Another scorcher of a day!

It's been so hot today we've spent almost all of it inside with the air-con on full. Some of my time was spent on computer data maintenance. My sister's old pc has now become our data backup machine. I'm using the Linux operating system and control it remotely using VNC.  One other thing I’ve noticed with the main pc is the volume of junk mail which has increased significantly.  Most of it is from India.

Much of my day has been spent reading history. Whilst I suspect most people know the dastardly Europeans took horrible diseases to the Americas. The local inhabitants had no immunity to smallpox measles, etc, etc and these killed tens of thousands. However I wonder how many people know the ingenious population gave the Europeans something equally as nasty. I'm referring to syphilis, for which the locals had a level of natural immunity, whereas the Europeans had none. Returning sailors rapidly spread the disease throughout the western world and eventually on to Asia.  Winston Churchill’s father, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill, allegedly died of syphilis aged 45.  The fatal stage 4 syphilis usually occurs some 15-25 years after initial infection. Which would probably make Winston a very luck child to not be infected upon conception. 

Well it got exciting in the late afternoon with fire bombing helicopters passing backwards and forwards over our house.  They were loading water from the lakes just south of us and then racing back north to spray it on a large bushfire.  I walked outside to see a large dark cloud of smoke about 2km from us. Meanwhile, further north the largest cyclone of the season is starting to form with a forecast rainfall of 600mm.

And now another change in topic.  I feel such an idiot!   Readers you may recall I fitted a dash camera to the 4x4.  Today I removed the dashcam (it just unclips) and connected it to the laptop so I could view the captured video.  The images are very blue.  Of course this is a hot and sunny country with a blue sky, however I thought I might be able to do something to filter out much of the blue in the image.  A search on eBay identified numerous sources for CPL filters that fit the camera and I was about to click the purchase button when I thought “Does this filter actually remove the blue tint in the video?”  So I Googled ‘VIOFO dashcam blue filter’ and immediately got a hit from someone who had already asked the question.  The answer they received was “Have you removed the thin piece of blue protective shipping plastic over the lens?”   OOPS…. Sure enough, there was a blue plastic film over the lens designed to protect it during assembly and shipping. <phew> Saved some money there!

Ade I have a confession.  Both our sons are Apple devotees.  I have racked my mind, but haven’t been able to establish what caused this affliction.  My only association with Apple is I usually eat one daily.  I suppose all families have their dirty little secrets!