Sacada

Being a hunter in "World of Warcraft" is excellent for soloists.

As a hunter you get to tame a pet at level 10. This, in a way, gives you a playing buddy that is always there when you want to play. I started with a spider, but have now changed to a bear. The bear is better at tanking. I can often take down things that are 5 levels higher, and even a couple at 7 levels higher.

I have just moved into the Outlands and am finding that a bit more difficult as I am often fighting 2 at once.

I am currently doing the worlds largest jigsaw of 24000. I have completed the first section. A couple of days off and now beginning the second section.

Other Articles: Worlds Largest Jigsaw - Part 1


Day001: 14th Nov 2009: Off to a good start on this section. The green stands out, so lots of grass done. Also many balloons and the main animals.

Day002: Had a fair bit of time to spend on it today. Lots done around the centre and then into the fish.

Day003: Slowing down again. Only a bit of coral and a few more fish.

Day004: A little bit more of the fish.

Day005: Now starting the purple coral.

Day006: Only a couple of random pieces today.

Day007: Starting to bring all the fish sections together.

Day008: Filling in more on the fish and coral.

Day009: Back to the water around the tiger and rocks.

Day010: Mostly finished the water surface now. Also adding smaller background fish.

Day011: Having a break from the water and back to the sky. Slowing down with not much time to do it. Did a few of the birds.

Day012: A bit of time to work on the rainbow. That will section the sky area.

Day013: More on the rainbow and a few random pieces.

Day014: Time to hit the butterfiles (metaphorically).

Day015: A stint to get the sky done. Lots of blue, but many shades.

Day016: Sky is now done. Back into the water section. Get organised first and then attack it tomorrow.

Day017: A long marathon to finish on the this day. As it got later and later into the night, I had to blink a lot to be able to focus... must finish... must... The last piece was sitting there for 10 minutes before I found where it went. It looked like fish. I thought that it must belong to the last section, so stopped and took the photo. Eventually found. It ended up being a part of a bird. It is easy to see it in these photos, but I just couldn't see it last night.

Now I shall take another few days off before start section 3. Maybe after Christmas 09.

Now that we have lots of iPhones at work, it was time to start testing our data plans with download speeds.

Now that this technology is available, I am finding that I am using my phone for more day to day internet. I have all my emails in my pocket as well as doing my mapping and browsing.

With four different networks availabe, the results were quite different. Sadly mine (the second one) is the slowest, and I can feel that with the day to day browsing that I do.


Looking at the results history of a few different tries you can start to see the averages coming out.
The first tests are at the bottom and the last tests at the top.

Firstly Telstra. The fifth line onwards are all "wireless" connections, so ignore them.
The Telstra phone did start out OK with 758, but we were expecting it to be higher. It seemed to be jumping up and down from test to test.
Once we took the protective plastic case off the iPhone, the speed jumped up considerably to a top speed of 1160. But still, the next test was again low at 583.

Vodafone started poor and finished poor with a top speed of 409. It has never run a good test, but the uploads were the fastest. Maybe we should set that one up as an Internet server.

(Editors Pick) Optus was the big performer of both this day, and a previous test that we had done. With a top speed of 3228, it is way above the competition. You can just feel the difference when you use any internet software like browsing and maps. The last slow figure of 1253 is actually "wireless".

The 3 network is the newest kid on the block. This new contender gave us mixed results starting out very well with a top speed of 1638. The slower figures in the middle can be ignored as the phone was downloading software updates at that time. The final result of 895 again showed this network did have the capability of good download speeds.

Summary:
I have had Vodafone tested on an Android as well, and again the performance was poor.

From our test results Optus is the clear winner for speed. Upon picking a network, speed is not the only criteria you should base it on. Also look at coverage, price and contracts among other things.

Update:
I now have the results for the Android in...
The Android, that is also on Vodafone, gave a similiar result as the iPhone Vodafone when test a fortnight ago, from (most likely) the same cell tower.
New results show that it is going even slower when doing more tests in different areas.

At a top speed of 197 on Vodafone, the Android came in after the race was over. The top value is from Brisbane, while the bottom figure is from Canberra. Slow and slower.

Although I did not seek to get into Ant Farming, it is just one of those things that you do as a parent just after the kids have a birthday.

We first decided to collect tiny little ants. Those ones that are about a millimetre long and come into the kitchen on rainy days.
We quickly scanned the instructions and then went out for the find. There were lots of larger ants out there (8mm) and the small ones were very hard to find. The small ones were even harder to catch. After persevering for some time and finally catching the second one, the first one got away.

Off to the big ants. After a quick scan of the nest, I decided that I didn't want to pick these fellows up. They were running all over the place and acting quite aggressively to our presence. We took the lid off the container and put it into the nest. It was quickly attacked and there were ants all over it. I tossed the lid on (with a few casualties that were half way in) and then kept pushing the container away with my foot until there seemed to be no more on the outside. I also had a few ants running up my trouser leg, so I was hopping all over the place.

The instructions said to place in the fridge to cool the ants down. That seemed to work. Next, it was supposed to be a day or two before they would start digging. Not these guys... they had a mission. Within an hour they were tunnelling their way out.

Day001: Within a few hours the ants on the left have made their way to the bottom. I wonder if they can carve through plastic?

Day002: Things have surely progressed in just a day. The left have now started moving in different directions. The right is now starting their descent.
I tried to get the ones caught in the lid out, but that only led to escapees which were caught the next day.

The coloney is split into a few different types of ants. These are the worker ants.

Above ground we found that there were quite a few soldier ants. These ants don't dig and will just protect the area. They don't even feed themselves so will starve if we keep them.
They are all very interesting to watch. Looks like they may be planning something.

Day003: They are sure busy. Maybe this container won't be big enough for them. Today we let the soldiers go. I think there is about 6 workers on the left and 4 on the right. The right side is now starting to branch.