Uncategorized

I have just installed Python 2.5 for Windows.
I was waiting for the Activestate edition, but they have not finalized it yet.

So I have downloaded

1. python-2.5.msi – The official installed from the python website
2. pywin32-210.win32-py2.5.exe – win 32 com extensions and development environment
3. BeautifulSoup-3.0.3 – A screen scrapping library

Included in the 2.5 release is built in support for the SQLite library.
I will be using this extensively soon to back up my favourite web-site and store it in an SQLite database.

How to install BeautifulSoup

Read more

Have you ever received one of those jokes in the office which has been sent to everybody?
Whoever sent it has CC everyone so you can see all their names and email addresses.

STUPID and INCONSIDERATE

It’s even worse when it has been forwarded several times and there are literally hundreds of email addresses. Bad manners, and bad security.

This cartoon sums up my feelings very well.

What is worse is they don’t edit out all the email headers and other stuff, so eventually the one page joke becomes ten pages of email addresses and mail headers.

Part of this video was shown on the National TV channels here in Australia. It was too “shocking” to show the entire clip.
It off course concerns the tragic death of Steve “Crocodile Hunter” Irving. He is only a few weeks gone from the mortal coil and already South Park are making fun of him.

I wonder if he would have approved? I think so, he didn’t exactly come across as very uptight.

Dasepo Naughty Girls

A friend lend me a new Korean film,

What do you get when you mix transvestite and transexual characters, S&M (no, not a spin-off of M&M’s), a mass outbreak of STDs (nope, not long distance phone calls) and the supernatural, did I mention it is also a musical?

ANSWER –> (?´‚Ä?¬§?¨‚Äû¬???¬è¬¨ ?¨‚Ć?í?´‚Ķ‚Ǩ) “Dasepo Naughty Girls”

I really enjoyed it, but some of the jokes work better if you understand Korean culture.

Seongan-dong in Winter:

In Ulsan, the winter is very different to Melbourne. There is rarely any rain. When you look out the window it looks like the middle of the summer with a bright blue sky. As soon as you go outside that impression is erased by the cold and dry air.
I actually prefer the Ulsan winter to the Melbourne winter because there are no strong winds and rain together like there is here.

Seongan-dong in Summer

In summer it is hot and sticky. The humidity is terrible!

In between looking for jobs, I am learning Python.
I am thinking of using this as a glue language in UNIX BASH file scripting, Applescript on OS X and ADSI programming on Windows.

Useful stuff found so far:

Python interface to Microsoft Outlook Web Access

This article describes two scripts which log into your Outlook web access, extract the emails and create a local pop server so you can then copy the e-mails to your computer.

This means
– You can use any email client to access your corporate email running through outlook web access
– Following on from the first point you are not limited to using Internet Explorer and Windows to view your emails

John Machin’s xlrd makes it practical to read any Excel spreadsheet
programmatically, even when hosted under Linux:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/thread/572b0ac9648ccd66/

My favourite TV show at the moment is Battlestar Galactica. Not the corny 70’s version I grew up with, but the new version which is much grittier and deals with issues such as genocide, racism and religion.

The bad guys (cyclons) are Monotheists, so they are like Christians, Jews and Muslims in that they believe in the “one true god”. If you saw the original series then the robots are still there. But they are not very important in this series. The new cyclons are clones of seven humans (or at least they look human)

The good guys (humans) are polytheists who engage in suicide bombings so I guess it is true, “One Man’s Terrorist Is Another Man’s Freedom Fighter”.

Leaving aside the religious and political aspects of the show, it is well acted with good scripts. So as long as you don’t have an aversion to sci-fi then I really recommend this show.

Come the 14th I shall be the proud owner of a new old car.
I am buying it from my brother for $600.
The car is a 1986 Mitsubishi Colt sedan

I now reside in purgatory .. the outer suburbs of Melbourne.
You can see what Korea looked like below. So what’s the difference?
When I look out my window to the back yard I can see or hear birds all the time. In Korea birds are not that common.

The suburb of Ulsan I used to live in, Yaeum-dong.
(dong means suburb)

In Summer — click picture to enlarge —

In Winter — click picture to enlarge —

My old apartment in Yaeum-dong, Ulsan. It’s a little messy because I was in the process of moving out.

As you can see it is quite spacious even with a single bed, sofa, large office desk, draws, clothes hanger and TV.
What you can’t see is a small combined bathroom / toilet, an enclosed balcony (from where the photo was taken).
If you look at the top right of the photo you can see the door which is the entrance to my apartment. There is a corridor from the front door to the bathroom. In that corridor is the kitchen with the fridge, microwave, gas stove and sink.

I arrived back in Australia on September 2nd, 2006
I now live in Hoppers Crossing, which is a suburb of Melbourne, the capital of Victoria.