Samuel's Blog

New Day Australia Christmas Cruise Weather

Since yesterday, not much has changed, although the temperature has come down a notch.

Thanks to The Weather Company.

Samuel

4 comments November 26th, 2005 at 10:34pm

Thunder, power failures and loopy emergency tapes.

There is something very wrong with the electricity infrastructure in the Canberra suburb of Mitchell, where 2CC and 2CA broadcast from. Mitchell, it would seem, suffers from the most blackouts of any part of Canberra, which is very odd considering that Michell must use a huge amount of electricity and would be one of ActewAGL’s main revenue sources. Todays outage is understandble as there has been a large amount of thunderstorm activity around Canberra, but it has been known to go out in Mitchell at random from time to time.

Today, for the first time since my journey to Erindale to see the 2CC Kingswood, I had the strange “wince-and-pleasure” of hearing some alphabetical love song (presumably from the late 40’s or early 50’s) which forms part of the 2CC emergency tape. This was due to a power failure in Mitchell which caused the 2CC and 2CA studios to lose power, and the emergency tapes which are presumably off site to kick in. Last time I heard the Alphabet song it was due to a power failure. The 2CC emergency tape is cleverly constructed to have an ad break at the start which runs long enough to cover most ad break failures (and give general outages long enough to recover), this is followed by “Down Memory Lane” which is a purpose built program filled with a large array of music, including the light and bubbly alphabet song which has a habit of getting into your head…A you’re adorable B you’re so beautiful…

2CA on the other hand a slightly more unusual emergency tape. It starts with a station ID which they stopped using two or three years ago, it then launches into The Rolling Stones “Brown Sugar”. Unfortunately, there seems to be excess noise between the studio and the tape which makes it cut out, wait 15 seconds and start again, effectively driving people insane. 2CC’s emergency tape also started repeating itself at one stage, but nowhere near as often as 2CA who were on the first song for most of the 20 minutes.

The power outage did acheive one thing, it more or less removed the sydney-centric “Radio Trading Post” segment of the Glenn Wheeler Weekend Afternoon show. That segment, along with Sydney Gardening, might be useful in Sydney, but they provide a monotonous experience for Canberra listeners who have already heard hours of similar programs in the morning. Overall I enjoy Glenn’s show, but I don’t think the 2 hours of Sydney gardening or the half hour of Sydney Trading Post is terribly relevant in Canberra.

John B1_B5 also reported hearing 2CC lose Sydney programming between 4:45 and 4:55 and play music in the comments here. I don’t know whether this has to do with electricity problems or satellite failures as I didn’t hear it for myself. I’ll assume it was a satellite failure in this timetable of events below.

• 4:45 2UE feed goes down, local music program begins
• 4:55 2UE feed returns, Sydney programming resumes
• 5:30 Power failure in Mitchell, emergency tape plays
• 5:50 Power restored, Sydney programming resumes. (With unusual beeping noises)
• 5:57 Music (not emergency tape) starts whilst Sydney programming stops (unexpected sydney ad break perhaps?)
• 6:00 Music fades as Sydney news begins…

Since 6PM things have been fine, lets hope they stay that way.

People might think that emergency tapes are boring, but really they have to be one of the most interesting things on radio, because you usually don’t know what’s going to happen next, will the program continue? Will the normal programming come back? And depending on the length of the outage, what happens when the tape reaches the end?

Samuel

5 comments November 26th, 2005 at 06:26pm

New Day Australia Christmas Cruise Weather

Since yesterday’s post about the Christmas Cruise Weather, the forecasted conditions have improved and the temperature has warmed up.

Thanks to The Weather Company.

Samuel

11 comments November 25th, 2005 at 10:33pm

Samuel on “The Best Of The John Laws Week”

Every Friday morning around 11:30 John Laws plays a half hour segment which is composed of highlights of his show during the week. Usually I would hear this segment as it goes live to air, however I was busy today at that time as I had a meeting with one of my correspondents (Thankyou, I enjoyed our little meeting, the coffee was very nice). I avoided recording the segment as it is usually placed on the John Laws website within 24 hours of it going to air.

As you may recall, on Monday (November 21) I spoke with John Laws about Nguyen Tuong Van, I was only one of many who did so this week, including many open line callers, many emailers and plenty of politicians. I was quite contented knowing that I had spoken with Lawsie, and that I have my own personal momento of his show, so imagine my surprise when I went to listen to the Best Of Laws segment and found that my call had made it into the opening overview of the week, and then into the segment about Van Nguyen. Not only this, but it was also the only open line caller or emailer to make it into Best Of Laws. I must say that I feel somewhat privileged to have made it into the Best Of Laws segment, and so I must thank John Laws and his production team for using my call.

I’ve cut down the mp3 to the relevant sections from Best Of Laws, and you can hear it by clicking here.

Alternatively you can hear Best Of Laws by going to http://johnlaws.com.au/3Xchange.html and clicking on the link.

