BUGGA dot NET – Your home for information on Beer, Cars and IT

  • News – Gaim

    GAIM! Its great – it talks to all the major IM platforms (MS-Messenger, AOL/iChat, ICQ, Jabber) it runs on windows, linux and Mac OS X. Its great and I highly reccomend it.

    Just released is GAIM 1.3.1 which contains some bugfixes.

    M

  • Azureus : Java BitTorrent Client

    If you are like me and you have a hard time spelling Azureus and end up spelling it like azereues or azerous or azereus or any number of the other permutations that are out there, well hopefully the link above will help you find the best bittorrent/bit-torrent client out there.

    Its cross platform as long as you have a JRE (Java runtime – JAVA found there) it should work fine.

    Well Enjoy!

    M

  • A few days ago, I your fearless raving mad… Ed! car tester decided to go check out the new MkV GTI to see what the fuss is all about.

    First off I spent a bit of time talking to the sales driod (Michael at Solitaire in Medindie, SA) who seemed to know his stuff about the car to learn what and how the dealers are selling this car. I didn?t pay all that much attention.

    The seats are nice, and purdy (tartan) and the leather is just yummy to sit on but not designed for wide loads like myself. The steering wheel is very nice to look at, and the gear lever is swoit. The glove box is crappy, almost an afterthought and the quality of plastics is well, a step backward compared to the MkIV to be perfectly honest.

    Enough of the chit chat – we took out a black manual to begin with, just a leisurely drive through North Adelaide and back to the dealer – the car is quiet, smooth and powerful when used/needed, surprisingly so even. It does not seem to generate much head turning. Next up was a Silver DSG, same route, very similar behaviour to the manual, but how quickly does the DSG change gears? ? bloody quick that?s how quick and talk about smooth ? a babies bum would be jealous!

    Back at the dealer I ummed and aaaaed and thought about what has just transpired, and came to the conclusion that what I had just experienced was just not enough, and requested a drive up Gorge Road to see if this car is what I am looking for in a GTI and even in a car. So I sign the bit of paper, let them photocopy my licence and am handed the keys to the Silver DSG (w/ leather and sun roof).

    So I wander down to Robin’s place (he has a MkII GTI ’88 Campaign UK spec/import) and picked him up for the ride – he gets in the car and immediately comments about how much like a diesel it sounds (smart arse) and we proceed up to Gorge Road.

    Acceleration of the DSG is just phenomenal mind blowingly even its just bloody good?. Handling is sharp and the suspension/chassis is sweet. Then we get to the beginning of the twisties – there are cars, lots of slow cars filled with cardigan wearing grandpa?s, but the GTI just blows past them like they are not there and time on the wrong side of the road is minimised. The chassis is just plain awesome at following these curves and there is very VERY little (nay bugger all) understeer which is quite surprising. Once we get to cuddly creek we cut across to North East Road and back down to the stealer via Paracombe Road.

    Once we get back to the stealer the dissection begins.

    Pros: Handling is swoit, suspension is magical, acceleration/torque is just phenomenal! Its nice but…. that leads to the …
    Cons: Its too easy – its lowest common denominator of a car – the exhaust is too quiet, and the engine sounds asthmatic at high revs just unsmooth but not raw enough. This car is not the kiddie eating, arm gnawing mean machine that we expect from the likes of the MkI and MkII GTI’s. This is a big friendly if somewhat dopey dog that likes strangers to death rather than a savage Guard dog that would tear all and sundry to bits to protect its master. Its not an engaging or challenging drive. Also for as good as the steering wheel looks its just plain not comfortable, its pointy/pokey sharp on the bits I like to hold (to keep the paddles close at hand) and just not nice, VW have done better steering wheels in the past and this is a step backwards.

    I must say I was personally let down by the reality that is the MkV GTI, I mean its beyond most cars on the road today bang for buck, and but as a drivers car is just seems that something is lacking, unfinished, not quite there yet. Close but no banana ? and as a chunky monkey I *want* the banana!

    I wanted to love this car to bits, I wanted to sell my first born to have one but in the end, i felt numb, washed out like meeting someone famous only to discover that they are the worlds biggest wanker in real life (well not quite that bad, but you know what I mean.).

    The only solace that I take from my trip today is that all is not lost with the GTI, give is 10-15kW more, stick on a haldex module beefen up the exhaust, work the steering to make it seem more connected to the road, more raw and you have yourself one AWESOME car! And the DSG – I don?t care what anyone says – its a BLOODY good box, its just plain awesome – I tried all modes – trippy tronic (only change gears by paddles or +/-), Sport (keeps it at 3K minimum in each gear) and Dopey (normal) and all are adequate for driving around in, but trippy tronic and paddles was the best fun, even though S would probably have kept the car happier all on its lonesome.

    Poor Robin didn’t get a change to have a go, but hey, he wasn?t a jibbering wreck post this drive, and I am not the worlds best driver (as much as I wish I was) this car drives you.

    All said and done now – my mum would love this car for all the reasons I don?t – lots of power, piss easy to drive nice and insulated from the rest of the world flying by.

