Recent content on On The Other Hand
Tonight I rebooted to change the RAID controller on my new system from RAID to JBOD mode. On boot, I was rudely met with: freebsd boot zfs can't find pool by guid The repair journey: Go for the easy thing first: switch boot disk. No luck. So, time to boot off install media. This system is a Dell T630 with a PERC card in it. The thing to know about these systems is that the mfi(4) driver detects…
I have recently seen a proliferation of posts online “supporting” Ben Roberts-Smith , an ex-SAS soldier who is currently awaiting trial for war crimes. The sudden and extreme fervour of support for him struck me as both incredibly surprising and likely manufactured. There seemed to be a particularly hard push around ANZAC day, in some hope perhaps that the general good will towards…
I was incredibly disappointed to read Jason Om’s article about EVs , published on the ABC website. I wrote the following feedback to them and figured it might be useful to others. As a daily EV driver (including regular trips from Brisbane to Bundaberg), Om’s article is deeply misleading about life with an EV. It also seems to focus very heavily on painting a negative picture of EVs,…
Just a reminder that LLMs (AI) are not to be trusted. I recently came across a friend posting an “AI summary” declaring that there are no speed limits for bikes in QLD. This is very much false and if you follow the “AI” you could end up with a very expensive fine . An LLM just generates text which statistically looks like it should fit together. This means that it’s…
Ingredients Seafood: 2 Whole lobsters or lobster tails 12 Prawns, peeled and deveined 500 g Crab meat Marinade: 65 ml olive oil 3 Garlic cloves 3 Fresh basil leaves Small bunch of fresh parsley, chopped – Half for marinade, half for garnish Salt Stuffing: 150 g Almond meal 5ml Soy sauce Zest from 1 lemon 5 g Parsley 1 Green onion, whites 2 Clove garlic, crushed Pepper 5 ml Paprika 1 Egg, beaten 10…
Ingredients 2 large eggplants or small globe eggplants 100 g tahini paste 1 lemon, rind and juice 1 garlic clove, minced 20 ml plain Greek yogurt, optional salt and pepper 1 teaspoon sumac 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or red pepper flakes, optional Extra virgin olive oil Toasted pine nuts for garnish, optional Method First, smoke or grill the eggplant. Turn one gas burner on medium-high. Place the…
Ingredients 250 g Risoni (orzo) 250 g Feta cheese 1 Capsicum 4 Cloves garlic 1 Cucumber 10 Kalamata olives 50 g pine nuts 2 green onions 50 ml olive oil Rosemary Thyme Parsley Juice of 1 lemon Salt Pepper Method Boil 750 ml of water and then drop the risoni (250 g) in it to cook. Packet directions usually say about 10 minutes. Dice the cucumber, capsicum and garlic. Thinly slice the green onions,…
Ingredients 7g (1 sachet) instant yeast 300 ml milk, warmed 45g brown sugar 450g plain flour 10 ml mixed spice 170g currents or raisins 50g mixed peel or other dried fruit Method Use a fork to whisk together the yeast, 60ml of the milk and 10 ml of the sugar in a small bowl. Cover and set aside for 10 minutes or until frothy. Whisk together flour, mixed spice, remaining sugar and a pinch of salt…
Ingredients 1.5 kg pork belly, skin removed 50 g brown sugar 90 g honey 90 g maple syrup 70 g salt 2 g fresh ground pepper Method Curing: Rinse the pork belly and pat dry In a mixing bowl, mix your sugar, honey, and maple syrup. Once that’s blended, mix in your salt and pepper. Place the pork in a large sealable bag and start rubbing in your mixture on the top, bottom, and sides of the…
Ingredients 250 g self-raising flour 85 g caster sugar 4 eggs 5 ml salt 2.5 ml bi-carb soda 7.5 ml baking powder 500 g Greek yoghurt 100 ml water 150 g butter, melted Rind of 1 lemon 125 g blueberries Method Preparing the batter: Combine the flour, baking powder, bi-carb soda and salt in a mixing bowl. Pour in the rest of the ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Cooking: Heat a large pan to high heat. Put…
I recently purchased a house which came with two SMA inverters. After some poking around, I logged into the Sunnyportal site and setup a new system. Upon attempting to add the inverters, it failed to find them and showed an error suggesting that the inverters may still be attached to someone else’s account. The help portal is my.sma-service.com and various pieces of paperwork to prove…
Ingredients Paneer: 2 L milk juice of 2 lemons or ~50 ml white vinegar Oil for frying Palak: 50 g butter 50 ml olive oil 3 large red onions, finely diced 1 head garlic, minced 5 cm ginger, grated 4 small tomatoes, cut into cubes 1 stick cinnamon 2 tsp turmeric 3 tsp garam masala 3 tsp paprika 3 tsp cardamom pods, crushed 3 tsp coriander seeds, crushed 2 tsp salt 10 fresh curry leaves 6 bunches of…
