It’s here again… v3.0 – have a look.

GotMyVote.com

Yesterday the RCD (residual current device) kept tripping at Casa Del Jordan.

RCD’s are a requirement for all new Western Australian houses as they can help reduce the chances of electrocution. On this occasion, no one was getting shocked, it just kept flicking off and leaving us in the dark.

It started early on in the day but as day progressed it happened more and more often. We tried tracking down what was causing it by switching everything off – to no avail.

No matter what order we brought things back on line – it would trip again at some point.

I eventually managed to get everything except the TVs going – at which point I consulted the Net.

So here’s what I learned.

The Power Switch on a power point only disables the active wire – not the neutral or earth. This means to test properly – you must physically unplug devices from the wall.

Knowing this we were then able to track down the problem to a touch lamp.

Once unplugged – all problems disappeared.

I’ve mainly blogged this in case anyone every has the same issue – hopefully Google will index the page and get you the answer quicker than it did for me.

Brilliant!

This is a truly awesome way of visualising how First Names have trended over the years.

The Baby Name Wizard’s NameVoyager

http://www.blogt.nl/images/juli2003/raareffect.jpg

… but it’s not.

I’m no scientist, but I have discovered something that is working for me.

I’ve been on and off the “Low Carbs” Diet now for over a year. The main reason I get off it is that it’s a relatively expensive diet to be on.

I do feel much better while I’m avoiding carbs but a bowl of Vitabrits is much cheaper than a BBQ Chicken.

Anyway – the weight is still coming off and I think it’s a direct effect of what the diet has done for my metabolism.

The really interesting thing is about my exercise programme.

I used to go to the gym three times per week. I made slow gains in definition and bulk and it really had little effect on my body fat.

I recently dropped it to 2 or sometimes even just once per week – but when I do go – I go really hard.

I’m amazed to see it’s having a much greater effect on me. I’m measurably growing and I’m sore for three days after the workout.

Here’s the other thing that may be helping though – I no longer do three sets of increasing weight and decreasing reps. The programme is now two sets of as many reps as I can do (at least 5 & less than 12) at the highest weight I can use.

This method has now increased my lifting by about 30%.

Now I’ve noticed how effective it is – I’ll start keeping closer tabs on it and report back here!

This is highly recommended.

LinkedIn is about finding people for projects or collaboration, and helping your connections do the same. LinkedIn makes your network more efficient, letting you keep in touch with the people you know and find the people you don’t, but who are only a step away.

It doesn’t appear to be a spam pit… it actually looks very useful. It means that we can all use our own personal networks (all the people we know) to link to other people and their personal networks… for many different reasons.

As an example, I know people who install security systems very cheaply and do a great job. You didn’t know that. But if you want a security system – all you have to do is ask linkedin.com and they’ll pass the message from you, through me, to them.

Brilliant.

Give it a go and let me know what you think.

You can invite me in too… I’m using “linkedin@pcguru.com.au”.

www.linkedin.com

Ok yeah, I crumbled… I wasn’t going to do it as I waste too much damn time on this Ninternet thing already.

I’ve added this site and e3 to blogshares.com to see how we fare.

Go buy some shares!

http://www.blogshares.com

Ok, we’re seeing some delays on the secret project.
I guess we just underestimated the complexity of making something simple to use. That sounds odd I know, but what we’re learning is that hiding the hard stuff by delivering an easy-to-understand interface is exquisitely difficult.

And I think it’s only going to get harder. We’re probably 70% through the code and interface design, however the user testing may force us to spend a great deal more time on the pretty stuff.

Nevermind – as long as it’s right when we launch it.

In the mean time, bookmark http://www.gotmyvote.com

It’s not his waistline that’s growing — it’s his wallet. Here’s how Atkins Nutritionals turned the diet world’s flavor of the month into a $100 million-plus empire.
By Susan?Orenstein

Robert Atkins doesn’t want dessert. “I’ve got to lose 3 pounds,” says the famed diet doctor, sitting in a French restaurant near his home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He passes on the creme brul?e, the fig tart, and the chocolate mousse cake, but he does order a cappuccino made with cream, a request that stumps the waitress. “It won’t foam,” she tells him, but he insists. After all, Atkins has made his name instructing millions that the way to peel off pounds is to steer clear of sugar and other carbohydrates but pour on the creamy fat. Now, at 72, white-haired and a little stocky, he’s following his own advice, trying to trim down before the arrival of a film crew from Dateline, one of the many media outlets tracking him down these days.

