Bugga.NET » Miscellaneous

Frustration thy name is google

malliemcg — Tue, 15 May 2012 05:20:01 +0000

Just having a whine about google changing the way they’re doing google apps for your domain. I’m sure that there are a lot of organisations out there for whom this is relevant, but really, would it have very nice to have been able to at the very least merge all my domain management accounts (eg adsense) into the admin account for my domain rather than having to go with a .gmail.com or an external email address.

I like to break up various tasks by uid under my domain, cest la vie.

Don’t get me started on the hassles that now abound with a GAFYD vs a standard google account

/whine over.

Original Starcraft – Graphics Fix – Win7 64bit

malliemcg — Thu, 03 May 2012 23:03:16 +0000

If you like me had a hankering to play the original StarCraft and ended up with odd colour (color – for those from the USA) artifacting the following reg file fixed my issues (a fully patched to 1.16 at time of writing)

Just copy the following text into a new text document, rename it to a .reg – and play away.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DirectDraw\Compatibility\StarCraft116]

"Flags"=hex:00,08,00,00

"ID"=hex:ca,89,65,49

"Name"="Starcraft.EXE"

Andalucian Lamb Stew with Saffron

malliemcg — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 04:53:41 +0000

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon saffron threads
4 cloves
8-10 peppercorns
1/2 teaspooon ground cinnamon
4 cloves garlic
2 tablespoon flat leaved parsley
6 tablespoons olive oil
1.5kg lamb leg cut into 1.5″ cubes
1 green capsicum
1 yellow capsicum
2 onions
2 carrots
2 tomatoes
4 potatoes
200ml dry red wine

Method:

Place saffron, cloves, cinnamon, garlic, parsley, peppercorns and 1 tablespoon sea salt into a mortar, pound with pestle into a rough paste. Transfer into a bowl and add 100mL warm water.

Heat oil in a large saucepan or cast iron casserole dish over medium heat. Fry the lamb in batches for 5-7 minutes or until browned on all sides. Transfer to a large bowl.

Fry capsicum, onion and carrot in the saucepan for 10-12 minutes or until softened. Add tomato and cook for 5 minutes.

Return lamb to the pan add the spice and water mix and the wine, and stir well. Bring mixture to the boil, cover and simmer for 1 hour over low heat, adding more water (a little at a time) as necessary.

Add the potato and cook for 30 minutes or until the lamb is soft and tender, the potato is cooked and the sauce is thickened. Serve with steamed rice.

I am tempted to add some flour to the lamb when browning it, but for first run will not try this modification.

Recommended wine by Gormet Traveller Wine Mag: 2008 Gemtree Vineyards “Roja Luna” Tempranillo from the McLaren Vale. As we had issues tracking down any Tempranillo’s at short notice we’re going with a Priorat 2005 “Noster” (Grenache/Carigan blend from Northern Spain), should still be interesting.

Customer Service Open Comments – July 2010

malliemcg — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 02:39:07 +0000

It’s time for a customer service update – and I have two experiences to share this time, I’ll start with a positive.

Beiersdorf: Recently I had my Nivea for men shaving cream can malfunction from new. I let them know and they listened to my feedback, treated my concerns with respect and sorted the situation out to my satisfaction to the point where I don’t feel ripped off and have no problems using them again. 10/10

Pizza Hut: Not such a great experience to report here. Ordered some Pizza online, plugged in credit card details and waited. Driver rocks up and expects cash – call store and they expect cash. Spoke to the manager and said if the system does not print out a credit card receipt is a cash order. Wonderful system, domino’s on the other hand, you order toss in your credit card details and pizza arrives no muss no fuss. Seriously Pizza Hut if you want to make happy customers make this process work better. For now I’ll be using Domino’s for pizza delivery needs.

Kindle 3 – WiFi

malliemcg — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 01:08:51 +0000

Amazon have announced the kindle available in 6″ with WiFi and WiFi+3G models.

Some of the key features of the Kindle 3 that may interest you is the higher contrast screen for that even more paper like visuals, even lighter and smaller than before, a new colour (graphite) which I personally find significantly more appealing. The best feature of the WiFi only kindle is it’s price at $139USD even with currency conversion and shipping to Australia it’s price competitive with the Kobo which was the cheapest e-ink based eBook reader available down here.

Kindle WiFi direct link for Australians

Finally some sense

malliemcg — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:47:08 +0000

Hopefully patents on gene’s will not long be completely invalidated
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/03/decision-over-breast-cancer-tests-hammers-gene-patents.ars .

Common sense from a US court, I’m sure that’s one of the signs of the apocalypse.

Excellent Lamb Roast

malliemcg — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:43:51 +0000

This is how I like to cook my lamb roast.

Night before – cover roast in garlic and leave resting in the fridge – this will give ample time for more than just the immediate outside to get some flavour into it.

Day of cooking – add mint, rosemary or what ever other herbs you are liking to season it with.

Just before popping into the oven – salt the outside of the roast, try and stick to the fatty areas and avoid the meaty bits – as salt will dry out the meat you don’t want to put it on the non fatty bits or leave it too long.

Method (per kg)
Preheat oven to 220-250C
Place roast in said oven for 20-30 minutes (depending on size and shape) this is to seal the outside of the roast and keep the juices inside it.
After this time reduce the temperature to 160-180C (I like 170) and cook for 30 minutes per kg.

I like to leave my roasts in the fat for the flavour during cooking, I’m still perfecting adding the vegetable timings, but have had some success w/ 2kg roasts and lots of vegies @ the 1hour before mark. (Adding at temp reduction point).

Once cooked – remove vegies from pan and put back into the oven, cover roast with aluminium foil and leave to rest (10-15 minutes per KG) while you make the gravy etc.

Vaccinations

malliemcg — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:52:36 +0000

It seems that there has been a great deal of scaremongering going on regarding vaccinations and autism. While there may be some people/babies who have reactions to vaccinations there has been no link found between vaccinations and autism, and any reaction when taken as a whole are rare compared to the risks of not vaccinating children. While I certainly hope these words don’t come back to haunt me, I feel that as a community we are only protected from outbreaks/risks if large proportions of people are vaccinated – it may not prevent an infection, but like the flu vaccine for adults if they get the bug they’re likely to be better protected against it and not have a severe reaction to it. Yes there are risks, but they’re much smaller than ignoring the potential of the bugs that are being prevented by vaccinating, parents I implore you to feel the fear and do it.

Gadget Gear – Spammers

malliemcg — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:14:45 +0000

Well I just got a spam from gadgetgear.com.au they are spammers do not buy from them I never have. If I work out how they got my email address I’ll post who/what and how they got it and see what can be done.

Earth hour participants – possible idiots?

malliemcg — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 07:38:40 +0000

I’d like to point out to the EA numpties that the amount of CO2 released by a candle is more CO2 than an electric light lumen for lumen (9.8x or so). To those who say “it’s symbolic and showing your support for the Earth” I’d like to respond with – yes and so is eating a cow to show support for people who would like the lamb industry stopped.

How about working on pollution, over fertilisation, over use of pesticides and stuff that actually matter. End of the day the this little blue ball is going to get cooked quite badly when our sun enters its red giant phase.