Geiger Counter Antics - Part 1

Well, I recently bought a Geiger Counter. If you want to look at the specs, click here. It counts Alpha, Beta and Gamma radiation.

I have decided to measure, over the course of several days and weeks, the counts per minute around me. I will do a count outside (in my driveway) with the device pointing to the sky, and also indoors. Obviously the readings are somewhat random, so I'll take 5 readings and average them. Outside has a CPM of about 20 at the moment.

I also decided to take readings of various household objects, just for fun. One thing I was somewhat concerned about was the granite benchtop of our new kitchen, as I had heard of people with highly radioactive slabs. Ours does produce a higher count than ambient, about double in fact, but I am not worried about that. It's about the same as a common housebrick, with a CPM of around 40.

The only source of radiactivity in the house, that I know of, is in a smoke alarm. I had a spare one, so I took it apart just enough to expose the metal housing of the radioactive unit. That is, I removed the plastic cover only. There is a sticker that says it has a tiny piece of Americium in it. A direct reading on this metal housing gave a CPM of over 100. Moving away a few centimeters and taking a reading it dropped off considerably back to background levels. Don't panic about your smoke alarm, it's not going to kill you unless you break it open and eat the contents, and even then I'm not sure it would be a lethal dose. Still, I don't recommend it.

I wonder if the issues in Japan, which are a long way away, will show in my readings. Time will tell, and I'll get back to you on that.

ODBC connection issues in Windows 7

OK, so you have a database (eg SQL server) with an MS Access or similar front end. You have been using ODBC to connect to this database without issues for literally years with Windows XP clients. Recently you upgraded to some Windows 7 machines, and now the connection is not working -- what's gone wrong?

Well, the short answer is ---

For Windows 7, Connect using a User DSN rather than a System DSN in the "Data Sources (ODBC)" control panel.

I am not sure why the System DSN's are broken in Windows 7, but it seems they are.

Although it works in Windows 7 using a User DSN, this is not as good in some ways. If the machine is used in a hot-desk environment, then you will have to set up the ODBC driver for each User, rather than once for the System. For hand-me-down situations, it's one more thing to remember to setup. I have not tried a Terminal Services machine lately, but it's likely to be a pain in the butt on these as well.

If this post helped you, please leave a comment!

EDIT : 2012-05-31

I have had reason in my professional life to revisit this annoying issue, and have some more information to add.  It turns out that this is a 32/64 bit issue, and there are TWO versions of the ODBC admin control panel, based on 32 or 64 bit. It is explained in more detail in this knowledgebase article, which I recommend you read in full

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942976

What I love about this situation is the classic brain melter, and I quote ....

• The 32-bit version of the Odbcad32.exe file is located in the %systemdrive%\Windows\SysWoW64 folder.
• The 64-bit version of the Odbcad32.exe file is located in the %systemdrive%\Windows\System32 folder.

I had to read that one about 3 times before it sunk in.  The 32 bit version is in the SysWow64 folder, and the 64 bit is in the System32 folder. Hmmmm, logical.

Anyway, this all explains the behaviour and fix above - for USER DSN's, either version handle 32/64 bit, but for the MACHINE DSN's you have to use the right one, and the 32 bit is more common for older drivers and it's not the default tool in Win7 64 bit installs. I think I got that right!!

2011 Recently Watched Movies - Mini reviews

I have been going crazy lately (all this year) watching movies, a real binge, and wanted to give my brief thoughts on several of them. Many of these are classic (1960's) sci-fi wonders. The list here is presented in alphabetical order. There are probably a few minor spoilers here, so be careful. Anything marked with a "*" is something I think you really ought to see if you have not already.

2012 : A large scale modern disaster movie, which I found an entertaining watch at the time (I was bored in a hotel room), in an Americanised "action-packed" way. I don't think I'd watch it again. The best part is watching Woodie Harreison as the conspiracy theorist in raptures as Yellowstone goes up. The worst is all the underwater scenes, they may as well have been swimming in corn syrup.

