Zebra Finch Behaviour

I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon chasing a reasonably large flock of Zebra Finches (about 100 birds in total) around the dunes and rocks near the Dampier beach. Every time I disturbed the flock (they appeared to be feeding) they moved a few hundred metres away and stopped again to feed. There seemed to always be one or two birds that performed "sentry" duties, perching on a nearby branch watching for danger (me in this case). If I could avoid being seen by the "sentry" finch I could generally get close enough to have a chance of taking photographs.

Has anyone else observed this behaviour?

Site Engineer’s Calendar

• Monday: Every day you are on site (except the last);
• Friday: The last day you are on site;
• Saturday: Every day you are home (except the last);
• Sunday: The last day you are home.

I have spent way too much time on site...

PowerBook 100 Internals - Retro Challenge Step #1 continued...

The 16 MHz 68HC000 CPU.



Part of the track-ball assembly (made by Logitech). Note that "Derringer" was one of the code-names for the PowerBook 100.

PowerBook 100 - Retro Challenge Step #1

After tinkering for a few hours last night I have finally managed to build one complete PowerBook 100 out of two partially complete ones. The complete unit has a good screen (replaced the screen that was missing a column of pixels down the left hand side), 4MB of RAM, an 80MB 2.5" SCSI hard drive with Mac OS 7.1, three batteries (none of which work), an external floppy drive (working well) and two functional fold-down feet (each unit had one foot broken, thankfully on opposite sides).

The PowerBook 100 is an impressive design - three screws (Phillips head - yay!) hold the whole unit together, the screen hinge seems bulletproof (neither showed wear or damage), the motherboard is easy to swap out and the RAM and CPU cards are easy to access. In terms of expansion, the PowerBook 100 is limited (I noticed what looks like and internal modem connector - that seems to be the extent of expansion) but it has an ADB port (unlike the PB150), a serial port and a SCSI port (as well as the special external floppy drive port).

It was a lot of fun rebuilding this - now I need to find some old software and starting putting it to use.

Rainbow Bee-eater

Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops ornatus), photographed at Lake Gwelup with my Canon 350D digital camera. I cropped the photo as it is one of the few that has reasonable focus.

Signed Up!

I am now signed up for the Retro Challenge 2007! I aim to do some Newton development (OS 2.0) and 68k development (maybe using a PowerBook 100). Should be fun. Keep an eye on this blog for updates!

(And I have started labeling posts to make it easier to find all Retro Challenge stuff).

June Already...

I can't believe it is June already. So much of the year has gone past and I feel like so little has been accomplished. Here are a few highlights of the year so far:

• Cameron has started to recognize some numbers (in the 0-9 range);
• We bought a 2005 Toyota Tarago (please, no comments about filling all of the seats);
• Olivia has started to sit up unaided.

Here are a few highlights "planned" for the rest of the year:

• Another trip to Cheynes Beach for a holiday;
• Spend some decent chunks of time in Perth (spent a fair bit of time in Dampier with work);
• Get back into a regular Bible Study (see previous point).