This morning's Central Coast spiderwatch - warning Eriophora eating gruesome breakfast

There are always plenty of spiders around in summer but the orb-weavers - especially the Nephila and Eriophora - are surprisingly small for this time of year. I'm guessing that the early summer heat, coming as it did in late winter, drew the sap-sucking cicadas out a month or 2 earlier than usual, before the orb-weavers got going. Normally a fair number of cicadas would be caught up in the massive orb webs but with this mis-timing the cicadas have proliferated without fear, at least from spider predation. Finally the orb-weavers are weaving and catching food but with less around to eat they aren't looking as good as last year. We need some rain as well as the 'real' summer heat to bring the food supplies up. Well that's my take on it, anyway.

But here's a lucky - if gruesome - catch for one of the Eriophoras, a grasshopper that was on the wing. Until it got snagged, anyway. Someone's got breakfast, and lunch. Also a few other orb-weavers just hanging around looking beautiful.

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At great personal cost (ie loss of sleep) last night's Central Coast Gecko shots for @neerav

This is Phyllurus platurus or a close relative, AKA Southern Broadtailed Gecko. They are slightly unusual (I think) in having that blue colouring on the back of the neck. There are 2 of them here, male and female (not that I checked in detail but at an educated guess) both pictured on a pathway in my tiny and slightly wild suburban garden on the Central Coast of NSW. The time was 11pm. Having promised @neerav some Gecko shots I thought I'd better get out there and find some small, flat, spiky reptiles. Armed with a Nikon D50 and an LED bike headlight (as spotlight and as an aid to manual focusing, not always easy in the dark - in fact quite a pain to do) I set off on my crazy night-time adventure. This could take some time and will require patience, resolute purpose and a keen eye I thought to myself as I set off down the path to the most likely Gecko-location, almost squishing my first Gecko in the process. Ah, there's one, just near my left foot.

As I crouched down carefully to get close I realised a few things. Firstly, he's decided not to run tonight (they usually run from cameras) and secondly the perfect camouflage for a stone pathway is also a great way to get trodden on. Then I noticed, to my right, a pair of tiny slitted eyes watching me focus on lizard "a". Of course it was lizard "b", doing the same frozen, camouflaged thing. As I was crouched over a funnel web hole at the time I thought I'd reposition myself both for safety (not wishing to die for my cause) and to take full photographic advantage of these rock-still reptiles before they realised I had a Nikon on me and bolted. With that thought lizard (b) sensed my weakness and made for the hills but - thankfully - once on the leaf-litter it froze again. Hence these shots, brought to you by luck, sheer chance and successful reptilian adaptation to the human built environment.

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Crfitics dump on Barangaroo. I don't love the design but making up stuff is just silly

I like some of the approved Barangaroo design and would prefer more wild spaces rather than manicured lawns, but overall it's iconic and interesting. As for the critics, really, they could do better than just make it up to suit themselves: "''There's not really any excuse for intruding on publicly owned water. The precedent that sets is not a very good one,'' said Peter Webber, a former NSW government architect and emeritus professor of architecture at the University of Sydney."

Sydney Airport's main runways and every piece of reclamation-based port infrastructure from Port Botany to Port Kembla is apparently neither excusable nor demonstrates any sort of precedent for 'intrusion' on public waters. Gosh, they are rather big constructions, you'd think an emeritus professor of architecture would have noticed 'em. We even managed to move the mouth and course of the Cooks River to make space for the airport without the good professor noticing. Let alone countless private jetties, wharves and marinas that have taken over our waterways. Inexcusable indeed, but a bit late to squeal now!

Read it in full here: http://www.smh.com.au/national/grand-slam-for-barangaroos-grand-plan-harbour-makeover-looks-like-worst-of-dubai-20091221-la26.html

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My last win in A-grade? Whilst cleaning up I stumbled over some personalcycling nostalgia from 1989

I'm obviously not working today, am I? Whilst digging through the archeological treasure trove known as my "house" I stumbled over this clipping from the SMH, 21st October 1989. In one yellowed scrap of ye old newspaper clipping we see results for the Commonwealth Bank Cycling Classic, Dulwich Hill Club track at Camperdown and Bankstown Club track at Tempe. Matt Bazzano (now of Shimano Australia) is leading the lost and long-lamented Bank Tour of NSW and southern Queensland, and there are some other interesting names sprinkled here and there, especially if you were a Sydney-based bike racer in the '80s and '90s. For a moment I thought 'Nate Reiss' was a mispelled Nathan Rees, until I remembered there was a US rider by that name who came out here for the Bank Tour. And Nathan's best years were in the future, anyway.

