Entries by Robert

Today being the last Sunday in October heralds the beginning of "Daylight Savings Time" for us. With it brings all the mucking about in moving forward all things which have clocks in them. Once this used to be a bedside clock and a couple of watches but now includes all manner of gadgets and gear such as camera's, ovens, VCR's, radios, toys and so on and so on! At least with modern computers we are spared the angst as they mostly do this automatically.

As in the past I set the time on my new phone one hour forward before I went to bed last night. I also set the alarm for 7am as I needed to be up early. So it transpired that my new "Smart Phone" had come of age becoming "Daylight Savings Aware". It diligently moved itself one hour forward of its own accord in the wee small hours. A 6am Sunday morning rude awakening heralded the fact that my phone was now an hour ahead and smarter than I expected.

Being woken an hour early was no big deal really, but I wonder how many meetings, plane flights, appointments and deadlines will be missed 5 months from now when these new "Smart Phones" catch out the unaware by moving the time back again! At least I'll be ready.

This week's photo, Jennifer, Homo sapien extraordinarious, was taken during a recent trip to Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea. This would have to be one of those classic cliche silhouette shots that you will find in almost any underwater photography book. Here the clear water and the bright sunlight allow for a small aperture giving a beautiful crispness to all of the image. Those observant Underwater Hockey players out there might even recognise the classic Technisub fins just from the outline!

Sorry for the long break but work got the better of me and a couple weeks in China distracted me for a while. I promise that I'm back and the photo's will just keep coming!

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that's what you do! ) ...Robert

This week's photo, a pregnant male Leafy Seadragon, Phycodurus eques, was taken yesterday under the jetty at Rapid Bay. I've not been too spoiled by the warm northern waters of P.N.G. to jump back into the cold water again. of course, these magnificent creatures make it all worthwhile.

Notice that this guy has a clutch of eggs attached to his tail and is diligently looking after them as any good father would! That being said he will totally ignore them the moment they are born.

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that's what you do! ) ...Robert

This week's photo, a blue Christmas Tree Worm, Spirobranchus giganteus, was taken during a recent trip to Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea. These beautiful worms appear in a host of colours including reds, yellows, pinks and white. Normally the only visible part are the tentacles, which are used for feeding and respiration. When you get too close the tentacles are retracted and an 'operculum' closes the opening. These worms live in a calcerous tube that can be buried in coral or visible on rock.

It looks like you will see a host of PNG photos over the next few weeks as I go though my collection so look forward to more tropical beasties. I will jump back into our 12 degree water and take a few more locals just to keep things balanced!

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that's what you do! ) ...Robert

Peanut buttered cheese the seductive lure...

Tupperware bowl tripwired trap...

Caught but not a mouse bone broken...

Freedom but no more kitchen crumb nights...

This week's photo, a Porcelain Anemone Crab Neopetrolisthes ohshimai, was taken last week during a trip to Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea ( are you green with envy yet! ). This beautiful crab is actually an imposter, not a true crab but a close relative to the lobster. Like the Clownfish, this crab has developed an immunity to anemone stings and is usually found within the stinging tentacles of a number of anemone species.

It was sheer bliss to spend a week diving the warm waters of Milne Bay aboard Mike Ball's Paradise Sport. The diving was stunning, the service was second to none, the food was superb and the accommodation excellent! Diving, diving, diving. Even after 5 days we still had no problem fronting bleary-eyed on the deck at 7am for the first dive of the day.

Ok, back to reality and some cold water again but the planning to venture north again has begun!

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that's what you do! ) ...Robert

This week's photo, a Mosaic Leatherjacket, was taken last time I was in Edithburgh (yes I spend a lot of time there!). This beautiful fish is so amusing believing for all the world that no one can see it!

Even though I am almost always teaching on these weekends I make sure I get in a couple of dives for myself no matter how cold. Gee, looking forward to that warmer water of late Spring again!!!!

As per last week I am keeping with the larger format as the feedback has been much better. For the record, all photos on my site have been taken with either natural light or the internal camera flash so it just goes to show you do not need to spend a lot to get some great photos. Just buy yourself a cheap digital and start taking photos!!!

