Noddy and The Dinosaur

An 850T is a fairly pedestrian motorcycle. It has very little power for an 850cc machine - not that surprising really when one considers that the engine's very recent ancestor graced a tractor - a small and rather nimble tractor, but still a tractor. The Italian machine also had no brakes to speak of - unless of course its early Brembo stoppers were in the mood to actually pull you up within the first 400 yards or so of your request for retardation and attempt to overcome the steam locomotive flywheel effect that on the open road just kept it going on and on and on...


But... with it's Tonti frame it handled, and the odd sidelong throb gave it something of an aura, a mystique; how does one describe it, this affinity man has for an inanimate object? The Italian sports car is a classic example. Ferrari, it's not a car, you'll hear some say, it's much more than that. It's alive. It's like living with a Picasso. Like a beautiful woman way out of your class - well, out of mine, anyway - who stays with you because you drive her crazy now and then. The Guzzi is like that. A bit. Sorta.

The 850T had another desirable feature - a compliance plate which allowed for all sorts of modifications not legal on later machines. Around this humble frame emerged my Guzzi Special. The engine was a well-warmed LM3 with 4 valve heads lifted from custom Le Mans with Stucchi bodwork into which slotted a standard engine and flogged to help finance the project. The forks were magnesium Marzocchis that I assembled from leftovers from one of Gowies racebikes. The tank was from an LM1, as were the instruments, and the seat was an Agostini. It had an 8" headlight from an early SR500. The diff was an 8:1 - the original 9:1 went bang when someone tried to wheelstand it. Cute front guard from some 250. Akront wire wheels with floating 320 Brembo's and matching calipers. Shocks most likely Konis.

The exhaust was a wonderfully crafted piece by Dennis Foran with a sound that sent you straight to heaven.

The 1000cc V-twin had a swiss-cheesed Agostini flywheel, fancy pistons to match the KCS heads, Carillo rods and a sensible camshaft. Bolted to the back of it were some German deliciosi. 44mm magnesium Bings. The gearbox was a straight cut close ratio unit I'd originally built up for our sadly departed racebike.

It took many years to collect all the bits, and several months to assemlble it all into a machine... a Machine.

The night we fitted the engine we wired it up and put a battery in it. It didn't whine a few times and cough. It didn't mumble WTF. It didn't miss and fart and offer something it really didn't want to give. It fired immediately, sang when blipped, and settled to a happy idle. Thoroughly civilized, but aching for the wild.

Frankenstein eat ya heart out!

......................

They were waiting for me. I'd seen one lurking in mufti at the exit of a corner I usually scraped through, not so long after I'd thrown away my BMW at the roundabout up the road in front of a couple of startled dahlings. And I'd gone blasting past a group of HD hopefuls under the guidance of a Stay Upright instructor who was probably an ex-NSW Police training officer, bypassing most of them by shortcutting through the Double Bay shopping centre at 110db before cutting under one of the fledglings who was flumoxed by aroundabout, hurtled up towards New South Head Road straight past the ex-Plod and his not so Noddy bike. Not that I had such a good look at him, mind, I just figured it out long after the event. The getting of wisdom.

I was on the same route that Christmas Eve, had to get home, get changed, get somewhere else and was fairly cracking it, weaving fast through the evening traffic. A siren sounded behind. I couldn't believe it, how the hell could they be on me in all this. Doh!

A sergeant and a constable. The latter did the talking and threatened to have me drawn and quartered, at least. Do you know how fast were you going through the intersection of Summat and Other? Uh, I stammered, where. It was the roundabout I'd tossed the K100 across.

After a few more minutes - not a word as I recall from the sergeant - the constable tole me to consider yourself warned and drove off. I reflected on this as I put my helmet and gloves back on, staring at the blue and white sign on the Rose Bay police station 25 metres from the bus stop at which I'd halted.

That was 25 years ago. I've not had a ticket or been pulled over since.

I saw a photo of the bike recently. With touring bags not quite so elegant perhaps, but still delightfully retro. The chap who bought it from me had a rough trot. It blew the rings. Guilt abides.

It was the only motorcycle I ever had a name for.

