Thomsons Lake Crakes

Went to Thomsons Lake last week with Martin Cake for a bit of a look.
With Martin's expertise we saw all three of the common crakes for the area:

• Baillon's Crake (Porzana pusilla);
• Australian Spotted Crake (Porzana fluminea);
• Spotless Crake (Porzana tabuensis).

They were all seen in the typha at the southern end within a few metres of each other!
Also seen was a tiger snake and a feral fox (inside the perimeter fence at the northern end of the lake).

Red-eared Firetail

My first new sighting for the year!

Red-eared Firetail (Stagnopleura oculata) - a small group (about 4) seen at Lesmurdie Falls. I managed to take some photographs but they were for identification only.

Lesmurdie Falls is local to me now - the birding there is quite good. There is still a fair bit of water flowing and most of the (unburnt) vegetation is thick and green. Also seen:

• Tawny Frogmouth (Podargus strigoides);
• Splendid Fairy-wren (Malurus splendens);
• Common Bronzewing (Phaps chalcoptera).

New (to me) MacBook

I am now the proud owner of a 2.16GHz C2D MacBook (2GB RAM, 120GB HDD, SuperDrive).  I purchased it locally.  It is my first Intel Mac (and at the moment I have skipped the G5's completely).  I haven't used it for long enough to form an opinion but so far I am impressed.

Google Picasa for the Mac!

The good news is that it finally exists, albeit in beta form. (1)
The bad news is that it is for Intel Macs only. (2)

(1) Not a big problem really, after all Gmail is still in beta and that works fine.
(2) Mainly an issue because I don't have an Intel Mac.

Hot rod 7500

I have finally finished building (I think) my hot rod Power Mac 7500.  It has:

• 256MB of RAM (using 4 of the 8 slots in case I find some more 64MB sticks);
• An IBM 18GB SCSI disk;
• A PowerLogix PowerForce G3 350/175/512K G3 (Spartan) upgrade card running at 300MHz;
• A fairly generic USB 1.1 PCI card;
• An Apple Fast Ethernet 10/100 Base-T PCI card;
• An iXMicro Ultimate Rez Twin Turbo 128 PCI graphics card;
• An AppleVision 1710 Display.

Everything else (floppy and CD drive) is stock.  It runs Mac OS 8.6 like lightning.

Very Shallow Blue

I can now beat the chess program (Apple Chess) that ships with Mac OS X (as long as the computer is set to the easiest mode). I think it is time to start cranking it up a bit... Most of the time I can beat the computer using less than 40 moves. Sometimes it takes me up to 60 (which is not a good thing).

Also found this site - MacChess - Dedicated to chess on Mac.

Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Playing Chess

I have started to play chess again (for the first time in many years). I am not very good at it but I am keen to learn and find it intellectually stimulating. At the moment I am playing against the computer but I may play against real people (online) at some point. I purchased some basic chess books as my Christmas present and am slowly working my way through them.

For some reason I have always been intrigued by the game. Grandad and Grandma Howell gave us a really nice wooden set when we were younger (I have it in the shed) and Chris and I would sometimes play games. From memory he would usually beat me...

At the moment I am just playing the version of Chess that ships with Mac OS X. I have installed Deep Green (by Joachim Bondo) on the Newton 2100. I will be having a look at Glaurung as well.

Red-capped Plover

Red-capped Plover (Charadrius ruficapillus, Point Walter, WA, Australia).

I stumbled across a pair of Red-capped Plovers while walking to the end of the spit at Point Walter.  I was initially trying to get a better look at the birds further out into the river and didn't see them until I was 2-3 metres away.

New Mobile Phone

My Sony Ericsson K610i has had a hard life - busted screen, poor battery, numerous scratches. I have replaced it with a Sony Ericsson W610i. I purchased the phone outright.

So far it has been a nice phone - has the same connection cable (for charging and data) as the K610i (so I have less "redundant" chargers lying around) and a few new features (you can use it as a torch, it has a radio tuner). It also has much nicer buttons (that don't try and connect you to the web the moment you brush them accidentally).

The torch/light feature comprises of two white LEDs. One of the applications on the phone signals SOS continuously...

Declan Oren Howell

Declan was born a few hours prior to this photo...

Safe and sound

Declan is finally home after a 4 day stop over in PMH.  No one is really sure what he caught but the staff at both PMH and KEMH (where he was born) were fantastic.  He is now more active, less yellow and generally happier.  He had his first bath at home today (in the kitchen sink).

Thanks to all who have prayed/visited/called/sent gifts/cooked meals - we all really appreciate it.

New Howell

Declan Oren Howell was born 19/11/2008 at 11h30.  At birth he was 45cm tall and weighed 2.315kg (about 5 pound 2 ounces for those who work in imperial).  He was born by C-section (sort of in a hurry).  Kylie and Declan are both doing well.

Stay tuned for some photographs...

Birding trips I need to do

In my ongoing attempt to see more of the birds of WA, I think trips to the following locations are in order:

• Rottnest Island (seabirds, waders and odd introduced birds like the Indian Peafowl and the Common Pheasant);
• Dryandra (bushbirds and hopefully some of the nocturnals);
• Albany (seabirds and some of the SW rarities);
• Broome (for reasons that should be obvious).
  

If anyone is interested in coming along (especially for Rottnest Island) send me a message.

Review: Twinhan Alpha Mac Edition (DVB-T USB 2.0)

Harris Technology have these for under $60. I thought that was a bargain so I picked one up. I have recorded a TV show and was very impressed (it is my first foray into digital TV as well). Here is a brief review:

Pros:

• It's cheap;
  
• It includes EyeTV (version 2.x, still great);
  
• It works exactly as advertised.
  

