Discussion Archives - Page 9 of 9

RenaultSport Approved Oils – Australia

The following oils have been confirmed to have RN0710 compliance/approval/certification in the Australian market.

There are some oils that are approved in other markets but companies are careful to point out that formulations may vary. As more information is confirmed by Australian importers it will be added.

This list is driven from a spreadsheet – you can see the latest version on Google Docs.

Castrol	Edge Titanium 5W40 SN	http://www.castrol.com.au
Elf	Evolution SXR 5W40	http://www.totaloil.com.au
Fuchs	TITAN SUPERSYN LONGLIFE 5W-40	http://www.fuchs.com.au
Gulf Western	Syn-X 6000 5W40	http://www.gulfwestern.com.au
Havoline	Ultra S 5W40	http://www.caltex.com.au
Liqui-Moly	LEICHTLAUF HIGH TECH 5W40	http://www.liqui-moly.com.au
Mobil	Super 3000 X2 5W-40	http://www.mobil.com.au
Motul	8100 X-CESS 5W40	http://www.motul.com
	8100 X-CLEAN 5W40	http://www.motul.com
Nulon	Full Synthetic 5W40 Long Life Engine Oil	http://www.nulon.com.au
Penrite	HPR 5 5W40	http://www.penriteoil.com.au
Shell	Helix Ultra 5W40	http://www.shell.com.au
Valvoline	SynPower 5W-40	http://www.vavoline.com.au

Getting Rich on 2.4 cents per day

After reading yet another “wow look at me I’m a digital nomad living on a beach comfortably” article I decided to have a bit of a go at seeing just how much money could be made “passively” – after all the idea is to be sitting on the beach sipping pina coladas not slaving away at a keyboard.

the idea is to be sitting on the beach

Naturally my own creative lassitude means that setting this up couldn’t take a large single investment of time nor could the activities required to produce this income be “unpleasant”. Becoming a crime-scene cleaner one day a week wasn’t the plan.

So I thought about my half-hearted efforts with YouTube over the years. Here was a medium that had little to no start-up cost. The time investment was completely manageable and most importantly it would let me try something new and get a tangible personal benefit – i.e. the few hours of footage accumulated over the years of holidays cars and cats could now get collated into viewable moments for our own consumption.

Yes YouTube was going to be the wealth creation vehicle

So I started by moving a few of my early video efforts into a clean and shiny new channel. As my skills with video are limited they struggled for views, but I was at least getting the channel set-up and most importantly pushing myself to actually process our stock of footage.

It’s now taken a couple of months, but between a successful automotive themed video and some new content collected during our recent Vanuatu trip there’s a solid 30-40 views a day happening.

Through the editing and creation of the 33 videos currently online I’ve pushed myself to learn new skills, getting a handle on iMovie and how to cut together scenes that suit the content. Let’s face it we want to see cats bounce & pounce, the idle time in between is just time that people will take to click away!

The travel videos on the other hand are longer and often not trimmed so that the whole presentation is given, but they’re chasing a specific audience, viewers like Kitty and I who are trying to research holidays or catch something we missed out on.

But moving back to the subject, 2.4 cents per day. Yes on a rolling 30 day basis Youtube Analytics indicates a typical $0.70-$0.90 yield. I’m a long way off being self sufficient on this, but I it would pay for one green coconut a day on Espiritu Santo!

The New Year Spiel.

Happy New Year!

I’ve lt the transition to 2014 sink in for about 32 hours before writing this post. I’ve never really made resolutions or pushed myself to a course of action just because it’s been a new year, however for 2014 I have set myself some activity goals.

Temora Aviation Museum – http://www.aviationmuseum.com.au
Attend one or two of the days.
These are pretty much fortnightly starting on the 1st of February
Navy Fleet Air Arm Museum – http://www.navy.gov.au/history/museums/fleet-air-arm-museum
As one of the few regularly open (non flying) aviation museums within a short drive of Canberra it’s a shame I haven’t visited this sooner.
Chryslers on the Murray – http://www.chryslersonthemurray.com
I last checked the show out in 2011. The focus for 2014 is on the VH, VH, VJ models which are some of my favourites. It’s a solid 4 hour haul to get to the show but will be a great opportunity for Celeste to stretch her legs.
NSW All Chrysler Day – http://www.allchryslerday.com
It’s probably been 6 or 7 years sine I went to this show, so it’s about time that I make it happen again.
South Coast Nationals – http://www.southcoastnats.bravehost.com
Went for the first time last year and thought it was a great show, the setting in Moruya makes it even more worthwhile.
Gunning Fireworks Festival – http://www.gunningfireworksfestival.com.au
After attending in 2013 I’m not sure a year should pass without going. It’s an awesome display, this year I think the GoPro needs to attend as well.