A Clockwork Orange * : Seen it before, just wanted to see it again. Actually, I skipped bits, which is a crime, I know. Very intense film, with a lot of great but often disturbing scenes.

Barbarella * : Sci-Fi soft porn from the year I was born, with the very innocently played Jane Fonda. How can you not like a film where the main character strips in the opening credits? Actually, it has a real creativity in this film that I love, and more than a bit of popular culture was born from it. Good old Dino De Laurentiis (who also did Dune), it's a classic.

District 9 : An odd modern (2009) Sci-Fi where aliens land in South Africa but they are more or less refugees. Racism (well, the inter-species version of it) is quite well presented. It gets corny near the end, but overall a surprisingly good movie - it's got a very different vibe to anything I've seen before. It seemed like a black comedy documentary at first, but it changes.

Fahrenheit 451 : Probably the oldest film here, made in 1966. The premise is that the firemen actually start fires to burn books, which are banned. The story follows one such fireman. It meanders a little, but I did enjoy seeing a "future house" from the mid sixties. The large colour video wall must have seen so far out back then, but is a reality now, for example. An interesting plot on the whole, worth watching if you can find it.

Fight Club * : I am very late to this party, but I finally watched this. This is somewhat essential viewing if you are to understand the crowd at www.zerohedge.com, which is where I hang out some times. There are some plot inconsistencies, but overall I was very involved, and loved the character of Marla.

Flesh Gordon * : Note the spelling. This is the soft-porn version of Flash Gordon, which is one of my favourite movies from my youth. Surprisingly, it came out before Flash Gordon, but follows the plot of that film very closely. The stand out for me was William Dennis Hunt, who plays Emperor Wang the Perverted so magnificently. It's all harmless fun, with some nudity, and some simple but effective effects. You are more likely to laugh than be aroused. Based on this I also watched the sequel, "Flesh Gordon meets the cosmic cheerleaders" which is very, very bad indeed and needs to be avoided. Don't get them confused.

Inception : This is a story about people that can enter into a shared dream. It takes itself seriously, and also takes quite a bit of the time to explain what is going on. There are some plot inconsistencies if you stop and think about it for long -- such as the weightlessness is transferred from one dream to the next, but not to the next. They could have put more weirdness in it, and bits were a little matrix like in parts. I enjoyed watching this though, and it was a good thinking movie.

The Island : It might be hard to review this, even in a mini-way, without giving away the plot. This ultra-modern sci-fi lacks the subtlety of many of the older sci-fi movies in this list. It's been Americanised, and there are gratuitous action scenes which in the end add nothing. The scene with the mother "going to the island" is awful, not in a cinematic way, but as a repugnant idea presented unapologetically. Logan's run is, in my opinion, much better.

Logan's Run * : Note the apostrophe! I'd never seen this old sci-fi, and I really should have, it's great. Of course the effects are dated, and the scene with the robot is particularly sad, but there are other ideas that really make up for it. I don't know why exactly, but I really enjoyed this. I have a strange fondness for 70s architecture, so perhaps that's it.

Moon : A recent Sci-Fi, which had a bunch of interesting concepts in it. It's a kind of lonely film, but involving and well executed in the main. Shades of Alien, Space 1999, and probably 2001.

Repo Man * : I had seen this before, when it came out in 1984, and remember enjoying it at the time. It has aged well in my opinion, and I enjoyed re-watching it a lot too. Emillio Estevez plays the character of Otto as a likeable, flippant, dispirited youth. It has some elements of a David Lynch film, and gets pretty weird in places.

Shaun of the Dead : This one is a real change of pace compared to everything else on the list. I came to this movie after watching the entire 2 series of "Spaced", which is excellent. This movie almost has the same cast. It's a comedy zombie movie, of course a piss-take of Dawn of the Dead, and it's surprisingly funny. Tempted to put a star there, but ultimately all it is is entertainment - not much to think about afterwards.

They Live : Another old sci-fi, although not as old as some of the others at 1988. Roddy Piper plays the lead, and his acting is fairly poor on the main. However, the ideas in the film build up and eventually become quite engaging. There are corny one-liners in this movie like it's an Arnie film, but it doesn't come off as well. If you are paranoid, in a tin-foil hat government conspiracy kind of way, this movie is for you.

