Phone Home
Learned a few new trick today, like how to enable International Roaming on my iPhone the easy way. If the automated phone voice at your phone company starts asking you questions and you really don’t want to drag it out, just say in a loud voice “Consultant” its like the Abra Kadabra of voice recognition. You immediately get an actual person to talk to. I also learned that holding down the zero(0) key for long enough will give you the plus(+) sign you need to dial +61 when phoning home.
It’s going to be about 3 Dollars per minute to call Australia and about 60 or 70 cents per text message. Skype is looking really good at this stage, phone will be there just in case.
Photos
I will be taking my Olympus E-520 over, has a great battery life approx 600 shots per charge. The 4Gb card should hold over 500 shots with resolution set to 3648 x 2736.
Audio
Got some more great advice regarding recording audio at the conference, as well as an authentic Apple USA Power Plug from Jason M… Thanks . Ended up going for a free app for my iPhone made by nfinityinc and installed Audacity on the Macbook Pro. Much more efficient than taking notes.
Paper Work
I am in the process of making copies of everything that I will be taking over like my passport, visa waiver application, contact details and itinerary. Had a great suggestion from a mate to take a pretend wallet with just the bare essentials, sounds very sensible. I am using a disposable Visa card (that I can destroy when I get home). Was not keen on handing out my everyday card numbers to everyone.
Poster Presentation
Finished the poster today, will have to write a few words to say for when it comes time to present it. The official abstract is at Open Repositories Conference Site.
You can download the software from CAIRSS Subversion Repository.
The Flu
Preparation for avoiding the flu started this week. Daily shots of echinacea, andrographis paniculata and olive leaf extract, followed by a multi vitamin, plenty of fresh fruit and veg and lots of water. I have the Tamiflu on hand as a last resort. So far, fit as a fiddle. I managed to avoid the flu that everyone around me has had for the last 3 weeks so I must be doing something right.