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that's what you do! ) ...Robert

This week's photo, an Ornate Cowfish, was taken today at yet again my favourite shore dive, Edithburgh Jetty. Aracana ornata, inhabits shallow protected waters of the Eastern Indian Ocean including Australian waters from Western Australia to Western Victoria and Tasmania. When feeding, they often blow a jet of water out of their mouths into the sediment to uncover hidden prey.

Today I think we counted at leat 8 of these beautiful creatures ranging in size from 2cm through to 6cm. All appeared to be females which is hardly suprising as only during mating periods does one of the females change into a male...

From now on I've decided to post BIGGER photos! Partly to see if I actually get any comments from anyone and partly because I reckon they are not half bad! Please let me know what you think!

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that's what you do! ) ...Robert

So, you want to grab some "Tube" do you?!!

Look for...
"/player2.swf?video_id=FPejYdBM11I&l=241&t=OEgsToPDskLx8rDtCBpSJsXwHO3kFeM2&nc=6724044"

Then use...
http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=prolonged_video_identification_code

so you get...
http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=FPejYdBM11I&l=241&t=OEgsToPDskLx8rDtCBpSJsXwHO3kFeM2&nc=6724044

This week's photo, Sabella spallanzanii, commonly known as the European Fan Worm, was taken yesterday on the wreck of "The Norma" off of North Haven. This animal is an invader to Australian waters! First found here in 1965 in Albany Harbour in WA, it is now a wide spread pest throughout Australia's southern coastal waters.

More information about this local invader can be found at http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/pub/IMPMarine/IMPMarinePage14a.php?0506

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that's what you do! ) ...Robert

This little story actually began more than two years ago when I purchased a gen03 Subaru. I was delighted in everything about the vehicle, well almost everything. The poor excuse for a car battery that Subaru saw fit to include looked like it was going to cause grief, ... and it proved me right!

During a recent dive trip to the East Coast I was required to work with my laptop from the car. Twice I drained the battery with inverter to the point of not being able to crank the engine. I'm sure I was on-line for less than a couple hours each time!

The last straw was during a recent Beta Test of a new "in-car" product. All worked very well for a time until the prototype developed a fault in its power management and continued drawing significant current with the ignition off. A better battery would have held its own but the poor little 48Ah battery was stone cold dead two mornings in a row.

So, armed with frustration and the desire to FIX IT FOR GOOD, I set off to my local auto spares shop and began sizing up the alternatives. Thanks to patient but bewildered shop staff who helped me try successively bigger and bigger batteries I finally found one that nearly filled up all the empty space under the bonnet. Shaking their heads in disbelief I headed home with an Exide PDIN66, nearly double the previous battery in all aspects! Aside from a little bit of battery terminal re-engineering the new battery fit like the proverbial glove.

Here's a quick comparison of the "Factory" battery compared to my new powersource.

Battery: P305C -> PDIN66
Cold Cranking Amps: 305A -> 600A
Reserve Capacity: 48Ah -> 110Ah
Weight With Acid: 13Kg -> 23Kg

So now I have joules to burn and the confidence to use all my gadgets without fear of being stranded,...for now!!

This week's photo, a simple jetty pylon, was taken last month again at my favourite shore dive, Edithburgh Jetty. You can easily spend an entire dive here just on a single jetty pylon. Countless varieties of ascidians, algeas, hard corals, soft corals, crabs, shrimp, scallops, fish and even the odd black cowrie will reward your patience and observation skills. A perfect opportunity for macro photography!

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that's what you do! ) ...Robert

This week's photo of the week, a Horned Blenny, was taken this last Saturday at my favorite shore dive, Edithburgh Jetty. The water was a chilly 11 degrees but this little fellow made it all worthwhile. After an hour and a half in a wetsuit I was looking forward to a warm shower and a good thaw but this little guy had other ideas.

Proudly perched on the steps at the exit point he strutted and posed and did everything he could to keep my shutter clicking. Horned Blennys abound around the jetty's steps and often put on a cheeky display if you have any reserves left at the end of your dive. So if they put on a show, float there, relax and stay as long as you air lasts...

From today I will continue posting one photo every week but will be looking for comments. At the end of the month I will choose one to be the photo of the month.

