Floods

So poor old Queensland is flooding/flooded again the 2nd time in 3 years.
I really cannot imagine what these people could be going through, but thanks to the good old idiot box (Television) I know how much grief and destruction these people are in fact going through, but the good old fellas on the news can always look to the positive side and saying it brings communities closer and brings out the charity and volunteer in people!

Personally I've lived two 2 local floods and apparently I loved the first one I experienced, ('92 or '93?) I was out bush with the parents and of course my father was driving and we went through a dry creek bed, we continued on for a period of time, and as we came back through the creek bed it was filling up! My father didn't show much emotion to whether he was at all worried but we where in a 2wd hatchback, my mother voiced her opinion but my father decided to go through. Well I'm told it was a bumpy ride and I loved it! I was laughing and giggling the whole way through and on the way out I wanted to go back through and was insisting it wasn't all that bad, but of course as my parents looked back it had already filled up a bit more and was flowing quite a bit!
The second flood was at the end of February 2011, My friend and I where at the mall and it started to rain, and it came down in buckets and was very heavy and constant, we knew it was only going to get worse and it had been a bit of a hot day so we thought, fuck it hey we will walk through it and have a bit of fun, we left the mall and walked along 8th st to Etiwanda, now this end of town is the lowest point and so all the water would run down to this area, we got the Etiwanda and there was about a foot of water on the sides of the roads, and the camber of the road (middle of the road) was still visible. After walking about another 15 minutes along 7th st we ended up having to walk along an elevated garden edging all the way as the water was almost up to our knees. We were in fact loving this to tell truth, seeing this entire main road and all the shops inundated with water was an interesting site to see. We ended up walking down another road that was lower still to 7th street and, we ended up swimming, my mate ended up losing his phone, luckily I didn't have a phone at the time but my wallet ended up soaked but good old aussie plastic currency held up just fine.
Ever since then I've been a big fan of storms of any kind, it always brings me back the memory of swiming ontop of a road. And now I'm an avid watcher of the Elders Weather Radar, looking out for clouds and their density so I know if a storm is going to be big, small, boring or fun!

On that note the floods I've experienced are no where near as ferocious, dangerous and troublesome as the QLD floods have been, I am once again ever so grateful of where I live, even if certain people and natural forces (like heat) around here ruin the entire experience for everyone else, but hey life is life I suppose..

2 Simple VB6 Projects

So I chucked together a few vb6 projects for beginners that were intended for the Mildura Programmers group of Facebook.

First is an example of how to search and replace text inside a string.

Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim strOrg
Dim strSrch
Dim strReplace
Dim strOutcome
strOrg = Original.Text
strSrch = Search.Text
strReplace = Replace.Text
If InStr(1, strOrg, strSrch) > 0 Then
strOutcome = Replace(strOrg, strSrch, strReplace)
MsgBox strOutcome
End If
End Sub

http://rapidshare.com/files/449320589/str-search-and-replace.rar

Second is a simple Telnet client using Winsock.

Private Sub cmdConnect_Click()
wskConnect.RemoteHost = txtHost.Text
wskConnect.RemotePort = txtPort.Text
wskConnect.Connect
End Sub

Private Sub cmdSend_Click()
wskConnect.SendData (txtInput.Text & vbCrLf)
txtInput.Text = ""
End Sub

Private Sub For...m_Load()
MsgBox "J. Ben Ross :: 2011"
End Sub

Private Sub Form_Unload(Cancel As Integer)
wskConnect.Close
End Sub

Private Sub wskConnect_Close()
lblStatus.Caption = "Disconnected"
End Sub

Private Sub wskConnect_Connect()
lblStatus.Caption = "Connected!"
End Sub

Private Sub wskConnect_DataArrival(ByVal bytesTotal As Long)
Dim strData As String
wskConnect.GetData strData, vbString
    txtPackets.Text = txtPackets.Text & strData & vbCrLf
End Sub

Private Sub wskConnect_Error(ByVal Number As Integer, Description As String, ByVal Scode As Long, ByVal Source As String, ByVal HelpFile As String, ByVal HelpContext As Long, CancelDisplay As Boolean)
MsgBox "There was an error"
wskConnect.Close
End Sub

http://rapidshare.com/files/449320563/PrjTelnet.rar

So eh First Post :]

As I sit outside having a smoke, looking in the other direction of where my cigarette packet sits because of the ever so graphic generic packaging , I notice the distant sound of water falling over the weir situated at Lock 11 on the great and mighty Murray River. I'm thinking over the current train of thought that I've had the last few days. My distant memories of last winter and summer and the activities and time spent with other people, generally having fun, seems more rich in emotion and happiness than actually living the memory.  Its a new thing I've only came to realize a few days ago and it certainly intrigues me!
My thoughts dart to the car I have sitting up near the back fence, when am I going to get off my lazy ass and finish this somewhat minor project and get on with getting it registered (which in new south wales is a rather fucking hard, annoying and expensive task) I think I may as well try in Victoria, but Ive thought all this before and still haven't done anything.
My thoughts go to what am I going to do for the day tomorrow, I really should go and sign up for them short courses at the local community college so I can start or well at least try a new job, tired of the current job and forced to try new things because work has slowed down alot as the vineyard I am working on and maintaining has been brought upto almost entirely 21st century standard
I'm reminded that its vintage almost everyday driving past 2 wineries the reak of what I think is sulfur, but really smells like urine or animal urine, they really should position these factories strategically so that the wind carries the smell away, but I suppose where the wineries are located is far away from any houses or residential areas.
After all this smell is only around for a month and a bit and once every year,  Its usualy dictated by the temperature and weather. But there is still a highway that runs between the two and everyone, locals going to Mildura or further, tourists visiting the outlying regions and towns of Wentworth and Coomealla, and practically every truck, car or bus that travels to broken hill or to anywhere near that place full of people suffering from lead poisoning making it literally Australias biggest hole. But the discussion of the lead and lead poisoning and greater ethical and humanitarian issues on this subject (that the locals lack the ability of seeing) is another story for another day!
~Yumashi