This started life as a bread-machine recipe, but it's just as easy making it by hand ...

1) Make a Yeast starter
200 ml warm water
5 ml sugar
7 ml dried (granular) yeast
Sprinkle yeast on warm water (don't stir!) and place in a warm place.

2) Make a kibbles-porridge in a pot
60 ml kibbled wheat
60 ml kibbled rye
60 ml buckwheat groats
(up to 200 ml)
200 ml water
Bring to boil for 1 minute then let sit.

3) In a mixing bowl:
350 ml wholemeal flour
150 ml white flour
10 ml salt
30 ml skim milk powder
30 ml gluten flour
80 ml sesame seeds
20 ml olive oil

4) add into bowl of dry ingredient:
kibbles porridge (make sure its cooled before adding yeast)
yeast starter

5) Stir together into a sticky wet dough,
and place in a warm place for about an hour.
(It should double in size.)

6) Turn out on to a well floured board & knead,
(not a lot, just mix it round a bit into shape).
7 Place in oiled baking tin for another 30-40 minutes in a warm place.
(It will rise about half again.)

8) Bake in 190C oven for 35 minutes.

I don't think it's just me!
I have lately been "the computer-guy" beside a number of people who have been variously trying to create a google account, or a gmail account or a google-groups login, and ...
the captchas a *really* bad!
Google captcha are so bad to read that many prospects just give up! (is this the intention?)
I've seen a few sites in my time, & Google's are the worst!

I've previously said I didn't like the way Vogel's bread has deteriorated, despite their label claims of "original recipe".
I have found a few reasonable replacements (e.g. Fitness Loaf from Kilbirnie German Bakery)
but in the end I got the Breadmaker out, and made my own.
This is the recipe I have settled on:

My Machine-assisted Vogels Substitute

Kibble porridge in a pot:
Up to 200 ml of Kibbles in a pot, I use:
50-100 ml Kibbled Wheat
50 ml Kibble Rye
50-100 ml Buckwheat Groats
200 ml Water
Put kibbles into a pot with 200 ml water & bring to boil for 1 minute.
This makes a porridge, to add to the mix with the water & oil.


In a Breadmaker:
7 ml Granular Yeast (not sure-bake)
350 ml Wholemeal Four
150 ml White Flour
5 ml Sugar
10 ml Salt
30 ml Skim Milk Powder
30 ml Gluten Flour (optional)
* add kibbles “porridge” here
250 ml Water
20 ml Olive Oil

Place ingredients in order of recipe into the Breadmaker.

Set breadmaker to your equivalent of a wholemeal, dough.
(this should mean aprox. 2 hours duration for first knead, rise, & second knead.)

My breadmaker gives a "beep" at 15 minutes (after the first knead),
and I add a fistful of sunflower seeds.

When the breadmaker has finished (after second knead),
tip from breadmaker & work very lightly to place into an oiled bread tin.

Allow to rise in a warm place for about 1 hour.

Bake at 200°C in a pre-heated oven for 40 minutes.

Tip from tin onto a rack & don't cut it till its cool!

I notice our friends at Land Transport have shot themselves in the foot again ...
First, ltsa.govt.nz doesn't work; they require a depreciated www in front of it ...
(Good to see that they did learn, and http://nzta.govt.nz and http://landtransport.govt.nz both work.)

Then, they set up a their on-line payment at the obtusely named http://transact.landtransport.govt.nz/ (notice inconsistant lack of a www).

When they first set that up, it would only work with Internet Explorer, ... they didn't realise there were other browsers, ... so it needed upgrading straight away.

AND NOW ...
they have restricted on-line payments AGAIN by requiring a thing called "POLi" which (of course) is only available for micro$oft windoz ...

Their IT advisor needs to be fired!

Last week we went up the top of Mt Climie, behind Upper Hutt. This week it was Mt Kaukau.

Wellington from Mt Kaukau

Upper Hutt from Mt Climie

Beaaautiful!!!!

Looks like Blanketman has posted some sort of manifesto ...
Not too sure what it means though,
apart from representing One Million Old Farts in "Our-Tea-Are-Raw"

he seems to inhabit a separate universe
... funny that ...

So there I was, innocently wandering around on the information avenues of the web, when BLAM! there it was: "The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme".

What a grand title. Sometimes I just love the English language and what you can do with it!

I gotta agree with Joel ( Stack Overflow Launches ). When you hit a snag in the coding ... the google search result in the Q & A sites can be kinda irritating.
This new site ( Stack Overflow )is a wiki that claims "Stack Overflow is a collaboratively edited question and answer site for programmers — regardless of platform or language. Jump in and share your software engineering expertise! No registration or account required."
Brilliant ... I had a troll around & found it informative .. what's more, the answers can only get better!
Check it out ...

A few holiday snapshots.

Wainui Bay	Tukurua Beach
Heading onto Farewell Spit	On Farewell Spit

I AM NOT IMAGINING IT!
Vogel's Bread is NOT what it used to be!
There has been a gradual decline in the quality of Vogels bread (a steady part of my diet for many years).
Lately I have noticed that the dough has begun to resemble "just another bread dough".
It is missing the watery, glutenous rye consistency that was uniquely Vogel's.
The wrapper boasts that it is the original recipe and that "It's so treasured, we will never change a thing."
Bullshit!
Goodman Fielder are quietly transforming it to the same bland pap that other mixed grain breads are, and they are cynical enough to believe that no one will notice.
Well I for one have, and am now actively seeking a locally baked substitute.

