My DELL XPS 15

Finally I have ordered my new Laptop. After humming and harring for about 2-3 months I decided to go for the DELL XPS 15. My first thoughts were an ASUS machine which seem to be highly regarded.

My specs were: Price - around and preferably under AU$2000; Screen not too small but not too big to keep the weight down but with 1920x1080 pixels; Blueray if possible; i7 Intel chip and a decent graphics card.

After reading a few reviews my impression was that the ASUS machine may be a slightly superior machine but their after sales service was atrocious. Having had a DELL laptop previously and contacting them on a minor issue (which was resolve immediately) I felt I should stick with DELL.

After the decisiion was made, of course I'd look for the best price and my idea was to order online. Unfortunately I was unable to log into my (perhaps now lapsed) account to see if there are any discounts available to me. So I tried to ring DELL to find out if I still had an account.

The first person transferred me to the appropriate person who then transferred me to the appropriate person who then transferred me to the appropriate person who then...... you know the story. After six transfers I got to a person who sounded like the very first person - I told her that I already had six transfers so she said she'd transfer me to sales. This was of course what I wanted to avoid.

However once the consultant could smell a possible sale the whole process became a real joy. My idea that buying through a consultant would cost me more was wrong and I actually ended up saving a small amount. However I looked at the online options during the whole process.

The person I dealt with was very professional. Of course she tried to increase the sales value but certainly was not persistant. She did manage to "upsize" the additional monitor I wanted. All over I thought the whole process was a joy and I would certainly recommend her. I'd be happy to pass her name on if you are interested. There is any chance that if you came to this post that there would be a DELL ad on my blog - feel free to click on it to check out their site.

A review of the monitor can be found at: http://www.cnet.com.au/dell-ultrasharp-u2410-339298064.htm

A New Computer - Dell xps16

I am hoping to order a new laptop shortly. At this stage a DELL XPS 16 with a 1920x1080 screen is my hope

Revolving restaurants

Over the years I have been to a few revolving restaurants and it has become almost a hobby with me. If there is a chance to visit one I will take that opportunity.





My first one was of course in my home city of Adelaide in the suburb of Glenelg. The building itself has a rather fascinating history. It was labelled a "white elephant" when its construction stopped for a number of years. There were also rumours of an intended death when a plane plunged into the sea with a couple of persons involved in the building. When it finally was completed the restaurants also had a chequered history with it being referred to as the "revolting" restaurant at times. However I must say that the few times we dined or lunched there we were always happy.





Canberra: Our capital city has a revolving restaurant atop telstra tower which is on top of Black Mountain. As one expects of Canberra it is very clean. We only had a desert there but that alone was rather impressive.





Hobart: A rather anaemic casino is topped by their revolving restaurant. It did have wonderful views, unfortunately I can only remember the strong voiced old biddy on the table next to us who kept talking about the cartoons of Leunig. As much as I liked his cartoons it spoiled our lunch there.





Blue mountains: Its a bit of a Clayton's revolving restaurant; but it does have a revolving platform even though it is hardly off the ground.





Gold coast: This one sits on top of one of Gold Coast better hotels and its views are spectactular even though we found that in the evening half the time you look out to the sea which of course was dark.





Perth: In the CBD it had plenty of good views and we liked the menu.





Sydney: On top of centrepoint tower I found this perhaps Australias most exiting revolving restaurant with brilliant views of a brilliant city.





Hong Kong: Amazingly Hong Kong has only the one revolving restaurant. It is on the island part of HK in the Hopewell building. The lunch Smorgasboard was very good and reasonably priced. It amazed me that we were 62 floors above the ground yet in the distance one can see buildings which tower way above us being built on the mountains inside.





Penang: This one was on top a ten year old building which was mainly empty due to a new centre having been built across the road. However the restaurant was still nice; it looked like some renovations were taking place when we visited some years ago.





