SiC – David Sidwell

The Mt Macedon Loop walk is a great one to do, but it can be a bit daunting for those who may not like 16+ km, including the climb(s) and descent(s).  So I’ve been planning a hybrid walk, involving a 2-car-shuffle. It’s not that complicated; basically one car ‘up the top’ (on the summit)  and the 2nd ‘down the bottom’ (Mt Macedon village)

After putting the cars in their right places:

Car 1 near Memorial Cross 

Car 2 in main st of Mt Macedon village, near Douglas Rd

Then off we go, walking unless noted:

• Douglas Road (Mt Macedon village) climbing up to the Memorial Cross
• (Drive, Car 1)  Cross to Camels Hump Picnic Ground (PG)
• Explore Camels Hump
• (Drive, Car 1) Camels Hump to Sanatorium Lake  PG Car Park
• Explore Sanatorium Lake area
• Sanatorium Lake PG to Zig Zag Track
• Zig Zag to Hempills Track, then down the great Mount Towrong Track to Mt Macedon village (and Car 2)

This is a good compromise. The Car 1 bits are – to be honest – a bit of a drag if done by foot. Pretty much an hour+ of walking on level ground. 

Did it today and it works very well.  As I only had one car, I got a lift to simulate Car 1 (thank you to the bloke who helped me, if you somehow are reading this!).  Walkers really need good boots and a pole or stick to help with the steep, rocky descent of Mt Towrong. But apart from that, I’d vote it a Yes.

Currently reading the recent ghost story book. Set in post-WWII England.

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Borrowed from the local library. Thanks to the First Tuesday Book Club gang for this one too

Read the science book

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Overall, disappointed. Could do with a decent bit of editing. It’s a difficult enough topic to get across, but to have Illustrations without explanations nor being referred to in the text… unforgivable.

Used some maps and planned a new, shorter version of the earlier Mt Dandenong walk.  Basically the best bits and hence the name.  Today was the day to walk it to see how it goes.

Had a great time.  However, it became pretty clear that my ‘shortcut’ back to the car (Glasgow Track – see below) was so steep that it really wouldn’t have been enjoyable had others been with me.   Here’s a Google Earth image, showing the walk. Note the height exaggerated by 2 for impact:

A) Car is here near Kyeema cairn (Melways 66 E-1)

(pink line)  Along the top and then a zig zag down to

B) Doongalla site (66 D-5), lunch/break then explore this great area and then along…

(aqua line) almost level along the front of the mountain until…

C) The Climb (red line). Straight up the front of Mt Dandenong on Glasgow Track. Wow. I’m told this is used by those preparing for Kokoda. (update: and here’s some further info on this)  Rocky, dirt, mud in places. No polite zig zags to ease the gradient.

To give you some idea, these are direct from the GPS and not exaggerated by 2:

Pink line 2.3 km long and descends 280 metres

Red line  0.5 km (500 m) long and ascends 200 metres.

If you look you can see that Glasgow Tk continues down the mountain; seems to merge with Glasgow Road. And yes, I missed it whilst on the aqua line bit. It has no signs and is only about 1 metre wide or less.  I had a map and was able to loop back and pick it up at point C.

Mmm. Need to think more about how to get back from Doongalla to the car. Maybe just double back.

Anyway here’s the Google Earth file to explore in 3D.

<Oct 4th 2009>

Over the years I have loaned out assorted DVDs and books, then totally forgotten who has what. Indeed just 2 days ago a friend returned 3 DVDs and a book. And I swear I had no idea they had them.

I had flagged the idea of looking for a specialty ‘loan manager’ application for the iPhone (iPod Touch).  One where I could record the key info (media type, media name, person, date loaned).  With thousand and thousands of apps out there, surely there would be a little database one to do this.

And then it hit me. Why bother?

The very flexible Ultimate ToDo program I have already purchased can do exactly that.  With its Tags, Project and Context item.values (in reality these are all meta-data) it’s really already a Database. And it can sync back to the web-based Toodledo.  As a bonus, the Ultimate ToDo iPhone app now supports iPhone Contacts, so it’s easy to select the name of the person who is borrowing the item.

