who was probably wondering why this leather clad sweaty mess with helmet hair was doing out on a day like this. I meander about until I find a shady spot on some stairs and watch the cars and bikes come and go.

Just as 8:25AM ticks over a black Yamaha XT660X pulls in nearby followed shortly by a red Honda VTR250 and a silver Yamaha FJR1300. The rest of the group flood into the car park within the next half hour and nearly on 9AM we notice a familiar rider pull in and start to check his tyres. Scotts RR has come for a quick blat up the mountain and accidentally stumbled upon the group so his hour run turned into a day. Transalp Tony almost made another ride with us but sadly a tensioner bolt was missing from his Transalp's swingarm that made things a little uneasy as you can imagine. 17SJS is organised as the TEC and the usual speech is given by Muttly we start on our way up Mt Glorious. I, and I'm sure the members of the group who ran the last attempt, gave a thought to Curvy as we went through turn one with caution.

The ride up the mountain was at a good pace, enough to make me wonder if Muttly was a SBK rider in a past life as he flicks that large tourer through the bends like it was a bike quarter its the size, modestly suggesting that people can pass him if the goings slow. The scenic views of the valleys had shown that the haze caused by weeping gum trees had already started to build up. The morning sun allowed the trees to offer us a reasonable amount of shade without any nasty wet patches hiding in the turns. We arrived at the Tea House in good time and satisfied that our tyres were adequately warmed up for the downward stretch to Somerset Dam.

Scotts RR (Yamaha R6) and Liquid Force (Yamaha XT660X) take this opportunity to start off in front of the group to make the most of one of the better stretches of road. Muttly and I head off down leaving the group behind on the second bend. About two thirds down we discover a lone scooter that threatened to destroy our lines. However the scooter pulled over/lost control or simply got lost and we passed it quickly only to be greeted by more of the little monsters. We were lucky as one had broken down so they all gathered together like ants around one of their wounded allowing us to go around and continue unabated. We reached the first turn to find Scotts RR and Liquid Force almost having a nap beside the road for what must have been hours on their time. I corner marked and Muttly also waited for the main group to catch up before heading right towards Somerset. I waited there for a few minutes and found Callum (Hardhat, Kawasaki ZXR750) and Beatrice (Kawasaki Z750) but no 17SJS the TEC to be seen so I waited a little longer but took off when I saw an unknown group of bikes approaching.

The last time I did this section was last summer and nothing has changed. One day I would like to do it mid-spring just to make sure the grass does turn green at some stage and the air doesn't always scorch your throat. There is not much you can do at 100kph to cool down when the ambient air temperature is over 35°C apart from wishing bikes had A/C pipes that can plug into your helmet and jacket (patent pending). All I could do was hug the tank and get my head out of the wind. Half way along I discovered 17SJS in my mirrors which was a relief because I felt guilty for leaving them behind (Jared and Lesleigh, Suzuki GSXR750?). We blew through the small township/caravan park of Somerset Dam where I was incorrectly expecting the group to be parked however they were stopped at the boat launching point further on. Nice place and very popular, probably something to do with the heat as people were ignoring the high water contamination warning sign.

A short break here to cool off before setting off through the remainder of Somerset's twisties and onwards to the Kilcoy bakery. I don't mind this stretch as there are some nice twisties with 40-50kph hairpins that are banked nicely be it a bit corrugated and fast straights on rural roads the rest of the way. I caught up to Muttly again (sorry Mr Cruiser) and marked the corner again hoping that I got everyone since the TEC was assisting another rider back at the Dam. I continued on and found a fair few people taking advantage of the BP servo on the corner opposite the park so I waited there for a while wondering which bakery we were meant to stop at. Luckily when we started off again Muttly was waiting at the carpark entrance for the Kilcoy bakery just down the road. We stayed here for a while in the shade keeping our fluids up and cleaning our visors of dead bugs seeking salvation from the heat in our faces (thanks for the visor cleaner Hardhat!). 10 - 15 minutes later we're on the back way to Woodford.

This road was planned in the original ride to bypass roadworks that were occurring upon the Daguilar Highway between Kilcoy and Woodford. It takes us along Neurun Rd and past a correctional facility that looks ominously over us. It's a strange feeling doing an activity that many associate with utmost freedom past a facility which is built to do the exact opposite. I wonder if any of the occupants could see us happily zip past? A couple of single lane sections and a bridge with the occasional bend was all that we needed to negotiate, far more interesting than the highway anyway. We popped back out at Woodford where we stopped at the IGA and lurked in the shade again, I was readily offered $2 for water from Hardhat for which I'm greatly appreciative. It was taking us longer and longer to cool down as the day progressed so it wasn't until at least 20 minutes later that we pressed on to the Mt Mee lookout for the inevitable group photo.