Samuel

4 comments November 25th, 2005 at 10:20pm

Construction In Civic

The Section 84 development in Civic is certainly progressing well, and seeing as I took a photo of it a while back and was walking passed it with a camera today, I thought I might give you an update on it’s progress.

Here it is on October 4, 2005

And here it is from an angle which allows me to take more meaningful photos today (Nearly two months after the last photo).

The building on the left of the photo is the same one shown in the first photo.

Here is a picture showing two buildings.

Are the construction workers aliens?

There is still plenty of work to do though.

Samuel

13 comments November 25th, 2005 at 06:17pm

2CC At The Retirement And Lifestyle Expo

The Retirement And Lifestyle Expo did appear to be very interesting, there wasn’t much there that was relevant or useful for myself, but those who are looking to retire soon or have already retired will find it interesting and find plenty of useful information. At one stage I could hear Denise Drysdale performing but I did not actually see her.

I did say that I would have some photos, I didn’t get as many as I was hoping for due to the fact that I don’t really want to take too many photos of the people involved, and I’m sure they don’t need me taking a few zillion photos. I stayed for about 45 minutes, but it is understandably off putting having spectators, there is a large difference between public speaking and radio broadcasting. It is much easier to forget that you are talking to a lot of people when you are in a studio, when you have spectators it does become a bit more difficult as the “public speaking issue” comes into it.

Anyway, I took two photos, the first one showing the studio at the exhibition.

And there is one of Mike Welsh’s first interview of the afternoon, this photo is badly out of focus due to a mistake on my behalf. This camera is new to me and I really need to read the instruction manual properly. My experience with it so far indicates that it focusses better with a flash, but a flash is very off putting when broadcasting and I didn’t want to cause any problems.

If you happen to be at the retirement expo over the weekend, you should be able to drop by and say hello or wave to David Young and Mike Frame, I’m sure they will be happy to say hello or wave back.

Samuel

4 comments November 25th, 2005 at 04:55pm

I’m off to the retirement expo

Alrighty then, time for me to head off to Exhibition Park to see the 2CC Outside Broadcast (which is actually indoors, but what else can you call it when you use the “OB” abbreviation?)

You can expect photos soon!

Samuel

1 comment November 25th, 2005 at 01:59pm

Christmas Copier Repair

Slashdot brings us the news that copiers are broken more over Christmas than at any other time of the year.

It would appear that the christmas period, “leads to a 25 percent hike in service calls due to incidents such as the classic backside copying prank. Such a stunt, a mainstay of the office party, often results in cracked glass on the copier, with 32 percent of Canon technicians claiming to have been called out to fix glass plates during the Christmas period after attempts to copy body parts went wrong”.

Unable to come up with a witty title for the post, I settled for a semi-witty adaption of a Chritmas Carol. It’s an adaption of “Tis The Season To Be Jolly Deck The Halls” and could probably remain as such if you are a copier-repair contractor who gets paid extra over Christmas.

Tis the season to copy bodies, tra la la la la, la laa laa laa
And make calls to repairers, tra la la la la, la laa laa laa
Breaking glass is a given, tra la la, tra la la, la la la
After some heavy drinking, tra la la la la, la laa laa laa

Samuel

4 comments November 25th, 2005 at 12:33pm

Whinging Whiteboard Owners

I had another strange dream last night, and whilst I only remember bits of it, I think I can remember enough of it to do it justice.

This takes place in a multi-storey carpark, where a bunch of people have decided to park their portable whiteboards (similar to the one shown here). The whiteboard owners are somewhat of an annoyance however as they unsuccessfully try to convince the carpark staff that the whiteboards take up less space and should therefore get a discount on parking fees.

Later on, the whiteboard owners start to make their way out of the carpark with their whiteboards, in doing this they have to go down a ramp, which the complain is too steep (despite it being just as steep as the one they came in on). Eventually the whiteboard owners were out of the carpark and walking down the street with their whiteboards.

Samuel

3 comments November 25th, 2005 at 11:00am

More Retirement Expo Info

This will be my final Retirement Expo weather report, you can easily follow the weather on the “Canberra Weather” section of the sidebar. The images act as links to the full weather report.

I will be there tommorow from a bit before 3pm until about 4pm, I will be most interested to see how 2CC manage this, will they have the caller names on a screen at the Retirement Expo or will someone in the 2CC studio at Hoskins St inform the presenters of caller names. If it is the latter, that could become messy during The Trading Post.

2CC will be broadcasting from stand 159, whioch can be found on this map here. It would appear that this will be a fairly prominent position just to the left of the entrance.

Mike Welsh just said that 2CC will be there on Sunday as well, a full weekend of 2CC at the retirement expo is quite a clever move in my view.

2CC are going to be promoting themselves to their target demographic, without any opposition from their direct competitiors over at the ABC.

Anyway, weather for Friday, Saturday & Sunday.
Friday: Possible Thunderstorm 12-22
Saturday: Showers 12-23
Sunday: Showers 8-19
Thankfully the Retirement Expo is indoors!