Basically I just have a new grouping (“Context”) called Loans Outbound. And a few new Tags like DVD, Book etc. Then I add the ToDo item with the persons Name (“Reference Contact”) and Date borrowed (as text in the “Note” value, only for reference…I guess you could use the Due Date if you wanted to),  plus the Context and Tag.  And all done.

Both the iPhone app and the Toodledo then let me quickly look at my Loans Outbound view. Smart stuff.  

Am looking for a solution that runs on my Windows XP PC for a fairly simple set of requirements:

• Define a backup set of folders/files on XP PC (eg My Documents)
• Manually or automatically back up the lot to external USB hard drive
• Run incremental back ups etc after that.

Keep external hard drive as my ‘master’ or safety back up, that is:

• Perform back up
• (accidently) delete Resume.doc from XP PC
• Do one or more back ups
• Discover Resume.doc is gone
• Get it back from USB hard drive

Some ‘syncing’ software would have deleted Resume.doc from the USB hard drive

• Don’t want version control etc; handled manually within Word etc
• Happy for back up to clobber USB hard drive copy if required

So any ideas? Does this type of back up have a name/description?

Update Sept 9th.

Found one that works. Here’s the email I sent to the tech buddies who had helped me find a good solution.

“Have been using Dropbox for a while now and am a big fan.  For my many-GB stuff I’m trying the BPSP "SyncToy" from Redmond way. Thanks to <snip> for pointing it out. It’s contribute mode is just what I was after.

(Binary, Proprietary , Single Platform)   true…but Horses for Courses

Plus  IJFW  It Just Works…”

Here’s the updated list of the podcasts I listen too, most found via iTunes or the ABC web site.  These are audio-only, so ABC means ABC Radio, usually Radio National. Major changes in the year since I last did this list include:

• ABC Radio now offering individual story podcasts. A year ago you had to grab the entire (say) 1 hour episode of Late Night Live or the Science Show. Whilst you can still do that, they now offer a 2nd ‘per show’ podcast feed; the individual stories of that show. You can pick (download) only the stories you are interested in.
• ABC Radio now has subject-based podcast feeds. As per above, if LNL does an individual story with a science focus, that is also added to ABC Radio Nationals (new) science feed. Along with stories/episodes from other shows. So this single feed covers multiple shows.

Both changes are just excellent. I appreciate the effort and use them many times a week. Thanks ABC! 

Must Gets: Every Episode downloaded

• Astronomy Cast
• StarStuff
• 365 Days of Astronomy : “The (International Year of Astronomy) 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is a project that will publish one podcast per day, for all 365 days of 2009. The podcast episodes are written, recorded and produced by people around the world.”
• Skeptoid   Logic and critical thinking will always win out.
• Digital Living (ABC)
• Dr Karl’s Great Moments in Science  (ABC) 

Continue reading “Podcast List – August 2009″

Late August 2009 list. Plus I actually have an iPod Touch, not an iPhone, so none of these (below) reply on GPS/compass, 3G nor camera. I use  WiFi for my Internet connectivity, both at home and hotspots when out.

One big thing for me is synchronisation; having my data available in more than one place. I really like the convenience and flexibility this gives me. If I see a good book/movie/wine/song or anything, I can record the information about it on the iPod then have it available back on the (home) browser etc.  Ditto if I think of something I need to do, someone to email, a general idea etc.

Ones I use virtually every day (non-games)

Contacts, Calendar and Mail are built-in apps. All sync with my Google account.

Byline gives me article summaries (aka RSS feeds). More than that, it syncs with Google Reader. Tried free version, loved it and brought full version.

Related to this is Instapaper. On PC browser I see an article I want to read later,  I click on the Read Later link/button in Firefox and Instapaper saves just the text from the article per se ..and later I synch with the iPod to read the story when I want. No net connection needed after synch! Nice.  Tried free version and bought full version.

WiFi Trak. Enhances built in function of finding and managing WiFi connections. Worth the small purchase price.

Metlink.  Train, trams and bus timetables. Smart search. Favourite (stops) with ‘next service’ etc etc.  Started as an independent app, now ‘officially’ supported by the Met people. Free and a must have.