Kuala Lumpur: KL tower houses this revolving restaurant. Another restaurant which offers a very good lunch smorgasboard at good prices. I was somewhat concerned when the platform came to a clunking stop, but I think they reverse direction every now and then. Beutiful views of the city and surrounds. Also nice grounds around the tower for those who wish to walk off the calories they just acquired.





Auckland: We'll be there early next year.

wikileaks bunker - any connection to the CIA?

Having seen pictures of Julian Assange's bunker one wonders how an individual can create such an underground palace. It makes me wonder whether he is bankrolled.

Could it be that an organisation such as the CIA is involved? One can imagine that such an institution may be aligned with the elements which are bot too happy with the Obama regime and are intend on discrediting them in any which way.

Epiphytic forest

Epiphytic forest - one of Adelaide's up and coming designarista produced this youtube video as part of his final subject http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxIGqGvO27c. Also the picture shows his award winning poster.

Australian Uranium companies

It has long been my belief that the price of uranium will start its climb upwards again. Hopefully its rise will be steady - rather than explosive and then end up in a burst bubble. This post and following comments will show companies which I have found or reasonably believe to be lookingfor uranium. Again - as in a previous post - THIS INFORMATION IS NOT ADVICE but rather intended as my mind jogger and for my family and close friends.

The big boys - BHP and RIO - are of course known to most people world over, have Uranium mines of significant sizes. Neither interest me as I am looking for the smaller producer/explorer. ERA falls in the same category as it is owned largely by RIO.

My main investment (atm intended as long term with the intention of building my holding is MEY. Marenica holds exploration licenses in Namibia. Its neighbours are the Rossing, Trekkopje and Langer Heinrich mines.

NTU A promising company with connections to AREVA the french uranium company. However when AREVA decided not to take up a recent issue in NTU I lost confidence and sold most my investment. Hence I found indications of HREE which had then become a market darling. My watch is on the above chart to see how the share price performs in the next couple of weeks. The company has options NTUOA and NTUOB. Both give good leverage if the sp rises.

Microcool's Banchetto 101

This would have to be the coolest computer case ever (pun intended).

I WANT ONE

Nokia N97 mini

It's now 2 months since I have had my new Nokia. I was actually looking to get a wireless internet account when I spotted "3"s bundled deal which allowed me to roll over my existing plan at the same rate but include 2G of wireless internet and upgrade my phone to the N97. My intention were to get an Iphone 4 but once I started using the N97 I really fell in love with it. Having always had phone which were sort of PDAs (O's Xda IIs and Nokias N95) I appreciate a bit more than just a phone and a camera; Even though my mind still boggles that this tiny thing can tell me where to go and keep my memories as well as tell me stories etc etc.

The whole unit feels solid and may be perhaps a tad too heavy for some people but I prefer the more solid and robust fell. Gives it a touch of class. The mechanism to reveal the keyboard is also class, even though my pudgy fingers still find it a stretch to navigate through the internet via the keyboard.

Would I recommend this phone - YES - it is value!

REE -rare earth elements

Having followed NTU - Northern Uranium for a number of years now and being mostly disappointed I was delighted that their foray into rare earth minerals is strating to pay dividends. Following is a list of rare earth minerals :

