Neoblog

Shu-Yen and I have spent the last few days in the NSW ski region - it’s our 1 year anniversary.

On a great tip from Sarah (thanks Sarah!), we stayed in a studio chalet at the Lake Crackenback Resort. It’s a beautiful resort about 15 minutes away from Thredbo in the NSW snowfields.

On Saturday we drove to Thredbo, took the chairlift up, then walked the 13km return walk to Australia’s tallest mountain, Mt Kosciusko (for some reason it’s pronounced Kozzi-osko here in Australia). We walked on the iron path, through snow and cloud up to the summit. When the clouds cleared at the top, it was a beautiful view.

Some photos to share with you (click to enlarge):

Thredbo from ski lift:

View from the summit:

Us on the summit:

View on the way back down - looking towards Victoria:

Cheers!

Neo.

I was intrigued as to why the Neo’s SafeKeys page was getting so many track back pings - it appears as though it has become this week’s Featured Windows Download at the Lifehacker website.

(Go to: http://lifehacker.com/364143/avoid-keyloggers-with-neos-safekeys)

For those who do not know, Lifehacker is quite a respected blog - consistently ranked in the top 10 blogs on the web today. Don’t believe me - check out Technoarti, the authority on blogs and blogging:
(http://technorati.com/pop/blogs/)

I’m really chuffed that so many people have found this little tool to be useful.

I am looking at releasing a new version, with quite a few new funky features. If there are any features you’d particularly like, leave a comment.

(You will need to register before you can comment - this cuts down on the amount of spam I get.)

Last night was the first night in a long time that Shu-Yen and I sat down and did nothing but eat dinner and watch TV. After the seemingly endless parade of boxes, unpacking, organising and reorganising it was pleasant doing nothing.

And that ‘doing nothing’ included watching an episode of CSI:Miami that we recorded a while back.

My previous boss, Giulio both loved and hated this show. It’s like a really good looking train wreck…you just can’t look away - no matter how hard you try! The CSI stuff is cool, the costumes and hair always perfect and the locations beautiful. But Horatio Cane (played by David Caruso) is the most one dimensional actor to grace the small screen since, well, perhaps ever. His sunglasses perform a greater acting role than he does.

See these excellent examples of the range and depth of emotion portrayed by Caruso:

Cheers,

Neo.

Happy Chinese New Year everybody!

I’m writing to you from Canberra - we shifted here on the 25th January. So far we love the place. It has a great vibe; it feels young and progressive. On Sunday we had a well deserved break from house hunting, and took a photo of this great view:

We’ve found ourselves a great place - we shift in Tuesday.

Last night we had dinner in Dickson, the pseudo Chinatown of Canberra, and saw this great lion dance performance:

Keong Hee Huat Chye / Kong He Fat Choi / Happy New Year to all!

Neo.

Hi all,

As promised, here are a few low resolution copies of our wedding photos from the 8th. (Good enough quality to view onscreen and for quick download, but not good enough for printing.)

Enjoy!

Hi all,

You probably know that Shu-Yen and I eloped in Vanuatu. Yep…no one knew. No friends, no family and no work colleagues. We arrived back this week, and have been flat out with work since. I don’t know why, but I’m feeling extra buggered from work…guess I’m not used to it after relaxing, diving and hiking in Vanuatu.

We feel so privledged that we have such wonderfully supportive friends and family; sending messages and well wishes. We haven’t had time to sit down and email/call/write everyone back just yet - that’s the plan for the weekend.

I also plan to post our wedding photos on the blog within the next couple of days…so watch for that.

In the meantime, here is a photo of Shu-Yen and I doing our Advanced Open Water SCUBA diving course in Vanuatu. Click on the picture to see the larger version.

Cheers,

Neo.

After reading a post in Digg today called “How To Login From an Internet Cafe Without Worrying About Keyloggers , I’ve been prompted to release a newer version of my ‘Safekeys’ program.

This version of the SafeKeys program works similarly to the first:

Essentially, you type your password by clicking each button on the keyboard of this application (with your mouse). Your password will appear, letter by letter, in the text box at the bottom of the window (within a “******” password mask). Select the text with your mouse and then drag-drop it onto the password box on your online form. That’s it!

ADVANTAGES:

• You don’t use your keyboard (keyloggers cannot record the password)
• The utility changes width and height each time, as well as its placement on the screen (to fool mouse-loggers, buttons will always be in different positions each time you use the program)
• Nothing is stored in the clipboard (clipboard loggers cannot save the password).
• You can use upper-case letters and symbols (such as !@#${}) by pressing the CAP button - no matter how complex your password is, the utility can type it.
• …and now the last pressed key is not highlighted at all (minor bug fix from previous version).

This utility is copyrighted Neo Aplin, 2005, but is free to use - download it here.

Cheers!

Neo Aplin.