SemiArticulate

Random Musings
June 28th, 2014 by Lucas

Glider winch lanch

A few weeks ago I had a winch launch in the Duo Discus with Alf. Here is the video:

June 22nd, 2014 by Lucas

In the news

Whilst First Dog on the Moon makes lite of the situation with the school chaplaincy program, there are serious problems afoot.

For those not following the situation, the high court has ruled that the funding arrangement for the program is unconstitutional.

The government seems to have tried to get around the decision by pre-funding all of this year, and “forgiven” the debt created by the high court ruling.

This, and the issue with refugee visas, gives a picture of an arrogant government that believes that it can do anything they want, unbounded my democracy.

June 22nd, 2014 by Lucas

Flying Report

It has been a while since I’ve done a gliding report, so here is a quick update

Done lots of gliding, including gaining the C certificate. I’ve done my 50k flight for the Silver C, and all I need to do is the five hour flight. Total time is now over 135hours. I’ve even made a few videos: at porepunkah.

Powered flying has gone no where, due to a lack of funds.

May 16th, 2014 by Lucas

Porepunkah Videos

This one is a quick video of me in UKA going from the Chalet to the bowl. The camera was hand held.

This next one is with the camera mounted on the RAM mount. It is a rather long tow.

The last video is me coming into land.

March 29th, 2014 by Lucas

Spam accounts

March14 update: I’ve had to do it again.. I’ve disabled accounts now that people can use their wordpress.com accounts.

It looks like I’ve been hit with a lot of spam user registrations.  I’ve gone through and deleted them all.

If I have deleted a real person’s account, my apologies.  Please email me at lucas.james@ldjcs.com.au to reinstate your account.

January 18th, 2014 by Lucas

Computer troubles

It looks like I may have spoken too soon with the Computer Troubles.

It turned out to be a bad RAM stick.

August 12th, 2013 by Lucas

Lucas’ Chickpea curry

Well, it isn’t a real curry, but nice enough (even if I do say so myself 🙂

 

Ingredients

  • 2 400g cans chickpeas
  • 1kg tomatoes
  • 2 medium onions
  • 1/2 packet cumin (whole seeds – about 12-13g)
  • 1/2 teaspoon cardamom seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
  • 1/2 teaspoon rock salt
  • chili flakes
  • chicken stock.
  • olive oil

Method

  • Put tomatoes in hot water until the skin splits.
  • Peel tomatoes, chop and set aside.
  • Chop onions, set aside.
  • Grind cumin, cardamom, pepper and rock salt together.
  • Bring a pot to a medium heat.
  • Saute onions with spice mixture.
  • Once onions start being translucent, put tomatoes and chickpeas and enough stock to cover.
  • Bring to boil.
  • Add chili flakes to taste.
  • Simmer for an hour.
  • Season to taste, adjusting chili as required.
  • Serve with rice.

 

May 5th, 2013 by Lucas

GGC Website update planning

I’ve come up with a plan to update the Geelong Gliding Club website, which is running on an ancient version of Joomla.

First, using the migrator1.5.zip (which is really hard to find) to update to Joomla 1.5.

Then using the J2XML import/export tool to update to Joomla 3.1.

After that it should be much easier to update to future versions.

Problems:

  1. Replacement extensions.  Lots of the extensions used in the current version no longer exist at all, or no longer exist for 1.5. JoomGallery looks like a good replacement Image Gallery tool.
  2. Getting the files into Lunar pages. this could be problematic.
March 11th, 2013 by Lucas

Gliding Report

Another hour in the LS4: http://skylines-project.org/flights/13607/

Not bad, considering the day had overdeveloped.  As you can see from the trace, the second climb was hard work – 500ft in 10 minutes = 1/2 kt!

March 3rd, 2013 by Lucas

Gliding report

Just a quick* flight today in the LS4: http://skylines-project.org/flights/13454/

* 1h41 quick, half way to Mt Annkie

January 12th, 2013 by Lucas

Samba4 replication problems

I’ve been trying to get my two Samba4 DCs to replicate between each other.

The output of the drs showrepl command:

root@ns0:/usr/local/samba # bin/samba-tool drs showrepl ns0
Default-First-Site-Name\NS0
DSA Options: 0x00000001
DSA object GUID: 3b0c70a3-2ecf-4fd9-b87d-7fd2fc063d1f
DSA invocationId: cd9f36c5-30ad-4b1c-a35a-ba807406b34c
==== INBOUND NEIGHBORS ====
ERROR(runtime): DsReplicaGetInfo of type 0 failed - (-1073610723, 'NT_STATUS_RPC_PROTOCOL_ERROR')

Read the rest of this entry »

December 29th, 2012 by Lucas

Gliding Report

Did nearly four and a half hours in the DuoDiscus with John Buchanan. JB saved me a few times, and I have a few things to learn/practice. Unfortunately we didn’t get back – outlanded at Lethbridge.  Nice people there, but no come-and-get-it trophy.

The flight: http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=2795367

Totals: 96h29 (51h10 PIC) over 207 flights

December 9th, 2012 by Lucas

Gliding Report

Did nearly four and a half hours in the Janus with John Buchanan on my very first cross country. JB saved me a few times, and I have a few things to learn/practice. On to the Duo Discus tomorrow!

The flight: http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=2794418

Totals: 92h11 (51h10 PIC) over 206 flights

November 18th, 2012 by Lucas

Gliding Report

Today started early with and excellent egg, bacon and tomato breakfast put on bu David Fynmore. There was a bit of a discussion about the days weather, and JB and Alf decided to head off to Raywood to claim the “Come and Get it Trophy” from the NSWGA.

For a day that started out raining, and a predicted top of 19 degrees, it was a more info

surprisingly good day. I managed a quick annual check, and then a conversion flight in the Std Jantar for just over an hour.  I’ve also started to upload flights to SkyLines.

One thing I didn’t achieve today was my DI certificate. The instructor was too keen to go flying.  Oh well, maybe next week.

UPDATE: Alf and JB’s flight back is on OLC

November 9th, 2012 by Lucas

Royal Commission into Child Abuse

Following an interview with a senior police officer on ABCs Lateline last night, admissions of pack rapes of children there have been growing calls for a royal commission into the systemic cover ups of child abuses in the Catholic Church.

Up until now, Barry O’Farrell (Premier of NSW) have resisted those claims. Today he announced a Special Commission of Inquiry into the matter, which has rather narrow terms of reference.

I would argue  that this organisation, if found to be systematically covering up child abuse, be designated a criminal organisation, have all state subsidies removed (tax breaks etc).

In related matter the Australian Christian Lobby (or ACL, funded in part by the Catholic Church) has called for a mandatory internet filter to hide child abuse material, porn, and other things they don’t like from everyone on the internet.