Pterodactyl

Searchqu Malware Virus

My computer is infested with searchqu malware

It's not a virus, it hijacks browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome

whois search for searchqu.com

Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Name Servers:
dns.netvision.net.il
nypop.netvision.net.il

whois search for netvision.net.il
person: Liora Barak
address: Netvision Ltd
address: Omega Center , Matam
address: Haifa
address: 31905
address: Israel

phone: 04-8560600 (answering service)
fax-no: 04-8551004

e-mail: registrar@netvision.net.il

person: Wide Area Network Group
address: NetVision - Israeli ISP

address: Advanced Technology Center Haifa, 31905, send SPAM and ABUSE complaints to abuse AT netvision.net.il
address: as above
phone: 04 8560 634 (not connected)

Main Office013 Netvision
15 Hamelacha St., Rosh Ha’ayin 48091
Fax: 972-3-9001113
Omega Center, Matam Haifa 31905
Tel: 972-4-8560660 Fax: 972-3-5201960 SalesTel: 1-800-013-013
customer service Tel: 972-4-8560660 Fax: 972-3-5201960

service@netvision013.net.il

Support Tel: 972-4-8560570
Spokesperson Dana Friedman
Telephone: + 972 3 9001861 (leave message)
Cell: 972 52 3133300

E-mail: dana@013netvision.co.il

Several phone calls to Dana Friedman's landline have not been returned, and she has not responded to mobile calls either.

Searchqu.com is owned and operated by Bandoo, Inc.
e-mail: privacy@searchqu.com
Postal: Bandoo, Inc., Attention: Privacy Policy Administrator, 40 kimonos st.3095 Limassol, Cyprus

................

The scumware installed by ilivid is very difficult to remove, if you believe the hundreds of forum posts on the subject. I have run both Malwarebytes and another removal tool which both picked up trojans and trackers, but so far nothing will remove Searchqu - it just keeps coming back.

Here's a post I've not yet tried:
http://www.malwareremoval.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=57145

.........
Not directly related, an article about suing malware distributors:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/113850/microsoft-sues-malware-distributors.html

.........

On my XP machine I found an entry in Program Files/searchcore for browsers and ran the uninstall.exe, then deleted the remaining dlls and directories. I then uninstalled all mention of the scumware from IE again. 24 hours later, so far, so good.
....
Several days later, it's back.

Searchqu on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searchqu

.........
Removing Searchqu from Google Chrome
Step 1. Press ctrl+shift+del in Chrome, and clear your private data, cookies etc


Step 2. Click on Tools (the spanner icon, top right) > Options > Basics then click the Manage Search Engines button. If the nasty is in there, remove it by clicking X on the right side when you highlight it. It will probably have a name like Web Search.

.........
Hard to believe, but this scumware is distributed not only by shady fly-by-night software sites, but also by some of the largest and ostenibly most trustworthy around, including cnet, which, to its credit, displays numerous negative review which say ie ""DANGER DO NOT INSTALL"
.........
Postscript Dec 2011
I posted something about Ilivid, searchqu and malware on Wikipedia. It was deleted with a warning indicating it was rather naughty to say whatever I said. Can't have been very complimentary!

Schapelle Corby Revisited

Schapelle Corby was convicted in an Indonesian court of smuggling 4kg of marijuana into the country in her boogie board bag.

When she was arrested and the facts began to surface, I voiced my opinion that she was innocent. Probably not a wise move as at the time I had as a major client an American anti-drug organisation. I lost the account.

My lawyer said she was guilty. The Indonesian justice system said she was guilty. The Australian newspapers said she was guilty. Eventually I capitulated, but I did feel that a 20 year sentence was perhaps a tad harsh, particularly in light of the fact that the Bali Bomber got only four years (of which he served less than 26 months).

However, it appears there are still people out there who are standing up for convicted drug smuggler Schappel Corby who is quietly going mad in an overcrowded, stinking Indonesian prison.

Among them are the publishers of The Expendable Project who make numerous points well worth  consideration if ever you had even the shadow of a doubt about the outcome of the case.

It is worth taking into account the long list of drug associations of family members and friends which Wikipedia outlines. This in itself does not prove guilt, but there's an awful lot of smoke!


Postscript Nov 2011

A new book on the subject has just been released.
"Sins of the Father by Sun-Herald journalist Eamonn Duff adds a myriad detail to the circumstances surrounding Australia's most polarising criminal cases since Lindy Chamberlain's conviction."

