Ah it's grand.
Sure.

Restaurant Roundup

I’ve enjoyed the food down here in Wellington, it’s been a nice change to get the ‘meat and spuds’ style of dinner. So here’s a quick round up of some of the places we’ve visited while here. No particular order:

  • Cuba Kebabs, Cuba Not sure if I have the name of the place exactly right but doesn’t really matter too much. I’ve missed being able to get a kebab in Singapore so this seemed like a great opportunity. The kebabs here aren’t quite what we’re used to in the UK or Ireland; they’re a bit more healthy. Good meat (I went for the mixed kebab which contains chicken and lamb) and a large helping of onion, lettuce and carrot. Topped off with garlic yoghurt. Turns into a runny mess as you get through it. All good overall.


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Going to New Zealand

I’m off to Wellington on Saturday. Finally a new country! Haven’t been travelling for ages and haven’t been to a new country in over a year. Things have definitely slowed from when I first joined over four years ago – I saw four countries in as many month, taking in the Middle East and the US on the way. The trip to NY was a good laugh, two weeks before Christmas and catching up with relatives, some of whom I had never met. I have a few Kiwi mates here so I reckon the people there should be good fun – it’ll be nice to get a change from Singapore!


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Some bits on Wellington

So now that I’ve been here a week, it’s high time for an update. So far pretty good, the only issue is constant tiredness at the moment. Hardly the fault of NZ though. The five hour time difference from Wellington makes enough of a difference. Combine that with a lot of trouble sleeping at the moment, some sinus problems and a bit of a cold and it’s a laugh that I’m not in bad humour.


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Token update

I’m packing up the computer room again (well I’m not actually I keep getting distracted) as I’ll be moving apartment shortly. Made slightly more difficult by the fact that I will almost certainly be in New Zealand while the move happens. Thankfully my housemate is taking charge of the move and I just need to have everything boxed (simple task, one would assume). Doing this sort of task means that I actually update things that I haven’t touched in ages; the front page of igallagher.com got an update. I’m even going through links that I put into del.icio.us which I intended to follow many weeks ago.


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Update on Anti-SPAM

A quick update on this entry; the plugin works brilliantly. Regular comments seem to get through fine but spammers seem to be stopped dead in their tracks. Not only that, the number of attempted spams is down dramatically!

Adding anti-SPAM measures

I’ve added a new plugin (Spam Karma 2) to help deal with the increase in comment spam I’ve been getting of late. It shouldn’t cause too much inconvenience for normal users. Any problems then just drop me a mail.

test

This test is to see how WP handles various characters

#include

#include <stdio.h>

In case you’re wondering what this posting is. It relates to this thread on Slugnet.

SMS from OS X Address Book using Z800i

I got myself a Sony Ericsson Z800i today, which is a nice 3G phone. One of the things that I like about using my Mac with a bluetooth phone is the ability to send and receive SMS messages from the Address Book application. Out of the box, this doesn’t work but the inventive people in the Mac community found away for other phones. So I adapted the instructions. First off all the credit goes to: the Esato Forums and probably somewhere on the Apple forums that I didn’t find from Google. Simply edit /Applications/Address Book.app/Contents/Resources/Telephony.bundle/Contents/Resources/ABDeviceCommandSets.plist with the Property List Editor and look for the following:


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So I’m a Nerd … (thought I was a geek)


Pure Nerd


65 % Nerd, 39% Geek, 26% Dork
For The Record:

  <p>
    A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.<br /> A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.<br /> A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
  </p>
  
  <p>
    You scored better than half in Nerd, earning you the title of: <b>Pure Nerd</b><br /> .
  </p>
  
  <p>
    The times, they are a-changing. It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendences associated with the “dork.” No-longer. Being smart isn’t as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older: eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label: Purely Successful.
  </p>
  
  <p>
    Congratulations!
  </p>
  
  <p>
  </p>
  
  <p>
    Also, you might want to check out some of my other tests if you’re interested in any of the following:
  </p>
  
  <p>
    <a href="http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=17325897279428986557">Buffy the Vampire Slayer</a>
  </p></p> 
  
  <p>
    <a href="http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=16508533975919017840">Professional Wrestling</a>
  </p></p> 
  
  <p>
    <a href=”http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?<br /> testid=8115472531704248346”>Love & Sexuality</a>
  </p></p> 
  
  <p>
    <a href="http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=10603689462944369577">America/Politics</a>
  </p></p> 
  