Cons:

• The box is big (and mentions that you need a FireWire port?);
  
• The printed documentation is average (thankfully you don't need it);
  
• The included aerial is useless unless you live under a transmitter (use a rooftop antenna).
  

Umm... Yes?

Observed when copying files out of a zip file in Windows Explorer under Windows XP SP3.

Chasing Birds on ABC1

For those that don't know, Chasing Birds is screening on ABC1 tomorrow night (Thursday) at 2135.

Birding Life List Update

My birding life list has now passed 150! Not really that impressive...
For comparison, Sean Dooley saw over 700 species on 12 months.

A will update the online version shortly.

Mission Accomplished

I have finally finished re-building my PowerBook G4 12" (1GHz). I have upgraded the hard drive (40GB to 160GB), replaced the broken combo drive (got one cheap off eBay) and upgraded the operating system (10.4 to 10.5).

To others considering a similar mission:

• The hard drive is much easier to replace than the optical drive;
• The 160GB 5400 RPM Western Digital Scorpio disk runs warmer than the stock disk (to be expected really *);
• Remember where all the screws came from (I didn't);
• Use the right tools for the job;
• There are a few service manuals available on the web. Use them.

I can't really justify a new laptop at the moment. I think these upgrades have extended the life of my old one a bit longer.

* Edit: this may be due to the fact that the original disk was 4200 RPM.

Buff-banded Rail

Buff-Banded Rail (Gallirallus philippensis, Ascot, WA, Australia).

Hoary-headed Grebe

Hoary-headed Grebe (Poliocephalus poliocephalus, Ascot, WA, Australia).

This is another first for my list!

List = List + 2

Went on a Birds WA walk on Saturday and added two more birds to my life list:

• Inland Thornbill (Acanthiza apicalis);
  
• Grey Shrike-thrush (Colluricincla harmonica).
  

Both were seen in the Dell Forest in Kalamunda. Thanks to Maris Lauva for helping me find the Grey Shrike-thrush - it helps if someone knows it's call.

Thousands of tiny screws...

The 12" PowerBook G4 is a real pain to take apart. I am in the process of replacing the HDD and optical drive and you have to strip the PowerBook down completely. Everything from the motherboard up needs to be removed before you can extract the optical drive. The HDD is only marginally easier to get to.

Anyhow, last night I reached a milestone. I am now putting things back together instead of taking them apart. In all honesty I probably have another 6 hours of tinkering to do.

The end result will be a very usable PowerBook with a working optical drive and a 160GB HDD. I think it's worth it...

Photo Updates

Check out my Flickr page for more...



Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena, Ascot, WA, Australia).



Percy, Thomas and Toby.

Birding Target Groups

There are a few groups of birds that I haven't been very successful in seeing (and identifying).  The more obvious groups (parrots, finches, honey-eaters etc) are well covered in my list but the following are not:

• Cuckoos (I have only seen two species);
• Waders (especially migratory);
• Penguins (a trip to Penguin Island was a failure);
• Quail (and other small ground-based birds);
• Some of the more difficult water birds (Crakes, Rails etc).

A pelagic trip earlier this year helped me out in the seabird category, now all I have to do is organise some excursions to see some of these.  Looking at the Birds WA Sightings page, now seems to be a good time for the cuckoos...

Ordering from the Australian Apple Store rocks!

I ordered a copy of iLife 08 (Family Pack) from the Australian Apple Store late on Wednesday and it arrived early on Friday morning. Maybe I am new to the whole web ordering thing but I think that is sensational service.

We will be using iLife primarily for iPhoto - not much else will run happily on our G4 and earlier Macs.

Updating the Macs

Migrated Kylie from her Sage iMac (450MHz G3) to her "new" eMac (1.25GHz G4) last night. All I need to do is install iLife (which should arrive tomorrow from Apple). The big advantage is the USB2.0 ports on the eMac - allowing her to read camera memory cards and use her iPod a little more effectively.

As a result of the upgrade I moved the RAM (a single 512MB stick) from the iMac to my dual-G4 500MHz PowerMac, giving it a total of 1GB of RAM! This is my first home computer to reach the magical 1GB mark :)

I will be keeping the iMac - it is too nice a machine to get rid of.

Edit: Yes, this means that Kylie's Mac is the fastest in the household and the only one running Mac OS 10.5. And I am OK with that...

Website Migration

In an effort to be independent from whatever ISP I happen to be using, my website is now hosted on the Google Sites servers. Here is the URL. I guess I am now tied to Google (what with email, Blogger and now Google Sites). At least Flickr is separate...

The old Optus webpage will be removed and redirect to this one shortly.

Mute Swans at Northam

Last weekend we went for a drive to Northam. It was a nice day for a picnic and it allowed me to see the famed Mute (White) Swans. There were only two I could find and they were located in a pond separate from the Avon River that has been set up to help build up numbers.

Mute Swans are on the Australian list, but given that these two were in captivity (I assume they can't fly over the 1.5 m fence) I can't really count them.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

1. Work switched from using a web-based Citrix login system to a Remote Desktop Connection system, making it impossible to login in to the company system from the main site that I work on up north (they block outgoing RDC);
2. The workaround provided was a PCMCIA Telstra Wireless Broadband Card, which I installed on my laptop;
3. The (very buggy) installer required a reboot (why?);
4. On reboot, I could no longer log into my laptop (cached domain logins had expired, normally I just hibernate the laptop);
5. Thankfully I knew the Local Administrator password so I can get to my work.

Firstly, why replace a working solution for people on site with one that only works for a very limited number of sites (certainly not out main client sites)? Secondly, is there any rational use for Windows Domains? *

* I know the reasons that domains are used, they just seem to be the main cause of grief for me at the moment.