Overview and Research Please refer to 2022 Guide for details on parties which I have previously covered and 2025 part 1 for my discussion of the Vote Compass positions. Each party is rated as follows: Green (✅): The platform is generally favorable. Yellow (⚠️): No show stoppers, but a mixed platform. Red (❌): Ethically untenable. The party platform has show stoppers.…
So, the 2025 federal election has finally been called. This will be a work in progress as more information becomes available and I have time to update it. Enrolment has closed, but I’ll leave the links up for the future: Enrol if you haven’t already Update your enrolment if you’ve moved since the last election. Check your enrolment just to be sure. Support democracy by working…
Looking up who was available to vote for this election, I came across what looked like a new party: Trumpet of Patriots. The first thing to notice is that it’s a Clive Palmer party. Seems every election he’s got a new party to forward his noxious ideas, this time because the high court wouldn’t let him re-register his previous party. Nothing to see here. A few things jumped out…
Wikipedia is, of course, well known as a place to contribute to the global knowledge base. Lesser known, but just as useful, is OpenStreetMap . Editing is easy for both the technically and non-technically inclined and it’s nice to have a world where Google, Apple, et al aren’t the only games in town for street cartography. I needed a couple of hours of down time doing something useful…
For anyone who might not have noticed, there’s a coup in progress in the USA right now. As we saw recently with Yoon’s attempted coup in South Korea , the public resisting can be hugely influential in the success or failure of a coup. Right now, Trump and Musk seem to be betting on the public being too overwhelmed by the flood of changes they’re undertaking or not understanding…
I recently decided it was time to purchase a new car and, having tasted the hybrid and electric lifestyles previously, decided that it was purely electric only this time. My requirements: Decent range, at least 400 km Decent amount of space for SCUBA or climbing gear in the back. In both seats up and seats down configurations. Comfortable to drive. Comfortable to be a passenger in. Over 1,000 kg…
The Internet is currently overwhelmingly centralised around ad companies collecting personally identifiable information (PII) in order to sell ads. They collect much more than they need and the whole thing (including ads) can often slow the user experience down quite a bit. So, what to do about it? While Firefox has recently taken a turn towards supporting the ad industry after many years of an…
Ingredients 100 g butter 400 g red rice 500 ml chicken stock 1 large red onion, diced 20 ml garam masala 5 star anise 10 cardamom pods, crushed 400 g mixed dried fruit (mango, currents, dates, blueberries) Garnish: 100 g flaked almonds 20 ml oil 20 ml cinnamon 5 ml salt 10 mint leaves, chopped Equipment: Instant pot Method Rice: Set the instant pot to saute Melt the butter Add the onions and sauté…
Ingredients Cake: 0.5 tsp baking powder 0.5 tsp baking soda 2 g grated nutmeg 425 g flour 5 g salt 10 g powdered ginger 400 g sugar 225 g butter, soft 200 ml coconut milk 3 whole eggs 3 egg yolks 15 ml vanilla extract 15 g + 25 g candied ginger, finely chopped Syrup: 200 ml coconut milk 125 ml dark rum 75 g sugar Glaze: (optional) 50 g coconut flakes 90 g brown sugar 60 g butter 90 ml heavy cream…
Bundaberg has an annual rock festival , which I learned earlier this week and attended for the first time on Saturday. A number of local acts, getting into bigger names as the day went on. Culminating with The Living End and Icehouse. Starting my day at Volunteer Marine Rescue , I missed the first few acts but spent most of the rest of the day and night only a few metres from the stage. I’ve…
If you use LastPass your present from them this year is that your passwords are compromised and you should change them. While you’re at it, consider changing to another platform. The recent compromise puts your passwords at risk and their security practices mean they are not a good platform to use. Password managers are an excellent tool. They allow for using strong passwords everywhere and…
