I hate that web developers only develop for IE. It shits me on so many levels. My mum has been having issues for ages trying to get to the Westpac Altitude points website. At one stage, it would refuse to even let her try and log in because it would only allow IE, based on the browser’s useragent string. It seems that changing the useragent isn’t neccessary on this site any more, but now when logging in, firefox pops up with the following error:

Firefox and images.pinpoint.net.au cannot communicate securely because they have
no common encryption algorithms

when firefox tries to download the images for the site.

To solve this problem, to go the about:config page in firefox, and set the option:
security.ssl3.rsa_rc2_40_md5 and set to true.

For other websites (e.g. Amazon) that I have seen have problems may require different security options to be set. I worked my way down the list of security options and changed the ones which were false to true, one by one. Maybe this might help somebody else one day.

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Stretch and J-Unit decided to write a little prose about our favourite parma to the clueless guys at superparma.com.

I have to reccomend the Big Arse Chook Parma at the Metropolitan Hotel in North Melbourne. I have tried many on your list (including 1-3), and none of them come close to the parmalogical magnificence that is on offer at the Metro.

This is not so much a chook as an emu dipped in batter and topped in an inch of cheese. I have never finished the whole thing. The accompanying chips are equally impressive. You can even satisfy your need for greens by nibbling on some foliage as you sit digesting the massive portion of poultry (I always find it hard to stand afterwards).

Perhaps the best thing about the parmas is the ‘parma high‘ you get afterwards. The brutal dose of carbs, protein and roids (neccessary for a chook to be this big) will keep you up all night, sweating out the overdose of goodness. All this for $16 ($12 on tight arse nights).

I expect after you try this parma it will rocket to #1 and stay there.

-Jay

Every local pub has its own little version of a chicken parma, but I have never seen one advertised on as a Big Arse Cook Parma until the day I entered the Metropolitan Pub that is part of the Metropolitan Meat Market.

As soon as you enter the bar and browse the menu a challenge is laid down to all chicken lovers. As you place your order the barman can see the anticipation in you eyes as he wishes you luck in completing your meal.

You prepare yourself for this fine feed with a few quite James Squires on tap and then your draw drops as they place the Big Arse Chook in front of you. This is not so much a chook as an emu covered in bread crumbs, ham, a tomato source, cheese and basil. The parmalogical magnificence blows you away as you dare to take your first bite into this work of art. The tender full breasted chicken melts in you mouth as the flavours tickle your tastebuds.

Best Parma ever.. 10/10

-Stretch

How could anybody pass up a meal like this. If you check out the superparma official standings, you’ll notice that the Leveson is on top. Stretch can vouch that the Leveson parma doesn’t compare to the Metropolitan Hotel.

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This coming Monday (28th November) is going to be parma night. The aptly named ‘Big Arse Chook Parma’ is a delicacy that can only be experienced (for $12!) at the Metropolitan Hotel in North Melbourne.

The Big Arse Chook Parma

Come one, come all to Parma night at the Metro. Let me know if you want to come. We’ll head over at about 6pm to get a good table.

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I scored myself an APC Backup-UPS RS 500 the other day. It’s a small unit designed for running pretty much one machine on it.

The nice thing about this is that it has a USB interface which I have connected to my server hosting andybotting.com, and allows me to monitor it using apcupsd software. It even comes with some basic CGI scripts so I can monitor it online. If there is a power-out, then the UPS alerts the apcupsd, and at a certain point, can instruct the server to gracefully shut down.

Although, my ADSL modem isn’t plugged into it yet because it uses different plugs. I need to find some way of converting the IEC power socket to something I can plug my Australian power plug into. One possible solution might be a standard 4-port powerboard, but with an IEC plug on the end. I can’t say I’ve actually seen one though.

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Haven’t blogged for a while, so he’s a quick update of what’s been going on.
At work late tonight, helping out because of a function. It was supposed to be finished at 9pm, but it’s now 10:15pm and they’re still here. Let’s bring on the tear gas and tasers

We started getting pissed off with the builders across the lane from us, so we started hassling the council about it, and maybe something’s going to get done. I moved my webcam server home, and set up two cams outside our window, so at any time, I can see what they’re doing. You can check it out at http://andybotting.com/webcam. Whatever you do, don’t leave it running too long, it kills my bandwidth

My old man is going to salary sacrifice a new laptop for me. This is nice because it means that i’ll only have to pay about 52c in every dollar. I was tossing up between an IBM ThinkPad and an Apple 15″ PowerBook, but I think the PowerBook is going to be the choice. I set up a Wiki page on everything I could find about running Linux on the new hi-res (powerbook5,8 Oct 2005) model PowerBooks here. It seems that there are a couple of little issues (current kernels don’t have support for the ATA controller, AGP and the Gigabit Ethernet but can be patched), but is basically ok. I should be ordering it in 2 weeks time.

I broke the Segway at work (not sure how…) but it’s back today. They couldn’t tell me exactly what broke, but it was under warranty anyway. Looks like i’m going back to my old rotation at IP Voice next week. They’ve got plenty of work and need some more bodies, so I’m going back to help out.

Also, the fuckwits managing this company decided to Not go ahead with the graduate intake for 2006. This does mean that the grads who were promised jobs, and signed their contracts will now be sacked. The Age ran an article about it, and there is also a Whirlpool forum on the subject. If you’re wondering, Nelsie’s still got her spot for next year. Phew.

Jezza has done some terrific work on his new Melways frontend. You can now search for an address to bring up the melways map to fill your full brower window, and even switch to the corresponding Google Maps satellite image. It’s the best we’ve got until Google bring maps to Australia

… also, I found this which made me laugh.

Note to self: blog more often

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