Shopper.  A very useful app for managing shopping lists. Not free, but I use it regularly, mainly for Coles. Over time you can build up your own data; what items cost and what aisles they are in for a given store. Easy to sort by aisle. When not in store it’s quick to – then and there – do the ‘I need cereal’ stuff.  Easy to work out if you hit the magic $30 petrol-discount number too.

Evernote.  As they say “Remember Everything – Capture what you like. Find it when you want”.  Browser, stand-alone and iPhone versions all talk to each other. This is where i keep my general info (aka notes to self), list of things to buy/read/drink, plus I will use the ‘capture’ tool on the PC to grab (part of) a page, text and graphics, then it can be synched to the iPhone. Nice.

Ultimate Todos. Google have just started up a To Do list system. Still not enough function for me, so I use the web-based Toodledo. Ultimate Todos is cheap and works very well  with Toodledo.

Continue reading “iPhone Apps I use”

There’s just something about this walk – and location – that trips me up every time. Not literally, but I have tried twice now and failed to finish it both times. It’s in the Little Peninsula and Big Peninsula tunnels area.

First time was late Jan 2008 and it was hot. Climbed up and down the roller-coaster hills near the Little Peninsular tunnel. Only to find the track closed from there on.  Worked out the way back to the car, without doing the roller-coaster again. But a bit later on, found I’d lost the map. Reached for the spare…and discovered it was back at home.

Remained calm and retraced my steps…finding the map on the side of the road. Just as a HUGE log truck came roaring toward it, threatening to hurl it into the creek. Just grabbed it in time.

Not quite out of trouble yet. Discovered room I was staying in had no fridge, a/c nor fly spray. So nowhere to store milk etc I’d brought for breakfast!  They let me put it in their fridge downstairs. But a hot night spent with buzzing mosquitoes ensured.

Found out later that the walk was officially closed due to logging, but someone hadn’t updated the Parks Vic web site.

This time it was the roller-coaster hills being dangerously slippery. After gingerly finishing them, I decided it was too risky to push on  with the exact route  (as it returned via these hills again).  This time, however, I used the map and worked out I could do most of the route and then ‘veer off’ down a road (c/f a track) and head back out the same way as during the Summer. Worked a treat.

Again the accommodation – but a different place – caused me grief. But partially my own fault. The room was BYO bedding.   What a time to discover my 15 year old, K-Mart special sleeping bag doesn’t work when it’s really chilly.   Woke up so cold it hurt.   Now, some places provide a spare blanket just in case, but not this one.  I had looked at a blanket just before leaving home and thought “nah, if I need one, they’ll have one…”

Got fully dressed and back in the bag. No real difference. Woke up about 10 more times, numbingly cold.  Found out it had been 0c down at Coldstream that night, so I reckon it was below freezing in that room.   There was an old, very  noisy heater; it sounded like a 747 taking off and even I couldn’t sleep through that.

So Take 3 looms, probably this summer. I wonder what will happen this time.

<August 18th 2009>

Ended up being a great walk today. Didn’t start out the best – think the instructions and/or map were quite old. But recovered to be just excellent.  Images – including 3D Google Earth view and Google Map links at end.

In summary:

• Start at Kalorama village, leave car
• Walk along ‘front’ of Mt Dandenong, but on tracks. Heading about S-W
• Visit the main Mt Dandenong summit area, including the cafe if you want
• Along the ‘front’ further to visit the cairn at the site of the 1938 “Kyeema” plane crash.
• Zig-zag down a track as the bush closes in and becomes more rain-forest in nature
• Pop out at the lovely Doongala homestead site (now a small park area with BBQs etc).  Even though you are close to suburbia, the view from here implies you are in the middle of the bush. See photo (link below)
• Make your way back along the ‘front’ but now the other way (N-E) towards Kalorama and lower down on the mountain.
• A final climb (bit of puff puff here) and you literally pop back out right near the car

About 18-20 km of walking, from memory.

Here’s a Google Map of the approximate route.

And a few photos up there at Flickr.

<July 24th 2009>