I don’t post quite as regularly here as I would like to, I’m currently spending more time thinking about updates to Dive Coaching Australia . Having said that, I very much agree with John Scalzi’s post on making the web a better place: own your content . Use a blog or other site you control for the majority of what you write. Yeah, it’s a bit of extra work. It’s also…
Action cameras (and many others) will encode MP4 video using H.264 or using constant rate H.265. This is somewhat space intensive though, so taking lots of video can quickly fill up your disks. A fix for this it to re-encode as H.265 or to switch from constant bitrate to a constant rate factor (i.e. quality level). These are much more space efficient algorithms with no perceptible drop in quality.…
Ingredients 1 liter milk 4 eggs 40 ml butter 40 ml currants or sultanas 60 ml sugar 4 slices bread You will need a baking dish that is larger than the dish you are preparing the pudding in. This will act as a water basin. Method Preheat oven to 160 ºC Place fruit in dish Butter bread Cut bread into 4 slices Place slices of bread on the bottom of the dish and then overlap a second layer in the…
I recently moved back to Australia and there have been a few surprises in getting into dive instructing. Here’s what I’ve learned. Note that I got my SCUBA instructors certificate in the Caribbean, so these differences are specific to that experience. Summary You need an AS2299 medical. You need a first aid/CPR training certificate complying with HLTAID011, which EFR does not unless…
In this chapter of The Rise and Fall of the US Empire: Abortion. This post is probably only interesting to US citizens and residents. We knew Roe v Wade was going to fall. It is reprehensible that the federal government wasn’t able to get its act together in time. There should absolutely be federal law covering this and the ruling even called it out as the preferred way to settle the case.
If you look up MTP transfer on MacOS, you’ll likely come across OpenMTP or MTP For Mac . If you want something basic and included, then MacOS comes with Image Capture . No features really, just copy and delete, but sometimes basic is all we actually need. For the GoPro, go into settings and set USB to MTP mode and it should show up in Finder. From there, it’s easy to copy and/or delete…
Overview and Research As I’ve recently returned to Australia, I had to do quite a bit of research on the parties as well as the candidates to work out what’s going on and figure out how to vote. Specifically, I’m in Flynn in Queensland. Even if you’re not in my district, I hope the party information is useful. For my research I started with the Australian Electoral…
This is a list of all the dive related media I keep an eye on for interesting lessons. I’m not going to categorise heavily as many of them have everything from trip reports to accident reviews and even gear unboxing. Alphabetical order, not preference order. I may eventually add commentary, but for the moment it’s just a list. Podcasts: Speaking Sidemount The Dive Locker The League of…
You know the drill, diver comes in without a card and it needs to be looked up. CMAS GUE - Lookup a diver number only, no name/DoB lookup IDEA - WDA - Recreational IDEA - WDA - Professional NADD - Recreational NADD - Professional NAUI NASE PADI - Professional PADI - Recreational - Requires PADI Pro PADI - Card Replacement A workaround if you’re not a PADI Pro and need to lookup a divers…
When I left the USA, I decided to keep my US phone number as so many things are tied to it. After a few months in Australia, it suddenly stopped connecting to the network. Now, typical debugging for this is relatively straight forward: Restart Double check APN settings Disable other SIMs (and restart, everything involves a restart) Switch between physical and eSIM Removing the account completely…
Preventing errors is a critical part of leadership and management. This is true regardless of your industry. Key points for error prevention: Positive attitude to errors: Blame free culture The psychology of human error Look for an error chain, there are usually multiple factors leading to errors Active failures (human, usually ~10-20%) vs latent failures (system, 80-90%) Education and knowledge…
While driving today, I was introduced to to The Ground Up Show episode 94 Success Doesn’t Equal Happiness by my friend Lynette. On the theme of productivity and happiness, I also ended up watching The Journal Keeps Me Productive by CGP Grey during a break. Both were intensive enough that I ended up having to listen to music afterwards (another podcast was simply too much) and listened to…
Various thoughts from Paul. Mainly, this is a collection of discussions on technology, diving, recipes and politics.