Of course Camperdown velodrome is long gone, like Nathan's Premiership, although Tempe remains intact. (Ironically my old club crit races were - and still are - at Heffron Park in new State Premier Keneally's seat. And the current Premier is a decent bike commuter, too. There's always a link if you try hard enough.)

And then there's me, outsprinting Jose Rodriquez and Peter Clayton in the A-grade 20 lapper on a Wednesday night. For the record, I hit out just at the bell, 'round the outside and jumped 'em, leading all the way to the line 330m later. I even kicked again at 100m to go, just to say 'too late guys'. Couldn't do it now, trust me. Future World Track champ Sean Eadie was probably racing in the under 19 (what we called 'Junior') division at the time.

That could have been my last A-grade win. Allow me a moment of quiet reflection on that, please. 1989? Gee, it feels like yesterday.

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For the musically-inclined, here's a MIDI-controller, a guitar 'snake' and more USB gadgetry

For day-to-day 'mucking about' with audio files I use Mixcraft as my first choice as it's fast and easy. It can do most things pretty well, too. If it can't load a particular VST or just can't give me the control I want then it's on to Anvil for composition, Reaper because it's just great and Ableton Live because it came bundled with the M-Audio Keystation 61es MIDI controller (actually it's also very powerful and full of great sounds). But for most purposes Mixcraft coupled with Audacity (free!) will do the trick. Both will load just about any of the zillions of VSTs you can get hold of on the Web and will accept input from USB audio devices like the Keystation and the Guitar Snake. This quest for musical de-composition began with my Fender electric guitar, the PC (of course) and the Behringer USB GuitarLink, coupled with various digital emulations of famous amplifiers. Actually it really began when my real amp died and rather than just fix it I decided to get the signal into (and out of) the PC instead. One thing led to another and now, like my ditching of analog photography I've almost washed my hands of analog audio as well. Almost.

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Photos of a lacewing. Saratoga is full of these blue-eyed metamorphs

Lacewings and their relatives are everywhere in my Saratoga, NSW garden, and sometimes (like this one) in the bathroom as well. The eggs are laid underneath just about anything they can find in a white, U-shaped arrangement, hanging down as if on stilts. The larvae make their way (fall?) down to the ground (or into my washing) and look absolutely weird, even other-worldly. They have a gnarly, woolly look about them with false appendages and spikes on which to embed and display prey. One lacewing relative produces antlion larvae that live in sandy soil at the bottom of conical ant-traps. They all metamorphose into various types of wonderfully delicate lacewings, like this blue-eyed variety.

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GM's Lutz suggests higher tax on petrol to push buyers to EVs

GM product boss converts to green motoring

"Over time, if this country is serious about reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gases, there has to be a gradual increase in Federal taxation on gas {petrol]," he said, while falling short of supporting such a policy.
If it doesn't happen, Lutz went on, it will be hard for the electric and hybrid technologies to grab a serious share of the US market.

Insurmountable? I don't think so

Interesting story, sure. Inspirational? Maybe. Anti-social, possibly (especially if you leave near by or care about the environment! But 'insurmountable'? Hardly.  

Sinatra was easier than Sydney V8s | The Daily Telegraph

The high school drop-out who became the boss of Australia's fastest-growing sport is the man who defied insurmountable odds to bring his vision to life.

Venerable? Dave, I think you mean 'vulnerable'

Nice review, Dave, but your wordsmithing? Hmmm. I like this PVR too but the 'vulnerability' mentioned (or not, if its venerable-ness is to be believed) is entirely up to how you secure your network. Yes, a consumer device with IT-abilities does leave scope for gigantic mess-ups, but what LAN-enabled device doesn't have this flaw? Home networking is a WIP for everyone, really. Still, some detail here you don't get in the mass media.

Dvico TiVX Has The Potential To Be Awesome - Channel News

The problem with this is that you leave your files venerable to other users on the network and the outside world as well.