Trainman's Trash

Flickr

2008-07-24T14:29:10Z

I have just got a free Flickr account for uploading *stuff*

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28746286@N07/

It's cold

2008-07-23T13:35:56Z

Very cold (for Sydney at least).

Weather Stats couldn't cope. See 72 hour temperature graph:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1699084&id=1281489232

Flu

2008-07-19T09:05:39Z

A man came to our house today with the flu. He gave it to me. Now I have the flu. And it is happily expelling smoke from my heater.

He was supposed to turn up at 11:30, but didn't arrive until after 13:00. He left at 16:00. He replaced two and a bit sections of flue pipe, swept the rest, repaired the hat and extended the outer flue all for $100 less than he quoted. Now the fire works a lot better, because the smoke can actually get out of the fire box.

Bucharest Metro

2008-06-19T10:50:53Z

I will be going on the Metro in Bucharest in October. It made the Sydney paper today:

http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,26058,23883608-5014090,00.html

Eurovision

2008-06-14T03:21:17Z

Just turned the TV on to watch a DVD. SBS seems to be running a repeat of the Eurovision song contest, and as there is noone else here, I thought I would try to enjoy it more than rubbergirl did.

It is now quite cold outside, so I am grateful for having a heater inside.

I've just heard there are MAJOR train delays to all lines except the Illawarra due to overhead wiring problems at Central. It is a shame it isn't a weekday.

Relaxing

2008-06-14T02:23:39Z

Went to the spa last night at about 20:00. I didn't see anyone else at all. I fell aslep in the spa, and woke up at 22:00. Went back to the cabin and went straight to bed. Woke up at 06:00 for a bladder download, then went back to bed. Woke up at 11:00 feeling much better than I have for the past week (04:00-06:00 starts at work). Cooked cheese and onion rissoles for breakfast and said hi to Will. At 12:00, the clouds came over and wind started up, so I have just got dressed, and might put the heater on and watch some DVDs.

Letter to my credit union

2008-06-12T06:51:21Z

"I am furious that it is now necessary to keep changing my password!

I actually closed an account with another bank because of their internet banking password policy.

Before you say that it is for my protection, just think about it. You require me to use a password with at least 5 characters, two of which must be numbers. You also state that it cannot have been used before. I can't remember complex passwords such as these when I have to remember different passwords for a range of other services. The only way to guarantee that I will be able to remember yet another complex password is to write it down. How does that protect me?!"

Facebook

2008-06-10T09:18:47Z

Did I mention that I hate Facebook?

Tonight, I get this message: "Your account is temporarily unavailable due to site maintenance. It should be available again within a few hours. We apologize for the inconvenience."

If you have time, read this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook

Happy Trainman

2008-06-06T12:09:13Z

I'm happy for a change. It's all a bit of a shock.

I was on the 21:02 arrival at Campbelltown tonight, and had resigned myself to a 1 hour 38 minute wait for the train home. I got blocked at the signal before the platform, so I leaned out the window and asked the second person on 1293 in the down refuge when they were going. They told me after the XPT, so I asked if I could get a lift to Picton, and they said yes. Then the signal cleared, so I took my train up to the platform and got relieved. Then the SPI showed "Does Not Stop" as the next train, and Nathan came out of the signal box with his video camera. Cool! No sooner than this had happened, 1293 came out of the refuge and slowed to a stand next to me, and I climbed on board. I was home by 21:45 instead of 23:10! The driver was excellent and had the train sitting perfectly on the speed boards without any coupler runs - a true master of train operations. I bid them farewell at Picton, and they roared off into the night with a few thousand tonnes of petrol for Canberra, just as my would-be train left the other platform to go to Campbelltown.

Big Bertha

2008-06-02T11:03:36Z

Just spent 3 hours stripping down, cleaning and overhauling the HP LaserJet 4500dn.

I decided not to replace the drum kit yet, as it still has 14% life left. The fuser kit is down to 10% and will be first to die. The transfer kit has 33% left.

Heater$

2008-05-31T14:24:42Z

OK, so the heater in the loungeroom has the following part missing:
http://pivotonline.com.au/product_info.php/cPath/21_24/products_id/29

Two of these are broken:
http://pivotonline.com.au/product_info.php/cPath/21_24/products_id/43

I don't think it has any of these:
http://pivotonline.com.au/product_info.php/cPath/21_24/products_id/71

And this doesn't work:
http://pivotonline.com.au/product_info.php/cPath/21_24/products_id/34

This part is complete, but the nut is missing from the bottom:
http://pivotonline.com.au/product_info.php/cPath/21_24/products_id/696

The bills keep stacking up.

Was going to dismantle and overhaul the colour laser printer, but I can't get to it due to all the shit on the floor.