Ingredients For the chicken and stock: 1.5 kg whole chicken 1 carrot 1 celery stalk 1 small onion, halved 10 ml salt For the pie crust: 200 g all-purpose flour 2.5 ml salt 175 g unsalted butter, diced into 1 cm cubes and chilled 50 g of the butter can be replaced with shortening if you prefer 45-60 ml very cold water (I put it in the freezer with the butter while prepping everything else) For the…
Earlier in the year I decided to move back to Australia as the pandemic handling in the USA was rather insane (I wanted to move earlier, family reasons kept me from doing so). So, on the 6th I headed to SFO with my ticket, a PCR/NAA COVID-19 test, my Queensland Health QR code and my 3 pieces of checked luggage: one climbing bag, one dive bag and one bag of sundries (including weight limited…
Earlier in the year I set a goal of either getting a job in the US government working towards fixing some of the mess left over from the previous administration or leaving the country. I recently got the news that I was unsuccessful in my applications and so the hunt for tickets to Australia began. Tales of the difficulty in getting to Australia are rampant right now and I can see where some of…
Two tech issues today, which caused a bit of debugging fun: Firstly, I powered up an old iPhone SE to see if I could replicate a problem that a friend had been seeing. It was having some TLS issues and, as I dug further, it turned out to be all TLS issues rather than some. All connections to Apple services failed (so no updates, no synching, etc) and I couldn’t even unsubscribe it from…
Introduction I started trying to work with Storm Crawler for a project and found the documentation to be a little spartan. I had figured that I was working with a general purpose crawler, but that’s not the case. Turns out, things were not quite so simple and, while Storm Crawler does work out of the box, it’s really an SDK for developing your own crawling system. The documentation is…
I had originally planned to write up an introduction to StormCrawler , but found myself wanting to draw state diagrams. Hugo doesn’t seem to have Graphviz support builtin, so I started to poke around and see what else was out there. For those who want pure Graphviz, there’s viz-js . It’s a pretty straight forward implementation, although it hasn’t been updated in a while…
There have been continuous attempts at a soft coup in the USA since the 2020 November election. On 2021-01-06, this turned into an attempt at a hard coup. Insurrectionists stormed the capitol, waiving flags of failed regimes from days gone by including both Confederate battle flag (which they flew in place of the US flag) and US flags with white nationalist slogans written on them. A gallows was…
A friend of mine who is a doctor posted that they’d had a patient who had come in both denying the existence of COVID-19 and declaring that masks kill you faster. Unfortunately, I see this kind of post frequently from friends (and friends of friends) in the medical community. Including, all the way to denying that COVID-19 is real even as they die of it. The general advice for dealing with…
Ingredients Shortcrust pastry 4 egg yolks 1 egg white 500 ml cream 250 ml milk 50 g castor sugar Freshly grated nutmeg Method Line a 24 cm x 4 cm deep flan tin with pastry and bake blind at 200 ºC for 20 minutes. Lightly beat 1 egg white and brush baked shell liberally Bake shell for further 5 minutes Remove and reduce temperature to 160 ºC Beat all egg yolks Warm cream and milk Stir in sugar…
Overview and Research This guide is ordered from most general to most specific. I’ll start with Federal and work my way down to County so you can stop reading once it’s no longer relevant to you. For those who have read my summaries before and were expecting California, I’m now living in Washington State. Yes, I’ve read most of the details of the propositions and would…
US Voters: This year, in King County WA, I have 36 choices to make an educated choice on. Most of you will have similarly broad choices to make, from endless propositions to various seats of government. I typically spend in the order of 40 hours working out how I’m going to vote on my ballot. That’s not to say that you have to spend that much time, but that it does take time and…
In many states you can vote early in person. Given Trumps efforts to undermine the postal service, if this is available in your area it may be worth considering (and is generally a great option to avoid long lines). The US Vote Foundation has an excellent chart of all the methods and options available. vote.org also has great information and tools, including election reminders. Here’s a…
The US Military has some quite excellent, and approachable, guides to improving your safety online. These are all accumulated on their fact sheets page . In particular, the Identity Awareness, Protection, and Management Guide is very friendly for the non-technical. It’s a goldmine of handy visual references on how to configure everything from social media to WiFi networks and dating…
Recently, an old friend of mine asked the following How much of this is hyperbole? From an outsiders perspective much of the USA (news, politics, entertainment, ..) is loaded with hyperbole. Facts & intellectual discussion seem to be obscured by emotions and extremes. in response to a post linking American Democracy Will Die in 150 Days and having the following lead: There is only one issue in…