Still As Life

What would happen if you run two ADSL router’s on one phone line, with the same connection details?

Now, a DSL connection splits the phone line into two channel, one for voice communication and one for the data transmissions.

However, I have been talking with an engineering friend of mine, and to his understanding, a single ADSL router will not use anywhere near all of the frequencies available to it on a phone line. So logically, a second router should not greatly interfere with it.
The biggest problem I can see is that TPG provide us with a static IP which means there would most likely be an IP clash.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

I’m thinking about buying something like a Netcomm NB5  since they are reasonably cheap at Umart at the moment since the NB6 is due to arrive soon and just trying it and seeing what happens.

Popularity: 20% [?]

I like my things to be organised, though as many will testify, my things appear quite the opposite, except of course for things such as my tax and other money related things.

For anyone that has seen my desks, aside from the keyboard and mouse space, they are piled with various papers, documents, letters, computer pieces, stationary and so on. However, there is order and organisation. Everything has a certain spot, they are just often buried in that spot.

My blog also needs to be organised. I have been using the dated archives as I like things to be available sequentially by time. I also have been using categories to categorise each post. However, posts often belong in multiple categories. This can make things somewhat difficult with my URL structure as it means I have to set the most appropriate category to go in the URL. I like this structure so I don’t want to change it.

Of course some posts are also related by things that do not have their own category, and in my opinion, shouldn’t. Tags don’t affect my URL structure, and allow me to create relations between multiple posts quite easily. This does create some duplicate content, but no more than putting posts in multiple categories.

Now, when reading about search engine optimisation and so on, I frequently see things saying that duplicate content is bad and has a negative effect on search results. I can see this being correct if its the same content on multiple domains, however, as you may have noticed, I have been tagging things for a while now. This doesn’t seem to have damaged my search results at all, if anything, it has improved them.

Using tags also allows for some other interesting things, such as tag clouds and related posts by tags. I’m not using tag clouds, but it is interesting to look at.

What are your thoughts on tagging, categories and so on? Do you prefer just one, or a combination of them?

Popularity: 13% [?]

All the way back in the start of March, I wrote about a new blog I was working on for my Computational Arts subject this semester, KKB210.

It is located at matthewbrown.net.au and as you may have noticed, the website has been live for a few weeks now. I hadn’t actually posted anything until last week, but as the blog is part of an assessment that is due in a couple of weeks, as well as being part of our final assessment due at the end of the semester, it will have a lot more going up on it soon.

Unfortunately I am currently unable to use Wordpress 2.5 for it as we are required to use a couple of plug-ins which aren’t completely compatible with 2.5 yet.

Hopefully I’ll be able to upgrade it soon as 2.5’s media library would be very useful for this particular blog.

What do you think of the design? It is intentionally simple, just because there is no reason to do a complex design. Once I get some computational works done from this subject, I may use some in the design, but at this stage theres nothing to include.

Popularity: 17% [?]

I was at Carindale today since I was supposed to be “helping” a friend shop. By that I gather I’m meant to say when something looks good or bad.

Anyway, we were in Myers, just having a look and there were some things that I just can’t help but laugh at.

So, we have a green manikin, which I assume is something to do with the Industrie brand which has a similar green logo. There are no other green ones in the store, just this one. It also happens to be right in one of the entry ways.

We have a bag with wooden straps that looks like it would be very uncomfortable and does not open very far. Plus, it’s $225.00. So not only does it seem pointless, but it is extremely expensive.

Finally, the “Pinespace” t-shirt. Basically a screenshot of Myspace with some image manipulation forms the entire front of the shirt. Who buys something like this? Seriously.

For that matter, who would buy either of those things.

Myers is always expensive, but these things just made me laugh, I don’t see the point at all.

Popularity: 13% [?]

V Berry is in my opinion the nicest variation of the V energy drinks. It does however come at a cost, it has a lower caffeine quantity. It is probably also the healthiest of the V range as it actually has some fruit juice in it (thus the reduced caffeine quantities in order to fit the juice).

Taste wise, it does still have the regular V flavour, it is quite prominent, but the added berry flavouring makes it much nicer in my opinion.

Whether this is true or not, I’m not sure, but I have heard that V Berry was intended to provide a V variation that was closer to the Red Bull flavour, and thus creating some more competition with Red Bull.

Like I said, I don’t know if that’s true, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

V Berry are currently $2.20 a can at Coles and are available individually, in 4 packs, and occasionally you find them in an 8 pack (6x V and 2x V Berry). V Berry is also available in a 35oml bottle. You can also get it at Woolworths, Aldi, Kmart, Big W, Spar, 7-11, most service stations, most other smaller food stores and many vending machines, and no doubt many more places as well.

V Berry Nutritional Information

The label indicates the following per 100ml:

V Berry has the standard warning not to drink more than 2 cans per day.

V Berry Ingredients

The ingredients according to the can are as follows:

Carbonated water, sugar, reconstituted fruit juice (apple (2.9%), blackcurrent (2.6%), raspberry (2.5%), lemon (0.3%)), acidity regulators (citric acid, sodium citrate), taurine, guarana extract (0.12%), flavours, glucuronolactone, caffeine, vitamins (niacin (B3), pantothenic acid, B6, B2, B12), ginkgo biloba extract (0.004%).

V Berry is different to the other V energy drinks in that it has fruit juices, but also with the inclusion of the ginkgo biloba extract. Ginkgo biloba can have any of 3 effects on humans, it can improve blood flow; it can protect against oxidative cell damage from free radicals; and it blocks many of the effects of platelet-activating factor (platelet aggregation, blood clotting) (Wikipedia). As Ginkgo supplements are generally taken in between 40mg and 200mg doses a day, I don’t see that the tiny amount in V Berry or any other energy drink is enough to really have any effect at all, except to say that it is there.

Drugs.com lists a multitude of adverse side effects that ginkgo biloba extract can have, including:

• headache
• dizziness
• heart palpitations
• GI and dermatologic reactions
• Ginkgo pollen can be strongly allergenic
• The fleshy fruit pulp may cause allergic dermatitis similar to poison ivy.

Again, I don’t think that the quantities in an energy drink would be enough to cause these side effects, but it doesn’t hurt to be aware of them

V Berry Ratings

Quantity - 250ml
2.5/5

Price - $2.20
3/5

Flavour
3/5

Overall
3/5

Popularity: 46% [?]