My job for next week was supposed to be freelancing on the Illawarra line. WTU rang me up and changed it all and now I have road knowledge training on Sector 2. I have only been driving sector 2 full time for about a week, and I'm not qualified for Flemington sheds or Maintrain, even though it is part of the training. RailCorp's training is really dodgy, and it is getting worse due to short staffing. I asked the OSMs and DM to qualify me for Femington sheds, but they refused as "Campbelltown don't go there." Fine. I won't. I don't know how the trainees are going to get qualified, but I suspect it will be a case of reading the exam answers to them just prior to sitting it. Luckily I won't be at Petersham, because I don't want any part in it.

I am this || close to resigning my position as a trainer and just driving trains which is what I always wanted to do. My expectations of the trainer position were nothing like what it has turned out to be. Management keep adding extra duties and are now trying to change our job description under "managerial prerogative".

Facebook

2008-05-29T09:59:03Z

After much avoidance, I have finally succumbed and started using Facebook. It seems to be an incredible waste of time, and is very cumbersome and difficult to use. Plus unreliable. It is, frankly, shit. But I will persevere, but I won't like it.

I should go to bed now, as I need to catch the 04:26 train to work in the morning.

Wood Fire

2008-05-29T09:56:56Z

For years, the old Heatcharm wood fire in the lounge room has shat me.

The electric fan is gruntful.

Every time I strip it down and test it, it seems fine. Then I reassemble it and it works fine. For about 4 minutes. Then it gets slower and slower until finally it stalls.

I had a look on the internet, and finally found a place that has spare parts for these geriatric heaters, and a new fan unit is $165, including the motor and the squirrel cage fan. Both need replacing, and it is a simple two wing nut changeover.

Seriously tempted to fork out (scarce) cash to try and make woosang happy.

Tel$tra

2008-05-29T07:49:06Z

Well, the technical dude rang up today and said I had been charged at 2G rates, not 3G. He asked what phone I used. They know the answer to this, but I told him it was a NextG phone. He then told me that the $27.50 internet connection should, in fact, have been $2, due to the data rates. All the other smaller connection charges should have been free (hence "Free to browse"). So that should knock the bill down a bit.

I don't think I will have any joy on an appropriate plan for my phone come July 1, so my 0427 number is on the endangered list.

Tel$tra

2008-05-27T10:34:05Z

I had two things I wanted to talk to Telstra about tonight.

1) Why they charged me $30 for 48 seconds of use (1.2 MB) I think this was when I used internet banking on my mobile. Outrageously overpriced, considering you can get 8MB for $5 a month if you pay in advance. Total rip off merchants.

2) They are discontinuing my phone plan and want to double the monthly access fee and remove my bonus option.

After bouncing through two consultants, I was transferred to the data section (which is open 24 hours) and put on hold. After 56 minutes, I talked to a consultant who couldn't answer my question, but put a request for more information through. That answer will take 3 days to come back.

Because that call went for an hour, when I tried to ring back (20:28), I got a recorded message: Our office is closed. Please call back between 8am and 9pm Monday to Friday. They really need to change the message to reflect their actual hours.

Grunties.

Mainly for Wombles

2008-05-20T14:27:23Z

http://img.4chan.org/b/res/68427361.html

Finally

2008-05-20T13:40:26Z

Well, it's taken a month, but I think I have finally got the new NAS working.

It is a D-Link DNS-313. Do not buy this device. Ever. It is crap.

I bought it, stupidly thinking that it would be better than the one I bought from Jaycar, which runs too slow.

It is dead easy to install. No tools required. Just insert hard disc, plug it in and turn it on. Run the CD and everything will just work.

Bullshit.

I sent it back to D-Link, and they couldn't find anything wrong. I rang their useless technical support call centre in India numerous times. I took it back to the shop I bought it from, who also said it worked, but there was a problem with DHCP.

To make this paperweight work, it is necessary to:

1) Do a hard reset on it.
2) Plug it directly into a laptop
3) Edit the laptop network settings to 192.168.0.*
4) Do not attempt to ping the paperweight on 192.168.0.32, because it is not there.
5) Run useless setup disc
6) Hope that setup disc can find paperweight.
7) Allow setup to format the hard disc, then reset device
8) Unplug power lead from paperweight, then plug it back in again.
9) Run setup disc again, because the first time will crash and not work
10) Format the hard disc again
11) Restart the device again
12) Open advanced settings. Username/Password is admin/admin. This is not documented anywhere and is at odds with what is written on the side of the box (admin/blank)
13) Turn off DHCP. It doesn't work anyway.
14) Assign an address in the correct range for your router (I used 192.168.1.131)
15) It now disappears from the laptop.
16) Reset all your laptop network settings back to how you had them before the nightmare started.
17) Unplug the LAN cable from the paperweight and plug it into your network switch
18) Log in from a different computer to the new IP address
19) If that doesn't work, tie LAN cable to towbar of car and take it for a drive

DO NOT BUY THIS DEVICE.