    M

  • The German built, BMW based Wiesmann – A M3 underneat a 60’s sports car outside that handles like you wont believe.

    I wants one. If any Wiesmann guy is out there and needs a Skippy to test, show it off et al. let me know! I’m up for it!

    M

    Cheers to Bleifuss for the spelling correction.

  • Whirlpool Forums – Thread: Being slashdotted + bandwidth usage.

    I want to store this so I can easily find how to enable gzip sending of webpages when I get off my backside to enable it.

    In the mean time please leave my poor little 300MHz server in relative peace 😉

    M

  • I have to admit that I thought this was a scam when I first heard of it and that it would be responsible for a deluge of spam, surprisingly after a year the yahoo account I set up specifically for it is not the target of spammers, in fact I get very little spam, and what I do get started coming before I signed up for emailcash. So why join?

    Honestly I buy a lot of tech equipment online and DVDs not surprisingly a great deal of the “reward partners” sell the items I buy so its no skin off my nose to buy via them and get reward points back. (Basically 1 point per dollar for most places and you can convert your points into Emailcash dollars at a rate of around 100 points per dollar which works out when its all said and done to about a 1% discount – there are also things like surveys that you can do usually 200 points (2$) to 1,000 points (10$) depending on how involving they are).

    In my first year I have got about $150 worth of cheques from EMC and give it a hearty thumbs up!

    EMC Piccie

  • I used to have a VW Golf 2.0 Sport. It was a nice sensible Volkswagen based on the Mark Four platform which meant that it had lots of body roll and did not handle all that brilliantly but capably.

    The 2 litre 8 vavle engine only produced 85kW at the flywheel which just want not enough for my liking, I ended up replacing the sweet 2.0 Sport with an Audi S3 – more about that in another article.

    Check out the 2.0 here

  • I’m an Aussie and if I can’t understand the various names that different state’s server their beer in, I hardly expect anyone else to, so I have this lovely image that explains it all, way more simply than I could ever hope to.

    Beer sizes across australia made simple!

    I don’t recommend drinking VB its just watered down cats urine, although it is a step up from Fosters!

  • AUSTRALIA – the confusing country

    by Douglas Adams (…of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy fame)

    Australia is a very confusing place, taking up a large amount of the bottom half of the planet. It is recognisable from orbit because of many unusual features, including what at first looks like an enormous bite taken out of its southern edge; a wall of sheer cliffs which plunge deep into the girting sea. Geologists assure us that this is simply an accident of geomorphology and plate tectonics, but they still call it the “Great Australian Bight” proving that not only are they covering up a more frightening theory, but they can’t spell either.

    The first of the confusing things about Australia is the status of the place. Where other land masses and sovereign lands are classified as either continent, island, or country, Australia is considered all three.

    Typically, it is unique in this.

    The second confusing thing about Australia are the animals. They can be divided into three categories: Poisonous, Odd, and Sheep. It is true that of the 10 most poisonous arachnids on the planet, Australia has 9 of them. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that of the 9 most poisonous arachnids, Australia has all of them. However, there are curiously few snakes, possibly because the spiders have killed them all. But even the spiders won’t go near the sea. Any visitors should be careful to check inside boots (before putting them on) under toilet seats (before sitting down) and generally everywhere else. A stick is very useful for this task.

    Strangely, it tends to be the second class of animals (the Odd) that are more dangerous. The creature that kills the most people each year is the common Wombat. It is nearly as ridiculous as its name, and spends its life digging holes in the ground, in which it hides. During the night it comes out to eat worms and grubs.

    The wombat kills people in two ways: First, the animal is indestructible. Digging holes in the hard Australian clay builds muscles that outclass Olympic weightlifters. At night, they often wander the roads. Semi-trailers (Road Trains) have hit them at high speed, with all 9 wheels on one side, and this merely makes them very annoyed. They express this by snorting, glaring, and walking away. Alas, to smaller cars, the wombat becomes an asymmetrical launching pad, with results that can be imagined, but not adequately described.

    The second way the wombat kills people relates to its burrowing behaviour. If a person happens to put their hand down a Wombat hole, the Wombat will feel the disturbance and think “Ho! My hole is collapsing!” at which it will brace its muscled legs and push up against the roof of its burrow with incredible force, to prevent its collapse. Any unfortunate hand will be crushed, and attempts to withdraw will cause the Wombat to simply bear down harder. The unfortunate will then bleed to death through their crushed hand as the wombat prevents him from seeking assistance. This is considered the third most embarrassing known way to die, and Australians don’t talk about it much.

    At this point, we would like to mention the Platypus, estranged relative of the mammal, which has a duck-bill, otter’s tail, webbed feet, lays eggs, detects its aquatic prey in the same way as the electric eel, and has venomous barbs attached to its hind legs, thus combining all ‘typical’ Australian attributes into a single improbable creature.