Symbol #, name, how the name was derived, uses
57 La Lanthanum from the Greek "lanthanon," meaning I am hidden. High refractive index glass, flint, hydrogen storage, battery-electrode, camera lens
58 Ce Cerium for the Roman deity of fertility Ceres. chemical oxidising agent, polishing powder, yellow colors in glass and ceramics, catalyst for Self-cleaning oven etc.
59 Pr Praseodymium from the Greek "praso," meaning leek-green, and "didymos," meaning twin. Rare-earth magnets, laser, green colors in glass and ceramics, flint
60 Nd Neodymium from the Greek "neo," meaning new-one, and "didymos," meaning twin. Rare-earth magnets, laser, violet colors in glass and ceramics, ceramic capacitor
61 Pm Promethium for the Titan Prometheus, who brought fire to mortals. Nuclear battery
62 Sm Samarium for Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets, who discovered the rare earth ore samarskite. Rare-earth magnets, Laser, neutron capture, maser
63 Eu Europium for the continent of Europe. Red and blue phosphors, laser, mercury-vapor lamp
64 Gd Gadolinium for Johan Gadolin (1760–1852), to honor his investigation of rare earths. Rare-earth magnets, high refractive index glass or garnets, laser, x-ray tube, computer memory, neutron capture
65 Tb Terbium for the village of Ytterby, Sweden, where the first rare earth ore was discovered. Green phosphors, laser, fluorescent lamp
66 Dy Dysprosium from the Greek "dysprositos," meaning hard to get. Rare-earth magnets, laser,
67 Ho Holmium for Stockholm (in Latin, "Holmia"), native city of one of its discoverers. Laser
68 Er Erbium for the village of Ytterby, Sweden. Laser, vanadium steel
69 Tm Thulium for the mythological land of Thule. Portable X-ray machine
70 Yb Ytterbium for the village of Ytterby, Sweden. Infrared Laser, chemical reducing agent, High-temperature superconductors (YBCO)
71 Lu Lutetium for Lutetia, the city which later became Paris.


The above information comes from an article in wikipedia

Restaurants

On our recent week off we decided to spend our money on dining rather than travelling further afield. The first stop was the Victory Hotel on our way to Cape Jervis. It is about a third off the way there with wonderful views over the sea and almost back to what used to be the refinery.

Their menu is interesting and Lyn had rabbit, an item I have not seen on a menu before and it reminded Lyn of her childhood. I had the Hamburger as that is something I do not have often these day. We both enjoyed our meals and the service.

Of course while we stay at Cape Jervis we always have at least one meal at the Cape Jervis Tavern. The meals are always very good and you receive a good sized serve. Even though I would not go out of my way to eat there I highly recommend it if you happen to be in the area or on your way through to Kangaroo Island.

Our plans to dine at Victor Harbour's newest restaurant Stingrays were put off by a day, but we still did the trip to Victor and instead had a lunch at the local Crown Hotel. We had lunched at this hotel at various times and never had any complaints. This time we decided to cheap it and went into their TAB bar. The punter's menu offered three choices for $5 and an $8 choice including a glass of beer. I opted for the bolognaise with the beer and Lyn had the fish'n'chips. This was definitely BANG4BUCKS - I go their again anytime.

The following day we finally went to Stingrays, the place I was looking forward to. It was evening so unfortunately we could not enjoy their view. The restaurant had only started a couple of weeks ago. When receiving our bottle of bubbly we were asked to fill our glasses ourselves - hmmmmmm. I thoroughly enjoyed the chirpy service of the two waiting staff all the same. After the nice oysters some of us ordered steak. I requested mine medium to rare; it was served more on the side of well done with no pink to be seen anywhere. This was rather a shame as the meat itself was beautiful. Then came the crunch - we asked for coffee - WELL they didn't have any. The boss forgot to drop it in during the day. That to me was an excuse to have my desert with a Brandy - it was served in just an ordinary glass.
We enjoyed the evening but were somewhat underwhelmed.

Finally on our way back to Adelaide we stopped for lunch at McClaren Vale at D'arry's Restaurant - part of D'arenberg's Winery. We had this one planned ever since Lyn went there with sister Sue. Set amongst the vineyards of the southern vales this place is for some serious relaxing. Both Lyn and I settled for their winter degustation menu. As the restaurant is right beside their tasting room we visited there before our first course was delivered. Each cousre was an absolute delight and the three hours it took to complete lunch seemed to just fly by. Brilliant and I am looking forward to get back there for lunch. A definite recommendation.

Private use only

The following are my thoughts only. They are put on this blog for family members' perusal and not designed as investment advice.

CDL - (Canada Land) company which has its investment in China real estate. I like the connection to China even though the risk is that control is not in Australia. CDL is going ex dividend Aug 16. It is an investment which should be long term as it is raely traded and one might find it hard to sell if money is needed in a short term.