I have been looking forward to the newly refurbished road up this side of Mt Mee and I wasn't disappointed. Good quality bitumen that was grippy and nice shoulders and the cambers were good. You can now maintain a good pace heading up without fear of loose rocks, potholes and gravel. There were a few cars to contend with and apparently a rather slow Honda Jazz too. The lookout was green as usual although the view was hazy and brown and not the vibrant green that I like to look at through the Autumn/Spring periods. The group photos where taken and the stop kept short so as to get the ride over with before any storms hit. I chose this point to head home back the way I came since this was the closest point on the ride.

From what I've heard a few riders got caught by hail and rain on the way home giving the ride the nickname 'The Heat and Hail Ride'. Hopefully it won't become routine. Many thanks to all those who attended and apologies if I didn't mention you in this write up - much gets glossed over with a larger group but you're all appreciated equally, just some more equally than others. I'm sad that TheBigD couldn't make it along and he was missed as our usual TEC, 17SJS did a excellent job of covering the TEC duties of this ride. A big thank you to Muttly for organising and leading. Look forward to riding with you guys next time.

Sooty

Razorback Road has been sealed!

I mentioned sometime ago in my 'Sooty's Circuit' ride plan that if Razorback Rd was ever sealed then it would make one of the best circuits on the coast. Well, that time has come!


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Notes about MythTv and Nambour

Just throwing this here so I remember in future.

The 'Sunshine Coast' channel list provided by shepherd causes me greif. I have a rather substantial antenna on my roof and the inclusion of ABC's Brisbane band causes myth to use the Brisbane ABC channels over the local ones. I get tuner lock, but in myth-frontend it shows no lock with 10% signal.

So I removed the 226.5MHz Transport and corrected the 767.5MHz transport to read the correct frequency of 767.625MHz (Bald Knob and Dulong towers). This fixes my ABC1/ABC HD/ABC3 channels. Probably don't need to correct the existing freq but meh.

Netrider QLD - The Gold Coast Hinterland (July 26th 2009)

This is going to be a long ride. I had my doubts as to whether I had enough time in the day to get down there and back, and even if the little GPX250 would take it. All things considered there was nothing that was going to keep me from experiencing the popular Gold Coast hinterland on the bike with great friends.

A zombie that had a somewhat similar appearance to myself emerged from the den at 4AM. I fumbled around for an hour doing things like attaching the bike camera and packing a small bottle of oil just in case and then relising that I was still in my underwear as I was putting my helmet on. I got out on the road at 5AM and the visor instantly fogs up... So I cracked it open a notch every few kilometres until it got to the point where it simply condensated and I could see through the larger droplets. I'm new to this early morning riding thing and a breath deflector for the Shoei is on the short list.

It has been sometime since I had travelled along the Gateway Motorway and the new routes and roadworks were a surprise – scary too since I was the only person on the road and I was expecting to ride straight off the end of an unfinished suspended highway like something out of a Hollywood movie completing the worlds greatest creek jump into the Brisbane river. It wasn't until I had just popped over the Gateway bridge when I relised that I'm an hour early. Arriving at Springwood Maccas at 7AM for a 8:30AM ride start.

I got comfortable with a brekkie roll and coffee. While scoffing down the tasteless, yet filling, artificial produce I remembered that Maccas have free wifi – out comes the phone for checking the weather and the netriders ride thread preying that the ride wasn't cancelled due to the drizzle outside, it could have became a long way to get a plastic breakfast. During all this I counted 6 Police cars – seems that this Maccas is a favourite of the local constabulary. I did consider fashioning a rear fendor out of a brekkie roll wrapping and coffee cup.

About an hour later Benjamin78au arrives, followed by Geeth, ScottsRR and then TheBigD, Muttly and Tony. Ben and I went off to top up our tanks, getting slightly lost in the process. Once we were back we waited a little longer for any possible late comers and then we started along the Pacific Motorway southbound heading to Canungra.

This was mainly a 'transitional' route to get us onto the more interesting scenic roads. However I still found it interesting since its all new to me. The roads along this section were good and it appears that they have been upgraded to cope with the expanding housing estates that run along it. Not long before Brisbane joins the Gold Coast in the ever growing conurbation.

Arriving in Canungra we head a little futher into town and stop across from the DJ Smith Memorial Park just near the Outpost Cafe. Canungra is a nice town and it reminds me a lot of Kennilworth just with less cruisers. This is where I notice that the footage coming from my bike camera is all blurred and fogged up, must be due to the location of the camera or something. I gave it a clean and hoped that was all it needed.