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that's what you do! ) ...Robert

It is not often, well not often enough , that I buy new toys but when I do I have a knack for doing it well! I have just become the proud new owner of a Sony NW-E005F MP3 player.

The interesting thing about this cool new gadget is that I did something I said I would never do and that is to buy a DRM ( Digital Rights Managed ) mp3 player. Well, enough pro's finally outweighed the con's and it hit my performance sweet spot so I now own a Sony DRM based player!

Firstly it’s a USB flash key with 2GB to play with and finally enough to at least keep me happy. Secondly, I can still put all of my favorite MP3’s, both music and podcasts. Last and just as important, it is absolutely beautiful both in visual design and in the user interface.

Sure it has its con’s but for now I will put up with them because it ROCKS!!!!

Most mornings I ride the bus into the office rather than compete for road space, parking and sanity with all the other motorists out there. I find this a wonderful chance to read and respond to mail or to catch up on other documents I am required to read. Most of us know that to do this we need a mail client which downloads, ie pop mail. But what about blogs! It is all well and good to read your favorite blogs at their respective websites but not so good when you are "on-bus" and not “on-line”.

Welcome to RSS, or "Really Simple Syndication". Nearly all blogs and many websites now support a feature called RSS which allows you to subscribe to websites and blogs you are interested in. This in tern allows you to aggregate all of your RSS feeds into a single reader. This is pretty much like having your own custom news/magazine prepared for your every morning!!! Great for "on-bus" reading.

So go to Wikipedia and look up RSS and explore from there!!! .... oh and subscribe to my blog too!!

This week's photo was taken back in January under Rapid Bay Jetty. Same time as my last photo, in wonderfully warm summer!

Perhaps now best known as the home of the Leafy Sea Dragon, Rapid Bay Jetty is a wonderful dive all of its own. The tall close packed pylons create a deep forest feel within which hundreds of schooling Yellowtail, Olds Wives and other fishes meander.

The old jetty is falling down now but the marine life does not mind one bit. Rumor has it that a facelift of sorts is in the pipline so keep an eye out for future developments.

Get down there and see for yourself just how fantastic a dive site we have here!

Douglas Adams once wrote, "Cleanliness may be next to Godliness but
tidiness is the the result of an S.E.P. Field".

Creativity in the office often goes hand in hand with a noted lack of
tidiness. There will always be those who make it their responsibility to keep a
sense of order and tidiness, to other's, myself included, we are happy to make
it Someone Else's Problem. So what happens if you work in an office
lacking an S.E.P Field? "CHAOENTRAPY"... The place where both chaos
and entropy eventually turn the office into a non-functional tip of boxes,
paper and broken equipment...

So today's mission is to create a new office environment for everyone. One
which is not only functional, but self organising and regenerative. In short
the challenge is to embody the new space with its own S.E.P. Field so we can
all get back down to the business of being creative and messy again!

Sorry to all those who's internet connection crashed and burned today trying to read my website. I had the main page forwarding on to itself via remote proxy bla bla bla..... The end result was that it not only brought the client to its knees but crashed my router and bumped my IP address. All fixed now, but oh the joys of running your own site! ...Robert

This week's photo was taken back in January under Rapid Bay Jetty. Ah, remember way back when the water was a balmy 22degrees! Jennifer was almost in tears the very first time she met one of these beautiful creatures. They still take my breath away even now...

Leafy Sea Dragons are actually quite common along all of South Australia's more protected coastal waters. It's just that they are so good at blending in with their surrounds. In my first 14 years of diving I had only seen two of these amazing dragons. In my last two I have seen 50 or more.

Popular locations to see Leafy Sea Dragons include Rapid Bay Jetty, Edithburgh Jetty, Wool Bay Jetty and The Bluff at Victor Harbor. So brave the cold, open your eyes and behold one of natures most extraordinary creations!

Ok, so who is the General and who is the young lady? Well in both cases you'd most likely be wrong and wrong! Well maybe the picture might just give a little clue!

For the last few months I have been fretting and imploring my Girlfriend to get new tyres for her 900S SAAB. The last straw came after realising she'd been driving around for a month on her spare because no tyre place would repair a flat tyre with bits of steel wire poking out from all directions! Being the typical male and a bit of a closet car enthusiast I decided to take matters into my own hands!