I’ve heard of similar studies before, but now HP has gotten into the game, studying how large groups email each other within a company to determine what the real organizational structure is.

Apparently, they say that how people email each other determines who the really important people are, and who really reports to whom. They also say it determines who is at the “heart” of any sub-group.

I wonder how accurate the system really is, and if it’s actually useful for anything. Will people risk getting laid off if their email usage patterns indicate they not as important as they think they are?

Found via GMSV.

Link: TechDirt

CNN correspondent Kevin Sites has been sharing what amounts to a blogless wartime blog with BoingBoing readers over the past few weeks. An excerpt from the latest in his ongoing series of e- mailed, first-person accounts from Kuwait follows (the rest is here):

“For most of the journalists here in Kuwait, this is the fear and this is the joke; that for all our technology– our videophones and portable dishes, our Thurayas, and Iridiums and Neras, our digital cameras and laptop editing systems–we could end up covering this war with wind up film cameras.

It’s on the grapevine that the U.S. Air Force has developed an electro magnetic pulse weapon at Kirtland Air Force that could be used in war against Iraq. The concept is devastating simple; flying over the target area, the military emits a microwave swath, which basically fries the electronics of any appliance or device in its path.

Like a giant switch, when the EMP weapon is flicked on, the lights go out. People, however, are supposedly spared–unless they happened to be wearing a pacemaker or are hooked up to other life sustaining machinery. The EMP weapon does not apparently differentiate between cell phones and hospital respirators.

Tactically, it could help to end the war more swiftly, by denying Iraq any military communications. The order to fire a chemical weapon may be eliminated along with the chain of command.”

Microsoft, like Enron, now pays zero federal income tax, even though Microsoft’s earnings for the two years ending June 2001 exceeded US$15 billion. This nonpayment of federal income tax is indeed the largest source of Microsoft’s massive US$40 billion cash balance.

Accountants and investment professionals have argued that it does not matter, since the employees pay tax on wages paid in stock as ordinary income, and these amounts are on their W-2s. Why double-tax companies such as Enron and Microsoft?

What the business media and analysts missed was the significance of not showing wage expense on the income statement. This wage expense at Microsoft exceeded US$22 billion for the two-year period ending June 2001, and not a dime of this amount is charged against its earnings. Showing this expense as a charge to earnings would indeed make Microsoft, like Enron, an unprofitable company.

Link: Portland Tribune

Weird.

I’ve had over 20 emails regarding the 16kgs I lost via the “no-carb” variation of the low-carb or Atkins-Style diet^H^H^H^Hlifestyle.

Each time the senders are seeking more information about what they can & can’t eat – and where to get the “special” foods.

Let me try and put it straight.

There is nothing special or tricky about this diet. It’s really as simple as avoiding any carbohydrates and sugars.

That includes fruits, cereals, flour (and therefore breads and pastries), root vegetables (like potato) and sweet alcoholic beverages.

The reason it’s so easy is that you can (but really shouldn’t) gorge on the other stuff. Eat meat. Leave the fat on it. In fact, leaving the fat on works because it makes you feel full.

This feels entirely non-intuitive – but all I can suggest is to try it for a couple of weeks. An ex-colleague of mine gave it a go – and in two weeks she’s lost 7 kgs. Amazing.

So what do I tend to eat? Mainly meat. Turkey, chicken, tuna, slamon, beef, lamb, sausages and so on. But also plenty of helathier things like cheese, eggs & lettuce. There are a few web sites around – try googling for “low carb recipies”, but I’d rather explain it in two words.

Cave Man. Ok it’s normally one word but I’m trying to keep this simple by avoding long words.

Just imagine what a caveperson would have in their diet. Meat. Leafy vegetables. Meat. Water. Pepsi Max. Meat.

Minimal amounts of carbs isn’t going to affect things so don’t avoid condiments and other dressings – just be careful. Oh – and butter’s good.
I try to stay below 15gms of carbs per day. YMMV.

If you insist on getting a book – try “Protein Power”. It does have recipies and also offers some reasonably convincing arguments as to why it works.

But this has got my brain ticking.

I wonder what the market is like for foods specifically labelled as “low-carb” rather than “low-fat”? We’re already seeing a surge in “low-glycemic”.

If you think “low-carb” labelled foods supplied either via a web site or via local stores would work – leave a comment or send me an email….

Hrmmm eh?