I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to see the clock back in Courtenay Place, but here it is.
There are few enough public clocks left in the city (I think the next closest is in Lambton Quay).
Now if they could just get it going ...

I decided to do the "register a snapper card" thing ...

This site uses an ActiveX control to communicate to your Snapper, so at this stage it only works through Internet Explorer.

In order to feed your Snapper or perform other actions where we need to talk to your Snapper, you must make sure your are using one of the following:

* Operating System - Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
* Browser - Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7

Sheez!
It's the 21st century guys!

Observing the recent introduction of the snapper readers on the commuter buses in Wellington, I wondered just how it worked, what saving it actually provided me (they claim it will be cheaper, but they seem to charge for everything), and what are my rights as a consumer.

Reading through the Terms & Conditions of the Snapper site, is a depressing way to pass a wet afternoon, but I’m sure most victims of this system will be unaware of the how they forfeit their rights.

The first thing that I noted was that they retain ownership of the card, but take absolutely no liability for it doing any damage, or if it fails. So you pay to be given one and you need to look after this thing, and they take no responsibility for it’s continued function.

It costs you every time you load money into it, and once it’s in there, it’s not you money any longer; now they’ve got it, it seems impossible to get it back. The stored value in the card is non-refundable and non-transferable; not even to another card (unless you "register" your card; however, there is not definition of a registered card). Not using the card for a year, means they just take the money. You cannot rely on this card provide payment for a transaction, and they are happy to refuse you (lots of clauses about that).
So waving "your" card around the reader on a bus and it doesn’t work means you better have some cash handy or the bus goes without you.

There are a limited number of "rights" given to card holders, but this is restricted to "Registered Cards", a category they don’t define. The FAQ suggests that it : means they have your personal details to link (and track) your electronic transactions. This raises the question of privacy; and that was a doozy!
Read this self-referential piece of legalese for yourself:

65. Snapper Privacy Policy
Where we collect personal information from or about you through your use of a Card, the Website, or your Online Account, the Snapper Privacy Policy shall apply. For an explanation of our practices and policies relating to the collection, use, and storage of your personal information, please refer to the Snapper Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Conditions.

.. that’s it … no more. If you dig further they have a privacy policy page but seeing as they are happy to modify their policy without warning, I’m not convinced.

We may (at any time and without prior notice to you) revise these Conditions. Changes to these Conditions will take effect immediately once they are published on www.snapper.co.nz. By ordering, or continuing to use, a Card after we have published revised Conditions, you agree to be bound by the revised Conditions.

And I wonder how I would do this on the bus:

You must check the Card, and any change tendered, upon the purchase or issuing of the Card and upon the addition or subtraction of any Stored Value to the Card. Neither we nor our Authorised Merchants (as the case may be) shall be liable for any error or omission not drawn to attention of us or our Authorised Merchants at the time of purchase, issue, addition, or subtraction.

The whole thing relies on them being nice guys; basically it’s a rort but what can you do? Personally, I will spend my time on the bus musing on how to hack exploits in the system.

This came thru the e-mail the other day ...

TIPS ON FILLING YOUR CAR(S) (Good information)

I don't know what you guys are paying for petrol.... but here in Durban
(South Africa.) we are also paying higher, up to R7.35 per litre. But my
line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some
tricks to get more of your money's worth for every litre.

Here at the Marian Hill Pipeline where I work in Durban, we deliver
about 4 million litres in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline.

One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and petrol, LRP and
Unleaded. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of
16,800,000 litres.

Only buy or fill up your car or bakkie in the early morning when the
ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations
have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the
more dense the fuel, when it gets warmer petrol expands, so buying in
the afternoon or in the evening....your litre is not exactly a litre. In
the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the
petrol, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays
an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for
this business. But the service stations do not have temperature
compensation at the pumps.

When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a
fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3)
stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low
speed, thereby minimizing the vapours that are created while you are
pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapour return. If you are pumping
on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes
vapour. Those vapours are being sucked up and back into the underground
storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your tank is HALF
FULL. The reason for this is, the more fuel you have in your tank the
less air occupying its empty space. petrol evaporates faster than you
can imagine. Petroleum storage tanks have an internal floating roof.

This roof serves as zero clearance between the petrol and the
atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations,
here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated
so that every litre is actually the exact amount.

Another reminder, if there is a fuel truck pumping into the storage
tanks when you stop to buy, DO NOT fill up--most likely the
petrol/diesel is being stirred up as the fuel is being delivered, and
you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.

... and there it was.
I recently wondered what to call the noise that GSM cellphone make when they interfere with audio gear,
and the literary Kimmie did it again this Saturday!
"... that cellphone digity-do thing" she called it as she accused a guest of having a cellphone in his pocket.

Over the last week the pohutukawa seed has been literally pouring out of the trees.
The back yard has got drifts of seed everywhere. No wonder there are so many seedlings sprinkled through the garden.

Last Weekend was a some more GREAT weather. Walking around in the Eastbourne Hills, the Wellington Harbour was as "pretty as a picture".

So you thought barcodes were just simple things.
This guy gives a great talk about the things you can get up to.

SQL injection attack code in a car number plate, earns *big* geek points!