Was a little quieter than I expected (lunchtime), new arrivals every few minutes, no que – Weekend is going to be crazy busy.
They are only taking TV’s and Computer/Monitors – all the rest (microwave, casette players, cd player etc) are going over to Tiny’s
So don’t think you can dump every electronic thing you have

From Tuesday 15 May 2012, Canberrans will be able to dispose of their old or unwanted television and computer products for free under the new National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme. The ACT is the first jurisdiction ready to implement the new scheme.
People can drop off their old or unwanted televisions and computers at the [...]

[ 19 May, 2012; 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. ]

This in from the ANU:

The John Curtin School of Medical Research CLINICAL RESEARCH OPEN DAY

We invite you to come to our clinical research open day. View the newly opened clinical research suites with a guided tour of the laboratories and talk to a researcher about our studies on early childhood and adult obesity.

Learn about our [...]

[ 18 May, 2012; 11:00 am; ]

This in from the CSIRO:

Plants in 4D,

Come find out about new techniques used to understand physical characteristics (phenotype) of a plant and how they change over the plant’s lifecycle.

Dr Xavier Sirault will take you through the novel techniques allowing scientists to follow the development of individual plant organs in four dimensions.

When: 11am 18th May, 2012
Where: [...]

I know there are lots of individuals and companies out there doing websites.
I am looking to build a website for a local small business and I need a company that will listen, be responsive to the job requirements, have a bit of flair and be practical.
They must also have a bit of an [...]

There’s little in this world as nauseating as the growing legions of Government social media experts re-tweeting everything a minister says (often followed by a leaden “thank you for the re-tweet” from the Minister).
But this morning’s effort from the Economic Development Directorate really takes the cake.
Remember taxpayers. You’re paying to be lectured on who you [...]

The Australian brings news that the privacy commissioner has been through the emails sent to ANU’s climate scientists and found they don’t actually contain a death threat.
Timothy Pilgrim was called in to adjudicate on a Freedom of Information application in relation to Fairfax and ABC reports last June alleging that Australian National University climate [...]

[ 6 June, 2012; ]

The Transit of Venus is a pretty exciting deal and going to be visible from Canberra between 08:16 and 14:44 on 6 June 2012.

The Astronomical Society of Australia has produced a fact sheet for your edification but most importantly don’t try and look at it directly!:

Zervaas Enterprises has unleashed their TransitTimes Canberra app into iTunes:
Travelling in and around Canberra? Whether you are a daily commuter or a weekend visitor, TransitTimes Canberra is for you!
It allows you to:
- Find directions and transfers between two locations
- Manage your favorite trips
- Save your favorite routes and stops
- Save upcoming trip itinerary [...]

ANU’s published their thoughts on the finding of “habitable planets” in other solar systems:
“Determining whether these planets are habitable has become the new holy grail of astronomy,” said planetary scientist Dr Charley Lineweaver, lead author of the study.
“The new-found abundance of planets, combined with the much larger range of inhabited terrestrial environments suggests that habitable [...]

[ 14 May, 2012; 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm. ] A Canberra Skeptics Lecture
Date: Monday, 14 May 2012
Time: 6.00-7.30pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre, CSIRO Discovery Centre, Clunies Ross Street, Acton, ACT 2601
Speaker: Professor Dr George Dracoulis, FAA

Members Free/Non-Members Gold Coin Donation

Nuclear issues in Australia have had a conflicted history.  We are a country with significant uranium resources but no nuclear power. This talk will cover selected aspects [...]

So when I broke my Iphone screen (dropped it on cement), I continued to use it for about three months as everything else was working fine, it was just a crack in the screen which made some things hard to read but it was ignorable.
I had spare money and so I thought, why not get [...]

ANU’s acting VC Lawrence Cram has announced that Nobel Laureate Professor Brian Schmidt and Professor Hugh O’Neill, Associate Director of the Research School of Earth Sciences have received the rare honour of election to the Royal Society:
Professor Cram said: “Election to the Royal Society is the gold standard in the sciences and a testament [...]

The UC Monitor has a story on their student Jeremy Woodhill who has won a Australian Innovation Challenge award in the ‘backyard’ category.
His invention, the Smart GPO, came about when he looking to make power points safer. However he got a lot more than he originally bargained for.
“The Smart GPO works to significantly reduce [...]

The ACT Government has launched a new assistance website.
In a slightly circular way it can provide fact sheets about nearly every aspect of life. Some would call that information rather than assistance, but not a bad thing to know about if you want to access government services.

