Other than viewing the photos taken on my Android phone, I've never used Google Photos for cloud storage/backup of my photos. Generally, I've never been comfortable hosting my private documents/photos etc. in a cloud that is controlled by proprietary profit-focused companies (email being the only exception).

However, one thing that Google Photos does really well is presenting your photos in a very nice way. Since the dawn of digital cameras, I've always manually managed the organisation and storage of our photos and videos. We have them stored on our NAS in a year folder, then a month/event folder.

I've never … Read more →

At most of my jobs, there has been a certain amount of peer-pressure or peer-induced purchases. Early on it was for video game consoles and video games, and later it was other video game consoles and reading material.

At this current job, it's been homelab setups, and recently, networking gear.

The networking gear of choice for many prosumers recently is from Ubiquiti. It's definitely overkill for most use-cases, but pretty cool nonetheless.

So, with some WFH equipment allowance, I've bought a Ubiquiti Dream Machine SE (UDM-SE) router, and a WiFi 6 access point (U6-Pro).

The router

I've … Read more →

After a very ordinary 2010, I had hoped that 2011 would have been much much better. In looking back, 2011 was definitely much better health-wise, although I didn't exactly get the news that I had hoped for in 2010. Still, only one hospital stay-over for some routine-ish surgery was definitely much better than the previous years record.

We had hoped to have moved into a newly built house by now, but we're still in the middle of that process so here's hoping we won't be too far into 2012 for that to happen! That's also one of the main reasons … Read more →

It's been no secret that 2010 has been an incredibly difficult and trying year for me, probably the most trying of all my 28 years. Two hospital emergency admissions, three other sets of procedures done in hospital, and almost countless continuing scans, MRIs, and blood tests means that this year will largely be remembered as one in which my health took a decided turn for the worse.

The issues with my health have brought a lot of things into focus, and i know it's cliché, but have made me appreciate the things that really matter and make me happy, whilst … Read more →

So it's that time of year for my critical wrap. Here are the Best and Worst of what i saw and played in the year that was 2010.

Movies

Best Movie: How To Train Your Dragon

HTTYD was easily my stand-out movie for me this year. I loved the story, the 3D was spectacular (even rivalling Avatar in my opinion), the visuals were great, and the score was wonderful. Such a great movie, and the fact that it's the only movie this year i've seen multiple times cements its status as my favourite of the 2010.

Honourable mentions: Scott Pilgrim … Read more →

Christmas 2010 was a pretty standard affair in the end: Church followed by a whole day of visiting family's places. I guess the only big difference is that my parents being away for Christmas made it feel a bit different than normal.

After getting home yesterday evening, rather than vegging out as usual after the big day, i felt in the mood to get something done.

I was in the mood to do some coding/programming, and it usually happens about once a year (the last time being when i added comment notifications to this blog). I've been wanting to … Read more →

Summer has truly arrived in the past week, almost every day has seen 30-plus degree weather, and also more than a few storms for the past few days.

I can't say I really like it, but the nights haven't been bad enough to resort to the air-con, so I probably can't complain too much.

A big event over the past week was me going into hospital on Monday to get a liver biopsy done. It's a result of my confusing relapse and symptoms that have reappeared over the past few months.

It wasn't a fun procedure, as it required me … Read more →

We're now well into December, and thus also Summer. It's probably been the most mild start (temperature-wise) to the season that I can remember; i think they said on the news the other day that it was the first time in over ten years that Brisbane went through the whole of Spring without ever hitting 30 degrees, and that even Hobart of-all-places managed to get higher sometime throughout the season. Here's hoping for a cool summer :D.

As tradition goes we put up the Christmas tree on the 1st of the month. I think this might be the last Christmas … Read more →

I got a new phone, yay. Here's the history: As a mostly Google-centred user, the advent of Google's mobile operating system over the past 12 months or so had seen me getting increasingly interested in getting a smart-phone. I'm not at all interested in iPhones, nor Nokia's own unimpressive attempts at touch-screen smart-phones. However the average size of Android-based phones having big-ish iPhone-sized touch-screens have also not interested me at all.

Ever since having a Nokia 8310 back in 2002/3 I have been spoilt by small-size phones that easily and comfortably fit in a pocket. All of my phones since … Read more →

After the first property settlement over five years ago (boy does time fly!), this past week the contract on the house we agreed to purchase finally settled.

So now we've officially kicked off our transition from unit living to house living. It's going to be a complicated transition (which will probably involve another 12 months and two actual 'moves'), but it sure means some exiting times for us over the next year!

I've also just gotten a new phone, and like the all the last ones i'm going to use it for a bit before making an entry about it … Read more →