The Trip : From 1967, a Dennis Hopper creation of what it is like to take LSD.  There were a small number of annoying kaleidoscopic effects that went on too long, but overall this is a really good film. The scene in the laundry mat is a gem, as are any where Hopper appears.

Tommy : A rock musical, which for me isn't a good thing. I wanted to see this again for two scenes only really : The pinball song with Elton John on stilts, and the TV scene where the baked beans pour out. I re-watched those and that was it.

V for Vendetta : This is a strange movie in a lot of ways. I did like it a lot overall, with some powerful visuals. I quite like Portman too. I wonder what percentage of the movie is spent looking at the masked face of V though? Seemed like a bit too long by the end.

(Edit 24/3/2011 : Added links to Amazon DVD's. I didn't write this to generate money, but if you want to buy a DVD of any of these movies from Amazon, use the link and I'll get a small cut. Thanks.)

What you know....

Imagine If you had to write down everything you know. All the People, places, facts, meaning of words, things you remember, recipes, rules of card games, dreams you had, the whole kit an dice.

How many words or pages do you think it would take?

Where would you start?

How long would it take?

Would it be worth it?

Internet Kill Switch

I have been thinking about the situation in Egypt, and how this is a test case that a lot of other countries are watching closely. The US, of all places, is trying to put the legal dominoes in place to allow for this - and you have to ask yourself why they would want to do that.

I think that the internet can be considered a gathering of free minds in chat rooms and places like facebook and twitter. As such, it's a threat to repressive governments the world over. It's fairly old fashioned repression to stop people physically meeting in groups of more than 3, or setting curfews. However, meeting of minds rather than bodies is just as dangerous. The danger is, of course, in open communication and the strengthening of opposition to the interests of the oppressor. As far as the oppressor sees it - If you can't outright kill them, you need to be able to silence them.

I am surprised that there is not more concern, or even outrage, on the internet about the apparent ease that Egypt has been disconnected from the world. Reprogram a couple of thousand routers and it's been effectively cut off. So much for the military concept of traffic routing past obstacles, eh!

No offence to any American reader here, but I suspect that a lot of them might not even notice if their country was isolated from the rest of the world. I could be wrong about that.

Of course, as pretty much an internet junkie, I would be devastated by an internet kill switch. I don't watch television these days, certainly not for news. I get it all from the internet. It's an interactive experience, and I don't see any reason to go back. I hate ads, a lot, so TV grates on me in minutes. I have ad blockers even on my web browsers so that I don't have to see them here either. Anyway, this isn't a rant about ads.

If the internet is shut down in your country - what would you make of it? Would you panic? Would you be alarmed? Would you be angry? Do you consider access to the internet a modern human right? I wonder....

2010 - Economic Predictions - Scorecard

Back in Jan I made six predictions for 2010. This is a review of these and a discussion of how I went. Soon, I'll try my hand for 2011, but that's another post.

1. Double dip recession by mid year
Miss. It didn't happen, although it felt like it might at one point. Of course, you could argue that we never got out of the first dip, but that's beside the point here.

2. There will be trouble with US treasuries
Miss. I underestimated the Fed's ability to make up the demand with the likes of QE2. The US now owns more treasuries than any other country. They are eating their own dogfood. This is a short term tactic which has kept the game going, but it's a very risky thing to do.

3. Geopolitics will become more unstable
Miss. I'm glad to be wrong here. There have been some stresses in Europe, Mid-East (Iran) and Korea, but it's more or less held together.

4. Gold/Silver will have a rough ride
Miss. I should have specified the currency I was considering Gold / Silver in, and I thought I gave an indication of yearend up or down - but re-reading it I chickened out and didn't. Gold has stayed above US $1000 and is now trading at over $1400. Silver has recently gone balistic, after doing not much for the first 6 months of the year. My reasoning for the turbulence was linked with the double dip idea, so it's not surprising it also failed.