It leaves little doubt of Schappelle Corby's guilt.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/we-agree--corby-is-guilty-says-publisher-20111109-1n6fw.html

Noddy Felt a Little Queer

Noddy banned? I'd heard and repeated this one so many times, but I really thought it was a myth until I came across the transcript of Andrew Denton interviewing Don Chip on Enough Rope...

ANDREW DENTON: When you were Minister for Customs and Excise, you were in charge of censorship in this country and at that time, late 60s, early 70s, you've described Australia as censorship crazy. In what way?

DON CHIPP: The list was banned. You couldn't publish it.

ANDREW DENTON: The list?

DON CHIPP: You didn't know what was banned and what wasn't. Intolerable. I published the list and the reasons why it was banned.

ANDREW DENTON: Were there some stupid bannings? Were these all sensual books, or…

DON CHIPP: 'Noddy' was banned once.

ANDREW DENTON: 'Noddy'.

DON CHIPP: Enid Blyton, because there is a place on page 84 which says "And Noddy walked down a country lane and felt a little queer."

ANDREW DENTON: And that was banned in this country?

DON CHIPP: Yeah.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s1730839.htm

Do You Believe?

"Do you believe", said Frederique, and paused, searching for words. English is not her first language. Nor her second or third, for that matter. "In Yeti?" I replied. "Oui. In Miracles? Oui. In Santa Clause? Not so much."

I forget now what the question was, but it led to a discussion of Yeti which involved a mention of them in "The Long Walk", a book published in the mid 1950's and which to my utter amazement Frederique was quite familiar with. I've used that reference many times over the years to bolster my argument that the creatures are far from mythical, having seen what I believe must have been their tracks high in the Himalayas during a trek in the early 80's.

I was mortified to learn that a BBC researcher has cast serious doubt on the veracity of the author, having found documentation which contradict his claims to have made the extraordinary journey.

The Wikipedia article on the author and his book leaves the question open.

As for miracles, Peter FitzSimons introduces a story of an extraordinary failure. Sydney's infamous suicide spot The Gap at South Head has been much in the news in recent years as the location where the beautiful young model Caroline Byrne was hurled to her death. Gordon Wood was convicted of her murder. In 1923 The Gap made headlines when young Nellie, broken-hearted, climbed the railing, covered her eyes, and leapt to certain death on the rocks below. A split second later she had a change of heart and decided she really wanted to live. How do we know that, you might ask? A freak wave crashed onto the rock ledge and she landed in momentarily deep water, and her plunge was witnessed by two fishermen in a boat who braved the huge seas to rescue her.

The full story is quite marvelous, and told with considerable flair.

AC/DC

Eleanore & I arrived at Frederique's place in Switzerland, found the key in the letterbox as arranged, and proceeded upstairs carrying a few bits of luggage and the package which had also been in the post box. As it turned out Serge was already home and greeted us at the door. As I handed him the package he said "Ah, that will be my AC/DC CD's - delivered by an Australian!"

I do love these tiny rhymes of life.

In the news recently:
You Shook Me All Night Long Moscato ACDC Wine
And this gem by Peter FitzSimons on bassist Mark Evans
Lit up with le Bon vivant

Nancy Wake

A chapter of history was underlined yesterday with the death of the White Mouse, nom de guerre of Nancy Wake, born in NZ and raised in Australia.

A leader of 7000 resistance fighters during WWII, she received France's highest military award, the Legion d'honneur, and three Croix de guerre. She was also decorated by the British and, belatedly, by the Australian Government in 2004.

Nancy holds a very special place in my heart. Her story is told by Russell Braddon and the book sat first on my step-mother Sue's bookshelf and later, in triplicate, on mine. When Peter Fitzsimons book arrived, I discovered to my great surprise that Nancy had lived next door to a close childhood friend, Stewart (whose brother had a Heinkel scooter) and she went to the same church in which I'd been confirmed, St Augustines, directly across the road from my house in Wycombe Road, Neutral Bay.

Further information in this 2009 post about Nancy Wake.

More on Nancy Wake's exploits at the SMH:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/memories-of-the-feisty-white-mouse-20110808-1ij8z.html