IT News brings word that a down-in-the-weeds government has decided local cable network provider TransACT will be allowed to upgrade their fibre optics to VDSL2
The service provider, bought last year by iiNet for $60 million, had begun an upgrade of the 12-year-old network in Canberra in March 2009 to VDSL2, with promises of speed [...]

Good Day Rioters,
Simple question – What it the fastest provider in Belconnen’s North?
I currently have an ADSL 2 plan with BigPond – but they seem to take a large amount of my cash for a stack of services I don’t use. Their speed and reliability are OK – but nothing to write home about. I [...]

ANU has some very exciting news about the generation of random numbers. Which does effect your life in everything from credit card transaction security to how we pick the winners of competitions and which local artists we put in the rugby podcast:
Professor Lam said vacuum was once thought to be completely empty, dark, and [...]

Hi Rioters,
I’m looking to move my modem from it’s current mess-of-cables in the kitchen to a cupboard, but I’ll need to get someone in to do cabling (at the very least, to install a powerpoint) and was wondering if anyone had recommendations of installers. (Best quote so far is about $150/point)
Thanks!

The astronomy nerds of the world are all atwitter after what appears to be a huntsman spider took up residence on top of Tidbinbilla’s webcam.
There’s a tourism attraction in the making there surely?

They that go down to the sea in ships have never doubted the existence of rogue waves.
But scientists are often resistant to observations which don’t conform to their existing models.
Fortunately the ANU is letting us know they’ve figured out how it happens with the help of a fish tank and a lego pirate.
Using [...]

The ABC has joined other local media in getting star struck by NASA administrator Charles Bowden’s visit to check out works at Tidbinbilla’s Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex.
Don’t get me wrong what they do out there is truly amazing and well worth a visit if you haven’t been.
But they’ve been at it for 60 odd [...]

Some friends and I are looking to move in to a house together. We all study/work in either Belconnen or the City, so rentals on the north side are looking good.
One area that really appeals are the Gungahlin suburbs south of the town centre (big new houses, not far from the City/Belco, [...]

For the best part of a decade the Chief Minister website has chugged along emailing Ministerial media releases to any who wanted them.
But today that’s all changed and the Open Government empire has taken it all over.
In the process they’ve decided to dispose of the long standing email list (apparently it’s all too hard).
In its [...]

Hey All,
Firstly, thanks to everyone who volunteered to be our guinea pigs, and flesh out some kinks we had in our MyBus 2.0 app.
After a long time, and after hearing your concerns, we finally have an iPhone version available, and a new slicker Android version out as well to boot.
To check it out, visit our [...]

Just noticed that at a certain distance in Google Quest, places like Gunnamulla, Mildura, Nyungan, Sale, and Bega rate a ye olde icon, while Canberra is still a cluster of trees.
Mind you, Hay and Cobar rate a mention and Sydney doesn’t if you zoom out a bit more.
http://g.co/maps/pu7qd

The ANU is letting it be known that:
Professor Brian Schmidt and his team will continue their ground-breaking work with the help of a $1 million extension of his Australian Laureate Fellowship.
The substantial funding extension was announced by Senator Chris Evans this morning.
“This additional funding will allow Professor Schmidt to undertake world-class research while continuing [...]

Labor MLA Chris Bourke has tweeted the planned NBN rollout.
Coming up in Canberra is Belconnen, Crace, Civic, Deakin, Kambah, Manuka, Monash and Scullin.
Julia Gillard has announced she intends 135,000 homes, businesses, schools and hospitals to be connected in Canberra by mid 2014.
NBNco has an interactive map.
It appears outside of Gungahlin and Mitchell we’re all going [...]

Chief MInister Gallagher’s blogging flirtation has taken a strange new turn as she shows herself off in slick videos locked down on Vimeo, the video buff’s preferred platform over YouTube (particularly when they don’t want something going viral).
Someone’s paid quite a bit of money to make things very few people are going to see, and [...]

Simon Corbell has the happy news that he’s bringing laws into the Assembly to create an R18+ classification for computer games.
“The ACT Government has been a strong advocate in national discussions on the issue of an R18+ classification for computer games in Australia, and I am pleased to be able to introduce this bill to [...]

[ 11 April, 2012 to 13 April, 2012. ]

This in from Questacon which we thought would be of interest to some of you:

Travelling to the south coast over Easter?

The Questacon Invention Convention is a three-day program that visits regional areas across Australia and provides participants with the knowledge and skills they need to develop their ideas further.

The Questacon Invention Convention is a [...]

I spotted a Google Street View car cruising along Canberra Ave on Friday afternoon. 8 cameras mounted on top of the thing in camera housings. It would have taken some great pics of the front of my car. Plus one of my quick thinking passengers giving it the finger. I would have preffered it if [...]