5. The US dollar will have a rough ride too
Miss. The USDX went up, quite a lot by mid year, and has since come back down to more or less where it started. Not really what I thought would happen. There are some sounds that the US dollar might be under threat - with rumours of alternative reserve currencies, but these have not been substantiated, yet.

6. Inflation? Deflation?
Hit! Well, a fairly easy call this one. I said "Deflation on the things you own or don't need (luxury goods), inflation on the things you need (food, energy). ". Food and Energy have gone up, in some cases dramatically, and certainly not by government statistics which are basically lies.

Summary
So... how did I do? Quite badly, really. I am reminded by the saying "Being early is the same as being wrong". The main thing I didn't anticipate is the willingness to dig the debt hole deeper and deeper to keep the game going. The bailouts of companies, or in the case of the EU, whole countries, continues as a matter of course. Default is a dirty word, as the interconnections are too strong and would mean systemic failure. Although nobody really believes that we are on long term sustainable policies or trends, the short term outlook in the year was positve and remained so. In other words, the future has been sacrificed for the sake of the now. How long this can go on is for my next post...

Chickens!

We have been keeping chickens on our suburban block since Feb 2009, which is not all that long, but long enough to have a few tales to tell. In that time we have had 7 animals, and sadly only 3 are still alive today. This is the story so far.

It started with me building a cage for them under our deck, which gives a huge secure run of over 10 meters. One end of it is always dry, and this is where I put their laying station and coop. Initially there was one door in, but a little later I put another door at the other end, which allowed them to easily free-range in the small back garden we have. 

We started with 2 "Light Sussex" birds, both around a year old. We called them Henny and Becky. The light part of the breed name is due to them being mostly white, as for weight, they are solid birds. Henny is on the right, for what it's worth (click for larger image).

Becky was the leader, and was tough but very fair - caring even. She spoke with a soft cooing, and was very easy to like. I say spoke because in my experience, all chicken communicate - but have their own unique sounds. Henny, at the time, was very timid, and kept her distance where possible.

Things were going well, so we decided to increase the flock to 4, by adding two more light sussex birds. We found some going reasonably cheap, and I drove to a parking lot in the middle of nowhere to pick them up. We called these two Max and Shelly.

Unfortunately, this is where some trouble started. The two new birds were younger, at about 12 weeks, and almost as soon as we got them home they got sick with "Bird Pox", which is not a big deal for an older bird but very rough on the younger two. We were also still very green at chicken maintenance, and this was also quite rough on us. It also happened to coincide with a long rainy period, where it was miserable for everyone. The two younger birds got progressively worse over the course of a week or so, and despite reassurance from the internet research that it would all be good, it wasn't. We were hand feeding the birds, giving them medicine and it all wasn't working. Their heads were swollen with sores, and their eyes covered over. They could not see to eat.

Shelly died. Max was renamed Plucky, as she really tried hard to live on, and showed a real sense of spirit. Going through the ordeal together we were willing her on, and formed quite a bond with this little being. She did, in fact, survive the Pox but a few weeks later we noticed a slight cloud in one eye. This appeared in the other eye, and we suspected she was slowly going blind. While she could still see to eat, she continued to grow and although identification is difficult, I believe we even got one or two eggs from her. One day though, about 6 months later, it was clear she could not see enough to eat, and was starting to waste away. She is the only bird I have had put down, it was the only humane thing to do. I can't kill a chook myself (not a pet anyway) so I took her to a vet. Really, we should have eaten her, but I doubt any of us would have eaten a bite if she was dinner.

One morning, unexpectedly, Becky was found dead in the Coop, near the door. A close examination of her showed no signs of problems - in fact, apart from being stone dead she was in perfect health! At around this time there was an unwanted visitor into the chook house - a possum. It was eating the chicken food. It took me a long time to work out exactly how it was getting in to the pen, as I had made the wire go all the way to the roof. I believe what happened is that the possum, in the morning, decided to take refuge in the coop and trapped poor Becky, who simply died of shock. It was a sad day, and there was wailing from the kids for some time.