    The last confusing thing about Australia is the inhabitants. First, a short history: Some time around 40,000 years ago, some people arrived in boats from the north. They ate all the available food, and lot of them died. The ones that survived learned respect for the balance of nature, man’s proper place in the scheme of things, and spiders. They settled in, and spent a lot of the intervening time making up strange stories.

    Then, around 200 years ago, Europeans arrived in boats from the north. More accurately, European convicts were sent, with a few deranged and stupid people in charge. They tried to plant their crops in Autumn (failing to take account of the reversal of the seasons when moving from the top half of the planet to the bottom), ate all their food, and a lot of them died.

    About then the sheep arrived, and have been treasured ever since. It is interesting to note here that the Europeans always consider themselves vastly superior to any other race they encounter, since they can lie, cheat, steal, and litigate (marks of a civilised culture they say) – whereas all the Aboriginals can do is happily survive being left in the middle of a vast red-hot desert, equipped with a stick.

    Eventually, the new lot of people stopped being Europeans on Extended Holiday and became Australians. The changes are subtle, but deep, caused by the mind-stretching expanses of nothingness and eerie quiet, where a person can sit perfectly still and look deep inside themselves to the core of their essence, their reasons for being, and the necessity of checking inside your boots every morning for fatal surprises. They also picked up the most finely tuned sense of irony in the world, and the Aboriginal gift for making up stories. Be warned.

    There is also the matter of the beaches. Australian beaches are simply the nicest and best in the entire world. Although anyone actually venturing into the sea will have to contend with sharks, stinging jellyfish, stonefish (a fish which sits on the bottom of the sea, pretends to be a rock, and has venomous barbs sticking out of its back that will kill just from the pain) and surfboarders. However, watching a beach sunset is worth the risk.

    As a result of all this hardship, dirt, thirst, and wombats, you would expect Australians to be a dour lot. Instead, they are genial, jolly, cheerful, and always willing to share a kind word with a stranger, unless they are an American. Faced with insurmountable odds and impossible problems, they smile disarmingly and look for a stick.

    Major engineering feats have been performed with sheets of corrugated iron, string, and mud. Alone of all the races on earth, they seem to be free from the ‘Grass is Greener on the other side of the fence’ syndrome, and roundly proclaim that Australia is, in fact, the other side of that fence. They call the land “Oz”, “Godzone” (a verbal contraction of “God’s Own Country”) and “Best bloody place on earth, bar none, strewth.” The irritating thing about this is they may be right.

    There are some traps for the unsuspecting traveller, though. Do not under any circumstances suggest that the beer is imperfect, unless you are comparing it to another kind of Australian beer. Do not wear a Hawaiian shirt. Religion and Politics are safe topics of conversation (Australians don’t care too much about either) but Sport is a minefield. The only correct answer to “So, howdya’ like our country, eh?” is “Best {insert your own regional swear word here} country in the world!”.

    It is very likely that, on arriving, some cheerful Australians will ‘adopt’ you, and on your first night, and take you to a pub where Australian Beer is served. Despite the obvious danger, do not refuse. It is a form of initiation rite. You will wake up late the next day with an astonishing hangover, a foul-taste in your mouth, and wearing strange clothes. Your hosts will usually make sure you get home, and waive off any legal difficulties with “It’s his first time in Australia, so we took him to the pub.”, to which the policeman will sagely nod and close his notebook. Be sure to tell the story of these events to every other Australian you encounter, adding new embellishments at every stage, and noting how strong the beer was. Thus you will be accepted into this unique culture.

    Most Australians are now urban dwellers, having discovered the primary use of electricity, which is air-conditioning and refrigerators.

    Typical Australian sayings

    “G’Day!”

    “It’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.”

    “She’ll be right.”

    .And down from Kosciusko, where the pine clad ridges raise their torn and rugged battlements on high, where the air is clear is crystal, and the white stars fairly blaze at midnight in the cold and frosty sky. And where, around the overflow, the reed beds sweep and sway to the breezes, and the rolling plains are wide. The Man from Snowy River is a household word today, and the stockmen tell the story of his ride.”

    Tips to Surviving Australia

    Don’t ever put your hand down a hole for any reason whatsoever. We mean it.

    The beer is stronger than you think, regardless of how strong you think it is.

    Always carry a stick.

    Air-conditioning.

    Do not attempt to use Australian slang, unless you are a trained linguist and good in a fistfight.

    Thick socks.

    Take good maps. Stopping to ask directions only works when there are people nearby.

    If you leave the urban areas, carry several litres of water with you at all times, or you will die.

    Even in the most embellished stories told by Australians, there is always a core of truth that it is unwise to ignore.

    See Also: “Deserts: How to die in them”, “The Stick: Second most useful thing ever” and “Poisonous and Venomous arachnids, insects, animals, trees, shrubs, fish and sheep of Australia, volumes 1-42”

    please note I am not the copy-right holder of this info – it all belongs to Douglas Adam’s, although I think he’s got it!

  • Hello,

    Welcome to the new b-u-g-g-a dot NET website. We hope that you enjoy this new look site, and hope that it will be informative and useful to you!

    M