  <p>
    Thanks Again!—<a href="http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=9935030990046738815"><span class="caps">THE NERD</span>? GEEK? <span class="caps">OR DORK</span>? TEST</a> </td> </tr> 
    
    <tr>
      <td>
        <img src="http://i0.wp.com/is2.okcupid.com/users/104/656/10465692962375378952/mt1124997268.jpg?w=680" data-recalc-dims="1" />
      </td>
    </tr></tbody> </table> 
    
    <p>
      <br /> 
      
      <table>
        <tr>
          <td>
            <span>My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people <i>your age and gender</i><br /> :<br /> 
            
            <blockquote>
              <table>
                <tr>
                  <td>
                    <table>
                      <tr>
                        <td height="20" width="99">
                          <a href="http://www.okcupid.com"><img src="http://i2.wp.com/is1.okcupid.com/graphics/0.gif?w=680" alt="free online dating" data-recalc-dims="1" /></a>
                        </td>
                        
                        <td width="51">
                          <a href="http://www.okcupid.com"><img src="http://i2.wp.com/is1.okcupid.com/graphics/0.gif?w=680" alt="free online dating" data-recalc-dims="1" /></a>
                        </td>
                      </tr>
                    </table>
                  </td>
                  
                  <td>
                    You scored higher than <b>66%</b><br /> on <b>nerdiness</b>
                  </td>
                </tr>
                
                <tr>
                  <td>
                    <table>
                      <tr>
                        <td height="20" width="75">
                          <a href="http://www.okcupid.com"><img src="http://i2.wp.com/is1.okcupid.com/graphics/0.gif?w=680" alt="free online dating" data-recalc-dims="1" /></a>
                        </td>
                        
                        <td width="75">
                          <a href="http://www.okcupid.com"><img src="http://i2.wp.com/is1.okcupid.com/graphics/0.gif?w=680" alt="free online dating" data-recalc-dims="1" /></a>
                        </td>
                      </tr>
                    </table>
                  </td>
                  
                  <td>
                    You scored higher than <b>50%</b><br /> on <b>geekosity</b>
                  </td>
                </tr>
                
                <tr>
                  <td>
                    <table>
                      <tr>
                        <td height="20" width="56">
                          <a href="http://www.okcupid.com"><img src="http://i2.wp.com/is1.okcupid.com/graphics/0.gif?w=680" alt="free online dating" data-recalc-dims="1" /></a>
                        </td>
                        
                        <td width="94">
                          <a href="http://www.okcupid.com"><img src="http://i2.wp.com/is1.okcupid.com/graphics/0.gif?w=680" alt="free online dating" data-recalc-dims="1" /></a>
                        </td>
                      </tr>
                    </table>
                  </td>
                  
                  <td>
                    You scored higher than <b>37%</b><br /> on <b>dork points</b>
                  </td>
                </tr>
              </table>
            </blockquote>
            
            <p>
              </span> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> 
              
              <table>
                <tr>
                  <td>
                    Link: <a href="http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=9935030990046738815">The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test</a> written by <a href="http://www.okcupid.com/profile?tuid=10465692962375378952">donathos</a> on <a href="http://www.okcupid.com">Ok Cupid</a>
                  </td>
                </tr>
              </table>
              
              <div class="evernoteSiteMemory">
                <a href="javascript:" onclick="Evernote.doClip({title: 'So I’m a Nerd … (thought I was a geek)',url: 'http://jamesgallagher.ie/so-i%e2%80%99m-a-nerd-%e2%80%a6-thought-i-was-a-geek/',contentID: 'post-75',suggestTags: '',providerName: 'James Gallagher',styling: 'text' });return false" class="evernoteSiteMemoryLink"><img src="http://i1.wp.com/static.evernote.com/article-clipper.png?w=680" class="evernoteSiteMemoryButton" data-recalc-dims="1" /> </a> 
                
                <div class="evernoteSiteMemoryClear">
                  &nbsp;
                </div>
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Time Off

I’ve had the past two days off on leave which has been excellent, unfortunately I did very little with the time. However, such is life. It was nice just to chill out and do nothing, or not very much. Just spent time reading blogs & newspapers and chatting to people. Spoke to Daniel who has moved over to Singapore from Canada. It’s good to have some new people in town as other people leave. Such is the way with expats in Singapore, people move on and in some ways get back to reality. For sometimes Singapore is a little unreal – to those of us not born and reared here anyway.


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