Samuel

2 comments November 24th, 2005 at 05:06pm

New Day Australia Christmas Cruise Weather

It is now one week until the New Day Australia Christmas Cruise and over the coming week, I will keep you up to date on the weather report for the cruise. Currently it isn’t quite looking as sunny as hoped.

Thanks to The Weather Company.

Samuel

November 24th, 2005 at 04:48pm

The Dickson College Year 12 Breakfast

This morning at 8am, Dickson College held their annual year 12 breakfast (with no sign of the annual Canberra Times journalist). Rather than catching a bus to the event, I decided to walk (I took Nattie for her morning walk around 6am), I left home at about 7:15 and arrived at 7:55. When I got to the event, the canteen manager made an unexpected comment, she announced that she had heard me on the John Laws show the other day (I received a similar comment later in the day, and earlier in the week by email), this prompted a discussion between people who were in the vicinity at the time about Van Nguyen and the phone call.

The breakfast itself was quite good, with plenty of nice food, I personally had a slice of toast, some bacon, scambled egg, a croissant and a hash brown. This is quite a large breakfast for me, considering that I usually settle for a couple slices of toast or a bowl of cereal, but I did work up a bit of an appetite with the 30 minute dog walk and a 40 minute walk to the college. The breakfast also had a somewhat traditional speech from a former student, unfortunately this speech was neither motivational, uplifting or particularly interesting, but that’s just my view, it did appear that quite a few people genuinely enjoyed the speech, personally I was wishing he was a talkback caller and I could just cut him off, but alas I had to listen, fortunately the breakfast had coffee.

I received a large shipment of Ubuntu Linux 5.10 CDs for x86, Power PC and 64 Bit platforms yesterday and took to distributing them to people who would be able to find a good use for them, people who are genuinely interested in Linux and Open Source Software. During the day I met my former boss who admitted to breaking the network with no way of fixing it, that was amusing.

I also managed to get Stargate Atlantis series 1 & enough of series 2 to tide me over until Channel 7 decided to screen it again, thankfully this means I will not have to wait for Channel 7 programming to allow me to see if and how the team manage to save Atlantis from the Wraith.

Overall the day, and the breakfast, were very good, and I must say it is very nice of the Dickson College staff to hold this function every year.

Samuel

9 comments November 23rd, 2005 at 07:55pm

Retirement, Thunderstorms and Outside Broadcasts

Looking at the weather report for the Canberra Retirement Expo, I am somewhat convinced that Capital Radio Network Outside Broadcasts (which in this case are defined as “any broadcast by a Capital Radio Network station which takes place from a location other than a Capital Radio Network building”) attract thunderstorms. Take a look at the current weather report (at time of posting) for the retirement expo.

Image courtesy of The Weather Company
As you can see, the two days on which 2CC are broadcasting from the expo, thunderstorms are predicted. Yesterday the weather report was for thunderstorms on only one of those days, but as it draws closer, more storms are expected.

This may seem like a coincidence, but I clearly recall a 2CA outside broadcast at Floriade a few years back where thunder was clearly audible over the airwaves. It was actually fun comparing the time that I hear the thunder at home and the time it came over the radio.

Mike Welsh, who will be at the Retirement Expo on Friday thinks I’m “drawing a long bow”, and he is probably right, but it is an interesting coincidence.

In other related news, whilst I was having lunch in Dickson, 2CC’s Mike Frame (who heard me on the John Laws show the other morning and will be at the Retirement Expo on Saturday) was walking past and stopped to say hello before going off to play lawn bowls. I remember playing lawn bowls as a school activity in year 8, it was good fun, and it truly is a sport which I would highly recommend.

Samuel

23 comments November 23rd, 2005 at 06:24pm

Some accounts and comments deleted

After some careful thought and consideration, I have decided that the recent spate of users with similar names and similar fascinations with tea towels and stories of people being killed by flying plants, is suspicious to say the least. The way some of the discussions turned into strange cupcake discussions is mildly disturbing.

In a post about my editorial policy last month, I stated

And finally, as previously mentioned, this I my website, and I shall have the final word on what is, and is not acceptable, on this site. I do not guarantee that the same thing will be applicable to each and every person who comes here, as certain people are, in my view, more welcome here than others. Your ability to leave comments here is a privilege, not a right, so treat it as such.

I am now highly convinced that the recent comments were by one person using multiple usernames and a public proxy for the sole purpose of being silly. Most of these comments have been removed, as have the accounts in question. I fear that I may have accidentally deleted a legitimate account, if that is the case you will need to reregister, I apoligise for the inconvenience.

I would really prefer to not have to delete users and comments, but sometimes I have no choice, and when I take this action, it is not something that I take lightly.

Samuel

1 comment November 23rd, 2005 at 03:51am

Frasier Grand Finale Tonight

Tonight at 7:30 the final episode ever of Frasier will go to air on Channel 9. A full 90 minutes of Frasier hilarity, I can’t wait, this will undoubtedly be one of the best moments of TV this year.

I will probably provide some sort of summary after the show, but we’ll just wait and see what happens.

Frasier, you will be remembered forever.

Samuel

9 comments November 22nd, 2005 at 05:35pm