So there you have it, just a few things I’m hoping to get myself to, starting in a few weeks, it should mean that almost every month there’s a day trip to get some video and photos and generally enjoy.

GoPro Stuff – Coming to grips with it

When I was gifted a GoPro for my birthday last April I was like all “it’s so cool” but despite some tinkering around with making cat videos I didn’t really stretch its legs until recently.

Two things are immediately apparent;

I need to make more and “better” raw video, the more video I can choose from the more interesting things I may capture.
GoPro settings are important but they’re not the main factor, having a couple of “goto modes” and an understanding of the framing they provide is really all it takes.

To address the first problem all I need to do is actually use the GoPro. Sounds simple but it’s true. Sometimes a degree of self-consciousness can tip in, other times it’s too weird to carry around or have strapped into or on the car. Then there’s the “how many times do I do the same thing” problem to get different angles or views.

The second problem is addressed through use, but also through excellent resources like Abe Kislevitz who seems to have tried enough of the settings in practice and then is able to write about them in a realistic comparative way. http://abekislevitz.com/understanding-your-new-gopro/ is essential reading for any new GoPro owner, and a thorough browse through his Blog & Portfolio, especially the user comments where Abe actually drops great succinct tips in response to questions will go a long way to unlocking the magic of these cool little cameras.

So back to my video efforts thus far, I’m most proud of my first bit of real underwater footage – It gave me an understanding of the cameras capability and captured memories that previously just weren’t possible. I’ve got another couple of hours of raw video to edit from a different day, and I’m expecting it to reflect the increased comfort I had with the camera after the first 30 minutes use in water that made this video.

The second video here is just an edit together from a single drive. It’s the footage where I started to realise that the mounting of the GoPro really is the most important factor. The camera was secure, but with a couple too many pieces used to position it I got shake, not much but enough. Still, the video quality worked out OK, probably thanks to the bright sunny day.

Next challenge is to do some more on-car footage and see if we can get a complete 2-3 minute video with a number of angles and action sequences.

Setting up this Blog – aka How Awesome is WordPress?

When I set out in my mind to create a bit of a travel back in early 2012 for Kitty and I to use while travelling through Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong I quickly threw one together using the “Build me a WordPress Blog” type function within my GoDaddy account.

The result was functional and quite neat. However the automated offering meant that it didn’t update as cleanly, nor did plug-ins work exactly as expected. Probably because of the version/update lagging.

So upon our return (and despite the lack of use) I jumped onto http://download.wordpress.com and grabbed the latest release and ran the install over the existing one, suddenly we had a cleaner interface, and every plug-in we wanted just worked. We still hardly used it though 🙂

So when it came time to make this Blog dream a reality I reached for the same tool.

Well lets put this into a timeline:

3pm – Decide today I’m “Going to do it”
3:15pm – Buy Domain using GoDaddy (already have an account so that’s just a few clicks)
3:30pm – It probably didn’t take 15 minutes but there’s always a minute or three between clicking the “Shutup and take my money” button and having the domains available to bind to the hosting control. Anyway I did it. Now I can hear you screaming “You host with Go Daddy? What are you? Stupid?” – Yeah it’s cheap and somewhat cheerful, but it works for me. I have more hardcore Hosting through http://stormhosts.com which has been excellent for a number years.
3:45pm – The Domains are bound to the file system, the permissions set so the config script can do its thing. The MySQL Database created.
4pm – I’ve hit the Install page and bam the famous 5-minute process works.
6pm – I’ve tweaked the design, set up my preferred initial plug-ins, written a page and a couple of posts. I’ve also fed the fleet of cats and tinkered with settings on our other WordPress site.

Yeah it’s safe to say that 3 hours go-to-whoa for anything in IT is not too shabby, especially when it’s multi-tasked around other things. The result, while not bespoke is neat and clean, much better than my stagnant design skills could achieve and best of all everything is just a one-click config away.

So yes, I rate WordPress, and I rate it highly.