Crapper

2008-05-14T11:59:45Z

I did major surgery on the toilet. If you're interested, I photographed the operation.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=130866&id=1281489232

Frozen in Place

2008-05-03T02:04:54Z

Take a look at http://www.maniacworld.com/frozen-in-grand-central-station.html

Very cool.

Borscht

2008-05-02T01:39:53Z

The Hot Water System blew up. Well, it blew the fuse anyway. I didn't have a spare fuse, but I did have a 16A plug in circuit breaker. This morning it was tripped. No real surprise there - the HWS is rated at 4800 Watts (20 Amps). I reset the breaker, hoping to get enough warmth out of it before tripping again. The kWh meter was turning slowly, so I put an ammeter onto it. 1.5 Amps. The element is screwed, with the occasional shorting to earth. I can get a new element cheaply, but we don't like the Hot Waetr System in the laundry anyway, so now seems as good a time as any to replace the whole damn thing. I can get a new system for around $1000, but the price goes up to $1600 to move it out of the laundry. Grunt. A new solar HWS is $4000, but there are currently $2650 worth of government rebates to install solar, bringing it down to about $1500. So... For the same price, we can get a new solar hot water system installed and slash our electricity bill a bit.

The catch is, they can't install it until Monday. So, today, they are coming down to replace the element in the existing HWS to give us hot water until Monday, when they will replace it. Isn't that nice?

The only issue now is supervision. I am at work from 06:00 until 18:00, and Yvonne is at work from 11:00 until 23:00. Can they work unsupervised, or does Yvonne have to swap shifts?

It's all too hard sometimes. We don't need this expense either.

Internet, but no phone

2008-05-01T08:13:40Z

Sitting in the train at Tarago on the way home. I have broadband wireless internet, but only my NextG phone works here. None of the other mobiles work.

Woes

2008-04-30T07:15:38Z

The new HD PVR and the PS3 took up all my time today.

The remote control for the HD PVR is playing up. Most of the time, most of the buttons don't work. The stop button turns the power off, the up, left and right buttons don't work, but the down does. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 0 don't work, but 7 and 9 do. I rang beyonwiz, and they are posting me a new remote control, so hopefully that is the problem, and not the PVR.

The PS3 has had no picture all day, and the sound has been breaking up. I have plugged and unplugged cables and swapped them about, tried reconfiguring the Amp, but all to no avail. Late this afternoon, I sussed it. After doing a hard start (hold power button for 5 seconds), I could get it to start in 576 interlaced mode OK. I started increasing the resolution, up to 1080 interlaced with no problems. As soon as I went to 1080 progressive, the picture disappeared, and the sound started breaking up. The new 5 metre cable I bought from Fyshwick on Friday is not HDMI version 1.3, and so is not compatible with Full High Definition (despite the HD ready sticker on the front).

Quandry: I am going to Canberra tomorrow for half an hour to obtainium an 8 port gigabit and a 24 port 100Mbit network switch. Will I be able to race up to Fyshwick and change it over in time? Will they have a 3 metre version 1.3 cable in stock?

Hate.

Work

2008-04-30T01:42:45Z

Finished my last shift at Waterfall yesterday. I now have 5 days off, then go to Millennium school next Monday.

I have a letter that says it is at Campbelltown, but the Workplace Training Unit thinks it is at Eveleigh.

On Saturday week, my roster says I start at 03:57 at Waterfall, but Workplace Training Unit thinks I will still be at the Millenniuim school.

Shrug. They really have no idea what is going on.

At 09:40 this morning, the roster clerk rang up to see if I wanted to work today. "What shift is it?" "1805 start for 984 diagram." "Um, NO!" It is the worst shift in the depot - 8 and a half hours, with most of it on the move (About 6 and a half hours actual driving time IIRC) for 211 kilometres. If he had offered me a 1353 start I would have taken it.

Update

2008-04-22T09:50:10Z

I have been informed that within the next month, I will be transferring to Campbelltown depot. Hopefully, I will be able to catch the train to work a lot more often and save petrol money.

Staying at River Island for two days, then making our way to Canberra to see my sister get married in an old cemetery train station.

On the way down here, we saw two wedge tailed eagles eating a wombat next to the road. I stopped and managed to squeeze of a couple of shots before someone drove up behind me and scared them off. Damnit. I missed a really good shot, because I didn't have enough time to set the camera up properly.

Chasers

2008-04-19T02:07:37Z

The Chasers make me laugh. They went to America and asked people on the street some basic questions that most people would know the answers to.

Here are the results:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ3RrqBqk14&feature=related