From then on, Henny was the leader and we saw another side to her. She started out being quite vicious, but has since mellowed quite a bit. She still doesn't take any crap from anyone, and will peck someone out of the way if they don't get the message early. She's stopped being frightened of me, in fact, quite likes being around me.

The flock was getting a bit lean again, and as chooks are social animals you don't want to risk having just one. So I decided to go and get some more birds. We researched breeds and decided to get a different kind this time - the Australian bird the Australorp. They are all black birds with a beetle green sheen to them - very striking. But a funny thing happened when I was at the chook farm. I wanted to get three chickens. They also had white leghorn crosses, and Rhode Island Reds. I decided to come home with one of each breed, much to the exasperation of my better half. These new birds were named Lily (white leghorn), Mabel (Australop) and Artemis (from a book, Artemis Fowl - the Rhode Island Red). I did insist that all three get a jab for Bird Pox, which was not a standard procedure.

These young chooks were the three amigos, and I separated the henhouse so that they could see the other chooks though the barrier and get used to each other. Then I made a small hole so the small birds could go in with the bigger ones, and come back to safety if they wished. After a scuffle or two, this worked, and before long these birds were a flock. It took about a fortnight.

One issue we have with the location of the hen run is that it does get hot down there. Despite being in the shade, 40+ degree days are really nasty. To add to this, the air conditioning compressor is located near their run, and when it's very hot we want to put this on, which blows HOT air around outside. The solution is to have an A-frame cage in the garage, and on days that are going to get really hot we moved the birds into the cool area and they just had to chill out there. It was on one such day that the Rhode Island Red, Artemis, suffered more than the others and passed away. We think that in the tighter constraints of the A-frame she might have not been able to get to the water easily. She was a quirky chook, and again, sorely missed.

Since that time, and touch wood, we have had a lot more success, and have developed a routine that seems to work for everyone. Each morning a bowl of food is prepared for the birds (usually a slice of bread, some lettuce chopped up, and perhaps some leftovers, mixed with a little sunflower seeds and scratch mix). They always have dry food, softened dry food (ie wet in a bowl) and three sources of fresh water, including a huge water bell. The girls have been laying eggs for us most days, and we have not had to buy too many in the last year or so. Mabel took the longest to produce eggs, and hers have a slight mauve tint to them. She's a really sweet hen, so soft and gentle. Lily is a dumb blonde, and I don't think I would get another leghorn - except for the fact that she is by far the most reliable layer in the flock. The only thing I don't like about the Light Sussex is that sometimes they get "dirty" bum feathers, which need some trimming to keep clean.

Mabel recently went broody - she just wanted to stubbornly sit on her nest and do nothing else. This caused some issues, firstly that the laying station was occupied and the other hens had to find somewhere else to lay their eggs. She goes into a trance, and will even sit on an empty nest. I have to pick her up and put her down in front of food for her to snap out of it, for a while, so that she eats and drinks before clucking her way back onto the nest. I tried to separate her, but really, she got quite distressed and I didn't like to see her like that. We have not had any eggs from her for a while, and she's lost a lot of weight, but I'm hoping she'll snap out of it soon. They say it's a compliment to your chicken keeping abilities if a bird is happy enough to go into this state, and I hope this is true.

One thing that I have learnt is that each bird has it's own personality and character. They all like a routine, but perversely, they will change at least one thing per day! That may be the sleeping arrangements, the place they lay eggs, the number of eggs, what they eat, something. It's become somewhat of a joke that I come back from visiting the hens and say as I walk in the door "well, that was different!". "What now!?", everyone yells. This makes owning chickens fun, in my opinion, you never quite know what's going to happen next. It's work too, there is no doubt about that, and it's also somewhat costly, but it's worth it. They make good pets, are friendly, and entertain. When I go down of a morning with their food and Henny runs to the door to greet me, it cracks me up every time. The eggs are very special, not just because they are as fresh as is possible, and organic, and delicious, but because you have had a major part in caring for the creature that provided it. It's proof that it's all working, and it's good for them and it's good for you - you can taste it!