Once we were rested and sorted we took off on the first leg of what can be summarised as 'awesomeness'. This was the worlds worth of twisties lined up ready to be cut into tidy lines with two wheels on a smooth surface like a kind of biker drug... (Edit: carried away with a metaphor...) It was an excellent time to practice hanging off as I was following ScottsRR and learning a lot – he was keeping good lines and was good to see where and when he setup and hung. We finished this stint at the Two Pines Cafe which was a slight change to the plan since the Valley View Cafe was closed (I think the sign said “Open Sundays, sometimes”). We looked for the rumoured Dinosaurs among the beautiful scenery and then searched for TheBigD's keys – which ended up being accidentally picked up by Tony as his Honda Transalp keys looked identical the TheBigD's VTRs, Givi topbox key and all, typical conformist Honda. We also chatted to a few other motorcyclist who were smoking next to the old fuel pump... We let them know we were from netriders and they said they'll check it out.

We had our pies and coffees and set off to Mudgeeraba along beautiful mountainous twisty roads that have it all, single lane valley roads and wooden bridges included. This is where I had a scary reminder of riding your own path and not fixating on the arse of the bike in front. I was just cruising behind the leader when all of a sudden on a closing radius corner I thought to myself – I'm not in my line, I'm in his! So I had to push hard to get the bike over but I touched the inside boot down which caused me to go wide. Should have had my toes on the pegs and kept to my own lines. I continued along with a sheepish grin knowing that the group behind were either laughing or hanging back a little further than usual.

There were some road works along the remainder of the section. Not usually an issue but I was behind a cage at this stage and ended up covered with road base mud. This stuff is like concrete and dried thickly on the front guards and then flaked off onto the bike and forks. This added to my existing paint chips and even got into my left hand fork dust seal and expanded to the point of cracking it! Ah well, new seals and fork oil for me; the mechanic and I are on a first name basis.

Arriving at the Caltex Service Station at Mudgeeraba I was of two minds of whether I should fill the bike up or not since I had approximately 150KM remaining. Of course I didn't! So I spent the remainder of the trip doing calculations of fuel efficiencies in my mind – next time I'll just fill up the damn thing. This was a short stop over and we were soon on our way to Mt Tamborine for a special lookout spot for a group photo.

Along this route we came across a 4WD that was pulled up on the side of the road. Nothing unusual here so half the group goes past then he just starts pulling out almost hitting the lad in front of me and causing me to brake rather heavily. He was oblivious to what he just did – the Victorian plates might explain it (hehehe).

We made it to Mt Tamborine all in one piece and took the group photo at the slight detour stop and then continued to the designated stop at a hang-glider launch park which was interesting for me because I've never seen one before. Nice area too, lots of trees. By this stage I could feel the fatigue really start to set in and my long distance riding skills put to the test. The longest I've ridden before was 500km and this was about that mark but still with a couple of hundred remining until home.

The final section took us down off the mountain and back down to Springwood where we started. I enjoyed Mt Tamborine and I look forward to doing it again sometime however I hope to stay in Brisbane the night beforehand so I can take it on while fresh. We all made it to Springwood without issue and a few left us mid-route to head home since they lived closer by and others stuck around to get something to eat before heading on home.

I had to leave after a small rest to beat the sun home but not before filling up at the Springwood BP and only managing to squeeze 10ltrs into the 18ltr tank, plenty left! I stopped off at Nudgee for a rest break and was about to head into the disabled persons toilet and I relised my mistake and turned to head for the correct toilet – however I failed to escape the attention of an elderly man behind me who said “not yet mate but soon” while pointing at my motorbike armour... touché. Made it home at 5:30PM, finishing a 650KM ride.

All in all it was a great introduction to the Southern Hinterlands for me and I look forward to doing it again – not too soon though. I believe everyone had a pretty good time as well and there'll be more group rides to follow.

Thanks to Muttly for organising and leading and to TheBigD for being the Tail End Charlie.


Us at the Hang Glider Launching Facility


Us at Mt Tamborine


Us at Canungra


Another on of us at Canungra

Climbing Mt Cooroora

Last Sunday (5th July 2009) I climbed up Mt Cooroora (Pomona, QLD) with my future traveling buddies. The height above sea level is 412m and its a straight forward climb apart from some rock scrambling close to the top. Metal stairs have been added for the most difficult parts and a chain link guide is in place for most of the steeper sections.

We're using this mountain to guauge our fitness to climb Mt Kinabalu (4,101m) in Malaysia next year. I managed it okay but I would like to increase my fitness level still because 400m is a far cry from 4000m.


View from the top

View from the bottom