I have an indoor swimming pool .

FYI: I can’t find my cell phone, so I won’t be able to respond to any TXTs or phone calls until I find it, or if it is truly lost, replace it.

Update:
Found it in the grass out by the clothes-line. It’s been through some heavy Auckland rain storms, but is still ok.

I started thinking about getting a new vacuum cleaner after almost destroying my old one with rotten wood and concrete. Managed to repair it ok, but was thinking it was time to make the move up to a two vacuum cleaner household. And what’s better than a robot vacuum cleaner?

I bought an iRobot Roomba 530 from Noel Leeming. Was a bit unsure about how effective it would be, but it is great! It is shocking how much dust and hair it picks up from carpet that had just been vacuumed manually. It uses three brushes and a little vacuum to pick up the dirt and dust. And in spite of what the salesman warned is much better at getting in to corners than I am. It doesn’t have a huge capacity, but instead of vacuuming being a weeklyish chore it can now be nightly entertainment. For a proper clean it’s better to limit it to one or two rooms. That gives a better chance of 100% coverage, and it will be able to find its way back to the base station for a recharge when it is finished.

It can be quite judgmental though. When it finds a dirty patch the blue dirt detect light goes on and it gives a slow disapproving shake of it’s head (well whole body really) as it concentrates on cleaning that patch.

There is also a serial interface connector under the top plate (which just clips off, took me a while to work that out) with a published API of commands. I’ll have to have a play with that when I get time. Moore details to come.

Vim is a powerful text editor, based on the standard Unix vi command, but much improved. The different modes are confusing to new users, but when you’ve been using them as long as I have they just seem natural. My fingers have learned vi and don’t like having to use anything else. I end up with strings like jjjbcw in other documents.

I’ve built up a bundle of plugins and configurations which I use with Vim. Recently I’ve gone through, cleaned out the ones I never use, updated others and added new ones. If you’re interested you can download the bundle or check out my Vim wiki page for more details.

To install the bundle: untar it, then rename dot.vim to .vim, dot.vimrc to .vimrc, and dot.gvimrc to .gvimrc, being careful to first rename your existing vim files if you have anything you want to keep. There’s not much in my .vimrc and .gvimrc, so you don’t even really need to bother with them. Most of my configuration settings are in my vls-config.vim and vls-keys.vim plugins.

Cool new plugins included are: PyFlakes for on-the-fly Python syntax checking; TagList, a function/source code browser, most recently used (MRU) files, Case-persistant substitutions, and the NERDTree file explorer. I’ve also created myself acustom toolbar which reminds me to use some of the new features of Vim 7.0 such as folding, tabs, and the undo tree. Happy Viming!

“The Point England Walk is approximately 11.25kms long (a four hour walk) and is intended for all ages, consisting of easy strolling pathways with surfaces suitable form normal walking shoes.”

Michelle & Brian discovered the Pt England walk. Reconnaissance was required. So Saturday afternoon was an epic exploration of Auckland City’s eastern suburbs, parks, beaches, waterways, wildlife, culture and commerce.

We kind of missed Glover Park on the way in, but followed the route through Churchill Park, explored the Tahuna Torea wildlife reserve with the sand-spit at the mouth of the Tamaki river. Through Wai-o-Taiki nature reserve, and Pt England reserve where Kilikiti was being played. Into G.I. town centre to purchase icecreams, up Apirana reserve to the ridge and St Helier’s Bay Rd. Then back down through St Helier’s and Glendowie, through Glover Park this time where the English style of cricked was being played. Out to the car which we’d parked on Cliff Rd near Ladies’ Bay.

Burkhard’s page
City Council page (the name of the walk has changed to Point-to-Point Walkway)