SNE - (Somerton Energy) A company which missed bankruptcy by being taken over by its ex partner Beach. My hope is that Beach had a good reason to save this company and these become reality soon.
Of course Beach itself - BPT - whould be a decent investment if you are looking for longer term investment

MEY BMN - (Marenica & Bannerman) These two uranium hopefuls are on my watchlist. I believe that uranium prices will rise as the world economy gets back on track and China is looking for more energy.

ASB - Austal is a shipbuilding company and according to some reports may be on the verge of signing a big contract. If this should happen there could be a decent increase in its shareprice.

NTU - this has been a stock I have long followed; but got disenchanted when french Avexe decided not to support a recent capital raising. Now its apparent why: the company is shifting its focus from uranium to rare earth minerals. I am back in hoping that the recent chinese interst in this company will give it futher lift. NTUOB are 15c options with a fair bit of time to run.

iphone 4G

As my mobile phone contract is about to run out, I was considering replacing my now aging Nokia N95 with an Iphone. The news of the new Iphone 4G got me thinking of waiting for its Australian release. On researching however I am now considering whether to switch to the EVO 4G from HTC. I have had favourable comments about HTC previously but always thought that Apple has the better applications. As I do not use the camera often perhaps the fact that EVO has an 8meg camera versus a 5meg from Apple is not that big a deal but an extra hour of battery life may be. Iphone is said to have HD display which should make viewing a better experience.

Being avid fans of "MASTER CHEF" I thought I'd finally cook one of their innovations. Bomba Chorizo just got my mouth watering; however we do not deep fry. So I followed their recipe and baked the prepareed dumplings.
They were bedded on braised leek very similar to the recipe, but we added a most delicious tomato based red bean and shitake mushroom sauce. No salt or sugar is added to my cooking. I use a lot of onion and herbs in my cooking to avoid my food to be too bland. In the sauce was Parsley Sage Thyme and Bay leaf.

is this the tail end of the GFC?

Managing our small super fund has again become a headache. After successfully dragging it out of the mire; May proved to be dismay. But when I woke up this morning I heard that the Dow Jones crashed 300+ points. One can only cross one's fingers that June doesn't become an abyss.

I came across this while trawling cyberspace:



The next time you hear a Politician use the word "Billion" in a casual manner, think about whether you want those 'Politicians' spending YOUR tax money.

A Billion is a difficult number to comprehend ... but an Advertising Agency recently did a very good job of putting that figure into some perspective:-

A. A Billion seconds ago it was 1959.

B. A Billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C. A Billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

D. A Billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

E. A Billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our Government is spending it!

Uranium - whereto now?

Now that it looks as though the Gobal Financial Crisis is becoming a dim memory; I wonder what will happen to the price of Uranium?


Stockmarkets have recovered and the Chinese economy is still powering along. Oil is now trading around the $80 mark; well above its two year low. Yet the price of Uranium is still hovering just above $40. China is numerous nuclear reactors, has more on the drawing board and is planning even more. These will all need fuel.

PORT LINCOLN

Three nights/four days in Port Lincoln - we really enjoyed our stay there. It's just a 45 minutes flight from Adelaide; We flew the new Qantas service. They had very cheap airfares - hence our decision to go there. First impression of Port Lincoln came via our taxi driver. He was as friendly as most of the locals we dealt with. The city comes across a clean and pleasant. With about 14,000 inhabitants it is a busy little town which appears have adopted the cafe society judging by the looks of the many cafes in the shopping district. There seems to be a bus service but we chose to ignore it and walked to caught a cab.

www.menulog.com.au/port_lincoln
www.visitportlincoln.net/

The above statue is situated at the foreshore. It depicts "MAKYBE DIVA" the Port Lincoln horse who won the Melbourne Cup, Australia' premier horse racing event, not only once but three times.