Hmm now, a set of decent tyres would set her back somewhere around six hundred for a new set of boring old R15 tyres to go on the OE steel rims. Ok, start shopping around for new rims! Ok, start shopping around for second hand rims due to severe financial constraints!! Oh, and make that a set of second hand rims with good tyres all for less than the cost of four new tyres. Ok, so now I had a goal! Why do we always turn the simplest of things into a challenge?

So, after much shopping around the prognosis was looking pretty grim. Does anyone ever part with SAAB wheels?? Ok, new angle, back to fundamentals and let's look at the actual dimensions of bore, PCD, width and diameter. Oh look, Opel/Vauxhaul use the same dimensions on late model Astras and Calibras. Hmm, interesting. .... Well you get the picture so to cut a long story short I found her a beautiful set of 16" Holden Astra alloy rims that fit just perfectly with good tyres to boot! There was even enough change left in the budget to pay for balancing, an alignment and even an evening out at a very nice restaurant!

So, the General's wheel's adorn the Lady's body and just like my Girlfriend, she's looking mighty fine indeed!!

This week's photo is a semi-silhouette of a Grey-Nurse shark taken earlier this year. The location is Fish Rock, South West Rocks, NSW, Australia. This trip will be one of my most memorable ever. The site easily deserves it's place in Austrlia's top dive locations.



Just imagine being in a 20m deep gutter, 25m visibility and 40+ silent sentinels cruising up and down as if to guard the secret entrance to Fish Rock Cave. Yes the cave is something special too but really the entire site needs to be experienced for its sharks, rays and abundance of tropical and temperate life.

Plan to visit it at least once, expect to go back for more!!!

I have just experienced a day of getting my crippled laptop back to life again. It's no fun when you are trying to meet deadlines and fix your PC!

Finally I had to resort to reinstalling XP and my troubles went from bad to worse! XP refused to activate an promptly logged me off every time I tried to log in. It seems that as I had recently replaced both the motherboard and the hard drive, Microsoft refused to believe I was the legitimate owner of the XP license!

At least to their credit Microsoft were able to fix the problem over the phone but it took some time and a lot of numbers were involved! Ah Microsoft, You've Done It Again!

I have updated the links section in the on the left side bar to include all of Jennifer's really cool stuff!! Please go have a look and make her day!

Today both Jennifer and myself took on the Glenelg Scuba Dive Passort SA Challenge! A list of 45 local SA dive locations covering shore, wreck and boat dives. Looking through the list I am am astounded that I have only dived 32 of them so far. Not that that counts as everyone involved starts from January this year. We will need to get into some planning now because the tricky ones on my list are sites like the Zanoni, the Ulonga and the wrecks off Wardang Island.

Ok, so blog has been tested from a remote site and it all looks ok. Now that bed is looking rather nice about now!

Ha, my very first blog entry! Well that's not very exciting at all as the real fun was setting up the blogging application on the server! So let's see where this goes!! ...R

New Photos

Just a few new photos on my gallery page of my last Edithburgh trip. We had a fantastic dive on the wreck of the Clan Ranald, some great drift diving on Troubridge Reef and two beautiful night dives! The visibility was nearly 15m at times! Perfect for photos and making my fellow divers green with envy (or should that be aquamarine)!

Back In The Game

Well it had to happen that I have found myself back in the thick of things with TDA Tech Pty Ltd.  With technology development based in Adelaide Australia and  manufacturing resource in Hong Kong and China, TDA offers a complete end to end OEM solution for trusted digital authentication. Want to know more? Visit. http://www.tda-tech.com August 2005.

Inceptu Ideas Forum Launched

The ongoing development of the Inceptu Web Site now hosts a new ideas forum.  This is a place for people interested in ideas, technology and innovation to share ideas in a public space. Even if you are not interested in innovation and technology please have a visit and let me know what you think. Please visit. http://www.inceptu.com/community/index.php Monday 4th July 2005.

It's Getting Cold In The Water

Well winter is now here with a vengeance and I guess it's not exactly news but the water is now officially COLD! I took a class into the ocean in wetsuits on the weekend and we all survived but that hot tomato soup between each dive was really appreciated! So how cold is it? Here's a look back over my local diving for the last year and as you can see, it's COLD!