www.makybediva.com.au/

The Hotel Port Lincoln was everything we expected including friendly service. The room was the cheap variety and fitted out for disabled yet we had no complaints. The hotel has a swimming pool and a gym. Sharky's bar is a public bar with TAB facilities which we patronised for our first lunch. The shared hamburger was very nice and filled both of us. The hotel also has a bistro and a'la carte restaurant. We had a "light" dinner at the Bistro, ordering a platter and a baguette. More than enough to fill us and well presented - highly recommended. I'd also recommend the hotel for the accomadation.

http://www.portlincolnhotel.com.au/

There is no shortage of hotels within walking distance of our hotel. The Tasman Hotel has their "nights" - we caught the pasta n pizza night. For $10.90 you get to eat all you can - a choice of penne or spaghetti and two sauces: bolognaise or napolitana. The salad bar (included) was sufficient. The pasta/sauce was rather nice; I'd have it again if we should revisit Port Lincoln.

On our second day we walked and managed to end up at the Cove Marina. This would be the place you'd aspire to to live in if you were a Port Linconite. It has a great looking hotel with an outdoor dining area which sits over the water. Unfortunately we must have struck a bad day as I felt the service was well below expectations and my wife saw JUST the meal on the specials board only to be told that it was yesterday's menu. We ended up sharing a seafood platter which certainly was delicious and worth the $30.

There are two chinese reastaurants in Port Lincoln - we lunched at the Ming Inn. The restaurant had a recent makeover which I rather liked. Kinda minimalist with that chinese touch, but I thought square backed chair would have topped off the design. Service and food quality matched the good looks of the place.


When we found out that there was a restaurant which won best seafood restaurant in Australia we had to try it. Del Gorgio was always well patronised when we walked past it. We only managed to get there for breakfast - they serve a beautiful breakfast.

On our last day we thought we'd try the Pier hotel for lunch. Reasonably priced counter meals with a huge serve of very good food.

Internet links

Here is a list of internet links which I find helpful.

For information on investing in Australian shares I use http://www.hotcopper.com.au . One needs to realise that this is a chat site and some of the recommendation may be from individuals who are using it for their own benfit but overall it is very readable and informative. Both http://www.kitcometals.com/ and http://www.kitco.com/ are informative when it comes to the price of precious (latter) and base metals (former). Also useful is http://www.liveindices.com/ which gives live prices of the major share indices.

When I have computer question or glitches I refer to http://www.whirlpool.net.au/ They seem to be a great bunch of people with a vast knowledge base. Of course for the latest in the computerworld one cannot go past http://www.tomshardware.com

Travel is nicely covered by the two booking sites http://www.wotif.com/ and http://www.lastminute.com even though lately I have found that one can get just as good a deal by ringing the actual place itself. www.virtualtourist.com/ and www.TripAdvisor.com are great sites to check out information about places to stay and visit. I actually find you can have a virtual holiday by using google earth and those two sites.

My green smoothie

I came across an interesting website yesterday - www.greensmoothiechallenge.com - As I have put on a couple a kilos in the last month I gave it a go and had my first smoothie. 3 bananas, a good handful of young spinach leaves all blended with apple juice. It tasted amazingly good. Today I'll have one with berries in it.

An article in todays paper related to Istanbul's plans on building their metro. Having been to Istanbul it got my attention. I just loved that city; their history is amazing and of course I crossed the Bosporus a couple of times just to say that "I've been to Asia 3 times in the last week."

What I saw of their public transport was the train from the airport and the tram which goes through the historic parts of Istanbul .It was very convenient as my hotel was right next to a tramstop. I never needed to concerned that I couldn't find my way back to the hotel.

According to the article Istanbul was the first European city to actually have a metro. I came across it by accident as a lot of my time spent there was just wandering around by foot. And I always referred to it as a "funicular" - one of two which I discovered.

Introduction

This is my own personal blog. At this stage I have not decided what to use this blog for. However I expect it to follow my thoughts over the next few years. As this is a fast moving world it would be nice to have a blog which show how the world evolves and how it effects me. My interests are wide and varying. In the future I hope to again create some bonsai trees, get my Noritake collection out and set expand on the display my wife set up many years ago.

The stockmarket has always fascinated me and I expect that I eventually become a day trader.